Holiday Pictures

A few holiday photos too!

{Addie looking at the Snowman}



















{One of Our Holiday Cards}



















{Christmas photo shoot }













{more from the photo shoot}














{Addie & the tree}

Happy Holidays

Holiday greetings from our family to you! This will be a wonderful holiday as Miss Addie brings so much joy to our lives everyday. She is having a lot of fun and enjoying the festivity of the season - parties, music, worship, and of course COOKIES. I have included a video clip of her dancing - super cute if you can get over Brody's (LOUD) voice in the background (perhaps next time he will do less coaching - although I doubt it :)). Have a great holiday and a healthy & happy 2007!


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Can you believe it is almost Thanksgiving??

Wow - time is just flying - Addie turn 19 months on th 7th.

She is talking, giggling, singing, and dancing up a storm.

We had a great Halloween - we went to a program at her daycare, to the downtown parade, and to a Halloween party at our cousin's house. She had two costumes - ladybug & fairy princess. Both were a lot of fun. She also did her first door to door trick-or-treat. Plus, we had 313 kids stop at the house for Halloween - it was a crazy candy fest :)

We are hosting Thanksgiving for the family next week - my first big turkey - ugh! I am nervous.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I will leave you with some recent pictures.

{halloween party}



















{halloween parade}



















{trick-or-treat}



















{playing on campus}













{addie for senate?}

Happy Fall!!!

Wow, Addie is 18 months old [as of October 7th]. Where has the time went?? We are loving every minute of parenthood - and Addison, well she amazes us every single moment.

She is now running, developing a sense of humor, tickling people and the dog, playing with friends [Nathan, Harper and the kids at daycare], and she is talking - a lot :) She has an eclectic vocabulary from the standards - Mama & Dada to the more exotic like, crocodile [taught to her by our very sweet neighbor and friend Mary].

She is enjoying fall - playing outside, swinging on her swingset, playing in the leaves, and seeing pumpkins, big and small.

Addie is getting geared up for Halloween - we have a few kid parties to attend and our neighborhood goes crazy for trick-or-treat, so she will pass out candy at home.

I will leave you with a few photos, and I promise to try to post again before 6 weeks roll by.

{Addie Bug}



















{Go Higher Dada}



















{Just Too Cute}













{School Pride}



















{Pumpkin Princess}

Did you miss us?

Haven't posted in awhile, but I know several people still check out our site and the blog.

July was a very busy month - we took two trips to Nana & Papa's cabin up north and had a wonderful time. Addie is talking up a storm and consistently uses, Mama, Dada, Duck, Hi, & Up. She is also signing like crazy - they teach all kids a few ASL signs at daycare. She signs for more, all done, please, thank-you, milk, and juice. She is too cute, and this has helped with some of the usual toddler communication issues. I know she understand far more than she can communicate which often times leads to frustration, she is really bright and so curious about everything.

August has kept us very busy too. Work is starting to pick up for me and I will be traveling a fair bit in the next few months. Brody will get to be Mr. Mom every once in awhile - he loves it and does such an awesome job! We also traveled to Iowa and Addie got to meet all of Brody's family - it was so much fun. Addie gave everyone "high-fives" until her little arm just about feel off. She also learned how to give knucklebusters from her cousins Rhyan & Rachel.

Addie also got an outdoor playset from Granny P and Uncle Russie. It is huge - two slides, a playhouse, and three swings. Her Little Tikes set fits underneath this monster. She will have many, many years of fun and memories on this neat playset. Plus it dwarfs everything in our backyard - hehe. We joke that the neighbor kids fall off their bikes in wonderment as they ride by on the bike path. A few have even knocked on the door asking for "our kids" to come out and play. I politely say we only have one, she is 16 months old, and can't play outside without us yet. Too cute!

I will leave you all with a few pictures of Addison - enjoy!

