Rockin'

Brynn is rockin! She loves her new guitar. And it is quiet. Score one for the parents!!

The final day

We had the day after Christmas off and went shopping. Grammy Jean had given Brynn money and Brynn wanted a computer. We love Leap Frog products and Brynn saw the Click Start. Brynn was really interested in it because she loves typing on my computer keyboard. She bought it with her money and brought it home and played with it for hours. Today I am going to buy some other games to go with it. Hope I can find some!!

It's Christmas Day!!!

We woke Brynn up around 7:45. She wasn't too thrilled until she realized we were telling her that Santa had come. She ran out into the living room and found this:



She then started on her stocking and found a ton of Hello Kitty stuff, candy and bracelets.




They had Santa's Workshop at school and Brynn bought Daddy a baseball that said Number 1 Dad. Plus, she autographed it.




Now, I can help Daddy finish the basement.





Playing Hopscotch



Look at my new robe and slippers. Love them!!



Me rocking with my new guitar in my Hello Kitty outfit




Helping Pappy unwrap his presents.



We ended the evening very quietly--just the 3 of us enjoying the peace and playing with the new toys.

I can't begin to say how blessed we are. We have a wonderful family of three and an amazing extended family that truly love us. We really didn't need anything else.

Christmas--Day 4

Can you believe we still have more days of Christmas? We went to my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas Eve. Brynn helped pass out the presents






Until she finally got to unwrap her presents:






She got an art kit, Travel Aquadoodle (which will be great for car trips and our vacation to Florida), a couple of stuffed animals and candy. My family is so sweet.

After our church's Christmas Eve service, we went back to Aunt Norma's house for a final snack before heading home to get Santa's milk and cookies ready. We had to leave the reindeer carrots, of course.




Finally of to bed for one sweet girl so that Santa can come.

Sunday--Day 3 of Christmas

Thanks goodness this was a day of rest for us. We went to church where of course Brynn got a present. We then came home and I started the food for Christmas Eve after all of us took long deserved naps. We were sick with colds that we still have today. Rest was definitely needed if we were going to tackle the next 3 days!!

Saturday--Day 2 of Christmas

Our day started with Kevin's Christmas party. His employer always has such a nice party for the kids.

Balloon animals and hats, caricaturist, a magician, and ,of course, Santa:








The day ended at Cousin's Isabella and Sofia's house. Brynn always loves playing with them. And the chaos was wonderful.





These are some of the Great Grandchildren on Kevin's mom's side.

Let's start with Friday...

I'm going to blog according to the days of Christmas. Brynn's Christmas started Friday evening when I got home with a present from someone that I work with. Needless to say, Cootie was played all evening in our house!

Merry Christmas to All

Nice Kitty?

I found this picture ironic. Our TT is anything but a nice kitty, which is what Brynn's shirt says.



This is what I was actually trying to get a picture of. This is one of my favorite pictures of her this Christmas. Isn't she a doll?

Brynn's New PJs

Brynn got a Pajama Gram. They are too cute. There wasn't a card, but I am pretty sure that they were from my wonderful aunt and uncle in Texas. They come in a little dog house like box with a puppy dog. Brynn could not wait to put them on, so yes, she wore them last night. Thanks to my wonderful aunt and uncle. She adores them. And we got a taste of how wonderful Christmas is really going to be.

The Festival of Lights

Wednesday night we went on a driving tour of lights that a local park puts up every year. Brynn was really excited the entire way. We were pointing out Christmas lights on eerything-the houses, the cars, the semis. They were all Christmas lights according to Brynn. The minute we pull into the park, Brynn falls asleep. Literally, the minute we pulled in. So we parked and walked thru the cold night to wake her up. They had a garden of flowers that were actually lights and they turned on and off according to the accompanying music. It was actually pretty neat. Brynn loved the dinosaurs, snowmen, and Cinderalla's castle. It was actually nice to do something that was just the 3 of us. That doesn't happen very often.

Our weekend

We had such a great time over the weekend making some candies for Christmas- Buckeyes, Oreo Balls, and Chocolate Dipped Pretzels. Our Oreo Balls look more like white logs and the Buckeyes are not perfectly round, but they all still taste pretty good. Brynn loves to do stuff like this. But who doesn't like to dip anything into chocolate? It's always a shame when you get it all over your hands.

The weekend didn't start too well as Jean's basement flooded again. This is the second time in 6 months. Kevin and Brynn were already there by the time I got home. We cleaned up hundreds of gallons of water and finished the night with left over pizza. What a way to start a weekend.

Sunday was pretty good though as we went to our former pastor's house. We see them every couple of months and Brynn loves, loves, loves Miss Pat, the pastor's wife. They are so good to her. It was a nice way to end a weekend--sitting around visiting with people and eating stuff you really shouldn't be eating.

We hate cold weather and car seats.

FCC Holiday Party

A couple of weekends ago, we went to the Christmas party for our local Waiting Families FCC group. It is also nice to talk (ok-complain) with people that are waiting and waiting just like we are.

The restaurant has a great bridge over a fountain area. The kids, of course, love going up and down and up and down over and over again while the parents are standing by saying "Not so fast. Hold On. Don't push." Typical parent talk when there are tons of kids around.


What are we looking at?





Turtles, of course!

3:08 AM

Our conversation very early this morning:

Brynn: MamaDaddyDaddyMama (Yep, all one word.)
Kevin: Yeshoney (Again, one word since we were in a deep slumber)
Brynn: Can I come in for a hug?

Now, how do you say no to that even if it is at 3 AM?

Love Without Boundaries 2007 Video

If anyone if ever wondering what to get me for Christmas, all they need to do is watch this video and send a donation to LWB on my behalf. What better gift could there be?

Brynn's snowman

Kevin and Brynn made a snowman on Friday. Isn't it cute?

Adoption Presentation

Someone on one of my Groups put this together. This song gets me every time I hear it.

I'm a sheep. Baa.

That is what Brynn said when I asked what she was going to be in her school's Christmas program. And it was said with very little enthusiasm. But, she did so well being a sheep and she was also the purple bell in the Preschool Bell Choir. Proud Mommy moment. Kudos to Aunt Norma. She made the ears for our sheepy.

Out my window

This is what is happening today outside. My office is in a residential area. All the houses around us are where the resident doctors from the hospital live. We look out our window all the time to see what the kids are doing. Today, they are playing in the snow. See them in the left hand part of the picture? This mom lets her kids go out in the snow, play in mud puddles and swing high in a swing. I love her carefree spirit.

We are expecting between 3 and 5 inches today. Brynn has already been sled riding with her Daddy today. She loved it!!

Holy Crap!

I just thought I would play around on some of the Adoption Referral Forecasters today. I really shouldn't have done this. This is what one had to say:

Our prediction for LID 2006-08-30
Our best guess - a weighted average of recent CCAA velocities, guessing that CCAA will perform about as well in the future as they are performing now, but might return to previous trends: 2010-04-12

That's our best guess for when you might receive your referral. Just at a guess, we can suppose that the CCAA either speeds up or slows down significantly, and show you those dates. If they speed up: 2009-01-16. And if they slow down: 2012-09-02.

Since China generally sends out referrals in a batch about once per month, your referral date could easily vary +/- one month depending on whether you just get included or just get missed in a particular batch.


Yes, you read that right. They are predicting our referral will come April 12, 2010. That isn't even funny.