Sophia Grace: DAY NUMBER 61

SISTERS: I thought that I would post "side by side" pictures of the girls. :)

(I can not WAIT until they are REALLY side by side)!!

In case anybody is wondering about our other little peanut, we still have not received any news from China. Not a word. Nothing. Today we are on "Day #61" of our wait. We are waiting for our "Letter of Approval" from China, after that we get to wait for Travel Approval-which typically follows pretty quickly. I think that we are going to be waiting for a while yet. UGH.

Emma has been asking to "Go on the big airplane, get Sophie in China". I tell her that it is probably going to be 2 or 3 more months and she says "No, two days, go get Sophie"! I wish that she was right. People have asked me if Emma understands that she is getting a sister. SHE DOES! :)

HO-HO-HO!!!

Imagine Emma's surprise a couple of weeks ago when a letter from SANTA arrived in the mail! She can recognize her name spelled out and was impressed that Santa included her name in his letter to her.

Emma is VERY into Santa this year and she knows that he will bring her toys. I realize that this is not the true meaning of Christmas, but we will continue to work on that lesson...after all she is only 4.;)

November Catch Up!

"EMMA-ISM" of the day:
Mommy asks: "Emma, how do you spell your name"?
Emma replies: "E-Emma-Emma-A"! :)

That said, I present to you a few pictures of "E-Emma-Emma-A" taken over Thanksgiving Weekend, plus the last one taken in early November.

Emma with Mommy and Daddy on our Carriage Ride through Old Town.

Emma & Daddy visiting the Penguin Cove at the Zoo.

Emma and Lao-Lao making their first Pumpkin Pie together.

Emma LIKED stirring...ALOT!
Surfing the net while Mommy cooks dinner (Just like her BFF Eliza)!

There is a Birthday in Our Family and a Favorite New song, too!

*Warning*: There are NO pictures in this post.
(I do promise to add some soon)! :)

Today is Sophie's second birthday. I wish that we were able to celebrate it with her! My heart tells me that I am not the only one feeling this way. Surely today her birth mother has thought about her many times. I wish that I could hold her other mother's hands tightly in mine and commiserate with her about missing out on this special day. I am sure that we would both cry. But, then I would tell her how we sent Sophie a cake so that her birthday would not go unnoticed today. For a short time....maybe just 10 minutes...she received some attention and a few bites of cake. I would also promise her birth mother that Sophie will never spend another birthday alone-as we are going to China to bring her home very soon. Lastly, I would thank her for making a very difficult choice two years ago today-a choice that allowed us to complete our family.

Emma LOVES birthday cakes and the song Happy Birthday. I am sure that she will be singing Happy Birthday to Sophie's picture today! ; ) Actually, we can not eat a slice of cake in this house with out sticking a candle in it and singing...no, I am not kidding. Another song that Emma REALLY likes is Jingle Bells. We have been singing it lately. A LOT.

She will say to me "Mommy, sing dashing through the snow"! At which point I prompt her "What is the name of the song"? Emma always replies VERY loudly "THAT'S JINGLE BELLS"! :)

So, do YOU have the song stuck in your head now too after reading this entry? ;) Greg and I do, and probably will for the next several months...at least until July or so!

"JINGLE BELLS"

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh.....

~A Little Update on Sophie~

We recieved an update on Sophie today through REDTHREADCHINA.COM! I had contacted this company (located in Guangzhou)over the weekend to purchase a cake and camera to be delivered to Sophie on her birthday next week. To our sheer delight we now have the following updated information on dear daughter number two:

Height: 33.5 inches
Weight: 24.3 pounds
Feet: 5.5 inches
Chest: 19.7 inches
Head: 18.9 inches
Teeth: 12 :)

She is almost the exact same size that Emma was at that age! :)

Busy! Busy! Busy!

As you can see by the following pictures, the Montieth family has been busy! There has been no time for blogging lately. We love Emma SO MUCH, but she definitely keeps us on our toes! Can the love of your life drive you to drink? Apparently by the first photograph the answer is....

"YES"! ; )Emma and daddy riding the new and improved carousel-constructed by Emma!

There were ALOT of toys incorprated...

Playing with lentils in a box after school!

Much more fun than any of her billion toys in the basement! Enjoying a sucker afte breakfast. (Yeah, I know-weak Mommy)!!

Posing for the camera--just a little bit

HALLOWEEN 2008

This little pumpkin is ready to go get some CANDY!! Halloween Tattoo! :)

Showing off her school artwork! All 3 pumpkin is this picture must be WARM...it was about 75 degrees out!

Emma's pumpkin on the wall at school!

Emma with her teacher Ms. Marci!
Emma and a classmate pre-party!

Taking a turn trying to break open the pinata!

