Glimpses of Christmas 2007

That face says it all......... This is Clara Beth seeing our Christmas tree for the very first time. She loved it!


Clara Beth and her Bubbie in front of one of the Christmas trees at church.


The "Santa Baby" all ready to go. I should say Santaca, that's what Clara Beth calls him.


Clara Beth with a beautiful hand made cradle that a sweet lady that Paul works with brought her a few days before Christmas. She loves putting her babies in it.


Christmas morning tea party. Clara Beth loves her new table and chairs and numerous tea sets. We have already had dozens of tea parties together!!! Christmas with little ones in the house is sooooooooooooo much fun. We can hardly wait to see what God has in store for us in 2008.

But all who humble themselves before the Lord shall be given every blessing, and shall have wonderful peace.
Psalm 37:11

May 2008 be a year of blessings and peace for all of you................

My Room, Dancing and My First Parade

We finally rearranged Clara Beth's room so that it's all hers now since her big sissy is married and has a house of her own!!!!



Our girl loves to dance. Here she is dancing a little jig in the dining room waiting for lunch one Sunday after church. Notice her mouth, when she dances every body part is involved.



Here's Clara Beth and Bekah Grace with their Dads waiting for the Christmas parade. It's a first for both of them. Neither one of them quite knew what to expect.


There's who we've been waiting for, Clara Beth's bubbie, Land passes by with the Honors Chorus. Clara Beth waved like she was in the parade!!


Clara Beth and daddy waiting for Santa to come by......She doesn't mind him at all as long as he stays far away!

The Pumpkin Patch Express!

Climbing Clara Beth

Birthday Slide Show

We finally got to celebrate Clara Beth's first birthday with friends and family. I was so sick for her actual birthday we had to wait to have her party. What was supposed to be a pool party in August turned in to a fall celebration in September. All the China girls were able to be there. It's so wonderful when we can all be together. Fun was had by all. The birthday girl didn't mind at all having to wait to celebrate!!!

Things that have been happening at our house.....

For some reason Clara Beth loves poles, lamp posts, light poles, table legs.....She just loves them. Here she is in our front yard beside the lamp post. She didn't even mind standing in the pine straw as long as she could hold on to the pole.


This picture was taken right before we left for our court date to domesticate Clara Beth's adoption. Only three of our China families were able to go to court on the same day. Afterwards we celebrated at our favorite Chinese Restaurant. It was a great day!!!


Here are the proud dads before going into court for our adoption domestication. First is Rebekah Grace and her dad, next of course is Clara Beth and her happy dad, and then we have Geordyn and her dad. All three of these girls have their daddy's completely smitten!!!


And here are the happy mommies!!!! Clara Beth is first and I'm just beaming, Rebekah Grace and her happy Mommy are next and Geordyn and her happy Mommy.


This last picture is just one of the many Chinese outfits I bought while we were in Guangzhou. I think she looks adorable in it, but then again, she looks adorable to me in anything!!!

Birthdays, Biltmore House and Boots

Three of the China girls have celebrated their first birthdays! Here they all are at Geordyn's birthday party. You can not even imagine how many times we tried to get a good picture of all five of the girls. This was about as good as possible. We probably should not have waited until the end of the party to try and take pictures! Lean your head to the left and the girls look like they are sitting up straight! From left to right is Geordyn(the birthday girl), Cooper, Clara Beth, Bekah Grace and Barbee Ruth. It was so much fun getting together with everyone.


Two weeks later we did it again to celebrate Barbee Ruth and Bekah Grace's birthdays. They had their party together. Once again we tried to get a good picture of the girls. Cooper couldn't make it to this party so we have Geordyn, Clara Beth, Bekah Grace and Barbee Ruth all looking in different directions!


This weekend we took Clara Beth to the mountains for the first time. We visited Biltmore House. Here is Paul, Land and Clara Beth after we had taken in all the sights. We had a great time.

These boots are made for walking!! I know many of you have ladybug overload but these boots were just too cute to pass up. Clara Beth loved it when we put them on her feet. She is definitely going to be a shoe girl just like her mom and big sister!!! Our big girl is pulling up, standing on her own and trying to take steps!!! It's hard to believe how much she has learned since April. Everyday she shows us something new. We are having sooooooo much fun!!!

