Mike and Amy Adopt

What have we been up to?

2012-03-09T19:33:00.001-08:00

We have actually had a couple of nice weeks here at home, which has been a nice break from all the traveling we did in February! The only downside is that I got sick, which doesn't happen very often, but I made up for lost time with this one. Mike was very helpful and took care of the house, and dinners, and K-Man, and me in addition to going to work all day long. What a guy! He even took a day off of work on my worst day so that I could rest and he could have some daddy/son time with K-Man.

These two boys had some major bonding time, to the point where K-Man would have a meltdown when Mike left for work, and I only got a couple of pics of them having fun together. I think these of them brushing their teeth are so fun! K-Man is pretty good about getting his teeth brushed, and lets us brush his as long as he gets to brush ours.

Look at those pearly whites

The dentist would be so proud

What a cutie

"Cheeeeese!"

This big Tupperware bowl was on the floor, where our cat, Chafa found it and thought it would make a nice bed.

Some things we have been up to that we haven't captured on camera are:

Tons of playing outside
Finding our bellybuttons
Throwing lots of rocks, balls, and pretty much anything that will fit in K-Man's hands
Learning how to put our dirty clothes in the hamper
Going on walks
Jumping, pretty much anywhere

Anyway, so this is what's been happening at our house over the last couple of weeks. I think you're all caught up.

So handsome!

2012-03-09T15:49:00.002-08:00

My handsome husband just got new pictures taken for work, and I had to share because he looks so handsome and smart! K-Man and I are pretty lucky to have such an awesome, hardworking, and good-looking daddy/husband.

February Birthday #2

2012-03-01T16:27:00.000-08:00

We love birthdays in our family!! To start the day off, the birthday person gets to choose their favorite breakfast. Mike chose homemade raspberry muffins. Luckily we still had some raspberries from our garden in the freezer, so the muffins were extra delicious. The perfect start to a fun birthday.

This picture makes it look like Mike baked them himself, but rest assured, the birthday boy did not have to make his own breakfast!

While Daddy was in meetings, K-Man and Mommy went and decorated his office at work

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Gotta love newspaper wrap jobs!

K-Man is a great helper!

My two favorite boys!

Those ribbons were a pretty fun new toy to play with

Daddy's new warm coat! Happy birthday!!

Las Vegas 2012

2012-03-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures we took in Vegas. We got to stay at Caesar's Palace in the Octavius Tower, which had just been open for a month. It was sooo beautiful! Our room looked out onto the courtyard and pool

The pool at Caesar's Palace

As a part of the convention, we got tickets to go see Elton John perform! Neither of us are major Elton John fans, but it was really cool to be able to see such a legendary performer in concert.

He sounded great!

The fountain at the Bellagio. When we stopped to watch it was playing the same song it plays on Ocean's Eleven, so we pretty much felt like we were in the movie!

With the Executive Pastry Chef at Caesar's Palace. He gave us a demonstration of how to make a really awesome dessert.

The aforementioned really awesome dessert. SO delicious!

It was a really fun, relaxing trip. A big thanks to Amy's sister and her family for watching K-Man while we were gone!

Cousin Time!!

2012-03-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

I went with Mike to some meetings he had for work in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and K-Man got to go hang out with his cousins for four whole days!! I think he thought he was in heaven. His cousin, Zak, is one of his favorite people in the world. Here are some pictures from his time in Washington with his cousins.

He won't eat Ritz crackers at home, but if Zak is sharing them with him, he's all about it!

It's so hard being a kid sometimes. Such a sad face... so why does it make me chuckle to myself?

Zak's frosting/cookie ratio is just about right

So sad! Maybe he should eat another cookie?

Ahh, there we go. That's much better!

Frosting face!!

He finally realized how much fun it was to be hanging out with a bunch of kids and decorating cookies

Cousin Zak didn't realize he had his coat on upside-down. Haha!!

Cousin time!!

He's not used to playing so hard all day long, so by day three he fell asleep on the couch way before his normal nap time. Sleeping kids are so adorable!

