FEB. PHOTO a DAY - Instagram Finale!

....Instagram - has been waaaaay too much FUN!!!  I totally dig it right now! My teenie boppers think I'm a little CRAZZZZY... and too OLD to do such things! :) ha! ...It's like I've entered their SUPER COOOOOOL world and I'm just a crazzzzzzy ole Momma!

Well... here it is... the February Finale of the Photo Challenge! :)  ...To tell ya the truth - it's kinda FUN to look back and see what LIFE looked like everyday this month... 

February 14. HEART - VALENTINE'S DAY

These 3 have got MY heart!!! SISTERS!!!!!

 February 15. PHONE

"EWOAH" - How Mihret says Hello! AAAAAAH I love it!! She LOVES to pretend to talk on the phone and take pictures with the phone.... and say, "CHEEESE!"
(she's actually holding the phone case - while I take her picture) :)

FEBRUARY 16. SOMETHING NEW

My sis came up to visit and she ALWAYS makes AWESOME stuff that she sees on Pinterest! (someone who actually PINS and DOES the stuff - Unlike me, I'm just a happy lil pinner - TOTALLY gotta do some of those FUN things) ha!  Anyway, she made this adorable soap dispenser with all our pics in it!! ha ha! I LOVE IT! - on the back is a pic of me and Erik - from a LOOOOONG time AGO! FUN STUFF!!! Thanks KRIS! I LOVE YOU!!!

FEBRUARY 17. TIME

Okay... This is out there a little bit... but, after I took this pic of Mihret - I thought... yaaaaaaaa, it is TIME to wear YELLOW! ha ha! I am ready for SPRING, short sleeves and sunshine!!! :)

FEBRUARY 18. DRINK

LOVE ME SOME STARBUCKS! Okay - after I showed this pic to the girls - they TOTALLY thought I had a screw lose! ha ha! Okay.... I PROBABLY do - cuz I totally look like a spazzzzzzz in these pics... well, it was a TRIPLE! :) hehehe!

FEBRUARY 19. SOMETHING I HATE TO DO

Eeeeeeks hate seems SO HARSH - So I revised it a bit and I'm going with... Something I'm not a FAN of! :) ....and that is trying to fix Mihret's SMUSHED up lil curls from her CARSEAT! ha! :) Guess I need to start carrying around a water bottle to fluff those curls right back up! :)

FEBRUARY 20. HANDWRITING

Soooooo.... I took a picture of an OLD, OLD, OLD little ole LOVE letter I wrote Erik when we were still dating! In 1988!!! EEEEEKS! :) He had just moved to Connecticut to work with his Dad - and I was pretty sad - missing the first boyfriend I ever had...

FEBRUARY 21. A FAVE PHOTO OF ME

....I ADORE these pictures - not because I am in them... but because Mihret is!!! ....and to just see how much she has changed from the MOMENT I saw her and held her in Ethiopia, to today.... seeing her hold ME and seeing that SMILE!!! That's what makes these pics MY FAVE! LOOOOOOVE HER!

FEBRUARY 22. WHERE I WORK

...in the kitchen, office, laundry room, living room, Mihret's room...  :)

FEBRUARY 23. MY SHOES

These lil mustard colored Toms were walking all over University Village - getting READY to celebrate my BUDDY Janet and her SWEET 'A's' Shower at a Yummmmmy Mexican Restaurant! :)

Here we are CELEBRATING!!!! It was SUCH a goooood time! We missed a few of our SPECIAL AGCI Momma's :( - But we all could have stayed there all night chatting!! LOVE you gals!!!

FEBRUARY 24. INSIDE MY BATHROOM CABINET

....Okay... TOTALLY had to steal these pics off my PC - They were just TOO perfect for this day! :)

FEBRUARY 25. GREEN

Kinzi's SOFTBALL Uniform is GREEN and orange - LOVE to watch her PLAY!

FEBRUARY 26. NIGHT

After waking up to balloons everywhere, hand made signs, flowers, Starbucks coffee, an AWESOME candy card, two SWEET cards from my big girls, dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant.... we came home and the girls put the COOOOOOOOOLEST firework making, singing, multiple candles spinning thingy on my birthday cake!! ha ha! IT WAS AWESOME!!! ....It was a bit of an INFERNO... but, totally appropriate for my ole age! :) ha! 

FEBRUARY 27. WHAT I ATE

This is HEAVENLY CAKE - My Grandma used to make it for me and after she died my Aunt makes one for me every year on my birthday! AAAAH it's the BEST.... well, HEAVENLY really! ...I guess the ONLY thing that could make it better, is if it had ZERO calories... cuz I could REALLY EAT the WHOLE darn thing!!! :) ....usually I just leave the FORK in it - So I can re-visit it frequently!! ha ha ha!!! :) YUM!!!!

