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One year ago today I had to hand the most perfect, beautiful little girl back to her caregivers at the baby home. When I did this she cried and reached back for me. Unlike the hundreds of times she's done that since, that time I had to walk away and know it would be at least a month before I held her again. I imagined that she felt we had betrayed her. We had encouraged her to connect with us and begin to bond with us and then we just turned around and left. I can't even put into words how difficult that was. Justin and I both left crying and fought back tears for the rest of the night. It was excruciating.

Happily, it is just the opposite today. Today, I never have to worry about leaving my little Coco. She knows now that if I go somewhere I always come back. In fact she went on her first Grandma and Grandpa George outing without me this weekend. She was the first to say she wanted to go and not one tear was shed. Well, she may have shed a couple when it was time to leave the park and come home.

One year ago:And today:

One year ago today we landed in Russia. We had left Chicago on September 26 and arrived in St. Pete on the 27th. We were too late to go to the baby home, but we were so excited to be so close. If I shut my eyes I can remember that day almost as of I'm back there. I can smell the smells, hear the sounds and remember exactly how if felt to be in that moment. Here's a link to my post from that day:
http://sallyfoo.blogspot.com/2006/09/were-in-russia.html

We traveled down to "the farm" to visit Justin's family and to have some pictures taken of the kids. Justin's brother Jay's wife Erica knows the most amazing photographer www.shootingstarsphotog.com She also puts pictures on her blog: www.shootingstarsphotg.typepad.com
So we made an appointment for late Sunday afternoon in Jay and Erica's back yard and then just made a weekend out of it.

We spent Saturday at Grandma Janis and Grandpa Jewel's house. They have been redoing the house that Grandpa Jewel lived in as a child and that Justin also lived in for a while when he visited his dad. The house has come so far.
During the day Jake showed off his reading skills and Chloe, of course, had to show off hers as well. She was wowing everyone with her knowledge of letters and numbers.Wyatt played a little baseball with his grandpa and Uncle Jay. Isn't this picture so "Field of Dreams?"Grandpa Jewel put up some awesome swings for the kidsHere's Tyce's serious look. Here's Tyce and Chloe getting to know each other. They seem so far apart in age now, but they're only 21 months apart, so they'll be playing together one day soon.He is the most laid back, easy going baby. He also has the chunkiest thighs you've ever seen. I have a good picture of him in the bath that I'll post later.

We has a wiener roast in the evening and Jake was quite concerned that this was going to start a forest fire. Late that evening we made the drive to Jay and Erica's where we woke up the next morning and the kids all got to hang out with Tyce. They all just love him! Since Tyce is only about a pound or two lighter than Chloe, she got to enjoy getting in all of his toys. My bet has always been that by 7 months Tyce would weigh the same as Chloe and he has about a month to go so I think my guess is right. It's good that he seems so easy going because by the time he's walking he'll really out weigh her and could squash her flat.

The kids got to hang out in the backyard before the photo shoot. Their back yard is just perfect. The boys love catching frogs and poking around back there.

I can't wait to see the pictures. I think she got some great candids of the kids but Jake got into a bit of a snit during the group shots and I'm a little unsure of how they'll turn out. Grrrr. I'll save the pictures(and all the other ones like them) for when Jake is an adult and his kids are driving him crazy.

Here's a Chloe and Joey clip from today. Notice how Chloe is telling me about her letters and then letting me know that I'm not to touch them and all the while little monkey legs is trying to get to the top of the counter to snag a toy. Such a classic moment.

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At the bottom you can click on any of the thumb nail pictures and hear a fun little song. They use it in a commercial for ipod. I just love it!

Isn't my new camera awesome! This picture was cropped from a tiny corner of a picture and still looks pretty good. That is a huge improvement from my other camera

That's what Chloe says when she walks into a room. Then, if her brothers don't acknowledge her presence she'll keep saying it louder and louder until they do. It cracks me up every time.