Halloween Fun

Molly had a fun first Halloween. We dressed her up in a Tigger costume that was handed down to her from a friend. Although she's too little for trick-or-treating, she did help hand out candy. Our friends the Donahues also came by and Molly got to play with her buddies. They were all SO cute!

PLEASE don't feed the Tigger. :-)

Molly with her Donahue buddies--how cute are they all?!

I love this picture! Ben, what are you saying to those girls?!

Ben snacking on some cheese! This was his idea--what a smarty! :-)Tigger with her daddy. :-)

Molly's 1 Year Old Stats

Weight: 18lbs 7oz
Length: 29.5 inches
And the cutest thing you've ever seen!

Happy Birthday Molly!!

One year ago today, a tiny baby girl was found at the gate of Dong Ahn Orphanage in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Lord had a plan for that little girl to become our daughter.

"Your Love, Oh Lord, reaches to the Heavens. Your Faithfulness stretches to the skies."
--Psalm 36:5

Newborn Molly

2 Months Old5 1/2 Months Old
6 Months Old

7 Months Old
8 Months Old
9 Months Old
10 Months Old
11 Months Old
1 Year Old!!!

Our baby girl is 1 year old today! She had a great 1st birthday! All of the excitement wore her out--she's now sleeping peacefully in her crib. :-)

We must have gone back and forth a hundred times on whether or not to have a big party for her, but finally decided against it. With her getting baptized this weekend, we didn't want to overwhelm her with too much excitement. But we had a lovely birthday celebration at home! I made Pho (noodle soup--a traditional Vietnamese food) for the first time. It turned out pretty well even if I do say so myself! Molly LOVED it and was shoveling it in with both hands. :-)

Then, even though some of my good friends have given me a hard time about this, Molly had a low sugar, pineapple cupcake. She hasn't had much sugar and I didn't feel comfortable giving her cake with icing. Call me overprotective, but I will say (as you can see from the pictures) she enjoyed it very much!

And of course Molly got some fun presents! And she had a great time ripping off the paper! :-)

We love you, Baby Girl, and we feel so thankful to God to have you in our lives. We know that God had you planned for our family. You are everything we dreamed you would be and so much more. It feels like you have always been with us and we cannot imagine life without you. Happy birthday, Baby! :-)

More of Molly's Baptism

Our good friends James and Anna took some great pictures at Molly's baptism. They gave them to me today and I wanted to post some of them. Thanks, guys! These are so special! :-)

Molly's Baptism (and a little extra...)

Molly was baptized this morning at church. It was a beautiful baptism and Brian gave a wonderful fatherly blessing:

"Isaiah 43 says:
'Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afarand my daughters from the ends of the earth'
Molly Grace, it has been such a blessing to have been able to adopt you from afar as the LORD has adopted us. It has been amazing to see how well you have felt like our daughter from the very beginning. We are so grateful that you will be a part of this body of Believers who have prayed and supported our family so diligently. Our prayer is that one day you will come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior and your life will glorify Him."

We've also had some good times with good friends this week. Molly had a play date at her buddy Ruby's house.

We also spent some times with our friends Mike, Nicole, and baby Cooper. Molly loves Cooper and even gave him a kiss!! We did a little shopping and the guys tested out the gliders at Burlington Coat Factory.
And we got to spend some time with our friends the Russells. Molly had such a good time playing with the Russell kids--and the Russell's cate Sammy! I grew up next door to the Russell family and I remember when Katie and Jessica were babies! Now they are beautiful teenage girls. It's amazing how fast time goes by! Jessica was actually the one that gave us the idea for the name Molly. Thanks again, Jessica! :-)

And yes...we did do some babyproofing! Molly even helped!

I really can't climb the stairs anymore? Are you kidding me? :-)

Why our goal for the weekend is babyproofing the house:

The following events all happened in in the five minutes (literally!) it took me to clean up the breakfast dishes this morning:

I'm going upstairs now, Mommy!

I can't climb the stairs by myself? Okay...I'm just going to check out all of this baby
food you had packed away for Cooper.

Enough of the baby food! I think I'll make myself a bottle!

But come on! Is she not the cutest little girl you've ever seen?! :-D

Our First Night Out....

Since we've been home from Vietnam, Brian and I have been trying to get together for dinner with our friends the Donahues. We decided at the last minute to have dinner out tonight, but it was a little late to take Molly so she stayed with Nana at her house for the first time. It was the longest we'd left Molly and things were a little rough.

She immediately burst into tears when she saw Nana and realized we were leaving.

She was really worried because there is NOTHING to do at Nana's house.

These pictures were taken while we were gone.
Apparently she stayed pretty upset the whole time.

When we arrived home, this is what we found.
Poor little thing--she must have cried herself to sleep.

As you can see, my going back to work is going to be a lot rougher on me than on Molly. :-)

In other Molly news....

Molly has a new due. The problem is that her hair is growing like crazy and her bangs are just about in her eyes. Bows, clips, and headbands are okay, but if she remembers they are there, she pulls them out. And they often fall out because her hair is so fine. So I spend a lot of time swiping her bangs out of her face because I am unwilling to cut them. So here's the solution! A cute little ponytail! Brian says the due only works with a ponytail AND a bow because the ponytail by itself looks dorky. He is quite the expert on baby hairstyles, so a ponytail and bow it is! You will probably be seeing a lot more of this little due until Molly's hair gets a little longer or I break down and cut her bangs. (Which I don't see happening!) I think it's cute!

Our sweet baby with long bangs! :-)

Our sweet baby with her cute little ponytail! :-)

And the best part is, she doesn't try to pull it out! YAY! :-)