This Christmas has been especially fun for us as Hannah is aware of so much. She's been singing "Jingle Bells" around the house and after tasting her first candy cane cannot get enough of them. She was at first afraid of Santa but warmed up to him well enough to sit on his lap and smile for her picture. She has brought so much joy to our family life in every way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we enjoyed some very yummy fried turkey with dear friends and family on an absolutely beautiful cloudy day in So. Cal. We all worked together to prepare the food and atmosphere for a day to give thanks for so much!

We are especially looking forward to the holidays with Hannah at the age she is. Suddenly she is speaking up a storm! She said her first three sentences in November, "Daddy come home!", "Mommy turn", and "Mommy, where are you?" and now she is talking non stop. She also walks around the house singing all her favorite Barney tunes. Her voice is so precious!

Trick-or-Treat

Our little Goldilocks had a great time trick-or-treating this Halloween! She kept saying, "Candy! Candy! Candy!"

Lovin' Fall

Boy, life is flying by...school is in full swing, Joey's playing on a great flag football team (we are a sure thing to win the championship!), Hannah has started a little early-start preschool and Daniel has begun sparing in Tae Kwon Do. Although our favorite team is really hurting this year we are still enjoying college football. We can't wait for the holidays to come with the kids the ages that they are!

Just feeling really thankful tonight to have my health and to have these amazing miracles in my life. I shared my cancer story with nursing students last night at APU and am once again reminded of all I've come through and all I have to be grateful for. My kids are tangible reminders of what life is all about!

Beach Baby

We celebrated Hannah's Gotcha Day on August 4th with such gratitude! It's been one year since we brought this little gift home and boy how she has flourished!

Spending a couple of weeks down in Newport was the best way to commemorate our first year with her. We had gone down last year at this time and being there brought back so many memories of our first few weeks with her.

Auntie "Da" (my dear friend Wendy who traveled with me to get Hannah) came down for a visit. Hannah kept calling her Da in Kyrgyzstan and the name has since stuck.

More Summer Pictures!

Here are a few more pictures of some of what we have been up to this summer!

We Love Summer!

The Walshes are having such a fun family summer! Hannah is thriving and the boys are busy with camps and activities. Joey made the East Altadena Little League All Stars and has been in two different basketball camps. Daniel's days have been full with Dolphin Swim Team practice and meets, Camp Shi'ini down in the Arroyo and Tae Kwon Do (he just earned his purple belt). We've also had fun going to the beach, visiting the zoo, going to various museums and movies, bowling, swimming at the club and just hanging out. The boys have attempted a couple times to sleep up in our tree fort but chickened out once it got dark.

One highlight was attending Nightlight International Adoptions summer picnic where we got to see our friends Mike and Jenn and their son Joshua who we traveled with in Kyrgyzstan a year ago! In just a few days we will be celebrating our one year anniversary of arriving home with Hannah! What a difference a year makes!

Our Special Visitors

Recently we had the great honor of a visit from two lovely ladies from the Kyrgyzstan Embassy in Washington D.C. My agency was hosting them and they brought them by for tea and a sweet visit. I had tears in my eyes as I realized what a gift this sweet country has blessed us with.

They were so interested in Hannah and how much she has grown. They had been the ones who had processed her paperwork and they recognized her!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Our sweet Hannah turned two on April 27th! We kept singing "Happy Birthday" to her all day and by the end she was singing along! What a doll!

Hannah Sports a New Do!

Hannah has been sporting a molluck lately so we decided it was about time to take her out for an official first haircut! What a difference! What a cutie girl!

Happy Easter!

We had unusually hot weather this Easter so we enjoyed a beautiful resurrection day at the club with a lovely brunch, egg hunt, petting zoo and swim!

Our hearts were so filled with gratitude as we celebrated all that Christ did for us on this special day!

Walking!

Hannah is officially walking! She stunned us all on Valentines Day when she up and walked across her room from the door to her bed! And oh, she is so proud. She is toddling all over the place and we are on the chase!

It's so fun to have her pass this milestone. Since this has happened she is now out of the baby room at church and is enjoying many more activities with the other toddlers her age. I've also started taking her to My Gym and doing a "Wobbler" class with her. It's so funny to be doing this after teaching toddler classes at a mommy and me program for a number of years. What was even more fun was to find a few of my former students in the class with their second or third child!