5 weeks old

June 21-27

Just over 4 weeks old...loves to follow faces!  He's especially attracted to Jacob and Jacob's voice!

Such a sweet face...there's no way he can get mad...yeah right!

All sweet and ready for bed.

After church photo sessions seems to be my favorite right now!  Aren't they adorable?!  

This little one stole a few hearts today, I think :)  Love him!

His little smiles keep getting bigger :)  

On a fishing day with church friends, he slept basically the entire time in his car seat.  This cute little hat no longer fits him at 7 weeks old :(  Seriously!  

Grandpa Rusty & Grandma Katie came for a visit!  It was fun to see them and of course Jacob devoured all of the attention that he got from them as well :)  Thanks for the visit...and now CJ has a T-Rex shirt to match Jacob's!  He'll fit into it all too soon.

Happy 5 weeks old sweetie!  You wear mostly 3 - 6 month clothes and there's even a few 9 month items that must run small that you fit into!  YIKES!!!  And despite all the happiness you portray in these pictures, you're quite fussy, that's hard on your mommy.

4 weeks old

June 14-20th


At 3 weeks old, turning four...his skin is recovering.  It was in some pretty hefty weird states lately, pealing EVERYWHERE!  I feel like we are finally getting it under control at least on his stomach and face.

His feet as you can tell are still shedding...

This picture was not turned side ways...arg!  I can't find a way to rotate it once it's put in here...annoying.  I love how his little tongue is sticking out.

All snuggled up after bath time.  He loves his baths!

And mommy snuggle time is great...no one takes moms pictures with the kids...I'm always the one taking pictures, so every once in awhile a self-portrait has to happen so I can prove that I did spend time with my kids :).

Dad came home from work exhausted, so I told him to go take a nap...he did as well as CJ..oh, and Louie!  awe!

Happy Father's Day, Nate!

Christian's first smiles were on Father's Day!  So sweet.

Happy 4 weeks old Christian James!

Happy Father's Day

On a warm June afternoon, perfect thing to have is a water fight!  Nate and Jacob had so much fun playing in the yard this with water guns and the water bombs that I posted about earlier.  There was tons of laughter and chasing each other as Christian and I sat and watched (well...he slept).  I really feel that Nate should be writing this blog tonight, but he's busy washing bottles and getting ready for bed.  I'm waiting for the little one to wake up and eat one last time before he goes to sleep for the night...hopefully!

He says, "I'm very happy to be a daddy."  And I think you can tell from the pictures that he's a fun daddy too!

Rise Fest '12

We enjoy going to Christian music concerts, so when one is in our hometown, we're there!  Of course...we procrastinated on purchasing our tickets...for multiple reasons...but mainly a 3 week old.  Then as the day drew nearer the threat of rain/thunderstorms was quite strong.  Being the money conscience folk we are trying to be, we felt best to hold off on buying them, in case, because maybe then only one of us would have gone as a baby would not enjoy the rain.  Well, to make a long story short, we scored 2 free tickets from a young gal!  We were blessed by her generosity and she even delivered them to us, what a gal!  She was volunteering at the festival, it was fun to run into her and thank her again.  We enjoyed our afternoon and evening completely!  Christian was an amazing little guy - slept through a lot of it, hid in the shade of the stroller and umbrella and got diaper changes in fresh air and most thankfully saved his #2 until we were home.  Jacob had a ton of fun at the bouncy/inflatables/kids area, running around with friends his age, eating everything but his supper, going up close to the stage for 10th Avenue North on dad's shoulders, and meeting Mark Schultz.

We managed to speak to Mark for a few minutes, sharing a brief adoption connection with him.  He asked to hold Christian and we were able to capture the moment with our phone...because I left the camera at home...purposefully...trying not to take EVERYTHING with us.  So it's not the greatest quality, but it was the biggest highlight.  Also cool that Mark gets to celebrate this Father's Day being a dad to his 4 month old.  Mark and his music has always been inspirational to us - love his music and his story.  I also enjoy the fact that I can point out positive role models of other people who were adopted.  He wrote a song called "Everything to Me" (linked to an article about the song).

We're so thankful for the day we could spend worshiping with other believers and giving our boys positive music to listen to and know their friends are doing the same thing.  Nothing is greater than seeing your child worship the King!

Strawberry kind of day

With all of the strawberries that we picked - about 10 lbs - I needed to get creative with what to make!  I was not going to make jam as I still have some from last year.  I made 2 strawberry pies, strawberry muffins, strawberry smoothies and just cut berries for the freezer to make smoothies or pies or strawberry shortcakes.  It's a good thing we love strawberries in our house!  Jacob LOVED his strawberry smoothie and I didn't feel guilty one bit making them for him a couple mornings as a snack as it's only ice, strawberries and milk.

