Category: Home Life

About a week and a half ago my friend Shelley invited some women over for a craft night. Her friend Stephanie sells Close to my Heart and she had the cutest kits for us for us to make for Mother’s Day. We had a great time and I really liked all the cool stamp stuff we were able to do. I also learned how to “distress” paper for scrapbooking and crafts. You never know when that skill might come in handy.

“The Bunny, the bunny, whoa I love the bunny.”

A couple days ago we had a visitor in our front and back yard. Nadia got all excited when she saw the bunny through the window and said, “HOP HOP HOP!” I grabbed the camera and we headed right out the door. I didn’t want to scare the bunny and she hopped all around our back yard. All the while Nadia was going, “HOP HOP HOP DOWN HOP HOP HOP DOWN!!!” I told her we didn’t want to scare the bunny and the next thing we knew it hopped right up to my feet! This was no wild rabbit and I hope that nothing happens to it living in the wild now that it’s been let go. I put Nadia down and she reached for the bunny, but it was more interested in eating grass. It’s just so fun to see Nadia get so excited like she did about the bunny.

Nadia was placed in our arms on July 22nd, 2007, so today has been 9 months since she became a part of our family. Our life has been changed in so many wonderful ways because she is a part of our lives. Her sweet smile just melts our hearts (and the hearts of lots of other people too) and her laugh is infectious. I can get her laughing hysterically which is the sweetest sound. God has given us the most wonderful gift in Nadia – we are truly privileged to have her as our daughter.

We took her for her first haircut with Lisa and she gave her an official certificate listing that Nadia is a “cool kid” after getting her first haircut. Lisa also saved me some clippings of Nadia’s hair to put in the scrapbook with the certificate. Mike had a haircut first and then Nadia sat on his lap. She started crying when Lisa tried to put the cape on her, so we just did the haircut without it. She also started to cry once during the cut, but I think it was because she just didn’t know what was going on. I think her bob turned out precious!

Before:

During:

After:

The first thing I want to mention is this outfit. I bought this at the Children’s Place outlet a few days before we got Nadia’s referral. My best friend Jess was here visiting for the baby shower and we were shopping together. It now fits Nadia and so I decided to put it on her for the picnic. I teared up a little thinking about how Jess was with me when I bought it and we KNEW that we would be seeing Nadia’s face soon. Very sweet to finally see her in it. You can click the photo to see the whole slideshow.

This weekend was busy, but very fun. (We have photos from Mike’s camera, but they haven’t been uploaded yet) On Saturday morning we had our church picnic and we invited the KIDS HOPE kids. Quite a few showed up and I was able to meet some of the parents which was great. The mother of the boy I mentor brought him and his brothers and we all had a great time. I started mentoring this little boy in January 2007 and we have formed a great bond. Here we are:

Nadia had a great time at the picnic walking all around exploring with Mike. Lots of the little girls at church who love Nadia held her for a bit and tried to play with her, but she was more interested in checking out the leaves on the ground and riding the horse on the playground. She got tons and tons of compliments on her hat. Nadia proceeded to pass out in the car on the way home after a full day of adventures.

Then at 5:30 pm Grandpa Greg, Grandma Brooke and Aunt Bayli showed up for a whirlwind visit. Grammie came over and we all enjoyed watching Nadia be her entertaining self. They hadn’t seen Nadia since Thanksgiving and a lot has changed with her, especially her vocabulary. We had dinner and it was a nice peaceful night. On Sunday morning we got up and met Roger, Paula and Grammie at Bayley’s for breakfast. The Houston gang headed home right after that and we relaxed the rest of the day because it was such a long week for us.

Nadia and Grandpa Greg.

And the silly girl this afternoon.

So the women from my mom’s group at church decided to meet at the zoo today. (except Shawna and Edi – we missed you) We all got zoo memberships last week and decided that we needed to get right out there and use them. You can click the photo above to see the slideshow. Stephanie and her foster kids were there too, but no photos of them are allowed on the Internet, so I had to crop a few photos. Here are Elliott, Nadia and Clarity.

Nadia got the Little People A-Z Zoo for Christmas from Grandpa Greg and Grandma Brooke and she is a master of all those animals. Mike plays a game with her where he puts them all in the bag or in a pile on the floor and asks her, “Which one is the penguin? Which one is the tiger?” She can pick all 26 out and make sounds for quite a few of them. My attempts at catching this on video are a joke, otherwise I would post it.

So today was very exciting for her to ‘see’ the animals. She got the most excited about the Penguins (back at the FTW zoo finally) and the zebras! When we saw the giraffe’s she said, “Neck, neck” because Mike always tells her that giraffes have a long neck. She liked watching the hippos swimming around and said, “Hippa, hippa.” I had a great time watching her get so excited about the animals and pointing to them and saying things to me. Having the membership is going to be great because we can go and stay until she is tired instead of trying to see the whole zoo in one shot.

Once the kids from various elementary schools left we practically had the zoo to ourselves which was awesome. We took the kids on the carousel and the Yellow Rose Express Train and Nadia liked both. On the carousel she kept going, “Neigh, neigh” and when the songs would end she would clap.

On the train I got her to make a choo choo sounds, but then she got tired and decided to lean back and relax. We left shortly after that so she could get a nap.