Another Episode of unloading the camera

You can never have enough syrup with your [empty] plate of pancakes.

Gives "good to the last drop" a whole new meaning!


I came around the corner the other day to find this... don't you just love the "what me" look on her face?!?


So, I asked Abigail, "What are you doing? Blowing your nose? (duh right)" of which she placed the toilet paper to her nose and made a huge 'zirbert' sound.

I figured at this point it didn't do me any good to take it from her and clean up as there was only a little bit left on the roll.


She sure had fun with it though.



All dressed up in her Valentine's wear from Grammy P. (notice the hearts across the top of her blouse)

Playing Connect Four with her cousin. Grammy W brought cousins E & C over to celebrate Tanner's birthday a few weeks ago.

Notice the determined look on Abigail's face? I think she was trying to copy cousin E's smile.

Lovin' Life at 17 months

Though she's only been with our family now for 5 months & 8 days, she's Lovin' Life at 17 months old today!!!

Miracles DO Happen

Sadly they didn't happen for Dalton. There's always 2010!

He phoned me this morning from the tournament and told me that my prayers for a miracle do work, but for the wrong reasons. I was puzzled to say the least as I couldn't possible figure out what that meant. He went on to explain the #1 place guy from another Region missed weight this morning, which means the #1 guy is out and their alternate guy gets to participate in the tournament in his place.

I asked Dalton what that would be like to be the #1 guy, work incredible hard to make it this far and miss it all because you ate one too many crispy nuggets the night before (okay not literally). Well, all I can say is that would be absolutely awful in all areas!

Nonetheless, Dalton is having an amazing time and the experience alone will stay with him for a long time to come.

To My Son

Dear Dalton,

There is so much I want to say to you, but first I want to say how much I love you ~ more than the number of stars in the sky, more than grains of sand on the beach!

I am so incredibly proud of you and the young man you are growing and becoming more and more each day.

What great joy it is for me to join with you in supporting all your hard work out on the mat. The time, dedication, energy you have put into becoming a great wrestler truly has and will continue to pay off. (BTW, thanks for the ulcer too, having to watch such nail biting 6 minute matches in a row).

Even though this morning dawns with disappointment and even a bit of sadness, you still deserve to be congratulated on taking 5th place in your Regional tournament. I know you had such a big dream and that your prayer was that you would make it to State!? Well honey you are doing it. I realize it's not as an active wrestler but it is as an alternate! Try not to focus much on what you consider 'losses' but rather on what you have accomplished this year! Taking 1st place at Districts will forever be a high-light in your life. Looking at all the wrestlers you are competing with at this level and knowing they have wrestled since they were in diapers and you only started 4+ years ago - now that is something to be proud of.

My prayer for you now is that you will take the experience/wisdom/knowledge you have received from this weekend and all that you will glean from this next one and use it for good, as God intended for you to! I KNOW next year will blow your (and my) socks off.

You're forever in my heart,
Mom

A Week in Review

So much has gone on this past week and I haven't had the time to blog about it, so I thought I would just do a week in review.

• Tanner turned 15 - Yahoo!
• 
• Dalton won 1st place in our district wrestling tournament
• We 'officially' finished all of our legal paperwork for Abigail (I did post about this one)
• Ripped up carpet and replaced with wood floor in T & A's room (long story but humidifier leaked and flooded carpet, pad & subfloor)
• Found a few more grey hairs - ugh!
• Took Abigail in for her 1st US series of shots & full blood draw for work-up (she screamed, though I believe from being held down more than from the pain of it all. The lab technicians were REALLY good).
• Usual 'Mom' stuff - laundry, cleaning, cooking, shopping
• Abigail and Mommy did a little 'toddler' baking time together (she pretends to make soup with my pots and pans)
• Did I mention a few more grey hairs!?!

Saturday I am off again to yet another wrestling tournament. This time for Regionals (several counties competing with one another). A finish in the top 3 will mean an opportunity to wrestle in the Washington State Finals Wrestling tournament (a really big deal).

So, for all you 'cheerers' out there, come Saturday we could use - a hip, hip hooray for Dalton to finish well for his chance to fulfill a high school dream of his!!!

It's Official

As if it wasn't already official enough - today we had our court appointment to officially finalize our adoption of Abigail (in WA you have to go through the process of what they call re-adopt in order to get a US birth certificate, SS card, passport, etc.).

Now, talk about being a total 'dork', guess who forgot the camera?? So, I have no photo proof of our event - ugh! Nonetheless, it was a great day. When the commissioner asked me if I understood that requesting to have Abigail as my daughter was a lifelong journey, meaning it didn't stop at age 18, and did I fully understand this ~ I began to chuckle. I don't think she read our paperwork very closely as she had the impression this was our first. I politely told her that, "Yes, I did understand it was a life long process as we too have 3 teen-age boys at home as well." She smiled, chuckled along with us and replied, "then I guess you do understand."

So, I guess we get to say good-bye to paperwork...for now!

Feeling better already!

As you can see from the photos below, Abigail is feeling so much better. The rest of us are well on our well too, just a lingering cough or two between a few of us still. Our weekend was pretty uneventful, a nice relaxing one. The temps have warmed up (47 degrees) quite a bit from a week or so ago (21 degrees), which is so nice. I actually think that there is hope for spring yet!

Big brother is trying to get Abigail to smile and as you can tell, she's being really "tight" lipped about it, though I found it quite funny.

FINALLY!!!

I LOVE this picture. I took this picture while holding Abigail on my lap. She was playing 'snuggle' with me and when she laid her head down I held the camera out (mind you I couldn't see what I was taking) and snapped whatever was in view.

This one just says "Guilty" all over it! I just love her expression though.

This is what the "Mommies on the bus say, Sshhh, sshhh, sshhh!" One of her favorite songs!