We sort of feel like we have been in motion since receiving our LOA. I am making lists and checking them off. This weekend we worked on Mason’s room. We moved the entertainment center out of his room and repositioned the guest bed so that it is out of the way. Scott and the kids put together the crib and I started getting clothes in the dresser. It is so exciting and REAL when you start folding those little t-shirts and mini cargo pants. I will post pictures of his room when it is finished.

Everybody got a turn, screwing together parts of the crib. It is so fun for them to have a part in all that we are doing to get ready to bring Mason home.

This afternoon, after church, we took the kids to Build a Bear and they made a bear for Mason. They picked a soft panda bear. It was so sweet to see them kiss three little hearts and put them in the bear. They stuffed it and gave it a “bath” and then brushed his fur so that it was fluffed up. Then they worked together and picked out a Rockies t-shirt and pair of jeans to fit the bear. We all had fun and I know that Mason will love his new bear. Scott and I are planning on taking it with us when we travel.

The kids went back to school last week on Wednesday. It feels good to get back on a routine. Sam was thrilled to go back to karate and Alice and Paige both missed ballet. They have been living in ballet dress up since we have been home. Grandma Peggy~ Paige loves her ballet bag and packed it full of tutus and extra leotards for ballet class last week.

Jennifer

Sam got this super cool sled for Christmas from Santa. The only problem was that on Christmas it was 55 degrees and sunny, not a lick of snow anywhere. The day was beautiful and while the kids were opening presents we had the back door propped open and man were we enjoying the beautiful weather. Well, we left for Michigan for a week and that sled stayed under the tree. When we returned home on Saturday the weather still looked nice although we could see the storm clouds looming over the mountains. By mid afternoon the flakes started to fall and they didn’t stop until Sunday evening. We got about a foot of snow! It was so pretty around here. I really love all the weather in Colorado, sunny, snowy. So…I bet you can guess what we did. Sledding!!! Wow, I was just tired from getting all three kids is winter wear. We all had a ton of fun and left cold and happy.

Okay….maybe not windy. While we were gone, CS had a bad wind storm and our playground (that is what the kids call it) blew over, broke up and landed half in the ravine. Here is the damage.

Bummer!

Have a awesome day!!!

Today I am pondering paint colors for Mason’s room. Wish me luck!

Jennifer

LOA!!!!!!!

We received the call from our agency on the ride home from Michigan! We received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) on January 2nd. We are so excited because this means that we will be traveling in 5-8 weeks! Wow! We have lots to do to get ready to travel including finishing classes, getting Mason’s room ready, tons of paperwork, sending off Mason’s 2nd care package, etc. etc………my mind is spinning! Stay tuned for more updates. Now we are waiting for our travel approval.

Here we come Mason!!!!
Jennifer

We are still here just busy visiting our family and friends in Flushing, MI. We drove (yes, we are crazy) last week on Christmas afternoon. It took us two days of pure family fun to arrive but we did make it safe and sound and not completely insane. Believe it or not, we only watched 3 videos and ate at McDonald’s once. Woohoo!! We are hoping to get on the road towards home on Friday morning. Stay tuned for more Wescott family fun.

Alice and Paige are having a blast playing with the dress up clothes in Grandma and Papa’s basement and hanging out with thier MI cousins. I will update with more photos after we get home.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Scott, Jen, Sam, Alice, Paige and Mason too!

When all through the house, Mom was running around in a panic trying to remember everything to pack!

Okay, so it really hasn’t been that bad 🙂 Boy does it take a lot of stuff for this family of five (soon to be six) to get on the road. 21 sets of kids clothes, 21 pairs of socks, 6 jammies, 21 pairs of undies, pull-ups, 4 pairs of tights, 2 Christmas dresses, 5 toothbrushes, a comb, too many hair ribbons to count, 3 pair of winter boots, 3 warm coats and snow pants, hats, mittens, extra mittens, camera, camcorder, 2 computers, snacks for the car, DVD player, DVDs, toys, games, books, crayons, presents, presents, presents….wow! And to think that we don’t even have to pack the baby stuff this year! No pack-n-play, bibs, bottles, diapers for a week, slings, booster seat…okay, well, you get the picture. So it definitely could be worse 🙂

Yes, we are driving all the way to Michigan this year. We are hoping to leave on Friday morning and get an early start. Depending on the weather, maybe Thursday night. I am hoping that we don’t have to leave on Christmas mainly because it would be nice for the kids to enjoy Christmas before the long drive. We are really trying to look at this as a really fun adventure. Think of all the cool stuff we will see on the way. Cows….errr…a couple trees…a farm in Iowa….more cows. We will definitely get tons of family time. That will be fun, right?!?!? Anyway, there is goodness at the end of the road, Grandma and Papa, aunts and uncles, many cousins will be waiting with big hugs and kisses. What could be better than that? We can’t wait!!

Today we will be celebrating Christmas Eve at my parents house with my brother and his family. We will also be joined this year by Kent and Victoria, Brendan and Ellie and Vic’s parents. It is sure to be a great day! Afterwards, we will head to the candlelight service at church, something I look forward to all year long.

We are thinking of Mason on this day, just as we do everyday and hoping that he is well and happy. We cannot wait to hold and kiss you and celebrate the day that you become part of our forever family. That will be the best present of all!!!!

Merry Christmas to all! May you find peace in this season….

From our family to yours!

Love, Scott, Jennifer, Sam, Alice and Paige (Mason too!)

Alice had her winter ballet performance last night and Paige had hers this morning. They both LOVE their classes and teachers. Alice’s class did a very pretty dance. She danced beautifully and we were amazed how well she picked it up (she only started about a month ago).

