Our first few days together, as a family. Pictures are better than words.

Our welcoming party.

How sweet are they?  Well, everyone in this photo is waiting for their future children too.  No joke.  Two families waiting on referrals from Ethiopia and one with a referral already from Haiti :o) 

Our Chinese Princess meets our Grasmatch Ethiopian son. 

This would be the moment Corey (in the hat) and Habtamu "meet" for the first time.  Starring contest??

 

 

Hum...wonder what's going though his mind right about now? 

Thank you for making him feel welcome (and by welcome, I'm sure I mean a little shell shocked :o)

We went to the library for the first time with Habtamu.  He loved it.  We told him he could choose 2 movies for the week and he came back with 5.  I said "two is plenty...you will be busy this week".  He put one back, and asked how many Chelsea could have this week.  I said "She can have two movies, too."  He quickly looked at the four in his hand, pointed to the first two movies and said "Habtamu's, Habtamu's" and then pointed to the other two movies in his hand and said "Chelsea's, Chelsea's".  HA!  Told you he caught on quick!  We all had a good laugh about that one (and he did finally choose only 2 movies).

Well, I guess the "boys will be boys" thing is starting at home.

He loves movies.  Not necessarily watching them, but he loves to look at the box, read the back and talk to our resident movie expert about whether or not he likes them.  He and Corey seemingly have a few things in common, wouldn't ya say?

He learned to ride a bike in 10 minutes and within two hours, he was off and rode like he's been riding forever.  He was not putting that bike away until he figured it out either. 

And he's off.....

Our 5 kiddo's.  Wow...did I just write that I have 5 kiddo's?

Before we came home, we spent a couple of days in DC.  Yea, we were a little tired, but we had the sweetest hosts!  They made it feel like we were at a bed and breakfast, catered to our every whim, had 4 fun kids to hang out with and we had fun just being there.  Thanks Owens family!  We would love to do that again sometime :o)  By the way...that IS the White House behind us.

The 5 of us...and the 6 of them couldn't fit into one vehicle, so we split them up according to gender.  That's the only way to make it fair, right?    

Hey Emily Anderson....the girl in the green says to tell you "HI!"

And this would be Habtamu on his first airplane ride (obviously I'm not blogging in order of events here).  He traveled great and slept only 2 hours from Addis to DC (sort of like the rest of us) - then stayed awake all day long when we arrived in D.C.

Our fun friends :o) who live in a fun city!

Yea, we walked a little.  Yea, we were tired.  But it was so worth it!

This would be at the WWII Memorial.  It's breathtaking.

Happy Anniversary, sweetie!  This will be an anniversary I'll never forget :o)

Today we went to a fun center for bouncing and swimming.  Habtamu loved it (as did the rest of the kiddo's). 

Ahhh...much cooler now.

First time down a water slide (well, we're pretty sure it's his first time).

Is he waving?  Yea, I think he is.  And Jared apparently won the race down.

Hold your breath...here we go!

Wow...that was fast!

Gotta love dad's face on this one. 

Tired and worn out...NOT!

Parents of 5 kids...so far so good!