Half a Year has gone by!

It's so hard to believe that its been half a year (tomorrow) since we came back with Ayana and Moses! Half a year has passed already since we walked through the airport, into the cheering crowds of people, welcoming Ayana and Moses to their new home. So much has happened...

~Ayana moved from a bed to a crib... its a little reversed, but it worked! :)

~Moses took his first little wobbly steps

~Our first special events as a family:

> Thanksgiving

> Halloween (Ayana was a fairy princess, and Moses was a little cowboy... they liked the dressing up and the candy, but not all the neigborhood decorations so much. The skeletons were a bit scary, but the scariest of all for Ayana.. our neigbor's tiny new puppy! Terrifying!)

> Megan's Birthday

> Christmas Eve

> Christmas (So much fun... Ayana was amazed by all the presents... "AGAIN??" And why was there a tree in the house??)

> New Year's Eve

> Ayana's 2nd Birthday (Ayana spent the whole day dressed up as a fairy princess with red sunglasses! Very cool!)

> Moses's 1st Birthday (One of his presents was in a bag bigger than him.. we have a picture of him on tip toe trying to reach into the bag.. very cute! :) )

~Ayana and Moses's first snow (Ayana looking out the window, "Oh Wow! Uh Oh! Who did vat? Ayana no did vat! Mama did vat?")

~Getting to know new friends and family (Oma and Opa, Gran-Gran, Aunties and Uncles, Molly and Kohl Peters- Ayana's new best friends and role models- baby Jamie, also known as "Baby Jesus" by Ayana! :) and lots more)

~Meeting Gran-Gran (my mom's mom) from England for real, instead of on the computer on webcam..she doesn't actually live in the computer screen like Ayana used to think! :)

~Learning more and more English.. even Moses is starting to understand simply words, and even has his own (coh=cold, booh=book, dow=down, Mama, Baba=Daddy, cack=catch, ba=ball)

~My friends have all fallen in love with them.. especially Ayana... one of my good friends, Kristie, just adores her! Once she asked if she could come over.. to play with Ayana! :S

~Ayana and Moses were dedicated at church.. it was a really cool service, and everybody was crying at the end!

~We've all bonded so well... we actually feel like a real family now, instead of just trying to make it through!

Its been an amazing half year, and I can't believe how much has happened. I'm looking forward to what will happen next. For spring break we're going to spend a week in a cabin on one of the Gulf Islands. It'll be really nice to have a whole week all to ourselves to just relax and be together, without having to worry about being anywhere, or doing anything particular. And the best part... a hot tub on the deck!! I'm so excited about it! :) :)
In the summer we're planning to go on vacation with our friends for 1 or 2 weeks and rent a trailer, which will be a lot of fun too. Plus... I'm turning 16 while we're there!! Sweet Sixteen! I can't wait until I can drive, and I'll take Megan and Ayana places, once she's a little older, and we can have sisters outings! That'll be really fun.

Just a quick little story from today: I was giving Ayana an "airplane" ride on my legs (while I'm lying on the ground, she balances on my feet, I hold her hands, and then lift my legs up in the air) She kept on coming off, running around, then coming back and saying "Aypane again!!" Then on the seventh or eighth one, she let go, and kind of slipped off my legs. She pretended she was fine, tried to laugh, got up, ran around, came back and said "Umm... aypane all done! Careful Rara! Gosh!" It was so cute!

Well, I should probably go now.. this is a pretty long post, and my mom needs to use the computer. Bye for now!

~Erin~