Happy Chinese New Year

One of Our Chinese New Year Celebrations.

Brooke enjoying a sucker.

The Dragon Dance.

Some of our Beautiful Children.

Brooke with her pig for the pig parade.

Bad Peanut Butter

Yikes. We have the number on our peanut butter, that is the number for the peanut butter that is being recalled. I bought a 6 pound thing of peanut butter from Sams. We have already ate a good bit of it. Thank the Lord we bless our food.

Too Busy, and no Energy Left.

I am going to be missing from action for awhile. My body is just about wore out. The month of February is really busy for us. Thursday night I took the girls to the Peeking Acrobats. Friday night we went to some friends house. We have not been around them in about two years. We had a great time. Brooke and their little girl played GREAT together.
Saturday night we went to Kelly and Chris's house. We had breakfast, for supper. Kevin fixed his famous chocolate gravy. We had a great time with them.
Sunday evening we went to a Chinese New Year Celebration. Kevin and I was responsible for the balloons. We had about 70 balloons to blow up, tie a string to, and then tie to chairs. Our fingers lost 5 pounds. LOL I was so tired by the time we got home.
Today I decorated at the fire hall for Courtney a Valentine Party. Tonight we had the party and I am completely worn out. 15 girls was way to many. They was good, but it was hectic. My body was so worn out from the busy weekend.
On top of all of this we are trying to finish our extra room. The men finished it Saturday. We have the clean up to do. There is so much sheet rock dust that it is sad. The dust has even came into the house. I have so much to clean up. We then have to paint, and get the carpet down.
This weekend Courtney has a play to go to. Next weekend we have a play, rodeo, and another Chinese dinner to go to. Our plate has been very full. I don't know when I will have time to post pictures from all these fun things we are doing. My computer has been acting very strange lately. I may have to to a system restore on it. I have no idea when I will have time to do that. I have so many blogs to catch up on, but I just don't have time. My dear husband has been so busy trying to get this new room built for me. He has done the wiring and running the gas lines. He has been so busy also. I feel like I have not got to be with him much lately. All his free time is spent working on the room. I know we will enjoy it, when it is done. I told Kevin we need a few days away, to just relax. I don't know what the word means anymore.
The first week of March Kevin's mom is suppose to have knee surgery. She will be at our house for a awhile after the surgery. I am not for sure when I will get back in the groove of posting and catch up on all my favorite bloggers. I guess that is enough of my rambling. I will catch up with you all one of these days.

McDonalds

Brooke is loving it.

.

Brooke can spot a McDonald's a mile away. Does this mean we take her to much? LOL
She loves McDonald's. If we ask her where she wants to eat, she says "McDonald's." Kevin ask her what she wanted for breakfast the other day. Her reply was "McDonald's"
I took the girls to the Peeking Acrobats Thursday night. I had to pass two McDonald's. Brooke was yelling "McDonald's mommy. McDonald's" Like I said, she can spot them a mile away.

Courtney has got where she don't like McDonald's. She wanted to go to Burger King the other day, and Brooke started yelling "no, McDonald's" What am I going to do with these silly girls?

Praying

Talking

Copy and paste the link below. I can't get this to publish. I do not like this new blogger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz0eWXMzJ9g

Alzheimer's

My Grandmother.

Brooke combing Granny's hair.

Granny, with three of her Great Grands.

