The Boys

Wow, pictures!

Can you believe it? Pictures finally! We actually lost our camera on the day that Samuel was born. We had a standard point and shoot camera. We couldn't decide if we should replace it with something similar or really splurge and get something more. So, after deliberating for 7 weeks, we pulled the trigger and got a DSLR. The only setting I know how to use so far is automatic, so I guess I am going to have to get the "For Dummies" book to learn all the great features. Anyway, here are some pictures taken from the day before Thanksgiving through yesterday. I'll have to do some backtracking later and add pictures from the summer through Halloween another time.

Here he is....Mr. Samuel!

He likes to sleep with his hand raised.

And, he's a really big boy. He's already outgrowing some of his 3-6 month clothes at 8 1/2 weeks old. He is just really long.

Watching the Macy's Parade.

First Thanksgiving. He was pretty happy about it.

It's hard to see, but he has dimples!

Michael and I have never had Thanksgiving at our house (or Christmas dinner, as a matter of fact). Neither one of us had ever cooked a Turkey. Our parents have always done that. Well, my parents went out of town to my brother's house and Michael's parents moved from Texas to New Mexico. With Samuel still being so young, we decided to stay home and see if we could make a proper holiday meal. I can't believe I am going to brag, but it was awesome! Michael brined the turkey and it was so delicious. All the sides turned out. And, so did the desserts. We were so tired by the end of Thursday, but it was a great feeling of accomplishment. Samuel's birthmom, her toddler son, and a university student from our church were our willing test subjects. I'm glad we got a trial run before Christmas, because we are hosting Michael's sister DeAnn and her family of six, as well as my parents.


A certain kitty cat also made her apperance at dinner. She is in a phase right now....

The kids helped get our house ready for Christmas on Friday.

Playing doctor. I ran into the playroom to see why Sarah was crying. She informed me that she was just pretending to be at the doctor's office.

Sweet.

Sassy.

A mess!

Advent traditions.

The new house decorated for Christmas (below).

Just in case you were wondering.....

....what in the world happened to the blog and us, we:

A) Sold our (small) old house
B) Frantically found our new (bigger) one because the above one sold in 4 days
C) Celebrated Sarah's 4th birthday (and later her 3rd Forever Family Day)
D) Started Sarah in Pre-K at a local school
E) Started a small part-time job at the church (me)
F) Moved
G) Frantically unpacked our boxes and did some remodeling so that we could....
H) Bring home our third baby, Samuel James, from the hospital last Saturday. (He is one week old today.)

Whew! A, B, E, F, and G were all in preparation for our 3rd adoption. It has been a packed, stressful, but blessed summer/fall.

Pictures and details of all these events will eventually follow, but for right now it is back to caring for 3 small children. :)

Think they like each other?

This past weekend was Dillon's 2nd annual Vietnam Heritage Weekend (we've met for 3 years now, but the first year was a one day reunion). The camp committee worked for months to make this happen, and thanks to the wonderful Dillon staff, we pulled it off with just a few minor and typical glitches. It was a weekend for old and new friends to gather, parents to connect, and kids to play with their Vietnamese friends and learn about the Vietnamese culture (thanks Natasha for the great crafts!). There are some families that I have the privilege of seeing frequently because they are local, but there are other families that I really love visiting with that I just see once or twice a year. That is why I really look forward to this weekend.

Sarah's favorite part of the whole weekend was, and I quote, "Luke!" (See above.) We do get to have playdates with him every few months, but I think these two could play together every single day. They spend a good amount of their weekend chasing each other.

Sarah's least favorite part of the weekend was the dragon (dragon dancers). Freaked her out! She told me over and over how much she disliked them. In fact, she continues to tell me how much she didn't like them. She screamed bloody murder when they came into the room, so I pretty muched missed seeing it because we had to leave the room.

Sarah with her other favorite pal, Avi Joy.

Posing!

Andrew really wanted a picture taken with Sarah.... You can see the one hand going up around her waist. He did eventually put the second hand up on her waist and it resembled something of a bad prom picture where the guy is way more into the girl.

Andrew created his own fun at camp.

Umm...I hope she is being nice here....

Since Natasha and I were working, Adam and Michael got to take the girls around to do the craft activities.

I think Sarah had a positive camp experience!

It's Summertime

Memorial Day

Yes Wii Did!

