Eleenah's Quilt

Thank you for all the emails and phone calls letting me know that you will be sending a quilt square for Eleenah. I am really excited about this project, and I'm glad that so many of my family and friends want to be a part of it. You all are the greatest. I'll hold off sending her quilt off til the end of March to give you all time to get your fabric and make your wishes. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Daddy Daughter Dance Night

The city of Auburn hosts a Daddy Daughter Dance every year, and this has to be Noelle's favorite night of the year. Noelle has been going since she was 2. She loves it! She gets all dolled up and heads out for a night on the town with daddy. Last year, we almost had to send a substitute for Paul, because the first travel dates for China that we were given were during the dance. Noelle was pitiful (even though my dad would have taken excellent care of her.) She just really enjoys this time with Paul. Several of the other little girls from her Sunday School Class will be there, and from what I understand, they really get out there and cut a rug. I must say though, as I look at these pictures, it is the first time I can see myself in Noelle. I know Michelle, you have been telling me this for years. But, I must say, she is much prettier than me!

At our house when Noelle gets dressed up we say "Introducing Noelle........."Here is Noelle giving the "Look at me I know I'm cute look" Here is Noelle practicing her dance moves And by this time, she's tired of the camera and ready to go the dance with Paul

Sick Day!

My sick baby!

What a day! Hunter and Noelle are both sick. The picture above of Noelle shows her position for most of the day. She curled up in my chair and if she was awake, she had a dazed look on her face. Sick days for the kids have gotten really hard. Eleenah was sick last week, and she is still getting over it, and now with Noelle and Hunter down, there isn't enough of me to go around. Hunter is very mommy oriented, so he wants to be on me. I have no pictures of him because of this. Hunter also gets whiny. Hunter's need for me creates a problem with Eleenah, who doesn't really need me right now. If Hunter needs some mommy time, then Eleenah gets so jealous. And as you can tell from her picture, she has some "attitude". She is very sassy. Now that everyone is in bed, I have had time to reflect on my day. Most of the day, I was frustrated because I couldn't tend to everybody. Then, I realized that I needed to change my attitude. I needed to realize the awesome privledge that I have been given to care of these precious sick children. And the privledge of teaching LeeLee that she is not the center of the universe. God is so good, even when my kids are sick!

One sassy kid!

100 Good Wishes Quilt for Eleenah

I have been collecting quilt squares for the last two years for Eleenah. In China, there is a traditon where family members collect 100 pieces of fabric from family and friends of a baby, then a quilt is pieced together out of the pieces of fabric. In English, this is known as the 100 Good Wishes Quilt. I am finally getting close to having enough squares to do Eleenah's quilt. I would love to include quilt squares from all of our family and friends. If you are interested in sending a square for Eleenah's quilt, then please send a piece of fabric, that is 8x8. Also send your wish for Eleenah. The wish can be a note, scripture, prayer, poem, etc. Attach a small piece of the fabric to the wish. All of Eleenah's wishes are going in a scrapbook and she will be able to look at her quilt then match up each square with a wish. If you would like to participate, and have any questions, then please let me know. We truly cherish each wish she has received. I can't wait to make her quilt so we can see all of the beautiful wishes pieced together. Thank you in advance helping to make Eleenah's quilt so special!

I can't believe Noelle has 6 candles to blow out! Sydney, Anna, Tori, Alli, and Lucy hanging out in the bouncy house and below is Noelle and one of her best friends, Celeste

Poor Noelle, she had to wait til January to have her Birthday Party. December just got extremely busy for us. With it being the first year of my photography business, I didn't want to turn anyone away. And by the time we knew that Auburn would not be playing in the SEC championship game, it was to late to plan for that weekend. It worked out really well though. Noelle picked her theme right after her 5 year old party. She wanted an Auburn party. All her friends showed up in there Auburn clothes and we made Auburn jewelry using shrinky dinks. All the kids got an Auburn stamp set to take home. Noelle had a blast, and she racked up on craft projects. I love birthday parties! Noelle already has her 7 year old party all figured out. Hunter is right behind her, and has planned out his 4 year old party for May. He also wants an Auburn Party, but we won't be making jewelry, we are going to play football and stuff some baby tigers! I can't wait!

Hunter & Rags on Petfinder

Hunter and his dog, Rags, have been on the homepage of Petfinder for a while now. Hunter has been so excited to see himself on the computer. We love petfinder and what they do to help unwanted animals find homes. If you would like to go there, I'm incuding the link, http://www.petfinder.com. I wrote Hunter and Rags story for them because I was trying to win a 6 month supply of frontline. Instead of winning the flea control, they put his story on the front page. Petfinder has gotten alot of emails showing interest in Rags. I have been in contact with alot of families all over the US trying to help them find dogs that look simliar to him. Paul and I have laughed alot as we think about the fact that Rags sat at PAWS and no one showed any interest in him. Now that he is "famous", everyone wants him. Rags and Hunter have also been invited to the PETCO-Petfinder.com conference this summer to promote adoption success stories. What a hoot!

Our January

I am running behind on my blog, so I will try to catch up. The first pictures are from the kids playing in the front yard. Our weather was great and they spent every waking hour playing in the yard. Hunter is loving his spiderman bike that Santa brought him. He rides it, but he loves to jump off of it too. We just recently got Noelle's barbie jeep out of storage. I can't believe I left it at the warehouse for 2 years. Eleenah is in love with it. She looks like such a big girl riding around in it. After two years of storage, I had to buy a new battery for it. The battery was almost as much as the jeep was (we bought the jeep from a friend for $60). The warm weather was great while it lasted!