Brother And Sister!!

I am an only child so I have no idea what it's like to have siblings, but it really warms my heart to see Asha and her brother get along so well. I've seen sibling relationships that are horrible and have heard so many horror stories that I really hope Asha and Dakota can skip past all of that.

These pictures were from tonight. Dakota was playing cards at the table and Asha was "helping" and he didn't get mad or anything. He is so patient with her and shows her so much love. There are so many times he should have lost his cool with her but he never does.

She asks at least once during the day where her brother is and knows as soon as he opens the door that it's him coming home from school. She runs up and says hi. Yesterday she even said "I'm so happy your here". He was so happy and so shocked that those big girl words came out of her mouth. He had to come and tell me and he was beaming with love.

They both just make my heart burst with love.

Saint Nick and Snow

We celebrate Saint Nicolaus Day on December 6th. Some people do and some people don't but that was one tradition I had as a child so we have carried it along for our children. Asha of course loves it because she gets her VERY big stocking full of treats and toys.


She would pull one thing out and want to play with it or eat it and I had to keep encouraging her to dig deeper. We did mostly toys this year instead of candy since we have been doing Santa Mail with them and they get candy in there. Santa Mail is a mailbox with Santa painted on the side that I had picked up at a store and we use that to count down the 25 days until Christmas. I buy little toys and candy and put it in each of their mail pouches and then they check it every day. They then put a sticker on a calendar I made for the month of December. They really love it alot.

Here is Asha with some of her loot. She really made out pretty well. She got jewelry, books, a butterfly lantern and some candy.

I also wanted to share the funniest thing about her and snow. Like I've said she doesn't like snow at all so her new thing is to ask me at least once a day "Where's the grass?" I think that is her way of saying she really wants the snow to go away. We keep telling her it's under the snow and all she says is "oh" but she sounds so sad when she says it. I think it's going to be a long winter for her if we can't get her interested in playing in the snow.

Hope everyone is prepared for Christmas because it is coming FAST!!

Decorating Is So Much Fun!!

We had a busy weekend cutting down our Christmas tree and decorating it and the house. It's our tradition that we cut our own tree down and Dakota has been doing it all by himself for the last few years. Asha wasn't real impressed and didn't really like the snow on her face. She is pretty smart though and has figured out that her hat is big enough that she can pull it over her face and the snow won't get her then.

She didn't help much in the tree picking out department with her hat over her face. It's nice that she does this though because she hates scarves so atleast there's something covering her face that doesn't bother her.

Sunday we decorated the tree and the house. She did really well and loved putting the ornaments on. She took over the step stool and put as many ornaments on as she could. We weren't too bright though because we put bell ornaments on and now she won't leave them alone. She doesn't take them off but she walks around the tree and hits everyone that she can reach. It's cute and as long as she doesn't take them off I'm fine with it.

The big test will be when there are presents under the tree and if she'll leave them alone. She LOVES presents and thinks it's someone's birthday when she sees them. I hope she leaves them alone because I have no where to hide anymore presents.

It has been so much fun now that she is older and can help out more. I can't wait for Christmas!!

Thanksgiving

Sorry this is a little late but we hosted Thanksgiving so I was pretty busy getting everything bought and then made. It was one of the best Thanksgivings we've ever had. Asha loved the food and it was just really nice family time. Asha loves having family over and just kept going around the table saying everyone's names like wow they are all here!! It was so cute!!

Here's a few pictures from that day!!
I love this picture of Asha with her daddy. It was so nice that we got to relax more and spend some quality family time together.

I just love this little face. I think this is the picture I'm going to send out in Christmas cards.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

She Lives Her Life Upside Down!!

My girl must think she's a bat or something. She literally lives her life upside down. She hangs upside down from our bed she hangs over the back of the couch upside down and she hangs over our legs when we have them on the coffee table. She loves to be upside down and here are some pictures to prove how much. This is her new favorite thing to do!

