Nostalgic

A year ago today we were driving to the cities with luggage and paperwork preparing to go get Liv - and super excited in the midst of it. What an amazing week. A year ago Friday - the 3rd - we met Liv for the first time. I don't think I'll ever forget those emotions of standing right out side the door and crossing the threshold to see this tiny, beautiful little girl - our daughter. And next Wednesday the 8th is our Gotcha Day as it's called in the adoption world - the anniversary of when you "get" your child. A 36 hour day for us - but we survived the flight and the week of jet lag that followed. What a blessing Olivia has been. Amidst all the uncertainty and unknowns, the Lord has far exceeded our expectations. I never get tired of being amazed and grateful at who she is and how she's fit so well in our family. But the Lord knew and he kept us going. She is such a delight, and I am so blessed to be her mother.

A Nice Day to go to the Zoo

Well, a few pictures before we get to the zoo pictures. Here's my good friend Jill, Aunt Jill we call her or "Ah Ju" as Livie says. They get along pretty well... We Love you Jill!

Post-bath in her towel. Daddy gives Liv her bath and Mom does the dishes :).

We went to the Como Zoo in St. Paul yesterday. The weather was great as we ventured out with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Cory, Aunt Cindy, and Cai. They didn't quite have things all set up for the warmer months, and most of the animals were indoors. Liv loved seeing the giraffe and zebras (mo zeebas? she'd say).

Liv LOVES her cousin Cai. He's such a cute nephew and sweet baby :).

Let's walk Grandma and Pop!

Attached to the zoo is a conservatory. We quickly strolled through 15 minutes before they closed - Liv was hurtin' for a nap :).

Here's the "kids" and their kids :).

Overall, we've been doing well lately. We had spring break this past week and stayed home so Aaron could plan the summer project he's co-directing this summer. We didn't quite get done all that we had wanted to. Life throws stuff at you like a computer crash, etc. But it turns out we're going to get our other "dead" laptop refurbished. So that one will be like new, and we'll be back to 2 computers. It'll be nice. How spoiled are we, but Aaron works from home a lot, and we really do use both.

Liv continues to be a delight as we approach the first celebration of her "Gotcha Day" as it's known in the adoption world. I call her my Sweet Pea to which she responds, Fwee Pea. I love it. Her new favorite thing is helping to put the dishes away, which she'll even ask to do as we're driving or doing other things. We carry her and lift her up and down and show her just where each thing goes. She's starting to learn where things belong which amazes me. It's a nice way to get this chore done but still have it be play with Liv as well. Overall, she really likes to help and does a great job. I'm trying more and more to figure out ways to get things done and involve her in that. We're just enjoying her so much. She has such a sweet personality and is tender towards other little ones. She's learning to count a little and knows her animals and sounds really well. She continues to love books, and in her Dr. Seuss alphabet book she knows what some of the letters are.

Well, there's a litte update. We hope you're doing well as spring slowly makes its way in! Yay!

Much love from the Joneses.

I Love Sundays

I love the Sundays we get to stay home. Today was a typical Sunday. We went to church in the morning, then came home and had lunch. When Liv goes down for her nap, Aaron and I read or rest or lounge on the couch. Sometimes we do a little laundry, but for the most part we just rest on Sundays. Now that it's nicer out, we went for a walk after Liv woke up. We play in the basement and chase Liv around. She laughs and squeals. It's so fun to watch her personality and her play. Before children, Aaron and I followed his family's tradition of a simple supper of popcorn, fruit slices, cheese and crackers... whatever we feel like munching on as we watch a Sunday night movie or TV. And so now with Liv we're keeping that little tradition. She's old enough now to munch on things in the basement as well. I just love the day to lay low and be together as a family. It's so relaxing and both good quality/quantity time together :).

Red Envelope Day

Hi! I just wanted to pass on a great (and simple) opportunity to make your voice heard. Anyone that knows me (and read this blog around election time) knows that I'm pro-life. There's something coming up on March 31st called Red Envelope Day. It involved sending an empty red envelope to the white house. The empty envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion. To see more and to see what to write on each envelope go to www.redenvelopeday.com.

