videos of my awesome kids...

I cannot get enough of these kids. I am so in love...

52 Photos

My original plan for 2013 was to continue my goal of taking one photo a day, every day for the entire year.  Turns out caring for two tiny ones makes this extremely challenging.  A trip to the emergency room earlier this year got me behind and I never really caught up.  So, I've decided on a new plan and that is to take a photo of the kiddos once a week, every week, for the entire year.  I think this is a little more doable.  The kids are so cute anyway and are always doing things that make me laugh.  Catching it on camera is all part of the fun.  And going back through my photos, I have already done this, so I'm already caught up and up to date.

Here's my new link to the blog if you want to follow:
www.52photosproject2013.blogspot.com


This idea was inspired by this blog: 

world's best dad

Have you seen this Subaru commercial??



I think I cry every time I see it.

I love it so much.

It reminds me of Curtis.  I can see him doing this exact same thing.

Curtis is the BEST dad!  I love watching him with our kids.  Clover and Henry are sure lucky to have such a wonderful daddy who loves and cares for them so much. 

If you have ever held Clover or Henry in front of Curtis, then you have most likely experienced him telling you about 152 times to "be careful" and "watch his/her arm" and "be sure to support his/her head" and "he/she likes to be held like this" and my very favorite, "don't drop him/her."  Don't feel bad if Curtis criticizes your every little move while holding one of the babies.  He does it to me too.  Every day.  He loves them....that's why.

The one time we left our kids with a friend (for one hour, mind you), Curtis was sure to go over every little thing about the kids.....including how to do infant CPR.

He was meant to be a daddy and there is nothing I love more than watching him fulfill that roll.

Best Friends

These two babes make me so happy.  I am so in love....

what to do, what to do??

I tell ya, these kids are growing way too fast.  I'm sure this is how every mom feels, but seriously....what the heck?  Why must they double in size over night?

They have outgrown so many of their clothes....some they never even got to wear.  So now what?  What do I do with all of those adorable clothes??  Some of their outfits and so freakin' cute and so teeny tiny that I just can't get rid of them.  So what do we do with them?  Save them for future kids?  Are we going to have more kids??  I would love to adopt and/or have another baby, but is that really going to happen??

So many decisions in life.

Today I went through all of their clothes and put my very most favorite precious outfits in a box marked "SAVE."  The rest will be given away.  If we don't end up having more kids, at least Clover (and Henry) will have some pretty adorable clothes for their dolls.   

homemade crib mobiles

I have been wanting to make some mobiles for the kiddies for awhile now and I finally got around to doing it.  I think they are a fun addition to the nursery.  Clover loves hers and I catch her staring at it all the time.  Henry could care less for his.

one and three

I thought it was probably about time to update the good ol' blog.  It seems as though these days all I do is feed and snuggle babies....it's awesome!

Henry is ONE month old today.  Can you believe that?!?  He was in the NICU for his first 2 weeks and he's been home with us now for the last 2 1/2 weeks.  He is a sweet, handsome little guy.  His due date was actually yesterday.  I can't imagine him not being with us for this past month.  I am so glad he is part of our family.  I am so in love with him.

Clover will be THREE months old tomorrow.  She is as cute as ever!!  She smiles all the time and has the best little personality.  She still has her feeding tube and we use that for most of her feedings.  She will be starting physical, occupational and speech/language therapy in the next couple of weeks.  She is getting stronger though and continues to impress us everyday.  She has brought so much joy into our home and we can't get enough of her!

These two cuties have completely taken over our hearts.  It's hard to imagine what life was like before they arrived.  We are hardly getting any sleep and I swear all we do is feed babies and change diapers, but as exhausting as it all is, it is doubly rewarding.  Our lives are fuller and our hearts are overflowing with love.  Being a mom is truly the best job on earth!!

More photos and updates coming soon....I promise!

new arrival

Our little Clover Jane made her grand appearance early.  The docs originally thought that she was about 2.5 weeks early, however, she is teeny tiny and they are now thinking she wasn't as far along as suspected and is closer to 6 weeks early.  She is the most beautiful, precious, wonderful thing in the whole world.  We love her to pieces.  We were able to spend quite a bit of time in the hospital with her birth parents and their families which was pretty special.  Adoption is truly the most amazing, beautiful, selfless thing and I will forever be grateful to Clover's birth parents for giving us this little miracle.

Clover has been doing pretty darn good considering how early she is.  Her oxygen levels are pretty stable, but her respiratory rate is fast and she is just too tired to eat.  She ended up being flown to Billings, MT which is where we are now.  We will probably be here at least a couple of weeks.  The nurses and doctors are taking such good care of her and hopefully we will all be on our way home before too long.

