Merry Merry everything

Over the river and thru the freeways to Houston we go.  We spent 2 days down in Houston with family and friends and had a wonderful time.  I have a ton of pictures to upload, but have a few that I grabbed from FB. 

We are now back home, and while it was a very late night, we said goodbye and thanks to our Elf scout who we know hitched a ride back to the North Pole with Santa.  We left our cookies, clemintine, milk and carrots out.  We donned our Christmas nightgown and read Twas the night before Christmas.  Hayden didn't wake until 10:20 Christmas morning(a gift in itself) luckily she woke without being deathly ill as she did last year(another gift...no puking)

We have a quiet day at home planned and then dinner with some very old friends that have an AMAZING dinner planned at their house(that is what I have been most looking forward to as my gift)

Many more pictures and rundown of our entire holiday coming!!

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

opening the first present of Christmas eve

Hayden said "I would like to introduce you to my exchange student Peekers" LOL this is my mother in law's labradoodle!!

Twas the night before Christmas

I see a lot of roller skating in our future.....what was Santa thinking????LOL

Shut the front door....Santa's in the house

Okay you all know that my child has serious anxiety about some pretty funny stuff and facial hair happens to fall into that catagory.  So Santa and Jesus are not on the top of her favorites list.  She has had NO interest whatsoever in seeing Santa, talking to Santa, and certainly the thought of sitting on his lap and taking a picture was NEVER going to happen as far as she was concerned.  Well about 2  months ago when she started asking for the cat for Christmas and she said I think I am going to want to talk to Santa Don about this cat. 

Well 2 months later, a lot of talking(and one cat later) yesterday was our day to head to the Owl's Nest to see Santa(we actually know Santa in real life and Santa actually was at the airport when we came home from Taiwan)

BTW I was never going to force her to do this....it was not that important, but now that I have these pics....oh lordy I am glad she did it!!  Now to figure out what to order!

mish mash of december

Pajama day at school.  It was even more fun to run errands after school in pj's.....H thought this was hilarious!!

gift from my dear friend Yony.  You can't see the real beauty of this picture.  The color and the metallic finish is to DIE for.  It is seriously one of most beautiful photographs I own or seen!!  I cried when I opened it.  If you are thinking of doing pictures and you live in our area I can't stress enough that you should use YLK Photography  she is SO talented and more than that she is one of the nicest people you will EVER meet!!!  She brings joy and laughter to me every single day!!!

Binka update.  Well we have been without the binka since Oct 23, and while Hayden talks about the binka EVERY single day, she has done okay without it.  She misses it terribly and that does not seem to be waning.  She tells me almost everyday that binka is coming back tomorrow!!  It is sad:(

Right now she has a terrible cold and seems to be in a terrible mood and so she asked to watch Elf(for the 100th time) and I had some sewing for a customer to do.....so I said sure.  Well I got to sewing and thought "wow it is really quiet upstairs" USUALLY AN INDICATION THAT SOMETHING IS AMISS!!!

I walked upstairs to see what was going on and this is what I found!!  I guess she had found a long lost binka somewhere and just couldn't take it anymore!!!  She was peacefully asleep after a long day at school.  She looked so peaceful and it was so sad and pathetic that I just let her sleep on with it.  She went to bed that night without it again!!!  But it has for sure prompted a STRONG desire to have it again. 

Man......everyone promised "oh a few days and she will forget all about it" well 8 weeks later she can't seem to think about much else.  I am waiting to hear her say that she is asking Santa for her binka's back:) sigh

Hayden has been taking gymnastics for almost 2 years now and they had a holiday show last weekend.  Hayden was not so sure about this performance....too many people, and they were WAY TO close to where she was suppose to be:(  So a lot of tears.  However she REALLY wanted that medal and she got herself up and did her performance(while bawling her eyes out) but she did it and has the medal to prove it!!
These are her twin friends Addie and Sophia.  I think that pic of the three of them is so sweet and cute!!!

Hsin-Hua visit continued.....

I need to catch up, so here are a few more pics from our awesome visit from the Peters family!!  The girls really had an awesome time.  Almost everyday since they left Hayden has said "I miss my friend Hsin-Hua, I want them to COME BACK" 

off to the park in our neighborhood

Hsin-Hua

Monkey

March, march, march

go higher!!

look mommy no arms!!! LOL

whatever it was they were doing it kept them busy for awhile!!

it's raining mulch

Food trucks....Hsin was enjoying her chocolate cupcake!!  This was the MOST delicious food!!!