Snapshots of life

My dear friend, co-worker, and boss has taken a huge step of faith and has moved to Brazil for a good part of 2009 to reach college students there for Christ. She left the beginning of February, and I miss her a lot (as does Liv - "Lana? Lana? Bye, Bye Lana.") SO GRATEFUL for the 4 1/2 years I've been able to work under her and learn from her. Definitely a gift from the Lord.



We had the AIA retreat in the Dells a week and a half ago. All the students stayed at the Kalahari, but because there were so many students the staff stayed at a hotel nearby. Our hotel had a little kiddie pool that was perfect for Liv and not at all crowded. The reason the window behind is blinding white is because it was snowing 4 inches outside - what a mess!

Also at the hotel, Liv sporting dad's hat and gloves. She loves to put them on :).

While Aaron was in meetings, Liv and I wandered around the Kalahari. She loved playing on this little truck - and I didn't even have to put any money in it! She just liked to push the buttons. She probably spent 10 or 15 minutes in there.

Liv is starting to get the concept of smiling for the camera. Is she not just the cutest! :) More and more becoming a little girl...

She's loving her baby more and more. She'll go in her room and pull out some diapers and put them on her. She'll cuddle her and hold her gently. It's so sweet.

This was just this past Sunday - She fit into a dress Nama had gotten her awhile ago.

Always Daddy's Little girl :).

In other news, I got to speak at a nearby campus' weekly meeting. I gave my talk about God adopting us that I've mentioned. We had to drive through the snowstorm last Thursday to get there (so grateful for the Lord's protection), but I think it went well. I'm so glad to have that talk done and in the file. I know I'll be able to use it again.

This past weekend we just stayed home which was so very nice. Last week was nuts, and it was so good to rest a bit. We watched the Karate Kid which was on TV Saturday morning. Ah, what a classic :). I'm always so grateful to down time and time together as a family. Dear friends from the cities drove over for fajitas on Sunday, and we really enjoyed the time with them. That pretty much rounded out the weekend.

And I just finished a little night snack of frozen mango - so good! Who knew! Thawed a little it's fantastic. Just a healthy snack I've found to recommend to any of you who are interested.

Much love to you all and have a great week!

Updates

I won't lie, I've been having an undeclared boycott on the computer. I've been attempting to keep up on email but not much else. I've just had little motivation and have potentially bit off more than I can chew this semester. I'm somewhat managing to keep up and taking it as a lesson learned to what's manageable :). And Aaron's computer has the dreaded blue screen of death and most likely will not be with us anymore. So we're also sharing a laptop :). But all that considered, here's a few little updates via bullet points cause I like bullet points.

• Liv continues to LOVE books. I'm so grateful. We read to her frequently in the day, and she has a few favorites that get more attention. We recently added Dr. Suess' "Hop on Pop" which she loves.
• In the last couple weeks she's started to sing a little on her own - so cute. And for some random reason I got a song in my head from Dream Girls (have only seen it once) that Jennifer Hudson sings - "no, no, no, no way.... I can't make it without you..." Etc. Anyway, I kept singing it cause it was in my head, and now periodically Liv will sing, "no, no, no way." So now I keep singing it with her :).
• So I'm going to post this story so I don't forget it cause we thought it was pretty funny. Liv woke up super early on Sunday morning - I think 5. I have the 6 a.m. rule. So Aaron goes into get her and comes back telling me that I have to see this. I go in and Liv is stark naked standing in her crib. No pj's, no diaper, just a smile. I guess she got bored? Aaron said he went in there and she says, Burrr. We just laughed. It was so funny (funny because there was not diaper incident to clean up...).
• My parents came up this past weekend for Valentine's Day. Liv got time with Pop and Nama, and Aaron and I went on a date. It was a fun weekend.
• This coming weekend we have an AIA retreat. So I'm excited to see how it goes.

On another unrelated note, I keep thinking about where we were a year ago, weeks away from getting Liv, trusting the Lord to provide for the adoption, working, getting ready at home, trying to learn as much as we could. It was definitely one of the busiest times of our lives. I just can't believe we're closing in on a year. It's gone by so fast. The Lord has been so good to provide for our every need - it always amazes me. I'm writing a talk about God's adoption of us. For the past few months I've been pondering all that we've done in our adoption of Liv and how it mirrors God's adoption of us as His children. It's been so fun to really let some of that truth sink in. I'm excited about it. I'll be speaking at a campus near here next week; so I'm trying to finish it up. Anyway, those are some of the things that are happening with the Joneses. Hope you're doing well. Much love from the Joneses!

