CHRISTMAS with NOAH

Sorry for the delay in getting all this up but we have been some sick folks round here. Celeste, Noah and I spent the day after Christmas in a clinic and ER waiting from 1pm till 11:30pm. We have bronchial flu here and I am wheezing. I am still feeling really yucky so if this does not make since that is why.

Here is Noah Christmas Eve Day :) This shot was just so adorable to me I had to share :)

Here is Noah opening his Christmas Eve Gift. The reindeer jamas! :)

Here is Celeste (aka Jei Jei's) reaction to her Christmas Eve Gift!!!

Here is Noah and I while I read the night before Christmas off Nannie's stocking. Daddy is at work at the troop so he is on the phone! :) Jei Jei is the photographer. He listened so intently :) He really likes to be read too and I love it! :)

Here is Noah's Elmo Stocking all ready for him while he is sleeping away :) I took some shots right before I went to bed :)

Here is the living room with gifts, Santa for Noah and Celeste and their stockings! The grown up stockings are not in this shot. Ours were on chairs and couch.

Here is Jei Jei stocking and Santa! The biggest santa item is in the bag with the tree! :) Daddy wanted it to be intensified by having to unwrap it :)

Here is Noah's Santa! :) I so wanted this Christmas to be amazing for him to in some way make up for last year. Of course I pray the biggest thing for him is having a family that adores him. I SO PRAY he knows and believes how much we love him and how hard I am trying to be a good mommy to him.

This is the first shot of Noah as I am carrying him out of the bedroom Christmas Morning! :) See the reindeer on the feet of the jammas?? :) He was quite overwhelmed and unsure what to do at first!

Here he is when he finally let me put him down. See the hand? He has spotted Elmo and is reaching for him :) so cute :)

Here he is givin one of the elmo's a hug! :)

Here he is with the airplane :) I so wanted him to have this little toddler plane set since he traveled home on an airplane this year :) He loves it :)

Here he is with one of the biggest hits. It is a little play table! HE LOVES this thing! :) I mean he kept going back to it when we would try to show him other things :) so cute :)

And Chef Noah loves his kitchen! :) Spends almost as much time playing with this as that little activity table :)

Daddy and Noah! :) Daddy's first Christmas with a son!

Jei Jei checking out her Santa :) She loves the animals that you press a foot and they sing :) and she LOVES penguins :)

Noah really wanted these things to be HIS!!! :) heehee

Here is Jei Jei as Noah looks on :) She is opening her biggest gift from Santa :) A router so we have wireless and she can use her laptop at the house :) Now if we can just figure out how to hook it up and also convert the big pc to work with it! EEEK!

Now on to the stockings! :)

Noah finally gets to see what is in Elmo :)

First bite of Reeces Christmas Tree :)

Ok, as I said we are all sick. This was just too cute not to snap, but also GROSS !!! Chocolaty snotty Noah! and I cleaned all of it off right after the picture :)

Jei Jei gets into her stocking :)

Noah thinks Daddy needs help with his stocking :)

here he is lookin at and listening to his play elephant play music :)

opening the first wrapped gift of the morning :)

Wait, is there more?? :) heehee checkin that bag good :)

Going in after it! :) heehee

We wore him out with all the santa and gift giving and I was trying to get the dressing in the oven before I rocked him for a nap after his lunch. Well, as you can see mamma did not move fast enough!

Here we sit around the Christmas Supper table! I so wish I knew how to use timer so Jei Jei was in the shot too :)

That beautiful face :)

Noah is scared of his zebra and will not ride on it but Celeste puppy gizmo will :) heehee

My babies on their first Christmas as siblings! :) to bad they are both so sick :(

but not too sick to play on and off :) isnt he adorable :)

another snotty face but so beautiful :)

I know I look dreadful but I ADORE this shot of us playing :)

mamma trying so hard to get him to play on the zebra I just knew he would love! :) and he loves it just not to ride :) He wants off immediatly when I tried to put him on it Christmas Night after things had settled down some

Here he is trying to sit on it like a chair.

again with the zebra :) loves to make the music play but wont ride him :)

and finally I got a shot of him climbing where he was safe enough to leave for a minute :) LORD HELP ME now that he wants to climb!