More VIDEO

So we're headed off to the Northwoods, but before I go I thought I would leave you all with a little video I made. I am getting into making mini-video slide shows - addicting.

Well - hopefully this will fill the Addie void while we are gone.

Enjoy this video from a random Saturday in June. We went to the Farmers' Market, McDonald's, and the park.


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June Update

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. We are all doing well and Miss Addie is keeping us very busy. I went back to work on May 15th. While it was a hard thing to do Addison loves her daycare group and teachers - they all find her very sweet and entertaining. Even the preschoolers know Addie :)

She is now walking all the time - practically running. Her favorite place to be is outside. She plays in her wading pool, eats popsicles, and helps us plant flowers. She still loves her doggies Harley and Stella and they enjoy chasing each other now that she is more mobile.

Addison loves music and dancing - this kid has got rhythm. I put in a little video clip of her rocking out.


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Later this month Addie will have her first vacation as we venture to the Northwoods to help Nana and Papa move into their summer place.

Happy Easter and First Steps

We want to wish everyone a joyous and blessed Easter!!

We took some bunny pictures on Addie and wanted to share, so here they are~

































Also, big news - Addie took her first steps tonight. At this pace she'll be running by next week!! She is so determined - it's amazing to watch her.

First Birthday

Addie turned one on Friday, I can't believe how fast she is growing. I know everyone always says how fast kids grow, now that I have my own little one I finally see want they mean. She had a pretty quiet day on Friday her actual Birthday, her Auntie stopped over to play and so did a few friends. She had a big party on Saturday with lots of family and friends. Our little playroom in the basement was filled to capacity. It was so fun. Addie also had her first taste of cake - she wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but she got the hang of it. Please leave a comment if you want to send a Birthday message to Addison. We will save them for her. Have a great week and enjoy a few photos from her party.

Bliss

Just wanted to share a little fun from this week. Addison is really blossoming and her larger than life personality comes out a little bit more each day. She is such a fun loving little girl. She has made so many advances this week. She learned to go from laying down to sitting by herself and she now scoots aroung the room half sitting half crawling. She has even started to try to pull up on the furniture to stand! She is also cutting two, maybe three teeth, this is not so fun for Addie or Ma Ma and Da Da. But, considering she has no teeth right now it was bound to happen soon.

Her two new friends are Harley and Stella our Airedale Terriers. They just adore her, even when she grabs their ears or pokes them in the eye. Stella can't wait for her to get up every morning and she is the first one to her door each morning.

We started swim classes at the YMCA this week, she is in the Shrimp class with 4 other little ones - everyone is under 14 months and it is so fun. She just loves the water and kicks ger little legs like crazy. There is even another little "Addie" in her class and an Abby - that poor instructor trying to keep the names straight.

Today we meet Nana for lunch and shopping - Addie loves to shop just like her Ma Ma and Nana. Big sale at Toys R Us just a heads up.

I will leave you with some pictures of our big girl
- Enjoy!!

Home Sweet Home

We have been home a little over a week now and everyone is getting settled in. I had the flu the first week back so Brody got to play Mr. Mom while I recovered. Now Brody has the flu :(

Addie is adjusting great! She is such an easy going girl. She is really active and has a heart melting smile as anyone will tell you - this girl smiles and laughs for everyone.

Addie has made great strides with her sitting and is now starting to roll everywhere. I predict she will be crawling by next week. She so wants to play with the kids her own age. She is a mover and a shaker that likes to be constantly doing something. Daddy is trying to teach her to walk right now. I would like to wait until she is at least a year - we will have many years to chase her around and I kind of enjoy this baby stage where she still needs Mommy a little bit :)

She attended her first Birthday party this weekend for her friend Jenna G. who was turning 1 and she partied like a rock start. Lots of smiles and dancing - she really enjoyed meeting our best friends and their families - they all loved her up.

Addie started sleeping through the night again on Wednesday and most mornings I have to wake her up to start our busy day. She goes all day long with a short nap in the afternoon. I just love spending my days with her she is so curious, lovey, and she has quite a sense of humor.

