Happy Thanksgiving 2007

A little late but here are some pics... These cousins have the most fun together.

On our way home the next morning:

1 Year Family Day

Family Day 2007Today was our big celebration. It was one year ago today that we returned from Russia and were finally together under one roof with all three kids. I will never forget the huge relief I felt when we were finally all together. I couldn't imagine wanting to ever go anywhere again. I was just so happy to be together and safe.

Today we celebrated by going downtown to the American Girl Place. Chloe has become obsessed with Julie, the new historical American Girl doll. She's the girl of the 70's.

So, we borrowed matching American Girl dress and matching Bitty Baby dress for Chloe and her Bitty Baby to wear and we headed downtown.

(picture coming)

We took a few pictures outside before we went in.

It was so much fun. They have gameboys that they loan out to brothers who have been forced to go with their sisters, so the boys were pretty happy.

The moment Chloe saw Julie was so cute, "Julie, Julie, there's Julie and Ivy, too." Ivy is Julie's friend. She asks me what the names are of the dolls in the catalog and then she really remembers it. I think Ivy may be her second favorite doll!

We looked at all of Julie's toys. One is a tiny little tape recorder Wyatt looked at it and said, "Hey, she has an Ipod." Hehe. I love that she's the girl of the 70's.

After touring around we bought Julie and opened her up. Wow, such excitement! Even Wyatt was interested in seeing what she actually looked like.

Bitty Baby was.. ahem... put aside a bit after Julie was opened. Frankly, she had tired of carrying the baby around and several times had tried to lay her down in a corner and say, "Shhhh, go sleep now."

Then we had dinner at the American Girl Cafe. They have seats for the dolls and they give them little tea cups. It is so darn cute.

The boys were such little gentlemen. They have just grown up so much. We were trying to describe to Wyatt what it would have been like to bring him there when he was two. Finally, we said, "You, know, like if we brought Joey." He smiled and understood.

Justin was the one who went and paid for Julie, so Chloe kept saying, "Daddy buyed Julie." So, he got a little kiss. So sweet. She gave her baby, Julie and I lots of kisses too. Wyatt, Chloe and I all fell asleep in the car on the way home and Julie is sleeping next to Chloe as we speak.

One Year Ago - Arriving in Moscow

Justin and I have been reminiscing daily about "this time last year." We remembered all the details of our over night train ride and how much we hated that doctor on Moscow who made Chloe cry. Here's a picture from a year ago:

and yesterday:

What a year. What a girl.

One Year Ago - Court

One year ago today we went to court and officially became Chloe's parents. Wow! A year! Wow! We were so nervous. But, the judge was very nice and everything went well. Here we are: I have never had such a huge feeling of relief as I did walking out of that court room. We saw Chloe that morning. It was the day they gave us all the milestones they had tracked in her 17 months. They really did an amazing job of marking all her milestones. We feel so fortunate to know when she crawled and walked and everything else, just like we do for the boys. So many kids know nothing about their life before adoption except what they remember. Here's Chloe that morning. And here's a video clip story time with Chloe. She's wearing her beloved Jojo jammies passed down to her by one-size-bigger-cousin, Joey

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We didn't get to see Chloe that day after court, but we knew she was ours and we knew she'd be coming with us.

That night we went out with the other families and celebrated. What a day!

What Happens When Mommy is Sick

I've been sick. It was a cold in the beginning of the week and by the end I was full on sick. I'm on an antibiotic now and feeling better already. When I went to take a picture of Chloe, I discovered that the memory was full. Hmmmm? Well, apparently when I was sleeping on the couch on Thursday night trying unsuccessfully to supervise the children while Justin was working, Jake made a video. All I saw was the toilet paper, Q-tips and toothpaste everywhere. Now I know how it happened. ***The video was a little too long and the end part was cut off hwere Wyatt shows the camera his "toothpaste man." It was made of two of his favorite buiding materials, toothpaste and toilet paper. I've got to get that boy a craft table.

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Help

In the past couple weeks we have had some very sad things happen to people we love.

Last Friday our beloved babysitter's husband who all the kids have always called, Daddy Al, had a heart attack. He is recovering.

We found out that a dear friend has to leave his 1.5 children and return to Iraq for another year.

And then the worst is the one I need help with:

I have a good friend whose 36 year old husband was just diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. They have 4 kids.

They have found someone at Stanford whose clinical trial has had the best results out there. We're talking amazing, unheard of results. But, there is no way to get in contact with him as he is not taking new patients. But, we all think that if he heard that there was someone so young and previously in excellent health out there, that he may be inclined to include him.

If you know anyone in the cancer center at Stanford or anyone who may know someone, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with the family. Please forward this to anyone and everyone. If it's only 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon, it shouldn't be that many to a doctor at Stanford.

Sincerely,
Anne Bucy
anniebucy@yahoo.com
847-304-4892

Jake's Costume

I forgot to tell the big story behind Jake's costume. Jake wanted to be a Pokemon but there were no costumes for any of the characters he wanted to be. So, he picked his character, Gengar, and Justin made it. The night he made it I was at parent-teacher conferences and he took all the kids to the fabric store, sewed the costume, fed everyone dinner, put everyone to bed and cleaned up. I know this won't surprise the people that know him.

Happy Halloween

The kids had a great Halloween. Chlow was so excited to put on her fairy costume. I found a cute t-shirt to go under it because it was a little chilly. She was so excited to get to Miss Pat's and see the kids. We saw Pat as we were pulling up and she was dressed in her cat costume. After we talked about that Chloe said, "I go show Pat my fwaiwy." She was so excited to see all her little 2 and three year old buddies in their costumes. I have never seen anything cuter! At 1:00 Justin met Miss Pat's gang and took pictures of them as they paraded around the block.Then Justin, Chloe, Ian and Ian's mommy came to Grove to watch our parade. Chloe was so excited to see her mom, brothers and cousin in the parade.Then Justin and Chloe visited the boys' parties and my party in kindergarten.
After school Jake's best friend trick-or-treated for a few blocks with us.
Then we waited for the Styers to come over and trick-or-treat and have dinner. Tony stopped by later with the kids and we got this cute picture. Jen and Eric have a better one and some of the kids trick-or-treating. I'll put those up as soon as I get them.

Pumpkin Carving

On Saturday we carved pumkins. First, the kids designed their pumpkins.

Then, Daddy "helped" them carve and voila!