Brodi's first zoo trip.

We have really missed going to the zoo this summer and can't wait for it to cool off again so that we can start going to the zoo more. The other day I was loading Sam in the car to go pick up a babysitter and for some reason Sam got it into his mind we were going to the zoo. Mind you it was like 6:30 PM. He kept chanting "Zoo, Zoo, Zoo." the whole way to our babysitter's house. I kept trying to explain to him that we weren't going to the zoo but he was not convinced. When his babysitter got in the car and we started heading home and he realized what was really happening he gave this look as if I had totally betrayed him the the whole way home. I knew then that even though it was still warm we needed to get to the zoo. Last Friday we got to take Brodi for her first zoo trip.


We took Brodi's new wagon with us. The awesome thing about taking the wagon to the zoo is that when you get home you can spray it down with the hose to clean up all the smashed popcorn, crackers, lemonade, etc. The bad thing is there is no cup holder for Mommy.During one of our last zoo trips last spring I found out that if you get a kid's souvenir cup, they refill it for free. I wish I would have known that the rest of the year. So Brodi got one on her first visit. Now no one has to share their drink. This is especially important for Mommy.

The first of many zoo trips Brodi. Yeah!!

Brodi's birthday

Brodi turned 1 last Thursday. We had a fun family party with her grandparents, aunt, my family and BJ's family. For the simple party that we were going for it was pretty big. There were 15 adults and 10 kids and 3 babies. It was great to get all of Brodi's family together. We love open adoptions because our family just grows bigger and bigger. I mean how many kids can boast that they have 3 sets of grandparents in the same ward? Brodi and Sam can. We love you Monterey Ward!!!We gave Brodi a new wagon for her birthday. Here is Sadie, Brodi and Sam trying it out.

Here is Brodi with her 1 year old twin cousins. It's not an easy feat taking a picture with 3 one year olds in a wagon. This was our best attempt.

Here is Brodi's smash cake. It didn't look too different after she was done with it.
Brodi was not impressed by the tradition of smashing cake. She didn't like the sticky frosting on her hands and thus didn't want anything to do with the cake. After she started crying we decided to end the fun.

Ava her cousin was happy to finish up.

Cute Brodi, so happy to be running around with her dress finally off.

Bakerman

One of Sam's favorite things to do right now is to watch me cook. Believe or not one of his favorite things to watch me cook is cake and one of his favorite things to do while watching me make cake is to lick the beaters. You would have never guessed that looking at these pictures.

Pretend that the kitchen is clean.

Balloon Fight.

I'm sure like all little kids Sam loves balloons. He made a fabulous discovery the other day. I had a balloon pump and a bunch of old twisting balloons in a box. About the only thing I can remember how to make with twisting balloons is swords ( a pretty no brainer) so I pumped them all up and we had a glorious balloon fight. Balloons create static and since I no doubt have the longest hair in the house right now my hair started to stick up. I guess that means I lost

Sammy and Brodi

A lot of people have been asking how Sam is doing with Brodi. It kind of depends on the day. The first day she came over he was super possessive over everything in the house and wouldn't let her touch anything. However, Brodi took a nap at BJ's brother's house so I could take Sam to his physical therapy group and he was very concerned that we had left her. He would also just randomly go up to her and give her a hug. We know that he likes her, he is just not sure what to do with her quite yet. He knows enough that there is something different about Brodi than other little kids that come and play.

The next day she came over Sam decided to change tactics and decided to just compete for my attention. He was hilarious because he was in ultra showing off mode all day. For instance Sam will usually only let me sing to him when he goes to bed, I actually get hushed by him if I even try (I haven't decided if I should be offended or not). I sang a little song to Brodi and she started to dance. I said "Brodi are you dancing?" Sam piped up and said "Mommy sing dance." I started to sing and Sam started to bust out moves we have never seen before (like his parents he's not much of a dancer). Since then as they are getting more used to each other sometimes he really likes having her around and sometimes he becomes really possessive. You know, like any other sibling. It is really cute to see him get to know her better. When ever she comes over he will get really excited and race to the door yelling "Brodi, Brodi, Brodi."

We are so excited to see our family grow. We found out that she should be coming to live with up permanently around the first of November. We are really excited because it is a couple of months earlier than any of us had anticipated.

