Happy Halloween!

It was a pretty uneventful night for us as we decided to go to our church's Trunk or Treat and forgo the neighborhood Trick or Treating. It was a lot of fun but Zoey never really did get the hang of the candy collecting thing! She was much more interested in just eating it as it came to her! Braedan had picked out a Transformer Bumblebee costume weeks ago and was thrilled, but at the last minute tonight, he decided he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, a costume he got for Christmas a couple of years ago. But he did wear his Bumblebee costume to school on Thursday, his Spiderman costume from last year all day today, then Buzz Light Year this evening...so he was three different people for Halloween! Miss Zoey was adorable in her flower costume but we had to bribe her with M&M's (it seems like the last couple posts focus on her eating candy, I promise, she really doesn't eat that much!) to keep her hat on. Here's some cute pics of Buzz and the flower!

CELEBRATING MONTH SIX!!!!

Hanging out in her jammies this morning...


Can you even believe it's been that long? We are now offically the family she has been with longest in her life, (she was with her first foster family for four months, then the second one for five months) but still have three more months to go to equate the time she was in Korea. She's still so tiny...today she fit in 6-12 month costume that was barely too short for her to wear! She slept through the night last night and is just doing awesome! Tomorrow she will be 15 months old. We feel very blessed. How did we end up with such a beautiful girl?!?!?!

And someone else I know is happy to have a girl in the house...but maybe for other reasons than me!! He put this bow in all by himself and was thrilled about it!

Weekend Trip

This past Sunday and Monday we made our first out of town trip to be with some of Danny's family, many of whom have never met Zoey. We must admit that this was a huge break through for Zoey and both kids did remarkably well. It was our first hotel stay since homecoming nearly six months ago and I was really worried about disrupting Zoey's sleep pattern. But we brought along the pack n play and as you can see by the pictures below, she didn't have too much trouble getting used to it!




She slept fairly well as she was exhausted for most of the trip, but decided to have a little play time from 1-3am where she laughed, squirmed and rolled all over the bed!

But we were so pleased to see her so outgoing and friendly to everyone! She is usually very shy and reserved (except for at home of course, where we like to call her crazy girl lately!) but she opened up to everyone and was very curious and brave. She didn't fuss when people picked her up and she was walking up to strangers and babbling to them! It is so wonderful to see her personality continue to blossom every day. She just seems so much more comfortable with her place in our family now. We are thrilled to see it and think she is adjusting beautifully!

We spent a lot of time in the car and let's just say she discovered lollipops! I like to call this one Lollipop 27! (she didn't really eat that many, it just seemed like we'd do anything to make her comfortable and keep her quiet!) We went through a few snack bags of M&M's too to get through the two day stay!

While we had a wonderful time catching up with family, by the end of the trip the kids were exhausted and hardly slept on our 3 hour plus ride home. This is what was left of them as we pulled into the driveway...(the blue mouth on Braedan was caused by his own "keep quiet" candy!)



Unfortunately the visit was to lay to rest Danny's aunt who recently lost her two year battle with cancer. We were so happy to be able to be there with her family and continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. May they find peace in her passing by keeping the memory of her sweet spirit alive.

Wordless Wednesday.

Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday, we headed out to our little town's Pumpkin Patch and caught some cute pictures of the kids before we packed up and headed out of town on Sunday...the kids had a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful!










The kids are enjoying the DVD player in our new car and Zoey had to follow Braedan's lead and try out the headphones!

When Zoey met Henry...

This past Saturday we had so much fun when our friends Mary, James and their baby Henry came over for a big Korean dinner at our house. The kids had so much fun playing and it's so nice to talk to other people who have been through the process and understand all the adoption lingo! It's crazy how many families we've met throughout this process over the computer, but meeting in real life is even better! The support of these friendships is what makes this process so much better. Henry and Zoey's birthdays are just three days apart and Henry arrived home two months after Zoey. Aren't they just the cutest?!?!? We're hoping many more weekends together in the future!

Check out Mary's cute post about the weekend too (I copied her title!)at http://heartandseoul.blogspot.com and read the funny story about Danny's very proud moment of a dad to a little girl! Sorry Henry, better luck next time!!! :)

We have a date!

We received our court date today for finalization!! Woohoo! I can't believe it's finally here! Seon-Mi will officially be Zoey this November! Yay! We are very, very, excited!

Christmas (and my birthday!) came early this year!

In the form of one little Fedex box in my mail this week!

On the city tour in Korea, I was able to meet a great couple, Tim and Nicole, who were also picking up their beautiful daughter, Hannah. http://milkpeople.blogspot.com After seeing my whiny post about not speaking Korean and wanting to get R@setta Stone for Christmas/my birthday, she sent me an email with a wonderful offer to use her R@setta Stone! I was so excited and thrilled and am now on Day 3 of using it and LOVE it!! The learning technique is so well thought out and it really works! I've been able to retain much more information than I thought I would! So I just had to give them a little shout out and thank them for being so generous!! You guys are awesome!! (And they're the ones responsible for that cute little outfit you see Miss Zoey in below!)

I've been able to meet so many great people throughout this process and have greatly enjoyed sharing their journeys. I never knew anyone else that was adopted (besides my sister of course!) from Korea and did not have one single Korean friend growing up. So these relationships mean a lot to me and they are people that I hope our family and especially Zoey, will remain in contact with for the rest of our lives!

And check out the new items I listed in my Etsy shop! Thanks for all the support! Keep those orders comin'! http://zoeyndot.etsy.com

Oh, and last post placement visit is scheduled for October 26 and all the paperwork for finalization is to the lawyer!! Woohoo! Can you believe it's been almost six months?!?!?

A little playtime outside in this nice cool weather!

A little windy today, huh?
I am cute as a button!



Why does he make this face in every picture I take of him and why is he wearing this same shirt every time I take outdoor pictures?!?!?!

Giving Oliver his daily hug!

Climbing on things I shouldn't, my new favorite thing to do!

And only one little casualty playing outside today...that little red scrape on my chin. :( But it's nothing a little bite of chocolate cupcake won't fix!



AND FYI...THOSE PIGTAILS TOOK ME 20 MINTUES TO GET IN HER HAIR TODAY!!!!!!

And an update on the haircut...it's a no go! I have been mentioning to my husband maybe a little trim is needed, something for the past few weeks. I showed him all the NO! responses on the blog and on Facebook and he said, "Uh, no. We're not cutting her hair!" So I guess for now, we'll just keep lettin' it grow!!