Christmas 2009

This Christmas has been so nice. Today we went to Sara and Chuck's house to celebrate Christmas with them. Sara rocks at putting together a dinner with what seems like ease. She doesn't get that from me! We had so much fun at their home, even though Chuck and Emilee tried to cheat when we Sara, Taylor, and I beat them at the board game we'd bought Chuck. My parents came along and got to see how the Browns had fixed up their home, renovated their bathroom, their home is a constant work in progress and they are doing a fantastic job.

Last year Taylor did not know what to expect for Christmas. She was actually kind of agitated at not knowing what was going to happen next, as the holiday unfolded. This year she was a veteran and anticipated each dinner, each event with the excitement that only a six year old can have. There is absolutely nothing like Christmas as seen through the eyes of a child.

Emilee HATES to have her picture taken and the sensitive, quiet child threatens violence when confronted when one wants to get a picture for the Christmas archives, so I was only able to get one where a present wasn't held up over her face. Taylor, on the other hand, loves having her picture taken and will gladly ham it up for the camera. When we went to my parents house last night for dinner, she chose her clothes and had to find something green for her hair so she could wear something green and red for the occasion.

We have five of the coolest kids ever. We consider Chuck as the son we never had, three wonderful girls we adore, and the youngest who is still stuck in China and waiting for us to bring her home. Next year will be another wonderful Christmas as we will be seeing the holiday through the eyes of yet another child who is experiencing Christmas for the first time with her forever family. I can hardly wait.

Winter Wonderland

It has snowed a foot at our house and it's still snowing! We haven't had this much snow in this area for YEARS. And it had to snow when we had lots of travel plans. But when you are six years old it's still exciting. Taylor is standing on our front porch. And the other shot is looking off our deck. It is pretty, I'll admit that, but I'm just waiting for it to hit 80 degrees again haha

Taylor wants to go sledding and build a snowman and have a snowball fight and...and...looks like a job for daddy!

FCC Christmas party

Saturday night, a good friend and I headed out to our region's FCC Christmas party. We brought her two daughters and Taylor, their youngest daughter is from the same SWI as Long Xuan. The families of this group are very supportive and its nice to connect with them several times a year. And I think it's good for Taylor to see other families just like ours. As human nature would have it, of course she really just played with her two friends that she already knows :) But that's OK, we had fun, enjoyed the ride (except for that little part where we couldn't find the dinner lol) but then we arrived and enjoyed fellowship and fun, the kids made a craft and we just watched all the kids have a good time. I think its more for the parents to see other families like ours and trade stories and advice. And one family has the two cutest boys that make you think, hmmmm. a little boy? But, no, it's a girl for us, a boy would look pretty funny in all his sister's hand-me-downs :) The group shot was pretty iffy as all the kids really didn't want to stop and be photographed. Taylor is on the left in green, looking around, like this is boring, you are stopping my game of getting to dance like a ballerina with my friends.

Thanksgiving week

Thanksgiving week ... we have so much to be thankful for this year. Taylor is doing well, we are working as hard as we can to make our paperwork go quickly so we can bring Long xuan home, Emilee and Sara are such awesome young ladies, I am so proud of both of them. We are rich indeed this year.

Taylor was a pilgrim this past Friday at school, her kindergarten class put on a cute program for the parents and then we shared a traditional Thanksgiving meal of cut up fruit and chips and dip and cupcakes :)

Then on Saturday we attended the Family Life Services family day - this is National Adoption Awareness month - it was an ice skating party and Taylor got to try out the ice. She's decided she doesn't want to be an ice skater but it was fun.

Emilee and Taylor are off all week so we are going to have to get inventive on finding something fun to do - bring on the Christmas crafts!

Happy Birthday, Emilee!

Yesterday was Emilee's 17th birthday. Wow time flies when you are having fun :) I don't have any pictures to share because Em is the person who always wants to be behind the lens and runs and hides when anyone points a picture her way but it was a great birthday, strung out over the entire weekend and was hilighted by seeing old friends, attending a hockey game, good food, presents, paint ball tournament with family, lots of fun. Emilee is trying to suffer through high school and has her eyes on the prize - college! She can hardly wait to attend LU - she will love it and I can hardly wait to see her shine.

Halloween '09

Taylor says she's going to be a cheerleader when she grows up so she decided she'd practice a little for Halloween. Tom and I, along with Emilee and cousin Jesse took T to our Church's fall festival where attendance was over 3100 people. Lots of cool costumes and fun games and candy! After the carnival Taylor decided we should top off the evening with milkshakes from Chick-Fil-A :)

Kindergarten Field Trip

Today Taylor's Kindergarten class, along with two other Kindergarten classes visited the apple orchard. A fall tradition, the kids got to learn about harvesting apples and then picked their own bag to take home. A beautiful fall day and Taylor and her best school friend shared so many fun moments. I love autumn!