eva and miles

fall fun

2009-10-27T09:22:00.002-06:00

great big asia trip

2009-09-18T22:26:00.009-06:00

okay. so i've accepted the fact that i'm just a pathetic blogger/picture taker. but, just cause my husband is busy watching some gangster movie and because i have lots of schoolwork that i should be doing but don't want to, here are a few pics from our recent trip to asia with jon's family. we went to hong kong, singapore, thailand and bali. it was both amazing and exhausting. i couldn't figure out how to get them in any sort of order

at the beach in bali...

a temple that i was not allowed to enter in thailand...

eva and uncle sean on a river boat in thailand...

olivia, jon's parents and his aunt at the elephant camp in thailand...

on a carraige ride in thailand

miles and me on the same riverboat...

on an elephant ride (the highlight of miles' trip)

this was just after we got off the plane in hong kong after 20+ hours of travelling. look at what troopers they are!

sunrise in hong kong. i guess there might be one (very small) benefit of jet lagged children.

summer fun (aka playing catch-up)

2009-07-16T07:00:00.006-06:00

so, as promised, here are some pictures of us actually doing stuff instead of just pictures of sleeping beauty. there's a lot of random stuff here...it's been awhile... :)

my parents and my nephew luke came into town last week. here we all are celebrating my mom's birthday...

we went to belleview park down in littleton. the kids loved it--there's a train to ride, a petting zoo and a little stream to wade in.

luke and eva...

this is the closest we got to all of them looking in the general direction of the camera...

miles and his papa...

luke and eva milking the fake cow at the petting zoo. they kinda liked this better than the real animals.

luke bravely petting dusty the shetland pony. it took a lot of cajoling to get him to do this.

these are from our fourth of july "parade". the kids all ride their bikes around the park and then eat yummy stuff.

these cuties are eva's friend maren and our new neighbor ella.

eva and maren in the parade...

this was miles' expression the entire time. he was not particularly impressed.

this day we went to play in a fountain with our good friends Anna, Biniam, Yosef and Kaitlyn.

and is that not the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

curiouser and curiouser

2009-07-14T14:06:00.002-06:00

so i know i'm getting a little carried away with my shots of eva's bizarre napping. but this one might take the cake, so i can't help myself. i actually have a lot of great pictures that i haven't gotten around to posting of the kids doing fun and exciting summer stuff. coming soon, i promise. but for now... my sweet, exhausted daughter taking a nap on the kitchen floor, with a dish towel over her and a stroller that was initially on top of her but fell off after she fell asleep. what an odd child.

hike

2009-07-03T14:35:00.003-06:00

in the garden

2009-06-26T09:22:00.004-06:00

i'm so thrilled with how well our garden is growing. our little backyard is going to look like a jungle soon.

why do my children find it impossible to both smile nicely at the same time? my mother might say it's payback for the years of picture-taking torture I put her through.

no more naps, part 2

2009-06-15T14:28:00.002-06:00

in my last post, i mentioned that eva is sure that she's too old to take naps, but keeps falling asleep in random places. here are a couple more...

in our front porch swing...

here's where i found her today...

fun with daddy and no more naps

2009-06-06T08:15:00.002-06:00

eva and miles love to play dress up with daddy. on eva's part it involves a lot of princess dancing in which she is VERY particular about how her dancing partner must behave and often involves a LOT of bossing her daddy around. miles is just kinda along for the ride. although he's started bringing me the playsilks in the picture and saying "princess, miles, princess".

and on a completely unrelated note--life is hard when you are absolutely certain that you're too old to take naps and yet you keep falling asleep in random places. such as eating a plate of bananas at the table...

or in the sled that you pulled out on the deck to play boats with...

happy birthday, miles!

2009-05-21T08:46:00.003-06:00

sunday was miles' second birthday. it's amazing what a big boy he's become. we had some cupcakes to celebrate and we're having a little party next weekend too. here's some pictures of him enjoying his cupcake.

weekend getaway

2009-05-21T08:25:00.004-06:00

last weekend we went up to steamboat springs. we did a little hiking, a little picnicking, a little swimming and a lot of relaxing. it was a great time.

