Loving Animals

 The first time we took the girls to the zoo was about 3 weeks after we got them last summer. They knew nothing about the zoo or animals and they were not interested, so it wasn't too much fun. I took them this summer with my mom, and a bunch of my cousins. They absolutely had the time of their lives! They loved all the animals and were able to name them and make their sounds and were so interested in how they live and move. It was so special and fun to see how far they have come in every aspect. I feel like we were given 3 babies. Literally all at the developmental development as a 1 year old if that. And in a year, they are thriving and learning every day. The zoo was a great opportunity for them to do that.

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My Girls

My girls are just to beautiful to stop taking pictures of them :) These are a few I took several weeks ago. 
The idea here was to get a picture in front of our new house because we have did that with our last house... But we came away with these.

 They all looked especially cute this day so I took them out to my front yard....

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Adoption Day!

We have had our sweet girls for 15 months. Yesterday they became legally our daughters. It was such a special day. We went to the courthouse where we met all of both of our immediate families. I am so grateful for all people who came to support us. We got called into the courtroom. We have been in this same court room with the same judge many many times. This was the only trip to the court house that we have not absolutely dreaded. This was for a happy reason this time. The judge was happy which we had never seen that side of him.We were sworn in and the attorney asked some questions like "has there been a bond created with these children in your home?" and "is it your desire to adopt these children today?" and "will you forever treat these children as you would treat your own biological children?" and "will you support and protect these children emotionally, physically, mentally?" and a bunch more questions like that. YES was the answer to all of them. Nothing has ever made me happier to say yes to those questions and to hear my husband answer those questions. We signed the papers and the judge signed the papers and he then said that forever more these children will be known as Anavy Paige Smith, Khloe Brookelynn Smith and Savannah Brinlee Smith. It was an amazing moment that I will never forget.

We chose to change their middle names to family names- so they are tied into our family in that way.
We chose Paige for Anavy after my cousin, who is one of the most beautiful people I have ever known inside and out and I have admired her and all she has done.
We chose Brookelynn for Khloe after my sister and Bretts mother- Brooke is my sister Alyssa's middle name and Lynn is Brett's mother's middle name.
We chose Brinlee after my sister Macy and Brett's sister Mandi. My sisters middle name is Brin and Mandi's is Lee.

We love the names and they are something they will always have and have great meaning to them.
All of our family came over to our house for lunch and it was such a happy atmosphere. It was amazing to all of them also because they all have created a bond and felt relieved that the whole process was over and they had these girls in their lives forever. 

The day was amazing. I am grateful. I have 3 daughters.

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1st day of school

Anavy and Khloe LOVE school. They can't wait to go to school in the morning and wait for the bus out the windo in anticipation. It is very cute.

Anavy is in the 1st grade. She spends most of her day in the special ed classroom. I am so impressed with the progam at Adams Elementary. She also has a regular 1st grade classroom that she does several activities with- PE, music, art, recess, lunch, library, computers. So, she is very involved with her peers which I think is awesome. 

Khloe is in her second year of preschool in a special ed classroom at East Layton Elementary.  She loves it and is learning so much especially in her speech. She is talking so well.

Both of their buses come home at the same time and we sit out on the steps and wait. It is very fun to see how excited they are to tell me what they did that day or show me pictures they made. 

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