Twas The Day After Thanksgiving...

Twas the day after Thanksgiving

And all through the house

Not a creature was stirring

Except for the women, who went Black Friday shopping, risking life and limb by battling crazy bargain shoppers all on the quest for the perfect Christmas gift at 60% off, one of whom showed up at the Radio Shack wearing a SpongeBob Snuggie and almost slide tackled Yours Truly in front of the bluetooth section. At 5:30 in the morning.

Ahem.

The men were all left with the children with that day

In hopes that the leftovers would vanish away

Dane stayed in his jammies, Aidan, Harper and Emmy too

And settled on in for some pre-Christmas gift exchanging with the family to be completed prior to the start of the Alabama-Auburn game.

When out of the box there arose such a clatter!

I sprang from the loveseat to see two little girls digging gleefully into their new stash of dress up clothes, gifted to them by their Aunt Val and Aunt Ade!

Away to the tutus and sparkly shoes they flew in a flash

Tore open the jewelry, there was all but a sash!

The sun shone outside, for there would be no snow

Dane hunkered down with his books, his sister, a bow.

When, to my wondering eyes should appear

A Clone Trooper, but not a single reindeer!

Mommy with her camera, so right and so quick,

Threw many a cousin on the couch for a pic

And faster than the chocolate cake disappeared,

I called on the cousins, "look here, look here"!

"Now Dane, and Aidan, and Emerson too!

Joel, and Harper, Uriah, please do!

Say cheese for a picture and we call all take a nap!

Cause at 5:30 this morning these tired mommies were at The Gap!

We sprang from our slumber and played games at the table

Cranium and Taboo!, to conquer we were able

And 'round 8 o'clock we heard these girls proclaim,

"Happy Thanksmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Family Pictures

So I was checking messages on my answering machine the other day, and one of them was from our adoption agency.

And, yes, I am still holding on tight to 1997 with my answering machine sitting on my kitchen counter. I am convinced voice mail and text messaging are merely a fad, and someday I will look very smart for not having jumped on the bandwagon.

Besides, Brandon won't let me get text messaging on my cell phone. He thinks it will turn me into one of those annoying people who are constantly texting while you're talking to them. As if THE WORLD WILL END if they do not text to someone else RIGHT NOW, even though we're in the middle of a conversation.

Aaaand, back on topic. Our adoption agency needed us to send them a new family picture with Emerson "looking clean, healthy, and happy" with her new family, so they could send it to China as part of the post-placement requirements.

The only problem being no such picture existed. No family picture with all six of us. So last Monday, Brandon was off work, all kids were home, and I broke the news that we were all going to have to put something other than pajamas and soccer socks. We threw some clothes on, and headed up to the church property with hopes of recruiting one of Brandon's unsuspecting co-workers to snap a few pictures of our family.

A couple of observations about these pictures:

1. My hair is just weird right now. Very brown, short where I want it to be long, and oddly poofy. The wind wasn't helping anything.

2. I've become very squinty in my old age.

3. Emerson does not look happy in these pictures at all. She looks like a kid who is being forced to take family pictures when a playground is just a few feet away, begging to be played on.

4. Dane's jeans are too short.

5. Harper is at an age right now when looking at the camera and smiling is out. of. the. question. Why look at the camera when you can squint with your eyes closed? Or look at Aidan? Or look at Daddy's watch? Why look at the camera when you could scream bloody murder and pull your boots off and throw them at the volunteer photographer, which is what she did in some of the other shots?

6. My ankles have apparently never seen the light of day. They are ghastly pale.

I have a sneaking suspicion that these pictures will be used for the sole purpose of appeasing our adoption agency. Even if Emerson looks less than thrilled to be participating. These are the best we got, and they're just not mantle-worthy or Christmas card-worthy. Thankfully, my blog picture standards are quite a bit lower :)

I hope you and yours had a very Happy Thanksgiving. I know we have a lot to be thankful for in 2010, and hopefully before December is upon us I can get my act together to blog about our wonderful Thanksgiving!

Smore Smores Please

I may have mentioned this a time or 12, but I love our church. I mean, really love it. And not just because my husband works there and they pay us. Even if he didn't work there, and had some "normal" job, and we were just a family who went to church, we would still love it. My friends there feel like family, in the best possible way. They are my people, and there's a lot of them.

