National Adoption Day

Today was National Adoption Day. To celebrate our first National Adoption Day as a family we did some new things and also followed a tradition that we started last year. Our first new event was going to see the arrival of Santa at the mall. The girls weren’t so excited to see Santa but they did enjoy the Teddy Bear Band, watching all of the kids running around, and drinking a juice box (more to come). Jon, Holli, and the three boys joined for seeing Santa and then we all went to Applebee’s together.  After a crazy nice lunch with four adults and five kids it was off to do some Christmas shopping. However upon picking up my daughter I smelled a little something peculiar. That juice box had taken its effect on little Miss Ari and made quite the mess. I will spare you the details but it was quite possibly one of the nastiest blowouts in history. After about 20 wipes and a new outfit we were off to Toys-R-Us, Lowes, and Target. The girls did super and only napped for about 10 minutes as we drove across town and then Ari slept about 15 minutes on the way home. Needless to say by bedtime tonight they were tired girls.

After getting home and successfully avoiding a nap we did our traditional balloon release with Jon, Holli, Zach, Brady, and Ben. This year Ari and Brynn were able to release balloons as well. Thankfully, the weather was nice and our neighbor Kim came and took some awesome photos for us!

Happy National Adoption Day…especially to all the families that have been possible due to the wonderful gift of adoption!

Jon, Ari, Johann, Brynn, Holli, Ben listening to Teddy Bear Band

Holli, Jon, Johann, Ari, Sherry, Brynn, Brady, Zach, Ben

Balloon Release on Nal' Adoption Day

Weekend of food

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to help our friend Sophia celebrate her second birthday. Sophia was our inspiration to choosing Heart to Heart Adoptions in Utah. Sophia’s mom is a friend of ours and she referred us to Heart to Heart. There are now eleven children in this area all adopted through Heart to Heart, with one family now officially waiting for a second child. Since this was such a special birthday party for the girls they got to enjoy a piece of cake, sorry no pictures. I am not sure how much actually made it into their mouths but we did have one horrible mess on the floor when we were finished…sorry Shawna.

We started out on Saturday morning with making waffles. The girls have had little bits and pieces of waffles/pancakes in the past but never in large amounts. Arianna was loving the pancakes this weekend and ate almost an entire 12 inch waffle herself. We have had a hard time keeping that girl full this week, she ate non-stop.  I already mentioned that she ate the cake, but then Saturday evening we had a babysitter and she said Arianna ate 12 ounces at bedtime, which is double the normal amount!  The eating spree continued on Sunday. At dinner tonight we gave the girls their first taste of pizza, Ari ate almost a whole piece but that was after a serving of mashed potatoes, cheerios, a piece of bread, and vanilla wafers! Then for dessert she ate some banana and yelled at me when it was all gone! We may need to take out a loan to continue to feed her, all donations greatly appreciated!!

Last weekend Ben was over for a little bit. He kept putting a bucket on his head and Ari thought it was so funny. All week she has been trying to get the bucket on her head to be like Ben. She finally got it mastered on Friday.

Brynn pulled herself up on their piano on Friday night. This was the first time that we actually saw her pull herself up on something other than a person. Normally she pulls herself up on her knees and balances there, even walking forward on her knees. She is our talker, and talks almost non-stop. If she is in the right mood she will repeat almost anything that you say, but just because she does it once does not mean she will do it again. I like to get Ari and Brynn to race down the hallway. Brynn is smaller than Ari but much quicker and often wins the races.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week…we have only taken 54 since Wednesday!

Brynn & Ari...we have 2 of these pictures from 2 different days!

 

Brynn pulled herself up! Sorry about the bad hair....

Bucket Head Arianna Jane

Ari kicking Brynn....she just finished eating 20 mins after Brynn.

Happy Birthday Daddy…a few days later

Johann celebrated his birthday this week….we will just say 29th to keep everyone happy. To celebrate the girls and I went to the mall while Johann was busy at work. We didn’t do much shopping,because we went to play. The mall in Rochester has a soft play area that is really nice, full of germs according to Paigey but we were willing to risk it because we had our H1N1 shots already! We were fortunate enough to have our my friend Hiromi join us. I hadn’t seen her for a long time so it was great to chat with her while chasing after the girls, who do like to go in opposite direction.

When we first got to the play are there were a few other kids there playing. One girl named Amy came and introduced herself to us telling us that she loves babies. She very much reminded me of our wonderful babysitters, as she was that sweet. After talking for a little bit we learned that Amy was also adopted when she was 6-months old. She was born in Korea. One year after she came home her parents adopted her brother, Bill who was born in Korea as well. I had a nice talk with Amy’s mom then. Adoption is really a special bond.

