MERRY CHRISTMAS

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Will today........... (above) now check out Will below..........amazing the difference in photos heh. doesn't he look so lost below and so healthy and happy above. I'm tellin ya, adoption is a wonderful thing:)

Will one year ago...................This photo was sent to us on Christmas Eve last year.....

What a difference a year makes.......It makes me cry that he was not with us last year and he didn't have me to snuggle him and his sisters to tell him how much they love him. Every night Will makes his rounds to his sisters beds to kiss them goodnight and say his I love yous. It is very adorable. Then he makes his way to our bed, snuggles up and slips into dreamland. No more nightmares, he is so attached and bonded to all of us. We are looking forward to Christmas morning with him and his eyes all aglow.

fun in the snow

Here is JC doing a balancing act with a snow chunk that the snowplow guy created by plowing all the snow on the road to the sides. These boulders were "KEY" in creating their first snowfort of the year under the pines in our cul de sac.

Will joins right in on the fun. The cold doesn't seem to affect him like I thought it would. He just goes with the flow... He was very interested in collecting the boulders and helping the snowfort gang create their home.

Climbing the snow mountain that Mr. Snowplow guy created

Jaymie pretending she got hit by Mr. Snowplow guy! Very funny Jaymie.

I won

After a failed attempt on EBAY, I was so sad that I did not win this necklace. I mean who else in this world is as excited about little Bill as I am? Apparantly someone as they got up at 5am and outbid me! I was so bummed when I lost the bid. So a few days later I went on EBAY again and found an EBAY store that sold these at a bargain price! I also could use the buy it now option:) When I told Jacklyn she said to me "MOM, you are NOT wearing that!" She thinks I bought it for me. So I played her game for a while telling her that I was going to wear it, and I couldn't wait for the mailman to bring it to me! Then I finally told her it was for Will, and she settled down a bit. Apparantly it is cool for Will to wear but not her mom! So my little man is getting his Little Bill necklace in his stocking! It will eventually end up in his memory box I'm sure!

Wordless Wednesday

decorating cookies

As part of "Christmas in Wales" the local bakery had a table set up for kids to decorate their own christmas cookie. Here is Jaymie flashing her smile before she got started frosting away.

Forget the cookie.........don't you just want to eat him up? I could, really I could :)

brave boy

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, Santa's not so bad second time around! We went to Christmas in Wales, our old stomping grounds on Sat. Santa was at the village hall and we gave sitting on Santa's lap a second try. Will had no fear, got right on his lap and had a little conversation. If at first you don't succeed, try again! I'll post more pictures of our afternoon in Wales. The kiddos had a lot of fun.

Snow day!!

The kids and I had our first "Snow day" today! It's always fun telling them to stay sleeping because there is too much snow to go to school. They get so excited that they can't contain themselves and don't take advantage of the extra sleep. When it is good packing snow, the kids have a good old time rolling snowballs all over the yard. Jeffrey left town early this am, so he escaped the job of shoveling the driveway........luckily my friendly neighbors came through for me and used their snowblower on our driveway. The snow is so heavy, I think I would have been out for weeks with lower back pain if I had to shovel it. Yes, we live in WI and do not own a snowblower. Crazy I know, but the house we lived in before this had a very short driveway and so we always shoveled it. We should buy one now because if we do, we will probably have a tropical rest of the winter and not have to use it. Anyhow, I'll post photos of Will in the snow later. He really likes it. He cracks me up walking around in his snowpants. He waddles around in all his snow gear.

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Conversations with Will

If you are by chance flying through Dubai for your adoption you will want to pick up this mug on the way to Addis as on the way back you will not have time! I almost waited to buy it because I did not want to hual it to Ethiopia, but something told me to get it when I was in the line at Starbucks before getting on the plane to Addis. Anyhow, I love my Dubai Starbucks mug with the camels on it. It sparked a converstion with Will this am, which I'll share as it shows how powerful reading to children is. Will asked me as he often does about animal noises, what a camel says as he pointed to my mug. Well, I was not too sure the sound a camel makes or even for that matter if I could immitate it. So I made a little spitting sound. He said "camels spit?" I said yes, I believe so, then he proceeds to go get his book, From head to toe byEric Carle flips to the picture of the camel and says, "they bend their knees too mama!" He remembered the info I had read to him a couple days ago. I've probably read this book about 5 times to him and he connected to it and referenced it for more info. He knew exactly where to go, and showed me what he knew and learned about camels in the book. I love that our little man loves books! He learns so much from them.

Mr. Brave...........

Oh, yeah...... I'm down with the Santa guy. No problem mama, I'll sit on his lap and tell him what I want. I like this red hat that he wears too. I'm glad we have matching hats.

Ummm wait a sec..........I didnt think he was this big! This big white beard kinda scares me. I'm not letting go of you Jacklyn....check out those clenched fingers!

Nope, still not letting go

OK, I'll give a little smile, but I'm not letting go! There will be no sitting by myself on Santa's lap. Not this year... maybe next year mama!

First visit with Santa

Tomorrow we head to the bank to see Santa. Yes, he stops at our bank every Christmas to visit with the kiddos! I know Santa visited Wills orphanage last year, but I'm not sure he had a clue who he was or if he was given some background knowledge of the guy before he showed up. Well, Will knows all about Santa now thanks to the girls and my reading about 35 books to him about Christmas. Tomorrow we will see if Mr. Brave is brave enough to go sit on Santas lap. He was not thrilled about seeing the giant Easter bunny in April... but heh he had only been here 2 mo in April. I'll be sure to have my camera ready if he crawls up on his lap. It will be interesting to hear what he says that he would like. Will would be happy if we wrapped him up a case of water! He is so darn easy to please. The girls, Jeffrey and I played Apples to Apples tonight and Will just colored on the ground by my feet on a huge piece of paper and every once in a while crawled up on our laps to check out the cards. He is watching Grease with the girls now. St. Nick comes tomorrow night, so Sunday morning should be fun as the girls and him open up their stocking for small little treats from St. Nick himself! It was such a hard Dec. last year, knowing our little man was half way across the world on Christmas. We are so blessed to have him now and are able to see the magic through his eyes!

Wordless Wednesday

Im still here!

Yep, Im still here. A trek up to MN, black Friday with the girls(up at 4am), spending the night at a waterpark, spending 1 night at my brothers in MN, driving back, unpacking, laundry, more shopping, decorating for Christmas, celebrating the beautiful girl aboves birthday,making classroom bday treats, and trying to ship off packages to destinations around the US and Christmas shopping. Whew. We had a great time up in MN visiting with my bro and his family. Will has come a long way with his car seat issues. He used to bite me (and I had bruises up and down my arm) when I restrained him in the car seat. He did awesome with the help of Jaymie and Jacklyn and a couple episodes of Little Bill. He is quickly learning his Christmas vocabulary and taking it all in. He loves to see the lights on houses and our tree. It will be so much fun having a toddler experience Christmas with us again:) I missed that! I'm on the hunt for the perfect First Christmas ornament for him. I have not had luck yet though. Jaymie as always got an early taste of Christmas having a Dec. 1 bday. My little girl is 9! She starts the next level in her gymnastics class tomorrow since she got her backhandspring.......she moves up! A little scary for me, as I am not thrilled seeing her flip around like she does. But she enjoys it and I am happy she is involved with that and basketball. Well off to get my 9 year old ready for school! Will and I have a big day of shopping ahead of us! Sorry for the delay in posts. I got several comments.....wondering where I was....( I don't ever publish my comments, but I get quite a few) and it is nice to know I have people tracking Will's progress with our family. I know I enjoyed reading the progress of toddlers when we were in our adoption process.