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!!!