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?!?!

We Finalized!

Wow, has it really been over a month since my last post (oops!). It is just so busy with the holidays and a little one in the house. Loving every minute of it though!

We got the best Christmas present, we were able to finalize the adoption this year. It happened so fast. We received the letter from the court on a Monday to call to schedule and after a couple days of phone tag, on the Thursday, Dan spoke with the clerk and they had a last minute opening the next day! So on December 14th at 1:45pm CST Briar was officially forever ours! Since it happened so fast we weren't able to plan anything special for afterwards. And I also had to get ahold of my parents, they were out of town, to let them know it was scheduled. They were obviously very excited and were able to make it back for the event. Here are some photos

So Many Updates

I'm so behind on my posts, oops! The time just goes by so fast and just when I think I have time to post I remember I have to do something or I'm just so tired and need to go to bed. No, I'm not complaining, in fact loving every minute of my life right now!

This is Briar's 3rd week of daycare and he has adjusted extremely well. No issues, eats and sleeps well there and no fussing when we leave. He is just the happiest baby I've ever seen. We are so lucky. Mommy and Daddy on the other hand had a hard time adjusting to daycare but I think we have finally figured out our morning routine and getting things ready.

We turned in our paperwork to our agency for the finalization. The agency first has to do yet another background check (Goodness! I think this is the 4th one to date) and then they will send the paperwork to the Court. Once the Court receives and does their thing they will inform us we can schedule our hearing. It's a long shot but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is before the end of the year. I know my parents want to be here for it and they leave a few days after Christmas for their stint down in Florida.

It finally happened, our little guy got a cold. He made it to almost 6 months and it wasn't even from daycare, he got it from Daddy :( Even when he is sick he is still a happy little boy. It started this last Saturday and hasn't been too bad of a cold, he seems to be getting better but of course Mommy also came down with it on Monday. We should all be recovered by Turkey day.

One last update I'd like to give. Dan did a wonderful job for my birthday! He really did pull through this year. Briar and him even baked a cake and decorated it for me (okay Briar just sat in his bouncy chair and directed Daddy on what to do). Briar also picked out a beautiful Circle of Love necklace for me and even signed the card! Here is a link to some of my birthday pictures.

I'm a little pumpkin....

Briar's first Halloween was very exciting! He sported a festive outfit for the day and then wore his costume for alittle over an hour at night. He also had a few visitors so that he didn't have to go out for his Trick or Treating. Grandpa and Grandma came over first and then Ron and Lance stopped by as well. It was a nice little Halloween party at our house! Below are a few of the pictures, if you'd like to see all click here.

Almost back in the swing of things

Has it really been almost 2 weeks since last I posted?! Wow, time is going by fast and now that I'm back to work there isn't enough time for everything. We are frantically trying to get things ready for daycare and getting ready for the cold weather. We are almost there but still need to buy a winter coat for the little guy.

Last week was hard, it was my first full week back to work. I'm getting back into the swing of things but my brain still feels like mush LOL! I have heard rumors though that once you are a Mom you lose some of your smarts, oh no :(

This week is a short week for me at work, I'm taking my birthday (Nov 1st) and the 2nd off. Usually I dread my birthday but not this year it is special, my first one being a Mommy!!!! I had to explain to Dan the other day that he is going to have to help Briar with picking out a gift for me and card until he is old enough to do himself. Good thing I mentioned it cause it sure sounded like Dan had no idea this is how it works. Geesh, men!

We finally got the proofs of the photo session we had in September. The pictures are wonderful and Briar is so adorable! Not sure if I mentioned this but we went through Celebrating Adoption and found our photographer, she is in St. Micheal and did just a wonderful job! Here is a link to our slideshow, this link might only work until Nov 3rd so I will attach a couple of the photos (shhhhh, don't tell anyone).

Back to work

It was my first day back to work today. All I could do was think about Briar and stare at the pictures of him I brought with me. UGH! My boss was so sweet she said I could leave at Noon if I wanted to. I probably should have but didn't. I wanted to give Dan his time with Briar and also I need to get use to being at work. I did leave about 30 minutes early though. When I got home I got a better reception from Roxie then Briar. I don't think he even knew I was gone all day :(

The day I'm truly dreading is Nov 5th when he starts daycare. That will be the hardest morning ever for me!

We survived!

We got back from our trip last night around 8:30pm. It was so good to be home and sleep in our own beds! Briar was a good little traveler, he did better then we all expected him to. It wasn't until the trip back when he had a true meltdown and just needed to take more then a couple minute break from his car seat. We were about 3 hours from home and luckly only a few miles from a rest stop. We walk around outside for quite awhile, until it started to rain and then just hung out in the van for a bit. Those last 3 hours were pretty tough for the little guy, we did stop for dinner and let him stretch out on the booth beside us. As soon as were were about a mile from home he started to have another meltdown. His face lit up once he saw he was back in his house and out of his car seat. He was such a trooper!