Paige’s class was also adorable (ages 2 1/2 to 4 1/2) dressed in candy cane t-shirts and black tutus. As you can see from the pictures, Paige refused to wear the costume because she thought her leotard was too pretty to cover up. She also chose her own moves in lieu of the choreographed dance that her teacher planned. Nevertheless, she is adorable and kept us giggling.

Above, Alice in her pretty costume and dancing with her best friend Abby. Paige with her dance teacher and showing off some of her own moves.

Have a great day~ nine days until Christmas!

Jennifer

The Wescott girls anyway! There really doesn’t seem to be a time when red velvet isn’t appropriate. In the month of December my girls have chosen to wear their hand-me down red velvet Christmas dresses as much as possible. Check out Paige and Alice wearing their velvet to decorate the gingerbread house.

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This weekend was pretty much dedicated to the Christmas Program at church. We had our practice on Saturday morning and then the program on Sunday. All the kids did awesome and looked adorable in their costumes. Alice was an angel and Sam was a shepherd. Paige was in the choir with the other kiddos her age. She had a bit of stage fright and ended up on a volunteer’s lap. Oh well, maybe next year. All together we had 38 children participate in the program. I think that might be the most children that we have ever had!! Wow! Next year, I am going to take a break and sit back and watch 🙂 My husband says “yeah, right!”.

Sam and his best friend Ellie as shepherds.

Our little angel.

Sunday afternoon we attended the Colorado Werschky Christmas Party. We had good food to snack on and great company! We always have fun with the white elephant gift exchange. Here are some more pics of the kids. Note-girls in red dresses. It is a Christmas party after all!!!

By the end of the weekend, we were all exhausted…

Here is Paige, asleep on the bathroom floor. She was too tired to get on the potty….

Have a great week! 10 more days until Christmas! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Jennifer

Life here is good. Scott and I are finally getting over our colds and our busy weekend.
Friday night we stopped off at Kent and Vic’s for Kent’s birthday happy hour/ dance party/ etc.. We then headed to my brother’s house for dinner to celebrate mom’s birthday. Stacie made a yummy dinner and dessert.
Saturday, we dropped the kids at the church for a parent shopping day. I am sure that they had so much more fun than the parents. They crafted, ate lunch, sang…! Saturday night we got a sitter and went to Scott’s work party. It was very nice but because we were still feeling under the weather we bugged out early.
Sunday, Scott worked and I spent most of the morning at church. In the afternoon, Scott, Sam and Alice went out to find me a Christmas tree. Let me start out by saying, I love going out into nature to find our tree every year. It is always an experience that causes tons of laughter and fun, but takes LOTS of time and energy. Anyway, with everything going on this year, I really didn’t want to add to the stress by hiking through the mountains (with three kids) looking for the perfect tree. This perfect tree usually looks beautiful out on the side of a mountain but really big, I mean really really big and sparse in our living room. As fun as that can be (with three kids), I needed to forgo the experience this year. They brought home a lovely tree from the lot, full and just the right size for our home, without the much needed trimmings of years past. I am sure that next year, we will be craving our usual Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We will pack up our FOUR kids in to the Cruiser and head into the forest in search of our tree and have tons of fun along the way. Isn’t that what it is really about anyway? (I do sort of feel like we cheated on our tree this year with a fuller greener trimmed version).

Sam, Alice and Paige taking turns helping Scott cut off the bottom of the tree.

Sunday night, we had dinner here with the Young’s. I didn’t feel up to going out so we ordered Chinese food and let the kids play. Fun was had by all.
Thanks to Kim today, for the yummy lunch and good conversation! I always enjoy our mom lunches (even if Paige is there).

A picture of our beautiful tree taken by Alice

My sweet girls

Love to you all!

Since my last post, we have been way too busy and I think that it has gotten the best of us. Scott and I have come down with nasty colds. Today is the first day, all week, that I have felt like my head wasn’t in a cloud. Scott traveled to Dallas on Wed. and Thursday for a meeting and I have been trying to get organized for Christmas. It seems like I have so many open ended commitments right now that need to be finished before Christmas. Every time I leave the house for a meeting, Scott reminds me to sit on my hands when volunteers are being summoned. I am starting to believe that that is great advice. Christmas programs and winter school parties, shopping and baking, Oh my! Okay, I have to admit, I don’t bake, but it did sound good.

Yesterday, Scott and I headed to Greeley to speak to a foot and ankle specialist regarding Mason’s feet. When I woke to falling snow, I began to doubt whether or not we would be going but Scott thought we should try so we headed up north, hoping that the snow showers would stop. (He is much braver than I) The trip wasn’t horrible; we just had to go slow and really watch the road conditions. The temp was only in the teens so the snow wasn’t melting, just turning into ice. It took us 2 hours to get there and 4 to get back. 2 words…Denver traffic. We had to go straight through Denver at rush hour and with poor driving conditions, the trip home seemed endless. Anyway, we made it home, full of valuable info and happy to have met the doctor that will be treating Mason. My only hope is that we have a warm, dry spring as I will be taking him back and forth between Greeley every 7-10 days during casting.

I am trying to lay low today because we have a busy weekend ahead of us. Scott wasn’t so lucky. He is at work crunching numbers with no clear end in sight. Unfortunately, he is a day behind me with his cold and wasn’t feeling any better this morning.

Off to address Christmas cards. Maybe this sounds better….shopping and Christmas cards! Oh my!

Have a great weekend. Stay warm.
Jennifer