She looks like a little bat just hanging there. I hope our counter holds up!!

Curious About Lurkers!!

Now that I have the Site Meter I've realized that more people are reading this blog than I thought because not many people post.

I would just like for any lurker to please post and let me know where your from (if you don't mind) and why you like to read Asha's blog. Also if there are any questions you may have about adoption or our adoption situation feel free to ask and I will try to answer all questions.

Thanks!!

Amazing!!

We just got home from the doctor. I took Asha to get her flu shot and the nurses were so amazed by her they loaded her up with stickers when it was all done.

One nurse held her hands and the other nurse was going to give her the shot. When the second nurse stuck the needle in Asha's arm Asha just looked at it and then with her right hand grabed the needle out of her arm handed it to the nurse and said "ok done". It freaked the nurses out that she was so fast and so strong that she could pull away from the nurse holding her and grab the needle away from the other nurse. Asha didn't cry, didn't flinch or anything.

Asha is VERY tough and it takes alot to make her cry but I thought for sure she would cry a little. I am so very impressed by her right now. You wouldn't even know that she got a shot at all today. What a big girl she is!!

My Girl Is So Funny!!

Asha amazes me every day with some of the things she says.

Last night we were in the van coming home from grocery shopping and she was kind of yelling "aaahhhhhhhh" and I said in an exasperated tone "Asha D!!" and she says "What I'm right here". Dakota and I just cracked up laughing.

I tend to call her "Boo" or "Bug" shortened versions of bugaboo. Well she thinks I call her "pooh" like from Tigger and Pooh so she has taken to calling people "pooh". One day she walks up to her dad and says "hi piglet". He started laughing and asked why she was calling him piglet so I explained.

She is also very considerate. She will walk up to me when I'm doing my household chores and ask me "You need help?" Sometimes I let her help if it's easy and she is more than happy to pitch in.

And apparently to her when I fold laundry it just looks like I throw clothes around. She likes to help with laundry so she will help pull it out of the dryer and then she pushes it to the spot in the living room where I sit and fold clothes and she will sit in my spot and start throwing clothes all over the place. It is the funniest thing to watch.

Here she is sitting in her favorite position from gymnastics. They call it the butterfly because the move their knees up and down like a butterfly.

Tagged

I've been tagged by skyangel from Faith, Hope and Love. Listed on the side.


Rules: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.


1. I have an incredible 6th sense about things. I knew in High School that I would adopt a child before I even found out that I was unable to have children. I tend to know when really bad things are going to happen. Sometimes I can even sense when certain people are going to call me.

2. I love to read. I used to like scary stories like Stephen King & Dean Koontz but now I'm into more love stories and stories about the Amish. We used to have alot of Amish around our town and they always fascinated me. I am now re reading the Twilight series and can't wait for the 4th book to come out next year.

3. I still live in the small town that I grew up in. It is an amazing town with an amazing school system that I want my kids to enjoy.

4. I helped gain custody of my step son when he was 3 years old. I've been in his life since he was 8 months old. I married my husband a few weeks shy of dating for a year. We got married at 20 years old and have been married for 10 years.

5. I am indecisive. I can almost always see both sides of a situation so it makes it very hard for me to take sides or even make a choice. It drives my husband nuts.

6. I love babies. I mean I REALLY love babies. When I was in High School working at a local grocery store I would go over and pinch the cheeks of all the cute little babies in line. I just couldn't help myself. I love those soft little squishy cheeks. My poor Asha gets hers kissed and played with daily.

7. I have always had friends who were older than me or friends that were guys. I always bonded more with guys than girls because there is too much drama and gossip with girls. When we got married I wanted my maid of honor to be a guy because I didn't have any girlfriends to ask. I have always gotten along better with woman who were older than me since I spent alot of time around my mom's friends growing up. I was always more mature than other people my age.

8. I don't like talking about myself that's why this blog is about my daughter. Finding 8 things to say about myself was very hard for me. I kept coming up with things about Asha and having to erase them.

