More Snow...

but it was all gone this morning...

Christmas #1

We loaded up a lot of these presents to take to Temple and had a wonderful Christmas with the Stiles. My favorite gift was a digital picture frame. I have it set up with many of the pictures that I've taken this past year and it's nice to watch it cycle through, remembering all the great times.

My second favorite gift was the Fisher Price learning purse for Ladybug. This is such a cute toy! Love it!



Ummm, I think Ladybug received more presents than me and she's not even here yet!! I wouldn't want it any other way.

Thomas received a remote control helicopter. Boys and their toys. Here's T outside trying to fly this little guy. I counted 3 crashes and 1 broken landing gear.



It was a whirlwind of a trip down for just 1 day. I had to be back at work on Saturday and actually Sunday too. We had originally planned to do Christmas with my family on Sunday, but now that's being pushed until New Year's Day. I'm leaving all my decorations up until after we get back and I hope these last few days go by fast!

I'm ready for Christmas #2!

p.s. Happy Birthday Dad! Love you the most!

The weather outside is frightful

I snuck out of work a little early and we drove through snow and ice, but we made it to Temple for Christmas with the Stiles.

Merry Christmas!!

Ladybug Update!!

We had a surprise email that had updated information for Ladybug!

She is now at 7kg which is a little over 15 pounds and 66 cm tall. I think she's still a little small according to the birth charts that I've looked at online. The translated information that came back indicated that was born a preemie, so that is more than likely why she's teeny tiny.

It's been 3 weeks since referral!

Wishing we could fast-forward time,
Deana

Is it Monday?

I'm behind, really far behind and struggling to catch up. It's honestly quite a miracle that my Christmas cards got mailed. Today I finished up some last minute shopping and tonight we've been wrapping like crazy! I had T set up to wrap on the coffee table and I had quite the wrappy mess on the kitchen table! Just on one half though, my scrappy mess was on the other half!

Yes, I'm behind in my December Daily too. Although T came home tonight and thumbed through my book and said, "You've been busy today." Good thing I keep good notes about what has been happening..or not happening on a daily basis.

Here's a few pages from last week:





p.s. The car seat was a really nice baby congratulations gift from my parents when they came down to visit for a few days last week!

Give me coffee...

An extra cup will be needed to make it through this last Saturday before Christmas.

Have you finished your shopping yet?

Candy Day

Yesterday was our annual candy making day! Nikki and I both took a day off from work and spent the day making candy and cookies to share with our friends and co-workers. Mom was able to join us for this tradition since she's now retired. I made fudge, peanut butter balls, martha washington and my special peanut butter cups. Nikki decided to make her own version of peanut butter cups so we ended up having a peanut butter cup face-off!



Nikki spent almost 4 hours making her version, and much of that time was spent tempering the chocolate. Oh and then she had to brush the molds before filling. Wow, lots of work but they turned out beautifully.



You can find my recipe here. If you want Nikki's recipe, then you have too much time on your hands.~



Huggles,
Deana

Santa, I've been nice~

Here's some of the things on my Christmas wish list this year:




Love these journal tags from here. Actually I love ALL of her tags!



Fun coffee mugs! I put this on my Secret Santa list at work. A girl with a new coffee maker needs mugs!




Seriously, how cute is this cupcake hat? I found it here and it also comes in an adult sizes!



I have been looking all over at diaper bags and most are just too cutesy for me. I <3 this one that I found here. Yes, it's way too expensive but so lovely.

What's on your wish list?

It's been 2 weeks

It's two weeks today that we received our Ladybug's referral and those two weeks have gone by so quickly. So, how do I get the next few weeks to do the same? The blur of working and getting ready for Christmas will help, but I feel like I need a goal. Something to focus on and work toward.

It's also hard not knowing and trying to speculate when we will travel to China. Our agency is telling us that it will be at the end of February, but part of me has hope that it will be at the beginning of February.

I keep telling myself that I've waited almost four years to see her precious face and that I can wait a little longer! It's just sooo hard.

Happy Mail

I won a little prize a few weeks ago and received a happy in the mail yesterday! It's an original painted canvas by artist Amy. You can find her Etsy shop here and it's full of lots of really cute paintings. Check it out, her work is fabulous!

*************************************

Sleep calls....I've had a really long work-filled weekend.

