Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wow! What a great year it has been! We had a lovely time with so many family members visiting but it went by all too quickly. Haylee got in the Christmas spirit fast and loved opening her presents. She is at such a fun age for all of this. So humbling to think back about Christmas time the last few years and how desperately I wanted this child. Feeling so overwhelmed at the emotion of finally having her here and watching her face light up on Christmas day. So happy to see all of my kids together but still a empty place where my sweet Ava belongs. I have great hopes for 2010 and can't wait to see what joy it brings! Happy New Year to you all!

DECEMBER 8 - SHE'S TWO!!!!

Okay one day late but my baby is two! I can't believe it! We had such a fun day and here are some of the highlights.

One Year Ago Today...

we opened our email to find these pictures. We knew then that this was our daughter. I can still remember the excitement and nervousness of that weekend as we tried to find a doctor to review her file. I must have looked at her pictures a million times. I couldn't wait to meet this little girl who had captured my heart so completely.

And this is a picture of our girl from last night. She has exceeded our wildest dreams in every way. She constantly amazes us and delights us. We see more and more of her sweet personality day by day. This has been one of the coolest experiences of my life. We have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving! We've been home almost nine months now and what a joy she's been!

Big Girl Bed! (Kind of)

Little Miss HM is sleeping in a big girl bed - kind of. The first couple nights she did amazingly well. Sleeping all through the night and staying in bed. Well the last couple nights she has realized she can get out of bed so we've put her back in the crib. The problem is that she wants to sleep in her crib. She is so cute tucked into her big girl bed. The little girl is the sweetest and easiest baby!

Hangin' with big Sis. You got to love her jack O' lantern smile.

Finally Family Pictures

We FINALLY got some family pictures. Believe me when I say it was a long time coming. We had them taken by Scarlette Richards. She did such an unbelievable job of capturing the kids. I just love the pictures of them. And it was all relatively painless (with the exception of coming up with cordinating outfits). I am so happy to finally have some beautiful pictures of our family.

Check out Scarlette's website at www.scarlette.squarespace.com.

We are now H1N1 vaccinated!

After 2 and half hours of standing in line with four little kids we are all - except Kevin - vaccinated against Swine Flu. (Well, actually if we can make it through the next 21 days without exposure.) It was a nightmare and I came ill prepared but I was glad to see I wasn't the only one crazy enough to bring four kids by myself. I wondered if I should get one since I have been feeling kind of sick but there was no way I was going to wait for that long and not get something for it. Hopefully, this year the dreaded H1N1 will pass us by.

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

Most of the family had a nice Halloween with me and Kevin being the only exceptions. We are not feeling well - some sort of bug that makes us exhausted. But we did manage to make it through all the weeks holiday festivities which included pumpkin carvings, HP annual Halloween event, a ward party and multiple last minute costume changes for L. This was HM's first Halloween and I think she thought it was great. She loved getting candy and mumbled her own little version of "trick or treat". She didn't smile but she was all business. Had to convince her on the night of the big event to put her costume back on - she'd had it - hence the tears - but once we got going she had a good time. I am loving all of these firsts for her. The next two months will be full of them - her first Thanksgiving, Birthday (with us) and Christmas. A lot to look forward to. Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch!

We didn't know if we were going to make it this year. The weather this week was questionable - wet, wet, wet. But then this morning came and it was a beautiful, sunny, fall day. Off to the pumpkin patch. This year we went to one up in Salmon Creek trying to avoid the crowds. There wasn't much to it but it was fun. The kids all won a stuffed animal. (I also had one of my most embarrassing moments there but I won't expose myself here.) Had lunch at Applebees before heading home. All in all it was a very fun day!