First Purchase

I just wanted to show off my very first purchase for our nursery....I've already picked out my bedding and this is going to go perfectly with it! :)

Happy Birthday Princess!

Dear Princess, I cannot believe it's been 7 years since you were born!

Your extra day in the hospital had us bring in a new year in the hospital room but it was the best new year's gift ever! We found ways to pass the time before you became better and we could go home....

Your "bubbe" fell head over heels immediately!

Such a little doll

Then you started moving and I had to be on my toes from then on! :)

You've always liked to take things into your own hands....like your haircuts...not once...

but twice!

You take after your mom and are one spunky little girl!

Your fashion sense has always made me laugh...a battle I gave up on a long time ago.

Through medical mishaps and mysteries, you are always the trooper

You've always had a heart for service and have wanted to help in any way you could for as long as I can remember.

I love you sweet precious girl! You are truly a light in my life and your laughter and happiness is contagious. Happy Birthday!

(Even if one day late!)

The Day After

The day after Christmas we joined my family at my mom's for breakfast and opening of presents. We still have the tradition of showing up in our jammies so forgive some of the very tired faces. We like to feel like we woke up at her house even though we drive 5 minutes down the road to get there. :)

My brother-in-law Jeramy with the cutest elf ever!!

Goo-Goo and Papaw gave everyone blankets and all the kids bean bags. They were great to cozy up to while enjoying more coffee. Yes, hubs is still very tired...Christmas Eve seems to wear out all the parents...I don't know why? :)

All the boys cuddled up in their blankets ready to get the show on the road!

These next pictures have a very lengthy story behind them that I won't get in to but my brother found some Bigfoot costumes and gave them to all the boys. He has one himself but I didn't get a pic of that. :)

First there was one.....

Then there were two....

They grew to three...

and captured the Princess! :)

Later that evening, my aunt, uncle and two cousins came into town and we headed to my grandparents house for more eating and opening.

Jaden with my mom (Goo-Goo)

My aunt Becky with Ms. Jacee

Jacee checking out her first doll...she talked!!

Brother and Seester

Princess in her pretty Christmas dress

And I have to say that I am so pleased at how supportive my family has been. Even though it wasn't discussed very much, the fact that we are adopting was very clear in some of the gifts we got. It shows that we aren't the only ones that are thinking and preparing for this new little one and that makes me smile.

My aunt got us these books: two of them have great pictures and are great for the kids to read and the other is a very informative guide for us parents.

My parents gave us new sturdy luggage because ours is falling apart.

And my brother gave us this awesome picture frame that isn't necessarily for the adoption but will be great to put in pictures of our newest addition and us as a growing family.

So we have one more Christmas to go and was even able to squeeze in some celebration for Princess' birthday yesterday as well. This time of year is crazy but crazy fun. :)

More Christmas

We are finally slowing down a little bit from Christmas. All of our decorations are put away and my house is back in some form of order. But before I move past our Christmas chaos, I need to share some of my favorite memories. :)

On Christmas afternoon, we went to my in-laws house to eat and open with them.

My nephew Kadon loved the train we got him

Little Man was beyond excited about all the football cards Giddy bought him

Princess practiced her superstar jams with her new paper guitar

Good visiting was had by my hubby and his grandmother

I talked my hubby into one picture by the tree to show off our t-shirts. We wore them this day to represent our future child that was with us in our hearts.

Then we got a full concert from the four big grand kids showcasing their paper jam skills

We had a great evening with lots of good food and fun. It was also good to see my father-in-law after having surgery five days previous feeling well enough to participate with us and join in the fun. :)

Moments to Treasure

Well yesterday didn't turn out exactly as planned....my cookies flopped, my smores bars flopped, my french toast souffle flopped....but we had a good day regardless. My hubby came home around lunch and we played on our new dance game on the wii and then decided to go ahead and open presents with just us four.

Little Man's favorite was a new jersey...this was hard to spend money on but that's the thing you do for your kids.

