Happy Easter

Myah's official Easter photo 2009, she gave the Easter bunny a plastic egg and he filled it with a few pieces of candy and gave it back to her.

This was Grandpa making it rain Easter grass for the girls last Easter, Myah has just had her tonsils out that week and we decided at the very last minute to drive up north for dinner, I am so thankful we did.

My Grandma, Uncle Mike, Aunt Kris and my mom (behind Kris), trying to figure out who the crazy lady was in front of them taking their picture! It was so fun to surprise them! This was around 10:15 pm!

We are big "you might be a redneck if..." fans and when we saw this today we just had to take a picture of it! Mark said " well, that is an interesting way to haul your boat" and I looked up and cracked up! How did they get it on top of the truck, and how are they going to get it down? So funny!

We took Myah to see the Easter Bunny today in Toledo, she was so excited and kept waving at him while she stood in line. It is so fun to get to do these things again, it doesn't seem that long ago that Dayton was that little. We also took Dayton shopping for some new clothes because he has outgrown everything, we surely do not have the same taste in clothing, not that he has bad taste, he thinks we do, and apparently, we should not talk to him in public while shopping either. O...Kay. This is spring break week and we have done nothing.... do you hear the crickets. Boring! But I have to say I am not sure I would have been up to travleing anyhow, I have had a few health issues to deal with lately, so maybe it was best that we stayed home. However, I am so ready for warm weather, I am boucing off of the walls and so are the kids. We did have fun last night, we surprised my mom at the airport as she arrived home from her first trip to Florida with my Uncle Mike and his family and my Grandma. We were there to help with luggage, they said we were a sight for sore eyes, it was fun to see them too. Marks mom Phyllis is now home too, she has been gone since the day after Christmas so we look forward to seeing her and Lon this weekend. Sadly though it is very apparent that my Dad is no longer with us. This is our first Easter without Dad to call and act like the Easter Bunny to the girls. Last year he made is "snow" easter grass for the girls with their new umbrellas. He made the holidays fun, we knew he would make us laugh. He loved watching the little girls play, he was always video taping the kids. He also loved sitting with the guys, especially Dayton and talking about sports and the upcoming fishing season. We always knew when the bluegills were biting, he would call and tell us to get Dayton up there, stop by the bait shop first and get his pole in the water. Dad would usually sit in the house the last few years because of the cold and watch Dayton on the dock and if Dayton got one he would always run it up to the house to show Grandpa. Oh how different it is now. I would never wish him back in the condition he was in but I would love to hear his voice again, get a kiss from his scratchy beard and listen to his stories. I miss him.... bad. We all do.

I am slowing everything down lately and letting stuff "go". I want to enjoy my family, we have been spending more quality time together. I loved making little baskets for my nieces this week, and assisting the Easter bunny for my own kids. We colored eggs yesterday and in Grandma S's tradition, we wrote our names on our eggs before dipping them. Myah even put Papa's name on one.

Spring is here, I am so thankful. I need the change that is for sure! Happy Easter!

Lion King, Snow Joke and Go Spartans

Yesterday Myah and I joined my sister and the girls at the Lion King Broadway production. Mel had bought us the tickets for Christmas. It was so beautiful and we had a super nice time. We cracked up when Mel took the girls to the potty during the show and as soon as she got up a huge "heard" of animals came running down the aisles so she had to duck into an aisle and almost into a womans lap. And we also lost our cars in the parking ramp, literally. We were like the last people to find our cars. But we were on the campus of MSU so it was exciting being there! Thanks Mel for the best gift!

Today starts spring break, did you hear me? Spring Break, not winter break and this is what I woke up to 6" of fresh fallen snow! YUK!! I am already having a hard time with not going anywhere warm for the break but pl-ease!
Myah has been wearing her head and wristbands from the final four games since we got it, she puts it on herself so I just had to share her "spirit" wear with all of you! She is really hoping that MSU wins tonight!!

Final Four Festivities!!! Go MSU!!!

Here we are outside of Hoop CityHere is Miss Myah decked out in her head and wristbands with her new basketball.

