Happy Halloween

Hi all,

Tonight Lindy celebrated her first Halloween. We went around to some friends and neighbors to initiate her into trick-or-treating. She was not at all bashful about sticking out her pumpkin and asking for candy. She thought an open door met an open invitation to come inside and make herself at home--especially when she heard dogs.

She also enjoyed handing out candy...ONE PIECE AT A TIME.

Poor thing, it was probably close to 90 degrees in San Antonio today and we had her covered from head to toe and she was DRENCHED! As a giraffe, she probably felt like she was in Africa.

As I've mentioned before, she's a hard one to photograph these days, but here are a couple...

Fall Family Festival

Tonight was the Fall Family Festival at our church. Our normally loud and bold daughter was a bit overwhelmed by all the goofy colored wigs, crazy hats, and painted faces. After a while, she lightened up and joined in the fun.

Here are a couple pictures...

Go Navy

Today was the Navy/Notre Dame game, so the blue and gold was out in full swing at the Osborn household in hopes that a LONG Navy losing streak would be broken.

Despite our little cheerleader's best attempts to cheer Navy on to victory, the streak was not broken this year. That must be why our cheerleader doesn't look so peppy in these pictures--or maybe it is because it was a good 45 minutes past her intended naptime. Go Navy, beat Army!!!

Our little pumpkin

Anyone who knows me (Lisa) or my mom knows that we often wear novelty clothing for the season or holiday. Soooo, OF COURSE the next female in the family must follow suit, right???!!!

Here are some random photos of Lindy celebrating the season and modeling some of her Halloween outfits--compliments of Grandma & Grandpa. Unfortunately, she is getting more challenging to photograph so the quality of the pictures aren't the greatest. A couple of times I bribed her with candy corn to stay relatively still and look at the camera. Hey, didn't I say I would never bribe my kid with food???? What happened there???

Enjoy!

Meeting the Austins

This past weekend, we had the pleasure to finally meet the Austin family (another Gladney family) visiting from Houston. Amy and I have been communicating via email and phone for the past year or so and at one time thought we were going to be in the same travel group to bring home our girls.

Since we hit it off so well, we were disappointed that we didn't get to travel together. However, that would've meant our Lindy would not have been the same Lindy or their Katie would not have been the same Katie. So, in the end, we wouldn't have had it any other way.

We went to La Fogata for Mexican food and while we were there our precious China dolls got many adoring looks.

Here are some pictures of our first meeting...

Six months with our Lindy

It is hard to believe that six months ago today our darling daughter was placed into our arms. It is incredible how fast time has flown--yet, in some ways, it feels like Lindy has been with us forever. I hope to never forget the feeling of holding her for the first time. Poor thing...she was so scared and so were we.

Since I see her daily, I don't notice how much she has changed. It isn't until I look at pictures from April that I see she is quickly evolving from a helpless little baby to an independent little girl. She is not the only one who has changed; we have, too. It is easy for Don and I to feel like we are her teachers and proudly gloat over what we've taught her. However, I think it is possible she is teaching us more than we are teaching her. No doubt, her life is better now but so is ours!

Weighing in at 19 pounds and standing 30.5 inches tall, here's a little bit about her...

Likes:

• Books---Loves Goodnight Gorilla--she can read a page to us from that book
• Mandarin oranges, pineapple, pears, apples, and bananas
• Most foods
• Music--dancing and singing
• Belly buttons
• Twirling until she falls down
• Animals
• Bath time
• Running away from Mommy
• Other kids big or small
• Being pampered with "pretty" lotions and sprays
• Jewelry
• Pretending to talk on the phone
• Asking "what's that?"
• Going up and down stairs
• Exercising her independence AND freedom of speech

Dislikes:

• Having her face and nose wiped
• Most vegetables lately to our dismay
• Wearing stuff on her head (hats, accessories, etc.) and seeing other people wearing hats
• Getting up before 9:00 a.m.
• Sitting still

Vocabulary:

The regulars--Bird, bubbles, Bible, book, banana, Beck, Mama, Daddy, please, thank you, more, pineapple, apple, mmmm...,cereal, bottle, rag, belly button (no where close-but we know what she's saying), pretty, fish, cheese, spoon, hi, bye bye, bread, Bryce, cat, kitty, dog, ruff ruff, bawk bawk, shoes, sock, baby, bath, night night, Jesus, duck, quack quack, what's that, keys, bib, amen, egg, stars, flower, waffle, diaper...

We'd like to thank everyone who has been so supportive of us since we've been home and for loving Lindy so much. It means so much to us and we are confident it will one day mean the world to Lindy.

Love,

Don, Lisa, & Lindy

Beach baby

This past weekend we snuck away for a nice little beach retreat in Port Aransas. It was wonderful! The conditions were perfect--great weather and very few people around.

I was a bit apprehensive about how it would work with Lindy. How will we keep her from drowning, how will we keep her from eating sand, how will we keep her from getting stung by jellyfish??? All these thoughts raced through my head.

It all worked out perfectly, though. She loved the water, loved playing in the sand, and had a great time.

I have included some pictures of our beach baby.