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.

**HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!**

Entranced and trying to stay warm while watching the fireworks earlier tonight. They were having fireworks at 8 to start off the night and then again at midnight. With munchkin we thought it best to do the 8 o'clock ones and get her back in where it was warm. She loved the fireworks, and then it was home to have some ice cream and watch the ball drop in Time Square. Not a bad way to spend New Year's Eve in our opinion. A little colder than we were hoping for tonight, wouldn't have been bad but the wind was quite cold for here!

We had a heck of a 2008! A move, 2 trips to Ohio, a trip to CT to meet Devyn with a stop in SC to visit old friends for a grand total of (are you ready for this?? I'm not certain I was) approximately 8838.27 miles and 143.4 hours logged in the car this year! 2009 should be slightly less than that we hope. ;) But we wouldn't have traded one trip. It's not a wonder Julia never wants to go home after getting in the van, she expects hotels! LOL!

We thank you for sharing with us this busy year of 2008, and wish you all only the best and every blessing in 2009!!

***Fun and Not So Fun**

She even likes to help do housework in her new shoes.

Funny thing is she refuses to be anywhere near the sweeper when it's running, UNLESS she's the one running it. lol

And the not so fun part, she caught Daddy's cold:(

So since Daddy felt so bad, he set her up with a snack, a cup, tissues, blanket, etc and let her watch "Belle".

Even sick she's still got lots of smiles.


Well, as you can see, Julia is sick. Poor baby's nose is all stuffy. This is so rare for her that I think it caught us all off guard. She's not quite sure how to act with not feeling good. She still wants to bounce and sing, and the singing part is especially hard with a stuffy nose. Here's hoping that she kicks it quick!

One funny from the other day. Getting ready to go out Julia wanted to take her bucket with her. Yes, I know an odd request, but she had been carrying it around all day filling it up with little things, so she asked Daddy, "Can I take my bucket?" Daddy replies "Why? Are you a Bucket-head?" Julia.. "NO, I'm a PRINCESS!" in a completely offended voice that she should even have to explain that to Daddy! LOL! She is really too much sometimes!

***Pics for Aunt Kim and Uncle Joel***














Julia was very excited yesterday when the mailman brought more presents! Here she is checking them all out, intently. :) Thanks Aunt Kim and Uncle Joel you always know just what to get.

And then a couple more shots tonight in the wagon. You can see she's already decided the other seat needs to be occupied and the horse still needs to be in front to pull it. LOL. Looking for my other cable to get the video onto the PC tonight if I can, but not sure, wasn't expecting to have to look for a cable. But we do have some really cute video of her yesterday morning playing with her dollhouse. She has quite the imagination and I'm sure will enjoy it for some time to come. Thank you all for making her holiday special, I know we couldn't be with any of you this year but you were all in our thoughts and prayers and hearts.

***MERRY CHRISTMAS****





Decorating Gingerbread cookies for Santa


PRESENTS!


Excitement!






Santa brought DRESSES!









PRINCESS DRESSES!







Lots of them!





































Cinderella's still my favorite though! Look he even brought glass slippers!;)










Grammie and Grampa I think my wagon makes a great carriage!












Serious business putting make-up on, but Aunt Alissa she loves the vanity! I think it may have gotten the best immediate reaction!




What a busy couple of days huh? I spent all day yesterday wrapping and almost made it without getting busted. Yep, that's an "almost" there. I went to the other end of the house to wash my hands after decorating cookies last night with Julia, specifically so she wouldn't want to go in my room. Well apparently she thought I was in my room after all and waltzed right in, all I heard was a gasp, and "Daddy, Mama's room's got lots of presents!" AAHHH! But everything was wrapped and Santa hadn't come yet so she just knows I wrapped presents from us and from Papa and Nai-Nai, Grammie and Grampa and so on. LOL. But boy was it hard to get her to bed after finding those! We had deliberately not had presents out all week because I have no doubt they would have been opened, at least one every morning, if we had. Oh well.

We did have lots of fun decorating cookies and Julia and Daddy had a pretty good day hanging out together while I was busy. Somehow she did make it into our room this morning (her usual 4 am time I think) and didn't stop to check out presents then.. though she slept very lightly til 8:30, waking up every hour or so and whispering to Daddy "can we get up now?" LOL. She tore through the presents pretty quickly and has been happily playing ever since. Oh and Cinderella is definitely still a favorite, though I think it came down to the shoes, glass slippers you know are pretty neat, she is still wearing the Cinderella dress.

Well, we've got to go work on putting a doll house together. I'll try to load the videos later but there are a few more pictures at Dropshots.

Merry Christmas all!

** Messes***

I know it was inevitable, especially with as interested in my makeup as Julia is, but goodness what a MESS! The sneaky little munchkin got past us with my "warmth" from bare minerals into the living room. Yep, Daddy went to check on her and it was all over the carpet, naturally couldn't do that on the tile, had to be the light colored carpet. Of course she had to use the darkest container of makeup I own! He's gone out to get a Rug Doctor as my steam cleaner is missing pieces (of course). Sigh.. not how I was planning on spending my day.. that's for sure.



** Update* The stain did come out, and since we had the machine rented anyway, Ray went ahead and did pretty much the whole house. Such a good dad and husband! And he did it all in about 3 hours. At least it's all done now. Not the way we planned on spending that evening but done is done. :)

***A Christmas Surprise***






















































We took Julia into a neighboring town tonight for a surprise. We told her that we were going to see Santa *which we did, but no pics, I'll explain that later* but didn't tell her that we were going to go for a ride in Cinderella's carriage! You all know, or can simply look below for evidence of her fascination with horses, but this is really the first time she's seen one up close and personal. The look on her face when the carriage pulled up was PRICELESS! Literally, her eyes popped and her jaw dropped, and then the smile came out that just didn't quit. Well worth it. And we had such a nice ride in the down town area, with carolers out and about, one house was decorated as the Gingerbread house from the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" complete with the witch that we helped them turn into a mouse. Our driver was concerned at first that this part might frighten our munchkin, we assured her that it wouldn't. And we were so right. The older couple with us were just cracking up as Julia announced "we turned the witch into a MOUSE!" LOL. Then there was the Polar Express house, this was the only other time we got Julia to look away from the horse, she spent most of the ride trying to inch her way up onto the driver's seat and I'm sure if she'd gotten there, she would have continued trying to inch her way right onto the horse!

By the way, that's not snow or rain in the pictures, that's fog! And a lot of it, but I think it helped with the atmosphere. :) The only way we got away from "Molly" (the horse) was by going to see Santa. And that was going well, waiting in line she told me she was going to ask Santa for a dress for Christmas (wait til she sees what he is planning on bringing!) and no, I didn't coach her for that at all! That was simply what she wanted to ask him for. Sadly we got right to Santa and she thought the elf was going to take her from me and she flipped. We walked away, calmed down and tried again, but nothing doing. She did sit next to Santa with Daddy in the sleigh but not long enough for any pictures and wouldn't look at the camera "guy" at all. Sigh. She finally told us in the van on the way home that it was because the kids and people were all looking at her. So guess that made her nervous. :( But she did get worried on the way home and wanted to go back because Santa wouldn't know she wanted a dress. To which we reassured her that it was okay, Santa understood she was scared and he would still know what she wanted for Christmas. I think there was an audible sigh of relief at that point.

So a busy night. Full of ups and downs. But it was a very good time and I think the horse still wins out over everything else in her book! We are thinking that we'll go check out the Zoo another night here soon, we noticed it was really well lit up on the way home and think she'll enjoy that too. :)