Happy Family!

Well, we didn't get dolled up or anything but finally some pictures that were not taken at arm's length! Luckily, our kids are so cute they make us look good. This is our first official family photo, taken one day before Sloane's original due date. Tagg is wearing his "funny monster" shirt upon request (his...it was that or the Wiggles!). We are so thrilled with life. Tagg is a wonderful big brother and Sloane is the most amazing, lovely little girl. She's very peaceful yet alert, and Tagg is warming up to her every day. We just couldn't love them any more, and yet somehow we do...we love them more and more every single day. Thank goodness your heart is best when it's overflowing with love!

Aunt Tiff finally got her first photo opp with the new baby, too. This picture was taken in front of a 100-year-old family heirloom crib that Jim and Laura Arnold (our VP of Sales and his wife) graciously offered to loan us while Sloane is a baby. They decorated it specially for her and we feel so grateful and privileged that they embraced us and Sloane with part of their family history. Not to mention that it's super helpful to have a place for her to sleep and keep her things that's so convenient. Thanks!

Tiff and Becky had a little photo shoot with the girls. So cute! Harper is checking at 10 and a half pounds so it's no wonder Sloane looks so teeny!

This is Sloane at 9 days. She's just a wonderful, precious little girl.
Tagg has started playing the role of "big brother." He likes to make sure Sloane has her binky, her bottle, her blanket. He was playing peek-a-boo with her the other day, hiding below the crib, then jumping up and saying "peeky-boo, Soan. I lub you." It was about the sweetest thing we've ever seen. Of course, he also tries to give her Cheerios so we're working on that!

Tagg likes to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Sloane and his cousin Harper, which is really cute because he leaves out about every third word so it sounds like “Twinkle twinkle lil STAR wonder are up above the world so high diamond SKY twinkle twinkle... dinosaur” or whatever random word distracts him at the ending. He often looks at the girls and says "two Harpers or two Sloanes" - buddy, you have no idea! Honestly, he counts to 10, although he prefers to stop at 8 and 4 and 5 are not his favorite numbers so they get left out a lot.

Tagg-a-saurus

I know...how many pictures do you need of Tagg at tubby time? Lots! That's my answer! Check out the hair. Grama finally got him distracted enough to cut it but we did get one good hawk out of it.

Call me crazy...

Photos of Sloane and Tagg on their birth days. Don't they look a lot alike?! I don't think it's just me...other people have commented that they share a resemblance. Yes, yes..."all babies look alike" but it seems like there's a little hand of fate at work here in many ways!

Welcome Home!

Big brother, little sister. The first picture of their first hug. We were glad to see Tagg so happy. Since we brought Sloane home on Monday he was calling the teddy bear Shayne gave her "Sloane" so we were a little worried. Of course he was trying to feed the bear his muffin so that gave us some hope! Since we finished Sloane's room and started telling him about his little sister, he's gone into her room and pulled this teddy bear off the shelf. He walks around hugging it and calls it "Soan Bear." He puts the bear in the rocking chair, covers it with the quilt mom made and rocks it. Sometimes, he crawls into the chair and cuddles with the bear. Now that he's making the connection, we have visions of the kind of big brother he's going to be. And it's pretty sweet! We were sad he couldn't be with us this weekend but maybe this is a less traumatic way for him to adjust to the reality of being a "big brother."

The car ride home was...interesting. Sloane was awesome but the "infant insert" in the car seat was no match for Utah highways! We had to pad her head with burp cloths and blankets to make it less bumpy so we promptly got another insert when we got home! Her little jammies were so big, we couldn't find her hands half the time.

Sloane got to meet Grama and Bompa and Auntie Leese who had been watching Tagg for us. He was almost as interested in Sloane's toes as he was in the books he found at Grama's. (he's not actually reading - yet! ;-) but he did start learning his states by looking at the pictures) She also got to meet Aunt Biff which caused Tagg to have a little jealousy attack. He held up his arms the second Tiff took Sloane and said "Tagg turn Aunt Tiff." It was cute. Happily, he thought mom was a nice back up plan!

