Amazing pictures!

Luke- 5 years old

Gabe 2 1/2

Clark- 2 1/2 months

Our Family

Muscle picture

Just want to thank Nicole again! She does work in Boise and Utah. Check her out at Nicole's photo blog

Welcoming Brutus to the family!

Trucks: A Boy's Toy

I like to tell people that I'm part of the "Make a Wish" Foundation, and I've granted Ben's wish by go along with the purchase of his dream truck (Brutus). The boys love it. They like to go Vroooom, Vroom!

Pick your favorite photo from this week

Gabe's dress-up is hilarious!

Playing in the mud

We found Luke like this one night-weird.

Can we clone this guy so I can have one at home and one that goes to work.

The Itsy-bitsy Spider- Clark is so social. If he gets your eye contact he will not stop talking, smiling, growling, and laughing. He loves to watch his brothers, grab at toys and books, and listen to music. So fun!

Family Pictures

You may think, "Family pictures again." But the last ones became outdated so quickly with Clark's arrival. Nicole was going to do Luke's birthday pictures anyway, so we took advantage of her amazing talent and had family and individuals done as well. She is Awesome!!!! To see a sneak peek click here:

Nicole Leavitt Photography

For you folks in Boise she will be here in April if you want pictures done.

Happy 5th Birthday Luke!

Luke's costume party!

Star Wars action figures in the Cake.

Awesome kid!

Pinata

The winning birthday present from mom and dad.

He loved it so much that he wore it into Blimpies for dinner Saturday night. It was a good laugh.

Dad and Clark

Gabe massaging his feet with toothpaste.

Here's a real model for the hair pretties I made.

Cousin "M" She's my inspiration.

I love this girl's mommy!!! Bekah thanks for helping me get the kids ready for church today. I got to get myself ready and we were a little early to church. It was a great day! I also want to thank everyone on the left side of the chapel for taking care of Luke and Gabe while I was in the Hall bouncing Clark to sleep. The bishop even commented to Ben on how it seemed like quite the community effort today. As Gabe was making a mad dash for the door, 20 arms of people on both sides of the aisle reached out to try to stop him. I was watching from the door and it was so comical.

Birthparent visits

With Lucas birthday coming up, we reflected and are so grateful for his birth and the ones that delivered him to our family.

We really enjoyed reconnecting with Luke's birth dad last weekend. It was so wonderful to meet his wife and little girl. They were recently sealed as a family in the temple and we are so happy for them. They came and watched Luke's soccer game and then we went to lunch.

When asked who gave him this batman Luke said, "My friend _____."

Thank you hug.

Then this weekend we saw his birthmom. She's an amazing woman, wife, mother, and photographer. She took Luke's birthday pictures for his birthday. Thanks so much!

Luke didn't totally understand the significance of who they were, but he understood that they thought he was special. That's wonderful!

Birthparents

When ever I tell someone that our kids are adopted, their first question is always, "So, do you keep in contact with their birthparents?" I tell them yes. It can be scary, shocking, and sometimes hard for people to understand why we choose open adoptions. We have many people, but specifically, 6 people that have quite the invested interest in our children. We communicate with 5 of our 6 birthparents. We are what you would call "spoiled" in the adoption world. We have met all of the birthmoms, and birthdads of our children. You have been "super spoiled" to have birthfathers that were so supportive and cooperative.

Our communication:

I like to compare gaining a birthparent to having another cousin in our family. At the minimum I send them my Christmas card, a birthday email, and an update letter with pictures on our child's birthday. The first year of our kids' lives there have been regular email updates. Now I have this blog which is wonderful because I can hit all the "birds" with one stone. We have also been open to random visits with them to reconnect and see one another. So far this hasn't been more than once a year or so. Everyone has a different desired amount of communication, and we work with that. I feel like we have a great relationship of trust with all of them, they have really respected our role as the parents of our children.

Attitude towards birthparents:

Birthparents are amazing! The second most common questions is, "Why did they choose adoption." No matter what their circumstance, they ultimately choose adoption because they wanted their child to be sealed to a mother and father. They could have chosen to be single parents and I believe they would have been the best ones out there, but they wanted there child to have both parents married and around all the time. They were also following the answers to their prayers. They all had the confirmation that this was what God wanted for these little babies and that we were supposed to be their parents.

It's all about love

People's final comment is usually, "I can't imagine being able to do it." Birthmother's are my heroes because they are truly the most unselfish people I know. With open adoption I was able to see the extreme love and natural bond that comes at birth. It's a fight against nature to follow through with their decision. Placing a baby is the hardest action they will ever do in their lives. They experience much loss and grief. I know that God carries them through the experience and surrounds them with loving supportive people. It is truly a miracle! I feel so privileged to have experienced this process so I can explain to my children how much their birthparents love them.

