Thursday, March 24, 2011
Attached...
Landry has become very attached to her pacifier lately. I think a lot of it was that we let her have it all the time while she was sick, and that seemed to go on and on. The other night, we took her pacifier away for her to get in the bathtub, so she decided to improvise by using one of her bath toys. :) She is so funny!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Our first Gymboree class...
Landry had her first class at Gymboree Play and Learn last night. She LOVED it! I think she is going to really enjoy going to play this summer on all the fun toys!
She really liked being able to crawl all over the toys, and she did NOT want our help with anything. :)
First, we played in the gym...
Then, we went to the music class...
I am so excited to see her play and grow this summer. She is getting to be so much fun, and she is by far one of my favorite people to spend all my time with! I wouldn't want it any other way!
She really liked being able to crawl all over the toys, and she did NOT want our help with anything. :)
First, we played in the gym...
Then, we went to the music class...
I am so excited to see her play and grow this summer. She is getting to be so much fun, and she is by far one of my favorite people to spend all my time with! I wouldn't want it any other way!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Things are slow...
Things have been slow around our house, and we like it that way! Landry has still been fighting off some congestion and an ear infection, so we have stayed in a lot. Landry and I love playing together, cuddling on the couch, and her getting good naps.
Yes, I did say naps. :) Over the past two weeks, Landry has started napping in her crib! I put her in there wide awake about 10:30, and she naps until 12:30 or 1. Then, she is ready to go back down for another good nap about 3! She also sleeps 12 hours at night. I think she must be going through a growth spurt with all this sleeping. The only bad thing is that now that she is getting used to taking naps in her crib, she WANTS TO BE IN HER CRIB! There is no more happy baby napping in the carseat. Oh well, I can stay home for her! :)
Another new thing Landry is doing is reaching for things and grunting at us (specifically Micah) to get them for her. She will sit in the floor and reach for something up on the counter and just grunt, cry, and point to get our attention and show us what she wants. It is always something that she isn't allowed to have...like things on the cutting board, shoes off of our shoe rack, cell phones, and remotes. She is full of attitude and becoming very impatient....someone please teach me how to work on this with an 11 month old!
Landry ate real scrambled eggs the other day (not just the yolks).
I don't know if you can see, but there are some on the blinds behind her that she apparently was saving for later.
Yes, I did say naps. :) Over the past two weeks, Landry has started napping in her crib! I put her in there wide awake about 10:30, and she naps until 12:30 or 1. Then, she is ready to go back down for another good nap about 3! She also sleeps 12 hours at night. I think she must be going through a growth spurt with all this sleeping. The only bad thing is that now that she is getting used to taking naps in her crib, she WANTS TO BE IN HER CRIB! There is no more happy baby napping in the carseat. Oh well, I can stay home for her! :)
Another new thing Landry is doing is reaching for things and grunting at us (specifically Micah) to get them for her. She will sit in the floor and reach for something up on the counter and just grunt, cry, and point to get our attention and show us what she wants. It is always something that she isn't allowed to have...like things on the cutting board, shoes off of our shoe rack, cell phones, and remotes. She is full of attitude and becoming very impatient....someone please teach me how to work on this with an 11 month old!
Landry ate real scrambled eggs the other day (not just the yolks).
I don't know if you can see, but there are some on the blinds behind her that she apparently was saving for later.
Friday, March 11, 2011
House Update!
Despite all the crazy weather we have had, our house is moving right along! We are really happy with the progress, and we are planning on being in the beginning of May...it is coming up so quickly! Here are a few pictures that I took yesterday, and things have already changed so much from here...
The front of the house...
Side where they started bricking. The bottom where you see blocks right now is going to be covered in rock.
This is one of my favorite things we planned in the house! It is a flagstone floor that is in the kitchen and breakfast area. The grout is still wet here, so it has lightened up a bit. It won't be nice for babies knees to crawl on, but I love the way it is going to look!
Part of the living room looking in on the new floor.
The front of the house...
Side where they started bricking. The bottom where you see blocks right now is going to be covered in rock.
This is one of my favorite things we planned in the house! It is a flagstone floor that is in the kitchen and breakfast area. The grout is still wet here, so it has lightened up a bit. It won't be nice for babies knees to crawl on, but I love the way it is going to look!
Part of the living room looking in on the new floor.
I am going to try to start taking more pictures since things are changing so quickly. We can't wait to get moved!
