From Rags to Riches...

This is the hotel I booked for $50 a night. At least, this is the picture provided to me online...

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This is the hotel we checked into. Notice the giant stain on the wall and the "floating headboard"

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Here is the thermostat.
The doorway
The screen was bent and the window had NO LOCK!
Lacy just wanted to watch a video while Randy and I tried to figure out if it would be better to sleep in the car! In the end we decided to stay only one night and then find a better place the next day!

Lacy didn't care the the hotel was scummy... she just wanted to have a blast at Disneyland!

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.Mickey ears on...
Let's go!!!!!!

First stop, the tea pots, of course!

She couldn't go fast enough!

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After a few rides at Disneyland, Lacy finally crashed out for her afternoon nap. Randy and I discussed the possibility of finding a new hotel room at the Disneyland resort. I figured that we might be able to get a deal on a room because we were officially in the slow season... so we walked over to the Grand California Hotel and got in line. As we waited our turn at the reservation counter, I struck up a conversation with one of the cast members nearby. I noticed that she was looking at my kid on a vent, so I just started telling her the whole story of Lacy. Apparently she was pretty impressed because next thing we knew we were the Magical Moments Guest of the Day, and we were being taken up to the Disney Suite at this hotel for the night! How lucky were we??? They made a big production of everything in the lobby, announcement and all. I was blown away. It was a very magical moment for our whole family.Here is the view of our hotel... A daytime view from the balcony! You can see Disneyland from here!Our living room.




patio

bedroom

We ordered room service...

....and dined on the patio!

.After our meal we went back out for a few more rides...

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Randy is living out a life-long dream here... well, except he didn't have an actual airplane!
Getting ready for our last ride of the night!
"You guys are going to get pneumonia" Larci said

"No way" I responded

As it turns out, I got sick.

Lacy waited with Larci while mom and dad went on Pneumonia Rapids

This is the night view from our balcony!

When we got back from the rides, we found our beds turned down and ready for us to get some sleep! Very cool!
Playing snuggle bears with aunt Larci!

Getting her nails painted the next morning...

And a new hair do...

Just got her hair and nails "did", she is ready to meet some Disney Characters... In fact, I have discovered that the cuter your kid is, the more attention they get from the Disney characters. Whenever we put Lacy in a princess dress, she tends to score more photo opportunities than when she is in regular street clothes. It is possible that she gets a few extra points for the trach, and I am sure a few more for the glasses (they are so freaking cute!), but regardless... if you want to score some awesome pictures for your kiddos, invest in a princess dress. Unless of course you have a little boy.. but then again, I have a feeling that more than one of those male cast members owns a princess dress of their own!

Buzz rules!

Show me some muscles!

They stopped what they were doing to come see Lacy! How cool!





What a princess!

Almost got to meet Mrs Incredible!


The photographer who really hooked us up! He took Lacy around and introduced her to most of the characters. (While other, less attractive kids, went ignored)

A personal greet with Mickey himself!

Randy and Larci wanted to get a picture with the wicked witch. I had noting to do with this one, Lisa!

Our final ride of the night was the Matterhorn! Lacy's first time on this ride was earlier in the day. Half way through the ride she said, "I'm done, mom! I want to get off". The ride was pretty bumpy and wild, I felt badly that she had to stay on till the ride was over. I was worried that she'd freak when we went past the mosters, but as to be expected, she loved that part. By the time we pulled up to the end of the ride Lacy wanted to, "...GO AGAIN and see the monsters!"

Cutest Kid Ever

I am still working on my post from this weekend... just trying to figure out how to get 185 pictures posted in the best way possible (maybe I'll knock it down to 120!) Until then, here is a pic of Lacy in her new glasses! I think she is pretty cute!

Here she is getting ready to jump... I just love the white ribbon I used for a belt on the skirt! I am sure that everything will be thrashed when I pick her up from preschool in three hours!

Oh Well!!!

Octagon?

For all of my friends in education...

Back to Disneyland

We took Lacy to Orange County and back to Disneyland! Lisa (Grams) was able to get a beautiful hotel room for all of us to sleep in Sat night at the Grand Californian Hotel! Simply beautiful! Randy and I met Larci and Lisa on Saturday and then my parents came down on Sunday. We all had a blast.

