Thanksgiving Weekend

We have been so busy that this weekend seems like a blur! The kids and I were out of school last Wednesday but we ended up having to go into Springfield so I didn't get as much done around the house as I had planned but that's okay. On Thanksgiving we went to my brother's house in Nixa for a mexican thanksgiving feast. Avery even fixed his own hair! :)It was all so yummy! We ate and ate! We then played a game that for the life of me I can't remember the name of it but we had fun! Addy hung out with her grandmas and everyone else that doesn't get to see her very much! On Friday I fixed a traditional Thanksgiving meal and my mom joined us and brought Lamberts rolls and her awesome stuffing and my favorite broccoli cheese casserole! We ate and ate again. We are still eating these leftovers! I started putting up Christmas decorations and didn't do a lick of shopping. I can't stand the crowds. Sometimes it doesn't bother me, but I was just not up to it this weekend. I still have time right? Tonight we are going to the Marshfield Community Christmas Concert. Cooper will be singing with the Junior Jays. This is their first performance so we are really looking forward to it. We have even had some snow today!!! I love it! I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!!!
I took these pics of Addy before I left for church this morning. My friend Patte made this adorable Raggedy Ann outfit for Addy last year before we brought her home. Addy had gotten so sick last year that she lost too much weight to wear it but she is finally just about big enough! She is trying to cut her front teeth up top and is chewing constantly so having the built in bib to chew on has been a lifesaver today! it's hard to see, but Raggedy Ann is also on her jeans! Too cute thanks Patte Ann!!!

MRI results

I haven't blogged about this much, but many of you know that I have been dealing with a lot of pain in my left shoulder. I had cortisone shots in July and then started Physical Therapy in September with no improvements with both treatments. I had an MRI on Monday and I got the preliminary results today. I was told when they put me in the MRI tube that it would take about 25 minutes and I wouldn't need an IV for contrast since they weren't suspecting a mass. After 30 minutes they pulled me out and told me that they were looking over the Drs orders and they needed to go ahead and do contrast. So I got my IV and spent another hour in the tube. Yes an hour! Needless to say I was a little worried about what they may have found but I just thought there was no sense worrying over something that I don't know for sure. Anyway, results were called to me today. I have an abnormality in my bone marrow in my shoulder. I am going for an X-ray on Friday and my doctor has gone ahead and referred me to an orthopedic specialist. Please pray that this is not a major thing and that there will be something that can be done to fix this. Thank you!

Addy speaking on command, well on HER command!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Reece's Rainbow

Please go and check the Reece's Rainbow blog today! Our family is the featured family talking about our adoption! My links don't always work but it is at the side of my blog!

http://reecesrainbow.blogspot.com/

I've been tagged

I love being tagged! I got tagged twice today. First Charissa tagged me in regards to looking at your 4th folder and posting your 4th picture. Well here's mine
Aww! Here my boys are 3 and 1/2 and 1 and 1/2. This is at our old house that I really do miss quite a bit! They were playing the "gapano" as Cooper used to say! They were so cute!

The second tag I got today was from Renee, she tagged everyone and this was fun!

My FIRSTS

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
Shawn

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
No

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
Peach Schnapps, ugh

4. What was your FIRST job?
Babysitting! I babysat for a family that had five adopted children all from different countries! I miss them so much! They are all grown up and doing amazing things with their lives!

5. What was your FIRST car?
a 1986 Camaro, white with red pin striping and red interior. My license plate said "CAM EEZ"

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
Jarika, she's pretty much the only one who texts me!

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
Um, that's hard probably Cooper since I didn't hear him watching Sports Center at 3am!

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Miss Gose! I loved this woman so much! What's great is that I got to see her at our Buddy Walk this year! She made me LOVE school!

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
To Acapulco!

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them?
Kelly and I have no clue where she is

11. What was your FIRST sport played?
Played? Softball, participated in Gymnastics since the age of 4

12. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
At Sharons! We had a blast roller skating in her basement!

13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
Addysen Grace!

14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
My cousins I think

15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
Prayed

16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Pointer Sisters!

