Absolutely Everything

AP has decided that she can do absolutely everything by herself. This includes, but is not limited to, dressing, feeding, bathing, walking up stairs, putting her jacket on, taking her jacket off, opening candy wrappers, using the telephone, getting in the car, buckling her seat belt, feeding the dog, washing her brother's hair, it goes on and on. In reality, she still needs a little bit of help, but boy does that make her furious! She has thrown herself down in the floor multiple times a day for the last week or so. So far, we are ignoring this. Here is our independent girl eating her yogurt at dinner tonight.

It may look like there is snot all over her face, but it is actually a banana yogurt/mac & cheese mixture!

Baking Fool

In the past 24 hours, I have made 3 chicken lasagnas, baked 2 batches of brownies, 1 dozen cookies, and 2 loaves of bread. Most of it went to church tonight with hubs for his men's Bible study. But, the rest went to some of our good friends who recently brought home their 3rd baby girl. Baby E is a cutie!

The Zoo Run Run

My girlfriends and I ran the Zoo Run Run at the Nashville Zoo today. It was a 5K. We all finished in the 900's out of 2000 people, so not too bad overall, but I finished FIVE minutes slower than the last 5K I ran before AP came home. I've got some work to do. Here we are before the run, one friend and I got in the zoo spirit and painted animal faces on ourselves.
The kiddos, hubs, and I went to eat dinner after the run at Ruby Tuesday's. We are big fans of the Turkey Minis. This is what my face looked like while we ate. I got several "nice whiskers" comments.

A Little Better

AP is feeling a little better today. She is still not eating, but she has had enough energy to throw a few tantrums :) We knew she was sick when that stopped! Thanks for the well wishes. Balloons from Nanna was just the pick-me-up she needed this afternoon.

C even got balloons so he wouldn't feel left out, thanks Nanna!

Sick Baby

Our little pumpkin is under the weather. She went to visit the doctor last night and has an ear infection and a cold. She is supposed to be on an antibiotic now but it is IMPOSSIBLE to get her to swallow. We've tried all the tricks. This is the sickest that she has been since she has come home (almost a year ago). All she wants to do is sit in our laps, she dozed off and on all day today. Poor girl :(

Writing on the Wall

Who would have ever thought this would be ok, and encouraged by parents? The kiddos got these bath crayons in their stockings and they love them. It just wipes right off, too. Maybe AP will get all her wall writing out of her system this way. She has been known to write on a few walls at our house. Thankfully, we had the forethought to use washable paint. C never even thought to do that.

Below is my first attempt at Monkey Bread, not too shabby, eh? I made this yesterday morning as we all had the day off. The leftovers were even good this morning. Here is the recipe, it was super easy.

Seeing Stars, Pumping It Up, and One Cold Hot Dog

The kiddos were invited to a b-day party today for the son of one of my friends from college. We left the house early and stopped to do some shopping at Target. Guess who I literally almost bumped into in the little girls section? Gretchen Wilson. I'm not usually one to go gaga over stars, it was just weird b/c she was right there. in the Target. shopping for hoodies. Anyway, from there we went on to the party at Pump It Up, another inflatable jumping place. The kiddos absolutely wore themselves out, but they loved it. (That's me and AP going up and C coming down)

C ran around non-stop, he even climbed a rock wall. I was really proud of him, not too long ago that would have been too overwhelming. AP insisted on doing everything by herself. She got in every apparatus and climbed every ladder. She went down every slide, some even by herself. Hubs said I was making some of the staff nervous by letting her do some of the big stuff, but AP insists and she really is capable of doing it, so why fight her? After all the jumping they had pizza and cake, then watched the birthday boy open up his gifts. His favorite gift was the one from C that he had picked out by himself. When we got home we realized that we had left one of our dachshunds outside! It is freezing, literally, outside. I felt soooooo bad. Our little pampered dogs have never stayed outside for more than five minutes and he was outside for about 4.5 hours :) He is ok, though. He actually didn't act like he was cold at all. I wrapped him in blankets and held him for a while. This is about thirty minutes later, he is hogging all the heat from our little fake fireplace in the bonus room :)

Core Update

I was feeeling good about our workout last night. I was not too sore this morning, but then when I combined that with my first outdoor run this morning in the coooold. Ouch! It hurts to walk now, but all this is supposed to make me a more stabilized runner. We'll see.

