Christmas came early at our house.

Since we'll be hitting the road to Ohio tomorrow, we opened our presents here at home today. Ms. Julia certainly got into it!! She's got the art of unwrapping figured out now. lookout!! Thank you Uncle Joe and Aunt Kim, Jeremy, Kelsey and Angie, Grammy and Grampa Hall, Uncle Norman, Robert, Riley, Great Grammy Kinney and Nai-Nai and Papa!! She had a WONDERFUL time, unfortunately we discovered that our camera does NOT have a microphone....GRRR! So while we have video there is sadly no sound. Sorry everyone, but you'll get the idea at least :) Jeremy, Kelsey and Angie the hit of the day was amazingly the old fashion pull toy you sent ;)!!! We had to hide it to get her to move on....LOL....She is truly too, too funny.

It's been a long day, so I'm just going to give you the dropshots link again and you can view pics and soundless video there. (live and learn..) On the upside, the image quality on the video is GREAT! LOL. I give up.

Go to www.dropshots.com/rgshrs Enjoy and really thank you everyone, it was a great day.

SANTA PICS!

Check out http:www.dropshots.com/rgshrs for a few more pics. I'll post one here, but frankly I'm too tired to do them all here and there, and there is easier. :)

Julia didn't do so well with Santa, she wouldn't let go of Mama (again, we tried this a week or so ago too and she didn't do any better) but this Santa stuck around long enough that she did wave "bye-bye" to him, yes "princess wave" and she let him give her bye kiss on the cheek. I guess that's as good as it gets this year. :)

We're gearing up for Christmas here. Finally got the tree up and decorated on Monday, Julia likes to just sit in front of it and stare. We've already got packages under it too for the most part she's left them alone, but Aunt Kim/Uncle Joe one of yours was ripped a little already and she DID notice that right away and wanted to tear into it some more. So I think Christmas day should be pretty interesting. We're leaving here on Dec 21st and heading to Ohio. So we're thinking we'll open some stuff here on the 20th (happy Bday uncle Norman) and then have everything else Christmas day in Ohio. Looking forward to it. Can't wait for Julia to meet the rest of her cousins and everyone else too! :)

OH and before I forget, yes Grammy Hall she has another tooth, FINALLY! It did cut through yesterday, I saw it and Daddy said "yep" he could feel it! So there ya go!! :)

Kylee's birthday present:)

Kylee gave us a call tonight and in her words ended up getting the best birthday present ever...LOL>> We got Julia to tell her "Hi, Ky-ky!"......CLEAR AS ANYTHING!!!! And with very little prompting....she's starting to become a little parrot all of the sudden repeating what we say or at least very much trying to repeat it. So while we don't have any pics of the moment, we just had to share. :)

Happy Birthday Ky! We love you!

YES, Aunt Sandra! Just to show you, we are teaching this kid to WALK!! LOL She's finally getting out there and stepping out on her own. You wouldn't believe what did the trick....we bought her a pair of sneakers at Kohls the other night that light up. Well, I put them on her yesterday and she stood by the couch for a moment, stamped her right foot 3 or 4 times to watch the lights, then checked the left foot to make sure it did the same thing. Then I took her and stood her in the middle of the room and backed a few steps away from her (3 or 4 steps) and SHE DID IT!! She walked to me!!! And to several other things throughout the day, a couple of times without even being coached. She was so proud of herself!!! So yes, for awhile I think she'll still drop to crawl often to be quicker, she has discovered that she indeed can walk!!! We are so very proud of each of her accomplishments and give her full credit for all the progress she has made since being brought home in July.

The furcoat, well okay, Mama just couldn't pass it up, and if you had seen her when we tried it on in the store, you wouldn't have passed it up either. I know I've said it before, but this girl really does like to dress up! She insisted on holding her panda for the picture. That part was completely unplanned! And yes it was cold enough to need it here in Texas this week as evidenced by the previous post!! Plus we're sure she'll get some use out of it in Ohio for Christmas...it's getting closer. Hard to believe how close really.

