Happy Holidays!

Hello and Happy Holidays! We have had a wonderful Christmas full of fun new toys and best of all family. Here's how we celebrated this year...

Before all the festivities began Cameron had to go to the dentist to have a cavity filled. He was a very brave boy and now has a "star" on his tooth (as his dentist told him). One more cavity to be filled in February. He will be glad when all these dentist visits are over.

Cameron is on a three week break from preschool. He misses class and all his friends but loves spending time with his family.

We began our Christmas family visits with a visit to Albany, MN to spend time with mommy's family. We stayed with Grandma Judy and Grandpa Al for a few days. Uncle Steve, Aunt Angela, Uncle Dan and his girlfriend Tina and her little boy Wyatt helped us celebrate. Cameron loved his new transformer and Hungry Hippo game. Kyle's favorite was all his new trucks. You can't have enough trucks according to Kyle.

Boy, was it cold when we were in Albany. We had to go pick up Grandpa Al from his heart rehab program one morning and it was 22 degrees below zero. Both of us cried because it was so cold.

On Christmas Eve, just after opening presents from mommy and daddy, Grandpa Bill and Grandma Maggie arrived at our house after a long drive from New Hampshire. We were very happy they made it safely to our place in time to celebrate Christmas with us. Our favorite gifts from mommy and daddy were a race track for Cameron and a remote control car for Kyle.

Christmas morning we learned that Santa visited the night before. Cameron was surprised by a new bicycle and Kyle received a new Geo Trax train set. Later that day we opened presents from Grandpa Bill and Grandma Maggie. Cameron loved his new Spiderman transformer and legos while Kyle liked his new mega bloks Cars sets. Mommy and daddy said they need to add a room on the house for all our new toys but we are not complaining.

Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Bill are staying with us for a week and we love it. Grandpa and daddy have been remodeling the upstairs bathroom while we play with mommy and grandma. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

Update on Grandpa Al

Sorry its been so long since our last post. Since we last wrote Grandpa Al had his open heart triple bypass surgery. He is doing well now but it was rough with lots of ups and downs for several days. We got to spend some extra quality time with Daddy while Mommy was up in St. Cloud with her family. Thank goodness Grandpa is now at home after a very long 10 day hospital stay. We went up to visit him the first few days after his surgery. He said we helped to cheer him up and he loved all the art work we made that decorated his room.

Cameron had three birthday parties over the last few weekends. How can a five year old have such a busy social schedule, mommy asks. For Eirwyn's party they went to a great indoor play center in Edina. Next came Masyn's party at her house. Noah's party was the last of the bunch at Midwest Gymnastics Center.

We have also been busy with shoveling snow, trying to keep warm in subzero temperatures, getting haircuts, going to preschool and having playdates. Cameron has a new favorite adoption book. Its called "Seeds of Love" and it describes how mommy and daddy have to go away to pick up their new child.

Bad news to report, our camera is broken so you'll have to view some old photos or videos until we get it replaced. Here's a video of us doing some animal actions in September 2008.

So Excited for the Holidays!

Hi everyone - How was your Thanksgiving? We had a good time at Great Grandma Betty's house. This is mommy's side of the family in Albany. We really enjoyed playing with all the other kids and eating the yummy food. Our favorites were the lettuce and broccoli salads plus the pumpkin bars. It was a lot of driving that day but worth it to spend time with our loved ones. Our new family photo was taken that day.

Mommy came down with a bad sinus infection this past week. The only one not sick is daddy so we are waiting for him to come down with something where he'll need medicine like the rest of us.

Cameron had a great play date with his friend Masyn on Friday afternoon. This was after we decorated the whole house for Christmas. Later that night we drove around the corner to our neighbor's house who does a fabulous light show set to music. Its so beautiful. Check it out at http://www.mnlightshow.com/ They even have a web cam so you can watch online.

Saturday night was beautiful so we went into downtown Minneapolis for the Holidazzle parade. All the floats and people in the parade are decorated in lights plus there is Christmas music. The streets were packed so we had to be held up by mommy and daddy to see. Cameron's favorite float was the Circus Train and Kyle loved Santa's Sleigh. Everyone clapped and screamed with Santa made his appearance. We love Christmas!

We have a quick update on the adoption. We are number 47 on the list for a little girl referral. The list is a very flexible thing and changes all the time based on what families are open to and the kinds of referrals the agency receives. There are so many variables in all of this so we can't say how long it will be but it gives us a good reference. Cameron has a new favorite book about adoption "Waiting for May". Its focus is China but it helps explain the long wait that occurs in international adoption.