Halloween

Today was a busy day but a fun one. This afternoon I helped out with the Halloween party in Camden's class. The kids got dressed up in costumes and decorated cookies, made a skeleton finger pen (I think that's what it was?) and had some treats. The kids really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it as well although it made me a little sad that Halloween gets SO much attention and other more worthwhile things like Christmas will end up being a "Holiday" celebration. Ahh...the state of our public schools.

Here's the class in costume. Camden choose to be Batman this year. Thankfully I choose correctly after Halloween last year when I bought the costume for 75% off (yep, scored points with the other half...for once! :) at Target. But one of my favorite costume's that day was Princess Leia. Can you see her in the back right? Love it! I am sure you can't miss the scary "Scream" costume in the middle there. I certainly don't like that. I don't really understand why parents would let their 5 year old wear such a thing. How is that a good thing?

Batman decorating his cookies.

After school, we were Ghosted by a neighborhood friend. Camden was so excited that he wanted to do it as well. Since it was the afternoon of Halloween we were a bit under the gun, so we quickly prepared our Ghosts with candy and choose a few friends in the neighborhood to Ghost. Normally I think you are supposed to do this in the cover of darkness. But it was still great fun leaving it on the doorstop of friends, ringing the doorbell and sprinting to a car with the engine running and the doors open. I was surprised how fun Camden thought it was. He was cackling so hard and he just loved diving into the car. I think will need to make this an annual tradition.

Not long after that, we headed to the Tongs, who are friends in the neighborhood. We celebrated their daughter's first birthday which was a few days ago. They decorated their house so cute and had such fun things for the kids. It was such a treat! We then headed out to trick or treat as a group. Nothing like a big pack of kids trick or treating together. It was great fun! It was also our first time in our neighborhood for Halloween. The last two years we headed to a friends house for dinner and trick or treating in their neighborhood which had always been fun. But it was enjoyable to experience our neighborhood for once. Their weren't a lot of kids but it was still fun.

Scary Batman

Sweet Batman

55 Years Ago Today

My parents were married on this day 55 years ago.

I know...Halloween...funny huh? They were actually supposed to get married two weeks prior. But my Dad, who was in the Navy at the time was delayed. Unfortunately, everything was already planned... invitations printed etc. so they had to redo everything. But it all worked out in the end! God blessed them tremendously!

Red & Blue Scrimmage

Today we made our annual trek to the UofA to watch the Wildcat basketball team play in the Red & Blue scrimmage. Each year the team holds a scrimmage for the fans. Usually it is the first time the public gets a look at this years team. Doug and I have always enjoyed it. In fact we haven't missed a year since we returned to Tucson one week before the scrimmage in 1998. Truth be told this is the only guaranteed Wildcat basketball game we get to each year. Sometimes friends bless us with extra tickets but not always so its so nice that they have this so us local Joe Shmoe's can see a game. Here's a few pictures from our evening:

Camden & Wilbur:

Here we are back in 2001 getting ready to head to the game. This was Camden's first game. He was a mere 5 weeks old:

First Soccer Game

Camden is once again playing soccer with the U6 Fort Lowell Soccer Club. He is also once again a Tiger and has one of his Coaches from last year, Coach David and has a few of the kiddos from last year on his team as well. We are thrilled that Coach David is his coach again as he is great with the kids...so positive and fun! His friend, Coach Tahnee has joined him and she is also terrific with the kids and brings a lot of coaching experience as she has coached the Salpointe girls soccer team.Today was their first game and they are off to a great start. Camden has improved a ton over last year and sometimes really goes after it which makes his Daddy and I happy. He even scored two goals which is pretty amazing because last year I think he scored just one goal all season and it was a bit of a fluke. But its not about scoring. He is having fun, working hard (mostly) and learning a little more about soccer and being on a team. He is also playing with his good buddy, Connor which is a great thing.

Here's a few pics from the day:

Day In Phoenix

My sister and brother-in-law, Stephanie & Paul, were up in the Phoenix area this past weekend to celebrate their grandson, Alex's 1st birthday. Although, we have had a flurry of activities going on we decided that it had been way too long since we had seen some of my siblings. So Doug took the day off and we took Cam out of school and headed to Phoenix for the day. We met my brother, Jason and two of his girls, Malory and Kasey at lunch and then we headed to the state fair. We had a great time riding some rides, playing in the kid zone and checking out all the animals. Oh and sweltering in the heat as well.