Aren't these the cutest little legs and feet you have ever seen!!!

Fun At The Beach

Here's Clara Beth as she takes her first look at the ocean. She just loved the sand and surf.


Here she is giving me a big salty kiss while Land plays in the waves in the background.


This was Clara Beth's mode of travel up and down the beach each day. She loved sitting up on her daddy's shoulders taking in the sights.


Here's our girl in her itsy bitsy, teeny weenie watermelon bikini!!! She had such a good time playing in the sand.


We were so happy that Anna Kayla and Greg could spend some time with us at the beach. I love this picture of our three sweeties together.

Pre 4th Celebration

Going to the Chapel.........

I know it's been a long time since my last post but things have been more than a little hectic in our house. Our little Clara Beth is going to think that life is one party after the other. Since she arrived home we've attended a graduation, numerous bridal showers for Anna Kayla, the wedding rehearsal and dinner and the grand finale was the actual wedding and reception. In this picture she's just taking it easy on our front porch, even party girls need some down time!!!


Here's Anna Kayla, Greg and Clara Beth looking smashing in their matching outfits for the lawn and garden shower that they had. Land was too busy playing outside to take time for photographs so we don't have a picture of him except for when he was headed to the food table!

Here are my two favorite girls after the rehearsal dinner. They had both changed into something more comfortable. They looked gorgeous in there fancy dresses but I chose this cutie pie picture of the two of them sharing a moment at the end of the night. Clara Beth was headed home to bed and Anna Kayla was whisked away by her bridesmaids to a secret destination.

Oh it's so hard being the center of attention sometimes!! Here's Clara Beth playing on the floor with her cousins at the bridal brunch. The real star of the day was seated at the table enjoying her last brunch as a single girl!!!

Even a party girl has to take a few minutes for a diaper change, it doesn't matter if we are in the middle of a wedding reception! Some things just have to be taken care of. Stay tuned for more pictures of Clara Beth in her beautiful wedding attire, I'll even include her big sister, the bride!! Until next time...............

Hanging Out At The Lake and My Biggest Girl's Big Day

Sorry I haven't written in a while but life in the Cobb house has been very BUSY!!!! Here's Clara Beth with two of her cousins at her Granny and Papa Ty's lake house. She had so much fun playing in the floor with Haley and Andrew. The Cobb's have a tradition of gathering together every other Thursday for supper. It's always a good time with food and family!!!

This past weekend was one we have looked forward to for four years now. Our oldest daughter Anna Kayla, graduated from Wofford College on Sunday. It was a wonderful weekend that started on Saturday with her Baccalaureate Service. Of course Clara Beth made herself quite vocal during the service so her daddy had to walk her around behind where everyone was seated. Thankfully it was outside so he could still hear the service. Every few minutes I would glance back and see the two of them playing on the benches or walking under the trees. Here's a shot he snapped of her during that time. It looks like she is about to make a very important announcement!! This was so special to me because during our long adoption process I was so afraid she wouldn't be home in time for Anna Kayla's graduation. I can't even begin to express the joy I felt as I looked around and saw all of my children together for that special occasion. God's timing is so perfect!!!

I'm behind the camera this time, can you believe it!! Here's Paul, Clara Beth, Land and Greg, Anna Kayla's fiancee, before the service began. We had to sit at the back because we knew we were going to have to go mobile with little Miss Wiggles. She did last twenty (ahem, ten minutes)!

We did try several different forms of entertainment before Paul just had to get up and go with her. Here she is on her little mat with her ladybug. There was only one problem, she couldn't stand to touch the grass!!! She is looking up at her daddy, as if to say, I might get a little dirty down here please remove me from this mat!! Of course he did so immediately. Who could resist that face!!!!

