Happy New Year and Belated Merry Christmas

Well, our first Christmas as a complete family went very well. The tree withstood 2 kids and 2 cats. No broken ornaments, no presents opened early and well, T really enjoyed opening her gifts, Whales gifts and anyone else who wasn't really on the ball getting to their gifts. DH and I didn't exchange gifts this year. We have a new daughter and honestly.....her and her brother are all the gifts we need.......

LOL, if you believe that I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you.

No really they are the best gifts we have ever gotten, besides the gift of Salvation through the birth and death of Jesus Christ.

But seriously, 3 years of adoption documents and waiting really put the hurt on us financially and maybe next year we will get something materialistic that we really do not need. This year we just really enjoyed watching the kids opening their gifts. They were really excited and had fun.

Whale got really sick the night before Christmas eve. He threw up in Target earlier in the day, but we thought he was just sick from taking meds on an empty stomach. When he woke up that night with a fever (axillary) of 102.8 I got really worried. I gave him some children's chewable Tylenol and he seemed fine the next morning but I stayed home with him and T and her daddy went to my in-laws. Whale and I just laid around all day that day. When they got home we got ready and all went to church. They had a puppet show for the kids. It was a really awesome service and the kids had a great time. We went on a food hunt after church and all we found open was a McDonald's. We got to the drive through at 8:49 pm and they closed at 9 pm. Whew!!! We didn't get out of the drive through until 9:15 though, good grief, so much for FAST food. We came home ate and the kids opened mommy and daddy presents. We got up on Christmas morning and spent time with family and opened Santa's gifts. T, DH and I took naps, Whale lay next to me and woke me up about every 15 minutes or so, so my nap was not great. We went to my mom's house for dinner and more presents. WOW! can you say "Toys r us" is nothing compared to my living room right now. We got home kind of late and I stayed up and took the ornaments off of the tree so DH could get the rest of it down when I went to work on Tuesday. I love the tree but after a month of it I am ready for it to go.

It was nice to get back to work but the computer system went down and it was a day spent filing and doing busy grunt work you kind of put off for, well ever if possible, but needless to say today was really busy.

T and Whale fight all the time. I always thought it would be great for him to have a sibling, a playmate, a friend but boy I never thought my job would turn into that of a perpetual referee. If he has something she wants it, and vice versa. I mean she could be playing with earrings and he thinks he needs them, and he can be playing with a monster truck and she wants it. Tonight I finally had had enough of the arguing so I put each of them in their rooms and shut their doors. They were both crying and screaming that they wanted to play with the other. I held my ground and told them no, 10 minutes later it was time to eat and life was hunky dory. No fighting during dinner, well not with each other anyway. I had to fight with Whale to eat, but that is becoming the norm anymore. T is getting really really good with her English. She knows how to back talk and shake her finger at us very very well already. She knows how to ask for 5 more minutes before bedtime and she kisses every ones hand. We were eating at a restaurant (End of Year leadership bonus from work) Saturday and she kissed our waitresses hand 3 times. I don't know how to tell her that is not appropriate. Poor baby, she is a loving outgoing little thing, but the appropriateness of her affection is not always right on target :)

OK, it is almost 9:30 and I am going to bed early tonight. Last night I got caught up in a show on CMT called "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team" it was really interesting to follow these girls and what they go through to be one of those Cheerleaders. It was amazing but they were still showing new episodes (well, to me they were) at 11 pm and I could not hold my eyes open and today there was not enough coffee and Monster to keep me awake. So with that I bid you adieu and I promise I will post more soon and not wait so long between posts.

Also before any smarty pants go posting, I know my Colts are not really excelling right now, but it really is due to their mighty poor defense you know. If we could win games on offense alone, no one could beat us!!!!

Cara, If you are still reading I will try to email you about siblings, I really promise!

If I don't talk to you all soon, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!