Our first Gotcha Day Reunion!!

This past weekend was a whorl wind.

We headed up to Michigan for our first Gotcha Day Reunion. 5 out of the 7 families showed up that we traveled with to China to get Bella. What a weekend!! It was so much fun and the girls have gotten so big. Although, Bella is still the biggest of the bunch. She is definitely not a "petite miss" for sure.

All the girls look so happy and healthy and each had so much personality that it truly did make our wait which seemed so awful truly worth it!

Here are some pictures from the weekend.....

Red Couch Photo taken on the famous White Swan Couch in China in 2008.

(pictured from the left Grace, Jayci, Reilly, Bella, Ariel, Leah, and sleeping Anna)

The girls 2009 picture taken on the now famous plaid couch at Miss Nancy's house or Reilly's momma.

(pictured from the left....Bella, Leah, Anna, Grace, and Reilly)

Isn't amazing how all of the girls have grown!! Each of the girls look so happy and healthy. It was just amazing to see the transformations.

It was such a fun weekend and the girls had so much fun playing together. Dad and mom had so much fun connecting with the families that they hadn't seen in a year. Yet, it didn't even feel like a month had actually pasted. It was just a fabulous weekend....

Here is some more pictures from the weekend ........ Enjoy!

Daddy and Bella just hanging out. Notice the cute little melon colored dress. This was a gift given to Bella by our host family, Reilly's family. The story of the dress is even sweeter. Reilly's dad found these dresses, went to several Target's and purchased all of these little dresses in every size to be sure he had the right sizes for all the girls. It was super sweet. What a super special dad!!!!!!

Grace doing Bella's hair.

Bella, Delaney, Anna, and Momma walking out to the play yard.

Bella saying "cheese" and enjoying swinging on Reilly's swing set. Bella LOVES to swing!!!!

Love this picture of the girls swinging. We tried very hard to get one with all the girls but it just didn't work out. (pictured Leah, Anna, Grace, and Bella....missing in action Reilly)

Bella swinging on the ball on the swing set. Notice the concentration in her face. She is one brave and determined little girl!!!!!

I love, love this picture. This was what the whole weekend was about. Letting the girls play and get to know one another. They had such a good time with each other.

Daddy and Sweet Anna. This little girl will just steal your heart and it looks like Mike's was taken. Also, it helped that by the end of the weekend she was calling him "daddy". That didn't hurt either!

Janet (Leah's mommy) planned a nice project for the kids. Each child had their feet painted and stamped on a piece of paper for a keepsake of the weekend. Also, when we were in China we bought chops for all the girls. In China a person does not sign their name to a piece of paper they have this stamp that they use as their "official" seal. Each of the girls chop is also on this project. I am framing Bella's for her new playroom (see below). It is really cute!

Each girl colored on the construction paper before putting their foot prints and chops on it.

Even though it was Miss Reilly 4th birthday gifts were given to each of the girls. Here Reilly is helping Bella with the cute little Belle doll given by Miss Leah's family.

Our final activity of the day was having Chinese food as a way to celebrate our day coming to an end. And yes, Bella can still slurp spaghetti like no one I have ever seen. Noodles are still one of her favorite foods and think they may always be!!

And our family picture. No event would be great with one of our happy family

....and now on to our big Family News.....drum roll please..................

WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE

We close on the new house sometime in the middle of August. This new house was an expected find and we are super excited about moving. It is just currently about a mile and a half from our old house but feels a world apart.

In closing....what a weekend.....can't wait for next year's get together in Oregon. I guess we are planning on getting a house on the ocean and all the family's will stay in the house. It will be super fun!!!