SNOW DAY! 2010

It actually snowed here! I am still in shock! That happens about every 10-20 years here in the south! We live very, very south! Like near the ocean and beaches. We NEVER see snow! The kids were so excited! This happened on Friday, Feb. 12th. All of you people from the North are probably laughing at my pics of "snow"! You may call this a dusting, but for us it was SNOW! Schools in the area were all closed down for the snow storm! LOL The girls were so happy! :) Anyway, just had to show you all some pics of a pretty miraculous event here on the Gulf Coast!

Blessings!~

Amber

VALENTINE'S DAY~MARDI GRAS!!!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!!!

Valentine's Day this year was so much fun...not very romantic, but fun! Brennan is off on a cruise to Mexico, with her grandmother! Lucky her!!! Danny and I took the two little ones to a Mardi Gras parade! Mylah seemed excited, even though she didn't have a clue what was going on! Ivey was in moon pie heaven! She got tons of beads, moon pies (YUMMY!), and two stuffed animals! Ivey never meets a stranger, and ended up latching onto a married couple that had their two teen daughters with them. The couple ate up having a little one around and were spoiling Ivey rotten! They kept giving her all their goodies they caught. They also put her up on their shoulders so she could get more loot! Ivey got hit in the face really hard with some beads though. :( Some of those guys just throw way too hard! I posted a pic of her injury. Not sure if you can see it or not though. Each bead left an imprint on her face for a few hours! OUCH!!! I also posted a pic of Mylah's cute Valentine hair do! So, yes....we spent our Valentine's day at a huge party with a bunch of drunks! And no, we didn't get to have a single drink! LOL I know many of my readers have never experienced Mardi Gras. It is a HUGE deal in our town though! If any of you ever get the chance, go to a town that celebrates Mardi Gras sometime...you won't be sorry! People come from all over to experience this fun event! We are one of the few lucky towns that have 2 straight weeks of partying and parades! The kids even get out of school for several days to celebrate! No, I'm not kidding! We sometimes use the Mardi Gras break to go to Disney or some other fun place. We are not big party people anymore, so we just don't do the parades every year. I am glad we went this year though...much fun!

Love~

Amber

ATLANTA~ DAY # 4...AQUARIUM!!!

On the last day we were in Atlanta, we went with "T" and the kids to the Aquarium! We all had a blast! It was "T's" first time to go, and her kids had never been either. Brennan had been to the New Orleans Aquarium once, and Ivey had never been to one at all. The kids all thought it was awesome and I got lots of cool pics of them. Ivey slept some in Mylah's stroller, because she had been so sick the night before. I felt so bad dragging her out since she had the stomach bug the night before, but it was our last chance to see "T".
Again, we spent most of our time chasing all the kids around! I really don't have alot more to say about our visit. Some of my observations and thoughts are to be kept private, to be shared with Mylah when she is older. I am glad I could share some of this experience with you all though! Especially the pics of Mylah's two families united as one, even if only for a few moments! I have tons of pics from our weekend, and I know Mylah will treasure them one day! I can't wait to make "T" an album for her keeping as well!

BLESSINGS~

Amber

ATLANTA~ DAY # 3

Well, sorry guys....but day # 3 was not very exciting! Brennan's team cheered again this day. They did an awesome job both Sat. and Sun. All of the teams were excellent though! This competition was the largest in the whole WORLD! Yes, world! There were 859 cheer teams there. It is also the 4th largest event held in Atlanta each year. It was insane! Brennan's team came in 9th place for her division...which is actually pretty good for a competition this size.

Ivey and Mylah were also both sick this day. Mylah had a fever Sat., Sun., and Monday. She acted fine other than that though. I took her to the Pediatrician when we got back in town on Tues. She also ended up with some blood in her urine on Tues and a rash all over her body. She ended up having a UTI and Roseola! Poor baby! Ivey had a stomach bug while we were still at the hotel. She vomited in the bed Sun. night! Ugggg! Gotta love dealing with a stomach bug in a hotel room! It seems like every single time we go out of town, one of the kids gets a puke virus! She was sick pretty much all night! I just prefer to forget this night altogether! We did not see "T" on the 3rd day.

~Amber

ATLANTA DAY # 2~MEETING BIRTH-FAMILY!

Ivey and Mylah cheering Brennan's team on!
Brennan and some of her cheer friends (Bren is in the middle)

The second day we were in Atlanta, Brennan had to cheer at a competition for a little while. We later met "T" and her 3 children at a place called Monkey Joe's. It is a play place for kids. There are lots of inflatables there (bouncers, AKA moon walks, and slides) and also video games. We all stayed there a few hours playing and ate dinner together there. It was a pretty rowdy place to be at on a Sat. afternoon! There were lots of kids there, so it was a little hectic! We enjoyed playing with Mylah's birth siblings. We spent the most time with "Baby T" since he is only 18 months old and wasn't running off to play with the rest of the kids. He was sooo much fun and always had a gorgeous smile on his face! He warmed up to us very quickly, and hung out with me and Danny alot! "Za" and "Ze" were thrilled to meet their sister...they just hugged and loved on her! It was sooo sweet to see them all together. Mylah is at that age where she has a little stranger anxiety. She wouldn't let "T" or any of the siblings hold her but just a few seconds at a time. She just kept reaching for me or Danny. This made me a little sad. I guess I had this fairy tale sort of dream in my head of how our meeting would go. I thought maybe Mylah would somehow, deep down in her little soul somewhere, recognize these people as part of herself. Nothing like that happened though, and that's okay. I just didn't want our meeting to cause any pain to "T". I guess I thought that if Mylah somehow recognized her voice or something, that there would be special bonding between the two of them. "T" seemed okay with the fact that Mylah was not that warm toward them. She just said "She has really bonded with you all". Most of the time we were busy keeping up with all the kiddos (6 total), so there wasn't alot of talking time.

"S" (birth-father) never came to either of our meetings. Maybe next time we visit, he will decide to join us. I would like to meet him, but at this point I am not sure if or when that will happen. "T" kept telling me that Mylah looks just like him...so of course I am very curious about him.

P.S.~As you can see from the pics, Mylah has a beautiful birth-mom and siblings! She is a blessed girl because they all love her! :)

PEACE~

Amber

AMERICAN GIRL STORE~ATLANTA DAY #1

I know it's taken me a while to post about our visit. I've been really busy since we got back. Mylah and Ivey both got sick in Atlanta! Uggg! Mylah has also just been diagnosed with asthma (as if her exzema wasn't enough)! She saw a pulmonologist a few days ago, and finally got her nebulizer today. She will get her first breathing treatment tonight. I'm afraid the mask is going to scare her to death! The pulmonary doc said she may have reflux, but I don't really think she does. Anyway, she's on a new med for that too. The child now has 5 prescription meds and also takes Zyrtec every day! I hate that my 8 month old needs that many meds! I can't stand giving kids medication unless they really, really need them. My hope is that she will outgrow some of these things as she gets older.

So, back to Atlanta! The day we arrived, we took the girls to eat at the American Girl Store/Cafe! Brennan and Ivey LOVE those dolls and they collect them. We met some of Brennan's friends that are on her cheer team there. We all ate lunch together and had a great time! Of course, Brennan and Ivey talked me into getting them both a new doll. I agreed to pay for half if they paid for half. They each paid $50 out of their own piggy banks...the dolls are $100 each! I also told them that was their Valentine gift early. They were thrilled!