Christmas Kitty

Pooks was so excited about Christmas this year! She had gotten into her stocking and was playing with her toy before Ana was even awake. I took her toy away and put it back into her stocking and told her she had to wait for Ana. She went and found Ana, jumped up on her and purred and kneeded into her chest as if she was saying "Wake Up Wake Up Santa Came!" Ana woke up and we all went downstairs...Pooks followed us. Then she walked right back over to her stocking and took her toy out again and played ALL morning long! Funny Kitty!

Christmas Kitty

Christmas Spirit

Christmas at BFCS

Ana's school is wonderful and we all love it! It was so refreshing to be able to freely talk about the true meaning of Christmas IN SCHOOL! To have a Christmas party instead of a holiday party, to sing songs about Santa AND Jesus! Ana has blossomed and is doing great. She is getting the love, guidance, and self confidence from her entire school and it makes all the difference. We couldn't be happier for her. The school had a wreath auction where every classroom made a wreath and people bid on it and the money went to the school. This is the wreath we made! We got first place in "school spirit". :)

We are the BFCS Bobcats and we took all the kiddos thumb prints to make little "Bobcat paw print" ornaments. It turned out precious!

This is Ana's class the evening of the school Christmas program. The Pre-K kids sung a couple of songs that just made ya laugh and melt your heart all at the same time!

This is our HAPPY little girl. She LOVED being up in front and just sang her little heart out. She kept waving at everyone she recognized in the audience and I just thought for sure she would bolt and go give hugs...but she didn't. She did exactly what she was suppose to do, complete with a bow at the end! We were so proud!

This is her teacher Ms. Amy. We LOVE Ms. Amy! I tell you it is the love and patience of this lady that is forming our precious little girl into a well rounded and smart student!

Christmas Memories

December just FLEW by for us! We had so many fun events that just makes the Christmas season that much more special! We are so blessed to have so many friends and family to celebrate with! Our neighborhood is just wonderful! We started a bunco group and we got together and had a cookie exchange! Christmas cookies and happy hearts this is how the holiday starts!

This was at the kid's Christmas party at Marc's squadron. Santa flew in to visit our kids in a T-6 (Marc's plane he is current flying) and passed out gifts! Ana got a Barbie Pilot and she loved her!

Marc's squadron also had an adult Christmas party at a lovely restaurant/tea room. This is Marc's Squadron Commander! He lost the bidding war and had to wear the "elf outfit". SUCH a good sport. Fun times...fun memories!

We found a VERY neat area of cuties stores and tea rooms about 20 mins away from our house. At Christmas time ALL the shops and businesses dress up "Dickens like" and transform into an "Old World Christmas"! Complete with horse carriage rides, hot cider/chocolate, Father Christmas walking around, and Christmas caroling around the "town tree". There was also a Christmas Carol play that was performed at the gazebo. One of my family traditions growing up is going to the Christmas Carol play every year. Marc and I have continued this tradition. Ana loved it and this was the man who starred in the play. He was AMAZING! It was a WONDERFUL night! This will be something we do every year while living here.

Again, our fun neighborhood did a "Christmas Progressive Dinner". This is where you go to everyone's house for 30 mins and eat, drink, and be merry! We had 13 couples who participated and it was a great way to see everyone's Christmas decorations and become more aquanted with each other! WE ALL HAD A BLAST! But one of the best parts was our babysitter lives in our neighborhood and she with one other friend took our kids for the night and they had their own "Christmas party". Ana had a blast and crashed at her house until we were done and we carried her home.

Vika Grace is HOME!

I hosted a "baby shower" at my house for our good friends, The Bigley's, who just brought their little girl home from Russia! Their story is amazing and just warms my heart. Their story helped me heal from our adoption story. Instead of holding on to those bitter feelings of not being able to bring home our son...I was reminded of all the WONDERFUL memories and the journey of bringing home Ana! Adopting a child is truly an indescribable feeling. To be filled with so much love for a child born that God has chosen for you...that completes you and your family is just more than I could have ever imagined. Congratulations Bigley's and thank you for your friendship! We look forward to many more amazing memories with you guys! Vika Grace is just precious!

Special Visit

The Gordon's are great good friends of ours from AZ days! They now live in Wichita Falls, TX about 5 hours away. They came down to SA for Thanksgiving and we got to see them for a couple of days. Our special bond with the Gordon's is that we adopted our daughters at the same time! They got home with Myah from China two weeks before we left to go get Ana from Russia. We got home two weeks later with Ana and they visited us for about an hour before they got in their car and moved to TEXAS. Then we moved to Korea and we hadn't seen them since!!

We met the Gordon's at Sea World and Ana and Myah didn't miss a beat! They were awesome together. It was just amazing watching them and knowing their stories and how both the Gordon's and us were SOOOO blessed by God's grace with these babies!

Quick pose with Christmas Shamu and off to play again....

We invited all our AZ Air Force friends who knew the Gordon's over for a fun visit!

Here are our cute Fighter Pilot boys and their babies...OH how times have changed...FOR THE BEST!!!!

Thanksgiving