Though at times I consider parts of adoption my trial in life, it's hard to call it that when adoption is such an overwhelming blessing in my life. It's given us our 3 Beautiful miracles! I'm so thankful for the family God has created for Ben and I to raise for eternity.

The six good days of my week

Excluding today the rest of this week was great. My ward throw me a "Welcome Clark" dessert night. Clark got tons of diapers and wipes and a couple cute outfits. It was fun to visit and I'm really starting to feel like I know the people in this ward (we had a ward split in November). The boys loved the snow this week, especially Gabe. He puts his boots on and loves to stomp on the snow.

Luke got a new set of Legos-that he loves

Clark has discovered his fist. yummy!

When I lay Clark on the ground to play, he boys like to lay around him. It's sweet.

Happy baby, I love that smile!

Upcoming post: We had a wonderful time this weekend reconnecting with Luke's birthdad and his family. Open adoptions are a beautiful thing.

it started all wrong . . .

We forgot it was daylight savings- So I missed sacrament meeting. Which was probably a blessing since I had another cold and had debated if I could handle it today. And I take back all the nice things I said about my kids in the last blog, just kidding. But I did have a bad mom day. I yelled at my kids many times today (I know that will burst the good mother image you may have of me). For example: when Luke undid Gabe seatbelt right after I put him in it, and when Gabe dumped a box of cereal and gold fish on the floor and a bottle of bubbles into the bathtub (it smells really good in there now). Poor Clark- his schedule got all messed up by church and the time change. To top it off Ben is on call today and he got called into the hospital right as he finished his church meetings, so I haven't seen him today. I should consider becoming 7th day adventist because Sunday hasn't felt like a day of rest in a long time. haha

Updates on all

Clark: had a healthy 2 month check-up. He weathered the shots fairly well with the help of Tylenol. He weights 13.88 lbs. (92%) and he's 24.5 inches long (94%). His has been sleeping 6 hours straight during the night. He has great eye contact, smiles, and coos. We are enjoying this happier, more interactive stage. He no longer has a fussy times in the evening, and has established a fairly predictable routine. He's sensitive to changes in his schedule, and has a harder time falling asleep in his car seat if we are out running errands. He loves looking at his toys and swats at them. He also likes books and singing. He is a beautiful, sweet baby that is adore by all in our family.

Gabe: Is still enjoying Tumble Time gymnastics once a week. His current obsessions are spiderman, cartoons & movies (he wants to put the dvd's in and play with the remotes), jumping on the trampoling, legos with Luke, balls, and playdough. He has been a pretty mild, easy 2 year old especially for having a new baby brother. He listens fairly well, cleans up, and will even share sometimes. My challenge with him are dumping toys, making messes, and grunting at me through his finger sucking instead of talking. He is such a loving boy and still snuggles with me. He has such joy for life and his easy going attitude makes it a pleasure to have him in our family.

Luke: is turning 5 next week. His birthday list is long with lego sets, action figures, and every new toy that he sees on commericals. He's a natural leader, smart, and social. He loves legos, Stars wars, super heros, video games, soccer, and jumping on the trampoline. He's also a fairly good singer and plays around on the piano sometimes. He is a funny kid with such a sense of humor. He's fun to be around. My challenges with him are teasing his brother and sassiness. He will always be my baby. I'm a sucker when that beautiful face looks at me. He's been such a wonderful big brother and son. We love him so much.

Happy 2 months Clark!

Clark is going to go to his doctor check up and getting his shots for his 2 month b-day. Yeah!

It's been hard to catch his smile on camera because when he sees the camera he stares at it with a concentrating look on his face or the camera flash seems to kill any smile.

laughing at dad singing

They had a church play day/Head band making day. Everyone didn't understand why I was making bows when I have three boys. Not to ruin the surprise, but I needed to make baby gifts. I thought they turned out cute.

So mean! but I needed a model. Actually I made all the boys try one on so I knew that they would work for all ages. Clark's was just the only defenseless one that could pull it off one second after I put it on.

Gabe is into wearing costumes right now, and he can did it by himself.

The boys

Playing

P.S. My brother have a kickin' 10th Anniversary party this weekend. They hired a DJ for dancing. Ben and I danced for over two hours, and I'm feeling it today especially in my abs. I thought I was going to be 20 and youthful forever. I'm definitely starting to feel 30 creeping up on me.