Is it a Cat or a Pony?

At Aunt Margaret's House!

After a nice nap we joined the Strub Family for a yummy meal. Here I am with cousins Alice and Haley!
Yummy! Turkey, mashed potatoes and corn!
Of course, there were more presents to open! This is my gift from Aunt Margaret. A Dora electric motocycle. Vroom, vroom!

We ended our day at Aunt Laura's house where, you guessed it, we ate some more and opened more presents!
It was a long day but a fun one!

At Zia Grazia's House!

Around 9:00am we braved the horrible weather (we were under a tornado watch) and went to Zia Grazia's House to wish them a Merry Christmas and open more presents with Isabella and Emma!

Annalisa was more interested in Isabella's new Barbie bike than open her own presents!

Here is Emma celebrating her First Christmas!
Isabella got a Barbie Guitar...How Cool!
I had to try it out of course!
Happy First Christmas Emma!

Christmas Morning!

Annalisa wasn't as interested in the presents under the tree as she was in the new Elmo DVD she got for her Birthday.
We finally convinced her to come and see what was under the tree.

And with the help of Daddy we started to unwrap presents!

Merry Christmas!

Olivia & Annalisa Birthday Celebration!

Olivia and Annalisa are both from Yihuang, Jiangxi.

Olivia was born on December 18th, 2004; Annalisa two days later!

These pictures are from last year Birthday Party, celebrating Olivia's 1st Birthday!

And here is a short video from this year 2nd Birthday Party!

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Florida Re-Adoption Day!

December 5Th, we became a family...again! We went ahead and decided to go through the re-adoption in Florida so we could get a Florida Birth Certificate. Paul (FCC Dad of Casey and back in the Waiting game) was wonderful and helped us through the entire process.

Here we are with the Judge at the end of the swearing in ceremony!

Afterwards we had to go downstairs and get the documents certified. We had Annalisa on the counter until I saw this sign. Annalisa was not so happy about moving to a chair but a Caramella (candy) softened the blow! Here we are with our lawyer Paul and the Lady that certified our adoption documents!Zia Grazia really wanted to be in China with us to experience the first time we became a family but, she was very pregnant with Emma so she couldn't join us. She was there this time around helping with pictures.

Last pictures of Italy

November 28th, 2006!

Zio Franco, Nonno and Nonna helping to get Annalisa ready for the long trip back home. It took all three of them to get the job done. Zio Franco to dry her hair, Nonno to distract/entertain and Nonna ready to step in in case of an emergency!
Last few kisses to Zio Franco and Nonna at the Brindisi Airport!


Burning some energy before the long flight home!

Eating our last Cornetto!

Falling Christmas Trees!

This year we have been plagued by a falling Christmas Tree. Three nights ago, after spending the whole afternoon buying, and setting up the Christmas tree we jumped out of our beds around 1:00am in the morning after hearing a loud crash!

The Christmas Tree was laying on the floor. Lots of shattered glass ornaments, water and pine needles everywhere. We spent the next half hour cleaning up but it crashed again as soon as we turned the light off to go back to bed. Another half an hour later we decided to just lean the tree against the wall and call it a night!

The day after we set up the tree again and let it stand for a couple of days before redecorating it. Every day the tree kept leaning more and more. We finally drilled a hole in the wall and put a wire to hold the tree up. It's still leaning but at least (we hope) it won't fall again. Apparently the tree is so soft that the screws of the stand go right through it :(

This morning I saw this video on MSNBC. My first thought was: "At l east he didn't have to clean up the mess at 1:00am in the morning...twice!!!"

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=ed234f8d-180a-466d-b02c-41bc9e47b8a6&f=00&fg=email

Video of the Farm Trip!

We are back home and adjusting to the time change. Annalisa was very happy to see her Daddy and to get back in her routine. Since the digital camera is broken, here is a clip from one of our last days in Martina Franca. Annalisa trying to get Nonno and Nonna (holding Roberta) to sing Itzy Bitzy Spider.


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At the farm with Nonno (kind of long...still learning how to cut and edit video).

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