There's a new Sheriff in town!

Meeting Great Grandma & Grandpa

Last week, my Grandparents & my Uncle came to visit (from Colorado). This was the first time Thomas has ever gotten to meet his Great Grandma & Grandpa. I was so happy that they got to meet Thomas. He also loved playing with Uncle Dale, who we nicknamed The Cat Whisperer. He tamed my parents evil, wild kitty down enough for Thomas to sit and pet him. Thomas loved Uncle Dale, too.

Thomas cracks me up as we have him "sleeping" in many pictures. I guess I just "click" when his eyes are closed. Anyways, this is a picture with Thomas's Nama & Nama Onohu (Donohue, but that's how he says it).

This was the first day he met them. He loved Dampa Onohu (Donohue). I am so happy that we have pictures like this to show Thomas when he's older.

Well, Jim has left us for 2 weeks to go fight fire near Abilene, Texas. He recorded a special book for Thomas (from Hallmark) and Thomas loves to open the book and hear Daddy's voice. Thomas gave Jim a little fire-fire toy he has, so Jim is taking pictures w/ the toy so Thomas can look at this summer. The fire-fire will stay with Daddy all summer and appear in lots of pictures.

Let's make it official!!

We met with the SW last week for a routine visit at our home. She was very impressed with how Thomas has grown both in height and in skills. He's talking like crazy and speaking sentences. His personality is coming out, too. She shared some exciting news that we should hopefully FINALIZING the adoption by mid-May or early June. This means we will go down to the court house (with lots of close friends & family) to sit with a judge. He will make the final decision and sign the paper to make Thomas James Huston, official. We are so excited, as someone shared "this has been such a long pregnancy." My reply was "yea with lots of complications, too." We also have come to another point in the adoption process where we will prepare ourselves to go back on the list to adopt another boy. We unfortunately won't be moving soon to a larger house (w/more bedrooms) so our kids will have to share a room. In the foster system, you can only have 2 children of the same sex share a room. So, we will wait patiently for a brother for Thomas.
Please stay posted for information on the celebration date and finalization ceremony.

Cousin Luke's Birthday Party

Yesterday Thomas got to celebrate his cousin Luke's 3rd Birthday. There were a lot of little cousins there that Thomas got to play with, too. They had pizza, cupcakes, a jumpy jump and a pinata. Thomas loves the jumpy jump and played most of the party in it. He is a risk taker and loves doing "risky" things that will probably find us visiting the Emergency Room when he's older. All the kids would slide down the slide and get off on the side of the slide. Not Thomas, he found the big inflatable part at the end of the slide (that kept them from sliding off) and he'd jump feet first onto the ground. As all the kids were jumping, I looked up and found Thomas sitting ON TOP of the safety tarp, near the top of the jumpy. He said "Hi Mom"!! I freaked out and yelled, "Oh my gosh, Thomas is on the top!!" My instant fear was that he'd jump off (which was about 20-30 feet to the ground. Other parents began scrambling as we tried to get Thomas back to the bottom. My heart was pounding!! When he got back down, he went "whew" as if he were tired.

(Here's a picture to of where Thomas was sitting. Up near the corner - Right Side)

Our boy has so much energy!!

My cousin, Kerri w/ Thomas. She is Luke's mommy!!


He wasn't quite sure what to do with the pinata. Especially because after he'd hit it, it'd come back and hit him.

Here's the Birthday Boy........Luke!! He's Thomas's cousin & best friend.

Random bits of stuff

I can't believe it's been like 3 weeks since I've posted. Well, let's just say "I'm a busy Mommy with a busy 2-year-old". Over the last few weeks, Thomas' vocabulary and creative sentences have really started to come out. He suprised us a few weeks ago with "sure did" for an answer to a question. It went something like this "Thomas did you have fun in Sunday School today?" his cute and innocent reply was "sure did"!! When something goes wrong he's started to say "oh drat!" I know it's not the four letter word you're thinking of, because we don't talk like that in our home. He likes to play like he's reving a motorcycle on his choo-choo bike. He rode with Papa on a four wheeler in Papa's garden, so he talks about it a lot. He absolutely loves to play outdoors. He loves to tell us "come here Mama" or "come here Daddy". When we laugh with him, he looks at us puts out his hand and says "STOP and shhshh". He has discovered his ability to walk backwards. When we go to Seaworld, he likes to walk, not ride in his stroller, so he goes backwards and laughs. He has fun chasing the pigeons at Seaworld. The other night he was running from the kitchen to the living room, none other than sideways. His little laughter was so contagious and we couldn't help but laugh our eyes out at him. He is learning his alphabet and how to count. He tells us to put our heads down when we pray. So there's a bit of random stuff that's been happening in the Huston home.

Still waiting a phone call with any updates from our SW. We know it's part of the waiting process, so we just enjoy parenthood and don't worry about the small stuff.

Thomas has his own game on the PS3 that is a car or truck that drives around and knocks over stuff, like rubber ducks, blocks, soccer balls and other stuff. He moves the controller from side to side to drive circles. He loves to push the button to honk the horn. He knows how to "go back" in reverse.

If you sprinkle when you tinkle...

If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat!!

Thomas has been giving a lot of clues that he's ready to start potty training. So tonight we put his big boy chonees on and left his stool by the toilet. He kept saying "go pee pee" and we'd go in with him. He'd stare at the toilet and then at us. Finally as Jim and him were reading a story on the couch, he got off the couch, and Jim asked him if he had to go pee pee. He said no, then stood there, dropped his chonees and went in the bathroom. He made it to the toilet and went pee pee standing up. We were so excited, we clapped and said "Good job Thomas, such a big boy." He was so excited and so we called Nama & Papa and he told them he "pee peed in the potty" and they were so excited, too. So we are officially working on potty-training. Next phase of parenthood.

Almost done!!

So this evening we recieved a phone call from Thomas' SW. She shared with us some exciting news that today was the court hearing for the appeal that the BM filed. The judge ruled a rejection on the appeal, in our favor. So what next?? His SW and our SW will meet to fill out some paperwork and wait for a scheduled hearing date of the FINALIZATION for the adoption.

We are so excited as this long process is coming quickly to a close.

Tonight we want you to Praise God with us, as he has been in control of this whole process.