A Little Christmas Cheer

This is always a busy time of year...which means lots of pictures to share!

We got our first snow of the year the first weekend in December (a rarity in Virginia!). Laura loved looking at it, but it wasn't quite enough to play in:(

Laura, Nana, and I had Christmas Tea at the Jefferson Hotel and had a wonderful time! Laura tried a little bit of everything but ultimately decided that a bowl of fruit was the best. You can see that she is talking in this picture...something she does non-stop! She always has stories to tell and tales to share. It keeps us all entertained!

A slightly overexposed but still cute picture of Nana and Laura with the beautiful hotel and decorations in the background.A fun self-portrait!

Laura riding on the alligator's back. There are alligator statues all over the hotel and she had fun finding them. Whenever she saw one she would say, "Can I touch the aldator?"

"Can I wide da twain?" Laura would ask me that every time we passed this train at the mall. Finally Mommy and Daddy agreed, and she had a great time!

Daddy and Laura having a good time on the porch swing. I love that her little hand is in her pocket! She's becoming such a big girl!

We volunteered through our church to ring the Salvation Army bell for an hour last Saturday. We all had a great time. We sang and wished people "Mewwy Cwistmash!"

And "Mewwy Cwistmash" to you all as well!

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.