A busy life

Lots going on will post picks later but I thought I would write while I had a chance to catch you all up on what we are doing..

So much is going on right now life is more busy then ever. Sophia is still attending Then Little gym twice a week and loving that. Each time we go she learns something new and comes out of her shell more and more. Friday we were talking about going to Gym on Sat. and she told me she really likes Even (the teacher). When I asked her why she likes him so much she told me because he is cute. LOL Oh no I think we are going to have our hands full in a few years.

Riz and I toured a few preschools in are area and after much consideration and research we have decided to start Sophia in a Montessori school. We just fell in love with the school and the Montessori philosophy. The school that she will be attending has been in business for 40 years and the teachers are all well educated and have been with the school long term. Sophia will start some time between now and just after the first of the year, we are still working out the details. She will go 5 days a week for a half day program. She loved the environment and wanted to stay when our tour was over. We are all super excited to see what happens next for her with school. I of course have been reading everything I can get my hands on about Montessori. I have discovered that there are tons of resources, blogs and groups all about Montessori. It is a subculture if you will.... stay tuned for more on Montessori. Sophia has been learning things at lightning speed and we feel like she is more then ready to be in a learning environment.

Adoption number two is coming along slowly but surely no new news there really. Progress is slow but we will get there. Kim, our wonderful agency rep. keeps us up to date on everything and we could not be more grateful to her. A name for baby number 2 is still forth coming.

Recently one of the families in our FCC group had a Halloween party for the kids. It was great fun to see them all dressed up playing together. We also had a Thanksgiving/ Adoption Awareness month Picnic and had a great turn out for that, over 50 people were there. It was lots of fun the food and the company were good as always. We are hosting a "Cookie Throw Down" on Dec. 5th for the FCC group. It promises to be a messy good time. We will have sugar cookies for the kids to decorate however they would like and for the parents there will be a cookie taste testing. Then we all plan to walk down to watch our Christmas parade (we live one block off the parade route).

I was very productive over the weekend and got the house cleaned and decorated for the Holidays. Thanksgiving we will have our usual morning as a family of 3. Cinnamon rolls and tea for breakfast watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in our Pj's. Then we will go to dinner at Riz's parents house. Then home to watch my all time favorite Christmas Movie Miracle on 34th Street (the old black and white one with Moreen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gween. We normally get our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving but this year we will be spending the weekend with great friends instead. I will need to hurry to have our tree ready before the Cookie Throw Down on the 5th. I have all of Sophia's Christmas shopping done but I still need to wrap them all. She is 100% into Christmas and Santa Clause this year. It is really neat to see Christmas through her eyes. We put away the Thanksgiving books last night and broke out the books about Christmas and Hanukkah. We want Sophia to know the true meaning of the Christmas Holiday as well as teaching her about other cultures and their celebrations. We have been doing lots of holiday art projects around the house too. Sophia is becoming quite the little artiest and has master the Happy Face. We laugh because everything male or female has to have earrings and a mustache. I'll post a picture of her Felt Turkey, poor thing is having an identity crisis..LOL

We are still trying to sell our house with no luck what so ever. The housing market is so bad here in Florida that we have not even shown our house in over a year. We are grateful that we are not upside down with our mortgage and that we are not in the position like so many others. We are still ready to sell and have a new start some place different. If you know of anyone who is interested in a 105 year old Historic House in a nice small Central Florida town not far from the Beach and Disney World(all of the attractions) please pass on my contact info.

We stay in close touch with several of the families we traveled to China with We have developed a close relationship with them all. It is hard not to when you are there for the most important part of a families life. We will all meet for a second reunion in Savanna Ga. this Jan. There will be four families and five little ones gathering this time. We are so excited to see them all again and to spend time together catching up on life.

OK I have board you enough I am sure. I will post pictures tonight..Hugs to all.