Adoption Finalization!

On June 16, Halle Grace, forever became our daughter!! HOOOOORRRRAYYY!! Guess what, we're keeping her...there's no turning back now. We had family and friends to celebrate with us that day. We went for breakfast afterwards and just enjoyed the fact that she is now forever in our family. We praise our Heavenly Father for bringing her into our lives. What a precious, silly little girl she is. AND guess what? We wouldn't change that for the world! We love her just the way she is....sillyness and all!!

Grammie, Me, Aaron with Halle, Judge Uhrig, Nana

Halle just loved her pen!

Reviewing the documents...

Taking the oath....

Father's Day

My Dad...one of my favorite pictures.

Halle with her Mac-n-Cheese

I'm sure Daddy loves this picture!

Sticky Finger is next to a Subway...this is in the bathroom!

Daddy & Hal...June 2009

WOW!!! I can not believe we celebrated Father's Day last weekend. Halle is so very blessed to call this man her Daddy. Seriously, he gives the best hugs and kisses EVER....he makes the best pancakes and his BBQ'ing skills beat them all. He loves Halle like no other and if you spend even a little bit of time with the both of them you'll see this immediately. As long as I live I will never forget this moment pictured above. This was the very first time Aaron held little Halle...she looks a little worried here. NOT now...she loves her Daddy...sometimes I think she'd jump out of my arms just to see him. You can't see Aaron's eyes in this picture, but...if you could you would see this sweet, kind-hearted Daddy had been crying. The minute Halle's birth mom walked through the office doors with her the tears began to flow....SHEESHH....now I'm crying. We celebrated Father's Day with a day out together. But, not before we watched CMT "Crossroads" featuring Taylor Swift & Def Leppard. We went to Daddy's favorite BBQ joint, "Sticky Finger's". Halle LOVED their mac-n-cheese. We ran some quick errands, headed to "Hugo Helmer" to look at guitars and all stuff musical. Halle napped on the way home and we stopped for ice cream at "Baskin Robins". It was such a good day....here's some pictures from our day. Of course, I was thinking of my Dad that day....I missed him. BUT...I knew he was no longer in pain...he was happy and whole and spending the day with his Heavenly Father. That's some Father's Day, don't you think??

Adoption Finalization!

Can we get a big "WOOT WOOT"??  We received an e-mail from our social worker yesterday about our court date for the finalization of Halle's adoption.  This is the day we have been waiting, waiting, waiting for....that day is Tuesday, June 16!  This also just happens to be Aaron's sister, Leah's birthday...so, there's no chance this day will be forgotten!  Of course, this means we will then be able to do a few things...take Halle out of the country, get her birth certificate AND....post pictures of her...here and on Facebook.  That has been the most difficult thing.  My blog post are few and far between because our lives are filled with Halle and frankly, it's not much fun just to talk about it.  I want you to see HER!!  So....stay tuned....

Happenings at our house....

Let's see...what's going on in our house...right now Halle is sleeping...HOORAAYYY!  This afternoon we have our VERY LAST home visit with our social worker.  After May 21, 2009 Halle's adoption can be finalized....WAHOO!!  We need to meet with a lawyer for some paperwork and then have it finalized at the courthouse.  YIPPEEEEE!!  Can you tell we're a little excited??  Then...watch here for our amazing Texas adoption journey with PICTURES!  That's right...you'll get to see our beautiful little girl you've heard so much about.  Miss Halle is 7 months old and still a little peanut.  She weighs 14lbs 10oz and is 27 1/4" long.  Still long and lean.  She is crawling all over the place and starting to get into everything.  She has her two bottom teeth and is really working on the top ones.  We don't think it will be long now.  She LOVES solid food.  Forget that silly old bottle.  In fact, the Doctor told us today to feed her anything she wants, well, within reason, no honey, shellfish, eggwhites...you Mom's know the drill.  She says "baabaabaabaa" all the time...Daddy's working with her to change it to "dadadadada" and "mamamama".  We'll see how that goes.  We are looking forward to a few things coming up:

-- Miss Ellie's birth, hopefully, for Dena's sake sooner rather than later.

-- Colby's graduation (we can not believe this kid is old enough to be graduating...sheesh)

-- Camping with the TenKley's & Miss Kristin

-- A visit from Grammies friend

-- The 4th of July (Halle has a really fun sundress to wear)

-- Auntie Heather & Uncles Shaun's wedding in Montana...hopefully, a visit with the Hochhalter's

-- Camping with Mor Mor, Bopa, the Dunn's and Dena's Nana & Papa 

I went through the summer...hopefully, the warmer weather will come soon...Halle has some fun stuff to wear and I'm getting really tired of this rain!!!

Mother's Day 2009

WOW!!!  Today was my very first Mother's Day!  Do you know how long I have been looking forward to this very day??  Let's just say....YEARS!!  My day started a little rough...Halle has not been sleeping well, or feeling well for that matter.  SO...we got up at 6:30am...not so fun for this Mommy.  Halle did give Mommy a 1/2 hour massage with her very favorite massage therapist...HOORAAYYY!!  And...Daddy gave Mommy a new CD she had been wanting with a very sweet card that made me cry.  Which, can I tell you, that was the norm for the day.  I was so emotional...and since our Pastor's message was about our Heavenly Father being emotional...I just went with it...tears and all.  Halle wore her "I Love Mom" shirt proudly, well....with a bib...teething really does her in!  Grammie went to church with us and after we picked up Auntie Amber and headed out to lunch...BOOMERS!  I love, love, love this place...and it's a drive-in, diner place, complete with hard ice cream milkshakes, burgers with grilled onions and waffle fries!  YUM-O!!  Not your typical Mother's Day fare, but....it's one of my favorite places and I don't get to go there very often.  We had a fun, yummy lunch and headed out to see Great-Grammie and join her for her Ice cream social at the assisted living home she lives in.  All the Grammies loved Halle, she was quite the hit.  We topped off our day with visiting at my Mom's and a few gifts.  A new book for me I had been wanting and my sister got me a framed print with such a sweet adoption message.  It was perfect.  I would say the best part of all was the honor and privilege of standing up with all the Mom's at church.  For 3+ years that small task was met with tears and hiding my face in my hands...this year Aaron smiled at me as I stood with all the others.  What a joy and honor it was to be called MOMMY!!