Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today, we saw our sweet boys face for the first time. It was such an amazing day! To recall Kaden's referral, you can watch the video of us seeing his picture for the first time on DropShots.

I can't believe how much our lives have changed since the day of Kaden's referral. He has brought us so much joy. It's been so fun to watch him grow and learn new things. We love him so much.

Happy 2nd Referral Day Kaden!!!!

New Cute Kaden Sayings

Kaden has been extra sweet lately. I am so proud of our caring, compassionate boy. The other day, I took a little too big of drink and it caused me to cough and catch my breath. We were in the car at the time and I heard a little voice from the back seat ask, "Are you okay Mommy?" It melted my heart!

Then yesterday, I was opening a Handi Snack (you know, the crackers you dip in cheese) for Kaden's snack. I pulled back on the wrapper a little too hard and the crackers went flying everywhere. As I was profusely apologizing to Kaden, he began to pick up the spilt crackers and reassured me, "It's okay Mommy. It was an accident."

Finally, I always get nervous when Kaden climbs on things. The other day, Naboo decided to climb up our screen door. Of course, I yelled at the cat and said, "No Naboo! Get down." Kaden, however, had a different approach. He went over to Naboo (still hanging on the screen), gently petted him and said, "Be careful Naboo. You could get hurt." Awww.........

Watch our video!

Okay, so it's not really "our" video, but I found a link to the Stephen Curtis Chapman video of "When Love Takes You In" that features clips of adoptive families, including US! No, I did not make this video! It was made by SC2's people and he shows it at his concerts. You can watch the video by clicking on the picture in my sidebar to the right. We're about halfway into it.

Speaking of SC2, please continue to pray for him and his family. They lost their youngest daughter, Maria, in tragic accident last week. My heart goes out to them.

I WON!

A few months ago, Digital Srapbooking Magazine ran a contest. They were having their own digital scrapbook "awards". You could submit a layout for best comedy, romance, documentary, etc. I asked Debby & Ferrell Allison if they would mind if I submitted my "Greensburg Tornado" page. The page prodominently features a picture of their destroyed home, so I didn't want to enter it in a contest without them knowing.

Well, guess what? I won the "Best Documentary" category! Here's a picture of the prize package I received:


There are 3 Digital Scrapbook Memories C.D.s (these contain digiscrap kits!), 1 Scrapbook Max C.D. (more kits!), a photo album, and a perfect printing pouch. I'm also getting some scrapbook actions and prints from Shutterfly. Yahoo!

The letter that was enclosed in my prize package said that they aren't sure yet whether or not they will print the winning pages in the magazine or not. But, they will at least list the winners. I'm excited either way!

BTW, here's the winning page:

The ZOO!!!

Yesterday, the whole family took Kaden to the zoo. We met up with some friends there and had a great time seeing all the animals. It had been almost a year since we had last taken Kaden. He was a little too young then to really "get" it. But this time, he had a blast! It was so cute to see him point at the animals and say their name or the sound that they make. His favorite thing by far was the gorillas. I think he would have stayed and watched them all day if we'd let him.

Here's some pictures! You can click on them to see them full screen.

Kaden pointing to the baboons:

Getting a better view of the zebra:

Here's all the kids:

As always, just pop on over to DropShots to see a LOT more pictures and video clips!

Some New Kaden Funnies!

Kaden loves to talk on the phone. Ryan often calls to from work to let me know he'll be late. Kaden points at the phone and says "Daddy, Daddy!" until I let him talk to him. Then even after he's done, he'll try to grab the phone back while saying, "More Daddy." Repeatedly. Anyway, he and Ryan have a pretty routine "conversation" that they hold each time they talk on the phone:

R: "Are you having a fun day Kaden?"
K: "Uh huh."
R: "Have you been a good boy?"
K: "Uh huh."
R: "Obey Mommy."
K" "Okay."

There are sometimes slight varations, but that's the gist of it. So, a few days ago Ryan called to let me know he'd be late. Kaden begged for the phone as usual. As soon as he had it to his ear, before Ryan even said anything, Kaden exclaimed, "Obey Mommy!"

Kaden loves the two exchange students that Mom and Dad have been hosting this year. However, on occasion he has been a bit "cold" to Ye-In. He will sometimes refuse to hug her when asked and has even hit her before. So, we have often talked with him about being nice to Ye-In and not being rude.

Yesterday I was having "one of those days" and just needed a little while to myself. Ye-In graciously agreed to watch Kaden for a few hours after school. She picked him up on her way home and I was able to enjoy some peace and quiet. I picked him up around 4:30 and on the walk home we had the following conversation:

Me: "Did you have fun with Ye-In?"
K: "Yah. I nice to Ye Ye. No rude."

