January

Happy New Year!

I am very excited about 2013. It is basically the first year in our marriage that we have not had the stress emotionally or financially about fertility or adoption. Now we get to take a deep breath and just appreciate and enjoy our family. It really is a great feeling to know that we did it. We made it through the ups and downs and all of our kids are here! I am so happy and so grateful to our birthparents and their families and to Mayas biological parents. We would not have a family if it wasn't for all of these people and it is a beautiful thing that they have all done for us. Our children are also an answer to many prayers and I am so grateful to the Lord for hearing us and answering our prayers and sending us these precious angels. Seeing direct answers to our prayers, and seeing overall how we have been supported and comforted  through our trials is, a confirmation of my faith and a reminder that God loves and cares for us individually and knows what we need and that he does hear my prayers.

This year has started out great! I ended the year finishing a lot of projects which was a great feeling, and started the new year with a clean slate as far as responsibilities. The kids are having a ton of fun playing with all of their new toys. For the first week I let all the toys just sit out in the living room so that they could go from toy to toy all day.

Resolutions:
I am going to have to think this through a little and get more specific, but I want to have resolutions this year involving making dinners, journal keeping, saving money and scripture reading. I also want to have complete compiling photo albums for our family since 2009.

Daniel has made some great progress with his speech. As of 1/4/2013 he can say "this, what's this, where'd it go? (often just shortened to go?). He can say ball, car, cookie, bubbles and of course his favorite... NO!"
Daniel is in a crazy hard toddler phase as of recently. He is so curious and so full or energy, he is always up to something. The other day we caught him dipping Scott's new phone in a glass of water like an oreo cookie. He stuck his whole hand in the fruit dip I had out for our guests. I was letting each boy play with a ball of dough as I made pitas, and I turned my head for a minute to flip the pitas in the oven, and a minute was all the time Daniel needed to climb on the counter and dump out all of my flour.
Daniel is getting frustrated with his lack of ability to communicate which has started kicking in some tantrums here and there. It wasn't long ago that it was Noah that had me running around like a chicken with my head cut off, so I just have to remind myself that this phase doesn't last forever.
Another funny thing about Daniel is that he LOVES to wrestle. That is his thing. When Dad comes home, he sits on the floor and wrestles the kids. Since Daniel could crawl, he wanted to climb up and sit our our heads every time we laid own. Now that he is more mobile, when we sit on the couch he climbs up our bodies til his legs are around your neck and he will lock his legs around your neck and squeeze. I am interested to see if he grows up to like wrestling.

He was evaluated a few months ago by a therapist for his speech delay, but not quite far enough behind to qualify for therapy. They said to give them a call back even if he can say 10 words at his first birthday, so I scheduled an appointment, and am excited to see how that goes in a couple weeks.

This evening I went in to feed Maya who woke up for her 11:00 feeding. I was surprised to see her sitting straight up in her crib! This is the first time she has gotten into the sitting position by herself! Good job Maya.

My kids have a hard time sitting still during sacrament. One of my friends mentioned that they have started doing "reverent time" We have started this with Noah and for the past two weeks with Noah, once the little ones are in bed, we watch about 10 minutes of a conference talk with him. He has to sit up and listen and can't play with any toys. He has been doing really well and it is great practice for Sundays. After reverent time, we have "special time" where we do a craft or something else fun with him by himself, which is a great incentive for him to be good during "reverent time"

We have all had colds around this household since before Christmas, and I am really looking forward to healthier days.