Three boys and a little lady

Love this face

2012-01-06T10:36:00.002-05:00

Look who's Three!

2012-01-05T23:44:00.006-05:00

Cannot even believe this girl of mine is 3. Lauren had a fun day. She helped bake and decorate her cake, got a haircut that she is very excited about and enjoyed celebrating being 3. She loves her Pinkalicous book and deemed her outfit Pinkalicous and her cake was to be pink too! She was very excited to get a pinkalicous bike of her very own. So cute. We love you Lola girl.

Christmas with a lego twist

2011-11-30T19:16:00.002-05:00

The boys are sharing a room and it is scheduled for it's makeover next week. We call their room the pink palace. Why you say do the boys have the pink palace and the house princess does not. Well the room is quite large and accommodates all 3 boys while we have Uncle Jay staying with us. The room had pink walls and pink carpet. We took up the carpet so we could take advantage of the hard wood floors underneath. I have been holding off on any kind of decorating until the painter comes through and de-pinks the room and paints all the woodwork white. Normally I would be more than mad if someone put stickers on the wall never mind stickers of Leg0 st@rwars action figures. This is what I found above Jake's bed.

It is kind of cool. Luckily it peels of easy:)

We continue to get settled into our new home. Unfortunately our house has not sold yet. We had lots of activity. It is a really nice house and has come in 2nd place twice:( However, in October the market just tanked. We are now renting our house to a nice family in town that is between houses. We are thankful to have someone staying at the house through the winter and happy to help another family caught in a move.

1st Day of School 2011

2011-09-06T22:13:00.005-04:00

Lauren had her 1st day of school today! She is going 2 days a week and has been so excited about going. The school is right next to Daddy's new office so we go by it a lot and she yells "my school". Today she met her teacher and some new "friends" in her class. She had a good day and her teacher loved her. She asked if Lauren could stay longer because she was so fun to have in class. It is so nice to hear sweet things about my sweet girl. She really is an amazing little girl.

We have survived the first day of school at our new schools. Josh and Matt are at the same school. They both seem to like it. It is a much bigger school than we were at previously. The 1st day of school fell on Matt's birthday as well. Matt is officially 10 and in the double digits. After making through the big day we went out to a great pizza place in our new town. Nonni and Uncle Paul also joined in the celebration and joined us at the restaurant. Living closer to family has its perks.

Jake started the 2nd grade in a separate school. He had lots of neighborhood kids at the bus stop which is also a new thing for us. Everyone has been really nice and welcoming. Jake is warming up to his new school. His teacher last year was probably the best teacher I have ever met so she is a hard act to follow.

Summertime

2011-08-26T22:57:00.003-04:00

The kids and I at the beach this summer.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-08-21T13:07:00.007-04:00

Things have been crazy busy here for the few months. What have we been up to? Well, on top of going to the beach, vacationing with extended family, enjoying the kids summer break and working part time, we have been preparing to move. We are not moving all that far but it does entail moving to another state. We are converting my mother's house into one that will accommodate our big family and give her an in-law suite. We are excited to be closer to family and to try a new town and new schools. But with all the excitement comes a lot of stress.

Selling our house with 4 kids home for the summer is tough. Poor dears just want to hang out and I really don't enjoy having to make my house picture perfect EVERY night. We have cleaned out our house and moved quite a bit of stuff (all things that need to be stored in the attic and things needed for daily living). We do not need to move everything at once so we are using the house as our storage unit ( and keeping it staged) as we wait for a buyer. We are still going through all the rooms at my mother's house and helping her part with what is no longer necessary. It is a TON of work. My Mom has embraced the "purge" and we are making progress. We did a ton of stuff very quickly so that we can partially be in our new space for the start of the school year next week. Lauren's room is in good shape ( but not decorated yet), Phil and I have a room that is close to done.

The boys space is still being worked on which is a bummer. Luckily the kids are okay with "camping". Makes me nervous to not have everything set for the first day of school. Not too much I can do about it unfortunately. I would rather have them in the new house before and after school, meeting new friends, then going back to the old house and not feeling like they belong. We are hopeful that we will be more settled in a few more weeks.

Here is Miss Lola on the beach this summer.

My baby girl on Mother's Day

2011-05-08T17:41:00.006-04:00

Little girl with a big ball.

Miss lauren looking so pretty in her yellow dress.

Oh so cute.

Happy mother's Day to me:)

Snuggle Buddies

2011-05-08T17:39:00.004-04:00

Matt and Lauren sharing some snuggle time and watching the Scooby Doo marathon.

Jake so loves his little sister. Love to see my baby boy and baby girl snuggling

This was a good one

2011-03-03T19:19:00.002-05:00

So Lauren had a great day at her cousin's house today. My Mom was watching my 2 nephew's at my sister-in-laws house. We are very excited that Suzie and Paul are expecting a new baby this May...or so I thought. I picked up Jake from school and went to pick up Lauren. we hung out a while at Suzie's house and then headed out to the car to go home.

Jake gets into the car and says: I think Auntie Suzie is going to have a baby.
Me: Yes, She is going to have a baby.
Jake: What are they going to name him?
Me: I don't know. Did you ask Auntie Suzie?
Jake: No. I didn't know if she was having a baby or eating alot of sugar foods.

I have been laughing about this for hours.

First off, I thought he knew she was having a baby. Second, Jake is only 7 but is really not good with hiding his thoughts. He has asked many inappropriate questions at inappropriate times. So as funny as his reaction to Suzie's big baby belly is, it is very impressive that he didn't want to hurt her feelings in case she had just gotten fat.

Yi Yuv You

2011-02-02T19:28:00.002-05:00

I tell Lauren that I love her everyday more times than I can count. On Monday, for the first time, she said it back. A happy day.

And it just keeps coming...

2011-02-01T17:58:00.002-05:00

We have A LOT of snow here. The kids have not had a full week of school since before Christmas. Early release day from school today and most likely no school tomorrow as they are forecasting 12-15 more inches. We have accomplished all of our fun snow day activities. We may bake tomorrow. Fun for the kids, not so great for my "getting back in shape" endeavors.

Look Who's 2

2011-01-12T08:21:00.005-05:00

Our little Lauren turned 2 on January 5th. I cannot even believe that she is 2 already. When I think about the amount of time that we wished for her, longed for her and waited for her I feel like our time with her has been so precious and so short. We celebrated her birthday with big cupcakes and presents. It was a crazy day here with the boys having back to back basketball and Phil being the coach for both of them. Lauren enjoyed her birthday celebration. She has her first friend party on Friday. It was so fun to go and pick out pink decorations and favors.

After Christmas Lauren "gets" what a present is all about. She loves her new metal pots and pans. I think they look more real so she thinks she really is cooking

My favorite Christmas presents

2010-12-30T17:09:00.006-05:00

The boys made Phil and I gifts for Christmas. They were so excited to put them under the tree for us. We feel so lucky to have such thoughtful gifts under the tree.

Jake turns 7!

2010-12-30T15:24:00.007-05:00

Jake turned 7 yesterday! He is growing up way to fast. He is a fun little boy. We enjoy his sense of humor, enthusiasm for life and all experiences that come his way, his love of cats and dogs, generosity as a big brother, his sensitive side and his ability to organize and care for his things. We celebrated Jake's birthday in Maine this year. When we are at home, the kitchen is decorated for your birthday when you wake up in the morning. On the road, we didn't have all the usual hoopla. Phil and I used paper plates and my niece Emily's (officially know as the best niece in the world)nail polish to make a birthday banner. Jake had a birthday lunch at Rosette's and had birthday cake and opened presents. Then we hit the road or the looooong ride home. Jake did get to pick the restaurant for our dinner on the road as well. We thought he would go for Olive G@rden but Mc D's won out in the end.

Christmas at the North Pole

2010-12-30T15:14:00.007-05:00

The day after Christmas we headed to the North Pole to celebrate Christmas with Phi's side of the family. Memere and Pepere live in Northern Maine but the kids think it is aho, skip and a jump form the north pole. It is a long ride so I can see why they think that:) It is always so fun for the whole family to get together. As the family has grown we have needed to rent a house for the time we are all together. The house this year was just a little down the road from Phil's parents. From our windows we watched the sunset over the mountains in Canada. Simply beautiful.

There was no tv or internet at the house we stayed in. Here Emily, Lauren and Jake are watching the Backy@rdigans on the laptop.

Phil, Matt and Kevin playing Kerpl0nk. Big cups and a game of getting a ping pong ball into a cup. Hmmm. I have seen this before.

Christmas!

2010-12-30T14:51:00.018-05:00

Merry Christmas!!!

Matt taking it all in.

Santa left nutcrackers for the boys.

Lauren and her Christmas apple. She didn't care if she opened any gifts...she was just happy to eat an apple.

Jake got what he asked Santa for. Lego star wars!

The boys helping Lauren open her gifts.

Josh finding the Number 1 present on his list. He sent no less than 5 letters to Santa this year to makes he knew that the ip0d touch was what he REALLY wanted.

T'was the Night Before Christmas...

2010-12-30T14:12:00.011-05:00

We had a very fun Christmas Eve. We hosted my side of the family for dinner.
The boys tracked Santa and his stops on the computer/

Pregame snacks.

The merriment begins.

The swapping of the gifts.

Phil's birthday is on Christmas Eve. The kiddo's helped him blow out the candles on his cake.