Before we arrived at Disneyland, I called ahead and scored reservations at the Blue Bayou. It is a little restaurant that sits inside Pirates of the Caribbean ride. They serve the best Monte Cristo Sandwiches, we all ordered one! Yum!

Lacy spent the first day with just Grams and her aunt Larci! By the time we went home, Lacy was pretty upset that her aunt was not coming with us. On the ride home Lacy made up a song about Larci:

Aunt Larci is not in my car

Aunt Larci is in her car

She's not going to my hoooooouuuuuse

She's going to her hoooooouuuuuse

I love my Aunt Larciiiiiii......

It was an absolute crack up to hear her sing in the back seat of the car!

Aunt Larci bought Lacy some fabulous purple and pink hair that Lacy had requested earlier in the day... and of course her father said NO. Lacy loved it. I thought it was great. Later that night while we were all getting ready for bed, Lacy accosted Larci... the pictures are freaking hilarious, (Lacy ran naked and sat on her aunt's head!) We will save those pics for the christmas cards!

Grams suggested we go to a character buffet for breakfast... her "friend" was a real beast! Lacy was pretty excited to see more characters!

Lacy spent most of her time tracking down many of the Disney characters to sign her book...

Cruella was hilarious. One of the few characters that talks.

Of course Lacy insisted (multiple times) that we all ride Pirates of the Caribbean... and we even made her into a little pirate. She was pretty excited to have a costume!

On our second day at Disneyland, my parents came out to join us for the excitement. Of course, Lacy worked my dad for chocolate (and he came through!). Lacy took the entire family (both Isley's and Cramers) on rides we would all traditionally avoid. Ahhh, the power of being the first grandchild!

While enjoying lunch at California Adventure, a band came by to play and sing. Lacy joined in on the fun and had a great time with the group! Last year when Randy and I were going through all of the adoption classes, we were told that it was important to keep Lacy involved in her culture... I think we are doing pretty well. (Random side note... the woman in the top row on the far left... that is what Lacy's birth mom looks like (it's not her)... funny how Lacy looks more like us, huh?)

Over the river and through the woods...

We have had a very busy weekend... I wasn't sure how to blog each one of them separately, so I decided to just produce a blog goulash of the past few days...

Sunday we drove out to Rancho Mirage to meet Aunt Rose. She is my mother's mother's sister. (Follow that?)That would make her Great Aunt Rose. She's more along the lines of Terrific Aunt Rose, unfortunately that doesn't roll off the tongue as well. But I digress... I come from a family that simply isn't close in the relative arena. To be honest, I doubt I could pick most of them out of a line up. We are all scattered to the four corners of the earth (OK not really just different states) and we all have different lives. That being said, it was nice to meet a "grandparent type". Sitting there listening to her tell a few stories, I thought to myself, "this woman may quite possibly be the perfect grandparent prototype!" Aunt Rose is a regular lurker on my blog and she told me that she has finally figured out how to find my blog when she wants to, "but really," she told me, "I didn't start using the computer until I was eighty"! How cool is she? Hi Aunt Rose! We had a blast at your house, and your lunch was fantastic!

That is Aunt Rose in the middle, with my mom and my sister and Lacy. Funny how it took an adoption to get someone in the family that looks like me!

Lacy has learned how to play well with her grandfather!

Yesterday we were super blessed to meet with a mother and daughter who have CCHS! The were wonderful and gave us so much information. Even more than that, they are nice and funny and normal people. (Sometimes I manage to find very strange people) It was a great meeting and I am so encouraged about things right now! Here is a pic of Lacy and Michaelene (who also reads my blog!). Hy guys... thanks again!!!

Here is a picture of Lacy when we got home later that evening. She wanted to wear her rain boots to sleep. Too cute. She asked me more than once when we were going to go back and meet her "new friends". She really liked Michaelene and her mom Michele!

Finally, I thought I was pretty creative and Lacy liked it too. Just a quick breakfast with bananas, peanut butter and blackberries and then cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Lacy pounded it all down! Score!

Gorgonzola, Fig and Walnut Tartlets...

