First Days

As each day passes, I realize how quickly time goes by. After celebrating both of Sean and Isabella's birthdays, it just reminds me of how big they are getting. I am partly sad to see our kids grow up so fast, but at the same time, I love seeing them (and us) reach new milestones. The following two pictures were taken on Sean's first day of "school".

The first picture is of Sean all dressed and ready to go with his new backpack. Oh, and I can't forget to mention "puppy" that is with him. "Puppy" doesn't go to school with Sean, but he waits for him in Mommy's car. :) Sean loves "school". It is actually a MMO (Mother's Morning Out) program. Sean goes three times a week and is there for almost four hours. It has been great for him, and he is having the best time. Many times when we drive to his school in the morning, he says to me "I'm excited!"

The second picture is of Isabella on Sean's first day of school. It is her first morning that she is able to play with all of the toys in our family room without big brother Sean over her shoulder. She is doing great, as well. I think she likes having that alone time at home, and some time to have Mommy all to herself. Although, I have to say that she does miss Sean during the day. It is so cute to see her face when I tell her it's time to go get Sean from school. She just gets the biggest smile on her face.

Una Fiesta Con Nuestra Familia

(Translation: A party with our family!)

I know this is a little late, but here are some photos from Sean and Isabella's birthday party with some of our family.

What is all this stuff?

Big cousins help to blow out candles.

Sean's face is priceless, and Isabella isn't sure about the candles. :)

He's so excited he gave his forced "cheese" smile. haha

Woohoo! More toys!

I love my duck!

One Party Down.... One To Go

Here are some pictures from Sean and Isabella's birthday party with friends. Our house was filled with "soon-to-be" three-year-olds and "soon-to-be" one-year-olds - all running and crawling around. It was so cute. The kids had fun playing outside in the pool and slip 'n slide. And then afterwards, everyone cooled off eating ice-cream! You'll also see in the last picture that our dog had a GREAT time cleaning up after all the kids. haha


This coming weekend, we will have a "family" birthday party. Wow, these kids are celebrating their birthday all month so far. haha

I'm THREE!!!

And just one day later, on August 2nd, Sean turned THREE! Wow, he is getting so big. He loved celebrating Isabella's birthday with her, but was very happy to know his birthday was the next day. haha Here he is enjoying his day!


Opening presents - it's serious business!


I love my train conductor outfit! (We think he lived in it for 3 days!)


I must get to work!


Yeah, finally MY cupcake!

I'm ONE!!!

On August 1st, Isabella turned ONE!!! We can't believe that she is one already. We have had such an amazing time with her, and are so thankful to have her in our family.







I'm not so sure about this....


What is that thing?


Opening presents!

Summer Vacation Fun

It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over! We have been having so much fun that I have not sat down to post some pictures. So, here are some from our summer travels. We have had a great time visiting and traveling with both sides of the family.


Gary and Sean having fun on a tube in Virginia.















Sean getting to drive Grandaddy's boat














Deborah taking Sean out on a Seadoo (jetski)















Meeting SpongeBob at Kings Dominion
















Having fun with Virginia cousins at Kings Dominion!

Sean and Alli taking a ride!

Posing with Florida cousins at the Children's Museum in Indiana

Mommy and Sean hugging on a merry-go-round

Back-to-back & Head-to-head

Isn't that just the cutest picture? Okay, so Isabella had a few tears beforehand...but hey, she's a girl...she can pull it off. :) And you try to get two kids to smile at the same time at this age. haha

I know it has been awhile since I have posted, so I apologize.

Things have been really good over here, and we are having a great time with the kids. We are getting ready for summertime and a few vacations (back-to-back) that we have planned. It has been awhile since we have been able to plan for vacations. Usually, we were saving all of our vacation time for our trips to Colombia. So, as of right now, we are getting ready to head to a couple weddings. Yes, I said a couple. Our family will be attending two different weddings on the same day - in two different states. Pretty creative , huh? Actually, Gary will be attending a wedding of one of his college friends; and the kids and I will be traveling to a family wedding.

After we attend the two weddings, then we will all come home for a day and half and then we will be heading up to Virginia to see Gary's parents and family. It should be a lot of fun.

We hope you and your families are enjoying the summer. We'll post more photos soon!

Hugs to you all.

Time with Family

It has been a busy couple months around here. We have been having a great time spending time with our family and friends. In fact, just a couple weeks ago, all of our family came to town for Isabella's Baptism. It was such a nice time to be able to see all of our family, and of course, it was wonderful to see all of the cousins playing together. Some of our family had not met Isabella yet, so it was even more special to introduce her to everyone. We definitely had a nice time and are looking forward to later in the summer when we will be going on vacation with both sides of the family.

In addition to spending time with our family, Isabella had some special time with Mommy. We went together to get Isabella's ears pierced. She did a great job, and just looks adorable. Many people in Colombia asked us if we were going to pierce her ears (as it is a tradition there, and in a lot of Latin America). I knew I wanted to do that, but we waited to do it once we got home. So, Isabella sported her new birthstone earrings for her Baptism.

We hope you enjoy the new pictures of our growing children. It's hard to believe that in a couple days Sean will be 2 years and 9 months old, and Isabella will be 9 months old. Wow. Where does the time go?





Our little family

I got my ears pierced!!

Rockin' with my FL cousins

Hangin' with my VA cousins

Springtime with Friends

Everyone says that when you have children time flies. Well, they are right. I can't believe that it has been more than a month since we posted. The month of February flew by. We had a lot of fun times with the kids - in the middle of cold/flu season. haha Unfortuntely both kids got sick this month and so did Gary. But "Mommy" stayed healthy - so Mommy took care of everyone. However, thankfully all of that has passed and we were able to have a fun weekend last weekend. Our entire family took a trip to Tampa for our adoption agency's annual picnic. It was so nice see so many of our "Colombian Family". We even went a day early so that we could get together with a few friends for dinner the night before. We had a great time seeing everyone, and of course watching the kids play. It was also nice to be able to introduce Isabella to everyone. It's hard to believe she is seven-months-old now!

As usual, here are some recent pictures of the kids. We hope you enjoy them:


Isabella posing with Daddy















Isabella not posing with Mommy (aka -distracted by a light)

Sean showing off his big muscles

What Mom?















Serious Sean

My Big Brother, My Little Sister

Wow, it is amazing how fast time flies. I can't believe we have been home almost two months now. Things are going very well over here, and Sean and Isabella are having a great time together. We are slowly getting into a routine with both of the kids, and getting used to being parents of two. We are having a great time, and so are they. Here are some pictures of them playing together:


Playing with our puppies

My chair, your chair

I'm six-months-old today!

Playing on the floor

Going for a run with Daddy