Day 2 - Allergy attack

Well since we were up pretty late when we got in, needless to say that the girls didn’t get up till 11am. We ate breakfast and sat at the house for a bit. My dad has a little Pomeranian dog that is about 5 years old. He’s a grumpy little dog sometimes. He’s very protective of my dad. So this brings me to say that Aiden had a hard time sleeping; she was coughing, congested and watery eyes. We chalked it up to that she just had a cold. We realized that in the morning she must be allergic to dogs. She has never had any reactions to our cats. We realized this and thinking about the last few visits with the other relatives and friends who have dogs and started having the same symptoms. We finally decided to get out of the house and do some shopping, especially to get some children’s allergy medicine. We also picked up a few other items from Target for the girls and a few other necessities. Today was a bit uneventful so there’s nothing really to report. :o(

The best part of day 2 was getting to sleep in longer than normal, and watching the girls interact with their cousins and playing with them
The worst part of day 2 was Aiden's allergy attack and feeling miserable

What we learned on day 2 was Aiden is allergic to dogs
The weather on day 2 was cold, 20 degrees and scattered snow showers, very light though

Nothing comes between a man and his dog. :o)

Aiden with her cousin Cody in the toy/computer room

Day 1 - Flight to Michigan

We woke early (7am) to begin our day to get ready to travel to Michigan for Christmas. Our friend Lisa came to pick us up at 9 and headed to the airport. The girls handled the flights really well. It was the girl’s first trip on an airplane and it was an interesting journey. We took 1 car seat on the plane with us and checked one in @ the gate. Kyra occupied the car seat and Jake & I took turns holding Aiden. The first flight was good really good. Kyra stayed awake the whole time, fussed a small bit but just about 20 minutes before we landed in Dallas, she fell fast asleep. Hmph, go figure.

Our first stop was a 2 hour layover in Dallas, Texas. Luckily it was still late afternoon and it was still partially lunch/dinner time so we grabbed a bite to eat. As we were walking through the terminal to get from one gate to the next I looked and Jake and said “It would be cool if airports had a play land.” Not just 10 minutes later we get closer to our gate and there it was...a play land. The girls were able to run off steam before getting on our next flight.

We arrived into Detroit around 11:30pm. By the time we got off the plane and into the baggage claim it was after midnight. Since we had so much baggage Jake felt it was easier if he went and got the car and picked us up. Kyra and I waited in the terminal while he and Aiden grabbed a shuttle to the car rental. Not too long after he headed back to pick us up and then headed to my dad’s house. When we got to my dad’s everyone was sleeping but they eagerly got up and visited with us. They were really excited to meet Aiden & Kyra. I think the jetlag of the day has gotten to them for they were pretty wide awake when we arrived.

The day has ended and it’s time for bed. We’re so pooped. We and the girls have had a very long day. Thanks for reading. I will try to post new journals daily so please keep checking back. See you next blog.

This lower part is thanks to the Pascoal’s for the use of their idea from there WDW trip last year. We’re stealing the idea.

The best part of day 1 was Aiden & Kyra being really good and falling asleep on the 2nd leg.
The cutest part of day 1 was Aiden saying goodnight to everyone and says to Grandpa “Goodnight Santa” for he looks like Santa with his beard and mustache. – *photo attached*
The worst part of the day was getting into DTW @ midnight and the long amount of time it took to get the rental car.
What we learned on day 1 was when it comes to carryon luggage, REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE and luggage is never free…$60 later.
The weather on day 1 was cold, 20 – 22 degrees in DTW

The real question is: Does Santa really exist??? HECK YEAH, and here's the proof. Just ask Aiden. :o)

Intel Christmas with Santa

We were lucky enough to be invited by the Pascoal's to attend Intel's annual Christmas with Santa visit for friends and family of Intel employees. Drew works at Intel. Aiden was pretty excited to see Santa. The wait time was way less than we expected. We had a pretty big group, it was us, the Pascoal's & the Monick's as well as Stephanie's mom who flew in from SoCal for the weekend. Evan also works at Intel so he and his wife and their little guy Liam was there too! All in all there were 12 of us. Aiden was enamored by Santa and forgot to tell him that she wanted a jumprope for Christmas. She happily jumped on his lap and took some beautiful pictures. Kyra on the other hand was a little more standofish so Jake sat with her next to Santa on her daddy's lap. She didn't cry though. Here are the results. See you next blog.

Kyra was afraid to sit on Santa's lap so Jake held her next to Santa and that was OK with her.

Halloween & Christmas

These last few months have flown by so quickly. Getting the girls, making adjustments, everything has changed soo much.

