2 Years Ago...

It is so hard to believe that Dec. 1st was our 2nd Family Anniversary. Time sure flies! Laura is growing so fast. She talks ALL the time and is learning so much every day. We had a little celebration to mark our special day. For the second year in a row, I forgot to get the camera out until all the food was eaten...but we had a wonderful Colombian dinner including empanadas, cheese bread, beans and rice, and steak with corn pancakes served with herb sauce. The pictures will tell the rest of the story:

Laura, Nana, and Granddad with Laura's Tres Leches cake. It was delicious! One of the little girls who came to the dinner asked when she got there if there was going to be birthday cake for Laura. Needless to say...none of the kids understand adoption yet!

We got Laura a small Colombian trinket for 18 of these celebrations. This year she received these fun crayons that are in a tree limb/stick. All the kids loved them and they colored everything they could find for quite a while (fortunately I didn't find any marks on the wall, though!).

A nice family picture to commemorate 2 years together. We can't imagine our lives without Laura. God truly blessed us when He brought us all together.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Shawn, Nana, Granddad and I just had the privilege of watching Laura at her preschool's Thanksgiving Program. The 2 and 3 year olds sang five songs (none of which you could understand!) and looked absolutely adorable. Laura missed school all last week since we were in Missouri with family after the death of my grandfather, but she still knew the motions to one of the songs (seen below). Her class was dressed up as turkeys and a few pictures of her costume follow the video. Enjoy!

(We have been growing Laura's bangs out for several months now. She went to school tonight with a barrette in her hair to keep it out of her eyes, but somehow it disappeared before the program! The poor girl can barely see!)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Fall Fun

We have had a very busy October...full of pumpkin picking, pumpkin farm visiting, and Halloweening! Enjoy the pictures...

We always get our pumpkins from a small patch near our house. The "punkin" Laura is holding is the one she got to decorate at school. She is also eating her first every lollipop! And boy did she make a mess!Several weekends after we got our pumpkins, we went out to a large farm with hayrides, games, etc. to play. Laura had a great time running through the fields and we ended up buying another pumpkin...a really ugly one! Once we had been in the fields for a few minutes, though, Laura saw some goats playing nearby and every few seconds she would run up to me and say, "I wanna see da doats, Mama!" A picture of our ugly, bumpy pumpkin. I think its breed is called the Red River Thing. I love it!

Laura had a really good time playing in the corn pit. We played in it for quite a while and then moved on to some other games. At one point, she kept saying to me "I wanna pway wit da acowns (I want to play with the acorns)!" I couldn't figure out what she was talking about until we walked past this area again and she pointed and said the same thing. And then it clicked...the acown was the corn!A great picture of Laura coming up to give me a "tiss on da bips! (kiss on the lips)" while she was playing in the bounce house.
Daddy and Laura cleaning out the pumpkin. At first, Laura really wanted to help. Until she put her hand in the pumpkin and declared all things "yucky!". So pumpkin carving primarily became a mommy/daddy event!Laura all dressed up for Halloween. She enjoyed being a "cheeleeder". We went to about 7 houses trick-or-treating having a good time until we got to a house with a boy dressed up like a werewolf with big mask. Laura had a little fit and when I asked her if she wanted to go to another house for more candy she said, "No, mama! I wanna doe home!" And then the rest of the way home she kept looking around saying "I don't wanna see dat doddie (doggie/werewolf) any more!" And when we got home, every time the doorbell rang, Laura went running into Nana's lap and covered her face!
Laura, Nana, and Granddad enjoying the view from the front porch...as well as some of Laura's Halloween candy! We had a great time (even with the doddie scare:) and were so glad that Nana and Granddad could join us for the festivities.

A visit to Missouri

Laura, Nana, and I took a trip to Missouri last month to visit my grandparents and aunt (Bob, Gigi, and Auntie to Laura). We had a great time and have tons of pictures to prove it!

Laura had so much fun playing with Bob and Gigi. They had found a lot of toys so the whole house was filled with new things for Laura to learn and explore. She loved putting these foam numbers over her head and around her waist...they became like necklaces and skirts.

Auntie, Bob, and Gigi even made a playhouse for Laura out of an old refrigerator box. It had a table and chair, a basket full of toys, curtains on the windows and even a sky light! Laura played so much in this house sometimes it was hard to get her out. I'm sure she is pretending to talk to Nana on the phone...one of her favorite pretend phone conversation companions!

My grandpa uses oxygen a lot during the day to help him breathe and at first Laura was very hesitant to go near Bob when the oxygen machine was running. So then my mom had the great idea to let Bob give Laura's babies oxygen. That solved the problem immediately and Laura would run over to Bob and say "Baby needs air, Bob!"

I just couldn't resist adding this picture...she looks so sweet and so long!!

Auntie is a recently retired librarian, so Laura has been stocked with books since the day she joined our family. Laura loves to be read to but is usually very specific about what book and who is doing the reading. If you offer to read "dis book" (the one she has picked out) but you aren't the person she wants to do it, she'll say very forcefully "NO, ntie (auntie) do it!!"

I'm pretty sure that Laura was performing for us here. She loves to sing and dance, but only when she is in the mood. Don't ask her to perform on demand or she will get shy and run away!
This looks like Laura and Nana are playing some version of Laura's favorite game, "Doe (g0) night-night, Nana!" Laura tells Nana to go to sleep, my mom closes her eyes and pretends to snore and after just a few seconds Laura yells, "wate (wake) up, Nana!" My mom quickly opens her eyes, lets out a little scream and then they both laugh. This can go on for hours:)Auntie found this vacuum at a yard sale and Laura loved it! We quickly put her to work doing all the floors and rugs!

This is a front view of Laura's playhouse. What you can't see since the "door" is closed is Auntie is sitting inside helping Laura poke her head out of the skylight. Every few minutes, Laura would then come out of the house and dance for a while. Auntie was getting a little tired of sitting in the box so at one point, she tried to sneak out and sit on the couch. Laura saw her about 1/2 way to the couch, pointed at the box, and said "Get back in that house, ntie!" We all laughed so hard we nearly cried!!

Thanks to Bob, Gigi, and Auntie for such a great visit!!