My Brother Gets Married (and some Christmas)!

This weekend my little brother got married. It was an exciting and full weekend. We are very excited for Billy and Blair. It was such a blessing to be a part of their big day. Samuel was the ring bearer and surprised us all by making it all the way down the big aisle, holding on tightly to the hand of his cousin, Makenzie, the flower girl. The wedding was at Colonial Pres- a beautiful church in Overland Park. The reception was pretty unique- at the Architectual Reformation Foundation (I think I got that right!) in the West Bottoms (which I usually associate with Haunted Houses and Kemper Arena!). It was a very cool location. We had a great weekend!!

Rehearsal Dinner....

Mom, Papa and Aunt Peggy

Jimmy with Samuel and Makenzie

The aisle!!

The bride, Blair!
Toasts...

And a quick pic from Christmas morning- my Papa Jack with all of his grandkids and great grandkids.....

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday season!

Merry Christmas!

Hope this finds you having a good week and staying warm! We are looking forward to a week full of Christmas and my brother's wedding events. Samuel and I survived a week long bout with the flu and are finally doing better.

We also applied for Samuel's Social Security card :). I have a whole new appreciation for government offices here. Despite clearly not being used to doing adoption social security card applications, the SS office people were nice and friendly. I brought every official adoption document with me because I am programmed to be prepared for the worst. It paid off because they said we would just need the certificate of citizenship, but they ended up asking for his birth certificate, the translation, my passport, his passport and my driver's license!

Last weekend and this weekend we celebrated Jimmy's 30th birthday. He turned 30 yesterday, but I had a little surprise birthday dinner for him last week. He was very surprised which was fun! It was a great night, but it was definitely a moment of realizing that we're in a new stage of life. Most of the guests left by 9:30 because of kids' bedtimes- there goes the social life!

Jimmy with his ice cream birthday cake :)

Samuel helping Jimmy open presents this weekend

Not much else to report from here.... we have a squirrel living in our attic. Jimmy had to climb up there today and set up a squirrel trap. Not sure if a squirrel is better or worse than the monster sized mouse I was envisioning??

Also- my computer crashed yesterday.... the "blue screen of death", as Jimmy calls it. I'm hoping we have most of it backed up or that Best Buy can salvage something. I think it died from all of the dust and mold in Antigua. I can't get too upset about it- pretty much a miracle it made it home from Antigua. I think three of my Antigua friends all had laptops die during our time in Guatemala.

Oh- one more piece of news! I have a very small part time job for next semester! I interviewed to teach Spanish at Longview community college and haven't heard if they'll need me yet. In the meantime, I got a call from another branch of the community college to teach a night class called Occupational Spanish. I'm really excited about it! It's just one night a week, so it isn't much time (or much $$... guess that's how it works!), but I'm looking forward to it.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! It will be an extra special one for us since it's Samuel's first Christmas at home! Having him around has made me think more about the miracle of Jesus' birth. Just makes me wonder what Jesus' personality was like at 16 months.... wonder if His diapers smelled as bad as Samuel's or if He liked to dance with his pointer fingers in the air? :)

And just for fun.... a picture from Samuel's first Christmas! We had flown down to Guatemala on Christmas day to be with him for a few days....

A Video...

Baby Fight Night (just click- it's on You Tube)

featuring Samuel and Luke

(in matching PJ's courtesy of Luke's Grandma Lisa!)

One Month Home....

...and I feel like I should have my house organized and really clean. It hasn't exactly worked out as planned largely due to a small, adorable Guatemalan! Speaking of which, Samuel is doing well. He got his first shots today and only cried a tiny bit. He used to wail every time we set foot in a doctor's office in Guatemala, so this is progress. He's fascinated by the snow, but not a huge fan of the cold. It feels like we're finally settling in somewhat, although I've been looking for a part time job starting in January which would mean more changes. Just praying that if it is supposed to work out, it will. That's all from here!

Samuel has started this really devious little smile.... not sure if I should laugh or be worried!

Samuel and Erick at the mall playground on the train... not the best pic- they were so distracted by the kids, lights, etc. Definitely overstimulated!

Samuel in his Daddy's "Scottish" hat....

Samuel with his friend Bella...yes, he was eating her socks!

Fotos de la familia

Our good friend, Erin Duggin, took some family pictures for us when we were in St. Louis over the holidays. Thank you, Erin!! She has posted some on her blog if you'd like to take a look! She is one sweet and talented photographer. She runs a business called Just The Thing and offers lots of cool artsy things in addition to her photography. Take a look at her webpage if you're interested! She's the one who did the "name sign" that we have in our basement (Erin- we still get lots of compliments on it :)). Hope you're all having a good day!

Samuel's new friends...

We had a great Thanksgiving in St. Louis where Samuel got to meet lots of new friends and family. He's doing well- just had his first doctor's visit today. We're still having trouble getting him to sleep in his crib, but overall things are great. This month we're looking forward to Christmas, Jimmy's 30th birthday and my brother's wedding.



This week is our fourth week home and it is still surreal sometimes, but we've settled in slowly. I have moments where I pick up a toy or book we had in Guatemala or a piece of clothing that still smells like Antigua and I catch myself missing our time there (especially the warm weather!). I think I'll be ready to visit the next time we have the opportunity, but will really enjoy being able to leave whenever we want! Today we received Samuel's certificate of citizenship from USCIS and a letter from Pres. Bush :). Very exciting!

One of Samuel's first attempts at self-feeding with the spoon....

Play date with an "old" friend, Erick

Samuel and his favorite dance move (pointers!)
We had a quick, but sweet visit with some college friends, the Artz's and Duggin's. Here is Samuel with his lady friends, Sophia, Marlie and Grace.

Samuel and his cousins

Samuel and his cousin, Ian, on an unplanned matching PJ morning

Samuel meets Kate Kerens, daughter of our precious friends, Beth and Scott