Caden't 7th Birthday

Caden's birthday was back on February 7th, but I have been working full time so it took me a bit to post about it:). This year for Caden's birthday we did a pretend sleepover. The boys all came over and we made pizzas...then they brought sleeping bags and watched a movie...after the movie was over they opened presents and ate the beautiful football cake I made. I am usually a "buy my cake" kinda person but I decided to make his this year, and I was very happy with how it turned out:). I can't believe Caden is already seven. We have had him for four years now. He really is such an amazing little boy. He has such an imagination and is a GREAT artist. I am always surprised at the drawings he brings home. He is a great listener and always wants to do what is right. I am so grateful that we were able to find him and bring him in to our family!

Tailee Laurel Followell Is Here!

I can"t believe our long wait is finally over, and I can"t believe I have 3 kids. Tailee (pronounced Ty-lee) was brought into this world on November 10, 2009 at 5:23pm. She weighed 8lbs 30z and was 20.5 inches long. My mom told me that when I was born I weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 20.5 inches long, funny huh. We didn't actually leave for Kansas City until early Wednesday morning. Our flight was delayed 2 hours but we finally got there. Since the new rules with swine flu say little kids cannot come to the hospital, my sister in law Haley came down at the last minute to get Kadrie. What a lifesaver. Then Nolan and I went to the hospital to see our new baby girl. The instant we held her we knew she was meant to be ours. She was absolutely beautiful and did not look only 1 day old. All that hair does tend to add some age:). We didn't actually get to stay with her until the next day. Finally on Friday we went to court. Unfortunately, our hopes of an easy smooth adoption did not come true. Tailee's birthfather did not want to consent to the adoption, eventhough her birthmom did. Our lawyer advised us to wait until Monday and we would go to court again. Talk about an agonizing weekend. It was seriously probably the worst emotional hell I have ever been through. Eventhough I knew there was a chance we might not get to take her home, I didn't feel comfortable just leaving her for the nurses to care for until Monday. I felt she needed to feel a warm body next to her. My brother and his wife had come for the weekend with Kadrie and their two boys so Haley and I stayed the nights at the hospital and then Nolan and I went for a few hours each day to spend time just holding her. Finally Monday came and we went to court. Again the birthfather refused to sign, but after some talking with our lawyer he did agree to sign and at 5:00pm we left for the hospital for the last time to finally pick up our daughter. We could finally call her Tailee. It felt great. Her birthmother, Hannah, is such an amazing woman. I know that what she did for Tailee was out of the most selfless love for her daughter and she wanted her to have so much more than she could give her. She stayed strong through all of this and we can never thank her enough. I feel so honored that she chose me to be Tailee's mom and what a great responsibility I have to make sure she grows up to be a great person. Tailee has been seriously the best baby I have ever been around, and I really thought Kadrie was an easy baby. She only cries when she is hungry and most of the time she just is looking around checking everything out. Everytime Nolan and I look at her we fall more in love with her. She is so beautiful and I am so glad she is here and finally ours. I want to say Thank You to all of our family and friends who fasted and prayed so hard for our family so that this little miracle could be ours forever.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2009

This year we got to actually pick pumpkins from a pumpkin patch. We went with our good friends Will and Tia and their families to pick out our own pumpkins. The kids had a lot of fun picking out their own and even picked out a baby one for Tailee. This Halloween Caden was an army guy. When he would go up to each house the people would say "oh a GI Joe guy". Caden was getting so mad and told me "Everyone keeps saying I"m a GI Joe guy". We had to explain to him what that was. Kadrie was a pretty kitty. She looked so dang cute and had to constantly point out to everyone her pink tail. Having kids has sure brought back the fun in Halloween.

Our Nursery is Finished!

I have been working on the nursery for the last couple weeks. I think it turned out really cute. I don't think I am all that great of a decorator so I was pretty proud of how I did on this room. We have decided to name her Tailee Laurel Followell(hence the TAILEE name all around the room). Nolan and I were joking the other day about how much work I put in to this room and what a bummer it would be if she tricked us and decided to come out a boy. I am definitely not prepared for a boy, but I am sure it would all work out just fine if we did get a surprise. We are getting so excited. The closer to the due date we get, the more real it seems. I have tried to prepare for our trip as much as I can, but since baby's aren't really predictable, there is still a lot we are waiting to do until the last minute. I can't believe in the next month I am going to be a mother of three. That makes me nervous:).