It was so cute in his toddler voice. It phoenetically sounded like, "I nigh to Ye Ye. No wude," as he shook his head!

The last one, if I haven't bored you enough already, happened this morning. We walked down to Grandma and Grandpa's house to make sure Ye-In was awake and give her a message. On the way, our cat Naboo followed us. On the way home, Naboo decided to take the lead. Kaden was chasing after him, hands in the air, cow backpack swaying as he bounced along, yelling, "Wait Boo. Wait Boo. Wait!"

Kaden is TWO!

Can you believe it? I can't. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating his first birthday. This year went so fast and he has changed so much.

Here are a few pictures from the big day. As always, you can see a LOT more by going to our DropShots account.

The birthday cake




Enjoying the birthday cake




Kaden with some of his "bounty"

The Power of the People!!!!

It turns out the power of the people has prevailed! Don't ever think that you can't change something. Enough of us adoptive mothers wrote and complained about the "Non-Mom" category in the NBC "Amercia's Favorite Mom" contest (see my previous post), that they changed wording. That category is now called "Adoptive Moms". I still find it sad that they feel a need to put us in a seperate category, but at least we are no longer being considered "Non-Moms". It's a step in the right direction.

Do you consider me a MOM?

I'm just wondering, because apparently NBC does not. Grrrr...... They are having an contest called "America's Favorite Mom". They have different categories of "moms" including:

The Military Mom
The Working Mom
The Single Mom
The Non-Mom Mom
The "Chairman Of Everything" Mom

Okay, I can understand most of the categories, but what exactly is a Non-Mom? Well, according to the description on the "America's Favorite Mom" website, a Non-Mom is:
"Grandparent, stepmom, or mom to adopted children, each one raising and loving a child. A priceless gift for everybody."

Well, thanks for the "pricless gift" part, but I'm sorry, I don't consider myself a "Non Mom". I think they could have chosen a much, much better word for this category. I have to wonder what grandmothers and stepmoms think about being considered "Non Moms" as well. I think maybe "Non Traditional" Mom would have been a better description for this category.

But, that brings me to my next question. Should adoptive mom even have been lumped in this category? Foster moms, yes, but adoptive moms? I don't think so. It makes me wonder, if there is an amazing adoptive mother out there that is in the military, would they have let her be considered as a candidate for the "Military Mom" category? Or, did she automatically have to be considered for the "Non-Mom" category simply because she did not give birth to her child?

In addition to this, one of the "Non-Mom" finalists is Jennifer Keller from Home, Kansas. They described her as: "She was an adopted child who is now mom to her own daughter, plus six adopted children who started life as "meth babies"." Nothing gets my goat more than when people feel it necessary to seperate biological children from adopted children. She is the mother of 7. Period. No one has ever introduced my mom as the mother of "two of her own daughters and one adopted son." She is simply the mother of 3 children: 2 girls and 1 boy. Ugh!

Maybe I'm just extra sensitive today and reading too much into this. But, I sent a rather strongly worded e-mail to the contest. If you would like to stand up for adoptive mothers everywhere, I'd appreciate if you'd send an e-mail as well.

Here's the link to the contest: Click HERE

Here's the e-mail address:
support@americasfavoritemom.com

Okay, I'm getting off my soapbox now. Thanks for "listening"!!!

Tricia

Prom

It's so fun having teenage sisters again. I'm just sad they are leaving soon. :(

Anyway, last night was prom and I hot rolled Ye-In and Tina's hair. Ye-In had to also participate in the state music contest that day, so we did her hair early. She got a one rating on her flute solo. Yeah! We had just enough time when we she got home to add a few more quick curls and take pictures. By the time she got to prom, the curls were gone. I swear I put a ton of hairspray on too. I guess her hair just won't hold the curl.

Here she is in curlers:

Here she is with her hair all curly:

And here's how it looked when she arrived at prom:

Oh well, we tried! And she still looked beautiful.

Tina was lucky enough to have the whole afternoon to get ready. I hot rolled her hair to get it nice and full and then Kara fixed it for her and did her makeup.

Here's what the back of her hair looked like:

And here she is all dolled up and ready to go to prom! Pretty!

Kaden also had fun getting ready for prom. He was particularly interested in Ye-In's sparkly shoes!

More Kaden Funnies

Yesterday Kaden and I took Dad to physcial therapy.  On the way back, Kaden's DVD player stoppped.  Dad and I were talking and Kaden didn't seem bothered by the silence, so I didn't worry about it.  But, after awhile we heard an exasperated voice from the back seat say, "Grandpa, push something!"

