What a Weekend

I tell you this is one spoiled (in a good way) little girl. My sister in law got some half price tickets to go see Disney on Ice for Saturday, so very fun because it was Maya and her other cousins. We couldnt' see really well over a few heads but Maya stood up on my seat the whole time and loved clapping and would hold her arms out like she was ice skating and sing along (kind of). Must we get stuck sitting next to some stinky smakers, yuck! so much fun. Then Sunday my grandpa had gotten us an early christmas present to go and see The Lion King. I didn't want to be one of those mothers who brought a too young of child to the theatre but as I was told there were lots and lots of kids, and somehow it stayed quiet. Maya has a REALLY hard time not talking but considering she did wonderful (no nap for 2 days) it was a bit long I thought for a newly 3 year old to sit but still really fabulous to see.
We had some more beautiful snow, that has mostly melted again.
Soon we will go and see Santa again no doubt she will leap into his arms again, crazy kid. She also told me she forgot to tell him Merry christmas, so this time she is goign to remember.
Maya is on the cover on the Guatadopt calander, so we won't see her for a whole month, but at the rate the calander is going I am happy she's in it at all. Last year she was in January with the pink superman hat on. Terri did both of your kids make it in? I saw Abby I thought, its hard to tell on the computer. I know I saw Suz's girls too.

Just a little post

boy wihtout good weather and taking pictures I don'thave much to post. Sorry for all who i have not been able to leave comments for, my computer has been crashing constantly when I am trying to comment and then close out the page.
All is well Maya is mostly her old self today, thank goodness, but we are goign to disney on ice tomorrow (half price tickets) and then the lion king on sunday (thank you grampy) so hopefully somehow she will continue on this path if not I guess we won't be seeing much of either.
So I did some of the rendeer prints on paper and cloth along with the t-shirt, and this is what I came up with for the paper ones. Just spray glued them onto some plastice used a little mog pog over the top of them and then glued on ribbon etc. Not perfect but something I can use as a decoration every year.
Also our unplanned sighting of Santa, what is it with a kid who LOVES adult size people dressed up.
Snowy and cool here today so she did some more painting on her salt dough ornaments and now I have them drying with their clear coat.
Loved seeing some familiar faces on the Guatadopt calander!
Sorry boring post but I had to do something.

The joy of Snow, for now

Snow is fun in the beginning, but once you start planning your day aobut getting to town and how much time you should allow with the roads etc its not quite as much fun. Actually shoveling off the roof a couple of times did me in. Hopefully we can just have a normal winter around here this year. Maya still was thrilled with the snow, we had that little bit a week ago and then we ended up with a couple of inches that has lasted for a few days because the weather hasn't warmed up. I actually like that, the tree's stay coverd and beautiful, its not slushy and wet just pretty and peacefully quiet, thats is until the jekal and hyde child emerges back into her demonic phase, what the heck I was really looking forward to 3 years old. What was I thinking when she had just fallen asleep and I woke her up to play inthe snow???? (actually that worked out well after a few minutes) we just want our sweet little girl back were did she do and why when she comes back can't we keep her.
Not torture of Maya wearing a dress in the snow, we were getting ready to go to a birthday party, she had wanted to play in the snow but I was living the morning on the floor (thanks Aunt flow and miss crampy) were my sweet child cobvered me up with her blanket and kissed my forhead. Don't worry she was not pleasant at the party, why why why?
so apparently this is 3.
I did tell Maya soon we could go see Santa, she is very very excited, she loved him last year, you know she's that crazy kids who likes adult sized people dressed up in costumes, she said I am going to say "HI SANTA" and of course she will tell him her name and that she is 3, so I sayd then he will ask you what you want for christmas "I probably want those stick things with the pink stuff" me ??????? "the things we had at grandma's" I still ahve no clue, but finally in my brain that doens't rember like hers, remember back to last christmas that in her stocking she got these cookie stick things that came with strawberry frosting, that I was not happy santa had brought, so now I know what great thing she will ask santa for that she had for about 10 minutes one morning a year ago. and I can't remember yesterday sometimes.
Hey camera people, any advice on what is a good point and shoot? mine is really old and santa said he might buy me one (my parents are santa) I like to have a good number of pixals but also something that doesn't ahve alot of hesitation when taking the picture, my favorite thing about my DSL is the continuous shooting, it takes a picture right away and a few more, perfect get your best shot. also easy flash off.

Fun Reindeer craft

How about this fun craft and also a cute shirt.
For a small child just a plain shirt will do, for a bigger kid make sure their hands and feet can fit ont he shirt or use a sweatshirt. I found that while shows up and looks best, we tried red yesterday and alougth it looked cute it just didn't stand out as good.
All you need is:
*1 shirt (walmart $3.00, or craft stores normally have plain t-shirts 2/$5)
*fabric paint (your choice of 2 colors)
*pom pom nose or you could paint the nose
*googly eye's
*I used gem it glue because I already had it to glue on the eye's and nose
*2 paper plates to put the paint on
Easiest I found was to do the whole project on the floor, I did use a white sheet because we did some test pronts on it and also on white butcher paper or you could use posterboard, I am going to try and make a hang up chrsitmas decoration out of this as well. If you do some on paper you could just use some elmers glue.
fun sentimental craft, I happend to find that Maya had a plain shirt in her drawer, its off white but it works.
Have fun! post pictures if anyone does it.

