2-year photos

A few weeks ago Megan had her 2-year photo shoot. My friend, over at capturedmomentsbytami, took these adorable pictures just 5 days before she gave birth to her own little girl. Double brownie points to Tami!

I look at these pictures- the full head of hair, the hair clips, the big girl shoes, the purse in tow- and I realize that my baby isn't such a baby any more. She has turned into a vivacious, assertive, sweet, spunky, and funny little girl.  Not to mention that she's she most beautiful child that ever walked the face of the earth...

Here are some of my favorites.

A close-up of her sweet face.

Here Megan is with her prop of choice: a purse.

We tried to get Megan to pose with her hands. At least it made for some funny pictures.

In the following picture she looks like she is posing, but she actually just has her hand down her diaper.

I love this next one because it shows a little bit of sass:

Now, for my favorite picture of all. It is the essence of our cute little Megan.

We love our little girl so much and we feel so blessed to have her forever.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Megan!

frustrating chocolate addiction

The first step to getting over an addiction is admitting your problem. I will freely admit that I am a chocolate addict. However, I don't want to get rid of this healthy addiction. The chocolate I'm addicted to is the sweet yumminess that is my child.


She is such a delicious chocolate and I cannot seem to get enough. I just want to hug her and squeeze her and kiss her all day long. I love her so much that I want more chocolate. More. Give me more. One sweet piece of chocolate is wonderful, but two pieces of chocolate would be even better.


Every time I see a chocolate baby on television I just want to grab through the screen and give that baby hugs. I can't stand those commericals where they show malnourished little African children and ask us to send money. When I think of the 150,000,000 orphans in the world I am sick to my stomach.



Can I have some of those orphans? Will someone send me just one? Give me another little chocolate baby. I want some more sweetness.


What happened to the days when you could just go to an orphanage, pick out a baby or two, and be on your way? Things are so complicated these days. It's either pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to buy a new baby, or wait months and months to be foster parents and maybe adopt through that-- if you're lucky. Geez. Talk about jumping through hoops.


I just want to go to the chocolate baby store and pick me out some more delicious chocolate.


If you find a store like that, please let me know. For now I will enjoy the sweet, beautiful chocolate that I have. What a perfect little morsel she is.
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my Beautiful in orange

It's been a while since I've posted and so now I'm playing catch-up. Back in June we had some family come in town. One day we went to a park in the canyon and I got some cute pictures.

This first one is Megan & Uncle Tyler on the pole. I'm not quite sure what the poles are supposed to be for, but apparently they are for climbing. Megan tried many times to climb up the pole, but, even though she is a little monkey, she just could not do it.

Uncle Tyler was later moving the poles around the ground and Megan was upset that she could not move them, too. This picture was taken after I had Megan settle for just sitting on the bottom of the pole:


Sweet cousin Elise is so good & sweet with Megan. She is wise beyond her years and very patient with the little ones:

And, lastly, this picture is Pure Megan: outside with a stick in her mouth.

And, I have to say- doesn't Megan look stunning in orange?

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my band-aid

Today I was asked by a friend to share my experiences with inferility. When I look back upon those horrendous times, I feel like a stone. When I write about all the things we did to figure out what was wrong- the surgery, the trials & errors, the different things we tried- it's all kind of like a blur. I don't really have any emotion when I speak of those things.

The emotion comes in when I start to talk about our precious Megan. When I think of everything we went through and all the pain we experienced in the years previous to her coming to our family, I start to choke. I choke because she was worth every heartache, she was worth every penny. Our little slice of heaven. She is worth the world and I would never change anything we have done... because it led us to her.

Megan is my little band-aid. She makes everything better. When I think of what the future holds- that this Foster Care thing is going to be difficult, that we can't just go make another kid like all my friends get to do- I get a lump in my throat. Our desire to have more children is going to be just as hard as it was to have our first child.

But, like I said, Megan is my little band-aid. All she has to do is smile, and mommy feels better. She knows just when to give me a hug or a smooch on the cheek. Her laughter melts my heart and I know that the Lord sent her little soul to us. She is such a pure child, full of spunk and truth and beauty. My little band-aid of love. I am so grateful for my little band-aid; she mends my soul.

