Her new favorite shirt!

She received her "cool bike shirt", as she calls it, from her Aunt Cindy who lives in England. She immediately tore off her Thomas the Tank shirt (former favorite) and replaced it with this "cool" one. She is now completely "cool" with her new bike, helmet, knee and elbow pads, gloves and shirt.

What can you do.............

with a couple of boards, a hammer and some nails? Make a bird feeder! Her Lai Lai gave her a tool kit for Christmas and today was the day to check it out. Daddy found her the wood and the nails, she did the rest. I'm still not sure how the 'bird feeding' part is going to work, but she assures me that when she is finished, the birds are going to love it. LOL I believe her!

The new ride!

Good Night Christmas

Yes folks, the clock on the wall reads 5:15...............as in A.M. Christmas morning! AND, exactly what was Santa thinking by putting a whistle in her stocking?!?!?!? I'll be putting a note in his suggestion box for next year.

But since the entire house was awake now (6 cats, 2 dogs and the 3 of us) let the festivities begin! And so they did. By 7:30 she was out riding her new bike up and down the road and "calling" us from her new walkie-talkie to see what we were doing. LOL. After all those gifts from aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, us and Santa, I couldn't imagine another thing she could "need" for at least the next two years, but after riding the new bike and trying to learn to walk on stilts, it became obvious that there really is something else she 'needs'..............elbow and knee pads! We'll be shopping for those this week. LOL. She got an endless assortment of Spiderman gifts as well as #48 Jimmie Johnson gifts. So when all was said and done (and done it finally is) Christmas at our house was "OH WOW, COOL, and pretty darn AWESOME!" Hoping yours was too!

Only thing I could ask for now is she sleeps until at least 9:00 tomorrow morning!

Good Night Christmas! Good Night All! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas!!!

CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS!

Christmas with Friends

What a happy day we had yesterday. Friends from Texas were in town for a few days at the Mouse House. We met up with them yesterday and a good time was had by all. Our girls spent the day..........well.............being girls. Lots of silliness, funny faces, and giggling.

Mailia and Sara have been friends for most of their lives, having lived at the same orphanage in China. They were also adopted on the same day a year ago and our families found each other while still in China. It is simply amazing to me that through the power of the internet, combined with (I'm certain) divine intervention, I have pictures of these girls while still at the orphanage, I have pictures of them together when we met in China, and I have pictures of them together from at least 3 occasions when we've all been re-united here in the States. Sara's sister Ruth is also adopted (from the Marshall Islands) so our trio of beauties are united by a common thread and love being together.

Although Mailia might not agree with me, especially since this IS Christmas Eve and all, someday she will probably understand and agree that this friendship, as well as the friendships we maintain with several other of her orphanage friends, has got to be the best Christmas present of all.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours! And a blessed New Year for us all!

Let it Snow!

What a difference a few latitude and longitude degrees can make. We took Mailia to play in real snow at our local Christmas in the Park. It was 85 degrees that day, and the line of kids waiting to make a snowball stretched across the park. For obvious reasons they had to limit the kids to 2 minutes each. It was melting FAST! But she loved all 2 of her minutes. LOL

Fast forward to this morning.........My sister sent me the above pictures, taken in her yard yesterday, in Michigan! It is truly a Winter Wonderland. Mailia will be doing some serious whining when she sees these. She wants to build a snowman soooooooooo badly.

And although we've told her otherwise, she is still hoping to have snow for Christmas, in Florida. I don't see that happening, but hey, there is magic in Christmas! LOL

Pretty as a Picture

Our "vision in Red". Although she would much rather be in a t-shirt and shorts, even she thought she looked pretty nice in a dress. I whole-heartedly agree!

Fun with Lai Lai

Mailia's Lai Lai (my mom) has been visiting with us for the past week. This of course means lots of shopping, lots of spoiling her rotten, and lots of fun. We've been out in the boat fishing, we went to the ICE sculpture display in Orlando, and last night we went out to Celebration to play in the "snow". Florida snow, that is, which translates to soap. She had a total blast anyway.