A Good Plan

My friend gave birth to a healthy baby boy yesterday. But he was at least 20 weeks too early to survive. He lived for three hours. This morning I opened up my email and read the words my friend wrote to share the news of her son's birth and passing. I cannot imagine what kind of pain she and her husband must be in. Yet her email message was so positive and uplifting because she knows that she will hold her son again, and be with him again. The end is not with this life, we are only at the start. I am grateful to know that God has a plan to allow families to be together forever. I am grateful to know that God is in control, and we can get through difficult times by relying on the Savior. I am deeply humbled by others tragedies and my own blessings.

Aurora-3 months

So in love with this baby!!

It is so funny to take her picture because I get her to smile and I snap the camera. The flash startles her and she kind of scowls at me. Then I have to get her to smile again for another picture and we do it all over again. She does not like the flash on the camera.


A little about Aurora at 3 months:
-She loves to smile at anyone who smiles at her. She has such a big happy smile and these chubby cheeks. When she smiles really big you can see the slightest indentation in her right cheek.
-She is cooing and babbling a lot.
-She sticks out her tongue quite a bit.
-She holds her hands together and sometimes when she smiles at you she pulls them up in front of her face like she is being bashful.
-She is starting to grab things.
-She has just started drooling and making bubbles.
-She will look at her Daddy and it seems as though she is studying his face.
-She has lots of stinky farts, and when she coughs she usually farts along simultaneously.
-She enjoys her swing but prefers to be held.
-She will lay on the floor for a good amount of time and kick her legs and swing her arms and "talk."
-She is loved by her big sisters... sometimes more than she would like.
-She has s fair amount of soft hair covering her head with these random long strands on the very top.
-She just lights up whenever she sees Mommy, and her eyes follow me whenever I move.
-She is wearing sizes 3-6 months clothes, has been for a month. She also fits into the 6 months size too.
-She is over 14lbs.
-She has lots of adorable baby rolls on her legs and I love them!

Adelynne's Thanksgiving Journal

Over Thanksgiving Adelynne needed to keep a journal. She had to write a sentence for each day and draw a picture to go along with her sentence. Here is the pages from her journal, (she only had help from Dustin on the first day, because he didn't know that he was not supposed to help Adelynne with spelling). The rest of the days she did completely on her own. I am pretty proud, but I love reading sentences by children when they are just learning to read and write, it is so cute! So, can you figure out what they say? The translation is below each page:

Thursday: Mommy cooked turkey.

Friday: I went to Chicago.

Saturday: We went to the temple.

Sunday: I went to church.

Monday: I am going to decorate for Christmas. (She actually wasn't supposed to do a page for Monday, but she was so excited about decorating our tree for Family Night, that she wrote this page to ensure that we would actually be doing it)!

These pictures are from Adelynne's Thanksgiving performance. I was only able to get a few before my camera died. But I love the expressions on her face in each one.

The nervous face. She was getting up to say her first line for the first time:

Nervously saying her line: "J is for Jones. When Spring came, Captain Jones, the captain of the Mayflower, sailed back to England. All of the pilgrims stayed in America. No one wanted to leave their new home."

Confidently saying her second line: "O is for One. One day Governor Bradford said, 'God has been good to us. We must thank him for all these things.'"

Getting ready to sing and giggling with her classmates:

Looking at Mom and Dad:

Singing!

The girl on Adelynne's right (your left) is one of her favorite friends to play with. The two of them were the loudest singers in the class. It was really cute.

Beanie baby

This was back on Nov. 18th. She fell asleep with her beanie over her eyes, normally she hates when that happens. I thought it was cute.

oh yeah...

I forgot to mention that on November 22nd, Aurora rolled from her tummy to her back. She does not like tummy time, and she proved it by rolling over. I didn't see her do it, but I put her down on her tummy and walked to the counter. When I looked back at her less than a minute later, she was on her back. Dustin and I tried to get her to do it again, but she wouldn't/couldn't do it. I've been trying to remember when Adelynne and Amy rolled over. I'm pretty sure Adelynne didn't roll over until after her first Christmas, so she was over 5 months old. I'm pretty sure Amy beat Adelynne and rolled over at around 4 months. So I guess Aurora is just trying to beat her sisters at this rolling over game. She will be 3 months on Thursday. Personally, I think she is much too young to be doing such things.

