Pre-Christmas Fun

We've been having a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. Holly got into the holiday spirit while we were shopping at Walmart and picked out some cute reindeer antlers. Here she is sporting her new look.

She got to make sugar cookies for the very first time at daycare. She didn't actually help make the dough, but she spread the frosting (with help) and decorated (no help needed) them. Apparently, she had a great time dipping her fingers into frosting, then the sprinkles, and then licking her fingers. They tasted delicious, although Van thought they were too sweet, so that meant I got two instead of one (minus one bite)!
We came up to my parents' house on Friday afternoon. I had begged them to wait to cut the Christmas tree until we got there. Since Van has never celebrated Christmas, this is part of the tradition and fun of the holiday and I wanted her to experience it. What I didn't know is that it was going to snow 3 feet before we got there! Van kept saying that she wasn't going to go out in it because she would die. I assured her that just BEING in the snow wasn't going to kill her. Here she is standing in the snow when we first went out to find a tree.

Holly was much more agreeable to being out in the snow. As a matter of fact, Nana tried to take her inside after Holly's cheeks got too cold and she kept taking her gloves off. Holly cried and screamed louder and louder the further away from us she got. Finally, Nana brought her back, tears streaming down her face, and Holly was perfectly happy to have Mama carry her back to the warm house while Pop Pop had to drag the Christmas tree all by himself.

My nephew's birthday is the 21st and we decided this year to go on a family sleigh ride to celebrate. We had so much fun that we have dubbed this a new family tradition! We went up to the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch for our sleigh ride. I grew up in this area and had never been up there. Its absolutely beautiful and was loads of fun! They have a lodge where we went in to warm up and have some hot cocoa before the horses were ready to take us for a ride. Here are Van & Holly in an old sleigh they have in the lodge that would have been pulled by one horse.
Holly and Van played the piano for quite a while. Van plays much better than Holly, but they both had a great time and it kept Holly entertained for a long time.

Finally, we were ready to go! We piled into the sleigh, covered ourselves with blankets, and had two thermoses full of hot cocoa. Holly got a sippy cup with hot apple cider, which she loved, since I don't really give her juice that often.

The sleigh ride was a little under an hour and was just gorgeous. It was snowing the entire time, much to Van's dismay. Every once in a while, we would have to duck under branches hanging in the trail so that snow wouldn't dump down the back of our coats. Let me tell you, there's nothing better than a sleigh ride at Christmas time!

After we were done, Holly wanted to pet the horses. The ones that pulled us weren't super excited about that, but we found others who were friendlier and let us pet them. We did eventually get the Christmas tree up and decorated, all our shopping done, and the presents wrapped. I even got most of my Christmas cards sent out finally! We will go to Christmas eve church service tonight and then out to dinner. Afterward, Holly will get to wear her Christmas pajamas to bed, and hopefully Santa will arrive sometime tonight! Its a good thing he lands on the roof, because its supposed to snow even more tonight and his sleigh would probably get bogged down in it all. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and enjoys whatever traditions your family has for the holidays!

Let the Shopping Begin

We did some Christmas shopping last weekend, which quite frankly, seems like a really long time ago! Van, Holly, & I met up with my parents to do our shopping marathon, which we do every year. Usually, I get all my shopping done for everyone in those two days. Welcome to parenthood - I still have about half of my shopping to do, and I'm running out of time!

Last year, we went to visit Santa (a super great Santa, not some hokey one who doesn't even look like the real guy!) and I decided to go back to the same place again. I spent weeks looking for a new Christmas dress for Holly and finally found one the day before we went for pictures.

Just as we were walking up to Santa's place in front of the tree, one of his elves told us that he was going on a one hour break! I know that even Santa needs a break from sitting in a chair and smiling, but it was a little inconvenient. I was pretty sure that Holly was almost at meltdown stage, since she had hardly napped all day because we were shopping.