February Birthday #1

2012-03-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

Mike and I both celebrate our birthdays in February, which is a great way to liven up what could otherwise be kind of a dreary month. Mine is first and even though we were pretty busy, we made time for some cake and presents! My amazing friend, Janet, made me my most favorite kind of cake, homemade german chocolate cake, which was perfect and delicious. Look at all of those beautiful layers!! So delicious!

All of that fire seems to be making K-Man a little uneasy!

My amazing lung capacity allowed me to blow out all of the candles in one shot... That means I get my wish, right??

Don't mind the smoky haze

"I love cake, what can I say?"

Mmmmm! I could seriously eat a bowl of just the frosting! I'm not kidding.

K-Man thought the balloons Mike sent me were pretty fun

Card from Mom and Dad

Birthday flowers from my awesome husband

Checking out my super-fantastic gift from Mike and K-Man... a UV nail light!! My sister is a nail tech and she gives me fun Shellac fingers and glitter gel toes every time I get to hang out with her, but I don't see her enough to keep my nails looking good all the time. So now I can do my nails for myself since I have this light! They probably won't look quite as professional as when Amber does them for me, but I am so excited!! Mike is such a good present-buyer.

A little snack

2012-02-27T21:06:00.000-08:00

The other day, I spotted K-Man helping himself to a little snack. I bought some granola in bulk (I eat yogurt with fruit and granola every day for breakfast) and kept it in a tupperware container. Once it was gone I left the bowl with the final crumbs in it on the counter, and look who found it...

Mmmm... delicious! No wonder Mom doesn't usually leave this stuff out!

...Don't mind if I do!

Making sure to get every last crumb

I promise, I really do feed this kid!

So delicious!

Getting creative

My favorite shot... you can see his face all pressed up against the crumbs!

Somebody tell this kid to check his chin if he's still hungry :)

Fun on the Slopes!

2012-02-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

At the end of January, we took an overnight family ski trip to Northern Idaho. Mike and I had been wanting to ski at Schweitzer for a long time, and we finally made it happen. We decided to stay right at the resort since we were bringing K-Man (and the world's best babysitter, Samm) so that we would be able to eat lunch together and check in from time to time. It was our first time ever staying right at a ski resort where we could essentially ski in and out of the hotel. It was so much fun! The resort was basically a little village with shops and restaurants in addition to the lodges. Samm was able to take K-Man to the free movie theater at the lodge and play games and stuff while we were out skiing and boarding.

Samm and K-Man at the lodge

K-Man helping Daddy get his snowboard boots on

Our first time skiing somewhere that we had to use a T-bar. Only one of us (who shall remain nameless) fell during the ride and had to hike the rest of the way up the hill. Haha, good times!

Mike trying to stay warm

Amy enjoying the cold weather

Samm decided to give skiing a try, so we switched some coats around and made it happen.

The magic carpet gets two thumbs up

K-Man thought it was hilarious when Mike would throw a handful of snow up into the air.

Amy and Samm on the chairlift

We LOVE our winter sports!

The Big Day!

2012-01-19T21:05:00.000-08:00

Finally Christmas morning came! We got up early and got ready while we were waiting for K-Man to wake up, then we opened our gifts from Santa, played with them for awhile, and then we headed off to church. After church, Mike's little brother and his family came over to open presents with the rest of us. It was such a fun day. That evening, we drove to Amy's family's house, which is about two hours away, and spent Christmas evening with them.

Amy stayed up late on Christmas Eve to make homemade cinnamon rolls for the family, which something her mom does every year. K-Man was a pretty big fan of "helping" her get them ready on Christmas morning.

Mmmmm!

Having fun opening presents

Amy surprised Mike with tickets to a Langhorne Slim concert on New Year's Eve in Portland. He was pretty surprised!

While we were getting the car loaded up, Abuelo and Abuelita took K-Man out to see the chickens and play in the yard. He was pretty impressed!

Abuelo introducing K-Man to his dog, Lucky

Abuelita and K-Man

Mima (what K-Man calls Amy's mom) helping him with his new dump truck

Checking out cousin Zak's army of superheroes that he got for Christmas

And finally, Santa also came to our house in Oregon. K-Man thought it was a pretty sweet deal getting to have Christmas at three houses this year!!

