Like sister, like brother

Siblings are supposed to have things in common, right?

Megan and Wesley are a far cry from looking the same. I'll be the first to admit they share no blood. But, we do need some kind of claim on them as siblings. My claim is that they were born with the same cheeks.

Seriously. Look at the picture of Megan's cheeks as a baby, and then the picture of Wesley's cheeks. Both of them had/have cheeks that bulge out from their face. Granted, lots of babies have chuuby cheeks. But still.

And you should be jealous, because big cheeks equal kissable cheeks.

So, there you have it. Like sister, like brother. Uncanny! (kind of....)
________________________________________________________________

baby Wesley

Hello, blog world! It's me again. It's been a very long time, but now I have something to say.

See that picture above? And all the pictures below? Yeah, that's our son, Wesley! I am not kidding. I know what you are thinking... How? When? What the...... ? I will attempt to answer your questions quickly. Quickly- mostly because I have to go hold my boy in about 3 seconds because I haven't held him all day and it is killing me.

 So, on with the story. Abbreviated version.

 If you want more information, keep checking my blog. I'm sure I will post more details later.

 On April 3rd of this year, Jared's sister, who lives in Phoenix, contacted us because she knew someone who knew someone who knew someone that needed a family to take her baby. Of course, we said yes, even though we knew these things never happen.

 Keep in mind, we were not looking to adopt privately. We had been chilling with our little family and were enjoying being foster parents. We didn't think we would EVER adopt privately again.

 Anyway, the following Friday, April 6, Jenny (Jared's sister) calls me back and gives me a little info on birth mom. I call birth mom and we decide to get on the computer to Skype. It is really awkward. She says she thinks she is due in about 3 weeks.

 I freak out a little bit.

 Jared & I have strong feelings that we should go ahead with this adoption, even though it is so fast and crazy and doesn't seem like it could possibly happen. We hire a lawyer. I keep Skyping with birth mom. I'm amazed at how every thing is coming together so easily. Seems too good to be true. We find out it's a boy. We shout hooray! We pick out a name. We wait.

 I keep in contact with birth mom. Jenny goes to every appointment with her. We still feel good about things. We make plans for me to fly down to Phoenix so birth mom can be induced. Plans change when birth mom goes into labor early Saturday morning, May 5th. I pack bags and head to Phoenix. Jared stays home to work and take care of the othe three kids.

 Baby is born. We name him after his great grandfather and also his daddy. We name him Wesley Jared. He is so handsome and adorable. Just look at the cuteness of this boy.

 I am still in Phoenix. Wesley is currently in the NICU but we are hoping he will be out within the next week or so. He will be fine; his little body just needs to figure out a few things before he can be released from the hospital.

 The good news is that we were able to sign adoption papers yesterday (Wednesday, May 9th)! That means that little Wesley is now officially our son and there's nothing can change it. It's a done deal. We are so happy! SO HAPPY! Obviously.

 We can't wait until Wesley is out of the hospital so that we can be together as a family. It's kind of hard being far away from each other in such a crucial and exciting and fragile time. Luckily we both have support around us. Feel free to send any prayers in our direction. Sweet little Wesley needs to get better so he can come home. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the pictures of our cute little son!

___________________________________________________________________

Here we go again

Just when I thought I might actually become a current member of the Blogosphere again, our life changes.

Yesterday we received a call for another foster care placement. Tomorrow (Thursday, March 1st) we'll have another couple children in our home. We'll have a 5 year old girl and a 2 year old boy. I'm nervous but I'm sure it will all be fine. I'll be out of commission for a while so don't expect any more posts for at least a few weeks.

I know, you're just so depressed about that.

:)

random February pictures

I obviously have not been as faithful at blog posting as I have been in the past. I think this is due in part to the fact that I don't take as many pictures any more. Also, I've been working on painting my doll house in the evenings instead of blogging. (No, I'm not ready to show any new pics of the doll house...)

Here are a few pictures I did manage to take this month.

This is Megan with one of her favorite toys: play-dough. I really hate the mess it makes, so at first, I was trying to make her keep it all on a plate, as seen in the following picture. I have since decided that keeping all your play-dough on a plate is completely lame and un-kid-like. Now I let her use the table. In the picture below, Megan is showing off her prized play-dough items of the day: a banana, cereal, & pizza. Notice her cheesy smile? That's the only smile we are getting nowadays.