Bathing Beauties

Here are a few pics from our bathtime tonight. Too cute.
We are off now to meet some of my girlfriends from church to work on strengthening our "cores". Apparently, that is an important part of training for the half marathon. I have a feeling I will have a sore core tomorrow!

Check It Out

My little sister started a blog about my super adorable niece, "Little Bliss"! I added the link on my sidebar.

A Date With C

C and I went on a date yesterday afternoon to see the new Veggie Tales movie.

C was really excited to go. He is all about pirates right now,

but this is what he looked like as we pulled into the theater parking lot.

Yes, he is sound asleep, but when he realized where we were he woke right up. I was really surprised b/c he usually wakes up grouchy. He was really into the movie. I think this is the most attentive he has been in a theater yet. He shouted out to the characters several times. I thought it was cute. There was a pretty good message at the end, too. Maybe we will go on dates to the movies more often.

Oh.My.Goodness

These are the things that AP requested before going to bed tonight:


a bow


a skirt over her pj's


and her bag (that's what she calls her purse)

I've got everything I need

...but do I really have to go to bed?

Little Princess

Potty Talk

AP is teaching Elmo how to use the potty. She also has stripped naked and done her business in the floor/in her bed twice recently. I'm thinking that these are signs that we should get the little potties out and start letting her try it out. This is just soooooooooooo much younger than C even showed an inkling of interest. Honestly, he still struggles with it at 4 1/2. Hmm...I am going to think hard on this one.

100 things

Ok, I am playing along. This was lot harder than I thought it would be. This is actually my 101st post, but here are 100 things all about me:

