Christmas 2008

Here is a smilebox of our Christmas morning. We had a wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed. Turn the music off of the blog on the left to hear the Christmas music of the smilebox!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Our 4 beautiful children!

Finally an update!!

I am sorry it has taken so long for me to update our blog! We have been so very busy….too busy. I guess I will just try to pick up where I left off and update. I do the blog for our friends and family out of state but also for our girls. I wished I could have kept a diary with the boys of all the happenings of our family. I would be so neat to look back on now. OK, here we go…
We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Indiana with Scott’s family. We had a nice time and the girls loved being with all their cousins. We stayed at Uncle Wade and Aunt Mitzi’s new house. They have no children of their own and have a room just for their nieces and nephews that include games, coloring books and crayons, dolls, trucks, a real swing hanging from the ceiling, tv, computer, and much more!! Scott drove home that Sunday after Thanksgiving and left the girls and I there since Makenna had a checkup at Shriners in Chicago on Wednesday. There was no reason to drive 5 hours home just to turn around and drive it back on Tuesday. Mitzi, Makenna, and I left Monday night for Chicago and spent all day Tuesday and the outlet malls north of Chicago for lots of Christmas shopping! I did get quite a bit of shopping done that day which was very nice. Mitzi made reservations for us at Rainforest Café which I had never been too. It was wonderful! Makenna was very excited to see all the animals and they sat us by a big aquarium and she was entranced with watching the fish. We went back to our beautiful hotel room Mitzi got for us, she works for Westin and got us a 2 room suite for 40 bucks a night, and fell fast asleep. Makenna had to be at Shriners by 8 the next morning so we were up very early. Makenna did very well for her check up. They were very impressed with her speech progression and said she far exceeded the goals for 6 month post surgery! The speech pathologist was very impressed and stated she feels as though Makenna will speak with no impediment at all. She also had a new tooth come in since surgery to fill in the gap where her gum clefts. They said they are not sure if she will have a permanent tooth come in but it is a good sign. She does not need to go back to Chicago until September. They will re-evaluate her lip repair then. Dr. G said that she is borderline as to if he should re-do her lip or not. He things with her talking more and using that upperlip the scar should go down more. He also said there were 2 little holes in the roof of her mouth that he thinks will continue to close. He said they were not fistulas. Scott came back to Indiana the following Friday and had Ryan and Jess with him. We had a nice weekend and finally came home! There is no place like home! We started off the week with working and going to see my new baby niece. We then had pictures to take of 3 lively children! It was quite the trip to photograph a 7 month old, and 18 month old, and a 4 year old. We all felt exhausted when we were done but we got some great shots!
When our clients left the studio, Scott shared with me about his day at work. He was called into his boss’s office that afternoon and told he was being laid off. He was allowed to work through the week and that was it. No severance pay no nothing. After 12 years with the company he was getting nothing. We were expecting his hours to get cut to 32 hours a week but he had the most seniority and thought, as did everyone else at the company, that Scott would be the last one standing. Needless to say the last 2 weeks have been a series of ups and downs. We have a couple of leads for him but nothing really stands out for him. He is looking at possibly going back to school for something in the medical field, the only career that will always be needed, just not sure how to survive while he does that! I was lucky enough to be able to pick up more hours at work, enough to get insurance for us. If anyone out there in blog land has a lead on a good job we’d be interested! We have been trying to decide if we stay here in Ohio with our church family and all our friends or move back to Indiana with Scotts family. Our first choice is to stay here in Ohio, the schools are so much better and we hate to move the girls from their friends and all that is familiar to them. Please keep us in prayer as we seek God’s will for us.
On the Hannah and Makenna front! These two have finally bonded! It took a year but they are very close now. You often see them hugging each other and looking out for each other. When we were in Chicago they called each other on the phone and talked to each other for a long time. It was too cute to listen to them saying they loved each other and missed each other. Last night we met my dad for our annual Christmas dinner and Makenna did not see TJ come and get Hannah out of our van to take into the restaurant. As we were walking into the restaurant she began frantically pointing to the van and yelling Nah Nah, what she calls Hannah, thinking we were leaving her there. So sweet. That is all for right now. I must clean up the house. We are having a realtor come to give us some advice on selling it quickly. We know there is no way we can make the payments. Our little town has lost over 300 jobs in the last few months so the housing market will only get worse. God has reminded us that our home is just stuff and He will take care of us wherever we go. Part of me is scared and part of me is so excited to see what God has for us. I will keep you posted as God moves in our lives.

Introducing Isabelle Carolyn!!

I am an aunt and Hannah and Makenna are so excited to have a new cousin! They will forever call her Bubbles (Hannah started calling her Bubbles as soon as Kayla announced they were pregnant!) She was born early and weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces! Aunt Tina must get making bows for her hair!!

