Some Christmas season pictures

Well I haven't gotten around to uploading the Christmas morning pictures- (will have to do that soon ) but this whole Christmas season has been a little busier lately with our latest addition. :) So here are a few pictures from our Christmas season.

Our good friend Gabe Ting took these first 3 photos of our family- we are so grateful- cause we NEVER would have gotten around to going to a studio to take such professional looking pictures- but he just took these on the fly at a Christmas party. (the theme was Christmas morning- hence us in our pajamas) Thanks Gabe!

And here is where the photo quality goes down- I am behind the camera now. Here is our quickie Christmas cookie making session (we did this while Addie was napping). Will still got to do his favorite thing- eating the cookie decorations.




and lastly me and my two precious kiddos- I am so thankful!

Christmas is coming...

Been pretty busy here not necessarily with Christmas stuff - but we did manage to squeeze in putting up the tree. Will is so excited about Christmas and asks every day how many night nights is Christmas. We have managed to snap a few pictures of our new family of 4 getting ready for Christmas.

Will's Prayers

Will's prayers generally follow this pattern

"Lord thank you for food

*Insert observations from the surrounding room*

Amen Chi Ba (Chi ba means lets eat in chinese)"

Often times the observations are about the food on the table which is appropriate but sometimes its about other things. Here is Will's dinner prayer a couple weeks ago. (fyi Addie had started eating)

"Lord thank you for food. Food on the table. Broccoli on Addie's nose. Now mommy laughing. Amen Chi ba."

*****Speaking of prayers: please do pray for Addie she has bronchiolitis- kinda like bronchitis- but viral so can't take meds- she is so uncomfortable and not a lot of sleep happening here- Thanks!

The 11th thing about Addie....

....she has a healthy heart!!!!! We adopted Addie from the special needs list with China- she was diagnosed with an ASD in her heart (a small hole in her heart) BUT we just took her to the pediatric cardiologist and did another ultrasound of her heart (which she screamed all the way through)- and found that the hole had closed!! We are so so thankful and thrilled that God healed her heart. She is a perfectly healthy ACTIVE 1 year old. :)

10 Things about Addie

1. Don't I repeat don't mess with her bottle!

- this is something we learned early on- she has to hold her bottle herself- this is how she did it before so its not something we have fought- we do try to hold and snuggle as much as we can while she has her bottle

2. Addie is active! She loves to move and clap and throw her hands in the air, and laugh.

3. Adding onto the above- she likes to climb ON things- chairs, toys, even a 5 by 5 inch cube she is trying to get her feet on it

4. She def prefers Chinese dishes to American food (I mean to be expected) with one exception.. Cheese!

5. She is just learning to walk....she toddles everywhere- and is so determined- she may fall flat on her face but she just gets up and goes again. (When she first joined our family she could stand, but not really crawl- now she has gone from crawling to walking in 3 weeks).

6. We definitely know how Addie is feeling. She is either squealing with joy or crying with frustration. High highs and low lows.

7. She loves her big brother. She loves to watch Will jump around, run around, do silly dances or whatever- he makes her smile :) (and I love that)

8. Addie likes to dance- turn on music and she is standing (kinda doing a sumo squat) smiling and clapping her hands

9. We think she's pretty smart- she loves to mimic and copy us. I handed her socks the other day and she put them towards her feet like she was trying to put them on.

10. She's a cutie!!! (see pictures :) )

More Pictures

Here are a few more pictures of our new life with Addie :) Some are from NanChang and some are here at home in Shanghai. Wish I could make some more comments but it is getting late and Addie wakes up 5-6 times each night....got to get to bed!

More to come soon....

I have so meant to post more pictures- just like I mean to clean up the kitchen, do a little work, and finish un packing. But some things are just falling to the wayside as we adjust to life with 2 kids (one being a very cute and active 1 year old). We are doing well- today was my first day with Dennis back at work and I had both kids all day. It was tough getting all three of us fed, dressed, shoes on and out the door by 8:30am to walk to Will's pre- school. I was exhausted- but I kept thinking this isn't like 1 hard day- this is my new NORMAL! Whoa baby. So I will post some more pictures soon of our 2 cuties... before I clean up my kitchen. :)

Finally- a post of our new family!

Hi all! So sorry we haven't posted yet. I thought we would be able to post more- but adjusting to life with 2 in a hotel room is just tiring. Here is our girl! Addelyn. I will write more later- but just had to get some pictures up.

This is that first afternoon after they brought her to our room. She cried at first and then Will had the idea to feed her those kid puffs- she loved it! Way to go Will. Bonding over eating- it calmed her down. :) Isn't she a cutie?

Let me back up- a few cute pictures from our train ride to Nanchang- Will LOVED it- here he is with our picnic lunch on the train.

Will is liking writing letter lately- here he is writing him and Addie's name on the train- so sweet.
Our first family picture as a family of 4. Taken moments after she joined our family.

