Happy Forever Day!

It's been a year since Briar was forever in our family, yay! It seems like it was just yesterday that we were going over to the foster Mom's to bring him home. What an amazing year it has been! Oh the things this little boy has taught us and has brought into our lives. I guess it is true "good things come to those who wait". What a little blessing Briar has been to us and we hope we are to him. Thank you God!

We are going out to dinner to celebrate and I also made a cake. Hopefully Briar will like this cake a little better then his birthday cake, we shall see. We can't forget to take a family picture, like we did when we got home with him a year ago :)

Things have been super busy so I haven't had alot of energy around posting on here. We have been concentrating on getting the basement finished, then we had our trip to Canada and then my Grandma was here for a visit and then back to the basement. YIKES! Good news is is that we are about 80% done with the basement. All that's left is grouting the tile, staining the doors and trim, installing them, laying the carpet, buying the toilet & vanity and then finding furniture. Phew! Can't wait until it is done so that Briar can have "his" own play space.

1st Father's Day

You'd have to ask Dan but from what I can tell he totally enjoyed his 1st Father's day weekend.

It started with Friday night, Briar and I took him out to eat at his all time favorite restaurant Famous Dave's. Briar loved it too. Then we headed over to Lowe's to pick up Primary paint for the basement. The drywall was completed this past week so he was ready to paint, and as I have mentioned before Dan L-O-V-E-S to paint. So what a great way to start the weekend.

Saturday he mowed the grass, unlike some people, again Dan loves to mow. Yes, he is a bit odd but that's what I love about him ;) We took a family walk around the local reserve park/paths. Then he started painting the walls and ceiling in the basement. We ended Saturday evening watching an Action movie.

Sunday morning Briar decided to start the day off with a great gift, he slept in until 7am! Usually we are up right at 6am or a little before, so that was a nice surprise. I made Dan a twist on Eggs Benedict, another favorite of his. He then got to paint some more while I prepared food for a picnic. We went on an afternoon picnic to a near by park. Our first picnic as a family, here's a link to pictures. Of course the meal consisted of all of Dan's favorite picnic foods (fried chicken, homemade potato salad, chips & dip, pie). Briar had alot of fun checking out the surroundings, all the trees, grass, river, other people.....it was alot of fun!

We ended the day going to dinner over at my mom and dad's so that I could celebrate Father's day with my dad :)

Before I forget, Briar has decided to finally crawl! Of course it is his own version of it, more of a crawl walk. One foot is walking the other one is crawling. It is so darn cute! And we taught him how to do High Five, he can't get enough of it and tries hard to say it too but it's more like "dae dhat". Alot of things currently are "dhat".....aaahhhh....baby talk :)

Becoming a 1 year old

So many things to do to turn 1 years old.

First you have to have a big party with lots of decorations, lots of presents that you don't really know how to open, a bunch of people googling over you and your first taste of cake. What an exhausting day!

Then there's the 1 year old professional pictures that need to be taken, it's so hard to smile that much when you are 1.

Of course you can't forget the 1 year old check up at the doctor with those stupid shots! OUCHIE!

Briar has now been initiated into a 1 year old! It was fun, exciting, exhausting and scary too.

The weekend was very busy for all of us. We took Briar to get his picture taken on Saturday, we tried the smash cake pictures but he really didn't want to have anything to do with the cake. When he touched the frosting it kind of freaked him out. Those were the last pictures they took so the pictures before turned out great! I don't have a scanner but below is a picture of Briar in his cute little suit outfit. He was just so adorable in it!

Sunday was the big day! Of course I got wrapped up in making sure everything was set for the party, taking care of the guests and Briar that I forgot to take pictures of the decorations :( We did get a few pictures during the day, click here to take a look.

The day was alittle emotional for me, thinking that our son has been in this world for a year and what an amazing blessing he is. I wish we could have been there a year ago to watch him come into this world. I did give him a special present, just from Mommy, the book A Blessing From Above. I can barely get through reading the book without crying, it is such a wonderful story.