After about 90 minutes of playing we did just a little Christmas shopping and then it was off to meet Daddy for dinner. We went to Daddy’s favorite place to eat, Buffalo Wild Wings. This was the girls first trip there and they LOVED it. They enjoyed looking at all the TV’s which just happen to all be on different sports, and they love watching sports. They had some french fries which they also loved. They had them one other time but couldn’t eat them so well, however Monday was a different story. If Ari finished eating one fry and the next one was not sitting on her tray she let you know in a not so friendly way that she wanted another one.

New this week is that they love to play with the fridge magnets. For anyone that has seen our fridge this could be detrimental. We have pictures on our fridge from the top of the freezer pretty well to the bottom of the fridge.  So far they have left the pictures alone and only have taken off magnets, but I have a feeling it is just a matter of time.

Brynn loved the mirror...I love when she makes this face...cuteness!

Brynn, Hiromi, Ari

Ari loved the tunnels

Brynn, Daddy, & Ari

First Bath Together

On Friday I was off of work and decided it was time for the girls to try a bath together in the regular bathtub. Up to this point they have only had baths in the infant/toddler tub alone. They both love the bath so much that giving them separate baths was getting to be a lengthy project. Each of the likes to play for at least 20 minutes in the tub. Brynn will downright yell at you if you take her out before she has splashed out 90% of the water and is a withered prune.

I put them in the tub and they played with some toys, looked at each other, and then the splashing began. They splashed and played so hard that they would periodically stop just to catch their breath. I was soaked the bathroom was soaked it was a fun time. They were laughing so hard and didn’t care if they had water in their faces or not. Actually, when I washed their hair I ended up getting quite a bit of water in their faces and they laughed. They also thought it was funny to learn forward and put their faces in the water. Brynn at one point fell forward in the water (got it on video) and as I pulled her back (still videoing) she continued to splash and laugh. I can’t wait to get these girls into some swimming lessons hopefully after Christmas. I wanted to take some in November but they had to be 9-months by time the lessons started so we were a few weeks short! I let them play in the bathtub for almost an entire hour. At this point the water felt cold to me, their skin was still warm since they were playing so hard, and their fingers/toes were wilted. However, Brynn still did not think this was long enough to so she yelled at me and had a slight melt-down when I took her out of the tub.  I guess there could be worse things and so much for that time saver considering it was still an hour for baths.

Ari & Brynn enjoying their first bath together!

That Stupid Box

My sister-in-law, Tammie suggested putting a box in front of the girls to try to get them to pull themselves up. Me not wanting to encourage the world of fast movement, was not going to encourage the walking or pulling up to happen any sooner than it should. My sister Laurie put a box in front of Hailey (Tammie’s daughter) and she pulled herself right up a little younger than the girls are now. Well today Ari found her own stupid box, their toy box.  It was suddenly way too quiet in my house for two eight month olds to be playing. Here is what I found Ari doing:

Hi Mom...yes I am standing all on my own thanks to this box!

I found Brynn in this same location on Friday. Although I like what she does here much better. All day on Friday she just wanted to sit by the window and look outside.

Mom why does it have to be so cold & windy here? I want to go outside!

Happy Halloween

Today marks another first for Ari and Brynn, it is their first Halloween. We have have been preparing for the time change this week by making their bedtime 15 minutes later each night. Last night they were up until 8:30, which is almost an hour later than normal for them. We did not hear from them until about 8:00 this morning. This is perfect because they will be waking up about 7:00 on a regular basis now and perhaps we will be successful in this time change deal. The problem this morning was that we had to be at the Halloween costume contest by 9:00.  Normally in the morning the girls drink their juice and then about an hour or so after waking up are ready for breakfast. This was not going to work for us this morning, so  they were not real hungry when dad was trying to feed them.

Our friend Maddy made it safely back to Minnesota from Arizona late last night. She came with us to the fire hall and even played with us for a little bit afterward. Yeah. It was so great to see her. We miss her and her family so much.  Ari and Brynn did not win any prizes at the costume contest but I think they were super cute. Ben was a chicken and he won 3rd prize in his age group. Go Ben go!

Brynn & Ari

 

Auntie Holli & Ari......Maddy & Brynn

3rd Place Chicken Ben

Big Brothers Zach & Brady

Cousins visit

This past weekend our cousins came to visit. Johann’s sister Jen, her husband Matt and their kids Connor and Miranda came on Saturday. It was a short visit but the kids had fun playing together. It is hard to believe that Miranda is a week short of one year older than Ari and Brynn but not much bigger in size. I am hoping this means that Ari and Brynn will be slowing down in the growing stage soon. They are almost completely in 12-month clothes and even have a few shirts that are 18-months. We are finding that the pants are getting too short but are too big in the waist.

