Redneck Recreation

In case you've ever wondered what people who live in the country do to keep themselves occupied, here's your answer! We participate in REDNECK RECREATION! Jake came up with this little gem all by himself. It's amazing what you can do to entertain yourself when you put your mind to it! Jake attached a ratchet strap to a creeper and started pulling Olivia all over the drive way. Of course she had to return the favor. This was good for at least 20 minutes of hysterical laughter on my part. The kids had a pretty good time too!!!

PUPPY LOVE!

We were driving on a dirt road near our house this past Saturday when I spotted this sweet little puppy in the ditch. You can literally see every bone in his poor little body. I spent 10 minutes climbing through briars to get to the little fellow when I finally had to enlist Mike's help. Of course it took him all of 20 seconds to catch him. Good grief! My inability to pass by a stranded dog is not one of my better qualities in Mike's eyes, but even he couldn't argue with the fact that we had to bring this puppy home. It irritates the heck out of me that people throw puppies and dogs out that they don't want. We have an animal humane society in our county for goodness sake! Regardless, God allowed our paths to cross and we now have a new - yet to be named - doggy at our house. We've been discussing names. For now the kids are just calling him Puppy. Our friend Robby thought we should name him Spuds McKenzie for obvious reasons. I want to name him Riblet, simply because you can see all of his little ribs, but so far I'm not winning the name contest. Perhaps Jake will come up with something soon so our new pet can have a much deserved name. In the meantime, Jake and Olivia are having lots of fun playing with their new friend and even Phideaux likes him! He's a sweet little guy and we're happy to add him to our family.

Puppy cuddling!

Olivia isn't usually all that fond of dogs (especially Deacon since he outweighs her by about 75 pounds) but she loves our little puppy. Perhaps it's because she's actually bigger than he is!

How cute is he?!?!?!?!

Yep, this definitely looks like puppy love!

Olivia as Buzz Lightyear and Jake as Spiderman!

Where in the heck is Nemo?

Nemo was all the rage in our house just two years ago. We've loved Elmo, Bob the Builder, The Wiggles (Mike has since exiled our 4 colorful friends from our house completely), Barney... you get the idea. Now all of a sudden our house is filled with Spiderman, Batman and Superman (are you seeing a trend here?) Then two or three weeks ago, completely out of the blue, the Power Rangers took over my 4 year old son's interest and it's all I hear about. Lightning McQueen is about the only animated character that is surviving at our house these days. So again I ask, where in the heck is Nemo? Where is lovable old Barney or ticklish little Elmo????

My point: my baby is growing up, but let's not go crazy yet. I'm very pleased to say that Jake is still a Mama's boy. I can see him growing though right before my eyes. If he's given the chance to go out and work in the shop with his Daddy, he's out the door faster than you can say, "to the Batmobile!" For the last week or so he's been working on his "web throwing." Olivia doesn't have a favorite character. Although she looks awfully cute in a Buzz Lightyear costume as you can see! She can generally be seen with her Barbie cell phone though. It's rarely out of her hand for long.

My children aren't even in school yet and already I'm mourning the passing of their childhood. They are just growing up too quickly!!!

Four Months Today!!!

Olivia has been an official member of our little Munn family for 4 months now. In some ways it seems like it's been two weeks and in others it seems like years. 1/4 of a year down! I can't believe how much she has changed in that short amount of time. I was tucking her in for her nap and she asked me to sing "little star" as she calls it. Usually half way through the song she says, "WAIT!!!! ME ME!!" and she'll sing it so beautifully with her sweet, soft little voice. Of course only a few of the words are right, but it's still absolutely beautiful to this Mommy's ears. She just takes my breath away. Both of my children do. Oh my goodness. I just can't tell you what these beautiful babies mean to me. They are so so precious. God loves me SO SO SO much to give me these sweet angels. Time is flying though. They won't be my "babies" for much longer. Olivia will be 3 in just 3 short months. Jake is 4 but that 5 looming in December is awfully foreboding. I certainly want him to grow another year older, but 5 isn't a baby anymore. 5 is a big boy who will go to school next year. 5 is big enough to play league t-ball. 5 is too darn old, too darn fast. Where did the time go? My days and nights keep zooming by, but I'm loving every single minute of it. Again, I am so blessed!!!

Speaking of loving every single minute of life, Mike and I actually had a date night last week!!! That is the first time the two of us have been away from Olivia at all since she's been our daughter. She and Jake stayed with JuJu for about 3 hours while we went to El Dorado for dinner. We also went by to see our friends Mary and Bobby and their new baby boy, Landon at the hospital but he was being poked and prodded so we didn't get to see him that day. We were able to visit with our good friends though and that was nice. Mostly it was nice going out with my husband!! The nicest part of the whole evening were the quiet rides to and from El Dorado. It was so strange being in the car for 30 minutes without hearing Mommy 10,000 times from the backseat. It was strange having a conversation without being interrupted. It was also very strange eating an entire meal without having to take someone to the bathroom, cut someone's food up, or wipe up a spill. Very strange - and very wonderful! I'm also thrilled to say that Livi did GREAT at JuJu's!!! She has really taken to JuJu over the last month or so and we are so happy about that. They all went to my sister-in-law's for supper and then back to JuJu's and Livi never cried one time all night long!!! JuJu said she asked about us once but that was it. I was so proud!! I'm also excited because that means we can go out again! More importantly, it means I won't miss the first day of turkey season. I thought for sure there was no way I would get Olivia to spend the night away from us, but I think it's certainly possible now. I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!