Probably the funnest introduction was between Sloane and Harper. The two girls are so cute and it's amazing how much larger Harper is considering she's not even 6 weeks older than Sloane. How fast they grow! Becky says Sloane makes Harper look like a linebacker! We got some really cute pictures of them together. Doesn't this look like they're already telling secrets?! They are already sharing clothes! Yes, Sloane is wearing Harper's going-home outfit in this picture - and it actually doesn't drown her unlike most of her outfits! Harper actually brought her over a handful of little outfits that she's already outgrown which was really sweet. Who cares if they're hand-me-downs as long as we know where her feet are! Marc (my brother) and I are pretty proud of our little girls! Poor Tagg! It's going to be like having twin baby sisters to torment him - and to torment! We're pretty sure that he'll also be their biggest protector!

We need to get some photos of me and Scott with the babies! Those self-portraits from the hospital just are not cutting it! Once we get settled in a bit more, it's paparazzi time!

Hello Baby Girl!

Sloane Ryan was in a little bit of a rush, it seems! She was due May 25th but we had a feeling after meeting with her birth mom last week that she might be a little ahead of schedule - and she was! We got a call at 5:15 on Saturday morning May 15th (5/15!) that S's water had broken and she was at the hospital. We had packed our bags and planned the fire drill, thinking that we could make it to Roosevelt in 3 hours. Even though we made great time (2 hours 45 minutes! no speeding, promise), Sloane made better time. She was born at 7:38 so we missed the actual birth by about 15-20 minutes. We got to hear some of her first cries over the phone which was really awesome.

We did arrive at the hospital in time to give her her first bottle. It was such an amazing experience to have S. place Sloane in my arms and call me her mommy. It's impossible to describe that feeling. It's happened to me twice now and all I know is that it brings tears to my eyes every time I think of it. I don't have a picture of it, but I know I'll never need one because it's a permanent fixture in my mind's eye.

Sloane was 6 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches long, and perfect in every way. She has a little ring of dark hair with blondish peach fuzz on top, long slender fingers and feet, and a pouty lower lip. She's very alert yet peaceful when she's awake, which isn't often!

From the first moment we met Sierra and her mom back in February, we felt a connection with them. It just felt like this was meant to be and it's been that way all along - in the "almost too good to be true" way! Happily, that feeling was reinforced over the course of the weekend. We felt like we were with family (in the good way!) and we were so impressed with everyone's support and love and how easy everything was. We shared all kinds of stories and laughed and passed Sloane around so everyone had a chance to fawn over her. It was pretty amazing! We are really excited to have everyone as part of our extended family. You could really feel the love they have for this baby and we felt embraced as part of their family too. We have a lot to live up to! It reminded us so much of being with Tagg's family, and we hope to have an equally special relationship with them.


The hospital gave us our own room - SO much nicer than our last experience! Not that we didn't like sharing a recliner but having 2 beds was pretty sweet. And even though hospital food is, well, hospital food, they were kind enough to bring us meals while we were there. Tagg had a bit of a cold so he wasn't able to make it up to the hospital which was a bummer - especially because we missed him so much - but we were able to focus and appreciate the quality time we got to have with Sloane and her family.

They got her the most darling going-home outfit! Even though it was a little big, she looked adorable in it. Yellow and bees seems to be a theme for us! They got her a cute little teddy bear which Tagg thought was Sloane when we brought her home! "Sloane Bear." He tries to give it binkies and put blankets on it which is cute. It was really an amazing experience and even though it was certainly hard for everyone, you can see all the love and joy present in everyone's faces.

There are really no words to describe how blessed we are to have had such a wonderful experience with adoption - and then have it again. Like Tagg's birth parents, Sloane's are amazing, intelligent, peaceful, lovely, and mature young people. Their courage has given us the gift of family and there is really no way to say thank you for that. We just have to make them proud and give them the opportunity to fulfill all of their dreams knowing that Sloane and Tagg are loved and cared for.