I'd like to thank the Academy...

I hardly ever win anything so I am thrilled that I have been awarded with the Kreativ Blogger Award!! Now, I realize the 3 of you that actually read my blog are SHOCKED by this as I never seem to post blogs and when I do post them they are rarely creative - but, I am happily accepting the award nonetheless! :) I was awarded this award by my wonderful friend Katie! I know you've read many posts about Jorja and her son Cole as they are BEST BUDS - in fact, just today, I was telling Jorja we were going to play with Cole and immediately Jorja started walking around the house saying "friend Cole" in sheer anticipation of their time together! :) I feel so blessed to have Katie in my life (and Cole in Jorja's) and always look forward to our time together EVERY week! I don't know a single person that has met her that didn't instantly love her. She is a joy to be around and a great friend. I would give this award right back to her if I could! :)

Now, for the rules... List 7 things that you love and then pass the award along to 7 creative people:

1. Jesus is my homeboy! He is my everything and the only reason I get out of bed each morning. He saved my life in more ways than you could ever imagine and continues to change my life everyday!
2. Shane: I love him because he first loved me (and if you've ever heard our story you know that is the absolute truth -HA!) Best husband, friend and dad in the world. My life would suck without him for sure!
3. Jorja: oh my! How do I love her... let me count the gazillion ways!! I've never known love like being a mom to the most amazing little girl in the world. She simply makes life better and challenges me in ways no one ever has! I am a better (and a LOT less selfish) person because she came into my life.
4. My family: my family & in-laws are the.BEST.ever!!! I'm the most blessed girl in the world to have such a giving, caring, loving, godly, funny, at times a little crazy but overall wonderful family!
5. My friends: I am so blessed to have so many WONDERFUL friends from all seasons of my life. I have 3 friends that I have known since I was a little girl and have spent {literally} my ENTIRE life with and I know will ALWAYS be there no matter how old or crazy I become. Girlfriennnddds forever! My college friends - these girls walked with me through such a life-changing season of my life and stuck with me through it all. We have laughed together, cried together and still remain the best of friends. My WOF/Revolve friends - my goodness these girls make life SO stinkin fun and brought me so close to the Lord. They were my prayer warriors, accountability partners, comic relief, cheerleaders, & shoulders to lean on. My Mommy friends - these are all the new friends in my life and the ones I can't imagine my life without. I look forward to our kids growing up together and all that we will experience together in this season of motherhood!
6. Staying at home with Jorja and how each day is a new & exciting adventure: I am incredibly grateful that I am able to stay home with Jorja. I absolutely LOVE.IT! Jorja makes me laugh like no one else in the world and each day she is sure to give me a {healthy} dose of the giggles! Each day with her is a joy and I'm the luckiest girl in the world! I pray each day she finds her time with me as sweet as I do and that she will always want her Momma as her best friend!
7. Dr. Pepper, Fezzik & Chocolate: My addiction to Dr. Pepper is quite ridiculous - I have the most adorable Yorkie in the world and claim him as my first born - and I'm not really sure life can be lived to it's fullest without a little bit of chocolate consumed each day! (and yes, I realize I just broke "the rules" by combining these 3 into 1 - that's just how I roll).

These ladies deserve the Kreativ Blogger Award for various reasons:
(in no particular order)

1. This girl has been with me through the good times and the bad times and is the most loyal friend I have ever known. She is completely selfless, giving, loving and is ubber talented. I would have no {amazing} documentation of my daughters life without her. :) She is my go-to person with any questions about photography, photoshop, kids (did I mention she has 2 adopted kids that are 1 month apart in age and she's had them since they were each 10 days old?) & life in general! You must check out her family's blog as well as her business blog. JENNIFER, I don't know how you handle all that life has brought your way. You are truly Super Woman to me!
2. I have known this girl practically since she was born (she's a year younger than me - lol!) We have gone through so many walks of life together - puberty, high school, college, marriage and now babies! I admire what an amazing woman and momma she has turned out to be and am amazed at how she handles work, baby, husband, church, & life. You must check out her blog to read about her sweet little man, Hunter! KRISTEN, I have never known life without you and I don't ever want to!
   
