Christmas Evening

After Aunt Kay was taken to the airport, we went over to Grandma Sandy and Papa Scott's house. We ate an amazing dinner of prime rib and lobster tails. After dinner we did our traditional Christmas gift exchange.

Here we are in the living room and the children are opening presents.

More gift exchanges.

Here is Addy opening her "My Baby Can Read" program from Aunty TJ.

Here is Addy getting frustrated and uncomfortable. Not even her new big piano or rattle is making her feel better. She is just too hot and grouchy.

Here she is happy after Papa Scott took off her Santa dress and let her hang out in just her leggings for a little while.

Addy put on her pajamas and pretended to be behind bars.

We had a wonderful Christmas and we were so happy to spend it with so much family.

Family Dinner

This evening we had a full house for dinner. Roxanne's brother and sisters came over, as well as two of my sisters, a niece and a nephew. We also had one of Roxanne's coworkers stop by with his new girlfriend. We had a wonderful meal of assorted lasagnas, fresh bread, garlic bread and salad.

From left to right: TJ, Jacques (Rox's brother) and Teresa (Jacques' wife)

This is Sara, Roxanne's youngest sister and our niece Amaya.

Here is Alan and his new girlfriend, Corinne.

Aunty Teresa feeding Addy while sitting next to Uncle Jacques.

After dinner, we looked through Jacques and Teresa' wedding album before playing a game of Scattergories. The pictures were beautiful and the album was amazing. Here TJ and I are looking through the album.

After Jacques, Teresa, and Sara left, it was time for Addy to get into her pajamas and ready for bed.

After a long day with lots of visitors, Adelaide fell asleep.

Adoption Day

After months of waiting for background checks and hours of interviews, Roxanne was finally allowed to adopt our daughter. We used a lawyer from Boulder, CO, so when it was time to appear in court for the final decree, we went to Boulder. We arrived at the courthouse early, as we didn't want to miss anything.

Family self-portrait while waiting.

Our hearing was held in Courtroom F.

Adelaide was hungry, so she finished her bottle before we went into the courtroom.

Papa Scott and Grandma Sandy came to court with us. Here they are in the court room as we waited for the magistrate to arrive.

After the hearing, when everything was finished and official, we took a picture with the magistrate.

Here we are with our lawyer, Barbara Lavender.

After court, we came back to our house and invited our loved ones to celebrate with us. We had a pasta bar and lots of cake. Here is a picture of Addy playing with a Mountain Dew bottle, which she did for about a half an hour.

From left to right: Che, Rose, Holly, TJ (with Addy), Papa Scott and Grandma Sandy.

Joey and Kanoa even made the trek all the way to our house to celebrate.

From left to right: Julie, Amanda, Amaya, Cole, Grandma Sandy, TJ, Iris.

Here are Aunty Cole and Aunty Julie playing with Addy.

Alan, a colleague of Roxanne's, came by towards the end of the evening when Addy woke up from her evening nap.

Here is Kenna holding Addy while Brett hangs out on the couch.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. As usual, we hosted and we invited friends and family. Aunty TJ and Rick were first to arrive followed by Grandma shortly after.

Here is Grandma teaching Addy to reach for her.

When Carlos and Iris arrived, we had to break out the puzzle, a tradition at our house.

Uncle Will gets in on the puzzle action, too.

Papa Scott also loves to work on puzzles.

Here is TJ enjoying some yummy bacon covered shrimp that she brought.

Andrea and Alexis were in charge of decorating and setting the table. Here is Andrea making our Thanksgiving table look great.

Alexis was in charge of napkins.

John spent time overseeing the girls and being helpful.

Lora jumped right in and carved the turkey. She did a wonderful job getting all of the meat off of the turkey.

Just before our meal Adelaide went down for a nap, which gave me an opportunity to actually eat something without a baby in my lap.

Just after I finished eating, Addy woke up. We fed Adelaide her first meal of rice cereal, but she was so hungry that she was getting a little frustrated that the food wasn't coming fast enough, so Mama Rox gave her a bottle. Alexis wanted to help feed the baby.

Here we all are after the meal.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves at Addy's first Thanksgiving.

Here are the Thanksgiving pants I just had to buy for our special day.

Visiting Grandma Sandy & Papa Scott

As has become our weekly ritual, we went to Grandma Sandy and Papa Scott's house on Saturday. This week Aunty TJ was there to visit with us as well. We normally go over in the later afternoon and stay for dinner, but this week we decided to go over early and have lunch. We were hoping that Addy would be awake and happy longer if we went over earlier, but all that happened is that she needed a nap. So we ate dinner while Adelaide napped on the living room floor.

Here is Papa Scott and Addy.

Just hanging out on the couch.

When Addy woke up from her nap, Aunty TJ was very excited to play with her...

And give her kisses.

Aunty TJ's Birthday

On Sunday, we went over to Grandma Sandy's house to celebrate Aunty TJ's birthday and eat yummy ribs.

Here is Roxanne and Adelaide doing their favorite thing together.

Aunty TJ as we are singing "Happy Birthday" to her.

Kisses for Addy.

BBQ at the Mailloux's

We were invited to a BBQ at Rox's father's house. We arrived at about 4 in the afternoon and stayed until Addy was overtired. Sara was the only one missing from the family gathering.

Here is Addy with her Aunt Teresa, Jacques beautiful bride.

Teresa is a natural with the baby.

TJ jumped on the opportunity to feed the baby.

TJ burping Addy after she finished her bottle.

Here is Addy with her Uncle Jacques. She didn't quite know how to take all of that facial hair.

Here is the happy couple with Adelaide, perhaps they will make one of their own soon.

Here we are with everyone around the table, Uncle Brett is taking the picture.

Here is Addy with Rox's father.

Addy is over tired and over being passed from person to person. There are two sides to having babies come to rely on bedtime routines, this is the not so nice side of it.

Just before we left, we were able to get a good picture of Addy with Susan.