Emmaline

Emmaline is such a good big sister. I don't think I could have picked a better first child for our family. She is so careful and doting with Gabriella and she is so playful and helpful to Lottie.

Emmaline is really into dancing right now. Her favorite show is easily Angelina Ballerina, her favorite outfit is anything that includes a tutu and her favorite activity is dancing in the living room to her own singing, music on the computer or random music making toys.

So here is a picture of Emmaline at the Squadron barbecue (please pardon the sideways pictures...something is glitching...) She is really enjoying a coconut icee that she kept calling her icecream. Hey, whatever makes her happy, right? And Id like to point out that she has started to dress herself these days! This is one of the few pictures we got of Emmaline on our trip to the aquarium. She really enjoyed pointing out the fish, counting the sharks and finding all the starfish. She just had to get up on this ledge she's crawling on because Lottie was up there... As much as she loves being the big sister, I think sometimes she wishes she were a toddler again. I'm totally in love with this picture of Emmaline. She has fallen in love with her boots but I only really let her wear them when its raining. Its only been recently that she's decided that its okay to actually get wet. Recently she saw that it was raining, put on her boots and ran outside. The rain was so loud on our canopy that she kept her ears covered! I just love the combo of her boots and her ballet clothes! When we were visiting my parents, my sister pulled out her bucket of dress-up clothes. That was her absolute favorite toy of all. This get-up was her frequent favorite dress up costume. She would then parade around asking people to carry her train for her because she was going to get married! Emmaline, Gabriella and Lottie love playing together. It was one of their favorite things to do first thing in the morning- to wake up and all cuddle and play together in bed. It was some pretty fun times (this is when we were all in the same room at my parent's house...) I'm just so happy to have my three girls!

Lottie

Lottie is such an amazing little girl. I'm floored by how smart she is sometimes. That comes with a catch- she doesn't talk yet. Not mama, not dada, nothing. Her favorite thing to say for a while was 'bip' but now it just mainly grunting and screaming. But she is amazing at getting her point across. She'll point, wave, use sign language, etc and she'll generally make known what she wants.

This morning I found a bib where it wasn't supposed to be. I handed it to Lottie and asked her to go put it in the kitchen but I figured I'd find it somewhere in the hallway, on the couch, or with her toys. So later I put her in the highchair and went in search of that bib, lookingeverywhere I thought it would be. I finally gave up and went to get a new bib and low and behold, she'd put the bib in the drawer, right where the bibs belong. I was so excited to see that she comprehended so well!

Lottie loves to sing and she sings all the time. She'll walk around the house sort of swaying to her own wordless songs and grin really big when we catch her doing it. I'm thinking voice lessons in the future :) (For some reason, the rotate isn't working, bare with me...)We went to the aquarium last weekend. Lottie really loved seeing all the fish. It was pretty cool to see her putting her hands on the glass and trying to touch the fish- the star fish were cool where she could actually put her hand right over them. Okay, so there is a story behind this hot-dog-on-a-stick... We were at the squadron barbecue and we picked up two plates of food to share between all of us. We showed Lottie the plate and she pointed out that she'd like a bite of macaroni salad- didn't like it. She ended up swiping her hand at the spoon and making quite the mess. So she pointed at the hot dogs. But they were too hot and she wouldn't hold it. So she then pointed at my chicken teriyaki (on a stick) but I was being grumpy and didn't want to share (no, actually, I just knew she wouldn't like it and didn't want to hand her the whole stick just for it to wind up in the dirt...). So she sat there screaming for a while, wanting food but not wanting what we could give her. I finally finished my chicken-on-a-stick and got the brilliant idea of just putting Lottie's hot dog on there for her to eat. And it worked! She went to town on that hot dog and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is Lottie at our Labor day party- she is pretty dang cute, doncha think?

My mom was really worried that Lottie wouldn't remember her we we went back to visit. And I warned my mom that she would need to give Lottie a few days to adjust because Lottie is people shy... but she didn't even need that! Grandma quickly became her favorite person in the house.

Lottie really loves her new sister. She loves hugging, kissing, patting, trying to feed, and cuddling the baby. Sometimes Lottie is so curious, it boarders on mean- like when she takes Gabby's bottle out of her mouth, or when she tries poking Gabby's eyes. But she is always very concerned when Gabby cries and wants to help take care of her sister. Its such a sweet relationship to watch!

Gabriella

Gabriella is doing so well here! We got home almost 3 weeks ago and she settled quickly into a pretty good routine. She loves being outside, loves laughing at her sisters, loves being sung to by her daddy, and loves playtime with the whole family.

Gabriella at about 3 months

Just after we got home, Gabby had her first play time in the Exersaucer. She enjoys it as long as she has someone around to pay attention to because the toys don't really hold her attention yet.

Whoops! I forgot to turn it around. But I wanted to point out, if you can see it, that some of her hair is curling on top!!! I was a little bit silly when I saw that! She already has the same hair color as Emmaline and Lottie, and even has the same color eyes. Matt and I were teasing that in 10 years, when we have a few more kids, we'll have one random kid who happens to get Matt's hair and more of his looks and when we line the kids up and tell people to guess which one is adopted, that poor kid with dark hair is going to get picked out of the bunch more than Gabriella ever would!

(Never mind my hair...) This is at the Squadron barbecue. Gabriella really enjoyed the sun! Lottie (in the purple shirt) is sporting her first all-hair-in pony tale!

As for the adoption- we are nearly done with the process of putting in paperwork for the home-study part. We have one more interview on Thursday and we need to get a few more clearances before we can turn in all the paperwork. The caseworker here said that it would take 60 days to get the home-study done but I wasn't clear if she was talking about 60 days from the beginning or 60 more days from now... I sure hope its 60 from the beginning...

I know I Should have pictures...

I just feel like its been too long since I wrote but the camera isn't handy at the moment to put up pictures.

So- we are home now! The flight went really really well. There were so many people willing to help me get where I needed to go- thank goodness!

The girls all struggled getting into a good sleeping pattern again and I had one night where I slept a total of an hour an a half. That was a really long two days. But I think we are back to a 'normal' for now!

We have started the homestudy process here in Guam (thats the reason we came back!). Matt and I each have interviews next week. We are supposed to take in as much paperwork as we currently have done so I spent a long time today putting everything together. We still need background and court clearances and a few miscelaneous papers (like a certain SS card that has managed to get lost...)

We have decided to change the baby's name...again. I know! I know! Poor girl has had more names in her 3 months than an average person has in their life time. I was giving the lawyer the information he needed for the paperwork and I told her we were naming her Gabrianna Lynn. He wanted me to reread the paperwork and as I got to the part where her name was, I got this sinking feeling of "Thats not her name!" So I went home and freaked out for a while.

When it came down to it, we are just going back to the name we originally wanted for her Gabriella Lynn. It still has some significance, it just doesn't have 'Anna' in it like the birth mom originally liked. I feel much better after 'changing' her name again.

Any other updates? Oh, Lottie is currently sprouting 3 molars at once as well as two miscelaneous teeth coming in. Poor child's nose is running like a faucet and she is crankier than a crab! Emmaline turned 4 a few weeks ago and I'm sorta halfway planning a party for her here. If I actually get working on it, she'll have her 4th birthday party before she turns 5! Lol.

Matt and I are so glad to have our family all together again and I'm so thankful for all the prayers that have been said on our behalf. Thank you all for your support during this interesting adventure!