1 Year Pictures

11 months 3 weeks....

Holy Buckets... 11 Months Old

Yes, can you believe it?!?!?! Elle is 11 months old.. wow! Every day Elle learns something new, this is absolutely a magical age. I LOVE mornings. I LOVE waking up to Elle taking to her baby doll in her crib. I LOVE the burst of excitement Elle expresses when I walk into her room, it really makes wake up at the butt crack of dawn worth it. I LOVE how Elle springs to her feet and lifts her arms up for me to pick her up. I LOVE the moments after I pick her up and she cuddles into my arms and gives me snuggles, hugs and kisses. I LOVE the fact she follows me around everywhere I go. I LOVE that she hesitates to be loved by others and she looks to me for reassurance. Most of all, I LOVE being her mommy.

 

Back to Blogging

After a much needed break from blogging… I’m back. Things just got too crazy (in a good way) at home to even find time or worry about blogging. I’m apologizing right now to Elle who will one day read this and wonder what in the world happened for a few months while I decided to go on a blog break. Looking back to try and update, our lives were so busy, it’s all a blur to me, so we will just keep moving forward.


This past week, we FINALLY received Elle’s social security card…Everything is DONE…COMPLETE… there’s nothing left to do but continue loving this beautiful little girl each and every day. We are about 2 months shy from our Journey to Elle’s 4th anniversary… and I wouldn’t change a thing. The past 4 years had so many ups, downs, lefts, rights, jumps, falls, bumps, bruises, scars… and as I’m holding my “not so much of a baby anymore”… it really all makes sense.


Vietnam, Korea and Jung all remain very close to my heart. I learned so much about Vietnam and completely feel in love with their rich culture. I hope someday I can travel to Vietnam and see firsthand all the breathtaking wonders within Vietnam. Jung remains close to my heart, I think about her often, and pray she is happy, healthy, and loves her forever family. I still have pictures of Jung I look at every now and then, as weird as it sounds, when I look at her, I don’t see the same little girl I saw when I “thought/hoped” she would become my daughter. I see a beautiful little girl that give me strength, hope and lead me to my daughter Elle. Jung will forever be a part of me.


So, what’s new in our world??? We are done with basketball, which frees up 3 nights a week plus the weekends. Austin and Ryan are continuing confirmation classes on Wednesday nights and we have just recently started the boys in Taekwondo…. I know… it’s always something. Taekwondo class started because Owen wanted to be a Power Ranger, aka learn to fight. I know what you are thinking…. lets just hope it doesn’t back fire on us  . BTW… Everybody but Owen has started Taekwondo, Owen must need more time… go figure!


Elle continues to be a gems, learning so much each day, and taking it all in…. and in our house, there is A LOT to take in. This past week Elle broke one of my vases, I just put the broken vase back where it was, to remind us all we have curious kids. I plan on keeping this vase and when she gets married I will re-gift it to her to display proudly in her house and hopefully one day (a long long long time from now) when she has kids it can be a reminder that kids will be kids… and shit happens.


I will post pictures soon… promise!

Elle Update

Elle is almost 10 months old… WOW! 2 months from now she will be smashing her 1st birthday cake… Unbelievable. Elle is still am amazing little girl, heads turn everywhere we go, strangers walk up to us just to tell us how beautiful she is, which of course we agree. Elle is doing wonderful, she is smart, sassy, and has us all wrapped around her little finger. Her 9 month check up was on 1/15/2010, she “passed” with flying colors. Elle weighed 19lbs 12oz and was 28.5 inches long, putting her in the 68% for weight and 82% of height. Elle is crawling and loves to pulling herself up to stand. Recently she has started to take steps while holding your fingers. Elle eats anything and everything (as long as it’s not green). We’re trying to stick to more baby foods, but lately she has been refusing to eat baby food. She is a huge fan of oatmeal, cauliflower, squash, mac & cheese, sweet taters, rice, spaghetti, and any fruit… except peaches (she always throws them up later, so no more peaches for a while). 99% of the time Elle eats very healthy, there have been a few occasions where she has nibbled on a donut, french fries, and/or had a bite (or two, maybe 3)spoonfuls of ice cream. Jabber Jabber Jabber Jabber…. Elle loves to jabber. For the most part Elle is a quiet little girl (compared to her brothers). However, if she needs something or wants to put her two cents in, she will be heard. Elle has started to say several words: Bye Bye, Clap, Book, Ball, Dada, Mama, Hat, are just a few. Every day it’s something new… We love it!

