Hope 4 weeks, and catch up

Grandma and Grandpa E. came to visit for a few days.  And so the blog got put to the side.  Now it is catch up time.  Hope has been a horrible sleeper lately.  She sleeps better in her car seat than her crib.  However, I don't dare let her sleep in it much.  She had to pass a car seat test at the hospital before they would release her.  They make all preemies and baby's under 6 pounds do this test.  It is to check their oxgen levels and their heart rate to be sure there aren't any ill effects on the baby.  They told us to limit her time in the car seat.  So we have.  My mother in law had the wonderful idea of purchasing a boucey seat for her to sleep in.  She even took me to the store and bought one for her.  Hope did sleep a little better last night.  I hope that it gets better with each night.

I can't believe how big Hope is getting.  She is at least 2 inches longer and is getting chubby.  Her one month Dr. appointment is one friday.  So we will know how much she has grown then.  We also have our first post placement visit with the adoption agency on Friday.  We don't know what to expect with this meeting, since this is our first adoption. 




Grandparents E's.

Hope 4 weeks                                                                                      doing her exercises

Ethan came home very excited today.  The table that he sits on at school got the most table points.  The reward for this was a NO HOMEWORK pass.  He likes the idea of no home work for the day.  The third graders also had an egg drop at school on Friday.  His egg survived.  Yeah.  On the other hand, Parker came home very upset.  Somebody stole his scooter from school.  Hopefully they return it.  People today.  My little dogs got out the front door today when grandparents left and chased the neighbors son on his scooter.  I went and got the dogs and apologized.  But I still feel bad.  Dumb dogs.

Paige hasn't babysat as much lately, she would rather take care of her new sister.  However she did accept a job for tonight.    Braden and Zach say nothing exciting has happened to write about.

Cold weather already?

I can't believe how cold it got last night, already.  What happened to fall?  I had my kids pick tomatoes so they didn't freeze and go bad (however I don't think it got that cold).  So, with all of the tomatoes Braden and I made more spaghetti sauce.  Thanks to the other helpers that keep Hope intertained, it went fast.

I put a onsie on Hope today, along with a cute sweat outfit to keep her warm.  We did turn the furnace on last night.  But with the kids coming and going all of the time it can get a little cold.  And we had to drive Parker to school.

Parker wanted to see Hope in her big crib, so I put her in it this morning.  She just looked around and was content so I jumped in the shower.  When I got out I could hear Parker singing songs to her about shapes.  He learned the songs at school and loves to sing them.  Hope was still happy, so I let her stay there for about 15 minutes, while Parker sang fun songs to her.  It was so cute.

We got a gift in the mail from Baby Butterflies adoption refferal agency.  They helped us find baby Hope.  Terri, the lady that owns the company adopted Hopes half sister (Riley) eight years ago.  The sent us the normal gift they send ...a cute T-shirt with the compay logo on it. 

However, they also sent us an outfit, shoes, socks and a blanket.  Riley, spent her own money and got a certificate to build a bear so Hope can have her own teddy bear.  We are keeping in touch with Terri's family so that the two girls can get to know each other and maybe meet when they are older.

Thanks you  Terri and Riley

Paige thinks that this outfit is the BEST.  It was a gift from our sweet neighbors, the Meiners.

Sunday Best

Hope went to her first day of church.  We dressed her in a summer outfit because it is going to be getting cold later on this week.  Paige was a great help and dressed Hope while I curled my hair.

When we got home we had to dress Hope in another outfit because she had a diaper blow out.  I was glad that we made it home before this happened.  I did have an extra outfit in the diaper bag but those kinds of clean ups are best at home.

Braden went back to the doctors on Monday for more x-ray's of his hand.  It is healed...Yes.  So, no more yucky huge splint.  The doctor did give him a fun velcro strap to wear during sports.  It buddies his two fingers together to protect his little finger from getting jambed and rebreaking the bone in his hand.  Braden said it felt so good to have it off.  But that his fingers and wrist were very stiff.  The doctor told him that he would see him next time he broke a bone.   Oh, he better not.

Sleeping in her swing.  She wakes up if it stops.

A fun thing to remember....Parker was talking to me the other day and said,"We use to have 7 people in our family.  But now because of Hope we have 8.  And maybe when Hope is bigger, like 5 or 6 years old, we will get another baby and we will have 9 people in our family".  How do you not disappoint a 6 year old.  I told him that I think 8 is enough .  He then said," But what if Heavenly Father says someone else in our family is missing"?  Man, how do I answer this one???  I told him we would just have to wait and see.   But really,  If Heavenly father wants us to add to our family again, it had better be an older child.  I'm getting to old to do infants.

Little Sister

Everyone needs a turn holding their little sister.  Parker even got brave enough after awhile.  Paige has her the most though.  As soon as she walks throught the door from school she picks up Hope, if she is awake or not.  Paige has already taken her on a few stroller rides around the neighborhood with her friend Brinn.  She also changes her clothes and her diapers- NICE.

This is a picture of the Tinker bell quilt that Grandma R. made.  She had it on the quilt frames the day she had all of her granddaughters over.  So the girls that were big enough helped tie it.  Grandma crocheted around the blanket and burp clothes... so darling.

Hope, 1 day old.Hope, 2 1/2 weeks old.

Hope's birth mother has a teddy bear just like this one, so she can see how big she is getting.Hope's with her best friend Ellie.  Okay, Hope doesn't know it yet, but we have decided that they need to be best friends.  They live next door to each other, close to the same age, and both are adopted.