Santa Comes To Town

I decided that this year, we would have another Santa party.  We haven't hosted one since Wesleigh came home, and the girls are the perfect age.  Yesterday was the big day!  We decided to make it a breakfast because it seemed simpler...and it was.  It was perfect!!  My girls didn't even know that Santa was coming, so they were floored when he walked in the house.  This post has LOTS of pics, but they are too cute not to share.



These little Santa's were the hit of the party :)  The idea is from Pintrest, of course, and Richard actually made them for me!  Do you see that he made some of the Santas Asian!  lol...  BTW...they were as yummy as they are cute!!  I won't tell you how many I ate!


I had way too much food!  I don't think the kids ate anything because they were so excited.










The girls had lots of their friends there.


The boys helped out with the ornament project...


(yep...there's the look again.  Makes me laugh!!)


...and the Reindeer food


Gracie was all about Santa this year!  She checked him out from head to toe and could not keep her hands off him.  She was so cute.






Mrs. Claus read The Night Before Christmas








Finally...it was time to sit on Santa's lap.  Gracie was the first one up there.  She is asking him about his beard :)






Wesleigh loved Santa too, but she was a little shy.  She even talked about being shy when she looked at these pics.  She started crying when Santa told one of the moms that she was on the naughty list!  She said, "Santa say a mean thing to Camille's mommy!"  So funny!




This might be my favorite pic of the day.  This is my nephew, Ever.


My niece, Adalie


My brother's crew:


My crew:


Braden had his friend-girl over for the party.  Her face turned 10 shades of red when I made them get up there!  So cute.


We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.


And one adorable little nephew of mine got a special talking to about getting his name off the naughty list!!  lol...


It was perfect, and it definitely put this mom in the Christmas spirit.  I'm so glad we did it!!

Rockin' the Christmas Tree

I just realized I never posted pics of the girls decorating the tree. I have none of the boys because I pretty much had to force them to help!

The girls, on the other hand, could not stand the excitement. I'll be honest and admit that I started out the night thinking, "Just think...if we didn't have two 4 year olds in this house, trimming the tree would be so boring". I ended the night thinking, "Just think...if we didn't have two 4 year olds in this house, trimming the tree would be so peaceful!" :) lol...they sure looked cute though!!

 




Gracie's favorite ornament.  She was so excited to see Cinderella!

Time For Christmas Music

Since Bryce was in the 6th grade, a band concert has been part of our Christmas holidays. I love it! He is a junior this year and I am trying to soak in every moment with him. He actually had two concerts within the past couple of days.





 A while back, I posted a picture of Bryce practicing on the balcony with some fellow band members. Here they are all dressed up and playing for the Christmas tree lighting in out town last night.





Notice the flower clip?? Do you recognize it? Desperate times call for desperate measures :) The wind was blowing and the boys couldn't get their papers to stay. Bryce was using Richard's phone clip and this flower was the only other thing I could find! lol...

 I love the way the lights look like a crown on Sydney's head :) Sydney is a good friend of Bryce's and she loves the girls...they love her right back!!

We are finally out of flip flops...straight to UGGs!

Christmas Parade

Well, we are just a few days away from Christmas and we are sweating!!!  As much as I really don't like the cold weather, I do find myself a little jealous of those of you who can actually wear sweaters.  We are wearing flip flops and wishing we were at the pool!  Oh well...I still wouldn't want to live in the "frozen tundra" :)

 I'm also starting to freak out a little about Christmas. I have 7 preschool days left to get everything done, and we are hosting a "Breakfast with Santa" party next weekend! Yikes! I'll get it done. In fact, I seem to work better under pressure. I don't get anything done until there's a deadline upon me.

We made it to the local Christmas parade yesterday, which Bryce was marching in. The girls have their gym leos on because we had come straight from a birthday party. Boy do these girls love a parade! And everyone loves them back :) They are magnets for the "loot"!

I'm willing to bet there's not many of you who eat watermelon at your Christmas parade :)  lol...







Seriously, this chick is crazy!  I promise, I do not tell her to pose for me!!!  She sees a camera and goes to work!


I was very happy to provide the French horns with their elf hats :)  Bryce mentioned that they wanted Christmas hats.  I can't tell you how proud I was to have these tucked away and actually be able to put my hands on them!!!  lol...  That is a big deal for this blonde!!!


These girls have every daddy wrapped around their fingers...not just their own (who happened to be in the woods).