KIDS! I have KIDS! Very Emotional

Merry Christmas everyone! WOW! I can't believe Christmas is here and my baby boy is sleeping beside me in his crib as I type this! I JUST put out Christmas for TWO KIDS!!! Ok granted Kid 1 is 20 but when pictures can go up you will see that she is still MY KID! One might wonder about a couple things if they were for Noah or not :) heehee I LOVE MY SWEET GIRL and it is so strange to me to think she is 20 so I just love the youth still in her :) and oh let me tell you about my boy! :) I love that little thing so much! :) I can't even express how important it is to me to make tomorow the most wonderful for Noah! It made me rather emotional as I was filling stockings for 2 kids and 2 moms and a hubby :) heehee but that Noah is here. That God would bless me with a Son! :) As we celebrate HIS Son's birth tomorow (oops TODAY) I now have a son! It is a WHOLE NEW WORLD! heehee I had no clue :) I am so into trucks and trains and planes and Elmo :) I adore looking for things for Noah! Noah is so into cooking too :) I can't wait till he can help me bake cookies :) I guess this post is basically unneccesary but I just am feeling so thankful and emotional in a good way and I just thought I would write about it. I just can't imagine what my baby is gonna do in the morning :) Sometimes I just sit and look at him and I thank God that HE trusted me with this prescious soul and I PRAY that I do a worthy job of raising him. It is hard in all the hype of Christmas but I so want to remember that even at 20 months old I can begin making an impression on Noah that it is all about JESUS! I talked to him about tomorow we are gonna sing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus and he clapped! heehee Maybe he remembers his belated birthday party :)

Well, I will close, I Pray you all are having an amazing Christmas and for those of you waiting till next year to have your angel home know that it is so worth the wait and that there are those of us who waited last year and know what you are going through. IF I had known last Christmas as I cried because Noah was not home with us how LONG it would take to get to our Sept Gotcha day I would have probably freaked! Good thing God don't tell me much and not too soon! :) heehee Anyways, prayers going up for all yall :)

WE send you Merry Christmas Hugs and blessings and Kisses in the wind!

Christmas Eve Gift!

In our family back from the time my Great Grandmother was a girl they had a tradition if you will of trying to be the FIRST one to say Christmas Eve Gift!!! :) If you said it to someone first they were to give you a gift! heehee well they never really did that but we do have a Christmas Eve Gift Traditon. We have a tradition in our family that began when my brother and I were little. On Christmas Eve (usually after supper) we would get to open ONE gift! It was ALWAYS a gift of Mama's choosing and ALWAYS involved pajamas! :) Well, I continued that with Celeste for the past 20 Christmas Eve's and have been so looking forward to Noah's first Christmas and doing old traditions with him and hopefully adding some new ones. With this in mind, Months ago I bought Noah the CUTEST sleeper with reindeer heads as feet for his Christmas Eve Gift and for him to wear on Christmas Morning during all the wake up festivities! I have been so excited. WELL, it came up MISSING! I was QUITE upset and I have torn the house and car up looking for it, Bobby has as well, and Celeste and my mom got into the game. Well, we could not find it :( SOOO, YESTERDAY of all days, YES December 23rd, I have to go and TRY and find a pair of Christmas Pajamas in a town that I have a hard time finding things I like to begin with! Well, I went everywhere even to expensive stores at the mall, and NOBODY had ANY christmas pj's not even ones I didnt like. I had one last place to visit. Old Navy. I had been to the one in one town and they had not had anything but since I also had some funds left on a gift card I won,(thank you so much Shannon!!!) I decided to try the one in a close by town that I had not been too yet. Well, I walk in and see a manequin baby with the PERFECT pajamas on it! I thought, ok this is why! They had blue bottoms with santa all over them and the top was light blue with santa and said "SANTA'S BEST GIFT!" That is just too perfect! I mean I know that Noah was a gift from Jesus but Santa is the spirit of giving and so to us that represents the love of giving we should have in Christ! and YES Noah is the best gift I got!!!!!! Anyway, I immediately look at the size on the manequin and it is 3 to 6 months, well that wont do. So then I search the store, find the place these type of jammas were and literally look through EVERY box they had! Some were Christmas and some not so they had ALOT. I wish you could imagine me ON THE FLOOR in the Old Navy digging through boxes! Sadly the only other one I ever found was a GIRLS one! PINK as anything! UGGGGH :( I cried! So I go searching and I found a cute little outfit that is like a long sleeve long leg onsie. it has the fold over shoulders and all so I decided that would have to do. I mean it is cute and I was SOO thankful to find it but when I wanted that other so badly it was kinda a let down. Anyway it turned out to be $2.71 counting tax!!! Can you believe it?? Wow. Then I went to walmart and since this outfit did not have feet we tried to find Elmo Slippers for about the millionth time this year and no 4's in site nor a 5 which we would have used in a pinch :( uggh but we found on little loan pair of baby slippers with Santa heads!!! :) heehee So so cute! So we got those to go with the outfit. So last night after Noah went to bed and Bobby was at work I pulled all the stuff out of my closet to get it organized in bags whose gifts were whose, what still needed wrapping, what is being left out from Santa, what is stocking, etc. Well, as I was doing this I moved a larger item literally out of the closet and knocked it over in process and GUESS WHAT was STUCK to the bottom of the bag that thing was in???? THE BAG WITH THE REINDEER SLEEPER! UGGGH I mean YES I am thrilled but we literally spent ALL day driving around looking for jammas so it was something to then find it! heehee So now the one from Old Navy he is wearing today as a playsuit with slippers and all on! I LOVE these slippers. the tops are kinda small but the inside if big enough for his feet, so you have to kind of push through to get his foot in and then they are actually a bit big. the point you ask??? HE CAN"T PULL THEM OFF!!!!!! I love it! :) Anyway I know what you really want to hear..... PICTURES!!!


