New Teeth

Emma has been dealing lots of new teeth all coming in at once. On December 1st, her first lower left molar came through and on Wednesday, the 12th, her upper canines came through. She still has 5 others coming through. Her appetite and sleeping have been inconsistent, but when you look at her poor little mouth you know it must really hurt!

Halloween

Halloween was really fun! I had two sweet little witches this year. Hannah, of course, loves candy and visiting all the neighbors so she had a blast. This was Emma's first Halloween so she wasn't quite sure about all the creatures she saw running through our neighborhood, but she was never frightened and got into the swing of it all pretty quickly. The boys went out with their friends. Not too much thought put into their costumes. For them, it is all about friends and lots and lots of candy.

Emma's Adoption Announcement

We finally got these done and I love them! We added that she was born in Yangxi, China...I just haven't had a chance to scan the new version in.

Hillary's Senior Photo

Back to School

Summer Vacation

Happy 4th of July!

The girls all dressed and ready for the big 4th of July parade. Hannah was so excited. The 4th of July parade is a huge event for her and she looks forward to it all year long (kind of like Christmas). She loves to decorate her bike and buy all the candy to throw out to people along the route. She loves knowing that she's going to be able to steal some of it for herself, too. Oh, and she loves having red, white and blue clothes to wear (which she helped pick out...she wanted Emma to have the matching outfit). She was thrilled to finally have her sister here to share in the fun.

Along the parade route with Pete.

Christopher came around the corner first.

And then....Hannah.

And then....Emma!

When the girls were finished with their ride in the parade, we watched the rest of it together.

After the parade, we headed to the beach.

After a beautiful morning, the weather turned gray and cool in the afternoon, but Emma still enjoyed playing in the sand and walking on the beach. Hannah missed it. She had already fallen asleep.

Two little girls exhausted from their busy day!

Hillary comes home.....

but not for long. She was supposed to arrive on the 30th, but due to a delayed flight because of bad weather in Shanghai, she missed the connecting flight in Beijing. Her flight landed just moments after midnight on the 2nd, which was a shame because she just missed Emma's birthday. She arrived at the house at about 1:20 am, spent the day with us doing laundry and repacking and left for her 5 week music camp at 5:30 pm. So, there wasn't much time to catch up, but it was great to have her home for at least a few hours. I miss her so during the summer, but she has a great time traveling and attending her music programs. We'd love to have her around a lot more, but she wouldn't have it any other way!

Emma's First Birthday

I'm really missing Hillary

She's been gone for 2 weeks. It is just the first 2 weeks out of the 10 she will be gone this summer. She's touring China for 3 weeks and then off to one music camp for 5 weeks which will be followed by another 2 weeks at orchestra camp. This recording is from a benefit concert she and her friends did last year to benefit the Special Needs Children's Career Training Project at the Zhu Zhou Social Welfare Institute in Hunan Province. There's another video clip of this concert under "Animato's Final Performance" below.

A photo of Hillary in China

A friend saw this photo on the YPO blog and sent it to me. Hillary is sitting just at the tip of the conductor's left hand. We've gotten very little information about her trip so I was thrilled to read about it on the blog. The hotels where she has been staying don't have English speaking front desk clerks so I haven't been able to get many calls through and it seems that internet connections have been hard to come by (these are not 5 star hotels like the White Swan!). Anyway, here's the link to the YPO blog if any friends and family are interested.

http://www.myspace.com/ypochina07

Perhaps she knows......

that her birthday is just around the corner. Emma will turn one on July 1st, next Sunday. She raided the cupboards the other day and found the cake mix. We all just laughed. I guess she is trying to get us going on the preparations!

A Trip To The Farm

Emma had her first visit to Drumlin farm last week. The girls enjoyed seeing all the spring babies and a hayride around the farm. They especially loved the pigs who were very animated. They were running around and squealing and their mom kept chasing them out of the barn.

Girls At Play

The girls have been enjoying the great weather and are having lots of fun playing together. They have adored each other since day one, but Emma's walking has added a whole new dimension to their play. They giggle all day long. This is just what we imagined two years ago when we set off on this journey. We feel so blessed to have little Emma here with us.