Still Playing with Icing

I monogrammed these cookies tonight for a baby shower tomorrow. It is too much fun to play with this icing. I don't have the best handwriting, but hopefully everyone will get the point. And I'm all about giving credit where it is due. This is where I got the idea. If you have time go ahead and read more than just the recipe on that blog. You will be amazed by her spirit and the way her miracle baby has touched so many lives.

N is for Necktie

And, although she's not wearing a necktie, little sis wanted in on the picture taking this morning :)

What in the world

Here are the world cookies that we made that no one will ever see! I think they turned out pretty cute myself.

Snow Day #2 !

Two in a row is unheard of! At least it hasn't happened in a long time. Yesterday we were out of school for ice, but it ended up only being icy in the trees. Then last night we got a dusting of snow. I think the roads are still driveable (I wouldn't know as I am still in my pj's) and there's not enough snow to even make a little snow baby. But, I'll take the day off any time. Yesterday we stayed busy all day. (A large part of our day was spent making 70 cookies and decorating them with royal icing to look like the earth for a business meeting for my future cousin-in-law...and the meeting was cancelled just a few minutes ago!! Looks like we'll be eating world cookies for the next few weeks) Today we plan to just veg out and I truly get to because our washing machine broke so I can't even catch up on laundry if I wanted to!

Family Movie Night

We had our first family movie night last night. C picked Wall-E out at the rental store. The kiddos took all their blankets and pillows up to the playroom and we watched it together on our big screen, complete with popcorn. It was a fun night spent together. The movie was a little too propagandaish (I just made that word up), but C liked it, and I felt like I should go recycle something afterwards. (Actually, I did take all my plastic bags back to Kroger today to recycle them :)

All Together

With permission, here are a few group shots:

Mini Kyrg Reunion

We have been looking forward to today for a few weeks now. We got to see this family again, finally meet this family, and meet 1 other family that has adopted from Kyrgyzstan. All of our Kyrg kiddos were in the same orphanage, too!

We met up this morning for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Somehow, we immediately separated into a boys table and a girls table:) I think the girls could have stayed there and talked for hours. This family has two boys that were adopted from Russia. One is just a little younger than C and the other is just a little older. He loved having friends there. He came running over to me when he figured out where they were from and said "Mom, these friends are from Russia like me!" It was very cute.

AP was the oldest little Kyrg kiddo in the group and has been home at least a year longer than the others. She looked so big compared to little J and little E, but she loved taking care of them. She was close in age to the only little Kyrg boy there. He was so sweet! They shared snacks for a little while :)

After Cracker Barrel, we went to Adventure Science Center. The kiddos, of course, had lots of fun and were successful in wearing themselves out. When we were leaving C asked if we could go back again tomorrow!

On to the pictures.... (one of the families doesn't blog, so the pics are a little selective, we did get a really cute pic of all the Kyrg kiddos in their matching shirts, but I'll leave that out since I didn't get permission)

Baby E in a basket :)

The handsome Russian boys

C had a reflective ninja star on his hoodie so it reflected every flash and looks like he is glowing!

Beauty sleep

Baby J (also lovingly referred to as hot dog)

C lifting a car with a lever

Hubs and I climbed with the kiddos to the very top of the observatory and then decided it probably wasn't meant for grown ups :) This was our view of Nashville.

Daddy playing doctor

Mickey and Minnie Day

That is the theme for the day at C's school. They are studying the letter M this week. C didn't have any Mickey clothes so we had to get creative. C helped me trace circles on some material that we already had. (We traced around sippy cups) Then we used fusible webbing to iron the circles on a black shirt he had. And tada!

He was so proud of his shirt this morning!

Race Car Driver Knight

One of C's favorite things is to dress up. Most of the time he puts parts of different costumes together to create crazy characters. Tonight he was a "race car driver knight." He really wants his costumes to scare us every time. It's quite funny!

Mermaid Bed

I finally took a few pictures of AP's new big girl furniture. She calls her bed a "mermaid bed." This is because she calls any princess a mermaid. And she loves mermaids! I think I am all princessed out and she's only 2! We let her pick her new bedding to increase the odds that she would actually stay in her new bed. She, of course, chose very princessy/mermaid bedding. It's not what I would have chosen, but she likes it and I can live with it. I do love her furniture, especially the little wooden bows and the glass knobs. Here are a few pictures after we semi cleaned her room tonight. We are still having a hard time fitting everything in there!

New Valentines Day Designs

There are several new Valentines Day inspired designs at With Sugar On Top. It's not too late!

Just An Added Benefit

Aside from all the other amazing benefits of parenting, there is also the flattery! As we were eating a gourmet dinner that I had thrown together tonight (that may or may not have included mac n cheese from a box), C said "Mom, you are the queen of cooks!" I definitely am not going to tell him otherwise ;)

Still Here

Just trying to get our life back to some semblance of normal! My hours at school have changed some, which has left us scrambling around in all different directions every afternoon and not getting home until much later than we would like. As a result, our house is in shambles! There are at least 5 loads of clean laundry piled in various places that need to be folded. I'm not complaining, I'm glad we can have that many clean clothes, this just doesn't leave much time for blogging! We also bought AP new bedroom furniture the day after we got back from our cruise. We have yet to figure out how it should be arranged and still fit all of her babies, their highchairs, their baby beds, their changing tables, and her make up table all back into her room. We have the offending armoire sitting in the middle of our dining room waiting for a new home or the dump, whichever comes first. So that's it, we are here and busy with nothing too exciting!

Praying for Abby

I have never met this sweet family, but I read their blog and thier Guatemalan princess is in desperate need of a miracle.

Abby was adopted from Guatemala. At three years old, she was diagnosed with a high-risk, aggressive form of Leukemia. Certain genetic complications have put her chance of surviving the treatment at about 20%.
I am praying for her and her family. Would you pray for them too?
You can find more about Abby here, on her family blog: http://www.riggsfamilyblog.com/2009/01/about-abby.html

Get Comfy

Here come lots of pics from our trip! But first, let me say that only by the grace of God did we all make it through our wonderful trip 100% healthy! We had AP's mild concussion the day before we left and now that we are home poor C is dealing with a double ear infection and an eye infection! But let's not dwell on that...

Day 1:

Day 2: (At Sea)

Day 3: (Grand Cayman Islands- all the stingray pics are on J's camera)

Day 4: Cozumel, Mexico

Day 5: (At Sea, apparently too busy to take pictures, this day included my most amazing hour-long hot stone massage :)