FALL 08 PICTURES

Scott met us Tuesday at the park to take pictures of the girls. He had taken some other kids' pictures and I wanted some of the girls. It is so hard to get good pictures of the girls but these turned out OK. They still did not cooperate very well but we did get a few cute ones!

You will have to scroll down to the playlist box and hit stop to stop our music so you can hear what the music is on the smile box. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Jo Jo and Minnie Mouse

Here are the girls dressed up for Trunk or Treat. We wanted pictures in front of the pumpkins and scarecrows on our front porch but Makenna has decided she is terrified of them! She will not walk up on the porch to come in the house, so we had to take hers in front of Ryans car!! We took them to a church here in town that had trunk or treat instead of taking them around town to strangers houses. There were probably 30 or so cars, truck, and vans with their trunks decorated as bible stories that passed out candy. Makenna was very afraid of Hannah as Jo Jo and most of the other kids dressed up! She made it through only because there was candy as a reward! The girls had a great time.
On Saturday afternoon we met our friend Ellie at the park and Scott took her 4 year old pictures. She is such a doll with her big blue eyes! She and Hannah are the same age and they all 3 had a great time playing in the leaves. Makenna fell in love with Ellie's mom Janeen and wanted her to carry her all over the park! Janeen was blessed with a beautiful little boy that has a cleft lip and palate. We are so blessed to have them in our little hometown to support each other!

A baby boy!

I just wanted to post a picture of Jordan and Amy's baby Mason! I had asked for prayer a couple of days ago for them. These two have been through so much and I am so excited that God has blessed them with a beautiful baby boy! Mason Thomas is his name and I can't wait to hold him!

I have been tagged...

I was tagged for the first time and not sure I am ready to play games like this! I will give it a try though... 7 things about me..... this is difficult!

1. I am a Diet Coke-a-holic. I can go a whole day without it but by the next day I am shaking and "need" one really badly!

2. I am not sure if I am cheap or thrifty. I understand a man's hunting/gathering instinct. As I shop, I feel like I am hunting for the best bargin around. I get so excited when I can purchase something for 80% off! I'd have to say that 80% of the girls' clothes are ebay, consignment, and outlet!! Love, Love, Love a great bargin....it's an obsession....can you tell?

3. My maiden name is the same as my married name...I know, so unsual. I always hated my last name (Farrell) growing up. I was in speech therapy until I was in 5th grade because I could not say my r's or l's. I looked so forward to someday changing my last name to Smith or something easy but no, the man of my dreams shared the same last name! I still get nervous if I have to say my last name!

4. I hate my girls leaving the house with their hair not done up and a nice outfit on. On Saturdays when I work and Scott has the girls, he struggles with fixing their hair...oh they look like little orphans all over again!!

5. I think my dream career would be a performer. I would secretly love to sing and dance on broadway!!

6. I am a saucy girl, I have to dunk everything in some sort of dip or sauce, drives Scott ( who is incredibly plain) crazy!

7. I hate to read, I know, isn't that terrible? I can read for 2 minutes and realize I keep reading the same line over and over. It just never sinks in!

OK, so now I am to tag 7 of my friends! Not sure I will find that many to tag but I will try.



Janeen http://littleski.blogspot.com
Gary http://shotsontherun.blogspot.com
Kathy http://seven-alexanders.blogspot.com
Julie http://mom2mygirls.blogspot.com
Temple http://sigtemp.typepad.com/nihao

Well, that's the best I can do.....5 people! I hate to be a bother and ask people I don't know!! Is that silly? I guess number 8 would be I am secretly a shy person! As you can also see, I can't figure how to insert a link in my blog to all my friends addresses! #9?

pics

bugs bugs bugs...