And now for the best part, pictures of our sweetie pie!!

@ the birthing hospital....

[very soon after she was born]

[she is so, so tiny!]

[with her papa]

[trying to open her eyes]

[the cutest angry face I've ever seen]

Flying to Billings....

[Curtis flew with Clover to Billings and I drove and met them up there.
He got sick on the flight, but our little peanut just slept right through the bumpy ride.]

@ the NICU....

[basking under the heat lamp]

[eating from her tube]

First Family Photo....

We are so in love with this little girl.  There are simply no words to describe the love in our hearts.  Clover Jane is the best thing to have ever happened to us and I could not be more grateful to have her in our lives.   

  

another self portrait-----> 6 months

I have made it past the nausea stage and have entered right into the heartburn stage....which by the way, I will take over nausea any day.  I am at the point where I am really enjoying being pregnant.  There is nothing better than feeling that little guy move around inside me.  I am so thankful everyday that I get to experience this.  

While I am not due for another 3 months, we only have 3 short weeks until our birthmom is due.  Everyday I get more giddy and filled with more excitement and love for this little baby and can't wait for him/her to come into our lives.  I seriously feel like the luckiest girl on the planet.  

21.5

I've made it past the half way mark!! 

To celebrate I'm being super nice by posting a picture of my growing belly.  And my super short haircut....seriously I asked for a trim and came out with a buzz.  I think the more my hairdresser talked, the more she cut.  And she just kept talking and cutting and talking and cutting.  And talking.  And cutting.  I let myself cry for a good 30 seconds and then slapped myself on the cheek, looked in the mirror and told myself to "snap out of it and rock this new haircut like nobody's business!"  Besides, there was absolutely nothing else I could do about it.  

Anyway, enough about the boy hair, lets get back to that belly.  I can't believe there is a little baby in there.  It's still just so crazy and so surreal.  I did feel the little guy move for the first time and it was completely awesome!  Curtis was able to get a feelsky too.  It really is the most amazing thing ever!              

oh baby x 2

Thank you all so much for all of your kind words.  We are so excited and feel so incredibly blessed.  I feel like you have all been on this journey with us and have been there cheering us on along the way....so I couldn't wait to share this news with you!  Thank you for your support and for sharing your excitement with us.  It means a lot!

It's crazy to think that in just three and a half months, we will have a baby in our home.  My heart just melts and I get all sorts of sappy just thinking about it.   We are working with an amazing birth mother and father and this whole process has been a wonderful experience.  I'm not sure how I will ever be able to thank the birth parents enough for giving us the most precious gift in the whole world.

Now...I've always heard about those women who adopt and then get pregnant, but never did I think that would actually happen to us.  I was actually pretty convinced that I would never experience pregnancy and I was coming to terms with that.  After all, we were told we had a less than 1% chance of conceiving and after years and years of unexplained infertility, I just sort of removed the thought of ever getting pregnant from my mind.

So, when I woke up one day feeling all sorts of sick, of course my first thought was that I had the flu.  After a week had passed and I was still throwing up, I decided to go get some darn medicine to make this flu go away.  You can imagine my surprise when the doctor walked in and handed me a positive pregnancy test!  When I looked down and saw two little lines, the first thing I said was, "what does this mean?"  "That means you're pregnant," the doctor said enthusiastically.  I just laughed and told the poor doc that I wasn't pregnant because it was impossible for me to get pregnant, so it must be a fluke and can I please have some medicine to get rid of this flu.

"Nope, you're pregnant!"

He clearly wasn't understanding what I was saying.  "You see, I really can't get pregnant," I explained.  I truly believed there was no way I could be pregnant and pleaded for more testing.  

He laughed and sent me off to the hospital to get some lab work done.  After they poked and prodded me and took my blood, they called back a few hours later confirming that I was indeed pregnant.

I took another pregnancy test at home that night just to be sure for myself.  I was pretty sure that the doctor and nurses were all just playing a practical joke on me.

Even after 3 positive pregnancy tests, I was still skeptical.  They scheduled me to have an ultrasound later that week and when I saw the little bean in my belly with its little tiny heartbeat, a part of me started to believe that maybe (just maybe) I was in fact pregnant.

I'm now 14 1/2 weeks along and the continued daily nausea has helped convince me that there really is a little miracle baby growing inside me.  We heard the heartbeat again yesterday and it truly is a miracle.

My heart is just bursting at its seams with love for these two babies.  Our lives are about to change in a pretty big way and we're pretty darn excited about it.    

Surprise...