It pays to have good friends.

I received a special package in the mail yesterday – although we’re notoriously bad at getting the mail so it’d probably been in there for awhile!  My friend Jina got me this block with artist quotes on it.  How perfect is that?  She says it’s no big deal, but I don’t believe her.

I put it on my “Happy Shelf”. If you don’t have one I suggest you go create one ASAP!  It has my Poetry to make you Smile Book, You Are My Sunshine Frame with Jr’s Birth Announcement picture and now this cute little block.  Thanks Jina!  I LOVE IT!!!!

Christmas Vacation, Part IV

Besides holiday events, we managaed to fit in some relaxing time to meet up with friends or just hang out during our AZ trip.  I had an awesome morning with some girlfriends from Epic (posted below).  They are so sweet – I miss living my days with them!  dt was able to grab a beer with the guys one night, but he didn’t want to bring the camera. I guess the guys gathering around the table, trying to squeeze into the shot isn’t manly or something.  :-P

I also got to catch up with Jina (the other half of A Mike’s Life) for coffee one morning, which was awesome.  I hadn’t seen her in years and it was such a treat to catch up with such a great friend.  She just gave birth to a little girl and while we were trading birth stories, I did learn that it is best to keep your voice down.  The other poor souls around you might not want to learn about your placenta.  Oops.  Guess I was caught up in the moment.  And trust me, Jina was fascinated.   (Again, no camera.  Boo!)

One Christmas Vacation post left:  LEGO STORE (coming soon….)

Christmas Vacation, Part I

There’s no way I can remember enough of our two week trip to Phoenix to write about anything significant… so enjoy these pictures and imagine yourself there.   These are some favorites up to Christmas Eve.

It was iffy whether or not we would be able to afford the trip, so we feel blessed just to have been surrounded by friends and family for the holidays.  We love you guys and wish you a wonderful new year!

Friends in China

Our friends, The Ehmann’s, are in China right now adopting their baby girl!  Before we decided to do IVF we were knee deep in the adoption process taking care of the “paper chase”.  Then China dramatically  s l o w e d  things down to a 2+ year wait.  This changed things for us and we thought we’d try IVF first and possibly adopt afterwards.  The Ehmann’s continued on and finally have their little Kaitlyn!  I believe they started the process 6 months before us in 2004 (but it’s all a blur).  Regardless, it’s been a LONG road.

If you want to see their blog and their precious daughter (the same age as Baby Bear!) go here: The Ehmann’s Adoption Journey

Makes me think of getting started again since it’s such a long process.  Hmm….

Baby Bear’s Friends

We had a playdate yesterday with our new friends who are starting the new church here.  We plan on being part of the community and are excited about what God will do.  I’m also excited about God bringing a little friend to our little guy, Baby Bear!  They have a little boy who is 3 days younger than him… so I’m absolutely positive that they’ll be best friends.  No pressure

You will notice that Baby Bear is not wearing his DOC Band in the pictures… that’s because he’s officially done with wearing it!  We just have the exit appointment on Tuesday.  They said it was getting too small so if it starts bothering him, just take it off and you’re done.  So there you go!  No more DOC Band.  It’s awesome!  I wasn’t expected to feel a little sad because it just is another reminder of how old he’s getting already.  But it is sure so awesome watching him grow up and I’m loving every minute of it!  I just love being a mom.

Anyway, enjoy the sweet little pictures of Baby Bear and his FIRST friends!

Three Amigos

Playing with Ellie

Max and Baby Bear

Checking Each Other Out

Ellie “holding” Baby Bear

Baby Bear and Ellie

Catch

Number of Ways to Lose John Chandler

1. Suggest grabbing a hot latte at Genuine Joe’s
2. Take a stroll through Crate and Barrel, (be sure to dress appropriately)
3. Bump up blog posts with “# of Ways” in the title
4. Tell him someone from AT&T needs him to call…right away!
5. Be an iPhone and don’t sync when you say you’re gonna
6. Forward this post to all John’s connections and then twitter the link to him
7. Did I mention posting a blog with “# of Ways” in the title
8. That’s all I got… hee hee!

Peace out!

-dt