I will now tag 8 other people if they haven't been tagged yet. I am tagging Adventures in Mommyland, Away 2 Me, Peps Thoughtful Spot, Kathy's Korner, Doubly Blessed, & Minnow Musings. I know it's not 8 but everyone else I read has already been tagged.

Halloween 2007

This is the best picture I have of Asha in her costume. She was a biker girl. She did not like trick or treating at all. She wanted every piece of candy opened immediately and when we would not comply she would throw a fit all the way to the next house. Once she did finally realize that there was more candy to come she was better well atleast until we came to the house of the mean man wearing a scary mask. After that she was done. She would not go up to anymore houses unless daddy or mommy carried her. Brother wasn't a good enough protector from the evil I guess. We would not have minded carrying her except those cute little pants she's wearing were flaking terribly bad and anyone who touched her got covered in head to toe fake leather flakes. I regret even buying them off of ebay and we threw them away before we would even let her in the house.

She did however really like handing out candy once we got home. She was not afraid of the kids in costumes and would even greet them by their costume "hi demon!!" "hi pirate!!" and so on. She even started handing out candy for us and would chase the kids down when they attempted to leave because she wanted to give them more candy.

One of Asha's friends stopped over to trick or treat as well. They are just so darn cute together. They were both giving us a run for our money. One would run one way and the other would run the other way. It's fun though to see them interact with eachother.

My husband took 2 really cute pictures of her while we were waiting for trick or treaters that I just want to share.

It was a fun day after we got home. It was just a rough time getting to the fun part.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!!!

Mamma D's Birthday

Tomorrow is Mamma D's birthday so I thought it would be cute to take a picture of Asha with a sign wishing her Mamma D a Happy Birthday and then sending it to her through a slideshow on Smilebox. We also sent her a small rose bush in a pot.

I am sooo happy that I found Smilebox because now Mamma D is using it to send us pictures as well. It is so nice to be able to show Asha pictures of her brother and sister.

We've been pretty busy around here so I haven't been blogging much. I will hopefully have some cute Halloween pictures to post next week for everyone to see.

Here's just a few other pictures I thought were cute that I've taken in the last week.

This is Asha at her brother's band concert. I had to take her out because Grandma told her no right when brother's band was going to start playing and she started to cry so loud that everyone was staring at us. I was sooo embarrassed.

I just love the color red on her. It is definately her color!!

Fall Fun Fest

The local Community Center had it's first Fall Fun Fest and we took Asha. There wasn't a whole lot going on when we got there but we did get her face painted and had some good hot apple cider. They also had cute homemade hats there that daddy just had to buy her. He is such a sucker when it comes to his little girl. He spoils her so much but I love to see it!!

Well here's what you really want to see..... pictures!!

She just gets so darn serious sometimes. She didn't crack a smile the whole time she was getting her face painted. She barely moved. The finished product. She loves stars.The Community Center is right next to the school so we took her over to the playground and let her play for a while. I just love this picture so much!!This has nothing to do with the Fall Fun Fest but she was wearing these ears the other day saying "sassy bunny". I always ask if she's being sassy if she's in a mood. That apparently is her new favorite word because now everyone is "sassy".This is the new hairstyle I gave her on Sunday. I did this once before but with pink yarn so you couldn't really see it but WOW can you see it with the red. My girl looks like a red head.

Pumpkin Hunting!!

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch for the very first time today and we all had a great time. We did the corn maze and got lost. We never did find the exit so we went back out through the entrance.


After that we went for a horse drawn wagon ride to get our pumpkins. Asha took a very long time trying to find the "right" pumpkin. We would show her one and she would come over by us and we would say "do you want to take this one home?" and she would say "no" and walk away. We did this for a while and she finally found a winner.

Here are the pictures of her adventure in pumpkin hunting.