3 short videos

These videos are totally random, but they exemplify three things that Megan does best:

1). Slide down the stairs so fast I think she's going to hurt herself

2). Whine for the camera before I even have a chance to take a picture

3). Dance her heart out!

Box Braids

About a month ago I got bored while doing Megan's hair. What resulted were these braids:

(Yes, that is the television on. I have to stick her in front of it or she won't stay in her seat. Though restrained, she still moves her head around and tries to bat away my hands sometimes. Maybe I'm bad for using the tube, but YOU try keeping a one-year-old still for an hour!)

I was actually really proud of the braids. I thought I was being creative or something. Even though it was only a mere 5 braids it still looked super-cute, and it only took about 40 minutes to do.

Then, a couple weeks ago, I got bored again. This time it resulted in more box braids. I had to do it in two sessions, with one hour for each session. On Friday I combed out her hair and put it in 15 "puffs" on her head. Then, on Saturday, I combed and then braided the puffs. The braiding was really tedious, but I must admit that it turned out totally cute. I'm hoping it will stay in for a total of 3 weeks, but we'll see how ratty it gets. Here are the 15 box braids:


15 isn't really very many, but her head is small and it's all I could manage to do.

Sometimes she will sleep in a funny way and she'll wake up with some of the braids poking straight off the top of her head, which is pretty comical (but I didn't think to take a picture of it).

I can't wait until I can try cornrows, but her hair is definitely too short for that right now. Plus, I have the suspicion it will take significantly longer than 2 hours.

Ironicaly, despite all the work that goes into some of Megan's hairstyles, I seem to get the most compliments on her hair when it is just in a fro with a headband.

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She's a Zoo

Megan has been into animal sounds. Whenever she's upset we can just ask her to make an animal sound, and she usually is happy again. This video was taken well over a month ago, and it showcases her animal-sound-skills. We have a truly talented daughter. If there were a sound-imitating competition for 17-month-olds, she'd win hands down.

And, for the record, I just have to state that this is only the surface of her sounds. She does a lot more, but this was all I could think of to ask her at the time, and she was distracted by the doggies she was hearing in the distance.

This girl is so so so so so so so so so cute. She still has the smushiest, most kissable cheeks ever. We're sure happy she's ours.


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want some cheese with that whine?

It has been exactly one month since I last blogged. Mostly, I think, I have nothing to say. Life just goes on and sometimes I don't feel creative enough to make it exciting. In order to blog, I have to think of something fun that has happened, or take cute pictures, or say something in a creative way. My creativity has been lazy lately.

I will attempt to get my groove back.

In reference to my excuses for not blogging, I mentioned that I haven't taken cute pictures. That is not entirely the case. The problem is that as soon as I bring out the camera, Megan begins to whine. She starts whining because she wants to look at all the pictures on the camera. I can't even take a picture before she starts wanting to look at them. So, in lieu of taking pictures of Megan doing cute stuff, I get pictures of Megan whining to see the camera, as evidenced below.

You can't see her hands in this picture, but she's signing "help!"

"Mom, we're at the church, and if you don't give me that camera, I'm going to throw a fit right here on the floor and make a scene!"

"Please, mom? I'm asking nicely..."

"Now I'm NOT asking nicely: give me that camera!!"

I guess we never should have shown her pictures on the camera. Oh well. At least I got a blog post out of it!

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HAPPY!

So, I was complaining to my awesome sis-in-law, Jenny, about how Megan never smiles for the camera. Jenny told me that when she had that problem, she just said "HAPPY!!" as enthusiastically as she could, and then the smiles would come a-flowing.

Well, I put it to the test. And thanks to genius Jenny, Here is Megan HAPPY! (and so silly, too)

It's easy to catch her happy while she's eating. Duh... who's not happy while they're eating?

This one really cracks me up because she looks like a little alien (she pulled out her little hair do thingies) and she doesn't actually look happy, but she's laughing like crazy.

We love our silly, happy baby. Love her so much.

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Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

It is so hard for me to catch Megan doing something cute on video. Most of the time she stops the moment she sees the camera. So, this time, I tried to hide as I videoed her dancing, but it didn't work out too well. She still saw me, and I made a fuzzy video.

