Our Elf on the Shelf

I'm sure everyone has heard of "the Elf on the Shelf" book. If you have children who still "believe" and don't have one of these books, you should go out and buy one right now (see 1st photo)!!! Once you get your own elf, you are free to name him. My boys named our elf, "Fritz Fritz" - not sure where this name came from, but it has stuck.

photo from http://www.thepinkmonogram.com

So Fritz Fritz made it back from the North Pole yesterday and landed on the top bunk in the boys room. I was downstairs in the kitchen, and both boys come tearing down the stairs screaming, "Mom, Mom, come quick"! I didn't know what to think. They drug me up to their room, and sure enough, there he was - just sitting there. Well, at our house, Fritz Fritz flies back to the North Pole each night to report back to Santa on Butch and Lil' Roy's behavior for the day. Today, however, Butch decides he's gonna send a letter back with him to Santa Claus - I mean, it can't hurt, can it?

From Thanksgiving to Christmas

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at TheDentist's parents house. We had such a large feast! Everything was wonderful. We even got his family together to take a group photo!

Butch with our brand new cousin

Pop

TheDentist and my BIL

My Mom, Sister and me

Another family photo

And now that Thanksgiving is over...let the Christmas decorating begin.

Friday, Butch and Lil' Roy helped me make the annual Gingerbread house.

Butch and Lil' Roy (in Kung Fu Panda gear) posing with the house

Yesterday was so nice here so TheDentist and I were able to get all the Christmas lights, garland, wreaths and balls up!

I always love the Christmas season! I love to decorate, but it does get exhausting! We have been decorating the inside all day today, but there is much left to do. I will post photos when it is all over!

To Be Thankful

Butch and Lil' Roy

There are just too many things to list here that I am thankful for...the biggies though are

*my beautiful boys

*my wonderful, heaven-sent husband who provides both love and humor in my daily life

*my little princess who is somewhere in Russia just waiting to come home to us

*my family (we miss you so this year, Daddy)

*my house

*my job (which I don't like but I am very thankful for in this day and age)

*my fabulous friends - I don't know what I'd do without you!

*my Carolina Tar Heels

*my country - I am proud to be an American

Here's to a Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours!

"Remember God's bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!"

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Rainy Day “Monday” Blues

Yesterday it was a chilling 40 degrees and rainy. It was one of those days that already looked like nighttime around 3 pm. Ugh…I greatly dislike those days…

TheDentist and I had car trouble this past weekend returning from the UNC-NC State game (don’t even ask – it was ugly). He took the car in to the dealership Monday morning bright and early BECAUSE we had purchased the extended 100,000 mile warranty. We were thinking the transmission was blown, and surely that would be covered.

Around 11am yesterday, I get a text from TheDentist which says “Heard from dealership. Call me.” Uh Oh, I thought to myself! That cannot be good news that he is needing to share. So I waited a few minutes, and then I called.

YES, it is the transmission. It is not fixable; it will need replacing. And to top it all off, that extended warranty that we purchased that NEVER paid for anything expired three months ago!!!

Ugh! So I was hoping for some really good news or something yesterday to help me get past it…you know, like an unexpected call from the agency. That didn’t happen. TheDentist did drag me to Body Pump so I was able to exercise my frustrations away. There is one thing to be thankful for in this experience, however, and that is we have that car paid off. At least we aren’t still making payments on it AND replacing major parts.

A Pier One Find

It is that time of year again!!! I have already started my yearly traditions of enjoying Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks and listening to my Christmas playlist on the iPod. It's true that every year we seem to rush Christmas and bypass Thanksgiving. I don't mind starting to decorate for Christmas early. That just helps my sanity level in December! As for Thanksgiving...we have not skipped that celebration yet. And I don't plan to any time soon. As a matter of fact, we are planning a huge meal at my in-law's house, and my mom, sister and her husband are all going with us.

Back to the topic...I was in Pier One Imports the other day. I don't shop there too often, but I always love their Christmas ornaments and decorations. This year, they have a section of International handblown glass ornaments. And, can you believe they had one painted like a Matryoshka doll? I bought all that my store had (some for me to keep as well as some to give as gifts). I think this ornament is so cute, and it makes me think of Emma every time I look at it. In fact, I have already decorated Emma's tree, and this ornament has found a home there.

Enjoy!

Adoption Update

I got a call yesterday from our agency! There is a little girl who may still be available for International adoption in the region of Sakhalin (the island north of Japan). All we know is that she is between 2 to 3 years old. That is a lot older than we had originally had our hearts set on. Almost immediately, I decided to not even persue this little girl. From the very beginning, we had told the agency that we were open to any region of Russia except for Sakhalin. The main reason was because it is an eight hour flight from Moscow, and there are extra costs involved with adopting from that region.

