Adjusting Back Home

We have now been home just over a week and it has been an adjustment with 2 little girls running around. We have all been sick this week so it has been a slow process getting the house back together after being gone for 3 weeks. We finally got Christmas up yesturday and are starting to get into the spirit of christmas. It should be fun this year because we are home and we are all together.

We had a church christmas party on Friday and we had breakfast for the food so they told the children that they could all come in their pj's. When I heard that I had to rush off get the girls new matching christmas pj's (I got them 2 sets so that they could have one for christmas). This was the first time that people in the ward saw Sofi so when we walked in with girls in the same clothes and their hair pulled back most people had to take a double take. They figured out that one was Sofi because both Lee and I had a girl, but they really had to look to tell the difference. It was actually kind of fun. The picture above was taken before we went and Emma did not want her picture taken.

Both girls love books and are always bringing us books to read to them so of course when we got home from the party they brought dad a book and wanted him to read to them.

Our New Addition

I realize I have neglected to post on the blog for a while, but I will do better. As you know we put in our papers to adopt another child. Once we finished that our prayers were answered. About 19 months ago we found out about child and were trying to adopt a little girl from Oklahoma, but due to legal issues we were told it wasn't possible until late Septemeber when we found out that it was a possibility again. It has been a trial getting to this point but we were finally able to bring Sofia home to become part of our family. We spent 3 weeks in Oklahoma and now I am glad to be home.
Sofi is beautiful and looks like she belongs to our family. It is an adjustment for her in her new home but she is doing great with it. Emma is also doing good having a big sister (only by 3 months). I think this is what it is like having twins. The girls play with each other and they also push each other and fight for the same toys. It is going to be a challenge but it is also going to be a blessing.


This is a picture with Sofi the second time we saw her. We had just finished up with the first court appearence and the state was not sure about releasing her to our adoption agency so we had another court appearence the next day. She was tired and hungry and still not quite sure about what was going on. We were able to make her smile a little bit and she did play with the toys with us.




Once we picked up Sofi we decided to go to the park to help her adjust to us a little better. What kid doesn't love to play outside at the park. It was a bit chilly but the girls loved it. They didn't want to go even though they were really cold by the time we left.

We had to get a car seat for Sofi but we kept the box just incase it didn't work out for some reason. The girls loved to play in the box and play peek a boo. It was so cute watching them.

We are so thankful to receive Sofia into our home and have her become part of our family the day before Thanksgiving.

September is Almost Over?

I can't believe how fast this month has gone. Emma is growing up and becoming more mobile. She finally started to walk on her own on September 14th and has just been getting better and better. With this new ability it has brought new adventures. She was climbing on things before but now she is able to explore more things to climb on and wont sit in the stroller or the grocery cart anymore she would rather walk. I guess that is because she can find more things to get into. She now has found my keyboard in the living room and has figured out that when you turn it on it makes noise. Then if you push some buttons it will play songs. Then of course she has to sing with it. It is so funny to watch her play it and actually only hit one or two keys at a time and not bang her hand on it. We are just letting her continue to play it and maybe we might have a musician in the family, who knows.



The other thing that we have been working really hard at this month is trying to get all the paperwork done so that we can adopt again. We had it done by September 1st but then we had other requirements that came up such as getting a letter from the 911office of every place we have lived in the past 5 years showing if we had any 911 calls and then get the transcripts. We didn't have any calls but getting a letter saying that was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. We also have been waiting for the LDS Family Services to get our FBI checks back showing that we are not criminals. It was suppose to take a month, but it took about 7 weeks and that finally came in today. Now we have our home visit scheduled in a couple of weeks and then we will be on the list again. So if any of you here of a child that needs a home, we are willing and ready for them.

Labor Day Weekend

We had some friends, the Robison's, come up and we had so much fun. We were finally able to use are huge house and with lots of people we didn't feel like we were on top of each other. We had 5 adults (they brought their neice with them which was so fun to have her here also), 3 babies and 2 dogs. It was a real adventure and so much fun. We played games until midnight almost every night. Lee was finally able to go biking on some trails he wanted to try out but didn't want to go alone so he had someone to go with. We went to the lake for a picnic and also the park.

Not only are they great friends, but also our personal photographer. We needed new family pictures for our adoption file. We have our papers and now updated pictures done so we are waiting for our home visit(hopefully in a couple of weeks) and then we will be on the list again for adoption.

Emma's Birthday

Emma turned 1 year old on the 20th and she didn't have the best birthday. She had to go to the doctor and get her shots which she didn't enjoy too much. She has discovered that it is fun to climb on things. I was making cupcakes and since our cupboards are so high I have to have a step stool so I got it out and got down the cupcake papers and put them in the pan then was going to put them back up and I turned around and Emma had climbed on the first step. I didn't think that she would go up anymore but she climbed to the top. She still isn't walking but she can sure climb.




