Disney and New Friends!!!

I broke the cardinal sin of taking the boys out of school at lunch to go to Disneyland. Since I was breaking the BIG SCHOOL RULE I decided-- what the heck-- I mine as well take my nieces out also-- So I did and off to Disneyland we went. We met Karen and Kailee and some new friends Tanya and Gracie. Tanya adopted Gracie from China one month after us in June 2007. Gracie is just a few weeks older than Mia and they got along so well. Karen and Tanya are neighbors and they met and became friends so it was great being able to meet Tanya and her beautiful Gracie and get to hang with them. I’m sure we will have many more Disney Days!!

When we were getting on the tram we saw a huge group of Chinese students who were visiting from Chengdu Szechuan (sp??). They were very curious about Mia as well as Owen and my niece’s hair. A few of the girls actually stroked their hair and seemed to be totally tripped out by it. They also were fascinated by Mia and while they didn’t speak much English they seemed to understand that she was adopted. I asked them if I could get a picture of them with my kids and they were very nice and obliged.

Our traditional Disneyland Entrance Picture. We have to take one everytime we enter Disneyland. Always a cute picture.

While waiting for Karen and Tanya, Mia decided to climb on some rocks by the Indiana Jones Ride. She is such a climber and did really well on the rocks. Such a cutie!!


This is a video of the kids on the Carousel:


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Here are our new friends-- Gracie and Tanya!! We had such a good time with them. Isn't Gracie a doll. She has such a sweet personality!! Kailee looking beautiful as always.

This is of Mia at the princess show. They do this audience participation thing and Mia seemed to like it. The final picture is of the kids on the Nemo ride.

I met my sister Cassie and Mia for lunch today. Cassie baby sits Mia on Wednesdays while I work so I always try to meet her for a quick lunch so I can see Mia. Anyway, there was a fountain outside of where we ate and Mia was very curious. We let her go over to the fountain and she got to touch the water. At the very end she was giving me a hug goodbye and she ran over to Cassie and I got a cute picture of her hugging Cassie's legs. Mia loves her auntie Cassie.

Mia In The Morning

Every morning it is the same. Mia wakes up, cuddles, sits in her chair and drinks her sippy and then enters her toy basket. When I say enter I mean enter. She literally gets in her basket and sits there for a while and plays with her toys. This is pretty consistent. She then climbs out and moves onto the other toys but she must first have some close and personal time with the toys IN the basket. Notice the wild hair-- every morning it looks like that. She must move a lot while she sleeps because it always looks crazy and wild until she gets her bath. Anyway, here are some pics just for fun!

A Relaxing Weekend of Play

This weekend was relaxing. We didn't do much which is rare for us. We had lunch with my parents and Mia attempted to break papa's glasses as she does with mine. We had dinner with Chuck and Susan and the kids on Friday night and then Ethan spent the night with Carson. Owen (and Mia) stayed home with us and Owen had a slumber party in our bedroom on the dog bed. It was really cute. On Saturday I went down to Laila's (which is about 45 min away) and we played at the park and then went back to her house and hung out for a while (see all the pics). That night Kevin and I took the boys (and Mia) to Alvin and The Chipmunks and then we went to Kabuki's for dinner. Today we went went to church, then to lunch and then we just relaxed. It has been raining like cats and dogs all weekend. We wanted to go snowboarding this weekend sometime but with the storms it would have been too crazy. There were 3 deaths at Mountain High which is the snowboarding resort we go to all the time (only 30 min from our house). That was really freaky so we want to wait a few before we head up but it should be soon-- the boys are going crazy!! Anyway, it was a nice weekend.

Papa and Mia always have fun playing with his glasses.

Mia loved the tunnels and the slide. She has no fear. She will literally go down the huge slide by herself-- too cute!!!

Mia also loves the sand.

The play crew-- Ava, Justin, Jacob and Mia!!

My New Shoes!!!

