Swimming fun...

As you all know, it's HOT here in Arizona!! This limits outdoor activities in the summer, so it's a good thing that Lauren LOVES the pool. Yesterday she got to play with her cousins in their pool and she loved it. Here's a few pics...


She only wanted to go in the boat with Josh...



Here's Katie and Lauren at the top of the slide getting ready to go down...


and here she is coming down with Emily...


She loved the slide and went down a bunch of times. I think next summer, we'll sign her up for swim lessons.

6th month anniversary...

We received our daughter in China 6 months ago today! It really does feel like she's been with us forever though. It's amazing the strides she has made since we've been home. She's like a little sponge just soaking everything up.

I'm SO proud to be her momma and I really do feel in my heart that she was born to be our daughter. She's beautiful and amazing and she takes my breath away! I did this layout with a photo from when we first met Lauren and one from today. I used Rebecca B's A Must for Rust set. It was a really fun set to play with.


Yesterday we got Lauren her first tea set, so of course we had to set-up a little tea party. Here's a layout, done with Scrappy Bug's White with One set

Happy 4th...

Hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday. We had a quite, but very nice day. My mother came over along with my brother and his family, who came by with lunch and we all hung out for a little while. Later in the night, Joe and I loaded up the wagon and took Lauren over to our community park to watch some fireworks that were going off pretty close by.

I did this layout with photos from the day. My mother made Lauren's adorable July 4th outfit. Isn't it the cutest?

Playing mommy...

Lauren hasn't really shown much interest in baby dolls until recently. Here's a video of her playing last night. It's long and unedited and I'm sure that only family will really appreciate sitting through it. The quality isn't great because of the bad lighting. I love my camera except for low light video...it can't really handle that.

So far this week...

Lauren had her very first ice cream sundae cup last night. You know, the kind with the cute little wooden spoon in the lid. She loved it and it was just the right size for her.

I've seen this type of layout done before and I decided to give it a try. I don't think I did a great job since I had a little trouble with the layering and having the photos look like they are tucked under the ribbons properly. Oh well, it's cute enough for me and it's all about catching a moment in time...


Today I took a vacation day so I could go on the Wednesday playdate with Joe and Lauren. They get together every Wednesday with other families with children from China. Now that the summer heat has hit (it's 102 degrees right now), the group is doing indoor activities. This week it was the Phoenix Children's Museum and Lauren had LOTS of fun. I did this two-page layout...nothing fancy, but it captures the fun of the day (click to enlarge)...