HOLIDAYS

HALLOWEEN Okay, I know I'm a slacker and that Halloween was like three months ago, but what the heck-everyone still needs to see how cute my kids were in there costumes. Connor was the "Hunny Pot" from Winnie the Pooh and Cooper was "Roo" from Winnie the Pooh. They both absolutely hated their costumes and only left them on long enough to get some pictures, but oh well. Callie was a "Funky Witch" and she loved it!!! I swear I think we walked ten miles trick-or-treating, but it was fun. Of course Chris volunteered to stay home and pass out the candy so he would not have to do the walking, but he also had both boys, so it was a trade off. THANKSGIVING Okay, so I have no pictures from Thanksgiving, but it would be wrong to just skip to Christmas. Let me just say that Thanksgiving was the pits this year!! It started out good, but Thanksgiving night I got the flu and started throwing up, and so we got up Friday morning and came straight home, by that afternoon Callie and Cooper were both throwing up, and Chris joined in the fun that night. For some mysterious reason Connor never got it-I don't know how, but I don't care to eat turkey or dressing for a long, long, time!!! CHRISTMAS Since my parents and Tawnie, Paul, and Shelby were in Hawaii for Christmas (Sorry Suckers!) we had Christmas at home for the first time. It was really nice, and Callie was very excited to have santa come to her house for the first time. We did go to Fort Thomas Christmas day, which was also nice. Callie got a bike from santa, which was very unexpected for her, and if anyone has any advice about teaching an extremely stubborn seven year old how to ride without training wheels, we are open to suggestions. Connor got a rocking horse that he absolutely loves and is incredible cute to watch on it, and Cooper got a train that makes a lot of noise!!. It was a great Christmas, and if we missed any of you with our cute Christmas cards we are sorry-send us your address and we will make sure you get one next year!!. We went back to Fort Thomas for New Years and let me just say that I now enjoy the game "Hand and Foot"-even though Grandma Norton gets a little too violent and likes to slap the table and yell "PAY ATTENTION" It was mainly directed at Hannah, so it was pretty entertaining. The boys mainly played the WII's that they had hooked up in two different rooms, but we all had fun. Chris is also making me mention how sad he is that his Eagle Scout project is about to be torn down to make way for the new temple. He had to go and take pictures of it, so if you all could just pause and have a moment of silence for him, that would be great. (In case you are all wondering what his Eagle Scout project was that is depicted in these pictures- it was the cement back stops at the softball fields,they has been in place for nearly fifteen years). Anyways, thats about all for now, hopefully our next blog will be about having Connor sealed, we will definitely keep you all posted. Happy New Year to all! Love-Us

Buddy Walk

So we did the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk yesterday and let me just say that it was awesome!!! We had so much fun! We want to thank all our friends and family who supported us. We were able to raise a little over $1,400.00 for Connor's Crew. A big thanks to Jed who got his company to double his donations, and a big thanks to Holly for designing our shirts. Also thanks to Jetti and Scott for bringing the Phoenix Sun's Gorilla to our group-the kids loved it. There were about 3000 people who turned out to support Down Syndrome yesterday and it was just a really fun and uplifting experience. The kids had a blast. There was a rock climbing wall, a jumping castle and booth after booth of games and trick-or-treating. There were so many cute kids there and the neatest thing was they were so happy and you would not even know that they had a disability-they don't see themselves as disabled. We met a mom and her little girl who is 11 months old and has Down Syndrome-we took Connor's picture with her-she is so dang cute-her name is Madison and I think her mom used the phrase "arranged marriage"! I also got to meet a mom from California when we were standing in the food line for lunch. Her little boy is 18 months old. He fell asleep on my shoulder while we were talking-he was so cute. Anyways, his mom was telling me that he had heart surgery when he was nine weeks old and he now has a pacemaker, he also is not able to feed himself yet and so he has a feeding tube in his stomache, she is hoping it will be out soon. It made me so thankful that Connor is so healthy. Our pediatrician, Dr. Sudha got an award for Doctor of the year at the awards ceremony, which was also neat because we love Dr. Sudha. It was just a great experience and we will definitely be making it a yearly event for our family. If you were not able to go this year you are all definitely invited next year, and to those of you who were able to go with us this year, thankyou so much, it was great to have such a big group. We love you all- Chris, Kaija, Callie, Connor and Cooper

