Jetta Nicole Our Precious Gem

Making cupcakes....

2011-05-01T12:09:00.007-05:00

Jetta made cupcakes for Valentines day to take to daycare and wanted to help from start to finish. As I posted a few posts ago, she is quite the helper. She loves to help whenever she can. Whenever I'm cooking, she wants to pour in whatever she can, stir whenever she in can and just help however she can. Of course I let her help if she can, but I also have to remind her that the stove is hot and that she must be careful.

However, when it came to making cupcakes, I figured, she could help quite a bit and it wouldn't hurt anything, unless an eggshell landed in the mix and we could always fish that out - so let her bake away.

So, I sent her to her room to get her apron, which she gladly did and out she came, already with it on, just needing me to tie it and she was ready to go. So, we started the process and without much incident. I even let her hold the mixer (assisted of course) and she did a pretty good job. She is definitely in that independent stage, until she tires and then she's done. She of course had fun, but was the happiest once she found out, that once you get done mixing it all up, you get to lick the mixer and then she was ready to make more!

Now it was time to put the mix in the cups, which she eagerly placed in the muffin pan and did a good job. Now it was time to bake them and wait. Well, that was another story - waiting is not her best attribute. Patience is something I think we'll need to work on. I think it will be best summed up by a couple of the pictures Shannon took - I'll let you insert your own caption.

Anyway, all in all the event was a success and I think she had fun. She took them the next day and they were a hit and when I picked her up that night, she was very excited to tell me how they were all gone. So, I think she was excited about that.

So, here are some pics from her Better Crocker day!

Jetta's first real snow...

2011-05-01T11:43:00.004-05:00

This past year we got more snow that we got the year before and so Jetta got to build her first snowman and make her first snow angel. She was very excited to be able to get out there and actually play in it. So, we got her all bundled up in her coat and snow pants and Shannon took her out.

They got out there and got started on the snow man and she realized the snow was pretty bright, so I took her out her sunglasses. Which by the way are so darn cute on her. However, I love when she tries to put them on. First of all, it really doesn't matter which way which she puts then on, because she doesn't have much of a nose, so they really don't stay up on her face either way. It's quite comical. However, once she got them on, she looked like she could take on the slopes. So, now they were ready to build the snowman. Of course we didn't have alot of snow, so he wasn't real big, but they got one built.

After a few snowballs were tossed, mostly by daddy and Jetta laughing and of course wondering where the snowmans eyes were, I stepped out and said, have her make a snow angel. She of course had no idea what that was, so Shannon had to show her. She thought that was pretty darn funny. What I thought was funny, was watching him trying to get up - only because it wasn't me trying to do it. So, we got her to get down and start waving her arms and legs and of course since she doesn't weigh a thing, Shannon had to help her a bit. And then it was time for her to get up and again he had to help her, cuz she wasn't able to get herself out of the angel she just made. So, Shannon grabber her by her jacket and just picked her up out of her angel. She was just giggling and of course wanted to do it all over again.

Needless to say, we got some good pictures of her enjoying the snow, donning her sunglasses (right side up mind you), making her first snow man and her perfect snow angel. All in all, I think she enjoyed her first real snow. Either way, I marked it down as a success. One I will remember for sure.

Cleaning and Handy Work....

2011-04-30T19:05:00.008-05:00

At this point Jetta thinks helping me clean and doing chores is fun. She always want to be in the middle of what I'm doing and in the way. Every week when I go to clean the house, she always wants to help.

When I go to sweep the floor, she waits for me to get a pile of dirt and then will stand in front of it and stand with her feet apart, hands on her hips and want me to sweep the dirt between her legs/feet, so it goes thru her feet, behind her. She thinks its the funniest thing. She insists we do it and would want to do it over and over if I'd let her. So, to humor her, we do it once and then I ask her to move out of the way. Then she will let me finish sweeping, but has to hold the dust pan for me as I sweep up the pile of dirt. Sometimes, I get lucky and that pile makes it to the trashcan on the dustpan and other times, well, as I'm sure you can guess, it doesn't and I have to sweep it all up again.

From there, as I try to swiffer the floors, she'll let me get that done, but then once I finish and move onto something else, she will go back and pick them up and start spraying the floors and pushing the swiffer around cleaning the floors all over again. Oftentimes, creating a huge puddle of the floor, telling me, "mom, look I cleaned the floor", with a huge smile, all proud of herself and I just look at all the cleaner in a puddle on the floor. Knowing I need to go get a paper towel to wipe it up, so neither of us slip and fall as we walk thru the puddle she claimed to have just cleaned up.

Then, when I clean the bathrooms, she has to always help me "wipe and spray". She will wipe everything, from the toilet, to the cabinets, to the walls. It doesn't matter, what it is, she will wipe it. She tries so hard and is so proud of herself when she is done.

She also loves to help put the dishes away from the dishwasher. The trick is to beat her to the sharp knives before she gets to them. She will grab them and say, "mom, no knife" and will hand it to you holding the blade, because I have always told her that she can't have the knife with any silverware we have. So, she knows, but doesn't realize that the blade is the reason why.

Now, just for her to continue to have this interest and drive, but I'm sure the fun will wear off when she really can help. But for now, it's very cute and allows for some good pictures.

Now, for those of you who know me and are wondering.....yes, she does wipe out the sink after she brushes her teeth - most times! I don't even ask - she just has seen me do it some many times that she thinks is part of the process!

Okay, now for her handy side. A few months ago we noticed that one of the pieces of quarter round on the kitchen island was broken. Not really sure how it got broken, but nonetheless it was/is broken. Jetta, too also noticed it was broken. So, she being the child she is, didn't like that and she decided that it needed to be fixed. So, she asked me for some sticky tape (this is what she calls scotch tape). So, I said, okay, just to see where this was gonna go. Well, pretty much a whole roll later and a true 2 year old repair job, the quarter round was back on the island and wasn't going to go anywhere. I think enough can be said with pictures, so I will leave it at that and will post pictures of her handy work, along with some of her cleaning.

I'm thinking her future as a handy man may need some moe training.

Jetta reading....

2011-04-30T18:50:00.003-05:00

I've been reading to Jetta pretty much every night since we've come home from China. I try to read 3 to 5 books to her each night so we can spend some quality time together and also for her to learn from the books. I think she has benefited from it in both ways. One, I think she really enjoys the snuggle time, cuz she asks if we are going to read books and two, cuz she knows alot of her books and her vocabulary is very good for a year old.

It is 20 minutes of my day and I think a benefit of a lifetime for her. One day I was somewhere else in the house doing something and I came back into my room to check on her, to see what she was up to, cuz it was a little to quiet and when I came in, I found her standing beside my chair, reading a book to her bear - Fred, telling him to listen. It was very cute. I asked her, what are you doing and she looked at me and said "I'm reading to Fred" - like I was a complete idiot. Like, mom, this is what we do everyday, why are you asking me.

She continued to read her Chinese New Year book to him, as if he was interested. The interesting part was - she had a lot of the story right, but did add some of her own story to it, but regardless, it was very cute.

Anyway, I went back out and grabbed the camera, cuz I thought it was so cute I wanted to capture a few pictures of her doing it. It was very sweet and it made me smile, cuz it made me feel good that she enjoys reading and the time we spend doing it.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Family Christmas Pictures....

2011-04-10T18:04:00.005-05:00

It seems so strange to be posting these pictures as the year is nearly a quarter over already, but as I promised in my post, I hope to get caught up.

We had these pictures taken just before Christmas. We decided we should get an updated family picture, as the last one we had taken was when Jetta first got home and needless to say we have all changed a little. Jetta the most of course.

I was pleased with how the pictures turned out and very happy with the one of Jetta and I. I don't even remember what exactly she was laughing at, but I fell in love with the picture and think she looks absolutely adorable. Everday I am just amazed at how much she is growing and how beautiful she is.

I will attach several of the pictures we had taken. Hope you enjoy them and again sorry for my delay, but still wanted to share.

Time to catch up....

2011-04-10T16:54:00.009-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, but my work schedule has been crazy busy and I have just not had time. I'm still busy, but told myself, I need to make time, as I have lots to post and if I don't do it now, I will never do it.

So, I will try to post the last few months and get you all caught up. This post will start with Jetta and her two visits with Santa Claus. She had 3 visits this year and didn't seem to confused by it. I was really sure how that would go, but she seemed to not care that Santa was if different places at different times.

The first was at the Mills Mall, which I posted some time ago, which was the Santa from last year, who even makes me believe. I was hoping she wouldn't be afraid and if you remember that post, she was not at all and nearly knocked others over to get to him.

Her second visit was at our house just a week or so before Christmas. We have a very dear neighbor, who loves kids and he and his wife offered for him to play Santa. He used to work at the Federal prison in Greenville for years and he has a Santa suit and always played Santa for their Christmas party. After he retired from there and moved away for a few years, he kind of retired from playing Santa and really missed it.

Last summer they moved back to this area and they now live across the street from us. They are very sweet people and Jetta is very fond of both of them. So, when they offered. I was excited to accept. However, as mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was very busy with work and was worried I waited to long to accept and was afraid he may not be available. However, when I went over to ask if he was still available, he was more than happy to do it. So, we made arrangements for him to come one night after work and were all excited to see how she would react.

His wife came over a litte before he came, brought some cookies over so she would be here and then he came over, ringing his jingle bells and brought his big red bag, all dressed up and came to the door. Jetta's face lit up, she was so excited, she said, Santa is here. She was running around, hiding behind me and was not quite sure what to make of the fact that Santa was really at her house.

He came in and they sat down together in the chair. He told her he had her she was a good girl and told her he had heard what she wanted. She was very excited to know that he knew what she wanted. She was smiles from ear to ear. He pulled out a barbie and she was thrilled. Then he gave her a train, that to made her happy. He then gave her a Curious George book, a gift that he and his wife wanted her to have. He gave her some M&M's also, which of course she was thrilled with. They shared some more stories and then we snapped some pictures. It was all very sweet and she had no idea it was him.

After a little bit, he said, he better be going, he had many other little boys and girls to visit. She gave him a big hug and he said goodbye. She watched him leave and was just smiling. His wife asked if she could have a hug as well and said she best be going as well.

Jetta asked where his reindeer were and we said, he must have already flown away. She was very happy for the rest of the night. He had told me he would not accept anything for doing it, that his payment was seeing the kids and how much they enjoyed it. So, I decided to frame a picture of him and Jetta together. I scrapped it with special paper and tried to let him know just how much it meant that he did this for us. He and his wife are very special people. They don't have any grandkids yet, but know that they will be great grandparents when they do. I will include a few pics from his visit.

Then her next visit was at Grandpa Denny's. We traveled to Peoria on Christmas Eve as we always do. Denny always has Santa Claus and this year was no exception. While the group of kids was smaller, it was still a very nice day.

As we waited Jetta was patiently waiting for Santa to come. She wondered if he would read a story again, like he did last year. I was surprised that she remembered that from the year before. She always surprises me with what she remembers.

It was time. We gathered downstairs and then we heard Santa coming, ho, ho ho, down the stairs he came. Again, she was very excited and she jumped in my lap. As he came down, he rounded the corner and she got even more excited. I was glad to once again see that she was happy to see him. You just never know how they will react.

He sat down and he talked with all the kids. He remembered Jetta. It was very sweet. I think he remembered her because she climbed up in his lap last year and helped him read the Christmas story. They read a few trivia questions and then it was time to hand out the presents. She was very excited. She and Olivia got baby dolls. They played side by side and had a lot of fun.

Then it was time to read the Christmas story. This year she wasn't as eager to get in his lap, but she still was eager to listen and help. She still enjoyed the whole experience. Overall she had a great time and am glad that Denny does this for the kids and am just sad that all the kids didn't get to enjoy it this year.

After Santa left we all had dinner together and then opened presents together, of course something Jetta enjoyed.

I'm going to include pics from Santa and from opening presents, as we have some good ones from both. Hope you enjoy all of them.

Multi-purpose Tree Skirt....

2010-12-16T15:06:00.005-06:00

This year decorating the tree brought about a whole new meaning to decorating. Me being me, and me being OCD and having to have everything on the tree just right, having a 2+ y/o, well that wasn't going to happen the way it used to.

My first concern was, is the tree going to stay in an upright position. You would have thought we had a cat in the house, because Jetta was completely enamored with the tree and pulling on the branches. When we first brought it home and put it up, she kept wanting to pull on the branches and give me the needles. After getting sap on her hands, oh a hundred times, she finally lost interest in that.

Then it came time to start decorating. We put the lights and garland on first and that was all we had on for a couple of days. She thought that was very pretty and decided to take a few swipes at it with one of her toys, just to watch them swing. I thought to myself, maybe this is all the more we should decorate this year, as the ornaments we have are glass...yep glass and those won't just swing! As we started to take on that adventure she kept wanting to hand me the ornaments. Shannon would slowly hand them to her and tell her to give them to mommy and she would, only to tell me, mommy put it here and she would attempt to hang it and I would have to quickly grab it before it would fall to the floor, since it was not hanging on anything.

By now I was stressed, so we just started to give her the smaller, plastic ones that we have and the bows. She was very cute, but it was very stressful. Each time I would put something on, she would tell me "good job mom". I guess she got that from me, cuz when we read at night and do flash cards, I always tell her good job. Sometimes she wants to be a big girl and do both parts, mine and hers all by herself, so she'll do the flash card, say what it is, lay it down and tell herself, good job...it's very cute.

So, fortunately, without incident we got the tree all decorated and put our Santa on top. She was very excited. The only thing left was to dig out the tree skirt. So, I pulled it out and laid it on the floor. I guess it caught her attention. I left the room and came back in and there she was, all in her glory, she had it all unfolded and around her neck like a cape, dancing around with it, telling me, "look mommy, I'm Cinderella". So, precious. I just smiled and told her to let me tie it on her. Needless to say, Shannon hurried off to get the camera. So, she just smiled and said cheese. She kept taking it off and asking me to tie it back on. So, that is why I titled this....multi-purpose tree skirt, cuz now I will never be able to look at that tree skirt again without remembering the year she picked it up and put it on and danced like Cinderella!

These are the memories that I will never forget and what Christmas is truly about...not all the presents, not all the hustle and bustle. I can't wait for Christmas morning and hopefully a few more Christmas memories.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Cow princess...

2010-12-01T21:03:00.003-06:00

These pictures are of Jetta being a cow princess....a cow princess you ask? Last year my friend Tiffany's mom, Nana, gave Jetta a tuta and flower headband for Christmas. Up until recently it was too big and Jetta really wasn't much into being a princess.

However, ever since she put on her ladybug costume for Halloween and it had a tutu and I pulled out her pink tutu from Nana, she has decided she wanted to wear it and be a princess. So, recently she had on her cow pj's and she and I were in her room and she said, "mommy, shhhh, I was surprise, daddy, I wanna be a princess" and I was like okay, why not, you go right ahead and you be a cow princess. So, we put on her tutu and headband and out she went, all in her glory, and there she was a cow princess.

Shannon had to get pictures. She was just dancing around and having a blast. She has a bit of time keeping on the headband, but she just loves wearing the tutu. Lately, she has been pretend playing more and will go off and play a little more by herself, but you just never what that might bring.

Some days that might be a trashed bedroom, some days she'll fix her own hair, which I'll include a couple of those pics and others she'll just play and call me in there to play with her. She's growing up so fast. However, it's amazing to see how she's growing and to see her little personalty come out. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures. They are rather precious and I know Nana will appreciate them...thanks Nana for the tutu....she loves it.

Jetta and Santa Claus....

2010-12-01T13:12:00.005-06:00

A few weeks back we went out to the Mills Mall in hopes to see Jetta at the local Babies R Us. After we visited the store we went over to the mall to shop a bit and get a bite to eat.

Shannon's Dad and stepmom came down for the day to hang out with us and wanted to see if they could see Jetta as well. As we were walking through the mall, we came across the Santa display. We had no idea that he was even there yet, as it was before Thanksgiving, so wasn't even expecting him.

However, Jetta realized it was him and she took off. Thank goodness no one else was in line or I think they may have gotten ran over. She was gone and I couldn't even catch up. She was up there and in front of him in no time, stopped and said "hi". It was so cute.

To my surprise it was the same Santa as last year (the one who could make me a believer). I was very happy, cuz maybe it will make her believe that there truly is a Santa.

Up she went, she climbed right up next to him and sat down. She didn't set on his lap, but she was just a smilin' fool. They were snapping pictures, pretty much before they were even sure I was buying a package.

Needless to say, dollars later and a happy child, she had her visit with Santa and we didn't have to wait in line. I'm going to attach a couple of the pictures.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year....she is really excited and seems to be catching onto the concept. When she is bad, I keep saying "do you want Santa to come" and she says "yep" and I say "then you better be a good girl" and she will behave for a little bit....wonder how long that game will last!

Our trip to Souf Dakota

2010-12-01T12:44:00.007-06:00

Well, here it is, another month has gone by and I haven't posted. I can't believe it's already been a month since we visted Souf Dakota. The times just flies by way too quickly. I can hardly believe that today is December 1st.

Our trip to Souf Dakota was very nice. Both the weather and our time there. We arrived on Thursday, November 4th late afternoon. We left St. Louis late morning and the weather was very nice. We weren't sure how it would be once we got to Omaha so we packed for cooler temperatures. Much to our surprise when we arrived it was in the mid-50's. We got our rental car and headed north, expecting it to get much colder. As we got into South Dakota, it was unseasonably warm. It was near 60 when we arrived. I was hoping it was going to stay that way for our whole trip.

When we got in Jetta was very happy to see that Grandma had kitties. For whatever reason, Jetta seems to really like cats. Not sure if it's because we don't have any or if she truly is going to be a cat lover. Not sure how well that is going to work out for her, considering both Shannon and I are dog lovers, but since she pretty much runs the house, I can see that one day we may well have a cat. We could barely get in the house fast enough and she was wanting to go right back outside. Since my mom lives on nearly 13 acres, she has quite a few farm cats. Fortunately we were able to distract her for awhile with enough inside that she forgot about them until Grandpa got home.

After we got settled and Jetta got familiar with Grandma's house Grandpa came home and we had dinner. After dinner, Jetta remembered that there were kitties outside and wanted to let them in. So, Grandpa being a kitty lover himself, he couldn't say no. So, they brought in one of the more tame ones and Jetta was in heaven. However, I'm not so sure the kitty was....beings Jetta hasnt' really been around them too much, she wasn't really to sure how to hold it and so the poor kitties neck was where she choose to hold it vs around it's belly. We finally convinced her to sit down with Grandpa on the floor and hold it there. That was a much better fit, both for her and the kitty and I think the kitty was much happier there. After awhile I finally got her to give up the kitty and put it back outside. However, this event became the desired event for the weekend. I will attach pictures showing just how much she enjoyed this and how much the kitties did not!