Here is Noah in the outfit from Old Nay and the santa slippers :)




Here is Noah playin with Brownie :) so cute :) gizmo is down there too he is the blackish smudgy thing! heehee

Here is my Christmas Gift! :) Jei Jei was wrapping and decided to put a bow on Noah's head. He ran around with it up there for the longest time :) We decided to get a shot of it :)


And for those fans of Table boy shots here ya go! :) Fall here brings leaves in EVERY time someone comes in and Noah just loves to play with them till they crumble in my floor! Luckily he does not try to eat them!

Last Saturday the Big Sisemore Family Gift Exchange gathering was at our home. My friends from out of town happend to be coming to see us the same day as that was what worked for them :) PRAISE God they were here! Was a wonderful time with them and they had brought gifts for Noah so he had some things to open :) They totally blessed our family not only with Christmas Presents for Noah, hand me down clothes for Noah, and her hubby the CHEF cooked us homemade Chicken Enchiladas to DIE for (wish I had a picture of those! :) heehee) and homemade salsa and chips and pinto beans :) YUMMO MEAL :) It was a SHORT but wonderful visit! My camera messed up so the picture of Celeste and Joy's children did not come out. Also we forgot to make a new picture of Joy and I :( we will have to get together again soon and remedy that! Here is Noah opening one of their gifts! The little suit was made by my sister in law's mom and Noah is the 4th Sisemore boy to wear it! :) He will wear it to Church tonight as well! :)

Can you see it in his face? he is so INTO opening presents! :)

At that gift exchange the adults had drawn names and everyone was suppose to get gifts for the kids. My brother in law Ronnie had me as his name drawn and he gave me a card with $10 in it! Well, an old family friend of ours sends me a card each year and usually with money and this year he sent me $20 and it arrived on Monday so I decided to take the money and yesterday I went to the little beauty shop round the corner here in town and got my hair done! Now let me tell you this was HUGE for me! My hair was LONG , about the small of my back long in back! Bobby loves long hair on me, I love long hair but with Noah at this stage and so in love with putting his hands in my hair and tying it in knotts it was recommended I cut the hair for now. I had been feeling kinda drab anyway, which is not unusual for me but usually my hair is the ONLY thing I like about me and lately I have not liked that, though looking upon some pics this morning from last month it wasn't too bad. :( anyway, I went to the beauty shop and she shampoo, cut and styled it.


Here is a before picture of the front. We did not think to take one of the back! DUMB! Noah is so cute with his books! He is so into board books :)


Here is little man sitting in a chair like a big boy! :) By the way , we ended up at the doctors with him Monday and he is 24 pounds and 12 ounces now! :) He was too uncooperative to get a height this time but he seems taller to me.

Here is the cutting process. The back has been cut! Apparently when my hair is shorter though it draws up so it is really even shorter now when dry! If you can see that is quite a jump from the small of my back.

Ok, this next one is just after she got done. She styled poofier and a bit different that I care for but here it is! Bobby says he likes it, I am not so sure. on and off. IT FEELS BETTER so that is the main thing! And later in the day when it calmed down a bit it was cuter and I like it more. So what do you think?????

I think it makes me look EVEN Fatter if that is possible. I need a large roll brush to do the bangs cuz if they are not dried with one they are too long and in my eyes so it is interesting now! Celeste is begging me to get hair dye and color my hair. IF i can save $55 I can get it highlighted like I had it for my birthday gift! So fess up guys, what do you think???

