A Landmark Day at our House

Today was a pretty exciting day at our house! Lindsay finally lost her first tooth, and Nathan went pee in the potty for the first time. Well, mostly he went pee on the floor around the potty -- I guess we'll have to work on the aiming thing. But he was sitting on the potty when he went, so that's a huge first step! (Now I think I'm actually going to have to put some effort into potty training . . . grumble . . . grumble . . . grumble)! Also, today we found out that Jeffrey is leaving for sure. We had started to hope they would just forget about him and leave him with us forever, but no such luck. I persuaded them to wait until after Christmas to move him, but he will definately be moving very soon after Christmas (so, so, so SAD)! So, a very busy, emotional day in all.

I don't have pics of Nathan or Jeffrey's news, but here are a few pictures of Lindsay's new toothless smile!

If you look closely you can see that the tooth is almost grown in behind the hole where the old one was.

Here she is holding the tooth! She can't wait to see what the tooth fairy brings her tonight!!

Some recent pictures of Jeffrey

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted last . . . and of course the pictures have built up. So, today I am making up for it with mass posting! Be sure to scroll down for all the rest of the updates!

And here are just some cute, random pictures of Jeffrey I wanted to share. He really seems to be growing and filling out even in just the month and a half we've had him with us! So cute!!

Jerry took these pictures of himself and Jeffrey, and I thought they just turned out so sweet and funny! I love how his eye is all mushed as he's staring up at Jerry.



Jeffrey has been trying dilligently to unwrap all those cool colored papers that are all around our Christmas tree! I'm sure by Christmas he'll be a pro at it!



Such a sweet, smiley boy as he's getting into mischief!



I just can't get upset at that little yoda face!

Pictures with Santa

On Saturday we went to a foster care Christmas party, which turned out to be a lot of fun, and the kids came home with tons of fun presents/goodies. We were also able to get some very cute pictures of the kids with Santa! (Kind of a scruffy looking Santa, but he was actually pretty good).

Decorating for Christmas

Here we are decorating the tree for Christmas! It's been interesting trying to decorate and keep things decorated with a nine-month-old in the house, but we love our decorations, so it's worth it!!

Here's Lindsay modeling her glittery pinecone!

Emma preparing to hang a pinecone too

Nathan dancing with excitement over the whole decorating process!

Jordan just chillin' in the middle of the decorating chaos



Putting on the finishing touches



And, of course, once it's perfect, we have to take pictures in front of it!



Nathan, Lindsay, and Emma


The whole Family

And, last but not least the family minus Emma (if you'll believe it, she is the one taking the picture). Not a bad shot for a 4 year old!!

Now we're all set for Christmas . . . bring on the festivities!!

Birthday Parties in Fresno

While we were in Fresno for Thanksgiving we were able to go to Nic and Jenna's combined birthday parties! So fun for us, because we always miss out on the big family birthday celebrations. I am always amazed at how much fun the kids have with their cousins!! Makes me wish we lived close enough to get them together more often!! Anyway, here are some pics to commemorate.

It's amazing how many kids they managed to pack into Nic and Hunter's bedroom!

Lindsay and Nathan playing with Ryan

We don't have stairs at our house, so my kids thought the stairs were the greatest toy they'd ever seen!

I'm just amazed no one fell down the stairs or broke anything in the process of all this rough-housing!

It was tons of fun though, and a great way to finish up our trip to Fresno

Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Coleman's

We drove down to Fresno for Thanksgiving this year, and the kids had sooooo much fun playing with their cousins and spending time with grandma and grandpa . . . not to mention all the food!

Here are some pictures we took while we were there . . .

Nathan and Jenna playing cars together

All the little kids (plus Ryan, who was evidently their dog) kept running to the back of the house and hiding themselves away in this room to play house for hours at a time! They had a blast!!

Jerry and I don't really tease too much (just not our personalities) so it is pretty fun for the kids to experience the teasing that comes with uncles. Here is Emma being teased by Uncle Mike (and loving it, of course).

Grandma and Grandpa and all the kids!

Backyard Fun!

This weekend the sun was shining . . . it was a little cold, but beautiful weather, so I got a few shots of us hanging out in the backyard yesterday! We had a blast playing soccer and swinging etc. Mostly just soaking up some delicious sunshine!! It was one of those days when life just seemed perfect. Everyone was happy and healthy and just having a great time together!

Some days life is just good.

My project

About 3 months ago we bought a custom made changing table off of Craigslist for $25. It is a really well-made solid piece of furniture, but it was pretty ugly (white paint with wood top and brightly colored knobs that had some kind of glue all over them to make them textured . . . UGLY) plus it was pretty beat up. So, this weekend I finally got around to working on it and was so excited with how it turned out! Wish I had taken a "before" shot so I could compare it to the "after," but I forgot. If you look at the below post of Jeffrey and Nathan combing hair you can see it a little in the background. But, anyway, here's the "after" shot!

Jeffrey

We have a new baby at our house! His name is Jeffrey and he is just over 8 months old. We picked him up at 4:00 last night, and we are all already loving him! He is a really sweet calm little guy and loves to just play by himself or with the kids. He is a good crawler and can pull himself up to standing against all the furniture and toys. He had a really rough night last night, but he is getting over a cold and still has a little cough which seems to be waking him up. We put him to bed about 7:30 then he was up at 9:30, 11:30 4:30, 5:00, and then finally I just sat on the couch and let him sleep in my arms for the last couple of hours until everyone got up. We are hoping this isn't a habit. (His other foster mom said he usually sleeps through the night, so it's probably just the change and the cough.)

Anyway, here are some pictures of him from last night and this morning.

Here he is getting to know the kids.

Here he is exploring the living room

Here he is getting rides around on the Spiderman car this morning . . . the kids loved it that he could hold on and sit up on the car!

Here is Nathan helping him comb his hair this morning (not that he has much to comb)!


We don't know much about his life before foster care, but we do know he was very badly malnourished and hadn't been to the doctor for well care or immunizations. I feel so happy every time I feed him I could just cry! This baby may become another super chub. It just feels so good to feed him and know he's not hungry or hurting!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

At least, we're pretty sure it's a boy. He happened to have his back turned to us (face to my spine) through the whole ultrasound which gave us lots of good butt shots, but he kept his legs together. Anyway, doctor says he is almost 100% sure it's a boy (he kept pointing out what he called a weiner . . . nice technical way of referring to it, don't you think). He also said it looked like a turtle, not a taco. If he was trying to impress us with his mastry of human anatomy he failed miserably. But, we left pretty certain it's a boy! YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!

Here is the pic to prove he is a boy. If you notice, his bum is down and you can see between his legs.

We weren't able to get a good frontal shot or a face picture or anything since he refused to turn around and look at us (we did get some really good views of his spine). So, the only other picture we brought home was this cute picture of his feet against my tummy.

Also, it's been a while since I documented the pregnancy . . . so here's a picture of me this morning at almost 22 weeks!

Halloween!!

Halloween was so fun this year!! All the kids were old enough to really have fun with it!! We went out trick or treating around the neighborhood with Nana this year, and that really added to the fun too!!

Lindsay was a beautiful bride!!

Emma was a Racoon (notice the black eyes)! Just like RJ in over the hedge!

Nathan was a ferocious lion!!

He kept telling everyone he was the Lion King (and then he would ROAR)!!

They all looked so cute and had so much fun in their costumes!! Halloween was a blast!!

Now we have to figure out how to get rid of all this candy (hopefully without putting all 10 lbs of it on my hips)!!