Almost Wordless Wednesday

HAPPY EIGHT MONTHS HOME ZOEY!

Look how short her hair was a few weeks after coming home!!


And now, look! She wakes up like this every morning! I promise there is a baby in there somewhere!

You can barely see her through all that hair! (And of course, with all the girly pink toys she has, she picks brother's Transformer to play with!)



Our first Christmas as a family of four went well...Braedan couldn't get enough and Zoey could have just played with the empty boxes all day! Still cleaning up the mess and trying to make room for all the new toys in our playroom! Looking forward to a low key New Year!

How cute am I?

Check out these adorable little daisy bows!! One of my bloggy friends, a fellow adoptee and adoptive mom, makes these for her precious Etsy store which you can check out here! What would I do without the internet?!?!?!



And an exciting announcement....
my sister and I have decided to team up and start a whole new Etsy shop! We are hoping to be up and running shortly and boy do we have some cute stuff!! Go check out our new logo and shop here and tell us what ya think!

One Year Ago Today...

all three of us were down with the flu and we had just found out we had not been selected at committee to adopt a Waiting Child. J from Holt called and asked if we were doing okay, because she had a file waiting for us of a little girl!!! We ran to the computer and must have hit the refresh button on our email a hundred times before the email finally appeared with a picture of the most beautiful little girl we had ever seen! And here we are a year later getting ready to celebrate our first Christmas as a family of four!

Happy Referral Day Zoey!!

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Card Bloopers!

I was FINALLY working on our Christmas card tonight and here are a few of the "bloopers" we didn't use! I'll post the official card tomorrow!

Wordless Thursday?!?!?

Totally didn't realize that yesterday was even Wednesday! So today we'll have a wordless Thursday, except for the fact that I'm typing all this now!! Check out my cutie patootie and her baby! We named her Mi Kyung, after me, and she'll pick her up and say, "Me, me!" Too cute!

Who woulda thunk?

Okay, totally stole this post from the Little Seouls blog, but how cool is this?!?!?

According to Chosun Ilbo, the Pixar's animation "Up" modeled Russell after one of their own Korean production artist, Peter Sohn.

We just recently watched this movie for the first time a few weeks ago and LOVED it! It's definetly on the Christmas list and now there's just another fun fact to throw around!

Special Weekend

This past weekend we had the opportunity to hold a special church ceremony and have Zoey blessed! My sister flew in from up north with the dress she and her mother in-law had made for Zoey to wear. It. Is. Beautiful. As usual, we had a wonderful time and even a little Korean food! (And some cake, of course!) Here's some pictures from our special weekend!

Lovin' on Aunt Lara, my sister.

Giggling with Papa, my dad.

Hanging out with Cousins Emma and Christopher.



My sisters and brother.

My parents.

My entire family with some dear friends.

Oy!

Our lives have been insane lately and there's so much to catch up on!

*First, Miss Zoey has been home 7 months as of November 30th! Crazy! Time flies when you're finally a family! Here's a picture of her on that day wearing the exact same jammies she wore the first night with me in Korea! My tiny munchkin is now 16 months old as of yesterday!



*Second, check out my little superstar in this blog post! Little Seouls is this awesome store owned by two Korean moms and they have super fun stuff all the way from Korea! For winning December Baby of the Month, we get this adorable rabbit hat (made in Korea, of course!) for FREE! She's cute and she gets us free stuff! I can't wait for that hat, it is so fun!


*We went to the doctor today and discovered Zoey has yet another double ear infection and was put again on a 10 day antibiotic. After she and Braedan finally got over their three weeks of cold, cough and runny nose, the poor thing has been tugging at her ears for days now. I'm hoping this is the last of those nasty infections for a while...

*We had an absolute blast last week for Thanksgiving with family. Braedan was in heaven playing with his "friends" aka cousins! They'll all be back again this weekend for a big finalization party and church ceremony! My sister from out of state is coming too and bringing a blessing dress she sewed and her mother in-law smocked. I cannot wait to see it! We'll also be celebrating her 30 something year old birthday on Friday! Don't worry, Tara, your secret is safe with me. :)

During our fun filled week, we also had our second annual polar bear swim in papa's pool! It may be a mild winter here, but that water was 54 degrees that day! My niece and nephew were great sports and Braedan decided a wet foot was enough for him! Here's some pictures of the crazy monsters! Why they thought going in their underwear was a great idea, I'm not sure!

Here's Miss Emma taking the plunge!

Too cold for me!

Christopher actually jumped in and swam the length of the pool...twice!! You can see the cold in his face, poor guy!


And lastly, mostly because this post is getting waaaay too long, I'll end with a Braedan story. :)

We stopped at Burger King on the way home from the doctor today and I asked him if he wanted chicken or a hamburger. I didn't think he liked the chicken at Burger King, but he said, "No, I do! Remember? I thought they were cows with three legs, but then I turned it the other way and it was a crown!" (Burger King chicken nuggets are in the shape of a king's crown in case you didn't know!) Ugh, he cracks me up!

Week of Thanks Day 6 & 7

Today I am thankful that I was so busy spending time with family yesterday that I forgot to post!

But I'm most thankful today (and everyday!) for the best husband and father a girl could ask for...who would do just about anything for all three of us...

We love you!

Week of Thanks Day 5

Today I am thankful for our first Thanksgiving as a family of four.

