Merry Christmas!

Ornaments

We just put our tree up last night. Since Allison is the QUEEN of getting into things, we just didn't want to deal with her taking ornaments off the tree all the time, for too long a period of time. We weren't totally sure if she'd want to take them off, but sure enough, ornaments have already been strewn all over the place by the little tornado. Guess the tree will be coming down the day after Christmas unless things get better, then we'll leave it up until New Year's Day. I've never been one to want the tree up for weeks and weeks anyway.

So here are a few of the ornaments:

See a theme here? :-)

I have about 10 more favorites but here are just a few more:




This one is my absolute favorite. I made it in kindergarten and I remember making it. The ornament is 38 years old! It's the first one I hang every year:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Sweet

Long time no post, sorry. No time now either, time for bed! So I'll just leave you with 2 pictures:

Lindsey napping in her own little "nest" -----



Allison wide awake ----

Sigh

I was hoping for a happier post this morning but oh well, you can't win 'em all! I thought the Packers did fairly well considering their injuries (and that was even before Favre got hurt) and playing IN Dallas. AND since it looked like it might be an embarrassing blowout for awhile too.

I had to watch the game all alone last night since Jay is out of town for work, Ben went to watch with a friend, and the girls were in bed. I'm getting a cold too and my throat was getting more and more sore as the game went on. And then the Packers lost. Oh woe is me. LOL

My four favorite TV shows:

1. The Packers playing football
2. The Badgers playing football
3. Sunday Night Football
4. Monday Night Football

:-)

I really like The Office, The Amazing Race, and House Hunters too. :-)

Have a great day!

GO PACK GO!!!!!

GO PACK! YOU CAN DO IT!

BEAT THE COWBOYS TONIGHT!

Happy Birthday Chester!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHESTER!!!

Chester is 7 years old today!

I never had a dog in my life until we got Chester. I didn't have a clue how wonderful life is with a dog. We got him when he was 8 weeks old, and only 2 lbs. 6 oz.! He was SO little and cute! He "cried" part of the way home and parts of the first 2 nights here. But after that we were his family and he has done so well. *I* cried the first few months we had him. Let's just say he wasn't catching on to housebreaking (took him 9 months!) and he was just a lot of work. He never was a chewer or anything, it was just that pottying all over the house that was frustrating.

Now, he is the.best.dog. He is so cute and sweet, smells so good, doesn't shed, is friendly, great with the girls. AND....I'm his favorite person. :-) He loves CHEESE (of course!), probably even more than meat! He loves his homemade chicken cookies (yes I make them for him - if you want the recipe, let me know, it's easy!). He loves destroying his doggie toys (making a hole and getting all the stuffing out). He loves going for walks and going to the dog park.

His middle name is George because we brought him home the day Dubya was inaugurated (sp?) for the first time. :-)

I think we had him home for a day or two in this pic. Look how little Ben is!

He wouldn't even fit in this doggie bed today.

AWWWWW!!!!!

Someone is in t-r-o-u-b-l-e!!! :-)

P.S. Can't leave you until I say one more thing........................

How 'bout them Packers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10-1!!!!!

This season has been an absolute blast!

Shoes

Lindsey needed some new dress shoes. She fell in love with a sparkly pink pair, of course. I said she could get them. The next morning she had them on. I said to her "You really love those shoes, don't you?" She answered......

"Yes, I'm *obsessed* with them!!!"

Too funny!



Allison is always on the go.......

Sisters

....and, of course, part of a dog (look in the lower left)

Always behind

Story of my life these days - I have NEVER been SO behind on SO many things IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! I just can't seem to get anything done in a timely manner these days. I have a To Do list a mile long that I can never make any kind of dent in. This is just such a new feeling for me. I was wondering the other day WHY in the world I can't keep up anymore? I realized right away that I have never had 2 little ones at the same time before! Ben was almost 13 before Lindsey came along, then we had just one little one for 2 1/2 years before Allison came home. It doesn't help that I'm homeschooling Ben in his senior year which brings a lot of work and stress, Lindsey has a difficult personality (don't let that sweet face fool you! LOL) and Allison has delays (which I don't really want to discuss here, mostly for her privacy, but she has a major speech delay as well as a few other minor things). So I have just resigned myself to feeling disorganized, my house being a mess, and some things just not getting done, for a few more years yet.

A week ago today, October 30, was our one year anniversary of Gotcha Day for Allison. We did nothing to mark the day, other than to acknowledge that it was one year since Gotcha, and I looked at the pictures from that day in China. Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures on that day in China, none of the actual Gotcha moment, because my sister mostly took video (at my request) instead of pictures. But here is one of us that day. We were so shell shocked, things felt so different than they did when we got Lindsey.




