First Steps!

I just wanted to share M's first steps with you- she's been so close for such a long time, thus the long delay in posting. I was sure she was going to take her first steps any day and it finally happened yesterday!

Jared continues in school and is doing well- his first three classes he has gotten a B+ or higher. One of them he actually scored perfectly in! I am so glad he is enjoying his classes this time around. It makes all his study time worth it.

I am busy with the Activity Days girls (8-11) on every other tuesday. We have a good group of about 15+ girls that come to my house. They are very sweet and full of energy. G loves having all the girls over- he started crying big crocodile tears last time they left.

G continues to be super active all the time. His cardiologist is pleased with his activity level, but we are continuing to be watchful, as his heart is feeling the strain from his valve defect. In the meantime, he is learning lots of new things. His favorite things right now are shapes. He loves the Baby einstein Discovering Shapes DVD. In fact, he and his cousin watched it so many times while I was in North Carolina, they wore it out and Jared and I had to buy a new one :o)! He can spot circles, squares, ovals, triangles and rectangles just about everywhere.

Baby M is still the happiest baby ever. We've had to go to the doctor a couple of times for ear infections or illnesses, but once we get there, she breaks into a big smile and no one believes that she's sick. Fortunately red eardrums are hard to hide. One of the grandmas at church watches her and will tell me, "I saw her almost cry today!"

Hope you all are looking forward to a great summer. Hopefully I can keep up with the news a little better :o)

If you are getting this post as an email and you can't see the video, click on the link below

jaredandgillie.blogspot.com

Easter Fun

I tried something new this year and got G dyeing Easter Eggs.

He is learning his colors and so it was lots of fun. For the next 2 mornings he wouldn't eat breakfast until I pulled out his colored eggs and set them on the table next to him.

Saturday we went downtown and had breakfast at our favorite place- The Wagon Wheel. Then we headed over to the park for the annual candy grab, I mean egg hunt. G still fits into the youngest group, though I'm sure some parents were wondering if he was to old for the 1-2 year old section because he is so tall.

Easter morning was great, too. G loved his Easter basket and searching for eggs outside. M was excited about her toys, too. It was really nice to be mostly over our colds and we had a great weekend being able to listen to General Conference and hear counsel from the prophet.

I am sorry that I have not posted in such a long time. In addition to not being able to use the computer while little ones are on the move, Jared now is using the MacBook all night, every night. He returned to school just over a month ago in a communications degree program. It is an accelerated program and hopefully he will finish with a bachelors degree in about 17 more months. I am really glad that he has returned to school and he is enjoying his classes so far.
I hope you all are well and that you had a great easter weekend!

Photography Exhibit

Garrison is fascinated by the camera. Not so much about having his picture taken. Last week I let him take pictures all by himself and this is what we got...

Pictures as Promised

We just received the pictures we took the day Malihah was sealed to us, so here are a few of my favorites









I tried not to duplicate the ones Dion published on her website, so you should head over to her site, too.
Here's the link
http://dionsenecaphotography.blogspot.com/2010/01/forever-family.html

Note to Self:

Play ring around the rosies more often.

Today at church the ladies got out of classes before the men. This never happens. Think about it- you know why: women just have more words to use each day. Usually Jared and G are just waiting for Relief Society to finish so they can gather me and June bug and all our stuff up so we can go.
But somehow today I got out of the room quickly and headed down an almost empty hall with June bug towards the nursery to pick up G. I peered through the door window and tried to stay out of sight as I watched ten two-year-olds playing ring around the rosies with their nursery leaders. Every single one of them had sheer delight on their face. Unadulterated and completely undisguisable as they all fell down. I took a moment and walked in to hold his hand and play it one more time.

A mother's heart has never been lighter.

Thank you Owen and Angie and Derek and Tomi for being such great nursery leaders. I know it's not easy to give up your own opportunity to participate in gospel classes to watch other's children, but it is so wonderful to know my son is enjoying learning basic gospel truth in a fun environment. You have blessed our family so much.

