Mobile Moments: Winter Break Edition

It's been really cold lately. I thought we were having a heat wave with temps in the 40's this week but on the way into the gym tonight, the wind was SO COLD. The **only** good thing about it being this cold with no snow is Molly sits with me voluntarily sometimes. But I can't acknowledge that she's there or she'll go away. I'll take it.

One day over winter break, Autumn and I were running errands and I had a serious craving for Chinese food plus I just couldn't deal with the idea of making lunch that day. I don't know why. It doesn't happen often and I usually don't give in. But not that day. We went to the buffet. Autumn even got to use her level 2 practice chopsticks! She also got to wear her furry dress. Elyse gave it to us because it was too big for Liana but Autumn wears a uniform to school and we had a bunch of weekends too warm for something so fuzzy. Autumn was thrilled.

Check it out! Ellie let Mike hold her at his parents' Christmas party. It was, indeed, a Christmas miracle. Do you like her dress? I made it!

I made Autumn a matching dress AND they both have red, sparkly shoes. Super fun! Except Autumn isn't wearing hers in this photo, ah well. I need to get a good photo of the dresses and post them on the pinwheel blog. Incidentally, I posted our Christmas decorations there last week!

These two monkeys had a great time together. They were SO EXCITED that first day.

BUT, this day rivals Tyler's arrival for awesomeness in Autumn Land. My friend Tamara fostered puppies for about a week and was nice enough to bring them over to play in our back yard. Autumn and the puppies cavorted...

Rolled around...

Rolled around some more...

And generally had a fabulous time that resulted in puppies and 7 year old COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED. The puppy play date didn't cure Autumn of her puppy obsession. I think it fueled it even more. She still talks about how Sporty, one of the puppies, would be so happy here at our house. :) Too funny. While she dreams about puppies, she's reading fiction books like Puppy Place and Dog Diaries and checking out nonfiction books on rescue dogs, therapy dogs, and dog breeds. I told Mike that, like it or not, we probably should consider a dog sometime. He's all NOPE. Ha!

Holiday Review!

Oh, my goodness, what a holiday! Mine was a little short because of the trip and being sick but we got a lot of celebrating in during the two weeks I was in commission! Lainey came out to help me with the Winter Party at Autumn's class. I forgot to edit these AND I forgot to turn off the auto watermark so not only are the "photobooth" photos not very photoboothy, they are marked with the wrong blog name! Ah, well!

I had to take a turn, too! I got these props from Target for such a great price it was worth not having to make them, print them, and then put them on sticks. Yay for the popularity of photobooths!

I even used the props for these little monkeys. I'd say I got my money's worth.

After Autumn's class party, we had our dojo party the next day. This was our largest gathering of current and past members ever and we had a BLAST. Look at how many kids we had! Christy helped me out with this part; we did a white elephant party with new or used $5 or less gifts. Christy led the kids in the breakfast room and I guided the adults in the living room at the same time so it was fun and loud and silly. I'd love to do this again next year! This was definitely a year to celebrate--I got my black belt and Stephan graduated from college. Yes. I threw my own party. Don't tell Miss Manners! I justify it by calling it a "thank you for putting up with us while things were crazy" party.

Afterward, I found Autumn in her bucket of stuffed animals. Too funny. I think she was kind of done.

We had a late visit to see Santa. Autumn asked for two things. The first was a bell. I had no idea what she was talking about until she mentioned the Polar Express. One trip to hobby lobby and that was taken care of. The other took some serious googling. She asked for this Elf Talker. I tried all kinds of Google searches based on her description. I never had any luck and then FINALLY I plugged in North Pole Phone and LIKE MAGIC the thing was right there, exactly as she described it. I have no idea why no other search terms brought it up. It only "works" in December so Jerry the Elf brought the Northpole Communicator, although he usually just brings acts of kindness. Incidentally, Jerry found it at Walgreens on sale and he had a coupon.