Building her little baskeball hoop, being ever so careful.
Dayton Myah and me at the huge pep rally.

At the pep rally Sparty or "Smarty" as Myah calls him, is revving up the crowd! Would you believe my cousin is married to a man who actually was "Sparty" at MSU!

On the riverfront, Detroit was very festive!

The Ren Cen was bustling with activity, this is the headquarters for General Motors, it was nice to see happy times here, it surely is a bad time for Motor City.

The big bracket!

On the roof of Chelis the MSU fans had taken over!

Here is Ford Field where they broke a NCAA record last night for game attendance, 75,00 fans packed the stadium, mostly wearing green and white! What a great time to be a Michigander!

Here is the team headed to the stadium, not a very good picture but it is all I could get!

We spent the day in downtown Detroit taking in all the festivities. We never have tickets to get into any of the big events that come to Detroit but we sure enjoy walking around the city and enjoy all of the activities that the events bring in. Yesterday we went to Cobo where "Hoop City" was going on. The kids had a great time and got lots of little trinkets from the NCAA for participating. Myah got to build a really cute little wooden basketball hoop from Lowes, she got to keep her goggles and apron and even as I type, she is wearing them. She also would not take off her Final Four headband and wristbands. The news even taped her on top of Mark's shoulders dancing while MSU was on the stage during the Pep Rally with all of the Final Four teams. The weather was perfect and we walked along the riverfront, it was great to see so many people wearing green and white! The fact that MSU is in the final game for the championship is the cherry on top, being that the games are in Detroit, I kind of felt bad for the other teams because they were swarmed by green and white, ok, I felt bad for like half a second!!! We left just in time to get home to watch the game! Probably the coolest part of the day was as we were leaving Detroit, we were amazed at the amount of traffic backed up trying to get into the city, we were glad we were headed out, we saw several emergency vehicles and noticed that they were escorting three MSU team busses headed to Ford Field for the game! So exciting! We were biting our nails during the game and were so excited that they won! We have a friendly competition going on in our household, we always fill out our brackets when the tournaments begin for March Madness, I being the huge basketball fan (yeah right) that I am always pretty much guess at who is going to win, and to my family's dismay, I usually do pretty good. This year I am dead on, I picked MSU and NC to go into the finals and of course I picked MSU to win! Duh! I blew my boys out of the water! They are cracking up and just roll their eyes when I rub it in a little bit! Hee hee! Mark says I probably could have won some major money if I had entered a pool but I am not a gambling woman so I just settle for the title of the winner in my household! Now tomorrow night is the final game and we are supposed to get snow, yes snow, like 6 inches, hellloooo, it is spring break and we are gettting snow?!!! Yuk!! So hopefully the crowds will still come out to support our Spartans! Mark has a friend with "connections" so he may be getting in to the game, we are not sure just yet but that would be wonderful if he could be there! Go Spartans!!! Go green, go white!!! All the way!

Go Green, Go White!!! Go MSU!!

These two men are like royalty in our family, Magic Johnson and Tom Izzo! To prove it, here is a funny story. When my cousin Mandy was being tested for kindergarten her teacher asked her to draw a picture of her family. She drew four little stick people representing her dad, mom, brother and herself, at the end was this tall, dark stick person, the teacher asked who that was and she replied "Magic Johnson". Yes, she thought he was a member of the family.

Today our beloved Spartans will play in the Final Four game, at Ford Field no less! We are hoping that our hometown advantage will prevail! We are going downtown today to take in the sights and sounds and show our support for MSU!!! I have to believe that my Dad was their "angel in the bleachers" this year, he and my Uncle Cleo were their biggest fans. We still have somewhere in mom and dad's house the video tape from the 1979 Championship game where Magic Johnson played against Larry Bird, it is the 30th anniversary of that game this year. Dad watched it so many times! Let's go MSU!!!!

Finding Spring Wardrobe Bargains!

These are from Skylars Candy Clips on Etsy, Easter Bunny is putting one of these in Myah's basket!