the I should have known cake

Yeah I should have known I always have this great idea and guess what it doens't quite work, thats the glory of having a child who's turned 3 they don't care, perfect. Last year I was using 3 9 inch cake pans and stacking them but using icecream instead of cake, then making the whole thing into a carousel, I guess it woul dhave been good to know the freezer in teh shop isn't quite cold enough so it wasn't as tall as it was going to be.
This year I saw this cute dragon cake, there's looked so good. I told Maya she could have whatever color dragon she would like, now I am thankful she choose pink and I bought a pink cake mix as well, because you know what unless you froze it, you cannot get frosting to stick to all the open sides of the cake you cut (maybe if you over cooked it, not even gooping it on) but at least it all kind of blended and no one cared. Maya had a great party this weekend, its was cold outside but not raining so we even got to do her Dora pinata outside.
I did no editing on these pictures I am tired and didn't care and I already backed up the month of October onto 3 disks and onto the external drive, so thats as good as they are getting.
Oh yes and those of you who dont' think Maya can turn into a demon child, well I tell you this has been the week from hell.
Poor girl she's sweet and then boy howdy she's a screaming maniac so bad that she will just be in her room screaming. I am happy to report this lovely behavior lasted a week and now she's much more herslef again, thank goodness
sorry its been awhile to post, I was working on this one when my mom called me as she was walking up my driveway. Something happend to my dog while they were out walking, enough said I took her to the vet and its awful to say but the bill was too high to try and save her. Given her lifestyle I dont' know if I could have ever gotten her healed, she was a pound dog and she had issues. Had it been our other dog with differnt issues I might have choose differntly. Still anytime I have noticed that is so awful and crying uncontrolably sad , you cry about others things you never fully cried about. I guess this is good unless it is dark and you are trying not to hit suicidal deer along the way home with your dog that is no longer alive, just awful. Maya was somewhat upset last night, but then again today when she realized she couldnt' hug her, its opens up lots of questions about death, but to a 3 year old very confusing to not see her again.

Boot Scootin Boogie

I tell you this kid can crack me up, one minute she is throwing a demon fit and then she's a dancing fool. See the panties hanging down, she assured me they are not too big, dont' worry when we wear gigantic panties we make sure and wear pants that day. I miss the sales but am saving money by missing them, my mom still ended up getting sucked in, I love getting stuff for 75% and more off. She picked up this size 2T costume (obviously a bit short) it looks pretty good in pictures, really its this think material and all one piece. Hoped these brought a smile to someones face they did to mine.

How about some more crafts/gifts

I love this craft it makes a great inexpensive gift. All you need is 1 plain plate, or I guess you could paint one all one color first, I prefer to start with a plain white plate which you can find at the dollar store.
* 1 white plate (dollar store)
*1 plate hanger (dollar store)
*clear coat (craft store witht he 40% off coupon or even walmart type stores)
*cheap paint (walmart)
When I have done this with little kids I have just done their hand prints with the left over paint I have saved from doing the salt dough ornaments thats why this one is multi colored, I just dumped it on a paper plate put her hand in and then onto the plate. I just cut a old sponge and dabbed it on around the edge.
Whe I have done this with a little bit older kid, its great because they can actually paint a picture. Nice to you can wipe off mistakes.
after it drys I wrote on the back the date with a fine tipped sharpie and then it got a couple of coats of the same clear coat I used on the other crafts.
This makes a great gift that can be hung up or sat on a table and didn't cost much to make. If anyone does them post them so I can see pictures, i should have Maya do one now that she can actually draw a person that is somewhat recognizable as a person.
I"m all about crafts and gifts to be made. Maybe some of you know from older posts that I make bracelets (all of Maya's) so last year I made all the girls in the family bracelets and necklaces with their names, but I am always looking for something new. I also make most of Maya's hairclips i might do something with that, still thinking.

Happy Adoption month

Happy Adoption month. Just wanted to share my favortie poem that I found online and used in Maya's announcement when we finally got home. Also a couple of pictures, one of us on Embassy Day in Guatemala and also one when we had Maya's adoption finalized here at home.
Adoption has made my world, I dont' know how else to put it, I was a sad depressed person like Chandler said on Friends, she's a mother without a child. How painful is it to want something that you can't have. Not something petty like a fancy car, but a child to complete your family. If our adoption had went thru as it should ahve then I would have stayed nice and naive and thought what a magical experiance, but as alot of you know how they can go it was a heartaching experiance but in the end thank goodness it all worked out.
Does adoption always work with no problems once the child is home? no, do all peoples bio kids come out without problems, no.
Here's what I dont' understand, maybe someone can enlighten me, I know first hand that adoption is really expensive, some countries less then others and some more. But lets just say in teh US , why does it need to be so expensive? we would liek to adopt another child, but really when I look into adopting domestically it actually makes me mad, dont you think there would be a few less kids needing homes if it wasn't so outrageously expensive, maybe not because I guess realistically they always find homes for infants, so I guess they can charge 20 grand or so for a white baby and int he teens for a black child, also very very sad that there is a differnce for the race of the child, but sadly true. Still unless you can find a person and skip the agency so that you can write off the adoption Iknow its possible but in these times and being a stay at home mom I am not willing to go into debt and threaten our home, etc to give money to an agency, its just crazy (to me at least)
Ok enough of the rant. Lets celebrate the children we have home!

Our Child

We carried you in our hearts before you were even born and dared to dream that you were real.
Our Child,
We carried your picture since the day we received it, and dared to love a child we were yet to meet.
Our Child,
We carried you in our arms at last, and gazed in helpless wonder at your face, and dared to lose our hearts to you.
And now, our child, a dream fulfilled, a prayer answered, a family created, we have dared to become your parents.
And so now, our precious child,
We shall carry you home.

Happy Happy Birthday and Halloween

well no great pictures in no particular order. What a Happy Happy week. could anyone be more excited about turning 3? I dont' think so, she still asks every once in awhile "I'm 3?" and is very very excited. I dont' know who's happier. Wehn you have waited and tried to have your child for so long her birthday is really one of the most important days in our life. It changed our life and without it I would be (well lets not talk about that). I am just so excited that our Maya was born and she is just excited that she is 3 and gettting bigger.
We stuck with doign the same thing as last year, we went down to our big park downtown and road the carousel (aunt Jodi is dressed as a mexican man for Halloween at her work), went ice skating and walked to Red Robin's to eat lunch, we go there becasue they all sing and bring an ice cream sundae. so so fun, then there was a message from Aunt Jodi saying to come and trick or treat her work, well off we went and came out with a ton of candy. Everyone kept saying what a beautiful little princess, and Maya kept saying "I'm 3!!!!" they thoguth she was dressed up for Halloween. Oh I should say we had to pick up my mom from work and Costco was also having a Halloween party of sorts for its employee's and family so she got started there. On the was home she fell asleep int he car, this is a rare occurance for her.
Of course the next day was Halloween and we started it out by trick or treating the businesses in the town we live by, then off to play with friends then trick or treating again. Its been a full weekend and none of us even got dressed on Sunday, we stayed in our jammies all day and it was a beautiful day outside.
So Maya is 3
Favorite things: was curious George but now love my little pony and Dora, but really she loves building things with blocks and playing in her kitchen
What she can do: sings the ABC's knows all her letters and can count 1-10 knows some of the teens and double digit numbers but not in the right order. Still writes left handed, knew all her shapes and colors last year, knows her colors in Spanish and knows some food etc in Spanish. Ride fast on her big bike, scared of nothing (other then big slides????) must always be swinging as high as possible, loves scary Halloween things, but not mad or scary people on TV. Scared of no animals and all the sudden has realized that most toys as she looks on the backs are made in China.
Although difiant in some ways and dramatic about oh how her arms are broken or her legs, she still knows once she's put in bed she's not allowed to get out, good so far I hope that one holds up.
Never stops talking and or singing (alot of dancing too)