Dr. Eva

2009-04-27T08:23:00.004-06:00

How handy--we now have a vet/doctor in the family! Here's Dr. Eva checking out her patients.

He looks happy here...he doesn't realize he's about to get a shot...

not so thrilled now...

a band-aid makes everything better...

black eye and bathtime

2009-04-23T07:41:00.003-06:00

poor little miles is sporting quite the shiner these days. but, he sure does look cute doing it. it actually happened at school, but i'm not in the least surprised. he's become quite fearless when it comes to any physical activity. he is constantly climbing and jumping off things that are much too high for him to be climbing/jumping. one of his favorite activities is dancing on the dining table.

and just a cute bath pic too.

hanging my head in shame

2009-04-04T07:02:00.004-06:00

bad, bad blogger. i'm so embarrassed. what kind of person doesn't update their blog for 4 MONTHS! Here's the worst part--unlike some people, who blog because they just have so many great pics of their kids they want to share, I'm the opposite. I have a photo blog so that I actually remember to take pictures. We can go months on end without pulling our camera out. It's terrible. Our kids are going to grow up and ask, "Hey, Mom, why didn't you take any pictures of me in junior high? I must have been going through a pretty ugly phase, huh?"

In the last 4 months, I'm ashamed to say that we have taken a grand total of about 5 pictures of our kids. And most of them were the same weekend. So here they are. And I'd like to announce my renewed commitment to post pictures here, if for no other reason (because goodness knows, there can't be many people out there still reading this after my 4 month hiatus), so that I actually take them.

anywho...here is a picture of Jon's birthday breakfast cake last month and some pics from when Uncle Sean, Aunt Hannah and cousin Olivia came to visit a few weeks ago.

it's official!

2009-01-07T12:29:00.003-07:00

on monday we went to court to validate miles' adoption in colorado. not that it wasn't official before, but it's even more official now. :) here we are with the judge.

christmas in florida

2009-01-04T09:03:00.005-07:00

we just got back from spending christmas and new year's in florida with jon's family. we had a great time playing at the beach and spending time with family. miles and eva had so much fun playing with their cousin olivia. here are a few pictures of our trip...

the whole Dhillon family...

eva and olivia (in full fairy dress--and pajamas, in eva's case)

my favorite picture from the whole trip--have you ever seen a cuter little butt...

eva getting her leg buried...

sandy baby...

eva and miles with their 2nd cousin, grace...

swimming with daddy...

on the beach with daddy

at the aquarium...

unhappy boater...

ski vacation

2008-12-22T08:40:00.004-07:00

well, we all made it through my last couple weeks of school and finals and everyone here is very glad it's over with. especially me. oh, and my kids, who were real troopers during the week I spent most of my waking hours studying in a coffee shop.

the day after my last final, my whole family came to town and we went up to the mountains for the week. we had a great time together and eva learned to ski! here are some pics of our week.

the littlest skiers... Eva, Luke and Lizzy

the whole allen family...

we're leaving on wednesday to go to florida to visit the rest of our family through jan 1st. so we'll have lots of pictures when we get back. but until then... we hope you all have a wonderful christmas and a happy new year!

procrastination

2008-12-06T12:59:00.002-07:00

is there anything more fun than looking at old pictures of your baby when you're supposed to be writing a 15 page research proposal?

he walks!

2008-11-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

restaurant

2008-11-22T10:25:00.005-07:00

i took a few pictures of eva's favorite game--playing restaurant.

taking the order...

drinking sake...

sushi is served...

PARTY!!

2008-11-16T08:45:00.003-07:00

Well it's taken me a full week to post pictures from Eva's birthday party last weekend. It was quite the shindig! She had a wonderful time with lots of good friends. And she was so excited that her Nana came to town for the party too. But most of all, she was thrilled about her long-awaited ice cream birthday cake. She's been asking for that one for months.

everyone waiting patiently for cake...

the birthday girl enjoying her cake...

opening presents....

a new bike from Nana...

how did this happen?

