Greg's Project truck

Greg's truck is FINALLY painted! It's been a loooooooong wait, but it's done!!

Snoozing Baby

Jeremy was teaching Gabriel how to watch TV. Just like most males, he fell asleep! 

He didn't even wake up when Greg picked him up and held him.

Gabe has grown!

**Edit-
Here is Gabriel at a little over one month old.  Here is Gabe at a little over 5 months old! HUGE difference!

Now here is Gabe at 7 months!! 

A Very Lion Valentine!

Greg and I have a cute Lion collection started our honeymoon week. He bought me a cute little stuffed lion while in Colorado. From then on, for Anniversary, Christmas, Birthday and Valentine's we usually will find anything with a Lion to give each other. We have a HUGE stuffed animal Lion collection! So, Greg's last "lion" gift was a card that could have only been purchased at the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in Boyd, Texas. So, I had to come up with something pretty cute that he would have NO idea what it could possibly be -lion related of course.

Here is a Lion Cake! How purrrrrrr-fect!

Johnny Cash Onesie

Greg's cousin sent this cute onesie for Gabe as she as well as Greg are fans of Johnny Cash. Adorable! This package also contained Robeez socks and Robeez slipper shoes with motorcycles on them! :) Way awesome!!

February Snow!

This winter we received record breaking snow fall amounts. The total amount for our area was 14 inches, never has Texas seen so much snow! It was amazing how people who have never left or always lived in Texas made snow men dressed in beach gear to making real igloo's! I didn't even think that anyone here would have sled! People used lid tops to bins, garbage can lids, and cardboard to ride down small slopes. I don't think anyone who was "from" Texas had a snow shovel. Greg sold his shovel when he moved from Illinois because Texas doesn't get snow. (haha)

We actually borrowed Karl and Cheryl's shovel they brought from Colorado! :)

Here is Kieney bean just loving the snow! It was hard for him to walk because of how deep the snow was!
Brandy, Jeremy and Garrett were rolling huge balls around to make a snow man. Kien got to sit on the smallest one!

A fine time to run out of formula couldn't have been any more inconvenient. Visibility was next to zero until we came closer to Wal-Mart. If you look at this photo, off to the right the visibility was none. It is a huge field, and you couldn't see anything! Luckily the roads weren't bad, so we went straight to the store and straight back.
It was nice to have a taste of real snow, we may not see this much again for a looooooong time.

Our Hamlet!

I love this first photo because he looks like he is deep in thought. Could he be a scholar?! Or maybe processing the Jesus loves me song that Kien and I sing outloud?! HA! Either way, He's cute!

Here is Gabe and Duke sitting together side by side. At first Gabe liked it aparently. Duke, not so much?

Adoption is Final!

February 2, 2010

Here is my handsome little man! Waiting on the rest of us to get our act together and out the door!

Brandy and Kien posing right before leaving.
My two wonderful teens. They are growing up so fast! I heart them!
Gabe was trying to sit on his own! Must be the weight of how smart he is in the big head of his!! :)
This was waiting right outside the court room. They allowed us to bring the stroller, which was nice for the little ones. Gabe played in his seat the whole time and Kien kept saying he wanted to go talk to the lady.
Gabe was curious about why we were in this weird place and why his outfit seemed to be different from every other one he wore. We couldn't even get his tie on!
The proceedings took about 10 minutes. The attorney asked a few questions, then gave me an opportunity to tell the judge our wonderful story on how Kien came to be with us. I was so nervous that I didn't even look to see if the judge had tears. He was moved for sure. Once all was completed, we were able to get a photo with the judge.
Then after, the judge said to pick out stuffed animals for the kids. Jeremy picked this one and also a bear.
Here is the photo afterwards with our attorney.
We were headed back to the car, but had to get a photo!

Greg had to return back to work after, so we celebrated with dinner later. :) :)

Fun photos -but not in order...

My cousin from Nebraska was headed down to Dallas to spend the weekend with some friends and took the time to stop and visit for a couple of hours. I haven't seen him in a couple decades!! He got to meet all the kids and chat about his happenings as a officer in the army and he will soon be deployed to Afganistan to be on a supply convoy. Praying for his safety!! It's is a very dangerous job. Jeremy was also very inquisitive as well!!

Brandy was being cute!

Here is Kien playing peek-a-boo under the comforter in our room. He's so fun!