Enough talking about me... Let's talk about you. What do you think of me?

Here's the deal... I have an aunt (by marriage... I have blogged about her before, she is the much hipper version of Martha Stewart) who has entered the Pillsbury Bake-Off for America's Favorite Recipe where she could win 1 million dollars!! These lovely little delicacies were served on Christmas day and they were fantastic. Simply fantastic. Soooo... I was wondering if you could go vote for her. Just CLICK HERE. It's kind of a time consuming thing (um...it took me just over one minute) to register and do the whole thing, but she really should have the votes. In my humble opinion!

Just think of it as your social service for the new year! Now go.... CLICK HERE and do it!

I said it first...

Huckabee is the man.

Are they seriously saying Hillary and Edwards TIED for second??? Seriously!!! Seriously.

Wonder how far Oprah is going to take Obama?

Christmas.

I know it's a little late for a Christmas post, but who cares... it's my blog, my post...

On Christmas Eve we went to my folk's house. My dad had ordered fresh lobster to be delivered from Maine (does life get any better?) but they didn't arrive. In fact, as the story goes, they were shipped to the west coast (dad tracked their progress online) and made it out to the desert. Then for some unknown reason, the package started heading west... where it sat in Los Angeles, and then eventually started traveling back to the desert! The UPS guy arrived at my parent's house with rotten lobsters that you could smell from ten feet away WITHOUT opening the box. Dad refused the delivery thus forcing UPS to RETURN the box back to the east coast... stench and all. We had prime rib instead. Yum!

That evening, Lacy put out cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer! As Lacy fell asleep, Randy dashed for the cookies, I got stuck with the carrots. Next year I will move much faster!

Just like her mother, Lacy scrambled to open her Christmas candy found in her stocking! (Thanks mom, you are the best! I totally forgot Christmas candy!)





I had been warned about buying certain gifts for Lacy by much more experienced parents. We were told that she would, most likely, gravitate towards the cheap gift and completely ignore the expensive ones. I was sure that this would not be the case. As it turns out, we have a ridiculously overpriced Baby Alive that has gone completely ignored since she opened it... well, except when she told me that, "the baby is crying mom, feed it"! Stupid doll. The first gift Lacy opened was the bear-skin-rug (see my previous post) from my parents. As Lacy tore the wrapping paper off of the giant brown box, she exclaimed, "Thank you for my box! I love it!" What a cool kid, she was so jazzed to get a big brown box.
By far, the most popular gift at the Cramer house was the alphabet puzzle my sister found for Lacy. She is so smart! In fact, at dinner the other day, Lacy turned to us and said, "I think I want to be a doctor, like my aunt Becky". Hmmm... maybe we better get that college fund going, huh?Lacy is not just an academic, she is also artsy you know... this is her photograph of her Grampy Mike. With her Grammy Judy watching over Grampy's shoulder! It's just ingenious the angle she chose!After our breakfast we loaded up the car (no small feat) and headed off to the San Diego area. We had lunch/dinner at Randy's Aunt Lana's house. As always, everything was amazing and beautiful. Aunt Lana made Lacy the cutest hat I had ever seen (and like a total idiot I left it there!)... Aunt Lana is totally a hipper version of Martha Stewart. I envy her taste. Here is cousin Ashley, who Lacy named her Baby Alive doll after... and according to Lacy, also has cute buns! (Inside Joke)

We spent some time with the family...This is the newest member of the family, Katie... she is sooo cute.

After that, we headed back to Grams' house for more gifts.

Lacy received not one, but three Barbie dolls from her aunt Larci as well as some of the cutest clothes...

Grams gave Lacy a million gifts including three Leap Frog games and a few toys I couldn't manage to find myself! Lacy was in heaven!

By far, the coup of the entire holiday was Uncle Kyle and Aunt Natalie's gift Mr Bucket. Lacy couldn't wait to play with Mr Bucket! Lacy is a very lucky little girl.By the time we arrived home around midnight, we didn't' have a single inch of room left in our living room. We (Randy) made nearly a dozen trips from the car to the house to get everything inside! Next Christmas I hope to be in a MUCH bigger place!