Leap Of Faith

~ Head on Over ~

2010-01-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

Head on over to our new blog, Life's A Dance!!!

~ Goodbye 2009 ~

2010-01-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

Whoa...the past 2 weeks have gone by so fast. It felt like I was just dragging out all of the Christmas decorations and now they are all boxed back up for Christmas 2010. We have traveled quite a bit over Christmas break, but I'll admit that the change of schedule from the constant go of our normal routine has been nice. I have also found time (just made time by neglecting the kids) to read 3 of the 4 Twilight series books. I must say that they are much better than I had anticipated. I figured after hearing all the hype that they wouldn't be near as good as everyone has said them to be, but I am hooked. In fact, I kind of hate to read the last one just because it would be an END.

New Year's Eve night was low keyed and we hung out with some of Wes's co-workers, but were home in bed before midnight and didn't even stay awake long enough to watch the ball drop. Our plan of a getting a decent nights sleep was interuppted by Addy's all-of-a-sudden 12 hour flu. We spent most of the very early morning hours changing bed sheets and replacing blankets from the pallets that we made on the floor as Addy managed to miss the bowl laying beside her everytime she needed to be sick. Poor girl. Happy New Year 2010!! However, it only seemed to last around 12 hours and she has been doing much better the remainder of the day.

Tonight will be my last post on this blog as we have definitely started a new chapter of our lives. This past year has been full of joys and blessings and our LEAP OF FAITH to Levi couldn't have been better. We are so excited about what the future and the year 2010 will hold for our family. So I guess I will wrap up this post with pictures from the last 2 weeks. Thank you everyone for all of the support and encouragement. We have appreciated all of the comments that we have received and we hope to continue with all of the friendships that we have developed because of this blog. We would still like to be part of your journey. Actually, I guess I will have one more post (sometime soon) linking everyone to the new blog. If anyone has any clever titles for me, please share... :) Happy New Year!!

Christmas at our house with Grandma Penny

Levi was so delicately unwrapping all of his presents. Much different from the way Jaidyn and Addy ripped in to theirs.

Cool, skates!!

The girls are getting really good at card games and dominoes...Vegas here we come!! Ha!

Because of the weather the girls have been skating around in our kitchen the past 2 weeks.

Even Levi has put the skates on all by himself and attempted to skate around.

As if everyone doesn't already know...Jaidyn loves to have her picture taken. She is quite the poser.

Levi is getting so much better at communicating. He uses several baby sign language signs and he has changed the "Change" sign to holding his nose when he fills his diaper. Some of the words he is saying are Mom, Dad, Ball, Hot, and Bath.

Christmas Eve...What a handsome little guy!

The kids with their Aunt Jill

Papa & Nana with their Grandkids

Christmas Eve 2009 Family Photo

Me, my mom, and my sister

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

All bundled up their fluffy personalized bath towels...thanks Nana.

Papa JR and Levi sitting on the floor eating some soup. Levi didn't want to wait for a place at the table to start eating.

Addy and her cousin Haven

Addy, Haven & Jaidyn

Hanging out, getting ready to open some presents.

I have no idea what Wes is looking at, but thought the face that I captured was funny.

Jesus is the Reason for the Season

Jaidyn and Addy with Papa JR and Mama LaLa showing off their blinky pens.

~ Officially on Christmas Break ~

2009-12-16T17:36:00.001-08:00

Jaidyn and Addy had their Christmas parties at preschool today and they won't return until the beginning of January, so we are officially starting our Christmas break. Yeah! I am looking forward to a couple days of down time...I really need to clean the house, it is a disaster. I would be so embarrassed if someone happened to stop by right now.

How many more pictures is my mom going to make me take this morning?

How much longer do I have to wear this stupid Santa hat?

The Reindeer Pokey, "You put your antlers in!"

Christmas Carols!!!

"When Santa comes to our house, I'd like to take a peek
but I know he'll never come until I'm fast asleep."

Daddy had the day off so he was able to come to the party.

A Christmas snowflake ornament for the tree.

Cookie decorating

Lots of sprinkles!

Addy has been dying to wear this Christmas dress every day since I bought it. She was so easy to get dressed this morning. It was so nice to have her cooperate and get dressed so quickly. Usually my morning consists of, "Addy, get your clothes on. Addy, you need to put your shoes and socks on. Addy, go in the kitchen and pick out your cereal. Addy, hurry and eat. Addy, have you put your shoes on yet? Addy, you still need to brush your teeth." I'm usually exhausted before we even get out the door.

Addy was quite the caroler. She knew every word and all the actions. Too cute!

What Santa Doesn't Bring Me...

2009-12-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

What Santa Doesn't Bring Me, Grandma Will!

The kids received these darling pj's in the mail as a surprise from their Grandma LaLa. Can you tell they are definitely spoiled. And I noticed that there is nothing mentioned about PaPa on the pj's...I guess that will teach him not to leave ALL the Christmas shopping up to Grandma.

This morning we braved the cold and misting rain to see Santa and watch the local parade. We first stopped off at the library so each of the kids could sit on Santa's lap. Jaidyn and Addy were prepared as they both had items on their list that they wanted him to know about. Jaidyn also asked Santa if he liked apples. Lately she has been very concernced about Santa and his big belly. She is worried that if he keeps eating cookies he won't fit down the chimneys anymore. She has decided that we are setting out milk and apples for Santa on Christmas Eve. Levi did not like Santa at all and wanted nothing to do with him. We did torture him for a few seconds just so we could get a picture of him on Santa's lap.

We haven't even made a dent in the Halloween candy and now after the parade we have refilled the candy bowl. Ugh! Levi wouldn't wear his gloves and his poor little fingers had to be frozen. He didn't seem to notice because he must have thought picking up candy and putting it in the bag was a game as it completely occupied him.

Yesterday, I was able to spend some time with my college roomate, Kristin and her daughter Elise.

Jaidyn and Addy always raid Nana's dress-up clothes closet (clown and cheerleader outfits) and also dressed Elise up with a little pink cape.
It was so nice to spend time with the two of them. And I am so glad to see that Elise is doing so well. Her family is currently living in Florida so it may be several years before we are able to get together again. We had planned that we would live with our backyards connecting after college so our kids could grow-up and play together, but it just quite hasn't worked out that way yet. :)

Jaidyn is 5, First Snow & Ugly Sweaters

2009-12-06T19:10:00.001-08:00

Jaidyn turned 5 this past Wednesday. I can't believe she is 5 and that a little over 5 years ago Wes and I were childless. It is crazy to think how much our lives have changed in a 5 year time period.

Jaidyn is a very sweet, caring little girl and we are so proud of her in so many ways. Jaidyn, We love you so much...Happy 5th Birthday!

We celebrated her birthday at McDonald's the night before her actual birthday with many of her preschool friends.

Where there's food, there's Levi!!

We let her open her gifts from us on her birthday morning.

On her birthday she received a sweet little surprise text on my phone from her preschool friend (who she also tells me she has a crush on).

We had an hour or so of big fluffy snowflakes so Wes took Levi out on the deck and let him experience his first snow. He was fascinated by the flakes and would hold his hand out catching them. I am guessing we will have much more of this to come and we have his snow boots and gloves ready for that day.

This is Wes and I's darling spirit-filled sweaters for the Ugly Sweater Party. My sweater had a huge sequin bow across it and I added the big bow in my hair to go along with the theme of my sweater. Definitely 80's. Don't you just love Wes's glittery holiday sweater accented with his turtle neck? It was a women's petite so it had 3-quarter sleeves and fit him across his stomach. He also wore some matching socks. Yikes!

If anyone has one of these parties coming up or actually think they are "Purdy", we would be more than willing to part with them.

December is here

2009-12-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

Third time is a charm! It took 3 different times trying to get a good photo of Papa and Nana with the kids for their Christmas card. One of the kids wouldn't be smiling, eyes would be closed (usually my dads), sun light was beaming in right on Nana's neck making it look like she was wearing a huge bandaid, and a car drove past the house looking like it was coming out of Papa's ear.

Jaidyn's 5th birthday is this week and she received an early present from relatives. Aunt Charlene made this darling card...she's so crafty.

She got a Musketeer Barbie doll and then made-up her own Musketeer costume. Jaidyn has some serious creativity going on!

Here is Addy-Dancerella in her cheerleading outfit.

I think the high heeled shoes are a nice touch.

I had to use a clothes pin to cinch up the back so it would stay on her.

Levi's Smile is contagious!! I love it! As usual, I can tell that he has been snacking on something.

~ Stuffed ~

2009-11-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

With three Thanksgiviving dinners in the last week, I am officially STUFFED. At any given moment, I believe Wes, Jaidyn or I could start gobbling. Since there wasn't peanut butter & jelly yesterday, Addy & Levi ate like birds. They missed out! I can't really complain as when I stepped on the scale this morning, I weighed 1/2 lb. less that I did on Thursday morning. WTH! We had a great time getting to visit so much of our family over the past week and Levi met more of his relatives for the 1st time. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, supportive family and are glad that so many of us get to be together over the holidays.

We celebrated Thanksgiving a week early with Wes's mom and extended family. Jaidyn also reminded her Grandma Penny that her birthday was coming up so we did some early 5th birthday celebrating as well.

Jaidyn and Grandma Penny

Jaidyn got to wear the Sombero hat while eating her fried icecream.

Addy sucking up to her sister hoping that she will share. That bowl was huge so we all shared it.

These two probably played over 30 games of Old Maid, Go Fish and War. Jaidyn is actually very good at cards or maybe just extremely lucky with the hand she is dealt.

Levi loved the four wheeler. He would probably be content riding on it for hours. Anytime that I tried to get him off, he would throw a fit and start running after Grandma Penny on it.

One of Addy's favorite toys is her stick horse Flicka (some days she changes it's name to clifford). She can gallop like no other. It is funny to watch her stomp and snort like a horse before taking off in a gallop. Levi has also figure out how to run with it. I think that a smaller stick horse would work out much better for him. When we first brought him home he wanted nothing to do with the stick horse as it scared him. He changes so much everyday.

You can tell by the nose that she takes this outside with her often. Too bad they can't be washed.

Jaidyn and Addy really wanted to go on a picnic today and since it is only in the low 60's (that might be estimating high) we had a picnic on the kitchen floor.

I thought he might be better off eating at a table, but eating on the floor must have looked like more fun.

Tis The Season for Super Glue

2009-11-16T18:17:00.000-08:00

Well, the Christmas tree is up and dazzling with lights and ornaments. If only Levi will allow it to stay that way. Hoping to make this a jolly occasion with the kids, I put on some festive Christmas music while decorating. Wes was able to help set up the tree and string lights, but then had to go to work, so it was just the kids and I. I should have known better and waited to try and put the ornaments on with the girls after Levi went to bed, but I kind of wanted him to experience it too. After about the first 5 minutes, I was already super gluing pieces back on Wes's Highway Patrol themed light-up and attempting to super glue Santa's arm back on one of Wes and I's first ornament together. Agh! Keeping him from pulling every ornament off the lower branches of the tree has really tested my patience with him tonight. He would look at me right before pulling the ornament off to see if I was looking. He is Ornery! Luckily, I have Jaidyn and Addy to put on Tree Patrol.

I did manage to get some cute holiday pictures of the kids in their new Christmas pj's from their Nana.

Last weekend I scavenged the local thrift store to find these beauties for the upcoming Ugly Sweater Party. Here is a sneak preview as the kids were having a ball modeling my finds! Sorry if anyone is offended and actually likes these sweaters...it is just my personal opinion that they are hideously decorated with Christmas spirit and bling.

Levi loves playing Peek-A-Boo. He will hide behind a wall or a door and then peek around the side laughing and grinning.

Then the best part...he comes running for a great big hug!

We are so excited for our bloggy friends, JoAnne and Dennis. They are leaving for the Philippines tomorrow to meet their son and bring him home. What a wonderful Thanksgiving for their family!

Rachel from Adventures in the Philippines blog, gave me this blog award. Take some time to visit her blog. She has a huge heart for the children of the Philippines and she captures the best photos of the children while caring for them at the children homes during her mission work stays. I also can't wait to find some time to sit down and visit some of the other blogs that she nominated for this award. I also get to now pick some blogs to receive this blog award too, so I will soon be sharing the love. :)

This week is the national collection week for the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Jaidyn was really in to it this year and she helped me sort and pack each box. She was especially particular about the girl boxes and wanted them to be just perfect. This year we were able to print a barcode online and now we will be able to track which country our boxes go to along with information about Operation Christmas Child in that country. Operation Christmas Child distributed shoe boxes early to some of the Philippines hit hardest by the Typhoon. This is a wonderful ministry to participate in and it is a great way to start the holiday season.
Article: Ministry Partners Reach Out To Storm Victims

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Whoa, last week was a busy week. The girls are at a great age and loved every minute of it. I am not sure what Levi thought of the weekend as he seemed to be trying to soak in all of the craziness...so many new things to him.

I have lots of pictures to share of our Halloween weekend.

Jaidyn, Addy, and Levi were completely freaked out by their Nana & Papa in these masks. I have to admit those masks are pretty creapy!

Ugh oh, they are loose, roaming the streets! Good thing they are a friendly ladybug and kitty cat.

Addy saw one of her little preschool friends in the neighborhood.

We had one tired little dinosaur who fell asleep in the stroller while trick-or-treating so we left him with Papa and Nana while we took the girls to a church Halloween festival.

Face Painting!

Digging for treasures and more candy!

Earlier on Halloween morning, Wes and my sister (different teams)participated in an Adventure Race...trail running, canoeing, wood splitting (mystery event), and biking. They had a great time and I think enjoyed most of the race with the exception of crossing the river chest deep. Brrrr! And I just love doing all of his muddy laundry afterwards.

And it is a sprint to the finish line!!

On Friday we attended 2 library Halloween parties. Here they are parading around the library and trick-or-treating for candy.

I keep having to whisper to Levi, "Yes, Levi, you want these treats...mommy really wants these treats, mommy loves chocolate".

Isn't he the cutest little Dinosaur?

Trying to get a spoonful of Smarties candy in to the Cauldron. Jaidyn is such a cheater...she kept using 2 hands, anything to get to go pick out a prize!

Friday night our friends were able to join us for dinner and some time over at the park "Spooktacular Walking Trail". This is the 3rd year in a row to do this together so it has kind of become a tradition.

Halloween Festivities Phlog Post

2009-10-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is time for another Photo-Blog post.

Last weekend both of the girls were invited to a Fancy Nancy tea party birthday. They had so much fun digging through their dress-up box to find things to make them "fancy". This picture was taken right before I found Addy rolling around in the leaf pile. Picking leaves out of a boa scarf is always so much fun.

Levi took off running as he didn't want any part of the "fancy" picture.

Addy is a little frustrated with her foam stickers as she is having trouble peeling of the backing.

Well aren't these sunglasses fancy?

All dressed up!!!

The girls love baking cookies with their Nana. I think they liked using the Halloween themed sprinkles the best. My mom (the health nut) used wheat flour to make them...that is probably why we still have some left in the container this week. Levi is actually the only one eating them.

Papa let the girls help scoop out the pumpkin brains and separate the seeds. I am not sure what is scarier, the size of the jagged knife he is using to cut the pumpkin or the face he is creating.

The girls both had their preschool Fall Flings on Wednesday morning. We are so thankful for the one day break in the rain and the overall nice weather.

Exploring the hay stacks.

Most of the other kids were satisfied with a festive pumpkin on their face, but not Jaidyn who requested a blue cat.

Silly face pumpkin decorating!

Making a bag of trail mix to take along on their hay ride. I finished her bag off on the drive home after the party. MMmm, a perfect mix of sweet and salty.

The hayride was a big hit with all of the kids.

Addy is searching for large plastic spiders amongst the hay bales. I think we need to also be searching for our missing red hair bow.

Addy is getting ready to leave on the hayride. Oh great, she is already sitting herself between two boys.

Hunting the corn pit for treasures to put in her treat bag. If it wasn't candy, she pretty much put it back. She definitely went for the good stuff.

Watch out, she's a serious sack racer!

Here's Addy with one of her good little preschool friends.

The best part of the Fall Fling was getting to spend time and enjoy the morning outdoors with my two favorite girls.

Jaidyn received a sidewalk chalk kit at her Fall Fling party as one of the party favors, so yesterday we took advantage of having a nice afternoon and drew all over the entire driveway.

We have a very busy next two days planned and after I told Jaidyn our plans for the next two days she said, "whoa, we have a couple of exhausted days coming up". :)

I Love Fall!

2009-10-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

Grandma Penny came to our house for a visit and the kids have been looking forward to it all week. Last night we carved our pumpkins and it was definitely a group effort. I hope they last until next weekend, but at least we will be able to enjoy the Jack-o-Lanterns all through the week.

I have no idea why they picked me to draw the face on the pumpkins. Drawing skills are not one of my finer qualities. It will be obvious when you see the pumpkin faces.

The tops are cut off and they are scooping out the Pumpkin brains. The girls worked hard to pick out all of seeds so we could have roasted pumpkin seeds, but I messed them up when I was cooking them up in the skillet. I guess I didn't cook them long enough as they were soggy and too oily to eat. Bummer!

Squishy, Ooey, Gooey!