Then on Monday he had his 1 year check up. Everything looked great, even his ears were all clear. Yay! He is 31 inches in height and weighs 21 1/2 lbs. So our little guy falls into the percentiles of being tall and skinny. The shots are always a scary thing, especially the MMR with all the controversy however we talked with our doctor, weighed all the risks and felt comfortable letting him get the shot. He of course was grumpy the rest of the day, poor little thing.

So that was his events of turning 1. This year is going to be so much fun, he is already trying, doing and saying new things. How fast they grow!

Teeth, teeth & Mama!

Briar has been working on some more teeth the last week or so. His eye teeth have popped through the gums and we think a few more on the bottom may be trying to make its way. The little man has 6 (yep that's SIX) teeth before he is 1yrs old! We are taking him for 1 year pictures on Saturday and he is going to look so cute with 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom.

I'm so excited to share with you that 2 days ago he finally said Mama! And he knew exactly what he was saying and what it meant. Ahhhhh......the sweetest words ever! My smile was from here to eternity. He's been saying it a couple times a day now.

We are busily planning for his birthday party next Sunday. So much to do! We are very excited that Grandma Phoebe and Grandpa Neil will also be here for it. They haven't seen them since December and wow has he grown! We made our official first trip to Toys R Us shopping as
parents of the birthday child. Talk about overwhelming, there are so many types of toys to chose from. Luckily I did my research before hand to know the main toy we want to get him so that wasn't a problem it was when it came to the second littler toy. You'd think something that would cost around $15-20 would be easy to pick out for a 1 year old. Nope, it took us about an hour to decide. Let's hope toy shopping gets easier as time goes by cause neither Dan nor I are individuals that enjoy shopping.


If you look closely you can see one of my eye teeth.


Okay. Here, now can you see it?


Yes I know Ladies, you'd kill for eye lashes like mine! (click to enlarge picture for full effect)


Elvis who?

Bitter Sweet

I wish I could say Mother's Day was everything I'd imagined it would be however it was bitter sweet for me. It was a great day and Dan did a wonderful job of planning an event, buying flowers and cards; A+ all the way! The only thing was that Briar was not able to go with us on the event, which was a Mother's Day brunch train ride down the St Croix valley. He unfortunately was recovery from pink eye and another ear infection. Yep, he got pink eye pretty bad on Saturday afternoon and when we went in to get meds for that he was also diagnosed with his 5th ear infection in his left ear. UGH!

We waited until Sunday morning to decide if he would be able to join us on the ride but he was pretty cranky and also had a slight fever so we called my parents and they were kind enough to come watch him while we went. I of course was pretty sad during most of the ride and before we boarded I was even crying. My first Mother's Day and I wasn't able to enjoy it to its fullest with my Son :(

Dan took a few pictures of the train and he actually captured me in one, thank goodness it is the back side of me cause this was when I was crying.

As for Briar's first hair cut, he did great! No crying or fussing. However it could be that he wasn't feeling the greatest so he just went with the flow. It was actually during the hair cut that the pink eye started to become obvious. Here's a link to the pictures of the big event.

There's not much of the baby look left with his new hair cut, that's a little bitter sweet as well. He's also not looking the greatest cause his eye's are pretty puffy from the pink eye, even so he is still so adorable!

Weekend of First's

A couple of first are taking place this weekend :)

Briar is getting his first hair cut on Saturday and Sunday will be my first Mother's day!

I'm alittle nervous about Briar's first hair cut, I hope he doesn't get too scared. We are taking him to my stylist, she is awesome! Plus he might find her familiar since her sister works at Briar's daycare in the front office and sometimes "steels" Briar to cuddle him up or feed him (we did not find this out until after he starting going there, it was a nice surprise!).

Ask me what we are doing for Mother's day.....I don't know, it's a surprise. Dan has something planned and all I know is that we need to be ready to leave the house by 8:30am and will probably get back home around 1pm. Whatever it is I just hope that Briar will be able to take his morning nap otherwise we will have a cranky little boy on our hands ;-) Dan has told me that we will all have alot of fun. Stay tuned!

