2011 huh???

Seriously how can it be that there are only 4 hours and 8 minutes left of 2010??  This year flew by at record speed and while it has been a FULL year, a BLESSED year, a LOVELY year, it has gone by much too quickly.  I have nothing profound to say, nothing deeply rooted, no resolutions to share(I stink at resolutions) But I do want to say thank you to all of my friends and family that are such a huge part of our lives.  I have said before and I will say it again; adoption has brought us so much more than just an amazing daughter.  I have seriously made some AWESOME friends who are such a part of our everyday life.  I had to laugh as the holiday cards rolled in and Hayden would point and say look it Paige, or Ruby or Lexie, and Ellie.  Hayden is so familiar with all of our "adoption" friends and it really warms my heart and makes me smile to know that we are surrounded not only by family and friends that are close, but by those we have made a connection with as we shared the journey of our kids.  I work really hard at fostering these relationships, and I look forward to 2011 because my list is pretty long of families we plan to meet this year!!! 

Obviously we will have some changes here in our house this year with my return to work(sort of) and we have some GREAT trips planned in the months ahead.  We look forward to Taiwan ROCks in Aug(info coming right after the first of the year.  Contracts have been signed) Hayden will start preschool in the fall.  It will be a year of firsts, and a year of memories I am sure.  We welcome it with open arms.

We wish you and your families the best of the what the New Year has and holds.  Thank you for your friendship, your kind words, and your loving thoughts for our family.....they are VERY appreciated. 
THROWS CONFETTI AND POPS THE CHAMPAGNE!

Hayden and Shiyu

David and Taylor(my step-daughter)

I pulled out all of our cards from our friends near and far that have also adopted.

Hayden taking her new wheels(gift from Santa) for a spin.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours

                               Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our house to yours.

Looking forward to what 2011 has in store for us and hope it has nothing but happiness, and good fortune for you and for yours. 

We are slowly on the mend here at our house, we had a bit of a setback last night(with the stomach bug) but seem to be on the road to recovery today(as long as I don't eat anything I feel fine:)  Thanks for all of the well wishes and got some really good advice along the way....tricks of the trade that I had not learned yet as a mommy. 

Hoping we can enjoy some nice weather while Shiyu is here visiting so we can get out and do some fun things.  I am starting my countdown to my 3 weeks of training.  I leave in officially 32 days.....it will be over before we know it!

Hope everyone has a safe and festive new year's.  I think ours will be quiet, maybe some chinese food and a visit to Polar Ice, but I am sure we will ring in the east coast new year and then head to bed:) 

Christmas 2010....one that will never be forgotten

Well Christmas has come and gone and so has the NASTY stomach bug that came with it.  It will be a Christmas we will never forget.  Let me preface this tale with the fact that Hayden seems to have an amazing immune system, and while I am teased(quite rudely I might add~LOL) about my endless supply of trial size lysol, anti-bacterial wipes, refusal of Chuckee Cheese and the other germ cess`pool places called play yards at the fast food eateries....I will still stand by the fact that our child seems to have been blessed with a great immune system(thankfully) we have been very lucky that she has not been sick really at all in the 20 months she has been home and we are not even aware of her being sick prior to coming home, so THANK YOU TO THE BABY JESUS OR THE IMMUNE GODS ABOVE!!!  So when Hayden finally awoke on Christmas morning (10:00, not that unusual for her) and we went in to find out that she had thrown up all over her bed, I basically didn't worry because well she consumed a lot of craptastic food the day before.  She is little and well she ate A LOT!!!  So we got her cleaned up brought her downstairs to see what Santa had left, and well she really couldn't care less when she saw her wagon filled with gifts.  She wanted to be held and then requested to be brought back upstairs to our bed.....where she proceeded to lay for the next 36 hours throwing up, sleeping and crying that she was hungry!!!  Yup that is what we did for Christmas. Oh and I so wish the story ended there, on Sunday night Hayden perked up, started playing, became her very loud and active self,  I decided to have her sleep with us one more night just in case.  Well at about 4 a.m. is when the story took an ugly, ugly turn for the worse.  Yes you win the prize if you guessed that then David and I both started throwing up and felt as though someone had beat the hell out of our stomachs.  We couldn't move a muscle, it hurt to breathe, my hair even hurt.  So the good news was Hayden was moving at 120 mph, and the bad news was Hayden was moving at 120 mph trying to make up for lost time.  Monday December 27, 2010 will officially go down in the record books as the LONGEST DAY OF OUR LIVES!!!  If just getting through the day was not bad enough, she then begged for mac and cheese.  It took every inch and fiber of my body and LOVE for my child to slither downstairs and make the requested meal, I stood at the sink while I stirred and heaved at the same time(TMI I know, but just keeping it real) What amazed me the most is that David and I felt so terrible, and I thought if this is how bad Hayden felt....well she handled it WAY better than her parents!!! Seriously she was a rockstar compared to us.

