Merry Christmas from the Normans!

Merry Christmas! 

Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

We had a GREAT Christmas morning here in the Norman house and we hope that you did too! Here are some pictures! The top pic is of our fam wearing our MATCHING PJ'S! It was a tradition that Jason started last year and I hope to continue for many years! I made the flannel pants this year so that we could all match on a budget!

Here are my boys, adorable in their matching PJ'S... don't cha just LOVE IT?!?

Ky opening presents with Mommy.

Opening some tools with Daddy.  I made Kyan a tool belt to go with his tools. 

Ky insisted on puttin on his hat (not a christmas gift) as well!  It is also a cute shot of the tool belt I made him.

Snowed in!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We got over 8 inches of snow so far and it is still coming down! I LOVE a good snow fall but when it lands on Christmas Eve when we are supposed to be traveling to see family it is a bit of a bummer! We are sad that we cannot spend today with our family in Pine River but we will be up this weekend!

Here are some pictures of us playing in the snow!

Ky was not too sure of the snow at first and took a bit of time to warm up to it. He did not like the sled (again!) but I would put him on my lap and ride down the hill with him... each time when we got to the bottom he would say "All done!" But then, he would want to climb back up the hill. We are working on it!

On Dec 18th we went to the Holidazzle Parade in downtown Minneapolis. It is a parade of lighted floats that represent fun children's stories and Christmas themes. Only in Minnesota would we think it it is cool to have a parade in the middle of winter! Jason and I have gone with my mom and dad for several years now.  One year, Jason and I were even in it as Romeo and Juliet (how romantic!) It was fun to bring Ky this year. He loved it! Here is a collage of pictures from the parade… Just click on the picture to make it bigger!

Our Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Norman Family!

(This photo was taken last year on Christmas Morning.)

We had a WONDERFUL 2009. What fun it is to have a toddler in our house (I am not joking!) We are so thankful to have spent the whole 2009 with Kyan!

On February 10th Kyan had his 1st birthday!
We dress in tradition Hanboks to celebrate!

Ky had the "it's my party and I will cry if I want to" attitude when it came to eating his cake!

Kyan starting crawling in March and walking in June. This made our life more exciting for sure! Here is a cute video of some of Ky's first times walking:


In July we had our court hearing to OFFICIALLY name us as Kyan parents. It was a joy filled day that both Jason's mom and my mom were able to attend!

In August Jason and I celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary... are we old enough to be married 11 years?!? No- we are not!

In September, I did not go back to school. It was the 1st time in over 26 years that I did not go to the first day of school. I am happy to be staying home with my son! I do have a part time job working for a home school co-op tutoring students in Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Advanced Math. It is a great 1 day a week job!

In October Kyan had his first Halloween in the USA! He dressed as a giraffe and roared the whole night.


On November 5th we celebrated Kyan's Gottcha day, the day that Kyan arrived home with us. I made him a crown and we went out to eat Korean food as a family.


Now, we are to the holiday season! We are looking forward to the fun we will have with Kyan this year!

We wish you a very blessed Christmas season!

If you read this news letter please sign the "guest book" by leaving a comment saying "Hi!"

Please Vote for me!

I entered in a tutorial contest over at See Mommy Sew.

I entered my leg warmers, Monogram plate and Wine gift bag from my Fireflies and Jellybeans blog. So far, the leg warmers has the most votes for me so that is my best chance to win.

PLEASE vote for me... please please pretty please! Please support me as my family and friends! It would really mean a lot to me!

see all the tutorials HERE and vote Here

Run Ky Run!

Here is some video of Kyan running. He just started to get into running back and forth and today he was doing it with a football... He has good form... which his Father is excited about... his mother- not so much!

This one is about me...

I know that there are a lot of Kyan fans out there and that most people check in on this blog to find out about Ky, but this post is about me (Fawnda)



I started volunteering in our church youth group this school year. I LOVED my youth group growing up and it had a huge impact on how I turned out, so I wanted to give back in a way.



When I stated youth group, back when I was a 6th grader, I was part of a large group of girls (8-10 girls) and we were OB-Noxious! and that is putting it nicely! -Ask my sister she will tell you!- Since were so loud and hyper as a group we were dubbed "The 6th grade girls" When we were old enough to move up to the High School group (we were in 9th grade now)all the older kids were like "Not the "6th grade girls"... they are crazy!" We will forever been know as the infamous 6th grade girls, seriously we went down in history that way! secretly I am OK with that. :)

It is only fitting that when I was assigned a group to be the small group leader of, now that I am volunteering, I would get ... The 6th grade girls. It goes to show you that God has a great sense of humor! : )

Needless to say I LOVE it, I look forward to going to Wednesday nights to help out and hang with the "6th grade girls" We have had some new comers, 2 sets of identical twins. So now my group is up to 10 girls (this is sounding all too familiar!) and I love them all only as a true "6th grade girl" can! What is even more amazing is that these new comers families are now coming to church because these girls love it so much! When I saw two of the newer girls (one of the sets of twins) at church on Sunday they gave me a hug and brought me to meet their mom and brother. I feel so honored to be part of God's work.