I have yet to get a picture of them, together, both looking at the camera.

Sharing lunch.

Sam and Brodi playing basket ball.

Mommy and Brodi

Daddy and Brodi.

Shower fun

The other day, Sam was in the bathroom while BJ and I were getting ready. He watched as BJ shaved so Sam wanted to shave. We let him put the electric razor to his face to feel it vibrate. After shaving Sam decided that he needed to do what Daddy does next, he needed to get in the shower. He started pulling his clothes off so BJ and I just decided to go with it and let him stand in the shower if he wanted. He didn't want to just stand in the shower he wanted the shower turned on. We turned the water on to a good trickle and Sam had a blast. Wow, a self contained mess that actually gets him clean, it's wonderful.

After he was done with the shower, the fun didn't end. I got his towel and tried to get him out of the shower, but he would have none of that. He took the towel and wanted me to close the door (see Daddy dries off in the shower). After he got sufficiently dry he started to reach up for the squeegee. He then squeegeed (or did his very best at least) the shower and then was ready to get out. We have such a smart little boy on our hands it's scary. It's amazing to us how much stuff he soaks up by just watching us. I have to put in a little plug for Montessori education. They really emphasize the process of how to do things. We have been amazed out how much Sam is able to figure out lately.

Where would you sleep?

Sam has 2 choices when he goes to bed at night. "Do you want to sleep in your bed, or your tent?" I bet you will never guess what his choice usually is....the tent. However, sometimes it switches and we will put him to bed in the tent and go and check on him and he will be in his bed, or vice versa.

We went shopping for a family the other night. Sam had never had so much fun shopping in his life. The only way that we could get him out of the stores was to tell him we were going to find more tents.

When we bought the tent, we set it up in our living room. Good thing Sam had on a pull up because he probably did pee his pants. No kidding for 10 minutes while BJ and I were setting it up he chanted, "A tent, a tent, a tent, a tent, a tent...."

I think we have a natural born camper, now if his parent would just taking him camping!
Sam's Tent. We do have the mattress from his old crib in there, so he is actually sleeping on a bed.

Sam's boring bed.

The Newest Watkins

We have had the greatest news this week. We were given the opportunity on Thursday night to adopt a beautiful 11 month old girl. All adoption stories are amazing and Brodi’s story is no exception, in fact it has been a year in the making.

About a year ago BJ’s mom Karen, who we lovingly call our baby broker (almost every opportunity that we have had to adopt a child comes through her), found out about a girl in her ward who was considering placing her child for adoption. We passed on a copy of our birthparent letter and hoped and prayed that Heavenly Father would help guide this birthmom to know what would be the best place for her unborn child. Brodi was born on Sept 24th, her birthmom chose to keep her rather than place her for adoption. We of course were heart broken. Adoption can be very hard; it’s definitely not the easy way to have a baby come into your family. With every opportunity people tell you not to get your hopes up, but come on, that is an impossible thing to do. When it doesn’t happen it is heart breaking to know that a child that could potentially be your child is not going to be. We call these our adoption miscarriages. We allow ourselves a few days to mope around the house eat ice cream and chocolate and then pick ourselves up and move on. The past year we have had several adoption miscarriages. However, there was a difference with Brodi. We couldn't seem to get this little girl out of our heads. We thought about her, worried about her, prayed and fasted for her, and quite frankly in doing all this fell in love with her.

Last May BJ’s mom let us know that Brodi had been living with her grandparents for the past month and there was a possibility that she would be placed for adoption and wanted to know if we would still be interested in adopting her. Brodi?! Are you kidding, of course we would be interested in adopting her. The first Sunday of May, we had a special family fast for her and her family as they faced some very difficult decisions.

Last Saturday night we got a call from BJ’s mom. Brodi’s grandma had just called her and told her that Brodi’s birthmom had made the incredibly difficult, painful and most unselfish decision possible and signed the adoption papers. The grandparents asked if they could meet with us the next day. We were absolutely stunned. This was such a miracle. We knew after all our prayers and fasting that Brodi might finally be able to come and be in our family. There were a couple of other families that they were thinking about as well, so we were once again told not to get our hopes up.