This is Asha studying the pumpkin before giving her "no" vote on taking it home. She took choosing her pumpkin very seriously. This pumpkin was the winner. A perfect little pumpkin for the perfect little girl. Notice the serious face. Pumpkin hunting is a very serious thing.It was hard work looking for and carrying that pumpkin. LOL She needed to rest so big brother got her a wagon and pulled her around. Doesn't she look exhausted?? LOLFinally home with the winning pumpkin. She was very iffy about letting us put her pumpkin on the front porch after all the hard work she did getting it.

In case any of you noticed that HUGE pumpkin in the wagon that is Dakota's pumpkin that he worked very hard at finding. It was so heavy it didn't even register on the scales. It was 30 + pounds and only cost us $5. He was very proud of himself for finding what he thinks is the biggest pumpkin they had. Here's a picture of him trying to carry it back to the wagon.We can't wait to see him carve it out tomorrow!! That should be a good show!

We also decorated Halloween cookies tonight and I will post pictures probably tomorrow. It was Asha's first time and she made a pretty big mess but had so much fun!!

Camera Please!!

There is a cute little story that goes along with this picture.

I was leaning on the counter in our kitchen making out my step son's chore list and Asha climbed up on the stool across the counter from me and sat down all nice and pretty like and says to me "mom please get the camera" I start to laugh and ask her "why?" She says again "please get the camera" so I get the camera and she gives me the above face and says "cheeeeese". It was just too funny.

Like I've said the girl knows how to get what she wants.

She also had gymnastics again on Tuesday and was doing he dare devil gymnastics on the bars there and the coach at the end of practice was telling me how very very strong Asha is. I told her that she does all of the tricks on the bars at home on our bed. The coach was very amazed at how strong Asha is. Another mother there said she could see why we put Asha in gymnastics.

Asha's New House!!

My husband is the luckiest person in the world. Alot of the work he does is in fields that people don't regularly travel in and he came across a child's play cabin completely put together in the middle of one such field. The closest thing to it was the highway. He thinks that it must have blown off of someone's truck and landed in the field. Of course being the daddy that he is he took it apart and brought it home for his little girl who was instantly in love with her new house.

Here are some pictures of her enjoying her new house.
Daddy took this picture and did a really good job. I was really impressed with the pictures he took. Normally I'm the one behind the camera doing the picture taking.

She was just so excited. Can't you just see it in her face. She was beyond herself with joy.

Here she is peaking out of the roof daddy made for her. The roof that was on it was just a mesh thing that was beyond gross so he threw it away.

When asked if she wanted to go back upstairs she said "NO" and ran back in her house to play some more. We've been spending alot of time her not yet complete play room since the house arrived.

Hanging Around

This is Asha's favorite past time and it drives me crazy. It doesn't help that Big Brother thinks it's hilarious and helps her do it. This was yesterday. She piles the pillows from our bed up so she can reach the bar that goes over our bed. She just loves to hang and swing there at least until today.

This is what we caught her doing today. She didn't need much encouragement from brother either. She just needed his help to hang on to the bar and she did the rest. Big Brother is very impressed by little sis if you can't tell. His opinion is that she needs to play football because she's so strong. My opinion is that she'll be good at gymnastics if she keeps practicing as much as she does at home.

That's my little dare devil gymnast!!

Finally Pictures!!

I haven't taken or posted any pictures because Asha has been sick and just not up to having her picture taken. Sitting and watching football in the cold just didn't agree with her and she ended up with a cold.

So here are the pictures I've taken this weekend.

I just thought this picture was really cute!! I don't think I've ever taken an open mouth smile picture like this before and I love it!!

This is Asha and her papa at Dakota's football game last night. I think she was the warmest person there. You know it's Fall when you have to dress like it's winter to go to a football game. Atleast in WI that's how it works.

Ok these next pictures I absolutely love!!! These pictures will show why I enrolled Asha for gymnastics.

She was trying to open our bedroom door and thought this was the correct way to do it. Once she started she had so much fun she kept doing this all day.

Eventually we had to make her stop because I think she made the door handle loose.

