Jewel-Kat hand made jewelry

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I hand make unique pieces for every occasion, special orders also available.

Over a year!

Over a year!
It's seems like forever, already! Our little man has made so much progress in the short time he has been with his family. He is such a fun, always smiling little guy with the best personality! He fits right in and we love him to pieces! As with his older sister, we could not imagine having him in our lives.....no matter what challenges we had!

Shaun is now talking...putting 2 to 3 words together! It is amazing how fast this started, just a month ago! He is able to communicate so much more, without getting upset or mad. He is polite and just very sweet in his talking! He knows when to say please and thank you....what more could we ask for?
He sleeps very well! He averages about 11 hours a night and is still taking a 2 hour nap daily....if our schedule allows! He has enjoyed his summer with his sister and friends. He loves the pool and is very content with a bucket and a cup by the side. He has started to play with the older neighborhood kids and is just thrilled when he gets their attention. He has started taking interest in the potty...yup, at 28 months! We are not forcing, but allow him to make the call. Last week, it was 3 days in a row...saving a lot of diapers!

He is a momma's boy...if you can believe it! From where we started, I am shocked myself! We cuddle and spend lots of time talking, coloring and building with blocks. I get lots of kisses and that is just fine by me!

Happy Gotcha Day, Abby Liz!

Today we celebrate our 6th Gotcha Day with our Daughter, Abby Liz!

On June 28th, 2004 we met our smilin' daughter in Hefei, China.
I cannot put into words the joy she has brought to our lives! We love you Abby Liz "noodle". You are the best daughter in the whole world!

Any reason to celebrate! and #6 was a good one :)
We hosted the Anqing sisters #6 reunion and the girls are all growing so fast! We had 8 out of the 9 families with us on Saturday. These 8 girls were all adopted on the same day and lived together in the Anqing SWI.
What a special day for them, as you can see...they had a blast!
From Left to right: Abby Liz, Lucy, Mei-Lin, Anna, Ella,Molly, Abigail and Alex
-missing, Monica

A SPECIAL WEEKEND PLANNED

CONGRATULATIONS CML !!!!!!
( forever a "WISE-GUY")

We are busy, busy, busy preparing for Abby Liz's 6th "Gotcha Day" !!!
Again, this year we are hosting a party for the group of girls from Anqing SWI. 9 families traveled together 6 years ago today to meet their little girls! All the girls are the same age and last year they had a great time seeing each other. It should be a really fun weekend :)

I took these pictures yesterday....they were clean....and they matched! I am glad I did, because I think these are the best pictures yet of our 2 kiddos! Yesterday we witnessed Abby's friends re-adoption! It was a wonderful thing to be a part of!

Summer has begun!

Let summer fun begin!!!!

No more pencils...no more books......well, we are still going to be readers, even though school is over! Abby is officially a second grader! Yah! for Abby!

Summer has started full swing at our house! The kids are spending their days outside, playing with friends, splashing in the pool, or being lazy with a good movie on hot afternoons. We are waking up a bit later and staying up later...it has been nice for all of us.

Shaun and Abby really enjoy our back yard. They explore a lot and make up funny games that they play together. It's so fun seeing them play and laugh and run!

This photo was from Memorial day....such posers!

Abby Liz......stop growing so fast! Since Shaun has been home, I have noticed such a change in our little girl. For one, she is not so little anymore :( and it's kinda sad. As Shaun becomes an absorbing toddler.....I often think of Abby Liz at his age now. How stinkin cute she was ( and still is), how easy going she was.....how funny! Shaun is opposite from what she was like in every way. Well, except for the "stinkin cute" part!

My daughter....the baby I wished so long for is now almost done with 1st grade. It seems like yesterday that she was toddling over to me, rolling her tongue and trying so hard to say her first word. Kevin and I will never forget the first time she said "mustard", we were rolling on the floor with laughter....and we still chuckle when we talk about it. Every day has been a blessing with Abby Liz. I know she was sent to me from above! I am so proud to be her momma!
She is so compassionate and kind. She does very well in school and is a great friend. She loves animals, reading, writing and singing. She is the best big sis she can be and has made Shaun's transition into our family so much easier. I could not imagine life with out her, never!

This year Abby Liz has joined the Cheer Team in our area! She is so excited to start this month!
Summer for her is going to be filled with friends, fun and silliness!
Last summer we were traveling or adjusting, so I really want her to enjoy! Her cousin Eric is visiting and that is always fun for her, they are very close, even though they hardly see each other.

