Countdown to Christmas

Greetings!! It's so hard to believe that Christmas is just a few days away!!! We are very excited about Christmas this year. I thought I started shopping early but here we are a week before and I still have a few more things to buy. The most important thing is that I have all of Zachary's gifts wrapped and under the tree. Now Santa on the other hand really has some issues! Zachary asked for a trampoline for Christmas so somehow Santa is going to have to figure out how to get that put together before next Thursday. HAHAHHAA Good luck Santa!!!!!!!!

We have been really busy this month. We went to St. Louis to visit our friends the first weekend of the month. We had a great time and enjoyed our stay. It was so awesome to see the boys playing together. They have two boys who are also adopted from Guatemala. One thing that we definitely agree on is that they all are pretty fiesty. ;-))

Last weekend we went to Bryson City, NC to ride the Polar Express. We had a wonderful time. My dad went with us and really seemed to enjoy himself as well. Zahcary was up dancing on the train with the other kids and having a good ole time. I think I took about 75 pictures that day but I just haven't had time to download them all yet. There will be more out here soon.

That's a quick update for now! Merry Christmas to all of our friends.

Love,
Rebecca and Zachary

It's been a while.....

There has been so much going on with us over the last few months. Things are good. We are staying very busy but managing to have some fun too! Work is good. It has picked up some over the last few months. I've been volunteering for a lot of projects. I'll do anything to keep those billable hours up while the economy is down. Some of the projects have been really interesting. ;-) Zachary is doing great in school. He got a progress report last week and they commented about how smart he is and advanced for his age. He is speaking very well now. We're working on counting in Spanish and German. He can count in English and Spanish in to the twentys. He also loves singing his ABCs among other songs. ;-))

I had surgery about 2 months ago so we didn't do much for about a month. Feeling great now and almost back to myself. We had fun at Halloween. Zachary really enjoyed trick or treating and also liked handing out the candy to the other kids. We're gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas now. It's hard to believe that it's November already. It's even harder to believe that Zachary is 3 1/2. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So last weekend we went camping in the mountains. When I say camping, I mean real camping....with a tent, sleeping bags and the works. We had so much fun!!! It was nice to live the simple life for a couple of days and escape reality. Zachary had a great time and managed to entertain himself. We stayed right on the French Broad River. The weather was beautiful!!! It did get cold around midnight. I was really glad that we had warm sleeping bags (footed pjs for Zachary) and LOTS of blankets. We roasted hot dogs and marshmellows. Zachary loved helping with the campfire..as you can imagine. We will definitely be going back to that camp area...but next time we'll take a kayak and our bikes.

I've attached some pictures from our weekend!!! Enjoy!

Birthday Parties and more......

It's SO hard to believe that it's June already!! This year has really flown by. Zachary has been in soccer since April and we have two weeks left. He is really enjoying it and is actually very good at kicking the ball in the goal. The boy is strong....no question about it.

We had Zachary's birthday party on May 30. He had a great time playing with his friends and especially opening all of the presents and eating cake!! He got all kinds of cool presents for his birthday, some clothes, all kinds of games and money!! It's funny because at his age he really doesn't understand the real meaning behind money. He was willing to trade a piece of candy for $125.00. I thought that was really cute but reminded him not to make that trade with anyone else but me. ;-)We had the party at a park and it was really hot that day....but at least we had shade and a covered shelter. The kids had a great time so overall I felt like it was a huge success. After we left the party, Papa Harmon decided to come home and stay with us for the rest of the weekend, which was really nice. We had fun cooking out and he kept Zachary for me so I could do some running around. Mucho Thanks Papa!! We were sad to see him leave on Monday. We were also sorry that we didn't get to spend more time with Nana and Papa Sease. They drove all the way up here for the party but then turned around and went back home the same day. We hope that soon they'll be able to come up and spend a weekend with us.

Last weekend was HUGE for Zachary. He hit so many milestones. First, after soccer on Saturday we decided to buy a tent. Target had some really nice tents on sale so I figured I would get one, set it up and we could "practice camping" in the back yard. Zachary absolutely loved it!! He kept talking about how big the tent was. He went off to sleep after about 45 minutes...meanwhile I laid there with a back ache and unable to get comfortable. I believe I'll be buying an air mattress for my sleeping bag. ;-)) I'm spoiled...I admit it! SO, then on Sunday morning, we went to church and Zachary sat with me during service instead of going to the nursery class. He did great!! We had communion yesterday and he also took communion for the first time!! I was SO proud of him! I know he didn't understand it but I tried to explain it and so did Pastor Gail. Then it was a wild time to get home, eat lunch and take off to Brayden's birthday party. We had to get our swim suits on because they have a pool and we knew everyone would be swimming. Zachary loved the pool and had a great time splashing around. He especially loved the water guns! (go figure). The last and most amazing milestone from the weekend was yesterday when he went to the bathroom standing up. Usually we let him so but he wanted to do it "like a big boy" yesterday. Again, SO proud of my little guy!! Now this morning, I guess he decided since he got praised so much over the weekend that he would put the icing on the cake, so to speak. He got dressed all by himself this morning! WOW!! It was then that I realized my little boy is growing up. He's so independent and loves doing everything for himself. Luckily, he still likes to snuggle with mommmy and doesn't shy away when I kiss him goodbye at school. ;-))

So that's what we've been up to! Hope everyone's summer is off to a great start!

((HUGS))