Here is Gabriel right after a his bath. He looks so cute all wrapped up in the towel.

I forgot to share this photo of Nina and the grandbabies!! How adorable!! I am sure BOTH her arms were beginning to get tired!

Our First Gotcha Day!

One year ago on January 28th, Kien came to be with us! We are so blessed to have Kien as our son. In the midst of tragedy (you can read more at http://karinupdates.blogspot.com/), we have received the ultimate blessing on earth.

For Kien there are many days for him to celebrate. We have decided to celebrate Gotcha Day every year on January 28th. The adoption process was finalized on February 2, 2010 (a year later), but January 28th is the day Kien was truly ours.

At age 2 1/2, Kien only knows that it's a special "Gotcha Day" and we celebrate with cake, ice cream and presents. As he gets older, around 5 years of age, we will begin to go into more detail of his wonderful journey from Vietnam, to his home with Steve, Karin, Kevin and Aria to his final home with us.

It took MANY takes for Kien to pose for a photo. All he saw was CAKE and all he wanted was CAKE.

Kien chose this cake, and when I asked him what color he wanted his name written in, he said blue.
Kien kept eye balling Daisy because he was worried Daisy would get the cake! We finally got him to look and gave us this cheesy grin!
Gabe couldn't have cake, so we gave him the bowl to play with. I love holding my Kien, he is so light weight!
After dinner, cake and presents, it was bed time. Bedtime and cake do not go hand in hand. He was HYPER! We had to let him wear it off a bit. Then, after the sugar high, he was out like a light.

Happy 1st Gotcha Day little love!

Room Transformed!

We have a beautiful kitchen table that can be used to seat 4 or 6 with the leaf extension. I really enjoy having the leaf in the table, however, with the scrap booking set up, it just doesn't fit well at all. So, I decided to move the scrapbook housing to a different location of the house. At first it seemed as if my placement would be crowded yet again, but it actually turned out quite nice. The family room did shrink a bit, but being that Kien is getting older the confinements are stretching beyond just his room and the family room. I have installed safety latches in the laundry room where the household chemicals are housed. I also need to install another latch set in the kitchen directly under the sink, although Kien does know not to get in the cupboards he is still a toddler.

I am still dreaming of a room extension onto the house to have a dedicated room for my mess! But, it looks like that isn't going to happen. I will have to wait until the older ones are on their own!

Gabe's First Spoon Feeding!

This is a huge milestone! When I took Gabe to the doctor last time she mentioned that putting some cereal into his bottles would help with as much formula as he was taking and would help introduce him to the cereal taste.

It was a hit! He took to feeding like a pro!

A few key factors in recognizing your child is ready to begin on solids are:

Sits with support and has good head control --Check!
Has doubled his birth weight and weighs at least 13 pounds --Check!
Has lost the tongue thrust reflex and is able to swallow food --Check!

YAY!!

Another part of introducing cereal is to start off slow. He started off with 2 TBSP of Rice cereal and 5 TBSP of Formula once a day, mainly at our dinner time. Over the course of 2 weeks he increased very slowly, and fussed a bit as what seemed to be an upset tummy so I would decrease the next feeding. I did notice a chance in his stool but no constipation issues. So far he loves eating from the spoon and seems to "want" the spoon when we sit down to eat.

I have only introduced Oatmeal once with what seemed to be followed with a tummy ache. We can just continue with the mixed rice for now.

:)

Duke is comfortable and Greg's two hams!

Duke doesn't like the floors anymore since the carpet was taken up. So he tries to find comfortable places and Kien's little sofa was one of them! 

Greg took Jeremy out to CiCi's pizza while I went grocery shopping across the street. While they were there, Greg had a ham pizza, and decided it would be photo worthy to show his two ham's. (Gabe's nick name is ham)

An evening out with Dad!

Greg thought it would be a wonderful experience for us all to attend an Orchestra Concert. One of his customers removed an instrument from her car before leaving her car to be repaired. He inquired about this instrument proud to expound Brandy and Jeremy's ability to play French Horn and Clarinet. She invited us all to the Bass Hall in downtown Fort Worth as there was a concert that next weekend. Because of the little ones, I stayed home and Greg took Brandy and Jeremy with him.

Of course they all were talking about the Violinist that was playing like a mad woman! In any event, this was a neat experience, and they both bragged to their band directors!