Rhett's New Favorite Video

What could you possibly say about this video? Is it supposed to be funny? Watch it until the end...it gets even funnier.

Christmas Day in Pictures

Here it is...Christmas Eve.

Rhett loves his bongo drum from Santa! Once again Santa gets all the credit!
Snow on Christmas? They said there was a 1% chance...SNOW!

Dan and Billy had a nice Christmas rest. What did I do during Rhett's nap? I worked on Rhett's birthday present!

We took Mimi out of the rehab center for Christmas. She did great, but wasn't very comfortable with the traveling part. I also thought I would include a picture of my brother, the drummer of Order of the Gash.

I love this garage by Vilac from my mom! No lead, no electronic sounds, no plastic, and lots of imagination!

I think I like Rhett's toys more than him! Well, I did pick them out after all! Look at how cute this pirate ship is by Plan Toys from Mimi and Grandad...

Adoption update...we are still waiting to hear from our social worker about the homestudy. Our Dossier is really organized though...we hope to be officially on the waiting list by the end of January!

Rhett's Audition for Order of the Gash

Rhett's Uncle Aris is in a metal band called Order of the Gash. They are currently holding auditions for a lead vocalist. Rhett decided to try out, and here is a video of his audition.

Stalker vs. Groupie

So, we enjoy our every-once-in-a-while Thursday music at Kennedy School and we wanted to dance last night. Dan looked online and found out that there was no music at Kennedy School, but there was at The Chapel Pub. Guess who...Jenny Conlee! She played classic rock songs on their antique organ last night. We obviously had to go. We were by far her biggest fans there. Rhett was asking about the "la-de-da-de-da" guys though...refer to "Sixteen Military Wives." In case you were wondering...she remembered me and we chatted. Included are a couple of pictures from the Summer Decemberists concert.

Corners of Christmas Decorations

Christmas is really coming fast this year. I'm mostly ready...Here is Rhett's nativity scene. He loves his baby Jesus and he often asks about "man" Jesus.
These are my favorite Christmas decorations in my favorite corner of the house...my craft corner. Notice the new window?
Yummy Christmas cookies. Chocolate mint patties...thanks Martha.
Rhett helped make the cookies. I have to say, cooking with Rhett is my favorite thing to do with him. He asks a lot of questions and we talk and have a really special time. He helps me make dinner most nights too. Mickey Mouse has been a permanent fixture with Rhett these days. Last week it was Osmond the Owl. I love to watch him with his special thing. He hugs it and loves it and says, "I love you." He is such a loving gentle boy.
Rhett calls this his "tree trunk" fort. Notice Mickey? Mickey's mom and dad are there too.

P.S. No, we didn't get a huge TV for Christmas...I found this box on the side of the road and I figured we could use a huge box for something.

Mall Sighting

As most of you know we are BIG Decemberists fans at the Lapour house. Rhett will often ask to hear The Decemberists in the car or ask to watch the Burn to Shine video with a performance of "The Mariner's Revenge Song." Rhett's first "real" concert was The Decemberists. Well, during a rather boring trip to the play area at Washington Square I saw Jenny Conlee, the keyboard and accordion player for The Decemberists. Worried that this may be another mistaken Elliot Smith (before his death) sighting, I called Dan to help me find out if it was her. He couldn't or wouldn't humor me. We left the play area a little later, sad that I may never find out if it was her, when we saw her in the mall and she struck up a conversation with me. I told her I recognized her and she said she recognized me...probably just trying to be nice. She said she was a musician and I finally got the answer! She was really nice and we talked for a little bit.
Wow, I am a little embarrassed by this post now. She is just a person after all...but a really cool person!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Already December 10th! This is the advent calender I made last year. Rhett loves getting his "minted chocolate" and moving the snowflake.

Rhett decorated this tree all by himself. He was very proud...
We got our tree yesterday and decorated it! This is the best picture I got of Rhett by the tree! That kid doesn't sit still for a picture. I had to bribe him with a cookie to stand still for the family photo by the tree.