It has been a very busy past few weeks, we have been working hard on getting donations for the Sharing Down Syndrome Association of Arizona, this is a non-profit organization that helps with public awareness and lends support for families with family members with Down Syndrome. It has been alot of fun! There was a competition to see who could raise the most money within the first couple of weeks, and thanks to everyone who donated we were able to raise nearly $900, we are still taking donations until 10/25/08, so if anyone else is interested I will post the link that will let you donate online. But back to the competition we got second place which got us several tickets to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks play the SF Giants, pool side at Chase Field. This was a blast, we shared the pool seats with other members of the Sharing organization and met alot of really neat people and made alot of new friends. There were so many dang cute kids with down syndrome there, and all of them were so happy and sweet-I'll never understand anyone who wouldn't want one. Once again thank you to those who donated to Connor's Crew. Callie turned seven yesterday, but since her birtday was in the middle of the week we celebrated it the weekend before. All she wanted to do this year for her birthday was have a barbque at Granny Dub's-she had so much fun-she loves playing with all of her cousins. We got her a trampoline for her birthday-thanks to Craig's List we got a heck of a deal-anyways, we had it set up in the backyard for 4 days before I couldn't wait anymore and had to show her. She now lives on it. On her birthday we woke her up at 6:00 in the morning with her birthday cake and balloons and she thought it was so cool that she got to have cake for breakfast-so did Connor. Cooper has now discovered his little voice and loves to jabber and squeal and then laugh at himself-he is so cheesey and cute. Anyways-thats about all for now- Kaija

The Latest

Callie

I can't believe Callie is in 2nd grade! It kind of makes me feel old. She loves school, although she absolutely hates getting up a six o'clock every morning-she is so not a morning person-kind of reminds me of my sister Sue! Everyday she comes home from school with the name of a new friend she talked to or played with-she's extremely social-which can be good and bad, but we are very thankful that she likes everyone and makes friends so easily. Of course she had to have a Hannah Montane backpack. I had to limit her to one Hannah Montana shirt and one Camp Rock shirt when we were school shopping, or that is all she would have picked out-she did insist on Hannah Montana pajamas though! She started violin lessons last week as well, and even though she hates repitition of any kind, she is enjoying it so far. Our neighbor and friend from our ward is teaching her-we really hope she sticks with it.

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Connor

All of our adoption paper work has been turned in to the court and we are now just waiting for a court date in order to finalize. We are hoping that we can do this without actually having to go to Utah, but we will do whatever we need to in order to get this process done, it seems to be taking forever. Connor is such a Ham! He can be so smiley and cheesey. He thinks he is so big now that he can pull himself up on his knees by his toybox, and he loves to take everything out and then put everything back in. Now that Cooper has started rolling and laughing and squealing, Connor is much more interested in him. He loves to torment Cooper by taking his pacifier, climbing over him, patting him on the head and pulling on him. I'm waiting for Cooper to defend himself, I don't think Connor would know what to do. I know they will play so good together once they are a little older. We are doing the Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome on October 25th in Tempe. We are trying to raise $2000.00 and welcome any donations. If anyone would like to walk with us, we would love the company-it is only a mile, so anyone can do it. The website is http://www.sharingds.org/ Our team name is "Connor's Crew"-any donations can be made under that team name-if you have any questions please email or call us.

Cooper

It's hard to believe that Cooper will be six months old in September. Times goes by so fast. He is growing so fast-maybe it's so he can keep up with his brother. Dub says he looks just like Chris did-I don't know if that's a good thing-j/k. He is so cute and happy, and has turned into such a good baby. He is fascinated by Connor-even though Connor likes to abuse him, he just squeals and laughs. He is now eating baby food, and is so picky-he doesn't like any of the fruits we have tried-he gags and spits them out, but he will eat the squash and sweet potatoes fine. He detests peas though, which I can't blame him and cannot bring myself to force him to eat them. I never imagined having two boys so close together, but I love it, it will be so great to have them grow up together.

