Thanksgiving Camping

 My little brother worked on Thanksgiving this year so we had our Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday afterwards.  It wasn't hard for us to figure out what to do instead on Thanksgiving.  This is the right time of year to camp and we had tons of fun!  My parents came with us and then other members of my family joined us when they could.

My boys would love to be out doors all the time so camping is perfect for them.  There is plenty to explore and plenty of new "toys" to play with.

We took a hike that wore Dallin out so to avoid carrying him on our shoulders, he took a ride.

Making new friends and trying to find snakes in the creek

or in the woods

The boys are ready to be big brothers.  Ellery stayed one night with us and both boys showered her with attention.

For me the best part of camping is the food.  Everything taste better out doors.  Instead of pumpkin pie we had peach cobbler in the dutch oven.  It was delicious!

 Fun pictures of Gavin

We have so much to be grateful for but this year our birthmom's have been on our minds even more.  They made us parents and there is nothing so special and so sweet as those moments when a little hand slips inside yours or arms reach up and tighten around your neck giving the best bear hug.  We are so blessed to have these courageous women in our lives.

Look Who Rides without Training Wheels!

Either I'm a brilliant teacher or Dallin has great balance.  He learned to ride a bike in 3 minutes.

18 months ago we started teaching Dallin how to ride a bike with training wheels.  He had a really hard time pushing the wheels around and needed some pushes from us to keep going. Eventually he got it but because of the training wheels, he was way slower than the bigger boys on the street.  Then Santa brought him a three wheel scooter and the bike was forgotten.  By Easter, Dallin was cruising on a normal scooter and got to be so fast that he could keep up with the big boys.  When I actually get out running, Dallin will scooter along with me for three miles.

On Tuesday, Zane pulled the bike down and fixed it up again getting ready for Dallin to ride it.  He took off the training wheels and we thought over Thanksgiving break we would start working on it.  Dallin kept pestering me all morning on Wednesday to let him ride the bike.  I kept trying to put him off until Zane got home from work because teaching Dallin can be difficult at times.  If something is hard, he won't put the effort into learning and just move on.  The neighborhood boys were out on the street though riding, so I finally gave in and grabbed the bike.  I gave a great pep talk about how riding a bike can be hard, he may fall, and it will take practice etc.  Dallin road while I held the seat. I soon moved to just holding his shoulder because he seemed to be balancing really well.  Dallin kept telling me to just let go and so I did.  He took off and never looked back turning and stopping himself without any problems.  He had one fall when he and a neighbor boy collided, but after a few tears and a band aid, he got up and tried again.  He loves racing the big boys and could spend every waking moment riding. 

 I love the tongue hanging out when he is thinking.  Grandpa does that too.

First Hair Cut

 In order to better maintain his hair, I decided it was finally time to cut Gavin's hair.  Gavin also didn't like getting his hair washed because hair and soap got in his eyes nor did he like sitting while I conditioned and combed it. 

This was Gavin's hair length last March. 

Gavin loves his hair and loves the attention his hair gives him so he also enjoyed getting his hair cut.  I thought I needed a movie to keep him sitting still, but all he needed was a comb! (Sorry for the lighting problems)

So handsome!  My hair dresser kept raving about how beautiful Gavin is and how he should be a baby model.  He is a handsome boy!

Gavin kept picking up his curls.  He has quite the collection in his little fist. 

Adoption Process: Squishing 9 Months into One

This family of four has some big changes coming soon.  We have been matched with a birthmom!  We received an email from our caseworker a couple of weeks ago with information about a birthmom (we will call her K) and baby due in December.  We have had a few emails sent to us about situations, but this was the first that really caught our attention.  The caseworker gave us a little information about the birthmom, the baby (full African American and sex unknown), and the cost of the adoption, and we had to decide immediately if we wanted our scrapbook shown to the birthmom.  We said yes.  The next day we found out that actually the birthmom wanted the agency to pick the couple for her since they knew their couples better than her.  That was when the caseworker let us know that if we wanted to be matched with K, we would be.  I was very nervous about this because K hadn't seen our scrapbook or talked to us.   I didn't feel like anything was official until K had seen or talked to us because she could take one look at our family and change her mind.  I felt better when later on in the day we got the email that K wanted to talk to us on the phone. 