Friday was a day of shopping in town. Much to our surprise it was another gorgeous day. I truly wasn't convinced I was in South Dakota. I thought possibly I was somewhere else. Here I had packed our winter coats and here it was nearly 70 degrees. Not that I was complaining, but I was shocked. It was great! It was nothing like I remembered from growing up. We had a great day of shopping in town. Of course the day went by way and it was time to head home. We drove back and couldn't believe that it was after 6 and it was still light, another thing I miss about home....if we were in St. Louis, it would have been dark more than a hour earlier. While I like the hustle and bustle of the city life, there are definitely things about home that I do miss....long days, beautiful fall days, my family and I'm sure there are other things, I just can't think of them right now.

My mom cooked us an amazing dinner that night and then we played Yahtzee. It was like old times. Jetta tried to play too, but that didn't go so well, but the one time she did roll for me....I got a Yahtzee....so I wasn't gonna complain about that.

Saturday was going to be a big day. Jetta was going to pick her first pumpkin and Saturday night we were going to have a party so that Arland's family could meet Jetta, as well as some of mom's and Arland's church friends. Additionally, my uncle Tim and his wife, Jill from my home town were coming in and I couldn't wait to see them.

So, first thing Saturday morning, Jetta, my mom, Arland and Shannon headed out to pick the pumpkins that my mom had been saving for Jetta. Jetta was excited once she realized what they were going to do. Shannon snapped some great pictures. My mom saved some of the best pumpkins for her. The pictures are great. So, now she has picked her first apples, her first pumpkins and before long we'll go get our Christmas tree. We got a real tree last year, but she really didn't understand, so hopefully this year it will be more fun. Once they were done with that, well, I'm sure you can guess....she was distracted and off she went....to the kitties....again, the poor kitties didn't have a chance. She was holding them by the neck and was just as happy as could be. Again, Shannon got some cute pics, which I will attach.

Then we hung out a bit and then got ready and headed into town. We went into the water falls and again it was another beautiful day. Jetta, Shannon and Arland went down to the rocks and again Shannon got some great pictures of Jetta. He also took some before we left the house, out on my mom's farm. And, again Jetta's chasing the kitties....so maybe we won't be getting a kitty, cuz she just wouldn't leave them alone.

Now it was time to head to the party. I was very excited to go and for my mom to introduce Jetta to everyone. It was a great turnout. I think there were better than 50 people. I was happy to see so many people come and support us and want to meet Jetta. We all ate and then told them a little bit about Jetta and our journey to getting her. People were very generous and gave Jetta some wonderful gifts. When my uncle Tim and Jill arrived I was very emotional, it was great to have family come and to come from so far away. It really meant alot. It has been quite some time since I've seen them. It was nice to have a part of my family to be there. We visited quite a bit and it was hard to tell them goodbye. I really appreciated my mom putting together such a nice party and for everyone coming out and wanting to meet Jetta it was a very special evening.

Sunday, Arland's sister and her family, as well as Arland's dad, Russell came over for lunch and we all hung out. It was nice to see them and to be able to spend some time with them. They had to head back to Minnesota that afternoon, as the kids had school the next day. It was great to see them, as I only get to see them when I'm home visiting my mom. I'm glad they were able to make the trip. Again, we had another very nice day.

Now the trip was coming to an end. Monday was just around the corner. Unfortunately my mom had gotten sick on Saturday night, so she wasn't feeling the best. I hated to go, but we knew the trip was going to be short. However, we had been fortunate enough to have seen each other twice in the past 2 months, so it was nice that this had made it 3 times. Hopefully we'll be able to see each other again soon. Our trip was great and am glad we were able to make it before the weather turned bad.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and again sorry for my delay in getting this posted.

Jetta and Kiddie Kandids....

2010-11-22T19:52:00.006-06:00

Last year we decided to sign Jetta up with a local modeling agency and this past August they contacted us with Jetta's first professional modeling job. A local company in St. Louis, CPI contacted them and wanted to hire Jetta for a winter ad campaign for Kiddie Kandids.

I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but was excited to get the call, but nervous at the same time. We only had a few days to get ready and beings it was mid-August and they were doing a winter ad, I was hoping I had something that would work for a winter shoot. They asked that we bring a minimum of 3 outfits and no more than 5. I was thinking, I'm glad Jetta hadn't grown alot since the past winter and that I had shopped so much in the 3 years that I waited for her.

I went home that night and went through the tubs of clothes I have in the basement, both from the prior winter season and the tubs for the upcoming winter season and was able to pull together what I believed would be 5 outfits. The only thing I really needed were tights and was hopeful that maybe Old Navy would come through for me on that. Jetta was a bit confused why she was trying on winter clothes when she was running around in shorts and sandals.

The next night we did go shopping and were lucky enough to find some tights and thank goodness that's all we needed cuz they didn't have anything winter related out yet, despite you can go to other stores and buy Christmas stuff, but not winter clothes in August I guess. I'm just happy she hadn't grown much and many of her 12 month clothes still fit and the 18 month stuff I did have wasn't to big. Once we got home I spent time ironing and preparing for the big day.

We got up early and got a bath and headed into St. Louis, not knowing exactly what to expect. We had the first appointment of the day. All I knew was they had two days of photo shoots and once they were done they would then decide which kids they would select for the actual campaign. So, despite being chosen for the shoot, there was no gaurantee that we would actually make the cut. Once we got there, they looked through our outfits and chose a red dress that I had brought along and we got started.

The ladies were all very nice and they really meshed well with Jetta. Of course since we were the first of the day, there were a few hiccups with the props and backdrops, but Jetta handled it all well and she was in a great mood for the entire shoot. Kiddie Kandids is the company that works with Babies R Us and they take photos within the Babies R Us stores. Not all stores actually have the photo studios within them, but many of them do. I believe they are trying to expand this part of the business, so watch for them to possibly come to your area if they are not already there.

As the morning progressed they took about 70 pictures of Jetta and spent about an hour and a half with her. Once the hour and half started to get close to that finishing point Jetta started to wear down and they said when does she normally take a nap and she had started to come over to me and was starting to put her thumb in her mouth and I said, well about now and I pretty much think she's done and they said, let's call it, I think we've got enough. They were very respectful of the time and of her. I was very happy with them. They were great and I would definitely work with them again given the opportunity.

Once we were done we had no idea when or if we would hear from them again. After about a month and half I called over to CPI, the company who took the pictures and asked if there would be any way I could get any of the photos they had taken of her since it was her first photo shoot and they called me back that day. In speaking with the marketing manager, he asked who my daughter was and I told him. He said, he wasn't sure if would be able to and that it was ironic that I was calling that day, because they were actually deciding over the next two days which children they were going to be using in the ad campaign and that he would probably need a couple of days to determine if he could provide me with a disc of any of the images and also if they would be using my daughter.

To my surprise he called me back within 40 minutes and left me a message. He said that he would be able to provide me with a disc and that they would definitely be using Jetta for the campaign and would be using her in all 3 medias....internet, in-store and direct mailings. At this time I have been able to see several of the internet ads both on their website (www.kiddiekandids.com) - when they first released the ad campaign on November 1st (where she has 2 images), then a recent ad for 20% of a collage print (where you'll notice her name is Bella - creative huh...not Jetta which I guess they probaby can't use her real name and I'd rather they not, but fully they say Bella), then we have been able to see poster and translucents in two of the local stores in St. Louis(which I'll include the pictures we took), but unable to actual see any direct mailers. I had asked for a direct mailer, but at this point have not seen one(and don't want to be that mom that bothers CPI and never get another job!).

So, as you can imagine I am a very proud mommy. I have showed Jetta herself on the Kiddie Kandids website and she says "who are those kids and then she'll see herself and say, there I am and then as it cycles through, she'll say, here comes Jetta"....it's very cute. Then I showed her the recent ad and she said, that's me. When we were at the store, she says "that's me" and just smiles. I don't think she understands, but realizes it's her. Again, we have no idea if this is her first, only or last ever, but it is very exciting and we are very proud of her. The only reason we ever even signed her up for this was for the opportunity to save for college.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and some of the ad material. Sorry for the long post, but wanted to share the whole story with you. As always thanks for following along. These are just some of the pics, as I don't want to bore you with all 70 images!

Halloween 2010....

2010-11-01T19:56:00.005-05:00

Well last year Jetta was a Panda Bear and this year she was a Lady Bug...we haven't stretched our imaginations to far just yet. However, she made quite the cute panda last year and quite the cute lady bug this year.

This year was so much fun. She really understood what was going on and really enjoyed the whole going up to the door and "trick or treating"....well should I say, knocking and then opening the people's doors! Fortunately pretty much everyone in our small 27 house neighborhood knows who she is, so it wasn't a problem and they were all pretty much on their way to the door as she was opening it anyway. It was very cute. As they were filling her bag, she was smiling from ear to ear. Then she would turn around say "thank you" and take off, run back to her wagon and dig in, looking for the best piece she could find. The real challenge was keeping her from opening a piece at at each house. I did give in and let her eat a few pieces and fortunately there we no belly aches and it didn't keep her up to late.

After we finished the houses in our neighborhood we headed the our friends Jason and Dora's and Jetta helped Dora hand out candy. She seemed to have just as much fun doing that.

It is so great watching her enjoy these special days. I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year,as she will enjoy it even more than last year. It is great seeing the excitement through her eyes. I just don't want her to grow up to fast and it seems as if it is already happening. I want to enjoy as much as I can.

Attached are some pictures from her second Halloween, hope you enjoy them.

Grandma Peters visits....

2010-10-16T14:44:00.006-05:00

First of all I have to apologize to Grandma Peters, just like I had to Grandma Alexander, as my schedule is so busy, time just doesn't permit me to post until weeks after their visits....so sorry Grandma that this is weeks late!

However, we had a great visit with you. Grandma came in mid-week and I worked on Thursday so Jetta and Grandma could spend the day together, just having fun. And if both of them being asleep in the chair when I came home was any indication of how hard they played together and how much fun they had, I would say it was a pretty good day. It was cute, my mom was sitting up and Jetta was sprawled out in her lap. I picked Jetta up and laid her on the couch and then my mom and I visited for a bit while Jetta slept. Shannon was out of town, so we had the evening to just the three of us.

Unfortunately, Friday we didn't wake up to such a good day. When Jetta had gone to bed Thursday night she had mentioned that her mouth hurt, but didn't really tell me where or say much more than just that. However, she did wake up just before we went to bed and ended up sleeping with me and had a very fitful night of sleep. She woke up burning up and I just thought possibly she had had a night terror, as she had been having them off and on. However, once we finally got up for the day, it was much worse than that. She was very clingy, so we knew we she wasn't feeling well and needed to call the pediatrician. My mom and I were on the hunt for the number, as I had gotten a new phone and for some reason that number didn't transfer over. We called and they could see us in 2 hours. Jetta was saying her ears hurt and by the time we got ready to go, she was crying alot and had thrown up once.

We got to the pediatrician's office and they took a rapid strep test, but felt pretty confident that that wasn't it. The good news was they did weigh and measured her. So, we did find out, she was now 35 1/2 inches tall and 23 lbs. Still little, but she is growing. Finally the pediatrician came in and took and look and felt pretty sure she had Roseolla and the bad news was, it was a virus, so all we could do was give her tylenol every 4 to 6 hours, keep her full of fluids and wait for it to run its course, which could be 7 to 10 days. Well, Friday was not a pleasant day, but fortuanately, by Saturday, the fever had broken and she was feeling better. Which we were happy about, because we had tickets to Disney Princesses on Ice.

While Jetta wasn't completely better, but she felt well enough to go to Disney on Ice. We had plans to take her best friend Ava, so we made sure it was okay that she went. Her mom decided it was okay since Jetta was no longer contagious. I think we were all glad that she was well enough to go, cuz we were all excited to see the Princesses, as we all love Disney and then seeing it on ice was going to be even more exciting. We picked Ava up at noon and all headed out for lunch. After lunch it was time to head to the show. I'm not sure who was more excited Ava or Grandma. Last year was Grandma's first experience of Disney on Ice and she loved it, so I know she was very excited to do this. But Ava loves the Princesses. Once we got there, all the girls were excited. The show was alot of fun. Grandma saved the day, as she remembered her camera and took many great pictures, which I will include several with this post. All in all I think the day was a great success. We saw Amy and Ava a week or so after the show and Amy said Ava had a "google", which is the largest number, which I guess means is the best time ever. So, I guess we can call the day a true success. Plus the girls had great fun together.

On Sunday we went apple picking and Jetta picked her very first apple all by herself. We got some really good pictures from the day. Again, another successful day. We weren't sure the day would be a success, as it had been raining and so we were afraid it would be muddy. So, we stopped and bought her a pair of rain boots and if I do say so myself, she looks pretty darn cute. We picked quite a few apples and fortunately that benefited a homemade apple pie from Grandma...yummy!

Monday was just a day of doing whatever. We pretty much just ran errands and did a little shopping. Shannon went to work, so it was just the girls. By now, Jetta was feeling much better, so we just all hung out. Unfortunately Grandma had to leave on Tuesday, but we surely had a great visit. When we got ready to head to the airport we told Jetta that Grandma was going home on an airplane and going back to South Dakota....and of course, like always, she remembers and says, later that night, "Grandma go home to Souf Dakota" and I said "yep". The good thing is we'll get to see Grandma again soon, as we'll be traveling to "Souf Dakota" in just a few weeks to visit her.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Just cuz....

2010-08-29T17:30:00.003-05:00

I'm just posting these pics cuz Shannon took these last week and I just like the pics and wanted to share them. Plus I think it shows just how big she is getting. Or rather, just how much she is changing. Cuz, I really can't say she is getting big....she is still so itty bitty.

She is almost 2 1/2 and is still able to wear some 9 month shorts, mostly 12 months and figure once we start wearing pants, we'll have to wear 18 months only because we will need the length. As for shirts, she wears anything from 18 to 24 months, but nothing bigger. I finally bought her her first part of nsize 6 shoes, but she mostly wears size 5 - 5.5.

Yesterday we were at Kohls and they had their summer shoes on clearance and I was thinking I might buy her a pair for next summer and would possibly buy a size 7 and this lady was there with her son who just turned 2 in June, so he is 3 months younger than Jetta and he is already wearing a size 8 shoe and is almost out of that she said and he was inches taller and definitely heavier than her. I think she is just going to be small, which I am okay with.

I always laugh when I talk to people who have babies who are a year or close to that and we talk diaper sizes and they tell me their kids are wearing a size 3 or 4 already and I say Jetta wears a 3 and is nearly 2 1/2. They just look at me. I keep hoping that soon we don't have to have that conversation, that we can soon start on the potty training thing, as I truly thing she is ready, just is stubborn and doesn't want to. She will come in and say I gotta go potty and will sit on the potty but won't do anything. She has done it several times, go potty on the potty that is, she just isn't consistent. I figure she is still young and I'm not sure where I will find panties that small, so don't see the need to rush.

Other than that, she is doing great. Talking up a storm. Knows her abc's, can count to 20, has a very extensive vocabularly, knows most of her shapes, still working on colors....each and every day she amazes me. She is such a grown up girl, in such a little body.

Anyway, here are the pics. Hope you enjoy them. As always, thanks for following along.

Jetta and Ava....

2010-08-29T17:23:00.002-05:00

As many of you know Jetta has a buddy who she absolutely adores and her name is Ava...and quite honestly I think the feeling is mutual. Ava adores Jetta and is quite the mother hen to Jetta. They are always very cute together and attached are a couple of pictures of them together and you can see just how much they enjoy being together. I just had to share, cuz the pictures are to cute not to share.

Grandma Alexander Visits....

2010-08-29T16:40:00.004-05:00

First of all I must apologize, as you all know I have been behind on my posts and this is no exception...so sorry to Grandma Alexander for not getting this posted sooner!

A couple of weeks ago Grandma Alexander came from Florida to visit us. She came and spent a week with us. When she got here it was hot, but it seemed to get hotter as the week progressed. By the time she left, I think she was actually looking forward to going back to cooler temps in Florida. I really don't think any of us thought that would be the case. However, the day before she left, she called home and it fact was cooler in Florida than it was here in St. Louis.

While she was here, she of course spoiled Jetta and I know Jetta didn't mind at all. She and Jetta had a great time. The first few days we just stayed close to home, but then over the weekend we ventured into St. Louis and visited the Budweiser Brewery, which I believe we all enjoyed. Grandma enjoyed the tour and Jetta enjoyed the horses. After the tour we headed home and spent the evening with some friends, as Carrie and Elise were home from Singapore and would be leaving after the weekend and we wanted the girls to have the chance to play one last time. It was a great evening to hang out by the pool and just have a few drinks and relax.

Then on Sunday Grandma, Shannon and Jetta headed out to go fishing and give mommy a little mommy time and to take Jetta on her first fishing trip. While it was already warming up, they spent a few hours enjoying the sun and catching a few fish. I'll put a few pictures on from the day. I think they all had a really good time. Once they came home, we pretty much just hung out the rest of the day, as they all were pretty wore out from the heat. We did go to town and buy grandma a birthday cake, as she had had a birthday before she came to visit and we wanted to celebrate with her.

Now the weekend was over and daddy had to head back to work, so it was just a day for the girls to hang out. So, we headed out for a day of shopping. Again, it was a scorcher, so we pretty much just ducked in from one store to the next. After a long day of shopping we headed home and relaxed for evening, as we knew we had a big day ahead of us on Tuesday. As we were headed to a Cardinals game and heard the temps were going to be over 100.

I had to work, so I was already downtown when they made their way into the city. I know grandma was very excited go to a major league ballgame, and we were excited to take her. The new stadium is definitely worth seeing. We had hoped to take her on a tour, but when we went into town on Saturday, the tour was sold out, hence why we went on the brewery tour. It was a bit before game, so we headed to Hooter's for dinner, which is always good eats. I guess that may sound strange coming from me, but I truly do go there for the wings!

After dinner, we headed to the game, temps were still sitting in the mid-90's, so we knew it was going to be even hotter once we got inside the stadium. Once we got inside grandma was very excited and was just taking it all in. I don't think she even cared that there was going to be a baseball game going on. As the game began, we all realized just how hot it was. Jetta was a trooper, but unfortunately, we only made it thru the bottom of the third inning, as it was just to hot to sit there any longer, but I think grandma had fun either way and was just happy to have had the chance to go to the stadium. Hopefully next time she visits it will be a bit cooler and we can watch more of the game.

