Tia Time

the things she says . . .

2010-09-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

I asked her to smell her newly laundered blanket.

me: What does your blankey smell like?
Tia: It smells pink.
me: what does pink smell like?
Tia: Pink smells like a lollipop!

I was reading something serious.

Tia: Mommy are you happy?
me: Yes, I'm happy T.
Tia: No you're not!
me: Yes, I am - why?
Tia: If you're happy then what is your mouth going down?

posting at Shine!

2010-03-07T02:12:00.000-08:00

After almost 3 years of posting to this blog I've decided I am going to simplify my life and put all posts (for all my children!) on my "photography blog": SHINE!
I hope to see you there!

2 years already!?

2010-03-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

Time flies when you're having fun!

B & W Wednesday.

2010-02-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo of Little Miss T posing for me after a swim - she cracks me up! . . originally this was mostly pink however I liked the way you focus more on Tia in the b&w (sepia).

to see more b&w photos pop over to The Long Road to China.

Nope, I didn't dress her

2010-02-24T02:46:00.001-08:00

but yes, those are my shoes :)

First Day of "MY School"

2010-02-16T23:46:00.000-08:00

Tia has been a bit lonely since Grandma left and the 3 big kids went to school at the end of January. She has been asking when she gets to go to what she calls "my school". Yesterday was the big day! It is actually Bible Study Fellowship - however she calls it "MY School" because she goes to the wonderful children's program. She is in the Wombat room this year and she loves it :)

I took these photos with my aperture set to 1:4 which obviously was a mistake and so I am a little bit sad as they are not the gorgeous in-focus photos I was imagining for her first day :( They were salvaged slightly by the b&w conversion - gotta love that! (don'tcha think she looks stinkin' cute anyway?? - I just love that nervous quirky smile and those little legs!!!)

For more Black and White Wednesday posts just click here

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-13T18:42:00.001-08:00

Hope yours is full of sweetness and love!

Who loves you?

2010-02-09T16:47:00.001-08:00

Mommy: "Who loves you Tia?"
Tia: "Mommy"
Mommy: "Who do you love?"
Tia: "Daddy"

Tippy Toes!

2010-02-03T16:06:00.001-08:00

Tia had her very first dance class today - it was called Tippy Toes! She LOVED it! The teacher was so cute! She had pink hair and definitely knew how make dance the magical fairy princess thing that most little girls dream of :) Tia said she especially enjoyed playing the magich wand and flying like fairies!

We can't wait for next week!

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT - Three and a half (on Friday).

2010-01-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

She turns three and a half in five days. We've been thinking about things she does we don't want to forget! Our 'Princess of Quite-A-Lot' runs our house and our lives now. sigh. happy sigh. exasperated sigh. an 'I love her' kinda sigh.

She LOVES; Butterflies, Rainbows and Fairies. she loves them. oh and pink. and purple. and pink. everything should be pink if you want her to be happy. Clothes, cups, blankets, everything. sigh. Did I mention she LOVES DORA?! She does, she watches her. A. LOT. too much (but what can I say?!) oh and she LOVES candy. she really loves candy.

She sings "Twinkle Twinkle" more than any other song. she also sings to herself, making up the words as she goes. just don't try to join her, she DOESN'T like our singing.

She chooses her own clothes, don't bother trying to choose for her (though sometimes she can be tricked - shhhhhhhhh) mostly pink, or purple or with sparkles or butterflies. or Dora. she loves Dora.

When she puts on a skirt or a dress she ALWAYS has to test if for the Twirl factor. She will love it more if it twirls :) She dances. A. Lot. She loves to dance.

She is REALLY strong. She can hurt us by taking our finger and turning it wrong. you should see her calves, they are ripped. We wonder if she will be an athlete. Did I mention she's strong willed too.

When she is sleepy she says "I want my jammies, and my chokky milk, and my silky, and my TV." actually usually she screams this. We ask her to use her 'lovely manners'. Then she screams "please!". then we ask if she can please use her 'sweet voice'. or sometimes we are too tired. sigh.

She always wants her hair styled "Like Bella's" which means only one ponytail. bummer, I like pigtails. If I put her hair in pigtails she may leave them in. for an hour. or a minute.

If we tell her she is our : big girl
baby
beauty
sweetie
doll
lovey

She will say "NO I NOT! I TIA!" and yes, she is!

When we wash her hands she says (screams) "You're getting me wet"! and if you do, indeed, get her wet she will have to change her clothes.

She says some very funny things:

She always answers "Yes", not yah, just "YES".
She says "Thenk you Mommy", or "Thenk you Daddy". She is actually very polite. when she wants to be :)
She says "No Way Jose!" - her sister taught her that.
She says "Do Again!". especially when we throw her in the air or spin her around.