Ukrainian Orphan Update
This is a post that I have been wanting to do for quite a while, but I was waiting to get some additional information to share with you all. If you have followed our blog for very long, you probably remember Ivan and Valya. These were the children that we planned to have in our home for 3 weeks at Christmas time last year. We prayed for them, we love them, and we pictured and talked about the possibility of adopting them as part of our family. God showed us at that time that his plans were different (and better!) than our own. Here are the updates on each of the children...
Ivan-Age 12
Ivan was the first child we chose to come visit in December. He is just a doll. We were in contact with him, and we hired an English tutor to help him learn English to make his stay with us easier. It didn't take long with the tutor for her to realize that Ivan had a MAJOR fear of flying on airplanes. He would cry when they talked about him getting on a plane to come to the U.S., and the orphanage decided that he was not emotionally prepared to make the trip.
We were heartbroken. I cried a lot and lost sleep over how to move forward. We still think about Ivan and pray for him often. I got an update yesterday that he is still dealing with his fears, and that he will not be ready for international adoption or hosting this year.
Valya-Age 15
Valya was the second child we chose to host over Christmas once we found out we could not host Ivan. Valya stuck out to us for some reason, and we were interested in hosting her even though we knew we would not be able to adopt her with the age difference not being 15 years between her and us. We prayed from the beginning that during Valya's trip to our home that we would find her a "forever family" while she was here with someone in our church or extended family.
We found out a few weeks before her visit that there were issues with the children's visas and that we would have to make a decision on whether we wanted to move forward within the next 12 hours. We had quite a bit of money on the line that we would not be able to get back, and one of the head organizations backed out themselves. We decided that if they were not confident in the process going through, that we would save our money and try to host the next time there was an opportunity.
Here is where God made his face SO clear to me...3 1/2 weeks later (which was over a week late for the hosting to start), I got a call from a sweet lady who needed to talk to me about Valya. She was one of the hosting coordinators who lives in Georgia, and her family decided last minute to host Valya because the children were able to come even with all of the craziness. The trip was cut short, but the children had arrived in the states that day! The "mother" started crying on the phone and said she wanted to thank Micah and me for committing to host Valya because otherwise their family would not have found her. They had 3 young sons of their own, and never dreamed of adopting a girl, BUT they had already decided that if the visit went well that she would be part of their family. :) She told me that Valya arrived in the U.S. with pictures of our family that we had sent to her and she was a little overwhelmed when she found out that she would be staying with 3 boys instead of one baby girl! Micah and I felt so sad weeks before when we chose to "back out" on Valya, but God had a plan that was bigger than us. A plan to answer our prayer for Valya to get a "forever family" in Georgia.
To make a long story short, the family is in the process of adopting Valya right now! They have completed their paperwork, and now they are waiting, waiting, and waiting. Valya will age out of being available for international adoption in August when she turns 16, so please pray for their process to be speedy.
We still love Valya, we have grown to love this family, and we plan to stay in contact and possibly get to meet Valya one day in person. Isn't God amazing?!
Ivan-Age 12
Ivan was the first child we chose to come visit in December. He is just a doll. We were in contact with him, and we hired an English tutor to help him learn English to make his stay with us easier. It didn't take long with the tutor for her to realize that Ivan had a MAJOR fear of flying on airplanes. He would cry when they talked about him getting on a plane to come to the U.S., and the orphanage decided that he was not emotionally prepared to make the trip.
We were heartbroken. I cried a lot and lost sleep over how to move forward. We still think about Ivan and pray for him often. I got an update yesterday that he is still dealing with his fears, and that he will not be ready for international adoption or hosting this year.
Valya-Age 15
Valya was the second child we chose to host over Christmas once we found out we could not host Ivan. Valya stuck out to us for some reason, and we were interested in hosting her even though we knew we would not be able to adopt her with the age difference not being 15 years between her and us. We prayed from the beginning that during Valya's trip to our home that we would find her a "forever family" while she was here with someone in our church or extended family.
We found out a few weeks before her visit that there were issues with the children's visas and that we would have to make a decision on whether we wanted to move forward within the next 12 hours. We had quite a bit of money on the line that we would not be able to get back, and one of the head organizations backed out themselves. We decided that if they were not confident in the process going through, that we would save our money and try to host the next time there was an opportunity.