In this next photo you might think Megan looks like a mermaid. No, she didn't grow a fin; she just has a dress on. Let me explain: Megan adores dresses. She would wear them every day if I would let her. Well, Megan's Nana gave her this little ballerina dress and she wore it all day at Nana's house. When we came home the dress was dirty, so I threw it in the laundry basket. I made sure Megan was not looking when I did this, because I knew she would be upset. I also completely covered it up with other clothing, so that, in the off-chance she looked in the basket, she would not see the dress. Well, the next morning I was in the basement exercizing. I came back upstairs and she had that little dress wedged up her body just as you see below. It was so funny to me. I still have no idea how she thought to go up to the laundry room and dig through the laundry basket to find her dress, but I suppose that love finds a way! And, dresses are definitely one of her loves. What a silly goose.

Utah has such strange winters lately. This year we haven't had much snow at all. I think we've only had two snowstorms (maybe 3) with a few inches each. I have tried to give Megan the opportunity to go play in the snow whenever possible. It's silly, though. She doesn't usually get down and play too much because she'd rather have her hands in her pockets than anywhere else... but that's beside the point. I went outside with Megan one day and we made her first snow man! She was obsessed with Frosty the Snowman all throught the Holidays, but didn't seem as excited about actually making one. I think next time we will make a smaller one- one that is more her size. Nevertheless, here she is with the snowman. I think it's funny to look at the snowman's face... it looks very worried.

This last picture is of Megan with one of her favorite friends: her cousin Kienan. We get them together at least every week for a playdate and they have become quite good friends.  It is so adorable to watch them play together and laugh and actually get along! The other day, at their playdate, they both were given a snack. Without a word, they were up on the couch, sitting close together, eating their snacks. So cute!

And that's it! This is the 4 different times I took pictures this month. Pretty pitiful, considering the fact that we took over 500 pictures in Megan's first week of life!

_____________________________________________________________________

Doing daddy's hair

Megan comes up with all sorts of excuses to try and not go to bed. I seriously don't understand how little kids can be so darn smart. Anyway, the other week Megan came up with something new. She crawled up on daddy's lap with her doll's hairbrush and started brushing his hair. It was pretty cute. I have a video of it, too, but it's kind of a boring video so I'm not going to post it.

She was also using a spray bottle from her cleaning set to "wet" his hair before she brushed it (but it's not in the pictures). We just love our little hairdresser!

________________________________________________________________________

Megan's vocal debut

Megan is much like me. She bursts out into song several times a day for no apparent reason. She sings because she likes to sing and it makes her happy. The only thing that differs from me is that Megan is so uninhibited that she will sing at the top of her lungs in the grocery store.

The morning we started potty-training, Megan was especially happy for some reason. She started off the day eating her beloved pancakes and drinking juice. Maybe it was the juice that was making her so happy (because I never give her juice), but, whatever the reason, I got out the camera and she showed off her singing cuteness.

Jingle Bells is Megan's favorite song lately. She sings it all day long and requests it every time she takes a nap or goes to bed for the night. It's now a little out of season, but who cares?

Later that day, on the potty, Megan started singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." This video isn't quite as cute as the first but I still love it.

... and that's enough to embarrass Megan for decades to come.

_________________________________________________________________________

Since November

I took a bird's-eye view of my blog the other day. I realized it was just... a LOT of words. I haven't even posted a picture of Megan since November. November! I'm sorry, folks. Here I am yappity-yappin' my big-mouthed words, and I'm not even giving you what you want.

(because I know that what you want is pictures of Megan...)

So here are a bunch of cute pictures from the last couple months for those of you who want them:

---------------------------------------------

This is Megan with my mom, "Grandma", who taught Megan how to say "yyyyyyyyeeeeeesssssssss!"

Megan likes to pretend she is putting on mascara (I wonder where she got that from?)

I love this picture: Megan in my shoes, a purse, and a camera. Just like mommy.

(Oh, and T's arm. He wanted the camera...)

Megan loved this snowman from Grandma. We had to sing Frosty the Snowman to her at bed time for several weeks.

Megan got to be an angel on Christmas Eve for the family Nativity. She was obviously thrilled, as evidenced in the picture...

I absolutely love the following picture of Megan and her cousin on Christmas Day:

One of Megan's favorite Christmas gifts was a cleaning set.

Why not teach her while she's young?

I always forget to take pictures of Evie and Megan. This time I remembered.

(note to Evie's mom: feel free to steal this pic off my blog)

That's it, folks! I hope to upload a couple of videos of Megan soon.