2008-11-06T12:09:00.006-07:00

why did no one tell me that this teeny little thing....

would, in the blink of an eye, turn into this...

Three years ago today, after a long day of labor and 4 hours of pushing (yes, you read that right), we met this sweet face for the first time. We were instantly in love. How did she possibly grow up so fast? She asks me on a nearly daily basis if I'll teach her to drive the car soon. (I tell her she has to wait a couple more years).

Eva Li, you are the most spirited, sweetest, most sensitive, most curious, big girl I've ever known. Your smile lights up the room. You make me laugh all the time. I cannot even imagine my life without you. Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea! I love you so much.

yes we can.

2008-11-04T21:25:00.001-07:00

that is all.

look, no hands!

2008-11-01T14:19:00.003-06:00

so last night, miles went from never having stood up without support for more than a couple seconds, to standing up on his own from sitting, to taking his first step all within the span of a few hours. and he's been practicing all morning today. take a look at this big boy.

(a not-quite) happy halloween

2008-11-01T07:59:00.006-06:00

eva has been so excited for halloween for awhile. she never really gets any candy, so the idea of getting a big bag-full from all the neighbors is pretty appealing to her. but, i wasn't really thinking through her costume very well. i was certain that her costume from last year was a size 2T. she still fits into 2Ts, although 3Ts fit her better now. well, we found out yesterday (halloween day) at 4pm that it was actually a size 18-24 months and the pants didn't fit her at all.

(WARNING: this post is about to get kinda gross. you might want to skip ahead the cute pictures)

no problem, we'll just run out to a store and pick up a costume. well, we're pulling up to the store when eva says from the back seat, "mommy, i made a mess." i turn around to see that she's COVERED in what looks like watery cottage cheese. i'm wracking my brain to figure out what in the world she could have just spilled all over herself and her carseat, when once again she throws up all over herself and her carseat and my car. everywhere. seriously. e-ver-y-where. so we go home.

we get her cleaned up and she seems to be feeling a little better. but i happen to mention while we're eating dinner a little later that i'm not sure we can go trick-or-treating when she's been feeling so sick. she insists that she's feeling completely fine and not pukey at all. then she promptly throws up all over her dinner plate. lovely.

so anyway, we had to cancel our trick-or-treating plans with eva's friend maren. eva was so sad. but things got a little better. i took her (in her kangaroo costume sans pants) to a couple of our neighbors' houses and she managed not to puke on their doorsteps. but she was very unhappy that i wouldn't let her eat any of her candy last night. we were going dress miles up too, but this is how miles felt about being a chicken.

have you ever seen such a cute, sad chicken? then we came back and maren came trick-or-treating to our house and hung out for a little bit.

and yes, miles is standing up all by himself in that picture. but more about that coming soon. for now, hope your halloween was better than ours (or at least involved less vomit).

obama rally

2008-10-26T18:58:00.004-06:00

We went to the Obama rally in Denver today. It was amazing. There were more than 100,000 people there. We couldn't actually see Obama at all, but we heard him. :)

Here's a picture of the crowd--Obama's somewhere behind that tree on the left.

The kids really appreciated the event. Here's what Miles did during it...

and here's what Eva did during it...

And you'll all be happy to hear that Miles spoke his 5th word today (after Hi, Bye, Mama and Dada)--that's right, it's "Obama". Actually it's more like "Ba-ma-ma" but he raises his hands and chants it just like everyone at the rally today.

um, yeah

2008-10-23T18:02:00.003-06:00

here's eva sporting a way-too-small hat, a hand-me-down coat two sizes too big, miles' jeans, and my boots. lovely.

one year ago today...

2008-10-19T07:48:00.003-06:00

...we saw this precious little face for the first time.