Halloween was fun. We had a mini Not-So-Scary Halloween party. Our friends Drew, Maria & their 2 boys Aiden & Jeremy came over as well as our friends Evan, Stephanie & their little guy Liam, who is just 3 weeks younger than Kyra. We had a special visit for the weekend which was our cousin Amber and her daughter Allee from Fresno. All the kids looked absolutely adorable. Aiden dressed up as Cinderella and Kyra dressed up as Ariel. How convenient...both Disney Princesses. Kyra was in the stroller as we all went out to do our 1st Trick or Treat Halloween with the girls. After the first few houses and getting candy, Aiden would look up at me and say "On to the next house mommy". It was soo cute. The funny thing about Aiden was, she didn't necessarily want the candy I think it was the novelty of going to houses and getting the candy. LOL. She hasn't really asked for any of the candy she got that night. Jake & I have been munching on it mostly...well mostly Jake. I know, we're bad. LOL.

The BOO CREW

Thanksgiving we spent at Jake's mom's house with sibling and their kids. We had a really nice dinner followed by some yummy dessert.

We leave the 19th to travel to Michigan for Christmas with my family this year. It is very exciting for not only Jake & I but for the girls too. Aiden is super excited to meet her Grandpa Deel, and all her aunts, uncles, cousins, and great aunts and great uncles and everyone else. We got a family Christmas portrait done to put in our cards this year. It came out pretty cute. Of course the best one we took, Aiden was hamming it up. Kyra had some great smiles in some and not smiling in others. We found this one to be the best out of them all. We had a doozie of a time trying to keep them both happy which to a 19 month old who's squirmy was rather difficult.

I would say that Kyra has made such progress in our home. She smiles alot more and she is starting to talk more. She says things like kitty, meow and now she's into saying SEE, SEE. We put up our tree and she walks towards it but doesn't touch it. I think she's just fascinated by it. She stands there and just looks at it as if to say "How did this thing get in here"? We bought the girls personalized ornaments from Bronners and also bought them each their own Stocking to hang above the fireplace with their names on them. We are absolutely taking them with us to Michigan, that way Santa can fill them with goodies. Every morning since we put up the tree, Aiden walks down the stairs and says to the tree "Good morning Christmas tree". She asks just about everyday if it's Christmas yet and we tell her in just a few weeks but right now until then it's Christmas time. She's in the 'I Want' stage so we keep telling her that she's going to have to put that on her list to Santa. Which reminds me, we need to get that done and sent to Santa soon. We are taking the girls on Saturday to Intel to see Santa. Our friend Drew works for Intel and they have a little Christmas party for the families of Intel and they invited us along. Aiden is excited. I'm sure her & Kyra will do great when they see him. Jake & I bought the book, The Night Before Christmas last year and we'll be taking that with us to Michigan so that Jake can read it to the girls on Christmas Eve. I've always wanted to do that and have a tradition like that when we had kids and now my wish has come true. So let the Christmas Family Tradition Begin with a beautiful book.

If I don't blog before the end of the year we hope that everyone has a Very Merry CHRISTmas and a safe & Happy New Year! See you next blog.

Placement & Life

Long time, no blog so Hi Everyone. We have been so busy the last few months as we have had the girls in our home since August 22nd. It's been hectic to say the least.

Days 1-3: First few days home
Jake & I drove down to Fresno to pick up the girls to bring home with us. It was an interesting ride home with 2 little ones. We didn't know their eating habits, the sleep schedules. We were in for a surprise. But a good surprise none-the-less. I unfortunately can't recollect everything that has happened in the last month 1/2 they have been here but I will however give you some of the highlights.

Sunday, August 30th: Baby-toddler shower
Becky, my sister-in-law gave us a baby-toddler shower. It was really nice. We had lots of people here and kids too. We were worried that Aiden & Kyra would be overwhelmed by meeting all these new people at once but they did really well. Aiden made some new friends as did Kyra. Kyra loves cake we found out but we also found that she had an allergic reaction to the frosting as she had a bit of a red face afterward. After a while it went away. Aiden loves opening presents. She helped us open some of the gifts that were brought. She lost interest though after she found some toys to play with. That's kids for ya!

Let her eat cake :o)

Aiden celebrated her 3rd birthday with us and her new family & friends. She had a DORA themed birthday party. I made her invitations using my Cricut machine and made the doll. It was so much work but so worth it in the end. It came out really cute. I used the Cricut also to make her Happy Birthday Aiden banner.

Kyra's been walking for about 2 weeks now. When she arrived with us, she could barely pull herself up on anything. Now she is walking like a champ. She's an awesome eater. She eats anything and everything we feed her. She loves peas and green beans. She hasn't got the knack for broccoli yet though but she'll get there someday. She's such a good baby. Aiden is now potty trained. She's so happy to use the Big Girl potty. We're so proud of her.

