Create....100th Blog Post

I got this video in my email today and it inspired me, I wanted to share it with you.

Toilet Paper

You might remember that I stated in an earlier post that my little gal is not feeling so well these days. She has been a mess trying to cut some teeth. I can't tell if it's one or two because the whole bottom gum is really red. So when I set her down to do something this afternoon and she only whimpered for a moment I was relieved to have quite and decided to let her do whatever she was doing in peace. Mistake number one was made in not going to check on what she had gotten into. Mistake number 2 was running to get my camera before cleaning up what she had gotten into. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Here is the end of it all. I tried to salvage the toilet paper roll, she got the whole thing undone! I think it looks so much more cushiony (a word I totally made up).

She was so happy that I came to see her in all her creative glory.

The mess

She got more of the toilet paper off the roll when I ran to get the camera and she managed to eat...I don't know how much of it. Hopefully toilet paper can be considered fiber.

Avocado!

A few weeks ago Sariah and Daddy had a break through....he taught her how to use her spoon! I had been the mean mom far to long trying to be in control of feeding time. While this makes feeding time alot more difficult and way more messy, I seriously can't resist the cuteness she does it with each day.

The day after Dad taught her how to use her spoon, she got to eat avocado all by herself. (Well almost all by herself...I had to put it on the spoon for her.)
This girl loves her avocado's!

In the mouth!

Yum!

Hmmm, what is this on my spoon...I think I missed a spot!

The upside down approach.

Too much fun for the both of us!

Spring Break

This past week was spring break at our house. Wahoo for spring break!! While I was driving Justin, Brighton, and Josiah to school I asked them if they had a fun break. Justin's response made me smile...."Yeah, I had a great spring break." Shocked by his response I asked, "What was so great about it?" "The Arboretum, the Zoo, losing my other front tooth, and oh the skittles, 2 whole bags of skittles was awesome." Wahoo for the tooth fairy bringing the skittles. While he liked the other things we did this past week the skittles won. Lots of pictures to come. Maybe I will get them posted this week.

2 different Kiddos....lots of love!

This evening I had an opportunity to have a conversation with my most adorable 7 year old that I want to remember. Tonight it was just him and me on the couch for scriptures. Sariah was in bed already and James is at a conference all weekend. So we were chatting after scriptures about our family and he asked me some questions about his birth mother. He was going about it in a round about way and then finally he came out with it after a few probing questions from me. He was asking me what it was about him that made her not love him. Now if you know my Justin you know there is nothing about him that is unlovable. He is the greatest kid! Yes he is a normal 7 year old that gets whiny, sassy, argues and makes the general 7 year old mistakes. But he is awesome and so kind and loving at the same time!
Well the next 30 or so minutes was spent hugging and talking about all the great things that are Justin and explaining to him that he did nothing to make his birth mother not love him. That it was something wrong with her not him. My little man Justin has had a rough start at life and it's hard for his little 7 year old mind to understand it all. As we sat and talked I explained to him what it meant for him to be born from my heart. He told me that he wishes he would of been born from my belly because things don't grow in the heart. And I told him, "love grows in your heart and that is where you were grown, in my heart." I hope each day I can shower him with love so that he knows that even though he was not born from my stomach he was born in my heart and will always be right there in my heart! Now this little cuteness has forgone naps for the past 3 days. I think she is teething and misery is her middle name right now. She was so sad today it seemed that nothing could please her. While I love her and all her cuteness that she is....crying for 3 hours is really hard on the mommy too. Please teeth either come in now or leave....I don't know if I can take any more teething....tylenol is our friend.

Celebrating Justin

I am so far behind on posts it's not even funny. This week has been spring break, so my schedule is all off. But I wanted to get these pictures up before it was too late.
The day that the adoption was final we wanted to make sure that Justin felt how special this day was and how grateful we are that he is a part of our family.
I let him choose pretty much whatever he wanted to do this day. He chose to go back to school and have Sariah and I come there for lunch. Sariah and I went and picked up Subway and brought it to school to eat with Justin. No pictures were taken of lunch.
Then after school we went to The Tubes and played for an hour before going home to do homework and chores. No pictures were taken then either.
But as soon as Dad came home we went out to dinner to the Seoul Garden, Justin's choice! It was an awesome dinner and I took pictures!! Seoul Garden is a Korean restaurant that we love. This was our second visit and the food was great. Justin loves the rice and is really good at using his chopsticks.