I hate the terrible disease. This is a sad thing to see anybody go through. This terrible disease robs the mind.
My sweet grandmother has been going through this for the past year. Things are getting worse with her. Many times she will not know me. My mom is the most faithful daughter in the world. She goes to see my grandmother every day. She has done this all my life. She don't miss a day unless she is sick or a emergency comes up. My mom has always been the one who takes my grandmother places. It makes me so sad when she does not know my mom. My grandmother is still living by herself. She has a little room connected to my Aunts house. Many times my Aunt will go check on her, and she don't know she is her daughter. Many times she still knows us. She will tell us things that happened years ago. The next minute she will blank out and say "now who did you say you was?"
My grandmother loves Courtney. She has always been close to her. We went to visit her last week and she did not know who Courtney was. Now do you understand why I hate this disease? I have tears in my eyes as I type this. My grandmother has been robbed of her mind. God has allowed my grandmother to live 88 years. I am thankful for that. I just feel so sad for her. She adores Brooke. Brooke adores her. Brooke has been in love with my grandmother from day one. I never told my grandmother we was adopting. We all felt it would be to much on her knowing that me and Courtney was on a plane. I will never forget the day we brought Brooke home and took her to see my grandmother. We walked in and my grandmother says " Who's baby is that?" We told her that she was ours. She did not believe us. When we finally convinced her that Brooke was really ours, she could not stop smiling. She hugged her and kissed her. Brooke went right to my grandmother. Brooke has always went straight to my grandmother. She kisses her and treats her like a Queen. Brooke adores my grandmother. Many times Brooke would go to my grandmother before she would others.
I have many good memories with my grandmother. I can remember as a child going to her house. I guess I have some of my best memories there. I would fix her hair. She would spoil me really good. She would pop me pop corn and anything I wanted that she had. She could make the best cornflake pies. She would make the crust out of cornflakes and then make a chocolate filling.
I will never forget the day she saw Courtney. My grandmother knew of my struggles with infertility. She was so happy when I got pregnant. The day Courtney was born my grandmother could not be there, because she had just had surgery. We came home and went by my Aunts house, so my grandmother could hold Courtney. My grandmother started crying when she held Courtney. She reached in her pocket and pulled out a heart pin. She gave it to me. It had number one mom on it. It was hooked to a little card. Talking about touching, I was touched. Seeing my grandmother cry, was hard on me. I am so thankful for all the good memories I have with her.
My grandmother is having dementia also. She is seeing things that is not there. It is funny to here some of the stuff she says. Courtney don't understand and she can't help but laugh. My grandmother will start telling me to look out the window at those men in the trees. She says they have been working all day in those trees. She also talks about apple trees. She sees people outside in a apple orchard picking apples. One day she said there was little girl outside playing by herself and nobody was watching her. It breaks my heart to see this happening to her. I miss the grandmother I used to have. I wish this terrible disease would go away. I heard a story one time about a little girl who would have bad dreams. The little girl would say "GO AWAY BAD DREAM. BOO. GO AWAY BAD DREAM BOO" The bad dream would go away. I wish I could say this, and this terrible disease that has robbed my grandmothers mind would go away. I love her so much.

Crocs...You gota have em

I love my Crocs.

Taking a Break.

What a Cutie!!

I forgot my cowgirl hat.

TERRIBLE TWOS

What am I going to do......? :(

Would you like to Laugh?

I know you all need a good laugh. Even though you did not see the details that I am about to give you, I know you can imagine it. My dear husband sure got a good laugh.
Tonight I ended up with a broke wrist and nose. Teasing, I think. I don't think they are broke, but they sure do hurt.
I went outside to feed my two Sheltie's. The female is always hyper. She comes bouncing up to me very fast. I step on her foot. She yelps, and I try to move off of her foot. (to fast) We have had some wet weather around here. As I am trying to move fast, my feet slip on the mud. I am sliding, and trying to hold myself up. I did manage not to fall, but my wrist took the beaten. It slammed into the side of the house and felt like it bent. Oh it hurt so bad. It is still hurting. This happened several hours ago.
About a hour ago, Brooke and I was laughing and playing around. She was in my lap and I had her tickle box on. She was laughing, and threw her head at me. My nose caught the beaten. It sounded like it broke. It felt like it was broke. It hurt so bad. Tears came to my eyes. All I could do was put Brooke down and hold my head back with my hands on my nose. I knew blood was going to be everywhere. It did not bleed, but the pain was enough to take my breath away.
Did you enjoy my two funny accidents? It is funny now, but it sure was not at the time.
O.K Kelly, Stop laughing..............You to mom.

Trust God With Your Dreams

Many times during my adoption journey I had to think on this scripture.

Trust God with your dreams

Today's Scripture

"The vision is for an appointed time. Though it tarry, wait earnestly for it, for it will surely come." (Habakkuk 2:3)

Today's Word:

We know God has put dreams and desires in your heart—things you are hoping, praying, and believing for. The Bible says "if we'll pray in faith, according to God's Word, then God will hear us and He will answer those prayers."