Opening a present that Matt made for him. It was wrapped 5 times. All that hard work paid off with special coupons made by Matt. Anytime Phil wants to play cribbage or catch he can use his handy coupons.

We are a BIG Christmas birthday family. We call it Festivis (from Seinfeld). We kick off with my Mom and brother's birthday on the 23rd, Phil on the 24th, Jake on the 29th, Pepere on the 31st, ny Nana on Jan 1st(she is turning 95 this year), my uncle on the 2nd and then Lauren on the 5th. I am tired just typing that.

2 year Photo Shoot

2010-12-30T10:10:00.005-05:00

Lauren had her 2 year pictures taken. I know that I am biased, but she is so beautiful. Her eyes are simply stunning.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T20:23:00.007-05:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family this year. We started our day off with the annual Turkey Trot which is a family friendly 3-5 mile run,walk, bike. I didn't go last year as Lauren was just home and for some other reason that I cannot remember. It was really cold this year. Phil, Josh and Matt ran and Pepere, Jake, Lauren and myself walked. It got a little too cold for Jake and about 1/4 mile in we turned around and walked back to the starting line( which is also the finishing line) for hot chocolate. Poor Pepere ended up walking most of the Trot by himself:(

We had a great dinner at Nonni's. The big boys played football outside and he Little's played with all of our old fisher price toys that Nonni saved from when we were little.

We are all doing well here. Life with 4 cuties is very busy. Lauren and I keep very busy while the boys are in school. Once we pick up the boys around 3 life just fast forwards with activities, sports, homework and dinner. Everyone is adjusting to school finally and Lauren is trying her hardest to make conversation. We only get 1 or 2 words out of what she says but is she ever passionate. I hope to post some of our other happenings soon.

Happy Gotcha Day Baby Girl!

2010-09-11T13:52:00.006-04:00

Today it has been 1 year since I first held my baby girl. I cannot believe that a whole year has gone by. Waiting for Lauren felt like it took so long and now a whole year has flown by. One year ago I was blessed to be handed the most beautiful, intelligent, funny, feisty and sweet little girl. Last year on this day Lauren was so scared and so sad it broke my heart. I am happy that this year she is a happy little girl and calling me Mommy. We are celebrating this day with pink cupcakes. We will have a bigger celebration on our Forever Family Day later this week. The day that we were all together finally...forever.

Lauren you are the light and sunshine of our family. We love you so.

Family Visit!

2010-08-19T08:00:00.017-04:00

We had a great visit with my extended family a week or so ago. My cousins came from far and wide to join us at the beach. The kids had a BALL. We had our group of big boys (Josh, Matt, Jake, Ben and Roby), our middle crew (Alex, Zach, Catalina) and the babies ( Lauren, Alyssa, Barbara, Ryan and William). We build sand castles, dug our own pools, dug forts to take on the waves at high tide, boogie boarded, body surfed and took in the wonderful weather. We had great family dinners outside and cooked s'mores and walked for ice cream. Even doing Laundry was a blast ( wink, wink). Here are some pictures from our week.

My crew.

Nonni and her grandchildren

Tracy and family

Suzie an the boys

Shannon and family

Uncle Joe and Nana

Lauren

Lauren and Ryan

Zach and Catalina eating feezepops.

Freeze pop break while creating a beach pool

Jake

Barbara

Alyssa

Tracy and her girls

Enjoying the beach

Playing in the beach pool

Uncle Joe, Nana, Auntie Barbara and Uncle Pete. I wish I had got my mom is this picture too.

The kids and I.

Most of the kids, at high tide, after we tried to have our own photo shoot.

All the kiddos.

Making S'mores

The big boys in the pool

Blueberry Picking

2010-07-28T11:06:00.010-04:00

My crew at the blueberry farm

Lauren

Matt

Josh

Jake

Jake and the big box of blueberries.

Lauren picking blueberries

My nephew Ryan picking blueberries.

Matt nd Nonni's BIGGEST blueberry.

Auntie Suzie's BIGGEST blueberry. Not sure who actually found the BIGGEST...as they were eaten very quickly:)

Matt's haul

Josh's haul

Jake and his blueberry haul

We had a fantastic time picking blueberries with Nonni, Auntie Suzie, Uncle Paul, and cousins William and Ryan. We went out to lunch after where the young and the nap-needy gave us a run for our money. All in all...a great day.

Beach pictures

2010-07-23T09:30:00.010-04:00

We are really enjoying our summer at the beach this year. The weather has been FANTASTIC and we are taking full advantage of all the great beach days. I had the kids sit up by the dunes at the end of the day to take their picture. I took over 50...and these were the best. It is NOT easy to get all 4 to look at the camera(happily) and it is not always Lauren that is not looking/smiling.

Love these pictures of Lauren.

Josh

Jake and a little attitude.

My beautiful beach crew.

I am still working on getting a good picture of Matt.

ps. In the time that I was editing this post Lauren has, climbed on to the kitchen table, gotten into the beach bag and decorated herself with baby powder and written on the coach with a pen and found another pen and drawn on the floor! FYI- Oxy Cle@n M@x Force got the pen out. It's all good :)

Favorite Spot in the House

2010-07-22T10:46:00.003-04:00

Lauren climbs onto the kitchen table about 50 times a day. It's a good things she is so cute.

Lauren & yogurt

2010-07-12T09:00:00.003-04:00

Nonni and the boys

2010-07-12T08:57:00.002-04:00

Cooking with Nonni

2010-07-12T08:47:00.002-04:00

Nonni made pizzelles at the beach. Matt had fun cooking with Nonni

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-12T07:45:00.006-04:00

We celebrated Independence Day at the beach. We watched the parade with all the little kids. Lauren, William, and Ryan getting ready for the parade with Nonni, Auntie Suzie and Uncle Paul. Phil brought the boys and their decorated bike over to be in the parade. It was VERY fun to watch them ride by and throw candy to the crowd.

Lauren's first 4th of July!

Jake and his decorated bike at the end of the parade.

My patriotic crew!

It was sooooo hot. Jake enjoying his Popsicle:)

Later that day we enjoyed time at the beach. We watched the fireworks on the beach that night too. It is so fun. This year we had our new beach friends with us at the beach and all their friends too. It was very fun for the boys. We went through all 144 of he sparklers that I bought:)

Hope everyone else enjoyed their 4th of July.

Matt's Model Rocket Launch

2010-07-12T07:37:00.007-04:00

Matt enjoyed a model rocket bulding camp. This is the final day. We went to the park and launched the rocket.

Rocket set up.

At the ready with Mission Control.

Blast off!

The battle droid that was sent up with the rocket. It survived but was a bit smokey.

Very Fun!!!

Jake's Half Birthday

2010-07-12T07:22:00.004-04:00

We tried something new this year. Jake's birthday is just 4 days after Christmas and we had a friend party and a family party in December. We made a deal that we(Mom & Dad) would give him his big present on his 1/2 birthday this year. We did this, partly because Santa had already gotten him what he really wanted for Christmas and we thought it would be nice to have a special day to look forward too not so soon after Christmas. I think he liked it. He was very excited to get the new Lego H@rry Potter wii game.

Half birthday cake:)

Jake Graduates from Kindergarten!

2010-07-12T07:06:00.006-04:00

Congratulations Jake! My little man graduated from Kindergaren. Here Jake is lined up with some boys from his class waiting to go in.

Jake on stage: Back row, 5th boy in from left. He sang some great songs!

Jake getting his award for "Most Improved Journaling". We are so proud o him.

Performing a favorite- silly class song.

Grooving to a favorite class song.

Josh's Concert

2010-07-12T06:58:00.002-04:00

The end of school is such a crazy busy time. I am just now getting to post some fun we have had.

Josh learned to play trumpet this year. He practiced a lot and performed in the 4th grade band concert in June. Here is a shot of part of the band.

Josh: Sitting down, 3rd boy in playing trumpet. I wish I had a picture of just Josh and his trumpet.

My little fish

2010-06-28T18:47:00.003-04:00

Lauren is a fish! She loves the ocean and the pool. I put Lauren in the pool with swimmies and bubble and she swam across the pool!

Josh Pitching

2010-05-28T08:14:00.003-04:00

I was fortunate to be able to take pictures of Josh pitching as the camera doesn't always make it on to the field with me. I love how the pictures captured the many stages of a pitch. Josh loves baseball and we are so proud of him for all the effort he puts into the game. Luckily Josh had no idea I had the camera so I didn't "embarrass" him...which I frequently do these days when I bring him a gator@de.

Great Job Josh!

Lauren's favorite place to visit

2010-05-25T08:34:00.007-04:00

We spend A LOT of time at the parks and fields right now. Lauren LOVES to go to the playground. I must confess that I enjoy bringing her and watching her smile and giggle. It is so different this time around. I think it is that I only have to watch 1 child verses 3 small ones at the same time that makes it more fun or maybe it is just more relaxing. The boys are really great about bringing Lauren down the big slides as are many of the 3rd grade girls from Matt's class.

Lauren loves to feel a breeze in her face and hair and it always brings on a giggle.

The FAVORITE playground spot. She hops from 1 bouncy animal to the next. If the bigger kids come along and get them to bounce higher all the better.

Busy Time

2010-05-08T08:54:00.005-04:00

We are now in the full throws of the baseball season. I think we are on a field just about every day of the week. It is a bit challenging with Lauren but I really love getting to see my boys play. Josh pitched the first game of the season which was exciting. So much pressure for a little guy. It's tough on the mama too. I am on the edge of my seat sending "strike him out" messages telepathically.