Christmas morning was pretty great. Molly even joined us for the unwrapping. She had a present under the tree, too. Catnip toys! Seriously this company makes the best cat toys.

We didn't want too crazy of a Christmas this year so Santa only brought Autumn stocking stuffers and this outfit to match her late birthday/early Christmas gift of an American Girl doll. When Mike's mom first mentioned American Girl stuff, I had Autumn read as many of the books as were on her reading level so she could pick an historical doll that she liked. I was a little surprised that she chose Kit until she explained that it's because Kit is a writer. Santa brought Autumn this outfit that matches Kit's! Autumn even has red shoes because I got her some to go with the Christmas dress I made her! That wasn't planned but it's a happy coincidence.

My mom spent the night with us Christmas Eve and had Christmas morning with us like she has done for a few years now. It was extra fun because we watched Elf and ate pizza and then we had french toast for breakfast.

Autumn insisted on wearing her Kit outfit all day which was cute but it was a little cold for it. I made her put on leggings but Autumn took them off as soon as we got to Lainey and Pd's house. She and Ellie made an accessorized pair.

Something fun and silly, later that night after naps, Mike, Brad and I sampled one of Brad's gifts: blini, caviar, and creme fraiche! This is what Brad thought. I ate two. The first was fishier than I expected but the second was pretty good. Mike chose not to partake a second time which is hilarious considering he like sushi (nigiri!) so much.

Fun times! Not too crazy once the parties and tests and decorating was over. I'll post pictures of the house on my other blog soon. I'm very proud of myself for getting it done, haha. I know it's silly but I guess it's my thing. Anyway, I hope your Christmas went smoothly and that there was joy in your time with family and friends!

Christmas Day!

Sooooo, this is a weird feeling but I totally bought baby stuff on Amazon about 5 minutes ago. Just a stroller and car seat cover thingie but it's still really weird. For those of you who might not have heard, we have a placement date! You can read about that and some other things that have happened around the adoption in this post. And, I wrote about the first part of our Disney trip here!

Last week I did some pre-Christmas photos so I thought this week would be a good time to wrap up Christmas before we, hopefully, change gears. I probably have one more Disney post to put up over at the Pinwheel blog, though, so keep an eye out there or I'll link it here if you're not a regular reader of that blog! Anyway, isn't this the sweetest picture of Autumn and Nanny on Christmas morning?

The Kyle/Lindsay/Leah/Ryan/Lauren part of the family didn't arrive until later on Christmas Day so Autumn only really opened her stocking on Christmas morning. We had been doing the 25 Days of Kindness during advent so as part of her stocking gifts, Santa brought one last note and gift from Jerry. The note told her what a great job she did and how Jerry hopes Autumn keeps on being kind all year long. And, while he's in the North Pole, he left her a gift to remember him by--a soft doll he named "Little Jerry."

Autumn was pretty thrilled! I'm not usually all "MY KID IS SO CUTE" but I'm going to break my normal routine and just say that she's really pretty here. I think pink and green might be her colors.

When Tyler did arrive, Autumn STILL had to wait for presents until after dinner! She was very patient all day but she couldn't resist getting Tyler to scavenge a little to see what gifts might be for them.

A few minutes later, this happened. :) I told Leah that this should be part of our joint Christmas card next year.

We did attempt to get a nice photo of the three of them but it wasn't quite happening!

When we FINALLY got to dig in to the gifts, Ellie wasn't exactly as pumped as everyone else. Poor little Ellie was sick on Christmas day! No fun!

But a few days later at Autumn's princess makeover day, I got this super cute shot of her!

That's it for my Christmas pictures so I'll leave you with this one. Mischief making:

Pre-Christmas Fun!

I am a huge baby in the cold. It's currently 24 degrees with a windchill of 10 and that's like 10 degrees warmer than tomorrow is supposed to be!!! I know some of you guys live like that for several months a year but this is Memphis. The South. We aren't ready for this!! I'm typing this wearing two layers, a Hello Kitty snuggie and a blanket.

