Who'd Have Thunk It?? I wish it would have been ME!

This is one of those things, I wish I would have thought of! It's a great idea.

It's called Teething Bling and it is jewelry that is child chewable! I rarely wear a necklace anymore and if I do, C goes right for it to chew on! This would be great to have, especially during church.

Final Court Hearing!!

We went to court yesterday, April 2, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. CT and finalized the adoption of our sweet baby son!

We are FINISHED!!!!

Waking up yesterday morning, getting ready for court, hubby and I both noticed that we weren't nervous at all. The day we went to court in Russia for D was probably one of the most nervous days of both our lives! We've been to this judge twice already for D's re-adoption in 2005 (in order to get a Texas birth certificate for her) and for the first hearing on September 11 for C's adoption.

We were so surprised that 20 friends from our church were at the court house to support us. My sister is here visiting this week, so she was able to be there too. The judge said usually he takes adoption cases in his chambers, but his chambers weren't big enough for this group, so he allowed everyone to come stand behind us as we stood before him.

When it was time for us to raise our right hands and swear everything, even C raised his hand and D raised her left hand (she's left handed ;o) The judge asked D a few questions of her own, it was really sweet. After she answered her questions he gave her some candy.

Our attorney is a friend of ours and when he was presenting the criminal history section to the judge he added that luckily we were both all clear with no criminal records since it would be a little embarrassing if we had a record and all these people would learn about it!

The whole thing took only about 10-15 minutes and we were done!

I am so glad to have it signed, sealed and delivered and to be fully and wholly C's mommy forever and ever AMEN!

Early Easter

We went to the DFW metroplex yesterday to have "big family" easter. I got some fun pictures!

We have three babies in our family born within a month. W was born on 7/17; C was born on 7/29 and L was born 8/18. I haven't asked W's mom if it's ok to put his pic up, so I've only got pics of C & L.

We had all the babies in Easter baskets and when I was taking this picture it was one of those wonderful moments because I just happened to catch C right in the midst of his first time "pulling up!" Talk about praise! He had about 50 adults looking on and cheering for him.

The babies had their first "egg hunt" they were so curious about them.

Then the big kids hunted their eggs in the back yard. It was mayhem as they ran amock! D found lots of eggs and even climbed up on the fence to find some.

Spring Break

We had a good but busy time on Spring Break.

First we took D (and C) to a little amusement park in a nearby larger town. She had been looking forward to this for months!

D made a hole in one and is jumping for joy! I like how I caught her mid jump.

We rode bumper boats, D drove "race" cars, rode in a big race car with her daddy. We played mini golf and spent way too much in the arcade in order to win tickets for way chinchy little prizes.

Afterward we drove to the "half-way" town between our house and Grandma & Grandpa's house and met them for supper and the switch off as D was going home with them to spend a couple days by herself at their house in Dallas.

Next day hubby, C and I went to Dallas and stayed in a hotel nearby G&G's house with the hopes of swimming indoors, but the heater was broken on the pool. I tell you, 3 nights in a hotel with a 7 month old, even the most well behaved 7 month old in the world, is tough!

On Friday night we went over and visited with my Daddy and Step Mom and had dinner with them at Texas Roadhouse which was good boy sooooo noisy - I'm getting old!

On Saturday hubby met up with some friends from high school days and had lunch and then that night met up with his college roommie/best friend for dinner.

On Sunday we went to Sunday School with G&G and then back to their house for lunch and then headed toward home.

We stopped at a big outlet center and I found an Easter dress for me. C kind of determined the color this year and I've had a hard time finding a dress in that color. Each year our whole family wears the same color at Easter. Every year I have a hard time finding a dress because usually I buy D's dress first then we work around that. Last year I was smart and found my dress first and then getting D's dress and hubby's tie was no big deal. C got a precious Feltman Brothers outfit that is size 9 months (they run small) it's white on top and blue on bottom. So our color this year is blue. Next, D is going to be flower girl in her cousin's wedding in August and their color is light blue, so I found her dress online, a periwinkle blue toile.

Anyhow, all that to say I found a periwnkle blue dress at Dress Barn, I don't really LOVE it, but it's the right color.

Ok, C's got to go down for a nap so I've got to run. Bye!

The most dangerous chocolate cake

4 tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

a small splash of vanilla extract

1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high).

The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

EAT!

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

I just made one and it actually took me 8 minutes. Here is my photo montage:

I suggest not adding the chocolate chips. They all fell to the bottom and clumped up so it didn't pop out as prettily. I also suggest mixing it in a seperate bowl and then adding it to the mug. It was hard to get all the flour up from the bottom so there was a bit of white still sticking around down there. Also, know your microwave. Ours is strong, so I should have just gone with 2 min 30 secs. It was a tad overdone and rubbery. Overall, though, very tasty and fun to make!

We'll try it again later tonight for D. She came in from playing and said, "it smells like brownies in here! Can I have one?" So we'll try it again tonight with some tweaking :O)

D's I-Pod Valentines

I just realized I never posted about D's I-Pod Valentines for her classmates! They turned out sooo cute! I got the idea out of Family Fun Magazine. Here are some pix of her making them . . .

She attached the free Chuck E. Cheese token Valentines as the nametags.

They are made from a small box of Sweet Heart conversation hearts, covered with colorful paper and the play list and tuner printed from Family Fun's website. Then add string and we used chocolate kisses for the ear buds. The kids LOVED them and were putting the kisses in their ears pretending to be listening! They weren't very hard to do at all.

Free Diaper Giveaway!

Win a free Bumgenius 3.0 Diaper!

This is a valuable All-In-One cloth diaper that you can use for yourself or give as a gift to someone expecting a baby! Go check out Hot Belly Mama's Blog for details on how to win this wonderful All In One Cloth Diaper.

Hot Belly Mama will announce the winner on March 30th, after her 30th birthday! Here is the direct link to her blog:
http://hotbellymama.blogspot.com/

Good luck!