Pictures

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks....

Wrestling season is in full swing!!

Newest addition to the extended family- Parker Dale

A visit with Santa

A visit to Santa

6 Month pictures- December 18

Christmas 2009

Christmas Kisses for Joselyn (and yes she was laughing)

Sunday School Christmas Program- the boys did great!

I don't think it works to ride a scooter in the snow:)

Joselyn and I stayed warm inside!

Playing outside in the snow.

6 Months

We had Joselyn's 6 month pictures today. She did awesome! It is hard to believe that 6 months has already passed. We are working with our attorney to petition the court for finalization. Hopefully that can happen in the next month or two.

I'm hoping to get some pictures posted tomorrow while the snow flies:)

Here is the link to her pictures:

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbAccess.aspx?e=5951399

Password is joselyn

Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Baptism, and bears...or my

We had a wonderful time last weekend starting with Thanksgiving on Thursday. We enjoyed a delicious noon meal at my brothers house, turkey, fixings and all. Yummy! We took our afternoon naps and headed to my Grandma's house for supper. More yummy food. Friday morning Stan had wrestling practice so I stayed home with the kids and then went to work around 11. At night we celebrated Thanksgiving with Stan's side of the family. Again more good food. I sense a theme here.... Saturday we ran to SF for supplies, birthday gifts and Christmas gifts. Saturday night we helped the M's celebrate birthdays and had a wonderful meal of Pizza Ranch and cake. The fun for the weekend was not complete until we celebrated McArthur's baptism. It was a jam packed weekend but lots and lots of fun. Joselyn was ready to be home and back in the routine come Sunday evening:)

Thanksgiving Day

The Wish Bone

Boy did they enjoy their dessert.

Cousin picture

Isn't she cute:)

More presents to open.

Self-portrait:)

Micah's Snuggie

Miles and Keegan checking out Miles' new toy.

Time to blow out the candles.

Family picture time.

Joselyn and cousin McArthur

Sticking her tongue out at Daddy.

Playing in the dirty clothes

Our first try at baby cereal. Not a big fan and she was very burpy after that!

Joselyn's 5 month pictures

Here are the pictures I took on Joselyn's 5 month birthday. She's getting stronger and can even sit by herself for a few moments. She likes to be part of the action and gets upset when she can't see her brothers. She discovered yesterday how to blow bubbles with her mouth, in church no less:)

Boys will be Boys

The boys had lots of fun last night lining up cars, trucks, basically anything with wheels. It was so cute I just had to share.

Joselyn is really starting to analyze things and discovered a new toy the other night.

Update

So I realized it had again been awhile since I had updated the blog. It took Keegan about a week to fully recover from the nasty flu. Luckily no one else got sick or has gotten sick since then besides the runny noses.

Joselyn had her 4 month checkup on October 29. She weighed 13 lbs, 6.5 ounces and was 24 inches long. She has more than doubled her birth weight already. She's been rolling over since 3 months, loves her exersaucer, puts everything in her mouth, and has discovered her voice. The screech of a girl is definitely higher pitched than a boy:) She's doing well and right on track and even slightly ahead on a few things developmentally. What a blessing she has been to our family!

For Halloween I took the kids downtown to the local businesses on Friday afternoon and then on Saturday we hit a few places and went to a Hallelujah party in a nearby town and then pizza with friends and relatives. Keegan couldn't decide on what he wanted to be so on Friday he was Chewbacca and on Saturday he was Thomas the Train. Aiden was a Ghost (which is what Keegan originally wanted to be) and Joselyn was our little Pumpkin. Kids had a good time and there is still lots of candy left!

Wrestling starts next Tuesday. Keegan and Aiden are extremely excited for the season to start as well as Daddy! They were practicing their wrestling moves in the living room last night. It's a start to another fun but very busy season:)

Helping Dad rake leaves.

Hanging out in the high chair

Keegan as Chewbacca

Miss Pumpkin

No one really wanted to take the picture!

Aiden the Ghost

Keegan rolling the dice with his Thomas costume

Miss Pumpkin was worn out by the end of the night!

Sickness

I'm home today with Keegan. He woke up around 1:30 a.m. complaining that he did not feel good. So I rounded up a bucket and some towels and let him be. No more than 10 minutes later he threw up and exclaimed, "I feel so much better Mom." Poor kid. He threw up one more time and then slept the rest of the night. He felt very warm in the middle of the night with a fever. Still this morning his fever felt high however he is terrified of the thermometer (it's only the one under his arm!) so I'm not exactly sure what his temp is. I've been alternating Motrin and Tylenol and that seems to help. Aiden stayed home with us cause I'm pretty sure he'll get sick and Joselyn headed off to daycare. I've disinfected every possible thing today including all the toys. That's quite a big job. He also has a cough and has complained that his head hurts, all signs of influenza or H1N1 or whatever. Hopefully no one else gets sick. We were suppose to go with Stan to a wrestling convention this weekend but looks like we'll be staying home:)

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks:

I thought I would take a couple minutes to update our blog. I'm sitting in a hotel room on a business trip. Stan is home with the kids. We haven't had daycare the last 4 days so we have been scrambling. I took a day, Stan a day, my mom a day and Stan again today. I had to leave early this morning for my trip so Stan was able to take a sick day. Hopefully no more scrambling to find day care for a while. it's hard to find a place to drop 3 kids! Hopefully the boys behave and Joselyn sleeps for her Daddy! This is my first overnight trip away from Joselyn. It was going to happen eventually. I'll be ready to be home on Wednesday!

Joselyn is doing great. She has figured out how to roll over and does a much better job during tummy time. Although she still gets mad after a while and hasn't figured out how to get to her back. She's starting to be able to grab toys with her hands and loves sitting in her exersaucer. She's happy as long as she can see her brothers!

I'm going to try and go to bed early and take advantage of it while I can:)

Recent Happenings...

Joselyn has mastered rolling from her back to her tummy. Unfortunately she can't get back to her tummy so she doesn't always enjoy being "stuck". She really enjoys sitting in her bumbo and we recently tried the exersaucer which she enjoys for a short time.

This weekend we enjoyed time with some college friends for our annual get together for Homecoming. Our count is 5 couples, 10 kids and 2 on the way! Great times had by all. Thanks to Scott and Lyndsay for hosting for the weekend. Lots of good food, homecoming activities and football. We even made a trip to the local pumpkin patch. It was awfully cold so we didn't stay too long. I needed a nap this afternoon to recuperate!

In a few short months we'll be able to finalize Joselyn's adoption. It seems to have gone fast yet the wait seemed like forever! It happened all in God's timing, not ours. Joselyn fits right in with our clan. The question I get asked the most is "Where is she from?" We have chosen not to disclose this information. I think a lot lately about creating her LifeBook and making that special for her so she can know where she came from and her beginning. I'm thankful we were able to meet both the birthmom and birthdad so we have snipits of information about each that we can one day share with Joselyn. I pray that God will let us know when the time is right to share this information with her. In the meantime I continue to pray for Joselyn's birthparents as they continue on their journey.

First time in the exersaucer

Keegan feeding Joselyn

Tummy time!

Homecoming activities

Homecoming activities

Pumpkin patch

Trying to stay warm at the pumpkin patch