I'm a celebrity!

Some people dream about seeing their name in lights... me?  Not so much. 

I'm equally thrilled by seeing my name in crayon.  Written unprompted by my daughter.  It's a fun surprise to come back to after working in another room.

:-D

Check, check, check-up

At the beginning of August, Emily had her 4-year well-child visit.  She did great.  Dr. M is so good with her and even though she wailed like a banshee when she got her 4 vaccinations, she still hi-5'd everyone on the way out of the office.

...and why do all these professionals keep telling me she's going to be tall?
I'm gonna be wearing HER clothes when she's 7!

Wanna watch a video?

Our conversation at dinner went a little like this...

Em: Daddy, can I watch a vivvo on your phone?
Me: Vid-ee-o
Em: Daddy, can I watch a movie?

We seem to be okay now?

I did some more fiddling on the blog setup this evening and it appears the old background is gone and the new background seems to be working okay.

In other news: There appears to be an armadillo running the streets of Prospect... Ohio. We don't have armadillos.

Messed up background... Sorry

Hey gang... sorry for the screwy background on the blog today.  I found a notice on it this week from the designer of my free template stating that the background is going to be removed on Friday.  I've since changed the template, but I can't get the old ones to go away.  I'm hoping by the end of the day tomorrow it sort of works itself out.

There will be a little remodeling going on around here soon!

Thanks for following our crazy adventures!

Doodlebug

Emily met me at the door at Grandma and Papa's today with this....

It's a picture of Daddy, Mommy, Ryan and Emily.  Awwwwww.

Baa, baa, black sheep

Disclaimer: A misconstrued song by Emily...

You know how it goes: "Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Three bags full." Emily finished it up with "One for the pastor, one for Elaine, one for the little boy that lives down the lane."

VBS part 1

In July, Emily attended her first Vacation Bible School through my parents' church.  She had a blast and couldn't wait to go back again.

I'm thinking she needs to forgo the make-up for another 100 years.

  

It makes her look funny...

 Sorry... I couldn't resist.  But she had a great time every day with her group "in Egypt".

Do I want a "pudgesicle"?

I took Em on a bike ride to the park tonight in her joy rider/bike wagon thingie. Partway there she breaks out an unprompted, "I love you, Mommy." which was shortly followed by a sincere, "Mommy, I love your butt."  What?!?  We came back to the house after the park and she asked me if she could have a popsicle and did I want a "pudgesicle".  Well, I guess that would the logical choice of words after staring at my keester for 20 minutes!

Tiptoe through the tulips

We had an interesting phone call earlier this week.

Em's last botox injection was on March 17.  At her follow-up appointment on April 15, Dr. Kaitz was thrilled with her progress.  So much so that she asked us to skip Em's next botox injection on June 23 and since she was outgrowing her braces, we could also skip out on wearing those and getting a bigger pair made until we knew more at her next check up on July 26, which brings us to our phone call earlier this week.

Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus is really good about calling their patients to remind them of appointments and touching base when necessary schedule changes arise.  This particular call has me a little concerned for several reasons.  The call was to let us know that our appointment with Dr. Kaitz has been canceled and rescheduled for September because Dr. Kaitz is out on medical leave.  My first thought was worry for Dr. Kaitz... we love her!  Our appointment for September has been scheduled with a different doctor that we've never seen in the office before. 

We're going to keep the September appointment and play it out but I have my concerns.

1. Emily has started coming back up on tiptoes this past week.  It probably means she's had yet another growth spurt but it also means that the results of the botox are probably wearing off too.  We're going to need to boost the amount of stretching we've been doing with her to hopefully keep the tiptoeing from getting worse before her appointment.
2. It feels like we're going to be starting all over again since our new doctor hasn't seen Emily's progress this past year.  I'm praying that Dr. Kaitz has made detailed notes on Em's records and noted the amount of motion we've been able to get previously.
3. We're worried about Dr. Kaitz and are keeping her in our prayers. 

Enough about that... I'm turning it over to God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28


And, in other news...

...we've been doing a lot of this lately!


Take care and be blessed!

Oh, Diaper Cakes!

I know... sounds disgusting, doesn't it?

But they are the cutest things.  I thought I had posted pictures of the diaper cake I made for my friend, Amy, last year but I'm not seeing the post on here.   Today, I'm throwing them on here so I can share a link with another site that was looking for ideas.  I was really pleased with how this one turned out.

So, what is a diaper cake?  Well, it's not edible and they are NEW diapers.  It's usually a centerpiece, decoration or gift at a baby shower.  Many times, they involve rolled up diapers that either require tape or rubber bands to keep them rolled up.  I choose to simply fan mine out.