I started a thread a few weeks ago on Rumor Queen about how Mia walks kind of clumsy. I don't notice it all the time but I do when we are out and about. Wonderfully helpful people commented that maybe it was low muscle tone-- so we bought the $20 climber. Others said maybe she should be in a play class-- so we enrolled in a play gymnastics class. We have gone on for a week or so and I started to notice Mia seemed like she was a bit more stable but then someone mentioned that maybe it was her shoes-- HER SHOES!!! NO WAY!!! I LOVE HER LITTLE ADORABLE SHOES!!! But then I started thinking about when she seems clumsy and it seemed like it usually was while we were out and about which means she was always wearing shoes. I started noticing at home in bare feet she can run with the best of them. So, the shoe thing seemed to make sense. Then I noticed her CUTE ADORABLE shoes tended to have very stiff and hard bottoms so the "planks on her feet" seemed to make even more sense. So, against my natural inclination, we set out to Stride Rite to buy some shoes that moved with her feet. The problem is her feet are TINY and in the walking shoes the smallest size is a 4 and she is really still a 3 to 3 1/2 so we had to compromise and get her a 4 with thick socks. Anyway, I never like the tenny shoe look but if it means she is more stable and walks better then I guess I will give up fashion for function-- begrudgingly. I tried to get the most adorable ones I could find that would match a lot so we had to go with metallic-- silver metallic goes with everything and thank God Stride Rite had some adorable silver metallic shoes. Here they are-- What do you think?? Oh ya, and by the way, she walks really well in them and literally can RUN in them. She has made huge leaps in stability in the last week--- YAAAA MIA!!!!

Very functional but still a bit fashionable-- right????

Clearly not too interested in smiling for the pictures.

Oh ya, she is chewing on a little clip in these pictures. I realized it after I took them.

Calico Ghost Town & Happy 8 Months With Mia!!!!

Before I begin I was just reminded that toady was 8 months since GOTCHA for Mia. We have had our baby girl for 8 months and wow has she grown in every way. She is sheer perfection and just such an amazing light in our family. We love her more than words can express-- SO HAPPY 8 MONTHS BABY GIRL!!!!

We had planned a quick overnight trip to a really cool Ghost Town that is about an hour and a half away from our house that we have wanted to go see for a while. We pass by the Ghost Town every time we go to Dumont Dunes so we thought since this was a long weekend that we could make this the time. Kevin had bought tickets to take the boys to Supercross at Angels Stadium on Saturday night so we planned to leave in the morning on Sunday and stay until Monday afternoon. So, Sunday morning we loaded up the RV and headed to Calico Ghost Town with Brian and his boys Jared and Brandon (Heather and Heidi were at a cheer competition).

Calico is an old silver mining town so there are a ton of inactive silver mines that you can go in and explore. SOme of them go WAY far back and it is kind of freaky. The kids (and adults) had such a fun time exploring (see first video). Calico is in the middle of the desert so there are a TON of really cool Jeep trails that you can explore on. We went way back into cool canyons that were spectacular. We also went to the actual ghost town and saw the old buildings and the way "it use to be." The boys thought it was really cool and wanted to buy a souvenir at every shop (and believe me they monopolize on the tourist-- just while we were there 5 busloads of Korean tourists were dropped off ready to explore and shop). Overall the trip was short and sweet and a lot of fun. It is nice just to take these little overnighters. It makes it much less of a production and we literally were unpacked and the RV ready to go back to storage in about 30 minutes. It was really cool!!! Oh ya, Mia had a lot of fun also. The bumpy jeep ride bugged her when she got tired but overall she got totally dirty and loved every second of it!

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Just a Tad of CUTE!!!

Mia and I went to Burger King yesterday because she was starving. I actually went to STROLLER STRIDES and exercised for the first time in forever and because it was windy up by my house the group met at The Ontario Mills Mall. After the workout I had NO CHOICE but to do a little bit of shopping. I noticed Mia getting fussy and realized she had to be totally hungry. So, outside of the mall there is a Burger King so we decided to head there for some mid morning snack. I AM NOT a fast food fan and I really think Mia has only had fast food a handful of times but I decided to bend on this one in the interest of "happy baby". Mia was acting so cute while we were there I had to take a few pictures. We lost her sippy cup in the mall so I got her a water and she just thought that was really cool!!! Anyway, here are a few cute pics of Mia eating her nuggets and fries (which by the way she has had fries before and loves them- don't all kids).

 

Another Great Deal!!!

