Kaelyn's Song

Like I said in the last post, Kaelyn really is the driving force behind adopting Victoria. In so many ways. A couple weeks ago when I was really feeling like it was time, I found Victoria's song. Then a few songs later on our playlist I found Kaelyn's song. We are sure to listen to it every morning and dance around. I truly believe that bringing Victoria home to be a part of our family is part of her little sisters, "Great big plans".

Kaelyn continues to amaze us every day with those plans of hers. She has brought more love, people and life into our home and family than we would have ever had without her.

Mindy Gledhill - Whole Wide World

(If you can't tell Mindy Gledhill is a favorite around our house :)

Miracles in the Making

Wow, January has been quite the month for our little family. Something is in the works here at the Bonner home, something BIG. I don't really know where to begin, I guess I'll just start where it all began, 2 1/2 years ago.

Kaelyn's birth/life has changed hearts, two of the biggest changes happened in the hearts of her mommy and daddy. When we first found out about Kaelyn's situation we were scared, we didn't feel like we were equipped to raise a child with special needs. Neither Wayne nor I had very much experience at all with anyone with any kind of special need. After 2 1/2 years with our little miracle, we feel very different about our abilities as parents. She has shown us the way all along, and taught us that we can do anything with faith in and the help of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Not long after bringing Kaelyn home from the NICU we learned about Reeces Rainbow, a non-profit organization that advocates and helps raise funds for children with Down syndrome and other special needs in parts of the world that are living in orphanages and eventually sent to mental institutions where they sit in cribs/beds all day, with very little interaction with other people. A blog friend of ours was working to adopt a little girl from Russia. From the very beginning I knew in my heart that we would bring one of those dear children home to be a part of our family. I just had faith that I would know when the time was right.

Just after Christmas I saw this special on the ABC World News tonight with Diane Sawyer. I highly recommend you watch the beautiful videos. The minute I watched these videos, my heart started to tell me something, something I didn't think I was ready to hear. Over the next week I would wake up each day wondering if I would feel the same way, if it was really time to find our other little girl. Each day it was re-affirmed through promptings of the Spirit, that yes it is time. Every question I could come up with, every reason that "logically" it doesn't quite make sense was answered with a way it would work out, or why it was right.

I was afraid to talk to Wayne about it, what if said no, what if he didn't agree? Yes, at first he was a little shocked that when I mentioned it to him a few days earlier, that I meant right now, not sometime in the distant future. But he listened, and he opened his heart, and not long after he was on board.

So yes there is a lot more to this story, and there is time to tell, but the short of it is, we are adopting a little girl from Eastern Europe with Down syndrome. We need to be really careful about how much information we put on the blog about her, so until we figure all that out we will be as discrete as possible.

Meet VICTORIA

(That is the name she was listed as on Reece's Rainbow, we don't know her real name)

We would like to invite you to follow along on this exciting journey at her blog, rescuingvictoria.blogspot.com

We will undoubtably need the prayers and encouragement of you, our friends, to help this all happen. It is not an easy task, but we feel we are up to it. We truly believe she is our little girl, meant to be a part of our family forever, and we are going to do everything in our power to get her here.

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Its crazy to think that it was Kaelyn's 3rd Christmas. We were able to spend Christmas Eve with Wayn'e Family. Then we went home and the girls gave us the BEST Christmas present, they both slept till about 8:30. We had breakfast all cooked and ready for us in the Crockpot, thanks to Pintrest. We opened our gifts, went to church and then went back to Wayne's parents house and had a nice dinner and got to skyp with his younger brother that is a missionary in Guatemala. Around 6:00 we got in the car and drove 2 1/2 hours to my parents house to spend a couple days. Bryn did great on her first road trip. She slept the whole way both there and back. It was a good thing because like most kids she is not a big fan being strapped down in the car seat. The holiday's went by too quickly and now Kaelyn and I have spent the last week with an unfriendly head cold. She is toughing it out much better than I. She is still very active and happy, just needs to keep the oxygen on 24/7 till it passes. It is truly a blessing that she has been able to fight this off at home and that we don't have to hit the hospital up for their high flow oxygen. Being sick is bad enough, but its much better when you get to stay at home, take lots of baths and wear your jammies and comfy sweats all day.

Kaelyn zonked out during our Christmas eve "Dunch" (It comes between lunch and dinner) We tried so hard to keep her awake until we got our check and to the car, but she just could't fight it anymore. Luckily she was strapped in pretty good. Don't worry, we didn't leave her in there long, just long enough to get a picture :)

Kaelyn and Daddy playing with their toys on Christmas morning.

Bryn has got the fist bump down...

See!

Kaelyn's never been much for watching tv or anything, but last night I put signing time on the Ipad and she stood there and watched for like 20 minutes. What a great way to sneak in some PT.

"Hey mom they are signing milk, I know that one! Speaking of, will you go get me some?"

Bryn throwing out what of her signature smiles. She love attention and will reward it with lots lots of smiles and cute little noises and shrieks.

Bryn wearing the little outfit I bought for my Brother's baby. I was certain it was going to be a girl, but I was wrong they had a little boy...so Bryn says "Thanks Quinn, this outfit definitely looks better on me than it would on you :)"

Kaelyn and I gave ourselves manicures, but she was being shy about showing it off.

Bryn testing out the Bumbo yesterday. She seems to like it. She can see whats going on much better from up there. We learned that its not the best place to hang out just after she eats though.

And speaking of eating positions, Kaelyn sure has some dandies.

Kaelyn is sure loving all the loot she got this Christmas. She is also learning one of the benefits of a little baby sister is double the fun toys and books. I just spread them all across the room and she just moves from one to the other. If it makes noise, its worthy of her time.

