I've been trapped and cutie christmas gifts

This is Lily's new favorite place. She has had it since her birthday but it has just become her passion. She has discovered that mommy fits in here too. If you wonder where I am I am probably trapped inside the Thomas tent. We pretend to chuga chuga choo choo and talk about the things we see on our trip. Usually we see Sir Topamhat along the way.

Just takin a second to remember what Peter looks like. He's still pretty hunky. :)

Stuey visits us here too.

Static cling is no laughing matter.

And these fine treasures were given to us from Lily's Auntie Nalii. How sweet are these treasures.

New yahoo group join me please.

So I have this idea. I'm on vacation and sitting with my cumputer kind of contemplating all that adoption has brought me and all that is to come. I was thinking about this blogging community and how I love that I have met all of these cool moms. Wouldn't it be great if we had a place to come together sit with our coffee and chat. Maybe you already do this I don't know. My daughter is in her third year. She is going to be understanding adoption very soon. She already gets it a little. She knows she is from Guatemala. She knows her birth mommy gave her the name Rubi and we gave her the name Lilyana. I love reading adption books but they don't give me the real conversation that I crave. I love reading everyones blogs but they also don't give me the conversations I crave or the insight that I think I'll be needing one day. So I started a yahoo group for adoptive parents. I know nothing particularly new about that but I thought it could be a place for all us blogger moms that leave comments on eachothers blogs to actually get to have conversations that we don't have on our blogs. So if your interested please join my new group. I hope it can be a village for our children. And leave the link on your blog to get the word out to as many moms as we can. My blog is not as popular as some of yours out there. Hope you join me.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/circleofadoptiveparents

Favorite foto Friday

Merry Christmas everyone. Here is my favorite picture of the best gift ever. She kept us laughing yesterday as you can see. Have a very wonderful new year celebration!

Merry Christmas!

When Lily woke up this morning I went to get her and she didn't want to get up. She was afraid Santa was still lurking near. Once I assured her that Santa was snoozing in the North Pole she was quite happy to come and see her presents.

Santa brought her trains in her stalking. How did he know?

It is hard to smile with a mouth full of candy.
Santa is trying to transistion her to a bike. She fell over once on her tricycle and we can not get her back on it cause it made her fall. We were hoping that being lower to the ground would be encouraging.

A little christmas walk.

Our baby alive doll is my new favorite toy. Lily takes such good care of her. Apparently Abby was both tired and hungry. At least someone is using the big girl bed.

Future Dr. Delap

Best Gift Ever

Seriously silly and cute!

Lily has decided to give mommy and daddy the best christmas gift ever dare I say my girl is fully potty trained! She goes all by herself now. We still haven't been able to use a public restroom but really who can blame her. So Merry Christmas to me and goodbye to diapers.

A Truly Magical Christmas Eve!

During the day I was busy baking and steaming. I made chicken tamales which are a continued work in progress. I dare say that this year my tamales are the best yet. I used serano peppers instead of jalepeno peppers and they gave them the perfect bite. My divine plan was to start our own Las posadas of sorts. (Las Posadas explained: Typically, each family in a neighborhood will schedule a night for the Posada to be held at their home, starting on the 16th of December and finishing on the 24th. Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (peregrinos), who have to request lodging by going house to house singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. ) So I can not exactly celebrate Las Posadas in the traditional way but I could do a part of it. Las Posadas ends on christmas eve and is traditionally celebrated by eating tamales. So Nonnie and Papa rented a limo yes I said a limo and went christmas light sight seeing my idea of guatemalan flair was to come home and eat tamales and drink hot chocolate. Well by the end of our ride we had two way overtired girls so the eating of tamales did not happen but I will continue the tradition next year and see if we can have a snack at the end. Don't know if a limo will be involved but it was sure fun!

Treat bags to take in our carriage.

Opening our one gift on christmas eve.

Lily got this baby Alive doll. I super wanted the doll that speaks spanish as well as english but while we were shopping she only had eyes for this blue eyed beauty. Thank you nonnie Lily loves her new baby.

Miss Ava got herself a guitar.

I am sad we didn't get a picture of the outside of the limo but I insisted on wearing slippers in the rain so I couldn't stand outside for long. That is pure wonder in those little eyes.

One happy mommy and daddy.

Girls kickin it in the backseat.

Everyone took turns visiting them back there. Daddy is adjusting the temperature.

Nonnie got a turn.

Mommy got a turn, but was promptly told she was in Nonnies seat.

Just a little christmas cheer :)

One tuckered out little one. Sweet dreams miss Ava.

Here are the cookies for our friend Santa. Enjoy.

Old friends and a new one!

My brother in law and sister in law are here from Oregon so we took time to visit our friend Amy. All of us went to high school together and Amy just became a mommy. Meet her cutie patootie Tyler. Lily was a little jealous of the attention the new baby got.
Peter with our nephew Kai.

Lily and her cousin Sophia.

The Crew, I sure wish they lived closer.

And the tres amingos. Boy did we get into trouble as teens. We have some serious karma coming to us. Nalii gets to go first as her kids are entering there teens. I tried to scan pictures of us as teenagers but my scanners not working so check back. I'll try again later.

Early christmas

My brother and sister inlaw have to work on christmas and christmas eve so we had an early christmas. We had fun and Lily played with her big cousin!

Santa Stuey enjoyed being Santa as much as Lily enjoyed the idea of sitting on his lap. I think he makes a most handsome Santa.Uncle Troy and cousin Ava.
Papa and Auntie Jessica.



Presents under the tree!

The girls taken a rest after some serious playing. Today was the first time they really interacted with eachother. It made my heart soar to see them play.

My big bro and his fam.

Lily looks a little like a hoo from Dr Suess. Thought it was funny.

Presents!

Ava liked her jewlery and her jewles. It was wrapped inside a grape juice box and she thought we really got her grape juice. Her reaction was priceless kids are so honest. Glad she ended up liking the gift inside.

Coloring after dinner

Visit with Santa

Well we tried to visit Santa. Notice I didn't buy a fancy frock. I had my doubts, but it was worth a try. She was quite insistent that she wanted nothing to do with him. So we made the most of the play park at the mall.

Just cute as can be.

This slide in the shape of a hat has been our nemesis for around a year now. She tries with all her might to climb it but usually to no avail. But today she finally figured it out. Go little miss. Look at how her toes are curled as she climbs.

King of the mountain!


When she slid down the slide she jumped up and down shouting I did it!!!!! Then she ran and catapulted her little body into my arms. She was so proud of herself!