Snow!

We had several inches of snow here a few days ago. It was really pretty and came and went pretty quickly, which is exactly how I like it. It was nice to see the kids to experience snow for the first time and to play in it with them. Our family snow picture.
Jackson loved the snow, but Lia didn't care for it at all! Both of them enjoyed being pulled around the neighborhood in their wagon.

Jackson wearing his Daddy's hat.

Jackson enjoyed his first sled ride and loved it!

"Mr Independent" walked all the way to the top of the cul de sac all by himself. It was very cute!

Happy New Year!

We had a very quiet New Year's Eve this year. We met friends at a local pizza place for an early dinner. We had a great time. Here are a few pictures from the night.
2009 certainly was an amazing year! It was the year we saw our daughter's face and traveled to the other side of the world to get her. It was the year we saw our son continue to grow - and we saw both our children begin the transformation from babies to toddlers. It was a year of great change and transition - and some challenging times. It was all overwhelming in so many ways, but we wouldn't change a thing - 2009 was the year we became a family of 4 and have experienced more love than we ever thought possible.

We are more blessed than we could possibly describe and are grateful every day.
Happy New Year!

And it was a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve!

We had a great time on Christmas Eve in SP with the family. The kids had a big day playing outside, opening presents and just enjoying our Christmas Eve traditions. By the end of the night, they were very tired but luckily were still cheerful and full of laughter. It was a wonderful time!

Lia really took off walking on her own on December 23rd, the day before Christmas Eve. She was so proud of herself. Here she is perfecting her walk and giggling all the way!

Adi!

Lia and Brooke
Jackson playing his new guitar

The curly ribbon was a big hit with Lia!

Earlier in the day ....

Lia and her cousin Skylar

Lia and Jackson playing the piano with aunt Karen

Jackson helping Mema light the lantern for the porch

Fun outside on Christmas Eve

Getting ready for Christmas!

We have had so much fun getting ready for Christmas this year!!! We have watched Christmas movies, listened to Christmas music, read Christmas books and have basically lived "all things Christmas" since December 1st! Jackson and Lia have both done very well with the tree. They look at the ornaments and touch them occasionally but they haven't really bothered it otherwise. They do say "tree" and point to it nearly every time we walk into the room, and they love that they each have their own trees in their rooms. Jackson's is blue and Lia's is pink. Fun! They also like the Christmas lights and colors when we go somewhere that is decorated. They have also especially enjoyed their "Christmas Story" nativity set that their "Auntie Tonya" sent them from Louisiana. Jackson loves to have us make animal sounds for each of the stable animals but the sweetest part of all is how both Jackson and Lia know who Baby Jesus is and when you ask them they look for it and make the sign for "baby". Priceless.

This has always been one of my favorite times of they year and this year it has been even more special to share it with these two precious little ones!

Here are just a few pictures from the first couple of weeks of December.

UNC vs NCSU 2009

Each year we go to the UNC/NCSU Football game with friends. Since we are a "house divided", it is a big deal and we have a lot of fun with it. Of course we didn't take Jackson and Lia but we dressed them in our favorite colors so they could "represent" from home while we were cheering at the game. Here are pictures of when we got home. The actual final score of the game wasn't what I had hoped for but we had a great day!

See how distressed Lia looks in the picture above due to the fact that our Tarheels lost?? (ha ha)

We'll get 'em during basketball season! :)

Chris and I - tailgating before the game.