Snapshots of life!

Here are a few snapshots of daily life @ the Roten house!














Miss Priss, decided that she wanted to nap w/Miss O!











Happy Girls

LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!

OK, OK so I am WOEFULLY behind on posting so here is my attempt to "catch up". After a few post you will see why there has been such a lack of updates. Here is Miss O back in May, just shy of three months old. What a blessing she and C continue to be in our lives - it's a bit wild at times but we LOVE IT! O has been a smiler since day one (not quite in these photos, but trust me) and she is such a "cheeser" and we thought C was the one to "ham it up" they will be competing for that title before long.

Some loved little girls!!!

Michael and I consider ourselves blessed that our daughters are loved and cherished by so many amazing people! Our friends and family have showered our girls with love from day One! So I thought it would be fun to share little snapshots to that show just that!

One Cool Sunday!

About a month or so ago Michael had the privilege of Baptizing 3 kids and 1 adult from our church. What a wonderful time is was to witness and be a part this public display of faith for these Brothers and sisters in Christ! How Sweet!

Party Girl!

OK so like WAY behind on this one, but sleeping through the night has helpful in blogging again. Our sweet Celeste turned 1 at the beginning of March and was showered with love from friends and family. Celeste is a true joy to our lives and we are so blessed that God has entrusted her to us. She loves the outdoors, walking, watching praise baby (worship dvd for kids), running up and down the hall and using her vocal cords (she is a girl!). All that to say I can already see that she is a loving sweet and curious little toddler. What a gift and we are so blessed by all those who daily share in our joy and love on our daughter unashamedly!

We had some friends from church stop by and we had an impromptu mini birthday bash (any excuse for cake!!!).

Grammy and grandpa graciously agreed to host a family celebration at their place in Raleigh. Celeste was loved on with out ceasing by her cousins, aunts and uncles! So blessed!!!

Loved this outfit!!

OK so basically this is a post to show you how adorable our oldest daughter is! Mom moment totally!

Celeste Gotchya Day Celebration

Her whatchya day? Her Gotchya day, as in the day we got her. In honor of that day we took her to build a bear (she told me she wanted to go, seriously... ok she didn't, but I thought it would be fun!). God is so good, He gave us the idea to use this little bear to help introduce the idea of adoption to celeste, because we get a birth certificate with her little Koala and we can talk about it how she adopted her little bear on March 13th. She was adorable!

She was so excited when we walked in!

She picked it out all by herself - she loved it!

She practically took the box out of our hand! It was such a wonderful time with our sweet daughter!!

The day we met Olivia!

Well - here we are the last picture as a family of Three on the morning we met our sweet Olivia. Let's back up about 24 hours earlier, and we were just going about our lives with no clue of what God had in store. Olivia's story starts even before that, in November when Michael and I decided that we would go ahead and start the adoption process for our second little blessing. We knew it could happen fast, as 38 hours notice for Celeste proved, but thought for sure it would not happen that quickly again (apparently naively, thinking). 3-4 months and a few phone calls from our adoption agency later we were talking and planning for another child, but at the same time busy with our increasingly mobile now 1 yr. old! On march 10th, while Michael is subbing at a school he calls and tells me we got a call from the executive director of our adoption agency and our minds immediately start racing but she left a message for him to call her back so they finally touch base and Michael calls me back and says that we can go tomorrow to meet our new daughter! I impatiently waited for Michael to get home literally walking in circles making phone calls and running though our shopping list! The moment we met her was beautiful and later that day she was welcomed by the rest of our family and we are settling into life as a family of four. Thank you to everyone for your love and support that you have offered our Family from the very beginning when it was just me and Michael.

Already smitten by our darling Olivia!

Daddy and his girls!!!

Details about Olivia Ruth Roten

Well, God is amazing!!! Yesterday Michael received a call from our adoption agency and we were chosen to be the parents of a sweet little girl!!! She was born February 27th, 2009 and weighed 7lbs, 3oz.. Olivia is very healthy and quite the good eater I'm told. WE ARE THRILLED!! We were beyond blessed with the outpouring of baby items for Celeste that we are set with all our cute pink "girly" things, so Michael and I would like to present a "gift alternative". We are asking our friends and family to consider making a donation in our name (write it on the memo line of a check or ear-mark it for Michael and Emily Roten) to Amazing Grace Adoptions, www.agadoptions.org this would go towards our current adoption cost. Although if you have an item already picked out or just can't resist getting something for Olivia then that is wonderful we are, as always, humbled by the generosity of our friends and family. Thank you for sharing in our joy!!! Look for pictures soon!!!

Amazing Grace Adoptions
1215 Jones Franklin Rd.
Suite 202
Raleigh, NC 27606

Love,
Michael and Emily

Snow day IN MARCH!!

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning - after waiting and waiting for the snow all day yesterday it started falling around 7 pm and kept going until about 1am. Celeste was not so much a big fan of being bundled up, but we had fun tromping around in the cool, crisp, snowy morning.

I love snow in the early morning, all fresh and untarnished by the world - so magical!

All bundled up! Ready to brave the snow!

C is wondering why she can't move!

NOT AMUSED!! Maybe next year she will appreciate the snow a little more!

Amazing view out our backyard! We are so blessed!!!

Visit from Aunt Sarah and Cousins!

My sister came for a visit and we had a wonderful time!

The two little girls had a blast playing around each other. It won't be long until these two are an unstoppable team!

Mr. C was such a great sport with all these girls in the house and had fun playing WII and joining C and A in playing around the house.

Since C birthday is close we had a little cupcake celebration (I.E excuse to eat cupcakes!!) C was a big fan!

Growing up fast

Our little girl is growing up - here are a few pictures to show you the many faces of Celeste! Here is what we call the "ham and cheese" grin (because it's so much more than 'hamming' it up)

This is the 'I am playing here - it's very serious business'

And finally the 'are you just going to stand there or pick me up?'

Trip to Pilot Mountain

One of the best things about Michael having a flexible schedule is that we can take little trips on the spur of the moment. That is what we did one monday morning, and we decided to head to Pilot Mountain for a family hike. It was great!

The views were amazing

We had a great time! It was a wonderful family outing!

Snapshot of Life!!

No major story with this one, I just love her striped PJ's and the look on her face.