Favorite Adoption story book...

I don't know about you but I am constantly on the search for fabulous adoption story books to read to my kids. I want to fill our library with books that represent our family (I think I'm gonna write our own ;). I had started losing hope that the perfect one existed but then I found this one.......

I Wished for You by Marianne Richmond:

Get your kleenex out...SERIOUSLY!!! I still can't read this book to my kiddos without crying. The author has done the most beautiful, beautiful job capturing this sweet one's adoption story. All the way down to "what about the mama who grew me in her tummy..." I have read many adoption story books and I have yet to find one that can compare to this sweet book! It truly is a MUST HAVE for adoptive families.

"Of all the children in the whole world, God picked you for me."

On the mend?!?!?

I tell ya...when you have 5 kids, it can take a LONG time for everyone to be healthy!

~Thanksgiving...6 out 7 of us got the flu...took 2 weeks for it to pass then we went right into.....

~Baby S got scarlet fever
~Mommy got really bad strep. throat...OUCH!!
~Brother T got a fever..was in bed for 24 hours
~Daddy not feeling good..spent most of the day in bed
~Brother I had/has persistent nasty boogies
~Baby C got a nasty ear infection..given Amoxicillin
~TODAY!!!! Guess WHAT...baby C is allergic to penicillin (nasty itchy body rash)
~Baby C still has ear infection (even after 5 days of amoxicillin) now on Zithromax
~So far big sissy Tr. is staying healthy!

Praying we are getting past this...I MISS church soooooooooo bad!!!!!!!!! These are all LIGHT afflictions. So many precious friends come to mind as I grumble about our silly aliments. We LOVE you guys are praying continually!!!

Christmas!!!

We had a great time talking to the kiddos about the beautiful TRUE reason for Christmas. How can you fully explain all that Christ did when He chose to come as a baby...chose to leave heaven and come to save a sinful world...the pureness of Christ's love for us is unfathomable!! It's a beautiful, undeserving love I can't comprehend. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me just as I am and for coming as a tiny baby to save us!!

Talk about a blast!! There is nothing more precious then to experience Christmas through your children's eyes. Our 2yr. olds were a crack up. Baby 'C' kept saying, "I lub Christmas presidents!!" as she would hug every 'president'....Yes...she calls them presidents. Now I'm calling them presidents :) Baby 'S' was soooo excited to see what everyone else got. She would scream, "Wooooo....wook it....wook it!!" What a precious heart!! The 3 older one's really enjoyed seeing everyone open presents they picked out and of course, loved everything they were blessed to receive.

Christmas day proves to be extremely busy. We have brunch at dh's parents and dinner at my parents. A couple of years ago we couldn't take it anymore...more like our kids couldn't...by the time we got to my parents, we had very sad, very tired little one's that we had to force to open presents. Soooo, we started a NEW tradition. Hubby and I decided that Christmas Eve would be OUR family Christmas. We would take all morning opening presents (we do 3 each plus stockings) and spend the entire day playing with our goodies. Then we wake up Christmas morning, get ready and head to dh's parents then my parents. Talk about a blessing...both days are awesome fun and everyone remains happy and thankful!

I pray each of you had a precious time celebrating our Christ's birthday!!

Christmas Eve Blessing!

I am excited to announce the arrival of my precious nephew, Joseph Ethan. He was 9lbs. and 21 inches. Baby and mommy are doing great!! He looks just like his daddy. Because of our germ ridden family, we haven't been able to love on this little peanut, yet. I can't wait to see him!!

Congratulations David and Erika!!

SF update...

So far, all is good :) Baby "S" is doing MUCH better (thank the Lord for antibiotics!) and no one else is sick. I think we will be past the incubation period for the rest of us on Sunday.

Thank you for all your precious prayers...our Lord is hearing them & blessing us!!

SCARLET FEVER!!!!

What do you think of when you first hear the words Scarlet Fever? I, for one, think of a terrible, terrible illness from the 1800's. I also think that it's extremely rare!

Well...guess what?!?!? It IS definitely rare and it WAS definitely a tragic illness in the 1800's but even though it is extremely rare ... my baby "S" has somehow gotten SCARLET FEVER...weird, hun?!?!?