Well I found another good deal on a cool toy for Mia. I was at Marshals yesterday and was behind a lady in line that was buying this cool kid toy. I saw how much it rang up for-- $14.99-- and asked if there were any others. Sure enough there was one more. I quickly grabbed the last one and am so happy I did. It is such a cool toy. It is all wood and really well made. There is a clock and a shape sorter and a scrolly bead thing and an animal puzzle on top and it is just the cutest thing ever. I love it and even better Mia loves it. She has been playing with it all night. Plus, it was made in England so I probably wont be poisoning my daughter with lead paint-- WAY COOL FOR ONLY $15!!!!!

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Two Questions For The Experts

Hi guys, I wanted to ask you all 2 questions since you all out there tend to be blogging experts.

1. I am trying to add a link to my email on my sidebar but I cant figure out how to make it a link. It shows the email but does not provide a link. I have tried a all the options on "add an element" but I cant make it work. Any suggestions???

2. I read on someones blog but now I cant figure our who it was but they mentioned that they have a program that informs them when the blogs they read post updates. So, if I post an update and I am on their list, they get an email informing them that I updated my blog. Anyone know what I am talking about?

Anyway, thanks for your expertise!

Christy :)

Mia's New Toy!!!

Mia is to the point that she is wanting to climb. She climbs everything and I often catch her right before she is at the top of whatever it is she has mounted and about to stand up and proclaim her victory. With that victory comes great stress for mommy, therefore we decided on getting Mia a new climbing toy. I mentioned we wanted to get one of those little climber things while at church on Sunday and our friends said their neighbor was moving and selling a ton of stuff and she thought she had a little climber. I told her to call me if the lady wanted to sell it and the lady did. So, $20 later (yes only $20- yaaa) we are the proud owners of a Little Tykes climber thing. As you can tell from the pictures, Mia loves her little climber. She literally has been on it since we got it. I love that I can fit it through a doorway as I have been bringing inside after dark and outside during the day. Anyway, a great $20 spent!!!

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Owen's Student of The Month~ A Visit To Grandma~ Play With Ava

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books Owen won STUDENT OF THE MONTH this month-- YAAAA!!! We are very proud of him and he really deserves this award as he has been working very hard. The one picture is of Owen's really good friend Kas and his awesome parent who live in our neighborhood. Kas won Student of the month also.

We were not able to spend Christmas with my grandma Owen (hence my son Owen's name) up in the central valley of California so we decided to take a day trip up to see her on Saturday (approx 3 hours each way so lots of driving in one day). My brother and his family and my sister also came. We spent a few hours with my grandmother and we really enjoyed our time. Grandma is living in a residential home with 4 other elderly people. The home is great with a wonderful couple who lives there taking care of them. It is a great place and my grandma is really happy there. We miss seeing her as she is now wheelchair bound but we try to get up to see her as much as possible. My grandma is an amazing woman of God and is now 91 years old and has lived the past 9 + years on her own (until recently) at the house my grandpa built. My grandpa passed away in October of 1998 and my grandma is a pillar of strength and really leaned on the Lord after she lost grandpa. I tremendously respect and admire my grandmother for all she has been to me!

These pictures are just random pictures of the weekend. On Friday I met Laila, Ava, Tenderly and Cass for lunch and Mia and Ava had a great time playing. They were so cute and just had a blast running around (we sat outside so they could play). There is also a few pictures of Mia with mittens on. While we were on our way home from the Central Valley we stopped by Starbucks and while I was inside getting the goods Kevin put these mittens on Mia. She loved them and wanted to wear them the whole drive. It was so cute to see her fumble with her sippy while attempting to keep the mittens on. Who would have known she likes mittens. I never even tried them on her thinking she would hate them. Maybe it reminds her of her time in China being bundled-- who knows???

This last video is of Mia feeding herself-- kind of. Mia has been carrying around a bowl and a fork for the last few days. I figured tonight I would give her some stuffing (what we were eating for dinner) in a bowl with a spork like thing to see what she would do. She totally appropriately tried to eat with the spork. It was so cute!! She did an OK just but had trouble putting the food on the spork thing. I think with a little more time she will do well but at least this is progress.