Be it ever so humble...

I had the chance to go on a women's retreat this past weekend - lovely. I was able to spend time with some dear friends, hear some excellent teaching, and visit the outlet mall nearby (Liv has clothes for next fall :). But by Monday morning, I missed my little girl! It was so good to come back to 20 pounds of smiles and lovin'. Whenever I'm away from Liv for an extended period of time, I always just sit and watch her and try to see any new little tricks she's picked up. ...there's no place like home :).

High/Low from the week so far...

The "high" for this week so far was last night. I had 10 women downstairs in the family room for Bible study, and Aaron was upstairs in the living room having a planning meeting with the 3 AIA leaders we have. I just love it. We have the greatest students - I love them so much.

The "low" for this week so far is tonight. Our roommates moved out today, and the house is quiet and empty. We so loved having Jake and Hilary here. We'll miss them but are so grateful for the blessing of having them here!

Love my Little Girl

So we've had ups and downs this week - lots of time-outs for hitting and lots of moments that just make me smile. Liv is just so cute sometimes. She's decided that rising WAY to early in the morning is fun (5:30 am). I, however, have a "no-rise-earlier-than-6AM" rule. So fortunately she's pretty content to lay there and hold her blanket and monkey (muhkey) for awhile while I sleep another 1/2 hour. Anyway, by 6:30 we're watching the Mickey Mouse clubhouse and reading about the sounds of Mr. Brown. This morning they had a little claymation short after Mickey and I told Livie, "Look at all the sheep." To which she replied, "Baaa." I just laughed. And this afternoon we both layed on the floor in the family room and pretented to sleep and wake the other up. Her "sleeping" was laying on her side and pretend snoring with her eyes wide open. I love it.

Also, totally random side note, but Aaron discovered this in the "Good Night Moon" book... Look at the 3rd picture in the room (not the Cow Jumping over the Moon or the 3 Bears Sitting on Chairs). It's creepy! It's a bunny fishing with a carrot for bait, and it looks like he's "fishing" for the other smaller bunny in the picture. Really odd.

Bye Bye Daddy

Aaron left last Sunday for training to direct the summer project we'll be going on this summer. So he flew out Sunday and returned on Thursday - though because of the cold, cold weather he had car trouble and came home on Friday. Liv and I went to my parents home for a few days. And because of the cold, we drove part way home to Aaron's parent's on Thursday and stayed there 'til Friday. They had school cancelled, and we had a great day together :). I was so grateful, though, for when all 3 of us were home safe on Friday. I just miss Aaron so much when he's gone :).

It's fun to see how much Liv loves her grandparents, especially her Grandpas. She calls both of them and Great Grandpa "Pop". I don't know what her word for Grandma is, but she's definitely her Grandpas' little girl.

Here's a few other pictures from the month so far:

This was right at the beginning of January, Aaron was feeding Liv lunch and turned away for just a second and when he turned back she was asleep.

Playing in the laundry basket. I love how much kids love to play with "non-toys" - toys all around them and all they want is the box (or in Liv's case, the phone or computer...).

We had Liv dedicated last Sunday as well. It's really hard to see, but we dressed her in her han bok as well. I just thought it would be meaningful to have that piece of her heritage during her dedication.

We had fun at Grandma and Grandpa Jones' on Thursday. Here's Liv sporting Grandpa's sweatshirt. I can't imagine why it didn't fit - he's only 6' 5" and Liv is 2' 6".

Christmas

We had so much fun with Liv and our families this Christmas. We got to spend some time with each family which was a blessing. Liv enjoyed the fun as well. Here's a few snapshots from the holiday.

Christmas Sunday morning in her Christmas dress. Always an adventure to photograph a moving target :).

Christmas Eve with Great Grandpa.

Christmas morning with Daddy.

Watching Disney's Very Merry Christmas Parade with Grandma and Grandpa - not a surprise for anyone who knows my parents :).

