Merry Christmas

With the preparation leading up to Christmas, I found myself at time too lazy to want to do anything. It wasn't that I was extremely busy, just lazy I guess. I was finally able to send our Christmas greetings out on Christmas Eve, but that was because my computer crashed and our picture card and letter was lost in the abyss inside. We had a wonderful Christmas and we hope all y'all did as well. We celebrated with my dad, sister, and her son on Christmas eve by going to their church's candle lit service and Rebekah made her presence known with loud resounding crying in the foyer which permiated into the sanctuary so the whole congregation was able to enjoy. She was tired and does not go to sleep while being held. After that we headed back to their house to open presents. Both Madeline and her cousin Nathan had a BLAST! After that we drove to Kelly's folks to celebrate our 2nd Christmas. We arrived at midnight and Madeline and her 2 other cousins, Reese and Teagan, were up bright and early at 6:30am. Presents were everywhere!! Madeline had asked Santa for a orange scooter, so when she woke up and looked around at the living room (which we slept in) she asked, "did Santa come?" I told her "yes, of course he came." She put her head down slowly on the pillow and said, "I'm disappointed...Santa did not bring me a scooter." Well I told her that he saw we were sleeping in here and probably did not want to wake us up so he left it in another room, so Madeline was satisfied with that and began searching the house. She found her Barbie scooter in the laundry room. A few minutes later wrapping paper was flying everywhere. Madeline and I are going to have a hard time going through all her old toys and deciding which ones to donate to pregnancy life line. (a organization who assist pregnany women and teens who need help). I am not looking forward to that.

We do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are blessed this coming year.
one chubby rebekah Daddy & Rebekah
Madleline is still a bit standoffish about Santa, but at least she will sit near him and not run away and cry.

Madeline, Rebekah, and cousin Nathan at the candlelight service.
A very tired Rebekah, who in about 30 minutes from now will begin to scream loudly for all the congregation to enjoy.
Wake up Daddy (uncle Kelly)! LETS OPEN PRESENTS!!
Look, I can play the piano!
What a stash of presents I have.
"Baby Alive" Rebekah.
Madeline learning the fine art of riding a scooter.
This is the photo I will use if I ever intend to blackmail Kelly.
Madeline, Rebekah and the cousins. This was a fun picture to take.
FEET

Its COLD in Fort Worth

We have had our official 2 days of winter in TX. Yesterday and today did not get above 32 degrees and this morning there was a dusting of snow and ice in Dallas so of course several school district were closed or delayed. Luckily Fort Worth did not get any winter precipitation so it was business as usual YEAH!!

Rebekah has changed so much over these past 3 months she has been with us. She is more active each day as well as verbal. She is also becoming more assertive. Just yesterday she began to point at the things she wants and will grunt and kick her legs. This is great because now we know what she wants but also can get frustrating with all the whining if she doesn't get it. We have taught her sign language for "more" and "cup" which has helped. Today at lunch I was eating some chips with guacamole and Rebekah decided that she wanted what I was eating and kept pointing to the chips and making it known she wanted them. I have started a "this then that" ploy where she eats what she is suppose to eat (the this) THEN she gets the thing she wants (the that). It seems to be working also. She has learned to feed herself crackers and finger foods but I still have not ventured out to let her try to feed herself with a spoon. Rebekah loves playing "where's Rebekah" and will cover up her face with her hands and squeal when she quickly takes them away. She blows sweet kisses.

Rebekah is not walking yet but getting the hang of pulling up on furniture, moving along the furniture, and taking steps while we hold her fingers (which is a big improvement because she would typically just keep her feet in one spot while we moved forward and soon she would be almost laying on the ground). She crawls all over the place. She sometimes convienently forgets how to roll over and will lay on her back and scream.

Bed and nap times are still wonderful times. Rebekah does not fuss at all when I lay her down in her crib. Even when she wakes up she will either just lay their quietly or make happy sounds. We know we are blessed with this. I am sure she leaned this in the orphanage. She also still LOVES to nap in the morning and afternoon for about 2 hours each time. This was very different for me because Madeline did NOT nap but about 30 to 45 minutes a day.

Rebekah loves being with her Jei Jei (big sister). She is now in Madeline's room with her playing with the rabbit which is allowing me to type this. Madeline is also having the time of her life with Rebekah. She has mentioned to me several times that she wishes Rebekah would grow faster so she can play with her more. Madeline will still sleep in Rebekah's room on weekends "just in case she wakes up scared."

We are looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of four.

Madeline visit from the Tooth Fairy

Madeline had to have her 2 bottom front teeth pulled last Thursday. She did much better than I did during the whole process, I almost had to leave the room. Afterwards we went for ice cream. The tooth fairy was very generous and left her a magnifing glass. Madeline's two new bottom front teeth are coming in quickly and she also has one of her 6 year molars coming in.

What a sight

I got a chance to see the space shuttle Endeavor this past Thursday as it overnighted at the Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth on its way back to Florida. It was an amazing sight to say the least. I was about 300 yards away from it as it taxied the runway before it took off piggy backing atop a 747.

I LOVE HAVING MY COMPUTER BACK!!!!!!

ARGGG!

Well I am without my computer again. We had to take it back to the shop, hopefully it is only an issue of reinstalling the operating system, but who knows. I have to wait till Kelly comes home to use his work computer to check email and all my favorite blogs. I am not happy!

a stacking cup, a mouth, & a lesson in suction

need I say more!

The day after thanksgiving we were driving home from Ye Ye & Nai Nai's when Madeline enlightened us on a new decision she has just made. "I am not going to eat eggs anymore becasue eggs are chickens." I said to her, "Madeline, chickens are chickens and you eat them." "Yes," she said, "but I am not going to eat animals anymore, except chicken nuggets (we were driving by a McDonalds at the time)...and bacon!"

