Ryders 3rd Birthday Party!

We had Ryder's 3rd birthday party at the Splash Pad at the YMCA. It was so much fun and it was nice just to let the kids play and play and not really have to worry too much about what they were getting into! I owe alot of my ideas to PINTEREST but who doesn't?? :) He had such a fun time and we had so many friends and family come celebrate his special day! Thanks to everyone who came out! It was a blast!

This was blue jello with gummy fish inside.. I wasn't too smart and put these on the table in the sun and it melted :( So by the time the kids ate it, they had to drink it! I was a little bummed! But they still loved having the fish inside!

If anyone needs an AMAZING cake I know the guy!! Let me know and I will get you his info!!

This is Ryder AFTER he threw a cup of water on Nana, he ran up to her to tell her he was "Sorry" :)

Hilarious!!

This was everyone's reaction after he threw it on her :)

In the kids' goody bags, there was a Pirate hat, a pirate sword, an eyepatch, tatoos, pirate gold, and treasure candy jewelry!

I think the parents had just as much fun as the kids!!

Now...about those toys...what to do with them all??!?!?!?!?

Ryders 3rd Birth DAY!

Ryder woke up to Happy Birthday and he was bouncing off the walls the rest of the day! I think he was just so excited to be turning "tree" :) We had a busy fun day at home with our homestudy visit (more on that in another post) and birthday festivities. We all had fun elmo cupcakes for lunch and went to the park for some extra play time. Ryder even got to watch a movie instead of taking a nap which he thought was pretty big stuff!!-Might I add that he NEVER naps but he has to "rest" in his room for an hour a day. So being able to hang out with me in the living room was a present in itself!

Later that night when Eric got off work we met our families at Chick-Fil-A for a "mini-day" party and had cupcakes and a few presents. Then we went back home and he got to open more presents from Eric and I and we all didn't end up going to bed until around 11! It was such a fun day!

Ryder you are such a handsome, funny, and crazy little boy. You make me laugh every day and never let me have a dull moment. You are at such a fun stage and always keep me on my toes. You are such a special little boy and I am SO lucky to be your mom!!

Adoption Timeline

I remember when we first started the adoption process I was SOO interested in how long this process was going to take.. I was googling domestic adoption and trying to find people who actually did a timeline of everything so I could see. Everyone's adoption journey's vary but I just wanted an idea of what to expect. So I decided to do a timeline for myself and others if interested of how long our process has taken. I should probably add that we DOVE into this 110% full force..we didn't take our time we sped through it, so if your a slow starter it might be longer!

March 23rd 2012- Went to an adoption orientation at our local DSS (department for social services) office to learn more about going through with adoption and received our initial adoption application a few days prior, filled it out, and turned it in the night of the meeting (not the BIG packet)- At the meeting we received our "big" packet and was told to complete it in "chunks" and send it in. We were also told this process of "paperwork, inspections, and homestudy would take 8-12 months)

April 2-7 2012- We completed a lot of our paperwork and dr visits this week because we were off of work..

April 10th 2012- Handed in a HUGE chunk of our paperwork. We would of had it all done, but a lot of it was supposed to be completed AFTER our adoption training classes.

April 14 2012- Adoption Training class!

April 21st 2012- Adoption Training class AND turned in the rest of our paperwork!

April 26th 2012- We were told DSS lost a big chunk of paperwork so we had to make copies of copies and I hand delivered them on...

May 2nd 2012- I hand delivered the missing paperwork, spoke with our caseworker, and were put on a list to wait for our DHEC inspection and were told we were number 11

June 1st 2012- PASSED our DHEC inspection and got put on the waiting list for our Fire Inspection

June 18th 2012- PASSED our Fire Inspection and got put on ANOTHER waiting list for our homestudy

August 5th 2012- SCHEDULED our Homestudys!!

August 17th- Homestudy #1

August 19th- Homestudy #2

APPROVAL???

(should be about 2 weeks from our last homestudy visit and then we are just waiting to bring our child/children home!! SO by the end of August we should be COMPLETELY FINISHED!)

This is such a FAST process for us, if everything gets finished like they say it will this ENTIRE process would have only taken us 5 months!!! Did you read that?? F-I-V-E MONTHS!! Isn't that amazing?? That's 7 months faster than we were told it could take! That's so awesome!

Homestudy Progress!!

Our Homestudy inspector called today and scheduled our first homestudy for the 17th!!! YES that is Ryders birthday and YES things are going to be CRAZY at the house with me by myself with Ryder and the twins AND all of the party preperations BUT she could fit us in and I said we'll take it!! The next study will be on that Sunday with Eric, so she can see all of us!! We are almost done!! We are in the home stretch now!! WA-HOO

Beach Vaca!!

We headed down to Myrtle Beach for a FINAL summer trip and had a blast! Although it just wasn't long enough :( The whole trip was a blur, beach, pool, shopping, beach, pool, shopping and food somewhere in there! Here is our trip in pictures!!

 

We started out the summer being terrified to get off the stairs at the pool and ended with that!! (video) I think we made ALOT of progress!!

Ryder made a "contraption" when we stopped for lunch

The last day there, Ryder and I found two sharks teeth!

Swimming with Tanner!

Pa and Tanner rode the boats again...suddenly Pa forgot how to snap a life jacket ;)

**Adoption Update!!**

A few things on our adoption journey that have changed... we went from being 5th in line in waiting for our homestudy to being told that our file is on its way to our homestudy inspector this week!! This is BIG news because this is our final step in the process before we just "wait" some more. I am really starting to get anxious and tired of waiting and just feeling more and more READY to have our child/children!! I know we haven't been in this process long and we have moved INCREDIBLY fast but its still a long time waiting for you kid/s when you know they are out there somewhere!

On another note, we DID inquire about a little boy we found through a foster care site, after alot of waiting to get more information on him and see if he would fit our family we decided his needs were too great for our family. I was a little dissapointed because he was SO cute and I am SO ready but I know it's all in Gods timing and that patience IS a virtue right??? At least thats what I hear anyways.... hoping my next update will be that we are DONE with the homestudy!!

Trip to TN and Tanner's Bday!

Just a few days after we got back from VA Ryder and I packed up again and headed up to TN. We had such a fun visit and boy was it relaxing! Ryder played with the big kids the whole time so I didn't have to worry about him at all! It was alot of fun!

Tanner turned 15 while we were there, and Coby's birthday was in a week. So we celebrated both!

Ryder of course wanted all of the candles on his slice of cake because he said it was his birthday too!

We got Coby the coolest Nerf gun with 60 darts! The big boys were a little jealous!

One night I went in our bedroom to check on Ryder and he had this band-aid under his nose, he had a cold that whole week so below his nose was getting pretty raw, so he told me he needed that band-aid for his boo-boo :)

This is Ryder feeding Baby Riley.....

And THIS is Ryder CHOKING Baby Riley :)

Ryder loved all the dinosaurs that they had!

And of course playing with the big boys!

I really enjoyed snuggling with this little cutie!

And of course... dressing her up! :)