He's At It Again

Well, Cade decided to redecorate the walls of his room again. This is what he did a few weeks ago:

So, he disappeared into his room for the afternoon, and then made me close my eyes to see what he had done. This is what is there now. Notice all the stars:

I LOVE it! I especially love the man on the moon with the flag:

I can't wait until we move and he has his own room that he can fill with his creations!

Everybody have a great time trick or treating! I told mine that they could wear anything we already have. After 11 Halloweens, I'm about done with all the costumes. I think I'm going to have a couple of football players and a fighter pilot. All they care about is the candy anyway. Looking forward to seeing all your posts of your little cuties!

A-maize-ing!

We have finally had some great fall weather down here, and are loving every minute. Today we visited the corn maize. The boys had a blast shooting the corn canons, riding the cow train, and of course, getting lost in the maize. Here are a few pictures:
They had this huge jump thing. I have never seen one, but the kids loved it!

Of course, my kids aren't just going to jump, they're going to see who can tackle who and who can push the others off:

The cow train is hysterical! They pull it with a gator and they go FAST! I really wanted to ride, but didn't feel like visiting the chiropractor tomorrow.

Tis the Season!

Don't they know that I am trying to ignore the fact that Christmas will be here in a matter of weeks!! Right behind the office Christmas party that is planned to be at out new house (yes, the one that is not finished), which is right behind Thanksgiving, which could very well be at our new house as well, which is right behind (hopefully) moving into our new house (again, the one that is not finished!). I keep trying to forget all of this, but the mailbox just won't let me! This is the stack of catalogs that came TODAY!! Did you notice which one is on top? Don't quite know how I landed on that list. Don't get me wrong, I love catalogs, I'm just not ready to start the whole Christmas shopping at the moment.

It's A Boy!

No, not me. My great friend, Candace, had her 4th child today. Candace is Cade's friend,John Ashley's mom. They needed to take him a little early, so he is only 4lbs 13oz. That's about half of what Cade weighed. I don't think I have ever seen a baby that small, but I got to hold him today! He is just the sweetest thing. So, here he is:

I got to keep their 2 year old, Charlie, today. He was so much fun. I took him to Babies R Us and let him pick out a present for baby Beau. He was so excited. Here he is with the new shirt we got him as well:

My boys can't wait to meet him, but I figured her own 3 kids in that small hospital room was quite enough for today. Six might have put us all over the edge!

I am praying for everyone affected by the fires in California. Fire hits a little close to home for me.

To Answer Your Questions...

Well, not much going on over here. We finished up our football season yesterday - Yea!! It was fun, but I am looking forward to some time without all the extra activities. We are not going to play basketball this year. Mainly because when they all play, it literally takes up everyday of the week. Also, Richard wanted to have more opportunity to take the boys hunting. So we have no after school activities until baseball!! Of course, baseball practice will start here in Jan. or Feb. so it'll be here before you know it. (We already can't wait, it's the best time of the year!)

I have had some of you comment with questions over the past weeks, but I never end up answering them, so I thought I'd answer them today:

When is our LID? 6/6/07 After the HUGE months of April and May. My main concern is how long it will take the CCAA to get through those two months!

Do we have a name for the baby? I change my mind so much that we are not going to nail anything down until we are closer. If I got her today, her name would be Kirby.

Am I still doing laundry once a week? Yes, but this weekend has stretched into today which is not good. Richard hates it, he feels like he never has any clean clothes and can't stand the piles. Oh, well, he can do it in the middle of the week if he wants to.

Am I still overly tired? I am doing much better. I bought some "Energy Green Vitamins" from Smoothie King and they seem to help. I also seem to have gotten back into the swing of the school schedule.

Where can you find the T-shirt that I shared with you? Well, Adele might be the only one in luck. But that's good because she is the one who asked the question. I don't know if Jackson, MS has had their Jr. League Christmas market yet, but I'll bet they will be there. I got that T-shirt at Tinsels & Treasures in Lafayette, and I got another one at our Hollydays. I'll bet they'll be in Jackson.

Any touchdown dances yet? I have to say, Cade practiced his for a full week before the first game, but when it was his time to shine, he chickened out! That's alright, though I would have loved to get it on video, I don't want them to be cocky.

Any more questions? I'll answer them.

New House Update

Well, I suppose any progress is good progress. After looking really close at the new brick, we think that they will match after all. The problem was that the first batch had more paint and mortar covering the true color of the brick, so they look different. When the floors are done, they are going to wash them with muratic acid to take all the paint off the bricks. They SHOULD match after that. Keep your fingers crossed. Here are a few pictures of where we are.
The half-bricked floor: (It's grey from all the mortar, that will be washed off.)

The stucco base coats are done. They are supposed to start on the color coat today or tomorrow! The columns will also come in the next few days. It will completely change the look of the house.