Here is where God made his face SO clear to me...3 1/2 weeks later (which was over a week late for the hosting to start), I got a call from a sweet lady who needed to talk to me about Valya. She was one of the hosting coordinators who lives in Georgia, and her family decided last minute to host Valya because the children were able to come even with all of the craziness. The trip was cut short, but the children had arrived in the states that day! The "mother" started crying on the phone and said she wanted to thank Micah and me for committing to host Valya because otherwise their family would not have found her. They had 3 young sons of their own, and never dreamed of adopting a girl, BUT they had already decided that if the visit went well that she would be part of their family. :) She told me that Valya arrived in the U.S. with pictures of our family that we had sent to her and she was a little overwhelmed when she found out that she would be staying with 3 boys instead of one baby girl! Micah and I felt so sad weeks before when we chose to "back out" on Valya, but God had a plan that was bigger than us. A plan to answer our prayer for Valya to get a "forever family" in Georgia.
To make a long story short, the family is in the process of adopting Valya right now! They have completed their paperwork, and now they are waiting, waiting, and waiting. Valya will age out of being available for international adoption in August when she turns 16, so please pray for their process to be speedy.
We still love Valya, we have grown to love this family, and we plan to stay in contact and possibly get to meet Valya one day in person. Isn't God amazing?!
Sorry for such a long post, but I know many of you prayed for these children with us. We appreciate your prayers and wanted to give you an update. A friend is looking in to doing a hosting program this summer for children from Ukraine that will likely be late June through early July....if you are interested in possibly hosting a child, please let me know! The couple who is putting this on recently adopted two precious girls that they hosted last summer. Adoption is NOT manditory, nor is it promised. The hosting is just an opportunity for these children to come to America to have an experience that they otherwise wouldn't.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Ultrasound today!!
We had our first ultrasound to see baby #2 today! We found out that we are about 18 weeks along (due August 11ish) and that we are having a BOY this time!! :) We are super excited, and can't wait to have him as an addition to our family. Here are some pictures from our appointment...
"Big Sister" waiting on the appointment...
Getting anxious (both of us!).
Our family. :)
The first picture of my SON! :) Love it! He kept opening and closing his mouth.
His sweet little hand...
And a sweet baby foot...
"Big Sister" waiting on the appointment...
Getting anxious (both of us!).
Our family. :)
The first picture of my SON! :) Love it! He kept opening and closing his mouth.
His sweet little hand...
And a sweet baby foot...
We feel extremely blessed and we are so thankful to the Lord for another healthy little nugget in my belly! We are narrowing down the list of names, and we will probably have a name finalized in the next few weeks...we will keep you posted!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Silly baby...
Well, we have had another rough couple of weeks. Poor little Landry has caught just about every bug she could this year, but she has taken it like a trooper! Last week she had bronchiolitis and we had to put her on an inhaler. She was fine over the weekend, and then Monday her fever went up to 102.8, and we couldn't get it down with Tylenol. I called our doctor, and things just kept getting worse all through the afternoon. When Micah got home, we took her to the Mercy clinic, and the virus had turned into pneumonia. She also had a double ear infection! The poor thing had lost over 3 pounds in 5 days (I have no clue how because she was eating A LOT), and she was just feeling miserable.
Now, we are doing breathing treatments, another antibiotic, and another steroid. I hate for her to have to take all this medicine, but I am SO THANKFUL that we have access to such great medical care. We love our doctor, and I love that he calls me from his cell phone at night to check in on our sweet angel. You can't ask for more than that!
Landry is feeling much better today, and I think we are well on our way to being healthy again!
With all of that being said, we have been cooped up in the house (living in our pj's!) and not doing much of anything exciting for the past several days. Here are some sweet pictures of our sweet little nugget today...
This is her new way to watch T.V. She also likes to chew on the cabinet knobs. :)
I'm caught!
This is her ridiculous new "cheese!" smile.
Look closely, and you can see her two new teeth coming in on the bottom. This will be #7 and #8!
Crusty nose and big blue eyes!
Now, we are doing breathing treatments, another antibiotic, and another steroid. I hate for her to have to take all this medicine, but I am SO THANKFUL that we have access to such great medical care. We love our doctor, and I love that he calls me from his cell phone at night to check in on our sweet angel. You can't ask for more than that!
Landry is feeling much better today, and I think we are well on our way to being healthy again!
With all of that being said, we have been cooped up in the house (living in our pj's!) and not doing much of anything exciting for the past several days. Here are some sweet pictures of our sweet little nugget today...
This is her new way to watch T.V. She also likes to chew on the cabinet knobs. :)
I'm caught!
This is her ridiculous new "cheese!" smile.
Look closely, and you can see her two new teeth coming in on the bottom. This will be #7 and #8!
Crusty nose and big blue eyes!
Over the past two weeks, Landry has continued to try really hard at walking. She has taken one step by herself twice, and she took two steps on her own today. She doesn't fall down, she just squats and wants to crawl because it is faster...and boy is she fast!
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