IT IS SNOWING HERE

JUST NOT THE RIGHT KIND OF SNOW...

Making a BIG mess.

Styrofoam can bit lots of fun.

This stuff is really fun.
Brooke got the box from something we had bought Courtney. She had herself a time. We was trying to finish Courtney's room up, and Brooke was playing in the snow. LOL

Courtney's New Room

The paint looks lighter on this wall, but it is just the way I took the picture.

We have been so busy for two weeks trying to get this room done. We had told Courtney months ago, that if she would start sleeping in her room and not in Brooke's that we would let her do her room the way she wanted. (We had to approve it though) Courtney has been sleeping in her room. Courtney's bed is a Queen size. We found many comfortors that we liked, but they was for a twin or full bed. We finally found this one and Courtney loved it. She chose her colors. I was so sad, because I did not want to mess her rabbit room up. He old room was purple with a huge rabbit border in the room. I thought it was the prettiest room in the house. It took us forever to get the wallpaper down. I hated to see the beautiful purple room go. I have to say I am happy with the results of this. I think it turned out pretty good. Courtney hated the rabbit room, because she thought it was to much like a baby. She loves her new room. She has hugged us and thanked us a dozen times. If she will just keep it as clean as we have it now, I think she will really enjoy it. Speaking of clean I have my whole house, except Court's room to clean. Every room got messed up from this job. I had a mattress and bed in my living room for about two weeks. I have to get busy and clean this week.

This Time Last Year.....

There was a little beautiful girl in China, waiting for her mommy, daddy, and sister to come get her. She did not know us then, but she felt our kisses that we sent her every night. Many times Qian Wen Bo would feel something wet on her cheeks. She knew she was not crying. She felt really special when she felt this on her cheeks. Those was the kisses we was sending her.
She felt hands holding her and giving her comfort when she was sad, hungry, cold, or just needing love. (That was God's angels)
She knew that something was going to happen soon. She had a special nanny that kept telling her she was getting a family soon. Wenbo did not understand that. Wenbo did not know that in a country far away, called America that her mommy, daddy, and sister was getting ready to come get her. Wenbo did not know she had friends, family, and special grandparents who wanted her home. She did not know how loved she was.
Wenbo had special nanny's who did their best to care for her. Wenbo had friends that she played with sometimes. In fact she had so many friends that it was hard for the nanny's to give her all the attention she needed. Sometimes that made Qian Wenbo sad. She wanted her diaper changed right then. She wanted her bottle right then, but she had to wait. Many times she would lay in her little bed and play by herself. Wenbo would be feeling sad and she would start to cry. Then she would feel something special sweep across her face and she would feel happy. ( Our Kisses) Wenbo liked to sit in her walker.

She felt she had some freedom as she would try to scoot across the floor.
One day Wenbo was so cold. She did not understand why it was so cold and dark. She had tons of clothes on her, but she was cold and everything seemed so dark. Wenbo was also feeling her nose start to run and her cheeks felt like they was on fire. She kept hearing the nanny's say that is was snowing outside and that the power was out. Wenbo was scared. She was feeling so lonely. She really needed her family, that the nanny told her about. Where was these people? Wenbo felt something touch her cheek again. She started feeling a little better. Maybe the nanny was right. Maybe soon Wenbo was going to have a new family.

Yes, the nanny was right, Wenbo had a family that was Oceans a part, and worlds away. They was coming soon to bring her home.

Don't all good stories have a happy ending?

Brooke with some of her friends. (Brooke is in the middle)

The beds in the orphanage.