Yes, it was snowing! What a perfect winter day to cut down a tree. We went to Hart Tree Farm where they were donating trees to the members and family of "Breast Friends". My mom is a member of the board. They had a bonfire and cookies after. December has felt like a blur so far! I have been busy with many banner orders, which is so great, but today I actually had to turn a customer away, because I couldn't get her banners done before Christmas.

Our Home Study

We had our home study visit! It went great. Why was I even nervous? The social worker was wonderful and patient with our active boy. We first gave a tour of our home then we sat for an interview. Who would ever think that we could be stumped when she asked what our joys of parenting are. I think it is hard to put such a huge thing into words. It is All a joy. (Don't worry, we gave a better answer than that!) We have some work to do while our social worker puts together our home study packet. I hope to have our home study done by the end of December! This feels a little like my first trimester. I'm counting the weeks until the second trimester starts. Dossier, here we come! The picture is one that we plan on sending to Ethiopia with our Dossier.

Give Thanks

We are thankful for this boy! This is his new favorite game. He brings "Blue" under the curtain and hangs out looking out the window and talking to "Blue".

We are thankful for family! We visited Mimi who is in a rehabilitation center after she broke her pelvis. My mom, Aris, and Grandad were there also. Mom, Aris, and Grandad came over later for dinner at our house. It was hard to have Thanksgiving dinner without Mimi.

We are thankful for our new windows! I'll show before and after pictures later. The new windows have completely transformed our house!

We are thankful for great food made with love. Thanksgiving dinner didn't exactly go as planned though. First, after an hour of cooking the oven got accidentally turned off. I didn't find out for almost an hour. Than after another 2 hours of cooking we realized our oven wasn't working properly. Yes, our oven broke in the middle of cooking a Thanksgiving turkey. Not to mention the green beans and stuffing that needed to be cooked in the oven. It turns out that the bottom element in the oven is broken. So, the oven wouldn't get warm enough. After a total of 5 and a half hours of cooking a 14 pound turkey we took it out of the oven. Thankfully the breast of the turkey was cooked enough to eat, but the rest of the turkey was pretty much raw. We were able to cook the other things on broil, but even that didn't seem to work too great. Oh, well. We still had a nice dinner. It is a funny story to tell, along with setting the green beans on fire 2 years ago.

We are thankful for our cat Billy too! You can't tell from the picture, but he is under the blazing fire.
We are also thankful for all our great friends and for our many other blessings. We are thankful for the opportunity to adopt and bring another baby home for next Thanksgiving.

One Big Step Closer

Our home study paperwork is done and sent in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, that required several exclamation points.) Although we are still waiting on 3 of our reference letters...you know who you are! I hope to have the home study done soon and I hope that the Dossier isn't too tough to get together. I'm just really happy to have the paperwork all sent in and I thought I should post about it!

Happy Birthday "Baby" Elliot!

Happy first birthday "tiny e". We can't believe it has already been a year! We can't wait for your birthday party. This is our favorite picture from your first year. You really are tiny here!

We love that kid!!!!!! And his parents aren't half bad...

Rhett can't wait to give you your baby doll!

Rhett is...

LOGICAL

Rhett: I love you Billy (hug).
Billy: MEOW
Rhett: Why did Billy say "meow"?
Mom: I think Billy was saying, "I love you too."
Rhett: Billy said "meow" because he is a cat.

A SCHOLAR
Rhett: Why is it dark?
Mom: Because the sun went down.
Rhett: Why did the sun go down?
Mom: You know why...
Rhett: Because the Earth is spinning (he says "spinning" while doing the wheels on the bus motions with his hands).

A POET
Rhett to Mom: Hi honey bunny. You're so money.

Our Productive Weekend

We got a ton of work done this last week. Here are a few of our projects...

I couldn't stand the closet doors in the house for some reason. They just didn't look good and they never got closed. So, I thought they would look better with fabric curtains. I finished the shoe closet curtain with fabric from IKEA. I think it turned out pretty good...