Figuring out his shape sorter

Hooray for Christmas! We're sad we have to wait a whole year until it comes again.

We wish you a merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

We were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at Mike's parents' house, which was a lot of fun! K-Man had a good time seeing Abuelo and Abuelita (what he calls Mike's parents), and getting to play with his cousins.

K-Man with Abuelita and her kitty

Abuelo reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" while we pass around the white elephant gifts. This is an annual Christmas Eve tradition at Mike's house.

Daddy helping K-Man figure out his toy from the white elephant exchange

"I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!"

He thought the lint brush Amy got for her white elephant was actually a hair brush, haha!

Mike checking out his cool new flashlight for hiking that doesn't need batteries

Merry Christmas Eve!

Opening his Christmas Eve pajamas, which is a Christmas tradition in Amy's family

We're pretty sure he had more fun with Abuelo and the box that his pajamas came in than he did with his actual pajamas

Ready to go to bed so Santa can come visit

Counting Down to Christmas

2012-01-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

We figured it was about time we post our Christmas pictures because we have birthdays coming up soon and we don't want to get behind! Since we went to Idaho for Christmas to be with our extended families, here are some pictures at our house leading up to Christmas. We were SO excited for Christmas this year because last year K-Man was only 6 months old, so he didn't really get it. But this year, we knew he was going to have a blast!

Mom finished getting the Christmas tree put together and lit while Dad gave K-Man his bath. This was his reaction when he saw the tree for the first time. Too cute!

K-Man is getting so big!

He loves his wagon

This is how we let him touch the tree... he can touch the ornaments with one finger :)

He spent so much time by the tree this year--he loved it!

Just the Beginning...

2012-01-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

K-Man has officially started putting things in the toilet, much to our dismay. Luckily he started small with a chunk of banana. We hope he doesn't advance to Matchbox cars any time soon!

All I Want For Christmas...

2011-12-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

Even though he had a hard time asking Santa in person....

K-Man has a special wish for Christmas this year.

Santa can do anything, right?

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Go Blue!

2011-12-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

We flew from St. Louis to Detroit on Black Friday because we got tickets to the Michigan vs. Ohio State game that Saturday. We were so excited to take K-Man to the Big House and get some pictures.

Michigan Alumnus, Michigan Wife, and future Wolverine?

He definitely looks like he could be happy here :)

Friday night we got to hang out with our friends, Jeff and Anne, at a UM hockey game. We have missed them so much and were glad to be able to catch up with them.

Yost Arena

Yes, indeed, that is a wolverine right behind us

The Big House!!! Which is even bigger than it was when we had our season tickets. Pretty impressive.

UM's marching band. I love watching them!

Here come our boys!!! Fired up and ready to "Beat Ohio"

A cool pic of the winged helmets

That's right, we won! It had been a 7-year drought so it was a sweet, sweet victory! See the crowd rushing the field? That's where we were headed next!

Like salmon swimming upstream, but we were determined to get down there. Apparently, rushing the field is a pretty big no-no at Michigan, but they made an exception this time.

Hail to the Victors!

Sitting on the "A" in the end zone

Amy also got to catch up with her old coworkers, which was really fun for her. They hadn't met K-Man, but had been good friends while we were going through all of our fertility treatments, so they couldn't wait to meet him!

Christmas Village at the Bass Pro Shop in St. Louis

2011-12-22T23:47:00.000-08:00

So, backing up a few hours... While we were waiting for the turkey to cook, we headed over to the Bass Pro-Shop because they had free pictures with Santa and they were open on Thanksgiving day. Little did we know that they had much, MUCH more than just pictures with Santa! It was so awesome! And there was nobody there because of the holiday, so we got to play and play. And the extra cool thing is that EVERYTHING was free! Can't beat that!

Carousel ride #2 (see the post about the St. Louis Zoo) went much smoother!

Look! No tears!

A cute one of Uncle Parker and Cousins Emily and Abby

The fam

K-Man enjoying his candy cane from Santa, and me enjoying two of my favorite kids in the world

Who knew they made a pink Red Ryder BB Gun?