A bit different of THIS and THAT

THIS

Remember the pouring rain? well that was the day before we stopped at a park to take pictures in there now very soggy leave piles. I knew I would have issues with the sun, it was so bright and becasue we had the lovely artic blast the leaves didn't do as well as far as color and lots of them had been ripped fromt he trees by the rain, so not my normal nice shaded areas. Maya still ahd fun running around until some chilly wind picked up.









THAT

I guess that will be the snow that is falling this morning, last year it was so beautiful, not sure how the weather will be for the big day of turning 3 tomorrow, but regardless we will have fun.

This To That

THIS

So nice and warm what a nice day to go on a trail ride. Maya was enjoying brushing her pony "look at his cute little ears" she loves them. shorty of course cares less as long as he is eating, he knows the grass is going and winter is coiming, he has became a giant fluff ball. Notice her pants sticking way up in the back, unfortuntely we bought these and now they have changed to adjustable waist band. We had a fun trailride Mr. Shorty started out very naughty like a tiny little thoroughbred but he's smart and he gets tired and was quite good after a while. Maya isn't bothered by it and stays on very well. By the end she was practicing posting at the trot, he's so short I can just jog along beside her and help her go up and down at the right time. I love her fearlessness. Now they are saying some snow on thrusday, yuck its too soon, just hoping that friday isn't awful so we can go tot he park for her birthday and ride the carousel and ice skate. We will see I guess.















TO THAT
Boy did it pour, we have a hd a couple of days of this, not together, it pours and then its sunny the next day. Remeber my Aunt Debbi who makes the cute hats she also made this Curious George hat and poncho, and we had gotten some hand me down curious george rainboots. Maya had a great time other then the fact that she was splashing so big that she was soaked completely thru, there were no dry clothes on her. I should have grabbed an umbrella becasue I only took a couple of shots with my good camera and put it in the house, my little camera got too wet and quit working but after laying it ontop of a lampshade with the lamp on it got all dried out and works again, same fix for cell phones that get wet (take the battery out first).
In other news I finally let Maya grow up, a bit. She's going to be 3 and yet she was still in her crib (she fit fine and knew she wasnt' allowed to get out) alas I took off the front rails and now its a days bed and she was a bit uncertain when I was doing it because she likes her crib but she loves her big girl bed! it also turns into a full bed but her room is so small and she probably won't get too big we will just leave it like this for awhile.

A little more Halloween

Just some more cute Halloween pictures, love the outfit so had to take a pictures of course. Also we did the craft with the empty glass container, she loved cut the tissue paper and painting the glue on the jar. I made the ghost and Maya is quite proud of both of them, I love a cheap easy fun craft.
Today we helped a friend I used to work with decorate for her sons wedding, while we were there they had music on the whole time, I know Maya loves to sing but the Taylor Swift song came on "we belong together" I couldn't believe how much of the song she new, it was so cute.
We have another few busy days then hopefully we dont' get sick so we can celebrate Maya's 3rd birthday next friday and trick or treat the next day. Here in the little town by us you get to trick or treat the business's on Saturday during the day, which this year is halloween so it will be double trick or treat day for us.

Sorry just a little more pink

So there IS going to be a guatadopt calendar, there will only be about 10 days to updload you picture and it will be put together and should get to your home right before christmas. They are suppose to be putting up the link today to upload photo's. Go to guadadopt for more info.
So yes a few more pink pictures but really next will be fuzzy pony pictures again becasue we went on a trailride yesterday.
Wow i just realized I really don't have much to say, yes trying to be rational but freaked out a bit by the swine flu, because know one has any immunity to it seeing as how it only comes around ever 30-40 years, but I'm still scared, today at Maya's dance class she had to have a differnt teacher becasue hers is at the hospital with her son who has it.
Ok so onto more uplifting things I have been trying to catch up on scrapbooking, so now we have 1 room you can't even walk into, hope to have it done before Joe comes home, ha ha, I will I can't stand having upfinished projects. We are doing our salt dough crafts tonight, oh and I need to post pictures of the tissue paper glass jar craft, it was fun!
doing a little reflecting, knowing that 2 years ago I was so sad and happy, who doesn't want to have a party with their family for your childs 1st birthday, I was lucky enough to be there and had foster family and friends, and thats when adoptions were still going thru, I cannot imagine these for families and children stil stcuck in the crazy ass system.
So reallynot much to this post wanted to let everyone know who was interested about the guatadopt calenders and to pass it on becasue most people dont' get on guatadopt all the time anymore and there is such a short time to load pictures and decide if you want some or not.

Your Welcome, its not Pink!

Honestly I am so tired of PINK, you know I had souch high hopes of these great birthday pictures and it just isn't going to happen, they are fine and all but you knwo when you have what you want in your head it frusterating not being able to make it happen. So yes I took more and will post them but I had to have a break, so how about some Awesome Orange! I gave up the way the sun is moving now I just can't get the perfect lighting but still I LOVE these pictures. Remember my aunt who has made Maya a bunch of hats? Well here is one more!
So maybe I am nuts but I carried my great big flat on one side pumpkin (flat on one side actually worked well for this shot) down form the front outside of the backyard to a favorite photo rock.
typically I am not a prop person depending on what it is but I really loved it when she had the sunflowers in a differnt post i did, so here are some cheap fake flowers from Michaels craft store.
So is anyone else paranoid about the swine flu? I cannot sleep thinking about what maybe we won't do anymore and how I can protect us, must have gotten this trait from my dad because my mom worries about very little when it comes to things like that and national disasters. On the bright side for once I do not want to be pregnant with this goign around so thats something I guess. So I am going to try and stay normal and do normal things for now, but locking us up int he house also sounds good.