We will soon return to the regular scheduled Kyan Program. I just had to share!

Gotcha Day!

Yesterday (11-5-09) was Kyan's Gotcha day. The day that we "GOTCHA" Kyan! The day we actually got custody of Ky and brought him home for good! Can you believe that we have had Kyan home for a YEAR? it some ways it seems really fast, but in other ways it feels like Ky has always been with us!

Here are some pics from Last year:

On the plane ride home. Don't we both look tired? This was after traveling for 18 hours... we still had 3 hours to go until we got home.


This Kyan first time in a car seat!


Sleeping with daddy after the long trip home.

This year I made Ky a crown (He is our little king after all) and I had him wear it around the house. We went out to eat at a Korean restaurant called Mirror of Korea. It was YUMMY! We came home and looked at the pictures of when we were in Korea and told Kyan the story of his journey home. It was a good night!

The crown says "Today is my Gotcha Day! Nov. 5th 2008"

Happy at the restaurant!

Fall fun!

I took some puctures of Ky playing outside with some leaves!

Happy Halloween!!

Here are the pumpkins we carved this year.

Last year we were focused on a different little pumpkin! Our Little King! Last year on October 31st we met our son for the first time. We had arrived in Korea the night before. We were very nervous and excited!
Our meeting with our son included me, Jason, our Korean social worker, Kyanand his foster mom. The 5 of us met in one of the agency's observation rooms. We asked questions of the foster mom about our little kings schedule, what he ate, how he went to sleep... etc. She told us as much information as she could and tried to show off all the things he could do. We then got 20 minutes alone with our baby. It was the first time our family was alone, together. The total meeting lasted about an hour. We left with another meeting scheduled, a bunch of pictures, and anticipation.

Here are some pictures of that day: It is interesting looking back at these pictures and remembering this day. I remember when we took these pictures, I was thinking, "This is going to be my baby!" Now when I look at the pictures I think, "That is MY baby!"

Last year for Halloween, Jason and I got a whole new identity, not just a costume. We became parents! We will be celebrating Halloween today with our Kyan in some traditional ways (Dressing up, getting candy) and some nontraditional ways (looking at pictures and telling the story of how we met for the first time). It is going to be great!

And here is our little giraffe today! Does he look ready for treat-or-treating or what!?

One year Ago today....

This was us, at the airport BEFORE we flew to Korea! BEFORE we met Kyan. It is hard to believe that it has been a year already! It is crazy to remember how we felt at this moment one year ago!

WOULDN'T CHANGE A THING!

Check it out!

Leah at Life According to Leah is having a raffle to earn money for thier adoption. What is she raffling off? ---you might ask... Well- A beautiful set of 1 lunch bag and 2 matching snack bags made by yours truly! I knew I wanted to help out their family any way I could. So go there now and enter her raffle!

A Sneak Peek!

Here is Kyan the Roaring Giraffe:

Here is Kyan the kissing Giraffe:

More Videos!!

Here is some video of Kyan putting pennies into his bank with Daddy. Daddy thinks that it is a good idea to start early with teaching our kids to save! He has a football painted on his cheek from the Korean Fund raiser that we went to. That is also where we got the bank.

This is video of Ky wearing his mom's shoes. He likes to put on Mom or Dad shoes and try and walk in them. We think it is pretty cute!

Ky Videos

here is some video of Kyan using a spoon for the first time by himself! You will notice that he mostly wants to bang it on his tray but we are working on it! : )

Here is some video of some words that Ky can say:

Kyan- The Builder

Can we Build it? Yes we Can!


How cute is Kyan in his "hard hat"?

"Cheese!"

"I see it now!"- wanting to see his pictures on the camera.

Make-Over For A Good Cause!

From long and luscious....

(These pics are not the greatest... but they are the BEFORE so I guess it ok to post them...)

TO....

Short and sassy!

I cut off 11 inches of my hair to donate to Locks Of Love. This is my 4th time donating hair. I am donating this hair in honor of my friend Kari who has breast cancer. She has been through much more than I could ever handle! She has 3 young children and a husband, she is doing fine right now, but there is always that risk.

Here is my hair that got chopped off:

Trucks and Balloons

We went to Jason's work family picnic. It was full of trucks and balloons so Kyan LOVED it. He could not get enough of either one of them. We all got to ride in an off-road dump truck. Kyan played in a sand pit and Jason and I got to try a back-hoe. We ate some hot dogs and chips. Fun was had by all!
Here are some pictures of the day!

All the kids got these orange hats (perfect for Ky!) and he kept it on all day!

Checking out the fire truck

Checking out the Excavator!

Climbing into the off-road dump truck

In front of the off-road dump truck

Playing by/in the sand pit. He was more interested in the toy trucks than the sand.

Having a bit of lunch.

Yes- Mommy was there too! :)

Jason in the Back-hoe

Fawnda in the back-hoe

Hard hat with daddy

Hard Hat with mommy!

Here are a couple videos that I took:

You can hear him say "Guck" (truck) in this one at about 8 seconds.

In this one you can see him do his happy dance! : )

In other news, I am having a giveaway for my new etsy shop on my Fireflies and Jellybeans blog. Click here to enter!