I think they turned out really cute! Grandma Penny and Wes made up for my lack of drawing ability with their carving skills. :)

We have so many beautiful fall colors in our yard right now. We have reds, oranges, and yellows. The bushes and trees are gorgeous! If it would stop raining and the yard would dry up some we could actually go out rake a pile and play in them.

Early in the week we had a day in the lower 70's so my mom joined the kids and I on a hiking (more of a walking and stroller pushing) adventure to Ha Ha Tonka State Park. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

The girls are peering through the bars at what is left of the castle ruins. Jaidyn wanted to know where the dungeon was.

The girls with the Nana on an acorn hunt.

We have a busy upcoming week with the Halloween activities in full force. Halloween is my favorite holiday so we have been reading lots of Halloween/fall themed books all week. We watched the 1st Harry Potter movie this afternoon and I have Twilight to watch tonight after I get the kids in bed. Wes is working tonight, but I am looking forward to a nice relaxing evening!

What next...Mt. Everst??

2009-10-18T17:20:00.001-07:00

Levi has found that he can climb about anything to get what he wants. He either pushes his little yellow chair, my rolling desk chair or turns my post office box or laundry basket upside down to climb up on something. Tonight, I secretly watched him climb up on the dining room table.

Wow! This is a little higher than the usual chairs that I climb up.

My mom took the 3 kids to eat and play at McDonald's earlier this week and she said that Levi just couldn't get his 2nd leg up on the first stair to go up in the tunnels and slides and she said she wasn't about to help him out in his efforts either for fear that he might get stuck up there. She definitely didn't want to have any part in that sort of rescue mission. :)

Finally, after being cooped up inside for several days because of cold rainy weather we had a chance to get outside today for a stroller walk and sit outside on our deck while dinner was cooking.

Levi is thinking he is pretty studly in his new Cardinal's Baseball beanie. It's a bummer the Cardinals choked in the playoffs.

These pictures were taken shortly after we had to hold him down and pull a huge splinter out of his hand from climbing down the deck stairs. Notice the snot from his nose and tears on his sweatshirt. Poor little guy!

He put the sunglasses on all by himself (upside down).

Cool dude!

On Saturday we spent the good part of the morning waiting in line at the doctor's office to get our seasonal flu shot. They had a Flu Shot clinic and we showed up only an hour after they started and yet our kids were the last young ones to receive the child based shot as they were then out. I am not sure what we would have done if they weren't able to get one as I know that the health department was out of them also. The bad part is they could only give Addy and Levi a half dose because of their age, so they have to return in a month to get the 2nd portion. Grrr, as if the 1st one isn't bad enough for a little one.

Tomorrow, after preschool, my mom and I are going to take the kids to Ha Ha Tonka state park. With the leaves turning and a day in the upper 60's it should be a perfect day for trail walking. I am looking forward to it.

Crazy Busy

2009-10-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

So yes, I have been missing in action as far as the blog is concerned. We have been so busy and at times I almost feel like a duck on the water...calm & collected from the outside, but paddling like hell to stay afloat. Everything is going well, so no complaints, but it just never seems that there is never enough time in a day and my house would definitely show that. A tornado hasn't hit it, but it sure looks like it sometimes.

Last weekend the kids and I took a trip to visit my sister. On the way, we stopped to let both sets of my grandparents (Levi's great-grandparents) meet Levi.

Hmmm, Levi looks busy with his nose. We also got to meet Steel another new addition to our family. He was born the day before Levi's gotcha day.

I think Grandma enjoyed parading around the nursing home with her great-grandchildren. They also found her Butterfinger candy bar stash. Levi kept going back to the pumpkin basket for more.

After visiting for several hours we went to my sister's volleyball game. While we enjoyed watching them play we were glad they won in 2 games and it didn't go 3 as we were all starving and Levi was tired of being confined to the bleachers.

The next day my sister treated the kids and I to an afternoon at the pumpkin patch. I love these types of places and look forward to the fall season for this reason. Levi enjoyed it, but it was right during his nap time and I think he was just trying to stay awake through it all.

Snow Angel in the corn pit

The "special" ingredient's for a witch's brew.

Peeking through.

Train ride

I also went to a Cardinal's game with the guys (My dad, brother & uncle). My mom, sister, aunts and cousins all came to my sister's house for a night of Mexican food and margaritas, but sent me with the guys so that they would have the kids all to themselves. Levi is great with others, but if I am around, I am his 1st choice. So they all plotted against me to get rid of me for the evening. :)

Everyone hanging out at Jill's house.

On Saturday before heading home we went to Grant's Farm. After getting attacked by the baby goats last year, they knew what they were up against this year. Small and cute, but vicious when it comes to a bottle of milk. After a few minutes of being surrounded by goats they decided to stay outside the fence and feed them. I made a big mistake by handing Levi the bottle and it went straight to his mouth. He spit it out immediately...I am not sure if it is a powdered formula milk or if it was actual goat milk. Disgusting!

Tram ride through Grant's Farm

We teased my Aunt Charlene about wearing sandals when it was sub artic temperatures outside, so I had to include a picture of her wearing her sandals. She was a good sport despite all of our teasing. :)

An author was on site reading books to the kids as they excited the farm. We have 3 copies of his "I don't want to kiss a Llama" book, one for each kid. It is a really cute book.

Sunday evening Papa J.R. and Mama Lala treated us to dinner at Applebee's and gave the kids each these darling Halloween shirts. Aren't they cute?

Heading out the door to preschool.

Poor guy! Levi had to get 5 separate shots. I felt so bad for him as I held him down while the nurse administered each one. He fell asleep immediately when I put him in the car seat. Hopefully, the tylenol that I gave him kicked in. He is now caught up on his immunizations, but still needs a flu shot which I will probably schedule for all the kids along with Wes and I this week.

We also had family pictures taken this past week and I think we captured some great shots. I can't wait to get the proofs back and then order a new family picture for fireplace mantel. The family of 4 that we currently have in the frame is definitely going to be replaced.

Wes has been busy as he started working in a new county. He is also working the MU football games on an off day, so he has been busy working a lot. Thankfully, he hasn't had to work until 8:00am this past week, and has been wonderful help in getting the kids around so that we can leave for preschool by 7:30.

I have actually started running a little again. I really need to make a little time for myself as I feel so much better when I get a little exercise in each week. Since we have brought Levi home, my workouts have been non-existant. Hopefully, I will continue to get some runs in each week, but as the weather gets colder it gets harder. I really hate cold weather.

Monday we have our first post-placement visit and honestly I am excited about our social worker coming for a visit. I can't wait to show off Levi. He is doing very well. I still need to finish our questionaire packet (hand got cramped from writing last night) and get a few more pictures developed for the meeting.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend.

~ Flood ~

2009-09-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

It saddens me greatly to see that so many people suffering from the flooding in the Philippines. Media reports are saying this may be one of the worst flooding incidents for the Philippines. The metro Manila provinces are currently deeply effected. We were in so many of these areas less than two months ago. I just can't imagine these people who have nothing to begin with survive these horrific conditions. I imagine that the aftermath of the flooding will also be equally devastating. I am hugging Levi extra tight tonight as his orphanage (Malabon City) is in one of the areas hit by this storm outside of Manila. Please pray for the people of the Philippines.

Philippines Flooding YouTube Video

Gulf News Article and Pictures

~ Up, Up, & Away! ~

2009-09-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

It doesn't take much to entertain us! The kids took turns letting Wes toss them up in the air during commercials of Dancing with Stars...ooh, I love that show! Levi would laugh hysterically when it was his turn and couldn't get enough of it. It was so fun to hear him laugh so hard. Jaidyn is getting to the age that she is a little harder to launch. However, Addy and Levi still weighing under 30 lbs were easily launched. They are 2 years apart, but only a difference of 4 lbs. in weight.

My turn! I didn't feel the need to share my "launch" photo as I will leave that to your imagination.

Levi's favorite toy is my postal shipping box. He will push it around the living room, crawl in, crawl out, & play in it.

Fall Festival & Teddy Grams

2009-09-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday my mom accompanied the kids and I to Cider Days. While the weather wasn't sunny, it didn't rain and it was perfect for strolling up and down historic Walnut Street. My mom and I love the fall season, so spending Sunday afternoon at a festival to kick off the season sounded like a good idea. The girls had a good time and Levi seemed to enjoy it also. Although it was a nice afternoon, we both agreed that it wasn't our favorite festival that we have attended as it seemed to us that it should have been more than what it was, especially with all of the tv/news hype. Sadly, our main excitement was the bag of kettlecorn popcorn that we munched on.

We tried Teddy Grahams out yesterday and Levi has found a new favorite snack. I think I am going to have to get a lock for the snack cabinet as it is really hard to keep him out of it.

Pulling the box out of the snack cabinet.

Look what I got all by myself!

Mad dash to Mommy to see if she will give in and give me any right before bed. Who can resist that smile and excitement?

He has figured out how to ride his car, but only if he is standing. He hasn't quite figured out that he can sit and push too.

Well, I guess I need to get the kids rounded up so that we can get to gymnastic lessons. I am dreading sitting there with Levi. The last time I took him (2 weeks ago), he was a nightmare for the last 15 minutes. Trying to entertain him for an hour is tough. The snacks work for about 15 minutes and the bleacher area works for about 15 minutes, but then it all goes downhill. He just really wants to be out in the Kindergym area with Addy as there are so many fun things to do. I really like to watch the girls during their lesson, but I think tonight, I will leave for awhile and come back at the end. Anything to avoid a terrible baby moment.

~ They Look Harmless ~

2009-09-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

They look harmless...

until they get a hold of their brother and wave their magic princess wands and

"POOF"

Poor guy! He just doesn't stand a chance with his sisters. :)

There was a yard sale a few houses down the street so I am sure all of the passing traffic enjoyed the princess display in our yard (I took Levi's crown off before we went outside).

Levi likes mowing our sidewalk. He is yet to push it out on the grass.

Wes captured these pictures of Jaidyn and Levi. Levi isn't too fond of the dogs and always wants to be held when they are out playing in the yard.

I love this picture of Wes and the kids!

Every Thursday, while the weather is nice, we walk to story hour at the library.

~ Just a Phlog Post ~

2009-09-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am a copy cat. I am stealing Rachel's genius idea. I am taking the lazy way out and just mainly posting some pictures.

All of these pictures were from last night after bath time.

Jaidyn took the 2 pictures with me in them, so she had to capture a picture of herself. She is such a goon!

I have been trying to get a good picture of all 3 kids together, but Levi never cooperates. I promise he really does like his sister's, but I don't think he likes to share picture space with them and wants it to be all about him. :)

Just had to share Addy's afternoon outfit of choice. Don't worry, I dressed her for preschool this morning

~ Ear Aches ~

2009-09-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

For about the 3rd night in a row we had another sleepless night because Jaidyn and Addy were having horrible coughing fits all night. So I scheduled a doctor's appointment for all 3 of them today (Levi has had some gunky congestion). We found out that they all 3 have ear infections. I never would have guessed ear infections, but the doctor said that they usually occur as an aftermath of a cold. Glad Wes and I took them and had them checked out as ear infections are so miserable. It was an expensive day...$60 co-pays, $100 medicine, groceries and had to fuel up the van. Glad tomorrow is Wes's pay day. :)

~ September Weekend ~

2009-09-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

Before we brought Levi home, we were taking bike rides 2 or so miles several nights a week with the girls. And since we brought Levi home, I have had to follow the girls and Wes with Levi in the stroller and take different routes because I was much slower than they were on bikes or just hang out at home. This past week we bought a bike trailer from a friend so that once again we would be able to go on rides as a family. Both Levi and Addy fit so nicely in the bike trailer and it rode so well that Addy fell asleep. We weren't sure how Levi would react, but he just hung out and seemed to enjoy it. He would even wave at me everytime I would ride up beside his little window. Jaidyn learned how to ride her bike without her training wheels (thank you Papa Dave) while we were in the Philippines, so she is getting good at being able to ride several miles now. The weather in Missouri is just perfect right now, so tonight's ride was very enjoyable.

There is so much going on with everyone in Wes's Highway Patrol zone...a new baby, Levi, a wedding and Wes is transfering to a different county, so the Crabtree family threw a great big get together to celebrate everyone's newest ventures in life.

They had several posters hanging of Wes aka Rambo because of his hard charger personality. After seeing the pictures, don't you think that Wes could be Sylvester Stallone's stunt double? Yes, I realize that these next few pictures may be disturbing, but Wes was truly thrilled with the knife that he received as it is kind of tradition to receive one when leaving the zone. It is even lasered with "Rambo" on one side and the Highway Patrol Emblem on the other.

Jaidyn loved playing with all of the other kids all evening! I barely even saw her she was so busy playing.

We have been battling some sort of icky "bug" at our house the past several days. All 3 of the kids are sick and we haven't went anywhere for 2 days unless you count the bike ride. After several days of some over-the-counter meds, they seem to be doing a lot better today, but we still may be seeing a doctor this week. I know that Levi is having to work so hard to build his immune system to so many new things that he probably never dealt with in the orphanage. With all of the flu scare hype going around the slightest little cough and fever make me worry more than I usually might. Hopefully, they all will get over this soon and we can get flu shots done soon.

I though Levi looked so peaceful sleeping a few nights ago. My camera had some serious flash going to get this picture as it was completely dark in the room besides a small night light.

Family Birthdays & Meltdowns!

2009-09-10T05:25:00.000-07:00

The Labor Day weekend was spent with Papa J.R. and Mama LaLa and more of Wes's side of the family. While the weekend was packed full of activity, according to Jaidyn her favorite thing all weekend was the play house that Papa and Mama LaLa had been building and decorating the past few weekends. We also celebrated 4 birthdays as one family has 3 of their 4 family birthdays all on the same day and their son is only a week before. Crazy! Lots of family got to meet Levi for the first time so it was a very special weekend overall.

On your mark! Get set! Go! Jaidyn and her cousin both wore the dress-up dresses they have on all day long. Aren't they cute?

Levi kept trying to run in front of the vehicles, so I finally strapped him in beside Jaidyn and made her put her arm around him and promise me that she wouldn't go faster than the slowest gear. He loved the ride!

This little John Deere is just Addy's size.

I am not sure pairing the two of them is such a great combination. Addy is not the safest driver of the bunch. I write this as I remember a few month back her looking back at us while somehow managing to maneuver the Dora four wheeler between two trees.

Uncle Bear hung out with the kids while they swam in the hot tub.

Mama Lala gave Addy a bath in the sink after swimming in the hot tub. Papa J.R. gave Jaidyn a shower when she was done swimming. Getting out of bathtime with the girls was a nice little breal for me.

Aunt DeDe and Hudson.

Good morning! Look at the camera, Levi!

Levi loved spinning the toys on Hudson's exersaucer.

The girls playing in the playhouse...kitchen, chalkboard, manicure table, and babies. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the outside of the playhouse. It is darling! Every little girl dreams of having a playhouse like this.

Jaidyn taking a morning cruise around the yard before we loaded up and headed to the lake for the day.

They were so helpful around eating time and would fill the girls plates for me while I fed Levi and then Ashley would eat fast so she could entertain Levi while I ate.

The kids got in a picture with the birthday family.

Addy, quit blowing out the candles, it isn't your birthday.

Trying to wait patiently for a piece of yummy cake. I love how they stair step down in size.

We got the girls picnic baskets filled with little treats for their birthdays. I am the worst Aunt in the world. I am not good at keeping up with all of the nieces and nephews birthdays and we are just now getting Hadley a gift whose birthday was back in July.

Family Picture! Wes came for a few hours earlier in the day, but had already left for work before we had a group picture taken.

Pinata Time! Happy Birthday!

It was a little bit of a reach for Addy to hit.

No Mercy!

Jaidyn and her "jump and hit" approach.

Pulling the strings at the bottom finally allowed the candy to fall.

These boys are going to have so much fun together in a couple of years. The boys are all born within about 3 months of each other. In fact, Levi and Hudson are born only one day apart. It is crazy to think that Wes's brother had an addition to their family the day before we did (we just didn't know it yet).

So while we had a wonderful weekend and the weather cooperated it didn't come without cost. When Levi's bedtime rolled around Sunday evening Levi had decided that he had had enough. Levi screamed for almost 2 hours before finally falling asleep in the pack-&-play. I tried everything to get him to sleep and even tried standing and rocking back and forth. While this stopped the screaming he wasn't about to fall asleep. I am really surprised that he didn't go to sleep on his own as he only took a 1 hour nap earlier in the day and that is only because I put him in a stroller and walked him around the parking lot at the lake until he fell asleep. Finally, he had exhausted me to the point that I was ready for bed so I made the girls come to bed with me and all four of us slept in one bed. Levi did finally fall asleep and I placed him back in the pack-&-play, but he would wake up almost every hour through the night. So neither of us got much sleep. The morning wasn't much better as he wanted me to hold him all morning and then even when I did this he was trying to pull my earrings out of my ears and throwing them. He also was trying to hit me in the face. Yikes! We packed up fairly quickly that morning just so I could get him home. Our first few hours at home weren't much better, but by the afternoon he was almost back to good little Levi. So this week has been spent staying on a schedule and keeping what is familiar to him. I completely blame his meltdown on us as he had just had too much stimulation during the weekend...short naps, meeting lots of people, not sleeping in the same place. With the exception of a few nap times, he has had a wonderful week. He has played so well and is even starting to interact with the girls so much more as before he would just kind of parallel play with them. Of course, he is still eating very well and when he finishes his plate, he wants to climb up in our laps and help us finish ours. Just yesterday he picked up his spoon that I left on his plate and put little pieces of Spagetti-O's on it all by himself before putting the spoon in his mouth. Then at dinner last night I would place food on his fork and then hand it to him. He was easilty able to feed himself. I could be wrong, but I don't think he was doing any of this a few weeks ago as he wouldn't even pick up food with his fingers and place it in his mouth. I was thinking that at the orphanage he was just fed by the caregivers as this was so much quicker and less messy than if they would have let each child feed themselves.

