Family Date Night!

Last night we had a family date night at the Corn Maze.  We had promised Farrah we would go before Brooks was born and it happened to be the same day as her field trip to the Corn Maze but she didn't seem to mind.  I wanted to take some pictures of Farrah and Brooks together.  It was a challenge but fun!

Oh how I love this girl!!

Our joy and blessings!

Sweet boy!

Our first family picture of four!

After pictures we had some fun at the maze.  It was so much fun watching Farrah running through the maze and telling us which turn we should make.  Thankfully James had a map and and kept us from getting to lost....;-)

This is what Brooks did through the whole maze.

I just love our little family!

Corn Maze fun!

Farrah had her first field trip at the Corn Maze with her school.  She was so excited about her first field trip and getting to ride on a school bus.  I was glad James was off that day so he could keep Brooks at home and I could have some one on one time with her.

I love seeing Farrah with her classmates!  It 's so fun watching her personality and her just being a kid.

I loved having some much needed one on one time with Farrah.

Brooks Jaxson!

On September 22nd James and I had surprise....a baby boy!  September 22nd was just another normal day.  James was enjoying is day off and Farrah and I were at school.  James called and left a message at the school for me to call him when I got a chance.  My heart dropped because I knew James never calls the school unless its an emergency.

I called James and he said that a friend was trying to get a hold of us and I needed to call her ASAP.  I called and she had told us that a young girl had a baby and wanted to place it up for adoption and wanted to see if we were interested.  Of course we said YES!

Brooks birth mom called me about 10 o'clock that morning and told me she had heard we were interested in adoption.  I said yes, and she asked me some questions and then asked if I would come to the hospital to meet with her.

Thankfully I work for a really great and understanding principal and told her what was going on and she told me to leave and go get my baby.  When I got to the hospital I met Brooks' birth mom and she was so nervous and so was I.  She wanted to meet me and just make sure this was what she wanted.  After about an hour of visiting she called the nurse to bring in the baby and told the nurse that the baby's mom was here.  I can't tell you how much joy I had when I picked up Brooks.  He is such an answer to a prayer!

Earlier that morning I woke up at 3:45 and was so frustrated because I knew I had to be up at 5:30 for work.  I just laid in bed and the only thing I knew to do was pray.  I didn't know why I was awake but I knew it was for a reason.  After talking to Brooks birth mom I learned that she had gone into labor at 4am so now I know exactly why I was wide awake at 3:45am.

After a couple of hours the nurse moved us to a private room.  It was so wonderful to be able to stay in a private room with Brooks and just hold and love on him.  The best part was telling Farrah.  Amy picked Farrah up from school and brought her to the hospital.  All Amy told Farrah was that mom and dad had a surprise for her.  I met Farrah in the hallway and she came running up to me.  I told her "Do you remember what you have prayed for for the last three years?"  She said "A baby?"  I told her "Yes, but what kind of baby?"  her response "A baby brother."  I told her "Guess what!  You're a big sister!  You have a baby brother!"  her response was priceless. "We get to keep him?!"  "Yes, baby we get to keep him!"

We are so happy to introduce Brooks Jaxon Fortner!  Born September 22nd 8:06am  6 pounds 12 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long.

Meeting mom and dad for the first time.

 Meeting big sister for the first time!

I love seeing James with both of our kids!  Such an answered prayer!

Farah is a GREAT big sister!

Finally a family of four.

Such a sweet baby!

Ready to head home!

The first morning we were home Farrah came running into our room to see her brother.  I find her all the time just laying next to Brooks and just watching him.  We are all in awe of him!  Every morning she comes to our room and tells me she just needs five minutes to snuggle with Brooks.  Such a sweet moment to watch!

We are so surprised and so happy we have a son!  God has really outdone himself with our children.

1st day of Kindergarten!!

I CAN NOT believe my baby is in kindergarten!!  How in the world did this happen?!?!  Farrah has been excited about starting school.

This year has been a change for our family.  I actually started back to work working at LISD working with Special Ed.  Today was actually fun getting to watch Farrah walk into school and then being able to see her throughout the day.  It made it easier for me to see her having so much fun.

My big kindergartner!

Mom and Farrah's first day of school.

I worked in Farrah's class today and today she was the classroom leader.  Her job was to lead the line to outside, around the school, lunch and anything else Ms. Brown needed her to do.  Here, she helped Ms. Brown teach the kids in her class the rules of their classroom.  Such a fun day for Farrah!

I however learned a great lesson today!  DO NOT wear high heels to school even if they are wedges and seem to be comfortable because you will quickly realize they are not so comfy!  Thank goodness I had my gym bag with my tennis shoes in it and at lunch was now sporting my tennis shoes for the rest of the day!

Ruidoso.....Caroland Family style!

This weekend my whole family went to Ruidoso for one last getaway before school starts.  We love Ruidoso and I would seriously move there tomorrow!  When my whole family gets away we always have so much fun together.  We spend all weekend laughing and eating way to much food.

We spent our first day hiking and playing in the freezing cold river.

For some reason I didn't pack tennis shoes and so I got to go hiking in my flip flops...I DON'T recommend this!

This girl was fearless going up and down the mountain!

 

One of Farrah's favorite things to do is panning for stones.  She loves seeing what kind of different stones and arrow heads she gets.

We have two favorite places we stay at when we're in Ruidoso.  It's either Inns Brook or the Inn of the Mountain God's.  This time we stayed at Inns Brook and it's just fun having my entire family in one big house!

So incredibly blessed by these two!  

Of course we had to make a stop at the Inn of the Mountain God's!

Just as we were about to head home we decided to have one more round of fun.....putt putt golf!  

Such a fun getaway before school starts and the craziness begins!

Last Week of Summer!!

We had a great last week of summer!!  I really wanted to cram in as much as possible and just wanted to enjoy Farrah.  I can't believe she is starting school and I know she is going to get really busy once school starts and I enjoyed every minute of just being with her.

Farrah started off her week with camping with Lula and Poppa in Ruidoso!  Farrah has looked forward to this camping trip all summer and she had a BLAST!!

Farrah has been asking to make cupcakes so we made her favorite....Red Velvet.  We actually had so many cupcakes that we went to our neighbors and shared our cupcakes.

Farrah LOVES blueberry muffins so of course we had to make those too!

I let Farrah invite a friend to go with us to Lubbock Water Rampage.  She and Joey had so much fun!

A couple of nights a week, James does bedtime with Farrah.  This is seriously one of my favorite evenings!  I happened to walk in on James reading Farrah a book and found them like this.  I think Farrah likes the nights dad does bedtime also!

We spent A LOT of evenings outside playing.

One of my favorite things this summer was that I introduced Farrah to the Sound of Music!  This makes me so happy!  She will sit and watch the whole movie with me.

I think this summer has been one of my favorites!  It has seriously been so relaxing and I'm so thankful for the slow pace we had.