Birthday Celebration

We had a small family party to celebrate Joy's actual birthday. Next Sunday Joy will be blessed (!) and we will be having some family and friends over for cake.
Joy was curious about the flame, luckily we kept Jessi close by to keep her safe (see the video).
Becca made us the cupcakes, but we were out of cooking spray, so they stuck. Jason was able to pry them out, but we couldn't frost them very well, so we have little bunt cake cupcakes with dollops of frosting. :)
Joy likes her new toys. It looks like the other members of her family like them too!
Happy Birthday dear baby!

Taredartzet shnorhavor!

That is Armenian for Happy Birthday!
YEAH!! Baby Joy is now 1 year old!
How has time flown so quickly? We love you, Joy!
We can't imagine life without our sweetheart.

Fun Times

I have been having a lot of fun with my family lately!
Swimming
Swinging
And trying new foods!

New Big Girl Car Seat

Mama got tired of lugging me around in that infant car carrier.
So, I have a new car seat! Besides, I'm a BIG girl now!

Joy's New Loves

Joy loves to eat Cheerios. Why is this important? Because she is eating by herself! And she is learning the pincher grasp - huge! Yeah, Joy!
She is so cute - enjoy!

She also LOVES the water!

1st Mother's Day

This is Joy and I's first Mother's Day.
I am so grateful for this sweet little girl.
I am grateful to be her mother.

Today my thoughts are also with Joy's birthmother.
I am grateful that she allowed me to raise her baby.
On this day especially, I hope she knows that Joy is well and is loved so deeply.

Therapy

Today was therapy. Joy did well, but was fussy for the whole thing!

Here Miss Carolyn is providing pressure against her legs so she can start scooting forward.


Here we are using the fireplace to be her pressure. Crawling, here we come!



Miss Carolyn playing with Joy!
We have the BEST therapist in the world!

May concerts

Joy is being drug all over town for the performances and concerts of her bigger sisters.
But she is a trooper, she just keeps smiling!

We Are Singing Today!

You've had a birthday, shout hurray!
We want to sing to you today!
Eleven months older and wiser too.
Happy Birthday to you!

Joy is 11 months old today!
Amazing!
Happy 11 months old baby girl!

Lady Bugs

Our little Joy has always been our little lady bug.

one of our friends gave us a gift of 1750 live lady bugs to help your plants and garden be protected from aphids and other bugs.

So on to the pictures:

Joy, Izzy and the Lady Bugs

______________________

Bad Hair day for our Joy Joy!

____________________________

Look at all those Lady Bugs

_____________________________

Becca shaking the Lady Bugs onto the Rose.  if you look close you can see the lady bugs falling onto the roses.

____________________________

Invasion of the Lady Bugs!!!!!

Izzy just giggled and giggled as they climbed up her leg.

More Pictures of Adoption Day

 

We brought two cameras to the court to make sure that we got pictures.  In true Murphy's law style the batteries were dead in both cameras and we were only able to get 5 or 6 pictures that were in the previous post.

We asked another couple if they could take a picture of our family sitting on the bench waiting and that is when we discovered that our cameras were dead.

He was so nice that he took pictures with his camera and got our e-mail address and sent us these wonderful pictures.

Turpin Family waiting for Court:

Turpin Family in front of the Judge:

The Courthouse in Fort Bend County:

 

THANK YOU GARLAND for taking the pictures!!!!!!

Adoption Day

Today was a wonderful day!!!!

Today we woke up very early (4:30 for adults and 5 AM for kids - ugh).  Then we got ready and drove through an amazing rain storm down to the Fort Bend County Court House.

We walked into the wrong court.  We obviously looked out of place - so they sent us over to the Family Court, instead of the Criminal Court. (!)

The kids were able to go through their first metal detectors (exciting!).  Upstairs on the third floor, we meet other families having their adoptions finalized.  We were the third family to finalize today.  We all came up to the front (all seven of us!!) when we were called.  We were all sworn in (the Judge was being kind to the kids - it was cute!).  Then the attorney read through the Adoption Decree and asked us a bunch of questions.  Then the judge asked us if we had any questions.  Then he asked the kids if they had any questions.  He handed out a stuffed animal to all the kids.  (They were turtles - we named Joy's "Judge.")   Then he granted the request.  It was over - we have officially adopted Joy!  WAHOO!

Daddy, Joy, and Mama

 

Joy, Daddy, and Judge the Turtle

On the way home, we drove through our old neighborhood and got to visit with my friend, Myra.  That was nice to catch up!

We stopped at the newly re-opened Valley Ranch and Grill for lunch.  It was yummy! 

Five Turpin girls - legally, even!

Our baby is officially 100% ours!  WAHOO!  YEAH! 

Happy Day!!

Beautiful Flowers

Jan, from Jason's work, gave Joy these wonderful flowers for her special day tomorrow!!!
She wrote this cute poem:

Joy! Joy! We're in a whirl!
Now, Joy! Joy! You're our girl!!

(Thanks!!!)

We look forward to going to Court and finalizing the adoption.

New Blankey

Sister Otteson in our ward made Joy a blanket. It is so cute! It is a really cute lady bug print on one side and red poka dots on the other. We love it! Joy loves it!!!
Here is a not-so-good picture of the blanket and then a cute video Bec made of her. Enjoy!

Seeing Double

This morning I put Joy in front of the mirror and she found a friend! She talked and talked to her friend in the mirror. We tried to get pictures, which was hard because we didn't want to get us in the pictures, just Joy. It was fun!





We made a little video. You can see me trying to get out of the way :)
The voice belongs to Becca
At first she is sucking on her hand (translation - I am hungry) and looking at us, but then she sees her friend. Enjoy!

Joy in the Wildflowers

We went to Washington on the Brazos today. The wildflowers were beautiful! Enjoy!

In other news - we have a COURT DATE - April 18th - yeah! Joy will be legally ours! WAHOO! We are so excited!





Video of Joy below:

Happy Joy

I realized that I have left everyone hanging - Joy is better. Yeah!
She is happy again.
Developmentally what are we working on? We are working on drinking from a cup (not interested), sitting and playing with toys (likes that one), and tummy time (we have GOT to crawl before we walk, although Joy would GLADLY skip crawl and go straight to her feet!).
Joy still has no teeth. I read that her teeth might not come in till she's 12-14 months - wow! I see more jars of baby food in my future.
OH! Something else I stumbled upon. Flat heads, hmmmmmmmmm............. Flat heads are common for babies with DS. What? Why didn't I know this sooner? I will figure it all out one day! :)
Joy is babbling non-stop now. It's pretty much just variations of Dada, but it is noise. She also likes to say Baba. I have heard Sasa, but NO Mama - despite my best efforts. :)
Joy has become a Mama's girl. That is not to say that she has developed stranger anxiety, but she prefers me. No complaints here! :)
We are also trying to learn about Armenian culture. Joy's birthday is fast approaching and if there is anything special that Armenians do, I'd like to include it. So I'm researching. We'll see what I find!

A picture and a video of a healthier and happy Joy:

We are seeing spots!

Our sweet baby has hives! The poor thing is covered. :(
We feel so bad for her. They told us that sometimes there is no way to know why a baby suddenly breaks out in hives. She is getting 1/3 of a teaspoon of Benadryl every six hours. We are keeping everything off of her (clothes) and just laying her on her diaper. Poor, sweet girl. In three to four days, we should have our sweet baby back.

In good news, we got the final piece of information that we were waiting on for Joy's adoption. Now it's just up to the attorneys to figure out Texas and California law and make her ours!!! We are hoping to be final before the family reunion in July.