I'm Back...(Hopefully for more Frequent Updates)

As for me, I am loving having two babies, even though it is like having twins. I have started getting out more with them and have set up good routines to follow, so long as the kids don't sleep in too late. LOL I am trying to find time to spend as "lila time" and have been in a little better mood lately because of it. I can't stay on top of laundry, dished, vacuming, and cleaning the bathroom, but I do my best most days to put at least a little dent in it each day. I also have decided to go back to school and have been accepted into the BYU-Idaho Online Business Degree. I will take an introductory class in the fall and then starting in winter I will get going on the class. I am excited because I feel like this is something I can accomplish that will make me feel complete.

C-Baby has been growing like a weed. I can't believe how big he is getting...i swear everyday he is bigger! He has started doing the cutest things, like acting shy when someone is talking to him, talking more (saying Mama, baba, ect), learning how to do new things, clapping, waving, going up and down the stairs, eating real people food, and most importantly, not being on formula anymore. For about two weeks we have been working on getting him on Whole Milk, and I think it is safe to say that we are 90% there! We haven't had to use formula at all, but I do have to water the milk down (2oz water 4oz of milk)...the funny thing is though that he will not take his milk in a sippy cup yet. We are working on weeing from the bottle, and we finally found a sippy that he likes and will drink from without fussing...but he will only drink juice and water from the sippy. I am going to try adding a little bit of chocolate to the milk in a sippy to see if that will start the process. I think it is so much fun giving him "real people" food now. Whenever we go to a resturant to eat I always want to order him a little sometime..Joel thinks I am silly, but I think it is so fun! I have turned a lot of our leftovers into baby food portions and froze them so that we can always have something to feed him. So far it is working great! I think he is getting closer to walking, but I just don't know when he will take the plunge and get going. I hope he walks before we head to Oregon next month for C-Baby's first birthday bash. My parent have a large dog and I think C-Baby would be in a little bit of a pickle if he isn't walking by the time we get there...cross your fingers...one month to go!! Speaking of which, can you believe my little baby is almost 1? I am so excited!! We are going to have a party for him in Oregon (two actually). On his actually birthday we are having a dinner with his birthmother, her family, and friends in Portland, and then the next day we are hosting a shindig with all our Oregon friends! I am so excited to go home...visit the coast, eat at my favorite resturants, and see my favorite people! I am working on a wish list for C-baby's birthday and am contimplating registering somewhere so that people can just send gifts our way instead of buying them and us having to deal with getting them home, but that is just a thought, nothing more right now. C-baby has 7 teeth and one more slowly working its way up....he pretty much sleeps through the night now and he loves to go on walks. We have put baby locks on all but one of our cupboards in the kitchen, and we have also put a lock on the oven (which he gets very mad about most days). We have yet to lock our drawers, but that is soon to follow...he loves pulling my cook books, paper plates and anything else he can get his hands on out into the kitchen and then soon after all through the house.

Here is a little picture of N-Baby. I figure i can probably share a picture or two from time to time of her for your viewing pleasure. Adjusting from one to two has been fun for me (except at night when I really want to be sleeping but have a grumpy one awake preventing me from doing so) N-Baby is very sweet, smiles often, and has a cry that is so percing it makes you want to claw your ears out! LOL It is brutal! She has been having a very hard time sleeping and up until last night, we have been catering to her screams (even when we have done all we can do to help her)...last night however we decided to start letting her cry it out because it worked pretty well with CBaby. We moved her into C-babies room and had C-baby sleep with us in our room. After about an hour of crying, she was out. She only woke up twice during the night, only one of which i went and gave her a bottle. I think she really enjoyed sleeping in a crib and feeling like she had a place to herself. We have ordered her a crib, and just have to go pick it up. Once we get it set up we are going to attempt to have the babies in the same room and see how that works, after-all we don't have an extra bedroom until next month sometime when Levi will be heading home to serve his mission. Sure there is a lot of wondering surrounding this idea of putting the babies in the same room, but people do it all the time, and if they can get use to each other at night then i don't think it will be too big of a deal....we will just have to see. I am prepared for some late nights and trying to get them sleeping in the same room for at least a week..if after a week they aren't working well together, then we will adjust. We don't have many details on her situation, but we plan to have her at least until September. She is 7.5 months old now, has 4 teeth and two coming in, she is eating solids ok, and she is starting to figure out how to roll over, although i have only seen her do it twice. When we come to Oregon we will not be bringing her, and she will be staying with another foster family during that time. C-baby and her get along very well and have fun together.

