Our girls.........Lily and Sarah!

Same photo, but different shades.....I love them all! I haven't taken the time to get Sarah's photo done to celebrate turning three. I decided to take advantage of a good friend....BH. Well, actually, I took advantage of the husband of my friend! Thanks CH for helping me out! I guess he does owe me one....afterall, I helped him make a connection with the woman that would eventually become Mrs. CH!

Be sure to check out the next posts for individual pics of the girls. They are beautiful.

Sarah

I love this one of Sarah! I can't imagine life without her! She's beautiful...inside and out!

Lily

This is my favorite of Lily! Isn't she beautiful?

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

I decided to venture into a territory I have never tried to enter....cake baking. Sure, I'll make a cake, but never one with a theme! It doesn't look professional, but Sarah thought it was the best cake ever!

Sarah is our fifth child. I can't remember any of them being as excited as Sarah as she awaited the small celebration of her third birthday. She loved talking about it all day! It was so much fun to watch her soak in the attention. It was so much fun!

This our friend, Sydney. Sydney is the best hugger I know! When her little sister finaly gets here from China, she is going to be one little girl that will get plenty of lovin'!

Sydney and Sarah.

Princess Gwen, one of Sarah's best friends.

Sarah put her dress on about an hour before the first guests arrived. She kept in on until it was time for bed.

I've never seen so much pink in my house! There was pink everywhere!

Sarah got some money from Grandma Flo...she was happy with it!

Sarah and her Cinderella doll.

I caught Lily and Sydney dancing in the kitchen!

Today was so much fun! I enjoyed waiting the day away with Sarah as we prepared for a few friends for her mini-party. She was so excited! She wanted a Cinderella theme. I'm not a fan of the girl, but it is what she wanted so I obliged. We invited a few of her close friends; Sydney (with Aiyee), Gwenny and Megan (with Lorissa), Samuel (with Lane) and Addie (with Eesie). Of course, Lily and the boys were there with both Tom and I. The little girls wore princess dresses while Samuel wore his army clothes.....way to go Samuel! For some reason we didn't get pictures of everyone or the ones we did get were blurry....sorry.

I enjoy celebrating all of the birthdays of my kids...they each have a different story of their birth. Sarah was born on July 7, 2003 in Quinzhou City, Guangxi PR, PRC. I will never know the circumstance of her birth, but I know the circumstance of her coming to our family. It was in God's plan for Min Xiao Ning to be our Sarah! He knew about her from the beginning of time! Every night before we go to sleep I go through the same routine with the girls. First, we pray. Sometimes (depending upon my level of exhaustion) they are quick prayers! We then sing "Jesus Loves Me." I then go to each of them, cover them up and say, "Where do you want your kiss?" Lily usually picks a different spot on her face each night. Sarah always picks the right cheek! After I give them their kiss, they say to me, "Where do you want your kiss?" I usually pick my nose or my chin! I then go to the door and we exchange the same words to each other..."Good night, don't let the bedbugs bite," "Sweet Dreams," and "See you when the sun gets up." The final exchange is, "You are my joy." They certainly are my joy! Happy Birthday to Sarah, my youngest joy! You have brought many blessings to this family!

The Fourth of July

TJ and Sarah getting ready for the parade.

Sarah was excited!

Mom and the girls waiting for the start of the parade.

Lily

The first sounds of the parade made Lily cover her ears!

The girls are getting ready to get some candy.

The best looking guy in the parade......Dane Alexander.


We had a great celebration yesterday. TJ and I took the girls to the Fourth of July parade that in our city. The girls had a blast! Dane was in the parade with our school's football team. We have decided to allow him to play on the 6th grade team. Where was Tom and Tyler? Well, they were probably somewhere between the 4th and 5th hole on a local golf course!

In the afternoon, I stayed at home while the girls napped. Tom took the boys to volunteer at our county fairgrounds. They were part of the parking crew. Tom met up with us a bit later to have something to eat with our friends....Scott, Brenda and Bailey. We then went back to the fairgrounds for the fireworks. I wasn't sure what the girls would think. Last year we viewed them from a distance so it wasn't that loud. This year was different! They jumped with the first one, but settled in fine and enjoyed them.

Be sure to scroll down because I've added several posts that include pictures from the last few weeks.

Zoo Trip with the Owen's Trio

I was able to get a few photos at the zoo before our battery went dead. Thanks to Jeff and Wendy for getting some other photos for us.....you can see those in an earlier post. This photo above is Sarah with Ty and Dane on the train.

Ty and Sarah.

Ty and Dane in the Asia exhibit at the zoo.

TJ and Lily on the train.

The girls in the barn taking care of an animal.

Tyler with three pretty girls! Sarah, Lily and our friend Madeline make a great pose!

Hasl Horse

This is Lauren and Kelsey Hasl riding their horse in the fourth of July parade. They were kind to the girls last week as we visited their home and they allowed the girls to ride the horse.

Tom and the girls.

A Helping Hand Picnic in June

Sarah was a bit scared going down the slide! A big brother came in handy!

Tom was surrounded by several (not all are in the photo) little girls that were putting stickers on him! I love the back of the AHH t-shirts. It has the following words written in English, Spanish and Chinese: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

TJ and his favorite girls.

TJ's dream of being in a hot tub with several pretty girls...even though they are all under the age of five!

Sarah braving a different slide on her own.

Sarah swimming.

She is still talking about the hotel!

Sarah with our Family Advocate, Grace.

Lily swimming.

Lily loved the slide!

In late June we were blessed with the opportunity to travel down to Lexington, Kentucky to share in the annual family picnic. The girls loved hanging out in the hotel room and swimming in the pool. We had a great time at the picnic on Saturday The girls got to play in several inflatable rides and play with some of their friends that were also born in China. On Sunday we were able to share in worship with a number of AHH families as Tom led worship with some of our Fairfield friends. It was good to celebrate in the Brewer's decision to be obedient to God's call on their lives. We are excited to know that there is a family of seven being transplanted to our beloved China!