Well,after 4 doctor appts, it has been decided that there is some sort of mite in our house. The girls have had a few spots on them for about 6 weeks, they come and go, would itch, but didn't bother them too badly. When we went to Disney, Makenna had a horrible first night before we went in to the park and we ended up stopping at a Stat care place to have her looked at. The doctor there said it was bug bites but I knew that we had not been around bugs. They continued to get a few while at Disney but they did heal up a little bit. We had been home over a week and they were almost dried up when bingo, one morning Makenna woke up with 5 spots on her back. That was it, we were going to the doctor. He said he thought they were infected hair folicles that had staph in them. I questioned how Hannah could also have them but took the antibiotic and cream and headed home. Well, by that weekend, Makenna was covered and so was Hannah. We went back to the doctor and he said he didn't have a clue now and referred us to a dermitologist who said he didn't really know but thought they were mite bites. Something you cannot see. I have been to the laundry mat and washed everything the girls own, all bedding, we have bleached their room, beds, treated the cat for fleas and mites, flea bombed the house and still we have spots. Poor Makenna has close to 50 in all different stages of healing and Hannah's are almost dried up. Scott, Ryan, and I have not had the first spot...? Maybe they are chinese fleas? Thinking maybe it was the fleas, I put the cat out in the garage so the cold would kill the fleas if he had any. I had not seen any on him, but treated anyway. We started seeing a couple of fleas in the house then. When I called the vet, she said to bring the cat back in the house, the fleas were jumping on us since the cat wasn't in the house. So we brought the sacrifical cat back in so all his friends could party on him again and treated him again. It has been so frustrating to get this under control. We have had Pablo for at least 6 years and I have never seen a flea on him. Thank goodness we had our 12 month final post placement homestudy for Makenna so even though they are being eaten alive with fleas, they can't send her back to China!!
That has been the story around here. On a Hannah note, she fell off a barstool in the family room last Friday and hit her face hard. I almost took her to the emergency room because of brusing around the eye and temple. She also had some blood in her nostril which my fear was if she hit hard enough to get blood in her nose she may be hurt badly. I watched her like a hawk,and rocked her most of the afternoon. The doctor said if her nose looked like it was broken to take her to the ER but it is still as cute as ever. On Sunday however, out of the blue, blood started pouring out of that nostril. It was really weird, and quite almost as quickly as it started. She does have a huge shiner though! I will try to post pictures yet today. We have been busy with pictures and I had 2 uppercase living shows in the last couple of weeks. Things are never dull for sure!
If anyone has any ideas on our bug situation, please let me know!
Please say a prayer for my friends today that are having their first baby. Amy and Jordan have been though so much, losing a daughter, miscarriages, etc. They are at the hospital now waiting the arrival of Mason Thomas!! I can't wait to meet him!

The pumpkin farm!

Who is following us?

Hi guys. I know you probably want an update on the goings on in our lives but no time right now! We have 7 photography orders to get sent to the lab tonight! Do me a favor and click the follow tab on the left side of the screen so we know who is following our blog! It is great fun to see who follows and some of you have blogs that I'd love to follow too!
On a very quick note. Miss Makenna is really talking up a storm! She is saying new words every day and I can understand alot of them! We were driving by the local Chinese resturant, Ming Hing, and she pointed and yelled "Ming Ming"! It was plain as day! We also got our hair cut last night. We cut quite a bit off of Makennas and bobbed it like Hannah's while it grows out. It looks so cute. I gave them a bath tonight then put mousse in their hair and dryed it with a round brush. They loved it!
On a side note, keep our friends Scott and Trish in your prayers. Trish lost her dad early this morning. He was a Christian and is in a much better place but will missed terribly.
That's all for now!!

We are home

We made it home! The trip home was pretty non eventful and even though we did not want to leave Utopia aka Disney, we knew we had to! I will try to post more about our trip soon, but we are off and running hard this week with our schedule. I hope to at least post more pictures for you, I know that is what most of you want anyway!!

Blessings

More Pics of Disney

Where had the week gone?!

Oh where has the week gone?! I had such high hopes of journaling every night about our day’s activities but here it is Wednesday afternoon and I have not journaled since Saturday night! I hope I remember it all. To put our experiences in a sentence it would go something like, Hannah loves pretty much everything and Makenna is afraid of everything! How ironic is it that, the Makster, that usually has no fear is afraid of every character that we have seen and Hannah the quiet one (I mean quiet in the sense of being outgoing and doing things not talking!) has had a blast getting involved in every dance and character that comes along! The only exception to that rule is Pocahontas…Makenna sat on her lap for a picture, but only after she talked to her for a while. We are having a great time and the girls are also doing very well. We have had a character meal every day and Hannah has loved it. On Tuesday we had breakfast with the princesses. Belle greeted us in her beautiful yellow dress and there was a photographer there to take your daughters picture with her. Of course Makenna would have no part in that but Hannah loved it. She kept talking about how beautiful Belle was after we got to our table. Then one by one we had princesses come by our table to pictures and autographs. The really nice thing about the princesses and not characters is that they can talk. The characters cannot speak to the kids. Hannah wore her Sleeping Beauty dress and Makenna refused to wear her Cinderella so she wore her tinkerbell outfit! When sleeping Beauty came to our table and saw that Hannah had on her dress, she said, “Oh my little sister is here!” Hannah thought that was wonderful! We then had Jasmine come to our table. Hannah has yet to see Aladdin but Scott sure has and he was so hoping that she would be one of the princesses that would come to our table! When we visited Disney when the boys were in grade school, Scott got to see the real live Jasmine and has been a fan ever since! He did manage to snap a couple of pictures of she and Hannah….for Hannah of course! Mary Poppins was next to come out and then was Mulan! Hannah said Ni Hao (hello in Chinese) to Mulan and Mulan got so excited that she knew some Chinese. She came and spent extra time with us at our table. She also gave Hannah a kiss on the cheek with her red lipstick and left a mark. Hannah was so excited that she refused to wash it off all day. We only did a few things at Epcot that day. The girls were tired so we headed for home and to swim for a bit before going to bed early. We had breakfast reservations for 8:05 the next morning so my plan was to not have them nap. That worked fairly well but it was hard getting them up so early. I had read to have an early breakfast at Animal Kingdom’s Tusker House and then hit the safari ASAP because the animals would still be up eating their breakfast and you would see more of them. Well, it just so happened to be a little cooler that morning and the animals were up and about! We saw 3 giraffes running around the plains, I mean actually running! It was the most awkward looking run I have ever seen…Priceless. The lion was also out as well as hipps, rhino’s, and many more. This morning we had breakfast with Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Pooh. It was great fun and had a great spread of food! The girls have not eaten much since we have been here but I am hoping they are just too excited to eat. Tomorrow we have our last character meal. It is called breakfast with Chef Mickey. It is in the Contemporary hotel and supposed to be wonderful. They all have been great though. The characters know to stay away from Makenna but they also will offer her a high five to get her involved a little bit. The staff here has been wonderful. When they see the girls they usually greet, “Good Morning Princess”. Well, that is about all for today. It is now after 9:30 Wednesday night and Scott is waiting on our clothes to dry at the laundry mat and I am headed to bed! The girls are fast asleep and I am hoping they sleep all night. Hannah has done very well but Makenna has been waking up quite a few times per night. I am going to sleep with Makenna tonight just so see if I can get hr back to sleep right away instead of her fussing for a while. I will try to post pics soon of Sunday – Wednesday goingsons!
Talk to you all soon!

