Cuteness!

To Camryn's and my delight, Kelly's hair is finally getting long enough to do some fun things with. Camryn has put her hair in little pig tails a few times in the past week or two (albeit very straight pig tails!) and the other day, I was actually able to double those cute little pigtails over and tie them up in hair ties to give Kelly this very cute look.

I know I'm her mommy so I'm supposed to think she's adorable,

but really,

isn't she?

She was munching on some

almonds in a few of these pictures.

Love that sweet smile!

Kelly in her truest form!

Such a doll baby!

Smart Kelly

I'm just catching up on the blog today...
Wish I could post more text, but I'm baby-wrangling while I'm doing this, so what you don't see is that I'm constantly being interrupted by a certain, busy, little baby girl. But that's okay, I don't mind... it's quite fun, actually. It just doesn't allow for much thoughtful writing to take place.

Okay, I don't know where I ever got the idea that glasses make you look smart, but they kind-of do, don't they? Thus the title of this post.

Kelly snuck into Camryn's room and swiped her glasses to try them out for a while last week. Don't worry, she's not getting a headache while she's at it... they're not prescription, just fashion glasses.

In Camryn's room, looking at the computer with the glasses on.

Hmm, doesn't look any different to me... I wonder why Camryn wears these things?

Hmmm, why do I suddenly feel I could solve the quadratic equation now that I have these glasses on?
(That's Bjorn's dog, Vella in the background. Anyone who knows Border Collies knows that Vella is chasing the flash from the camera on the wall!)


Oh fiddle dee-dee! Solving mathematic equations is for the birds! I'm going to play!

Weeeee! I love that Mommy & Daddy moved my slide inside for me to play on!

What Mommy? I know I look adorably brilliant with these glasses on, but come on... can't a girl play in peace?

Sledding Videos

Bjorn was getting some sweet jumps on this run (spoken in my best Napoleon Dynomite voice possible)... but the landings left something to be desired, as can be detected by his facial expression at the end of this video. I couldn't help but laugh-- terrible me! (Now that I watched the video here, you can't really see his expression, darn it! But believe me, it was painfully hilarious.)

This is our version of a "Sit-N-Spin" in the snow. (Does anyone even know what a Sit-N-Spin is, or am I dating myself? Do they even make those anymore?) Well, regardless, Kelly loved it! But then again, Kelly loves anything that involves spinning, come to think of it... =)

We found the following to be our favorite activity of the day- the road where the cars had driven made for a nice slick surface to slide down- and walking up and down this hill on packed snow was much easier than trudging through the thick, fluffy snow. (My thighs are still sore! Oh yeah!)

Sorry for the blurry spots. Moving targets are difficult to focus on!

Sweet Moment

On Christmas Eve, Camryn painted Kelly's nails for the first time. When I looked at the two of them and took in the sweetness of the moment they were sharing, I just had to grab the camera. It was just one of those precious times where you realize what a special bond these two girls share, and how it will grow as the years go by.

Happy 40th Birthday!

I just had to embarrass Clint a little for his 40th birthday with these pictures Nancy sent me. (Thanks Nanna!)
No, seriously, since I wasn't able to do much else, I just wanted to take a moment to honor my sweet husband's 40th birthday.
Where did this little boy go? I'll tell you where he went- he grew into an exceptional man, a loving husband, and a wonderful father. He's my best friend, my biggest fan, and my #1 help mate.
I love you, Clint! Happy Birthday- here's to growing old together with many more birthdays to share together!

With his younger brother, Bart

Snow!

We took a trip up to the mountains to play in the snow yesterday. Here's Caleb, sporting an icicle for a nose..?

He then broke off the pointy end and gave it to Kelly. Of course, she had to taste it. Yum- there's nothing like an icicle popsicle!

Camryn loves the snow!

Clint watches the big kids play.

A little visitor came to see us. He must be used to being around people... he seemed curious about us and got as close as about 25 feet from us. Isn't he beautiful?
He looked back at us to say goodbye before he ran off!

Notice Kelly has no gloves or mittens on..? We tried and tried to get her to put them on, but something about them freaked her out and she would NOT wear them without screaming and crying inconsolably. I wonder if she wasn't restrained with some sort of gloves when she was in the hospital in China, because she seemed genuinely terrified of them.
I took mine off and on to show her how we put them on and how it doesn't hurt but keeps our hands warm, but she still wouldn't have any part of them.
Here's poor Kelly, crying because her hands are so cold! I felt so bad for her, but every attempt I made to help her put the gloves on to warm her hands only ended in much worse crying than this.



