...And Then There Were SIX???

No we are not expecting BUT we are opening our house to do foster care for a male Yorkie. We are going to see how he and Lady do together before we officially adopt him. If he doesn't work out then we will take it upon ourselves to find him a good home. Quentin and I are hopeful that he does work out. If he works out we will end up changing his name from Toby to Tramp (since there is already a dog in the extended family named Toby); we will then have Lady and Tramp with their nicknames being Ladybug and (possibly) Tramper. Quentin will be picking him up tomorrow after work. We are all very excited about our new potential member to our Painter Clan!

On May 27, 2011 at 6:18pm Toby found his forever home. They are a sweet couple who adores Yories. I know that he will fill their hearts with love just as Lady has filled ours.

Happy 6th Birthday

The banner I made Clarissa

6 years ago today God gave us a miracle and true examples of his power. Not only did he bless us with a child but he saved our lives. Every year when Clarissa has a birthday I remember the chances of babies being born under her conditions and living are rare.

In case you didn't know when Clarissa was born her umbilical cord broke. When this happens it takes a matter of seconds for babies to bleed out and die. I too was affected by this but I was lucky to only walk away being anemic for a few weeks. Clarissa regained her strength and in the morning I was able to hold her without any tubes, oxygen, or heart monitors in our way.

For the first moments of Clarissa's life all I was able to do

was hold her tiny hand.

No more oxygen!

Our first family picture 5/25/05

Today she is a happy healthy girl who makes me smile on a daily basis. She has been looking forward to being 6 since Kimberly had a birthday. Clarissa has received several cards, e-mails, gifts, and voicemails today and more are coming constantly. She sent fun gifts to school today to share with friends. Her teacher called me and commented on what a neat idea that was to send little gifts to her friends instead of snacks. I was touched to hear that one little boy in Clare's class expressed he didn't have any colors at home but now, after getting Clarissa's gift, he not only has colors but he has his own note pad and stickers too.

Tonight we are going to enjoy a celebration at home since we made this past weekend Clarissa's birthday weekend. She has requested her birthday dinner be tacos. No birthday is complete without cake, ice cream and one more thing.... OH YEAH Presents!

Clarissa and her 6th birthday cake.

Made by Dad decorated by Mom

After her bath Clarissa took a

picture with all her gifts.

$6.00... One for each year!

~FLOWERS~

Here is Clarissa with most of her gifts. The few items that are not in the picture are a few barbie outfits and cross earrings. Other than that this is pretty much it. When asked what her favorite gift was she said "All of them, they are all my favorite."

Happy 6th Birthday Clarissa... We love you SO MUCH!

Happy ALMOST Birthday

This year we told Clarissa that she can have a friends birthday party. We had that on May 21th and only a few could make it because of different things going on that day but the party was great. Clarissa even was able to have 1 friend spend the night. We wanted to go roller skating but that didn't work out so we went bowling instead. And then today we went to Incredible Pizza for lunch after church. Clarissa brought her friend with us! We have made this weekend her birthday weekend even though she's not officially 6 till Tuesday.

ROCK STARS

Clarissa and the Happy Birthday

bowling pin

Playing games at Incredible Pizza

Today is my "Birthday" I'm incredible :)

A Mom and Her Camera!

I've always loved taking pictures and with all the editing programs available you can do just about anything with the pictures you take. It was beautiful outside and so I decided to take some FUN outdoor pictures of the girls. These where taken a few weeks ago on May 5th. Kimberly was first to get her picture's taken since I did it while Clarissa was at school. After showing Clarissa the pictures I took of Kimberly she was excited for her turn.

~KIMBERLY~

~CLARISSA'S TURN~

Reading is FUN!

Clarissa has been learning to read and write sentences. This (previous) week was reading week at school and all the students where to read books and if they met their class goal they would receive a T-shirt. Clarissa was ready to take on the challenge and came home excited to pick out books and read with me. I made a list of all the books we where reading and sent it to school. Since Clarissa had TWO field trips last week, 1 to the Boone Railroad because her class brought in the MOST box tops this year and the 2nd field trip was to Springbooke. Her class got their shirts yesterday(Monday May 16th).

This is the t-shirt she was given and her countdown we made!

Way to go Clarissa, We are so proud of you :)

A Day To Remember!

Well its hard to believe we have had our little Lady for a month now. She has added so much happiness to our family it's hard to remember life without her. I remember when she first got here she was very scared and didn't want much to do with us. Every day she got a little bit more comfortable and now she knows that she is HOME! We Love our Ladybug!

Also to make today even more exciting it was the last day of this season's bowling league. I'm so proud of us ending this season in 2nd place! We have 3 months off and then in August are starting back up.

Picture Perfect

Looking around our house Quentin and I noticed that our pictures are severely out dated. The last time we made an appointment with a photographer was back when Clare was 3 and Kimmy was 1. Needless to say we couldn't wait to get into Target and get a few updated pictures. We will be getting our prints no later than May 9th but here are some of the pictures that where taken! After we where finished we decided to FINALLY use the gift card Quentin received for lunch at Bang Bang. We all love Chinese food and there is nothing better than being the one to create your dish. We then headed home for some well deserved naps.

Pictures where taken at Target on April 30, 2011