Sealing

Here are a few pictures of our beautiful children and family. Some of them came out too dark, but these are so cute! You can't really tell but Rosie is wearing a Silk Chinese Dress and she looks so pretty.
These pictures are taken inside the visitors center next to the temple. It was a beautiful day.

In an earlier post, I explained a little about our belief that Families are Forever. When children are born to two parents who are married in the temple (sealed for time and all eternity), they are automatically "sealed" to their parents. But, when a child is adopted he or she must be sealed to his or her parents. This is a simple and beautiful ceremony which involves a Priest saying a prayer much like in a wedding ceremony. The Sealing, however, is for eternity and not "until death do us part". We were blessed to be able to have Rosie sealed to us this Saturday, May 26th in the Frankfurt, Germany temple. Our dear friends the Carters came to Frankfurt to be apart of this special moment with us and they later took us out to dinner (what a wonderful day it was).

Contrary to popular belief, anyone can enter the temple as long as they are "worthy". This means they must have been members of our church for one year and they must be following the commandments and repenting to the best of their ability. Inside our temples we wear all white. It is a symbol of purity and I like that we all look the same and no one looks rich or poor etc.

Max and Daniel were sealed to us about a year after we adopted them. We wanted to wait for them to speak English and to agree that it was something they understood and wanted. With Rosie though, there was no reason to wait. I guess we will wait about a year with Anastasia too.

Rosie's Birthday

Rosie and Daddy in their Dora hats. At this point, Rosie has no idea what is going on yet. It was fun because she and I went to the airport to pick my mom up and while we were gone Robert and the boys decorated the house and put the cake on the table etc. She was so surprised she just didn't know where to look.
Here they are - the Baxters minus me. Aren't they adorable? Those decorations hanging down are from Dora the Explorer.
Dora Cake. Not my best cake - that is for sure! Alexander kept saying she looks scarey. I couldn't get the hair and the eyes to look good. Where is my friend Donna the Cake Master when I need her?? Oh well, Rosie didn't care and the good news was that she did recognize Dora!
You can really see the psycho look in Dora's eyes in the shot. Weird looking. I am about done with Novelty cakes though. I've done a Basket Ball and a Batman for Daniel and I've done a Jack O Lantern and Pikachu for Max and I've done a Pikachu and a Spongebob for Alexander. They are so time consuming, the kids look at them for about 3 seconds and then they devour them. I think I'm sticking to cupcakes in the future!!

Here she is still looking slightly dazed. What a doll she is.

It was a lot of fun to watch her open her presents - she had a blast. I don't know why we don't have any photos of her opening presents? Well, she got several books, a little Cinderella "piano" (she loves music) and a leap pad for babies. I'm so glad my mom could be here. How is that for timing? She went to a conference in D.C. and was able to stop over in Frankfurt for one night - right on Rosie's bday. Perfect. I can't believe Rosie is 2 years old now and she has been with us for almost 4 months. Wow, what a wonderful life! Now, we just need our daughter from Russia.....

Life is so good...

Max and Rosie snuggle up to watch T.V. Max is doing so well with school, I've just been so pleases with how he is rising to the challenge. He is having some behavior issues and I really think it stems from all the hassles with Anastasia. I don't think he really believes we'll get her and as we get closer and closer his behavior gets worse and worse. Don't get me wrong, he is a very good boy, but he likes to upset his brothers and this seems to be tied into his frustration about Anastasia. It will be interesting to see what happens when we finally get her. I think there is just so much going on with Max that we don't understand yet. Sigh. These little people come with a whole package in their heads and hearts and he definately has missing pieces which we hope can be filled by his sister.


Here is Rosie getting ready for church. I LOVE this dress - it is a hand me down from my sister-in-law and that just makes it so much more special. I love to imagine her daughters wearing it and now it is Rosies. I can't wait to meet my nieces.








Rosie is such a big help around the house and especially around the kitchen. She loves to do whatever I'm doing. She recently has discovered that doing the dishes can be quite fun!














This is Max's panda bear. My mom got it for him a few years ago. If you squeeze his belly, it makes little baby noises and moves it's arms. Rosie loves it and has adopted it as her own. Here she is again in her little wagon, being pulled around the house by the boys, her loyal subjects, here only to do her bidding!










Rosie likes to go into the cupboards and pull things out. She discovered a piece of Tupperware that suits her nicely. She fits perfectly into this little "boat" and then her subjects can pull her around in it or sing "Row, row, row your boat" with her!

May 21

We had a wonderful, if short, visit from our friends the Skiliches. They were very close friends when we lived in Vienna and we miss them lots. They are metal sculptures and all around artists. They made this sculpture for us and I just love it so much. It is a Baxter Family Portrait. If you can tell - on the right is me with Rosie sitting on my lap and Robert is standing behind me. In front of me and to the far right is Anastasia (all three of us girls have skirts on) and on the left are Alexander, Max and Daniel. Isn't this awesome? The picture doesn't really do it justice though.




Sorry, didn't get this one turned right way up, but it is also a gift from the Skiliches. They made it out of horseshoe nails. I love giraffes and have a small collection of them so I just love this little guy. Rosie loves it too and has to give it a kiss everytime she walks by.









Rosie and Max in the living room. Rosie loves being pulled around in her little wagon. She also loves giving her "babies" (her little stuffed animals) a ride around the house.













Rosie hugging her lion. Actually, this lion has lived with Alexander for years, but somehow Rosie got it.
















Alexander and Rosie watching T.V. She doesn't seem to have a problem with climbing on people or the dogs. She definately wants to do whatever the boys are doing and preferably, she wants to do it exactly like they are doing it!