She Likes Tea

My little girl loves drinking hot tea from our Chinese restaurant. It is pretty cute to see such a little thing sipping on hot tea.

Happy Two Years Together!

From sullen and somber ...


... to all out sass...


The last two years have been both lovely and love-filled.

Happy Gotcha Day, Lia Kate!

We plan to celebrate tonight by going out to our favorite Chinese food restaurant. The Sass has requested "hot tea in a little cup."

Last Night Ever

My most recent Facebook status:

Two years ago tonight, our daughter spent her last night ever in an orphanage. Coincidentally, it was also her last night ever in any sort of yellow, orange & navy clothing ensemble. But I digress...

Dancing Queen

My little girl started taking dance classes this Fall. She loves it. It is actually her first thing to do apart from her brother and I wasn't sure how she was going to handle doing something completely on her own with no one that she knows. She was very tentative at first, but she has really come out of her shell. The dance rooms have a wall of mirrored windows, so the parents get to sit and watch. It is a sweet time to see her do something that she enjoys all on her own.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our house. It all started early this month when we went to get our Christmas tree...




We found the one within a few minutes of being there.


The kiddos were pretty excited about picking out their "Chrih-ma tree".





Once we got the lights on the tree, I followed our tradition by putting two presents under the tree.


In them were their new...

Christmas jammies.


I love seeing kiddos in Christmas pajamas!




We decorated the tree.


We posed in our new jammies.


We had meltdowns.


We drank eggnog and had cookies.





And by the end of the night, after we evened out the low-hanging ornaments, we had this...


The stockings are hung.


And the kids' little trees are lit beside their beds.


We are also working through our advent calendar. I printed out these free kid-oriented advent verses.


And the kids are counting down the days (or at least the days we remember to do this) with these guys that I found in the dollar spot at Target.


We also have our favorite Christmas books out and are enjoying old faves and new finds...


And our Advent candles are lit.


Loving this December and looking forward to Christmas celebrations with our families!

Thanksgiving Program

Britton and Lia Kate performed in their first Thanksgiving program at their preschool. All the 3-year-olds were Indians, while the 2-year-olds were turkeys and the 4-year-olds were pilgrims. They had so much fun practicing the songs at home, and both got into singing the words really loud and doing the hand motions. They were both a bit subdued when they got on stage for their program, but at least they didn't run out of the room screaming ... a very plausible scenario!



Britton was scanning the room the whole time he was up there, looking for us. His headband pushed his hair down over his eyes and so his head was cocked up, looking out from under his long bangs, trying to find us. It was pretty cute.

I had a hard time seeing Lia Kate on stage from where I was sitting. And she was intently looking for us. At one point, the crowds parted and our eyes made contact. Her face lit up. And just then they started singing the I Am Thankful song. "I am thankful, I am thankful, for my family, for my family..." She sang it as she looked at me. It was a precious moment.




We went back to their preschool rooms after the program and admired all the turkey art.




Loved seeing what Lia Kate was thankful for. I thought it was funny that giraffes made her thankful tree. As I looked around the room, I saw a huge giraffe cut out on the wall. I'm guessing that was her inspiration. And love that my Mima made her thankful tree! ;o)

(Pic of Britton's thankful tree to be added!)

My Pumpkins

Here are my pumpkins in their pumpkin outfits. I love making these shirts for them and I sure am going to miss it when they will be too old to wear them, which for Britton is on the horizon. Boo.

Halloween Through the Years

Halloween 2011:


Halloween 2010:


Halloween 2009:



Britton with his big cousin Will as lil' lions.

Halloween 2008 -- First Halloween:

My little bitty monkey.

Trick or Treating

Here are a few pics from my phone of the night we went trick or treating. This was our kids first time to actually trick or treat here. We've always been out of town on Halloween. We don't have a lot of children in our neighborhood, so we went to an area that has a ton of trick or treaters. It was a little crazy and overwhelming, but it was a good time.


Getting Tinkerbell ready for her big night.


Here was the pumpkin we carved.


One of the funnier memories from this year was that Britton would knock on a door and say "Twick'd a treat!" And then immediately say "No work!" as in "it's not working" if they didn't open the door immediately.




Here are the treat buckets they carried this year. Got them at Target for $2.50 each, and just added ribbon to girly one of them up.