Father's Day Weekend

Catching up again since I have been working hard at a training that is finally over!!!! I was informed that we have another two weeks next summer. What a bummer!!! For those of you that I haven't told the news about my job, it is official that I will be at Clements teaching 5th grade. I am getting a little excited but I have so much to do since I am moving into another classroom. I will not have to unpack everything because if the new school (Blue Springs Elementary) is on schedule then we will move after this school year. I am so excited about the new school and the idea of being separated from the high school. Enough of that and back to what we have been doing. Last Saturday night we celebrated my nephew Will's birthday who was turning 19. We also celebrated with Colby from church since he was turning 15.

Will and Colby ready to blow out the candles!!

All smiles for the camera!

On Sunday morning, Lillian was ready to give Daddy his card and gift. He got a nice dress shirt and we will be going shopping to add more to his wardrobe.

Lillian is giving her Daddy a kiss and a hug!

Then Sunday night we went to church with my sister Tammy at Jones' Road. Chris got a call before we left that he had to go into work so he met up with us later at Tammy's house. We were afraid that my daddy wouldn't be able to come since he was sick. He had a really bad cold but he was able to make it for church and to Tammy's house. We fixed daddy right up with lots of goodies. I am so lucky to have a daddy like mine that is a good Christian example. He is also one of those that if you need him to do something for you he is right there doing it for you. My daddy will soon be 73 years old so I hope and pray that I will have him around for many more Father's days to come.

Lillian loves her Paw Paw!

Anna still wants to have something to do with Lillian even after our trip!

We were going to get Lillian's picture made with Chris in his church clothes but he had to go into work. Oh, well!! Lillian is killing me with the way she is posing now for pictures!!

I don't do very good with turning the camera around and taking a picture with me in it. But here is my coworker Kelly (she is moving up from third grade to fifth) and me smiling on the last day of training!! One of the perks of the training is that we had different vendors there each day. I spent too much money but it sure was fun shopping!!

I hope to have a more peaceful, relaxing week ahead of me!!!

Catching Up!

Wow, what a week for me! Training every day from 8:00a.m. to 3:30p.m. in Decatur plus V.B.S. every night. How much can you do in 24 hours?? Back to catching up since I haven't had any time to blog. Last Friday night we went to Chan and Marla's to eat and we were able to get Lillian's picture with a hay bale. Check out Lillian but also check out the clouds. A storm was coming up and the sky was getting darker by the minute. Pretty cool clouds!!


You should have seen Chris trying to get on this bale of hay!! Not as young as he used to be!!

Last Saturday we had the Pressnell reunion (my mom's family). We had it at the Wellness Center Pavilion so the kids got to play on the playground.

Aunt Tammy swinging Lillian

Lillian was learning all sorts of ways to come down the slide from her cousins Landyn and Madigyn.
Here is Madigyn coming down on her stomach!

Here is Landyn sliding!

Helping Daddy on the tractor!

Cooling off with one of Lillian's favorite foods, popsicles!!

Then on Sunday night after church we had a covered dish at the Kiddie Carnival. The kids really enjoyed all the rides. Lillian is going to be my rider unlike her Daddy!!

Flying high!!

One of the favorites, the cars.

I hope that everyone has a great Father's Day!!

Last Day of Our Trip

The dreaded 12 hour trip with a two year old that does not travel very well. Luckily she slept for 3 long hours and then watched Barney peacefully in her seat. We stopped several times to eat and to potty. She was wonderful!!! I cannot believe that she traveled that well. Maybe by then she figured that she was not getting out of her seat and so she must just deal with it. We will one day go back for Disney World but when she is about 5 years old so that she can remember it. I hope that you enjoyed our pictures. Overall our trip was a good one even though I feel like I need a vacation from our vacation.

Day 5 of Our Trip

Tuesday we went back to Sea World. Lillian got to see Elmo and Abby's Treasure Hunt show and she was glued. She loved it and that was about the only thing except for playing in the water that she even cared for that day because she was not nice at all. Another thought about why did we decide to stay longer!!!! By this time she was getting on Anna's nerves!! Poor Anna!!

Lillian is waving to all of her furry friends.
This is the show we loved also. It was so funny!! It was the Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island show. It is amazing at what they can get the animals to do.

This walrus was hiding his eyes!