Yellowstone Bear World

Nolan and I wanted to get away with the kids the other day and we decided to do something we have been meaning to do for awhile. We drove up to Rexburg, ID and visited Bear World. A couple of Wednesdays ago we left at 8am and headed up to Idaho. We traveled through the Star Valley way. Oh my gosh it was so beautiful. Nolan and I fell in love with that area. If we could move there we would. It was so pretty. Anyway, we got up to Bear World at around noon. We have heard about this place from friends who had been, and we were excited to see it ourselves. The first thing we did was travel on a paved road through the park. The first part was just regular wild life. Nothing really dangerous. There were some buffalo, deer, and elk. Then we got to the next gate. Nolan and I laughed at how it seemed like we were entering Jurassic Park. They give you the basic instructions like go 5mph, don't stop if a bear climbs on your vehicle, and never roll down your windows (duh). The first area there were grizzly bears. Two younger ones and a papa bear. They are confined in an electric fence and cannot come up to your window. The next area was where all the black bears are. There had to have been like a total of thirty black bears in that area. It was such a cool experience. It was a hot day so most of them were just laying around, but some were up walking. There were also three wolves in the area too. The bears got really close but none actually got on to our truck. The next thing we did there was go to the petting zoo. This was not like your normal petting zoo. It was an acre of land and all the animals just run free. You could go up to any animal in there or they could come up to you. The little nanny goats kept coming up to Kadrie and putting their horns under her and trying to flip her. She did not like that very much and she let them know it. Our favorite part of the petting zoo were the deer. In Green River you see deer running around town all the time, but I have never been able to touch one. It was the neatest thing. There was a new baby fawn that was only a couple months old. If you went up to it, he would just lay his head on your lap. After the petting zoo we headed over to the children's amusement rides. There were about five rollercoasters there for the kids. They were the only ones there so they got to ride as long as they wanted. They had such a great time. Finally it was time to leave, but we decided to drive through the park one last time. This time we saw a brown bear crossing the road so Nolan drove right up to it. We stopped (I know, we broke the rules) to see if the bear would climb on our truck. Sure enough we looked back and the bear had climbed up on our tailgate. He would have climbed in but Nolan started pulling away. It was exactly what we were hoping for. It was such a great experience to see the bears so close up, but I still have my fear of bears and I hope to never see one without my truck window separating us. After Bear World we traveled down to Lava Hot Springs. We went swimming in the mineral pools and then went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. I can never pass up a good curry. It was about 8pm when we finished eating and we had another 3 1/2 hours to get home. We decided not to stay the night somewhere, because we are trying to save for the upcoming adoption. Eventhough it was a lot of driving it was so worth it. It was a great family day!

Caden's Cricket Rifle

Anyone who knows Caden knows his obsession with guns. He loves anything to do with guns, tanks, grenades, anything army. We will even catch him totally engrossed watching the military channel or the history channel. For his 6th birthday this year, Nolan and I bought him his first .22 cricket rifle. It is especially for younger kids. Now I know some of you liberals, or conservatives who are liberal when it comes to guns(Hi mom) reading this are getting your panties all bunched up, but let me explain our reasoning. When you live in Wyoming, especially in Green River, Wy, chances are most of your children's friends have parents with guns. Hunting is big around here. Most practice gun safety and have their guns locked up, but for the chance that some one is stupid enough not to, we feel it is best to teach our children about guns and how to safely handle them. We especially teach them that if they see one at a friend's house, they never touch it and immediately are to go and tell an adult. They are NEVER to touch a gun unless their is an adult there to assist. To try and act like guns don't exist is absurd. I have this argument with my mom anytime guns come up. In our house, the guns are locked up separate from their ammunition, and out of reach of children. So, eventhough we did give Caden a gun for his birthday, it's not like he can use it whenever he wants. He has been threatened that if he ever touches it without an adult there to to help he won't shoot again until he is 16. Anyway, back down on the ground off my soap box, the other day Nolan went out to shoot his new 270wsm to get ready for antelope hunting and he also brought Caden's too so he could do some shooting. Caden has become really good at shooting it by himself. This video shows him shooting. He does end up needing some help, but for the most part he gets it. I know my mom is going to have a heart attack when she sees this. Sorry mom:).

Kadrie and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, or should I say Week!

Kadrie has been our sick child ever since she was born. Which would make sense, since Caden (due to the fact that he was adopted through foster care) is covered by our insurance and Medicaid and doesn't cost us a thing at the doctor's office, and Kadrie is not, and costs us a lot :). Anyway, since she was born we have dealt with ear infections. When she was one, she had tubes put into her ears. This helped for a while, but two years later, they were still there. They were also plugged and causing more infections. She always seems to have a runny nose or some kind of cold. We took her back into the ENT doctor and he decided to try drops and see if that unplugs the tubes. Well it didn't so she had to have surgery to put in new tubes. Also we have always noticed that Kadrie's tonsils are HUGE, and that is an understatement. I had him check those as well, and he agreed that perhaps by taking them out she would be sick less and have fewer ear infections. I have heard that having tonsils taken out when you were younger was best, so Nolan and I figured this was a good a time as any. I had mine out at 23 and it was literally a living HELL! So on September 9, 2009 Kadrie went under the knife. The whole thing didn't take longer than 20minutes. I could hear her screaming when she came out of anesthesia and soon they came to get me. They thought maybe I could help calm her down. Wrong. She was such a different kid. She was thrashing around, trying to get her hands in her mouth to scratch at her throat, she was hitting me in the face, and she was biting at the bandages on her arm that they use to keep the IV in. It was so hard to see my little girl like that. I was going to do it by myself, but Nolan called that night from work and said he could get off early to come with me. Thank goodness. I don't think I could have done it with out him. I am so glad he is such a good husband and dad. It took a good 30 minutes to calm her down and then the medicine kicked in and put her to sleep. She woke up on the drive home and was her normal self, kind of. You could tell she hurt and it was so hard to make her drink. She did really good the first 3 days. She even had oatmeal the night of the surgery, but on day 4 it became harder and harder to get her to drink. I started having to set an alarm to make her drink. We made it a game. It took probably almost two weeks before Kadrie was back to her normal self. During the healing process she had a really high pitched voice that drove Nolan and I crazy. We are so glad to have her normal, deep voice back. I am glad that whold ordeal is over and I am hoping for no more ear infections!