Yellowstone National Park

We went to Yellowstone National Park with our friends Conrad and Ali.
Conrad being the great photographer got both Josh and I as well as both boys looking at him for these pics. I think they both turned out great!

We have Super R, the blanket helped him cope with all the steam we walked through.

A very beautiful waterfall!

A coyote...

A buffalo...

The boys on the 2nd morning when it was time to get up.... Both full of smiles! Conrad and I both got a similar pic of this one. I think it is quite pretty with the steam in the background...

As long as we were a LONG WAYS from the steam he was fine.



Josh Dancing, he was singing right before I started taking the video...


Old Faithful... Such a beautiful area!


Nothing new about the buffalo crossing the road, there are signs everywhere warning you about it...

The new way Josh came up with putting S on his shoulders. If you watch Ss' face you will see nothing but smiles! Quite funny!!!

Odds and ends around the house...

R fell asleep around 3 in the afternoon and we just thought we should document it somehow... HA HA HA


R following directions very easily...


Good friends of ours gave us a pack and play. We have used it a ton already. Thanks guys!!!


Working on saying please (pah llll eeeee sssss)


R working on saying yes (ES)

"The Park"

We took the boys and the dogs to the park again. I think it tired Josh out too much...

The motocycle kid...

S decided that he needed to try on my motorcycle helmet.... Doesn't quite fit him...Especially when it is on backwards!

No worries we have not taken the boys one the bike. They are way to young for it...

Reading!!!

I was in the kitchen getting lunch dishes cleaned and I heard R in the other room.

He doesn't necessarily pay attention when we read stories to him before bed but I do honestly believe that he listens, especially after I found him reading aloud.

The girls...

My mom sent me a couple pictures of the girls' first and second day of school...

I thought I would share them with you.


This one Angellic is wearing the outfit with the tie and Gabby is wearing the blue dress. I think the outfits fit their personalities pretty well...


This one Gabby is wearing the pink shirt with black plaid skirt and Angellic is wearing the peace sign shirt with the purple plaid scarf and skirt.

I don't think we will be seeing these guys again until next spring/summer as we think we are done traveling the passes we would have to travel to get there in the winter. They get pretty sketchy..

So much to post about.....

Here is updates by pictures with a few captions on what happened in August. I will do my best to keep it updated throughout September for you all...

These two were just taken for the heck of it.


They got new slippers and were ready for bedtime with stories and all...

We went to the park and found out that S likes the color tube to crawl in... Quite funny to watch..

We made M&M Cookies...


Both of the boys like to watch Josh mow the yard...

I finished the dinosaur curatins in the boys' room...

The boys had a visit with their mom, grandma, and older brother on the 14th of August and S fell asleep on the way home.

Tried homemade popcycles for the first time... well first time at our house that is...not sure if they had them before they came to us...


Played with bubbles and lounged in the front yard...


S got a big boys bed...


We took the boys camping up at Hyalite and hiked up to Palasade Falls...











Ali and I made a Huckleberry Cheesecake...




It was delicious!!!

This video is of R falling asleep after sitting in a stroller on the hike to and from Palasade Falls... No idea why he fell asleep he just did and it was hilarious...

Visitors

So we have one of our really good friends down for a couple nights from Helena. He gets to meet the boys for the first time tonight while I am at work. He arrived last night after they had already went to bed. We are bummed that his wife Ali wasn't able to make it as well. Oh well, next time for sure!

Happy Birthday Josh

So even though its a day late I didn't forget to tell him in person.

Life has been really hectic the last couple of weeks and I haven't been able to update this since then. I will try better to update as things happen....

The reasoning

The reason we are doing foster care:

We have been trying for 3 years to start our family. Then about 11 months ago we went to a fertility doctor. We had a whole bunch of tests done and nothing showed up negatively for either of us. The next month I was started on a medication called Clomid. In the middle of doing these tests I had another test called an HSG (Hysterosalpingogram), now that was pain I didn't like one bit. I was on the Clomid for about 6 months with no success. Then my doctor took my records to another doctor that specializes in another aspect of the Gynecology background. They both decided by all of my ultrasounds that I have a syndrome called PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome).

After the 6 months on Clomid I then started two medications one called Metformin (even though it is for type 2 diabetes, I don't have diabetes)and another called Femara. I was on those two for 4 months. Verdict is that I have a slim to no chance to bear my own kids. We are still hoping on the slim chance though.

We have stopped doing all the medications because it was costing about $700 a month and we just can't afford it anymore, especially since I went from full-time to part-time. We are just going to let nature take its course, and hopefully it will be to what we want it to be.

All through this my doctor said that I need to lose about 20 pounds. So far I have lost 34 and still no result (though it's taken about 10 months to lose it). I was also told to reduce my stress intake, so I quit my job at RightNow Technologies, Inc. and am working part-time at Van's IGA in Bozeman in the Deli. No stress at all. No thinking really required on the job except to not get burnt by the grease. About everyone I work with is great.

We are both ready for that next stage in life and that is why we have decided to do foster care. So many kids out there don't have homes and we want kids. So for us right now it is the best way for us to have kids.

We are still actively doing Big Brothers Big Sisters with our little brother Nick. Our house is just really full for about 2 hours each week.