FEBRUARY 28. MONEY

...My DAD gave me this FISH BOWL full of PENNIES! 

...A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned... :)

FEBRUARY 29. SOMETHING I'M LISTENING TO

My sweet friend left some FUN goooooodies on my DOORSTEP for my birthday... and one of them was a Strawberry Shortcake Video!!! Soooooo.... Today, I put in the little Video in and Me and Mihret LISTENED and watched it together! SO CUTE!

Oooooooh DEAR - It's the LAST day of FEBRUARY - the photo challenge is officially OVER for this month!!! ......It was a BLAST!
I
Think
I
Might
Just
Have
to
do
THIS
ONE
 TOOOOOOOO!
:) hehehe! :)

HOME SIX MONTHS!!

It's hard to believe it has been SIX months since Mihret has been HOME!! ....WOW! How ALL of our lives have CHANGED!  She really is AMAZZING! AWESOME! ...and from our very first meeting  - I thought it would be soooooo hard to bond and attach with this little one.  We definitely were not her favorite people - we were greeted with a lot of tears and resistance.  We were strangers. She was scared. We were nervous and wanted to do and say all the right things... for our new, beautiful DAUGHTER!! I had absolutely no idea... the day I grabbed her from HH and went back to our hotel room - that she would LIKE me! She cuddled and LOVED me!  - and it just continued to get better and better from that point forward. ...an answer to prayer! ...as much as she NEEDED to be LOVED - I wanted her LOVE toooo! ...and it happened! Thanks be to GOD for this sweet little GIRL - He definitely knew what He was doing when He put her in our family! She is a FANTASTICALLY goooooofy, silly, happy, joyful babe that fits right in with all the rest of us!!

We LOVED her far before we ever met her!
 WE ARE BLESSED!

We couldn't imagine our lives without her! I look forward to EVERY morning when I get to wake up and see this sweet lil face!

I thank God for choosing her to be a part of our FAMILY!

We LOVE YOU Mihret!

My LIL Ethiopian Valentine

My day started out with my FAVE latte and breakfast sandwich from Starbucks from my HONEY POOOOO! It was SO SWEET and the BEST Valentine's day breakfast evaaah! :) Mmm Mmm! ...That's LOVE! :)

So, this is the FIRST year - that it was not necessary to make Valentine's for the girls classes - Madison had outgrown it a while ago - but now that Kinz is out of elementary  - they were both like, 'uuuuh no Mommy, we DON'T take Valentine's to school anymore'... It was kind of sad actually! They are getting tooooo grown up... I guess I will just have to look forward to when Miss Mihret is in school and I can help her make Valentine's for her classmates! :)  Instead today, we made a lot of cupcakes and ate a lot of cupcakes!!! :) ...oh ya and had a lil mini Valentine photo shooot! hehe! :)

FEB. PHOTO a DAY - Instagram!

I've never done a PHOTO challenge before and I always thought they sounded like FUN... Soooooo, I decided to give this one a shot...

....thought I'd share here since I am having so much FUN with it on Instagram! :)

February 1. YOUR VIEW TODAY!
Mihret and I walking to the mailbox and painting our tootsies

February 2. WORDS 
WONDERFUL, beautiful WORDS to live by WORDS...

February 3. HANDS

February 4. A STRANGER 

Loooook, there is one behind Mihret - at cold stone! hehehe :)

Febraury 5. 10 am 

Getting ready to go on a HIKE

... at the top of the MOUNTAIN -  lil Si

February 6. DINNER 

I FORGOT about DINNER!! ha ha! I don't know how that happened! 

I LOOOOOVE DINER! :) ...Oh well... onto the next day! ;)

February 7. BUTTON

A lil Chai Latte to start out with... LOVE that BREW button! :)

Then Mihret and I went to the park with Janet and Tarah - PUSHED this BUTTON to cross the street! :)

February 8. SUN

Unfortunately, there was not a lot of SUN that day - so I posted a pic from the day before. :)

It was such a GREAT day! I had to SUPER SIZE this pic!!! :)

February 9. FRONT DOOR 

Mihret got her BOW OF THE MONTH for February today! :)

February 10. SELF PORTRAIT 

AAAAAAGH!

Was happy to turn this B&W to hide a few of those pesky SMILEY LINES! :)

February 11. MAKES ME HAPPY

Oooooooh GOSH - this was a hard ONE - cuz SO many things make me HAPPY - but... we were at KINZI's Softball game and I LOOOOOOOOOOVE....

...had fun teaching Mihret how to jump in RAIN PUDDLES with her NEW boooots too! :)

Februray 12. INSIDE MY CLOSET 

a lil PROJECT HOPEFUL necklace and a few of my other necklaces from Kenya and ET! :)

February 13. BLUE

 Grabbed a few of Mihret's blue bows and BLING! hehehe! :)

...and remembered these TWO (when they were little) with their BIG BLUE EYE glasses! ha ha!

