Well, I thought I would get to this before now but didn't so here goes.

We've had a lot happen since my last post back in Feb. We had a very busy summer camping and doing other outdoor activities. We had a blast!

The above picture is of Sonja's dance class. She decided she wanted to be a Chinese girl! LOL Her cousin Luci is also in the picture just in front of Sonja. Luci is the one in fall colors. She's a fall fairy.
On Halloween, the kids went out trick or treating and brought home lots of goodies. After doing our usual run we went to grandma and grandpa for a little while. Drew and Luci also came over for a visit. Here Sonja, Luci and Max ham it up for the camera. Sorry for the picture quality as I took these with my iphone.
Max decided he wanted to go as Ben 10. He just loves him! Max is progressing well with his speech and is attending universal pre kindergarten and LOVES it! he has also taken an interest in dancing. His style is more like breakdancing. It's pretty funny to watch. I hope to have a video in the future to post.
The Chinese princess!
The two monkeys!!
This past summer Dan built a play house for the kids. Here are some pictures of it's progress.


It's taking shape!
The sandbox area is just the right size for te little tykes sandbox we already had to make things neater.

Dan putting up the climbing wall and bridge tunnel.
Shown here almost complete. Since this photo we added a merry-go round, fireman's pole and dragon slide cover. The kids love playing on it as does the neighborhood kids.
That's about it for now. I will try and post again soon with more recent events.

Surprise!!!

Believe it or not, an update soon!

"Big Red" and play doh

Our, what seems like, perennial feathered friend, has returned once again! We call him "Big Red" He comes to visit us around this time of year, as well as summer. He's really big! This picture really doesn't give you a good representation of how big he truly is. The kids weren't quite as excited to see him this time as they were preoccupied by other things, but Dan managed to snap a few shots of him.
The other day, we made edible play doh. The kids LOVED it and played with it for almost three hours (with nibble time included!) They love play doh as it is, but have never played with the usual kind you buy in the stores for that long. I think it has to do with being something THEY made, as well as being edible. We used different things to "dress it up" such as dried cranberries, raisons and chocolate chips.
Here Sonja has her snake with it's tongue sticking out (her explaination)
Here's Max's. He ened up eating all of his play doh and then trying to swipe some of Sonja's!
If you want the recipe, here it is

1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup of honey (I used the thick creamy type Billy Bee, but you can use any kind)
1 cup of dried milk powder

Mix all ingredients until combined well. If it's still not thick enough, just add more milk powder a little at a time until it's the consistancy you like.

Have fun with it!!
That's all for now!

Until next time

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!
Here's hoping that the coming year brings you all happiness and prosperity!

This past weekend, January 31st, we celebrated the New Year with our friends and adoption travel companions the R and F families. The R's daughter Sophie, who was adopted at the same time as Sonja, attends a Chinese school. The school puts on a New Year celebration for the families of those who attend the school and their guests. The F family's daughter Maiya doesn't attend the school but also had a part in the celebration too.

The above photo of daddy and the next few were actually taken by our budding photographer Sonja. I don't think they're too bad for a four year old!
Here Maxie mugs for our little photographer Sonja.
Max again strikes a pose for Sonja.
The show opened up with the children and lion dancers.



Then came the adult dancers. They were all beautiful, as was their dancing. Very graceful.

Another group of children dancing. They were so cute and did a great job.
A group of older children played a few songs on the violin. Sonja and Max both have toy violins and when they saw these children playing them they sat silently watching. After the first song, Sonja said "Mommy I want to play the violin like them" to which I told her she can if he wants. Looks like violin lessons in the future!
This little skit was so cute. They did a song about eating watermelon and wondering if they ate the seeds, if they would grow a watermelon in their tummy! In the center of the picture you can see Sophie.
A close up picture of Sophie in the skit.
Here the "non_Chinese families" did a skit. On the far left hand side you see Sophie, Barb and Shelby R and Maiya and Lisa F.
Here is a closer picture of them during the skit.
The kids gathered outside the auditorium for a group picture. from L to R is maiya F sitting on her cousin Sophie's lap, Sophie R sitting on Shelby R's lap, and Sonja and Max.
Sonja sitting on Matt R's lap. She just loves him!!
Shelby and Sophie R give each other a big hug
Shelby R and her Daddy Matt with Sonja sitting on his lap. She was stuck to him like glue!
Max taking a bite of the Chinese food offered. They had spring rolls, tofu, these yummy meatballs and some other things, along with a variety of sweets. They also had games to play for which you received tickets to collect and get prizes, along with a bounce house.
It was a great time. After the celebration we all went to the R's house and had pizza and the kids played. We had a great time and only wished we lived closer to our other travel families. We will see them again soon.

We hope you all have a happy New Year!

Until next time....

Martina McBride - In My Daughter's Eyes (LIVE)

If ever a song could describe my relationship with my daughter, THIS would be THE ONE!
I cry every time I hear it.
I hope you too will enjoy it!