Unfortunately grandma had to leave the next day, but we are very glad she came to visit. She and Jetta had a great time. Jetta still asks where grandma went and says "she go home on an airplane" and I say "yep, she went home on an airplane. Where did she go?" and she says "she go back to Florida". So, she knows where she went and that she left on an airplane. So, thanks for visiting us grandma....and sorry for taking so long to get this post done.

Jetta's Pool.....

2010-08-08T18:37:00.008-05:00

Jetta got her very own pool for Christmas, but for obvious reasons we had to wait until summer to fill it up and use it. However, as I've mentioned in several of the last posts, it has been super hot this summer, but with that we had alot of rain, so we had to wait for that to pass before we could really fill it up. So, about a month ago, Shannon set it up on the deck and filled it up. Jetta was very excited, but we had to wait for 24 hours to let it warm up. She just didn't understand.

Shannon's aunt has a pool and his cousin Amy takes her in it quite often. So, I think she was confused why she had to wait to go in it. So, after waiting for 24 hours, it was ready to go. Needless to say, since the temps were so warm, the water was more than ready to go. There have been several times where we have had to actually add cold water to cool it off.

She got her suit on and in she went. She really loved it. We take some of her bath toys in and she thinks she's in heaven. She plays in it till her fingers and feets are all wrinkly and we tell her she has to get out. We take her out as often as we can handle the heat. However, can't say Shannon hasn't climbed in with her before.

The pool has definitely been a good gift from Grandma....thanks. I'm gonna attach a few pics. We keep hoping to get her into swim lessons, but with cousin Amy working with her and taking her in as much as she does, not sure that we really need to. She also has been going in with our friends Gaylan and Amy, as they recently got a pool also. So, with all them working with her, maybe she'll learn with all their help. She definitely loves going in and is not afraid, so I guess its a start...thanks to all of you for working with her.

2nd Annual Guangdong Renuion...

2010-08-08T18:12:00.005-05:00

On July 17th we traveled to Peoria for our 2nd annual Guangdong reunion with the girls. Abby thank you for being such a great host. All but one of the families were able to travel to join us this year. They already had planned their family vacation prior to our planning our annual reunion, so we are hopeful they are able to join us next year.

It was great to see everyone and to see just how much all the girls have grown and changed since we brought them home. All of them are walking and most of them are talking. The few that aren't, are understanding very well and are getting close. It was great to see the progress they have all made. I look forward to the continued reunions and to the continued progress they make and watching them all grow.

I will attach several pictures of the day. Several of the group and a few of each of the girls.

4th of July....

2010-08-08T10:58:00.005-05:00

This year we didn't do much as it was super hot. As that seems to be the case much of the time the past few months. However, we did manage to get out a bit and do a few things.

On the 3rd we met up with our friends Dora and Jason. We went into St Louis and had dinner. After dinner we went over to Dora's work. She works directly down from the river, which is where the shoot off the fireworks nightly. Her work allows for them to go up into their building and onto their balconies and watch the fireworks from there. It is definetly one of the better places to watch them. You are up high, above most of the other buildings downtown and can see them perfectly. Also, being up that high, there is a very nice breeze and therefore is was much cooler, had we been down street level.

This was Jetta's first time watching fireworks, so we were excited to see how she would react. She was pretty excited. However, since it was nearly 9:30, she was fading fast. She did, however make it through them, but was more than ready to head home once they were over. We were very glad we got to watch them with Dora and Jason and that they took us with them to watch them from her building.

We had thought about taking Jetta again on the 4th to the little town down the road. However, it was so hot and again, with it being so late, didn't want to keep her up late another night. She did tell several people we saw over the next couple days how she saw "fireworks". So, I guess she enjoyed them.

I'm gonna attach a couple pictures we took on the front step of her in her 4th of July outfit...looking all festive. I think she looks rather cute if I do say so myself.

Father's Day.....

2010-08-08T10:24:00.006-05:00

This year Jetta took Shannon to the circus for Father's Day. A company, that I believe is called Circus Flora. They come to St. Louis each year. They have a one ring circus and were going to be here on Father's Day and I thought it might be a neat outting for the family.

It was Jetta's first circus and wasn't sure how she would react. When we got there we could see the big top and it was pretty neat, brought back alot of childhood memories (and smells). As a child, I got to go see the Shriner's circus many times. It was always a good time. The day was particularly hot, as this was just the beginning of what was going to be the beginning of months of hot weather. However, we were told that the tent had air piped into it, so we figured we didn't have anything to worry about.

As we made our way up to the big top, there was a pony ride, so we let Jetta atake spin. She seemed to enjoy herself. She wasn't quite sure what to think. She always wants to ride the "horsey" at Walmart, so we thought, well, here you go, here's the real deal. I guess, based on her expresssion, we'll stick the the Walmart "horsey" for now. Which, honestly, I'm okay with, that "horsey" is much cheaper and by far less stinky! I'll attach and picture, so you can see for yourself.

We finally made our way inside. The ring was small and we were right down next to the actual ring. She seemed excited. Once the show started, she was excited, but as things got going and the show got started and the horses started coming in and they were whipping the ground, she wanted nothing to do with that and she was climbing up me and clinging to me for dear life. Needless to say, with the heat outside and regardless of the "piped" in air, it was hot. We stuck around for the first act, which was about an hour.

This act included puppies, which she loved, horses and some chickens. We had hoped for an elephant, but there wasn't one. Since there wasn't gonna be one and with it being so hot, we opted to go. All in all, I think it was a success, but think we will wait till she's a little older and for indoor circus to go again.

I'll attach a couple of other pics, hope you enjoy them.

Jetta's first festival....

2010-06-13T15:33:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we took Jetta to her first festival. Each year Highland has two festivals, one in the early summer, the Schweitzerfest and one in the fall, the Kirchenfest. In case you can't tell by the names, Highland has a large German influence. However, yesterday, we didn't see much of that, as the most of what we saw was a large rain influence. Despite that, we still had a great day.

We met several of our fellow Little Gym parents and Jetta's little friends. The plan was to watch the parade, eat dinner and let the kids ride some rides. Well, that still took place, but not without alot of rain, soaked clothes and soggy shoes. However, the kids didn't seem to mind. When we first arrived the tornado siren was going off, but we all waited it out and the parade got started about 30 mins late. Jetta wasn't a fan of the parade, well not the beginning anyway because it included all the fire trucks and ambulances. As they went by and blew the sirens she wasn't a fan. I kind of figured it would scare her and it surely did. As the parade went on and the trucks passed by, she started to warm up to the idea, but then the rain started to come down again. We all headed back to our cars to wait it out, at this point feeling more like ducks than humans, but still enjoying the day.

Once the parade was over and we could make our way across the parade route, we all headed out for dinner. We had hoped to go to our favorite Chinese restaurant, but they were closed. So, we had to make another choice. We ended up with pizza, but don't think the kids were disappointed. Finally, a bit dried out and our belly's full, we headed over to the festival. One of our friends had to leave, so it left just Jetta and Nathan.

We decided we would let them ride a couple of the rides that were small enough for them. There was a car ride and a small ferris wheel. We weren't sure what they'd think of them, but we put them in the car ride together and they loved it. They rode it several times, once in a car and the second time in the fire engine. I'm going to attach some pictures from both times. They look so cute - their first car date together! Then we took them over to the ferris wheel. I wasn't so sure how Jetta would do, but to my surprise she climbed right up into the seat, turned around and away they went. They had a great time and she was smiles the whole time. I'm going to also attach pictures from that ride.

It was great to see them have such a great time. However, it almost brought tears to my eyes, to see Jetta just climb right up in there, such a big girl, so grown up. My little girl is getting so big - already. People always say how fast they grow up and now that I'm living it, it's so true. She is growing up way to fast, much faster that I want her to. However, I'm so glad that I get to share these things with her, that she is so happy, willing to try these things. She is just so sweet, she is always so loving, willing to share with her little friends, give them hugs, etc. I'm so lucky to have such a sweet, loving little girl.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The Magic House...

2010-06-09T19:04:00.002-05:00

Last weekend we took Jetta to the Magic House in St Louis. It was our first visit there. We weren't sure what they had for kids, but it turned out they had quite a bit for them and Jetta had a great time. We will definitely make a trip back. We took a few pictures. Not sure if you can tell from the pictures or not, but we had her hair cut after Little Gym and had about an inch taken off, we figured with it getting warm we would get it trimmed, as it's not quite long enough or thick enough to put up into a pony just yet and we didn't want her to be miserable all summer long. I'm thinking we might still get a little more cut off, but didn't want to cut to much off just yet. I think it looks very cute, but really don't think a haircut makes her any cuter! Anyway here are a few pics from the day, hope you enjoy them.

Jetta Graduates....

2010-06-09T18:48:00.003-05:00

Jetta just finished another session of Little Gym. She has successfully completed 3 sessions now and has come alongways. When we first started going there she couldn't even walk and now she is running, walking the beam, doing roll forwards, hanging from the uneven bars, rolling over the donut and many other things. It has been a great experience for her and we have met many great people. We have decided that we are going to take the summer session off and are going to meet up with some of the other parents and do different parks and other actitivities throughout the summer in hopes to get to know each other better and for the kids to get to know each other a little better also. Then we all plan to reconvene in the fall and start back at the Little Gym. Attached are some pictures from her last session, as well as the medal ceremony. She really has alot of fun and has grown so much. You can look back at some of the older posts and will be able find another post about the Little Gym and will be able to see just how much she has changed since we first started taking her there. As always, thanks for following along.

Jetta eats corn on the cob...

2010-06-09T18:27:00.002-05:00

We had corn on the cob for the first time this year and Jetta loves corn, so she was very curious to try it. So, we let her give it a try. It was very cute and funny. So, after a few times, we decided to get out the video camera and tried to get it on camera. Of course the first time was the funniest, but it still is pretty cute. Thought we would share it, hope you enjoy.

It's been awhile.....

2010-05-23T15:04:00.008-05:00

I realize it has been awhile since I've posted, so I figured I'd post a few updates. Let's see, since Easter, Jetta had her 2 year check-up, I had my 2nd Mother's Day, and we've taken some pretty cute pictures.

As for Jetta's 2 year check-up, she is finally growing. She now weighs a whopping 21.1 pounds, so she's gained over 6 pounds since we've brought her home. She has grown 5 inches, she is now 33 1/2 inches vs 28 1/2 when we brought her home. So, all in all, she is doing well. She is still on the small side, but the dr does not seem at all concerned, she figures she'll always be small, but healthy. Today we dug out some of her summer clothes from last year and we tried on a variety of sizes, ranging from 3 to 6 months all the way to 18 months and to our surprise the one pair of shorts that were 3 to 6 months...yep they still fit. So, as you can see we have a really hard time deciding what to keep and what to get rid of (hence why I still have a tub full of clothes from last summer). The one thing that I have noticed is she is taller, which is evidenced by the 5 inches she has grown, but when you see her everyday you don't really realize it just how much.

As for what else she is doing, she is talking up a storm, she has quite the vocabulary. She can say her abc's, count to twenty, put two to three word sentences together, tell you "no" rather well, ask for things, sing along to songs and a variety of other things. She is pretty amazing. She is doing so much better than I could have ever expected. She is very smart. She is always surprising me with things. She is such a great kid and keeps me on my toes.

For my second Mother's Day, she made me a homemade card at the daycare she goes to twice a week and brought home a flower. It was very sweet and cute. She was very happy to be able to give it to me. Then on Mother's Day she and Shannon got up early, went to town, got me some fresh cut flowers and a coffee and brought them home to me. She brought the flowers in to me and gave them to me herself. Then they gave me a card that the signed all by herself. It was very sweet. She also was able to tell me "Happy Mother's Day", which meant the world to me. Just to hear those words come from her meant more than anything else, along with the super uber wet kiss I got and the big squeeze she gave me. Nothing is better than wet, sloppy kisses from my baby, along with hugs and an I love you mommy. That alone can make a bad day super bright.

Other than that, not much else really to report. We have been very busy and apologize for not posting more often. So, hopefully the update gives you a little Jetta fix, along with a few new pics. So, hope you enjoy. As always thanks for following along.

A day at the zoo with friends...

2010-05-03T19:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we met Bing and Abby, one of our travelmates, in Springfield to go to the zoo. The drive to Springfield is pretty much half way for each of us and it was a great day out.

When we got to Springfield we met for lunch. We met one of my good friends, Raylene, who used to live here in St. Louis. She is expecting in June, so it was great to see her. Jetta and I will get to see her again in a few weeks as we'll be traveling back to Springfield to attend her baby shower. We are very excited for her and can't wait to meet baby Grischow.

After we had lunch, Abby, Bing, Jetta and I headed to the local zoo. The zoo was pretty small, but it was a great day to be out and it was great to get the girls together. I'm so glad the we are able to remain in contact and am really looking forward to our next gathering with all the families in July in Peoria. It will be great to see all the girls and all the families.

I'm going to attach a couple of pictures of the girls.....they are growing so fast. Thanks Bing and Abby for driving and meeting us, we enjoyed spending the day with you. And thanks Ray for meeting us for lunch and can't wait to be able to meet you one day to take our little ones to the zoo!

Easter

2010-04-08T15:15:00.008-05:00

So, we have officially gone through one full year of holidays with Jetta. Easter was our first official holiday, other than her birthday, that we got to spend with her last year. Last year she had no idea what it was about, so didn't really go to much trouble. However, this year, I did buy her some stuff for her Easter basket and set it out for her to wake up to. I wasn't sure how she would react, but to my surprise, she was very excited. Grandma Peters sent money to help buy something for her basket and Aunt Lori sent home a little basket as well. She did pretty well, considering she just had a birthday.

She went straight over to it, started throwing stuff out and saying "candy". She is all about the candy these days. Not that I give it to her (nor did I buy her much for her basket), but she still knows what it is and loves it. After she went through the basket, we started getting ready to head over to my friends Tiffany's families house.

They are kind enough to include us in their family celebration and all love seeing Jetta. They also spoil her and there she got alot of candy. Once we arrived, the kids got to head out to hunt Easter eggs....again, I wasn't sure what Jetta would do or if she would understand the concept.

To my surprise, she went straight for the eggs and picked them up. I told her to put them in her basket and put them in she did. They had real and plastic eggs to hunt and the first few she found were real. As she put them, rather tossed them in her basket....all I heard was "crack". Oh well, they were going to be used for the deviled eggs, so no harm in breaking them, just made it easier for them to peel....right?

After the kids finished hunting eggs, Tiffany's uncle let the bunnies loose. Jetta was so excited, she saw them and said "rabbit"....it was so cute. After we chased them down, we caught one and let her pet it. Uncle Rod said we could take one home and at first I thought about it, but then realized that that would become a full-time job for mom and dad. Maybe in a few years. Jetta was so cute and kept wanting to hold and touch all of them. They finally decided to put them away and Jetta just stood there, looking into the crate they were in and trying to figure out how to get them back out. It was very sweet.

After that, it was time for the adults to participate in the adult Easter egg hunt. Tiff's aunt and uncle go to great lengths to put together something fun for the adults to compete in. And of course we are all super competitive so it is always alot of fun. Last year my team won the scavenger hunt and this year Shannon's team won, so all in all we have had good luck. I'm excited to see what next's years challenge will be.

After the first round of the challenge, we had lunch and then got right back to it. Jetta was not real sure about the challenges, as it included alot of yelling and giving direction, and she was a bit upset when it came to either Shannon or I being yelled at. She is a real softy, I think I might have a doctor or veternarian on my hands...she's always worried about others and is so sweet and kind to them.

After that, she just played most of the day with Ethan and Live and before you knew it the day was over and it was time to go home. She had great fun, I really enjoyed watching her enjoy the day. As an adult you kind of forget what the holidays are all about and what special magic they hold for kids. Seeing it through her eyes was great. I'm already looking forward to Christmas this year, as she will be a bit older and will understand even more...shoot what is there not to get....presents and candy....very important to a two year old.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures we took of her finding her basket and then her hunting eggs, seeing the bunnies and just enjoying the day. Hope you enjoy them.

Jetta's 2 year pictures...

2010-04-08T15:03:00.006-05:00

This past weekend we took Jetta for her 2 year pictures. Hard to believe that she is already 2...it seems like we just took her 1 year photos. As always she was a good girl and posed very well for the cameras. It took her a few minutes to warm up, but once she did, she started flashing that beautiful smile of hers, along with those big brown eyes.

We decided to have her pics taken in her baseball jersey, so that we could get some professional pictures of her in it before she outgrows it and if I do say so myself....she's quite the cute Cubs, err Cardinals fan! As many of you know we had this jersey made for her last year since daddy is a Cubs fan and mommy is a Cardinals fan...wanted to make sure we had all the bases covered.

In looking at the pictures, I realized, my little girl is growing up way to fast. I knew that she was changing or had changed over the pastyear, but had no idea it was so much. Last year she was just a baby and this year she is a full out toddler. I'm going to include a couple of her 1 year pictures with this post, so you can see just how much she's changed. Either way, I still think she is the most beautiful little girl and am so blessed to have her in my life.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Jetta turns 2!

2010-03-29T10:07:00.004-05:00

This past Thursday was Jetta's 2nd birthday. It is hard to believe that she is already turning 2. The last year has gone by way to fast. However, she is getting so big and talking so much, she is alot of fun.

Since Thursday was her birthday, we actually celebrated on Saturday. It was a very busy week for me, I spent most evenings shopping, preparing, decorating, etc., as I wanted it to be perfect. I'm sure friends, cake and presents would have been plenty for Jetta, but since she didn't really understand what it was all about on her first birthday, I wanted this one to be extra special.

So, I decided I was going to do a Mickey Mouse theme and Mickey Mouse it was. As many of you know, I am a huge Mickey Mouse fan, so I had alot of stuff to help the theme along. There were plenty of Mickey decorations, but we also had Mickey Mouse themed food. Fortunately, I was able to shop for much of the stuff I needed while we were in Disney, as it made it much easier.

She had 5 friends over and she was excited to see all of them. At first she wasn't quite sure to think of them being in her house, but soon warmed up. As I took her downstairs, she finally got to see all the decorations, her new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse tent and everyone who came to share in her special day.

We all ate and then it was time for cake and presents. She was very excited with her cake and even helped blow out the candles. As Daddy and Grandma Vaughn cut cake, Jetta decided to help herself and dug in with a spoon, very cute. Once we all enjoyed some cake and ice cream, it was present time.

Her friend Ava helped her open her gifts and they seemed to have alot of fun. Jetta loved all her presents. Once we finished that, it was time to play and play they all did. They played themselves out. It was nearly 7:30 when everyone left and Jetta was exhausted, but had a very good day. I know this cuz she fell asleep almost immediately, and when we went to move her, she was talking in her sleep and she said "Ava", so I know she was dreaming about the day and what a good time she had.

