Gotta Love The Paci

We were at Target the other day and Mia pulled this doll into the cart. She pulls things into the cart all the time and I am constantly having to take the items out and I have actually "stole" items when I didn't see them below all our stuff (don't worry-- I always take the items back-- in fact the same guy at Target always seems to be the one watching the front door when I have to return stolen items. Last time when he saw me walking back in he asked me "so what did you steal this time?"-- Bird Walk-- back to the story) So, Mia pulled this doll into the cart. Owen all of a sudden says "mom look at Mia". I turn around and she has taken the paci out of the babies mouth and is now sucking on the little baby paci. Owen and I were cracking up but Mia just sat there like nothing was wrong sucking on the paci.

It was all fun and games until we had to take the baby and the paci away from Mia. She was not very happy and decided to throw quite the tantrum. Oh well-- it was really funny!!

We are off to Dumont again this weekend. We will be back Sunday night and then Monday we have Mia's California Re-Adoption Court date. That is where we basically stand in front of a judge and he makes the re-adoption final. We get to take pictures and we will get her California birth certificate with our names as parents. I am really excited about this final step of the adoption process. Besides her passport which we will apply for ASAP, we have everything-- CA birth certificate (on Monday), social security number and I think that is it. Monday night we are going to a Ducks game with Heather, Brian and kids so it should make for a lot of fun pictures.

So, look for lots of fun pics ASAP. Have a great weekend!!!

Barefoot Mia and My Blog Design

First of all I wanted to let everyone know that Danielle, the awesome designer that designed my blog and just about every ones blog in bloggerland, just emailed me out of the blue and offered to do some really cool upgrades to my blog. I had not asked for anything, she just found some cool new stuff and offered to put it on my blog for free. If any of you out there want a blog makeover, she is a great designer and is very generous. You will love her stuff and I am sure you have seen many of her designs while drifting thought bloggerland. I promise you wont be disappointed. If you are interested click here to check her out.

Today was a nice Southern California 75 degree winter day. It was nice and warm so we did a lot of outdoor play. I have been going crazy getting estimates for our kitchen so we pretty much played at home in the backyard. Mia was so cute and was just loving running around and playing with the dogs. Once the boys were home from school they all played in the backyard in the sandbox. It was very cute.

As we all saw in my last post, Mia enjoys dragging things around. Today it was a chain. She drug it around for quite a while.

Do not be alarmed by this picture. My dogs play rough and it sounds and looks like they are fighting but they aren't-- they are just playing. Well, this picture looks like Mia is screaming and she is but she is screaming for joy. She loves when the dogs play fight. She gets so excited and squeals with excitement. It was so funny!!!

Our backyard backs up to a horse trail that wanders around out neighborhood for miles. It goes along side a park and is just a great asset. We take the dogs on the trail off leash all the time because it is enclosed and they can get a good run in. Well, Mia also loves the trail and loves to walk, run, ride and just play with the rocks and plants. Very cute!!

This is my little communication expert.

Our Trip To Home Depot

Kevin and I are choosing to do a kitchen remodel (on a tiny tiny budget) with our tax return this year. We are literally on a tiny budget so we are cutting cost at every corner and decided to take a look at cabinets at Home Depot. Mia came along for the design appointment and kept herself occupied with a little box and a ring of moulding examples. It was so cute-- she drug this box around everywhere and totally occupied herself. She drug the box, picked up the box and got in the box. She was so funny and totally entertained other shoppers. All of the pictures were taken from a distance so they are not that great but you get the point.

Dragging the box. Way too cute!!

Yes I am sooooo cute!!!

More dragging

Lifting the box and climbing in the box. Mia really loved the box!!

Mia's First Hair Cut!!!!

Mia's hair has needed a cut for quite some time but I have been hesitant because I want it to grow long. I know most people say that you need to cut it in order for it to grow long but I never believe that. Well, today I was just done with her hair and we were in a parking lot with one of those kid cut type places so I decided to DO IT!!!! So, here are the pics.

