Claire's Readoption

Our cute little princess! 

 

 So Claire is legally ours, has been since we were in China, but we are all given the option to readopt our children in the US.  It will let her have an American birth certificate which will help whenever we have to enroll her for school and that type of thing.  And it was another opportunity to celebrate this little miracle of ours! 

We arrived very early for the ceremony and so the kids had fun playing games in a little room in the courthouse.

 Elizabeth and Ben (along with Laura) and my mom and dad joined us.  The kids got to get out of school early so it was a big party for them!

 Wasting time at the courthouse!

 Claire with Grandma and Grandpa B!

 Our little cutie pie!

 Most of the pictures had the judges desk with his name in it and the courthouse name so I didn't want to post any of that (I don't know why, I'm weird about privacy stuff like that :)  but we did get this picture of all of us swearing to love her and take care of her.

 Here the judge is asking the boys how they like having a sister and if they're going to take care of her. :)

 Afterward they had stuffed animals for all the kids to pick from, along with cookies and juice.  They were thrilled!

 Then we celebrated by going to steak and shake, a dinner of champions!  We love you Claire-Bear!!!

Get Ready for a REALLY Long Post!!!

I am so far behind on blogging!  I decided to do one long post with the highlights, so here we go...

 

We met Janice at our international adoption seminar way back when we started the adoption process.  We both ended up adopting from China, and our daughters are only a week apart in age!  This was the first time we met her!

 

Look at these sweet girls! :)

After school playdates!

Christmas card photo shoot (my friend Emily took our pictures)

Jackson and his friend Nathan while we're taking our Christmas card pics. :)

This is Emily-her sister and a few friends (including me) threw a baby shower for her.

Just fooling around.

Our annual trip to the Gaylord to see the beautiful Christmas décor!

We went in to see the Ice exhibit this year, it was amazing!

A Nutcracker theme.

The ice slide.

I love her coat and winter hat. :)

Thanksgiving:

My cousins Evan and Emma came in town.  We all love seeing them and the kids LOVE playing with them.

The kids table at Thanksgiving dinner.

The cute dress my sister made Claire.  She has a facebook page for her creations now, ask  me if you're interested! 

Cute Jackson making a gingerbread man.

All of the kids made one- my mom has a gingerbread party for the kids every year. They love it!

They also made a gingerbread house.

Look at our little gymnast!

We got some photo props for the kids, they were so cute!

 

"photo bombing" is a new favorite activity for the kids.

Christmas tree decorating!

 

Christmas party at our old church.  The kids love the snow slide (all except for Jackson)

Claire even did it!  (They had small slide for the little kids)

Look at this cute shirt Laura made her!

We had a snow day so we had to make snowman pancakes to celebrate!

 

Our sweet kiddos!

 Jackson had a Christmas concert- he was so cute!

 We read a Christmas book every night and wore our Santa hats, they were so cute!

 We had a little Christmas party with a few of the kids we walk to school with. 

 Another little celebration!  (we got good use out of the Christmas props. :)

 Grandma had a Christmas party for the grandkids and they were able to invite a friend-Jackson invited Henry.

 I love this outfit of Claire's.

 We also met Santa!

 Claire wasn't scared at all!

 My sweeties!

 Christmas Eve.

 All of the cousins. 

 Christmas Eve games.

 Our Christmas family photo

 Christmas morning!!  They woke up so early, way earlier than when Claire would wake up, so we let the boys come see the tree and start opening presents while we waited for her to wake up.

 Then she woke up!  Claire's first Christmas!!!

 I got them each Chinese symbol ornaments, a special one for this special year! :)

 We went to KS after Christmas.  Saw some of our college friends!  (here are all of our kids)

 Claire's first snow!

 We got out the bounce house when we got back, Claire LOVED it!

 Her first pigtails!

Phew, I am now pretty much caught up, thank goodness!