When you have a dream from God in your heart, you don't have to struggle and try to force it to happen. You don't have to be worried or frustrated, wondering if it's ever going to come to pass. When you have the promises of God deep in your heart, the Bible says you will "enter into the rest of God." That's a place of total trust. A place where you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God is going to see you through. It's a place of faith, knowing that God is in complete control, and at the exact right time, He will bring your dream to pass!

A Prayer for Today

God, You know the dreams of my heart. I rely on You to bring them to realization and trust in Your perfect plan and perfect timing. In Jesus' Name – Amen.

Better Late Than Never

I took two of my wonderful friends out for their birthdays today. Kelly's birthday was last week. I will not even tell you when Lori's birthday was. I have been planning on taking her out and it just has not worked out. Kelly chose Chinese, so that is where we went. We had a nice time with no children. We all love our children very much, but it sure was nice to be able to sit, talk, relax, and enjoy our food. I forgot how it feels. I don't leave my children much. We are going to have to do this again. Lori and I have Kelly beat in age about 3 years. Lori thought it would be nice to go to a spa for a day of relaxing. It does sound nice. I think the year Lori and I turn 40 we might have to do that. Even though Kelly is three years behind us, she will have to go with us. That is almost 7 years down the road so who knows. I think the year we turn 40 we need to do something. I think it would be nice to go to the Smokeys and rent a cabin for a few days. By that time maybe Brooke want be such a Mommy's girl. I don't know how Kevin would like that. LOL Bless his heart, he is spoiled with me around. I don't know what he would do without me for three days.
I don't want to think to much about 40. Yuck. I have to say 30 was real hard on me. I hated it. I was encouraged that I had a younger husband. LOL
We really did have a great time today. It just went by way to fast.
I love you much, Kel and Lori. ( also little Gabriel. He went with us.He was so good)

Kelly with her burned lip. Bless her heart. She will have to blog about her lip. She really had a rough day yesterday.

Not the best picture. The lady took forever to take the picture. Have you ever had to hold a smile for a minute? Lori had food in her mouth. LOL and Kel, hates having her picture taken. We was wanting the lady to hurry and take the picture and she just kept looking through the screen. Oh well, that is the only one I have.

Lori, Holding Gabriel.

Friends

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Family Birthday

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Brooke's Birthday

Happy Birthday COCO

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite Rook players in the world. We love and appreciate you very much. You have been a great blessing to us and our family. We have had some wonderful memories together. My children adore you. You are like mine and their second grandmother.
We appreciate your faithfulness to God. We are thankful that we got to celebrate another birthday with you. (Even though I never did get to be on your team with our rook game) LOL

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl

Happy Birthday, my sweet Brooke. We love you so much. You are our sunshine. We are so thankful that God gave you to us. We love you to China and back.
Mommy, Daddy, and Sissy.

Happy Birthday Kelly

Happy 30th Birthday Kelly.
I hope you have a great day. We love and appreciate you very much.
Denna, Kevin, Courtney, and Brooke

God is So Good

Golden Propane brought our gas. :) I was just thinking about having to stay somewhere tonight, and how I really did not want to do that. Brooke is sleeping so well in her bed, and I hated to get her off track. I started praying and asking God to please let the people bring our gas today. Within 5 minutes after I prayed, I heard them pull up. I have never been so glad to hear a Big Truck before. I have been smelling gas for several days. Those who use gas to heat with knows, that when you smell gas you are running low. I don't know how many days the gage has been on zero. Like I said in my first post, the gage was on 45%. That was wrong. The gage was stuck. I am so thankful that we did not find out on the weekend that the gage was stuck. I am thankful that God supplied our oil.

