rollin' rollin' rollin'.....

keep those posts a rollin'!

I meant to add this to my last post....I added 5 posts yesterday so be sure to scroll down!

A very occasional tag....

1. Wrapping Paper or Gift Bags? wrapping paper for sure! much cheaper although bags are easier....but then I would worry about having to recyle them and find a place to store them for next year!
2. Real Tree or Artificial? fake! All growing up we had a 4ft. fake tree that my mom grew up with. She would take off the decorations after Christmas, leave the lights on it, drape a sheet over it and cart it down to the basement where it would stay until the next year! We have had 2 real trees in our married life. One DIED with 2 weeks left until Christmas which was such a hassle to undecorate and then redeocrate! I just prefer fake!
3. When do you put up your tree? whenever we get a free moment....I prefer it to be later than sooner....
4. When do you take down the tree? Christmas day! Ready for it to be gone by then!

5. Do you like eggnog? not really
6. Favorite gift received as a child? i remember getting a big doll one year
7. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad
8. Do you have a nativity scene? a couple
9. Mail or email Christmas Cards? mail but there are some really cute ones on Jib Jab I want to do!
10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received? In 4th grade we brought presents to do a gift exchange. I got socks wrapped in a hamburger helper box. I hope i didn't make a face because I knew the girl who brought it was poor...but I remember thinking "socks???"

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The new version!
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? when I know what my children want
13. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? don't have one thing in particular but Richard loves those italian bread things with the fruit and nuts? it is like a cake-like fruitcake
14. Lights on the tree? ummmm....is there any other way?!
15. Favorite Christmas Song? Christmas bells
16. Travel at Christmas of Stay Home? stay at home! this was a rule we set early in our marriage! We want to be home to watch our kids open their presents ALONE!
17. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I think I could....and you know I just discovered today that it isn't DoNner but DonDer.....all those years I was singing it wrong!

18. Angel on the top or a star? can't remember....it has been a bow and a star and lots of other things.
19. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? New PJs on Christmas Eve and the rest the next morning.
20. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I agree with some others who have answered this list....the Christmas music that started BEFORE thanksgiving and that is the same 10 songs over and over and over and over!

21. Favorite ornament theme or color? all the ornaments that are meaningful....no theme or color. that is too hard to keep up with!
22. Favorite Christmas Dinner? we never did anything growing up and I don't do anything now. We prepare and eat a nice breakfast after unwrapping Santa's gifts.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? a nice set of knives in one of those wood blocks....and then i might need a first-aide kit close by....I have been sawing at my food for so long it scares me a little to get nice sharp knives!

24. My Favorite Christmas Gift Received Ever? Richard suprised me with a digital camera about 7 years ago....that was pretty cool...although the greatest gift is watching my children open their gifts. We are so fortunate that we can buy our children gifts at Christmas.

Family Photo Shoot

Every year...no...everytime we come for a visit Grampie likes to take pictures. Almost everytime he will get out his "backdrop" and hang it from the curtain rods in the living room. It has taken years for us to get use to and actually look forward to this event....and we would love it even more if Grampie would send us all these pictures from years past! hint, hint

So here are a few shots of our latest photo shoot. While Grampie was setting up the camera I was shooting pictures with mine.
Here we are gathering together in front of the bedsheet...I mean backdrop. Notice the enthusiastic look on Forrest face!

Since Grampie wasn't ready yet my family jumped up to get some shots. Of course Nate had to be difficult.

Ummmm....I wonder where Nate gets it from?

I can't believe how big Sadie and Sophia are getting! Don't look at those shirts for too long! The print will give you a headache!

Ok.....so here is the best shot of our family....and it isn't great! Nate was being difficult and all I wanted to do was punish him...but that would mean he would fight anymore pictures! *sigh*

So when we all were being crazy he didn't want to participate! He is covering his mouth because he is SMILING! Can't let anyone know that! I think this will be our Christmas card picture with the caption "We wish you a Crazy Christmas" or "Crazy Holidays".

Here is Trudy's family....I can't get over how tall Fo is!

So cute!

Just another family shot....I didn't get any "normal" ones with my camera:) Maybe Trudy will post one on her blog??!!

Sure wish Rachel could have been in this shot!

Oh....look....more crazy shot! Nate looks pretty good here! Maybe we could photoshop his head on one of the group shots that he was being difficult?

So if you ever go to my parents house for a visit be prepared for a photo shoot before you leave!!

Turkey Day

We have never been a very traditional family....there are not many things we do over and over each year....but we have succeeded in having Thanksgiving every year together for about 3 years now!! We just may have a tradition!!

Usually Thanksgiving is about turkey and all the trimmings....well we(Trudy and I) decided that since we don;t like turkey(never can get it right) and we were going to do something different. There were lots of ideas thrown out and in the end we (again TJ and me) decided to have baked potatoes and soups(chili and beef stew). There are so many food allergies in my brother's family(pork, corn and wheat) so this would make it easy for the majority to eat without worry! Well....when Richard found out we weren't doing a turkey he got pretty sad:(. He questioned why everyone wasn't in on the menu...and my response was because we(you know who) are the ones who cook and since we cook we get to make the decision! ha! After another hour of pouting about not having turkey we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a turkey breast....which turned out very yummy...it just might make a comeback...and we found out that Richard wasn't the only one who was sad about a Thanksgiving sans turkey!:)

Anyway...all of that to say we didn't have a traditional dinner. All we look forward to is seeing each other so we took the focus off the food and just enjoyed visiting.