The Green River started flooding last week and has progressively gotten a lot higher as the days of rain continue to fall here in Wyoming. It looks so awesome and is super fun to play in. I did a family photo shoot yesterday down at the river and Joel was a little jealous, so when he got home from work we headed down there with the kiddos and went for a fun walk. It really is cool to see...but the city is going to have to rebuild their levies after the water goes down. lol
Joel is still loving his job and is staying busy. He has found a new love on the internet...watching the A Team episodes. We watch one a night most nights.


This summer is going to be pretty pack with different activities and I hope to be able to keep you guys updated with pictures and such...this coming weekend we are meeting the Clark family (from Oregon) in SLC and will be going to the zoo as well as the new temple open house...amoung other things I am sure. Next weekend it is back down to Utah for two wedding receptions, then for the 4th of July we will be heading up north to Worland to spend that time with Bryan & Heather as well as making a visit to see Joel's uncle, aunt and grandma....mix life inbetween all that and you will be able to tell that we are going to be heck-a busy! Woot Woot

Getting Caught Up!

Sorry I am such a slacker! I mean really...I am rarely on this blog anymore and when I do come here, I am usually just looking at friends and family to see what is new with them. It seems like over the last week, a lot has happened. I turned 25, my mom came to visit then went home, she bought us plane tickets to come visit in July, we decided to start saving for a big screen TV (not quite sure yet how I feel about it though), I have started getting clients for photography, and we have a new addition to our family through Foster Care. Sunday we got a phone call from DFS and so now we have a 6 month old little girl as a possible "long term placement." She has two older siblings, but the are living in a different foster house...but that house is two down from our house, so they have come over to visit everyday thus far. I probably will never be able to post pictures of her, but if you are lucky you may meet her someday...somehow. It has definitely been a little crazy trying to juggle two kids around who are close in age, but hopefully by next week we will have a hang of it. CBaby loves having a new friend around and he is constantly trying to give kisses and hugs to her...the only problem with that is that he sqwishes her, so I have to be careful on that one! Our new baby, we will call her N Baby, gets scared and screams a lot when CBaby cries or makes loud noises....again, hopefully we will all adjust sooner than later! She sleeps VERY well and is just starting to eat solids. I have had to borrow some baby girl clothes until I can get a supply built up for her, but luckily there are people around willing to help out with that. We have our first big trip with all of us this weekend as we will be traveling to Boise for a family sealing....hopefully we don't go crazy! haha

More C-Baby and Life...

When I am behind on my blogging, you can guarentee that once I start updating things, C-baby will be the highlight of it all....I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone, right?! LOL

Yes, it is true, C-baby runs my life and my camera, what can I say? If he wasn't so freakin' cute, maybe the camera wouldn't love him so much....NAH, that is a big lie....no matter what, the camera will never shy away from any one of my babies! It will be weird for me to be a foster parent because I will definitely take lots of pictures of the babies we get in our home, but because of confidentiality rules, I will not be able to post them. If we end up adopting a baby, then I will just have to post the scrapbook pages of their life to catch you up I suppose. Isn't that weird? I think so. Speaking of foster care, today Joel and I finished everything we needed to do on our end to be legally eligable for fostering. We did our CPR class and fingerprinting today. We were told that starting tomorrow we will be on the list and could recieve a baby at any time. That kind of freaks me out a little because there are so many factors that we wont know about until the baby is here....almost sounds like what we had to go through with thoughts on adoption, but this time we know we will be getting a baby soon, we just don't know what we will need. If we get a baby boy, we will only need to buy diapers, newborn bottles, and that is probably all...BUT if we get a baby girl...........we will have to buy the works, like clothing, hair bows, etc. I have a few connections here in town with friends who are going to hook me up with their baby girl clothes, but that is only once their babies grow out of it...and well, that could be a while. haha We are both very excited and a little nervous about this new adventure in life, but I know it will be worth it. We feel so good about this decision that there is no backing out. Yes, I will be tired again, and yes, I might have a few moments of freaking out, but hopefully I will have an excersicing program set up where I get to go work out for at least an hour a day at night while Joel plays super dad....and of course, I have friends who I can go to for help if I need it. What a blessing that is! I am planning on still working while we do foster care unless it becomes too hard on me and the children, but I think we will be good. I am currently in the market for a good pack and play, a double stroller/jogging stroller, and some bottles. If you have any that you would like to shoot my way, let me know and I can arrange payment for shipping!

