Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas. Santa was good to Andrew (Nintendo DS to replace his broken one) and Brooke (a play kitchen).

Andrew also enjoyed getting more Bakugan things, knex (sp) and Legos. Brooke especially liked her foam letters for the bathtub. This started off being her favorite, which of course only cost $5 LOL! She also loved her talking ELMO.

We are fortunate that we don't have to go anywhere on Christmas day, so we were able to enjoy being at home as a family!

Brooke found her nose!!

Those with small kids know the game...where's your nose (eyes, ears, ect). Well Brooke stated putting her finger in hers. Andrew finds this really gross. Now she she has started putting one finger in each nose hole, which is really funny!! Except...when we are in public! When we try to make her stop, she will do it even more and start laughing. I'm sure,in a few years, she will be glad I put this on line for all to read.

We have our tree up, decorated by Andrew. As the days go by, we are moving more of the ornaments to the top. Last year I bought new PLASTIC ones. Which is a good thing. She likes to get them and bang them together! Brooke knows she is not allowed to touch the ornaments, so she waits till we walk out of the room and then grabs one or two. No breakable ornaments on our tree this year!

I have completed most of my shopping...on line! This is the best way to go...no impulse buying. Just make a list and check it...once!! We found the best deals on Wal-mart.com (Internet deals) with free shipping to the store. No worrying if Andrew will find his gifts. We have until December 31 to pick-up! Plan on picking them up next week.

Andrew continues to lose teeth, soon Brooke will have more than him LOL! Andrew has lost 5 so far this school year.

Will post pictures soon.

One Year Ago...

One year ago tonight, we were trying to finish up our packing for our trip to Taiwan to pick up Brooke. I can still remember feeling so overwhelmed. I had been sick with a stomach bug all week and now was rushing to pack. We were so excited and nervous. We were excited that we were finally going to meet Brooke. Nervous about the long flight and our first trip out of the country. Tonight I went back and read my blog post while we were in Taiwan. So much fun! So glad I decided to blog. I wish I would continue to blog like I did last year. It is amazing how much you forget about your everyday life. On December 10th, we will have had Brooke home one year!!! It has been an amazing journey. Brooke is now 17 months old. She enjoys playing Andrew's Keyboard when he is playing. Likes to climb on things. Enjoys being tickled, still loves to eat, loves books, music, and dancing. Brooke still sleeps really well (8pm to about 7am, with a two hour nap)!!! Loves for Andrew to chase her around the house. I have learned it is not wise for me to do this. On our last camping trip she was walking toward the road and when I started running after her she started laughing and running. Brooke is still not talking. She says "izzzzz" for I want that and can say tickle tickle. I have started to try to teach her sign language. She has learned "all gone" and can use it! We will have her evaluated next month if her speech doesn't improve. Since it has been so long after my last post.... the rest is from memory or lack of it. Halloween: Brooke went as Minnie Mouse. Andrew as a Ninja. I wanted Andrew to go as Peter Pan or Captain Hook and Brooke to be Tinkerbell, but he said NO! We had to do our family and friend "visiting"/trick or treating a day early due to Bryon was working on Halloween. For Halloween, we went to Andrews school Halloween Celebration. We completed our last post home visit. Somewhat sad that we would not be seeing Kathy again. She is the most wonderful social worker and was so encouraging and helpful. Thanksgiving: For Thanksgiving, we went camping in Destin. For most of our married life, we have spent Thanksgiving at the beach. We love it then. We did not go last year because of our upcoming travel. We were joined by another family the F's. This is the 2nd time they have joined us. We all ate at Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner. The weather was good most of the week. Andrew and Brooke even braved the cold water and played in the ocean. I am so thankful Brooke is a huge fan of the beach. This is our favorite place to be. Of course while there, I had to shop. My best buys were at the Gap and Gymboree outlet. I was really able to get some great deals!! Yesterday I began to get serious about my Christmas shopping. Fortunately for us, we have really downsized the number of people we buy for. This has made the season so much more enjoyable. Also since we don't have to buy for everyone, I can now spend more on gifts for needy families. I usually shop for toy sales all year so we can donate to those who are unable to buy for their children. So much more rewarding than buying gifts for people who really don't need anything else. Andrew also enjoys this. I think it is good for him to try to understand that not everyone has the things he has. Some times Byron thinks I get carried away with the toy sales. One year I bought about 20 black Barbie dolls for about $2 each. LOL Well I guess that's all for now....