Over vacation I took a small road trip with the kids to the beach. Lauren got her first taste of life at the beach. I put her down, barefoot, on the cool beach sand and was excited to see her reaction. She didn't pick her feet up immediately, which most kids do the first time. She just started walking around on the sand. She headed down the hill and hit the wet low tide sand. That didn't phase her either. She stepped through some very cold puddles and thought it was great. Sh walked all the way to the ocean's edge. Once the ocean waves tickled her feet I thought for sure she would be done. NOPE. She loved it and kept walking into the cold New England water! She will be a beach bunny for sure. That's my girl! Unfortunately I was not able to get ANY pictures. She requires both eyes and hands at the ready as she would like nothing better that to swim with the fishes.

The boys are doing well. Josh and Jake each have a karate test today to move up in the ranks. They are very excited. Once Josh earns his new belt he will move up into Matt's class and that will help with our busy spring schedule.

Matt, Jake and I are reading H@rry Potter and searching for any time that we can read together as we cannot wait to see what will happen in book 6. This is one of my favorite things to do with the boys. Josh just finished the last book in the series. So exciting for him to accomplish reading all the books himself...but sad for the story to end.

Here are a few Lauren pic's.

Looking all glammed up in her faux furry coat

Lauren waking up in the morning.

Yet another attempted escape caught on film. She is like a little mouse. This girl can squeeze through the smallest of openings to explore off limit areas.

Busy Girl

2010-04-22T21:01:00.009-04:00

Rocking the pigtails.

Lauren just love to be in the mix. If you are doing something she wants in on the action. Here she is trying her hardest to join in on the computer games with the boys!

Lauren thought Memere had something good and she was right. Memere shared her M&M's with her 1 by one.

Jake was taking a shower. I guess it sounded fun. Lauren climbed right in PJ's and all. She was not too happy to be taken out.

The BIG haircut

2010-04-22T20:50:00.004-04:00

Matt has been letting his hair grow for quite some time. He has BEAUTIFUL curly hair. The longer his hair got the more curls you could see. However, when he played soccer, went out to recess or Karate his hair would get bigger. He decided that it was time for a cut.

Here is my cutie pie before

And after

So handsome

Lauren's First Easter

2010-04-05T10:02:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter

Lunch with a Friend

2010-03-19T19:12:00.002-04:00

Lauren had a lunch date with her friend Max today. They enjoyed a lovely dish of macaroni and cheese and pears.

Lauren

Lauren and Max hanging with their sippy cups. So darn cute!

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2010

2010-03-17T19:46:00.007-04:00

We gave it a good shot this year. Three great traps were built with varying methods for catching the elusive Leprechaun. Unfortunately, we did not catch one. We will not be heading to Hawaii as we had hoped. Darn! Those Leprachauns are quite tricky. They rustled all through Jake's trap, stuck Lego's guys over the sticky surface of Matt's and made swinging Lego vines to get into Josh's trap. They turned our milk green, turned our toilets green and tp'd our bathrooms! They did leave cool green sunglasses and some chocolate gold coins for the boys though.

The cutest leprachans I have ever seen.

Traps are set...Wish us luck

2010-03-16T22:13:00.004-04:00

The boys have there Leprachaun traps set out for the night. Jake's trap is the one in th picture above. Wish us luck. We really want to catch a Leprachaun. If we do...were taking a trip to Hawaii.

Say what?

2010-03-15T08:36:00.004-04:00

Our house can sometimes be a crazy little bee hive. We are so fortunate to have 3 great boys and our sweet little girl. As it goes with busy households sometimes we don't always pay full attention to everyone when we are talking. Here is a little scenario that I overheard while doing laundry. Phil and the 4 kids are in the kitchen. Matt just had his Karate test and moved up a level. All 3 boys do karate and must do push ups and sit ups at home and keep a log.

Lauren: Having a snack in her high chair
Matt: Talking about how excited he is with his new belt.
Josh: Gets down on the floor and starts doing push ups.
Jake: Gets down from the table to join him.

Phil: Those are great push ups. You boys have a lot of push ups and sit ups for the new log.
Josh: Finishing his push up, sits down on the floor and looks up an at Phil and says, " Carlos and Charlies."
Phil: Oh is that what they are calling them these days.
Josh: Just looks at Phil who is wearing a shirt from Carlos and Charlies.

As I write this I am chuckling to myself. Phil never noticed that Josh had switched topics and really thought that they were now calling sit ups and push ups, Carlos and Charlies.

1st Anniversary of Lauren's referrral

2010-02-28T09:22:00.007-05:00

I can't believe we first saw Laurens face 1 year ago. It feels like just yesterday. I had planned on posting yesterday as that is our official referral date. The power outage made it a little tough.

Our girl 1 year later

Her face is so sweet and so beautiful. She was just 7 weeks old when we saw her picture.

I had high hopes that we would receive a referral in February. I originally thought that we would be matched the previous summer. Then our original agency unexpectedly closed, at the end of July 2008, via email ( even that I got second hand) and then we had to wait to see which agency would be picking us up. August came and went. Finally in September we were fortunate to become a Gladney family, however we still had to wait even longer. As out new agency got up to speed and build a good repore with our Taiwan agency, September and October went by. A few referrals started making their way to our agency but not for us as November, December and January crawled by. I new we were getting close in February. Although February is the shortest month on the calender everyday felt like a week. The closer we got to finding Lauren the harder it got to wait. I know that sounds crazy and I thought it was kind of crazy when other people talked about it. Once I was living it I totally got it. The end of the waiting is the HARDEST to take. We waited out Chinese New Year and finally at the end of February our agency began to receive a few referrals. I thought we would be next but we were not. The lovely Tessa found her family as well as the handsome Po Chun. At the end of the week I still had not heard anything. By Friday at noon I was heartbroken to think that we would not see our babies face again this month. As a consolation to the boys we got ready to head out to Chuck 3 Cheese.

As we started to pack up to head out the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw private caller. I was again deflated. I was so hoping i would see out agencies name. a minute later my cell phone rang as a private caller as well. To my surprise it was our case worker Lindsay and it was the call we had been longing for for so long. She was not in the office but wanted to tell me about our referral. She told us her birthday and that she was the most beautiful baby she had seen. She told me she was emailing me 3 pictures, a short video and all the other background/medical info.

I got off the phone and quickly brought the boys to the computer. We were all so excited to finally see who our girl was. We waited for the email and then we all saw her face for the very first time together. She was so sweet and beautiful. What an exciting moment to share for us to share together.

The phone call

Josh and Matt seeing their sister for the first time.

We feel blessed to have Lauren in our lives. I am such a lucky mommy. I have 3 amazing boys and the sweetest little girl. 1 year later and we are all completely in love with Lauren. She is an amazing addition to our family. She brings light and sparkle to everything. Happy Referral Day baby girl.

Big storm

2010-02-28T08:50:00.003-05:00

We had a big nor'easter blow through the area on Friday night. We really thought we would be in good shape since we had taken down a ton of trees after the ice storm last year. Unfortunately we lost power ( and missed the ladies figure skating that I was looking forward too) and have a HUGE tree down on our snow hill AGAIN. Here is the view from our second floor. The tree missed the house by about 6 feet.

We were lucky to get our power back pretty quick. Bummer about the tree though.

Lauren Goes Skiing

2010-02-23T21:10:00.007-05:00

We were fortunate to get away for a weekend of skiing. Here the boys are heading out for the day. Phil is such a great (and brave) Dad. He took all 3 boys, of varying abilities, out on the mountain.

As you can see Lauren had a ball. Tee hee. I got many comments as we waited for the boys to finish skiing. My favorite was from a gentlemen that said that he saw a lot of people sleeping under the tables during college week but this was the first sleeping on the table. For the record, I did try and wake her up and did move from one location to the next with absolutely no change. On the plus side...she loved the pool:)

1st Haircut in the States

2010-01-28T13:58:00.003-05:00

I took Lauren to get a bang trim the other day. Her bangs were getting long. I was toying with the idea of letting them grow out. She has such a beautiful face that I love to see it. She also has baby bangs still growing in underneath so I opted for a little trim in hopes that the new bangs will catch up eventually. Here is a few before shots.

The 1st hair cut in the US.

Ta Da...All cleaned up and ready to go. She is such a cutie pie!

Jake hopped into the seat after Lauren and got himself a haircut
Style'n with the blue hair.

Snow fun

2010-01-28T13:38:00.005-05:00

Lauren finally got to go out and play in the snow. They boys showed her the ropes and she had a ball.

Snowmen by Josh and Matt. Josh's is wearing blue and Matt's s wearing red.

Caught in the act

2010-01-28T13:16:00.002-05:00

I tell ya this girl of mine is a climber. The other day I walked Jake's friend to the door and talked with the mom for a few minutes. I left Lauren in her highchair eating peas. She loves them. I thought I had left her with plenty to keep her occupied for a few minutes. Nope. She finished most of what was on the tray. Saw the container on the island and wiggled herself free and up onto the counter. Lauren realizing she was caught

Trying to make a fast get away

After I recovered from the shock (yes my heart stopped for a second there) I was able to get to the camera and capture it all on film.

