Tuesday, December 28, 2010

New tricks!

We've got lots of fun stuff to share about our Christmas and the last few weeks!

Christmas was fun. We started out at my folks and then headed back to Willmar to celebrate with Brett's family. Jaden was sick with a pretty nasty cold which explains some of the 'dazed and confused' looks on his face in some of these pictures. We gave Jaden a farm with a tractor that runs with a remote and pulls all of the farm equiptment. It was pretty cool. I think Jacob was more excited than Jaden!

Mackenna got his little giraffe with a baby giraffe that pulls behind it. So far she can only scoot backward on it but in time I'm sure she will learn to go forward! We spent the evening of the 26th at Grandma Pat's. We have two new Sound of Music converts! Jaden watched with great anticipation waiting for the kids to sing! He got mad everytime there was a commercial. We watched until the Nazi stuff was going to go down and then left so that he will be willing to watch it again! He finds almost all movies 'scary' to some degree now so finding something that he will watch is pretty hard. PBS Kids and most of the early morning stuff on Disney is still ok, though.



One of Mackenna's new tricks is posing for pictures. This one doesn't really capture it, but now she squints her eyes and puts on her biggest teethy grin!



Jaden got the newest edition to his Bobcat inventory! His showroom is on his dresser! This one even beeps when it backs up and makes noise and flashes its lights like the real ones.

So, on to the news for the week or month, sadly I am so darn neglectful when it comes to this blog! Mackenna has some new tricks! The ones she can do on a pretty regular basis are: pattycake, so big, and peek-a-boo. Her peek-a-boo is pretty hilarious as she covers her ears instead of her eyes. I guess she doesn't want to miss anything! She can wave but doesn't always catch on! She is such a sweet baby with some a great disposition. She is happy most of the time. In the last week she has really started to let the drama out, though! When a toy is taken away or we have to move her or something she screaches. It's pretty funny actually. Her inscisors have finally broken through. They are taking their sweet time coming down, though. Her front teeth are pretty cute. You can see them in some of our pictures if you look really closely. Mackenna is crawling like CRAZY. She is FAST!! She walks around things now and Uncle Greg caught her standing up for a second without holding on to anything! She will be walking soon. She took about 6 steps yesterday behind her little push thingy. We will have to work on that more. It was about this time, I think when Jaden really started to move behind those push toys, too. She loves to sit in Jaden's room and play (chew on) his toys. When they are both well rested they actually play together (next to each other, not really cooperatively) pretty well.


Jaden is learning to go potty in the potty right now. He is just at the beginning of potty learning so we are still using diapers full force until I can either get some more pull-ups made (not my idea of a good time with that stupid clear elastic, gahhhh.) or can order some Antsy Pants. He really can't quite get his pants off by himself yet anyway. He's doing a pretty good job of going #2 now we just have to work on #1. His food choices are still pretty limited so we are working on that but it's hard when he has a genuine fear of anything new and has texture issues/sensory issues. Jaden continues to love music. He got a new electric guitar from his birthmom which he really digs! He will hopefully be going back to ECFE for the winter/spring semester so he can be around some of his peers. It will be fun to see how much more he will be game to try now that he is older! He had his 3rd haircut a couple of weeks ago and this time he didn't cry or scream. He even let Pep put the cape on him. It was quite an improvement from the last two times when those waiting for their turn needed ear plugs!


All in all we are doing well, we are recovering from our winter colds now. I am still busy with my diaper biz. It is really fun to get to know my customers and share a lot of the same woes and joys of raising little ones. I am enjoying MOPs. I love my small group. We get together a lot beyond our normal twice a month for fun play dates. I have a couple of good friends who we continues to have play dates with as well.


Brett continues to busy himself with helping his patients, playing with the kids after work, cooking (we tried some fun Swedish recipes last week from our cook book from Ikea!), tinkering on things around the house, and spending time online and watching some of his favorite TV series on Netflix. He sadly watch the last episode from the last season of The Tudors last night. Boo.

This is sounding more and more like a Christmas letter, so I guess I better post our Christmas card for those who haven't seen it!




Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Our little lady just learned today to pose for pictures! It's so cute! She got this cute giraffe bike with a littlee baby giraffe to pull behind from Grammie and Grandpa. Jaden is under the weather but the hit for him was these cool weighted blocks for sensory activities.
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

Monday, December 20, 2010

Just a couple of pictures today. Sorry this blog has been incredibly neglected the last couple weeks. We have been sick off and on, mostly on, unfortunately. I have a bunch of funny stories to share but will have to wait til the holiday chores are done first!
Jaden's new sweater knit by Grammie

Jaden after he made a snow angel or as he calls it, a 'snow-gel'



We were busy in the kitchen one day and found Mackenna here!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Finalization!!!

It's Finalization Day!!! Woo hoo! Despite the hooooooorrible weather, our hearing went on as scheduled! Unfortunately the roads were too bad for Grammie and Grandpa Formo to make it out. They tried, but had to make a decision to turn around about half way here after seeing a semi jack-knife in front of them. We had a great party afterward with both birthparent families, our family, Bethel church staff members, and our babysitter's family. We were blessed to be able to share this day with all of them as we officially welcomed Mackenna into our family. It will be a day we will remember forever!! Oh, and both kids survived without naps today. Jaden was sleeping by 6pm!Our Birthmom, Satin, her mom, Lisa and our family Plum tuckered out!
Satin, Lisa, and Mackenna
Grandma Pat, Mackenna, and Bryce

Dane, birth grandpa, Brett, and Mackenna
Carrie, Mackenna, and Nana

Tori, our wonderful babysitter, extraordinare, Carrie, and Mackenna

Emily, birth auntie, and Mackenna

Monday, November 22, 2010

9 months! and MORE!

