Twas the night before Christmas

Mom, Dad, Shelley, Maurice, Tyree, Corina joined us for Candlelight Service at church. It was beautiful. We then came back to our house for the traditional Christmas Eve eats. Mom's famous stuffed mushrooms and several different appetizers along with some really yummy wine. (accept for mom, she likes the sweet stuff) We played our "new" favorite family game, Pictionary. Jake is really good at this game.

Last year we started a new family tradition for Christmas Eve, the exchange of pajamas. Of course Scott got the sparkly red thong underwear again this year. Sorry no pictures. I am not sure why there are none? Everyone looks forward to getting new pajamas!

Family and Friends...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our friends and family.

2006 has been another blessed year for our family.

Jake continues to enjoy school and his new neighborhood and friends. He began the year by finishing his basketball season on a high note. His team took second and he learned a lot of new things about teamwork and hard work. He had a good baseball season and continued to have his ups and downs throughout the season. He started the year playing 3rd base and finished playing 2nd base. Next year we begin kid pitch. Heads up batter!! We went on our annual ski trip to Winter Park, CO and he really had a blast and got so good that by the end he was almost skiing better than us. The summer finished with our annual trip to Beaver Lake, AR. Jake amazed us both by deciding that he was going to put his own skis on and get up on his water skis without help. After a couple of tries he was off. Also, he learned to kneeboard forward and backward this summer too.

As second grade began Jake went through his normal adjustment period. Over the last month or so he has taken to reading “chapter books” and can’t get enough of new words, new characters, and wants to buy or check out new books daily. He loves his teacher Miss Cannady and she is doing a great job encouraging him with all of his work.

Jill has had an interesting year. She fell on our last run on our last day of skiing in March. Six weeks later, after a painful 9 hour car ride from Colorado, Jill had ligament replacement surgery (ACL) which went well and she was up and around a few weeks later. She still works at Bank of America but now has moved closer to home and works on the west side of town with a large, diverse team. At times it has been challenging but she perseveres for the sake of all her customers whom she loves and looks forward to seeing whenever they come to visit her.

Scott has continued his work at Pfizer. He is about to finish his 6th year. There have been challenging times as the company makes major changes in personnel again next year. He continues to love coaching Jake’s baseball and basketball teams. When he is not coaching or working he has been doing some running. He completed his goal of finishing the Turkey Trot, a 10 mile run, in less than ninety minutes. He looks forward to getting ready for the Wichita half marathon next September. Oh yea he turned 40!!

Our family is about to be completed, as many of you know we received our adoption match on her eighth month birthday, November 30th. Baby Emma will be able to come home with us around the first of February. It will be a two week trip for the whole family.

Merry Christmas and thanks again for your thoughts and prayers

Scott, Jill, Jacob and Emma

Hi everyone, my name is Ruqin, aka Emma!!

Hi my name is Ruqin (pronounced RooChin), aka Emma.

I just wanted to introduce myself to all of my new family and friends and say hello from Quangxi Province in southeast China.

I was born on March 30, 2006 and just turned 8 months old on the day my new mom and dad were notified about me. I will be coming home around February 1st of 2007.

I weigh about 15 lbs and am about 31 inches long. I love to laugh alot, play with my red ball toy and generally enjoy life sleeping, eating and playing my way through each day. As you can see I work out doing push-ups and am working on my crawling for some cardio 5-7 days a week for about 30-60 minutes :)

Although, I am on the opposite side of the world from my mom and dad, I am not scared. I know God has sent an army of angels to look out for me until mom and dad get her. I sure hope they hurry. I can't wait to see my big brother Jake. I heard he has been very excited and has been letting everyone know as much as he can about me. I love you Jake.

I want to also say thank you for all of the prayers even when you didn't know exactly who I was. I can feel them every night and it helps me to sleep peacefully.

Once again, thank you and I love you Mom, Dad and Jake.

Emma

No school today...

It's snowing!
Our first snow came today! It's beautiful!
No pictures today. I'll try to take some tomorrow.

Look who's turning 30...

Happy Birthday Taffy!

Thanks for including me in on all the fun!

Looks like we both need some lips!

Pooper Scooper...

Always making sure your yard looks great.

Love ya Jamie!

Have you written your Christmas List?

Jake has. He adds more stuff daily.

Thanksgiving 2006

My parents, Shelley, Maurice and the kids joined us for lunch, it was so yummy! Especially the "Paula Dean" (my favorite Food Network chef) marshmallow surrounded with sweet potatoes rolled in brown sugar, coconut and cinnamon. Is your mouth watering yet?