Ah well. Enjoy a cutie Christmas Dance.



Merry Christmas, ya'll!

because I can't resist

My good friend Tami snapped a few pictures at a church party this weekend and kindly sent them my way. I just can't resist posting them.

No smiles, but Evie & Megan are just the cutest little buggers:

Again, no smile, but who can resist that beautiful face?

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Photo Star

In honor of Megan's first birthday, my friend Tami gave me a FREE photo shoot! This is the second time she has taken pictures for me (see the other shoot here) and I think she is amazing! Her pictures always turn out so darling. Feel free to check out Tami's blog.

We went to a nearby park and the grass was still wet. Megan insisted on getting her pants soiled with water & mud, but, luckily, it didn't show up in the pictures. All that showed up in the pictures was pure cuteness. Pure. Cuteness.

Tangent: Sometimes I honestly think Megan should be a child model, because she's way cuter than all the other African-American babies I see in advertisements. But, alas, I don't want that kind of life for her (or her mother!).

See her cuteness for yourself.

Check out the cute banner that Tami made for the photo shoot:

I'm thinkin' this is one of my favorites:

A close-up of our brown sugar baby.

You might have noticed that in every picture Megan is holding something. Until this point, she was holding & eating a leaf (yum!) and got very upset if we tried to take it away. Tami then had the genius idea to give her a pink ribbon instead.

Megan played in this dead grass forever. She was eating it like there's no tomorrow. There was no keeping it out of her mouth.

Well, there you go. Like I said. Pure. Cuteness.

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When You Were Born

Our Dear, Sweet Megan,

Your daddy and I can't believe it has been an entire year since you were born! It seems like only last week we brought you home from the hospital!

Though this isn't the entire story, I just want to let you know what was happening in our life when you were born, and how excited we were to get you.

Day 1- October 8, 2009

On October 8, 2009, you were born, as expected (because it was the date your birthmom, Catherine, would be induced). Your daddy and I were getting very apprehensive and nervous. When we received the call that you had been born, we prayed very hard. We prayed very hard that we would get to keep you. We hadn't met you, and we didn't even know how beautiful you were. But, we loved you in our hearts and we needed you. We prayed very hard that Catherine would sign the documents that would give you to us. We prayed very hard that she would do the right thing and know that we could take better care of you than she could.

Your daddy was at work and I was teaching piano lessons while you were being born. When the agency called me, I called daddy. We called Nana & Papa, and Grandma & Grandpa and told them you had been born. Then, they started praying, too.

Day 2- Friday, October 9, 2009

You had been born yesterday, and today, we were waiting for the agency to call again. This time, they would be calling to tell us if your birthmom signed those papers. Catherine had to wait 24 hours to sign the papers, and we knew that in those 24 hours, she would fall in love with you and might not want to let you go. So, we waited. We were very hopeful. In anticipation that she would sign those papers, I wanted to find a cute outfit in which to bring you home from the hospital. So, Aunt Lacey and I went shopping and I bought you a cute dress. Aunt Lacey bought you the cute headband & bow that you'll see in the pictures.

While Aunt Lacey & I were shopping, your daddy called me. He said that the agency had called him to say that Catherine signed the papers! That meant you would be ours!!! I was so happy that I made a fool out of myself. I was going around the mall telling everyone that I was going to be a mommy! I was running and jumping and making a lot of noise, right there in the mall. I think I embarrased your Aunt Lacey, but I didn't even care what anyone thought.

I dropped Lacey off back home and your daddy and I went out to dinner that night to celebrate you, our new daughter. We hadn't told anyone except our parents about you. So when we got home that night, we called our families to let them know the good news. The agency said we could pick you up from the hospital the next day, on Saturday, October 10.

Day 3- Saturday, October 10, 2009

This day seemed like the longest day of our lives. Your daddy & I knew the agency was going to call us to tell us what time to pick you up. We kept waiting and waiting for the call, and we were so scared that something would go wrong and that we wouldn't have you any more.

Instead of waiting around the house, we decided to get in the car and run some errands. While we were waiting at Jiffy Lube to get an oil change on the car, the agency called us and told us to be at Pioneer Valley Hospital in West Valley City at 11:00. We hurried and got the car, and drove to the hospital really fast.