It really has been FUN - and it's COOL to see other people's PHOTOS of the day too! - TOTALLY digging Instagram right now!  :) Well, there are MORE days left in February, so this post is...

....TO BE CONTINUED... :) 

IT'S GOOOOOOD!

Today Mihret and I went to BIBLE STUDY - it was AWESOME!!! I JUST LOOOOVE it!!!! The book of James is AMAZZZZING - learning from Beth Moore - makes me want MORE! :) ...and the group of WOMEN are SERIOUSLY AWESOME!!!

LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!!!

Today was the VERY first time I tried to put Mihret in the nursery... The drop off went really well!!! She got on a little rocking horse and looked happy... When I left the room, I could hear, "MOMMA! MOMMA!" She was just kind of TALKING it - so I felt goooood to go! Grabbed my buddy Shan - and we headed to our lil study room! ....I kept looking at the pager - thinking, hmmmm... any minute... probably any minute. Our leader asks, "ANY PRAYER REQUESTS?" ...I asked for a lil prayer that the buzzer wouldn't go off and I have a happy lil camper in the nursery... Guess what happened RIGHT BEFORE we were about ready to pray!? YEP! The BEEPER, BEEPED and my heart sunk a little! I RAN to the nursery and found a crying lil boooogery nosed baby girl! ....It's funny, she got sad when someone showed her kindness and said, HI and gave her a big ole hug... probably made her miss her MOMMA!!! :)

Soooooo... I grabbed the lil squirt - wiped up her BOOGS and headed back to participate in a lesson on JAMES... part of our homework was on JAMES 1:27!!!! ...Sooooo I had a lil show and tell! :) hehehe!  She was GREAT! She sat REALLY quiet... ate a few smarties and a few bites of a donut - then we went to watch the video of Beth Moore and she would CRACK up laughing when everyone else did... My bud Shannon gave her a lil book to read and kept her occupied - and she was QUIET and SUPER DUPER goooooooood! SO.... on the way home - I decided to take my bible study buddy, Mihret out to Mexican food!!!

OOOOOH Golly - this lil girl CRACKS me up!!!! I LOVE HER and her CRAZY FUN PERSONALITY!  ....I have to say... she still just TOTALLY AMAZES me!!!!

...It was a FUN day - and we will give the Nursery another shot next week! :) Maybe she will last a lil longer than 15 minutes. (baby steps) :)

...Just a lil about what I took HOME from the study today:

JAMES 2:1-5

¹ My brothers and sisters, believers in our GLORIOUS Lord Jesus Christ must NOT show favoritism. ² Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. ³ If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?  ⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

CONCLUDING THOUGHT: Faith and Favoritism DO NOT mix. 

going to make a conscious effort not to judge
going to make sure that I continue to change because of the WORD of GOD
gonna try NOT to be a FORGETFUL listener... 

a lil HIDE and SEEEEEEK! :)

HIDE and SEEEEEEEK!

..has never been more FUN, than with this LITTLE ONE! :)

 

I think Mihret was SHOCKED to see BIG SIS able to squeeeeeeeze her bod under the sink cabinet too!!! ha ha ha!!!

Bowling, SNOW and a visit to the Doc...

I haven't been blogging lately....  Sooooo, I thought I'd share a lil of what our crazy fam has been up to with a few PICS... mostly of a lil someone! :)

Mihret did a lil bowling, showed off her belly (I think she is prettttty darn proud of it, - and that belly button thingy is prettttty coooool), and was her silly lil self - trying to get the ball to make it to the pins! :) ha! LOVE it! She is a character! ...gets me laughing all the time!!!

...This January we had some SERIOUS snow... keeping Erik home from work and the girls home from school for like 7 whopping days!! It was soooooo crazzzzzzzzy!! It was nice to have everyone home for a little while - but I have to say, I was relieved when the snow was gone, and we could all get out of the house and back into our regular schedules... :)

...Mihret had her 18 month check up!!! She is doing gooooood! GROWING great and SUPER DUPER Smart! hehehe! .....okay I'm a lil biased! :) ...When she got HOME her Iron levels were low - so they had me give her an Iron Supplement - and wanted to retest her blood today to see how her levels looked now...  It was a looooooooooong wait sitting in the doctors office... we got a lil bored - so I took a few pics! :)  ....Turns out her iron levels were still low - so we made a trip to Children's... and still really have no clear understanding of why they are low or what we should do now... kinda frustrating.  But, they ruled out some major stuff... so, this Momma was relieved. :)

I loooooove taking pictures of this sweeeeet girl!!! She is a JOY and a BLESSING to our family!!! I sooooooo look forward to waking up every morning to see her happy lil face! OOOOH Boy, I LOVE her!!!