Jaidyn pulling Levi around the house in my postal box.

We went out to eat for the first time as a family of 5 the Friday before Labor Day weekend. We had several people comment on what a nice family we had as we were leaving, so I guess we can consider our first dining out experience with all 3 kids a success.

Silly Boy!

~ Enjoying the Weather ~

2009-09-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was gorgeous and the kids and I took full advantage of being outside. I pushed Levi and Addy in the stroller to story hour at the Library and Jaidyn ran along beside us. We then spent some time at the park before coming home to eat lunch and let Levi nap.

Levi eating a popsicle for the first time (or at least with us). His face was so funny. The cold of the popsicle would make him make one of those sour puckered face looks. He really liked it as he kept coming back for more licks.

I must have followed him back and forth across the bridge at least 10 times. I think he liked the sound that the bridge made when he walked across it as he would almost stomp across.

Me: "Come here Levi!" Great, I am already getting the "just a minute" finger. :)

He likes to push the mower, but only across the driveway or sidewalk. For some reason he doesn't like to push it in the grass...maybe that is a sign that Wes needs to mow.

Levi checking out his reflection in the glass door.

The girls had their babies Lizzie and Sara Bella rocking them in the tree singing "Rock-A-Bye Baby". They had just finished riding their bikes and forgot that they were still wearing their helmets.

I hit the jackpot today at a few yard sales in our small little town. I think Levi is ready and will be decked out for the winter months. Between the clothes that he has recently received as gifts, clothes passed down from one of Jaidyn's preschool classmates (thanks Sarah), and the outfits that I scored today, he is going to be one stylin' little guy. I also bought this toy organizer for Levi's room once we move in to a bigger home. Jaidyn helped her daddy scrub it clean, while also taking the opportunity to spray him a few times. :)

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!

September is Here!

2009-09-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

September is one of my favorite months of the year. I love that the weather is still warm, yet a little cooler. I am looking forward to the fall festivals and pumpkin patches (hopefully we will get to attend a few this year). Football and high school volleyball season is in full force. And my favorite holiday, Halloween is just around the corner.

Yet, as much as I like September, I am exhausted and am so glad to have survived the week so far. The girls had their first week of preschool as they only go Monday through Wednesday. While I knock out their preschool all in three days, it is somewhat hectic. Jaidyn goes at 8:00, Addy @ 9:00, Pick-up Jaidyn @ 10:30 and then Addy @ 11:30. I have one week down without forgetting to pick one of them up on time. In between time, I try and get errands done, groceries, and hopefully a walk with Levi in the stroller and my mom. On Tuesday, I also took Addy and Levi to story hour at the library and then the girls also started gymnastic lessons again that evening. My mom has been sooooo much help all week, as she kept Levi for periods of time, so that he didn't have to spend it all with me while I kept up with my taxi service for the two girls. Nana has him stacking toys, playing with puzzles, and talking on a play telephone. Won't be long and she will be pulling out the multiplication flash cards.

Levi has had a little bit of a rough week. I know much of it is due to the fact that our schedule is a crazy in the mornings and he is taking naps in other places besides his bed at home, so nothing still seems to be normal for him yet. He also has figured out how to climb stairs. Unfortunately, he hasn't figured out how to get back down and did have a fall this past weekend. He has a few little scrapes (which are almost gone)and a bruise on his cute little face (thankfully it was carpeted stairs so it wasn't worse). I would have thought that this would have cautioned him a little bit with steps, but he still wants to climb them whenever he has the opportunity.

Levi fell asleep on Aunt Jill. He really took to her well last weekend. We kept wondering if he thought she was me. :)

This afternoon, instead of falling asleep almost immediately for his nap, he just talked to himself for almost 20 minutes. It was so cute to hear his voice babble about who knows what. This was the first time that I have really heard him babble for a long period of time.

Jaidyn and Addy have had a great week at preschool and love being back with their friends and meeting new little friends. Jaidyn told me today that a boy and girl (I won't use their names)in her class aren't in love anymore, but just friends. Seriously, she's only 4 and already having these conversations with her little friends. ???

I was also asking her today if she played with everyone in her class as she kind of tends to pair up with one or two people and she informed me that "there is only one Jaidyn" and she can't play with everyone. She does have a point, I guess.

Jaidyn's first day of preschool as a Bullfrog! The mornings were really cool (50's) so we had to wear jackets to start out the day.

Addy's first day of preschool as a Little Fish!

I had to run Addy down to get a hug and kiss before leaving as she didn't take anytime getting involved with the rice table in the play room.

~ Toddler Proofing the House ~

2009-08-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, I love that Levi is walking already and that he loves to explore but that also means that I am constantly following him everywhere keeping him out of most of the drawers and picking up after what I like to call the "Levi Trail".

Yesterday morning while drying my hair in the bathroom, Levi found out how the toilet paper roll works. This was shortly after I picked up a tub of the small Legos that he dumped(over 2000 in the tub) in the bedroom. He found and dumped these and unfortunately some of them scattered under the bed and those will have to wait for another day to be picked up.

This is a bucket of Jaidyn and Addy's gourds that they picked and have played with all week. Levi thinks they look better dumped on our sidewalk. :)

What can I find to dump next?

Mama's Boy! Levi follows me everywhere and is usually perfectly content when I am holding him.

Levi likes bathtime once he is in the tub. He usually takes off in the opposite direction and makes us chase him to get him in, but once in the tub he has a great time.

All clean!

Addy had her preschool open house last night and she is so excited to start next week. This will be a nice change from last year at the beginning of the year when they had to pry her from my neck while screaming. Jaidyn will go three days a week and Addy will go 2 days.

We have a busy weekend planned and an Open House set for Sunday afternoon...still trying to sell our home.

The Lake

2009-08-24T13:45:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I took Levi and the girls to the lake house. While the girls loved it as usual, I am not sure what Levi thought about the weekend. There was just so much to take in. He wore his life jacket, but it almost swallowed him. I left the upper portion unzipped just so he would have some more space for his little face. We went to Captain Ron's which has a beach area outside of the restaurant so that he could play more easily in the water. He didn't want to walk out in it, so we instead sat in the sand and played. Levi didn't want to wear his sun hat, but since he is lacking in a little bit of hair on top of his head, we kept trying to distract him to place it back on his head and also covered his head in sunscreen. He did conquer the stairs inside the lake house. He kept watching us go up and down them and it didn't take long before he decided to follow us. Now that he can get up them, we will really have to work on him learning how to get on his belly and slide down them.

Poor guy! His life jacket is just a little too big! It is so hard to find a comfortable one for his size.

Jaidyn thinks she is the Captain of Papa's ship. Jaidyn and Addy both fight to see who gets to sit on Papa's lap and drive. Jaidyn's getting very good and even knew our way home on the water the other night.

Levi did not want his picture taken, but I couldn't resist. They were all too cute in their swim outfits.

Sitting in the sand. Levi is once again trying to pull his hat off.

All the lake fun and sun will drain you...he is on his 2nd nap for the day. He did take 2 naps a day at the orphange, but since we have been home, we usually only do one early in the afternoon.

Settling In

2009-08-22T05:54:00.000-07:00

Wes and I are still trying to recover from our trip. So much to catch up on. I finally have the laundry done and have caught up on my online orders from when we were gone. Wes returns to work today. So today will be first day home with all 3 by myself. However, it was mainly the kids and I yesterday as Wes had a good case of some sort of stomach virus and spent most of the day in bed or lounging around. It has rained a lot here the past couple of days, so our yard is suffering quite a bit. With our house for sale it really bothers me that the outside looks so unkept, but until Saturday when the sun is supposed to dry things out, I will just have to deal with it.

Levi is doing fantastic. Much better than I could have dreamed. It almost feels like he has been with us forever. He is such a sweet little guy. He loves to be cuddled (which the orphanage told us) and gives the best hugs and little kisses. He even likes to give butterfly kisses (rubbing noses). Too cute! Levi has spent most of his time roaming from room to room in the house just exploring. It is amazing how much his walking has improved in a weeks time. He will probably be running before I know it. He likes to see how many toys he can pull out after I have just picked them up and some of his favorite things he carries around are some Lego's, a helium balloon, and a small orange car. Wes encountered a little surprise yesterday morning when he finally ventured out of bed around noon...Levi greeted him at the bedroom door with a Barbie in his hand. Yes, the girls are already corrupting him.

Barbies, Barbies, Barbies! I bet Wes puts a stop to this soon with some G.I. Joe figures.

He loves carrying this helium balloon around while exploring the house.

Levi is a great eater. He has eaten about anything that we have given him. He likes oatmeal, all fruits, cooked vegetables, waffles, rice, and spaghetti. He has adjusted well from his high chair to the Little Tykes table in our kitchen. Jaidyn loves to help feed him. He gets so excited when he knows it is time to eat. He waves his arms, makes high pitched noises, and runs to the table. The past couple of night he has hung out with me in the kitchen while cooking dinner. He will just follow me from sink, to stove, to refrigerator. And the excitement begins as soon as he sees me start filling his bowl. We have still been giving him his evening bottle of formula just to keep something the same for him, but I plan on going to whole milk next week. We will probably try that in the bottle for a little while and then go to the sippy cup with it.

It didn't take him long to figure out which cabinet has all the snacks.

Addy helping Levi with his bottle.

Jaidyn is such a big help. She begs me to let her feed him. It will be nice, if she can help me out on preschool mornings.

Addy wants in on the picture taking. She's too funny!

We think he is cutting some more teeth as he has been pulling on his ears a little and has been chewing on his fingers. I have been giving him tylenol a couple times during the day to help reliviate the pain. I tried to put my finger in his mouth to feel for any teeth poking out, but he clamps his lips down so tight not letting me poke around. We have a doctor's appointment for him scheduled tomorrow so we can get all of his current medical information on file with our doctor and get him a general check-up.

Other than his nap time and bedtime routine, the adjustments have went very smoothly. We decided to go straight to a toddler bed and we did have a few nights of sleepless nights, but now I am glad we continued to stick with our plan because he has adjusted wonderfully. We have pushed the toddler bed up against Jaidyn and Addy's bed on one side and have a pillow on the opening of the other side. He rolled out the first night, but this has taken care of that problem. I rocked both Jaidyn and Addy to sleep when they were his age, but since he has been used to being layed down to go to sleep, I didn't want change that. The first couple nights home I would hold him before laying him down as I could tell he was getting sleepy, but he really wasn't comfortable. The first couple of nights were rough. Levi would cry so hard that he would start hiccuping. I would go in every few minutes to try and sooth him and pat his back like his caregivers suggested. I swear he would fall asleep, but the minute I would leave the room he would start crying all over again. Wes slept in the room with Levi as he really just wanted someone in there and the girls slept with me in our bed. The past couple of nights have been so much better. He has only whimpered for a few minutes before going to sleep in his bed on his own. Levi goes to bed around 8:00 and then the girls follow around 9:00. Hopefully by next week the girls will be following about 15 minutes after Levi. They start preschool after Labor Day and we will all have to leave the house by 7:30 each morning Monday-Wednesday.

Jaidyn has been so helpful. She always volunteers to feed him or give him his night time bottle. Addy is doing well too, but sometimes becomes a little jealous. She is my little snuggler and now that she has to share me with Levi I can tell it bothers her a little. Usually I end up with both of them in my lap. It is kind of funny as Levi and Addy will look at each other with a little bit of competitiveness in their eyes. Levi has even pushed Addy's arms off of me or tried to pinch her to get her to move.

We bought the girls each a bubble gun on the baywalk one evening in the Philippines. Several of the kids were carrying these around and they looked like so much fun. We need to play with them at night as they also light up.

To welcome Levi, Grandma Penny and Jaidyn and Addy's Uncle Bear made these signs. We live right beside the park so one was placed there, one was at the beginning of our subdivision and one was at our house. They were a nice surprise.

This past Sunday the grandparents, my brother, and Carrie all got to meet Levi. We had a wonderful lunch with steak, chicken, salad, fruit salad, potato casserole, and lots of yummy desserts (courtesy of the grandparents). Despite how tired Levi must have been as I know Wes and I were, he enjoyed all of the company.

~ Welcome Home Gathering ~

2009-08-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Will be posting about our first few days home soon. We are still trying to recover from the time change/jet lag. The time change adjustment has been hard on all of us. My mom also has great pictures on her camera from the weekend so I need to get those from her.

Wes and I have the best extended family in the whole world! My Aunts, Unlces, cousins, and sister Jill had a little welcome home party for Levi. Jill lives only about 15 minutes from the airport so it was nice for us to relax a little and eat great food before continuing our drive home. Levi was showered with gifts, balloons, and LOTS of attention. He loved every minute of it! (I know my mom and dad probably had to be a little jealous that they got to see him first)

Our drive home seemed so long. I am pretty sure that I didn't do my part in helping Wes to stay awake while driving. Wes's Mountain Dew and Coffee helped him through the drive. The exhaustion had set in and if it wouldn't have been for the excitement of seeing the girls, I know I could have slept through the night until morning with no problems.

I love this sign by our driveway!

Levi receiving plenty of Love from his sisters.

~ On Our Way Home ~

2009-08-17T18:51:00.001-07:00

Wes and I honestly were making ourselves sick to our stomach just thinking about the long flight from Nagoya to Detroit. Twelve hours on a cramped plane is something that I don't care to do again anytime in the near future. We even looked at upgrading our seats to business class, but at an extra $4000 for each of us, that was completely out of the question. Levi was a complete trooper. In all honesty, he probably handled the flight much better than we did. He would just hang out on our laps most of the time. Books and stickers entertained him for the majority of the flights. Stickers were great, he would peel them off his body and then try to throw them. It was so funny, watching him try to throw them and then look back at his hands only to see them still there. We did get bulk head seating for our first flight (3 1/2 hours) from Manila to Nagoya so Levi enjoyed playing in the floor.

Levi taking a small nap on the plane.

Since we left our hotel at 3:15 in the morning, we just let Levi wear his pj's on all of the flights and didn't change him in to his clothes until we arrived in Detroit.

I wish Wes and I could have caught some shut-eye on the plane. We were both awake for over 30 hours with the exception of about a 1 hour nap during the Detroit to St. Louis flight.

Seeing Mt. Fugi was our excitement for the long 12 hour flight.

I just love how Levi sleeps with his arms above his head. The stroller was so handy to have in all of the airports. We were able to leave it right outside the plane door and the airport staff had it waiting for us at each airport once we arrived to use until it was time to board again. It didn't cost us anything extra to do this.

* Just some advice...don't order a cheeseburger in the Nagoya airport. I was thinking that it would be a safe bet...wrong! It was gray in color and of course I wouldn't touch it as it definitely didn't look like real meat. I am guessing a canned meat of some sort. I wonder if they even have cattle livestock in Japan? Maybe it is rare?

~ Last Day in the Philippines ~

2009-08-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

We spent our last day in the Philippines attending Levi's ICAB (Inter-County Adoption Board) appointment and then confirming his plane ticket back to the U.S. At ICAB we received his visa passport and the sealed visa document packet that was only to be opened once we reached the U.S. and went through customs. His social worker through ICAB also presented Levi with a few gifts from his birth country. He received a Philippines flag on a stand, a die cast Jeepney toy car, and a book titled, "Philippines, The Land of Your Birth". The book includes history, festivals and holidays, games Filipino children play, and a place to place pictures. They also let us leave him a note to place in his file so that if he would ever revisit one day he could read about what we were feeling during our first days together.

Our welcome sign hanging in the ICAB lobby area.

Here we are pictured with Eva. Eva works for Holt and is the liaison between ICAB and our agency. She is one of the ones who worked so diligently to help keep our paperwork moving along so quickly so that we were able to travel in early August. She also took Levi to his medical appointment a couple weeks earlier.

Jonalyn was Levi's social worker who prepared all of the visa packet paperwork.

Eva was trying to entertain Levi while we waited in the NWA office to confirm his plane ticket home.

These two make quite the pair!

This was our favorite security guard at the hotel. He works 7 days a week, 12 hours a day and travels 3 hours one-way each day to work. All of this to support his family. He was usually the one who was stationed at the hotel front door with the metal detector wand. Wes just loved those pat-downs every time we entered the hotel. Ha! Funny, they always just let me walk on in. So if any of you are traveling soon and staying at the Intercon, be sure to tell him hello for us.

Levi is such a sweet little guy! He loves to wave at everyone.

All smiles when it is time to eat!

There was an exhibit of graphic art pictures at the mall across from our hotel and the theme was "working together to save our planet". This particular design was one of my favorites.

