Two Weeks Home!

Well time is certainly not slowing down!  Another week has gone by and it may have been busier than our first week home.  This time of year is full of events and activities, but full of memories being made with family...so it's extra special this year.

These two have a love hate relationship.  They can really get at each other, but other times are loving on each other-like during this bath. :)

Proof that she does sometimes look happy and that she is now enjoying baths!  Progress! :)

We finally got to having that cake we were supposed to have on Thanksgiving.  Yeah it was three days later and it may have had a lot of chunks of frosting missing from it. ;)  It was the birthday boy who was sneaking the frosting during those three days. ;)

We had a lot of school events this week.   Thursday night was the 1st-4th grade holiday concerts.  We had four boys in the 1st/2nd grade show- pieces from the Nutcracker.   They did such a great job!

Reid is in the dead center in the above picture- he was a toy soldier.

Landyn was a mouse (far right above).  He looked so cute in his mouse hat and he got to walk the flowers over to the most wonderful music teacher at the end- so precious.

Jonah (blue sweater; green hat) was a Chinese dancer.  

We got a kick out of the fact that he chose this role and Reid, our Chinese child, did not.

Elijah was also a toy soldier.

Next, it was time for the 3rd/4th grade concert.  Between shows we did homework since there wasn't really time before/after.  Evan was our only kiddo in this show. He was so excited- he spotted us right away.  It is amazing how kids can change. He was the kid in 4K and Kindergarten who pretty much just stood there because he was so shy and quiet.  In this concert, Jingle Bell Jukebox, he was so into it, so animated, and singing and dancing his heart out. 

We all loved it, including Macie and Maeleigh! ;)

Today we took the girls to their first Christmas parade with my mom and her wonderful neighbors.

Rowan with one the neighbor kids.

We tried to take a group picture, but someone wasn't looking or was doing something silly every single time...I think this is our new normal! ;)

They are definitely loved by these siblings of theirs!

This girl- she is still being quite serious most of the time, but she is amazing us too.  She is SO interested in sign language and learning a language.  She brings her family photo album we sent her over to us all the time, wanting to know the signs for each person.  She has been practicing colors and her ABC's too.  She's having trouble remembering which sign goes with which word, but she certainly is remembering all the signs we're working on and is interested and that is HUGE.  We are so proud of her and so excited to watch her grow!

Maeleigh and nana. :)

Rowan and daddy.

The kids are always excited to see Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the end of the parade!

After the parade, we headed to my mom's for a bit to play on the trampoline and hang out.

The girls LOVED it!

Rowan was so ready for a nap. Maeleigh's trying to console him. :)

Here it is...the moment we live for..that smile! :)  It's worth the wait!

After that, we headed home to finish putting the lights on our tree and to put the ornaments on too.

I couldn't believe how fast it was going- many hands make light work.  Then I realized we had another container of ornaments. ;)   

Probably way too many ornaments for our small tree, but we found a spot for almost all of them.

We hope to get some pictures of all the kids by the tree tomorrow, but Jonah snuck in one. :)

Relaxing after all the work was done!

Another great week!!