Best Buddies

 When Lili was around 9 months old, we got a call from my friend asking us if we would consider adopting another baby. The phone call shocked me for many reasons. I was surprised because a baby has never fell into our laps but mostly because we weren't even thinking about another adoption yet. We knew we would try for one more eventually, but the three kids were keeping me plenty busy at the moment. Zane and I would joke all the time that if this adoption really happened, my mom would need to move in across the street so that I had tons of help. We worried that Lili would be jealous and angry and I think Zane worried about my sanity.

We have learned this lesson over and over in our lives, but God really does have the best plans. When Talmage first came home, it was really hard and we were exhausted but Lili handled everything just fine. There were times when both of them were crying because they both needed something and I got use to carrying two babies (thank goodness they are both so light), but each month gets easier as they both get older.

Their friendship is also growing as they get older. I love watching these two together. When Lili sees Talmage she starts saying Boo to him like Peek a Boo. Talmage just has to look at her and starts giggling. If Talmage is sad, I just need to put him by Lili and all is good again. Their relationship is so fun to watch and I imagine it is just going to get even better.

Lili loves to climb into Talmage's bed. She really likes his mobile and if Talmage is crying, she is happy to give him his paci thinking he must like it as much as she likes hers.

Lili is super patient with Talmage even when he rolls on her. He will also pull on her hair at times and she just moves his hand away.

There is something special between these two.

Talmage at 7 and 8 Months

 Talmage is growing and thriving. I can't believe how much he has changed.  His favorite activity is to hang out in the toy room watching his siblings play and moving around the room finding toys. If he is cranky during that dinner preparation hour, I send everyone upstairs with Talmage, and he is as happy as can be. Right after he turned 7 months old, he started sitting. He can also get on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth but isn't crawling yet. He can move all over though with army crawling and scooting. Everyone loves to make him smile and get him to giggle. It is the cutest sound ever.

Taking a wagon ride before he was sitting on his own.

 I'm a sitter!

 Talmage is happier sitting and playing now. He used to fight me with tummy time but now he will go from a sitting position to his tummy so that he can move around and get toys.

 7 Month Pictures

 Talmage and Lili are best buds. He lights up when she is around.

 Gavin in particular loves to make Talmage giggle.

Ready for Halloween

I have another post about Halloween, but Talmage was happy to sit in the wagon and watch all the kids going by.

All the kids can make Talmage giggle, but here is Gavin doing his best to get the best giggles.

Doctor Visits for October:
Neurology- Talmage's Neurologist was really impressed with how well he is doing with his physical development. She still hasn't seen the MRI done in Miami (I'm a little confused why it is taking so long to get the records) but she says his behavior now is more telling then the MRI would be and he is doing great. When we saw her 4 months ago, she wanted Talmage evaluated for Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech. I had him evaluated by a PT and a OT and both said he is right on schedule or close enough to it that they didn't feel he needed therapy. They both gave me exercises to do at home with him which we have been doing. They paid off!

GI- Because Talmage was a failure to thrive baby and had reflux, we have seen a GI doctor. When he saw Talmage in October, he was so impressed with how much Talmage has grown. He is on the verge of getting some chunky baby rolls. When Talmage was 4 months old we saw a change in his eating and behavior. He stopped crying non stop in the evening and was a happier baby. At his last appointment (around 6 1/2 months) I still felt like there was something wrong. Talmage would have a bowel movement 8 times a day which made it very hard for him to sleep. I would fight to get him down for a nap just to have him wake up 30 minutes later for another diaper change. He was a very tired baby. I was also worried his tummy hurt. Talmage was drinking concentrated (24 calorie) Nutramigen formula, but I didn't feel like it was helping just making more bowel movements. Another GI doctor had put him on it and our GI doctor we are seeing now wasn't quite sure why he was put on it. At this last appointment, he switched Talmage to a normal formula although it is still concentrated. Talmage has done much better on this normal formula and has regular BM's now.

I was frustrated one day with how little I get done and how every task I do takes so long, and then it hit me that between Talmage and Lili, I was changing 12 diapers a day. No wonder everything took so long. I was always interrupted!

Swallow Testing by the Speech Pathologist- I talked to the GI doctor about how Talmage really struggled with eating his baby food. With Talmage, it seems like the doctors like to be very proactive and get us into another appointment instead of being patient and waiting things out. The doctor recommended Talmage have a swallow test done to make sure the food was going down the right tube. Talmage sat in a chair connected to the Xray while I tried to feed him his baby food mixed with something to make it show up on the Xray. He was super angry with the taste, so it was really hard. I then had to feed him a bottle mixed with the same stuff. By then, Talmage was furious. After it was all down, I tried to feed him a normal bottle because I knew he had to be starving, but he refused. He didn't trust me that I was feeding him the good milk now. The swallow test came out fine. Talmage is still not a great eater. I may take him into an OT to watch him eat. Right now I'm trying to be patient though and hopefully he starts to like his food.

