Beautiful Baby Contest

I entered both the girls into a Beautiful Baby Contest to help a couple families raise money for their Reece's Rainbow adoptions. Go here to vote for them. http://www.facebook.com/questions/235687086515807/

**Be sure to pick Kaelyn with "Y" or Bonner for Bryn. The winner gets a Target gift card. We could use it to buy some matching clothes for the girls and Victoria :)

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.

All by myself

So a few weeks ago I was telling Wayne about a movie that I wanted to see, "The Mighty Macs". Its about a women's college basketball team, and I thought it looked like it could be pretty good, and I gotta support a women's sport film. So he told me I should go. I have never gone to a movie by myself, and wasn't too excited about the idea, but with 2 kids its a little harder to get to a movie and I didn't think it would be Wayne's style of movie so I thought, what the heck. Needless to say I didn't have to be too embarrassed to be by myself, because I was LITERALLY the only one in the theater. I had to document it to send to Wayne and yes I texted all I wanted during the movie and even called him. Good times.

I'm slowing getting back into running, 4 miles is my max right now. The other night I went out for a quick run around the lake after Wayne got home from work and this is what greeted me about halfway through my run. Thank goodness for my new phone so I could get a few decent pictures of it. Can't remember the last time I saw a sunset...ha ha, don't get out much.

Crafty Time

I was trying to figure out what I wanted to put on top of the wardrobe in Bryn's room and then my friend Liz introduced me to the Wood Connection in Salt Lake and I got an idea. They sell pre-cut letters in a couple of different fonts, so I chose the one I wanted, went to Hobby Lobby and got scrapbook paper, paint, spray glue and accessories. I was pretty happy of how they turned out, just don't look too close (what I have to say about all my craft projects).

8 Week Challenge - Holiday Edition

I just wanted to let you "all" know, if there is really anyone out there that reads this blog :), that they are starting another 8 week challenge on October 30th through December 24th, if you would like to participate. I can't wait!! It will get me through the holidays with eating myself sick and help me get a start on losing my baby weight. I am happy to report that I finished the last challenge with a perfect score and ended up winning $41 (minus the $15 I put in), so really $26, which I used to buy some new running shorts. Can't wait to put those to good use, but for now I walk, ride the stationary bike and elliptical it up.

Check out the blog to see if you are interested in joining in!! I HIGHLY recommend it. Let me know if you think you will do it.

http://8weekstoabetteryou.blogspot.com/

Little Sister Has Arrived

Bryn Lois Bonner was born yesterday at 8:07 a.m. via scheduled C-section. Its a good thing because the little lady was breech, so even if I hadn't had a classical c-section with Kaelyn, and required a c-section from here on out, it is quite likely we would have needed to do one with her anyway. So once again all works out just the way it was suppose to :)

She came out at 5 lbs 14 oz, 19 inches long. My guess was that she would be 5 lbs 11 oz, 19 inches long and Wayne guessed 5 lbs 4 0z, 17 inches long...so I won on both accounts :)

Proud father of two!

I got to be the first one to hold her.

Kaelyn all decked out in her big sister outfit.

Look at all that hair. That really was a surprise. I kept picturing her with dark hair, but didn't think it would be possible.

Its like my little baby girl grew up overnight! Look how old she looks.

What a proud big sister!

Wednesday - Project day

Wayne started school today. He is getting his MBA, so that means that Wednesday's are just us girls all day/night long. To keep for getting bored out of our minds, we have instituted "Wednesday Project Day!" Here is how today went. We got up, went for a walk, came home, finished organizing the basement, which looks quite nice if I do say so myself. Kaelyn is quite the helper as she is very patient and plays by herself while her mama tackles the projects.

Then we began work on our first of 3 1/2 sewing projects. Our friends Liz and Oakley came over to make one too. It was much funner having them there while we worked. If you can't tell, this is a car seat cover, I wanted to make one for Kaelyn, but never got around to it so we just stuck a blanket over the car seat, this will be much more handy, and stylish. Hopefully it does a good job at keeping the germs and cold air out. Liz made a cute little monkey one for the little boy they are expecting in November. I wish I had a picture of it.

Got the instructions here, the ribbon straps were my idea.

Since my sewing machine was out and my carpet was already covered in loose threads I thought, what the heck. I guess I'll finish the blanket I started over a year ago for Kaelyn. It was suppose to be part of her 1st birthday present, but now it's her, "You are going to be a big sister" present. After I finished I laid her on it and could instantly tell she loved it. She just laid there and did snow angels on it and rubbed her cute little fingers back and forth. Its REALLY soft and cuddly.

I made it big enough to last her well into adulthood :)

Well I was on a roll, so I tackled another baby blanket that I had bought the fabric for a couple years ago (the last time I got the sewing itch). This little number will be for baby Bryn, that is what we are naming our little girl. Bryn Lois Bonner. Lois is the name of both my and Wayne's grandma's. No, we don't have the SAME grandma, different women, same name, both amazing. I grew up down the street from my grandma Lois and have always admired her and wanted to use her name for the middle name of my daughter. So when I found out Wayne had a grandma Lois, I knew he would go for it. This little girl will have a lot to live up to with that middle name :)

Bryn's first very own froggy blankey

One of the hardest parts (for me) of working with feeding Kaelyn spoon fed foods is how messy she gets. So I made a few of these little shirts for feeding time. I just cut them up the middle back and then sewed on some ribbon to tie around her neck. This is my 1/2 sewing project because it took about 1 minute, but worked great today. I got the little tee shirts at Hobby Lobby for $3 each. I am now banned from that store, instituted by myself. I went there the other night and spent too much money, but got lots of cute stuff :) Kaelyn and I walked down there for our daily exercise. It was a mile down and a mile back. We spent about 2 hours in the store walking up and down every isle, so I figure it was about a 4-5 mile trip.

Kaelyn's full coverage bib-tee

So now I'm exhausted and my back aches worse than normal from all the sitting on the ground and hunching over, but it was worth it. What will next Wednesday bring? We will have to wait and see :) And yes, 2 posts in 2 days, pretty amazing for me. As part of the challenge I need to write in my journal everyday, and this counts, so I thought what the heck.