Since we had some time to kill, we went in to Whiz Kids, a great toy & educational store for kids...like Holly and my dad. ;-) She had a fun time playing with the train set and eventually found the cars that you press down, roll backward, let go, and they ZOOM down the aisles. Holly entertained everyone by crawling around on the floor in her (cringe!) cream colored dress playing with the cars. I have to give Whiz Kids a 2 thumbs up for cleanliness, because Holly was as clean when we left as she was when we went into the store.

We got back to Santa's place a little early to get in line. Holly loved looking at the Christmas tree and kept telling us that it was "UP!" pointing way up to the top of the tree, which was about 3 stories high. She wanted to touch that tree soooo bad! She kept climbing onto the rails and could have fallen over the top if I hadn't been paying any attention. Here she is checking out some kids in front of her going up to see Santa.

We practiced smiling while we were standing in line. I'd say "smile" or "say cheese" and she would smile her biggest smile at me, then giggle at how fun that was. But just like last year, we got her up to Santa's lap and there were no smiles to be found! Holly was so solemn, even after being given a candy cane. That's ok though, because she is still so cute and beautiful that a smile isn't necessary. Besides, it will be great to tell her as she gets older how she never smiled for Santa when she was little. Just as we were getting finished up there, a brass ensemble came into the mall and set up to play some Christmas carols. We went over to listen for a few minutes, and Holly got out in the middle of the floor and just danced away. It was really comical because the musicians were playing some slow, not-so-super-cheery Christmas songs, but you would never know that by looking at Holly! We kept waiting for a faster, peppy, happy song, but that never happened, so we finally left.
This was BY FAR the most adorable shot of the day! Still no smile, but oh so cute! It reminds me of the "I look like an angel, but I've got a little devil in me somewhere" kind of picture.

Now I just need to find some time to finish up my Christmas shopping. I'm glad that Christmas is on a Thursday because I'm going to be one of those last minute shoppers that I have always made fun of. That's the Christmas spirit, eh?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving around here! As usual, we went up to my parents for the long weekend. We had a lot of fun hanging out, walking to the mailbox in the snow (I told Mom it was like Jeffie from Family Circle was out there!), and going to a hockey game on Saturday evening. Holly now says "hockey" and "Boomer," the mascot of the Spokane Chiefs.

Van was trying to use the computer, but Holly had different ideas. Sitting in Van's lap for her snack was what Holly had in mind! Van is so, so patient with Holly.

Somewhere along the way on Thanksgiving day, someone commented that the table was set so nicely, but that there should be a centerpiece or flowers or SOMETHING in the middle of the table. So, Pops said he would take Van out to find some greenery and whip something up for the table. As the were heading out the door, he also mentioned that he was going to let Van drive the lawn tractor...

She was a bit embarrassed that I came out to take pictures. But she was Speedy Gonzales, and went zipping by me sooo fast! She had a great time. Although this isn't the highest quality picture of the bunch, it is my favorite. Please also note that Van is NOT wearing a coat. She always says how cold she is, but refuses to wear a coat. Hmmm...any connection there? Van proudly hauled in the Charlie Brown tree that they cut down to turn into table decoration. And Holly helped make it into manageable, table-sized pieces. Everyone showed up for dinner, including my nephew and his girlfriend. Here is a nice picture of Holly and Kala. Carving the turkey is one of the most important parts of the day, isn't it? It is in OUR house, at least! Everyone stood around to watch (and to be ready to give carving advice, probably, although that wasn't necessary since Pop is almost a pro!). Van was especially interested in the process. Holly found a pen and notepad while we weren't paying attention. She crawled up on the bench and decided to draw a picture of something. Fortunately, I keep a close eye on her when she's wielding a writing utensil. I'm really OCD and paranoid about her writing all over things other than paper! Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! That was a lot of work for the small amount of greenery on the table, wasn't it?! ;-) Holly enjoyed her Thanksgiving meal far more this year than she did last year. I tried to give her some yams last year, but she wanted nothing to do with that! Of course, she was not quite 8 months old, so what should I have expected? This year she enjoyed her yams, mashed potatoes & gravy, turkey, pie, sparkling apple cider, and anything else she could get her hands on. When we got home on Sunday, I hauled all the Christmas stuff out of the garage and got the tree put up. Holly and I decorated the tree on Monday, and I also put up some lights. Tonight, I finally got the last of the inside decorating finished. My outdoor lights from prior years died, so I am now debating whether to bite the bullet and buy more now or wait until the day after Christmas and buy them on clearance for next year. I HATE getting up on the roof to put them up, so I'm a little ambivalent about it. Anyone have an opinion and want to vote on which I should do?

