Talmage's First Birthday

Talmage is my special birthday pal. The day he was born, we received a lot of scary news about Talmage. By the end of that night he was being life flighted to Miami Children's hospital. A year later we celebrated our healthy, smiley guy. Unfortunately, Zane was out of town the week of our birthday on business, so Talmage and I kept busy playing until Zane got home that weekend for Talmage's first birthday party.

Chick-Fil-A for lunch

Jumping on the tramp

My parents actually brought dinner and cake that night for me so that I didn't have to cook on my birthday. The next night, Talmage really enjoyed his spaghetti dinner.

Talmage's birth family and all our extended family joined us for his party.

It has been an amazing to see how much Talmage has changed this year from a four pound sickly baby to a healthy toddler. It has also been a very difficult year. Talmage spent 6 weeks in NICU, then dealt with reflux and colic, and then has been plagued by ear infections. His second year can only get better!

A Very Lego Birthday

Dallin's 7th birthday was all about legos. He got a larger lego from us that kept him occupied for the entire day. I love it when Dallin gets a new lego. He will get completely consumed by it and gets his school work done so quickly that day so that he can build undisturbed. He is getting really good.

Since we were throwing Dallin a lego party, we practiced making his lego brick cake on his birthday. It wasn't the coolest cake, but he was excited about the figures that went with it. :)

On his birthday, my parents and Zane's mom came over to help celebrate with spaghetti and breadsticks and more legos.

Two days after his birthday, we had a friend/cousin party. Gavin and Dallin loved helping put the candy lego bricks on the cupcakes (they also loved eating them as they went.)

Our party probably isn't Pinterest worthy but we had a lot of fun. We played a variety of lego games and did some building. We had around 18 kids here so Zane and I divided the kids into two groups and were too busy leading games to get tons of pictures.

Another lego brick cake this time with the lego candies bordering it.

Since we couldn't find a piñata shaped like a brick, Zane made one. It was a good thing too because with so many competitive kids, it needed to be nice and thick for everyone to have a few chances.

Almost everyone of Dallin's presents from his friends were legos. It was a lovely week after his birthday. He would quickly get his school work done, so that he could build the rest of the day. Too bad we can't have every day be lego day!

Here are some fun facts about this awesome 7 year old:

He is a great swimmer. His favorite place to be is in the swimming pool.

His second favorite place to be is jumping on the trampoline. He can do all kinds of tricks like his dad. He also enjoys biking with friends, running, and play fighting. He is full of energy and silliness but over this last year has really improved on his ability to focus more and calm himself down. He is a fantastic big brother (although he still teases at times like any brother.) He was a huge help after Talmage joined our family and has even changed some diapers! Dallin really enjoys learning about science and doing experiments. His favorite animals to study are alligators, snakes, and sharks. Dallin has an amazing ability to make friends with anyone and cheer anyone up. He has learned that when a sibling or friend starts crying, he can become a clown and make everything ok with laughter. I love the boy he is growing into!

Lili's 2nd Birthday

 I'm having a very rare moment where both babies are asleep and the older boys are at friends' houses. This little blog of mine has been weighing on my mind lately as so many important moments are passing without being documented. First up is Lili's 2nd birthday which was on November 30th.

Becoming a big sister made Lili grow up faster. She is an amazing talker. For awhile she would get a hold of my phone and call people on my favorites list. Everyone kept thinking it was Gavin who was calling because they didn't expect little Lili to have so much to say! Lili also acts older because she likes to be very independent. This is awesome except when she can't do something or I am in a hurry and want to do it for her then we have a great temper tantrum.

Lili's personality is so different from the boys. She brings calmness in our home. Don't misunderstand. I love my boys' energy and passion for life. I also really love how Lili will sit and look at books or begs to be read to all the time. Books are her favorite. She tries to keep up with the boys and is very strong and daring (she can climb anything), but she also has this calmness about her. She loves to please me so she is very obedient. Zane and I can ask her to find her shoes and she goes and does it. It completely shocked me the first couple of times. My boys try to be obedient but along the way to finding shoes there is always something else to distract them from their original goal. Lili is very focused on what she wants and makes sure it happens. At times this also leads to temper tantrums...

I love watching the tender side of Lili come out. She is starting to pay attention to her dolls and if Talmage is crying, she will sit by him to sing him "I'm a Child of God." When we asked once what her baby's name was, meaning her doll, she looked at us and said, "Talmage" meaning she thought Talmage was her baby. Lately she is trying to carry Talmage which means she is trying to lift him by his neck. Since he weighs as much as she does, it is going to be pretty tough to carry him around. Lili is very polite and says thank you all the time. 

