Settling In

We are in our new home and trying to get settled in.  I have been up into the wee hours unpacking and trying to make our new house a home as quickly as possible... which is no easy task!

The kids thought it was Christmas when I unpacked their toys that have been in storage for three months.  They played with them for hours!  They have met a new friend across the street and have enjoyed playing with her.  Brynn has been struggling with her sleeping at night since the move... we are back to her sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room for now.  Hopefully after a month or so she will regain her security in her new home.  Until then, we will do what we can to help her feel secure.  Blake is loving having his own room!  Barrett didn't love Blake having his own room at first, but has adjusted nicely.  They all love that I unpacked the boxes of their books and we get more variety for our bedtime stories again!

I have a lot of catching up to do with my blog.Coming up soon (hopefully):

Brynn at 11 months

Career Dress-Up Day

Brynn's 1 Year Homestudy Visit
The Tooth Fairy

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday Morning

Halloween

Celebrating 11 Months

Today marks 11 months that Brynn AiXin has been in our family.  I cannot believe how quickly these past 11 months have gone!  It seems like just yesterday that we were anxiously awaiting our Travel Approval and getting our suitcases ready to travel half way around the world to go get her... and now we have almost spent an entire year with her in our family.

It has been crazy around here the past week so I haven't had a chance to type up the full post about Brynn at 11 months.  We have moved and had our one year post adoption home study visit this week.  More on all that coming soon!

Character Pumpkins

At school last week Blake was learning about story elements.

 The students were given a project to work on over the weekend to reinforce what they had learned the previous week.

 They were supposed to choose a character from a story and then decorate a pumpkin accordingly.

 Of course the little guys thought they needed their own sized pumpkins to decorate!

 

 After painting the pumpkin a peach skin color... we took it to Papa to help us draw and paint a face.

 I didn't get a picture of Gram making the hat for our character pumpkin.

 Hmmm... can you tell which character Blake chose??

 The next step was for Daddy to work on the ears.

 We had the best time as a family working with Blake on his project!

 We were all so pleased with how our little Dopey turned out!

 Blake said he had the best time working on it!

 The halls were lined with the 1st graders' pumpkins.

 On Friday the entire school came by and voted with coins for their favorite pumpkins.

 $475.00 was collected and donated to our community outreach program.



Friday Night Football

We usually try to make it to at least one high school football game a season.  Our favorite is the game where both high schools in our district play each other.

 The kids were so excited about the game.  Barrett surprised us with how well he sat and watched (it didn't hurt that we had front row seats and he was close to the action).

 Like I mentioned, Barrett was really into the game. 

 We loved running into our friends from church, school, work, and family!

 The Moore girls watched the half-time show with us.  The drill teams of both schools united for a "Pink Out" half-time show.  It was a special Breast Cancer Awareness Month dance.

 The district had special "Pink Out" shirts made for the game.

 The kids enjoyed playing with cousin Cade and seeing cousin Caleb out on the sidelines.

 We didn't stay for the whole game because these 3 were ready for their beds.

 The McIntires had fun cheering on their team!

 We were all smiles about the fun we had together at the big game!

State Fair

The kids have been counting down to our traditional trip to the State Fair of Texas... and the day had finally come!

 This year was Brynn's first trip to the fair and Nana's first trip with us.

 We got there around lunch time... just ready to take the day nice and easy.

 We stopped by Big Tex first.

 You can see by the picture below that Barrett and Brynn were not so sure about his bellowing "Howdy Folks".

After our visit with Big Tex we headed off to find a corny dog.  Instead of finding a corny dog... we found our Baker friends!  As you can see... Brynn was still very unsure of what this fair was about and who this guy named Big Tex was.

We made it to our lunch stop... delish!

 We did all of our usual things.

 I didn't get any pictures of the place where we spent a great deal of our time.  We found our way to the Food and Fiber building where we spent time sampling all the good foods.  We all got a free ice cream cone and ate it, while Daddy made the rounds over and over tasting the samples:)

One of our favorite stops is the green house filled with trains.  The boys could stand here forever watching them! 

 Brynn enjoyed them too!

 

 We made one more stop by Big Tex on our way to the automobile building.  As you can see, Barrett warmed up to him a little more... Brynn not so much!

 Daddy and Blake signed up to race the remote control Raptors.  You have to be 5 years old to participate, so you can imagine who sat brokenhearted and watched from the sideline.  We assured Barrett that in two more years he would get a turn.  This didn't comfort him though:(

 We headed home at dinner time with three sleepy headed children!

Another great year at the State Fair of Texas!

Favorite Photo Friday

 Brynn got a wonderful surprise in the mail!  Her cousin Jaden made her a picture and sent it from Kentucky.

 There was a note that says that Jaden has been working on cutting with his new scissors.  They are mounted on a base and he just has to press up and down to make them work.  He cut all the little pink pieces of paper that are glued on Brynn's picture. 

We are praying for Brynn's heart.

A special mailbox surprise!

HKI 2012 Calendars!!

Henan Kids International does an awesome fundraiser each year.  They make a calendar featuring the wonderful kids who have been adopted from Henan, China.  The money raised from the calendar sales will go straight to the orphanages in Henan, China.

The order button is ready to go! It is located on the HKI blog:  PLEASE NOTE: before hitting the "buy now" button, you need to first enter how many you want to order in the box. The order button will be up until November 3rd. You can expect to receive your calendar some time around Thanksgiving. Remember to think about Christmas presents when ordering!  I'm sure you will recognize a special little Henan girl as you thumb through the pages of your new calendar:)