It's Official!

Blake is ours!

This morning we went to court for our adoption finalization.  We are so grateful to Julie Walker, our case worker, who has been so sweet and helpful every step of the way, to Ray Goodwin, our lawyer, who is AMAZING and selfless and great at his job, and to the kind judge who treated us so kindly and gave my kids stuffed animals as keepsakes.

The court proceedings were very official, and yet fun, too.  We each had to testify and answer certain questions regarding Blake.  It was easy to explain that we love him and want him in our lives . . . and YES, we do understand that this is permanent.  :)  Hallelujah! 

Blake and daddy, waiting to go into the court.

 Afterwards the judge invited us for pictures.  Katelee got to sit in the judge's chair.  ;)

 A very happy family!

 I forgot to mention that during the proceedings, while Gerald and I were testifying, Blake was laughing.  It was pretty cute.  It was probably because Katelee kept pulling silly faces at him and/or making little noises at him.  I kept trying to shush them, but only half halfheartedly.  His giggles were pretty sweet.  And we like to think that maybe he was just feeling really happy to be legally joining our family as well!  ;)

 One happy boy!

Now we just can't wait for June 16th!

Six months old!

Six months ago today, Blake came into this world!

We will be eternally thankful to Aurianna and Jake for their decision of ultimate love and unselfishness, for giving us the blessing and privilege of raising this amazing little man.

I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by! 

Blake has had a growth spurt lately!  When he stretches out, he is almost seven squares long on his blanket!

 He can sit up by himself, which he thinks is very fun!

 He LOVES his toes!  ;)

 And has the most gorgeous blue eyes!

 He loves his sister as much as ever!  She likes to read Junie B. Jones books aloud to him.

 And he already wants to grow up to be just like his daddy!

 I gave him a haircut tonight with the clippers.  I was worried the buzzing would scare him, but he was very brave . . . just curious, which made cutting the back of his head a bit of a challenge.

 He has a great smile and laugh, and makes us laugh everyday!

Silly sister!  She gave Blake a little purple piggy nose!

And she loves to surround him with her toys . . . like her plastic Easter eggs...

Six months is a big deal for any baby, but we are especially excited for adoption reasons! At six months, we can finalize our adoption legally through the courts.  Our court hearing is THIS FRIDAY!!!!  We are beyond thrilled to make everything official.  :)  But even more importantly to us, we can give Blake his baby blessing and go to the temple to be sealed as a forever family after the court hearing is official.  We will be doing both of these sweet and important things on June 16th, and couldn't be more thrilled that this special day is almost here!

 

Blake's sealing/blessing outfit came in the mail this past week, and I couldn't resist trying it on and taking a few pictures!  Here's a little sneak peek - isn't he such a handsome little man?

 Words cannot express how much we love our buckaroo!  He has changed our lives profoundly and forever.  We love him so much!

Sunday Photo Shoot

Look at my two cuties!
I feel like the happiest, most blessed mother in the world.

Katelee is so beautiful and so grown-up.  She amazes me everyday.  She is my girl, my side-kick, my friend, and I have so much fun with her!

And this handsome man! Just look at how big he is getting!  He gets cuter and sweeter everyday, even though I don't know how that is possible.

 

I am a very, very blessed mom. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms that I know!

Big Boy Blake

Blake is becoming such a big boy; he's growing much too fast!

 These two pictures were taken on his five-month birthday.

 Blake loves to drool, practice sitting up on his own (he's getting pretty good at that!), chew on everything, grab food off other people's plates, smile, and play in his bouncer/saucer.

 And he loves, LOVES, LOVES his sippy cup.

 We never offered Katelee a sippy cup until she turned a year old.  And she wanted nothing to do with it.  So, we decided to try giving Blake one when he started eating solids.  His sippy cup is probably his favorite thing in the world right now.  It takes a close second to his love of drinking water out of a real cup - with a little assistance, of course.

We give him his sippy after he takes a few bites of cereal.  He grips it in both hands and then throws his little body backwards to drink.  It's hysterical! He's been doing it for weeks, and we still laugh every time!

 What a funny boy!

Blake will turn six-months-old on May 27th.  So our court date to finalize the adoption is scheduled for June 1.  Less than a month away!  We are really excited!

Dress Up Buddies

If you know Katelee at all, you know she is a dress-up girl.  From the time she could toddle around, she has constantly been dressing up, as the many many pictures on this blog can testify.  But, with a baby brother in the picture, Katelee's passion for dress up has a new outlet - she LOVES to dress up Blake.

Sometimes it's as simple as hat.

Fun side note: this hat belonged to Blake's great-grandpa Blake Reynolds.

Sometimes the costumes are a bit more elaborate.

 Rock on, rock stars!

Katelee has a knack for dressing up Blake while my back is turned for only a minute or two.  It's always a surprise when I leave my baby for a minute and come back from the bathroom to find a cowboy wearing a snow scarf instead!

Yee Haw!

Eating Solids!

Blake has been eating some rice cereal for a few weeks now.  Here he is ready to try his very first bite ever!

 

 I love pictures of babies learning to eat; the messy face, the food in the hair...always funny!  Here are some other pics from the past few weeks.

 Don't let his smiles fool you...he really doesn't like eating rice cereal.  He'll do it, but not without a little complaining and always with an attitude of, 'If I have to...'  He'd MUCH rather we just gave him his bottle.

 Still, he's learning and doing better each day.  Now if eating rice cereal would only help him sleep longer at night.  We're getting tired of him waking up every 2-3 hours each night...still...

We're proud of our big boy!