Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We decided to stay home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that we could enjoy some time with our little family at home. We went to Christmas Eve service at our chruch. They did a childrens program at 5 pm and Raegan really enjoyed it. We love our church, they do such a good job! When we got home we did a quick family picture and the girls got to open a present. Surprise! It was Christmas PJ's! We put their new PJ's on and headed over to our neighbors house for dinner. We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed our time visiting with friends. The kids had a great time playing with each other and exchanging gifts with their friends. On Christmas morning both girls woke up around 7 and we came down to open presents. Raegan did really well. I don't think she quite understood Christmas morning this year ( I am sure it will be different next year!). She came down and saw the presents and said " what's this?". The first thing she spotted was a Little People school bus and she loved that. I didn't wrap it because I got it at a consignment sale and I thought she would like it because she loves to put her dinosaurs in things and push them around. I think we could have stopped there but we had a few more presents for her. The big present we got for the girls was a kids trampoline. We had it covered up but Raegan was a little bashful about opening it up. Once she got started she didn't stop bouncing! We thought it would be a great present for the winter because it's something she can do to get some energy out ( so I'm not sure if it's more of a present for me or for her!). Karis enjoyed opening presents too. She got the hang of it pretty quickly! Her favorites were an activity toy ( that I also found at a consignment sale) and a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy. After we did presents we made Eggnog donuts and all had breakfast together. Then we opened stockings after Karis woke up from a nap. We enjoyed a nice quiet day together playing with new toys. And we finshed off the day with a yummy prime rib dinner and ice cream cone cupcakes for dessert ( for Jesus' Birthday). We have really tried to work hard about keeping the focus of Christmas on Jesus and not on presents or Santa Claus. Raegan is not a big fan of Santa anyway so it wasn't really an issue for us. She did not want Santa coming to her house so it made it easier on us to keep the focus off of Santa and presents and more on the true meaning of Christmas. Two special moments on Christmas day for me were when we all gathered around the computer and watched a video of Operation Christmas Child boxes being delivered to Columbia ( where our boxes went). Raegan was really excited to see the kids getting their boxes. She commented several times on how happy her friends were when they got their boxes. It brought tears to my eyes to hear those words coming from the mouth of a two year old. She was excited about giving during the whole process of picking items and packing boxes for "our friends" and watching them receive gifts. I pray that she truly learned about the gift of giving this year. Another special moment was later in the morning when Raegan told me that I needed to hurry up and take a shower and get dressed so that we could go see Baby Jesus. I think maybe she thought that she was going to get to go see Baby Jesus like she got to see Baby Karis when she was born. We explained that Baby Jesus was born a long time ago but that He is so special we still celebrate his birthday. It was a really cute moment.

The day after Christmas we travled over to Winchester to see Josh's parents and family. We enjoyed a nice dinner with everyone there and Raegan and Karis got to open some more gifts. Then we traveled to my parents house on Monday. My brother came up with his family from North Carolina. So Raegan got to play with all of her Auer cousins for a couple of days. They all got more presents and enjoyed playing with each other and their new toys. Raegan cried when we had to leave on tuesday night but both girls fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.

We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends and we are looking forward to what the new year will bring!

4 Months!

Karis had her 4 month birthday on Monday! It's hard to believe how fast she's growing. I knew she would be 4 months around Christmas but is it really almost Christmas!?! Time flies when you are having fun, I guess!

Raegan and I took Karis for her 4 month check up yesterday. She was not quite as patient with the doctor and nurse and she was for her 2 month check up but she still did ok. She is now 25 inches long ( 75th percentile) and 15.7 lbs ( 86th percentile). So she is catching up with her big sister on the growth curve! The doctor said she is doing great. They did start her on Zantac because of her reflux which seems to be getting worse and not better. The doctor also suggested I start her on some cereal because that may help her reflux and also since she is so big she may be starting to get hungry for more than just milk. I was going to start her soon anyway because she certainly is strong enough and she seems very interested in food recently. I don't think I am going to be able to keep her from eating much longer! So hopefully the Zantac will help her. She got some more shots which were not fun but all in all it was a good check up!

Karis has changed so much recently. She now likes to sit in her bumbo and high chair and also play in her jumperoo. She looooves her big sister and likes to watch her every move and smile and laugh at her. Raegan can make Karis laugh the most out of everyone! Karis had been doing really well with sleeping but recently she started waking up more and not going to sleep as easily. I think this might be due to her reflux so hopefully the Zantac will help. They change so much at this age that it's hard to know what's going on. But she is doing really well!

