Best Thanksgiving!

We had such a great week in very chilly mid-west!! We met up with both of my sisters and their families (one lives in Indy) & my parents. What a joy that all of my family now knows our sweet little miss Lily! On Thanksgiving day, we all drove over to Danville, IL to be at my Aunt Kathy's place. Thank you, Aunt Kathy & Uncle Fred for hosting such a wonderful day for all of us out of towners!!! We loved being with you all and wished we lived closer!

Lily took her 1st steps at my aunt's place on Thanksgiving day!!!!! I think we are weeks (or days) away from having a little toddler around here!! :-)

Lily came home with a bit of a cold & Hannah has something so I think we will be making some trips to the doctor's office this week.

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! I beyond thankful to the Lord for all He has done to bring us to a family of four this year!!

Studio City & Off to Indianapolis

On Friday Lily & I went to Studio City to visit my friend, Tracey. Trace owns an amazing tanning salon where I guess the "Who's Who of Hollywood" like to stay dark & beautiful! Tracey is such a sweetheart & it was wonderful to be able to introduce her to miss Lily. Of course, Lily was her perfect little self: smiling & happy!!! A few clients told me I need to go down the street & get Lily an agent. We'll see if Lily is headed for the Pampers commercials or not but I am having so much fun with this sweet bundle of love!!!

Hannah is an amazing big sister & continues to grow into her new role! I am so proud of her how she has handled the life changes the past 7 weeks or so.

Tomorrow we are all flying to Indianapolis to visit my entire family. It will be so great to introduce the newest niece to my sisters & to my dad!!

Happy Thanksgiving and all God's best --

Debbie

One Perfect Dog. One Crazy Dog.

I took Lily to the park today to take some pictures. I brought both dogs along for the fun. Our newest dog addition, Joy, was an angel from the moment the leash came out to walking to the park & then sitting nicely near Lily while I took pictures. On the other hand, our beagle, Abbie, was a maniac from the moment she saw the leash. She barked like a seal before we left the house, she tried to be pack leader most of the way to the park & then at the park she wouldn't sit near Lily so I tied her leash to the stroller. Next thing I knew, the stroller was being walked across the park! Can you imagine this crazy beagle?!

Regardless of dog issues ... I did get some great pictures of Lily. Enjoy. She is truly the world's easiest baby. She was just about to go down for a nap at this point in our day ... look at how happy she was for the photo shoot. What a honey!!!

Check out the quilt that Lily is sitting on ... a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!!! A big HUGE thank you to my friend Camille for such a beautiful handmade gift for Lily!!! Camille & her husband are simply amazing -- if you need a videos taken, edited, etc & live in the Southern California or Oregon area, check them out: www.cevideo.com

Live from the kitchen at 11PM

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

7 years ago yesterday my heart began to live outside of my body. I am so thankful to the Lord for my sweet Hannah - she is a precious gem of a daugther! She brings me so much joy, happiness and of course, at times, ..... challenges :-)

We had a fun day yesterday as a family on Hannah's "actual birthday" doing basically whatever she wanted ... Build a Bear & Rainforest Cafe. Lily enjoyed the stroller & skipping her afternoon nap. Let's just say Lily was very ready to go to sleep by the time we got home around 8pm.

On Friday after school we went to the park with some friends to celebrate with cupcakes (thank you, Wendy!!) and pizza. We are so blessed with such great people in our life!!!

To my little Hannah, Hannah -- thank you for making the past 7 years the best years of my life!!

November Fun

Besides Lily having a bit of a cold right now, life has been good here at home! Our miss Sha-Sha is teething big time. With all the drool that comes with teething, she can't keep the top of a shirt dry for more than 30 minutes :-)!

We went to Disneyland on Monday with the girls and Hannah's friend, Moriah. We were pre-celebrating at Disneyland for Hannah's upcoming 7th birthday! No big party this year but somehow I have found a way to stretch her birthday celebration into more than a week ... what a life!!!

Ok, I have to confess ... I haven't been blogging because I am addicted to my new Creative Memories software!!! I am organizing my photos online & creating beautiful scrapbook pages & cards with my new digital photo software. I am loving this software -- I can crop, edit or enhance the pictures & best of all, the program is soooo super easy!! For anyone that wants to actually do something with photos other than have the pictures sit on the hard drive, email me at eriksenvp at gmail dot com. I have the solution for you!!! Thank you so much to Tracy for introducing me to this program -- I love it!!!

The above picture cards took me about 10 minutes....amazing!

More JOY for our Family

Her name is Joy: she is a 5 year old easy going dog. Our beagle was not too excited for the latest addition to the family but Hannah loves her & Lily enjoys scooting around after her on the floor.