Other excitement at our house is my new landscaping project in the front yard. I planted three new flower beds yesterday and Mike made me a beautiful new path from the driveway to the front door. It's made from cuts of cedar trunk and it's really neat looking. I'll try to get pictures posted when we're all done. It's looking really good!

We like MIKE!

In case you haven't noticed, my blog is now wearing a nifty new presidential campaign "button." Please click my lovely campaign button to read more about former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who this family sincerely hopes will be the next President of our GREAT UNITED STATES!!! Ok. I'm done talking politics for now.

jewels from JAKE & OLIVIA

* So the other day I was standing in front of the sink in my bathroom. I had just gotten out of bed and wasn't dressed yet. Jake came up to me and said, "Mommy, what's your booty doing?" To which I aptly repled, "growing." Jake said, "Mommy, you have a little booty." I love this kid!

* Occasionally Olivia comes to me while I'm in the middle of something and says, "Mommy, potty." She also holds her little girl "area" with her hand at the same time which is super cute. Depending on what I'm doing, sometimes I say, "Ok. Wait just one second and I'll take you." Then she goes into whatever room Jake is in, wailing to her brother, "JAKE!!!!!!!! POTTTTTTTTYYYYY!" She adores her big brother and he LOVES helping take care of her. He takes her to the potty, picks her up, puts her on the toilet and gets her some toilet paper. It is the cutest thing you've ever seen. Then he comes back up there with her and says, "Mommy, Livi teetee'd in the potty." He just wants to make sure I know he's taken care of it. He's such a good boy!

* Olivia loves to dress up. Not necessarily in her "dress up" clothes, but just in her everyday clothes. The other day she came into the living room wearing panties, pants over them, then shorts over the pants, then more panties over the shorts. Did I mention she also loves shoes? Oh dear.

* I bought the soundtrack to Walk the Line back several months ago because we all - especially Jake - love Johnny Cash. Walk the Line is one of his favorite movies. It's the only thing he wants to listen to in the car and he has memorized nearly every song on the soundtrack. There are a couple we don't listen to. One is about cocaine - we don't listen to this for obvious reasons. The second is an Elvis song about his "milk cow" referring to his significant other. Hmmm. Wonder why Mommy isn't crazy about a song referring to women as milk cows. Anyway, if you're ever around Jake, ask him to sing his favorite Johnny Cash song and if he's not feeling terribly shy he'll start belting out "It ain't me, babe" which happens to be #11 on the cd and our family's favorite secular song. There's a song by TobyMac that I love called Gone that Jake also has started asking to listen to and he's learning the words to it as well. I LOVE that my children love to sing!!! I should also point out that Olivia likes to sing along, too. She doesn't know the words but that doesn't keep her from mumbling loudly!

* The beginning of spring is apparently a time for babies! Three of my friends have had babies in the past three weeks and another good friend of mine just found out that she is very unexpectedly, but happily, pregnant. I sure hope there isn't something in the water. I better quit drinking from the tap just in case. We went to visit my friend Jennifer yesterday who just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Kalli three weeks ago. She was a preemie, but is doing great. Jake just loved her to death and wanted to take her home with us. I asked him if he wanted a new baby brother or sister and he said yes. I laughed and told him he would have to pray about that. Mike wasn't amused. Hmmm. We're planning to go see our good friends Bobby and Mary's baby this evening. He was born on Monday night. I can't wait to get my hands on a 3 day old baby! I've seen pictures of little Landon and he's absolutely precious!!!! A couple of cries and a dirty diaper later though and I'll be completely over my new baby thoughts. Mike will be pleased.

* There have been a series of mishaps at our house lately. I'm sorry to say that Jake seems to have inherited his father's proneness to accidents. Mike tried to cut the end of his finger off with a table router last week and nearly succeeded. This is one of MANY MANY MANY accidents he's had in his lifetime. Back to Jake's story now. Daddy Don's four wheeler trailer is at our house and the ramp on the back is held up by two large pins. Jake decided to load his Lightning McQueen car on the trailer last week - by himself. This is what happens when you take your eyes off your children for 15 seconds. Jake let the pins out and the ramp (which ways 40 or 50 pounds) FELL. We can only assume that it hit Jake's car on the way down because something broke it's fall a bit. Regardless, it hit Jake on the side of the head on the way down, knocking him onto the concrete and pinning him between the concrete and the ramp. Mike got to him seconds after it happened and ran him into the house to me. I've never seen Mike so panicked in my life. Jake cried for a few minutes then I washed him face and put a bag of frozen veggies on his scrape and waited to see what would happen. Luckily he was fine and it ended up just being a couple of bumps on the head and a scrape down his cheek. It could have been MUCH worse. I was definitely thanking God that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. If you have a trailer with a ramp, PLEASE either leave the ramp down or take the ramp off. The ramp is off Daddy Don's now and it will remain that way.

* Jake has a Pirates of the Carribean parrot that repeats what you say. Right this second Olivia is holding it saying, "bubble gum." It's repeating it back to her. She thinks this is fabulous. She is so precious!!

