Catching Up

I know everyone is dying for more adoption news! If you haven't been reading Passing Pinwheels, that's where you'll find the most frequent updates. There, and on Facebook which is a little more real time.

I thought I'd finish up my Christmas photos! This was probably my favorite Christmas event. Autumn has been fascinated by nuts in the shell for some time. I'm lazy so I never buy them like that. Santa had the brilliant idea to give her a small bag of nuts in her stocking. I am soooo glad because she absolutely loved them! Everything came to standstill. She forgot that she hadn't finished unloading her stocking! Several times over the next day or two, she got them out and showed friends the different nuts. Too funny. Also, THAT HAIR.


Hot cocoa (well, hot chocolate soy milk!) with presents is a tradition we started last year. And my mom has spent the night with us the last 2 or 3 Christmas Eves so she's gotten to do gift opening with us! This year, Autumn handed out all the gifts. She's gotten pretty good with heavy lifting! And I have to confess I'm really happy with how patient she was. I'm not sure I could have stopped opening to hand out gifts when I was five.


After we wrapped up at our house, we went back to Mike's parents' place. Santa Baxter came by to greet us! Note Autumn's much improved hair situation.


Another popular gift: ear muffs. I'm really confused though because we can't find them anywhere. I think I'm going to have to do another hoarding sweep of Autumn's room! She tends to put things into bags and stash them around. About the time we start missing things, it's time to make sure everything gets put into its proper place until she builds up another hoard of treasures. She is, apparently, a dragon.


I'm not sure how Uncle Brad became a head rest. But they both seem cool with it.


Is there a better way to repurpose bows? I think not.


I have another funny face series.




And Christmas is not Christmas without a box. We live in box land these days. Autumn builds castles, cars, trains, cat houses, boats. You name it, a box has become it. At the end of gift opening Autumn said, "why didn't Santa bring me a box?" Hahaha. I love her. We managed to procure a box.


That takes care of December, I believe! We're getting all caught up before the new normal hits!! Keep an eye on Passing Pinwheels as we work towards Monday the 28th when we get to bring baby Grant home! Also, on the 28th we are going to launch a special fundraiser that I am very excited about!

THE CALL!

I promise I'll do a photo post this week but you have GOT to click here and read about our adoption news!!!!

Holidays, part 1

Oh, my gosh, you guys. I haven't even finished going through my photos from Christmas and I have been CRACKING UP. I can't wait to share these with you but I'm going to have to break it up. What do you think the highlight of the holiday was for Autumn? This, of course!


Seriously, there was a LOT of silliness.


Here's Autumn preparing to put a rear naked choke on Tyler...nah, not really. We did some presents on Christmas Eve because the Ryan and Leah branch of Colleys was heading out of town. Autumn and Tyler entertained themselves while waiting.


I mean, how awesome is this?


Finally, P'd had them count to 50 together to kill a little bit more time.


And this is the moment where it got old for them, hahaha.


AT LAST, the presents came out. Even Hudson had some fun!


Such a sweet face. She was so great this year, seriously. We're so lucky. Blessed.


We drew names for siblings this year and it was fun! I got Leah, Mike got Kyle, I think Lindsay got Mike, and Lauren got me. Mike made out nicely. He also got a book. I read it before he did. :D


We, of course, had to pose with Boppa.


And with Nanny. Such fun photos. (Hi, Nanny and Boppa's friends! You'll have to tell them you saw them here!)


Ok, almost done. But look at these poses in Autumn's new coat:




TOO MUCH.

Stop by Passing Pinwheels!! SO MUCH HAPPENING:
I made Autumn a Dress
I made a free download!
I have a new advertiser
Year End Highlights
Unexpected Beauty

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday so far! We've been busy preparing for Christmas, visiting friends and family, and finishing up last minute gifts. We did make time to head over to see Santa. He was a super nice Santa and Autumn did really well with him. Afterward, she posed enthusiastically for pictures!


That right there is the Christmas spirit. And we didn't leave out Lainey and P'd!


And, of course, I had to get one with our happy miss. Autumn was pretty excited because next year, baby Ellie is going to be joining us for Santa visiting! She asked me what would happen if Ellie was scared and I told her that she'd have to help her be brave. Autumn had to think about that because Santa is a bit of a stress on her comfort zone!


I'm sure I have much more to post but I just realized it's midnight!! Visit passing pinwheels for our Christmas card and a little bit about Miss Autumn. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Faces of Autumn

Hello, friends. I'm so thankful today to be able to do this blog post...especially with so many parents hurt and lost this weekend. I wrote some on the other blog. Today I am thankful for the little one I have here, the one waiting on me in Heaven, the faith that gives me courage to go on knowing that, and all of the support that you all have given us in our own sadness. I pray that the parents dealing with so much heartache and shock have a support system like you.

