Christmas

I cringe a little when people say that this is Kad's first Christmas. I know its well meaning, but this is actually Kad's second Christmas. He did have a life and a history that did not include us, and I always want to honor and respect that. But, this is Kad's first Christmas with us, and we were so blessed to get to fly back to Indiana for two weeks to celebrate with our family!

We had a great time visiting, laughing, eating (a lot!)and making memories with our sweet little boy. Oh...he did get spoiled rotten with gifts too!

Here are a few of our favorite Christmas pictures:

In the airport...ready to fly!

First Elliott Family Christmas Breakfast:

The best gift under the tree:

His first 4-wheeler from Grandpa and Meme:

Kad LOVED the Elmo hat he got from his great Aunt Rossi & Uncle Richard:

I couldn't get a good picture, but my parents got Kad some monster feet slippers that he REFUSED to take off. Seriously...he wore them everywhere!

We couldn't have asked for a better first Chrismas with our Little Monster Man, and we're looking forward to many more to come!

First Haircut

Since we're back in Indiana for Christmas, we decided it was time for Kad's first haircut. His very talented Aunt Meg volunteered to help tame Kad's crazy curls, and we were so grateful! We were nervous that our squirmy little boy would make this a traumatic expereince for all of us, but he did SO GOOD!

He sat on Mike's lap, and he was eating up all the attention he was getting from everyone else in the salon. He smiled and giggled and before we knew it, our curly haired baby looked like a stylish little toddler!

In the chair:

Being such a brave boy:

Loving his new look:

Happy Thanksgiving

Its so fitting that our first official holiday with Kad home and in our family is Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for, and our sweet Little Man is near the top of our list!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a walker!

Its official....Kad is walking! I can't believe how much our Little Man is growing. Just four months ago, he could barely hold his head up and now he's taking steps!

Here's a short video of Kad's walking debut:




I'm sure it won't be long until we're chasing him around the house!

Twin Falls

I never thought I would trade my heels for hiking boots, but with hundreds of thousands of miles of incredible hiking tails in Washington, its becoming our new favorite hobby!

I can't believe how beautiful it is here, and Mike and I say at least once on our hikes, "We actually live here!" Twin Falls was no exception. It was an easy hike, but it was absolutely amazing!

I have a feeling there will be a lot more Washington state hiking in our future!

First Day

So, you know how your parents used to take obnoxious pictures of you on your first day of school? You know...where you're awkwardly posed in front of your door holding your backpack and lunch bag?

Yeah...I did that to Mike today:

Happy first day of work, honey!

...and you can totally be mad at me for this post later. I deserve it.

One Year Old!

I can't believe this day is actually here. Kad's first birthday! Through our adoption process, even before our referral, we kept praying, "Lord, if its your will, we would love to have our child home for their first birthday." And, here it is...a tangible, real, amazing, answered prayer.

With our entire family and all of our friends in Indiana, we had a small little "party" for him here at home...just the three of us. He still gets pretty overwhelmed with lots of people and lots of attention, so it was actually PERFECT! We had cupcakes, baloons, gifts shipped to him from his grandparents, and lots of smiles and giggles. I consider that a birthday success!

He was a little hesitant with the cupcake at first:

But it didn't take long before he went in face first:

Happy first birthday, Kad! We are so blessed to be your parents and to have the opportunity to celebrate this milestone with you home!