Circus!!

Today we all went to the greatest show on earth!!! It was so fun Nonnie and Papa invited both Lily and cousin Ava and they both had the best time, consumed WAY too much sugar, bought overpriced trinkets, and were dazzled and awed!!!

All my favorite girls.

Seriously do they not look overjoyed to be getting snow cones at 10:30 AM.Ah ha there are the smiles.

Look mom it melts in your mouth.

Clifford also enjoyed the circus.

Papa and Lily have been having withdrawls from eachother. They haven't seen eachother in weeks. Lily enjoyed his lap for most of the show. And he took her to see the elephants before the show pretty sure that he's her hero.

This is the hat that comes with cotton candy. Lucky for me Ava did not want any cotton candy because it was 10 dollars cause it came with a silly hat.

Shows over and were off.

My maiden name was King. The circus was at the kings arena which used to be very exciting, now it's mildly amusing. Anyways I had this great idea to get all the kings to get their picture taken. It was a good plan but only the adults would participate.

One beautiful 5 (almost 6) year old. I absolutely love her toothy smile!

Silly girls. If you notice my girl is wearing a different outfit, her bladder of steal finally met its match and she didn't make it to the restroom. I had to run across a very large parking lot all the way to Walmart where I found a whole outfit shoes included for only 7 dollars you got to like that.

Blog-i-fied by Nikki

A very, very, very long while ago I had my blog blogified by Nikki. She is a university student who has raised money to do her own humanitarian work as well as donate money to various charities around the world. She is good at what she does I mean come on look at my blog. I think it is brilliant, although I am a little tired of looking at the same old thing and so I went over to Nikki's blog, blogs for a cause, and she has some new humanitarian work up her sleeve and she is running a special. So you can look forward to my blog getting a whole new look and if you want one too, at a discounted price, I might add go here and be on your way to one blogilicious blog. Maybe you don't need a new blog you can still hop on over and see how one person really is being the change she wishes to see in the world. She's pretty inspiring.

On a side note anyone know if there is a way to print out my blog in its current format so I can put it in a scrapbook. I mostly mean the header not the whole thing. Please leave me a comment.

FFF

New hobbie

I am so excited. I have been trying to no avail to scrapbook for years. I have several half completed tries but found the cutting taping and preciseness of it all tedious and quite frankly a lot of work for very little. Recently I made some digital scrapbook pages and have been hooked ever since. These are not new pictures but just in a new format. Yeah for digital scrap!!!!

Oh Baby

Lily and I are a bit under the weather so I have spent the day rescuing all my pictures from my old computer that crashed and putting them on my new computer. As I watch the animated character at the top of my blog inch closer to four I am feeling a bit nostalgic. I love how independent and vocal she is now, but love looking at pictures of the cutest baby on the planet.

Our first picture. 5lbs 2oz of cuteness!

Picture taken by Evelyn while in Guatemala. First time in my arms.First time at the beach.

She learned to clap while we were there.

Lily and Janette with matching hair do's.

Hands down one of my favorites.

We can ride!

Motherhood has been a test of patience. From the moment we signed paperwork with our agency to now when she is three (almost 4 sniff sniff.) Lily does things in her own time when SHE is ready and not a moment before. When we brought her home she could not sit up roll over and hated every moment of tummy time. I found myself constantly worrying would she EVER. She started crawling 6 days after her first birthday. She started walking exactly 2 weeks before she turned 18 months. I know this because our dr told us we could start worrying if at 18 months she wasn't walking. When she first started talking she whispered each and every word until she felt she had it right then she would utter it aloud. I have come to except her perfectionist ways. She likes to be in control and will not do something until she is sure she can master IT. Whatever the it may be. At the moment the it is riding her tricycle. I have watched as many others older and younger have mastered this skill and have just known I would have to wait until she was ready. SHE is finally ready and just like that is a pro!BTW this is the don't take my F****ing picture woman. This is the look I get every time I bring out my camera, but the moment was worth keeping anyways :)

True Friends

Lily is learning lots of lessons from her friend Aviana. It took me quite awhile to decide she was ready for the lessons that were to come. My first instinct was to shield her from the truth of what had happened to her friend. How would I explain the road that lay in front of Avi in terms my 3 year old could understand. It turns out that my fears were unfounded. I forgot to consider compassion and true friendship. Lily and Avi have a connection and a bond in which no tragedy can break. Once again I am reminded to never underestimate the power of friendship. Happy Birthday sweet Aviana!