Prime Real Estate Property Opportunity

While in Chongqing, China we noticed all the construction that was going on and the fact that there was not a whole lot of space to build in. It appears that the builder of this "neighborhood" found a very unique solution, building under a freeway. We saw several apartments throughout the city that were built under freeways. Just thought it was interesting.

I'm 1

Hullow every one, I am 1 year old today - YEAH!!! We celebrated Rebekah's birthday at Ye Ye & Nai Nai's on Saturday which was Nai Nai's birthday. We had a great time opening presents and eating cake. Although, Rebekah did not find much interest in her presents themselves as she did the wrapping paper and boxes. Madeline LOVED helping open all the presents. She also was more interested in feeding cake to Madeline and Kelly than eating it herself. Rebekah has discovered TV which is a good or bad thing however you look at it. The good thing is I can leave the room for 30 seconds without her crying, the bad thing is she like "Elmo's World" on Sesame Street and I REALLY DO NOT LIKE "Elmo's World." His voice is so annoying! Rebekah still likes the Wiggles and is now beginning to dance to the songs, it is so cute. She is trying hard to put the shaped blocks in the geometric box but not the right shapes in the right holes so there is a lot of banging. No words yet but a lot of "da da's, ma ma's" and now "va va's" but she is trying. She is learning the art of giving a kiss, however slobbery it is, it still is a kiss and I'll take them. We are really looking forward to her reaching 20 pounds so we can finally turn the car seat around, just 1 more pound to go.

"but I'm asking nicely!"

Friday and Saturday mornings Madeline had difficult time at getting started so she had to spend some time in her room "thinking" about her attitude, most of that time was spent yelling though. On Saturday she was arguing and fussing so much that I told her to go to her room and when she was quiet and asked nicely she could come out. Well, as she was in her room crying loudly, she yells asking, "can I come out of my room now, CAN I COME OUT OF MY ROOM NOW PLEASE!" When no response came from Mom or Dad, she then yells, "but I'm asking nicely, I said please!"

Happy Sweet Giggling Sounds

With Madeline being sick and unable to go to school, she asked if she could sleep in Rebekah's room last night and had a rough night of coughing so we were both up periodically throughout the night. I was taking advantage of sleeping in a bit this morning waiting for Madeline to come bounding in our room, climbing into bed with me and asking to watch "Martha Speaks" on PBS. Instead, I woke up to Madeline singing "Silent Night" to Rebekah in Japanese (she is learning it in school) and sweet giggles. It was nice way to wake up.

The crying croup monster

Last night at around 2:30a we were abruptly awaken by Madeline coming in to our room crying and coughing a croupe cough. Well, as you can well imagine, I was sound asleep so when she comes running in our room in this manner I scream and jump in Kelly's direction who then wakes up, jumps out of bed ready for what ever is in the room. Thankfully the monster was just our 5 year old girl.

We took advantage of a beautiful autumn day. Everytime the wind blew the leaves would fill the air and gracefully float down. Madeline wore herself out chasing them. Rebekah was not so impressed with all the leaves, she was more interested in eating them.
Playing in the fall leaves.

Finally 3 faces looking at the camera.

Rebekah feeding Mama a flower - YUM.

Man it is difficult waiting for Rebekah to cooperate.
The Botanic Gardens had loads of butterflys flying everywhere. What a beautiful autumn day.

Dilligent squirrl.

Camo lizard. I was suprised to see a lizard still around in November.

My attempt at taking a picture of lightning during a storm on November 10. You can almost see it.
This morning was a little bit hazy and I took this picture of the sunlight through the trees.

Your eyes are seeing this right. A gas station near my dad's house has cut their prices 5 to 7 cents less than other station near there.

A little bit of autumn in Fort Worth

Here in North Texas we do not typically get the leaves turning beautiful fall colors.

Oh Grow Up People!!

As Kelly and I were driving to church last Sunday we noticed that several McCain/Palin signs had been marred by Obama supporters. Come on people GROW UP!! I know that this kind of thing is happening all over the US where both sides are resorting to this type of childish behavior and it is probably not the first time in a presidential election a lawn sign has been vandalized, but come on, can we be just a little bit more civilized. I did like one home owners response to the vandalism to his sign. It sums it up pretty short and sweet.



NICELY PUT! I wonder if this will ever happen?

The art of screaming silently

WRECK 'EM TECH!!! Wow, did ya'll see Tech BEAT the formerly #1 ranked UT Longhorns last night? Kelly and I perfected the art of screaming with joy silently last night with 1 second left on the clock as Crabtree juked out a UT freshman cornerback on the sideline to run in the game winning touchdown. We were jumping up and down wildly like madmen, throwing our arms up in the air, with our mouths wide open but no sound coming out for fear we would wake up our girls. I DON'T THINK I WILL GET TIRED OF WATCHING THIS!

FALL FESTIVAl - we had a wonderful night of games and trick or treating.

Early Picture of Rebekah

There is the wonderful organization that is working in many Chinese orphanages, Love Without Boundaries. LWB assists in education, medical, nutrition, foster care, and much more. We were very lucky that LWB was actively working in the XiuShan Social Welfare Institute where Rebekah was living before we adopted her. Another service they offer is giving adoptive families additional information or photos about their child. I stumbled upon their website accidentally after we received our referral and just recently submitted a form to receive additional information. What they were able to send me was this photo they believe was taken about 1 month before Gotcha Day. There is no doubt that this is Rebekah.

Please check out their website www.lovewithoutboundries.com and see the amazing work they are doing in orphanages in China.