Daddy showing K-Man how to shoot

A fun racetrack. Emily was pretty good at this one.

K-Man checking out the trains

Emily and K-Man writing letters to Santa

Hard at work

Group picture. Do we look hungry? We are about to go home and eat our Thanksgiving feast!

Parker teaching Emily some bow-hunting skills a la Napoleon Dynamite

Camper Emily

The Big Dinner: Thanksgiving

2011-12-22T23:41:00.000-08:00

The big day finally arrived and Sarah and I were excited to start cooking! We started the rainbow jello a couple of days early, so we just had everything else to cook. So, first thing in the morning (as you can tell from our tired morning faces) we got to work on the bird...

Sarah's family always layers bacon on top, which is going to be one of my traditions from now on! Yum!

Sarah did the honors of placing the bird in the oven

Crunch time: Sarah's mashing the potatoes, Parker's carving the turkey, and apparently I'm supervising? Maybe trying to get a few tastes in?

The kids were ready to eat! By the way, that Sierra Mist with the cranberry in it is outstanding, I would recommend that you give it a try if you haven't already!

Time to load up the plates! Mike has his just about full, and Sarah is close behind.

Rainbow jello: A family tradition for as long as we can remember

Yep, just a plate of salad and some jello for me, thanks. Yeah right!! That was just the beginning!

I believe this was round two for Parker?

All in all, it was a delicious meal with some of our favorite people. Hope you had a great one, too!

The Arch!

2011-12-22T23:33:00.000-08:00

I was SUPER excited to go to the arch. I don't know why, I just was. And it didn't disappoint. Parker and Sarah drove us there and dropped us off right at the stairs, so we didn't have to park far away, and then we went in and got in line. Oh, but before we got in line, I didn't really expect it, but we had to go through a bunch of security, similar to what you go through at the airport! I hadn't been nervous until then, and it got me thinking of all the horrible things people could try to do while we were helpless at 630 feet in a little metal arch! But I pushed those thoughts out of my head and was excited to get to it! We already had a reservation, so we didn't have to wait too long, which was nice. But they have a bunch of neat information and interactive displays to learn about the construction of the arch, which you can wander around and look at while you wait your turn. So we kept ourselves occupied and learned a lot about it.

We were in Tram 6 on the way to the top

K-Man helping Mike learn about the arch construction

K-Man taking a turn. He thought these phones were pretty cool!

Waiting for the doors to open

We made it to the top! Here is K-Man looking out over St. Louis. He was SO impressed. He just stared and stared out the little windows at the top of the arch.

K-Man getting an aerial view of Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play (and where they won the World Series this year!). You can tell K-Man is saying "Wowww!"

Daddy giving K-Man the lowdown on what he's looking at

The family at 630 feet up, at the very tip top of the arch

A cute one of K-Man and Daddy

Having a fun time waiting for the tram ride down

Inside the tram. Those things are TINY!

This is where we went to catch the tram

A cool shot of us with the arch

Emily and Aunt Amy posing at the base of the arch

It was not easy getting a picture of us with the entire arch, but it was worth a try! :)

The mighty Mississippi, which is right by the arch, and happened to be right by where Parker and Sarah ended up parking

St. Louis Zoo

2011-12-21T20:37:00.000-08:00

How awesome is it that St. Louis's zoo is completely free?! And it is a really good zoo, too! We hadn't taken K-Man to a zoo yet, but he likes his animal books and is starting to master his animal sounds a little bit, so we just weren't really sure if he would be interested. He had so much fun, though, which translated into us having a lot of fun, too.

It was a cool, overcast day, so a lot of the animals were out and about.

Checking out the black bears. This was the first exhibit we looked at and there were two bears chasing each other around. It was really cool.

Uncle Parker has always loved penguins, so this is his favorite exhibit at the zoo. It really is probably the coolest penguin exhibit I've ever seen. They are just right there in the open, which was awesome.

K-Man showing Mom the penguins

Dad and K-Man watching the penguins eat and swim around

This is Part 1 of the carousel. Everyone was having a nice time...