She has THE most adorable and contagious giggle. When she giggles we can't even remember all the not so adorable qualities. Her giggle can brighten even the worst of days!

Every night at dinner she wants to say the prayer. She always says: "Thenk you Jesus for my food. and thenk you for my school" (she doesn't go to school but she goes to the children's program at BSF, she calls this "her school" and she hasn't gone in more than a month). and then she says "ummmmmmm, ummmmmmmm and we all say "AMEN"!"

Every night when we say our prayers we say "Thank you Jesus for our Tia".

Happy 'Three and a half birthday', Princess!

The Shell Seeker . . . .

2010-01-09T20:04:00.014-08:00

I've been a slack blogger! It was just so busy for the past few months and I'm not used to being super busy :(

Here is our little shell seeker on our Cairns/Great Barrier Reef holiday. She got so excited when she found shells at the beach! How cute is her little tongue sticking out in the second photo?!

I'm wondering if all these little China dolls get this tan in the sun? I have resorted to a long sleeve rash shirt for the Princess because she gets sooooo dark. (click on any photo to see it larger)

I will try to get up to date with this little blog - someday I might even get Christmas posted :)

little snorkeler

2009-12-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

I'm wondering what she is thinking!?

We've been busy!

2009-12-17T05:26:00.003-08:00

It has been so busy around here . . . We've had wonderful overseas guests, Tia had surgery to cap 3 teeth, we went on Holiday to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, all the children finished school and now we are FINALLY getting ready for Christmas. Just in case you've missed us I thought you might enjoy a photo of our "Princess of Quite-A-Lot" taken on an island we visited in the Great Barrier Reef. She wouldn't put her head under the water to check out the fish, and turtles, and octopus and stingrays, however she loved playing with the shells :)!

Tia sends a very Merry Christmas from Australia!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T03:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family. We have so much to be thankful for . . . . like this little turkey :)

floating w/ Grandma

2009-11-19T03:30:00.000-08:00

Grandma Cookie (ellie's Mom) has been visiting us here in Australia for the past 2.5 weeks. Tia is really enjoying having another play mate during the day - and one who likes to swim. Today Tia and Grandma were practicing floating - and blowing bubbles under water :) We are thinking Tia will be swimming alone any day now!

Thank You Jesus for . . . .

2009-11-11T19:37:00.001-08:00

letting me go swimming today!

After we prayed before dinner Tia stopped us and said she wanted to pray too. She just wanted to thank Jesus for her swimming lesson that day. She loves her swimming lessons :)

Our Model Bug

2009-11-07T19:08:00.000-08:00

Her big sister was getting some photos taken dressed up for a party - she decided to teach T to "model" Here is our Little Bug, she ran to get this ladybug dress on so she could model too! (and note the pink princess dress up shoes)

my little LadyBug

2009-11-02T02:54:00.000-08:00

Tia (my Love Bug/Lady Bug) playing on the trampoline at our Halloween Party. I really want to get more photos of her in her costume - hopefully tomorrow :)

Hmmm . . . . you like my face paint?

2009-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's all about the goggles!

2009-10-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

She loves wearing the goggles. as long as they're pink. She didn't like the fact that "that boy that helped me swim" was replaced by a girl instructor. Luckily "that boy" came by and told me to pop her in the water against her will or she would never have gone in. Once she was in she was havin' fun. until it was time to get out. she was not a happy camper. not even what with the pink goggles and all. (for a bigger view of her closed eyes just click on the photo)

an engineer maybe?

2009-10-22T05:01:00.000-07:00

She's three. (and 3 months) We have not taught her to use a screwdriver (of course!). For me it was tricky to learn (when I was like 30!) . . . the whole "righty tighty lefty loosy thing, just to remember which way to turn it ya' know.

She was waiting for me to play trains with her. I noticed her getting the screwdriver out and trying to use it. it was cute - it was the wrong type of screwdriver but I didn't think there was any harm. I laughed out loud 15 minutes later when I realized she had taken the whole thing apart (14 screws!) and was carrying around parts of the roundhouse to that train set.

Does it seem a little unusual that she can do/did that? I'm thinkin' so. Maybe she is a bit bright?! I'm just callin' her "Our Little Engineer".

More Ours.

2009-10-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

As promised a little photo shoot in honor of Equal Day :) She chose the outfit, she wasn't happy about the pigtails until I promised candy :) She only wants to wear her hair like Bella's (one ponytail in the back). The pigtails were out the minute I said we were done. She is a character. We are incredibly blessed :)

ps I couldn't figure out WHY this photo is so grainy and then I realized the ISO was at 1250. bummer.

Equal Day.

2009-10-21T04:53:00.000-07:00

We couldn't think of a better name :) Today marks the day that we have had Tia as long as she was without us. We are calling it Equal Day (any better ideas?)

