River is 9 months old.

We did her photo shoot at The Train Depot this afternoon after lunch. She is wearing a dress passed down from Kas.
She is getting so big and doesn't seem much like a baby anymore. She has the best smile around and completely lights up the room with it. Everywhere we go people adore her. The past month has brought lots of new things.
She loves to eat and has an open mouth begging for each bite!
A few of her new foods are crackers, dry Kix + Cheerios, apricots, peaches, yogurt melts, granola, raisins, pureed carrots, turkey, avocado, hard rolls.
She doesn't like anything with chunky carrots in it and spits it out as pictured below.
She also doesn't care for mashed potatoes.
She LOVES ice!

She had her first popsicle by the pool.

She loves the pool!

She adores her sister something fierce! And the feelings are mutual. Flower is the only one that can make her laugh. The scary thing is that it's getting head butted in the stomach or head that make her laugh the hardest, but only by Flower. Silly baby. Although she is a sole player and is less fussy when left alone, she loves to follow Flower where ever she goes. She also likes to be in her crib when Flower's in her bed.
She loves to crawl laps up and down the hall way and is very fast!
Spins around to go the other way...
and then does another lap. She also constantly follows us up and down this hall all day long! I love that.
She has recently developed a liking for the pig my dad gave her in the hospital at birth. It's so cute to watch her be loving towards it. She drags it along and stops to give it cuddles and kisses.



Her little personality has really shown through this week. She is so affectionate and the way she shows it is adorable. She grabs your face to give you kisses. She will grab your head and just put her open mouth on your hair. She will gently pull at your hair while sighing or caressing your face. Sometimes it's just so random and cute.
She is also becoming mischievous. She thinks it's great fun to pull the wipes out as fast as she can until she gets caught.

Then after getting caught she grabs one and violently shreds it with her teeth and hands.
Speaking of teeth. She has 6.

With those six teeth she thinks it's awesome to annoy the crud out of me by grinding them together. Not kidding when I say you can hear it across the room. Awful sound. Ack!!!

She is mastering the sippy cup.
She gets herself from a seated position to a standing position on her own and loves to stand and show off.



She's not opposed to clapping for herself. She loves to clap.

She walks. Her longest stint is nine steps but she does two or three all day long. And you can't stand her up to make her do it because if you're hanging on to her that's her cue to bounce. She has to stand up on her own and then take off.
Says mama to me. This melts my heart. It also breaks my heart when she does it from her crib because she wants out.

Loves to scrape her teeth on our toes.

She gets so freaking excited when you walk through the door and run crawls to you squealing. Such a great welcome home.

She loves shoulder rides and our hair is her handles. Ouch.

Just yesterday she got the concept of peekaboo. She was using a napkin at the restaurant to cover her face and pull it away and then would giggle when we'd all yell PEEK-A-BOO!

She is an awesome sleeper. I've gotten lucky with both girls. Flower, at 4, still takes a nap in the afternoon. River takes a one hour nap two hours after waking in the morning. She takes another nap around 2:00 that lasts one to two hours. Depending on how long that nap is she'll sometimes take another short nap around 6 or 7. Then goes to bed between 9 or 10 and sleeps till 9 the next morning. Love her! She still covets her white blanket and binky at sleep time.


She gets very excited to see people she loves and reaches for them happily.
She is so curious and never stops moving.


We just completely adore this girl and cannot be more grateful to have her in our lives.

Final. It's the best word I've heard in the last 9 months!

Today, August 20th, at 11:00 am we were at the court house in a front of a judge with our little family, surrounded by those we love, explaining how much we love River and why she fits right into our family. I love that the judge asked how we chose her name. Her name has so much meaning to me, as does Flower's. Today just happens to be River's 9 month birthday. How perfect. We are finally a legal family. We are legally her parents. Not that I didn't already feel like or know we were her parents, it's just nice to have the state recognize it and legalize it. The security I feel now is most excellent as well. She will always be ours. As a little celebration of the moment, I even threw caution to the wind and put on the dangly earrings that matched my necklace. For those that know me well, this is big. :) I am sensitive to metals and therefore have had the same little diamond platinum studs in for 5 years, since KG gave them to me. What can I say...I was feelin' crazy! :-DThank you Jer, Kris, Opal(my mom) and Laura(KG's mom) for being there to witness this and support us.


And yes, I got emotional. Don't fall off your chair. There's just been one snag after another for the last 4 months and it was so draining! I'm so grateful it's done. We are so in love with both our girls and are forever grateful for adoption and the opportunity it provides for us to have a family.

We all went to Oriental Express for lunch after the big moment which is always enjoyable!

Thanks again to the four that came and to those that wanted to but couldn't. We always feel so loved and supported. We love you so much and could not have done these adoptions without your constant support. We have the best family and friends!
Mwah!