Speaking of the big sister. Raegan has been going to school for a couple of weeks now and she absolutely loves it! She can't wait to go and she gives me a quick kiss and runs off when we get there. The only time she has cried has been at the end of the day on the first 2 days. The teachers thought she was crying because she wanted me but after the second day I got her to tell me what was wrong and she said she was sad becuase she wanted "to go back into school" and she wanted "her friends to come to her house". I guess that's better than her crying becuase of seperation anxiety. It makes it easier for mommy to let go knowing that she loves it so much! The teachers say she is doing really well and fitting right in. She has also been doing really well with going potty. She has only had a couple of accidents in the last month or so but most of the time she does great with telling us when she needs to go. We are so proud of our big girl!

Both girls are growing up so fast! We are enjoying every moment with them (even the difficult moments). And we are looking forward to having a nice quiet Christmas together with our little family!

First Day Of School

Raegan started school today! I can't believe she is already old enough to go to school by herself! We hadn't planned on putting her in school this year but after Karis came along I began to see the need for her to start something outside of the house. I had been trying to do some homeschool with her but it was just to hard to keep up with it with a new baby. I called around and the schools that I was looking at for next year didn't have any openings but I found out about a playschool and when I called they had an opening since one child just moved. We decided to sign her up and she was so excited when we told her. She couldn't wait to get out her "pack pack" and her "lunch pack pack" and get it ready to take to school. When I dropped her off I was a little nervous but Raegan didn't seem to be nervous at all. We met the teachers and then when they called the kids back she gave me a quick kiss and ran off. When I picked her up they said she did great. She only cried at the end because she didn't understand why all of the kids were lining up to leave. She told me she had a great time and she couldn't wait to go back! We are so proud of our big girl!

Thankful

Today I have so much to be thankful for but today I am especially thankful for my two beautiful miracles, Raegan and Karis. I am thankful for the journey that God has taken Josh and I on to receive each of them into our lives. And I am so thankful for my wonderful husband who God has chosen as my partner to journey through life with. I am so thankful for the gift of adoption and honored that God has chosen Josh and I to experience the miracle of life through adoption. I am thankful that God first chose to lovingly pursue and adopt each one of us if we are willing to call Him our Heavenly Father. And I am thankful that God has modeled adoption for us so that we are able to in turn lovingly and passionately pursue the children that God has called us to adopt here on earth. I can't imagine my life any other way. When I look at the children that God has blessed me with I can't help but praise Him. He is so good. He is so faithful. He has turned my darkest days into indescribable joy. I am not only thankful for bringing Raegan and Karis into my life but I am thankful for what the journey to get to them has taught me. Thank you God for all of your blessings which are too numerous to name and too joyful to describe!

1 Year Ago

A year ago I wrote a post on our other blog http://www.adoptingembies.blogspot.com/ titled " Filling our Mini Van". That day 1 one year ago I was resting in our hotel room in Knoxville, TN one day post embie transfer for our third embyro adoption. This year we have one more seat filled up in our mini van with a beautiful 3 month old baby girl. In that post I wrote that I had hoped that two more seats would be filled up by the 2 embies that were placed in my womb but God had other plans and although I still think about that embie that was with Karis when she was placed in my womb, I can't stop praising God for the miracle of Karis. And I praise Him also that the other embie from her transfer and all of the other embies that didn't survive are now with Him in Heaven. I am so thankful for all of the embies that we were blessed to be able to give a chance for life on earth and we are so thankful for our precious baby girl Karis who God has blessed us with. During our journey through infertility and adoption in various forms we have had a lot of pain and disappointment but the joy that both of our daughters have brought us far outweigh the pain we have felt on our darkest days. They both light up our life so much and we could never, ever imagine life without them. Our time here on earth is not meant to be lived pain free. If it was we would never grow. And if we never had to feel pain then we would never be able to experience joy. So today I praise God for Karis' life. I praise God for the two precious girls that take up two special seats in our mini van. And I pray " God if it's your will please continue to fill up our mini van and continue to lead us in this journey to the children that you want us to be parents to."

3 Months, Sleep and the Potty

Karis turned 3 months on Saturday! It's hard to beleive that she is already 3 months! And for her 3 month birthday Karis decided to learn how to fall asleep! Literally overnight she changed from having to be rocked, bounced and shushed to sleep to being able to fall asleep with a few quick bounces and being laid down with her pacifier. I took her to a Womens Retreat with my church on Saturday and I was a little nervous to take her because she sometimes is hard to get to sleep but she did great. She was such a big girl. She was quiet when she was awake and when she got tired she would fall right to sleep after I held her and bounced her a few times. That night she went to sleep really easily and I thought it might have been due to her busy day but the next day she went down for her naps really easily too! I took the girls up to my parents house on Sunday to stay with them while Josh was away on a buisness trip and Karis did great there too. She went to sleep easily at night around 7 pm and slept until 4 am and then went back down until 7 or some days 8 am! She made Mommy very proud and very happy! She is also really starting to show her personality. She is such a happy girl and I found her ticklish spots! Her laugh is just as contagious as Raegan's was! She wakes up with a bright smile on her face and she flashes her smile often even when she is tired! She is really starting to fill out in her cheeks and legs too so I must be feeding her ok! She continues to light up our lives just like her big sister!