So today I got Maya's 3 year old birthday announcements done and her Halloween cards so I will share them closer to the holidays, now if I could get motivated to catch up on her scrapbook before I have to start a new one when she turns 3.

More personal gift idea's and one craft

So these aren't the inexpensive gifts I was making but these make neat gifts and then your child doesn't destroy the scrapbooks or photoalbumns, or I guess if you dont' have either one of those this lets your child have their own book.
So far I have only done 2 books the first book is the ABC Book which we took all the pictures (except U is for USA) in Guatemala, and then they had to correspond with the correct alphabet letter. It was a fun project to do while wiating to finally come home, but this would be fun to do with kids at home and let them think of differnt pictures for each letter.
I made both of these books at Inkubook.com I know lots of sites do them. you can arrange each page how you want it with text etc or just have them arrange the page layouts and pictures.







The second book I did was a book of Maya's first 2 years it has lots of pages and of course most of them are from visit trips and while I lived there but then the last 7 months are at home and have a pictures of differnt family members and friends.
You can also make books for family, I know at this site they send me coupons alot, so you can get a duplicate of the book for half off, etc. Just another idea of a not as cheap gift but something personal.






I don't have a picture becasue we haven't made this yet, but this would work for halloween or a snowman etc, take any empty clear glass jar, vase, little fish bowls, or even those round little glass bowls that look like tiny fish bowls for .50 at the craft store. Cut tissue paper into 1 inch squares or whatever shapes you need for your project, orange but then black for eye's, nose, and mouth of a pumpkin. You get the idea, snowmen and even frankenstein could be made, kids have a good imagination. take a little bowl put in houshold elemers glue dilute with a few drops of water and paint it on your jar with a little brush and put on tissue paper overlapping as you go. Depending on the size you could put in a votive candle or battery opperated little light.
they say after it is all dry it will looked bright again!

Artic Blastin - Pumpkin Patchin

So Monday we decided to go to the pumpkin patch, cold or not. We all wore layers and even though it was a lovely 33 degree's , honestly it is not december what is the deal. On Mondays and Fridays it $5.50 and you get to do the corn maze, train ride, get a pumpkin, and a few other things Maya was too small for. It was still fun although I think the cold and the fact that Maya wasn't used to feeling like a marshmellow she wasn't as excited, this friday the now predict 62 degree's, ah well we already have soccer that day. This is my favorite farm because they have the castle, maya who typically not afraid of anything even fake crawling dead people at the halloween store did not like one painting on the wall of a crazy old guy in shackles, she decided she would close her eye's, we named him Fred and we got to hear over and over how she di NOT like Fred. So these pics were taken with my old point and shoot that as you can see if you get sky in the picture the lense is filthy.
On the last post regarding your comments, so the first pictures I hadn't altered they were SOOC (straight out of the camera), all the birthday ones I tried my hardest, some there was nothing I could do, but thats why the shadow doesn't look bad now, I had edited them to the best of my ability (not much). The type of camera I have is a Canon XSi and I shoot in AV mode. I really liked the Nikkon but it was more expensive and you had to buy lenses with drivers in them where as canons motor is in the camera and I already had a couple of lenses at home I could also use.
Bethany I was just looking at pictures and how tiny Caroline was when we met you, it was so long ago, that is the first time Maya has worn those shoes, they were hand me downs and I thougth since I put her in a goofy outfit they would go good with the tights, they are cute though.


Sorry I snuck in a picture of a praying mantis at the end, I foudn it when I was starting to winterize, my hands were warm and I'm assuming it was cold since it folded up its legs and laid in my hands, I have never had one do that before. think we are wierd for liking bugs, well my mom has kept it so she's hoping it will lay eggs so she can have lots of babies next year.

Trial One Birthday pictures

Oh the frusteration. The first few photos on top were taken on Wednesday very close to the same time, I liked the color ect in wednesdays pictures so thought I should tyr and shoot in about the same spot for Maya soon to be 3 year old pictures. Oh lighting is so difficult for me, I just have al ot of issues and this camera is so sensitive to it. so the wednesday pictures are SOOC and the ones I took today that mostly out of the 181 I took were shadowing and yucky.
So on the abusive side, see last fall was lovely and nice, this fall is not, we are having an artic blast come thru or so they call it on the news and then I see a ton of rain, so if the weather improves closer to Maya's birthday (30th) then I will try again,but just in case it didn't I wanted to try some today. so on to the abuse, we had a morning of errands and then soccer where they basically ran for 1 hour, but still I brought her home and dressed her (at nap time) and the lovely temp outside was 41 degrees with off and on really cold wind. Once again I'm hoping it gets back into the 60's and we can try again I didn't even do the picture with her holding up 3 fingers and the 3 on the crown I put together kind of started losing some gems. So anyway here's some pictures but not the beautiful images I had hoped for. I will take any advice, aparently my shade wasn't just right today as it was 2 days ago???? help advice? I can't tell in my view finder what the picture looks like, I point and shoot isn't very picky but this camera is.

Salt Dough Ornaments tutorial

This is super super easy. What you will need:

*1 cup of flour (not self rising)

*1/4 cup HOT tap water

*1/2 cup salt

YOu can make this as large as you want I normally quadruple it and then maybe make up another batch, just depending on how many people or how many things you want to make.
After you mix the ingredients together you need to knead it for 10 minutes, this is where I went wrong last year, the better the dough is where the kneading comes in, I just mixed it up the last tiems I've done it and it works fine but not as good as if you knead it.
If you aren't using it all at once put it in a plastic bag, if its too sticky you can add a little more flour to dry a little more water, never more salt.

