Closing my Blog

The first snow fell today and I took Myah outside for a few shots!

I am so sorry to say it but yes I have finally decided that it is time to close my blog. No real reasons other that I have been doing this for almost 3 years now and I need a rest. I spend way too much time on the computer especially with doing pictures and all. My family really needs to see my face instead of my forehead looking at the screen. I hope you all understand, I am so grateful for the friendships that I have made and I know that some of you will be my lifelong friends! I still can be contacted by email at daysmom@charter.net and those of you who know me have my number. I have so enjoyed doing this but I am trying to simplify my life and this is one area that I always feel guilty if I don't keep it up, I know many of you enjoy hearing our stories and check in on us daily. I love you for that! I have had some stomach issues cropping up again and need to get myself taken care of, I will be fine but just need to clean my schedule up a bit and I spend way to much time blogging that is for sure!
Besides Dayton always begs me not to blog about certain things and I feel like maybe it is time to close the shades a bit for the kids sake.
Please keep in touch and maybe I will see you around ! I will still be checking in on my blog buddies never fear!
Thanks for being part of our journey to Myah!

A Familiar Face

Mrs. Li and Mr. Shao, the new orphange director listening to updates sent to them from our families.

Rose with her sponsored foster child. The woman that held Myah is in the doorway in the tan leather jacket.

Same lady standing next to Mrs. Li and Rose.
Here is the picture of Myah waiting in the doorway with before we Got Her!

Here is the young lady holding Myah, sorry it is blurry we were shaking, it was the first time we saw her.

Susan and Rose have spent the past few days at Myah's orphanage and the images are just tugging at my heart in so many ways. I believe that our camera was delivered yesterday, I did not receive an email from her today but I did receive several yesterday from her. I am still amazed that we can email almost instantly to this little area of the world. I read Rose's blog and today she said that she did not want to talk about her visit to the orphanage because it made her sad. I can't imagine what this young lady is going through. I don't think they got the answers they were hoping for. They did however meet up with the previous orphanage director Mrs. Li who was also there when we were there. She had some nice photos with her and the best gift of all to me was that she went back to their hotel room with them and Suzy got online and showed her my blog! I am in awe! Mrs. Li was able to see Myah in her Halloween costume! They also were able to see the albums that everyone had sent. How can we ever thank Suzy and Rose enough for being the delivery person for our heartfelt pages. I started to cry today when I saw a picture of one of the orphange staff standing in a picture with Rose, she was the same woman who was holding our Myah when we saw her for the first time on Gotcha Day and who stood in the doorway holding our sweetie before we could get our hands on her. I just get so emotional when I think about Myah's past, so many questions that will never have answers. Myah has started asking me questions about when she was a tiny baby, I try as hard as I can to reassure her that mommy gave her a bottle and held her in her rocking chair until she fell asleep. I wish I had more memories to share with her. That will come someday I am sure. But for now, the new images I have from Susan will have to do, any little glimpses from Myah's past are treasures. Suzy said she would try to bring me some soil from Tuanfeng for Myah as well. Some orphanges give that to families on Gotcha Day, ours did not. I pray that our video camera can serve as another way for the staff to enrich the lives of those who live within the walls of their compound. And maybe one day families will be able to have video of their child before they were adopted, what a priceless gift that would be.

We are still here!

Our visit to the zoo was free because it was November rates, they expect it to be cold not 76 degrees!

The lion was so close, she was sleeping most of the time!

My youngest cousin Kortney is a senior this year, we went to her final volleyball game. She is actually quite tall, Dayton was standing on a step.

My cousin Jamie is having a little boy in January and we had her shower last weekend, the girls helped her open her gifts.

Here is our new friend Rose, she is actually visiting Tuanfeng today she met the orphanage directors yesterday. They emailed me today and said that our video camera would be given to the orphanage today. They bought Myah a winter outfit in a Tuanfeng grocery store today, such a precious keepsake! I love this picture of Rose with a real panda! They have been in China for 3 weeks now.

