The Holiday Season

Hello Everyone!
Boy, it's been a long time! I was looking through our pictures and realized I have hardly any pictures from November, perhaps because we were sick throughout most of the month. We've discovered that having two children means that they pass illnesses back and forth so that the family is never entirely healthy. :) The picture above is from the beginning of December. The girls are having so much fun together, Jorie says all the time how much she loves her sister and how much fun it is to have a little sister. We took down Terra's crib today and set up her big girl bed and as I took down the crib Jorie said, "Make sure you put it somewhere safe because I've been wanting a baby brother." This is such a huge and wonderful change from those first two months after bringing Terra home when Jorie kept asking us to bring Terra back and said she didn't like being a big sister.

This is a picture of Terra in her Christening gown. We had her Baptism planned for December 7th (we took this picture as she was trying on the gown) and we were all set for the party until Jorie and I came down with fifth disease three days before the big event. We knew we weren't contagious, but we were worried that Terra might have caught it and we didn't want to take any chances, so we ended up postponing the Christening. It ended up being a very good thing that we did because Terra came down with fifth disease on December 8th. We're all feeling much better now, though slightly itchy. :)

When Jorie saw Terra in her Christening gown, she insisted on putting on her fancy dress too. They both look so beautiful and so very grown up!

Here are our girls having more fun together. They were dancing in the kitchen and having such a wonderful time, I had to snap a few photos. The funniest times were when Terra tried to twirl Jorie - what a hysterical sight as they ended up in a knotted mess on the floor!

The girls had a lot of fun trimming the Christmas tree. Jorie asked questions about every ornament and Terra just wanted to be a part of the fun. She can definitely feel the excitement in the air and is thrilled to be a part of it, but she doesn't really have any idea what's going on. She loves the lights on the tree and the ornaments are very tempting, but she's been wonderful about looking without touching. We've only found one ornament on the floor and one hidden in the couch - we'll see what happens in the weeks ahead. :)

Is this the most ridiculous Christmas picture ever? They both look so silly, but I guess that means we really captured the essence of our girls - silliness and all. We can't wait to see the expressions when they come down the stairs on Christmas morning!

We took the girls to see Santa Claus this weekend. Jorie was so excited to see him, she was determined to tell him exactly what she wanted. In order to fully understand, you have to know the story of last year's Christmas. Jorie was very disappointed Chirstmas morning because she asked Santa for a computer. Santa brought her a computer that hooks up to the TV, figuring that would be sufficient for a not quite 3-year-old. Jorie was in tears because she wanted a laptop. We ended up mailing the computer back to the north pole and Santa mailed Jorie a laptop. It was quite a disaster and Jorie has talked all year about how she would "have to be more specific with Santa this year." So, what did she ask for? Here are her words, "Hi Santa, I want a dollhouse this year. The one with four floors, an elevator, a pool and pool chairs. But there won't be room in the dollhouse for the pool, so I'll have to put that in the backyard. Oh, and don't forget the furniture and dolls to go in the house." Santa laughed at her and said, "Really, is that all?"

Terra was not nearly as impressed with Santa as her big sister. She was okay with him being near us, but once he reached out to shake her hand, she was done with him. I can only imagine what she must have been thinking about this strange man dressed in red! Jorie put in an order for her little sister and let Santa know that Terra would really like a doll.

Here we are, all dressed for the incredibly cold weather and wondering where we can find the closest cup of hot chocolate. We don't have too many pictures of the four of us, so we took advantage of my mom being with us on our Santa trip and asked her to snap a quick photo.

I'll be sure to post some pictures of Terra's first Christmas and Jorie's fourth birthday after the holidays. We hope that all of you have a joyous and safe holiday season!

A Busy Month

Happy Halloween! I just realized how long it's been since my last post - I guess we've been busier than I thought! Here are some highlights from October:

We went apple picking at the beginning of October. Jorie had a lot of fun picking apples and even more fun eating them! We picked far more apples than we needed and never came close to eating all of them. Terra really enjoyed eating the apples too, though she didn't do much picking.

