Whew!

There - pics are posted! Be prepared - there are A LOT! Be sure to see 'Older Posts' or click the links on the side. I know some don't seem to be coming up, but when you click on the 'View images' they seem to come up okay. Please post in the comments if you are still having problems viewing a pic. I tried to organize by subject and keep fairly close in chronological order (expect Epcot, I spaced out Epcot!?!?!). Enjoy! It's still so magical to look at the pics and relive the trip.

Well, I'm currently the only one in the house awake. Trav is sick with chills, fever and aches. Grace went to bed nearly two hours ago and Carson has been asleep for over an hour. I'm going to clean, clean, clean next. Will be nice to wake up to a clean house tomorrow. So far, the kids and I feel fine, so hopefully it stays that way.

We had such a special weekend last weekend. It was so precious to watch Nana and Papa's faces when they met Grace. Grace had a wonderful time meeting and entertaining her Grandparents and we know they had a great time with her. Carson was very excited for their visit as well. It was a pretty low-key weekend - we went to church, ate, visited and enjoyed the family room! (Yes, pics of the newly finished space will be coming soon too...promise!) It was a tearful goodbye. On the way home, Nana had appointments in Winnipeg and all went very well.

We have been working on our petition to adopt court papers this week and they were sent off on Wednesday. It is starting to really sink in and made it all so real (not that we have been pretending that Grace is our daughter!?!). It was emotional and exciting. We found out in Grace's home county adoptions are finalized on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. We'll see what the next few weeks bring to see if it can happen this year, otherwise hopefully very early in January. Info needs to come to the court now from the State of Minnesota and the County. Pray, pray, pray!!!

Speaking of Grace, I believe I witnessed her first tantrum this week (Trav has seen this as well in the last week). She wanted to throw color crayons on the floor and being the mean and awful Mommy that I am, I told her 'no' and put them up on a shelf. She laid on the floor on her stomach, looked up at me and said "Uhh!". That was it. It was like she didn't know what else to do. So she got up and started to play with another toy. It was so funny. Grace does many, many, many things very well. But throwing a tantrum is not one of them. :-)

Both kids got haircuts on Tuesday and Grace was not very pleased with the fact that we didn't put 'pretties' in her hair Tuesday morning. She was VERY pleased when she got pretties and glitter sparkles in her hair after the haircut though. She admired herself in the mirror and kept saying 'Pretty!'. She loved the sparkles!

Papa Chip arrived on Tuesday and left this morning - he had some business to take care of down here. Of course, he had to play with the kiddos too.

Carson had a field trip today just for deaf and hard of hearing kids. He went to a closed-captioned movie and enjoyed lunch and and afternoon of socialization at a local church. He had a great time.

We are slowly getting in gear for the Holidays. I am hoping for a few very productive days! With a measurable snowfall today, it is certainly starting to look like Christmas! Will be so special to see Christmas through the eyes of two kids this year!

I'm off to clean!