Happy Birthday Adah Lucia !

Two years ago today Adah Lucia was born! I didn't think it was possible to love another as much as I love her brother, but of course, I was wrong. Look at this sweet face! I never had a clue what kind of person she would grow to be. I still don't know! Its so awe inspiring to watch her morph into a totally unique person with a totally unique personality. Its so simply obvious, but who can understand it- There has never before been nor never again will there be another person like this one! How marvelous and thrilling to be a part of her life.

I am mystified by her. Who is she? What a gift to watch your child unfold before your eyes, revealing bit by bit who they were divinely created to be.

Here is a photo tour of her special day. It didn't work out to have a party for Adah today. Determined to make her day special anyways, I dolled her up and took her on a tour of her favorite people. First stop, Nana's house:

Then off to Greenville to meet my parents for a playdate at an indoor play center. 

Check out E and A's faces when they saw Mimi and Pop-Pop walk in:

 My folks took us to lunch at a adorable and delicious cafe, where we also enjoyed cake, candles, balloons and presents:

Lastly, we stopped by Daddy's work for another round of cake, candles and presents and of course, Daddy-love:

I thank God everyday for creating Adah and putting her in our family and for making her the amazing, bright, bubbly, sweet, beautiful girl that she is. I feel like the most blessed mom in the world to have such a special daughter!

Two Days Off

Gabe had two days off in a row this weekend! Whoo! It was a first since starting his current job at Piazza. Since all of our days off in the previous months have been consumed with renovation, work around the house, packing, moving and house hunting, we were determined to make these days truly fun and restful.

On Sunday, we started the day by going to church. ( We haven't been in months also due to his job). We tried a new church and it was pretty great. I miss being together in worship, having fellowship with other believers and most of all hearing God's word taught and explained to me in an inspirational way. I hope it works out for us to visit this church again. Then we had lunch and came home for a long nap in the air conditioning of the apartment.

For dinner, we headed to Etowah to visit Gabe's family. Its also been months since he's spent time with any of them. We had a really sweet and fun time cooking out, eating and talking with people we love and miss a lot.

Our children really couldn't be happier than when they get to spend time with any of their 22 cousins (20 on Gabe's side, 2 on mine :) Gabe's oldest sister has 8 children, 6 of whom are boys. Elijah loves to play rough and tumble and rarely gets to truly cut loose with children of his own age. For the safety of others, he is usually required to play in toned down and more sedate fashion than he's naturally inclined. But with his boy cousins he wrestles, chases, tags, tackles, hits, kicks, drags to the ground and generally goes all testosterone! I was happy for him; its fun to see his true enthusiasm and toughness be allowed to come forth. I could see they were all hurting each other at times, but they were also laughing and kept going back for more. So I let him have the opportunity to be ALL BOY and I stayed out of it.



























Adah also loves a little wild play. She was thoroughly amused by running around in circles, falling down on the ground and rolling down a hill together with the little ones. At one point, I was a little concerned for her safety because she was laughing so hard, she was having a hard time catching her breath.

On Monday, we had a family day adventure. We decided to be tourists and took a 20 mile drive to Lake Lure. We spent the day baking in the hot July sun on the shore of the lake, swimming, splashing, and picnicking. What a blast! I really felt like we were out of town on vacation for a few hours.

We were all so happy to have some down time together. 

We made some good family memories, too. Good Times!