Miss D in the snow!

We’ve had a bit of snow here lately and finally I decided it was time to see what she would do in the snow.  So today Madelyn and I bundled up the kidlets and ventured out into the yard.  Every year I go through this quandry about snow pants.  Do we buy them or not?  Usually I do not because they are kinda expensive and we only use them 2 or 3 times per year.  This year we got lucky.  I “inherited” some snow pants from from my friend Heather’s sister (Thanks Heidi!) size 3T.  Then my awesome friend Denise sent Miss D a wonderful outfit with a nice warm jacket and pants, perfect for 10 minutes in the snow!  Without further ado:

Everyone was having a great time!

The snow was fun to throw…

And fun to dig in!

And then we were DONE.

Snow Day!!

One of my first posts when I started this blog was on a snow day.  They are truly my favorite days of the school year.  Not just because we get a little surprise break from routine, or because we get to sleep in, but because there is a peace about a suddenly free day with beautiful scenery.  Today we hung out in our jammies, ate breakfast late, and broke out the spagettios for lunch.  Check out my view:

Back yard

Front – looking up and down the street

And then we went out to play – next post :).

Head Wound

This time it isn't one of the kids and actually, it's a lttle embarassing. I was moving things around in the van and tried to enter the back seat a little too........vigorously. Slammed my head into the door frame. Because (and only because) I promised Lori that I would, I'm posting a picture. It isn't the best because it's hard to take a picture of your own head without getting yourself in it! But check out the lump! Can you tell?

Remember that shutterfly promotion I told you about??

With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card

Click here to browse hundreds of Christmas card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

Here it is! It's awesome, right? I LOVE this card!

Quick Update on Dashlyn!

The following is what I posted yesterday on Dashlyn's blog! Way overdue, but I finally put together a quick update on our girl!

It's so easy to make a post a day when you're bored in a foreign country and there's lots of time to kill!

I have lots to "report" but not enough time to write a decent post! So, here's a quick update:

Ther first few days Dashlyn slept. A lot. Not interested in eating. Finally we remembered we had some Pediasure out of a sippy cup and she loved it (very warmed up though). She got less sleepy as the week went on and by Fri I decided she was gonna eat (they said she ate great in the orphanage) and we tried oatmeal for breakfast. A hit! I think it helped that I had a booster seat for her and she, Jack, and I were all sitting at the table like it was serious eating time! Lunch and dinner went the same way and now (almost a week later) she eats like there is no tomorrow. She cries when we say "enough" which we have to do because she doesn't stop. I hope this a one of those stages, and when she realizes, yes, there will be another meal, she will stop the endless desire for food.

Her first bath was a disaster. After that, they got better. She smells so much better than she did at any time we visited her. She must have only had sponge baths; I'm sure she'd never sat in water before. She wants to be held all the time. I think it's like the food & when she realizes we aren't going anywhere she'll be okay not sitting on my lap or being carried everywhere. I'm humoring her as much as possible - she's been here 2 weeks tonight!

She has no clue what to do with toys. She doesn't stack anything, or look at books, or "play". She throws. We're saying "nyet" and trying to show her what to do with toys, but this will take some time. Also, she has no concept of "no" or "nyet" or "shtoy" or "stop". She laughs and smiles when we interact, she rides in a cart at Wal-Mart or the grocery store like a pro, she waves bye and blows kisses when grandma and grandpa leave after a visit! She cuddles. She accepts kisses and hair bows and getting her picture taken a hundred times per day.

She is AWESOME!! We are very thankful to have her, and still getting used to the fact that she is HERE!!

Check this out!!

I heard about a wonderful opportunity to promote shutterfly!  You’ve heard of them, right?  You upload your photos to them and can get prints, enlargements, or almost unlimited special gifts featuring your own photos!  I found them a couple of years ago and have since made several cute photo books from their photo gifts section.  I’ve made one for each year of Jack’s life, and made a really cool one after we went on vacation last summer.  You can get soft covers or hard but I love the hard cover ones – they look so professional.  My dad always borrows them to show to his friends ;).  I plan to make one that shows what all we went through adopting Dashlyn.  It’ll be all girly and pink (because I love pink ya know!).  

You can make all kinds of personalized gifts.  Calendars, Holiday cards, and address labels are only the beginning.  This year I’ve been looking over the amazing collection of Christmas cards and found a few I want to send out.  Since we have a new kid at home this year (hee hee) it’ll be fun to have her included on a card that I can personalize by adding our photos and whatever message I want to.

The awesomest part??  Shutterfly is giving 50 free Christmas cards away to anyone who will blog about their fabulous and fun site. So, thank you Shutterfly for offering this opportunity to share about your company while also giving such a great gift!

Gee, I’m just a little behind here

But I have a good excuse!  Ever since we got our travel date for Dashlyn’s country, I’ve been running around like a mad person.  (Go see what we’ve been up to here.)  First there was the packing and prep for Allan and I to go.  Then before we left there was the little matter of a certain little boy’s FOURTH BIRTHDAY!! 

It happened to be the same day as his class Fall Party.  The kids got to dress up in their Halloween costumes if they wanted.  Can you tell what he was?  We didn’t waver much from the “Jack” theme because we said he was “Jack Skeleton”, not Skellington.   I found the cutest little skeleton jammies that work great as a costume.  (Someone else got cute little matching pink skeleton jammies!)  His teachers were nice enough to let us combine his birthday with the fall party so that was fun.

There was cupcakes and games and music time!  How cool is that for a party??  And we even got a sneak peek of a sweet little bumble bee even though she really isn’t in Jack’s class:

(She snuck her mommy in the picture with her!)  Then after school we took the kids to eat lunch out at a Dairy Queen with a play place!

Kiki was there too, just not real excited about getting her picture taken.

After naps and the big kids came home from school, we had the family celebration.  4 years, I can’t even believe it.  Since we wanted a Costco cake and didn’t order it in advance, we had to pick what was available.  We were going to add SpongeBob and yellow sprinkles so white icing it was:

Little man’s big gift was a scooter!  Hopefully we’ll have some nice weather so he can ride outside.

Then the next day was Andrew’s last high school football game. :(  How did we get here?  4 years of practice, work-outs, and games.  It was truly fun to cheer on the team and watch my son grow into a young man.  It was really hard for the guys to be finished, and hard for us moms (and dads) too.  The last game happened to be Senior Night, where all the senior sports players are recognized.

How quickly it’s gone by.  How quickly this little baby has grown.  And how very proud his dad and I are of him!  I tried to warn him that this year, his senior year in high school, is going to be very emotional for me and he just needs to accept that his mom is going to be a puddle of tears all year.  Everything he does will be emotional – the last football game, the last Christmas concert, the last dance, and then……….graduation.  How will I ever get through that??