Sunday Afternoon after my mother in law was out of surgery and doing welll and our neice was with her, Bobby's brother wanted to do our private gift exchange anyway for the sake of the kids. It had been planned for earlier in the day but surgery was going on at that point. So we went over to their home and had some sweet time! Noah's first time in their home and he just seemed to know that it was ok there! :) Now he has spent time with them all in our home multiple times but still a whole new place and he was great!

Here he is opening his gift from Uncle Wesley, Aunt Michelle, Melissa, Logan, Gavin, and Nathan!

Here he is right at home pulling toys off their toy shelves! :) heehee



Here he is playing with his cousin Gavin! :)

Earlier today we opened gifts from Samuel the little boy I keep some. He is not here today because they did not want to risk him being sick for Christmas so we had to open without him here.

This is Noah waitin on Jei Jei to hand him the present right after I had him dressed. You can see the outfit and slippers pretty good here!

Here is Noah ripping into the wrapping paper! :)

do not ask me WHY he shoved that thing on my head but he did! Celeste thought too funny and got a shot! :)

I will try to post tonight with pics of opening Christmas Eve Gift and wearing reindeer Jammas while waiting for him to be good enough down to go be Mrs. Claus!

And remember I got ya! CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT!! :)

We send you blessings and Kisses in the wind!

The Difference a Year Makes with Santa and Noah! :)

We took Noah to the mall to see Santa yesterday! Daddy was working at his second job security at that mall and so we went when daddy was on Santa's end of the mall! It is amazing the difference a year makes in Santa pics for NOah and for Santa!!!! heeheee I was actually VERY upset that santa did NOT have his coat on! I DON'T care how hot it was YOU ARE SANTA you are suppose to have a coat on. I mean come on if Santa can wear a coat in TAIWAN he should in LA! Nothing ever seems to just happen as planned in our family. We go and take him and they take the picture and we pay to have it put on a cd so we can put it on computer and print pics we want and such and get home and the cd is BLANK! UGGGH :( So now I am crying because how do we redo his FIRST time sitting on Santa's lap in America :( I am like they ruined it and it can't be fixed :( Well, called daddy at work and said go tell them what happened. Well, they still had the picture on their computer there! YIPEEE but it would not load to a cd! uggh It took till late this afternoon before they got it to finally load. I HAVE NO CLUE WHY, but anyway we have it now! Here is last year's and this years Santa Pics!

12/13/07 Tainan, Taiwan ~Noah ( 6 days shy of 8 months old) and Santa

12/19/2008 Louisiana ~Noah (20 months old to the day) Jei Jei (aka Celeste~20) and Santa

Noah was NOT happy at all to be close to Santa but was intrigued from a distance! I figured he was going to cry so I was like just get the picture QUICK! heehee Then he was scooped back up in Mama's arms and stopped screaming IMMEDIATELY! So weird how he can shut it off so quick! Gotta love it! :)

I am getting SOOO excited about Noah's 2nd Christmas (his first at home!!!!!! ) I have been VERY busy bartering with a friend and Noah is going to have a HUGE blowout Christmas!!!!!!!!!! Have to be big enough to make up for TWO YEARS!!! :)

We are going to drive around and look at Christmas Lights tonight! :) I am so excited! :) I know Noah may not be old enough to enjoy the lights necessarily but he likes riding in car and listening to radio so he will enjoy too! :)

Also, Noah has a new skill now that he is 20 months old! One that Mommy is PETRIFIED OF! He climbed up on the loveseat for the first time and then on my recliner! EEEK! I have not gotten pics of our new climbing skill as it scares the begeebes out of mommy that he will hurt as he teeters on the edge so I rush and get him down or yell at the closest person too! perhaps soon I can get a picture when I feel more comfortable with what he is doing!

Tomorow our children's Church has a cantata and Bobby and are the Children's Pastors so we need to direct and such and Noah does not do well going to others and not being able to come to me. PRAY that he will stay with Jei Jei without a problem! or I may be having to figure posters and such with him in my lap and him trying to rip them the whole time the kids are trying to see the words! heehee

Merry Saturday before Christmas!

WE send you blessings and Kisses in the Wind!!

