SUMMER SUN!

We apologize for not updating our blog for so long, but we've been very busy running after a very energetic 17 month old!! Blake is doing so well and continues to grow and amaze us every day. He is now 22 pounds and I don't remember the exact height he is off hand, but he's getting tall. Our doctor said he is likely to be tall as an adult and believes one of his birth parents was on the taller side. I'm sure he'll outgrow his short mommy! Blake is enjoying the summer sun everyday and we now have a couple of different pools outside to keep him busy. His favorite thing is to spray the water from the hose all over the backyard like a fireman and then chase Lucky, our black lab with it. Lucky isn't too sure about this, but Blake thinks it is hilarious. He is definitely a dog lover and wakes up every morning wanting to go outside to chase them or throw them rocks! Yesterday, my sister, her kids and Blake and I all went to beautiful Snoqualmie Falls and hiked around. I kind of felt like I was doing Pacaya (volcano in Guatemala) again carrying Blake, but of course this was easier! I too am enjoying the summer off from work to spend more time with Blake. Every day we try to something new together like find a new park or other fun place to go. I am also staying busy changing classrooms from the first level of our school to the second which makes sense as I'm moving from Kindergarten to second grade! I am looking forward to this change and having some of my former students :) It has been a lot of work moving and then unpacking, but I'm sure will be worth the change this Fall. We have also been spending time on Pine Lake (where Grandma and Grandpa Williams live) and Blake has enjoyed floating around in his pink and yellow car (I know the colors aren't very boylike, but nevertheless, he loves it)! On our 6th anniversary, August 17th, Chris, Blake and I will be leaving for our annual trip to Canada to fish and enjoy some fresh ocean air. We are looking forward to boating, fishing and looking at bears and seals with Blake!! Hopefully the bears will stay their distance. Last time, one was practically in the backyard of our cabin!! Let's see...what else is new. Blake is still talking up a storm and certain times makes more sense than others. We know that language skills will likely be delayed a bit since I am speaking to him only in Spanish as he is processing two languages. Right now, however, he seems to be doing great! He is talking in both languages and understanding everything I say to him in Spanish. The other day I asked him in Spanish to go get his diaper bag and get out a diaper (just to see if he could) and he did exactly these two things! In English he says: bus, dada, bye-bye, hi, no, poop, Gus (granparent's dog), Remi (our dog), mama (for Grandma), duck, night-night and a few others. In Spanish he says, mas (more), mama (with the accent), casa, bebe (baby), pez (fish), and pato (duck). It is a joy to watch him learn every day - we love him so much - it's hard to even put it into words!! I go back to work on August 28 so we will spend a good 10 days in Canada together as a family. Until then, we will continue playing with dogs, going to the park and spending time with family. It has been so nice to hear of other families experiences upon returning home from Guatemala and to read their blogs. We feel so fortunate to have met so many wonderful people during our adoption experience and have enjoyed staying in contact with them watching each other's children grow up so happy. We hope you enjoy these new pictures of our growing baby! The last picture is a video so click play to see one crazy child!

BLAKE IS 15 MONTHS OLD AND WE ARE AS HAPPY AS CAN BE!

Words cannot express how happy Chris and I are having our sweet little boy home with us. He brightens our day and literally, is always smiling. We have been SO blessed to even have Blake here with us. He is our little angel and we love him SO much! So much has happened since returning home on February 6, so here is a little recap.

We were met at the airport by our immediate family as well as a few good teacher friends of mine. It was like a huge weight had been taken off our shoulders and it felt amazing to be home where we feel so comfortable all the time around our friends and family.

Theday after returning home, we celebrated Blake's 1st birthday, February 7th (pictures on our last entry) and then we left to go to Hawaii for Spring Break on April 14th! It has been a whirlwind with going back to work on March 24th (which is interesting in Kindergarten :), seeing all of our friends and family to introduce to Blake and the list go on and on. We are having a wonderful time and enjoying each minute we have. It is so true how fast the time goes. Every day Blake changes in some way. I have finally decided to go 100% Spanish with Blake and I have been speaking to him in only Spanish ever since February 15th or so. It took me that long to finally make the committment to him and myself to do this wholeheartedly. He is doing an amazing job with it and is understanding phrases such as, "Donde esta tu boca, tu pelota, tus zapatos, etc." He points to his mouth, goes and gets his ball and looks at his shoes! Yahoo! I have to remember though, from being a dual language teacher, that the language will come later - the understanding comes first. So far, so good!

Here are some things that Blake likes to do or has done since we've been home:

1. Say "hi" to everyone that walks by including our two labs every morning!

2. Waves to people when I say, "Dile adios or saludale/hola!"

3. Has had 3 haircuts since returning home (his hair grows like a weed).

4. Plays with his neices Hadley and Savannah and his nephew Cody - he loves them so much.

5. Has ridden in a limousine.

6. Watches baby bunnies in Grandma and Grandpa's yard.

7. Wiggles his fingers around when he's excited or nervous and when I say, "Dedos!"

8. Likes to touch female's legs (I'm a little worried about this one). At the gate in Hawaii, I got a little nervous.

9. If he's not saying "hi" to someone, he says "hot" - these are his two favorite words at the moment.

10. Play outside on our deck and carry the dog dishes around.

11. Chase and play with Remi and Lucky our two labs every day.

12. Play hide and seek and peek-a-boo with whomever will play it with him!

13. Point out school buses on our way to grandma's every morning.

14. Take walks in the jogger stroller.

15. Throw rocks in the drains on the streets to hear the water sound.

16. Throw all of his toys into the bathtub and then once he's in, throw all of them out!

17. Blow kisses to people.

18. Blow daddy's duck call.

19. Eat watermelon (still his favorite).

20. Make funny faces in his carseat as we drive around.

And the list goes on and on! Blake brings us so much joy every day. Although I'm working full time (to pay off our adoption debt), I feel good knowing that Blake is in warm hands with his grandma. She loves him so much and I have to keep remembering that the year is almost over, June 18, so we will be able to enjoy the whole summer with our precious little guy!!

