Play Time Fun!!

Our Little Stinker!

Cole had so much fun this Halloween in his skunk costume! His cousin Ethan was a dragon and they didn't know what to think the first time they saw each other in costume. They just stared at one another like "if you cry, I will too" then they just ran around having a blast.

July Pictures

Hey friends! Things couldn't be better around here. We are just totally in love with our son - sweet Cole Thai (or as my mom affectionately calls him "King Cole"). He is SO much fun. Cole is walking all over the place now and is talking quite a bit. He is our little smarty. Right now he loves to bring you books to read to him - his favorite are going though all of the animal sounds. I hope you enjoy the new pics!

Your Requests Have Been Heard!!

OK Tracy, Sheri, Mary Jane...etc...etc... I am FINALLY posting an update!! Ha ha! We are doing great! Cole has been cracking us up every day and he is learning SO fast we can hardly believe it. He is saying ma ma, da da, dog, waving, claping, and yes, trying to walk! He has taken a few steps between Dusty and I so I will really not be long before he just takes off. We have been playing with our friends a lot, going to story time at the library, meeting dad for lunch and right now he is really getting into having us read him books. Cole eats like a champion (so he fits into our family well) eating anything and everything! His favorite food is grilled cheese - just like his aunt Ali. He loves the water, so we are looking forward to the rain stopping so we can swim at GG's house. We are really excited that Ethan (Cole's cousin) has started saying "Tole Thai". Cole spent last weekend at Grandma's house while Dusty and I went to my 10 year reunion (yikes - 10 years!) and he had a LOT of fun. We felt like he grew so much in the two days we were gone. Ha! Well, we hope you guys are doing great!! Here are some pictures from our play dates with Zak and Dylan.

No Place Like Home!

Back a week and just now writing - OOPS!! I am sure you understand. There are no words to describe how incredible this entire experience has been. We are just blown away. We were ecstatic to be home - our own beds, our own shower, our moms to cook for us, and friends bringing meals...it is awesome! Cole LOVES being home. When we first walked in the door and started showing him around he just had the biggest smile and started bouncing up and down in my arms - he new we were home at last. He loves to be able to play on the carpet with all of his toys. He has adjusted so great. It took him a little to get his sleep schedule switched, but the last three nights have been great. We are so proud of him. He is a cuddler, which mom and dad love and he has really had fun meeting anyone and everyone. He is crawling all over the place and is pulling up to stand at the coffee table, couch, mom's legs everywhere, etc. I will be organizing some more pictures and will post soon!

I was looking though our pictures today and I was actually missing Vietnam! It was such a different place and incredible trip that a piece of me is sad to have left. I think we will always have a small longing for Vietnam - the country that brought our son Cole Thai. We cannot wait to take him back some day to see it.

We land in OKC Friday at 8:20 am.

Ha Long Bay - Hanoi

Don't you just wish you could sleep like this...

Happy Birthday Dusty!!

SO sorry we have not written in so long. As you can imagine we have been VERY busy! We went on a half day tour of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, had Cole's health check up on Wednesday, had our Immigration interview yesterday - and celebrated Dusty's Birthday!! Scott and Thomas also had Birthdays on the 2nd and 3rd so we had somewhat of a surprise party for them! It was really fun to have a great dinner with the Dillon staff here in Vietnam and celebrate their birthdays. Dusty received beautiful flowers from both the Dillon staff and the hotel - how nice is that?

Cole Thai continues to keep us very busy and entertained. Today he was fake sneezing to make Dusty and I laugh. We are leaving tomorrow at noon to fly to Hanoi and hope to have our visa interview on Tuesday or Wednesday. So far we are still on schedule to be home Friday morning!! YAY!! We are having a great time, but right now our own shower and bed sounds heavenly. It is hard to live out of a suitcase for so long. We have heard that the internet may not be so great in Hanoi so we may not be able to update as often...not that we were doing a stellar job anyways, but I am sure you understand. :) We will keep you posted as best we can. Love you guys!!

More Pics from the beach

Our Day At The Beach

Today mom and dad took me to the beach. You cannot believe how much I loved it! I had never even seen a bathtub until a couple of days ago - let alone the South China Sea! It was definitely my favorite day so far. I had so much fun that I have hardly been able to sleep since! The sand was really fun to play in, I just wanted to lay in it. It felt so good I even waited about 10 min before putting it in my mouth. I wasn't too sure about the beach at first so we went to sit down under an umbrella and mommy and I fell right through the chair! She couldn't get up because she was holding me and daddy was too busy laughing to help her. It was a good chuckle and after that I wasn't quite so nervous. When they took me down to the water I was a little scared of the big waves but I did love the cool breaze in my hair. They sat me down in the shallow water and they couldn't get over how happy I was and how much fun I was having. I just splashed in the water and laughed at every wave that crashed against us. Finally after daddy took a thousand pictures he and mommy played with me. We had such a blast and I hope we get to go many more times. Since daddy spent so much time taking pictures I told him he could share a few with everyone. Well mommy and daddy are waking up so I better crawl back in my crib and pretend to be sleeping. I can't wait to meet all of you!