I forgot to Mention

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post about the gas. I kept smelling gas. I told Kevin he needed to check and see how much we had left in the tank. He said I checked the other day and it was on 45%. I found it strange that we have not had to fill our tank up, but at the beginning of the Winter. Yesterday, as I was baking the cake, the smell of gas was so strong. I told Kevin again. He goes and checks the tank again. It is still on 45%. He knew that was not possible. He taps the gage, and the gage goes all the way down to zero. :( The gage had been stuck.
Kevin calls the gas company and they said that they was just in our area that morning, and did not know when they was coming back. :(
So I am praying that this little bit of gas that is in the tank will be supplied like the oil in the bible.
We made it through last night, and still are O.K this morning. Tonight is suppose to be very cold.
I said, at least we have a bunch of good friends and relatives we can stay with, if the gas goes completely out. I did do a post a couple of days ago, about thinking positive in a bad situation.

One of those days....Kelly

Well today was one of those days you don't want to repeat. I went to Wal- Mart to buy Brooke's birthday gift and they did not have it. I then went to Toysarus. I wanted to buy Brooke a little car that she can sit in and we push it. It is made by Step 2. Toysarus was out of them. If Toysarus is out then I might as well forget buying it for her. I ended up with a riding toy, but not what I wanted.
I came home and decided I needed to bake her cake and get it in the freezer so I could ice it. ( I heard it is easier to decorate this way) The lady that normally bakes cakes for us is out of town. I decided that I would bake Brooke a Cake and try to decorate it myself. I have decorated one before, but that was years ago. I was going to do Brooke a Barney cake. I baked the first cake and poor Barney's arm came off when I took the cake out of the pan. I decide to bake another cake. Well I thought it was the same type cake mix that I just used, so I just did it the same way. When the cake batter did not look right I discovered that one cake was butter cake and the other was classic yellow. The one I was doing called for 1/3 cup of oil. I had put a whole stick of butter in it. I had to go to the store and buy another cake mix. I came home and baked it. This time poor Barney had no eyes, or any description to help me ice him. I always thought the third time was a charm. I finely decided that cake decorating is not for me. I called Wal-Mart and ordered a Barney cake. I am sure somebody that knew what they was doing could ice Barneys arm back on and make him look as good as new. As for me, I am sick of looking at the Barney Cake. I guess I could always do cupcakes. LOL

Mommia and Daddia

Brooke has started adding a ia to all her words. She will say mommia, or daddia. She even said Courtnia today. (That is the sound uh)
I don't know why she is doing this. It is driving me crazy. I am like "Brooke I am mommy, not mommia." She will shake her head and say mommy, mommy.
She is saying it to everything. She just said Sissia. I hope this phase goes away quickly.

She thinks it is funny.

Nursery Pals

What a Crew!!!Caden looks a little drugged.

Three beauties. Sadie, Emma, and Brooke
(Look at Emma and Brooke's hand. Sweet)

Eating Popcorn.

Tough Boys.
Gage, Caden, Asher, Evan, and Wyatt

Brother's. Gage and Evan

Take heart

Today's Scripture

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Today's Word

It's easy to be positive and encouraging when everything is going your way, isn't it? But every one is going to have obstacles to overcome in life. Problems have a purpose, and part of God's purpose for allowing you to face obstacles is to test your attitude. That's why you need to be positive even in negative situations. Remember, God wants you to live life to the fullest. And He has provided a way for you to enjoy your life, even when you're going through hard times. Look closely again at John 16:33.

Jesus has just told you that you will face tribulation. But then He says, "Take heart!" That's the secret. One translation puts it this way: "When you have trouble, cheer up." What God is saying is that you can choose to be joyful and positive no matter what happens. The reason you can do that is because Jesus has already won your battle, whatever it may be!

A Prayer for Today

Lord, thank You for the trials that strengthen my faith. I know that all I need to do is look up to You when troubles come, and claim Your victory over them. In Jesus' name. Amen.

This is the day the Lord has Made

Today's Scripture

"This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 18:24)

Did you make up your mind to be happy this morning? It's important to be on the offensive when it comes to your happiness. If you don't set the tone early in the day, the enemy will start reminding you of all your problems and of everything wrong in your life. Before long, you'll be negative and discouraged.

Notice that the Bible doesn't say, "I might be glad today if everything goes well. If I don't get stuck in traffic, or if my boss doesn't yell at me, or if it doesn't rain on my new hairdo." No, the Psalmist said, "I will rejoice and be glad." No matter what kind of difficulties I face today – no matter who tries to make me upset – I choose to be happy. Never forget that although you might not be able to choose your circumstances, you can always choose how you respond to them.