pics from disney

DISNEY!!!!!!

I will try to get you caught up on our vacation journey! It is Sunday afternoon around 2 and we are back at the resort and the girls are lying down to take a nap. They have, for the most part, done very well on the trip. OK, I’ll start at the beginning with Friday….

We had fairly uneventful flights, other than both of them being delayed after we were loaded and supposed to keep the girls in their seatbelts, HaHa! Hannah did very well and Makenna did, well, Makenna did it Makenna style! Those of you that know her know that she is only still for 5-10 seconds at a time, well, that did not change just because we were 20,000 feet in the air! Just like the long trip from China home, as long as there was a steady supply of snacks she would sit. We had a couple of times that she had to be in her seatbelt and she screamed and kept unbuckling her belt. It only took a small tap on the leg and she’d comply. She is getting a little better about realizing that what we say is what we mean. By the time we landed in Florida, the girls were tired and exhausted. They had been up for 7 hours and only had granola bars and snacks. We had planned on purchasing them McDonalds for them in Atlanta but since our flight from Akron Canton was delayed 30 minutes and we only had a 45 minute layover, we did not have time. You’d be impressed, we made it with 2 toddlers, 2 carry ons (the girls carried their own carryons), and the strollers through Atlanta airport, on the shuttle, up an elevator, then back down, to get to our next gate in 15 minutes. They were boarding as we made it to the gate. After we got the rental car, we headed to Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Mike’s house and swam for hours in their beautiful pool. Hannah, who is terrified of dogs and they have a German Shepard, was usually calm around Macy. Then they started throwing Macy’s ball in the pool and watching her swim to retrieve it. It was a great time and the highlight was the girls got to roast their first hotdogs on an open fire and follow it up with roasted marshmallows! Makenna had some spots on her before we left and we were unsure of what they were from and while we were swimming, she got some more. She had a very rough night Friday night, running a fever and scratching continually all night long. We got up Saturday morning and had a bowl of cereal and headed out. We drove past a stat care and stopped in to see what was wrong with Makenna. Well, the “doctor” said they were bug bites, even though Hannah has some too and there had been no bugs while swimming. They did give her a Benedryl injection to help with the itching and we were on our way again. We stopped by Walmart and gathered water, juice boxes, snacks, benedryl, cooler etc and we finally made it to our resort around 1:30. We had been told by our car rental company that we could drop the car off at one of 2 locations inside Disney but then found out the closest one was outside of the Disney grounds and they closed at 2 so we’d be charged another day rental……not happy at all about that but we will talk about that later! We headed to Magic Kingdom and the girls were so excited to pull up to the gates. As we walked through the gate there was a band playing and dancing going on. The look on the girls’ faces was priceless! I was choked up and could speak for the first 10 or 15 minutes of being there! Am I a sap or what?! We decided that since we only had a little over an hour before our dinner reservations that we would go find Liberty Inn where we were going to eat dinner. We found it without any problems then just wondered around until it was time to eat . As soon as we got up on the porch to enter the restaurant, the heavens opened up and the rain poured, and poured, and poured. We did not have the extra rain ponchos on the strollers so they got drenched but we were dry! We had the most wonderful meal for supper. It was served family style and they brought a salad and rolls with honey butter for starters. After we were finished with our salad out came the plate of meats, carved beef (the most wonderful beef I can remember having for years and years!), sliced turkey, and pork loin with a pineapple/mustardy tasting glaze on it, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and macaroni and cheese. After our long 2 days with not much in the way of a meal it was so filling and wonderful. To top off the meal, they brought homemade apple cobbler with ice cream! It sure hit the spot! While we were eating this entire time, Minnie mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale all came around to each table to sign autograph books and get your picture taken with them. Well you know brave Makenna and wussy Hannah you can imagine how that all went! WRONG! Makenna was terrified of them and Hannah went right up to them and hugged them and had the time of her life! Makenna had to hang on to Scott when they came around the table and she’d be screaming in fear but still waving bye bye to them. She even blew them kisses through her tears! It was the funniest thing to watch. By the end of dinner, she still didn’t really want much to do with them but would at least give them high fives. When Goofy was at our table, Dale was at the table next to ours and Goofy pulled Dale’s tail then blamed Hannah! It was too funny to watch Hannah talk her way out of that. Hannah had found 2 acorn type tops on the ground outside and insisted on taking them in the restaurant for Chip and Dale for them to eat so when she gave her top to them, they gave her the biggest hug! As we were out walking around later on, the bear jamboree bears were singing and dancing and invited kids to join in. Hannah ran right out and danced and did the hokey pokey with them and had a blast. She has been so fun to watch her blossom on this trip. We came back to the room and gave the girls a bath and they were out! They slept so well last night and woke up excited for their new day! I’ll post more about our day today a little later. We are going to upload our pictures onto the Disney site then we will post some here soon! Wish you all were here with us!