Update on our weekend away ~ It was okay, the weather wasn't the best and my back seized up the day before we left so I was in a bit of pain. However the place we stayed at had a pool and hot tub so we spent alot of time there and we had it to ourselves which was great. The weekend was a bit boring but I just think it seemed that way because we have so much always going on. It was nice to spend some one on one time with Dan without interruptions. We were anxious though on Sunday to get back home to see Briar and of course Roxie too!

1 month away

I can't believe that in one month we will be celebrating Briar's 1st birthday. Wow, where did the year ago???

I ordered the party supplies today on-line. We have decided on a puppy theme, it is super adorable! Can't wait to post pictures of everything decorated. Of course I'm going over board, but heck isn't that what you are suppose to do for the 1st birthday? Not to mention it is his Golden birthday as well. So I say it's totally okay to go crazy!

Well Dan and I are taking a big step this weekend, we are going away just the two of us. My mom and dad will be watching Briar. I was so excited about this a month ago but now I'm extremely nervous. Not about my parents baby sitting Briar, they will do great. It's us missing Briar so much and not enjoying ourselves that I'm worried about. Let's hope we can concentrate on us and have fun. Of course with several phone calls in between ;)

Crawl. No walk. No run!

Our little guy has decided that he wants to skip crawling all together and possibly even walking. As soon as he sits down on the floor all he wants us to do is hold out our hands so that he can pull himself up to walk around (and if we don't, tantrum time!). Half the time though once he is up he just speeds away, almost tripping over himself cause he is going so fast. It is just an amazing time right now and it is so wonderful to see him so happy. When he is walking around he smiles from ear to ear and loves checking out all the "new" stuff to look at. He also just loves hanging out standing at the coffee table, couch or one of his learn and play stand toys.

On Tuesday he pulled himself up (with no help) using the coffee table! I missed seeing it the first time, Dan was there and it was my turn to cook dinner, but I ran over to see him do it a second time. Everyone has been telling us not to rush him crawling or walking around, to enjoy the time we have before we have to monitor him all the time. But you know what, we have waited a very long time for this little guy to be in our lives we absolutely love having to have to watch him all the time!!!! Not a day goes by that I am amazed he is in our life, I still feel like it is a dream.

Last weekend I packed away all of his cloths that don't fit anymore. Oh my! Those newborn cloths, so adorable and so little. Just looking at them made me want another ASAP!

Look closely and you will see my top tooth!

God Bless!

Sunday was Briar's baptism, everything was wonderful even though it was down pouring. What a beautiful service the Priest performed and Briar was pretty good through out it considering he decided he did not want to take a morning nap before hand. It was at 12:30pm, after all the normal Sunday masses and there were four other babies being baptized.

We had a small group in attendance; my parents, my sis (God Mom) and her family, Ron (God Father), Lance and Evan (Lance's son), Jill, and IB and her boyfriend came. I thought it was just the right size crowd for the celebration. Everyone came over to our house afterwards for lunch and I couldn't believe that Briar lasted until 2:30pm before he had had enough and needed to take a nap. He is just like his Mommy, might be dead dog tired but doesn't want to miss a thing (LOL!) so will try to stay up as long as he can.

Briar thought this was alot of fun!


You can't tell in the picture but Briar was just fascinated by the Priest every time he came close to him.


Look closely (or click pic to enlarge)...you might be able to see that Ron is holding back the tears (the red nose is a give away!)


The "Parents" with the little cutie pie!


Briar couldn't stop staring at Uncle John, seriously is was for about 5 minutes!