Christmas was absolutely magical. Elle was completely mesmerized by the Christmas Tree and all the lighted decorations. Over the course of the holiday season, we spent hours sitting in front of the tree playing with the lights, ordainments, reading books, singing Christmas songs and Elle even managed to sneak a few licks of candy cane from her brothers.

Finally..... Whoot Whoot

Sorry, it's been a while and I promise to fill everybody in ASAP.... but for now, after months of phone calls, letters, and finally a call to the Governor of Georgia, WE HAVE ELLE'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!! Chris is headed to the social security office right now to apply for Elle's social security number.

HAPPY MONDAY!

Christmas Party 2009

On our way out the door to my company's Christmas Party! Not the greatest pictures in the world, but when you factor in they were taken by a 4 year old... they are pretty darn good!

Believe

This picture has so much more meaning than anyone knows... I received those "BELIEVE" blocks a few years ago at Christmas and I could never take them down. That one simple word, those silly little blocks, is what reminded me each day my daughter would be home soon. The past 4 years was the craziest roller coaster ride of my life; we had highs and we had many many lows, but I never stopped BELIEVING.

Winter Storm

Well, we are preparing for a major winter storm. We are expecting 12+ inches of snow to fall over the next 36 hours with Blizzard conditions and power outages. Blizzard watches and warnings have been posted, schools are closed, and we are ready for anything. It amazes me how life continues regardless of weather, employers expect locals to be at work just like any other day. Chris left for work this morning and is not expected home until after 6pm Wednesday night (after the storm). Today was his normal shift, but they are paying him 12 hours OT to sleep at work so they have officers ready Wednesday morning. I have lived here for 10 years and the city has never shut down. If the storm stays on track, the city will shut down and roads will be closed. Driving to work this morning was not bad at all, about an inch has already fallen and not too many people on the roads, and the people on the road were thankfully not the dumb-asses. Going home will be a totally different story. I will post pictures as the snow starts to pile up…the kids are looking forward to building forts, snowmen, and endless snowball fights.

Stuff

So, I have so many thoughts going through my head, I’m not sure how to sort them all out and write them where anyone (other than myself) would understand. O-well, I will try.

Christmas shopping for 5 kids is fun… until you see the bill! I will have to say I have done amazingly well this year. I’m a firm believer of shopping year round and only buying stuff that is on sale/clearance. We have a tight budget and this year with our daycare bill increasing 50% with Chris on days, the budget is tighter than ever. Our kids don’t have everything, but they have enough and a lot of what they do have they buy with their own money. General rule for Christmas and birthday’s with all the cash my kids seem to get is 50% goes in the bank, 25% towards clothes and 25% goes towards whatever they want to do with it. Now that Austin and Ryan are a little older and out of the toy stage 50% will still go to the bank and the other 50% can be spent how they wish, keeping in mind some of the money will be used for fun money when they want to doing something with friends. In the past Austin and Ryan have chosen to spend their money pretty wisely and will usually go out and buy something they have wanted and will also hold some back for misc. spending too. Anyways, back to Christmas shopping, we are done…. finally. My biggest complaint is I had the hardest time finding an African American baby doll for Elle. Toys R Us, Wal-Mart and Target had one style, a $40 doll that pees, cries, and spits up… I’m thinking why the hell do I need that… I have a baby that does that already. I was looking for a simple, inexpensive African American doll she could play with. I found a few dolls I liked on the Internet, but it really bothered me I couldn't find a simple African American doll at my local store. So, one night Chris and I had to kill some time so I thought we would stop by K-mart and walk around, would you believe they had a simple African American doll, perfect for Elle. They only had two styles, the one that pees, cries, and spits up on you and then this one. They had two dolls on the shelves of each style; I grabbed mine and headed out the door (after I paid for it). Anyways, Elle’s Christmas was finished. I have started writing a letter to Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys R Us about the importance of having all ethnicity represented equally in their store. I will be curious if I get a response. I will have to add a little kudos to Wal-Marts letter, in their Black Friday ad they had small soft Cabbage Patch Kids on sale, the ad showed one darker skinned doll and one lighter skin. I thought to myself, what are the chances... I will get into Black Friday a little later, but yes I was a crazy, up at 3am and I was at Wal-Mart by 5am to get what I needed and yes I got the Cabbage Patch doll I wanted. Of course, only one style to choose from, but we got it and that's what's important... for now.

