Happy New Year!

Happy, Happy 2010! We rang in the new year very quietly - at home, just the 3 of us. Natalie had fallen asleep much earlier than midnight, and surprisingly, Steven and I stayed awake to ring in the new year! I did snap a cute picture of Natalie celebrating the new year.

I also wanted to remember the highlights of 2009 - it was such a fun year for us!

Here are some of the best parts of the year:

January
We celebrated Natalie's baptism at our church. Austin, her godfather flew out from Houston to celebrate with us. Katelin is her godmother. We had a yummy lunch after church with cake to celebrate the day.
February
We put our house up for sale. We hoped to move closer to Steven's job sometime in 2009. However, that didn't happen and our house is still for sale. Our fingers are crossed for 2010.
March
It snowed in Georgia!
April
We finalized Natalie's adoption on April 15th. It was such a great day!
May - busy month
I celebrated my first Mother's Day with Natalie. She is such a joy!
Emily graduated from Kindergarten.
Jaynie graduated from Pre-K.
Katelin graduated from Salem High School. She was accepted at Wesleyan College in Macon and headed there in the fall.
June
Natalie got her first 2 teeth!
Natalie took her first plane ride to visit Steven's family in Houston. She did super - we were so proud of her!
Natalie and I went to Zoo Atlanta with my mom, Katelin, Ashley, and the kiddies. The little ones got free tickets to see the pandas and have a little "panda party".

August
Steven and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary with a date. My mom watched Natalie - and we went to dinner and a movie.
Steven's great-grandmother passed away. We were very sad to lose her, but happy in knowing she lived a great life. We were also thankful that Natalie got to meet her twice. We were able to go to Houston for the funeral and visit with the family.
Katelin left for college. We were sad to see her go, but thankful she is only about an hour away.
September
We kicked off the University of Miami's football season. Natalie wore her first UM shirt and watched a lot of the game (in playing and snacks).
October
Natalie celebrated her first birthday! She had 2 parties! We had the first one on her actual birthday with family at our house. The Saturday after her birthday we had a bigger party with even more family and friends. Steven's grandparents, mom and cousin also came to visit and share the day with us.
November
Natalie had her first illness of her little life. The poor thing had 3 antibiotics and 2 shots, but finally felt better after a couple of weeks.
Natalie started walking - and became busier than ever!!
December
After many, many months of waiting, Liam came home, just in time for Christmas! He is such a sweet boy!

So, there you have it, a summary of some major events for us in 2009. It was such a fun year watching Natalie grow and change. We look forward to all 2010 will bring!

Christmas 2009

What an exciting and fun Christmas we had this year! Natalie was definitely more aware of things than she was last year (being only 2 months old then), but still didn't really "get" opening presents and all that stuff - look out next year, though! She got so many nice toys, books and clothes.

We spent Christmas this year in Houston with Steven's family. Natalie got to meet even more of Steven's family - mostly on Mark's side. She was a big hit with everyone, of course!

We spent Christmas Eve with Mark's mom and siblings. We spent Christmas afternoon with Susan's side of the family. Natalie loved it and was such a great baby! It was a busy 4 days, but was so fun!

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Sunday and the fun continued! It was fun to watch Natalie and Liam together along with the rest of the kiddies. Everyone had a great time!

Christmastime makes me feel even more thankful and blessed. Natalie is such a joy in our lives and we are so thankful for her. Steven and I have been blessed with wonderful families who love and support all 3 of us! We were so happy to be able to spend the holidays with all of them, and our new addition - sweet Liam! Merry Christmas!

He's home!

My dad and Liam finally made it back to the USA on Sunday! Their flew from Beijing to Newark, NJ pretty much all day on Saturday. They were originally booked on a late night flight from Newark to Atlanta, and should have arrived around 10:40 pm. However, 8-14 inches of snow was predicted to be dumped on Newark, so their flight was canceled. In the end, they had to spend the night at the airport and were booked on a flight on Sunday morning. They were delayed on that flight too - to deice the plane, but FINALLY made it to Atlanta around 12:30 on Sunday. We were so happy to see both of them! Katelin and I, unfortunately, both forgot our cameras, but a friend took some and is going to email them to us.

Liam is so sweet! He went right to my mom and they said he did great on the ride home. Once we all got to my parents house, he was a busy boy! He was adorable walking around the house babbling. He's like Natalie in that he's so busy, its hard to take a picture of him! I did get a few good ones and I know there will be much, much more time to take lots more! He's already let me hold him a few times and is so sweet! I can't wait to love on him more!

What we've been up to

Christmastime has been so much fun this year! Natalie is more aware of what's going on and loves all of the Christmas lights at our house and in our neighborhood. We went on a walk tonight and she pointed out each house with lights and was so happy! She also loves to pull ornaments off of our tree! Tonight I found her with 1 in each hand and 1 in her mouth (and a few on the floor, of course)!


Saturday morning Natalie and I went with my mom and the kiddies for breakfast with Santa. I'd rate it about a 4, but the kids did like seeing Santa (except for Natalie, of course).


Saturday evening, Steven and I went on a date! It was his company's Christmas party in Dunwoody and we got to dress up all snazzy and stay out until 10:00 pm! Natalie stayed with Noni and had a great time too!


I celebrated my big 3-0 birthday on Monday! So far, 30 feels good! I had a yummy taco dinner with the family, followed by cake and ice cream and presents. Katelin made it home for the party, and it was great to have (almost) all of us together.


We also video chatted with my dad and Liam. Liam is still adorable and my dad sent more pictures! I can't wait to meet him on Sunday!

Visiting Santa

Last week, Steven, Natalie and I went to Discover Mills. While we were there, we decided to go see Santa. Last year, Natalie was too tiny to even realize what was going on (I think she slept through it actually). I wasn't sure how she would do - I thought she would love him - she usually loves characters in suits (the Coca-Cola bear, Chick-fil-A cow). She was also in a super, super friendly mood.* However, she DID NOT like Santa! Santa told me to put her on his lap and slide away. I tried, but she was clutching my shirt so hard, I couldn't go anywhere! We did get a couple of her alone with Santa, and then one with all of us together. Poor girl - we torture her so!



*When I say super, super friendly mood - I mean this: we first went with Steven to a doctor's appointment. While we were in the waiting room, she made friends with another patient waiting. She let this woman pick her up and play with her and everything! At the mall, we went into a store right before seeing Santa and she was all smiles and giggles and kisses to another stranger. Such a funny girl!

Introducing Liam!

My dad safely arrived in China on Saturday and Liam arrived safely in his arms on Monday. Their adoption was finalized in China on Tuesday! This is so exciting for our family to add one more. Henry is beside himself to have a brother - he says there's "too many girls"!

Tonight, we were able to video chat with my dad and Liam and it was great! Liam is adorable and so happy!! My dad says he is full of personality and very easy going! On top of all of that fun, he even sent pictures of the sweet boy for us to share!

"Gotcha" Day

trying out a new 'do