So as you can see I really mean that the girl hangs on everything. Nothing is safe in our house from her hanging on it not even door handles. LOL

Family Cook Book

I've revamped my idea for the Family Recipe Box after I got my Family Fun Magazine in the mail. I'm going to do a Cook Book instead of recipe boxes for the kids.

I don't know if any of you get the Family Fun Magazine but there was a section in there pretty much talking about what I wanted to do and they had a website where you could get a template/layout for recipe cards but they were full pages instead of small cards. The website is www.smilebox.com . The templates/layouts show up as a postcard that you can type on but when you download the template/layout/postcard it gives you the option to print once you have all your information on it. The thing I like best is that you can add pictures to the recipe card so you can have a picture of who the recipe was passed down from or who's favorite recipe it is.

Then when you print them out you just put them in a binder that maybe the kids could decorate. I think that would be pretty cool when they grow up to see their art work on the cook book and their kids would probably think it was cool too when it's passed down to them. A binder would probably last longer than a recipe box anyway and keep everything together better.

Just thought I would pass on the revamped idea if anyone is interested.

How Do You Know When.....

YOUR ADDICTED TO EBAY???

I guess when your walking down the hall with the box dropped off from the Fed Ex guy and your daughter yells "Asha's Got Mail!!" because you've ordered her soooo many things from ebay.

I innocently started looking on ebay for leotards for Asha for her gymnastics class and once I discovered all the cute clothes out there for her I just can't help myself. I am a bidding maniac.

She does have cute clothes though so I guess it's worth it right? wink wink

Family Recipe Box

I'm not sure if I blogged about this before or not and I don't feel like looking so if I have consider this a post for all of my new readers.

A friend of mine gave me a great keepsake idea for my kids. The conversation started with me telling her about Mamma D wishing she had some kind of family heirloom that she could pass down to Asha. The idea is a family recipe box. She saw it on a tv show and what you do is take a recipe card or stationary and write the recipes that mean something to you or people in your family. You can put the story of the recipe and who/where it came from on the back along with a picture of the person the recipe originated with or who passed it down. I thought this was just amazing seeing how Mamma D is part Jamaican and would have some amazing Jamaican recipes for Asha. I told her about the idea and she really liked it but like I said in my previous post she is extremely busy and I don't know when she will get around to passing down her recipes. I am really excited about it though and excited to make Asha's recipe box.

I think it will mean alot to her to see that her birthmom put something like that together for her and to see other people in her birthmom's family and to know a little bit of their history.

I thought I would share with all of you and maybe start something that our kids would find very special some day.

Mamma D

Well I got an e-mail from Mamma D today and she is fine. She had a really rough month and hadn't checked her e-mail since some time in August she said.

She had gotten sick and working 10 to 12 hour days. It's got to be so hard being a single parent and working those kinds of hours.

See I'm just a silly worrier. She said she has not stopped thinking about us and caring about us she's just had it rough.

Please pray for her and the kids. She's been having a rough few years and she is just such a good person and needs a break from all the bad stuff that keeps happening.

THANKS!!

Big Brothers Are Great!!

We are truly blessed that Asha and Dakota get along so well. Dakota is over the moon in love with his little sister and she the same. She cries when he goes to his mom's for the weekend and she always has to make sure that he goes wherever we go. She is always saying "Come on Coey (Cody)". They play wonderfully together and there have only been a few times in the last 2 1/2 years that Dakota had lost his cool with her. It was this summer actually and we were doing alot of traveling and they were both not happy to be stuck in the backseat for so long with eachother.

I'm an only child so it is wonderful for me to see them so close and to get along so well. Dakota has pictures of Asha all over his room and he even spends his own money to buy her things. Some days their closeness is even a problem because he would rather play with her some days than do anything else like oh let's say chores or homework. It always brings a smile to my face how patient he is with her.

It's actually pretty funny because Asha has the 2 men of the house wrapped around her little finger. Dakota jumps pretty much whenever she wants something even though he's been told not to give into her whinning/fits. He hates to see her unhappy.

