Christmas photos...finally!

Katie had a wonderful Christmas, this was her 2nd actual one home with us. However, I do not believe she remembers the last as we had been home a total of 5 days at that point. It was a blur. She was overwhelmed. This year, oh this year, she really got into it!

She is VERY proud of the tiara, jewelry, princess wand/sceptor, and baby doll that she got from my extended family. VERY PROUD. She loves baby dolls and dress up! Thanks Grandma, Great-Aunt, and Mom!!!! :) I'm just sorry I didn't get photos of all of those gifts.

I will have to post various photos of the others, but I did not take very many photos over all. It was one of those kinds of Christmases...the kind to make memories by participating instead of making memories by being behind the camera lens and viewing it all through the viewfinder.

We drove and drove and drove...

but enjoyed all the time we got to spend with family over the Holidays. Unfortunately I left my "big" camera home, and left my point and shoot camera at my parents. No photos of our whirlwind Christmas trip. 5 states in 5 days.

If I never have to pack our van again, I'll be only too happy. Unfortunately our Disney vacation is coming up, and we're driving there. *sigh*

Good times were had by all, but I think the favorites for the week include:

Dh playing with my brother on Rock Band.
My brother flying his Havoc Heli and all of our efforts at crashing it.
Playing cards with my family, and losing at Canasta.
Watching Polar Express and Santa Clause snuggled up with the kids.
That darn gingerbread house.
Watching Katie play and perform using her new toys.

and for me, sleeping in! :)

Now, we're preparing for New Year's and those all important resolutions.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas filled with great joy, peace, and happiness. We hope you are able to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with those you love, and we hope for those who have lost loved ones this year that you are surrounded with comfort in this time of grieving as well.



This blogger is taking a break to focus on her family, spend time making memories to treasure, and bask in the love I get from those amazing little people I call my children.

Translation fun

"Wan HI Cheri!" = Katie wants to tell Cheri HI on the phone.

"Wan ju" = Katie wants a drink, usually juice, but could be anything.

"Wan shwee tea" = Katie wants sweet tea, and you better not mess it up.

"Be-a-ma" = what she calls Grandma, or anyone she happens to really like

"dju-dju" = what she calls my MIL (and it never goes to anyone else)

"Wan mil" = she wants her milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast in it

"Go Nigh-nigh" = she wants to go to bed, but not necessarily to sleep

"I sha-ree" = Katie is sorry.

"Ka-ee" = Katie

"Go way Shamul" = Go away Samuel

"Where goin Momma?" = Where are we going Momma?

"Wan bay-bee dah" = Katie wants her baby doll, which one we don't know as they are all called baby doll.

"Dat nummy" = that's yummy

"I like dat" = Katie likes something

"No mommy. Don' like dat." = Katie does NOT want anymore of whatever food I'm trying to give her as she doesn't like it at all.

"Nuffing" = her response now when she's chewing something and we ask what she has in her mouth. "Nuffing" Yeah as it's garbled around the chewing motion in her mouth! Typically she's found an M&M, gum, cookie, or other yummy treat.

This is just a short list...but "HI CHERI!!!" was all I've heard today.

Life is crazy

Update on the leak...we know it's not the siding, we know it's not where the siding meets the brick, we know it's not the window, we know it's not the roof, we know it's not the plumbing, and we think it's drainage in the yard that will only result in a leak into the house when we get more than 5 inches of rain in 24 hours.

That doesn't happen often, but we're going to get it looked into and hopefully fixed.

The carpet people are re-installing the pad and fixing the carpet tomorrow. The super duper carpet fan is being picked up tomorrow. The couch is being swapped out tomorrow.

If I weren't busy enough already, I have to package a client's order and deliver. I have to clean the house. I have to put my bedroom back together from where it's been out of sorts due to the carpet situation.

I want to bake and am contemplating the balance of baking cookies, how many will get eaten prior to us visiting family, how long the actual "food" would last if not devoured, and how much time I will have on my hands later in the week to do this task. It's an art I truly believe.

I won't bore you with details of the rest of the week, but suffice it to say I won't be seeing my husband from Wednesday through Sunday besides 1 hour in the evenings. He'll get home around 9-10pm each night though. The boys are participating in a fine arts festival (will post their entries afterward). I'm having some friends over for "crafts and play" time. *read MOMMY TALK TIME* It's going to be a whirlwind of the rest of the week for sure! I'm hoping we can get the rest of the stuff out of the storage building this Saturday as it would be nice to not have that payment and to know it's ALL in my house!!!!! *read no more having to save space for what is left in the storage building*

January....it should be less busy...right?