We celebrated Lauren's birthday with a few friends. My friend Michelle hosted a fun little party for our girl. She was very happy to get another Big Cupcake cake:)

On the move

2010-01-11T08:22:00.002-05:00

Lauren is now a full fledged walker! She toddles all about the house and is really enjoying her new shopping card. She is a mover. Thank you to my Nana for the really cute sweater she knit. She looks so cute in it with jeans.
Lauren is also into climbing. Holy cow she is into everything. She climbed up into the dishwasher and wanted to help. She climbed out of her high chair last night and this morning, and got herself onto the kitchen island. Bummer. The high chair was the one place I thought I could put her and not worry what she got in to.
*Outfit disclaimer* She is wearing her spaghetti clothes aka older brothers clothes that can get totally ruined and no one cares...pants were too full of spaghetti to wear anymore.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

2010-01-06T08:23:00.003-05:00

Happy 1st Birthday Lauren!

We are all just thrilled to have Lauren home with us and celebrating her 1st birthday. It was a very happy day for us. I know there is a women in Taiwan who may have found this day to be difficult and my heart goes out to Lauren's birth mother on this day as well.

Lauren was VERY excited for her cake! Thank you Michelle for the amazing cupcake cake.

Happy Girl

2009-12-20T14:15:00.003-05:00

I put pigtails in Lauren's hair this week. Oh My Gosh! She a cutie pie. Lauren will be turning 1 after Christmas and this picture of her really make her look like a little girl.

Lauren is 11 months old

2009-12-06T20:50:00.005-05:00

Lauren celebrated turning 11 months old this past Saturday. It is so bitter sweet. I am so happy to celebrate these milestones with her and yet feel like my time with her as a baby is rushing by so fast. She is as cute as a button and brings a smile to everyone she meets. I attempted to clean out the linen closet (yes, attempted...not accomplished). I found this robe my boys used to wear. I had Lauren give it a test drive for old time sake. She was so cute I had to take her picture.
Lauren and Mommy

I tried to do a little photo shoot with Lauren this weekend. I had her wear some fun holiday dresses. Here are some of the cute pics.

She is just so sweet!

Some fun facts about Lauren at 11 months:

*She crawls VERY fast.

*She is easy going, smart and fun.

*She loves to eat real food. She likes chicken, potatoes, pasta, meatballs, cereal, pancakes, yogurt, broccoli, peas, carrots, cucumbers, grapes, strawberries, blueberries. Well, actually, I haven't found anything she doesn't like to eat.

*She loves her bath. She crawls straight to the tub when we say tubby
.*She has 8 teeth

* She loves her brothers

* She squeals with delight when her brother get in the car at school pickup

*She gives great hugs and gently pats Mommy's back and arm. So sweet.

*She loves our 2 cats and yells "keeeeeeee" whenever she sees them.

*She sleeps through the night

*She is not a fan of formula but does like apple juice and water
*She has turned getting dressed into an aerobic work out for Mom.

*She stands and can bend done and pick things up with out holding on

*She took 1 step toward daddy.

* She babbles all the time

* She loves to play and loves to be around kids

* She knows the sign for all done

* She says numi-num when she is hungry

* Phil has nicknamed her "the vacuum cleaner" because she puts anything that she finds on the floor in her mouth. Anything!

Lauren is such an amazing addition to our family. We are so happy that she is home with us.

We love you Lauren!

Ginger bread Houses

2009-12-06T20:37:00.005-05:00

Today we built and decorated gingerbread houses. The boys love to decorate them. It is a VERY messy project in our house. Lauren hung out at the table and had some graham crackers while we worked on the houses. We ended up building her a little house our of graham crackers and Matt decorated it for her. The works of art are (from left to right) Josh, Jake, Matt and Lauren

Matt concentrating very hard on roof design.

Matt, Phil and Jake decorating.

All my boys :)
Lauren hanging out at the table with us.

Lauren's 1st Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T21:39:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! We are so fortunate to have Lauren in our lives and celebrating her 1st Thanksgiving with us. She is such a sweetie and her brothers are so great at helping take care of her. Last weekend Lauren was able to meet Phil's extended family. Here is a picture of Lauren having a chat with Diane and Sarah.
A picture of all the girls. Yes we have ALOT of boys in our family. We really cherish our girls.

All the kiddos on Phil's side:)

Miss Lauren trying hard to get a chance to climb up the stairs
at Nonni's house today. I love her little outfit. Thanks to Shelley from my book club for the very cute outfit.

Happy Thanksgiving baby girl!

Trick or Treat Fun

2009-11-04T23:27:00.003-05:00

Happy Halloween from our Clone Tro0per, Anakin Skywalk*r, Harry Pott&r and Cheetah Ballerina.

Happy Fall

2009-10-27T11:35:00.000-04:00

Matt's Great Game

2009-10-25T19:14:00.002-04:00

***Caution: This is a post for grandparents****
Matt had a great soccer game today. His team won. Matt scored 3 great goals for his first ever hat trick. My friend J shot these pictures. They so capture Matt's excitement after goal number 3.

Although we do not have a picture of Jake playing soccer he too scored a goal today. Yeah Jake!

Not to be left out, Josh had a great baseball game this weekend. Josh was able to pitch 2 innings for his team. He got his first ever strike out as a pitcher and did a fantastic job.
Our boys had a great weekend.

Life with Lauren

2009-10-25T10:46:00.002-04:00

I have been a very bad blogger lately. I have to say that life has gotten in the way of my computer time. That's a good thing though:) Here are some pictures of happenings around the house. Lauren LOVES our cats. She squeals with delight when either cat walks in the room. On her first day home she was not too sure of our furry friends. I do not think she had ever met a cat before. Here is Riley letting Lauren pat him.
Last weekend in the middle of October we got snow! This is definitely not the norm here in New England. Even though it wasn't super cold Jake just had to put on full snow gear. He worked hard on the 1st snowman of the season.

Lauren and I stayed indoors for the snow storm. You can see the snow flying outside her window. The snow flakes were HUGE.

Lauren spending some time in her garden

Lauren and Daddy hanging out in the toy/lego room. Phil was helping the boys build a cool ship and Lauren wanted in on the action
She tried her hardest to get into one of the lego bins.

The picture is for my cousin Tracy. Thank you for all the great gifts for Lauren and the boys. We had so much fun opening everything. We can't wait to see you all at Christmas

Thank you also to my great book club. I know everyone did not get to see what was in the wonderful basket so I took a picture.

I have more pictures to upload and share. I will have to make a separate post after all the sports today. I just wanted to get some new pictures of Lauren out.

Off to the Game

2009-10-11T08:33:00.003-04:00

Josh and Phil are off to the Red Sox game today. Josh is truly one of the biggest fans in the Red Sox Nati*on . At 9 years old he knows more stats, both current and not, than many adult fans. He has on several layers of Red Sox apparel, his glove for catching fly balls, and a ball and sharpie for getting autographs. He is so excited!!! Have fun Josh and GO SOX!

Meeting Friends

2009-10-10T19:52:00.003-04:00

Lauren and I got together this past Friday with friends from our old Playgroup. It was so good to catch up with the moms. There are 4 of us who have grown our families through international adoption. My friend S lovingly refers to this crew as the Asian Invasion. Little girl A and sweet boy M came home from Korea this past spring and have been waiting for Lauren to arrive. Another sweet girl, M is a little bit older and is in preschool. Here are the 3 youngest playing in the baby friendly area of my kitchen

Here is a picture of Lauren's face after M gave her a kiss. The stunned look on her face is too funny.

Happy Nine Months Lauren!

2009-10-05T20:27:00.003-04:00

Little Miss Lauren turned months old today. I was so happy to finally be with her on such a special occasion and to take her month picture in the chair like we did for all the boys. Sigh...Maybe we can make 9 months last for 90 days. I would really like to enjoy her babyness longer:)
Here is big brother Matt helping to get a picture. She is such a mover!

We are ALL so in love with this girl. She is the perfect baby girl for our family. Happy Nine Months Lauren! We are so happy you are home.

. .

Some quick pic's

2009-09-25T20:45:00.002-04:00

We ( or I) made it through the first week home! We are crazy busy here so I have not had time to finish posting about the trip, our homecoming, or anything for that matter. We successfully made it to soccer x 2 boys, baseball x 1 boy, karate x 3 boys, 1st doctor's appointment x 1 girl, 3rd grade open house, 4th grade open house, 1st parent teacher conference, school pictures x 3 boys and class elections x 2 boys. I think this week was a little more packed than the average week, so that is good news. Next week should feel relatively calm after this (ha, ha).

A big shout out to Josh and Matt who decided to run for class representative in the school council this week. They made posters, wrote speeches and helped design fliers. I was holding my breathe at pick up and was met by 2 smiling and excited boys. Both Josh and Matt were elected as class reps!!!!! Way to go boys. I am so proud of them just for running and very excited for them to have won.

Here is a picture of Lauren with a beautiful hat that was made for her by my fellow yahoo buddy Heather. It is he cutest hat and she looks adorable in it. Thanks Heather!
Here is Lauren hanging out in her room. I Love this outfit:)

This is not the best picture but it does capture big brother Matt taking good care of Lauren while helping her pet the cat.

I never got a chance to post this picture before I left for Taiwan. Fellow gift swap buddy/yahoo group friend Joanna painted this for Lauren. I just love it! Thanks Joanna!

