Thursday, March 26, 2009

Possible tooth coming in?


Evelyn may be getting her first tooth very soon! She's been having a restless week; her eating's been off, and she's been waking up at different times during the night, which isn't usual for her. And she's been DROOLING (her red and chapped cheeks prove this) like crazy and chewing on everthing she can get her hands on! I finally got a good look at her bottom gums tonight and noticed a white patch on the left front--could be the start of a tooth breaking through! We'll keep you posted!
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Sunday, March 22, 2009

More new skills..


Evelyn has continued to improve her crawling technique. She's still moving backwards, but she sure can cover some distance quickly now that she's gotten up on her knees better. She has also figured out how to move from her crawl position to a sitting position, although she hasn't figured out how to move her left leg out in front of her yet. She'll get it soon.

Hamming it up in her crib.

Peek-a-boo!

Sleeping beauty...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

It Is Official! Final! Legal! Yee-Ha!

Waiting patiently for Mommy and Daddy to pack up the car (and trying to control my hair a bit--Mommy combed a little water into my hair and stuck this hat on me!)


Snow and ice covered roads along with blowing snow most of the way to Ironwood!


Evelyn and our social worker, Kerry, hanging out just before our hearing.


Our family posing for a quick photo with Judge Massie. The judge even acknowledged Evelyn's stuffed monkey's presence during the proceedings! We're wondering if it'll be in the transcripts!


Our Forever Family!


Evelyn hamming it up at the hotel!


Getting ready to go swimming for the first time ever!


This isn't so bad! Look, I can float on my tummy!


Beautiful blue skies and clear roads for the trip back home!


A quick visit with Great-Grandma Ann Rice--wonder what she has in her pocketbook?

Today was Gotcha Day - and it could not have gone better. Well, the road to the courthouse could have been better...but let's start at the beginning. A very good place to start...

We left Gwinn this morning at 9:45 (a little later than planned) and Daddy was worried about getting there on time as we were looking at blizzard quality winds to deal with most of the way. Some roads were snow covered, some slick with ice, and some spots were white-outs, but nothing was going to stop us from making our family complete. We ended up getting to Bessemer with over an hour to spare - so we had a quick lunch and headed to the courthouse.

After a phone call in the morning, we were not sure if our social worker, Kerry, was going to be able to make it or not. We were happy to see her waiting in the parking lot when we pulled in. After a short wait in the hallways, we were called in for the hearing.

At this point, we should say that our original plan was to have family members join us in June for this event. When it was moved to March, we thought it might be best for it to just be the three of us. Afterwards, we were very happy that no one made a long trip for this hearing as it lasted about five minutes. At lunch, I had meant to ask Lara if she would prefer a lengthy process with lots of fanfare, or something quick so we could be an official family sooner. All in all, we were happy just to have everything official.

We then checked into our hotel - the same AmericInn we stayed at the night before Evelyn was born. When I made the reservation, the options were a basic room or a King Suite with a fireplace and a jacuzzi for a whole $4 more. We took door #2. However, when we entered the room, we realized that although the room was nonsmoking, it had only turned into a nonsmoking room 3 weeks ago. We knew we could not spend the night in an old ashtray, so we moved to a different room. Still nice, still has a jacuzzi (unused by us), but no fireplace - no suite. The hotel was nice enough to give us a discount on the room.

Next, we were off to Grandview Hospital, where Evelyn was born. We had called ahead and knew that Nurse Lisa was on duty. Lisa had taken excellent care of the three of us back in July, and we owe her a lot for keeping us calm and sane during our first hours as parents.

After dinner and a little shopping (WE FORGOT TO PACK PACIFIERS!!! HOW DID WE FORGET TO PACK PACIFIERS? FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S HOLY...HOW????) we headed back to the hotel for Evelyn's first ever swim. She loved the water. After a very short time, she got the hang of floating. Not by herself, but we only needed to hold her by the shoulders and she let the rest of her body float.

So, busy day. A great day. Ranks WAY up there on the great day scale. All in all, pretty hard to beat a day like today.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Gotcha Day coming up!

July 2, 2008 The day Evelyn was born!February 2009 Happy Evelyn at 7 months!

We were so pleased to hear from our social worker, Kerry, last Thursday. She was calling to let us know that we'll be able to finalize Evelyn's adoption March 11, 2009. This is three months earlier than we were expecting, so we are just ecstatic! We'll be driving to Ironwood, Michigan next Wednesday morning (it'll take us about 3 hours to get there.) The adoption hearing will take place at 2 p.m. We plan to stay overnight at the AmericInn we stayed at the night before Evelyn was born in July 2008. We plan to check out the town a little more on Thursday and to stop by Grand View Hospital where Evelyn was born to visit the nurses.

Daddy's idea of a swimsuit...


We are planning to take Evelyn swimming next week, so she modeled her swimsuits for us tonight. Daddy LOVED the long sleeved onesie under the suits! He said it was just what he had in mind for his daughter to wear! Just kidding--sort of! Evelyn was cute in all three of her suits (good job Grandma and Grandpa Rice, I think we'll have to take her swimming three time next week just so she can wear them all!)























































This is the outfit we were going to have Evelyn wear next week for her Gotcha Day--however, she has grown a bit lately and the outfit is a little on the tight side (especially on her arms and legs--notice chunky legs in above photos!) We'll be sorting through her 9 month sized clothes to find something a little bigger!









Mommy came home from the hairdresser's Monday night with curly hair (just like Auntie Ann!) Evelyn thought it was pretty funny and she couldn't keep her hands off of it (guess I won't be wearing it that way much---it really hurts when she pulls your hair!)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Eight months old tomorrow...

We can't believe that Evelyn will be 8 months old tomorrow already! Amazing! We are having so much fun with her. We decided to head outside for a short while today and try out the sled that Great Aunt Joann bought last summer (great forethought Aunt Joann!) Evelyn got into her snowsuit (a great find by Grandma Rice) without a hitch and we headed out to the backyard. Sammy was out too--was he ever excited to see Evelyn on her sled! A little too excited actually, so we had to head to the front yard/driveway to continue our sledding. Evelyn seemed to enjoy it--she was humming to herself as Daddy pulled her up and down the driveway.




We also sat Evelyn on the snow bank so she could check out the snow--she was more interested in watching Sam bark from the backyard. We also helped her make her first snow angel! She looked a little helpless laying in the snow! But oh so cute! We headed in right after that so we could all warm up--it was chilly out today!










Evelyn also started clapping her hands and making the clapping sound today! Yay!