A working vacation 2012

 Last week Monday, we headed out on a working vacation (work for Nate, vaca for the rest of us).  Well, we did leave a day early to have one day of family time before we wouldn't see him for a couple days.  The boys traveled very well on our way out to Wisconsin.  I took some time sitting in the back seat feeding CJ and playing with Jacob.

His idea to make silly faces.

On our day together we went and fed deer at a deer park and saw a few other 'wild' animals.  These deer were freakish.  I have a thing about deer, I don't really like them, so this was out of my box for sure.

Jacob liked it but didn't, if you know what I mean!  He thought they were silly, but would get way up in his personal bubble and he did not like that.

And then dad had 4 up in his grill!  I chose not to hold any 'deer food'.

Jacob trying to trick the deer with an empty food bag.

Jacob and I took some time to go paint at the pottery place in the hotel.  He picked a lion mug (thankfully that was in his allotted dollar amount otherwise he may have thrown a HUGE tantrum!)  It turned out very cute and of course he enjoys drinking from it.

Water time!!!!  Do you think he liked it?!

This looks like he's drinking the water from this flamingo, he's not!  He wasn't that close to the water spout.   He's such a ham for the camera.

Of course head first is the way to go!  Love how much he loves the water and isn't afraid of it.

Those swimming lessons are coming back from last year.  Of course this year he's a great white shark :).  So proud of him for remembering how to swim!

Race car driving with dad!  The go carts had a super long line, so this was second best.  

More water time...let's test the water, see what happens when I do this...

or this

All dressed up for the banquet.  Jacob got time playing with some high school girls at the pool and Christian went to the banquet with us.  We had a great time, it was a great banquet, lots of laughs and a good night out!  

I was pretty nervous about taking a less than 2 week old on a trip.  It wasn't all peaches and cream - washing bottles in hotel rooms, diaper changes in the front seat of the car because the place you stop doesn't have a changing station, getting up in the middle of the night when you're exhausted from a big day.  But I learned I could take both boys out and manage.  Granted, when it was lunch time with just me and the boys...we did drive thru because I wasn't going to do both of them in a restaurant by myself...I'm not that brave yet!  I was able to pack up an entire hotel suite with two boys by myself and get checked out of the hotel on time, leaving only 2 things behind...(my poor pillow and our night light that we needed at the next hotel!)  Obviously replaceable things, just annoying.  The experience gives me confidence for the rest of summer...that I can get out and run errands and we can go to the pool and some days will be easier than others.

I took a few hours to go shopping and while at a store the workers were asking how old CJ was, etc. and why we were there and they said, wow, did you plan to have your baby right before your husbands conference.  I said, uh, nope, we can't plan our babies, we actually adopted him.  The one gal said, I thought you looked good for just having a 2 week old (what, I look bad now that I didn't give birth to him!?)  I did get a lot of comments asking how old he was, etc.  Some times through conversation it would come out that we adopted him, other times, it wouldn't.  We're not ashamed that our boys are adopted, but it's not a fact that we share with everyone either.

Any way...the week was tough, but also fun.  We're trying to recover.

Week 2

(From May 31-June 6)

The little man just turned a week old and got snuggles from Grandma and Grandpa!  They were very excited to get to actually hold Christian rather than just look at him.

The brothers are still liking each other :)

Story time with dad

So sweet

Isn't he so handsome in this cute outfit!   Ah, just love it.

On our way to the Pizza Ranch summer meetings we stopped along the road and said hi to our adoption agency!  It was exactly one year from when we initially went there for our orientation meeting - this time with a week and a half old baby.  I had regretted not taking a picture of the agency back at that meeting, so I was pretty excited to get that chance again.

Back seat fun on the way to vacation!!!  Mom, let's make silly faces :)

Here's CJ's

So are are crazy for taking a 12 day old on vacation.  Well...he slept like a baby!  It was challenging, but it wasn't too bad either.  We had the opportunity to leave a day early to spend some time together as a family before the work part of vacation started for Nate.  Prior to leaving, we had talked up this animal park that I had taken Jacob to 2 years ago, he was able to feed giraffes and other animals, it was quite the over-grown, over-priced place (I believe I blogged about this...)  (side note, just linked that post from 2 years ago...WOW!  What a honey!)  Anyway, that park - which I had a hard time finding 2 years ago - was GONE - NOT THERE.  I knew I wasn't loosing it, but how could it just not be there.  Poor Jacob.  Talk about tears.  And a parental lesson learned there.  So we drove along figuring we could find something else to do and we agreed upon the deer park...freaky.  I don't like deer.  They freak me out - I have a weird deal thinking that I'm going to hit one some day, it's head will come through my window and start eating me...yes, I know they are herbivores, but still...this was a big deal.

Here's Jacob feeding the deer...

Here's Christian sleeping through it all...

We are staying at a water park, we will go to the water park - it might just take us a long time to get there.  Jacob had so much fun swimming, do the slides and just playing in the water, while I watched from the side lines making sure no one walked off with my precious boy in the stroller.  And well, quite frankly, it was loud and I would not be able to hear him cry if I was pool side and he was chair side.  The kid sleeps through anything!

We don't get too many opportunities for family photo time, but I wanted my boys in their matching shirts together because one of them is growing so fast, he's going to outgrow it soon - well - probably in a month or two, a lot faster than the other will...

