Cade's 1st Christmas

Hanging out with Daddy
Stocking Grama made for Cade

ELF YOURSELF

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Isaiah Cade Booth

He's here!

Isaiah Cade Booth

Born December 9, 2008

9:44am

8lbs 8oz

201/2 inches long

All is well except for two tired parents!

Madison

Happy 10th Birthday to our sweet, smiley Madison!

Fortune Cookie Recipe

Recipe from Paula Deen
Nonstick spray
2 egg whites
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons water
Pinch salt
Fortunes written on strips of colored paper
Special equipment: silpat
Directions
Cook's Note: using a silpat makes it easier to remove the cookies from the sheet tray.
Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.
On a half sheet tray, spray a silpat with nonstick spray. In a medium bowl whisk egg whites until foamy. Add the flour, sugar, almond extract, water, and salt to the egg whites and beat until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pour or spoon 1 tablespoon of batter onto prepared silpat and spread with the back of a spoon into a very thin 4-inch circle. Repeat on the other half of the sheet, making only 2 cookies per sheet tray. Bake the cookies on middle rack of oven until golden brown around edges, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and working very quickly, with an offset spatula, remove cookie from baking sheet and place a fortune in the center of the round. Fold to create a half circle. Bend pointed edges of cookie toward each. This should be done quickly since the cookie will become hard and brittle within 10 seconds. Let cool.

Our yield was much lower number but we made our circles and then found it kind of difficult to spread. Some of our cookies turned out a bit too thick. The silpat liners are a must.

Fortune Cookies

CaraBeth is sharing "fortune cookies" with her mom's day out class today. Meghan and I made the cookies last night and put a Bible verse inside each one (Psalm 139:14). CaraBeth will share the cookies and also show her friends some pictures from our original "Gotcha Day". The little ones won't understand what all of it means, but it's important for CaraBeth to be able to share her story. This is a great way to start!

Race For The Cure

Here's our "team" for the Race

Meghan, Susan, Me, Madison, Beth

Blake, CaraBeth & Paige

Saturday's Race For The Cure was great, but wore me out! They say there were 50,000 people there....the 2nd largest Race in the Nation. No wonder the bridge was swaying as we crossed...scary!

2nd Gotcha Day

One of our first moments with Xi, Qian Ling

10-15-06

10-15-07

10-9-08

This Wednesday, October 15 we will celebrate our 2nd anniversary of having CaraBeth in our family! We actually celebrated early this year as the 15th lands on a church night. Eric's parents were in town for the day so we all went to a local Chinese place and had dinner. CaraBeth is thriving and we are so thankful to have her as our daughter and sister!

Our Boy

We changed our

minds and found out that we are having a baby boy! Here's a 3-D photo of his sweet, chubby face. To me, he looks just like Connor's baby photos. He's growing well..already 3.5 pounds. I believe he'll be a big baby!

A few more pictures

Colonial Williamsburg

The kids near the back entrance to the George Wythe house
Connor sitting in George Washington's pew at Bruton Parish Church
The people there dress in period clothing and take on tasks that would have been normal for that time in history. Very interesting to observe and take it all in.

The kids, my Mom and I drove out to Virginia last week for a stay and a little history lesson in Colonial Williamsburg! With only 2 days in Colonial Williamsburg and 1 day in Jamestown, we know we will need to return in order to see the rest. Meghan is especially interested in returning sometime. With special events and discounts for home educators in the spring and fall, we will have to plan that return trip!

1st Day of Home School 2008

Meghan, our high schooler!
Connor,our 7th grader, working on his least favorite subject: Grammar
Madison, our 5th grader, happy to be doing any subject!

In the fall of 2002 we began our journey into home schooling. We struggled with this decision, but we are all (I believe) so glad this is what our family does. It's been a good summer break but we are all ready to get back into the routine of school now! The kids all seemed excited to open their new books and get started!

Madison & CaraBeth....Twins

CaraBeth has been telling us every once in a while that she and Madison are twins. Now that I bought them matching dresses last week, she is completely convinced!