Little did we know how it would change our lives forever. Looking at it now, it's hard to see much resemblence to this rolly-poly cutie.

But I remember like it was yesterday the way my heart dropped and tears sprung into my eyes the moment I saw that sweet face. He was ours. We were his.

Little Man, you can never know what a blessing it is to be your mommy. You're crazy and loud and, most days, you make me crazy and loud too. Nobody laughs harder or cries harder than you. I love your kisses and your smiles more than you'll ever know. You're teaching me every day to be a better mother and a better person. I love you like crazy, Miles Rahmeto.

i'm so proud

2008-10-17T20:25:00.004-06:00

some of you may be aware that ours has long been a two-party family. for years now, i've been trying to get my dear husband to see the light and cross over to my side. well, i'm so very proud to announce to the world that the love of my life and i are now rootin' for the same team. that's right, look who just bought himself an obama shirt...

has he ever looked more handsome?

eva singing

2008-10-16T12:29:00.005-06:00

yesterday, eva asked me to make a movie of her singing. one of her favorite activities is watching movies of herself on the computer. so now...(for eva's viewing pleasure)... here is our little movie star...

(ETA: well, good, now it appears that both our camera and our video camera are broken. the sound is really really quiet. i'll try to fix it later.)

broken camera

2008-10-09T09:16:00.002-06:00

well unfortunately it's going to be awhile before i can put up any new pictures. our camera has been partially broken for a few months (the screen didn't work at all, but you could still use the viewfinder). but it seems to have totally kicked the bucket now. i'm so bummed--it was a pretty nice camera that we got just before eva was born. maybe i'll get one of those cheap kid's digital cameras til we can get a decent one. anyway, just wanted to let you all know that there probably won't be many new pics for a little while.

family pics 10

2008-09-23T16:22:00.004-06:00

Awhile ago we had some professional photos taken of our family. Here they are. The files are so big I can only load one at a time--so there are a lot of posts. :)

family pics 9

2008-09-23T16:18:00.002-06:00

family pics 8

2008-09-23T16:15:00.001-06:00

family pics 7

2008-09-23T16:11:00.001-06:00

family pics6

2008-09-23T16:08:00.001-06:00

family pics 5

2008-09-23T16:05:00.001-06:00

family pics 4

2008-09-23T16:01:00.001-06:00

family pics 3

2008-09-23T15:58:00.000-06:00

family pics 2

2008-09-23T15:55:00.000-06:00

family pics 1

2008-09-23T15:42:00.002-06:00

getaway

2008-09-20T21:20:00.003-06:00

We just got back from spending a few days in the mountains. Jonathan had a training to go to, so we all tagged along for the ride. Here are a couple pics from our weekend.

hike

2008-09-14T09:24:00.003-06:00

it was a beautiful day yesterday, so we went for a great mountain hike. Eva hiked the whole way on her own (and was totally exhausted when we were done). we had so much fun.

rainy day fun

2008-09-14T09:16:00.002-06:00

if you ask Eva what she wants to do today, most days she says "go play at REI". so on lots of rainy or cold days, you'll find us at the REI play area.

lil' kicker

2008-08-28T16:01:00.002-06:00

Eva is going to be starting soccer next week so we went today to pick up her uniform. She's so excited... and refusing to take it off.

potty scoot

2008-08-27T09:14:00.002-06:00

Check out Miles' new favorite mode of transportation. Ride'em, cowboy! (okay, so he's a little frustrated at the end, but really usually he thinks it's hilarious that he can move around the bathroom so much)

making brownies

2008-08-09T09:14:00.000-06:00

my little troublemaker

2008-08-08T16:26:00.006-06:00

well, i guess that it's time to babyproof our house again. we had put locks on most of the cabinets at our old place but when we moved here, eva was kinda past getting into the cabinets all the time. well, now that miles is mobile, he thinks it's the greatest thing in the world to empty out all the kitchen cabinets. here's a picture of the start of it this morning. the other day it took him 5 minutes to get every single thing out of this cabinet. fun, fun. anybody good with a drill wanna come over and help us out?

and this is what you get these days when you ask eva to smile for a picture...

well, pretty it ain't...

