Archive | October, 2011

Week in Review: Oct 20th- Oct 26th

26 Oct

What an eventful week we have had around here. This week started out by a very chilly cold front coming in. For the first time Eric said he was down with my plans to move to the Galapagos Islands so we don’t have to suffer through the cold! Woo hoo! I may start house hunting…ha! :) I know, I know our cold is nothing compared to others but I think I may have poor circulation or something because my toes turn WHITE and hurt so bad if the weather gets below 40. And that is with me wearing wool socks and everything! So one day you just may see a post stating we are moving to the equator. Until then I will just keep dreaming of the warm weather!

So one of Zoey’s favorite activity to do each and every morning is to take my post its and pull each sheet off piece by piece it is too funny. Every night I mash them all back together so they are ready for her again the next day. But hey…it buys me sometime to figure out what I am going to wear and get dressed each morning!

Friday night I took my car to a car wash that I have always gone to. I have gotten to know this asian lady and have wanted to ask her where she was from and tell her that we are adopting a little Korean girl for so long but it never felt appropriate so I was super excited that this time I went it worked out where Zoey could go. They have a grill there so I planned on taking Zoey for dinner and my sweet friend was there working. And she was SUPER excited to meet Zoey. She was from Korea and started talking Korean to her and Zoey’s face just lit right up and she went to her immediately. It was too cute to watch them together. It made me so happy for Zoey and made me feel extra special each time she would say “omma?” and Zoey would point to me! Yes that is right…Zoey even knows I am her mama in Korean! :) The lady was so kind to give me a number of a friend of her who has many connections with people who do Korean classes for kids. I am still planning on starting Zoey in a local Korean School on Saturdays once she turns two. I think she will love it and I want to give her any and all opportunities to learn about her heritage.

This weekend started out by us going to the pumpkin patch with Kendall, Tim, and Steve. Zoey had a great time at the patch. So the first time I saw “Sweet Home Alabama” I was like “That is such an exaggeration…Alabama is not like that!” But let me tell you…the pumpkin patch came pretty close with their civil war reenactments. When all the guns an cannons started shooting Zoey didn’t even flinch. She just gave me a look…the straight up Zo Face like where in the world have you taken me to look. It was too funny! But she had a great time getting to find her pumpkin!

After the Pumpkin Patch everyone came back over to our house to watch the Auburn game and my parents came too. We had fun getting to spend time with everyone…too bad Auburn lost!

On Sunday we had our neighborhoods annual Hometown Fair. Last year I remember just that big time yearning to have Zoey home and at the fair with us. So it meant the world to me to finally have her home with us celebrating. She couldn’t ride many rides but she loved playing BINGO and eating the cotton candy! We did put her on this one swing ride. She was the youngest kid we saw riding it but of course she was so brave and loved it! :)

Zoey and I also took a road trip up to Huntsville with Dana. It was Dana’s brother and sister in law’s first time to meet Zoey. We all went to the Botanical Gardens which was BEAUTIFUL and so kid friendly. Zoey LOVED it. They had tons of themed tree house hidden throughout the gardens for her to play in. They also had the Scarecrow Tour and Children’s Gardens. Zoey just loved, loved it and was SO tired from all the walking.

We wrapped up this week with Eric going back out of town. We were sad to see him go because we have had such a good week and fun times with Zoey but today Zoey and I are hitting the road too. I have to go out of town with work and my work was kind enough to let my parents tag along to keep Zoey while I am in in meetings. So New Orleans you better get ready for us because here we come! :)

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Week in Review: Oct 13th- Oct 19th

19 Oct

Here are a couple highlights from this week:

When Zoey got home from school on Thursday she was so tired that she actually fell asleep while eating. It was too funny to watch her head splat into the marconi and cheese! :)

This weekend Eric and I took Zoey down to Desoto Caverns to celebrate our 4 month Familiversary (i made up that name). It is crazy to think we have been together for 4 months. It seems like we just got her yet I don’t really remember life without her either!

After we got home from Desoto some people came over to watch the Auburn game and of course Zoey had to model her winter coat and boots. So get prepared people…we have one super cute girl heading your way soon! Speaking of super cute dressed kids. Look at this image I found on Pininterest. Aren’t they just too cute for school! :) This is my inspiration for dressing Zoey as she gets older!