Anyway, our agency coordinator kept talking about the region, and the successful adoptions that they are seeing there. She also reminded me that most of the other children are older coming out of every region because of the foster care system.

The Disadvantages to this region

1. More travel...longer flights

The Advantages

1. Medical information is available before travel

2. Possibly up to 2 photos available before travel

3. Most adoptions are having the 10 day waiting period after court waived

The more she talked, the more interested I became so I asked if she could forward me the information. That's when she told me that our dossier will need to be filed in Sakhalin before the information will be released. That scared me a little - like I was thinking, does this lock us in to adopting from this region only if this little girl does not work out? I asked our coordinator to find that out for us. I told her that I would call TheDentist and see how he felt about it too...

So...I hung up the phone very excited. I called TheDentist who actually answered his phone. He immediately said to go for it...have our dossier filed to get the information. He didn't even want to wait to see if we would be locked in to that region.

I called our coordinator back and had to leave all that in a voicemail. I finally got a call back from her about 5 hours later, and she had spoken with the facilitator in Russia. She requested our dossier be filed, and she found out that we are not locked in to that region!

The information will hopefully be sent out, translated and forwarded to us by the middle of December!

I am really trying hard not to get excited since this is the second little girl that could be our daughter.

We shall see...we'll just wait and pray taking it one day at a time until we receive the information.

Christmas Card Photo Shoots

It's that time of year again...the time when you really start stressing about sending out the PERFECT Christmas card! I have had two Christmas cards in a row that I just loved! This year, however, I am having some major issues getting Butch and Lil' Roy to cooperate! I mean, is that hard to stand there and smile? Well, let me tell you - for a five and seven year old, it must be!

As you can see, we have endured four different "shoots" in search of the perfect photo to build our 2008 card around...

This photo was taken while tailgating before a UNC football game. It's ok, but not what I had in mind!

The photo above as well as the one below were taken one Sunday afternoon in September. We had TheDentist's family over for my MIL's birthday, and I got the whole family dressed up in Carolina gear just trying to capture that perfect shot! While we did get a few cute photos, none of the ones taken with my camera were Christmas card worthy.

This photo was taken this summer in Wilmington! I do like it, but we've used it a lot already on this blog as well as in our website... www.myadoptionwebsite.com/journeytoemma

This is another "session" that we had a couple of weekends ago. The day was very nice so I had TheDentist build a fire in the outdoor fireplace. The boys put on their brand new Christmas pjs, and we went out for the shoot. I took probably 50 pictures that afternoon. This is the cream of the crop. Again, it is a cute photo, but just not sure about its place in our line of Christmas cards.

Thankfully, my SIL has taken a couple of photos that may work for our card! She is currently working on one for me using Photoshop since I don't have that program. I am crossing my fingers that this will be the ONE. I just don't think I am up for another round with Butch and Lil' Roy!

I have a Spoiled Rotten Five year Old

I HAVE A SPOILED ROTTEN 5 YEAR OLD

Ok…so the other day I am walking by my five year old perched atop our sofa. His shoes have long since been kicked off, and he is sitting there with socked-feet. He just looks so cute so I stop and bend down in front of him. Those little tootsies were calling my name so I smiled at him and started to massage his feet. After a few seconds, I started to ask him a question about the cartoon he was watching, and he promptly responded with,

“Mom…stop talking – just rub!”

I don't just make these things up!!!

Lil Roy

Epcot

Not much has happened this week unfortunately as far as the adoption is concerned. I did find really cute handblown Christmas ornaments at Pier One Imports. There are several in their "International" ornament collection. My favorite is of course the green one with the Matryoshka doll face painted on it. I bought all they had at my store! :) Please enjoy the Epcot photos...this is my favorite park at Disney, but the boys did not really appreciate it - Yet!

More from The Magic Kingdom

Catching Up

The boys getting ready to trick-or-treat in the Magic Kingdom

"Goodbye" in Russian - from It's a Small World

The Teacups - one of our favorites!

Where does the time go? I can't believe it has been 20 days since I last posted here! A lot has happened since then though! A little catch-up on the adoption first: We did receive our amended paperwork back from the Secretary of State's office and that was then forwarded on to our agency on 10/28/08. I did find out today that the packet has arrived in Russia .

Secondly, we took the boys to Disney World for fall break this year. They had a blast. One of our very favorite things was going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom on Halloween night. If you have the chance to do this, go! Even as an adult, I had a great time! The boys wore their costumes (Yoda and Darth Vader), but TheDentist and I did not! Next time, we surely will! It was a lot of fun. We went to all of the Disney parks except for Animal Kingdom while we were there. There is just so much that we did not get to do on this trip so I am trying to convince TheDentist that we need to go back SOON!

Please enjoy these photos from the Magic Kingdom!!!