Welcome to our family, Sam!

Please forgive the long delay in any news about our little family! To say I have been distracted over the last two months is a total understatement! Last Monday, November 16, our little Samuel Wesley Garner was born. Cori went into labor around 4pm shortly after her weekly doctor appointment. We went to the Hospital around 8pm and she was dilated to a 7 and stayed that way for about 2 hours. Then, suddenly, (without going into the gorey details) within what seemed about a minute, he was here! I couldn't believe it. This little miracle that we have been waiting for for so many months was finally here! Cori and I and even Wes were in tears as they cleaned him up and weighed him (5lbs 12oz) and measured him (18" long). Finally the nurse wrapped him up and put on his little stocking cap and asked to whom she should hand him. It was no question- Cori, of course!! We knew that we would have eternity with him and this was her time to hold him and whisper to him and let him know how much she loved him. We still had a chance to hold him before they were both moved up to the mommy/baby floor, though, and I was so overwhelmed by how tiny he was! Little perfect fingers and toes and, would you believe it? BLONDE hair and tons of it!!! Here are some pics of that moment...

Could the lighting have been better in the room? He looks like an ANGEL! (and he is!)

He was so peaceful when Cori was holding him. He knew who she was right away.


A little silliness before the delivery (And yes, it's a Twilight shirt- I tried to get Edward to be Cori's focus point!!)

The next day I was able to spend a whole six hours with Cori and little Sam while Cori recovered. His hair was just incredible! His little face is so perfect- Cori and I just couldn't kiss it enough!

Cori was able to spend all day Wednesday with little Sam. It was a weird day for me. I missed him so much but I was so grateful that Cori had that time. My sisters truly saved the day! Billye brought a home-made ice cream cake and Cristi brough McDonald's and her little baby, Alex, who is three weeks old so I could have a baby to hold! My family was also available to babysit at a moment's notice whenever I needed them. So here is a shout-out...THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

The next day, Thursday, was placement. With Kolton our placement was a little rushed and a bit hard on us all. It was still full of love and hugs and good tears, but I felt like the time Cori could have spent with Kolton was robbed from her. I was so worried about Cori and cried the whole way home. I didn't know what to expect this time so I just braced myself and made sure that many tissues were present. I was so pleasently surprised that I left the placement feeling so spiritually uplifted and HAPPY for Cori. She has a wonderful life ahead of her and much to look forward to. It goes without saying what a miracle she is to us. I know without a doubt that we were friends in the pre-existence. She means so much to me that I really can't write about it without blubbering, so I will leave it at that. I won't go into detail about the placement much but I will say that, while I did cry copiously, I felt so at peace and I know that peace came from Heavenly Father and was projected through Cori. She was so calm and it gave me strength. I hope that doesn't sound too cheesey, but I know she reads this and I want her to know that. So, here are some placement pictures...

Cori and I- what a pair!! I miss you!

These are actually pictures taken at the Hospital after he was born, but blogger won't let me put them where they belong....sheesh...

This was his very first bottle- he was starving!

This cap was for Cori to take home. It was kind of huge on him!

His poor little sliced feet!! Can you believe how tiny?

Can I say more? You bet I can! But, I am tired and have many more pictures to load and send to people. Thanks so much to everyone who has brought by little gifts and treats and dinners! We live in such a wonderful neighborhood and ward. I have been so overwhelmed with all it takes to care for two little guys but I wouldn't change it for the world. I just need to stop staring at them both and crying or Kolton will think his mommy is nuts! To end, here are two precious pictures. The first is of Kolton holding his little bro for the first time and the second is my favorite picture of him so far!!

What a sweet big brother! He is all ready throwing away diapers and giving Sam kisses. I can't believe how much this all has increased my love for Kolton. Love you, buddy!
Isn't this incredible?! What a face! My sister Billye took this and I couldn't believe what a photogenic little guy he is!!

Lot's of CORNY fun!!

How much more can I POSSIBLY love corn mazes??? Cori and her daughter, Tieran and I went out for a 'girl's night' during Priesthood session on Saturday. I thought that it 'might' be haunted but was not sure until the CHAINSAW man chased us all over the place and made each and every one of us PEE OUR PANTS. (if you think I am exagerating...think again...) After that, Tieran made it a point to say 'we're pregnant- don't scare us please!' I so needed some girl time and it totally fit the bill. I LOVE these ladies in my life! We have such a fun time chatting at home and I am so glad we had the chance to 'kick it' by ourselves that night. Follow it up with some Stewart's Key Lime soda and the night couldn't have been more delightful!