Friday was a long day just because of all of the required things we needed to do. Plus by this time, we really just wanted to be on a plane and on our way home.

I also wanted to share a few notes that I have made in my journal with our bloggy friends who will be traveling in the future to the Philippines.

* We felt like everything in the Makati area (hotel is in Makati) was priced very comparable to what it would be in the U.S. Of course, this was considered the Beverly Hills area of the Philippines.
* When dining out, a 10% tip was almost always already applied. We left a little more when we had great service since we are used to leaving 20% in the U.S.
* At almost every place we ate, they served the food as it was prepared. Sometimes, I might get my food 10 minutes before Wes would (guess they had to cook those squid a little longer). This actually worked out well when we had Levi because one of us was usually able to feed him while we waited to receive our own plate.
* Advice: If you travel outside of Makati bring your own toilet paper with you. I guess people steal the toilet paper for their own personal use at home, so many places outside of Manila don't supply it. I was caught off-guard 2x without toilet paper. One of the bathrooms even had a sink-like hose like device in the stalls. Was this supposed to be in place of toilet paper??? Ugh!
* We bought drinks and snacks at the ShoeMart grocery store to keep in our room. We really liked that you didn't have to buy soda by the 6-pack/12-pack. We could buy single cans, so Wes and I were able to get exactly what kind we wanted.
* Wes got a haircut in the Glorietta 4 mall while we were there. He said it was a different experience because there was an assistant who just stood by to brush hair off of him and use the water spray bottle while the stylist was cutting. He wasn't used to having so much attention for a haircut.
* While I was taking an afternoon nap one day, Wes went out to walk around outside of our hotel. A man approached him and said, "I see you come from hotel. You want woman?" The hotel security guards caught on and had to shoo the man away.
* While staying at the hotel we noticed that we never saw a female who cleaned or made-up the rooms each day. It was always men. Hmmmm, I like this scenario. Wes, take notes! :)
* We packed very lightly as we had planned to do our laundry about half-way through our stay. Our hotel didn't have a self serve laundry service as I wouldn't have minded to do my own laundry, but they did offer their own service priced at 160 pesos for each garment. Yes, even each piece of underwear would have cost nearly 2 US dollars to wash. Are you kidding me? They did give us a number to a laundry mat service down the street that would pick up our laundry and deliver back to the hotel. We went this route as it was only like 100 pesos per kilogram of weight. We got 2 big bags done while we were there for under 900 pesos. Not too bad of a deal and I got out of doing it.
* We also never saw blue sky while in Manila. We are not sure if it was just extremely cloudy each day or if the pollution or smog had something to do with it. It only rained 2x while we were there, so I can't really blame the weather for the dreary sky.

Just Hanging Out

2009-08-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

I just looked at our available internet time and we have 1 hour left. This will be our last blog post from the Philippines. We have our ICAB appointment this morning and then will also go to the airport to confirm Levi's boarding passes for tomorrow morning. Our flight leaves bright and early from Manila, 6:45 am.

Yesterday we just spent the entire day hanging out together. It was our last day on our own as today we have several places on the agenda. This post will mostly be short and sweet with mainly pictures.

Levi and Daddy just hanging out playing before bedtime (this is from 2 nights ago)

Levi is sporting his St. Louis Cardinal Baseball romper from his Papa J.R. and Mama LaLa. Go Cards! We ate at Burger King for lunch today as we are trying to stay with American food chains to be on the safe side when eating. However, it wasn't a really a good choice as it didn't offer the healthier options like mandarin oranges instead of fries, etc. So for Levi, this place didn't work out very well.

Wes is already trying to teach Levi wrestling moves. I guess he will need to learn them to keep up with his sisters. :)

Levi won! Daddy had to tap out!

This is more like it...snuggle time with mommy!

We did go to the pool again today and he did like it, but wasn't in to it as much as yesterday. I think it was being we went down to the pool about 30 minutes before nap time. He is so used to his schedule that I think he could barely keep his eyes open. When we got back to our room he was asleep in his crib within 5 minutes.

You should see how excited he gets when he sees me start to mix his bottle. He waves his arms excitedly from side to side and gets the biggest smile.

We took Levi to baywalk as this was one of our favorite places that we visited earlier in the week. We love the casual atmosphere and they have had live bands both times that we have been. Part of the baywalk was shut down because the USS George Washington aircraft carrier was at port and U.S. Navy soldiers had a 4 day break. We watched smaller boats take them back and forth from the shore to the ship. Once again it was very cloudy so we were unable to see the sunset. Tonight we ate at Hooters and I will be honest, I picked it. Yes, it was my choice to eat there. To my defense, it was the only place on the boardwalk that wasn't seafood. We looked at, at least 3 different restaurant menus before I chose Hooter's. None of them offered anything I would eat. I am sure you all remember my post from earlier in the week when we ate at Pier 1. Wes also couldn't stomach the idea of eating that kind of seafood again.

Watching the waves splash in.

This may have been his first time on a slide. Levi wasn't really sure what to think about it.

These police men are part of the national police SWAT team. They were very nice and when Wes told them he was part of the SWAT team back home they let him look inside their vehicle and introduced them to a couple more guys on their team.

Just hanging out at Hooter's!

Sleepy Boy. His little blanket that his Nana made him has worked out perfectly in his crib.

Please pray for our flight home and that it will be a smooth one. Wes and I are already dreading it simply because it was so miserable on the way over. I wish I had a magic wand and "poof" we could be back home.

~ Smiles ~

2009-08-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

Whoa! We truly enjoyed waking up yesterday to all of the comments on our blog, congratulatory emails and notes on Facebook. Thank you!

Sorry about the delay in posting more pictures. For some reason the Internet at the hotel was running extremely slow, so slow that we weren't able to download any pictures. I could barely sleep last night knowing I had so many cute pictures to share with everyone, hence that is why I am up for 4:30 in the morning. :)

We had a wonderful day with Levi yesterday. We were out and about quite a bit, but still came back to the hotel for his nap times just to trying to keep him on a schedule that was familiar to him. We were able to get lots of smiles and some giggles. We are still waiting for him to babble as we have yet to hear any of that. He loved the swimming pool so we will definitely be spending more time in the pool again today.

The first night went really well and he went right to sleep in the pack-n-play crib in the hotel right away. His nursery schedule showed that he would wake at 5:00. Wes and I were dreading that a little so we went to sleep fairly early too. Levi woke up at 4:30 because he was really wet (so wet that it leaked through his clothes) and so we were up for good then.

We did a bath first thing in the morning (the pee smell had to go) and he did really well in the tub. We weren't sure how he would do as he has always just had a bath in the baby tubs up to this point. Levi just hung out while Wes washed and rinsed him. The caretakers were right as he ate everything we fed to him at breakfast. I think the only thing he spit back out was a tiny piece of pineapple and I think that was only because he couldn't chew it. He was very squirmy in his high chair and kept sliding way down in the seat. Now I know why they had a towel tied around his chest when we got to feed him at the orphanage. Oh the joys, of eating out with a toddler again. :)
Bathtime!

Levi loves just hanging out looking at all of the board books and picture books we brought along.

We did some shopping in the morning to get things like formula, sippy cups, and a jacket for the plane ride home. He was quite the trooper while shopping, but mainly because I think everything is so new to him. I am pretty sure this will change.

We ate lunch in the mall at Jollibee. Jollibee is a fast food chain that is even more popular than McDonald's here in the Philippines. I think that Red Ribbon was also combined with the Jollibee because we were able to order some pasta. Wes and I figured that we would just share a portion of each of our plates with Levi. Wrong! Levi chowed on the spaghetti! Wes ended up ordering a cheeseburger and fries for himself. We did encounter some rude people in here. When we first lined up behind the cash register Wes and I were looking up at the menu to tell the cashier what we wanted when someone just snuck in front of us and started ordering. We didn't say anything because we figured that obviously he had somewhere he needed to be soon. Also when Wes went back the 2nd time to order his cheeseburger a lady and her son tried to cut right in front of him. This time, he flat out told them that he was next and started ordering. Weird! I guess if you want any food at the Jollibee you have to be fairly demanding.

Spaghetti Face!

Levi still wasn't finished eating.

Full belly! He loves waving at everyone.

Goodbye, Jollibee!

Strolling the Glorietta Mall.

Levi's walking technique reminds me of E.T. He takes short little choppy steps with his feet turned slightly outwards. He has a little waddle that babies have when they still wear diapers and he looks like E.T. when he walks. I was following behind saying, "E.T., phone home".

After his afternoon nap we thought we would try out the pool. He loved it! He is going to fit in so well with his "waterbug" sisters. Wes taught him how to splash and now there is no going back. We got tons of smiles and lots of giggles out of him while he was in the pool. It was actually raining most of the time they were in the water. I didn't get in, but instead sat under the big umbrella and took lots of pictures and video.

He's feeling pretty cute in his swim trunks (and of course he is very cute).

This is one of my favorite pictures so far of Levi and his Daddy.

This is my favorite picture of Levi and Mommy.

Levi's wrinkly hands from staying in the water so long.

For dinner we went to Guilly's which is in the Glorietta Mall and has seating outside. It is right beside our hotel so it was nice to sit outside and watch the hotel traffic and night-life going on. We also loved the upbeat music they played through dinner. The food was pretty good, or at least good enough that we might go back and eat there again the night before we leave. We liked the convenience of it being so close to our hotel and the atmosphere.

Levi entertained himself while waiting for his food by watching the cars go by. In this picture you can see our hotel in the background and our room is one of those in the picture. I also strategically got the girl in the green shirt in the picture as she reminded us of my brother's girlfriend, Carrie (only an Asian version). :)

Waving!

Ready for bed!

Hugs and Kisses! He looks thrilled doesn't he? :)

Yesterday, we tried to bump everything up an hour from his normal schedule. We napped an hour later, we ate and hour later, and went to bed an hour later. All of this was in hopes that he would sleep until at least 6:00 this morning. It is a quarter til 6, so I think our plan worked.

Two more days in the Philippines! Hopefully, we will be able to post more pictures again tonight if the internet speed will cooperate.

~ Gottcha Day! ~

2009-08-11T04:25:00.000-07:00

Finally, he is in our arms!! It has been a long day...full of joy and full of emotions. Heart of Mary Villa had a very special visit prepared for us. While it was a short visit, it will be very memorable for years to come. Very emotional. They prepared a life book for Levi which has pictures and notes throughout each month of his stay at Mary Villa. Included were several pictures of his birth mother, pictures of his special caregivers, and playmates. They also included the nursery schedule with the routine that Levi has followed his entire life. Levi's birth mother also left us a letter and a letter to Levi for when he is older and the time is right. We also received a complete updated medical report to pass along to our physician. Before leaving they had a little prayer ritual ceremony praying for blessings during our journey with Levi.

Levi is wonderful! The caregivers had so many great things to say about him. They would laugh as they told us about his eating habits...anything and everything. Whatever we want to sit in front of him, he will eat. They have tried to reduce his bottle feeding to one at night since he has mainly been on solids since he was 6 months old, but they said he gets upset when he sees younger kids with their afternoon bottle so they usually give him one to. He also runs to the door as soon as it is feeding time so that he can be one of the first ones to eat. When they were talking about the multi vitamin they have been giving him, they also made the comment that he probably doesn't need a multi-vitamin because they were pretty sure he was getting in all his nutrients.

On the ride to the hotel from the orphanage he never made a sound. He sat on Wes's lap for most of the trip and his arms were stretched out to his side as if he was afraid to move. His eyes were so big and he would just look out the window at all of the vehicles that would pass us by. He finally relaxed a little and fell asleep for part of the drive. Our social worker who went with us to meet Levi was surprised that he never made a sound on the way back to the hotel as last week when he went to his visa appointment he babbled the entire time. She also said that he is very mobile and wanted to be walking around.

Tonight, we have yet to hear him make a single vocal sound. He hasn't even cried. Levi has finally relaxed and has been sitting up on the bed playing with several books that I brought. He really likes the musical greeting card that I brought along. I am not sure how long that will hold up as it is starting to looking like a crinkled mess, but he is enjoying if for now. Wes finally did get a smile from him about an hour ago. We fed him fresh Mango pieces and tiny pizza pieces for dinner and he ate every bit of it. We have taken several trips up and down the hallway of our hotel room to let him walk. He likes to walk, but only if he can hold one of our hands...very cute!

That's all I have to report for now as I really just want to go snuggle with him before we lay him down for the night. Enjoy the pictures!

Pagsanjan Falls

2009-08-10T04:26:00.000-07:00

Today we went on another Grayline tour to the Pagsanjan Falls of Laguna. The drive to our destination was a 2 1/2 hour drive south of Metro Manila. The drive itself was very eye opening. Wes and I barely said a word to each other as we just looked out the window at the living standards that the people of this country endure every day. Today, we truly witnessed how the poorest of the Philippines live. Sadly, most of the homes were made of things that Wes and I throw away...holey plastic tarps, old towels as curtains, and scrap metal pieces as roofs. Several had old tires on top to keep the metal pieces down. We passed tons of road side stands selling anything from cocunuts to escargo and saw many rice fields and harvested rice drying on the side of the road. I think many of my pictures will speak for themselves.

The highlight of our day was getting to "Shoot the Rapids" on a native banca (canoe). Wes and I have taken many canoe trips back in Missouri, but this is an entirely different type of boating than we have ever experienced. Our boat was first attached to another banca that actually had a motor. They took us a little ways upstream and then we and our 2 boatmen went to work maneuvering our boat upstream through rocks and boudlers between steep gorges. They worked their booties off to get us all the way upstream to the falls. I was sweating profusely in the boat and I was just sitting there. Our boatmen said they only do one tour a week because it is so strenuous. Once we reached the falls we were able to swim around a little. Wes and I also were able to take a ride on a bamboo raft that has a rope connected from the rock shore to inside the cave under the falls. They pulled us right underneath it. Now I know why we had to wear those dorky hard hats the whole time. Once we passed underneath the 300 foot falls, we were able to swim around in the cave opening. The scenic view of smaller water falls and lush green tropical vegetation throughout the boat trip was beautiful.

Here we are with the other couple in our tour group. They were from Moscow...and quite an interesting pair.

About half way we stopped at a nursery to walk around and stretch out our legs for a few minutes.

The caretakers of the plants live inside the garden center along with all the plants.

We were served lunch as soon as we arrived. First up, clam soup. Just seeing the looks on the faces of the couple from Moscow was priceless. Wes was the only one who would try a piece. These were little river clams with the shells, and clams soaking in what looked like river water. Wes did get sand/dirt in his teeth on his first bite, so he too was done with it after that. On our actual lunch plate we did have rice and some sort of noodle and vegetable side that I thought was pretty good. Wes and I were the only ones who ate anything from our plates. The couple from Moscow wouldn't touch it.

You gotta love the orange life vests and the hard hats. :)

A water buffalo just hanging out in the river.

Another motored canoe had a line of boaters attached bringing them back from the lower end of the Falls.

The following pictures are sites that we saw along the river banks.

The way our two boatmen could balance one foot in the banca and then push off rocks to maneuver us upstream through boulder rocks was very impressive. None of the guides wore any type of shoes or gloves for their hands. I can't figure out how they didn't stub their toes numerous times.

This picture is for Jaidyn. She is always jabbering about something and has earned the name Jabber Jaws Jaidyn and for short we just call her "Triple J". We had the tour guide pull over just so we could take this picture.

For dinner tonight we were craving some Mexican food so we decided to eat at Mexicali which is not far from the Intercontinental Hotel. I would give a better description of our eating experience, but my stomach hurts just thinking about the few bites that I had from my plate. Just wanted to let all of you who may be traveling soon that this is not some place for Mexican food that we would recommend.

Tomorrow is our big day! I hope I sleep tonight. I can't believe that after all this time of waiting that we will finally get to hold our son. The feeling is indescribeable. I don't care how tired I am tomorrow night, I will be sure to post a few pictures of Levi.

~ Shopping & Night Life ~

2009-08-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

Heading out early from the hotel. We had lots on the agenda today.

This morning we took a taxi (the first time we have been in one since the ride from the airport) to Greenhills Shopping Center. This was quite the experience. I had looked Greenhills up on the internet before going so we kind of knew what to expect. It is a huge indoor flea market with tons of new inexpensive items. Purses, sunglasses, watches, pearls, toys, clothing...you name it, they had it all. We kind of enjoyed the bartering also. It was so funny, because every booth we stopped by would say, "you are first customer of the day, so we go down 50 pesos". Umm, the place was packed and I am guessing that an hour in, we were not their first customer. It was quite entertaining to barter with them as they tried to work a sale. Wes bought 2 pairs of authentic (definitely not real, but they tell you they are) Oakley sunglasses. The girls tried like crazy all morning to coax me in to buying their "authentic" Gucci, Prada, or Coach purses. I resisted the temptation. Besides if I bought one, everyone would easily know it was a knock-off because I don't really shop above Target. :) We did get a few gifts for the girls. Hello Kitty is big here in the Philippines, so we got them each a hello kitty purse and a little hand held asian fan to go inside. They had tons of crocs and I really wanted a pair of the flip-flop style crocs, but apparently Asian women don't have feet bigger than a size 8/9. I needed a size 10 and they didn't sell any 10's in women's. But, they tried like crazy to sell me a men's flip-flop. Ugh!

