Ivy Timeline

Our home study has been approved
Our I-800A has been mailed along with a letter from our cardiologist stressing urgency in hopes of moving us along quicker than normal
Now we wait
We have an Ivy update coming in a few weeks when a precious blog friend will be traveling to Hangzhou to get her beautiful Myah. She is taking a little care package to Ivy for us!! I can not wait to see how she is doing!
Then a little later in October there will be another group traveling to Ivy's orphanage, this time a group of doctors and nurses. They too will be checking on our girl for us. Not sure about pictures on that trip but I will get some needed details on her health to give to our cardiologist.

               Now for some Lexi Sweetness!

Lexi's necklace

I have had several comments and emails about Lexi's necklace. I purchased it at Dazzle Boutique in Chandler. It was one of the things I put in her easter eggs for her egg hunt this year. She loves it!! Probably for 2 reasons, 1~it's blue, and 2~it has the piggy tails she is trying so hard to grow herself!! Anyway, Amy if you would like me to see if they still have them I would be happy to check and bring with me the next time we see eachother. And anyone else, let me know and I'd be happy to mail it. I think it was about 10.00

Mama I Do My Self!

                  She is really enjoying her new found Independence!

And I love watching her find it!

 She told me this week that I could not go to school too because I am too big.

 We got the backpack from Etsy! So cute, perfect for Pre-School

 After school my low key kiddo is exhausted so she needs to make herself a glass of what she calls Choc Milk

 Everything must be done by herself these days!

 And she is so proud when she does things like this herself.

 She is very careful not to make a mess!

 Too bad my pantry door was open.... nice background??

 Taste Test

 Mmmm

Perfect!!!

Thankful

Oh so thankful!!

 

Below has nothing to do with the pictures of my sweeties above. I just needed to post it so I'm putting it here :)

While my little buddies Ruby and Sienna were here Ruby and I had the most precious conversation. I wanted to post it here right away because I knew everyone would get a kick out of it. Then I had second thoughts, thinking I would share it with Di first. And here we are 1 month later and not only has it not been posted, but I never had a chance to share it with Diana!! So here it is, the sweetest conversation with a 5 year old girl, once an orphan and now a hero!

Ruby~Miss Mary, I made you go get Lexi.

Me~ I'm sorry Ruby, you made me get Lexi? From where? I don't understand?

Ruby~ You see I was born in a very special way. When God made me, he made other mom's want to go to China to get babies just like me.

Me~ Well you are awful cute and very sweet, I bet you did make lots of moms want to go to China for a baby like you Ruby.

Ruby~ Yes I did! And Sienna made moms want to go get sisters!

Me~ Oh Ruby that's so great that people can see you and Sienna together and know that lots of sisters are waiting for families in China!

Ruby~ Yes

Me~ And Emme? What about Emme?

Ruby~ Oh God didn't do anything with her, we just wanted a baby sister!!

Out of the mouths of babes people!! She already knows she has a purpose! Created in His image wonderfully, beautifully made! PRECIOUS! Missing my Little R friends tonight. Thanks for the card Di, it made me cry.

The actress

This little girl can bring it when asked

                                            I told her to make a bossy face

                                                        A cry baby face

                                                           A whiny face

And a precious face

And she did!

Big girl bed update

                                                 Jumping for Joy!

           Growing up right before my eyes, but forever my baby!

Well, Lexi has officially transitioned in to a normal sleeping schedule again!!! Yay! She is staying in her bed, going to sleep all on her own and when she wakes up in the morning she just shows up! Walks up stairs and if any of the bigs are up she scolds them to get back to bed! It is sooo darn cute!! We did find a rail that barely peeks over her mattress and it is just enough to keep her from falling out. Thank you for all the sweet emails with helpful hints on that one! It has been a great week! Lexi even had her first dentist appointment and was a STAR patient!! Not a fuss from her! Life is GOOD!