The moon was full and HAZY! It was completely gorgeous!

How could I pass up a 'put your head in the hole' picture opportunity?




Here's me and my peeps! (oh, and the corn, too)

And here is another picture from the parade... Wes and I paying homage to the lady who made us parents. We love you, Cori!!

It's parade time!

We got to be in the USU Homecoming parade this last Saturday on the adoption float. It was so much fun to see how much the community supports adoption! The best part was having Cori and Tieran there. My adoption story STARTS with Cori, so I loved introducing her to our 'adoption' friends and showing the community what an awesome birthmom she is!
Here's (L-R) Cori, Tieran, Kolton, Me, Wes on the "Adoption, It's about Love" Float.

What a hot lookin' group!

It was a perfect fall day- which brings me to another topic- is ANYONE more excited for fall than me?? I LOVE it! The colors, the smells, and the temperature! I want to be outside all the time, and yet here I am, in my house while Kolton watches Super Why....It is so time to get these buns shakin' (not jiggling, but shakin'). Here's wishing you happy carving and candy corn dreams!

many many things...

Howdy y'all!! Man! It has been such a crazy summer so far!! Blame it on the heat, Deadliest Catch, Farm Town, or baby mama drama :P but I have had very little time and desire to blog!! So, here are a few highlights from our summer:

To begin with....IT'S A BOY!!!!! Here are the ultra-sound pictures (should they be censored?)

Here is his little foot...How awesome is that?!

We FINALLY got the nursery finished how I've always wanted it!

I got to bake zucchini bread with my nieces
And Kolton got his first-ever corndog...he LOVED it!!

And Kolton started Nursery!! Can you believe it?

It has been an amazing summer so far! We couldn't be more blessed!!!

BAKING SODA ADVENTURES!!!

Starring: Our New Puppy, Opilio (Opie)

Kolton

A pair of too-big pants on Kolton

Me,

And BAKING SODA...

So, we got new neighbors. They, too have adopted a completely ADORABLE boy (this makes the 6th adoptive family in the neighborhood) and I thought to myself "i should be neighborly and make them some zucchini bread". I began the process and soon realized that I was short one ingredient (enter baking soda). Having already gone into town today, I didn't feel like going to the store, so I went with the stand-by of calling on my neighbors for help. I called JaeLynne--answering machine. I called my neighbor Angie--answering machine. So finally I called my mother to see if she could drop some off on her way into town--answering machine. *sigh* Then, on a sudden inspiration I called my newly married brother-in-law, Randy, who lives two doors down from us. I didn't think about it before because until he got married you couldn't find more than an old shriveled potato there. He was home!! (cue happy music) and he HAD BAKING SODA! So, I decided to multi-task and walk over there with Kolton (enter too-big pants) and Opie, who needed to go out anyway. Without going into long and heinous detail, let me just say that Kolton's pants fell down about 12 times and Opie wrapped himself around either me or Kolton about 5 times on the way there (oh yeah, and Opie pooped twice on the way there, too) We finally arrived, and there was Randy, baking soda in hand. And there was me, a wedding gift for Randy from my mother (I forgot to give it to him two months ago) and Kolton in one hand, and a small cup and Opie in the other. I traded the gift for the baking soda and before I even left, dumped half of it out as I was trying to keep Kolton from jumping off the porch. Then, Kolton disappeared around the side of Randy's house and was attempting to unhook his A/C cable when I caught him. In the meantime, Opie blew some chunks on Randy's driveway and I tried to get him on the grass and simultaneously dumped the rest of the baking soda onto my poor dog. As I went back to Randy's front door and knocked to get a paper towell and MORE baking soda, he got in his truck, ran OVER the puke, and drove away without seeing me! Then my sweet neighbor, Angie, saw me standing dejected on Randy's lawn and yelled out, "do you still need baking soda??" so we went over there and she saved the day by puting the baking soda in a BAGGIE! Why didn't I think of that? While she and her adorable kids were playing with Opie, Kolton AGAIN disappeared! I found him moments later in Angie's pantry, having climbed up on a box and a 12 pack of Mountain Dew and reaching with all his might for a box of crackers. All I'm sayin' is that this had better be some &*%@#* awesome zucchini bread!!
(End Scene)

Where's an ark when you need one?

