Lots to be thankful for...

It was a great week off from work! I was able to pick the kids up early from daycare and spend the day with them (they cried every night when we took them home-kinda sad but hey it's nice to know they want to be here. I explained that they'd be with us soon and its okay b/c it's part of the adoption process). We are trying to mostly stay home so that they can get used to the way our lives are really going to be when they move it (which is in 2 weeks we think). Precious wanted to paint her room pink so we did that and JJ wanted blue, keeping the gender roles alive-gotta love it! On Thursday Aleks picked them up to spend a long weekend here without having to go home. My parents came down to meet them and spend Thanksgiving with us, they drove a long way for lunch. Aleks' sister Mere ended up coming to dinner, too. So that was nice. Then we went to Wesley Chapel on Friday to hangout with my cousin's family and eat chicken and cake (Happy Birthday Mom and Liz!). Jake came home with us that night and spent the weekend here playing with the kids, it is good to know that the cousins are going to get along. Precious is 30 days older than Jake and they seem to have a lot in common.

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Mi Familia

We had the kids overnight this weekend. It was exciting to finally get to (sorta) normal life with them, a movie here, dinner there, go play in your room...J.J. has issues with the dark, so we were worried that he might not sleep well and cry/fit when bedtime came, but he didn't. He was perfect, it only took him 10 minutes to fall asleep and he didn't wake up until 7 :) Not bad. Precious and I went shopping on Saturday to get new outfits to wear in their new Heart Gallery photo...which reminds me...The Heart Gallery http://www.heartgallerykids.org/ gets photographers to volunteer time and resources to make quality photos of waiting children so they can be posted online. Apparently, when an adoption is finalized the family is presented with the photos that were taken of the child(ren). That is awesome so I was all about getting these photos done. When I scheduled the lady was really nice and I asked her if we could be in some and she said she'd make the family pics and send them directly to us! During the shoot I decided to make Aleks my grip and use her little light disc thing to take a few snap shots, Precious really liked having "real" pictures taken and she thinks the photo of her with her arms up looks like an angel. And what else? Oh, the kids figured out Aleks' weakness and tickled him whenever they got a chance.

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JJ's Birthday/First Time Home

JJ turned 5 on Friday, but we actually celebrated on Saturday. Saturday was also the first time that we brought the kids to the house. The dogs were all happy, even Louie. JJ says that Louie looks like a rat and is his baby, Kimball is Precious' new baby and I "better not forget it during the week".
My cousin Joe, Liz and the boys came to celebrate with us and they provided entertainment and moral support. Laura provided child care for JJ while I ran around with Precious and made arrangements with the staff and did a great job. Aleks' dad and stepmom came and met the kids, one set of grandparents down and two to go. Nicole, Antonio and Shane also came to show some love, and toys ;) Which btw, the sporting equipment they got was the first thing that JJ wanted to open when we got home and he did really well hitting the baseball, I think we'll be using that set alot. And a special THANKS to Kristina who helped me plan this party and hooked us up in the token department!

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Play Day

I picked my little buddy up from his babysitter today and we hung out for a few hours. This park we went to is super nice, I don't think I've ever seen a public playground that was this cool. After we played for a bit we went to IHOP and tested the colors that the syrups made when mixed, brown is what we came up with BTW. It was nice to spend some alone time with him. We talked about the adoption and he is excited. Later this week I am going to get some special time in with Precious :)

Kid Shower!!

My grad school classmates threw me a surprise kid shower at class tonight. It was super nice and made us even more excited-if that's possible! Thanks guys!!!


Oh Lord, imagine what my kids are going to look like after a party!

Unsupervised!

We got to spend 4 unsupervised hours with the kids on Saturday. A few lessons were learned: 1. Fairs are the root of all overpriced evil 2. JJ (formerly known as Rashard) likes dog food and 3. Twirly rides make Precious' stomach "tickle", but it was fun. Next week JJ turns 5, so stay tuned!

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