1. I turned the big 3-0 this year.
2. I still feel like I am in my early twenties.
3. I turned thirty in Kazakhstan on our trip to get AP.
4. Our travelmates had missionary friends in Almaty and they threw me a party complete with a birthday cake. It was very special.
5. The most special part was my new daughter.
6. In one month, I will have been married for 7 years.
7. I don’t feel the 7 year itch.
8. I am a middle school counselor/therapist by trade. One day a week I counsel elementary school students.
9. I like middle schoolers better than younger students.
10. I dread the day my children have to deal with the middle school “drama”.
11. I really like Diet Dr. Pepper.
12. I have gone 3 years (in the past) without soda.
13. I have been thinking about doing it again.
14. Hubs and I are training for the half marathon.
15. We have only run three other races and they were 5 Ks.
16. I did run cross country in high school, but had much less endurance then than I do now.
17. I did it because my friends were doing it.
18. I also played softball in high school and then intramural softball in college.
19. Our intramural team was called “Orange Crush”.
20. I still wear the T-shirt sometimes.
21. I didn’t really want to go to college where I did, but I got a full academic scholarship there.
22. I ended up really liking it and making a lot of great friends.
23. I was really close to one of my social work professors. She inspired me to go make a difference.
24. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago at a young age. She never married or had kids. She would have been a great mother.
25. I did a project in college about providing resources to families who adopt internationally.
26. I had no idea then that both my children would be born in foreign countries.
27. I liked to hike, backpack, and camp in college.
28. I haven’t done it since then.
29. I got a perfect score in Math on the ACT.
30. I don’t like anything about Math.
31. I finished graduate school in 12 months.
32. I got engaged with 2 months left of grad school.
33. My husband hid my engagement ring in my Easter basket.
34. One of my best friends was in a car wreck on the way to my rehearsal dinner and wasn’t able to be in my wedding.
35. She was ok, I just had lunch with her today.
36. We spent our honeymoon in Cancun.
37. I am trying to get up the nerve to leave my kids for a long weekend so we can go back there.
38. We have never left the kids for more than 1 night.
39. Hubs new job has an incentive trip to Ireland being offered.
40. I told him that if he wins it, I will agree to leave the kids with family and have an “adult” trip.
41. We vacationed in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales with hubs family in 2006.
42. Thanks to his very generous grandmother.
43. She also took the family to Hawaii in 2003.
44. I love the beach, any beach.
45. I would love to live near the beach someday.
46. I like to read on the beach.
47. I haven’t been able to do that since having kids.
48. My favorite author is Jodi Picoult.
49. I just finished reading The Plain Truth.
50. I also like Nicholas Sparks.
51. His books are set near where my in-laws live in North Carolina.
52. I have 2 miniature dachshunds.
53. I love them, but they get on my nerves a lot of the time.
54. The oldest one sleeps in our bed and cries to be let out in the middle of the night.
55. Our kids sleep better than our dogs.
56. I love reality TV.
57. My favorite shows are Survivor, Amazing Race, The Biggest Loser, and The Bachelor.
58. I hate to admit that I also really liked Rock of Love.
59. I think Brett Micheals is not ugly.
60. The ending was crazy.
61. I am addicted to Guitar Hero.
62. I don’t own it. I play my cousin’s game.
63. I started my career the last time I played and am on the third level.
64. My favorite song to play is the Pat Benetar song.
65. Hubs thinks the game is silly and would be a waste of money to buy.
66. He only thinks that because he’s really bad at it. If he were good at it, he would want to buy it.
67. I am a very competitive person, when it comes to games/sports.
68. I usually beat hubs at most things.
69. It makes him mad, so we don’t play a lot of things.
70. He will play racquetball with me, but has never beaten me.
71. I used to loved Nintendo, the original one.
72. I beat Super Mario Bros 1, 2, and 3.
73. After that, the games got too fancy for me.
74. I am having a hard time coming up with 100 things about just me.
75. I am a Christian. (that should have been higher up on the list)
76. I work with Awanas at our church.
77. I keep the 9-18 month Sunday School class.
78. We have been members at our church for about 3 years.
79. It was hard for me to find a church that felt “right”.
80. I had to go with hubs on this decision and am glad that I did.
81. I love to take pictures of my kiddos.
82. I spend way too much time blogging about the kiddos.
83. Hubs would say I spend too much money on pictures of the kiddos.
84. I like finished scrapbooks, but struggle through the process of making them.
85. I have completed 3 scrapbooks- C’s Adoption Story, C’s First Year Home, Our British Isles Trip.
86. Poor AP, I am not motivated to do her adoption book.
87. The main reason is that I have no pictures to put in it.
88. Our camera was stolen in Kazakhstan on the second to last day there.
89. Hubs was carrying the diaper bag and I got really mad at him when the camera was stolen out of it.
90. I don’t stay mad very long. I am a very forgiving person.
91. I do have some video of the trip that I plan to get some still shots from.
92. I always use too many minutes on my cell phone. We are increasing my minutes for next month.
93. I like to bake desserts.
94. I like to cook, but find I usually don’t have time or the right ingredients.
95. I am a Lifetime WeightWatchers member. I don’t count points anymore, just try to make healthy choices and exercise.
96. I really liked Michael Jackson when I was a kid. I wore a leather jacket with zip-off sleeves and one glove just to be like him.
97. Part of me doesn't want to believe that he has become what he has become.
98. I am a generous person and have a hard time understanding people who are selfish. I think I inherited the generous spirit from my mother.
99. I am blessed with a great family.
100.I can name 100 things about myself!

It's Cold Outside

And we are entertaining ourselves inside. Sometimes I become a human playground. Here are the kiddos taking a ride on an "airplane", aka my ugly feet :)

And this is C's idea of getting ready for bed :)

Peas and Luck in the New Year

Happy 2008! I love going into a new year with an open mind. We have no "plans", so to speak, and are just excited to see what the new year brings. Both my sister and stepbrother are getting married this summer. AP, C, and I are in my sister's wedding so that should be a lot of fun. Other than that, our calendars are clean. Hubs just started his new job and is looking forward to getting into the swing of things. C will finish up his first year of 4yo preschool and we will decide whether or not he goes on to kindergarten or takes advantage of another year of preschool. I kind of felt like last year was all about building our family and this year is all about just enjoying each other. We all had our obligatory bite of blackeyed peas today for good luck in the new year. Did you?