Well here are some pictures I took yesterday of them together.

Here he is helping her shoot a basket. Asha loves anything that Dakota does so she loves basketball and soccer. She wants to do what he is doing.You can't really see him in this picture but he is holding her up so she can shoot the basket herself.

Here they are trying to fly his plane together. She really thought it was pretty cool.

Gymnastics

Asha had her first gymnastics class on Tuesday. She had done gymnastics at the YMCA last year but this place is more professional. Asha already learned more her first class at the new place than she did in 2 months at the YMCA.

She did sooooo good. She listened really well and did what they told her to do. She loved working on the bars. She would hang on the bar and walk her feet up the wall and then the coach would help them to spin around the bar. She didn't want to leave that station she liked it so much. She's always hanging on stuff here. Just today she was playing on her swingset and flipped backwards off of the bars on the swingset. I was so shocked. She had never done that before. I knew we were doing the right thing by signing her up for gymnastics and that just proved it today.

I will post pictures but they all turned out so dark. I though the lighting in there was going to work but she was usually too far away for the flash to work. I'm going to video tape next Tuesday.

I was also worried that she would be the youngest in there but there is another little girl who is about a month younger than her.

This is Asha waiting to get on the trampoline. I have some funny pictures of her beads sticking up in every direction from her jumping but they are too dark to post. :(This is the best one I have of her on the trampoline. She was so funny though. At the end of the trampoline they have thick mats so they don't fall off and hurt themselves and she just kept jumping right to the end of the mats too.

This is her laying on the floor after class. She didn't want to come off the gymnastics floor and when she did she just kind of layed down on the floor. I guess she got a work out.

Sleep..... What's That?

All of a sudden we are having a repeat of July here. Asha won't sleep again. July was an absoltuely horrible month for sleeping and now she is doing it again. No matter what time she goes to bed she is up at the crack of dawn, won't take naps, and sometimes even fights going to bed at night. I know I'm not the only mom having this problem so just wondering what it is that is making all these kids not tired or atleast fighting it so hard. MOMMY NEEDS SLEEP!!

Well of course as I write that I am up instead of going to bed DUH on my part I guess.

Excited here that Asha is starting gymnastics on Tuesday. She's excited as well because she can't wait to wear her leotards. Grandma and Papa came to visit yesterday and she ran to her room and grabbed her favorite leotard and asked Grandma to put it on her. She knows a sucker when she sees on. She's got daddy and brother wrapped around her little finger.


Asha's new accomplishment for the weekend was finally playing with the bubble blowing Curious George doll we bought her a month ago to try and brib her into taking baths. When we first bought it she loved it until we tried to make him blow bubbles. He makes this horrible noise like Darth Vader and it scared the crap out of her so she hasn't touched it since that day. We put him on one of the speakers in the living room and she was fine with that as long as he didn't move from there. She would put little hats on him and poke him with things as long as he didn't move. Well for some reason he was ok to move this weekend and now she won't go anywhere without him. If anyone has the inclination to buy one of these things DON'T. The bubble part doesn't really work and his arm keeps falling off which is really annoying to keep putting back on 50 times a day. This is what we have heard all weekend "Please George arm on, Please George arm on etc..."

Well here are some pictures from the weekend.

This is Asha on daddy's lap. Her most favorite place to be on the weekends when he's home!!

Not the best picture of her but I took this because of the new hairstyle I did on her. It's called a twist out. I had done twists in her hair that lasted almost 2 weeks and when I took them out they were still all twisty and sticking up all cute!!Ok me the big dummy that I am thought I was doing cornrows correctly until I actually watched a video on how to do them. The picture above is my attempt today and they actually look like real cornrows. I always wondered before why mine were so wide and everyone else's cornrows were so narrow. DUH because I was doing it wrong. I am pretty proud of myself and like the real cornrows better than the way I was doing it.