Happy Early Thanksgiving!

In the rush of the week of Thanksgiving and in particular Thanksgiving day (tomorrow), I really will not get time to post about Thanksgiving, the trip to my grandma's we're taking on Friday, or any pictures for a few days, so I thought I'd post an early Thanksgiving post. So, since tomorrow is Thanksgiving my dad is cooking (as usual) and he's also making me helping (also like usual), so once again my mom gets Thanksgiving off from cooking! Lucky mom :) It's really a pain trying to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and cook okra or mashed potatoes or bake pies or cakes or something else at the same time. Most likely I will probably end up on a kitchen chair positioned in our kitchen so I can see the TV, watching the parade instead of doing my job of cooking, lol. :) I'm very excited because Boys Like Girls is having a float this year I think, plus I love seeing all of the other bands and floats and dancing. Tomorrow, dad and I will probably be up sort of early to start cooking, seeing as we usually like to eat around noon (so technically we have Thanksgiving lunch not dinner) and towards that time some of our family will be coming (aka Grandparents). Not that I normally care for any type of food served on Thanksgiving (I'm not a fan of turkey, heh*heh), but this year we got a cookie cake, which I love.... mmm!!! Truthfully, after eating we'll probably end up watching a movie or getting on the computer or something, how "Thanksgiving" is that? :)
We're also going to put up our Christmas tree, which means a ton of work fluffing out branches and putting about a million and two ornaments on the tree. My motivation is that it looks pretty at the end and the girls love it :) This will be Karli's 2nd Christmas with us, and Kenzie's 3rd, and by now I really think that they're starting to understand more and more of what Christmas is about...Santa-wise, I mean, not really the birth of Jesus, but I think it is slowly getting in their heads. Well, Kenzie's at least. And then, next weekend we're having Kenzie's birthday party for her 3rd birthday...she's growing up so fast! Her birthday is on the 4th of December and we're having her party around that time. She's chosen a Sam in the Hat party (Cat in the Hat, combined with Green Eggs and Ham's Sam I Am, which is really just a Cat in the Hat party, but she has some mental block to his name and calls him Sam in the Hat) which she picked herself and is enthused about, as well as opening gifts, which she is also happy about. I've already bought my gift for her :) Ever since Karli's party, she's been waiting for her birthday, asking when it will take place, so this will probably be a relief and joyous day for her when she has her party.
But back to this week. On Friday, like I said, we're visiting my dad's parents in Alto, and we'll be spending the day there. Fun! :) What is everyone else doing for Thanksgiving??? Whether it's time for family, or time alone, or if you're traveling or stuck at home, I wish you and your family/friends a Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

♥ Kayla ♥

More Misc. Pics

Today was Kylie's last soccer game. Her team has done very well this year. Granny and PawPaw even drove down and watched one of the games.

Kylie was in a theater performance Friday evening. They performed "A Christmas Carol." These pictures are Kylie in her costume after the play minus the socks and shoes.

Kylie's first basketball game. She is #44.

Miscellaneous Pictures

Keaton and his baseball coach at the end-of-season party.

Karli and Kenzie at their first gymnastics class. The pictures are taken through a window, so they're a little fuzzy.

Pictures from the park.

Pictures of Kayla, Karli, and Kenzie at a different park.

Kacee:)

Our fingerprint appointment is scheduled for 11/17/09. We have heard that government approval can come as little as a week after the fingerprint appointment. We hope to have our dossier at our agency by 12/4/09 (one year to the day that we left for China to pick up Karli and Kenzie's birthday), so hopefully, our officer at the USCIS will not find anything wrong with our home study and will approve us quickly.

We received an update today with some new pictures of Kacee. We got to ask 10 questions and the social work institute answered all 10, provided updated measurements and photos. Here are some of the questions we asked and their answers.

1. Does she crawl or walk?
She is walking now.

2. Describe her typical day.
She gets up at 7:30am. Breakfast at 8:00am after washing face; 8:30am-10:00am activities at play room; 10:30am fruit; 11:30am lunch; 12:00pm-3:00pm nap; 3:30pm snack; 4:00pm-5:00pm play with friends; 5:30pm dinner; 6:00pm fruit; 7:00pm -9:00pm watch TV; 9:00pm bottle; 9:30pm go to bed. She takes another bottle at middle of night; change diaper once at middle of the night. She sleeps well.

3. What is her favorite thing to eat, play and do?
Sheis not picky. She has good appetite. She especially likes to eat snack and fruit; she likes all kinds of colorful toys. Wei Wei is active and likes to play with her friends.

4. Can she hear anything at all such as music or television or people talking to her?
Yes. She has hearing. She can hear TV and music, she can hear others talking to her. If you call her name behind her, she will turn around quickly.

5. Has she had any more testing since her referral paperwork? Did the testing show she had ear canals inside her ears?
Her file was submitted in April. We took her to Gui Zhou provincial People’s Hospital and had CT and hearing test in June. CT result shows that she has cochlea buildup (so she has hearing), but both of her outer ear canals are closed.

6. How does she communicate with you? Does she talk and say some words or just make sounds?
She isn’t talking well yet. but she can laugh. She is very smart. She can understand what we are saying. When we communicate, it’s always we ask and she will answer by nodding or shaking her head for “yes” or “no”, “like it” or “doesn’t like it”.

7. her updated measurements:
Height: 82cm; Weight: 9kg; Head: 46cm; Chest: 47cm; Foot: 12cm; Teeth: upper 8 and lower 7.

Soccer

Kylie had a double header today with a soccer game this morning and one in the afternoon. Her team won both times. Yay!!! Here are some pictures of Kylie taken during the games.

While Kylie's team plays, Kenzie and Karli like to run around and have fun. Here are some pictures of "The Littles" playing around at the field. The would love to play soccer, but right now we think they are a little young.

And of course, it wouldn't be a normal day at our house without someone in time out. This time Karli wanted to play with someone's else's soccer ball and would not return it. You should have seen the fit she pitched right in the middle of the field during half-time.

Tot School

This week in school Kenzie worked on identifying her letters. I did not realize she knew the names of all 26 letters and a lot of the sounds.

Old MacDonald Had A Farm...

E-I-E-I-O. Last Sunday "The Littles" went to a birthday party at Old MacDonald's Farm. They had a great time playing on the huge sand hill, petting the animals, and swinging on the rope swing. The birthday cake and piñata were fun too. They even got to pick out a pumpkin to take home after the party. Just as their personalities are so different, so were their pumpkins; Kenzie picked the biggest she could find while Karli picked one of the smallest.