HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY ELAINA!!!!!

I can't believe that Elaina is 3 years old!!! These past two years have been so amazing being a Mommy to the most beautiful little angel in the world!! (Ok-I am a little biased)

Elaina spent the night are her Aunt Jean's house and Mommy picked her up bright asnd early. Uncle John has a tradition with his girls that on their Birthday he makes pancakes in the shape of the number that they turned. So today Uncle John made Elaina a pancake that looked like a 3 or if you turned it around the Letter E!!! Thank you Uncle John-hopefully they took a picture of it and will send it to me. (Hint hint) We then went to Church and went to visit Gamma at Costco and then we went swimming and then slept for two hours. Whew- what a day.

Here are some pics (oops -out of order don't know how to fix that) from referral to now!! Enjoy!!

This is one of my favorite pics I have taken of Elaina. She is only 14 months old in this picture but she looks sooo big!!! This picture was selected to be in our agency calendar last year.
This is the FIRST picture I ever saw of my sweet angel. She is 5 months old and only weighs 10 pounds. It looks like she is saying: "Come get me Mama" or she is giving the "PEACE" sign.
I carried this picture and ALL of her update pictures with me wherever I went and showed them to everyone.

Christmas Eve 2008

The Birthday girl!!! We lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday!

I'm 3!!!!!!

and loving my cupcake!!

OUR FAMILY DAY!!!!!

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17TH...

Was our FAMILY DAY!! This is the day that 2 years ago Elaina was placed in my arms for the first time. What a magical day it was. My Mom and I were waiting in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel in Guatemala City with our eyes glued to the front door. I was talking to another couple who was with their baby and we didn't know that there was a set of elevators in the back of the lobby. It was then that my Mom said the words I will never forget:

"Judi, your daughter is here!!!"

I spun around and even thought there were about 6 people with her I only saw Elaina. Renee, the foster daughter was holding her and she brought her over to me and I took Elaina in my arms and she put her forehead to mine and we looked into each others eyes and our lives together began. It was amazing!! I can still recall every moment of our pick-up trip. Just minutes before she arrived some people were singing "I Can Only Imagine" what a beautiful song to hear just minutes before I was to meet my daughter for the first time.

So I took a couple of days off work and we were supposed to go out of town but the weather was too cold so instead we went down to the Country Club Plaza and got a hotel room and drove around to see the lights and we took The lighted Cinderella Coach for a ride around the plaza. What a wonderful ending to our very special day.

Here Elaina is looking out the window at the lights!!
La Princessita in her carriage!!!

Gamma, Elaina and Mommy all bundled up as we ride around the plaza.

B-r-r it was cold but it was worth it.

This is our horse "Blue" who gave us a great ride. We told the driver what we were celebrating and he was very excited for us and gave us a little longer ride.

It was 2 years ago today that we were greeted by family and friends at the airport. Thanks to everyone who was their to share in Elaina's Welcome Home!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

SANTA PICTURES!!!

What a difference a year makes!!

Elaina was so excited to see Santa and yelled his name and waved Hi to him from across the room.

Here is last years picture with Santa. What you don't see Santa?? Look closely and you can see his hand and his knee on the left side of the picture while Elaina crawls up Mommy.

From a distance she LOVED Santa-not so sure up close.

Santa 2007

Santa 2008

Quite a difference. I think if the child in front of us hadn't been upset Elaina might have done a little better. Who knows-she got a lot closer this year even though we didn't get any smiles. This was at our agency party and Santa and Mrs. Claus were fantastic!!! It didn't matter how upset the child was they managed to calm them down.

Here she is even hugging Santa but still has a death grip on Mommy's arm.

Here are her smiles!! The minute she got down she waved bye to Santa and said:
"Santa's my best friend!!!"
When she would see another child get upset she would say: "It's ok-Santa is our friend. I tried to get her to go back up one more time but she was all done and ready go. Maybe next year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Holiday Cutenesss!!!!!

Here are just some random pics of Elaina being cute!!!

Decorating the Christmas Tree!!!

Being silly with her Santa hat!!

She asked to wear the Santa hat at breakfast!!

HO! HO! HO!

Am I cute or what???

