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Today, we took Amelia, John's sister and our nieces to an apple orchard in Michigan. The orchard is near their home outside of Grand Rapids. We had so much fun last year, we decided to go again. The weather was cold, but we got lots of apples and a few pumpkins. We're thinking apple pie...

Today was Amelia's first day of preschool. She was so excited to be going to school! She immediately made friends and talks about them all the time. Thankfully, she shared with us her activities at preschool. Painting is her favorite activity so far!

Papa comes to visit! Dawn's dad drove up from Georgia for a week-long visit. While he was here, we did some home improvement projects, played in the backyard, went to the zoo, and just hung out together. He bought Amelia a new princess dress and she loved it!

Yesterday, we finished building Amelia's new playset, and what a relief! So today, Amelia's birthmommy and grandma came over to watch her swing, slide and play with her new playset. Amelia was in full-toddler mode, running and laughing for hours. In fact, she passed out before dinner and went to bed early. So we're happy to report that the playset is doing wonderful things for our family!

We had a wonderful vacation in Grand Haven, Michigan. We had a cool house right on the water, with a great view of the lake and of the fireworks from Grand Haven (which made for a perfect 4th of July). Both Grandma's were there, and so were Uncle Ian and Aunt Lizanne, Aunt Bryn, and cousins Heather, Kendra and Rick. A week flies by too fast - wish we could've stayed there for a month!

And away we go! Today, we're driving over to Michigan for a week-long beach trip. Both Grandmas are going to be there, as well as John's brother and his wife, and John's sister and her two daughters. It's gonna be a full house, but we know Amelia wouldn't have it any other way. She's asked to take her little bike with her (the one in the pic). Let's pray for some sunshine and warm weather!

Happy Father's Day! Amelia and John played dress up in her bedroom this morning. Amelia likes to pretend her bed is a pirate ship, so I believe they were pretending to be pirates. Don't you think John looks like Westley from The Princess Bride? :-)

Hi everyone! We wanted to share this good news with our adoption friends. Our high school, Riverside Brookfield High School, has once again been named one of the top schools in the country. The school system here was one of the reasons we moved out of downtown Chicago. The headline in our local paper reads:

Newsweek again names RBHS one of state's top schools
Nearly 60% of test takers pass AP exams

We can't stress how important education is to us and our children. If education is important to you as well, then we have something in common :-)

We attended Aaron's 1st birthday party and had a wonderful time. Aaron is the son of our good friends Dan and Denise. Amelia got to play all sorts of games with the kids and started crying when it was time to go home. I'd cry too if I had to leave a fun party!

Amelia's first visit to the dentist went very well! She met Dr. Coffey and had her teeth cleaned. Afterwards, she got to pick out two toys and a new toothbrush. Amelia was a great patient and is already excited about her next dentist visit. Me? I never look forward to the dentist visit.

Today, Dawn's mom took Dawn and Amelia strawberry picking in Northeast Georgia. After collecting 3 buckets of strawberries, we treated Amelia to ice cream. By the way, she wore the Snow White dress for about 5 days straight. I finally got to wash it after this trip (since strawberry juice was all over it!).

Amelia and Dawn are in Georgia visiting family. Tonight, we're making spaghetti and meatballs with Dawn's dad and grandma. Too bad we'll have to leave Georgia in a couple of days.

Happy Mother's Day! Daddy and Amelia made wonderful pancakes this morning and served breakfast in bed to Mommy. It's a beautiful sunny day in Chicago, and we're planning on spending the day outside planting flowers and washing our car. Happy Mother's Day to all!

Our profile should go live very soon. We decided our first journal entry should be an image of the nursery. Amelia slept in the nursery for about a year until we moved her to the big-girl room. She now has a big bunkbed and sleeps on the bottom. The crib is brand-new (the old one was recalled, so we had to chunk it) and ready for a little one. We're all excited that our profile is going live - finally!