Maddies Christmas recital!

Isnt she precious!!! Maddie had her Christmas recital today. She did really good, and was so cute! I wont lie, it actually was their worst recital to date... the teacher started changing the dances the last couple weeks and was forgetting all of the dance herself, which left some very unsure and confused girls. Maddie was stuck next to a girl that hardly ever comes and stopped dancing at one point to put her back in her place lol. There are 3 girls that know there stuff (Maddie being one) and even they were left standing and staring a few times, looking to the teacher like HUH and she was like hmmmm LOL Also the costumes were rediculously UGGGLY! I mean come on I LOVE my daughter being adorable and for her to be stuck in some frumpy green velvet dress the completely hid her cute little body and hello her legs which you need to see for dancing I was pretty ticked. The white was see through and the tutu was Malias size length wise. I think most of us moms were pretty ticked with the outcome.

Still considering, I think Maddie was adorable and got lots of compliments from parents around us. She is such a sweet teeny tiny little thing with such a star personality! Just love her so much. So there are 3 dances so if you stick around and watch the whole thing THANKS!!

Also a shout out to Tami and Silas for coming and watching, it meant a ton.... not having family around to watch is hard especially seeing everyone elses hanging and watching, and I realized how much it meant when I about cried seeing you walk in!!!! Sorry for the cheese!

Pics and video

Ok here the stuff is from the previous post

Triming the Forest

On Sunday we enjoyed decorating the tree! We really had a great time getting it all out and looking at the old ornaments and remembering them. We also enjoyed adding to our forest now that we have added to our family! We each have our very own tree to decorate even little miss Malia!

First my tree.. I finally get a pretty tree!! I have always always wanted just a grown up pretty tree but have always wanted the kids to be able to decorate and have cutsie type decor so Ive never done it. Well this year with adding a tree I needed new ornaments for my tree so I chose red and silver and I think it turned out pretty!

Richs tree is the Santa tree and of course he did a great job lol

Kadens tree is the snow man tree, he choose that one because it had the most decorations to put on! Smart boy!

Maddies tree is the reindeer/snowflake/candy cane tree. It all together really looks cute and she did a great job... after some rearranging!

Malias tree is the everything else tree. It has a very pretty angel topper and then home made/school made crafts and anything else that doesnt match like all of Kadens football ornaments etc. I had seen these very precious adoption ornaments last year and saved the page so that when we were able to bring our sweetie home I would be able to purchase one of our own. So now Malia has her very own very special stork carrying a little asian baby with the Korean flag. I LOVE it and I think she will charish it always! If you want one of your own you can to here to Mandy's moon.

I was pretty stressed out about Malia wanting into the ornaments but while decorating we realized she is TERRIFIED of a Santa that we have, so after decorating I put the santa next to the trees and she hasnt gotten close ONCE! Its AWESOME!! She gets close and accident and runs away and cries... mean maybe BUT she is staying safe! I took a little video showing what he does and her reaction... she gets so scared she freezes and cant move away from him. But he is a life saver! And Im hoping she doesnt decide to get brave and like him!!

BTW the family picture Im posing really cheesy but I was trying to hide an ornament from Malia so she would smile for the camera... didnt work O'well! lol

Anyways it was a ton of fun getting us all together listening to christmas music and seeing Malia getting to enjoy Christmas for the very first time. I cant wait to see her little face on Christmas morning!
OO I loaded the wrong video heres one from today though. We finally got some good snow... I will load the other one later!

THE SPOTTED ZEBRA BOUTIQUE

Have you heard of
THE SPOTTED ZEBRA BOUTIQUE?

If not then it is time to head over to their website
http://www.thespottedzebraboutique.blogspot.com/
This is the next Craft Fair I am participating in and I am super excited!
Check out their other vendors, because there will be some super cute things there.
You will find some fabulous things that will make super Christmas presents!

So if your gonna be in Utah and want to do some super fun shopping head on over and find my sis... who covers for me thankfully since we have little Malia home!!

They are also doing a GIVE-AWAY each day until the fair next Friday!!!
Log on to their website for details!
Today's give away is some of our hair clips!
Be sure to check back each day for a new give-away!

