Over a Decade...

Mike and I are celebrating our 11 years of marriage. I am so blessed to have such a good man in my life, he is awesome! I love Mike more now than I did 11 years ago. Mike is my best friend and I am really lucky to have found my true love for eternity.

(Mike & Amanda February 27, 1999)

I made this video last year for our 10th Anniversary :) http://mandamike.com/blog/2009/02/zen-ten.html It has a ton of fun pictures of our life together.
This past year has been pretty amazing, hard, fun, and full of life. I am excited for this year and what it holds for us and our family.
Cheers to Forever!

Daddy's Helper

Mike really does let Lilly help him with everything, it's wonderful! Because of this Lilly knows all of her tools and also has total admiration for Mike. Today Mike decided not to go to the studio to work on his art projects and he is working at home. Lilly of course is fully involved and even using a real power drill :) They decided it was too cold to work in the garage, so the living room is our studio today! I love it because now I don't have to clean the living room :) I think it's pretty cool to have an artist for a husband, and Lilly thinks it's pretty cool too :)
Fridays are one of my favorite days of the week because Mike is home and I am home too :)

Pretty in Pink

I have to admit that my girls are very pretty in their pink dresses :)

Fun with my Camera

So instead of cleaning the house today while Lilly was at preschool Emma and I did another photo shoot :) I have to say I am loving my camera and having a new beautiful baby to pose.

Emma's birthmother is really musically talented so I thought I would dust of my guitar and try and take a few photo's of Emma with it... let me know what you think.

Emma photo Shoot

While Lilly was in the bathtub this morning I decided to take a couple of pictures of Emma. Emma is such a sweet mellow baby, we are really enjoying her. The past few nights she has slept 4 hours and it has been WONDERFUL :) Emma loves to take baths and she loves to hear Lilly sing to her.

Seriously, this is my favorite picture EVER! Proof that Eventually, my dreams are coming true!

The past 2-months really have gone so quickly! I am so grateful for how our family has changed and grown.

Lilly and Emma had their well child check ups last Thursday. Here are the stats: Lilly at 4 years old: 30.86lbs and 40 inches tall, she gained 4 pounds this year and grew 4 inches :)
Emma at 2 months old: 7lbs 13oz and 20.75 inches tall she has gained almost 3 1.2 pounds and grown 4 1/4 inches since her birthday.

So far January has been CRAZY! With Lilly's birthday, Mike's brother and his family visiting, Mike's Mom visiting, the new semester starting at BYU and me going back to work there really hasn't been a lot of down time for our little family. Mike and I are longing for the days when he is done with school... soon? (we hope) :) I keep reminding myself that life is what you make it and we are doing this because our hard work and sacrifice now will pay off in the end. Mike will be able to pursue his dream and I will be able to fully enjoy my family with a more rested body :) EVENTUALLY...
Anyways... pictures are the real reason most of my readers look at my blog so here you go!Lilly, Belle & Sophie playing Hungry, Hungry Hippo's!

We always do a pinata at Lilly's birthday party. This year her theme was rainbow! It was such a FUN theme! We had our guests wear their favorite color and everyone had to decorate their drink cups with their favorite color, tons of balloons, rainbow mosaic crafts and the rainbow pinata that Lilly and Mike made :) I feel kind of bad that we didn't do a 'friends' party this year for Lilly, but life is so hectic we just didn't have time to prepare for it, maybe next year... eventually :)

Lilly is four!

I can not believe that Lilly is four! I've been thinking a lot about little Lilly the past few days and how special she really is. Here are a few things about Lilly my big four year old :)
She loves peanut butter and will eat it by the spoonful
Lilly LOVES to sing, she can make a song out of anything
Lilly's favorite thing to do is wrestle with Daddy
Lilly loves to read books, she always has.
Lilly loves preschool
(This is Lilly's school picture, taken last month)
Lilly has a quirky sense of humor and likes to tease.
Lilly's favorite color is pink, but the other day she told me she's starting to like purple and yellow now too.
Lilly is the worlds best big sister, she Loves Emma so much and tells everyone she meets
Lilly's middle name is Grace, not Bug... but she insists that it is Bug.
Lilly's a little Mommy, she always wants to help
She loves Christmas!
Lilly is an artist
Lilly is photographer
She is a thoughtful little girl, and always wants to include everyone in her fun
Lilly knows the difference between a philips and flathead screwdriver
Lilly is a tiny little sprite, she's in the 12th percentile for weight and 50th for height, but her pink cowgirl boots make her tall :)
Lilly has been talking since she was 9 months old... she has a huge vocabulary.
Lilly likes science, the other day someone was talking to her about the melting ice and Lilly plainly states "I know, that's called reversible change" :)
Lilly is smart and beautiful!
Lilly wants to be a firefighter, mommy, doctor, teacher, giant when she grows up. I'm not too sure about the giant part...
Lilly has great faith, she knows how to pray and has a testimony of prayer.