This is my favorite part of the whole house, but has been the biggest pain in the but. The interior doors downstairs are reclaimed. Meaning that they were taken out of old houses and buildings. They are a little beat up and they have horizontal panels. They are absolutely gorgeous. The problem with them is that they are all different sizes. You have to make sure your door jam matches exactly and everyone of them has a different dimension. Guess who has been the go-between with measurements and such? Me, the little blond girl who doesn't care a thing about how big the doors are. Oh, well, they are hung and they are just as gorgeous as I imagined, so I guess it was all worth it. This is looking from my bedroom to my bathroom:

This one is in my bedroom also, going to the hall.

After this weekend, hopefully we will be much farther along. After we get the floors bricked, we can bring cabinets in and raise the big beams that are going in the keeping room.

Of course, this all depends on the workers actually showing up!

I'm WEAK!!!

OK, so after I saw this:

I just HAD to get this:

I had seen it before and loved it, but couldn't help myself yesterday.

Oh, and for you other blondes out there, no, it's not real giraffe, it's cow.

What I Love About Blogging

I am fairly new to the whole blogging thing. I don't know how to do alot of fancy things, I can't even figure out how to add a picture to my profile! What I do know is that having this blog and reading all of yours has become a great part of my day. Here's why:

* I did not even know about blogs until a couple in our church traveled to China to pick up their little girl. I found out about the blog, and became addicted to theirs as they were in China. I literally couldn't wait to check the blog when I woke up in the morning. We had known for a while that we should adopt from China "one day". Following this family on their journey had alot to do with us deciding to make a move.

* When we decided to move forward with the adoption, I decided that I wanted to have a blog of my own. Not just for China, but to be able to document things that the boys were doing, cute things they had said, things that were happening in our world. Since the fire when I lost all of those scrapbooks and decided not to work on the books anymore, I was missing that creative way to showcase pictures and journal about life. Blogging has given me a way to do all of that, and is much quicker than scrapbooks! I find that I capture much more of the smaller things in life that would otherwise be forgotten the next day. What a blessing it will be to be able to look back and truly get a glimpse of what life was like day to day.

* Blogging gives me a way to let out of town family and friends keep up with our lives.

* Speaking of friends! Wow! Blogging has led me to this whole community out there of other mothers who have walked or are walking the same path I am on. I have "met" so many other mothers who are an inspiration to me. I am able to see so many adorable "Chinababies" who remind me daily why I am on this long road. It is comforting to see others going through the same struggles as I am, both with children already home and while waiting for those still to come. Sharing experiences with all of you is a blessing in my life, and reading your comments throughout the day always makes me smile.

So, the house is a little messier, and I am think my posture is lacking from all the time at the computer, but my spirit is uplifted and strong! Thanks for sharing a little bit of your life with me!

Finally, Some Nice Weather

Well, it finally feels like fall around here! The boys had the day off of school today, so we headed over to Global Wildlife to enjoy the outdoors. Global Wildlife is an exotic animal park that you ride through in covered wagons and feed all the animals. We had a really good time, and so enjoyed the nice weather. Of course I have pictures!
Yes, it was the four boys today. John Ashley decided he would rather go with us than with his sister shopping.

Well, I actually made it in a picture! Me and my cutie, Cade.

Look at that cow's tongue! Is that disgusting or what?

My favorite is always the giraffe.



Oh, in other news, the bricks for the rest of my floor showed up. And, no, they don't match!!!!! The second batch on North Carolina reds are VERY red!! It couldn't be simple, no way, that would just really be too much to ask.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Christmas List Update

Do you remember Cade's Christmas list? The list I was hoping he would lose interest in and get rid of? Well, look what I found today:

I know you're not interested in seeing my nasty toilet, but while Cade was doing his business today, he must have been working on his list. It is now 5 or 6 pages long. It is the cutest thing. He has actually asked Santa for an autographed bat for Dad, and a ring for Mom. (I like his thinking). The last thing on his list is this: "a pichrye of you ples." Translation: A picture of you, please. Now, where am I supposed to find a real picture of Santa? He knows the mall santas aren't real. That kid!

Not Much Going On

Well, I haven't really had anything to say the last few days. I know - shocker. I'm sure my family is ready to take my temperature. Nothing much blog worthy going on over this way. I do have stucco on the new house now. That's pretty exciting, but I haven't taken pictures. Other than that, we're just busy with school. Even football was canceled this week, so we are really slow. We're supposed to get some nice weather towards the end of the week, so we're looking forward to that. It would be nice to watch a football game without sweating like a pig! I have been picking out all the "stuff" for the new house. It's fun, but also nerve-wracking. To many permanent decisions all at once. They have bricked half of the brick floor, but then ran out of brick. No problem, right?, just get some more. Wrong. There was no more. We used an old brick and they didn't have any more in the state! We thought they were going to have to tear out all that they had done, and start again with a different brick, but supposedly they have found some. It is coming from out of state and was supposed to be here the end of last week, but you know how those things go. I just pray it matches!