2008-08-03T13:17:00.002-06:00

...but miles is kinda crawling. he has two kinds of crawl--the first he just drags himself on his belly and the second he gets one leg under him and pulls his sitting body across the floor. oh well, at least he's somewhat mobile finally.

just a couple cute pics

2008-07-29T12:55:00.002-06:00

alaska

2008-07-20T08:46:00.003-06:00

sorry it's been so long between posts. we just got back from an alaskan cruise last week. we had so much fun. but unfortunately we only got a couple good pictures from our trip. here's one of us at a glacier.

miles dancing

2008-06-27T13:03:00.004-06:00

one more video of miles from yesterday. he's started dancing anytime he hears music. the one i caught on video is kind of mellow. sometimes he really gets into it and starts waving his arms around too.

almost crawling

2008-06-27T08:51:00.002-06:00

Miles is sooooo close to crawling. He can pull himself forward onto his hands and knees and he can scoot backwards. But he's just not quite there yet. He finds it very frustrating. Here's some video of his attempts. And some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry thrown in there too.

potty

2008-06-21T10:54:00.003-06:00

Miles is kinda starting to get using the potty. And doesn't he look adorable doing it?

eva and her daddy

2008-06-13T08:14:00.002-06:00

a couple weeks ago we went to chicago to visit our close friends, ryan and nikki and their beautiful little girl linnea. ryan took these amazing pictures of jon and eva playing at a park near their house. he even touched them up so you don't see eva's extensive facial wounds (it was right after the cart incident).

fun in the fountain

2008-05-31T08:00:00.003-06:00

chunky

2008-05-29T15:56:00.004-06:00

did you know that when miles came home he was very underweight and our pediatrician was really concerned and made us come in for weekly weight checks? look at him now. he's practically ginormous. and he eats like a horse. i predict that by 18 months he's going to weigh more than eva. he ate everything on his tray and then ate all eva's leftovers.

ouch

2008-05-20T07:39:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm feeling a little bit of mommy guilt this morning (okay, actually a lot). So you know how on every grocery store cart it says not to put your kid in the back part. Everyone knows this, right? And everyone still does it. Because it doesn't seem that bad. Well, it is. Eva fell out of a cart at Target last night. I always make her sit down in it, but she popped up at the exact moment we hit a little bump. She hit the pavement face-first. Arms didn't go out at all to break her fall. Thankfully she's okay, but she looks awful. Last night she had a bump the size of a tennis ball on her head. And her lip is actually smaller in this picture than it was. Poor baby! So now you have fair warning... don't put your kids in the back part of the cart. Who knew that apparently there's a reason for that little warning sign!

Happy Birthday, Miles!

2008-05-18T20:55:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Miles' first birthday! We had a little party for him today with a few friends. Here are a few pics of him eating his cake in his daddy's lap. Happy birthday, little man! We love you so very much. It's hard to imagine that we met you just four months ago. It seems like you've been a part of our lives forever. You're already growing up so fast. (by the way, in case you're doing the math in your head, Miles is actually just 11 months old--long story, but it's his birthday, so we're celebrating)

And a picture of Eva after eating a gigantic piece of chocolate cake that neither of us realized she had gotten her hands on...

new tricks

2008-05-15T07:26:00.002-06:00

look at my big boy showing off his newest tricks...

florida

2008-05-14T21:47:00.003-06:00

we just spent the weekend in florida. we went to jon's cousin's wedding and hung out at the beach with cousin olivia. here are a few pics of our trip...

(guess who didn't want to be in this picture...)

shhhhh...

2008-05-05T10:38:00.003-06:00

ahhh, there's nothing quite as satisfying as having two children sleeping at the same time. i've spent the last 30 minutes drinking coffee and reading. it hardly ever happens, so i have to take advantage of it.

ewwwwwww, ew, ew, ew. ew.

