We have a DATE!!!

Well FINALLY! We have a date for Devyn Day! After what seems like forever, she will be joining us in our home on March 6!!!! It's been a heck of a time getting real information and to pin them down on a date but I know it will have all been worth it!

Obviously we are very excited, and yes relieved, to have a date at last. We will still have a ways to go but from that point on she will be with us while we get there.:)

Couldn't resist adding a couple of pictures. Julia was hanging out with Daddy the other day when I snapped this one. And the outfits are something we picked up last weekend out shopping. Couldn't resist the coordinated look. Of course, Julia had to have the dress, and I just thought the other would be so cute on Miss Devyn. Can you tell we are looking forward to sister pictures?

Best reaction to a Valentine

You may remember Julia's best friend back in Texas. Well of course we still keep in touch, did you really think we give up friends just because of a few or few hundred miles?? You should know us better than that. Well his Mama and I still talk and email often, so she knew he was going to be receiving a card in the mail but she didn't tell him what it was. So his reaction was all him. Have I mentioned we miss this little guy?? He's such a sweetheart, can't wait til summer when they'll get to see each other again. His mama informed me that he was saying "I love Julia" all afternoon. They both get these smiles whenever we show them pictures of each other. Don't they just melt your heart?

Tea party and cuteness

Taking pictures of Mama while she's taking pictures of me.

Having a Tea party with Belle and Mama.



Little miss thing has been full of cuteness tonight. She really got going when Daddy asked her if she was ready for a bath. "Can I have a Bubble bath?" to which Daddy replied "not tonight, you had one last night" note- we try not to do the bubbles too often because she has mild skin reactions.. So anyway, he tells her to go get ready, she crosses her arms, stamps her foot and says "But Daddy I'm trying to talk to you!" (Mama is on the sidelines trying not to crack up at this point) Daddy "Julia, you're not making good choices, go get ready and we'll see" well, she pouted for a few seconds then thought better of saying anything else and off she went. Daddy and I continued our conversation.. a few minutes later she's back, ready for her bath, she says "Daddy can I have a back ride?" (a piggy back ride across the house to her bathroom) he tells her "go give Mama loves first" so she does, then she gets on his back, reaches around, kisses HIS cheek and says "Daddy can I have a bubble bath?" Oh MY GOODNESS! By this time, forget it, Mama is totally laughing out loud. Daddy is quickly losing it and says "but if I give her the bubbles she'll know it worked"... oh honey... she already knows that. And yes, she got her bubbles.. Oh MY are we in trouble here.

Then, after the bath, little miss thing comes in here and sets up a Tea party for her, Belle and I. Like I said, "full of cuteness".

No More Pull Ups....

Well we think so anyway! We convinced Julia last night that she would be okay sleeping without a Pull Up on. I think she has been ready for this for awhile but she wasn't sure and neither was Daddy. (he's a bit over cautious;) But we decided it was time to find out. As she is often up in the night anyway, and rarely (like maybe once in the last month or so??!)wakes up wet, I was pretty sure she would be just fine. Just had to do a little convincing to her last night. But she did great! Woke up twice in the night,pretty typical of her, and went to the bathroom and right back to bed. So, we'll see how this goes. As of this morning, she was pretty darn proud of herself and let's face it, I was proud of her too! :)

****It should be Edited to add here that Julia has been daytime trained and in big girl underwear for some months now. The continued use of Pull Ups was for nap time and night time purposes only. Just a security precaution. Mostly I just wanted to be sure that she was really ready, one for the obvious reason of not being keen on changing sheets in the middle of the night and two for her self confidence. Happy to say that a week later she is still doing great!:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Make a Smilebox greeting

We've been doing crafts and getting ready for Valentine's Day around here. I have been thinking of my brother this week. He's getting married this weekend and we won't be able to be there to celebrate with them. He understands, we understand, but I don't think it means any of us have to like it very much. We're still hoping and planning a trip to Maine in the near future, but for now, my heart is there this week. :)

Things here go on the same. Julia wavers between the sweetest child around and the little monster that just won't quit pushing. The joys of a 3 year old! Most of the time her sweet side wins out. Today she just came running up to me and threw her arms around me for a hug. No reason, just to be sweet. I love hugs like that.