If you'll make the decision to stay full of joy, if you'll choose to be happy in spite of your circumstances, the enemy can't keep you down and defeated. God will give you strength to overcome every obstacle you face. And you'll live that life of overcoming victory He has in store for you.

A Prayer for Today

Thank you, Father, for this day. I will take time to smile and to laugh today. Starting tomorrow, I want to get up every morning and declare out loud: This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! In Jesus' name, Amen.

Cute Panda's

This is for those that haven't seen the 16 baby pandas. SICHUAN , China -- One zoo in southwest China has its hands full with 16 baby pandas. The Sichuan Wolong Panda Protection and Breed Center is dealing with the results of a breeding boom -- 16 pandas have been born since July, 2006. The brood includes five sets of twins. The cubs are weighed and measured every five days (see pics)

The heaviest tips the scale at just over 24 pounds, while the lightest weighs about 11 pounds. The pandas are due to stop suckling by February, 2007 just about the time they'll start learning to walk. Once weaned, the panda cubs will attend panda kindergarten. In the meantime, more little ones are expected at the center since 38 giant pandas were artificially impregnated.

This post is for Courtney

This post is for my beautiful girl, Courtney. I just want you to know I love you very much. You are very special to us. We appreciate you very much. You are a great sister. Here is some pictures from 2006. God gave us a wonderful year, with great memories. I love you to the moon and back.
Mommy

Guntersville Lake

Miss Hawaii

Doing School in your old bedroom.

Clowning around.

A day at the park. (growing up to fast)

Mommy's Girl.
A day at the Zoo

A girl has to have a Phone

Brooke loves a phone. She don't care what kind. (cell phone, real phone, fake phone) I would not be surprised any day to have the 911 office call and ask if we have a Emergency. Brooke is always getting my phone and punching numbers. She is so funny because she will talk and talk to Mr. Imaginary friend. I have got to video her doing this. Of course they always stop when you try to video.
My little girl is growing up so fast. I want her to slow down a little bit. Brooke is talking all the time. I am afraid she is going to be like Courtney. I guess I will have to call her chatterbox 2. Brooke melts my heart when she says "Play with me mommy." The bad thing is she says it all day long. She reminds me so much of Courtney. Both of my girls always wanted mommy to play with them. Some days I feel so guilty because I can't play as long as they want me to. Being a homeschool mom really takes away from play time. I am glad I can homeschool Courtney. I don't want her going to public school. I will never forget Bro. Cornwells message on our children being little sponges and they soak up everything they can. I know Courtney would soak up a good bit in public school. I feel it is best to homeschool her for many reasons. I do get tired and feel like it takes a good bit from me. One thing I have had to realize is I can't do everything. If I homeschool I can't have the spotless house. (Unless Kevin wants to hire me a maid) I have to let the toys stay on the floor. Sometimes I feel like I am being pulled in 50 directions. Courtney needs mommy time, Brooke needs mommy time, the house needs cleaned, beds need made, furniture needs dusting, husband need me, meals need cooked, and the list goes on. I am very thankful for my children. At least I have children to play with all the toys on the floor. I have food to eat so it is nice to have dishes to wash. I have furniture so of course it will need dusting. I have a wonderful husband to talk with, and tell him about my day. Speaking of husbands I think I have the best. He is so good to me. I have always wanted a extra room in our house. A room that I could use for a play room or school room. Kevin decided that he wanted me to have that. He is adding a room on for us all to enjoy. (13x24) I am so excited about my room. I told Kevin we will probably stay in that room more that any other room. It will be nice to have a school room. Brooke will be able to play while we do school. Brooke will not play in her room unless I am in there with her. Maybe this will help her to enjoy her toys. I will post pictures when it gets done. It will take a few weeks. The man that is building it can only work on Saturdays.
Well I did not mean to have a long post. I was only going to post pictures of Brooke and her phones. She also likes shoes. You should see the pictures of all the shoes she puts on.

Green Beans

its yucky