Leah & Baseball

Heres a couple of pics of Leah playing baseball. She is the catcher for her team. It keeps her busy and keeps her mind on the game instead of playing in the clay or watching for butterflies. :)

Nikki & baseball

Nikki plays in the older league... so its more serious for her. Heres a picture of her during one of her games.

Baseball

The girls are still playing baseball and doing a great job. It keeps us very busy though. We are at the baseball field every day except Wednesday & Sunday. Todd is helping coach Leah's team and I am helping the other coaches wife with the keeping the books, so we are busy with that stuff too. Oh, they signed up for Soccer too. It starts this Tuesday. Baseball is over for Leah March 31st and April 5th for Nikki, so we will be overlapping the two sports for a little bit. I will post pics of the girls playing baseball.

The best looking kids ever... :)

Here are all four kids... Nikki-10, Leah-8, Tony-6 & Desteny-5...

Leah & Tony (their younger brother)

This is Leah & Tony... their younger brother... at Nikki's birthday party...

Nikki & Desteny (their little sister)

This is Nikki & Desteny at Nikki's birthday party...

Sleepover.... with LOTS of 9 & 10 year olds.... I must be CRAZY!!!!!!!

Nikki's birthday was yesterday... wow my little girl is 10...

We let her have a sleepover... her first one (this is only her 2nd birthday with us & due to our schedule we couldn't do one last year). This was also her LAST sleepover.

We got her an MP3 player (and some other stuff). She was so happy. I love to see the girls when they are so excited and happy. It is so nice being able to give them a happy life. It makes everything we went through so worth everything. I LOVE being a mom, especially to my two beautiful girls!

Anyways this is a picture from Nikki when she looked & realized what she was opening (the MP3 player).

Baseball

The girls are doing great in baseball. We will have games and/or practice everyday except Wednesday and Sunday. It keeps us VERY busy but they like it & thats all that matters. Todd is helping to coach Leah's team this year.. he loves it (although he doesn't really admit it).

Nikki hasn't practiced much, she hurt her arm last week. We thought it was broken, but it ended up being joint damage. She will have to go to therapy for two weeks to start. It's NEVER a dull moment with us!!!

Racism??? in 2007....

My girls started baseball last week. They are in different leagues. On Thursday we were running late because Nikki's teacher stopped me to talk. Nikki is the only girl on her team. Well, Todd got there before us and was waiting. While sitting there waiting, Todd heard two other fathers talking. One of them said "There are some kids missing" and the other father said and I quote.... "Yea, that stupid Mexican girl isn't here yet..." OK..... Stupid... Mexican.... why couldn't they just say the "GIRL"???????? Above is a picture of the beautiful (Mexican) girl they were talking about... Blows my mind.... Just had to get that off of my chest.

Adoption Anniversary

Our adoption anniversary is in June. It seems like it is so far away, but its really not. We have already started talking about what we're going to do (it will be our 2nd anniversary). Last year we had a cookout, had a cake, the kids played outside for about an hour... we had a pinata... The kids love it. We have family & friends over, the girls younger brother & sister come over and we let the girls each invite one or two friends. If anyone has any ideas for something to do to make this year just as special as our first anniversary and our adoption celebration, let me know. We don't make it a gift giving thing because they get gifts for their birthdays and I don't want the other kids in the family (nieces & nephews mainly) to feel like they are less special because my girls get gifts twice a year instead of once. We just do it more to celebrate our family. We include my brother, Antonio who was adopted in January 2005 in the party. We put his name on the cake, along with my girls and their younger brother & sister.

Anyway, I am open to any suggestions.

Nikki's Birthday

We are in the process of planning Nikki's birthday party. Her birthday is February 6th. She will be 10. We met her when she was 5, she has come so far in those 5 years! She wants a Tinkerbell party. Todd says she's too old for that, but I say "Let her... shes only a little girl once"..... I won that one. He still says shes too old but agrees shes only young once. She still loves to cuddle with her mom & dad... and she still loves to spend time with us, we feel so lucky and blessed. But, boy is she growing up.

Baseball & Girl Scout Cookies

The girls had their baseball draft on Saturday. We got the calls last night about which teams they are on. Nikki's first practice is tonight... Leah's first practice is tomorrow night. This is the beginning of craziness for a couple of months. We will have practice probably everyday until the 10th of Feb (that's when their first games are). Yes, the girls are on different teams and are in different leagues (Leah is in the 7-8 year old league and Nikki is in the 9-10 year old league). Leah is more excited this year because she is on her "boyfriends" team (his dad is the coach and he picked her because she asked him to). The girls are excited and it will keep them busy and active, so we are happy for them. We get to socialize with lots of other Moms & Dads at the practices and games. It's kind of weird because last year, Todd told one of the moms that the girls were adopted and they couldn't believe it. They kept saying "they are so good... we thought the kids that were adopted had problems..." Sounds like adopted children have a bad name by people who have nothing to do with adoption.

