A Very Merry Christmas, Earthquake, and the Stomach Bug!

So what do these three things have in common? Our family's life these past days! We had a blast celebrating this Christmas season together as a family of four! Quick overview:

-Fun baking cookies 

-Checking out Christmas lights

-Celebrating Christmas with Brent's family (His brother Brad and family came in from MI. So much fun to see the cousins play. Always sadness and tears when they leave. We miss you guys!)

-Celebrating as a family of four Christmas morning

-Feeling a 3.3 Earthquake in good ol' Lancaster County

-Stomach bug from Brent to Kristin

-Enjoying Hershey's Candylane lights

-Back up to Hershey for Chocolate World

-Anticipating celebrating the New Year with friends

-Looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my family New Year's Day(It was postponed due to our family's illness. Can't say I blame them! I'll post pics of that Christmas later)

We hope you all had a wonderful Blessed Christmas together with family and friends. As we look back and reflect on this past year we have been so blessed. We can finally say after 3 long years of waiting we are a family of 4! How awesome is that! We look forward to 2009 and all that God has in store for our family of four! Happy New Year!

Three Months!

Today marks 3 months since we met Alissa in China. Time flies! She continues to amaze us with the words and sayings she repeats. So much fun...."This is mine, not yours", "Benjamin no spit, Benjamin I smack hands", "No more tookies  (yes they are tookies not cookies)Mommy, that's enough", and others. Christmas has been fun too...she loves the Christmas tree, lights, and singing. She is learning Away In A Manger and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. She also knows the baby's name in the manger...baby Jesus. So precious. Benjamin continues to be a great big brother. He is counting down the days until Christmas break. It's snowing here...feeling more and more like Christmas. Hope you all enjoy your day as well!

New Friends, New Fun

Over the past week we enjoyed... making our traditional gingerbread house while Brent was hunting (Benjamin thinks it's our best one yet), a visit to Hands on House with new friends from FCC of Lancaster (Families with Children from China), searching for the perfect Christmas tree (of course cutting it down and decorating it too), and making Christmas treats. So much fun meeting new friends and more of these firsts!