Joel's Birthday

We celebrated Joel's Birthday Saturday with a small group of family and friends. It was a GOOD day! We were so happy for the Thompson's to come out. Drew is just the cutest guy ever. The day was full of racing and lawn mower rides. I'll bet everyone slept well that night. I dread the next Birthday party we go to. Joel is going to think all the gifts are his. He really got some great gifts. We thank everyone for being a part of it.

Lofty Adventures!

We had a wonderful time saturday with our T.F.W.A.C. friends at Tall Timbers Research center flying kites and picnicking. The most amazing weather and scenery.
Joel just thought the whole thing was about making the kite crash. These are the days that life is all about.

The Good, The Bad and The Fantastic!

Our Blog has just really been for updating. I wanted to take a few minutes and recap our six months the good and the bad and of course the fantastic!


GOOD!!

*Travling to a strange place
*Eating new foods
*Dinner as a family
*Having a reason for family to call
*Watching a child learn
*Knowing that you will go on after you pass
*Watching a kiss instantly stop tears
*Baths having a whole new meaning
*Finding better things to do than watch T.V.


BAD!!

*Watching a child cry in agony for the things he has lost
*Being rejected because he has been rejected
*Being Bitten :-)
*Fearing you are doing not one thing right
*Not wanting to share your low points in fear of criticism
*Not knowing weather or not to call the Doctor
*Watching a Night Terror and being hepless
*Watching your spouse be just as helpless
*Feeling like a spanking may be the only answer right now
*Having to tell your child not to thank you for food

FANTASTIC!!

*Watching bonding happen right before your eyes
*Being kissed on the cheek just so he can see you smile
*A little hand reaching for you in the middle of the night
*His eyes meeting yours for reasurrance
*Hearing "Mama" finally :-)
*Only wanting Mama when he is hurt
*Only wanting Daddy when there is something to fix
*Listening to him say his A.B.C.'s
*Watching confidence and knowing that you have to take credit
*Watching your spouse be happy in a way you could never make them!

So .... I did take the photo myself. However, it is the first family shot!
Joel was so excited about setting the timer then running back to see the
photo that we could hardly contain his excitement.

184 days!!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

hummmm........ if it looks like, acts like, and smells like.... it must be a little Joe!

So heres the scene. We are teaching Joel to ride his trycicle in the hall way. When all of a sudden he decides that it needs a little work. He banged on that thing for I know a good 30 mins. and frankly I don't see a difference :-)

AMSOIL!!!!

To our delight we were able to meet our Amsoil Sponsors. The Reid's (Pat & Gerry) were visiting some friends near Orlando and to time to stop and spend time with us. Joe was extremely excited to sit and pick Gerry's brain about all Amsoil. We both really enjoyed meeting them. They were so great to bring Joel a gift. It was a book tote (very adorable) and two books. He has enjoyed both immensely. We went to dinner at Bella Bella. Which was Fantastic!!!! It was a short but memorable visit. We really felt like we were leaving family that night. Hopefully we will meet again soon!

Boating!!!

Joel enjoyed his first boating trip on Sunday. Aside from the cold and wind it was a great time. He enjoyed pointing out all of the wild-life to us. He waived and said Hi to all boats that we encountered. However, about 2hrs into it he was done. A two year old can only sit for so long. He has said the word boat about 1million times since. I have a feeling that we will back at it very soon!

Happy New Year!

This is the year of the OX! Joe was born under the year of the OX. Which makes perfect sense. You can check out your Chinese Year here http://www.chinavoc.com/zodiac/index.asp . We celebrated the Chinese New Year with dinner at China Super Buffet with our TFWAC friends. It's always nice to spend a little time with those families. We don't usually socialize too much and it is mostly little girls, but we really enjoy seeing these little girls get together, they are always so energetic. There is one little boy a bit younger than Joel and another quite a bit older, so we can not wait for Joel to make the connection with his Louyang buddy(Drew). He is almost the same age and I think they will be able to share allot as they grow.

finally some travel pics......

Christmas Joy

like most people I am glad that the Christmas rush is over! Although I would have loved for Christmas morning to have lasted a little longer. Not only did Joels joy make it a special day for us, we also had the pleasure of Daddy and Sandra spending the night Christmas eve. We baked cookies for Santa and left him a special note along with a cold glass of milk. As usual Joel loved to help. Santa brought Joel a wonderful Tricycle and some Lego's and of course his favorite.. a race track! Now if you're thinking that you bought those exact things for him at the shower.... You wouldn't be wrong. Christmas was totally on all of our wonderful family and friends due to the extremely large Shower that we had.(we thank-you) Joel quickly caught on to what Santa is all about. We planned to go camping Christmas day but delayed it one day to give Joel a chance to play with his goodies. That he did. It must have been at least 8 hours of nothing but play. We didn't even make him take a nap. We then loaded the camper the next day and took off. Christmas has new meaning for our family!