God Jul och Gott Nytt Ar(Merry Christmas & Happy New Year in Swedish)

Merry Christmas to all our blogging friends! May you have peace, love, laugher and God's spirit throughout the holiday and into the new year!

Love,

Kristin

Happy 5th Birthday Kwame!

Our little prince, Nana Kwame, turned 5 today! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. They have been home with us for almost two years now and we met him when he was two! I love this little guy. He has the best joy and excitement that oozes out of him. For breakfast in bed he wanted eggs and bacon and that is what he got!

Happy birthday Kwame. We love you SO much!

Mom (and Dad)

A Fun Surprise for Me

Yesterday, my friend Kristina was visiting from MN and she said she had a surprise for me. She is the VP of Hot Mama, and a buyer for 17 of their stores. Whenever she or Megan (the founder of the stores), come to visit, I am always excited to see what is new in fashion by what they are wearing.

sidenote: When I saw Megan this summer, she was wearing a very cool 'sweatshirt' that I envied. It is made by the company Prairie Underground, and after hearing what it retails for, I realized I was out of my league-ha! It was beautiful, organic cotton, made in the USA(what I didn't remember was that it was made in Seattle), and had very unique style.

So, when Kristina and I went into the city for the surprise, I thought it was maybe regarding a vendor of hers, but I couldn't think of who had factories in Seattle, except possibly Eddie Bauer(which is not Hot Mama's style and they probably aren't really local anymore). When we pulled up to the warehouse and I saw 'Prairie Underground' on the door, I was jumping up and down on the inside(because I had to act cool on the outside-ha!) It was so much fun for me to go in there and meet the two founders of the company, see their sketches, the fabrics, the patterns, hear their stories, and see how this all worked-in Seattle, mind you! It is truly made in the USA. I loved it! Then, the owner said to me, that my hoodie was the one over there that she had just steamed!! What??!! MINE??!! I was so touched. Of course it wasn't totally from the company, they sold it wholesale and this was a gift from my dear friends, Megan and Kristina (for the rest of my life I think!), and I LOVE it! I have never seen an operation like that before and as one that enjoys fashion and clothing, it was right up my alley. I even got a sneak peek at the spring line-wow! Thanks Ladies-it was so wonderful!!

ps. you can check out some of Prairie Underground's stuff above by clicking the link and if you want some Prairie Underground for yourself, I have it under good authority that Hot Mama carries it!

Brothers

I love watching the two boys interact. Justus is 11 now and Kwame is 4, but they still have a great brotherly bond, despite their age difference.

Today, as Justus was running out to go to a soccer carpool, Kwame said, "Wait, I need to give him a hug first." Justus waited for Kwame, gave him a hug, then Kwame said, "Now run, run, run (to the car), ...good job, that's my boy!"

Kwame cracks me up!

Happy Birthday Daron!

I wanted to write a blog post on Daron, but he wants me to spend time with him, so I guess his birthday present is to NOT write a post on him....as long as tomorrow he isn't mad I didn't give him much of an online birthday post.

Notice he only had one candle left signifying one girlfriend!

t.

Happy 10th Birthday Greta!

Today is Greta's birthday, so we continued on with our tradition of breakfast in bed. She chose to have Hills and Humps and the rest of us were happy she chose that too! :) We were also excited because the 'trick' candle finally worked! I bought them for Ella, but they tricked me and didn't work. Greta had fun with it-she has a great sense of humor, and that is one of the many things we love about her!

I had fun today because I found a couple pictures from Greta's 4th birthday. It is neat to remember back and also see how much she has grown up now! We are so lucky to have her in our lives. I love you Greta!

When Greta was born ten years ago, we lived in Chicago and were waiting (not so patiently) for her to come into this world. She was a week late and after being put on bed rest for many weeks because Justus was so early, I was VERY eager to meet her. The moment she was born, we were in love and she has kept us on our toes ever since!

One thing I admire about Greta, is that she has always been full of life and ready to try anything...it might have something to do with traveling to NH at less than a month for Daron to candidate for a new job and then moving there when she was 2months old. Thanks for being flexible, Greta! :) She has also been so creative and full of joy! Many kids love dolls and such, but one thing that Greta has loved since she was little, was paper! Today, she was thrilled to get a very special birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa J. -a Cuttlebug. It is a paper embosser, so she is busy making lots of cards! Keep an eye out for her creations....

We love you Greta! I hope you have a fantastic double digit year!

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.