For Halloween, Allison stayed home with me (she has no clue what the day was all about) and Jay took Lindsey out trick or treating. She went as a pink leopard. I didn't get very good pictures (story of my life again) but here's one:

(I really don't care for Halloween to tell you the truth. Lindsey had a blast and it was cute having her dress up. But I absolutely hate the gross and gory decorations that people put in their yards, I don't find it funny or cute. I think it mars the beauty of the fall season. And now Lindsey has a bucket full of candy - just what she needs! - NOT! We struggle the way it is with sweets and junk food. This doesn't help! So anyway, just my thoughts on the subject, I know I'm in the minority with my feelings about Halloween!)

To be honest I get pretty discouraged at my inability to get things together. Plenty of other moms have at least 2 little ones, some many more than that, and they still seem to have things in order. Big Gotcha Day celebrations, great pictures, clean houses, eloquent blog posts, etc. Oh well, I am who I am and I have to accept that.

Thursday is our 12 month post-placement visit, and is also the one year anniversary of the day we came home from China last year. We have our court date for Allison's readoption later this month. I will make sure I get some good pictures of that at least!

So this isn't a total downer post, here are a few other misc. pictures of the girls:

Ick!

Allison actually fell asleep one late morning on the kitchen floor,

Lindsey took the opportunity to pose next to her :-)

She loves to climb!

This was so cute, they were sitting there together, each looking
through piles of "stuff", so intent on what they were doing

Allison's Birthday

Unfortunately I didn't get any really good pictures of Allison's 2nd birthday party. I tried to take some before the party, knowing it would get chaotic when everyone was here (which it did) but the girls just did not want to cooperate. Both girls would not stay still so all the pictures are blurry. I thought for sure I took some when we were singing Happy Birthday but they did not show up. Here's what I did get:

(I told you Chester always gets in pictures! That's his ear on the bottom.)

Eating supper, she loves to eat!

I got tears in my eyes when we were singing to her, thinking about last year, how no one probably sang her Happy Birthday. How thrilled I am that she is my daughter and from now on we can celebrate her coming into the world and into our family, every year. She is a special little girl!

In honor of Allison's nickname, "Pie Pie", we didn't have a birthday cake. Jay made an apple pie and a blueberry pie (yum!), get it - Pie Pie. :-) I did make cupcakes and spelled out Happy Birthday on them with candy letters. The picture I took of that didn't turn out very good :-( and I FORGOT to take pictures of the pies! ARGH! This was NOT the birthday of pictures I guess. Allison took her own pictures. I wonder if hers turned out better than mine. :-)


Have a great week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLISON!

My baby turns 2 years old today! We missed her first birthday by just a few weeks (Gotcha Day was 10/30) so I'm so happy to have her home with us today. We're not doing anything special today, but having a birthday party for her on Sunday. I will post more about Allison and pictures after that day. I don't have the time right now. But I wanted to acknowledge my sweet Allison today on her special day!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Love, Mom

More pics of the girls, what else

I had these all ready to post a few nights ago and then poof! I was doing some cropping of the pics and thought I was deleting one picture but instead everything I had just worked on was gone and I didn't know how to get it back. So this morning I redid them all and here you go.

Lindsey started a Tumble and Jazz class a few weeks ago. Here she is all ready on the first day:




Allison woke up sick a few Sundays ago. She seemed so mellow when she got up, and at first we weren't sure if she was just tired or if she was sick. Then she threw up. :-) She slept all morning and then she was fine after that thankfully. I have no idea what that was all about. Doesn't she look sweet and a little pathetic?






This picture tells the story of the position these little girls take with each other. Lindsey ALWAYS has to be the center of attention. Poor Allison is sometimes the "poor little sister" tagging along.



But they do love each other!









Although you might not always be able to tell, LOL:



Loving books:





It's funny that when we first adopted Lindsey, the nannies told us she did not like "hairy toys" (translation: stuffed animals!) Now she LOVES them! She's not really into dolls, but she loves her stuffed animals. She loves real animals too. She says she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. :-)



Just looking pretty:









Not happy all the time!


Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Life isn't always happy and easy around here, raising 2 active little girls plus a teenage son can be so exhausting. Some days I just want to throw in the towel. Life can be very HARD! But the good things do outweigh the bad. I so love my kids though and thank God He has blessed me 3 times over. There was a day when I wondered if I'd have any kids, and then I thought Ben would be an only child forever. So remind me how thankful I am when I am struggling! :-)

Have a good day!