Vera's Dedication...

We had Vera dedicated at church this morning. Everything went really well. Vera and Kiara both behaved well while we were on stage. Kiara said she wanted to come up with us and I just had visions of Russian court where she first didn't want to go in with us and then wanted one of us to stay out with her and then we basically made her come in with us. Then, a lot of the time, I felt like I was telling her to not cry. But, it was nothing like that at all. She stood up there with us like a very good girl. Vera also did well and even waved to the crowd a little! It was very special to have a lot of our family with us. My parents, Ryan's parents, Ryan's younger brother and his family, one of my grandparents and 2 of Ryan's grandparents were all able to join us.

I pray that we are able to bring Vera up to love the Lord with all her heart, soul and mind. It was emotional knowing that just a couple of months ago she was in a Russian orphanage and might not have ever heard about Jesus.

So, once Vera couldn't stay quiet in church any longer me and the girls went out to the foyer. I was able to get a few cute pictures.

I love the last one, they both look so onry!

After church we were able to get a picture with Pastor.

After church was over, everyone came back to our house and my in-laws did a fish fry for us! It was very yummy. It was nice to have a get together at our house because it motivated me to clean my house and to finally get my curtains up! We have lived in our house for close to 4 years and I still didn't have curtains up. Finding window coverings is one of my most dreaded tasks. After returning several, I finally found ones we liked. Well, that was at least 6 months ago and now they are finally up! A big thanks to my parents. Mom ironed nearly all the panels and my dad installed a lot of the hardware. It is soooooo nice to have that done! So, after that was all done there was a lot of dust and sawdust on the floor. So, I dusted my house which hadn't been done in who knows how long. Everything is so clean and the drapes look wonderful.

Vera took a nice long nap when we got home from church, which allowed us all to eat and get lunch cleaned up. Here is how the princess ate her lunch when she got up.

Then, she opened a few presents with some help from her big sister.

We also celebrated some birthdays while we were all together. Ryan's birthday is the 23rd, Ryan's dad's is the 25th, and my dad's is the 28th. So, here are the birthday boys blowing out their candles.Here are a few pictures of family we took. The first is of my mom, grandma (her mom), Kiara, Vera and me. 4 generations.

This is Ryan's parents and grandma with the girls.

This is Ryan's other grandma with Ryan and Vera.Here is Ryan and our only nephew. He is the happiest most smiley kid I have ever known. He just makes me smile when I see him. He is only about a month older than Vera, so it will be fun to watch them grow up together.
It was a busy weekend with getting everything done, but we had a great day today. It was relaxing and nice to just hang out with family. We missed those who couldn't be with us especially Ryan's older brother and his family who live on the East coast and my sister and her family in Arizona. We missed you guys!