Don't Blink

What a quick Thanksgiving break! It seemed like 5 days went whizzing by in 5 hours! I had such a nice break, but oh I could use a few more days off to clean and just breathe before going back to our crazy busy schedule!

On Wednesday, the kids and I slept in (oh, joy!) and just had a stay at home day with lots of playing and fun. Thursday was of course Thanksgiving and then my sister and I went shopping at a few stores that were open and found some great deals.

I awoke at 2am on Friday morning (couldn't sleep) and was eager to go shopping at 4:30am. We were a little disappointed that all the popular items we wanted were already taken due to shoppers being in the store at midnight, but we found lots of great deals and I am officially done shopping for the kids. Yay! It was quite a marathon day of shopping...we shopped from 4:30am - 8:30pm. The scariest part of it all was when I heard a noise around 3:20am and quickly figured out that someone was trying to break into our van and car. Of course we keep our doors locked and the thieves left empty-handed. I just wish I could've seen what he/she looked like. I am just thankful that they did not break a window or try to break into our house. I have such a knack for witnessing scary things these days.

On Saturday, Matt and I went out to dinner and then saw the movie "Blind Side." What a GREAT movie! I really enjoy Sandra Bullock movies and this has been her best movie ever! I encourage everyone to see it. It reminds me so much of foster care and adoption, two things near and dear to my heart.

And so it is Sunday night and the chaos will begin promptly in the morning...*sigh*

Happy Thanksgiving!

As the custom of the holiday is to give thanks to the Lord for all the blessings in your life, here are just a few that I have been blessed by:

1) My Lord and Savior
2) My awesome husband Matt
3) My miracle boy Cody
4) My beautiful daughter Carleigh
5) My parents, sister, niece and extended family
6) Matt's parents and family
7) My job
8) My home
9) My and family's health
10) Hope for the future

I am wishing everyone a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! God is good all the time!

Best Friends

This cracks me up!

Cody is looking ever so serious while Carleigh's eyes are about to bug out out of her head! Not sure what was going on at that time!

A sneak peek at our portraits

I absolutely LOVE this pic! It just sums up what matters the most by just looking at it!
I am so blessed!

Skating Party

My school had their annual skating party tonight. I thought it would be a great experience for Carleigh and I to do some mother-daughter bonding. She did great! She could not stand up without me at the beginning, however, at the end, she was skating all by herself with mommy!

I developed arms of steel as I was holding her up for almost 2 hours and boy was that a good workout! Carleigh did not want to leave and CRASHED on the way home! She did say that she would like a pair of skates for Christmas so I am thinking of getting her a pair.

Curlers

For our family portraits, Carleigh and I have our hair rolled in curlers. Carleigh did a fabulous job and kept all the curlers in. So next time, we are going to try keeping them in overnight.

Cody's Conference

Cody's parent/teacher conference was tonight and I was slightly nervous about it. However, I do not know WHY I was so nervous as it went really well! Cody has made adequate progress in all areas of his IEP! Yay! Now I have to brag.... he knows ALL eight of the sight words learned so far! I brought home the words as I was going to make flashcards and he told me all of them!

He can read: I, a, the, go, like, can, see, and we

So now I am going to make flashcards as practice as well as the new sight words he will learn after Christmas. His Intervention Specialist said that she just loves him and that she doesn't want him to go to 1st grade next year. She has seen such progress in speech as well as the speech pathologist. Cody is now speaking in 3-4 words sentences. His classroom teacher is so amazed that he is participating in circle time and is learning to raise his hand to answer questions.

They kept saying what great parents we are and that Cody is lucky to have us. It is quite the opposite as we are BLESSED to have Cody as our son. It was a total God-thing seeing as it a foster to adopt placement possibility fell through or we would not have had our precious son.

Is it Friday yet?

We are all tired and drained this week. I think it is a combination of rain, gloom, and a long work schedule. I am coming down with something, we have Cody's parent/teacher conference tomorrow night, my adaptor died last Friday evening and I FINALLY have a new one, and Matt is exhausted from working 58 hours last week and is facing another long week. I had absolutely NO energy last night and I just knew I was coming down with something. I am looking forward to a surprise this weekend and hopefully we will get some rest as well.

We definitely will enjoy Thanksgiving break next week. Cody and Carleigh are off all week much to my mom's disappointment! (*lol*) I have to work Monday and Tuesday only and Matt is so happy to be off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He soooo deserves it because he has been working long, long hours for the past month. I am planning my shopping excursion on Black Friday and will enjoy shopping CHILD-FREE! I am hoping to get ALL shopping done that weekend plus put out all of our Christmas decor.

November Fun

Last Thursday, Matt and the kids had a blast raking the leaves in our front yard. We have a large tree that DUMPS the leaves and while Matt was trying to be productive, the kids played. Carleigh enjoyed it so much, however, it stirred up her allergies. She had a runny nose for 2 days later.