The next thing I need is a deep freeze I think!

Water Fight!

 Nate had to work all day, Jacob was missing him lots!  So we made a project that we could do with dad when he came home.  I have an enjoyment getting ideas and inspiration off of pinterest.  I happened to find this alternative to water balloons - Sponge Bombs - This was the website that had the best directions to it, but there is one error - the sponges should be cut in 5 1/2 inch strips - the long way.  I did do 9 strips per bomb, but I wonder what 12 would do.  I also color coded them if we wanted to do teams.  The zip ties that I found at Wal-Mart were 8 inch ties - I wouldn't go longer - unless maybe using 12 strips was too much for the 8 inch.  Overall, this was a fast project to make and they played with them longer than it took to make - success!  Jacob helped with each stage - an older child would be able to cut the sponges, but I don't quite trust Jacob with anything but paper with scissors.  He helped give me the sponges to cut, put the cut ones in piles and when it was time to put them together we used patterning, so that was a good learning opportunity as well.  Of course, the best part of all was surprising daddy when he came home from work and attacked him :).

It was so fun to watch them get each other!

Hoping for more water fun on Father's Day!

8th Anniversary

We celebrated our 8th anniversary on Tuesday.  Nate had to work in the evening, so we celebrated during the day by going to pick strawberries and eat at the Pizza Ranch!  We had a good day and also watched our wedding video, looked at wedding pictures with Jacob.  He got bored with it.  But we had fun looking back!  As I enjoy pinterest in my quiet evening hours when the boys are asleep I realize how different my wedding would have been if only pinterest had been around then!  We enjoyed our day and the simplicity of it all.

I also think about all the things we've done in these 8 years of being married, the places we have gone to visit, the 2 places we have lived, the 2 children we have gained, the different jobs we have had, the life God had laid out for us.  Now, don't get me wrong, but I think there could have been some more direct paths we could have taken - had we only known!  Of course, God's plan through it all is to make us grow, change and make us more like him.  So, in the end, it's all good, the aches and pains are part of the journey.  With that said, I wonder what the next 8 years will bring...scary really to think about knowing what others have been through in their lives.  But we cling to the promises that God is always there with us, he'll never leave us or foresake us.

No, I did not try on my wedding dress this year...I should have...
No, my husband did not come sheepishly into the house wearing a coat as pants...
No, we didn't go any where fancy or do anything special
No, we did not have another wedding so Jacob could be in it (he wanted to see us get married and wanted to see daddy's wedding clothes...you know...the rented ones! :) )
No, we didn't get each other gifts...unless you count new pillows since someone left theirs in a hotel room the previous week and the store had a buy one get one free special...so you HAVE to get 2!
Was it still special, yes!

3 weeks old

(June 7-13)
Keeping track of things by the week is so much easier than by the 'event' right now.  It means for a lot of pictures in a blog and also less blogs to keep track of during this period when we can't post them.

We were still in Wisconsin for Nate's work.  I did venture to the water parks with both boys.  It was manageable - fun for Jacob any way.  It was slightly difficult as there were no shade umbrellas in the kid areas.

Silly picture got turned sideways...trying to keep the sun off him.

Playing in the water...he did really well playing by himself.  He would have something with him - a floating toy or matchbox car...

Banquet night!  We don't get dressed up too often, so we figured we better take a picture!  Jacob got to play with some high school girls and other kids and get more pool time, Christian joined us at the banquet.  He was a trooper and only squealed a few times.

We left Wisconsin and headed for our family reunion in western Illinois!  Christian gets to meet his Great Grandpa and Grandma Sears.  They have been married 64 years!!  

All of my siblings were there too!  This was their first time meeting Christian, so it was pretty fun to show him off to them.  They liked the baby snuggles too.

I think he wants his cake!  So sweet that they thought to get a cake welcoming CJ to the family :).

The cousins on the "Sears" side.  Ages, 7, 6 1/2, 4, 3 1/2, 1 1/2, 2 1/2 weeks

And we made it home to have a bath in the baby bath tub...first non-sponge one.  His face doesn't show how well he actually did!  He was soooo good and seems to like bath time!  He also likes being lotioned up afterwards!

Happy 8th Anniversary to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Nate had to work at night, so we took advantage of the day and went strawberry picking, out for lunch and just chilled at home.

Everyone did very well on our visit, we didn't pick too many - 10 lbs!!!  (More than I figured we would get)  

CJ is 3 weeks old!!!  

What a big boy!  He's growing of course!  He recognizes our voices, turns his head to us.  He is becoming more active - kicking his legs and moving arms - voluntarily - and every once in a while gets a squeak out.  He enjoys his swing and watching the mobile go around on the swing and in his crib.  He does not like having a wet/dirty diaper or gas.  His poor tummy gets all mad.