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Wednesday, July 31, 2007

July was a very, very special month!! We started the month with a trip to GaGa and Papa’s house to celebrate Bria’s first 4th of July with her cousins Grace, Hayley and Jake. She took her first four-wheeler ride with her Aunt Julie and she loved it!!! As always, she fed the chickens with her GaGa—one of her favorite things to do! When the sun went down and it was time for fireworks, Bria was quite amazed. She had never seen anything like that before, and she fell in love with the sparklers. The first one we gave to her, she tried to blow it out like a big candle, but once she realized how beautiful they were, she would yell “more” just as soon as her sparkler would go out. I think she went through one pack of sparklers all by herself!

We had a small celebration of Bria’s 2nd birthday on July 5th at her Great Aunt Glenda’s house with just a small cake, a present, and more fireworks. She went crazy with her little chocolate cake and tore into her present like a pro. It was very special to have a small celebration on the actual day of her birth with all of her family on mommy’s side. This helped prepare her for her BIG birthday celebration.

For Bria’s birthday party this year, we celebrated in Strawberry Shortcake style! Bria invited her friends Tyler, Alex, Connor, Garrett, Jadyn, Graysen, Abby, and Hannah along with cousins Grace, Hayley and Jake to help celebrate her BIG day!!! She also let big brothers Kaden and Landen, big sister Ashlyn, and cousin Rachel share in the fun. At the beginning of her party, there was a knock on door and it was none other than Strawberry Shortcake herself coming to help Bria have a great 2nd birthday. Bria and her friends all received a gift from Strawberry Shortcake—they were very excited!

Bria and the gang played pin the top on the strawberry and then they went on a strawberry walk (similar to a cake walk). They then headed outside for a strawberry hunt (similar to an egg hunt) and strawberry toss game. We ended the games with a strawberry piñata, and moved on to cake and ice cream. Bria blew out her candles and then dug into her cake—with two spoons!! She had cake everywhere before it was over—soo cute!! After cake she opened presents, and boy did she have fun!! She loves opening presents, but she wanted to play with each gift before going on to the next. Her final gift was one we purchased for her while in China last year—a wooden xylophone and a cute little Chinese doll. We had a video made of our first year with sweet little Bria, and we used the video to wrap up the party. We all had a wonderful and memorable time!

July also included another fun trip to the zoo and a super fun trip to the neighborhood pool with Aunt Julie, Grace, Hayley, Jake, and big brothers Kaden and Landen. Earlier in the summer, Bria did not like the water at all, but she is over that completely. She LOVED the water and had a great time splashing mommy…

On July 29th, we had Bria’s Baby Dedication at church with our Pastor, Paul Blair. It was a beautiful service where we made a promise to God before our church to raise Bria in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and the church then made a promise to pray for us and support us while raising our precious daughter.

Bria’s development is continuing to blossom each month. She is now communicating so well and even says some four word sentences. She sings “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…” and then keeps repeating those four words. She is so smart!! She knows what sounds a duck, cow, kitty, chicken and puppy make. She knows and can say the name of every part of her body, and she can recognize and name many people and animals in pictures (she no longer calls them all “puppy”). She can count to ten with us (we say one, she says two, we say three, she says four, etc). She tries to sing the ABC’s, it is very, very cute, but we still have some work to do on that one…

We are so incredibly blessed to have this amazing girl in our life!! We thank God for another great month with her and the wonderful opportunity to share her 2nd birthday with her. We look forward to August when we can celebrate our one year anniversary of her adoption day!!

Happy 4th of July!!

I love sparklers!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Miss Bria!!

Strawberry Shortcake came to my party!!!

One spoon was just not enough!

I love opening presents!!!

Splashing in the pool with Aunt Julie

Bria's Baby Dedication with Pastor Paul

We love our Precious Angel!!!

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