21 months old!

Callie is 21 months old today. She can count to three and say more words than I can list. She is very head strong and stubborn. She is entering the terrible twos which means lots of temper fits. I just keep thinking that this will pass. Callie is a wonderful child (most of the time)! We couldn't love her more. Please enjoy the pictures of her and a few of Jenny. We got a nice snow fall and a few snow days. We didn't stay out long, but the girls had fun nonetheless.

Merry Christmas

We have had a good holiday season. The girls enjoyed helping make cookies. Callie loved Christmas morning. Jenny on the other hand woke up with a fever and what we would later learn was the flu. She had her shot, but her poor immune system was just not strong enough to hold it off. Thankfully she appears to be on the mend.

Callie's Adoption

We are officially a legal family of four. We adopted Callie on December 17, 2010 at 8:45 a.m. in Judge David Clark's court. The adoption went well even with me doing it pro se. I was terrified that I was mess the whole process up and the Judge would be upset. The whole thing went great and all the paperwork is filed. Now we are on to the last step of filing for Certificate of Citizenship for our youngest daughter. Attached are a few pictures from the event.

Thanksgiving and Start of Christmas Season

Callie celebrated her first Thanksgiving with her forever family! She loved all the food and attention. We went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving and had a real small attendance. Only my parents, my family and my brother, his girlfriend and her daughter showed up. As usual, Jenny ate very little-some mac and cheese and a whole piece of chocolate pie. Callie made up for what Jenny left behind! I posted pictures that help describe the day.

I bought the cutest Christmas outfits for the girls this year. Callie has a cute tulle red skirt with white tights that have penguins, a penguin top and cardigan and the best part boots that have penguins on the toes. For Jenny, I bought red and white striped tights and red and white striped cardigan (the Olivia the Pig look). I paired that with a cute top that said "smitten with daddy", blue jean skirt and red boots. I was so excited to dress them up and take their pictures to create Christmas cards. No luck! Both of the girls cried and carried on and refused to be merry! So, I've posted the pictures that made it to the Christmas card. However, the girls are wearing those outfits for Christmas and will be MERRY!!!! (I figure I will lose that battle, but I'm still going to try.)

Royal Night Out

This past Friday night, we had A Royal Night Out. It is a fundraiser for Community Connections which sponsors activities for special needs children. Community Connections allows Jenny to participate in soccer and dance. This was also the event where Jenny got to dance with Travis on stage. They danced to "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman. It went fantastically! Attached are a few pictures from the event. Unfortunately, I didn't get very many good photos.

Halloween

The girls didn't really like dressing up for Halloween, so we didn't go trick or treating. Jenny liked seeing the other kids come to the door. Callie got real upset that I was giving the candy away! She even yelled "no, no" at a few kids. Life has been hectic, but we are glad that our final post-placement visit is this week. Then we can start the work of making Callie ours legally! Attached are a few pictures from Halloween and miscellaneous.

18 months old

Callie is officially 18 months old today. Unfortunately, she has been under the weather and is home with Dad. Callie is amazing! For English not being the language she heard for the first 13 months of her life, she is picking it up quickly. She has a long list of words-momma, dada, more (mooe), eat, jump, I stinky, nana, pop, jenjen, go, night-night. . .the list could keep going! She is learning to jump, dance and go up and down stairs. We love her so much and are lucky to have her in our lives!