Halloween 2009 Photos!

Here are some photos from Brooke's 1st Halloween! She went as Minnie Mouse and Andrew went as a Ninja.

Brooke is 15 months old

Most recent camping trip:





OK it has been awhile since my last post. My blogger friends have let me know it is time for an update....

Brooke:

Brooke is 15 months old. Here are a few facts about her
1. She has 7.5 teeth
2. Can say "tickle" "Izzy" (our dog), Dada, "issss" (for I want that), sometimes says "mama"
3. Loves Barney
4. Loves Books
5. Loves her "happy Bear"
6. Loves to hug you from the back(will come up behind you and give a big hug)
7. Loves playing with Andrew
8. Loves to...Eat. Almost everything except ketchup!
9. Loves to..get a mouth full of liquid from her sippy cup and then spit it out onto the floor.
10. Loves Sleep: Sleeps 12 hours at night, and then 1-2 naps a day!
11. Loves to get up in your lap and then immediately get back down a million times
12. Loves to hang upside down
13. Loves to play patty cake and I'm a little teapot
14. Loves to dance
15. Loves to get things off our end tables as soon as we leave the room LOL!

Just starting to learn to: have a tantrum..which is so funny now....

Andrew:
Andrew is counting days down to when he is out for Christmas break. He is not the biggest fan of school. Big news in Andrew's life was having an infected tooth pulled. The dentist was unable to get him completely numb. It was painful for me to watch. I had Andrew crying, Brooke crying and lots of people looking in to see what was going on! Byron arrived 5 minutes after it was all over LOL!!!! Andrew and I both came home and went to bed.
Andrew will be starting basketball this week.

Family update:

Byron now has glasses! He was having trouble reading due to "old age".
We have only been on one camping trip this fall. The weather has been really rainy. We planned to go this past weekend, but it rained all weekend. So maybe we can go in a few weeks, before it gets too cold. Brooke does well on camping trips. It is alot of work since she is walking and will easily walk away from us. I bought one of those harness things, have not had the nerve to use it in public, but will definitely use it on our next camping trip. I have a fear she will run off into woods and we will not be able to find her. I recently bought a Kelty backpack so we can resume hiking. I had been wanting one, but they are expensive, but found a used one for only $15!!! She is way to heavy for the baby carrier. I know there have been other things that have occurred, but can't remember......

Taiwan Reunion!

Yesterday we were able to see Chuck, Amy and Morgan. Morgan came home from Taiwan October 2008. We became friends with them, while waiting to adopt. They used the same agency we did. They are our 1st Internet friends!

Sunday we ate lunch at Logan's (Andrew's favorite) and went to a children's museum. Brooke and Morgan are still to young to "play together" but they got along great. Brooke even threw a piece of roll at him during lunch LOL! Morgan is so cute and laughs all the time. Morgan loved the fire truck and Brooke loved playing in the rocks. Andrew had a great time too. His favorite was "working" on the car! I hope to add more to our group of families who have adopted from Taiwan (speaking to Kristy (AL) and Jennifer (TN)!

One Year Ago ....

Brooke one year ago (two weeks old)!
Brooke at one year later on Andrew's 1st day of school!

One year ago today we accepted our referral of Brooke!! It is so hard to believe it was just one year ago. It seems like forever ago. Referrals had been really slow and I felt discouraged. I was at work when Byron called to let me know Tein (from JOH) had called. I had to see two more people before I could get home and then we opened the email of Brooke together. It's hard to describe the feeling of seeing a baby's picture that will one day be your daughter. All we had was 3 photos and a short video. We were lucky to have a fast judge....we were able to meet her four months later! What a great Christmas gift!!!! Like a gift from GOD!!! She has grown and changed so much. It's seems she has been with us forever!!!!!!!!!!!! We love her so much!

Andrew Starts Four Grade!

1st Day of fourth grade.
I like this photo it looks like Brooke is crying "Please don't go"

1st day of fourth grade!




1st day of K5!






Each year I have to take pictures of Andrew's 1st day of school. He started four grade!!! Only 8 more years of 1st day of school. I'm not sure how willing he will be at 16 to pose for all the photos LOL!! Our family always dreads school starting. Andrew is such an easy child, we just like having him home with us. I hope we will feel the same way with Brooke. I think she we have more ATTITUDE!!

