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.

Mamma D

When I look at this beautiful little face I just can't help but to think of Mamma D. I worry about her and think about her every day. I know she is doing fine and getting on with her life now that she's not in Grad school but I still worry. It's even worse when she goes for long periods of time without e-mailing me.

I worry that by getting on with her life that she won't want to have as much contact as we have in the past and that makes me sad for Asha and for myself. Like I have stated she is like the sister I've never had and we truly love her like part of the family.

I can understand if moving on with her life means not having alot of contact with us but I will miss her very much!! I may also just be overreacting like I tend to do. I freak out and then she e-mails me to tell me how insanely busy she's been and then I feel stupid for thinking she was moving away from us. She does have 2 kids in school now and a full time job so it just may be that she is too busy or tired to e-mail.

I just want Asha to grow up knowing her Mamma D and how wonderful she is. I think only good can come from Asha knowing her birthmother and I think Mamma D feels the same.

I'll let you all know if she does contact me. I've been e-mailing her updates as usual but have not heard back from her at all.

Fun Times

We've been having a great end of summer. We are still doing the park thing regularly and there was a fair we took the kids to last night. Asha really is starting to enjoy rides and that is so much fun to watch.


She is still into her pink boots and has been wearing them with everything again. Her new passion is her new leotards for gymnastics. She keeps pulling them out of her drawers and wants us to put them on.

Asha on the carousel at the fair. She never used to like it but the last few times she's really started to smile and laugh and yell "Whee" while on.

Here she is all dressed up for her Great Grandma's birthday party and of course there are the pink boots. We tried VERY hard to talk her into her cute white sandals but it had to be the boots. We get comments every where we go about her boots. Everyone loves them and that makes her want to wear them more.

This is Asha at the school playground. I really love this picture of her even though part of her got a little cut off.

Did you all realize that it's getting darker out earlier? Well the night we took a walk to the school playground I thought we would have plenty of time to get home before dark but I was very wrong. It was almost completely dark out by 8 p.m. We ended up walking home in the dark. So just in case no one has noticed it is getting dark earlier.

Pictures!!

My girl is addicted to corn on the cob. She had 2 pieces this night and wanted more. If you even mention corn on the cob she runs around the house yelling "corn on cob" "corn on cob"!!

This is Asha enjoying the fact that we took the railing off of her bed and that she got new blanket and pillow case. She LOVES it. The only problem is that she sleeps pretty rough so we tuck the blanket into the side of the bed so she doesn't roll out. Well she didn't roll out but I found her at midnight with half her body hanging over the side almost touching the floor and the other half still tucked nicely in bed.

Here she is in the new leotard I bought for her off of ebay. She is going to be starting gymnastics next month and I found some really great deals on ebay. This is the day it came in the mail. She HAD to wear it.

I just love her sparkly mischevious face in this picture. She just sparkles. I can't get enough of her.

Another Question Answered

Question 3:

Do you think her faith impacts how she has handled her grief and her relationship with you all? Does she ever talk about that...the correlation between her faith and how she has processed and handled everything over the past couple of years?

I can't recall for sure if and when she mentioned her faith helping with her grief but I'm pretty sure she had mentioned something along those lines in one of her e-mails that first year. She is very active in her church and has even written and directed Easter and Christmas plays. She leans on God heavily in hard times and like I said always comes through with a smile. Her faith amazes me and I'm pretty positive that's what helped her through it all.

The thing about Mamma D is that she is a VERY busy woman. Her e-mails aren't as frequent or long as they used to be so I only get tid bits of information from her at a time. I used to get more lengthy e-mails but she now has a full time job and a 5 and 6 year old to take care of. Seriously there are times she doesn't check her mail or e-mail for weeks. If I send her something in the mail I e-mail to tell her to check her mail. I miss her and her e-mails but I do understand that she has her own life down in Florida and she may be trying to move on. I know we will never loose touch but she has a life and she's going to live it. She has big plans for her future and she is working towards those plans. I hope she gets everything out of life that she deserves and she deserves ALOT!!

Questions Answered

Thanks for asking questions ladies and they are good ones at that!! Here are some answers.


Question 1:

Do you and Mamma D ever disagree about anything? Just out of curiosity. If so, how do you handle it?

Now you may not believe this but we have never disagreed about anything. I don't know how to say this so it doesn't come across the wrong way but she knows that we are Asha's parents and she doesn't step over that boundary. I don't know if boundary is a good word but that's what popped into my head. When she was here visiting people naturally thought Asha was hers so when people would ask her questions she would look at me and ask me to answer. We got some funny looks but she never stepped in and acted like the mom. She let me do that. She would let us take care of discipline and taking care of Asha the whole time she was here. She has had nothing but praise for us and what we do for Asha and for her and her children.

Question 2:

Does Mamma D ever share some of those harder emotions with you? Do you see them affecting your friendship, or her relationship with Asha at all?