Scarlet Fever: Scarlet fever is caused by an infection with group A streptococcus bacteria. The bacteria make a toxin (poison) that can cause the scarlet-colored rash from which this illness gets its name.

Symptoms...

~fever 101-104 for 3-5 days...CHECK

~full body rash...feels like fine sand paper...CHECK

~strawberry red tongue...CHECK

~very red cheeks...CHECK

~sore throat...CHECK
~feelin' just plain yucky...CHECK

We have no idea where she got it from because we've pretty much been home bound. I am sooo glad I kept the 3 youngest one's home from church Sunday.

Concerns...

~highly contagious during fever

~incubates for 3-5 days

~rash lasts up to 10 days then followed by peeling :(

~possible side effects of SF...pneumonia, impetigo, meningitis...uuggghhh (these are rare though...LOL)

So, needless to say, this stinks! Please pray that our sweet "S" heals quickly and that no one else gets it...hey, a girl can hope, right?!? I will say that my God is totally capable of protecting the rest of us and that's what we are praying for.

UPDATE: I just got a call from my sister and my niece has SF, too. She called me earlier and my niece had almost all the same symptoms of "S". She took her to the dr. and sure enough...she's got it! We were all together on Saturday and both girls fevers started on Monday...uuggghhh!

HOME for CHRISTMAS!

ALL these precious one's are home for their first Christmas! Sit back and enjoy reading these stories of how the Lord has brought each of them home. I know there are a lot more of you out there...leave me your blog address in my comments and I'll add your little miracle, too. Congratulations to each of you!!

Benjamin
Christian
Diezel and Xia AND Christiana (what an amazing story of love!)
Emma Faith
Elsy
Lucy Joy & Amy
Macey
Mylee
Naomi Tao Xuan
Silas
Susanna (talk about a miracle story..we met this beauty in Kunming..we were told she would never be adopted because of her severe heart condition...I am here to say GOD IS SO GOOD! You HAVE to read her miracle story)
Shepherd
Isabel
Sebastian
Grace
Sophie Mei

"It's Christmastime again and now your home...
you're family is here so you will NEVER be alone!"

Is this your baby's first Christmas home?

I LOVE this song. Once again, hearing it causes me to bawl...always does. The words so beautifully express the waiting parents heart. I listened and cried through this song as we waited and now I cry at the beauty that "It's Christmas time again and NOW you're home...your family is here so you will NEVER be alone..."

You see, I will never forget the Christmas of 2006...we were certain she was going to be home! As the realization that she wasn't going to be home sunk in, the harder it was to remain hopeful that she was ever coming home. But our God is faithful and she is home indeed!!

*Is this your little one's first Christmas home? If so, leave me a comment. My next post will be a blog list of families that are home and together for their first Christmas.

I will start the new post on Wednesday...don't worry, as long as you are giving me your blog addresses, I'll keep adding them.

I can't wait to see all that our Lord has done this year in bringing your children home!!!

13 Years Baby!!

Today my Prince Charming and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary! It's so crazy to think we've been together for over 16 years. How awesome is that?!?!?!

What a beautiful, precious gift our marriage is...Lord, once again I am so blown away with how undeserving of your amazing blessings I am. You have given me more than I have ever dreamed of!!!!!!

Our wedding was sooo much fun...that is one day I'd do over and over again! We had a beautiful Christmas wedding...christmas trees, carolers, and all!

Kind of funny to think we got married before digital camera's (ahhhh, we're getting old)...my scanner is busted so here's pictures of pictures ;)

Oh no he didn't.......

Oh YES he DID!!!That silly man of mine....okay, here's the story...we were the last of our friends to get married and somehow their wives-to-be convinced their husbands-to-be NOT to smash the wedding cake into their face...I have a feeling it was more like honeymoon threats if they did such a terrible thing to them on their wedding day....well, the idle threats obviously didn't work for me....I knew I was in BIG TROUBLE when my wonderful, amazing, perfect prince held up the frosting drenched cake...giggled...mind you the BOYS cheering him on...without any hesitation smooshed that cake all over my face...oooohhhh was his mama mad at him :) It was actually really funny...and remember...he's my perfect prince...how could I be mad at him?