Anyway, if you've seen the Pinwheel blog, you know that we went to Disney last week and had a blast! I'm probably going to recap that on the Pinwheel blog so I thought that I'd cover some pre-Christmas fun here! Also, please continue to pray for us while we work on the adoption and make some decisions around that.

Back to December, we had our community group party in the middle of the month. Mike and Rob did this.

Ha! They didn't do it the whole time but they did play a game that was probably fun but sounded very silly. Speaking of silly, these silly monkeys were very silly.

The next photo in that series is this. I love it.

I corralled her to take a picture with me. She's like a jumping bean I'm having to restrain.

Later that week, Ellie came to visit. She wasn't feeling great but she loved it when Uncle Mike swung her like a pendulum.

On the last day of school, I got to go to the holiday party. The kids were so fun. They played a game and then made donut snowmen. Autumn used her pretzel to make arms. I love it.

We have to have Kiri in the shot. I let her bring Kiri that day. Mrs. B had heard a lot about Kiri and mentioned wanting to meet her.

MORE FUN: After the party, Aunt Penny came over for lunch and we had our Christmas together.

Penny's mom gave Autumn a sweet good luck gift, a snowflake necklace. Autumn loved it and carried it in her bag to the Nutcracker performances.

That Saturday night, my mom came over for an early Christmas celebration because she left for the Philippines on the 23rd. Autumn has been counting the days until my mom gets back.

Donnie and Liz got her a great gift--she loves her chef hat and wore them when we made gingerbread cookies this week.

We made Mike a mug at Paint a Piece and gave it to him Monday night when we did our gifts to each other. On the back, there's a picture Autumn drew. It's funny because I told her to draw big. She didn't. So, it's this teeeeeny tiny little family drawing but it's pretty cute.

We got Autumn a magic set!! I was so excited because that afternoon before we opened gifts Autumn set up a magic show. She's had a great time learning to do her tricks. I only regret not getting her a cape! I meant to but never ordered it. Oh, well. She can use her Wonder Pets cape from Halloween.

And that's pre-Christmas! Fun times. And more fun times over the rest of the break. Well, other than the flu. And the cold weather.

If there are any adoption updates, you can keep up with them at Passing Pinwheels!

First Nutcracker!!

Autumn was in the Nutcracker for 5 whole minutes today! Hahaha. It really was great. It was her first year and she's still getting used to the stage so she only had one part. Most of the other girls her age and a little older have 2 or 3 parts. It's possible that Autumn might do that next year but we'll see! Today, though, she was an angel.

The day started out pretty well. She got a good rest in after church and we got ready smoothly and were even early! I put her in makeup but some of the other kids weren't wearing any at all. I figure it's better to do it so any photos she's in will look good. Here's Autumn before we left:

Once we got there and Autumn was in costume, she got nervous and worried about the audience. There was a lot of chaos backstage so she kind of went into emergency mode. I put her in a chair near where the backstage parents were sitting so she was out of most of the buzzing around and that helped a little. But not much.

From what I could see, I think she did as well as anyone else and was at least circling when she was supposed to circle! Afterward, you'd think Autumn would chill out but no. She was all, "you said there wouldn't be a whole lot of people but there were and I don't want to bow."

She did it though! And it was pretty fun because she was the only kid still in an angel costume during the bow so she stood out. Well. Good for mom's grin but maybe not so good for the aesthetic of the line! Autumn was originally schedule to perform yesterday with some other angel-only kids but we had made plans already so her teacher was kind enough to move the date. And next week there will be other kids who are first timers, too!

After the performance, I offered a drink from sonic and Autumn asked if she could have a hot dog from there for dinner. I called Mike and we decided we could do that for her. :) Happiness ensued.

We're still doing 25 Days of Kindness! Check it out on Passing Pinwheels and let me know if you're interested in participating in this week's big project.