Horsie ride through the city

Saturday morning it was about 17 degrees, so what better to do than take a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city! We bundled up warmly (should have thought to bring a blanket too) and headed downtown. Parked the car, headed to the pick-up corner and as we were walking down the sidewalk heard the "clippity-clop" of the horses' shoes on the pavement. Helaina saw them and got very excited. It was free, fun and frigid!

After the 20-minute ride we headed right into the corner Starbucks to thaw out and have some hot chocolate and sweets. Helaina liked sitting on the comfy sofa better than sitting at the table.

Helaina has recently been introduced to time-outs. About every 3 days or so she'll "earn" her 2 minutes in the corner dining room chair with some antic she's been told 100 times already not to do. So far it seems to work. Tonight I was organizing some Christmas items on the table and Helaina was hovering nearby. She said to me "time out" and pointed to the chair. She had set her doll in the time-out chair! Jim and I cracked up, especially when Helaina pointed to the timer and wanted me to set it like we do for her. Dolly got 45 seconds in the chair for whatever it was that she did wrong - when the timer went off Helaina got her out of the chair. This child is too funny!

LID December 20, 2006 - two years ago today.....

Two years ago today our paperwork was logged in at the CCAA in China. At the time, we were told by our agency that it would be about a year from our LID until we got a referral for a daughter. In the past 2 years since our LID, China's adoption program has become the proverbial "slow boat to China" with the referral process taking longer and longer each month. As of today, children have been referred to families with LIDs through February 27, 2006 - which would translate to still a very long wait for a non-special needs referral if we hadn't found our beautiful little Men Ying on our agency's very last waiting child list.

These pictures were taken on December 18, 2006, just a few days before our paperwork was logged in. It is also about 2 weeks after Helaina's first surgery in China when her lip was repaired. Helaina has had 3 surgeries so far and she's not even 3 years old - what a tough little gal she is to have endured so much already in so few years.

Pretty in pink and Lights on the Lake

Yup, believe it or not, Helaina will sit still long enough to have her fingernails and toenails polished and to let them dry. She likes to blow on them to speed the process along!

Take a look at these feet. No wonder we have to buy her wide width shoes!

We took Helaina on her first Lights on the Lake adventure the other night. We can't figure out what she liked better - the 3-mile long drive-through light display or the fact that she got to sit in the front of the car with us, on my lap and not in her carseat. Most of the pictures I snapped came out blurry because the car was moving while I was trying to take the photo and keep Helaina firmly between my knees.
Here's Rudolph who greeted all the cars at the entrance. We rolled down our window and Helaina gave him a high-five.

Blurry, fuzzy.

Clear shot of the gingerbread house.

The munchkins in the Wizard of Oz display. My favorite, of course!

The cowardly lion.

How many photos do you need to take for one Christmas card?

Answer: about 75. Thank goodness for digital cameras. Here is just a sampling of the MANY photos we took in an attempt to get 2 good ones for our Christmas card. We did select 2 cuties and our card came out adorable, but the time and effort it took to get those was unbelievable.

Above and below are the 2 photos we selected for our card. Above Helaina is looking at Heidi as if she adores her - and most of the time she does. It's when Heidi snatches a piece of cheese or a chicken nugget out of Helaina's hand -- that's when Heidi better run!


Morning photo shoot. "Helaina, take the choke-hold off of Heidi's neck!"

"Heidi, look this way!"

This shot was one of our finalists.

In this first picture I think Helaina had just snatched something off the tree and is hiding it behind her back! "Who me?"

"Heidi, that's not a real bird."

"Helaina, look at Momma. Heidi, sit down. Now both of you stay, for the 50th time."

Awww, cute with Helaina holding Heidi's paw.

"Potty?"


Evening photo shoot.

Absolutely enough!

Sprinkles AND Twinkies? Where have these been for the past 9 months?

The other night Jim was in the basement wrapping Christmas presents and I was trying to get some candy made in the kitchen. Helaina was taking turns "helping" each of us, running up and down the stairs when she wanted to see what the other one was doing. She decided that sugary goodness was better than wrapping Momma's gifts. She's had sprinkles before on ice cream and cookies, but never came face-to-face with an entire jar of them (her eyes lit up). Before I ended up with 11 million rainbow sprinkles all over the floor, I decided to pour some onto a plate so she would be amused for a while (this way I only had 5 million spilled onto the floor). She was a riot to watch, studying them on the plate then figuring that slurping them with her tongue was the best way to get as many into her little mouth at once. Too funny and too cute.

"Hmmmm, now this works out well."

"These would be good sprinkled in my breakfast oatmeal too!"

After the sprinkle eating frenzy, she was back down to the basement again to help Daddy. Before long, she was back up in the kitchen. The sprinkles apparently wore off so she headed to the pantry where the "nacks" are kept. Since Joshua has had a major Twinkie addiction lately, Helaina thought she'd dip into the open box and nab one for herself before they were all gone.

What do you want now, Helaina? "Momma, nack?"

Sure, why not, as long as you have some milk with it.

Oh well, she's still on a semi-soft foods diet while her palate is healing - and Twinkies are definately soft!

Lunch with Santa at the Zoo, except we have no pictures of Santa!

Today we went to one of Helaina's favorite places, the zoo, for lunch with Santa. Everyone was in a private room with a lunch buffet set up, a Christmas tree, a face painting table, a cookie decorating table and of course, a throne for Santa to sit on when he arrived. With all the food and cookies and zoo animals Helaina had a lot of fun but she would not get very close to this particular Santa. She stood in line and was actually trying to get in front of other children to see him but when it was her turn, she would only get within a few feet of him. After I gave Santa a high-5 Helaina did too, but that was it. No pictures of her sitting on his lap but Jim caught the entire encounter on video. She still got a Christmas tree lollipop from him for her efforts.

Helaina decorating her cookie with lots of pink frosting and sprinkles.

"Hey Mom, do I still have spaghetti sauce up my nose?"

Daddy liked the Rudolph antlers from Santa more than Helaina did.

Having a snowman painted on her hand by one of Santa's helpers.

One must always have a bag of marshmallows handy while rock climbing.

Snuggling outside to stay warm!


Hello, Nemo!!

Glad this baboon was behind glass - scarey! The lions were cozy and warm in their little den.