We wrapped up this week by having a spend the night party at my parents. Eric was busy with work on Tuesday night and I had to be over near my parents house for baby praise the next morning so when I was chatting with my dad on the phone that day I just invited me and Zoey on over. It was really funny how it all came to be but it was a fun change of scenery for Zoey. She loved playing with her toys over there and having dinner with mamma and of course her Honey and Grandaddy were super happy to see sweet girl before we all headed off to work.

Zoey has started nodding her head yes or no when you ask her questions. This is been WONDERFUL! I can ask her if she is hungry, thirsty, wants a toy, etc and she will nod to let me know. It has been great and opened up a new world of communications between us. I really wish she would start talking but I know that will come soon. But now I know 100% she understand each and everything I am saying to her. If you ask things like “Where is digby?” Or “Where is the moon?” She will point to it. She also will respond to complicated requests like “Go get your bottle in the living room.” She will walk into the living room to get it. This has been really fun to feel like we are fully understanding each other.

So that is about it of the eventful things of the week. Not sure highlight this is but Zoey also loves to sit on my head now to watch Pororo on my laptop. Not sure what started this or why she does it but she tries to do it all the time. I think she just likes getting a rise out of me! :)

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Week in Review: Oct 6th- Oct 12th

12 Oct

What a busy, busy week we had. On Thursday afternoon my friend Dana went with me to pick up Zoey from school. It was so funny watching Zoey with Dana there. She was walking around and showing everything in her class off to Dana. After we picked Zoey up we went out and about to do some shopping! :) Dana is TOO kind and has spoiled Zoey rotten and for that I am super grateful! We ended up getting Zoey several cute fall and winter outfits. We also went with Dana shoe shopping and let me tell you…I am in TROUBLE. Zoey has always had a thing for my shoes. She will go in my closet and just play and look at my shoes. It is too funny to watch. So when we went into Belk she about when crazy seeing all of those shoes and you see Belk has the shoes kind of sorted according to price. One side of the store has the cheap shoes and then the other side has the REALLY expensive like hundreds of dollars for one pair of shoes type of shoes and which ones did Z like? The most expensive ones of course! So girl better start saving her birthday money now if she thinks she will wear those type of shoes around when she gets older. Or if any of you are tossing out your Jimmy Choo’s I know one little girl that would love to get her hands on them!

This weekend Eric had a lot of work to catch up on (between now and Thanksgiving it is his SUPER busy season) but it was Eric’s annual family campout and I hated Zoey missing it so I decided to brave it and take her camping by myself. Well I wasn’t that brave because I called my sister in law Felicia to come with us too since her husband couldn’t make it either. And I am SO glad we did end up going because Zoey had a BLAST! Again she surprised us by being so brave and handling the camping like a champ. And this is no RV type camping people. It is primitive camping for real…except for the port a potty they bring in thank goodness. I was most nervous about Zoey sleeping in the tent for the first time. Because in a room if she cries I can close the door and no one hears us but in tents…well lets just say all 50 of Eric’s relatives would not be getting any sleep either. But she did wonderful sleeping and napping which made this mamma VERY proud! But what I was most proud of was Zoey’s socializing. At the beach when she met some of the family members she would not have anything to do with them but this time around she did great. Just loved on them and would play with everyone…even the new family members she met for the first time! It was fun too because she is walking now she could play with her cousins from Tennessee.

Zoey also got something that made her an official family member…a wooden plaque for the woods. You see it is a family tradition that everyone has a plaque with their name on it scattered throughout the property. Here is a pic of “Eric’s Escape” from when he was little.

And thanks to Uncle Perry sweet little girl got her sign this weekend. So Zoey officially has a “Zoey Zoom” right by her mommy’s “Lauren’s Laurel”. We were very sad that Eric was not there for Zoey’s first campout but glad that we got to go. It got me a wee bit more excited about this cooler weather and I have already started planning our next camping trip since I know she does so good in a tent now!