August has gotten away from me

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
This month has escaped me. Actually so has July a bit. Let's start there and then move right into August shall we?
Here are some of the events we've enjoyed as they occurred.
...I went to lunch with Brenda, Kris and the girls. I love our visiting teaching lunches at Casa Mexico.
...Not an occurrence but worth noting, we found this rad hornet/bee/wasp nest(not sure which one). The thing is huge and just keeps getting bigger and bigger. So cool.
We also have this one. Anyone know the difference? Bueller? Bueller?
...I went to see the Proposal one afternoon with Raeann, Amanda and Kris. Raeann, Amanda and I then went to Proto's Pizza. Yum!
...I had an endoscopy. I've had various issues such as complete lack of energy, severe joint pain, irritable, not absorbing vitamin's and minerals, inability to keep my thyroid level. The list goes on. It's been quite the quest to figure out. This test was to see if I had Celiac. Kris was kind enough to take me and bring me home so KG could stay with the girls. Unfortunately, the test came back negative. I was just really hoping for some answers. Back to the drawing board.

...We had a big BBQ at Sturg's house. Lots of people from the ward were invited. We had a good turn out and I really enjoyed myself.
...I started a new work schedule. It's been interesting and required us to completely change our lives. Previously KG went to bed as soon as he came home and then woke at 3 when I went to work. Now I'm working a split shift. Now when he gets home he stays up with the girls till I get home at noon. I then take the girls to work with me from 4-6 and he usually wakes up around 7 pm. He also had to change their karate from Monday and Wednesday evenings, to Tuesday and thursday mornings since he now sleeps later and is up in the mornings. Whew. Lots of change but so far so good.
...The girls and I had dinner at Sandee's house. I caught this photo of River cuddling(not normal for her) with Spencer. He sure loves her and is great with her!
...Kris and I went to see The Ugly Truth. Super funny but a little over the top!

...We went to a Boise Burn game with my parents. Fun game but they lost.
...I went to lunch with Joanna and Kris to 36th Street Bistro. I loved it! It was so nice to chat and here more about Joanna's life and where she hopes to be headed.
...Sandee and I went to see My Sister's Keeper. I liked the book much better and the book made me cry more than the movie.
...Marco came to town and brought with him a dresser we purchased from Ikea. River didn't have one and we're tired of sharing our closet with her, especially since she now shares a room with Flower. So now they share a closet as well.
Flower got the new one:
River will use the old one which used to be KG's. It's seen better days. I've wanted to paint it. Anyone want to help? Bueller? Bueller?
...We went to a Boise Hawk's game with my parents. Fun time but they lost.




I love my little family. :) KG's and my name were announced over the loud speaker for our birthdays too. I was surprised. It's kind of funny because we gave my dad these tickets for his birthday in February and then he used them to take us out for our birthdays! :)
...KG has had the last 12 days off. He goes back to work tonight. I'm really sad. It's been wonderful. I had last week off, so 5 of those days, with him. We have taken the week of our birthdays off since we met. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. We did so many fun things together including relaxing and doing nothing! Loved it. Every minute.
...Went to Kris' house and had her teach me how to read a sewing pattern. It's about dang time I know how and she taught me in a way that everything made sense and I never once felt stupid. That is rare which is why I hate being taught stuff by people and end up figuring it out on my own or just don't do it. I love that it makes sense now.
...Went to dinner at my parents. Mom made her yummy Swiss Steak. It's one of my favorites by her and for some reason KG had never partaken. Now he has and he loves it! After dinner the rest of my family as well as KG's parents game for dessert to celebrate our birthdays.
...At 1:30 am Sunday night/Monday morning I met two of my previous camp girls, Tracy and Chelsea, at Chelsea's house.
I had them at camp for three years at ages 13, 14, and 15. They are now 18 and leaving for college! I'm so proud of both of them. I gave each of them a dry erase/magnet board with a little message that I wrote in the corner and a notebook in which I wrote a personal message on the first page. They loved them. They are amazing girls. I haven't been out till 4:30 am in a LONG time and it was so fun and so worth it!
...Went to dinner with our student ward dinner group at our normal spot, Pier 49 Pizza. It was good to see Alan and Lindy.
...After pizza we went to Wahooz. After riding the go-carts for KG's birthday we knew Flower would love it! First she road with me.

We hauled booty! We passed 4 cars. it would have been more but after passing the second car he was bitter and rammed the side of us and sent us into a spin. It was hilarious.
Then she road with KG. They also passed four. She laughed and squealed the entire time! So much fun.

River was there too, just chillin'.
...Yesterday afternoon, between work shifts, I went to see The Time Traveller's Wife with Kris. It was good but not my favorite. Kind of slow. I think the book would have confused me.
...Last night we went to Red Robin for a free birthday burger. Then to Baskin Robbins for free birthday ice cream.
...Tonight we went to Tucano's for free birthday dinner.
Well...I think that about covers it. Thanks for playing along.