We waited in the parking lot until the agency called for us to go in and get you. We waited in the car for almost 4 hours! While we waited, we went to the store to get you a cute blanket to come home in. When we finally went inside the hospital, we waited in the waiting room upstairs. A lady from the agency dressed you up in your cute outfit and brought you to us. We fell in love with you instantly. You were so adorable, and we were so happy to finally have you! On the way home, I sat in the back seat with you so I could touch you and look at you. I couldn't take my eyes off of you. We stopped at Nana & Papa's house on the way home, but we only let them see you for a minute before we drove home. That night, Nana & Papa, Aunt Andrea & Uncle Jeff, cousin Kienan, Uncle Tyler, and Uncle Mark came over to see you. They all held you and loved you and thought you were beautiful.

You ARE beautiful. You are the most adorable child we have even known. You have such a cute personality, and so much spunk! You make us laugh every day, and we love you more than anything in the whole world. You have made us happier than we could ever imagine. Megan, sweet Megan, we hope you always know how much we love you and how much we need you. You grew in our hearts for 6 years before you came to us, and we know you were always supposed to be our daughter. You will always be our special little angel baby, and we will love you forever.

Happy First Birthday, Megan!

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

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Little Lady Lickit's latest love

A few posts ago I blogged about Little Lady Lickit. What I failed to mention is that Megan has always had a peculiar obsession with licking metal. She has been this way since she was a wee little one.

If it's metal, her tongue is on it. I don't know why she is so fascinated with metal. Maybe it's the taste? The color? Maybe she was fed metal in the womb? It's a mystery to me.

But, whatever the reason, it's funny. In the video below, Megan is licking our tv console, which has a metal surface running down the glass. She was licking it for probably 3 minutes straight before I ever started videotaping.

Enjoy!



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Videos Galore

Hey Grandparents (especially those in MICHIGAN who never get to see their favorite granddaughter), this is for you.

Seriously, I posted these just for you. So, you had better watch every one at least 4 times or I'm telling on you.


Here is Megan in her her ballerina pj's. Apparently, turning around in circles is something ballerinas do. (9/14/10)



This is the Megster getting creative with a chair. (9/16/10)



Jared taught Megan how to do "patty cake." We love how she anticipates every move. (9/21/10)



Lastly, this is Megan blowing kisses. I know you'll smile when you see this one! (9/24/10)



We love you!! (and that's for all grandparents, near and far!)
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News of the Kingdom

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

The young Princess Megan has earned herself a new title in Roberts Kingdom. This delightful child has been consistent in her efforts to help keep the cookery clean. As a contributing member of the kindgom, she shall henceforth be known as

Little Lady Lickit.

Little Lady Lickit helps the maid with chores, as evidenced in the sketches below:

Cleaning the storage chamber:

Washing the light aperture:

Polishing the dish-washing mechanism:

It is rumored that Little Lady Lickit also cleans the floor, but that is yet to be proven by photograph.

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I Remember Virginia

September 18th, 2009 was arguably one of the worst days of my life. On this day, exactly one year ago, I remember the events that happened.

I remember taking that last-minte, overnight flight to Virginia that landed us in a hospital in a small town. I remember being eager to meet baby Jack, as we would name him. I remember crying for hours in the hotel room when she changed her mind. I remember the excitement of maybe getting him again, and the pain and ultimate heartache that followed after a week of chasing that little dream.

But, I also remember the good. I remember, while in Virginia, getting a call about a little girl who would be born in 3 weeks. I remember being so tired and worn from the loss of Jack, but the glimmer of hope we had for this baby girl.

So, Virginia, I remember you for bad and for good. I know, without a doubt, that you were part of the Plan from the beginning. You are where we felt a lot of pain, and you were where we first heard of the beginning of our joy.

But also, Virginia, I have no intention of ever seeing you again.

Our little BFFs

This post is dedicated to the wonderful Denise, Jane & Morgan...

Our little girls don't know it yet, but they're best friends. At first, they stared at each other, as best friends do. Then, they graduated to poking each other, as best friends do. From there, they moved on to grabbing clothes, hitting, screaming, crying, and pulling hair. If that's not enough to convince you they're best friends, they even crawl together, as seen in the footage below:



Was that cute or WHAT???

