Still In Love.....

....with this man.
Thanks for 6 wonderful years. I know I may not always act like it, but I love you and I know I am so lucky to have you for my husband.

Sesame Place

On Saturday we took the girls to Sesame Place. It is this cute amusement park for little kids full of fun Sesame Street characters and fun rides and concerts. Laneah was in heaven. She loves rides. Her first ride was on the big roller coaster with daddy. Her favorite rides were the fish ride and the teacups. She was fearless on all the rides and then we get on the carousel and she starts crying and yelling "help!help!" at the top of her lungs, clinging to me for dear life. What? Are you kidding me? She has been on the carousel a hundred times and has always loved it.

We saw Elmo's World live and that was really fun. Elmo came out and Laneah kept waving and yelling "Hi Elmo!" trying to get his attention. It was a really cute show and she had a great time. We ate lunch after the show and then rode some more rides. The water rides were open, but it was a little chilly so we decided not to bring our swim suits, which was fine, because there were plenty of other things to do.


They have a parade with all the characters that comes down Sesame Street. I thought Laneah would love seeing her favorite characters in person, and she did as long as they were a good distance away. But if they got close at all, she got really scared. The parade was really cute, but Laneah didn't like it because the characters kept coming too close. All the other kids were giving them high fives and hugs and Laneah was yelling "no!no!no!"

One Laneah's favorite bands, Ralph's World, was performing there over the weekend so we went and saw them in concert. It was so cute. Laneah and all the other kids were going crazy dancing and singing along. It was a really fun concert, Jason and I even enjoyed it. Afterwords we bought one of his cds and the lead singer, Ralph signed it and we took a picture with him. I won't put it on the blog because Laneah is screaming and trying to get away and my eyes are closed, so I will spare you.



The park was a lot of fun. Very kid friendly and I would highly recommend it. We left at 6:30 and Laneah was so tired she passed out while eating dinner. We will be going back because a 2 day Elmo pass is the SAME price as a regular ticket. Uh...seriously? Yes, I want the 2 day pass that I can use any time I want to this season. So we will be going back and despite the drive(it is in PA) it was totally worth it.

Laneah at 2 years and 5 months

Laneahisms

*For some reason Laneah love magazines. She gets really excited when we get them in the mail and looks through them all the time. She calls them "magamamines"

*Laneah can be a little bossy (ok that is the understatement of the year) and when she wants some one she will yell "(person's name) cum ear!" (come here)

*She is loving ham right now. She asks for ham all the time, even for breakfast. One day she just combined ham and sandwich and when I asked her what she wanted to eat she said "hamich". She hasn't stopped calling it that and I think it is so cute.

*She tells us "I loves you"

*Everything she eats or drinks right now is "delicious". It is really cute and funny to hear that word coming from a little toddler.

*When she has a good time she likes to say "fun ___ (nap, music makers, Anthony" She doesn't say at or with, just fun followed by who or what she had fun with/doing.

* She is always anxious to get out of the house, and asks multiple times "budy ready?" everybody ready?

*When Laneah doesn't want something or doesn't want to do something she says "no wan".

* She wants to do everything "gether". together

*When Laneah likes something, or even when she doesn't likes something she says "like it". You can tell whether she really likes it or not by her facial expression

*Laneah's favorite movie right now is "Princess and the Frog". We watch it about 4-5 times a week. One day when we were driving I heard her say "kiss, kiss" and I looked back and she was pointing to a picture of a frog in the book she was reading in. Then she smiled at me and said "kiss frog". As long as she doesn't kiss any real frogs, lol.

*She loves to be the center of attention, so we have been hearing a lot of "Look at me!" lately.

*"Stay here"

*Laneah is also starting to use pronouns really well.

Laneah's Interests

*Laneah hates being in the house so I try to take her out and do lots of fun stuff. Even with that, she still gets stir crazy. If she could, she would live outdoors.

*Getting things off counter. Laneah uses chairs and her stool at her disposal to get things that she wants off the counter. This was a NEW pan of brownies that she got into. I found her in the kitchen with the pan of brownies on the ground, her face covered in chocolate, lol.
*Laneah is crazy about shorts. Whenever she puts her pjs on she wants them to be "jammie shorts" She also loves wearing shorts during the day. The first time she got to wear shorts this year she was ecstatic.

*Apparently our love of beaches has rubbed off on her. Even though she hasn't been to a beach in almost a year, she pretends that she is at the beach all the time. She will lay down on the ground (outside, inside, wherever) and say " beach mommy".
*Laneah has several imaginary and pretend friends. None of them are made up, most of them are characters from her favorite shows.