We also had Paige’s confirmation on Sunday. The girls were pretty good sports and enjoyed meeting all of Paige’s family.  I don’t have pictures but perhaps once I get some from Paigey I can post them.

Tuesday night I was gone over night for a conference. Yo and I put the girls to bed on Tuesday and then I drove the three hours to my conference. I was able to get out a little early today and able to see them for about 40 minutes before rushing off to teach my exercise class. But the good news is that I will get to see a lot of them over the next few days and then it is the weekend and Halloween. We are super excited for Halloween as it will be the first time we get to see our friend Maddy since she moved to AZ in July! We are SUPER excited to see her and her family.

 

While we were out

Brittney has been watching the girls for us while we are at work and trying to figure out our long-term day care plans, which we are very grateful for. You often see u-tube videos about what animals do while you are out. We are fortunate enough to have Brit here capturing pictures of what happens while we are out. Like me she is quick to snap the picture and then rescue the child, as long as they are not in immediate danger. This week they must have played hard as there are two pictures of Brynn sleeping in odd places. One  is in her highchair and the other is a super cute one of her sleeping with her feet on her sister’s stomach. The girls are constantly wrestling with each other so this photo is only appropriate. I have also included a picture showing off our teeth, please do not mind our snotty nose…with teething this is a constant battle at our house!

Hanging with mom before work...

Brynn laying on top of Ari because our living room is not big enough!

...and two seconds later passed out tired but I will keep my leg on her!

The next day Brynn could not make it through breakfast even!

One word "Nemo"

Brynn showing her teeth...Ari's tongue is always hiding hers.

Hanging Out

We had a pretty mellow weekend this past weekend. We did interview a few different day cares. I went back to work this week. I was hired at part time but it is sounding like it will be full time very soon. The major difference is we can take out commute time now. My office is a about 12 minute from our house instead of 45-60 minutes each way. I don’t have to be to work until 8:00 at the earliest so for our lazy daughters that like to sleep in this works well for them. Right now we have Brittney  watching them at our house, so that is super nice. However, we need to find a day care for them. It is such a big decision to make. However, we have interviewed many very good day care moms and still have a few more to meet this week.

Ari and Brynn have been working on perfecting their crawling this past week. Ari can follow you down the hallway now and Brynn likes to do the “worm” crawl. Brynn reaches her arms out as far as she can and then pulls her lower body to come meet her upper body. This takes a super strong upper body and abdominal muscles! She also will grab onto her sister’s leg and pull herself to her sister. They are starting to play ball with each other a little bit too. Mostly Ari likes to play ball and gets mad if Brynn doesn’t pass it back fast enough.

We are attempting to add milk based formula into their diets. Since about 6-weeks old they have been on soy. So far the transition is going well. We have been adding just a little bit at a time to see if they display any symptoms of discomfort, none thus far!

The girls seem to think Mom and Dad are jungle gyms. Here are pictures of what our Saturday/Sunday mornings look like!

Mommy and her girls snuggling

Brynn, Daddy, Ari

Climbing on Mommy

Arianna doing her morning exercises on Mom's foam roller

Big Milestone Weekend

Our weekends are often busy with different random things. This past weekend was another busy weekend. However, along with our business we also hit some major milestones.  It started out on Friday morning. Johann happen to be working from home so he was able to witness Arianna crawling across the living room floor to get her sippy cup first thing in the morning. We both were in shock and just looked at each other and said “did you see that?!”  We thought perhaps this was just a fluke but as the weekend comes to an end crawling is almost second nature to her now. She was chasing after a mini basketball this evening. I am so proud, of the basketball chasing that is, not sure about the crawling yet!

Brynn could not let her sister out do her so to keep up with her but not be competitive she cut two teeth on Saturday. She was a pretty good sport about it and we didn’t even realize that this happened. Well they both have been cranky and we could see them coming but Brynn was trying to chew on Johann’s finger when he realized she had two sharp points.  Arianna is trying to compete in the teeth getting. She has one point that you have been able to see for about a week now but it just hasn’t popped out yet.  Actually, tonight Brynn did a little crawling too so I guess the competition is alive in our house.

Here is Daddy with his girls in their new fuzzy fire truck pajamas tonight before bed.

Ari, Daddy, Brynn