It's Raining Babies!

Babies are everywhere in my life right now. Cayce just had her little one. My very close friend and neighbor, Christy, had her daughter this afternoon. And I just have lots of friends who are pregnant right now. It is exciting. I will post pictures of Christy and Steve's little angel, Ava Catherine, in my next post. She is gorgeous, and I made it back from Cayce's just in time for her birth. I got to see Miss Ava for just a few minutes right after she was born. I can't wait to see her tomorrow. Steve and Christy live right next to us so we will see lots of Ava.

I am so tired. Early bedtime for me tonight. Lucy is exhausted. She has been up late and then up early most of the time we were at Cayce's. She took a 3 hour nap when we got home and still went to bed at 8. I hope I can get her caught up on sleep.

We really had such a great time when we were staying with Cayce, Adam, and the boys. We got to spend some good, fun family time with Nana and Grandy. They were spoiling the kids with all kinds of attention. Lucy just adores both her Lee Lee and her Nana in such a special way. I love seeing her with her grandparents.

Here are a few other pictures from our family time. The swinging ones of Lucy are some of my all time faves. You can just see how happy and joyful she is in these.













So sweet!!

Welcome Jaksen Andrew!

Justin's sister, Cayce, gave birth to her second son yesterday.  Jaksen Andrew was born at 11:37 am on August 19th.  He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and is 20 inches long.  He is SOOOOO good.  He never cries or fusses.  I swear, Cayce had the easiest labor and delivery I have ever heard of.  She went in at 5:45 am for an induction.  By 11 or so, she was fully dialated and after 3 big pushes and one half push he was out.  It was so fast.  Justin, Lucy, and I got here about an hour before he was born.  I have never seen a baby that was minutes old and it was amazing. I was in Nashville when Wyatt was born, but he was already several hours old when I saw him. It is different when they literally first come out. I just couldn't believe it.  He has a head full of golden hair.  It is thick and kind of long. He has really long toes and fingers like Justin. He is absolutely perfect.

Of course, Lucy is in love with him.  She just adores babies.  Austen has been great too.  He was napping when Jaksen got home, so we will see what he thinks about the new baby actually being at his house.

I have taken a million pictures.  I can't get enough of the baby.  I just want to snuggle him all of the time.  I am trying to share though!! Enjoy my new nephew's sweetness.

Right before he was born

Brand new and already telling me to put the camera away

Hello World!

Very proud Nana and Grandy

Cayce and Jaksen

Austen meeting Jaksen for the first time

Can you stand it?



Can you believe all of this hair?

This is such a sweet picture. I hate that Lucy is blurry. I still love it.

Vietnam Summer Camp at the Beach

Sorry for my absence. We have had an awesome long weekend at the beach in St. Augustine with some of our friends. I can't even begin to describe how much fun this was. We were there with 5 families total, all of which have at least one child adopted from Vietnam. These are people that I have known for a long time, but have never met in person (except for Nicki of course). Let me begin by saying who was there.

We stayed with Laurie, Travis, Jackson, Shane, and Finley from Pho for Five. I think everyone reads this blog, so you should all be familiar with them. But for those who aren't, Laurie and Travis adopted Jackson about a month before we adopted Lucy. Lucy and Jack are about a month apart in age. Then they adopted Shane this past January. While in the adoption process for Shane, Laurie got pregnant with Finley, who was born a couple of months after Shane came home. So, they have 3 little ones who are very close in age. I don't know how they do it, but to be perfectly honest, they make it look pretty easy. They don't miss a beat. Laurie and Travis are an incredible team. They manage to do anything that everyone else does even with three littles. They are really relaxed and energetic and that is what it takes to handle their family dynamics. They are really just like I expected them to be. Laurie does a really great job of portraying her precious family on her blog. Jackson is just like I expected him to be - a firecracker. He is full of life and energy and is scared of nothing. The boy would run out into the ocean and the waves didn't intimidate him one bit. They would knock him over and Travis would pull him up and he would have a huge smile on his face and be ready for more. Don't worry, the water was very shallow and Trav was always right next to him. Shane just might be the easiest baby I have ever been around. He sleeps all of the time. When he is awake, he is smiles every time you make eye contact with him. He let me get lots of good loves in. He is so chill that once on the beach Jackson dumped sand on his head and face and he just smiled and kept playing. And then there is Finley. She has these huge eyes and she gives the most precious smile when you smile at her. She LOVES her momma. She is a tiny peanut and Lucy was in love with her. I swear, Lucy loves babies so much. Any time she saw Fin she would touch her hair and say, "Hi baby. Hi Fin-yee." I think Nicki got some pictures of Lucy lovin on Finley. Thanks so much for giving us a great place to stay!! You guys are awesome.

Nicki, Tony, Dalton, Teegan, Noah, and Addy from Stepping on Legos also stayed at the beach house. I have already written about them, so you know how much I love them! I will say, Lucy had issues with Dalton and Teegan. It was so strange, but any time she got close to one of them she would freak out. It is so weird because they are so great with little kids. I can't figure out why she was like that. Sorry boys!! Nicki confused Lucy for Addy a couple of times again. It was so cute when Lucy and Addy were both in cherry swimsuits. When things kind of settled down on Sunday before we left, Lucy totally took to Nicki. She was having Nicki throw her around and chase her. It was so nice to see Lucy really playing and letting loose.