And she didn't make it very far into the parade after all the excitement Christmas morning.

Grandpa and Cousin Cai - and 3 is a nice fit for this rocker!

Yay Cousin Cai! She loved playing with her cousin and continues to look at his picture on the fridge and say his name.


With Daddy and Grandma at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house the day after Christmas hanging out with the fam :).

Tales of Mommyhood

Liv is really starting to enjoy having books read to her. She can't sit still long enough for a longer book, but her board books are becoming favorites. I got a few more from the thrift store (so much cheaper and in good shape!). So I've read "Oh the Wonderful Sounds Mr. Brown Can Do" - a Dr. Seuss book - about 15 times today. She loves to hear it over and over. But I really love reading to her and am so grateful she's starting to enjoy it.

LONG Time No Post

Wow! I knew it had been awhile since my last post, but I didn't realize it had been nearly a month! Goodness! Liv is taking an extra long nap at the moment; so I'll write as long as I can :).

First, she had her 18 month check-up on Dec. 18th. She weighed in at a whopping 19 1/2 pounds and was just shy of 30 inches long. She's 2% on the weight chart (or as the nurse said, there would be one baby smaller than her at her age) and 8% on the height chart. So we've lost a couple percentage points. Her 18 month clothes are, for the most part, a little big. But we're still holding strong as small and mighty :).

Her vocab continues to grow. It's been so much fun to just watch her acquire language. One day she just picked up the TV remote and said, "mote." And she's done that with other things as well. Here's a few more words to add to the list:

• Phone - fofe or foph (I don't know how to best phonetically spell that)
• Her blanket - beek
• Sleep - beep (also same word still for grape)
• Baby - beebee - frequently paired with bye bye baby (buh bye bee bee) or Hi baby
• Please - peesh
• car - cow
• Dolly
• Purse - purt
• Bible - Bi-buh
• Tree - tee
• Monkey

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but it's a start.

We had a great Christmas - it was fun to see what Liv would do. She got excited to open about 4 presents and then was done. But she kissed the first few gifts which was so cute (One was a doll and the other was Fisher Price Little People). We were gone from Dec. 22nd until Jan. 2nd. So it was a long time to be away from home, and by the end it was wearing on Liv. From Dec. 27th on we were at the Christmas conference with the students in Minneapolis. There were 200+ staff and 1500-1700 students. It's an awesome conference, and one I really loved as a student. We had 80 students from our campus there which we were really grateful for. It was different to do this conference with a little one. Aaron had to work really late a few nights, and Liv would wake up at 5:30 or 6 - so not a lot of sleep, but overall we did fine.

I of course have a bunch of pictures on my camera which I need to find a chance to upload to my laptop so I can post them. So hopefully soon...

Well, Happy 2009 everyone!

Quick story

Just about every Friday this semester, our staff team meets for lunch and Bible study. We've had a student babysit Liv for those 2 hours, and we've been so grateful for his willingness to do that. Dan does a great job with her but is (as any male college senior) hesitant to change any poopy diapers. So we're finishing up our meeting yesterday, and Aaron gets a text. He smiles and shows me. I, however, couldn't stop laughing. It said, "She had a monster poo. I almost threw up." Probably part of what's so funny about it is knowing Dan, but I couldn't stop laughing picturing him changing it because I'm sure he literally almost threw up.

The picture above is when we lived next to Dan in S. Carolina this summer. What a good sport :).

Last Times

Last Monday (Dec. 1st) was our first day weaning Liv off her bottle. We were only giving her a bottle at her naptimes and bedtime. So that day we just gave her her sippy cup for sleep times. She didn't ask for her bottle and has done great. And now for the last few weeks she only goes up and down the stairs holding our hands and tries to step like a big girl. She doesn't crawl up the stairs anymore. And I've just been thinking about the last time Liv does something. We don't always know when the last time is a last time. And while I treasure watching her grow and learn new things, I get a bit nostalgic thinking about how she's not really a baby anymore. Looking at the picture above, it's so easy to see how she's grown and lost some of that baby chubbyness. What a sweetheart. We are so blessed she'd our daughter. I'll ask Livie if she's momma's sweet pea, and she'll nod her head yes. It's awesome.