Where Have We Been ?

At the fair...... Our church has a booth at the Cumming fair and our family has been working it every night since last Thursday and then all day on Saturday's & Sunday's. It ends this week but it hasn't been all work, Lauren has been riding rides, playing games and eating lots of fair foods.We have had a great response at the fair to our church, we are handing out pens, magnets and balloons and also having drawings for Kroger gift cards. since the fair started we have had 400 hits to our churches website so that's really neat. Here's a few pics of the last few days.



The Booth

The skybucket ride, she liked it but was happy to get off of it and so was I :)


The boats were more like it and they are on the ground :)

The Latest

Our home computer has a trojan virus, the computer guy repairing it said it's the worst trojan virus he's ever seen, basically every time we hit a key the virus locked up the computer so it's now in for surgery and should be home in a few days.

Monday we took Lauren to the international adoption clinic in Birmingham, AL because of her night terrors and after almost 3 hours of testing they have diagnosed her with PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They also tested her intelligence and she is a gifted child. the PTSD will always be there her entire life and they can treat it with medicine if it gets out of control. Lauren's clinical results showed that her anxiety level is in the 97th percentile. Her night terrors are related to PTSD and we are working on trying to relax so she can sleep at night with no fear. She has to go back when she is 5 for further evaluation. ( Alabama family, we didn't let you know we were coming because Steve had to get back here to work on the new church building, sorry...)

That's the bulk of the latest with us, no pictures because our computer is sickly. :(

Oh, I also got a job... I am working part time at Lauren's preschool. I think it will be fun and with working there I get a tuition discount. Wahoo. :)

Susie & Sonya

Lauren has never liked dolls. well a few days ago she picked up a doll in her room and said " this my baby" I said great, what's your baby's name ? her reply was daddy so i told her daddy is a boy name and you need a girl name for your baby so she chose Susie for her baby's name. well, a few days later she found Sonya in her room so now she has Susie and Sonya and they go everywhere with us, unless there asleep and then I get told " shhh, babies are sleeping" Susie is her " bavorite" (favorite)because she can change Susie's clothes. :) Susie is the one sporting her new cheerleader outfit, she gets her clothes changed alot during the day.:)

Little Miss Chatterbox

Lauren talks non stop now, we were sitting at the dinner table and daddy decided to count the number of times she said momma in ten minutes. Can you guess how many times ? Well, the answer is 23. In ten minutes she said momma 23 times :) She is a total chatterbox now. This picture makes me laugh, she used her bed pillows to make a ladder and climbed up the kitchen counter to grab her jar of peanut butter, she eats it right out of the jar with a spoon. That's why I say it's "her" jar no one but Lauren eats it here :)

The Harmonica

Lauren got a harmonica from cracker barrel and has been playing it for us a lot. Here's a video of one of her concerts :) She saw a harmonica on noggin I think and ever since then has talked about a "monica" excuse our voices on there we as the audience are expected to participate also.


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The Last Few Days

Monday was our referral anniversary so we went to Yellow river game ranch to celebrate. Lauren had a great time feeding the animals, it's really neat how they just come right up to you and take food out of your hand but it's truely a nature park where you have to watch where you step and hold your nose in a few spots. She kept calling the squirrels her friends and would say " oh, theres my friend i need to feed him" :) She also started preschool today, she will go 2 mornings a week. She was so excited to start school this morning because her best bud Noah is in her class. :)

Can You Help ???

We have been accepted into the Philippine program through our agency to adopt and we could use your help with a fundraiser. We are fundraising through Current and if you would like to order please follow the steps below.

Go to www.Currentfun.com
click on start shopping now
when you check out choose Georgia and then Dudley adoption

we make 50% of the cost of the product from this fundraiser.

If you cannot help financially, then can you please pray for us as we go on this journey.

Thanks in advance for your help and support.

I'll post updates as they come but it's a 2 year process for the Philippines so it's a long road :)

Flippin and Scootin

When Daddy comes home it's all about playtime. First they rolled and flipped and then it was outside to try out the new scooter. She had fun for a few minutes but decided going uphill was too much work so she pushed it instead of riding it. She loves to tumble and flip at home but would not participate at tumbling class. Go figure.

A Busy Weekend

We have had a weekend of visitors, first Lauren's Nana & Papa came on Friday morning from Florida and then on Friday night Annslee spent the night on her way home from the beach,Lauren was excited because Annslee was going to sleep in her bed. Then on Saturday morning it was Laurens first dance class. She was shy at first but eventually she joined in and had a great time. The next challenge is going to be getting her to wear tights. Everyone has gone home now so the house is quiet again but it was nice to have everyone visit with us.

Fernbank

We decided to check out Fernbank our local natural history museum, I didn't get many pictures because my camera battery died and we did not have any extras. we did sign up to be members though so next time we go i'll take lots. We loved this museum, lauren had a great time and we can't wait to go back again.



standing in a dinosaur footprint

Happy Birthday To Me

It just so happened that the need for a new van came the week of my birthday this year, Our old van broke down at the mall and that was the final straw for me:) It was 8 years old though and had a ton of miles on it. So to make a long story short, I got a new van. It's a 2007 Kia Sedona and so far i love it :) lauren likes it also because the windows on the sliding doors go up and down. She wanted a red van but mommy chose black (actually, the black one was the one with the least miles on it in our price range)

Potty Training and Playdates

Climbing up the big slide

still climbing, look how high this thing is

taking turns pulling each other




Lauren starts at Noah's preschool in September so I have been trying to keep her home to work on potty training, she has been very resistant to train but we are doing well with it now and she is in panties all the time except nightime to sleep. Keeping her home has been hard because she had playdates with Noah and with her friend Rainey during the week, this girl loves her playdates :) Rainey is younger than Lauren but is quite a bit taller, they have fun together but there is alot of girl drama with them.

How do you rate as a 1930's housewife ?

Take the test and find out, some of the questions are pretty funny :) to take the test click the area under the word superior, for some reason the button won't show up on my blog. :)

61 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

The Things She Says

She is cracking us up lately with the stuff she says. Here's a few of the latest.

I asked her this morning to go pick out her shoes and her reply " Oh Man"

We were in the van and she said her nail had come off so I reached back to grab it and her response" That wasn't my nail, that was something yucky from my nose"

Do i have eyebrows ? do you have eyebrows, how about dad ?

I not feeling better(she says this when she doesn't want to shower or take a bath)

Jake had a bone and I told her to leave him be or he could get grumpy. her reply

" Like papa in the car"

I tell you, she is hilarious with the stuff she comes up with :) The pictures are the sunflowers we picked this morning, there's a place close by that you can go and pick them and then pay for what you get on an honor system.

Branson, MO

We drove Steve's parents' to Branson, MO for a week, this was somewhere Steve's dad has always wanted to go so they asked if we would drive them there. It was a LONG drive with an elderly man and a 3 1/2 year old child but it was fun. We did so many things there, where do I begin. We started with a trip to Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, LA where papa was stationed in the late 50's. He enjoyed that trip back to the base and they let us go on the flightline of the planes as well. we left there and headed to Branson where we went to shows, silver dollar city, a train ride, a duck ride, the butterfly palace,dixie stampede, we went fishing, did some shopping, lots of eating. Lauren's favorite place was The Track where they had rides for little kids so we spent 2 evenings there riding tea cups and swings. It was a good trip but it's great to be home :)