Storytime with Laine

Happy New Year!

Laine and I have returned from our holiday travel extravaganza! We visited 3 states, spent 20+ hours in the car and met a bunch of new relatives. A few of the highlights included Laine meeting my maternal grandmother, aunt, uncles, cousins and second cousins. We also spent several days with Aunt Wendy, Uncle Jeff and Trey before they left for Nepal for the semester. It was very sad to see them go, but we are very excited for there opportunity for them (Laine was very caring when mommy was crying.) We also took time for Laine to play with the children of my lifelong friend, it was really a joy to watch our children play as we had as girls. The lowlights included the hospitalization of my grandmother, although I'm happy to report that she is on the path to recovery. We also missed seeing some of our China travel friends (I know, again!) it feels like we were gone a while, but it was a packed trip. As if to point this out to me, when we finally got home yesterday Laine took a 5 hour nap! We took today to recover and then back to real life tomorrow.

Opening presents with Great Grandma (we brought a little Christmas to her)

Laine was happy to 'help' everyone open presents

Laine and mom on Christmas Day

4 Generations

Laine with the children of my childhood friend

Laine showing off her new outfit with Great Aunt Jean

Laine with Great Gram

A year ago today!

A year ago today was the first time I saw the face of my beautiful little girl. As I've reflected on this over the last couple of days I've gone between 'That was a year ago!?' and 'It's only been a year?’ Laine has is such a blessing in my life, an exasperating, trying, tiring blessing. I now understand the sentiment 'I love her more each day,' because each day is something new. I describe her development as on hyper drive, she went from being several months behind in Feb. to being ahead in verbal today. She was slow to walk, but now I miss her staying in one spot and all the scooting on her bum. It is great that she can communicate what she wants and she certainly expresses herself when she doesn't get it! The referral paperwork described her as cheerful, which is true and obstinate sometimes, I guess I should have known what I was in for if they new that at 6 months! Yes, things have changed, but I think the pictures below will bring you back to the first time that you saw sweet Laine and maybe realize that things haven't changed that much!

Fun in Florida!

Over Thanksgiving we spent a week in Florida with my parents and my sister's family, a great time was had by all and some valuable lessons were learned:

1) Laine hates the beach, I know she looks happy in the picture, but keep in mind she is being held. She hated the sand, screamed her head off if I made the slightest motion that could be interpretted as putting her down.

2) Ice cream is a daily event at Grandma's house. The parent's were quick to reinfource that second part.

3) Laine loves shoes, she was constantly trying on whatever shoes she could find. She especailly liked Trey's shoes because she could get them on herself and then still get around fairly well.

4) Having a cousin the same age is a lot of fun!

Hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas from the Tinks! (click here)

I was baptized!

My mom is a slacker so I'm taking over. On Aug. 31 I was baptized and my Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt, Uncle and cousin and many friends were here for the event, but you would never know based on what my mom posted. It was a wonderful service and lunch (but it got to be a long day as you can see from the picutres.) Mostly, I had fun playing in the water! My Grandma made my beautiful dress from material she bought in Guangzhou and shoes to match! I will talk to my mom about posting more pictures from Trey's visit, because we had a lot of fun together!

Happy Halloween

Laine would not go near her costume since it came in the mail, but yesterday when it came time to put it on, she came through like a trooper! Here are a few pictures from our fun day!




There was a theme in the neighborhood!




Laine figured out that an important part of Halloween is sorting through the loot!