17. FIRST tattoo or piercing?
I got my ears when I was ten

18. FIRST foreign country you went to?
Mexico

19. What was your FIRST run in with the law?
When my brother staged a break in at our house!

20. When was your FIRST detention?
Never had detention!

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in?
Oklahoma

22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart?
Pat

23. Who was your FIRST roommate?
April! Our first semester in college

24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride?
I have no clue!

Wanna try? Consider yourself tagged!
Link back to me and leave a comment here when you post so I can be nosey... Please?!

Should I move her???

Should I move her when she sleeps like this? I usually do because I know it's bad for her hips but she always moves right back. Should I even worry about it since she's going to end back up in this position anyway???

Snow already!?!?

We did have a touch of snow over the weekend, it was nuts! It didn't last long but it was pretty to watch.

Addy has been a giggle box all weekend, she was cracking us up! She would not stop pulling on Avery's shirt tonight while they were playing. We are working on her being a little more gentle. But when you don't have another way to communicate, you do what's easy and that usually means pulling, grabbing, screaming and kicking. She is on a rip of pushing and throwing anything out of her way that she doesn't want. You can see her doing it with her table. I'm trying to teach her to shake her head "no" but she doesn't get it yet, but she will! I also can't get over how long her hair is getting! Some people tell me I should cut it, I'm just not there yet. We do get it trimmed, but I'm not ready to anything more drastic yet, what do you think???

Check out the awesome paintings!

http://www.myspecialks.com/

Go to Renee's blog and check out her awesome opportunity!

Heflin Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Geneology

We're in our local news!

http://www.marshfieldmail.com/articles/2008/11/13/news/doc491b32fde652f083145251.txt

Turkey Time

This is just cute, had to include it!

Well it's that time again, turkey decorating time! Every year at least one of my kids has had to decorate a turkey for a family project. I must say that some I have seen up in the hallways are amazing! I'm pretty sure that several of the ones in my end of the building (preschool) definitely had very little input from the four-year-old! Anyway, Avery wanted to decorate his turkey this year to look like Picachu from Pokemon. He plays the games and reads the books all of the time. I don't know much about him, I know bad mommy, but I followed Avery's lead and we went with it! We were to just use things around the house, fortunately for Avery, I do work with little kids so I always have "stuff". Avery wanted to make sure he used pretty much everything we had around! You can never have enough paint, glitter, glue, pom pom balls, balloons and feathers! So here are some shots of our masterpiece!






Avery and Addy were playing with blocks tonight, it was too cute! Avery kept spelling things and putting them in order and Addy would just mess it all up, throw them everywhere and crack up! It was too funny!

Fun with Food!

This contest is about celebrating our families through our FUN with FOOD photos. The winner will receive a $500.00 grocery card for a grocery chain in their area. Who couldn't use a $500 grocery card the rate prices are soaring! I know our family of 6 could go through it in nothing flat!

This is Addy when she first tasted icing! No it wasn't her first birthday, it was her first GOTCHA DAY! She didn't even touch food at her first birthday but nine months later, she thought it was okay!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting this awesome opportunity go check it out!

http://www.5minutesformom.com/4658/win-500-for-groceries-in-our-prego-fun-with-food-photo-contest/

Happy Birthday Papa!

Today is my dad's birthday. I miss him so much. My kids miss their Papa. Happy Birthday Daddy, we love and miss you so much!

Doctor Update

I took Addysen to see Dr. Ford, her surgeon yesterday. I was too caught up in the election to post last night!
Anyway, he checked out her button and does continue to feel that this issue is not hurting her, just an inconvenience. Since it appears that a lot of the problem is acid burn from stomach leakage, he discontinued her nighttime feedings! I'm very happy about this! Yeah!!! She does leak a little at night since she is usually laying on her tummy or side.So now we can wear jammies with feet! Not that she will ever wear jammies with feet because she is so hot natured, but she could! So now we are doing four bolus feeds a day, and we added two ounces to her daily total. This will hopefully help some with her bowel issues. He checked her back side and she does have some scarring in there that may also be hindering her a little bit too. So we go back in a month and if things aren't any better we will have to do some dilations a little bit longer. Not a big deal, I just hate putting her through that even though it doesn't seem to bother her one little bit!