Christmas Letter 2009

If you look closely at this card, you may see the frostbite forming on our fingers and noses. We had our holiday pics taken on the coldest day possible in December. I know I've turned into a pansy, but it was only in the 30's that day. Since then temps have gone back up to the 50's and low 60's. That's more like it.

This year has been quite an exciting one. We started out in January trying to get approved to adopt again as soon as possible. After G's finalization and sealing in May of last year, I knew that we needed to be ready to adopt again, because there was another child coming to our family. I have to admit, I've always thought it was a little hokey when I'd hear of people that said they felt there was someone missing in their family, but that's exactly what it feels like. So, we were ready at the start of the year, but God had other plans. It seemed like every road block possible came up while we were trying to get approved. Finally in mid March, our case worker called us and let us know everything was ready and our profile would be available online for expectant parents looking for an adoptive family. She asked us first to make a paper copy of our profile that she could show to someone the next day that was coming into the office. So I scrambled to put pictures together and make them look nice and I took it over to their office. And then we waited, but not very long.

On April first our caseworker gave me the best early birthday gift I've ever gotten. She brought a birth announcement and letter from our daughter's birthmother. That night put us into motion for the next couple of months. We were so lucky to be able to get to know her and her family before the birth. They have been such a blessing in our lives.

Our daughter was born in June and she turned poor G's world upside down. He hardly knew what to think of her, but at least he was so busy doing and going and growing, that he didn't have time to be jealous of the new usurper in momma's lap. He's growing so fast. The beginning of the year, he was just newly walking and now he just runs everywhere. He has such a sweet disposition, he loves to be with friends and he now loves his little sister. When she is sad, he shares his woobie (blanket) with her and he helps her play her musical toys to keep her entertained. I love to watch him play with other children his age because he loves to share although I'm not sure where he got that from :)

Jared and I are so thankful this year to be surrounded by family and friends who we love. We hope that you feel the love of the Savior in your life as we have this year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Twice the fun

G and June bug had a great halloween this year. G really got into decorating his own pumpkin. We let him use magic markers for the occasion.

He wasn't really sure about sticking his hand inside the pumpkin when it came time to clean out the one we carved, but after a few tries, he finally got his hand in and pulled out some goop.

Very scary.

Jared and I then headed off to Africa on Safari. We found a lion cub and a baby giraffe that we just had to bring home. Surprisingly, they were easy enough to smuggle through customs.

Boy, that lion really got into collecting candy. I had no idea they could have such sweet tooths.

Our little June bug wasn't feeling so great over the weekend. She is getting her two front bottom teeth at the same time. So, here's a pic from earlier this month with her usually happy attitude.

3 Months Old

Our sweet baby girl is 3 months old now. She is growing so fast and learning every day. Her latest and greatest achievements include smiling and cooing, sitting up with support, sucking on her fingers and thumb and just this week she moved in with her brother.

These pics were taken in the Bimbo (with it cleverly hidden). I love it that I can take pics of her while she is sitting up now. And you can see her double chin, too- bonus!

G was amusing himself with the contents of the junk drawer while I was taking pics of June bug. If you click on the pic, you may be able to see the half inch cut at the end of his eyebrow. He and a friend were running around the front room and he sliced himself open on a pot that is supposed to go back to my stepmom. It seems to be healing well, which is good, because we wanted to avoid a second expensive ER visit this year (Jared's face is fine, now, thank you). G is just too fast for his own good.

Bouncing and Bimbos

Our Labor day weekend was lots of fun. We had Jared's parents here and went to Peach Days in Hurricane. G loved the bounce house.

We were sad to see the old folks go. It was nice to have them here.