They bake at 350 for about 1 hour, thump them like bread (moisture free)

Now with older kids they can make any sort of things, dino's, fish, little people whatever they can think up, we had just young kids last year so we used cookie cutters and the kids played with it while we did the real cookie cutting. I was going to tie mine on packages so I did christmas tree's and christmas themed ornaments but you could to valentine hearts or whatever you want.
Peppercorns work good for eye's, garlic press, for hair etc, toothpicks, or any playdough things you have for designs. Remember if you are going to hang then to put in your hole and make it a little bigger so it doesn't close up while backing. YOu can also make letters for a childs name, really anything you can think of. For little kids we did hand prints and foot prints, make sure you press in deep enough to keep the print shape after baking.
Line your cookie sheets with aluminum foil thne just place your made ornaments on the sheet until it full then bake. After they bake (we painted on a seperate day) and are cooled then you can paint them, I just bought the cheap little paints and brushes, you can see the kids enjoyed the painting the most, I don't have really many pictures of things done and we haven't made them yet this year. I like to make then every year so I have an ornament she made each year.
last year I made the grandparents a plate (the next tutorial) for the gift and then tied a handprint or foot print to the outside of the package.
after they have painted and they are dry if you think there is any moisture then just let them sit out for 1 day a week and then spray them with the clear coat. Make sure before you do that you write a date on the back with a fine point permanet marker. Then when they are dry hang with fishing line, ribbon.
Another idea for any holiday is when painting leave an area on the back not painted or clear coated then put some drops of essential oils on it and give it as a closet hanger, or it could still be a christmas scented ornament.

Halloween is coming!

Can you tell Halloween is coming? we are getting ready. I should say the picture of her sitting on our front porch with the pumpkins is our house, but we do have decorations inside. The other decorations are at my moms house. Let me tell you using a pony is tough, if you don't knwo about ponies they are ALWAYS hungry, so no problems with him other then trying to get his head up and keep it up as he wants to score the ground for anything edible. Dogs are much easier to work with.
so if you can't tell Maya is going to be a unicorn this year, really a pegacorn because it also has wings, thank you garage sales, $5 and we are set. We also have a pumpkin patch to go to, a halloween party, Maya's birthday, so its a fun fun month.
Oh yeah and thank you Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown for teaching my kid to say people or things are stupid, yea she gets in trouble for that, can't they make more child friendly cartoons? its like all the awful stuff in Disney movies, I think a beloved family member must always die, but Maya has somewhat figured that out.
She told her grandma last night that the pigs were going to die (we were talking aobut how we only had one package of bacon left) but we would get new pigs next year. I'm always stopping or trying not to run over a turkey or deer or something in the rode and Maya assures me they don't want to be dead.

some favorite things

Well some of our favorite things are going to be coming to an end soon, very sad I was really enjoying summer. Putting away the summer stuff like deck furniture etc is very sad, wasn't it just a week ago I was redoing the old playhouse, cleaning and restaining our deck I mean where did it go. It was 90 last week, now we can barely get into the 50's and its been freezing the last few night, literally freezing. It normally does do this and then get nice again off and on in October.
so a few more warmer activities, like another "trail ride" this time we lead my horse, we are trying to get her used to Shorty so hopefully she is nice to him when we put the horses all together, so you might wonder why there are 2 adults and 1 child yet two horses and two adults are walking, well I have some serious issues, I want to be in control to make sure Maya is safe on her pony (I don't leave her basically at all anyways she is always with me, twice I think for a couple of hours becasue I had to, otherwise never) I won't let my mom ride my horse because I also don't let people ride my horse and never have, so therefore we have 2 people walking.
The frog picture isn't great but we have so many tree frogs and I love how this one was climbing up our house towards the light to get his dinner.
Drinking the juice out of a garden watermelon, not until next year.
For some reason Maya has decided that pretending to be a tiger is really really fun, she growls and puts shoes on her hands and goes around the house like that. We also typically need to have a tail, it can be just about anything but these fake pearls were a really nice tail, and my mom found this old tiger mask.
Yes she is kissing a snake at least I didn't put the picture it where they are touching tongues just about, she relaly enjoyed this snake, I'm pretty sure its the same one that my mom found when she was riding and brought home, same size and not stinky.
About the vegetarian, I'm really a pastatarian, I didn't eat meat I think for 9-11 years I can't remember it started out about the animals and things I learned in school but really I have never liked meat. Once we started to try and have kids, 7 years ago (ha ha) I started trying to eat some meat, whihc is why we raise our own pigs every year (we know what they are fed) and Joe beign the hunter we always have some elk, deer, or moose meat of some sort, but really now I eat some stuff but hardly ever because really I dont' like it I'm not carryign or feeding a child so why eat it other then a little for the health. My way of beign a vegetarian was odd, I"m a very very picky eater, I don't like salad, veggies or most normal things. I love pasta with lots of parmasan cheese, lots of breads and if candy is in the house its gone very quickly.
And no, I didn't get as dirty as the dirty diva post, I dont' really care for powdery dirt, dirt is fine and I can get plenty dirty, she didn't quite understand why I didn't want to do all "fun" things she was doing, and why didn't I want the clump of dirt thrwon at me, she loves it, in her hair and everywhere else.

Dirty Diva

So Joe has had to be working alot lately including last weekend. He thoguth we could come along and play around the area. Well let me say it was a long day but yea Maya had fun. So first he says there's a relaly pretty creek you can go down to, yeah down this steep ravine of sorts dragging carrying a child becasue you can't keep yours and her feet on the ground with all the branches etc. But the creek is beautiful but Maya keeps falling over (boots a bit big), so I take off her socks and shoes and she promptly falls backwards into the very very cold water. So off comes my jacket to wrap around her now naked bottom half, luckily the dry socks and shoes go back on and now I carry a crying wrapped up child and wet cold clothes up the steep hill. Luckily I had a backpack and found some shorts and dry panties and the sun was watrming everything up. We played around with bark and made slides for rocks and ate our sandwhiches but finally I gave in and turned her loose.
This kid LOVES powdery dirt, I cannot stand it. Anyone remember maya falling in the mud this spring and she wouldn't get up because she had her hands curled into her chest because she typically does not like mud, just powdery dirt.
So as you can see she had a great time, it was so deep in spots that the truck has to be put into 4 wheel drive.
yes I am very liberal and yes my husband is a logger, but over here they just selective cut to make the forest healthier and keep down fire danger. WhenI lived on the other side of the mountains they clear cut and I hated loggers, so of course I married one, and he was a hunter, I was a vegetarian, it goes on and on but thats another post. Oh yeah see the picture of her he wanted me to try and clean her up a bit before she got to sit in the machine with him for a picture.