Heather and I ate at the Nammi truck

Our two beautiful ballerinas off to see the nutcracker!!  THEY LOVED IT!!!

NO don't go friend!!!  Two peas in a pod!!

SO SILLY!!!!

School Christmas Program

Hayden had a line and was part of a trio at her school Christmas program. I was so nervous I figured I would either bust out bawling and or puke!!!(fortunately for H neither happened) I should not have worried one bit.....she was perfectly perfect!!!! She loved it and was VERY proud of herself. The little girls in her trio are her best friends at school!!! So it was extra fun that she got to do it with them.

Scout is watching.....

Our elf "Scout" arrived last Wednesday to a proper elf breakfast he had prepared for us.  For the most part Scout has encouraged some really awesome behavior.  We have found him in some really funny places and in some precarious situations.  Last night it doesn't seem as though Scout flew to give The BIG SC a report....because it would have been a disapointing report.  So hopefully Scout flies tonight and we will see where we find him tomorrow morning(it is the highlight of each wake-up)

Kindered spirits

Many of you that know us in real life or have been reading our blog for very long know that we have WONDERFUL adoption friends.  We are so blessed to have a circle of especially close friends. Most of these special friends were made during the WICKED wait!!   The family in front of us and right behind us are friends that I do not know what I would have done without during this time of waiting and more so when they were there to celebrate our referral and then the court proceedings etc.  Well the family in front of us is HERE, right HERE in our house!!  HERE for 5 full days!!!  Yep and we are beyond thrilled and excited and well Hayden pretty much thinks she has died and floated straight to the moon to have her best buddy and soul sista Hsin-Hua.  They are 6 weeks apart in age, our referrals were 3 weeks apart.  Hsin-Hua's daddy rode to Taichung with us to check on Hsin and we were picking up Hayden.  We have visited them in the northeast twice, and we are beyond excited to have them here for us to show them some southern hospitality.  We have 5 days packed with every Christmas activity that we can find for the girls.  Parade, Christmas movies, nutcracker, Christmas lights, hot chocolate. 

So know we are having a BLAST and I think the amount of picture taking this weekend will be ENDLESS!  OH GOODNESS these girls are adorable!!!

Get your gobble on

This was actually Hayden on the last day of school before break.  I think her turkey shirt turned out really cute!!

We  had a super QUIET and great Thanksgiving.  It was filled with food, fun, some family and a lot of stuff to get done(a smidge of drama, but we moved past it and didn't let it take away from the fun we had planned with Hayden)  We have special company coming on Wednesday and we want to be able to enjoy all things CHRISTMAS while they are here and not be worrying about things that need to be done.  I took almost no pictures over the holiday and have not uploaded what I did take....so I will work on that maybe tomorrow.  We did get to see an amazing ICE display and it was super fun and other than Hayden who has no body fat turning into a popsicle and seeming a bit catatonic after 15 min in the 9' degree temps she LOVED seeing Shrek in ice...2 million lbs of carved ice to be exact. 

Our tree is up and decorated.  I think it looks much better in person.  I am actually very happy with how it looks this year.  I have most of our indoor decs up and need to just get our outdoor ones up....of course it is cold here now.  Why didn't i do that last week when it was 80???

Anyway, while our special friends are here we have quite a lineup of Christmas activities on our list.  We may do more in the 5 days they are here than we normally do in a year!!!  Should be a blast and should have some very cute pictures. 

Christmas came a little early at our house

For months Hayden has been saying she was asking Santa for a cat with brown fur and white fur and who wouldn't run away from her.  Well a brown and white cat is not so easy to find.  But we did find a beautiful Maine Coon 2 year old gray and white cat that needed a family.  So we went on Sunday to meet Gabby and it was LOVE at first sight!!! 

She is PURRFECT for our family.  VERY sweet, and in need of a good home. 

Hayden is BESIDE herself and for the most part Gabby doesn't run away from her:)

The dogs.......well the dogs are not too happy at this point.  I think it's going to take a little time!!

November HUH???

Seriously how are we a week out from Thanksgiving???  I have SO MUCH TO DO and so little time to do it!!  It happens every single year, and there is no one to blame but myself and the fact the the calendar seems to be on steroids!!  What's the rush?? 

So I have nothing exciting or witty to say, report, blog.....just a ridiculous To Do list and not enough time. 