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Patter Info

** Update from Kimber:
...I want to let people know (if they read the comments--don't know if people do or not?) that (the pinafores) they run small. Kate usually wears size 18-24 months or a 2T if things run small but I would order her a 3T from Lassie girl.

To purchase the pinafores go to Lassie Girl's site here. You will not be disappointed. The quality is amazing and the craftsmanship is awesome. Check her stuff out-- you will love them.

Pinafore pattern info-- please go to my Monday post "More Pinafores"

Blogging Award!!!

I want to thank Kim at Journey to Isabella for nominating me for the DAILY DOSE AWARD!!! This award is for those whose blogs the person likes to read everyday. I totally love Kim and have so appreciated her support since we went to China to get Mia. Her kind words have always meant so much to me and I really appreciate this award!! I feel honored!!!

So, I would like to nominate my own few blogs that I love to read everyday.

Fist off I would totally nominate Kim but she already got this award and passed it to me. But if I could I would give it to you again-- love ya girl!!

The next is Dawn whom I like to stop by to see what is up in her life with all her boys. I think I have a thing for boy moms as I can so relate to them. Also Dawn just accepted a referral for her BEAUTIFUL daughter Lucy. She is adorable and I am so happy for her. So Dawn-- thanks for the read!!!

The next is another boy mom whom I love checking out her blog. She too has 3 boys and is waiting for her daughter from China. I love Jennifers blog so take a look.

The next must read is Finsup's blog My little bit-o- shark bate. It is such a fun and witty blog. Fin is literally the funniest and pretty little girl out there and I love hearing about her escapades.

The next is my friend Kayce who is a strong and wonderful mom. Her blog is fun and humorous but also full of inspiration. Love Kayce!!!

I'm going to stop myself after this one because I totally would keep going and going because there are so many of you I read everyday but the last I want to mention is Mama SPice. I always enjoy reading about Spicy Girl and all the fun stuff she does.

So, again, thanks to all you whom I visit. I love all your blogs and the friendships I have formed with all of you has made my life better.

Thanks again and CONGRATS to all!!

SUPERSTAR and TANTRUMS

Mia and I were at GAP yesterday looking at all their cute spring stuff (which I must say I am totally against since it is just now finally getting cold here in SO CAL) which is totally cute by the way and she found these sun glasses. She just thought they were the greatest thing and freaked when we had to leave and she couldn't take them with her. I was not about to pay $10 for something she would break 10 minutes after walking out of the store. Anyway Mia was so cute with the glasses and all the store employees were coming over and laughing at her. She is really starting to be a ham and likes the attention she gets from others. While she will not go to others easily, she does like making them laugh and smile. You may notice she is wearing another adorable pinafore made by the wonderful MIL Mary. This color pink looks so great on Mia and we got a ton of comments on what a cute pinafore it was-- thanks Mary!!!

The next collage is of Mia and the phone. I have mentioned before that I have a bit of a love hate relationship with the phone but I must say Mia is totally in love with it. You cannot pass any fake phone off as a real one or she will know-- she has a fake detecting sixth sense. Sometimes I will just let her play with the real phone and hope she does not call anyone. Tonight we let her play with the phone. She was having such a great time I had to take pictures of her. It was so cute. She puts the phone to her ear and says Hellllloooo or hi hi hi. The last few pictures is of Mia after I took the phone away. She does not like me taking things she wants away. It is met with great resistance and a bit of a tantrum. I must say they are small kind of pitiful tantrums but tantrums nonetheless. She starts to scream, claps her hands, spins around and then falls to the ground. She lays there crying for a few minutes (actually maybe 20 or 30 seconds) and then she is done. She just lays there and looks around-- gets up and is off again. It is so funny. We just ignore the tantrum until she is done and then act like nothing happened. She seems to respond well to that and it allows us time to secretly laugh at her while she is spinning and clapping and falling (we are not really that bad but it is hilarious). Anyway, after her tantrum I took a few pics of her and got her to smile once again. She just cracks me up!!!