Cole Thai

Our Afternoon at the Market

Here are some pictures of our shopping at the market yesterday and today. It is fun to run down there in the early afternoon to shop and just look around. There are so many beautiful things to just look at! Joey is sick :( so Kerrie and Zak went with us. We definitely spent some money today and had a good lunch - Dusty had chicken fried steak! Ha ha. Who would have thought you could get that in Vietnam?...well...besides Dusty of course. Dusty also tried on a pair of jeans at the market. It was so funny to see his dressing room - check it out below. He was telling that lady "No Peeking!" and she thought that was very funny. Cole is doing great. He is a really good baby. He is teething, right now he has two little teeth on the bottom, so some moments he is hurting but he always manages to smile right though it.

Last night Dusty and I had a date! Just the two of us and a Choco-pie (kind of like a mallomar cookie) in the bathroom. We swore we would never be parents that would tip toe around thier children while they slept...well, it took Cole an hour to fall asleep last night so where were we? In the bathroom sitting on the edge of the tub laughing and sharing a cookie. Oh the memories we alreay have! ha ha! We are going on a day trip to the beach tomorrow so it may be a day or two before we post again, but hopefully we will have some good pictures! Well, we gotta get back to staring at a sleeping baby...

This Is SO FUN!

We have just been having the best time! There are no words to describe it! The sights, sounds, and smells (yea...that's fish sauce) have been unbelievable. We got Cole Thai's passport today and it is so funny to see his little face all serious on an official document. It is Friday night and we do not have any more appointments until Wednesday so we are looking into taking a two day beach trip over the weekend. Yea! We went to a market today and talk about sensory overload not for our son, but for ME! The ladies would grab your arms (very firmly for tiny ladies I might add) and try to pull you into their booths all while Dusty is just hanging back holding Cole surrounded by beautiful Vietnamese women talking about how cute he is...and the baby too! Ha ha! We had a great time laughing about all of it on the way back. Here are some more fun pictures of random events - my first soccer ball (they have Goal TV here which shows non-stop soccer so Dusty is loving it), first bath in a tub, watching baby Einstein with mom (uh oh, I LOVE the TV!), etc. We love you guys and although we are having a great time - we can't wait to see you!!

Sleepy Babies

Finally - our Internet is working in our room so we can update more often! It has been out so when we use the internet in the lobby it has been mostly for making calls to family - sorry! : ) This little guy sure does keep us busy, in the best way. We are so head over heels. I wanted to share these pictures of our sweet sleeping babies. This was on their first bus ride out after the G&R. It was pretty overwhelming for them since virtually all of their time has been on the second floor of their orphanage. They all love their mommies (and daddies) so much and have just bonded so well. Don't they look comfy in their mom's lap? Cole cracks us up with how he sleeps!

April 24-25, 2007

See pictures below....This is Daddy's first attempt to post so hopefully you will be able to see this. The last two days have been amazing. We have just been soaking in our new family. It is awesome to watch Kathryn's motherly instincts take over. She already knows exactly what he needs. As most of you know from our friend’s blogs the boys all got dressed up in their traditional outfits for the big day. They all looked soooo cute! I have to admit that I always thought it was a little cheezy dressing little kids up like that but he looked adorable and I'm so glad they had them for the boys. We went on a big journey around Ho Chi Minh yesterday with the Sala family. The boys both did great even though it was one thousand and seventy four degrees outside. We ate Pizza Hut and it was awesome!!!! They kept asking us if it was as good as in America. . . yesterday it was was better. Then we ate ice cream, the scoops weren’t a size that my dad would be proud of but it still hit the spot. The food here has actually been really good but after a week we need something from home and that definitely did the trick.

Today 3 of the dads took clothes to the laundry. We decided on the way back we would ride on a motorbike instead of a taxi. It was pretty sweet and actually I felt safer on one of those things then I have in any car. The only scary part was that we had to show the drivers cards from the hotel so they would know where we wanted to go. They got us there and it was well worth it.

Cole is doing great. He only wakes up a couple of times in the night and Kathryn is able to calm him very easily. I’m sure he is on sensory overload. He hasn’t been off the second floor of the orphanage since he got there and yesterday we walked him through an Arcade/disco-tech/bowling alley that might have been the noisiest flashiest place I have ever been. He just gripped a little tighter to his momma and soaked it all in.

4-24-07 & 4-25-07

The Fam

Can you tell how much we are in love with this little guy? You were right...our lives will never be the same. Yesterday Cole laughed at us for the first time while we were playing with him. Dusty and I both said that at that moment we had never felt anything like that before. It was a whole new level of joy - like your heart could just burst! We have gone back and watched the video about 12 times already! HA HA I woke up at 3 am this morning wide awake - today at 7:30 we will be picking him up and will have him with us for good! Next time I write it will be with a baby boy on my lap!

Play Time With Daddy

Cole enjoyed playing with daddy on our second visit. I think he wore him out! It was so fun for me to see the "boys" together. I am now out numbered, but I LOVE it!

Our First Family Picture

Scott and Stacy took this picture of all three of us yesterday and just sent it to us. We are so happy to see all 3 of us together at last. As you can imagine we are SO excited to go see him again today - and cannot wait until tomorrow morning when he will be with us forever!

Meeting Our Son!!

Today was the day we met our sweet baby boy Cole Thai. He was amazing and smiled right away at us. We got to spend two hours with him at the orphanage and will spend two more tomorrow. He is just so beautiful and sweet, not to mention laid back just like his daddy! He played with us for a long time and then just fell asleep in our arms. We are exhausted! It is only 10:30 pm here, but we are still on OK time (10:30 am previous day) and we have been awake since 2 am!! Our internet has been pretty spotty - we will write more later and post more pictures. Love you guys!