I love you, baby...I can't wait to see what the Lord has for our next 13 years...I hear the best is yet to come...I can't imagine it any better!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving...Arizona...Yuckies...

We had a really fun Thanksgiving at my in-laws :) GREAT dinner Nana...thank you!!

"S" lovin' on her papa!

~ Beautiful Cousins~
My beautiful boys...I can call them beautiful cause I'm their mama!! :)
Nana...what exactly did you put in that turkey?

ARIZONA:

We left Friday for our family reunion in Arizona. The journey began at 6am...everyone was wide-eyed and ready for a ROAD TRIP! My parents were in one car, my baby sister and her family were in their car, and then us....all geared up for lllloooonnnngggg drive. It took us 10 hours to get there and everyone did GREAT!

Saturday was the reunion. The first reunion since my grandma passed away. I sure missed hearing her barking orders from the kitchen {hehehe}. She was such a crack up. She loved having everyone over for Thanksgiving! It was always important to her that we all stayed connected one way or another. I miss her!!!

For the "YUCKIES" part...our poor little "I" ended us with the flu all day Saturday :(

Sunday....uuugggghhh....BACK in the car for the llllooooonnnngggg drive home. Just as we hit the holiday traffic, I heard a terrible sound in the back seat............it was our little "S" hurling all over herself, her carseat, & the car! Of course, we were MILES away from the next off ramp and of course, we were completely STOPPED in traffic. After a little hair-raising driving (by all car in our caravan), we made it to an off-ramp...got the baby all cleaned up and jumped back on the road. 14...yes....F-O-U-R-T-E-E-N HOURS later we made it home ;0)

View from my Gpa's backyard

WHAT THIS TRIP WAS ALL ABOUT!!
THANK YOU GRANDPA for having our crazy brood! We had a blast and we LOVE you so much!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my precious friends. We have so much to be thankful for...do we not?!?! I am most thankful that MY GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!!!

We are off to visit family in Arizona. It will be a super fast trip but I'll post pictures when we get back! HUGS to each of you!!

Bi-Racial Hair Care

I was recently asked advice on how to care for bi-racial hair and below was my response. I thought a few of you might find it helpful. After $100's and $100's we finally found what works for "Tr's" hair. If you have any other tricks, let me know :) "Tr's" hair does require lots of care but it's worth it and we have a blast trying all kinds of new things.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hair Products (in order of my favorites...we pretty much only use Paul Mitchell at this point):
1. Paul Mitchell Shampoo and Conditioner AND Leave-In Condition
2. Mixed Chicks shampoo and Conditioner http://www.mixedchicks.net/index.html
3. Pantene for women of color - shampoo and conditioner

Other products we use daily:
1. Just for Me spray detangler (Wal-Mart or Target)
2. V05 leave-in conditioning dressing (Wal-Mart..in tube or jar) This stuff is fabulous...only need a small amount

Hair tips for bi-racial children:
1. Only wash hair with shampoo 1x a week but use a conditioner at least 2x a week (let the conditioner sit for at least 5 minutes before rinsing) Also, use large tooth comb to comb conditioner through hair before rinsing
2. Have child sleep with satin cap
3. Have child sleep with a satin pillow case (cotton pulls the moisturizers out of the hair and satin does not)
4. Use a leave-in conditioner daily (only need a small amount)
5. Comb hair with large tooth comb and comb from the ends up towards the roots
6. YouTube has a ton of neat braiding videos...we have lots of fun with these :)
7. Never use rubber..rubber bands..use the cloth covered ones. Bi-racial is very fragile and can break easily. Treat it like you would a delicate silk blouse ;)

Our daily routine:
1. Wet hair with Just for Me spray detangler
2. Comb
3. Add Paul Mitchell leave-in condition (small amount)
4. Then add V05 leave-in conditioning dressing (small amount)
5. Comb again
6. Finish styling hair and we are good to go :)
(again, I shampoo once a week and use a rinse conditioner at least twice a week)

Another option is to use a gentle relaxer on her hair (if you are nervous about doing this yourself, I highly recommend having it done by a professional). I recently used the Just for Me relaxer on "Tr's" hair and it worked beautifully! She has long, loose, spiral curls right now and she loves it! It's very gentle on the hair and made for children & it's inexpensive (Wal_Mart or Target). If the directions are followed properly, the hair comes out great!