Happy Holidays everyone and God Bless!!

BED HEAD! Yep, the longer her hair gets the worse her bed head is in the morning, or after a nap. LOL. I know she won't thank me for this picture later on, but I couldn't resist. And yes we really are getting SNOW today! Still a little hard to take after being in the 70's yesterday. Ridiculous. The picture doesn't show how bad it's blowing too though. So we haven't even been able to go out and see what she thinks of it yet. And somehow I doubt it will stick around very long, especially since it's not the sticking kind of snow.

Thank you Aunt Tiny for the package. You sure know our girly girl, she not only loves opening and playing with tissue paper, but she loves clothes. No joke, she really does. She's really checking out the sparkling shoes too. :) We love you!!

And lastly but certainly not least, hanging out in Daddy's office for a lunch break earlier this week. We try to do this at least once a week, it brightens both their days. She's almost asleep on the floor so before she's out totally I'd best end this and get her laid down for a nap.

It is definitely looking a lot like Christmas this week. Feels almost like home, and I'm not so sure about that! LOL

Julia's Baptism, despite all of the nerves, mostly Mama's, Julia's Baptism couldn't have gone much better. It was a beautiful ceremony, a little different than we were used to as we part of the Mass right from the beginning and had to sit in the front row. Then were called up for the rest of the ceremony, Julia did just fine with the Father until he tipped her backwards to pour the water on her head. But as soon as he was done and she was back with Mama and Daddy she settled back in just fine and was asleep by the end of the Mass. The Father ended with Blessings for the Mother, Father and then the Congregation. It was so much more than we could have asked for and a very special day for Julia, though she of course wasn't sure why. But the rest of us sure did.

We missed you all, but understand with our distance that you were there in spirit. Miss Melissa made it and brought Lane, so she took most of the pictures, then we went to her house and hung out for a little bit afterwards to relax. Before going out to a late lunch and just enjoying our last day with Debra. Hope you enjoy the pictures. The man up front was Mr. Torrez, he stood in as proxy for Julia's Godfather who was unable to make it back from California. We missed you Donny but understand. Enjoy the slide show and be sure to keep checking Dropshots as that really is the easiest place for us to upload pictures to. So we'll be using it often. :)

Blessings to each of you on this very special day.

Just trying one more slide show, this one is a mixture of pictures since Julia's been home and I thought it was neat to place them all together to really show how much she's grown and changed. As I mentioned before we are truly blessed and we see it more everyday. I know now why I'm here and as trite as it may sound, it's simply to be her "mama" and see that she gets to be whatever it is she's meant to be. Not that there is anything "simple" in that, as any Mom can tell you, but I hope and pray that I can do my best by her.

Cool Slideshows

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Videos at last. :) Thanks to Debra we have a few videos for you. We've been having a great visit and hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This video is a bit dark, but thought it would give a little idea of what we have been talking about with Julia "dancing" to her cube. So I posted it anyways. Hope you enjoy. The other is a better quality and we'll have many more pictures to share soon. So check back again often. We have more slide shows and photos to come just as soon as we have a few more minutes and get things loaded up. Julia and Debra are having a wonderful visit! And Julia has just had so many milestones this past few weeks. Her vocabulary is suddenly really expanding, sometimes she will say something (and we swear today she said "debra" when she saw her in the store) and we are blown away because we're sure it sounds like real words now. She just astonishes us all the time. This week has been real progress with going from the crib to the toddler bed. That seems to have done the trick and she has slept all night in her own bed ever since, no more tears! We are so glad that it seems to have helped calm her and gotten her used to her room again. And not really planning on doing at the same time, but last Saturday we found a "sippy cup" that she liked and actually used, we never gave the bottle back and she's never asked for it! What perfect timing I guess she was ready. We know we are so blessed for it to have been that easy! But then we count our blessings everytime we look at her. Ask Debra she just keeps us laughing all the time. And the hugs and kisses couldn't be sweeter. Well, if I'm going to get more loaded up, I'd better finish this up. Enjoy the pics and videos and let us know what you think. To see more videos, you can go to http://www.dropshots.com/rgshrs



Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Food Obsessed????

