My baby girl is ONE!

Hannah turned ONE on June 30...sniff, sniff... I just can not believe how fast this last year has gone.  I look back at pics from when she was born and just thank God for our healthy happy child.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives.  We celebrated on her birthday at our favorite mexican restraunt and then we had her birthday party on the Saturday after. It was so much fun!  There are so many people that love our little girl and we are so thankful for everyone who could be there to celebrate her little life with us.  It was a Vintage strawberry shortcake theme.  Her cake was a bright red strawberry.  To say she loved it would be an understatement!  She was all about the icing and could care less about the cake. Ha!! Warning...picture overload! Oh and the dates on the first days pics are wrong (SOMEBODY forgot to make sure the date and time was correct, didn't figure that out until 4th of July, when it was saying the 3rd of July..LOL) Enjoy!!

7lbs 13 oz and 20.5 inches long

Walking and Picture day at music class!

I haven't been able to catch it on video yet by my baby girl,who just turned 10 months on Saturday, took her FIRST step the week before!  TWO!!  She has taken a few more since then, but they are hard to catch on video.....stay tuned....
We put Hannah in a babies music class this last January and she (we) love it!  My mom got to take her a when I was working and my friend Sara went with a few times.  It was so much fun watching her learn different rhythm's and beats and interacting with other babies.  The last class we were allowed to take pics.  She loves loves the guitar!  Can't wait for summer session!  We'll be joining a friend of mine with her precious baby girl.

Waiting to go in....

Loves the drum!

Shake shake!

But my fave is the guitar!

Happy Easter!!!

Hannah Faye had a great First Easter!  We attended the early service at our church and spent the day at Caleb's parents.  They just got a new playground set and the kiddos loved it.  Hannah even took part in the egg hunt....Enjoy the pics!!

Texas Bluebonnets 2011

So, ever since I had Hannah, I would dream of all the fun stuff we would do and traditions we would have.  One being the activity of parking off the side of some country back road and placing her in the sea of beautiful Texas bluebonnets to take the traditional yearly pics.   Oh that time has come!  One thing about Hannah...she's so much like me.  When you put her in a new environment, she gets quiet and takes it all in.  She didn't know what to think, but I think she enjoyed it! Not many smiles but pretty pics, nonetheless.   So enjoy!!

Could she be any prettier??

I must say that Caleb and I are so blessed to have such laid back, gorgeous, healthy baby girl!  I wake up everyday in love with her more than yesterday.  Poor thing has been under the weather for a couple weeks now and I'm ready for her to start feeling better soon.  She had her 9 month appt today and weighed a whopping 17 pounds, 10 ounces and was 28 inches long.  Long and lean (She did not get that from her mother!)  She also had to get some blood drawn and didn't cry a bit! The shot...different story. So these days she is crawling all over the place and is FAST!  She loves pushing her baby carriage around the house and daddy hung a swing on our front porch.  She LOVES it.  The girl loves to swing at the park, now she can do it on her front porch. The other day my friend and I took Hannah to the Botanical Gardens to take pics of her in the TUTU's that she makes.  So much fun!  FYI  Here is her facebook website. Sara Bell Designs (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Sara-Bell-Designs/129232077143084)
On the adoption front, we're still looking in to agency's.  Ya ya I  said we were 99% positive on the agency, but I can't stop researching agency's!  I know the ones we don't want, but there are a few that I keep going back and forth between.  For those that are in the process, how did you choose? Do you mind sharing what agency you went through?  You can email me if you want.  Any advice will help!! So once we are 100% sure of the agency, we'll start the process (mid-April sometime).  It so important to pick the right agency, we don't want to pick one and have a hard time.  We know that adoption's can have their ups and downs, but we would like to go with an agency that can help minimize them.
The other big news is my career.  As most know I have completed my master's and past my boards, so I am officially a PNP!  I start my new job the week of April 10th at the same children's hospital I've worked at for almost 10 years now.  I'm so excited about it!  The hours are great!  But leaving the NICU is bitter sweet.  I'll miss working with so many great nurses that I've gotten to know over the years...and the babies...oh I'll miss my babies, but God had another plan for me and I'll just be down the hall.  I'll be dropping in to say Hi often! Enjoy the pics!!

 

Waiting is not my strongest suit...

Oh waiting...waiting...to apply!  I have a feeling one of the other reasons God sent us down this path is to teach me a little dose of patience!  Caleb and I are still waiting to put our application in.  It's looking like we'll send it in and start THE PROCESS(!!) in mid-April sometime.  We are 99% positive of the agency we are going to use.  We took these last couple months to really research and make sure Russia is the country for us (we didn't detour for that long, but we did make sure we are 100% sure Russia is for us!) and making sure of the agency we'll use.  I've also been blog-stalking MANY families that have or are adopting from Russia (see the plethora blogs that I follow to the side).  I have been learning invaluable information regarding the entire process.  It's so exciting to see so many families united with their son or daughter.  Russia sure makes some cute babies!!  A BLOG I'm reading of another family adopting from Russia, had a fundraiser for one of Russia's baby homes.  She was selling these SHIRTS that states "I believe" in Russian on the front and on the back is Psalms 68: 5-6 which reads: "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families"  in Russian and English set in the shape of Russia.  We loved them and bought each of us one.  We got them yesterday and I'm sporting mine today : )
Sooo these days, our little Hannah is just keeping us busy crawling all over the place and getting into everything!  She's growing up too fast!  I need a pause button to slow her down!  Poor thing caught my cold, but she's doing alright....doesn't slow down her play time any!  She's not been the best baby food eater lately, she'd rather have puffs and table food, and yogurt...Oh my she loves the yogurt!  Here are some recent pics of our princess... Enjoy!

HAHA this was taken yesterday.  Poor thing was not feeling good!

   

From our Texas 'Blizzard'..She was less than thrilled to be sitting in the middle of the yard with this cold, White stuff!

  

On the move with her first pigtails!




The girl LOVES to swing!



From Valentine's Day.  LOVE that smile!