My dear, darling husband (and I don't mean that sarcastically) is a very wise man. He knows that when a woman asks for a Wii for Mother's Day, it is his one opportunity to blow some money on a gaming system. And that, my friends, is what we did this weekend. I am now the proud owner of a Wii/ Wii Fit. (Actually, he is too since it is going to have to count as a Father's Day gift plus our next birthdays.) We spent the afternoon creating our characters, taking our measurements and BMI, and coming up with our goals. Excercising has never looked so appealing! I'm also looking forward to some rousing games of tennis and bowling. I think Sarah is, too.

Best Friends

Last night was our Date Night Swap with the Perrymans. I dropped Sarah and Andrew off at their house after nap yesterday and enjoyed four hours of hanging with the hubby. Natasha managed to give Sarah a haircut and a matching "spiderweb" while we were out (impressive!). Adorable! Thanks guys!

Catching Up

Despite the unseasonably cool weather, we had a lovely Easter weekend. Saturday was sunny, but a tad on the chilly side. Still, it didn't stop the kids from having fun at the church egg hunt. Easter Sunday was rainy (all day) and very cold. I felt like a bad mom for making Sarah wear her sandals with her dress, but any other shoe would have looked really silly. So, yes, I let fashion trump warmth. Despite the gross weather, it was an awesome morning worshiping at church. Even though I much prefer contemporary worship, I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear when we sang the traditional "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" with the trumpets blaring at the contemporary service.



April 17th was Andrew's 2nd birthday. We met my parents for breakfast and play at McDonald's and we ate out as a family for dinner. On Saturday we had a very low-key gathering at our house to celebrate. On his birthday I wanted to see how cute he would look in his new underwear. I caught him at just the right time and he did a number 2 on the potty. He is showing some good signs that he is getting close to the right time to potty train. I need to let him mature just a little bit more and I need to mentally gear up to take the diapers away.

Road Warriors Part 2

Day 9:
We spent two nights and one full day with Janet (Michael's sister) and Josh in Wilmington, North Carolina. We had a fun day of seeing the area in spite of the persistent rain. We took a ferry ride over to the aquarium on Cape Fear. After that we drove around downtown Wilmington, which is a quaint and beautiful downtown, and visited the shops at the old Cotton Exchange building. When we returned home, Janet and Josh prepared a gourmet feast for us (she's a professional!).



Days 10-12:
On our drive from Wilmington to Charlotte, NC we met Susie and Ella for lunch (Hannah was in school). Susie was in our travel group to Vietnam and Ella and Sarah were adopted at the same time from Ninh Thuan. After a great two hour lunch visit we were on our way to Chuck (Michael's brother) and Susan's home for the weekend.

We had a wonderful time in Charlotte and it was a great way to wrap up our vacation before making our way home. Their boys are 3 yrs. and almost 1 yr. and our kids loved playing with their cousins. On the drive to Charlotte Sarah kept saying that she wanted baby Carson to laugh at her. He did not disappoint her either. I couldn't believe how happy that made her.

My sis-in-law Susan and I get along so well. The guys were gracious enough to give us two kid-free shopping outings to the local outlet malls and she and I went to work stimulating the local economy. My favorite was the Pottery Barn outlet, where I bought Sarah a quilt and sham for her new bed - I paid just under $50!

Chuck's new hobby is smoking Boston Butt (pork shoulder) and making his own western Carolina BBQ sauce. It was delicious!

As you can see in the pictures below, Sarah and Joshua didn't get along at all! (wink)

Susie and me with our girls.

Sunbathing outside the restaurant.

Ella and Sarah

My two handsome boys.

Sweet baby Carson and Andrew.

Joshua and Sarah

Helping Uncle Chuck make Saturday morning pancakes.

Hiding out in the pantry.

Andrew kept climbing into the swing.

"Can I have another turn?"

Playing "Puppy."

"Woof!"

Joshua's turn.

Day 13:
Sadly, it was time to say goodbye and begin the journey home. From Charlotte we drove to Clemson, South Carolina. There is a student from our church at school there, so we decide to call on her for lunch. It's a beautiful campus and I was excited to see it again. (Long story short, I made a last minute decision to go to OSU instead of Clemson- you know, back in the day.) From there we made our way to Atlanta, where we had dinner with one of Michael's high school friends. We ended our day in Birmingham, AL.

Day 14:
This was, by far, the hardest day in the car. The kids were pretty restless in the morning. But, an extended lunch stop in Little Rock wore them our for their naps and we made it across the Oklahoma border before they woke up.