Until the carousel started moving. Then because we were getting on and off the animals they emergency stopped the carousel (apparently getting on and off is against the rules). Yeah. Pretty embarrassing, lol!

How cool is this picture? It looks like K-Man and the gorilla are looking right at each other.

Really enjoying the insect house

Had to include this picture. Here we are in the butterfly house. Harmless, right? Wrong. Emily is terrified of the butterflies and freaks out anytime one flutters by her. Is it bad that we all thought it was funny?

These manly boys taking a picture with the two strollers by the lovely autumn foliage.

K-Man keeping an eye on the rhino.

There's this weird, fake, dead antelope hanging from a tree in the Africa exhibit. It has fake blood and everything!

Checking out the elephants

St. Louis Blues

2011-12-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

We decided it would be fun to have a night out with no kids, so we got tickets to go see an NHL game. The St. Louis Blues played, and unfortunately lost to, the LA Kings, but we had a blast. They had someone playing a pipe-organ throughout the game, and there was this big guy with an even bigger voice who sang a bunch of songs that the crowd really got into. It was a lot of fun!

Parker, Sarah, Amy, and Mike enjoying some hockey

Pappy's Smokehouse - St. Louis

2011-12-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

After we worked up our appetites in the Magic House, Parker and Sarah took us over to Pappy's Smokehouse, voted Best BBQ in St. Louis for as long as anyone can remember. It has also been featured on Man vs. Food (check it out here).

K-Man was suuuuper-tired by this point, so he wasn't his usual, smiley self, but the food was great! We all got ribs and they were really good, especially when you added the different bbq sauces they had.

Apparently our niece always get free stuff when she goes there, like t-shirts and stuff! This is her showing off her cool temporary tattoo.

Sooo yummy! Thanks for showing us a true St. Louis-style barbecue, Parker and Sarah!!

The Magic House - St. Louis's Children's Museum

2011-12-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

If you are ever in St. Louis and you have children of any age traveling with you, the Magic House is a MUST. They have three floors filled with all kinds of cool stuff...

Yeah. These chairs really were musical. Every time you sat down, they played music! With all of us sitting up and down at the same time, we sounded like a symphony.

K-Man checking out the giant chalkboard

Rolling balls

Steering a boat with Dad

Playing in the ball pit

Trying to steal the camera from Mom

Okay, so I know this isn't the best picture, but it was right in the entryway and there were tons of people around and I had to be down on the floor taking the picture up. But K-Man thought these balloons (which were permanent fixtures) were probably the coolest things in the place. You can kind of tell that he's saying "Wowwww!" which is one of his favorite things to say right now.

Our little pilgrim children

Cousin Emily pulling the rope to blow the train whistle

Mike thought this would be a funny picture because Amy hates worms

That metal wall is a giant magnet

And that is just a teeny tiny sample of all the cool stuff we did at the Magic House.

Chillaxing with the Fam

2011-12-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Despite all of the fun stuff we did in St. Louis, we still found time to hang out,

Paint fingernails

Take naps

Eat crayons

Have bathtime and dress up as Princess Aurora

Play games

And hold our sweet little niece, Abby

What an awesome family we have!

St. Louis Sculpture Park

2011-12-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's kind of nerdy, but we really went to the sculpture park mostly to see this giant eyeball. Since Parker is in school for optometry, it only seemed appropriate. But while we were there, we figured we should check out some of the other sculptures, too. The park was HUGE and all of the bathrooms were locked, which is another story for another day, but for a four-year-old girl that doesn't bode well.

We had the uneasy feeling that we were being watched

Cousin Emily with the big leaves she found

K-Man cheesing it up for the camera

Uncle Mike and Cousin Emily

Aunt Sarah and K-Man

Do you hear what I hear?

Does it look like a poodle to you?