I got the cupcakes made and I did a mini loaf size cupcake for Emma. She didn't quite know what to do with it at first. She picked at the sprinkles one by one and the frosting. It took about 10 minutes before she went for it and then she had a great time.

Our Home

Sorry it has taken us so long to get these pictures up. It is always crazy when you are moving and we still have a lot of work to do as you can see.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Home Sweet Home

To all who read this. Sorry for the delay. The internet installation took 4 days longer than scheduled, and Jaynee has been working me really hard trying to get the house ready for our first visitors (some friends over for dinner this upcoming weekend). The house is nearly put together, and once it is done, I take several pictures and make a collage with them so everyone can see what our home looks like now that we have space. This place is nearly the size of the last three places we have lived combined (West Jordan townhome, on-post housing at Ft. Stewart, and the apartment near Ft. Gordon).

I have also started my job, as the "glorified secretary" and I am loving it. Jaynee has been rather busy trying to make this place a home, and Emma loves to move about and up. She does not like to go down the stairs; it is funnier to climb up them. Well, more to be added this weekend.

Formal Walk Through

Friday we meet with the foreman for our home. He took us on a tour of our home and allowed us to point out anything that did not look right, such as chips in the wall, painting errors, carpet issues, missing screws or faceplates. He also explained how everything within the home worked. Jaynee and I are now experts on controlling the A/C and heat within our home, as well as the water controls, electricity, and even the garage door. We will meet with him on Tuesday one last time to review the work that they performed since this walk through to ensure everything was repaired and then we are off to go and sign for a home. I guess it is a little late to have buyer's remorse. I think this feeling will last until we are out of our little apartment and into our new home so we can finally see what we actually have in all the boxes that are everywhere. All that is left is for the appliances in the kitchen to be delivered and installed. That will happen early Tuesday morning.

One More Week Left

In just over one week, we will be closing on our new home. Over the last week, loads of work have been done: The brick on the front was laid; kitchen cabinets installed; first layer of paint on the walls; bathroom cabinets and countertops installed; lights hung and bulbs inserted; driveway poured; toilets and plumbing installed; water heater hooked up; and the final electrical work completed to include all outlets, switches, and plugs.

This next week should be the carpet, tile, wood, and bathroom floors; final layer of paint; kitchen countertops and sink; AC units installed; door handles placed on all doors; landscape the yard with sprinklers, grass, and shrubbery; final clean; and any other minor item that we have not mentioned. We hope you like the updated photos.

For the 4th of July, Lee ended up getting off of work early on Thursday, so we traveled to Alabama to visit Lee’s brother, Dennis and his family. Dennis just recently returned from an oversees assignment and will be moving to Kansas in August. This is the first time Lee and Dennis have spent some time together since they were both in Iraq a couple of years ago. This is also the first time Emma got to see her cousins in person rather than through a webcam.

Friday morning we went to the local pool and relaxed there before the day started to heat up. Then there was a local firework show that night with loads of fun activities and lots of displays before the fireworks. On Saturday, we spent the day doing some shopping and then eating at a pizza place for 3 hours. It is a lot like Chuck E Cheese’s but there were very few people there. Emma had a great nap while we were there. That evening we just spent time relaxing and enjoying time with each other. Lee and I returned home early Sunday morning so we could teach our primary class, but we were lucky enough to bring our little niece Katelyn home with us for the week. She has been such a great help in watching and taking care of Emma. Emma sure loves to have other children around.

Less than 2 weeks of work

Two weeks ago our home consisted of a slab of cement on the ground. So much has happened over the last two weeks: house framed, roof placed on home and shingled, siding completed, electrical and plumbing installed, heater/AC installed, insulation added to the walls and attic, sheetrock hung and mudded. The next couple of steps should be the brick the front of the home, sand the mud off the sheetrock, and lay the tile in the kitchen and laundry room, paint the home, and prepare for the cabinets and carpet. Our home should be ready in 2 weeks and in 3 weeks this blog will be updated in our new home. We hope you like the pictures.

Chilling with a Good Book

We bought Emma a little couch because they were on sale and we had a 15% off coupon (gotta love those coupons). She likes to sit on it and look at her books. She use to just look at the front cover and the back cover. She is now finally starting to look at the pages. It is neat to watch her just sit on her couch for several minutes looking at books. She gets into her basket full of books and pulls one out and looks at it then when she is finished she gets another one. I hope that she continues to enjoy looking and eventually reading books.

Emma also likes to throw balls, crawl after them, pick them up and then do it all over again. She is definitly growing up and is becoming very mobile.

Our New House

As you know we are building a new home. They say that it will be done by July 20th but I have some reservations about that. As you can see they are not even ready to pour the slab. I am worried. The only thing that gives me hope is that when I went Friday to look and see what they had done some lots were ready and had the cement trucks there pouring and when we went on Saturday those slabs were poured and framing was being done. So it can be done quick but I hope they hurry. We are so excited to move into a home. We have new neighbors above us and the kids think that they hall way is their personal runway. It will be nice not to have common walls and Emma wont wake up when people jump and run above her room.

