Taking Advantage of the Fresh Snow

After getting fresh snow on Christmas, and learning how much Vivian likes to go sliding, we took advantage of a mild day all all went to the hill behind our house. Vivian again had a blast and we even got Alaina going down the hill!

Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Grandma Ruth & Grandpa Charlie's this year. Great-Grandma & Grandpa came home from Arizona to spend the holidays with our us. Vivian and Alaina were put in pajama's because it was late when we headed home. "Santa" was going to be coming to our house that evening so we needed to have them wake up at home.

Christmas morning we got the girls up and saw that "Santa" visited us. Vivian was excited to see that Santa had ate her cookies she made! We got dressed and went to mass. This is the best photo I could get of the girls together!

Christmas Day snowed all day. After dinner and opening gifts, Vivian & Cory went sledding with Auntie Carin, Jason, Ethan & Logan. Vivian LOVED sledding. She kept saying "again daddy...again."

Visiting Santa & Our Night Out

Unfortunately we did not get pictures taken with the same Santa we used in 2006, but as a last minute these had to do.
Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Charlie came out that evening to babysit so since the girls were already dressed up Grandma Ruth took our holiday photo. We then had the opportunity to join Dave and Janet at the Lorie Line Holiday Concert.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Vivian had a great time decorating the tree. She kept say "another one daddy and I got it!" Needless to say, the bottom of the tree was heavy with ornaments.

Surprise, Arizona

We spent a week in Arizona visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Ness. Our week was very relaxing and we got away from this white stuff they have in Minnesota. During the week we went swimming, rode on Grandpa's golf cart, went to the zoo, took a day trip through the mountains to see the stations of the cross and have lunch in Prescott. But most of all we just enjoyed visiting.

Vivian's Gotcha Day November 26, 2007

We spent our "Gotcha Day" again with the Dave, Janet and Charlie Holdsworth's. This is the day that we met Vivian!
Charlie and Vivian made pizza's for us and for dessert, Mr. Dave gave Vivian and Charlie each a shot (or two) of whip cream!

Picking Out Our Christmas Tree

Although the weather was mild, we all bundled up and went up to pick out our Christmas tree. The Knights of Columbus is selling trees this year for our NET Team (the youth at our church) so we decided to patronize them rather than cut our own. Daddy was worried we would be there forever because Mommy is so picky. She says it must be straight, thin, and TALL!!! Well Jeremy had the perfect tree ready for us and it is beautiful! Vivian had her first taste of hot apple cider. She quickly learned to sip the cider.

Alaina's Baptism

Fr. Gregory Abbott Baptized Alaina into the Church of St. Michael. We were blessed to have many of our family present, and prayed for those who were not.


Godparents Auntie Gail and Uncle Mark.
Both sets of Grandparents.








Alaina and Vivian with all their cousins.
(from the left~Ethan, Trevor, Spencer and Logan)

Swimming at Lifetime Pool

Grandpa Sommer, Mommy, Daddy, Trevor, Vivian and Alaina went to the pool. It was Alaina's first time in a pool. Aunt Gail, Uncle Mark and Spencer were at the Mall of America and Grandma Sommer and Aunt Dawn stayed home to rest. Alaina was her old self splashing around just as she does in the bathtub (the pool was just a bigger version). We were at the pool for about 3 hours and for the first 2 Vivian did not touch the slide. During the last hour we were there, she probably went down the slide about 50 times!

The girls should definitely be ready for our trip to Arizona to vist Great-Grandma and Grandpa Ness on the 30th of November.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Our family is very fortunate to have Alaina home with us. As many of you know, some of the families have not been as lucky. We have some very dear friends that have not been as fortunate that we ask you to keep in your prayers.

Alaina Meets Grandma & Grandpa Sommer

Grandma & Grandpa Sommer came to visit. They were the first to arrive for our festivities! We decided to celebrate Thanksgiving and Alaina's Baptism together.

After Grandma went with Cory to pick up Vivian, she had to show Grandma her newly decorated room and where she was to sit for their tea party!