Last Sunday we finally got to meet her. She is so beautiful. In talking to her grandparents they told us that ever since they had first seen our birthparent letter a year ago they felt a connection to us. We told them that we felt the same way. There was still however some things that they needed to talk to their adoption lawyer about. We left their house feeling fairly confident that we would be able to adopt her but knew that we were going to be facing a few more days of agony because we were so close to finally bringing her home but there was no decision yet. Thursday night her grandparents came to our house and told us what we had been hoping to hear for a year. They wanted us to be Brodi’s parents! There are no words to express our happiness. We have learned so much about patience and faith and knowing that even though the answers to our prayers may not come the way we want, we have a loving Father in Heaven who is looking out for us and has his own time table. Brodi is truly a miracle.

Since Brodi is older and her adoption is a bit more complicated it will be a few months until she is able to live with us permanently. This is ok (although heart wrenching) because she is now attached to her birth family and we all want to make her transition into our family smoothly. It would be hard for her (and Sam too for that matter) to suddenly be removed from her home and come and live with people she barely knows. So if you don’t see her with us, we really aren’t making this up. We promise we will have several pictures nearby that we will be more than happy to show off to you if you like it or not.

We are so THRILLED that we will finally be able to bring our Brodi home!!!

Our first family picture with Brodi.

Beautiful Brodi.

A snap shot Brodi's grandma gave us after Auntie Meggie did her magic to it.

Watch out Brodi, we can't wait to just pinch those cute cheeks!!

Sam's First Day of School

Today was Sam's first day of preschool. We have been talking about it forever so it didn't really hit me until today. I think like all mom's I cried all the way home from dropping him off. His teacher said he did really good, although he wanted to eat his lunch about 9:00. Somehow he knew that I had put peaches in there and talked about them all the way until it was time to eat lunch.

Here he is ready to go.

This would be Sam's lunch bag, not his back pack, just to bring things to scale.

Ready or not, here we go.....

Sam is picking out some sandpaper letters with Ms. Janelle.

Ms. Janelle is showing Sam how to wet his sponge.

(Ok. I have to make one small comment on how I posted something the actual day that it happened. Yeah me, maybe there is something to this having a child go to school.)

Yellowstone

This year we went to Utah for a couple of weeks. BJ had a business trip a week before a family reunion (amazing how it happened that way since he was the one who scheduled the meeting). Sam and I decided that we wanted to get out of the heat a week earlier so we traveled to Utah with BJ and hung out that week while BJ worked. The next week we met BJ's family for a family reunion to Yellowstone. It was so great to be with family and had such a great time. Living in the desert we forget how green some places in the US are.

Sam was such a trooper through out the whole trip. Yellowstone is kind of hard for a little guy where everything is so spread apart. There were a lot of naps in the car that week. Here are BJ and Sam after a long car ride.

Here are BJ and Sam at Lake Yellowstone.

Here is Sam killing time waiting for Old Faithful to do it's thing.

Here we are in our yellow shirts for "Yellow"stone. BJ absolutely insisted that the entire family wear matching shirts. He just wouldn't take no for an answer, so here we are in our yellow shirts. (Just kidding, but he was a very good sport about matching with everyone.)

We saw so many bison in the park. These were probably only about a 100 feet from the road.

Would a trip to Yellowstone be the same without posing with a gigantic stuffed teddy bear?

Sam will not pose for pictures right now. Here he is absolutely enthralled by the zipper on my jacket. No time for pictures.

A rare smile caught on film at the Grizzly and Wolf Encounter.

Sam got to go to the Airplane museum with his cousins. He also developed a love for puzzles on this trip. He can put together a 25 piece puzzle almost by himself. Here he is posing with a numbers puzzle.

BJ and Sam at the Bear and Wolf Encounter.

Sam at the Airplane museum. Again not much for posing in front of the camera, even with such a fantastic photo opportunity.

Sam digging for bones at the Dinosaur museum.

I love this picture of Sam walking innocently by as a big dinosaur shadow looms overhead.

Sam at the Imax theater. Sometimes it's hard being small,but he insisted on sitting in his own chair.

I am a child of God.

