Justin Chad Goeckeritz!

It is official! On Monday, March 21st we went as a family to the Matheson Courthouse downtown and were able to officially adopt our sweet baby Justin. He is now Justin Chad Goeckeritz, and we are thrilled!!

I am still working on his full story...it is long, but I promise to hurry!

Happy Birthday Tate!

Happy Birthday to our Tate O Bug!! 6 Years Old! Tate had a great birthday! We had our family birthday party on Sunday, and then he got to have a friends party at the Living Planet Aquarium on Tuesday.

Tate's Birthday Party Friends!

Petting the stingrays

Tate handing out candies

Ugh! Tarantula! (The kids thought it was really cool though!)

Sterling and Tate driving the boat

Our host, Devonte, took the kids on a treasure hunt throughout the aquarium.






It snowed on Tate's birthday, which he thought was awesome! (I liked that it melted 2 days later :) He and Max had fun playing in the snow with Chad and building a fort. Justin and I stayed inside and watched from the front window.

Baby Justin!

Here (finally!!) are some pictures of our baby bug. The whole story and lots of pictures are on their way...I will probably wait until after the adoption is final in a month or so. I thought everyone might want to see this cute little guy who has wrapped us around his finger!

Our Little Christmas Miracle

We have wonderful news! In an amazing twist of events, baby J's sweet birth mother has asked us to be his permanent family, and unexpectedly relinquished all of her rights last week in court. We are thrilled beyond measure to be able to have this little Christmas blessing in our forever family! Our adoption date is set for March, and I promise to post a slew of pictures (and give the whole wonderful story!)

Decking the Halls

The boys have been requesting to set up our Christmas tree since Halloween. We were able to convince them to wait until after Thanksgiving. So, bright and early, the day after thanksgiving the boys were up and ready to decorate!

Tate hanging an ornament

Decorating the tree would not be complete without a bowl full of mint m and m's!

Max hanging up some of his decorations

The boys favorite part of decorating for Christmas is getting the "Christmas Train" out

Chad decorating the tree

Lindsay decorating the tree

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving at my parent's house. There was plenty of yummy food, and it was great to be with our family. Here are some of the highlights!

Bri and Kev playing a little checkers

Chad, Tate, T, Bri, Max, Grandpa Craig, Kevin, and J setting up the electric trains

Mom and Grandma

Let's Eat!

We are definitely very grateful to have little J. in our home and in our lives. He received this darling bib from a nurse in the NICU who had fallen in love with him (who wouldnt?!)

The boys and I decided to make a "Mayflower" cake. Max is pretty sure it is a Max cake though, because we put "M"'s on each of our sails--and as far as he is concerned, every M stands for Max!

Of course we had to have a "silly" picture too!

Quick Update

We're home!! After 9 days in the hospital we made it home last Thursday. J is doing really well, and is already up to 6lb. 3 oz.! (He was born at 3 lb 7 oz, and we brought him home the first time at 4 lb 11 oz.) We still have some medical issues we are dealing with, but are happy to report that he is breathing at all times with no apnea! We love this little guy!