The weather was great for football, basketball, Cranium and Pictionary. (Maurice performing the "crab" walk and Jake drawing his pictionary word)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

The holiday's have arrived. We are ready to cook the bird for Thanksgiving(one of Jake's spelling words) and we are ready for our favorite time of year too.!

We got lights! Yes, our Christmas lights are up and we have power. Be sure to come by and look!

Looks like "Juan", our light boy, needs to replace a few bulbs!

Turkey Trot

Many of you probably did not know that Scott has been training for the Turkey Trot a 10 mile run. Saturday he ran further than ever before. Even though he had been training, he never ran 10 miles all at one time. Thankfully he survived, with Jake, Grandma and Grandpa cheering him on at the finish line.

Great job babe! I am so proud of you!

Heart of America

Last Tuesday was Jake's Music program, The Heart of America.

They learned what a Vet was, a Veteran, not a veterinarian, the Star Spangled Banner and how to respect our beautiful flag.

They sang the Star Spangled Banner, It's a Grand o' Flag, America the Beautiful, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Emma update...

We received our last update last week. It looks like we should receive our match no later than the end of the month. When this happens, we should be traveling to China sometime in late January. Keep us in your prayers.

"Tip Off"

Saturday was the "Tip Off" to the

2006 Magic Basketball season.

"Play as a team, Win as a team"

Trick or Treating at Grandma and Grandpa's

Grandpa and Grandma went a little overboard with the Halloween treats this year. Jake came home with the "new" Star Wars Lego PlayStation game and some really cool football cards. According to Maurice, he has some cards that will be worth some bucks someday.

Scary Guy (Tyree), Storm Trooper (Jake) and Rocker Chick (Corina)

BOO!!!

Everyone had a fun time Halloween night. We started with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Oops, we forgot our camera. We carved our pumpkins at the Prophet Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. Scott cheated and and gutted our pumpkins before we got there.

I am sure you are not surprised that picking out a costume is quite the ordeal. Thankfully, everyone agreed on the Star Wars Storm Trooper. For those of you who are not Star Wars fans, it is the white guy.

School party too. Dad got his first school party experience. Which included taking treats, picking up special drinks and cleaning up after 22 2nd graders.

Last but not least, Trick or Treating with the neighborhood kids.

We have another pitcher in our family!

We wrapped up Fall Ball a couple of Sunday's ago.

The boys are moving to a new division next year, kid pitch. So Scott and the other coaches have been working with the boys on their pitching, hitting and fielding.

Fall Ball was for only 7 days over a 4 week period. It was amazing how they improved in just a short amount of time. Jake has been working on his pitching too. He wants to be just like his dad. Even though he frustrates Scott at times. He sure loves to make his dad proud.

Great Grandpa Frank

The morning of October 1st, we received a call that Scott's grandfather had passed away. Thankfully he did not suffer and peacefully left our world to be with God.

On Thursday, October 5th, we celebrated Frank's life. We drove to St. Mary's Kansas for the service and burial.

Jake went in and viewed the body with Scott and he said that Great Grandpa Frank was not in the body, he was in heaven with God. If you could only imagine how proud we are of Jake. Even though he did not see his great grand parents very often. He sure loves them.

Great Grandpa Frank, Brandon and Jake.

Lordy, Lordy Looks Who's 40

Yes, you guessed it. Scott turned 40 today.

Happy Birthday honey!

The past several weeks I had been planning a surprise party for Scott. My gosh, I had forgotten how much work it was to pull a party together, especially a surprise party. I cannot even remember the last time I had to lie. I managed to involve my parents, sister, our neighbors and even someone from the church. (I had to have a plan to get Scott to church, just in case my plan backfired)

Thanks to everyone who helped me pull this off.

Party Pics

Scott showing off his new "Wolf" necklace and John Frederick.

Thanks Michael for being our cook for the evening.

The burgers and hot links were AWESOME!

Our neighbor, Jamie Lewis.

Scott and the boys!

Kaden, Hunter, Jacob, Jordan and Jake.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Just getting started...

Several weeks ago Scott and I had dinner with some new friends, Bryce and Stacy. During our conversation, Stacy was telling me about this site she puts stories and pictures on so her family and friends could keep up with their busy life and their growing son, Mav.

So with several visits to The Guinn Report and other sites, I convinced Scott that this would be a great idea for us.

We hope you enjoy spending time with us.