We ate lunch at California Pizza in San Juan just across from Greenhills. That would be the 2nd meal in a row that we have eaten there. I wouldn't be surprised if we eat there again before we leave.

We had heard that the sunset of Manila Bay was beautiful and a sight to see, so tonight we decided to live it up and enjoy some night life in the Philippines. Wes has been in bed asleep at 7:30 the past two nights, so this was a big night for us. Ha! Manila Bay, aka Baywalk is located just off of Macapagal Avenue behind the Mall of Asia. Before sunset we took time walking the boardwalk, strolling through a small portion of the Mall of Asia, and looking in on a Catholic Mass service that was about to begin. We ate at Pier One Bar & Grill. Actually, Wes ate and I watched as I just couldn't bring myself to order anything from the menu. Unfortuneately, it was very cloudy this evening and we couldn't even see the sun set. We loved the baywalk and even though it was somewhat crowded, it was still a relaxing, enjoyable family atmosphere, so maybe we will come back later in the week with Levi. They had a live band at one of the restaurants so we sat around for an hour or so enjoying the music. It was quite entertaining as everytime they didn't sing a song in English, one of the male singers would do actions on stage so that the foreigners (us and a few others) could follow along. You can probably imagine some of his actions when they were singing love songs. Quite funny!

Mall of Asia

I missed getting the name of this church. The church was very large and the pews were packed for the 5:30 pm mass on Sunday evening. There was standing room only at the back and you can see in the picture the amount of people standing outside.

Yes, they have Hooter's in the Philippines too! I am not sure why Wes was so adiment about getting his picture outside the restaurant. Must be a guy thing!

Pictures from the BayWalk.

I know I have been warned not to eat anything from the outside vendors, but I could't resist. Hot, buttered corn on the cob on a stick. Besides, it was my dinner.

Okay, so this part of the post is especially for my sister, Jill. She and I are both extremely picky when it comes to food, so I just wanted to share some of the appetizers on the menu of the restaurant that Wes ate at tonight.

Crispy Kangkong - deep fried swamp cabbage
Mangga't Bagoong - green mango w/ fermented shrimp paste
Balut Ala Pobre - unhatched baby duckling in garlic ~ a Filipino delicacy
Tokwa't Baboy - fried beanweed w/ sliced pork ears
Crispy Tenga - crispy pork ears
Chicharon Bulaklak - deep fried pork intestines
Dinakdakan - grilled pork belly w/ liver in vinegar & spices
Kalderetang Kambiry - spicy goat meat stew

Wes had Laman Dagat Sa Bilao which consisted of a processed, grilled seafood variety...squid, salmon, mussels, and shrimp.

So I have several taxi related comments:

- Not a single taxi that we have ridden in since the airport shuttle taxi has seat belts in the back seat. It is frightening to not be strapped in. These taxi drivers are crazy. You should see the bumpers of most of these vehicles. Most of our cab drivers that we have had have seat belts, but don't wear them. However, on one ride today about 1/2 way through the drive the driver puts his seat belt on as he is swirving through traffic. OMG! How is that supposed to make us feel as we don't have a choice?

- Almost all of them have, "How's my driving?" with a phone # printed on the back of each car. Seriously??? Wes and I just crack up everytime we think about it.

- I believe that anyone who can drive here in Manila can be successful driving anywhere in the world. I would never want to get behind the wheel here.

- I am extremely nervous about traveling with Levi in these circumstances. I would feel so much better about him being in a car seat, especially with the way the drivers drive. There is just not a lot of caution involved.

- Oh, and for those of you who will be traveling to the Philippines, we have found the taxi fare rates to be very reasonable. All of our drives have been 25 minutes or less and I don't think that any of the fares have been over 200 pesos and even with a flag down rate or small tip, they are very inexpensive way to get from one place to another.

For tomorrow, we have booked another Grayline tour and will be visiting the majestic Pagsanjan Falls. We will be riding on a native banca (canoe) to the falls. I think we even get to go in a cave and take a swim if we want. We are excited to be doing something a little more on the adventurous side.

Only 1 more day until we go get Levi!! We are so ready!

Day 2 Notes

2009-08-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Just had a few more things that I wanted to note from yesterday.

In Response to Emilee's comment on our blog:
Yes, it has been a nice experience to be here during this time with like you said, so much history in the making. We noticed on our drive yesterday that there were several little memorial type areas set up and signs hanging on posts honoring and expressing gratitude towards the late President Cory. The news channels have had lots of little media reports and newspapers have had front page write ups. About 4:30 am this morning (wide awake again) I watched a President Cory special on TV. It was an interview with her daughter about her last days. The newspaper said that there are approximately 1000 people visiting her grave site every day to pay last respects.
There was also a big write-up in The Philippine Star about the GMA group that wined and dined in New York for $20K. In fact, our tour guide mentioned it yesterday and was pretty disgusted by her actions. The newspaper today said, "the extravagance is a manifestation of the Arroyo administration's insensitivity and hypocrasy while thousands of families suffer hunger and the nation was mourning the death of former President Corazon Aquino". The amount spent would have fed 18,000 Filipino's for one day.
Our tour guide from yesterday also didn't have much nice to say about former President Moraco and his wife. He said that his wife is still living and is very "generous" with the Filipino's money, but doesn't share it with people in her own country. He said that she bought George Hamilton (US) a house in Beverly Hills. On our tour he also showed us the bank that would have absolutely nothing if she took her money out. He said that if I have never seen a bullet proof dress to check out her attire. Apparently she is really despised by most in the Philippines.
While most of it is so sad, I really enjoyed learning the political side of the Philippines.

Oh and I wanted to share 2 little tidbits that I picked up from our guide yesterday.

- He said that Filipino's smile often because when they are starving and hungry they believe that air enters through their mouth and helps fill their bellies.

- Filipino's have lots of children and devot their lives to them because it is the children that take care of them when they are old. There are not a lot of senior citizen type facilities in the Philippines.

~ Manila Old & New ~

2009-08-08T04:26:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to wish my parent's a Happy Wedding Anniversary. Sorry I missed it earlier this week. Hope you had a great time celebrating it with Jaidyn and Addy! Did you get to have a nice dinner out at McDonald's. :)

Last night was a night of restlessness. My body still hadn't adjusted to the time change and I was up from 2:30-4:30 am. I watched a little bit of the Asian Living channel for about an hour (interesting stuff) and then played around on the internet for awhile. Wes didn't seem to have any problems sleeping, probably because he is used to time change schedules since he goes from nights to days every two weeks with his job. Hopefully, tonight goes much better. I didn't take a 4 hour nap today, so hopefully I will sleep much more.

Change of plans! We got with the travel agent located in the hotel this morning and booked a "Manila Old & New" tour. For any of those who will be traveling soon, I highly recommend taking this tour. It lasted about 3 1/2 hours driving Makati and Manila. It cost us about $50 each, but was definitely worth it. Our tour guide, Rick was fantastic. He was a retired (or as he would say "a tired")university history teacher, so he was very knowledable about the area.

We were drove through Forbes Park, which was a ritzy residential area dubbed as Millionaire's Row. Rick told us that in the Philippines, 70% of the population is very poor, 20% make an average income, and 10% are very, very rich. He said that the very rich only continue to become richer and the poor, poorer. Sad statistics. He too, also said that Levi is a very lucky baby to be coming to the US. He said that here he wouldn't have any opportunity and would be part of the 70% statistic. I have to admit that this tour was very eye opening. Yes, I have read plenty about the Philippines, but until I actually saw it first hand, it just wasn't a reality. I have many very vivid images in my head right now...mainly consisting of the small street children.
These pictures are from a distance, but you can see some of the poverty living circumstances.

Our first stop was the American Cemetery and Memorial which is reputed to be the largest and most beautiful of American memorials outside of the Continental US. I wish I would have brought a notebook with me on the tour so I could have jotted down some of the statistics throughout the trip, but I am very sure that I remember Rick saying that the white crosses represent 10,000 missing in action American Soliders and 60,000 Filipino soldiers from the Baton death march.

48 states were represented with their state seal in the memorial.

Flags were only half massed today in honor of the former President Corazon who died on August 5th. The tall blue buildings in the background are condo's that can be purchased for $30 million each if anyone is interested. You even have your own helicopter landing pad on top so that you can avoid Manila traffic. Hmmm!

We then proceeded on to Rizal Park which is in memory of the country's national hero. A beautiful park, lot's of history.

We also passed the "Walled City" of intramuros. Here we saw ancient walls (which had bullet holes in them), church ruins, and other relics of the Spanish Conquistadores. We also stopped at the San Augstin Church which was historically beautiful, but we were only able see in from the entrance as there was a wedding in progress. I kind of felt sorry for the wedding party as there were many tourists such as ourselves snapping pictures from the entrance. It just didn't seem to be a very private ceremony. Rick told us that weddings are big ordeal here because in the Philippines it is until death do them apart. They don't do divorces so they have to be sure from the beginning. At another old church (the one that they held President Cory's wake at last Wednesday for 2 days), we witnessed the bride getting out of the vehicle in front of us. She had approximately 10 bridesmaid in her wedding party. Rick shocked us when he said, "Ugh, she's ugly, but you can tell by her dress and the size of her wedding party that she is very rich." Yep, he was one of those truly honest type of guys and says things as he's sees it.

Look closely and you can see the bride and groom kneeling at the alter.

I think it was an Italian architect who crafted the ceilings for the church.

Heavy wooden doors to the church.

This is the church where President Cory's wake was held. It went on for 2 days and Rick said that the lines to witness this event were very long and people walked a long ways to be a part of the ceremony. We wouldn't have been able to get remotely close to the church a few days ago.

Here is the "ugly but rich" bride entering the church.

Our last stop was Fort Santiago, a spanish fortress that watched over the entrance to the Pasig's River. This is also where the country's national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, spent his last days before being led to which is now known as Rizal park for his execution.

Dungeons where prisoners were kept.

The Philippines posesses so much history and I really feel that by taking this tour it helped us to more truly appreciate Levi's birth country.

A row of Jeepney's parked at the Mall of Asia. This mall is bigger than the Mall of America. We didn't go inside, but the drive around it was a long one. They have little cars inside for senior citizens to use so they don't have to walk.

This is a picture of the open seafood market at Manila Bay.

Thank you to all of you posting on our blog. We really appreciate all of the comments and well wishes. Wes and I have never eaten at a California Pizza before and after several of you raved about it through the comments we decided to try it out for dinner. We will definitely be eating there again before we leave. I had pepperoni pizza (I never try anything new) and Wes had the Chicken Adobo Pizza which is only made in the Philippines. They were both fantastic! I left about a 4th of a piece of pepperoni (which Wes ate) on the tray just so I could say that I didn't eat the whole pizza! ha!

Earlier today, Wes and I had some time to enjoy the pool.

I just love all of the little ball shaped lanterns that look to be floating in the trees. They close down the pool area at 8:00 about an hour after it gets dark, so I hope we get to see them all lit up sometime before we leave.

We think we are going to visit Manila Bay tomorrow. The typhoon that came through earlier in the week left the area trashed, but we did drive by some of it today on the tour and we still think that we would like to walk the boardwalk area. Wes may even try out some of the fresh seafood available.

We're here!

2009-08-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Philippines! We're here! It feels so good to be on ground again. Flying to Manila is one looonnnnggg day. Over the next week, I hope to post almost everyday about our trip. We won't get to meet Levi until Tuesday so until then we plan to keep pretty busy getting out and about. Sorry if the posts are long, but I want to be able to document as much of our trip for Levi in the future.

August 5th/6th
Our drive to the STL airport on Wednesday morning didn't start off very well. Shortly before we left the house, I took my Malaria pill since we are supposed to start taking them 2 days before we arrive. Because I can't swallow pills, I have to break the capsules open and dissolve them in liquid. As soon as we started driving I got extremely sick to my stomach almost immediately. Wes was able to pull over on the side of the road so that I could take care of business. Luckily, it was extremely foggy so hopefully all the cars passing us didn't recognize me or know what I was doing. I have decided that I don't think I will do the Malaria pills, but instead cover myself in bug spray everytime we leave the hotel. It sure beats throwing up.
When we arrived at the airport, Wes had to walk through security 4-5x as he kept setting off the beeper everytime. Flustered he left his wallet, watch and sunglasses in one of the security bowls. Not sure how we both managed to not pick these items up. Luckily at the same time he realized that he was missing these, the airport intercome announced, "James Collins, we have some things at the security gate that we think you may really need." Knowing they had his wallet, they were asking him for his picture identification...glad they could joke about it.
My ticket at the boarding counter beeped when scanned and at first my heart sunk when they first told me that they had given up our tickets to someone else...but had
bumped us up to Business Class! I think the others in business class seats must have known this was our first time to sit in these seats as we were the only ones to order a Bloody Mary before 10:00 am. Hey, they were free and we were on the start of our "vacation". Jared, you would be so proud of Wes. He ordered a Budweiser product, but they only had Miller products, so he got a Sprite instead. No Budweiser products on our flights, just thought you would want to know. (My brother is a sales promoter with Budweiser so our family tries to be faithful.)
On our first layover, we called the girls and found that Papa had removed the training wheels from Jaidyn's bike and she was riding without them. Grandparent's work magic! We can't wait to watch her ride when we get back.
To those who will be traveling to the Philippines in the future, I am not going to lie...The Minneapolis to Tokyo flight was completely exhausting. We flew economy and it was miserable. Tight, cramped seating with only about 2 inches of recligning. Wes and I tried wine with dinner hoping it would put us to sleep, but no such luck. We didn't sleep at all during the flight and at that point we had been awake for an entire 24 hours. Here is a little exert from my journal, "Wes and I just looked at our watch as we are timing our 12 hour flight to Tokyo and realized that we are not even half way there. Only 2 1/2 hours in. I am trying so desperately to fall asleep as my eyes are watering because I am so tired, but just can't get comfortable. I can see the business class seating just up ahead-what was I thinking booking economy seating? Fluffy, reclining big chairs, yummy dinners of fruit kabobs and icecream, and each individual has their own personal tv. We are stuck watching an old rerun of Frazier." A crossword puzzle and 2 suduko puzzles entertained me to the 1/2 way point. Mom, you would be proud of my puzzle skills although I could have used your help on the crossword puzzle.
I did manage to finally fall asleep on a bench once we arrived at the Tokyo airport for about 25 minutes. I also slept through the take-off on the flight to Manila. Wes and I took turns sitting by the window on the Manila flight so that we would have a place to lean our heads.
The flights did feed us very well. Rice and chicken was one of our choices for every meal. I even had Chicken and rice for breakfast, which was a first. So much food was served during our flights that we didn't even need the snacks packed in our carry-on. Bread, salad, fruit, desert was served with the main entree every meal. Good thing I had a human garbage disposal next to me so I didn't feel like I was wasting so much food.
A typhoon was somewhere during our flight to Manila so we experienced some pretty good air turbulance, which didn't set well with my stomach. Wes turned all of the air jets on me and luckily I was able to get through it. I know, what you all are thinking...I am a wimp!
We took the hotel shuttle to our hotel and finally arrived around 12:30 am. We were going to take an airport taxi to the hotel, but when we asked we were shuffled towards the airport shuttle area, which was actually a taxi car anyways. The ride was CRAZY to say the least. They have lanes, but don't use them. Our driver rarely used his blinker, but instead would just honk his horn and then fly around another driver. We almost side swiped a huge bus, but somehow our driver managed to manuever us through the cement wall and the bus. Wes and I had our seatbelts on tight in the backseat and I am shocked that the driver wasn't even wearing his. I had been warned about Manila driving, but until we experienced it we really didn't get it. The hotel shuttle rates were 975 pesos which I think was a lot more than a taxi would have charged, but at that point in the trip, we just wanted to crawl in to a bed. We opened our room door and instead of the king bed with a crib that we had requested we had two twin/full size beds. It was fine for the night since Wes and I were glad to be sleeping in seperate beds as we had plenty of snuggly time sitting so close together on the 20+ hour flights. They are supposed to move us later this afternoon to another room.

August 7th
Not sure why, but we woke up around 6:00 am. Excited to start the day, I guess. We ate breakfast in The Jeepney hotel restaurant (part of the package stay). It was deicious and buffet style. My favorite thing was the fresh juices. I think they must have been made from a juicer. They were so much better than the overprocessed, sugary juice drinks that I am used to. Wes loved the salmon and fried rice the best. I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow and definitely won't be starving while we are here. Ha!
We walked the streets just outside of the hotel this morning just to observe the morning traffic. Everyone was very friendly considering the city atmosphere and the fact that they were all more than likely going to work. It was not at all like St. Louis and the "not-so-friendly" attitude that people in the city seem to give. We passed lots of people and I didn't see another blond and trust me, I was looking for one. I am sure we stuck out like a sore thumb. I have also noticed that all of the women were wearing panty hose with their skirts. In my opinion, it is way too hot and humid here for pantyhose. In fact, I don't even own a pair. The shopping experience is also quite interesting. In every area of the ShoeMart shopping center, the staff were all dressed exactly alike. There are tons of staff members. and every time we turn a corner, we would hear "Good morning Mam, Good morning Sir". It is almost like having a personal shopper right at your side. It seems that they don't want you to take anything off of the shelves. They are right there to grab it for you. We were also looking for some outfits for Levi today and everytime I turned a corner, I got asked, "What size?" You can imagine the looks that I got when I said "I really don't know what size he is". In the toy store, we were followed almost as if they thought we were thieves. They followed us down every isle. We didn't hang out in the toy store very long. Weird???
Later this afternoon Wes went and worked out in the hotel gym and I took a nap, a long 4 hour nap. I was so tired that I skipped lunch and anyone who knows me well, knows I rarely give up an opportunity to eat. :)
For dinner tonight we went to the Makati Hard Rock Cafe. Our waiter was very friendly and gave us lots of suggestions for our stay while we are here. Wes and I both bought a souvenier shirt, but I am thinking that we will try not to wear them on the same day so we don't look like a dorky tourist. We then cruised around the Glorietta Mall. It was so busy!