"Always Together" but now far apart physically but NOT in heart

When Noah was at St. Lucy's Center in Taiwan he had many roomies that he played with and I know he loved :) He STILL to this day over 3 months since leaving St. Lucy's will stroke their pictures on the computer so inside I know he remembers! I wonder what else he remembers and often wonder does he miss it there. Our agency told us about a sweet and beautiful baby girl shortly after we found out about Noah that was looking for a family and asked our help in spreading the word about her. We FELL IN LOVE with her. We were later told she and Noah were best buds! They were " Always Together" we were told. We began praying for a family for this baby girl and even discussed that we would go back for her if she was still available. After all if they were "Always Together" maybe they were meant to be brother and sister. Well, God had other plans and brought this angel her own FOREVER FAMILY! In the process He brought me a FOREVER FRIEND in Holli the mother of that angel! Breelyn Chia-Ling still waits in Taiwan just a bit longer for Holli to come and pick her up and bring her home! Noah and Breelyn have been separated since September so they are no longer "Always Together" which saddens both us Mama's. We have made a commitment to each other to keep the kids in touch by visits, calls, Christmas and Birthday gifts, etc. They may not be together physically right now but they are in heart, in their's and ours. Well, even though Breelyn has not arrived home yet Holli decided to begin already and we received a Christmas Present for Noah from Breelyn and her family! :) What a joy to our hearts this is!! :) They really spoiled Noah! Below are some photos and even a video to share of the unwrapping and such that followed. YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU HOLLI because I am putting up this video because I wanted you to see Noah enjoying your gift though I look like an idiot in it and my house looks like a tornado hit it! Kinda did LOL Noah and Samuel and my family! It is better now so PLEASE dont look at the house or me just at Noah and such :)

Here are Noah and Breelyn back in April when they were still Together!

Here we go with unwrapping the gifties and all :)

Noah was quite interested in these Santa cookies :) He did not want to let go at first to keep opening! :) heeehee

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this outfit! I will put a better picture up of it when he wears it after Christmas! We are wearing Christmas clothes EVERY DAY because it is such a short time I can put him in them! :)

He was so into this! Look at that face :) He is concentrating :)

I kinda LOST it here! I had been looking for a few specific things for Noah for his first Christmas. A train was one of them! I cried with this one. I was already somewhat crying but I really did just loose it with joy! I wanted him to have a train and a plane since he rode in BOTH this year to come home :) and also a toddler age horse because he fell in love with horses at Uncle Ricky's. I have yet to find the horse. I dont think it exists :( not one for his age.

I had to show my other son in mischeif! heehee We are working on some Christmas things and had some yarn on the table and a bit was hanging! Well apparenty this pup is part cat! He somehow jumped up and grabbed the string and pulled the roll down and is having fun. I come up and find him and fuss Brownie NO and he just looks at me! I grabbed the camera and got this shot. Notice he STILL has the yarn in his paws! LOLOLOL

This Christmas and ponderings

I have been thinking so much lately about all I missed in Noah's little 16 months of life before I was able to pick him up and also of all HE missed not being in a family. I have been so strange and reflective and somewhat sad as of late. It is harder than I ever imagined to not know things. Was Noah a fussy little baby? did he have colic? has he always thrown these horrific fits where he throws himself down and bangs his head on anything and anywhere. He does it stitting or standing. Did he do this at St. Lucy's or is it special just for me. when did he cut his first tooth? when did he roll over? the list goes on and on. I look at my baby book and I can't answer so many things. It feels like 16 months is such a LONG time but in the scheme of things it is not. Noah was not even old enough to KNOW he was an orphan. He never knew any different. I have been praying since even before we brought Noah home for the future children we know the Lord will bring us. a part of me wants to someday have that tiny little baby from birth that I get to be in the delivery room with the birthmom and start from the beginning. Another part wants another toddler because I have so loved this whole experience with Noah and I have this heart for the children others dont want. alot only want young young babies, and at that sometimes only the ones that have no special needs and such. Then part of me looks at some of these preschool children in European countries that if they are not adopted at age 4 and have special needs are never adopted and sent to institution to basically die. And I want to bring them all home. Good thing I don't have to make the decision on where all of our different children will come from. Just like with Noah, GOD will let us know! :)

A friend of mine made the below video and sent an email about it out and the timing of it was so interesting for me with all I have been thinking and feeling about Noah's life before us. This video makes me pray for and think about children at age 4 and 6 and older even that are "too old" to have a family take them. "hard to place" just like younger special needs babies are considered "hard to place". So sad to me. But I think of 4 years of missing out on the first 4 to 6 years of family life! Those poor children have no clue what they have missed I am sure but are beginning to get old enough to know that the younger children are chosen and they are not. BREAKS my heart :( Anyway, my friend made this with a Christmas song, This Christmas, I actually have listened to for a long time and she did this to help raise awareness about children and older babies who need homes! Please watch this video and pray for these children. The faces are REAL children with no family. They are children through the reeces rainbow ministry.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com