Catching Up...

Ok, so I am a slacker!!! Thanks to my wonderful friend for reminding me that I haven't posted in...well, too long. So instead of trying to go back and catch up, here are some random pictures of what we've been up to...

Emma isn't going to school just yet...She likes Chase's backpack though

I've started trying to take her picture every week or so in this chair to see how much she is growing. Isn't that a sweet face!

One morning I Emma decided to play with Chase's gloves. She had one on her hand and was trying hard to put the other one on. I helped her out and she was ready to work. Our hard working girl!

I went into the kitchen one morning to put breakfast dishes away and I heard Emma yell "Momma, Momma!" This is what I found. She was so proud of herself.

Emma likes to play in our dirty clothes piles (yes piles) and she found Daddy's shirt and helped herself to put it on. She was walking down the hallway like a runway model.

Our church celebrated Easter week with a Maundy Thursday dinner. Emma enjoyed the soup and crackers. This is a picture of her at church.

I'm not sure if Emma celebrated Easter last year with her foster family, but we were excited to be able to have her home to celebrate this year. She loved her stuffed duck in her Easter baskets as well as the puffs.

Emma conquered the slide. She wasn't sure about it...

Bunny ears

Feeding myself for the first time. She ate an entire piece of pizza!

Growing...

At the ballpark, watching big brother play

Laughing at Chase

After she mastered the little chair, she decided to try to big one!!!

Last Post Placement Visit

Well, it's been way too long since I last blogged. We've been very busy around here! On March 19th, we had our last post placement visit, so we are waiting on paperwork to be sent in order to finalize Emma's adoption. Of course she's been our daughter since the moment we saw her referral picture. The court date is simply a technicality.

Here's a picture of Emma and our Social Worker. She has been wonderful to work with!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Emma Dance

Well our little girl loves music! Tonight she showed her dancing skills. Chase and I were listening to songs on iTune$ and when Emma heard this song, she started dancing!!! Ryan got out the Flip video and we were able to get it on tape. Check out the video here.

Happy 13 Months Emma Yeirin!!!

It's been 5 months since Emma came home and in many ways it seems like she's always been here. On Tuesday, she turned 13 months old and is certainly acting more and more like a toddler. She is such a funny little girl! Emma is saying lots of words and doesn't forget anything! So for being 13 months, here's 13 words Emma can say:

1. Chase-which can have many different tones depending on what she is trying to get across

2. Bath-don't mention it unless you're going to give her one. She loves bathtime!

3. Momma-lately she's been saying it a lot!

4. Dadda-She loves her Dadda and gives him love when he comes home

5. More

6. Bite

7. Cat

8. Bye bye

9. That-usually followed by the pointing of her finger to what she wants

10. Night night

11. Baby

12. Juice

13. Ree-"read" she has really taken interest in books and loves to read them

Emma also says "shh" as she puts her finger over her mouth. It's humorous that in the middle of the night when she wakes up crying and we tell her shh so she doesn't wake up Chase, she stops crying, puts her hand over her mouth and says shh. It usually doesn't last long...

This is the look I get when she wants my attention. She wraps her little arms around my legs and looks up at me with this face and says, Momma...too sweet!

Looking at a book

This is a sweet dress from Poppy Dip. Wonderful friends, Tara and Tiff gave this to Emma for her birthday. Tara is in the early stages of adopting, so keep her in your prayers. You can check her out here. Thanks ladies for such a sweet gift!!!

Emma's Pap impersonation. . .

Doesn't she look sooo big sitting in that chair!!!

She smiles a lot, but usually puts it away when I get the camera out!

This girl sure is musical! She loves to dance and sing. I'm glad since I don't have any musical talent at all!!!

Watching American Idol and singing along!

Future star...

Photo Friday

Poochy Lips

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is our first Valentine's Day as a family of 4. It's different to think that this is our first Valentine's Day with Emma but it's her second. On this day that celebrates love, I hope with all my heart Emma knows how much we love her. She is such a funny and precious girl. Her new thing is to take her lips and pooch them together. It's the cutest thing. I love how she calls for Chase when he leaves the room. Today he wasn't exactly being the best big brother and in her not so nice tone, she said Chase as if letting him know to knock it off! She loves "real" food and even points to what we have and says "that." When she does get what we have, she pats her belly and says "Mmm." Bagels are her new favorite snack. I think she loves being able to hold it by herself. What a sweet girl we are blessed with!