* Speaking of Olivia talking, people often ask me if she can talk yet and if so what can she say. The question isn't what she CAN say, but what CAN'T she say?? She talks all the time. It's amazing!!!!!!! She can ask for essentially anything and lately her favorite word is "alright." She says this in answer to all of my questions. I like that word. It's much better than, "no." Ha! She's also a good whiner which isn't a good thing. We're working on it though. Maybe that's just a girl thing. Regardless, it's incredibly annoying and it's certainly not something we tolerate at this house. Unless of course I'm the one doing the whining then it's okay :<) Mike would argue with that point, but he doesn't write on this blog (or even read it for that matter) so he doesn't get a say! This will be the one time he reads it and he'll give me a stern look. Even Mike's stern looks are adorable though so I'm not too worried. Have I mentioned how crazy in love I am with that man? Just thinking about him now makes me smile. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

How do you like my new hair style? It is compliments of Princess Olivia. I've waited my whole life for a daughter who wanted to fix my hair, and here she is! I personally think it looks lovely, but I am a bit biased. I happen to be crazy in love with the stylist! My Mom was a hairdresser for many years before her hands became to crippled by rheumatoid arthritis to work in her salon. Then she became the secretary at the elementary school in the small town where I grew up. She would be proud to see Olivia playing with my hair. Of course she's got a great view of it all from heaven. I can't wait until Olivia's old enough to actually fix my hair. It's a pain to flat iron the back. It will be most helpful to have a daughter around who wants to do it for me!

Who is this kid???

Olivia is fast asleep in my lap with her head on my chest as I type this. I remember very well the very first time I blogged with her asleep like this. I was sitting in a fabulous resort hotel on the beach in Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan, Vietnam and it was November 21, 2006 - the day Olivia officially became our daughter.

More than three months have passed since that day and it shows! Everynight, Mike and I sit with the kids in the living room and we sing two lullabies and then say our prayers. Then we tuck Jake in and say goodnight and then it's Livi's turn. She climbs into her little toddler bed and I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her. I've know from the time Jake was four months old that we would one day adopt and I chose to save that song just for her. If I ever sang it to Jake it wasn't very often. He has his own special songs, but Twinkle Twinkle Little Star belongs just to Olivia. It's our song. I rub her back and then she puts her arms up in the air for a big hug. I hug her tight and give her a kiss on the lips and she puts her index finger up and says, "one more!" She does this 5 or 6 times before I finally quit giving in. She blows me a kiss goodnight as I walk out the door.

That's where my blog title comes in. Who is this kid??? This is definitely not the same little girl we met three months ago on the other side of the world. She's not even the same little girl that we knew on Christmas. She's changing everyday. It's just amazing. She has become more and more comfortable with us as time has gone on and just in the last couple of weeks it seems like she's finally decided that this is her home and she feels safe and free to do whatever she wants.

She is talking up a storm, too. I was so worried about the language barrier, but it really hasn't been an issue at all. She picked up English SO QUICKLY! She even said her first 5 word sentence last week. Our neice Emma gave her a shamrock pin (actually JuJu gave it to Emma to give to Livi) and later at the house I asked Olivia where she got it. She said perfectly clearly, "Emma gave it to me." I was SO PROUD!!!!!!!!!!! She is just amazing!

She and Jake are - in the words of Forrest Gump - like peas and carrots. They are just best friends and it's absolutely awesome. They fuss over toys sometimes but that's it. They are crazy about each other and love to play together. I'm so glad that they are so close in age. They are 18 months apart and it's perfect.

There were days in the beginning that I thought we would never mesh as a family. It's amazing what a little time, faith and hard work will do! I honestly can't imagine life without Olivia now. She is the funniest, sweetest, most beautiful little girl in the whole world. Mike and I are so blessed to have these two precious children!!!

The last day

What would you do if it were the last day of your life? I've been thinking about that a lot over the last few weeks since Daddy Don died. He woke up like he did every other day. He went to work, but for some reason he went around and visited with people he hadn't seen in months. After work instead of washing the mud off his always clean truck, he spent his afternoon with JuJu visiting Rhonda, Lance and the girls and then coming to our house to visit with us. I wonder if he would have done anything differently if he had known it would be his last day. He did the things that were most important. He spent time with is wife, his kids and his grandkids. That's really all anyone could wish for on their last day of this temporary life, isn't it?

I started thinking about what I would want to do on the last day of my life which took me back to that day. I took these pictures of Jake on January 10, 2007, the last day of Daddy Don's life on this earth. I spent the morning with my children and had lunch with them and Mike. After naptime, the four of us went over to some property near our house where Mike duck hunts on a beaver pond. Mike had found some flint there a few days before, so we went to look for arrow heads. That's a favorite pasttime of our family and something handed down through the generations of the Munn family. We didn't find any but I found a piece of flint that had a rounded out place in it. It's still in the pocket of the camo jacket I was wearing that day. Jake was dressed head to toe in camo. He really is starting to look like a big boy. He and Olivia had such a good time scouring the ground for arrowheads. We walked about a half mile down from the road and on the way back Olivia rode on Mike's shoulders. Jake and I took our time as we always do, much to Mike's dismay. Jake and I tend to lollygag. We get very caught up in our surroundings and what we're looking at and forget the rest of the world exists. He and I are so much alike in that respect. It had been raining for days and the logging road we were walking back on was muddy and of course had huge mud puddles. Despite the cold weather, Jake wanted to walk through the puddles. I would say that's what little boys do, but I'm a girl and I still love to play in the mud myself. Jake meandered around and laughed mischeviously and then ran right through the first mud puddle we came to. It was hysterical. Mike was yelling from around the bend, but he couldn't see us, so we continued to take our own sweet time. I was laughing at Jake and taking pictures of him and he was lost in his own little boy world. Life was just as it should be. Easy and full of laughter. We managed to finally make our way up to the road, but not before stopping at every mud hole along the way. By the time we got to the car, Jake was wet and muddy from the waist down, but he was smiling from ear to ear and so was I! I stripped him down to nothing but a shirt and we headed home. As soon as we got home, I gave the kids a bath and they were just getting out and toweled off when Daddy Don and JuJu arrived to visit. Jake and Livi were running through the house naked just as cute as could be.