Mother of the Year Award?

I know some of you are thinking....wow two post in one month!!!!

Multiple times this year I have missed opportunities to win the mother of the year award.

Example one, while trying to find a pack n play for our camper. I put Brooke in one on the top shelf at Target. She feel backward and I could not get her out! Luckily Andrew had a plan and I think maybe only the security camera's saw that one. I was almost in a panic while Brooke was screaming very loudly. Whew!! After Andrew was able to get her out he said, we should have taken a picture to post on our blog. LOL Lesson learned: Don't put your baby in high places that you can't really reach!

Next lost chance was this past spring. When the weather man stated that the tornado warning was over. We all stood in our living room commenting that "wow, I've never seen wind like this before", a tornado blew down three trees and damaged our car. All while we were standing in the livingroom together. Lesson learned: Strong winds= TORNADO.

Most recently I was lying in bed and about 10:30 I heard a man and women yelling/fighting. I live in the country and you cannot see another house from mine. Byron was working nights so I went to investigate. I walked outside and it sounded like it was coming from next driveway over. The shouting continued. By now, Andrew (10 years old) joined me outside. Then we heard a lady scream followed by a gunshot, then silence. Andrew and I ran into house and I called 911! After calling I had Andrew stay inside and I went on the back porch to "listen". My fear now was the police would show up and he would be running through the woods to my HOUSE! I wanted to see/hear him before he reached us so I could call 911 again...probably not wise. A few moments later, I hear more yelling followed by three gun shots! I called 911 again and shortly after the police arrived. Andrew was really scared, but I assured him no one was hurt as evident by not hearing an ambulance LOL. Andrew ask that night "mom, it's been along time since I slept in your room, can I tonight?"

Lesson learned: If you hear people fighting at night, don't let you son go outside to investigate with you!!!!!

Will post more on Brooke soon! I need to post soon on Byron missing the Father of the year award while taking Brooke on her first kayak (sp) outing!

Two Months Later...

Last year I was obsessed with reading blogs, and learning to blog. Now that I'm home with Brooke I will have to work at updating my blog at least once per month! One of the things I have enjoyed about bloggging is writing about fuuny events and being able to go back to read later. The other is this is like a family journal, with things I would have forgotten about in future years.

We have been very busy. Andrew finished the 4th grade and baseball.

We have been camping alot. We went to Point Mallard (local), St Andrews State Park in Panama City,FL; then Desoto State Park and most recently spent the 4th of July at Gulf Shores State Park! Needless to say we are tired and feel we have been gone the entire month! We have had a great time with our family and friends. I have included photos of recent camping trips!

Brooke Turned one on June 28th! She is walking everywhere. Babbling, but no real words. She is very active. Fortunately for us she sleeps very well! She enjoys books and walking through the house. Brooke has done well with camping. Sometimes on the first night of camping she will cry and won't go to sleep. I often wonder what she thinks is happening. We stated camping with Andrew when he was three and every night he wanted to go home! He did great during the day. She loved the beach. She played in the sand and like to rub sand all over us YUK! Our last beach trip the waves were really big and I was nervous the entire time, but she loved it, LOL! For my JOH friends: We received exciting news in June that Brooke's birthmom had requested additional photo's of Brooke. We were so excited. We truley hope she will continue to want information on Brooke as she gets older. We hope to be able to travel to Taiwan when Brooke is much older and meet her birthfamily! We did not get to meet them while we were there.

One difference I have noticed about having an adopted child is the people you meet who have also adopted! It's like getting a baby and friends!! We met a couple while at the beach who had adopted from China. It so nice to hear others stories!

On the same day, the older couple next to us on the beach ask me "where did you get her?" Now this couple was very nice and we had talked off and on during the day. So I said very seriously "Our local Wal-mart!" I wish I had a picture of her face. I laughed and then told her Taiwan! We are really open and don't mind people asking us about our adoption, but sometimes I do like to have fun with the questions people will ask LOL! I have been tempted to say "I had an affair with an asian man" and see what people would say!!!! So I may use this the next time!!!

Andrew is so great with Brooke. We were really concerned about how he would react to having a sister after being an only child for 9 years, but he has done really well. He enjoys playing with her and is so protective over her! He likes to show her off to others. I hope this continues as Brooke gets older!