Headed to Disney

Headed to a fun weekend at Disney.....Hoping to have pictures for Monday....

We are having dinner with these special friends AND Cinderella! Can not wait for our girls to meet.

And we expect to spend a lot of good times at the pool!!!!!

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to the sweetest, most wonderfully awesome 8 yr old that I know!

Lindsi was excited about her special day. We lit the candles at church this morning. After church, I had planned to take the girls swimming, but they opted to hang around the house & play with some of Lindsi's new craft kits instead.

Tonight, she chose the local Chinese Buffet for dinner. I think she ate her 5 lbs of shrimp & 3 bowls of mandarin oranges. We stopped at the local ice cream place on the way home for mini sundaes.

Pretty low key birthday this year, but exactly what we needed......

From this (2003).......


To this (2007)......


To this...(2010)...Happy Birthday 8 yr old!

Spring Flowers

Time for our annual flower pictures!

Enjoy!

How To Turn 5

Jami turned 5 this week & she did it in perfect 5 year old style......

She wanted to bring cupcakes into school for her birthday. So, after looking at, and ohhhing & ahhing over bakery cakes & cupcakes for the last 6 months, Jami decided she would rather make them herself (REALLY!). So we went shopping for cupcake supplies & she picked chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

She spent the afternoon before her birthday making the cupcakes:

First you mix water, oil, egg, & cake mix.....I can do that all by myself..

Mom helped with the baking, but I can frost them myself.....I'm almost 5!!

So many dresses to choose from, but this is one of my most favorite, pretty dresses...perfect for celebrating my birthday at school.

So many pretty dresses, of course, I need a different one to go dinner. Preferably, a purple dress that matches my birthday crown.....

Out to a birthday dinner with my family.....

Perfect ending to a perfect day.....YUM!!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUT NEWLY MINTED 5 YEAR OLD!!!!!!!! We LOVE you!!

Post #100 Happy Spring

I would like to say that I haven't posted much lately because not much has been happening, but with 2 young kids running around, that's not really true. There actually has been A LOT going on around here. We are just around the corner from celebrating both girls' birthdays, so I'm sure I'll have plenty to Blog about then.....=)

Until that time...here's what's been going on in our little world:

- I hit something...pothole? Branch? & flattened 2 tires....they needed to be replaced.

- Discovered that BOTH Lindsi's cochlear implant processors needed to be replaced, due to wear & tear on the units. That's about $1000, but LUCKILY, looks like our Health Insurance (that we only have until my co switches to a new one on May 1) is going to upgrade her. Waiting to see what the payment on that might be. I'd looked at the upgrade when it came out last summer, but it cost $8000. Sorry, Chickie...

- Today, we have no water. I can hear my pump running, but nothing is coming up out of the well. SIGH.........

- One of these months we're going to get break!

Onto better news...
- The girls enjoyed the zoo over Spring Break. They also got to spend a lot of fun time with their cousins.

- Trying to decide what we are going to do this summer.........it will most likely be a hodgepodge of little experiences.

- My brother, brother in law, & nephew are gearing up to hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail this summer. They leave Approx June 10 for 1 month. They will be hiking the Southern end, going North as far as they can.

Enjoy the East pics (finally).....






The girls with their cousin Sarah. We all LOVE Sarah......=)


My mother made both of the girl's Easter dresses this year. Didn't they come out nice? The girls' picked out the material, I picked the pattern, & Mom sewed them up.

The World of Why

I just LOVE that I have another chance to experience a 4 yr old. When Lindsi was this age, she hardly had any language & she did not go through some of the more "typical" stages that Jami FULLY LIVES.

Jami has a fantastic, analytical mind. Here are the GREAT questions from this week:

- WHY is "1" a NUMBER and not a LETTER?

- WHO decided that Curious George should be the type of monkey without a tail?

- Does Fire fly?...me: No.....The sun is made of fire though, right? Me: Yes... Jami: well, if fire doesn't fly...how does the sun stay up in the sky??????

She's a thinker & a dreamer & more dramatic than almost any other 4 yr old that I know. Wow! Do we love her! And we are so thankful that we got to be her family.

AMAZING

Do you have a child that the same adjective gets applied to over & over & over again? I know that I have met some children & been struck with a one word description....that child is so BUSY, or what a CURIOUS mind, an OLD soul, a SWEET spirit.....

My 7 year old is that type of child. Nearly everyone she meets, people at church, parents of friends, her medical team, family, all seem to remark on how AMAZING she is. I have to agree, I think she's pretty amazing as well.

But, I was wondering WHY exactly is she decribed this way? I looked up the word AMAZING: To be filled with wonder and awe.

That doesn't really describe Lindsi. So, I looked up the word WONDER: To be AFFECTED by the EXTRAORDINARY....ahhh That's it. If you meet Lindsi, you are AFFECTED by her. She is Extraordinary.

Even from the very first day that I met her, she was different from all the other babies. There were 10 very upset & crying babies, & Lindsi, who sat on a nannies lap & took it all in. When she was handed to me, it was the Hallmark moment, she broke into a huge grin & never looked back. It's a true story, that others in our travel group would stop by our room & visit with her, while they were having to walk the halls with their own unsettled children. Nothing upset her.

It would take me all day to list the ways in which I have been affected by her extraordinariness. She is unlike any child I have ever known. I call her the perfect compliment to this sometimes scatterbrained, single mom. She is organized to the max. She is observant. Creative. She can learn how to do things by just seeing it a few times. She is helpful in so many ways. A delight. Although, she is not perfect, and must occassionally slip into the role of a 7 yr old girl. I think she does that just to keep me on my toes.

My heart explodes when I think of all the possibilities that lie before her in this life. She has achieved so much already, she's learned how to work hard for things. I can't wait to see what life has in store for her.

Martina McBride sings a song that says...."Everyone calls you Amazing, I just call you mine...." So beautiful, so true.

Happy 7th Family Day.....We are so lucky to blessed by your spirit each & everyday. It is only by God's infinite grace that I am her mother today. I would have never been open to parenting a child with her SN (deafness) when I adopted her. We have both come such a long way.......

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Jami's been short changed on the Blog lately, so my next post will be all about her...=) Stay tuned for some Jami Cuteness......