5 years ago today.....

Five years ago today, as we landed in Chicago with our sweet little girl, Aanika became a US Citizen!

Here she is pictured at her homecoming with Auntie Sue (holding her), Uncle Matt and Aunt Chrissy. Lots of other folks were in the background but too many to write here. We were so happy to see all of you there!

Here she is today - all grown up! I can't even begin to imagine what her life would have been like......

Little Reader

How old were YOU when you started reading? I started school when I was still four years old but I didn't start reading until first grade. Was I just behind or was that the norm back in the early 70's? I'm a bookworm now and love to read so hopefully Aanika will keep up her love of it through her life too.

Here's our little Kindergartener sounding out her words and reading a book. They have a reading log that shows how many books you've read for that month and if you fill every line you get an award of a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut with their Book It program. Boy, talk about motivation!

First Violin Lesson

Violin. Who'da thunk it? I personally have no musical ability even though I was named after the patron saint of music, St. Cecilia. My daughter on the other hand is everything artsy that I am not so I guess I'll have to live vicariously through her.

She's asked for months to be able to learn the violin and she's finally gotten her wish! She had her very first lesson with Ms. Melissa but I think little miss Aanika was sorely disappointed when all she got to do was pluck some strings with her fingers and learn proper finger and hand positions. : )

Remember, she has visions of Celtic Woman dancing on stage with her violin and she wants to be HER! (check out this link, it's awesome)

My new obsession

Confession: I'm obsessed with a person I've never met and her name is Ree. Check her out yourself at ThePioneerWoman.com.

I found her blog recently and am totally hooked! She lives on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma, is a photo nut (fabulous pics!), sounds like a hoot to know and is madly in love with her Marlboro Man.

If you're into reading and like great stories, you gotta read hers: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. I started from the very beginning and (blush) haven't gotten a thing done in my house for at least 3 days!

Here's a link to all the chapters http://thepioneerwoman.com/category/black_heelstractor_wheels/the_night_i_met_marlboro_man.

My kitty's a killer

He's a killer. That's all there is to it. After being with us for a month, I now know how he survived in the woods. I have to acknowledge that my sweet little kitty is a killer and can take out a small rodent in no time at all. This is only a toy .... yeah, it's best if I don't think about it.