I think one reason their daddy pushed for opening presents early so much is because this thing has been barking underneath our tree for over a week now. I'm glad Princess likes it.

Then we attended our Christmas Eve service at our church and the kids got to get on stage and participate for two songs since they are on the kids praise team. I love that my kids get the real reason for celebrating Christmas and know that it's something to be thankful for every day and not just on December 25th. I am one proud mama.

Don't you think those reindeer antlers are cute? She only wore them for one song and Mrs. Amy let us bring them home. Yay!

After the service we went and looked at more lights and headed home to get ready for Santa! We ended up all crawling in our bed watching old Christmas cartoons until Princess fell asleep on her daddy's lap and Little Man could hardly keep his eyes open.

However...you know the saying....early to bed, early to rise! Before the sun came up, Little Man was in our room telling us all about what Santa brought them! Princess wasn't awake yet so it was fun to be able to watch her come in and see her reaction to her stuff. Priceless!

Her favorite thing Santa brought her was an American girl doll. She got one last year that looked like her, but this year she asked for one that looks like her future little brother or sister. :)

Little Man's favorite is his Colts helmet! He also got an Adrian Peterson figurine but I've shown enough Vikings stuff in this post already so you'll just have to imagine. :)

Santa did something a little different this year and left all their toys in tee pees. The kids loved that!

Bubba helping his sister with her new DS

I may never get her out of there! She told me she "moved" in. Haha!

So now we are enjoying some down time before heading over to my in-laws and having Christmas with them. I hope you're having a fantabulous day and I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas!

Walnuts and Rice

Last year at my Bible study a wonderful woman did an illustration with walnuts and rice that has stuck with me through this Christmas season. It was showing how if you fill your jar with all the "stuff" that the busyness of the season holds (example: parties, gift buying, etc.) then the most important stuff (ex: Bible study, family time, etc.) doesn't fit. But then she showed how if you fill your jar with the most important things first, all the other "stuff" falls into place without shoving out the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. I've really tried to stick to this philosophy to see if it helps with my stress level this season. I love Christmas time and traditions, cooking and decorating, wrapping, and creating. I just don't care for the stress that it tends to cause.

So one new tradition I wanted to start this year is to go shopping for our "special family" like we do every year but end the night by going and looking at Christmas lights. There is one neighborhood in town where almost every house decorates so I thought it would be fun to let the kids have a picnic in the back of the car while we slowly drove around. (Notice I said slowly...like not above 10 mph....don't turn me in.)

Our picnic included deer sausage, cheese, crackers and cinnamon apples; topped off with a stop by Starbucks for hot chocolate.

They loved it!!

Lots and lots of lights!

Then December took a strange turn and my sister had a gallbladder attack and had surgery three days later. While as terrible as that was, we got to keep my niece all day which wasn't terrible at all. My kids ADORE her and it was great practice. :) (I think she's pretty great too!)

So between trying to help her finish her Christmas list, making homemade gifts, already having two Christmas' back to back, and my father-in-law having surgery this Monday; my December has flown by. But, trying to stay true to what I learned last year, we took off from wrapping and gift making on Wednesday to create gingerbread trains with my nephews at my moms house. They were really cute but definitely something that I hope gets better with practice. :) They were pre-built sets but when you have four kids and only two sets of adult hands, it makes for not many pictures but a whole lot of fun.

Princess did a great job on hers!

Little Man was slightly meticulous with his....no surprise there.

When we got home I placed the trains on the kitchen table, the kids left to shop with their dad, and I headed out to the school house turned craft room to work on some more projects. Meanwhile, our darling little dog took full advantage of our busyness and helped herself to Little Man's train. ARGH! She carried it across the house and munched down.

Oh well, the sets were old anyway and not worth eating so I hope she learned her lesson!! Now all our homemade gifts are complete, wrapping is caught up and I am bound and determined to do nothing but play with my kids tomorrow. I hope I get to share some great pictures with you! Enjoy your Christmas Eve!