November

Here are some pictures from our November -- whew, I'm almost caught up.

Beckett started crawling this month just before Thanksgiving.

We took a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and hiked to a waterfall.

This is how Nala spends her day -- all day every day.



These are pictures from our Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania. It was FREEZING but the kids were able to play out in the leaves one afternoon. They had a great time together.

Halloween & Friday nights

Isn't he adorable?

I'm a little behind on my posts :) Here's our Halloween. Nala (the dog) wore the turtle costume I made for Tallie when she was 1 month old. We're one of those people now that I used to make fun of -- people that dress their little dog and take it out with them.

Tallie was Princess Bell and Beckett was a doctor.

We have an awesome gym and every Friday night is "family night". We go almost every Friday to eat pizza and play. Here are some clips from the gymnastics room of the kids.

Another Update

We heard today that Valencia's file is out of MOI and they are now working on getting her passport! All we have left is for her to be approved by US Immigration to receive her passort, and to then get her visa. They may request DNA testing for Valencia and her birth mom which would add a little bit of time, but we're almost there. It could be 3-4 weeks.

Valencia update -- FINALLY

I'm posting this because I always get asked if we've heard anything about Valencia, and 99% of the time we haven't. I figure this is a good way to let people know. I got the best email today and I can't even describe how excited I am about it:

Teresa,

Finally some good news, Valencia is in MOI!! So it is taking about 4 – 6 weeks in MOI, then passports and then on to USICS for approval, then Visa appointment and travel home!! I think there is finally a bright light at the end of the tunnel!

September Update

Tallie's 4th birthday -- she requested a pink pony cake (I think I've found a hidden talent):


I made Tallie a dress for her birthday -- feeling a bit ambitious I guess but it was a fun project. I was terrified to wash it and for good reason -- it came out with several holes where the stitching pulled through that I had to fix.
Going for a cold morning walk:

Beckett is sooooo cudly - he's so fun to hold.
You know those days when you're in a time crunch and the kids are just not cooperating? I had such a day and I was trying to get dinner ready but Beckett was starving and needed to eat right then, so I decided to try and let Tallie feed him. It ended up being the cutest thing ever so I had to take a break from fixing dinner and film them:

Summer Update - August

In August we took a family trip to Lake George, NY. We had planned to do a week of camping on the lake and just have a nice relaxing vacation with our kids. Check out this video - this is when we pulled up to our camping site:


We ended up with one good day, so we visited Ft William Henry (from Last of the Mohicans) and did some bike riding.


August has great weather so we spent a lot of time playing in the yard - both kids loved the kiddie pool:


Beckett's first time sitting in a shopping cart -- I thought this was soooo cute to have both my kids side by side and I just happened to have the camera so I took a picture.


We also went to see horses one day at a stable near a friend of ours. Tallie LOVED seeing the horses and feeding them. I loved it too!
Beckett playing with his big sister -- I can't believe how big he's getting:
Tallie loves her puppy:

Summer Update - July

Here is an update of our summer. My parents visited us over the 4th of July. During that week the "Tall Ships" came to Boston and we went to see them - you can see one of them in the background:

The following week we headed to Stowe, VT for the Hot Air Balloon Festival and some camping:

The primary had a pioneer activity to celebrate July 24th. I'm always looking for an excuse to sew something so I made this little outfit for Tallie. She's making butter in this picture:
Our cute kids:

Jared's parents came to visit in May and helped us plant some flowers from seed. It was really exciting to see them grow: