Equipment Day

Earlier this month we took Jacob to a local tradition. It was equipment day at the zoo. We thought that since he loves trucks, cars, motorcycles well you get the idea that he would absolutely love this. I even passed on one of my favorite neighborhood garage sales to take Jacob to this event. Anyone who knows me knows the sacrafice that is!

I was a little disappointed at Jacob's inital reaction. He would not even get out of the stroller. He wanted know part of the noise of the horns or that abundance of people. Which I wasn't really overly surprised because Emily had the same reaction the first time we took her. But I was still a little disappointed becasue after all I gave up a huge garage sale. That is until he saw the old Zoo Train engine. He wanted to sit on the train. That broke the ice then he became more interested in all of the various euipment. By the time we were getting ready to leave he wanted to sit on everything! Isn't that the way it always goes!

What was really funny is that he kept on his sunglasses and hard hat most of the day. I was able to get a shot of him with a death grip on his hard hat!b

Another grand adventure with our little car guy!

Here are some pictures of all of my kids on the equipment. Even Dave couldn't resist sitting on a huge John Deere tractor. Some boys just refuse to grow up! But then that is one of the things I loved about my husband he is a kid at heart! That is why Jacob and daddy are such great buddies!

Birthday Bash

We wanted to celebrate Jacob's first American birthday in style. Of coarse what theme do you have for a little boy that loves anything cars? Lightening McQueen of coarse. If only the weather had co-operated! I rented out a local park so that the children that were coming could play on the playground. Luckily there was also a large picnic pavilion! Little did I know that I would plan his party for the rainiest week of the summer. Saturday it poured many streets were closed because of the amount of rain we recieved. We had no choice other than to go ahead with our plans other wise we would loose our money! Luckily it stopped long enough to let the kids play outside for awhile and allow them to enjoy the afternoon!

Even though we had lots of rain I think Jacob is a big fan of birthday parties. what is there not to like. He enjoyed many of his favorite activities playing and eating. Oh and I forgot about Cake!! What was really cute is he knew it was all about him!

In fact he has been singing happy birthday ever since! I heard it all through the grocery store and all the way home tonight! His big smile and the never ending singing of happy birthday made all the work and dealing with the rain worth every minute!

I think the best part of the party was the "Car" race we had with cardboard box cars! The kids enjoyed it more than I thought they would. Emily and Jacob also had fun helping us paint them as well!

Next Sunday is Jacob's true birthday and we are thinking about taking him to a local restaurant that hangs race cars from the ceilings. I think it will be so worth it just to see his face light up! Who would know we would have such a car guy in our family!

Here are some pictures of Jacob's party!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a very joyous Easter! We enjoyed the day with our two special little ones and our family. It was a wonderful holiday. Here are a few pictures of our day!

It is all about the lightening!

Several months before we knew we would be traveling to finally bring home our son Emily and I were shopping at our local Target store. I was given a tip from a friend that they had cute Disney items in there dollar section at the front entrance to the store. My being a sucker for a bargain and having a Princess fan, we has to check it out. After Emily picked out several items she said to me that she wanted to pick out a few things for baby Jacob as well. So we ended up with Princess and Cars ice pack, water bottle and sandwich container. Who would have know that Emily somehow knew that her brother was going to be the biggest car fan ever!

Several weeks after we had come home we decided to have a family movie night. Emily was given the job of choosing a movie that we all would enjoy. She decided on the Disney movie Cars. Throughout the opening race Jacob sat and stared in awe as the cars raced around the track. Saying over and over again vrooooom vrooooom vrooooom. Then after that moment every time Jacob saw Lightening McQueen it was car, car, car...hey car. Even before he could say mommy he would tap me on my chest saying car over and over again. It was definitely a beginning of a love affair.

Up until the day he became our son in Vietnam Jacob did not have much that was his very own. He has many toys now in his room but none of them really mean anything to him. He enjoys playing with them but I am not sure he would realize if they were no longer there. That is except the things that have Lightening McQueen on them. I found him a car pillow and a car blanket on the clearance rack that I thought he might like. He now carries the stuffed car with him almost everywhere. His car blanket has become his favorite. These are his very special things. The Easter bunny could have saved himself alot of time and effort finding cute little boy things to put in his basket; he only needed to put in a matchbox sized Lightening McQueen car. Mommy should have reminded the Easter Bunny. On Easter morning after picking up the plastic egg mess that he left behind he found his car and really didn't care what else was in the basket. All you heard was Jacob saying in delight oooooooooooohhhh Car!

Lightening McQueen Blanket and stuffed car pillow from clearance rack $10



Lightening McQueen Slippers from Consignment Store $1.50



A little boys sweet dreams and smiles priceless....

Request

While Dave was watching the game tonight - yes I admit I am not a big football fan. I was reading some of the blogs of other families that have adopted or are in the process of adoption and I was reminded. Reminded of not so many months ago of the pain and frustration of our adoption process taking so long. The nights I would just wonder if were ever going to be able to bring home my baby. The night Dave would have to listen to me cry and say I just want my baby. Of not being able to just go and get our son and bring him home so that we no longer needed to put our life on hold and try and plan when Jacob might be able to come home and when we he would finally be a physically part of our family.

So my request is that you could say a prayer for the families that continue to wait to bring home their children from Vietnam. Some of these families have waited longer than what we waited. These children need to be home with their family! The parents need to be able to forget about the time when all they did was wait and try and not to count every minute and second until your child comes home! These families need to have the peace of mind that these children are home and just down the hall rather than around the world!

I have I heard and said many time international adoption is not for the faint of heart - but these families have gone above and beyond what any family should be asked to do - so I am praying that all approvals are finally given and travel approvals are signed so that 2009 will be the year when you can finally put the waiting behind then~ I hope you will pray too!

Quick Update

Over the last few months we have had many firsts with Jacob. First Christmas, first Chinese New Year/ TET celebration, first American birthday celebration (Daddy just turned 40) first days with the babysitter, as well as first kisses. It still amazes us when we stop to think that Jacob has only been home with us for 3 months. In some ways it seems like we were in Vietnam just yesterday but other it seem as if he has been with us forever!

It makes me smile to think that we traveled half way around the world to bring this child into our family but yet he is so much like Dave that it is scary. He has so many of the same mannerisms. There is no doubt that he was meant to be our son. He is doing well. He has picked up many new words and has really settled into our routine.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last few months.

Christmas Cookies

Today we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to make Christmas cookies. This has been a tradition since Emily first came home. She loves to go and help Grandma bake. It was not long before they were both elbow deep in flour. After fighting over the cookie cutters they finally settled on two shapes the star and the Christmas tree. The did a great job of helping to roll out the dough and then cutting out the shapes. After they came out of the oven they both frosted them. The best part was when they were able to use the sprinkles to decorate to create their finally product. Jacob loved this part. I am not sure if he knew exactly what he was doing but he sure had a good time! They of course then needed to taste test all of their hard work. They both yummed in agreement that they had made some very good cookies!! Here are a few picture of my little baker's!