Homemade Garage

With the bunkbeds put together now, Ethan has a lot of fun finding things to do with them. This is one I would have never come up with. He brought up some cars and trucks from the toy room and made a special garage for them! I think the bigger idea was to initially keep them hidden from Mase so he wouldn't throw them or hurt himself, but it became quite the garage!

I had to get a picture of the master designer with his work of art! He was so proud of it until I got the camera, then he was embarrased! Boys..

Ezra's Blessing

We had quite the week when we finalized Ezra's adoption! The day after he was sealed we had family and friends come to our house and Spencer blessed Ez. We had quite a crowd and lots of cookies. It was an amazing week. It was especially nice to have so much family and so many friends join us for everything. Here is some of the crowd that came...

More crowd and Spen thanking everyone for coming.

Dad with his boy! Kind of a scarey face from Ez, but I didn't take enough pictures to have options on this one!

Here is a picture of all the men who participated. Again, thanks for coming.

My Granny has the magic touch with babies. She just held onto Ez all night! He seems to have enjoyed it himself too.

We were lucky enough to have Ezra's birth mother, Jen come for the party. She was a huge hit with the family. They all adore her. We are so thankful for her. She is the most amazing woman I know. We are so happy that she is a part of our lives. Ezra is a lucky boy to grow up with so many people head over heels in love with him!
Jen and her son Dyson.

We are the luckiest family to have Ezra in our home. We just can't say it enough!

Ezra's temple sealing~

WARNING...There are 30 pictures in this post. I am terrible at narrowing things down.

So the day after we finalized our adoption in court we were able to take Ezra and our 2 other boys to the temple to have him sealed to our family. It was a very special day for all of us. Ethan was really excited and I know Mason felt right at home. Ezra was on his best behavior - as usual. We had family come in from all over to be here for this special day for our family. The temple wasn't busy at all the day we chose to go. I was even given the entire bride's dressing room to get ready! It was a perfect day and I loved every second of it. I usually try not to go too overboard on the pictures, but I couldn't help myself this time!

My mom and Moose are best pals. She held him for the entire thing. He just loves her to pieces. I think he felt like a celebrity coming out of the temple with everyone there watching him!
Walking out with Ez. He was wiped out! I feel mean that I didn't let him sleep too long. I wanted him awake for pictures. The temple nursery ladies were completely twitterpated by him though. They didn't want to give him back yet.
Proud, happy parents!
One big happy family! This was such an amazing day for every one of us. If you ask Ethan about it he'll tell you that it was 'so cool. They had me wear just socks the whole time!' He remembers the most important things!
Our 3 boys! You can tell I love this picture since I put it at the top of my blog!!

Our family with my parents. They were so amazing to be our 'helpers' for our boys. They came and helped the temple nursery workers dress and take care of our kids while we got ready. Thank you again mom and dad!
The family with Spen's parents. We are so happy they were able to make the trip.

Family from Spen's side.

Me and Ez with my Granny. She is one of my best friends in the world. She is 91 and almost couldn't make it. I was so happy to see her there. It was the best surprise of the day!

Almost everyone who came. We have some friends who came from out of town that left before the pictures.
My favorite part of that last picture. He just loves his big brother E!


He was fascinated with the fountains. It was just such a perfect day.

He was so sweet and happy for the entire thing. It was the most perfect day! I'm so happy we were able to find him his own white outfit to wear for the day. He was very handsome.

Isn't that the sweetest smile!?

Playing by the fountain some more.

Ezra with his happy parents!

Me with Ez's great Granny. She's so darling and sweet. We were so happy she came.

Trying to get a family picture proved to be tricky!
Our best attempt!
Cute boy.
Ez with my parents. Affectionately known around here as, "Reg and Gramp."
Ez and Spen's parents. Also known as, "Nan and Papa."

Ezra having a ride with his dad. He loves to play with hair!

Spen, Papa, and Ez. Aren't they darling!

Ez holding his dad. They have been such close pals from day 1.

It was hard to get a great picture of Ezra all alone. He was fascinated with the grass.

Ez loves crocheted blankets and things. His Nan made him his very own temple blanket for his special day. My favorite thing about it is that she made it and remade it so many times I don't think she even knows how many times she did it. It was finished for the big day and it was perfect. Ezra loves it (along with Ethan who steals it) and so do I. He looked so handsome all dressed in his white temple clothes.

Ezra's Adoption Finalization -- at court!~

I cannot put this off any longer! It has been just shy of 2 months since we took our Ezra to court to have his adoption finalized. What a great day! We were all so excited to take this step after waiting 6 months. It was kind of early in the morning and we woke Ezra up to take him. Sad. He has his tired just woke up puffy face!
Mason was in such a great mood! He was so happy to be at the courthouse. It had echoey hallways that were especially fun. He loves his "yay" and just wanted to hold him while we waited our turn.

Doesn't he look daper!

The whole family waiting in the hall for our time. Our lawyer got there beforehand and went over everything that we would be doing. It was very exciting. None of us had ever been in a courtroom before!

I made Ez a little bear to take. He LOVES the texture of anything knit or crocheted! It always makes you feel good when they love something you make for them.

Getting ready and waiting for the judge to come in was filled with anxiety and excitement for me. I have never actually been in a court room and from the preporation we got with our lawyer prior to going in to court it sounded like it was going to be very formal. We all had butterflies. Ethan was terrified that the judge might change his mind and not let us keep our Ez! It was adorable and hard to watch him be so scared! The lawyer assured him that it would be OK though!

We were sworn in and everything. My parents came with us for support and as our camera crew. I'm so lucky to have them. How else would I have all these great pictures!? They were sitting in the gallery seats and the judge told them to go sit in the jury seats so they could have a better angle for the video and pictures.

Just like our lawyer said, it was very official. Ethan and Mase got bored once they realized that we were going to get to keep Ez!

Ezra perked right up while everyone was talking about him. He talked and played on the table. He was having a great time.

After it was all overwith the judge came around and had his picture taken with all of us. It was really nice of him.

Them we got one with my parents. I felt badly afterwards that we didn't publicize this more so that more of our friends and family could be there. It kind of crept up on us.
Ethan was elated that Ezra got to stay with him. He told me afterwards that he really likes being Ezra's brother.
Leaving the courthouse as an official legal family! We are the luckiest family in the world.