our little piggy

so, we found out on tuesday, that gaven (our little 6 month old) has swine flu. poor little guy is coughing all over the place, but is finally starting to show improvement with the tamiflu. however, while he's been sick, he has mastered two new tricks. he is now able to put himself into a sitting position from crawling, and then this morning, this is what i walked in on...


we are from this point forward, referring to him as bam! bam! he's so strong, even when he's not feeling well.

Gaven's Giggles

so, when it's late at night, gavey gets the giggles, and we had to capture it on film. enjoy and try not to laugh, it's pretty hard not to.

the kiddos

Wheat and What Not

this has been a fun month for photos...we had a photo shoot with gaven near paul's birthday...gaven fit in his daddy's baby clothes at age 3 months! we also took the kiddo's out to the wheat field for pictures before the wheat was all harvested. we had a blast out there trying to fight the enormous rain drops, but we were able to get some good shots.

wasington/oregon trip

we just got back from a wonderful trip to the west coast. we had an amazing time with my family, a wonderful celebration shower for capri and gaven, we were able to attend paul's sister's wedding, and take a mini vacation with our two kids to the place we fell in love...cannon beach, OR. here are some pictures

we are so blessed

posting, like sleep, is few and far between, but we feel so blessed to have had my mom here for the birth of gaven as well as having my sister come to help me in any way she could. it was wonderful to have them here to share in our joy, and in immense help as things were pretty shaky the first few days with gaven's jaundice and capri's jealousy. they've been gone for a week now, it's been tough, but i'm figuring this juggling thing out.

gaven's officially out of premie clothes and into newborn and capri is becoming her normal self again. we are gearing up for our trip to washington and oregon next month for paul's sister's wedding, our baby shower, and visit with my family...and then it will be back to work again (dreading that immensely).

on may 10th, we will be dedicating both the kids at church, we are ecstatic to not only have a church, but a church family. they too, have been a huge help over the past month and we love them all.

here are some pictures from the past month...

GAVEN KEITH HAS ARRIVED (3 weeks early)

after a blizzard, an induction, 7 hours of labor, and an emergency c-section, gaven keith arrived on march 28th at 5:12 p.m. weighing in at a "not-so-hefty" 5 lbs. 12 oz. he was 19 1/2 inches long and has beautiful and alert blue eyes. sorry we are just posting these, but enjoy:

ANNOUNCEMENT

make room for baby

so with all of the posts about capri, i haven't posted much about the fact that she's about to become a big sister.

favorite capri and gaven moments (even before he's born)

-every morning she sleepily kisses my belly and says, 'bye baby gaven' and then she pretends to give my belly a drink of milk (gulping sounds included). she is very nurturing and we think she will be a great sister, however are a little concerned about some jealousy issues so we are trying to have her take care of her babies for practice, also, we have a bribe...we have told her that when gaven comes, nana is coming too, so this seems to help with the jealousy...now we just have to get nana here in time.

-a couple weeks ago, i was attempting to put on my socks and shoes and capri was watching me with her thumb in her mouth and started cracking up saying over and over, 'mama look funny' apparently i look as odd as i feel when putting on socks and shoes, and i don't recall her offering any assistance in the matter.

-capri thinks that everyone is pregnant, especially nina and grandpa, each time we go to leave their house, she runs over gives them hugs, and then pats their belly's and says, 'bye grampa baby,' 'bye nina baby...' it sure is a good thing they are understanding and don't take offense to this.

the next few weeks hold big changes for our family, we are thanking GOD for providing not one, but two children within the past 6 months. our family is growing by the grace of GOD and we feel so blessed. we will continue to keep you posted on the birth of baby gaven and the stories of his crazy older sister.

oops...haven't posted in a while...sorry

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

ADOPTION FINALLY FINALIZED!!!

today we met with several friends and family at the harvey county courthouse to finalize capri's adoption! we felt so blessed by all who showed up. we were pleasantly surprised that the judge we wanted showed up instead of the judge we were assigned. judge walker has been the judge throughout capri's whole case and he really wanted to be there for the completion. we didn't get the best pictures, some were blurry, but it's hard to point and shoot with teared up eyes.

me and capri before court...check out that smile (but pay no attention to the remodel job in the background)

another picture of pri and mama before the big day....

we purchased special bracelets for the special day and gave it to capri before court

snuggling with daddy before heading off to court

ms. marcia, capri's former teacher and our close family friend checking out capri's new 'pretty' 'pretty'

capri also wanted to share her bracelet with dr. krasne, lindsay's boss

the courthouse was getting a massive shipment of paper and the guys and capri were watching them unload it...not to mention, capri licking the fly in the window (gross!)

our little lady playing on the floor while we waited for the hearing to begin

just before judge walker arrived

our new family with judge walker and our attorney marilyn

celebrating with nina and grandpa


some of the wonderful friends and family who joined us

these were all our former workers, melissa from s.f.a, our three c.a.s.a workers and ms. marcia (teacher/friend)

what a blessed day. and we can't wait to continue the celebration tonight as we take capri out and start a new adoption tradition with her. she will be going out for a sweet treat...she has selected ice cream with treats in it, so we think there is a cold stone in our future. thanks again to those who attended in person and those who were there in prayer.

bye bye two...hi twee!

so on december 1st, our baby turned three. on the eve of her birthday she kept saying, 'bye bye two!' 'hi twee!' she is still telling people that she's two, hey, it's hard to admit that you're getting older, but she's doing great. she looks so big. we keep talking about how she's going to be 3 1/2 when the baby's born and can't believe she'll be a big sister, it's amazing all that GOD has done in the past year.

here are some pictures of our big girl on her birthday...
before going to church and lunch with nina and grandpa

a little grumpy 3 year old
when we got home from her birthday meal, we surprised capri by setting up her new ball pit...she was squealing with glee

officially official!

we found out yesterday that as of december 12th...capri will officially be ours!!! we will be going to the court house for the finalization and then we plan to PARTY. we will be sending out invitations for the end of december/beggining of january to have a finalization celebration.

we feel so blessed to have successfully made it through this 2 1/2 year journey. thank you all so much for your prayers, encouragement and support!

fall pictures

we love fall and have had a blast enjoying the semi-warm weather (until this week). we've enjoyed a corn maze, papa's pumpkin patch, putt-putt golf, and a day at the park with capri's buddy, abby. we've seen the leaves change, but more important, we've seen a change in the past year with our little angel. enjoy the pictures...

today we saw her name!

we went to a meeting today which we thought was going to be long, drawn out and unpleasant...boy were we wrong. we were told that we needed to attend capri's subsidy meeting. this is a meeting to discuss funding for capri for the next 15 years. it is supposed to be a time for us to say why she needs subsidy, and they are supposed to basically negotiate with us. well, they didn't. we told them what we were thinking, they said, 'okay.' now lets sign the form...that was easy!!!

so then they brought in the form...it started like this...we, the undersigned, do hereby request to adopt cassandra, who will then be named capri!!!! how cool is that. that was the first legal document that has said her new name. so now we are on our way to adopt this little monkey.

we had no idea that we were supposed to sign our intent to adopt form. we are no longer her foster parents, we are now being referred to as her soon to be adoptive parents. what a blessed day!