And for two very brave women who made the most courageous choices of their lives by giving Zoey and I up for adoption.

Without them, none of what I have would be possible.

To both of them...

THANK YOU.

Week of Thanks Day 4

Today I am thankful for technology that allows...

sliced bread, paper plates, running water, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, washing machines and dishwashers!

I'm especially grateful for the invention of cameras that allowed my sister in-law to document this special moment between my brother and I...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

But most of all, I'm grateful today for 5 little words uttered to me by my precious son as I put him to bed tonight...

"You're the best mommy ever."

Week of Thanks Day 3

Today I am thankful for FAMILY.


I'm thankful to have the opportunity to be a wife, mother, daughter, sister and aunt.

And, I'm also thankful for (with great sarcasm here!) this baby picture that somehow keeps reappearing in my life!! Is it me, or do I look like a baby monkey?!?!?!

Week of Thanks Day 2

Today I am thankful for...

My husband, who put my son to bed before I got home from a church function and woke up the next morning to find him in these pajamas which should be only worn by a child much, much smaller!


And for Craigslist, where we found a great deal on our backyard playscape that puts smiles on my kids faces like this one!

Week of Thanks Day 1

Today, I am thankful for...


Toddlers who like to run from cameras...

Jeans in the smallest sizes that still have to be rolled up...

My half Korean son who considers rice an Ethnic food...

And my full Korean daughter who will eat Yakimandoo by the plateful...

Wordless Wednesday

Sorry it's a bit blurry, it was an action shot!!

What a Dandy Giveaway!

Today, zoeyndot is being featured on a Giveaway Blog and you can enter to win a $25 gift certificate!! Head on over here for the details!

Adoption is Finalized!!

What a great day! And what a relief! Zoey fell asleep about 30 seconds before we parked the car and stayed that way till we were on our way out of the court room! Slept through the entire thing!! It was a wonderful experience, with a great attorney and a wonderful judge! Braedan even raised his hand with us to be sworn in and then he got to hit the gavel on the desk and everything to make it official! I was so happy my parents got to be there and witness what they too experienced with my sister and I, though our attorney thinks that our finalization sounds a bit shady as my parent's never were required to appear in court! We went to my dad's school right after to introduce Zoey to his staff and of course, she was a hit. We came home for a little rest and then headed to a yummy Korean restaurant and devoured the food!

I am honored, as is Danny, to be parents of two of the best children in the world. We are blessed to have this incredible family.

And thank you to my parents for all that you do and have done to make this possible, starting with adopting me so I could embark on this journey of my own...I love you guys.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wordless Wednesday

I can talk!

Check out all these words I can say! We're still working on "mama", she insists on saying "dada"!! Try to ignore my animated talking!! :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Dog and Duckie

Braedan has carried around this white stuffed dog since he was about a year old. It was a gift from Danny to me for a Valentine's Day in high school! One day Braedan just picked it up and has carried it around ever since. He named it "Dog". He sleeps with it, watches movies with it, takes it to church, and it occasionally has to go to the store with us. It gets washed often and has had many, many repairs. We hope it makes it a few more years! I can't tell you how often we couldn't find it or thought we left it at our last destination. So I guess Zoey picked up on this and started carrying around this yellow blanket that we call Duckie as it has duck patterns and two appliqued ducks on the corner. It was actually a baby blanket we used for Braedan. She insists on having it when she gets in and out of the crib and cries hysterically (I can actually hear her now!) when Daddy takes it away from her for bath time. It gets dragged through dog hair, water, dirt and we have to wash it pretty often too! She will often lay it on the ground and then lay down on top of and pretend she's going to sleep. I'm not too surprised by either of these "lovies" as they're sometimes called, it's really just pay back for the years I sucked my thumb and carried around my dad's old shirts. We won't go into how long that lasted, I just hope it's not the same for my two kids!


On this day, she even needed it while she ate grapes in her high chair! She cried when I tried to take it away from her and this was the face of one happy girl when I handed it back!

Etsy Store

I have been brainstorming ideas to make my Etsy Shop more successful and today added an all new item...the cutest little baby leg/arm warmers! They turned out adorable and of course, the model is pretty cute too even though you can't see her face! :) Spread the word for me, will ya? 10% of all proceeds goes directly to Holt International and I'm hoping to write a big check for Christmas! Thanks for all the support so far! More new items coming soon! (Pending more Zoey naptimes!)
Check out the store for the rest of the items!

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, well a few words to explain! We have these poems hanging in our hallway and I found Zoey kissing them yesterday! I think she likes the feel of the cold glass...

Happy Halloween!

It was a pretty uneventful night for us as we decided to go to our church's Trunk or Treat and forgo the neighborhood Trick or Treating. It was a lot of fun but Zoey never really did get the hang of the candy collecting thing! She was much more interested in just eating it as it came to her! Braedan had picked out a Transformer Bumblebee costume weeks ago and was thrilled, but at the last minute tonight, he decided he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, a costume he got for Christmas a couple of years ago. But he did wear his Bumblebee costume to school on Thursday, his Spiderman costume from last year all day today, then Buzz Light Year this evening...so he was three different people for Halloween! Miss Zoey was adorable in her flower costume but we had to bribe her with M&M's (it seems like the last couple posts focus on her eating candy, I promise, she really doesn't eat that much!) to keep her hat on. Here's some cute pics of Buzz and the flower!