Sydney is growing so fast!

But not just her, I think her hair is growing faster than she is. Here are some pictures at Christmas of Sydney.

Christmas 2009

What a crazy last few months we have had. With the addition of Sydney to our family, we now feel complete. As we reflect on life and how fast our kids grow up, we realize that this will be the last Christmas we will have before Whitley goes off to college. We are going to miss her so much. All of her paperwork is in and we should hear soon where she will be going. She is so excited, and we are excited for her. We also notice how fast time is flying by with Ian and Sydney. This will be here first Christmas and Ian's 3rd technically. Here are some Christmas pictures even though neither Ian or Sydney understand what the opening presents is. But we are so grateful for all of our children and the happiness they bring into our home.

Ian's Birthday!

Ian is 2!! Here are some pictures of his birthday party. He had a Scooby Doo cake! It turned out cute. When we gave him his own piece of cake you should have seen him, his eyes got all big and he looked at me as if to say "can I really?" It was funny. He still didn't get the concept of opening gifts, but he found a certain few things he really liked once they were opened.

Sydney's Ape face

Sydney is so cute. She makes what daddy calls an "ape face" when she cries or gets upset. (Which isn't all that often.) But it's so cute. Here is the ape face in different stages.

Christmas pictures

Well, trying to get a Christmas card picture is not an easy task, especially when Ian doesn't want to sit or stand by Whitley until I get him his chair. He will then sit there, but he won't give up his binky, so in this picture, I had Whitley take it from him and then look really quick and see if I could get the picture. That didn't work so good, but oh well. Here they are. Still cute. Sydney looks like a little doll literally. They are all so cute.

In the kitchen again!

One of Ian's favorite thing is to be in the kitchen. He eats constantly, and whenever I turn on any kitchen appliance he comes running to see what I'm doing, especially when he hears the hand mixer, because it usually means I'm making a "treat" and he will get to lick the beaters and stick his finger in the batter. Of course he makes a complete mess, but it's so cute to watch him enjoy it!

Ian sings!

Ian loves music and he loves to sing. He just recently learned "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and he sings it all the time. It's so cute. He can't say all the words but he knows just how many syllables there are in each sentence.

Time to get the Christmas Tree!

Every year, usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving we have a tradition of going and finding that perfect Christmas tree and chopping it down. One year it was so warm out that Dan wasn't wearing a coat and actually got poison ivy when he was down on the ground cutting the tree down. This year it wasn't near that warm, in fact it was pretty cold, but we still went. This was Ian's 2nd year to go and Sydney's first. We kept her covered up quite well because she is still so little. It was a fun time. Or at least it was after I reminded Dan that this is supposed to be fun and that it's no big deal if we don't have the tree picked out in 5 minutes. If I can survive the cold,....anyone can!

Whitley carrying Sydney!

No matter how cold it is, Ian absolutely loves being outside. He also wants to help with everything, he had to help Daddy pull the sled with the tree on it. He doesn't want to be left out of anything and has to see everything that is going on

Daddy and his buddy!

Silly big boy!

So when Ian was little he never liked being in a swing. We got this swing back out for Sydney and now Ian is obsessed with it. He has it turned on constantly and is running the battery down all the time and now he even sits in it which he hated to do before, and now he is much too big for it. It's funny and cute. He also loves the attention he gets when he does sit in it!

Cute little girly!

This is cute little Sydney in her first Sunday dress, which just so happens to have been Whitley's first Sunday dress too! It looks so cute on her.

This is Sydney sleeping. I just thought it was too cute, with her arms up.

I put Sydney down on the ground for some tummy time and Ian decided that he was going to copy and layed right down next to her. It was so cute. Sydney doesn't like tummy time by the way. I don't know many babies who do though.