Jena, Sheldon, Bailey, Sam, and Khai from Two Different Loves were also there. I have to say that I fell in love with Khai. He is the most precious little boy and just melted me. He is a total ham for the camera. He would see the camera and pose and look right at it, but in a totally natural way. I probably got more pictures of him than anyone else because he was the only one who would ever even consider looking in my direction. I can't say enough good things about this family. Jena is every bit as warm, kind, funny, and simply wonderful as she comes across in her blog. Sheldon is an amazing dad. He was always taking the kids back and forth to the beach, cooking burgers, or just doing anything else that ever needed done. Sam and Bailey were so sweet. They remind me of Lucy because they were more of observers most of the time while the other kids were running wild.

And on Saturday afternoon, S came over with her kids M, L, and A. She uses initials on her blog, so I am going to do that too. Anyway, her blog is Our Vietnamese Ladybug. I didn't get to spend near enough time with them. I have no idea how S does what she does. Her two youngest are full of more energy than I have maybe ever seen in my life. Go to her blog and read some of the stories that she writes about the trouble that they get into together. A is her baby from Vietnam. She has candy pink colored lips that make me smile. She has done an awesome job of keeping up with L. I swear, she might be the toughest kid I have ever seen. She can absolutely hold her own! M went with us to downtown St. Augustine and she was just a delight. She kept Lucy laughing the entire car ride, held her hand while we walked around, and has the best manners. S, your family is awesome. You inspire me to stay calm and joyful all of the time. I wish we would have gotten to see you more. I am embarrassed to say, but I didn't get a single picture of any of your kids. That is ridiculous. I hate that we did not get our group VN picture while A was there. I am so sorry!!

I am so tired. We stayed up so late every night talking our heads off. There is just so much to say when you never get to see one another in person. We had to force ourselves to go to bed each night. I love how we are all so different in so many ways but just mix well together. I love how we have the common bond of Vietnam adoption. I love how our kids will know each other forever. They may not get to see each other often, but they will know one another. I admire each of you so much. I consider you all lifelong, very close friends. I think that it is pretty cool the friends that I have made through adoption. Thank you for sharing this awesome experience with Lucy and me. We miss you all already!

Lucy did really well with the whole trip. She was definitely overwhelmed with the number of people and loudness of the situation. But there were several times when she really opened up and shined. She did better at the beach when everyone could spread out a little and it wasn't so loud. She was pretty clingy to me, but I totally expected that. I could not believe that she slept a wink the whole time that we were there because the adults were so loud once the kids had gone to bed, but she did amazing at night.

Here is what I know you all want to see. Enjoy! You can click on my flickr badge on the sidebar to see more pictures.

Here are the little busy bees one day at the beach. Tony, Travis, and Sheldon dug some deep holes in the sand and the kids loved it. Can you even stand the cuteness of this group.


Lucy, Addy, and Jackson. They all have these balloon things tied on their ankles. Addy had it first, and Jack and Lucy wanted one too. Addy is such a trendsetter like that!

Khai, Jackson, and Lucy

All of us had to bribe our kids to participate in this group shot. Well, all of us except for Jena. Addy was most annoyed. I think it is so funny how both girls are scowling and all of the boys are having a great time. Ha.

This is my favorite picture I took this weekend. I just love how sweet Khai is. Don't you just want to snuggle with him??




Jackson


Addy


Shane Bug




Lucy and Addy getting ready for another round of ring around the rosey.

"Shut It!"

I don't really have much to say and have been really bad about taking pictures lately. We went to the Aquarium the other day with Liz, Taylor, and Reece. It is a really fun place and the girls had a good time. Lucy was a little clingy because her head was congested, but she still enjoyed it. They have all kinds of cool animals at our aquarium and she especially enjoys the flamingos. I have mentioned this before, but the penguins are so stinky. Liz and I died laughing because when we went out to where the penguins were, Taylor put her dress over her nose and was making a gagging noise. I totally felt like doing the same thing, but thought I might appear a little immature. Taylor can get away with it, she is only 2. Needless to say, we didn't stay out there long.

We had Lucy's 2 year check up on Tuesday. She is 22 lbs 12 oz - 5th percentile and 34.5 inches long - 75th percentile. I have to say, Justin and I were so unbelievably proud of her because she normally screams from the time the nurse calls us back to the room until we get outside and this time she did not cry at all. She sat on my lap and ate a sucker and let the doctor do his thing. It was so nice because I was actually able to visit with her doctor and ask him some questions without feeling like I had to rush around to get out of there so she would settle down. All of the calmness went out the door when she got her shot. Poor thing. No more shots for a long time. Yippee.

Lucy and I are headed to Florida tomorrow to meet lots of friends. I CANNOT WAIT! It is going to be so much fun. We just wish Justin could come. Travelling alone is always a little scary. You just never know how a 2 year old is going to do, but she is such a great traveller that I am sure it will be great.

Here are some pictures from the aquarium and a cute video from yesterday. She was in the funniest mood before we had to go to the doctor. She was cracking herself up!

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Checking out the stinky penguins