Our Family Optometrist

2011-12-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

Amy's brother, Parker, and his family live in St. Louis where Parker is studying to be an optometrist. Here he is showing off his skilz:

Checking to see if he can see Amy's LASIK scars

Screening his daughter, Emily

Jam Session with Uncle Parker

2011-12-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

The night we got to St. Louis, K-Man was ready to have some fun, but he was coming down with a bit of a cold so he wasn't quite his energetic self. Uncle Parker knew just the trick, though, and took him down to show him his electric guitar and bass, along with his cool new pedal-thing (I can't remember what he called it) that made it have different sounds. I'm not sure which of the boys had more fun. Uncle Parker said he liked jamming with K-Man because K-Man's favorite songs were the loud intense ones that Parker's little girls don't like.

"I want to play with your guitar, Uncle Parker"

"Like this?"

Having a blast

Getting down to business

Rock on!

K-Man getting the hang of things

K-Man: Best Traveler Ever!

2011-12-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to head into the airport to begin our cross-country trip

This year for Thanksgiving, our family went to St. Louis, Missouri to visit Amy's brother, Parker, and his family. We flew to Hawaii when K-Man was only three months old, and he traveled great then, but we weren't sure we would have quite as smooth of sailing now that he is an independent, opinionated toddler.

In preparation for our flights (we would have five all together), Amy went and bought some fun new toys for the plane rides, and some other fun new toys for our airport time. We planned ahead, got everything packed, and arrived nice and early to make it as easy as possible. Luckily our checked bag weighed in at 48 something pounds so we slid in right under the weight limit, and we were off to our gate. Traveling side note: did you know that when you are traveling with a small child, the nice airport people let you skip the huge line to go through security and you get to use the "really special people and airport workers only" line where you don't ever have to wait? Yeah, it was a very pleasant surprise!

So after making it through security and finding our gate, we hung out and played while we waited to board. K-Man was a rock star! He played, and made friends with the people sitting around us, and was just a happy kid! We boarded the plane and Amy was nervous that he was going to be "that kid" who cries or barfs or kicks the seat in front of him the whole time, but he did great! We even had a couple of people comment to us that he was the "best kid they had ever sat by on a plane," which stroked our parent egos nicely. And really, this picture sums up all five of our plane rides:

Sleeping K-Man = Happy Mama

And this picture pretty much sums up our experience in the terminal:

There were so many new and exciting things to see and do and explore in the terminal that all of K-Man's new toys barely saw the light of day.

Don't worry, there are a LOT more pictures to post from our fantastic vacation, but time is short tonight, so they will be posted soon.

Some Random Pictures

2011-12-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

This picture is shaping up to be one of our all-time favorites of K-Man. Amy had just made some really delicious chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips, and she let K-Man have his first beater. Obviously he was a pretty big fan! He loves to help out in the kitchen, especially now that he is big enough to stand on a chair and help. Santa may or may not be bringing him his own "official" step stool that he can use instead of having to bring in one of our chairs from the dining room. That is, of course, assuming that K-Man continues on the good list.

Aww, and this is a sweet one of a tired mama and her baby boy having a nap. Nothing beats a good snuggle sometimes!

Happy Halloween!

2011-12-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

After a crazy trip to St. Louis and Michigan, and the initial craziness that is always the first part of December, we are finally catching up on our blog! I know it has been awhile, but just in case the cold, dark winter is starting to wear on you, here is a throwback to fall. Halloween, to be specific. We grew our first pumpkin plant ever this year and we were really happy with how it went this year. We got four pumpkins out of our pumpkin plant and they were really big! The two biggest ones hovered around 50 pounds! Here are some pics of K-Man with our pumpkin harvest.

"I love pumpkins!"

"This one is my favorite!"

When he sings "If you're happy and you know it" this is how he does the actions to "your face will surely show it." Usually kids put their fingers on their cheeks--he plugs his ears. Ha ha!

