Jamie is 2!

We had such a good time for Jamie's birthday party this past weekend. Neither Grandma could come as they were just here for Christmas but others who love her were here. I took the day off before the party and had most everything done which made for a stress free day for all. She loved her phone and she also got 2 different MP3 players - one where we can download songs onto it for her. We have already loaded Laurie Berkner, her current musical fave.

We're going live today at 5:00 pm!

Join us today as we celebrate Jamie's 2nd birthday. You see in the photos how much she has changed over one year! The left was taken when she was 11 months old. The right was taken for her Christmas 2007 picture.

We will be broadcasting live today through UStream.tv. In the right sidebar you will be able to watch the festivities as we fete our daughter and celebrate a momentus milestone for her and us!

Come on by and join us. I'll try and set up a chat room so you can comment on the party! If time permits there will be commentary and play by play as the babies play. We are looking forward to hearing from you as you celebrate along with us.

DInner out with Aunt Patty & Unka John

We went out the night of one of the big games our team was about to play and it was fun to dress Jamie in her cheerleader togs that Aunt Patty and Unka John got her for Christmas. We don't eat out very often as we are trying to get out from under huge debt and also because eating out with a toddler doesn't always go smoothly. Aunt Patty & Unka John always love to see us (Jamie) so it was great to join them. Here's hoping we have no other major home systems or appliances go out on us for a year or so, so that we can swim up from underneath this debt. My friend who teaches political science at a college in Michigan says getting out of debt is the new American Dream. We don't travel or wear expensive clothes and go out to eat except maybe once a month. We do own two houses (one we rent out) that seem to demand constant expenditures...Heat & Ac goes out, need to replace the oven, the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the plumbing (for both houses!) and soon it will be 2 roofs. I am thankful we didn't take out a home equity home to accomplish any of the constant holes these two money pits put us into. Just put it on credit cards and keep moving to a new card with lower interest. I have managed to keep the debt on cards with very low interest rates so far (3.99, and zero % currently), and hope we can pay it all off before it catches up with us.

So is getting out of debt the New American Dream? What is your American Dream?

Adoption issues

We were so lucky to have adopted Jamie from the foster care system. When we got her she was 4.5 mos old and she was in her second home and had been in the system since birth. The first home she was in was trying to adopt a baby and they preferred a boy. A baby boy came available (His birth parents were getting their rights terminated - he was already in foster care) and in our county the judge always wants the child to be in a preadoptive home when the parents rights are terminated. The family that had Jamie originally had too many under three, so they 'traded' Jamie for the baby boy they wanted to adopt. So at 3 mos of age Jamie was moved to this other home who didn't want to adopt any others. At that point in the process it looked like the birth mom was working on her case plan. We found out about Jamie at that point because I went to the foster/adoptive parents meetings and met a mentor. A lady who was currently fostering one sibling group of four and another child she was hoping to adopt. This wonderful lady knew about Jamie's situation because of the original foster mom being concerned about Jamie's current home. (The concern came in part because the baby boy that had been there had some issues - the back of his head was flat, and his clothes all smelled of smoke etc.) So we found out about Jamie in April, but our license didn't become official until the end of May. 2 days after our license became official Jamie's current foster mom called the agency and said she wanted to stop fostering - that she wanted the two babies she had removed from the home. Since the agency knew we were interested we were the lucky family they called and picked her up that night!

When we picked her up it was apparent that she was scared...poor baby, can you imagine? Some strangers come to get you and you are carried out to the driveway with all of your possessions in a garbage bag. Everything smelled of smoke and of the 6-7 items of clothing only one fit ok but it was long sleeved and too warm for Florida in late May. The back of her head was completely flat and when she woke up in her crib she didnt cry. She would just lay there and wait on someone discovering she was awake. I had been told that I may just want to let her nap in her swing - that "she just loved it", although no swing was sent with her. Also she didn't come with any 'lovey' or soft toys. She had some blocks and beads and a little mirror. That was it...not even some diapers!

Anyway over the next few months Jamie did begin to cry when she woke up in her crib, but her head remains flat. In the first few months she often avoided eye contact but this doesn't seem to be an issue anymore - I guess she has learned to trust. Poor baby... She does still do some 'mommy shopping' - which is when we are in a group of folks Mike and I are often invisible to her. She is more concerned with getting the attention of other adults.

As Jamie just turned two, it is hard to tell what long term issues we might encounter from her adoption experience. Many experts believe even newborns have abandonment issues and can experience attachment disorder issues. I wish we had been the parents that picked her up from the hospital but things worked out the way they were supposed to, of that I am truly convinced.

We finalized her adoption in August of 2007. Here is Jamie on the first weekend in our home- May of 2006.