Gotcha Video a special Sunday Update

This has been a work in progress and Ive done about as much as I could do with about 12+ hours of work put in. There are still some issues we cant figure out like the pinnacle sign but for now we share with you all, our Gotcha video of sweet Malia. I watched so many of these throughout our process and they truly helped me through some rough days. Seeing families with their babies home made it seem possible. I'm hoping others will get that from ours too. There are parts of this video that I pictured in my mind for over a year. Of course imagining and figuring how to bring to life is different with my skills but I love the video and hope you all do too!

Girl can talk!

Finally getting some snow tonight!!
You cant see them but we were playing with bubbles

CUTE GIRL!!



She was saying everything so good until the camera came out... of course!

In 7 weeks I think Malia is doing remarkably with her words. HAHAHA to all those who ask how she will cope with the language barrier LOLOL!! She has about 10 words at least I think. She lately has been copying me pretty well too. She usually starts off with momma and then will move on to other words. Tonight Rich took the kids to the movie and Malia and I hung out at home. She was sounding out Maddie (somewhat) but when it comes to Kaden he is still aba. Some new words are... poop (which btw if you tell her to poop she will try, and if she isnt having issues she gets the job done! I think potty training might be pretty easy with her!) Maddie, shoes, pretty, ruff ruff, hair hmmm I think Im missing a couple. But really if I sit and say a word over and over again and she is in the mood she will say it back. So anyways tonight she was climbing all over me and eating some pretzels when she started laying in my lap and saying momma so I got her to say a few words. They dont sound great mostly just the sounds because of her full mouth but I think you can see how well she is doing and how freaking cute she is, even though she was being silly and not totally copying everything!

Ya Turkey Day!

Today has been super sweet for me. Being a day of reflection and being thankful I am full of gratitude for all that I have been given this year and for all that I have. As Malia slept in my arms today after her first Thanksgiving I was almost breathless at thinking how far we have come in such a short time. I can not believe how lucky we are to have this sweet girl in our home. What a true blessing she is to us all. We were talking tonight about how just normal she seems. I cant pin point one thing right now that doesnt seem exactly the same as any of the other kids at her same age. She comes to us when she is sad hurt hungry or happy! She loves to just toddle around the house and explore. She is super smart I believe. To think that this time last year was actually very hard for me. Vietnam adoptions were falling apart and I couldnt get any information from our agency and I was beginning to feel like I had bought into a sham. Well fast forward to know and having Malia home I am still in shock at our luck and the Love the Lord has for us in giving us this sweet girl.

I also feel very blessed that in this very hard economy right now that we are still doing well. Im so glad my husband is such a hard worker and able to supply us with all of our needs. Im so grateful to the older two kids and how well they have adapted to the big changes we have had the last couple months. I am grateful for health. Im so grateful to my sister who is always there for me... wish we could be together for the Holidays but maybe next year A???

I am very grateful for close friends. We had the Zimmers over today for Thanksgiving and it was just the best Thanksgiving ever. After they left tonight Kaden said that was my best Thanksgiving ever... he then said he thinks it was 53% because of the food and the rest because the Zims had joined us. We had such a great time and great food. I think we all walked away from the table wishing we could shove down more but all needing to stop. We are so thankful to have such good friends who are always there for us and were brave enough to trust me with a turkey dinner YIKES! I got a little fancy with my napkins on the grown up table but I think it turned out cute. After dinner we cleaned up played games and ate pie. It was so much fun! Thanks to Tami and Caleb for bringing some very yummy food... BTW I totally forgot to steal some of your roles! UGH!!

I had fun in the kitchen today. The kids helped me with different things. Maddie helped me with turkey tail rolls and some pies. Kaden helped me with frog eye salad and taking out lots of garbage. And Rich was there helping where ever I needed him! And little miss Malia was there on my toes begging to be held which though I had to keep passing her off, just the fact that she wanted me so badly was a gift! Oh and Maddie decorated the kids table. She was so pleased with herself and kept rearranging until it was finally time to eat.

So for me this year Thankful isnt a big enough word but I am Thankful for all that I have, and for having such a blessed year!