Toddler Bed Update

Mary Joyce slept all night last night in her "big girl bed," and napped in it this afternoon. She did manage to roll out at the end of nap time, but it didn't bother her that much. She looked more confused than anything. It looks like we are on our way to another successful night tonight. I think the pillow helps--she really likes having it to snuggle with. In fact, when I put Katherine to bed, Mary Joyce had turned around an put her head at the other end of her bed, but she made sure to take the pillow with her. :-)

Toddler Bed!

We have converted Mary Joyce's crib into a toddler bed, and tonight is the big night. She is currently sleeping in her bed. This is after a big meltdown, Mama having to stay in the room next to her until she was drowsy, Mary Joyce getting out of the bed and playing with toys at which point Daddy put her back in the bed, and now (finally) sleeping. Pray it lasts all night. I'll update tomorrow. For now, I'm off to bed since it could be a very long night around here.

Mary Joyce and Aidyn--Growing Girls!

At the Lake View Hotel in Nanchang, September 2006:


At Cracker Barrel, October 2006:


At Aidyn's House, April 2007:


At Disney, November 2007:

A Visit with Friends

Our friends Marsha and Jeremy were in our travel group when we went to China to adopt Mary Joyce. They adopted Aidyn, who is also from Tonggu. They have an older son, Spencer, and like us, found themselves unexpectedly pregnant after returning from China. Their newest addition is Preston, who is a month older than Katherine. Also, at the time, we all lived in Georgia, about 3 hours apart, but around the time we moved to Florida, they moved to Tennessee. Needless to say, we were very excited when we found out they were coming to spend some time visiting Mickey Mouse, so we drove down to see them for a little while last night. Here are some pictures from our visit. (I'm going to do another post with pictures of Mary Joyce and Aidyn to show how much they've grown in the past year.)

The Brown Outfit

When we were in China, we got an outfit for Mary Joyce at the Wal-Mart in Nanchang. It was the first outfit that we got for her after she was actually with us. Katherine has now started growing into Mary Joyce's old clothes, including the little brown outfit from China. (It is actually just a little short on Katherine already.) Keep in mind that Mary Joyce was 9 months old then, and Katherine is 3 1/2 months old now. Mary Joyce really was a little peanut. :-)

The first picture is of Mary Joyce sleeping on a bus on the way back to Nanchang from our visit to the SWI in Tonggu last September, and the second is of Katherine last Friday.

Katherine's First Thanksgiving

This year was Katherine's first Thanksgiving. In some ways, it was tough due to the recent loss of Chet's father. In other ways, it was very special. We went up to Madison from Florida, and my parents came from Louisiana to visit my sister in Atlanta, so the three of them were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.

We truly do have so much to be thankful for: a wonderful marriage, 2 precious little girls, a great extended family, a good church, and most of all our Savior. God is good!

Cousins--This was the best of several pictures. Carl didn't really want to get too close to the girls, and Katherine really can't sit up by herself yet, so keeping her propped up was a trick.


Family of 4:


Katherine's First Thanksgiving:


Our Precious Girls:

Misc. Picture Thread

Here are a few pictures we made prior to Thanksgiving:

Chet and I went to the Florida Baptist Convention, and there was an artist there doing free caricatures. What do you think--is it us? :-)


Mary Joyce and Katherine--And Mary Joyce's bow lasted in her hair about 30 seconds more after the photo was made. She is pretty good about keeping in regular bows, but the headbands she likes to take out and put back in herself. It makes for some rather interesting hairdos.


More Mary Joyce silliness:


Katherine was lying on a blanket in the nursery, and Mary Joyce decided that most of her dolls and stuffies needed to join baby sister on the blanket:

"There Were 10 in the Bed...

and the little one said 'Roll Over...'"

Katherine rolled over for the first time tonight. She was next to me on the couch and rolled from her back to her tummy. :-) Our little girl is growing up...

