Happy 7th Birthday, Abby!!

Today is the big "7" for Abby! She has been so excited to see this birthday come, and has been crossing off the days since the calendar changed to January!

She has had a fun-filled weekend ... starting yesterday with THS Cheer Clinic for the grade school girls all morning. They learned a cheer routine and will perform at half time of the boys JV game this Friday night.

After TJ's basketball game yesterday, she requested dinner from her fave birthday dinner spot ... Chevy's! Celebrations are fun there with ice cream, singing, clapping and a sombrero to take home! I think we have a couple dozen of those sombreros in the play room, as all of our kids enjoy a Chevy's birthday! ha

Today she was up for her favorite breakfast ... a sausage, egg & green pepper casserole. After breakfast it was time to open presents, and she was excited to see her new "Madeline" book, paper doll book and doll. She's such an avid reader that you just can't go wrong with books with this girl!

The rest of her presents were the next favorite thing ... bling! A headband with rhinestones, a dress with sparkles, and some pink pearl earrings and she is set!

Now we're off to TJ's Sunday afternoon game. Along with dinner, we'll have the "birthday cookie and ice cream" that Abby requested instead of cake. I made a pan chocoloate chip cookie and we have it cut into the shape of a "7", ready to go! It has been a fun weekend, and I'm happy to have had the time to wind down and relax after being in Vegas all last week! Back to work and school tomorrow, the real world strikes again! ha ha

Haiti

UPDATED 1-16-10: MIKE IS HOME!! Check his mom's blog in the link below for more details, but kudos to the US Air Force for getting citizens back on American soil.
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Thinking of a friend whose son is in Haiti teaching this year, and the helplessness they feel being here and wondering how he's doing. They have heard from him and he's ok, but the situation is so fragile there right now that of course there are worries.

Send some good thoughts and prayers Mike's way. And you can see how things are going here on his mom's BLOG. Even though their last name is Scott like ours, we're not related ... we just accidentally found each other in 2002 during our China adoption journeys due to an agency paperwork mix up, and have remained friends since!

Snow Day!

Looks like we got about 8 inches of new white stuff on top of the 6-7ish inches we already had! Thought it had stopped earlier but it's snowing again. WHEE! Home today with the kiddos enjoying a snow day. Abby and I just finished her January book report project, and she's enjoying the morning in her jammies, watching PBS! haha

Family Day!

Six years ago today, on the other side of the world ... in a hotel elevator lobby in Changsha, Hunan ... we were given the precious gift of our daughter. It was a whirlwind of emotion. Thinking back, it is a pretty surreal experience to have someone just hand you an 11-month old child who is suddenly yours. But we could not love her any more if she were born to us.

Abby cried at first, and then was pretty solemn most of our time in China. Today she is a happy and such a beautiful child. Hard to imagine life without a little girl in it. Hard to imagine life without a grade school daughter to keep us on our toes! Hard to imagine not having experienced the joy of growing our family through adoption.

Happy family day Abigail Kui Yan! Our trip journal is here, Our Beautiful Sunflower

Happy New Year!

The first few days of 2010 have been good to us ... pretty cold here, but it won't last too long. Hey, only 10 weeks until spring break! :-)

Drew headed back to college and starts classes tomorrow, and the kids both head back to school tomorrow as well. Back to work for mama after taking some time off for the holidays, too!

We got back into the 6th grade basketball routine this weekend with 3 games. TJ (#22 in picture) loves to play and have the whole team experience! He made a 3-pointer today, woo hoo! Happy 2010!

Christmas 2009!

Wow, Christmas has come and gone. But it sure was fun! The big guy in the red suit was good to all of us, as usual. And it is lots of fun to still have a family member who BELIEVES in him. This might be our last year, though!

We spent Christmas Eve and Day at home with the kiddos, it was great to have everyone here and just relax and open gifts. Abby's big wishes for the year mostly included books, books and books ... and a few pretty clothes. TJ got a new bike, since he has just about driven the wheels off of his other one. ha

On Saturday, we headed to the Scott family Christmas and spent the night at grandma and grandpa's, with all the extended family. The kids love this special time with their cousins, as some years it is the only time we manage to get everyone together.

