Hallie going down the slide
Flor going down all alone!
Devin and his "huge" splash
Hallie and Shawna racing
Lining the kids up to dance and perhaps catching a few adults dancing too :)
Getting the kids to dance for the "dance off" (Please ignore my loud, annoying voice. Ugh!)
This is when the water fight was winding down. The kids got smart and started to throw the water balloons back at the adults. Haha!
Uncle Aaron running his pictionary game. So much fun!
In case you missed this video that I posted on Facebook, here it is again. This is a very powerful video that I hope everyone takes 10 minutes to watch. I know I am all sorts of adoption/infertility educating and advocating around here lately and I hope you're not sick of it, but my intent is to de-bunk myths and show the beauty of adoption. This particular video shows the process and thoughts of a birth mother. And, aren't you jealous that I get to work with women as amazing as this one? I know, I really do have the best job in the world.
This video was shared with me by one of my sweet birth moms who recently placed her baby for adoption. She said that the thoughts expressed by Tamra in the video really resonated with her. She said that she feels that the last 3 minutes of the video really put into words how she feels about her placement and the process she went through.
I think we can all use a little more empathy and understanding in our lives. This video about infertility really spoke to me about the reality that too many go through. I think many of us take for granted our ability to have children when we want and don't understand the struggle and desire of others to have that same blessing. I dare ya not to be touched by this video:
So I am a little delayed on this post, but who cares, right? I probably wouldn't feel the need to update, but I have been wanting to upload some recent videos of Jace, so this is a perfect time to add a few comments about what he is up to as well.
So, at 20 months, this little (big) guy is busy, busy, busy, and hitting the terrible two's a bit early. He seriously has the most murderous scream. Most of the time he is pretty darn cute, though, so we will keep him. :)
Some tid-bits about Jacer:
*Everywhere we go, people tell us how big Jace is. Yes, we know he is big. Well, actually I forget until I see other kids his age and then it becomes pretty apparent. I don't know his latest stats, but I do know that he is over 30 pounds. He probably weighs more than Flor nowadays. Hmmm..
*He has an ever-expanding vocabulary, but his most often repeated phrases are "I hungry" and "I eat." He has a physique to keep up after all...
*Jace says "no" all the time, but does not say "yes." When he is asked a question and the answer is "yes", he either says, "ok" or "oh." Here are a few examples from today alone:
-"Jace do you want breakfast?" "Ok."
-"Jace did you throw your shirt?" "Oh."
-"Do you want to come with Mommy?" "Oh."
-"Does your bum stink?" "Ok."
...you get the point. He does nod his head, but that is usually only in reference to food, such as "do you want some of this?" Nod, nod. Funny boy. (you'll see an example of the "ok" in the dog video below. Hallie asks him if he was a dog for Halloween and he says "ok").
*Jace thinks it is great to pinch my face or hit me randomly, but will immediately say "I sorry!" then give me a hug and a kiss. I know I shouldn't laugh about this, but I just can't resist sometimes. He is so clever to know that I won't get after him if he immediately apologizes. Little poop.
*Jacer moved to a big boy bed! Well, it is really his crib just turned into a toddler bed, but Devin and I are big believers in getting the kids used to changes earlier versus later so they have less resistance. He has adjusted like a champ. We haven't had any problems at night, but the first few days at nap time, he would get out and play around. However, the last few days he has gotten right into his bed and napped during nap time too. What a good boy!
*The other thing we are getting him "used to" is the potty. I am really NOT eager to train him too soon-- diapers are just so convenient-- but we do want him to get used to the potty and so he doesn't develop a fear of it. It is funny to think that we really were potty training Hals when she was this old. Jace is definitely not ready, but he does like to sit on the potty and say "I pee-pee!" haha. No, you didn't. However, the first time we sat him on it, he did go #2. I think it was just a fluke, but he was sure proud of himself. I know that is TMI, but gotta record the facts of life. :) So, we just let him sit on his little potty when he wants to. Sometimes it is for 1 second and sometimes it is for 1 minute, but it's all up to him.
*Nursery-- oh nursery. We thought things were improving there...the week before last, he went right in and stayed almost the whole time by himself with no problems. However, last Sunday was horrid. During Relief Society, a ward member came in from Primary to tell me that she could hear someone crying upstairs so she went to check and it was Jace. Not only was he crying, but he was kicking the door and pounding his fists (remember that early terrible two's??) She was so alarmed that she came right to get me. Sheesh. Yes, mine is the kid kicking the door up there-- don't worry! We will keep trying though and see how things go.
