Decorating time!

This is what I did while the kids were at school today

Yes, another fire. We are going through our wood pretty fast!

We are going to have to buy more :)

I went online to see about getting another stocking for Geri to match ours and the company doesn't make them anymore :( So I am going to wait till after christmas and buy a similar looking one.
I also did all the outside decorations and lights. The kids were SO excited when they got home!

Typical Weekend

Nana came over for dinner Saturday, the kids were so excited!!

She and Danny made some melted chocolate pretzels. Very messy, which is why I don't do stuff like that :)

While Dan & I watched football Sunday afternoon the kids were doing this:

Danny is decorating Victoria with water. He told her that when it dried she would have rainbows on her!

Here she is showing off her sparkley face :) :)

They played together so well it was amazing!! So So Cute!

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Special school day!

Today the kids from first grade and up got to go trim a tree at a National Guard Armory.

On the big screen was the national guard division that is currently at Guatanamo Bay in Cuba. The kids were just fascinated by it.

The kids all got up and sang Christmas carols to the Guardsmen.

The kids each got to decorate the tree with a soldier

Danny putting his ornaments and name stars on the tree. For every wrapped gift we donated to the toy drive we got a star. So Danny and Victoria each had 2 stars. Danny got to put both on the tree :)

One of the little girls in Danny's class putting the angel on the top.

The tree is lit to applause!

The school director and her husband dedicating the tree.

Dan went with Danny and his class and they both had a great time. Dan was really impressed by the show that both the kids and the guardsmen put on. Once the tree was decorated the wrapped presents were put under the tree for the kids of the guardsmen. It was a really cool day :)

Finally feeling better :)

A little bribery goes a long way! That is a piece of kit kat in front of her :)

Keeping a hand on it so as soon as I tell her she is done she can eat it :)

Manning the controls, making sure ms v doesn't sneak a bite :)

It has been a family affair taking care of Ms V's respiratory infection.
We saw the pediatrician and she is very happy with how her lungs sound. We are down to twice a day treatments, then 2 days at once per day then done!

On the adoption front, we got our fingerprint letters from immigration in the mail today! The best part is that they don't make specific appts, they just say come on down during business hours. SO as soon as Ms V was up from nap we made a quick run up to the immigration office (20 minute ride) and were in and out in 20 minutes!! Absolutely amazing! Hopefully we will have our approval in a couple of weeks.
This is the last piece of paper we need for our dossier then it goes overseas!!!  Woo HOO!

Adoption Update!

We got an updated photo of our new little one!!

A family from Reece's Rainbow is there now adopting a little one from the same orphanage and was able to get us this photo on Thanksgiving!!  She has had another surgery and has a cast on her hips so was stuck in bed :(  But the family said she is such a happy smiley little girl!  Danny is amazed that she has lost her two big front teeth! He has his first one loose now.

We have all our paperwork done for our dossier except immigration approval. Pretty amazing since it has only been three weeks since we committed to Svetlana!!  I got an email from our local immigration office and they have our file and our fingerprint letters went out in the mail today!!!

As soon as we get this letter we can drive the 20 minutes to their office and get our fingerprints done.

Then all we wait for is approval. Now that I know they answer emails they are in big trouble :)

It is amazing how much easier a dossier is the 5th time around :) :)

Sick little puppy :(

We spent an hour and a half at the pediatricians office yesterday. The pediatrician thinks it is a respiratory infection. Ms V has to take a nasty antibiotic each day and had 4 breathing treatments yesterday, one while at the dr's office. You can tell by her face here that she is not feeling good. 

That was just before nap and she slept for 2 1/2 hours. After nap she was due her first dose of antibiotic, which unfortunately came right back up :( So after washing all our bedding and her clothes she finally felt better. I should have known better when the pharmacist said to have her take it on an empty stomach.

Danny was just fascinated watching her get a treatment before dinner last night.

I had to do a treatment while she was sleeping last night and it was not pretty. She did not want to have anything to do with it.

Victoria just thinks this is the coolest nebulizer!

When it comes time for a treatment we just tell her it is penguin time.

She seems to be feeling better today. When she is tired she really coughs, stuff is starting to come up and she yells "yucky"

The dr said she is good to go for school tomorrow. I know she misses it and her friends.