Big Time Fun over Thanksgiving

We spent our long Thanksgiving weekend at J's parents home enjoying lots of competition and lots of laughter. I do believe it would fall into the hall of fame weekend with family.

On Thanksgiving day we held the first family Pinewood Derby Race. We had lots of fun *creating* our cars & to say that my family wasn't stressed trying to finish 5 cars on time would be a lie. I believe some of the glitter and bling on my diva car was not quite dry at race time.

Jadeybug's car took first place for speed and Auntie Ann's wiener dog car took first place for most creative. There was an official weigh in and naturally there were pinewood derby medals for all and trophies for the 1st and 2nd place winners. We do things big=0) After our big turkey dinner we followed through with the annual Thanksgiving day golf game.

There was another cornhole tournament where the family trophy made it's way back to our *cough cough* mantel. It seems that the final round always comes down to J & his older brother....so for now, we will showcase the creative family trophy for the next year...or until nobody in our family wins it. Another fun tradition is the Christmas walk on B0ca Grande. I just love all the little island shops and the beverages that they supply for us bringing the Christmas spirit into their store. Santa comes through the island on a fire truck where he is handed small liquor bottles to help pass his time as Santa. My kind of Santa.

This is the only Santa that I've ever managed to get my kids to. Though G&C have outgrown sitting on Santa's lap, I did want them to be in the photo, but they ran off when it was our turn. Eme did a whole lot of starring and inspecting while W was giving his list of wants to Santa. She however, wanted NOTHING to do with the jolly drunk fella;0)

When W was told that Santa had to go back to the North P0le, he informed us that Santa lives on B0ca, NOT the North P0le! Santa lives in Paradise.

We also managed to squeeze in family photos of the entire clan and even did an 'outlaw' shot for good measure with us in black. We had a smashing good time and was so glad that the Oh~I~YER clan made it to Florida for turkey~!

This was Eme Grace's first Thanksgiving and she alone has given us much to be thankful for. We are blessed beyond measure and thankful for so much in our lives. My heart is with those parents still waiting for their dreams to come true. I know the yearning, the desire, the hope and the pain of waiting & my heart is still with all those waiting.

Family is a little world created by love.
the 'outlaw' photo: just for fun=0)

Grams & Gramps put the GRAND in Grandparents!

Grams & Gramps

Uncle T & Auntie Ann with Eme Grace.

The best aunt & uncle ever.

CORNHOLE!

my beautiful girl...

Oh how I love B0ca...& oh how I love having my girl home this year to enjoy it all.

Studying Santa very carefully...

watching football with Gramps & Daddy

Digging in Grams's treasure chest before going to bed.

Emerson was loving that the wiener dogs were golfing with us in their little stroller and she kept sticking her hand in to get kisses and then laughing herself silly. Super cute moment.

Ready, set, run!

Making homemade pretzels...very tasty!

What a super fun weekend we had blessed with family, fun & lots of memories to grow on.

16 years of 'us'

I loved you 16 years ago when we said our 'I do's'

& I have loved you every step of our life together.

You are my everything & I thank you for being you.

Eme's world

In Eme's eyes, G hung the moon.

She adores him like no other and the bond they share is very evident.

He believes that she is the only girl for him.

G has been a lifesaver for me over the past 6 months.

During the first 3 months home, when Eme would have nothing to do with Daddy, G was the only one that could hold her while I took a quick shower or had to get something done without her strapped in her pouch (the ergo). Now that most of Eme's fears are gone, she gets really excited when the boys come home from school, especially her G.

I don't want to portray that Eme's world is 100% *healed*, because it's not.

We have several concerns that all stem from her first 15 months of institutionalized care. My gut tells me many of the things that we are seeing are not just normal toddler behavior and we plan on seeking further help for her besides the physical therapy that begins this week.

What is really *annoying* for me to constantly here is how so & so's child was exactly like that. Well, so & so's child didn't live in an orphanage and have multiple care takers and so & so's child did not share in the quality of care that my daughter endured the the first year and 1/2 of her life. I really wish China would do away with the damn potty chairs, though we've been able to *medermafy* her tie down scars, I believe this is the root of several of her physical problems today. It just gets old explaining her situation repeatedly to the caregivers for her to only be compared to the *normal* child. I really wish we had an international pediatrician in my neck of the woods. Though I've been pretty steadfast with my thoughts on what Eme needs, it certainly helps to have my friend traveling the road in front of me & be that reassuring voice as I begin to navigate through the world of therapies and neurogistics. I've learned a ton from her & I'm very thankful for all she's shared with me.

On a humorous note:

My Chinese girl hates rice. (???) What's up with that?

She loves fish, not into green beans, though she chowed on them in China like they were brownies, but rice...nope, she just shoves it around her plate.

6 month post placement visit

Today we met with our social worker in the midst of a crazy busy weekend to do our 6 month post placement visit. I'm sure it was delightful for our SW to meet the fabulous Ms. E that she worked so hard to help us bring her home. We will forever be grateful to our agency, our social worker and the People's Republic of China for the blessing of Eme Grace.

Random Bullets

My 4 munchkins...in all their glory. Eme & Jaylee enjoying a wagon ride.

Eme loves Jaylee, Jaylee is still a little uncertain who that ball of fire screaming "HI" when she comes running. It's funny to watch. But she's the only other 'little girl' on our street and Eme just seems to connect to her. Maybe it's because she is surrounded by all boys;0)

The Daddy's with their girls.