Before I go, on a totally unrelated topic....my birthday is in month. I am going to be 25 years old!! WOW...oh and I GET TO CELEBRATE MY FIRST OFFICAL MOTHER'S DAY! I can't wait! Do you have any fun party ideas for me?? I am running on empty in that category....

Week in Review

Yesterday was just a plain old crap filled day! I called it my "no good, very bad day." It started to us waking up to four-ish inches of snow, BLIZZARD style. It was nasty, and in my opinion, it is never a good way to start the day. Levi was heading out of town to Philadelphia for the weekend (ask him, not me why he went....if you want to know, otherwise just be content that he went on a fun weekend trip by himself)...well he drove to the airport only to be told that the plane couldn't land and that his flight was canceled...his entire trip almost got canceled thanks to the stupid weather, but luckily for him, he was able to catch an early flight out this morning and is now on his way to the city of brotherly love. C-Baby refused to sleep ALL DAY yesterday...I spent the day chasing him around, trying to make sure he didn't bump his head on anything or climb up something just to fall back down screaming...by the end of the day he was so tired, but wouldn't sleep. I was scrambling around the house cleaning my little butt off because we were having a homevisit with the foster care coordinator that evening. I have been cleaning all week, but living in a house with two guys and a baby, things just don't stay clean...AT ALL. I was so tired. I finally got C-Baby to sleep at 4:00, hopped in the shower, started to do my hair, when I got a phone call around 445 from the foster care lady asking to reschedule. Are you kidding me? UGH! C-baby woke up right after that, but I let him cry a little in hopes that he would actually go back to sleep...UMMM no, that didn't work. By the time Joel got home from work I was running on empty. It was such a miserable day. We ended up going out to eat and then came home and let the night roll on...UGH, seriously, if anyone has a free vacation that they want to send my way, let me know...I NEED ONE!

In other news, BIG FOOT was at our front door apparently. Joel showed me these foot prints on our sidewalk as he was shoveling the snow...they appeared there and I thought it was pretty freaky, until Joel told me where they actually came from. Turns out that on Wednesday night Joel wanted to try an experiement in our front lawn (aka pee in the snow) to see if it would be there the next day....only sign of the event, his frozen feet tracks. NERT

C-Baby is getting so big. He is offically ALL OVER THE PLACE. I don't know if you can tell or not, but in the bottom picture of him in the blue, he has a nice big bruise across his nose from falling and hitting is face on the sliding glass door...he apparently thought he could stand next to it without any problems, he was WRONG. I have been itching to do a photoshoot with him, so to show you what might come of the photoshoot once my camera returns to me, here is a sneak preview! How adorable is he in his car rocker???? I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THAT HE IS FREAK'IN ADORABLE! He likes to climb around on it and try to stand by it...C-baby has also started greeting me in his crib when he is mad and wants out by either sitting at the edge crying or standing up in his crib. What a little toot! It is so adorable though. I don't know if he could get any cuter...seriously!

My Mind Feels Like it is Going a Mile a Minute...

Today, you get me expressing my thoughts so that 1)i can have this to look back on in a few weeks/months/years and 2)so you can feel like you know what is going on in my life, beside having the cutest baby in the world. Brace yourself, because I don't really know how long this is going to be, and I am honestly just planning on typing everything that is on my mind...the good and the bad.

