Art and Randoms

Well here is a brief summary of the past events. As those in the Midwest know, temps have been up and down. 78 to darn right stupid cold. When we get the chance Sophie is begging to go outside. Thanks to Aunt Diehnee and the Hognon clan, Sophie can motor around in her Cozy Coupe! We hit the neighborhood last week and she had a blast with push help from Mommy and Poppa.

Sophie is just loving her school. Last week she followed Mr. Andrew the cook around until he gave her a 'high-5"...Nice job Sophie Lee!!! Still not too fond of gym class though. She is walking so well now and beginning to semi-run. Most of these kids were held so much in Vietnam that they are late walkers. Sophie is one, but is doing great! Language is moving. She can through together two words like "Up please". It may not sound 100% but we know what she means.

Valentine's Day was fun. Sophie gave Poppa one of her modern art masterpieces. Titled "Kiddie Camo" it now hangs in Hank's man cave along with all of his dead animals. Actually it is the best looking thing in the whole room!!! The three of us hit Pho Grand for our V-Day dinner and gorged ourselves on great VN food! All is well with the three of us. Everyday we thank God for this little angel that he has blessed us with.

Rollin'!

BEEEP!! BEEEEP!!! BEEEEP!!!! Vietnamese traffic style :-) Her poor little legs can't touch the ground yet!! LOL

At work on Poppa's painting.

The final piece....

"Poppa's Girls" ready for a night out on the town!

A quickie, more this weekend

For all of you faithful blog followers.................here ya go! Sophie has her first Valentine's Day party at school today and I had to take pictures of her and her snazzy outfit.
We have been having a great time. Sophie loves school, but is still getting used to the fact that Momma and Poppa leave most days. She cries a little in the morning, but when she gets to school she is ready to go. She has a best friend already, besides me of course, her name is Jordan. Jordan is actually smaller than Sophie, but is a firecracker! She is so cute. Sophie and her hold hands throughout the day and they even hug bye! It's so fun to walk into school and get a quick peak at Sophie playing with her friends. However, when she sees Momma or Poppa it's drop everything and run. She loves to see us when we come to pick her up--Thank God!
I have posted some other pictures of Sophie with Jacob and Kim- very good friends of mine. We had lunch with them last week and Sophie LOVED AUNTY KIM.. and she wasn't shy with Jacob either.
We took her to Incredible Pizza last Saturday--obviously people do NOT go there for the food. Incredible Pizza gave Momma and incredible stomach ache! But Sophie had fun... pictures to follow soon.

Living Life At Warp Speed

We know, we know! Been bad about the updates! We are doing well and Sophie is just having a blast. So much going on as of late too!
School is fun for Sophie, she really enjoys it and especially the creative arts and music classes. Not to fond of gym class since A) the teacher is a guy, B) she just can't run yet like the other 2 year old kids. But all-in-all the teachers love her and says she is just a joy.
We had a few parties to go to, including a double header with our friends the Schapers and then the Dorris family invited us over for wonderful pot stickers and a belated birthday celebration for Sophie, complete with a cupcake tower, and all.
We had our first significant snow last week and Sophie was in awe. She went to the window and just gazed out pointing. It was the same day that she also help Mommy with her first batch of those yummy chocolate chip cookies.
We also have some late pix from Tricia & Sophie's Tulsa trip. Enjoy!

Thanks to the Dorris family!!

Eating my cupcakes... YUMMY!

The Tower

At my first college hoops game with Poppa. She had a blast! Nice look with mouthful of raisins.

Trish in Tulsa with her friends and their little ones.

Innocent look....

Riding the carousel at the Schaper's party

Hey! I remember how to do this! Sittin' on the hog with Uncle Bub.

Making cookies with Momma.. The hat? She wanted to wear it.

WHAT...IS...THE..GROUND..WHITE..FOR??

First Day Of School & Chuc Mung Nam Moi

"Back to school, back to school ... I've got my lunch packed up boots tied tight, hope I don't get in a fight oh back to school, back to ........" Billy Madison

Yes! That is right! Momma heads back to work after the never ending weekend and SLB heads to school. She had a rough night last night for some reason, so we are hoping she will not be cranky at school. She is only going 1/2 days for a couple of weeks.

Ready to go with my backpack!

Also, here are some pictures from her birthday (sorry not sooner, but Trish had the camera in Tulsa).

Sophie makes her grand entrance to the shin-dig in her pretty party dress

Kisses to Mimi and Moots!

With cousins Jack and Mason (www.ourlifeasriley.blogspot.com)

Proud Grandad with Sophie and Mommy!

Poppa's girls!

Smiles with Poppa's buddy Uncle Mike McIntyre.

WHERE IS THE CAKE?!?!?!?! GOOD LORD!!!!

Oh thanks Mommy! HEEEEELLLO KITTY! MEEEEOW!

And Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Happy New Year) This is the year of the water buffalo!!! Tet or Lunar New Year is celebrated by Vietnamese people all over the world. It begins on the first new moon of the new lunar year. The Tet celebrations began toady and run thru Friday night. We plan some fun things this week with Sophie and we plan to continue this for many years. More on Tet can be found HERE

Trying To Wrap Things Up

Even though we are home with Sophie we still have some loose ends in the whole adoption process. Things that many people may not know. Since Sophie Lee-Nguyen Belz is her "American" name it is not her legal name. As far as the US Government and other entities are concerned she is still known by he birth name which is confusing to say the least.
Yesterday we received her Certificate of Citizenship and a letter from former President Bush (Both are really cool), so yes, she is a US Citizen and has been since we cleared immigration at LAX on 12/21, but we still have to go through the State of Missouri to complete the name change and the Recognition of Adoption papers in the courts. Sophie's adoption was completed in Viet Nam and thus we do not have to re-adopt her in the US. The recognition of adoption is a viable solution which will allow us to obtain her social security card and State of Missouri birth certificate.
Once all of this is complete the "adoption" really is not 100% over. As a family we have a legal obligation to the Vietnamese government, where we will provide yearly progress reports and photos until Sophie turns 18. We do not handle sending these over to Viet Nam, Holt does, which is good. Holt remains with us for the rest of our lives and Sophie's. They provide wonderful post placement services and programs, camps, trips back to Viet Nam, etc. We are so very glad that we did our homework on adoption agencies and that we made the right choice when we chose Holt.