I blog for comments!

I was told yesterday I needed to 'step it up' with the blogging, that she was (Aunt Patty) was coming daily to check and there wasn't any fresh content. Well I do the same thing, I come to the blog to see who has visited and what they commented on. Not very many comments. Hmmm, maybe I need to be more interesting? or post more often? Or both!? But as I stated above "I blog for comments!' If you come here, please take a minute and say hey!

Here are some of the recent pictures from Christmas.



Here is the photo I was allowed to take with my camera (she was a bit scared of Santa):



Here is the photo they took with their props and funny faces:



Now Jamie wants to see the Santa! photo anytime I am on the laptop. Guess we need to scan, print and laminate her her own copy of it. I am not sure which one to do it with as she seems to like the one where she is crying.

Here is a family shot with Mikes mom and brother Bruce:



Now for the Christmas Card adventure. Here is the first card we had made before I got the picture I really liked of Jamie in the Black Bodiced dress:



Well they also didn't crop the family shot as I had so I wasn't pleased at all, it was also a bit dark. So I had it redone, not only did they not crop the shots they way I wanted....well look and see.



So, I had to go back to Walmart again and they redid it, but the first time I went I took the pictures on a jump drive which they couldnt use...so the fourth time is the charm!

A sample clip of our day at Tree Hill

Christmas Day with Jamie!

Fun with Nature

We went to our neighborhood nature santuary today for a fun morning making Peanut butter pine cones and walking and seeing nature.



Feeding the goats

Walking the trails

Making Peanut butter Pine Cones

The real Miss Owl

Well we have finally gotten a Card-worthy pic

This was among the last of our third attempt of getting a Christmas card worthy pose of Jamie for our annual card. Too bad that I had already had another card made, but just like last year I didn't order enough so I had another batch made with this photo today. After I think all have gotten their cards (they were just sent out on Sunday!) - I know, they are late as usual!), I will post both cards here.

What follows is the previous attempts on Sunday morning. The girl does not like to pose for pictures!

Elfin Silliness

Come see us as elves. Fun and funny.

I had a SAHM afternoon with my girl today. Was wonderful to be able to just 'be' with her instead of herding her up to get changed, fed, bathed, read to and put to bed like the usual night time routine. I have some time saved up for vacation and will be using it up now. THis weekend is a long one being off on Friday and Monday then to work Tuesday and Wednesday and then off til the 2nd! Hooray!

On another note Jamie has become a bit of a whiny little girl, dare I say a 'terrible two'? It's hard to have to put her in time out and be firm with her when our time together is so limited. With family coming over the holidays it will be a challenge, but she so loves the attention, and I will be off most of the time, so it should be wonderful.

I went ahead with one of those pictures for our christmas cards. I am not really happy with the card, I had another picture of the three of us on the card, in fact it is the small one to the right on this blog of us at her adoption party, and had cropped it a certain way so we would be in the center of the shot and the date was cut off, and it recentered the shot the way I didn't want it. Maybe I will scan the card soon and post it.

I may still try to do another Christmas picture of Jamies...We'll see.

Christmas Pictures take two

We tried again to get a good Christmas photo for the cards again now that the tree is up. No go. At least she was happy about it this time. But as you can see we weren't prepared - we didn't have her dressed in any pretty Christmas outfit, just jammies.

Christmas picture attempt

We spent a good part of Sunday afternoon trying to get a good picture for our Christmas cards this year. Here our some of the results. THis first one really highlights her curly hair in the back.


THis one is about the best of the bunch ...I think so, do you? (but it isnt a perfect sweet look into the camera grin like we got last year, so I am not really satisfied.)


She acted like we injured her by putting that hat on her head!

THis one is cute, but not festive enough.


Let go Daddy!

This one is sweet too...is this the best of the bunch?

Thankful for Jamie

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We are truly thankful to have our sweet baby Jamie as our daughter!

She's a Dancing Queen!

Fun with our girl tonight- I had a short video that really shows her shaking her stuff but I can't get it to post! She used that little box as a rattle as it had plastic toys inside of it and made a neat noise. She loves standing on the stepstool dancing and twirling like she is on stage!

The Fair and the Parade

This is a 3 day old baby goat - the highlight of the fair experience for Jamie!


Her First Merry Go round ride - She tantrumed a bit when we took her off.







We enjoyed this three day weekend thoroughly with friends and fun for all. Saturday we went to Aunt Patty and Unka Johns for dinner for Chris' birthday; yesterday we went to the fair and today we took the train to the parade. Something messed up with the camera -I had it set to the wrong setting and each picture during the parade was completely bleached out, so the pictures from today are all afterwards. Jamie enjoyed her first lollipop during the train ride back to the car.