Merry Christmas!

I suppose now that it is the beginning of Feb I better get my Christmas pictures up of Tessa.

Christmas came and went with a vengence. I might say it was pretty smooth considering 4 children and Bob and I working really hard right now.

We had many things to be thankful for this Christmas and shared at dinner on Christmas night with all the children chiming in what they are thankful for.

We are very thankful for our 4 beautiful children, our health, our jobs, our home and of course all of our family and friends.

The 30th of Dec. marked Tessa's 5th month of being in our arms and we still can't believe she has only been with us this short time. She is soooo spunky and fun and has really let her personality shine this month. She really only played with the Christmas tree a few times a day. To our surprise.

She was not to overwhelmed by the busyness and all the noise on Christmas Day. She is a real trooper.

Tessa continues to fine tune her screaming to get our attention and continues to learn new words. She loves the animals and has really become attached to our kitty Roxy.

Tessa would prefer to be outside all day and you can hear her scream when it is time to come in.

Each day we think how lucky all of us are to have her in our lives. Tyler continues to ask if we could do 10 more adopted children. Are ya crazy??????? He easily walks in from school or work and comes and goes as he pleases of course he doesn't get the real responsibility of this. Why would he???? He is 19yrs old. Need I say more.....

I hope every Christmas for years to come will as special as Tessa's first Christmas!

We love you Tessa.... Merry 1st Christmas with your crazy family......

It's starting to Look Like Christmas....

The Holidays are here. EEEEKKKK!!!! We've decided not to put our tree up yet. I can't bear the thought of saying No, No , for almost a month.... Maybe by the middle of Dec. I will have the courage... I promise we will do it before then but oh my Tessa may climb it... Ha Ha...

Everything continues to go great with our Tessa. The kids have all done so well with her.

But I have to say she plays favorites... Travis is her fav right now... It does give me a little break. He is just so calm and loves for her to climb all over him... She continues to eat absolutely anything we put in front of her.... This will change soon I am sure. She finally is getting her 3rd and 4th tooth on the bottom. This will make 8.... She has drooled like a St. Bernard lately... YUCK!!!!!

She has definitely got a deep voice and laughs and growles all the time....

She has a very strong will. And still continues to pierce our ears with her screams. Nothing like having 2 girls in the house... We cherish everyday that we have with all 4 children and the thought that Tessa has been home 4 months now and has done so fantastic. Still wondering if she realizes how badly we wanted her and waited forever for her to come home. I know someday she will......

Thanksgiving with Tessa

Happy Thanksgiving Tessa! This is your 1st. Needless to say I vote not to do 9 hrs of cooking next year with a little girl who like to climb our stove. We did stove watch closely but had no issues today. She slept 3 hrs and we had all of the major things cooked earlier. We did the turkey in the roaster oven in the mud room to avoid many hrs in the oven keeping constant watch for our climber. She is not trying to climb the stove as much now. Wooo Hoooo!!!!
We had gorgeous weather 77 degrees and the thought of having to run our airconditioner a drag. But we refuse to sweat while cooking all day. The feast went off without to many hitches and clean up was done in intervals with Tessa... I have voted to go out for Christmas Eve and cook Lasagna on Christmas Day! I won......
Tessa really enjoyed the wind outside today and picking up acorns and trying to taste them repeatedly. Travis and Tatumn were great helping to entertain Tessa along with themselves.
We are very thankful this day for our beautiful family and Tessa's birthmom allowing us to bring her to our home and love her to death forever......
We are also thankful for our families continued love and support for our new daughter.
We love you all!

Post Placement visit for Re-adoption

Sunday November the 18th was our first post placement for Tessa for Re adoption here in NC.

The state requires 2 post placement visits and one court process to allow us to re adopt her. She will then have a US birth certificate. Cathy came and visited with us and went over some developmental things and some basic ?'s about her environment in Taiwan and some ?'s about her routine and how things have been since she has been home. All I can say is god bless Cathy. She was here for a couple hrs and Tessa is not used to her Mom giving her undivided attention to anyone else. She was a little whiny. But we made up for the lack of Mom and Dad time later in the evening. We will have another post placement after Christmas and hope to have everything final by the end of 2008.

Tessa at the park with her sissy

Today was a beautiful day here so after Tessa's nap we decided to do a trip to the park.

Tatumn has always loved to go here and so will Tessa.

Tatumn and Tessa enjoyed the slide together and the swings.

Tessa got to be more interested in the big kids side and spent a lot of time following the big kids.

Lots of laughs and giggles out of her today. The swing is her favorite.

She is trying to run now, since she is an experienced walker. So she thinks. She spends most of her time on the ground now, since she is stumbling over her feet trying to run.

She just gets back up and is on the move again.

Tessa continues to amaze us on how well she has done in just 3 short months. She is a very big girl. She is now 31 1/4 inches tall and weighs 24lbs and 10 ozs. Yikes to my back.....

Enjoy the pictures....