2008-05-01T18:40:00.003-06:00

in my 2.5 years of being a mother, i've cleaned up some pretty bad messes. but this one takes the cake, i think. i'm feeding miles his dinner in his chair and think maybe i smell something. but then think, maybe it's just a little gas. i take a peek and his entire back--shirt, pants and chair--all the way up to his hairline is entirely covered. i didn't know quite what to do, so i stuck him in the bathtub.

look how proud he is of himself.

and here's when he got his hands in it and started smearing it everywhere...

all clean...

yogurt

2008-04-16T20:58:00.004-06:00

in case you're wondering (and i'm certain you were), eva's favorite food right now is yogurt. she wants to eat it breakfast, lunch and dinner. she just can't get too much.

the multi-faceted emotional life of miles

2008-04-16T20:53:00.003-06:00

ahhh, ya gotta love a baby who can go from happy to mad to sad to bored to happy again all within a few minutes.

springtime

2008-04-15T10:02:00.004-06:00

ahhhh... it's been in the 70s and sunny here recently. of course tomorrow it's supposed to snow again. but we're enjoying it while we can.

two cute kids

2008-03-29T12:09:00.002-06:00

is this not the goofiest smile ever?

oh my, that's shocking!

he ain't heavy, he's my brother

2008-03-06T21:16:00.003-07:00

for all you faithful fans out there who still check my blog even though i only post once a month... here are some nice new pics of the cutest brother and sister ever. eva loves to try and pick miles up, which (surprise, surprise) doesn't always end well. let's just say, this little photo session ended in more than a few tears. oh well, we live and learn.

and for some reason, eva likes to put strange things on her head and then comes to find me and makes me take pictures of her. she's a bit of a ranger. good thing she's so darn cute.

Slacker blogger

2008-02-20T14:13:00.004-07:00

Well, all, I'm terribly sorry that it's taken me so long to post anything at all for your viewing enjoyment. Why did nobody tell me that having two kids was so time consuming? Seriously. Anyway, we've all been adjusting pretty well. Eva's had some rough days, but seems to be hanging in there. She loves her little brother but it's just hard learning to share your parents.

Haven't taken a whole lot of pictures recently, but here are a couple for you. And a video of Miles in his bouncy seat. He doesn't have a whole lot of leg strength yet so we figured some bouncing couldn't hurt. He seems to like it. Please ignore our cluttered basement in the background.

I still plan on putting up some pictures of our trip one of these days. Maybe when I have some free time...ha ha ha ha ha.

Introducing Miles Rahmeto

2008-01-29T10:02:00.001-07:00

He's here! And he's just about the cutest, sweetest little boy we've ever seen. We had a wonderful and exhausting trip. We got in last night after midnight and didn't really sleep much because our kids (!) were so jet-lagged and confused. But we're all doing really well and it feels so good to be home.

I owe you all an apology that we weren't able to post any updates all week. I know a lot of you were checking in on us. I spent one long evening trying to send a post to my sister, only to have the world's worst dial-up connection thwart my efforts. We have a bunch of pictures of our trip and, as I'm able, I'll post more about it all.

But for now, we're going to get some rest and get to know one another better.

he smiles!

2008-01-16T09:00:00.001-07:00

okay, i totally got all teary when i got this one. (granted i'm a little emotional these days) it's our first picture of erameto smiling. doesn't that just melt your heart? and look at his little hand dimples...he's getting downright chubby.

a couple more pics before we go

2008-01-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

well, it looks like we really will be going this time. we'll leave on Sunday Jan 20th and we'll get back on Monday, Jan 28. We have plane tickets and a place to stay (again). There is an African Union conference in Addis the week we're there, so finding a place to stay has been no small feat.

another adoptive parent who traveled recently took these pictures of Erameto. For Christmas, the orphanage gets each child a traditional Ethiopian outfit. Doesn't he look handsome? In the second one he's hanging with some of his buddies.

not so fast

2008-01-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

well after all that frustration,our dates were just pushed back a week. so it looks like we'll now be travelling around the 20th. we'll see.

whew! finally...