Speaking of Raegan. I think she is offically potty trained. It has been a rather slow process to potty train Raegan. We knew she could do it but we didn't really push it since we knew once the baby came that she would probably regress anyway. She was doing pretty good with going number 1 but did not want to go number 2 on the potty! We decided we would let her tell us when she was ready and if she was not fully trained by the time she turned 3 then we would push it. But while we were at Grandma and Pop Pop's house she started telling us everytime she had to go and on our last day there when Josh got home she told him she had to go "poopy on the potty" and he took her and she went! We were so proud of her! She has done a good job at keeping it up this time too so I think she has graduated to being potty trained!

We had a great time at Grandma and Pop Pop's house even though we missed Daddy. We even took the girls to the train museum downtown and Karis got to go on her first train ride! We are glad to have Daddy home now and hopefully the girls keep up with what they "learned" at Grandma and Pop Pop's house. I joked with my parents that I am going to send my kids up there when I need them to do something. In 3 days at my parents house Karis learned to sleep and Raegan learned to go potty and I didn't really even have to do anything! We are super proud of and extremely thankful for our two beautiful girls!

Trunk or Treat

About a month ago I asked Raegan what she wanted to be for Halloween and she said a turtle. Her favorite animal is a turtle. She has a stuffed turtle name "Turtle" that she sleeps with and she loves turtles. So since she was going to be a turtle we decided to make Karis a fish and we already had a Lobster costume for our dog Kona so we went with an "Under the Sea" theme. We were going to decorate our car with our "Under the Sea" theme for Trunk or Treat at our church but after we got to thinking about it we decided we would hold off on doing that since we have an infant this year. I made costumes for them and Raegan was so excited one morning to wake up and see her turtle costume. She decided that daddy was going to be a shark and Mommy was going to be an octupus but I didn't have time to make us costumes so Daddy ended up wearing a wet suit and being a scuba diver and I went as "Mommy". We took Raegan to our friends church and the church that we go to MOPS at on saturday night. We ate dinner when we got there because we were hungry ( Chick Fil A donated sandwiches) but by the time we went out to go to the Trunk or Treat part the line was so long that we couldn't do that. Raegan was disappointed because she wanted candy but we ended up just coming home. We gave Raegan an ice cream cone at home since she didn't get to get candy. But the next night our church was also having a Trunk or Treat. I debated on not taking Karis since it didn't really even start until her bed time but she slept so well on saturday night that I decided to take her. We got there right when it started and Raegan enjoyed going by all of the trunks and getting candy. Her bucket was quickly filled up. Karis did really well too considering it was so late. She fell asleep in the car on the way to the church and when we got there I put her laying down in her stroller. She started fussing though so I thought she was getting tired but as soon as I picked her up she was fine. She just didn't want to miss anything and she enjoyed looking around. We all had fun and we are already starting to plan what are "theme" is going to be next year!

Laughing at Mommy

Karis is starting to discover her voice these days and she has also been laughing a lot more. She seemed to smile really early and a couple of times it would sound like a little laugh coming out when she smiled really big but the other night I was holding her on my legs and holding her hands and playing with her and when I would shake my head at her she would start laughing. She really is such a happy baby. She seems to be the happiest right before she starts fussing. I find that she laughs the most at nighttime when I have her on her changing table and as soon as she is done laughing she starts fussing to go to bed. I haven't been able to capture her laughing on video yet but I'll keep trying. She seems to get distacted by the camera just like Raegan does.

Raegan also seems to be coming around to her baby sister. She gets mad and her and sometimes isn't kind to her but it's mostly when Karis is crying loudly in the car. I am trying to get Raegan to be kind to her sister but I understand it's hard to listen to her crying. I am sure she will start to enjoy her sister more and more as she grows older ( and stops crying so much in the car!). And Karis certainly loves her big sister. She loves to watch her and she smiles a lot when she sees Raegan. I am so thankful that they will have each other as they grow older.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy in the whole world!

