Happy Easter

It was a lovely weekend.  I felt like I had my act together this year, embracing Lent and preparing for Easter. It sure made the holiday so much more enjoyable.

My parents' neighbor provided Gianna with yet ANOTHER stuffed bunny.  Ridiculous.

We colored eggs which is always fun for the first ten minutes.

I mentioned to Iain that a couples of the eggs had cracked and Gianna said,

"Oh no, Daddy.....the eggs crapped."  :)

After we colored eggs, we had this little discussion:

There were also a couple of attempts at some Easter cakes....

Easter Morning

There was a little bunny parade leading the way to the offerings of the Easter Bunny.

Iain put together a little video of Easter morning...

On our way to Mass to celebrate the Resurrection....

Ahhh.....taking pictures of a two year old.

And when we finally get a sweet shot of her, then her mom looks like she's on drugs.

But my two loves seem to manage to always get a good one of the both of them.

And on a side note....

I can totally relate.

Sending Easter Blessings to all of you.

Mardi Gras 2011

Apparently, I forgot to post about Mardi Gras 2011.  No biggie.  We're not revelers of epic proportion by any means.  We just did the children's parade and that was about it.  Gianna was ripe for the pickin' this year. She was SO excited to be going, but she was a little  disapointed when she discovered that she was not actually marching IN the parade....but she soon got over it.

She caught a precious Mardi Gras Queen doll, and showed it to all the the parade folk, exclaiming....

She got the hang of the jargon fairly quickly...


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I just came across these pictures of her first Mardi Gras parade when she was 8 or 9 months old.

My heavens - she was so adorable.

Oh how I miss that baby!

Christmas Joy - Part I

Christmas was lovely, and simple and abundant.

We stayed home in the morning and opened gifts from Santa.

She got a little ambitious in gift opening - assuming ALL the gifts were hers.

After naptime, we made our way to Memaw and Pepaw's house.

Major Overload!!!!

Gianna got an awesome real keyboard that has tons of songs in it's memory bank and even can teach you how to play them.  And there's a jack for a microphone. (Yes, the phrase, "What was I thinnking?" has come up more than a few times.)

Speaking of microphones....

,,,one came with her Karaoke machine from Uncle Vinnie.  Oh my word ~ I can't wait to post videos of that!  She loves music SO much and has an amazing memory for lyrics.

I'm sure I'll be questioning my brilliant gift ideas in the future, but I know she'll have hours of fun with both gifts. 

My dad's comment was the best, "Are you sure you really want to amplify her?"

What can we say?  The girl's got a voice and some serious volume all on her own!

But she sure makes us smile!

Posing for the camera is not on her 'fun things to do' list.

The little red riding coat makes up for it, though. :)

Yep....she sure brings joy to OUR world.

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I found a cute little Santa app on my iPhone which I used to send a message to Gianna.

Christmas Cookies

I promised myself that I would not make myself unnecessarily crazy this Advent and Christmas season.  In order to help honor that promise, I gave myself permission to make Christmas cookies AFTER Christmas day (technically still during the Christmas season though.)

 I may have completely passed over the tradition for this year, but my friend Michelle was adamant about continuing the tradition - especially since she would soon be leaving for THAILAND for a 27 month stint in the Peace Corp.  She and her daughter, Jessie (our beloved babysitter and friend), came and helped 'create' for a few hours.  Gianna couldn't have been more excited about this sweet endeavor.

I'm glad we had cookie time.

I'm just as glad that we waited.

Christmas Lights

We didn't decorate much outside our home this year.

Inside looks great - but the outside -- well, we opted for sanity instead.

A big part of the reason we didn't decorate is because NOBODY would EVER look this side of the street, since our amazing neighbors, 'The Griswold's' as we affectionately refer to them, completely DECK THE HALLS.

Santa's sleigh and all the reindeer, too.  It fun to look at from our home, and an added reason why we're not even going to try. :)

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After we celebrated my brother's birthday at my parents' home yesterday, we decided to take Gianna to look at Christmas lights. 

"Let's go find some more!" was the exclamation of the night.

We heard that there was one house in our town who had their light display set to music on a radio station.  We waited quite a while to get close enough to see the house, but it was well worth it to see Gianna's reaction. 

I wish we would have gotten to slow down a bit at the Nativty, but the drive-by was enough to excite Gianna.

The best light show came from the spactacular moon which happened to be rising at the time of our little light tour.  Gianna is quite obsessed with the moon, so she was pretty excited.

The Advent Wait

When I was little we never saw our Christmas tree during Advent. Never. The tree would magically appear in our front room on Christmas morning lit and completed decorated and surrounded by shiny packages and gifts. It was magical, and frankly, I don't know how my parents ever pulled that off.  It was impressive.

When we moved from New York to the South, we were more than surprised when we realized that many, if not most, people put their trees up the day after Thanksgiving (or before!)  That was a foreign concept to me.  I just love the Christmas decorations, but it seemed that people were overlooking Advent and jumping straight to Christmas. I was adament that I would carry on the family tradition of waiting to decorate.  Maybe I became a tad bit judgemental of that practice of decorating so early.....until I became an adult.

As an adult I was so excited to have my own Christmas tree and have collected beautiful ornaments over the years.  When I was single I'd wait to week of Christmas to decorate.  Because I was working long hours, I was exhausted, WAY behind of Christmas shopping and that week ended up being so stressful, that my focus on the true meaning of Christmas was compromised.  Plus, it was a lot of work only to be taken down a couple of weeks later. After a few years of doing that, I was frustrated and wanted to give in to the temptation of decorating early.  I was really conflicted because I didn't want to sell out and subscribe to the whole marketing madness that seems to lose the entire focus of these two holy seasons, but I wanted to really enjoy the season.

