Eliana, El Bell

Eliana has started to call herself, "ahh-nee", as that is how a few of her little friends are able to say her name.  It is like a combo of Ellie and Ana.  She is fiery and fun.  Full of laughs and tears.  One good friend told me, "she feels everything big and on the outside."  She readily says "hi" and "bye" when people come to visit and she shrieks with delight when Carla drives into the driveway.

 She has this adorable little book bag from our good friend and when the boys got things ready for school one morning last spring, she insisted on being included in the book bag fun.

This.  This is Miss E.

Eliana loves Josh or "yosh" as she calls him.  They are both strong, very active and big feelers.  So when Carla invites Eliana over to play it is always a huge delight.

Eliana's hair is growing so our hair regimen is expanding.  She sleeps with a sleep cap as a way to get her ready for when she really needs to wear it to keep a hard earned style in place. 

When Gabby was itty bitty, I wanted a photo of the two girls.  However, Eliana was not the most cooperative subject.  Gabby's safety was in question if I tried to put the two of them side by side.  So this attempt is the best I could get: I pinned Eliana between my legs to keep her still and protect Gabby.  They are both looking at the camera so we will call that a win.

Eliana loved our little get away last spring, too.  She loves throwing things into the lake and basically anything that the boys do, she does too. 

She is so busy many times that I don't get glimpses of her quiet and calm.  I found her reading in her room, babbling the story of this book and turning the pages.

The boys do their bits of homework each afternoon and Eliana was insistent on participating, as well.    She sat and "wrote" on Jonathan's spelling list with great concentration.

It's amazing how much kids change from eighteen months to age two.  She was throwing huge fits around eighteen months and I think much of it was due to her inability to clearly communicate.  She still gets mad when she doesn't get her way but as I look back at the photos from six months ago, I am amazed at how her vocabulary has exploded.

Jonathan, aka J-man

Jonathan is my strong, independent, leader who still tells me almost every day, "I love you, Momma."  If I'm really lucky, he and Caleb will snuggle beside me while we read stories before bed.

Sometimes being the oldest isn't always easy. Especially if you're the oldest of four.  Jonathan is the best older brother these other three could have asked for.  He includes them, he loves to play with them, and he watches out for them.  He is always always full of ideas and this makes play time so fun for the others.

Chester, the fifth living being in need of care in this house, sometimes doesn't get the attention from me that he would like.  Jonathan makes up for that.  He plays catch with him, feeds him and walks him with Caleb.  I told Jamie the other day, "Chester listens and responds better to Jonathan than he does to me."

 Our family is an outdoor group of people.  Jonathan isn't as much of a random explorer as Caleb but he loves to ride his bike, hike, and he has started to enjoy shooting hoops in our driveway.  I need to hone my skills to keep my winning streak in "HORSE" alive and strong.

J-man finished second grade like a champ last year.  He loves to read and lately has been more than willing to share all of his recently learned facts with me.  I learn as he learns.  He loves robots and can still make a mean lego creation.  He still plays the piano and is improving all the time.  It is a delight to hear him play.

Caleb, aka Caleeeb, aka Big C

 In light of the reality that this little blog missed the entire spring semester of life, I am doing an update in pictures and stories for each kid.  Caleb is first because this first picture came up on the list of photos, and I couldn't wait to share this story and laugh about it for a tenth time.

Caleb loved kindergarten last year as his teacher was amazing, and the class of kiddos were really sweet to each other (most of the time).  One day he came home with this creation from the art center.  Upon asking him about it, I got this story: "A girl told me her friend was in love with me so I made this rattlesnake to scare her away."

 Caleb was home each afternoon last year which was a sweet time for he and I to read, make projects or play a game.  He also had the chance to love on his little sisters, especially the littlest one who isn't always a fan of sleeping.

 Caleb is a protector.  I found him sitting in Gabby's room, watching her sleep after I finished reading stories to Eliana one afternoon.  Wearing shorts and knee high smart wool socks, of course.

We needed a little geographic retreat in March so we drove to a resort on a lake three hours from here for a long weekend.  Caleb could spend hours and hours collecting things, creating things, exploring nature.  He "found" all kinds of amazing treasures on this nature walk by the lake.  If you open Caleb's hands, you'll more often than not find treasures he is faithfully carrying for some mysterious purpose.

Big C wanted to play soccer last spring because Jake was playing.  After the first game I suggested we kick the ball a bit in the front yard to get ready for his second game.  To which he replied, "I already had my game." I had to explain that there were going to be many more games before the end. He then informed me, "I want to be on a soccer team with no games.  I only did soccer because Jake did."  That sweet boy loves cooperation and playing with friends but competition is not the name of his game.

Big C lost several teeth this year and my little guy grew so much that little guy doesn't seem to describe him very well any more.

Last day of school for 2014-2015.  Caleb's favorite thing about kindergarten after being asked, "that Jake and I got to be in the same class!"  Caleb learned to read like a champ this year and we spent many of our winter afternoons reading the likes of "Frog and Toad".  