She really does love to laugh and play. We have seen already that she is very active and very determined- if she doesn't like something she lets us know. :)
Taken at the Civil affairs office on day2. Here the adoption is official! Addie is a Baker!

On the way to visit Addie's orphanage in the van.- Super Dad!!:)
A picture outside the sign of the ZhangShu Orphanage.


With the orphanage director, our guide, head of the children's department.

Ok many more pictures to post- we head back to Shanghai tomorrow- so hopefully I can post more then! Thanks for thinking of us and praying for us! We are so happy to finally be together!

Mommy & Will Date

I thought since we are going to be a family of 4 soon and knowing that I am going to be busy with a little one that is getting used to her new family, I thought I should take Will on a little date. So on thursday I picked him up from preschool and surprised him with a date.

Here are a few pictures from the day (gosh I love that little guy!)

We started with lunch at Ajisen (a Will and Mommy favorite) its a chain japanese food restaurant. We also get fried rice and an extra bowl of Miso soup. (Will loves eating the tofu out of the soup. And since I love him so much I like to give him all the tofu :) )
We then went to the Museum of Science and Technology (we have a year pass) and got to visit his favorite exhibits. (They opened a new kids area a couple months ago- but 2 months later half the stuff is BROKEN!!! UGH! Good thing a 3 year old didn't notice. Here are some pics from there)
Playing with the wheelbarrel in the building area.
Will's favorite thing of the day was the mirror maze. He would bonk his face right into the mirrors - thinking it was the path and just laugh (it was actually pretty funny- thanks mom for that sick sense of humor :) ).
It also made for some pretty cool pictures....
Whoa what if I had 6 Wills?! He's a great kid- but I think I'll stick with the 1 I have. He's pretty awesome. :)
And of course every good date should end with ice cream- KFC chocolate sundae

And then we rode home from the subway on a motorized rickshaw (Will loves taking these.....ok I do too.)

Love you Will! You are going to be an awesome big brother- and you will always always be my baby boy (even though you're getting to be a pretty big kid :))

Changes coming :)

Well hopefully you have noticed the changes on our blog. I just thought it would be appropriate as we get ready to add our precious daughter to the family.....this sunday!!! That's right- in a few days we will be a family of 4!

It has been a whirlwind week- we just got it confirmed yesterday that all of our appointments are in place and we can travel to Jiangxi province and go get her. SO this morning I just bought 3 train tickets to Nanchang and 4 plane tickets back to Shanghai! (a nice benefit of living in the country you are adopting from is that you can just go quickly). So in 48 hours we will be on a 5 1/2 hour train to go meet our daughter.

I have also changed the blog so people can make comments- so if you want to say how adorable Addie looks or how tired we look- ha ha- you can.

As we travel I will try to be good about posting pics- especially for the grandparents.

AHHH we are so excited!!!

Addelyn getting bigger- updated photos

Here are two updated photos we were emailed of our little Addie- who is getting so much bigger!! She will turn 1 next thursday OCt 28th- and we were so hoping to be with her on that day but looks like its not going to happen.... sad. She looks good though- she has thinned out a little and they have given her quite a hair chop. In china they like to shave heads when the kids are younger- they think it makes hair grow in better and fuller and also its tough for girls in orphanages to have long hair - a lot of work for aiyis to have to comb and brush out the tangles. But this mama here can't wait to brush out her tangles!! She is standing in the picture- they tell us she can stand but not yet walk. (Oh I hope she waits until we get there- I want to see her learn to walk).

Also that little butterfly toy she is holding is from the care package we sent her so we are so happy to see that she got it. Now we just need to get to Jiangxi!! Please pray our paperwork would move quickly- I gotta go get my baby girl!!

More Summer Pics

More pics from this summer. This is the Grandma and Grandpa Baker edition. :) Every morning we were at the Bakers Will started his morning with a homemade smoothie from his grandma and his choice of video. He loooved it :) as you can see from the smile on his face.

Playing grocery store at the children's museum (such a cool place) with Grandma Baker.

We also went to a place called Tweetsie Railroad- I had never heard of this place but it was so cute. And set in the mountains- really pretty to us city folk living in a big kinda dirty city.

Tweetsie had lots of rides andWill definitely loves rides now- though not so much on his own- he likes riding with someone. Is there anything better than seeing that little face of glee as he goes round and round?

Driving the cars with Daddy

Though it may not look like it- Will loved the ferris wheel- he still says every once in a while "Lets go on ferris wheel today" as if they are just down the street or so easy to get to :)

And the big draw of Tweetsie Railroad- the thomas- like steam engine. Will loved the train but didn't love (a big understatement) the gun show that you watched as you traveled along. But getting his picture taken with a thomas- like train- ranks way up there for him :) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Baker!
Reading before bed- I love will stealing a glance to the camera here :)