Some other things to document that I am concerned about with Aurora. During feedings, and waking up from naps she starts to gag and cough and cough until she is red in the face and nearly choking. I think she is gagging on mucus. Sometimes she is able to cough up a small spit ball. But I really am not sure what to do for her. I took her to the doctor on Friday thinking maybe she had a bad cough. The doctor said she was fine, no problems with her lungs or throat. She said I could give her a little water after I feed her to see if it will help clear her throat. I need to get on that.... isn't it bizarre? Has anyone else had this problem with their baby? Oh, and on Saturday, Aurora had about 2 and 1/2 oz of formula. About 3 hours later she was puking her guts out. She vomited over and over again until she was dry heaving. The poor baby was throwing up stomach bile, it was awful to watch her, I know she was hurting. Then she took a very long nap. When she woke up I nursed her. She was happy and smiley. But then while I was burping her, she threw up again. The rest of the day she threw up after I nursed her. I nursed her around 12:45am and then sat with her until 1:10am to make sure she didn't throw up. And she didn't. She hasn't thrown up since 12:15am on Sunday. It was a long night though because I was waking up all night long to make sure she didn't throw up and choke. But now she is all better from this and just does the gagging and coughing thing with her mucus. No more formula for Aurora. She did not have this problem when she had to go on formula when I was in the hospital for surgery. But, Amy had this same reaction to formula when she was about 3 months old. When I've asked my doctor about it, she just told me that Amy has a sensitive gag reflex (ha)! I did not agree with that diagnosis! Anyway, tell me what you thing about Aurora's problem with the gagging issue.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends! We are grateful for so many things, our hearts are full of gratitude as we reflect on the blessings that our Father in Heaven has blessed us with.

On Tuesday, Dustin and I attended Adelynne's Kindergarten class Thanksgiving Play. She did an excellent job saying her lines. Our video recorder is just my cell phone, so these videos aren't the best, but we thought we would share anyway.

THE pictures

Here are Aurora's baby pictures that we had taken when she was 2 or 3 weeks old. These first two are of Aurora with the blanket that my mom made for her. She has made one for each of my girls and we have had each of the girls photographed with their blanket. My mom uses the same kind of fabric my baby blanket is made with, and then they each have a lace panel on the top just like my baby blanket has.

I just like her little open mouth

Each of our girls has had this style picture taken of them laying on their daddy's hand. This is the one we chose to hang next to Adelynne's and Amy's picture:

This was another option that I couldn't help but get because I love her little expression with her hand curled up under her chin

Oh look! Adelynne's "official" kindergarten picture! Still in denial about the whole kindergarten thing

When my sister and her son BJ were visiting we went and had the babies photographed. He was so chill throughout the shoot, and Aurora was a fussy pill. But we still got super cute results:

This is our favorite, mostly because BJ's face says it all:

This one is sweet:

Cute Babies!!

Some things

My friend, Joni, got Aurora to laugh last night. I thought Joni deserved the credit for Aurora's first laugh. Just another proof that Joni is going to be a fabulous mommy! Check out her adoption blog over there on my sidebar.

Our ward had its primary program today. You know when the primary children all stand up and sing and there's that once voice singing you can hear above all the other voices? Well, that was Adelynne today. I have to admit I was a very proud mommy. I love it when children are singing with all the gusto their little hearts can give, and that was my baby up there singing her heart out, even when she didn't know the words to the songs. Some of the time Adelynne was distracted by another kid, or by her finger nail, and so she would stop singing, or sing quietly. So I would wait for her to look up at me and I would put my hand behind my ear to indicate that I couldn't hear her. She would immediately start singing rather loudly, (but a sincere loud, not an obnoxious loud). Well this happened on the last song they sung, "He Sent His Son." I couldn't hear Adelynne singing, so I gave her the sign and she immediately started singing loudly... but she didn't know the words! So she was singing mumbled sounds... as loudly as she could. Dustin and I turned red, ducked our heads, and started laughing. It was only slightly embarrassing, but so cute and funny. It was fun to watch Adelynne's face during the songs too. She obviously has a hard time reaching higher notes because her eyebrows would raise and her forehead would furrow when she attempted the notes and she often hit them quite off key. One of the songs they sang was the "First Article of Faith." They had actions to go along with each principle of the gospel. Adelynne was so animated as she would throw her arm up with one finger, two fingers, and three fingers on the end of her hand to go along with the principle. As she prepared to throw her arm up with four fingers extended she was leaning to the side as if she were gearing up to pitch a ball to a batter. And then she threw out that arm with a strike. She was just so fun to watch, and she even said her line, "I follow the prophet by being nice," so clearly. Did I mention how proud I am? Amy was sad to have her sister leave her behind in the pews with us, but I reminded her that next year she would be up their too. When we changed our seats to move over in front of Adelynne so we could see her, Amy gave her a cute little wave, she was just as excited to see Adelynne up on the stand. I am so grateful for primary teachers that teach my child wonderful primary songs and help her learn about Jesus Christ.

Last night I went to the leadership training broadcast for the church. It was a good meeting with great insights from church leaders. My favorite quote of the night was from Elder Gonzales from the Seventy. He said, "If you want a secret well kept, put it in a handbook."