3. I'm not sure I've ever been around someone that has so much wit, sarcasm and is as down right hilarious as this person. I have known her since college and we have had our ups and downs and have come out as such great friends. I always look forward to her blog updates as I know they will either make me laugh, think or stop and be amazed! She is in the {extrememly long} process of adopting from China and I can't help but think how truly blessed that little girl is going to be!! You must check out their crazy and fun-filled life and while you are at it, you must support her business as well (http://baby-bobo.com) as well so she can actually afford to bring that little girl home from China! :) Jorja's favorite blanket was made by Ashley! ASHLEY, thanks for making me laugh and I can't wait to see you at Coldplay {again}! Although, we should get together sooner! :)
4. This girl is another one of my college friends. We were roommates, sorority sisters, and seemed to spend every waking moment together! I don't see her near as much as I'd like now but when we do see each other it's as if no time as passed! She is BEYOND creative in EVERYTHING she does - from the way she dresses, to her photography skills, to how she decorates - she simply bleeds creativity! She just recently quit her job at the adoption agency to work on her photography business full-time! You must check her out! RACHEL, you make life so much more fun and exciting! I adore you!!
5. This girl I have known since college but we didn't actually attend college together. In fact, we've never even lived in the same place together! We spent one A-MAZING and LIFE CHANGING summer together in China and had an instant bond & friendship! We recently reconnected through... drum roll please... our BLOGS! And I am SO incredibly grateful to have her back in my life. We just saw each other for the first time in YEARS and it was seriously as if NO time had passed. She has always been the one person in my life that I seem to have a connection with like none other - she is my kindred spirit! Her daughters are beautiful and she's another friend that has an extremely creative side to her. You must check out her blog to hear about her life and business! BETH, I couldn't be happier that we have reconnected and only live a few short hours away from each other. Let's hang out again SOON!
6. This girl is someone that I wish I spent more time with because every time I'm around her she makes me want to be a better person and always has me laughing my head off! Her hubby & Shane went to Texas Tech together and I have had the pleasure of getting to know her through their relationship. Her daughter is exactly a month younger than Jorja & is A-dorable!! She is such a sweet person who is ubber creative, talented and extremely organized! She also has her own Etsy business and is putting her creativity to work! She needs to blog a little bit more (wink, wink) as I love hearing about her and her sweet Anna Claire - so you must check them out as well! JENNY, if you could just pour out an ounce of your creativity and organization into my life I would be a MUCH better person! I miss hanging with you and AC, let's get together SOON!
7. This girl is so precious to me! She was one of my employees for Revolve and ended up becoming one of my dearest friends. We have been through {ultimate} fire together and stuck by each other's side the whole way through and came out stronger and closer in the end! Everywhere we went people always thought we were sisters and I think in my heart we are! She has 2 beautiful boys - Jaxson is only 4 months older than Jorja and Maddox is just a little over a month old. {WOW}! She is such a fun, loving, gracious & merciful person! You must check out her life as a boy mom and all the adventures that come with that title! MORGAN, you are such a beautiful person on the inside and out and I love having you in my life. If only we lived closer I know we would be inseparable!!

There are so many others I would love to pick for this award that have impacted my life in one way or another but maybe another time... oh, and I probably should apologize for being so long winded but this is my blog and I can do whatever I want! :)

These are a few of my favorite things...

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens?? Not quite Jorja's favorite things but close, I'm sure! :) My friend Jenn was having a fun little contest where we were supposed to submit pictures of our kids w/ their favorite things or doing their favorite things and here's just a FEW of Jorja's favorites that I submitted for the contest. I actually took SO many more pictures than this but I'm not all that Photoshop savvy yet and it was taking me forever to put things together so here's 5 of her favorite things in the list of MANY!

It is almost a daily occurrence that Jorja will go to the front door and look out the window and say over and over "oside" (outside). That girl loves to be outside - riding in the wagon {which I didn't put on here but she LOVES that thing}, sliding down slides, swinging, chasing Fezzik around and just running wild! Spring and summer can't get here soon enough!!

Ever since Jorja was about a month old she has been a thumb sucker. Once she discovered her thumb she would no longer take a pacifier. I thought it was so great. A self soother! Perfect. And for the first year & a half of her life it was perfect as I was able to hold her off on sucking her thumb until it was "night night" time - and night night time only. But for some reason, just within the last month, she has begun to want to suck her thumb ALL THE TIME!! I remember thinking a few months ago how I wanted her to have a "lovey" that she slept with and cuddled with and found "security" in {cause I always thought that was just so cute}... and one day she discovered "Bear" {very original name, by they way} and from then on her, bear and that thumb have been BFF & inseparable! I'm sure I should be working harder at trying to break her of this habit {especially knowing how long her mom sucked her thumb - YIKES!} but, I just think she is too adorable. She sucks her thumb and grabs on to Bear's ear with the same hand while stroking it's fur with the other hand. It's just too darn cute so for now - we are breaking all the rules!