Getting out of the Hospital to go home

After a couple day extra stay from having pretty bad jaundice and some other possible infections, we finally get to bring our baby girl home. It's been a long week of traveling back and forth to Dayton. We first went on Tuesday morning and brought Whitley and Ian with us, Whitley was able to go into the room and see Sydney but Ian wasn't because of the hospitals trying to keep swine flu under control, so they don't let anyone under 16 into the rooms. So someone had to stay with Ian all day just walking around the hospital. He loved to ride the elevators, so that is what he did the biggest portion of the day was ride the elevators and eat popcorn that a volunteer was making in the lobby.

Later on Tuesday we ended up getting a hotel thinking that Sydney would be released on Thursday. This turned out to be a bad idea because Ian doesn't do well in hotels. He seemed to be afraid sleeping in a strange place and trying to sleep in the pack and play. Needless to say none of us got any sleep, so we decided that the next day Wednesday we needed to take Whitley and Ian home, so Whitley could go back to school and work and Ian could sleep in his own bed, Grandma Annie stayed with them at the house starting on Thursday morning when we went back to Dayton. We still thought that Sydney might be released that day but when we got there the Dr. said she would have to stay in the hospital for another couple days. So on Thursday evening after we signed the paperwork she was transferred off Wright Patterson Air Force Base, to Dayton children's hospital. So we ended up staying the night Thursday night and Friday night in a hotel. Then Saturday was Halloween and we thought we should go and see the other 2 kids so we drove back home again on Saturday morning, and spent Halloween with Whitley and Ian and their cousins, and then drove back to get Sydney on Sunday morning. So it was a long week and exausting, but of course very well worth every second.

Halloween!

Here is Ian with his cousins for Halloween. From the left: Brian, Lizzy, Ian, Troy, & Sam. They all looked so great! Lizzy loves to hug and kiss on Ian. Ian is the Itsy Bitsy spider. I just had to get the outfit when I saw it because since Ian was a little baby his favorite song has been "the itsy bitsy spider".

Introducing,.....Our New Baby Girl, Sydney!

For some of you, this is the first time that you've heard about this. It all happened so fast that there was literally no time to prepare. So, I will attempt to tell a shortened version of the story. On Monday evening the 26th of October, we had just gotten done reading stories, brushing teeth, saying prayer and getting Ian to bed. When we came out of his room we heard someone talking on the answering machine. It turns out that it was our case-worker, Spencer, with LDS Family Services. He wanted us to call him back. Spencer usually doesn't call just to talk. So we called him back. He asked if we were ready to do something fast and Dan said "Yes, when is the baby being born?" Spencer told us that the baby was born yesterday (the 25th of October), and that the birth-mother has chosen us to place her baby with. He asked if we could be in Dayton the next morning, and we told him of course we could. So the next day we left for Dayton and ended up spending most of the week there. Sydney was born on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 6:25 a.m. Her birth mother didn't even know she was pregnant until she got to the hospital that morning and gave birth a few minutes after arriving. Surprise! The birth parents made the agonizing decision to place her with us because they didn't feel they could give Sydney what she needed. We are so grateful for the blessing of adoption and for the unselfish acts of love that the birth-parents make on these children's behalf. We are so grateful that the Lord wanted to bring this beautiful sweet spirit in this little girl to our home. We love her so much.
Sydney had jaundice and they thought some other infection so they kept her in the hospital until the morning of the 1st of November, when we were finally able to bring her home. We also want to thank Whitley, Grandma Annie, Aunt Lynn, and my friend Kelli for helping us out with Ian while we were in Dayton with Sydney. We couldnt' have done it without any of them, and we appreciate their love and support. We have AWESOME friends and family!

Ian is having a little bit of a tough time adjusting to it though. After we brought her home Dan was holding Sydney when I got Ian out of bed and he came in and immediately starting throwing a fit because daddy was holding this other baby and not him. He is getting better though. He has since given Sydney a few kisses and has patted her head. I'm sure he'll be a great older brother, and Whitley of course adores her, and is such a big help all the time. We don't know what we would do without her sometimes.

Ian's First Pumpkin Carving

So we got out the pumpkins to carve and Ian wouldn't even touch the thing at first. It was funny, but then when we were just about done he decided it was fun and he liked it.