{Tu Tu} Much

I just wanted to pop in to let you all know I am going to be taking a little bloggy break for the next week or so. My job has been demanding a lot more of my time and attention, so I really need to focus. It also looks as though I am going to be jumping on a plane to Louisville, KY again in the next couple of days, so I have a LOT to do around here before I go.

There are some really exciting things going on surrounding my career and when I come back I will tell you all about it. The last week has been almost like a dream, and I keep thinking I am going to wake up and reality is going to hit. I can't help but feel that everything is starting to line up for the upcoming adoption.

In addition to my real job, I have been a little busy with the camera as well. I did two photoshoots over the past two days. Some of you might recognize "L" if you visit THIS blog. Isn't she absolutely adorable? She is just the sweetest little thing....just like her Mommy:)


I also photographed her cousin "T". Her beauty is just mesmerizing........the girl definitely has a future as a model. I have lots of pictures to prove it:)



Alright, just wanted to let you know, I did not drop off the face of the earth. Still here, just {tu tu} much going on right now:)

One last thing...... I had a few people leave comments about the asian inspired dress that Sarah was wearing in previous post "I feel like jumping for joy". It was a gift from a lovely bloggy friend, but I contacted her and she happily forwarded me the link to the boutique. Click HERE to see her shop.

Have a great week......I will try to check in real soon. Miss you all:)

Friends, Flowers, and Fountains

Last Sunday we took a little trip to Longwood Gardens with Kira and Ivy. Some of you might remember that Pat and I took the kids there around the holidays to see their Christmas exhibit. It was so crowded that we didn't get to see much and left feeling a little frustrated. This time it was so much different....there were not many people at all.

It was a gorgeous day and we all had a wonderful afternoon. I went a little nuts with the camera.....there were so many pretty things. The flowers and fountains were amazing and not to mention all of the beautiful architecture. Of course we snuck in some shots of our little beauties too!!

I will let the pictures do most of the talking......


Sarah shooting Kira one of her looks.....I think she was tryint to protect her pretzels or she was asking Kira for one of hers:) The girls ate almost an entire bag of Honey Wheat Pretzels.....I can't blame them, they are SO addicting:)


Aren't these fountains beautiful? The girls saw the water and couldn't wait to go in......although, we had to point them to the fountains that were designated for the little ones....


Now this one was more their size.......


Kira absolutely loved this fountain.....she even put her face right in the stream of water....what a cutie!!


And after an hour in the fountains......this is what Sarah looked like. Good thing we brought towels and an extra sets of clothes......we sure needed them:)


Had to get a couple shots of the beautiful flowers.....



Hope you all have a wonderful weekend......we have a busy one ahead!!

I Feel Like Jumping For Joy

Why do I feel like jumping for joy???

Because after 2.5 years of sleeping in our bed.......Sarah has decided to sleep in her new big girl bed and has made it through the night without waking up or crawling in with us!! This is a MAJOR milestone for her....and for us:)

I know that the sleeping thing is a touchy subject and there are so many schools of thought and many people are quick to judge and tell you what is right or wrong, but until you are in a situation with a child who has sleep issues, you shouldn't pass judgement.

We never had any sleeping issues with Nick.....he slept in his crib and in his room since the first day we brought him home from the hospital with no problems whatsoever. When Nick was a toddler, I had a couple of friends that told me they let their kids sleep with them and I could never understand why the let it go on as long as they did. Well......we found out the hard way when Sarah came along.

As a little infant she wanted to be near us and we had her in a tiny basinett right next to our bed. She woke up numerous times each night for feedings and in search of her Nu Nu(Pacifier) We moved when she was only 8 weeks old and once we got to the new house, we tried to get her set up in her own room.

At first she didn't seem to mind, she still woke up a couple of times each night, but for 8 week old infants, this seemed to me normal. As time went on, she seemed to dislike her crib more and more. She would scream every time we tried to put her down. Sarah never even took naps in her crib. She typically slept in her swing or in her little carry seat. Bedtime became such a fight and with both Pat and I both working we dreaded sleepless nights and just started letting her sleep with us. I admit, it was the "easy thing to do" Once we caved, there was no turning back!!

Never did I think she would have been lying between us all this time and I am not sure if we had to do it all over again, we would do anything differently. At the time, we felt she needed to be with us to feel secure so we let it continue and felt that when she was ready we would officially move her out and take our bed back.



Well the time is here!!! She did really well and we were so proud of her.....we made a huge deal over it.

This was a major breakthrough.......now we need to work on the pacifier at bedtime. We don't want to push too many changes on her at once and give her a little time yet, but the goal is to get her over it by the time we get our referral......which could easily be anothery 9 or 10 months......ugh!!!

Hope you all have a great week........and yes, I changed my blog again. I think now that I know how to do it myself, there will be frequent changes around here!

Start Your Engines.........

It has been a whirlwind of a week around here.....lots of cousin fun!! Eddie and Nick had a great time together and of course Sarah was trying to keep up with them every step of the way. As I said last week, both Pat and I were juggling our jobs and some fun activities for the kids. We got in a game or two of mini golf, some trips to the park, and out for ice cream a couple of nights, but Thursday I took the day off from work because we had planned on taking them to Hershey Park.

Most kids would be thrilled at the thought to go to such a place, but Nick was far from thrilled.......he is not a thrill seeker and actually gets quite intimidated by rollercoasters and very large rides. He was visibly upset at the thought of going, so we had to come up with another idea.