K-Man with Daddy

Carving with Mom

He wasn't too sure about the guts

Peering in, not sure if he really wants to dig in there or not

Here's Mike giving a Halloween shout-out to his alma mater

The finished products

A picture of all three of us on the big night. Mike went as one of our friends who is a biology teacher and does a lot of refereeing for the high school; I went as a gypsy; and K-Man went as a dragon. *Oh, and a side-note, after this picture was taken, Kable dropped our camera and it broke, so there are no pics of him trick-or treating this year :(

K-Man's first "real" experience with trick-or-treating went like this: First of all, he was dressed as a dragon; people guessed lizard, and dinosaur, but we're going with dragon. We only went to a few of our friends' houses because he didn't really "get it" this year, but we had a good time. Without fail, this is how it went: Our friends opened the door, K-Man would make his way under the candy basket and around their legs and into their house; we would go get him, bring him back to the doorway and hand him his trick-or-treat bucket; and he would at some point try to give them candy (either from his basket or theirs). It was a pretty fun night with an adorable little dragon.

The Farmstead

2011-11-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

The day after our visit with K-man's birth mom, we went to a giant pumpkin patch/corn maze called The Farmstead. It is pretty close to where my parents live, and it was so much fun. All of the parents thought that we’d be there for an hour or so, but we ended up staying for almost three hours! There was all kinds of stuff for the kids to do, and once you paid admission, it was all free, which was pretty sweet. So we rode on the cow train, played in the corn box, did the hay maze, went on a hay ride, navigated the corn maze, jumped on this crazy huge inflatable thing—we think it was called the bouncy pillow or something like that, and K-man and his cousins had a blast getting pulled in the wagon by Papa. Amy’s mom really loves popcorn so she bought a couple of bags for everyone to share and K-man was all over that. After Grammy bought the popcorn, K-man pretty much went wherever she went so that he would have the popcorn close by. It was pretty adorable.

The corn box was pretty fun, although it took a few minutes for K-man to warm up to it

This slide was pretty cool, you basically slid across a bunch of rolling pvc pipes

Waiting to ride the cow train with Grammy, aunts, and cousins

K-man and Amy taking a ride with Perry, our cow

Some cousin love

Some Daddy love

Rocking the pumpkin tetherball

Some Papa love

A farmer, his wife, and an adorable little guy

What's more fun than a giant novelty rocking chair?

K-man wasn't 100% sure about the bouncy pillow

But he has been really into pushing things lately.

Loving him some popcorn with Grammy

Big kid time on the bouncy pillow

Aww, cutest couple ever? Possibly.

Excited about the hay ride!

Shooting the corn blaster with Daddy

Fascinating flag

A little family pic after the hay ride

Navigating the corn maze with Papa and Daddy

A Visit with our Birth Mom

2011-10-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had the chance to go and visit K-Man's birth mom. We are so proud of her for the good things she is doing! It was fun to be able to spend time with her and to see her family. She had fun playing with K-Man and we enjoyed being able to catch up with her in person. She is an amazing person!

On this visit, Amy's parents were able to come and get to know Alyssa a little bit, which was really cool. Amy's mom, who is also a birth mom, took some fun pictures of all of us together. Here are a few of our favorites. Now we just need to go get them printed off and hang them up!

K-Man and Alyssa

The adoption triad in action. We are happy to have an open relationship with Alyssa.

K-Man loves this game!

K-Man with his two best girls

"If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!"

Such a cutie!

Hanging out at the park. It almost looks like we called each other to plan matching outfits! Haha!

Cheeeeeese!

All smiles at the end of a great day.

We are so thankful for adoption, for K-Man, for his birth mom, and for the opportunity we have to enjoy an open adoption with her.

Grandparents are the Best!

2011-10-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

October has been so much fun! Three of K-Man's grandparents have come out to visit us, and it has been AWESOME! First, Amy's parents came out to visit, then Mike's dad came out (his mom wasn't able to make the trip this time), and then we went to Idaho to visit family and got to see Amy's parents again (but that will be a different post). We couldn't help but make a special blog post dedicated to all of the good times we spent with grandparents this month:

K-Man hanging with Amy's mom

Reading a riveting story about animales, en espanol, with Amy's dad

Helping Grandma type some really important stuff on her laptop

"Thanks for the awesome Halloween basket, Grandma and Grandpa!"
Of all of the awesome things Amy's parents put in his basket (candy, toys, etc.) his favorite thing was the Halloween and Thanksgiving silverware (?!) which he actually took to bed with him during naptime. You just never know what they're going to love!