It was another very special day for me, as now I have had her for than a year and have got to spend many special holidays, day, etc with her and now can just look forward to all the rest that are to come. Also, thanks to my very special friend Jen who came over early that day and helped me prepare alot of the food...you're the best, I love you!

Yo Gabba Gabba....

2010-03-29T09:41:00.002-05:00

Some of you may not know who or what Yo Gabba Gabba is and there are days I wish I didn't. However, the Sunday after we returned from vacation, we took Jetta to her first live show, which was Yo Gabba Gabba. That day I really enjoyed it, as I watched Jetta as she realized what was going on. Her face was great, so excited, eyes so big and just smiling.

The show wasn't real long, but long enough for her to have a great time. She was up dancing on my lap, clapping and just enjoying the whole, as were all the other kids that were there. I was very surprised to see how many people were there. After all, this is a show with 5 characters, Muno - the red one, Foofa - the pink one, Brobee - the green one, Plex- the yellow robot, and Toodee - the blue cat and of course DJ Lance. DJ Lance is originally from St. Louis, so he was very excited to be able to perform at the Fox in his home town.

As a parent, you always wonder what your kids will enjoy and for me I was hoping it wouldn't be Barney, so needless to say I'll take Yo Gabba Gabba. It honestly is a good learning show for kids. They teach alot of good lessons, have bright colors that they kids like as well as alot of music to dance to and all of you know what a dancer Jetta is.

So, all in all, it was a really good day and great to watch her be so excited. Again, this is what it's all about. Needless to say, she had a very big, busy week, but she was such a champ and took it all in stride and she made my vacation one of the best I've ever been on.

Our first family vacation...CA or bust!

2010-03-23T11:51:00.012-05:00

Since we earned so many frequent flyer miles on our trip to China, we decided to reward ourselves and take our first vacation as a family. We decided we would visit California for a variety of reasons. First, we were hoping for some nicer weather than what St. Louis had to offer. Second, we wanted to finish out our tour of all the Disney parks in the world...yep world. After visiting Disney in Anaheim, we will have seen all the parks in the U.S. and Internationally. So, since CA was going to offer both of those things, it was decided.

When planning our trip, I didn't give much thought that the week of March 13th to the 20th, would pretty much encompass Spring break for most schools. However, I should have. My only thought was, we have to fly before the 25th, before Jetta turns 2, so we don't have to buy her a ticket.

Well, needless to say, the airport was a lot more busy than I had anticpated when we got there at 5:00 a.m. on the 13th. I thought I was well prepared, I had checked in online on Friday, as well as paid for our bags. Thinking that would put me ahead of the game. Well, it didn't. When we arrived, we went to the curbside check-in location, expecting to be able to check-in. The agent there so kindly told us, United doesn't have curbside, you'll have to go inside and check-in at the ticket counter. Well, when we walked in, we new this wasn't going to go well. The line was outside of their ropes and at this point we had just about an hour to catch our flight. As we waited in the line, an agent started to ask for passengers who had a 6:00 flight (I thought, finally, we are going to get out of this never ending line) for Chicago.....and we had a 6:05 flight to Denver. So, I asked him, what about the 6:05 to Denver and he just said "you'll have to stay in line". I thought, interesting.....6:00 Chicago, 6:05 Denver....what's the difference. I guess the difference was, they would make their flight and we wouldn't. Yep, we missed our flight. At the time we didn't know we were gonna miss it, but once we cleared the ticket line, only to give them our bags to head to security (since we were already checked in and our luggage was paid for), the security line was never-ending as well. So, finally we asked the TSA agent, can you do anything for us, we have a 6:05 to Denver and he so kindly said "No....you have to stay in the line"....again, not sure what the deal is with Denver flights having to "stay in line".

So we finally cleared security at 5:50 and realized that we were departing at Gate A21, which of course was the farthest gate away, all the way to the end of Concourse A. So, Shannon, the runner he is (NOT)...took off for the gate, while I gathered myself, Jetta, the carry-on bags, Jetta's stroller...you get the point and headed towards the gate. He got there at 5:55 and the gate agent proceeded to tell him, "I'm sorry you've missed the flight, I gave your wife's seat away!" Yep, 10 minutes to spare and she had already given my seat away. Mind you the plane was still sitting there, not even getting close to pulling away.

So, as I approached the gate, he told me, we missed it, she gave your seat away. Needless to say, I was shocked. Not that that wasn't bad enough, but then she proceeded to tell us that all the flights that were leaving that morning and early afternoon were overbooked and the earliest she could confirm us on a flight was 6:30 p.m......yep, 12 hours later.

Now, any of you who have traveled with kids knows, 12 hours in an airport is not gonna turn out good. So, once we conceeded to the fact that we weren't leaving any time soon, we headed home and headed back to the airport later that day to catch our 6:30 p.m. flight! The only good part of missing our flight was while we waiting to board our evening flight, football star, Jerry Rice was there and was going to be on our plane. We didn't get to get a picture, cuz he was signing autographs for the soldiers and taking pics with them, but I told Jetta, honey you don't know who that is, but he is somebody and he looked over and said, "she is beautiful"....Shannon hoped to get a pic of him with her, but he had to board the plane. So, I guess it wasn't all that bad after all...missing our flight, at least we got to see someone famous.

Fortunately once all that drama played out, we landed safely in San Francisco and got off to a much better start. Our first day in San Francisco we did so much walking, I thought my feet were going to fall off. It felt like everything was miles apart, but I think it was just the fact that we were exhausted from the day before and having been up for nearly 22 hours. Jetta was a trooper, she handled the flight very well, no crying, no fussing, nothing. Just like our trip home from China. I wasn't sure this flight would go the same since when we traveled home from China she was still trying to figure us out. However, she was great, we even had a lady compliment us on how well behaved she was. Phew....got lucky on that one! However, the best part is, she just kept saying "airplanein"....not airplane, but "airplanein"....to cute. Once we got to SF a pilot saw her while we waited for our bus to the hotel and he gave her her first set of wings and a trading card. She loved them.

We started out by heading into the city and doing some sight-seeing on Sunday morning. The bay was right outside our hotel, so we got to take some of that in before we headed into town. Once we arrived in town we headed to Fisherman's Wharf. Jetta was very excited, as they had a huge carousel that she got to ride. Then we walked around and finally found the sea lions that were all lying on the pier. It was very neat and Jetta loved them. After we finished the pier, we headed over to our tour to Alcatraz Island.

We got to take a ferry across the bay over to the island, Jetta really seemed to enjoy the boat ride and kept saying "bath" and I told her, that is a really big bathtub and not very warm! Once we got to the island, they let us off the boat and got to head into the prison. Needless to say, Jetta didn't get any of this experience, which was witnessed by the fact that she crashed out and slept the whole time we were there. However, it made our tour much easier, as we didn't have to entertain her. The prison was much smaller than I had imagined, at its max only housing just over 200 prisoners. A few other points were fascinating to me. First, the 4 most notorious prisoners really didn't commit all that bad of crimes. I guess "the bird man" did, but Al Capone was there for tax evasion....well, there are many people in the world today who are guilty of that, such as Nicholas Cage and I'm sure he won't spend hard time in a Federal maximum prison. Then two of the others were there for attempted kidnapping...yep, attempted and finally "the bird man", he committed murder. So, all in all, their crimes compared to today's criminals are nothing. Secondly, the fact that many of the prison workers, guards, warden, cooks, and their families, all actually lived on the island. Very interesting to me. They stated that it was quite nice and rarely did they lock their doors. So, all in all the tour was great and I'm glad we took the time to do it.

On our second day, we did alot more sight-seeing. We climbed a never ending hill (a typical street in SF) up to Alamo square where we got to the see the 5 houses that were used in the filming of Full House. The beautiful Victorian style homes, known as the Painted Ladies, which were all very well kept and I'm sure had a very nice price tag (actually, I went to a local real estate website for SF that had one of the houses nearby the 5 houses - it was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, just less than 2,000 sf - for the very affordable price of $1,495,000 - I guess I won't be moving out there anytime soon). We then made our way to the cable cars and rode them down the very steep hill to Chinatown, where we took a tour. It was very neat to see. We even got to visit a fortune cookie factory....I use factory loosely, as there were only two women working there, but they were sitting at their station actually folding the cookies as they came off the press. I'll include a picture so you can see. It was a very manual process and the next time I eat a fortune cookie, I'll remember those ladies.

After we finished that we headed back to the trolley and headed to Ghiradelli square (a chocolate company), which I'm not really certain if they make or have ever made the actual chocolate there. However, the sign was neat to see and smelling the chocolate at the stores was great. We bought a few pieces and it surely was good. From there we headed back to the pier and then took a cab back to the hotel. After two long days of walking the very hilly streets of San Fran, we were ready to head to LA and Anaheim so we could visit Mickey Mouse.

We got up early the next morning, headed to the airport to pick-up our rental car so we could head out. However, since we hadn't actually gotten to see (up close anyway) the Golden Gate bridge we opted to drive into the city and to drive over the bridge. It was amazing. So big, so beautiful. As we made our way across Shannon snapped a few photos and then we turned around and headed back across so we could head to LA. Definitely glad we took the time to drive across it and to see it up close.

We drove down to LA/Anaheim and got into LA at just the perfect time. I'm being a bit sarcastic...it was right at 5:30 - 6:00 p.m. ......the LA rush hour! However, from what I'm told, rush hour begins around 3:00 and lasts till 7:00 on weekdays and begins around 1:00 and lasts till 9:00 on Fridays. That's a bit longer than what we're used to in St. Louis. So, as we approached LA we found ourselves right in the middle of it all. It honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe it's because I live in a bigger city or have lived in Japan and sat in their traffic, but really had expected it to be worse.

However, it did take us an hour and a half to go approximately 30 miles. The crazy thing is, while you are in this traffic, it actually moves. However, one thing I finally realized was, that there was a carpool lane and by definition (2 or more people in the car) we could use it. So, I jumped in it (crossing the double yellow lines - which I'm sure was illegal) and things moved much more quickly. Finally, I got back out (again crossing the double yellow lines) and was finally approaching our exit to Disney. The area around the park (which you can't see at all from the road) was very beautiful. There were alot of people moving around, but you could tell they were all happy and had been to the happiest place on earth. We got checked into our hotel and headed out to get a bite to eat. We headed over to Downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Jetta wasn't much of a fan. The monkeys scared her, so I had a little monkey of my own, with a desparate monkey grip around my neck, in my lap the whole time we ate. After dinner we did some shopping and then headed back and called it a night, as we knew tomorrow was gonna be a big day....Jetta's first visit to see "Mouse" as she calls him.

Once we got up and got moving, we headed to the park. It wasn't to far from the hotel, so we just drove over and parked, figuring we could leave when we wanted vs waiting for the hotel bus to pick us up. Once I got our tickets and we made our way to the gates, Jetta saw Mickey on the hill and had the biggest smile on her face and eyes wide open. We headed in and took a few pictures and figured we'd head towards the rides. We knew it was gonna be a hot day, as the weather man was calling for temps in the 90's....the hottest day they had so far this year....I guess I picked a good day to visit the park huh? However, it really wasn't that bad, with no humidity the heat was a bit easier to tolerate. Not that it wasn't hot, it just wasn't hot and sticky.

As soon as we got into Tommowland Jetta saw "airplaneins" and just kept saying it. We opted to start with Buzz Lightyear vs the "airplaneins", cuz the wait was much shorter. She wasn't quite sure of that ride, so then Shannon decided he would stand in the line with her and they would ride the "airplaneins". Once they finally got on, she loved it. Her face was full of surprise and I just stood there and laughed. She was so adorable. Just seeing her that happy, made me happy and brought tears to my eyes. I thought to myself, this is what it's all about.

We then decided we'd ride a few more rides, eat lunch and reassess how it was going. The day went by fast and before we knew it, it was time to call it a day. We headed back to the hotel and grabbed a bite to eat. Another great day, but just a few more days left.

When we got up on Thursday morning, we knew we had to get going, as we were headed into LA for a tour of Hollywood and Movie Star Homes tour. The day was going to be long, but we knew it would be fun. We headed in and again, hit rush hour, only this time it was the morning rush hour, mind you it was 9:00, so I'm not sure why all those people weren't at work. Anyway, I remembered my little trick from when we came in and found my way into the carpool lanes (this time legally though) and we were in LA before we knew it. Once we got there, we headed out with Mark, our tour guide and 4 other people on an a/c bus, however today was much cooler....in the low 80's....figures!

Our first stop was Venice beach.....not what I was expecting when it came to a CA beach. There were alot of homeless people, all offering some kind of advice to earn money or to get a beer. That seemed to be the goal. We made our way around the beach a bit and then headed back to the bus. From there we headed over to Santa Monica beach, which was what I expected when it came to a beach. It was much nicer, cleaner, etc. We could see the pier from where we were and Mark told us, that is the place that you see in the sitcome "Two and a Half Men". It was very cool. From there we made our way past 31 movie star homes, some of which we could see fairly well and others were well hidden. We didn't get lucky enough to see any stars leaving their houses. Oh well, it was just neat to see how they live and to see just how big some of the houses were.

From there we headed down Rodeo drive which was much smaller/shorter than I expected. It was really only about 3 city blocks long. Mind you, in that 3 city blocks, you could spend enough, that you wouldn't need anything more. At the end of Rodeo drive was the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (the one in Pretty Woman - I was very excited to see this, as that is one of my all time favorite movies. From there we headed into Hollywood.

It was very interesting to see. It was much smaller, more compressed that I had envisioned. When you watch things on tv it seems as if the stuff is very spread out. I'm sure some of it is, but within one city block, there was the Kodak theatre, Graumann's Chinese theater, El Capitan - the world famous Disney theater, part of the walk of fame and many souvenir shops. The walk of fame was a bit worn down....mind you they have earthquakes daily, but I would have thought they would have been better kept. We made our way up onto the breeseway of the Kodak theater, so we could view the famous "Hollywood" sign. Of course took a few pics and just enjoyed the fact that we got to see it. Our time was limited there, so that was pretty much all we got to see.

From there we headed back and then headed back to the hotel. Again, right at rush hour. The next day we would be heading back to San Fran and finishing out our vacation. Our drive back was good, we took a different route and happened across a 145 store outlet mall....needless to say, we had to stop. Got some great bargains. Got back to San Fran around 7:30, checked-in and then headed out for dinner. We went to a local Mexican restaurant and the food was amazing, the best Mexican I've ever had and by far the best meal I had the whole trip.

Now just to make it to the airport in time to catch our flight back to St. Louis and we could call it a trip. Well, we made it there in plenty of time, but when we saw the security line, we thought, here we go again. I am not joking, the line was about 3 city blocks long......and I looked at my watch and said to Shannon...."we have 2 hours till our flight and if this moves like the St. Louis line did, we are going to miss our flight home". However, unknown to me there was a family line...one of the nice TSA agents came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "you don't have to wait in this line - we have a family line" , "go up to to the purple sign and you'll get right through". Now that's how you do it, no lines, nice people, unlike our experience in St. Louis. We got through security in a matter of minutes and was happy to know that we would make our flight and not be facing another 22 hour day. We made our flight, made it home safely and had a great time.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to share our first family vacation with everyone and give you a little background to the pics I will attach. I hope you enjoy the pics, cuz we definitely enjoyed the moments that are captured.

One year ago!

2010-03-07T19:34:00.008-06:00

I can hardly believe it is already time for me to make this post. My how the time has flown and I wouldn't change a thing, well maybe one thing....I would try to slow down time, as the last year has gone by way to fast.

One year ago today, I woke up in a hotel room in China knowing that this was the day my life would change forever. I just had no idea how much it would change and how it would change for the better. This was the day that we were going to pick Jetta up and to start our life with her. The day was so much more than I could have ever expected.

As we arrived at the building to pick the girls up, my stomach was in knots, not knowing what to expect (thinking to myself - before long I'm gonna be a mom). As we got out of the bus that took us and made our way to the elevator, we all were looking at each other, smiling, knowing that we were just moments away from meeting our girls.

As we got off the elevator, there was a sea of other adoptive parents, either having just received their babies, or others who were waiting. As I surveyed the room, I saw alot of parents holding their children and remember thinking to myself, that will be me soon. I also thought, I wonder how it feels for the child, scary, unsure, probably not even realizing what was about to take place. Most of the parents had big smiles on their faces and/or tears running down their cheeks, all finally happy that they had their child.

As we made our way into the waiting area, there was a door that had curtains hanging from it, with just a small crack allowing us to sneak a peek and hoping to catch a glimpse of our babies. As several of us were peeking in, a man came over to the curtains and pulled them closed. We kind of looked at each other and was wondering if any of them were our babies.

As we stood their patiently waiting (again by this time I think I was just numb from the fact that this was soon going to be the moment I had been waiting so long for), I remember our guides coming out to tell us that it wouldn't be much longer, but that the girls hadn't arrived yet, as they were stuck in traffic. We all just kind of laughed and thought, what is a few more minutes.

As we stood there, we talked amongst ourselves, trying to take our minds off of the fact that our babies weren't there and that they would soon be arriving. Before long, we noticed a group of people getting off the elevator and in they came, walking past all of us, holding 8 beautiful little girls. We all just looked at each other and immediately looked to find our guides hoping they would give us the look that let us know that those were our babies. However, I don't think any of us really needed that, cuz as they went by, we all surveyed the babies and each saw our daughters. While we only had two small pictures, that were months old, but we just knew.

I remember Shannon coming over to me and saying, did you see her and I said I'm not sure, but I think I did. He said, "she was the one sleeping in that man's arms". First of all, we were very surprised to see men carrying the babies in, but come to find out there are several men at the orphanage and all are involved with the girls care in some way or another. The man who carried Jetta in, ironically, is the orphanages accountant. Strange that the orphanages accountant would travel with the group, but since they were bringing such a large group of babies, they needed all the help they could get. At the time this was all taking place I didn't know this, but recently I found out, and found it so strange that the man who carried my daughter in was the accountant...call it whatever, but they say that red thread exists and me being an accountant, figured this was just one more red thread moment and knew that Jetta was meant for me.

As we saw them be whisked by and taken behind that daunting curtain, all we could do was try to compose ourselves. We didn't even have them and we were crying. Just knowing that in a matter of moments they would be placed in our arms. Our guides finally (I say finally, but it was probably a matter of minutes, but seemed like hours) came out and told us what the order would be for them bringing out the babies and I was going to be number 2. I couldn't believe it, I just had to wait for one other baby to make her way through the curtain and then Jetta would be on her way out.