Possibly...and this was AFTER she had her dinner. This is how she is every time we have food, of any kind. At least she's not picky. Definitely time to move to the dining room table I think. and yes, Daddy shared..lol. We do give her table food at times like this and other places, but can't really give her own plate yet as she will try to put it all in at once and with still only 4 teeth, yes still, we're still being careful. But she loves to try new foods!

Had some friends over last Saturday night...and yes they managed to have every single toy out of the toy box and managed to fit three of themselves into at a time...they did also clean up before they left. LOL. I'll give them that. What I didn't get a picture of was Gavin kissing Julia while they were watching veggie tales! Guess she got his attention after all, I just KNEW she was going to go after the older ones!! It was just on the cheek and Melissa and I had quite the laugh over it, but what I'm not sure Melissa knows is that before they left apparently Bradon was trying to chase Julia down for a hug and kiss as well. Ray saw that one! Brotherly competition ??? Who knows?? We do have three more years here with them and I know they are going to see lots of each other.

Loving Lacey, Playing Dress up and so much more. :)

Hugging on Lacey has become a morning and nap time ritual anytime Julia awakes and finds herself in our bed the VERY FIRST thing she does is looks to the foot of the bed for Lacey. As this is pretty much the only time Lacey will let her touch her. I think it's because the dog is too comfortable and knows she'll get kicked out of bed if she's not nice. But whatever the reason this is when Julia gets to give the old mutt some hugs.

The red dress pictures were just us having some fun or trying to. Julia was having lots of fun with her teddy bear in a matching outfit. She loves to give her stuffed animals hugs and kisses and it's so nice now that she gives some of those kisses to Mama and Daddy too. And she gives some of the best hugs ever, but we might be a little biased.

The Tinkerbell costume one more time. These were from halloween night, trick-or-treating at the mall. She didn't quite get it at first but by about half way around the mall she was very curious as to what was going in that bucket. It was very cute.

CLIMBING!! My little monkey might not be ready to walk on her own just yet, but she has no trouble at all with climbing and she's quick and quiet about it. Last week I turned from the computer to see her on the sofa table and I got these shots, the one of her standing in front of the table is after she got down, she turned and slid down like it was nothing. Yep, no fear...great...but at least she knows enough to turn around to get down. Guess that's something.

Just look at how comfortable she's getting with that push walker! Tonight she stood up several times from a sitting position on the floor without holding onto anything! So yes she's getting stronger and braver. No fear of heights, but hesitant about letting go to walk yet. The dr. didn't seem too concerned by that after we told her everything else she does and that she was after all in a different environment for the first 10 months of her life. She did say that if she's not walking in the next couple of months to let her know and we'd see about some therapy, but I really believe she's very close to stepping out there on her own.

So all in all things are going well in Julia's little world. Well too her it's a very big world now I'm sure, but she's doing pretty good and even managed to get rid of the cold she had for a week. Now if a few more teeth would just come through and stop giving her problems we'd be all set. That and recovering from her shots last Friday. They gave her 4 poor kid....we felt so bad but she took it pretty well. Though I think if she'd had a hand free she would've slugged the tech with the needles! If looks could kill he'd have been in trouble for sure. But again she only cried when they actually stuck her (though a bit more than the last set) and stopped by the time we were back in the waiting room. Her left thigh still looks pretty sore though:( She should only need her Hep A shots now before she can go to Preschool or Daycare here in Texas but as we're not putting her in that setting till next year we'll wait a few more months before subjecting her to that.

First Costume Party.

We went to Lakin's first birthday yesterday and being so close to Halloween it was a costume party. Here are some pics of our little pixie and some of her friends. Here she is granting all of Gavin's wishes! Or more likely our little flirt was trying to get his attention, I think it worked. LOL. I think she likes to dress up, she kept the floral wreath on almost the whole time and made quite a beautiful little pixie. Of course that's just my opinion but I think you'll agree. Aunt Alexa thanks for the costume and wand. We only added the floral tiara and a new set of wings. :)

Getting to know everyone!