Hmmmm, I think that's about it. I hope this is helpful. Bi-Racial hair is tricky because it can have so many textures. The above works for "Tr's" hair because her hair is NOT coarse but dry and extremely curly. A lot will depend on your child's hair.

Adoption commercials

My friend, Debbie, posted some neat adoption commercials on her blog. This one really touched me...okay, I'll say it like it is...it definitely made me cry...
(oh yeah...pause the site music at the bottom)


"There are no unwanted children, just un-found parents"

Thanks for sharing these Debbie!

It's mine...muwahaha...all mine!!

I have successfully been able to pry my blog out of my hubby's hands. He had a little too much fun posting about my shoe quirk addiction collection. I have a sick feeling that he will be hijacking my blog sometime soon :) He thoroughly enjoyed your comments and has yet to let me live this down.

Prayer and spread the word!

Please be praying for this precious little girl and family AND pass this on!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blanket permission to post. Please pass the following information to your groups or if you think you maybe able to help this woman please contact me privately. lavonned@mail.com


My daughter Lydia was adopted from Guangdong Province China on July 5, 2004. In August 2008, she was diagnosed with AML, a very pernicious and deadly form of leukemia. With the help of her Chinese-born doctor, we were able to locate her birthparents and some of her siblings in China that her family kept. We know she had at least two sisters older than she (born somewhere between 1993 and 2002) who were also abandoned. The birthparents have refused to assist with her bone marrow transplant, even though two of her already found siblings were a match. We are now looking for these other potential siblings to see if they were adopted and might also be a match. Lydia is part of the Hakka ethnic group, and so a match from someone other than a relative is unlikely because of her unique, almost bi-racial typing. Lydia has classic Hakka features: "Brooke Shields" eyebrows, and rather full lips and a round face. I will have my husband post photos of Lydia and her birthfamily. I cannot do so at this time, because I am in the hospital with Lydia and the internet connection here is too slow and rather poor. Thank you for any assistance you may be able to lend.


Blessings,
Monica Miyashita
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lydialimeieikomiyashita or
http://www.caringbridge.org%20cut/
enter: lydialimeieikomiyashita
(photo's of family and Lydia are now posted on caringbridge)

UPDATE:
Hi All,Last night I posted regarding the little girl, Lydia, who is very ill and her mother is desparately trying to find her 2 sisters. Tonight a plea is being made in asking for your help. Lydia must find a donor. We urge you to please allow your child to be tested, cheek swab, for a possible donor match.Lydia is Hakka Chinese. The Hakka are concentrated in Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Fujian, Hong Kong and Hunan. There are small numbers in Sichuan and Hunan Provninces. Source: Operation China 2000.Please, if you are interested in testing please contact me directly. Jl_rms@yahoo. comIf you are a member of Guangdong or Hunan sib find, just enter your information in the database section of the group.Thank you,Julie

Surrounded by 2 Huge fires

Please be praying for the fire fighters that are battling these HUGE fires that are burning out of control. We have 2 huge fires burning very close to us...we should be safe but there are so many of our friends who have been evacuated. There are over 100 homes that have already been destroyed. The winds are still blowing strong and hard. The smoke and ash is very thick.

These are pictures I took in our front yard!

UPDATE 9:00pm Saturday: Please continue to pray...the 2 major fires by our house are 0% contained and are 1/2mile away from combing into one HUGE fire. The winds are still blowing strong and typically kick up even more at night.

UPDATE 11:30pm Sunday: The winds have died down and the fire shifted north this morning. Thankfully many of our friends were recently allowed back into their homes. One of our friends came home to their backyard scorched but their house untouched...thank you, Jesus! Many are still evacuated and other cities are still in danger. If the winds pick up again, the fire could very easily shift back this way. Once those hot embers get in the air, they can nail houses miles away....this is what's been happening. Please continue to pray as this fire is massive and only 19% contained.