Want a Christmas Card?

I must have a mailing address, and if I don't have it by Friday...then I won't get them out before Christmas! :)

I moderate comments, and I promise NOT to post addresses, or you can send them to

snapshot006 at gmail.com



If I go over what I have printed, then it will be after Christmas before you get one. Sorry. :)


OH, and just in case you were wondering...if you THINK I have your address I hope you realize that moving boxes EAT address books.


Leaving you with this vision of cuteness!

Mermaid Party

I have a friend.

Yes I do...I really do.

This friend outdoes herself in the creativity department, and she has the best taste. See, Katie gets a vast majority of her clothes from this friend who has a little girl who just turned 3 (this means Katie and she will be in the same grade).

Yes, Katie is a full year plus behind her friend L in clothing. ;)

Katie was not too sure about this whole birthday thing.


Do you SEE this cake?! Isn't my friend just over the top awesome at themed parties?!


Poor Katie...not too sure about a normal sized fork. LOL


This party for 3 year olds (plus Katie) was short, sweet, and the 4 girls played beautifully together. They had a tea party. They dressed up. They played tea party (yes again). It was just right. It still wore Katie out though!

The theme was "Mermaids" and my friend gave a mermaid "tail" costume as a favor. She ordered it on Etsy, and I will definitely have to get a good photo of it!

25 days of Christmas meme

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Depends on the object, if it's a box, I like wrapping paper. If it's odd shape, then gift bag.

2. Real tree or Artificial? We have artificial, although I love the look & smell of real tree...just not the hassle.

3. When do you put up the tree? day after Thanksgiving if not earlier! It HAS to be after Halloween though

4. Do you like eggnog? Never had any

5. Favorite gift received as a child? Cabbage Patch kid

6. Hardest person to buy for? Parents.

7. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.

8. Do you have a nativity scene? 2 I believe...no 3. One "foam and felt" hanging one, one Playmobile set, and one nice set.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December 26

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Grandma's Squash Casserole

15. What decorations are on your tree? Nice one, Grandma's stars, plastic ornaments...upstairs one kids ornaments (hand made), plastic ornaments, and multicolor shorted out strings...so it's not being lit these days

16. Favorite Christmas song? This Baby

17. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? It rotates on a 3 year schedule. :)

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Pracer, and Vixen. Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen...and Rudolph!

19. Angel on top of tree or star? Both...one up and one down.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Depends on where we are!

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? crowds

22 What theme or color are you using when you decorate? whatever strikes my fancy

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? didn't I already answer this? squash casserole

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? nothing really.

Story of water in my carpet.

So, when you move into a brand new home (as in you picked out colors, carpet, brick color, siding color, the whole shebang and watched it be built), you also have to be prepared for "quirky" things. Someone else has not ever lived in this house, and so the kinks have to worked out by you. It's why most newly built homes have a 1 year warranty. ;) I'm pretty "go with the flow" on the house stuff.

To lead into this, I must start with..."we had rain."

That's almost like Noah telling his grandchild, "then it rained."

As in, yesterday we got an "official" 1.43 inches of rain, bringing our total for the month to 7.5 inches. To put that in perspective, I think we got 7.5 inches in 6 months last year...if that. Most of our monthly "averages" for rainfall are around 1.5 inches. Yeah. IT RAINED.

It rained Wednesday and Thursday pretty much NON-STOP, if you count the drizzly misting rain we had sporadically. Tuesday night I did not sleep in our bed, I fell asleep on the couch. I was reading an awesome fluffy romance novel and could not put it down. 3am rolls around and I finish and just go to sleep there on the couch. Not to mention, I had 3 under the bed boxes stacked by my side of the bed, the contents of another box at the foot of the bed, and not a great way to get IN bed other than this one spot that was the width of my foot.

Wednesday night I decided I really should sleep in my bed, and did so. Thursday morning I crawled out of the foot of the bed to go get Katie and bring her back to bed with me. Remember that 3am night Tuesday night? Yeah. So, Katie wakes up around 8:30 and the boys get up around 9am. Sometime in there I decide I really should get up with the kids. I sit up, and instead of crawling out the foot of the bed I place my foot in the one spot on my side of the bed that it could go. I stand up.

SQUISH! Water pools up over my toes.

