Totally in love...

Luke and I aren't the only ones that fell in love with this sweet little baby of ours.  

Our sweet little Anna

Last November I got a message from our caseworker wanting us to call her back.  It hadn't been all that long since I had talked to her so I had a feeling something was going on.  I called her back and she wanted to know how things were going with our house being built and how long until we would be in the house...as in an exact date when we would be in.  I thought that was kind of odd.  She then proceeded to tell me about a possible placement opportunity.  A birth mother was looking at placing her baby and she was pretty specific in what she was looking for in a family.  Since we met all the criteria and because there weren't a lot of families that did, our file was pulled and shown to her.  (Our profile had been taken off the site when we sold our house because we then didn't have a current home study.  Our plan was to get home studied once we got into our new home)  Our caseworker wanted to know if we were interested  and if we were interested we needed to hurry and get my mom's home home studied since that is where we were currently living or move into another place and get it home studied since the baby would arrive before our home would be finished.  The baby was due in three weeks but could come at any time.  It was the call that I had been waiting for.  For months I felt that we would be getting a baby soon and I felt that when it happened we wouldn't have a long time to get ready.  Heavenly Father was definitely getting us ready and His hand was in every step of this adoption.   I already knew that we were interested but our our caseworker told me to talk to Luke and take some time thinking and praying about it.  When I called her back and let her know that we were definitely interested she then told us that the birth mother was deciding between us and another couple and that we would find out later that week.  I can't even begin to explain how excited we were.  We ended up not finding out that we had been chosen until a week later (Boy, that was a loooong week.) but it felt so right when we found out.  Like I mentioned earlier, Heavenly Father's hand was in every step of the adoption.  Within a day we had arrangements made for another home that we could stay in and get home studied until our house was finished, Luke was able to take the time off work that was needed to get things in order, the place that we would be temporarily staying at was in the same school boundaries that our new home was.
Our little baby girl didn't come early like we thought she might.  On a early Monday morning Luke and I were headed out to wait at the hospital until our baby girl arrived.  Since my dad and step mom live near the hospital we went there for awhile.  Since we didn't know how long it would take our caseworker told us that she would let us know when to head for the hospital but probably not until the afternoon.  Well I think I lasted about fifteen minutes at my dads place before I got so antsy that I couldn't stand just waiting there.  Luke was busy doing something so I headed out to go pick out some flowers for the amazing lady that was carrying our baby.  Thirty minutes later and while I am in the middle of shopping I get a message from our caseworker that things are moving along pretty fast and that we should head to the the hospital.  I was so excited.  I couldn't believe that the baby that we had been praying for was on her way.  We were soon set up in a hospital room just down the hall from our birth mother.  In our hospital room the nurse logged on the the heart monitor in the delivery room so we could see when the contractions were happening and they told us what to look for on the screen so we would know exactly when the baby was born.  One minute we are looking at the screen and suddenly a green line appears that showed us that our baby girl had arrived.  Within a minute they were bringing her into our room to get her cleaned up.  It was such an amazing thing.  Our baby girl was beautiful. We instantly fell in love with her.

  Here is the monitor showing exactly when she was born.  We were so excited that Luke just had to take a picture of it.  She is here!!

Here they are getting out sweet little Anna all cleaned up and weighed.

Daddy and his new little princess

Isn't she absolutely beautiful!

Later that night my mom brought the kids by to see their new little sister.  What a good big brother. And look at the grin on Claire's face.  We pretty much kept this a secret until she arrived.  The only ones that we told were those involved in helping us get set up in our temporary home.  We didn't really even tell the kids beforehand.  We kept saying "If we get a sister soon...." and then explaining what would happen  but Claire had been praying for a baby for so long that we didn't want her to be upset it didn't work out.  After Anna was born Luke called Claire and told her that she now had a baby sister and it just didn't sink in.  I had to take the phone from him and tell her several times before she really understood.  Then she was so excited that she ran over to the neighbors to tell them.      

They love their little sister so much.  They came with presents and each got to pick out a balloon for her.

I got in plenty of cuddle time over the next few days.  I was told beforehand that our birth mother wanted me to stay at the hospital with Anna but I thought that meant she wanted me to visit the baby a lot.  Ha Ha...that is totally not what she meant.  They gave me and Anna our very own hospital room until she got released.  I must say that it was so nice being able to stay at the hospital with her.  Luke and I got in lots of bonding time with our sweet little angel.  

All dressed up and waiting to leave the hospital.

On our way home.  

We are so grateful for the miracle of adoption.  For a long time we knew that we were missing someone in our family and only through adoption were we able to get her.  Her birth mother is such an amazing and strong person.  Even though we have yet to meet her we love her more than she could possibly know. Thank you so much for giving us the priviledge of being a mom and dad to this sweet little girl.   

Pictures of the day

It was supposed to be "picture of the day" but I couldn't pick just one this time.

This expression is such an Anna expression.  I get this look all day long.  It makes me smile every time I see it.

Getting some smooches from daddy

Luke was playing airplane with her but the second she got up in the air her attention turned to all the fun things happening outside.

 And a few more smooches from dad.  Her cheeks are so cute you just can't help it. 

Where to begin...

Right when I am starting to get things updated our computer decides to crash....big time.  Big time as in the hubby couldn't fix it and he can fix ANYTHING.  Big time as in we had to take it to someone and just prayed that they would be able to get our data off of the hard drive.  The good news is that we did get all the data restored and now we are back in business.  The bad news is now I feel like I am so far behind that once again I am not sure where to even begin.

