Driving South...

to the the Marion County courthouse in Indianapolis, at 2:45pm today the judge will grant us legal and permanent custody of our sweet daughter forever and ever. It's a big day for us, we're beyond blessed to have started this journey on January 5th 2008 (the first week of the year) and to close the circle the last week of the year with finalization today. Remarkable, and so very lucky. Most adoption stories don't come in such perfect little packages like this.

My 1st Christmas

Josie's first Christmas is a white one! We've gotten lots of snow already this year, and it's so special to us that her first Christmas is even a WHITE one too! Our Christmas day is going to be very busy, from our own morning festivities here at home and then we dash to Mimi's house, and then on to the family party. We're excited to see Nate, his first Christmas where he really knows what is going on... and can't wait until the year that Josie knows the same. Until then, we're enjoying starting our own traditions and loving every minute of it!

Get Me Out of Here!

Merry Christmas Eve! Oh how nice it is to be home with Josie and dad today. Playing Christmas songs, cooking and getting ready for Church. We're so blessed this Christmas, our best Christmas ever. Josie's wish for Christmas? To get out of the butsie seat :)

Happy Three Months Old!

On Josie's three month birthday, we're going to have a super busy day! I have lots of last minute things to shop for, so I'm heading out early this morning. Tomorrow is a crab and steak dinner at Uncle Brian's house - so lots of cooking going on here this afternoon. I'm in charge of bruchetta and another appetizer... whew, will be a busy day!

At three months old, this girl is laughing up a storm. She's really getting into the whole "peak a boo" thing, especially when dad does it! He's the comedian in the family, who wouldda guessed? Josie is sleeping from 8 pm until 4ish, every night. Gets a bottle around 4, then right back to sleep. It's sometimes a struggle after 5:30 to keep her asleep, but the soothie helps and she doesn't get up for the day until 7am. Our days are filled with lots of time spent with her bum in the bumbo seat and playing on her play mat. She's successfully rolling to her tummy, but once she gets there, she doesn't quite know what to do. It's pretty funny. Her hair, wow, still wild as ever - but she's losing it by the handful lately. It's still plenty thick on top, which somewhat conceals the bald back and sides for now. :)

Tasty!

You would think her hand tasted like candy and ice cream with the amount of time she keeps it in her mouth :) You would also think she would have found her thumb by now!

Santa Told Josie...

Santa told Josie he will bring her lots of binkies and wrapping paper to play with! This was simply the best Santa :) We had heard that Santa would be visiting Bass Pro Shops (of all places ;), we've never been before) and that his wonderland was magnificent! It SURE WAS! And to top it off, Santa wasn't charging anything for a photo op and we were able to use our own camera too, unlike when he's at the mall or the candy store. Josie was so good, we waited in line for only a short while, no drool or spitup on her pretty sweater and just "chilled" in Santa's arms! What a fun morning it was.

The symphony was magnificent! What a magical evening out celebrating the holiday season. The talk of the night was our little Josie, which of course we didn't mind. I dressed Josie up for her play date with grandpa, isn't the curly headband adorable? Her face looks so chubby and cute, but I think it's b/c she was smooshed into the bumbo ;) We opted not to stay afterwards for drinks and dessert in order to get home to see how grandpa and josie had fared. To our surprise, we walked in and Josie was fast asleep, had been since 8, and grandpa just watching the Bears game :) haha! We worried needlessly, but were glad to be home in any case!



We've been scrapbooking lots this week while keeping warm and staying home. These are my two recent favorites. I never realize how much fun it would be to scrapbook about my favorite little girl!

Getting closer to calling the nursery complete. Last week I bought the paint and went to town. Josie sat in her crib and chatted with me the entire time! I think it came out pretty cute, in the end I couldn't bring myself to paint pink, and so I chose this minty green and LOVE it! It's so refreshing and perfectly girly :) I have a third print on order for over her crib and can't wait to get it!


As for her closet, it's a wonderland of diapers, lotions, shoes, and clothes. This lucky girl has a walk in closet, AMPLE room for her changing studio. We've had these picture ledges in storage for years, and deemed her closet a perfect home for them to shelve diapering supplies and a gallery for shoes and bows when we start to accumulate more. Josie enjoys this spot of her room, loves having her diaper changed and watching her butterflies flutter about! I loving having all the diaper clutter in her closet and just adjacent to her table is all of her clothes and jammies. I had considered for a moment painting a wall in her closet either green or pink to compliment her room - but I'm a believer in closets being fresh and bright, so the white stays.


This week has been a relaxing week at home, staying inside and keeping warm! Have enjoyed quite a bit of scrapbooking and organizing! Tonight Ed and I are going to the symphony for their holiday pops concert and grandpa J is coming to play with Josie, should be a fun evening all around!

A Special Day

Josie was baptized two weeks ago, but I'm just now getting the photos. Here are a few from our special day. It was a private gathering, just our family - in which Grandpa J did the baptism. He's baptized hundreds of babies, but never one so special and dear to his heart.

Festivities

Things are looking pretty festive around the house these days! We've had a super busy week, from painting Josie's room and putting up all the Christmas decorations. We LOVE Christmas, easily observable by our 8 Christmas trees! There's lots of talk and excitement around here in starting some new family traditions, even though J is too bitty to remember, we're excited to start the fun this year. One of the cutest families I know does the Magic Elf with her girls, and the love it - so we're off to find an elf for our very own. I have a few more traditions we're going to start, but I'm most excited about this one - and especially a few years down the road! We haven't had a chance to visit Santa just yet, but hopefully soon. Dad wants to make sure he's with us, so we're going to have to fight the crowds one of these weekends.


Josie's growing and growing. I'm not sure exactly how much she weighs these days - but I'm thinking at least 13lbs! This girl smiles CONSTANTLY, even in her sleep! Speaking of sleep - she's started this waking up at 3 am thing (after several weeks of going from 8pm to 5am straight), and we don't know why. But after the bottle goes right back to sleep until 7ish - so it's still a good schedule we think. I know one day I'll be sad and miss the middle of the night cuddles - so I'm not going to worry about it. She'll usually even go back to sleep until 9 after her morning bottle. We love the little undershirts with the hand flaps, and we still use the little mittens to keep her hands warm. We keep the thermostat up, but it's so easy to catch a chill - plus we think she's pretty cute in her "boxing mitts", as dad calls them ;) Photo taken this morning during her nap, she doesn't usually have the big blanket, for saftey reasons - but a little cover while I was sitting next to her watching her sleep.

OH! and she's LOVING the Bumbo (we call it a butt-sie seat ;)). We made cookies this week and she just chatted my ear off enjoying her new sitting perspective. She's a wee bit young for the Bumbo, but we decided to give it a try (with constant supervision) considering how very strong her legs, back and neck are - and she's loving it.