It is amazing to think our precious peanut has been with us for 19 months and 3 weeks! YOWZA. We love her, she was a giggle box today (so fun!) but boy does she bring a lot of attitude to our lives :) I will try to get a photo of her tomorrow,

Today she celebrated by taking her first swim lesson. Did she like it?? "that was so so fun!" she told her sister afterwards! (I forgot my camera :(

Happy Equal Day Tia (okay I admit that sounds pitiful :)

jammies at the park?! oh my.

2009-10-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

jammies EVERYWHERE - oh and about 3 or 4 changes per day! She LOVES her jammies!

purple fairy

2009-09-30T04:15:00.000-07:00

My mom got a new lens. I wore my jammies today (most days I have 2 or 3 different jammies on during the day) I put on my new purple fairy wings and started jumping on the trampoline. Is that any reason to try out a new lens? in the middle of the day when the light is too harsh? Mom thinks so :)

my little LOVE bug

2009-09-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

she cracks me up because she is so serious trying to learn how to play :)

She had an adorable dress on, but (of course) she changed before we left the house. She had cute pig tails too but (of course) she had to rip those out . . . no point in pretending to be compliant when you're really not :(

It's alright, I LOVE her just the way she is!

strawberries - Tia style

2009-09-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

She takes one bite out of each one. such a Princess. sigh.

Fashion? Friday

2009-09-10T18:01:00.001-07:00

Today Tia went upstairs for a few minutes and I could hear her happily playing. When she came down I asked her what she was doing and she said "I got Lijie's undawear". When I looked at her I could see she had a lot of underwear on! I took some photos and then she took them all off. I counted them. 20. Silly girl, I think she needs someone to play with, maybe preschool might be a good idea after all!

Today I told her about how we waited for her . . .

2009-09-01T04:49:00.000-07:00

She likes to say "talk to me Mommy, . . . ." and tonight she was just not ready to sleep when I was putting her to bed so I asked her if she wanted to hear about how she came to be our daughter?! she said, "tell me Mommy".

I shared that after we had her older brother and sister we wanted another little girl, we were matched with precious Casiana in Romania but they never allowed her to come home. We went to Ukraine where we saw the face of and met and brought home her precious brother. Years went by and we still had an ache, a little girl missing in our family . . . we looked for her, we couldn't find her but we filled out the paperwork anyway and we waited. One day they called - they sent her photo and we saw the face of the little girl we were waiting for. Our Tia, our beautiful daughter. Now we enjoy that precious little face everyday.

She liked the story, she started kissing me, she was being silly. I love that girl. She still couldn't fall asleep.

She drives me crazy.

Dad took over and she is asleep now.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Twirly Girl.

2009-08-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

Tia is so fun! She loves to twirl and dance and sing her way through the day! For some reason if I sing she says: "Talk Mom, no singing, just talking"! - hmmmmm should I take that personally?

XiXi and Tia - a tale of two sisters

2009-07-31T02:26:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 2 years since we first saw the face of our precious daughter Tia. On August 12, 2007 we were emailed her referral information which we excitedly accepted. A few days later we were able to view the entire new special needs list where we would see another little girl living at the same baby house who surprisingly looked so similar to our future daughter - with a birthday only 1 day earlier. I had a few hours of fear imagining that somehow these two little girls were actually twins and someone would take our baby from us to keep the twins together... After (unsuccessfully)trying to convince my husband that we could adopt both of the girls I emailed our agency. I was comforted by them with the fact that they didn't think the girls looked much alike, had different special needs and were found in different areas so it was unlikely they were twins. I was relieved but I still had a sense that these girls needed to stay connected somehow.
In the following days I was able to get in touch with Judy, little "XiXi"'s mom-to-be and was excited to learn they lived in a suburb that was very near where my sister lived. Someday we hoped to meet and get the girls back together.
It was a highlight of our trip to America in July when we were able to reunite these little YiWu Sisters and meet XiXi's family! It took a little while for the girls to relax with each other but by the end of the visit they were really enjoying each other as can be seen in the photos of them drawing on themselves with chalk! XiXi even said she remembered Tia :)
We had such a wonderful visit with Judy, Steve and all their children and I was amazed that immediately they felt like family! confirming the sense that these girls should stay connected . . . they are after all sisters! Happy 3rd Birthdays XiXi and Tia! May you grow up to be friends as well as sisters!

3 Years Old!

2009-07-29T20:06:00.001-07:00

Tia was a lucky little girl being able to celebrate her third birthday in America! She had two parties, one with each side of our family. Here she is trying to figure out how to blow out her candles at her first party at Grandma Cookies house.

The second photo was taken at Grandma & Grandpa Froggie's house for her second party.