Saturday was also our 27th anniversary, and in the typical busy Christmas season fashion, it pretty much went un-celebrated. Guess I'm finally used to that after all these years, ha ha.

Sunday was grandma and grandpa Scott's 50th anniversary, and we helped them celebrate their special day with a family lunch. We got a surprise 7 inches of snow that made the drive a little hectic, but made for great scenery from the lunch window. And TJ got home just in time to have a little snow play time with his friends before dark.

Now this week I'm off work with the kids, and we'll do some exchanges and shopping. Abby is anxious to get to the mall and get busy at that famous bear-stuffing place with a gift certificate that Drew gave her. We'll keep the decorations up until the end of the week ... I think I enjoy them more now when things are so peaceful, and that's also why we don't put them up very early. On Saturday Drew will head back to college and we'll get back into the basketball travel team routine, AKA bleacher time!

Deck the Halls!

Tonight was the Tremont Middle School band concert and we got to enjoy some Christmas sounds from the 6th grade band ... TJ was on the bass drum and it's taller than he is, so I skipped the concert photo opp! haha Listening to the chorus groups made me realize how long it has been since I heard Drew with his middle school voice, singing in a choir ... what a change those boys voices are yet to go through!

When we got home I took some pics of two very goofy kids near the tree. They could not seem to stand still and take a serious shot, so this is all I got! Enjoy!

Journey to the Christmas Tree Farm

Wish there would have been some of the white stuff around for our annual trek to the Christmas Tree Farm ... but even though it was gray and a bit gloomy, the kids had fun anyway! We have had weather of all kinds over the years, from cold and blowing snow to just wearing light jackets. Years with no snow to sleet pelting us in the face to a foot of snow on the ground that has to be dug out around the tree before you can start cutting. I'll take the years with snowflakes in the air anytime over a warm day. Something just doesn't feel right about t-shirts and Christmas trees, ha ha. Click on the pics for a full size view.
After walking around a bit, we found a tree that was just right and TJ did most of the sawing to get it cut down ... Abby supervised, of course! Dad helped make the final cut and off we went to put the tree through the shaker to get rid of the excess needles, and to get it bound up to make the trip home. The kids always have to make a stop in the building for the free hot cider, and then we're off! It felt weird to not have Drew with us this year, but he won't be home until next weekend and with basketball games and all ... we might not have a tree if we waited for him to get home from college!

Now it's time to decorate, and I'm really missing Drew ... because he always helps me with lights and carries all of the decorations upstairs! Might have to wait until after dad is done watching football to get that done!

Christmas Festival Photo

Somewhere in this beautiful chapel at Carthage, I'm holding a candle ... with tears in my eyes as Drew sang a solo at the start of the service of light! :-)

Drew is right in the center, in front of the big choir with a tall pillar candle, but the lighting is dim and you can't really see him.

'Tis the Season ...

... to be "crazy busy" I guess! Can't believe it has been so long since I posted here! During that time we have had much going on at home and at work. I think even though we are headed into the crazy holiday schedules, it will not be as busy as the last 3-4 weeks have been!

We hosted Thanksgiving here at our house with our 3 parents, and that was really nice. Added bonus to have Drew home from school and be able to enjoy a bit of one-on-one time with him too!
TJ is in full basketball mode with weeknight practices and games every Saturday & Sunday, so we are doing lots of bleacher time. Today his 6th grade travel team won the 3rd place game in a tourney, pictured here after the game!

I spent two days traveling to/from Wisconsin to spend some time with Drew and to see him with his choirs in the Carthage Christmas Festival. It was wonderful, as I knew it would be. He only has 4 years of college and so only 4 of these programs ... and having been to the first 2, I know I won't miss the last 2. The special times and programs are few, and those 4 years go by too fast!

Now that I finally feel like we can return to life at its normal busy pace instead of the insanity of the past few weeks ... look for more updates on things like our upcoming visit to the Christmas tree farm and the kids holiday programs! Yes, it 'tis the season!