Now, my first thought is "What in the heck did Katie spill?!"

Then I took another step. "SQUISH!!"

My brain started working here and I realized that this could NOT be a Katie spill. Then I realized it was coming out from under our WOOD furniture. Yeah...the pieces of wood furniture piled up with table top picture frames, books, Bibles, artwork, etc.

LOVELY. I start the phone call process of trying to deal with this, while keeping Katie out of it. I move stuff. I move furniture. I listen to it rain some more. I walk in the rain and check and can't see a puddle (freshly sodded dormant grass squares hide a lot of drainage issues). I talk to the warranty people. I meet a warranty guy to look at the problem. I check the water meter when all water is NOT running in the house (it wasn't spinning so doubtful it was a leak).

Now, to give you a heads up. We live in a two story house. Our bedroom is on the bottom floor on a slab foundation. The wet spot was ON THE FIRST FLOOR.

They had the roofers come out to check for a roof leak. Yeah...2 floors and the ONLY spot that is wet is on the floor?! Roofers confirmed that the spot in our carpet was NOT caused by a roof leak, but they did find another leak and fixed it.

Friday the warranty inspector guy came back out and took off the baseboards/toe kick of the cabinets to verify there was NOT a leak from the pipes and plumbing. There was not. The carpet people came out and started the process of removing/repairing the carpet. The carpet people were the ones to suggest that it was a drainage related issue from outside as they have seen this kind of "wet spot" before...granted not quite as big, but we did get a LOT of rain.

That's the water in my carpet story. Just another adventure of moving into a new home. :) Also the reason our master bedroom will NOT be "settled" until after Christmas now.

50 things about me!

50 random things about you! If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 50 things about your friends, and let them learn 50 things about you!

1. Do you like cheese? yes, perhaps a little too much.

2. Have you ever smoked? NO!

3. Do you own a gun? No, but we have thought about getting one.

4. Do you like listening to Christmas music? Yes...and I'm upset that I can not find my Christmas music since we moved. NOT a good time to lose it!

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? depends on the appointment, but I'm never "calm"

6. What do you think of hot dogs? eh...I can do without them....much prefer johnsonville brats

7. Favorite Christmas song? This Baby

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Dr. Pepper

9. Can you do push ups? Yes. Unless you are asking if I can do more than one...then I am not sure.

10. Who is your favorite Grey's Anatomy Character? ummm, I don't watch it. Shocking I know.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? wedding ring/engagement ring

12. Favorite hobby? hobbies?? I don't have time for hobbies. But if I did....ummm.....what did I do before I got so busy? Oh yeah, I took photos as a hobby. ;)

13. Do you eat "exotic" foods? What's exotic? I like Chinese, Thai, Japanese, and...a few other more mainland things.

14. Do you have A.D.D.? I'm guessing so, not officially.

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? Self-esteem

16. Middle Name? Marie

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I'm procrastinating on editing a session. I have a very busy day tomorrow. I want to finish reading my book.

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday? As it's 12:16am on Friday, I'm going with Thursday - diapers, candy for the class party, gift bags

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper, water

20. Current worry right now? more than I should be...economy, settling into our house, water leaks in the house, the kids, etc.

21. Current hate? the water in my bedroom carpet

22. Favorite place to be? Walt Disney World, or China, or home, or visiting family....

23. How did you bring in the New Year? over at a friends house playing games with the kids (to bring in 2008 and will do the same for 2009...same friends even!)

24. Where would you like to go? Back to China! :)

25. Name three people who will complete this? I have no idea.

26. Do you own flip flops? Yes, and I practically lived in them this summer.


27. What shirt are you wearing? a t-shirt

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? never had any, but I'm guessing no.

29. Can you whistle? Sort of.

30. Favorite color? purple

31. Would you be a pirate? Perhaps, if it could be a "cool" one like in Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but if it were like they really existed then No.

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? none. If you ever heard my singing voice you'd understand!

33. Favorite girl's name? Katelyn

34. Favorite boy's name? this one is not fair....I have 2 boys! ;)

35. What's in your pocket right now? I'm wearing sweatpants right now.

36. Last thing that made you laugh? my kids

37. Best bed sheets as a child? Is it bad that I can't remember?

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Injury? Hm...stitches where I almost cut the end of my finger off I would have to say.