At 7 months, Talmage weighed 13 pounds 4.5 oz. He is still in the negative percentile and is in 3-6 month clothes. At 8 months, he is getting ready to move into 6-9 month clothes so he is catching up. Talmage and Lili will start wearing the same size diaper soon too!

Within 10 days we had 4 doctors appointments. It was crazy. Three of them took us downtown to the Children's Hospital. I kept coming out of those appointments though with doctors telling me how amazing Talmage is doing. Being at the Children's Hospital though, you see many kids with a wide variety of disabilities. Talmage could have had a severe disability. He probably should have. I am so grateful for my healthy son and the miracle that he is. I am left amazed and humbled at God's goodness.

8 Month picture

A Happy Halloween

 Holidays are so much more fun with kids, and this year didn't disappoint. The boys were super excited to pick out their costumes. Dallin wanted to be something really scary and at first picked out a very gruesome mask. I convinced him in another direction although I really tried to convince him to be a super hero like Gavin. He was really stuck on a scary Halloween costume. Gavin is easy to find a costume for. Anything to do with super heroes wins.  The month of October was filled with studying pumpkins at school, a preschool party, a friend Halloween party, the church's Trunk or Treat, carving pumpkins and finally Trick or Treating.

 This is at the Trunk or Treat. I found Lili's wings at the dollar store and she had the cute skirt, so I decided to go simple with her this year and she was a fairy princess.

Cutest little pumpkin

Preschool party where we made mummy hotdogs.

Gavin's preschool class with Dallin (Dallin is my helper)

Getting ready to go trick or treating.

Zane and I trick or treated with the three youngest. Dallin ran ahead to join the neighborhood boys. We then let him stay up late and pass out candy. I think he enjoyed that the most!

Talmage at 6 Months (Finalization Month!)

 Adoption finalization, first vacation, rolling over, and playing with his siblings...Talmage had a pretty great month!

Finalization was easy. We went to Zane's office and met with a notary. Our lawyer called in with the judge and after a few questions, pronounced Talmage ours!

Talmage spent a lot of time in the sun this month.  Here he is snuggled up for a nap at the pool.

Talmage's personality started coming out. Lots more smiles and giggles.

Of all the sibling relationships, I love watching Lili and Talmage together. They are 15 months apart. Lili has been awesome with Talmage and didn't show signs of jealousy. Every month that passes, she also shows more signs of awareness of him. Lili likes all the baby toys coming back out too.  It is a good thing they are both so light because there are times when they both just need to be held.

 Trying out the baby swing.

Talmage is also becoming more fun for the older boys as he interacts with them. Gavin and Dallin love to make Talmage laugh.

Talmage is rolling around now. He isn't quite ready to wrestle the kids in the background, but I'm sure it will happen way too quickly for me.

Great/gross picture to catch!

We waited until 6 months to try baby food. Talmage has become a happier baby and I didn't want to mess anything up by adding food. Formula also has more calories than baby food, so his GI doctor wanted us to wait. Eating isn't going that well. Talmage doesn't have any desire to eat from a spoon.

At 6 months Talmage weighs around 12 pounds, is starting to go into 3 to 6 months clothes and still on Nutramigen formula concentrated to 24 ounces. He has seen a physical therapist a couple of times but she feels that Talmage is really doing well and just gives me suggestions of exercises to try on our own. He keeps amazing us all! Don't you love those dimples!!!

Forever Families- Talmage's Special Day

Talmage's adoption was finalized on August 13th. The following Saturday, August 16th, we headed to the temple to have Talmage sealed to us and become part of our forever family. There was a lot of panic and rush before getting to the temple, so when we were finally all together and calm, it was wonderful. What I remember most was an overwhelming feeling of peace, love and gratitude.

The ceremony was late in the afternoon, so we spent the morning making lasagnas and desserts for the dinner we were having afterwards. I had timed everything out and so around noon I headed up to my mom's to drop off the food (the dinner was at her house afterwards.) I stayed for a little to chit chat and help organize things, then headed back home. We needed to leave our house at 2:30 and we all needed to shower and get ready. On the way to my mom's I had noticed a lot of traffic on the freeway going southbound, so I had decided then that I would take the feeder to avoid that traffic. On the way back, I saw the traffic ahead and got off the freeway. I'm not sure why I made this decision because usually the feeder is never faster than the freeway, but I made a split second decision and went with it.

