Happy Halloween!

Happy 8th Birthday EllaBellaGrace!

Happy 8th Birthday Ella! I love you, your smile, your laughter, and your love of life. You are so special to us!

A month or so ago, Ella found this double bagel and said she wanted it for her birthday. So we froze it-haha- and TA-DA!!, she got it for her breakfast in bed this morning. She was thrilled!

After school we gave her a scavenger hunt to find her present-it was a PINK GUITAR! She wants to be a rock star and loves singing and dancing, so we figured, let's do it!

As I speak, she is writing out a song to sing on her new guitar! ;) I love it.

Happy birthday EllaBellaGrace! We LOVE you!

Happy 6th Birthday Fia!!

Can you believe that Fia is already 6? When we got our referral of her, she was only three. I can't believe how fast this has gone already! She is an amazing girl with a serious amount of drive and perseverance. I can't wait to see all that she does with her life. I am so proud of her already and love to see her smile and especially LOVE to hear her laugh! Fia has the best laugh if you haven't heard it before. It's actually got a bit of a snort to it(like her mother)!

Today we woke her up with breakfast in bed. She chose to have Swedish pancakes and loved the attention. The kids then gave her their gifts they bought with their own money and it was so sweet-she loved every minute! Tonight we are having her favorite dinner which is what I made their first full night with us for dinner-just a mixture of rice, chicken, salsa, black beans, and corn. Then they can eat it with a homemade tortilla, cheese, and sour cream! Nothing light, but all I wanted at the beginning was to get some calories in them with many food groups....it worked if you hadn't noticed.

Tomorrow we are having a little birthday party for her with a couple kids from her class and then on Sunday we are having a going away party for some of her friends from Ghana that are moving from WA to Georgia, so it will be party weekend. We can't wait to see a handful of families that have also adopted from our same orphanage in Ghana and reunite the kids. I think we will have people from as far away as California(that happen to be in town), Spokane, and Portland, as well as the Seattle area. We can't wait! If any other 'Ghana Families' happen to be in the area from 2-4pm on Sunday and want to join us, you are MORE than welcome (whether or not you are from AAI).

My dear Fia, I hope you have a wonderful weekend and knows just how much we love YOU. I am so thankful for you and wish you the best birthday! Love you, our little Mefia!

I LOVE My Hair

So, if you know me and my kids, you have probably heard me talk about my children's hair. I really want each and every one of them to know that they are perfect just the way they are (except maybe for an occasional tantrum like I had today with one while walking to school).

Anyway, Sesame street just came out with a video celebrating loving your hair from a little girl's perspective with hair just like Fia's. And thankfully, so far with Fia, she LOVES her hair, so she just LOVED this video and can't stop singing it(which at some point soon, I may go a wee bit crazy). She enjoys all the things we can do naturally with her hair and so do my big girls. In fact, they ask me to do theirs like Fia's, but I have to respond that they also have beautiful hair that does other things and it won't curl like Fia's no matter how hard we try! Awww mom!!

Here is a post I wrote last March from the adoption blog I did for the Hot Mama stores (the blogs have since been replaced with twitter feeds, so I have not really kept up on that one much right now or this blog either for that matter ). I am very passionate about my kids and their self-confidence/esteem is a big thing. So...you can imagine how thrilled I was when a friend sent me a link to the video the other day. Very cool. ABC news also did a piece on this video and gave some background to it. The man behind it has adopted a daughter from Ethiopia and he is the head writer at Sesame Street. Check out the segment here.

September

Back to school this fall has been great. The kids all love their teachers and are having a great time getting back into the swing of things; seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Life is good....except a wee bit busy(to be honest).

(pictures of their 1st day of school)

(pictures of Kwame's 1st day of preschool)

Besides school, the girls are taking Norwegian dancing and all five are playing soccer- I am even coaching Fia and Kwame. Stop laughing! I guess if I ever had any question before, I am truly a soccer mom now, whether I like it or not(which I do,so it's all good). It is so much fun to watch them play and have fun with their friends.

In the middle of the month, I got a chance to get away with some ladies from church to a Women's Retreat at Cascades Camp. We had such a great time and I am so thankful for these ladies!

One last highlight was when my cousin, Kari, and her family came to visit for a few days. We had fun getting the kids together, hanging out, going for a hike, and showing them around our neck of the woods. The kids all had a blast and there is nothing better than being surrounded by family who know and love you.

