Happy Birthday Garrett!

Today my baby boy is 4 years old.  I can't even believe it.  He is so big now.  It seems like just yesterday that we first got the call to go see him in the hospital.  He was such a tiny, perfect baby.  These past 4 years have been the happiest of our lives.  We are so grateful for Garrett.  We are also so grateful for adoption, and for Garrett's birthmom, Korinne.  We love her so much, and we are so awed that she chose us to be Garrett's mommy and daddy.

I thought I'd share some pictures of Garrett from his first year, and then from his first, second, and third birthdays.  He is so beautiful.

We love you so much, Garrett!  Happy 4th Birthday!

 

 

 

 

 

Garrett's 4th Birthday Party

This year I was a little late planning Garrett's birthday party.  We had decided to have it somewhere other than home since past years we have been crammed into our house and my mom's house.  By the time I actually started calling around, most places were booked.  We did find out that we could use the workshop room at Discovery Gateway and conduct the party ourselves without a staff member hosting the party, and that was fine with us, so we went with that.

We had to rush to get the cake and food ordered, and everything done.  My friend Freda and her daughter Madelyn drove down from Hooper and helped my mom and me make the party favors.  Freda gave me the idea to make papier-mâché holders to put party favors items in, and they turned out really cute even though they were a lot of work.

Discovery told me that the workshop room was a little bare, so to bring lots of balloons.  We ordered tons of balloons, and blew up lots of balloons to scatter around on the floor.

We had the party on Saturday, and most of our friends were able to come.  We were really glad we had the loose balloons around, because Garrett and all the kids had tons of fun chasing each other and hitting each other with the balloons.

Garrett had a moment after only a few guests arrived when he got really upset and pouty because he wanted to open his presents right away, but he got over it and really enjoyed the party.  He had a lot of fun playing at the museum afterward too.

We were very grateful that so many of our friends could make it on such short notice, and glad that it turned out to be a lot of fun.  I'm also very grateful for my parents.  They always help us so much with everything, and they did a lot of work for the party.  Now we don't have to worry about his birthday party until next year!

 

 

"Fairly" Fun Day

We had a busy day today.  First we went to go see "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", which Garrett loved.  We love going to kid movies not because we necessarily want to see the movie, but because it means we actually get to go to a movie.  It was pretty good, and Garrett was very quiet and stayed in his seat the whole time.

Then after shopping, lunch, and a quick trip to Wheeler Farm to check on their birthday party rooms, we decided to go to the Utah State Fair.  I had been wanting to go all week, and thought it would be really fun, but Carl wasn't convinced.  He finally agreed to go even though he really wanted to stay home and watch football.

We got there, and I immediately wanted to turn around and go back home.  There were so many people it was hard to even walk around, and it was not at all what I remembered.  It was mostly just carnival rides, and vendors, and then circus sideshow type things like paying to see a 29 inch tall woman.  I didn't know they still had things like that.  It seems so wrong, but obviously the 29 inch woman must be there by her own free will and choice.

We did pay $1 to see a 13 foot crocodile.  It was pretty sad, because he was in a tiny enclosure.  I didn't really want to see it, but Garrett wanted to.  The crocodile blinked and turned his head toward us and Garrett got a little scared and said, "I don't think I want to do this."  But afterward he kept talking about how exciting it was.

Garrett and Carl did have fun going on some rides and Garrett played a fishing type game and got to pick out a stuffed panda bear.  We were just heading for the fun house when Garrett peed his pants.  He'd been too excited to tell us he had to go.  Oh well, fun over.  At least Garrett had a good time and at least I got funnel cake. :)

Use the Force

It's always difficult deciding what Garrett should be for Halloween. Usually I buy 3 or 4 costumes, try them on Garrett, take pictures, try them on again, and then finally decide which is the cutest. This year Garrett has his own definite opinions on what he wants to be for Halloween. He decided he wanted to be either Batman, a ninja, or Luke Skywalker. The cutest costume I could find with those 3 choices was a Jedi Knight costume. I ordered it, and just received it in the mail. I was worried about how it would fit him since the smallest size available was 4 to 6. So as soon as I opened it, I had to try it on him to make sure it would be okay. It fit just fine, and Garrett loves it. He had a lot of fun making Jedi poses in his costume.

Goodbye Summer

I can't believe summer is almost over.  Where has the time gone?  Even though Fall is my absolute favorite season, it's still a little sad to see summer go.

Today we went to get icees at the little stand near our house.  It's their last day in business until next summer, so we thought we better go get one more until next year.

We're Almost Done!

Yesterday we finished and submitted our adoption paperwork.  It felt so good to get that done!  When we were working on our papers and profile to get Garrett, we got it done so quickly.  We got the first packet of paperwork in the mail on September 1, 2004 and we were done with everything and actually approved by December 1, 2004.  This time has taken much longer.  I think we called to get the initial packet last December 2008 sometime, we mailed the application in January, went to the New Couple Orientation in February, went our first interview in May, and paid our application fee in June.  After we paid our application fee, we were able to do our paperwork and profile online, and it's taken us this long to get everything done.  I'm really excited it's finally done.  Our next step is to call our caseworker for additional interviews, have our homestudy, and then wait to see if we'll be approved.  Then the really fun part of waiting to be picked will start.

It was fun doing the paperwork and profile online this time.  I was less stressed out about making sure everything sounded perfect this time around.  One of the hardest parts was picking the pictures for our profile.  We could use up to 26 pictures, and we had a hard time narrowing it down.  Here are some of the pictures that didn't make the cut.