June bug was introduced to the Bimbo today. She loved it- for a little while. It's nice to have a change in perspective sometimes. (the bimbo is an off-brand Bumbo. Jared named it)

Hits or Kisses

I went back to work 1 1/2 weeks ago and it went pretty well- I only cried once I got there and I only cried when I was by myself, so at least I avoided making a show of myself. Fortunately also I didn't have the sickest baby in the unit like I did my first night back after we got G. It would have been nice to take another month and a half off, but family finances being what they are, my paycheck is needed. I really do enjoy my work, so that is a good thing, and it seems I have been hogging our June bug all to myself, because it took me leaving for her to really get her daddy wrapped around her little finger.

Baby girl was looking so cute the other day, I thought I'd take some pics. She is more awake now and has started cooing and smiling which just melts my heart.

G man has a difficult time sometimes deciding what to do with her. He is really good for the most part. I think he steals her binky when I'm not looking. He doesn't get to have his, so why should she get one? It is hard to tell though, because she still spits it out quite a bit on her own. He doesn't hit her often, only when he's mad at me. Most of the time he just tries to kiss her. It's very cute. I wish you could see it, but G just gets interested in the camera when he hears it turn on, so once the camera turns on, the kissing stops. Here is what I did get, though.

I hope they will grow up to be the best of friends (as all parents do :o)).

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of july. We are still recovering a little from our trip up to Salt Lake, but here's some of the highlights of our trip.

On Friday the 3rd we went to Hogle Zoo. We saw Lions and Tigers and Bears a plenty, but G-man's favorites were the snake he got to touch, the monkeys,

and the Elephants.

It was a really sunny day, so the inside of her car seat was all our June bug got to see, but she slept most of the time anyway. Here is G-man riding in style in the new double stroller.

Daddy and G riding the carousel. He looks very focused here, but he enjoyed it a lot.

The rhinoceros was okay, but Grampa's kettle corn was the BEST!

Here he is learning that it is best to let sleeping cats lie.

On Saturday, we spent the day with my sister in Provo. We went to the parade downtown, we had great parking and good seats and a good time. I won't bore you with pics of the parade, although Miss Utah did look phenomenal on her pig float. Baby M looked super cute with her patriotic outfit and her red bow brain-squisher and she was happy as long as she was being held.

G looked very patriotic too as an All American Boy

Later in the day we got together at someone's house that had a great view of the fireworks from Stadium of Fire. G and his cousin took the best seats early.

We set off lots of our own fireworks. This is June bug's close encounter with a sparkler.

The official fireworks were great, but the highlight of the night was G and his cousin and another almost two year old playing with poppers.

Adjusting

It's been almost a week since we brought our little June bug home and there has been lots of adjusting around here. Jared now has the responsibility of helping G-man if he gets up in the middle of the night. I have primary mothering responsibility for June bug and am trying to meet the needs of a newborn and a busy toddler. Even G-man is adjusting to being a big brother. Some things have been easy. Somehow he knew instinctively that the new pink binkies were hers and not his. He only needs gentle reminders to be 'soft' with her. But today I found him in an interesting place.

I guess it's been hard for him to give up some of his old toys. Who can really blame him, though? It's never easy to find out the world doesn't just exist for only you.

Summer is Here

Southern Utah is officially HOT.  We go to the splash park a lot and try to go to the pool when we can.  The first couple of weeks of June  G and I will be doing mom and Tot swimming lessons as long as the baby holds off until her due date.  So in the meantime, on the days we can't get to the splash park, I got a little sprinkler pad for the back yard.  We played outside this morning before it got too hot and G had a ball.  He even let me get a few close up pics.

Easter Weekend

Here we are at the park before the rain started.  We ate at the pancake breakfast before the easter egg hunt.

G was not really keen on waiting for the countdown to start.

It didn't take much time for him to figure out the drill- Pick up candy...

Put candy in the bag.

After the hunt, we picked up G'ma and G'pa and drove to the Clark County Fair.  G especially loved all the animals.

I think we may be raising a cowboy.

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend!