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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Yeah, so I'm about 5 months late...

in posting that is!  But now that blogger lets you post multiple pics at once... wow, I may do this more often!

So let's see.  I'll try to catch you up on our lives as fast as possible without making it too boring!

July - Cooper's birthday - he had a small swim party because a week later we went to Disney World.
Disney was great except I think Kara is still a little too young.  She was great for about 3 days then everything was either too loud or too scary or too dark and definitely too hot!  Note to self: Never go to Disney World in July. But she got to see her beloved princesses (I think we found all of them) and we had lunch in the castle with them.  Here are some pics from that trip:














So that was Disney.

In August, they started their new school - It's a wonderful, private Episcopal School that goes from PreK through 8th grade.  They absolutely love it.  We love it.  The teachers are remarkable and the school is orderly, structured and small and they have very open communication with the parents. On the very first day, I received the email, cell phone and home phone of their teachers.  I receive emails from them about once or twice a week - whenever necessary, to tell me the good, bad or ugly! I got an email from Kara's teacher the other day telling me how much she enjoyed the bake potato soup they had that day!  Another one from her telling me that Kara was crying over every little thing and wasn't her usual happy little self, maybe she was coming down with something... They're awesome!
Kara is in PreK and Cooper is in their Bridge program which is between PreK and Kindergarten.  Since he's a July birthday and he has a little maturing to do, we held him back so that he'll be one of the oldest in the class instead of one of the youngest.  He's actually reading now and counting by 10's and 5's, it's absolutely amazing how much he's maturing and learning.  I (obviously) can't say enough good things about this school!
Fist day of school at Holy Spirit Episcopal:



I don't have any recollection of September nor pictures so I guess it wasn't a big month!

October though, is Halloween - such fun at our house!
I wanted them to match and they agreed so here's Batman and Bat girl:
Evidently, Bat anything is big around here right now!

 Yep, he's the shortest one!
 Getting donuts in the morning (like they needed THAT right?!)


November 3rd was Kara's 4th birthday.  She had a princess party - 10 girls got together and put on (and changed) princess gowns, had their nails and hair done, had "tea", danced and ate cake, fruit and ice cream sundaes at this fabulous place in the Heights in Houston.

Oh she also got a big girl bike for her Birthday!

She had a blast:





There were NO BOYS ALLOWED at this party per Kara but her daddy and brother did have to drop in for some cake!











Alright, it's December now - they just had their Christmas parties at school. 
Cooper did NOT want me to leave and pitched a fit crying when I did - little stinker.

Here are some Santa pics - they are not afraid of him at all and are eager to visit with him and tell him EVERYTHING!









Their adjustment is awesome.
They are right on track in every aspect except for Kara's speech.  She's a little delayed and is in Speech Therapy twice a week (a lady comes to her school).  That costs a bundle, but she won't need it too much longer (I hope!).  Most of her speech problems are language acquisition but she's getting there.
Their attachment is 100%.

In short: They are very smart, cute, funny as heck, clever, ANGELS and we are so in love with them still - Life is so good and we are incredibly blessed to be parents of these two.

If you are adopting or waiting or are just curious about something, please ask, I'll try to answer!

Kristine, I think you need a bigger photo!




 

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

sorrysorrysorrysorry

Thinking seriously about aborting the blog - Would you care?  Will you let me know?

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Our Lives in July

Wow, I'm way behind in my blogging.
It's tough to keep up with work, hubby, two kids, three dogs, two birds, life... so sorry, I'm busy!

Let's see, what have we been up to?
We had Cooper's very small birthday party.  He got a Buzz Lightyear, many games, Iron Man pajamas, Super Man sheet set and his oh-so-coveted, DS or Diaz as he pronounces it!

We swam with a few friends and the kids had a blast.















Superman cake-











Gift opening-
He's finally old enough for me to say thank you to everyone as he opens his gifts and since it was such a small group, it worked out well.


























His actual birthDAY was the next day, so we had Batman cupcakes for that party.

Two days after his second party, we went to Disney World!












Cooper did great.  He loved all of the characters, rides, shows - everything except the heat.  It was flipping h.o.t.  After an hour of getting to each park, the kids were asleep in their strollers because the heat would just suck all of the energy out of you. At least there's an air conditioned show around every corner.
The crowds weren't that bad, but the groups from Brazil took up most of the parks!  They were actually very nice, just so many of them.

They LOVED having their face painted!

Cooper is a "Future Super Hero"  (anyone surprised?)













Kara is a "Princess"  (again, surprised?)

She ate the lipstick off about 30 seconds after the lady put it on.


























We got CinderKara dressed up for her debut to meet Cinderella at the Royal Table in THE castle..ooh la la.  It was WELL worth the $$! 
Cooper was extra-sweet when his sister was dressed up.  Then he decided he needed to "be" somebody for the dinner.  The somebody was Buzz.
They got to meet Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Alice and Aurora.  I can't remember if Belle was there or not - they're all starting to run together in my mind...

Yes, he was the only Buzz at dinner that night.


















Here's Daddy Jim and his etiquette-deprived daughter on the bus to dinner to meet the princess.


Note to self:  work on Kara's social graces.























Kara finally meets her idol.


As fast as a fox, Cooper changed into Buzz to meet the rest of the princesses.
Here's Ariel.


























Love Cooper's face here - he's like, Wow, Snow White is pretty!


Then we saw Ariel and Eric outside. How'd they do that??!













Sleeping in the shade.













We rented these strollers from Orlando Stroller Rentals.
They were wonderful!  The service is excellent and the strollers were so light and easy - perfect for Disney.  The strollers were at our hotel (Yacht Club) when we checked in and we just left them at the Bell Service desk when we left - couldn't be easier than that!

We saw many people struggling with umbrella strollers-  

Kara spent the rest of the trip holding her ears, crying and saying "I don't like it" to everything!
She was d.o.n.e. by day 4 (out of 6).  It was either too hot, too loud or too scary for her.
3 1/2 is still a bit young for that many days at Disney.  We'll go back when they're 8+9... and don't need naps... and can walk on their own!

August is looking to be a lively month as well.  We're heading to Corpus Christi to the beach for a few days, a couple of birthday parties and play dates are planned then they start their new school. I just spent a fortune on uniforms so I hope they like this school!