Happy Birthday, Janie!

Last night when the girls were going to bed, Janie told Sami, "when we wake up, you can sing Happy Birthday, Janie!" 

We love our Janie. She is so sweet. (Even when she keeps getting out of her chair to give me hugs when I am trying to do sharing time in Primary.)

She is all girl. Her favorite color is pink. She loves wearing dresses. She loves dress-up, princesses and dolls. She does ballet and dances around the house constantly. 

And she is a charmer. She knows how to work it. She winks, tilts her head, and bats those eyes. 

She gives hugs and kisses all the time. She loves to take care of Lucy and hold her. She has great coping mechanisms when in trouble. When she couldn't go to McDonald's with Jonathan and Sami because her good choice chart wasn't full, she said, "that's okay. I don't like McDonalds anyway. I want to stay home with Mommy and Lucy." 

Jonathan is home today and tomorrow. That is an extra special birthday/Christmas treat. 

I love that Janie is such a good sister to Sami and Lucy. She loves being with them and playing with them. Oh, they have their moments, like all siblings do, but I know that they love each other and that is such a blessing.

We love you Janie! We are so glad you came to our family!! Life is better with you in it. 

Christmas Houses

We made houses this year. I would call them "gingerbread" but they were made from canned frosting and graham crackers. It is the cheap, quick version, I guess. 

Janie's shack was made by me. I could not get the roof to stand up. But Jonathan made Sami's and it is a true house. He was determined to make a house, and I was impressed at his determination. As you can see, I gave up.

The best part for them was when I let them eat one side of their creations. 

Merry Christmas!!

Catching Up...

So many great things have happened these past two weeks, that I did four other blog posts tonight. I gave each event it's own post ,starting with Sami's birthday party, because I want to remember everything amazing that has been happening.

And I just wanted to express my love to Heavenly Father for my blessings. This is a wonderful time of year for our family. But not for every family. There are sick people in the hospital that Jonathan is tending to. And of course, the shooting in Connecticut has shaken us all. I have shed tears many times these past few days for those sweet children and the adults who were taken. I haven been physically ill as I have thought about the loss for their loved ones and the innocence that was taken by those who witnessed this tragedy. I take great comfort in know that Heavenly Father is a loving Father who does not leave us alone. That he loves the loved ones who are left behind trying to make sense of it all and pick up the pieces. I am grateful for the peace and the hope of the gospel.  I know that Jesus lives and that means everything to me. 

All Aboard!

This past Saturday we were able to go to the Polar Express train ride in Williams, Arizona, about 30 minutes outside Flagstaff. We had been planning this trip since June, when we bought the tickets. We decided that instead of a birthday party with their little friends this year, we would use the money to go on the Polar Express. 

The day started out bad, because we left at 9:30 am and by our scheduled train ride at 3:30, we still weren't there. It's only a 3 hour car ride from our house but we got into a bad, bad blizzard. I was praying and praying in the back seat. We weren't sure if we should turn back, get a hotel in Flagstaff, or keep going. I called the train and they hadn't cancelled the ride, but we missed our ride by the time we got there. Jonathan and I were both stressed by this point, and Sami and Janie were just excited about the snow.

But there were several miracles, and we were able to get on the 5:30 train. 

And it was magical.

The girls loved meeting Mrs. Claus. She made us cookies and hot chocolate for the train ride (or so they said, *wink* it tasted like Costco cookies to me but what do I know.)

  

The professional photographers couldn't come in because of the snow, so we were able to take pictures of the "professionally posed" Santa for free. Awesome! 

Santa asked Sami what she wanted for Christmas, and she said she didn't know and then felt embarrassed that she didn't know. I haven't encouraged the girls to write lists, because they get what I get for them at yard sales and clearance, but she decided she wants a doll and a polly pocket. Perfect! (I happen to have both in my present closet, just waiting to get wrapped.) We assured her that we would cell phone Santa and let him know. But she has been writing him letters, just in case the cell phone didn't go through. She's a  smart one. 

I love this picture of Lucy looking at Santa. It really is a magical time of year. 

I didn't get any good pictures of the train ride, mostly due to tired kids. But it was neat and the girls were troopers, especially Lucy. We asked a lot her of her, and she did great. I am so glad we got to do this before we move away.

And it reminded me that I need to get boots, hat, and mittens for the girls when we move to Omaha. I forgot how cold the cold is. 

Lucy's Adoption

This past Thursday was Lucy's final adoption hearing. 

It was so neat!! It was actually only about 5 minutes long. We were in and out. It wasn't as personal as Sami's but we were in Kirksville (small town), Missouri, for Sami's and this is big town Mesa. But it was still wonderful. My parents were able to be there and we were together as a family and left as an official family. 