2008-01-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

i just finished booking our flights to ethiopia. that was stressful. i spent endless hours on the phone/internet trying to get it all figured out. thankfully, we now have flights and a hotel reservation. those are the big things. now we just have to pack. we'll be leaving on saturday, jan 12 and returning on sunday, jan 19. we're so excited about meeting our son and about our first visit to ethiopia. we're planning to be in addis ababa (the capitol) most of the week and hopefully we'll also get to visit the town where erameto was born.

i was hoping we'd get one more update and photo this week. but, oh well, we'll soon be able to take pictures to our hearts content. can't wait for you all to meet our little boy.

we have travel dates

2008-01-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

we found out today that our appointment at the embassy is january 16. that's 2 weeks from today!! which means we'll leave for ethiopia in a week and a half. i can't believe that we'll be meeting our son in less than two weeks. we're scrambling now to make arrangements. we're so excited that he'll be home soon.

more christmas pics

2007-12-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

We just got back yesterday from Chicago where we spent Christmas. We had such a fun time. Our whole family went to the Walnut Room--where they have a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the restaraunt--for breakfast last Saturday. Here are a couple pictures from it.

There was a princess walking around the restaraunt sprinkling magic dust on kids. Eva was a little nervous at the time, but she's been talking about it ever since.

This was actually a picture taken by Eva's 3-year old cousin Lizzie. I think it's the most that Eva's ever intentionally smiled for a picture.

Allen Family Christmas

2007-12-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

We spent Christmas with the Allen family. Eva's had tons of fun with all her cousins and her aunts and uncles and nana and papa.

erameto sleeping

2007-12-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

awww, what a precious little sleepy guy...

we passed court!

2007-12-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

we're so excited that erameto is legally our son! we just found out that we passed court today in ethiopia. we should hear next week about when we're going to travel. what a wonderful christmas gift!

what a nut!

2007-12-14T12:32:00.001-07:00

here are some pictures of our zany little girl...

pretty in pink

2007-12-10T15:48:00.001-07:00

look at our handsome little guy. i think he can definitely pull off pink, don't you? i think maybe he has chicken pox. he only has a couple spots on his face but i saw another picture of the side of his head and he has several there too. all you health professionals out there... does it look like it could be something else? hmmmm.

edited 12/13: so we just got an update saying that he has chicken pox. i guess it's good that now he's gotten it out of the way. but, poor little guy.

rub-a-dub

2007-12-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

erameto

2007-12-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

so, i mentioned before that we sent erameto a gift bag with an outfit, a toy and a photo album of our family. well, today we got a picture of him in his outfit next to the photo album. he's such a cutie! he looks a little shocked by the prospect of joining our family, don't you think? :)

court date

2007-11-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

This morning we got our court date. Our case will go to court on December 21st. If we pass the first time, we will most likely travel to Ethiopia sometime in January. It's all happening so much faster than we expected. Which is so exciting!

out for a walk

2007-11-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day in awhile that it wasn't freezing cold and dark outside. So Eva and I went for a walk to throw some rocks in her favorite pond. She was pretty excited because there was still a sheet of ice over part of it. She thought it was pretty fun to break big pieces of it on the ground.

adoption update

2007-11-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last week our paperwork was submitted to the court in Ethiopia. Our agency has told us that it is likely (but not for sure) that we'll have a court date sometime in December. Many cases pass on their first court date, but sometimes (due to paperwork issues or other unknowns) cases don't pass and are assigned another court date a couple weeks later. When our case passes court, Erameto will legally be our son. :) We're told that we should be notified of when the court date will occur a couple weeks before it happens (so hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have a date).

