It's almost Christmas

Dear Friends and Family,

As the days are counting down to Christmas and the year is almost at end, I thought I would take a few moments to reflect on what a wonderful year it has been.

January brought the biggest gift of all with the arrival home of Emme. She was well worth the wait and has brought so much more life into the family. Leah proved from the start to be a wonderful big sister.

February can and went quickly and quietly as we all adjusted to being a family of three. I was able to play stay-at-home mom this month and had a lot of fun watching Leah and Emme grow as siblings.

The end of March saw me back at work and learning that getting 2 girls up and ready in the morning was a lot more difficult than getting 1 child up. Thankfully Emme is a morning person which offsets Leah's grumpy mornings. I am just as thankful for Emme's early to sleep habit as this allowed more time to be spent just with Leah. We also took our first family trip to see Katie in Arizona. The plane trip was not so great, but the visit was.

Leah turned 5 in April and really started growing up and maturing too quickly for my taste. She no longer is my baby.

In May, Emme learned to walk, finally, during our yearly trip to Cleveland. We caught up on all the families that adopted at the same time as I adopted Leah. Wow! It always is amazing to see the girls and realize how our lives changed in 2004.

The summer months saw us at the pool, on vacation and playing outside. It was a fun summer spent with family and friends. Leah and Emme turned various shades of brown, while I turned pink/red at the sight of sun.

Leah started Kindergarten in the fall. She did much better than I ever dreamed she would do. Thanks in part to her teacher, Mrs. Collins, who Leah just adores. There have been no tears or anxiety during this transition, which goes to show how much Leah matured in the year.

October had many fall fests and of course Emme's first Halloween. I had 2 very cute mermaids and everyone enjoyed the candy that followed. Emme even managed to say a version of trick or treat to get the candy.

November brought everyone home for Thanksgiving. I am attempting to scan the family pictures into the computer and getting them on this page, but I am having trouble with the scan.

So now it is December. Christmas lists have been written and Leah is waiting for Santa to come. She has asked for a camera, a guitar and a DS for Christmas. Emme has no clue other than the mall Santa is scary. Leah thinks Emme wants a camera, a ball, and surprises.

As for me, I have everything I need, including a new automatic garage door opener (my Christmas present to myself). I have 2 happy and healthy girls that I love and adore. In a perfect world I would like a little more money, a little more quiet at times and a little more time in general. But I am not complaining. My life is just as I thought and hoped it would be this year.

Merry Christmas to all. I hope everyone has had a wonderful year and I hope Santa brings everyone what they want this year.

Jeanne

Happy Thanksgiving

It is amazing how time flies by. November came and went in a hurry, and now we are getting ready for Christmas. Emme's first Christmas home. How exciting! It was last year on the 3rd of December that the judge finally granted Emme's adoption. What a year it had been. This is a picture of that fateful day.

This November we had a lot of family time as soccer is over and the weather is getting colder. We have been spending afternoons baking, eating and being silly.

I met with Leah's teacher who stated that Leah has adjusted well to Kindergarten and she expressed that Leah is on target or ahead of schedule in all areas. Emme's vocabulary has taken off the last few weeks of November. We just may avoid Speech Therapy yet. Her favorite words are stuck, sock, cheese and eat. She also can say SpongeBob, which is really irritating since she will not say Leah.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Matt, Katie, Chad and of course Mya were all in town to visit. Ali also spent many nights at Grandma and Grandpa's house which led to Leah spending the night as well. While everyone was in town, we had a family picture done (pictures to follow later). Unfortunately, Emme and Mya did not think this was a good idea. Hopefully 1 picture out of the 200 she took will include some smiling babies.

We also got into the Christmas spirit by decorating my parent's tree and well as exchanging gifts with Katie and Chad. It was a wonderful week.

Now it is time to get ready for Santa to pay us a visit.