A few years ago Shane & I went to Disney World and bought a big Mickey doll not even realizing 3 years later we would have the most precious girl in the world fall in love with him. We've already had to have Nannie sew him up as she's played with him so much his stuffing started to come out! She loves her Mickey and mom and dad are just counting down the days until she's old enough to go with us to Disney World! ;) I blame her other obsession solely on the Lankfords. Before going to visit them in January, Jorja had never even seen an episode of Sesame Street nor did she really care about Elmo and she'd never even heard of Abby. Well, she spent 4 days with Hadleigh and Isaac {who watch SS every morning and have 4 Elmo dolls} and got completely hooked. Hadleigh & Isaac gave Jorja her very own Abby doll before we left and I went around town searching for a similar Elmo doll! Now guess what we do every morning? You got it - spend time watching Jorja's new BFF's - "Elmo & Abby"!

I love that Jorja already has a love for the "arts". She loves to draw on her doodle board and the crayons and coloring books are left out all the time now that Jorja has a table & chairs to sit at and color. {Look how great she holds the crayon - she's such a big girl}. But more than her love of drawing and coloring is her love of reading. Jorja LOVES to sit in her chair or in our laps and plop down with a good book or two. She even knows all her favorite books by name. I can tell her to go get a particular book off the shelf and she will go over and get the right one every time. She's such a little smarty! Her vocabulary is OUT OF THIS WORLD and I want to thank her love of reading for it all! I should also point out that her favorite book to read is The Bible {pictured} and there isn't anything that makes me happier than to know that already God is preparing my sweet little girl to love His Word and hide it in her heart!

And to save the best and most favorite thing for last - Jorja's most favorite is her DADDY!! She can't get enough of him. She gets giddy the second she hears the garage door go up at 5:30pm cause she knows the man of her dreams is about to walk through the door. She starts bouncing up and down, running around in circles and laughing all the while saying "dada". Once he gets home she hardly wants anything to do with me and it's all about "dada". She loves to cook with him, cuddle with him, play with his hats, play with his beard, give him kisses - if Daddy is involved she wants to be a part of it. They have definitely stolen eachother's hearts and she will forever and always be Daddy's Little Girl.

Falling off the face of the earth??

OKAY. WOW! I absolutely can't believe I haven't blogged in almost 2 months. I'm such a blog slacker... especially in comparison to some of the blogs that I spend way too much of my time stalking! HA! Seriously, though - I have almost 20 different sub folders of pictures & blog ideas on my computer that I've set apart specifically for the blog but somehow, life is going way too fast and I haven't had ANY time to actually sit down and write about the awesome things Jorja and I are experiencing nor have I been able to post the million pictures that I've taken! AHH!! Trust me, I'm just as frustrated as you are about the whole thing. I do realize some of you out there are probably curling up in the fetal position under your kitchen table right about now - simply because you can't go another day without an update of that precious Jorja Mae! I know. It hurts. But trust me - in a few short days {hopefully} all your worries will disappear and you will begin to come out of that comatose state of depression you have found yourself in! Posts and Pictures are on their way... stay strong, my friends, stay strong.

And in order to keep you from the straight jacket a little while longer here's a few pics:

{Note: these are taken with my new Canon EOS Rebel XSi that Shane got me for Christmas. I.AM.IN.LOVE! - and thank you to one of my dearest and bestest friends Jenn for teaching me a few tricks of the trade, although I am still a MAJOR work in progress, you rock! Check her out at portraitsbyjenn.com}

First comes love...

Okay, since I'm a total blog loser and can't seem to get my act together and update this silly thing... (notice the Christmas decor still posted?!?) I have to rely on others to post fun pictures and "news" about my own daughter. You MUST check out the latest post by Katie... just click on the link below. LOVE IT!!

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

My Little Turkey!