Daddy and Justin and his little dog that he named Lukas.

Sariah has been doing this scrunchy face thing when she smiles and it makes me giggle.

Her bib says I love my big brother...and it's so true. Seriously Sariah wants to do everything Justin does. When we pick him up from school she is all smiles and giggles. It is awesome how great they get along and love each other. I really think they have a bond that will last forever and ever. I really hope it doesn't change as they get older.

Here is all the yummy food. You can't see our soup that was beyond the water glass but it was yummy. The meat is cooking right there in the middle of the table and all the sides to go with it. I really enjoyed the kimchi this time. It was just so yummy.

Okay so I had to take 4 pictures to get them all looking at the camera. I think it's funny that the first 2 Sariah is looking at James and then the 3rd one Justin is looking at Sariah. The last one is my favorite of course. It made me laugh taking these pictures.

The loves of my life!

I thank Heavenly Father every day for my wonderful family! They make it all worth it!

It is official!!

As of March 12th I am officially and legally the mother of the most adorable 7 year old in the entire world! Wahoo, I am Justin's mom! While the past 20 months I have been acting the part and loving him like a mom....now the state of Texas recognizes what we already had in our home.
I took my camera and everything and this is the only picture that worked. It is the 3 of us after the adoption was finalized. Justin is holding this little dog that the judge gave him.

The video was taken by one of the attorney's on accident. I had given him my camera to take a picture of us with the judge and forgot to change it from video. So I don't have a picture with the judge. Our attorney took a picture and will hopefully forward it to me. When I get it I will post it....for now you get these.

Siblings Playing

Justin woke up this morning with some pink eye so he is not allowed to really play in close proximity with his sister. So this is the game that they played this morning.

Pics from the Phone

As I was getting the pictures off of my phone I noticed that there were a lot of Sariah and only a few of Justin. I was wondering why this is so. I came to the conclusion that my days are primarily spent with Sariah. I spend about 12 waking hours with her a day. Justin and I get about 6 hours together each day and James and I are lucky to get 4 hours each day when we are both awake. Needless to say I get to see Sariah doing more cute things each day. I am going to try harder this next week to get more photos of Justin and James. For now here are the pics from this week.

Sariah loves being independent in her chair at the table.

I love this one...she is so cute.

Cute Justin

Close up of little Miss eating a Mum-Mum

I didn't notice the alien in the background until way after I took the picture.

Eating some bread

Trying to get away from getting her picture taken.

Mom stop taking pictures of me!

Losing that front tooth.

And again!

Getting sweaty in the car waiting to pick up Justin from school.

Sariah do you see Justin?

Getting personal with the window.

My Sister Gretchen is Amazing!!!!!!!!

I have a new nephew! His name is Hank and he is so adorable! My cute and adorable sister Gretchen was in labor for a very, very long time (something like 38 plus hours) when they had to finally take him out via c-section. Hank was a big boy 9lbs 5oz and he is so cute in his pictures. I just wanted to congratulate my sister Gretchen for the amazingly wonderful job she did getting him here. I am so proud of her. Seriously she rocks and I find myself fighting back the tears as I think of all she did to get not so little Hank here. I wanted to share one picture of the family and let everyone know that I have an amazing sister named Gretchen! Mark is a proud papa and a wonderful brother-in-law. I am so lucky to be a part of my extended family. Seriously there isn't one person in my family that I don't love oh so very much. Anyway, Gretchen you Rock!

Hope

CCNA Certified!

In the month of January James studied a lot for his CCNA....when he finally passed his test we went out to celebrate. We got a gift card for Christmas to the Cheesecake Factory so we decided to use it to celebrate. The celebration was a family affair!

Dad and the kiddos

The whole Family

Mom and the kiddos and the cheesecake...do you think Justin is excited to eat it?

Sitting at the Big Table

So Sariah has moved out of sitting and eating in her bumbo to sitting at the family table. She wouldn't let me sit at the table for dinner without holding her. That of course would turn into a game of who can get the food on mom's plate first. While it was a fun game for a bit she needed to have her own seat. I got her one of those chairs that attaches to the table and she loves it. The following are pictures of her the first night at the dinner table.

She had sweet potatoes for dinner...can you tell?

Always wanting to do what Justin does, she loves her big brother.

We had yummy gumbo for dinner

She can drink from a sippy cup all by herself too.

Happy baby girl becoming so independent already!

She is just too cute for words...seriously!