I started out with the silver plastic serving tray and used that as a form for the bottom layer.  I used a large and small skillet to get the form for the top two layers and once they were tied up I could layer them all and finish decorating.  The bath toys had either toothpicks or sucker sticks in the base of them and were wedged in between the diapers.   I liked that I didn't have to take all the time to roll up the diapers. I think the mom-to-be appreciated not having to unwrap each and every one.  They keep their natural shape a little better if they aren't rolled.

Let me know what you think?  Any recommendations?

What kind of stickers?

We got POOP STICKERS!

Oops!  We got a little ahead of ourselves.  Yesterday, Grandma and Papa got a surprise in the mail.

Yep.  A bunch of yellow smiley face stickers!

Although.... much to my parents' surprise, Emily shouts out, "Yay, poop stickers!" 

I appears she had her own name for them when Grandma used them on her potty training chart this past winter....

From the Twitteriffic Emilyism Archives

Fri Jan 22 17:29:57 2010

I shelter E from taking in too much Haiti footage, but 2day she asked, "Mommy, why ground shake and houses fall? (sigh.) That's not good."

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From the Twitteriffic Emilyism Archives

Sun Jan 24 08:19:32 2010

Okay, m'lady - I GET that you don't want Fruity Pebbles for breakfast! I won't offer them to you again.

From the Twitteriffic Emilyism Archives

from Mon Jan 18 22:24:55 2010

Earlier this evening... Emily: "Mommy, I have a hot butt. Feel it!" ...No. Thank. You.

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Congratulations, Ryan!

On May 27th, we packed up the family and headed down to Columbus to watch Ryan graduate from Fort Hayes Career Center. Here's a little snippet of him walking across the stage!


You heard that right... Ryan received the Award of Distinction for his Automotive Specialists class. The plaque says, "Has demonstrated outstanding personal qualities, commendable participation and cooperation and the development of a high degree of skill and proficiency." We're very proud of you, Ryan!

Ryan and Emily

Ryan and his mom, Angie

Ryan and his Dad

Ryan's friend, Dylan, and Ryan -- many, many moons ago...

And a smattering of senior pictures and pictures from this year...

CONGRATULATIONS, RYAN! WE LOVE YOU!

Bonding Time

Mid-May:  Shortly after getting back from Tennessee we were able to get together with Ryan for Emily's birthday.  Emily was thrilled to get to sit next to her brother and he's so patient at listening to her stories and talking with her.  It was a fun night for all of us and a we had a good time catching up.



It's late... there will be more to come later!

More Blogs from Kazakhstan!

In looking at my blog stats this morning, I found that quite a few of you are coming from a site called "Kazakhstan Adoption Blogs". I had no idea this site was out there or that I was connected to it.

Love it! Thanks for including us!

My favorite part is that the most recently updated sites are shown at the top of each category. It tells you the name of the blog, the title of the most recent post and when it was last updated. Right now, I'm #10 of over 145 blogs listed in my category. But as soon as I click "Publish Post" I'll be moved up to #1!

Check it out! Go to Kazakhstan Adoption Blogs!

Help us help them!

Our church, The Shepherd's Fellowship, is going to be giving away 100 backpacks full of school supplies to local children who are in financial need on July 24th. This is a great way to show the love of Christ in a practical way and we invite you to help out!

The following is a list of supplies that we need....

• Erasers
• Yellow, #2 pencils
• Black and blue pens
• Glue or glue sticks
• Packs of 24 crayons
• Round-tipped scissors
• Boxes of tissues
• Two-pocket folders
• Notebooks

Not included in the above list is book bags. We are able to purchase a bulk amount of book bags through a website for about $4.50/book bag.

You can purchase these items and drop them off at The Shepherd's Fellowship or you can donate towards this project at our web-site. Please just mark the donation for School Supplies and we will do the shopping for you or put it towards the books bags!

Thank you for considering being part of this great event!

For more info, contact Josh Kramp at josh@theshepherdsfellowship.org

Let Me Call You Sweetheart!

This morning on our drive to Grandma and Papa's house Em was telling me that yesterday her friend at the babysitter's said, "I'm sorry, Emily." The point that Emily was trying to convey was that her friend called her "Emily" yesterday and not "Emaliya" which is her real name and how they usually refer to her there.

We expanded on that conversation and I started asking her what her other family members and friends called her.

Me: What does Daddy call you?
E: Emily

Me: What does Grandma call you?
E: Emily

Me: What does Papa call you?
E: Sweeeeetheart