I could go on and on about Lilly Bug, she is such a cool kid and I am so proud to be her Mommy. It was raining the day I met her, and there really has been sunshine in my life ever since.

Lilly is such a good big sister!

Lilly loves to sing, and lately she has been singing a lot to Emma and Emma loves it!

Christmas Eve

C is for Christmas Cookies!

Lilly and I made cookies today while Mike and Emma took at nap :) We had lots of fun and Lilly did a great job. She made sure we had plenty of pink frosting.

Emma is changing so much, at her Doctors appointment on Tuesday she weighed 6lbs 1oz, she has almost gained 3 pounds since she was born. Emma is such an easy going baby, she loves to listen to Lilly sing and also smiles for Daddy.

I am so excited for Christmas this year! I will try and post a picture tonight of the girls in the Christmas P.J.'s. We've been keeping track of santa today, Lilly is soooooooo excited! Merry Christmas!

Lilly's Winter Showcase

On Thursday Lilly had her preschool winter showcase. It was really cute to see all of the kids and how creative and smart they are. Lilly's preschool teacher is so nice and sooooo patient with the kids. I wish she was MY teacher :)
Here are two of my favorites of Lilly's pieces:

This one is called "The Treasure of the Pirate"

This one is my favorite, mainly because of the title:
Lilly is learning a ton at preschool, I am really glad that we decided to start her in school this year. She is reading, counting and growing as an individual Lilly is a really special girl I'm so proud to be her Mom.

My Girls....

Two of my favorite things :) My little girls are already bonding, Lilly LOVES to hold Emma and has also discovered that she has ticklish toes :)

Get your tissues :)

My friend, who is also an adoptive mother sent me this beautiful poem, it made me cry. (thanks Laura) :)

The Best Gift (Rosemary Clooney)

The best gift that I ever got
Didn't really weigh a lot.
It didn't have a ribbon 'round,
And it sometimes made an awful sound.

The best of all it seems to me,
It wasn't 'neath the Christmas tree.
And yet, I guess I'd have to say,
That it made all the other presents twice as gay.

The best gift that I've ever known,
I'd always wanted most to own.
Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice,
I never thought it could be so nice.

The best gift that I'll ever get
Was sometimes dry and sometimes wet,
Was usually pink, but oftentimes red
As it lay so innocently in its bed.

The best gift of the year to me,
The one I hold most dear to me,
The gift that simply drove me wild,
Was a tiny, newborn child. Little Emma has filled our home with so much love! She is a month old today, I can't believe it, we've only had her home for a few days, and they have made our Christmas magical. It is so much fun having two girls, they are both so sweet. I can't imagine my life with out them. Our family feels much more complete now, my heart is at peace.

Emma is Home!

We were able to bring Emma home yesterday, and she is so fun and still tiny! Her hospital discharge weight was 4lbs 14ozs. We really are enjoying every moment with our new family of four.

Lilly is an amazing big sister, at the hospital she even let her prized favorite stuffed animal ride in Emma's car seat with her. The nurse was really sweet and let Lilly help her carry the car seat out to the car.I have a feeling Lilly is going to teach Emma a lot :) Lilly lets us know when Emma cries and loves to help change and feed her. Last night she came out of her bedroom to just check on Emma, what a sweetie pie.

I am so very grateful to have experienced adoption for the second time, it is a modern day miracle and I feel so blessed to be mother to these two beautiful special little girls.

This was Lilly's first time ever holding her baby sister, you can see the delight in her eyes. It was such a tender moment for all of us and I can hardly believe that it is real, I feel so lucky.

Christmas time is here!

I thought we would be preparing for Emma to come during our Christmas season this year, but that didn't quite work out :) Sooooo it's been a very busy time for our family between visits at the hospital, Thanksgiving, school, working, and decking the halls. We put up our tree this year and Lilly had a total blast! She woke Mike and I up and practically dragged us out of bed to go decorate the tree. I have a feeling this Christmas is going to be very magical for Lilly. We found this cute ornament for Lilly, since she is a big sister now! We've had a few opportunities to visit Emma during Thanksgiving break and she is now in an open air crib and learning how to suck on a bottle! She's growing and has made it to the 4lb mark! :) We can't wait to bring her home it's been hard being so far away from her. Lilly really can hardly wait to meet her little sister :) We are hopeful to bring her home by Christmas, she needs to learn to eat and breath on her own. She's almost there with breathing she's only on a small amount now.
Now that Emma is in an open air crib she can be swaddled and she LOVES it! When we go and visit the nurses let me change her diaper and try to feed her and whenever I take off her blankets she gets so upset :) she wants to be warm and snuggled :) as soon as I wrap her back up she falls back asleep.