Friday, December 30, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season with your family and friends. It has been a miraculous Christmas for us. The kids were so excited to celebrate Jesus' birthday, we even had birthday cake at church. Jen's mom came up to MN last week to celebrate with us. It was her first time meeting her newest granddaughter. Hannah loved hanging out with Babka and she really attached quickly to her. We are grateful for all our family and friends for all the support we have received in 2011. Happy New Year!!!






Monday, December 26, 2011

December update

We had a lot to celebrate this December and even more to look forward to in 2012. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! God Bless.



My 32nd birthday cake...yummmmm!


Peppermint Ice Cream + Oreos = Heavenly delight


The kids and I (well mostly I) made snickerdoodle cookies one morning for a cookie bake


They actually turned out pretty good!


Papa Randy read Hannah a story before naps


Hannah and Daddy time


Hannah's first Christmas with family and a new stocking from Aunt Martha to show for it


Step into Hannah's DaySpa Salon, she is taking new clients. Uncle Jamon gave her high remarks.


Our little boy turned 5 years old! Kinda overwhelming how fast life flys.


Angry Birds was this years theme


Claire and Caedon are best buddies! He was so excited to have Claire at his party.


Angry Birds birthday cake. Thanks Steph!!


Caedon and Hannah gearing up for the party


December has been very mild. No snow for Caedon's 5th Birthday.


Sweet Norah!


Hannah's party craft...Angry Bird's green pig


Some of Caedon's friends and their party craft


Pigs everywhere!!!!


Happy Birthday big boy!


Babka was helping Hannah put together a Mr. Potato Head. It was so sweet!


Waiting for Caedon's Christmas program to begin at Wooddale Church


The Grandma's


Caedon's class singing a song


The cuties


Minneapolis sunrise from the 6th floor of the WestHealth building


Christmas eve


Hannah went to bed early because she wasn't feeling well, and Caedon and Norah tried to hide so they could see Santa.



We left Santa a plate of cookies and milk and Rudolph got a couple of carrots.


Santa made it to our house this year. The stockings are filled up with goodies!


Friday, December 2, 2011

Christmas is coming...so much to be thankful for!

It has been a while since we last blogged, and I have heard lots of requests to update how everybody is doing. I have not been blogging mostly because we have been trying to figure out how to make life work with three kids. When you add a newborn into your life, there seems to be a big transition as it was with Caedon and Norah. But when you add a 3 year-old to the mix, who doesn't speak English, that transition to another child is exponentially more difficult.

Our first few days home are a blur to me now. And the following days were a struggle. We were sleep deprived and jet lagged. I was so glad I decided to stayed home from work the first week we were home. I would have been worthless at work. Plus, we needed to be together as a family so we all could get readjusted to our new family. We had a difficult time trying to communicate with Hannah and we found our patience being tested daily with Hannah's aggression towards Norah. Her aggression was brought out when Norah picked up a toy Hannah recently played with; or when Norah had a puzzle piece she wanted. Hannah will raise her hand as if she is going to hit Norah. There are plenty of evil looks and screaming whenever Norah does something she doesn't like. All the aggression has been directed at Norah. We haven't seen any toward Caedon or us since we have been home.

The good news is that we have been seeing this behavior dwindling each day. The frequency of aggressive behavior has been going down, and the frequency of gentle touches and sharing have been increasing. Her receptive language is nearly fluent. She recognizes almost everything we are telling her, but she is a typical 3 year-old at times and displays selective hearing almost as good as her daddy. She is developing quite normally.

We visited Dr. Cynthia Howard at the International Adoption Clinic at the University of Minnesota. She is the director of the program and the sweetest, kindest doctor we have met. Our appointment was about 3 hours long total. We met with an occupational therapist as well, and she was completely impressed with Hannah development. She told us Hannah is tracking perfectly for her age. We are planning on seeing Dr. Sundberg at Gillette Children's to evaluate Hannah's legs. We feel there is a chance she may have hip dysplasia in her right hip so we want to get that looked at right away.

We had a quite Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was really nice to just relax at home. We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday the next day at our house. We ordered Chinese take out :0 Our first Chinese since leaving China. The kids loved it and they used chopsticks for the first time.

We also began decorating for Christmas last weekend. We bought our tree and got the lights up, and a few decorations. Most importantly, we got the M&M bowl out and filled up with mint and peanut M&M's. Somehow that bowl never stays filled, I've got to check the bottom for a hole or something.




'Tis the season


One of the brightest stars in my life!


In the "forest" looking for our perfect tree


Caedon picked this one


Candy canes for the car ride home...


...became a little bit of a sticky situation


Chinese from Wok in the Park for my Dad's 60th birthday


Christmas tree up, decorations on the tree...


Christmas star atop the tree