Out With the Old...In With A New Year!

 To say that 2013 and 2014 were eventful for us would be an understatement. Doubling the size of our family in 13 months was  a big, happy, exciting, stressful, lovely and amazing experience. 

In September we had the blessing of being able to go visit my family in my hometown. In the same trip we had a visit with our baby boy's beautiful birth mother and his amazing birth Grandparents! It was so special to us.

In November we were able to travel to visit our daughter's birth mother and her also very amazing birth Grandparents. We love both of those families so much and will always treasure the open relationship we have with them.

Below is a photo of our baby boy with his biological birth brother! Probably one of the sweetest little kids you could ever meet. We love that little guy.

Below are some family pictures my talented younger brother took of our little family while we were visiting my hometown. It's hard to get little ones to look at the camera at the same time. I do say nearly impossible. 

Below: my parents.

Little girl being helpful and playing with her little bro.

We had a bit of a scare this last fall when our daughter was hospitalized due to croup which lead to a severe staph infection in her trachea. The infection grew so quickly and so strongly that she had to be intubated and have a breathing tube for several days. We were in the hospital for a total of 6 days. We thank our Father in Heaven that baby girl O made a full recovery. It was a humbling experience that made us remember that it is God in whom we put our trust. 

(Ironically her shirt says "Lucky Me" on it. Poor kid.)

Not long after our hospital visit, baby girl O and her brother were reunited and playing like buddies once again. Below is a photo that shows she believes you must use both hands when holding hands with someone. So funny. 

Our first Christmas with little baby boy J was a fun one. It was so special to have two little ones in our home for that time of year. We always seem to count our blessings a little more during the Christmas season. It goes without saying that we have been blessed so much.

We left Christmas evening to drive to southern California for a wedding. Matt's cousin was getting married and it was fun to be with his family for such a fun event. While we were there we stopped to play at the beach and visit the San Diego Zoo. Always a treat to visit the beautiful state of California.

Excited for the adventures that 2015 will bring!

Love....And Growing Pains

Sometimes our little daughter O is not excited about having a little brother. To her, he changed her life and rocked her boat. The attention is no longer on her completely. The photo below seems to capture this feeling she has perfectly. Baby brother J just wants to be her friend. He smiles whenever she is close and obviously thinks she is neat. She is still deciding on if he is worth having around.

There are some days, and they are becoming more frequent, where I feel she loves him and is glad he is around. When they wake up, we sometimes put baby boy in his sister's crib so they can interact. Those are the sweetest moments of our day. 

In reality, we are all learning to adjust. It was just 16 months ago that Matt and I were the only ones in our house. Then within a 13 month span, our family doubled. I have loved every day of this journey. It has been so fun, hard, amazing, educational, inspirational, and humbling. We know we are so blessed to have these WONDERFUL kiddos. And we wouldn't change all this change for a thing.

Over the last few months a few great things have happened. We took baby boy to his first SF Giants game in Phoenix, we were sealed in the Las Vegas LDS temple to our little boy, and we celebrated Fourth of July with some really great friends.

Below is a photo of us at the Phoenix Diamondbacks stadium in June. We took the little boy there while his sister played with her cousins at their house in AZ. Somehow we landed seats right behind home plate. It was a great game.

Matt's parents were at the game as well. We got to see them during and after the game. Below are Matt and his dad.

One week after the baseball game we were so excited and blessed to take our kids to the Las Vegas LDS temple. There little baby J was sealed to our family. It was nothing short of a perfect day. The kids were happy and baby O even showed her brother some affection as shown in the photo below. My heart melts when I see this picture. 

Fourth of July was fun. We put ear protection on baby O so she could enjoy the fireworks and enjoy them without being scared. Probably my favorite holiday ever. 

The summer has been fun with these two kiddos. We swim a lot and play wherever there is water to keep cool. When it isn't so hot, I'll take the kids for a run in their double stroller. That seems to be another time when big sister shows some kindness to her little bro. 

I hope someday soon they become the best of buds. 

 Baby J taking a nap while his sister plays on the splash pad in the background. 

Baby Boy Arrives!

This is Miss B. She's smart, beautiful, kind, funny and simply amazing. She is the birth mother of our little boy who was born just a few weeks ago. We are so grateful for Miss B. She has blessed our lives so much. She let me be with her in the delivery room when her son was born. It was one of the most amazing days of our lives. Matt and I love this woman and are in awe of the selfless gift she has given us. 

Here is little baby J, our new son. He is handsome and so sweet. We always want him to know how special his birth family is to us. 

We flew north a couple days before baby J was going to be born. Below is a picture of our little family on the plane about to take off. We were excited to meet him.

When we arrived in town where little J would be born, members of his birth family greeted us and made us feel so welcome. Baby J's paternal grandparents fed us dinner with his birth mom. It was nice to spend time with them. Baby J's maternal grandparents came to meet us in the hospital as well. They were so kind and we are grateful for everyone treating us with such love.

Below is a photo of Baby's paternal grandmother. She was also present during the delivery. She has been so good to Matt and I.  I credit this beautiful lady for helping us to get in touch with our birth mother. She is an integral part of this adoption. 

Below are the maternal grandparents of Baby J. This photo is a little fuzzy, but its the only one I was able to capture of the two. We had the opportunity to talk with Baby J's maternal grandmother quite a bit in the hospital. She was another person present during the birth of our son. She was so sweet. We are thankful for her kindness.

My parents were an enormous help through this process. Because of my Dad talking about Matt and I wanting to adopt, we were able to find our sweet birth mother several months ago. Dad worked at the hospitals where our birth mother lives and that is how this story began.

Mom and Dad were also such a big help in taking care of our daughter during this time. They even got our daughter to finally start walking on her own. 

 Our daughter seemed a little confused when she came to the hospital to meet her brother for the first time. But she has warmed up to this big change and even gives him kisses now and then. This is a photo of the very first time she saw him. 

After we left the hospital, we drove a few hours to get to the home of my parents. We tried to be really good about giving our daughter some one on one time to help her adjust to this change in her life. Matt would take her out to the trampoline every morning to play and she loved it.

I think the photo of our two kids below is so funny. It captures what  we believe was the initial reaction of our daughter to her new brother. She was wondering what and why he was suddenly around. One morning she even woke up and asked, "baby?"--It was like she was hoping his vacation in our home was over. 

Over the last few weeks she has totally warmed up to him. Even though her world has changed, she is adapting and even loving her little brother.

We had a lot of relaxation time with my parents. We drove to the lake almost daily and hiked around the surrounding hills. It was nice to have this time together. 

Below are my parents and the two kiddos. 

My grandfather lives down the street from Mom and Dad. He wanted to get a four generation photo while we were in town. 

On our last day in town, we were able to finalize the adoption of baby J in court. We dressed up and headed to the court house. Below is a picture of us just before we headed to the county courthouse in the state where little J was born. Our first ever family photo with the four of us. It was a special day.

Immediately after court, we drove to the lake once more to play in the water before we headed to the airport. Our little girl got all the way in the water and really enjoyed that time. It seemed Matt and I were grinning ear to ear all afternoon because of the special day it had been. 

It's alway hard to leave my hometown. Even Matt said he didn't want to go back home just yet. But we were looking forward to starting normal everyday life as a family again.

When we got home, we saw that some of our friends had decorated the entire front of our house in blue balloons, streamers and lots of trinkets. It was an awesome homecoming for our family.

We are so grateful for these two little angels in our lives. We are especially grateful for adoption and the amazing women who have given us the opportunity to become parents. We will always love and honor them and what they have done for us.