Time for some new special moments!

New (on my blog)

• Journey to our son
• She’s Finally Home
• Eli’s First Video
• Journey to Yared
• Mercy Comes Home
• We r family
• The Joy of Family
• Bruik and Ava’s Journey Home
• Ella’s Homecoming

Others Previously Posted (but worth another look!)

• Ready to pick up the twins
• The Dunham Family
• Delightful Mihret
• Journey to Ethiopia 2008
• Belane and He is Ours
• Our two little ones
• Adoption 2005
• Bringing home Zoie
• Journey to my daughter Ketema
• Getting Rylee Bona
• Meeting the Boys
• Welcome Home Twins
• We R Family
• Ty Comes Home
• Our Journey to Jonah
• Journey to Sadie Mitike
• Journey to My Daughter
• Journey to Emmy
• Journey to Our Son
• Meeting Zia
• And babies make 10
• Our Angel Astrid
• Bringing Home Girum
• Meeting Silas
• The Triplets
• Our First Year with Ava Sidisse
• Our two little ones
• Bade Family Adoption
• Yosef and Biniam
• Abi’s Journey
• Meeting Silas
• Forever Day
• Our Ethiopian Adoption – Delightful Mihret
• Bringing home Girum
• Happy Referral Day
• Picking Up Abi
• Happy Adoption Day
• Our Adoption Journey
• One Year Later
• Meeting Deacon
• The Miracle of Adoption
• Eva Adoption Video
• Half a World Away
• When Love Takes You In
• Meeting Robel
• Somewhere over the rainbow
• Lisa at the LIGA school
• No small feet
• Journey to Baby Jason

JRock likes these dresses best of all the outfits I have made so far… I actually have some fabric left so I might make some small bottoms, or a floppy hat to match or something.  I think they are cute too!

It’s funny, I haven’t done this for a while, and sometimes you forget stuff like matching up stripes – but it comes back.  And by the time you reach the second dress, it’s quick quick quick!  (Of course, I’ not telling you about totally pulling apart the first dress skirt because I sewed it inside out!)

with the red shorts I made

That’s right people – these are origional designs made by little old me in the Okanagan!  Not as good as Deux par Deux – but a heck of a lot cheaper. I also made some little pantie-covers out of the left-over material (sorry, I have no idea what else to call them) so the girls can play in these shirts and the little covers at the beach, or whatever.

I even have a model to try the fashions out on!

(He’s a few pounds lighter than the girls – but furrier.  I think it evens out.)

The other day I was “window” shoopping for the girls again (sensing a theme?) and I saw two super cool things that I sent to our nephew in Alberta.  Isn’t he rockin’?  We sent D the firetruck print hoodie on the left and the Dr. Seuss hat on the right.

Can’t wait to meet him this summer!  It will be amusing to see how the girls react to their little cousin I wonder if they will try to cart him around or something?! Who knows…

My mother-in-law gave me some cash for Christmas, and told me to go out and buy myself some art to hang on the wall. (I also saved my allowance too ) I just love art – We have quite a few original pieces around the house: paintings, hand-made prints, sculptures, etc. It’s almost all Canadian too… not through design especially but rather because of opportunity. 

Anyway, since December, I’ve been stalking the local galleries, and finally found the perfect piece.  It’s a Jerry Whitehead – he’s an amazing aboriginal artist with a very distinct set of styles.  My sister was shopping with me, and buy, did we have fun pawing through 15 of his paintings!  We decided on this drum, because it was one of my favorites – AND because I had the perfect place to put it in my house.  In the kitchen!  And it’s thematically linked to the Ethiopian goatshide painting below.  See?  Both on hide, both about families, both in traditional ceremonies… I like it, anyway.

Oh, and as I was paying for it, the girl told me that this is probably the only drum Jerry Whitehead has painted.  How cool is that?

So thanks very much to my mom-in-law for the present, and to my jealous-but-still-supportive sister for helping me to pick it out.

As part of a series looking at religious pilgrimages around the world, photographer Karoki Lewis recorded the all night ceremony at Bet Maryam (Church of the Virgin Mary) in Lalibela, Ethiopia, as they celebrated Orthodox Christmas in early January.

To see the beautiful slideshow, click on the picture below.

Winter is still upon us, and I needed a quiet evening hobby that didn’t involve the TV or the computer.  So I was out ‘window’ shopping for the girls the other day (ok, so, I bought stuff – but I intended to window shop) – and I thought “why not make them some clothes?”  By the time they get here, it will be summer, and almost all of their clothes are long-sleeved and jeans.  So I went to the fabric store and spend three hours picking out a couple of patterns and fabric. $90 later – I have a bunch of clothes to make and a whole bunch of non-computer downtime fun!

Now, I’m pretty proud of how my first garments turned out – I haven’t sewn anything since I was 15 and decided the MC Hammer pants I was putting together were fading into un-fashiondom. I have sewn a lot since – but not clothes. 

So I’m really proud of myself! I managed to follow the pattern for some basic red T-shirt jersey shorts, and then I modified them into cute bloomers- they now have wide soft elastic on the legs, and a draw-string waist – which is perfect for growing girls.  They’ll probably last a couple years, actually.

My mom is also sewing them a few things – but the joy of sewing is that there is no way they will end up the same.

The realy funny thing is that all the stuff I picked out is for matching, or same style / different fabric outfits.  This is really wierd, since I’m not a twin-matching kind of gal. BUT, it’s way easier to make two of everything, let me tell you!  So matching outfits, here we come!

