All I Want for Christmas is...

Sara's two front teeth! It's been a full six months since Sara cut her bottom teeth. It seems like she's been teething that entire time--drooling, gnawing, smacking, biting. I just hope she gets some more teeth soon (not another six months from now) so we can get this stuff over with and start eating some REAL food!

Top Ten Reasons Why it's Good to Have All Girls #2

#2: You Get to Poke Holes in Their Ears.

(For those of you who are new to the blog, you can catch up on the other Top Ten posts here)

I have wanted to pierce my girls' ears ever since Amy was about 6 months old. Joseph was dead set against it. Our compromise was this: At the age of 5, the girls should be able to understand pain and the responsibility associated with taking care of pierced ears and can then decide for themselves. So, for the past year, I have subconsciously convinced Amy that she wanted earrings. We just happened to be in a mall in Savannah on Black Friday (another story for another time) which was the day after Amy's 5th birthday. As we entered the mall, Claire's was right there. I asked Amy if she wanted to get her ears pierced and--surprisingly--she said yes. We went and picked out a pair of earrings, but after watching another girl get her ears pierced, Amy said: "That hurts. I don't want earrings." We walked out of the store, but she kept looking back. She changed her mind at the last minute, and decided that she did want earrings after all. She was very brave and only cried from the initial shock. She has been modeling her pretty blue-green earrings ever since.

Leaves

Anniversary Post!

To mark the 1st anniversary since our first blog post, we're posting our family picture taken after Sara's adoption was final. I thought it only fitting since our first post, entitled Sara Christine Hood, was about introducing her to everyone.

This is what we wore as a family to the court room. We had a hard time getting everyone to settle down . . . and we're lucky we got them to look toward the camera, much less get any smiles.

So, in celebrating our blog's 1st anniversary: here's to you--all ye who dwell in the bloggernacle--may your posts be fun and your comments be many!


While I'm at it, I may as well mention some milestones from the past year:

1-The kids are all still alive, and relatively well (this was harder than you think to achieve).

2-I'm not crazy . . . yet. But I am suffering from some sort of Post-finalization Depression (I went through PPD with the other three and it's fitting for it to happen with Sara--just means I have truly accepted her as my own) who knew!?!

3-Our cars are still alive, but our HVAC system, washing machine (twice), dishwasher, stove, alternator, 2 car batteries, and the radio in the van all died beyond repair and had to be replaced. (yes, all while paying for a VERY expensive adoption)

Pumpkin Polling Results

Ok, the pumpkin polling data are in:

The correct answer was "B"

Name That Pumpkin Carver

Our family pumpkin was carved into the logo of our beloved Alma Matter this year. And, for a little friendly competition, we're going to play that game we all know and love: "Name That Pumpkin Carver."


For those of you that haven't played for a while, here's a refresher on how it works:

Choose one of the following options and record your choice in a comment to this blog:


A) Joseph (good choice, the "awesome artist")
B) Tamra (also a good choice, the "patient perfectionist")
C) Amy (bad choice, the "4 year old that's not allowed to play with knives")
D) No one, its a fake pumpkin (another good choice)


The winner will be chosen randomly from the correct guessers and will get their personal pumpkin carved for free next Halloween into anything they want by the expert carver who created the above masterpiece*.


*Offer void if the answer is C, because even though Amy will be 5 next year, she still won't be allowed to play with knives. Winner will be responsible for purchasing the pumpkin to be carved. Winner will be chosen at random via the eenie-meenie-minee-moe method. All rebates to dealer. Offer void in California. Also, effective retroactively, the winner may not request their pumpkin to be carved to resemble a TIGER PAW.

Good luck!

Find Your Pumpkin Self

One of our Fall/Halloween Traditions is to Get a pumpkin for each member of the family. In our second year of this tradition, we decided to give our pumpkins more personality, and we created a jack-o-portrait for each of the kids.