I feel like I have gotten a lot accomplished in the last couple of days, but have a few more things on my RIGHT NOW to do list. They include turning all of Holly's onsies into regular T-shirts, so I don't feel irritated that I wasted money on them since they are way too inconvenient now that she is potty training. I also have my "Old Year's Resolution" to finish Holly's life book by the end of the month. This was my "New Year's Resolution" in January and my goal was the beginning of February, before I went back to work...so you can see why I call it that. Her Advent calendar is on my list (or its going to be over before I get it done), and getting packages sent to my niece and Van's parents this weekend. That's not very much, is it? Lol!

Everyone knows I love to end my posts with a cute shot of Holly. I think I'm going to try to teach her how to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the spring. We all know that she's going to be a Cubs fan whether she wants to be or not. I also taught her to say that we go "watch hoops" when the high school basketball teams are playing.I have so much to be thankful for! Family, friends, happiness, and health. What more could a person ask for?

A VERY Belated Birthday...

You would think that I could have gotten around to this post sooner, since Van's birthday was nearly a week and a half ago! But, alas, this is what you get - at least I am posting!

Van celebrated her first birthday on the 13th. She's not one year old, but they don't celebrate birthdays in Vietnam, so it WAS her first birthday! Holly and I sent her balloons at school and so did a group of her friends. They made her cupcakes (which they ate in physics class) and gave her a few gifts, too. She was so amazed and kept saying she had "a lot, a lot of balloons!" She brought them home and decorated her room with them.
But she and Holly had to play with them for a little while first. The cat had fun chasing the ends of the balloons, too.

We got together with my family on the Friday after her birthday and had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Spokane. It was sooo yummy! Here's a picture of the whole family, excluding me (taking the picture!) and Mike, who must have been in the restroom or something.

My sister-in-law brought Holly a little crown and earring set from the dollar store, and here is Holly sporting her new look while eating a spring roll.

It was hard to decide what to eat because everything on the menu sounded so good! We all ended up with something we were happy with, and my aunt ordered this amazing looking meal that was served in a half of a pineapple! It must have been good because there wasn't any left at the end of the meal!

Van wore Holly's crown after she was done with it, which seemed appropriate, since she was the birthday girl!

Since the whole birthday thing is new, so was opening presents. She learns quickly, though! Here she is reading a card from Nana & Pop Pop.

And opening some warm, fuzzy socks. This was especially funny to me, since Van is always saying how cold it is, yet she walks around in her sandels all the time! Maybe she can put the socks on with her sandals...

She also got a stawberry & kiwi scented candle that she loved.

The best part of the night was when Van was talking about how tall my brother is. Yes, I did try to warn her, but you know how that goes if you know him at all. Van wanted a few pictures of the two of them. This one cracks me up! If you look closely, you will see that Van is on her tiptoes on the chair, and is STILL shorter than my brother!

The whole birthday celebration was a wonderful time, both for Van and our family. She's looking forward to seeing everyone again this week for Thanksgiving, and the day(s) rated as "really, really good" and "awesome," both of which are high praise! I think her birthday was one of her top 2-3 days being here so far. Hopefully, it will become one of MANY memorable days with our family!

One Year Ago Today...

It is astonishing to me that one year ago today I was in Taiwan and met Holly for the very first time. I had promised myself that I wouldn't cry, but of course I did. It was both a joyful and a sad day last year and I feel the same way this year. I think about Holly's birth mother very often, but on days like today, it is especially sad and painful for me. As Holly gets older, I am sure that she will think of her birth mother a lot and I hope that she will understand how much I love her birth mother and think that she was a courageous woman to make such a difficult decision.