Her main mode of transportation these days is a sweet "surfer crawl". She has been making so much progress in the last few months. We are just in awe as we watch her explore her world and learn all sorts of new tricks.

She sure loves this dinosaur toy of Bryn's. She puts the balls in and watches them bounce around, and then hunts them down when they escape.

"Just warming it up for you sis, till your big enough to enjoy it too"

Playing the fancy new piano grandma gave her. Definitely one of her favorites.

And last but not list, a video of our mom and me dance party tonight. This particular move is the "Dizzy-mater". Its by far her favorite. (Warning: watching this may make you a little queasy, had to tape it myself)

Happening as of Late

We have been doing a lot of hanging out at home these days. It's too cold to go out and we are trying to keep the girls healthy. We have been really blessing in that department lately and we couldn't be happier.

Kaelyn finally decided that holding her own bottle wasn't too bad, and she is doing great at feeding herself.

It has cut feeding time in half for mom, which is quite helpful.

I just couldn't help buying these little kicks for the girls. I have the same ones in blue.

Playing in the laundry basket. Kaelyn thought it was pretty fun being trapped in there.

Back in October Kaelyn and Wayne borrowed our friend's bike trailer and went for a ride. We'll have to get one of these some day, she had a blast. Anything to get out of the house.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

"Dad, I can't sit up quite yet"

The girls all decked out in the Christmas skirts Grandma Amy made for them.

Bryn's Blessing

Sunday December 4th Bryn was given a name and a blessing by her dad. She looked so cute in her white dress. It was fun to see all our family that were able to come and be with us on her special day. The white blanket she is laying on is one that my brother and his wife brought her from Bethlehem, the city where baby Jesus was born.

She is such a sweet little baby. I can't believe she is almost 3 months old. We are so happy to have her join our family!

Life as we know it

For Kaelyn's Christmas present this year I finally got around to putting the first two years of her blog into books. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but never took the time to get it done. Well it's done and the books are on their way. I just think it will be fun to have our story sitting on the shelf where we can read it together as a family. I'm not a scrap-booker, so this will have to do. So seeing that our posts are dwindling less and less each year, I have a new resolution to do at least one post a month, so that we will have something to put in our books at the end of the year.

Things are going really well as we are now a family of four. Those first few weeks were a little rough for Kaelyn. I didn't think she would really notice that we had a new addition to the family, but boy was I wrong. She was not happy about the loss of attention she was experiencing. As much as we tried to give her attention and loves and time, it just wasn't cutting it. It was like a flip was switched and our sweet little girl, that rarely had reason to cry, was just sad. She was really whiney and picked up a few habits from her little sister. She realized that when you cry, you get what you want. Whenever Bryn would cry, Kaelyn would join right in, and at times I couldn't help but cry too. She also started grinding her teeth way bad and hitting herself pretty dang hard with toys, so it would hurt, and she could cry. (Really sad I know)

It was then that I realized that we really did spoil her, not like we had an option...what else could we have done with our time and attention :) I also realized that Kaelyn really didn't cry for like that first year of her life. She never had a reason. We were so worried about getting her weight up for heart surgery that we never let her get hungry and she was just so easy going and chill, she just didn't cry. We knew that crying would burn more calories than anything, so we did everything we could to keep her content. I'm learning that there are times when one of my girls (or both) with have to cry, cause I am only one person and can't do it all and the same time. Last night I did manage to feed Kaelyn her bottle while holding Bryn and keeping the pacifier in her mouth so she would stop crying. Not an easy task, but I wished I had another hand to take a picture of it to show Wayne when he got home.

Well 2 months later we are all doing great and are much more adjusted, even Kaelyn. She is acting more like her happy self, which makes us all happy. She still isn't quite sure about little sister, but she gives her goodnight kisses every night, something that she won't even give Wayne and I anymore :( . She is very patient when Bryn cries now, which is such a good big sister.

Bryn is being such a good little sister. She is starting to have more awake time and gives us lots of big smiles and sounds. She is growing like a champ, at her 2 month appt. today she weighed in at a whopping 9 1/2 pounds. She was however EXTREMELY upset when they gave her the immunizations. I seriously have never heard a baby cry like she did, wow. I'm a little nervous that she has discovered she can reach such a high decible, I hope she doesn't pull it out too often.

See those cheeks, she wasn't born with those.

Smile for the camera little sis

Can I help you?

All decked out for her daddy-daughter date to the first Utah Basketball game

She was a hula girl for Halloween

Fake Smile

Real smile. Its kinda weird, Kaelyn gets "gold eye" instead of red eye in her pictures.

Hmm, wonder what that means?

Working on standing with Sally her EI lady.

We started the holiday season out with a band at the Rasmussen Christmas party. Here's Grandma Ruth with a bunch of her great-grandkids and a few grandkids and aunt Sherri.

This years line up of Great-grandbabies. Baby Cousin Quin was just a few days late for the picture.

Bryn and her cousin Evalyn with Santa. Evalyn was born on Bryn's due date.

Kaelyn on Santa's lap, I wonder what she said she wants for Christmas?

Bryn, Grandma Ruth and cousin Ava. Ava wanted Bryn to hold her finger,

something she is really good at :)

Bryn's First Photoshoot

My Aunt Becky came over this morning and we did a little photo shoot of the girls. Kaelyn's appointment didn't last too long, due to a much needed nap and a little bit of a bad attitude. See below...

To be quite honest Bryn wasn't too thrilled about the whole thing either, but luckily we were able to get a few cute ones.

Don't worry, that is not real wood. They are these cool mats my Aunt has.

She was NOT letting us take that binky away, but I think its still cute.

Original

Edited Antique Style

Edited Fade Color Style

I used iphoto to edit the pictures. It was pretty easy, thank you Steve Jobs for making the Bonner's life a little bit easier :)