Saturday, December 26, 2009

SNOW!

It's been a LONG time since we had this much snow to deal with! WOW! It started snowing Christmas Eve and I don't think it's completely done yet! The news says that Eppley got 10.9" and other Omaha areas got up to 14"! Tony spent all day from 4 a.m. digging out his customers and then us. A neighbor even had to get him dug out of our driveway when he got off the driveway a bit too far.

We went to Christmas Eve service at 7 pm and there were several people there, though not as many as usual. Meighan liked the music and was mesmerized by the candles we were holding at the end. We got home and had our new tradition of chili after 9:15 pm. My sinuses were so stuffed up that I couldn't smell or taste it but the warmth felt good! Meighan is much better health-wise.

Tony went out plowing at 2 a.m. Christmas morning and got home at 8:15 just after I got up. We got ready and got Meighan up and had some breakfast. After that, Meighan opened her gifts from Santa (table and chairs and a book) and us (a laptop and a book). We then went to Tony's parents' house for the day. We had to take the plow truck in order to make sure we made it! That left us very little transporting room. We even had to leave one thing there until we could get it home safely. Tony took a long nap and was up to see the news before going to bed again.

He got up at 4 a.m. this morning and didn't get home until early this afternoon. I fixed an egg casserole and had some about 1:30 pm while a neighbor was "un-stucking" Tony's plow truck. He did some more cleanup and came in and ate some casserole. He got a snow blower out of the 2-car garage that he's never used since he's been up here and got it working and did a little cleanup with that. There's just SO MUCH snow right now that we aren't going to be able to use the door from the kitchen to go down in front of the house for a LONG time. He scooped a path on the deck from the door to the east so we can turn on the Christmas lights and eventually he will get a path to the tool truck but not sure when that will be!

He's sleeping at the moment but we'll go out for groceries later this evening before heading to bed. My sinuses are better today -- at least I'm not coughing as much -- and it would be nice to smell and taste things again!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and is content to be "stuck" a little while longer if you're in the Midwest (unlike SOME people who email a pic of themselves on the beach on Christmas day!).

Enjoy the pictures.




Meighan with her cookies and milk for Santa.


Meighan already working at home in her pjs.


Our deck this morning -- snow up to the top of the railing.


Where's the steps?


There's supposed to be a sidewalk in there somewhere!

That's a LOT of snow!




Tony snowblowing!


The "path" out our kitchen door that goes nowhere!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Mmmmmm, Mama and M&Ms

We finally have a new sound! Meighan is saying "Mmmmmm" while she's eating food. She's also started saying the sounds for "mama" and "mom"! That's probably the best Christmas present I could receive! We've been wanting that sound/word for quite some time. The orphanage told us she could say "mama" and "baba" but we haven't heard it until recently.

Also last night she wanted some candy out of her Santa sack and I had tried earlier giving her an m&m but she didn't take it. So, I ate one last night and she put one in her mouth and it came back out. We tried again and she ate it...and wanted more!

Actually, eating ANYTHING right now makes us happy as she's been sick and not wanting to eat much. She's drinking milk and water really well, though.

On top of that, she gave me a cold, too! I hope Tony stays well because he's going to have some plowing to do later this week.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, MEIGHAN!

Today Meighan is 2 years old! We had a party Sunday afternoon with our families and then today she opened the gifts we had for her. Tonight we went and had studio pictures taken. She did fine and we got a good pose.





Friday, December 11, 2009

It's DONE! It's Official in Everyone's Eyes!

We had our readoption hearing today at the courthouse. We met the attorney right before 9:00 a.m. and by about 9:20 or so we were done! The judge was very nice and even let us take "formal" pictures while he signed the paper official-izing it all. My parents and brother and Tony's mom were there to see it all, too. Enjoy the pictures!

On another note, our friends who are bringing a daughter home from China have now landed in Portland, OR, and we can't wait to see pictures of their homecoming!

We've got a VERY busy weekend planned (assuming the weather cooperates! - there's a chance of freezing mist tomorrow afternoon) so we're trying to get ready for that and do our regular things as well!








Saturday, December 5, 2009

Meighan's First Visit with Santa

We attended the Nebraska Children's Home's Adoptive Families Christmas party tonight. A potluck filled us all up and then Santa came to talk to the kids. Meighan actually sat on his lap! She was actually quite fascinated with him and wanted to be right in front of him (and in all the other families' pictures!) the whole time. Finally she got to sit on his lap and gave him a couple of hugs and he gave her a bag of candy. We've been showing her pictures of Santa for a while and we even saw him and Mrs. Claus at the Holiday Lights on Thanksgiving night and she gave him a high five. Tonight she gave him several high fives. We are so glad she didn't cry. Enjoy the pictures!