Beach Trip

We took the kids to the Myrtle Beach for Father’s Day weekend. Hubby grew up going to Myrtle Beach, SC and I started going there during my college years at NC State. The first trip I ever paid and took my mom/sister on was to Myrtle Beach when I graduated college. It was such a big deal to my mom that I spent some of my own money to do something for her. Hubby and I also met in Myrtle Beach Labor Day weekend 1999. Friends of his and mine all knew each other and organized a big beach trip where we rented two big condos and my co-worker invited me along. So we have taken the kids there a few times, too. C started going at just a few months old. It may not be our favorite beach (not sure which one would be) but it is definitely in the Top 10 for our family.

This was Baby D’s first time to the beach and she loved it. I think it made it nicer that she can now sit up, so she showed off those skills and ate a ton of sand and she loves the water. We spent a big portion of our time on the beach with me, Miss M, and Baby D just sitting in the waves. Hubby always digs the kids a little pool and they loved that.

Miss M loves the pool, the beach, the water. She got up one morning and went on the screened porch of the condo we rented and started saying “Pool! Pool! Pool!” She wanted to do nothing more than to be in the water non-stop.

C was so happy that he got to play catch on the beach, play in the waves and loved having other big kids at the pool to play with.

As with most of our typical beach vacations, we really didn’t do much except go to the beach, go to the pool, and cook. It is funny that we cook more on vacation than we do at home, but with both of us working, cooking becomes so rushed at home.

Here is Miss M swimming:

Here are the kids posing on the beach chairs:

New Baby

We have a new baby. Well, she is now 7 months old. I can’t believe it. We decided after the adoption of Miss M, that we would foster and/or adopt again. I thought we might have to wait a while so we went back active mid-January. Well, January 31^st we got a call at ten a.m. about a 3 month old girl. We picked her up at 3:00 pm that day. It was the funniest thing to tell C that we got a baby on the way home from work. Her case is not as clear cut as Miss M. Miss M was 99% sure adoption from the first phone call and was a quick whirlwind of placement, Termination of Parental Rights, file adoption, adoption finalized in one day shy of 7 months. Baby D is still in limbo and will be in limbo for at least 5 ½ more months. I am so surprised at myself, I was such a ball of nerves with Miss M and it was all pretty clear-cut and fast and easy. This will be longer, less clear, more work, etc. But I just live day to day in the present knowing that today we have her, tomorrow we will probably still have her, next month she will probably still be here and most likely she will be spending her first birthday with us. After being nervous all last year and I was still nervous even after the adoption was finalized, I think my mind just said you can’t stress over what you can’t control. Now, don’t get me wrong I have a few moments of worry and anxiety, I can’t imagine us losing her, we love her, and we want her. But we might not get her. It will all depend on what the courts determine. We do know that they won’t review her case again until November. So as of right now, we have her until then. That is unless someone in her family comes forward and is found suitable to care for her.

Now about Baby D. She is a tiny little baby at 14 pounds. She is alert, loves to be held, super snuggly, and firmly attached to us. She is vocal, which is good and bad. Boy does she have a set of lungs on her. On the rare occasions she gets mad, everyone knows it. On the good side she “talks” all the time and it is super cute, she says geeee geeee and babababa and dadadadada all the time. She interacts when you talk to her. Her smile and her laugh light up the room. She smiles the most at C and Miss M. She has been a good sleeper from about 4 ½ months on. Both kids adore her so much. Miss M “reads” to her all the time and calls her day-do and baby. C dotes on her and holds her and calls her day-day bay-bay. He loves to help out with her and let her sit on the couch with him while he watches TV.

I like to say for the most part we live in the moment as a family of five. I always knew I wanted a big family and still love it and smile when I say The 5 of us. They are the most amazing kids and I feel fortunate each and every day that I am blessed with them, I love being their mom.

New About Me

I know I don’t keep the blog nearly up-to-date as I would like. I started it as a way to let my family see pictures and really that is all it still is. I have met 1-2 other moms through blogs that may or may not read this. But, I thought I would still update my about me in case someone new stumbled in and wanted to know more about us.

I met DH in 1999 and we quickly became friends and then I moved away to Philly a few weeks later. I still had season tickets to NC State Football (man I hate that I gave up those awesome seats) and so I came down to NC a few times and DH and I slowly started dating, then we quickly moved on and he moved up to Philly in December of that year.

In 2001 we moved back to NC and bought a house in Holly Springs because we knew there were good job opportunities, housing was relatively cheap, and we wanted to be close to his family when we started a family. We bought our house in May 2001, got married in February 2002. We decided to start that family and quickly found out I had blocked tubes. I had surgery for that in November 2002 and we got pregnant with C in January 2003. C was and always will be my pride and joy, couldn’t have imagined loving someone as much I do him. He is such a great kid and can’t believe how fast he is growing.

We decided in 2005 that we wanted to have another kid and thought it would be super easy since the doctors said they fixed the problem and we had C. Boy, was I wrong. We spent the next 4 years trying every Infertility treatment possible. Clomid, IVF with ICSI and managed to get pregnant three times. All three times losing the babies. It was heart breaking to say the least.