I think my Mom and Dad should be Sainted for having endured 26 hours in the car with a 4 month old and new parents! They definitely have earned up enough bonus points to spoil their Grandson rotten for a couple years to come without Mom & Dad telling them no, LOL!!!

My Grandma's 90th birthday celebration was so much fun! I'm so glad we were able to make it down there, I know it meant the world to her. Briar fell in love with her right away (well after he had his diaper changed, we arrived with a poopy diaper and he wasn't to happy). He usually doesn't like to just hang out on your lap but he loved it with Great Grandma (see pics below). He was a big hit with everyone and there seemed to always be a line up for holding him. He did great with being around approx 50 people, I have a feeling he's going to be quite the little "ham" and attention getter. I can't wait!

Oye Vay!

It's almost 11:30PM and I think I'm done packing for our trip. I had to pack for both Briar, myself and get things ready for Roxie to go to Jill's and Ron's this weekend. OH MY! That is alot of work, UGH! And I'm sure I have forgotten something. By the time I am finally able to go to bed and get into a deep sleep Mr Briar will probably decide he needs to fuss. Well at least there are 4 adults to help drive tomorrow so hopefully I can nap. However I'm not a very good car napper. It's a curse of us people that always feel the need to be in control. Well I best sign off and get to bed cause 5am will be here before I know it. I so wish we had the money to fly but at $500 per person I just couldn't justify it.

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go!

One week left

I can't believe I only have one week left of staying at home with Briar. I go back on October 17th. Wow, did that time go by fast!!!! I've been a bit depressed the last two weeks in anticipation of going back to work but it will be good to be around adults again. I can't wait for Dan to have his 3 weeks with Briar, I just hope Briar isn't too attached to me and will be good for Daddy.

We did start him on rice cereal last week. Its' going pretty good so far. We are only giving it to him once a day so he can get use to it and will increase to twice a day in a few weeks. Here is a link to pictures of his first taste. Too cute!

We are taking our first official trip with Briar this weekend. And it is a big one, yikes! We are driving down to Oklahoma for my Grandma's 90th birthday. It's about 13 hour drive, oh boy. We will be going with my Mom and Dad in their minivan which should be a bit more comfortable. Briar does good in the car, usually falls asleep so hopefully he will do okay. We are stopping in Wichita on Friday night to stay with my Uncle and Aunt, that's only about 9 hours, then head down to OK on Saturday morning. However coming home on Monday it will be straight through. Wish us luck!!!

We decided not to take Roxie with us, that would just be way too much. So Ron and Jill have offered to doggie sit, thank goodness! I can't stand the idea of boarding her. Of course she needs to look her best for her weekend retreat so we got her hair cut the other day (usually I trim her at home) at Petsmart and when she came home she had bows in her hair. She didn't look too happy about it, she really isn't a girlie girl. Check it out:

4 months

I can't believe our little guy is 4 months old today! And that I only have 2 more weeks left of my leave :( I'm already starting to stress about going back to work. I'm going to miss him soooooo much! I don't know how I will get through it.

We had our 4 month check up and shots today. Briar is growing like a weed, check out his status from 2 months ago compare to now and the progress he has made for the percentile groups:

2 month ago
Height - 21 inches, 5 %
Weight - 10lbs 6 oz, 10-25 %
Head size - 38.4 cm, 25 %

4 months (today)
Height - 24 inches, 50-75%
Weight - 14 lbs, 25-50%
Head size - 41.5 cm, 25-50%

What really surprised me was his height, jumping from the 5th percentile to the 50th-75th percentile in only two months. This makes me think he is going to be a tall one! Only time will tell. We also got the green like to start with Rice Cereal if we wanted, I'm not sure yet.

He didn't do so well this time with the shots. He cried so hard and many, many tears came streaming down his face. We had to wait in the room for a bit before we could leave. All day he has been out of sort, cranky and only taking a few minute naps here and there. I feel so bad for him, just wish I could take his pain away. We gave him his bath earlier then normal and fed him and put him to bed before 8pm. I'm sure he will wake up mid way through the night, oh well.

Briar's first party

Briar attended his first party on Sunday which he was the guest of honor! We had a "welcome to the family" celebration, we opted for this in lieu of a traditional baby shower, which was alot of fun! Dan and I were amazed at the turn out and were so touched by the support and love we felt from everyone. We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives and now a part of Briar's life as well. During the party I took a step back and just took everything in, what a truly happy time in our lives. I felt so filled with life and so blessed that we can now share in "family" event with friends, participate in play dates and just talk about parenting techniques with all of our friends that have children. We've waited so long for this, I just don't ever want it to end!

I want to send a special thank you out to my Mom(Sue), Jill, Kerri and Ron for hosting this event for us. They did such a fabulous job with everything! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Also a big THANK YOU to all our family and friends who attended and/or sent their well wishes!