We were better prepared for the water today. Lillian was really good during this but what child wouldn't be good in the water.

Lillian and Mommy posing with the penguin. Lillian would not let go of his hand. I literally had to make her let go of it. I bet the penguin was thinking let go of my hand!!!

Lillian was wild as ever that night while we were eating. But she took time out from jumping on the seat to pose with Anna.

Day 4 of Our Trip

Monday we headed for Sea World! Lillian had a wonderful day even without a nap. It was very hot and humid! We entered the park @11:00a.m. and left @10:00p.m. after the fireworks. We were all exhausted that I believe that everyone slept good that night. We saw many shows and our favorite one was the dolphin show. The Shamu show was a little let down because the whales did not want to cooperate. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Ready for Sea World!

Lillian and Anna posing with the dolphin

Here is Anna getting to touch a stingray. They felt really slimy!
Lillian and Daddy smiling in front of the manatees exhibit.
I told Chris that this was him being very proud of himself!!! LOL!!!

Anna took these pictures and they are a little blurry. But here is Lillian riding the carousel. It took me a while to get her to hold onto the pole instead of my neck. She is starting to be a little scaredy cat.

That afternoon it came a down pour! Everyone headed for cover but the kids. It wasn't lightning and she was about to get wet in the splash zone so why not let her play in the rain. I eventually had to take her pants off due to them sliding down and just let her run in her panties and shirt. The next day we were very much prepared for the splash zone. It rained for about 30 minutes and it cooled things down.

We managed to get her on some more rides. Here are some more pics.

A pic of the Shamu show

This is the only family picture that I got. I forgot to take our picture in front of the Sea World sign that Chris and I had when we went the time before we had Lillian. Shame on me!

I hope that you are enjoying the pictures. More to come!

Day 3 of Our Trip

Well, since we didn't have free internet for the first night, we were panicking because we didn't have the directions to the church. We had to call Chan who was on a business trip and had to get him out of bed to give us directions. Sorry, Chan but you know that Chris depends on you for directions! We were trying to stay off of any toll roads so we had to take the long way around which took about 30 minutes or more because of traffic. Not a good day for Lillian!!!!! We did not travel good nor did we behave well in church!!! By this time we were wondering why did we decide to stay longer!!! We did have a little help of trying to keep her quiet because Freddy and Charlotte Smith were there. After church we headed for something to eat and back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel we took a wrong turn and it took us about a good 20 minutes to figure out which way we needed to go. Freddy had an extra GPS but it gave us toll roads to get on and we were trying to stay off of them. Finally we were back to the hotel where my child refused to take a nap and by then it was almost time to start getting ready for church again. Well, I practically had to make her take a nap in the nursery there or she would have been misery to eat with that night. After church we head for something good. Here are a few pics from the restaurant. There was a lady that came around and made some kind of animal for the kids. Lillian's was suppose to be a monkey but it really doesn't resemble one. She drove all of us crazy with that monkey. I was ready to puncture a hole in the thing.


Eating with the monkey under her neck.

Smiling with Daddy!

After we got back to the hotel, Anna and Lillian went swimming. Lillian couldn't wait to get down to the pool. If you look really close you can see that both of them are going under the water.


It was a little cool so Lillian wanted to snuggle with Mommy!

Look for more posts coming later! I need some much needed sleep!!

Day 2 of Our Trip

Well, we checked out and headed to Gainesville, FL. I think we forgot that they were an hour ahead of us and we cut it close getting to the banquet. Lillian was not a very good rider that day either. I think she was tired of the car seat. We were able to drive past the hospital where Lillian was born and showed it to her. We had a nice time at CFS' 30th Anniversary. We got to see some people that we dealt with during Lillian's adoption and hopefully during our second adoption. Please keep praying for us on our second adoption! Lillian prays almost nightly for a brother or a sister. Only God knows when it needs to happen. The only difference this time is that we have Lillian to keep us occupied where before we had nothing to keep our minds off of it. Here are a few pics. The first picture is of the first adoptee from CFS that happened 30 years ago. She told of her story about being adopted and how it really changed her life for the better. I didn't get a picture of a birthmother that shared her story of how she chose adoption for her little girl. It was very touching and it brought back memories of how Lillian's adoption came about and it was very similar. I hope that one day Lillian will be able to see how she has changed lives forever and that she would someday share her story with others.