The first baby came out, Desneiges, and then it was my turn, before I knew it, out came this beautiful baby girl. She had on a white pair of pajamas that were sizes to big for her (which today still fit her), then I saw those big brown eyes and I knew for sure it was her. As they placed her in my arms, all I could do was cry and hug her. I held onto her so tight, trying to let her know everything was going to be alright. She was sucking her thumb, but as Shannon made his way over, she managed to take it out of her mouth and gave us her first smile. Then we knew it was going to be alright. She let Shannon hold her right away, which was good, but then I wanted her back. I could hardly believe that all of the waiting was now over and now I could start living my life with her as a part of it.

As all of the familes got their babies, we all just enjoyed that moment, talking with each other, looking at each others babies, knowing that now our families were complete. Shortly after we got all the babies, it was time to head back to the hotel. We all agreed that after we got back, later that afternoon we would all meet up in the lounge and see how things were going. Jetta was amazing, she adjusted so well and was such a happy baby. Everyone made fun of us, cuz she seemed to be farther ahead than most of the babies. I remember Abby joking, "where is Jetta, did she walk back to your room?"

Well, that was just the beginning of the first year of her being a part of our family. As many of you know, she has adjusted very well, better than I could have ever imagined. There have been so many special memories, all of which I have tried to share throughout the past year. I'm looking forward to the next year and all the years to come. The past year has been amazing, so much more than I could have ever have dreamed of.

Jetta is pure joy (even though she's about to turn two). She is a very smart, inquisitive, outgoing little girl. I of course think she is the most beautiful baby ever, but I guess that's what moms do. I could bore you with many other stories from over the past year, but I won't. I just want to thank all of you for following along and for supporting me throughout this amazing journey.

And to Jetta, honey I love you and am so grateful that I have been given this amazing opportunity to be your mommy. I can't wait to experience your life with you and hope that you will always know how much I love you.

I'm going to post a few pictures from our Gotcha Day as well as some of my favorites from the past year, many of which I've posted before, but it allows you to see just how much she's changed and grown since the day we got her. I did take a picture of her this morning, and will try to post it later tonight, so we have a picture from last year and a picture from today.

Tonight we will go out for Chinese and celebrate this special day. I know she won't understand what it all means, now, but one day she will and I truly hope she always knows that her birth mother gave her this opportunity to have a better life and that I am forever grateful to her for giving her this chance and for China, choosing me to be her mom. I don't know that words can fully express what the last year has meant to me, but as I sit here and finish typing this, I have tears in my eyes just remembering that special day, one year ago and how wonderful my life has become since that day.

Jetta Picasso....

2010-02-18T19:45:00.004-06:00

The picture attached is Jetta's first piece of artwork....it's quite the masterpiece and I love her choice of canvas! I was in changing after work and she decided to get her bathtub crayons out and headed into the kitchen. Shannon was in there starting dinner and I guess unattended she decided to try her hand at a masterpiece. A masterpiece it is...thank goodness they are bathtub crayons, they wiped up as easy as they went on. However, couldn't pass up the opportunity to post her first piece of artwork!

Chinese New Year....

2010-02-15T19:53:00.004-06:00

This weekend was the start of Chinese New Year and we celebrated with friends and family....our Chinese family. We traveled to Itasca to meet up with several of the families that we traveled with in China. It was a really great weekend and even better to see the girls. They are getting so big and all have changed so much. It is great to see how they are changing in person vs just in pictures. I'm so grateful that our group wants to remain in touch and work to get the girls together. I think right now the visits are for us, but as the girls get older it will be for them.

While we celebrated our first Chinese New Year as a family, as I said we also celebrated it with our Chinese family. When we traveled in China, I didn't realize just how much all of these families would mean to me and how much I treasure the moments and memories we will have together forever. Each of them hold a very special place in my heart and am so grateful that I had the opportunity to share this experience with them and to be able to continue to share the future with them.

A special thanks to Joe and Marla for opening their house to us (again) and for allowing us to continue to share each others daughters. They are so special and honestly can't remember life before, honestly I don't want to...my life is so full now, I wouldn't want it any other way.

I look forward to July when we will travel again to Peoria this time, as Abby, Bob and Bing will host our next gathering and will be our annual reunion, one that I hope we have for many years to come.

I'm gonna post some pictures from yesterday, you can see for yourself just how much all the girls have changed. Also, check out the one of the girls at the window...they are looking at the snow and all seem to really enjoy being with each other.....

Just a couple of cute pics to post...

2010-02-02T14:11:00.004-06:00

We took these pictures over the weekend. Jetta found her sunglasses, and decided she wanted to wear them. The funny part is.....since her nose is so tiny, if she turns her head, the sunglasses turn too...it's pretty funny. However, she doesn't seem mind wearing them. I'm hoping to get her to wear them a little more before we head to CA next month, as I think she'll want them while we're there.

Also, check out her shirt.....one of my friends gave me this shirt and she knows how much Jetta loves Elmo and she is finally big enough to wear it. She was pretty darn excited when we put it on.

Then the last pictures are her in her jacket, her had and shades. Now all we need is snow. We haven't really had much to speak of, but we're just getting her ready for her first time out on the slopes.....just kidding. However, in the picutre, all she needs are some ski poles and I think she is an ad in the making.

She is just getting so darn big. She is finally starting to wear some 18 month clothes, which I guess is about time, since she's nearly 23 months old. Her final two teeth (other than her final molars that won't come in for a bit) have finally poked through. They were tough....I truly think it took nearly a month for them to pop thru. So, she almost has a full set of teeth. Not only does she have a full mouth of teeth, but she has a pretty full vocabulary. A week or two ago I did a list of words that she knows and came up with over 170. I had been thinking she was around 100, so it was with pleasant surprise that I discovered she knew more. She's starting to put some of the words together into short sentences, so I think we're getting pretty close to her actually talking and then I think I'm in for it. Other than that, she is just growing like crazy and is quickly approaching that two year mark.

We will be taking a trip to Peoria this coming weekend to go to a Chinese New Years celebration and then the next weekend to Chicago to meet up with some of our travel mates. I'll have more to post after that. Then we're almost to our one year anniversary of getting Jetta....hard to believe and then just a few short weeks later she'll turn two......where has the time gone.

Well, I'm gonna close for now, as we're home today, she has been running a fever and is wanting some snuggle time. I feel very lucky, this is the first time she's been sick since we got her and already seems to be perking up a bit.....So, hope you enjoy the pictures.

Oh to have that much energy....

2010-02-02T13:50:00.006-06:00

The video that is attached is Jetta and all her energy. She makes me tired just watching her. As you'll see, I try to get her to stop, but she just keeps going....kind of like the energizer bunny. She seems to enjoy running around the kitchen island and being silly. I wish I had half her energy....after you watch the video you'll understand what I'm saying.

Uncle Matt Visits.....

2010-01-23T18:33:00.003-06:00

We traveled to Peoria last weekend to see Uncle Matt. Uncle Matt is Shannon's brother who lives in Florida. We haven't seen him for some time, so it was very nice to see him. He came home to visit and just hang out. We were very excited for him to finally meet Jetta. We send him pictures and he calls often and has talked to her, but hasn't had the chance to meet her in person. They seemed to enjoy meeting each other. We got a few good pictures of them together and just wanted to post them. I'm glad we got to see Uncle Matt, but also very glad he got to meet Jetta.

Little Gym....

2010-01-19T20:47:00.005-06:00

When we came home from China I wanted to get Jetta into some sort of program that incorporated tumbling, gymnastics and other activities, in order to get her use to being in a group, as well as active.

After talking with a friend, I decided that the Little Gym might just be the place to go. We went for our first visit back in April or May and have not stopped going since. We go once a week and each week the kids learn new activities, explore all the gym equipment, and just get to run around and be kids. Jetta absolutely loves it. She has learned many great things since starting and some not so great things. The not so great thing is the ability to hang from a bar and not be afraid.

You might be wondering why that is not such a great thing. Well, long story short, it has given Jetta the confidence to climb out of her crib! Since she knows how to hang on the uneven bars at Little Gym, and once her arms tire that you just drop down. Well, that provided a great platform for her to crawl out of her crib. She doesn't take the easy route, by that I mean, climbing over the front rail....nope, not my little dare devil. She opts to climb over the end that isn't against the wall. Since the end rails are taller and rounded (kind of like a sleigh bed), she is able to get up over it, grab the rounded edge, hold on and drop to the floor without a problem. I'm surprised when she lands she does say "ta da"....as you'll see in one of the pictures I'll attach, she loves to say "ta da" when she finishes up something and it should be a "ta da" moment.

So, now, she has figured out how to climb out and makes her way across the house and knocks on my bedroom door at 3:30 in the morning, saying "mommy". Fortunately she has only done this twice, but none the less, not something I was hoping she'd figure out.

So, long story short, Little Gym has been great for building confidence and the ability to climb out of the crib. All joking aside, the Little Gym is great, we love it and as you'll see in the pictures, she just finished her last session, got her medal and has already started her next class. I look forward to her continuing to grow and developing more skills, which by the way, she walks across the balance beam on her own and will jump off the end (of course only when Shannon or I are there to catch her). I think I might have a little gymnast on my hands. She's still a little young to put her in an official program, but if she continues to show interest in another year or so, I will get her into an actual gymnastic program.

Here are a few pics from her last session, such a big girl.... however, notice the ribbon holding up her pants.....yep, my almost 22 month baby needs something to hold up her 12 to 18 month pants. She can still wear some 12 month pants, but they are starting to get a bit short, but 18 month pants are perfect for length, but definitely require a belt (wrapped around her twice). She's is finally almost 24 lbs and 32 inches tall. So, she has gained nearly 10 lbs since we came home 10 months ago (today) and 3 or so inches. I guess that would explain why the 12 month pants are to short. Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

1 to 13 in 21 months....

2010-01-03T18:55:00.004-06:00

Well, Jetta finally got it figured out and is now able to count to 11 without missing a number, she finally decided that she knew 6 & 7. She can count to 13, but still misses 12. Despite missing 12, I think she is doing really well, being able to count to 13 in 21 months. Really, in 1o months, since that is how long she has been hearing English. I'm so proud of her and how well she is doing. I'm gonna post a video of her counting.....as I think it's very cute to listen to her and her adorable little voice. I hope you enjoy it too.

One year ago today.....

2009-12-28T11:38:00.009-06:00

First of all, let me thank all of you for following along for the last year. Hard to believe, but it was one year ago today that we got our referral for Jetta. Just typing that brings tears to my eyes.

It was a typical Monday morning, I got up and headed into work. Once I got there, I did my usual morning ritual, I logged onto my computer and headed straight to the Rumor Queen's website to see if there was any news and to my surprise there was news, news I was not expecting. She had posted that Europe was starting to receive calls for referrals that included our log in date. I could hardly believe it, it was finally gonna happen. One of my friends who live outside of Chicago saw the Rumor Queen's post and she called me to ask me if I was ready to get "the call"......It was so strange to hear that, the fact that we would soon be hearing something from our agency about our daughter.

While I could hardly concentrate, I attempted to work, which was not really working so well. I kept checking Rumor Queen and talking with my friend Abby, who lives in Peoria, to see if she had heard anything yet. As the day slowly passed by, she heard from her caseworker, along with some of my other travel mates. They were all talking and saying that they had information about their daughters. I was still waiting.

Finally, as I was leaving work, around 4:30, my cell phone rang and it was my social worker, I was shaking so much, I could hardly believe I was finally gonna hear the news that I had waited so long for. She told me, you have a daughter, her name is Jia Jia Xu and she is in Guangdong province and is 9 months old. I could hardly believe it. At that point she said she didn't have much other information, but would try to get back to me soon with more details.

So, I got on the bus and headed home, once I got on, I could hardly contain myself and told everyone who would listen, I got a referral for my daughter and we would soon get to see pictures. It was so hard to believe that this was finally going to happen. We were finally gonna see pictures of the baby who we had been calling Jetta and dreaming about for over 3 years. That night when I got home, I told Shannon what I knew, which wasn't much, but then our social worker called and said she had one small picture that she could share, but that we would see more tomorrow. She sent it and it was amazing to finally see her face. Her hair all wild and crazay, the biggest brown eyes ever and the cutest lips. She was perfect. Now, just to wait for the next morning and to finally get more details and pictures of our little girl.

We got the pictures that next morning, I called Shannon and sent them directly over to him. We were both speechless and were so in love. I could barely contain myself and had to go tell everyone I worked with that I had pictures. So, I shared them with all of them. She was perfect and could barely wait to go and get her.

Fast forward, March 4th, we headed to China to get Jetta, it was the longest flight ever. Once we got there, we spent a few days in Hong Kong to get adjusted. Finally on Sunday, March 8th we headed to Guangzhou with all the other parents so we could be there for Monday, March 9th, which was the day we got the girls. What an amazing day. I don't think I'll ever forget that day, it was even more amazing than finding out that we had our referral. They called our names and brought her out to us.....she was so tiny, so precious, with such big, curious eyes. To our surprise we got our first smile from her. She wasn't sure what to think of everything, but seemed to adjust fairly well. She was a hit with all the other parents, as she was so sweet and outgoing. Those first few days were amazing. I could hardly believe we had her and that she was ours.

After spending another week in China it was time to come home. Leaving China was difficult. Only becauase that was her home and we were taking her from it. While I knew we would be giving her a much better life than what she would have had, it was still very emotional to take her away and to not think about her birth mother and what a huge sacrifice she had made by giving her up. I am forever grateful to her, I wish I could tell her that, but I hope she finds some comfort in knowing that her daughter is somewhere with a very loving family, who wants to give her the best of everything. While I can't imagine the void her heart feels, mine is completely full and never knew that being a mom could be so amazing.

Now that we've been home, Jetta has done so many amazing things. She started walking on May 5th, just 6 short weeks after we came home and hasn't slowed down since. She is always on the go. She keeps us busy that's for sure. She now has a vocabularly of about 60 words, can say part of her abc's....a, b, c, d, e, f, g.....it a start. She also can count to 13.....despite missing 6, 7 & 12. However, she is finally starting to say 6. She also did something else very big today....she went poop on the potty. Yep, poop. It was a huge step. As the week continues I'm gonna try to work more with her, but am hopeful that we may be on the road to no more diapers, during the day that is. There are so many more amazing things she has accomplished, she is doing far better than I could have ever imagined. They prepare you for the worst and we definitely didn't encounter that. Jetta is so advanced and amazes me more and more every day. She is a wonderful kid and I couldn't imagine not having her in my life.

We hope to meet up with all our travel mates again in the near future and I am looking forward to that, as I can't wait to see how all the other girls have progressed. We got Christmas cards from many of the families and all the girls look very happy and are growing so quickly. I hope these 8, the Guangdong 8, will always have a special connection to each other, after all they spent almost their first full year of life together. It's hard to believe that we've had them for almost 10 months now and that soon they will have been with us as long as they were in the orphange. It seems that they are all adjusting well and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

I'm gonna post her referral pictures and then a picture from today, just to show how much she has changed. Her face is so sweet, her eyes so big and her heart so full of love. I'm so grateful that her mother gave her this opportunity, that China chose her for us and that she is a part of my life. I can't imagine it any other way.

Christmas Day....

2009-12-28T11:14:00.002-06:00

Well, this is the second post of the two I promised for Christmas. It was as special, actually more special than I could have imagined. We woke up around 7:30 and hurried around to get everything set up so we could capture Jetta coming out to see her gifts from Santa Claus. When she first came, she wasn't very happy, as I sat her down and told her to go see her daddy (with his new Cubs hat on her head), she got upset and cried. So, we stopped the camera for a minute and then she was fine. So, back to the plan of recording it was.

She came around the edge of the couch and saw her new quad with Frosty the Snowman on it. She walked over, eyes wide open and proceeded to pull Frosty off the quad and took her spot. She crawled up on it and pushed the button and was very surprised when it took off. She seemed to enjoy it. Then it was time to open all the other many gifts she had under the tree. We helped her open the corners of each package and then let her rip off the paper, many of the gifts were met with a "wow" and wide eyes, others with a big smile. She loved everything and we loved watching her open her gifts. As we neared the end of the huge pile that she had to open, we kept a couple aside so we could call Grandma and Grandpa Peters on Skype and let them enjoy watching her open a few of her gifts from them.

She loved them, one was a patio set with "Mouse" aka Mickey Mouse on it and she just kept saying "Mouse". She is talking so much. Then after she opened her last gift, she just decided she would climb all over the box. She seems to enjoy climbing on boxes these days vs actually playing with the gifts. After we Skyped Grandma and Grandpa, it was time to start cooking for the day. We had our friends Dora, Jason and Zach over to have Christmas dinner with us. It was nice to spend the day with friends.

They also brought Jetta gift, a Ni-hao Kai-lan trike, which talks in both Chinese and English. She loves it, but she's just a tad bit to short to reach the peddles. However, she still loves to climb on it and listen to all its sounds. Last night we played with her and pushed her back and forth and she absolutely loved it. After filling our bellies full of great food, we played a few games and then called it a day. Jetta was so tired, she fell asleep in my arms at the table.

I think she really enjoyed her first Christmas and I know we surely did. We had a great time watching her enjoy Santa Claus, all her presents and believe or not, we actually got some snow on Christmas morning. So, the day was perfect. As of right now I'm not gonna include any video as it is all on the camcorder, but do plan to try to figure that out, but will put some pics of her opening her many gifts. Thanks to everyone who got her something, we really appreciate you thinking of her on her first holiday with us.

Too funny not to post....right now.

2009-12-26T18:55:00.002-06:00

As I'm sitting her posting, Jetta is asking for "cheese, cheese" and Shannon said, baby no cheese and I told him, go ahead and give her some actual dinner. So, he pulled out the leftovers from yesterday and heated up some turkey. I figured, that's a good choice and next thing I know, in she comes and this is what she had! Priceless! I was rolling on the floor and told him, you have a to get a picture and this is what he got! I hope you enjoy! I'm thinking she won't be hungry again tonight!

Christmas Eve....

2009-12-26T18:20:00.007-06:00

This is the first of two posts I'll do for Christmas. I'll do Christmas Eve and then Christmas. We started Christmas Eve by heading north to Peoria. Grandpa & Grandma Vaughn have Christmas Eve every year and each year they have Santa Claus visit their house for all the grandkids, nieces and nephews. We've attended in the past, but this year was by far more special since we have Jetta and could actually participate.

We arrived around 11:30 and Santa was due to come at noon. We took Jetta in and changed her into her Christmas dress, as we didn't have her wear it on the way up, as we figured she'd be one big wrinkle. So, once we arrived, it was time to get her changed. Once I got her dress on, it was time to put her first headband on. To my surprise she kept in on for the whole time while Santa was there and we were recording and taking pictures. Not sure how we got so lucky, but she left it alone and on. She looked absolutely adorable. I'll include pics so you can judge for yourself.