Above is her BFF, she hopes to see her lots this summer :)

It's been a while......been busy with 2 kids!

Well, it's been a while since our last post.....I am awfully embarrassed to see how long it has been. (since Nov.?)

Honestly, life is a bit busier with a now 2 year old Shaun and 1st grader Abbyliz! The kids have been wonderful and really enjoy each others company. I could not ask for 2 better kids. They make me laugh more than I ever have. Each day is filled with something new and I try to soak up as much as I can daily. We are a super happy family of four ! What more could we ask for <3

We had a sick house on Christmas, Shaun and Mommy had the flu which was horrible.... but we made it through! It helped Shaun and I bond a bit more since we spent many, many evening on the couch watching Bob the Builder together. I can say he is now a "mommy's boy", which I love!

Mid-January I dropped a coffee table on my foot which caused 2 breaks and 4 fractures, it took so much of my energy just to get around after that, wearing a boot to my knee and feeling pain when ever I stepped on it. I am out of the boot now, but still have considerable pain when I am on my feet to long. I have found that I am a slow healer....

We again celebrated CNY with our friends, it was so nice having Shaun with us this year! I remember thinking the year before how wonderful it would be, and well.....it was! He loves Abby's friends and get all the attention! Who wouldn't? right!

Shaun turned 2 on April 6th with a small party! He loved his chocolate cupcakes and having friends over to play. He has fit right in here...as well as everywhere we take him. His wheels are spinning all the time and people comment to me about how fast he is......even with his short little legs! He is almost 25 pounds now and seems to be getting bigger everyday! He is a sweet boy who can be very intense ...but has done real well with clear boundaries.

I will post more pictures soon! But this one from Easter is my favorite. Gotta love those smiles!

3 months with Shaun

Abby and Shaun

November 2009

We have been a complete family for more than 3 months now, Shaun is over 19 months old!

Time is really flying by as the holidays are just around the corner. It's still hard to believe Shaun is home, but at the same time, it is getting hard to remember what life was like before he came to us. Just today we were looking at pictures from our trip to Nashville, just 7 months ago.....we celebrated Shaun's 1st birthday there, but it seems like it happened years ago....

Shaun is doing great! I have said it before and I will say it again......he is the perfect fit for our family, and we seem to fit him pretty good too! He is such a sweet, happy, curious little guy! He spends the days trying to keep up with his big sister, dancing, building blocks, playing outside and just making mom and dad laugh and laugh and laugh... :) Honestly, I do believe that you haven't truly experienced parenting until you have 2 very different children to care for. Just watching them play together....they laugh, they argue, they are really entertaining ;) Some times it is CRAZY, I will admit. Dinner time at our house is not the way it use to be. Shaun has a ritual when ever anyone is preparing food. He stands at our heels and does this "I'm hungry" dance. We usually get Abby to help us out at this time of the day. She can find anything to get his attention (see above picture). She is really helping Shaun with his speech, she just started sitting down with him this past week, and he has had improvement. I think she is eager for him to start communicating better, and he seems ready and willing to be her "student". She breaks words down for him and repeats them very slow and clear. I was delighted when he started responding to me a few weeks back, but I was tickled when he would do it for Abby too. You can tell that she is proud to do this and we are so proud of her and her patience with her Thai born brother. She loves him so much and it shows every morning, every night. (hopefully it will stay this way!)

We are heading to NY for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We will be spending our time with family, which we are so grateful for. We will see Grandma's and Grandpa's, many Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Hopefully some old friends of mom and dads too. It will be a fast whirlwind of a trip, but they are all worth it. We are so excited for Shaun to see his family again! Abby is super exited and is hoping for snow! I am sure that we will have pictures to share!

Texting on Mommy's phone!

Just had to post this! Is he Americanized or what?
Shaun is very comfortable, as you can see!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our family!

We had a great night for trick-or-treating.....mostly treating!

The kids had fun getting dressed up together, not sure Shaun knew what was really going on.....BUT once he saw the candy go into his pumpkin bag...he was off following his sister o the next house! (we actually practiced this the night before with cotton balls and me hiding behind his bedroom door!)

Can I just say that I LOVE our neighborhood at times like this! We have made so many friends all down our street this year, all anticipating Shaun's arrival. They just love seeing him every chance they get! He is like a little celebrity around here, with his big sister!
What fun it was to watch our 2 kids on this holiday. It is times like this that I imagined over and over again!

