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!

Just pics again

I wish I was witty or interesting or had time to tell great stories about my girls :-) but once again you just get some pics:

Sleeping!

Outside about 2 weeks ago:

Riding her bike in her dress up clothes and butterfly wings!

Allison got her second haircut on Saturday

Shoes

I wasn't born with the "female shoe gene" - I'm really not that into shoes (or clothes or shopping for that matter, GASP!). BUT, Allison LOVES shoes, other people's shoes mainly. Here she is with a pair of Lindsey's shoes on (and a pair of winter tights on her head!!!):

(Ack, please don't look at how dirty the carpet is! It's pretty bad, but what can I say with 2 little ones in the house? Jay will be getting out the Rug Doctor soon!)

Sorry I'm not much for updating lately. I think I only have a small handful of readers anyway. (If you visit my blog, please comment and let me know you were here! I would really appreciate it.) I have been spending a ton of time with my new knitting hobby - doing my knitting blog, participating in knitting email groups and one "real life" group, reading knitting books, listening to knitting podcasts, and of course actually knitting. I'm not obsessed, no not me.

Come visit me at my knitting blog!

Shameless Plug!

I started another blog, because I'm learning to knit! It's called N-E-W-Knitter. I also updated my sewing blog. Go have a look!

N-E-W-Knitter

Eileen's Sewing Journal

Happy Birthday Ben!

My "baby" is 17 years old today! Happy Birthday Ben!

After 12 weeks of bedrest for preterm labor, then almost 3 weeks of walking around, having contractions but no baby, I was finally induced a few days early (I was due 8/17) and Ben was born at 6:12 p.m. He was 7 lbs. 2 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. I can't believe 17 years has gone by since that day. Ben is a son to be proud of. He will be a senior in high school this year (homeschooled) and plans to go into a career in aviation. He loves music, movies, hanging out with friends, and anything aviation related of course. He works part-time as a bagger/checker at a local grocery store. He's a great big brother, a big help to me, and bigger than me!

My sister is watching the girls tonight while we take Ben out to dinner at Hu Hot Mongolian Grill. Yum!

One Year Ago Today

We saw this picture....



....and received the referral for our second sweet daughter from China. She was exactly 10 months old, living in Kunming, Yunnan. She had a special need of ASD which turned out to be non-existant. She still has some delays but has made tons of progress in the past 9 months since we brought her home. Referral day is the BEST!

FOOTBALL!!!!

Tonight is the Packers first preseason game. But boo hoo, I won' t be able to watch it. I'll be at my 25 year high school class reunion. I'm sure the game will be on there so I can catch parts of it. I am a huge football fan and am training my girls the best I can. I don't know where I went wrong with Ben, he recently lost all interest in football. Sigh.

Here are some pictures of us in our Packer attire. None of them are real recent. I think I need some new Packer clothes for this winter. I still wear my Green Bay Packers Super Bowl XXXI Champions sweatshirt (they won it in 1997).

At the beach

We were at a friend's cottage a few weekends ago (where the latest pics of Allison were taken). We went to a beach for a little while. Lindsey had a ball playing in the sand and running through the water (we forgot to pack swimming suits, ack! but it was too hot to stay long anyway). Allison was NOT so sure what she thought about the sand. She would cry if she had to walk in it (with or without shoes on). But she did eventually stick her hands in it to see what it was all about. (Reminds me of when we brought Lindsey home, she was scared to death to touch grass with her hands or feet. Allison was fine with that right away.) Just 2 pics from the beach...

Beautiful...

....Just love these pics!!!

A Tribute to My Mom

I want to keep most of this part of my life private as this is not the purpose of my blog, but since I mentioned that my mom had cancer I also want to let you know that she died last Monday, July 9. She died at home, peacefully, with her whole family at her side. I do just want to say a few things about my mom. Of course I think she was the best mom in the whole world! She gave me so many things. I have nothing but happy memories of her and my childhood. How many people can say that? My mom was so unselfish. She never cared about things for herself, her fulfillment came from being a great wife and mom and taking care of her 4 girls. She loved my dad so much and faithfully took care of him all their days together. They would have been married 50 years next month. She loved to make friends, she would talk to anyone who would listen at their senior apartment complex, a doctor's office, the grocery store. The comment I heard from people so many times at the funeral yesterday was "Your mom was such a sweet lady." I miss her so much already.

I could go on and on but I will just say "Thank you mom for everything. You're the best!!!!! I love you and will miss you incredibly."

***************

Thank you to all who prayed and sent cards and gave hugs and supported me through all of this. Many of you probably don't even read this blog but I'll thank you here anyway. Thank you Tamara for your "extra" prayers, the flowers, the talks on the phone. Thank you Mary Jo and Lorraine for watching my girls and taking such good care of them, I didn't have to worry about their wellbeing when I was busy with my mom and at the funeral. Thank you Sue for coming to the visitation, that meant so much to me. Thank you to my email friends - my blogger friends, Robin, the "Chatty Girls" and both of my travel groups for your prayers and words of comfort. Thank you to Traci my hairdresser who not only came in early one day last week so I could have a fresh haircut before the funeral, but didn't charge me for the cut and style. I know I'm missing a bunch of people, I'm sorry if that is you, but know that nothing said or done has gone unnoticed or unappreciated.

1st Haircut

Allison got her first haircut** today!!! She did so good, just sat nice while he cut her hair. I took her to the same place Lindsey went back in January.

Some before pics:

During:

And after:

Playing when she was done:

The back:

(See the DOG in the pic! Remember I told you he manages to get himself into so many pictures! Silly boy!)

Remember THIS look from Lindsey when she got her hair cut?

Well, Allison decided she could do that too! :-)

(Actually Lindsey's was a real scowl, Allison was just looking down and happened to make that face, she didn't mean anything by it.)

And how she's changed! Here are a few more pictures of her in China (this was 8 months ago):

**Unless you count this:

See how her hair looks blunt cut across the top - we wonder if her hair was in her eyes and her foster mother or nanny just cut it straight across the top. Or it wasn't cut, but just looked like it. So I will consider today's haircut her first.