If that had been my last day on this earth, I couldn't have spent it in a better way. I hope when I get to heaven, I have mud on my boots and kisses on my cheeks.

Olivia is such a GIRL!!! It's still so bizarre to have a little girl in the house. I've been surrounded by boys for so long! Even our two dogs, Deacon and Phideaux, and our cat, Crookshanks, are boys! Our house has been swallowed by pink! It's everywhere! Even though Olivia is a girly girl, she's still a girl after her Mommy's heart. She loves Hotwheels, she loves playing in the dirt and she loves being outside. She also loves pretending to hunt, which is a good thing since she'll be going hunting with me this year. Jake has been hunting since before he was born so she has a lot of catching up to do! I killed a nice 7 point buck that hangs over my computer desk when I was 8 months pregnant with Jake. He loves that the name plate says Casey & Jake Munn on it. Maybe this fall we'll have a new one to hang somewhere that says Casey & Olivia Munn. Jake has moved onto hunting with his Daddy most of the time now and he has two European deer mounts hanging on the wall in his room to show it. Jake LOVES to hunt. I can't wait for him to actually pull the trigger on his first deer, then duck, then turkey. Those will be proud moments for this Mommy. Mike once held the record for the youngest child in Arkansas to get the triple trophy award. That's a deer with a bow, a muzzleloader and a rifle all in the same season. I'm hoping Jake will be getting the triple trophy award in the next few years. I'll be equally proud if Olivia chooses to continue to hunt as well. If she doesn't, at least I'll finally have someone to shop with! She'll be awfully bored through the end of fall and winter though!

Here are a couple of pictures of Princess Olivia. Please note her earrings! She is so PROUD of her earrings! She shows them to everyone we see, even strangers. We went to Wal-Mart right after I took these pictures and even though it was dark, she insisted on wearing her sunglasses the entire time we were in the store! She's so beautiful and I wouldn't trade this girly girl for anything in the world.

Happy Birthday, Mikie Poo!!!

Today is Mike's (aka Mikie Poo, Daddy & Michael - I'm the only one who calls him Mikie Poo and Michael though - and I often call him Daddy along with the kids despite the fact I said I would NEVER do that) 31st birthday! For the next six months we will be the same age, but he'll continue to remind me that I'm his "old lady." Hmmm. I would post a picture of my husband, the most gorgeous man on the face of the planet, but of course my computer isn't allowing that this evening. Ugh. I get to look at him face to face though which makes me the luckiest woman in the world! I would just like to take this opportunity to tell everyone in the world that my husband is an awesome man and an unbelievably wonderful father. He's as good as it gets. I am blessed to be married to a man who also works from home, so I'm with him nearly 24/7 and believe it or not, we actually think that's a good thing! Maybe sometime when I'm not so tired I'll tell the story of how Mike and I came to be. It's a fun story. Tonight though, I'm going to retire from the computer, snuggle with my hubby on the couch and watch a movie. Happy Birthday to the love of my life - the greatest blessing I've ever received from God!

I'm feeling old

I can blame fellow Dillon adoptive Mom, Rachel for the last ten minutes that I spent at retrojunk.com. Thanks Rachel! I feel awfully old now though.

I thought, hey I'll look at the 80's movies. That was a fun decade. Then I started looking specifically at movies made in 1987. That was 20 years ago. TWENTY years ago!!!!! That sounds like a million years to me! Ok. Get ready for the titles:

Can't Buy Me Love - This is one of my favorite movies of all time!!! I still have every word memorized. Not to mention this was the future McDreamy's debut. I even own this one on DVD!
Adventures in Babysitting - I used to watch this while I was babysitting!
Dirty Dancing - need I say more???? My best friend Jenni and I still sing the Sylvia and Mickey song.
Overboard - who doesn't love Goldie Hawn?!?!
Some Kind of Wonderful - gave us all hope for true love even when it's hiding in unsuspecting friends.
The Lost Boys - yet another of my favorite movies of all time. I love love love Keifer Sutherland and he was beyond hot with his blonde mullet :<) Ah... those were the days. I can't believe though that these movies came out TWENTY YEARS AGO!!!! If you know these movies as well as I do then you are probably feeling a little bit old now, too. Be thankful that I didn't post a list of all my favorite 80's movies! I'll give you clues to a few of them though. Enjoy reminiscing!

Bueller. Bueller.

Who ya gonna call?

Best Prince soundtrack to a movie - EVER!

Ralph Macchio (I had a poster of him next to my bed)

Yee haw!!! Jester's dead!

Freddy Krueger

Fast Times at ????????

