Baby Book

We received this book shortly after coming home from China and it is a wonderful treasure. The book was written by a single mom who adopted from China. It is written for young children, therefore, easy to read and beautifully illustrated. I read it to Alisha a few times when we received it but she was just not interested.

In the past month, she has fallen in LOVE with this book. She asks for the "Baby Book" over and over and over. It is already getting worn, but that is the sign of a much loved book. Sometimes she will sit and look at the book herself, other times she wants us to read it to her. When we do read it, she sits quietly in our laps and listens to the story (and points out the baby). Could she really understand that this story is similar to HER story?

One Year Ago

One year ago we held our beautiful girl in our arms for the first time. She was scared and not quite sure of what was happening. She kept staring (crying) at the these 2 new faces, trying to figure it all out. It has been a long road, but she hung in there and the 3 of us found our path together. She has grown into a beautiful (almost) 2 year old full of happiness and laughter. She has a sweet personality and she continues to show more and more of it each day. She learns from us but more importantly we are learning from her.

Alisha, this has been the best year of our lives! You are our angel and we are so blessed to call you our Daughter!

THANKFUL

I want to take a moment to be truly thankful for all that we have in our lives. This year has been a big one and we are extremely blessed to have Alisha in our lives. We are also thankful to have such a wonderful family and many special friends that have been so good to us in the past year. We look forward to sharing years and years of Thanksgivings with each of you.

A special thanks to Grandma Joan for putting together another Great Thanksgiving dinner. We had a fun day!

First Haircut

Before

Enjoying her Haircut (and Lollipop)

Oh No! The hairdryer!

Don't I look PRETTY!!!

UPDATE: Alisha does not usually get Lollipops, however whenever she sees a picture of one in her books or play cards, she always points to her hair and says "Haircut". She still can't say Lollipop but knows when she got her first Lollipop!

FUN WITH THE LEAVES

What's Fall without a ton of leaves. Jerry and Alisha had a great time playing with them the other day!

A few days later, Alisha enjoyed the puddles and the leaves. Who knew I would have such an "outdoor" girl.

Happy Halloween

Alisha had a great time on Halloween. She LOVED her Minnie Mouse costume! Unfortunately, her ears kept falling off as we were walking, but she kept trying to put them back on. TOO CUTE!!

We went out Trick or Treating with Brian, Dawn and Jack (as Buzz Lightyear). We weren't sure that Alisha would actually go up to each of the doors but she did GREAT! She walked right up and took the candy. She still wasn't able to say Happy Halloween or Trick or Treat (even after working on it for several days) but she made sure she said Good-bye to all our neighbors.

By the end of the night, she could barely walk because her Pumpkin basket was weighing her down. But there was no way she was giving up the basket. We finally had to carry her the last couple of houses.


Back to our house to relieve Grandma Pat (who came by to see Alisha for Halloween) who stayed at our house to give our candy so Jerry, Alisha and I could all go out together. Thanks Grandma, it was great that you could celebrate this day with us.

FALL FUN

We took Alisha to the local farm this weekend to enjoy the fall festivities. First we went on a Hay ride and honestly, I think she enjoyed the pumpkin bread more than the ride. Afterwards we took a walk in the pumpkin patch for Alisha to pick out her special pumpkin. She was curious but she let her Daddy find her the perfect pumpkin!