Last week I had a strong impression that it is time to start looking at fertility options again. Last year, before we were really getting into the adoption thing, I was given the name of a doctor that is a top rated fertility specialist in Utah by my grandfather. He knows this doctor personally, and has seen how great he is and the results he has had. At the time, we lived in Oregon and getting to Utah for fertility treatments wasn't really part of the cards...there were many who were offering to help pay for plane tickets and what not, but honestly, it was next to impossible to even consider. We moved forward with adoption and up until this time, I have been content with the choices that my life has given me. There have been times when I am staring into Baby-C's eyes, that i just break down because i love him so much and because I still wish I could experience pregnancy and the miracle of creation. Last week, as I let my mind float into random thoughts (during church actually..more specifically during the sacrament and talks following), I found myself in a place where I knew what my next step needed to be...I spoke to Joel about it that night, and I am bracing myself for whatever may come. To say that I am scared, would probably be an understatement because in the past, everything I have done to try to tackle this issue has caused me extreme emotional hardships, among other things. This new decision in our life will give us direction...it will either work or it wont. My plan is that if my body struggles, the doctor confirms that I am broken, or the only possible way to even try to get preggers in invetro, then, no questions asked, I will do what I need to do to get my uterus out! The pain and the effects on my body are not worth living through if there isn't an end result that will give me the chance to grow a baby inside my body. I know that the miracle of adoption happens, and I know that it will give us the opportunity to be parents, so I am not concerned.

We are still going through with fostering, and will use this method (for now) as a chance to hopefully adopt again. We are ready for this commitment, and there is so much good that will come of it once we jump into it. Next week will are having a home visit, we have to get fingerprinted, and get CPR/FirstAid certified, then we are IN. I suspect that as soon as we get the go ahead, within days we will have our first placement. There are so many senarios that will come up, but thanks to the classes and the support from friends, we are ready to handle them as they come. Even if being "foster parents" doesn't end up working, I can still do daycare for foster families, do temporary care for foster children, and be an advocate for fostering. No matter what, we will always be involved from this point on.

Lately, my biggest mind trail has been work. I hate to work...i hate being away from Baby-C, even if it is only 3 hours, I hate feeling like I am causing others to postpone their daily lives to help watch him, and I want to have a normal schedule in my day where i can go for long walks/runs and not have to worry about being somewhere at a specific time. With that being said, I know things could be worse, and I am lucky enough to have Jody, my sister-in-law, as Baby-C's main sitter. Unfortunately, I kind of need to work, so that we aren't living in fear of the overdraw and to help a little where I can. I have been offered a position working with the after school program next year as the Head Instructor over an elementary. Right now I just show up when I am needed and just go with the flow, but if I were to take this position I would create the program, from the moment the children come to when they go home. It is very exciting to me, because I know I can make a huge difference in the lives of these kids, and I can help create order and activity that is encouraging growth. Only problem is that I would have to commit to at least 3 days a week working, possibly more...which would mean that Baby-C would have to have a stable place to go, so that he could be watched as well. I am not too concerned about this, because I do feel that it is good for him to be away from mommy and learn how to socialize with others, but again, it is that burden thing that worries me. How much is the going rate for 2.5 hours of childcare now a days anyway? By working often, I will still be bringing in enough money to help, and I work the school calendar, so I have holidays off, ect. I am leaning more towards taking this position, but at the same time, I feel hesitant. UGH! I can still do this work while doing foster care...so if we had a baby, i would just arrange to have he/she watched as well, probably at a foster parent's house though. (Confused? it is okay, i understand how it would work out. ) Did I mention that by taking this job I would get a raise too...not by much but I think it would be a dollar or more....which is nice.

Other than all that, I am still finding it hard to stay on top of all my household duties. (shame on me!) But, I think I am getting better. LOL

Oh, one other thing...I am working on a business idea to open up a baby consignment/donation center around here. There are a ton of kids around, and really no where to get used goods...I think it would be a success, I just have to spend more time creating the idea and working towards a business plan, ect. Fun times, huh?.......................................