Happy October

Happy October to everyone! I do love fall but dreading winter. I used to love winter but then again the snow used to not pile up like it has and shoveling off the roof a few times and all the roofs collapsing was not good. Predicting another crazy winter. Last year I couldn't wait,I had lived in Gautemala so missed the winter and all the holidays at home, I am looking forward to this season again, but I was really really enjoying summer.
So this week we had to harvest everything out of the garden, it has been frosting so it was either pick it or have it wilt up into nothing. As you can see our big pumkins didn't do well, but the small ones did.

Just wanted to mention again for those of you that have people in your family that really don't need anything please consider donating for a food basket for a needy family in Guatemala for a Christmas gift. I always really enjoed buying gifts but thats when we were both working and not trying to have kids. After living in Guatemala I still think some gifts are great (who doesn't like gifts) but really the reason is to give back and to help others. If you donate to a food basket Vanessa will get the picture or pictures of the family that received the basket of food for 1 month to you so you could enclose a card with a picture and maybe a picture of your child as a gift. For those of us who have children from Guatemala, I can only imagine what could have happend to Maya had she been born in a differnt year, where adoptions were closed and her birth mother tried to care for her but didn't have the food to do so.

Tu-Tu Tutorial

I am adding in now that it looks like all of the pictures will be completely out of order as well, have had some major issues (besides the dial up) with blogger not loading pictures or saving the draft completely. Feel free to ask any questions because it is easy but the way this is layed out it might make it really confusing.

WAIT I just saw the blog, so if you read thru the steps and then go back up thru the pictures bottom to top rather then top to bottom they are in order that way, who knows I'm just glad it finally got posted at all, so sorry they are backwards but you know I have issues, especially with blogger.


Well this would be a much better tutorial if I had taken some step by step pictures as we had made them, so if this isn't good enough you might have to look online, or email or comment with any questions, they really are simple to make and they make great birthday or whatever gifts.
So what you will need for a child from 2-6ish it so depends on their size and how long you want the tutu,you can cut the strips according to their length:

*3 yards of fabric per each color, I normally due 9 yards total using differnt color, anormal tutu color (brightpink, light pink, and purple) valentine (red,bright pink, light pink) etc. You could make it fuller if you, I will show a picture using 3 colors and two colors. You should be able to buy the fabric for about $1.00 a yard, or cheaper at walmart.

*Ribbon that is color coordinated or themed to the tutu, long enough to go around the waist and tie in a bow in the back.

You can definetly make them alone but much easier and quicker to do it along with someone.
FIRST start with one color and hold it length wise, fold in half and then fold in half again (easier with 2 people) now you should have 3 yards about 12 inches wide

SECOND either drap it across a counter or island that has a straight edge or on a floor that has straight lines, and you will cut 6 inch wide strips. Repeat with the other colors.

THIRD cut all your strips in half, now you have double the amount.

FOURTH, measure your ribbon around the childs middle or just have a rough idea about how big the tutu should be, its completely adjustable so you just need an idea, I normally mark on the ribbon for about how big I need it.

FIFTH tie the ribbon between two chairs or anything else that will hold it apart so you can tie on the fabric.

SIXTH decide how you want your colors to go (go in which order) if using differnt colors, do you want one particular color on top in the middle etc everytime or do you want it mixed up? up to you. if you are using three colors then just lay one on top of eachother in the order you want and then loop it on to the ribbon and pull thru (this is where I will put in a picture. You just keep repeating until either you use everything up or you have made it big enough. YOu can easily adjust the size by pulling the knots/loops tighter or loosen them so that it takes less to go around the child.

Very very easy. YOu can also glue on some gems throughout the tutu. For Maya's valentine I glued on some heart gems and also some on her shirt, for the 4th of July I glued on a few little stars. Just pick up some "Jewel-It" at the craft store, it holds on jewels ect even thru repeated washings.

As a bonus with some extra little scraps I snip them up and take a hair band and loop them the same as on the tutu, one color at a time works fine, then you have a matching hairband as well.
So for around $10-12 you have a great gift.
YOu could also stretch elastic and loop onto that, I find the ribbon to work fine.

You could make these for any holiday I finally stopped myself but alot of you are football fans so they could be in your team colors. Or Halloween princesses, fairies, even witches if you did a black and any other color. Have fun!

Sand Clay Frame Tutorial

I will do the tu tu tutorial and salt dough this week or so just need to get a few pictures lined up for them, so here's a fun one, lots of people took beach trips this year, you can always get shells at the craft store if you didn't collect any.




my mother in law found this neat idea for me so I have made them for gifts already. This is great if you have been or live at the ocean, or even though we had just been there i still went out to Maya's sand box and used some of her sand.

What you will need:

*1 wooden frame, wider wood is better so you have room to glue shells etc on. I got mine at Micheals which is a craft store for $1.00, I should mention it was very basic but it was wide and that worked great. Take out glass before doing project.
*glue (elmers or really just aobut anything)
*paintbrush
*clear coat

To make the sand clay. Put 1 cup of clean sand, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1 1/2 tsp powdered Alum (in the spice section at any store), and 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan or cooking pot. Stir with hands or a spoon. turn the heat onto medium and continue stirring. As the mixture warms it will liquefy, continue to stir for around 2 mins until the clay begins to thicken. From there dump it onto your counter, I put mine on some newspapers for easy clean up. YOu can also use this as play clay, or thats what it says.
From there you need to take some basic elmers glue squirt ot on the frame (take out the glass before you begin) then take a little crappy paintbrust, you know the ones that you can get for 20 for a buck or whatever you get the idea, you just need to be able to spread the glue on the frame, doing a section at a time is best.

Once the glue is on a section take a wad of sand clay and push it on, just keep working around the frame until it all covered.
From there you can paint glue on shells, rocks or whatever treasures you have and push then into the sand a little ways, or if you have bigger shells or pieces of sand dollars, larger rocks, and can paint them with glue and glus them directly onto the frame then mold the sand around them.
Let the frame dry for a day orso then dust off any extra sand and give it a couple of coats of a clear coat.
This is the same clear coat I use over my salt dough ornaments and plates.

