A Typical Tea Party

It has been so long since we last posted we are not even sure if anyone is following this anymore! So many things are going on since our move it has been hard to keep up. I have lots to post and update, but thought I would start with our tea party that happened a few days ago.

Anna's favorite thing to do is serve up tea! She will work on a tea party to make sure everything is just right and everyone is served properly. One morning she was really wanting to do it and I so I bribed Brooks into joining us. I told him I would pay him 25 cents if he would come:-) He negotiated and said he would join us for 25cents as long as R2D2 could join in as well! I wanted to document one of our tea parties so I could always remember them, so I grabbed my camera and captured how it all went down:

First off everyone gets all dressed up for the event. Who can resist wearing a tutu!! Even Brooks sported an animal print one (he will not be happy that I posted this!)



Anna works very hard to put everything just where it should be!



Tea parties are serious business!




Here Anna is learning that an uninvited robot is joining us... she is not happy




At some point a fight broke out




R2 prevails and gets to stay for tea




Everyone is happy...



We all enjoy our tea and animal crackers




Being a party planner is hard work, Anna falls fast asleep for naptime!

Lots of changes!

So much has happened in our family since the last time we posted! Just a few days before Christmas we moved out of our home in Washington and sent the movers on their way to our new home in Tennessee! In the meantime we flew to Arizona and California to spend Christmas with both of our families. We had a great time seeing them even though it was too short! A few days after Christmas we flew to TN and closed on our new home just outside of Nashville. We have been in the house 3 weeks and are absolutely loving the area, our home, the neighborhood, boys schools, etc. We feel so blessed that this has been such a smooth transition, many prayers have been prayed for us! This is our 4th move with Ryan's company and lets just say I don't typically handle the change so well:-) We are missing our friends in Washington, our church, and everything that was familiar there. However, the people here have all been very friendly and have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome (gotta love Southern hospitality!)

Here are a few pictures to show what has been happening:



Anna sees Santa Claus for the first time...not a big fan! Oh well it made for a really cute pictue. When she sees a Santa now she still signs to me "cry" or "sad".



Our first Christmas with Anna, what a blessing to have her with us!



Anna's favorite things right now are babies and tea parties. When we go somewhere she typically wants to take a doll with her, when we are at home she is usually busy making anyone who is willing a cup of tea! I love it! What a change our home is seeing to our typical legos and swords!





Our attempts at keeping 3 kids busy with outside temps below freezing while we unpack the entire house




The boys are both enjoying their new schools. Bradey is in a small private school about 25 minutes from our house and Brooks is going 2 days a week to preschool



I bought this dress for Anna during our long wait in between trips to bring her home. It hung in her room as a reminder that one day she will be home and be able to wear it. Last Sunday she wore it for the first time! I can't believe she has been home over 8 months now, she has grown SO much in so many ways. She is still receiving Speech therapy to help with her expressive language, however, her therapist believes it is just an articulation and speech delay and nothing more serious. We are so thankful for our healthy, beautiful, smart, silly little girl.

Memories from a year ago...

One year ago today we were in a orphanage in Siberia and finally held the one we had prayed for and waited for so long, our little baby Anna. She was only 13 months old then, and it was one of the sweetest days of our lives. I remember so much from that day, and it is hard to believe that it has been a year. It is really hard to put into words what we were going through, it was so emotional. All I know is God was so faithful to us, although Anna was knit together in another woman's womb, He knew from the beginning of time that I was to be her mommy and Ryan was her daddy and she is right where she is meant to be.












Here she is one year later napping again on her mama, but she has traded in her thumb for her "lovie" blanket

Anna's 2 Year Pictures

Our sweet little girl is now 2, it is hard to believe one year ago we didn't even know her. We are still amazed at how perfectly she fits into our family, she is definitely a mix of sugar and spice! She is learning the ropes here in her forever home, however, she can still work us with her sheer determination and adorable smile. She is now insistent that we read her 4 books and sing her 4 songs at bedtime (we started at 2), if I try to cheat and just sing 3 she lets me know!

Enjoy!


















This dress was made by my grandma for my sister and I when we were young. I love that Anna now has it to pass on.

Bradey's Christian Character Award

Anna's Turns 2!!

We had a very special weekend last week celebrating Anna's 2nd birthday, her U.S. Re-Adoption court day, and her and Brooks dedication at church. We were so glad we were able to pack it all into one weekend so our parents could fly in to celebrate with us!

Thank you to everyone who helped make the weekend so special. Anna enjoyed all the attention and we were so happy to be able to celebrate her birthday for the first time!

Here are some pictures from all the festivities:






Anna's adoption was finalized in Russia, however, we opted to have her "re-adopted" in the U.S. so she can receive a U.S. birth certificate. Both of our parents came, Amy's cousin Shanna and her kids Aiden and Marina, and our friends Keith and Shelley Brooks with their children. Thank you all for joining us, it was a MUCH easier process than the questions we had to answer in Russia:-)

The first of many birthday celebrations with our Anna!











Fun Party!




Brooks and Anna's Special Day being dedicated at our church

4 months today!

Today marks four months that Anna has been home with us. It has gone so quickly in lots of ways, but it also feels like she has been a part of our family for a long time. Today we had our six month post-placement meeting with our social worker (yes 2 months early in order to get it written, notarized, apostilled, translated and to Russia on time). As we sat and reflected on her first weeks home, I was reminded of how far she has come in such a short amount of time. She was taken from the only building she had ever known, quickly flown across the world and then entered a new family where everything was completely and totally different. As much as we tried to slow down our lives for her, just living in America requires many car trips, busy stores, new food, lots of faces, etc. It is so much for a little one to take in! Looking back we realize how much fear she had. Her many sleepless nights, her constant need to be held, fear of the carseat, fear of her crib, jealousy of her brothers, fear of people, etc. All of that was her trying to deal with the very scary new things that were now part of her every day life. I think I would have been crying and upset too!! Now that we are here at our 4 month mark, she is a completely different little girl. She now loves her crib, sleeps through the night, will say HI to strangers but prefers mommy and daddy and loves her brothers immensely. She has the most adorable giggle and can light up our world with her smile! She truly has come so far from the scared little baby who had a death grip on me as we flew to America. We love our precious Anna and thank the Lord every day that from the beginning of time he knew she would be ours, and then moved mountains to make it so.



This is pretty much what our flight consisted of for 11 hours, Anna crying and me trying to console her. Poor little thing.





Arriving home to our welcome committee!





Now look at our silly girl!





Learning all about dress up from her friend Faith! Hanging out with her buddy Yosef (also adopted just 6 weeks before Anna)!



This is all her brothers doing...Brooks is Luke Skywalker, Bradey is a clone, and yes Anna is Princess Leah!