I was at Autumn's school taking pictures of pajama day Friday morning. The kids were so adorable and sweet and extra scruffy. Autumn was no exception. She wore her robe, Belle pajamas, and leggings to class. So comfy.


I had them do a class photo and they were all so squeezable. Autumn decided to be a ham.


In all the photos.


I shouldn't be surprised because this was her pre-breakfast posing.


It's nice to see the perky pictures, though, because Wednesday she didn't feel great. Sad, sad eyes. :(


I'm sure I've told you about her boxes. Seriously. Autumn is so a cat. She has these boxes and they have been rockets and boats and cars. This week she had a sled she pulled her dolls in. Last night it was Santa's sleigh and the dolls were the reindeer. She was all "hohoho-ing" everywhere.


Here's another box incarnation. It was a castle on Wednesday.


Oh, hey, look, here's Autumn with ALL THE CATS. That's actually not even all the cats that live at Mike's parents house, if you can believe it.


Speaking of cats, Molly is on high alert. Autumn requisitioned one of the boxes that gifts were delivered in. She decorated one and wrote "Mole Molly Box" on it. So Autumn has been trying to catch Molly to put her in the box. She finally decided just to leave it and put a soft blanket Molly likes in it. I'm sure it will work better.


And that's it for this week. I hope our little monkey will bring a smile to your face.

Little Miss Yellow Belt

BIG NEWS OF THE WEEK? Autumn got her yellow belt in aikido!! Next step in what could be a long, long journey for her! There are more pictures on the public blog but look at this one. She is so tiny!! I tested her class and the older class together since everyone is about the same rank, plus or minus some stripes.


Otherwise, we've been doing Christmas stuff, cleaning, and staying busy. Autumn has been especially busy. She's in some kind of weird energy hyperdrive the last two weeks. Even my mom was asking me what we fed her. Anyway, Friday, I helped the other room mom work on the classroom door. I read on the first Fridays so I hung out after and had lunch with Autumn. Who is blurry because she can't sit still!


Oh, while we were working outside at one point, Autumn decided to make a bed for her Madeline doll. I thought it was really cute right there by the light pole.


I think I have better photos of this on my camera but I don't want to trek downstairs! Autumn's new act is...a magician! She has a hat, a box, and stuff she pulls out of the hat. She says, "abra cadabra, alcazoo, pocus pocus." AND IT IS AWESOME. I'll post more next week for sure! I might even have a video.


Sometimes she "disappears" Molly. This is what Molly thinks.


Bahahaha! Not really. I took that one when she was laying under Mike's legs. I cracked up when I saw her crazy reflective eyes! Ok, it's about to start storming here so I'm going to leave you with THIS. Autumn, 2 seconds before her big splash completely filled her shoes with water!!

Tis the Season!

Welcome to December!!! How crazy is it that it's already the last month of the year? I couldn't believe it when I started a new album for December. Although it's crazy warm right now, it is looking a lot like Christmas around here!


This is a photo from a couple weeks ago but you simply must see Autumn doing push ups.


Have some Molly. This is not a happy cat. But she stayed like this long enough for me to take photos with my camera AND my phone.


Penny and I surprised Autumn at school with some McDonald's on Wednesday! I even packed her a fake lunch to really make her unsuspecting.


And since she's into the puffer fish cheeks, of course I had to do it, too. >.> Seriously that is one crazy Autumn face.


The big announcement of the week? Lainey invited the Elf on the Shelf to join us this Christmas! Here's where he first appeared. I had never gotten it because #1, it looked like a LOT of work and #2, he's awfully creepy looking.


Oddly, Autumn absolutely did not hesitate about the Elf's name. He's Jerry. After the sno cone place maybe?


I've been having fun but there won't be any of this taking the ornaments off the tree and replacing them with socks or toilet papering doors closed. Day One:


Day two. Seriously, his eyes FOLLOW ME. Autumn is such a skeptic, hahaha. She was all, "MAMA. Belle is a STATUE. She can't eat donuts. Is Jerry real in our world?" I told her sometimes it's fun to believe in magic. :) And Lainey had a good response, that maybe Jerry had enough magic to have a tea party with Belle. Toy Story style.


On Day Three, Jerry came with a note. Autumn told me she "accidentally" touched Jerry. The storybook says that if you touch him, his magic goes away and he can't come back. Santa gave her a second chance for being honest. :)


This morning, Jerry got caught doing some exercises in Papa's office.


I guess we'll wind up this post with today's project! Lainey got Autumn and Tyler the Little People nativity set. It's a lot of fun! Autumn and I enjoyed putting it together and she played with it for a good half hour afterward! Thank you, Lainey!


Oh, and visit passing pinwheels for our holiday projects and the update on the adoption.