Gizmo

Tuesday, February 13th - the day of flowing bodily fluids

Poor Jake. He has had a terrible cough the last few days and at times he coughs so much that he throws up. Well, last night we added diarrhea to the mix and he had an accident on the way home from town last night. He also had an accident first thing this morning. So all of the sheets, etc. have now been washed. Then Olivia wakes up and is wet. This is highly unusal for her. The day goes on. Jake hasn't had any more accidents but he feels so terrible that he actually fell asleep on the living room floor. More unusal stuff. I tried to get him an appointment with the doctor (I just took him last week) and of course there are none today and his pediatrician is out the rest of the week. We can see a different one tomorrow but we have to call between 8 and 8:15 am tomorrow to get an appointment. We will probably get a 9 am appointment and we live an hour and fifteen minutes away. Fun. Regardless, I just want him to see a doctor. Then Olivia wets herself again, but this time just a little bit. Again, unusual. We all eat lunch - did I mention we have NO food in the house? I have to go shopping this afternoon. Jake had corndogs and strawberries. Not so unusual - but still weird! Olivia had rice with soy sauce. Her most favorite thing in the whole world. Mike and our friend Robby had bologna sandwiches. (I'm such a good wife! I did cook pancakes for breakfast though, so that should count for something.) I had instant mashed potatoes with ketchup. Again, not so unusual, but still weird. I bet you couldn't spell unusual in a Scrabble game. Are there 3 u's in the box? Hmmmm. Then, Olivia for whatever reason wasn't wearing clothes - she does this somewhat regularly (taking her clothes off for no reason I mean) and she peed on the living room floor. On the carpet! I was two feet away from her so it wasn't that she couldn't find me for help. She just stood there and peed on the floor. I had to call Mike to come wrangle the kids long enough for me to get the steam cleaner out and clean the carpet. UGH!!!!!!!!!!! I am either going to strangle the kids or myself. I haven't decided which yet. Anyone want to come over and eat chocolate by the pound???

Together again!!!

We drove out to Dallas on Saturday to see our good friends, Mandy and Arnaud who we traveled with in Vietnam! It was exciting to see Olivia and Anna together again and Jake and their son Louis were finally able to meet. It's funny that like us they have a biological 4 year old son and then we both adopted 2 year old girls from the same province in Vietnam. It was meant to be! I can't imagine having traveled for three weeks with anyone else. God blessed us so much by putting us with this amazing family. We had SO much fun together while we were gone and being together Saturday was just like old times - well except for the insane motor scooters and constant worrying that we dealt with in Vietnam! All four of the kids got along famously and we were so happy to see Mandy and Arnaud again. To be able to spend three entire weeks with another couple and still be able to call them great friends says something about a relationship I think! They are a wonderful family and we are so blessed to have them in our lives.

The only bad part of the day was that my wonderful friend Erin was supposed to drive up Saturday with her family as well and her son came down with the flu and then her other son got sick as well. Send up a prayer for them! Erin no doubt has her hands even more full than usual. Erin also adopted a little girl, Selah, from Ninh Thuan and we really really wanted to be able to finally meet her in person! I talk to her on the phone all the time and she has become one of my closest friends and I haven't even met her yet! Perhaps over the summer we'll all be able to get together. Mandy and I were both so sad that she wasn't able to come.

Anyway, we spent the day at Mandy and Arnaud's house and then went to the Dillon International Lunar New Year Celebration (TET). It was also great fun and we were finally able to meet another Ninh Thuan adoptive Mom, Kim-Lan and her beautiful family and a couple from Oklahoma who are just beginning their process to adopt from VN. Christi - it was very nice to meet you!

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Here are our four beautiful children playing at Mandy's house.

L to R: Louis, Anna, Jake & Olivia

I love this picture! Here we have Mandy & Anna along with me and Olivia. Mandy has become such a good friend of mine. I couldn't have made it through Vietnam without her and I depend on her just as much now as I did then. We'll get through the terrible two's together!

Here is a cute picture of Anna and Olivia with their balloons. They are so adorable! Little Anna is just precious and I can't believe how much they have both changed in the two months since we've been back. It will be so neat to watch them grow as friends here on the other side of the world from where they were both born.

Your mission... if you choose to accept it:

One of my very best friends is opening a catering business. I'm so excited for her!!! She's going to be fantastic. Anyway, she's having trouble coming up with a name. I've thought of several - two of which I personally think are just right - but I thought someone else out there might have the perfect name for her new business! I won't tell my ideas just yet so as not to clog your thought processes! Let's brainstorm people! I welcome any and all suggestions!!!

earrings, green bean casserole & assorted ramblings

Well, I like to keep you guessing. No, there weren't earrings in the green bean casserole, but there may be soon enough because Princess Olivia had her ears pierced yesterday! Mike has been bugging me to get them pierced since we returned home from Vietnam, but I wanted to let her settle in to life at home before we put her through the trama of having holes put into her baby earlobes! Incidentally, I was two when I had mine pierced as well. Anyway, Olivia has been irritated the last several weeks because I put on earrings and she can't. She pulls on her earlobes and points to the earrings and says, "Mommy!" with her 'I want them, too' look. She's so cute! So, I relented and we took her yesterday. They did both ears at the same time and I was so glad of that. She cried for just a couple of seconds but as soon as we put her in front of the mirror and she saw her earrings, she was smiling from - well - earring to earring! She was so happy! She looks absolutely adorable. I'll get a picture of her up sometime this week with her fancy new look. Have I mentioned how cute she is?

Ok. Now for the green bean casserole. Olivia hates fruit. She also hates all varieties of milk. She is just not a healthy eater which is not something I'm accustomed to! I have a house full of fruit and veggies! Vegetables are another thing she generally dislikes. I am thrilled to report though that she LOVES green bean casserole. As she ate her THIRD helping of it yesterday, I couldn't help but think of that old Saturday morning commercial where the celery stick (or whatever it was) sings, "Don't drown your food!" Perhaps the green beans are still healthy even with mushroom soup and fried onions mixed in. At this point, I'll take what I can get.