A few years ago, I really had to think things through.  The holidays were a depressing time for me.  I wanted to be married and have a family and it seemed that's what this season was centered around.  I often felt frustrated, sad and forgotten.  And then on top of that I was denying myself the small pleasure of sprinkling my home with lovely and nostalgic surroundings.  I thought, discerned, prayed - and this is what I came up with:  The season of Advent is about waiting and preparing - not about home decor.

My entire adult life has been an intense practice in waiting.  I've waited for clarity in terms of a career. I waited during a long (unchosen) vocation as a celibate, single Catholic woman in ministry for the vocation I longed for in my heart - marriage. And that was a LOOOONNNNGGG wait.  I waited to become a mother through miscarriage, subsequent infertility and an adoption roller coaster. Those are some of the bigger ones, but there have been MANY lessons in waiting for me.

And the key about Advent isn't just about the wait.  It's about what is WITHIN the wait.  I believe God hides Himself in our times of waiting - and when we embrace the wait, learn to wait well, and prepare our hearts --- it's then that we embrace God - and allow Him to embrace us.  And even though we associate typical waiting with anxiety - there is a special peace learning to embrace our waiting and to be still enough to find God there.

I saw this video this morning and thought it was magnificent reflection and challenge about Advent.

And this Advent, we are still waiting. We have recently decided to move, so there is waiting involved in the many unkowns in that realm.  This year's wait also involves God's revelation wheter or not He will grow our family.   I haven't blogged much about our adoption updates this go 'round but have recently updated our adoption blog. Somehow I think waiting and surrendering control go hand in hand.

I'm chuckling as I read this post, because my home is still decorated for fall. Even though I've given myself permission to jump into the holiday decorating earlier ~ I've also given myself permission to not be too driven to make it happen. Things have been busy, and it will get done, but I'm enjoying letting things go and doing the best we can without stressing ourselves out.

For those of you who might enjoy an Advent meditation, I found this article about knowing how to wait.

Thanksgiving Project with Auntie

My dear friend, Anita, was my maid of honor at my wedding.

She has been a most precious and faithful friend over the span of over 25 years.

Anita (or Auntie, as Gianna knows her) lives in Houston and came in town for the Thanksgiving holiday.  She called ahead to say that she had a gift for Gianna and a project that the two of them had to finish making together.

Auntie's sachel of goodies mesmerized my little munchkin.

She brought Gianna her first pair of children's scissors (we're going to hold off on thanking her for that one! ha), glittery flowers and nifty set of crayons.

Gianna was SO excited to participate in this crafty endeavor.

"More projeck!" she kept saying.

Anita decided to turn Gianna into a little Indian for Thanksgiving.

Here they are working diligently on her costume. 

And here's the finished "projeck".....

....stylin' little Indian girl, wouldn't you say?

Any guesses as to what she's doing here?

Thanks for teaching her that Indian call, Auntie.

She hasn't stopped yet! :)

(You can expect a lengthy phone message with that special little yell, Auntie!)

We really can't thank you enough for spending time with our little girl, for giving her such a fun experience and for loving her like one of your own nieces.  You have to know that you're on the top of our list of blessings we are thankful for!

Easter 2010

Easter was really enjoyable this year with our enthusiastic, verbal toddler.  EVERYTHING is so exciting for her.  Whenever I think of her first visit to Disneyworld (no trip planned yet) I just imagine her passing out from awe and excitement.  I love that her happy spirit is amped up that high every day.

 Gianna and her bunnies - which, in the words of Jessie, our babysitter "are as prolific as the real ones."

And for the record, we did not buy ANY of these stuffed animals.  All were gifts spanning several years (many are from when we had Maddie and Collin.) 

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Every time we'd get in the car to go somewhere, I'd tell her where we were going and then I'd ask her,

"Who do think we're going to see?"

She's always ends her guess with, "Eee BUNNY?" She apparently keeps remembering Iain's company Easter Party.

I'd tell her, "No, Gianna.  The Easter Bunny is not going to be there."

Then she'd thinks and responds, "Working?"

"Yes, Gianna. I'm sure the Easter Bunny is working."

(These days, anyone we can't see must be "working." So cute.)

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This was Gianna last year with her bunny friends. Man, it goes fast.

This is what she woke up to Easter morning.

Ridiculous, I know. She even got an full Easter basket from my parents neighbors. Apparently she's the neighborhood mascot. :)

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And this was what she got from the Lewis Land Easter Bunny.

It's the basket I wove the year before she was born. It's not Pottery Barn, but I still love it.

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Even with all the Easter extras to overwhelm her, I am happy to note that her very favorite prize was this book about the true Easter Story.

Every time we get to the part where the people were mean to Jesus and they took him away she shakes her head and says, "Oh Jesus."  It makes me misty and so very pleased that her little heart is already filled with compassion.

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Do you notice the little swan in the background? It was the Easter basket from my parents. Clever and inventive (it's to be used as a planter), but I'm not exactly sure of the swan's connection to Easter...

...apparently, I'm not the only one who's puzzled:

Easter Frock

 

Simple:  we used the dress she wore for her adoption with a little sweater and Maddie's hat and purse.

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With Daddy and Mommy:

Swinging with Pepaw

And at this is usually what we see five minutes after we leave my parents house on a holiday....

sleepy feet.