Gotcha Day Celebration: Part 3

We couldn't throw a party without cake!  We ordered this special Gotcha Day cake from our favorite local bakery, Round Rock Donuts. They make the yummiest donuts and cakes too!  The Lottie Lee special- vanilla icing with vanilla cake.  It was delicious and we ate it all in less then 24 hours.  

And it was the perfect ending to a perfect celebration!  Happy Gotcha Day Lottie Lee We love you!

Gotcha Day Celebration: Part 2

Tonight we celebrated Lottie's Gotcha Day with close friends. We decorated the dining room with Gotcha Day memories and tons of photos.  Thanks again to Minus One Designs for the fabluous Gotcha Day banner we can use every single year!  Since it was a Monday, we kept it small but special none the less. 

We invited her best friend from school Lyla and many who have been a part of our story from the beginning including the Head family, Roy & Krystle, and Lottie's Godmother Kim.  On the way home from school, we explained to Lottie that some people were coming to celebrate with us, but she didn't truly understand until she saw them standing on our doorstep.  She was especially excited to see her best friend Lyla and her teacher Tiana and her wonderful family husband Eric, son Ryan and daughter Cami.  

We celebrated with pizza & cake and a little wine for the adults.  It was just so very special and found myself tearing up at times.  We are so blessed to have our daughter, but all of these people who have become part of our family has made it even more special.  Lottie had a blast running around and playing with her friends. 

Gotcha Day Celebration: Part 1

Today was our one year anniversary of Lottie Lee's Gotcha Day.  What a special day for our family, in a way it feels like yesterday our sweet daughter was placed in our arms, yet we cannot even remember our lives without her.  Lottie started her special day with a new outfit.   She is getting to the age to have an opinion and really enjoys "fancy" outfits anything with a tutu will do. The tee shirt was from Minus One Project

www.minus1project.blogspot.com, (check out their blog what a fabulous company) which coordinated nicely with a pink tutu.  Lottie was thrilled!  

She doesn't understand the magnitude of this day but we kept referring to it as her very special day. She was excited to bring cupcakes to school and celebrate with all her friends.  We also sent a special book about adoption, which her teacher, Tiana was able to read during circle time.  We want to make a BIG deal about her gotcha day and to embrace how she became a part of our family. On March 3, 2013 will always be a very important day in our family's story.   

Although I was sad to send her to school, I knew how special it would be for her to celebrate with all her friends, it also gave me plenty of time to reflect on this past year and how far we all have come.  More Gotcha Day posts to come!  I have a party to decorate for!

Our little family of FOUR!

Bethany Lin was born 2 weeks ago, its crazy that less than a year ago we were preparing to leave for China, and now we are settling into life as a family of four.  We are so blessed and thankful to have the opportunity to raise these two beautiful girls. 

 

Here are some photos from our friend Sarah, we met through the adoption process, as she was the photographer that participated in the Red thread Sessions & also took the photographs for our big gender reveal. These photos really capture the joy, craziness, and beauty that surround our life! (And no our bed isn't perfectly made like this anymore-just for the photo shoot)

 

 

Photography Credit: Sincerely, Sarah Photography

Happy Chinese New Year

This year celebrating Chinese New Year was extra special as we welcomed Lottie's little sister Bethany on Chinese New Year Eve, January 30, 2014.  We celebrated with Chinese take out in the hospital and again once we were home.  We snapped a few photos of the girls in their Chinese silks.

Month 11

This is our second to last Month-day post! Wow has time flown by its amazing to re-read all of Lottie's firsts and remember how far she has come.  This month Lottie is in full recovery from her palate surgery.  We are no longer afraid she will damage her sutures or injure her palate so she can eat whatever she chooses.  What a huge relief! She is beginning to say more words and is constantly singing and babbling.  This is a huge milestone for a cleft baby, since her anatomy was not complete until recently she is delayed in speech but now she is learning how to make new sounds and she is constantly "talking", although we don't always understand what she is saying. 

Her latest cuteness includes a version of singing a goodnight lullaby, she sings with the sweetest little voice "Nighty Night and good night"  she sings louder and louder as the song ends, seriously beyond cute.  She is obsessed with colors and loves to label them- her current favorites are black, yellow, red, and purple.  She also enjoys counting and although everything sounds like "one" she is trying to count 1, 2, 3.  She also keeps us laughing with her various animal sounds- although she is convinced a dog says NO! well that's what we are constantly saying to our two dogs so any dog she sees she refers to them as NO!  Also we always would have her teddy bear wake her up by saying a long drawn out HEY...so again she thinks all bears say HEY.  Honestly too cute to correct, so what if she starts Kindergarten thinking a dog says NO and a bear says HEY.

This month Lottie became a big sister, she is still adjusting to the role.  It has been hard since she has been fighting various viral infections- constant runny nose and congestion we haven't given her an opportunity to get to know her new baby sister.  Its hard but what is best right now, as we know how fast these kind of germs can spread.  So for now Lottie sees her sissy from a distance,but we talk about her and she refers to her as Anna.  

Lastly, Lottie continues to love Elmo and can now sing the entire version of Elmo's world, again beyond cute, she working on the /l/ sound and has it down in all of the "la la la" parts of the song.  We are surprising her with tickets to see Sesame Street Live in April, she may just die when she sees Elmo up close in real life.  Counting down the days!   

Some more serious faces of Lottie Lee as she is still fighting a cold

Our Amazing Grace

Photo Credit: Sincerely Sarah Photography

 

"This is amazing grace, this is unfailing love"

 

Introducing Bethany Lin Capri

Born January 30, 2014

9:55am

7lbs 13oz 19 inches

 

With LOVE,

Daddy, Mama, & BIG sister  Lottie Lee