Elle’s 1st Thanksgiving Dinner-
We had a great, wonderful, uneventful Thanksgiving lunch. We had Ham (I don't like turkey and since I host Thanksgiving everybody has to suffer), stuffing (yes, stuffing with no turkey... why, because I like stuffing), might as well add cranberry sauce too just because I like it. We served up green bean casserole, corn casserole, sweet potatoes, party potatoes, strawberry pretzel salad, deviled eggs, rolls, some green fluff stuff, pumpkin pie and peach cobbler. Thanks to my in-laws who helped out and brought over several of the dishes. It was so nice and took a lot of the pressure off me. Elle was such a good girl, sat at the table in her high chair and took it all in (the food that is). Thank goodness we didn't have turkey... she might have turned into my little butterball.

Black Friday-
Black Friday started on Thursday at 5pm for me. Michael's had a 4ft pre-lit Christmas tree I have wanted for years but refused to pay $40.00 for. They had them on sale for $14.99, you better believe I wasn't going to let those slip by. Friday morning my neighbor and I left at 3:30am and headed to Kohl's. I wasn't very impressed with Kohl's this year, but I did manage to get something off my list for $12 regularly priced $20. We loaded up and made it to Wal-Mart before 5am and I headed straight to the boys PJ's, can't beat $3 PJ's. Cody and Owen each got 5 new sets of PJ's for Christmas. Some might think that’s a lot, but not really. Cody and Owen refuse to wear underwear at night so it's not like they can re-wear the same PJ’s. After the PJ’s chaos, I wondered over to the toys were and picked up the rest of the items on my wish list. Overall I spent $115 and saved over $150. I was very impressed with Wal-Mart and the amount of stock they had for each item (at least the items I wanted). I was able to get all the items I wanted. I picked up my last item at 5:30am and there were 3 left. Kudos to Wal-Mart for stocking up for Black Friday Toys... if you were there when the sale started you more than likely got what you needed. We left Wal-Mart and headed to a few more stores and I was home by 7:30am… just a few minutes before Elle woke up… Perfect Timing!

7 Month Picture

Elle- 7 Months Old...
already my high maintenance girly girl and I wouldn't change it for the world!

7 months- Oh My

Elle is a few days past 7 months, but I wanted to wait to post until after her well exam with the doctor. The results are in and I officially have the cutest, chunkiest, little princess possible. Elle weighed 18lbs, 11.5 oz and 28.25 inches long. That puts her in the 81% for weight and 86% for height meaning... she is totally PERFECT! The past month has been huge! A lot of growing, learning, exploring, and babbling. Elle sits, rolls, can sit up from laying down, crawl backwards, rocks on her hands and knees and then jumps forward. Elle loves her toys and reaches for them when she drops them. She is eating wonderfully, her favorites so far... sweet potatoes, squash with corn and any fruit. Elle hates pees and carrots. I can't even fool her anymore by mixing fruit with pea or carrots... I swear Elle knows the color of these nasty veggies. Before she takes each bite of food she looks at it, and if it's the right color she eats it, the entire spoon. However, if I mix 1/2 peas and 1/2 bananas she will only let me put the spoon 1/2 way in her mouth. She also ate her 1st VANILLA WAFER today! All by herself. So Big! Oh did I forget to mention Elle has 2 TEETH!! Yep, the first one pop in a week ago Saturday and the second one followed on Monday!

Better Stick to Quarters

Cody and Owen love coin money, really what kid doesn't and why wouldn't they love it? Money is gross, nasty and germ infested... a kids dream and a parents nightmare. Anyways, today as I was leaving for work Chris asked me for some cash, I will spare you the details of what was in it for me, but the next thing I knew Cody and Owen were asking for dollars. It was cute and they have never asked for dollars, usually just quarters because they love going to Sam's and getting a gumball with their quarters. Anyways, I gave each of the boys a dollar. Cody asked me what he was suppose to do with it and I said go put it in your room and save it, so when you get more you can buy a new toy with it. I left it at that and headed out the door for work. About an hour later I get an email from Chris asking if this is still good....

