Hangin' around the house

What do we do at home?

Play dress up...

Look at mom and that flashing thing.

Read lots of good books!

Make faces at the flashing thing.

That's the way it is at our house.

Oh and lastly, we like to play a good tune!

Olivia's eight months!

My baby is getting bigger and bigger! Here are Olivia's eight month pictures with her beloved bear...

For comparison let's take a look back at one of her first pictures with Teddy...

She was just about the bear's size and now she's approaching twice his size! Where has the time gone?!

Jenna's first ballet class

This past summer Jenna got to take her first dance class, but this semester she is taking her first ballet class. For her summer dance class she did not need ballet shoes, but for this one she did, so the purchasing of real ballet shoes was a big deal! She was so proud to have ballet shoes just like Mommy (since I just started taking ballet classes again myself). Here's our newest dancer in the family...

Touch your toes

I love this... first position with arms (or rather left hand) in thumb suck.

How cute! I just can't help but laugh when I watch the girls. They are so cute as they try their very best to do each position or step.

I think Jenna's favorite part is the free dance at the end of class.

Labor day fun!

Before I let September slip by I thought I ought to include our Labor Day weekend events from the beginning of the month. We were inivited to Uncle Wayne and Aunt Toni's place (Robby's Uncle and Aunt - they live about a little more than an hour drive from us near Indianapolis). Uncle Wayne had also invited Paul (Robby's cousin) and his wife Mindy and their 4 children to come as well. The kids had a great time playing together especially when Uncle Wayne turned on the slip and slide after lunch.

Oh, what fun it is to be a kid!

Puree Please!

Olivia is learning to love solids now. We did have a problem initially with the rice cereal, but I changed the brand and everything cleared up. Surprisingly Olivia really likes vegetables! In fact, I think she likes them more than some of the fruits! Here are some of our fun eating moments...

She thinks her bib tastes best of all!

"No thanks, mom. I think I'll take the terry cloth instead."

Faculty vs. Students

The first weekend after school started at the University there was a faculty vs. Ph.D. student kickball game organized. Robby really wanted to participate to get to know others in the business school. Before we left for the game, I joked that it would be funny if we made signs that said "Go Faculty!" and Robby thought it sounded so funny that he wanted us to do it. I made the signs, but then made the kids hold them...

Aren't they cute?! Unfortunately, not enough faculty showed up to play, so there were some 4th and 5th year Ph.D. students on the faculty team.

Robby's first time up to kick he managed to get to base and then made a run for home on a teammate's kick, the only problem was that he tripped as he was running from 3rd to home (he claims the ground wasn't very even). At first, he thought he would be tagged out, but he managed to scramble to home plate a second ahead of the ball (which is in mid-air in this picture). Nice one, Dear! (I don't get credit for this picture though because I forgot my camera. The other wife present was the action photographer. I laughed when I found out that she caught this shot!)

And here are all participants (and the kiddos).

Flashback July: The Sealing and Blessing

I know this is a post that a lot of you have been waiting to see, and I finally got a few minutes to put it together. This day in July is now added to the list of one of the best days of my life. Any opportunity to enter into the temple with my whole family to have a sacred ordinance performed in order to ensure the opportunity for us to be together forever will always stand out in my mind. I am grateful for the blessing of adoption and more importantly the blessing of the temple that creates bonds in our family that are the same as if our daughters had been born to us. All of our children are ours eternally because of the priesthood of God and the presence of temples on the earth today. I can't describe how beautiful it is to be able to take all of your young children into the sacred halls of the temple. I am grateful that because of adoption we have been able to do that twice, and I hope many more times in the future.

Olivia Lucille was sealed to us in the Salt Lake Temple.

We were very grateful to all of our parents for making the sacrafice to be present that day.

Thanks also to Summer and Logan for coming out also to share our special day with us.

And now, our children...

We get to have these three with us forever!

And the star of the day, Olivia!

Ooops! Baby fell over!

Jenna falls over, too!

After the sealing we traveled to Uncle Tracy and Aunt Carol's house for Olivia's blessing (many thanks to Uncle Tracy and Aunt Carol for sharing their home with us). We were very grateful for the opportunity to have Olivia's birthparents attend the blessing that day. I know I have expressed it before, but my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude right now for the decision that Olivia's birthparents made to allow Olivia to have these opportunities in her life. Many of our children may arrive in our home and family through this not-so-traditional route, but I will forever be grateful for the blessing of having my heart touched by their first parents because I have been there to personally witness their incredible love and sacrifice as they chose adoption for their children. To B and D (Jenna's birthparents) and J and S (Olivia's birthparents) thank you forever.

All of the pictures taken after the blessing involved Olivia's birthparents, so I will keep them for our family to reflect upon and enjoy privately.

Flashback July: Utah Adventures

In my attempt to catch up on my blog I thought I would try to abbreviate my posts. Let me tell you, that is a very hard thing for me to do. July was such a busy month, and there were some very important things that happened for us, namely Olivia's finalization, sealing, and blessing. In between the finalization on Wednesday and the sealing on Saturday, the kids and I took the time to go on a couple of Utah adventures to the Utah Children's Museum, the Clark Planetarium, and Great-Grandma's. I am just going to show you pictures of the fun we had to make this quick...

Utah Children's Museum







The Clark Planetarium

A Visit to Great-Grandma

I will share the story behind this last picture. As we were leaving Grandma had a hair appointment at the salon down the hall, so her assistant wheeled her down there. As he was helping her into a salon chair, Grandma thought Jenna might like a trip down the hall and back in the wheelchair so she told the assistant to take her granddaughter for a ride (seen above). When he got back, she didn't want Chap to be left out so she told him to give Chap a ride, too. It was kinda cute. Of course when he got back with Chap, the assistant was so kind as to offer me a ride, too. I graciously declined the offer. ;)