Next is our bedroom.

Good-bye ugly ceiling fan and hello awesome School House Electric light! We love it...now what do we do about that awful wood stove?
Dan worked on replacing the light switches and installing a dimmer switch for our new light.

I painted most of the trim and the walls in our bedroom! It feels so clean and fresh now.

I'm also working on banners, banners, banners!

I hope to be done with the home study paperwork this week. This may be a little too personal, but I'm starting to feel a little hormonal. Yesterday while watching the educational dvd from our agency I started to get teary eyed thinking about holding our baby in a sling all day. And this morning there was a segment on the Today Show showing images of a growing baby in a womb and I thought about our baby growing in her mothers belly. This is a very exciting time for us. My hope is that we realize this and don't let the stress of all the paperwork overwhelm us.

Rhett's Third Halloween Ever

Here are this year's pumpkins. Mine is the one on the left and Dan did the skull. I think they both turned out pretty good. Dan's is way better than his last year's pumpkin.

Here is Rhett looking very "Village People" on our way to trick-or-treat at Dan's office.

Sadly, this is the best picture I got of Ruby and Rhett together. They really did have fun, I swear! We first went to Kennedy School, which was totally crazy. I thought I was going to have a panic attack! We walked around KS a little with my mom and our friends then we went to Monica and Greg's house. We had a great time hanging out with our new friends and all of their great friends last night. Rhett just loves Ruby.

Today Rhett wanted to take a nap with his "cute fuzzy spider". You could hear him saying, "Oh, I love you spider," as I walked out the door.

Well, it is over and I have to pack up all the decorations until next year. I hope next Halloween we have another family member!

Fingerprints, Hot Dogs, and Leaves

We had fun at the corn maze with Dan's work. Rhett got to see some of his friends and we roasted hot dogs for the first time over an open flame. We only got a little muddy. We learned that this pumpkin patch actually hoses down the path to make it extra muddy for the whole corn maze experience. As it got dark we could hear the peaceful sounds of a chainsaw and screams coming from the haunted corn maze.

Is it just me or is this kid getting cuter by the day? I figured out how to get a "normal" smile. I told him to give me a skeleton smile and this was what I got.
Rhett had fun today raking leaves in the front yard.

On Friday we got our first set of fingerprints done. We are getting along with the home study paperwork. We hope to be done with the paperwork in a couple of weeks. I would love for our Dossier to be in Ethiopia by Christmas, but I'm not sure that is too realistic. We are working hard though. We just want to bring that baby home!

Our Trip

We are back from sunny,

hot,
Florida!
We had a some great time on the beach. We tried to go in the evening or when it was a little overcast. Us Oregonians can't handle the heat!

Here is Rhett and my Dad swimming.

Rhett has a new doggy friend. His name is Tucker and he is a GoldenDoodle. Rhett love wrestling with Tucker on his bed.

Dad and Debbie were great to have a bike waiting for Rhett. Rhett didn't mind that it was a girl bike. We didn't think he knew the difference, but he called it his "girlie" bike.

Here is the "private plane" we took from Fort Meyers to Tampa.

I am not the greatest airplane passenger. I was really nervous about this plane, but I planned on putting on a brave face for Rhett. I was ok for about half of the flight. I couldn't look out the windows, so I basically meditated with my eyes closed. Every once in a while I would tell myself that as long as the sounds don't change or the pilot doesn't start talking on his radio then we were fine. Well it started with a weird cracking noise. I watched the pilot look at each of the propellers. Then the noise got really loud. The pilot looked at us and shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know what the noise was! That sent me over the edge. Let me just say I'm glad Rhett was asleep, because I didn't have my brave face on. I kept imagining a bird stuck in the engine and bringing us down. The noise lasted for about 15 minutes. When we landed the pilot said he thought the noise had something to do with the vents. I don't think I'll be going on a ride on a small plane like that again.