I have had a lot of time on my hands since waiting for Madison so what is a girl to do? Well....I started working on her announcements! I found these great stamps at Hobby Lobby about adoption so I decided to make my own announcements. I found cards that are like a tag you pull out. Now I only need a picture to go with it. Sure wish that would happen. Tuesday will be 16 months of officially waiting but of course I started way back in June of 2005 with the paper chase. So really we have been waiting almost two years!I know it will all be worth the wait in the end but it is getting really hard to wait, especially when China only does two days of referrals!! What's up with that?! I know she will be here before we know it and we won't have everything done like we want. I did get Madison's crib and changing table. I so want to put it in her room but we haven't finished Brian's room in the basement and I don't think he wants to sleep with a crib in his room!
A girl can never have too many Elmo's either so the other day I went to garage sales and found these three Elmos for three bucks! Who could pass them up. She now has one in every size. Every little girl loves Elmo or that is what they tell me.

Well, this is our 7th week of having snow. We have had some snow every week since the Christmas blizzard and I'm pretty much tired of it. Today started out at 4 degrees and it was bitter cold. Spring cannot get here soon enough. Most people have thier outside Christmas decorations up still because we still have 3 -4 feet of snow in our front yards! It probably won't melt until April. Hopefully the groundhog will be right in that we will have spring soon! I want to see green grass and leaves on the trees.
I am in an adoption website group and we have a secret pal gift exchange every month. My secret pal is from Canada and I recieved some nice gifts from her today. It made my Friday! I love receiving packages for Madison. We have themes every month but this month was anything we wanted. I just love the beany bear she sent. It has a cute little ladybug on it. Ladybugs are good luck for adopting families in China. I have collected several ladybug things for Madison. Her room is almost done. I have one more saying to put on one wall and some touch ups to do. It is looking soooo cute! I can't wait to get furniture in there.
Mark, Brian, and our friend Ron have been working very hard on the basement. They are done with the drywall and will get it inspected on Monday. Then it's taping, mudding, sanding, painting time! Let the fun begin!!

Here are some pictures of Madison's room. I am done with the animals
and
now I just need to paint the
other wall in her room.
I am almost
done
and can't wait to get
her crib and
other furniture in her
room. I think it turned out pretty darn cute! I can't wait for
her to be in it. I even put wooden flowers, dragonflies, butterflies,
and ladybugs on the wall to make it look 2 dimensional. Now I just have
to make a birdhouse for Owl to put in the corner. I hope she loves it!

Here are a few pictures of Madison's room so far. I am almost finished with one wall. I think it looks pretty cute. It is bright. I hope she will be able to sleep. I hope to have her room completed by the end of January and have Brian moved downstairs. We are ready to do drywall in the basement so things are progressing.

Merry Christmas!!


I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I am ready for 2007 because this is our year...the year we get Madison. Hopefully we will get her sooner than later. I am looking to a February referral and travel in April. April would be wonderful because it's my birthday and I think she would be a wonderful birthday present. April would be a good time to travel because it will be springtime. We are looking forward to a wonderful 2007!

Happy Christmas Eve to all!!
It sure doesn't seem like it's Christmas Eve. It has been a lazy day for me. Mark and Brian went to the movies and did some last minute shopping. I stayed home, baked, watched Christmas movies, cleaned, watched the Broncos, and spent time on the computer. I finally got out of my pajamas at 4:00pm! I know, why bother. I sure wish we had Madison this Christmas. I was so looking forward to a little one getting us up at 4:00am and seeing her eyes light up when she sees all those presents. Brian is not into Santa anymore and we ususally have to get him up. At least we know next year we will have a little girl running around.
It's snowing in Denver but not here. We had planned on going to Denver to see the lights at the county building but since it is snowing pretty good down there, we changed our minds. They have the lights up until the end of the stock show which is mid-January so we will see them then.
Merry Christams and Happy Holidays to all!!

Blizzard 2006
Wow! We got about 20 inches of snow the past two days. We started shoveling out yesterday... or should I say Mark and Brian did. I stayed inside where it was much warmer. They had a lot of shoveling to do. Mark helped shovel the neighbors. He had a snow blower which helped a lot. The dogs had a great time and were out there with Brian and his friend for a couple of hours. They whined when they had to come in. The dogs love the snow. The drifts were about four feet high. It was hard for Sh'Daisy to run in it but she kept up with Brian. They had a blast! We definitely will have a white Christmas. I'm sure this snow will stick around for awhile. The whole town was shut down for a couple of days. I still need to do some shopping but I think it can wait a day or two. Even the post office was shut down for two days. Oh well. Not much we can do about it. Christmas cards will be a little late. Something to look forward after Christmas! At least we got Christmas pictures taken.

Today is our one year anniversary of our log in date so we had a Red Thread picture taken. The only person missing is Madison. We will take another picture when Madison arrives. Hopefully we are only 3 -4 months away from getting her. Then the red thread connection will be complete!

We had a friend over tonight who took a lot of pictures of us for Christmas cards. He does a great job and we had a lot to choose from. Tomorrow I plan on going to get Christmas cards mailed out and send them on their way. I am a little late but oh well. Now that I am on vacation for 19 days I will hopefully be able to catch up on things. My list seems to be getting longer of things I want to get done.
The main thing I really want to get done is Madison's room. I started painting over Thanksgiving break but haven't had time since. I hope to get it done over winter break. Then I will feel we are so close to getting Madison. Today is actually one year for our log in date. Oh, how I wish we had Madison here for Christmas. God is good and she will be here soon. The wait is so long and hard but at least I know we have less days to wait now than more. At least we know we will have her this time next year.