Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.

When the weather outside is frightful... I blog. Here is a taste of what it looks like outside my window right now:


Yuck!

We had a really nice Christmas. Seth was such a trooper. He was on the go from the minute his feet hit the ground that morning. We visit three places on Christmas day: James' mom, my mom, and James' dad. Needless to say, by nighttime we were all exhausted. Nobody was more tired than Seth, but he couldn't have been in a better mood. He LOVED Christmas, but I think that he loved the socializing the best.

Here he is in the chaos of Christmas morning with his cousin, Lincoln:


And here is one of the only times you will see Taylor's nose in a book (she is the black sheep in the family when it comes reading and does not like it):


She had a really nice Christmas, too. She was given a merit scholarship to a well-known fine arts camp this fall (she plays the flute), but she needed to come up with a fair amount to make the difference on tuition (it is quite pricey), so many people gave her a gift to go towards that goal. Thanks to that, she is getting close to the balance already!

Seth is walking all over the place now:

Don't you love the pink slippers? I used to babysit a friend's daughter and I bought her these to use while she was at my house (the floors get cold). I found them the other day and they fit Seth perfectly. I have to say, his dad is not thrilled :)

I hope everyone has a great New Years. We are planning on a nice, quiet, night in (translation: sleep and home improvement projects, not necessarily in that order.)

Please pray for two families that are leaving December 31st to pick up their children from Ethiopia: The Bryant family and The Kikstra family. Godspeed and God bless!

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. - Matthew 1:21

Touchstone Archives: The Brotherhood of Sons

Touchstone Archives: The Brotherhood of Sons: "Days go by when I never think about the adoption, and when I do think of the boys as “adopted,” it is always as a past-tense verb, not an adjective."

This is one of the best articles I have ever read about adoption. Not only that, but this quote I pasted above sums up my feelings about Seth and his adoption into our family. Feelings I have never been able to put into words until now. I encourage you to go read this article (which I found on The Hausam's blog). I encourage you all to go read this awesome article. I will give you fair warning though: have tissues on hand.

A day for firm decisions! Or is it?

My guys, showing some school spirit!

And now some gratuitous cute kid pics...

“Cleaning the house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the drive before it has stopped snowing”. - Phyllis Diller

This was a story recently on the local news that was really neat... A guy had been searching for his biological mother for four years and found nothing. When he was finally able to get the correct spelling of her last name, he discovered that he had been working with her all along. How cool is that? You can check out the story here: Son finds birth mom as co-worker

Right now, I am trying to make cookies for some of the people James works with, but I am running into every problem known to man... To be perfectly honest, I prefer cooking a meal to baking. Maybe I should whip up a Chicken Cordon Bleu for them instead :)

We finally got our tree up and decorated. Thank goodness for snow storms. Since the weather got icky on Sunday, everything was canceled and we finally had a free moment to decorate the tree together. Seth was about as impressed with the decorating as you would expect a 13 month old to be. He lit up when we turned on all the lights though - almost as much as the tree itself :) He also has been a perfect gentleman with the ornaments and has not grabbed even one. This may have more to do with the poky-ness of the tree and less to do with his exceptionally good manners. LOL

I am almost done with Christmas shopping. Taylor and I have a few more gifts to pick up on Thursday and then we will be done. Can you believe Christmas is only a week away? Where has this season gone.

My original intention to get as many pictures of Seth on Santa's lap as possible has not worked out. Apparently you have to leave the house in order to get pictures of Santa (I don't do that a whole lot these days). I guess I could just wait until Christmas Eve and catch him when he comes in. I don't think you are supposed to do that, though...

Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.

We have officially started decorating for Christmas. Usually we have our tree and all the decorations up Thanksgiving weekend, but it didn't happen this year. First, there was the whole "nativity set" issue: I have a nativity set I adore and Seth is tall enough to reach all our flat surfaces. So, before a single decoration went up, I had to find a table tall enough to protect the nativity. We found one, on clearance. ;-)

We put up a few more decorations, but the tree is going to have to wait until this weekend. Working around everyone's schedule can be a pain, but what can you do? It seems odd waiting this long to put a tree up!

Seth has been his usual comedic self. He is growing so fast. When we first brought him home, he was not strong enough to get up the first step. I took this picture today:

He was fast, too! Part of it might be how much he loves to eat...

What can I say, he likes his Mama's cooking.

"All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand." - Steven Wright

I have decided to make it my goal to see how many pictures of Seth with Santa I can get this year. So, without further ado, here is number one:


I think he kind of liked Santa. He wasn't scared at all and grabbed right on to his beard :)

While I am posting pictures, I would like to show you Taylor's new hair color. It is kind of a reddish, pinkish, orange-ish, strawberry-blondish shade. It actually looks pretty good on her. I am holding out for the blue, though. I think that would look COOL! (Oh, maybe I am living vicariously through my daughter. Am I too old for blue?) :-) It is hard to see in this picture, but it is quite a bold shade.

Some of Seth's favorite books right now (in other words, these are the books we read over and over and over):

This is my favorite because at the end it says, "Oh David, I love you." and Seth always gives me a hug and kiss when I read that... But I always have to wonder if he thinks his name is David when he does that! LOL

And at bedtime we read a book we can both enjoy...

He who laughs last thinks the slowest.

Last week was difficult for Seth and I. Seth was miserable because he has two more teeth coming in, and well, if you have kids you know how this affects the rest of the family. I felt really bad for him, and his mood was completely uncharacteristic. I was glad when he started to come out of it on Saturday, and I now have my baby back.

We filled out our first post-placement report today. That was a nice jaunt down memory lane. Hard to believe it has been three months. For those of you that don't know, Ethiopia requires post-placement reports at certain intervals: three months after you're home, six months after you get home, one year after you get home, and each year after that until the child reaches the age of 18 years. You also attach eight photos with this short little report and a description of each photo. It is a really great idea because not only is the Ethiopian government able to see how well the children are doing, but the orphanage keeps these on file for the biological family to come and review whenever they like. Seth's uncle assured us that he will be doing this. So, I thought I would share the photos I put in the report. Some you have already seen, but, come on, who wouldn't want to see more Seth? ;-)

***

Meeting family and new friends for the first time at home.

With daddy after a bath at home.
All bundled up with mom at Seth’s first football game.
Seth with his sister (Taylor) at home.
With mom at the zoo, looking at the llamas.

Decorating the Christmas tree with his Grandmother.

Having dinner with Seth’s friend from Adera Orphanage.

The entire family together on the day Seth was officially dedicated (welcomed) into the church.

***

I really do hope that Seth's bio family has a chance to see these reports and finds comfort in them. I know that we are looking forward to going to Ethiopia some day when Seth is older and looking them up.

I am looking forward to the return of the next round of Adoption Associate families who are returning from Ethiopia on Wednesday. Pray they all make it safely and have a nice, relaxing, flight home.

“Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time.” - Steven Wright

Every time I have picked up the camera to tape Seth walking, he either looked at me and sat down or looked at me and fell down. Well, I finally caught the little bugger ;)

Couple notes on the video:

1. It is dark. Sorry about that, no time to turn on the light and catch him walking.

2. There are random chairs laying all over the place. No, Seth has not destroyed our house, I was mopping the dining room and moved them in there. No doubt it will look like that all the time in a year or two, when Seth can walk, talk, and move furniture into a fort :)


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