Dr. Sommer

Dr. Sommer, you are wanted in surgery. Are you kidding me, I was just getting ready to go to bed!

Vivian has been learning about different professions at her daycare. This week they talked about doctors and how they helped all of us when we are sick.

Last Christmas Auntie Dawn gave her this Dr. Kit and Vivian has now put it to good use. Here you can see how she is fixing all of Daddy's owie's!

Alaina's New Teeth!

You wouldn't know it by this picture, but Alaina has gotten 2 new teeth! Her top front teeth have been pushing their way through. She has been dying to eat solid foods, watching us intently as we put all this yummy stuff in our mouths! Here she is eating a toast. She did pretty good until she put too much in her mouth with the last bite. Unfortuantely all that she did manage to eat came right back up!

October 31, Halloween

Daddy made carmel apples and cinnamon pumpkin seeds. They were so yummy. Alaina even had a little taste of apple, as you can see in her net sac she' holding. It was as though she couldn't get enough, she loved it! She eagerly watches us eat and wants to have what we are having, but her little tummy is not ready. Unfortunately, she can only handle a little bit at a time and has issues with solid foods. We will try again in a month or so.
Both girls dressed up for Halloween. Vivian was a Mid-evil Princess. This was the costume I bought for her last year that she couldn't wear because it was too large. This year it fit just right! Alaina was a lion. I bought this costume on clearance last year thinking we may end up adopting a boy! Well it worked fine, we made it into a girl lion (although they don't have manes) by putting, of course, a pink bow on top!

Daddy out trick or treating with the girls. When VIvian got home she said that "It was scary out there." When I asked why, Cory said that she didn't like the sleleton she saw.
Mommy stayed back to hand out the candy.

October 26, Yum...Yum!

Mom was craving chocolate after dinner so we made cupcakes. Vivian didn't like the cake as well as the frosting!

October 26, Adoption Clinic

Today, Alaina had her Doctor's appointment with the Adoption Clinic at the University of Minnesota. She sure was a trooper after a long day. Our appointment was at 8 am so our morning started at 6 am dropping Vivian off at daycare. Once we got to the clinic, everyone marveled about how darling she was (something her parents already know). We met with Dr. Howard and a 3rd year resident. We were told that she looks wonderful and they really did not have any concerns. We learned that the markings she has on her tongue is called a "geographic tongue." She may have this into adulthood, or it may go away in time. We also met with a developmental therapist that watched how she sat, moved, played and interacted with various toys. Dr. Howard again emphasised the importance of only her parents holding her to reinforce that we are her primary care givers. Dr. Howard said that she can already see Alaina attaching well to us. At this time she said that we can slowly start to have family start to hold her. We will have a follow-up with them to be sure her growth continues and that they do not see any attachment disorders in approximately 3 months. The last person we needed to see was the lab. They needed to draw blood to test for infections, thyroid, hep B, etc. They were having trouble with the patient before us and then they got a STAT request. It wasn't until an hour later that we were able to be seen. After a long morning, we left the clinic around 12:00. Since we did not have Vivian with us, we decided to take advantage of this time and do our fingerprinting for some post-adoption paperwork. We went to Buffalo had our prints done and finally headed home. Again, Alaina was such a trooper. Her only nap was 45 minutes in the car from the clinic to the jail! These pictures were taken after we got home and she got into pne of her favorite places (Chloe's water bowl). She was wet from head to toe! Her second favorite place is near the computer (facinated with the cords).

October 24, Pizza

Cory picked up a pizza after a Knights of Columbus meeting on Wednesday. This is the first time we have gotten Vivian to actually eat pizza like it should be eaten! Had to take a photo to document it. She is expanding her taste pallet. She had shrimp with linguini noodles the other night, although the noodles still had to be plain...dry as can be.

October 9, 101 Market

These photos were taken at a market near our house. For the month of October, they have activities for families. We took part in the shelled corn pit, inflatable pumpkin and the mini maze. The corn pit was about knee high on Vivian and Alaina just wanted to eat it! We passed on the corn maze since it was so cold it was suppose to snow. Let me remind you that three days earlier, it was 9o˚!!!