And, of course, Santa was the big finale.  The girls were just a little excited :)


We haven't visited Santa yet because we have him coming to the house for our party Saturday.  The girls know we are having a party but have no idea that Santa is coming :)  It's a bit of a gamble because of Gracie's reaction to Santa last year:


I am not expecting the same reaction...hopefully, I'm right!!  Wesleigh, on the other hand, is going to absolutely freak!  She's going to be so excited!

What Can I Do?

If you read my blog, you must at least have a small pang in your heart for the orphans.  If you've followed me, you know that I have a huge pang in my heart and truly feel that, while not everyone is called to adopt, we are all called to "care for the orphans".

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27

My two girls started life very differently.  Wesleigh in an orphanage, and Gracie in a foster home.  We all know that love makes a tremendous difference in every child's life, but sometimes we forget that love that comes from a "China mom" while they wait, will have the same unbelievable difference.  Just look:

Wesleigh at 16 months (the original pic had a fly on Wesleigh's arm.  I photoshop'd it off)

Gracie at 18 months
 

 Wesleigh being held by a stranger by her crib in the orphanage:

 Gracie, in her home with her China mom, opening the gift we sent her:  

Wesleigh came to me severely delayed.  Gracie came to me, developmentally on task.  Wesleigh is fine now, but we had to spend alot of time just teaching her what a mom and dad were.  It was heartbreaking.

So...what can you do? You can directly impact an orphan's life. You've seen me post about the Fill Your Stockings promotion. This is an easy, one time gift that also gives you the opportunity to win some amazing prizes.  For every $5 you donate, you have 1 chance to win!  Pearl River uses the funds collected through this promotion to fill in the gaps throughout the year. There is a goal of reaching $5000 by the end of this promotion. We still have some work to do!!! We need your help!! Please help us reach our goal for these precious children!

Of course, we are always looking for monthly sponsors also!  $35 a month will change a life!!!

My goal of this post is not to make you feel guilty, but it is to make you stop and think.  Even if money is tight, I know you have $5 to invest in a precious life.  And if you're still reading this, I know you care!

The giveaway that is up today, ends Friday!!  There will be one more giveaway before the promotion ends.  Don't miss out!!!  There are some precious children in China who are counting on us!!!

TMI!

Just a warning...this post definitely has TMI (too much information) but if you know me at all, you know that I love to laugh and know that if you don't laugh at yourself, life will be miserable!!

So, here goes:
Yesterday, the girls and I were eating lunch at a restaurant.  I took them to the restroom which is always such a great adventure.  The three of us were in the big stall and the girls were just talking away as they did their business.  I don't even remember exactly what they were saying but I do remember hearing the woman in the next stall giggling at them.

Next thing I know, it's my turn for the potty.  I have to preface this by explaining what I had on :)  I was wearing some slim leggings and a top...therefore, I had on underwear suited for not showing panty lines :)  When I stood up and pulled up my pants, my adorable Wesleigh commented (very loudly) "Mommy!  You panties are tooooo small for you BUTT!"

I about died!  All I could do was laugh because that is FUNNY!  I'm pretty sure the lady in the next stall about fell in the toilet trying to hurry up to get out and see who we were.  I just laughed and raised my hands....what do you do?  These girls definitely don't seem to have a filter yet!  We're working on that!!

No...thankfully, I do NOT have photos to go with this story :)  But I will leave you with a few from the day we got our Christmas tree.








I'll have more Christmas tree pics later this week.

Anybody else starting to feel a little stressed about Christmas? I definitely am! I can't even seem to make myself sit down long enough to think it all through!!

Food For the Soul

What an amazing weekend!  It has been a very long time since I've laughed that hard and I loved every second of it!  Don't tell my kids, but I was NOT ready to come home!  It truly was a time of recharging and most definitely...food for the soul!

I have been able to meet so many amazing women through our journey of adoption, and could never have imagined that my life would include friends all over the country!  I certainly would have never expected to travel to the "frozen tundra" of Minnesota in the winter!!  lol...

Here are a few pics of our time together:



 We braved the cold to take a pic in front of this enormous fish :)  Don't ask me...I just do what I'm told :)



I finally got to meet Mr. Handsome (Di's sweet hubby) in person.


and spend some time with these 4 princesses whom I adore :)










Cant wait to do it again girls!!!

If you'd like to follow these amazing women's blogs, you can find them here:
Paige and Jody (Jody and Paige wrote much better posts about the weekend :), and of course Di.  In fact, when you visit Di, please consider helping Pearl River support some amazing children in China!!  You could help change a child's life (and have a chance at some amazing prizes)!!!!