Wow, fast week! This is for my mom who called to make sure I was all right, she hadn't heard from me and no blog posts, she figured something must be wrong. Love her for caring but we were just super busy. The past month we have been super busy with parties, fall activities and lots of day to day business around here. Big news this week was that Mark's Deputy Chief announced on Monday that she was retiring on Friday. So lots of promoting going on to cover the new positions. Mark stays where he is but will now be on days instead of midnights! We are thrilled. We don't see him as much when he is on days but a normal sleep schedule and having him here at night is worth it! Plus I won't have to try and keep Myah quiet during the winter months while we are inside so daddy can sleep. It is the little things like being able to make my bed during the day, being able to put laundry away, showering and getting ready without being in the dark, that make the switch so nice. And for Mark it means he will actually see his city in the daylight, feel like he is on a "normal" schedule for a while, and homecooked dinners waiting for him when he gets home! It really is difficult with him on midnights for our whole family, we don't see friends or family very often because of the crazy schedule. I am very thankful for the switch, happy for his Deputy Chief, I liked her, I wish her lots of luck in her retirement.

That has been the big news this week around here. And that Myah is pretty much potty trained! Yeah! What a long haul with her, she is very stubborn and it was done on her terms and I finally just waited for her to initiate it, she has done very well, very few accidents, she is still in pull ups for nap time and night time but I can live with that! She is sure a big girl now and loves showing off her big girl panties, don't be surprised if she asks you to look at them and touch them( we are trying to discourage that part of it !) and she wants to see yours and touch yours, (again, trying to discourage that too!). She is a character!

The weather has turned cold now, this week was amazing, so warm and beautiful, we took full advantage of the warm temps and went to the zoo, played outside, we always take walks every night in our neighborhood, it was good to get out again and pretend that it was summer! The leaves are falling, starting to look bare again, I wasn't ready for the radio to play Christmas tunes this week but they did.

I also have been busy editing pictures, seems endless right now but I will catch up! We are also in the midst of switching the kids rooms. When Dayton was sick a few weeks ago we let him sleep in Myah's room and she slept in our room, he has a loft and didn't feel like climbing up into it every night. He loved her room. The more I thought about it I decided to switch them, his closet it much better for a little girl, a mini walk in, and it has a light in there that I can use as a nightlight, Myah takes her nightlights out of the outlet and removes the bulbs, can't have that. So we are in the process of painting the rooms right now. We also purchased a queen size bed for Dayton, his loft was getting too small for my growing boy, he slept in the new bed for the first time last night, he loves it! We need to paint Myah's room still. We are also gearing up to tile the kitchen floor, it really needs to be done so that is next on the agenda. We like to use the winter months to do indoor projects. Our neighbors are leaving this week for Florida and we are so sad, we love them like family, Myah is really going to miss Pam. She came to dance class with us this last week to watch Myah, she was so proud to have her there! She really is doing well, I am kind of shocked at how she is picking up the routine, I didn't think she would participate but she loves it!

Dayton got his braces tightened again this week, we are making good progress, he is just so sore after wards, can't eat for a few days, so he is on the pudding and ice cream diet again, that poor little guy has had a rough year! Every time we turn around it is something with him.

I will try to catch up on here so there may be a few more posts to read than normal, we have had so much blog-worthy stuff going on! So make sure you scroll down to see the new posts. I am always amazed at my friends and family who still read this, some of you I know check in every day, so sorry I have been a slacker! Love ya!

Taylor's Football Game

Taylor is the quarterback,#3.

It was also parents night, here is Taylor with Scott and Lora.

This past season we were not able to watch many of Taylor's football games like we usually do because he had an injured nerve in his thigh for most of the season. But when he finally was able to come back, boy did he! He had a great game and I went down on the field to get some good shots with my telephoto lens, unfortunately once it turned dark I was having a terrible time getting any good shots. The local photographer from the newspaper offered to help give me some hints and even changed the settings for me, he gave me great advice and told me to follow along with him on the field. Mark and our family kept laughing at me as I trailed behind this guy like a little puppy. It was fun being in the endzone though! I was afraid of getting hit, believe me, I would have ducked behind him and his $8,000 camera set up if I had to!! My pictures were a bit dark but I lightened them up in Photosh*p a bit. Taylor had always had red eyes ever since he was a baby, I could not get them to look any better. Oh well, it was fun trying!

Birthday Party Central!

We have been busy going to birthday parties for our friends and family. Here are a few photos from the festivities.

Myah's friend Summer turned 3!Myah with the birthday girl.


Opening gifts frenzy!

Myah with her buddy Debbie

Summer's pretty mommy Tonya painted faces on the party goers.

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Our little cousin Michael also tured 3.
Michael with his daddy my cousin Cleo.

Dayton with "Bugs" and Angel, they couldn't get over how big Dayton has gotten.
But Bugs proved that he is still bigger and stronger on the trampoline as he body slammed Dayton!

My Grandpa and his lady friend Maybelle were at the party, here there are posing with me and Bugs.

