Dancing Girl

Now that Mya is 3 years old, she gets to go to dance lessons all by herself. She is learning ballet and tap. Mya's classes are once a week for 45 minutes. On the first class of the month I can stay in a room and watch how Mya is doing. It has been so fun to be able to see her progress!!

Ready for dance, leg warmers and all!

Here is a little video of Mya stretching, she is the little girl on the teachers right hand side. Mya is wearing a pink leotard and grey shorts.

Here is another one! I took about 7 little videos but I will not post all, that way you do not feel the need to watch them ALL. It does get a little boring if it is not your child. I am just so proud of Mya, she is such a shy little girl sometimes and she has always had a hard time when I have left her. Mya has changed so much in the past year, she is growing up too fast!!

Jesse's 1st Birthday

Jesse's birthday was alot of fun! When Jesse woke up the morning of his birthday we went in and sang Happy Birthday. He was excited about it at first but then he got really sad, I think that he wanted someone to pick him up and hold him. I have to admit that Jesse got to one year old way too fast. He is already an independent little boy but now he thinks that he is a really big kid. We had a few family members over for cake and ice cream and it was so much fun.

Right before everyone showed up

Opening presents

So happy about all his new toys

Jesse's personal cake

Before digging into his cake

Jesse was so excited about the candle and fire, he wanted to touch it so bad but mom would not let him.

Finger lickin' good!
And of course Mya had to help brother get some icing

YEAh for cake!

While I was cleaning up Jesse, I came back to find Mya digging into her piece of cake with her hands. Such a little stinker!
It was such a fun night and we are so glad that Jesse was able to join our family!!! We love being a family of 4. Happy Birthday Jesse!

The next day we met up with Jesse's birth mother, it was so nice to see her again! Joey is so sweet and we love her so much!

Missing daddy

Last week Scott was gone to California for 3 days for work. Scott doesn't have to travel very often so it was NO FUN. Mya, Jesse and I missed him so much, everyday Mya would cry to me and say "I miss my daddy." We made a welcome home sign for Scott and Mya loved decorating it with stickers and paint. Jesse was so sick of us girls that by the time Scott got home, Jesse wanted nothing to do with me. Jesse was so excited when Scott got home, it was so cute to see how much he loves his dad. We all love you so much Scott and are glad that you are home!!!

Blessing

Jesse's blessing was so wonderful and Scott did an amazing job. Scott is such a great dad, he loves our kids so much. I am so grateful that Scott is always worthy and willing to use his priesthood to bless our family. I was able to hold Jesse on my lap while Scott gave him a name and a blessing, it was such a wonderful experience. Jesse absolutely adores Scott!! As soon as Scott gets home from work, Jesse just wants dad to hold him and play with him. I think that Jesse gets sick of being around us girls all day.

We had all of our family over to our house after the blessing, it was a lot of people of our little home. I think that we had 28 adults and 13 children. It was pure chaos, but so fun to share such a wonderful day with everyone!!
Mya had a great time playing with all of her cousins!

Thank you to everyone that took some time out of their schedules to be with our family at the temple and at the blessing, it was so great seeing all of you!!!

Jesse's temple day

We had such a wonderful day on Saturday at the temple with all of our family! I was nervous that Mya would have a hard time down with the sweet sisters in the youth center. She was a tiny bit concerned when I left in the beginning but by the time that everything was over and Scott and I had to go change again she just grabbed the sister's hand and was off. There was no "bye mom, see you in just a minute" absolutely nothing. I was very proud of her though. It was such a great feeling to have my little family all in the temple together!! I could not help but cry when I walked into the room and saw all of our extended family gathered. And then the water works really started flowing when Mya and Jesse came into the room. What a special little boy we have. We feel so blessed that he was able to find his way to our home! And now we are going to be a family FOREVER!!! We could not have asked for a better day, thank you to everyone that was able to come and be with us on our special day.

Jesse and daddy

The sun was a little bright for Jesse and I know it looks like a nice day but it was actually really cold. So we weren't able to get too many pictures.

Almost everyone that was at the temple with us.

Mya loved the fountain in front of the temple
And the water
Our adorable kids

After we got home, Mya was playing and she said "Oh my stars" and Scott and I both looked at her like where did you come up with that. And then she said "my sisters said that" once again we did not understand. And then it clicked, I asked Mya " the sisters at the temple said that?" Mya said "Yeah, my sisters said oh my stars." I thought it was so cute that she called them "my sisters".

It's official, we are a family of 4

On Monday, we went to court to finalize the adoption of Jesse and everything went wonderful. Scott's parents were able to leave work and come too. We were so nervous leading up to court and so thankful that it is official now!!! It is almost like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders. I told Mya before court that the judge might ask her a question like "How do you like your little brother?" And she answered "I like him a lot." It was so cute! I totally forgot about it and when we were all done and getting ready to leave the court room Mya said "Oh mommy, he didn't ask me a question." Mya was very disappointed that she didn't get to answer a question. She really loves her little brother.

11 months!!

I can't believe our little Jess man is 11 months old!! He has grown up way too FAST. Jesse is crawling now and he is into everything. Just a few of his favorite things to play with are the TV, night lights and our dog Toby's food. I am teaching Jesse baby signs and he is doing pretty good. He can do milk, dog and almost more. Jesse loves to clap his hands and do SO BIG! He is trying to stand up all by himself now but he is still nervous about taking that first step on his own.

We are so excited for next Monday....we get to go to court to finalize Jesse' s adoption, YEAH!!! And then the best part, we get to go to the temple to be sealed!! Cannot wait. Mya is getting really excited to go to the temple too. She had to have a white dress like Mommy's!