Our Adoption is FINAL!

On January 9th we had our adoption finalized ! We had to be at the courthouse at 8:30 am. - tricky with 7 kids to get out of bed and ready that early in the morning! The actual court session only lasted about a half hour once it got started. The Judge was hurrying to another hearing so he didn't have time to take pictures with us, but we took a few family pictures outside of the court room.

Our new "OFFICIAL" family.

Rich and I with our new boys.

Their new official names are Jordan Harrison & Cohen Robison

Us with Richie's parents and sister, Kellie

This is the group that was able to attend. Richie's parents, sister Kellie, and 2 of my best friends- April and Jodi (aka- Jordan's other mom's). Thank you to those who were able to come and share our special day with us. It meant a lot to me and to our family!

The day did not play out like I would have liked it to. I wanted to spend the day as a new family and enjoy being together. But Rich ended up having to return to work and the kids begged to go back to school for a party later that day. So, we ended up going home, every body went their own way and I finished painting my room while crying for several different emotional reasons. Once everyone came home, we all went out to eat Chinese food. I didn't take too many pictures at dinner. I was holding Macie, feeding Cohen, & supervising Jordan and Brinley. All the kids did really well at dinner though and we did get a few pictures at the end.

Richie's mom, Connie, with Jordan

Do you think I need new music???

Sorry - don't have time yet :o)

"Sup Dude"

This is Jordan in one of his new outfits and he looks so cute in his beanie! We taught him to say Was sup dude and give knuckles- he thinks he is so cool! He looks so cute and begs to wear his "dude" clothes. Richie says that he didn't go clear to Morocco to bring back a little gangster so I better quit teaching him things like that- but he does it so cute! So for now- Was sup dude! :o)

Guess who's potty trained!

Brinley is finally a BIG GIRL! Ever since Micailey turned 3, the Diaper Fairy comes the morning after their birthday and takes all of the diapers away and leaves cute little underwear in there place. Since we were in California, she waited a little bit longer, but she finally came! She brought Brinley some princess underwear and some Minney Mouse ones too! We worked with her a for few days before the fairy came and after just a couple days she hasn't had a diaper since - not even at night! And hasn't had an accident since she got her new cute panties from the fairy! THANK YOU DIAPER FAIRY! 1 down 3 more to go!!! :o)

Cohen's sportin' a helmet!

Anyone who has met Cohen in person has probably noticed that the back of his head was flat from laying on his back all of the time at the orphanage. It would have possibly filled out a little on it's own, but we decided to go ahead and get him a reshaping helmet to get the maximum progress possible. The poor little guy has to wear it 23 hours a day for the next 3-4 months! :o( He hasn't seemed to mind at all since day one. The doctor said that he was such a good sport through the whole fitting and everything that he made his "top 10 patients" list! Cohen is such an easy going kid. He is crawling all over now and pulling himself up to standing. I went in to get him the other morning and he was standing in his crib. He also likes to practice standing and letting go of my fingers and after a few seconds of success he gets a little too excited and tries clapping and yelling "yeah" and looses his balance- but he just laughs and stands back up to o it again. Hopefully he'll be walking soon to free up one of my arms so I can get things done a little more efficiently. (we'll see if it's a help or a hinder)

A few Christmas photo's

Every Christmas morning we have to wait together till everyone is ready and we get our picture taken and then we go in to see what Santa brought.

This is Jordan opening his 1st Christmas present ever! He was so excited - yet very serious at the same time. He had seen Brinley opening her birthday gifts a few weeks ago and couldn't understand why he couldn't have one to open so apparently he didn't want to miss this opportunity and didn't realize that he was getting more than one! He loved Christmas and was so excited with every gift he got and wanted it opened and out of the box NOW!
This is Brinley with her favorite thing - a doll house. We have one similar to this, but she is so excited cause now they can have neighbors!

Every year "BYU fanatic Dad" gets everyone a gift from BYU and has it wrapped in BYU wrapping paper and everything. So this is the older kids holding up what they got.

Cohen on Grandpa Smith's lap

The kids at Grandpa Harris's in there new Christmas Jammies

Takin time out to play Guitar Hero- World tour with the drums! Richie used to Drum in high school and at BYU so he has an unfair advantage and already plays all the songs on hard and some on excellent. It is really fun though and is our new family past time.


Dallas giving the drums a try

Feeding Santa's Reindeer!

Every year we have to feed Santa's Reindeer and leave Santa cookies. This year we didn't get around to making cookies so Santa got a mixture of nuts, chocolate covered pretzels, dried pineapple, a star shaped "peep", and a can of Rootbeer (just in case Santa was tired of drinking warm milk). I didn't get a picture of it but Santa loved it and gobbled it right up!

His Reindeer loved their food too!

Gingerbread Houses

After how much fun we had decorating the trees I have to admit I was a little worried at how much "fun" we would have trying to decorate 6 or 7 gingerbread houses! :o) But we actually had a fun time. We turned Dallas and Micailey loose to decorate their own completely by themselves. They had a blast and worked together and laughed the whole time. Richie helped Jordan and Brinley while I held the baby and Cohen enjoyed some cereal in his high chair. Mackenzie was able to do hers almost all by herself and did a fabulous job!


This is a picture of Brinley's (on the left) and Mackenzie's (right) while they were making them. They added pretzel fences for their animals (cookies).

Richie helping Brinley

Mackenzie building her house

I don't know why this picture insists on loading the long way, it's not that way on my camera or computer, but I have tried 3 times to add it to the blog and it flips it every time- so you get to see it flipped. This is Mackenzie, Brinley, Jordan, and Cohen's houses. Macie didn't get one this year- I don't think she'll mind much!

This is of the cute snowmen on a sled that Brinley and Mackenzie did.

This is Dallas and Micailey's. They spent more time decorating the yard than the houses but they sure looked awesome!

Mackenzie and Brinley with their master pieces!

Jordan ended up going to bed before we finished.

And last but not least- Dallas and Micailey with their master pieces.

Merry Christmas to ALL and to ALL a good night!

Sleeping Beauty

Macie is my "unique baby" because

A) she hates riding in the car
B) she will only sleep good on her tummy
& C) she won't take a binky! Instead she likes her fingers like Jordan did when we first got him! None of my other kids have ever sucked on their fingers! (And yes I lettered them just for you Kim!)

I think babies look so beautiful & peaceful while they're sleeping!