Here are some pictures from the past weekend.
Ana Kate trying to get her hands on my new camera....I didn't notice until later that she had food on her mouth.
Ana Kate telling me she's stinky.
Ana Kate and cousin Brad playing in her tent.
Brad pushing Ana Kate in her baby doll's stroller. They did this for a while and it was pretty funny to watch.
Ana Kate playing outside yesterday:
We had a great Christmas and everyone loved their presents. Ana Kate's favorite present was her tent, and Whitney's favorite was her laptop. Doug's favorite was probably his spiral saw (he loves tools)....and mine was my amazing new SLR digital camera...I LOVE it!
These pictures were taken with my old camera, but my future posts will all have pics from the new camera. I'm still learning how to use it, so hopefully they'll continue to get better.
Ana Kate loved her tent...
Whitney's favorite present had to be her new laptop....and it was actually a surprise!
Ana Kate opening more presents...
A sweet Christmas Day picture of baby girl...
Six months ago today we first held our precious baby girl. I can't believe it's already been 6 months!! It's hard to believe in some ways....but it also seems like she's been part of our family forever. She is such a blessing! We love her SO much.
Here are a couple of pictures from our first moments together back in June:
Ana Kate turned 15 months on the last day of November, so I thought I'd post an update and some pictures. She is doing SO many new things each and every day.....she is hard to keep up with.
I haven't taken as many pictures lately as usual, but I do have a few new ones. Enjoy.
Ana Kate dressed up as a kitty for Halloween. She loved trick or treating and did very well.....I think her candy bag weighed almost as much as her. Here are a few pictures of our little kitty.
Kitty meets puppies...
Enjoying her Halloween candy this morning:
Well, not tecnically re-adoption. Today we went to court to finalize our 'Recognition of Foreign Adoption'.
Our adoption was already finalized in Vietnam on June 16th. However, all of Ana Kate's paperwork had her Vietnamese name on it and we only had her Vietnamese birth certificate. So completing the 'recognition of foreign adoption' allows us to get a U.S. birth certificate from our state (listing Doug & I as her parents), to have an adoption decree issued by a court in the U.S., and it also allows us to legally change her name at the same time. Up until today her Vietnamese name (Linh Nhu) has been her legal name, but she is now officially Ana Kate!
This is one of our final steps in the adoption process and I think probably the easiest so far. Now we just have to wait until her birth certificate comes in and we can apply for her social security number and U.S. passport. Our last step will be to change her name on her Certificate of Citizenship paper. We weren't sure we were going to do this, but since our embassy incorrectly listed her name on her visa....her name is all wrong on the Certificate of Citizenship....so we will just change it to her legal name.
A picture of us before we left.
Ana Kate in her pretty butterfly dress:
Picture with the judge.
Waiting for big sister to get home:
Showing off her adorable hat and bracelet from Amanda.
Today we went in to the doctor for Ana Kate's check-up as well as her second round of immunizations. She weighed 20lbs 10oz and was 29.5 inches long. So she's grown a bit since she's been home. Her doctor said she's doing wonderfully. She charmed him today along with the nurse and they thought she was adorable. The nurse felt so bad when she gave her the shots...Ana Kate had big tears running down her face and she looked so pitiful. But by the time we got out to the car she was fine.
I thought I would also give everyone an update of what Ana Kate is doing at 1 year old.
She's doing so much more every day. This is such a fun age....it's just amazing to see them grow at this stage and see how quickly they learn new things.
She is still not a great sleeper, but we're making some progress. She has started taking longer naps the past week or so. She has also only been up 1 or 2 times per night.
She is also not much of an eater, but I'm hoping she'll get better as we phase out her bottle. She will eat some foods now, but usually only a few bites. Then at other times she will shove everything on her highchair tray into her mouth...then when she realizes she can't chew or swallow such a large amount of food she starts gagging and spits everything out. That wouldn't be so bad but she then continues to gag until she throws up everything else in her stomach. It doesn't happer that often, but she can throw up on demand when she's mad. She just starts coughing and gagging and if I tell her to stop it she can....so it's totally controllable. I've never seen anything like it.
I thought I would also include some recent pictures. These are from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy.
I'm pretty sure she was doing a high five in this one.
One!
She finally realized she had a headband on...and took care of the problem. :)
My little bowlegged girl...
In her cute little sweatsuit.
Another one....
Finally she has enough hair to get bedhead.
All worn out....
I thought I'd post a couple of pictures that I love. I've also added a video of Ana Kate. She has already grown so much and is learning new things everyday. 
