Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Cookie Night at Mom and Dad's

1 batch of chunky melted chocolate chips
1 trip to the store
4 dozen peanut butter balls
4 dozen coconut chocolate balls
3 dozen frosted and sprinkled roll out cookies
9 chocolate snowmen
1 lb. white chocolate almond bark
3 chocolate almond disks
4 dozen pecan tassies
2 bottles of wine

need I say more?

Gingerbread Fest 08

Today was our gingerbread house decorating party, and it was very successful. We had a great turnout, 18 people who stayed the whole time, and a couple who stopped in to visit. We had tons and tons of candy, of every shape, size, and color. Everyone seemed to have a great time, and a lot of people asked us to do it again next year. I think it is a really fun pre-Christmas tradition, and it is really easy to host a party in which the guests bring their own snacks and entertainment, and then take everything with them when they leave!

I think we learned a few things this year about gingerbread houses:

-Prebuilt houses are definitely easier and cleaner (but depending on the person, maybe not as much fun)

-A little candy goes a long way

-If you don't twist the bag enough, frosting will come out the top and get all over you

-If you twist it too much, the side may burst, and frosting will get all over you

-Plastic tarps would protect the floor from the inevitable dollops of frosting

-Frosting DOES come out of carpet (phew!)

We uploaded all of the pictures here, but I'll give you a sneak peek!

Great read

If you have the time, check out http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/01/081201fa_fact_cassidy?currentPage=all

We're adopting!

Most of you have already heard that we have begun the process of adoption. We're going to try to clear some things up and answer as many questions ans we can here.

Adoption is something we have always planned on doing, and after pregnancy wasn't working out, we were faced with either testing to try to figure out why, and then possibly fertility treatments, or adoption. Since we always planned on adopting at some point, it wasn't a concept to get used to, and we felt like it didn't make sense for us to force ourselves to conceive when there are so many babies out there. After being a nanny, I know for sure that I can love another person's child as my own.

In the spring we started looking into it and talking about international vs domestic and different aspects of it. I joined an amazing group of women who have adopted, are adopting, or are birthmothers, and getting to see adoption work in so many ways over the last 7 months has been really good. I even got to meet for dinner with a few of them who live close, and we had a blast!

We are working with an agency right in Farmington Hills, so its nice and close! We had our introductory meeting in September. We got our formal application and got it filled out and turned in and started reading one of three required books. We had to attend a class about the adoption process in general, and another about transracial/transcultural adoption. At these meetings we got some more paperwork to fill out. There were papers to send to the state for a background check, directions to a place to get fingerprinted, forms to take to our doctors, and then questionnaires about what we want as far as openness with the birthmom and also the birthmom's mental state and drug use. That way when a birthmom comes in, they talk with her and find out what kind of family she wants, and then look at the waiting families and finds those who are open to everything she wants.

We have already completed the first homestudy meeting with our caseworker (who is very nice!) It was a 2 hour meeting at the agency with both of us. In a couple of weeks we have our second meeting, which is also at the agency, and she will spend an hour with me, then an hour with Eric. The third meeting will be the first week of January, and she will come to our house. This is to make sure that the house is a safe place for a child. For instance, if we lived on a lake, she would want to make sure we would have something in place to keep the baby from falling in.

After we have filled out and turned in all the forms, read all 3 books, and finished all 3 meetings, the caseworker will write her report. Then we make our profile. This is what they show the birthmom. It has a few pictures and a story about us. After that, we wait for a birthmom to pick us! It could take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years from the time we have a completed homestudy, however, we are open to all races and degrees of openness, and we are younger than many families who have come to adoption, so we have been told by a few people at the agency that we have everything going for us.

Our adoption will be domestic, which means the birthmom lives in this country. She will most likely live somewhere in Michigan. The agency mostly does newborn adoptions, but we have stated that we are willing to adopt a child up to a year old.

We are open to any race. Our area and our church are diverse and we are both open to new cultures, experiences, etc. and so we would be willing to embrace the culture and background of any child we adopt. We also have plans to adopt from Ethiopia in a couple of years.

We are hoping for as open a relationship as we can with our birthmother. We would love to have pictures of her and her family, and for her to be around so our child can ask questions about the family past and know the person who brought them into the world for us. Most adoptions now are open, with varying degrees of openness. There's no guarantee that we'll get as open a situation as we'd like but we really hope to.