The gang taking a junk food break.

Camden enjoying the slide.

Camden feeding some of the animals at the petting zoo.

Zebra's are so cool!

Camden & Malory at the petting zoo.

The Dad's enjoying the Kid's Zone at the fair. Side note - my brother always has this face. He is having a great time! :)

Kasey enjoying her cotton candy.

Following the fair, we met the rest of my family at our favorite Mexican food restaurant, Don Jose's. We have been going to Don Jose's for as long as I can remember. My brother was even a bus boy for awhile which would have made me around the age of 5. The restaurant may be in an old pancake house but the food is excellent and cheap! If your in the Phoenix area check it out!

Following dinner we headed over to John & Marcia's, my brother and sister-in-law's house for desert and a little hangout time. It was wonderful to spend a little time with everyone. It had been way to long.

Here are a few pictures from the evening:

My sister, Stephanie and my brother, John.

My brother-in-law, Paul and brother, Jeff.

The cousins having a grand old time!

Uncle John up to his same old tricks...tickling Camden until he pees his pants.

Just gotta love family!

Rocky Point

Our local China Adoption buddies, Matt & Jenn Bouton invited us to join them down in Rocky Point for a long weekend. They do an annual trip with some neighbors and friends. I think the group totalled around 50 adults and kids. Camden of course was in heaven as there were tons of other kids to play with. But he especially loved playing with the Bouton kids. He just adores them. As do I. What great kids! It was also a great opportunity for us adults to bond a bit as well. Jenn and I yak over lunch quite often about "the wait" etc. but the men had only met each other once previously. We actually hope to be in China at the same time to adopt our little girls and it is a possibility as they are logged in just three days before us. But we will see what God has planned.

It was so great to be back in Rocky Point. It has been three years since we there and boy has it changed. I could not believe it...there is now Burger King, Subway and even Circle K's. The shopping deals weren't quite as good as previously. But I still managed to buy a few things. :) The beach as usual was wonderful. It was flat and not at all rocky so it was great for the kiddos. In addition, it was the first time we had been there and weren't sweltering in the heat. It was such a treat! The water was a bit chilly but once you got in you got used to it. The only downside to the trip was the sand storm that caked us and the car (inside and out) with sand as we were packing up to head home and the back-up at the border. We waited more than four hours to cross which made the trip home more that eight hours (normally it takes 4 -4 1/2 hours to get home). It was still well worth it though! :)

Here are a few snapshots from our trip:

Our little surfer boy.

Nothing like looking for hermit crabs with Dad.

Zander & Noah Bouton & Camden

Camden trying out the new boogie board on the wave less ocean.

I think someone needs to feed this boy!

The Boutons - what a handsome family!

Camden & Dad enjoying the wait to cross the border.

Thank you so much for inviting us Matt & Jenn! We had such a great time!

A Total Racket!

One fine afternoon last week Camden & I headed to our friendly neighborhood Build-A-Bear store. Camden had received a gift card for his birthday. So that along with a small gift card from last Christmas we had a total of $35.00 to spend. Having not been there before I assumed that would allow us to get something "descent". Well, lets just say I was VERY VERY WRONG! $35.00 doesn't go very far there. It gets you a bear but that's about it. For some of you that would be plenty but being who I am...when I saw the little Suns outfit, socks, shoes, basketball and sunglasses. Yes - sunglasses! I couldn't resist the boy (He loves basketball). Although all along I could hear the other boy in my life in the back of my mind saying "This is a total racket!" Of course I knew he was right. They get you in the door and then you can't resist all the accessories. But we had so much fun making the bear well actually it was a Cheetah that Camden named Speedy. In my defence, since returning home, Speedy has enjoyed equal billing in Cam's bed along with Teddy, whom he has loved since birth. So I am happy that he hasn't become just one of one of the other three thousand stuffed animals we have and it all cost just a bit more than $35.00. :)