Hats

I have always loved hats, never really wore them, can't stand the pressure on my head, I wear ponytails alot (haven't had my hair cut or trimmed since may) can't stand the pressure of those or sunglasses either. While I was living in Guatemala your child MUST have a hat on, which was fine, shaded them fromt he sun and while they were snoozing in the front pack it was nice to have theri face covered. She started out with her little Guatemalan hat, which her head outgrew, then a pink sun hat that velcroed on, but it got lost somewhere in the streets, when I knew we were coming home I had to find another hat, my friend Claire and I found this little fake jean one in a store whihc worked great. I felt the need to photograph some hats becasue no doubt she would outgrown them. As much as I love hats, she never relaly wears them becasue with all that lovely hair her head is already hot enough. The picture with no hat just blows me away, its like you can see her when she is older, I dont' know what it is but for me its a look into the future.
I I have more pictures I want to post but I also thougth I would do a few posts on some inexpensive crafts you can make for gifts, tu-tu's, sand clay picture frames, plates, salt dough ornaments and or prints. Anyone interested????

A BIG thank you

I almost went and grabbed a picture, I find it hard to post anything with no picture and I have been taking alot because honestly winter is coming and I really only like the natural light, and theres not enough in our house.

The reason for this post is a huge thank you for eveyone who commented, I realize from reading fertility blogs and having my one main call when you need to bi#$h even just one work or a sentence and she will understand and you could even hang up then. On this blog I never talk about our life at all mainly I set it up to post Maya tidbets so that her foster family in Guatemala could see her growing up, but I do agree some of my favorite blogs to read are the ones with stories, the problem is is that I am not a writer nor do I like writing and I"m not a good storyteller. I didn't link these but the funniest blogs are s3xinthepantry, the amazing trips, is any mommy out there, what i like is they are down to earth and tell the stories as they are and I love it. Even though I would like to do that I just think I"m too lazy when it comes to blogging. I wasn't sure what to expect from all of you, stop your whining at least you got your daughter home etc etc etc so thankful youcould see past that because the one thing I HATE although I understand the people saying it are not saying it in a bad way is "she is so lucky" excuse me Maya is so lucky, well I supppose being born in 2006 certainly was lucky since adoptions ended and she could have ended up god knows where but "we are the lucky ones" and thats what I say. So now I"m back to being OK again apparently the hormones have shifted again, thank god and after eading spuds N salsa's domestic adoption comment, thats exactly why I think I would be too scared to even try, because really it would be no difference, you would fulling allow yourself to totally bond with the child so you would be missing out either way (I am not saying you didn't fully bond, but now that I am jaded and know the crap that can go on I wouldn't want to let myself bond) and Washington is not a good state you would definetly have to adopt from a differnt stat that has pro adoptive parent laws, but oh how Maya would love to have a sibling too! oh wellI remember wanting a brother or sister so bad, or maybe I dont' but I remember the story and my mom explaining to me that dad had been snipped so I decided to ask Santa (so before 1st or 2nd grade). thats how it works when your family believes in 1 parent staying home sometimes you can only afford 1.
so a big thank you for any comment left.

Kami before I forget stopped at a crummy garage/tack sale, suppose to be good but not, anyway they were about as samrt as your neighbors and thought they were doing their pot bellied pig a favor by over feeding it so now its belly drags the ground, it can hardly walk, can't see and is wheezing, idiots!

Who could want more

I am posting this because for some reason I need to, maybe some of you won't follow anymore becasue you will feel like I aM SOME CRAZY JADED PERSON, but I need a change I don't want to feel like this anymore and I don't know what a therapist would sy or do so writing it seems like a step, although I can't write it all its not appropriate for this blog. I want to change nothing as far as Maya or how things turned out,what I want to changed is all the feelings that are inside, now that i have my daughter and things are good why can't they just go the he#$ away.







*Please skip over the post and just look at the pictures, it is full of whining etc but I needed to write some of it and get it out*


What is wrong with me, why do I want more? I have a wonderful family, Maya just makes it perfect. I won't go into my real feelings, the anger and jaded feelings that I had and now the longing that just won't go away. I would change nothing, I mean absolutely nothing because Maya is our daughter and was always meant to be our daughter, but it doesn't mean I didn't get some major baggage, carryons etc along the way, the one thing I hate, yeah thats right hate, is the fear that she could be taken away, and of course I mourn for the time that she was born until we actually got home, although living in Guatemala was a dream come true considering my other option would have been beign at home without her, still it was so stressful I couldn't read a book or anything I was terrified, part of the time we were housebound, becasue the whole time as adoptions fell aprt there were talks and fears of them taking your child (thats what they said) so there were escape plans etc etc etc, so yes of course I miss the fact that you can have a child that is yours end of story.
I dont' feel like this is an appropriate blog to go into the fertilityside of it, if I had an infertility blog then I would feel free to let it all out, knowing that they all had those feelings as well.
Infertitly has given me some real struggles, at first it wasn't a horrible big deal, I was excited about adoption and specifically guatemala. Insttead we tried more things and went in and saw a specialist. Been given a 97% chance to have a baby with in one year seemed like the best things to try, and still cheaper then adoption. I still remember standing in front of the barn at my moms house and saying " I will always mourn for my little Guatemalan girl" because of course I thought stupid IVF would work I mean look at those odds we were given, I was naive. So after 5 times, my mental and emotioanl state were ruined, I was working in at a pediatricians office, not a good job choice given what I was going thru.
Yes I was one of the people that had to be driven home a couple of times from family get togethers because there was a pregnancy announcement and no matter if I was happy for them or not I could not control my tears. Finally stopped going to all family or anything, especially weddings and try to stay away from stores where there were pregnant people and the holidays were done, no christmas decorations etc, jsut sitting in one spot in depression was all I could muster. After the last IVF failure and the miscarriage on the 4th try we were ready to try and figure out adoption, Joe wanted to do domestic because we would be helping a child in our country, I didn't want to becasue I had seena dn learned too mucha fter working at the doctors office. After meeting withthe lawyer we moved onto international. Now once again I was so so so naive you know the awhole adoption I didn't know anyone who had had problems at the time, but once we went on our first visit trip then I started hearing stuff, still I was just hoping with all my might that we would somehow get thru. Well obviousely that didn't happen, but still I should say my living there essentially got us home and I still can't imagine the poor families that are still struggling, but after living there the jadeness of the crappy system and the crazy existant laws and the lying I could not believe that flat out non stop lying. Had the adoption just went thru as normal I would have stayed naive and thoguth what a lovely experiance, as I would have had IVF worked the first time. I had always wanted to take Maya back when she was 13-15 years old, but now Iknow I will not until she is 18 years old, because if they wanted to they could take her away becasue there are NO laws. So I came home and I couldn't wait to be my old happy self, not bothered by anything anymore, becasue now we had Maya home and everything was perfect! I kept that up for about 1 month until I went for my yearly exam I walked in that waiting room and started to mentally freak, get me out of this wating room I cannot be in here with all these pregnant people looking at ultrasound pictures, and then I was sad, I was so sure the past was done and everything was fixed, so disappointed, whay are the feelings there, I would changed nothing absolutely nothing, Maya is my daughter and I would do it all again for her.
Somedays are good some aren't last spring we had a chance to adopt a little boy in HOndurus and I had zero desire, non, even now the thoguth of international freaks me out. I really didn't want to have another child unless by some miracle we had our own, but even if that happend it would be so sressful and scary with the thoguth of losing another, but you can still hope. This last week or maybe month I have been really pulled back to wanting to have another child, one of the blogs I follow mentioned an agency was looking for a family for a little girl to be born that was half hispanic and half white, but then of course they have these outrageous fee's, its really makes me made. so unless I happen upon someone who has to make that choice for her child I think we are having just one. I used to think that was perfecit, I was and only child and really Maya sleeps thru the night 12 hours and has been potty trained for over a year, its so easy, but to want to have a baby, from the start is a pulling thing, but then the fear would be there they they would chage their mind, oh it just never ends. Too bad money wasn't free and we could have someone try and carry our embreyo or you could adopt without the stress of money.

