New shops…

A couple of friends of mine have new shops set up on the web and I wanted to give them a quick plug. 

Click here for Stephe’s Designs on Cafe Press.  Stephe can customize a design for you and have it printed on lots of different items.  She’s super flexible, does great work and can work magic in Photoshop. 

Click here for Cactus Bloom Designs.  Michele makes beautiful embroidered note cards and really cool 3-D photo boxes, among other things.  If you need a card for someone special, check these out. 

Totally unrelated, but a pic of Lauren that truly captures her sweet, fun personality.  Her smile melts my heart and lights up a room!

Baby Shower!

Yesterday my friend Nancy and I hosted a baby shower at my place for Heather, Damon and their new son Finn. They have been waiting and waiting for a China adoption and decided last year to adopt domestically. In July they got a call that a baby boy was just born and waiting for them. Suddenly and in an instant they became a family of three!

It was such a pleasure to finally be able to plan a shower for Heather after all these years of waiting!

Here’s our home-baked chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting…yum! I made the little cupcake toppers using a digital scrapbook kit.

We hung a laundry line and filled it with little outfits and socks for Finn.

Nancy made a zebra print hooded towel…

Love this onesie…

Lemon Rosemary Chex Mix. It’s pretty yummy.

Congrats to the newest family in our China adoption group! It was such a nice afternoon of celebrating with you!

It’s beginning to “look” like Fall

There is something horribly wrong with the fact that we’re  sweating bullets decorating the front of our house for Fall.  It’s 108 degrees out there today in good ole Arizona, but at least I’m ready for Fall (my favorite time of the year).

 

 

   

Okay, now I’m off to take a much needed shower…

Preschool Update (lots of pics)

Lauren has been in preschool for two weeks now and is doing great.  She seems to really like it and we have noticed that she is more chatty and is playing on her own a little more now.  Here’s a pic one of the teachers sent me on her first day after I texted asking how she was doing.  That smile on her face said it all and made me feel so much better.  She had no tears the first day or any day yet for that matter.  Preschool is going to be SO good for her and I’m so glad we decided to enroll her. 

 

After her first day of school we treated her to Build a Bear.  She wanted to make a kitty and picked Chococat, one of Hello Kitty’s friends. 

  

As you can see, she was VERY happy about her selection.

  

Even though Chococat is really a boy in the Hello Kitty world, Lauren selected a pink outfit complete with little Sketchers shoes.  Sorry, kitty, I hope you don’t develop a complex.  

I thought kitty needed some jammies to change into at night, so I surprised Lauren with these when she put on her jammies.  She loved changing Shadow’s (kitty’s new name) outfit. 

After her first week at preschool, here’s all the projects we collected.  I especially like the little collection of items all grouped by 4…macaroni, buttons, pom poms…very cute. 

It looks like she had an especially good day!

Last week we had a couple of friends over and the girls decorated some slice and bake sugar cookies.  They were so concentrated on how they placed their spinkles and they REALLY piled it on. 

 

The cookies actually turned out really cute and we enjoyed them with some milk. 

Then we beaded some necklaces and bracelets.  Gotta practice those fine motor skills! 

Two cuties…

First Day of Preschool!

Today I dropped my baby off for her very first day at the Village Preschool.  I was so excited for her to start because I know how good this is going to be for her.  She’ll learn how to socialize more with other kids, share, take turns and be a little independent from mommy and daddy.  I also think her language skills will blossom. 

Now, even though I know how great it will be, that doesn’t mean it was easy!  Actually, she did fine at drop off and I was the nervous one.  When I dropped her off, we put her lunch box in her cubby and I showed her where the potty is (very important since she’s wearing big girl panties).  I gave her a big hug and kiss, told her I’d pick her up right after lunch and off I went.  There were no tears, but I felt SO strange leaving her there and driving home alone. 

Here she was last night making a PB&J for her lunch box.  Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Joyce for her adorable LL Bean personalized lunch box from our vacation to Maine.  Also, I found this cute Ariel bento style box on clearance for $2.99 at the Disney store yesterday.  Can’t beat that! 

I can’t wait to pick her up from school and find out how her morning went.  Since I’m off work today, I promised her a special trip to Build a Bear this afternoon.  We stop in there a lot, but she’s never made anything and I know she really wants a kitty cat.  :)

On another subject, we had a great weekend with a couple of bloggy friends who were in town.  Julie & Tess (4 1/2 yrs old)  and Lisa & Tate (2 yrs old) were here.  Lauren had such a great time with the girls.  

Here they are picking out toppings for their own personal pizzas. 

 

Lisa and Tate stayed at our place.  The girls had their ups and downs while playing together, but overall they had a really good time. 

Here’s the three girls burning off some energy at the mall play center...

and Lauren and Tess horsing around at Pottery Barn Kids…

 

We had an awesome weekend and have already started what I hope will be a great first week of school for Lauren. 

Had a great vacation...

We just got back from a 10 day vacation back east yesterday. We spent the first couple of days in New Hampshire with a group of familes we got to know at the beginning of our adoption wait. We've been having yearly reunions and this is the third one I've been able to make. It was SO great seeing everyone again and meeting thier kiddos! The rest of the trip was spent in Maine with my dad and step-mom. We stayed in Freeport, at my dad's camp in central Maine near Baxter State Park, in Bar Harbor and in Portland. It was a great trip and we saw some beautiful sights, especially at Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor.

I put together a video of favorite trip pics and video snippets. If you have 10 minutes and don't think you'll die of boredom, go ahead and check it out. To view it full screen sized, click the last link on the bar under the video with the four arrows.

Time for a post, I guess…

I just realized I haven’t posted in a few weeks.  I’m usually good for at least one post a week, but I just haven’t felt like it lately.  I think I’m in a bit of a rut right now and I’m SO looking forward to vacation!!

I’ve just been feeling like I need a break from my regular routine.  I’m up on weekdays by 5:30am (Joe and Lauren still sound asleep), to work by 7am, home by 6pm (Joe already at work and Lauren with grandma), then dinner, clean-up, cuddle and playtime with Lauren, maybe a half hour to do something before putting Lauren to bed, then drop from exhaustion before Joe gets home from work.  Then repeat…over and over and over. 

This month we’re taking two glorious weeks off work and heading back east.  First stop is New Hampshire for a reunion with a fantastic group of adoption friends, including two families from our China trip.  After the reunion, it’s off to Maine to see my dad and step-mom.  We’ll be stopping (or should I say, shopping) in Freeport, the home of LL Bean, staying at an adorable bed & breakfast in Bar Harbor, and then a night in Portland, Maine on the harbor.  In between all that, we’ll be spending a few days relaxing at their lake cabin.  I think this is just what the doctor ordered!!

My dad hasn’t seen Lauren since last March and we had only been home for a few months.  He is going to be SO surprised at how much she has changed in the past year  and a half!  She’s blossomed into such a beautiful and smart little girl.  Grandpa is definitely going to be charmed by her.  

Anyone else find themselves in a rut lately and ready to change things up a bit?  Any advice you could share on how you got out of the funk?