What a Month (really the last 3 weeks)

Things have been a little crazy for us over the last month. We were not sure if Lee was going to get the job in Augusta, so we decided that we would look into moving to Missouri. Since Lee had orders to go there in July, this would be the safe bet. This way we could understand the area and determine what we want in a home. So over Memorial Day Weekend we took a short trip (14 hours) to Missouri. It was a really disappointing trip at first, because there was nothing we liked. Finally on the last day we came across one home we really liked and a neighborhood we would love to live in. The rest of the week Lee was dealing with the last week of his Captain's Career Course, which ended on Friday with his graduation Ceremony. Lee finished 5th overall in his academic class ranking. Sorry, but his graduation ceremony is on the video camera and Lee has not reinstalled the software since he crashed my computer.

On the day of Lee's graduation we get an e-mail from the realtor in Missouri that the house we liked dropped another $10,000 in their asking price. This made things rather rough for me. What are we supposed to do? Lee has not had a chance to interview, and we have all ready lost one home we really liked.

Lee started his next class this last week; S6 course (it is supposed to teach him how to be a Battalion Signal Officer) and he got a call letting him know his interview for the job in Augusta would be later in the week. After some last minute changes of time, Lee finally got to interview. As it turned out, he was the only interviewee because unless he didn't want the job, it was all ready his. That evening we went to visit the developer in the area we previously looked at and signed for a home. We will meet with the mortgage broker on Monday to finalize and then our home will soon start to be built. We are told that it will take about 30-45 days to complete our home.

News about Emma is pretty dull. She had a 9 month checkup the day after we returned from Missouri, and the only concern the doctor had was her progress of how she is growing. She grew maybe and inch over the last 3 months, and the doctor is worried. He thinks it may be because she was measure incorrectly during her 6 month visit, but to be sure it is not a thyroid problem or anemic he wanted to draw some blood from Emma. Lee couldn't be there because of some school things, so with the assistance of a nurse and the lab tech, we were all able to hold Emma still enough to attempt to draw blood on the left arm. After failing to draw any, we moved on to the right arm. Success but she really made the three of us work for it.

Emma's latest trick is to play peek-a-boo with herself. She will grad a large cloth or blanket and cover her head up then pull it away to show herself to anyone willing to watch. She loves to play this game. She is also learning how to walk along the front of the couch or any other piece of furniture that she can stand in front of. We will work on getting a few videos up this week, once Lee installs the software I need.

Mother's Day

Since I am a little cheep when it comes to taking Jaynee out to cultural events, I took Jaynee and Emma to a Pops in the Park Concert event. It was only about 1 mile from our home so we walked to and from the event. It was a beautiful evening for the concert. The symphony was from Augusta. Emma did really well, especially when it came to touching the grass. She had never played on the grass before, and because of the sharp edges from it being cut recently, she did not like to touch it from the top. It helped to keep her on the blanket.

I guess I owe you a short video of Emma crawling, so it will be a part of the pictures from the concert.

Watch Out! Emma is Mobile

Yesturday Emma decided that it was time for her to crawl. She wanted a book that I had put out on the floor and wanted to play with it. Up until now she would get up on her knees and then lung forward. She actually moved her legs and arms I was so excited. Then she did it again when Lee got home from work. She is also working on pulling herself up. I have a basket with her toys in it and she hasn't ever looked inside of it, but yesturday because she was being so adventurous she pulled herself onto her knees and explored what whas inside.

I don't have any pictures now but I will get some soon, when I get the camera out she stops what she is doing, I guess she is a litte camera shy.

Emma's First time at the Pool

The pool in our complex is open now and we thought it would be fun to take Emma to the pool and see how she did. It was a little too cold for her but I think she will like it better when it is warmer.

I am still learning how to video tape as well as edit. Sorry that the quality isn't that good. It looked much better on my computer. At least you will get the idea.

Easter in Sunny Georgia

You gotta have your shades when you are in the south. I have never seen a baby leave her sunglasses on. She only takes them off when she is sitting in her car seat for too long and they start to fall off her little nose. Other than that she loves them.

Emma also cut her first 2 teeth this week. She thinks doing more than one at a time is best.

Easter was just a crazy Sunday for us. Lee and I spoke in church along with our first week of teaching the 4-5 year olds in primary (definitly an eye opener for both of us).

This weekend was also spent doing homework. Lee finished his first class in his masters program YEAH!!! Although we still have a long way to go.

Emma's Special Day

Here are a couple of pictures from the temple. It was raining and very windy as you can tell.



Here is a picture of Emma in her white dress.

Emma's Friends

Our friends, the Robison's also came to the blessing on Sunday and they have two beautiful babies, Amelia and Levi. Emma just loved to watch them and was talking to them but they wouldn't talk back to her.