Oh, well, that's all over here. Maybe something exciting will happen today!

Have a great day!

You Can Never Have Too Many Brothers

Cade was outside drawing with the sidewalk chalk and decided to draw our family. If you look closely, you'll see there are 4 little boys instead of 3.

He explained that there was Dad, Mom, Bryce, Braden, Cade and John Ashley. John Ashley's family has become some of our closest friends over the past couple of years. I feel so blessed to have them in our lives. John Ashley and Cade spend as much time together as we let them. They get along so well, and he just fits right in with the rest of the crew. We say he's a "part time Doughty boy". I love that Cade included him in his picture. I feel like he's part of our family as well. They are both here tonight. Braden and Richard are hunting. Bryce is at my parents, he's going with Paw Paw to play golf tomorrow. So Cade and John Ashley are having a great time without the "annoying" brothers. John Ashley was talking about something earlier and said, "Well, we are kind of like brothers". I agreed with him.
Here are the "brothers" at our last football game:

"Don't Worry"

I am reading a book for a Bible study called, "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World". One of the chapters this week focuses on "worry". I wanted to share a couple of excerpts from the book because they were so awesome and fitting to the whole China situation.

"We face legitimate concerns every day of our lives. But instead of fretting, instead of worrying, we need to focus on discerning what we can do (with God's help) and what should be left entirely up to God"

For those of us with our dossiers in China, there really isn't much more we can do. We can't make China speed things up, nor can we just go get our girls. It is completely up to God. There is no reason to spend our time and energy worrying about something that we cannot change. (Please know that I am talking to myself)

"The reasons our problems often seem overwhelming is [that] we allow the things of time to loom larger in our gaze than the things of eternity".

Wow, how powerful is that when time is what we are really all worried about. It kind of puts everything into perspective. Just thought I'd share.

He Might Just Make It

I have been so worried about Bryce going to Jr. High, and how he would deal with all the different people there. He is not the best at making new friends. He is also very sensitive and wears his feelings on his shoulder. If someone makes fun or teases him, he gets very upset, which eggs the person on. We have dealt with this for the past few years and it drives me crazy. I would rather die than let someone know that they were getting to me, so I just couldn't stand when he would get so upset. So far, I hadn't heard anything negative about Jr. High so I was hoping everything was going good.

Last night, we were all in my bed right before bedtime just talking and goofing off, and Bryce said that there was a kid cussing him out during lunch. We asked him what the kid said and this is what he told us:

Robert: Stabs and apple in half and takes a bite and tells Bryce, "That's gonna be your head".

Bryce: "You can't eat my head."

Robert: "Shut the #*&* up. Me and my posse are going to jump you in the bathroom."

Bryce: "You don't have a posse"

Robert: "Yes I do, Tim and Todd are my posse, right?"

Tim: "Since when have we had a posse?"

Robert: "You'll come with me, right Todd?"

Todd: "No"

Bryce just laughed at him.

I know the words are harsh, and I hate that he has to hear that, but I am so proud of his responses. He also had a couple of rolled eyes in there and some shrugged shoulders. We all were able to laugh at how stupid the kid sounded. Robert also called Bryce a twig. So we asked Bryce what the kid looked like, he said he is about 6 inches shorter than Bryce. We just laughed. So this is the exchange that happened between my boys after the story:

Cade: What's a posse?

Dad: A group that sticks together.

Cade: Bryce, you have a posse.

Bryce: Who?

Cade: US! Me and Braden are your posse. I'll go up there and beat him up.

Braden: "Bryce should say, I'll get my posse, they're like a puma"

What that means, I don't really know, but I can tell you that we got a huge laugh at it.

So in honor of Bryce's new attitude, and in case you forgot how cute they are, here is the Doughty boy posse (this spring):

14 Years Ago...

...I promised to love this man forever. Well, it hasn't been forever yet, but we're still going strong. We have been through lots of ups and downs, tragedys and joys, good times and bad times. We have always stayed true to each other and worked together to overcome anthing that has come our way. He is truly my best friend. I love you, Baby.

We met in November of 1992. This picture is of us at Christmas of that year. (How about that hair?)

We were planning a wedding after just two months of being together. Our wedding was eight months later! I had dated alot of different guys and I just knew that this was IT. Can you tell, I was just a little excited?

14 years and 3 1/2 kids later, we're still going strong. There is a little more of us to love, a few more wrinkles, and a little less hair, but life is good!

Thanks for the 14 best years of my life. I love you, forever.