The man on the left standing next to me and Janie is our adoption lawyer, Brent Ellsworth. He is great. We met him last year at the lds adoption conference and it was such a blessing when we needed to get the adoption process going, we had already knew a lawyer that we liked and trusted. 

Lucy turned 9 months old yesterday.

 She is such a sweetheart. She has stolen all of our hearts. 

If Sami and Janie don't get to tell her good-night every night, they are so disappointed.

They insist on giving her hugs and kisses throughout the day.

Yesterday Janie told us she was going to "make Lucy's dream come true". She then went over to the high chair where Lucy was eating and started showing her ballet moves. She showed her how to twirl and point her toe. It was so cute. Today while I was busy, I looked over and saw Sami playing with Lucy and showing her the alphabet letters on her toy. It makes me so happy to see how much they love her.

And she loves them too. She always looks for them and moves to where they are.

 

  We love you Lucy! We are so glad that you came to our family. You are officially an Olsen. Yay for us! 

My Parents

My parents were here for almost a week.

I loved it. It flew by.

They were such a big help. My dad played with the girls for hours, helped fix some things around the house, and helped us get new tires on our van. My mom just jumps in and helps, always. It is a blessing. We had a lot of fun.

They are coming back at the end of the month for Lucy's sealing and we are so excited! I love them both so much.

Sami's Birthday Party

Samantha's birthday was a lot of fun.

She woke up sick. Such a bummer. But she wasn't about to let a mere cold spoil her birthday that she had waited for for a whole year! No sirree. We had fun.

She loved all her presents. 

Our theme this month is "less is more." We wanted to get the kids fewer presents, in hopes that they would enjoy them more and be more grateful. But Sami got some really awesome presents from lots of people. We  kept talking about how loved she is. I think she felt really loved. 

My parents flew into town right before the party, but almost all of Jonathan's family came. It was so nice. It made the party really special. 

This blowing out the candles picture is classic. 

No doubt about it, we love our Sami. 

She had a great birthday. She still talks about it. Tonight while she was helping me make dinner, she said "I am super cool." Earlier in the day, when she said the right answer to a question, she said, "I am awesome." 

I hope she always believes that about herself. Because it's true.

Samantha is 5!

Well, I just ran out of space on blogger. Bummer! Just when I was going to post a dozen pictures of Sami! I went ahead and paid the monthly fee but I can't post pictures for up to 24 hours, until my payment is confirmed.

Anyway...on to the important stuff: Samantha is 5 today!! I can't believe it. She is growing up so fast. She is so excited to be five. And I am happy for her, but I don't want her to grow up too fast. But she wants to grow up fast. She wants to get baptized, drive the blue van, and get married. She told me so. Thankfully, for me, that won't be happening soon. Because I love this stage. I love that I still get to cuddle with her and read her bedtime stories and the greatest treat in the world is making cookies together. 

She is the one that started it all. She has told me a couple of times that she wished she was a mommy like me. And I tell her that she will be. And when that day comes, she will understand how she much she has blessed our lives. Just posting about her makes me smile. She is fun, sweet, cute, friendly, adventurous...everything a 5 year old should be. 

So far, she has had a great day, except she is sick. I feel so bad that she is sick on her big day! But she is still determined to have fun. We just love her.
Happy Birthday to our cutie-pie Sami Girl!! 

Jonathan matched to an allergy fellowship! He matched to Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska. It is a blessing. But I do have mixed feelings about it. I am so glad that Jonathan will have an easier time but I am dreading moving and Omaha winters. But I will be closer to my family (8 hours away-Nebraska is a big state!) and I am going back to my home state.

Truly, though, I do feel the Lord's hand in this. I was prepared either way, but I feel that this is such a blessing for our family in the long run. This is such a big thing, I haven't quite wrapped my head around it but Jonathan is giddy! It is so fun to see him this happy.

What's Been Happening...

I meant to post about Thanksgiving. It was fun.

My kids, well specifically, Sami and Lucy have been really sick this past week. Sami told me on Tuesday night that her tummy hurt. That night she threw up 8 times. She kept count. Poor thing. Then in the morning, she had diarrhea. It was a 24 hour bug, thankfully. But then Lucy got it. Then Sami got it again. Now Lucy has it again.

You can imagine how much laundry I have done. And I just keep my carpet cleaner out.
But hopefully we will all be healthy soon. Specifically for Saturday when it's Sami's birthday (she is so excited!) and my parents come in.