Here's a picture of Terra playing Mimi's new piano. Terra had so much fun playing and singing, we might have another performer in the family! Mid-October was incredibly eventful for us. Perhaps the most memorable event of the month was when Jorie decided it would be fun to see what happened when she dialed 911, so she gave it a try one morning as I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes. I found the phone on the playroom floor and picked it up to hear, "This is the police department, we've been listening to an open 911 call for nearly 10 minutes". I was mortified! I very apologetically explained to the operator that my daughter must have called by accident. Minutes later an officer pulled into the driveway. I apologized once again and sat down for a long talk with Jorie about appropriate reasons for calling the police.


We took a weekend trip to the beach and also went to a baptism. This was Terra's first time at the ocean and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Jorie had a fantastic time splashing in the ice cold water, her jeans and winter coat didn't even slow her down!



The girls had a wonderful time in the pool at the hotel. The beach was a bit cold for Terra, but the indoor pool was just right. She loved jumping in! Jorie had fun jumping in too, thank goodness Jeff was with us! How do moms handle two kids in a pool with no help?!

Here's Jorie with her jack o' lantern. She designed the face herself and enjoyed watching me scoop out the insides and carve the pumpkin, though she was not about to touch the pumpkin herself! Perhaps she'll give it a try one of these years!

Here's Terra with her pumpkin. She really enjoyed the pumpkin carving ritual. She thought it was really fun to scoop out the insides of the pumpkin, but had even more fun putting them back in after we carved the face - I don't think she quite "got" what we were trying to accomplish. :)

Here are our little cuties in their Halloween costumes! I know what you're thinking - what are they supposed to be? Our family rule is that the girls have to dress up as a character in a book. Jorie chose to be Morgan LeFay, the enchantress librarian from the Magic Treehouse series. She was so proud of her costume. Terra is a red button. Her favorite book is a book with buttons and she seems to really like circles and the color red, so it was a natural choice for her costume. Costumes aside, Halloween was not quite what we had planned, Jorie woke up with a terrible cold and spent the entire day on the couch. Fortunately, we have some wonderful neighbors that were willing to risk having her drop by so that she could trick-or-treat at one house. She missed her Halloween party with friends, which was terribly upsetting, but there's always next year! I hope everyone had a safe Halloween!!

Ding Dong the Strep is Gone!!!

We have such happy news that strep has left our house! That's right, all four of us lined up at the doctor's office last week and we were delighted to learn that all of our cultures were all negative! Now that we are all in good health, we can finally get back to our usual routine and chaos of daily life...

Terra has been having a wonderful time exploring! She follows Jorie everywhere and ventures on her own too! We started a music class a few weeks ago and Terra is loving every minute! She was a little unsure at first, but it didn't take long for her to join in and, by the end of class, she was participating with all of the hand movements! The only part she did not like was having to give her bells back to the teacher - she had a death grip on the bells and was not about to give them away!

Jorie started ballet lessons last week, here she is waiting for her teacher in her "beautiful dancing dress". She absolutely loves dancing and can't wait to go back tomorrow. She's been practicing the dance her teacher taught them all week and I must say, the little hip wiggle at the end is absolutely adorable!

Here's our little character! Everywhere we go, we hear people say that Jorie is the funniest little girl they've ever met. Her swim teacher actually referred to her as a "legend" and fully expects to see her one day on "Last Comic Standing". :) You really have to spend some time with her to really appreciate her quirky style and unique sense of humor, but here's a little glimpse of her silliness. This is how she came into the kitchen the other day and completely shocked me - I was not expecting a snowman head on my little girl!

Can you believe it?! This is Jorie's very first haircut!! After nearly four years without even a trim, we decided it was finally time to even out the 'do. We only trimmed one or two inches and we came away with a few curls for the baby book. Jorie thought it was tons of fun and was especially pleased with the bottle of bubbles she got at the end! She's already asking when she can go back.