Here are a few cute pictures of our boy:
Resting on mom and dad's bed
Yummy donuts with Aunt Mari Ann
This is the only time I have found him out of his bed at night. Poor thing-- sleeping right there on the floor. That can't be comfortable!
And some videos: The first is Jace acting like a dog. He uses this dog towel and as soon as we put it on him each time, he makes a "woof woof" sound. He feels the need to act the part, you know. His "woof woof" is funny though as it is closed lip- always.
src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/o3Y8yPgd8fo" width="560">
This one is Jace saying some of his words. I love his little voice and was happy that he cooperated enough to capture some of the things he says. Apparently he was wanting to talk about airplanes the whole time. Who knows where that came from...
And a couple of him dancing. He has some awesome moves; I am telling you...
I started this "tradition" (can you call it that if it has only been two years?) last year when Hallie turned three and I hope to keep it up for each of my kids as they grow. (Here is the one from last year if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91mhD32Gdxo)
Well. We surely have some cute kids...here's a little picture and video of each from the last week.
FLOR:
Okay, sorry this is approximately half of Flor's face, but it is pretty cute still, so here it is. This was actually taken during one of our evening rocking sessions. She is getting much more comfortable with longer/close touch and seems to actually enjoy being rocked now. She climbs right up and we spend 10 minutes or so and then she sits up, pushes off, and she is done. Kind of funny.
And her video is of her in the morning waiting for the bus. She gets really excited when she hears the bus pulling up. Just watch and see.
JACE:
This little stinker is just growing up before my eyes. He is so interactive all the sudden and is getting so smart. I have a whole host of videos of him recently as I tried to capture all his newest "tricks." I had a hard time choosing which one to post here, so there may be more coming in the future. The picture shows one of his favorite places to play in the yard, this little corner where he can eat dirt to his heart's content without being caught....at least for a minute. :)
His little video shows him "singing." Like I mentioned, he is picking up on all sorts of things, and this is one of them as we have been singing a bit at night. (Remember the off key hymns each night? Apparently I am passing that skill on to the kids. Yes!)
HALS:
Can we say "Princess." Hallie has insisted upon wearing dress up clothes as clothes nearly every day recently. Some battles are just not worth fighting, am I right? I decided that this one could slide for the time being. But she is surely the sight to see when we are going on walks or other places and she is wearing her fancy, plastic heels. She promises that she can walk fast and keep up in those shoes, and well, she can. So I can't argue with her there...
Her video is her latest Article of Faith that she has memorized. I know this is mostly even interesting to Grandmas and Grandpas, but I also enjoy having them here on the blog-- which is basically a record of everything for me. So there it is. She forgets a word or two in there, but for the most part she has it down (the 4th Article of Faith.) Now, I better start remembering the 5th so I can teach it to her...haha.
Well, where does the time go!? Our baby is 14 months old. He looks more like 18 months old...but oh, well. He's stinkin' cute and that's all that matters.
Jace is such a fun, happy (most of the time) and spunky boy. I always had in my mind that he would have a calmer personality than Hallie, but so far that has not been true. He is a little spit-fire, too. He has a really funny laugh and he cracks himself up quite often. It's cute. He can be a bit demanding when he finds something that he wants. He has the "gimme" motion with his hand perfected.
Jacer is not walking, though he does love to have someone hold his hands and help him walk. I think its part of the large girth that he has to carry around? Anyway, it's interesting how much less concerned I am about milestones this time than I was with Hallie. He'll walk when he wants to and that's that. He gets around just fine with his speedy crawling.
Jace's favorite things include: eating, balls, music, throwing things, playing on slides, time with mom (he is definitely a mama's boy), and escaping out the door as soon as it opens. Jace is a super eater and eats full on adult sized portions. He will eat basically anything given him, though he is not as fond of fruits and vegetables as he should be. He really loves to feed himself- most of his skills at this point revolve around the eating arena. He can feed himself with a fork and a spoon, though sometimes he wants help just because. The other day, he was kind enough to load up his own spoon for me before handing it to me to be put in his mouth. Silly boy.
Jace has a mouth full of teeth. I think we are just missing a few now...and hopefully they hurry up and get in because he is NOT a pleasant teether. With Hals, we never knew when she was getting teeth- they would just pop up. But Jace, oh boy do we know. He has been really clingy and whiney lately as he has popped out all of his molars. No fun. As soon as the last one came through, we decided it was time to rid him of his binky, so he has been binky free for a week or so now. It actually hasn't been that bad, even though he probably could have been classified as an addict before.
