New Bed!

We traded Luci's double bed for this twin-sized bed that was in our basement.  It is part of a set of bunk beds.  JT has the other bed in his room.  Luci never did stay in her room by herself.  She only would stay in the double bed with me on the floor--believe me, the floor was much more comfortable than that bed, especially when shared with a girl who sleeps like a monkey/starfish!

That double bed also took up precious floor space.  The kids have their own rooms (a necessity of survival for the boys once they hit ages 10 and 14) and of course, Luci had to be in a room without a boy in it...so, each has their own room.  Luci's room is the smallest of the three, and there was barely enough space to turn around in there with the bigger bed.  Now she can turn around.  Ha ha.  And there is more room for Mommy to camp out on the floor.   Ha ha ha.

Luci's thrilled with her new bedding...I do hope that she will want to sleep in the bed and actually use the pink stuff!  Of course I wanted to take a picture, so she climbed in and pretended to sleep, even though I requested she open her eyes and smile.  

As I was leaving her in her room this afternoon, I started singing a silly song and Luci laughed, thinking I was so clever.  I told John, "Luci still thinks I'm cool!  As soon as she stops thinking that, we have to get another kid."

John just rolled his eyes.

Blizzard in Time-Lapse: 40 seconds long

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.

From Mike Black Photography

Now, for Today~~

We finally got some snow...enough to make things beautiful and to make some snow angels on the deck.

and an itty-bitty snowman

my favorite photo today

Christmas 2010, part 4

JT woke up at 3 a.m., and woke up Bryan because Bryan's tv was still on. Then by 4 a.m., Luci was waking me up.  Growl.  So I sat with her in the living room (Santa covered up the stockings and his surprises, just because this might happen--mommy sitting with Luci in the middle of the night).  By 5:45 I gave up and woke John up...Luci never did fall back to sleep, neither did Bryan or JT, so I thought John should share my Joy.  oh, Joy.

Here John is presiding over Christmas morning...notice it is still DARK outside.  Later we found out that everyone else in N Alabama got lots of snow but we only got about 3 flakes.  oh Joy again.

JT loves his new keyboard for his Rock Band video game. I love his HAIR.

Luci was very happy with her egg slicer.  Really!  She loves hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, and two egg-slicers have bit the dust this past year.

Loving the make-up that Santa left in her stocking.

And, the yearly present of a Princess dress...this is Rapunzel, complete with long hair.

Loving my new Kindle e-reader...and the book light that goes with it.  Bryan said I was doing it wrong...I don't think so, son, it works!

Bryan got a new tv and a video game...no pictures of him, he's off somewhere playing....

Christmas 2010, part 3

Christmas fun with Heath, Shanna and the girls

First things first...dress up, then do presents!

playing Kinect

Christmas 2010, part 2

Christmas with John's folks....

Everyone loves to be seen with Luci.  This is Frank, John's stepbrother.

Grandpa Olen

JT--he sees enough of Luci, so here he is by himself.

Grand-Je (Jeannie) and John

Grandpa again

Grand-Je and Suzi the dog

Cindy, Frank's wife

Cindy's mom

John's brother David and wife Faye

Jeannie gave Luci a really neat gift--an Amaryllis!  Here they are planting it.

Grandpa's funny chair...it looks so comfy but it slides you right out onto the floor.

Even Bryan had a hard time with the chair.




Maybe all of Grandpa's chairs are like that....

Jeannie really knows how to put on a good spread.  It was all delicious!





I put Bryan in charge of picture-taking...and ended up with about 50 photos similar to this one.  Maybe I need a new photographer?  Thank goodness it's a digital camera and he's not wasting real film.  (On a side note, look at how straight his teeth are getting!  Braces should come off in the Spring.)

Christmas 2010

Our church's Christmas party was last Sunday. 

John and JT



Luci before going on stage

Luci, Heather and Rachel

Waving to her adoring fans

Luci with Rachel W.

So happy it's over!  Luci was very nervous on stage.

Visions of Sugarplums....

JT slept on the floor in Luci's room on Christmas Eve.  Usually I am with her, in her room or on the floor in the living room.   (Can you say, "Sleep Issues?") 

Luci is sleeping horizontally on the bed--her head is in the middle somewhere and her feet are hanging out over JT.  It was so funny to see that I had to take a photo.

Yes, Luci has too many stuffed animals, and no, Santa is not bringing any more animal friends this year!

Merry Christmas Song from Third Day

This song has a hanky alert.



Luci and I have been watching her China videos over and over again for months now. The "China Videos" are videos of her meeting us in China and several days of that journey. We've seen them so many times that we have every movement memorized. Luci loves to have "Mommy pretend you are me and say what I'm thinking!"

So I do--mostly things like, "I love that kid (JT) with the orange hair and no teeth! He has as many teeth as I do!" (JT was missing his two front teeth on that trip.)

and

"Why does that man with the toothbrush on his lip (mustache) keep kissing me? He's nice, but wow, he tickles!"

I noticed things from these videos that I was too busy or too enamored of this little girl to notice while it was going on 5-and-a-half years ago, when Luci was 9 1/2 months old. Like, Luci's eyebrows all knitted up during our first meeting. How those eyebrows relaxed over the next two days.

How we were supposed to go in alphabetical order (we are "W" so we would be last) but the Willinghams just pressed on and got to the babies first (sorry, Lanes and Beardens! I can mean my apology now, but I sure didn't mind being first that day.).

How upset one of the other girls was at the hand-over, and how the third girl didn't look at her parents (at least not on the video that we have) during that first meeting.

How Luci looked me in the eyes as we talked to her in the lobby of the hotel that first few minutes. How she looked at each of us, in the eyes and how she continued to do that as the days went on. Even when I fed Luci her first bottle, she looked at me, eye-to-eye. Very unusual for these babies, according to the International Adoption Clinic.

How calm Luci seemed in our first meeting, but those eyebrows--she knew something was going on. How she was so silent in the lobby but once we got her up to the room, she babbled. (Oh how I love hearing that baby voice!)

How she really did not cry there in China, and how even-tempered she was (she still is, but she will let us know when she's upset!).

How lovely she was (still is), and her happy nature shows through.

How excited the boys were to see her, and how they jockeyed for attention with her. (Bryan had all sorts of comments on the video--he was our designated camera man; and JT showed off some gymnastics tricks that he'd practiced for his new little sister.)

How selfish I was in not wanting anyone else to hold her--the boys and John just had to wait. :)

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Here are some photos from the first dvd. These have never been shown on the blog before. I can't get the videos to transfer to my computer; once I get Bryan to figure it out, I'll post one or two.