Abby turned 1 on New Year’s Eve! I cannot believe it has been a year already. It has been a great year watching her grow. I love that her and the boys are so close in age, it makes for some wild but fun times!
Auntie Michelle’s carrot cake cupcakes were a big hit. Here are some pics from the party.
The yummy cupcakes
The birthday girl having fun
Checking out Abby's new wheels
Enjoying her cupcake
I am not a super creative person, but I do have dreams of making super cute crafts for/with the kids. So when I saw this pattern on etsy I knew I just had to make it for Abby. Michelle loves sushi and I thought it was a perfect gift for mom and daughter to play with together. I, of course, procrastinated until the last minute to do it, luckily I had my cute husband to do all the cutting (and even some of the sewing).
Here is the finished product:
It’s not perfect, but I am still happy with it and actually had fun doing it. (we also still need to do the tea cup and the sauce plate.) It has also inspired me to make more felt food for my guys.
check them all out. the boys were great models and made some awesome photos for us.
http://photos.mattandstephaniesblog.com/~mattands/photos/ezra-and-noah/first-birthday/
Just for fun, here are the photos of the boys at referral (February 10, 2009), and yesterday.
Noah:
Ezra:
The boys and their first cake
More coming soon, but here are a few pics to tease you.
I received two messages today regarding the boys. 
One from our agency informing us that Ezra has a follow-up appointment with the surgeon on Saturday and that they hope to get us more information after the appointment. The second one from a traveling family. Misty and Dan just got back from Ethiopia with their little guy and sent me this message. (I am only a little sad that I didn’t know the boys were going to be moved to the HOH in time for their visit so no photos.)
Hey Stephanie,
We got to see your babies. Soooo beautiful! I’m sure that it has been hard on you to be so far away knowing that Ezra was going through so much. I just wanted to let you know that they are both in great hands. All of the nannies and Almaz and Tsegay love the children SOOOO much. They were both up in the middle of the night several times and back and forth to the hospital taking care of him. They assured us that he is doing just fine now. I am so excited for you guys to get to go meet them and bring them home. But until you do, know that they are sooo soooo loved at House of Hope.
Hope the time passes quickly for you!
Misty
It was so nice to get a message from another parent. It really made my day.
Today is also my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday mom! Hope you have a wonderful day. Just think this time next year you get to chase three toddlers around for your birthday.
Happy Birthday Michelle!!!
Adoption Update: There were four referrals this week all for infant girls. Congrats to the happy families. This week marks 8.5 months or 37 weeks of waiting. I am currently living with the thought that we could get the call any day now. I go to bed thinking, “Will it be tomorrow?” Then I wake up thinking, “Is today the day?” Fortunately for me it is NOT constantly running through my head all day long and I don’t spend hours just staring at my phone hoping Sharon calls. (Sharon you are welcome to call anytime day or night!) I know deep down it could be any day or it could be a few months. Anyway it is enough to drive a person insane, but I think I am handling it quite well.
Exercise Update: I have not been all that great at getting out and exercising. To be honest I wasn’t feeling all that great and finally went to the doctor. We figured out what was up and I should be back at it next week.
Random Stuff:
The weather was unusually warm this week, but things should be back to normal for Thanksgiving, by normal I mean the 70s.
The garden is starting to look good, we should have leafy greens here in a couple of weeks. I am hoping to start an indoor herb garden this weekend.
I had a wonderful day yesterday with my hubby. He took most of the day off just to spoil me. This is a big change for him, in the past he was not so good at taking time off for himself or anyone else. It made me feel really special to have him to myself yesterday. :) He started the day by making me breakfast and doing the dishes which also included unloading the dishwasher. Then we went mountain biking, lucky for me he is pretty patient, it had been a while since I had been on the mountain, things were a little slow, and a little whiney at one point, but I did end up having fun. Then in the afternoon I got to take a hot bath, get a back massage, and take a little nap. He even did some house projects for me yesterday. We hung an antique cabinet in the kitchen, moved the table, and rearranged a few things. We capped off the day with pizza and going over our sample ballots to figure out how we were voting today. It was a very nice, relaxing birthday. Thanks to my wonderful, amazing husband! (He actually spoiled me all weekend long.)
My family celebrated with me on Saturday night with good food, games, ridiculously impossible candles (thanks mom), and lots of presents. I now have a nice apple corer and peeler for all those apple recipes and a pressure canner which I cannot wait to use. Thanks guys!
Thanks to everyone’s birthday wishes this weekend. I loved reading comments and getting emails.
BTW if you haven’t already done so, quit reading blogs and go VOTE.
So tomorrow is Stephanie’s Birthday! I’m posting early, because I think she will be expecting it then. Being early I can still have some element of surprise shock value that I posted it.
Some photos from Saturdays family celebration.
Stephanie’s tiara
Good Mexican lasagna made my Stephanie’s mom.
And the birthday girl blowing out some super sparkling candles
My little brother turns 28 today!
Hope you have a wonderful day!
Happy Birthday Honey! I am so glad I have you in my life and look forward to celebrating many more years with you!
On Thursday my little brother and I took my dad to a baseball game to celebrate Father’s Day/his Birthday. We had a lot of fun and thankfully not a lot of sun as the roof was closed and the a/c was on. We also enjoyed way more calories than a human should consume. Oh and it was camp day, so we were joined by a few thousand kids. None of us had ever heard the ballpark that noisy. Overall it was a great day and wonderful way to celebrate with just the three of us. Here are some pictures from the game.
We even convinced dad to scalp some extra tickets we had, we asked the cop sitting there on his bike what was legal first. Good thing too, apparently you need a permit, but don’t worry there was a scalper with a permit able to do it for us.
Me and Jason
Me and dad
Our View
This last one is what the temperature gauge in the car said when we were stuck on top of the parking garage for about 15 minutes. It was hot!
Hope you have a wonderful day!
Happy Birthday Mom, I hope you have a wonderful, fun-filled day.
I hope Tom and Jerry get to celebrate with you next year, but this year you are stuck with just us.