December

Baby L had some big doctor appointments this month. The first ones were for OT and PT. OT said that her torticollis has cleared up, and she's eating great so they released her. PT did a thorough evaluation on her. The results said that she is developing normally. He taught us a few things to do to help her learn to sit up. We'll keep seeing him monthly through the big milestones (sitting, crawling, walking).

She also saw cardiology. The VSD (small hole in her heart) has not continued to close but doesn't seem to be causing any problems so they are just going to continue to watch it. She did a great job with the EKG. Brave little girl!

Hematology: They drew her blood, she's pretty chubby so they had a hard time finding a vein. They had to use the light. Gratefully her blood came back clear (they're watching for leukemia) except for slightly low vitamin D, which we are giving her drops for.

Comprehensive Care (Pediatrician): They were very pleased with how well she eats. In fact they said she could lay off the milk a little, ha! They were thrilled with how she is developing and released us to the pediatrician in our city. Yay!

Little A's birth family got her and Baby L matching shirts for their favorite college team. Little A was so excited to match her sister!

Baby L started eating baby food. She loves peas and green beans, and tolerates sweet potatoes. She hates fruit. She's loved that she can eat something when we eat. She also loves to move in circles and pushes herself backwards a little too.

Little A is an awesome big sister. She is very conscientious about including Baby L in everything we do. She loves to show "her baby" to everyone we meet. The other day Allan and the girls were playing Connect Four. Little A tried to help Baby L play too by giving her a token and then guiding her hand to where she needed to put the piece in. Baby L dropped the piece long before they got there. Little A gave her a perplexed look, but she continued trying to help her play the game. Little A never gives up on Baby L. I think this is going to be such a help in the future!

We visited Allan's family for their Christmas party. It is always so much fun! We love being with all of them. The girls had a ball playing with cousins and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa gave us a tent, camping stove, tarp, and dishes. We are excited to go camping this summer! There are some great places around where we live.

We took the girls to the High School play, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was Baby L's first show! She slept through most of it. :)  Little A loved the songs, but got bored with the dialogue. The students did a great job! I was so bummed that I wasn't able to work with them this year. Hopefully next year.

I got to go to one of my mission friends family sealing! (I served in the Illinois Chicago North mission for my church in 2004-2006.) They have been waiting for this day for SO long! It was such a beautiful ceremony. I am so, SO thrilled for them! Seeing their girls all in white made me think of when we can have Baby L sealed to us. We are really looking forward to that day! I also got to catch up a bit with many other friends from the mission. It was so good to see all of them!

Because we haven't been able to finalize Baby L's adoption yet we have a social worker come to our home monthly to check on her. Little A adores this social worker! She gets so excited every time we tell her she's coming and doesn't want her to leave when she is here, lol! She really is the nicest person. We've loved getting to know her a little better.

One evening Baby L was just exhausted. Allan lay her down to swaddle her. She lifted her legs up to play with her toes,

then rolled over, lifted up on her hands, looked around (well moved her head around because her eyes were closed), and then lay down and continued sleeping! It was darling. Babies are so funny!

Christmas was so much fun! We had my family over for our traditional Christmas crepes. We taught Uncle L the best way to eat them, ha!

We prepared for Christmas by making Grandma's sugar cookies (I made 8 batches of these things!),

Making matching Christmas ornaments for Little A and AG,

and making snowman ornaments for cousin P and Little A's bestie, C.

Christmas Eve we let the girls open one gift, a Christmas ornament from Mama and Daddy. I've been handing my ornaments down to the girls. Little A got my wire and bead doll, and Baby L got my last porcelain baby doll (Little A has the other one).

We read stories and got Santa's treats all ready. Little A was super excited to give Santa and the reindeer their treats.

The next morning Little A woke us up around 6. We fed Baby L and then went to see what Santa had left for us. Little A saw Baby L's gifts first and thought they were hers. She had a hard time letting go of the pull toy phone that Santa left Baby L. Eventually we got her to see her gifts though. She was thrilled with the Play Doh, stamp set, miniature books, and treats that Santa left her. Baby L had the pull toy, a teething ring, and miniature books as well. There was also some oranges for all of us. Little A called them balls and rolled/threw them across the floor, lol!

We then moved on to the gifts under the tree. Daddy and Grandpa made little A a doll cradle. She loved putting her grandma and grandpa dolls in it and rocking them.

She also got a lot of books (Mama and Santa went way overboard on the books this year....oops....), a skills board puzzle, Headband children's game, a fidget toy, a Doc McStuffins doctor kit (from Grandma and Grandpa), an adorable hat and window stickers from Great Gram, a floor piano and outfit from Nana and Pops,

a reindeer to build with Daddy from Grandad and Grandma Heather,

a book and doll from cousin P and family, a book and treat from K6 and family, a beautiful dress and adorable stuffed snail from Baby L's birth family, and a Princess Elsa dress and dress shoes and a floor piano that plays games from AG and her birth grandparents. She was thrilled with all of her gifts! She loved building the deer with Daddy and is so proud of it! Her favorite thing to do is wear her Elsa dress and play with her pianos! We also do play doh and stamps daily.

Baby L got books, a shape sorter, a Squish rattle, teethers, a Baby doll from Little A,

some musical toys from Grandma and Grandpa, a musical toy and outfit from Nana and Pops, a book and doll from cousin P and family, a book from K6 and family, hat and window stickers from Great Gram, a Giraffe rattle from Little A's birth family, an adorable wooden shape sorter pull toy from her birth family (Ava loves it and barely lets L even touch it; we're working on that), and the hematology clinic gave out gifts to all of their patients: teether, rattle, hat and booties, snuggle blanket, car rattle.

She loves all of her musical toys! She is pretty good at pushing the shapes into the shape sorters if you set them in for her. Her favorite thing though is the doll that Little A got for her!

We were also gifted a trip to a children's museum from Uncle SB! We're very excited to go!

Allan made me shelves for the toy room! Yay!

He also got me some Norwex cleaning cloths and a roaster oven that I am dying to use! Little A picked out some cookie sheets to give me from her and Baby L. Nana and Pops gave us a gift card to Applebee's and some ingredients to a delicious meal. It seriously was SOOO good! Later that day Little A came running up to me all wrapped up in wrapping paper. When they were out shopping for my Christmas present Allan asked her what she wanted to give mommy for Christmas and she said "You!" and patted her chest. (It's her way of saying "me"). So, that day Allan wrapped her up so they could give Mama her "best present"! Awww. Melted my heart.

I surprised Allan with a router and a scroll saw! My Dad had recently picked up a nice router at a garage sale for a really good price and sold it to me. That enabled me to get him a scroll saw too! Little A had a ball drawing things for Daddy to cut out with his saw! She was so excited. She would have me help her draw something, then run it out to the garage and give it to Allan only to come right back to draw more! Ha! The girls got him a locking plier set and an adjustable wrench set.

Allan had almost two full weeks of work off at the end of the year! We were thrilled to have him at home with us! We had such a fun time being together playing with our new toys!

K3 had to have a surgery on her wrist. We went up to help and took the girls to Burger King to they could have an indoor place to run around and get some energy out.

They loved wearing the crowns, but neither of them would go on the play place, ha! They had a fun time playing together. We had planned on going up a lot more, however we ended up getting a crazy amount of snow. There were avalanches in the canyon that separates us that closed the canyon for a while!

Three little cousins in Allan's truck!

One day while Baby L was sleeping we all snuck outside to play in the snow. It was a blast! Little A still mostly loves to eat the snow.

November

My sister K3 published her first novel, "The Willow's Secret"! We had a book reading party for her in her and Nana's store. It was beautiful and had a good turnout! The novel is set in Bear Lake, UT which is near one of the areas we grew up in. K3 is a talented writer, and the novel really pulls you in right from the start. Go check it out here.

United for Adoption, the adoption advocacy group I am a part of, puts on an adoption conference annually in November. We love going to these conferences. We learned about some important issues and met some great people! To learn more about United for Adoption go here.  We brought Baby L with us because she is still feeding side lying and can be tricky to feed. During the transracial adoption panel she suddenly got the giggles! She looked at the adoptees on the panel and just laughed and laughed! I felt bad because it is a serious topic, but gratefully no one seemed to mind too much.

These cute sisters were excited that they were both wearing Mini Mouse! Also, these Mini Mouse overalls used to be K5's! They are adorable!

Little A learned how to ride her tricycle! She was very interested in it when we got it for her, but after quickly lost interest. Suddenly she found a renewed interest in it and figured out how to peddle pretty quickly! She loves it now and wants to ride it everywhere. Unfortunately the snow is coming! It won't be too long before we'll have to pack it away for the winter. I think she'll be too big for it by the time the snow is gone. This girl has got long legs!

