What A Year Looks Like

I love that I am a picture taker.  I have always wanted to be a photographer, but alas, I have had other things on my plate and I can just never quite bring myself to buy one of the many awesomely amazing DSLR cameras out there.  So I do what I can with my little point-and-shoot Canon.  I take it with me everywhere and mainly because I never want to miss one of those moments when later I will say to myself “why didn’t I have my camera with me”.  So when I leave the house I always drop my camera in my bag….just in case.  We had our dossier Tennessee authenticated, which means they slap big, cool Tennessee gold seal stickers on them.  Of course I had the kids with me and as we were waiting in the office, what I loved and thought about is that we were doing this same thing last year.  When we got home I immediately started rummaging through all my picture files and this is what I found…what a year looks like:

February 2009 Secretary of States office Sol’s dossier

And then this year

September 2010 Baby Boy Kelley Dossier

I was glad to see they still had the same chairs, but my how time flies.  Also the same lady did our papers again and gave all the kiddos their own official Tennessee gold Seal.

They in turn, authenticated their chucks.

Oh how I love these three and CANNOT wait to have our next boy home.

And I want to give a big Thank You to State Trooper Officer Kosoko.

If you have never been to the Secretary of States office building then you will not quite understand the nightmare that it is to find parking that is even remotely close to the building.  Last year I had to park about 3 blocks down hill from the office and walk with Harper (who was still 1 at the time, almost 2) and carry Huddy (who was 5 months at the time) in his car carrier because I forgot his stroller…all up hill, in the cold and getting hollared at by a construction crew.  So I was prepared to face the worse this time around.  Of course, again, I could not find parking and thought I would try and get some pity from the State Trooper who was on duty watching the employee parking area.  I pulled up, told him why we needed to get in the building and asked if he knew of somewhere I could find parking.  He checked out the row of car seats in my backseat and asked what I was going to do with all those kids.  I laughed and told him they were going with me.  He then smiled and told me I could park by his security booth…we’re talking “yellow lines, will be towed, don’t ever even think of parking here” area.  I was like “Seriously?” and he said “Yes Ma’am.”  Awww, how I love a gentleman and Officer Kosoko was just that.  Check out the yellow lines–

When we were leaving we all gave him big thank yous and then I asked if I could snap his picture and he said “Sure, you want me to stand by my car?”  LOVE IT!