We had dinner with part of my family tonight and it was so much fun. My Aunt Judith and Uncle Jimmie were visiting from Texas and were very excited to meet Olivia. We had dinner at my sister Cathy's. Her family was there, my sister Caren and her family and my Dad and stepmom. I am the youngest of five. I have three sisters and one brother. Oddly enough, my brother is one of my very best friends. I'm closer to him than I am any of my sisters although I certainly love all of my sisters, too. It was nice just being with some of my family. Lots of adults and 7 children under the age of 12. It's always fun when we get together. I just wish we did it more often. Life is too short not to make time for the ones that matter in your life.

Oh I nearly forgot! It snowed Thursday night!!!!!! Of course by Friday afternoon it was all gone, but we took advantage of it while we could. We all got up Friday morning, bundled up and went out to play in the snow! This was Olivia's first time to see snow and Jake hadn't seen it since he was 14 months old. He was SO excited!!! It was so much fun. Jake and I had snowball fights and he, Olivia and I attempted to make a snowman. Attempted being the key word. We rode the fourwheers all over the place and then came in for hot chocolate. I would give anything for a few days of good snow! Jake would have such a good time. He's finally old enough to really get our and play in it. Olivia is still adjusting to the cold weather much less snow! She still had fun though. I made snow ice cream Thursday night and we all enjoyed it. My Mom always made snow ice cream. She loved snow even more than I do and that's saying something! I love living in South Arkansas, but I wish we could see a bit more winter weather.

I'm done rambling now.

Jake & Olivia

brother & sister, and more importantly - best friends

All bundled up and ready to go play outside!

Why walk when you have a big brother to carry you around?


Snuggle time!


Jake is sweet enough to drive Olivia anywhere she wants to go!

Olivia's 1st mud riding adventure!

I decided it was time to introduce Olivia to one of my favorite pasttimes - mud riding! We were actually on Jake's fourwheeler, while he and Mike were on Olivia's. The four of us went riding the other day and I found a huge mudhole on the pipeline in the woods out behind our house. Mike and I are both adventurous in different ways. He drives fast and takes curves on two wheels while I prefer to fly through mud, spinning tires and covering everything in mud. I'm very happy to report that Miss Olivia also seems to have her Mommy's affection for mud riding. She loved it! She's so funny though when she has mud on her hands. When we got off the four wheeler, she just held them out in front of her like she didn't know what to do with them. I'm sure by summer she'll be out in the yard making mud pies just like I was doing at her age.

Daddy reading 'The Pokey Little Puppy' to Jake and Olivia

Have I ever mentioned that I have the most wonderful husband in the world? I'm sure I have, but if not, let me take this opportunity to say just that. Jake, Olivia and I are SO LUCKY because Mike preaches on Sundays and works in his taxidermy studio the rest of the week. His shop is next to our home, so we get to see Daddy whenever we want! He has breakfast, lunch and supper with us and often comes in just to visit. Jake is able to go out and help him at work and if we ever have somewhere we need to go, there's no issue with asking for a day off. He's his own boss! (Ok, in all honestly, we know who the real boss is. Wink wink.) People often ask how Olivia is with Mike. Except for bedtime, she's just as happy with her Daddy as she is with me. She and Jake both still want their Mommy to tuck them in though. Jake and Olivia adore their Daddy, just like I do. I think they are incredibly lucky children to have such an amazing father. I know I'm certainly lucky to have him as my husband and best friend. Incidentally, in the picture Mike is reading 'The Pokey Little Puppy' to the kids and that was his favorite book as a child. I LOVE it when Mike reads this book to them, because he looks SO cute when he says, "I smell something." He says it like summfin. I know this sounds ridiculous, but if you know him, you know what a goofball Mike is and it's just so adorable when he says summfin. I'm so head over heels in love with him, everything he does is wonderful to me. Five years later and I still get butterflies everytime he walks through the front door. I am blessed!

Is this not the most beautiful little girl you've ever seen!?!?! Even with spaghetti sauce on her face and shirt, she is still absolutely breathtaking! I am blessed to look at her all day long, yet I continue to be amazed at how beautiful she is. I'm surprised we even have to have electricity at our house. I would think she and Jake could light the world with their gorgeous smiles. The neat thing about my children is that they aren't just beautiful on the outside. They are both so sweet and funny. They can both make me laugh no matter what my mood is. It's hard not to smile when you have such beautiful smiles in front of you! Even with the heartache in our family, our children keep us smiling. I don't know how we ever lived without them.

Livi's 1st play date!

Emma, Miley, Olivia & Olivia

Olivia had her very first playdate yesterday! Poor Jake was overtaken by girls! Our wonderful social worker, Kimberly, came down yesterday for our first post-placement visit and I was tickled that she let her daughter, also named Olivia, skip a day of kindergarten just to come meet my Olivia! Our friend Michelle, who was with our group in Vietnam, also came down to visit and brought her newly adopted daughter, Miley and Miley's big sister, Emma. Olivia of course spent a good bit of time with Miley while we were travelling in Vietnam with her family, but she had never met the "other" Olivia before. The weird thing was that as soon as she saw Olivia, she ran right to her and gave her a huge hug! You would think she had just seen her long lost best friend! I can't wait to see how she reacts when she sees Kennedy again who she grew up with. By the way, if all goes well Miss Kennedy will be flying home tomorrow and she'll be an American girl on Saturday! Please say a prayer for them! We loved having Olivia, Miley and Emma down for a visit. I wish that all of our Vietnamese friends didn't live so far away!