We let her pick out a helmet so she can ride her bike. I was very worried about getting her to wear it. She hates to have things on her head. We found one that is adjustable and that has puppies on it. She loves it! What a relief!

Little A loves her sister so much! She loves to hold her and give her soft hugs and kisses.

Baby L is 5 months old! She is getting so big! The torticollis is getting so much better! Really almost gone completely. The OT we have been going to said that if she continues to look good next month she'll release her from therapy, yay! She loves to play with and chew on her hands, reach for toys, sit up assisted, and jabber at everything. It's so funny, she'll sit in the highchair and talk to the light all through dinner and while we clean up! She still only rolls one way. She also loves to move in circles and pushes herself backwards a little too. Oh, and she found her toes!

Nana and Pops gifted us a trip to the aquarium last Christmas. We finally got a chance to go! It was so much fun! Little A LOVED it! She loved watching the animals and climbing on all of the figurines they had in each exhibit.

She befriended this little boy. This girl makes friends wherever she goes! She's quite the social butterfly! Just like AG!

Little A loved running through the arches.

I think this was her favorite tank (besides the penguins of course). It was very colorful! She wasn't very impressed with the sharks and huge Manta Rays.

Her all time favorite thing was the stairs, lol! This girl absolutely loves stairs and has since she was 18 months old! She waited and waited for us to let her climb them. The delight on her face was priceless! Allan carried Baby L in the baby carrier. She loved looking at all the people, was interested in some of the exhibits, and then fell asleep! We stopped for ice cream afterward too!

World adoption day is November 15th. We celebrated with smiles on our hands! Adoption is a complex thing. There is so much joy, but also so much loss for everyone in the adoption triad (Adoptee, Birth Families, and Adoptive Families). We love adoption and are so grateful that it is a part of our lives. It not only brought us our girls but also brought more family, friends, and education into our lives.

Superman was adopted too! (I love this onesie! AG got it for Little A when she was Baby L's age.)

Little A has loved going to preschool, but it really tires her out. She's been falling asleep pretty much every time she stays still for a few minutes. She likes to look at books while I get ready for the day. This time she fell asleep on the first page! Poor baby. She really still needs a nap during the day; unfortunately her preschool is in the middle of the day. Makes it difficult to take naps consistently.

This is a regular occurrence at dinner now. A couple of times she's landed right on her plate.

Allan and I got to go on a nice hike before it got too cold. We took Baby L with us, but Little A stayed with the babysitter. (Who, by the way, is awesome! The girls love her! I love that she plays with them!) Little A was pretty bummed when we started leaving Baby L too. She didn't want to share her babysitter, ha!

We decided to set up the Christmas tree before we left to visit Grandad and Grandma H for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun setting it up! Little A was so proud that she could put some ornaments on all by herself!

Baby L enjoyed trying to grab some, but never succeeded.

We visited Grandad, Grandma H, Great Gram, K1 and her family, and K4 and her family over Thanksgiving. It's about 4 1/2 hours to get there. We had to stop several times to feed Baby L so it ended up taking about 8 hours. The girls traveled really well! Little A entertained herself by wearing two pairs of sunglasses at once!

Grandad and Grandma H have 4 huge hound dogs. They are the nicest dogs! Ava ran around trying to catch their tails the whole time, Baby L just thought they were too loud; I'm sure she'll love them when she's bigger. She loved Grandma H and K1 though. And she was very mad that we wouldn't share any Thanksgiving dinner with her!

Great Gram has this adorable little rocking chair for the little ones. Little A loves it. She really wanted to rock with Baby L in it.

Little A found this hat in the toy box. She loved it. We also had some sword fights. Her favorite thing to do though was to turn on the keyboard and dance to the music. She had some pretty awesome moves! She would do that forever!

I did a lot of shopping over the weekend and got most of our Christmas shopping done! However, I realized from that experience that I really prefer to shop online for Christmas. I loved having that time with my sisters though!

Allan was able to take some extra time off for Thanksgiving which allowed us to have some time at home as a family. It was SO nice! He worked on my Christmas present a lot (shelves for the toy room), but also had some good time with us. Swinging in the hammock down stairs,

making treats for our neighbors,

snuggles,

exercise,

stories,

and lunch time tea parties were some of our favorites.

Baby L loves to sit and look at these cloth books. They were handed down to us from K1.

They both fell asleep by the Christmas tree while I was reading to them. :)

We pulled out the cabbage patch hat for Baby L. It finally got cold. She has such a round face, it's so adorable on her!

Sure love my little munchkins!