I wasn't happy with the quality of either photo but I guess it is a good excuse to make another birthday cake and have some of her little Australian friends over to celebrate her birthday again!

back in Australia!

2009-07-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

We're home! It is 6:30 pm and the kids have been asleep for hours - we can hardly keep our eyes open! I will post more photos as soon as possible :)

Things Tia Loves

2009-06-25T19:53:00.001-07:00

at age 2.

Her pink silky blankey
Dora The Explorer
Pincess Dwesses
her pink gumboots
chips
Candy
Chocolate
rice
noodles
swinging on the bar
jumping on the trampoline
puzzles
her bottle
milk - with chocolate in it
not wearing clothes
swimming
spinning around
counting
singing
Her friend Lauren

she is 3 now. (as of 7/15/09) ouch.. I so miss her 2 year old self. birthday photos when we are back at home :)

taken 14 months ago

2009-06-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

I just ran across this photo of this tiny, serious-looking baby.
Where did she go?

smelling the flowers

2009-06-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to work on my photography skills with these flowers. Silly Miss Tia who never likes to be in photos for me, didn't want me to take any photos without her in them either! She climbed up on the counter in her Princess outfit-of-the-day to smell the flowers (or get in the way of me taking a photo!).
processed in lightroom with Rebecca Lily's Faded Olive preset (just learning Lightroom that I recently purchased for the $99 student price, anyone with a child in school qualifies! anyhow I don't quite have it figured out.).

Gumboots with . . .

2009-06-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

a smocked dress?

okay, I wasn't too sure it was the right occasion when the Princess of Quite-A-Lot was emphatic that she was going to wear this smocked dress to Bible Study Fellowship on Tuesday. I was even less sure that the gumboots looked good with it. She chose a pink rubber butterfly hairband too (at least that went with the gumboots!). hmmmmmmmmm. I wonder how opinionated she will be about fashion when she is 3!

(not the best photos, but hey, we were on the way out the door for Bible Study!)

Wild Olive Tees giveaway!

2009-05-31T03:43:00.001-07:00

Check it out! These tees are super cute and have some of my favorite scriptures on them - and right now they are having a giveaway! click on the link for more info. and to check out these super cute tees!

Fashion Friday!

2009-05-30T00:31:00.001-07:00

Both these outfits were chosen by Tia. I let her choose her outfit on Thursday and she put on her most favorite t-shirt - an Old Navy USA t-shirt. I don't know why but she just loves this shirt. She grabbed these size 12 months jeans (that are not meant to be cropped!) and insisted on wearing them - then she had to wear these crocs type pink shoes (her gumboots were missing) and the ball cap. (check out the apple, she had to grab one again this week before we headed outside to take her photo - too funny!) I was actually a little worried when she looked so boyish in this outfit of her choice :) I worried too soon because the next outfit she chose was her "Belle" Pincess dwess with leggings because it is cold here - and her pink jacket and pink gumboots. That's the Pincess I remember :) Check out all the cute child-chosen outfits at Salsa in China

Tia Talk

2009-05-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Some conversations with the Princess of Quite-A-Lot that I don't want to forget:

Sitting at the table one evening Tia kept getting up and walking around so we secured the strap on her booster seat. She kept yelling "up! up! when that brought no response from us she changed her cry to "abawo, abawo" we just looked at her and shook our heads, not understanding what in the world she was talking about. Finally Jonah(12) started laughing . . . "she is saying ABAJO, it's from Dora!, it means DOWN,DOWN!"
we all cracked up!

I was pouring some chocolate powder in Tia's milk and the floors had just been mopped, so when some of the powder spilled I asked Tia to please not touch. She said: "I NOT touchin', I just lookin'!" a few seconds later I noticed she was rubbing her finger in the chocolate powder and putting it in her mouth - I reminded her that I didn't want her to touch it. Tia's response: "I NOT touchin', I just lickin'!"

Last night I was sitting next to Tia's bed as she was supposed to be falling asleep.

T: Mom, you seepy?
Me: Yes,
T: Mom, you supa hungwee?
Me: No
T: you vewy sick?
Me: No
T: Mom, you just vewy vewy tiwad?
Me: Yes, I replied, I am very tired, please fall asleep."
Tia: you seep Mom, you tiwad!

sandcastles

2009-05-26T05:51:00.001-07:00

I was loading photos to a book about our Fraser Island trip and I found this one of Tia & Elijah building sandcastles at Lake Makenzie, Fraser Island, Australia. Something about the fact that Tia is from China a few hours from the East China Sea and Elijah is from Ukraine near the Black Sea - and here they are in a small island off the coast of Australia in the Pacific Ocean building sandcastles at a little beach at this World Heritage Site . . . well, I love the whole idea of that :)

Fashion Friday!