We are so happy we got to spend time with you on your special day!

Fried Friday

I just went back to work this week after an 8 week summer vacation. The last two summer vacations have been clouded by life's happenings. This summer was just glorious nothing life changing happened to my family and I just got to enjoy being a mommy. It was so sweet. That being said I am getting used to waking up at 5:30 and getting home at 5:00pm. The day is very very LONG!! Last night I finally sat down to enjoy some mommy time at 8:30 only to realize I had completely neglected my husband all evening. So below is the way I am feeling. Soon enough I will be acclimated to my new schedule but for now forgive the bags under my eyes and the lack of pictures on my blog. :)

Beautiful

On occasion I look into my daughters eyes and I see this woman. This woman who is forever intertwined into our family tree. Like a perfect vine weaving it's way up and caressing my girls face. If you have ever wondered where Lilyana gets her beauty from wonder no more. This is Lily's birth mother, for a long time I have wanted to place this picture in Lily's room, but have not been able to. The picture as all of you who also adopted from Guatemala know is a Polaroid and it is not the best of quality, but it is a treasure, one we are lucky to possess . This picture was taken after some shots and in the original Lily is not a happy camper. My friend Veronica gave me the best gift ever!!!! She worked some magic with photo shop and now my girl can have this picture forever in her room and carry her birth mommies face forever in her heart. Thank you, thank you Veronica!!!

My two favorite adoption poems:

Legacy of an Adopted Child

Once there were two women who never knew each other.

One you do not remember, the other you call mother.

Two different lives, shaped to make your one...

One became your guiding star, the other became your sun.

The first gave you life and the second taught you to live it.

The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name.

One gave you a seed of talent, the other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears.

One gave you up ... that's all she could do.

The other prayed for a child and God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me, through your fears, the age old question unanswered throughout the years...

Heredity or environment, which are you the product of?

Neither, my darling … neither.

Just two different kinds of love.
~ Author Unknown ~

The Answer
Not flesh of my flesh

Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously

My own.

Never forget

For a single minute:

You didn't grow under my heart

But in it.

A rare sighting

A fairy princess came for a visit. It is a rare occurance you have to be quick!
Oh my, this fairy princess posed for a picture!

And there she goes, I told you, you must be quick!

There is always times to stop and smell the flowers.

And just like that she's gone. It may appear to be fairy like......

but it's all scary monster!!!!

Fun with photoshop

I have been looking at pictures on others blogs and thinking to myself how'd they do that!!!! So I would like to thank The Love Shack because she pointed us all in the direction of a website and now I am on the way to figuring out how you all make some wonderful pictures look even better. Here are two examples of my first go at it. This is fun so I'm going to keep on trying!!

Here is the original......

Here is the fancified version!
And here is the new version of this picture from a few posts ago. It was so easy!

wordy Wednesday

I couldn't leave this picture wordless. Lily is such a character she has her own fashion sense and there is no changing her mind. She has a particular pair of shoes that she wears everyday. These shoes are keen sandals, my girl must wear them with socks. Horrified, I tell you, I have tried without success to get her to wear her sandals sans socks, but this mama has decided it is something I can not cause tantrums over. She told me the other day that she wanted to wear something beautiful. This mama was so excited as we trotted back to her closet I imagined tulle and sparkles. She picked her pink 49er jersey and told me she was a soccer girl. Well you go little miss soccer girl it is! I love this picture because it represents both her beautiful cultures and melds them just perfectly. Football jersey paired with backpack made in Guatemala.