This Week in Pictures

Here are some pictures from this week:

Katherine has discovered her hands, and it is just precious. Here she is sucking her thumb. It is cute right now... :-)


Before we had children, we made tons of pictures of our cats. Not so much anymore, but I had to take this one. Samson was extremely relaxed here:


Mary Joyce has a whole bedtime entourage of stuffed animals that she takes to bed with her. The other day, she wouldn't get out of the crib without bringing Pooh Bear, her panda, and her baby doll with her:


I don't know what it is about the green laundry basket, but Mary Joyce loves it. One day, I need to do a thread here about Mary Joyce and the basket, and put all of the pictures in one spot. Anyway, she arranged her doll and stuffed animals, and laid down in there to finish her juice. She is definitely our little character! :)


Katherine still doesn't balance really well in her baby chair, but she likes it for short periods of time:


It took me a ton of tries to get a decent picture of Mary Joyce in this outfit. My sister got it for her before we ever went to China, and now it fits. Mary Joyce was a peanut when we got home from China.


I think this has to be my favorite snapshot of Katherine so far. It captures her little personality so well. She is such a sweet baby:


I looked over at the couch earlier today, and Mary Joyce was holding Samson on her lap, and he was content to let her. What a good kitty! Mary Joyce also started saying "kitty" today. It sounds like "kiki."


I discovered this afternoon that Katherine can sit pretty well propped up on the couch. She really seemed to enjoy the change in perspective:


Mary Joyce still likes Katherine's bouncy chair. Notice that she is wearing her socks on her hands. She put them there right after nap time and did not take them off until she had to do so to eat supper. She also buckled herself into the chair:

Tonggu Friends

Here are the pictures of Mary Joyce and Lili, the other little girl from her SWI who lives close to us. The two of them played together like they remembered each other. It was such a sweet thing to watch.

I've added Lili's mom's blog to our Blog Roll on the right. Hers is A Wok on the Wild Side.

Fun with Mrs. Angie's Boys

Our friend Angie was wonderful enough to keep our girls while we were at the visitation and funeral last week. While Mary Joyce and Katherine were there, she made some wonderful pictures of our girls with their boys. They got in some good practice in being big brothers while our girls were there. (They are waiting on a China referral.) Here are a few pictures that Angie sent to me:

Mary Joyce loves kitties, and she found theirs very quickly:


Playing Hot Wheels with Anderson. It looks like Mary Joyce is doing one of her favorite things here--putting something in its box/package and taking it out again:


Katherine is helping Jon Milledge with his homework. I think this is an adorable picture:


Mary Joyce and Anderson playing X-Box. She picks up the controllers here all the time and plays with them, and it looks like she is doing the same thing here:

3 Months Old!

Katherine turned 3 months old on Tuesday. Where does the time go? She is growing so much (now weighs 11.4 pounds), and is changing every day. Her little personality is really developing. She is a happy girl--lots of sweet smiles, and she only cries if she needs something. Katherine wakes up in a good mood and will just lie happily in her crib and babble until I go in and get her in the mornings. Then she greets me with a big smile. She is now sleeping in her big crib in the room she and Mary Joyce share. She can scoot herself all over when she is on her tummy--no rolling over yet, but I have a feeling that is coming soon. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but she has been going to a physical therapist once a week for torticollis (basically, she has a very tight neck muscle which causes her to have a strong preference for turning her head to the right side). She is doing well with that, and we are seeing definite improvement there. All-in-all, things are going very well with our little girl. What a blessing!

A Visit with Bek

Mary Joyce and Katherine stayed with our friend Heidi one morning last week while we were dealing with family business. Heidi always makes great pictures, and she sent us several she made of our girls and their baby, Rebekah (7 months old). Rebekah's big sister, Leah, wasn't home that morning. (There was one more picture I was going to post, but Blogger is not cooperating right now. I will also have to save Katherine's 3 Months Old post until tomorrow.)

Sweet Katherine


Mary Joyce Playing with Leah's Kitchen Set


Mary Joyce and Rebekah


Rebekah and Katherine Checking Each Other Out


Katherine wasn't too happy with this one...

A Word of Thanks...

On Sunday, the 28th, Chet's dad passed away very unexpectedly. Chet is going to do a memorial post when he is ready, but for now, I would like to say thank you to everyone who prayed for our family during this time. We would appreciate continued prayer, if you feel so led. Thanks, also, to everyone who helped us out last week. You were a true blessing...