Now that our families have seen our pictures, we have posted them for everyone to view. You can view them in the Studio Portraits 2006 album.

We had a nice Christmas. We would have to say that Carter came out on top with presents. He got more than the rest of us put together. He really enjoyed it this year. Gail on the other hand didn't quite do so well. We sat down by the tree to start opening our presents. Carter started ripping his open and then Frank and I opened one and she started crying. She cries at the sound of russling or tearing of paper. So, needless to say, she didn't last long. We tried to get her to play with her toys but she just couldn't get past all the noise. Hopefully she will do better next year. After we opened our presents, we got ready to go over to our friends, Laura and Joe's house to have lunch with them and Laura's family. We all had a great time and we ate alot. Carter and their son, Paul, are pretty close in age so they played together. Their daughter, Karen, is only a day younger than Gail.Maybe next year they will be able to play with each other a little more. We left Joe and Laura's and headed back home. We all took a nap after we got home. Here are some pictures of us opening presents, etc.

           

(Additional photos in Christmas 2006 album - we will be posting more soon, so be sure to check back)

We all went to the courthouse in Fort Bend County this morning to finalize Gail's adoption. She is officially our daughter now! She received a special teddy bear from the judge to commemorate the occasion. We are so happy and so blessed beyond words! The Lord has been so good to us! And what a wonderful Christmas present too! This year will be twice as nice!

               

(You can go to the Family Photos album and click on the pictures to see them better. We also posted some pictures of the kids on there that were taken in the last few days.)

Gail's top right front tooth is getting ready to come through. It is hard to believe that she is already cutting a fourth one. This one will make 4 in less than two months. She is doing fine though. Her nose has been a little runny and she has a little bit of a cough right now. I hope most of it is because of her cutting teeth. Either that, or she has caught a bug of some sort. She can sit up for a short period of time before she falls over. She has been squealing a lot lately. She almost sounds like she is in pain (but she's not). She especially squeals when Carter is around her and she loves to play with his ears and his hair. 

Carter is doing good. He went #2 on the potty today for the first time. He has been getting better about going on the potty lately. Hopefully we are on the road to getting him trained. He's going to be out of school for the next couple of weeks. Oh, boy!

Carter had Christmas party at school today. He didn't even realize that I was there for a few minutes watching him. I managed to get one picture before the batteries died.

 

(You can go to the Christmas photo album and click on the picture to see it better)

Carter participated in another Christmas program today at CBS. The older kids told the story of Jesus' birth while the younger ones sung songs in between. They finished the program by singing "Happy Birthday Jesus". He did a good job in this one, too, but he didn't participate as much. Here are a couple of pictures I took. I took some video as well but haven't had time to figure out how to put the video on here.

   

(Carter is to the left of the center behind the railing in one picture. In the other picture, he is sitting in his teacher's lap.--- You can go to the Christmas photo album and click on the picture to see it better)

We took the kids today to look at the decorations at the Galleria (well, it was mostly for Carter). Carter really enjoyed looking at the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the ice rink on the bottom floor. It stands as tall as 3+ stories. He liked watching the people ice skate, too. Mom and dad will have to brush up on their ice skating before taking Carter skating. The mall was really busy as it would be around this time of year, so we didn't spend that much time there. Here are a few pictures that we took at the mall. We didn't take Gail out of the stroller for the fear that she wouldn't want to get back in it.

             

We took Gail to her 6 month checkup this morning. She had another good report. She weighed in at 15 lbs 9 oz and is 24 3/4" long (she was 13 lbs and 23 3/4" long at her 4 month visit). She had to have 3 shots plus a flu shot this time. She cried for a bit but she was tired anyway. She has a third tooth coming in already. I noticed it while she was crying. This tooth is coming in on the front bottom right. If she keeps going like this, she will have all of them before she turns one.

Carter participated in his first Christmas program tonight with his classmates at the preschool he goes to. He and the other Two's sung "Jingle Bells" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star" and all the age groups sung the closing song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". Carter did an excellent job! We were so proud. When he first got up there, I leaned over to Frank and said "that's our baby up there!" I was getting teary eyed. We took video, of course, and hopefully we will be able to post it on here. We didn't take the regular camera, unfortunately.

We feel special because we got the last Inflatable Snoopy Doghouse in Houston (or at least at Lowes). Literally! We went to Lowes yesterday evening and they had none left. A store across town had 2 left and the display. I called and they said that they could not hold it for us. I called again this morning and only the display was left. I asked the sales associate if he could hold it for me and he did. I went over and got it this morning. Now it is on display in our backyard. Cute huh? We couldn't resist. It's really for Carter...REALLY!

                                           

We went to the agency's annual Christmas party today. We had a yummy dinner and took pictures with Santa and group pictures. We ran into Katie and Eric who were in our group the second time around. We also saw our friend, Cherie and her son, Max. Her husband, Darin, wasn't able to come. It was nice that we didn't have to drive 3 hours to the party from Austin like last year. Here are some pictures from the party:

              

(See additional photos in Christmas 2006 photo album)