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!

I know everyone thinks my house is the happiest place on earth, but I was actually talking about Disneyland. So Sue has come and gone, and we had so much fun. She and her kids had never been to Disneyland, so we went for two days and had a great time. We tried to cram as much as we could in two days, so we were a little exhausted, but what the hay-that's right I said hay, not hell Kat!. Anyways, Jared and Holly were out here as well and thanks to Holly for our new family pictures. Not to brag or anything, but my little family is dang cute. We are just waiting on a court date and then we can fly to Utah to finalize Connor's adoption-yeah! We have been waiting so long for this and can't wait to have him sealed. We took Cooper to the doctor today and he weighs 17.4 lbs-Connor only weighs 20! I always new that Cooper would catch, and then pass Connor, but I didn't think it would happen so fast, Cooper is only 4 months old. I have a lot mixed emotions about this and how it will affect Connor-hopefully it just motivates him and helps him progress. Chris is still going to school full-time and going just a little bit crazy, but all is well. That's about all for now, I would lie and say we will be better about updating, but then you all know better-lots of love-US

OK OK OK

I know it has been a while, but we have been just a little busy, but no excuses. Just to catch everyone up, Callie is now out of school and is already bored with summer break,Connor just turned 16 months old and will be starting speech therapy this week(he is progressing well), Cooper is also doing well, I have lost count of how old he is (nearly three months). Kaija is working a couple of day a week while I am in school full-time. We had the oportunity to bless Cooper in church last Sunday (thanks to everyone who were able to attend), it was nice to have family here to share in the occasion. Really there is not alot to report, life has finally taken on what seems resembles a schedule and we have fallen into a routine. We have spent the past couple of weeks working on the house, we have painted, carpeted, and purchased new furniture. It has been alot of work but it was time, we have lived in this house for five years and these were the first real improvements that we have made. The hi-light of the whole project is my new TV (60" DLP HDTV)yes I am a little spoiled but I'm not complaining. We do have to say thanks to alot of people for helping with the house. Tawnie, Paul, and Shelby were a huge help when it came time to paint, also Russ, Jani, and Megan get props for helping with the decorating. AND YES, MY RED DOOR KICKS ASS, AS WELL AS MY LITTLE CHEF MEN IN THE KITCHEN THAT CHRIS ABSOLUTELY LOVES-But most importantly Jordan needs to be recognized for his hand in obtaining and delivering the TV. Thanks again to everyone for your help. We are looking forward to seeing Sue, Jasmine, and Juanito over the next couple of weeks. We are slowly but surely moving closer to finalizing Connor's adoption, we will keep everyone informed of any developments. Connor is now a skydiver-as you can see from his pictures-which is actually quite entertaining-he is used to Cooper now, but all he likes to do is pull his hair and pull the pacifier out of his mouth and watch his reaction-other than that, he really doesn't care much about him. It is now hotter than hell here, but we will suffer through it for the next two months and then it will be nice again-love to all-US.

To Tired to Update

Well the title says it all, Cooper has decided that he does not need nor want a shcedule and that we need to be at his beck and cry. But we are finally getting him to sleep for about five hours at a time during the night. All of this has had an adverse effect on Connor, he now needs us to hold his bottle for him, needs to be held when his brother is, and if Cooper is crying Connor needs to be yelling or crying as well. Kaija has gone back to work a couple of days, and I have started classes again. Poor Callie has no idea what to do with herself, she is bored and it is not even summer yet. But things are coming together and life is beginning to resemble a normal everyday routine, as normal as he can be anyway. We have finally received all the paperwork needed to submit Connors adoption subsidy application so hopefully we will be able to petition to adopt in the very near future. Just a quick update on Jed. I spoke with him a couple of days ago and says he feels fine and is doing well. I will do much better at updating the blog in near future now that Cooper is letting us sleep a little more these days. FYI Connor started "Army Crawling" on Friday, this is a big developmental achievement. -Chris