With the economy the way it is I know we are all getting creative with our purchases. Trying to stretch our dollar as far as we can. I have always been a pretty thrifty shopper and I use LOTS of restraint when it comes to buying clothing for Myah. It just so happens that Myah has outgrown just about everything she owns right down to her little ruffle socks. So I have had to put "buying clothes for our naked daughter" into our budget this spring. I have had some "should be illegal because it is so much" fun scouring the local children's stores for budget friendly purchases. Here are the fruits of my labor! I am very lucky to have a nice outlet mall near me. I can find very good deals at the G*ap Kids outlet if I wait long enough. I loved this collection last spring at the G*ap, usually the following year Ga*p Outlet will have what was in their mall stores this time last year, I purchased the sunflower dress last year and it still fits her ( I buy things big so I can hopefully squeeze out 2 seasons of wear) so I was able to build a wardrobe off of things she already has. I love buying clothing in a collection because I can really mix and match and come up with several different outfits. This madras plaid collection at G*ap was also a favorite of mine last year, I have a hard time buying thing the first time around when I know that next year it will be at least half the price at the outlet. I love this dress and plaid shorts, I found a matching hat too, she can wear the shorts with so many different colors of t shirts, I love finding pieces like that.

Lord have mercy, a Gymboree outlet just opened up at my outlet. I have gone to the one in Birch Run but now having one just 15 mintues away made my heart stop and I turned my car around so fast I left tire marks in the parking lot. I purchased the cute little cropped pants for $9 and paired them with the cutest little $6 shirt from Old Na*vy, I love buying hair accessories at the outlet too, such a savings! I have literally been in the Gymb*oree outlet and had the ladies mark stuff down to a dollar while I was there, now that is fun!

WalM*art has really stepped up their game lately, I have always had good luck finding cheap and adorable clothes there. (Tar*get too!)This season I could have bought everything! These sweet cotton dresses were $6 a piece! The shirt was $4 and the shoes were $10. I also bought a few rolls of polka dot ribbon so I can tie ribbons in her hair to match. I love all things polka dots! I also purchased a cute sweat suit for her but she was wearing it when I took these pictures.

Old N*avy has the cutest things right now and such good prices. I have found things for myselft there as well. Myah has outgrown just about everything she owns so we even needed a new rain coat and rain boots. I feel in love with this navy blue and white pattern. And the best bargain is their flip flops, right now they are 2 pair for $5! I bought her 6 pairs! And a good tip is to look in the boys section if they don't have the right colors you are looking for, of course I wanted pink and lime green but in the boys dept. I picked up navy, brown, red and orange! Same shoes as the girls!
*sorry these pics are so gloomy and dark, it was a very rainy day here!*

I also have picked up some great play clothes for her at mom to mom sales and resale stores. I found some really cute gingham shorts, and some super cute tops. I don't like to pay alot of money for Myah's clothes, for one, she outgrows everything so quickly, secondly, I want her to play like a 3 year old and not worry about her getting her clothes dirty, and lastly, I am cheap and like to get the most bang for my buck, especially in this economy! My goal this year is to learn to sew and make some things for her. I have seen some really cute things this year already on clearance so it is a good time to shop. Myah is a northern girl so we have to have a revolving wardrobe, clothes for all seasons, I try to find pieces that are good to layer and that she can wear all year long. I always invest in a good coat/jacket because she wears them every day, same with shoes, a few good pairs of basic black and brown in the winter and white and pink in the summer and we are good to go. I like to air dry her clothes as well, I find that with buying the cheaper brands it helps keep their colors bright. I also found a product called Color Catcher that I throw into the washing machine and it helps catch the colors so they don't bleed onto your other clothes. It is wonderful especially for items that are striped with white. A fun item to purchase now is big girl panties now that Myah is completely potty trained, yippee! I make sure to go through my kids clothing every so many months and weed out those things that they have outgrown, and give them away, this way I know what to keep my eye out for while shopping and it also keeps me from being impulsive and buying a cute dress because I know she has some in her closet that she hasn't even wore yet. It pays to shop early too, I find that up north here it is hard to find summer clothes during the summer, they are putting the fall/winter stuff out, so I find most of the spring/summer items early in the year, then I am not desperate and paying big bucks later on. I love to make alot of Myah's hair accessories, it is so much cheaper to buy some alligator clips at Sally Bea*uty supply and hot glue some cute ribbon, flowers and rhinestones to them than to buy them at boutiques. I do find some really good deals on Etsy though. Actually the Easter Bunny is bringing some really cute items that I found from Sklyar Candy Clips, she has good prices and I love the felt monogrammed pieces. She is really good to work with, tell her I sent ya! And of course you know that Matilda Jane has been a staple in Myah's wardrobe since we brought her home, I love Denise and am so glad that she has gotten so "huge". I don't buy alot of her pieces but usually will get one or two pieces a year, these clothes grow with Myah, the pants can become cropped and the dresses can become shirts while she grows, they are very generously cut and Myah needs that. My sister is having a trunk show on Monday if you are interested let me know.