First day of preschool

Well, it has finally come and gone! Hannah has officially started preschool! We started last night with picking out the perfect outfit, making a new hairbow to match and getting to bed about 8:00. I had to wake the girls up at 7:30 which I found out needs to be by 7. Hannah needs snuggle time and to lay in my bed, drink her milk or juice and chill for a bit before she can start the day, alot like me!
We got all ready for school, grabbed a granola bar for breakfast, tried to snap a few pictures of which she did NOT want to do, and head to school. We met up with her buddy Caleb that lives across the street and had to have pictures taken together. Makenna was feeling left out so she got in on a picture, of course Hannah not wanting her picture taken, was being very uncoorperative. How can we be photographers and not get a picture of our own daughter?!
Hannah marched into her room without looking back. I snapped a picture outside as I was leaving looking in at her little class. She was of course talking to the little girl next to her! After we left the church, Makenna and I had our first story time. Can I just say NIGHTMARE?! She is not ready to sit down and listen to a story, basically, she isn't ready to stop. She is on the go from sun up to sun down! She pitched a few fits, refused to color her craft, only wanting the glue stick to play with. She did enjoy the bells that we all got to jingle and march in a circle to music. All in all, I am not looking forward to our next session! We stopped by our friends house to visit since we only had about a half an hour before we had to pick up Hannah and Makenna was not a nice girl there either. She started rubbing her eyes so we left and I drove around a bit hopeing she'd drop off to sleep before getting Hannah and Caleb but no luck.
We went to Hannah's class to get her and she ran out of her room with an apple cutout that had a sticker that said "I survived my first day of preschool"! We had to then wait in line for Caleb since he is in another class and we headed to the "mailboxes" to get our mail. Hannah was prancing around so I knew she had to go potty but she refused to go. As I was trying to keep 3 toddlers together, grab mail, and get Hannah to the bathroom, Makenna is pulling boxes off the shelve...what a time. Hannah proceeds to announce that she has peed her pants! This child is so afraid of those darn automatic flushing toilets that we cannot hardly get her to go out in public. I have no idea what we will do in Disney next week!
She had a great time, played with playdoh and in the kitchen. That was all I could get out of her! She asked for a nap this afternoon so I guess she was warn out!
I will attach a couple of pics to show how adorable she was!

family update

Just time for a quick update on the Ferrell family! We have been quite busy around here lately! I guess one of the biggest milestones is that Makenna Grace is beginning to speak!! She attempts to say new words daily and is so very proud of herself. She has proven herself to be a true daddy's girl, crying for him at night and whenever mom puts her in timeout or gives her a swat on the behind! We have started bedtime bootcamp here trying to break the cycle of her waking up every night at 3am and wanting to come to bed with us. So for 3 nights in a row, mean mommy goes upstairs and will lay on the foot of her bed and calm her down. She gets VERY upset that I refuse to take her downstairs and screams for DaDa and then Ryan to save her from this horrible mom! She kicks, screams, and actually will turn circles in the bed as she pitches her fit! Hannah, laying beside her usually sleeps through the whole thing! The shocker is when Hannah used to sleep in our room, if we were sneaking out of the room after she was asleep and the floor would squeak, she'd wake up and she can sleep through Makenna's 20 - 30 minute fit 3 foot from her head!!
Hannah gets to go meet her teacher tonight at preschool! She is very excited but also reserved. Not too sure she will love it as much as mom thinks she will!
Ryan is working nights at Walmart doing remodeling which means he is sleeping during the day. I try to keep the girls quiet so he can rest. Poor guy is pretty pooped! He also starts a new job tonight at Best Buy and then will go to Walmart right after and work until 7ish tomorrow morning!
TJ is trying to get recruiter assistant and come home for a few weeks. It looks like it will be postponed until October.
Scott and I are swamped between the photography business, my uppercase living, and wrangeling 2 toddlers. I have been working at our county fair this week at a booth for uppercase living trying to get some leads, so hopefully that picks up soon too.
Hannah had "professional" pictures taken by a very nice lady here in our town. She has posted a few on her blog at http://imagesbykaren.typepad.com. Makenna is a few posts back.
That's about it. I have the girls at the sitter so I can clean my house today. Hard to keep them in the family room where they are quiet for Ryan to sleep and clean the rest of the house! Figure one day at the sitter is cheaper than a maid!!