Kindergarten was a big year for Caleb in that he started the long awaited piano lessons.  He had been an observer to Jonathan's progress for two years and was so eager for his turn.  I love to see how his personality comes through in his playing.  While Jonathan always needs reminders to slow down, Caleb patiently plays the music and is rarely in a hurry.

Officially Offical.

 Adoption works differently in every state and in every situation.  Gabby's entire adoption process was local and the legal process didn't take very long due to the details of the situation.  So...Gabby's adoption was final on February 6.  We celebrated in court with Grammie, Grandpa Maynard and Grandma Judy and enjoyed a fun dinner that evening to honor the day.  Gabrielle Carter Marie, we love you up to the moon and back. 

I posted all of the photos we took so you could see that no, there was not a better option.  Yikes.  This is why you'll soon see a post of professional photos from Gabby's newborn days.  Because we need someone with skills to catch us all looking and possibly smiling.  At least not with our mouths open or fingers in the nose.

Christmas 2014 Happened

With Gabby's amazing surprise arrival, things like blogging totally fell off the radar.  When we were finally getting in a groove with her, summer started.  Summer is all kind of crazy fun but blogging was not going to happen.  Alas, school has started and I want to catch up.  

We celebrated Christmas with both sides of the family...

 We were going to do our little family's celebration on the 27th after arriving home from Iowa on the 26th.  However, we went straight to the hospital and got to meet Gabby so our celebration waited until she arrived home.  I'm laughing out loud at these photos because we just tried to take a few to document the day but really, we just enjoyed spending a day as a family after the whirlwind.  And, I'm wearing a funky black glove.  Because my hands were in terrible shape after using the hospital soap for three days.  How nurses manage to keep their hands in decent shape, I have no idea.

Merry Christmas 2014.  

Gabby

So the precious little babe in this house is finally sleeping better after about nine weeks of really wakeful nights.  She is bright-eyed and always looking around.  You'll notice the absence of photos including Eliana and Gabby.  I have yet to figure out how to keep Gabby safe while taking a photo of her with Eliana.  Eliana loves her.  So much.  But the love lacks the gentle touch that keeps a baby safe.  Gabby's eyes get especially wide when she hears Eliana shrieking down the hall: "BABBY!!!" Alas, we will just settle for separate photos until they are a bit older.  

She is now a solid ten and a half pounds.  She started out at an itsy bits 5 pounds, 7 ounces so she's gaining ground and eating like a champ.

The boys love to hold her and snuggle with her and are most protective and loving. 

Her hair gets so many compliments.  It is funky and big and soft all at the same time.  Her baby hair is fine and straighter but the curly textured hair growing underneath makes it all stand out on end.  I just love it.  It will be sad when it changes and isn't spiky like that any more.

Gabby, what a sweet completion to our family.  We are over the moon with delight about the gift that is you!

Gabrielle Carter Marie

Surprise!!  We were ending our Christmas celebration with my mother when we got "the call".  Our celebration with my family had been sweet and sad as my dear dad's love of the holiday made it even harder to miss him as we celebrated.  The car was packed to head home and we began to notice buzzing and dinging from our phones.  If you've tried to contact us when we're out of town you can attest to this fact - we typically ignore those dings and buzzes until we return home.  However, the insistence of the dinging caused us to check things out and we noticed a familiar name popping up on both of our phones: Susan T.  The beloved social worker who who walked us through the failed adoption this summer and with whom we had always hoped to finalize an adoption.  

We immediately called her back and heard these words: "there is a baby girl who was born this morning, Mom has seen your profile book and wants to meet you.  Where are you?"  To which we replied: "we're in Iowa and we can come straight there."  We loaded everyone in the car and began the drive towards home as Gabby was born fifteen minutes from our house and was waiting with her amazing first momma there to meet us.  

This sweet girl has an amazing first momma who I was privileged to spend beautiful time with in the hospital, loving on Gabby.  Those three days are a treasure for us and were the start of a relationship with her first momma that is a gift.  

Consents were signed and we got to welcome Gabby home on the 29th of December.  Remember the hotel room wait time for Eliana's adoption? Well, Gabby was born in our home state so that wait time didn't apply and we got to bring her home as soon as she was discharged.

Gabrielle means "God is my strength." in Hebrew.  Carter is the middle name her first momma chose for her.  We added the middle name Marie at finalization in honor of both of our paternal grandmothers.

She has three siblings who tell us almost daily that they are so thankful that Gabby is part of our family.  They all love her dearly.  Some of the love has to monitored a bit more carefully than others but our (not so little) family is complete.  We couldn't be more thankful and amazed at the gifts that each of these kiddos are to our family.

 Grandpa and Grandma meeting Gabby

 Grammie and Gabby

 The crew meeting Gabby for the first time

And the love that has to be well supervised.