Happy 3rd Birthday Princess!!

I cannot believe it--our girl is *3* today! Where does time go?! About this exact time 3 years ago, we got the best news in the world! Our girl was born that very morning! Wow, it's just so hard to believe!

We had a great birthday party for her last Saturday! Despite a lot of things that happened that put a damper on things temporarily, we had a great party! The first thing that happened was that the cake was a smaller size than we anticipated. My Mom immediately went into high gear making another "backup" cake for the party...just in case! Problem solved. We arrived at the place that we rented for the party and put the big bouncer up that we rented (the only reason we rented the place was so that we had room for the kids to bounce!) and the bouncer was filthy beyond belief. We just couldn't get it cleaned up and sanitized enough for the kids. We deflated the bouncer and *felt* deflated too! Disappointed, but yet determined to not ruin the party, we began getting on the phone to everyone that was coming to the party and asked them to bring some toys to play with. My Mom and Dad made a toy run too. Crisis averted...the guests arrived and the kids were satisfied with trampolines, balls, scooters and cars. The party went on and then we ran out of drinks! You can never know how many 2 liters to buy, but we now know that 8 isn't enough for 30 people! ha! Marissa got wonderful gifts and loved them all and it was such a wonderful party!

The next day arrived...Sunday...and someone whose name will not be revealed (ahem, I'll just say, it wasn't me!) accidentally backed in the garage crooked and broke the mirror off of my car.
After getting over that, we decided with all of the bad luck happening we better go ahead and get ready for church! I was ready in good time (a miracle) and had time to run out to get the Sunday paper. On my way back to the house, I slipped and fell on the ice and cut and bruised my leg terribly. In case you didn't know, when you fall on an ice puddle, it breaks into many small pieces and acts just as if you fell on glass. What a mess. No church for us that day.

Monday arrived -- the new car we were supposed to get didn't come in. That's no big deal, but I had to find something for Monday because Tuesday and Wednesday were bad too.

Tuesday-furnace went out
Wednesday-garage door broke completely

As I'm writing this today, everything is going well ! (crossing fingers). The old saying, "when it rains, it pours" is definitely true. Another thing is true too...God is good! I'm extremely thankful that everything that has happened is nothing more than an inconvenience and a financial set-back and not something worse. We celebrate our little girl's birthday today and pray for her birthparents especially today. We know that not a day that goes by, especially a birthday, that they don't think of her and most likely worry if she is happy and healthy. We lift them up in prayer today as we remember the sacrifice they made for their daughter to have a good life. We also thank them for letting us parent this beautiful girl. She is a sheer joy and so full of happiness. We love her so much!

Thanks for checking in with us and we'll hopefully have another update soon!

Love,
Kristi

January is almost over!!

Where has January gone?! I just can't believe it's been almost a month since we had Christmas!

I haven't updated in awhile because, well, there hasn't been a lot to update! Life is just busy, and just the every day grind wears us out at times!

Marissa hasn't been one that just loved to get her pictures taken, professionally, although she has always taken good pictures (with some work!). What a difference a year makes! Marissa actually wanted to have her pictures taken the other day at Walmart! We called her bluff and spur-of-the-moment went there in her church clothes that day, and she did wonderful! These weren't meant to be her 3 year old pictures, as I already have them booked at another place. I have never really been satisfied with our Walmart pictures because usually the photographer is not good and the picture backgrounds and props are cheesy (sorry, Walmart!!!). I found out if you keep with simple backgrounds, they can be pretty good!

I actually won a contest with a photographer because I entered a contest around Thanksgiving called "What are you most thankful for?". I told our Marissa story and the awesome circumstances of how she came into our life. Most of you know it already, but if you want to hear it, email me and I'll send it to you! Maybe I'll post it someday. I cannot tell it easily in person because I get all choked up!

Anyway, these pictures were just for fun and if the pictures from the photographer in February don't turn out well, I'll always have these!