Jace doesn't say many words, but he does have a few: mama, dada, uh-oh (his favorite-- typically said after deliberately chucking his food on the floor), hola...and lots of jibberish. That's about it. He can carry on a full conversation in his own language, but nobody but his pal Hudson understands him. :)
And of course a few pictures of our handsome boy:
"uh, mom..? I'm not going anywhere-- can't you get over here and push me?"
Visit with Grandma and Grandpa Daniels. We are blessed to have so many wonderful grandparents in our kids' lives
Going to the park to play with Hudson. Hudson got to borrow Jace's "Laz-E-Boy" as Che' and Landon call it- it is quite the car seat...and Jace moved over to Flor's seat since she was in school.
Fun times with his best buddy
Jace has a thing for sunglasses. He likes to find them in the toy bin and put them on. But of course he doesn't allow me to get a good picture of him with them on.
Trying on mom's sunglasses this time.
Hallie wanted to take a picture, so she did. Love Jace's cute squishy face!
And a video... I noticed that I have not put as many videos of Jace on as I did for Hallie. Poor child-- second child syndrome. I know exactly how it feels as I am the second child too. My sister got all the glory and all the attention and then there was poor little me. (haha, just kidding) In watching old videos of Hallie, I noticed at this age she could point to her head, eyes, ears, mouth, etc. and yet we haven't even tried teaching that to Jace! Ha. Whoops. Now I know why my sister was always the genius and my smarts were just never quite up to par. I blame it on my parents.
Anyway, this video is of his funny little laugh while we were coming home from somewhere one day. Take note of the full glory of the Laz-E-boy, too. :)
We sure love our Jacer-- he is so special to me and has definitely stolen a large chunk of my heart. I'm thankful that he is ours!
I have been wanting to make a video of our whole adoption experience and finally got it done. Wahoo. Sorry-it's a little long (12 minutes) but you know me, I had a hard time cutting things out. :)
Am I really old enough to have a three year old? Apparently I am. I remember vividly the day she came into our lives. She has added so much in the three years since, and yet it seems like she has been with us forever.
This post is going to be an overload of Hallie info, just an FYI. First, a picture overview of her day:
She was thrilled with the flowers that daddy got her. This is all she would tell us that she wanted. At 3? What are we in for?!
She was spoiled by grandma, aunt jen, and carlie. She got all sorts of barbie dolls & equipment. Again I say, at 3??? But yes, she told everyone else apparently that she wanted barbies (she saw Avery get barbies for her birthday when we were in Idaho for spud harvest, so that's where she got the idea.) She also finally got Tangled- I know, practically the last child in America to have it!
(sorry for the low quality of pictures--the phone, ya know...) This dress is CLEARLY a hit. We are going to have to hide it, or I guarantee she will be wearing it all day, every day, and to bed.
She requested Strawberry Shortcake for her cake. yum. This is after we had pizza pie cafe for dinner (she requested Salad...odd, I know...and being the good parents that we are, we convinced her to add pizza to that salad). We had desserts there and she got a free cookie monster because it was her birthday. Yikes on the overload of sugar!
And... I know, everyone's favorite- Some recent Hallie-isms:
* (a little gross for some, maybe) We were coming out of the restaurant tonight and Hallie suddenly stopped and said that she needed to throw up. After a short pause, she announced, "nope! Just a burp!"
*She always greets Jace in the morning with some variation of the following: "Hi cuteness! You are so handsome, buddy!" He will have good self-esteem if she has anything to say about it!
*One day, she had been taking a particularly long time going to the bathroom, so I said something about her needing to hurry up and finish. She replied, "Why? you dancin'?!" (She thought I needed to go...)
*A common phrase in her prayers these days is, "Please help us to be real..." (as opposed to fake? No idea where she got this.)
*One night, we had the following conversation:
Me: Hallie, what do you want for dinner?
H: Chicken nuggets!
Me: Okay, we can make chicken nuggets
H: (disgusted look on her face), No, not you! We will have to get them at a dinner place.
Glad she trusts my cooking...
*Contrasting that, one night when Devin had cooked dinner, she sat down to her meal and said (in her best baby voice) "Ooooooohhhhhh, look at this beautiful meal!"
*While driving one day, we passed a Home Depot and had this conversation:
Hallie: Mom, let's go to Home Depot!
Me: Why?
Hallie: Because I love Home Depot! (this is true, it is probably her favorite store)
Me: We don't need anything at Home Depot honey.