__________________________________________________________________________

maybe I'm the only one

Am I the only one that wants to look older? Seriously, I just want to appear my age. I have always looked younger than I am for some reason. I don't know if it's because I'm so short, or because I'm still holding onto [all of] my baby fat, or if I act young and immature, of if maybe I should just get a hair cut. Whatever the reason, I've always been so annoyed that people think I'm younger than I really am.

When I was college it was, "oh, so are you with a high school group visiting the campus?". Or "You're not honestly getting married, are you? Aren't you still in high school?" When I was teaching it was, "you're the teacher? I thought you were a student (in an elementary school)." Now it's, "so, how long you been married? A year or two?" (Try eight).

Everyone always told me, "you'll like to look younger... when you're older." Bah. Hum. Bug. I'm older now. (ok, maybe you still think I'm still a spring chicken, but I honestly am older than I was before). By the time you are 30 you should be happy when someone thinks you're 23, right? Not me.

Am I the only one?

I would be thrilled if someone guessed my age correctly. I've always wanted to stop at one of those "Guess Your Age" booths at the amusement park. I am sure I could win all the stuffed animals there. At least then maybe I'd feel like something good came out of my silly predicament.

When we got married, I thought, oh, we'll just have kids and then people will know we've been married at least that long plus a year or so; then they'll know how old I really am!...  ha ha! That plan failed dramatically.

Now I have a vibrant two-year old. So, what do people automatically assume? That I am 21 or 22. Because that's how old all Mormon girls are when their first child is two.

WRONG! Obviously. On so many levels. Really.

I'm not really sure what I was trying to accomplish by writing this post. Maybe the Great Age Wizard will come give me some wrinkles in my sleep. Or maybe tomorrow I will wake up 100 years old and wish I looked 30. But, then again, when I am 100 years old, I probably will look 30....

too much cool

My awesome husband got me a smartphone for Christmas. Now I'm cool. I know how to throw stuff at fake birds with my finger. I can cut a virtual rope to feed candy to a monster. I can play word games with my friends. I can check Facebook in about 2 seconds. I can text to my heart's content. So if I go MIA, it's because I'm now too cool for the blogosphere... at least until my phone is no longer a novelty. Now, if you'll please excuse me, I need to go find my phone.

to have loved and lost

I am not crying today, though I think I probably should be.

This morning I gathered all of T & B's things- their clothes, toys, blankies & barf rags- and dropped it all off at their parents' house. I went inside the house and gave baby B some long hugs & kisses (though she seemed much more interested in all of the toys I had just brought over) and I gave little T hugs & kisses, too. If you asked me 3 months ago if I loved these children I would have said, "I'm not really attached, so, no." But now? I do surely love them. And I miss them. Just a little.

Don't get me wrong; it is really nice to just be us again. Life will be less stressful now. But, at the same time, it is kind of strange that I won't be picking them up to have them at our house any more. It's okay, though. I know that they are where they need to be. I know that their parents have tried very hard and are doing their best, and as far as I can tell, the children will be well taken care of and they will be safe.

It's funny. We have loved lots of children, but have only ever gotten to keep Megan. I loved all of those babies we were supposed to adopt before Megan. I remember loving all 4 of them (even though we only ever met one). I remember that with each one, I felt intense pain as we lost them. Before adoption, when we were trying to have our own children, I felt love for the children I thought we would have. (I don't really know how that works since we obviously never had any to begin with... but I felt love still the same.) And now these children, T & B, that we so recently gave back, I loved them too. I really did. I do have to say, though, that none of that love is as great as what I feel for Megan. Hands down, the love I have for her trumps all other love I have ever felt for any other child. But still...

I've had all this love, for all these children, and I most likely don't get to see any of them again.  If I think about it too much it could sure take a toll on me. However, I have seen the strength and life lessons that have come to me from each kind of love, and from each experience.  

Our family life is certainly not what we envisioned, but we are so grateful for the way things have turned out thus far. I don't know the reasons for most of what goes on with my life; I just know to trust in my Heavenly Father and I know that He will lead us to children that are supposed to be with us. The thing I do know is that there is a plan for us. It is not all random. I know that our calling as parents is different, but it is still good. I am grateful for the knowlege I have that I can be with my family forever; that all of the struggles and heartache and pain we go through to find our family will be worth it, because we can be with them forever. I wish everyone else knew that, too.

Anyway... I guess that's it for now.