Thanksgiving for our Family

Beautiful Gracie, ready for her 1st Bar Mitzvah!

This one loves clothes more than toys

Our family all ready to go to Brody's bar mitzvah party


Look what we did...




...all by ourselves!

Gotta love twins

Sweetie pies

Lola decides to sit and rest

Gracie with her pine cone treasure

Gracie loves to be outside

Lola loves to hide behind doors

All the girls together for a walk on a cold morning

Sweet baby Lola

Precious Lily Bean

I love this pic of Gracie, so precious

As Thanksgiving approaches, I am overcome with gratitude for the blessings in my life. First and foremost, my husband is truly my best friend, my rock. We have weathered many storms together and have survived them all. There is no one like him and I am truly blessed to have shared the past 10 years with him.

Of course, I am thankful for my girls. Gracie brings joy and laughter and excitement wherever she goes. This is the first time in 3 years that I will know for sure where she is. I may not sleep every night (with three sm. children, who does?), but it is never for worry about Gracie. I will never have to worry again if she is hungry, scared or will ever see life as a valued member of a family. For this, I am truly grateful. I finally have peace in that part of my heart.

I am overwhelmingly grateful for Lily and Lola too. This time in their childhood has brought me so much joy and happiness. Lily's smile and sweet kisses and hugs melt my heart every time. Lola's singing and dancing are two of the most precious gifts to witness in this world. Everyday brings new wonder and a chance to view the world for the first time again.

I am blessed beyond measure in this life with my family. I am truly grateful to God for answering my prayers. I am also grateful to countless friends and family members who walked this journey to completing our family with us. During the dark times, you did more than walk it- you carried us.

I hope all of you spend Thanksgiving with the ones who love you most. Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Mel

Happy Halloween!

Our Dr. Seuss themed crew

Lily as Thing 1

Lola as Thing 2

Gotta love it


Funny right?

Mama completing Tulsa Run...

And fulfilling a long term wish:

Finish a race with my children at the finish line

Gracie as the BEST Cat in the Hat!

Papa and Gracie, preschool Halloween party

What can I say? We had the BEST weekend ever. And not just because chocolate was involved. Although chocolate always helps.

The girls all had such fun with the Halloween festivities. We all went to Boohaahaa on Brookside for the parade. Then we went trick-or-treating (friends/family).

We had such a good time sharing our little goblins in their Dr. Seuss attire. Special thanks to my great mother-in-law, Barbara, for the super Thing 1/Thing 2 blue wigs. They were a huge hit!

Also a special thanks to my husband and my parents for bringing the girls to the Tulsa Run finish line. I have dreamt about having my children there for so very long. It was so meaningful and special to me. I will never forget it.

Hope everyone enjoyed Halloween, we sure did!

Love, Mel

Pumpkin Patch

Lily with Gracie looking on

The Sisters

Sweetie pies

Too sunny to look right at Mama

Sweet Lola

Pretty Lily

Our chapina Gracie

At least Lily is still looking forward

Lola picked out her pumpkin quick

Okay, let's go-got my pumpkin

Fun in the wagon

What a gorgeous day with gorgeous babies

Lola still with her choice

Pretty babies

Gracie helping Mama carry our pumpkins

Lola

Gracie loved scooping out the pumpkin guts

Finished product

Lily in her first pigtails

Fun full day with family

Quick update before the first big Halloween for us. Spent Saturday with entire family at local pumpkin patch. So fun, girls and Don and I all had a blast. Looking forward to this week and all the festivities!

Happy Sunday!

Love, Mel

October Update

Gracie riding first pony at the fair

Lily, not quite understanding where to look for the corndog
photo-op

Lola our little corny dog

Mama and Gracie on flying bumblebees

A little chapina's dream: jumping and flying!

Happy, happy girl

Guess who walked first?

Not too far behind...

I love this pic, but have recently

looked at it and hoped we don't

have another one of these poses

with police officers as a teenager

Super sweet

Watch out world, we're walking!

And we are coming for you!

Blogging is becoming very hard to do. Time is increasingly short. My attention and help is needed by somebody around the clock.

It will probably be more likely to blog on a monthly basis, but I do miss posting and sharing every little bit of these precious girls' lives.

Here's what we have been up to:

Gracie continues with preschool and is doing extremely well. I have probably jinxed myself by saying that, and next week we will have some major breakdown. However, she is listening well, loving her teacher and her friends. I am extremely happy with the preschool we chose and love that it is bilingual. Gracie is using her Spanish and is really understanding that some people speak Spanish, some speak English and some speak both. I really feel it has helped her understand the concept of family and belonging as well. My favorite Gracie moment of the month has to be when she asked me if I was her friend. I told her that I was her Mama and therefore I was her best friend. Gracie replied, "Cool." Funny, sweet girl. Above pictures show her at the fair. This child loves to do and see all things. Scared to death, but going to ride that pony no matter what! English continues to build, but it is still difficult for most people to understand what she is saying. We'll get there.

Lily and Lola are both walking! HOORAH! It was actually Lily that started first. She is more of a daredevil than Lola and really "got" it when she was cruising. Lola started shortly thereafter, but still is doing an Elvis version and going really, really slow most of the time. Won't be long though. It is a whole different world around here. Someone is always getting into something. Lily and Lola both are babbling, talking and squealing all the time too. Lily says Mama, Papa, Gracie, Tilda, thank-you, pretty, and hi, and probably something else I am forgetting-she talks all the time. Lola says Mama, Papa, Gracie, Tilda, and hi. They both imitate all the time, blow kisses, wave hi/bye, clap, dance, pretend to eat food, etc. etc. This is truly a magical time in their development. They love their big sister Gracie and love it when she plays with them.

It has been a really busy month. I have returned to work, very part-time and mainly when Gracie is in school. The babies stay home with our great new sitter that we love-thank God. So far, it is working out pretty well. We feel so fortunate to have found both the great sitter and the great preschool.

Don remains in the hospital, this Wed. will be 6 weeks. He is scheduled to come home on Friday, Oct. 16th, our 10 year wedding anniversary. He is healing well and just working on getting stronger at this point. We all miss him so much and can't wait for him to be home.

We are excited for our first Halloween with all of our children together and then all of the big holidays as well. It is truly a time to celebrate, as we are so fortunate to have these kiddos and love them all so much.

Take care! Mel