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Fall 2007

Hey! How is everyone?

we are into yet another fall. It has been very busy around here. Here are a few photo's of our girl's in the leaves.

As you can see the girl's are all growing.

Time does not stand still around for very long.

We have been busy working on the house and have now got the back done just about. It is a job and a half but it is beautiful when done. Maybe this next year we will get further on it.

Rebecca and Claude will be coming home for Christmas with Joshua Whoo-Hoo!!!!

James is also being released from Prison at the end of this month and we can't wait. He will finally get to meet and spend time with his daughter Aroura. She is blossoming into such a charming little thing and we totally enjoy our time with her. He will be in love the minute he see's her. She kinda' does that to us. I will have all 5 kids here this year for Christmas and can't wait. Too fun!!!

Talk soon

Love John,Tami,Hope and AnnaGrayce

Another year ,School begings...

The first day of school 2007

Well here we are another year later after i started this blog. Since then we have had a lot happen in our family. We now have 2 grandkids and we have 2 daughter growing up before our very eyes. They started school in September and are doing great. I can not be prouder of them. Hope started the Middle School in Kalispell, she turned 12 in August, and she is almost taller than me. Imagine that one a Chinese daughter who is tall. She is skinny and long legged. She wants to be on the Basketball team this year but with her mouth surgeries i am not sure... Well she is a great student and happy and into the preteen attitude. Watch out!!! She has come a long way from that little one at age 26 mos when we adopted her.

Hope at adoption, passport photo 1997

Well onto Grayce she is another blessing. A friend of mine asked me the other day if i am mad at the fact we have our grand daughter 1/3 of the time? I said no!!! It is such a blessing and it doesn't matter HOW they come into our family they are truly a blessing. So needless to say we are totally enjoying being older parents. Adoption is such a wonderful thing and it expands your capacity to love more. We will celebrate 10 years with Hope on October 15th.

Grayce is turning 7 in 2 weeks and such a joy. Even her teacher loves her and enjoys all the funny things she does. Remind me to give that teacher a special gift for Christmas. Grayce can be exhausting at times but she is so full of life. If only her parents could know how much she is adored and i could thank them. She was such a little peanut the day we first met her. We call her our stick of dynamite a punch in a small package!!She is now almost 7 and in the 1st grade

AnnaGrayce age 6 mos. 2001

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Joshua Mu En-Grandparents and lovin it!!!

Well it has been about 6 weeks since our newest arrival into the Valentino family. He came in a small package and a bit early but is still a darling. His name is Joshua Mu En Chew. He weighed in at a whoppin'! 6 lbs 3 oz. he decided he did not want to wait any longer to see grandma and grandpa.
Well i took a trip to New York to visit him and he sure captured my heart.

Rebecca and Claude are over the moon in love with him and this photo is a good reason to be. They adore and love him and are the best parents any little guy could have.

Rebecca and i saw a lot of the New York sites

We had a great time and enjoyed each other

immensley.

Claude is working for Columbia University working in the lab with mice and cell growths. He seems to enjoy it a lot and i think it is his place to be. Rebecca is staying home with Joshua for now and loves being a mommy. I guess i taught her well!!!

School is literally around the corner for the girls . They start on Tuesday the 4th of September and are thrilled. They love school and the challenges it gives them. Hope will be at the Kalispell Middle School ( 6th grade) and Grayce will be at Russell the school they both went to last year. She is a big 1st grader now. WOW!!!!! All day ...What will i do with myself. The first time in 25 years of raising kids and no kids or job to tend to at home.

Paco(Johnny) is living at home with us AGAIN.....We are hoping he will be working again soon. And be on his own again. James is still in Prison he was given a release date of September 23rd but the good ol' system ...it was not to be. They decided to keep him longer. So it is not to be yet. He is doing well though and accepted this dissappointment very well and very grown up. I was very proud of him for that. He is showing periods of maturing. We look forward to seeing him soon and bringing Aroura to meet him for the first time. It will be very emotional i am sure. Well. We all hope this finds you happy and enjoying life. Fall is my favorite time of year and am looking forward to it.

Until then.

Bless you all.

John, Tami,

Rebecca & Claude,Johnny (Paco), James, Hope and Anna Grayce

And our wonderful, beautiful grand kids...Aroura and Joshua

Whew what a family!!!!!

Summer 2007

Fun in the Sun!!!!

We took a trip to the local beach at Whitefish Lake.

Aroura had a blast. She is now 11 months old and is so much fun. We have her 1 week a month and totally enjoy her. She is crawling all over the place and trying to get into trouble. She grins pretty big when you tell her No-No.

The last photo is of Grayce with

Bella our puppy and daddy. They are waiting for us to light the fire in our new firepit we made in the backyard. We had a ball

and roasted marshmallows for Smore's. the next best thing to camping out. Which by the way dad does not like to do. Well this summer we are of course working on our very OLD house. We are painting but to do this we have to strip the old paint off to bare wood. So i say we are not Just painting we are RESTORING OUR OLD HOUSE yet again!!!!! But it will look so beautiful when we are finished. Here is a photo of the one side we have finished so far...

It does look good. We are excited to see an end product after so many hours of work! Well we are having James(twin brother),his wife and 3 boys and Grandma Tino for 9 days starting on July 20th. I then fly out to NY to see Becca, Claude and new baby on the 30th. Hopefully the baby has listened to Gramma and won't arrive till after i get there.

Hope did fabulous on her report card this year in school. Straight "A's" and 2 of those were A+'s, 99 percents. We are very proud of her and her accomplishemtns. She also made it on the honor roll for the whole school year. She is a dedicated worker and works very hard for this achievement. Grayce also did great in school. She has decided it is easier to use the name Anna because everyone knows how to spell that one. Pretty smart. She is learning how to read and reads all signs when we are driving in the car. She is another smart one!!! Hope you all are having a great summer~!!We sure are enjoying all the girly's in our life right now. All 3 are blessings to us. Until next time i update this See Ya!!!