Motherhood is...

To me this picture speaks volumes about motherhood. There are times when I just need to shut the door with her on the other side for a minute. But it fills my heart with such joy when I see those chubby fingers reaching under the door, as if she'll be able to grab me and pull me right back out. It's true, when you have kids you loose most of your privacy, but it's such a small sacrifice for what you get in return. Being a mom is the best job I've ever had. Who could look at this and not chuckle? "MOMMY, come back out here!" Daddy was with her on the other side of the door, laughing just like I was.

She loves shoes!



THE FAIR!!!!!!

We went to the fair this year! It was so fun! She's just getting to the age where she actually enjoys things like this. We ate funnel cakes, we rode the rides, we won prizes, we took pictures, and we even watched the rodeo. It was such a blast. Miriam loved waving to the peasants below as she was riding the rides. She looked so proud.

This is Jason riding with Taten, the kid behind them threw up... but not them, they're real men.

Miriam with birthmom, Candice

"Wave at Mommy"


The 4th of July
We celebrated the 4th with some friends from our church. Miriam really did NOT like the loud fireworks, or the really bright fireworks... the only things she liked were the quiet fountains and snappers. But we had a great time. It was fun to watch her face as she was seeing these things for the first time.

Throw that snapper!

Candice's Wedding, June 19, 2009

Miriam's birthmom, Candice just got married! We were so happy to be able to make the trip to her wedding so that Miriam could be the flower girl and so Jason could walk Candice down the isle. It was a very nice, small wedding. You may think that you've seen the cutest flower girl ever, but you'd be wrong... unless you were at Candice's wedding! She was so adorable! I walked with her to make sure it didn't take 3 hours and it would have taken 3 hours because she wanted to take out one petal at a time, and delicately place it on the floor. Then she'd take a little 2-inch step and start over. SO CUTE!

Take one out... place it on the floor.

"Oh no! Daddy, look at the mess I've made! I'd better clean it up."

She picked up every tiny piece of every petal. She's very tidy.

Clapping to her music during the drive. It's about a 4 and a half hour drive, but she did so well, both ways! It's so nice that she can listen to headphones now! Yay!

It's finally summer!

We're so happy to be outside again! No more snow, no more coats, no more energy bills that make me faint! On our 6-year wedding anniversary we had a lovely picnic in the park, and we played on the playground, and looked at the flowers, and had a wonderful time. Then I kicked Jason's butt at a not-so-friendly game of monopoly. Victory is mine!

Birthday Kisses

I stole this pic off of Brock and Heather's blog. It's Miriam and her cousin Addison at Addison's birthday party. The funniest part is that they were just giving each other kisses on their own, then the mommies scrambled for their cameras and made then do it again. SO sweet!

What we've been up to

Have you ever seen the show Recess? I think Miriam is gonna be the "swinger girl". She LOVES the swings at the park. She just loves being outside for anything.

We were able to go to Billings for our niece's 2nd birthday party. That was so fun! Miriam even came out of her shell and played with some of the kids that were there. She even found a friend her age wearing the same skirt as her.

Her hair is getting cuter and cuter every day.

Some days it's so curly, others it's straight as a board.

I have the brownest of all the brown thumbs! I've never been able to keep plants alive for very long, but this year I decided to take the plunge and plant flowers. These are a couple of them. I had my local "Flower Goddess" give me a tutorial and help me plant, and they seem to be alive so far. Hopefully they will survive my abuse. Poor things.

Ever have one of those days when you just want to run around naked bouncing a 2-liter bottle on your head? Miriam has.

Just wanted to say...

Miriam ran for the first time today. We were getting a snack ready and I said "Where's you milk? We can't have our snack 'till you find your milk". Well, she must have known exactly where it was cuz I've never seen her little legs move so fast. She started to actually run, and I thought the whole house might shake into a pile of rubble because she landed each step with a straight leg and a flat foot. I couldn't get her to do it again for the camera... you know how it is. A couple other cute words she's saying are thank you (tee-dyou) and bonk (bok) every time her head bumps something, which is hundereds of time a day. And today I said "Brrrrrr, it's cold outside" and she put her shoulders to her ears and her little fists to her chin and scrunched her whole face and growled like a bear, "Grrrrrrr". It was cute. Sorry, no pics today.

Just life

Things have been kinda busy, sorry it's been almost a month since I've blogged. Mira is saying all kinds of new words. She chatters in a foreign tounge all day long. She lectures her babies, and her blanky, and the dog.... ok, and her parents too. She just acts as though she's explaining something very complicated to us. She's completely obsessed with balloons right now, she used to call them balls, but we've corrected her so many times now she knows what they are but can't make it past the "L". She points and says "Blllllllllllllllll...". Her favorite word has to be uh-oh. She started saying "up" when she wants picked up. She says water (wawa), milk (mi), more (mo), pretty (bee-ee). She loves balls, and everything that has a round shape is a ball to her. You can imagine how exciting the produce section is for us. She's been VERY into girly things. She likes to wear dress shoes, and holds her foot in the air and says "bee-ee". She likes clothing with glitter or sparkles on it, she just likes to look bee-ee. And now she likes to brush her hair... so bee-ee. And she's walking confidently now too. She strolls all over the whole house, just to see the sights. But when we're not at home she's got to scope the place out and make sure it's safe before she'll walk. It's funny.

Jason and Taten built a happy snowman on Apr 29th,

but he soon turned into a sad snowman. Will spring ever come?

We borrowed this seat when Miriam was born, now we borrowed it again for the new little baby I babysit, but Miriam is a little confused about it.The top picture is her when she was only a couple days old. The bottom picture... you know.

This is on family movie night. We sat down in front of the TV with some snacks and The Tale of Desperoux, and she couldn't stop lecturing the TV. Silly kid.

Apr 23, 2009 - 50 sec




This is just a little bit of her walking around the house.

May 16, 2009 - 31 sec

Happy Adoption Day, Miriam!

On April 22nd 2008 Miriam's adoption became official. So April 22nd is a day that we want to celebrate every year. Nothing big, we just want to remember how God blessed us over and over throughout the adoption process, and the crescendo of those blessings was on April 22nd, finalization day. We went to our local soda fountain and had ice cream and fries. For the fist time we ordered Miriam her very own dish of pink ice cream (which she ate 6 bites of). We invited a friend to come along just for fun, it was a good time. Happy Adoption Day, Miriam! Mommy and daddy love you so much!



It was finally warm enough to open the windows this week. We don't have screens so it's just wide open. Well, Miriam LOVED to be able to partially hang out the window and feel the breeze in her... um... hair, er... scalp. I left the room for a minute and came back and she was gone. I panicked and ran over to the window yelling her name... she was in her fort, laughing at me.