and off she goes . . . . Mia is loving her new bicycle Santa brought her this year. There are times she needs a little push to get going, but after that she hauling booty down the street. She really starts to pick up speed so I have to tell her to slow down, she is such a little dare devil!

FRIENDSthis weekend was busy as usual and since I am trying out my new camera, it was with me the entire time. Friday night we spent some time with friends and ended up at a chicken wing/sports bar type of place and Mia was attempting to play pool with us. Hysterical !

Above is Mia with "her" Stephanie as she says. She loves her so much and sometimes doesn't like to share Stephy with me. Stephanie is like my little sister and has been a part of my family since birth. She is the one who is going to keep and eye on Mia when Mike and I are long gone.

Saturday after gymnastics we had lunch at a beach side restaurant because the weather was just too good to not be outside! Evidently there was a gymnastics competition in our area and the restaurant was packed. While we were waiting for our table, a family with 2 girls from China walked in. They were here from Orlando for the competition, and Mia immediately said to me, "Look Mommy some of my China friends are over there, Can I say Hi to them?" I said of course and she ran over immediately and said Hi and started giving hugs. It was too precious. We chatted while waiting for our table and Mia said her goodbyes when we were ready to be seated. A few minutes later, they were seated just a couple of tables away from us. When Mia was finished with lunch she remembered I had a small bag of Skittles in my purse and she asked if she could share them with her China friends, so I told her to ask their Mommy. Mommy said yes and they visited some more. The youngest daughter was named Mia too and to see these 3 girls together, seemed liked they have known each other for years

Now that Mia is getting older and is starting to realize that she looks different then most of her school friends, I get a warm feeling in my heart when she recognizes other Asian girls and feels compelled to go over and be xtra friendly to them. I truly feel that although she doesn't really understand the entire story, she feels and recognizes that they are all sooooo special.

Can you see the love????? this weekend Titi Deanna was in town for business, so we had a chance to visit with her for a short time. These photos were taken with my phone and Mia just kept on squeezing her! It was soo funny, we took about 3 shots and this is the best we could come up with!!!!

I finally bit the bullet and got a digital SLR camera. I have been eyeballing them for a while, I love photography and now that I have a personal subject, I decided to just get it. I decided on the Canon Rebel XSi with the basic lense to start. Once I have mastered the settings and different options, I am sure I'll get the fancy lenses and filters. Today was my first day to use it and I decided to shoot Mia while she was in the tub tonight. It is so awesome to capture a picture as it is happening and not after the typical delay my previous camera did. I will still keep my Nikon 7mp point and shoot camera, because it fits so snug in my purse and I can whip it out whenever I need to. Here are my first 3 keeper shots, I love the one of her on her back laying in the water. Look for more shots as I get more familiar with my new toy!!!

Dress up

Friday night my 2 friends Tami and Tamara came over for some scrapbooking and the girls had a dress up play date. It was soo cute. They all played so well and before you knew it, Mike got home from his boys Jai-Alai evening and it was 11:30, time flies when your having fun!!

My little bundle of joy leaving for school this morning.

The temp was 34 degrees and 25 with windchill. I know many of my northern family and friends have no sympathy for us, but we aren't accustomed to this chilly weather for so long. Normally we get it for a couple of days here and there during the winter, but this winter it was unusually cold.

Curly Hair
Mia said she wanted curly hair, "Just like Mommy", so I tried to create the 'curly ' look. It all worked out great until it was time to go to bed and the knots bothered her, so we took it out. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she said "No Mommy , I don't like curly hair".

Fabulous Blog Award

I have been nominated for this prestigious award from Lori, and as recipient of this award, I must pass this on to 5 fabulous blogs, including the one that gave it to me and link them. The adoption/blog community is really unique in that, you can share a special bond with people you have never met personally.

Below are my nominations, some of which I have met or personally know, or some I feel like I know personally because of our bond, as China Mommy's.

My first nomination goes back to Lori at Stress Is The New Black. Lori and I have a funny and unique story about her and her husband Marc and their darling children. If you visit her blog, you will see that there is never a dull moment in that house and they are always on the go. Lori is very active with the Chinese community and if you can't catch her on their blog, she can be caught on Facebook. We began our journey around the same time and several years later they have 2 beautiful children from China and 1 adult child in law school, with a wedding on the way!!!

My second nomination goes to Isabelle at Mak and Jack . Isabelle, her husband Dave and their son Jack travelled with us to China. Their beautiful daughter Makena is from Chongqing also and we were travel companions during our 18 day journey to the Far East. Isabelle is from Malibu, California and is always jetting off somewhere. I thoroughly enjoy reading her posts, as her life is like one big adventure. Isabelle has always made it a point to try to visit everyone in our group when she is buzzing around the world. I hope to see her in March when she swings in on her way to The Keys.

My third nomination goes to Krista at A Million Miles to Mia. Although I personally do not know Krista, I do know that she has been waiting a very long time for her Mia and she loves her nieces and nephews. My mom is addicted to her blog, because she is such a good writer and I can tell you that I have had tears of laughter in my eyes at times with some of her topics. I hope she gets her Mia soon!

My fourth nomination goes to Do They Have Salsa In China. These twins are a hoot and I have followed them from the beginning. We had our paperwork delivered to China in the same month and I found them when everyone was celebrating their referrals and I have been addicted to that blog since. I think they are so adorable and the stories just crack me up!! How they do it with twins is beyond me, I cannot imagine!

My fifth nomination goes to a very popular site, Waiting For Sophie. Sophie's family used the same adoption agency as we did and I followed their blog while they were traveling in China, so I could get a feel of what to expect when it was our turn to travel. Sophie is a beautiful little girl, and her brother and sister are such a beautiful addition to their family.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!! January 9th weekend we celebrated Mike's BIG 50! we had a bunch of family and close friends join Mike in celebrating. Many of us camped for the long weekend, and many people came for the day to have a party. I planned the get together on the sly and as the weekend progressed, more and more people arrived. Mike had a wonderful time! Saturday night was the big night and we had a seafood feast. We had 2 steamer pots going to steam clams, lobster, crabs legs, and shrimp. We had lots of tables put together so everyone could enjoy the feast together. It turned out exactly like he would have wanted. The weather was perfect, we even had a full moon which made the evening gorgeous. No big party and hoopla, just a weekend relaxing, with good food and great company. His day started out fishing the the guys, and when they came back, more people had arrived and set up camp, it was great. By the start of the dinner, I think there must have been 40 people or so. The kids loved the campfire and running around all day playing and the adults enjoyed the conversation and cocktails. I prepared a trivia game with Mike type of topics, which was a hoot! It truly was a memorable celebration!!

Oh to Be A Kid Again!

we are back home and are starting to unpack and take down all the Christmas decorations! Here are some more pictures from our trip to Atlanta. The week was full of kid friendly fun,we were on the go the entire time and we wouldn't have it any other way! Mia went bowling for the first time, what a hoot and true to Mia style , she wanted to do it all by herself. Her ball would take soooo long to get down the alley, it was funny. Torey would wing the ball down the alley, he did really good!

Growing up in a small close family, we didn't have many cousins, so I have made it a point to make sure Mia and her cousins get to know each other well and grow up together.They may need eachother someday!

Pizza making night with Aunt Barbara,
my sister and brother in law went out for the evening so I had the kiddos, we made pizza's and watched the Polar Express. The were absolute angels that night. Thank God!

We took them to this place called Monkey Joe's with all the inflatable slide and wore them out! Notice Mia sliding down with Kenedy, she is laughing so hard and came down sideways, they did this over and over!