Anyway… stayed tuned for more custom creations!

Today Jrock and I had a nice treat – our friend who has sled dogs invited us out for a run this morning.  (Follow the link to his blog here.) It was really fun! We are both big dog lovers and our friend’s dogs are just awesome. 

Below are a few pictures – we went in the wee hours of the morning, so they are pretty dark -but you get the idea.  I also composed a little video below as well, for your viewing pleasure.

We were out this time again on the Kettle Valley Railway – a deserted railbed turned trail system.  Last we time we went to another location along the trail… and they only had 6 dogs then – now they have 8!  It’s pretty cool flying over the tressle bridges in a dogsled.

Last year we went with our friend and his wife as well.  See the post and the video from last year here.

These friends are actually from South Africa- that’s right, South African dog-sledders! lol

They’ve been really nice about asking about the girls, and he suggested we bring the girls out next year. 

Are you kidding?!? Right on!  We’ll be there!  (With matching raspberry and chocolate snowsuits, insulated head-to-toe.) We’re so happy to have the experience – we can’t wait for our girls to try it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our friends B and L arrived last night with their two beautiful little girls!  They are just lovely – smaller than I thought… and surprisingly, they look SO much alike. From their pictures, they seemed more different in appearence.  But they are both super cute in person… and quite the little spitfires.  B and L will have their hands full.

Convincing the girls that they need to put some warm clothes on!

Congratulations, guys! From me, Jrock, and all your friends who wish you all the best with your new family additions.

Girls, girls – everywhere girls

We got some great news today – our friends C & J have accepted a referral for a super cute little girl from China – we are so stoked for them! We actually saw pictures of their daughter on Superbowl Sunday, but we had to keep it a secret until now.  Now, the cat’s out of the bag, and we can be publicly happy for them!

Meanwhile, our good friends L & B from across the lake are in Ethiopia picking up their 4-5 year old daughters – what an amazing journey they must be having.  I can’t wait to talk to them / see them when they get home this coming week. (Plus, we are hoping that L will get to see our girls; they are in the same home as their older daughters.  Hopefully we’ll have a report and pics from L as a bonus.)

All our best to both of you!

Nicky & Jrock

It’s not what you think – better read the post

So my dear husband had a birthday yesterday and we celebrated his firm planting into his thirties.  In the morning before work, he opened his presents at breakfast.  In the afternoon, we went for a long stroll with a friend along the boardwalk while her daughter got her hair cut and cornrowed.  Then after supper and some birthday cupcakes, we headed off to a hockeygame.

The birthday was not remarkable in itself – except for one thing. 

At breakfast, Jrock announced that he was going caffeine-free. 

I was SHOCKED.

For those of you that don’t know – my husband lives on Coke Zero.  He drinks one for breakfast, one for lunch – and then manages to have one in the afternoon as well. 

There are two problems with this: 1. when he DOESN’T have his cola on time, he turns into a ravenous grumpy monster.  So on the weekends, if there isn’t cola in the house, at aprox. 10:30am he turns from Jrock into JBear. The other problem is that it’s hard on his stomach.

I have been trying for years to get him to cut down or stop – and out of the blue, he decides to go cold turkey!

So today, his first day without caffeine in YEARS, was, er… um… interesting.  After a long walk on he beach with the dogs, he’s managed to sleep most of the rest of the day.

But he’s soldiering along and I am so proud of him. 

On the internet, it says that the symptoms (headache, drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, grumpiness,) will get worse up to 48 hours, and then lessen and disappear by 2-9 days.  Let’s hope it’s a quick detox!

I thought this was a great story in O magazine… below is an excerpt, but you can read the whole story by Betsy Berne here.

Brookti,” I said, “when white kids tell you your brown color is yuck, you answer, ‘Well, our president is brown’—and see what they say. When brown kids tell you that I can’t be your mother because I’m white, you answer, ‘Well, our president is brown and his mother was white’—and see what they say. When kids tease you about being African because Africa only has wars and poor people, you answer, ‘Well, our president is part African and he’s proud of it’—and see what they say.

It’s true – what an awesome role model OUR girls will have too!

Hello all you parents and parents-to-be.

My sis has started working on another baby room… this time it is for a couple who are expecting a little girl from China.  They LOVE their pug! so her first sketches (these are very preliminary) are of the pug dancing ballet.  Cute, eh?

If you are interested in having murals done for your kids, please check out www.mosscampion.ca . Silena will travel to Vancouver, the Okanagan, Calgary and all points in between

we are so crazy

We had a really fun and relaxing weekend… My sister S and her husband M drove all the way from Invermere to spend Saturday and Sunday with us.  The occasion? S and I were off to “So you think you can dance?!” while the boys stayed home and played war games on the wii (M’s wii – and the war games were a special no-wife-at-home-therefore-allowed treat.) The concert was super fun – totally everything from the show, but in real life on a not-too-far stage.  We had a blast.

Of course, we also went out and had some fun outside – we hiked south of the Mission Park Greenway, and spent an amusing 1/2 hour at the Environmental Education Centre.

Then on Sunday, after M and S left, we drove out to Lake Country for a Superbowl Party at J and K’s house.  Lots of fun.  Jrock, as you know, is an “intense” NFL fan – but I even managed to stare at the screen for 5+ minutes… the anthem, the Boss and the last 30 seconds of play! lol

Enjoy the pictures!