Okay - So I know I seem to be running about a month behind on my blogs and I apologize! I honestly don't see how these "super moms" keep up with posting everyday. I have NO time but, really want to find the time and make this a priority... until I can get my act together you will just have to find things out a little late! Sorry! :(

This year we decided to take a little road trip for Thanksgiving and went to Abilene to spend the holiday with Lolly & Pop (Shane's dad and step-mom). This was our very first Thanksgiving with them so I had HIGH hopes and expectations and while they were amazing and gracious hosts and welcomed us with loving and open arms... the trip wasn't quite what I was hoping and praying for. Because Lolly & Pop live about 3 1/2 hours away they don't get to see Jorja near as much as everyone would like and this was the first time for Jorja to go to their house for a visit so I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted them to see how wonderful, fun, well-behaved, and well rested Jorja really and normally is... and unfortunately, we may have to wait for another time for them to see the "normal" side of Jorja. Now, I am probably making it sound worse than it really was because, honestly, while Jorja was {SUPPOSED} to be awake she was WONDERFUL! I had worked with her for WEEKS on their names - showing her pictures of them almost every day and teaching her who they were and she was great about recognizing them. She called them "Pop" and "Lulluhlul" (I'm sure it was Lolly - but her "L" sounds seems to run together and sound a bit Chinese! :) She even called their dog by name "Schcout" (Scout)!! She LOVED to watch Pop throw the dummy bird (they have a championship Yellow Lab that hunts) at Scout and would even try to help Pop throw it to him. She laughed and charmed her way right into the hearts of Lolly's family that was there to visit as well. She couldn't have been better... when she was {SUPPOSED} to be awake! However, when it came time for nap time and bed time I apparently did not give my {normally AMAZING} sleeper near enough Turkey full of tryptophan!! I honestly haven't had to deal with her not sleeping like that since she was literally weeks old. She was up until 4:30am and WOULD NOT take any naps... needless to say, after the first night and day of her (or anyone else) having NO sleep she wasn't quite as charming as normal. We, despite everything in me that wanted to believe she would get better, decided to cut our trip short and go ahead and come home. We arrived at the house just in time for dinner - grabbed a quick bite, put Jorja to bed at 8:00pm - we ourselves jumped into bed and were both asleep by 8:30pm and NO ONE woke up before 8:00am the next day! We were EXHAUSTED!! I am still upset about how things turned out as I wanted so badly for Jorja to show her Lolly & Pop just how much she loves them and how wonderful she can be. While I know there probably isn't a single grandparent out there who doesn't think the world of their grandkids - I still wanted their perception of her and their reality with her to be one and the same... oh, well - I'll get over it and there will be many other holiday's and gatherings to make up for our first sleepless Thanksgiving, right?

On a side note - before Thanksgiving we had a playdate to make Turkey handprint shirts and while I discovered (although I already knew it - so maybe I confirmed it even further) that I have VERY little creative and artistic ability, I think the shirts and hand towels (for all the grandparents) turned out SO stinkin cute. Obviously, since I was a wreck trying to make sure Jorja was on her best behavior at Thanksgiving - I didn't get any pictures from our trip!! uggh! Although, I know others did so when I can get them - I'll post... until then here are a few pics I took of Jorja in her "Little Turkey" shirt... boy, I shouldn't have been so quick to call her a "little turkey" as she definitely proved to be just that on Thanksgiving! HA!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Jorja Mae's in the Tub!

I actually stole this idea from one of the blogs I stalk because I've learned from the blogging world that I am SO not a creative mom AT ALL! It has become apparent to me that if you have ever been an elementary school teacher you are the best mom ever!! And, since all I've ever done is hang out with teenagers and sold tickets - I have to try to become the best mom ever by stealing ideas from others! HA! :)

Jorja absolutely L-O-V-E-S bath time - the second she hears the water start running she immediately starts yelling "baf" over and over and will laugh and get SO excited!! So when I heard this idea I couldn't pass it up as I knew Jorja would love it! We bought some really cool Color Bath Dots from Crayola and some Alphabet letters and bath toys and had a great time learning our colors. I only put toys in the bath that matched the color of the water and we spent the whole bath time talking about & learning whatever color Jorja was splashing around in. We are still working on Jorja totally identifying the right color as she says the right name (at this point, it seems everything is either red or blue) but she's getting there. At this point, the only one she's really consistent with in identifying correctly is "Boo" (Blue). When asked to repeat she will say "red", "gree", "lello", "pupl" & "boo" however, orange is still no where to be heard! :) I love watching my sweet Jorja try to figure things out and learn new concepts! She is such a little smarty and I have no doubt after many more nights of bathing in color she will know them all by sight and name!!

~ ROY G. BIV ~