Happy New Year & Christmas Pictures!!

I'm sitting here realizing that it's now 1/1/08! WOW! We hope that 2008 brings each of you happiness and that God blesses each of you in the new year.

How fast time flies!! I can't tell you how fast the past week flew by us!! Christmas was SO busy!! And SO MUCH FUN w/ this beautiful child in our house!! I can easily remember last Christmas. We had the picture of this sweet child, but felt such an absence with her still waiting in China for us to come and get her! We talked Christmas 2006 about how different Christmas 2007 would be. There was no way to tell then how much better it would be!!

We spent Christmas morning at our house. She woke up a little before 7am. We had left all of her "big" presents unwrapped out in the living room by the tree. She got a table and chairs, a new baby doll, and a grocery cart with groceries. We set it all up just waiting for her to come out & play. She wasn't sure what to think at first -- then she starting yelling each piece of food out loud "banana" - "apple" - "cookie". Then, she sat down at the table - begging us to "sit sit". (There was no way I was getting in that tiny chair!!) But then she saw the baby in the 2nd seat & ran to get food to feed her. It was SO SWEET!!

After she played for a while, we packed up and went to my moms house. We got together with my 2 sisters and their kids. What fun!! We then went to visit Mike's Grandmother.

The next day, we spent the day with Mike's parents. They got her a kitchen for her new playroom we built in our basement. She was having so much fun and we had just as much fun watching her run from one side to the other of her new kitchen!

We ended the week with 2 family reunions. It was great to be able to see our families. It made for a very crazy week, but it didn't seem to matter much, since we finally had Anne Marie to join us this year!


Giving "new baby" a ride to the "grocery store".
Helping Daddy open presents.

"I don't know know what to think about all of this yet!"

Feeding baby a "fresh" banana from the cart.

Anne Marie got SOOO many wonderful gifts during our get-together at my moms house, but I'll give you ONE guess what her FAVORITE toy was that she got there! Check out that smile!

Trying to open her new Cabbage-Patch baby with her rolling-pin.

How could you not LOVE this ... playing with her new kitchen (Thanks! Grandma & Grandpa!) The chefs hat makes all that food taste better! The kitchen has a "kitchen side" and an "outside grill-side" on the back - she didn't know which was more fun -- she did love starting the grill up - over & over.

Having a special Christmas-Get-To-Gether dinner with Grandma & Grandpa.

Having Fun at Mike's family reunion! She's sitting with Grandma while Mike's Aunt "fed" her a straw full of Coke -- which she never had before -- as you can tell by that face -- She liked it!!

Having fun at my family reunion with my moms family. The Grand-daughters playing piano together (can you imagine the "noise"??!!) And Anne Marie & Naomi having fun with Uncle Jeremy.