Fall

CaraBeth is especially excited that she is finally old enough to attend AWANA this year! She and Madison (who is starting her 7th year of AWANA) attended the "Back to AWANA" carnival last Wednesday and will begin regular club activities this week. Now we have to convince CaraBeth that moonwalks and hot dogs are not the norm for each week in Cubbies! Last Tuesday CaraBeth also began going to Mother's Day Out at our church...1 day per week. I think this will be good for her and will help the rest of the kids get a long day of home school in without 3 year old interruption.

Blue Belt

Connor tested last Saturday for his blue belt in Taekwondo. 3 hours later he had earned it! The coaches really worked everyone hard and he was very tired by the time it was over.

CaraBeth and I were there for all of it and for a 3 year old, she did pretty well! Connor is excited to see Taekwondo matches next week on tv (Olympics).

And here's a picture of Connor kicking a board in half....these tests get harder with each belt...one boy had to break 3 boards stacked together!

Our other new friend!

Here's the other little girl we were privileged to meet the other night. Look at those cheeks!

Finally, We Meet!

In September of 2005, our Dossier was sent off from our agency http://www.dillionadopt.org/ along with the Dossier's of several other families. This instantly became our "travel group"...the ones we would receive referrals with and the ones we would travel with to China. While some families lived in the vicinity of Dillon and were able to meet each other, others of us did not. Immediately we all began communicating via a Yahoo group and emails...getting to know one another and anxiously anticipating our travel in a few, short months. Well, it turned out that we did not all travel together so we were not able to meet anyone in person. Last night, we were able to meet 2 of these families! One family was driving through town and they were able to stay the night with us. Their daughter is just a few weeks older than CaraBeth. Once they warmed up to each other, they had a ball! They played so well and loved to do the same things. They sang, danced, dressed up, "cooked", went "shopping", and had dinner together. Above are a couple of pictures of them together. We can't wait til they meet again! The other family was with us here for dinner also. They returned from China just a few weeks ago and their daughter is not quite a year old. I got a few sweet pictures of her but didn't ask her parents (yet) if I could include those on this blog. We are excited that this family lives closer by and that we might be able to meet up with them again soon!

Off to camp

Connor and Madison headed to Centri-Kid camp yesterday
morning! Connor has been to one in KY before but this was Madison's first camp to attend...she was so excited! We did get extra hugs from her so I am sure she was a bit uneasy about it too. She called us last night...all bubbly and excited. They are in for a fun week and will be tired on their return Friday! As for us at home, it's kind of odd to have only 2 kids with us for the week..CaraBeth isn't quite sure about it. Meghan is liking the quiet!

CaraBeth is 3!

Meghan worked hard making a Nemo cake for CaraBeth
All of us
She sang Happy Birthday along with the rest of us!

These pictures are from her party on Saturday. We had a house full of family and she had a great time playing with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Today is her actual birthday and at VBS she had a couple of special "happy birthday" moments including another cake! We'll celebrate again tonight with a couple more gifts from Mama and Daddy.

First thing she told us this morning was that she was 19! yikes! We think we finally got her to understand that she's only 3.

Two years ago....

Two years ago, on July 7, 2006, we received "the call" from our social worker that we had a possible referral for a baby girl in China. Minutes later, I received an email with these photos and information on Xi, Qian Ling. Just two days later she would be turning 1 year old while we celebrated her birthday and our referral. It would be 3 months later that we finally held her. Now, over a year and a half later, it seems she has always been with us!

Cousins

Cousin Paige gives CaraBeth a kiss!

Family 'cation Part III

Next year there will be one more in the pool!
The wind was cool so when CaraBeth got out of the water she was "sugaring" (shivering)
Connor shot this photo
and I shot this one

Family 'cation Part II

I'm sure Madison and Eric are up to something here
Connor
CaraBeth loved it when Meghan took her to the deep side of the pool
When we put CaraBeth in the baby pool, she threw herself into the water and started swimming! She was like a little fish from then on.
She looks a bit worried in this picture, but she laughed hysterically when they got to the side!