This is the official BEFORE:

 

The Before Collage:

 

The cut part of the event was very interesting. I am sure there must be some crazy stray cuts somewhere on her hair because she would not sit still. She was all over the place!! I blew bubbles to try to keep her in one place and that worked for about 2.5 seconds and then she continued to wiggle. With all the wiggles and fussing, the nice lady somehow managed to cut Mia's hair into a cute semi-bob style.

The Cut Collage:

 

This is the after collage but Mia was not in the mood to smile and look cute. She was quite DONE!!! The cut is really cute. All they did was clean it up and it is starting to look more like a bob. I want to grow her bangs long and eventually have her hair all one length so we have a way to go but this is cute for now.

 

Disneyland With The Amazing Judy Wu!!!!

Mia and I had the wonderful opportunity to take our In- China Coordinator in Guangzhou- THE AMAZING JUDY WU- to Disneyland for the day with her awesome little 5 year old son Mike (his Chinese name is Che Che-- that’s how it sounds but I’m sure it is not how it is spelled). Judy is considered "AMAZING" because she is the best darn coordinator and travel guide EVER!!! We did not have Judy as our guide while in Guangzhou but we did have her colleague Helen who was also quite AMAZING!! Judy was granted a visa along with her son to visit the USA for our agencies reunion. It is a very rare event to get a visa so when they actually were granted one (they didn’t even expect to get one) they decided to stay for almost a month visiting families. Judy and her son were just the sweetest people and I so enjoyed every minute of our time together. Judy game me some great insight into Chinese culture and I got to ask her all the questions I have been wanting to ask for a while. It was just a blast spending time with Judy and seeing the enthusiasm in Mike's eyes every time he went on a ride. It was just priceless. Mia also loved Judy and Mike. By the end of our stay Mia would reach for Judy to hold her. It was quite cute!!

 

This is a video of Mia and Mike dancing.


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If you remember a couple months ago when we were at Disneyland and my boys were selected from the audience for The Jedi Training Camp. Well, we were walking by that area at the perfect time and we were able to get Mike selected for the training camp. He did soooooooo well and did not understand a word anyone was saying but just looked at the other participants and followed suit. He did such a good job and he was so proud of himself. It was very cute-- take a look at the video

 

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Mandarins for my Mandarin!!

This has actually been a bit of a slow weekend. Kevin has had to work a ton this weekend with a DUI checkpoint on Friday night and then he has to work Sunday all day and Monday all day so, we did not have a ton of plans. Mia and I went to a baby shower today and Kevin took Owen and his pal Kasey (Ethan is in San Felipe Mexico with his friend and his family at their vacation home for the weekend-- lucky boy :) "JEEPING" on some trails with some friends. They went on some pretty scary trails but had a blast. Anyway, we were about to take off for dinner tonight and Mia was very hungry. That girl will literally eat mandarin oranges 24/7 if I let her so I gave her an orange to pacify her until dinner. She was literally shoving the oranges into her mouth and juice was dripping everywhere. It was so funny I had to take pics-- of course.

 

 

After we got home from dinner Mia was acting totally goofy before bed. She was actually repeating almost everything we were requesting her to say-- so language is really coming along. She was jumping on the ottoman and just cracking herself up-- so I had to video it-- of course!!


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Anyway, tomorrow is a relaxing day while Kevin works and then Monday I am taking Owen snowboarding. A bunch of our friends are all coming and many of the moms are not boarding so there will be lots of people to help care for Mia. I think she will be fine and I will just do a run here and there. I should have some good pics from that.

Monday night, we are hosting our Adoption Agencies in China Coordinator Judy and her son for the night. They are here visiting the US for the first time ever. They have been here for a few weeks and I believe will be here for another few weeks so it is a big trip for them. They want to get a "slice of the American life" so Tuesday I am taking them to Disneyland and then they will be moving onto another family. I really am excited to host them. I think it will be cool to talk to Judy and pick her brain.

Beautiful Sunshine & Scouts

The weather here in Southern California has been anything but winter. It has been in the 70's, 80's and even 90's on one day. It has been beautiful and a nice change from the crazy cold we have had (totally joking-- if you consider 40's and 50's cold). We have had a ton of rain so far this winter and I hope we have more but for the time being, the beautiful sunshine has been nice.