Once Santa arrived we weren't sure how she would do, but again to my surprise she did great. We asked her if she wanted to go and sit on Santa's lap and she walked up there and let him pick her up. She sat there while we all smiled and snapped pictures. When she got down she told him "bye-bye". Now it was time for Santa to read his annual Christmas tale and Jetta again headed up there and climed up on his lap and helped Santa turn the pages as he read the book. She just sat there, not scared at all. Then once the story was over, it was present time. Santa called her name and she went up, got her present and told him thank you. I think she was a real hit with Santa, as he was surprised how outgoing she was. We all watched and just enjoyed the moment. I had a few tears in my eyes, because I just couldn't believe that we were finally getting to spend our first Christmas with her.

Now it was time for Santa to leave and we asked her if she wanted to go and give Santa a hug and she did. It was so great. I'm so glad that we got to finally take part of this tradition.

With Santa gone it was time for us to exchange our gifts with Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn. Jetta helped give Grandma and Grandpa their gifts. Then it was her turn to open her gifts. She got some really great gifts and her face was full of surprise. She still doesn't fully understand the whole concept, but likes opening gifts. We made sure she said "thanks" for all of her great presents. We stayed for a bit longer and then headed over to visit Great Grandpa Jack. He too had a present for Jetta, which she loved as well. She enjoyed seeing him and watching his many fun Christmas toys.

After we visited Grandpa Jack, we headed over to see Bing....one of Jetta's friends from China. We drove over to see them and to spend some time enjoying the girls together. As always it is always alot of fun to see them together. Bing is still bigger than Jetta, but Jetta is finally getting a little taller. I'm not sure that they remember each other, but they seem to enjoy being around each other. When we came in Bing said "Jetta", which was very sweet. I'm so glad that we're able to get together with them and for the girls to stay connected.

It was finally time to head home. It was a long day, but a very special one. Jetta made out like a bandit(and we hadn't even had Christmas at home yet) and we enjoyed spending our first Christmas Eve with her and was anticipating what Christmas would be like. Once we got home, Jetta was asleep, so we put her to bed and then we got her gifts from Santa ready and set them up, anxiously waiting for Christmas morning to get here. Now it was time to go to bed and to wake up for our very first Christmas with Jetta.

So, for now, I'm gonna close, but will include some pictures from Christmas Eve. I'll try to post tomorrow about our first Christmas with Jetta and post some video so you can see just how much she enjoyed herself.

Jetta's visit with Santa Claus

2009-12-15T19:44:00.002-06:00

Well, I've been waiting to post this, as the picture I'm gonna post is the picture that we used for our Christmas card. However, it seems that snail mail is in full force and most of the people we have sent cards to have yet to receive them. Shannon mailed them last week and only one or two people have gotten them. I'm not sure why and I promise all of you, I have sent cards. I just hope they eventually show up.

Anyway.....Jetta's first visit with Santa went well. We were out at the Mills mall right before Thanksgiving and they already had Santa there. Since there wasn't a line, we thought we'd give it a shot. The elves who were helping Santa were very good and allowed Shannon and I to sit next to Santa to give Jetta some comfort. Santa asked Jetta for a high five and she gave it to him and then he gave her a candy cane. She seemed to warm to him rather quickly, so as soon as I thought she would be alright, I slipped her onto his lap and they began taking pictures. Fortunately they were able to capture some good shots. Then as we took her from Santa she just looked at him and smiled and said "bye, bye".

As we started to look at the pictures they took, my eyes filled with tears, as this is just one of many moments I have dreamed about for years. It was even better than I had ever imagined it. The smile on her face just made my heart swell with joy. I hope you enjoy the picture as much as I do. Check out Santa...isn't he amazing...he almost made me believe again.

While Christmas is still 10 days away, I'm looking forward to it for the first time in years. Jetta has a ton of gifts under the tree and her curiousity is precious. From time to time she makes her way over to the tree and manages to pick up a gift or two and tries to open them. She has managed to tear several ends off and I keep re-taping them shut. I can barely wait to watch her open all of her gifts. She has so many great expressions and is full of surprise. I'll definitely post after we open gifts.

So for now, I'm gonna go, as it's fast approaching her bedtime and time for reading, but wanted to post this and hope all of you enjoy the picture.

Our trip to KC....

2009-12-02T20:35:00.004-06:00

This past weekend we traveled to Kansas City to meet Grandma and Grandpa Peters. We spent Thankgiving with my friend Tiffany's family, which was a great time. Her family has been very kind to us and make us feel like family....thanks to all of you for your graciousness.

While we kicked off the Thanksgiving weekend with friends, we finished it out with family. As I said earlier, we traveled to Kansas City to meet Grandma and Grandpa Peters. We figured it was a good opportunity for us to be able to spend some time together for the holidays. It pretty much is half way for each of us when it comes to driving this allows us to travel with Jetta. Jetta is not quite ready for drives longer than about 5 hours, as her patience wears thin after that and that makes travel a bit more difficult.

We got in late afternoon on Friday, met at the hotel and then headed out for a little shopping and dinner. Grandma and Grandpa got to enjoy Jetta and spoil her a little bit more. On Saturday we got up early and headed to Topeka to go to Disney on Ice. My mom has always wanted to see them and I figured it was the perfect opportunity to go. I was hoping Jetta would enjoy it, as I wasn't sure since she is still young, but to my surprise, she sat on my lap for the whole show....which was about an hour and a half. She really seemed to enjoy whenever Mickey and Nemo came onto the ice and she loved all the bright colors. It was a bit loud, and she covered her ears most of the time, but managed to uncover them at just all the right times to clap. I think both Grandma and Jetta enjoyed the show, I know I did. It was really good and would expect nothing less from Disney.

After the show we just hung out for a couple more hours and then decided we would all start to make our way back home. One of the reasons for the trip was for us to exchange our Christmas gifts and exchange we did. Grandma and Grandpa came with a car full of gifts for Jetta. We weren't sure we were gonna have enough room to bring them all home! Once we got home we unloaded all of them and since we don't have a tree up yet, we put them on a chair and Jetta has been very curious and has managed to tear the corners off a few of the packages. I keep going over and retaping them, but it just makes me wonder just how much fun it will be to watch her unwrap them come Christmas morning.

So, we had a great weekend filled with friends and family and am really looking forward to Christmas and all the joy it will bring. I'm gonna post a few pics from Disney on Ice...hope you enjoy them. Now, I really must go, as it's past Jetta's bedtime, but I wanted to get caught up on posts.

Things I'm thankful for.....

2009-12-02T20:11:00.003-06:00

While I'm a few days behind in my posts, I wanted to post a few things. The first....the things I am thankful for. I'm thankful for my family, my health, my wonderful friends and my daughter. While I have always been thankful for the first things I noted, I finally have been blessed this year with Jetta and being able to say that I'm thankful for her and her being chosen for us. She is an amazing little girl and am so grateful for being given the opportunity to be her mom. I always wanted to be a mom, but never knew just how rewarding and fulfilling it would be. While she has only been a part of my life for the past 9 months, she has been in my heart for years.

During the years that we waited, I often thought about what things would be like once we had her, and couldn't wait to share special moments with her. Her first birthday, her first tooth, Easter, Christmas, just to name a few and so far each of them have been as special as I had imagined, but so much more enjoyable having her here to share the moments with. I'm looking very forward to Christmas this year and can hardly wait to watch her open her gifts and to see the excitement on her face. She may not fully comprehend the concept, but she has already shown great excitement when she sees the lights and decorations when we've been out.

This past weekend we decorated a little bit outside and she was out there to help us. I decorated the front banister and Shannon put some lights along the sidewalk and Jetta had to give her daddy the stakes to put up the lights. It was very cute and she was such a big help. We hope to get a tree this week and look forward to her helping us decorate that and her reaction once it's all done.

As I sit here and type this, she is standing on her little pink stool, watching me type, holding onto my arm and jabbering away. She just got a bath and smells just like a baby, I just love that smell and listening to her jabber in my ear. While its hard to concentrate and type, she makes me smile, rather laugh and that is all I need at the end of a long day. Her sweetness is infectious and no matter what the day hands me, she makes it all better. Just seeing her and listening to her makes my day complete.

On that note, I probably should sign off for now, as it is her bedtime and we have books to read and cuddling left to do before we call it a night. So, as I started this off.....these are just some of the things I'm thankful for, as the list could go on and on, as I have been very fortunate to be given many blessings in my life. Thanks to all of you who are a part of my life and for all that you do for me....I can never thank each of you enough. My love to you all.

Future back up dancer....

2009-11-21T10:48:00.003-06:00

Well, probably not, but Jetta absolutely loves the Dell Inspirion commercial that plays the song Lollipop. So, we have it recorded and whenever she is fussy or we just want to make ourselves laugh, we play the commercial. No matter what she's doing, it gets her attention and she sings and dances to it. So, thought we would capture it on video to share. It is very cute and notice at the end she is saying "bom, bom, bom"....which is what they say at the end of the commercial. She definitely has some unique moves....she's quite the dancer! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.....

The dogs love Jetta...

2009-11-08T14:04:00.004-06:00

Yep, that's right, the dogs love Jetta....for a variety of reasons, one, she loves to launch her food off of the high chair and needless to say, they are right there to help her clean up. Saves me time, but not sure hot dogs, and chicken nuggets are the best for them. The second reason, and the reason for this post, she is a big helper. She loves to follow us to the garage when we go to get the dogs food. So, one day, not to long ago, I asked her if she wanted to help me and take the dogs food bowl over to their dish and as always she responded "yeah". So, reluctantly I handed her the bowl and watched her carry it across the kitchen and put it in their dish. To my surprise, not one piece hit the floor. So, now each time we go to get the dogs their food, she has to help. This is a short video of her helping and shows just how big she is getting. She has always been a great helper, but I just love watching her carry the bowl across the kitchen so carefully and the dogs just anxiously waiting for her to put it down. I hope you enjoy it.....

Jetta's 1st Halloween....

2009-11-01T10:07:00.003-06:00

This was Jetta's first Halloween and she seemed to really enjoy it. She was a Panda Bear and she was a hit. If I do say so myself, she looked adorable. We mostly just stayed in our subdivision, as she really doesn't understand the whole concept just yet. We did go up to the local fire department, as they have a little get together for the kids. They served hot dogs, nachos, punch and hot chocolate. They also had candy, games and gave away glow sticks. Jetta had fun there as well. After that we went to Aunt Lori's, where she got her very own trick or treat bag. After that we stopped by our friends Dora and Jason's, where Jetta enjoyed what candy they had left. All in all the night was fun, the weather was fairly good. It definitely could have been colder. We really enjoyed spending our first Halloween with our little Panda Bear and it was everything we had hoped for. After such a fun time, I can barely wait for Christmas.

Hope you enjoy the pics and as always, thanks for following along.

Cousin Aimee's wedding....

2009-10-18T17:24:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Jetta's first wedding and she seemed to have a really good time. Shannon's cousin Aimee got married, so it was a family gathering, and it was very nice to see everyone. Jetta was very happy to see Aimee, as they have become fast friends or as Aimee says "buddies". My one worry was during the ceremony Jetta would call out "Aimee", as she was saying it as she passed by and I was just sure she was going to blurt it out, but fortunately she didn't.

Aimee, we are very happy for you and wish you the best of luck. Thanks for sharing your special day with us. Here are a few pics of Jetta in her dress, which I think she is absolutely adorable. Thanks to my friend Angela who passed this dress on to us. She is getting so big already, I'm surely not looking forward to the day I have to watch her walk down the isle. I realize that's a few years off, but I have a feeling I'm gonna blink one day and it will be here and I just want to enjoy each and every day with her from now until that day.

Jetta and daddy bake....

2009-10-11T20:10:00.004-05:00

Since the weather has finally cooled off, Shannon decided to bake some cookies today. I was in the process of working on a scrapbook project, so he asked if she wanted to help. I told him it would be a minute, as I went into her room and got out her apron. Grandma Peters gave this to her awhile back, but felt that today was a perfect opportunity to use it. It's still a little big, but it looked very cute and Shannon got some cute pictures of her in it and helping make the cookies. I think she already figured out the best part....licking the spoon (but do notice, after she licked the spoon, she turned it over to stir). She is getting so big and is so much fun. I hope you enjoy these pics....her first attempt at baking.

A day at the pumpkin patch....

2009-10-04T18:11:00.002-05:00

After we had Jetta's pictures done, we ran around a bit, but then headed to Eckert's, a local orchard. They are still picking apples, but started the pumpkin festival this weekend. So, we wanted to take Jetta to get her first pumpkin. She really seemed to enjoy herself and we enjoyed being there with her. We have spent the last several years thinking about all the fun things that we wanted to do with her and now we are finally getting to do them. It is great and makes my life so fulfilled. Here a few pics from the day.

18 Month Photo Shoot

2009-10-04T18:02:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we took Jetta for her 18 month pics, as we wanted to capture just how much she's changed since we got her 12 month pics done. It amazes me...I had an infant and now I have a toddler. These pics are very similar to the one I posted about her growing up, but professional. I think she looks absolutely adorable and think she is very photogenic. She did very well at the shoot and doesn't seem to mind the camera at all. So, here they are and I hope you enjoy them. If you're curious at just how much she's changecd, go back and check out her 12 month pics.

I'm not really sure what I did right in the whole process, but China gave me such a beautiful little girl, who is so sweet and loving. I'm so glad she has was chosen for us and can't imagine having any other baby.

My little girl is growing up....

2009-09-22T21:33:00.004-05:00

After our big weekend, we followed it up with an 18 month visit to the pediatrician. While I was looking forward to going and finding out how much she had grown and gained, I wasn't looking forward to the 4 vaccinations were we gonna have to get.

They measured and weighed her and she had grown nearly an inch, she's now 31 1/2 inches and gained 1.5 lbs and is now topping the scales at 19.4 lbs. So, she weighs just a little more than her age...she'll be 18 months on Friday....the past 6 months have gone by way to fast. I wish I could freeze time and keep her this little forever.

While she is growing and gaining, she is still small by the charts, but the dr is very happy with her progress. She also said that Jetta is doing very well in the way of learning and development, which again makes me very happy.

Once we got all that out of the way, it was time for the vaccinations. Of course the first one wasn't bad, but the final 3 caused a bit of trauma. However, as soon it was over, I scooped her up, cuddled her and within a minute or so she was fine. She was a real trooper. Of course, I'm sure it helped that I had promised her pumpkin bread from Starbucks. So, as promised we stopped on our way home and she barely ate two bites and she was out. Fortunately she has not been crabby or running a fever from the vaccinations, so short of the boo-boo of the stick, she is doing great. Short of going back for the second dose of the flu vaccine, we are now good until her 2 year visit.

This picture is from a few weeks back, but I absolutely love it and think she looks so adorable, that I wanted to share it. Its so hard to believe that just 6 short months ago we brought her home and she was a baby and today, she is a toddler. I am so grateful to have her in my life and couldn't imagine my life any other way. She has been such a blessing and has brought me more joy that I could have ever anticipated.

A few more pics of Wrigley...

2009-09-22T21:27:00.001-05:00

A day at Wrigley....

2009-09-22T21:13:00.004-05:00

On Sunday before we headed back home, we took a tour of Wrigley field. I had arranged for all of us, Shannon, Jetta and I to tour Wrigley. As you all know, Shannon is a die hard Cubs fan and I figured he would enjoy a day at the ballpark (behind the scenes).

I think he enjoyed it alot and might have even learned a few unknown facts about the ballpark and the Cubs. Wrigley is a no frills, no thrills stadium, but its history is what makes it Wrigley.

On the tour we were able to go to the bleachers and get a great view of the entire field, then over to the visiting teams clubhouse, which was very small. It is hard to believe that these multi-million dollar players enjoy going here. The clubhouse is so small that once all the players and the media gather in there, you would be lucky to be able to move around. After leaving the visiting players clubhouse, we went to the suites, which by no stretch of the means are suites. I think my kitchen might be bigger than the entire suite. However, it would still be fun to watch a game from one of them. Then we moved onto the press boxes and again, these were very small and no frills. We got to see where Harry Carey sat and called all those games. After that we moved down to the Cubs clubhouse and was sure it would be much bigger. As pictures will show, it's not much bigger than the visiting clubhouse. The thing that was most shocking was, if the players want to take some practice swings, they have to come back into the clubhouse, drop down a net, and a white board that protects a flat panel tv on the wall, pull out the batting t and swing away. Amazing....not what I would have expected. You can see the net in the clubhouse pic. I'm pretty certain, both the visiting team and the Cubs all look forward to going to other stadiums, but at the same time appreciate the "old" time feeling at Wrigley. Lastly, we got to go to the dugout and see the field from a players prospective.

The whole tour was great and we had a perfect day to do it. I will attach some pics from the day. So, Jetta had a big weekend, starting with the Cubs/Cards game on Friday at Busch, Saturday with her Guangdong sisters and then Sunday at Wrigley.

All in all it was a great weekend and am so glad we got to do all those things with her and are able to share the memories with all of you. Thanks for following along.

More pics from the reunion...

2009-09-22T21:04:00.007-05:00

I'm not sure what is going on, but I seem to be having trouble with posting pics. So, forgive me for the arrangement of the pics, but still wanted to share them, in order or not. It also seems that I can't get the text to stay together and is breaking up in strange places. I've never had this problem, so not sure what's going on.

Also, sorry that I had to post two group pics in order to get a shot of all the girls, but they were all spread out and we weren't able to get all 8 in one shot, but still wanted to share the pics so you can see how they have all changed.

Baseball pics...

2009-09-22T20:55:00.002-05:00

For some reason I had trouble adding the pics to the baseball post, so I decided to post them separately. Here they are.

Guangdong sisters reunite....

2009-09-22T13:00:00.004-05:00

This past weekend was our much anticipated trip to Chicago. We headed up north to meet up with the families we traveled to China with. We have been waiting for this weekend for quite some time and it was better than I could have ever imagined.

When we first got there, we were expecting only 7 of the 8 to be there, but to our surprise, the 8th family was able to attend. It was a great surprise and now we had the entire Guangdong 8 back together. We were the first to arrive and was able to chat with the Sgarbossa family and share a few happy tears. It was so great to see them and to be able to share with them this very special moment. The last time we had seen them, we were rushing off the train station, so it was nice to see them again and not have to rush off.

As the families began to arrive, it was so great to see all the girls and how much they have grown and changed. They are all doing so well and have definitely adjusted to being a part of our families. They all know exactly who mom and dad are and getting around very well.

