Hey Mom, what's up?

Me? I'm great! Just back from next door. Why do you want to take my picture?

That's silly, Mom. From the side, too? You must really think I look great!

(I have pulled the wool over your eyes just like the skullcap over mine. Awesome!)

Came home to hide this stuff say hi. Chillax, Mom. It's all good in the 'hood.

Shortly after this picture was taken Vera was frog-marched back to her Aunt Lissa's house, as is. Aunt Lissa and various cousins are probably still laughing at Vera's skillful heist of their clothing.

Oh, Vera. You are one in a million!

Thankfully.

A Decade of Delights

All pictures by Alyssa Maisano Photography

Wow! Ten years ago we welcomed our tiny little bundle of joy into the world around 1 a.m. on a cold Canadian night. Miss Emma Lane is our sweet sunshine, our sassy, spunky sister, our sugar-coated Spicer. No one in our family can quite believe that she is ten years old. It seems only yesterday we started our journey with Emma and with Down syndrome. How the years have flown!!

I couldn't possibly list all the wonderfulness of Emma Lane. She is such a sheer joy to have around. One thing we all like is the way she says her name: Emma Wayne. So do we, now. While she is quite capable of saying it correctly, I think she keeps saying Emma Wayne because she knows we (especially her beloved cousin Andrea) love it.

I love the way Emma has been carrying around a bedraggled, lined notebook for her homework. She pretends to write lines and lines of cursive in it, or perhaps practices some letters, or writes her name over and over again. I love it when she comes up and asks for her homework. "Mommy, homework please."

I love her confidence. She thinks nothing of walking into a room and announcing herself. She thinks nothing of sticking up for herself in a large family: No way, Luke! Stop it, Vera!

I love her confidence in herself as a valuable person. She is quite sure that everyone wants to listen to her sing (at top volume) or watch her dance (she has some MOVES). If you were to ask her why we should listen or watch she would clearly answer: I'm Emma! (And she'd probably roll her eyes...just a bit)

I love her hope for the future. She is going to marry Nick Jonas. She is 100% sure of that. One time, her daddy actually met the Jonas brothers and called home to tell her about it. She decided that meant her daddy was bringing Nick home as a present to her. She put down the phone and immediately started setting the dining room table for four: Mommy, Daddy, Emma and Nick, of course. While I loved that she wanted to double date with us, I was devastated to have to tell her Nick wasn't coming. It's a terrible thing to disappoint that loving, trusting, smiling girl.

I love the way Emma poses for pictures, just like the pictures here. She LOVES to have her picture made. Of course, if I were such a beauty I would like it, too.

I love, love, love the way she tells me: Mommy, I miss you. She invariably says it when we've been together all day, not when I've been away. I think it means she loves me and doesn't want me to leave, that she likes it much better when we're together. Me, too, Emmy.

I also love another of her frequent utterances: Mommy, come snug me. She wants me to drop whatever I'm doing and sit with her on the couch, or hold her in my arms, or anything else that involves close contact with Emma and her mommy.

I love to listen to her pray. She's been known to have some long prayers. She always asks God to bring Daddy home safely. Most famously, she was mid-prayer one night at dinner and prayed for Daddy to come home now and at just that moment the door opened and it was Daddy! I think God was showing off for His sweet girl.

I love the way she plays with blocks. Not only does she like to build but she likes to organize by type. She can be very thoughtful in her play.

I love the way we can always bring her back to a smile. She gets mad, she cries, she pouts, she is stubborn, but her default setting is happy and smiling and it usually doesn't take much effort at all to get her reset. After she cried about Nick, for instance, she didn't dwell on it or fall into despair. She went on with her day, happy as a lark. It's a great attribute.

I can't believe ten years have come and gone so quickly with my baby girl. She was the one I thought would stay young forever but she didn't. And that's good. I have loved all her stages and look forward to those we have yet to see. She's an amazing blessing and I love her more than I could ever express.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA LANE!!!

All pictures by Alyssa Maisano Photography

Happy 11th Birthday, Anna!!

My sweet little girl is growing up!

Anna was born into our lives mere months after we adopted Song. For several years she tried to convince me she was Chinese, too, having travelled with me to China. In me, actually.