I will leave you all with a few pictures from our first week home.

Thank you all for following our journey.

Blessings!

The Peeds

It's Official!

Hi All!
Sorry we disappeared for awhile. Our time in Guangzhou was very busy! We stayed at the famous White Swan Hotel - it was non stop adoptive families all the time. It was a very beautiful hotel on a gorgeous island in the south of Guangdong Province.

The shopping in this area was fantastic so between appointments we would run out to the shops. We had to buy another suitcase to make it home. Addie will have plenty of squeeky shoes, Chinese dresses, and porcelain to last her quite awhile.

Our travel group mates have been awesome and we had a celebration dinner with two of the couples last night. We will miss them when the trip is over, but the experience we have shared will bond us together for a lifetime.

We went to the U.S. Consulate and took the oath yesterday and they gave us Addie's immigration packet, passport and visa. We are now official in the eyes of China. She is still a Chinese citizen until we touch down in Chicago.

We left for Hong Kong this morning and after a 30 minute flight we were here. We will overnight here and travel back to the U.S. tomorrow. We can't believe that the trip is almost over. Addison has been such a good little travel dispite having a cold - Mommy too!

We are ready to get home to our family and friends, our house, comfy beds beds, and dogs. We can't wait for Addie to meet you all. Please come by later next week and pay us a visit.

Our Day in Nanchang

Today was a semi free day in Nanchang. This mornng we went to the Teng Wang Pagoda - it was amazing and the views were spectacular. It is one of the oldest and most well known pagoda in China. Addison slept through almost the whole thing. The did have amazing porcelain there and we bought several pieces - this is a specialty in Nanchang and Jiangxi Province. Her orphanage brought us a special piece of porcelain from Ji'an and we also received a piece from the civil affairs office in Nanchang.

Then we spent the afternoon hanging around at the hotel. Addison is quite a ham and she keeps us very busy. As you can see she really enjoys the mirror.

Tomorrow we have to do more paperwork at the civil affairs office in Nanchang and the we will be able to pick up Addisons passport to fly to Guangzhou in the afternoon. We should be at the White Swan hotel by 7pm. Guangzhou is the last stop for the adoption. Then we head to Hong Kong and then home. Our appointment with the consulate in Guangzhou is on the 23rd. We leave for Hong Kong on the 25th at 4:30am (ouch)! Signing off until Guangzhou - we sure have enjoyed the free internet in Nanchang.

And then there were three...

Yesterday was GOTCHA day and we are now the parents of a moving and shaking 10 month old. She is too sweet for words. We got to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province at about 2:30pm yesterday to be told that the babies would be arriving in two groups because ou girls came from two orphanages. The Ji'an City group would be at the hotel in less than an hour and a half. The girls from Rujian would arrive at 5:30pm. Addie is in the smaller group from Ji'an City.

We scrambled arounds to get ready and Brody even went to the store to get formula. We walked into a small conference at the hotel and the babies and there caretakers were already there, we picked Addie out right away with her unmistakeable cheeks. Two friends from our group filmed at took pictures for us as they handed the babies to their parents one by one.

Addie came to us really calmly and it wasn't until after we gave her the first bottle that she had a little meltdown (she only cried for an hour and a half which isn't bad considering some babies in the group are still crying today).

She is a ray of sunshine. She loves music and people and actually prefers to be in a room of people all the time. She can sit fairly well and likes to stand assisted by us. She loves to bop to music it is the cutest thing ever.

Today we spent the morning making the adoption official in the Province so she is officially ours here in Jiangxi. We leave for Guangzhou in two days to make it official in China and to obtain her passport and visa to travel home.

She is in great shape healthwise. It is obvious that she was well taken care of and the workers from her orphage thought she was so special. They came to wish us well this morning.

We're doing well and hope that the rest of the trip goes smoothly.