Julia and I watched Enchanted today, we haven't for quite awhile, but she didn't forget she had that Giselle dress. I couldn't resist the opportunity for some pictures.

So, an early Valentine for you all. Love and Hugs!!

Airplanes and beaches

Getting comfy watching an Ariel movie with Daddy, while Mama watched a scary movie on the big TV (rare treat for Mama!)

Very cool!

Never misses a photo op!

Posing with Daddy in front of the plane he used to work on. B-52.


Too cute and a bit too fascinated with the big guns. LOL


I'm told some of these are responsible for keeping me up at night.

Fighter pilot in training??? umm... we'll see.



Fun at the beach with Grammie and Grampa

Looking for sea shells with Grammie.


A little foot print in the sand.



We continued to have a good visit with Grammie and Grampa but they had to go home yesterday. Now it's back to the same ole' same ole'.. well, not quite...we got our home study approval yesterday!!! And all parties involved are making travel plans to bring Devyn home!! We should have a date very, very soon!! So we won't likely be slowing down much around here. ;)

Back to our last weekend with the grandparents, we did some more driving around, took them to the Armament Museum, very cool actually. Fortunately we had a nice day for that. We went from there down to check out some other area beaches. Grampa agrees with me and could quite easily just sit and watch the water, while Grammie and Julia were all about finding sea shells. I do have to tell you though, I know our sand can look like snow, but this one day, it "felt" like snow! I tend to wear crocs nearly year round but I hate how they fill with sand, so I go barefoot on the beach, wishing I'd had my tennis shoes that day!! It was very cold, as a matter of fact, there were people sitting in their beach chairs bundled up in winter coats..I didn't think it was quite that bad, but my feet were very cold. Never seems to phase my daughter though.

I'll be loading more pictures at dropshots, this is just a snap shot of our last weekend with the grandparents.

FINALLY

Chinese New Year

We had dinner tonight with our new FCC group. I say "new" because as you know we had to move and have to start all over with making these connections for Julia. We had a much better turnout than I think any of us had anticipated, so it was great!! I just wish we had had a bit more time to chat with each other, hopefully another time.

I loved how some of the other girls kept poking their heads into our side of the partition to watch the hibachi chefs, very cute! And we did manage to get a couple of group pictures, mine didn't come out great, I was off to the side a little and was afraid to move more towards the middle and have Julia lose me again, she'd already left the group once because she lost the older girls she was with, but I managed to snag this little girl in the pink shirt and asked Julia if she would be okay to stand with her, they both quickly agreed this was a great idea! So adorable!:)

The other picture is Julia using the chopsticks. She absolutely insisted on attempting this tonight and actually managed pretty well in her own way. LOL. I did help her a little, I found I was actually better at it than I thought. Ha ha.

Hopefully this will be the first of more get togethers with this group, there were several of us hoping to get more active. All in all a good night. And Julia loved wearing her "Chinese dress" as she put it. :)

More pictures at dropshots!

Getting to be a "Grampa's girl?"

"you taking my picture Mama?"

What you can't see, is Julia is actually walking with Grampa holding his hand! Trust me a BIG deal!

Sliding with Grampa's help



Spending a lazy Saturday morning with Daddy :)




Our visit is going well! Julia is loving having her grandparents here. Being "Grammie's girl" comes pretty easy to her (as probably Nai-Nai can also attest!) but getting closer to Grampa that takes building up to. She's doing better this time than ever before, of course it might help that Grampa was ready and willing to take her outside before anyone else, and helping her ride her new bike (pics of that to come later) didn't hurt either. But even after all of that, I asked her last night "Doesn't Grampa deserve a hug?" her answer "Yes".. Me--"are you going to give him one?" ... Julia.."NO". Little twerp! But he did tell me this morning she was hanging on his knees, so I'm sure the hugs will come by the end of their two week visit!

Grammie on the other hand is getting lots of hugs and loving it.