We were really worried when she went home after her visit here that it would be too hard leaving Asha again but when she got home she sent me the most wonderful e-mail about how much she lovs us all and how blessed she feels to have us in her life. I know the first year was hard for her and we even sent her a video of Asha's first year and she did tell me that she couldn't watch it because it was too hard. After her visit and she got to see up close the kind of life Asha has she told me she would probably be fine to watch it now. In the beginning I asked her how much information she wanted and if it would help her or hurt her and she said the more information the better. She wanted to know everything and I think that helps her to know how well cared for and loved Asha is. I send her a TON of pictures and she just gushes over them and appreciates them sooo much. She has not expressed since our visit last year that there has been any sadness and I do my best to try and help in any way I can.

I hope I answered your questions and if not ask again and I will try to elaborate some more. Keep the questions coming ladies and I will be happy to answer them.

Our Open Adoption Story

Someone on another blog I read mentioned that she is trying to find common threads in adoption and has not been able to find any and has encouraged adoptive families to share their open adoption stories.

I have briefly shared about our open adoption but not in great detail. Actually I am very happy with our open adoption and I think Asha's birthmom is too. She has stated more than once that she never thought she could love us as much as she does.

Some people think we are out of the ordinary for open adoptions because we are willing to go all the way. If we lived closer there would be frequent visits and many many memories to be made. Unfortunately we are in Wisconsin and Asha's birthmom and 2 children are in Florida. We try to have atleast one visit a year but did not get to our visit yet this year. We are hoping to go down and visit them in January if all works out. We send regular pictures sometimes monthly sometimes less and we receive pictures of them a few times a year. We have pictures of Asha's birthfamily all over her room and the house. She loves to look at them and can point them out when you ask where her Mamma D is and brother and sister are. We do call her birthmom Mamma D and that is something we all agreed on. We e-mail back and forth frequently and truly Mamma D is like a sister I never had.

I feel so blessed to have her in our lives and especially since she had no idea how open she wanted to be when we all started out. In our first conversation we told her we were as open as she wanted us to be. From there she took the reins and we have a wonderful relationship and great love for eachother. She thinks I am the funniest worry wart out there. Since she lives in Florida I am always worried about hurricanes so she always e-mails me letting me know that they are ok and that I can stop worrying because she knows without me even e-mailing her to check on them that I am worrying.

The best thing for me is seeing Mamma D with Asha. I have the best memories of last summer when she came to visit. She would put Asha up on her shoulders and dance around with Asha squealing and laughing. She would even call Asha the pet names we call her without even knowing those were our pet names for her. Asha was fascinated by Mamma D's hands. She would hold them and turn them over and then look at her own hands. It was so sweet to watch. I will always cherish their time together.

Mamma D is such an amazing woman. She just finished Grad. School and has gotten herself an amazing job. She is a single mother and goes above and beyond for her children while dealing with hardships and trying to get her life on track. She takes so much joy in hearing about Asha and everything she is doing and learning. Mamma D also has an amazing faith in God. Even when her life isn't looking so good she can look to him for strength and she always makes it through with a smile on her face. She amazes me and I am truly truly blessed to have her in our lives and Asha could not have been blessed with a better birthmom.

If there is anything anyone would like to know about our adoption feel free to ask me. I love to talk about adoption!!

Front Pictures Of Asha's New Hair Style

Tonight was a good picture night. It seemed that every picture I took of Asha turned out sooo cute so I am going to post a few of them and then you can also see how cute her hair is from the front. I think this is my new favorite hair style for her. I think for Halloween I will put orange in her hair. That will be sooo cute!!
This is my favorite one of the night. I think it was also the first one of the night too. I take alot of pictures.

Asha playing with her new toy box.

Just one I got of her walking into her bedroom.

I love to take pictures of her. Tonight was a wonderful night and she cooperated so well for me.

I Love This Picture!!

I just love this picture so much!! We were heading out the door to take Dakota to his mom's house and they were having a nice little family moment so I snapped a picture. It turned out so nice. I think I might need to get it framed.

New Hair Style

I tried a new hairstyle today on Asha and I really think I like it. It takes less time than the beads but it still puts color in her hair. Let me know what you think!!

I will try to get a good one from the front and post it later. She wasn't cooperating after sitting for so long. She just wanted to play.

At The Park!!

Our town got a grant for new play equipment at the local park and it's finally done so we had to venture down to see it this week. We went twice and Asha loves it more every time we go. She particularly likes going to the park because it's next to a river and she loves to watch the river as we walk over it. As soon as she gets in her stroller she says "see river, see river".

It was so cute at the park there was this little girl who was 4 and she was just drawn to Asha. She followed Asha around and Asha followed her around. The little girls older brother was more than willing to help Asha get around the tunnels and places I couldn't get to. She seems to draw people and kids where ever she goes. When we went to the beach last week this little girl kept coming up to Asha and saying "Your sooo cute!!" People are always coming over and talking to her at the stores and even men go gaga over her. It's so funny to see men stop and talk all cutsey to her.