*She loves being silly and making people laugh. She got matching novelty sunglasses for us for my birthday.
*Playing hide and seek. One day I heard her calling for me in the kitchen. I went in there and didn't see her and then I hear laughing coming from the pantry. She had pulled out the shelves and climbed behind them and was hiding. Can you see her little head peaking out? It was really funny.
*Laneah loves singing. She can sing along to most songs and picks up the lyrics fairly quickly. Here is a video of her singing happy birthday to me.

Potty training round two
Laneah was completely potty trained, in panties and everything and then after Brooklyn came home, she had a complete relapse. She wouldn't sit on the potty, was having multiple accidents and we were so frustrated, especially me because I had to clean up the mess. So we started over and put her in pull-ups and went back to rewards. We made a new sticker chart and got this cute princess and the potty book that came with her own crown
I also bought her a bunch of presents from the dollar bins at Target and put them in a princess gift bag and when she goes poo poo on the potty she gets a present. And I found this adorable gift box that looked like a princess chest that I filled with different candy for when she goes pee on the potty.

It took a while, but now she is ready for panties again. She hasn't had an accident in three days, including nighttime! Way to go Laneah.

Be Your Own Cheerleader
Go team Neah! This is what Laneah says all the time. One of Laneah's potty presents were these princess pom poms and she loves to cheer for herself. She also takes her pom poms to her cousin's games and cheers for them too.

All things girly

Laneah loves being outside and playing sports, but she is also very girly. She loves painting her nails, wearing jewelry and dressing up.

The other day she was painting with water colors and she came in the living room and said "look mommy, make-up!" She had painted her face pretending it was make up.
She loves having her face painted. She had her face painted at a kid singer Jim concert and couldn't stop looking in the mirror at herself. At one point she had a mirror in each hand too:)

Big Sister
Laneah loves her little sister. She likes to play with her and love her. Lately when she holds her she sings to her and rocks her. She is a great big sister.


Laneah is such a fun, ornery and active toddler. We are so happy she is our little girl.

Brooklyn is 4 months!

Stats:
Weight: 12 lbs 5 1/2 oz, 25%
Height: 25", 75%
Head Circumference: 41 cm, 45%
Cuteness: 0ff the charts:)

-Brooklyn is grasping everything she can get her cute chubby hands on, which is usually my hair:) But it is really cute seeing her grab things and hold on. She has a good grip too.
This is a small clip of Brooklyn grabbing and talking to her favorite toy. You can hear Laneah's video "Elmo's Potty Time" in the background. lol

-She rolled over from her tummy to her back on my birthday:) I put her on her tummy and said to her "Are you going to roll over for mommy's birthday?" and then she smiled at me and rolled over! She did it two more times after that too. I couldn't believe it.

-She is sleeping through the night, but only in her swing.
-She still likes to cuddle, but is getting very curious about the world around her and is looking out and around more and facing out in her Bjorn carrier.

-Brooklyn prefers her fingers to pacifiers.
-She drools so much that we have to keep a bib on her all the time or her clothes get soaked. I don't know how she doesn't get dehydrated with how much she drools! :)

-She is laughing now and likes to play games like tracking her toys. She likes when I lightly run a burp cloth over her face so she can't see for a few seconds. She also likes when we sing silly songs. This is Jason singing to her:

-Brooklyn really likes bouncing and jumping right now, as well as sitting up like a big girl.

Brooklyn is so cute and sweet. I know I say this every time, but I literally can not get enough of her. She is such a good baby and so lovable. This is my favorite age and I hope it slows down but I know it won't so I am trying to cherish every moment.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day has been an emotional day for me for several years now. First it was tears of sadness, and now tears of joy. Being a mother is a precious gift, one that shouldn't be taken for granted. I am so grateful for my children. My heart goes out to my girl's beautiful and amazing birth mothers. I have so much love, respect and admiration for them. They are the most selfless people that I know. I can't thank them enough for allowing me to be a mother. I am forever grateful.
This is a poem written by fellow blogger "Mrs. R" and I thought it was beautiful and wanted to share. I think it pretty much sums up how I feel.

i had a dream that died last year.

a dream of little babies that looked like mr. r and me.

a dream of being a co-creator of life.

a dream of feeling life grow within me.

a dream of surprising our family and friends with the blessed news.

a dream of getting flowers in the hospital.

a dream of hearing the heartbeat.

a dream of mr. r and i alone in the hospital room with an hours old baby in our arms.

a dream of the little ankle bracelet with my name and baby's name on it.

a dream of maternity clothes.

a dream of taking pictures each month to show how much bigger the baby had gotten in my tummy.