These pics are from us going to the rodeo!!  Super fun, and Hayden loved seeing the animals.....what's  new right??

I have no idea what this face is all about, but it seriously cracks me up!!!

Introducing the cowboys

These bulls mean business!!

3 year well check

Nurse Vanessa, Hayden and Dr. O'brien Su

We did Hayden's 3 year well check a few weeks back and mostly just for my memory wan to jot down the info.  

First of all 3 year check ROCKS!!!  NO SHOTS...not even one, not even flu shot(flu mist finally) Yep we will pay for it next year, but right now we will just wallow in the delight of NO SHOTS!!!

Hayden has finally broken through the 25 lb mark!!!  25.4 lbs!!!  It was cause for celebration in the entire office!!!  Sad when all the nurses know you so well because you are there for weight checks frequently and know you are paining to break thru to the next weight class.  We are now officially 3% on the weight chart.  Hayden might not be gaining weight but she is growing taller....a whopping 37 inches(3 1/2 inches this year) and that puts her in the 47% for height(not too shabby)

As far as developmentally she has met or exceeded every milestone on the list they give you.  Again Hayden's Dr chose to not do any testing(thyroid~due to weight) because developmentally she is off the charts(purely DNA people)and apparently thyroid issues cause development delays.So she said I think it's not thyroid, she is just always going to be petite(she is Taiwanese)

Our pediatrician's husband is Taiwanese and she has 5 children....so her concern for Hayden's weight is minuscule, but obviously she said it is her responsibility to monitor it.  Which of course we appreciate.  She and her nurse are always so sweet and completely in awe of Hayden.  They usually spend way more time talking to her then they do playing doctor.  This visit Hayden gave them the complete rundown of the Statue of Liberty, occupy New York, Connor's cat Clyde, Connor's girlfriend, all the American Girl stuff at my friend's house:) and finally how good "talking donuts" are....aka Dunkin Donuts

Did I already mention NO SHOTS!!!!!  Yay for NO SHOTS!!!

So anyway, we won't go back for 6 months(weight check)  praying for another illness free flu and cold season(I think she was sick twice last winter...remember Christmas?~gah)

Shoe size we are up to almost a size 7, basically wearing 2T in most stuff.  Waist is tiny(17 inches) so adjustable waist are our best friend.  Big reason why Hayden wears dresses so much of the time is because it is so much easier than worrying about the waist.    

So we had a great visit and just as her pediatrician said I can't believe she is already 3!!!!

They also asked me if the smile ever comes off her face......LOL ummmmm YES trust me it does!!

3 years ago today

Three years ago around 5:25 in the afternoon I was sitting at my desk working on something when my cell phone rang and it was Tien at our agency and she said Julie......I am looking at a picture of your beautiful daughter who is 6 weeks old and I just sent you the emails!! 

I had planned for 3 years what I was going to do, say and feel.  But that all blew out the window....I had hoped David and I would be home together when this call happened(he wasn't) and I would love to say I waited for him to get home to open the email and share the first beautiful images of her together and read EVERY single word written in the report about our daughter....I didn't(he was okay with that)

I knew we had waited for 3 painful years, and I knew it was going to be amazing when I saw that first picture.....but nothing prepared my heart for the explosion of LOVE that took place that moment.  I know there are some people who would say that adoption is different and we don't know the "true" love of giving birth to a child.  Well all I can say if that is true; it must be a mind blowing experience because I have NEVER felt the way I felt when I first peered into those huge brown eyes and knew from that moment Hayden Magee was meant to be my daughter.  I swear my heart literally almost stopped I was so overwhelmed by finally seeing this little person who had made me a mother. 

I have always wanted to be a mother, I had no idea if I would be any good at it, I had no idea how it would really change me or my life or even my relationship with my husband.  But I knew deep down I wanted to be a mom.  The journey to motherhood was long, it was winding, and at times felt as though it was just not meant to be.  But on this day 3 years ago.....I became a mother, and Hayden became my daughter.  She is my whole heart, she challenges me, she makes me laugh, she inspires me, she makes me a better person, so has taught me the TRUE meaning of love. 

While the day we picked Hayden up will NEVER leave my heart or my mind.  For me this day is the day I became a mother and became one with this tiny amazing little person.  It is such a special day for us as a family.  The love that this child has created with us and so many around her is abundant. 

She is so special, and so loved and I can't imagine my life without her. 

She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen and today I know she is even more beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.