12 Years Together

As of today, Jake and I have been together for 12 years. It seems like forever, so many changes have happened in our journey together. 12 years ago we were Juniors in High School. We were both working at Rosehill IGA when we re-met. We actually knew each other when we were little through a mutual friend, but it had been years since we had seen each other. Here is a list of things we have seen in our journey:

-Jake became saved

-High School Homecomings, Proms, and Winter Formals

-High School Graduation

-My first place

-Jake became certified as an EMT and moved to Iola to join the Fire Department

-Our Engagement

-We got married and I joined Jake in Iola

-We began foster care. We were devastated to have to let two of the children in particular go named Choncie and Octavia.

-We moved back to Wichita and Jake took a job with the American Red Cross

-We adopted Jamie and Linda

-I got a job at Cessna

-My college graduation for my Bachelor's

-The death of my Aunt Jill who was very close to both of us

-Our first purchased home

-The death of our son Mason

-Jake left the Red Cross for a job at a research facility

-The birth of Noah and Mina

Wow, that is a lot of milestones together and that list does not cover everything. I am excited to see where our journey will take us next and I look forward to many more years together.

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9 months and counting...(warning, adult content)

We went this week for the babies 9 month well baby check-up. It went well with just a few minor things. Mina is still not babbling or imitating people. She is however, my best crawler, and the best with major motor skills. The doctor is not concerned yet as she was a preemie and therefore may do some things a little behind. With her being right on track with everything else, plus alert, happy, and cooing, he is not too concerned. She weighed 19.7 lbs. and is 27 and 3/4 inches long.

Noah's check went very well with him doing great on all milestones. He is crawling, so not as speedy as Mina. The only concern was for his poor little winky. He was circumcised at around 3 months. They could not not do it immediately after birth because of weight issues. They needed him to gain weight before because the procedure can make them lose their appetite. I had been noticing that it seemed like some of the foreskin had reattached itself. Jake told me I just worry too much. It turns out I was right. The doctor had to fix it, so he basically just pulled down on the foreskin until it ripped away from the head and gave it back that nice little ring. Ouch! Noah only cried for a few seconds, but it looks just awful now. It has a red, raw, ring all around the head. Poor little guy. Now we just have to make sure we pull it way down, and slather it with Vaseline every time we change him until it heals. Noah weighed in at 20.12 lbs and was 27 and 3/4 inches. What a chunky monkey!

In other news, the kids are doing ok in school. James is doing great, but it is becoming painfully obvious that Linda is way behind the other kids. We are having a meeting next week to discuss a Special Education program for her. The kids both want to join scouts and we are discussing that.

Jake has been very busy at work and it only looks to get busier. Thank goodness for job security. He spends the weekend with his family just trying to relax whether its video games with Mike, or movies with his cousins. Oh, and speaking of family, a special thank you to Aunt Dianne for the boxes of stuff for the kiddos all the way from Hawaii. Thank you Aunt Dianne!

Life Changes

Well the countdown to the wedding is in full swing. Time is running short. I am trying to plan a bachelorette party from an entire state away. The music for the wedding should arrive and then I need to practice, practice, practice.

The babies are now everywhere. They surely keep us on our toes. Jamie and Linda are back in school. Jamie is doing great, Linda is struggling again. Even though we have held her back once so she should be in third grade, I would say her abilities seem to be late kindergarten/early first grade level. We are meeting with the school to discuss putting her into special education.

I am so close to finishing my thesis. Than this 40 page nightmare can finally be behind me. All I have left to do is write about the statute from which the Federal Regulation came from, what it is suppoed to do, who has regulatory authority to enforce it, and its Congressional history. After this I have a break before my final class. I should be done and degree in hand by February .

We have been talking about moving for several years now. My job, my school, and my church home has been a big part of what is holding us back. Well come February, two of those things will be gone. Jake and I are really praying about it now. There are a couple of things that would have to fall into place, but it is looking like it might be a possibility. One of the things I want to do is teach at a University level and that would allow Jake to go to school for free. Just something we are praying about. I will keep you posted.

Busy, Busy

Sorry for the delay in blogging, my life is way more busy now that both babies are crawling. Yes, crawling and there is no toy better than the things in this house that they shouldn't get into. Codrs, papers, threads, ect. To make it harder, there are two of them, and they often go in different directions. Yikes!

Jamie and Linda started school this week. Poor kids, it has rained everyday. They do like to go play in the rain and the puddles afterwards. They have so much fun and it is hilarious to watch.

The other day Jake was laying on his back on the floor and Noah was sitting on his belly. Jake started laughing which made his belly shake, which made Noah crack up, which made Jake laugh harder, and on and on, it was adorable. Here are some pictures from the past week, I hope you enjoy.