2009-05-22T03:39:00.000-07:00

We are joining the Fashion Friday over at the "Salsa in China" blog. Check out all the entries! this is such fun! Here is Tia's creative outfit this week:

oh she's cute! She chose & wore this mixed up swim suit proudly! and what would a Tia outfit be without her pink gumboots? The balloon is from The Wiggles show she went to. I think she had a good time although she walked in the door after the show and asked to watch Dora. That's my Tia. love her :)

For Angel

2009-05-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

I know this photo is out of focus but I just had to post it because I think it looks more like Kaiya than it does Tia! Can you believe how much these little YiWu sisters look alike??

Fashion Challenge Friday!

2009-05-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

This was Tia's choice of outfit yesterday. Yes, I know the boots are a big surprise! She cried when I put the "Pincess dwess" in the washing machine because she had spilled chocolate all over it. But then I found her another and she said "nother Pincess dwess!" She never noticed that she had these until yesterday! She is a "Pincess" alright :) Check out all the other fun entries at Salsa In China.

my little monkey.

2009-05-10T05:14:00.000-07:00

she loves to hang & swing & climb & jump! silly little monkey :)

Running away from this blog?!

2009-05-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post more photos of our Fraser Island Trip - however there are very few of just Tia - which leads me to my ongoing problem with this blog . . . I actually have 4 children! I am going to start posting more often to "Shine" and then just updating this as Tia's online scrapbook.

In the land down under . . .

2009-04-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

on a little sand island called Fraser. . . on the far south end. . .in what are called the champagne pools. . . on a hot day in April. . . while on holiday with her family. . .

this little girl swam. . . like this. (and we tried to keep her clothes on, oh how we tried!) Luckily we were in Australia where this is considered normal. (really!) yikes.

home from Fraser Island . . .

2009-04-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

we did get very close to some dingos (the wild dogs of Australia)

the Princess is happy to be home . . . more photos soon!

pinky pink drink. and more pink.

2009-04-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

We spent our weekend at the baseball fields - which noone really minds since they get to play with lots of other little brothers and sisters - and get slushies! When I opened this photo the first thing I thought was how PINK everything is, and when Tia saw this photo she said "pinky drinky". Gotta love a girl in pink. even cuter when she matches her drink. pinky drink that is :)

she was playing so nicely with the big kids. . .

2009-04-17T02:24:00.000-07:00

All the kids are home for the Easter Break and there were a few minutes of quiet today while I was busy inside . . . I thought that perhaps we had gotten to a new stage, where Tia could be left with the Big Kids for a few minutes . . . I went out into the front yard to check on them and this is the first thing I saw:

hmmmmmmm so maybe we aren't quite at that next stage!

The Egg Hunt

2009-04-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

So much fun. We joined the American Club here in Sydney for a good 'ole Easter Egg Hunt on the beach. Tia loved it! We all loved watching her love hunting for her "Tandy Eggs". Two is the perfect age for all these fun holidays. How cute is this little stinker of ours??

ps. the dress is by Lynn at Livi Lu and we love it!!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

Enjoy a wonderful Easter, full of the joy of knowing Jesus is Risen!

Easter stickers!

2009-04-10T05:51:00.000-07:00

what about here? and here? and here?

brothers teach you the coolest stuff!

Attitude??

2009-04-06T05:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if you can see the 'attitude' in this photo or if I just see it because I am looking at it at the end of a very long day with the Princess of Quite-A-Lot (Princess of Way-Too-Much I'm thinking at the moment!)

We have had a lot of rough nights with the Princess lately and yesterday at the grocery store whenever she was near enough to any items she would grab them and then throw them down. (I kept wondering what the people that watch on those cameras were thinking!) She has been grabbing toys from her siblings and then just screaming - and she has just been screaming at us a lot. We are getting really tired . . . and I think we are re-assessing how to deal with this behavior, obviously something has to change . . . So I don't mean to sound negative as she is our fourth child and we do find with each one that we are on a parenting journey. We just need to sort of figure out how to discipline more effectively. She is so strong willed. and beautiful. and charming. the beauty & charm bring attention everywhere from everyone and so that reinforces her sense of entitlement I think.

any advice??

Fashion Challenge Friday.

2009-03-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Dawn's site and since I had just pulled out my camera to get a photo of another of Tia's gumboot/swimming cozzie outfits (the bottoms and they are inside out!) I had to join! Check out the other entries for some funny photos!

2009-03-26T02:50:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed this site button on the sidebar? If you are interested in reading our adoption story it has just been added to the site. There are so many incredible stories and if you ever have time I encourage you to grab a cuppa and get ready to be inspired! If you wanted to adopt from China but have been scared away by the current wait times or if you logged in and are really discouraged, PLEASE read these stories and consider a special needs adoption. We honestly have never for a moment regretted our decision to adopt our "special needs" baby, and I don't think she's regretted adopting us either!

