Happy Birthday from Our Birthmom

Today, Alea's Birthmom sent her a package! We were all so very touched by the sweet letters to Alea and to Brad and I. Alea got a Hello Kitty music box filled with noise makers and fun little toys. She loved this gift and has had so much fun playing with all the contents. There were some very cool wooden stickers in the box that I will use in her scrapbook. We are so blessed to have contact with Alea's birthmother. We know it was a great sacrifice for her to release Alea for adoption and that she made the most loving choice and what was best for Alea. We are so thankful that we were chosen to be Alea's forever family.

Alea's birthmother checks this blog often and we are so thrilled! We hope you always know that we pray for you and we love you and we will always take great care for your baby. Please feel free to leave comments whenever you want. We would love to hear from you often! Thank you for the wonderful gift--it will be cherished forever.

Happy First Birthday, Alea!!

Today is Alea's first birthday. We celebrated with the extended family on Saturday, but today is THE day! We are so blessed to have little Alea in our forever family. She is so much fun to be around. We love how she has suddenly come out of her little shell when we are out and about and how she loves to wave and flirt with others most of the time. We love her hugs and cuddles. She has got to be the most cuddly baby we have ever known! We love her laugh. It is so precious. We love watching her love Braylen and Braylen love her. We love seeing her own special crawl and attempts at standing up. Most of all, we love that God saw fit to place her in our home. We are thinking of her birthmother today and hope that she reads this post and knows that we love her and are so thankful that she gave us a gift no one else could have given us. So, on this day when Alea opens gifts, we will know that we have already opened the best of all--Alea Tyan-Ling Grace Fleck.

We thank you Heavenly Father for the blessings you bestow upon us every single day. May we never look beyond these or take them for granted. We thank you abundantly today for our little miracle, Alea. We pray that she grows to love and serve you with her whole heart! Amen.

Our Day

Today we hung around home all day and got some things caught up. Brad worked at Gerties and outside all day. The girls and I did laundry and put clothes away and did some cleaning. After naps this afternoon, we went to Ft. Wayne to return some chairs to Lowes and decided to eat at Don Halls at Triangle Park so we could eat on the deck and feed the ducks and fish, but when we got there, they were closed, so we still fed the ducks and fish and then went to Logans for dinner. The girls loved being up close to the ducks!







Earlier today, Brad and the girls got into the pool. Alea loves her new float and she loves the pool. This is her first time IN the pool. She has been dying to get in and we have let her splash around, but the water is too cold. Today we couldn't resist and let her get in and she LOVED it! We didn't let her stay in too long though because the water was only 74 degrees! She didn't mind at all and did not want to get out! Thanks, Mamaw and Papaw for the float!!

Alea's First Birthday Party

Alea tastes her first cake...




Birthday girl and proud daddy


It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...


I think I've had too much sugar...





Alea plays with piggy bank Aunt Kiki made for her














Alea and Mommy have fun opening presents






Alea digs into her cake for first time...






Alea likes the tissue paper, especially if she can


manage to get it in her mouth!!






Alea cheeses for the camera

Faces in the Crowd

The kids had fun swimming, even though
the water was freezing cold!!






Braylen reads the card she made for Alea and


Aubreigh looks on...











Two ornery boys, full of mischief!!











BOTTOMS UP!!!

Ellen...you look way too grown up!!

I'll Have My Cake and Eat It Too!

The theme for the day was polka dot in the colors of petal pink and chocolate brown. Alea ate her first cake and seemed to enjoy what little she ate. We had pink and brown dippin dot ice cream as well and she really liked that! So did everyone else. This was my first attempt at doing a stacked cake. It turned out ok, but I do have some more practicing to do!! I would love to take cake decorating classes. Maybe when the girls are in school....

Snapshots from Last Night

Brad opened the pool last weekend and I needed to get in and clean it out. It was still pretty cold, but Braylen didn't care. She is a fish! She has gotten over her fear of going under water. We make her wear a life vest and she had discovered that she pops right back up!! Alea wanted in too, but I felt it was too cold for her. I don't want her to hate the pool!! She hung out with Daddy instead. Not a flattering pic of me, but Brad gets mad because I never put pics of me on the blog. The reason: I am the photographer 99% of the time!!

Another Alea Milestone

I feel like seeing my mommy!!

Steady does it...

Whoo, I made it!!

Here Comes Chicken Bray!!

Braylen watches PBS's Between the Lions and everyday they sing a song that says, "Here comes Chicken Jane." Well today, Braylen found this nose down with my teaching things and said, "Here comes Chicken Bray!!" Pretty clever, I thought. Silly, yes, but clever. These photos show off her new haircut as well, even though we haven't done her hair today, you get the idea. Everytime we get it cut off, all her curls bounce back. I don't think it will ever lay like it was cut to lay, but it is cute all the same.