One other funny story before I forget. We got back from shopping the other day and made sandwiches for lunch. Julia had asked for peanut butter and Fluff.. so that's what I made her. We're sitting at the table eating and she comes out with.."Thank you for my sandwich Mama, it's very good" pause..."you're a GREAT cooker Mama!" To which OF COURSE my Mom and I both cracked up laughing (for those that don't know, I barely cook at all, I can bake, but cooking, that's all Daddy!) Julia looked at us and said "I made a funny?" Mom and I both still laughing, "yes honey, you made a BIG funny" But oh wasn't she sweet??!! :)

Leapster

A familiar sight around here lately, Julia engrossed in her Leapster. It has definitely been a favorite toy again since Christmas. Currently her favorite game has been the "Draw and Write" game. She's learned about colors, tracing, and has really worked on her fine motor skills with this game. And I no longer have to change games for her as she navigates through the system quite well! As you can see she is obviously having lots of fun. Daddy is getting braver about doing her hair, he did it this morning in pig tails. Not bad. :)

We laid pretty low so far this weekend, getting ready for Grammie and Grandpa to arrive this week. Daddy says he's going to finish painting, but he's currently napping, but we'll forgive him that as he does get shorted on sleep so much during the week. At least a certain munchkin's sleep has been better this week than last. Last week was a nightmare for all three of us, she has started to get back to what is at least a more normal pattern for her. So we're hoping that lasts and continues to improve again. Well we can hope right?

And for those interested, no new news on our home study. We hope to hear that it is complete this week. We'll let you know when we have a date of arrival for our little miss.

Brownie

We would like to introduce you to Brownie. Julia has finally named her horse and he is always with her. She's had him for some time now, since mid-August I'd say, and as you can plainly see he is very loved. The only times he gets left behind are in the van, he may go in the van but can not go to the store or where ever it is we are headed. She knows this and promptly drops him when it is time to get out, but wants him again as soon as climbing into her seat.

I've noticed this week that she has started to talk "through" Brownie. For instance if she sees something on TV that might be a little scary to her she won't say "I'm scared of that", she will say "Brownie is scared of that" and we'll talk about whatever "that" is. I think this is helping her express her feelings a little clearer than she had been, so we'll go with it for now, though I do always ask her if that is how she is feeling too.

Last night, I pulled her up for a hug and she said "Brownie loves loves" "Loves" by the way is what Julia says for hugs, usually the phrase is "hugs and loves", but she shortened it last night. Of course I told her that I love "loves" too.

She can be the sweetest child sometimes, okay most of the time.

New Header!

THANK YOU to Diane! You can thank her for the new look, no more boring title up top! I've been meaning to get around to learning how to do that for some time but never seemed to get back to it. So she did one for me! Wasn't that nice?? Well, I thought it was.

Busy around here

Somebody REALLY didn't want to put the Christmas decorations away.



Daddy finally hung the canopy!! YAY!


Playing with the "girls" in their new home.

Daddy has been busy, paint on Devyn's walls!

We plan on accenting around the window with some of the purple too:)


It has been super busy around here since New Year's. We've been busy getting the house ready for Devyn, Julia's still been busy playing with all her Christmas things. Her and I did take a day with the neighbors and the girls had a picnic lunch and played outside all afternoon. Good way to keep her out of Daddy's way while he painted Devyn's room. That and she just really deserved a break from all the house work that we have been doing and so subjecting her to being inside on these nice days. The girls tried out every outdoor toy we have I think.. well almost. The car got a workout going up and down the drive and around and around the circle. Trikes, bikes and scooters were all tried. And the adults got a workout with the wagon. Which by the way, will actually seat 3 if one is small enough to sit on the floor of it. They made it work. It was a good day. And actually helped recharge my battery too so I got so much more done yesterday.

Well this has been my break today though, so time to get back at it. Clearing away more clutter and with any luck actually getting some things hung on the walls!

My first Smilebox, this could get addictive!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Just a note on operating the "smilebox" the pages tend to flip pretty quickly, you may want to hit "pause" and go page by page. Be sure to click on the smaller pictures on each page, they all have a different part of the story. :) Just something I've been wanting to try for awhile and thought this would be a good time to do it. Hope you like.