I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures of Daddy Don throughout the 5 years I was fortunate enough to be his daughter. Mine and Mike's 5th wedding anniversary was January 12th. It was going to be the first time we left Olivia with JuJu & Daddy Don since we got home from Vietnam. They were going to keep her and Jake while we went out to dinner. They were definitely looking forward to it. None of us ever dreamed how we would end up spending that day. I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse of the life he lived.

This is the entire Munn family except for Olivia! From left: JuJu, Daddy Don, Rhonda, Mike, Jake, Me, Joyce (JuJu's sister), Emma, Lance and Amy. This picture was taken in 2005.

This is one of my very favorite pictures. This is me and Daddy Don when Jake was about 5 weeks old. Papaw (DD's Dad) had just passed away and he was famous for pointing his finger and smiling in pictures, so Daddy Don was imitating his Dad. Those two men were amazing guys and both incredibly missed.

This is a great picture of Daddy Don doing what came naturally to him - being very silly!

This is from 2004. Mike and Daddy Don both got really good turkeys that year on the same day. Jake was VERY proud!

I love this picture of Daddy Don because it looks just like him on a regular day - sitting in his recliner.

This is a huge buck Daddy Don killed in 2004. This was one of his favorite pictures and it's also one of mine.

Here's JuJu stealing a kiss from the love of her life.

This is Daddy Don's stand on Munn Hill. Mike, DD and Jake worked very hard building it!

Daddy Don and JuJu doing one of their favorite things - spending time with Jake.

3 very silly Munn boys!

Jake flying high in the safety of Daddy Don's arms

I adore this picture! I took it in October. This was the first time Daddy Don and JuJu had seen Jake in his suit and they were super proud of him. They are a good looking bunch, aren't they!?

Here is Daddy Don with Olivia the day we got home from Vietnam. He was the first person to hold her besides us and she liked him from the very beginning. He was one of the few people besides us that she felt comfortable with. They took us to McDonald's where Daddy Don bought Olivia her very first Happy Meal. He was looking forward to taking her to The Cow for an ice cream cone, too. He and JuJu ate there all the time. It's hard for us to even drive by there now.

A picture of Daddy Don and Olivia at Jake's birthday party in December. He was so proud that he was one of the VERY few people she would let hold her. As I type this Olivia is sitting in my lap saying, "Daddy Don."

Here are some precious pictures of Jake giving kisses to his very favorite guitar player. Daddy Don even inspired me to buy my own guitar, but I'm sorry to say I haven't learned much. I hope that all of DD's grandkids choose to learn to play. He would've loved that.

I forgot to mention something very important about Daddy Don. We weren't the only ones who loved him. I have always known that he was funny, loyal, hard working, smart, and definitely charming, but I didn't know how many other people knew it too. Over 700 people - seven hundred people - came to the funeral home. They each waited in line for nearly an hour just to pay their respects. Over 92 people sent flowers. At least that many brought food and paper products. Sympathy cards are still pouring in everyday. Most days Judy gets at least 30 and we get them at our house as well as Rhonda. We were in awe of the amount of love shown for our Daddy Don. It was unbelievable. He touched so many lives and we were so blessed to be his family. We are all still just amazed at how many people cared about him. He was an awesome man. I'm really so thankful that I was his daughter. I would say daughter-in-law, but Daddy Don didn't really think like that. My brother-in-law Lance and I were no different in his eyes. Mike, Rhonda, Lance, Emma, Amy, Jake, Olivia and I were his children and we were blessed. JuJu was the most blessed of all to be the love of his life. Tomorrow is her birthday, and it will be a difficult day for her. If you think of it, say a little prayer for our Mom, JuJu.

Jake shooting Silly String at Daddy Don

Learning to breathe again

When you lose someone that is incredibly important to you, it's almost like you have to learn to breathe all over again. In those first days after they die, you just walk around in a shell of a body doing things you have to do and saying things you have to say. After a week or so, you realize that you haven't been breathing - just going through the motions of life. We're trying to learn how to breathe again here at our house and it's tough.

My Mom died in 2001 just a few weeks before my 26th birthday. She was barely 58 years old. I was absolutely, positively devastated. I had sold my house the year before and moved back in with her for several months so she and I were together every single day. She was without a doubt my very best friend in the world. She was the only person who never judged me and always loved me just the way I was. I thought I would fall off the earth when she died. I don't know how long I went around without breathing after her death, but it was a long long time. She had suffered for years with rheumatoid arthritis and had problems with blocked arteries that had required surgery once before. I nearly lost her when I was 12, again when I was 19 and then God chose to take her home when I was 25. My only consolation was that I knew she was in heaven. She was no longer suffering from the debilitating pain she had felt for so long. She would have to endure no more surgeries. She would never have to be in a wheelchair or use a cane. She was at peace with our Lord and would never hurt again. That didn't make losing her any easier, but I was grateful that she was no longer suffering.

That has been the hardest thing to deal with about Daddy Don's death. He wasn't suffering at all. He was probably one of the healthiest people I know. He spent two weeks every year climbing mountains in Colorado elk hunting and two weeks every year in Missouri hunting turkeys. He spent every day of deer season in Arkansas in the woods. Bow season starts in September, then comes muzzleloader and then rifle. He hunted them all. Turkey season starts in the spring and that was probably his favorite time of all, because he and Mike often hunted together. He spent his summers fishing on Lake Columbia, usually with JuJu reading a book alongside him. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Daddy Don. He was probably in better physical shape than most 30 year old men, much less 59 year old's. I can't say he was taken too soon, because God's timing is always perfect, but we weren't ready to let him go.

