Merry Christmas!

As usual, we are off to my Mom's for a few days, but wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! It's been rather hectic around here lately, but yesterday Katey and I spent about 6 hours making about 5 different kinds of cookies. Then, after Greg read Katey several books and she was in bed, and had heard Santa's bells (thanks "Santa!"), the wrapping began. It's funny how you wrap and wrap and it's ripped apart in a matter of minutes. We're having a great day so far.......hope you are too! Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Program, Party and the Virgin Mary

We had the annual Christmas program at Katey's school last night, followed by the class party this morning. Katey was ALL excited that her program was at night, since she's one of the "big" kids now! Her part (besides singing.......and boy, did she sing this time around!), was to be one of the "Frosty" kids. We had them bundled up in hats, mittens, etc. and it was 80 outside! So much for a chilly Christmas.......not this year. We'll find a way to muddle through. If you were wondering, the first picture is Katey dressed as the Virgin Mary........pajama bottoms and a blanket double as the head wear and her kitten as Jesus, I guess. :)

Ho Ho Ho!

Stopped by the mall after school this afternoon to pick up a few things, and there he was! Had I given it a bit of thought ahead of time, I would have brought something a little more festive for Katey to wear. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our Seminole attire......especially when the mall was swarming with Virginia Tech and Boston College fans who are in town playing for the ACC Championship game that WE should be in........but, that's a different story! Last year Katey asked Santa for a Princess coloring book, today she told him she wanted the Kung Fu Panda movie (done!) and some tape and envelopes so she doesn't have to use mine! :) Such an EASY child to buy for. As was the case last year, I have gotten her a few more goodies! Ho Ho Ho.......have a great weekend and GOOOOOOOOOOOO Bama! (yes, I am bitter!)

4/4

Okay Lesa, here is my 4th picture from my 4th file.......I think I got that right. Remember the spiky hair? .....the outfit? Didn't you get a similar one in China? I can't believe it was 4 years ago.....seems so long ago, yet just like yesterday.

Gotcha Day x4!

Happy Gotcha Day to all of our 11/29/04 Gotcha friends! It's hard to believe that it was only 4 years ago today that this beautiful child was handed to me......what a wonderful adventure it has been. This is one of my favorite pictures.......although not actually on "Gotcha Day," but in the Gotcha outfits with the Moms. Here's to many, many more anniversaries of this wonderful day! Oh, and since the FSU/UF game happens to fall on this day this year, I thought I'd throw in a gratuitous GO SEMINOLES photo!!! :)

Thanksgiving program

Too cute! Katey's school had their annual Thanksgiving program this morning........and didn't disappoint! Her class, by far, had the cutest outfits........all Indians.......Katey was "Running Deer." Not sure how that fit her personality, but she wore it well! Since she didn't sing at the last program, I told her that if she sang today, I would take her home with me after the program instead of leaving her until 1:30........what do YOU think she did? Loud and strong she sang every song! :) She's upstairs now having her quiet time. I was hoping that she'd nap but I keep hearing a bump (her room is right above me) now and then which tells me that sleep probably isn't in the cards. Oh well, as long as she stays relatively quiet, I'm good.

It's (almost) that time again!

Katey and I were looking back at old posts and tried this site again.......it worked, so here we are. Enjoy! :) http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/CAuCnyloER0QtPFQOYNz

Happy Halloween to all.......and to all a good night!

We are exhausted! After Disney yesterday, we are zombies. We did muster up enough energy to go trick-or-treating with Anthony and his Mom & Dad but are home now and ready to sleep. I told Katey that if her clock doesn't read 7:00am or after, she is NOT to come into my room to wake me up! Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! Good Night! :)

The BEST day!

Today we made our highly anticipated pilgrimage to "The Happiest Place on Earth!" It truly was and we had a wonderful day. We met The Lambert family and had the best day!! The weather could not have been more spectacular and there were no crowds. We had our run of the park with no jostling around and waiting in long lines.......just fabulous! Katey and Wendy had so much fun together. I think one of the biggest highlights of their day was that they were both tall enough (with a teeny lift from the toes!) to go on Thunder Mountain, the roller coaster........they loved it! Believe it or not, "motion sickness girl" (that would be me) even went on.........twice! As soon as we got off the first time, both girls shouted "again!" so we did. We were all sad when the day ended, but we know we'll do it again next year!

Happy (early) Halloween!

Katey was invited to a Halloween party on Saturday so we got to do a test run on her costume. For the record, it was her idea......I just put it together. I think it turned out great.........see ya in the 2020 Olympics!

Rather creepy......