Then:

Every day I still feel so lucky to be Holly's Mama and to have her in my life. She was so tiny and scared that day. She had no idea what was going on, but attached to me beautifully. Today, she is such a big girl, brave, cuddly, full of fun, and has oodles of personality. She knows who her Mama is and when she wants Mama, there isn't anyone who is an acceptable substitute! I cannot imagine my life without her. She has brought such joy into my world.

Now:
We didn't do anything different on this Family Day. I had a meeting all day, and Holly went to bed an hour earlier than usual. I guess I don't really have anything spectacular to say about this special day, so I will just show you pictures so you can see what a funny, independent girl she is.She loves the smell of playdoh and has finally decided that playing with it is fun. She loves shoes (watch out future husband!) and plays with any of them that she finds laying around the house. They are never where you left them!

Everyone loves a sleeping baby and I am no different. I snuck into her room the other night to take this picture. She has to have all of her things with her in bed (bear, giraffe, book, bunny, binky, blankets...).
More than anything, I just want to say that this girl makes me so darned happy to get up every single morning. I love to be with her, laugh with her, watch her, and love her. She truly is the best thing that has ever happened to me! I sometimes wonder if life can get any better than being a parent.

I love you, Holly! Today, tomorrow, and forever!

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend we carved all the pumpkins we had gathered from the pumpkin patch. Van watched me start one of the big ones, but wanted to carve a smaller one herself. She scooped the guts out...

And carved her design. It took her a long time to do because she is such a perfectionist and wanted it to be just right!

Of course, Van thought mine was better, but I tried to tell her I've just had more practice. Van's looked very cool when it was outside and lit up.

Halloween weekend, Nana & Pop Pop came to visit and go trick or treating with us. They came a day early, so they got to spend all day Friday with Holly. She woke up from her nap with a fever, so she spent some time just chillin' out with Pop Pop while he read a book. Poor little thing; look at those cheeks! :(

When I got home from work on Friday, we got all ready to go trick or treating. Holly was feeling better and loved her traditional outfit that I got in Taiwan. The slippers even fit perfectly! Don't ask me how it was that she just stood at attention like this. It just happened.

For those of you who don't know my family, we used to be HUGE into Halloween and had the best haunted house in the town where I grew up. Pop Pop didn't want to miss out on the fun. He brought a had with pigtails for Van to wear, too. The braids remind me of Pipi Longstockings.

Finally, we were ready to head out. I'll tell you, the biggest difference in changing when daylight savings ends was that we were trick or treating in broad daylight.

It took Holly a couple houses to figure out the whole trick or treating process. She was shy about saying trick or treat at first, but got a hang of picking out her candy and putting it in her bucket! She is always great about saying thank you, of course. She was both curious and unsure about this ghost at a friend's house, but got a full sized candy bar out of the deal, so it was worth walking by that ghost!

At first, Van just stood back and observed the tradition, but was persuaded to participate by a neighbor. She ended up with quite a selection of candy bars, too. At Lance's house, she went over to hug their pumpkin in the front yard. Too bad they weren't home when we were trick or treating. I'm sure Holly would have loved to see fireman Lance.

After trick or treating, we went to the high school football game. Holly was fascinated with the little cheerleaders that have been at a "camp" all week with the big cheerleaders. The busy weekend continued with a volleyball tournament all day Saturday and then just relaxing with the family on Sunday.

As a side note, let me tell you how incredibly lucky I am to have such a great kid! Since I was running the volleyball tournament, I had to be there at noon and was there all day long. Holly only took a 1 hour nap (in the bleachers), ate far less than usual, and played or ran around a lot that day. She was such a trouper and I can't believe that she didn't have a meltdown until 9 pm. Fortunately, it was the last game of the last match, so I delegated some tasks and got the heck out of Dodge. The reality is, Holly will grow up around sports, so being ok with hanging out in a gym is a MUST. I am so blessed to have a go-with-the-flow kind of girl!

Here's my observation for the day: Holly loves the book "I Don't Have Your Eyes," by Carrie A. Kitze. As I read each page, she points to the body part that it is talking about. She really cracks me up when we get to the knees because she wiggles her kneecap back and forth (sorry to gross you out, Mom!). This kid loves books of all kinds and will sit still for 30-45 minutes while I read to her. Usually, I lose interest before she does!

