Merry Christmas, Ya'll!

In pictures! We enjoyed our decorations at home and then took them down on December 19th. We went to TX for the holidays and frankly, I wanted to enjoy them without thinking of some dusty trees and snowmen waiting for me in NC. I came down with a nasty, nasty stomach thing 2 days before we left. Praise the Lord, Marshall was on a half day schedule and helped me sooo much. He took down every stinkin' decoration. And cleaned out the refrigerator because the sight of food made me want to, you know...

We tried to keep it simple this year and keep our focus on Christ. I know Silas doesn't fully understand yet, but I want him to always know what Christmas is about.

We spent Christmas Eve at the candlelight service at our home church and then it was a tissue paper frenzy at the Bohannon house. That's Silas under the tissue paper frenzy.

Collin, Griffin and Ryan showing me their Art For Africa shirts.

Christmas morning at my parents' house. We exchanged gifts and enjoyed watching Silas. Marshall's dream came true and he got a PS3. Happy man. I know the way to my man's heart....electronics. :)

We then moved over to the Coen house.

Silas opened presents...

...and tried to take other grandson's presents....

These are all of the grandchildren (all boys!) on the Coen side. Handsome guys!

Here are all of the grandchildren on the Bohannon side. Surprise! All boys again!!

We hope your Christmas was full of Hope and Joy! We were thankful to spend it with family and friends.

cheesecake?

The UPS man dropped of the most wonderful cheesecake today.

There's just one problem...we don't know who to thank! There was no information about the sender, just a Merry Christmas message to us.

Did you send us a cheesecake? If so, please step forward! :)

these are a few of my favorite things...

...about Silas right now. We have a basket of blankets and books by the couch. On his way back around from trying to play our floor lamp like a trombone, he likes to stop by the basket and choose a book or two. Now he's grabbing a book, sitting down and thumbing through it and then he stands up at the couch with the book, as if to say, "Please read this to me, Mother". Or more like "ma ma ma ma ma ma....."

Gets me every time.

It doesn't matter if I'm standing in the kitchen or sitting on the floor playing with the boy. One of his favorite things is "sneaking" up behind me. (Did I already tell you this?) I call out, "Silas, Silas! Where are you?!" And then I try to turn around and see him both directions. We both squeal with delight. I think I already shared this story. I need more coffee.

What else....I love how in the middle of a meal he just starts clapping. It's like he's saying, "Bravo, Mama! Bravo!" That's what I like to think, anyway.

He's making new sounds...the "kh" sound. He's trying to imitate some animal sounds too.

Don't tell him, but I know how to get him to come to me every time he's going the wrong direction. Just call out his name and when he stops and turns to look I hold up a book. Maybe that will still work when he's 15?

Oh the joy of that boy.

one more Christmas gift idea

Did you enjoy the Mocha Club video below? Even if you never watch videos people post, please watch that one. I think it will speak to your heart. We joined Mocha Club and I just got my "I need Africa more than Africa needs me" t-shirt. Let me just say it's an awesome t-shirt. I would consider myself pretty knowledegable on t-shirts too. Most of my wardrobe has something to do with a t-shirt. :)

On the subject of t-shirts, I have another goody for you. My friend Apryl got me this cool t-shirt. She got it from another adoptive Momma who is raising money for their adoption. This Momma, who shall remain nameless, is not allowed to advertise their adoption in any way, shape or form. The agency this family is working with has very strict rules about this. So, they have no way to get the word out about their stuff. From first hand experience I can tell you that their product is really good. Here are some pictures. Email me if you would like to purchase a shirt or water bottle. These would make great Christmas presents and totally fit the Advent Conspiracy theme.

[The red/white is kidsI have the green one...it's a junior's cut and very stylish. Marshall has the blue short sleeve which is men's or unisex. The long sleeved one in the back is unisex. Water bottle, below, is stainless steel.]

Can I also say that shopping with purpose has been SO fun this year. There are some wonderful products out there that support some wonderful things. Shop on!

One more thing....Silas is sooo fun. His favorite thing to do is "sneak" up behind me, either while I'm standing or sitting on the floor, and "hide" from me. I call out, "Silas! Silas! Where are you?..." He giggles with delight and thinks it's so funny. Every time. He also likes to clap his hands and stayed with a babysitter for the first time this week. Twice. Tis' the Season. Actually it was our sweet neighbor and she was nice enough to come over to our house and spend time with him. He knows her and loves her and it made it so easy. Next I'll ask her to volunteer in the church nursery.

And I'm so proud of Silas' eating. He is eating like a champ. He loves steamed veggies, sweet potatoes, turkey sandwiches, puffs, etc. His bottle to sippy cup transition was seamless. I thought it would be difficult, but he just "got it" and hasn't had a bottle in a week. Thank You, Lord for that mercy!

Mocha Club

Check out this great video from Mocha Club. Wow!

All I Want for Christmas is...

for things to change. Who says we should be stressed out and in debt by mid December? Why not do something different this year? Shake it up. Here are some ideas for gifts that benefit those that make them or just benefit those in need. If you have others to share, please leave a comment!

FEED Bag

Tom's Shoes (one pair of shoes purchased = one pair of shoes to a child without...their next drop is Ethiopia)

Timbali Crafts (handicrafts/bags Swaziland)

Suubi (necklaces)

AHOPE (bracelets, t-shirts, etc)

Compassion International

Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog

Heifer International

Mocha Club

Orphan's Ticket Home

Africa Bags

Water for Christmas

Ten Thousand Villages

Gobena Coffee

Now, can someone help me figure out what to get our nephews, 4-11? Something tells me one of you dear readers will know!

