Summer is finally here!

Well, school is officially out, and I now have exactly 2.5 months to prepare for Kindergarten. Great! We are still running around like chickens with our heads cut off, but things are finally calming down a little. I am still working full-time, but I am really enjoying it. I will cut back my hours at the end of June, so I can prepare Mina (as much as possible) for kindergarten. She is really excited, scared though. Every time we pass by her school she reminds us of how much bigger it is than her preschool. She is a funny little girl. We are preparing for our adoption to be final, and we will be so happy when that is complete. We are hoping for June 25th. YEA!! Our home study is next Thursday, so please lift up a prayer or two. Anyway, that is kinda the gist of things around here. Our new pup started obedience classes last Monday, and I am so happy. In 6 weeks I will be the proud owner of a well behaved St. Bernard. Praise God. Anyway, I will keep you updated, and post a couple of pics of the kids sometime this weekend.

Our last day before Riley went to her new home.

Thought I would show you a cute family pic the day Riley went to her new home. I was mad at her for killing Maddie, but I still loved her and hated to give her up. But, I hated having to worry about her hurting my kids MORE!!

P.S. Thor, our boxer, had no part in Maddie's death so he still resides with us!! :)

I haven't forgotten you!!

Hello, ALL! Wow, it has been a long few weeks. I have started working full-time, Emory's hunt for a new job is in full swing, and the kiddos are almost finished with school. Summer is fast approaching. We have a bunch of stuff in the next few weeks, soccer games, soccer celebrations, preschool graduation, MMO graduation, end of the year parties, etc, etc, etc. I have so much to update everyone on, and eventually I am sure I can do that, but it will take time. Aidan was in the hospital for 3 days in March( I have a whole post just devoted to those 3 days in the hospital, hilarious!!!), and Mina had surgery last week, she did great through it, and loved the extra attention. Her adoption will be final next month, and we can't wait for that to be over with. It has been a long 2 years. A great 2 years, but long. We also have a new family member for those of you who don't already know. My pup that I have had since college died on March 12th. She was killed by one of our other dogs, Riley, our great dane. So, I lost 2 dogs in 1 week, and as you all can guess I took it pretty hard. I gave Riley away to a great family, that had no kids or female dogs. She is very happy there. However, most who know me know that I cannot live without a house full of animals. SOOOOO, I GOT A ST. BERNARD. Yes, that's right folks. I am certifiably crazy. I got the largest breed there is, not to mention the most slobbery. But, I love him. We got him 2 weeks after Maddie died, and he has been great. Having a pup takes your mind off the fact that you just lost 2 pets. He really is a great dog. He loves my kids, and adores ME!! Yea! That's exactly what I wanted. Anyway, just a quick update on our lives. I hope all is well with everyone. More to come later!!



George "Winston" Lott 14 weeks old and 60 Whoppin' pounds

Precious Maddie!!! She was such a sweet girl, and I miss her lots.


George "Winston" Lott

Tea Party Fun

My mom decided to celebrate Mina's adoption by having a tea party for her last weekend. We met at a little tea place down the road from us, and celebrated a day all about Mina. She loved it. She enjoyed being pampered and treated like the Queen she already knew she was. It was a lot of fun. we had the "Duchess Tea" I believe it was called. It came with scones, soup, sandwich and dessert. Mina tried to have hot tea, but I don't think that she was a big fan of it. These tea places have little hats and furs you can wear, so after some convincing she decided to play dress-up. Here are a couple of pics from our Mina celebration.


P.S. We will be having an adoption party in late April/early May. Hope everyone can make it!

Exhausted...

Sorry for the lapse in blogging. We have had a really long week! Aidan has had a lot of very long seizures, good thing we are headed to the hospital next week for our tests. Since last Saturday, he has had at least one seizure everyday, and some days the seizures lasted anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour. VERY SCARY! Especially for him. He has no idea what is happening to him, it's really sad. Unlike some children, he is aware of the changes he is experiencing. He's non-responsive during them, but I think he is aware of what is happening, or about to happen, or what just happened. Make sense? Anyway, just say a prayer for him they really wear him down. In fact, we skipped church this morning b/c he doesn't want to get out of the bed, he is sooo tired. We did talk to his doctor this week, finally. They increased his anti-epileptic medication, and also prescribed an emergency drug called diastat. If he has a seizure that lasts more than 5 minutes we are suppose to administer this drug, give him 10 minutes to stop seizing, and then call 911 if he has not stopped seizing. SCARY! Anyway, pray for us as we go through this next week, hopefully it will be better than last week, and pray for us the week we are in the hospital. PRAY FOR ME!! I might need some extra patience that week! Thanks, everyone! We appreciate your prayers!

Comments!

I love to know who is checking out my blog and keeping up with the kiddos. If you get a chance leave me a comment so I know you stopped by! I love to read the comments! Thanks to everyone that already does!

Back tracking...Mina's Birthday Party (December)

Mina turned 5 years old in December. She has really grown up a lot since we first met her 1 1/2 years ago. She had a great birthday party, with a lot of great surprises. We had the party here at our home and rented inflatables from a friend (let me know if you want his name...He's great and reasonable). It was sooo much fun, she really enjoyed it. It was really the first birthday party she has ever been given, so we wanted her to remember it, and I know she'll never forget it. We had invited her baby sister to the party, and after 2 hours of partying it became evident that they were not going to make it. Just when I had decided to start the gift opening, we got a phone call from her biological sister's new MOM (also adopted out). They had been driving around for 2 hours looking for my house and my phone number. They finally found my number, and made it to the party with a BIG surprise. All of Mina's sisters came. Including the one she hasn't seen in 2 years. It was very emotional, I think Mina felt every emotion a 5 year old could possibly experience. She was so happy. Check out these pics! She also got great presents, a bike, a kitchen, clothes, Hello Kitty stuff, Hello Kitty socks (which she wanted so badly), kitchen accessories, a lots lots more.




These pictures will mean a lot to Mina one day, that was probably the last time she will ever see her 7 year old sister Michelle. Fortunately, we will be able to see her oldest sister Montana and her "sisterbaby" Paige pretty often. She loves them so much, and the families that adopted both of her sisters live pretty close by! We are so thankful for that!