In the season of expressing gratitude, I am most grateful for the Savior's atonement. Without the atonement, my life would be pointless. I know that because of the atonement I can be saved and live with God and my family again. I am grateful to know that the Savior's atonement heals all pains, all sufferings, all wounds, all sins, all grieving hearts and minds. I am also grateful for the Savior's perfect example of forgiveness. He forgave so readily, even those that caused his sufferings and death. I am not perfect at forgiving others, but I am grateful for the forgiving heart that I do have. I aim to do better, but in general I believe that I have a forgiving nature. I wish with all my heart that the world, and especially those people in my life that I so dearly, truly love, might also find in their hearts to forgive others, most especially to forgive the people that are most important in life; family.

Tuesday morning

Dustin was taking a mid morning nap (we are still both suffering from lack of sleep due to a little infant in our room that likes to eat during the night) on Tuesday so I wrapped up Aurora and put her in his arm. They both took a good long nap together. I'm glad I captured the moment. Oh, and my sweet Amy wrapped her Daddy up in her blankets so he wouldn't be cold.

I am watching Eddie in the mornings now. He is a lot of fun to have around. Most of the time Amy enjoys playing with him, or helping him. These pictures were taken moments too late, but what happened is that Amy was eating her lunch. She had a bowl of peaches, Eddie did not, he was snacking on crackers, when suddenly he just snagged one of Amy's peaches as quickly as he could and shoved it in his mouth. Amy was devastated. She sobbed her heart out. But Eddie has a sensitive heart too because soon his little chin was quivering and he had a frown to compete with Amy's own professional pout. His little eyes teared up too, it was so sad it was cute. Of course we reassured them both that all would be okay, there was plenty of peaches for them both.

I tried to capture Eddie eating this peach. He puts the peach in one hand and then uses the fork to eat it out of that hand. It made me laugh. They were both happy to have peaches.

And all the while Aurora is as happy as can be. She loves to smile.

I am So in Love.

More oldies

Amy modeling her swimsuit back in May 2009:

Adelynne in her swimsuit in May 2009:

Aubree, Dylan, and Amy in May 2009:

Dylan's arm around Amy:

April 2, 2009

April 7, 2009

March 2, 2009. Capturing a sad face on Amy. She has great sad expressions.

February 24, 2009. A nice moment with Max cat.

February 23, 2009. Adelynne always concentrates while drawing/coloring.

February 23, 2009. Adelynne looks so young in this picture. She was cute with short hair, but I love her long hair now.

Phone Fun

This would be the perfect babysitting machine, no?

This was back in June on our way home from the water park and Amy fell asleep just like this. It made me laugh, Amy is good at making me laugh.
I know this is hard to see, but the girls were playing in some boxes. I think this is back in January of 2009:

Something to remember

On Monday, Adelynne did not have school because she was on fall break. Amy still had preschool, so I decided to take her to preschool and take advantage of some more one on one time with Adelynne. I took her to the library since we haven't been able to go in a couple of months and then I took her to Sam's Club to do some grocery shopping. On the drive from the library to Sam's Club I reached back to her to hold her hand. I too often forget to make physical contact with my girls, which is so sad since I know that physical contact is so nurturing to children. Anyway, I reached for her hand and she took my hand and we just held hands for a few minutes. My arm was extended over the seat, and her arm was extended out in front of her in order to reach my hand. My arm was starting to get tired, and Adelynne after a few minutes told me her arm was getting tired so we let go of one another's hands. As I pulled my arm back to my lap Adelynne said, "But I still love you." That made me smile and I said, "I know."

Remember to hold hands with someone you love today!

Pictures from the phone

I always forget about the pictures on my phone. Here are a few taken during October. I love this smile I got from Aurora:
This is the only picture I got with Adelynne wearing the headpiece from her costume. Dustin was taking her to school for her Kindergarten Halloween party. She was so excited to wear her costume to school.
The girls wearing "new" clothes (I pulled them out of storage). They were very excited and posed so cutely for a quick photo.

The Dentist

Amy had her first dentist appointment on Tuesday the 2nd. She was a very good patient and did what she was told. I took these pictures on my phone while we were there. This first one the hygienist was showing Amy all the different tools that she was going to use. Amy's body position makes her look as though she is on her guard.

Here she is ready to get her teeth cleaned. The only problem Amy had with her teeth was some "decalcification on her gum line of her two top canine teeth." It could be something the teeth came with or from poor brushing.

I didn't get any pictures of Adelynne, but this is one from my phone that I took back in January of 2009.


My girls love going to the dentist. They love getting new toothbrushes and picking out a cheap little toy from the treasure chest.

Blast from my past

I've been transferring photos and videos from my phone to the computer, and here is an old one of Amy that I love. Taken in February of 2009:
This is a picture I took of Amy (and Sylvia) on our way home from the somewhere last spring. Notice Amy has no pants on, probably because she wet in them. Who knows.