Lillian is all smiles eating one of her favorites, watermelon!!!

Our picture with Mr. Jerry who is the director of CFS and mainly who we dealt with on Lillian's adoption. Jerry holds a special place in our hearts and in our family.

After we visited some more we left for Orlando that night. Lillian fell asleep on the way finally after getting her chocolate milk that she was having a fit to drink. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of this hotel either. I guess I was so tired from the drive that I didn't think about it. It was really nice. I thought that every hotel had free internet. Wrong again!!! We had to pay $9.95 each night that we wanted it. As much as we paid for the room you would have thought that the internet would have been free. I guess being able to walk to Sea World was the hotel's special instead of free internet.

Day 1 of Our Trip

Well, we have finally made it home safe and sound! I am going to post something of each day. That is the only way that I can remember what happened since there were so many things going on. We left Friday evening around 6:00p.m. to head on to Dothan. Lillian slept in that morning and I didn't let her take a nap during the day so that she would sleep on the way down. We had been on the interstate for only ten minutes and she was out like a light. We stopped to eat a little after you pass Alabaster so that she could have a very long nap. Then we headed the rest of the way. I didn't make reservations before we left because I didn't think that would be necessary. Wrong!!! Bama Jam was going on that weekend and all the hotels were full. After checking three different hotels, we finally found one that had rooms available. It had just opened up for the first time in May so it was really nice. Sorry I didn't think to take any pictures because we were trying to get Lillian to go back to sleep. She didn't settle back down until 2:00a.m.!!!! Here are some before pics prior to leaving. We tried out some earphones so that we wouldn't have to listen to Barney all the way there. She loved them at the start but on the second day she almost bit the cord in half. Plus she was stretching them and then they wouldn't stay on her head. So needless to say we had to listen to Barney.


As you can tell Lillian needs to be wearing a hairbow at all times! Her hair is growing so fast that it keeps getting in her eyes but I do not want to cut her any bangs.

Mini Vacation

Just to let you know that I will not be blogging until we get back from our trip. We will be attending the 30th anniversary of Christian Family Services in Gainesville, FL (that is the agency that we went through to get Lillian and we are going through them again for our second child). We are leaving Friday evening and we are going to try and make it to Dothan by midnight or before. We will get up the next morning and drive the rest of the way to Gainesville. We hope to show Lillian the hospital that she was born in before the banquet. After the banquet we are driving on to Orlando which is only about two hours away. We will go to church and relax at the pool on Sunday. Then on Monday and Tuesday we are going to Sea World! Lillian is so excited about seeing the animals especially Shamu. She tells everyone that he might splash her. Chris and I have been to Sea World but we didn't get to spend much time there so I am really excited about going back. Hopefully, we will travel back home on Wednesday. Anna will be going with us and Lillian is so thrilled that someone is going with her. I hope that she will travel well. She did okay on the two trips to the beach so I am hoping that Barney will keep her occupied for a long time. I hope that she will use her earphones so that we don't have to listen to Barney all the way. Chris and I sometime wake up singing Barney songs. Well, I have got a full schedule tomorrow to get ready to leave so I must go. We are taking a laptop with us so I still will be able to keep up with the blogs. See you all later!

What a Saturday!

We had a jammed packed Saturday! We started off with my cousin's twins' birthday.

Lillian was having fun riding the toy car!

Happy Birthday Madigyn and Landyn! They turned 2 with a Dora and Diego party! Thanks for inviting us!


Then it was off to Decatur to Chuck E. Cheese for Addie Mae's birthday party. She turned 2 with a Dora party. Happy Birthday Addie Mae and thanks for inviting us. Lillian was all smiles as she was driving Jericho in the car.

Check out Allie with her big spoonful of ice cream!


Katie Lee looks like she is enjoying her cupcake!


Jericho really enjoyed his cupcake!!

Then it was time to come home for a much needed nap and then we were off again to Jeremiah and Beth McElyea's for some good food and some karaoke. I think Will was feeling good because he sure did look like he was having a little to much fun singing.

Lillian loves to run!

I think the kiddos had an awesome time!!

Lillian loved spraying everyone with the sprinkler!

Today was my first official day off and we started it off by relaxing by Lillian's pool. She couldn't wait for me to clean it and fill up the pool with water. She loved spraying Anna with the hose. What a fun summer this is going to be!!