Peek- uh-Boo

Happy Thanksgiving

I am a very thankful person. There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for my blessings. With it being Thanksgiving you think about your blessing more. I have so many things to be thankful for.
I am thankful for saved parents who raised me in a good Christian home. I don't regret the wonderful life that my parents gave me.
I am so thankful to be saved and have God in my life. I could not imagine not having God to talk to. My desire as a young person was to have a saved companion that loved God first and then me. I also desired children. (4 was what I wanted) God has blessed with with a wonderful husband who treats me like a queen. Kevin does love God first. I know that has been a great help in our marriage. It is so nice to be able to pray together and talk about good things. God blessed us with two healthy, beautiful girls. I am O.K with just two. If God wants to give us more, we will take them. We are satisfied with our two girls. We love them so much.
I am thankful that God blessed Kevin with a good job. God has supplied all of our needs and most of our wants. I appreciate the health that God has gave to each of us. Sometimes we take our health for granted. I don't want to do that. God has been very good to us. I am very thankful for that.
This time last year we was getting ready to leave for China. I felt Gods arms around us as we traveled to get our daughter. God blessed us on the trip. God blessed Brooke by giving her a wonderful family. Brooke bonded to us on day one. Her love, and our love has grown everyday since. I am so thankful for that. I appreciate how God helped things to go so well with Brooke. I know some people had some major issues with bonding with their children. We did not have to go through that. I am so thankful. I am thankful to be able to spend our First Thanksgiving as a family. This is our first Thanksgiving with Brooke.
I could go on and on with the wonderful things God has done in our lives.
I will stop for now. I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving.
A special Happy thanksgiving to my little China Doll, Brooke, My little sunshine Courtney, and my wonderful husband Kevin. I love you guys.
Denna

For Kelly and Reba

I thought of Kelly when we saw this beautiful set of lights. I thought of Reba when I decided to post it for Kelly. This is a great Nursery Rhyme for you two great people.
Love you Both.

Christmas Mood

My Two pretty girls.

What a pretty smile!!!

Would you like some Candy?

Brooke is really doing better with these pictures. She even says, "Cheese."

We went to Bontanical Gardens to see the lights. The girls had so much fun. Brooke got to be pulled in a wagon while we looked at the lights.
It was so cold. We got to the end and got some yummy hot chocolate. Brooke enjoyed everything but Santa. When she saw Santa Claus she cried and wanted nothing to do with him. (except get a candy cane. LOL)
These pictures have really got me in the Christmas mood.

Repeat of Words.

My First Tupperware Party

"I had a blast playing in all the prizes"
"I think this is a key chain. This is fun"
"I really like this party mommy"

My mommy had a GREAT Tupperware Party. She got so many nice things. Somebody said that the Tupperware lady spoiled my mom. I thought it was really nice that she gave my mom such nice things. I sure had fun playing in all the Tupperware. My daddy decided that I did not need to make a mess, so he took me to Courtney's room, and we played in there. I think having my daddy to play with is better than the tupperware. My first tupperware party sure was fun. I hope my mommy had as much fun as me.

Annoying Music

My husband finds the song on my blog annoying. He likes the song, but he thinks it is annoying to hear it over and over. It is also hard to hear the clips of my girls and of the funny talking animals. So if anybody else out there don't like it either, Courtney has found the solution.
Courtney figured out what to do. (If you don't already know this) Go to the bottom of the page and click the pause button on the Love takes you In video. It will make it quite on the blog. Then if you want to hear one of the videos, you can hear it.
I hope this helps for all you people who thinks it is annoying. Kevin thinks I should take it off the blog, but it is a great song for adoption and I just can't do that right now.

Talking Pets

Fall Fun

Last Homestudy

We had our last one today. YEA:)
I am so glad to be through with this. Things went great. At first Brooke was being a touch me not. She did not want our social worker to touch her or her toys. Everything was "NO" I felt embarrassed. I was hoping our Social worker could see Brooke's good side. We made the mistake of having the meeting at nap time. That did not help matters. We wanted Brooke to talk, and she just did not want to cooperate.
Then she opened up and started talking and being a mess. She gave our social worker a hug and a kiss. My social worker was impressed at how well Brooke was doing.
I am glad it is over, but I feel sad also. We made a friend with our social worker. She was wonderful to work with. Courtney adores her. Hopefully we can still send her pictures from time to time.
Our social worker was the best. I can remember the first time she came to our house. We had heard all these horror stories about how Social Workers looked in your refrigerators, and cabinets. Our refrigerator and cabinets got the best cleaning they ever got. We was scared to death on our first visit. Looking back now it is funny. We told our social worker what we had heard and she laughed. She said that they don't do that in a adoption case. The only reason they would do that is if DHR was involved and they had to make sure you had food and things like that. We found out that our social worker was not a bear, but a very sweet lady. Courtney loved her from day one.
We had to have two post placement visit after we brought Brooke home. This was our last. I have to say it was not near as stressful as the one we had 2 years ago.
We have one last step in the adoption and everything will be normal. We have a court date in December for a re-adoption. The only reason we have to do this is to get Brooke a birth certificate. I am glad we are almost through.

War Eagle

Fall Days

Waiting on the leaves to get raked up.