There is a book called Adoption is a Family Affair; I haven't read it (we have our own required reading!), but from what I've heard it is a good resource for the friends and relatives of an adopting couple because it explains a lot of what goes on. See if your library has it, or its only $11.20 on Amazon and if you spend $25, it ships for free!

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask. We will be updating as we progress to keep everyone in the loop.

Thanksgiving!

On Wednesday night, Larry was in town, so he and Eric went out for guy's night at the bar, and I went to Sam's house for girl's night. We drank wine and hung out, then the boys met up with us. It was nice, we don't get to see Larry very often.

Thursday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, watched the parade, and then got started on the pies and rolls for dinner. I tried a completely new crust this year, it has supposedly won competitions! I made a pumpkin and an apple. We had a lot of extra apples and Uncle Rick can't have pie so I made some applesauce too. 

When we got to Aunt Karen's, Adam and Amy got to work rolling the dough and making the rolls, then there was the yearly Thanksgiving football game. Eric and Adam won the trophy.

Grandpa and I carved the turkey and we ate. Dinner was delicious, as usual!  Amy showed us the Thanksgiving crafts she did in school, and explained how buckskins were like text messages for the Native Americans to talk to each other.

After dinner, we played school and Amy was the teacher. She was a tough teacher too!

We went home and planned the next morning, started the coffee pot and went to bed, because...

.........at 3:30 we got up and went to Kohls! We met my mom there, and of course saw Belinda! We did some shopping, then my mom had to go to work, so we stayed in line to get her stuff and ours. We got a 6 qt crock pot for $10! Its Hamilton Beach so not the best brand but for $10 if it lasts a year we've gotten our money's worth! We grabbed a quick breakfast, then went to get in line at my mom's store to surprise her. We were first in line! Ok, there were like 7 people in the line, but I've never been first before! We got a few gifts for people, and a couple of things for ourselves, then headed out to the mall. We didn't need anything, but it was fun to be in the crazy shopping crowd. We went to Meijer for a couple of things, then back home because Eric had to go to work.

This evening we had Thanksgiving dinner #2 at Eric's parent's house. It was fun to see everyone, Anya and Asia were very cute. 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving dinner #3 at my parent's house. Bring on the turkey!

Cat update

We've heard from a few people that we aren't updating enough on the cats. Maybe its because I'm in denial about how big they are :(

Ian just had his 2nd birthday the last week of October, they celebrated with some yummy wet food and lots of games and snuggles.

Kya and Zoe are almost a year old, and have suddenly had a major growth spurt. They are

 now almost the same size as Ian, and weigh as much as he does! Ian is anywhere from 9.5-10 pounds at any given time, and when we weighed the kittens the other day, they were both 9.5! 

Kiara has stayed her petite little 6.5 pound self, but she suddenly looks teeny since everyone else is so big!

Here is a picture of Ian and Zoe from February 6th. 

And here is Ian and Zoe the other day. (Ian is on the left)

Ian and Kya February 7th

Ian and Kya the other day

And this is Kiara, in her favorite sleeping position. 

Apple Day!

Last weekend we took Adam and Amy to the apple orchard to pick apples, and then went back home and made yummy apple pies! We picked a lot of apples, Adam and Amy were really good pickers! They even went up into the trees to get the best apples! And the pies were so yummy! I know the one that went to our house only lasted a couple of days...

New Job starts Monday!

I am so excited to start my new job on Monday!

I stopped by the new office, it is just across the hall from my old office, and had a chance to meet most of my new team.

The strangest field trip...

David and I read an article in National Geographic Kids a couple of months ago about this place, and then completely forgot about it. Then Leah called on Thursday and said they had just read about it and asked if we wanted to go check it out.

David was really excited, but Kaylee was hesitant. She finally agreed to go as long as I promised not to let a scorpion sting her! The guy was really nice, he answered all of the kids' questions and even showed them what they eat (crickets). None of them were hungry so we didn't get to see them eat, but we saw them walk around, and the glass cases were at the perfect height for the kids, they were face to face! It was very cool. The guy even let the kids try on the magnifying goggles they wear to inspect jewelry. 

The article is interesting, it talks about his previous attempts at live decor. He's a really interesting guy. We asked if they had ever deterred anyone from stealing and he laughed and said "well, we're in South Lyon, so no" but then told us that he also has a store in Maryland that his son runs that had been broken into before, and the case with the scorpions had never been  broken into.