Our weekend


A birthday picture for Mama.



At Playhouse Disney, yes she was quite in awe.



And it was dark in there :)


Checking out her program after the show



After having some of Mama's birthday cake, and yes that is cake on her face!









Saturday was a busy day around here. Mama's birthday and Playhouse Disney and Daddy made it home again for the weekend. Couldn't have been any better :)

Julia certainly enjoyed the show, she sat most of the first half in absolute awe just taking it all in. After intermission we couldn't get her to sit back down, she spent the second half leaning on the seat in front of her, it was empty for a good part of the second half and then the little boy that came back was also leaning ahead so we let her get away with that. The second half she did everything the characters told her to do, clap, pat, you name it. She was having fun. After it was all over and we were back in the car we asked her if she had fun. She popped her cup out of her mouth and said "I had fun" took another sip and out came the cup again, "Go see Bradon now?" All about priorities. LOL. So yes we went and saw Bradon. They are too funny together.

Later on it was time for cake and ice cream for Mama's birthday and just an evening spent together having fun. Before bed that night, I had gotten down on the floor with Julia to change her and after a bit she threw herself into my lap, gave me a big hug and said "I love you SO MUCH Mama" Love those spontaneous moments. So all in all it was a great weekend here. Hope all of yours were just as nice.

Having fun





Daddy slipped home this weekend from school. It was very nice to have him be able to do that. This picture is of Julia trying on a new "Dora" outfit, and yes, that's her pink "Dora" backpack from another ensemble that she insists on having fairly frequently, then add Daddy's hat and what a look! LOL. I really did avoid Dora like the plague for as long as possible and it didn't seem to matter, Julia still knew who she was, and now Mama has caved and given in. Dora is currently one of her favorite shows. Though I'm really hoping Ni-Hao Kai-Lan replaces that in her book when it starts on Chinese New Year.:) Or at least gets watched, this is one show I want her to watch! The premise is similar to Dora, but they will be teaching Mandarin Chinese phrases and culture. I hope that it turns out to be as good as we are all hoping it will be. Oh well, in the mean time, she's enjoying Dora.

Speaking of Chinese New Year, it's coming up fast. Feb. 7th this year. We are again this year blessed to be getting together with other adoptive families in the area and celebrating. I think we are doing that Feb 2, so even though it's just Julia and I we'll be going out for Chinese food and meeting the other families. As this will likely be our last chance to do anything with these particular families, we don't want to miss it.

And next Saturday we are going to see Playhouse Disney Live! I can't wait to see Julia's face as she sees Tigger and Pooh, Mickey Mouse and friends, Handy Manny and Little Einsteins. All shows she has enjoyed on a lazy Saturday morning, so to see them come to life?! I'm sure it will be fun for all of us!

As you can see, we have plenty to keep us busy and looking forward to while we wait for Daddy to finish up this month of school. Deployments are sure going to take getting used to again, no doubt about it. But after the first few days, we settled into a pretty good routine, so I'm sure we'll be fine in the long run. One month left, and then when he gets back it's really going to be busy here getting ready to move, house hunting, etc... May is going to come up on us very quickly.

I'll be sure to get pictures these next few weeks of all of our activities! :)

Julia's got a new friend














Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


I think the smiles say it all. You may remember a time or two our mentioning that Julia loves horses. Well, Grammie and Grampa Hall decided to do something about that. She was supposed to get a rocking horse for Christmas, but because of circumstances out of their control in the form of back orders and the order being cancelled, it didn't quite make it for Christmas morning. However, I don't think Julia minds at all. She is certainly enjoying her new friend and yes dragging him all over the house with her at this point. We'll have to work on that one. So thank you Grammie and Grampa!! She's in love. And though you may hear her on one of the videos saying "Diego's on" (repeatedly I might add) she still didn't get off the horse until I told her we could take him to the family room. Even now while she's taking a break (an hour or more after delivery I might add) she still pops over and gives him a hug or climbs on for a quick ride. She's having no trouble at all getting on and off. To put it more specifically, I've had time to load the pictures/videos and write this blog!! So thanks from a very grateful Mama too!!

the Holidays and more






waiting to get her hair done :)

So pretty, "ready to go Mama?"

A day out at Chuck E Cheese with friends, they stayed on this game for quite some time.

They were having lots of fun!

Trying on some new clothes Christmas Day!

Nope, wouldn't let Mama do my hair yet, but I like this book and the Belle doll that Santa brought!

check out the Dora PJ's couldn't get these ones back off for a little while. Yes, Dora is a big thing right now.

Thanks for the tricycle Papa and Nai-Nai! I really like it and can't wait to take it to the park to try it out!












Well as you can see Julia had a great Christmas! Sorry there are not more pictures, but we were using the new camcorder more, sadly those videos are too big to put on here. I have had some limited success with getting some of the shorter ones on Dropshots. So you can go there and finally see and hear our munchkin! You'll just have to start back in November on the Dropshots page, sorry the date was set wrong on the camcorder, but it'll be right from January on. (I think!) For family, we'll be getting a CD done up of the Christmas video and out to you soon. Julia tore through her presents in about an hour, the only time she slowed down was on the blocks from Uncle Joel and Aunt Kim (thanks guys!!) yep, she still loves blocks and puzzles. Everything else got a quick look and an "ooh and ahh" and she was diving back under the tree for the next present.

After presents Daddy cooked breakfast and we had a day of watching Julia take in all of her new things. It was very nice. She really enjoyed everything and watching some of her new movies, if I remember correctly Aunt Tiny, I believe Cinderella 2 was the first one in the DVD player that day!

For New Year's Eve we went to a friend's house to celebrate, lots of kids for Munchkin Moo to play with, fireworks, noisemakers and a toast at midnight. Julia was very cute telling everyone "Happy New Year!"

All in all we had a wonderful holiday season and hope that you did too! Now it's back to reality, and for us that means packing up and getting prepared for our move this spring. So needless to say we'll be busy here.