Dear blog....I miss you!!

Dear Blog,

I really do miss you!! I have found it so hard to find time to record our life on you for the longest time!

You really are important to me! I want to journal and chronicle our memories here with you and I love the first Blog Book that I've printed!

Here's hoping this is the 'beginning' of me getting back to you!!

And.....here's some of what has been going on. Sorry for the sequencing problem! We're going to begin with most recent and go backwards! I do not feel like moving all the pictures around!

Jman will be 10 years old on the 20th!!! So hard to believe! This is my first baby.......the one that I waited on, prayed for, and cried over for such a long time! And here we are, nearly 10 years later! He is in the 4th grade now! Unreal! Look how excited he is about doing his homework! Lots and lots of homework this year!

See how cooperative he is with me these days when I try to take his picture! And look at that room! Judging by the attitude and the room conditions, the pre-teens seem to be kicking in already!!

Here is precious baby angel boy!! He will be 9 months old on the 24th. I got him this food strainer 'thingy' and put some fresh banana in it last night. He wasn't too keen on it! HA! I think he prefers the jar kind he's been eating. No teeth yet but, we are starting on some solid finger foods that chew and dissolve easily. I thought he would love this..........perhaps takes some time to get used to the texture of this device!

Look at him with the sippy cup! He's getting good at it!

Things have changed over the last month or so for baby. Both of his young parents have decided that they are not prepared to parent him and have voluntarily signed their parental relinquishment. We'll go to hearing on the 27th and expect the judge to terminate parental rights. Then, we'll begin the adoption process!

Jman and Agirl are excited that Baby J will be staying forever! It's pretty cool that their second cousin will be their baby brother. Agirl said, " I want to n-dopt him tomorrow!"

Here is sweet baby visiting with our nephew, his birth father. It's gong to take some getting used to to refer to him as that! The dynamics of an inter-family adoption will be very different than what we have with our first two children.

Look at our lovely backyard!! It was so hot and so dry this summer, we lost our lawn in the backyard. We couldn't keep up with the watering it needed, or afford it! So, this is what the kids have been doing with it! I told them to enjoy before we re-sod in the spring!!

This is a cute picture of my angel girl............who was bored one morning and decided it was dot day! (I was cleaning out the computer cabinet and she found these colored sticker dots!)

Agirl started 4 yr. old Preschool in September. Here she is playing kitchen/cooking with some friends in her class. It's very hard to believe that my 'baby' will be 5 in December and that she will begin Kindergarten in the fall!!

She loves her class and her teachers! She has missed school this week as the kids have been trading a fever back and forth! She is still running a temp. and won't be able to go back tomorrow either.

Working hard!

August saw baby boy sitting up. I love it when babies sit because they can finally see the world from a whole different perspective!! He loves bath time and this inflatable tub makes it so much easier.....and more fun!!!

He is always soooo happy! And look at the talent!!! Playing the drums and the piano at the same time!This summer, Agirl was determined to get the training wheels off her bike. She and dad worked on it some but, she wasn't ready so, they went back on. That's OK...........she'll get it one day!

Daddy is always the bike riding coach! She had fun trying!!

Agirl and 'goodest' friend T......having a play date one day!

And finally, Agirl attended a week long Dance Camp this summer, in early August. She has been in gymnastic for years and I thought this would be a good way to see if she would be interested in dance lessons/classes.

She really seemed to have fun on this day that I stayed a minute to get some pictures. Her teachers said that she did a good job.

With 'goodest' friend T........ready to dance!

Well...............they did a little recital for the families on the last day of camp. Agirl did.......................nothing. She froze. Wouldn't show us anything. Ended up on my lap.

She said she did not want to take dance.

OK.

Fine by me!

That's all I have for now Blog. Sorry it's all jumbled and out of order but, at least it's here!!