Luckily, I'm only supposed to work a half day tomorrow!

Huggles,
Deana

More December Daily

A few of my favorite December Daily pages from this past week. I haven't fallen behind as of yet. But we start our 6 day work weeks now, and I am going to have to strive to keep up. It also means having all the scrap-mess on the kitchen table through Christmas! (Eeeep, sorry T.)

Huggles,
Deana

Photo of the day

I have been a little disappointed that Cricket hasn't had any interest in the Christmas tree. (Not that I wanted to come home and see it turned over with my ornaments scattered everywhere!) I did, however, catch her poking her nose around inside my hibiscus plant that I brought in out of this crazy, freezing cold weather.

Silly Cricket.

ICE!

Gone, missing, no longer to be found

Guess what comes out today?



I'll be:

hogging the TV,

obsessively watching,

ignoring chores,

losing sleep,

and after all that...

impatiently ready for Season 6.

Her name means

"joyous lotus flower", so pretty.





I'm off today, working hard on my to-do list. Trying to get everything done before T gets home from work. We're going out tonight to see ICE! at the Gaylord Texan. We really wanted to see this last year, but never quite found the time (and energy) to go.

It's supposed to be really chilly! Brrrr!

Huggles,
Deana

First baby gift

I came home from work tonight and found a package! I can't believe Thomas had allowed it to sit on the counter all day without opening it. I'm not sure I would have had that much will power. We opened it together, and it was our very first baby gift.

It has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen. It's a little ladybug suit and look how those red antenna stand straight up. We love it! A great big shout out to Aunt Charlotte, thank you so much! We love you! This little gift really means a lot to me and Thomas.

December Daily

After all the excitement of the last few days I managed today to get caught up on my December Daily journal.

Here's the page from December 2:



My tears caused the pen to smudge....but instead of fixing it, I decided to just leave it. I want Ladybug to know how much she is loved!

Enjoy your weekend,
I'll be working.
Deana

Cloud 9

On Blackberry messenger with my sister this morning:

Deana: I'm still on cloud 9!
Nikki: You can stay there!

I am going to stay there too! We received our package today and have a little more information about our Ladybug. At least what we can read and understand, most of it is in Chinese. She has been in the orphanage since birth and is described as a moderate sleeper that likes to suck her fingers. Awwww.

She likes music, toys, and will smile and laugh! Love that!

Quiet sometimes...and quiet is okay with me...sometimes.

I'm still kind of in awe and shock that this day finally happened. We spent most of last night calling friends and family. I think I talked to my mom about 4 times before the day was over. We also went out for dinner at our favorite chinese restaurant to celebrate.

Thank you all for your kind words and wishes both here and on Facebook. They have meant so much to both of us.

Huggles,
Deana

Our ladybug

Fan Yi Lian (pronounced Fan Yee Leann) was born February 25, 2009 which makes her about 9 months old.

(My birthday is February 26!)



She's currently in an orphanage in Hubei province. On August 17 she weighed 11 pounds and was 24" long. Her medical is described as normal. We will receive our package tomorrow and we'll have even more information then.

I just can't believe after all this waiting that we are matched and have a picture of our little ladybug! She is a tiny little thing too! Thomas and I are so excited! The wait was definitely worth it! I'm in love with her already and can't wait to huggle and snuggle with her!

The stork has landed !!

We just received our call!!

It's a girl!

Pinch me!

I promised myself I would not read the adoption referral rumors and I haven't for 2 whole weeks. But yesterday I finally did take a peek. Of course, I have since been trying to calm myself down. I was determined not to work myself into a obsessive tizzy like I always seem to do.

I'm now at the point of no return as I see the box has officially changed on the CCAA website that they have placed through March 31, 2006! After getting an email from our agency, we are basically just waiting for the package to arrive and their phone call!!

Please hurry! Any day now~

What a great day today would be for that call! I'm off from work and putting up my Christmas decorations.




Huggles,
Deana

Mmmm, cupcakes

The icing was definitely the best part!

They were scrumptious, every last crumb.

Chef Nikki made these, of course. Not me.

I ate the last one for breakfast this morning.

Off to work I go....so tired, it's been a looooong weekend.

Hoping the sugar kicks in and gives me a little pep in my step!

Huggles,
Deana

Thankful

Wish bone wrestle!

I won !!