Hallie: Okay, I know. I will have DAD take me to Home Depot. (And she promptly asked him when he got home. He was happy to oblige and made plans to take her the next day. Nice.)
*One day she was dancing around singing, "Shake your booty, shake your booty!" when all the sudden she stopped and asked me, "mom, what does booty mean?" me: "It means bum." Hallie (laughing hysterically): "Oh, that's terrible!"
*While opening all her birthday gifts, with each gift, she would proclaim, "ohhhh, my gosh! ohhhhh my gooooosh", each time getting more pronounced. Haha, the joy of a three year old!
Finally, A video. I had this idea that I should interview each of my kids on their birthday and ask them the same questions every year. I think it will be fun for them (and me) to look back on and see how they change over the years! So this is the first one. I should have started when she was two-- though that surely would have been comical. But,at least at this age she pretty much understands the questions and can answer them. enjoy!
(sorry it is sideways...I am working on rotating it, but it is taking forever and day. We'll see if I can manage it.)
Hallie and Jace- a few months ago since Jace was 3 months. She is so funny with him.
Hallie rocking at Grandma's house when we were in Idaho over the 4th. She spent a lot of time on the porch in this chair. Nevermind the swimsuit- she also spent a lot of time in the kiddie pool and in the sprinkler.
I was in the bathroom getting ready one day and heard Hallie in the kitchen singing away. Love the "has me given me an earthly home..." Kinda close.
Jace laughing. Disregard me fake coughing. He fake coughs all the time so I was trying to get him to do it, but of course he would not. Boo.
I love this video. I have watched in numerous times and feel the Spirit of Christ-like love that this young boy has for someone who may not be "like" him.
Watching this always reminds me of MF. She has cerebral palsy, although a milder version. In the latest pictures that I have received of her, she is in a wheelchair and has braces on her legs. While I knew that she did not walk well, it made it more real to see these pictures of her. I know she will need constant care, but as each day goes by, I get more and more anxious to bring her home.
I hope that she is blessed with people in her life that will be able to see past her differences and love her for who she is, like Spencer in this video.
I look back on my own life and hope and pray that I wasn't an additional burden to those around me who were suffering alone because they were different. There is one boy in particular I remember who went to Elementary School, Junior High, and High School with me who was developmentally delayed. Most kids just stayed away from him, though some were mean and teased him. I was one who just stayed away. I really regret this now. Why couldn't I have shown him more love? Why couldn't I have been his friend? The image I have of him in my mind's eye is him sitting in a corner, always alone. No one deserves that.
A few people have asked how I feel our children will do having a sister who is developmentally delayed and how it will affect them. I hope that they learn love, compassion, and service. I hope that MF will feel that she always has a friend in each of them. I hope that they will be the ones to stand up for her when others may be mean or tease her because she is different. I hope they will be her advocates, her champions, her support. I can only see having her in our family as a large positive for them and their outlook on others who are not like them, whether that be someone of a different race, someone who speaks another language, or someone who is disabled in some way. I don't want them to be like I was- ignoring others around them because they don't know what else to do. I want them to be friends to the loners. Friends to the disabled. Friends to those that no one else wants to befriend.
The world needs more people like Spencer. I want to be one of them. I want my children to be some of them as well.
It's been a while since I have posted videos of the kiddos. So here are a few. Hallie has been very good to help with Jace. She constantly wants to hold him and take care of him as these videos show.
A sweet story: The other day, we were talking about MF with Hallie. I told her where she lives now, but that we would be going to pick her up and that she would be coming to live with us (we have this conversation from time to time). Hallie then said that she would share her dresses, her toys, and her bed with MF. Then she said, "And my mommy will be her mommy? And my daddy will be her daddy?" She comprehends a lot more than we give her credit for sometimes.
*PS. Recognize the outfit in the second video? Yeah, its one of her chosen outfits from her fashionista week. Clearly we had not gotten her ready for the day yet. Also forgive the hair. She is in a phase where she doesn't want "anything in it!"
This is just too funny not to share. Hallie has been learning the First Article of Faith. Usually she just repeats each word after me, but tonight she wanted to try it on her own. She did pretty good, for being 2! Love this girl, she makes us smile!