Sleeping Beauties

Until you have babies, you never realize how much people take sleep for granted. Now my babies are usually very good sleepers, sleeping 11-12 hours a night, but recently there have been changes to the Shaw house sleep patterns.

To begin with, I sprained my ribs. I thought they were broken, but no, just sprained. I didn't even know you could do that. So I have been sleeping on the couch so that I don't wake anybody up when I roll over and suck my breath in from the pain. I think Noah notices something is up because he has been waking up and getting fussy the past few nights. I tried to bring him on the couch, but as Jake found out, I sleep, and he doesn't.

Mina on the other hand has been a champ sleeper, except for she seems to find the most akward and uncomfortable positions to sleep in.Linda almost never sleeps and Jamie sleeps so deep nothing, and I mean nothing can wake him when he has hit that deep sleep. So some days we all get our beauty sleep, and some days we all walk around with bags under our eyes. It is a good thing the make caffeinated under eye rollers that mask the puffiness.

An Update Buffet

Wow, I have really slacked off here. I have been so busy lately. I am almost done with my thesis paper, just 10 more pages to go and then this 40 page nightmare is behind me. In the meantime though, one of my make-up classes has started so I am doing the work of two classes right now. On the bonus side though, one of my teachers is a judge and very interesting to talk to. On the down side, I am gone one night a week. I am so lucky to have a husband who does not mind taking care of four kids by himself. I am also lucky to have such wonderful friends willing to help out. The kiddos all went to my pastor's house (thank you so much Melissa) and his lovely wife watched them for me while I went to the church to work on my paper. She also offered to do it again next week, she is so great. We are so lucky to have so many people who love the babies.

Speaking of people who love the babies, Kimmie and Becky came over this weekend and I got to hang out with my girls. Through the wonder of technology, even Dianne got to chill with us via speaker phone. She has the friends and family plan so she can call me and talk as long as she wants for free. and we do, for hours almost every day, just ask Jake. Anyways, Kimmie and Becky loved on the babies and talked with me and Jake until well after midnight. It was a blast. We are going to try and do a movie marathon this weekend.

Tomorrow Kimmie is watching the babies while I go the Rhuematologist. I have recently been diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder which explains a lot. Tomorrow I go to find out what we will be doing for treatment. I am nervous because this is a disorder that causes lots of inflamation of the spine as well as other things. I hope they can treat it well.

The countdown is on for my sister's wedding. I am singing Martina McBride's Valentine in it so I have been practicing that every chance that I get. It will be a whirlwind weekend. My parents only live about 30 miles from Fort Leonardwood so we will get to hang with Jake's brother Jeremiah as well. We called dibs on my parent's new fifth wheel so it will be like having an apartment to ourselves. It promises to be a lot of fun, although it would be better if Dianne and Zach could be there.

James and Linda are getting excited for school to start. We are doing their school shopping this weekend so look out wallet. The neighbor next door's grand-daughter moved in so Linda now has a friend her own age right next door. They have been playing together a lot so it is good for her. Whew, I am pooped from all of this typing. More next time.

A Literal Meltdown

Yesterday evening Mina through her first real temper tantrum. It all started when I gave her a small bite of my popsicle. She loved it and begged for more! She liked it so much that Jake decided to cut just a small hole in one and let her gum on it. She was so thrilled with this, until it started melting. We decided she shouldn't eat more than a few bites of it because of the sugar and we took it away after awhile. She started crying and reaching for it and when that didn't work she threw herself down on the floor and began to cry and smack her hand on the floor. Oh boy....here we go.

Hey, that's my ducky!

The babies are sittting up so well that we decided to try bathing them in the regular tub instead of their infant tub. It is much easier to bathe them both at once. They had a blast splashing each other, stealing each others rubber ducky, and laughing at dad. I posted this pic on facebook, and it was such a hit that I decided to post it here as well. Hey, that's my ducky!

Almost that time again...

I went and enrolled James and Linda in the second grade this week. I am more optimistic about this year. Linda's teacher was hand-picked for her by the principal. I hear she is great and can do wonders with kids. I hope so, I am so tired of spending August through May fighting with Linda over school work. Jamie wanted the teacher that Linda got so he is bummed. To add insult to injury, his best friend got put in Linda's class as well. Poor kid.

They are growing so fast. They both want to walk to school, but I don't think they are old enough yet. They also are ready to begin another year of sports so things get really busy for us now. I will post pics of the first day of school when it happens, but for now, here is a flashback of the first day of kindergarten.