On a serious note, please keep my friend in prayer as she is in China and just received her baby. They are having some difficult issues and covet your prayers.

pictures

Notice the big boo boo on Makenna's nose? Well, it was a small mosquito bite that she keeps picking! Every morning and everyday after nap, she looks like she has gone 3 rounds with dried blood all over her face. I have been keeping New Skin on it but she still manages to scratch it open. I keep telling her it will scar then when she is 15, she is going to be mad at me for letting her pick it. Anyway, just wanted to clarify the large scab!

Let's try to get caught up!

Wow, where has the time gone?! Things here at the Ferrell house have been busy to say the least. We have had everything from Ryan wrecking Scotts wonderful truck (totaling it) to Makenna finally making a few words, to me, Tina, beginning yet another business, and then there is just life!
We are so grateful for God's grace with Ryan. He totaled Scott's truck a few weeks ago and walked away without a scratch. That makes 2 vehicles in 6 months that he has wrecked and totaled and walked away from both without any injuries to himself or any other vehicle being involved. Keep Ryan in prayer as he is seaching for God's plan in his life. He is just not sure which direction he wants to go in.
And then there is Makenna! All those weeks of speech and she refused to say a word! In a rare twist of events, her original speech therapist was pregnant and took maternaty leave but her replacement was also pregnant! The plan was for Leann to be back from leave before the second one had her baby but as fate would have it, baby number 2 was born early! We have not been to speech in about 3 weeks and in that time she has added 4 or 5 words to her vocabulary!! Go figure! She FINALLY says Daddy! When she is upstairs crying at bedtime or in the night she will cry out "mama" and pause, then "dada", then pause, the "ryan"! Too cute. The only other name she will say is cousin Tyler and she says "I" ler. We go to speech tomorrow morning for therapist number 3. I have already decided that since she did't like #2 and struggled with her that if she doesn't do well tomorrow, we will just wait another 4 or 5 weeks for LeAnn to be back from maternaty leave.
On the Hannah front, she is getting excited for school. I have been busy Ebaying getting her adorable outfits for school. Like always, she will have way too many clothes but if you can get them for cheap why not!! We will have to go shoe shopping and she needs a special first bookbag yet. We did stop in her preschool to drop off paperwork last week and she was very excited to see her classroom. Of course everything was still packed up and nothing decorated but she was still excited. The lady giving us the mini tour commented on how talkative she was......like we didn't know that!
I finally had a Saturday off last weekend and we decided to take the girls to a large petting zoo down in amish country. Hannah was terrified of all the animals! Makenna was not afraid of anything except when the goats mobbed her! We have video of Hannah looking into the bird cage full of parakeets saying,"Hi, my name is Hannah. Would you like to say hello to me?" Too cute! After seeing the monkeys, alligators, baby deer, goats, donkeys, ducks and chickens everywhere, bunnies, baby ducks, porqupines, sheep, and who knows what else, we boarded a wagon pulled by 2 big work horses for the big tour. We saw ostriches, emus, water buffalo, many different kinds of deer, elams, yak, zebra, brauma bull, long horned steers, camels, pot bellied pigs, and more I am sure I am forgetting! We got buckets of feed to feed the animals from the wagon. The girls enjoyed it, well Hannah really enjoyed it, Makenna was ready for a nap! Hannah was all brave from the comforts of the wagon and kept asking the guy if we could get out now to pet the buffalo! I will try to post some pictures from the day. Those poor baby ducks...they were in a pen that you could just pick them up. Picture the whole day, kid after kid picking you up, getting scared, then dropping you back into your pen!
Not much else to report. Scott tried to quit the photography business but everytime he did, someone else called to schedule and I took the booking! He has now purchased a new camara and we are gearing up to get busy again! I have started selling uppercase living. I love this product! I am so anxious to use all my free product coming but we have so many rooms in our house that need painted I need to hold off until I decide on paint colors and get it painted before I can order! Until then, I just gather ideas! You can check out my website at http://TinaFerrell.uppercaseliving.net .
I will try to borrow Ryan's laptop tonight that has the pictures from the petting farm on and upload a slide show tonight.
God Bless

pictures of Makenna

We learned about a program where professional photographers donate their time and services to photograph children that are adopted.
We went to a wonderful photographer here in our town and she did a wonderful job! She has posted a few pictures of Makenna on her blog if you want to check them out. We go on Wednesday to view the proofs. I am sure it will be hard to make a decision!!