Here are some pictures to show you the elaborate and sophisticated way in which these two girls share their best-friend-ship status.

Here they are on a playdate, playing side by side:

They read books together (you can't see the book, but I promise it's there!):

They play together on monster bouncers at the park:

And, they ask us to take cute pictures of them with their daddies!

Way to go, girls! Your friendship is blooming. Now all we have to do is keep telling each of you that you're the other's best friend, and it will honestly happen. Right?
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6 weeks and 45 minutes of hair

You may have read posts about Megan's hair before. In fact, I think I've been blogging about it since she was born.

Well, turns out, her hair is AWESOME. It's crazy, but I love it. No other race can get away with having adorable little puffs all over their heads. And, frankly, I don't think any other child with puffs all over her head is as adorable as our Megan. Our girl was born with a bushel of hair and it's only grown bushier since. I was scared it would be too hard to manage, but, luckily, with a little help, it's kinda fun and quite rewarding. One of those things that makes me feel like a real mommy.

My friend, Monica, over at In Plain English, graciously offered to let me watch her do her daughter's hair. If it weren't for Monica, our Megan would still be donning a matted fro. You should check out Monica's blog. She's an amazing woman, fabulous mom, & great writer! Thanks again for all the tips!

Step One: Give the Megster a bath, washing her hair with Olive Oil Shampoo & Conditioner (which actually smells surprisingly yummy!):

Step Two: Bring all necessities downstairs for hair-making session. This includes her hair-accessories-bin, hairclips, boar bristle brush, fine-toothed comb, virgin coconut oil & hair creme, among other things.

Step Three: Put baby in exersaucer & turn on Baby Einstein. Go ahead and judge me for allowing my child to watch the big black box.

Step Four: Wet her head with water & coconut oil, water & creme, or all three!

Step Five: Spend about 45 minutes brushing, wetting, parting, puffing (clarification: puffing, as in, making-puffs-out-of-hair-on-a-baby's-head; not as in huffing-and-puffing-and-blowing-the-house-down... in case you were wondering), and parting, combing, wetting and brushing each section, and again and again.

I can't wait until she is older and is able to sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time. It's hard to make straight lines in her hair with her bouncing up & down, moving around the exersaucer, & trying to grab the comb out of my hands. Also, her curls are so tight that it's hard to split the curls in half when needed. And through all of this, I have to make sure not to make her puffs too tight, pull on her hair, or break her brittle curls.

Unfortunately, her hair gets ridiculously messed up almost minutes after it is done. Megan tugs on her hair when she's sleepy and loves to decorate her hair with food. Also, she ruins it when she sleeps (for obvious reasons). It usually looks horrid by Thursday night, so it all comes out & she goes fro-style until Saturday morning.

This was the first week of hair-do (from this angle you can't see how bad it actually was)

Week 2 (the parts were not very crisp)

Week 3 (Q: does it even look any different than the other weeks?)
Week 4 (A: yes, each week the parts are in a different place, to prevent her hair from growing in a certain direction)

Week 5 (Q: is that a pizza hairstyle?)

(A: It used to be a pizza hairstyle, but Megan likes to "style" her hair with bits of tomato, strawberries, pickles, mac & cheese, and anything else she's eating. I guess you could still call it pizza; just not any type of pizza I'd like to eat.)

Week 6 (one of my favorites, and the parts are finally crisp!):

You might have noticed that all of these styles are mostly on top of her head. This is for two reasons: 1) She doesn't have much hair on the back of her head (from rubbing it off while sleeping), and 2) If I put the puffs on the sides of her head then it might hurt her while she sleeps. When she grow out of naps-- or at least uses a pillow-- I won't have to worry about that so much. Also, when she's older, I can take her hair out every night and fix it up all nice-n-purdy every morning. Right now I just don't think all that work would be worth it.

And, it's a good thing Megan's hair gets the Princess Treatment, because otherwise she'd be sportin' this crazy fro every day:

p.s.- For any of you out there with Princess Treatment experience, I'm happily taking suggestions.
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