UPDATE Wednesday: Thank you guys for your prayers. We are all good and pretty much smoke free. The fires are fully contained and it appears that all of our friends houses were spared. What a crazy time. You can check one of our sweet friend's blog, Julee...she took these pictures as they were evacuating their house (this was hours before a mandatory evacuation was announced...can only imagine what it looked like then)

Shoes

Hello, this is Paul. As I was reading my lovely wife's post on '7 quirky things' I just had to respond to one of them in particular; her shoe problem - er 'quirk', right, quirk :P. (By the way, she was tagged 4 times, so don't let her get away with just 9 quirky things, she owes you guys 28!). You may not have noticed, but she devoted more words to the shoe quirk than any other; I'll see if I can help you to understand the magnitude of her quirk, lol.


Shortly after I first met her, she got a job at Patrini's shoe store. I should have known I was in trouble when I saw her spend 90% of each paycheck on shoes (and if I remember correctly, she got a store discount!). It's not clear to me if she had this 'quirk' before I met her or if she just quickly developed it while working at the shoe store, but it was very clear that she had it bad.


Do you guys remember Imelda Marcos? A while back she was in the news for having 1000's of pairs of shoes. I remember looking at Stacy and thinking Mrs. Marcos was crazy and before I could say anything she said with a big grin on her face, "Wow, that's so cool!" If you ask Stacy about the fight between Cinderella and her stepsisters I'm certain that she would tell you it was not about the prince at all, but about that incredible pair of shoes!


I was just commenting the other day on how many shoes we had in the house and she said it wasn't that bad and that she had just went thru and 'weeded out' the shoes we didn't need. After I finished laughing about it, I asked the kids if they thought we could fill our whole living room with our shoes. They didn't think so (oh no, I may have multiple family members with this quirk :S), so we just had to try it out and see. If I counted correctly, there are over 100 pairs of shoes in this picture!

"Mom"....

...."even if #8 doesn't pass, I'm still gonna marry a boy and T is still gonna marry a girl"...this from my 7yr. old daughter. Now, tell me they don't know what's going on!!

I am floored that these words are even coming out of my baby's mouth...completely floored!

PRAY..VOTE..PRAY..VOTE!!!!!!!

We are less than 24hours away from the most important election in history. I urge you to be on your knees praying for our nation as the election is coming to an end & get your hiney out to vote!!!! Lord, your will be done!!!!

CALIFORNIANS...Vote YES on Prop. 8 to secure the legal definition of marriage, as God designed, between a man & woman.

OUTSIDE of California...be Praying because the outcome of Prop. 8 WILL indeed effect your state.

Yesterday we had a peaceful church demonstration...we had over 400 people. It was sure exciting to have all the honks and thumbs-up of support...now to get them to the polls!!! We also had some not-so-nice gestures but I was proud that everyone continued to wave back and praise our Lord even when some were shouting nasty things. It's just a reminder of how fallen our world truly is...I still can't believe we are having to vote on this...it's unbelievable!!

Your vote DOES count...what are you going to do with it? Will the Lord be pleased with what you did with it?

I AM COUNTING ON MY GOD...no matter what He chooses to allow!!

Hallelujah Party

Our Halloween alternative...HALLELUJAH PARTY!!!

2 Very excited girls...1 VERY sick daddy & a happy little boy!! 'S' was a little excited about the candy :) I do have to explain the sucker picture...'C' gave 'S' her sucker while she drank water...when 'C' wasn't looking, 'S' started sucking on it...'C' tried to get her sucker back and 'S' was not giving it back for nothin'...needless to say 'C' was NOT a happy girl!

Tagged x4

Seriously, girls...thank you for including me in this!!! Erica, Teresa, Shanna, & Trina was going to tag me but saw I was tagged 3x...LOL.

7 quirky things about me...hmmm..."I'm not quirky...not one bit"...as my husband starts laughing at me...

1. I would have 20+ kiddos if Paul would let me...that's not weird at all!!

2. I LOVE, LOVE shoes...at one point I had over 100 pairs of shoes...for real :) Unfortunately, my shoe budget has shifted to 5 precious pairs of feet...they sure have some cute shoes :) My oldest keeps telling me he only needs one pair of shoes...SILLY BOY (he's just like his daddy...I have bought Paul so many shoes and he doesn't wear any of them...I just don't get it!!

3. I LOVE to run...have love it ever since high school. I ran 2 half marathon's in high school. Couldn't do that now...4 miles is my max :)

4. I thrive most when my life is very full and busy...go, go, go. I may complain that I'm going nuts but I can't stand being bored.

