Zoo trip!

She had to show her kitty to every animal!

We went to the Indianapolis Zoo this morning. Our zoo is relatively small and we went through the whole thing in about 2 hours! ha! Marissa really enjoyed it, but I think enjoyed the playground more! It was so much fun for all of us! Here are some pictures and a little video of this very friendly Walrus!

Happy Saturday!

I'm up really early this morning because I can't sleep, so I thought I'd make a blog entry!

I took Thursday and Friday off and it was sooo nice to be at home with my girl. She has been so fun lately! Since she started to talk more, she has been just so interactive and fun! She just amazes me with what she knows and what she says. Some things are not clear to me, some are only clear to me/us and some are clear to everyone! Did you follow that? ha!

She has learned "mine mine mine" and that has been fun! She also is starting the "why's?" She asked me "why" every turn I took in the grocery store the other day. These are such fun times!

I'm reminded every day of the sacrifice her birthparents made and how extremely blessed we are to have this little girl in our lives. She has changed me/us in ways that we would have never imagined. I have learned to stop and enjoy little moments, because I know these moments are once in a lifetime. We cannot turn back the clock with our kids and they are only small for a short period of time. I have learned to drop everything I'm doing when a little person asks me to sit down and play with her. I have also learned to let the house go when she needs me. For everyone that knows me, this was extremely hard! My house was almost immaculate before Marissa was born, but now there are toys in almost every corner of the house. I love it though! Anytime I feel overwhelmed, I just think of a time when I would have given anything to have a toy in my house!

I just feel so blessed today and thought I'd write about it :) Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone!

It's Tuesday already! My Mom and Dad are going to my Mom's high school reunion (50th!) in Kentucky on Friday, so we are without a babysitter, BUT I decided to take Friday off and then just decided yesterday to take Thursday off too to make it a nice 4 day weekend! We plan to take Marissa to the zoo on Sunday (first trip!) and then to a rollerskating birthday party for our little cousin on Sunday afternoon. I don't know if Marissa will want to get on skates, but we are going to let her if shows an interest (and she wants to do everything the big kids do!).

Last week one day my Mom watched my cousin's kids and they played with Marissa and played hard. I have never seen my girl so tired in my life! She would gladly not take a nap every day, but this day her treat was to play with the kids all day and not take one. By 6:00, Phillip was driving her home and she was out. I mean OUT. To the point that he fully changed her into her night clothes and she didn't wake up. And didn't wake up until 6:30 the next morning!! If you know Marissa, you'd know she isn't the greatest of sleepers, so this was BIG! ha! She had a great time though with her cousins!

We are still enjoying our family room, although Phillip and I feel it won't be officially complete until the patio is finished (it didn't get finished last week) and our roman shades are on the windows (they look sort of bare!).

I have attached a couple of pictures of our room and our piano (that we hope Marissa plays beautifully!) and also the curio cabinet/clock that was my Grandma's, along with some of her bird collection. Most of you know that my Grandma is still living, but is in the process of getting her house ready to sell since she is in an assisted care facility now. In a way it's nice that she is giving us the things she wanted us to have while she is still living because she can see us enjoy it in our homes. She turns 95 in about a month. Wow.

Oh, also I'm going to include a couple of our girl too. She is obsessed with this raincoat and boots!! My co-worker bought it for her and also bought the boots in Japan when she was there. I almost have to hide it from her so she'll possibly forget about it (fat chance!), but she usually catches a glimpse of it and then has to have it again. haha! It's actually a 12 months size, but fits her nicely (runs big obviously!!). We'll have to get another when she outgrows it...

She is talking more and more now. It's just amazing how she took off overnight on this. As most of you know, Marissa is in speech therapy just to help her say more words. It wasn't something she had to do, but something I wanted to try to catch early if something was wrong. She wasn't where she should be as far as what the "guidelines" are, so we decided that it couldn't hurt her. I'm not sure if the speech therapy actually helped or she just finally started talking on her own. She is not where she should be, I guess (according to the "experts"), but is quickly getting there. She went from saying virtually nothing, to saying 2-3 word phrases. We still freak out when she actually says something more than just a word!!

I think that's it for an update for us!! Better sign off now before I get started on the high gas prices and my opinion on that....ha!

Have a great week!

Kristi, Phillip and Marissa

It's Finished!

Wow, it's so nice to say that the room is finished! Our patio is being poured this week and my roman shades are on order, but we are living in our room ... finally!!!

We had a nice weekend. Mostly just cleaning and organizing. I can't believe it's Monday already.

You all have a great week!

Kristi

Wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Hey all!! It was such a nice weekend! I took off Friday and had a 4 day weekend and enjoyed every minute of it. At the beginning I *thought* it might not be a good one when our new carpet that supposed to be installed on Friday was found to be damaged and had to be re-ordered. However, after the initial disappointment, it didn't put much of a damper on the weekend. We still had fun in our new addition without carpet! I loved spending 4 straight days with my girl!! It makes it even harder to go back to work on Tuesday. We didn't really do much of anything, and just relaxed! (I guess God knew what He was doing--we needed the rest, rather than spending the whole weekend in a frenzy moving into our room).

I'll attach some pictures, including our finished fireplace and room, with the exception of carpet, and a couple of pictures of our girl!

Have a great "short" week!!

Kristi

Happy Saturday!

Well, we have all been sick for the past week and it has been no fun! Seems like this Indiana weather causes a lot of sinus problems! Marissa got it first and then Phillip and I. We are feeling somewhat better, but still not up to par. We had to miss a birthday party for a Guatemalan friend of Marissa's today because we just weren't well yet. So, Happy Birthday Sammy!!!

Our house is coming along right on schedule. It has been bricked and our electrical work inside has been completed. On Monday they will build our hearth for our fireplace, the plumbers will come and then carpet installed on Friday! There are a lot of little things that need to be finished, but we will be living in our room by this coming weekend!

That's all I have to report. Back to resting.... Have a great weekend everyone!

Birthday party pics

On Saturday evening, after the big haircut event in the morning, we went to Cousin Noah's birthday party. Marissa had a blast playing with her cousins! Here are some pictures of our growing girl! The pictures of the little girl playing with Marissa is her cousin Ashlyn, who is 9 months older than her. Have a happy Monday!