Ta DA!!!!!!!!!!! Here is our family of five all on the big day!!! Everything was so beautiful, but there is just something about ten year old boys and shirts. They just won't stay tucked in!!!! My heart was so full on this day. Anna Kayla was able to introduce Clara Beth to two of her Chinese professors while we were there. They told her when she grows up she has to come to Wofford and study the Chinese language just like her big sister did. My mind raced ahead twenty years and I had to blink back the tears, because looking at Anna Kayla all grown up and graduated, I knew that that time would come so very quickly. Our time with our children is so very precious. We all need to spend it wisely. Before you know it they are graduating and getting married. Yikes, that big event is coming in less then nineteen days!!!!!! Stay tuned for more exciting times ahead................Until next time.
Robin

First Sunday and Together Again

Here's Clara Beth all ready for her first Sunday at church. I should say she had quite a good time there. First of all, she loved all of the attention. During the worship service she proceeded to jump up and down and up and down in my lap through most of the sermon. She is most certainly a foot stompin' Baptist!!

Thursday was a special day for us. The girls were all together again for the first time since we got home from China. We met at Lynn's house to take pictures for a story for http://gwdtoday.com/ This is a local news website in our county. It was so good to see the girls together again. All of them have grown and the mommies are adjusting very well to all the extra activity in our lives. None of us looked a bit tired!!! You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge so that you can get a really good look at everyone. This picture shows us with our girls and a some of our other children too. It was impossible to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time!!


Here we are just the mommies and our girls!! I have to say that Miss Clara Beth was very excited about this photo op. She kicked her legs and squealed every chance she got! She is quite the ham. Margie(the person doing the interview)said she won the Miss Personality award. I have to say we agree with that statement. She is such a happy girl!!

Here are all the little princesses on the swing. See Miss Happy Feet smiling away squeezing her hands in excitement! Look at all those pretty girls!!!!!!!!

This last picture is one that daddy took of us. Just me and Clara Beth. This Mother's Day is going to be so special. I will have all three of my children with me to celebrate this special day. I can hardly wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sleep, Who Needs It......

As I type this my smiling little angel is sitting in the floor watching, as she has been since about 4:30 this morning. This time thing is slowly coming back to us. I have to admit that even in the wee hours of the morning she is still just soooooooo cute!! Things have certainly changed around the Cobb household. I now do everything with one hand because the other arm and hand is wrapped around Clara Beth. She loves to be held all the time and I am honoring her wishes. I know, I know I may regret it later but right now we just have to let her know she's secure. As a matter of fact, she's is now in my lap as I try to peck this out. Being home with her is wonderful. When we arrived home around 1:30 Monday morning, (thanks to our sweet Anna Kayla)we were greeted by a clean house,complete with fresh flowers in vases! Also, our awesome church family had provided us with goodies to eat and a freshly mowed lawn!!! Who could ask for more!!!! This is a picture of us standing beside the sign that someone from our church made to greet us. It has a picture of Clara Beth making one of her famous faces. For those of you who traveled to China with us that would be pronounced famerous!!


Monday morning, since we were up so early, we got ready and ventured out. First, we visited Dr. Michael's office for Clara Beth to have her first check up.(she's a little congested, please pray that this clears up soon) Then we were off to visit my kindergarten children at school. They were so happy to see her in person. They had been following along with our blog while we were in China. Several of them ask me if she could speak English. They were so sweet looking at her and she was amazed by all of them.

Having had our fill Of Chinese food ,we couldn't wait to get back to eat some delicious Mexican food. Here we are about to take Clara Beth in for her first Mexican fiesta, and guess what, she slept through the whole thing. Yep, as soon as I walked in the door she went out like a light. That was okay with me because then I could really dig into the chips and salsa!!

We've had lots of company to help welcome Clara Beth home. Here she is with Mrs. Paula and Mr. Jim. We kept Mrs. Paula busy notarizing documents for us through this whole adoption process. Because it took so long she had to do some things twice! Thanks Mrs. Paula you were such a big help to us in bringing Clara Beth home.

And here she is...................The one and only Clara Elizabeth De Min Cobb! Just taking it easy in our living room. Who could resist that face, even if it is only 4:30 in the morning and most of the world is sleeping. We're not at this house and we probably won't be for quite a while. That's okay with us we wouldn't trade this for the world!!! We are just praising God for this amazing little girl He has given us. Until next time...................We'll be playing in the floor!
Robin