On a different subject: You know how I've been suffering photo library computer problems? I don't think the photos that I chose for our story (because those are the ones I could find!) are very good - what do you think? Should I send some different ones? This is really bugging me (I'm a bit OCD that way :) so please give me your feedback!

Gumboots & swimming cozzie.

2009-03-23T03:03:00.001-07:00

Trying to get one great photo . . . I did get a lot of cute ones :) Tia is so funny, she loves to choose her outfits - and of course gumboots go with anything!

My photography blog.

2009-03-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

I started a photography blog here. I am really trying to post daily to work on my skills. The link is on the blog listing so feel free to stop by and please feel free to comment on things I can do to improve! Enjoy!

New Gumboots!

2009-03-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine dropped these gumboots (rainboots in America) off for Tia today. She doesn't want to take them off! She wore them on the trampoline which I would normally not allow but I wanted to take some photos!

My Princess Beam Walker . . .

2009-03-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

We played with friends at the park yesterday. On the way to the potty (yes she's doing GREAT!) there were railroad ties along the path. My little Princess had to "walk a beam" all the long way there and the long way back . . .

Thanks to everyone who left a comment giving us advice about Tia's fringe. I will just let it grow (since that was unanimous!) in the meantime we need advice about how to get her to leave the clippies in her hair!

the fringe ? to cut or not to cut.

2009-03-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

It is time to make a decision - the fringe is always in her face. What should we do?

Conversation with Bella.

2009-03-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

Tia: "Whatchya doin'?"
Bella: "eating"
Tia: "Whatchya doin'?"
Bella: "eating breakfast"
Tia: "Whatchya doin'?"
Bella: Eating eggs & beans for breakfast
Tia: "Whatchya doin'?"
Bella: "Eating????"
Tia: "Whatchya doin'?"
Bella "ahhhhh . . . eating!" sigh . . .

Tia: "Knock Knock"

all of us crack up!

Panda Dress & Mia Hope

2009-03-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

I put this dress on Tia yesterday to try to get some photos of her on her very first "Forever Family Day". (can you see how difficult it is for me to get good photos of her?) Once I put it on I realized that Robin, the woman that made the dress as a fundraiser for their adoption was in China getting Mia Hope. Sure enough when I checked their blog they have Mia! (same Forever Family Day as Tia's, just a year later!) Click on her name to go to her blog - they could use some prayers as Mia was in a loving foster family and is grieving for them. I'm so excited for Robin and her family as they worked so hard and waited so long to travel to finally meet their beautiful Mia.

One year ago today . . . .

2009-03-02T18:23:00.001-08:00

we met and fell head over heels in love with this little peanut. She was 19 months old and weighed 17.5 pounds and was almost 29 inches tall. She could crawl a little but couldn't stand or walk without help.
Today she is 2 years 7 months old and is 27 pounds and 35 inches tall. That timid little girl has become our assertive and confident daughter (who it is almost impossible to get a good photo of :). Today she said sentences that included "I want some yours" (about my ice-cream - note the assertiveness!) & I want more ice-cream. She sang the ABC song from beginning to end getting all the letters in the correct order. She does somersaults and runs circles around our hearts :) What an amazing transformation! She is our Princess of Quite-A-Lot! We know we are incredibly blessed to have her in our family. Happy "Forever Family Day" to our sweet little Tia.

Birthday Party fun!

2009-02-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

Tia was invited to a birthday party of 3 year old friend last week and this week she tagged along with Elijah to a party at the same place. She is loving parties (especially the lolly bags)!! Here is a photo of her practicing jumping down this climbing slide and petting the bunny that the magician pulled out of his hat.

Mac ATTACK!

2009-02-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

Oh YEAH! I got my Mac back - it looks like they retrieved tons of my photos! The only problem is they are now in jpeg and I don't know how to get them back to whatever they were before (where I can just scroll through them without having to individually open every file) Still I am excited to know they are there!

I LOVE the screen on my Mac - love it love it love it :)

Oh Happy Day!

Chinese parasol

2009-02-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to get some photos of Tia in her silk dress from Hangzhou,China since we totally missed CNY (seriously i have no idea how I did that!) yesterday we tried to get a few shots and this was the best one. I think I will try again when there are some other family members around to help me get my model to smile!

nothing exciting. . .

2009-02-18T21:54:00.000-08:00

I really don't have anything exciting to post.
My Mac is in the shop - (no news yet).
The laptop I'm using is super slow.
It has been raining non-stop (it was a beautiful day today, yeah!!!).
I got a new camera (canon 40d).
I'm taking a photography class.
I hope all my friends out in bloggerland are well :)

missing my Mac :(

2009-02-13T03:07:00.000-08:00

The graphics on a pc are just not the same . . . .