Here is a pregnancy update for all you who care. I am now past 25 weeks and feeling a lot better. I was sick for about the first 20 weeks or so. I continually thought it was ending, but then would have two or three days during the week where I would be nauseous again. Ick. And I thought my pregnancy with Hallie was bad, where I was sick for about 3 weeks total! :) My biggest problem these days is intense heartburn, but hey, I will take it! On the positive side, at the last doctor's visit last week, the baby is now measuring normal size instead of large. However, the doc made sure to say, "But don't think that means you will be having a small baby! You will definitely have a big baby." How comforting, eh? I had the lovely gestational diabetes test, which I passed, luckily. They have no idea how much candy I eat. They gave me the fruit punch flavored juice which was horrid. I much prefer the orange that I had last time, thank you. Other than that, there isn't much else to report pregnancy wise. Below is a 25 week pic. I feel like I have gotten bigger faster than I did with Hallie, but its hard to say. (yes, my head is deliberately chopped off. Its not a pretty picture today.) And now, for your viewing pleasure, a video of miss Hals on the way to Idaho for Thanksgiving. Don't worry, I didn't take one picture the entire time we were there. We had a great time, but this is the only "proof" (if it even counts) that I have that we went somewhere. Hallie is funny. We were driving along when she requested a certain drink...
(Don't hate, we never actually feed our child diet coke. She must have learned those words from certain aunts, uncles, and cousins of mine who may or may not be addicts.)
And by popular demand, I mean one person has demanded. But hey, that's enough for me. Hallie is funny. Here are some more videos of her doing her favorite things- singing and being loud.
Hallie really likes singing. Obviously she is better at "I am a Child of God" than "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." That one she is still learning. But it's still pretty cute.
...these great men in my life. Happy Father's Day to:-My wonderful Father-In-Law. If you wonder why Devin is as great as he is, it is because he had an amazing example in his father. (He is the one on the left in case you can't tell. I should get more recent pictures, but this is all I have from their mission homecoming earlier in the year)
-My step-father Dave. Dave is a perfect match for my mom and he has been kind and accepting of all of us and our craziness. Dave is a great person and we are grateful he is in our lives. (I took this picture from my mom's facebook page. Dave is lucky I didn't choose the one of him in his wool man capote thing that he made himself for camping. Classic, let's just say that.)
-My own dad. My dad tucked me into bed until I was like 13. I would yell at him from my bed and wherever he was, he would come and tuck my blankies (I know, family, that you are going to have 1 million things to say about me and the blankies. I know, I know) around me. I wouldn't go to sleep until he did. Kind of an embarrassing story, but hey, shows what kind of dad he was and is. -and of course, Devin. What a wonderful father he is. I can't say enough about how much he does for Hallie and me and how much we love him. I am so glad that I found him and that we get to be on this journey together. He and Hallie are everything to me.
And of course I am grateful for him as a father, because without him, the crazy girl would not exist. Here are the videos I promised. I thought I would just throw them on this post because really, she has everything to do with Father's Day. For without three of the men above, she wouldn't be here, see...(okay okay, I am just lazy and don't want to do a separate post, so I am forcing it to tie in.)
She is such a ham. I think she may have a career in drama? She has been learning to "sing" the ABCs, so I was trying to get a video of it. She doesn't know the letters really, but sings the tune and it is pretty funny. Anyway, you can catch a part of it on the longer video. But the shorter one, she just wouldn't perform. Such a silly girl.
Note: I cannot get the 2nd video to upload. Oh well. Maybe I will try again later.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, a video of miss Hals on the way to Idaho for Thanksgiving. Don't worry, I didn't take one picture the entire time we were there. We had a great time, but this is the only "proof" (if it even counts) that I have that we went somewhere. Hallie is funny. We were driving along when she requested a certain drink... 
-My wonderful Father-In-Law. If you wonder why Devin is as great as he is, it is because he had an amazing example in his father. (He is the one on the left in case you can't tell. I should get more recent pictures, but this is all I have from their mission homecoming earlier in the year) 
-My step-father Dave. Dave is a perfect match for my mom and he has been kind and accepting of all of us and our craziness. Dave is a great person and we are grateful he is in our lives. (I took this picture from my mom's facebook page. Dave is lucky I didn't choose the one of him in his wool man capote thing that he made himself for camping. Classic, let's just say that.) 
-My own dad. My dad tucked me into bed until I was like 13. I would yell at him from my bed and wherever he was, he would come and tuck my blankies (I know, family, that you are going to have 1 million things to say about me and the blankies. I know, I know) around me. I wouldn't go to sleep until he did. Kind of an embarrassing story, but hey, shows what kind of dad he was and is. 
-and of course, Devin. What a wonderful father he is. I can't say enough about how much he does for Hallie and me and how much we love him. I am so glad that I found him and that we get to be on this journey together. He and Hallie are everything to me. 