It's hard to believe that they have been with us since August 22nd. We are so lucky to have these adorable little girls in our lives. They are very special. We can't wait for my family & friends in Michigan to meet them in December when we go back for Christmas.

Just before Aiden's 3rd birthday we took the girls to Sears and had professional photos done of them.

I have posted all the pictures from recent events on our webshots including the rest of the Sears portraits, so please feel free to check them out. Visit MASON to view all photos. See you next blog.

In the clear!

We just received a phone call - 2 minutes ago - Laura and I and our house are 100% approved to have Aiden and Kyra placed with us... Our background checks are completed and our house assessment is completed and all passed. We are approved to be caregivers now. As we understand it now, there are just a few more steps and they will be here. The SW mentioned a day trip and then an overnight/weekend trip, so that they can become acclimated before they are officially placed.

A new beginning...

Life had been plugging along when we got the call...2 young girls are in need of a loving, giving home to live, laugh, love. What better couple to give this to these young girls all of these things and more than Jake & I?!?

Sunday, July 12, 2009 - the call
Our cousin Amber called and told us about Kyra Violet, age 14 months & Aiden-Rose, a.k.a. Rose or Rosie, age 2 years & 10 months. Aiden-Rose will be 3 the day before our Wedding anniversary on 9/19. What a beautiful anniversary present to us to celebrate her 3rd birthday in her new home.

Monday, July 13 - Jake email'd social worker

Tuesday, July 14 - the email from Lindsey
We were contacted back from Lindsey after Jake's initial email to her the previous day. And from that day on it had been a busy few days. We contacted Kyra's social worker Lindsey via email. We heard back from her a day later and she was thrilled we were interested in taking the girls in our home and adopting them as our daughters.

Thursday, July 16 - attended a foster care orientation in Auburn.

Thursday, July 23 - trip to Fresno
Our morning began quite early...5:30am. We drove down to Fresno to meet with Aiden-Rose & Kyra's social workers. We were up pretty early to make the 3+ hour drive to meet with them at 10am. 5:30 comes early but when you have something this wonderful to drive somewhere for it's so worth it. On our way down we stopped and grabbed a quick bite for breakfast as we were pretty hungry. With us we took 4 pictures of our cats to show the girls and the social workers. We were told it would be good for the girls to see our pets. We were also told to bring photos of us and our lives together and what better way to show off pictures of us but with my scrapbooks. So I chose to take a camping album & a Disney album...what else would I take?!? We met the social workers at 10am and talked a bit about the girls before we met them. It was mentioned that Kyra may be a little behind in her motor skills and development but because she is so young they are unable to determine the extent. However since she has been in her new foster home the foster mom has noticed a great improvement. She speaks very little and does not crawl yet but with time it will come. She really took to me and I played with her quite a bit. She really loved the teddy bear we brought her. She really got me with that cute hair, she reminded me of pebbles. J Aiden-Rose was shy at first and she took to Jake really well. She sure does know who Mickey Mouse is. J We brought her a Dora doll and an activity book and she liked the book a lot…she especially LOVED the Dora doll. J This will be embedded in our memories for the rest of our lives. I asked the social worker if we could take pictures and she said as long as the girls were OK with it so Jake asked Aiden-Rose and she said that was OK with her. We only took a few with Jake’s iPhone camera. Aiden-Rose held up her Dora doll so needless to say there are two pictures of Aiden’s doll instead of her. Toward the end of our visit I carried Kyra out to her foster mom but when she saw her foster mom she wanted to stay with me in my arms. The foster mom told that she has never done that with any other people she’s been with since she’s had her in their home. She said to me “She must like you and must be very comfortable with you”. That made me feel soo good. As we left the office I asked Aiden-Rose for a hug and she happily waddled over to me and gave me a big bear hug. It made me so happy I almost cried. We loved being able to visit with the girls for the first time. After we left our meeting we headed over to get our LiveScan where we were fingerprinted. On our way home we stopped by to see our cousin Amber in Stockton. We got home pretty late but had an AWESOME day…especially meeting Aiden-Rose & Kyra.

Kyra Violet - age 14 months old

Aiden-Rose - 2 years, 10 months old

Sunday, July 26 - 1st shopping spree
Today was a good day. We started our day with breakfast at Kim's Country kitchen in Lincoln. Afterwards we headed to Sam's club where we picked up 2 outfits, baby wash and some small activity books for the girls. Then we went over to Wal Mart and picked up a few items...well more than a few items. Hehe. We picked up some outlet covers, diaper bag, baby hangers, a Johnson's baby pack with a bunch of things in it. We went hog wild, it was great. We couldn't help ourselves. After our Wally World trip we went over to Babies R' Us to check out car seats. There we picked up 2 matching car seats, doorknob covers and a cute Dora couch that turns out and has a built in sleeping bag. It's so stinkin' cute. :o) What a fun day today it was. We are looking forward to more shopping sprees in the next couple weeks.