39. Do you love where you live? Yes.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2

41. Who is your loudest friend? Loudest? Oh I'm not sure I want to write this one down! ;)

42. How many dogs do you have? None.

43. Does someone have a crush on you? I hope my husband does.

45. What is your favorite book? currently it'd have to be Twilight (the entire 4 books), of all time...I'm just not sure. I loved Gone with the Wind, the Harry Potter Series, the Babylon 5 fiction, the Xanth fantasy series, Jane Eyre, Wrinkle in Time series, Little Women, and oh so many more favorites!

46. What is your favorite candy? banana foster doves, or dark chocolate dove with caramel

47. Do you know all the words to the Fresh Prince theme song? I know more than I should, and if it were playing I probably could sing along.

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? oooh...this is a tough one.

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? editing a session, or was I ordering? I can't remember. I was on the computer, doing something to photos in photoshop!

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? ewwww, there's water squishing between my toes on the carpet!!! (i.e. not something you want to wake up to)

1 year ago

1 year ago, Xi Xiao Lan was placed in our arms in a cold apartment like building down an alley in Kunming, China. It seemed like such an incogruous location for such momentuous occasions as adoption. But, that civil affairs building was the place where she became Katie.




I often look back over the photos and I see now just how frightened she was. I see the terror. I see the sadness and grief. It breaks my heart so much that I struggle to just see those images now. I love them for what they represent, but I hurt for the pain she was feeling, pain that we caused. I feel guilt over that pain. Yet, I love this girl so much and so thankful we took that leap of faith to say yes to having the chance to be her family.






(this one is from April, so 4+ months with us and we were getting lots of smiles, true smiles)


I think of her foster mother often, how much she had to go through to release this precious fiesty little girl back to the orphanage to be adopted by us. I know she was well loved by this foster family, and I know that this anniversary carries sad memories for them. I wish with all my heart that the orphanage there would allow us contact with the foster families. I would love to give them an update on our little girl. I know that their love, their affection, has helped her to become wonderfully attached to us. The foster family loved Katie fully and had to have deep grief. Katie herself grieved heavily, so heavily that it has taken this entire year before we have fully seen her personality. We have had to be very aware of attachment, bonding, and grief processes. Katie took a long time getting around to trusting us and loving us, but we're there. I know we still have work to go in this, but we know she's attached to us.

We still see this self-soothing technique.

But it often quickly turns into her showing us her personality!


For example, we did not get our first hug that we initiated until she'd been with us about 6-8 weeks. It took another 4 months before she would initiate a hug. It took her about 8 weeks to throw a temper tantrum when we told her no to something. It took her almost 12 weeks to "talk back" to us and disagree. It took 10 months for her give us a kiss. She still does not cuddle well, but she will sit in our laps (or beside us). It took months before she would let us out of her sight in the house. Those early months I knew she was trying to please us, and I could see that she was still fearful of us leaving her. I can mostly only see it for certain in looking back at the photos we have. I documented as much as I possibly could of her transistion, and today I can see how very slowly that adjustment to us took.


It's been an incredible journey, one I would love to do again. I do not know if we will ever go back to China to adopt another child, but at this point I hope we can. Katie is the center of attention in our family so often, and everyone in our family loves on her. I love seeing how well she has fit in, and it seems like she has always been a part of our family. We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Quirky houses

One of the fun things about moving into a new home is learning the "quirks" of that home. You would think with a new home that you watched be built, there would be few quirks. Yes, there probably are fewer quirks, but we still have them.

Take Saturday evening for example. I decided to vacuum the bonus room upstairs. I had the Christmas tree plugged in, the space heater going (another quirk of that room), and the vacuum. It's a woefully empty room at the moment. :) I made it about halfway across the room, and then everything stopped. I'd flipped the breaker.

Great. "Electrical problem?"

I entered my "tester" mode, and recreated it with exact same set of circumstances. Yep, tripped the breaker again. Tried a 3rd time, this time timing things. It happens in about 3 minutes. Flipped it again. Then, I tried a different outlet for the vacuum cleaner. Tripped it again. Dh decided to try it with JUST the vacuum cleaner (he's the enginerd), and it didn't trip. Added in the space heater, and it didn't trip.

My bonus room carpet is probably the MOST vacuumed carpet on the planet at the moment.

Plugged in the tree. We tripped it. Hmmm....the tree? We tested a different outlet with the tree lights (couldn't find the outlet tester). Yep, tripped it again. Dh watched the lights the next time, and we think the lights actually have a short in the wire and that our "quirky" upstairs room is actually fine on electrical loads.

I hope so, but I really don't want to take down the tree, re-string the tree, JUST to test the lights.