We are just so very blessed to have such loving family on both of our sides. When we tell others about our multiple “family reunions” we have they are always so surprised that we have these get togethers. And not only do we have them but we WANT to go to them and LOVE spending time hanging out with our families. It is just so cool (and I am tearing up now) that Zoey will have this super great extended love from both Eric’s family and my family. I can not thank all of you enough for all the the kind love and warm hearts each and every one of you have for us and Zoey. (Not that we doubted any of you.) But we have just been so humbled and been completely blown away by the acceptance and unconditional love that has been extended to Zoey. To see her great grandparents tear up talking about how much they love her and watching her aunts and cousins talk about her proudly and how everyone loves on her just really gets me all choked up. From the very first second everyone saw her she “belonged to them” she “was immediately a part of the family”. She may not have the same DNA as the Bakers, Bushs, Bivens, Parks, and every other family name represented on both of our sides but she is 100% part of these families non the less. This was something we prayed long and hard for because we know adoption can sometimes be a hard adjustment to some people but praise the Lord we have not had a struggle with one single family member no matter how distant you go on either of our sides. To witness this from a mothers perspective is the best experience ever. I can not thank all of you enough for loving our baby girl. This love you have all blessed our family with is wonderful…like crazy wonderful!

Ok so before my computer breaks from all the tears I am shedding onto it now I will wrap it up with the week in review video! :)

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Week in Review: Sep 29th- Oct 5th

5 Oct

Well we did it…this week was a major milestone for us. You see I had to go on my first overnight work trip since Zoey. And it was not just one night…or two nights…but THREE LONG NIGHTS! I missed my baby girl so bad I cried and cried. But we all survived…Praise the Lord!

But before I headed out of town we took Zoey down to our local art museum to see the Korean Art exhibit. It is a small exhibit but hey we have one! Later that night we joined Krystal and Sully for our neighborhood social and boy was Zoey social. So much so that she walked right on over to a stranger and took their pizza off their plate! You see I am used to dealing with a shy, not approaching anyone child so this new little person is new to me too! I guess I must get to teaching her some manners!

We also had Eric’s family over for the game on Saturday. Like always Zoey had a BLAST playing with her cousins. Susan brought over corn hole so the boys had fun playing that during halftime and the girls loved having their picnic outside. It is getting to be great weather around here! I just hope it stays like this for a nice long time.

Then the dreaded Sunday came and that meant I had to leave for the conference. Yes the conference was at the beach but work is still work and it was SO incredibly hard leaving her. But she was well taken care of while I was gone. You see my parents kept her on Sunday so Eric could get some work done. So on my way out of town I dropped her off at their campsite at Oak Mountain. She didn’t even cry when I left. I was the only one with tears. She had a great time hiking, visiting the petting zoo, and just hanging out with them. My mom said the highlight of the day was Zoey finding her shadow! There are lots of cute pics in the slideshow this week that my mom took of Zoey’s new discovery. It was too cute to see!

Later that night she came home to daddy where the real miracle happened. HE GOT HER TO BED! You see I am normally the bedtime lady. Eric has tried a couple of times but it has always failed. I guess because Zoey knows I am downstairs. So we were both really nervous if Zoey would go 3 straight days without sleeping. Ha! You think I am kidding but this girl has stamina when she doesn’t get her way! At first it was a success but then several hours later she woke up and things took a turn but after one long night I am told they woke up and Zoey was just fine. Later that afternoon Eric’s mom came over to help out with Zoey. She had a great time strolling around the neighborhood and playing with her too. Both of our moms made the comment about what a little social butterfly we have now. She is too funny playing and showing off to any and everyone. Late Monday night sweet Aunt Nichole stopped by to help out with Zoey’s bedtime but again she went to sleep and this time stayed asleep. Tuesday Zoey had school all day and later that night Eric took her to a new Asian restaurant that just opened up. Eric said that the waitress started talking to Zoey in Korean and she just started giggling and clapping at whatever the lady was saying! Let’s not even discuss bedtime for that night but on Wednesday I was back home to where I belong!!!

I have a couple more conferences in the works but for now I am sleeping at home and not having to go days without seeing Zoey! Now I know how hard it is for Eric to leave to go out of town with his job and he realized what it is like to be home alone with her too. I think it helped us both understand each others prospective.

So that about sums up our week and we have lots of great pics for you to enjoy! :)

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