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.