*This blogging thing is hard to do for some reason. I don't enjoy it like I used to and that kinda sucks cause I really did love it. I love going back on the old blog and looking at the pictures and remembering the life that has been lived. I wish I could get my grove on again. It especially blows that all my homegirls have closed up shop.

*The sassy snotty pain in the ass snowbirds are back.
I really can't stand them. The only benefit of their presence is that they are filling the restaurants and giving business to those that need to make the money on them. They are rude as can be, they clog the roads and not a single one of them can drive worth a shit. I've witnessed several wrecks already and one was a real doozy. They turned out in their big oversized Cadillac and headed south on the northbound lane. They took out about 5 cars. Really, just because the sun is shining, doesn't make them better drivers. I only wish they would realize that for themselves.
We call them ORF's in our home.

*We took the kids to the Zoo today and Eme loved the monkeys. She now keeps looking up at every tree for a monkey to be in it. We watched the whole animal show and the only animal that Eme really loved was the dog. Go figure.

*People, if you are wearing white pants/shorts or skirts do the public a favor and LOOK IN THE MIRROR BEFORE YOU LEAVE YOUR HOME. I'm just sayin'. & I'll also throw in there that there are very few people that can pull off white pants over their buttocks.

*We are FINALLY feeling some fall like temps in the evenings. Awww....it's the reward for toughing it out all summer long.

*I love the way my girl will put her face in yours and open her mouth wide & stick her tongue out real far if she thinks you have something in your mouth. Naturally she wants to know, she's curious like that.

*C is finishing up his last golf tournament today. I'm glad he loved playing for his school this year. His golf coach is his teachers husband from last year that we loved. When we first met him he said, "So this is the C that made my wife start drinking." LOL! I chimed back with a
"& his Mama too!"

*Have I mentioned my dislike for snowbirds? Maybe I'm just in a particularly foul mood towards them this year. Not sure why I'm feeling so hateful, except maybe it's that my snowbird pain in the ass old BOD neighbor is back with all her warm fuzzies. You remember the one, the one that has threatened lawsuits over our boat and then turns around and sends a congratulations on your daughter card. Bipolar? Yeah. We are way past congratulatory remarks toward each other.

*My husband wants to put a 'House For Sale by Neighbors' sign in their front yard...is that wrong?

*Behold the Christmas Louis Vuitton book arrived as a nasty little taunt in my mailbox.
Damn it.

*Ems let me paint her toenails this week. She loved showing off her pink toes to everyone.

*She has also been wearing panties every morning and has only had 1 accident. She loves sitting on the potty and doing her thing. She has since the day we swung by China to pick her up. She couldn't roll over or sit up but by golly she could go to the big girl potty. Which leads me to my question: Where in God's green earth can you find panties to fit the tiniest rear that you could ever imagine? The panties are seriously falling off her.

*My social worker has informed me that our 6 month post placement review is up. Can you believe it? Time flies.

*So sad the Atlanta H0usewives are over, they were such cheap trashy entertainment. Did anyone see Kim's live performance on the after show thing? That was seriously painful to listen to. I can't imagine anybody is downloading it from itunes. But at least Brav0 gives us another set of over the top really entertaining H0usewives to watch.

*I really really really love my girl. She is so much fun to be home with all day. I can't get enough of her little personality. We introduced the 'naughty mat' this week....
Yeah, no fun. It's a whole lotta drama.

*My closet shelves collapsed this week. My dh had the audacity to tell me I had to much shit and needed to get rid of a few things. I sweetly reminded him, as he was repairing the shelf, that it was HIS side of the closet that collapsed, not mine=0)

*We are having a community garage sale soon and though I DESPISE garage sales, I know that the OLD BOD was adamant about our community not being allowed to have them. & every year since our takeover, we have had one. So if I have to drag my living room furniture out to my driveway just to junk it up, I will...just to annoy the ones I loathe most;0)

*I love how Eme holds my Iphone out from her face and says "CHEEEESE"...what a ham.

This Is It

Last night, C & I went to see the MJ 'This Is It' movie & all I can say is,

"WOW!"

C loves MJ, so I knew he would be extremely excited to go see the movie & it was a nice date night for the two of us.

He really was the King of P0P & his tour would have been an amazing must see event.

We both walked away thinking it was an incredible movie and can't wait to buy the dvd & watch it again and again and again.

Well now, that was a tasty Hall~O~ween

Jaylee, a little unsure of all this ruckus & Emerson, who is completely over it.

W had plans of being a firefighter & then he switched it to a cowboy & then the moment I pulled the old costume bin down, he opted to be a pirate, again.

My girlfriend and her Very sexy Mama!

Because I knew a whole lotta people were coming over and there was going to be a whole lotta commotion, we decided to just stick a sign on Eme to not hold her or kiss her. Yeah, she's charming and completely irresistible, but I didn't want to have to repeatedly explain why this would be unhealthy for her. I'm glad we did it because she would have been smooched to death had we not. So that's what the tag says hanging from her bow.

A classy 'bottle of wine'=0)

Eme & I trick or treating. We started out with all the kids, but Eme's little legs just couldn't compete with all the big kids, so off they went with the other parents and Eme & I took our good old sweet time walking around.

& as tradition goes, the party continued at our house with about 50 neighbors, friends and all their children running around in full costume with a sugar high. The eat'n was real good for us as well. We had a seasoned pork shoulder that had been cooking for 7 hours and beef kabobs with every tasty side and appetizer one could imagine. It was delicious!

*The only pictures I have of my big boys are with all their friends and I don't want to post them publicly...so no photos of them.