Santa Makes a Practice Visit

Daddy Jim dresses up like Santa so the kids can get used to the idea and practice sitting on his lap. They were up for it unlike last year where they screamed their heads off. Both kids promise to sit on Santa's lap and not cry this year - we'll see when the time comes.
I'll definitely keep my camera handy when the real Santa comes to town.


Stef beat both kids to Santa's lap - she was cracking up!


The kids wanted to try on the Santa suit - They really look so much alike here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for my beautiful daughter who woke up this morning at 5:00 and peepeed in the potty in the dark (of course making a ton of noise). I'm thankful that she's potty trained.
I'm thankful that she ate 1/2 can of spaghetti 0's, 2 yogurts, apple juice and milk for breakfast this morning! (her choice of course).
I'm thankful that she feels great and is talking more than ever.

I'm thankful for my amazingly smart little boy who is so curious about everything and asks a million questions a day.
I'm thankful for him asking me yesterday if I took the helicopter to the hospiddle -and all of his other funny questions.

I'm thankful that I have a wonderul, sweet husband who is the most hands-on, helpful and caring father I could have ever asked for.

I'm thankful for my sweet sweet doggies who help keep me sane.

I'm thankful to God for all I have. I'm so extremely lucky.

Tubes

Kara's had several ear infections in the past year. Everytime we bring her to the doctor, she seems to have an ear infection.
She never pulls at her ears or complains so there's no way of knowing when she has an infection but she constantly has a runny/green nose and a yucky cough every day. She sounds like Tony Soprano. If you listen to her monitor at night, you would swear that there was a 500 lb man snoring away in the room but it's just little 29 lb Karaboo all stuffed up as usual.

The ENT checked her ears and she had middle-ear fluid in both ears - not an infection, but "old" fluid meaning that there's no air going in or our like it's supposed to. She failed her hearing test and failed the test where they vibrate the ear drums - nothing moved. This is also a good indication of why her speech isn't improving by leaps and bounds like it should be.
They did an x-ray of her adenoids and they were fine, so it's just ear-related.
Sooooo the doc recommended tubes.

My baby went in to Texas Children's Hospital this morning at 8:00 and at 8:15 the doc came back to say everything went perfectly fine. All the gunk is gone. At 9:00 a.m. we were on our way back home - we stopped by to see her daddy at work and then to the grocery store. She's as normal as can be and NOT ONE tear was shed the entire time. She awoke from the anesthesia looking around like "where am I?" but she saw me right away and asked for apple juice. She watched The Wizard of Oz on the DVD on the way home and sang to her favorite songs... just like nothing ever happened.
I was absolutely amazed.
Right now it's nap time but she's yapping away playing with her babies dressing and undressing them, happy as can be.

Great experience for both of us! Texas Children's Hospital is the best!

Happy Birthday... again??

Well a princess deserves several birthdays right?

First was her actual birthday - November 3 - we had her little school party.
She had a great time until we lit the candle. Seems littlebit is a little bit afraid of fire!
Cooper came to her class to help her celebrate.

Watching us with anticipation....

Here's the very pink cake- even princess Barbie's skin is pink!

Then when we got home, we had our little family celebration - her favorite meal, a nice little cake and she opened her presents from us.

Her main present was her trike which she can finally ride!

Her 3rd party was the big one - a jumpy party at The Ruckus Room with 19 of her closest friends.

The staff there was fabulous! Everyone had a great time - they jumped, ate pizza and chips and of course had cake - an AMAZING cake by Melissa Costanzo. Here are some pics of her other creations. The girl makes the best cakes in Houston. I personally chose an almond flavored cake with a chocolate ganache filling.... mmmm soooooo good!

There were friends to greet...

big bouncy things to jump and slide on...

balloon-animal-makers to watch...

and of course, the fabulous cake to eat!

After naptime, it was time to open all of the thousands of presents!


of course, Steffi had to get in to the action

Stef wowing over the gifts!

Kara's showing Fritz her new toy

This is one happy three year old girl!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kara!

On November 3, 2006 a beautiful little baby girl was born in a remote village in northern Russia.

On November 3, 2006 a nice couple named Jane and Jim were just beginning the process of adopting two children from Russia.

After 2 years, 102 gagillion pounds of paperwork, a gagillion dollars, a ton of emotions and a lot of tears (some good, some not), the little baby and the nice couple were brought together by the grace of God.

Happy Birthday to our sweet, beautiful, smart Russian Princess, Kara.

Halloween

Kara and Cooper October 2008~

First of all, do you remember these kids? I barely do!

The policeman turned into Spiderman and Elmo turned into a princess!

What a difference a year makes.

Last year they had only been in America for 8 days - they were a bit bewildered about the whole proces but this year... different story. After every.single.house Kara would say "More!" and Cooper would say "Are we done yet?".

Every Halloween, there's a parade of sorts in our neighborhood with a real fire truck leading the way. The fire truck (Fireman Sam as Cooper calls it) sounds it's horn and that begins the 'parade'. Cooper totally remembered it from last year and couldn't wait. All the kids and parents walk along the street to the end of the cul-de-sac then the firemen pass out candy then all the kids go trick or treating. It's small but fun for the kids.

Pics in our back yard before the festivities: I'm hopeful that next year I can get them to match somehow.

Here's Kara's reaction to the firetruck horns:

Coop loves the firetruck, noise and fanfare, Kara hates it. Always opposites in every way.

Trick or treating. Yes, they remembered to say thank you!