Any ways here are some pictures from our outings this week.

This is Asha sitting on the steps going up to the tunnel that she played in most of the time we were there. She couldn't get all the way through by herself but she kept trying.

Here she is in the tunnel. It was steep and some of the kids used it for a slide as well. She had fun just trying to get through.

This picture was taken the first day we went to the park. She was more interested in the swings the first time but today she liked the actual new play ground stuff.

Here is Asha and her brother having fun on the new equipment. Asha really tries to do everything that he does.

This one is just for fun because she looks so cute and just so darn old in this picture. This was taken today and so were the first 2.

We will definately be going back to the park as much as we can before summer is over. She didn't want to leave.

Just Pictures

This was Asha's outfit on Thursday with her pink boots. We were going to the beach that day so her top is just her bikini top.

Daddy dressed her today since I had a migraine. He did a pretty good job but she did talk him back into the boots. She actually went a few days without them.

I took this at the beach on Thursday. I just thought it was a cute picture so I included it. She really had lots of fun and actually went into the water up to her waist. I guess she doesn't mind water if it's warm enough because the last time we went to the beach she barely went deep enough for the water to touch her butt. I wish she was more of a water bug but we have fun in the sand too.

Here she is in her new bikini. She loves it and wants to wear it all the time. I love her in it too so we'll just have to go to the beach more I guess.

Still All About The Boots!!

She's still wearing them and getting compliments where ever we go. She is sooo obsessed with her boots that when I put her down for her nap she must have gotten out of her bed and put them back on because when she woke up they were on and on the wrong feet. When I took those boots off tonight she had some pretty ripe feet. I thought she had a poopy diaper her little feet smelled so bad.

Hopefully tomorrow she will keep them off since we are going to the beach. I don't think boots and sand will mix very well.

I just love being a mommy to my little girl and take joy in all the cute little quirks she has. I will always remember these fun days and I can't wait for many more.

I would post a picture of her in her boots today but I left the camera in her diaper bag again so it will have to wait!!

It's All About The Boots!!

I think my husband is as much of a shoe horse as Asha is. We went looking for new sandals for Asha on Saturday and came out of Target with new sandals and a pink pair of cow girl boots. The boots were compliments of daddy and his little girl had to wear them all through the store and the rest of the day. It was all about those pink boots for her and she loves them. She has been wearing them ever since Saturday afternoon. She wakes up in the morning and her first words are no longer "Good Morning mom" oh no not when there are pink boots to be worn. I now get greated with "Pink Boots mom". She wears them with every outfit including her pajamas. It is the sweetest thing and the one thing I love about having a little girl. Her ability to be girly and loving to dress up. Here are some picture of her outfits since the boots have arrived.
This is what she was wearing Saturday when we bought the boots. The outfit actually does match because there are little pink flowers on her dress.

This is her Sunday morning wearing her boots with her jammies. Luckily she did take them off when it was bath time. We thought we might have a battle of wills over that but it all went smoothly.

This is her outfit from Monday. I tried to make her match since we had to be out and about that day. Here is today's outfit. We did have a little time this morning without the boots but she did finally remember and had to have them on again.

No boots in this picture but this was her fashion statement for last Wednesday when we went to pick up brothers football gear at the school. She HAD to wear her wings. She got lots of compliments on them.

I wonder if tomorrow will be a bootless day?? LOL

First Time Camping

I must say that Asha is definately an out doors kind of girl. She LOVED camping more than I ever thought she would. She laughed from sun up to sun down and just ran ran ran. We camped with Grandma and Papa and had joining camp sites so she ran back and forth visiting and playing. She got soooo dirty but had sooo much fun!! We didn't get to camp as much as we wanted because it rained Thursday all day so we stayed home and went from Friday to Sunday. She had her very first pudgy pie this morning. Daddy made her a cherry pie filling with a marshmallow in the middle and she couldn't get enough. She is now addicted to marshmallows. She would wake up in the morning saying "Chocolate Mallow?" We had to keep telling her that she couldn't have chocolate mallows for breakfast but at night we would have some more. Here are some pictures of her having fun!!

This is Asha in the tent. She kept calling it "Asha's tent". When we took it down this morning she kept saying "Asha's tent flat". It was so cute!!

This is Asha being silly while waiting for papa to throw her the frisbee. She really liked chasing the little red disc around. Kept her busy for a while.Here she is chilling on daddy after scarfing down a bunch of marshmallows and grahm crackers.

Just for fun here is one of Asha in her new bikini. Unfortunately we didn't get to go swimming even though it was hot enough. We were just too busy doing other things. It didn't help that mom had a migraine part of the day on Saturday.

I definately think we will be going camping again. Probably not this year anymore but next year for sure.