November

My sister K3 published her first novel, "The Willow's Secret"! We had a book reading party for her in her and Nana's store. It was beautiful and had a good turnout! The novel is set in Bear Lake, UT which is near one of the areas we grew up in. K3 is a talented writer, and the novel really pulls you in right from the start. Go check it out here.

United for Adoption, the adoption advocacy group I am a part of, puts on an adoption conference annually in November. We love going to these conferences. We learned about some important issues and met some great people! To learn more about United for Adoption go here.  We brought Baby L with us because she is still feeding side lying and can be tricky to feed. During the transracial adoption panel she suddenly got the giggles! She looked at the adoptees on the panel and just laughed and laughed! I felt bad because it is a serious topic, but gratefully no one seemed to mind too much.

These cute sisters were excited that they were both wearing Mini Mouse! Also, these Mini Mouse overalls used to be K5's! They are adorable!

Little A learned how to ride her tricycle! She was very interested in it when we got it for her, but after quickly lost interest. Suddenly she found a renewed interest in it and figured out how to peddle pretty quickly! She loves it now and wants to ride it everywhere. Unfortunately the snow is coming! It won't be too long before we'll have to pack it away for the winter. I think she'll be too big for it by the time the snow is gone. This girl has got long legs!

We let her pick out a helmet so she can ride her bike. I was very worried about getting her to wear it. She hates to have things on her head. We found one that is adjustable and that has puppies on it. She loves it! What a relief!

Little A loves her sister so much! She loves to hold her and give her soft hugs and kisses.

Baby L is 5 months old! She is getting so big! The torticollis is getting so much better! Really almost gone completely. The OT we have been going to said that if she continues to look good next month she'll release her from therapy, yay! She loves to play with and chew on her hands, reach for toys, sit up assisted, and jabber at everything. It's so funny, she'll sit in the highchair and talk to the light all through dinner and while we clean up! She still only rolls one way. She also loves to move in circles and pushes herself backwards a little too. Oh, and she found her toes!

Nana and Pops gifted us a trip to the aquarium last Christmas. We finally got a chance to go! It was so much fun! Little A LOVED it! She loved watching the animals and climbing on all of the figurines they had in each exhibit.

She befriended this little boy. This girl makes friends wherever she goes! She's quite the social butterfly! Just like AG!

Little A loved running through the arches.

I think this was her favorite tank (besides the penguins of course). It was very colorful! She wasn't very impressed with the sharks and huge Manta Rays.

Her all time favorite thing was the stairs, lol! This girl absolutely loves stairs and has since she was 18 months old! She waited and waited for us to let her climb them. The delight on her face was priceless! Allan carried Baby L in the baby carrier. She loved looking at all the people, was interested in some of the exhibits, and then fell asleep! We stopped for ice cream afterward too!

World adoption day is November 15th. We celebrated with smiles on our hands! Adoption is a complex thing. There is so much joy, but also so much loss for everyone in the adoption triad (Adoptee, Birth Families, and Adoptive Families). We love adoption and are so grateful that it is a part of our lives. It not only brought us our girls but also brought more family, friends, and education into our lives.

Superman was adopted too! (I love this onesie! AG got it for Little A when she was Baby L's age.)

Little A has loved going to preschool, but it really tires her out. She's been falling asleep pretty much every time she stays still for a few minutes. She likes to look at books while I get ready for the day. This time she fell asleep on the first page! Poor baby. She really still needs a nap during the day; unfortunately her preschool is in the middle of the day. Makes it difficult to take naps consistently.

This is a regular occurrence at dinner now. A couple of times she's landed right on her plate.

Allan and I got to go on a nice hike before it got too cold. We took Baby L with us, but Little A stayed with the babysitter. (Who, by the way, is awesome! The girls love her! I love that she plays with them!) Little A was pretty bummed when we started leaving Baby L too. She didn't want to share her babysitter, ha!

We decided to set up the Christmas tree before we left to visit Grandad and Grandma H for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun setting it up! Little A was so proud that she could put some ornaments on all by herself!

Baby L enjoyed trying to grab some, but never succeeded.

We visited Grandad, Grandma H, Great Gram, K1 and her family, and K4 and her family over Thanksgiving. It's about 4 1/2 hours to get there. We had to stop several times to feed Baby L so it ended up taking about 8 hours. The girls traveled really well! Little A entertained herself by wearing two pairs of sunglasses at once!

Grandad and Grandma H have 4 huge hound dogs. They are the nicest dogs! Ava ran around trying to catch their tails the whole time, Baby L just thought they were too loud; I'm sure she'll love them when she's bigger. She loved Grandma H and K1 though. And she was very mad that we wouldn't share any Thanksgiving dinner with her!

Great Gram has this adorable little rocking chair for the little ones. Little A loves it. She really wanted to rock with Baby L in it.

Little A found this hat in the toy box. She loved it. We also had some sword fights. Her favorite thing to do though was to turn on the keyboard and dance to the music. She had some pretty awesome moves! She would do that forever!

I did a lot of shopping over the weekend and got most of our Christmas shopping done! However, I realized from that experience that I really prefer to shop online for Christmas. I loved having that time with my sisters though!

Allan was able to take some extra time off for Thanksgiving which allowed us to have some time at home as a family. It was SO nice! He worked on my Christmas present a lot (shelves for the toy room), but also had some good time with us. Swinging in the hammock down stairs,

making treats for our neighbors,

snuggles,

exercise,

stories,

and lunch time tea parties were some of our favorites.

Baby L loves to sit and look at these cloth books. They were handed down to us from K1.

They both fell asleep by the Christmas tree while I was reading to them. :)

We pulled out the cabbage patch hat for Baby L. It finally got cold. She has such a round face, it's so adorable on her!

Sure love my little munchkins!