Happy New Year!

The holidays are almost over and they were pretty good this year. My sister was able to come from Florida with her 3 children. Along with Lucas and his cousin Harrison who also lives here, it made things at Nana and Grandad's house pretty chaotic, but it's wonderful that the Florida crew was able to come so far and stay for the entire week. They left on Sunday night for home and it's nice to get back to normal here, but I miss them already.
As for Lucas, he was having tons of fun with his cousins, especially Natalie who is 16 months older than him. They spent a lot of time playing and dancing and singing together. It was so cute!
Lucas had a pretty good Christmas. He wasn't that interested in opening presents. He just wanted to open one and play with it. As a side note, I can't stand the way Fisher-Price packages their toys. They are impossible to get out in a hurry when the kids want to play with them. Aren't they awful??? Back to Christmas - during the big present opening craziness, Lucas decided he was hungry and then went down for a nap. Watch out next year!

Now that it's 2008, I'm happily anticipating a new bundle of joy. Since things are pretty slow right now because international adoption is extremely popular, I'm hoping for a referral by the end of 2008 and travel in early 2009. I don't know if that's an optimistic or realistic estimate. But I can't wait to see what 2008 brings for our family.

And reflecting back on 2007, Lucas has grown by leaps and bounds. He has a very entertaining personality and he makes me laugh all the time. He's become more stubborn and opinionated as time goes own. I'm so lucky that he's my son. I'm sure 2008 will be interesting as he begins to talk and learns all kinds of new things. Parenthood is such and adventure and I LOVE IT!


Here are the kids in their matching Christmas jammies. Lucas (20 months), Natalie (3), Nathan (5), Bennett (3 months), Harrison (7 months)
Aren't they all beautiful?


And we tried a similar group picture in their church clothes. That couch at Nana and Grandad's is filling up fast.

Here we are getting warmed up for the group picture. Lucas was having a blast.

Here's Lucas and Natalie in the playpen. These 2 are two of a kind. And everything Lucas does, Natalie wants to do too, including playing in the playpen and taking a bottle. Too cute!