Happy Birthday Alexander!!

Alex turned 1 this past Sunday!!! The day was spent with family and friends and could not of been better. We had a huge breakfast of lemon scones and bacon (Scott was very proud that he made and served 2 pounds of bacon. Gross!!! )with my sister and her family. At night our friends brought over some yummy winter beer and my favorite pizza in the world to share good news with us. They got their adoption referral. Actually we found of early this morning that they leave today at 1 to get their baby girl. I was so excited I could not go back to sleep. A baby girl will be born on Jan 1st!!! I am not sure when they will be home but please pray for our friends ( who I cannot say who it is but many of you know them!! ) and pray for the birth family. Adoption is so bitter sweet. One mothers pain is another mothers joy.
I took Alex to the doctor yesterday for his 1 yr check up. He is 24.4 pounds and is just shy of 30 inches long. I was so ready to show off how well Alex has been doing but the doctor would really like to see more improvement in the speech department. We are on the waiting list for the infant toddler program but she wants us to go ahead and seek out a private specialist to see him first. 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. Alex has improved so much over the last few months that I am sure that he will do great with this new therapy.
I look forward to see what this year will bring for Alex. He is the sweetest, snuggliest, more precious baby in the whole world. I love how when we hold him he looks right up at us and smiles. He usually falls asleep with a smile on his face. I also love how when I hold him it feels like of bodies are puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together. He knows just where to snuggle into me for a perfect nap! Happy first birthday buddy. Your father, brother and I love you so much!!

All I want for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is to mail in the paperwork for another adoption!! Not going to happen anytime soon due to the economy. If anyone has an extra tens of thousands of dollars that they would like to send us please let me know :) My money tree in the backyard had lost all of its bills. That's all for now. I will post more about this later...

Santa Picture

Is it really too much to get a picture with both boys and Santa?
It starts off well. Jack spots the candy canes and I am thinking, "Yes! This is going to happen!!". I had visions of Christmas cards in my head.




And then Jack starts to figure out that maybe this is not the best idea.



Nope not going to happen!! Keep in mind this is the kid who hunts Chuck E Cheese!

Happy December

Wow, it has been a very long time since I last posted. These past 3 weeks have been some of the busiest of my life!! Work, work, work.
Big news, Jack turned 2. How did that happen? Where did the time go?? It seems like yesterday that we were waiting in the waiting room at the hospital for him to be born. We insisted on getting there early, minutes after Ashley was admitted, to be there in case she or her family needed anything. We knew that those would be the last few hours that we would spend as a family of 2 and we made the best of them. We waited, we prayed,we played games, we hung out with the case workers, we waited, we prayed, and we ate, we waited, we prayed. So vividly, I remember the first picture that we saw of Jackson. Ashley's caseworker was in the room seconds within him being born taking pictures of our son and she brought those pictures out to the waiting room to show us. We cried as week looked at the display screen of her camera at our new son. These are precious moments that I hope never dull in my memory. I am thankful for all of the events of that day!

Jack is now 29 pounds and 33 1/2 inches. He is short for his age and we are waiting the day that his little brother is bigger than him (very soon we think). Every single day Jack does something that makes me laugh so hard I cry. He is always preforming for us trying to makes us laugh. Last night Jack said words that were music to my ears, "Mommy watch". He was playing with a tiny rocket that flew when you push it and when he figured out how to do it on his own it was magical to him. The pure joy in his face was priceless as he figured out how to work the tiny toy. He loved it!!
Jack has taught me so many things and brought me so many blessings. He has taught me patience and understanding. He has taught me to stop and enjoy the little things in life. I really have changed my entire way of thinking. Another gift that Jack has given us is the gift of friendship. I have met so many wonderful friends these past 2 years, there is barley a day that goes by that I don't see one of you or talk to one of you on the phone. I am blessed for your friendship and you mean so much to me, I am not sure that I could of made this journey with out you. It seems like so long ago that many of us were at a meeting at our adoption agency just starting the paper chase!! I am also thankful for the friendships that your children have formed with my boys, I love watching these relationships grow into lifelong partners in crime!
Enough blogging for now, I have a day to start with my boys. What adventures will be do today? Only time will tell...

Texas baby!

Just a quick update, we made it to Texas and I am pretty sure that our entire family is now on the no fly list! We are off to the JFK Memorial and the aquarium. What I really want to do is go to Neiman Marcus and buy a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. I think that Scot would have a heart attack if I even tried them on!!