Calendar Girl

I think we would need to be a nonprofit to actually make calendars for cheap so that we could donate money back. My point wasn't trying to make a calendar or picture or anything of Maya, I could do that anytime, no shortage of pictures for sure. My point being, since we've went thru this process and lived in Guatemala or really even going thru IVF the presents at Christmas are really really fun but not that important, I mean its nice to get a few especially if you can find a great meaningful gift, the reason I liked the guatadopt calendars is because the money went back to the charity, so it was like a double gift (you are right about the cost, we bought 10 of them so they ended up being $15 each with shipping,my mom and mother in law used some as gifts too).
so its back to salt dough ornatments, handprints, and the footprint/handprint reindeer shirts for crafts and gifts0 any fun inexpensive craft idea's?

So of course a few Maya pictures, and yet another apology for my hatred of typing and typo's.
So Maya obviousely at dince class in one after I helped her change from her tap to ballet shoes and then playing soccer in the yard, grass is a great place to practice dribbling the ball with your feet becasue it doesn't go too far, and to practice your soccer stance. The outfit she has one are a pair of Dora jammies I got for $2 at Kmart's great sale, size 12 months but hey they fit.
Any other idea's for gifts that would go back to help a charity. Vanessa were we getting pictures of the families if we donated to a food basket? I thought you said we were back at easter time, I thought maybe I people could print out a picture and give that with a note. I mean really for grandparetns and such pictures or things like this are the best because typically they don't need anything and if they need something they buy it, or thats what I have found. Still love to include a hand made craft, last year it was white plates from the dollar store with Maya's hand/foot print and salt dough ornaments that she painted. I have a great craft book but she sin't quite ready for most of it yet.

American Idol 20?? Guatadopt Calender

It might not be good but I like it! Maya sings non-stop, unless she's talking its either one or the other. She just makes up songs, some are words and makes sense some are pure gibberish, but she loves to sing. "Do you like that song?" you might here that million times in one day, although it has slowed down some since hopping on one foot and making everybody else also try to do it is also fun, but thats another posts.
I can't remember is I posted this or not, since I'm a lazy and terrible typer probably not but maybe, if so skip on by. We were sitting on the deck and Maya
M sing go to sana
me go to sana?
she repeats this again then after a minute or two she says
M put a bandaid on my knee
me?????? she never gets bandaids because there must be bleeding that wont stop to need one, yea there road rash on them but thats how they look during the summer, then ahhhhhhhh
me Oh Susanna!!! with a banjo on my knee!!!! so then I sang the song all was well and she was happy that I finally got it, sometimes we parents are soooo slow.


just read some sad news, i know not really sad but NO Guatadopt Calander this year. does anyone have any idea's? I was so excited to finally have Maya's adoption finalized so that we could start being a part of the calander, well luckily we made it last year and I had hoped to save them for her and also I don't really do much christmas shopping for others because we are a one income family but this was a way that I could get the grandparents etc a gift that would give back. Iwouldn't mind taking the time to layout the calander if I had the right program, I do have a program that I think I could do it in, but the big but is I only have dial up and can't have pictures emailed to me. I was just trying to think of a way that if any other families were interested we could put together a smaller version of the calander so we could use them as gifts and keepsakes as well as charge a little more and donate the money to a charity or back to someone like Vanessa that is going back to Guatemala to continue to try and help those is need. Any idea's, Thoughts???? Guatemalan Miracles, The blogging ........?

A little of This and a little of That

Just some pictures, sort of random. Maya and her Dora the Explorer umbrella, got to love it! Maya really enjoyed painting, I use this old shipping blanket under her pool so it doens't get a hole in it while its sitting on our deck, but it worked great to put her paper on for painting too, and she loved it.
The next most exciting thing to do is hop on one foot, everyone must LOVE to do it or so she thinks. She practices alot! So far the most she can do it two hops without putting her foot down and thats only happened a couple of times. So I was reading in her little dance booklet and apparently you are not suppose to wear your dance shoes outside.........opps. Hey Mayna's mom, remember your bad mommy story about shoving your child feet into shoes that were too small, yea well apparently Maya's feet have grwon as well and I was doing the same thing, who knew, they don't seem to know that they should be comfortable. So we have found a new pair of tap shoes to wear and gotten rid of alot of her shoes for this fall (love the hand me downs).