Wrap up:
Whew, it was quite a trip! It definitely had its highs and lows. As many of you know, traveling with small children is not an easy task. The actual car travel was a breeze, surprisingly. It was nearly impossible to maintain their exact sleep/nap/meal schedule on this kind of a trip. There were days when we were able to plan things around their normal schedule, but there were many more days when we could not. Sarah has a hard time adapting to new sleeping arrangements, so that also created a challenge. As a result of all the above, we had to deal with more whining and tantrums. We kept having to remind ourselves that we were asking a lot of two small children. It was definitely a good tag team effort between the two of us and it was a wonderful opportunity for our little family to spend so much uninterrupted time together. It was also a good opportunity for our kids to get to be around their relatives. I can't believe how many people we managed to see along the way! (Lunch with Susie and dinner with Michael's high school friend, Erin, happened because of Michael's Facebook status updates.) Now I think Michael and I need a getaway to catch up on our sleep. I think Charleston will do! :)

Road Warriors Part 1

Fourteen days and 2900 miles later, we are home and nearly settled back into a normal routine after our "Southern Tour." (We actually returned last week.) We decided to make a scheduled 6 day family vacation to Hilton Head, South Carolina into an extended two week driving trip, seeing friends and family along the way. I have to confess that I am slightly obsessed with the south. Even though I am technically a Yankee, raised in Minnesota and Massachusetts, I have always wanted to be a southerner. Michael can vouch for me that I even got giggly at the first sighting of a Piggly Wiggly. :)

Day 1:
Leaving in the wee hours of the morning proved to be our best move in making the long (12 hour) drive to Birmingham, AL. While the kids didn't really fall back asleep, we were to Little Rock before the shock of being snatched from their beds so early wore off. After a 25 minute break, we were on the road to Memphis. Books and car games occupied them until it was time to stop for lunch in Mississippi, just outside of Memphis. An hour long stop at a Chic-fil-a (God bless the indoor playground) wore them out for their afternoon naps. We took a final stretch break about 1.5 hours outside of Birmingham and then busted out a Nick Jr. DVD to sail us the rest of the way in without one tantrum in the car. (Andrew did lose it at Chili's during dinner... Who can blame him?)

Day 2:
From Birmingham we had a short jaunt to Macon, GA (south of Atlanta) to see our friends Jason and Jill and their two adorable boys Ethan and Wyatt. Michael and Jason went to college together and they were both dorm directors during grad school. It was great to see them again and to see their children in person.

As you can see, Ethan and Sarah got along just fine.

Michael, Sarah, Ethan, and Jason

Jill and me with Andrew and Wyatt.

Day 3:
From Macon, we made our way to Hilton Head. It was another relatively short day in the car. We arrived at the resort and met up with my parents. They have timeshare through Marriott, so we had a beautiful 3 bedroom condo to call home for the week.

Days 4-7:
My brother Brian and his family arrived the day after us. We spent the next few days enjoying walks on the beach, swimming in the indoor pool, touring the surrounding area, eating, and visiting.

Andrew was so pleased with the seagulls.

All through the south the azaleas were magnificent.

Papa Roy with the grand kids.

We were surrounded by beautiful salt marshes.

We spent a day in beautiful Savannah, GA. This is the church used in Forrest Gump.

Spanish moss hanging from the old oak trees.

My parents with the kids at Forsyth Park in Savannah.

Taking a stroll through a salt marsh preserve. We didn't see any alligators, but we should could hear the males.

My parents planned some fun little activities for the kids - like this egg hunt for Sarah, Andrew, and Lauren.

Checking out his shell collection.

Day 8:
Brian, Kathy, and Lauren headed to the airport to return to Louisville, and we headed north with my parents for a day in Charleston. From a very tender age I have longed to see Charleston. I used to beg my parents to take me. The few hours of our day trip there was simply not long enough and I didn't even get to tour one home!!! Tragic! Anyway, Michael and I are already talking about going back someday without the kids. After a too-short walking tour of the city, we said our goodbyes to my parents and made our way north to Wilmington, NC.

Michael and me in front of the pineapple fountain in Charleston.

Everyone should have house guests like these!

Happy Spring (and Spring Break)! After georgous weather, followed by snow, we are back to mild weather..... and back to enjoying being outside as much as possible. We've been taking evening family walks trying to shed the winter flub and it feels great.