Katey's teacher gave them an "assignment" for show & tell this week, which, for the few of us working Moms, translates into a project for us. Katey helped with the planning and some stuffing, but you can see that I did most of it. The project was to coordinate with their weekly letter.......this week it's B and the project was to make a body. We decided that in the spirit of the Rays, we'd make a Rays body complete with a blue mohawk (yes, that's what it is!) and goggles to protect the eyes from the champagne celebration. We sure hope to have one more champagne celebration this season! Game two tonight.........GO RAYS! Here are a few pictures of our body.......the last picture has a "Weekend at Bernie's" feel to me.........totally creepy!!!! :)

No school, what to do?

Go to the zoo! Katey and I went to the zoo this morning and had a great time. For the first time ever she wanted to ride the camels......she's always been adamantly against it so it was exciting. We saw the penguins, Katey swears one waved at her (it did look like it!), the manatees, the sting rays (that we both touched.....quite slimy!), and other assorted animals. When we were at the rays tank, after whispering to them to get ahold of their kin and play better Saturday night (ALCS.....we had it won last night and then blew it!), we noticed that the other 4 children there were also Chinese.......it was pretty cool. There was a set of twins there who both (duh, identical!) looked exactly like Anna Grace Sorrells......it was a little eerie, the resemblance. We wrapped up with a spin on the banana ride. It's very hard to get a picture of a child on a ride spinning fast but I did the best I could........it's blurry, but I think it's pretty cool. Hope you all are having a good day, and if you don't have a preference, pull for TB tomorrow night......GO RAYS!

A day late, same result.........

Thanks to Kelsey for reminding me of this day, well, yesterday! On October 14, 2004, I was at work in St. Pete when I got "the" call from Susan Fremer of Great Wall......at about 2pm. I scribbled down a few details and then Susan told me "she's really cute, and I'm not just saying that!" Naturally, I was anxious to get home and retrieve the email of this "cute" child who was to be my daughter!! One snag........Greg was taking his car in to have some stereo thing done and since the shop was in St. Pete, I told him that I would wait and drive him home. He was supposed to be at my office by about 4, but was running really late. I was freaking out. On any other given day, I could have bolted and been home staring at my computer by 2:01.......oh wait, I live about 40 minutes away! ....you catch my drift! :) I can't remember the exact time we finally got back (my sister called every 10 minutes to see if we were home yet........that went on for hours!) but we got on my computer and pulled up the pictures of (in my humble opinion) the most beautiful child on earth! We even got a picture of her little booty since she has Mongolian spots. I then emailed the pictures to my family........we were all SO excited. It's only gotten better since then!!! So, happy (one day late!) "pre" Gotcha Day to everyone, especially Lambert, Milliken, Sorrells and Griffin families! :)

The last swim?

Sad to say, and actually a little unbelievable since it's 85 out, but I think Katey went for her last swim in the pool this weekend. The water was pretty chilly and she was shivering the whole time. I got off easy 'cause Greg was willing (after being coaxed in after 15 minutes or so) to swim with Katey. She finally used her new FSU float and even got a few cannonballs in. Glad that the weather isn't quite as warm but we will miss the pool.

It's officially autumn.......so says the painting!

Art class is back in full swing.......I just wish the weather "matched" the painting. Looking forward to sweaters and blue jeans!

Go Rays! (again)

It was a good day in our household. First, we woke up to the news that the Rays won the AL East.......okay, so they backed into it, but a win is a win.....we're thrilled! Also, our beloved Seminoles won (impressively too!) and Greg's team (USF) is currently winning. Now, if the Bucs can beat Green Bay tomorrow, it will be a sweep. Hope your teams are winners too! GO RAYS!

Grandparent's Day

Today was the Grandparent's Day celebration at Katey's school. It is also my Mom's birthday and we were lucky that she was able to come up from Sarasota to celebrate both! They had a little program and sang some songs.........Katey was having none of it! It was pretty funny because most of the children (as children do) screamed the songs as Katey just sat there in complete indifference. She perked up as soon as we got back to her room and she got to hug her Gamma......it was all positive from that point on. She skipped nap time so as soon as 7:30 hits, so does her head on the pillow! :)

Go Rays!

For those of you not in the Tampa Bay area, our baseball team, The Rays, clinched it's first EVER playoff berth on Saturday. Katey and I watch them every night.......in fact, the first thing Katey asks me when she wakes up in the morning is "did they win?" I decided that we really needed to go to a game. Yesterday was my birthday and I couldn't think of a better way to spend it than to take Katey to a game........so off we went. Sita, Shawn and Anthony went with us.......Greg was in a continuing education class all weekend and couldn't go. :( We did have a great time.......they lost, but it was a fun experience. We got hot dogs and cracker jacks (no kidding!) and even though Katey and Anthony had their b-ball gloves ready, not ONE ball was hit our way. Afterwards we waited in an endless line (we are such AWESOME parents!) so that K & A could run the bases. Unless we get lucky and score some playoff tickets, we'll be back to watching on TV.......GO RAYS!!!!