This picture is for Auntie Shannon. Thanks for the super cute outfit! She looks good in purple:)

I hope to have more time to post pictures and fun trip notes next week...

We are Home

2009-09-18T23:32:00.004-04:00

We are home and we are doing really good. I apologize for the lack of posts. I was so tired at the end of my days in Taiwan that I was falling asleep before I got a chance to download pictures or blog. We arrived home on Wednesday night after our layover/stay over in San Fransisco. Lauren did great with the flights. We were all hit with jet lag as we were flying home from CA and have been recovering as much as possible the last couple of days. The boys just love their baby sister. It is really amazing to watch them care for and play with her. I will try and post more about our trip and many more pictures this weekend.
Thank you to everyone who commented here and sent emails. It really made the trip even more fun to share the journey and be cheered on by you.
Robin

Wulu Village

2009-09-12T20:49:00.002-04:00

I tried to blog last night but was sooooo tired and blogger would NOT let me upload any pictures. Here are some quick photo's of our day at Wulu Village. At the Wulu village we got to see many dances, artifacts and woven tapestry that is part of the aboriginal culture. This was really a very interesting field trip for us. It was especially meaningful for us as Lauren is 1/2 aboriginal herself. Lauren's heritage comes from the Amis tribe. Every where we went the other aboriginal people would stop and say Amis and comment on how beautiful she was. Here is Lauren trying on a traditional baby headdress. Too cute!

Here is Lauren with Mr. Yeh and Alex. They are the most amazing med. They love babies and love sharing their culture. They make this trip so fun.

Here we are at the top of the mountain heading into the Wulu village. So beautiful!

Miss Lauren sleeping and sucking her thumb.

Here is a photo from my mom's camera. This is me being given Lauren for the 1st time as I walked into the foster mothers house. Amazing.

Off for the day with Mr. Yeh and Alex:)

Gotcha!

2009-09-11T09:09:00.003-04:00

At long last Lauren is in my arms. I first held her at about 2:00 today and she has not been out of my arms since.
We went to the foster mother's house and as we pulled up I could see Mrs Tung, through the open door, sitting down holding Lauren. I could hardly wait for Mr. Yeh to park the car so I could go to her. She took a few minutes to warm up. so I played and talked to her and asked Mrs. Tung questions until she was ready to come to me. She was was very brave. Mrs. Tung told me that Lauren is a very easy going baby, loves to eat, loves to play and is very intelligent. She is also sweet, fun and busy.
Once we left Mrs. Tung's house we went to the baby store and bought all kinds of good supplies for Lauren. We are set with diaper, wipes, formula and baby food for our stay here,
We headed back to the agency to sign 1 more paper, Lauren's birth mother was there to meet us. We talked and I gave her the gifts that I had brought for her. We both have the same charm on a bracelet representing Lauren. This meeting is such a gift for Lauren and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity.
We headed back to Taipei and ran into some rush hour traffic. The ride home was very long. Lauren was very calm, hung out a bit and was able to nap.
Once we got back to the hotel room we were able to do a quick sk!pe session with Phil and the boys. Lauren loved watching and listening to Phil. Josh was so sweet talking to her. After the call Lauren started to feel the loss of her foster mother. She was quite sad and cried for over an hour. She has calmed down but will not let me put her down for any reason. She is sitting in my lap right now as I type.
Today was an amazing day. I feel blessed to be Lauren's mother. She is so tired and has had such a big day. I am going to try and get her to sleep.

Walking out the door to get Lauren

2009-09-10T22:47:00.003-04:00

I am walking out the door right now. i am so nervous. i have butterflies in my stomach and my hands are shaking. i can't wait!

It's today, it's today, it's today!!!!!!

2009-09-10T18:34:00.002-04:00

It is 6:30 am here in Taiwan and I just woke up. My first thought was: It's today, it's today, it's today. I could actually here voice from Stuart Little chanting it in my head:). It is today! The sun is rising over the mountain outside my window. It is a beautiful day. I slept good last night and I am feeling happy, excited and ready. At 11:00 I will be leaving the hotel for a 2 1/2 hour ride to go meet Lauren.

The night before Lauren is in my arms

2009-09-10T09:45:00.005-04:00

Here I am in Taiwan on the eve of meeting my daughter. This is so amazing and almost unbelievable. I feel as if I have just run a marathon over the course of the last few weeks just to get to her. I was feeling a little scared earlier. The same scared I felt right before having my boys but with a twist. Will she be sad tomorrow? When will her little heart realize that her foster mother is not coming to get her. Will she let me soothe her and let her heart believe that she is safe and loved and that I am never leaving. Will she have smiles for me? Is she crawling?

This is big. This is so big! I was strolling down the streets of Taipei looking up at Taipei 101 and thinking how fun it was. Then I thought, tomorrow I will be walking down this same street with my daughter. Tomorrow I meet my daughter. Tomorrow changes my life. Tomorrow changes my boys lives. How lucky we all are.

Lauren's bed is made. Her pink kitty is waiting for her to snuggle with and my arms are waiting to snuggle her.

The gifts for all ready for the wonderful people in Taiwan who have had a hand in bringing Lauren home to us,. We are all set to go.

Below are photos from yesterdays travel and today's adventures. This was our first outing in the city by our selves. My mom and I had lunch at a little walk in restaurant. Here I am using chopsticks for the 1st time. I actually did pretty good! The food is very yummy here.

Here is a picture of myself and my mom Elle just about to board the flight for San Fransisco. We were soooo excited to finally get on that plane and head toward Lauren

We arrived in Taipei at 5:30 am local time after flying for 13 1/2 hours.

Mr. Yeh and his son Alex met us at the airport this morning. Here is a\Alex holding their sign for us. It is so funny to see my first and middle name being used to identify me. I like that this signs says Robin Elizabeth and Elisabeth as we are here to get Lauren Elisabeth. Alex got up super early to accompany his dad to the airport to great us. After dropping us off at the hotel he was heading off to school for the day.

Okay- It is time for me to go to bed so I am ready for our girl tomorrow.

On our way to Taipei!

2009-09-09T02:43:00.002-04:00

We are en route to Taiwan. My Mom and I left Boston at 6:00 this evening and are now in San Fransisco awaiting out 1:00am check in. We had a great flight from Boston. We watched The Proposal. and enjoyed some refreshments:) we were full of energy in the first leg of this trip. Now I am sooooo tired. I can't wait to get on the flight so I can finally sleep. It will be 4;30 am ( New England time) when we finally get ready for take off.
Things have been CRAZY trying to get ready for this trip and school. Although Phil seems to think I am the CRAZY one. I actually tought I was handling things well. I was not sleeping much getting things done late into the night. I actualy reaarranged the guest room/Matt's room with him sleeping in his bed. I never would have guessed that nesting is just as strong no matter how your baby comes to you. So maybe I was a little crazy:)
Phil has everything all set for the boys and I am sure they will have a great "boys' weeek with Daddy. I am so excited to finally be on my way to Lauren. Just 2 days and she will be in my arms
I never got a chance to post the boys first day of school or check in with my favorite blogging buddies.
Thank you to all my friends and family who have called and emailed and even texted well wishes for our trip. Sorry iIwas not able to get back to everyone. It is so nice to know we have a great cheering section as we come down the home strectch

Stay tuned for the next post when we arrive in Taipei!

Happy Birthday Matt!

2009-08-30T21:10:00.006-04:00

Happy 8th birthday to my Matt! We had a great day of celebration for Matt today. He started his morning off with bacon and a vanilla inst*nt breakfast shake for breakfast (his pick) followed by presents. We also celebrated with a friend party today. Here is my big guy blowing out his candles. I thought it was a cool picture as you can see half the candles being blown out.

Matt's party was at a semi-pro baseball game. As the birthday boy he was able to meet a player and have his hat autographed ( he also got an autogragphed ball for big brother Josh:).

Here is Matt throwing out the first pitch to the game.

We had an added bonus with our baseball game. We got to see Dice K pitch the first few innings as he is getting ready to head back to the Red Sox in the next week or so.

All in all it was a great day.

Happy Birthday Matty! We love you!

How We're Doing

2009-08-27T06:28:00.005-04:00

I have to say that I have that nervous butterfly feeling again in my stomach. I was doing well organizing what I call the Tri-fecta of events. Back to school, Matt's birthday and traveling to Taiwan. In my book any one of these events is BIG and requires care and attention.

Well- my tri-fecta just went from 3 events to 4 events. Not even sure what to call that. Jake has been under the weather for 11 days. It started with a fever( 24 hours) and moved on to a cough. On Tuesday he was diagnosed with Pneumonia. The poor guy. He is usually a little tornado and has been lying about the house and laying down at the beach. So not like him. He has started taking antibiotics and rebounding a little bit, but he HATES liquid medicine and that was the only kind they prescribed. Three times a day we have a small battle over this. We had to go to the emergency room to see a doctor and get x-rays. We were told that we needed to follow up with are pediatrician and possibly have more x-rays as his first one showed signs of asthma. Poor Jake.

I decided that was it for me. We are leaving the beach a few days early and heading home. I will be packing everything up today. I hope to bring him back to the doctors on Friday and find out more information. Did I mention that this could be catchy. All three boys have been sleeping in the same room and we have all been coughed on directly in the face. We need to get Jake well and keep everyone well. I cannot get sick and I can't have anyone else get sick. There is simply too much to be done and not enough time.

Okay, I feel a little better now.