Ghana

Click here to view this photo book larger

Our Adoption Agency

I know I have a link on the side of my blog, but in case you were curious and haven't noticed it before, the adoption agency we went with to bring Fia and Kwame home is Adoption Advocates International. You can find them at www.adoptionadvocates.org and they are commonly referred to as AAI. Right now, they are starting up three new programs, called pilot programs, from countries they haven't worked with before. If you are interested in adoption, this might be of interest to you. Check out their blog post (here) about all their new programs.

The Shoot

sidenote: for those that need history as to why Toyota sent a crew to our house, it is mostly because of making it out alive from our accident back in February(click here). I also wrote something little about it on the 'adoptionmama' blog I do for the stores Hot Mama-( see here). Then, the kids wrote thank you notes to them and the President of Toyota responded to Greta's(click here and here) ...and that should bring you up to speed.

Today was super fun but exhausting. The crew showed up at 8am and they were ready to roll-literally! I think there were at least 4-5 cars that came, including the truck below, so it looked pretty exciting on our street. Everyone was so friendly and the kids had a great time with their new 'friends.' The girls especially had fun getting their hair and make-up done! If you see them, I am sure they will love to tell you all about it. Justus and Daron weren't too excited about this part, but they obliged and looked great. Actually, Justus was lucky enough to get away without make up and I am sure he will tell you that too.



After the hair and make-up, they took turns interviewing most of us about ourselves and the accident. The kids did a great job, even though it could have been hard to relive everything, and they seemed to focus on the positive so it was neat to see. Greta, of course, was in her element, so it was no surprise there that she had the longest interview of the kids.


Justus had fun checking out all the cameras and the gear. They had fun learning about everything and really just enjoyed the experience.

Ella and Fia also did a great job and they had fun looking at the footage after the fact and seeing themselves on camera.

Throughout the day, they also got footage of us doing everyday stuff in the kitchen, at the table, playing outside and then going for a walk downtown. At lunch, we took a break and they treated the whole crew and our family to take-out from a favorite restaurant in town-that was a nice bonus.

They ended up calling it a wrap around dinner and heading out. The footage will most likely just be used at some in-house gatherings for the company, but they plan to send us the footage and the final project. We really had a great time and what was most important was that we got to thank the company that made a car that really did help to save our lives. And for that, we are grateful!

3..2..1...Toyota is in the House!

So, you thought I was being mean by not telling you more about who was coming to our house, but honestly, I didn't really know much about what it was about until today, as I got minimal details from my husband. So, most of you guessed it either here or from the link on my facebook page, but yes, Toyota sent a group here to do a small video for one of their company meetings. A group of four came to our home today to scout out where to do the shoot and meet us. They probably needed to make sure that we weren't crazy or something and we must have fooled them because they are still coming back in the morning with the rest of the crew. The group that came today was really cool, ya know, from New York cool. Very laid back and I think we will have a lot of fun tomorrow. I will have to let you know how it goes. I guess they just want us to act normal (easier said than done) and they are going to film around us. They asked what kind of food they could buy us to have us BBQ when they are here. Between you and me, I am in the dog house for this. I just said hamburgers or something.....oops, I guess my family thinks I should have said salmon-that is our favorite to grill, but I just didn't want to push it. I felt bad already saying bacon, blue cheese burgers. The rest of the day I think they are just going to interview us about our accident and our experience with Toyota. Then, I think they are using it for a segment later in the year when some of the car dealerships get together at some convention or something. They obviously have needed some better press now and we are definitely big fans of them, so I guess our family fit the bill-we are excited to do this for them, as we really are thankful that they built such a good car that helped save our lives. We did have to break it to them that we didn't buy a Toyota and they were bummed about that. Of course, if money grew on trees, I would get another Sienna or Sequoia possibly; Daron would even love a Tundra, but it is what it is, and for now Big Red is working well for Daron and the Suburban fits us well(I just miss the difference of filling up our van vs. the burb)!

Gotta Get My Swagger Back!

Guess who's coming to visit the Jag family next week??!! Hmmm...what should I wear? Do I need an agent? Maybe I will finally be discovered as a mom of 5 and rounding my 30's. Haha! Just kidding...I mean really, I don't want the fame anymore. Got enough paparazzi in our town already! Have you seen how many pictures Grandma takes?? ;) Stay tuned. We are having some visitors on Wed/Thursday that I will have to write about.


P.S. Should I get my haircut first? Color? I want to look cute and all. Nevermind the rest of the family, they look cute already (this is one of the most recent pics of me with some of my bestows on our girls trip last month).

P.P.S-If you need a hint, check out the label below...