So the short of the long of it is we still have not opened our presents(well for the most part, we knew some movies had been sent to H and if we had to watch Ramona and Beezus one more time I was going to poke my eyes out, so new movies were in order....now I have watched Marmaduke more times than I care to share) But gratefully we woke up(Tues) feeling MUCH BETTER, and once I catch up on all of the laundry(oh the towels and sheets and pajamas that line my laundry room right now) it will be a thing of the past I hope.
We just picked up Shiyu at the airport and everyone is napping on this cold rainy day.  Maybe tonight we will finally get around to celebrating by opening our gifts.  It was really bad, but I guess we are lucky it was relativly fast moving....although time felt like it was standing still, those 3 days felt like eternity.  It is hard to see your child so sick, and it is also really hard to see them so well when you feel like death:(

This one goes down in the history books people, since we are seldom sick,  I will never brag again about our lack of illness' and just be grateful that we haven't been sick a lot.... because let me say this one took one nasty bite out of our holidays!!!!  Because I must point it out, we had gone to wallyworld two days before and I didn't bring my bag in with me, so I didn't have my handy dandy spray or wipes for the cart......just saying~

Here is lovely montage of our experience with the bug!  Please enjoy and please know that I hope you and yours don't get the privilege of the same experience, I know it is going around, and we were just 3 left in it's wake. 

When we first brought Hayden downstairs

not exactly the excitement I thought there would be for her deeply desired wagon.

some pot's and pans and then she was finished

and a change of jammies(3rd set at this point in game)

I think we had washed several loads of laundry and we were on jammie change #5 and sheet change #3, you see we finally wised up and put down towels EVERYWHERE!!  and the dreaded bowl(that she did actually use when she was able to prepare)

How seriously pathetic is this picture?  She was so hungry and so we decided to try some crackers, and she fell asleep mid cracker(the crackers stayed down about 10 min)  Let me just say this has never happened, Hayden has a routine for going to sleep and she NEVER strays from it, so to fall asleep while eating.....just doesn't happen so this tells you how bad she was feeling.

Twas the night before Christmas....

first batch of cookies with daddy(oatmeal choc chip w/pecans)

Gingerbread men with mommy

"See Mommy you do it just like this...."

a little extra pressure to get those buttons in work everytime!! LOL

"Ohhhhhh I love icing mommy, look at how beautiful they look"

"there now I think they look perfect"

"oh wait I think I missed a little here"

"oh yeah I think this one needs a few more sprinkles"

Hayden and her masterpieces.  She told me that Santa was going to LOVE her cookies that she left out for him(hopefully he really likes green sprinkles)

Hey I like this making cookies project.

"daddy don't they look beautiful?"

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, all the dogs were barking.....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Pinkalicious

Here is a little peek at Hayden's pink tree.  She decided she wanted it in her playroom this year.  As you can see it matches just fine.....most everything is pinkalicious in Hayden's little world.  When I put on her dress that day she told me that it was her ice skating Santa costume.  Except we have never seen an ice skating Santa so not sure how or why she decided Santa ice skates, and by the way those are her "dance shoes" or so I have been told.  Hmmmmmm.

and why you ask if her ornaments have been repositioned on her tree to her liking....why yes they have:)

I must share this ornament with you.  It is my VERY favorite ornament and it came from two of our most favorite people in the whole world.  It arrived shortly after Hayden came home.  I absolutely love putting it on our tree and I actually keep it out in my office the rest of the year.  It is from our dear, dear friends Scott and JoEllen.  It seems like we have been friends with them FOREVER!! But about 12 years ago they moved to Boise, ID.  They were our friends that we did EVERYTHING with, we know too much about them and they know too much about us.  They have since had 3 beautiful children and made quite a little life for themselves in ID.  We miss them terribly and don't come close to seeing them often enough.  But they sent this ornament to us and I cried when I opened it.  It means so much to us the meaning and who sent it.  But as you can see it has Hayden's whole name(I have smudged our last name) and then on the other side it has our forever family day date painted on it.  It is hand blown glass and hand painted, and again it is one of my VERY favorite things in our house!!!  It is from this company and if you are looking for a lovely gift for a family bringing home a child I think this is one of the best things you could give. 

