Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. We spent Christmas Eve at our house with my sister and her family. We ate our traditional Italian dinner with homemade ravioli. We then took part in another tradition of the children opening one gift. Owen and Aliya get to open their gift from Nanny which was awesome clothes.
That night, Owen set out cookies and milk for Santa. As I put him to bed, I told him that Santa can only come to our house if all the children are asleep. He didn't come out once that night. Can we use the Santa trick every night?
The next morning we went downstairs and showed Owen that Santa had eaten the cookies and drank the milk. He was so engrossed in the empty dish that he didn't even go look to see what Santa brought him. We finally got him into the family room where he saw his tools. Aliya received a dollhouse and they both got table, chairs, and play food. They then looked in their stockings.
After breakfast, we opened gifts from family. Every time Owen got a book, he had to stop and read it! And when Aliya got a book, he had to stop and read hers too! After a while Owen got tired of opening presents and just wanted to play.
We had lunch at my sister's and opened a few more presents before we headed home for a much needed nap. It was a very nice Christmas.

Pretty Aliya.


Owen opening his Christmas Eve present.


The family - as a good as it gets.


Which one should I eat?


Owen fixing the dollhouse.


Owen reading a book.


Opening a gift.


Playing with the new toys.


"Send it in Jerome"


Really, another picture?


Here are some more gifts.

Dancing Queen

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Tree Cutting and Snow

A couple of weekends ago we headed up to the mountains for our annual tree cutting. Aliya's first and Owen's third. We put Aliya in our backpack so that Dave could carry her and bring a tree back. I was in charge of Owen which meant that we would be behind several times, I would have to adjust his mittens every few minutes, and sometimes I would have to carry him. It is unusual for their to be snow on the ground, so it was nice treat to see it. Owen had a blast and even helped Daddy cut down the tree.

OWEN WITH HIS TREE

OWEN AND DAVE CUTTING DOWN OUR TREE

ALIYA AND DAVE DRAGGING OUR TREE BACK TO THE CAR

THE FAMILY



We also have experienced several one day snow storms recently. We bundled Aliya and Owen up and headed outside. Owen LOVED every minute of it. He made snow angels, played in the snow, rode on a sled, and made a snowman. Aliya didn't enjoy it too much, but we got a few photos of her smiling. Can't wait for next year when Aliya can walk in it.

OWEN TAKING ALIYA FOR A RIDE

ALIYA ENJOYING THE SNOW EARLY ON

OWEN LOVING THE SNOW

ALIYA TOWARDS THE END OF HER TIME OUTSIDE

I'm so big!

Aliya is 10 months tomorrow. I can't believe it. She is doing a lot of things. She is able to do a super fast crawl and get anywhere within seconds. She is especially fast if you open the dishwasher, refrigerator, and/or pantry. She is cruising on furniture like crazy and it would seem that she will be walking soon. She is saying mama, dada, and a bunch of gibberish. She loves music and dancing. She absolutely LOVES her big brother and thinks he is the funniest thing. We have been waiting for what seems like forever for her two upper teeth to break through. I'm pretty sure one is showing a tiny bit of tooth now, so hopefully no more pain for a bit. She loves to eat as well and prefers real food and none of that mashed stuff. We're pretty sure she is 20 lbs now!
Owen is doing well too. He is still really interested in letters and reading. Owen and I go to the library every Saturday to check out books. He is constantly asking what begins with the letter (put any letter after) and then asks how to spell words. He likes to pretend play which is a lot of fun.

Elf Dance

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Happy Validation Day!

We went to court today to validate Aliya's adoption. We didn't have to go to court for Owen because the agency we used just sent our paperwork to a county that doesn't require the family to come to court. The whole process was very short and interesting. They called us into an empty courtroom. It was just us, a person from our local agency, the court recorder, and the judge. We had to take an oath first. Then, the judge verified that we were able to take care of Aliya. Then, he verified the adoption information which was incorrect. The paper stated that the adoption was done in Russia. So, they just changed that on the paperwork. He said he was signing it and then congratulated us on being a family. We then took a picture with him.
So, does that mean we are done? Nope. We still have to request a birth certificate, get a SSN, get a passport, get the Certificate of Citizenship and then send reports to Ethiopia until Aliya is 18. BUT, we are done with the local agency!