Here's the newest addition to our family:

Camden with his two favorite fellas. You can't tell in the picture but Teddy has a new little t-shirt that says Arizona Wildcats. I bet you can't guess where I got that from. :)

Two Wheels

Today was a big milestone for Camden. We removed his training wheels from his bike. We knew he could have done it long ago but we just hadn't got around to taking them off and forcing him into it. :) We had been talking it up for quite awhile but it wasn't until a few weeks ago when he was on a Fathers & Son's camping trip that he saw kiddo's younger than him riding without training wheels. Not wanting to be out done by someone younger he suddenly became interested in taking his training wheels off. So on the advice of a friend we took them off and headed to the closest grassy area (or mildly grassy as this is Tucson) we could find which was Fruchthendler, Camden's school. Doug gave him a good push to start and told him to just keep pedaling. We were amazed, he took off and rode across the soccer field...no problems. Although later there were a few tears and throw downs of the bike as we had him try to navigate some more complicated areas. He did great. We are proud of you sweet Camquat!

Favorite Foto Friday

Doug & I love taking (or attempting to take) photos of flowers and animals (among other things) especially when we travel. They are such an amazing part of God's handiwork! I found these flowers just outside the Smithsonian museum in DC. We were there with friends this past April. These flowers were so beautiful! I just couldn't resist. Can you see all the different colors in them?

The Latest

Here's the latest from the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) which is the organization that handles all adoptions in China:

At the beginning of each month we wonder and anticipate "How far will they match this month?" And once again we are extremely disappointed! Back when we were first praying about whether or not to adopt from China (2.5 almost 3 years ago) the wait time was 5-6 months after a dossier had been logged in. At that time they were also matching a whole month worth of LID's (Log In Dates) at a time. Ever since then they have not matched a whole month at a time and in fact have matched as little as 2 days of dossiers for a whole month. What does this mean for us? Well, it means that every single month the CCAA gets further behind and our wait grows. Our dossier was logged in 3/13/06 which means we have been waiting almost 19 months. This month they matched dossiers that were logged in 11/26/05 through 11/30/05 which was a mere 5 days. If you do the math we only have 102 days of LID's between 11/30/05 and our log in. But if the CCAA continues to match only 5 days a month our wait could grow way past the incomprehensible. However each month we hear of possible speed up rumors. November '05 took 5 months to get through. But we knew there were a lot of people logged in that month. Supposedly Dec '05, Jan & Feb '06 are smaller so the hope is that the CCAA will go back to referring at least two weeks at a time. I think next month's referrals will be a tell tale sign for us if our referral will happen by May of next year or closer to the end of the year. Here's to praying for God's perfect timing for our family!

Treasures

Camden has been getting into such a neat stage. He loves to draw things for us and give us little notes. The other day all by himself he wrote, "I love my Mom." Although the letters were all there the words weren't quite in a easy to read order. But hey its the thought that counts right? And last week he drew a little flower in a pot and gave it me and said. "Carry it in your wallet so you always now that I love you." What can you say to that? This boy sure knows how to melt his Mother's heart! Here is another example of his latest artwork:

Favorite Foto Friday

Often when I tell Cam that I want to take a picture his first response is to make a funny face. But usually I can get get a nice smile once he gets the funny one out of his system. These pictures are from our trip to San Diego in May.

Friendship

I am continually in awe with all the good friends God has put in our midst. With not having family in town I know this is God's way of blessing us. We are so thankful Lord!

This past weekend was Camden's good friend, Connor's birthday. They met last year in preschool and have been best friends ever since. Unfortunately they are now at different schools so they don't get to see each other as much as they would like. But we have managed to rope Connor (and family) into many activities so they do still get to see each other a bit. :) Camden and Connor played summer basketball together, they both go to Awana's on Wednesday night and will soon start playing soccer together next week. When they get together I love to eaves drop on their conversations as they are too cute. A few weeks ago I heard them say how much they missed each other, wish they could go to the same school and be brothers. With the other one piping in "Twin brothers!". Anyway, we enjoyed celebrating with him at Funtastics. Here's a few pics from the day:

Here are a few pics from summer basketball: