In Memory of Granny

It has almost been a week since Granny has gone to heaven. It has been a week filled with lots of different emotions. One of immense sadness but also with rejoicing. While Granny has not been in good heath for close to two years it is still hard to say goodbye.

I love my Granny so much. She was such a special woman. She was a great mother, friend, and christian example for me to follow. I wish I had a tenth of her talent for cooking. She had a way of making everyone who came to her house feel welcome.

I don't have a lot of pictures of her on my computer, but the ones I do have are a treasure. The picture above was taken a little over a month ago. The picture below was taken right after Hayden came home. She made a wonderful Great Granny. I think you can see in her face how proud she was.

I love Granny so much and hope that I can always make her proud.

Memories...Memories....Memories

We had a BLAST at the lake this past weekend. We had around 20-22 people sleeping in the same house. It may have been a little crowed but we all managed to have a lot of fun.

One of the biggest things that happened was that Mom and Kaleb went tubing together. Mom agreed to tube to get Kelby on the boat with us. As you can tell she had a lot of fun.

Kaleb was very good to Mom making sure that she did not fall off. Kelby did give her a hug and a kiss for doing this. She was a great sport and did a great job.

Saturday night we had a great Thanksgiving meal and then a campfire. Around the campfire we played a version of the Newlywed game. We definitely didn't win but they did ask some very personal questions. I do know my cousins and aunts and uncles better now because of this game. :)

Below is a picture of Dad with his brother and sisters. Keith, Cindy, and Jo planned this weekend and did all the cooking. I cannot thank them enough for all they did. It was an amazing weekend, one that I will never forget.

This is Hayden playing with Ava on the hammock. They were cute together.

We celebrated Grandparents day Sunday on the lake. Hayden as two wonderful set of Grandparents and we are thankful for them all.

I know this is not the best picture of Dad and I but I still really like it.

This was on Hayden's first boat ride. Andy let him drive. As you can tell he really enjoyed it. If he heard that anyone was getting on the boat he wanted to be on it as well. He did really well. He stayed seated anytime the boat was moving without being asked.

Here you can tell how much he really enjoyed being on the boat. He loved the wind in his hair. :)

It is rare that Hayden and I have our picture made together since I am usually behind the camera but I wanted to document the first boat ride.

GG and Grammy gave Hayden a big tractor for Gottcha Day. GG is showing Hayden some of the parts of the tractor. We were hanging out on the porch. It was screened in. I have to say that if we were ever able to add on to our house I think I would want to add a screened in porch.

Keith was giving all the kids ice. Hayden was starting to get really wet so I took his shirt off. For the most part all the kids played really well together.

One of my fondest memories will be playing sorry with my brothers and Dad. This game always seems to bring out the worst in us. We had to play two games. Kelby won the first one and I won the second one without cheating, no matter what anyones says. :)

I love spending time with Katie and Jo.

Happy Gottcha Day

Today day is a special day becasue it is our family's Gottcha Day. On this day two years ago we brought Hayden home. The picture below was taken on the airplane ride from Guatemala to Atlanta. It was such a wonderful flight.

This is a family picture of our day in Antiqua, sightseeing. We had a lot of fun sightseeing around Guatemala and getting to know Hayden better.

We celebrated gottcha day this past weekend at the lake with my side of the family. We are also going to have a special night some time soon. We would do it tonight but Grant has a meeting until late. Tomorrow Hayden is going to a photo shoot so that he and a few other kids can be on the cover of Paducah Parenting magazine. So maybe Thursday things will slow down.

I do have a ton of pictures from this weekend, and I do mean a ton. I will try to upload some tomorrow night. We had a lot of fun!! I appreciate my Aunt Jo, Aunt Cindy, and Uncle Keith for working so hard to make the weekend special. I know I will never forget it.

Birthday Party Weekend

We had a blast this weekend, but Hayden was pooped on the way home.


We started the weekend celebrating Kaleb's birthday Friday night. We picked up pizza on our way in. Saturday we went to a family reunion, and then hung out at the house Saturday night.


I love this picture because it shows how much both of his uncles care for him.

Sunday night we celebrated Poppy's birthday. Layken and Hayden always have a blast together.

If you look real close you can see that both Layken and Hayden are hiding under the wrapping paper. You would have thought it was Christmas last night with the wrapping paper games.

Today, I have worked on a paper for my master's class and played around the house with Hayden. Lots of fun!!

Change is for the best, right?

In our spare time we having been rearranging our house a bit. In the picture below Hayden is sitting in his new room on his new bed. Our adoption case worker suggested going ahead and making any changes now before baby girl Orr arrives. The major change was moving Hayden to the other bedroom. This way we did not have to move any furniture.

Hayden loves his bed until it is time to go to sleep. Now it is getting better, but we are leaving his door cracked with a dim light on. Tonight he only cried to five minutes.

Our adoption paper work is done. Now we just have to wait. The next major step will be accepting a referral. After we receive our referral then baby girl Orr will be home three or four months after that. A referral can happen at any time but the average wait time right now is between one and three months.


With Labor Day upon us we will be heading to Sebree again this weekend. I hope to celebrate Kaleb's birthday on Friday, go to a family reunion Saturday, and head back towards home to celebrate Poppy's birthday on Sunday. Monday I will play catch up and work on my masters class. I just have to keep Hayden off the computer. :)