 

 

We had Scouts tonight and it was so cute becuase Mia wanted to stand with the boys while they were reciting some stuff. The boys are so sweet to her. Oh ya, and that is Owen with his shirt open. He is not in Ethan's troop but still does stuff with them. He and another younger brother were running around like crazy so I guess Owen decided to open his shirt to cool off-- really cute Owen-- button up-- gezzz!!!

 

Arrowhead Snow~ Cuts & Kisses

We went to my parent’s house in Arrowhead to play in the snow on Friday. The boys had a day off school so we took off with Ethan's friend Jake to go sledding. There was so much snow up there it was unreal (at least for us here in So Cal). The kids had a blast and Mia seemed to enjoy it more than she has on previous snow trips. You can see on the pictures with my parents how much snow there was. Kevin and my dad had to dig out a walkway to the house. Since my parents live down the hill and only go up the hill on weekends, the snow had been piling up and they had to dig it all out-- totally crazy snow!! Anyway, we had a good time as always!

 

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I got my haircut on Saturday and Mia decided she wanted to sit in the chair and spin around. The girl was really sweet to Mia and spun her around a few times. Mia has yet to get her first hair cut but it is getting pretty stringy so I think that "FIRST" will be happening sometime soon.

 

Finally, this morning at church Mia was so cute. During our final worship time I always go and get Mia so she can hear the music--she loves the drums and guitars and how loud it is. After she was playing with her cousin Savannah on the pew and she was trying to take Savannah's paci like always. It was so cute because she kind of buttered Savannah up by first petting her on the head and then giving her big kisses and then making a dash for the paci. So the paci is attached to Savannah and Mia is sucking on the paci. It is so funny when she does that and Savannah is so sweet she just takes what Mia dishes out-- too cute!

 

Fun With Max!!

Mia totally loves our dogs Max and Sadie and they are so good with her. She often uses Max as a playmate and will put things on him and sit on him and ride him and many more fun things (in Mia's mind-- maybe not Max's). In the pictures below I couldn’t get a picture of Mia placing the round cake thing on Max's head but she was placing it on her head like a crown and then on Max's and then back on hers. It was so cute-- that’s why I got out my camera.

The boys are off today (teacher in-service) so we are heading up to my parents cabin in Arrowhead to play in the snow. I’m sure we will have some good pictures to post once we get home. Stay tuned!!

 

MIA VOTED!!! DID YOU?????

Mia and Mommy voted on SUPER TUESDAY. It was Mia's first US election-- YA MIA!!! Anyway, it was a beautiful warm day so Mia decided she wanted to make sure all mommies blog readers knew she did her civic duty and voted so she asked mommy to do a photo shoot and of course mommy agreed. If anyone read a few posts back about the 7 things you didn’t know about me, you probably can guess who I voted for. Did you all do your civic duty??????

 

 

 

More Park Fun!!

(I would like to apologize for all the spelling errors. The blogger spell check is not working-- I have seen tons of blogs having this trouble so sorry in advanced)

I joined Stroller Strides a few weeks ago and LOVE IT!!! It is the longest (don’t laugh but literally 3 weeks is some of the longest I have stayed with exercise) I’ve stayed with a program. Don’t stick with the gym. Don’t stick with classes. Don’t pretty much stick with anything that makes me sweat-- as pitiful as that is. But here is the deal. For the longest time I was looking for something to get Mia involved in that she could play with other kids and just be active and have fun. One of the major reasons I am sticking with Stroller Strides is because it provides exercise for me and also play for Mia. We start and end in a park and after we are done Mia spends as long as we want playing at the park. Here in Southern California it is really nice and sunny (besides the rain we have been having) so it is just beautiful to be outside in the fresh air. Anyway, I decided to do a photo shoot of Mia at the park playing. She just loves it soooooo much. She gets so excited that she screams. Check out the video. She is so animated.

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Mia loves all the little kid things at the park. It is really cute!!

Love these pictures of Mia comming down the slide. She would climb backwards up the slide and then go down screeming. Her hair went crazy with the static-- It was so cute!!

I forgot to mention that I filed Mia's paperwork for the Re-Adoption today. Our court date to finalize the adoption is on March 3. Mia is officially a US citizen and we are officially her parents but we wanted to get her a California birth certificate so she is able to obtain one easily in the future. We did not have to go through the re-adopt but we decided it would be easier for her in the future. Now she will have an official California Birth Certificate-- WAY COOL!!! For all you who are curious, it was so easy. I took all her tons of paperwork from China and the required paperwork for the courts (all of which I did online on Adobe-- very easy) and a notarized copy of her 6 month post placement report from our agency and that was it. I handed a bunch of stuff to the clerk, she looked at it and pulled what she needed and then there were a few more papers they wanted me to do while I was there but that was it. I had to go to Kinko's and get a full set of copies for our records and to bring to the hearing in March-- but that was pretty much it. Oh ya, I had to pay $20 also (that is much better than the $200 + that agencies charge to help with the process. It is really so easy you can totally do it on your own- no need for the agencies help). So, if you are thinking of doing a re-adopt, DO IT!! It is really easy and will make our lives and Mia's life much easier in the future!!

I've Been Tagged!!

I’ve been tagged by Jennifer from My 3 Sons and A China Girl. To list 7 things you may not know about me.

The rules are to link the person who sent this to you and leave a comment on their blog so their readers can visit yours. Post the rules on your blog. Share 7 strange/weird facts about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, linking their blog. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, here goes.

1. I am a drop out!!! I did my bachelors in psych then straight to my master’s degree in psych and then started my doctorate in psych. At that time I was all of 23 years old, newly married and sick to death of pysch so I made it one year in the doctorate program and then—DROPPED OUT!!!! So yes, I am a DROP OUT!!!

2. I use to weigh 300 pounds. 8 years ago I had gastric bypass surgery and lost a heck of a lot of weight. Not sure what I weigh now (I refuse to weigh) but I have been the same weight (+ or - 10 pounds) since surgery. It was a wonderful decision for me.

3. I met my husband when we were 16 years old in our church youth group. We were total opposites and no one thought we would make it more than a week and we ended up dating for 6 years and then were married and have been for 13 years!!

4. My best friends are identical twins and we met in 7th grade when we were 12 at our little Christian School. We have been best friends ever since. Many of you see Laila and her daughter Ava on my blog often—her twin Laura is a doctor in Manhattan (Laila is a doctor also but is not practicing because she is raising her kids).

5. I’m taking this one from Jennifer—thanks—but I am a total purse and shoe addict. I have more purses than I would care to admit. I also cannot help myself from buying a great pair of shoes but they have to be on sale. My favorite places to buy my shoes are Marshalls and Nordstrom Rack. Both have high end shoes for CHEAP!!! Oh ya, I am totally CHEAP!!!

6. I am an avid snowboarder. I have been snowboarding since college and love it!! I taught the boys to snowboard three years ago and they are really good also. They go down all the expert runs with me. Kev also picked up snowboarding reluctantly (he grew up in Canada and is an avid skier but to hang with the family he took up snowboarding).

7. I know this is a touchy subject and I know some of you may hate me for posting this BUT--- I AM A BIG TIME CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN!!! Don’t throw rocks at me but I just align with the party. I even worked for the Republican Party on the last election as a neighborhood representative. OK—I admitted it—don’t hate me—actually I am proud of my party J

Now I get to tag 7 people.

Isabelle’s mom at Simple Pleasures
Ellie’s mom over at Our Family
Fins mom at My little Bit O’ Shark Bait
Allies mom at For Allison With Love
Spicy Girls mom at Hunan Spice
Carson and Kamree’s mom at Follow The Leaders
Sophie, Silas and Sadie’s mom at From Journey to Journey

And since I cannot post without a picture or two I decided to post a NO NO picture. I heard Mia in the other room shaking something. She has a ton of toys that make a shaking sound so I just assumed she was playing with one of them. Well, she wasn’t. She had found some of the boy’s air soft bee bee’s and was shaking them all over the place. There is a little spout on the top of the jar of bee bees and the bee bees were spilling everywhere. By the time I came in to check on her, there were literally bee bee’s all over our downstairs. They were shaken EVERYWHERE!! At least she was attempting to put them back in the spout 1 by 1 (the girl has amazing fine motor dexterity) I had to get the vacuum out just to get all of them and I am still finding them 2 days later-- uggg!!!