On to some happier subjects.....Biddie bowling!!!

On Tuesday, Sonja's UPK class, and a couple of other classes went to the local bowling alley for completing their Boomerang reading program for the month of January. Boomerang is when the parent reads to or with the child, or the child reads a specific amount of books each month.

There were 80 or 90 students in total and all seemed to have had a great time bowling and eating pizza. Sonja's team liked it so much they bowled an additional game after everyone else was done and gone!!!

In the picture, Sonja is seen in the second seated row, right of center. Cousin Luci is right next to her, left of center. Some of Sonja's friends, Cassidy, Cooper, Andrew, Rheanna, Drew and Seven are also right next to her.

I'm sure we'll be going bowling in the near future, but this time Max will get to try his hand at it!

Until next time.......

Will peace prevail?

O.K....Here it comes.. I'm off on a political rant.

I've recently seen on the news many people protesting the war between Israel and Hamas. The terrorists are using Palestine as a haven and threatening the people who want to live in peace.

As long as they (Hamas) are there, the progress between Israel and Palestine will be sabotaged at every step.

Check these videos out.

This one makes my blood boil!!!


Hamas terrorists using children as human shields.


This is a video of Hamas terrorists using a school yard to launch rockets into Israel.



These terrorists must be rooted out so peace will prevail in the region or else Palestine will be turned into the next Afghanistan.

Please help this little guy and his family!!

This is so sad but you can help!

This boy has a brain tumor along with other medical and spectrum disorders. His family is desperately trying raise enough money to pay their bills, along with collecting unused coupons, empty ink cartriges and soup labels, among other things. They even have an Ebay store to help with fundraising.

Click here or Please go to
http://www.brandonnoble.com/
and do whatever you can to help this little guy and his family out!!

P.S. They also have an Amazon wish list that you can access by going here

Some sad news, and the questions of a little inquiring mind.

On New Years eve, Johnny, our pet Preying Mantis passed away. He was not eating very well in the couple weeks preceding his demise, so it wasn't completely unexpected.

The day after New Years, I told Sonja about Johnny's fate and told her he was in heaven with our dog Hank (who passed away in 2006 from osteosarcoma) and Big Al our cat (who succumbed to feline AIDS in 2007).

This morning while I was helping Sonja get ready for UPK, she said to me "Mommy, Johnny is going to get hurt! He's too small and Hankie and Big Al are going to step on him!"

At first, I hadn't a clue as to what she was talking about, but after asking her to repeat it, I then understood what she meant. I told her that as far as I know, heaven has trees and plants and is like a paradise! He can climb up in the trees and hide in plants and near rocks and stuff so that he doesn't get hurt. He's safe and I'm sure having fun with other Preying Mantis' (?) who are there too, along with Hankie and Al. I tried to calm her concerns.

She smiled and said "Oh! That's good." And that was the end of it! I guess what I told her worked!

I have a feeling that in the future, instead of seeing a stray dog or cat and saying "Can we keep it", Sonja will be saying it about any "stray" preying mantis that crosses her path!

That's my girl!

Until next time.....

I received this information via an e mail from Adoptive Families. I hope you will help in this call to action so that the orphans of Vietnam can find their forever families. It takes very little time but may make a huge difference! Joint Council Call to Action: Vietnam For the thousands of Vietnamese children living outside of a family, intercountry adoption is no longer an option. Please help the Joint Council on International Children's Services change this by participating in their Call to Action. Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Norm Coleman of Minnesota will be forwarding a letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam, to encourage Vietnam's continued participation in negotiations on intercountry adoption. The letter will express Congressional support for the continuation of intercountry adoption. Between Monday, January 5th and Wednesday, January 7th, you can support this important initiative through the following methods. 1. Contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators and ask them to sign the letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam regarding the future of intercountry adoptions from Vietnam. Also, note that if they are interested in signing, they should contact Sarada Peri from Senator Landrieu's office (Sarada_Peri@landrieu.senate.gov) by Wednesday, January 7th. For a list of Senators and Congressman that have signed the letter as of the time of this writing, please see below. You can find your Senators' phone numbers and e-mail addresses at www.senate.gov. You can find your Representatives' phone numbers and e-mail addresses at www.house.gov. 2. Send a notice of support (and ensure that you receive updates on this initiative) via the Joint Council website. Click "Sign me up for Joint Council news." Under the communications preferences, select the drop down menu for "Newsflashes and Updates." Click "Sign me up." Fill in your information. Under the comment section, type "Letter to Vietnam Prime Minister." Joint Council will also be forwarding the names of individual who contact us to Senators Landrieu and Coleman. The letter to the Prime Minister can only be successful with your help! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Joint Council staff via advocate@jcics.org. Please note the following Senators have already signed the letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam as of 12/17/2008: Senator Landrieu Senator Coleman Senator Johnson Senator Bill Nelson Senator Oberstar Senator Akaka Senator Lincoln Senator Roberts Senator Lautenberg Senator Murkowski Senator Menendez Senator Durbin Senator Kerry Senator Klobuchar Please note the following Representatives have already signed the letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam as of 12/17/2008: Rep. Jim Oberstar Rep. Jerry Costello Rep. Scott Garrett

GREAT NEWS, Christmas and the "shelf elf"!