 

Sami must be feeling better because today while I was laying down with Lucy, Sami and Janie took a purple and orange magic marker (washable, thankfully!) and drew all over the walls, my couch, cupboards, and doors. I was upset and while we were all cleaning up, Sami said to Janie, "I don't know why she is so upset." And she was sincere so I told her. Then they went to time out and are grounded from markers for a week. Which is torture for them because they use them every.single.day.

 

And lastly, Wednesday. This coming Wednesday is a huge day for us. At 10 am we find out if Jonathan matched to an allergy fellowship. He is so anxious and excited, it's like he is a boy waiting for Christmas.

To be honest, I am not crazy about any of the places he interviewed at. I like it here. But I love my husband and want him to be happy. And home. He has been on wards for 5 weeks and then he comes home and works almost every night. One night when he came home and went to tuck in Sami, she said, "You're just going to work and coming home and saying good night to us. That's all you're doing and that's sad."  Jonathan was so crushed that he wrote down what she said, so that's a direct quote. And she's right, it is sad.

Up to this point we haven't had many options as far as his work. You have to finish residency and you have to work what the residency program tells you. But now we are coming to options. And we know we want Jonathan home every night (before bedtime), and on weekends and holidays. So we are praying for the Lord to open the way. We are hoping an allergy fellowship will get us there, even though we will have to move and live like students for another two years. Allergy fellowship are extrememly competitive because of the fact that their hours are awesome for doctors, so knowing that we have a plan B. Which I will disclose on Wednesday if he didn't get the fellowship. :)

Adoption Awareness

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.

I am so grateful that we live in a time where adoption is mostly accepted and embraced.

 

We love to talk about adoption with our kids because it's one of the things that makes our family unique and fun. And different. Adoption isn't a better or worse way of having a family, it's just different.

Sometimes people are surprised at how open we are about adoption. But we don't want any mystery or shame surrounding how Sami and Lucy came to us. Their story is just as fun as any other birth story, just different. Before Jonathan and I were married, I attended a seminar on adoption at BYU and the case worker said that adopted children should be told often and at a young age about their adoption. Sami's case worker encouraged us to do the same. So we talk about adoption and what it means (keeping it age and circumstance appropriate, of course).

 And sometimes I am surprised at people's responses to our story.

The other day I was talking to a woman that I have known for a few years. She asked about the kids and we talked about Lucy's adoption for a minute, then she said, referring to Janie, "well, at least you have one of your own."

I was shocked. But when I looked at her I realized that she had no idea how offensive her comment was. But there was NO WAY I was just going to let that comment pass without saying something! I realized she must not have had any experience with adoption. So in my nicest voice, I explained that we love all our children the same. We treat them the same. They are all "our own."  

And that's the miracle of adoption.

And I know it's not just a "fluke" with Sami. Because it has happened with Lucy too.

And it's been so great to see is how all my girls' treat each other and love each other. Janie and Sami adore Lucy. They have not been one bit jealous of sharing my time with a "new baby", but share their love with her without reservation. And Lucy loves them too. I hope they will grow up being best friends.

And we will continue to teach them the blessing of family, however it comes. And they will always know that we think adoption is a beautiful thing.

 



Family Pictures 2012

Tonight Sami and Jonathan had the funniest conversation. Jonathan is working nights and while he was getting ready to leave, the girls were eating dinner and this conversation happened:

Sami:  I'm so sad.

J:  I'm so sad too, I don't want to leave and go to work.

Sami:  No, I'm sad there's no more french fries.

J:  Oh, I thought you were sad daddy was going to work.

Sami: Oh, that too.

Halloween 2012

This year for Halloween we had a little pumpkin, a princess, and a witch. 

Sami and Janie's preschool teacher has lots of Halloween costumes that she lets people borrow. We went over there and Janie fell in love with the "princess" outfit right away. And Sami didn't know what she wanted to be so Mrs. Carole asked if she wanted to be a witch like her. Sami was so excited but there wasn't another witch hat, only a wizard hat, but we still called her a witch because that's what she wanted to be.

I really wanted to have a family Halloween experience. It was tricky because our ward didn't have a trunk or treat and J had to work on Halloween night. So we went to my sister-in-law's ward trunk or treat with her family. It was so fun! So fun that I took the girls back on Halloween night for trick or treating with their cousins.

I think Halloween is so fun, except when it gets too scary. Some people try to scare little kids, and it really does scare my kids. But I love seeing all the little kids running around in costumes. I love all the chocolate. :) I love all the fun things about it. But I am ready to pack it all away the day after Halloween. We have already moved on to Thanksgiving. Except for two big bags of candy on the fridge.