We are also right in the middle of selling Girl Scout cookies. They have sold close to 250 so far during preorders and they want to sell 1200 total. Looks like we will be busy during booth sales. Last year they sold 824 (total, gave them 412 each).

Latest Family Pictures

Here is our latest family picture (Christmas 2006)


















Our beautiful daughters

Happy 2007!!!!

Its already 2007... where has the time gone?? Well, the girls made it this year. They stayed up past midnight (I never thought we would get them to bed). We played games all night.

They had a good Christmas (I must say that Santa keeps giving them way too much). They once again this year said that their favorite part of Christmas was their family.





We went to NC for Thanksgiving to visit family. They had a blast. They met more family for the first time. They got to go ice skating for the first time, also. That was a blast. Nikki was a natural at it, but Leah on the other hand... she spent most of her time on her bottom or knees.

Nikki Ice Skating, Leah trying to figure out how to do this without falling.

Well, Leah.... it didn't work. There you are on your bottom again.

Now, back to 2007... we are getting ready to start selling Girl Scout cookies (anyone want to buy some??). They told us that they want to sell 500 boxes EACH this year. This year I have been more active in Girl Scouts, staying for the meetings with them (last year Girl Scouts wasn't a great experience, so they asked me to stay with them during the meetings & of course I said yes). Also, baseball is about to start. The draft is January 20th and practice starts February 1st. I don't think I am ready for baseball EVERY night, but the girls love it so thats what's important. In March, they want to play soccer (along with still playing baseball), which we have already told them they could do. I will be wishing I hadn't told them that after the first week, I am sure.

Girls & Sports

Well, Nikki has decided she loves to run and wants to join cross country when she's old enough. That is along with baseball, soccer, Girl Scouts, cheerleading, etc. They went from never doing anything to wanting to do EVERYTHING!! We allow them to do any extra curricular activity they want to try as long as their grades stay up and as long as there is enough time in the day. But, with every sport comes registration fees, things you have to buy (uniforms, shoes, etc.), fundraisers, pictures and anything else they can think of to cause parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. to spend money. Everyone who knew me as a teenager knew that the last thing I wanted to be involved in is sports. Now, my daughters are really into sports. Several times they've said "we should've played football instead of cheerleading, it would be more fun." Girls are so much fun!!

The girls are in cheerleading now. They LOVE it. We have practice three nights a week and games on Saturday. It keeps us busy, but Mom is getting lots of reading done during practice. They also cheer for a winning team (noone has scored against them yet). We should have their actual cheerleading pictures back soon.

Nicole Ann Moore

Nikki's school picture... 3rd grade... 9 years old... growing up WAYYYY too fast. She still enjoys spending time with Mom & Dad, but she's definately our "big girl" now. If anyone knows how to keep them little, let me know... SOON!! :) Boys are already starting to notice her.

Leah Dawn Moore

Leah's school picture... 1st grade... 7 years old...
still mommy & daddy's baby... but probably not for long. They grow up way too fast.

Life is so busy...

Wow, I started this blog over a year ago and haven't posted anything since. The past year has been very busy for us. We spent last summer getting "used" to being parents and to being a family. For the most part, the transition was very smooth. The girls transitioned wonderfully. They love being our daughters and we love being their parents. Our little family "meshes" rather well together. Our first Thanksgiving as a family was nice. It was just the four of us, then we took the girls to spend the night at Grandma's house (the first night away from home). The girls got to help stuff the turkey... Mommy made her first turkey (and it actually turned out and was really good). Our first Christmas as a family was amazing. Yes, Mommy & Daddy way over spent, but hey so did Santa Clause. But, they were worth every penny. And to see them so excited was well worth it. They had never been the center of attention like that before. Grandma & Grandpa from Ohio were here, so that made it even more special. We let them try to stay up New Years Eve, but they didn't make it (actually if I think back, I don't think their parents made it either). Earlier this year (I think it started in January), they got to participate in thier first sport. They played baseball. It kept us very busy. But, they loved it. They were on different teams, actually they were in different leagues. It worked out nice because that gave them something of their own. But, it was very tiring for mom & dad. We were at the baseball fields every night. Sometimes we had Nikki at one field and Leah at another field at the same time, we went back and forth. They were also in Girl Scouts (although they were MIA during baseball). They sold 412 boxes of cookies EACH (so yes, thats 824 total). We did eight booth sales. Easter was fun. Their Uncle Troy came over and the Easter Bunny hid their baskets and they had to find them. The Easter Bunny also hid lots of eggs in the back yard. They had a blast! They are now in cheerleading and loving it. Our weekly schedule now (after mom & dad work all day and the girls go to school then to daycare until about 5:15) is Monday - Cheerleading, Tuesday - Cheerleading, Thursday - Girl Scouts, Friday - Cheerleading, Saturday - Cheerleading (games)... We have grown to love Wednesday & Sunday (we go to church Sunday mornings and then we try to make Sunday's our "lazy day"). I will be posting some recent pictures of them soon.