Christmas Celebration

First Family Photo! We decided to take a family pic the Sunday before Christmas when the girls were dressed in their Christmas dresses.Christmas morning, just woke up and coming out to open presents...
Happy now that she is into the stocking!

Natalie is not too sure what all the people are doing at her house so early in the morning. Grandma, Grandpa, Granna, Papa, and Aunt May were all there bright and early to share the opening of presents with us!

Caroline opened not only her presents but the big sister helper that she is she opened Natalie's presents too...

then was kind enough to show them to her while she ate her breakfast!

Caroline wrapped a very special present for her daddy and she is so excited to see him open it...

here is daddy's excitement when he sees that she has wrapped some of Natalie's toys in a bag along with a birthday card that was given to Caroline on her birthday. Daddy is great at playing along with her "special" gift for him!

Natalie playing with and talking about all the toys she received.

Caroline was so excited to finally have her own umbrella, she also received that dress for Christmas and had to go try it on (fyi: Natalie has a matching one so they can dress alike, something Caroline loves to do).

Smiling for the camera with her pretty headband/bow. Precious smiles

Granna and Aunt May bought a puppy for Christmas. Caroline is playing the "puppy game". That is when she pretends she is a puppy and crawls around on the floor barking and the real puppy follows her around. She thinks that is a great game!

Finally, we had a white Christmas! I don't remember how many years it has been since the DFW area has had a white Christmas but Caroline enjoyed running around in it. I however was thanking Jesus that He moved us south so we don't have snow very often.

Not Over Yet!

Thank you for praying for us as we deal with legal issues with our adoption. I know some of you are wondering if it is over yet and it is not! Jan 5th is the next court hearing. We are hoping very soon we will be able to say it is over and Natalie will always be with us! We really appreciate all of you who are praying for us and all your encouragement during this time.

More Pics

Natalie and Caroline playing together. Caroline definitely gets the most smiles from Natalie and they love to play together! Caroline does great as long as she does not try to pick up Natalie without mommy or daddy around.Natalie's first piggyback ride!

First time we have fed Natalie cereal. She is still learning to like cereal

Mommy and Natalie

Proud Big Sister!

Sip-N-See

Thank you everyone that was able to come sip and see Natalie. I had a great time showing off Natalie and I am sure she was trying to tell me how much she enjoyed meeting yall. We are so very blessed to have her in our family. Below are some of those able to come celebrate with us!

Big Helper

Caroline is still loving being the big sister. She helps during diaper change...unless it is stinky then she runs out of the room gagging... with her daddy right behind her. Just kidding (sort of)! She loves to hold her sister and carry her. We have made some rules that she is not to pick up Natalie without mommy or daddy right there by her. She also helps during feeding times. Over all things are going well thus far.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent this year at Greg's Uncle Lances' and Aunt Charlotte's house outside of Houston. If we could not find Caroline this is where she was: She loved playing with the "houses". If you were nearby you could hear her talking and having conversations. We also celebrate Christmas at Thanksgiving. Caroline was privileged to get to help everyone open their presents. Natalie also enjoyed opening some presents. Although she tried to put the paper in her mouth.

Pictures of my precious girls!!!

Baby Girl is Five Now!

I am not sure where the time went but it has flown. It was a celebration weekend with Caroline's birthday and Natalie coming home! Here are some pics from the celebration on Caroline's birthday (yesterday). First we start the day early in the morning by waking up the birthday person and singing happy birthday, then opening presents. So here it is around 6:15am.This is the look of joy after having opened presents that you like!
Then more present opening that night at Grandma and Grandpa's (Granna and Papa are here also). Caroline opened this present and said "A guitar, just what I have always wanted".
Next onto the next present... Caroline says "A beautiful dress", that girl loves her dresses!

Then Natalie got a matching dress and we had to try them all on... you will see better pics of them with their matching dresses later, when I take them:)

Overall we had a great birthday celebration, but still 5yrs old... it seems like yesterday she was Natalie's age.

Adoption Story

I have heard a few comments from some of you that want to know about our adoption, so I will try to briefly tell our long story. Greg and I have always considered adopting and thought we would do a foster to adopt type of adoption. We were foster parents before we had Caroline, then put that on hold until Caroline was 4yrs old. At that time we discussed our options and decided to go straight adoption route. In July we started the process of adopting by going to an orientation meeting. We really felt like this was the path God had for us. We used a local adoption agency in the DFW area. The weekend we got the call that someone liked our profile book (a scrapbook about our family) I was on a women's retreat. I had told the girls I was with on Friday night that I really thought I would have a baby in November but the month was almost over and we had not been chosen. I also felt that weekend that we would be getting a call from the adoption agency. Well Saturday morning during the retreat I felt like God was telling me that He promised me I would have another child and He is faithful to keep His promises. He just is not as quick as I would like but He is faithful. Right after that session I got the call from the agency. We left as quickly as we could from the retreat headed back to town to meet with the birth mom. She had tried to parent little Natalie for the last 4 months but did not have the support system she thought she would and she had always wanted to go the adoption route. We then were able to bring Natalie home on Friday! God has been faithful and has kept His promise to bring more children into the Jennings household. We are still adjusting but loving having Natalie in our family. Caroline is a great big sister and can get Natalie to smile more than anyone else!

Great Wolf Lodge

Last night when we arrived at the Lodge Caroline and Hannah got on their bathing suits and got a little playing time in before going to bed. Caroline chose to go to the Lodge instead of a party this year and got to invite one friend... so she brought her cousin. We had a great time but am very exhausted. Yes this was the same night we brought Natalie home... well to our house for a few minutes until we drove to spend the night at the Great Wolf Lodge. We are thoroughly exhausted! Isn't she precious!

Cousin time!

Getting ready for the birthday cake breakfast feast. Ok I did have them eat breakfast first but this was second:) Blowing out the candles...

Back for some more playing at the indoor water park.

Aunt May with her two nieces!

Natalie Grace is Home

I wanted to put a quick pic of our precious Natalie. She is 4 months old and big sister, Caroline, is sooo excited. She is a great big sis thus far. I will post more later.

It is Fall Time!

We love the time of raking leaves! Ok maybe not the actual raking of leaves, but we love watching Caroline play in the leaves. This year she was big enough to help rake up her own pile of leaves. Honestly I must tell you she only raked for about 2 minutes so she just added to our pile. So first have to have a good pile of leaves, then...

must jump in the leaves, then...
must sit and pose in the leaves.

Both Greg and I have great memories of playing in a pile of leaves now Caroline will have her own memories. Of course not all the leaves have fallen so we have raked several times since these pictures where taken. Soon we (we being Greg) will mulch the leaves with the lawn mower, but first we have to pick up what little pecans we have this year from the ground.

Festival Time

Our church sponsored fall festival type activities in three different neighborhoods. The neighborhood we were at had the festival at the fire hall. Caroline enjoyed getting to "drive" the fire truck with Mr. Young(Jeff).

We went to help but Caroline went to play. She had a great time. Grandpa (in the striped shirt) took her around for a bit, then Grandma, then us parents got a break and were able to be participants of the festival. Caroline and her friend Jackson. This is Addi's little brother, Addi did not want her picture taken but Jackson did not mind.