... and I bet you can guess what I wished for.

Let's go shopping

I know I've been MIA for almost a week. That's what happens when I'm working a lot...I have no time for anything else. I'm pretty sure every day for the past week has been a minimum 10 hour day, yesterday was 11.

Today, I actually feel guilty for being off as there's just so much to do to get ready for Black Friday. But, I have Thomas' family coming in this week and my parents got into town yesterday. (They are staying at Nik's.) I have so much to do around my house too! We are having Thanksgiving dinner here on Thursday!! That's just 3 days away, yikes!

Uhh, I did sneak off to have lunch and shopping for a few hours with Mom and Dad today. We had so much fun! I never get to go shopping with them during Thanksgiving since I'm always working so this was a treat.

I only gave myself a 10 minute window to blog, so I should run. Laundry and dirty dishes await.

p.s. Remember that red coffee maker? It now sits proudly on my counter and I am totally loving it!

Ladybug false alarm

I have vowed not to read the rumor site anymore. All it does it get me into a frantic state of mind and I wonder/obsess about what is happening or not happening. At this point I'm telling myself that it will happen when it happens. I just very much wanted it to happen before the end of the year.

All of my energy and focus is going to be on the holidays that are rapidly approaching. I had such a great time Christmas shopping with Nikki on Saturday. I think I bought something for myself almost every time that I bought a gift for someone else. Ha, that will teach T to go away for a sporting event weekend! I haven't stayed out that late (Kohl's was open till midnight) in a long time and I ended up just spending the night with her. PJ party!

I received some Christmas scrapbooking goodies in the mail today for my December Daily project that I want to work on for a journal project. This will be a challenge since I work so many hours, but I'm going to put the bones of it together now and have it ready for December 1st. I will be excited to share this journal project with you at a later date.

In other random news....what do you think about this little ladybug drawing?



I've never, ever had a desire for a tattoo.

Until now...

Think I should get it done?

A new recipe

Cream Cheese Cookies

3 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla

Cream together first 2 ingredients and then add everything else. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. (In my oven, they took 14 minutes.) When you pull them out of the oven, they look like they need to be cooked longer...but just let them sit on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes before you transfer to a wire rack.

I went to a dinner party with Thomas the other night and these delightful little cookies were on the dessert bar. I raved about how great they were, not knowing who made them. She overheard me asking about them and ended up giving me the recipe. I love cooks who share their specialties! They are so easy and delicious!

T's in Arkansas, not for work this time, but for a basketball game. He really didn't have a plan when he went except that he wanted to go to the game. About 6:00 he texted me and said he scored a really good ticket from a scalper and was at the game. See why I worry so much?

I'm off tomorrow *gasp* very well likely my last Saturday off until January. I'm meeting Nikki for shopping and other girl fun. I'm thinking I might just spend the night over at her place. I'm going to take her some cookies and see if she is impressed.

Enjoy the weekend!

Huggles,
Deana

More Rumors

It appears that there are lots of rumors flying around now. The buzz is about whether or not the referrals will go to the end of the month of March '06. For a moment, I got caught up in all of those rumors and then thought about it a different way.

We don't have to worry about what dates are included and whether it will go to the end of the month! We're next!

The stork is probably on the way!!

Hope she doesn't get lost on her flight from China!

Day at the Races

Ladybug Sighting

Plus.....a hint of a rumor...

...that they are matching.

I hope it's true!

Scrap Happy

Love the idea behind this newer scrap site Magpie Club. She offers a credit crunch kit every month for only $12.50. I ordered the November kit and not only did I receive it in just a couple of days but it's packed full of goodies. I created the above layout using only the kit...well I addded a little glimmer mist spray...and it's their sketch challenge for this month too! You really need to go check it out!

Huggles,
Deana

CAN't wait to wrap a happy inside

I'm working on some fun stuff today! I saved some random cans and decorated them so that I could wrap some Christmas happies inside. These will be for two special chicks. I am loving the red and black combination and am considering trying to find some coordinating wrapping paper in those same colors.




Also, decorated some mini notebooks. I'm sure these will find their way into some Christmas stockings!



I'm off to play and enjoy the day! I have a new scrappy kit that came in the mail yesterday and I also just found some Crystal Light containers in the pantry that are aching to be decorated as well!

Enjoy yours,
Deana