Next week will be 1 year since I met Holly and we became a family. We will definitely do something special to celebrate Family Day!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, the family of three visited the pumpkin patch at The Country Mercantile. First we ran a few errands, ate Japanese food, and then headed for the fun. Van was particularly excited about the whole picking a pumpkin thing.

When we arrived, there was a perfect little spot for a photo op. I plopped Holly down and this is what I got. She was pretty tired, as it was technically nap time and I kept her awake in the car on the way there so she wouldn't sleep through all the fun.
Then, Van & Holly climbed all the way to the top of a ginormous stack of hay bales. There were some kids who were trying to play king of the hill on it, but their parents kept yelling at them to stop. I'm sure they were imagining broken arms or other casualties of war!
We wandered over to another (less busy) stack of hay bales and it took a lot of persuading to get Holly to climb up on one herself. She wasn't particularly thrilled with the feel of the hay. It reminded me of her reaction to grass this spring.

Eventually, she was convinced to climb up all by herself. Mostly because Van climbed up first, sat down, and talked Holly into joining her. I'm still not sure Holly was thrilled with the whole touching hay thing, but these are growth experiences, right? Or will she be scarred for life because I forced her to do crazy things like touch hay?

Then we headed over to the petting zoo. I was hoping we could put the horse, but the lady said that he was really cranky, fed up with people, and would be going home that night (even though they are open until Halloween)! So Holly tentatively pet the sheep after Mama and Van showed her that it truly was ok.
The cows had flies all over them, so we skipped them and went to the goats instead. Holly seemed to like them better. I don't know if it was because there were more of them or because the brown one was friendlier and interested in being pet.

Whatever the reason, Holly made herself at home and sat with the goats for a little while before we headed out to the pumpkin patch.

As I said earlier, Van was excited about this part. She searched far and wide for the perfect pumpkin! I wished that I had had a video camera with me because Van went bouncing through the pumpkin patch, would stop and turn around to wave periodically, then continue to scrutinize each of the larger pumpkins for the perfect, beautiful pumpkin. Occasionally, she would pick one out, carry it to the edge of the patch and go on to see if she could find a better one. It was incredibly fun for me to watch how much enjoyment she got from this!

While Van was searching far, far away, Holly and I stayed closer to the hay wagons and she did a little picking of her own. I think she tried to pick up every pumpkin in the vicinity! It cracked me up watching her because I think almost every one of them weighed more than she did!

It was a taxing activity, especially with no nap, but we eventually picked out four pumpkins; two larger ones and two small ones. They are still uncarved and sitting on our front porch. Holly got to ride in the wagon with the pumpkins back to the car. She had one big one to lean against, and one to hold on to.
By the time we got back to the car, she had slid down in the wagon and was basically lying down with her head propped up on the biggest pumpkin. This picture makes me smile because I think its so sweet. It really shows her attitude about the whole day..."just give me a nap already!"

After putting the pumpkins in the car, we went inside to buy homemade chicken enchiladas and caramel apples to take home. After we ate the caramel apples, Van asked if we could send some to her mother in June right before she leaves to go back to Vietnam. I had to break the news to her that apples are fall fruits and that we really only get good caramel apples at this time of year (and that the Country Mercantile doesn't make them in the spring). She was very disappointed in this news!

We had a great time out in the fresh air and sunshine all afternoon and Holly zonked out early Sunday night! Hopefully, we will get the pumpkins carved this weekend. Van has seen some on other people's front porches and is looking forward to making a super cool face on hers. I'll keep you posted on how they turn out!

On a different note, Holly had her 18 month checkup last week and I could have sworn that she had gained at least 6-7 pounds since her 12 month visit. Alas, wrong again! She was a mere 21 pounds, but had shot up to the 14th percentile in weight (This is laughable, I know, that the 14th percentile would be way up! But she was in the 3rd percentile before, so its all a matter of perspective!). Everything else was super great, and she was a real trooper about her 4 shots.