Elaina has PIGGY-TAILS!!!

I think I am going to let Elaina's hair grow longer instead of cutting it. I put her hair up in pig tails this morning and she looks so cute.

Here she is giving Leroy a hug before leaving for school.
Cute piggie tails!!!

Wrinke nose!!!

CHRISTMAS COOKIE SLEEPOVER

Last Friday Elaina's cousins Kierstin, Laura and Cassidy all came over to make Christmas cookies with Gamma. Due to everyone's crazy schedules it was the only time all the girls could get together.

Elaina learned very quickly how things work when baking with Gamma. After Gamma poured the chocolate chips into the meausuring cup Gamma told Elaina she could try a couple of chocolate chips. She really liked that. Well we were making our Monster cookies and M & M's were next and they are Elaina's favorites. I wish I had a video camera to record what happened next. With the measuring cup in her right hand filled with M & M's she started to pour the M & M's into the bowl and her left hand appears and she swipes a handful of M & M's before she dumps the rest in the bowl. It was priceless. We were all laughing so hard.
YUMMY CHOCOLATE!!!!

Cousins Kierstin, Elaina and Cassidy snap a close up!!

After Elaina went to bed on a sugar high the big girls got to make Gingerbread Houses.

Sisters Kierstin and Laura smile as they make their gingerbread houses. These are the 7th, 8th and 9th gingerbread houses that Gamma has bought over the last three years and are the FIRST ones to be made. The previous 6 all got thrown away and were never made. They had a blast decorating them.

Here Laura poses with her gingerbread house. Great Job Girls!!!

After cleaning up the kitchen the big girls went downstairs to play scattergories with Aunt Judi. Everyone had a great time. Aunt Judi and Kierstin went to bed around 11:00 and Cassidy and Laura stayed up much later. When I came downstairs the next morning to wake the girls-they had to leave by 9:00 am-there were several more games that had been played: Mad Gab, Pictionary and Uno Attack.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM ELAINA

Here are Elaina's school friends-they had a parade around the playground and I was trying to hide so she wouldn't see me. but the second she saw me she started crying and ran over to me so I had to walk her around for the parade.

Enjoying the treats Mommy made for her party. I dipped pretzels into white chocolate that I colored orange and added a green gumdrop for the stem and put them on a graham cracker.

My little Chicken

Trunk or Treat with our best friends Andrew and Christopher

Carving her pumpkin!!!

A REAL Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend my neice Kierstin and I took Elaina to a REAL pumpkin patch. She had so much fun running around touching all the pumpkins.

Kierstin and ElainaElaina puts a pumpkin on Mommy's head!

MY PUMPKIN!!!!!

Mom-the sun is in my eyes!!!

We had a great time!!

FALL FUN AT THE PUMPKIN PATCH

The Corn Maze
Peek-a-boo
SMILE!!
My pumpkin and my M & M's!!!
The 3 E's

Erica, Elaina and Evvy

We went to Faulkners Pumpkin Patch on Sunday with our GAP-KC group. There was so many activities for the girls to do: moon walks, slides, train rides, swings, scarecrow obstacle course, hay rides plus lots more. everyone had a good time. Although there really wasn't a pumpkin patch to walk through-just pupmkins to pick from in the gift shop. Will try to hit a pumpkin patch next weekend.

CHEESY SMILES!!!!

Cheesy smile while playing with playdough!!
Wicked smile as Elaina cuts her playdough
More cheesy smiles
Elaina loves her Leroy Brown

Guatemalan Independence Day Celebration

Elaina and I belong to a group called GAP-KC and Sunday we met at Antioch Park for our Guatemalan Independence Day Celebration.

The Flag of Guatemala
Elaina became attached to a soccer ball and here she is sitting on it and being silly. We had to put the ball under our table while we ate. Mind you the ball doesn't even belong to us.
Sweet Smile!!
Pinata Time!!!
CANDY!!!!!

In case anyone noticed we did have an outfit change due to an accident when going potty. The T-shirt she is wearing was sent home with her from the Foster Mother and it says:

"Hecho en Guatemala"

"Made in Guatemala"

It is too cute and she won't be able to wear it much longer. My baby girl is growing up too fast.