Lili also loves singing. At night when she picks her song, I sometimes need her to sing it to me to know what she is saying. I can usually recognize the tune. Her favorite right now is "Master the Tempest is Raging." I taught this song to the kids at church (I teach the singing at church) and she loves it.

Lili is still tiny. She weighs 18 pounds. I don't think she has gained much weight lately. She is just growing taller. Lili is a fantastic eater and will try anything I give her including salads. I think she is the cutest girl ever but I am a little biased. Being the only girl in the family, she has a special place and those brothers of hers sure love her.

Lili wearing the dress my mom made her. Lili loves her grandma and monopolizes her time when she is visiting.

Our next door neighbor got this dress in the mail randomly and gave it to us. It is big on Lili, but it says Happy Birthday on it. Since her birthday was on Sunday this year, it was perfect.

The necklaces were one of her gifts. She loves accessorizing.

She also got books for her birthday. She is really good at these I Spy books.

 Pushing her new shopping cart around.

Showing off her birthday dress.

Lili's not picky about desserts so I went easy this year with a pumpkin cobbler. We had my parents, Zane's mom (she just moved close by us), and my grandma who was visiting for the holidays over for dinner and dessert.

We love our little princess.

It's About Love: Gavin's Special Visit

Gavin spent the next two days visiting his birth family. He loved all the attention. All he could talk about was when we were going to see Tracy next. We played at a park one day and went to a forest for a hike and picnic the next.

Leaf fight with Tracy. 

She was a great sport!

Being silly together

Who wouldn't love all this attention!

My other kids didn't lack for attention of course.

A hike through the forest

 

Gavin and his birth sister Julia

Talmage loved being outdoors and carried

The fall colors were beautiful

We hiked to a stone castle and then when we went to the bottom of it, some of our group tried their hand at rock climbing including Lili.

Being in Tennessee was great. Our road trip home though was another story. We decided to do the 14 hours in one day to avoid the pain of the hotel and the many trips unpacking and repacking the car. Zane would also be able to use his day off helping with the unpacking instead of driving. This plan was tested though when we hit a traffic jam where we went 6 miles in two hours. Talmage and Lili had just fallen asleep right before the traffic jam and then when we stopped rolling, they woke up cranky as can be. Later on that afternoon Dallin did something to get stuck in his seat belt. In trying to get out of it, his seat belt just got tighter and tighter. We pulled over and tried to help him but eventually we decided that we needed to cut him out of it. We drove to the next exit to borrow some scissors from a gas station and cut his seat belt strap. From then on Dallin's and Gavin's seats were touching. This also tested our patience! With all the stops and traffic, we got home at 2:30 a.m. and crashed into bed. Despite the road trip, we had a great little vacation and Gavin felt like the special little boy that he is loved by so many.

A Special Visit for Gavin

 We have an open adoption with Gavin's birthmom Tracy. He saw her when he was one and then because of the births of Lili and Talmage and the month we stayed in the states they came from, we haven't made it to Tennessee to visit again. It was time to fix this and so we braved another road trip (which I swore I wouldn't do after Miami) and made the 14 hour drive to visit. The trip out to Tennessee wasn't to bad. Yes there was some crying from Talmage but at least we didn't have to stop every hour and half to feed for an hour and a half like we did on the way home from Miami. Lili is now forward facing (which I know is not good because she is still so small) so she was entertained by the movies and didn't cry the whole time.  We broke up the trip out there and drove Friday afternoon and all day Saturday.

After a day in the car we decided that the kids would do better at Chuck E Cheese than at a sit down restaurant so this was where Gavin had his reunion with Tracy, her daughter Julia, and her mom Joyce.

A lot of people asked how Gavin did on the trip, was he confused, does he understand who Tracy is and how does he respond to her. My kids understand how adoption works but they don't comprehend yet that our family is unusual. Our family is proof that love binds family more than blood. Kids respond to love and Gavin has a lot of people who love him. He glowed with happiness.

Tracy

Julia

Joyce (grandma) is on the right

Tracy's family was great about loving all my kids. Dallin's birthmom has passed away and we have no contact with Lili's so Tracy is filling in for them.

The next day we went to a park and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. Gavin posed for tons and tons of pictures. He was a great sport.

Here are some of the group shots.

 Friends of Tracy (the couple in the back) joined us at the park.

Gavin is one lucky boy to have so many people who love him!