Poop on the Potty

Wahoo, look who pooped on the potty yesterday! Jack ran up to us and told us that he wanted to poop, so off we went. Is this the start of no diapers? I sure hope so! I am going to start the official potty training when we get home from Texas.
Some day Jack is going to kill me for this picture. Now that I think of it, Scott may kill me too! Nice jammies babe!

Airplane help!

Hello bloggerville buddies!! We are getting ready to leave next week for a super fun plane ride to Texas. Anyone have any tips on how to travel with a 23 month old and a 10 month old. I am already thinking lots of red wine and prayer!

Election Day

Happy Election Day! I hope that everyone gets a chance to get out there and vote. We did!! No matter who you are voting for, this is a historic day that we all should be a part of. I bundled up the boys early this morning to brave the long lines and freezing cold weather. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the polls that the lines were pretty short. One of the workers even volunteered to play with the boys while I filled out my ballot! The boys ended up getting covered in the green "official ballot" stamp, very cute.

Thanks McMommy!!

Now I know that I will never be as cool as McMommy, never wear those great shoes, or have my family photo on Regis, but I can steal her ideas.I needed something easy and cute. So who do I turn to? That's right my blogger buddies!! Thanks McMommy, you saved the day even here in Idaho!

Boo at the Zoo!

Happy 10 months and 2 years!!

Where on earth has the last 10 months gone? Alex is 10 months and 1 day old and it really does feel like we brought him home yesterday. I took him in a couple of days ago and he is almost 23 pounds!! What a big boy!
2 years ago we met Jacks birth mom for the first time. I get emotional even thinking about that first meeting. I still cannot believe that she picked us and I am thankful everyday for her decision to give us her child.
What a joy these 2 boys have brought to our lives. Sometimes I wonder how on earth we got so lucky. Now if we only had a daughter. Stay tuned for baby #3...
I love this picture of the boys, I know that it is not the best and Jacks face is blurry, but they were having such a wonderful time jumping in the crib together. We were all laughing so hard!!

Pumpkin Time!

A friend gave me two pumpkins from her garden with the suggestion that the boys paint them. What a great day!! Jack actually got into it and loved it. Now he is asking to paint more. I see a trip to the pumpkin patch in our future! I love being a mommy of two boys!!!

Another therapist

As if our schedule was not crazy enough, they are adding another therapist to Alex's team. I know that I should not complain but sometimes this all feels so overwhelming. I could go on and on and have a pity party but I am sure that there is a diaper change with my name all over it!

Lets play a game called "mind ya"

Mind your own business... Seriously!!
I was at the mall today even though I am suffering from the flu. Yuck, I will spare you the details. Mind you this is the ONLY day that I have to get this shopping done and the second attempt at it. The first attempt ended with two screaming babies who were actually fighting with each other and one mommy who was ready to get home for a tall glass of wine.
So, I was minding my own business at the food court with a bag of McDonalds. Let me first say that we NEVER eat fast food and this was a rare treat for all of us. Trust me, I am the crazy organic, sugar/wheat/gluten free mommy but today was special. As we were eating I noticed two ladies with their kids sit down next to us to eat. They both gave me the once over and then turned and started whispering to each other. Hmm... were they talking about me? My kids? I thought maybe they were just jealous of my super hot mommminess and my gorgeous kiddos, but no. They were questioning my food choices. As we were leaving one of the mommies actually said to me,"You may want to think about feeding your kids healthier food or they will grown up to be fat". And then she giggled to the other mommy. Really?. Who does that? Maybe if I knew the ladies I would of thought that they were being helpful but no, they were being bitchy. Needless to say I was shocked and annoyed, I mean they did have the apples and not the fries. Geez, who's kid has never eaten McDonalds?
As I was leaving I noticed the bitchy mommy had her 5 year old on a leash with a binkie who was eating ice cream. Really? I want to take parenting advice from her???

Oh my goodness, when will it end?

This was one of the longest weekends of my entire life. Seriously, I am counting the SECONDS until the doctors office open so I can call for an appointment. Jack seems to be feeling ok as long as we give him a breathing treatment every 3 hours. No longer than that. Yes, every 3 hours around the clock. Thankfully super Scotty-So-Hotty has been the overnight breathing treatment guy and I have been the rock you back to sleep for the millionth time during the night gal. Team work my friends, team work. 1 hour and 21 minutes until the office opens...
Good news! Alex pulled himself up into sitting position from his tummy this weekend. He crawls over to a toy or the ledge and pulls himself up. This is a big accomplishment for a low muscle tone baby. He is still having problems with keeping solid foods down and with his speech but everything else with the development seems to be on schedule. I think that the therapist comes on Tuesday this week and if I remember correctly he will have a speech eval.
Peace out Bloggerville, I am off to a fun filled day!!

