Jades Email From Santa ...

Hi There

Just click on the link below, very cute don't you think ?

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/7da35433d4465cbbc87eee8a31e7e43b

Let me know what you think :-)

Our House At Christmas 2009 !!!

Taken from my neighbors yard ... I would love the entire roof to be done but I think I need more life insurance on Dave first :-) that is crazy high so I am very happy with how it is right now, I think it is pretty enough :-)



The downstairs, my family room, kitchen and breakfast nook to the right.



From my front door.



From the breakfast nook.



Merry Christmas to one and all.

Ok I know ... this isn't a decent update ... sorry !!!

I am so sorry ... I know, it's been a long time since I last updated but I just have so much to do that I don't have time to sit and do a long update now but wanted to quickly write a few things and add a few pics before Christmas and then hopefully in the New Year I will be better with updating !!!

I cannot believe the last two months have just flown by and well the New Year is almost here ... what a year this has been, what with a new house which meant new neighbors, new friends a new school, which thank God Jade loves, then along came Amber 3 weeks early but not a day too soon after a long three years of waiting for her arrival. With her came a couple of medical challenges which thankfully are now a thing of the past too but lots of other change, change which we are taking one day at a time and thank God have survived them all so far and can you believe she is 7 months already ?

Wow she is 7 months and Jade just turned 7 years old, how crazy is that ? So after Amber's Birth we had my folks come out for six weeks, my cousin Karen and her family for a week and now sooner were they gone and we took a wonderful trip to San Diego and well then Summer was almost over, never had a Summer flown by quiet as fast as this one did.

Then more recently we had Dave's folks here for almost 4 weeks, we squeezed in as much as possible for them to see which included the Renaissance Festival, The Southern Christmas Show both which Karen my cousin managed to attend too while she visited for another week (wow how spoilt am I two visits from her in one year !!!) Dave and Jade also took them down to Myrtle Beach for a weekend which wasn't great weather wise unfortunately but they did get to see the Dixie Stampede which was their main goal. Then they saw gosh, every mall close to us, experienced Black Friday from a distance babysitting while Dave, Karen and I did all our Christmas shopping. They experienced an American Thanksgiving which for us this year was awesome having so many family members join us at the table. They saw the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden Christmas Lights setup as well as McAddenville which is Christmas Town USA. Then I took them to not only the Church At Charlotte's Christmas Story presentation which they loved but I also took them to the Hickory Grove Baptism Church Christmas presentation which was mind blowing, now I think they know what Christmas over here is all about and why I love it so much. They also got to see our house decorated inside and well Dave's dad got to help with the lights outside, something I think he won't forget soon :-) Oh and they also got to have Breakfast with Santa at our Clubhouse which I had to miss coz it was on Jades birthday and I had to clean house and get ready, I guess that was a mom perk right ? Oh and they got to see Jades gymnastics observation day which was neat for them to see !!! Did I say I love this time of the year, it's my favorite time of the year !!!

We were also lucky to have them here for two big events, Jades 7th birthday which this year I decided to have a party at home, I must have been crazy but I thought it was a way for Jade to get to know her little friends here better and for me to meet them all too and some of the folks / neighbors too. Anyway it turned out well thankfully and I think fun was had by all. I brought in a face painter which was awesome and then got two of the young girls from my church to do nails and there was a craft too, they kids played upstairs mostly either in Jades playroom or on the Wii. There was lots of food so we all ate, drank and were merry :-) One of the girls that did the nails she is an awesome photographer too but I am still waiting for the disk of all the pics she took so when that arrives, I will add those pics so hang in there ok :-)

The other special event was Amber's Baptism which I don't have many pics of and well didn't even get pics of Amber alone in her Baptism dress ... I will have to put her in that dress again one of these days and take some pics. But yeah what a special day for Dave and I and again it was great to have family here to celebrate with us. Dave's dad stood in for Brent, Dave's cousin who is Amber's Godfather, he was living here in the States but his Visa expired and he had to move back to SA :-( and then my cousin Karen is Amber's Godmother, I have a pic or two that I will post below.

So yeah, I cannot believe all that is over with, golly !!! Can you tell it has been crazy busy here, thankfully now I am a break from work and well from Monday Jade is on a two week break from school too so it will be nice just to sleep in a bit in the mornings and just to take things easy, after this year, I think we all need it.

Here are a couple of pics, I will take a lot more in the next two weeks or so while I have more time on my hands and when I get those other birthday pics as well, I will post them too, I cannot wait to see all those.

Here are four of the Baptism ...









Then a few of Jade and Amber before going to have Breakfast with Amber, these are so cute :-)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Halloween Pics / Video

One of our neighbors ran a photo booth at the clubhouse on Saturday and put this togther which I think is cute ... shows you all the kids that were up there having fun with Jade, see if you can spot her :-)

November 1st 2009 - Amber Almost 6 Months.

