First Day of Kindergarten!!!!

Today was Gracie's first day of Kindergarten!
Of course, it was a little bittersweet. I was sad to see her big enough to go to Kindergarten but, so excited for her. She has developed into such a little person. She is smart, beautiful and very strong-willed. When she began preschool in the fall of 2008, she was quite shy and timid. That is pretty much gone now, she is much more confident in herself (that gives us trouble sometimes ;) ), out-spoken and opinionated. She has also has a very tender,caring heart. I see this a lot lately when we are taken care of my 9 month old nephew. I can't wait to see how she uses this attribute as a big sister.

Kindergarten Breakfast of Champions


Posing on her first day. These were all her poses. I actually had to request a "non-pose" photo. Such a goofball!

All ready to head into class... ....and after that summer growth sport, she's pretty close to the tallest in her class.

Sitting at her Table spot.

Running out happy as can be when the day was over.

Summer, Summer, Summertime.....coming to an end

For the very last weekend before the start of school, we decided to take an impromptu trip up to the WI Del*s. We stayed at the Wilderne*s and had The. Best. Time. It was so fun to just go away, the three of us. We played, played, and played some more. Since we were mostly in the water, I took very few pictures. But, here are a few...

This was my second time up to the Del*s this summer. I didn't ever get around to posting about my last trip but, it was definitely a highlight of the summer. A few of my girlfriends and I spent an all inclusive weekend up there at the end of July. We had a great time, eating, drinking, laying by the pool and laughing lots.

Here are a few more pictures of Gracie enjoying the summer. This time was with her cousin, whom she just adores. The summer was filled with lots of overnights with all of her wonderful grandparents and plenty of family time.

Bye Bye Summer of 2010....You were very good to us.

Now to get excited for all the fun activities that beautiful Fall weather will bring.

Summer, Summer, Summertime ...some more

We now know how much I love summer and the freedom it gives us to come and go as we please. We are trying to squeeze in as much as we can before school starts.....the start of school is only 14 days away. I can't believe how fast these 3 months have flown by.



Last Thursday we took the train downtown to meet KJ at his office. Grace was so excited to ride the train until ,we got on. I think we hyped it up a little too much. After we hopped on she seemed a little unsure of why there wasn't much going on....ha! She did look at the window the whole time and took everything in. But, asked many questions "Why can't we go faster?" , "Is he going to blow the horn some more?", "Do you think Jackson will love trains?", "Can we walk around?". But I guess I kind of agree with her, the trek downtown can be a little boring if you are anxious to get somewhere. I took the M*tra downtown everyday for 6 years and actually kind of miss it. I got a lot of reading and alone time in that 45 min trek.



Once we made it downtown we walked across the street to KJ's office and met him in his lobby. He took us up and "officially" checked Grace in as a visitor. She got a name badge and everything....pretty cute. We took some time to say hi, wave, smile, see where daddy sits and then she was ready to move on to Americ*n Girl Pla*ce.

Oh my goodness, she was so excited for this night. I will say I'm pretty sure KJ and I were just as excited because we knew how much she was looking forward to this night. We spent lots of time talking about how great the day was and what it was going to be like next summer when we could do fun things with Jackson. We are so looking forward to being able to share special days like this with him.


Here are some pics of our day/night. (notice the huge smile that never left her face)

Summer, Summer, Summertime ...Part 1

Oh, how I love summer! We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy and enjoying every minute of this hot summer.
Couple of things I Love about summer.....

No school schedules!.....so we can come and go as we please.

One of our recent outings was to the She*d Aquarium.

Long weekends away with family!.....

This is my nephew's baptism over the 4th of July weekend in Iowa.

These are from one of Gracie's trips to Michigan....Magaritaville Party.

Lots of outdoor playtime and swimming!...

Grilling out and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables!...

This is my first homemade cherry pie. I've never had the motivation to pit cherries but, really enjoyed it this year. Michigan cherries are great in the summer.

Care Package to Korea

We put together our first care package to send over to Jackson. Another waiting family will be getting their call to Travel soon and has so graciously offered to take the package over for us. Due to agency restrictions (and various other reasons), we are not allowed to send the package directly to the Foster Family. It must travel to Korea with another family. The family will hand the package over to Eastern. Jackson's SW at Eastern will then give the package to his foster mother when she brings him in for his next well- baby check up, which will be at the end of the month.

Before I share what we included in the package, I have to thank the waiting families before us who have shared their care package ideas and recommendations. I "stole" many of them. They were just so perfect.

We have many things we want to send over. However, we have to limit the items because they all need to fit into a gallon sized Ziploc bag.

This time we chose to send the following items:

A squishy book with pictures of Grace, KJ and myself.
A little brother outfit.
A plush star that sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's actually a recordable star that plays back hopes that it will get played over and over and Jackson will recognize Gracie's voice when he comes home.

A little brother bib that I bought right after we signed on with LL.

A cute polo and some Robe*zs.

We also included a box of chocolates for the Foster Family and a Co*ch wallet and note for his Foster Mother.

Because we know our wait is going to be pretty lengthy, we hope to send a number of packages. It was kind of hard to decide what to send this time and what to hold onto for the next package.

I really hope this package finds Jackson happy and healthy and brings many smiles to his cute little face.

** Big Thanks to Mandi and her family for taking the package for us. Happy, safe and wonderful travels**
(I know she doesn't blog but, wanted to send a shout out, anyways.)

Warrior Dash

KJ, my uncle, cousin, brother, SIL, my good buddy/neighbor, a friend, and I ran the Warrior Dash the day after our referral. It was a whirlwind of a day.....lots of laughs and so much fun. I think I was still a little in shock from all the good news the day before because, the race seems like it was forever ago but, referral day seems like just yesterday.

Anywhoooo, we had such a great time. Thanks Uncle G. for pulling us all together!

Us all clean before the race...

Some action shots....

And a wee bit muddy when it was all over...

6 Months

Happy 6 months, Jackson! I hope today was a day full of smiles with your loving foster family.

It has only been two weeks since we first saw your picture and we are so anxious to come meet you! You are already such a huge part of our little family.

We have many things planned to keep busy as we wait for that Travel Call. Gracie has big plans for your room and insists on buying you something every time we go shopping.

Happy Day, Little Man!! xoxo