Marissa turns 3 on February 26 and we are in the process of planning her party now. Even though we added on to our house, there is just not enough "running" room for kids to play. Just with family alone, it will be about 30 people, and we'll invite some friends too. The disadvantage of having a winter birthday! We will rent a party room and a big bouncy thing. The theme is going to be "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"...no, not just Mickey Mouse...Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! ha! Yeah, there is a difference! It's a show Marissa really loves now and every time I ask her what party she wants, she tells me "Mickey Mouse and a white cake"! Easy enough!

We are still praying for snow here in Indiana, but we have barely had a dusting so far and it's almost February! So far we have had cold temps and ice!

Hope everyone is well!!! Thanks for reading this and catching up on what we've been doing!

Love,
Kristi

Children's Museum!

We went the day after Christmas to the Indianapolis Children's Museum! It was our first trip there, and we are definitely going to get a membership for next year! Marissa loved going and is begging to go back (especially after looking at the pictures!). They have the neatest things there! A whole floor dedicated to preschoolers through kindergarten. Obviously, that is where we spent most of our time! There were also neat exhibits there for the Christmas season only. During the Christmas season, they have a slide that goes from the second floor to the first. Of course, her and Daddy had to go down that (Mommy stood and took pictures!). She went ice fishing, sat in a real race car, went rock climbing, planted flowers, played in water and sand and balanced on a log! What fun we had!!! Here are some pictures!

Love,

Kristi

What a wonderful Christmas!

We had just the most wonderful Christmas!! It was really the first year that Marissa got into the whole Ho Ho/Santa and presents thing! She is playing right now, so I thought I'd update our blog really quick!

The things we thought she would love are her favorite things (yay!). She loves her dollhouse, her Baby Alive baby doll, her art desk and her new play kitchen! We had sooo much fun with her and still continue to play play play!!!

We started out the holiday by going to our church Christmas Eve service and it was so very nice. It really was a nice reminder to us what the season is all about...Jesus! We then went to my Aunt's house for Christmas there and came home and went to bed and waited for Santa to come!

The next morning we opened presents and played and then went to Mom and Dad's house for brunch, opening presents and then later in the day, a movie and pizza!

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas! Hope yours was a blessed one too!!!

Love,

Kristi

It's the Christmas Season!!

Well, it has been the best weekend!! I took off Wednesday and have been off work 5 days straight. Needless to say, it is going to make Monday extremely hard to go back!

To start off the weekend I got to go to Tumbling with Marissa! She is just growing and maturing so much. I have noticed such a difference in her lately. She is interacting and playing with other children more, she is listening better (at least this weekend...haha) and chatting up a storm! Remember, I wanted her to talk! I prayed for it daily and she talks non-stop now! I think she is catching up so quickly with the other children. She is counting, working on her ABC's and using the potty so well! She is not potty trained completely, but each day it's getting better!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Mom's house and then later went to Phillip's Mom's house for yummy dessert. The next morning, my brother, Chad, and I went shopping! (It's kind of tradition now!). We left at 4:30 and went to Walmart. It was unbelievably packed, but we did manage to get what we wanted. We headed to the next city for more shopping and got back around 11:00 a.m. That was plenty!

Saturday we spent more time with Phillip's family and Sunday....we rested!! Well, I put up more Christmas decorations and am nearly finished (one more room to go).

I think we'll go out to eat Mexican tonight to end a wonderful weekend!

Hope everyone's weekend was wonderful and that everyone is looking forward to Christmas!

Love to all--
Kristi

Almost Happy Thanksgiving!!

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is next week!!! I think this weekend we are putting up our Christmas decorations. We always like to get a jump on it so we can enjoy our Thanksgiving weekend and just relax! As you know, the house gets totally torn apart putting up decorations!

We had a great weekend with family and friends and just looking forward to Thanksgiving. So many things to be thankful for! I look at this past year and feel so blessed. Phillip lost his job, and found a better one. We had our home broken into, but nothing was taken. We have a new room addition that will allow us to have family and friends over during the holidays. We have our health. We have our Marissa. Just so many blessings...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Halloween!

Well, we had a great Halloween! We only went a couple places because when you live in the country and when you have a toddler, only a few stops can be done before they get tired of being buckled in the carseat a million times! Marissa had a great time and soon discovered that getting treats was pretty fun!! What a great Halloween! Here are a few pics of her as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz!