It's been a while, but we're still here. The past month I haven't taken many pictures, but we've enjoyed lots of family time. Yep, I missed posting on the big day that was Anna's anniversary of coming home. I guess that has been my biggest hurdle in getting back to the blog. I know I was supposed to post lots of cute photographs of our first day back and then some from a year later, but really, the time just got away from me. Since my last post, we've enjoyed Christmas and New Year's festivities, birthday parties, a trip to Leavenworth for skiing, Quest, the Big Show, visits from out of town family, the Festival of Lights and both Brian and I have been carving out some time for a little extra exercise.
Ernie is really starting to read. He's been reluctant to spend any time actually reading himself, so I took a cue from the potty training handbook, and motivated him with a few m n m's each time he read a book. Nothing like a little bribery to get your kid reading. I wonder how long I'm going to get use such a small reward for such a huge accomplishment!
Anna is talking like crazy. Some days, she'll walk up to me a spout off entire sentences in baby babble, then look at me expectantly or waggle her eyebrows at me. She is using too many words to count. And she has just refined the word milk from "mup" to "milt." Its hard for me to believe she is speaking better than some kids her own age when she had a 4 month deficit of English to begin with. It makes me think they must have really been talking with her when she lived at House of Hope, even if it was Amharic.
The festival of Lights, Ernie's preschool winter performance, is definitely deserving of its own post, so I'm going to delay a little until I can get Brian to create a video for me. There's just no way of describing it that comes close to seeing actual footage from that night. Here's a teaser: Brian was laughing so hard that the camera was shaking as he tried to capture Ernie singing.
Here are some pics to enjoy:
Ernie on the podium at the Big Show
Brian, Anna and Ernie goofing around as usual
Anna enjoying the view in Leavenworth
I can't believe how big she is getting. 
Anna fell asleep like this the other night. Her legs are crossed and going up the side of the crib. We have a whole mess of funny Ernie sleeping poses, but we're saving them for a slideshow at his wedding or highschool graduation party. 
Digging will never go out of style at our house.
The kids are sporting their Valentine's outfits
