Things given and things bought

I keep forgetting to post about a great gift I received in the mail about a month ago. It was from the couple we met at the Mall of America on black Friday. They offered to send us a baby carrier for me to hold Livi as much as possible while in China. We soon exchanged addresses and a package came about a week later.
This is what was in it.
Not only was the baby sling in it, it had some cute clothes including new pj's....
some blocks that were just like some that they had sent their little girl in China and she loves them....
and some Chinese money for us to get a snack or something while there.
Seriously, how nice was that! There are some really good people in the world.
Thank you, Kathy. I'm so glad we met you and your beautiful family.

I've also been slowly letting myself buy some things for Livi. I haven't wanted to much until now. Well, let me rephrase that...I wanted to, I just didn't feel like I should yet. But since we got our LOI, I've had some fun looking at stuff for her.
This is my recent purchase on Etsy.com that arrived today.


I LOVE, LOVE the headbands with the big ole' flowers on them. I even have bought some more flowers and hair clips to make some of my own. I have to have one for every possible outfit she'll wear. I wonder if I'll get sick of them.....nah.
I can't wait to see them on her.

Sunday Snapshot: Life in Christmas cards

I thought it would be fun to do a post of all the Christmas card pictures I've sent out during the years.
I didn't do them every year until 2001 so there's some missing years in the beginning, but for the past 10 years they've been sent.

It's always surreal to me to look back on the first ones and wonder if I ever would have imagined then how my cards would change over the years.

I knew I wanted a big family, but to see it grow the way it has is far beyond what I could have imagined.

I remember the staging that went in to each photo for our cards.

Including one where the kids were getting yelled at and Jay and I were argueing.....can you guess which one that was?

I've loved coming up with new ideas for poses.

One of the cards never got sent out past my immediate family.....just didn't get to it and by the time Valentine's Day came around, I decided it was too late.

I still have 100 of them in the house.

The best thing is watching the family grow....

in numbers and in literal size.

And the excitement of next year is palpable....
with a new little girl, plopped right in the middle of all those boys.

What a great Christmas card that will make.

Nice surprise

On New Year's Eve, I went to the mailbox looking...but not really expecting....to see if our NVC (National Visa Center) approval had come. (We were told it would be about 2 weeks from our immigration approval) Much to my surprise, it was here!
Woohoo!! What a great way to finish out the year!
That's step THREE our of five completed in order to go get our little peanut. Now it all gets sent to the embassy in China and we get issued an article 5. This can take about 2-4 weeks. After getting our article 5, we are 2-4 weeks away from getting our TA (travel approval).
Ya hear that....TRAVEL approval.
oooohhhh....it's right around the corner.
We're coming Livi.
2011 is going to be a great year!

Cookie makin'

Every year we make sugar cookie cutouts and decorate them. We usually do it before Christmas, but this year just got away from us and we did it the day after instead. I kinda cheat my way through some of it cuz I get premade cookie dough at the grocery store.

I am good about making my famous homeade frosting though. YUM!

The nice thing about having the boys get older is that I don't have to do much past the baking part.

They can decorate them without any help....and they love it.

Works for me.

Each one tries to out-style the other....





....including dad.

Christmas Part 2

On Monday, Jay's mom, grandma, and aunt came over to celebrate a belated Christmas. We were supposed to get together Christmas Day, but since we were sick that didn't happen.
About 20 minutes after they arrived, there was a knock at the door.
It was a special guest.

He had a treat for each of the boys



And some jokes to make them laugh

He told them he was glad they were feeling better

And that he wanted them to be good to their new little sister.

Even great-grandma got in on the action..

What a fun surprise.

Merry sick Christmas

When you think of Christmas you think of presents and lights and trees and family. What you don't think of is fevers and puking and germs and headaches.
Well this year, we got the latter.
By Thursday night, we were droppin' like flies. Myself and 2 of the boys weren't feeling well. By midnight, we were a wreck.
Down for the count were me and Tanner. We were up all during the night. So was Jay as he was the one taking care of us.
I spent the whole day in bed on Christmas Eve. All plans were cancelled and we just stayed home.
By Christmas morning, we were feeling a little better and able to do presents by about 11am.
Santa was good to us this year and we appreciate him braving our sick home.

My favorite part of Christmas is seeing the boys open their gifts and get so excited. I love to see their faces when they get something they've been asking for.....and especially if they get something they never thought they'd see.

Tanner was so excited about his remote control 4 wheeler....


And Tony loved his new Guitar Hero game for Wii.

The older boys loved their new shirts....yep, we've reached that age where your kids actually want clothes.


Trae was so crazy for his Fujigi ball that I couldn't

hardly get

a clear shot.

More clothes for Timmy.....


and a shared gift for the 2 middle boys.

They gave presents to eachother and it looks like Tanner was happy with what he got from Tyler.

Tony's big gift was a guitar. If you saw this kid move his fingers on Guitar Hero, you'd see why we thought this might be a good idea for him.
You can see by Timmy's face, he was a bit surprised by his brothers good fortune.


But Santa made up for it with some fun Wii stuff.


Even with the sickness, it was a great Christmas. We are all better now and very grateful.

massage time

Who can turn away a free massage.

And who cares what their motives are.


I'll take it.

I am one spoiled mom.