The Princesses and The House of Strep

Our two little princesses. :) Jorie has always loved to play dress-up, but who would've guessed that her little sister would love it too! Terra watched Jorie get all dolled up in her pink dress, then walked right over to the dress-up clothes, pointed to the purple dress and started stomping her feet. She insisted on everything, right down to the tiara and shoes! It looks like Jeff and I might be spending a small fortune on clothes in the future! They certainly don't get their fancy fashion sense from Mommy, I may have to start looking to my girls for fashion advice!

As for the House of Strep, the saga continues! After another positive strep test, I am now taking two antibiotics at once in an attempt to finally rid myself of strep. The other day Jorie saw a Lysol commercial and asked me if it was spray paint. I said, "No, that's a special spray that you can spray in the house to kill germs." Jorie's response, "Oh, we should buy some of that to spray around and kill the strep germs. Maybe then people will come visit us again!"

Here's a picture of Terra at the zoo - she had a lot of fun. The monkeys were, by far, her favorite animal. She laughed and laughed as they swung around their cages. Jorie thought the llamas were quite funny - especially when they spit at Mommy!

Can you believe that face? She's so joyful! We absolutely love to see that smile!

Moving Forward

Hi Everyone,

I've had lots of inquiries lately about how we're all adjusting and many requests to update the blog, so here I am!! We've had a very eventful couple of weeks. I think I may finally be getting rid of the strep I caught in China - I don't want to get too optimistic, but it seems like the fifth antibiotic is doing the trick! Terra had a nice "Welcome to America" present in the form of chicken pox. She was, surprisingly, not at all bothered by the pox, though we were all a bit stir-crazy after being stuck at home for a week!

Jeff worked incredibly hard to put together our beautiful new swingset and the girls are thoroughly enjoying the outdoors - how wonderful to finally have a backyard!! Jorie is forever asking to go outside to "swing extremely high" on her big girl swing. Terra is turning out to be quite the daredevil - climbing to the top of the swingset and coming down the slide by herself (something Jorie was not willing to do until she saw her little sister give it a try). Terra is completely convinced that she can climb the rock wall like her big sister and will not take "no" for an answer. She's also convinced that she should be allowed to climb up the bookcases in our living room and dive off of the couch head first, but we're working on that. :)

The girls are already acting like sisters - they love each other like sisters and fight like sisters. Terra plays the little sister role very well as she tries to take Jorie's toys and pushes down the block towers that Jorie so carefully builds. Jorie plays the big sister beautifully by both protecting her baby sister from harm and offering her to just about everyone that stops by. :) Of course, there are those fleeting moments when they cuddle up together or stop everything just to give each other hugs and kisses - what a wonderful sight to see!

All in all, it's been a BIG adjustment for everyone. We're working through each issue one day at a time and have faith that we'll be a stronger family in the end. How could we be anything less with two beautiful, intelligent and strong-willed daughters?!

Silly Girls

It's been a week since we arrived back home and we all continue to grow closer each day. Terra has decided that Jeff is a great Daddy and can't get enough hugs and cuddles from him. They are so cute together! She's walking all over our house and loves to explore all of Jorie's toys. Jorie isn't always thrilled by that, but we're working on it. :) They wouldn't be sisters without the occasional squabble! Terra and Jorie have grown much closer. Terra is content to receive hugs from her big sister and often reaches out to give hugs of her own. The two of them play peek-a-boo and chase each other around. They also love to sing together. Terra doesn't actually say words, but she starts singing "lalala" every time Jorie starts singing.

We all just love to see Terra smile - her smile lights up the room and brings joy to our hearts. How could anyone not fall in love with this little girl?! How blessed we are to have two beautiful angels in our lives!!

We're Home!

Just in case anyone was wondering about us, I wanted to let you know that we're home safe and sound. We arrived last night around 7:30 and were greeted at the airport by Mimi, Grammy, Skipper, Uncle Ry Ry, Auntie Kathy and Uncle Anthony. We're all looking forward to the next phase of the journey!! Thank you so much for all of your love and support along the way!