PS. Congratulations to Jami on receiving Final Ruling! You can follow her journey by following the link to w8n4#2&3

Hurricane Bill and Jake News

2009-08-23T20:06:00.006-04:00

My baby boy has done a lot of growing up this summer. Tonight he lost his first tooth!
(Memere, Pepere & Nonni...this picture is for you.)

Hurricane Bill skirted the East coast this weekend. We were very fortunate to have beautiful weather with some fantastic surf to check out.

The waves were BIG and the surf was STRONG. You did not have to venture out far to catch a wave. The beach was packed and you could hear the pounding of the waves and the laughter of everyone enjoying being tossed about. Everyone but Jake went in and it was soooo much fun. Poor Jake has been sidelined with an end of summer cold and ended up taking a nap on the beach.

Phil and Matt getting ready to boogie board.

Matt, Phil and Josh in the surf. The pictures do not capture the size of the waves.

Waves upon waves crashing in.

Matt showing off his hurricane moves.

This last picture is right as we were leaving the beach. They officially closed the beach at high tide. The tide(without the storm) was to be the highest tide of the month and with the storm surge it was extra high. Matt is posing at the entrance to the beach. Notice the benches on either side of him and the water mark on the sand where the waves were coming to rest! Shortly after we left we heard that they told everyone left standing on the beach that they had to go too. It was quite something to see.

About a week and half ago Jake hit another milestone. As I was out back to school and baby shopping Phil took the boys to Tennis. As the story goes another 5 year old girl made fun of Jake's training wheels. He was beyond mad and told Phil that he was taking them off as soon as he got home! Phil called me and filled me in. I didn't think he was ready balance wise but boy was I wrong. Here is what happened:

The training wheels were taken off. Phil gave Jake a running push.

Phil ran next to him for a few steps

And off he went!

And he kept going and going and going. Thats it, 1 push and he was done. Way to go Jake!!! We are so proud of you.

P.S. Jake rode his bike to the candy shop the next morning and guess who he saw. Yup, the girl who made fun of his bike. He sat proudly on his bike and let the girl take a good long look at his 2 wheel bike. The look on his face was priceless.

Travel Plans

2009-08-22T07:25:00.002-04:00

We have bought our tickets to Taiwan! This was a fun and scary thing to do. On one had I was so excited that we are going to go and get Lauren finally. Then I looked at the flights and got a dose of reality. The going there doesn't phase me, it's the flight back, re-entry and jet-lag that are a little scary. We decided to spend the night in San Francisco to break up the LONG flight home and to rest and regroup. I know that I will be dying to get home to the boys but I wanted to make sure that when I walked off the plane to meet them that I was ready to give them all the love and attention that they ( and I) will need. I have never been away from them for so long. Why is it that everything has a bittersweet component?

Here is are schedule:

Tuesday 9/8 Depart for Taiwan in the evening
Thursday 9/10 Arrive in Taipei at the crack of dawn
Friday 9/11 Lauren is placed in our arms
Saturday 9/12 Sightseeing
Sunday 9/13 Sightseeing
Monday 9/14 AIT appointment
Tuesday 9/15 Pick up visa, evening flight out of Taipei, spend the night in San Francisco
Wednesday 9/16 Flight home and our Forever Family Day

Our amazing social worker is working on our sightseeing schedule with Mr. Yeh and once I have more info I will share.

I think our trip will be here before I know it. We have 1 week left of summer vacation and that always goes by to quickly. Matt's birthday is next weekend and then the kids go back to school. To be honest...I could take another month of summer vacation with my boys:)

For now Phil and I are going to take the kids to the beach and check out the waves. Hurricane Bill should be kicking up some heavy surf off the New England coast.

We have Final!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-18T11:17:00.002-04:00

We got the call a little while ago. Lauren is officially ours and we will be traveling around Sept 9th to go and bring her home:) I am so excited! We are all so excited. I have been hoping for the call and nervous about travel dates. The dates work so great for our family. I will be home for Matt's birthday and party and the boys 1st day of school ( Jake's first bus ride!). I will have just enough time to get the kids back into a school routine before I take off.

Stay tuned for more details...

Lauren in motion

2009-08-17T23:53:00.005-04:00

Our girl in motion.

Here is our August video update of Lauren. She looks so cute and mobile! I am going to need some gates sooner rather than later I think.

We also got updated measurements of our sweetie.

As of July 29th:

Height: 25.5 inches

weight: 16.5 pounds

I think she may be a peanut:)

I wanted to say a special thank you to everyone who commented and sent me e-mails after my freak out post. It meant so much to read your kind words and great advice. I am so thankful. I have gone shopping and organized much. I did get a baby carrier ( the M*by D), plan Matt's party and buy some back to school clothes for the boys. I think I am ready for the call now:)

Little Miss August

2009-08-14T21:10:00.002-04:00

It's update day! Here are the latest pictures of Lauren. Look at our girl sitting up! You go girl. We are so in love. It won't be long before we can hold her in our arms, we hope.

Congratulations Tracy and Family!

We want to welcome Lauren's newest cousin who arrived this afternoon in Texas. Welcome to the world Barbara! My mother and I have nicked named her GiGi (Gorgeous Girl). Pictures to follow as soon as they make it here via e-mail. We have seen her precious, 7 minutes old, face via text and let me tell you that she is a cutie pie.

10 Day Waiting Period Officially Over!

2009-08-10T07:02:00.003-04:00

This past Friday market the 10th day in our mandatory 10 day waiting period. This means that as of today we COULD receive our Final Ruling and be invited to Taiwan to get Lauren. Holy Cow! I am VERY excited to get final ruling and go get our girl. I am also FREAKING out at all that I need to accomplish. Here are some of the highlights that woke me up at 4:30 this morning:

I think I need to get a diaper bag . I usually do not carry a traditional diaper bags and can usually make a larger pocketbook or tote function as a diaper bag. But...I am going to Taiwan, I will be doing LOTS of site seeing with Lauren and traveling for an entire day on an airplane with a baby I do not know yet. How many different outfits will I need to have on hand? Diapers? Toys? Do I need a big diaper bag?

Will the Moby baby carrier/wrap work for me? IF so what color should I get. I like the black because it will go with everything but then again I really like the lavender color, but lavender does not look good with my red hair. The brown is nice too. Definitely not the blue:)

Where do I find the locket I want to get Lauren's birth mother? I looked at many of them on line this morning (5:00am) Can I get a silver one or will that be considered not nice enough? I am trying to go with the sentiment of the gift. They have it in white gold too, but will that be considered too much? How do I get a picture of Lauren in there?

All the other gifts I need to buy for our trip...Should I bring gift bags or gift wrap and ribbon? Will sand dollars/star fish survive the trip? Do people like salt water taffy? (very beachy gift) What kind of Lobster themed gift could I do?

Where and when can I get a pretty little dress for Lauren to wear on Gotcha day. I think I need more hair clips. I want to get some of those cute head bands with big flowers that clip on. Where do I buy these so they look nice and not cheesy. Maybe I should ask Hannah Claire's mom this....she has the best hair accessories.

Then there is all the August back to school stuff:

Matt's birthday party- When should we do it, what kind of party, how big, what if I have to travel and Phil has to manage the whole sha-bang. When do I need to get the invites out by. Do not forget about the gift bags.

Back to school shopping- Does everyone need a new backpack? Where the heck did I put those supply lists the boys brought home from school in June and what exactly has to go in the "me" bag that Josh needs to bring in the 1st day of school.

Fall sports: Does Josh need new baseball shoes? Should I be getting Matt the travel soccer backpack and jacket that I see all the kids sporting. I am not sure if it is necessary but I don't want him to be the only one not sporting the town gear. Are all the parents still doing this? I know things have changed with the economy.

So those are my biggies for today. If you have any advice or opinions on any of the above mentioned please feel free to comment or e-mail me with suggestions. I need some help here people.

Ok- just breath....

Sending Well Wishes

2009-08-06T21:55:00.002-04:00

Some of my blogging buddies are over in Taiwan right now. Two families are over there to be united with their beautiful baby girls. Another family has just been united with their adorable little boy. You can follow their journeys by following the links below to Hello, Hola and Nihao, Red Thread to My Daughter and Live, Laugh, Love.

Congratulations to Lisa and her family on their beautiful new daughter Paige. Congratulations to Joyce and her family for reaching the end of their long, long journey to finally have Trey in their arms. I am anxiously awaiting the gotcha day of Michelle and her daughter Tessa!

Currently there is a Typhoon baring down on Taiwan. Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers

Happy 7 Months!

2009-08-06T10:34:00.002-04:00

Lauren turned 7 months old yesterday. Happy 7 Months baby girl!

Family Fun at the Beach

2009-08-06T09:26:00.003-04:00

We had a really fun weekend with family visiting us at the beach. Mike and Shannon drove ALONG way to come visit. We had a couple of good days at the beach. Here are many of the boys playing boccie ball at low tide. It's fun that my bigger boys are now strong enough to get in on the action. My nephew William really wanted in to the game. We gave him his own light weight ball. He didn't think it was the same though. Lauren has a little cousin who was born just 3 weeks before her. Sweet Alyssa has got everything ready for Lauren in their own little girl town.

I did some hair accessory shopping. My friend's daughter had these great clips in her hair this past spring and I was so excited to pick some out. Aren't the cute! I found them on Etsy. They are made by Maya Papaya. I had one made with an L for Lauren. It does look like an L but the boys were wondering why we got Lauren a clip that said 3:00. LOL.