Not again

Poor Jack is having another asthma attack that landed us in the er last night. I feel so bad for the little man, this really is the worst feeling in the world. I wish that I could tell him that it will be alright and not to be scared, and that this asthma thing will end soon. But I can't because it won't. We are giving him breathing treatments every2-3 hours, an oral and an inhaled steroid. When he breathing gets shallow he panics and starts to cry and when he crys it gets worse. It is this vicious cycle of not being able to get in enough air. Here is a picture of Jack playing with my cellphone. I guess that he is never too sick to chat on the phone!

Belly Dancing

We took the boys to Hyde Park Street Fair and watched the bellydancers. Funny stuff. My hair dresser is one of the girls and I have to give her props! There is NO WAY that I could/would ever be a bellydancer. First of all I just can't move like that and secondly I would not be caught dead in one of those outfits. I mean even if I had the body of post mental case Brintney Spears I still would not wear those tiny coin skirts. I am the girl who gets dressed in the stall in the locker rooms and if I could wear sweats to the pool I totally would! Anyway, Jamie did a great job and the boys were really into the dancers. They were clapping and laughing the entire time!

Friends Forever!

How cute is this photo? Yesterday at the playdate we took the kiddos for a nature walk. I am not sure sure how, but we got them all to sit down for a photo! So stinking cute!!!

Funny stuff

I thought that this was pretty funny!

Doctor help!!

Help please! For some time now Scott and I have not been happy with some of the issues that we have had with our pediatricians office. First of all the front office staff is awful! When you walk in they never look up and getting them to smile would be like winning the lottery. The nurses seem great, which is something that we love. The doctor is our main concern. She seems scatterbrained, at best. An example is that when she sent us to the hospital a couple weeks ago she did not call in orders for us and when we got there they did not know what to do with us. The nurses ordered lab work and a chest xray. The doctor never even gave us the results of these. Any sort of follow up seems like a major deal.
Now, I know that we are not the only patients that she has but she sees us often enough that she should remember who we are and the challenges that we are dealing with. She always makes me feel rushed and like I am asking too many questions. What I need help with is that I am in he process of meeting new doctors and I am not sure of the questions to ask. Also what are the things that you like about your child's doctors office? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also, if you live in the ares who do you use?

Wordless Wacky Wednesday

First haircut!

Look who got his first haircut ever! I know that some of you have been begging me to cut my UC Santa Cruz-banana slug lovin-infant flip flop wearin-hippy boys hair, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Hair cut means big boy and I am trying to cherish these last baby moments. I really almost cried when she was cutting it. I wasn’t going to cry because of the luscious curls that were about be chopped from his precious scalp, no I was going to cry because I was looking at the stylists hair. Surprise bloggerville, sometimes I can be a super bitch. This super nice lady that was cutting his hair had AWFUL hair and she smelled funny. I was kinda freaking out… Where is the nice, cute fashion forward stylist who normally cuts Jacks hair? I made the appointment with her. Oh well, is was too late and I didn’t want to be rude. Of course here I am blogging about it to the public but we are all friends here and you can keep a secret can’t you??
Anyways, it ended up all working out in the end because he looks great!

So long hospital

Jack is now out of the hospital! Goodness gracious, what a super long week it has been! Thank you so much for everyone who called and emailed us. Your thoughts and prayers were greatly appreciated. The tentative diagnosis is asthma with unknown triggers. Poor little muffin man is on breathing treatments every 4 hours with the last one before bed having an added steroid as well as oral prednisone in the morning. The doctor also gave us an inhaler to use with him because we may not always be near an outlet for the nebulizer. Wow, no one told me how much fun a toddler on steroids is!!
Here is a picture of Jack eating a popsicle at the hospital! How cute is he?? He did learn some new words this past week, “T.V.” and “Wiggles”. Thanks hospital staff for spoiling our child. Yes, were really are those parents who have been putting off fun luxury items such as ice cream and T.V. for our active toddler!! Oh well, at least he is feeling better.
Now if we can stay hospital free this next month I would be in heaven. When the paramedics brought us in the nurses were so excited to see Jack again that they were all in the room to get him checked in and bringing him gifts of candy and stuffed animals! So cute!! Needless to say it was a bit strange to have so many people recognize us from our past visits.