Last weekend, I saw that another bloggy friend took her kids to a place called RIDEMAKERZ. I showed the boys the website and they were jumping up and down with joy saying "Let's Go There"

After investigating, the closest store was in Baltimore, and I figured it was worth the 2.5 hour drive if it was somthing that they both really wanted to do.......so that is what we did.


Upon walking in the door, we viewed this wall of many car choices!! The concept behind this store is along the lines of build a be@r, but you are building race cars instead.

The kids eyes lit up as if it was Christmas morning when we walked through the doors. The options were endless.....

Once you pick the car body, you choose if you want to make it a remote control car or just a regular model and then if you want to make it a monster version. They all chose to do remote control, but no one did monster. After that it was time to pick the wheels and the rims and the horn type.....yes they had 5 options of different horns!!! After all the big choices were made, they moved to the workstations for the real fun to begin!!!!


They were shown how to assemble the wheels and the rims using the power tools hanging from the ceiling. They even were timed like they were a pit crew......you can tell they were into it......

The little girl between Nick and Eddie is my friends daughter. She went mini golfing with us the night before and when she found out where we were going, she wanted to come along!! She is such a cute little girl......she is a total tomboy and loved hanging with Nick and Eddie. You should see her throw a football......it blows me away:)


After the wheels were all on, it was time to pick some more accessories to bling it out. This part of the process was the most overwhelming......there were TONS of options and different little things to add to the cars. All at an additional price...of course:)


After the cars were completed, it was time for license and registration. They moved the kids to their own computer station where they named their cars and filled out all the "owner" information. Once complete, it was printed out and the license was put on the car and the title and registration went in the box with the remote and a screwdriver in the shape of a key!!


Do those look like happy faces or what?? They could not wait to get home and test drive them!! The car ride home seemed like an eternity....they asked "how much longer" about 10 times. The minute I pulled up to the house, they jumped out, ran in the garage, took their cars out of their boxes and started their engines!!

It was really worth it.......about 20 minutes later, they had drawn a town out of chalk on the driveway and were driving their cars all around "town". They even made a ramp with some leftover wood we had stored in the basement. They played outside all night. They couldn't wait for it to get dark because the cars even come with working headlights, so they can see where they are going!!

Check out the website for a location near you.....they even do birthday parties!!

Partners In Crime

Life is busy.....I keep thinking that things are going to start to slow down, but that is just not happening. There is always somewhere to go or something to do. I have had little to no time to blog about what is going on in our lives and haven't had much time to make my rounds and stop in on all my bloggy friends.....Sorry, I am still here and hope that as the summer comes to an end, I will get back on my regular schedule!!

On Sunday, we had Kira and Ivy up for a playdate. It was a gorgeous day to be outdoors, it was warm with a really nice breeze......so unusual for this time of year. Anyway, the girls had such a great time running around together....and when I turned my back for one second, Sarah snuck the into my bag and took the skittles. She quickly grabbed her partner in crime so they could eat them under the tree. Sarah is on to me and knows that I keep a stash hidden in my camera bag for those who need a little bribery to cooperate:) The teddy bears they were playing with minutes before hit the dirt as soon as the skittles came out.....

While the girls were in complete sugar shock, Nick and Eddie, another duo to be reckoned with, had some fun of their own.......They played some ball and did some rock climbing, and even allowed us a couple minutes to have their pictures taken:)



I am juggling my job this week and some special activities for the boys.....we have a great day trip planned for Thursday. They have been talking about it since Saturday and are really excited about where we are going. Look for my next post......it will surely be filled with photos from our excursion:)

Hope you all have a great week!!

The Boy On The Board.....

UPDATE: I am under construction here at "The Long Road to China" I am doing my first blog makeover on my own:) Now that I know photoshop, I figured I would try my hand at blog design. It wasn't easy, but I am pretty thrilled with the results. A special thanks to Marla and Jennifer for your help with some of the HTML code. I couldn't have done it without you:) Still working on my signature and little seperater, but I should have it all finished shortly!!

Here is a little peak at Nick during our beach weekend getaway.......he loves to skimboard and almost every picture I have of him from that weekend, he is riding either his skimboard or boogie board. This pic is my fav because I love the look of determination on his face and the splash of water at his feet!!

We have really missed Nick.........He has been gone all week. While we were on the Cape for the fourth, we met up with my Aunt and Uncle. They took Nick back to Rhode Island for the week. He loves going and spending time with his cousin Eddie. Some of you might remember Eddie, he has made quite a few appearances here on the blog last summer and over the holidays when they came to visit.

Tomorrow I am heading to Conneticut to meet them and bring Nick and Eddie down here. Eddie is now going to spend a week with us!! We are trying to plan a couple of day trips with the kids and I am sure we will make a trip or two to the pool.

Sorry I have been a total blog slacker....I think it is the time of year. Too much to do and not enough hours in the day. Have a great weekend......I can't believe how quickly this week has gone. I hope that I will have some fun things to post next week:)

The Sun, The Sand, The Ocean and........

.......The White Dress!!!









We just arrived back home this morning from our little Cape Cod getaway. Although, we are one short....... Nick stayed in New England with his cousin for the week and will be coming back home this weekend. He was so excited:)

We had a great time visiting with our family and spent almost everyday at the beach.....we lucked out because the weather was absolutely beautiful!! As you can see, Miss Sarah was in her element........her little feet never stopped moving the entire time we were at the beach!!

I feel like I have been gone for ages and have so much catching up to do!! We are busy unpacking and getting things situated, because tomorrow, it is back to work:( I have many more beach pictures to come, but just thought I would post a few......

Hope you all had a Happy 4th.......I will be stopping by to catch up with you all soon!!

Have a great week!!