This past Sunday evening we enjoyed a campfire out at the church property with our friends, and just had the best time. Our kids are at a magical age right now, and it was just the right environment for them.

And our friends had this awesome two-pronged hot dog holder that we borrowed, that was way better than the coat hangers that we left at home.

The boys both did their own thing after scarfing down some hot dogs and Smores. A football game had broken out amongst the boys, and Dane was quick to jump in. Aidan found his "best fwiend Bwian" (actual name: Ryan) and they were thick as thieves the whole night. Harper sat contentedly in her stroller, and us girls enjoyed fellow-shipping around the campfire while Emerson spent approximately two hours eating a single hot dog and a Smores. Girl is a SLOW eater.

(Sidenote: My spell-checker is freaking out over "fellow-shipping". It does not recognize! Cannot compute! Clearly spell-checker did not spend a significant amount of his upbringing at potlucks and devos and baby showers and luncheons.)

Harper was happy as long as we continually supplied her with food. I'm pretty sure she ate about 9 marshmallows that night, and at one point spilled half of a can of Sprite down her shirt.

I cannot describe the disgustingness that was Harper girl and her stroller after the night was over. There may have been some marshmallow in some places.

We had a great time visiting friends, a lot of who had not seen much of Emerson yet. She was her usual charming little self, and made a few fast friends, including this little guy from her Bible class:

A couple of our little kindergarten friends talked to Emerson and me for a bit, and were so cute and interested in how she talked and what words she knew. They had a great time saying "Ni Hao" to each other, and I'm so glad Emerson will grow up knowing so many sweet little friends.

We finished the night off on the hayride, admiring the views of the church property. I snapped this cute picture of Aidan's fwiend Bwian (actual name: Ryan), Aidan, and Emerson, with a tattooed mystery arm making a guest appearance. Aidan and Emerson are pretty good friends.

We had a great night, and I hope we make this a tradition for many years to come!

Until Next Fall...

Well our soccer and football seasons are coming to an end pretty soon, and I finally pulled out the camera on Saturday and snapped a few pictures of some of my favorite athletes and their fans.

Dane had a great football season, scoring a couple of touchdowns and proving himself to be quite the little aggressive linebacker on defense.

We're very fortunate to have had such a good experience with the boys in sports this fall. The coaches have been wonderful, encouraging, and have focused more on sportsmanship and teamwork than the score. They still keep score and have refs, but everyone has been very positive. We have yet to be involved in the "crazy parent" leagues, and I hope we can skip that all together. And we L-O-V-E not having weeknight practices.

This past week Aidan got his long-awaited sportsmanship award. The coach awards one or two awards every week throughout the season, and every kid gets one by the last game.

And Aidan? Aidan is a kid who loves him some awards.

Someone else got his sportsmanship award, too...

And I would also like to thank the fans for making this such a great season:

I briefly considered editing out the pieces of banana and grass stuck to Harper's face, but decided to leave them in. And her underbite makes me cringe.

The boys both have a "playoff game" next week, then we'll take a break from the sports for a few months. Dane, Aidan and I finished up Saturday (yes, I'm still catching up on my blogging) by celebrating their friend's birthday party at a gymnastics gym. We had a great time catching up with old friends, and it was a great way to kick off a family week together!

When Mullets Attack...

the moral of the story it goes a little something like this

if you got a mullet well it's a haircut not a fish

and now when you wear your mullet just remember this little fact

see a mullet is business in the front and then a party in the back*

Emerson got her first haircut in the U.S. of A. the other day, and surprise, surprise, she loved the pampering and attention!

She has been sporting a bit of a mullet lately, her hair has been in a very awkward growing-out phase, and I wanted to have the back trimmed up a bit while the sides catch up.

The back is trimmed now, and it's a little "stacked" short-bob number. It's a little shorter than I had in mind. Brandon thinks she looks like an orphan with her short hair, but I think it looks really cute on her.

(Sidenote: One of the ladies that worked at the haircut place was Asian, and she spent several minutes telling me that my daughter didn't look Chinese, she looked Vietnamese instead. I think what she meant to say was, "White lady, your daughter is the cutest kid in all of Asia. Especially when she squishes her nose up to smile.")

I didn't get a great picture of the back, you'll just have to use your imagination!

*do you have any idea how many mullet-related songs are on the ol' internet? Many, my friend. Many a mullet song. This one happens to be Mullet Pride by KJ-52.