Say a little prayer :)

2009-02-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

The computer goes to the Apple Store tomorrow where they will try to retrieve our photos. Thanks for everyone's comments - I do know we will be setting up our hard drive to save automatically nightly. I have no idea how we will do this but I know WE WILL BE DOING THIS!

On a better note: The photography class I am taking through Scrapgirls with the AMAZINGLY talented Pixel Fairy Princess - started on Friday and I am already learning soooooooooo much! She rocks!!!! I can't wait to share some photos I took today with you however I can't use my MAC and this pc does not have my Canon software on it. I am loving this class! FUN FUN FUN!

More important than my photos - could you please stop and pray by those affected by the Bush Fires here in Australia? There are over 130 confirmed dead and soooooooooooo many families have lost their homes. Please pray that peace of God will be able to comfort those affected. Thank You for your prayers.

a good reason to blog . . .

2009-02-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

in case you accidently delete the entire last 10 months of photos from your hard drive you at least have some photos of your new daughter learning to walk, learning to swim, learning to jump on the trampoline, celebrating her first birthday at home, her first Halloween, her first Christmas with us . . . etc. etc. etc.

sigh.

a potty story.

2009-02-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

The guy came to replace our cable box today. We have been staying home anyway since we have been potty training Tia after her recent successes. Tia was wearing a little dress on and nothing under it since I do the "naked" method of potty training. Anyway, Tia seemed to warm up to this man who happened to be Chinese (I think) and she chatted to him as he was doing his work while I tidied up the kitchen. As soon as he was finished he seemed to race out of the house. I was thinking that he has a very good work ethic!

I went in the family room to see Tia playing happily and I noticed a big wet spot on the carpet only 3 feet from where Cable Guy was working. oh my goodness! I'm thinking he heard the whole thing. Sheeesh :( He must have some great stories . . . .

Tia Do THAT!

2009-02-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

Today Tia was running around without her diaper and I looked up to see her carrying the little potty chair (yikes!) I took it from her and asked her who did the pee pee? - She got a very proud look on her face and said "Tia Do That!". A candy cane was her reward! YEAH! soon we will be done with diapers!!!!

Trust . . .

2009-02-02T04:13:00.000-08:00

What happens when mom is blog surfing . . .

2009-01-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

I took the left photo before giving Tia some yogurt. I then sat down at the computer to check blogs. so much for the bib :)

I working!

2009-01-28T17:08:00.000-08:00

We took Elijah to his first day of Kindergarten today - soooooo cute :) Tia loved the classroom and doing the puzzles that were set out. She didn't want to leave and when we asked her to "please come now" her reply was: "NOOOOO, I working!"

Tumbelina

2009-01-28T02:39:00.000-08:00

Tia LOVES gymnastics! She walks on anything that will work as a beam, she hangs and swings on every bar and even does the monkey bars! her latest achievement is a somersault - she can almost roll all the way over! Here she shows off her skill. (She WON'T smile for the camera - or wear a clip in her hair if she realizes it is there).

Hot summer days!

2009-01-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

Helping with the Laundry . . . .

2009-01-18T05:57:00.001-08:00

" Mom, will you look at this? it's a bowl of water just sitting here . . . I think I will wash my red top . . . I take it off and get it nice and wet . . .

I swish it around a bit more . . . .

look at how clean it is! . . . Aren't I clever?

Mom, why is the dog looking at me like that?"

under construction . . .

2009-01-14T00:50:00.001-08:00

I'm playing with some settings so please excuse the "mess" while my blog is under construction!

testing picture size

2009-01-13T20:16:00.000-08:00

all by myself!

2009-01-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

Jonah convinced Tia to swim in the little dinosaur swim ring today - she was really proud of herself!

It cracks me up the way the other 3 seem to stalk Tia sometimes!
fyi: the kids had begged me to let them swim in their clothes. . .just in case you were wondering . . . .

jampoline!

2009-01-03T00:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos of our little jumping girl. Tia looooooooves to jump on the trampoline - and all around the house for that matter! Yesterday the word "frog" was mentioned and she started hopping everywhere saying "frog, frog, frog . . . " Pretty exciting for a little girl who started walking less than 10 months ago :)

If anyone has advice about the colors in my photos - please share :( I am so frustrated and iphoto only seems to make the colors worse . . . so these are SOOC - I know I need to learn photoshop but it does seem like my Canon Rebel Xti is not giving me good color! any suggestions?

I hope you dance!