They all seemed to enjoy each others company. I'm not convinced that they remember each other, but from time to time they would seem to watch each other as if they either recognize that they all look similar or possibly that they remember each other. I'm hoping as time passes and we continue to get together, that they all remain close, as this is a bond they will always share.

As the day progressed, we all just chatted and revisited some of the memories we had from China, as well as how each of the girls are doing now. It was definitely nice to be back in the United States, in a much calmer environment, more adjusted to having the babies and to be able to enjoy the moments together.

I believe we are already planning a possible Chinese New Year get together, as well as another visit early next spring. This time we will travel to Peoria to the Humbles, who have graciously offered to have our next gathering. The Sgarbossa's hosted this one and I am very grateful for their kindness to open their home to all of us.

I will post some pictures from the day and of all the girls. Feel free to go back to some of my earlier posts to see just how much the girls have changed. This almost made this whole process feel as if it has come full cirlce....while we still want to travel one day to China with Jetta, this made this all seem so much more real. While I know the past 6 months have been for real and the whole process really did take place, going back, seeing all the girls again and all the families brought it all the way back around for me. It definitely feels more real and am so grateful to have had such great families to share this whole experience with and look forward to many more get togethers and to watch our girls grow up together.

Friday night baseball.....

2009-09-22T12:49:00.008-05:00

Well, this past Friday night was Jetta's first Cubs/Cardinals game. While she has been to a game already this year, this was the game we have all been waiting for (well, at least mom and dad have been). As you'll notice in the pictures, Jetta has her very own Cubs/Cardinals jersey. We have had this idea in our minds for a very long time and was glad to finally put it to use.

We purchased the jerseys over the past couple of years, but finally had them cut apart and sewn back together. We figure since mommy is a Cardinals fan and daddy a Cubs fan, we had to keep it fair. So, once we had it sewn back together, I had her name put on the back and '08 for the year she was born. Once we saw the final product, we loved it.

So, now that the jersey was all done, all we needed were tickets to a game. Shannon was able to get us tickets and good tickets they were. We headed to the game early in hopes to get there in time to catch batting practice. We made it in time to see the Cubs, but not the Cardinals. We took Jetta down by the dugout, in hopes to get the jersey signed. While that didn't happen, we did manage to get a game ball tossed to us from one of the pitchers and then one of the managers came out, saw her and was commenting on how cute she was.

He told her that he wanted to switch eyes with her for the day, as he said she has beautiful eyes. Then he asked us if he could hold her and so we passed her down. She did okay, as long as she could see us. So, we snapped a couple pictures, which I'll attach here of her with him, down in the Cubs dugout. It was very sweet and a picture that we'll treasure.

Finally it was time for the game to start and so we went to our seats, but not without many people stopping us and telling us how cute her jersey was. Anytime we headed out to the concourse, we got more of the same. Everyone fell in love with it. I had my Cardinals jersey on and Shannon his Cubs, so needless to say, there were plenty of comments about that as well.

While she didn't make it on tv, she was a hit and she seemed to really enjoy herself. So, after years of waiting to be able to have this jersey made for her and for her to be able to wear it, was a great memory for us. It is something we'll definitely keep forever. It is so nice to finally be able to share all of these dreams with her and to have her in our lives.

Laugh....

2009-09-13T09:53:00.002-05:00

Attached is a video of Jetta laughing. This is just one of my favorite things that she does, as there are so many. Her laugh is so cute and wanted to be sure to capture it while she still is little, as there is nothing cuter than a baby laughing. I hope you enjoy it and it brings a smile to your face.

Cupcake Caper.....

2009-09-01T08:41:00.013-05:00

This is great.....on Saturday I was baking cupcakes for a friends baby shower on Sunday. I had tried a new recipe to make them and with that you don't need to fill the cups as full as you would normally. So, by the time the first batch was done, the cupcakes were completely over the top of the pan. So, with that, I had extras. Once I got completely done, I picked out the 40 or so cupcakes I was gonna need for the shower and had the others sitting on the edge of the kitchen island.

I was mixing up the frosting and getting ready to decorate them. Prior to getting started I had given Jetta a small taste of the cupcakes and she just smiled and said "yum". It was very cute. So, as I began to frost the cupcakes that I planned to use, Jetta was off to the side of the island playing in the lid drawer (which she absolutely loves). Then she decided to open the other drawers and found the pasta spoon (the one that you can pull spaghetti out of the water and it will drain itself off). Next thing I know, all I see over the edge of the counter (near the cupcakes) is the pasta spoon swinging around, in an attempt to snag a cupcake. I just looked over at her and asked her, are you trying to get a cupcake and in her sweet little voice she said "yah". I just died laughing.

So, Shannon came into the kitchen and I pointed over and he looked and there she was back at it, trying to get a cupcake. So, he went and grabbed the camera and took this short video. It is so cute, I just had to share.

The bummer part is, she never did get one, but had she snagged one, I surely would have let her have it. I was just very surprised at the thought process that went into the whole thing....hmm, there are cupcakes on the counter and I can't reach them, but mom let me taste them before and they sure were good, I think I need to find something to try to get one of them....oh wait, here's a tool and it will reach high enough for me to try.......oh, so close, darn it, busted. You could just see the little wheels turning. Definitely a priceless moment and hence the post....cupcake caper.

A picture to cute not to post....

2009-08-21T12:32:00.004-05:00

This is a picture of Jetta in Arland's cowboy hat. When my mom and Arland came, Arland had his hat sitting on the floor and Jetta was curious, so we put it on her and got this picture. I think she looks adorable.....

A visit to Grant's Farm

2009-08-17T19:01:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we headed out to Grant's Fram. When we first got there it wasn't real hot, but as the day progressed it got very warm. However, we still had a great day.

When we first arrived we visited the Budweiser Clydesdale barn. They are such beautiful animals. We got to see many foals and they are so darn cute. Jetta got to pet one of the horses and seemed to really enjoy that. Her face lit up. After that we headed over the main park.

We boarded the tram and made our way through the Deer Park and she seemed to enjoy seeing all the different animals.

Once we got off the tram, she just seemed to really light up. We headed in and went to the carousel. She is still unsure if she likes it or not, but as our ride came to an end, she seemed to want to stay on.

Then we made our way to elephant show and she just loved that. She was clapping each time "Bud" did something. It was very cute.

After the show we headed over to the courtyard, where we all sat down and cooled off a bit with a complimentary Budweiser sample (of course not Jetta). Very nice on such a hot day.

Grandma and Grandpa shared a snow cone and also shared it with Jetta. She seemed to really like that. We all agreed that it was about time to call it a day, as we were all sweating and getting pretty wore out.

We had one more stop to make. We had to feed the goats. We got our baby bottles full of milk and headed over to the fence to feed them. I was a bit worried that Jetta would see the "ba, ba" and would want to stick it in her mouth since we're only about a month out since she stopped taking a bottle. However, she didn't even seem to care. We tried to have her feed the goats, but they were a bit agressive and sucked on the bottles a bit hard. Both Grandma and I helped her feed them and she seemed to enjoy it.

All in all it was a great day and nice family outting. We enjoyed the day and I think Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed seeing Jetta so excited about all the different stuff. I'll include a few pics from the day.

Great Grandpa Jack turns 80!

2009-08-17T18:53:00.003-05:00

On Saturday we traveled to Peoria for Grandpa Jack's (Shannon's Grandpa)80th surprise birthday party. We left Saturday morning and drove up for the day. We all loaded up in the car and made the trek. My mom and Arland were troopers since they had driven in on Friday. However, we all agreed that an 80th birthday only happens once and that we shouldn't miss it.

We got there a little early and patiently waited for Grandpa Jack to arrive. They had created a story in order to get him to the party location. Shannon's dad had the pleasure of bringing him there without him figuring it out. When they pulled up, he looked very surprised and very happy to see everyone. Most all of the family was there and many of his long-time friends as well.

We were very happy to be able to celebrate with him and hope he had a great day. I'm gonna include a picture of him with his great grandchildren.

Grandma and Grandpa Peters visit....

2009-08-17T18:44:00.004-05:00

This past weekend Grandma and Grandpa Peters came for a visit. They drove down on Friday and left this morning. We had a very nice visit.

It was Grandpa's first time meeting Jetta and they seemed to take to each other very well. It had been five months since Grandma last saw Jetta, so she got to see alot of new things. I think she was pleasantly surpised at how big Jetta has gotten and how much she has changed in just the short time since she came home.

Not sure when our next visit will be, but fortunately we are able to Skype each other and they can see her any time. I'm sure the next time we see them Jetta will have changed a ton again. Attached is a picture from our visit to Grant's Farm that has all of us together. Thanks for coming to visit and we already miss you.

The Guangdong Sisters - Then & Now!

2009-08-05T19:18:00.008-05:00

With the permission of all the other families, I decided to post a "then & now" post. The picture of all the girls is from our last day in China before we headed home. It was the last time all the girls were together. However, we hope to get together in September and to reacquaint the girls. It will be nice to see all of them and how they have changed since we left China.

The picture of the girls on the couch from left to right are: Claire, Lydia, Jetta, Miriam (WeiWei), Eliana, Melania (Bing), Desneiges & Lyndsey.

Then the "Now" pictures are Jetta, Melania (Bing), Desneiges & Claire, Lydia, Eliana, Miriam (WeiWei) and Lyndsey & Lynnelle.

They all look so good and have changed so much. I've been in recent contact with most of the parents and it seems that most all of the babies are now walking or are very close, feeding themselves to some extent and saying several words. It is great to hear they are all doing so well and can't wait to see them all again. I love seeing all the smiles!

Thanks to everyone for agreeing to let me post pics of your girls and to have this comparison to see just how much they've changed.

A date with Bing....

2009-08-02T17:10:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we traveled to Peoria, as we had a dual bridal shower to attend. Two of Shannon's cousins are getting married in the next few months and they threw a shower for them. Jetta and I went to the shower for a bit and daddy and grandpa hung out. Daddy came back and picked her up around 2:30 and they went to visit granpa Jack. The shower was very nice and both the girls got alot of great gifts.

Once the shower was over, I called my friend Abby and arranged to meet her and Bing for dinner. We agreed to meet and to let the girls see each other. So, we all headed over to Chevy's in Peroria and had dinner. Abby, Bob (Abby's husband), grandpa, grandma and the two girls. Bing is doing so good and is so darn cute. They both seemed to enjoy seeing each other and we're still not sure if they remember each other, but plan to continue to meet when possible, so they can remain friends. Both girls sat and played with each other, while the rest of us chatted.

It was great to see everyone and will post a few pics from our visit with them. Both of the girls are growing so fast and have changed so much since we got them in China.

Awesome news....no tether

2009-08-02T16:41:00.006-05:00

I've mentioned briefly before that Jetta possibly might have a tethered spinal cord. What that means is...basically, during the early stages of pregnancy, the spinal cord normally develops and will float (for the lack of a better word) within the spinal column and as you grow, it continues to float and grow with you, without any problems. However, a tethered spinal cord attaches to a bony structure, typically the lower lumbar vertebrae and as you grow it will stretch and will no longer get the proper blood flow and may cause bladder and bowel problems, as well as possible paralysis in your legs.

When we first came home and during Jetta's first doctors visit, the pediatrician noticed a fairly prominent dimple at the base of her spine and top of her butt. She told us that she wanted to have Jetta tested to make sure that she didn't have a tethered spinal cord. Since Jetta was so small, she wanted to wait a bit, as the chance of anything severe happening was very low, until Jetta was a little bigger and also more adjusted and attached. So, at our last visit, I asked her if we could arrange for the test. They usually do an MRI in order to detect if the cord is tethered. She agreed that she felt Jetta was ready and so the appointment was scheduled. It was last Thursday, July 30th. While I was very anxious to have the test done and to determine if she in fact had a tethered cord and if surgery would be necessary, I also wanted to get it done, so that if she did need surgery, we would be able to begin to mentally prepare.

So, last Thursday we headed over to Cardinal Glennon Childrens' hospital in St. Louis, for her appointment. As always, she was a trooper. They had to start an IV and she cried a bit, but Shannon and I both assisted in holding her down and I was near her head promising her pumpkin bread from Starbucks when this was all over and is usually an effective tool to keep her happy. And as many of you know, she absolutely loves pumpkin bread, so she was a very big girl and as promised, we stopped on the way home and she got some later that night. Once they got the IV started, which they got on the first try, as she has great veins in her hands and the nurse was amazing. They gave her some medicine to help her relax. It was funny to watch her, you could tell that everything around her was moving in slow motion (in her head) and that she was probably seeing multiples. We talked to her a bit and we asked if she felt good and she just giggled. She giggled a couple of times and that made us laugh. They then let us give her a hug and a kiss and then took her away for the procedure. They told us the test would take about 40 mins and that we could go and grab a bite to eat. We knew she was in good hands, because amazingly, her doctor that was in the room for her sedation and monitoring has two adopted daughters from China and one of them from the exact province where Jetta is from. We were very happy to know that she would do whatever was necessary to make sure Jetta was okay during the test, since she had two of her very own precious gems at home.

We decided to grab a bite to eat, to try to help pass the time, and had an amazing piece of pizza, yes I said amazing, from the hospital cafeteria. The cafeteria was amazing and had a ton of choices. After eating we headed back up and after about 10 minutes they came and got us. When we went into the recovery suite, she was already a little bit awake and was not happy (which is a very typical side effect of the sedation drug they used to put her out). I held her and after about 40 mins she started to wake up more and ate a few popsicles and was less agitated. So, they took her vitals one last time and let us leave. She was still very groggy, but did very well.

Once I got home, I just kept her still, as their coordination is affected by the drugs and she would be a bit unsteady on her feet. By 5:00 that night she was back to her usual self. I had taken the day off to make sure she was okay. So, now the test was over and knew that we just had to wait to get the results.

I called the pediatricians office first thing Friday morning and asked that if they heard anything that they contact, full well believing that it would be next week before they had anything. However, to my surprise, my phone rang around 4:30 Friday afternoon. I saw it was the doctors office and my stomach did flips. While I wanted the results, I also was scared. The nurse told me that she had Jetta's results and that the test came back "NORMAL". I was so happy, that tears welled up in my eyes. I was so glad to know that my baby girl wasn't gonna need to have surgery on her spinal cord and that her little dimple is just how she is constructed. So, after a long 24 hours, we got the news we hoped to get and now we know we have a healthy little girl and have that out of the way.

Thanks to those of you that knew she was going in and for following up and asking how she was. As always, your friendship means a ton to me and am happy to have you in my life.

No more ba, ba.....

2009-07-27T12:45:00.002-05:00

That's right no more ba, ba (aka the bottle) for Jetta. We have been bottle free for nearly 10 days now. The first few days she was a bit resistant, but then finally decided that taking milk from a sippy wasn't so bad. She even has started to drink from a straw and seems to like that. Also, if you help her, she can drink from a regular cup. So, now that we have the ba, ba out of the way, things are much easier. She is such a big girl and can't believe how far she has come in the past almost 5 months. I look forward to every day with her, just to see what new thing she will say or do.

Her latest word is "morrow"....for "see you tomorrow". Last Thursday when I picked her up from Carrie's, I told her, tell Carrie you'll see her tomorrow and as plain as day, she said "morrow". Both Carrie and I just looked at each other and laughed. When she speaks it's so clear and think within the next few weeks she'll be saying even more. At this point she is saying about 20 words, which I think is pretty darn good, considering just a few months ago she had never heard English. I think once she does start talking we're going to be in trouble, cuz she loves to talk now and she isn't even saying much, so once she figures out how to actually tell you what she's thinking....oh boy!

I'm so grateful China chose her for us, she is so amazing and makes my life complete. I never knew being a parent could be so wonderful, but am glad that I waited and she was chosen for me. Adoption is life's miracle to a family!

Voting begins....

2009-07-19T16:41:00.004-05:00

Just a reminder to vote for Jetta. The voting officially starts tomorrow, July 20th. So, please log on and give her your vote. I'm not exactly certain of what number she is now, as she seems to keep moving, as more and more babies are being added, but think you should be able to pick her out. She is the Asian cutie.......thanks for your votes and let's bring home a winner! As a reminder the address to vote is TheBullRocks

A day at the zoo....

2009-07-19T15:29:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we took Jetta to the zoo for the first time. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and figured we'd take advantage of it. We met our friends Tammy and Paige there and enjoyed spending the day with them. Jetta seemed to really enjoy all the animals. Each time she saw something she would get all excited and point. She also got to ride on the carousel, which she wasn't real sure of at first, but by the time the ride ended, she seemed to enjoy it. After a few hours there, we opted to head out, as Jetta was getting tired. We had to park quite away from the zoo, as it seems everyone had the same idea of going since the day was so nice. We had barely even gotten out of the zoo and she was already asleep. I'm pretty certain we'll be making more trips there, as she gets older, I think she'll enjoy it even more. I'll post a few pics from the day.

Last post I promise

2009-07-11T19:20:00.003-05:00

Sorry I have posted so many things, but I had alot to catch up on. However, this is the last post, but did want to make it. We entered Jetta into a cutest baby contest at a local radio station. If we win, we get two tickets to an upcoming Cardinals game, as well as dinner at one of the former players restaurant. We thought, what the heck, why not enter her, after all she is the cutest baby, right? The voting does not begin until July 20th, but I wanted to at least let you know about it and ask that you mark your calendars and vote for her once voting begins. You can log onto http://www.thebullrocks.com/ and look for the cutest baseball baby photo contest. She is baby number 71. So please vote and we'll let you know if we win. Wish us luck. The attached picture is the one we submitted.

Just a few short months ago...

2009-07-11T19:14:00.004-05:00

As most of you know when we first got home Jetta hated her carseat. These pictures tell a much different story. After our little mishap the other day, we brought in her carseat so I could clean it up. Daddy put his in my car, so it is still sitting here in the house. I guess Jetta now likes it so much she thought she would go sit in it and enjoy a little snack. She now goes to the pantry and grabs the bag. She climbed up into her seat and just sat there like a big girl and ate her snack. The one picture with her wrinkly nose is just one of her many faces. She is such a hoot!

Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn visit....

2009-07-11T19:02:00.003-05:00

This has been a big week for Jetta, not only did her Grandma Alexander visit, but so did her Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn. They called us the other night and said they might drive down on Saturday to visit for a bit and to have lunch. So, yesterday we talked with them and they decided to drive down. They got here late morning, visited and then we went to lunch. After lunch we went back to the house and visited a bit more before they headed back home. It was great to see them and like all her other grandparents, grandpa spoiled her too. Check out Jetta's shirt in the picture with grandpa.....we bought this a long time ago and thought it was adorable. Check out those piggies...they are getting so long and so darn cute if I do say so myself.

Our Little Einstein....

