~ Leap Of Faith ~




The Collins Family
Photobucket

Sunday, March 29, 2009

~ Sun Allergy ~

Photobucket

Jaidyn: Mom, Do you know what I am allergic to?
Me: No Jaidyn, what are you allergic to?
Jaidyn: I am allergic to the sun.
Me: Oh really? How do you know that?
Jaidyn: Everytime I look at the sun, I sneeze. ACHOO!

Silly girl!
Photobucket
Photobucket

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A little of this...and a little of that

This past week we have been enjoying spring break. The girls don't have preschool this week and we have had some beautiful 70 degree (almost 80) weather. The girls and I invited ourselves along and spent a couple of days at the lake house over St. Patrick's Day with Papa and Nana. Wish Wes could have joined us but he had a special training workshop for a couple of days this week. Today is only in the 50's, but this is giving me time to catch up inside since we have spent so much time outside the past few days.

Photobucket
The girls got to make a butterfly craft with Kelly through the Parents as Teachers program.
Photobucket
Kelly always brings some new puzzles, books, and toys for them to explore during her visit. This Strawberry Shortcake number puzzle caused a fight between the girls. Yes, Addy still needs a lot of work on sharing and waiting her turn.

Photobucket
Jaidyn counted down the days until Grandma Penny came for a visit. Her she is counting down the minutes...just staring out the glass door waiting to see her red car drive up the road (she tricked her as she didn't drive her car).
Photobucket
Uncle Jay, Grandma Penny, Jaidyn & Addy

Photobucket
Photobucket
Grandma Penny brought them the movie Flicka and here they are riding their own bucking wild horses. Ride em' cowgirls!

Photobucket
Jaidyn and Addy enjoying some online game computer time. Jaidyn would move the curser and then let Addy press the key button, so it worked out pretty good.
Photobucket
Enjoying just a taste of summer! Eating popsicles up on Papa Dave's workbench.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Shamrock Shuffle Run

It's been a busy weekend and I am trying to catch up on things, but I did want to post some pictures from our Shamrock Shuffle Run & Leprechaun Lap. It was a project graduation fundraiser. It was lots of fun and I hope they do it again next year.

Photobucket
Family Picture...very windy day!

Photobucket
The Parlor Salon team posing for a picture before our run. The team consisted of a 1 mile walker, 2- 5K runners and 1- 10K runner (lucky me).
Our shirts say "It's not just about winning. It's about how good your hair looks when you cross the finish line." The crazy wind just wasn't doing our hair justice.

Photobucket
Wes's team, The Copper Stoppers

PhotobucketPhotobucket
Yea, we are all smiles! We received first place in the All Female team division.

Photobucket
One of Wes's teammates is extending his congratulations. Wes received a 2nd place medal for his HUGE efforts in the mile walk. He was supposed to run one of the 5K's but since he is recovering from pneumonia he decided to switch places with one of his teammates and walk the mile. The funny thing is there were only 2 guys who walked the mile...he had to get either first or 2nd. Most of the females smoked him. I think if he would have got his hips and arm pumping into his walk it might have helped him a little. In his defense, he did come find me on the race route and ran the last 2 1/2 miles with me back to the finish line. I was needing some motivation about that time in the race.

Photobucket
My trophy is bigger than your medal!!! I have to needle him any way that I can. :)

Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
The Leprechaun Lap was quite an experience for the girls. They truly had no idea what they were getting themselves in to. An entire lap around track is a looonnngggg way. Addy and her tiny little legs made it about 1/4 of the way around before she started crying and refused to run any further. Wes had to carry her the rest of the way around all while she was in tears. Jaidyn made it about 3/4 the way around until she decided that her legs were way too tired. She also decided to cry, I think mainly because she is super competitive and seeing all of the other kids (most were a lot older than 4) already done at the finish line upset her.

Photobucket
Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
No more tears! Shamrock cookies, Capri Sun drinks and beaded shamrock medals made the race well worth it.

Saturday night we celebrated Wes's dad's birthday. They hired a babysitter and we all had a night out. It was Greek night at the bar we went to. J.R. really enjoyed the belly dancing expedition and since it was his birthday he received a little extra special attention. I think the pictures are self explanatory. I even learned one of the Greek circle dances.
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

Photobucket
The girls had a great time with the babysitters and I think they enjoyed the free reign of the cookie jar and jelly bean bowl since all of the parents were gone.

Friday, March 6, 2009

You Know The Playdate at the Park Was a Success When...

You know the playdate at the park was a success when this happened 10 minutes after we arrived home.
Photobucket
Photobucket
The kids were about to fall asleep being pushed in the swings so we figured that was probably a good time to call it a day.

Rick, Cheryl, Emily & Cole,
Thank you for a fun afternoon at the park. We will have to do it again soon!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

~ Spilled Blueberries ~

Photobucket

Yesterday, Addy and I ran errands while Jaidyn was in preschool. Wal-mart was our last stop and other than the morning being bitter cold, most of the outing had been going pretty smooth. Ready to check-out and seeing the two-three cart lines, I decided to use the self checker thinking that since I only had around 20 items and 5-6 coupons I should be able to go through it fairly quickly on my own. As I am pulling one item out at a time from my cart to scan and place in the bag, Addy decides to be helpful and started placing items up on the rolling counter. The next thing I know she has picked up the carton of blueberries and before I could grab them from her she chucks them up onto the roller. The lid pops open and the carton spills sideways. Blueberries flew everywhere...on the counter, on the floor, and even up by the woman who watches all the self-checkers. Lucky me, got to pick them up all one-by-one. Grrrr! Nothing like paying $3 for about 1/4 carton of blueberries. And to make it an even more enjoyable check-out, a couple of my coupons wouldn't scan correctly, so I had to have help from the checker. And wait that's not all. I also purchased an enormous bag of dog food and while I was trying to pull it out from the bottom of my cart, to put it in the trailblazer, I ripped out the side. Yep, I left a nice little pile of dog food in the parking lot of Wal-mart. With a wide open slit in the dog food bag the trailblazer had a wonderful smell for the rest of the afternoon.

On a more positive note, I saw on the Philippines adoption yahoo group that two families received child referrals today. They are from different agencies other than Holt, but one family had been on the approved waiting list a few months before us and the other was approved a month after us. So hopefully, several more referrals will be given out soon as there seemed to be a little lull in the placement of children from the Philippines.