Love Raegan and Karis

Country Fair

On Saturday we took Raegan to another fair. We love finding things to do outside on nice fall days and Josh's sister and her husband and son were coming into town so we thought it would be a fun thing to do. When we got there we saw bouncy slides and Raegan wanted to get on the "Cars" slide. She did that a couple of times and then we walked around. She saw animals at the petting zoo and then wanted to ride on the Pirate Ship ride ( which was in the little kids ride section of the fair). I put her on and about half way through I looked up and saw her crying. I thought that was kind of strange because when we took her to Dutch Wonderland she wasn't afraid of any rides even ones that I didn't think she would like. When I got her off of this ride I asked her what was wrong and through her tears she told me " I wanted it to go faster". That's my little dare devil! We ate lunch there and Raegan even got to ride on a real pony. To finish off our time we got snowballs from the Kona Ice truck. We had a great time. Raegan was pretty cranky the rest of the day because she didn't get a good nap in but it was worth it and we look forward to more fall fairs and festivals next year!

Dancing with Mommy

Karis turned 6 weeks on friday. I was looking forward to the 6 week mark becuase a lot of places I read that at 6 weeks babies are able to start sleeping better on their own. Of course you have to help them to learn but their ability to self calm starts to improve around this point. I have been struggling the last week or so because it seems like Karis' sleep patterns were getting worse not better and I was getting exhausted with trying to get her to sleep. I noticed that my impatience started increasing ( which probably had a lot to do with sleep deprivation and hormones). But nonetheless, my attitude was starting to go down hill. I kept doing research to find out if there was something I could do to help Karis fall asleep easier. Some days it was taking me an hour to get her to fall asleep every time she needed a nap and then she would only sleep for 15 minutes and wake up again to eat. This wouldn't be as big of a problem if I didn' t have Raegan to care for too and I began to feel like I was neglecting her. Basically I was really wearing down. My parents offered to take Raegan to my brothers house for the weekend for my nephews birthday and Raegan was very excited about that. We thought it would be a great chance for her to get away and have some fun and it would give Josh and I a chance to catch up on sleep a little and get a little break. We missed Raegan terribly but everytime we would call to check on her she didn't even want to stop playing to talk to us. On friday night Karis had a pretty rough night with waking up a lot. On saturday we went to run some errands and I decided to get a lullaby CD at the Christian Bookstore. On saturday night I got Karis ready for bed and turned on the music bought. I gave her a little infant massage and swaddled her and then I started the usual routine of bouncing her and walking her around to get her to fall asleep. As I listened to the music this time it relaxed me and helped me to focus and suddenly I was no longer worried about how long it was going to take me to get her to sleep. I started dancing with my daughter to the beautiful music. Tears flowed down my face as I was able to shift my focus from thinking about how tired and worn out I was to how blessed I am to have her and to have Raegan. I began to pray for both of my girls and thank God for them as I danced around the room with Karis in my arms. Karis melted away off to sleep as I danced with her and getting her to go to sleep suddenly became not a tiring ordeal but instead a precious memory. I found myself staring at my beautiful daughter and thinking about my other beautiful daughter and just thanking God for both of them. God gave me a renewed strength and focus during this time. Now I can't wait until bedtime each night so I can dance with Karis again.

One Month Old!

It's hard to believe Karis is already 1 month old! Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. I'm not sure how much she weighs now or how tall she is but I think she is continuing to grow in both ways! I thought Raegan was a big baby but I think Karis has her beat! Karis is still doing well. She has a hard time falling asleep on her own especially at night. So there is a lot of swaddling, bouncing, swaying, and shushing going on here. It's tiring because she is so heavy and sitting down to get her to sleep doesn't seem to cut it. Thankfully I got the sling that I ordered in the mail and she really likes that. She seems to conk out whenever I put her in it ( for the most part). Hopefully she will start to fall asleep easier soon though! Karis also had her first big girl bath this week. She did well other than the fact that after we were done she decided to make a #2 in the tub so we had to give her a bath all over again. I guess she was relaxed! Now we keep a diaper on her until the end and things are working out much better. Karis also took a bottle from daddy for the first time. She didn't seem thrilled with the idea but she did drink from it so that means that on occasion maybe mommy can get out by herself! Raegan is still doing well with her. She has jealousy issues at times ( probably because it seems like I spend my whole day trying to get Karis to sleep or to stay asleep). But she has enjoyed all of the big sister gifts and cards she has received from everyone so thank you to everyone who has been so thoughtful to include her! Raegan has gotten to watch a lot more "shows" lately though as a result so she probably won't be happy when her sister doesn't need so much assistance because that means a lot less TV for Raegan. But we are all doing good, tired but good!