When Anna was born, I was very worried about Song's reaction to her new baby sister. I shouldn't have.

I remember sitting on our couch, holding my very new baby girl. Song climbed up beside me, looked at Anna, held out her arms and emphatically declared, "Mine."

She meant it, too.

When Anna was about 6 weeks old I realized one morning that I hadn't heard from her yet to let me know she was awake. I was a little worried as I hurried to her room, only to find that the 20 month old Song had clambered up into Anna's crib and had Anna in a sort of hug, talking away to this cute new dolly Mommy had brought home. Evidently Anna was quite involved in following the conversation, too, as she was giving no thought at all to her usual morning hunger!

Song repeated this maneuver pretty much daily until, when Anna was 18 months old, we had to discard the crib because her climbing had weakened it to the point where we worried it was going to be unsafe. No problem, though...they have shared a room ever since!

My other worry, when I gave birth to Anna, was that I now had four very young children and I was afraid I wouldn't have time for rocking and singing to Anna as I had the older children. I remember praying that God would give me time to snuggle my sweet baby girl. He did. In fact, He has been quite faithful to that prayer throughout the years.

Anna asks me to snuggle with her almost every single day. Still. How sweet is that?

I've added some birthday pics from our family celebration the morning of her birthday and her party that evening. Fun times!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!

Dean is 6!!

My youngest is now 6 years old! Wow! I remember when I never thought my oldest would be 6.

Our second birthday with Dean. His was the only adoption where we missed two birthdays during the process. Thankfully his was our fifth adoption or I might have gone nuts!

Isn't he the cutest little boy?!

Nothing like the Spicer birthday picture, is there? This is one of our better pictures, actually.

Next on the agenda...teach Ella to stop making her 'picture smile.'

I think I should get extra points for sharing a picture of me...first thing in the morning...no makeup...no hair fixing...just enjoying my little boy's JOY in his birthday morning.

For my pacifist British friends, please note that Dean has just opened a NERF gun. I will have to retract a statement about the NERF gun that I made on facebook, however. I said that it shoots foam bullets and therefore couldn't hurt a fly. However, if your big sister Vera shoots your new NERF gun from point-blank range at your eye then you might cry for a few seconds, although I'm still unclear whether the crying was from being shot in the eye or because Vera had stolen his NERF gun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUDSON DEAN!!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Trick or Treat!

Sunday evening, we participated in one of the funniest little rituals we have here in North America...my children dressed in costumes and went door to door, begging for candy and actually receiving it while doing nothing more than saying, "Trick or Treat!" I think it's hilarious that we do this! Each year we go to my parent's neighborhood (our old neighborhood) to participate.

We have only gone trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood once. The houses are on 1+ acre lots and it takes forever. Since we're all about inefficiency in the Spicer household, we go to a neighborhood where the houses are closer together and allow for maximum candy haul. Many thanks to my parents for allowing us to invade their home while they suffered through a Ranger loss in the World Series. Many thanks to my sister and her daughters for hanging with us, too! As always, it was FUN!!!

Buzz Lightyear, made in....wait for it....China!

Buzz and Woody--You've got a friend in me!

Vera in the suit that I shamelessly begged for on facebook...and actually received from a cyber friend of the past several years! Isn't that cool? Vera had been asking for a suit for quite some time now. She wanted to be Daddy. She is incredibly happy to be wearing the suit, button-down shirt, and one of Daddy's old ties in this picture. Words truly cannot express her joy.

Emmapatra...Cleoemma...The Queen of It All.

I bought the Woody outfit for Dean but it was too small. No problem, however, because Ella has watched Toy Story approximately 1 billion times in the last two months and has even made her own sign (as in sign language) to show us when she wants to watch it. She was also incredibly thrilled with her costume.

Anna, being curled and whirled by my sister, Aunt Paige. Why?

The amazing results!

Anna as Artemis! I surprised her by finally making a Greek goddess costume for her this year! She had been trying to come up with something on her own but I was, regrettably, too busy with her younger siblings. Not so this year!! How fun!! We made a laurel wreath, bow, arrows and quiver and spray-painted them all silver.

Our photographer, Song, tried to tap into the dark side of their characters. The sad results are below:

One out of four ain't bad!