HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY ELAINA!!!!!

I can't believe that Elaina is 3 years old!!! These past two years have been so amazing being a Mommy to the most beautiful little angel in the world!! (Ok-I am a little biased)

Elaina spent the night are her Aunt Jean's house and Mommy picked her up bright asnd early. Uncle John has a tradition with his girls that on their Birthday he makes pancakes in the shape of the number that they turned. So today Uncle John made Elaina a pancake that looked like a 3 or if you turned it around the Letter E!!! Thank you Uncle John-hopefully they took a picture of it and will send it to me. (Hint hint) We then went to Church and went to visit Gamma at Costco and then we went swimming and then slept for two hours. Whew- what a day.

Here are some pics (oops -out of order don't know how to fix that) from referral to now!! Enjoy!!

This is one of my favorite pics I have taken of Elaina. She is only 14 months old in this picture but she looks sooo big!!! This picture was selected to be in our agency calendar last year.
This is the FIRST picture I ever saw of my sweet angel. She is 5 months old and only weighs 10 pounds. It looks like she is saying: "Come get me Mama" or she is giving the "PEACE" sign.
I carried this picture and ALL of her update pictures with me wherever I went and showed them to everyone.

Christmas Eve 2008

The Birthday girl!!! We lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday!

I'm 3!!!!!!

and loving my cupcake!!

OUR FAMILY DAY!!!!!

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17TH...

Was our FAMILY DAY!! This is the day that 2 years ago Elaina was placed in my arms for the first time. What a magical day it was. My Mom and I were waiting in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel in Guatemala City with our eyes glued to the front door. I was talking to another couple who was with their baby and we didn't know that there was a set of elevators in the back of the lobby. It was then that my Mom said the words I will never forget:

"Judi, your daughter is here!!!"

I spun around and even thought there were about 6 people with her I only saw Elaina. Renee, the foster daughter was holding her and she brought her over to me and I took Elaina in my arms and she put her forehead to mine and we looked into each others eyes and our lives together began. It was amazing!! I can still recall every moment of our pick-up trip. Just minutes before she arrived some people were singing "I Can Only Imagine" what a beautiful song to hear just minutes before I was to meet my daughter for the first time.

So I took a couple of days off work and we were supposed to go out of town but the weather was too cold so instead we went down to the Country Club Plaza and got a hotel room and drove around to see the lights and we took The lighted Cinderella Coach for a ride around the plaza. What a wonderful ending to our very special day.

Here Elaina is looking out the window at the lights!!
La Princessita in her carriage!!!

Gamma, Elaina and Mommy all bundled up as we ride around the plaza.

B-r-r it was cold but it was worth it.

This is our horse "Blue" who gave us a great ride. We told the driver what we were celebrating and he was very excited for us and gave us a little longer ride.

It was 2 years ago today that we were greeted by family and friends at the airport. Thanks to everyone who was their to share in Elaina's Welcome Home!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

SANTA PICTURES!!!

What a difference a year makes!!

Elaina was so excited to see Santa and yelled his name and waved Hi to him from across the room.

Here is last years picture with Santa. What you don't see Santa?? Look closely and you can see his hand and his knee on the left side of the picture while Elaina crawls up Mommy.

From a distance she LOVED Santa-not so sure up close.

Santa 2007

Santa 2008

Quite a difference. I think if the child in front of us hadn't been upset Elaina might have done a little better. Who knows-she got a lot closer this year even though we didn't get any smiles. This was at our agency party and Santa and Mrs. Claus were fantastic!!! It didn't matter how upset the child was they managed to calm them down.

Here she is even hugging Santa but still has a death grip on Mommy's arm.

Here are her smiles!! The minute she got down she waved bye to Santa and said:
"Santa's my best friend!!!"
When she would see another child get upset she would say: "It's ok-Santa is our friend. I tried to get her to go back up one more time but she was all done and ready go. Maybe next year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Holiday Cutenesss!!!!!

Here are just some random pics of Elaina being cute!!!

Decorating the Christmas Tree!!!

Being silly with her Santa hat!!

She asked to wear the Santa hat at breakfast!!

HO! HO! HO!

Am I cute or what???