Great Day!

We finalized our adoption on Feb. 27th!  YAY!  We even got a picture with the judge.  We were only in the court for just a short time, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and that was that!  We went out to The Chef to eat some yummy lunch and then had a dessert crepe bar get-together that night with some of our friends to celebrate this great day.  We are grateful for this miracle in our lives and are thrilled to have the adoption finalized!!!  We are so happy with our little boy!

Some surprise balloons arrived at our doorstep later that afternoon :)  Thank you Tripp fam!!! (They happened to match the sign I made perfectly--how did you do that?!)

Nauvoo Trip

 In my opinion, every Mormon needs to experience Nauvoo.  We learned a lot there about life back in the day, gained a greater appreciation (and desire to know more about) the early Saints, and the spirit there is amazing!  The Nauvoo Temple is beautiful!!!  Those people just sacrificed so much to move out from their town that they had worked so hard to establish.  If you get the chance, GO!  :)  Now that we've been in the winter time, I want to go back again in the summer for the pageant and to just see everything again.  I thought the above picture was pretty cool with the Joseph and Hyrum silhouette and the sunset going over the Mississippi in the background. 

 

Mom--this pic is for you--THE POST OFFICE :)

  

Shoe Maker

 

 Carthage Jail (one of my most favorite places we toured---very powerful)

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 Weaving...we were impressed with this. 

 Mark and I switched off so we could both go in the temple.  This pic was taken the day after, right before we headed back home.

Our little guy was such a trooper through it all.  He was an excellent travel buddy.  I thought his face was so funny and cute in this picture of him strapped in his car seat.  He does the "wide eyes" look a lot when I get the camera out. :)

Nursery

Jax now has a room.  He is still sleeping right by our bed but we will soon move him to the crib.  I have been searching and searching for a dresser that would also work for a changing table and I finally found a used one that I like.  I think I still want to paint it but M thinks no way since it's wood.  Time will tell.  Sometimes the rocker is in this room and sometimes not since it's a little crowded.

2 months

 Sweet baby had his check up last week.  Here are the stats:

Height: 22.5 inches 37%
Weight: 12 lb. 1 oz. 63%
Head Circumference: 39.5 cm 45%

He did get a few shots but was a trooper through it all.  We are amazed at his easy-going personality.  Jax holds his head up really well.  He is pretty curious so it's fun to watch him do tummy time and look around at everything as fast as he can.  However, as soon as he finds his hands, all exercising is over and it's time to just chill and drool on those tiny fingers.  :)  He is starting to get some serious chub! Look at those legs!

Visit From Nana

 Mark's Mom has officially met J!  On the day we picked her up at the airport, we did some traveling around Kansas City.  We had to check out the temple and see how progress was coming.  Isn't it beautiful!? She joined me for the baby shower thrown by my church friends and also babysat for us on Saturday.  Sunday was spent going to church and enjoying dinner at a friend's house.  On Monday, we toured the capital building in Topeka.  We were amazed by all of the different kinds of marble from all over the world (you can see some on the last picture) and by the intricate architecture of the building.  They are in the process of restoring it to look like the original.  I enjoyed the tour and learned more about Kansas.  Jax even sat on the governor's chair! Each governor gets to decorate the office with gifts, paintings, or whatever they want.  They are getting a new bigger buffalo (our state animal) to put on the wall!  :)  Ha!  I thought that was pretty funny.  There is also a pretty painting of sunflowers in there (our state flower).  Thanks for the visit Nana! Jax loved your reading, playing, and holding him.  

 

Anniversary

We decided to do two dates for our anniversary this year.  The first was while Mark's mom was here (thanks for tending!).  We went bowling at the Union and happened to run into some friends so we joined their lane.  I didn't reach my goal of breaking 100 but that was okay because we had such a good time.  We also played a couple games of air hockey AND I even convinced Mark to do some DDR.  To me, it felt like we were dating in college again.  I'm glad we're done with college but it was nice to feel a little more young and care-free for a night...oh wait...I feel like that all the time.  Never mind. ha ha :)    

For part two, we experienced some fine dining at Harry's.  It was absolutely delicious!  We went all out and ordered an appetizer and dessert too!  Mark ordered steak, which was tender and mouth-watering.  I had the "special" which was fish with some type of cream cheese red pepper sauce over rice.  Y-U-M!  I love fancy.  I enjoyed time with Mark, getting dressed up, and trying and use some dining etiquette (probably should study up on that a bit more).    

Even though there have been challenges, it has been a blissful 4 years of marriage.  It's been awesome going through life's ups and downs with this handsome, tender, and patient man.  I can't believe how fast the time flies!  I love my hubby!

 

Food, Smiles, and Bumbo

One of my goals for this year is to embrace dinner time and try a new dish each week.  It's been fun to experiment with new recipes and try different cuisines.  I decided try making Black Beans and Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa.  I thought it was tasty and very different!  I found it here.  I liked that it was a change from our usual.  We went to a Jamaican restaurant once and it reminded us a lot of what we ate there.  Just for the record, I adore cilantro.  I didn't grow up eating much cilantro, but over the past few years, I have started using it a lot.  The unique taste and the fresh smell just can't be beat.  I love it with practically any Mexican dish.  It added an interesting kick to this "apple salsa."

  Our little guy is now starting to smile.  It just melts our hearts.  :)  He is starting to be more and more alert every day.  He's getting pretty good with holding his head up and looking around so we decided to try out the Bumbo chair for a few minutes.  (Thanks Mike and Heidi!!!)  He's still a bit too little for it but he did pretty well.  Jax also loves bath time and kicks like crazy!  We feel so blessed to have this cute little guy.