My cousin Mandy is posing with Myah. She is doing well, bless her heart, she has a tracheotomy in now and sleeps on a respirator at night. Love that girl!

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Our good buddy and neighbor Ken turned 59 a few weeks ago and they invited us over for cake and ice cream. Not the best picture of him, he is camera shy!

We have had a few birthdays to celebrate lately with our friends and family. Here are a few shots from the past few weeks.

Ready Set Play Halloween

Pumpkin Carving

The finished product!

We love carving pumpkins the night before Halloween, this year Myah really got into it, she put her hands right in the pumpkin and scooped out the "guts". We then roasted the seeds and she loved eating them. Dayton was really helpful this year too, he loves cutting the designs. This year the pumpkins looked a little sad, mommy didn't do a very good job drawing for Daddy! Oh well! It was fun!

Our visit with Sarah

I got this beautiful shot of Sarah before we left.

I know Myah's eyes are closed but it was the best I got, she loved Sarah's two new kitties and carried them around like this the whole time we were there. I am sure they were glad to see her leave!

These two girls are so goofy!

They are really starting to love each other! Finally!

A few weeks ago we went to the west side to visit with Sheri and Sarah for the day. We shopped and played and had a great time, we always say we wish we lived closer. The girls are so similar even though they don't see each other a whole lot. Our little Hubei-bies (pronounced Hu-babies) , we love em! Thanks for a great day girls!

Halloween 2008

We are on sugar highs this morning, must mean went trick or treating last night! Mark had to work, so we were rushing around making dinner, sending Daddy off to work and getting dressed all before 5:30. Our small neighborhood does it early so that we can all go out to bigger and better places to really load up on candy. Myah had a blast, if you know her you know how much she obsesses with food/candy when it is in her presence so you gotta believe she thinks this is the best night of her life! Many of our neighbors give out special items for the kids because there are so few of us, some even gave out full size candy bars, I just love where we live! My neighbor Linda even provided hot cocoa and donuts for the adults. The weather this year was unheard of for Halloween! It was so warm, like in the mid 60's, normally we are rushing through the neighborhood because it is freezing, last night we mingled and played outside beforehand. This was the first year that Dayton did not dress up, kind of sad for this momma but he still walked around with us, in shorts no less!!! We have seen snow flakes a few times over the past two weeks so we were extremely surprised and elated to have a few days of warm weather.
Myah looked so sweet in her fairy costume that Aunt Melanie made for her, thank you Aunt Mel! I curled Myah's hair and put some makeup on her, boy did she look pretty, she came walking down stairs and Mark looked at her like she was ready for the prom, couldn't believe how blessed he is to be her daddy. We were sitting at the dinner table and I remarked that the rest of us looked washed out next to her, with her dark hair, dark skin, and all of the fluff! She definately got lots of looks and oohs and ahhs. We are going to be in big trouble someday I have to believe! After we made the rounds in our neighborhood we went into our little downtown area with a few neighbors and visited the businesses, even the Chinese restaurant gave out fortune cookies! We came home and sorted through the candy, Myah was begging for a piece so she tried and extreme sour warhead, oh my. I took this little video clip, you can see for yourself, it was a wee bit sour! Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Keeping Me Busy!

I have spent most of the month taking and editing pictures for families. I really do enjoy doing this however I still have so much to learn, I am always trying out something new. I really need to take a photography class, I have never had one and it honestly would help me immensely. I am sure I do EVERYTHING the hard way. But for now I just appreciate the fact that people actually pay me to do something that I love, I honestly feel guilty charging anyone because I love doing it, however, I have to justify spending countless hours on the computer away from my family, Myah is begging for attention right now! I have been trying really hard to get caught up so I can spend some good quaility time with her. Besides, my eyes need a rest! I have so many photographers that I envy, I hope someday to be that good, baby steps right! That would mean I need more time and more money, neither of which is abundant these days! So for now I will just stick to my little way of doing things, which is just enough to keep me busy.
Here are a few pictures from my latest sessions. I know Debbie has been waiting patiently for a few weeks, good news sweetie, I am done and they are now able to view online! ( I know she follows this faithfully!) She has the most incredible family and I really enjoyed spending time with her and her 5 kids! And little Baby Claire and I spent some time together last week, she was so precious! She has the prettiest momma so I had to sneak her in for a few too! And little Evan, well, lets just say that he is on my short list of future husbands for my little princess!
Aren't I lucky, I have the most beautiful customers?!