Our Christmas at HOME!

The kids were amazing Christmas morning, they both came down the stairs (Jie a little to slow for Trayjan's taste), but to their surprise, Santa had been to our home and gone, leaving the most amazing gifts for them. Their faces at 1st sight were just to precious for words, I think it was a bit overwhelming and took a few minutes to take it all in.

Santa had left Trayjan a blue Mini 4 Wheeler, which he loves (he says it is one of his most favorite gifts). Trayjan also said the other favorite is a gift from mom and dad which is his Imaginext Mr. Freeze, which had to be orderded, since we have searched despartely in stores and had no luck......thank you to EBAY!

Jie got a new Dollhouse for Christmas filled with furniture, she has already put some polly pockets and barbies in it. She truly loves it! Her other favorite gifts include her Dora Lil Quad 4 wheeler, she thinks she is big stuff riding it through the house. Which after mommy mopped the floors this morning, it will be seeing the basement (way to many black tire marks had to be scrubbed off my wood floors).

Both the kids had such a blessed Christmas, they were very thankful for all their presents. We are so proud of them, they are amazing children, full of love for everyone and everything around them.

The kids bought mommy and daddy some wonderful presents. Daddy got a new football and a rubber Malet....which he has always wanted! He also got some fun colorful golf tees, cologne and Nike shirts. Mommy was blessed with new clothing, new movies, inclusing Mama Mia and Horton Hears a who, I also got these awesome Monkey massage slippers.

Of course the most amazing gifts are to be blessed with eachother each and every day. God truly is so very present in our lives. He loves us so much and we are so very thankful for the lives he has allowed us to have.

Grandma & Grandpa Stouts Christmas

We always loved going to my parents for Christmas and this year was even more special, as we all are so thankful to be blessed with eachother. This year, Jie is home and Trayjan finally has a sister to share the celebration of Christmas with.

The kids loved going to Grandma & Grandpa's, they got to have a wonderful meal, lots of goodies, play with their cousins which they adore, then open presents from Grandpa & Grandma. Trayjan's favorite gift was his new Huge Star Wars Lego Set. He loves Legos, and he is so great at putting them together. Jie loved her V-Tech Laptop and her new baby dolls. They both were wonderful and so very thankful. They are such great kids, I am so proud of them.

Grandma and Grandpa are such a blessing to my children. They love them dearly and the kids can feel that extreme amout of love. Jie has felt right at home with them since getting home in July. She had to tell them she loves them many times before we leave, it is precious. Although Trayjan loves them, he gives Grandma and little chase before she gets her kiss goodbye, he is so funny!

Well, this year as every year and everyday, we are so blessed to have our families. I absolutely love my 2 sisters and brother and thier families. I thank God each day that he brought us all together.....our family is so very special!

Christmas with Friends

Trayjan and Jie had the most amazing night Christmas Eve, as we spent it with Rhonda, Jeremy, Zach and Maggie. Rhonda and I have been best friends for 25 years this year and our kids have known eachother all thier lives. Trayjan is finally old enough he plays video games, so he and Zach played his new Army game most of the night and Maggie played with Jie, she pushed her in her baby doll stroller most of the night, it was adorable!

Each year for the past 4 years we have gone to the Midnight Service at our Church with the Hagerty's. This year we did the same after we had dinner and opened gifts. The kids loved thier gifts. Jie got a Princess Chair and Princess Slippers and Trayj got a new Lion Webkinz and Magnext, which he loves for building.

We bought the kids all matching pajamas. They had sock monkey's on them and the kids all wore them to church. They were so adorable!

Phifer Grandparents Christmas

We had a wonderful Sunday spending it at Grandma Susan and Grandpa Tom's house. This year was very special because Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Leach were there. It was so nice to see them at Christmas time, they usually are in Florida during Christmas. It was also very special to us because December 21, 2007 was the day we got our Pre-Approval from China to adopt Jie, one year ago, we were approved and it took 6 more months to get her home from China. This was her first Christmas home, and boy did she catch on fast to opening presents.

Trayjan and Jie both got wonderful presents, but I think they enjoyed spending time with family and playing with cousins. Trayjan got his Batman Batwings Cape and Jie loved her Magic Slippers (which she has on again today).

This year at Grandma and Grandpa's was also very hard because last year on December 22, Aunt Tanya passed away. She is missed so very much by everyone who loves her and we know she is looking down upon this amazing family and she is so proud. We are so blessed and this year was a time to remember all those blessings, and all the wonderful and amazing things God does for us each and everyday. We keep all those who are suffering, who are ill, who have lost their homes, and who are away from their families in our prayers. We pray God is watching over each and everyone today and everyday.

Mommy Turns "35"

Well, this morning was alot of fun. Trayj and Jie woke up to wishing me happy birthday. Jie was very shy about telling me, but once she got the hang of it, she wouldn't stop singing "Happy Birthday Mommy". Trayjan is so wonderful about birthday's. He can barely wait to get downstairs for everyone to open their gifts. He organized my presents according to size, which I opened the small packages first, then saved the biggest for last.

Not only did I have great gifts and wonderful birthday wishes, but the kids and Travis made me a Chocolate Birthday Cake for "Breakfast". Well, one thing for sure, there is a reason I dislike Donuts so much, I'm sure the cake had equal amounts of sugar and my body went into over load after eating a small portion of icecream and cake. Of course all the donut/sweet eaters (Travis, Trayj & Jie), were just fine with all the sugar. Don't get me wrong, I love my chocolate, just not at 9am in the morning. A Bit Much!

Cookie Fun

This weekend, we had my younger sister and her children over to bake cookies and have a playdate. The kids had a good time, playing and baking their homeade cookies (I tasted Trayjan's and they were very good). The kids filled their cookies with lots of mini m&m's, chocolate chips, and assorted sprinkles. They were all so funny, how they didn't want to get their hands dirty. Logan and Jie I think ate more candy then they put into their cookies. Issy's was the biggest, Skylers was almost a perfect circle with Candy cane punched into his, Trayjan made Candy Cane shapes, Jie's was a glob of dough and candy, which she loved to play in.

Walkway of Lights

We had a wonderful time this year at our annual tradition of visiting the Walkway of Lights. Trayjan has always loved going, all the lights are so beautiful and fun to see. There are so many moving lights, Trayjan's favorite was the Skateboarding Elf, mine has to be the Elf that gets run over by a snowball. They are all so cute, and Jie absolutely loved them, she was in ahhh the entire time.

After our trip through the park, we always visit Santa and get our yearly Walkway of Lights ornament, which we have done each year since Trayj was only 5 months. Jie reacted the same as Trayj always has and has never wanted anything to do with Santa. Jie walked in took one look at him and we ask her if she wanted to see him and she said "Noooooooooooo". We ask her a few times and each time it was the same, so we all had our picture taken with Santa, which I loved even more!

This year was even more fun, because it was Jie's 1st year. She had a wonderful time. I love that Trayjan can not remember the lights from year to year, he is so amazed by all of them and it makes it his 1st every year seeing them, plus they are great about moving them around each year, so you never really know what you'll see next. Also, what I love is that each year we get our pictures taken in front of the same light display.... Travis & Trayj in front of the castle..... and Me and Trayj in front of the Angel display. I can not wait to do a scrapbook of our Walkway trips, it is so neat to look back over the past 6 years and see all the pictures, I would be heartbroken if they ever decided not to set up the Castle and Angel Display..... I think we would have to buy them for our yard! Neighbors would love that!

We had our amazing snacks, which the kids had so many more choices this year. I think they managed to get Dip n Dots, brownies, big league chew, gatorade, and chips. I can't resist their cocoa!

Decorating the Tree

Trayjan has always loved to put all the decorations on our Christmas Tree, and Jie was able to enjoy the fun this year. It's funny, because each year, I want this beautiful tree decorated in Red and White Decorations only, and each year when I get only Red and White Decorations out to decorate, Trayjan wants to know where the rest of the decorations are.

I have told myself, that I will decorate a Tree in the livingroom with all my Red and White Decor and give the kids a tree to decorate for themselves with all the colorful decorations on it. However, each year, once all the colorful, fun, memorable decorations are put on the tree, I take a look at it, and it is the most beautiful tree, I have ever seen. It means so much to me that our tree, has pictures, Michigan Wolverine Ornaments and homeade pipe cleaner candy canes that Trayj has made in school. I love our colorful Christmas Tree and each time I look at it, it reminds of all the beautiful blessings God has given me in my life......A remarkable, intelligent, funny, loving Son.......a Unique, loving, funny, outgoing little girl.......a loving, giving, wonderful, hardworking husband.....a life filled with wonderful parents, siblings, friends, and family. How blessed we are everyday, even without this beautiful Christmas tree and presents in our family room.

p.s. Since Trayj was a baby, we have had him put the same White Star on top our Christmas tree and this year he about broke my heart when I told him when Dad gets home, they will put the star on, he looked at me and said, mom I don't really want to put the star on. He said let Jie do it. Well, that did not happen..... I told him even when he comes home from college, he's the person who puts the star on our tree. I told him, we will create something that only Jie will do every year. It is the most special thing for me to see his dad lift him up as high as the tree and put the bright beautiful star on top of our tree. I think this year, we'll buy a family ornament that only Jie can put on each year, she loved putting the ornaments on the tree and yesturday, she was moving them around a bit!

1st SNOW 2008

The kids woke this morning to a beautiful 1st real snow. We have had a couple sprinkles, but this snow was a couple inches. Of course they wanted to go out right away, but mom made them eat a good breakfast first (against their will). It was so fun to get all bundled up to go outside. I knew when I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving that I should have bought Jie snow boots. I looked at all these pretty boots, but opted to just wait, so Jie went out in Tennis shoes, the good thing is she just stomped around in the snow and stayed dry.

Trayjan and his dad built a very large snowman named Frosty, then we looked outside after coming inside and Frosty was officially "dead", as Trayjan put it. He had toppled over, so once it snows again, we'll build another Frosty, just not so large next time.

After playing and having a ball in the snow, the kids came inside for some Hot Chocolate with marshmallows and warm cookies. I think the kids ate more marshmellows then cookies, but we all had a wonderful time. Jie didn't really like the Hot Chocolate, even after it cooled she kept saying it was "Hot". I think she would just prefer her cold milk with her cookies.

The entire event was so much fun watching Trayjan enjoy the first snow this year (each year his 1st snow is like his first, I just love it). Jie was so cute watching her stomp around in the snow, she loved seeing her foot print. She wouldn't have anything to do with lying in it or throwing it like Trayj did. He enjoyed throwing snowballs at all of us and even threw some at his dad's truck!