Miss Alyssa acted as a fashion model for me. Here she is sporting a Life Is Good onesie that Lauren also has and the green flower clip. The clips really stay in the hair! It was really fun getting to see Alyssa in action. When I watch the videos of Lauren and see her pictures she looks like she is growing up so fast, and she is. Seeing Alyssa this weekend, I got to see that 7 months is still very much a baby.

Here is our crew. Alex, Alyssa, Zach, William, Matt, Jake, Josh and baby Ryan.

Thanks for coming to visit. We look forward to seeing you again next year!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

2009-08-06T08:53:00.005-04:00

We are a baseball loving family. We all went to see the Se@ Dogs play on a beautiful summer night. Major league ball is really fun to watch. Here are the boys with a statue of the mascot. Phil and the boys. The boys are enjoying an ice cream in those little plastic baseball hats. They brought the hats home and now their stuffed animals are supporting the team. Josh goes to every ball game with a baseball, glove and sharpie. He dreams of catching a foul ball and getting an autograph from a player. Well, his persistence payed off. We were near the bullpen during the game. Josh kept trying to figure out how to ask for an autograph and how to get around the security guy who shoos you away from the players. He DID it. One of the pitchers said he would sign a ball for him. Josh threw it down and then the player asked if he had a pen. Josh could not be happier passing down the sharpie that he brings. Here is the pitcher autographing the ball.

Josh is waiting patiently and nervously for the ball to be thrown back to him. The pitcher was really great. He passed the ball around the bull pen and 3 players signed the ball.

Here is Josh with his newly autographed ball. He looked up all the players the next morning.

Matt earns his orange belt

2009-08-06T08:30:00.002-04:00

Just a quick picture of my Matty. He loves Karate and is so proud to have earned his Orange Belt. Way to go Matt! We love you.

Lauren news...

2009-07-27T15:21:00.004-04:00

We have 1st ruling!!!!!!!!!!! What an exciting call to get today. Our Social worker called me a little while ago to tell me the great news. She said that our 1st ruling (also called Civil Ruling) was the fastest one that they have had come in. Just 17 days since our hearing on July 10th! Wow! I had prepared myself for at the very least a 2 month wait that would have landed us in early to mid September and then traveling in October - November or even December. Now it looks like we could actually be travelling in early September.

Now that we have the 1st ruling we have a mandatory 10 day waiting period for our final ruling. After 10 days the judge can make Lauren legally our daughter. Our social worker said that she has been seeing final rulings come in 3-5 weeks after the 1st ruling. We are hopeful for a quick final ruling but as in all international adoption cases it could take longer.

Well- It's officially time to go shopping:) I have been holding off on shopping for clothes for Lauren. Our hearing took so long I was imagining not being able to have her home until Thanksgiving or Christmas so I have been waiting for all the fall clothes to come out. Also, I wasn't really sure what size she was wearing until she was wearing our outfit this last update.
Lauren's measurements as off June 30th are height 24.4 inches and weight 15.8 pounds. I believe she is in 3-6 months clothes right now so I am going to go shopping for some 6-9 month outfits for the fall.

Oh happy day!!!

Lauren's July Video!

2009-07-20T18:20:00.003-04:00

We have video! Here is our girl in motion. I think she is creeping in the video. Oh my!!!! Crawling is not far off for this girl. She is such a cutie pie. I just love her little personality:)

Enjoy

July Updates of Lauren

2009-07-17T10:04:00.006-04:00

Yippee! We have new pictures of Lauren. We actually received them late Wednesday when I was not at home/near computer. Our agency just changed the format for sending them and although I could view them, I could not separate the pictures out to post ( or e-mail). A HUGE thank you to fellow blogger Michelle for figuring it out and making the picture files for me:)

Here is our sweet girl. She is looking happy and healthy. The last few updates we have received I have noticed cute little hair clips in her hair. I love that! I am guessing that means she doesn't mind having them in:) I must shop for hair accessories soon!

I couldn't tell if I had sent the outfit she is wearing. In the pictures it looked like a one piece. I was starting to worry that I had sent all the wrong sizes for her or that the clothes I sent really were not working out. I even went shopping for new clothes and all different styles to find something that would fit and be comfortable. Then I realized that it IS a little dress I sent over... that it has matching bloomers. I really am a novice in the baby girl department!

I so love this girl. I cannot wait until I hold her in my arms.

Fellow blogger Michelle got some very good news yesterday on her final ruling. She is getting ready to travel in early August to get the ever gorgeous Tessa. If you would like to watch the magic unfold follow the link Hello, Hola and Ni Hao.

Enjoy the new pictures and I will continue to work on getting the video uploaded.

Court Hearing (check), Summer Weather (finally)

2009-07-13T11:09:00.003-04:00

Friday was the big day for our court hearing. Our hearing likely took place while we were sleeping on Thursday night. I watched the clock until 11 pm and send little prayers and words of encouragement to Taiwan for Lauren's birth mother, our case worker and the judge assigned to our case. I woke up at 1:00 am and 3:30 am and sent more prayers and encouragement. When I woke up on Friday morning I knew that our case should have already been heard. It was a relief to know that everyone has done their part to help bring Lauren home and now the judge needs to review all the information and make his ruling. I have been waiting by the computer and phone nervously today in case there is news of our case. No news is considered good news so that is what I am hoping for. I am still nervous that the judge will need another bit of information or has a question about our case. Lets hope not.

In other news...It finally stopped raining. Thank God! It truly rained for over 3 weeks and when it wasn't raining it wasn't especially warm. We had a small break in the rain on the 4th of July which was good. The boys decorated their bikes and participated in the Independence day parade. They did a great job and were able to steer their bikes and throw candy to the crowd (the highlight for Jake and Matt). A big thanks to Uncle Paul for running out to the store and picking up the candy in the morning. Here are my boys at the end of the parade enjoying the Popsicles that were given out.

The boys have been enjoying the beach. They are fearless in attempting to catch the perfect wave.

Matt is REALLY good at catching waves and riding them all the way to the shore. What a cutie!

On yet another rainy day at the beach we decided to go crabbing. We bought some bait and the boys threw out their weighted traps. Here is Jake pulling his trap up with a crab .

Matt is the only one who is not afraid to pick up the crabs and throw them in the bucket.

Here we are taking in the view. We took our crabs home and my Mom made us some delicious crab sauce. Jake was not sure of it but ended up liking it.

We are still awaiting updates on our girl. They definitely should be in this week, so check back in with us.

Six Months and a Hearing Date!!!

2009-07-06T22:54:00.006-04:00

We have a hearing date!!! We got a call from our social worker today with the great news. But wait, it gets better, the hearing is July 10th. Yup...this Friday! I am so excited and relieved to finally be in the courts.

This is the 1st of a 3 part process that we need to go through. On Friday we have social workers working on our behalf who will represent us in court and present our documents, homestudy, and photo album with pictures of us, the boys, our house and where the baby will be sleeping (we used pictures of Jake's Nursery). Lauren's birth mother will at the hearing and she will state that she is in agreement with our adoption of Lauren. I cannot imagine how hard Friday will be for her. She has met with social workers and has made her wishes known but still must attend the hearing and state her intentions to the judge formally. My heart aches for her. Once the hearing occurs, the judge takes all of the information presented to him and will make a judgment. This judgment is called 1st ruling and and can take 1-3 months to occur. After the 1st ruling is issued there is a mandatory 10 day waiting period for all parties to reconsider. At this point it is just a formality. After the 10 days and when the judge gets around to it (possibly 10 days later or 1-3 months) the judge will issue his Final ruling which officially makes Lauren our daughter in the eyes of the law. At that point we will be invited to travel to Taiwan to bring Miss Lauren home. Let's hope that all our ducks are in a row and the judge moves our case swiftly through the court process.

Our Lauren turned 6 months old on Sunday. It feels like time is going by so slowly when we are waiting for her, yet it feels like she is growing up so fast. We are due for new updates soon. Maybe we will see her beautiful face this week.

Good News in the Mail

2009-06-26T08:33:00.007-04:00

Some of my fellow waiting momma's and I are doing a monthly gift swap to help with all of the waiting. It is so nice to have good news come in the mail. It has the added bonus of giving me something creative and fun to do. This month's theme was bedtime. My secret buddy, Beth, sent me this great package. It arrived yesterday and it was so fun for the boys and I to open up the gifts for Lauren. Look at all that pink wrapping. Ooohhh...

Here is what was inside. Adorable pink and grean pj's for Lauren to be cozy in, a super soft blanket that matches the crib bedding( wow), and a great bed time story ( Pajama Time). Beth, I love the pink and green jammies.

Look how great the blanket goes with the bedding:) It has both the light pink, dark pink and grean that I am going for. Thank you so much Beth!!!!!!

The next picture is the latest addition to the nursery decor. I picked out this pink farbric that I just love and had a slip cover made to cover my hope chest. It looks more like the window seat we ( and the cats) use it as.

Here is the latest picture of the nursery in progress. We are painting the room next week. The green nook is going to be a dark pink and the other 3 walls will be a pale/neutral pink. The last big project for the room is the rocker. We have a great rocker that was my mother's grandfathers. It has been recovered a few times and has been a light blue color that has worked for all three of my boys . The shade of blue does not go with the nursery at all. I love that all three of my boys were rocked in this chair and look forward to rocking Lauren when she is home. I just need to find the right fabric to recover the chair. Given our court schedule or lack there of I have plenty of time to look into this this summer.