Yesterday morning Scott caught Addy playing in the sunshine. She loves to wiggle her toes and make shadows, she starts cracking up, I must get it on video. So here she is playing with those beautiful sun rays that are going to be hiding the next few days! At least now she can wear some more of her darling fall clothes again! She's barely made a dent in them, we are still dressing for July here!


I must brag on Avery Jacob today. I called his teacher to have her remind him that it was church day and he needed to ride the bus to church. She told me that he did a very good deed today. She said that there is a boy in Avery's class that is a very anxious child and was having difficulty taking AR tests (Accelerated Reader). If you don't know what that is, children read books and then take a comprehension test on the computer about the book. Each child has a personal goal set for them by their teacher according to their reading ability. They have to get so many points to reach the goal. She asked the class if someone would be willing to help this little guy get some points toward his goal. Avery volunteered! He missed his recess to read with his classmate and help him take the test so he wouldn't be behind! It was no nice to hear my son being described as being very compassionate! Aw, good job son I am so proud of you!

Proud to be an AMERICAN!!!

Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree Project

Grab This Button



Visit http://www.reecesrainbow.org/angeltree2008.htm to view all of the beautiful children in ONE PLACE and to have the opportunity to sponsor these children in honor of family members, friends, or coworkers!

The Angel Tree is Reece's Rainbow's largest fundraiser of the year and there's a great reason why. For each donation of $35 or more to any one child you will be mailed a beautiful ornament with your sponsored child's photo on it. These ornaments are the perfect gift for teachers, coworkers, friends, family, and all those hard-to-buy-for people. Not only do they receive a keepsake, but the knowledge that their gift went toward a wonderful cause- helping an orphan to come HOME.

The children shown on the Angel Tree page are all UNMATCHED children who do not yet have a family (but as the tree continues children will be marked 'matched' as their families find them and commit to their adoption!). Also, it's important to note that every dollar that you donate to any child goes directly to their sponsorship! Paypal, ornament costs and shipping are all paid for by Reece's Rainbow and are not deducted from your donation. Reece's Rainbow is glad to say that every penny goes toward that child's grant fund in hopes that they will soon have a "forever family" commit to their adoption and bring them home.

The Angel Tree Project runs from November 1st-December 31st and all donations made by December 15th will receive an ornament gift (donations after this date will still be shown on the Angel Tree page but will not receive an ornament). We welcome international donors and we will also ship the ornaments internationally!

In addition to the Angel Tree Project, Reece's Rainbow is happy to offer you a free 12 month calendar that you can download and include with your ornament as an additional gift this Christmas. Each month features a different "currently" available child (we hope that by the end of the year the calendar has all MATCHED children on it!) and is available in two formats. The first is 12cm and when printed is the size of a CD case. This is a great office calendar size and perfect for gift-giving :) The second is a .jpg format which can be printed in many different sizes or used in documents each month if you want to distribute them monthly. A HUGE THANK YOU to Lu that donated her time and talents to make this calendar!

These children are precious gifts that deserve a family! Please help find a way to get them home! I have sponsored Liza and hope that her mommy can commit to her soon. I so wish it was me, but I don't think that is God's path right now, but I still have hope!

Obama!! Yes We Can!

Waiting in a very LONG LONG line!

Our family headed to Springfield last night to see Barack Obama!! We had VIP passes so we were really close, but to the side since we had Addy's stroller. There were over 40,000 people in attendance! We went with my sister-in-law, Jill and my nieces, Laura and Liz and her sister, Cori (who I consider my SIL and her son Jacob). We got the VIP passes since Jill's mom, Nancy Hagan, is running for State Representative for the 135th District! We Fancy Nancy! I say that's pretty amazing since apparently there are no democrats in Southwest Missouri! Sarah Palin was at Bass Pro last week and didn't have half of the crowd! Cori and her older son, Tyeler got to shake Obama's hand! Pretty cool considering it was also Cori's birthday! Anyway, I am so glad that we went and we got to hear such an awesome plan for our country! Please everybody go out and VOTE!

Our next governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon! Avery loves him so he got on Daddy's shoulders so he could see him better.

Here they come! His girls are darling!

I wish this picture was clearer! They boys really enjoyed chanting "YES WE CAN!""

Can you believe that this picture was taken about 11 p.m.! Our kids did so well considering it was such a long night!