Early December {Baking cookies, concerts, & pig tails!}

December 1~ Braylee & Brynna's 1st game of the season.

Just normal life with BellaMei. She gets food stuck at her stricture, the narrowed area where her esophagus was reconstructed. Sometimes it gets stuck worse than others and she needs help getting it out.

December 8~ Christmas Baking Day! Braylee made Peanut Butter Blossoms and then the girls all decorated sugar cookies.

Look at her little tongue! She couldn't wait to try them!

December 9~ Braylee's Christmas concert. She played the piccolo for this song, a first for her! (She's the one with her flute standing beside her.)

The Jr Youth went caroling, walked in the Christmas Parade, and then had a little Christmas party at church.

I had sent a disposable camera to the orphanage when we were waiting to pick up BellaMei. I finally had it developed and this is my favorite picture! We could tell from what the foster mom told us that the foster dad was especially smitten with BellaMei. I love this glimpse into his interactions with her. ♥ This would have been taken sometime in April when she was 12 months old.

December 10~ BellaMei's 1st {official} full pig tails!
Just when I thought she couldn't be any cuter, now this! 😍

December 13~ Brynna played in a trio at her Christmas concert and got to play the piccolo in one song too!

Coral spent the evening at our house. I lost count of how many games of Uno they played! She is Brynna's age, but I think Brielle especially loves having a new friend from China.

Little Bria just about has her ABCs down.

December 14~ This girly. She can do just about anything! She asked me how to french braid. I showed her once and then she did my hair! (I'm actually blogging while she did it.☺)

Brielle's 1st french braid. She did it along the side into a pony on the other side. Then she took a video of herself explaining the hair do. 😄

While it looks like the last few weeks have been a lot of fun, it's also been kind-of hard! Towards the end of November, Bria decided she was too scared to sleep in her own room! After 2 weeks of sleepless nights, we moved BellaMei into Bria's room with her. It still took a few more nights, but I'm happy to say they are both sleeping through the night again!