The cutest thing happened when we put Sam to bed last night. Since Sam was a newborn we have had the same bedtime routine. We read him a scripture story, say prayers and then sing "I am a child of God". Tonight we asked if he wanted to sing with us. He sang all 3 verses of the song with us even getting a few of the words right. I showed him some sing language for the chorus and he did that as well. He was so darn proud of himself at the end of the song. If only we could have caught it on camera, but then again it has been impossible to take pictures of him lately because as soon as I pull out the camera, he wants to look at the pictures that are already on it and won't stay posed. It has occurred to me more and more that Sam is really paying attention to what we do. That is pretty scary.

Talking

We are so proud of Sam in the last month Sam has started using so many new words. He will use at least one new word a day it seems. We have been keeping a list on the fridge of the words he is using and in one month has doubled what he was using before. He is also using mostly 2 word phrases, his SLP mom is so proud.

BJ and I have enrolled Sam into preschool for the fall. So crazy. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. We really researched it a lot. I never thought I would be the type of person that would care about her preschooler education, but I have to admit I toured 4 different preschools before we decided on one. With Sam's learning style (how he will totally focus on learning his ABC or numbers until he has mastered them etc) that we decided that he would really fit into a Montessori preschool. While touring the schools Sam would walk into the classrooms in utter amazement at how they have letters on the wall that you can trace with your finger. This kid loves the alphabet and numbers so much. He would actually cry when it was time for him to go, that's a good sign right. He is going to go to school for 3 mornings a week. With strict Montessori they are suppose to attend 5 days a week, but we just don't think we are ready to send him off to school for that long. He will only be 2 1/2. He is enrolled at Montessori Children's Garden (http://www.montessorichildrensgarden.blogspot.com/). It is run out of the owners basement. We thought that would be more of an intimate group. He starts on Aug 12. So crazy, my baby's going to school!!

Samisms

These are just some cute pictures of some of the quirky things Sam does. He is just so darn cute!!!

Sam is getting really good at going to the potty. The funny thing is that before he would always find a corner or go behind a curtain or something while he would go poop. Thank goodness for the shower curtain so he can go poopie on the potty in peace. We all need a little privacy. (I am pretty sure that his shirt is covering his vital parts there, if not I apologize.)

Sam often times does not like to be changed from either his jammies to his clothes or his clothes to his jammies. This is a picture of him rebelling. He put his pants back on but put both feet in the same hole and can't figure out why he can't move. He is just so cute.

Now this is what tells me we need a sibling for Sam. I kept finding his blocks in his chair with the buckles done up when I went to put him in his chair. I finally witnessed one day how they kept showing up. Sam puts them in his seat and does all the buckles. Such a nurturing boy he is just taking care of his blocks.

For Labor Day weekend we went to visit BJ's hometown, Morgan Hill CA. We also got to see some of the surrounding area such as San Fransisco and Monterrey.

This is a picture right before a big wave came out of now where, scrambling out of the say BJ and I bonked heads really hard and Sam got soaked anyways, but here we are happy in our ignorance.

BJ and Sam at a beach in Monterrey

Fisherman's Wharf at Monterrey

Monterrey.

On one of our first dates I remember BJ telling me how he grew up at the mushroom capital of the world and every year they would have a Mushroom Marti Gra. It just happened to be the same weekend we were there so I made BJ go. I later found out that there family never actually went and this was one of the first times that BJ went other than picking up trash afterwards as a scout. There are surprisingly few mushrooms at the festival. The only mushrooms that we could find were some fried mushrooms at a booth.

Sam and Shannon with the sundae we all shared at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory.

BJ and Sam while we were waiting for our sundae to arrive.

As you may have guessed from the pictures. This is the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. well actually not the white and blue building, the brick building a little bit further up the hill.

Here we are at the Aquarium on the Bay in San Fransisco looking at the jellyfish. Sam was more interested in the signs to the exhibits because they had things you could move. He got a little freaked out by fish that were bigger than he is. I think our beta fish is more to his liking.

Nothing like shrimp chowder in a bread bowl at Fisherman's Wharf.

BJ at Fisherman's Wharf in San Fransisco.

On this trip we got to clean up throw up from the car two times. Yuck! BJ was on a business trip in San Jose earlier that week and then Sam and I few out there to meet him for the weekend. When he got to CA he got to choose an upgraded rental car so he chose a really cool yellow jeep. We found out the hard way that these were not meant to be family cars. We think Sam just got moved around in the back seat because he kept on getting car sick. Our mini van may not be cool but it is a much smoother ride.