WOW! This is fun.

I love this.

What a cutie.

This is relaxing.

My two beautiful Girls.

Fall Days are almost gone. I had to share some pictures of my beautiful girls enjoying some Fall leaves. We don't have many trees in our yard, so we had to go to Grandma's and rake up some leaves. The girls had a blast.

Brooke Update

Brooke laughing at her doll.

"This is the outfit I wanted, mommy"

My little girl is growing up to fast. This morning I was going to get her dressed. She kept saying "no, no" She did not want to wear the outfit I had picked out. She wanted to wear the outfit you see in the picture. The other outfit was a cute outfit from Children's Place. Brooke took it off as soon as I put it on her. I finally figured out why she was crying and saying 'no". She wanted to wear the brown outfit. I put it on her and she was as happy as can be. I did not go through this with Courtney when she was one. I guess it is O.K to let them choose what they want, but I always thought that was when they was older than 21 months. This child loves clothes. She is always prancing around in her clothes. When I get her dressed she runs to her daddy to show him her outfit. Kevin always makes a big deal with her. He will say " Oh what a pretty outfit. Let me give you a hug in that" Brooke smiles and gives her daddy a hug.
Kevin always did that with Courtney to. (Still does)
Brooke is talking a good bit now. She will repeat anything you say. Courtney and Brooke was fussing over something the other day. Brooke is very strong willed. If she thinks it is hers, then you best not try to take it from her. Brooke and Courtney was fussing over something that was Courtney's. Well Brooke was pulling on it and she slipped and fell. Courtney said " Ha ha ha" Brooke looked at her and said " Ha ha ha"
My sister came up for a visit, and her son was being a pill. My sister was pointing her finger at him and telling him that he better straighten up. Miss Brooke goes over to the scene and she squats down, points her finger, and has a very serious look on her face. We was about to roll in the floor from laughing at her.
I guess one of my favorite things to hear Brooke say is " I luv u" My heart melts to hear her say that. Brooke will get her doll and give it a kiss and say "Nite nite. love u" Brooke then goes and gets her doll a shirt to hold. I have to share my shirts with Brooke and her dolls. I always wanted Brooke to have a cute, pink blanket for her security. That did not work. It has to be one of my shirts. ( At least it is not a certain shirt. As long as it is a T-shirt type) She also has to have a passey. I dread when we take that from her.
Things are going well. Brooke has brought us som much joy and laughter.

Ice Cream

You Are Vanilla Ice Cream

Your personality is anything but "vanilla" You're a risk taker, who's up for anything new. You go well with anyone and fit into any situation. You are most compatible with rocky road ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Look at this CutE bAbY..

Camping Trip

Create Your Own!

We are Back

We are finally home from our fun camping trip. Even though it was so cold that I lost two fingers, Kevin lost a ear, Courtney lost her hair, and Brooke gained about 20 layers of clothes we had a blast. We loved our camping buddies. James, Cindy, and their children went with us. We really enjoyed our time together. We got to see a good bit of Deer. I got to feed one, which I thought was neat. Sitting by the fire was the best thing. It was so cold that the fire felt great. The day time was nice, but still to cold. We had layers of clothes on. We felt like we was in China.
Brooke thinks she is a queen. She got to sleep between her mom and dad so she loved that. We wanted to make sure she stayed warm. Our camper was so nice and warm at night. Brooke got spoiled rotten sleeping between us. My poor arm got so sore from laying in the same position.
Kevin said he could not wait until tonight so he could sleep with his arms around me and not have them hanging off the bed, because he was afraid to move. He did not want to roll on Brooke. ( Brooke thinks she is such a queen that she might end up in bed with us tonight.)
Courtney had so much fun. She chattered, screamed and played the whole time.
It was nice to be with friends and relax. I think I would enjoy it much better in the spring, or September. At least then we don't have to loose our fingers, ears, and hair.
We had a visit from Ricky the raccoon. Ricky was the cutest, fattest thing. He would sneak up to our camp site and get in our trash. Ricky got brave, and would come right up to us. We would throw him a cookie or a treat. He would take it in his paws and run up the tree and look down at us. Kevin even got to touch Ricky, but he was not brave enough to leave his hand there for long.
Friday night was really fun. We had several of our friends come down and eat chili and hot dogs with us.
I will post pictures later, but for now I am going to my warm soft bed to sleep.