K-Man with three of his favorite things: a big wheel, Grandma, and Grandpa

K-Man and Grandpa checking out some old farm equipment

A gratuitous shot of K-Man looking adorable

K-Man with Mike's dad, playing an intense game of blocks

K-Man quickly discovered where Grandpa keeps his candy stash: The shirt pocket!

We went on a cool hike up to a lake with Mike's dad. Forgive the off-center shot, the sun was blazing into my eyes when I took this picture, so I couldn't see very well!

Even though Grandma couldn't come, she sent a fun Halloween package for K-Man with Grandpa when he came to visit. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

K-Man's two favorite things from Grandma and Grandpa, a Halloween book that plays spooky sounds and songs when you push the buttons, and a very cool light-up toy.

There you have it: proof that K-Man has some of the world's best grandparents! Can't wait to see them again soon!

A Walk in the Park

2011-10-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

Amy's parents came from out of town to visit us for the weekend. Her mom got this cute picture of us walking with K-Man. Grandparents are so much fun!

A Good Saturday for Hiking

2011-09-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

Since the weather is finally cooling off a bit, and we had a leisurely Saturday with nothing major going on, we decided it was the perfect day for a hike. The Blue Mountains are a quick drive from our house, so we filled up our Camelbak, made some sandwiches, and hit the trail. We hadn't hiked that particular trail before, and it turned out to be one of our favorite hikes in the area.

When we got to the top, we stopped to have lunch and let K-Man take a break from being in the pack. As you can tell from the picture above, he has discovered how to use the Camelbak, which is awesome! He is growing up so fast! Pretty soon, we're sure he is going to be racing up the trail ahead of us.

We made some fun discoveries during our hike. For example, K-Man thinks that blowing a dandelion is REALLY funny; and yelling in the mountains and hearing it echo is super fun (we're sure that all of the hunters in the area appreciated all of the noise we were making!). Also, K-Man thinks that pretty much all of the animal sounds we heard were dogs (he would bark back at them), and he would crack up when Mike would run up the trail and give him a bouncy ride.

Hiking does take it out of you, though! So a nap was definitely in order on our way down the hill.

Scary Stuff!

2011-09-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

How a relationship can change! When he was a baby, and up until he was about nine months old, K-Man liked the vacuum. In fact, if he was fussy, I could vacuum and it would calm him right down until sometimes he would even fall asleep. Then came a period of distant curiosity. He wasn't instantly relaxed when I turned on the vacuum, but he was interested in it. He would follow me through the house as I vacuumed. Recently, however, something has changed. He is absolutely terrified of the vacuum! So much so that I try to wait until Mike is home so that he can comfort the little guy while I vacuum. Notice the look of terror on K-Man's face as he hides behind his dad from the big, bad vacuum! What a sympathetic mom I am to grab the camera and take a picture of him scared out of his wits instead of comforting him! In the end I figured I should try to show him there was nothing to be afraid of, so we vacuumed together. But he remains skeptical.

Welcome to the Mainland!

2011-07-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

Amy's sister and brother-in-law just moved back to the mainland from Hawaii. Sad for them, but AWESOME for us! Especially since they moved to a town that is just over two hours away from us! K-Man is so excited to have some fun cousins to play with.

Cowboy Zak!

Zak and his new buddy chillin' in the hammock

Baby Cole making some breadsticks with Aunt Amy

Uncle Nate smiling for the camera

Nothing beats a bubble bath after a long day of playing

K-Man had a lot of fun with Zak's toys

Love this picture!

Baby Cole hanging out with Uncle Mike

2011-07-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, this is a little bit late, but Happy 1st Father's Day, Mike!! You are an amazing dad and we are so thankful for you!

June Visit!!

2011-07-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

We got to visit with K-Man's birth mom at the end of June.
We can't believe it's been a year already!!
Here are some fun pics from a great day:

Alyssa and K-Man

Funny face!

Playing on the slide

Two of our favorite tow-heads

Lots of trips down the slide that day

How far we've come in a year! And we look forward to many more.

Welcome to our adoption blog!

2011-06-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

We hope that you will enjoy getting to know our little family by reading our blog.