Adoption Video

This is a neat adotion video. I found it on the blog of the pediatrician we are going to see Monday at the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham. Our doctor is the blond woman that adopted twin girls. Her adorable girls, Lily and Kate, are at the end of the video. I also added a link to her blog if anyone wants to read about her. I wish she were here in Atlanta! Thanks to Susan for letting me know about her and her clinic. You can see how she might have caught Susan's eye.

Miscellaneous Photos of the Kiddos!

We have a picture of Ben at 21/2 holding Peter when he came home from the hospital in this rocker. The boys both wanted a picture of them with Ava in the chair. I still need to take one of all three of them in it.





Peter has had pajamas like these every year for Christmas. He is growing out of his last pair, but he still loves to wear them. He wanted Ava to have a pair too. The other night she had them on and the hat was in the living room. At one point I looked up and she had put the hat on herself. I thought it was so cute! I need to get a picture of them together with their matching pj's. Ben wouldn't be caught dead in pj's like this! NOT cool!

My Little Boy Turns 5!

Jada and Peter having fun on the stage

update - The Migo has been found!!! Peter put it in his back pack yesterday, and he found it today when he was at school. Yay!

I think we could all learn from Peter how to have fun at a party! He is such a fun, happy guy. He had such a good time at his birthday party at Chuckee Cheese's! He had about 6 friends from school come. He was very excited about seeing all of his friends.

I can't believe that he is 5 years old. What people say is so true. Time just flies watching your children grow. I love seeing them going through all of their ages and stages. I just don't want them to grow and not want to cuddle anymore. Peter is such a loving and cuddly guy, he may not ever grow out of it!

Happy Birthday Peter!! His birthday was actually yesterday, but we have had many celebrations!! He had his friend party on Saturday, family party on Sunday, and yesterday we also did some celebrating. The main thing he wanted to make sure we did yesterday was eat dinner at Burger King! He likes BK, but the real big draw is that i-dogs are the prize in the kid's meal! We also went to Target so he could spend his gift cards that he got at his party. We spent a long time going up and down the toy isles trying to decide what he wanted. He finally decided on an Migo pet (a hand held virtual Chihuahua). For some reason he has a thing for chihuahua's. In fact, he told me one day he wanted to go to Mexico and when I asked him why, it was because chihuahua's are from there. Unfortunately, he brought the Migo pet to the grocery store with us and I think he may have left it there. We can't find it anywhere. He is very upset about it. We are no longer bringin toys into the grocery store!!

Sydney (Peter's ex-girlfriend), Peter, and Noah in the background

Ben and Peter (with Ava's help) playing air hockey

Ava sticking close to mommy at the crazy Chuckee Cheese

Donna and Jim hosted both Peter and Granddaddy's birthday party. It was great for me. The only thing I did for the party was make Peter's cake. Thank you Donna!

Ava must think we really like to party...two in one weekend!


Present time!!!


Wherever Granddaddy is, Ava is!

Blowing out candles

Ava fed Granddaddy all of his cake and ice cream!

Getting Ready for Christmas!

This weekend the boys went to Donna and Jim's house to make gingerbread houses. They were adorable as usual. Peter made an Auburn house, Ben made a LSU/Georgia house (he said that these were his number 4 and 5 teams) and they made an adorable pastel house for Ava. She isn't quite ready for the spending the night/gingerbread house weekend. The gingerbread houses are also judged every year. Grandmama and Granddaddy give out awards for different categories. Ben won the Best Architecture award, Peter for Most Creative, and Ava won Most Colorful.

We picked them up on Sunday and went to the tree farm to get our tree. The tree farm has a hay ride, a maze and a small playground. Of course, we had to do it all. Ava had her first ride down a slide (at least with us)...I'm not sure if she liked it or not. We then went home and decorated our artificial tree in the basement. It has colored lights and we make that our fun tree. We had hot chocolate and marsh mellows and listened to Christmas music while putting on the ornaments. The boys were really a lot of help this year and Ava seemed to think it was fun. I do think she was glad to have the boys back...the house was very quiet this weekend without them. We still haven't decorated the real tree. It may not be until this weekend if we can fit it in with Peter's b/d celebrations! We are going to Chuckee Cheeses this Saturday with his friends from school and we are having his family party on Sunday at Donna and Jim's. Donna was wonderful to offer to

Best Architecture (I think the balcony helped him)

Ben's number 4 team

Peter's Auburn House (most creative award)

Ava's pretty house (most colorful award)


Tree Farm Entrance

Hay Ride


That doesn't quite look like a happy slide face

Decorating the "fun" tree

Ava's first visit from a Pink Lady

Our good friends Steve and Camille were in town for the SEC championship game this weekend so they stopped by Saturday morning to meet Ava. It was so great to see them.