Well, that is Myah's spring/summer wardrobe in a nutshell, now if only the weather would cooperate!

I bought the brown one on top and also ordered a monogrammed one for her! Love them!

Chinese Milk and Cookies

These sweet brown cookies with pink frosting were a huge hit with Myah when we first got her. Mary our social worker had told us about these type of cookies before we went to China, she said that it is a way to "bond" with your baby, by giving her something like this that she likes. Funny enough, the orphanage gave us a bag full of necessities on Gotcha Day and these cookies were in it. They are made by Kra*ft and have the cutest little faces on them. I bought a few packages of them to bring back home to help in the transition, and to give her something that she liked and was used to getting in China. This coconut milk was also in her bag from the orphange. The babies loved it! I purchased some more of this as well, I just poured the rest out the other day.

This was a bag of formula that the orphage gave us as well, it was the infamous "Sanlu" baby formula that was tainted, I gladly poured all of that out! Still I kept the package because they had written some information in Chinese on this particular bag.

One last bag of cookies, these were the vanilla version of the sweet treat that Myah loved so well.

I neatly put all of these empty packages in a baggie and put it in with Myah's special box, I hope that someday she will appreciate that I have kept all of these little things from our trip.

The other day my friends took Myah for the day, I took full advantage of my time to myself and decided to clean out her closet, something that is almost impossible to do when she is home because she gets into everything. I have recently moved Myah into Dayton's old bedroom so she has the small walk in-ish closet now which is SO nice! I have two huge totes in there that hold some of her most precious treasures, everything from China. I finally sorted everything and put the things that we plan on giving her as gifts in the future in one and in the other one I put all souvineer-ish type things, and special momentos from our trip. I brought home some food/candy/tea to share with our family and friends. I still had it all wrapped up. I figured it has been almost 3 years, we most certainly are not going to eat it, but I had a hard time parting with it. So I took pictures and saved the wrappers that they came in. What would I do with the food after all this time anyways? It is just that everything from our trip to China is so precious to me. So I am doing a special post just about food, Myah's favorite thing in the world.

Week In Review

We have had a busy week so I thought I would just do the week in review through photos. Dayton started outdoor baseball practice this week as well, but I didn't have any pictures of that. We also took mom out looking at new cars, she is in need of a new one, we had fun shopping with her. Myah is showing off her very own library card!

We took a walk to visit Indie in her new barn behind our house. I think we will be making many trips to the barn.

St. Patricks Day at ABC/123, nice hat huh!

Enjoying our first 67 degree day! Yippee!

We took a special visit up north to visit Great Grandpa.

Myah and Dayton by the creek that runs through Grandpa's backyard.

Myah making a "D" with cheerios at her class.

Dad's Harley left mom and dad's for the last time. My sister and her husband are now the proud owners. An eagle was flying overhead watching all that was taking place.

We went to watch Dayton's buddy Brandon play hockey, he is an 8th grader and plays goalie for the high school JV team. He is pretty darn good!