Here is her website. If anyone has an adopted child home less than one year, you should check local photographers and see if they are a member of this club. It is a wonderful gift!

http://imagesbykaren.typepad.com/

NEW BUSINESS VENTURE

I have a new business!! As if we are not busy enough in our house, I have begun another home business. I started selling uppercase living!! I am very excited about the product. I was the first consultant to sign up in Wayne County so I am hoping and praying for great things! This is very new to our area and so far there is much interest. You can view my website and let me know if you have any questions or would like to host a show. If you are looking for some extra money and would be interested in signing up to sell let me know that too! I have had 2 shows and already made back the money I spent to sign up!!! Enjoy looking at the online catalog! Let me know if you want a real one to look at!!

CHECK OUT:
http://tinaferrell.uppercaseliving.net/Home.m

A cutie-pa-tutie!

Look at this adorable boy! I am hoping he will someday be my son-in-law!! Our friends Gary and Dawn are in China now preparing to bring him home the end of the week! Please keep them in prayer as they finish their trip in China, the long flight home, and for Sean to feel right at home in his new home!

Here are some pictures from our mini photo shoot tonight. I mostly wanted to get Hananh's pictures for her 2 year "Gotcha Day" anniversary...even though we are a month late! As you notice, Miss Hannah got her hair cut! She had so much new hair growth under her hair that we decided to cut it off in the back and let it grow out together. I love her hair like this! She looks so grown up with it cut!
Enjoy the pictures. I will try to update soon!

please pray for our friends

Please keep our friends Gary and Dawn in prayer. They are in China right now adopting an adorable little boy! He was born with a pretty severe heart defect and will most likely require surgery soon after he gets home.
If you'd like to follow their blog it is
www.Shotsontherun.blogspot.com

Thank you for your prayers on their behalf!

Tina

4th of July

I will post more soon, I promise! We have been so busy lately!

