Cora's Adoption Day - November 19, 2014

Cora has been ours and in our care since birth (August 12).  She wasn't legally ours until November 19, 2014. 

It was a much anticipated day for our family...we were officially, legally a family of four!  Woohoo!  God is so very good!

Cora at Three Months

This girl was already full of personality at three months.  She was constantly full of smiles, laughter, and baby talk.  She really wasn't interested in a lot of toys yet, just faces.  She loved it any time someone talked or sang to her.  It's a good thing because we love talking to her! 

She also loved sucking her fingers and would only take a paci for a couple of minutes here and there.  

This is one of my favorite pictures of Cora.  I love her sweet little lips and how she has her hands together.  She was talking almost non-stop.  I even captured her sweet sounds on video which is sometimes hard to do with little ones.

She was in full spit up mode at this point and bibs were a necessity.  Thankfully, my mom gave her this pretty bib.  

Part of Cora's baby shower involved the guests writing messages on diapers.  I loved reading all of them.  Some were funny, some were sweet, and some were encouraging.  I was sad to see those diapers go.

 

Family Photo Shoot

These were taken a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.  Cora was almost 3 months old. 

I think this is my favorite picture from the day. :)

These were taken a couple of days later at my parents' home.

I love Jill's smile in this one.

My dad was being our model while Darren adjusted the tripod.

You can barely see that Cora has a handful of Ashlyn's hair.  She had both handfuls at first, but I didn't get the picture in time.  It was a funny moment, for everyone one but Ashlyn.

Chef Nate

One of Nate's co-op assignments was to make pop-overs.  

They didn't turn out so great.  I don't think skim milk is best for baking.  Nate doesn't like breads/muffins that much so he didn't care how they turned out.  He did have fun making them though.

Since his popover assignment, he has helped me more in the kitchen.  His two favorite things to help with are pancakes and red beans and rice.  He loves to flip the pancakes and cut up the sausage for red beans and rice.

Fall Fun

Our absolute favorite place to visit each October is Old Baker Farm. It was hard to find a weekend to visit with Nate's soccer schedule, but we made it the last weekend in October.

Cora has the prettiest blue yes.  They sparkled in the bright sunshine.

Cora's first hay ride. :)

One of Nate's favorite things is climbing this huge hay pile.

He also loves the corn maze.

Cora was sound asleep by this point.  I wish she was in this photo with us. I love this old home and the porch decor.

That evening Nate and Darren carved Nate's pumpkin.  Nate insisted on having a "scary" jack-o-lantern this year.

This photo of Cora was taken on Halloween.  It's one of my favorites.  I love those sweet red lips and blue eyes.

I've gotten rid of most of Nate's baby things, but I still have this sweet pea costume he wore on his first Halloween.  

Sweet Pea Cora

 Sweet Pea Nate

Halloween evening, we went trick-or-treating with some new friends.  It was a fun night.  Nate was a Power Ranger for the second year in a row.  I wore Cora so she was just a baby. You will have to take my word for it because I have zero photos from that night.

Fall Soccer

Nate had another fun soccer season.  We traveled a lot (just about an hour away) because there weren't enough local teams during the fall season.  

I wasn't sure about traveling almost every weekend with a newborn, but Cora was a great.  She only missed a couple of games. We had a great time cheering for Nate's team.