2008-12-29T04:08:00.001-08:00

Tia dances every time she hears music - it is so cute to see her little hand start coming up and her little head start moving - then she slowly turns around twirling. Belle & I were out in the front garden yesterday and we started singing and Tia started to dance. I hope she always loves to dance - it brings us such joy to watch her get caught up in the music and the moment (she really likes those shoes!)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T18:37:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful Christmas! Tia enjoyed all the excitement and was happy with her gifts although I'm pretty sure she would have been happy with a large supply of "Tandy" (candy!)LOL!. I had planned for Tia and Bella to wear sleeveless white eyelet dresses for the Christmas Eve service at church however it was a chilly 65 so I threw Isabella's dress from when she was 2 on Tia and I loved the way she looked in it! (Though I did not get a single great photo - maybe later!) Here the girls are scattering the magic reindeer dust on the lawn to help guide Santa's sleigh!
First the stockings! Then the gifts! A new bike, kinda fun but a water bottle, now that is very cool :)
My prayer is that all my blogger friends have a blessed Christmas season and a very Happy New Year!.

Little Swimmer!

2008-12-21T18:39:00.003-08:00

We just returned from a 14 day New Zealand Cruise. Tia swam in the pool on the ship almost every day and she is getting to be such a good little swimmer! She would jump right in and Daddy would let her head go under before he held her - she loved it!

Ice Cream (at the Honolulu Zoo!)

2008-11-30T03:38:00.000-08:00

A couple photos of Tia enjoying some American Ice Cream while we visited the Zoo during our Hawaii trip. She loved the playground a lot also. Oh and the Giraffes :)

Knock Knock!

2008-11-24T14:04:00.000-08:00

Tia: "Knock Knock"
Mommy: "who's there?"
Tia: (a little smile on her face) "Knock Knock!"
Mommy: "Who's there?"
Tia: (a bigger smile . . .) "Knock Knock"
Mommy: (with a sigh) "Who's there?"
Tia: (GIGGLING!) Knock Knock!!!!!!"

and so it goes, several times a day!

My Little Miss USA

2008-11-22T02:59:00.000-08:00

Tia and I spent a whirlwind 5 days flying to Hawaii to get her US citizenship - and US passport. Busy and FUN - and YIKES!!! 10 hours is a VERY long flight with a Tantruming, screaming (have I mentioned she has some rage issues??!!) 2 year old! Won't be doing that again for as long as possible. But yeah! she's really a US citizen now!

Oh and she is a darn good shopping buddy too :)

Urgent PRAYER requested for family in China.

2008-11-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

Please pray for this family! They are in China and the little girl they met has very serious issues and they cannot accept her. They are praying for another referral and thus far they have been told there are no children available at this time. Please pray that God would move mountains and they will get another referral!

Adding a Blog List

2008-11-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

I had a question about how to put the blog list with updates on your blog so I though I would answer here:

Go into Layout then on the right side it will say "my blog list" , click on that and then you add the url and just check whichever boxes you want - you can even show the beginning of the post and their thumbnail if you'd like.

If that doesn't make sense let me know.

more pigtails photos

2008-11-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

I took these photos early Sunday morning while Tia and I were enjoying (her)bottle and (my) coffee. I love these sweet times with Tia - snuggling, giggling and just being together (oh and taking photos :).

I love those times with Jesus when I can just enjoy him too, when I let go of all my preconceived ideas about what He wants FROM me (as if!).
Today I am feeling blessed!

“It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace” Hebrews 13:9

She is just so beautiful :)

Look who's talking TWO!

2008-11-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

a little lesson on how to talk TWO!

if anyone ever says "please don't . . ." you will always reply

"I NOT!"

If given a choice as to which you would like you will reply

"NO TING!"

If ever asked if you did something you will answer

"LIJAH DO THAT!"

when anyone picks up or touches anything of yours you will say

"MY ________"

Tia is talking a lot but it is funny to see how language progresses when you learn to speak when you are TWO years old :)

Trick or treating is so fun!

2008-10-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

trick or treat?

2008-10-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

in a white dress . . .

2008-10-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

Tammy won!

2008-10-22T21:47:00.000-07:00

Tia drew Tammy as the winner of the Tuesday October 14th "Name this photo" contest. We just drew randomly. The captions were hilarious, thanks to everyone for playing!

Tammy can you send me your mailing address so I can get the surprise gift from Australia in the mail to you?!

wordless wednesday

2008-10-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

one of the things we love about living in Sydney, Australia

2008-10-20T17:58:00.000-07:00

This is Isabella, our 10 year old daughter's gymnastics team. Isabella is 3rd from the left. Can you tell what we like so much?

"Jesus, tank you . . . .

2008-10-18T04:48:00.000-07:00

lollies, tandy, go-gurt.

amen."

(Tia's first prayer, I was praying out loud while it was taking her forever to fall asleep for her nap . . . . she reached through the slats of her crib, held my hand and said her own prayer )