The Monday before Halloween I answered the phone to hear, "It's a girl!"  It took me a second to realize my caseworker was calling me and then another second to remember that K had a doctor's appointment that morning and apparently found out the sex of the baby.  Hearing those words made this baby seem more real and I started getting really excited.  Dallin was also really excited since he has been saying for a year that he wants a baby sister. 

On Halloween we had a nice conversation with K.  By this point she had looked at our scrapbook and let us know she wanted to move forward with the adoption with us. 

We were first told that the due date was December 22nd.  Two months seemed like a good amount of time to get ready.  Then we were told the due date was moved up to the first week of December.  I went into a little bit of panic mode then making lists of everything that needed to be done and cleaning/organizing like crazy trying to make space in our house for a baby.

Other things on the to-do list:
Buy mini van so that we didn't need to squish three car seats on one row. (Done!)
Write lesson plans for the rest of the school year (Mostly done!)
Buy baby girl things (so excited about this task!)
And the big one that is kind of stressing me out...Get ready for Christmas!

Of course by the time Christmas comes along, Zane and I will have received the best gift ever.

Some Needed Family Time

 My cute niece Ellery had her first birthday the beginning of October.  We decided to take a break from busy weekends to travel out to celebrate with her.  My boys love Ellery and are really cute with her.

 We met up with Ellery at the zoo near her house.  We had a great time at this zoo especially because there were so many animals to touch.

Gavin thought these elephants were fun.

 And this gorilla

 While waiting for the tigers to come out and get fed, we caught this hug on camera.  Like most brothers, they pick on each other (mostly Dallin picking on Gavin but Gavin is starting to figure out ways to annoy Dallin), but they are also the sweetest boys together.

Getting Ellery excited for the tigers

My sister-in-law Kara's parents were with us and Dallin found a new friend with Kara's dad.  Somehow Dallin convinced him to let him ride on his shoulders.  Dallin definitely isn't as light as Ellery!

 First time feeding a Giraffe

 Or touching one for that matter

 Besides the reptile house, this was probably Dallin's favorite part.

The birds really liked my brother...or his ear wax

The birds did not like Gavin.  They were smart enough to figure out that a two year old wasn't someone to mess with.

We saw this awesome bird show.  My brother held out his hand during the show with a dollar in it and a bird flew out to get it and hid it on stage.  Another bird brought my brother a bracelet instead of the dollar.

 Eventually one of the birds decided to be honest and retrieve the dollar.

This is a great way to make money at the zoo.  Tell the kids to give the bird a dollar and he will put it away for you.  I need to get me a bird like this to help with fundraising for our adoption!

I'm not sure if that is how I would react if I saw a snake!

 Being gophers

 

This statue got fed plenty of rocks

 The boys got to touch an opossum

 and a corn snake

 We were only gone over night, but I'm glad we were able to join Ellery for her birthday celebration!

Boys and Trains

 Our friends the Howard's invited us to a day of train riding, picnics, and free frozen yogurt at the opening of a new Red Mango.  It was a great family outing

Waiting in line is always more fun with friends.

After our ride, we checked out some model steam engines.  The boys ran around the track chasing the trains.

Celebrating Halloween

 Spending time at a pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, and trick or treating...we had a great Halloween!  The boys enjoyed trick or treating the best.  Dallin's goal was to collect as much candy as possible and to find the spookiest house.  Gavin was just amazed that if he said "Trick or Treat" people gave him candy. Then of course because he is so stickin cute, people gave him extra candy.  Now what are we going to do with all the candy?

 Playing at the pumpkin patch

Dallin zip-lining. 

Carving pumpkins in our underwear?  I'm not sure why they weren't dressed.

We had a great Halloween party at preschool playing lots of fun games!