We're compromising. No plugging in that tree, and doing other electrical things in that room (turning on a TV, playing games, plugging in lamps, running that vacuum again). After Christmas, we'll buy 3 strands of lights and string them together to test the lights theory. At least I don't have to re-decorate a tree again.

Kids and the economy

I do not truly know how much my kids know about what is going on in the economy, nor do I fully know how much they understand about our personal finances. But I recently read an article online from Mary Hunt talking about kids and the economy. She had some rather good points in it.

The following was my favorite part, that lightbulb moment if you will:

"Rather than telling your kids, “We can’t afford that,” say, “We don’t choose to spend our money in that way.” Now you have delivered a positive message that you have money but you make intelligent choices about how to spend it. That makes kids feel safe. It tells them that their parents are protecting them. When you say “We cannot afford this or that or to go here or there,” kids hear, “We are poor. If we weren’t so poor we could have this or that and go here or there.” They quickly assume that money is the key to happiness. If we just had enough money we could be perfectly happy."


I grew up with "We can't afford that" and that is what I tend to tell my own kids when they ask for that pack of chewing gum. I never had a good response as to why we couldn't afford the chewing gum but could afford the bag of chocolates. KWIM? I have also observed that the kids are becoming more interested in having money, and that if they had MORE money they'd be better off than they are now. That thought process I've been seeing has been disturbing me, and I think we finally have a good idea of what to change in ourselves to change their outlooks on money.

I hope at least.

Because, really, personal finances are all about choices and I want the kids to know we're making choices not reacting to what we do or do not have in our bank account. What we choose to spend our money on, what we choose to not spend our money on. Whether the times of choosing are lean or flush times. I want them to start realizing that they too are making choices on what they spend money on, and I want them to hopefully make intelligent choices (well, at least think their choices through). So, if you see this Momma mumbling to her kids while grocery shopping, just pass on by when you hear "I am choosing to purchase this box of generic cheerios instead of the brand name one because that means we can also buy that bag of chocolate...."

;)

internet and birthday

Almost 2 weeks without internet. AND PHONE! It was rough. It really and truly was. The worst part was the twitching, it kept me up at night. I couldn't sleep. I read books, well, okay ONE set of books over and over and over. I've decided I'm getting my name changed.

Okay, maybe not.

But we finally did get internet back today. Luckily we still had our Voice Over IP phone so I also got phone. Otherwise, it would be until the 15th of December before we got phone back. I don't want to even attempt to describe how I would have looked at that point. Or most likely, how the cell phone overage minutes would have looked. NOT pretty people as we're currently at least 100 minutes over. Yes, and that's at 45 cents a minute. *faint*

I guess it will be Rice and Beans, Beans and Rice for dinner a few nights....or a month worth of dinners.

However, in EVEN BIGGER NEWS.....


JM turned 10 years old today! My baby. My little itty bitty baby turned 10 years old. How did he get to be a DECADE old? He's in double digits. *sniff* I remember holding him for the 2nd time like it was yesterday.

Yes, I said 2nd time. What of it? Huh? I was crazy drugged from the general anesthetic the first time Dh placed JM in my arms (while keeping his own securely fastened around my arms so I didn't drop the cute itty bitty baby). I was almost half asleep, and it had been hours since delivery. Dh wanted me to hold him before anyone else and visitors were coming....and well...I don't remember much beyond what is in pictures now. So, yes, I remember the 2nd time I held him! :) It was actually December 5th, but like just after midnight and JM was quickly approaching 24 hours old at the time. *sniff* See, he was already growing up too fast at that point.

My cute itty bitty baby is now this almost 5 foot tall 80ish pound boy....who is quickly approaching "young man" status. He has less than 6 inches to go before he's taller than me. He loves science. He adores thrill rides. He's the best big brother I've ever seen. He's a great kid. He really is. I just can not believe he is 10. Wasn't he just 2 years old? Like yesterday?

When he was 1:


November 2008:

It's cold out there!

Want to know HOW cold?

a little bit ago we saw some white fluffy things falling from the sky.

I yelled at the kids, "HEY LOOK OUTSIDE!!!!"

We watched in wide-eyed wonder for the 15 minutes the white fluffy things fell. I had to remind the kids, "It won't stick." But it was beautiful to behold. I wonder if that will qualify for our "snow" this year?

Still no internet. 1.5 weeks, and it also means NO phone. I miss talking to my friends!