Emma had a Halloween party at school on Thursday that I was able to attend. The kids walked in a parade around the school, ate snacks in the room and broke open a pumpkin pinata of candy. On Friday Greg took Emma trick or treating and then Emma helped pass out some candy to the trick or treaters at home. She loved her pumpkin costume and did not want to take it off! :) Enjoy the pictures!

One of Emma's new favorite things to do is ride the carousel at the mall. I take her once a week and she is allowed two turns.

While we were at the mall yesterday Greg took her on the carousel. Later that night we noticed that Emma had recreated her very own carousel at home. :)

She acts out the events of her day through play all of the time. But, we thought that this was particularly clever! ;) Emma even included a tea cup (she calls it the "coffee cup") in her carousel~do you see the pumpkin bucket? She put two of her fisher price figurines inside and told me that it was her and daddy! :)

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our Halloween Pumpkins last night and Emma had SO MUCH FUN! These pictures speak for themselves....

"Holes in the Ears" : )

"BEFORE"...."AFTER"....

Emma has been telling me for a couple of months that she wants to wear earrings like me. : ) She is NO DOUBT a girly girl so I was not surprised! To be honest I was not 100% ready to let her get her ears pierced though and I was hoping that she would forget about it. After all she is only 4 and a half and still my baby!! I explained to her that to wear earrings like me she would have to let the lady at the store put holes in her ears, that did not deter her a bit. She told me that she wanted "Holes in the Ears"! : )

So, yesterday Greg and I took her to the mall and she got her ears pierced. Emma chose the earrings that she wanted and they did both ears at once. She did not cry at all, although later on she did get a little teary eyed-I'm sure that they were stinging a little bit. Motrin and a sucker cured that quickly! ; ) She looks VERY CUTE wearing earrings!

Today EVERYBODY in the house had to wear "earrings" (stickers): Daddy, her Teletubbies, and her baby dolls. That was pretty funny!

Log In Date, Lao Lao and Boogers.....

Look! It's the British singer-Amy Winehouse....no, wait it's just my Emma Kate on the brink of coming down with a nasty cold! : (I'm excited to announce that we have a Log In Date of October 15th with the CCAA for our dossier! We waited about two weeks, which seems to be the current average trend. Now we will wait and see how long it takes to get our Letter Of Approval, we are hoping to have it around Christmastime...with our Travel Approval soon to follow! AND, speaking of traveling...my Mom is going to be taking the journey to Sophie with us! Greg, Emma and I are SO excited that Lao Lao is on board. : )

On another note, poor Emma has a horrible cold. She came home from school on Tuesday and craweled into my bed, that should have been a red flag that something was brewing. She woke up around 3 am on Wednesday and we have been wiping boogies ever since-the poor baby!! She has stayed home from school for the past 2 days. With lots of hugs, liquids and Barney...I'm sure that she will be back to her old self in the next day or two.

Do I Take Too Many Pictures?!

I was cooking dinner one night this week when I suddenly heard Emma say "Say Cheese Mommy"!! I turned around to see her standing in the kitchen with her toy camera. I obliged and posed a few times as I chopped & stirred. Next, I heard her ordering our dogs Jack and Mikey to say cheese. :) Luckily I had MY camera in hand to capture these funny shots! Hmmmmm, maybe I do take too many pictures of Emma????

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

~My little pumpkin~
~Emma riding the train~

~She posed all by herself~ :)
~Emma HAD to carry one of the pumpkins all by herself...it was dropped more than once~
~Emma going down the big slide~

~Emma and Daddy~ Last Saturday we met our local FCC group for a morning of fun at the pumpkin patch. It was a very windy day, but it was in the 70's---the first time that we've visited a pumpkin patch in short sleeves!! There were a lot of fun activities to do and a great selection of pumpkins. The pictures really speak for themselves!

We are DTC!!!

*DOSSIER TO CHINA*

Our dossier (big-fat-pile-of paperwork) was mailed to China on Tuesday, about 10 & 1/2 months after we started. We should be logged in (Log in Date with the CCAA) before the end of October...if nothing goes wrong...we will keep you all posted...we HOPE to travel around January or February of 2009....HERE WE COME SOPHIA GRACE!!!!!! (We being Mommy, Daddy, Emma and ............Lao Lao????!!!)! :)

Cute Pictures of Emma!!

Okay, I know that Emma is my daughter....but, tell me that she isn't THE CUTEST GIRL EVER!!! :)
She has been very compliant mugging for the camera lately. We went to Hays, KS a couple of weekends ago (PULEEZE-do NOT google it...) and we visited The Stienberg Museum and Oktoberfest where these pictures were taken.
The other pictures of Emma dressed in her Halloween attire (thanks Lao Lao!!) were taken this afternoon after school out on the driveway.