Our first day thoughts of the Philippines:
-All of the staff in the hotel, shopping centers, and restaurants are extremely friendly.
- The few people that we have told that we are here to bring home our son have told us that he is one lucky little boy. We however, feel that we are the lucky ones.
- Everyone is so tiny. I am as tall as most of the men. Wes is a good head taller than the general Filipino public. I also noticed that there are very few people who would be considered overweight.
- The Nalagan's warned of us the heavy pollution. I have to agree as there is a consistent smoggy feeling about the air and a distinct smell.
- Too much traffic, lot's of people, just a very busy place. It makes me appreciate the small one little stop light town that we live in. :)

I think tomorrow we are going to take a taxi to Manila Bay and Rizel Park. Hope the rains don't spoil our fun. That reminds me, we still need to purchase an umbrella.

Bags are packed and we are leaving for our drive to the airport.

The Intercontinental Hotel that we are staying at for the week.

A walk around the block from our hotel.

Busy morning traffic.

Hotel security officers hang out on several street corners. Wes was quite impressed with the guns they had strapped on them.

View from our 1st hotel room window.

View from our current hotel room window.

Makati Hark Rock Cafe

A Gold's Gym in the Glorietta Mall. Wes just couldn't help himself and had to pose beside Arnold Swarteneger.

Filipino's love Micheal Jackson too. Many people were gathered around the 2 large TV screes watching MJ videos and there was also a big memorial sign next to the TV's in which people could sign.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-07-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

I love our Agency! They are soooo great! I received an email this morning. Levi's visa appointment went great and his visa issuance was approved. He just had his appointment today (actually yesterday in the Philippines). Our agency gave us the okay to book our tickets. We are scheduled to be in the Philippines the 9th-15th. We were hoping that this coming travel week would work out because there is a Global Adoption Conference in the Philippines the third week of August and if we didn't get to be there the 2nd week, we would have had to wait until the last week of August. Miraculously, they were able to make it happen. Wes and I want to go a couple of days early so that we would be able to recover from jet lag and be able to do a little sight seeing and shopping before meeting Levi. I booked our tickets with a travel agent while the girls were getting haircuts. Imagine me trying to tell the girls how cute their hair looked by not talking outloud, writing a check, and still trying to hold a conversation with the travel agent. Phew! I was completely multi-tasking all day long. We are leaving on Wednesday the 5th out of St. Louis. Yes, that is in 5 days. OMG...I have so much to do. I have my lists made and have already made 2 trips to Wal-mart trying to get things that we need to stuff in our suitcases. Not only do I have to pack for Wes (he will pack his basics) and I, but I also have to pack for the girls week and a half stay with grandparents. And it is really hard to pack for someone that you have never met. I have been going through Jaidyn and Addy's scrapbooks and trying to figure out what sizes they wore at that age, what toys the played with and what they liked to eat. We are planning on buying most of Levi's items once we arrive in the Philippines.

Jaidyn helped me get Levi's bed ready this morning. We are going to try out the toddler bed. Both Jaidyn and Addy moved from the crib to a bed when they were 15 months, so we will try it out with Levi too. We might have to make a switch, but hopefully, it will work out. Hope he likes blue, brown and puppy dogs!

~ Medicals Passed ~

2009-07-28T12:46:00.001-07:00

We received an email this morning! Levi's medical exam went very well! Hopefully, all will continue to go smoothly. His visa appointment is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

10:00 AM Philippines Time

2009-07-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

It is 9:00 pm on Sunday evening here in Missouri and it looks to be about 10:00 am Philippines time and I can't help but wonder if Levi is at is Medical appointment right now. I hope that everything was processed and Levi was able to proceed with his appoinment as scheduled. I pray that he is healthy and well. Hopefully we will hear something from our agency tomorrow. This waiting game is sooooo hard.

The girls and I attended the summer reading program party on Saturday and to my surprise the girls tied for reading the most books in their age group, so they both received a Wal-mart gift card. Actually, I read all the books and they sat through them all. We did read quite a few books in the past two months, but it never crossed my mind that we would have the most as we have been so busy with summer activities in general. Great surprise!

Here are the girls showing off their prizes. They each got their name drawn and Jaidyn picked the little stuffed puppy in a carry case and Addy picked out the High School Musical Sharpay Barbie. Today, I let them use their gift cards and Jaidyn bought a Thumbelina doll which she has been wanting for months and Addy picked out Barbie and The Diamond Castle DVD. Strolling the toy isle was a nice treat for them as we completely avoid that isle unless we are shopping for a birthday present for one of their little friends.

~ ICAB Monies ~

2009-07-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

We are still waiting to receive confirmation on the status of our ICAB funds. If for some reason the money did not get processed and reach ICAB then Levi's medical won't be done on Monday. This would not be good as who knows how long it would be before they reschedule it. We were supposed to get confirmation of the funds reaching ICAB yesterday, but have yet to hear anything. At this point, I am very nervous.

Earlier in the week, I had ordered Levi's toddler bedding and it was delivered yesterday and is now going right back where it came from. I picked it because it was brown and blue (or so I thought) and wasn't themey. I cringed pulling it out of the box as it had pink circles and square designs mixed in with the blue and brown. Wes even liked this bedding in the picture and it had a boy looking room design set up. I am not sure how both of us missed the pink. Definitely not going to work. My mom and I also shopped for Levi's car seat yesterday as they are going to buy that for us as a gift. I found one I liked at Target, but they were out of stock. I had hoped to cross off bedding and carseat from my "Levi list", but I guess that will be another day.

On another note...
yesterday we visited Ozark Caverns which is only about 25 minutes from our home. It was a perfect way to get out of the humid summer heat. The cave is a constant 56 degrees all year long. My mom had been on several visits to the cave in the past with summer school kindergarten classes, so she knew that the girls would enjoy the tour. It is a natural cave and we weren't able to touch anything on our guided tour through it. We also weren't to take any pictures of the bats since they are supposedly on the same frequency as cameras and it could disturb them. We didn't see any in the cave anyways.

Everyone carried little lanterns through the cave. Jaidyn and Addy were giving forced grins as the group was moving on while I was trying to take this picture and they were afraid we were going to get left.

Almost never fails, Papa has his eyes shut in the picture.

"Angel Showers" ~ They aren't really sure where the shower of water comes from that falls from these Stalactites.

Exploring

My dad's shirt didn't have this when he went in to the cave, so he can't blame what he had for lunch. Bat Guam, maybe???

Jaidyn Poppins

2009-07-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

The rain put our plans of going to the library this morning on hold and the girls decided that they wanted to stomp around in the puddles outside instead.

I was so excited to have "Jaidyn Poppins" ring my doorbell this morning.

She was too funny as she quoted lines from the movie Mary Poppins and gave her best attempt to sail across the yard with her umbrella.

Here are some pictures from our lake weekend with my Dad's side of the family. It is such a wonderful time when we are all able to get together.

Addy sitting on her Great Grandpa Plassmeyer's lap.

The guys and Jaidyn out on a morning fishing trip. I am not sure how much fishing they get done with her around.

Hanging out at Bulldog's Beach House. The evening hours were very chilly and we didn't really come prepared for the evening temperatures.

I am so glad that Wes was able to join us for a good portion of the weekend. He worked most of the weekend, but sacrificed his sleep to be able to hang out with us.

Fun times!

Visa Appointments Set!!!

2009-07-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yea! We heard news this morning that Levi's visa medical has been set for July 27th and his visa exit interview for July 30th. I was hoping for the dates to be scheduled a little sooner as we had hoped to travel the first week of August. At least they are scheduled. It looks that we will travel now travel around the 3rd week of August if everything continues to move along smoothly. Please pray that his medical review goes well and that he passes with flying colors so that there won't be any hold-ups.

~ Hot Springs, AR ~

2009-07-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic 3-4 days of relaxation on our Hot Springs, AR trip. In fact, I kept reminding myself which day of the week it actually was as each day felt like a Saturday. Papa J.R. & Mama LaLa treated us to a great time away.

Here are just a few of the pictures from our trip. Most have been placed in the slide show.

The Gang

As Mama Lala would say, "our little piece of heaven". This vacation home was gorgeous and completely furnished. There was even a toy box for the kids and sippy cups in the cabinet.

The Arkansas heat was sticky HOT! Even at 10:00 at night it would still be in the upper 80's. We spent each morning and late afternoons in the water.

Swim bugs! They barely wore anything but their swimsuits all weekend.

I am so proud of our little Addy. She swam all by herself all weekend. Usually she clings to Wes and I the entire time in the water, but this weekend she finally realized that with a lifejacket she will stay above the water while swimming. Her confidence is growing stronger each and every day.

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Haley and her great friend Ashley, who just happens to be Sara Evan's sister and also sings back-up, we got to attend Sara Evan's concert on Saturday night. We sat about 6 rows back from the center of the stage, had "Meet & Greet Sara" passes, and hung out with Ashley until her tour bus pulled out of the parking lot. I have to admit it was interesting to see first hand how the "stars" live on the road. I was very impressed with Ashley. She is sooo normal and you could tell that she truly valued Haley's friendship.

Seriously, wouldn't you love to have her legs?

Sara singing with both of her younger sisters.

Thanks Haley & Ashley for the wonderful evening!

After eating at the Pancake Shop, the kids gave out several more hugs and kisses before we loaded up for our 6 hour drive back home in Missouri.

Our minivan worked out great for the trip and I think it will work out nicely for our family once we have little Levi around.

Hot Springs, AR Vacation Slide Show

Shots ~ Pesos ~ Lake Weekend Pics

2009-07-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

Following the advice given to us by the Nalagan family, I received 4 immunizations from the doctor's office today. I received the Hep A, Hep B, and Tetnus shot in one shoulder and the Polio booster in the other. Ouch! I wish they could have combined them all, but no such luck...all individual. My left shoulder is a little sore tonight and has a little tingling sensation. Wes is scheduled to receive his on Monday. I am curious to see how macho he will be having to receive all of them. We also got a prescription for some Malaria pills and something for upset stomach (or what comes along with an upset stomach).

I also ordered Filipino Pesos from our bank today. I think both the Nalagan's and the Ribar's suggested doing this since we will more than likely arrive very late in the Philippines from our flight and it will be one less thing to have to worry about once we get there.

The weather cooperated for a portion of the 4th of July weekend and luckily we were able to get out on the water and enjoy some lake time with family and friends. Wes made it down for several hours on Saturday, but his work schedule kept him at home for most of the weekend.

On Thursday, we leave for a weekend get-a-way with Wes's side of the family. He has 5 days off from work and I am glad that he finally gets a long break away from work. Hot Springs, AR, here we come!

Tomorrow night, I officially become a mini van mom. Oh my gosh, did I really admit that??? We are picking up our van tomorrow after Wes gets off from work. With 3 kids still in car seats, a mini van seemed like our best option. We will definitely get a feel for how well it rides as we are taking it on our trip.

~ 4th of July Weekend ~

2009-07-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Wow! June flew by so fast and summer is already 1/3 of the way over. We are going to the lake tomorrow and spending the weekend at the lake with family. Happy 4th of July to all of our friends and family! Be sure to show off some American Pride!

I just wanted to share this email that I received with a true story reminding us all how thankful we are for our freedom as it didn't come without a cost. (Luke Air Force Base)

I also had some funny pictures that my mom had taken of the girls at her house. They just can't get enough of the dress-up clothes drawers.

Earlier, I took the girls to a magic show at the library. Jaidyn has created her magician outfit and has crafted a magic wand.

Is anyone else this flexible??? I am guessing only those with tiny little booties can sit like this.

To The U.S. Embassy in Manilla & Beyond

2009-07-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

More good news! We found out today, that the National Visa Center (NVC) electronically processed our visa file and it has been forwarded on to the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines. So now we just sit back and patiently wait (we are starting to become good at this), and hopefully, we will hear soon that Levi's medical and visa interviews have been scheduled.

Thank you to all who commented on our blog. We appreciate all the best wishes and to those of you who shared your timelines. This is such an exciting time for us!

Another Step Closer...

2009-06-29T10:00:00.001-07:00

This morning, we received our approval of the I-171 Visa Petition form. Yea! Our agency said that this would take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. The shortest amount of time they have ever had anyone receive this notice was in 12 days. We received ours in 10 days. Thank you to the USCIS offic in Kansas City for processing our visa application form so quickly. We will now follow up with NVC which is the office that receives our file from the USCIS field office. They will be forwarding our information to the appropriate embassies.

To anyone, who has been to this stage before...how long was your wait from this point until you were given permission to travel?

If only they knew how exciting is was to be holding this piece of paper. They are really having a hard time understanding why every time we hop in to the car to go get groceries, etc. that we just can't pick up their brother on the way.

For part of the library summer reading program, Jaidyn had to draw a picture of our family.

I just have to share pictures of our Day Lilies. Last summer, I bought several starts to Day Lilies from a garage sale. This lady had a photo album with all the different varieties she had. She was insanely organized with her Day Lilies. We are completely enjoying all of them this summer. Here is a view of the flowers from our deck. Too bad they only last for a day and I can't really bring them inside to put in a vase.

Back from STL

2009-06-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

The girls and I are back from our 2 1/2 day mini vacation to St. Louis. Yesterday afternoon, I was exhausted and took a 2 1/2 hour nap trying to recover from our activity filled trip. Addy had been given money for her birthday to use towards "doing" things this summer as a family. We went to Big Surf last weekend and used the remainder of her activity b-day money to visit the STL Science Center and The Magic House (Children's Museum).

Thank you Jill for letting us stay at your home. Thank you to everyone who spent time with us over the weekend...Papa, Nana, Jill, Jessica, Aunt Charlene, Aunt Cheryl and Uncle John.

Thursday:
Spent afternoon at St. Louis Science Center & watched Jill play a sand volleyball game that night. Addy and Jaidyn spent the entire time in the sand box. Good thing we rode in Papa and Nana's car. :)
Friday:
Jill and I took Jaidyn and Addy during the morning hours to the Waplehorse Aquatic Center. I can't think of a better place to be on a 95 degree day. I think Addy must have slid down the slide at least 25 times. She would slide down and then run back up the stairs as fast as she could to go again. That afternoon we watched the movie, "He's Really Not Into You" and made the girls lie down for some rest time. The evening was spent with relatives eating and drinking refreshing drinks.
Saturday:
We spent all morning at the Magic House (3 hours was plenty of time although we only probably made it through 1/4 of building). It is such a neat place and I think it might be someplace that we try to visit every year. So many things to creatively explore.

Pictures from The Magic House, Children's Museum

Addy sliding down Jack's beanstalk.

Dressed as Cinderella's and taking a ride in the carriage hoping to meet their handsome prince.

Climbing up vine leaves to the next floor. For some reason Jaidyn freaked out almost to the top and had to make her way back down. Addy climbed up all the way. This was surprising to us as usually it is the other way around.

Jessica and Addy trying to make a bubble around their bodies.

" A little big of MAGIC"

No, this isn't Addy and Levi, but hopefully soon we will have some pictures similair to this. I saw this little boy beside Addy and I couldn't help but think that soon all of my pictures will be including another little one.

Addy at the water table.

Jaidyn using the dryer to dry out her shoes. The floor was one big puddle and she wisened up a little when she stuck her foot up on the wall to keep dry while she dried out her shoe.

These are all pictures from the pre-tend play store. There was an entire section of a building set up like a mini-town.

Trying to catch a magnetic fish in the stream.

You can tell Papa is having a blast and wouldn't rather be anywhere else. At least he found a chair and is in the air conditioning...could be worse.

Addy serving it up in the Pizza Cafe. We were really hungry at this point and this pretend pizza didn't help our cravings.

Hmmmm, I am thinking that our family contributes to this statistic several times weekly.

According to Jaidyn for Kids TV News, the upcoming weather forecast is "wet and stormy, so you will need an umbrella".

Addy didn't like the feeling of her hair standing straight up because of the electrostatic ball and was trying to hold it all down. She has thin straight hair, so her hair was perfect for this.

These are some pictures from the STL Science Center. The Discovery Room was our favorite. It was geared towards Jaidyn and Addy's age as much of the Science Center is geared toward older children and adults.

~ Hot~

2009-06-25T04:12:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days, it has been sticky hot. We have been spending most of our time inside until the evening hours so the girls can ride their bikes, play with the dogs and catch lightening bugs before going to bed.

Lots of art projects and books have been read this week.