Big girl stuff

My baby girl is doing all sorts of big girl stuff these days. She is sleeping in a twin size bed now (because she was climbing out of her crib!) And she is going to school (at our church) on Thursdays for 2 hours! She loves loves loves her teacher who happens to be my dear friend. She was a little hesitant the first day but stayed and did well with no tears :) And now, 3 weeks later, she and her teacher are the Best of friends and she lights up at the sight of her!! It is so precious to see their relationship blossom and to see my girl 100% fully trusting someone other than her immediate family. I will be sure to get some photos of her next week before or after school. So far I have had to wake her every morning and getting out the door on time with a little food in her tummy has been tough enough without adding a photo shoot!! But when you are so busy climbing out of your crib after being put to bed 5 times, well... the girl needs to sleep in!
So on to the big girl bed. We planned on keeping Lexi in her crib, well for as long as she fit in it!! Seriously. She is such a great sleeper. She naps 3 hours every day and she sleeps 11-12 hours each night. But for some reason, about 2 weeks ago she decided to climb out of her crib one night and it was history from there. So we debated on what to do. She has a lifetime crib so it does turn in to a toddler bed, a day bed and a full size bed. On the other hand we will still need a crib for Ivy. So we decided to get her a twin size bed. We got way too big of a mattress (double pillow top) so now the bed rail is shorter than the mattress and she falls out of bed. She was afraid of staying in it by herself but she will not go in the crib and well all I can say is she is lucky that she is so darn cute and lucky that she has the sweetest voice and the cutest way of saying mommy pwease and daddy pwease because I am soooo tired!!!! Last night she went down pretty quick but she cried out for me 5 times in the middle of the night!! I almost gave in and stayed with her but I know better and I did not. Lexi is pretty black and white so if you tell her something is supposed to be one way she does not usually try and bend the rules. Tonight she went down in no time at all and I have not heard from her yet. I am pretty sure I won't until she falls off the bed.... probably any time now. Tomorrow Bryan and I are heading to home depot to get some things to make the bed rail taller and hopefully I will start getting to sleep through the night too. Lexi sleeps like a ninja so putting her in a twin bed was probably not the best idea. We should have made her crib a full size bed so she would have room to thrash about. She really is just all over the place all night! But she really wants Ivy in her room (she is so excited for Ivy!!) and we didn't feel there would be enough space for the full bed and the crib and her tea table and chairs and dresser and you get the picture. So it is what it is right now. If things are not working out once Ivy is home, we do still have another bedroom open to move one of the girls in to but for now I am thrilled that I could keep that open for grandma!!!

She is obsessed with her nails. They always have to be painted, new colors regularly. Loves Loves Loves going to the salon to get them done. She can paint her own fingernails with her right hand and does a darn good job. She insists that she NEEDS her toes done by the nice nail lady because she can do a flower and mommy can't. (I'm pretty sure I could!)

                                                    Holding her brothers chameleon, Phil.

She remains the bravest child when it comes to the non human type ha!

And in answer to the emails as to where we are on the road to Ivy,

Our home study is being written and should be completed this week. We are still waiting for Ca clearance and Az clearance. We have our I800 filled out and ready to go but our agency is telling us not to send it until they have the home study in hand and it has been approved :(

We have high hopes of breaking records on our race to bring Ivy home but we will see what God says and we will follow Him. He has held Ivy in the palm of his hand this long and He will continue to do so until we get there!

Cute things:

Tonight Rylee and Lexi were having some special sister time and they they decided to make dirt cups, you know pudding and cool whip with crushed oreos and gummy worms? (Lexi is all about the kitchen!)

So we all sat down at the kitchen table to try her master piece and one chair was empty. Cassidy had gone to a sleep over last minute tonight. So I said to Lexi, Lexi look at the empty chair... Who's missing? And she quickly replied, "Ivy"! We all just melted in our seats. She is so excited for her sister! She talks about them having matching clothes and teaching Ivy to swim and telling Ivy not to climb out of her crib. She tells me the second seat in the Costco shopping cart is for Ivy and that Ivy is going to go to the hospital but she will sing her rock a bye baby on the twee top!

I know that sharing her mommy is going to be tough and I am certainly not expecting the transition to be perfect, but I am thrilled that she is expressing great joy and anticipation for her newest sister! I have all ready started saying "the girls this, and the girls that" as I had done forever with my big girls. I can not wait to see these two Little's grow up together. God is so good! 

The Learning Tower

Let me tell you how much we LOVE this product!!!!!
We mentioned that we had our eye on it for a while but had not made the plunge to actually get it. Well, with a little hunny who loves to help in the kitchen, loves to do all things standing up and loves to hang out with the bigs around the kitchen island.... we really NEEDED this :)
Put in action from the second it arrived!

Making Rainbow Cake!

Made from scratch 100% by herself!! And no shells

in the batter! Impressive!

   So the final say is, if you were wondering if this was worth the money, Yes! And I wish I had purchased it 6 months ago. Also, it has an adjustable base so it grows with your child. Right now we have it on the tallest level for Lexi. As she grows or if she is using a table that is lower, we can bring the base down for her. Wonderful Wonderful product, go get one!!!