Hey, everyone! Long time no blog! Our computer has been 'dangerously low' on disc space on the hard drive which has made it impossible to load photos or for our security to automatically update. Meaning, I couldn't even log in to post anything! *sigh* however, I am finally back on track and have a lot of catching up to do. I am going to start with earlier this month when a really cool thunder storm turned into what Wes and I now call, "THE FLOOD OF '09" I noticed that the roads outside were starting to flood while Kolton and I were on the porch watching the lightning. Wes came home from mutual and started checking our window wells to make sure that we weren't flooding, too. He ran upstairs and said that one of our windows downstairs was flooded half way and leaking down the wall!! I don't know if many of you remember, but we JUST finished our basement in December, so this was pretty serious business! Fortunately, our good neighbor, Dave, brought a pump over and between that and Wes and I hauling buckets of water out of the well, we were able to prevent too much damage. We just had about 5 feet of carpet get soaked. Our neighbors weren't nearly as lucky. Their basement windows shattered from the pressure of the water flooding into them and before long their basement had about a foot or more of muddy water in it! We were able to get enough people over there to help channel the water to a small valley in between our two yards. The same thing happened to Wes's brother, Randy's house, too. In the process, our good neighbor, Dave (the one who helped us earlier) had his foot slashed open by the shattering window in his basement and is now in a post-surgical boot. I just want to say thanks to all of the family and neighbors who helped us with our small ammount of damage and who came through for the rest of the street. It really warmed my heart to see so many people, soaked up to their armpits, scooping up buckets of water and using everything from push brooms to snow shovels to channel the water safely away from the homes. I managed to get a few pictures, even though it was very dark, so here they are!

This is the river between our two yards---anyone have a tube?

If you look close, you can see the wave he is making with the shovel!

This is a small fraction of the help that was there! Five men per window well!

These are my neighbor, Angie's, many books drying in my living room! I think we were able to save most of them, but there were a few sad casualties...

All in all you could say it was an adventure and something our neighborhood will talk about for years!!

My Sister, the Photo Editing GENIUS!!

My little sis, Britney, just got married last September and in December they found out that her new hubbie had testicular cancer. He is doing really well right now, but they are up to their eyeballs in medical bills! As a way to raise money to help out, she has started editing photos for a VERY small fee! She will even put them on CD and send them to you and you get all the rights to them! I cannot believe how talented she is. So, for her website, www.angeliceyes.webs.com
she wanted to do some pictures of Kolton so that is what we did all morning today. Here are some samples of her amazing work! (she took the pictures and edited them, but you can send her your own pictures and she can edit those, she doesn't have to be the photographer)
I cannot stare at these pictures enough. This little guy is my world! Not to mention the fact that he is incredibly handsome! (I can say that because he doesn't get it from either of us!)
Beautiful work, Sis!!

Trip to the Zoo

This post is a little late in coming because there has been so much else going on! During Conference weekend we decided to take Kolton to our local "Zoo" for lack of a better word. It is really just a small collection of animals that probably spans about 2 acres, but it doesn't matter because Kole just LOVES any animal! Anything that moves, crawls, bobs, meows, etc. and he just goes nuts. He laughed so hard at everything he saw and he desperately wanted to go catch the ducks (sorry, kiddo- against the rules!) I have been there so many times and it was like going there for the first time because he was just so enthralled with everything! We brought along some sandwiches and treats and Kolton got to have his first ever swing ride! At first he hated it, but then realized it was safe with daddy pushing and he eventually liked it and then cried when it was time to get out! I love experiencing all of these 'firsts' with him- he just lights up every day experiences for me. He seems like he is going to be such an intuitive little guy (he already is!). Now that he is pointing at things he gets so excited when I get it right that he smooshes his face into the tightest grin ever. He is also signing more and more. Now he signs 'more' 'milk' 'food' and 'all done' with every meal. What a smarty! Anyway, the best part of this story is the pictures from the zoo- so here you go!

I love it when he points!




Not likin' the swing so much...


Ah Ha! Much better!
We sure do love him!

Some Awesome News!!

