Christmas 2012

Dinner on Christmas Eve.  We had it by candlelight, but that photo did not work.

 The gifts.  We gave the kids stockings junk from the Dollar Store..  Besides that, they got a bunch of books from us, along with gifts from Grandmas and Grandpas, and so forth.

 Christmas breakfast goodies.

 Sam seeing the gifts as he came out of his room in the morning.

 Jonah opening his "stocking"

 Celeste with the next book in a series she likes.

 Adorable Eden. Poor girl was puking all through the night before.

 Hana was so excited!

 Becca and her wild bedhead.

 Steve and his wild bedhead too.

 Charity.

 Andy trying to cover up the skeleton's private parts.

 And it was a gorgeous day!  White all over and beautiful blue skies.

Hair Care

Adopting really was a difficult thing to do.  It is for everyone I know.  It took way too long and way too much money, heartache, worry and stress.  We kept being told that it was when they get home that the real tough part starts.  And we did have a really, really rough period with Andy as he was gaining trust and adjusting and learning so many things.  But for Hana, I have to say, she's been fairly easy.  The toughest part of her has by far been her hair.  I know I have made a big deal about it before, but it really is a big deal. Nobody can really know unless they've actually handled her hair and tried for themselves to take care of it.  Not every African has hair as difficult as Hana's.  And I tend to think her hair tops the list.  

Taking care of her hair is a very long process and I suck at it!

Months back I spent a pretty penny on having a professional do Hana's hair.  And it was so worth it!  This lady is from Kenya and really knows her stuff.  She braided Hana's hair into cornrows, then loop-tied some fake hair in to make her look extra adorable, and to take my troubles away.  But you can't keep it in forever.  It has to be taken out at some point so that you can really clean and condition her natural hair again.  

So as I took out her fake hair, I took photos of the process.  I want to document it here.

As you see here, her real hair is in grown-out cornrows.  I have taken half of the fake hair out, which you can see some of at the top of her head.

 See the difference between the real and fake hair?  Night and day.

 Getting all the fake hair out took about an hour.  Here she is holding it.

 Then there was getting her cornrows out.  I saved this for another day.

 Still in the cornrows, right before I took them out.

 Getting the cornrows out took over an hour too.  Here is what her hair looked like after taking them out.

 It's kinda cute.  It's like a white girl's hair after taking out braids, in a way.

 But a LOT more poofy.  But I couldn't keep it this way.  It needed to be washed, conditioned and combed through.  Just washing, conditioning, and combing through took over an hour too.

 By this time I didn't have much time to style it.  So I hurriedly put it in 2 French Braids for the next day.
At this point I had spent about 4 hours at least, on just getting her hair undone and cleaned.  It was taking me back to the days when this was a weekly process.  I have way too much on my plate to devote a few hours a week just on one child's hair.  Sorry!  So I decided to get her back in to get new fake hair and cornrows.  But before we did that, I needed to get it cut.

 Here's Hana at Great Clips just before getting that done.  I had them do a deep conditioning treatment on her first because her hair was so dry and brittle.  Then the poor lady attempted to comb through her hair.

 After quite some time, she asked for another lady to come in and help her.  And with conditioner and combs in both sets of hands, they worked through her hair together to try and get it combed through.  Her hair is extremely thick.  We're talking world record, type thick.  Here she is after the washing, conditioning and combing.

 And then the process of cutting began.  This took quite a while too.  She took about 4 inches off, although you can't tell because there is so much kinkiness to her hair, that you can't tell how long it truly is without stretching it out.  The process at Great Clips took about another hour.

 Then I had to take Hana to the African hair place, where she'd get the cornrows and fake hair tied in.  This took another hour and a half to do.  Which in my opinion is quite speedy!
I let her choose the color and I am afraid I don't like it too much.  But oh well.  She also wanted it super long, so I told her she could keep it long until she has to go back to school in a week.  I will cut it shorter for her then.
Here's the finished product.  Total time to get from point A to point B?  About 6-7 hours!  You white girls need to be thanking the Lord daily for your hair!

Thanksgiving

Steve and I took the kids to Boise for Thanksgiving this year and these are the only two photos I got :(  

But it was so nice to see our families and spend some time with them!  The kids loved seeing their cousins too of course.  It was nice.

Young Womens

 This is some of our Young Women outside of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  We took them there after church one day just to get their photos taken.

 We also went to Temple Square with them another night to see the lights.  We were on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building when we ran into none other than this guy:

 Yep, the Prophet!  And Elder D. Todd Christoffersen, Elder Bednar and his wife,

 and Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 And finally, Elder Andersen.  I know my photos here are terrible, but the lighting was horrible and I was watching them much more closely than my camera.

 Celeste and I outside the temple.  She got to shake the Prophet's hand.  She was pretty stoked about that.

 And these are some of my favorite girls:  Camryn, Ari, Maile, and of course my Celeste.

Family Vacation

 The week before Thanksgiving we took the kids on a cruise!  This is the crew on the drive down.

 This was our dining table on the ship.  We turned a lot of heads on this trip with all our kids.

 One day we wore these Tshirts I made.  They said "Bishop Family" then "Mom", "Dad", kid "#1" and so forth.  People got a kick out of 'em.

 Steve and Jonah on the top deck as the ship was waiting off the coast of Catalina Island.

 The kids on the shuttle boat over to Catalina Island.

 Steve and the kids as we stepped foot in Mexico.  Ensenada.

 Handsome hubby with the fruit of his loins.

 On the car ride home, we had a torturous time.  The kids were fighting, puking, peeing, and making a great deal of messes.  Sam screamed a lot that drive, so in desperation we kept giving him chocolate to keep him quiet.  It worked temporarily, but oh what a mess!

This vacation was in mine and kids opinion, the best family vacation we ever had!

Cute Things

 Bubbies.  Love love love him.

 Stinkempots.  Loves to dress up all the time and change outfits all day long.

 Hana at her school Thanksgiving Feast.

 I don't know this dog.  But he was parked next to me at Target and I immediately fell totally in love with him.

 Eden getting a pedicure on a Mommy Date.

 Then she got her ears pierced!  First of my biological kids to do this.  Celeste does not want her ears pierced and Hana had hers pierced who knows when by who knows who in who knows what shrub in the African wilderness.

 Eden talked me into buying these glasses at Claire's.  I don't need glasses, but I thought it would be fun to pretend for a while.  We were twinsies for about 5 hours before I decided to take them off because at least 3 of my other kids told me that I basically looked like an idiot with them on.  :)