For Valentine's Day Ryan got Emma and I these shirts. I love them! What a neat conversation starter for adoption! Thank you sweetheart for the thoughtful gift, I Love You!!!

Emma's Closet

A blog mom that I follow has a sale of her daughter's clothes after she outgrows them. I thought this was an excellent idea! So I have placed some items from Emma's closet for sale. You can take a peek by clicking here. The password is closet. All items are arranged and you can find a description and price by clicking on the picture. Email me at growingourfamily@gmail.com if you would like to purchase something. Please refer to the item name (Outfit 1, etc) when purchasing. If this goes well, I'll try it again when the season changes. Happy shopping!

Emma's Dol Party

Yesterday we officially celebrated Emma's 1st Birthday with a Korean American Dol Party. She did wonderful and loved all the excitement. I have been planning and preparing for a couple of weeks, hoping to make sure everything was perfect for our sweet girl. I always want to remember her birth culture and incorporate it into our lives. Family and friends joined us for the wonderful celebration of her birthday. There are many traditions associated with a Korean child's first birthday. We tried to include them as well as add some of our own. Here's some pictures of Emma's special day.

The Dol table is generally filled with fruit and stacked with items. This symbolizes prosperity for the child. We stacked fruit, gumballs, gumdrops, and cookies. It was a lot of fun decorating the gumdrop tree. Although I don't know how they get some of the items to stay in Korea. We used hot glue which meant the gumdrop tree wasn't for eating...

The backdrop was a quilt we got for Emma. I have made a tradition to get her a quilt on her birthday and other special occasions. I think quilts are a neat keepsake and she can use them later!

This is made from a styrofoam cone and 7 bags of gumdrop slices... and lots of hot glue!!!

A special thanks to SevenCupcakes for the cupcake toppers. They were adorable!!!

The cake was placed on Emma's great-grandmother's cake stand. I thought it would be neat to include something from each grand-grandmother.

The punch bowl also belonged to one of Emma's great-grandmothers as well as the utensil holders.

Instead of party favors, we decided to have a candy bar with treat bags for the kiddos to enjoy.

This is the Doljabee table. The items in the tray are presented to the birthday child and it is said that whatever she picks will signify what she will be in life.

Some were traditional Korean items...
Thread- long life
Wooden spoon- good cook
Money - wealthy
Book- scholar/excels in academics

And then we added a few of our own:
Microphone-Musician

Bible- ministry
Softball- athletic
Stethoscope- Doctor/Nurse
Apple- Teacher
Lineman tool- Linegirl (this was an item picked out by Uncle Zak)

She choose the microphone during the Doljabee. It doesn't surprise me as she loves music. She dances to music, sings at church, and stops anytime she hears music. That's my girl. The next item she chose was the stethoscope, so it seems she might be a musical doctor! Maybe she will sing for her patients... The softball was the third item, which makes Daddy and big brother proud!

In the Korean culture, it is customary to give our towels as party favors. We made these and gave them to the Doljabee raffle winner. The rest were given to those who answered questions about Korea correctly.

Another component of a Dol is to have a blessing/prayer for the child. We had guests write a blessing or prayer on the photo frame and will put a picture of Emma in her hanbok in the frame and hang it in her room. I thought this was a neat keepsake for her special day.

There is always a picture of the child and the Dol table. Emma was interested in playing with the cake since it was so close!

This head covering is worn at the Dol. She kept it on for a few minutes. Usually they are too big, but Emma is big for her age, so it fit pretty well.

The Dol table

She loved the balloons!

Doesn't she look beautiful!

Mommy and Emma

Our wonderful family. We are so thankful for Emma. She is a blessing to us and we know God has big plans for her!

Her birthday outfit. Running around in her tutu.

We gave her a set of training chopsticks from Korea for her birthday. She liked them...and used them as drumsticks...musical, I think so!

This is Giggles, an asian message doll. I picked this up at a local boutique. She is asian and has a opening on the base to place a note. We wrote Emma a note and she can look at it when she gets older.

Her own cake to destroy...

She didn't know about it at first...but with time she managed to smush it and get it everywhere. It was so sweet, she even shared with Daddy, Chase, and Nana.

This is a day that our family will always remember. I want to thank all those who came and share this special day with Emma. An extra thank you to those who came and helped decorate, made punch, stacked cookies, blew up balloons, donated gumballs, cut up fruit, and helped clean up after. Thanks so much, we love you all!