Happy Birthday Luke

Happy birthday to my best friend, best daddy ever, most amazing storyteller, hard working, and can literally fix/build anything man.  We love you so much.  You take such good care of your family and we appreciate all that you do for us.  We are so very lucky to have you for all eternity.

 

 
The kids insisted that we make him a Hulk cake so that is exactly what we did.  They were so excited for Luke to get home from work so they could show it to him.  Apparently one night he told the kids that they better behave or he would get mad and turn into the hulk and since then they have been fascinated with him. 

Bathtime

"I am just giving me a bubble bath, Mom."

 

 

 

It was pretty quiet for a minute there so I should have know he was up to no good.  

Crue's Birthday Interview

What's your favorite color?  Blue

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A baseball player with a bat and Claire can throw me the ball.

What is your favorite thing to do with Claire?  Play in the mud.

What is your favorite thing to do with Anna?  Hold her.

What is your favorite thing to do with mom?  Go exercise with her.

What is your favorite thing to do with dad?  Work with him

What is your favorite thing to do with your family?  Play with them

And after that he decided he had enough of the questions

Three Years Old

My three month blog break has finally came to an end.  Seriously I can't believe that three months have gone by.  I am so far behind on everything that I don't even know where to start.  The last time I blogged I was living at my moms...and since then our family has grown (and our little addition is absolutely beautiful), we moved out of my moms house, then two weeks our new house was finally finished being built so we moved again.  Add on Christmas three days after our move, New Years, birthdays, and I don't even know where to begin.  I think I will just start with the latest and work my way back. 

 

So....

 

 

Guess who turned three!!

 

...Our little Crue Buddy...

aka Baby Batman

aka Sandlot

aka Stuart little

aka Cruey Jaxson

aka Cruey Jaxson Batman Mascarenas

Okay, I could go on and on

Several times a week he tells us what his name is for the day and that is what he expects us to call him.  Just don't call him "honey".

 

 

He had a great birthday.  He wanted to go fishing for his birthday but that will have to wait for another month or so.  His next choice was to go to a trampoline place so we headed to The wAIRhouse.  It was so much fun.

Here is his spiderman cake.

 

 Me and two of my sweethearts. 

 

Crue Funnies...

I made homemade macaroni and cheese but only had the medium size pasta shells.  Halfway through dinner he tries to quiet us all down and while holding a single cheese covered shell up to his ear he says, "Shhhh. I can hear the water.  I can hear the ocean." 

 

I was cleaning out the van when Crue noticed my emergency stash of snacks.  He asked me for some and I told him that we couldn't eat them because they were for an emergency like if we got stuck in the snow on the side of the road.  He just looked at me weird and went on his way.  Several minutes later I hear him calling my name. He is standing in a big snow pile on the side of the road in front of our house.  He just looks at me and with his totally serious voice says, "Can I have some of those snacks now?"

 

Crue: Mom, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Me: I don't know buddy. What are you thinking?
Crue: I think we need to go catch a shark before he decides to eat us.
We were so not thinking the same thing....not even close

 

Crue: Mom, look at my hair!!
Me: Did you get into the gel again?
Crue: Nope, I just got some water from the toilet.

 

 

 

Grandpa Christley and the Fire Station

Several months ago (Yep, I totally forgot I had these pictures on my camera) my grandpa came out for a visit and while here he received an award from the fire department.  He was the fire chief in town way back when.  We ended up having a birthday party for him as well at the fire station.    It has been several years since we have been able to get all the family together and it was so nice being able to catch up with everyone.  I love my family so much.

 

Grandpa going for a ride.

Me and the girl cousins

 We had many races to see who could get suited up first.  Here is Claire and Ri having a race. 

Claire won this time. 

Claire has the best cousins.

 

Of course my little man wanted in on the action too.

The highlight of the day for the kiddos was definitely getting a ride on the fire truck.  The great grandchildren were loaded on top and were taken on a ride around the block.  Despite the look on Crue's face, he really did love it and still talks about how cool it was.  So why the sad face??  He had just bought a root beer from the vending machine and was not allowed to take in on the fire truck.    Talk about a traumatic  moment in his little life...he also still talks about how sad it was that he had to leave his drink behind for a whole five minutes.

Halloween 2013

I guess it is time to get the rest of the Halloween pics posted before things get busy with the other holidays.    We had a great Halloween.  Crue was old enough this year to really get into the whole thing and it was fun to see how excited  he would get.

 

My dad and Holly invited us out to the trunk or treat that they attend at the drive-in theater near their home.  It was our first trunk or treat experience and we had a lot of fun.   We  didn't end up staying for the movie that they show after but maybe we will next year. 

 

Caitlynn, Ashlyn, Ben, Rilynn, Claire, Crue, and Luke getting ready for the fun to begin. 

 

Claire, Grandpa, and Ben

I think poor Crue was about done with the Halloween festivities by the time we went to the trunk or treat.  (We had already had one Halloween party earlier that day) I asked him if he wanted to go get some candy and he replied,  "I just want to sit here and eat my dinner." 

 

My boys!!  They are the best.

We carved pumpkins with Grandma.  I think Crue was just excited to be able to hold the carving knife and stab away at his pumpkin. 

 

Claire and her puppy pumpkin.

 

Luke made sure to get off work early on Halloween so we could take the kids around together. 

 

Their happy faces.

 

Their silly faces.

 

 Getting ready to head out for some trick or treating.  They were both so excited. 

 Dorothy

Claire liked trick or treating but was the first one to call it quits.  She liked handing out candy back at home just as much.

 Redsox Baseball Player. 

Or if you asked him he would tell you he was "The Sandlot" or "Smalls with a shiner".

Crue thought the whole knocking on doors and getting candy was just the coolest thing ever.