The last month or so...

I've been crazy busy with editing and adoption paperwork. Good news is that we now have things shuffling between adoption and government agencies. If things go smoothly (we can all hope), then we will be ready to receive referrals by mid- to late-February! Yea! I'll get back to Christmas pictures soon...

My boys... My silly boys...

I love those eyes and smile!

My "King"

Why I should never check my email while Wally is awake...

Because Ethiopian Christians are mainly Orthodox, they celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7. Therefore, to celebrate with our kids, we made Ethiopian food for dinner and had a little party. Our adoption agency gave us 3 teddy bears. One for Wally, and 2 for Wally to take care of until his brother and sister come home. They joined us for dinner. Hopefully next Christmas it won't be just the teddy bears with us!

How to eat Ethiopian food:

Wally and the bears. I think the bears have really made the kids seem more real to Wally. Since the bears arrived, he hasn't talked about the babies in his pocket that came out of his tummy, only "our babies from Eeteeopa."

Next year, there will be kids holding all of the bears (we pray)!

It has been so cold here lately (even by Montana standards) and we have had high humidity. We decided to go on a hike when it was in the 20s a couple weekends ago. I think Wally needed to get out and run.

He enjoys going off the trail and through the trees.

Kissy Monster!!!

We found the vines that we played with when Gramma Kathy was up last June. It was a little colder this time, but still lots of fun!

Ahhh, the joy of painting.

This was actually taken this morning during our traditional Saturday morning pancakes. Joel is getting more and more creative with the pancakes for the more demanding Wally.

Wally has said many times lately, "Daisy is my best pal in the whole world." Did I say that in my last blog too? It's been so long.

We had an ice storm last week. We got almost 1 inch of rain in a single day. I had never seen anything like it. As soon as it hit the ground or anything, it froze. We stayed home, but it sure was neat to watch.

Luckily, we didn't lose any really big branches or even lose power. Salt certainly didn't cut it on the sidewalks this time.

A couple days before the ice storm, this was falling from the sky. Snow shards? Weather in Iowa sure is amusing!