We are headed to St. Louis this morning to visit my sister for a few days. We have a busy weekend ahead...STL Science Center, The Magic House, and probably a day at the pool. We had originally planned to go to Grant's Farm, but traded that idea with another activity indoors.

Yesterday, I received a receipt from the USCIS office showing that they had received our I-600 application documents on the 19th. Hopefully, they will continue to process the documents and not place them at the bottom of the pile. :)

~ Open House ~

2009-06-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't our house (unfortunately). But as of last Friday we have placed a For Sale By Owner sign in our front yard.

I've been up since about 5:30 this morning and I think I about have our house "sparkling" for our open house tomorrow afternoon. Wes has the yard looking great (I stayed inside in the air conditioning) as we have had lots of rain and didn't have a chance to mow the past few days. I have been washing the baseboards, cleaning fan blades, and things like that, that I rarely ever do. I am so thankful for my mom taking the girls for the weekend. It is soooo nice to actually clean something and have it stay that way. However, the house is awfully quite today. :(

The fair has been in town this week and today is the last day of the festivities. Small town fairs are the best! It is my favorite week of the year, but we really didn't get enjoy it as much as we would have liked. The past 2 nights Jaidyn had tball games so we didn't go to any of the evening festivities. We did get to participate in the kids day at the park, watch the crowning of the fair queen, and watch Jaidyn's friend show her lamb earlier in the week. We didn't however, make it over to get a funnel cake. It is the one time of the year, that I would actually eat one of those.

Just a quick story about getting our legal documents sent off to the USCIS office:
I received the call from our Agency on Thursday afternoon about 1:30 giving us instructions on how to print our legal documents. They used to have us send the original copies to USCIS, but since some people weren't getting them returned they have started having adoptive couples send copies. The copies need to be in color. For some reason, the color ink isn't working on my home printer and in our small town their isn't a place that makes color copies. Wes had to work until 4:00 and Jaidyn had her tball game at 6:00. Determined to get the paperwork overnighted that day to the USCIS office, I got all of the documents that I could ready, packed up everything for Jaidyn's tball game so that all Wes would need to do is quickly change clothes and download the legal documents to his zip drive. By 4:15 we were out the door and had to drive to Lebanon (20 minutes away...at Wes's speed). We pulled up to the UPS store about 20 til 5:00 thinking that I could make color copies and have the document overnighted there. The manager that knows how to download from a zip drive had already gone home for the day. So we drove across the street to a Minute Man Press store and believe it or not, their color copier was down. Ugh! With about 15 til 5, we had to drive to the downtown portion to another printing shop. As we approached downtown, we realized that they were having the first night of Hilbilly Days and had the streets blocked off. We drove the long way around and I ran down the sidewalk to get in to the store to get the copies made. Luckily, they could do color copies (as we didn't have any other options) and I made it out of that store with about 5 minutes til 5. We drove to the post office with about 3 minutes until 5:00. As I was running up the steps of the post office I saw the work hours...open til 4:30. At this point, I should have known that it would be closed for the day. We headed back to the UPS store to overnight the documents and the 2nd trip went without delays. Seriously, who knew it would be such a fiasco getting a few color copies. Oh well, mission accomplished. I didn't delay the documents one more day than they needed to be and we still managed to eat dinner and get to Jaidyn's tball game on time. In fact, we were the first ones there.

Legals Received!!

2009-06-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today we received Levi's legal documents (Birth Certificate, Placement Authority, and Deed of Voluntary Commitment). These are needed to proceed with the filing of his visa. I am hoping to get these overnighted to our USCIS office today. I need to print off our attached documents in color and of course my color ink cartridge on my printer isn't working and in our small town, there isn't anyone that I know if that makes color copies. So hopefully we will have time to get color copies made and the paperwork overnighted between the time Wes gets home and Jaidyn has her tball game.

Oh, and I promised Jaidyn and Addy that they could watch their friend show her lamb at the fair today, so we are walking over to the sale barn to watch the lamb show in the 90+ degree weather.

So much to do...so little time!!!

~ Summer in Full Swing ~

2009-06-15T17:03:00.001-07:00

Last Friday evening Jaidyn had her first t-ball game. It was crazy chaos, but she had a great time. She is quite competitive and will rumble with the boys if they even think about snagging a ball that she is close to. Don't let her pink bat and purple glove fool you. At practice, they hit five balls before they run to first base, so in the game after she hit her first ball, she just stood there thinking she had 4 more hits and the coaches had to yell, "run". Once she made her way to third base, instead of running to home plate, she ran right on over to the dugout. She also knew we were taking pictures and running the video camera everytime she was up to bat, so she would take some time to pose in front of the fence before walking up to bat. She is too funny!

Wes turned the big 3-0 on Friday so we had lots to celebrate this weekend. We all spent the weekend at the Lake with my parents, Grandma Penny, Jared, and Cyndia. Jaidyn and Addy helped Grandma Penny make him a Strawberry Jello cake and my mom made him a Pineapple upside down cake. Yummy! I don't think we have eaten this much cake in several months time. Definitely a treat!

Uncle Jared is always a trooper when it comes to getting in the lake water. Jaidyn has been in the water the past 2 weekends with him. Addy joined in this weekend. I personally like the lake to feel like bath water before I spend much time in it.

The girls are in their 2nd week of swim lessons. Jaidyn told me that she got to jump off the diving board today. The swim lessons have been great and they have gained so much confidence in swimming in the lake water, especially Addy.

We are still waiting to receive Levi's legal papers so we can apply for his visa. Hopefully, we will receive them this week. I can't believe it has already been 1 month since we received our referral. Honestly, we have been so busy that this past month has flown by. If our summer life pace keeps up this way, we will be on a plane to the Philippines before we know it.

Wes and I are celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary today. Actually we celebrated it this past weekend along with our birthdays. Today has been catch-up day...laundry, catching up on online work, and tending to the garden that had lettuce that needed to be cut several days ago. Happy Anniversary Honey! :)

~ Sweet Surprise ~

2009-06-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we received a wonderful surprise. A Holt staff member recently visited the Philippines and took pictures and short digital camera videos of Levi. In the video his caretaker is calling him by Levi Jax...too cute! Receiving this was a great surprise and gift as Wes (his 30th) and I celebrate our birthdays today and tomorrow. Here are some of the pictures.

~ Long Weekend ~

2009-06-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

You should have seen me driving the signs in to the ground with a small hatchet. I am lucky I didn't hurt myself.

I am so glad it's over!!! I am sure my parents are also glad that they can reclaim their garage. My entire family worked together almost an entire week setting up for the weekend yard sale. Tons of work, but it feels great to have unloaded some of the girls outgrown clothing and toys. We had a beautiful weather weekend...perfect for a yard sale. My mom and dad donated their entire profit to our adoption fund and my sister gave us half of her yard sale money. So between them and our money earned from the sale we have a nice little amount to add to our adoption account that will go towards our travel expenses. Hopefully, our travel is sooner than later. We still haven't received Levi's legal papers, but will hopefully get them in a week or so.

~ Acceptance Packet Send Off ~

2009-05-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

It's finally finished...I just got back from sending off our Acceptance Paperwork packet back to Holt. Hopefully we won't have any revisions (fingers crossed). A special thank you goes out to Kristine at Holt for responding so quickly to all of my questions while filling out the government forms. Everything else was fairly easy to fill out, but for some reason I struggled with the I-864 forms. The woman that notorized our paperwork stayed late at work on Tuesday to accomodate Wes's work schedule. She has a daughter who is in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, so she knew how important getting these documents processed was to us.

Now we just sit back and wait for Levi's legal documents to arrive. It takes usually 3-5 weeks to receive these. Once Holt, receives them, they will be overnighted to us. When we receive them, we will add our updated homestudy and the I-600 form to the legal papers and then overnight them to USCIS so that the Levi's visa can be processed. Allegra and Judy with our state Holt branch updated our homestudy within a matter of days from us receiving our referral and we have received our notorized copies. Everyone has been so fast in helping us to complete all of our required paperwork thus far. I just keep praying that they rest of the process goes this smoothly.

I guess I better clean off the dining room table. With the acceptance packet and welcome album mailed off, I don't really have an excuse for the remaining paperwork still covering it.

~ Welcome Album for Levi ~

2009-05-27T10:40:00.001-07:00

This morning I finished up the welcome album that we are sending to Levi. I am not very creative and definitely not one of those "artsy" people, but I am hoping that a 1 year old won't notice the pictures that aren't cut exactly straight (my sister always tells me that I can't cut a straight line) and will still enjoy the pictures of his family.

We like to...eat popsicles, bake cookies, go on picnics, draw with chalk, ride the stick horse, blow bubbles, and dance.

Jaidyn drew a picture of our family of 5 so I had to include it. Too cute!

~ Last Day of Preschool ~

2009-05-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Jaidyn and Addy are officially on summer vacation! Yippee! Addy had her last day last Friday and Jaidyn's last day was yesterday. They both got to bring one of their favorite riding toys to ride around in the parking lot that was set up like a mini town.

Most of the kids in Addy's class hung around the water station. It was a nice, hot morning, so I am sure the water felt good.

Addy is so proud of her pink scooter that she received for her 3rd birthday.

Writing a letter and mailing it at the post office.

Jaidyn is giving her bike a good scrub at the car wash.

I love this picture...There was a line of 7-8 kids just waiting for this...

McDonald's! I guess all kids love McDonald's.

Snacktime! They have been taught well. Just look at them waiting patiently to tear into their bags.

Acceptance Packet & Welcome Album

2009-05-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

We received our acceptance paperwork packet on Thursday afternoon. And while I jumped right in filling parts of it out, I truly thought that I could get most of it done by Friday evening. The majority of the paperwork has to be notorized and we had planned to get this done yesterday afternoon until we realized that no one works or they take off early on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. Understandable, but it looks like we will now have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week to get it done.

I found some time yesterday afternoon to start working on the Welcome Album that we will send to Holt who will then pass it along to Levi and his caretakers. It will be a simple book that will include photos introducing Levi to his immediate family, pets, and his surroundings. Hopefully, the pictures will help start preparing Levi for the transitions that he will soon experience and will give him a preview of his new life with his forever family. Since he is only 12 months, most of the pictures are face shots and I will not include a lot of descriptive captions.

Our dining room table is a mess with scattered paperwork and the Welcome Album pages. Normally this clutter would completely annoy me, but these are "Happy" papers, so a mess it will probably stay until we are ready to send the completed papers back to Holt.

I will take pictures of Levi's welcome album and post them when I have it finished.

Happy Memorial Day weekend! To me, this weekend is the start of summer. Time to fire up the grill and spend lots of time at the lake and pool. I love summer! At the same time, I will be remembering the many lives lost by the brave women and men serving and protecting our country.

~ Introducing our Son ~

2009-05-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

Isn't he perfect?

The lower picture is a picture of his Hemangioma. A hemangioma of infancy is a benign self involuting tumour of endothelial cells (the cells that line blood vessels). In most cases it appears during the first days or weeks of life and will have resolved at the latest by age 10.

I still can't believe that he is ours. After months of reading about other referrals and seeing pictures of their child(ren)and dreaming of when our day would come I still sometimes have to remind myself that he is actually ours. We have had his file reviewed by our family doctor and have officially accepted the referral. His report has so much information about his birth mother and father and we are so fortunate to know so much of his background early on in life. Now we have to wait to receive his legal documents. This usually takes 3-5 weeks. Once we have received these, we will be able to file our I-600. In the meantime, we will fill out our acceptance paperwork packet that we should receive in a couple of days.

We are going to change his name to Levi Jax. This is something that Wes and I have debated about for quite some time, but feel completely confident in choosing this name. In his referral report he was referred to as Lee as it is his middle name. So we just expanded on his middle name a little coming up with Levi. Our family has always liked the name Jaxon as Addy would have been given that name had she been a boy. Back when we started the process just over 2 years ago, Jaidyn would tell people that she was going to have a baby brother and his name was going to be Jaxson. We have compromised with her and have shortened it to Jax for his middle name. This name will be passed along to his caregivers so that they can start calling him his chosen name. His legal name will stay the same until the adoption is finalized, but we will still be able to call him by the name we have given to him.

On our end, we will stay on top of any paperwork that needs to be completed and hopefully the other parts of the process will go smoothly and we will have Levi home with us as soon as possible. Now, the really hard wait begins.

What an Adventure!!!

2009-05-18T18:17:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know you all are cringing right about now, because this isn't a referral picture post, but I thought I would post about our adventure race that Wes and I did on Saturday this past weekend first. I promise I will post again shortly (hopefully tonight)with a picture of our darling son.

Wes and I participated in the 10th annual Ozark Greenways Adventure Race. I did the race last year, but this year Wes and another couple joined in on the craziness. The day was truly exhausting both physically and mentally. I am so glad that I only participate in these 1-2 times a year as I don't think it is something that I want to do on a regular basis. The race was very different from last year as the canoe portion was cancelled because of dangerous waters (we had lots of rain) and it focused primarily on orienteering as we had to find 9 flags hidden in the woods. Okay, maybe they weren't "hidden", but at times they sure felt like it. For approximately 4-5 hours we trampled through thorny brush filled woods and fields. You should see our legs as they are covered in scratches from about the knees down. We also did a lot of biking through muddy roads and "un-ridable" horse trails. I felt like I pushed my bike more than I rode it. We all had diarrhea bootys from the mud flying up off our back bike tire and landing on our shorts. It was quite a sight to be seen. Even though I came home and showered shortly after the race, I still have a nice case of poison ivy developing on one of my arms and my legs. Somehow Wes and my teammates seemed to have escaped this tragedy. We finished 30th out of 55 teams and although that doesn't really look like a good finish we are pretty darn proud of ourselves. We managed to pull through the challenges that 2 flat tires and a bike with no brakes presented to us. Wes is pumped and is already looking forward to another event in the fall. I honestly cannot say that I am pumped as I am still trying to recover, but do hope to do one again someday.

Team: Call 911 ~ Wes, Jenny, Crissy, & Matt
Here we are about 6:30 am before the race started. We were there shortly after 5:00 am planning our strategy. I am not sure why we needed to get there so early as our only strategy was to FINISH. The little dots in the picture is rain. We started with rain, but the day ended up being perfect weather for racing.

We finished in just under 10 hours and are excited to be greeted by Jaidyn and Addy.

So glad to be done...parts of the day did not include such big smiles.

My sister's team had a great finish for the day as they finished 9th. They are studs and we just enjoy being in their company.

It's a Boy!

2009-05-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! IT'S A BOY!!!! Wes's days of feeling like he is living in a sorority house are soon to be over. Yesterday afternoon we received a referral for a 12 month old boy from Heart of Mary Villa orphanage in Malabon City, Philippines. He turned 1 last weekend on May 9th. I do have to say that I had to giggle a little when I first saw his picture...he is a chunk! So cute and I just want to kiss his chubby little cheeks. His report went on to say that he has a healthy appetite which is good to know with our family as we all like to eat. Don't worry, I will share more details and a picture soon. :)

~ Addy's Birthday Fiesta ~

2009-05-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

Even know we had some rain and the weather turned cold, we did have a couple of rain free hours with some sun at the park to celebrate Addy's birthday with a Mexican fiesta. It was especially nice to get to spend the afternoon with our moms for Mother's day. I am so glad so many of our family and friends were able to attend.

Addy received her pink iced white cupcakes as requested. She licked the icing off of 2 cupcakes, but I don't think she ate any of the actual cupcake.

Uncle Jared and Addy blowing bubbles.

Drawing with sidewalk chalk. The older girls had a long lines that followed the walking trail.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wes and his mom, Penny.

My brother and I with our mom, Rhonda. We were sure to text this picture to my sister letting her know that her know that our mom took a picture with her 2 "Favorite" kids. Ha!

My dad and his mom, Eleanor.

The day before, Jaidyn and Addy surprised me with some pink roses (courtesy of Grandma Penny) for Mother's Day. She also gave me a pair of darling little hoop earrings which I love as my current pair has tarnished some from wearing them almost every day. I rarely ever buy myself jewelry and won't let Wes buy me any either (part of my frugality) so this was a special treat.

Tea Party ~ Fancy Nancy Style

2009-05-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Jaidyn, Addy, and my niece Hadley attended a Fancy Nancy style tea party at the library today with their Grandma Penny. I jazzed up their sundresses with boas, slippers, crowns, and gloves. They had a wonderful time and each received their own tea cups, headbands, feather boas, and made princess themed picture frames. Their tea party menu consisted of flower shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken salad, strawberries, cheese, and several other enjoyable treats.

~ Random Pictures ~

2009-05-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

Wes has spent that past 2 days up in northern Missouri for his Great Uncle's funeral. We have missed him here at home, but are enjoying the sunshine that past 2 days have given us.

Addy loves dirt! She just can't stay away from it. It's almost like it calls her name. I usually have to wash a pair of her tennis shoes every other day.

Just outside of our basement door is an area of pea gravel. Addy plays in this like it is a sandbox. I caught her yestday making snow angels in the rocks. At least it isn't as dirty as playing in the dirt or an actual sand box.

I stopped along the side of the road today to pick up a turtle. Addy and I brought it back to Nana's house so that they could enjoy it for a little while on the screened in porch. Nana forgot that I had put the turtle out there and opened the door to let the nice air in and shortly afterwards found a turtle on the loose in her home.

