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.

Whitley, Ian, & Kelsey

Whitley was goofing around with Ian and her friend Kelsey one day and they couldn't resist taking pictures of their silliness!