Last Sunday Michael's sister called to see if she and her kids could come up from Ft. Worth for a Spring Break visit. Sarah was instantly excited about having four of her cousins come to play. We got the house all ready and they arrived Monday at lunch. DeAnn is not your typical house guest. She came bearing a homemade lasagna for dinner, plus breakfast food, lunch food, and snacks for her very hungry teenagers. It didn't stop there, either. She put the kids to work in our yard and they all mowed, raked, and cleared out my flower beds. We had so many lawn bags that we had to divide it up between two trash days. Oh, and they cleaned out our shed and swept the garage! Oh, and did I mention that I didn't change one diaper or give one bath while they were here? Crazy! Anyway, I'm humbled and it was a good reminder to me to make sure that I am a good guest when I am visiting others. (DeAnn, I don't mind if you put your feet up the next time you come, though!) We had a great visit and stayed up way to late watching The O'Reily Factor and talking politics, parenting, and family.

I did a horrible job of taking pictures while they were visiting, but here are a few that I managed to snap.

They played many rounds of kick ball in the back yard.

Sarah wandered around the yard (oblivious to the game) eating the rice from her stir-fry.

Swinging with Katie at the park earlier in the day.

Andrew is less than a month away from his 2nd birthday. He will also celebrate his 1 year anniversary of his Forever Family Day on March 28th (we had a waiting period after he was born before we could go to court and legally adopt him). Andrew is a rough and tumble little guy, yet he can be quite sensitive when his feelings get hurt - particularly by Sarah. He worships the ground she walks on. I think she knows it and sometimes uses it to her advantage. He is equally interested in dump trucks and baby dolls, is shoe obsessed, and loves Dora. But, he is all boy when it comes to climbing, jumping on and off things, electrical cords, and other hazardous activities. Andrew is a regular chatter box. He has a solid vocabulary and the verbal skills to pair some words together and say simple phrases.

I'm not sure why, but my kids beg to brush their teeth! It should be the opposite, right?

Speaking of chatter boxes..... I never thought we would get to the day when we would be asking Sarah to please be quiet for two seconds. We have an amazing speech pathologist, Miss Sandy, that works with Sarah out of her home. The switch has finally been flipped in Sarah's brain and we've really turned a corner.


Sarah is a puzzle freak! They are perfect for her because she loves to disassemble things and figure out how to put them together again.

Tomorrow is Michael's 34th birthday. Sarah made Daddy a cake (with a lot of adult supervision).

Just when I thought she was getting it.....

For about a year now we have been telling Sarah her special Vietnam story at bedtime. It is a really big deal to her to hear her "Nam Story" every night, so if we have a babysitter we have to prep Sarah that the sitter doesn't know that story and won't be sharing it with her that night ('cause we learned the hard way on that!).

The story goes from her birth in VN, to her arrival at the orphanage where the nannies took very good care of her, to our trip on a plane to adopt her and make her our daughter, to our return trip home on a plane and where she lives now. As her verbal skills have improved she has been able to repeat portions of the story. Throughout a typical day she will frequently see (in the sky, on TV, in a book) an airplane and then proceed to say,"One day mommy daddy plane adopt you me...." As time has gone on, she's started adding things after the word "me" -like "door on airplane" and "key door airplane". Then she went even further and started tacking on the end, "choo-choo train, boat, and bus" if we were out and she saw one of those. I always thought that was ironic since we actually took all of those things with her in VN. So I have been confirming for her that yes, indeed, that it true.

Recently we were out and drove past the local water amusement park. She looked up at the huge slides and proceeded to say, "One day mommy daddy plane adopt you me....big slide, wee, splash." Yeah, that is not part of her adoption story.....

Just a few pictures....

It's been a pretty quiet and uneventful winter for our family (which isn't a bad thing) and it seems the old blog has come close to slipping into hibernation. But, alas, I've returned with a few new pictures to share to keep this thing going....

Two weeks ago Sarah got to meet up with Avi Joy and Luke at Ollie's Station for lunch.

The "draw" for the restaurant is the large collection of model trains running throughout the dinning room.


Last Friday night Michael and I had "Babysitting Night" at our house and watched Avi Joy and Nehemiah so that Adam and Natasha could go out on a hot date.


The kids were soooo good for us. The girls played and played and Andrew spent a lot of time on the floor chatting it up with Nehemiah.

Andrew was too busy to be in the pictures....

Sarah