For those of you who haven't seen my latest widget (the floating baby) and guessed already- we are going to be adopting another baby! The baby is due December 9th and the birthmother asked us just last week. She is completely amazing (for so many reasons I can't count!) and we love her so much. I can't believe how blessed we are. Kolton has been a complete miracle in our lives and it still hasn't totally hit me that the Lord could bless me so much all over again! Speaking of Kolton, he just got an ear infection that spread to his little eye. He is all red and puffy and on some good antibiotics (he would drink the whole bottle of his medicine if he could!) so hopefully we are on the mend. However, he just keeps smiling and laughing and today he figured out how to stand up in his high chair. I was sitting at the table filling out some adoption paperwork and all of a sudden I hear "Ah HA!" and turn around and he has his hands in the air and is standing there in his high chair like he had climbed Everest! He is such a little ham. So, now Wes and I have a little less than 7 months to save up for this awesome little person so we are doing a minor 'fund raiser' (for lack of a better term). We have a blog for it. It is called Aprons For Adoption and we are hocking our cheesey wares. Everything from Wes's beautiful furniture (not our furniture that we have- that would be sad- I mean he can MAKE furniture for you!) to my fun aprons that I sew. So far we have had a pretty good response! Wes is making shutters for a couple of people, a bunk bed, a few gates, and a shelf! I am doing pretty good with my aprons and bags, too. In fact, I will be selling them at Health Days this year, so wish me luck! We knew the moment we found out that we were getting this child that the Lord would make it possible for us if we put in the work and used our talents, and it is really happening for us. I can't imagine feeling more blessed! Hope all is well out there in bloggerland!

Easter was so much fun! It was so fun to see Kolton actually getting into it this year. We started off by going to my old home town Easter egg hunt. I used to go there every year from the time I was 3 so, naturally, I wanted to take Kolton, too! He didn't like it so much because the ground was wet and he is still crawling to get around. Once he figured out that there was candy inside the eggs, though, he had a lot of fun puting them into the basket and pulling them out again to open them and eat the candy!

I love that there is a 1 year-old category! He is holding an egg here, but it is yellow so it is hard to see

Here we are waiting for the horn to honk (that is how they announce that it is time to start looking!)

After that hunt, we went to the grocery store where they had a fun Easter egg "hunt" where the kids just followed arrows around the store and got treats along the way. Kolton got a balloon, and that was by far the highlight of the day! We went with my sister, Cristi, and her kids. It was so much fun! I also got a picture of Kole with the Easter Bunny, but for some reason it didn't transfer with the rest of my pictures to the computer- I will try to add it later!
On Sunday after church we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Garners for dinner and another egg hunt! Grandma made it really cute by letting the kids make their own visor hats and bags. She had fun foam shapes to stick on them. Kolton wasn't into that part of it so much so we don't have a picture, since they all included him screaming. *sigh* but the eggs that she hid all over the yard (different colors for each grandchild) had seeds in them instead of candy so they could plant a garden this year. Then, when each child found all 10 eggs, they got some candy-filled eggs and a gift. Kolton got the CUTEST little shirt that has a cowboy body on it with the head cut off at the neck so Kolton looks like a little cowboy. I must get a picture to post. By the time we got to this hunt, Kolton was a total pro! I added a video so you can see just how amazing his egg-hunting skills are...

After the hunt, Grandpa got out their baby chickens (they are past the yellow fluffy stage, but they are still very cute) and, as usual, Kolton totally flipped over them! He LOVES animals of any variety and gets so excited to see them! He kept saying "oooooooh!" and pointing at them and just laughing as hard as he could! Here are some pics:





After that, we went to my sister's house for the annual egg hunt there. Each family (and there are 8 kids, 7 are married and 5 have kids- 18 grandkids total) must bring 10 eggs per child, but everyone always brings more than that. Cristi has a 1/2 acre back yard so there are many good hiding places. Kolton loved it, as usual, but his favorite part was when Grandpa Francis took him over to see one of the cats that hangs out at my sister's house. Kolton, of course, just about died and laughed so hard while he petted the cat. The cat just let Kolton pull his tail and grab his fur and loved every minute of the attention!

This Easter was the best I have ever had! I can't believe how much I love being a mom. It is better than I ever imagined! I am so thankful for what Easter represents, and for the many loved ones we were able to share it with!