Later on that day, we had the UMW annual brunch. Every year they recognize all new babies of the church and give a git for mission in their name. Ava and Gracie were the two new babies. Gracie is only 3 weeks old and she already has enough hair for a bow. She is adorable. Ava had a good time at the brunch. She was very social!!!

Miscellaneous Kid Photos

Derek got Ben a BB gun...he is so happy!!

Let's play dress-up. Ava LOVES her sunglasses!

Three cuties in the tub

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was Grandparent's Day at the boy's school. They always have a mass in the morning. This year Peter was chosen to say one of the prayers during mass. They only chose about 5 students from the school and he was the only one from his pre-k class. Peter loves school and school work; he showed me his prayer as soon a he got home. He was very excited about it and wanted to make sure that we practiced his part. We were very proud of him and he did a great job as you can see from the video.

Tailgating 2007

Here are some miscellaneous tailgating photos from this past football season.

The boys heading to roll Toomer's Corner

Being wrapped up like a mummy is just as important as rolling

Peter having fun

Hanging out at the tailgate

Granddaddy at the game
Ava's first tailgate experience
Another scooter rider!

Thanksgiving and Other Stuff (updated with photos)

I love my Granddaddy

I have been meaning to post for a while, but was waiting until Derek downloaded the pictures on to the computer. Well, he still hasn't done it so I thought I would post before I forgot everything. I know that I should learn how to download the pictures myself...I will eventually!

Thanksgiving was great. We had Thanksgiving at Debbie's (Derek's sister) house. It was a full house!! Ava did great with all of the family present. She also ate very well....much better than Peter. I made him try turkey and he gagged when it touched his tongue!!! I made Ben try the dressing and the sweet potato casserole...he didn't like either. How can you NOT like sweet potato casserole???? Ava loved Grandaddy Chapman!!! Anywhere he went, she was there. She spent most of the day on his lap.

Ava is doing really well. She is still happy all of the time. She and Peter are still good buddies. He tells me all of the time that he loves her. Friday night we all hung out in the family room in the basement. We had a fire, and watched a movie. We were going to make s'mores, but we didn't have any regular marshmellows. We only had these awful fruit swirl marshmellows that the boys convinced me to buy one day. After the movie, Derek and the boys decided that they were all going to sleep downstairs. It was really late and I knew Ava had to be tired so I took her up to bed with me. We got into bed, I turned off all of the lights except my table lamp. She would not lay down so I pretended to be asleep...that usually works. I continued to lay there hoping she would go to sleep. After a little bit, she turned and looked at me and I noticed that her eyes looked teary. I sat up and saw tears coming down her face. She was not making a sound. It broke my heart. I have never seen a child this young cry quietly! I put my arms around her and she just started bawling. I let her cry for a bit and then she pointed to the door. She wanted to go back downstairs. I took her downstairs and we ALL slept downstairs! We had a family slumber party! It might be a while before I have her sleep in her room by herself. I don't want her to be alone crying quietly! I wonder how many nights she has already had sitting alone crying quietly...not anymore.

We took her to church again this Sunday...we usually leave when the children go to children's church...she is not very good at being quiet. If fact, whenever it quiets down, she usually lets out a yell. She waved to Susan up in the choir loft when we sat down. She is very social. She has fallen in love with Andy (our choir director). He held her last Sunday for a bit and today when he was holding her she didn't want to go back to us. We had to pry her from him to go home.

We go to the doctor tomorrow. I'm glad to finally get her seen.

Helping Grandmama open b/d presents

Peter with b/d ribbon in his hair

Wonderful Welcome Home!

After our long flight , we get to the airport and had a wonderful welcome home!. Most of Derek's family, Ben and Peter were there to meet Ava. Jim made a beautiful banner and the boys made us some welcome home signs. It was SO nice to be home!!!

Welcome Home Banner

The boys with their signs

Ava finally in her own room

Coming Home!!!

We went to the consulate today and finished up our paper work. As soon as we land in Atlanta and go through customs, Ava will be a US citizen! We have just finished packing. The bell boy is coming this evening to get our luggage and we leave at 5:30 tomorrow morning. We are SO ready. The only thing we are going to miss is the tropical weather in Guangzhou. See you all soon!!!!

Buddha Likes Orange Soda!

Went yesterday to the Buddhist Temple. Didn't know he liked orange soda but apparently he drinks a lot of it. People left him many cans of it on his altar. Don't think they are of the diet variety given his belt line. Sorry we don't have a picture but trust me it was funny.

Pictures on the famous Red Couch today then off to the American Consulate for the swearing in.