We'll hopefully travel to Ethiopia about 5-8 weeks after our court date for our embassy date. That's the day our son will get a visa to travel back to the US. So, our best estimate is that we'll be travelling to Ethiopia sometime in February to bring home our baby boy. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and support through this process. We appreciate it more than you could know. :) We'll keep you posted when we hear anything else. And hopefully we'll get a new picture soon.

nyle benjamin peays

2007-11-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

meet eva's newest cousin. nyle benjamin peays was born this morning and weighs 5 lbs, 14 oz. isn't he a cutie? happy birth day, nyle!

family picture

2007-11-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

we got to send a photo album and some toys and an outfit to erameto. so we had to take a picture of our family to send since we apparently never take any of all three of us. in fact i think about 99% of the pictures we take these days are just of eva. :) anyway, here are a couple of our family pics.

kisses for suzie

2007-11-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

eva's so crazy about suzie. and suzie, well,...let's just say she puts up with eva sometimes. but today she was letting eva hug and kiss her, so I had to snap a few shots. oh, and that cute sweater?...that was her birthday present from aunt hannah, uncle sean and cousin olivia. she loves wearing the hood up. thanks guys!

happy birthday, eva!

2007-11-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

can you believe my little baby is turning two today? here are some pictures from her party this weekend. we have some video too that i've been trying to upload unsuccessfully. hopefully i'll figure it out soon.

new pic of our little champ

2007-11-02T17:34:00.000-06:00

my little kangaroo

2007-10-31T15:39:00.001-06:00

We haven't even gone out trick-or-treating yet, so I'm sure I'll have more later. But I just had to share these right away. Is that not the cutest kangaroo you've ever seen?

our sweet baby boy

2007-10-29T09:35:00.000-06:00

The day we've been waiting for has finally come. We're so thrilled to share these pictures of our son with you all. His name is Erameto and he's about 4-5 months old. And, we could be biased, but we think he's pretty adorable.
It'll probably be about 3-5 months before we can travel to Ethiopia to bring him home. We'll post more pictures and news as we get them.

at home with eva

2007-10-22T18:36:00.000-06:00

just a couple new pics...i took the first two when eva decided she wanted to wear her baby in a sling. (actually first she stuck them inside her shirt and told me it was her sling...so i helped her make one) the last one was when she insisted jonathan drag her around in a box... for like an hour.

more bike ride

2007-10-18T16:18:00.001-06:00

bike ride

2007-10-18T16:01:00.000-06:00

eva and i took a bike ride (on her new birthday bike from nana and papa) to the park today. eva was apparently feeling pretty photogenic. She even smiled a few times when i asked her to (which she's never done before). there are so many, i'll have to do two posts.

nice boots and other random pictures

2007-09-29T14:27:00.000-06:00

Eva has a favorite book about a goose that wears "nice boots". So the moment she saw these across the store, she yelled, "Nice boots!" and ran to put them on. It took us quite awhile and a few tears to get them off. Below also is a picture of Eva and Grayson and one of Eva and Aran.

we're back (part 5)

2007-08-30T22:48:00.000-06:00

oops, i lied. here's more from my mom. the first four are from a birthday party we had for all the kids (from left to right... Eva, Lizzy, Tait, Sammy, J.R., Grayson, and Luke... Tait, J.R, and Grayson are Eva's second cousins)

our trip to ikea (a highlight of being in the chicago area--at least for people like me, whose nearest ikea is 8 hours drive in salt lake city)...i don't think these three appreciated the gravity of the occasion.

we're back (part 4)

2007-08-30T12:44:00.000-06:00

last one, i promise...

we're back (part 3)

2007-08-30T12:34:00.000-06:00

okay, almost done. here are some pictures of our trip to mexico. these pretty much sum up all that we did all weekend.

we're back! (part 2)

2007-08-30T12:18:00.000-06:00

here are some more... for some reason, i didn't have quite as many pics in wheaton, but i know that my mom has some great ones from a birthday party we had for all the kids. so hopefully i can post some of those later.

Dhillon family

Eva and Lizzy

Sammy

Luke