PEOPLE....WE'VE GOT A CHUNKY MONKEY!!!

Oh the joy of fat babies. Rubber band wrists. Wonder thighs. Kankles. Belly pudge. We are pleased to announce that we got a lovely update via email about our sweet little Elias. He was weighed a few weeks ago which would have made him around 11-12 weeks and yes, he's a fatty. 14.3 pounds to be exact. His "delicate" weight was even mentioned in a brief description of his personality. I love it. Our girls have always been pretty petite so it will be fun to have a BIG BOY in the house! We are so thankful he is growing and healthy. Now I just NEED to get my hands on those thighs myself!!

MMMMM, ME LIKEY!!!!

Look what came in the mail!!!!!!!! I am so stoked. This necklace was made by ERYN. She is a fellow All God's Children Int'l adoption blogger who is raising funds to bring a little baby girl home. You can find all kinds of lovely little goodies that she makes HERE. If you want to be oh so fashionable and cool like moi, you will definitely want to pick one up, maybe with different names though.
*Note: For those that don't know me well, you need to know that I am not fashionable nor am I under the impression that I am cool. However, I can try.

AND THE WINNER IS....

We finally decided on a name for our sweet little boy...Elias. To be clear, that is not his current name given by his birth mother. We are reserving that very special name for his middle name.

So I think crossing over the threshold of September was huge for us, WE ARE BOTH REALLY EXCITED. So excited that I started shopping for our trip. Why are those little travel things so dang cute? I am a sucker for all of it! Could I not have wadded up a bunch of toilet paper into a ziplock bag and called it good? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I could not pass up on that cute little roll of Charmin in its cute little container!

Here's the rest of the room...

Changing area (Meris was very displeased that I changed Kiera on it, "it needs to be all clean for brother!!!")sorry...


Center rug


Photo-holder bulletin board- I made this with the matching receiving blankets



The bags that are in the crib...my version of organization. I'm starting to put all the appropriate stuff in the right bag. Trying to visualize how much room for all those donations, can't wait for that!!

Thanking God today that He is getting us through this crazy wait.

AHHH....THE SWEET MOMENTS OF LIFE!

I'm training for this....

City to Sea 1/2 Marathon
Click above for more details and join me!!

but I feel like this....

and this...

but if asked what really makes me motivated and happy it would be this....

Big Girl in the HOOOUUUSSE!!

So today our sweet little lady headed off to kindergarten. I did not surprise myself, completely dry eyes for both of us. I was just so excited for her, I guess I didn't have room to be sad. She looked so darn cute. And so infinitely more important, she is so darn sweet and gentle. So proud of you Meris! So here is a sample of the day....


Pre-coif for the day, we treated them to McDonald's for breakfast. Some brief worried tears were shed by Meris over her pancakes.



Ok, just so we're clear, Meris has a love affair with Hello Kitty (I cannot, I mean cannot stand the videos so we just stick with gear). So again, hello kitty underwear, backpack, skirt, socks and lunch box represented here.



Somebody thinks they just might be the cat's meow (get it...Hello Kitty?) I am just so freaking funny....



The contract she had to sign for school, too cute!!




Finally in her classroom. We transferred Meris out of our school district so that she could attend this school. Why? Because this is a special place. It's a dual immersion school. She will essentially only be taught in Spanish making her bilingual by 4th grade. And being in California, that is a huge bonus!!

GETTING READY FOR "BAHEY-BRUDDER"

Did you catch that? That's Kiera speak for baby brother. We have finally moved the girls in together, which has been errr...pretty much a lovely little nightmare! Kiera would like to party like a rockstar all night long. Meris agrees for a shorter amount of time. Pretty soon we have an all out screaming of glee and crying fit because Meris wants to go to sleep and Kiera is still thinking it's time to well...let's see 1. stand on top of their Dora table and turn the light switch on and off. 2. Crawl into sissy's bed. 3. Crawl under the pink couch and sing. 4. Pull sissy's blankets off. You get the idea!! Anyone got any great ideas to curtail the late night fun? Threats have not worked and it's well on to 10 pm when they finally drift off. But meanwhile, we are very excited about baby boy's room. I chose the bedding and it's displayed by the party girls mentioned above. Help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATES AND BIG TIME LOVE!

So this picture describes perfectly what's been going on in this household. First, we were blessed to get some updates from blogger friends who traveled to pick up their children. They were able to let us know that our sweet baby "A" is big and healthy. Perfect news for worried and obsessive-compulsive parents!! Thank you Karen, Sharon and Liz!

Second, Rob and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. It should be noted that I think he is fresh, exciting, a great gift and that my love has only grown more and more over the years. He's super duper and I can't imagine being with anyone else. We were gone all week on a wonderful getaway. Many thanks to Oma and Opa (Rob's parents who babysat the entire time)!!!! We came back refreshed and rejuvenated and yikes, did we start missing those little ladies!!!! However, may I just make a quick comment about being in the car together for 7 hours each way...no hourly pee pit stops, no when are we getting there comments, no moaning/groaning, no major grocery store to stock the car, no Dora the Explorer blaring in the background but most of all, no interrupted conversations!! We actually got to start and finish a conversation. That's pure CRAZINESS people!!!