April Happenings

Now that the month of April is almost over, I thought I would catch up the blogs on what we have been up to. On April 5th we were able to take our girls to the temple and have Jaymi sealed to our family.  It was a special experience and I will write more about that later when we get the pictures from the photographer.  Then on Saturday we got together with a group of other adoptive families for lunch.  I was excited to have a reason to wear my big puffy Russia coat.  Believe it or not I don't have many occassions come up where wearing it seems appropriate :)

All the children in the picture were found on Reece's Rainbow.  The two babies in the middle front were from the Ukraine and the rest we from Russia.  Notice our cute buddy Gabe, he had quite the slew of ladies to choose from.  It was so good to see him and his family again. Jaymi fell in love with the menu and was quite disappointed when she had to leave it at the restaurant.  She finds the funniest things exciting.

All the parents with their children.  Thats me with my two very clingy girls in hand.

We were lucky to have my brother and his family stay the night and my girls were excited to wake up to cousins to play with.

Jackie and Mckinley have been praying for Jaymi to make it home for along time.  Its precious to see them play together, they are really sweet with her.

Testing out the monkey blanky Grandma LaJean gave her for her birthday.  "OOOO OOOO" says the monkey.

Yep, she loves it!

Our friend Sarah teaches Kindergarden and invited Jaymi to come to her class.  This girl is sooo excited for school and asks to go every day.  She had a great time being part of Mrs. Sarah's class.

Saying "School".

She loves her personalized backpack

Watching mom ride the exercise bike, live entertainment!  

Playing with little sis

Bryn can't help but be doing whatever Jaymi is doing, which gets her in trouble quite often, but thankfully Jaymi is patient with her and continues to share and play with her.

A little iPad session on a gloomy day outside.

Doing a little tap dance on the kitchen floor.

Had to throw in a picture of dad up on the slopes.

Jaymi got her ears pierced the other night and she was so excited.  She didn't even cry when they went in.  She shouted out in excitement and loves showing them to everyone.

The girls looks so pretty in their coordinated colors for church on Sunday and I remembered to try and get a picture.  Well as it goes I couldn't get one of them all looking at me, but you get the drift :)

Oh come on Kaelyn, its not that bad.

Jaymi has a pretty big fear of dogs.  She loves saying dog and pointing them out, but when it comes right down to it she doesn't want anything to do with the real thing.  On Sunday our cute neighbors brought over their little puppy and she warmed right up to it and was even giving it kisses on the nose.  

Wayne took the girls up the canyon for an afternoon hike.  Of course Jaymi made friends right off with some fellow hikers and some how ended up with their walking sticks.  I'm sure they were impressed to see a dad and his three little ones up there all by themselves.  He's almost as brave as me :)

Resting at their destination.  Kaelyn's got it good!

Bryn sat down on the trail at one point and Jaymi went back to round her up.  She was successful in bringing her back to the group.

Bryn doing some light reading before lunch.

We purchased some shelving from IKEA to better organize the girls toys & books.  The girls decided to organize themselves too!

Enjoying a Sunday afternoon stroll to the park.  We are eating up the good weather when it comes.  Jaymi and Bryn beg to go "bye bye" multiple times a day.

Jaymi started playing on a Special Needs Soccer team tonight.  Our friend organized it all a few years ago when she realized there wasn't anywhere for her son with special needs to play soccer.  It's such a great program, we are so excited to have her be a part of it.  It was fun to sit back and watch her interact with other kids and adults without us right there.  She had a buddy that helped her play and do the drills.  She did pretty well for her first time and hopefully she will get better and better at listening and following instructions from other people besides her parents.  It's also so good for her to be out running around developing her gross motor skills and getting some good old fashioned exercise.  To be in this family you need to be active :)  She had a great time and was thrilled when she got her own little water bottle and treat at the end.  Bryn was wanting to play too, she kept inching her way closer to the field.  Luckily its at an elementary school and there is a big park we took her and Kaelyn to play.

So thankful our buddy Riley could come along with us.  She is such a huge help with my girls and the LOVE her to death.  

 Adjusting to life with three little girls is coming along.  Jaymi's English is really coming along and that is making a HUGE difference.  She is able to understand us and we are beginning to understand her more and more.  She uses a number of different signs and gestures along with trying her hardest to say the English words and has mastered quite a few.  She wants to talk so bad, sometimes she will just ramble on and on in her own little babble just to join whatever conversation is going on.  It's really cute.