Here are some random Blake pictures including some from our last Hawaii trip! We love you all!

BLAKE IS WALKING!!

We are home sweet home and there is nothing better. There is so much happening that I don't even know where to start. Forgive me if this post is all over the place because it's 10:30PM right now and I'm tired, but so eager to let you know about life back in Washington!! First of all, many people ask us how Blake has adjusted to being in a new country. The answer is, beautifully. He sleeps and eats well and is doing everything he needs to be doing at age 1 (we think)! He is happy, full of life and into everything as usual. And, the most exciting news is HE IS WALKING!!!!!! About 5 days after his first birthday on February 7th (the day after we got home), Chris and I were sitting on the couch watching TV and all of a sudden Blake just took off with this arms straight out in the air like a mummy. We knew he was close, but it was so funny how he just decided to go one day!! It has been quite humorous watching him walk. He now thinks he is way cool and opens every drawer, tries to take everything off of shelves within his reach and pull the dogs tails (so far so good with the two dogs). The babbling is now turning into more defined babbling so the random "ba, ba, ba" is now "dada" or "do" for dog. He tends to leave off the last consonant. Let's see. We celebrated his first birthday party the night after getting home (actually on his birthday) and we had dinner and cake with close family. Chris and I opened gifts not only for Blake, but ones missed from Christmas. My sister, Melaine printed out our whole entire blog in color and put it into plastic sheet covers and then into a large 3 ring binder (see the picture). It is one of the best gifts we've received as it will be so special to share with Blake when the time is appropriate. Oh, we took Blake to the snow on Snoqualmie Pass on Friday and that was a hoot. Chris' sister Heather and two of her three kids came to visit for a week to see Blake so we took the clan up to the pass to sled. As you can see by the pictures, Blake wasn't too sure about being in the cold sledding, but you have to admit he looked so darn cute dressed in camo two sizes too big for him!!!!!!!!!! Today, Chris, our friends from Malibu and I went down to Pike Place Market in Seattle. We had a blast and had to get pictures of Blake with the famous fish throwers (men in orange). Jody and Nik, our friends, loved Blake and we will spend one more day with them tomorrow before we bid them farewell. Last night, Chris' parents hosted Blake's welcome home party and it was so fun to share Blake with friends and family whom we hadn't seen in ages. We had Mexican (close to Guatemalan) food that was delicious and my sister-in-laws worked hard to decorate the house to look Guatemalan. We even put the Mayan guipiles around the chair backs! It was beautiful and we had fireworks on the dock after dark. Blake did great being passed around the crowd, but of course crashed immediately after returning home. Anyway, enough blabbing, let's post the new pictures!!! We love you all and are SO GLAD to be back in the beautiful Northwest!

HOME SWEET HOME AND BLAKE TURNS 1!

I know I always seem to post two topics at once every time I update the blog, but it always just seems to work out this way! We are FINALLY HOME AND TOGETHER AS A FAMILY! We can't even tell you how good it feels to be here. Honestly, we feel like we've died and gone to heaven. We could not be any happier I don't think. We arrived on Wednesday night to our family holding "welcome home Blake" signs at the airport. What a happy feeling to walk off the plane to this. Everyone was crying tears of joy including ourselves and Blake just smiled as usual to make it even more special. He got to meet his Auntie Marne and Uncle Erik along with cousin Hadley, Grandpa Dick and Grandpa Larry for the first time which was really emotional. We went home in cold windy weather, but it felt so good! We truly felt like we were back home. Now, we've spent the last 4 days getting the house back in order, baby proofing the house a bit more, meeting new friends and spending time with family. Oh, I forgot that we've also had a blast driving, going to Target (I love that store) and SAFEWAY!!! What a great store and a nice change from Bodegona where you can barely walk through the aisles.

Blake celebrated his 1st birthday on Thursday night and of course, the whole neighborhood showed up!! He has more new toys now than he could ever need and is intrigued by each one of them. My mom made a lovely dinner and Blake had his very own piece of chocolate cake! He was so tired by the end of the night though that he decided not to eat it. Oh well! On Friday I took Blake to my school to meet my students and staff. It was so nice to see everyone again. My students were overjoyed to play with Blake and had pictures and emails from me on the classroom door. It was very cute. I missed them so much. I will go back to work on March 24th now so it will be nice to not only teach again, but have such a short year!!! I feel like I've already been on vacation for 6 months and now I'll have another summer one! Can't beat that.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your constant prayers, positive thoughts and support throughout this year of our adoption. We are truly blessed and thankful for not only Blake, but for people as wonderful as you. What would we do without you?! All of this waiting was truly worth it. We love you all.