Last week I took our beagle, Abbie, to get a bath (she has been so itchy this year with allergies!). When we walked into the place, Lily spotted this cutie-pie dog & started pointing & squaking at her. Her owner was the receptionist. As we were leaving I kept telling the receptionist how much sweet & cute the dog was. She said, "do you want her?" Of course without hesitation, I said, "YES!" She went on to tell me she is working a bunch of jobs & is too busy to really care for the dog even though she is a dream dog. After 2 days of Joy being here at home, I have to agree! I have only heard her bark once & that was because she couldn't get off our bed.

Today Lily & I went to Palm Springs to meet up with some friends so they could meet her. We brought Joy with us for the mini-road trip. The dog is sooo easy that I literally forgot she was in the backseat with Lily! Lily did awesome today for the drive to / from Palm Springs. She slept the entire way out 1+ hour & slept the entire way back. I planned the travel time to be during her naps so it worked out great. She smiled it up for all the friends in the desert -- Miss Little Personality did not disappoint! It was soooo great to see all the girls in Palm Springs -- Brigitte, Deb C., Marci, Rozanne, Bridgette and Claudia. I am so blessed to call you all friends!!!!

One Month Home!

Today is one month home with our precious Lily!! I have included a bunch of pictures from the past month in this post. Right now, I am working on a "To China & Home" album from our 1st month with miss Lily.

After our illnesses of last week, we are all much better. Last weekend was SOMETHING else with the sickness going on at our house. It took almost this entire week to feel like things were back to normal.

Bullets from the one month mark:

* Lily is big time into "head butting". For real. I don't know where it came from but she has been doing it since we got her back to the hotel in Changsha. She will head butt Hannah so hard sometimes that Hannah has cried! Lily rarely cries over it & actually finds it to be very funny. Any other parents have kids out there that like to head-butt?? I have never seen this.

* Lily is totally used to her bedtime routine -- one of us goes in her room with her, turns on some mellow Chinese music (no, we don't know what they are singing!), turn off the lights. As soon as the lights are off, Lily will put her head on your chest. After rocking, she goes into her crib after she is sound asleep. Sometimes she fusses for a few seconds or a few minutes but after a bit she puts herself right back to sleep. She sleeps through the night -- and has every night since we were home, except for when she was sick.

* I love having weekdays with just Lily & I. Sometimes after we drop Hannah off at school we come back home, get into bed & nap until 10ish.

* Lily is definitely attached to us. Sometime when she wants me she will clearly say, "Momma". When she wants Daddy, she will say, "Baba". She clearly says Hannah's name .. "Nanna" for Hannah. So cute.

* Lily kind of crawls but it is more like a one-legged-tuck-scoot-maneuver. She has one leg tucked under herself & she scoots around on the floor. It is the cutest thing.

* I love that Lily's size is so small (about size 3-6 month clothing) because when I hold her I feel like she is much younger than she really is. It has made me feel like I didn't miss having her as a baby, baby. I know we missed her 1st year but something about her being so small has helped me.

* Lily eats pretty much anything. Her fine motor skills are fantastic -- she can pick up the tiniest bits of food & get them into her mouth.

* Our schedule has been pretty light since we got home. I purposely cleared my calendar for our first few months home. I am so glad I have had time to just be mom & not stress too much about having to be anywhere at a particular time each day. Right now all I need to stress about is getting the lid to the high chair cleaned off before the next meal / snack rolls around! Don't you hate when you go to put the baby back in the high chair & you realize you haven't cleaned it off from the previous meal / snack? That is my pet-peeve!!

* Lily loves taking baths in the kitchen sink. She loves to splash the water & play with her bath toys. She just discovered turning on & off the water -- a new trick & lots of fun!!!

* The transition has been so super smooth bringing Lily home. It feels like we have been home 6 months but in a good way because she fits in so perfectly as a member of the family. I am so grateful for how easy she has been & how sweet she is. She rarely cries. When she does something is definitely wrong. She is the most easy-going, easiest baby I have ever met in my life. Truly.

* Since we got home from China, I have thought every day about going back. Going back to either teach English & live for a year or two or going back to adopt another. I know what you are thinking: after the agony of waiting, how could I even consider signing up for another LONG road to adopt from China? It seems like a sick thought but truly my heart was changed while we were in China. I don't know what God has for us but I truly have a special love for the Chinese people.

* Everyday, multiple times a day I thank God for the gift of this precious girl!!! He answered my prayer in more ways that I could have ever imagined when I prayed for Lily to be "happy & filled with joy." Little did I know that she would be the people person extraordinaire & oozing with happiness. Thank you, Lord, that you delight in giving your children good gifts!!