Toddler Time

Mark and I had a lot of fun this weekend -- toddler fun, that is! We have been looking forward to a visit from the Ponsler's for a long time and the weekend of their visit finally arrived. Chris, Sarah and Tegegn came to visit for the day. We enjoyed hanging out in the sun room, playing with toys and visiting. We also took a trip to the studio to do some photos of Tegegn in his traditional Ethiopian outfit. It was a challenging photo shoot but Mark eventually was able to capture Tegegn's beautiful smile. After dinner, we went for a walk to see the new ducklings at the ponds. And then Tegegn discovered that our empty windowsill is a great place to drive cars.

We are so glad that we could spend some quality time with the Ponsler's! It was good for our hearts and spirits to see them on the other side of the adoption journey and enjoying life as a family of three. Thanks for making the time to visit with us!

Then on Sunday, we celebrated our great-niece's 2nd birthday. Holy cow! Seems like just yesterday that we were driving to the hospital in Kokomo to meet little Miss Braylee. And now she's an active, chatty and busy little girl! Braylee is the daughter of Mark's oldest niece, Amber and her husband Glenn. We love Braylee's spunky personality. She is always on the go and is usually running. She has gorgeous curly hair and sparkly blue eyes. She keeps us laughing and we love to see her curiosity about the world around her growing.

In this photo, she is hiding because we are all singing 'happy birthday' to her and I think that she was overwhelmed by the attention. But Braylee overcame her shyness and she enthusiastically opened her presents.

You can see how hot it was on Sunday! Isn't Braylee beautiful? Happy Birthday, Braylee! We love you very much.