More Pinafores~ Ethan's Dinner and The Boys

OK guys. I must tell you I did not expect this but I totally get it. I spoke with my MIL today and mentioned making copies of the pattern. She expressed concern about this. Here is the logic. I purchased 2 pinafores from the Etsy store and paid for those items. My MIL felt fine about making a copy of the pattern because I paid for the original pinafores. She does not feel it is ethical to make copies of the pattern for others who have not bought one from the Etsy store. She feels like it would be cheating the lady who makes and sells them. I totally agree and so loved them that I would never want to dishonor this wonderful seller. So, with that said, there will be no copies of patterns. I just don't think it would be right. Sorry if I got your hopes up but I think this is the ethical thing to do. My MIL said you should just buy one and then if you are interested you can then make a copy of that one. That is probably the better route to take. Again, sorry if I got your hopes up but I totally encourage you to go to the Etsy store mentioned later in this post and purchase one. They are very well made and are totally cute. Thanks for understanding.

***FYI~~ So many of you have asked if my MIL made a pattern and yes she did. I will be asking her if she can make a copy of the patten for me and if she can then I will then make copies for all of you and send them to any of you who want them. Remember, the pattern she made is for Mia and it is small. Mia is 17 pounds and 29.5 inches (she mostly wears 6-12 month Gymboree and Gap clothes- bigger than that is way too big) so you can get an idea of how big the pinafore will be. You can always adjust the pattern for more length and girth if necessary. I will let you know when I get the pattern :)

Your never going to see the end of Mia in pinafores. I could not love them more and I think this is my favorite. This is one of the ones my mother in law Mary made for Mia. It is the pink paisley on one side and a green and pink plaid on the other. It is just adorable!! Mia is helping Kevin do a little trash can construction project in our kitchen at the time hence the red cord running all over the kitchen.

Tonight Ethan wanted to help me with dinner. I was pleased with that request as he usually is uninterested (Owen is my little cook). So Ethan took the helm and made our Beef Stroganoff. It turned out great and he was so proud of himself. Owen did nothing as he was in trouble because he was playing around while he was supposed to be doing homework. So he got to sit at the counter and do homework while Ethan and I cooked- which by the way was very hard for Owen because he loves to cook.

So while we were making dinner I saw that Owen had pulled out (again playing and not doing homework) some old pictures of the boys. They were so cute and I can hardly remember them being that little. I actually took pictures of the pictures so they are not good quality but I wanted to post them and did not want to have to scan. Anyway, it cracks me up how innocent they look- specifically Owen (oh don't let the picture deceive).

OK, this one cracks me up. I remember when this picture was being taken. Owen started getting fussy and I was trying to get a picture. So Ethan took it on himself to HOLD Owen in place so we could get the picture. Owen looks so distressed and it is so clear he is trying so hard to get away- check out his little 6 pack!! Anyway, it was fun looking at those old pictures. I will have to do this more often. I love looking back at old pictures.

New Pinafores and The Melting Pot

So I ordered the Pinafores off Lassiegirl on Etsy and love them more than words can express. So Mia is wearing one the other day around my mother in law and she says to me "you know these would be really easy to make." I say "really??" She say "If you buy material, I will make some for you." I say "Holy Cow Yes!!!!!" So off to Joannes I went looking for fabric. Most of the really nice fabric I liked was upholstery fabric so I bought a ton of it. Each side of the reversible pinis needs 5/8 of a yard so I found 10 fabrics I loved and bought all 10. I paired the similar ones together and they are just amazing. I am so in love with them and cant wait for the others to be finished. Mary finished 3 already and there are 2 more she is working on. Mary is an amazing seamstress and I am so thankful that she is doing this for me (and Mia) because it is saving me a ton of money. Below are 3 of the completed ones. Mia wore the red/ green one yesterday and I took pictures of her at Toys R Us to show it off. Isn't it adorable!!!

The boys had planned with their friends to have a sleep over on Friday night so after we dropped them at their friends house for a night of fun, Kevin, Mia and I went out to dinner. We went to The Melting Pot for fondue. It was really good and a lot of fun. It is not a once a week restaurant (kind of expensive) but it is fun to do once in a while. Mia did really good and loved dipping items in the various fondues. It was nice to have a night out. It would be even nicer if it were just Kevin and I (desperately needing a date night) but this was an impromptu dinner and it was nice to have it be just 3 instead of 5.