2009-07-11T18:57:00.003-05:00

I'm posting this because I feel like the pictures are too cute not to share. The glasses are Shannon's moms reading glasses and Jetta seemed to enjoy putting them on. So, Shannon snapped a few shots. Maybe we should call the Little Einsteins or Harry Potter and see if they need another cast member? I just think she looks adorable.

The Little Gym....

2009-07-11T18:43:00.003-05:00

These pictures are from The Little Gym. The Little Gym is a great place for kids. Carrie, our neighbor who watches Jetta, told me about it and so while I was off we took a tour and decided it would be good for her. They do group activities that encourage the kids to interact together, follow simple commands, sing songs and become independent. They also have time to explore the gym each time, which means they go and try out all the different apparatuses. They have several different levels of balance beams, uneven bars, and other gymnastic type equipment. Jetta loves the balance beam and is doing very well on it. I barely have to hold onto her and she will even do a front rollforward on it. She is also quite strong and will hold onto the bar and let us swing her. She is doing very well and seems to really enjoy it. We might have a future gymnast. She loves the instructor Ms. Megan. She has several more months in this class, which is the birdies and then will move up. I feel that this is very good for her and it allows her to interact with other kids and learn to share and be patient. My next thing is to enroll her in swimming lessons, as I feel that is a very valuable skill to have.

15 month check-up....

2009-07-11T18:23:00.002-05:00

Our little girl is growing up and out. Yep, that's right, she is growing. She is now 17 pounds, 12.5 ounces, just 3 ounces short of gaining 3 full pounds since we brought her home. When we took her to her first visit, they said she was 14 pounds 15.5 ounces. She has also grown 2 1/4 inches. When we brought her home she was 28 1/4 inches and now is 30 1/2 inches. I guess that explains why we had to buy her some longer pj's and finally bigger shoes. When we got her she was wearing a size 3 shoe and this past week when we took her to Little Gym, she let us know that they were to small. So, I felt them and they were definitely to small. So, on Thursday we went a bought her a size 4 tennis shoe and sandals. Finally, she's growing. She is still wearing mostly 6 to 9 month clothes, a few 12 month shirts and pj's, but that is it.

At this visit she was suppose to also get 3 vaccinations, but since we had the little mishap on the way there, we opted to wait until her 18 month visit....this kid will do anything to get out of a shot...ha, ha!

Additionally, we talked with the doctor about Jetta getting an MRI for her tethered spinal cord. When we first came home, the doctor told us that she thought Jetta might have a tethered spinal cord, which today doesn't mean much, but in the next year or two it could create problems. The most common problems would be bowel and bladder problems, as well as possible paralysis. When we first got home she wasn't quite big enough for an MRI, as they will have to sedate her, in order to get a good scan. However, with her weight gain, she is now okay to have the test. We are waiting to hear from the doctors office on when the appointment will be, but are anxious to get the test done and to determine if its anything with need to be concerned with. The doctor says that 85% of the time it is nothing, but it's better to be safe, than sorry. As of now, I'm not to concerned, as she seems to be just fine, but don't want to have problems in the future.

In addition to her growing and gaining a few pounds, she is now getting 5 new teeth (all at once). When we saw the doctor I told her that I had almost given up on her getting any new teeth, as it had been months since she got her last 2. In fact it was when we first got home from China 4 months ago. She said, well, typically they get 4 teeth every 4 months. So, surprisingly that works out for us.....5 teeth and her last 2 were 4 months ago. So, once she gets these in, she'll have 11 teeth. She is doing really well chewing with the 6 she has, but I'm sure the other 5 will come in handy. She's been a drooly mess, but otherwise not to bad.

I think that pretty much covers her visit and we don't have to go back until she's 18 months, so we have 3 months before that, but am sure it will go by to fast. My little girl is growing up so fast, but I am so pleased with her progress and can't wait to see where she's at when we have our next visit.

Grandma Alexander visits....

2009-07-11T18:05:00.003-05:00

Shannon's mom came to visit us this past week. She came in on Tuesday and left on Friday. It was great to see her, as it has been quite some time since we last saw her. Jetta and her became fast friends and really seemed to enjoy each others company. Of course, just like her other grandma, she came bearing gifts and enjoyed spoiling Jetta just a bit more. It was Grandma's birthday on Tuesday when she arrived, so after we went to Little Gym, we took her to dinner and gave her her present. We gave her a collage picture of Jetta from her first photo shoot and a necklace that we brought home from China. She loved them and we were glad she was able to be here to share her birthday with us. Unfortunately the whole trip wasn't as pleasant....Jetta broke grandma in and broke her in she did. On Thursday we went to Jetta's 15 month doctors visit and on the way Jetta decided to share her already digested milk with us. Not fun....this was the first time she has thrown up since we got her. However, grandma was great, she ripped off her seatbelt and pulled her head forward, once I got to a place where I could stop, I got out of the car, went around, pulled her out and got a wiff....whew not pleasant. I took Jetta around the back of the car, opened it up and stripped her down, so all the passerbys got a glimsp of my half naked baby. Meanwhile, grandma grabbed the wipes and went to work on cleaning up the carseat and the back of the car. Once we got things cleaned up the best we could and got Jetta calmed down, I called the doctor and said we were gonna be late. I had to head to Target to buy a new outfit for Jetta and some air freshner. Yep, that's right, I had to go buy clothes, as I only had the small diaper bag with me and didn't have a change of clothes with me. However, I do now, along with a pack of back-up wipes, air freshner and towels. Once we got that all done we headed back to the doctor for her check-up. I'll write a separate post with those details. We had planned to go sightseeing that day, but figured it was best to just stay home. On Friday, we had to take grandma back to the airport and tell her goodbye. It was a great visit and we enjoyed our time.

Three feet....

2009-07-11T18:01:00.002-05:00

This is a picture that Shannon took last weekend. He had taken one with just he and Jetta's footprints and I said it would be neat to have all three of us. So, here is a picture from last weekend when it was raining and we were able to get all three of our footprints on the front porch. I love the picture, hope you enjoy it.

Jetta's driving....

2009-07-11T17:54:00.002-05:00

Well, not really, but she did get her first trike and as of right now she can't reach the peddal's, but she loves getting on it and having us push her around. She climbs up on it and will stand on the seat, she is quite the little dare devil. She doesn't seem to have a "fear bone" in her body. It has blinkers, a horn and music, and when she hits the music button she dances to it. She seems to really enjoy it and I love seeing her on it. I'll include a few pictures.

Daddy's little helper and our last picture of Sammy....

2009-07-05T17:11:00.005-05:00

This post is a tough one....while the picture is very cute of Jetta helping her daddy put mommy's new elliptical together, it's our last picture of Sammy. It was a rough week for us a few weeks back. We unfortunately lost Sam, our sheltie. He was 7 1/2 years old and was a great dog. He had been sick with his thyroid for quite some time and had been fighting a weight problem. Unfortunately 3 weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon we lost him. He was here at home with us, which I'm grateful for, but it still was very hard. He was such a good boy and we miss him immensely. We had him cremated and got him back last week and Shannon put his final touch on his box....he didn't have Sammy put on the tag, rather he had Chubby and for any of you who know us, Sam went by many names, Chubby, Chubs, CB, Table Top to name just a few. There are many more, but these are the ones that we used the most. I do however feel grateful that we lost him here the way we did, because just a few days later, our neighbor's car went through our garage and may have hurt him to a point that we would have lost him anyway. The side of the garage that the car went through was the side he laid on and with him being so heavy, he may have not been able to get up out of the way fast enough. Fortunately both Peanut and Takai were able to escape unhurt. They were both just shaken up and Peanut had made .6 miles of a trek away from home. We finally found her 5 hours later and she was very glad to see us. I'm sure glad that even though she crossed two major roads and was gone for an extended period of time that we got her back safe and sound. So, as I said, the picture is very cute and shows just how big Jetta is getting, but it is also hard for me to write about this. So, for now Chubs I write this to you and you will always have a special place in our hearts and memories. I've also included one of our favorite pictures, the black and white one of him, it shows just how sweet he was.

Future Accountant?

2009-06-24T21:55:00.003-05:00

The attached pictures are of Jetta and her playing with my calculator. She found it one day and just couldn't seem to leave it alone. She would go and get it and then come in and sit down and press the buttons and just look at me with such a curious expression. It was very cute. Possibly, she is a future accountant in the making. I surely wouldn't mind if she were to follow in my foot steps, as the profession is a good one and has provided well for me. Check out the piggies....aren't they cute? I love when she has piggies, she just looks so darn cute, if I do say so myself.

Our little helper....

2009-06-24T21:12:00.004-05:00

The attached picture is of Jetta and her helping unload the dishwasher. One day when I was unloading the dishwasher, her curiousity got the best of her and she made her way over to the silverware basket. She began pulling them out and handing them one at a time to me. Each time she'd hand me one, I'd tell her "thank you" and now when she helps, each time she hands you something, she says "thank you". She loves helping and will get very upset if you try to finish it for her. Hopefully she will continue to enjoy helping, but I'm sure that will be asking to much when she's a teenager. Oh well, I'm gonna enjoy the special moments now and remember them when she is being not so sweet. As you can see she even climbs up onto the door in order to be sure to reach whatever she's after. Thank goodness she's such a peanut, otherwise I would be replacing the dishwasher each and every time we unloaded it. The video is a little long, but it's very sweet and you can watch her as she takes one piece out at a time and waits for you to take it before she'll get another. Such a big girl.

Finally, a computer!

2009-06-22T20:03:00.003-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted, but our computers mother board went out and we had to have it fixed. Didn't realize how much I relied on the computer to keep everyone up to date on how Jetta is doing. So, over the next few days, I'll try to post a few things to try to get you caught up on how she's doing.

A few weeks ago we discovered that Jetta is allergic to mosquitos. We were at a friends house for a graduation party and Jetta had a fight with mosquitos and lost. We had put Off on her, but the areas that we didn't, the pesky little bugs got the best of her. We ended up taking her to the doctor, as all the bites were blistering up and looked horrible. The doctor looked at her and said, "yep, she allergic to mosquitos". So, that meant several days of Zyrtek and some Afterbite cream. They also told us that we need to be sure to keep her well covered with Off anytime she's outside.

However, not all bad news at the dr. They weighed her and she now weighs 17.1 lbs, which is 2.2 lbs more than when we brought her home. So, I guess we are feeding her plenty. I did however, forget to have them measure her, but do believe that she has grown several inches. Some of her 9 month (yep my 15 month old baby is still wearing 6 to 9 month clothes) pants are getting a little short.

We go back in early July, so I'll try to remember to have them measure her and determine just how much she's grown. She is still tiny, but is full of attitude and personality.

Other than growing, she is now walking full-time, no more crawling. She,s almost ready to run, which means trouble for me. However, it is great to see her cruise around and enjoy herself. She is still feeding herself and is now starting to use a fork and spoon. I hope to post a short video at some point of her trying to use her spoon. She is also taking a sippy cup very well and really seems to enjoy Propel water. She doesn't want juice and loves water, which I'm happy with. She doesn't show much interest in drinking milk from the sippy, but am going to keep trying and hope that we kick the bottle habit soon. She doesn't have a real fond attachment to the bottle, but seems to relate the bottle with milk and water with the sippy. As quick as she seems to adjust to new things, I'm pretty certain in a week or two we'll be done with bottles, or at least all except for at night when she goes to bed. However, I'm hopeful I can break that habit too.

Speaking of going to bed. She is doing much better when it comes to sleeping through the night. About a week ago, I decided that I needed to let her cry for a few minutes before I ran to her rescue. I figured she has been home for 3 months now and knows that mom and dad are going to be there. So, the first night, I jumped out of bed and came out and waited in the hallway, in hopes she would stop crying soon. To my surprise, within 2 to 3 minutes, she was done crying and continued to sleep through the night. So, night after night, I continued to push myself and keep from running in to her room. Now, after just one week, she is only stirring a bit each night, with just a few whimpers and then back to sleep. Needless to say, this has helped us alot and we are now finally feeling rested. It was nice that it wasn't to trying for me and that she made it easy and didn't cry for long periods of time. I should have known she wouldn't, she is a big girl, I think mom was the one who was needing the late night cuddles.

Well, I best close for now, as it is fast approaching Jetta's bedtime and I need to read her a few books. She is patiently sitting here on my lap watching me type and I've probably exceeded my time limit for her patience. So, I will post again soon, but wanted to give you an update of how things are and how she's doing. I promise more updates and will include pics in those.

Reconnecing with old friends....

2009-05-25T15:46:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we traveled to Peoria and Jetta got to meet many new people, as well as reconnect with old friends. On Sunday, we headed over the Humbles and visited for a bit. We let the girls play together and am not sure if they actually recognized each other or if they just realized there was another baby to play with. However, Abby says Bing is not very thrilled when other babies are around and she didn't seem to mind Jetta (to much). They seemed to enjoy each other and played for quite awhile. The one thing neither of them liked much was when either Abby or I held the other one. I have not really ever seen that side of Jetta, but did see it yesterday. It was great to see Bing, as she has changed so much since China. Abby has successfully fattened her up and she looks so darn cute. When we were in China she was sick for a good part of the trip, so it was nice to see her happy, moving around and smiling. She even made her way over to me and let me hold her for a bit. It is amazing how just a few pounds makes a difference, as I think Abby said she is weighing about 20 or so pounds and Jetta is just 16 pounds at her last check. The one thing I did notice was Jetta seems to have grown a bit, because Bing was every bit of 2 or 3 inches taller than Jetta in China and when they were standing side by side Jetta was nearly as tall as Bing. I am so glad that we were able to spend some time with them and hope we are able to do it more often, as I would love the girls to remain friends, as they were supposedly crib mates while they were in the orphanage. I'm hopeful that next year we'll be able to plan a reunion with all the families and will get to see all the progress made with all the girls. I'm gonna post some pictures of our visit with Abby and Bing. I love how happy they both look and am just glad to know they both have loving forever families.

Brushing our teeth...

2009-05-25T15:39:00.002-05:00

Yep, that's right, Jetta brushes her teeth. Well, mommy brushes Jetta's teeth. However, she seems to enjoy it and now I can ask her if she wants to brush her teeth and she'll make her way to the bathroom. I tried to accomplish this in China, but she wanted no part of it. So, once we got home, I started doing it everyday and now it's just part of the daily routine. She is also starting to show interest in actually doing it herself (not that she's very successful). So, I let her have the toothbrush and she just chews on it and manages to drool alot, but at least she tries. I just love that she lets me do it and figure since we got started early, she'll be able to do it all on her own once she has more teeth and it truly needs to be done. I'm gonna post a couple pictures of us brushing her teeth, as I just think she looks so sweet.

First Mother's Day....

2009-05-25T15:26:00.003-05:00

I finally am able to post, so I will probably be posting several different things, so I can try to get caught up. First order of business however is posting about my first Mother's Day. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out better than I could have ever expected. First, I got to sleep in, which as any new parent knows, that is pretty rare. So, just that alone made the day great. However, waking up and seeing my beautiful daughter's face made me realize what it's all about. It was strange to know that I finally got to celebrate Mother's Day, as it had been a long time coming. Once I got up, Shannon and Jetta brought me out a card. Shannon signed it, but let Jetta give it to me. He sat her down next to me and she handed it to me. My heart just swelled up, just seeing her sitting there and being able to realize this long awaited dream. I opened the card and it was very nice. Then Shannon came over to me and took a couple of red pouches from his pants pocket. I wasn't sure what were in them, but knew they were from China. So, once he handed them to me, I opened them. The first one was for me and it was a necklace that had the Chinese character for mother on it and the second was a necklace for Jetta that had the Chinese character for daughter. By this time, I was crying. I was so happy with the gift, as it was something he and Jetta went shopping for while we were in China and he had held onto it for the two months since we'd been home (which for him is huge, as he always just gives me gifts and then on the day I don't get anything). I gave both him and Jetta a huge hug and was so thankful for the thoughtfulness of the gift and the gift of my daughter. While I thought of her birth mother and hoped that she was not to sad on this day, but was also grateful for her gracious gift and her willingness to let her beautiful daughter go and allow her to have a better life than what she could provide. I will forever be grateful to her and in my heart thank her with more than words can say for the beautiful gift she has given me. I know this is the first of many Mother's Day's to come, but I will remember this one forever. Not to mention, I think it will be really hard for Shannon to outdo himself, as him thinking of me while we were in China and giving me something so special, will be hard to top. However, he still will need to try....lol! I'll post a picture of the card and the necklaces. I wear mine everyday, but unfortunately Jetta can't wear hers yet, as it's a bit to big. I'm so excited for the day when we both can wear them and know that they were special gifts from China.

Just a quick update....

2009-05-21T14:15:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted much lately, as our computer crashed on us a little over a week ago and haven't had an opportunity to post. Hopefully we'll get it up and running soon and then I can post about my first Mother's Day and the awesome gift I got, as well as Jetta's progress. Quickly, she is doing great and is changing every day. We are planning a trip to Peoria this weekend and she will get to see her Grandma & Grandpa Vaughn, some of the other family she hasn't met and also see Bing (Abby Humbles baby girl), who Jetta was crib mates with in China. I am looking forward to them seeing each other again, as it has been two months and see if they remember each other. I will have pictures to post then. Hope to be back online soon and able to post more and share new pictures with you.

Swing batter, swing.....

2009-05-08T14:50:00.005-05:00

Jetta attended her first professional baseball game Tuesday night. It was Ralcorp night at the ballpark. That means, my company reserved the Coca-Cola patio and invited all employees to attend the game. I was one of the fortunate people who was able to obtain an extra ticket. That was perfect for us, because I really wanted Shannon and Jetta to attend. Since Shannon was home that day, it made it much easier to work out the details and for him to bring her down. We were out shopping on Sunday and was able to find a Cardinals jersey for her (and I'm sure we'll be purchasing a Cubs jersey very soon). It's a bit big, but decided to buy it that way, so she can wear it for awhile (and as tiny as she is, she may be 5 when she outgrows it!). Not only was I excited for them to come to the game, but also to get downtown since that was my first day back to work. Shannon had her all dressed in her jersey and ball cap. She looked adorable. Once we got to the game, she was a hit. Many of my co-workers stopped by to see her. Most of them had already met her at the office, but was glad to see her again. She managed to eat nearly two ballpark hot dogs and seemed to love them. Once we were all done eating, we held her so she could see the game. It seemed as if she was really enjoying it. We had a perfect night for baseball. Our next game will be a Cubs/Cards game on the 21st of this month, which I'm sure will be interesting since daddy is a Cubs fan and mommy a Cards fan....we'll definitely post pictures from that day. Speaking of pictures, I will include some of this trip to the ballpark and if I do say so myself, she looks very good in red!