MIA

The power cord to my laptop has frayed therefore, my battery is extremely low on my computer. I will be missing in action for the next few days until my new adaptor arrives. This has to be the most frustrating thing EVER because I have gone through THREE power cords. What is up with that? Hopefully #4 will be the charm! Once I am up and running again, I have some cute leaves photos that I will post. (Of course playing in the leaves stirred up Carleigh's allergies and now we have a coughing and runny nose little girl. *sigh*)

Since I have had very limited access to a computer, I have gotten alot accomplished in my house this weekend! Yay! We had our friends Shannon and Niki over for the Bengals game and the kids had a blast playing with them. This post is being created from my mom's house as I needed to use her computer for Matt and I was feeling the need to post something.

Will write again soon!

My Christmas List

Here is one of the coveted items that I am wanting for Christmas. It is incredibly boring when you have to walk and exercise by yourself, so I am requesting an ipod for Christmas. I also would like an ipod stereo for my bedroom. Hopefully Santa will bring it to me! What is on your Christmas list?

This is what I am reading....

I am enjoying reading Karen Kingsbury's new book! Although it isn't a Baxter/Flannigan Family book, it is still a very good book! I highly recommend this book! I cannot put it down!

School Potraits

To avoid copyright laws, I took a pic of their school portraits. I apologize for the glare from the flash of my camera, but they turned out so well. They look much OLDER and Cody looks like such a big boy. I think I am not handling it well that they are growing up so fast!

Phone Home

In the midst of resting after our warehouse sale, the phone rings. I look at the caller id and it is my cell phone. Funny how I wasn't the one calling our home telephone. I look around and Carleigh is no where in sight....I head to Cody's bedroom and there is the culprit. Carleigh loves to hit redial and call my mom ALL THE TIME. Well, now she has figured out to hit the right button my cell and phone home....No, Carleigh, you are not E.T.!

Garage Sale Update

We had a great turnout for our indoor garage/warehouse sale! Most importantly, I got rid of the twin bed frame and computer desk that I did not have room for. Yay! I sold some kid clothing and odds and ends. We plan on having it again next Saturday. We are all just so tired from all the prep work and set up. It's nice to just leave the stuff there and not have to set up again next week. Whew! Now I can work on some projects in the house and get caught up with all my grading.

My life has been so busy that I haven't had time to do anything! I plan on posting Cody and Carleigh's school pics. They turned out so well! Cody looks TOO old and I am starting to realize that the kids are growing up and I do not have any babies anymore. *sigh*

Carleigh's P/T Conference

This evening was Carleigh's Parent/Teacher Conference. Despite almost FORGETTING about it (my mind was on other things), it went very well. Carleigh is progressing well in all areas and the only area that she really needs to work on is her language. Her teacher said that she knows more than most Kindergarteners do academically. Carleigh has been talking about a little boy K for the past couple of weeks. Well, I asked about K and the teacher said that K has Down Syndrome and is non-verbal. A couple of nights ago, Carleigh was just going on and about about K and she said "I like K------." I think it is so sweet that she is befriending him. It makes a mommy heart proud!

We also received her school pictures today and they turned out well! I may post the pic here in a few days.

Happy Adoption Day, Carleigh!

Two years ago, on a cold Saturday in a nearby courthouse, Carleigh became an official part of my family (she was ALWAYS a part since we brought her home from the hospital)! Matt and I are so blessed that we have been given the privilege of being her parents.

She is such an interesting and dynamic little girl! She can say THE funniest things! She loves to receive gifts like clothes or toys to which she replies "For MEEEE?" She is a Dora and Disney Princesses fan. She now can tell me what she wants for Christmas. Carleigh has an opinion about everything and she is understand conversations ALL to WELL! Her speech has made miraculous gains and she is learning so much in preschool.

It's hard to think that we brought home a calm, sweet 5lb, 11 oz baby girl and now she is a 45 lb, long blonde haired preschooler with a firecracker personality.

Upcoming Garage Sale and Painting Projects

My sister, some other families, and I are having a huge Warehouse/Garage Sale this Saturday. So I have been scouring my house for things that I do not use and need to get rid of. It is so easy to keep and collect stuff. I do not like clutter, therefore, I purge at least once a year. (And no, I do not mean the contents of my stomach!)

This year, I am selling some bigger items like my old computer desk, crib, Carleigh's play kitchen, TONS of toys, more clothes that I found, and lots of household items. I still have 5 or 6 boxes of stuff that did not sell in June's yard sale. I am hoping it all sells!

We are also getting ready to paint several rooms in our house. Cody's room will be painted blue, Carleigh's room will be painted lavendar, and I am thinking of painting our family room light green or light tan. I am still up in the air about the kitchen. We plan on painting one or two rooms a month. (We do not want to overwhelm ourselves or the budget!) It could be very interesting due to curious little hands!