Pancakes didn't make the cut

Well we finally found the one food that Briar doesn't like, it's pancakes. Can you believe it?! I thought for sure he would like them since so far he has like everything we have given to him. I gave him a small piece this morning and he got this funny look on his face when he picked it up to put it in his mouth. Once he had it in his mouth he started to cry, big time, really tears and all. Mommy had to go in and fish it out. We tried one more time and same thing, he wasn't having any of it. I'm sure one day he will love them, once we are able to put some syrup on them ;-)

His top front left tooth has just cut through the surface, we can see a small bit of white. Let me tell you the last week has been touch and go with that one. He also has another ear infection, poor little guy! The doctor put him on a different med this time, since the last infection was only a few weeks ago and the doctor wasn't sure if it just never cleared up with the other med or not. Anyway, I wish the doctor would have told us about one of the side effects of this med, it turns his poop a rust/brick red color. Yes, yes....there was some freaking out going on at our house the first time we saw it. I just hope the ear infection clears up and hopefully on a short break from teething before next Sunday, his baptism.

Do you want to know something?

Come closer....

Look no boogers!

He, he, he!

I'm here!

I've heard from several friends and family members about my lack of posting. I'm sorry I haven't posted in forever. Really I am a bit embarrassed about it. It's just that time goes so fast now with a little one. And really I'd prefer to spend quality time with Briar then post on my blog ;-)

However with that said we all know that Briar can't be awake 24/7 so there is down time when I can take a few minutes to provide updates on here. So I am going to try my best to get back in the habit. Really, I will try!

There is so much to update on!

First, the holidays where wonderful!!! It was everything we expected and more. It was not your typical first Christmas either. We invited IB to both Christmas eve and day. The family that she does have here in MN has not been very kind to her since she decided to follow through on the adoption plans with Briar, so we invited her since we did not want her to spend Christmas alone. My family was finally able to meet her on Christmas day, which I think went pretty good.

Briar started eating meats in January and LOVES them! I have also started to make most of his food (meats and veggies). It is so simple and easy! I have a great recipe book, Top 100 Baby Purees , both Dan and I are pretty jealous at how good his food tastes LOL! Here are some pictures of Briar from January.

Dan's birthday was on February 5th. Unfortunately we all were recovering from a cold. Briar was the first to get and then Daddy and Mommy. We did have to take Briar in and turned out he had just the start of Pneumonia, we caught it right at the beginning. Briar and I were able though to make Daddy a birthday cake, which Daddy gobbled up! Here are some pictures.

Then a couple days later we all ended up with the Flu. That was so difficult, both Dan and I were out of commission (this was the both ends Flu, UGH!). Thank goodness it was on a Saturday when it started, I call Ron and Lance over to help watch Briar. Thankfully Briar didn't have it as bad as us, he wasn't vomiting. I think being on the antibiotic for the Pneumonia helped protected him. I was so thankful to Ron and Lance for coming to help us. Unfortunately Ron ended up getting the same Flu the next day :( I felt pretty bad about that.

In the midst of all the sicknesses Briar's first tooth came in! His bottom front. I tried to take some pictures of it, look closely and you will see it! Both of his bottom front are now in and the doctor said he is working on his top front.

Briar had his 9 month check up a couple weeks ago. 9 months!!! Can you believe it? He is getting to be a little boy! He weighed 19 lbs and was 28 inches. So he is tall and skinny for his age group. The doctor said everything looks great!

He hasn't started crawling yet, we are working on that but he will soon enough. He loves standing and would prefer that to sitting or laying down, of course with our help. He has said Dada, Daddy and Hi, but not sure if he realizes what he is actually saying just yet. Every week day I can't wait to go pick him up from daycare. He is the light of my life! I can't get enough of hugging him up!

I think the next few months are going to go by very quickly. First we have Easter and then we have Briar's baptism on April 6th. We are also finishing our basement, just started last week so that will keep us occupied for the next few months. And then before we know it it will be June 1st and Briar's 1st birthday! Wow!

A side note on the basement. I received a nice bonus this year and we thought about putting it towards our next adoption, going in "The Book" this summer but decided we had better start to finish the basement first since we will definitely need the room if we had 2 little ones. I'm alittle sad that we will need to wait a bit longer to pursue adoption again but it will be worth it to have the extra space. When the time is right God will find a way for us to have the money for our next adoption, I have faith!

Isn't this the cutest boy you have ever seen?!?!