Trick or Treat - Here We Come!

I thought I would talk about our Halloween today instead of waiting until tomorrow. We have already decorated and had a couple of celebrations, so it seems appropriate to write about it today. John really is having fun with costumes and spooky things. We can often hear him saying, "Happy Halloween" in  a spooky voice when he sees a ghost or a pumpkin. So so cute.

Prepared with Halloween p.j.s

The kids made these decorations - so cute!

Kate the "Pretty" Witch

John the horse in Kate's sandals

Lydia as Merida (wearing my dress when I was six)

Brig as Logan / Wolverine

Lincoln as Frankenstein

Cora as a boy from the Sandlot Movie

Rick as "Middle-Aged Harry Potter"

We had a party at my parent's house the other night and the kids had so much fun dressing up and carving pumpkins with cousins. Here are some highlights.

Pumpkin Carving Fun

Can anyone say googley eyes?

Thank You Photoshop

I am not sure how the tradition started. When Cora was a baby I had a pea costume for her and had her picture taken. Then Lincoln wore the same costume and I had his picture taken. With each child, the costume and picture made an appearance. Each Halloween I bring out the pictures and proudly display my little peas.

I was worried about John's picture. He just turned three, it is not like I could fake a baby picture for him in the costume. But being me, I worried about how to make sure John fit in and had a picture in the costume.

My sister is a genius with photoshop. So thanks to my sister, photoshop and Eagle's Wings for taking a lot of pictures of my boy - here is the result.

Fun With a Rake and Some Leaves

The kids and I had so much fun raking leaves together. They had even more fun jumping in the leaves. We were lucky to get about 4 huge piles in our backyard, and I'm pretty sure we will be raking again really soon.

It was really great to watch John. I don't know if he has a lot of experience raking leaves and jumping in them, but he was the first to jump in the piles. He really had a great time. I'm so glad that he is able to do these activities with us. This little boy melts hearts.

Wordless Wednesday

New Family Photos

I found my new favorite photographer. Of course she is my sister, but she is amazing. I love how she has captured the personalities of all my kids. Check out this picture of Lincoln. It is so hard to get him to engage for a photograph, but she did a fantastic job.

Here is how we had fun with these pictures for Halloween. Some picture glass and a dry erase marker can provide hours of fun! Lydia was the only one who was not happy.

Happy Birthday John

John turned three yesterday. He LOVED having a birthday! I think his favorite part was when we sang happy birthday to him. We extend the song by adding two extra verses, one called "We love you so much" and another in spanish. He watched the video of us singing to him over and over and over and over. He kept asking for "we love you so much." So tender.

I fixed a nice dinner with a couple of extra dishes for John - one noodle dish and one dumpling dish. He got to eat as much as he wanted. Our boy was so happy. Then we had ice cream instead of cake. He just doesn't like cake, so why go there. We put candles in the container of ice cream and he was so happy. John loved his presents so much.

Vanilla Ice Cream may not be everyone's ideal - but it was perfect for him

He was ecstatic over these legos

He even had to sleep with them. Lydia insisted that he sleep with
her so that she could celebrate his birthday with him. So cute!

The birthday boy getting loved on by his biggest fan club

Now that we no longer have two two year olds, I am sure life will get easier .....

Emergence

We are starting to really see our little boy's personality, and we are liking what we are seeing. He is funny, excited, affectionate, silly, loving, and exuberant. He is so much fun to have around.

This was taken today when I was outside talking to my sister. These two cuties were supposed to be napping. They were so cute I had to run inside and grab my camera.

Fall Fun

The kids are on their Fall Break, so we headed south to Hee Haw Farms. They had a blast. I was so proud of John too  because there are so many animals there, and John never needed me to "protect" him from the goats, pigs or chickens. He continues to blow us away with how quickly he is adapting to his new world.

The Pigs

The Hay Ride

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The Fun

Our Brave Boy

New Friends / Old Friends

We have been so lucky to meet an old friend of John's. She is actually so much more than an old friend - she is the closest thing John had to a sibling in his former life. Nora was his roommate in China at Eagle's Wings.  She and her family now live here in our city, about 10 miles away. Can you believe that? What are the chances? I have wanted to write about these two for a while now, but Jennifer (Nora's mom), wrote about it on her blog and did such a great job, that I am including  a link to my new friend Jennifer's blog.

We have gotten together a couple of times, and we love it. Here are some pictures of these cuties together. Kate is a HUGE fan of Nora's too. We can't wait to continue making memories with both of these cuties.

Love This Boy!

We have been home for a little over 7 weeks. My neighbor came over and told me that her sister has just adopted from Ghana. She adopted a two year old boy and has a two year old boy at home. I immediately told her to CALL ME!

What a blessing that I feel like I can reach out to others after 7 short weeks vs. how I felt like at the beginning -- that all the help in the world would not be enough. It gets so much better people! I went from surviving to managing to enjoying. Look at that!

John is such a blessing in our lives. It is weird because I can barely remember him not being in our home. Sometimes when I am cuddling him I try to remind myself that he has not always had us and we have not always had him. What a blessing he is to us!

He has become such a sweetheart. (I am sure he always was, but the change of life did not necessarily bring out his best qualities.) I would not say that things are constantly peaceful, but he rarely is the one who is causing the trouble. I feel bad for him because he is the one taking the abuse now. We are working on Kate (aka - cage fighter). However, I have to give this cutie some kudos because he just takes it and NEVER retaliates. Wow - what a great kid.

Tomorrow is a really special day for our family. We are going to take John to the temple and become an eternal family. We can hardly wait.  Here is our adoption announcement. I kind of love it!