Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas! Kaden had a great time opening presents, but unfortunately got in the bad habit of saying "more." We're going to have to work on manners and gratitude once he can comprehend them! Here's a few pictures of the fun:

His eyes lit up when he realized the presents under the tree were for him!

Kaden posing with his gifts from Mommy & Daddy. Later we'll get a picture of him with ALL of his gifts from everybody. It will be a ridiculously large pile!

And, here is a picture from Sunday of Kaden in his Christmas suit:

Something for Moms Christmas Party

We had a really fun Christmas party for our Mom's group on Wednesday night. Lois is so good to us. She had a chocolate fountain and tons of fun presents! Wow! We stayed and chatted and laughed until 11:30. That's pretty late for us Mommies!

Here's a layout I made using pictures from Logan's camera. The kit I used is called "Visions of Sugar Plums" and is a collab kit by Danielle Corbitt's Star Studded Designs and Doodles 'N Dimples. It's available at Digital Candy.

Yesterday we went to Wichita to pick up Kaden's Certificate of Citizenship. Well, it didn't exactly go as planned. It turns out that his COC is in Kansas City. They're going to mail it to Wichita for us, but it still means we have to make another trip during the week. But, we got to have lunch with Jeanette at my favorite restaurant, Cheddars, and eat their wonderful Cookie Monster cookies, so it was worth the trip! We had a great time visiting and Kaden loves the giant aquarium in the restaurant.

Boy was it crazy in Wichita though. It was about impossible to do any shopping. So, we decided to wait and shop today in Pratt. Bad idea. A snow storm hit this morning and the wind is blowing so hard you can barely see. I'm hoping we can still make it to Pratt later this afternoon since we have no groceries and have a lot of things to make for Christmas and we're making breakfast for our Sunday School class tomorrow morning. That is, if we have Sunday School!

Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. I'd better get off the computer and start cleaning the house and/or wrapping gifts. Neither one sounds fun at the moment.

Will we ever get better?

My goodness. Kaden and I have been fighting a cold since early November. Ryan is coughing a lot now too although he says he doesn't have any chest congestion. Somedays I think I will never be well again.

Can you believe Christmas is on Tuesday? I am so not ready. I still have lots of gifts to buy and wrap and/or mail. Between the ice storm and being sick, Christmas has snuck up on me this year.

Well, if I don't remember to post on that day, I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Here's a card I created for Mom. It features Kaden, of course, with his two youngest aunts, Ye-In & Tina! They are exchange students living with Mom and Dad for the year and they spoil him rotten with attention. He loves it!


Card designed by Retrodiva Designs

Also, I feel as though I am slowly starting to recruit a few of you to the dark side! No, really it's the good side. What am I talking about? Putting away the scissors and paper and taking up digital scrapbooking!!!! I would really like to hold a class sometime to teach the basics. We'll see what the new year holds in store.

In the meantime, I want to let you know that the Scrap-Shop.fr where Kalanice's Designs are sold has changed their name. They are now Digital Crea. In honor of the name change, they are giving away a FREE Mega kit called "Dreadfully Happy". So, if you are wanting to get started with digital scrapping, this is a must have. You'll have plenty to keep you busy for awhile!

Merry Christmas!!!!

What a week!

This was a crazy, crazy week. It all started Monday night when an ice storm hit us. We lost our power and didn't get it back until 70 hours later Thursday evening! Needless to say, it was quite an adventure keeping Kaden happy with no electricity. He did pretty well during the daylight hours but was not a happy camper when it was really dark. He kept pointing at the lights as if to ask, "Why don't you silly people turn the lights on?"

I got so bored without electricity. I really do rely on my computer way too much. I kept thinking of things I could do, but they all needed the computer somehow. For example, I thought I could get my Christmas cards ready to send. But, where's my address book? On the computer!

Before the power outage, I got a few scrapbook pages done. The first one is a winter kit by Danielle Corbitt called "Winter Blues" at Digital Candy. This is a picture from last year because at the time I didn't have a winter picture from this year. But now I have a lot more pictures to scrap with this kit!

Our Adoption Testimony - in PRINT!

We got a really big surprise today, actually TWO surprises! The first came in the form of a book. Back in August, Shaohannah's Hope sent out an e-mail to all the families they've given grants to over the years asking us to share our adoption testimonies and some photos with them. Each year they create a book called "Miracles: Testimonies of God's Faithfulness in Adoption". I believe they send these out to donors. Anyway, I wrote out our testimony and e-mailed it with a few pictures, but I never heard back from them.

So imagine my surprise when the book arrived today and we are one of the FEATURED families! They chose one story from each family to feature for each country. We are the Korea family! I have sent an e-mail to Shaohannah's Hope to find out how I can get more copies for family and friends. I am also hoping that they don't mind that I have scanned and posted it here on the blog below. I was just so excited to share it! To be able to READ it, go to DropShots. Click on the thumbnail on the homepage and it will be bigger, about the size of this one. But, if you then click on THAT photo, you will get the full resolution version which is easily readable.

The second big surprise was also from Shaohannah's Hope. They have a promotional DVD, again, I think it's sent to donors, that features the music video to "When Love Takes You In" by Steven Curtis Chapman. But, this isn't the regular video you can watch on YouTube or elsewhere, it's the version he shows at his concerts. The middle section features video clips of families meeting their children for the first time. There is about a 1 minute video clip of US!!! Thank you Uncle Mark for the great footage -you're a famous videographer now - ha, ha! Again, not sure how you can get a copy of the video, but it is definitely a tear jerker. Here is the regular version (minus us) and I will post the other version if they ever put it online or I can figure out a way to.

EDIT: I found out how to get copies of the book and DVD. Here's the info I got from someone at Shaohannah's Hope:

We are so glad you enjoyed the Miracles Book. If you would like to have more, you can order additional books for $3 a piece. If you need more than 5 at one time, could you please then include 5 dollars for shipping. You can send in a check to us, and we would be happy to send that to you. Please also let us know the address where to ship to. Blessings, Chris Chesbro chris@shaohannahshope.org (615) 550-5600 ext. 108 Shaohannah's Hope Po Box 674 Franklin, TN 37065