On New Years Eve day, Max had his cystogram at the hospital. Late in the afternoon, we received a message from Max's Dr. that Max's test came back good!!!!! Her office is closed for the next few days but she said if I had any further questions to call her on Friday.
As I was shopping at our local market New years eve, I saw her and thanked her for the happy news (what a great ending to the year and hopefully a sign of the good things to come in the next!) We celebrated the New year with a party!!! Sparkling grape juice all around!!!





Next is the story of our Christmas elf.

This is the shelf elf.

When I was a little girl, my parents had these shelf elves. We had two larger ones, one was silver lame' and one gold lame' and also two smaller ones, one red felt and one green felt. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of these little guys. I'm just surprised it took so long!
My mother still has the originals and I'm going to be the happy recipient of them, but I purchased the one above this holiday season for the kids, as I wanted them to experience the "magic" I experienced when I was a child.

A few days before Christmas, the kids were allowed to open a present and this one was decorated very attractively, so of course, they picked it. When they opened it I read them the story of the shelf elf and Sonja came up with "his" name. She named him Kalpin because she thought the boy in her new favorite Christmas movie "Home Alone" was named "Kalpin" (instead of Kevin). I decided I'd place him atop the curio in the great room. Later in the afternoon, we were decorating the gingerbread house and Dan took a quick break. After we finished decorating the yummy house, Sonja went into the great room and discovered that the elf had magically moved from the curio to over on top of my decorative houses. She yelled "Mommy! Mommy! Come here QUICK!!!! When I entered the room she told me that the elf moved! I told her that SHE must have moved him and she said "NO I DIDN'T!!!" I told her that Max must have and I asked Max if he did, to which he said "NO"!! I told her that she was fibbing and she was adament that she didn't, getting a bit mad that I was accusing her of such a thing!
The elf moved from there to here and back again over the next few days and it was always a fun game to see where he was hiding (usually somewhere he could get a good view of what the kids were doing, as to keep Santa well informed of their deeds, good or bad!) until Christmas. On Christmas day he was happily sitting in the tree watching us open the presents Santa left.
Here are a few more pictures of the munchkins in their holiday duds.


Bear just HAD to get in this one! Our "little" puppy! He'll celebrate his 1st birthday on January 15th! He can easily rest his paws on my shoulders when standing on his back legs and he's almost as tall as I am!!

Sonja sitting on Nana's (my mom's) lap at Grandma G's house. My Mom spent the night at our house Christmas eve so she could watch the kids open their gifts Christmas morning.
Some of the goodies left on Christmas eve before being opened. Sonja will be soo surprised!

I'm trying to instill in our kids that they can't always get what they want and especially to expect it without some hard work. Every time Sonja would see something on T.V. she would say "I want Santa to bring me that Mommy!" I told her that Santa can't bring everything that she wants AND things for ALL of the kids in the world. So I told her that she could make a list but it can only have four things on it so she must choose wisely. Everytime she wanted something new she would have to decide what on the list was staying and what was going. After many changes she ended up with the Quinny 4 in one stroller, Baby alive, a mermaid costume and roll over doggie. She was extremely surprised when she woke up Christmas morning to see all of those presents, and grateful for each and every one of them! Everytime she opened a gift, whether it be from Santa, Nana or Daddy and I, she would say "Thank You so MUCH (insert name). For Santa's gifts she would say "I've been wanting that SO much. How did he know!" Santa knows everything!!!

Max came down and immediately went right to his tool bench. Notice how many pictures he's wearing his "safety goggles in!

Putting down his safety goggles to better manage his power tools. Even Sonja got in on the action!
Putting goggles back on.
Safety first! No safety violation here!
Max took forever opening his gifts. He would open one and play with it until we'd tell him to open another. He ended up refusing to open anymore so I had to finish for him.

We now have too many toys, so Sonja decided to give her old ones away. She knows that there are kids that would love them just as she did when she first received them (like the land of misfit toys!)

I was delighted and really surprised with the present "the kids" got me....a complete day at the spa with a one hour massage, one hour facial, manicure, pedicure, hair color, cut, style and a few other things!!!!!! It's a little distance from were we live but Dan said he'd drop me off and take the kids someplace while I get pampered (have I mentioned what a wonderful husband I have!). I always joke and say that I would love to have a day at the spa, but I didn't think I ever would actually get one! Santa truly does know everything!


Well, we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that all have a wonderful New year!!!