A Visit with our Birth Mom

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!!

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.