Happy 2nd Gotcha Day!

On October 31st, we celebrated Sarah's second Gotcha day! 2 years ago, we held our little girl for the first time! We went out for Chinese food with our dearest friends and Sarah's, too. It was great. We gave Sarah a gift that we bought in China for her. We have gifts to give her every year on the anniversary when she became a member of our family, all from China. We had a great time and so did Sarah.

Charity Quilt & Sarah dancing

For my friend, Angie's adoption of precious little Miranda, I pieced this quilt. A friend that I met through my quilting classes offered to do the quilting for free to help out. I thought it looked great! We raised $100 for Angie's adoption with it and we raised a total of over $3100 that night. We had a dinner and auction for them that night. It was a lot of fun and we were so happy that we could be a part of helping them bring Miranda home. Hopefully they'll get their Consulate Appointment date this week and be able to bring their little beauty home in a few weeks. We can't wait to meet her!

There was a band playing and Sarah couldn't help but dance...she had a blast!
Now...THAT'S a smile!

Harvest Party!

We stopped by our church on the 31st of October to play at the Harvest Party for a little while. It was lots of fun, I got to play some games and win some prizes.

Here I am with my glasses that I won!

This was the first time I ever did a cake walk...I got to win a chocolate cake to take home!


WEE! I love it when they play the music!

Then...we went home and I put on my Snow White dress that I got for my birthday along with my crown. I got to give out candy to all the kids that came to my house. I had SOOO much fun!!

Am I the most beautiful princess you've ever seen or what?

Another FUN Zoo Trip!

A couple of days after Sarah's birthday, we went to the zoo with Shyanne and Stacey. We had a blast and the kids really enjoyed themselves!

Here are Shyanne, Bailey, Sarah and Braden with the gorilla!

Look Mama! I'm much smaller than the gorilla is!

But I'm almost as tall as the Orangutan! (I like my apples so much I just couldn't put it down!)
We're at the Asian room by the Asian tigers and snow leopard and Sarah is playing around the instruments.



"And here we have the Chinese drum, constructed in..."

She looks like she's the zoo employee telling us all about that drum!

Shyanne and Sarah playing on the tigers!

Happy Belated 3rd Birthday, Sarah!

Because of the many computer related issues I've been having and am still having...I'm quite a bit behind in my blogging. Here are some photos from Sarah's 3rd birthday, that we had back at the end of October...when the weather was still warm enough for a halter.

Sarah getting ready for Pin the Tail on the Donkey!Our friend, Little Miss Chelsea gets a turn!


Sarah with her Tinkerbell lantern she got from her friend, Chelsea


Sarah with her new princess book from her Baba

...more and more presents!



A new quilt to play with from Gigi

Sarah and her mountain o' cupcakes!


A new winter coat from Poppa!

Along with a new princess hat!

One of her FAVORITE presents...Snow White Dress from Stacey!

Sarah using her new brush to fix up Tatiana'a hair

It was a fun filled day and Sarah had a wonderful party!

First bit of snow

I took these photos back on 10/21 of my little one playing with the tiny bit of snow we got that was still not melted on Baba's car.

That little stink! She got me with that snow! BRR!

A Happy Birthday Play Date

Well, I'll start off by saying I'm so far behind, it's not even funny. The past couple of months have been nothing but challenging, as Sarah has continued to advance and grow up into toddler world. We transitioned out of the crib, into her toddler bed, and got rid of the bottle all at once. Yeah, we were slow at getting rid of the bottle...I was afraid that she would stop taking naps without it. Although the naps were a fight all of their own with that transition, she's still taking them, they're just not as long as they used to be. I know, I know, MOM...I should feel blessed that she's still sleeping at all and I stopped taking naps long before I was Sarah's age. I do miss all that time she gave me in the afternoons though. Either way, what we've been through-It's a horror I don't wish on anyone and I am more than grateful that all of us survived and are on the "other side" of it now.

At our October play date with our Chinese children, we met 2 new friends and celebrated birthdays for 3 of them! Sarah was 3 on the 27th, Lia turned 2 on the 30th and a new friend, Lily turned 2 on the 30th, as well!

Hope you enjoy our little party. The weather was not good, so we had to move to a McDonald's play area. It still worked. The kids had fun, and so did we.

Lia was opening the card that Sarah gave her.

Sarah was slightly excited to open up her present!
Awww...look Mama! Another pink doggie to add to my collection! That makes 3 now that I just MUST sleep with! Mama, you may want to find me a twin bed now, so I can fit with all my animals!


Lia loved her little purple puppy purse!

Lia has the cutest smile! Don't bother trying to get more than one girl to look at the camera at the same time...I have given up on that one!

Yes, Sarah is smiling here...I know-she looks like she's in pain!
Sarah and Lia getting ready to blow out their candles. Sunny decided to give them a hand!

Blowing out candles!


Introducing Lily! Our new friend and she also shares the exact same birthday as Lia!

We are loving our cake!