After the treating, the kids web-cammed with Grandma and Grandpa in NY so they could see them in their costumes and share their excitement! Shaun loves to web-cam.....anytime the computer screen is on he just expects someone's face to be on the screen. He and Abby actually share a chair for this and to watch them is so much fun too!

We kept the kids up a lot later last night, watching the Yankees take game 3....did I mention that we are YANKEE fans....GO YANKEES!

We all woke up around 8:30 well rested and ready to enjoy yet another day as a family of 4!

These are such good times!

The leaves are falling!

The leaves are falling! These past few weeks have been tough with all of us being sick, Shaun and Mommy getting the flu! Let me just say.....we made it! We are all feeling MUCH better now and just so glad to have it passed us. I have spend a better part of the past 3 days with loads of laundry and disinfecting just about everything in the house.

The kids had fun with our leave piles! We have 2 large Ash trees in our yard that grace us with a couple days worth of racking! As always, we made huge piles for the kids and let them have at it. It is one of my favorite things of the fall and I cannot help but remember all the fun I had doing this as a kid. Shaun got right into it as soon as he say his sister in action!

1 and 1/2 and doing great!

Happy together!

Shaun is doing GREAT! He turned 18 months yesterday, which we celebrated in a small way, with colorful ice cream for dinner and a little singing!

(we did not get to celebrate Shauns 1st birthday, so this was a special day for us and him)

What else can I say other than go on and on about how lucky and blessed we are. We have the best kids! It is awesome, our family of four! It 's hard to believe that tomorrow, Shaun will be with us for 2 months. He has done so well adjusting to us, probably better that we have adjusted to having a BUSY toddler in the house. He is sleeping GREAT (12 hours a night+ 2 hours of a nap) and eating GREAT (everything he can get his hands on) and enjoying being part of our family. He is mostly all smiles and is babbing A LOT! He says ABBY for everything, but this morning I finally got a mommeeee again. You can tell he is practicing his sounds, he humms and sings....although it is his babble it is so fun and amazing to witness. He is silly, so silly he keeps Abby laughing and he is starting to learn to be a little more patient and not getting upset when he doesn't get his way. He is really just the sweetest boy. I REALLY enjoy being home with him day to day. Again, I am blessed and lucky to be able to do so.

Pumpkin FUN!

What a GREAT FAMILY DAY!

We went to Trenton, Ohio today for the opening fall festive at Barn n Bunk!

We had so much fun with the kids and it was so nice to be outside after almost a week staright of rain.

This place is great! We know about it because a few years ago we went with Abby's preschool class. We will go every year we are in Ohio....we love it!

The kids picked their own pumpkins, went through the hay house, went in the bouncy houses, rode scooters, we all did a horse drawn hay ride. We also slung shot apples and fired of corn......The best part by far was the large corn maze and the cart to pull the kids (and pumpkins) to the car on our way out!

We left with some graet photos, fun memories and 77 pounds of pumpkins!

I think this year, I have the largets pumpkin I have ever had!

Just gotta love days like this!

Fun Times!

Making pea eyed meatball monsters....

Making a mess with meatballs mashed potatoes and peas!

What's it like with two kids at home?????

FUN FUN.....FFFFUUUUUUNNNNN!


Aren't they just the silliest? Boy,... do these two go together ......like bologna and cheese, maybe???

Shaun with his "yankee-blankee"...

every morning, Shaun trots out of his room carrying his blankee! It is the cutest thing ever!

It stays by his side most of the day and when we travel he caries a 12X12 swatch of the fleece! Funny to think I bought this fleece about 6 years ago......I must have known!

Big Sis! Abby Liz is really enjoying reading to Shaun! This is perfect practice for her and just stepping back and listening to her is so sweet!

Well, approaching our 7 week mark of being home and I have to say that life is GREAT! Everyone has adjusted very nicely and we are on schedule, which is SOOOO IMPORTANT!

Shaun is such a sweet boy! He is showing us so much more everyday! He loves anything we give him to eat. He has done well with out a bottle and is just using a sippie cup. Nothing at night and wakes up just once if he is wet! He sleeps most nights from 8pm to 7 am. He is napping everyday for at least 2 hours.

He can say, Mama, Daddy, Abby, ball, boo, and crabby (Abby has a a new pet hermit crab!).

He babbles constantly and points to everything. He can blow kisses, gives kisses, give hugs and waves bye-bye. Also, if you ask him where Shaun is, he will point to his belly. He is super curious and very smart. It has been fun just watching him figure things out.

He can be very calm or super crazy, but all at the right times! He laughs continuously and I mean super loud belly laughs! Who wouldn't love that?