Jack in the hospital again!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Jack is back in the hospital for trouble breathing. I took him to his primary dr this morning and she tried to get his airways open with breathing treatments but it didn't work so they called an ambulance and we are now at St. Lukes.
Please keep him in your prayers as the doctors try to find a cause of his troubled breathing.
I will keep you updated on his progress.

At the fair!

We had so much fun at the fair. Jack LOVED the petting zoo and melted down when we had to leave. There were so many other toddlers who were afraid to touch the animals, not Jack! All he wanted to to was hug and kiss all the the animals. Has your kid ever begged you to kiss a Yak??

A fun night

Yup, that’s right. We are THOSE parents. Grandparents you may not want to read this post, be warned, this is not something that you would be proud of us for!!
Last night we took the family to Tony Hawks Boom Boom Huckjam and it was great. Awesome. Super rad! We loaded up the boys in 100 degree weather and stood outside with the other super cool parents to watch some of the best skaters in the world. We are such dorks I know! The best part of the night was dinner. Scott and I had beer and Jack had sugared mini doughnuts (like 10 of them) and goldfish covered in left over doughnut sugar. Healthy, no. Tasty, yes. It was a great time!! Needless to say Jack carb crashed at about 9pm. Seriously, who lets their kids get involved in these sports??

2 boys 1 cart 300 diapers

Oh no! It has started!! I have 2 boys. 2 little boys! Now that Alex is getting bigger I can put both of them in the cart at Sam’s Club while I am grocery shopping. Don’t even get me started on Sam’s Club. Seriously, the only reason that I shop there is that the cart has 2 seats. We really don’t need 10 pounds of Cheerios (yet) or 2000 tampons. Who goes through all of the stuff?? Back to the point, today as I was stocking up on formula and diapers the boys began to fight. Not only was Jack hitting Alex but Alex was hitting him back. I know that all of you good mommies would stop this behavior but I was shocked. I didn’t know what to do but laugh. This is the beginning of the rest of my life!!
The funny thing about this picture is you can tell how HUGE Alex is compared to Jack. There really is only a few inches and about a 4 pound difference. Poor Jack is going to be the “little” brother soon. Aah, just one of the joys of adoption…

Who looks like daddy??

These were from our recent trip to hell, I mean Kiddie Kandids. Here is ALex at 6 months. We tried to get one of the boys together but Jack would not sit still! Go figure!!

Happiness

I just got off the phone with an old friend from junior high. Just talking to him makes me miss him! It seems that when I talk to some of my blasts from the pasts they are only concerned with catching me up on their busy, fun lives. Don't get me wrong, I really do love to hear about their single jet setting ways. I will admit that I kind of get jealous when I hear that someone has dumped $700.00 on a pair of shoes for their up coming trip to Rome, but nothing makes me happier than someone asking how my kids are. It's really is the small things in life that make my heart melt. He was genuinely concerned with how my family is.
Thank you for making my day Tree Man! I hope to see you on Saturday for my-oh-so-fun birthday party!!

20 something craziness

Bye bye 20’s, hello 30’s. This is my last week of being a 20 something and it is kind of getting to me. I mean 30 is an ADULT. When did I become an adult? College? Nope! Living on my own? Nope. Getting married to Scotty so hotty? Nope. Buying a house, having kids, owing my own business?? Nope, nope nope… I think that 30 is the magical adult number and I will wake up on Saturday, put on my Spanx and high waist mom jeans, socks with open toed sandals and start my first official day as an adult. Hmmm, where does one get high waist pants??
I watched a show about adoption this morning and it made me cry. What you don’t know Bloggerville peeps is that I am not a crier. (During the movie Titanic I actually giggled) I sometimes forget that our adoption is not the normal situation and there are so many birth families out there that have no idea how their baby is doing. I cried because it hit me again of how blessed we are to have such a perfect adoption story. To so many the term “open adoption” is accompanied with fear and apprehension. I wish that I could talk to everyone of those families and tell them our story; it truly is a beautiful story. We have so much more than an open adoption, we have extended family. Ashley is such an amazing part of our lives and I am so thankful to have her around on so many levels. I hope that she knows that Jack was the most amazing gift and we are so proud that she allowed us to become his parents. She could have chosen anyone in the world and she picked us! How did we ever get so lucky?? Hopefully we will raise him to be a man that she too can be proud of. I love that we can share our love with her and her family! If any of you have questions about if adoption please feel free to ask us. There are not a lot of families with our situation and we could help in anyway we would love to!
Peace out Bloggerville, I am off to Google my new wardrobe. I mean I really want to look the part of a 30 year old! Alison you are so next!!!