5. A fun evening to me is painting my house or re-organizing something or deep cleaning...like the garage. I LOVE to organize and change things around.

6. Paul says I'm weird because I will pull out the paint and touch up spots on the wall...doesn't everyone do that???? Unfortunately since my 2 whirlwinds started teaming up, I spend most my days scrubbing markers and crayons off the walls...ugghhh!!

7. I love being a wedding coordinator for our church. All the chaos and stress is a blast!

8. My sweet friend, Michelle, just reminded me of one more quirky thing. I have to iron EVERYTHING!! I'm talking everything...all the way down to the kids onsies :) Even if it doesn't look wrinkled, I still iron it!

9. Ooohhh, I thought of one more...I am an extremely visual person (hence the ironing problem). If something is crooked, doesn't match, or out of place it makes me absolutely CRAZY!! Ask my dh...with 5 kids everything is askew & it's all I can do not to commit myself to a looney-bin!

So, there you have it...I don't have anything quirky about me!! And look...I gave you 9 things...that's weird, too :)

Now, if I don't tag anyone, will I grow warts on my nose and my teeth fall out for breaking the 'tagging'? All of my friends have been tagged with this one :)

YIKES...Tagged....

Okay...so, I've been tagged and I was hoping to get out of it but I've just been tagged by the third person so I guess I can't avoid it any longer...LOL...I will try to get this done once the girls are down for their nap :)

So Cool!

You have to watch this....

http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/index.html

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY

I am so blown away by all that I am hearing and seeing. The state of our country...our world...is very fragile. Please continue to pray for our nation and the elections!

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Just a glimpse....

Just a glimpse of my big baby loving my little baby...PRICELESS!!

Grumpy Face!

Does she not make the cutest grumpy face ever?!?!?

She was not happy that we were leaving the pumpkin patch.

My girls hair bows

It seems so silly to post about this in light of my sweet friend but I realized these families need help in bringing their babies home...babies that are on the other side of the world...babies that NEED their mommy and daddy right NOW soooooo, I have received several emails about buying the hair bows I make for my girls....well....here are 2 opportunities to get LOTS of my hair bows & you'll be helping 2 miracle babies in the process :)

http://bringinghomerachel.blogspot.com/
http://www.nihaoyall.com/

Praising HIM!!

As I was praying and thinking of our sweet friends, my heart was aching. There are so many emotions and thoughts that words can't even do justice. The Lord blessed me with this song on the radio as I was praying and it suits our Donna sooooo perfectly!! He WILL give us strength to endure His coming! Our God is indeed the everlasting God and we will be with Him forever! I can't wait!!!

Strength WILL rise as we wait upon the Lord, wait upon the Lord
WE will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign FOREVER
Our hope, our STRONG deliverer

You are the EVERLASTING God
the EVERLASTING God
You do not faint
You WON'T grow weary

You are the defender of the weak
You COMFORT those in need
You LIFT UP US on wings like eagles

Rejoicing & Grieving

There are hardly words that can express our hearts right now! Our hearts are rejoicing for our beautiful friend, Donna. You see, today she is sitting at the feet of our precious Jesus who chose to heal her sick body by calling her home. Our hearts are grieving because we will miss her so much but we are rejoicing that we will see her again! We are grieving because her precious husband & 3 very young babies have to live this earthly life without this amazing mama. Oh, how I am going to miss her beautiful smiling face. Never was there a time that praise of our Lord wasn't flowing from her lips...even through all of this!! She was and still is a beautiful example of our Jesus.

Please, please pray for this amazing family. They are very precious to us and this hurts so much! But our God's plans are perfect and they have peace in knowing they will be with their mama, again!

My 5 year old photographer!!!

We were outside playing today and I thought it was a good idea to play around with my camera. Would you believe we bought our Rebel over a year ago and I'm still trying to figure out all of the advanced features. My little 'I' asked if he could take some pictures and this is what he did...I'd say he's a natural!! As much as I hate pictures of myself, I LOVE pictures of my kiddos. I am actually really thankful to have these...it seems I'm always on the other side of the camera.

Big Brother 'T' took this one ;)