Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone. I just finished putting Sarah's kitchen set together and need to get to bed so Santa will show up, so I don't have time to write much. Hopefully, I'll get Christmas photos posted quicker than these latest ones.
11/26/08-Sarah helps with preparations for the Thanksgiving meal by peeling some carrots.
11/26/08-Sarah and Isaac both received birthday gifts several times as relatives visited or sent gifts. Sarah examines a new Barbie from Grandpa Randy and Grandma Karen.
I think she's happy with it.
Sarah opens another gift as grandpa and grandma watch. This was their first visit to see Sarah.
Isaac got to open his gifts a little early. Another nutcracker to add to his collection.
Sarah really liked her boas.


Isaac tries out the camcorder.
11/27/08-Aunt Sarah didn't make it in from New York until late last night, so Sarah had some catching up to do in the morning when she met her aunt who she was named after. She loved her aunt's hair and now wants to grow her hair long too.
Isaac and Jason work together on Sarah's hair.
Another birthday gift. Isaac can always count on Aunt Sarah for a cool birthday gift. What more could a 10-year-old boy ask for than night-vision goggles?
Jason helps adjust the straps.
Quality grandpa time.
11/28/08-Giving Skippy some love.
Aunt "Jupe" and Sarah.

11/30/08-Sarah strikes a pose as she has her first experience with snow. Without any prompting, she attempted to build a snowman.


Not a bad first attempt.
12/09/08-Sarah was so excited while helping to decorate the Christmas tree. (Yes, it's a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree.) Each time she took out an ornament, she'd hold it up and say "ooooohhhhh".

Another excited reaction to another ornament.
Isaac holding one of dad's ornaments. It's a deer with a hunter it bagged hanging off it's rifle.

Busy, busy.

It's been rather busy around here with work, deer season, the holidays fast approaching, etc. But I'll get a few photos posted to update everyone. Sarah is doing great. Things have steadily improved since we cut out naps altogether. She's now going to bed at night without much fuss. She even survived getting up opening morning of deer season and not finding Ba at home. That was the first time I was already gone in the morning when Sarah got up and she handled it very well. I had been explaining to her in extremely broken Vietnamese that I'd be going hunting and she seemed to understand and accept it.

Kelly's dad, stepmom, sister and her boyfriend are all arriving tomorrow for Thanksgiving, so Sarah will meet a few more of her relatives. She was excited when Me explained who's coming to visit.

And we will have our first visit from our social worker December 3 to complete our first post-adoption visit and report that is sent to Vietnam. The social worker will complete additional reports at six months and 12 months post adoption. After that we will have to write post-adoption reports ourselves to send to Vietnam until Sarah is 18-years-old. A report is due every six months during the second and third year, and yearly thereafter. They also require three sets of five original photos. I hope I can come up with enough photos to send. ;-)

11/13/08-Sarah has some fun with curlers.


11/14/08-We had a quiet birthday celebration at Ba's parents' house. The DQ ice cream cake with Tinker Bell. What could be better? Sarah points to Tinker Bell on TV and says "Sarah". Just too cute.
While Me isn't looking, I think I'll see how this Tinker Bell tastes.


Tastes pretty good!
And it's cold!

Hello Kitty jewelry.
How old are you Sarah?
Gotta love Elmo.
A girl can never have too many Barbies. This one has a pet dog that eats a dog treat and then makes a deposit from the opposite end. Not sure why anyone designing toys would think this is a good idea.
Once we returned home, Sarah had a bigger surprise waiting. A new doll house.
Barbie's dog eating a bone.
11/20/08-Me took Isaac roller skating for a school event. Sarah wasn't too thrilled at first but totally forgot about Me and Isaac being gone when we received a birthday package from Aunt Sarah. It contained a chest with three play outfits and accessories.
Never mind those other two dresses. This one is pink and I think I'll wear it everyday, which she has been doing.

Happy Fourth Birthday Sarah.

Sarah turned 4 today. We're going to have a low-key birthday celebration Friday with Ba's parents. And we're expecting Aunt Sarah over the Thanksgiving holiday. We're really excited about that. Isaac really loves his Aunt Sarah and that's why he chose that name for his sister.

It's hard to believe we've been home for well over a month now. Sarah is doing great except when it's time to sleep. She doesn't like to go to bed for a nap or for the night. We are working through those issues and she has improved although she has occasional setbacks. She also had a sinus infection last week and is still on an antibiotic. Being sick makes anyone cranky.

Isaac and Sarah went with Ba Sunday to return a hunting blind he had borrowed during turkey season. Ba's friend has a walk-in cooler behind his garage and allows friends to hang deer until they butcher. There were a couple bow kills in there, so we had to check them out. Hopefully Ba will have a few in there this coming weekend when firearms season opens. As of Nov. 3, Franklin County where we live, led the deer harvest. And as of today, was the only county with more than 1,000 taken. And Ba thought he was well versed in firearms but had no idea this had happened (Click here) until last weekend.

I forgot to post earlier that November is National Adoption Month.

11/8/08-Sarah enjoys a frozen yogurt bar.

11/9/08-Isaac with Kevin's 8-pointer.
Sarah checking out the buck.
One of Dale's elk from Colorado. Sarah thought his game room was pretty cool. He has elk, deer, turkey, black bear, pronghorn antelope, bobcat and squirrel mounts. He puts Ba to shame but gives him something to strive for.

Catching up with lots of photos.

Ok Heather, here's your Sarah update. Ba returned to work on the 20th, so he actually has to work for a living again. Sarah has been doing well except for not wanting to take naps since Ba is not at home and she also has taken a disliking to going to bed at night. She seems to be getting quite comfortable with being a part of our family because we have seen a whole other side of her when she gets mad. ;-)
10/19/08-Sarah tries out her scooter. And she's ready for about anything in her girlie camo.


A bee works hard on some of the last flowers of the year.
10/21/08-She loves to make a fashion statement.
Causing trouble at the office. By the way, what are you looking at Sarah?
Ohh, it's Dora.
Everyone at the office was quite taken with Sarah.

10/22/08-Sarah made sure Barbie was nice and cozy.
10/30/08-Sarah tried out her fairy-princess wings and had some fun with Me.













10/31/08-Isaac dressed as an "evil wizard" for Halloween. He received a little help from Me as he applied his makeup at grandma and grandpa's house.
Sarah always has to check out the results after someone takes a photo.

Isaac adds some "blood" for just the right look.
This was about as close as Sarah would get to Isaac at first.
We visited one of two of grandma's sisters who live on the same street as grandma.
We found a scarecrow hiding out in Ba's cousin's car.
The scarecrow's older brother was dressed as an Indian.
11/1/08-Ba took Isaac and Sarah to Cabela's today because he had some gift cards burning a hole in his pocket. This is a flathead catfish in one of the aquariums that I'm sure weighs more than Sarah.

An elk standing in the trout pond. Barry, if you see this before you get back from Colorado, this is what you should be looking for.
A mountain lion takes down a cow elk.
Sarah kept playing with the flap on the box containing Ba's new archery target.
The Hanson buck. The current world's record typical whitetail deer.
The Jordan buck, the world's record prior to the Hanson buck, has quite a tale behind it.
There's animals all over this place.
After Cabela's, we headed to meet Uncle Poobie. He recently had knee surgery, so Ba helped Poobie put a new mineral lick near his stand.
Uncle Poobie with his wife.
Sarah just wouldn't crack a smile when she was sitting next to Poobie's son.