All the goodies we bought


Outfits we bought for the girls


2 matching car seats we got for an awesome deal

Monday, July 27
We spoke with the social worker that is handling Aiden-Rose's case and have set up another visit with the girls on Thursday & Friday of this week. We are so excited to see them again. So after this week we'll know more as to when it is possible to bring Aiden-Rose home with us. Jake also spoke with Becky (his sister) and she told him that she and our cousin Crystal want to throw us a baby/child shower in the next few weeks. We thought that was absolutely soo thoughtful. We weren't sure how this would work but I guess we just had to register somewhere for things we think we might need sooo....we took a ride to Target this evening and made a registry. We weren't sure what date to put down so we put Aiden-Rose's birthday which is 9/19 but had to put 09 instead of 06. Our registry can be found at Aiden-Rose/Kyra Registry. We also registered on Wal Mart too.

This is pretty cool, Jake found a DORA toddler bed on Craigslist from a couple that live in Roseville so we made arrangements to meet up with them and buy the bed. We found it to be cheaper from them than to buy the bed & sheet set at Target.

toddler bed we bought from craigslist

9-bin toy storage

Thursday, July 30 - trip of Fresno - 2nd visit
We are down in Fresno now and we had our 2nd visit with the girls today. They as cute as buttons those 2. We had a busy morning, Jake worked till 11 and we headed out of the house around noon to make the 3+ hour drive again. We put the car seats in the truck just in case we were able to take the girls on our own today. And guess what?!? We were able to. We got clearance to have the girls unsupervised. We met the social worker Lindsey at Chuck-E-Cheese at 3:30. Aiden-Rose recognized us right away. Kyra, took a little longer to warm up to us. We ordered pizza and drinks. Man oh man can these little girls eat. I think Aiden-Rose herself ate 3 or 4 pieces of pizza and still wanted more. Kyra ate like a little champ herself. They were so comfortable with us it was AMAZING!!! Aiden-Rose so much wanted to ride in all the moving vehicles they had so needless to say Jake had TONS of tokens at the ready. She especially LOVED the car. As she was riding it while Jake supervised, he turned to me and said "She's already got me figured out!" by meaning he was the man with the tokens. haha...it was so cute! Kyra sat back for a bit before attempting to ride with her Big Sis and finally she looked at me and pointed to the car her sis was in. I assumed that meant she wanted to ride too. We put her in and buckled them in together. She started smiling and giggling and had a good old time. She was so happy. You could tell by the look on her face. At this point, I took the opportunity to take LOTS & LOTS of pictures. You all know me. I'm proud to say that I taught Aiden-Rose how to put both thumbs up and say Aah, like the Fonz. She kept doing it, and she even showed her foster parents she could do it. Aiden-Rose is a little bit of a whisperer but it was also hard to hear her in the loud CEC but she got louder at one point too. LOL Close to 6:30 we had to take them back to their foster home. We sat & got to talk to the foster parents and learn a little about the girls. Very insitful I'd say. We found out shoe sizes, clothes size, diapers...all kinds of stuff we would need to know. Aiden-Rose is still in diapers but once she gets acclimated to her new home, we'll eventually get her potty trained. After we left the foster home and went to Famous Dave's BBQ. It was super yummy. If you ever visit any of their restaurants you MUST try the sweet mashed potatoes or their creamy mashed potatoes. Yum!!! Here are a few pics from today's visit and a little video of Aiden-Rose on one of the slides at CEC. Tomorrow we visit with the 2 social workers and their supervisors to discuss more about the process and where things are going.

ENJOY THE PICS & THE VIDEO OF AIDEN-ROSE

Friday, July 31 - all day visit with the girls

We spent the majority of the day just visiting with the girls. We picked them up around 12:30pm and took them back to the foster home around 7:00pm. We had such a good time with them. We first took them to Chili's for lunch. They ate really good. Afterwards we took a trip to Target for a mini-shopping trip for toys & snacks. Afterwards we took them over to the Fashion Fair Mall for some playtime at the play area they have.

Aiden-Rose in Target


Kyra in Target

Kyra in the playland @ the mall


Aiden playing @ the playland in the mall

At this point in the process of adoption we have to do many things to get placement of the girls in our home. Aiden-Rose is ready for adoption but she has to be in our home 6 months before adoption proceedings can begin. Kyra, on the other hand will have a lengthier process for her. We will keep everyone updated on the progress of the girls. Please feel free to check periodically for updates if I forget to send out emails or update my FB acct.