Here I go again, ingnoring the blog again. Gahhhh! Sorry folks! We have been busy but what's new?

First of all, we want to wish you a very HAPPY National Adoption Awareness Week!!! YEA! We are excited for Mackenna's upcoming finalization hearing! It will be a great day to legally welcome her into our family.
Mackenna is growing so much each day. Her two front are taking their sweet time but look like they could come through any second. We can't wait for that because her sleep has really been disturbed by it. Not so much the night time sleep, thank God, but the day time sleep. She is eating tons. She likes yogurt, fruits, veggies, puffs, biter biscuits, and her newest fav thanks to Daddy is pomegrante!
She is crawling like crazy, pulling herself up on anything and everything. She can now get herself down, which is great. She started to walk a bit behind her little walker thingy but only goes a couple of steps before dropping to her knees again.
Mackenna has just recently become a bit afraid of strangers and very clingy when we are with other people. I know that is very normal at this point but it is so strange that it just happened overnight!
This blog began as a blog to chronicle Mackenna's adoption journey. In the craziness of life with two, a new 'buisness', adjusting to parenting full time, etc poor little Jaden's website has taken a nose dive into abandoned website cyberspace. So, in an effort to save time and energy and to hopefully not neglect his in adventures in the process we are going to transition this blog into one for both! So, not only will you hear about Mackenna's milestones and fun stories you will get to hear about Jaden's!! woo hoo, it's a two for one deal!
So, Jaden... He is a BIG BOY! Yesterday he went poo poo on the potty!! YEA!! He is far from potty trained but it's a beginning! He loves music, to sing, play his little (fake) 'bi-lin' (violin). He loves to play his recorder, the piano, and drums. We are discovering his God-given music talents, being able to repeat musical phrases, play complicated rythms, match pitches, etc, so some suzuki violin lessons might be in his future! I don't think the local teacher starts til they are 5 but we will see!!
Jaden loves going to the YMCA, playing on the trikes and the 'cube' (the tube slide). He is actually deathly afraid of the 'cube' but he likes to watch other kids slide down. He loves 'doing dishes' at the sink. We have a pair of measuring cups that are squeaky clean. Now we just have to teach him to wash the real dishes.
Meeting Jess for the first time!Jaden is such a big boy!Mackenna loves riding on Daddy's back or shoulders!Showing off the new Minky Mud Butt! Jaden LOOOOOOOOVES to do dishes!!! He makes a really great mess, too!
Miss Mackenna's photo shoot!Megan and Mackenna I love biter biscuits!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Halloween

We had quite a fun Halloween weekend starting with a fun party for our nephew's 5th birthday!Here are all the kids at the party minus a couple of ducks.

We spent the 31st celebrating with one of our great babysitters at her confirmation and then headed to Disa and Trevor's for Vikes football, Trick-or-Treating, feeding babies, and fun!
This picture was actually taken the first night in town. Both kids slept all night. Might have had something to do with Jaden serenading Mackenna with Twinkle Twinkle on his 'bi-lin'!
This picture was entered in a giveaway contest over at Cutiepoops' Facebook page. Let's hope random.org picks her as the lucky winner of some new cutielegs! The stipulations was that they had to wear babylegs (the funny little polka dot thingies that we called leg warmers back in the 80's. Now they are hip, chic accessories for babies, even the boys!) Even better, she has a Cutiepoops diaper on, too!


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

8 months old!

Ok, I'm 4 days late but Mackenna turned 8 months old on Saturday! She is growing so much every day and becoming such a little lady!

She is pulling herself up on EVERYTHING. She started about a week ago. I was doing some work on the computer and I looked up and this is what I saw! YIKES! She is really strong. She can stand up and only have to use one hand to hold on. She is beginning to learn how to walk when her hands are held.

She is eating a lot of solid food now. She likes fruits the best but has had: sweet potatoes, peas, pears, apples, bananas, avocado, prunes, mixed veggies. She is also eating puffs and yogurt melts. She is getting better at getting them in her mouth! We are still waiting on a couple of teeth. She has been teething for what seems like forever without any popping through yet. She is sleeping a bit better than a couple of weeks ago. It seems like she has traded her lack of sleeping at night for lack of sleeping during the day, however. We are working on that!

She has learned to patty cake and almost to wave. She gets really excited anytime somebody she knows comes into the room.
We are have had and are looking forward to a fun week! Fun with Taylor and Jacob, Meredith and Joshua on Monday, Fun with Sawyer and Annika on Tuesday, Fun with Addilyn, Seth, Oliver, and Micah on Wednesday, Jacob's bday, Nana's trick or treating, and Madison's first orchestra concert on Thursday (AND moving into town. Yes, we are crazy) , gym day on Friday, Jacob's bday party on Saturday, and Halloween at the Dauc's on Sunday! WOOOOO! Somewhere in there is packing, moving, and unpacking, too! I think I need a nap just thinking about it!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Court Date!!!

As always, pictures first as I am too lazy to move them!!
On Tuesday we got to see Mackenn'as birthmom, Satin and her mom! We had a great time playing and showing off her new tricks!We also met up with Mackenna's other birth grandparents and aunties!Daddy with Mackenna
Jaden's third bithday! Super why!
Mommy, Mackenna, and Jaden

Our smiley girl!
Well, we finally got our letter that notified us of our court date. YEA! On November 30th Mackenna will join our forever family! Woo hoo! We have a lot to catch you up on but Jaden's patience has run out and he is demanding attention!