So Wednesday afternoon we headed out to Trudy's house and Frankie and his family left Knoxville Thursday morning 5am and stopped by Granny and Grampie's first. Everyone converged to Trudy's around 1pm for lunch. I didn't get any group pictures because we were getting those at Grampie's the next day....but Josh got sick Thursday evening and they had to leave the next morning without the annual family shoot! I will take more pictures next time!!

But here are a few shots of the weekend...

Luke spent the night at Trudy's house so we met them in Huntsville while we were shopping.
Poor Kayla was cramped in the back with all the Christmas presents:) I bet she didn't notice though as long as she was reading! She and Luke read as much as they breathe!

Granny doesn't get around like she use to so we got a wheelchair for her while we shopped at the mall:) Nate....he is determined NOT to smile!

I love this picture of Luke(12 1/2) and Josh(4) and Mariam (6).

Dear Santa....

I love that my children still believe......

Sometimes Santa has dropped off their presents earlier so we could wrap them....but it is OK for parents to be Santa's helpers.

Big Girl Party

This year Sophia had great ideas for her birthday party. She wanted it to be a dance & spend the night party! As we were making the guest list it kept getting longer and longer. Before I knew it we had 7 girls and 2 boys invited! I knew all the girls and figured it would be alright....you never know when you get that many girls together what might happen! But it was a stress-free party(aside from the screams that naturally come from 8 and 9 year old girls). Everyone got along so well which is also great since not everyone knew each other.


The school had their thanksgiving dinner that day and the kids begged me to check them out after lunch. I did on the condition that they help me clean and decorate. They promised and did exactly that! Nate loves setting the table and arranging the party favors and drinks. Sophia took care of the decorations.

We bought everyone masks and these glow-stick-bendy-sticks that could make necklaces and earrings and bracelets. Those were a big hit. Then we had hot dogs for dinner. (when Fia and I were talking about her party I said we would just eat pizza....she said everyone has pizza on their birthdays. She wanted lasagna:) We did have lasagna for her birthday dinner just not with 10 of her closest friends! )

She wanted me to make a disco ball cake....well I am pretty creative but not that creative Fia! We just cut up her invitations and stuck the dancing people in the cupcakes.

Smile Fia....oh wait....here is Richard too:)

Presents! Oooooohhhhh! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

Then we turned on Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers for a little dancing!

It is hard to get pictures in the dark!

The present we gave Fia was the High School Musical Dance Party game for the Wii. It was a big hit with everyone and pretty funny to watch!

More fun to watch the adults try it!

After dancing and gaming the girls watched Journey to the Center of the Earth and then settled down to sleep. At 11:00 I turned off the TV because I knew they would be up early the next day and I didn't want to send home cranky girls!! We ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then everyone was gone by 9am. It was such a nice party I hated to see all Sophia's friends leave!

This was the first year Sophia had concrete ideas about how she wanted her party to go. It was fun planning it with her and taking her ideas. She sure is growing up!

National Adoption Month!

In honor of National Adoption Month I was tagged by Shanna to share 6 things about our adoption experience....

1. We were married for 3 years before deciding to pursure adoption. It wasn't a hard decision for us. Our caseworker was an angel and got us approved within one month of us meeting with her....it helped that I didn't have a job and could get the questions and letters to her ASAP! We waited 13 months before getting the call about Sophia. Towards the end of the wait we participated in the pilot program with Adoption.com. The agency was just testing out the internet to see how it would be an effective finding tool. We did get one inquiry on the morning we got the call about Sophia. Now the internet is a very effective tool for adoptive couples!

our first night together! Sophia was SO tiny...only 4lbs!

2. Richard got the initial call from our caseworker about Sophia. She was 3 weeks old and had just been released from the hospital. We could pick her up the next week! He showed up at the school where I was a long-term sub and suprised me with balloons! That was a memorable day! The next week was very hard waiting and preparing to get on the plane! I would have gladly hopped on the plane that evening! We got to meet with Sophia's birthparents

for about 3 hours before they placed her in our arms.

the scrapbook page of when we went to the temple to have Sophia sealed to us...

3. We were reluctant to start the adoption process again and for a while entertained the thought of having one child. Then we have a couple of friends who had either lost both of their parents or were an only child taking care of an aging parent. We didn't want Sophia to be in either of those situations so we took the hint from Heavenly Father and put in our papers...we really wanted to but just didnt' want to jump on the adoption roller coaster again. This time it took quite a bit longer with our paperwork but it didn't seem so long since we already had Sophia. We were approved in February '02. During the wait we sold our home, moved in an apartment, built our current home, moved into our house, and Richard took a trip to the Philippines. After he returned the next week we got the call about Nate.

4. Getting the kid's birth certificates were cool but I really loved getting their social security cards....it seemed real then!

5. My friend Heather was babysitting Nate before we adopted him. He was 10 1/2 months old when he was placed with us and had been in Heather's care for 2 months. It was a miracle how he was placed with us. His birthmother moved she and Nate across the country to Murfreesboro, TN to work at a Denny's. She felt so strongly that Heavenly Father was leading her there. She didn't know why but she just went. She had no desire to make an adoption plan at the time but through a series of events she realized it was best for Nate for her to make this tough decision. She is definately a hero to us!

here is the picture I was talking about in this post....these are the same 4 kids!

6. There have been a couple of instinstences where I have looked into International Adoption. I have really wanted to adopt more but it just didn't seem to be like what was in the plan for us. We are content with our family of 4. I never "dreamed" about having a certain number of children so I am not disappointed with a small family.

this was our first night with our buddy Nate. He weighed 32 pounds and had

some gorgeous hair! he also had pink eye but was so cute anyway!

If you are interested in reading an adoption story filled with miracles click here....I haven't read it all but what I did had me in awe!