The ladies at work and I had a good laugh. Mainly about the comment I made about isn't defacing money a crime and punishable with jail time. Which left me daydreaming what an evening would be like if Cody went to toddler jail for the night. To sum up the daydreaming, our house would be pretty quiet, clean, and not the same without Cody. After much (much) thought I decided to help him cover up this little crime. Plus, he didn't really deface the dollar bill, Washington's face is without red. Cody did such a great job staying in the lines!

PS... anyone wondering where the supervision was?

Lots to Update

This past weeks has again been a busy one. Then again, when is it not, seriously, with 5 kids do I really expect my life to be dull, boring and empty? NO. A week ago Friday we decide to take the boys ice skating. Austin was "2 cool" to go and wanted to stay at home, so by him not wanting to go, he was declared Elle's babysitter for the night. The boys had a blast and Chris and I both thought we were going to die before the night was over. After about an hour Chris and Owen wimped out and hung out on the stands watching everybody else. Cody and I continued to skated. Cody did great, by the end of the 2 hours Cody was able to skate by himself with NO HELP!! All 3 boys had fun and Cody talked our ear off all the way home about how much fun ice skating was! He might just be our little hockey player.

Saturday and Sunday was full of Basketball Basketball and more Basketball. Our weekends for the next several months are booked with tournaments. So far, Cody, Owen and Elle have attended every game. They do pretty well. Games last about an hour and tournaments are all day,4-8 hours. We take a bag of goodies that includes coloring books, books, toys, and our laptop so the boys (and other kids) can watch movies and stay entertained. We are lucky, there are 2 sometimes 3 little girls that are 8-9 years old (younger sisters on our team) that LOVE Cody and Owen. They love to watch and play with them during the games. Cody and Owen love the girls too, they talk about them all the time, and look forward to each game! Anyways, back to our tournament... This was our first of many tournament for the year and we WON, 1st Place. It wasn't easy and our boys had to fight for each point they got. The championship game was won in sudden death (first team to score) after two overtimes ended with the score being tied. This is the third year this team has played together and they are a very talented and fun group! Go Oakridge Lions!

A new ride for Elle- We finally broke down and switched Elle's car seat. Her legs were hanging way over the edge and she's right at the 20lb mark. I still can't believe how big she is getting... the first two pictures were taken at the hospital when we were about to leave, Elle was two days old... what a tiny little peanut she was compared to now.

Today, the neighbors and I hosted a baby shower for one of our other neighbors at our house. This is her 4th, so we decided on a diaper shower. We did this a year or so ago for another neighborhood gal having her 4th too and it worked out great! Plus, you always need diapers. Anyways, I decided I would make my famous diaper cake for the center piece. The colors were a bit bright, all the other diaper cakes I have made were more pastel colors, but it worked and turned out cute!

The Final Chapter

We finalized Elle's adoption on November 2, 2009. She is officially Elle Marie, our daughter, born in our hearts and forever with us.

It seems like yesterday we were driving all night to meet and see a little glimpse of who we hoped and prayed would be our daughter. That tiny baby girl stole my heart the moment I laid eyes on her and now I can’t imagine my life without her.

My heart still hurts for Elle's birth mom. Elle is an amazing little girl and there are no words I can express that would justify how thankful we are to her birth mom and how much we love her for the gift she gave our family. Elle's birth mom is truly a remarkable young lady and will always be a part of our family.

So, this is the end, the end of our journey to bring Elle home. The Final Chapter. The blog will continue but will focus more on the family rather than Elle. I plan on printing out the blog and saving it for Elle to read one day. It might take her a while, since there are 3+ years worth of writings. Poor girl is gonna learn all about Vietnam and Korea before being introduced to herself. A long journey... but TOTALLY WORTH THE WAIT!

The THANK YOU list is almost endless. A hugs THANKS to all my family, friends, and blogger buddies for your support and encouragement. My employer for creating an adoption benefit & being so flexible with my hours. Chris's employer for their adoption benefit, the amazing hospital staff in Georgia, the hotel & staff in Georgia, our attorney's in Georgia & Iowa, our agency, our social workers Roxanne and Robin, Katie who took care of our boys while we were gone, and all the unknown individuals who helped complete and sign what seemed like endless paperwork. It is becuase of you that we are holding our daughter.