Here are few shots of Julia throughout our trip to Maine. She really enjoyed showing Aunt Kim and Riley her pictures from China. Great Grammy Kinney was still recovering from her surgery the week before so I think Julia was a little bit intimidated, but she more than made up for it the morning we left. We stopped by Gram's to say good-bye and she got some of the best "bye-bye kisses" that I've ever seen Julia give anyone! They made quite a game of it. Of course then the camera was packed.

Julia seems to have a fascination with animals. She adored Cleo and Cleo tolerated all the love quite well. She's such a sweet dog.

Aunt Alexa Julia is showing off her "Children's Place" outfit for ya! Actually she was just showing how good she's getting at standing up. Her legs get stronger every day and her confidence is building. She's going to take off on us anytime now.

The last shot is of her and Daddy kicking back in Tulsa, getting some down time before we headed back to Texas. We knew Grammy Hall would want to see this one.

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch

Finally getting around to posting these. While we were in Maine we couldn't help but stop out to Stewart Farm and visit the Pumpkin Patch. We took Brendan with us and let him pick out a pumkin since Julia really didn't get it but she was happy to be outside, despite the wind and the fact that for us it was a little chilly. At least we managed to get a few pictures and it was a nice fall day.

Dedication Sunday!



Sorry it's taken so long to post new pictures. I've been exhausted since getting home and Julia has been giving me zero time on the pc! Here are a few shots from Julia's dedication and visting Great Grandma's after. It meant so much to know that our church family still supports us so many miles away. And even more that my family came out to show their support as well. Love you all!

Riley and Julia spent lots of time together with him lugging her around. She's sure missing him since we've been home and so is Mama, what a break for my arms! Julia definitely discovered the joys of cousins and uncles on this trip! She did quite well with Aunt Kim, Aunt Sue and Kylee as well!! The uncles took the longest for her to warm up to but she finally did, I'm sure this week she's wondering where everyone is at and why we couldn't stay longer. Hopefully next time, though we of course have no idea when that will be. Julia handled the travel much better than Mama or Daddy did I think. We were completely worn out!

I'll post more pictures from the trip in the next few days, as soon as I get another few minutes on the computer.

Keeping Busy!

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted. It's been a bit busy here and then Ray and I were both sick with Strep last week, (Thank God Julia didn't get it!), and now tonight we are packing for our trip to Maine. All of that, along with playgroup, a quick trip to Tulsa to leave Lacey with the only friends I know that will spoil her more than she already is (thanks Carm!!) and we hit the road tomorrow for Dallas and fly out early Thursday morning. In the mean time, here are a few shots of Julia to keep you all happy til we get some of her with her cousins in Maine. The dog in the shot belongs to my friend Christi from our spouses group and Julia just loved Delilah, she's truly a beautiful dog and very sweet! And since we did have that quick trip to Tulsa it wouldn't be right not to put a picture of Whitney and Sydney holding Julia. They both clamored to take a turn and sure had a lot of fun entertaining her! It'll be nice when we get back from Maine to actually spend a day or so with them as opposed to a couple of hours. Looking forward to that too. :)

Julia's definitely keeping us busy. She's getting stronger every day and now has decided that she likes to climb. She can get onto the couch all by herself and I turned today to find her sitting on the end table just like she belonged there. I have the feeling we're going to have a few bruises, doesn't help that her skin bruises so easily too. She just has to get a little bump and she's instantly turning colors. Poor baby. She's definitely going to be hard to keep up with! More baby proofing is going to have happen when we get back from Maine! LOL. She's doing great though and is such a wonder to be around. People have started commenting how strange it is that she acts so much like Ray and I...too funny...they are referring to how she will take a few minutes to decide about a new person but once she decides then she is very open and happy around them. Guess I didn't realize Ray and I were like that. haha.

Anyways. I got no sleep last night so I really need to get some tonight because tomorrow is going to be very busy!! Wish us luck and those of you in Maine we'll see you very soon!!