Last Wednesday, he went to work and came home like he always did. He and JuJu went over to Rhonda's house and saw her and Lance and the girls, Emma and Amy. Emma is 7 and Amy is 4. Then he and JuJu came over to our house to visit. Jake was so excited because Mike had just finished his eight point skull mount that day and hung it on the wall in Jake's room. He was so proud and couldn't wait to show Daddy Don. They played in Livi's room and she put bows in his hair. He got down on the floor and growled at Olivia and she would hide behind my legs and cackle. She loved it and he did, too. Daddy Don absolutely adored all four of his grandchildren. The funniest thing they did that day was with Jake and I'm so thankful that I took pictures and video. Santa brought him a can of Silly String in his stocking, and he brought it out while Daddy Don was sitting on the couch and showered him in Silly String. It was absolutely hysterical. He and Jake laughed and laughed. Daddy Don was one of the funniest guys in the world. We all went out so he could see the mountain goat Mike had finished that day. I went in the shop first intentionally because I wanted to be able to see Daddy Don's face when he saw it. It was priceless. He was so so proud of Mike. Mike quit his job at Albemarle in March of 2006 and everyone, especially his Dad, was nervous about it. It's scary to quit a really well paying job and start a business of your own, but Mike did it, and God has definitely blessed us. It was so neat so see Daddy Don's eyes light up everytime he saw some of Mike's work. "That's perfect!" he would say. That was definitely his trademark expression. I don't know how Mike is going to get through the coming weeks, months and years without hearing that. It's going to be so tough. He and his Dad were really great friends.

After they left here, Daddy Don and JuJu went home. He had a peanut butter sandwich, looked some stuff up on the computer, watched part of the game on the tv and fell asleep in his recliner. All normal stuff. He hadn't complained with anything and he was absolutely fine. Judy woke him up to go to bed and he sat down to turn off the computer. There is of course more to the story, but the just of it is that he had an aneurysm and was pronounced dead just a short time after that at the hospital. It all happened SO quickly. Mike, Rhonda and Judy were all at the hospital and when Mike called me so soon after he left home and told me that Daddy Don had died, all I could say was that I didn't understand. That's essentially how we all feel. We don't understand.

Daddy Don was probably as happy as he had ever been in his life. He had a wonderful, sweet wife, two successful children who are very happily married, and four grandchildren that he loved more than anything in the world. We all lived close by and saw each other often. He had started giving the devotions in church before Sunday school and was just finishing out deer season getting ready for turkey season. Life was about as good as it could get. Why God chose this time to take him home we don't know. We don't understand any of this. We love him and we miss him and right now it just seems really unfair.

So, we're learning to breathe again. It hurts to breathe and I don't know what we're going to do without him. Judy, Mike and Rhonda need your prayers so much. We all do, but especially them. Judy is much too young to lose her husband of 40 years. Mike and Rhonda still had things to learn from their Daddy. You don't even want to get me started on how much it hurts that our children won't be able to know him more, love him and learn from him. I can at least say I have no more regrets about our adoption. I am INCREDIBLY thankful that we left Jake here with Daddy Don and JuJu for the 3+ weeks we were gone. Jake spent nearly all of his time with him. Daddy Don sent me some pictures of him and Jake in the deer stand while we were in Vietnam. I wouldn't trade those weeks with them together for anything in the world. God knew what he was doing. I just couldn't see it at the time.

Thank you all so much for your prayers over the last week. Please continue to pray for us as we learn to live without the man that meant so much to all of us. I want to leave you with just a few random words and phrases that remind me of Daddy Don. I started writing them down the day after he went to heaven. If you knew him, they'll no doubt bring up a memory or two for you as well.

Dr. Pepper, cooncats, mouse in the Kleenex box, Mike Mike, Jake's huntin' buddy, playing the guitar, perfect, doin', The Cow (aka JuJu's Moo Moo), hating corn, throwing corn, can tabs, VW beetle, the carwash, Wal-Mart hunting section, Daddy Don's hunting room, starched Albemarle shirts, target practice, I got just the thing, give me a smack, in the hole...thanks for cleaning my toilet bowl, Dr. Pepper (it deserves to be mentioned twice), ticklish feet, check the fluids, flashlights, looking for blood, scouting for turkeys, Munn Hill, the pipeline stand, camo overalls, Hershey's Kisses

We love you Daddy Don

Mike's Dad, who we all call Daddy Don, died very suddenly and unexpectedly last night. He was only 59 years old and he and Mike's Mom, Judy (better known as JuJu) had been married for over 40 years. He was an amazing, wonderful man that we loved so so much. I can't even begin to tell you what he meant to us and especially to Jake. Daddy Don loved us all so much but he loved his four grandchildren, Jake, Olivia, Emma & Amy more than anything in the world. We are all completely in shock and I ask for your prayers for our family, especially for JuJu, Mike and my sister-in-law Rhonda. His funeral will be Saturday at 2 p.m. It's been such a long day and we are all so exhausted. I will write more in a few days. I have so many things I want the world to know about this great man that we were blessed to have as a father and our children were blessed to have as a grandfather. Please pray for the Munn family as we try to get through this. We know that God's will is perfect and just, but sometimes it's very hard to understand. Now is definitely one of those times. We know he was taken at just the right time, but for us it was far too soon.