Merry Christmas!

We love you Leela!! You've been a very good girl this year and you'll definitely be on Santa's "good list"!!

Merry Christmas Sweetie!!

Not flesh of my flesh

Nor bone of my bone

But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute

You didn't grow under my heart,

But in it.

~ Anonymous

Saw this on a friend's blog site and had to borrow and share on my blog site:

Natural Child: Any child that is not artificial
Real Parent: Any parent who is not imaginary
Your own child: Any child who is not someone else's child
Adopted Child: A natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own.
Written by: Rita Laws PhD

Leela and Audrey

Leela has had one very close friend since day one here in the US and her name is Audrey... Leela and Audrey love one another like sisters and also fight like sisters... we just spent several Sundays with Audrey and her mommy, Annett, and we have been having so much fun watching the girls grow up together... here are a few recent pics...

Leela loves to paint!

Description of President-Elect Barack Obama

"He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global President." author unknown

O-BA-MA!!! 44th U.S. President

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," Obama said in his acceptance speech.

New U.S. President and the Governor of Alaska!!

Could it be?!?!?!

November - National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month and we are coming up on our 3 year adoption anniversary (November 28th) with Leela. Not sure what our life would be without this little booger... she brings so many smiles to so many faces...
WE LOVE YOU LEELABEAN!!!

As part of our 3 year anniversary with Leela we are planning a trip to Plano, Texas the first weekend in December to have a 3 year reunion with our Travel Group 889 - Kunming... two of the four families live in Plano, one in Denver (us obviously) and one in Atlanta... should be fun... we haven't had all of the kids together since our one year reunion in Plano.

On Sunday (Nov. 2) we visited City of Kunming Park in Denver (Kunming is one of Denver's Sister Cities) and we didn't know this until we were actually in Kunming at a park when a local vendor told us after finding out that we were from Denver... so he walks us around his little shop and there sitting in the park was a large red flagstone from Denver... here are the rocks from Kunming:

There are two lasting bequests we can give to our children: One is roots, the other is wings. - Hodding Carter

Halloweeny pics

Leela was Snow White this year... she is such a little princess in every way possible... she loves wearing her fluffy, shiny, high heel shoes almost all of the time... I keep reminding myself that it's fun, but I also tell Leela that she needs to wear them long enough to realize that they are very, very uncomfortable! A friend whose daughter also loves to wear high heels, tells her daughter that they need to take "sensible" shoes along when the high heels are on....great advice! We had fun decorating this year with spider webs and carving pumpkins... it was a treat to have such a warm and pleasant Halloween evening that also landed on a Friday night!

Asia and Leela
I think she'll grow into the lips eventually... couldn't resist!

Shira-lion and Snow White Leelabean having fun collecting candy...
Proud babas having fun with their little monsters.

Another month gone by...

Well, it's been quite the whirlwind since the last post, but both good and sad events have taken place over the past month... the most important is the loss of my paternal grandma...she loved to bring family together, she was a great friend and a very loving grandma... unfortunately she was taken away from us by a random act of careless driving (one in which we will probably never know the full details) and she put up a strong battle in ICU for close to a month... my greatest joy through this incredible loss is seeing my dad's side of the family and remembering all the wonderful and funny things we did with Lena... in every single conversation she every had with anyone, she would always remind us that she has lived a good life which is something we all could ever hope for... she lived to be 87! Grandma - you will always be in our hearts and thoughts!

Lena aka Grandma

Lena aka Grandma - we are praying for you and want you to recover soon...

WE ALL LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!

SOME ROCKYGRASS PICS

Flower Powers

Visiting Kiwis

Our visiting Kiwi friends are back for a week and we ventured to a Rockies game, Bear Creek for a little paddle boating and kayaking (swimming for the guys) and just plain hangin'... oh, and a trip to Walmart - wish I would have gotta a pic of these two outside the big blue store!! Anyhoop, welcome back guys and we wish you were staying for a longer visit... (these pics are from '07)... will update with freshies soon!

Leelabean's 3rd RockyGrass!

July 4th Weekend...

RED...
WHITE...
BOOM!!

The Daly Family and the Powers Family in Coal Creek Canyon... we had a great hike and hang time with Cathy, Ed and the kids... the kids did great - found a skeleton of something ressembling a fox and the kids kept the bones as a reminder of their strong and diligent efforts at hiking and rock climbing... we all had a fun time...

Leelabean, Baba and Mitchell
Mitchell, Nicole and Connor braving it on the rocks...

Cathy and Jen back together after hmmm... 22 years... Class of '86... hmmm...
The apples of our eyes... don't they look so sweet?!?!
Having fun hanging out on the rocks... the views were spectacular!

On Sunday we joined Audrey, Annett and Brad for some paddeling on Gross Res. - such a treat for our first adventure out... they've only been open for non-motorized boats for 3 summers, we thought it was about time and Leela and Audrey had a lot of fun! Such fun little buddies! Leela was whipped by the time we returned to shore...

Leela's first nail job... done by a professional - Heidi! We love our ice cream and we are fortunate enough to have 2 new yummy ones in the neighborhood - Red Trolley and Little Man...

Little Man ice cream ROCKS!! It's so creamy and yummy...

Leela and her friend Shira ... can you tell they like chocolate?

We probably had about 7 to 8 cones between us in a 24 hour period... couldn't get enough... especially Baba!!!