Holiday Wrap up

Whew - it always goes by so fast, doesn't it?

We had an awesome holiday. E was so into it this year - the presents, that is. We were blessed to spend some very special time with immediate and extended family and had just an exceptional Christmas.

Our New Year's was pretty quiet, just us and our 2 closest friends gathered for a fabulous meal, a few cocktails and lots of laughs.

While 2008 was very good to us and so many amazing and wonderful things happened, we are happy to say farewell and are anxiously waiting to see what 2009 will bring. One of the biggest and most special of course being the addition of K to our family. We are told that things are supposed to "start moving" in January and are keeping our fingers crossed that we will travel in February. Selfishly, we just want her here. We want to get to know her and learn about her and fall in love with her. The fact is, though, she NEEDS to come home. With every passing month, beginning medical treatment for her condition becomes more critical to her long term well-being and health.

2009 will also be a year of transition for E. My baby will turn 3! I can't hardly believe it, but I guess it's going to happen. He will be transitioned into the public school system for Early Childhood and out of our County's Birth to 3 program. He has 4 therapists and we will miss them terribly. He has caught up to his peers and is even a little bit ahead in some areas. He can independently say his ABC's, count to 10, recognize nearly all of the letters of the printed alphabet, and sing songs. He's made such huge gains cognitively and developmentally over the last 20 months. He is growing and changing so fast, sometimes I just want to hit "pause" and have a little more time to get used to it. For all those people who've said it to me, I'm happy to say I've learned the true meaning of "enjoy it, they grow up so fast".

With the holidays behind, I am in full blown nesting mode. I find myself cleaning things that don't really need to be cleaned, organizing and reorganizing and then yup, you guessed it, organizing again. I've been gravitating to the baby aisle at stores and picking up just a couple of things here and there. Daddy and E lovingly assembled K's crib and it is ready to be filled with her cuteness. I know we could still be in for a long wait, but if you've read The Secret then you know what I'm doing. If you haven't read it, you need to! Hopefully the Universe will listen and return all the positive mojo we're sending out there!

To all of our family and friends - "real" and "virtual" - Happy New Year! May all of our dreams come true and our children come home!

Okay, here's what you really came for - enjoy the pictures:

It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it (thank goodness I've got my boys)!

Nothing better than giving a friend a ride!
Winter driving in Wisconsin....need I say more?
Hanging his chosen Kyrgyz ornament for the year.
"Bring on the presents"!
Now THAT's a present!
Just plain being silly!
The boxes are still just as much fun as the toys inside.

What a charming family if I may say so myself.