trip to shriners

Well, as though we have not done enough traveling in the last couple of weeks, we left Tuesday evening for Chicago Shriners. We left the house by 5:30 and had to stop about an hour and a half into the trip so we could eat. We got the girls good and full with high hopes that they would just drift off to la la land for the next 4 ½ hours…..NO WAY! That would be far too easy wouldn’t it? Hannah fell asleep after a couple of hours since she did not have a nap Tuesday, she was pretty tired. Makenna on the other hand, even though she was tired, refused to go to sleep. I think she slept the last hour of the trip. With the stopping we did, we did not get to our hotel until 12:30 our time. We were all very pooped. The girls were so excited to get in the hotel room and I had a hard time keeping them quiet so we didn’t disturb the other guests! Hannah crawled in bed with Scott and Makenna slept with me. Even though she was tired, she was very excited and didn’t want to fall asleep. She kept playing with my face and trying to talk to me. I finally fell asleep and when her play toy didn’t play anymore, she finally fell asleep. We were up by 7 AM and all of us showered, dressed, and packed up by little after 8. We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast then to Shriners we went. Our appt was at 9:30 and we arrived right on time. Thank goodness for our Garman GPS, it takes us right to places. As we walked in the hospital, the nurse that discharged us from the hospital after Makenna’s surgery was walking another family out to their car. She remembered Makenna and wanted to talk to her. Everyone is so very nice there. They really do care about the kids there. We saw the audiologist first and he said that her hearing was great! He did a hearing test and she did really well until she lost interested and refused to look towards the sound. When she is done, she is done! We then saw the ENT. He said the tubes looked good and had no recommendations for us. He said we do not need to use the ear plugs for bath time or swimming, unless she will be more than a foot and a half under water! We sat and sat and I finally asked someone when we would see the plastic surgeons. Come to find out, they had Makenna on the wrong list and she was not scheduled to see them! They called the doctors back up to the clinic and we finally go to see Dr. Grasseschi (I think that is how you spell it!) He said her mouth looked great, he had no concerns. He said the little bit of drainage out her nose could come from the roof of her mouth where there is a tiny spot still not completely healed, or could be from the back of the palate. I told him that we still were not giving her chips or anything hard like that and he said to allow her to eat whatever she wanted…no restrictions. He has no idea what all this girl would eat! As we were leaving Shriners, we asked at the front desk how close China Town was from the hospital. It was within a half hour so we decided to stop by on our way out of town.. We had seen lots of buildings from the highway on our way to the hospital with Chinese writing on them and we were intrigued so we headed off for some simulated culture for the girls! On the way there we drove through little Mexico! It lasted forever; it was about the size of the real Mexico! When we finally arrived at China town, it was shocking at how similar it was to China. For one thing of course you see so many Asians in one place! We parked and got out of the van and right away the smell took you back to China! We started walking and had many many stares from women trying to decide if the girls were Chinese or they looked like me, or maybe I had an affair?! We went in one shop that had grocery type items and Hannah did not like it at all. I think she recognized the smell from far back in her little mind and she got scared. She cried to leave right away. We did not go into another store for a long time after that, just walked and enjoyed the sights and sounds. We were wanting to get the girls authentic Chinese noodles but there were so many restaurants we were overwhelmed at which one to choose. Scott saw a Caucasian couple getting ready to head into this one restaurant and asked them about it. They said it was very good so we decided to try it out,. We had to collapse the strollers and carry the girls and strollers up a flight of steps because the restaurant was on the second floor! It was very good food. Scott and I’s meals came with egg drop soup and the girls loved it. We each got sweet and sour chicken and fried rice. I thought I’d get something to share with the girls that wouldn’t be so spicy. I ordered them a side of lo mein noodles since that is what Hannah really wanted. They brought this huge platter of noodles! The girls hardly touched it so we ended up bringing it home. They also served 4 cookies and 4 fortune cookies at the end of our meal. I used my chopsticks throughout the entire meal and even fed Makenna off of them! I was fairly proud of myself, only spilling rice on myself or the table a couple of times. When we were getting ready to leave a lady sitting at the table next to us asked how old the girls were and commented on Hannah’s vocabulary and her use of words. She said she was very impressed. We have one that speaks at a 4 or 5 year old level and one that doesn’t speak at all! We did stop in a couple of other stores and Hannah did much better., I think she realized by that point that she was safe. She tried on some hats in one store and looked through the traditional Chinese dresses. As we were walking to the van we passed a Chinese Christian bookstore and went in. The number one thing I remember is Tornado Makenna. Oh my, how embarrassing! She was sooooo tired and ready for a nap and she was terrible! She would pick up any book and throw it down and keep running. We had her belted in her stroller but she was screaming and pitching such a huge fit we let her out..big mistake! We did get a couple of nice books for the girls. The sales girl was wonderful. They are run by a church in China town and they give English lessons to the Chinese people and then tell them about Jesus. Sounded like an awesome ministry. They had the cutest little bible books written in Chinese then English on the same page. As we headed back to the van, we decided we need to do this again when we can stay longer. The sales ladies loved asking questions about the girls. Everyone kept saying how big Makenna was! She has gone from skinny starving little girl to a chunky monkey for sure! She is up to 27 pounds!
It is now 9:49 pm and we are little over an hour from home. Makenna has just now finally dozed off! How this girl fights sleep while traveling. Next time, we are drugging her, hate to do it but it is miserable for everyone! Hannah decided she was starving the whole way home so she had cheeseburgers from McDonalds, cookies, 2 cups of Gatorade, cup of milk, cup of my watered down diet coke……..and still kept saying she was hungry. She is still awake watching Milo and Otis. Amazing that girl She is really turning into quite the little traveler. She is not afraid of hotels any more and feels safe in most environments. Tomorrow is a big day for her…it is her second Gotcha Day anniversary! Hard to believe it has been 2 years in some aspects and it also seems like she has always been with us! I will try to post pictures of her in her gotcha day outfit tomorrow. I am sure it still fits her well; it was pretty big on her when we got her!

vacation pics and prayer request

OK, so 2 weeks later, here are the rest of the vacation pictures!! We have been so busy since we got home! Scott finally got the pictures converted from RAW files to jpeg so I could do something with them. We leave for Shriners this afternoon for Makenna's followup appt tomorrow. She will see the plastic surgeon, ENT, audiologist, and not sure who else again.
We will come straight home. My uncle is in his last days with cancer. I doubt that he will be here on this earth by the time we get home and honestly I hope he isn't. It is painful to watch someone as active as he was to be so bed ridden. We lost my mom three years ago next month, her younger brother a year ago this month, and now her older brother. They are all had melanomia. My mom's was laryngeal melanomia, she was only 1 of about 50 in the world to have this rare type. Her younger brother had melanomia in his eyeball which is also not very common. Her older brother had spots on his back and shoulder removed but it had spread by the time they found it. The doctors said that he should have died 6 months ago because of the large size of his tumors but he has an incredible will to live. He was hoping to live until his 75th birthday which is July 18. I think they are throwing him an early birthday party. I told him after living 74 and 11/12's he could celebrate a couple weeks early! I went to see him yesterday and spend a little time with him. It was hard leaving knowing I won't see him again until heaven probably. Please keep my family in prayer and especially his family as they walk through this diffiult time. My aunt just lost her mother in March and now her husband.
Thank you for your prayers.
God Bless