Happy Birthday to a Desert Princess

One of my oldest and dearest friends will celebrate her daughter turning one years old tomorrow. But she was born in the United Arab Emirates which is 10 hours ahead of us, so technically right now...as I type this...it is her birthday! This was how Gloria chose to track her monthly photos...precious and so creative. You will notice Norah is decked out in polka dots. Beautiful!! I sent her package a few weeks ago...including pink sprinkles for her special day. :) I have held her twice in her life...but have watched her grow on her Mommy's blog and through the beauty that is Skypeing! We love you little girl.

Happy 1st Birthday,

Norah Claire!!!

The Pampered Princess Party!!

Here she is loaded into her royal coach.

She was so excited!!

First stop- pampering!

Make-up

Nails

And she had her hair sprayed with gold glitter.

After hair and make-up she was ready for her cameo with Prince Charming.

We saw many other Belles, even though Sleeping Beauty seemed to be the crowd favorite in costumes.

And we saw a couple of Tiana's!

Here we are trying out what it would feel like to be in a pageant. :)

Give your miss American wave, Vivi!

She enjoyed fun treats.

And storytime from Cinderella!

more yummy treats!

It was so fun having her friend, Kathleen and her Mom come along.

But being with Grandma was the most fun of all!

Some of the girls rushed the stage....not my little darling, though. ;)

The women running the show said over the intercom "Little Princesses don't run! Please get off the stage!!" Ooops.

Once order was restored, the girls all played Bingo and both Vivi and Kathleen won prizes!

The big moment for Vivi was having Belle come out to read!

Vivi made sure to take lots of pictures with her toy camera!

The highlight of her day was getting her photo with Belle!

Grandma couldn't resist all the girly vendors and spoiled her little princess.

Vivi took home many handmade gifts including; a preschool nap mat, a cape and crown, headbands, hair bows, barrettes, and a pink collapsible basket.

Hundreds of girls and their Moms turned out for this event

at the Grapevine Convention Center.

We think the day was pure success!!

Isaac's Homecoming Day

(Don't ask what is up with his eyes...he is a five year old boy, enough said!)

Yesterday we celebrated the day Isaac came home- Feb 6, 2006.

Our tradition with both kids adoption celebrations has always been to get a big cookie cake with a heart in the middle. However, Target calls me the day of and tells me their cookie shipments didn't come in! So I used my savvy skills of persuasion and instead of getting mad we all went in, explained the situation to the manager, Isaac gave his puppy dog face- and she gave us any cake of his choice for half off! Woo hoo! Of course we made him pick a small cake not the giant sheet cake he wanted. :) And we had to get the traditional heart!

We took him and the cake to dinner at Chuck E Cheese- pizza is his tradition. Three out of four years spent at Chuckie's and one year we broke it up by going to Peter Piper Pizza. Maybe next year we will have it at Gattitown.

We gave him a small gift of a Bible Man figurine (found the African American version at Half Price books of all places!) and a villian who Billy called "Koran Man"...what a jokester.

Isaac was less enthused that Bible man came with a small Bible to hold in his hand and more interested in "Koran Man's" sword. Good gracious.

Vivi's favorite part was taking multiple pictures in the photo booth. I think she did this 4 or 5 times! She was so into it. It was cute!!

Four Years Ago Today

I woke up early, I am sure. I laid a brand new tiny toothbrush out on the bathroom counter.
I pulled little blue laundry out of the dryer, folded them and put them in a drawer that had previously been empty. I probably stacked diapers, put new sippy cups in the dishwasher. I know I vacuumed. I unwrapped two little plastic cars and placed them gently on top of an empty toy box. For this was the day that the course of our life would change forever. At around 3:00, a stranger would pull into my driveway and unload a toddler boy I had never seen in my life. I watched anxiously through just one slit in the blinds. I thought "he is a lot smaller than I pictured he would be." She brought him to my door and into my house, his house. He cried. Later, I cried. He needed alot of care. I felt up to the challenge.

On this day, I became his Mom...the only Mom he would ever know from that day on.

And he was my first born son.

He met his Daddy an hour later even though he would only go to me. That night we bathed him, twice. :) We dressed his little 16 month old body in size 9 month blue pajamas. We made phone calls..."he's here!" we cried. He was here. And this one would stay. He would fill up our lives in ways unmeasurable.

And he has.

Happy Homecoming Day, Isaac.

Incidentally...

These have been my best friends this week! Along with lysol wipes. Our toilets and sinks and doorknobs have needed almost hourly disenfecting. I discovered the vanilla spray (3rd one above) and it does not smell like lysol...which is great when you are spraying it all over the house!
But this little beauty is my new favorite product! Vivi's butt was extremely red and she flinched having herself wiped this morning. I found this continuous mist diaper rash spray and after one dose she is back to health. The best part of this is that when you have a toileting child who stands, slathering cream all over their nether regions can be very tricky and quite a bit intrusive! This just sprays like a sunscreen all over her front and back and gave her relief almost immediately. We are calling it our booty spray and I made up a little jingle for it. She now reminds me every time she goes to get the spray ready!

Ok...I am officially done talking about illness.

We have not been well...

Which is why there have been no posts all week! The kids have come down with a stomach bug, starting with Isaac last weekend not eating much and having toilet issues. Then he threw up Tuesday morning and Vivi followed Wed. night. Now we are dealing with Vivi puking once a night and her having major Runs. Too much information...I know. Just be glad I am not posting a photo of them on the pot! Ha!

Even though the kids have not slowed down one bit, they have been given the chance to watch more tv than usual in the hopes of coaxing them to relax and get better. Isaac has been comforted by multiple viewings of A Chipmunk Adventure.
I found this image and couldn't resist posting it!! How cute...the chipmunks are visiting a little boy who is sick, just like they did my little boy via their tape from the library and the toys we got at McDonalds a couple weeks ago. The kids don't have Alvin or Brittney but they have had a good time with the other four. I used to LOVE these little critters when I was little so it is exciting for me to see my own two catch on to the craze. :)