You just never know which dress-up box accessories they are going to drag out. Don't you just love the Easter hats? Don't worry, I have never actually made them wear these.

For her birthday, Addy received a Bella Dancerella Ballet set and DVD. Here they are showing off moves from Swan Lake. Of course they wouldn't dream of dancing without their gymnastic leotards on.

Look At Me, I'm 3!

2009-05-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

Look at me, I'm 3! Happy Birthday Addy!

This morning before taking Jaidyn to preschool, I did a little interview with Addy. I asked her what several of her favorite things were and then asked what her favorite thing was about each person in our family. She kept looking at Jaidyn and wanting her to answer each question for her. Addy's answers about each person in our family were pretty funny. I hope everyone can read her 3 year old interview answers below.

Addy has really enjoyed receiving birthday cards in the mail this week and loved the surprise package she received from her Great Aunt Cheryl.

We gave Addy her birthday presents from us today, but her birthday celebration with all the family will be on Sunday. She has personally requested white cupcakes with pink icing. For her party, I have ordered half white and half chocolate. What's a party without chocolate?

1st Haircut & Rainy Days

2009-04-30T05:03:00.000-07:00

Addy is so excited about turning three next week. We decided to let her get her first haircut as she turns 3, mainly to help make her hair appear thicker. Poor girl has straight, thin, thin hair. She sat so still and looked in a hand held mirror the entire time.

Rain, Rain Go Away! We have had rain in the forecast the past 3 days and the next 7 days show rain also. I am having my garage sale the next 2 days and the forecast doesn't look very promising. I really need to unload some things so I hope the weather doesn't effect people coming out. Jaidyn and Addy put on their rubber boots and jumped around in the puddles today while Wes and I carried up boxes from the basement (actually he carried them up from the basement and I met him at the door and carried them to the carport). Aren't they so cute in their tie-dyed t-shirts? They made these at their Mama LaLa's and Papa J.R.'s house last week.

Philippines Program Update

2009-04-28T20:34:00.001-07:00

Feeling a little down about the wait for our referral, I emailed Kristine with Holt just asking for any general Philippines program updates. Just wanted to share part of her email back to me. I do appreciate everyone's thoughts, prayers and kind words throughout our wait.

"Hello Jenny,

I know that it is really hard to wait, especially as you get past a year, but we are pretty sure that the time frames are creeping up quickly, and now we do not know how long it is going to take for families to get a match. We still have the 2 families (including yours) from 2007, and a few weeks ago, we heard from Eva that there are a total of 35 families on the ICAB Roster left from 2007, so it is going to take awhile to work through those. The sibling group of boys that you are referring to were matched by our WCP with a WCP family, not a family who was already waiting on the Roster, so it was not the other Holt December 2007 family who was matched with them, they are still waiting. None of our families approved after you have been matched either, so no one skipped ahead or anything, it is just taking a long time for everyone. The eligibility guidelines for new families are changing in June, because ICAB is receiving too many Dossiers for the amount of children who need homes each year, and so they have to slow it down, or the wait will get outrageous. We have a single applicant who will be traveling to pick up her little girl in a couple weeks, so that is good news. We also have a few families matched with waiting children, a relative adoption of a sibling group of 4, and one other pending case that we are working on right now, but they all will not be able to travel for several more months. When people keep asking, just let them know that right now the amount of families approved and waiting greatly exceeds the number of children that are currently legally free for adoption in the Philippines, and so that is why there is a "wait". It doesn't mean that the need is not there, there are SO MANY orphans, it is just that not all of them are legally free yet, and also some get adopted domestically, in the Philippines too. I hope that we will get some news soon, but there is no way to know until it happens, as we do not get notice when a family is being "considered", but only once they are officially "selected/matched". I'll contact you as soon as I hear any news about your case, I promise, and in the meantime, it is no problem at all to give you updates about other things going on in the program. Have a great weekend!
Kristine Daniels"

Dirtball & a Surprise

2009-04-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

Everytime Addy goes outside to play it almost never fails that she looks like this...

We ask her if she has been eating dirt and she just grins and says, "Yeeessss".

Earlier this week when I got back from my run, Jaidyn grabbed me at the door telling me she had a surprise for me. She made me close my eyes and walked me in to the kitchen.

I opened my eyes to see this...

Guess who??? She said that is is a picture of her baby brother and what he is going to look like. I am glad that she told me as I was going to guess it was a caterpillar crawling out of a cocoon. I just love the 3 strands of spikey black hair. Jaidyn can hardly stand the wait for a referral of her sibling. I think she dreams of him like I do. :)

~ Friendly Pirates ~

2009-04-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

Until this week, most kids probably thought of pirates as silly, crazy people sporting their eye patches and parrots. At preschool, the overall learning theme for the month has been a pirate theme. Today, Jaidyn and Addy used maps at preschool to find hidden treasure and were able to dress-up as pirates. They are really loving this thematic unit and enjoying the fun activities throughout the month it has provided. Unfortunately, it is a shame that the well-deserved publicity that the Somali Pirates are getting may give kids a whole new outlook on pirates. It is sad to think that there may be no more Captain Feathersword and friendly crew from the Wiggles. And what about all of the "Pirate of the Caribbean" movies, "Peter Pan", and one of my childhood favorites, "The Goonies"? The fate of these kid themed pirates is yet to be known. :(

Here are some pictures of some "Super Friendly" Pirates from preschool this week.

I had this cute little pirate costume in my Halloween Costume box. I love all of the little accessories.

Arggghhh!!!!

Jaidyn and one of her preschool buddies.

Poor Addy had to wear a makeshift pirate costume. She wore one of my t-shirts and we tied a bandana belt around her waist and let her wear a bandana on her head with some beaded jewelry. She added the sunglasses as we went outside and I think she went from being a pirate to a bad-*** biker chick.

Wes made a quick loop back home so he could check out his little pirate princess before going back to work.

Finally...Easter Pictures

2009-04-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Finally I have had a chance to post some pictures of Easter weekend and the days leading up to it. It has been a very busy week (as if all of them aren't super busy).

Jaidyn and Addy had lots of fun with some of their friends at the Library Easter Egg Hunt. The even got to meet the Easter Bunny. (Jaidyn asked me after Easter was over how come they never got to meet the REAL Easter Bunny and only the FAKE ones.) The weather was cold and the ground was wet from the night before so the egg hunt was indoors.

Addy acting like she doesn't know how to use scissors. I know from a haircut that she gave me a couple of weeks ago that she does indeed know how to use them.

We tie-dyed the eggs at Nana's house. Jaidyn was very proud of her egg that looked like "the earth". We ended up eating it first as she cracked it while showing it off. Next year I am wearing gloves as I had stained finger tips for a couple of days from holding the kleenex over Addy's eggs while she poured different colors of dye over them.

The Easter Bunny visited our house the day before Easter. I think he knows that our schedule on Sunday morning is very hectic so he decided to help us out by visiting a day early.

Can you tell the girls are a little groggy? They were up all night with a horrible cough. Poor girls! I think Jaidyn's cheeks are still rosy red in this picture.

Don't think that they voluntarily posed like this, I had to ask them to do this. :)

Wes was the switch-over car so he worked until the wee hours in the morning and then had to work early today in the afternoon and didn't get to participate in the Easter Sunday activities with us. I did make him get up for a minute to take this picture of the girls and I before we headed to church.

Easter egg hunt at Grandma Velma's house. Next year I am bringing bunny ears along for Aunt Cheryl. She plays a great Easter bunny!

16 Months & Still Waiting

2009-04-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

Today, we have been officially waiting 16 months to receive our referral as we were approved by the ICAB of the Philippines on December 11th, 2007 and placed on their roster of approved families. Will month 17 be the one? Still waiting and hoping!

Sorry no exciting news on the adoption home front, but I will have some cute Easter pics of the girls to share early next week. This reminds me, I need to make sure their dresses are ironed and that I have little socks or white tights for them wear tomorrow. I always forget about those little accessories and am scrambling for something at the last minute. Happy Easter!

~ Mercy Me 5K & Easter Egg Hunt ~

2009-04-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

Today's temperatures are supposed to reach almost 70 degrees, but it sure didn't start out that way. Wes and I ran in the Mercy Me Hospital 5K run this morning. I only had a heavy jacket over my tank top, so I made him take off his long sleeve shirt and let me wear it. My mom thought that she missed getting pictures of me as she saw Wes running, but didn't know that I had put on his shirt and was right beside him. In fact, Jaidyn and Addy were yelling at some other girl who they thought was me to hurry up and catch daddy. We ran together the entire time until right at the end, when he had a lot more juice left than I did. We don't have our official times yet, but Wes finished right at 25 minutes and I was about 10 seconds behind him. We had set a goal of trying to finish in 26-27 minutes so I am pretty proud of our times...not to shabby.

ETA: Here is the link to the race results. We are thrilled with our performances!
http://www.ridgerunnersports.com/race/2009MERCYME.HTM

That's me in the gray shirt chasing Wes up the hospital hill at the start of the run.

Waving at the girls and Nana as we passed by.

Yea, we are done!

I loved the way the annual Easter egg hunt at the park was ran. After every kid had a chance to scramble after eggs, they took them to a table where they turned them in for special prizes. It didn't matter how many eggs they actually picked up as every child received the same prizes. Addy's age group received candy, an egg-shaped water bottle, and a stuffed animal. Jaidyn's age group received candy, bubbles, and sidewalk chalk. We had two extremely happy girls after the egg hunt. I am glad it was run this way because there was this one mom in particular that had a baby that was maybe 1 year old that was in the carrying-age 3 group. The mom was carrying the baby and at the same time scurrying around in front of all the other kids picking up eggs just as fast as she could. Her poor child's head was being slung in every direction and she was darting up and down so fast for as many eggs as she could gather. I would have normally felt sorry for her as every time she bent down her booty showed, but honestly I felt like she kind of deserved it. It was quite the scene and I almost lost track of Addy because I was so appalled by her actions. I mean, seriously...did she honestly think that she was being competitive up against children who are under the age of 3?

Playing at the park while waiting for the egg hunt to begin.

You should have seen her look at the starting line. She is soooo competitive and her serious facial expressions were so funny. Thankfully, she picked up enough eggs to satisfy herself and she came away happy.

~ Haircuts by Addy ~

2009-04-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

Tonight while I finished up some work on the computer, the girls stood on each side of me on little stools brushing my hair and styling it with bows and hair ties. Even though I was battling hair tugs, I still managed to stay completely focused on sending some invoices and emailing ship date messages. So focused, that I was oblivious to the fact that Addy had hopped down from her stool, disappeared to her room only to return with a pair of scissors in hand. Yep, I heard the snip of scissors just above my ear and an immediate burst of nausea set in. I am guessing that the look I gave Addy as I pulled out a chunk of freshly snipped hair must have been pretty good as she immediately started crying and screaming, "I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to! I want to go to Nana and Papa's house!"

~ Memory Loss Prevention ~

2009-04-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

To prevent memory loss, experts suggest exercising the brain on a daily basis...work a challenging game, such as a number activity or crossword puzzle.

Almost weekly, Papa gets to exercise his brain with Jaidyn. One of Jaidyn's favorite games to play with her Papa Dave is Memory. Here she is counting her matches and then counting his. She truly won, 12-7. Yikes! And this isn't the first time she has beat him. Good thing Papa gets regular exercise, maintains a healthy diet and participates in social activities because if we went on game play alone, his memory outlook isn't very promising. Come on dad, you are going to have to step it up a little. She's only 4! :)

Farm Festival & Birthdays

2009-04-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Jaidyn and Addy ended the month of March participating in a "Farm Festival" at preschool. They loved the play center props this month of stick horses, a FurReal pony, feeding bottles and having little chicks brought in to visit their class. One day they made their own cream to eat on crackers for snack time. They loved this unit! In April, they will find out if a Pirate's life is for them as they will hunt for treasure working on map reading skills, walk the plank while working on counting skills, and sail out on high sea adventures in the play center. Arrr, Matey!

She is sooo ornery!

Showing a little sass!

The month of March is filled with birthdays for our family. Papa J.R., Unlce Bear, Papa Dave and Nana all have a March birthday and my sister Jill turns 29 tomorrow.
We celebrated Nana's birthday last Friday at our house with a shrimp boil and ice cream. Nana was serenaded with the "Happy Birthday" song had great help blowing out the candles.

Jaidyn and Addy on Papa's lap helping him blow out the candles. We celebrated Papa's birthday earlier in the month.

~ Sun Allergy ~

2009-03-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

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!

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

2009-03-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

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.

The girls got to make a butterfly craft with Kelly through the Parents as Teachers program.

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.

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).

Uncle Jay, Grandma Penny, Jaidyn & Addy

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

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.

Enjoying just a taste of summer! Eating popsicles up on Papa Dave's workbench.

Shamrock Shuffle Run

2009-03-09T17:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Family Picture...very windy day!

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.

Wes's team, The Copper Stoppers

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

2009-03-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

You know the playdate at the park was a success when this happened 10 minutes after we arrived home.

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!

~ Spilled Blueberries ~

2009-03-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

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.

Black Bugs

2009-02-26T17:12:00.000-08:00

Most of this past month at preschool has been devoted to caring for your teeth. Today Jaidyn's class had a visit from a dentist, who showed a video of a trip to the dentist, talked about proper brushing, and gave out a teeth brushing sticker chart and toothbrush. Jaidyn is pretty proud of her knew knowledge from the Dentist about teeth and has been rattling off everything she has learned today. So tonight at dinner this is our conversation.

Jaidyn: "Mommy, you have quite a few cavities in the back of your mouth." (she opens her mouth and points to her back teeth)
Me: I just nod, agreeing with her
Jaidyn: "How did you get so many "black bugs" in your mouth? Did you know they make cavities?"
Me: I am thinking, black bugs...gross! How am I going to explain this one to her? "I must not have brushed my teeth good enough when I was your age".
Jaidyn: She continues to look at me with a disgusted face and those big blue eyes. "Well, Daddy doesn't have that many cavities, so he must not have any black bugs in his mouth like me."
Me: Great, now she thinks her daddy outdoes me in the mouth hygiene category...I seriously doubt it.
Wes: Wes, of course has to chime in. "Yep, I only have a few cavities and have really healthy teeth".
Jaidyn: "So how do you get rid of black bugs in your mouth?"
Wes: "You have to brush your teeth really good and use your Scooby Dooby Doo mouthwash."

Great, now my daughter has visions of me having a mouthful of little black bugs. At least the dentist could have called them "sugar bugs" or something a little better than "black bugs".

Well, I better go and take care of the little black bugs probably running around my mouth from dinner tonight. :)

~ All Dressed-Up Fashion Show ~

2009-02-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

Spring's a-comin' and I want to share with you the latest trends in little girl wear. Almost everyday a new outfit emerges from the dress-up boxes in their closet. Each outfit is perfectly accessorized with hats and jewels. New for 2009, these are the must-have glitz-es and glamours and are so appropriate for various party events around the internet (not sure I would let them out of the house in these outfits except for maybe Halloween).

Darling ballet style dresses look great paired with bobby socks and high heeled shoes.

It is important to have a dress attire that matches the Barbie dolls. Every princess dress needs to be accessorized with a plastic, 100% cubic zirconium jeweled crown.

While pastels in general, seem to be on the out this season, this beautiful sheer sleeved gown is still a show stopper.

Jaidyn is all ready for a butterfly catching adventure dressed in a pink skirted tutu dress and white satin slippers. The added antennas headband helps disguise her amongst her winged friends out in the wild.

Sometimes beautiful fashions can be found in Nana's closet. Addy brings youth back to this senior citizen dress by adding a cowgirl hat.

Apparently the genie in a bottle has escaped! With see-through pants, this outfit is perfect for letting in the nice, summer sun. Unfortunately, this line of clothing doesn't protect you from harmful UV rays, so wear sunscreen.

Not to be outdone by her sisiter, Addy is sporting a darling pink ball gown and is ready for a dance partner. Any takers?

I bet you all are wondering where you could buy all of these great fashions for your little princesses. You don't have to break the bank to refresh their look. This season's hottest trends were found at dollar stores, garage sales, and for free in Nana's closet.

~ Drill Sargeant Comes For a Visit ~

2009-02-21T16:23:00.000-08:00

Jaidyn and Addy love it when the "drill sergeant" shows up unexpectedly for a visit. To best describe the personality of this drill sergeant, I would say he is a good mix between Captain Von Trapp from the movie Sound of Music and Damon Waynes in the movie Major Payne.
=

With an annoyingly loud voice, he gives orders and hands out plenty of PT exercises as he tries to whip both the girls in to shape.

Best attempt at a salute.

Jaidyn and Addy laugh hysterically and attempt to follow his commands. However, Addy got bored with push-ups and decided to jump on his back instead.

The girls also like to take their turn as drill instructor and give out orders. It is so funny to watch Addy be so bossy. And let me tell you, she tells you when you are not doing something up to par or the way she wants it done. She fills this roll quite well.

I think we need a special name for the drill instructor who visits our house. Anyone have any ideas? I actually have had some thoughts on what I would call him, but I don't think it is kid appropriate. Lol!