Today, Ryan was trying to get Kaden's attention.  He called his name several times with no response.  Finally, Kaden turned around, looked and Ryan, and said, "What?"  The timing and look on his face were priceless!

A Star Is Born

Tonight I went to see Ye-In in the high school's production of "The Pajama Game". She did a great job. Next stop: Broadway!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

A Funny YouTube Video

Ryan really likes to watch "Stupid Game Show Answers" on YouTube.  There are several of them!  Whenever I have a "bluh" kind of day, it's a great pick-me-up to laugh at other people's stupidity.

BTW:  I'm trying a new way of blogging.  I have downloaded Windows Live Writer.  So far, I'm really liking it.  It's much easier to insert videos and pictures.  The real test, however, will be when I hit "publish".  Hopefully the video will actually be on my blog!

A Kaden Funny

Kaden's latest obsession is "Bob The Builder". Even though that show is not on T.V. anymore (at least not on any channel we get), Uncle Tim bought him a DVD for Christmas. It has become Kaden's favorite and he has watched it many times. Bob is a contractor, so in every episdoe, he answers his cell phone and rushes off to save the day by building or fixing something for one of the town folk.

Just how many times he's watched it became very apparent today. We were in Wal-Mart shopping with Mom and the girls. Mom made the mistake of leaving her purse in the cart seat with Kaden. We were talking and not paying much attention to him. After awhile, we looked at him and realized he had pulled Grandma's cell phone out of her purse. He flipped it open, put it to his ear, and said, "Hello. Bob the Builder."

I about died laughing!

Wow, it's April!

Where did March go? I know, I say that at the end of each month, but really. This last month went way too fast.

In just 5 short weeks, Kaden will be 2. I can hardly believe it. I'm so far behind on his scrapbook, it's sad. I've done a few pages from each month here and there, but I have not been faithful at getting things done chronologically. So, there is still at least 1 page left to finish from his 1st birthday and then others scattered throughout 2007 that are yet undone.



But, at least I'm not too far behind on 2008. Of course, I haven't taken very many pictures yet either! Hopefully I will get some more pages done soon. We've been fighting illness and I've been helping out by taking Dad to Physical Therapy since his knee surgery. So, we seem to spend a lot of time in the van these days!

Discipleship Focus Promo

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

When I was in college, I spent 2 summers in Branson, MO working at Silver Dollar City through a discipleship program offered by Young Life. It was an awesome experience! I would really like to see a lot of Barclay students benefit from this chance to make some money for college while continuing to grow in the Lord. I made this video from pictures of my two summers. There is a better promo video available at their website which is HERE and they also have a Facebook group called Discipleship Focus Alumni that lists a lot of information too!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a very blessed Easter. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

Kaden has an announcement!

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

I Could Use Some Prayers

Hi everybody. It's been 2 weeks since I last updated, so thought I'd better post. I've been having a rough time lately. I'm not sure why, but I've been "down in the dumps". When I get this way, I let my house get out of control and then that just makes me even more depressed. I feel powerless to stop it from continuing to spiral downhill. So, I'd appreciate your prayers. I just don't feel like doing anything lately and that makes me feel like a lousy wife and mother.

Kaden is continuing to grow and change every day. He is enjoying the warmer weather we've had lately. His favorite thing to do these days is to go to the park. Kaden is quite the little dare devil and it scares me to death watching him on the jungle gym to get to the slide. I get worn out after our trips to the park. He'd stay there all day if I'd let him, but usually after an hour I have to drag him home kicking and screaming because I'm pooped!

Ryan is enjoying his new job and the Telephone Company. He is working part time for them and part time for Denny. I have a feeling that we won't see much of him the next few months as both jobs demand a lot from him and both would like to have him full time. The plan is for him to go full time with the Telephone Company in October. I am looking forward to that in hopes that we will be able to settle back into a normal routine and also that we will be able to begin the adoption process again.

So how is everyone? I'm not sure who all reads this blog, but I would love to hear from you. I get very, very bored at home alone with Kaden all day. I practically live to hear my computer say "You've Got Mail." Kaden can say that very well by the way!!!

Update on Kaden

I realized it's been awhile since I've let you all know what our sweet boy is up to these days. He has changed so much in the past few months. It is truly amazing!

Kaden seems to learn something new each and every day. He has been learning his colors, shapes, and even numbers. The other day he pointed at one of our clocks and starting counting while pointing to the corresponding number. I was blown away!

If you go to DropShots you can watch a series of video clips of him showing off his new skills!