A Day at the Park (03-10-12)

We took the kids to the park and had a picnic there too! It was lots of fun! We even let Yogi (Schnoodle) come because there was a dog park grand opening there too. It is so exciting sharing new adventures with Dominic! He is full of energy and loves to be outdoors! This is just the first of many fun things we have to look forward to sharing with our new son! We can't wait to take him swimming and to spend days at the beach too!
Blessings,
Amber

CMS Cheer! (Tryouts were 03-02-12)

Brennan is in her 6th grade year. She couldn't wait until she could try out for middle school cheerleading! Her school had try-outs on March 2nd, after going to cheer clinic for several days before try-outs. Brennan found out that she made the team Friday night (March 2nd)! The cheer coach posted the names of the girls on the school website. Brennan must have sat at the computer for an hour hitting the refresh button constantly!
The next morning Ms. "G" (cheer coach) called each girl to congratulate them! Ms. G told the girls to meet at a local Mexican restaurant that day to celebrate with lunch and cake! These are pics from the lunch.
Brennan was very happy to make the team! She has missed cheering since she stopped doing All-Star cheerleading a year ago. There were a total of 5 sixth graders that made the team. Brennan is excited about cheering for her school, and I can't wait to go to the games to watch her!

Dominic's Weekend Visits

Here are just a few of my favorite pics from Dominic's weekend visits. He is so handsome, as you can see :) I love the pic of him sleeping too. It was his first night to sleep over and he was so nervous. But he quickly fell asleep after some reassurance from me and Danny.


Dominic loves going to church with us on Sundays! Danny and I have gone to his class with him each Sunday, but hopefully soon he will feel secure enough to go on his own. I really miss hearing pastor Brett's sermons, but I know it is very important to help Dominic feel safe in his environment.


Dominic didn't even know what a trampoline was when he came over for the first time! He quickly took to jumping on it, and even tried to do a few flips (which landed him on his head)!


Dominic loves driving Ivey's Barbie jeep too. I'm thinking we may have to get him a boy one for his birthday!

MEET DOMINIC! (Pics from 02-18-12)

We got a call from DHR about Dominic on Feb. the 6th. The SW gave us a little info on Dominic and wanted to know if we would like to meet him! Dominic just turned 5 at the end of November. He has been in foster care for over 3 years. Recently the judge terminated parental rights, so now Dominic is legally free to be adopted. We were able to meet Dominic just 4 days after recieving the call about him. We met Dominic with his social worker (SW) and foster mom at a local Chic-Fil-A on Feb. 10th. We only got to spend about an hour and a half with him. It was a school day and we took all of our kids with us because the SW wanted them to meet Dominic also. The kids all had a good time playing together!
About a week later we had a visitation hearing at DHR. We set up a schedule for Dominic to get to know our family, and us to get to know his personality. DHR decided that we could get him every Friday afternoon and return him to his foster mom each Sunday. So we get him every weekend. These visits are set to go on this way until the end of April. At that time Dominic will move in with us full time, or he may stay with his foster mom during the weekdays until the end of May. Dominic is in K-4 at his school, and the SW may want him to finish up that program. If that is the case, then Dominic will move in with us when school gets out at the end of May.

Dominic's foster mom is a sweet lady. She has raised a family of her own and has grown children. She also has grand-children. Dominic is close to his foster mom and her family. We are hoping to keep their connection through the coming years. Dominic's SW and foster mom both want what is best for Dominic. They feel he needs a two parent family that is very active...I think we fit that description! LOL Dominic's foster mom is single and is happy that Dominic will finally have a father to guide him.

Dominic has been with his foster mom for a little over 3 years. He has always been the only child in her home! So he may be a little spoiled! LOL He has never had pets, and has really enjoyed our 2 dogs and cat! He loves having the girls around to play with all the time, but every now and then he will have a moment where he just wants to play alone. I'm sure all the stimulation around here will take some getting used to!

These pics were taken on Feb. 18th, which was the first day Dominic came to our home for a visit. His first time to spend the night was on March 2nd. He has been staying with us every weekend since then! Dominic is always so happy to see us on Fridays! We love having his visits to look forward to each weekend! Sunday's have gotten really tough though. Dominic cries and becomes very, very upset when he has to leave us. Each weekend this gets worse and the next few months are going to be so hard! Please pray for Dominic as he transitions back and forth between us and his foster mom. He is becoming attached to us quickly and he is so distraught when he has to leave. It's hard for all of us.

Love~
Amber

Over the past few weeks we have transformed Mylah's room into a Spiderman room for Dominic! Mylah and Ivey will share a room now.

Mardi Gras (February 2012)

In February we celebrated Mardi Gras here on the Gulf Coast! We enjoyed cream cheese stuffed King Cake which was awesome! Ivey found the baby hidden inside the cake....she also found the baby in her slice of cake last year too! We have had a very warm winter here this year. Temps have pretty much been 67-75 degrees during the day all winter! Of course there was a cold snap as soon as we decided to go to the parades! It was really cold the night we went! There were not near as many people out for the parades due to the cold weather, I guess. Mardi Gras last for about 2 weeks. We only went to the parades 1 night this year because we went on vacation to Gatlinburg, Tn. during this time. The kids get a whole week out of school for Mardi Gras so they were really happy about that!
Moon Pies and Mardi Gras :)
Amber

"Yogi" Bear (01-23-12)

We got a new puppy on Jan. 23rd! The girls named him "Yogi". He is a Schnoodle, half Poodle and half Schnauzer. He will be around 15-20 pounds when full grown. He was only 2 1/2 pounds when I took him for his 1st vet check! He looks much bigger because of all his hair. The kids have enjoyed him! Of course it's alot of extra work for me and Danny to add a new pet. Yogi has surprised us though and has been a very calm puppy. He hasn't been too hard to potty train either, but still has an occasionally accident. We crate train which helps alot with training.
I included a few pics of Jinx our Bengal cat, and Duke our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel....couldn't leave them out!
We had no idea that we would be getting a call from DHR soon about a little boy who would be coming to live with us! If we would have known, then we probably would not have added the extra stress of a puppy right now! But it has all been good and our new son is getting to enjoy having a puppy!
~Amber~