Oh good, still happy brothers :)  Jacob wakes up and wants to snuggle his baby or give him kisses.  He's goes to check on him, just to check on him, brings his stool to the changing table to 'help', tells me when he thinks he needs a bottle or his pacifier.  He even took an Easter story to him, said, this is about Jesus, told the story of Jesus and told Christian that he needs to hear the story because he's not a believer yet.  WHAT....hold that diaper change...Jacob, are you a believer?  Yeah.  Who taught you to be a believer?  God did.  Is Christian a believer?  No, we have to tell him about Jesus.  I think little CJ is in good hands :)  His big brother has a lot to teach him.

first week as family of four

The first week home as a family of 4 was really crazzzzzy!  Honestly, our first night home with the little guy was horrible.  We really got no sleep.  The poor thing was in a strange place with strange noises and really, strange people.  Thankfully, the next night was better.


See, here we are before our night of no sleep - well, at home, I guess we didn't sleep well the previous night in our hospital room either!  Jacob came to check out his brother, but went back to grandpa and grandma's since we got home pretty late and needed to settle in a bit.  Which turned out to be a blessing since we could have had 4 people awake all night.

Such a proud big brother :)

Shucks, this picture turned...just crank your neck!  

First Sunday going to church as a family of four...we made it on time!  

Jacob helping put lotion on Christian.

They're a pretty good little pair!  Jacob wore the same shirt as Christian to his first time to church...and many weeks to follow...I squeezed Christian into it so he could wear it once!  

All clean after his first bath at home. 

We made it!  After some unforgettable moments, the entire hospital experience, driving home through rain followed by a rainbow, seeing Jacob meet his brother for the first time, and a diaper extravaganza.

We had many visitors who came with food and gifts.  AMAZING.

I Introduce to you...

Christian James Breen!  He was born on Wednesday at 2:54 pm weighing in as a linebacker at 10 lbs. 2 oz with the length of 22 inches long!  He's a big boy, but as I cuddle him as I type, he's still a little guy!

Two things, the placement is not 100%, this is an "at-risk" placement, so we are technically waiting out a period of legal time that needs to pass.  Secondly, we agreed to not put pictures of him out there (you can't really see him here, so it's ok) until finalization.  If you would oh so love to see him, we would be happy to email you a picture if your heart desires.  Trust me, this is SO hard, because he is SO cute, we want to show him off!!!!

We are completely thrilled at the addition to our family!  Jacob is so sweet and gentle with him and always concerned about him - whether it's giving him his pacifier, rubbing him to "calm him down" or just to come check on him!  Today they are wearing matching brother shirts.  Just handsome I tell you!

I don't want to go on too much about the past several days in our lives, but this week has been a wild one.  He was a week over due when he was born and actually knew of the birth plan for the week, and then that changed to something else, and that changed because she ended up going into labor!  Talk about CRAZY!!!!

We were completely blessed to be a part of the hospital stay and spend quality time with biological family and Christian in the hospital!  There were definite roller coaster parts during our time there, completely emotional.  I held on pretty strong until one afternoon around 3 pm - which ended up being the day we were able to bring him home!  We were praying a lot throughout our time there, but there came a point where we didn't know what to even pray for any more, so Nate sent out a text to our families asking for prayer.  We were thankful as we were at ease and things fell into place for us.

We came home Thursday night on the later side, Jacob got to meet his brother before going back to grandma & grandpa's house, which turned out to be a great idea because the three of us at home got no sleep.  We were up all night.  Which resulted in Christian sleeping a lot yesterday and we had a much better night last night!!!  Hooray!  We seem to be getting him on a nice schedule, Nate and I have been taking turns napping and being on Jacob duty.

We thank everyone who has sent us such kind and encouraging words during this time of transition.  We are loving our family of 4!

Oh, I forgot to mention, on our way home Thursday night, we drove through some rain and I said that I hope we see a rainbow!  We came out to the bright sun setting and what to our wondering eyes did appear, but a rainbow!

It was a fabulous reminder that God always keeps his promises and fulfilled our desires to become parents.

My (Nate) first post in a long time, but I came across this article regarding sports (go figure with me, right?) and adoption.  Enjoy!
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/john-feinstein/critics-of-bubba-dont-understand-adoption/

Jacob has his first graduation

 Jacob has completed his first year of his school career in Nursery School!  Quite something!  He still gets to go to daycare until whichever comes first, my school work is complete or the baby comes.  

His school had a short program/graduation on Thursday morning and thankfully Nate and I were both able to be there!  

Here he is the morning of his last day of school...photo taking has become quite the event...the first picture was the best and I kept trying to get better ones...he really put on a show for us!

Here he is, ready to perform!

  

Receiving his first "diploma"!  What a guy!

We are so proud of this young boy and all the life he brings wherever he goes.  He seems to be the class clown (for better or worse) as during one of the songs about peanut butter...

::peanut butter, we like peanut butter, peanut butter, that's what we like best...on your head/shirt/pants/shoes/socks , yes we like it on our shoes on our pants on our shirt, on our head, oh oh oh.  Well the last one is underpants and he shouts, STINKY UNDERPANTS.  And, since the whole crowd laughs, he says it several times and soaks it all in.  :)  

Needless to say, there isn't a dull moment in our house.

That night Jacob and I got to participate in a big brother class.  Even the nurse who was giving the class commented on how there is probably never a dull moment.  I can only imagine right now the things he's going to do to get attention once baby is here.