We love you Scott and JoEllen(and kids)

Merry Christmas Oma, Opa & Lulu

It is really is looking like Christmas around our house now.  Here is a little peek at a few of our decorations.

Last night we invited my dad and step-mom over for dinner.  I must admit we are not really the entertainers, but I have to say we had a great time, and I kept my little event small and low stress. Pottery barn dip, homemade salsa/chips, a pot of tortilla soup, corn casserole, brownies for dessert.

Hayden of course had a blast having Oma and Opa over to see her tree and dogs.....plus they let her open her Christmas present early!!!

My dad was truly given the gift of life this year.  He received a heart transplant back in May, and while the road has been a little tough since then.....he is doing amazing!! 

Hayden is very fond of both of them, and must say the feeling is quite mutual I think:) They think she is pretty special too!!!

Dinner table sat for our company

Opening Lulu:)

Had I known what they were getting her I would not have bothered to get her a thing.....to say Hayden LOVES what they brought her is a complete understatement!!!! Lulu the cat has officially become a member of the family. It is called a "fur real pet" Lulu meows, licks her paw as she strokes her face, rolls over, closes her eyes. She actually looks very real and Hayden thinks she died and Mommy bought her a cat!!! She wants to sleep with her, but we know there would be no sleeping, so we convinced her that Lulu would sleep outside of her room. The first thing she did when she awoke this morning was grab the cat and head to breakfast. She felt as thought Lulu must be thirsty and would want some milk just like her:)

I have a few more funny pics of Hayden and her new best furry friend, just need to get them off my phone. 

Hayden is obsessed with their cat Checkers, and so this was the perfect gift for my animal loving child!!!

                I can say it is the next best thing to the real thing......no litter box and no vet bills!!!

Muno and DJ Lance the newest members of the nativity.

Hayden received the cutest kid friendly nativity from Grammy C and let's just say she LOVES it!! 

The day it arrived she had me set it up on the table and she played and played while I was making dinner.  I wish I could have captured on video what I originally heard her playing.  Hayden with her wild imagination was having all of the people and animals talking to each other and before long I heard her introducing them by name.....except they had magically become the chacaters from "Yo Gabba Gabba" which is funny to me because she has only seen that particular show a few times.  But if you are familar with this kid's program you would laugh to know that the wise man with the crown was DJ Lance:) 

Muno, and the crew were all there.....sorry God, I am pretty sure she was just teasing:) We will work on that story with her a little bit more.

Also don't you LOVE her lyrics to Santa Claus is coming to town??

goodness sakes has become "mistakes"  did you catch that?

sorry for the barking in the background....that was Finley of course(the bane of my existance) and we pretty much listen to her bark all day at the squirrels(so I didn't even really notice until I watched the video) that have literally made our dogs crazy enough I think they need medication:)

Taiwanese Princess'

Hayden & Ellie going down the slide together....look at their pure joy!!!

These girls really love playing together!!

Down we go!!

People; seriously is this more cuteness than you stand??

Hayden has never been a fan of swinging....well until we went to the greatest park EVER and they had these swings.  Hayden loved swinging!!!  Ellie loves to swing and is happy to go high!!

Lost in thought and watching Miss Ellie swing!

Hayden climbing the wall to the slide.

This is SUCH a Hayden face!!  Good LAWD I love this child.

Miss Debbie did a GREAT job of capturing our play date!!

Thinking about heading down the slide.

Silly Ellie!!  How beautiful is this girl??  She has the best dimple, the best laugh, and just look at that face....just makes me want to squeeze her!!

Two Taiwanese princess' being VERY silly together....this really captures their little budding friendship!!

Lunch together and the silliness just continues......

right onto the floor.  Yes for all of my friends out there that know what a germ-a-phobe I am, I know you are shaking your head.  Yes they are on the floor at a fast food establishment. 

Don't think Hayden didn't get a purell scrub down in the car.  They were just having too much fun!!

Oh how VERY happy it makes me to be friends with this wonderful Dunn family.  I wish we lived in the same city, but the same state will work!!  Hoping they will come up and see us.

Look at how silly these girls are together!!!!

Hayden and I spent 3 days in Houston with friends.  We had a ball, and we were blessed that we could meet us with our friends The Dunn family at this GREAT park and have lunch together.  Hayden and Ellie get along GREAT, and had a BLAST together.  We love seeing them, and love getting our Taiwanese princess' together whenever possible.  We are hopeful that they will head to our neck of the state and visit soon!!

Man we are so lucky.

More on our trip soon.  We had such a great time!!