Caleb loves to go off and explore.

Bjorn says, "Let the snowball fight begin!"

Clint takes aim...



Camryn prepares to shield herself...


But even using a saucer for a shield couldn't protect her!

Kelly and I stay out of the line of fire-

Caleb manages to steer clear of the barrage of flying snowballs and get some sledding in!

Kelly got to have some fun sledding with her daddy too, so even though her hands were freezing, all was not lost.


I also took some short videos, so I'll add those too... and no worries, Kelly warmed right up with the help of our Thermos of hot chocolate! Actually, we all did!

Love,

jen

Kelly's Christmas Dress

Here I am, trying to get a picture of Kelly in her Christmas dress. This was my third attempt in the past two weeks. I just was not having much luck, so these are the best I have.

"Kelly! Kelly! Look over here at mommy, Kelly!"

Now I know it looks like Kelly has eye shadow on. Well, she sort-of does... you see, she fell last week and hit her eye on the corner of a table, poor thing- so her left eye has been bruised... I decided I'd try to match it with eye shadow on the other eye- just for the picture! It didn't quite work, but the bruise didn't look as bad in the pictures as I thought it would.
Now that's a nice big smile!

Okay Mom, I'm tiring of this now...

That's it... give me a toy and I'm happy...

A hug for Kaya... and you can see the pretty bow on the back of her dress... even though it's kind of crumpled now that I really look at it...

Mommy! Don't make me sit in front of the Christmas tree, PLEASE!!!

Oh, you know how I hate this!

I had to share those cute cry pictures...

For some reason, Kelly does not like it if I sit her in front of the Christmas tree and ask her to be still so I can take her picture. These were the only ones I got, but she's still so cute, even when she cries, isn't she?

I'm working on more pictures so I'll post those soon. We didn't get many of Christmas morning- BAD, I know! We were so busy enjoying ourselves that we forgot to keep taking pictures. But I do have several cute ones to share from the past couple of days, so those are coming soon... to a blog near you.

Silly, Spunky, Sweet

I've been working on a post for the past week, giving an update on what's been going on for us, but I keep getting interrupted and having to save it for later, so I decided I'd just give up and post some pictures.

Poor Clint- this picture was taken right after he woke up, but he gave me permission to post it anyway. Isn't Kelly cute the way she's laying her head on his lap? She was watching her favorite show, otherwise, you'd never be able to get a picture of her laying down like this... unless she was asleep!

Playing with Caleb's cell phone.
This is her silly face she makes when she's excited about something. She LOVES playing with water bottles!
Oh, all I wanted was a picture of her in front of the Christmas tree, but she did not want anything to do with it.

Here she is looking very persecuted that I insisted she sit still for two seconds. But isn't she cute in her little Scottie dog sweater?

My Heart Goes Out to Families Who Are Still Waiting

I don't know this sweet family in this video, but I love this beautiful song by Third Day, and the video is fitting, so I wanted to share it tonight.
I haven't listened to this song since last Christmas, and while it brought tears to my eyes last year because I was missing my baby girl and longing for her to be home with us; this year, it brings tears to my eyes for different reasons... tears of joy that our daughter is finally home, and tears of sadness for all of those who are still waiting.
Won't you send up a prayer for all those families waiting to bring their babies home, and especially for all the children who are still waiting for their forever families.

Thanks.

The Christmas Play

I mentioned in my last post that Camryn was in a play at our church this weekend. It was a Musical with a Message called "The Plane Truth About Christmas." (The setting was in an airport, thus the pun...) It was really cute and the kids did great! The cast was made up entirely of children. These girls pictured with Camryn are a few of her best buddies- Shayli and Emily. They all had singing and acting parts and did a really fabulous job. Camryn amazes me how she's so comfortable on stage. She had a blast- they had three performances and she said it was so fun, she wished they had many more.

I wished I had been able to get better pictures so I could share them. The stage lights just washed everyone out too much, and I wasn't in the best spot for taking pictures, so this one I took right before they went on was the best one I had to share.
More of Caleb and Kelly in the foyer before the play began.

Kelly wore her special red sparkly shoes with her dress that Nanna sent her.

As usual, Kelly's a busy girl! I had a lady tell me she'd never seen such a fast-moving baby before! But do you know? Miraculously, I was able to keep her in my lap for the entire performance, which was about 45 minutes long, and she barely made a peep!



A busy girl is a happy girl!