It finally stopped raining so we are headed outdoors.

Working on the Nursery

2009-06-18T10:29:00.007-04:00

We have started work on the nursery. Things are coming together but a little slower than I originally had planned. Here are the inspiration fabrics for the room. The top swatch is a fabric that I am using to make a cover for a chest that is in front of the big window. We tend to use it as a window seat so now it will match. The second fabric we are using for the drapes. The window in the nursery is very big. My mom made the drapes for me and now we will be able to open and close them for nap time. This is the big window. It really is beautiful but can be a challenge to dress. I love how the drapes came out, but I don't think they are showing as well in the picture. The window is in a little nook in the room. The nook is painted a really pretty green that worked great in Jake's room. I thought it might work again as the green is similar to the green stripe in the curtain. Once I put the drapes up I realized we were going to need more pink.

For the bedding I kind of but it together myself instead of buying a whole packaged set. I am going for the pink and green color scheme. I found this super soft pink bumper made by Cart*rs. It is very pale but once we paint the nook a dark pink and the rest of the walls a lighter pink I think it will pop better. For a skirt I really wanted the Pott*ry B&rn crib skirt with with ric rac ribbon. I actually found this once on e-bay. I love the colors and the embroidered butterfly. I was very surprised to find a crib skirt with a flamingo! I definitely did not go looking for it but Flamingos are such a fun symbol for all my friends that I could not pass it up.

Here is a little butterfly decoration that I found at Christmas time. I thought it was so fitting for our butterfly girl.

Now that baseball is over I will be home long enough to finish cleaning out the room and girling it up...and paint.

End of School Activities

2009-06-18T10:10:00.008-04:00

Well, we survived a very busy spring season! Josh and Matt had their last day of school yesterday. We celebrated with a very fun pool party at my friend M's house. Here are some pictures of our end of year wrap up.

Matt's class had a Hawaiian theme party and did a private concert for the parents as a kick off. Matt has the orange shirt and big smile in the 2nd row.

After singing, playing games and eating it was time to release the butterflies the class had been raising in their classroom. It was very interesting to see the release. I think the butterflies got used to all the hustle and bustle of the classroom and the kids voices. They took their time flying away. Here is Matt's friend A with one of the butterflies.

Josh moved up a rank in Karate this last week. He is very proud to move on to his yellow belt.

Here is a shot of Matt getting a hit in baseball.

Jake practicing his baseball moves.

It is so nice to not have to run around today. All the teacher gifts have been assembled and given out, baseball ends tonight, there is no more homework, no more packing lunches or running for the bus. Ahh....Summertime!

Sigh...still no news

2009-06-15T21:54:00.003-04:00

I have been super busy lately with all of the end of the school year stuff and the boys crazy baseball schedule. It has been great for keeping my mind busy during this wait. Unfortunately all this waiting has not brought us any closer to bringing Lauren home. I e-mailed my agency today and they still have no info on a hearing date. A typical hearing occurs 1-3 months after your paperwork reaches Taiwan. We did have a small snafu with our translation that slowed us down for 3 weeks, but still it has been 3 1/2 months since we have seen Lauren's face and still no hearing. It is so disheartening to know that we are not getting any closer to travel. I think I will call our case worker tomorrow to see if I can learn something new or at the least get a pep talk.

Update Day!!!!

2009-06-08T12:59:00.003-04:00

I just love update day. Here is Miss Lauren getting some tummy time. I love the little hair clip in her hair. It is not from me. I love that someone caring for her cared enough to add a pretty little clip. The butterfly rattle in the video is from our first care package. It was so good to see her with it. When I saw her picture she just took my breathe away. I cannot wait to hold her in my arms. Enjoy the pictures and video:)

Lauren playing and getting some tummy time.

5 Months Today

2009-06-05T21:38:00.003-04:00

Happy 5 Months old Miss Lauren! Wow, she is growing up so fast. We should be getting new updates in the next week or 2. Hopefully we will get some good court news too.

On Lauren's 5 month birthday we had 3 baseball games. Josh pitched for the 2nd time and did a great job. His coach called him Pappelban. Josh was SO PROUD and so were we. He has such a passion for baseball so it is so special for him when he does well. Matt is really enjoying baseball as well. He is doing really well when he isn't too busy chatting up the other players (his team and the other team :).

Congratulations to Beth and Alan on the referral of thier sweet baby girl! If you would like to view this precious baby girl, follow the link on the right to A Love Like No Other.

Status Update

2009-06-02T18:03:00.006-04:00

Let's see what is new on the adoption front and elsewhere:

We still have not had our hearing or had a hearing date scheduled as of yet. We did receive confirmation that our Birth Mother Interview is complete so that is great news. The next step should be the hearing. It is looking like our court process is moving on the slower side. I had originally hoped to travel in July or August. It could be August, September or....( I can't write anything further for fear that it will push out our travel even longer. We did receive our updated immigration approval last week so we are good to go as soon as we are invited.

We did get updated measurements on Lauren. She is/was 13 1/4 lbs and 22 1/2 inches on April 25th. The clothes that we sent in the care package should fit and hopefully when we get our next update she will be wearing one of her cute dresses.

I am starting to work on the nursery. I have the fabric ready for curtains. My mom has generously offered to make, with the helpful input of her great friends. I have the bumper and crib skirt. My plan was to have everything done by the end of June. I will take pictures and post ASAP.

The boys are also getting ready to share a room. I have all the big boy bedding bought and ready to go. Jake is very excited to share with the older boys. The older boys seem to be okay too. We are keeping the guest room for at least another year until Lauren is fully settled. Although, Matt has been given first dips to use the guest room if his room get to be "too much".

Tomorrow the boys find out who their teacher will be for next year. Everyone is a little nervous ( including me!). Hopefully everyone will have a friend or 2 in class next year and the right teacher for their personality.

Introducing...

2009-05-28T21:29:00.004-04:00

Ryan Jacob

Congratulations to my brother Paul and Suzie on the birth of their second son! He was born 1 week early and weighed a whopping 10lbs 3 oz! We grow'em big in this family. I had the pleasure of hanging with Ryan's big brother William (20 months-ish)today. We was a sport going to school, the barber shop, Occupational Therapy, school pick up, and Karate.
A good day!

Care Package #2

2009-05-19T16:37:00.006-04:00

Today I mailed out Lauren's 2nd care package. It was long overdue! What can you do when you have school vacation, 3 boys playing baseball, 3 boys with Karate and some serious seasonal allergies. I loved buying all the little outfits. The dress with the pink poodles and the one with the purple polka dots are my favorites. I put a little baby proof photo album together for Lauren. It has close up pictures of all of us and even the cats.

The boys and I recorded ourselves reading bedtime stories and some songs as well. While reading/singing the Baby Beluga book you can hear Jake in the background chanting "give me that fillet of fish, give me that fish" from the Burger K*ng commercial (could be from
Mc'Don* lds)

I sent the package express mail and the post office said it should take 4 business days. I am planning on 10 calender days as that is how long the last one travelled for. I reall;y hope to see Lauren dressed in of the cute dresses in the next update.

My boys

2009-05-17T21:16:00.011-04:00

We celebrated 2 first communions this weekend. Matt and Josh both made their first communions together. We are so proud of them. We had a small family gathering and everyone looked so nice. Here are some pictures of my amazing boys.

Josh and Matt
Me and my boys!

All my favorite boys together

And my little bunny too.

I am such a lucky girl. I am surrounded by the most amazing, intelligent and caring boys (both big and small). I just love them to pieces.

PS: Congratulations to my friend T on her beautiful baby girl. She is just beautiful. I am looking forward to future playdates:)

May Updates!

2009-05-13T20:34:00.004-04:00

So happy to recieve our May update on Lauren today! I love how smiley she can be. She is now living with her foster family and she seems to be adjusting well. That is the last move she makes until she is in our arms forever:) Enjoy!

Miss Lauren in motion:)

If anyone knows what the women in the video are saying to Lauren I would LOVE to know.

Happy Mother's Day to Me....

2009-05-12T16:53:00.004-04:00

We celebrated mother's day this past Sunday, but I was super lucky to get most of my gifts on Friday. I love my new flowers, real and home/school made. I also was honored with lovely poems. Here is a peak at the thoughtful gifts from my boys.

This is the newest family tree that was made by my Matty. This is extra special not only because Lauren's name is on it but because Matt put her name on our tree and was very proud to share it with his class and me.

I am anxiously awaiting an update on Lauren. I was hoping for one last week and am still checking e-mail constantly. I have been feeling sad for Lauren, knowing that since our last update she has moved to a foster home. I am thrilled that she is with a family, but I know that it is yet another move in her short life and could be stressful for her. I know that I will feel better once I see her face again.

I woke up the other morning with a new and interesting feeling. I have been planning for Lauren to come home at some point in the future. IT was always felt somewhat far away. This summer possibly next fall. I have been okay with it because I knew going into this that the court process would take time and there is absolutely nothing I could do about it. Well, the other morning I woke up and felt "ready" for Lauren to come home. Although I have no new news and no known hearing date I feel in my heart ready. Now that my heart is clear and focused it is time for the fates to align and send Lauren home.