The traffic was horrible on the feeder. It turns out the road closure was on the feeder not the freeway. At one point there was a spot to get back on the freeway, but all I could see ahead on the freeway was lots and lots of traffic and not knowing the problem was the feeder, I stayed on the feeder. After sitting for 45 minutes, I started to really panic. I called my mom and asked her to tell the temple we were coming but were running super late. My mom was planning on arriving at the temple at 3:00 with us to get the kids changed in their white clothes while Zane and I changed. I then started my million calls to Zane explaining everything he needed to pack, how I wanted Lili's hair, and other instructions. When I got home, I knew I would have to take the quickest shower ever and get right back into the car. I can't tell you how thankful I was that I had just cut my hair even shorter making it super easy to do. Zane was awesome and had everything together.

After the phone calls I just started praying asking God to part the cars like He parted the Red Sea. Unfortunately, that miracle didn't happen for me. The worst part was when I realized that the road closure was on the feeder and watched cars zip on the freeway on the overpass that went on the other freeway that leads East to my house. The slow part was on the cars trying to go West and the cars exiting to the feeder that was shut down. I was so tempted to try to drive over the curb and get back on the freeway. I was more scared though that my mini van would get stuck.

In the end the 20 minute drive home took me an hour and a half. It was horrible to be so helpless. We were 30 minutes late to the temple. Some of our guests arrived before us. Luckily we didn't really need to be their an hour early and so we were ready to start by 4:00.

After all the rush, Zane and I sat in the Celestial Room for awhile waiting to be brought in the sealing room. Finally a temple worker came and told us that the Sealer that we asked to do the ceremony wasn't there. We just laughed and said any Sealer would do. We just wanted to get going on the ceremony!

Down in the kid's room, my mom and another temple worker were getting my kids ready. The temple worker told me later that my kids were so well behaved and wonderful. I don't think anyone has ever told us that before so it really was a special day!

Finally it was time and Zane and I were brought into the sealing room where all of our guests were waiting. The kids were brought in next. They really did look all angelic in white.

          We don't take pictures in the temple so this is right outside.

The sealer said a few words, and then Zane and I knelt across from each other on the alter. The kids (because they have already been sealed to us) stood up to watch on the side and then Talmage's hand was placed on ours for the ceremony. My friend and Talmage's birth aunt held Talmage. I love this because she was the one who brought Talmage to us. She told her sister about us and really pushed for the adoption. Talmage is part of our family because of his courageous Birth Mom who chose to place her baby with us and my friend who felt strongly that God wanted us to be her nephew's parents.

During the ceremony, Talmage kept his eyes on Dallin who was straight across from him the whole time. Everyone commented afterwards how he fixated on Dallin and of course Dallin made him smile. I have felt very strongly from the beginning that my kids all knew each other up in heaven and imagine that they talked about how they would find their way to each other on Earth. I love the bond between them all. Talmage kept his hand on ours the whole time and was happy and content during the ceremony.

After the ceremony, our guests congratulated us and we tried to get all our kids to look in the mirrors. The way the mirrors are arranged you can see the family's reflection going on and on and never ending. I don't think they caught it but I do think they understand that the temple is a special place and that our family is important to God. 

Our family with some of our guests.

We were lucky that the finalization happened right after vacation so that everyone was still in town minus my brother-in-law Derrick who had to get back to work.

Christina (Birth aunt) and her daughter with a sleepy Talmage.

Grandma and Grandpa

Talmage getting some one-on-one with Grandpa.

After the sealing ceremony, we had a wonderful dinner at my mom's with Talmage's birth family to celebrate our forever family. I found out then that my brother's plane had arrived an hour late and he barely made it to the temple. It is amazing that it all came together in the end!

On Sunday, Zane gave Talmage his baby blessing at church. My dad, Jared and Clayton (my brothers), Bishop Gutke, and Talmage's birth cousin Hunter who just got off his mission stood in the circle. My sister Haley's family couldn't make it because by then the vacation virus had hit their family and they were at home super sick.

We had one super special weekend. I'm so grateful for my family. Zane and I are humbled with how God has blessed us. We fasted and prayed for 6 years to have one baby. Zane and I wanted a big family, but after all our difficulties we were just asking God for one and we would be content. Six years later we were in the temple surrounded by four beautiful children and feeling overwhelmed with the love God has for our family. We have seen so many miracles as God has lead us to each of our children and are so grateful to our four amazing birth mom's.

Family Pictures

While we were all together on vacation, my sister-in-law took some family pictures for us.

The whole silly group.

Even sillier

Finally a family picture with Talmage

All the grandchildren

While my siblings all got a picture together (which isn't my favorite of me so it didn't make the blog) the in laws did their own picture. We all married up!