Sorry, I've been slacking again!

My sleeping beauties in the car! They never fall asleep in the car, so for both to fall asleep, it was a miracle!

Friday night I gave Maegan some Benadryl because her nose was yuck. She woke this morning at 6am & was wired until 530pm when she crashed in the car! She was acting crazy and going non-stop!

Makayla & Steph at Mason's birthday party. Makayla has developed her likes and dislikes of people already! She will only let certain people hold her. If you aren't one of the few, she will glare at you then comes the big lips and tears!

Makayla rolled from her tummy to her back last night!

Tummy time! Maegan would never do this! She'd lay her head down and scream.

Baby Kaden's 1st b-day!! His first taste of the cake....

All done! He didn't like all the goop on his hands. His mommy had a heck of a time getting the blue dye out of his hair.

Makayla sporting her ears at Kaden's party.

Maegan must've had the giggles

Random pictures

Maegan with the balloons her Daddy gave her for Valentine's Day.

We bribed her with a ride on the horse(or bull it looks like) if she smiled and acted nice for the pictures. The darn thing was broke though! The pictures of the girls and Wayland turned out so good!

Maegan loves to play Dora games on Noggin. She has figures out how to use the cursor and clicker!

Maegan looks really big in this picture. We went for her 4 mo shots and she weighed 14lbs! Maegan was 15lbs at 6mo!

Her confused look!

Happy cheeks!

Maegan loves Wizard of Oz! Mom found her this shirt/nightgown and she loved it! When I was showing her the tag goes in the back, I noticed it was made in Guatemala! How weird is that?

Ian, Grant, Maegan and Makayla at Maegan's Valentine's Day party at school. Maegan has gone to daycare with these two since she came home! It's cool to watch them grown up together!

Cookie decorating party!!

Here is an update from the JCICS on what going on in Guatemala!! It is very sad & sickening!

On January 1, 2008, under significant scrutiny and amidst allegations of corruption, child trafficking and unethical practices, Guatemala implemented the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Now, 12 months since its implementation, has the Convention truly been the answer? Unfortunately the manner in which Guatemala implemented the Convention has not resulted in an ethical intercountry adoption system; it has resulted in no intercountry adoption system. The implementation of the Convention has indeed succeeded in adding protections. But it has also failed in its role to serve children. Despite an estimated 6,000 institutionalized children and few domestic adoptions, not one child has found a permanent family through the Convention. When the Convention was implemented the law stated that the estimated 3,000 adoptions that had been initiated would be completed. One year and countless investigations by the PGN, MP, CNA and Guatemalan courts later, over 1,000 children have yet to have their adoptions completed. As recently published by Nuestro Diario, a leading Guatemalan newspaper, children are being abandoned to the streets at an alarming rate. With few government institutions to provide care and the closure of many private institutions, some birthmothers are simply leaving their newly born children in trash dumps. Nuestro Diario reports that in Guatemala City alone, 91 children were found abandoned with 70 being new born infants. Twenty abandoned children in Guatemala City were found after they had already perished. (Can you imagine this has been reported to have happened in the first 12 months and only reported in Guatemala City...how many children are found in this very same condition in other cities and small villages? What will the number be next year?? It sickens me to even think about it!)What is being done to build a social service system which not only protects children from corruption but also from a tragic death? The formation of a spectrum of services including Family Preservation, Kinship Care, Domestic Adoption and Intercountry Adoption is desperately needed to ensure that children retain their right to a family and are protected from the detrimental effects of institutionalization, or even an unnecessary death.

4 months old!

My sweet girls!

Makayla's serious face. She does smile I promise! As soon as the red light comes on before the picture snaps, she stops smiling and stares at the light all confused looking! I went shopping this weekend & the girls stayed with their daddy. Maegan was fine, but Makayla cried and fussed the whole time. She's used to me being with her 100% of the time! She reaches for objects and tries her hardest to hold her bottle. She changes so much everyday.

Pretty girls

She loves to play with Maegan's big bunny.

The bonnet barely fit! But, she looked sooo cute!

Maegan got the camera and started taking pictures of Makayla. She didn't want her picture taken.

What a cute close-up she got of Makayla! She looks like she is in deep thought.

Maegan loves holding Makayla and tries to pick her up when she is crying. She has really surprised us with how great she is with her. I was catching up both of their baby books last night. Maegan was looking at hers and was convinced the baby was Makayla! She didn't believe it was here. We told her that was when you were in Guatemala with _______.(her fostermom) and that is when Mommy and Daddy got on the airplane to bring you home. When she sees an airplane she'll say, we rode an airplane to California to pick Makayla up! She remembers so many details of that trip! Even though she was sick and not feeling well. I'm so glad we were able to take her.

She's starting early!

Here is Miss Maegan blow drying her hair after her bath. It goes more smoothly if I let her do it herself for a bit! She insists on having her fingernails and toenails painted at times! I introduced her to the little stickers you can put on your nails and she thinks that is just the best thing ever! It seems like overnight she has started talking so much more maturely! She is still an awesome big sister! She loves to hold Makayla, sing to her and squeeze her cheeks! It's so funny when she does that. She gets a big handful and pulls. We all yelled at the same time for her to let go, but Makayla busted out laughing! My favorite saying Maegan says about Makayla is,"Poor Makayla, she don't have any teeth to eat and has to drink a bottle! Bless her heart!"She says it with such a sad face and pouty lips! I never realized how much of my kiddos lives I was missing when I was working! I was only seeing Maegan an hour in the morning and about about 4 or so hours in the evening. That is craziness! I am so thankful I have been given this opportunity! I haven't yet decided when I will start to look for a job......i feel when the time is right I will know!

Sorry for being MIA!

Poor Makayla!! We don't know what happened! She was laughing then started screaming! She probably was tired of Wayland's bratty attitude too!

She went from chillin in her bumbo to snoozing in her bumbo!

Makayla is gonna be our paci baby! Maegan never took one!

On one of our warm days, Maegan took her car outside for a test drive. Her legs are a bit short still.