Time Flies When You're Having Fun

We know every parent thinks this, but Emily has been reading a lot of child development books and we've come to the conclusion that Dean is the cutest baby ever and that he is also highly intelligent. Oh, and just to rub it in he's been sleeping for at least eight hours every night since he was seven weeks old. Here are a few (a lot of) pictures of our little man since our last blog about him.

He's been to a few choir concerts and is the best behaved baby there.

We have officially been inducted into the parent club. Dean went through a little phase where he would save up his poops and have one huge blowout every few days. We had no choice, but to strip him down and throw him in the sink.

For Halloween Dean and Baby February went as pumpkins, Emily was my fertile garden and I was Farmer Bob, the Pumpkin Farmer.

This is an outfit my Aunt Nancy gave the boys...there's a matching on for February when he rolls around.

He loves bath time now...

...and he puts himself to bed at night.

He loves "hugging his brother" and is going to be slightly disappointed when Emily's belly disappears in a few weeks.

We got him this toy when he was about six weeks old. He immediately started batting at it and talking to it which made us feel like we had neglected him just a little.

"What did you say to me?!"

This is the rocking chair Em received for her birthday at the end of November and since then Dean (and February) have spent many hours there and I'm sure it will continue to be very well used.

When Dean is hungry he will latch onto just about anything...

Take a close look because this is one of the only times we've caught him crying.

Here are a few cute Christmas pics. We can't believe that by this time next year he will be running around getting into everything and his brother won't be too far behind...

Here's a funny video of Dean talking. This was several weeks ago and he's getting to be even more expressive now. Hopefully it won't take us two months between now and our next post.

Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)

I thought today would be a fitting day to send a shout-out to my wonderful wife since it was seven years ago today that we went on our first date. I'm pretty sure she still likes me, too. I've always thought she was awesome, but I have gained a new appreciation for her since Dean arrived and throughout her pregnancy. She is an amazing mom!

Speaking of this thing called pregnancy (and the fact that this blog post is all about her) here are a few belly shots:

Before She Started to Show

18 Weeks--Just a Little Bump

21 Weeks

23 Weeks

29 Weeks

32 Weeks

Now, at the risk of sounding a little sappy I want to dedicate a song to my wife. However, please don't think I'm insensitive or anything for the song selection. I promise she actually likes it when I sing this to her. After all, she has turned into a big girl over the last few weeks. Love you, Em!

Dean

Click here to view this photo book larger

Spilling the Beans

I'll get right to it. We are having two babies, but they're not technically twins. Confused yet? Let me explain...

Part I: Most of our readers know that we have been approved to adopt for about a year now. It's been an interesting journey learning about the various aspects of adoption and how in a lot of ways adoption is misunderstood. About 2 1/2 months ago we were contacted by a Birth Mother who started off asking a few questions about us and before we knew it (quite a few emails later) she said that she wanted us to adopt her child. Over the past few months as we have corresponded with our Birth Mother we have grown to love and respect her for the tough decision she's making. She is a truly amazing person and getting to know her has been a real life-changing experience for us. She has taught us that the heart of adoption is love. We can't wait to welcome this boy into our home in October. Did you catch that? It's a boy! And he's due in

October!

Part II: As if it wasn't a crazy enough day for us--we found out that were expecting on the same day our Birth Mother told us she wanted us to be the ones who adopted her baby. (We know, it's ironic) Our Birth Mother made the decision that if we were okay with having two children so close together in age that she was okay with us still adoption Baby October (that's what we call him). I'm sure you want to know what we are calling Baby #2, huh? We don't know the gender yet, but we call #2 'Baby February' or just 'February' for short.

A day or two after we found out all of this exciting news Emily went to Panda Express and her fortune was very fitting. Here's a pic of what it looks like hanging on our fridge:

We hang all of our ultrasounds on our fridge and the one pictured is from 11 weeks. Today we are at 15 weeks. Just in case you can't see the fortune very well, it says: "A sudden change in plans will lead to good fortune." That's exactly how we feel...

Outer Banks

After driving through the night we arrived in Raleigh, NC on Sunday morning at about 9am. We arrived at just the right time to be able to caravan with Emily's family to Outer Banks, NC. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Outer Banks--it's a group of barrier islands just off the coast of North Carolina that stretches for roughly 200 miles. Here's a pic for those who are visual learners.

Historically the area is known for being the place where the Wright Brothers achieved their first flight (it actually occurred in Kill Devil Hills, NOT Kitty Hawk). Also, nearby Roanoke Island is the place where the 'Lost Colony' mysteriously vanished in 1587. For those romance novel lovers--Nicholas Sparks lives near Outer Banks and many of his novels are set there. He's the guy that wrote The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Dear John, Nights at Rodanthe, etc.

Emily's parents rented this awesome beach house within walking distance of the beach.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse near Corolla

Hanging out with Bam-Pa!

We saw a few people crabbing--they used raw chicken breasts as bait.

It worked!

Back at the beach Matt caught plenty of crabs without bait...

I think the girls were checking out a rooster

My cute bride wave watching with Ceilidh

Sarah (Emily's neice) and Andy (Emily's uncle) came with us on a kayak trip on the Alligator River. We saw a lot of wildlife, but no alligators.

The only thing better than wearing flip flops all week was wearing flip flops while eating flip-flop-shaped cookies. Thanks, Andy!

The Wright Brother's Monument

Matt and Cameron flying kites near the Wright Brother's Monument

Sarah practically lived in the water. She only got out to eat and sleep. The jellyfish didn't even keep her out of the water!

Why use a spoon when your face is right there?

Em just loves the beach. Sometimes I feel guilty that we don't live a little closer to the ocean.

When we got up to leave on Sunday morning we found that we had been tagged. We love you, too! Apparently Emily didn't ask to take off work, she just called in and said she was really sick.

Here we are! Thanks for making it such an awesome and memorable trip, Jewell's!

If you want to see more pics of our trip, check out this link:

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1881885028/a=3550255028_3550255028/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/