And, We Proudly Announce Our Newest Family Member...

Please meet our son and the girls little brother;

JACOB GREGORY MONTIETH!

:)

I was catching up on reading my favorite blogs

(about the only thing that I get to read these days)

late on the night of April 11th when I came across this post on my friend Tami's blog:

http://gatheringpeeps.typepad.com/gathering_peeps/page/2/#

(Sorry. You will have to copy/paste to see that blog post. I am so not good at technical stuff)!

At that moment I knew that I was seeing MY SON for the first time.

It

was

Jake!

I can't explain it. But, I had known since last fall that we were suppose to adopt a boy from China with limb differences. However I was not officially looking for our third little eggroll the night that I found Jake. But, there he was! He had found me. God placed him right in our laps. So, after almost 4 long weeks of talking, praying, consulting with doctors, praying again, sobbing (that would be me...lol!) , watching everything fall into place...and talking some more; we decided that it was time. On May 7th we made the decision that we were indeed with out a doubt, undeniably Jake's family. :)

We received

P.A.

(that's adoption lingo for pre approval)

from the generous officials in China to be Jake's parents on Friday!

:)

We have been knee deep in paperwork since May 9th and I think that we are making some pretty darn good progress thus far. Of course it will never be fast enough! I will post more about Jake later this week. 

For now I will leave you with some pictures

since THAT is what you are all waiting for anyway. If you bothered to read my post with out scrolling down to the pictures you are probably tired of my rambling anyway.

;P

The Last Birthday Party Post!

Ponies, cake and friends for your viewing enjoyment.....

I have a billion more pictures. But, it would take foREVer to post each and every one. I know that my kids are awesome, but nobody is THAT devoted to reading my blog! *lol*

Snow White Birthday Cake

My birthday girl requested a Snow White cake for her birthday party.

My Emma is definitely original!

;)

So, I did some research online and came up with this concoction.

It received rave reviews. But, most importantly-it made Emma

SO HAPPY!

I will post more pictures of her actual party soon. I promise! I need to organize some of those pictures first before I attempt to post any. Hey-you have waited this long...you can wait a little bit longer-can't you?! :)

Emma's 7th Birthday! (Part 3)

So, after opening presents & eating lunch the girls and I ventured outside to play.

Emma did GREAT on her new bike and only tipped it over once. I think that we will have those training wheels on for a while yet....but, who cares. Not us!

AND,

check out Sophie's NEW dolly stroller.

Yes, my baby has some big news!

She is night time pull up FREE!

Whoo-hoo!!!

So, her reward was a new stroller for her dolls.

:)

Guess WHO ELSE has kicked the night time pull ups to the curb?!

Yep.

That's right!

EMMA!!

:O

My goodness, this sibling rivalry thing is awesome!

Alright, here are the pictures......

Emma's 7th Birthday! (Part 2)

Emma brought "purple princess cupcakes" (by request) to school to share with her friends....

And, She brought home a vey special hat.....

Next, we opened presents from Lao Lao & Yeh Yeh, Auntie Berta & Eddie, Pa Pa, Nona and Grandpa.......