These pics were taken two days ago so these are the latest ...

Today is the 3rd and Jade is off sick yet again, she has a really high fever this afternoon, I just don't know what to do with her, there is so much going around that no matter how well she eats and how many vitamins she takes, she is just getting sick over and over again, it's insane. Tomorrow I am taking Amber for the Flu shot, not the H1N1 shot just the regular flu shot and I think I am going to take Jade in for a good once over with the doctor too, she will have to be off school tomorrow anyway so I may as well take her with me. My poor baby !!! Oh gosh and keeping her away from Amber that is hard no matter how much I tell her Amber cannot get as sick as she is being a baby and all, she loves her sister so much she forgets and well ... both Dave and I are freaking out at her all the time but it's so sad. Please pray she gets better soon !!!

Amber was sick a week ago but thankfully is better now so please I hope she stays healthy through all this. Dave has also had a cough for the longest time, all the stuff going around, it's just too much ... many people at the church I work at have had the Swine Flu and thank God it doesn't seem too bad anymore the doctors seem to have it well under control but I really worry about Amber getting it. Again please keep us in your prayers, we are not even in full blown Winter yet and there has been so much sickness in this house !!!









Ok all done ... remember to scroll down to see the rest of the updates. Enjoy !!!

Halloween 2009 ...

Halloween in our new neighborhood was really awesome, the day started with a Halloween party at our clubhouse from 2 - 4, there was a parade of costumes to the clubhouse led but the local fire department, it was really cool, I have video but again it takes too long to load so maybe later ... there the kids had hotdogs and juice and went on hayrides, played in the hay hunting for treasure and just got a bunch of free goodies, they also had their pictures taken which was fun although the line was a long one. There was music and dancing, it was really cool and thank Heavens the rain held off till it was over with.

Every Halloween the weather is just strange it is either so damn cold or like this year it was crazy warm, Jades costume was not too warm although it looks that way, it was light weight thank Heavens, so even though we had long sleeves under it and tights we took those off later and even that night trick or treating she didn't get cold.

She went as a Snow Princess ...









Here are some pics from the afternoon at the clubhouse. It was Ambers naptime so Dave stayed home with her, I feel bad sometimes that he misses out but thank God he is not a social guy so most of the time he doesn't mind missing out and would rather be home playing on his computer, yeah I know ... boring right but that's just how he is and what he enjoys so oh well ... as long as he is happy right !!!



Some of Jades friends from school, the girl in the red dress is a neighbor and she is in Jades class, Jade really likes her but they don't get to play outside together too much, I guess Jade is more of an outdoors girl than she is.



There were two of these going all afternoon, the kids had a ball, what a clever idea.



Just some of the people that attended, it was a really good turnout.



She took her hat off just for a few minutes ... she loved it on when I think she looked cuter with it off but it was her costume so if she wanted to cook with it on, then so be it :-)



My little Ladybug !!!



Always my smiley girl :-)





A close up ...



She was so chatty in her exersaucer but in the pics it looks like she is singing :-)



With Jades stash of candy from trick or treating.



That's another Halloween over, but really it was awesome in this neighborhood and some houses were done up so amazingly, it started raining a bit while we were out so I told Dave to take Amber home and then he could also hand out candy to the trick or treaters but what I didn't realize was that the camera was in the stroller :-( It didn't rain too long and I wish Dave had come back out coz really some people really went all out ... did I say I love this neighborhood !!! Well I am sure next year it will be even better.

Remember to scroll down as I have done a bunch of updates today, Amber is waking up and I have one more to go but I did more than I thought so good :-) Enjoy !!!

27th October ... Both My Girls.

Jade dressed up for Faith Formation, loving her new boots which mommy bought her :-)



It's been a while since she modelled for me ... so she had some fun messing around this evening.





Growing her hair for Winter and seeing if we can do Locks Of Love again next Summer or maybe it will have to be a year later, we will see, maybe by then she wants long hair, I know though it gets to a point where she says it irritates here and well as much as daddy loves long hair he hates to have to help take care of it so we will see :-)



Shame Amber was so sick with a cold here, such a stuffy then runny nose but thank God she like Jade is pretty happy even when they are sick, nothing like dad but hey that's just men in general right (hehehe). This was just an outfit which I got for her to wear the Halloween week but she hated the hat and well I didn't like it either but for the pic we just took one or two and she looks happy right ?

Fall Leaves In Our Back Yard ...

These pics were taken just as it started raining and I knew with a good rain all the leaves would be gone, it looked so pretty outside in our back yard but it was for such a short while, now most of the leaves have gone and well now we can see neighbors we haven't for months ... but hey as Jade says the bright side is now we can see all the squirels again :-)



I opened my back door slightly not to let the rain in and took these two ... pretty right ?

October 22nd ...

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