11 months old

**I know this is a day late...been a long weekend!

In only one short month our little Emsley will be a year old. We are making all our plans to celebrate her big day. But honestly, although I am so excited for the decorations and the little details of the day, I am more excited about all our favorite people coming together to celebrate Emsley and her 1 year of life with us. This past month has been a blast. She is growing so much and we can tell she is learning words and understands us so much more. I asked her to come back in the kitchen with me and to pick up the cracker piece on the floor and she crawled back and grabbed that cracker. I mean, my child is a genius!!! It was sweet and I went and gave her a big kiss because I love watching her learn everyday. I love being her mom and all these wonderful things we learn about her just make me love it more!

Here are some stats as she turns 11 months:

-Weighs approximately 23 1/2 pounds now
-Is approximately 30 inches tall
-Wears size 4 diapers still
-Wears size 18 month clothes but have been buying 24 month/2T
-Takes 4 bottles a day and 3 meals a day
-Started eating more table food (bananas, pineapple, chicken, tomato, and loves rice!)
-Sleeps through the night and takes 2 good naps a day
-Bath time is fun and we do it nightly now. Loves to splash and laugh!
-Crawling is still her form of transportation but is cruising on furniture and holding with only one hand now (not walking yet!)
-Starting to talk more and more...says mama, dah, bah, gah, ka ka (kitty?)
-Has started staring at people until they start to smile or wave (kinda creepy at times)
-Has 3 bottom teeth and 4 top teeth (pretty sure her 1 year molars are coming in)

Well, looking forward to this next month. I can't wait to say I have a one year old! Love this little girl and she is such a joy to her daddy and me!

Finally it is all final...

Today was a pretty cool day. It's crazy to think that as of today, we won't ever have to do any adoption paperwork or meetings for our little Emsley ever again. We can now say that she WAS adopted rather than IS (I mean, I've been saying that for a while now but still!). Today, we stood before a judge, were sworn in, and were told that she is all ours, legally and completely ours in every sense of the word. Can't you tell how excited and blessed I am feeling right now?!?!

I want to give a brief overview of what went on before I post all the pics (especially since my sister couldn't be there...I want her to know it all!) We arrived at the Family Court in Orange at around 1:20 or so and headed through security to connect with our lawyer and wait for them to call our Case Number. John Madison (our wonderful attorney) showed up shortly after and went over all the paperwork he had drawn up with us so we would be well informed when we stood before the judge. We then found out we were #4 so we didn't have too many people in front of us. So then we had about 45 minutes or an hour to wait till we were called in. My parents, Mike's mom and sister, and a few friends from our small group were there and patiently waited with us. Emsley was a little upset she couldn't just crawl around in the busy hallway and play with the other kids. But she did great and loved being the center of attention (like she doesn't get that often enough!)

Then at around 2:30, they called us in and we stood in the room in from of Judge Caryl Lee. The clerk first swore us in then the judge proceeded to check the general info (spelling of Emsley's name, etc). She then told us that in signing these Adoption Order forms, we are taking full responsibility of Emsley and all that that encompasses. She will be ours and we are to care for her for her life. Of course we agreed because we already do that!! We then signed our papers and took some pictures with the judge before heading out. Last was to get the official documents from John and we went back to our house for some snacks and to just see more of Emsley (let's be honest!)

So here are the pictures, in order of the day. Starting with our waiting to it all being FINAL!!