In the pool!!

Some randomness

Sadness… I have lost my camera. This is more of a PSA for my bloggerville friends that I see in real life. Maybe I left it at one of your houses?? Needless to say, there are no pictures to post. Again, sadness.
I think that the mystery of the missing camera happened for a reason. I REALLY want one of the Nikon D70s for my birthday. I know what your thinking, why should I get a new big fancy pants expensive camera when I cannot keep a hold of my cheap one?? I know that I am not the umm, what is the word, tidiest, person in the world and I have a history of misplacing important things like my wedding rings, bit to my defense I have never lost a camera before. Actually, Scott told me that if I went a year without loosing my wedding rings he would upgrade my center stone. Ha, I showed him! I haven’t lost in in 18 months and 2 days( who is counting??).
Maybe all of you in bloggerville could help me out and drop hints to Scotty that a new fancy pants camera would be an excellent birthday present. After all my 30th birthday is exactly one month away!! Woop woop, so long 20’s hello 30’s. Speaking of my birthday you all are invited to party it up with me Aug 2nd at the dueling piano bar in Meridian. Email me your address and I will send you an invite. I am throwing a surprise party for myself! If you want something done the right way you just have to do it yourself!
That’s all for now, I should get started on dinner before Scotty so hotty gets home. I need to really butter him up tonight as I start to drop hints about this camera business.

I think that I see the light

It has been the LONGEST week and a half of my life but I think that we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Poor Jack has been through so much! We ended up spending more time in the hospital than originally thought and even had an emergency room visit.
He is now on a different antibiotic and a higher dose of pain medications so I think that we have made it passed the worst of it.
Thank you to everyone for your kind emails and prayers! I love you bloggerville!!!

Jacks big day!

Tomorrow is a huge day for Jackson! The poor little man has to have a pretty big surgery. We went to his ENT appointment on Tuesday thinking that they were going to schedule his surgery to put tubes in his ears sometime in July, but we were shocked to find out that he has to have his surgery THIS Thursday. Not only does he have to have tubes put in his ears but he also has to have his tonsils and adenoids removed and his tongue clipped. When the doctor looked in his mouth she was very surprised by how large his tonsils were, this came as a surprise to us too! We really had no idea how sick he is!
We arrive at St. Lukes downtown at 8:30 am and his surgery is scheduled for 10:35. After his surgery they will move him into his room where we will stay at least one night. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as this is a big surgery for him. Those of you who know him know that he does not do well with change or hospitals. He is a very sensitive little man who likes everything “just so”.
Feel free to give me a call on my cell to check up on him. I will hopefully be able to update this blog during his stay.
I am just not looking foreword to the second that they take him away for surgery, for some reason I am having a hard time with that thought. Ahh… I am off to try and get some sleep as I suspect that tomorrow will be a very long day.

June is here!

Wahoo, June is here and oh boy has it been busy! We started out the month (well the end of the month!!) with a wonderful visit from Scotts parents. It was a short but fun visit. It was the first time that they have seen the baby so we were very excited to show him off. After they left I had my first dog show of the year and did very well. I was afraid that Bailey and I were too rusty to compete for a new title but not only did we do well, we placed 3rd twice and 4th once. It is hard to tell in the picture but it was very cold and rainy outside and my shoes were soaking wet.
Scotts birthday was the 2nd and I made him a cake from scratch. No that is not a typo, you are not reading someone else’s blog, I really did make a cake from scratch. It turned out super yummy and Scott loved it . He better, it was very hard to make. Back to the bakery for me for the next birthdays!!
My team pretty girlfriends and I went out for a big night, the Sex and the City movie premiere. A limo ( the driver looks like Rod Stewart and is the brother to Kevin Spacey) picked us up. It was AWESOME!! He took us back to Brits house for take out and Cosmos and then dropped us off at the movie. It truly was one of the most fun nights of my life!!
The boys are doing well. Jack is getting taller and Alex is almost sitting up, they finally are interacting with each other and it just melts my heart. They both change so much everyday!

I love my family