We had always discussed adoption and Hubby really wanted to try the foster care system. We agreed easily on the plan, took our MAPP classes, then sold our Holly Springs home and moved to Raleigh, then finally got certified as foster parents. Miss M joined our family in January 2010 and was adopted in August 2010. She is such an amazingly smart, cute, sassy girl and so easy to love. We started fostering Miss D in Janurauy 2011 and who knows where that will go.

So ask away if you want to be nosy (I am nosy) and get to know more.

Tree

Growing up, our tree was always a mish mash of homemade ornaments and special ornaments. Think Styrofoam bells with glitter. My mom has since graduated from that and has a fully coordinated tree with silvers and blues. Very, very pretty. I think those trees look great and so Martha Stewart.

But, my tree is a lot like the one we had growing up. Hubs always has to try and pick the biggest tree he can find. This was great when we had a two-story living room. One year our tree was 10 feet tall. This was also the year I realized that tree stands are rated for tree heights. Our tree came tumbling down the night after Christmas. I think it was in a tree stand rated 7-8 feet. We now have one rated 8-10 feet, but we have ten feet ceilings now so we need to limit our tree to 9 feet and below. This year I had to cut the top off to get the angel on.

Some of our special ornaments are a lighthouse that says NC 2001 the year we moved here and bought our house, one that says First Year as husband and wife 2002 from our old neighbors, a Baby’s First Christmas 2003, assorted ones C made, and now one that Miss M made. I also love the ones that have their pictures in them. This year my favorite ones are a Little Sister and a Big Brother, I saw them and had to get them for the kids. I just love that I have the two little kids this year and feel so complete. Christopher asked me “Mom, are you happy this year that we have M?” I said of course I am, so he asked “Would you still be happy if it was just me?” I explained to him that yes he is special and I am and always have been happy that I am his mommy, but part of me would have been sad if he didn’t have a little brother or sister to share his time with. He said he is happy that he has M.

We even have a few ornaments for Calvin, we are just missing one for Cuppy.

So here are some of our special ornaments:

And sitting atop our tree is our new angel this year. Beautiful.

What does your tree look like? What are your favorite ornaments?

Christmas in Apex 2010

So once again I procrastinated with scheduling Christmas pictures (happened last year, too) and the photographers we wanted to use were booked. So I was left with few options when I had an “Aha” moment last night and remembered that Downtown Apex does Christmas pictures (a little 5 minute photo shoot) with Santa in front of an old fashioned fire truck and they take them high resolution and then give you the disc for $10. I stumbled on it last year. They also do a pancake breakfast.

Well, this year the line was 2 hours long so we missed the pancake breakfast. Bummer, but we got the pictures so I will be able to create Christmas cards. The pictures turned out really nice. The kids were amazingly good considering it was freezing cold and we stood outside in line for 45 minutes before we made it into the warm building. M cried as soon as I tried to put her on his lap and has qquite the expressions in the dozen images we got.

Since we missed the breakfast we decided to go to lunch and we hit Tyler’s Taproom. The server was awesome, the food was good and they give Wiki Sticks to the kids to play with during the meal. C was so happy and entertained. I definitely think we will go back. They customized his kid meal to noodles and grilled chicken and he was so happy.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

M is not so sure of Santa, but C is smiling big for the camera:

Santa made her laugh:

A Family shot:

C telling Santa that he wanted a digital camera for Xmas:

Tis the Season......for Christmas Cards

It is that time of year for Christmas cards again. I love creating our family cards and we usually get really into making sure we get a family picture for the card.
I have ordered from Shutterfly in the past and will be ordering from them again. It is super easy. You upload a picture (or two or three or more) and pick a design, then choose the layout, add a greeting and then preview. Once you decide it is super easy to order.
Here is a sample from a card from a previous year that we ordered from Shutterfly (all your projects can be saved and shared on their site). This one is from 2008. It remains one of my favorites because I love the picture with Santa reaching out his hand to C. Although, he told us and everyone who mentioned that picture that it was “Arvey’s hand” the assistant that was helping take the picture.

Christmas 2008:

Winter Snowmen Winter

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

So far these are my choices for this year:

Love Hope Faith Religious

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Joy Sky Story Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I really like the “faith hope love” card because it seems so appropriate this year. This year has been so big for us with getting M placed with us in January, then adopted in August. I saw this card and thought it was “perfect” for our Christmas cards this year. I love the “joy and magic” one, too because it also sums up how the year was for us, joyous and magical.
I will probably end up doing a combination of the two so that our Jewish recipients get a holiday season one vs. more Christmas-y and we usually try to stick with a more “holiday” or “happy new year”.
All the grandmas are requesting calendars again this year, they love seeing the pictures of the grandchildren throughout the year. And I need a new mug for my desk because mine is a family picture from 2006, pretty outdated. I have gotten the grandmas mugs, also, in the past but I think they will just get calendars this year.

p.s. I got 50 free cards for writing about Shutterfly, but I would have ordered from Shutterfly without the promotion and the card preview from 2008 was the actual Shutterfly card we sent out two years ago. They have a very good product.