This shopping will make your heart feel full, not anxious. Let me know what you find!

gobble gobble!

We had a blessed Thanksgiving together....3 years is a long time to be away, especially during the holidays.

Sophie and Billy watched through the window as Marshall and Dad put up our fence.

Gaga, Katy, Silas and I went to the Airborne & Special Forces museum in downtown Fayetteville. It's a really good one, so if you're ever in town, I'd recommend it.

We met some friendly soldiers...

PaPa shelled lots of pecans from their trees so Gaga could make pecan pies. Yumm-E!

Silas supervised...

I feel much better now that I've finally caught up with the blog. All of these bloggable moments just weigh on my shoulders until I can get them up. :) Thanks for bearing with me!

happy first birthday, Silas!

What a wonderful birthday!! The pictures are pretty clear on how the boy felt about his carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese icing. He enjoyed it later from my lap. Aunt Katy arrived on Saturday and PaPa and Gaga (Jill's parents) drove in tonight. We ate dinner and then celebrated Silas. Like most kids his age, he enjoyed the tissue paper and boxes and we're slowly introducing his new books and toys. Who knew birthday cards tasted so good?

Silas Mezmur Coen, your daddy and I are blessed beyond measure to be your parents.

Lord, give us the wisdom to raise Silas in Your ways. Let him love you early and steadily. Thank You for trusting us with this beautiful boy.

conspire with me this Christmas

What is Christmas really about, anyway? I often wonder what an "outsider looking in" would say after he watched a holiday season in the US. I'm going out on a limb here, but I doubt he would recognize it as the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

I don't have time to get preachy right now, but please watch the video. What could you do differently this year? What do you really need for Christmas? Lots of people around the world do have needs. Lots of those needs equal life or death.

Let me know what you think...

where does the time go?!

What has happened since my last post? A lot...

Marshall and I celebrated 8 years of marriage,

we had our 6 month post placement visit,

the Harbaughs came for a visit,

we got together with lots of NC (OH & SC) families in Raleigh,

Silas had his first solo stay in a church nursery,

two more teeth have made the breakthrough (top middle),

Silas is eating lots of regular food (yo baby yogurt, veggies, pasta, etc),

TX re-adoption was completed today.

Now we're preparing for Aunt Katy, Paw Paw and Gaga to come for Silas' birthday and Thanksgiving.

More soon...

happy halloween!

In conclusion, Silas was a frog, Sophie was a pumpkin, Marshall was a Soldier and I was an Obama Momma.

Hope you had a fun day too!

happy 11 months, silas! (playing catch up)

Hi there!! I have some catching up to do. Marshall was gone for 3 weeks to Airborne School at Fort Benning, GA and he got home Friday night. I didn't share his absence on the blog because well, you know, it's a public place and I didn't want the world to know we were home alone. There are some creepies out there. We missed him and are so glad he is home safely with no broken bones, etc. Way to go, Marshall! Thank You, Lord for protecting him.

Silas turned 11 months old on Saturday. He is doing some waving bye bye and loves to "give me five". I'm trying to get him to eat chunky foods, but he's not very excited. He does like his puffs. Sophie knows to sit under the high chair and when she hears the puffs canister open, she stands at attention. Tooth number 2 broke through sometime during the night. Silas still loves to climb and walk along the couch. He is really gotten good at getting up and down to and from standing. He now likes to play at his exercauser as well as in it. Right now he is wearing the most adorable set of long johns...a one piece union suit with bears on it. Pure cuteness. I can't believe my baby will be a year old in less than a month.

How sad is it that we don't have a real pumpkin yet? We'll be working on that after nap is over.

Can't wait to show you Silas in his costume tomorrow! I'll give you a hint.....ribbit ribbit!

Thanks for checking in on us!

you're gonna love this...

Silas and I went to the commissary this afternoon. Our bagger was a sweet lady that has bagged our groceries before. When I got Silas out of the cart to carry him to the car, she sweetly let it be known that he wasn't dressed warmly enough. She took his blanket out of the cart and wrapped us both up.

Now before you get offended, it was really sweet.

We walked and talked on the way to Priscilla the minivan. She has a 21 year old son and asked if Silas was my only child, etc.

And then she said, "I have a Black husband too. My son looks a lot like your son."

I said, "Oh...you do." Smile.

That was not the time to go into lots of details. What will really be fun is when Marshall, Silas and I go back together and she sees my husband...my white husband. :)

Last week when I went to vote, we had a similar experience. I was wearing a t-shirt from a 5K race we did last year. The Librarian asked Silas if he ran with Mommy or something like that. I said, "Oh no, he wasn't born yet." And she said, "Well, he still could have been with you...you know, in your tummy."

Again I responded with something like, "Oh yeah, you're right" instead of going into details.

I don't mind people knowing Silas is adopted. In fact, I love to talk about it. I don't introduce him as my adopted son, just like my friend wouldn't introduce her son as the one conceived on birth control or delivered by c-section. Most times our story is obvious, but these anonymous instances where strangers just see a Mom and her son, well, those are sweet too.

happy birthday, daddy!

transitions

I really need to work on Silas' baby book. Right now, every detail is contained in this here bloggy blog.

For the record, I want to say that my boy is transitioning to 1 nap per day. I guess it's time...it's happened naturally.

Whatever makes him comforable....