a dream of counting down the days.

a dream of experiencing the spirituality of the delivery room as my mother described it.

a dream of having a baby when i wanted to have one.

but...

there is no biological possibility of that happening.

the r house is not infertile. we are sterile.

that news is really a gift.

there is no wondering if this month is the month. there is no lingering or wilting hope. there are no questions or unexplained infertility. there isn't a fraction of a percentage of a chance that it could happen. that is truly a tender mercy of the Lord for the r house. i realize that i am blessed in that area and there are many who still hang onto that. for us, it was easy to grieve, deal with it, close up that chapter an move on. don't get me wrong. there are still some days where i am reminded, the occasional dagger and then i realize, "oh yes. there is my old friend infertility back again. i know you."

those days after the "bad" news were hard.

(that's the understatement of the year!)

we fasted and we prayed and we poured out our hearts. i was not one of those people who kept it in. i cried with my mom and my dad and my mother and father-in-law. i cried with becca and mrs. dub on the phone. i cried and cried and cried ...because the dream had died.

those prayers were answered.

and we were blessed with a miracle.

the miracle of understanding and accepting.

the miracle of gaining a testimony and a desire for adoption.

the miracle of feeling the power of the sealing power seared into my soul.

the miracle of peace.

and i was blessed with a new dream.

a new dream that i daydream about in the car everyday ...still.

the dream of hearing the words, "i chose you to be his family."

the new dream of babies of all colors and races, my babies.

and recently the dream of seeing all of my children dressed in white sitting in the temple with us. tyson being the oldest and so handsome.

new dreams that are as dear to me now as the old ones were. new dreams that make tears streak my cheeks. good dreams.

* * *

Sisters

I know I am biased, but I happen to think that I have the two most beautiful little girls in the world. With mother's day coming up, I feel so blessed to have these little angels as my daughters. They mean the world to me.
And the best part is that they adore each other. Laneah is so proud of her sister. She talks about her all the time. Whenever she sees people she knows, the first thing she does is say "sister Brooklyn". She always wants to know where Brooklyn is, what she is doing, etc. She loves holding Brooklyn and giving her kisses. She has even taken an interest in feeding her lately.
Whenever Brooklyn fusses or cries, Laneah will come over and caress her and say "s'ok Brooklyn, s'ok". She also will come up to Brooklyn and say "hi cootie" (hi, cutie) .
Brooklyn loves to watch Laneah and give her big smiles. I have a feeling they are going to be best friends.

New York City

Last Saturday while my brothers were in town we drove to NYC. I love the city and was so excited to go. especially since Jason and my best friend Jessica were able to come with us too. We left at 6 am so we could have plenty of time to hang out and explore the city. Jess and I drove on the way up while the boys all snoozed.
We went to the New Jersey Transit and rode the train in to Penn Station. Our first stop was the Statue of Liberty, but the line to get onto the ferry was 2 hours long and that was just to walk around the base; the tickets to go inside were all sold out. So we took some pictures of the statue from the park and went to our next destination.

I love this picture of Alex. It looks like he is holding the Statue of Liberty.
They had the most gorgeous tulips all over the parks in the city and tulips are my FAVORITE flowers.
We went to the site of the World Trade Centers and a memorial museum where I bawled my eyes out. Literally. I was glad I brought my makeup with me because I had to redo it after. They had a model of the memorial they are going to build on the site and it will be so beautiful when it is done. I was glad we did it early so the rest of the day was a happy day.
Then we jumped on the subway and went to China Town and Little Italy and had lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant. You can't really tell from this small picture, but Drew had spaghetti sauce all around his mouth like a clown. It was so funny.
After our tummys were full we headed to Central Park. Since we didn't have a lot of time, we decided to take a rickshaw through the park. It was awesome. I totally recommend it to anyone who goes to New York. It was probably my favorite thing we did all day and worth every penny. Our tour guide was friendly and funny and took us to all the best parts of the park. Not only did we get to see all of the park, but he stopped at the best spots and let us get out and walk around and take pictures.
In front of the "Friends" fountain.
Jason didn't go on the rickshaw with us and when we came back we found him like this! We were cracking up, it was so funny. He was just leaning up against this statue sound asleep looking just like a bum! lol
After we woke Jason up we watched some street performers and then headed to Times Square.



After a quick dinner, Jessica, Jason and I went and saw Wicked!!!! It was awesome, we loved it. Alex and Andrew went back to Times Square and then saw a comedy show and they said it was hysterical.
We had so much fun in NYC. The weather was perfect and we were able to do everything we wanted to do. We didn't get home until 4 am and the girls woke up early, but it was so worth it:)