Mr. Giggles and New Friends!

I'm off to Nebraska tomorrow for work for a few days but wanted to update real quick!

Grandma & Grandpa are going to babysit Turner tomorrow so I'm sure he will be spoiled rotten when I get home! But that's ok! Nothing beats playing with Grandparents!

John, Turner and I met up with Luke, Kelley, Grey and Rawley last week for dinner at Toby Keith's. The boys were so good with Turner.

Kelley-we had so much fun and need to do it more often! I hope our boys can grow up together and be friends! I'm sure Grey and Rawley can teach Turner how to be a "real cowboy!"

Grey was playing peek a boo with Turner and by the grin on his face, he loved it!
Mr. Popular

Last week, we had our 1st play group with other adoptive/bi-racial kids. It was a blast and was so refreshing to visit with other moms who have a heart for adoption too!

I'm learning that it is going to be nearly impossible to get pictures with all the kids looking at the camera!

Sweet Aunt Kelley and Turner!

Introducing Mr. Giggles!

Another busy week!

It seems like now more than ever, the weeks are flying by! This week was certainly no exception. I had to travel a few days this week so John has been a trooper taking care of Turner on my overnight trips. He even got an A+ for dressing him in cute clothes this time. I never know what Turner will be wearing when I get back to town. But papa did a wonderful job making sure he matched! We love you to the moon and back John~!

On Monday, we had our last interview with Deaconess before we can officially start the finalization of Turner's adoption. We have already met with our attorney and just as soon as he gets the paperwork from Deaconess he'll file it with the state. Hopefully by late April we will go to court and finalize our adoption and celebrate Turner's "Gotcha Day!"

Too cute for his own britches!

Turner and our precious adoption specialist, Sandy, on our final interview. We have been so blessed by the ladies at our adoption agency. They truly are women of God who care deeply for both the adoptive families and our birthmoms.

His 1st attempt at Sweet potato's last night. And by the looks of this picture, can you tell he enjoyed every single spoonful!

Outfit #1 picked out by Papa....This was the 1st shirt John bought for Turner when he was born.

It says:

"Proud producer of natural gas!"
Oh how true that is :)

Trying so hard to crawl. I love the look of determination in his eyes.

Cheese mommy!

Turner is now fully aware of the dogs. Just this morning, he grabbed Lexus' ears and started smiling! We will definitely need to start teaching him how to respect his 2 sissy's !

Another adorable shirt Aunt CC made for Turner. Check out those sweet chubby legs.

Stay tuned for fun pictures of Turner's new friends!

Snuggle up with your hubby and/or kids this weekend and stay warm!

2009 SPRING BREAK

Before I share pictures of Turner's 1st Spring Break trip, I need everyone to go to the below blog and check out what 3 amazing women are doing to make additions to the Oklahoma adoption laws, so that Oklahoma can be more "adoption friendly" like many other of our bordering states.

http://promoteokadoption.blogspot.com/

I can tell you our birth mother was also very nervous about going to court to terminate her rights. I strongly believe she would have gladly terminated her rights before she left the hospital if that would have been an option for her. Thank you "Murphy girls" for being so passionate about adoption, birth mother rights, as well as adoptive parents. It's going to be so cool to see what these 3 women accomplish in the next few months! You Rock ladies!

For Turner's 1st Spring break, we took a trip with Aunt CC & Eric to Eureka Springs, Ar. We had an absolute blast! The weather was perfect, we managed to eat way too much, watch several good movies, enjoy reading & birdwatching and definitely got some good R&R. Aunt CC got to love on her little man all weekend long.

Here are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy

2009 Spring Break: Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Sunday morning, Aunt CC, Eric, and Turner enjoyed swinging in the hammock, watching all the birds, and enjoying the warm sun before we headed back to Oklahoma

We found this bargain at the dollar store at Holiday Island. Can you tell he's having fun standing and playing with all the neat attachments. So determined to walk to his new play table! Look at that stare...

Turner's big boy outfit for Saturday's dinner at Ermilio's. He sat in big boy high chairs all weekend long and behaved like a little angel!

Laughing at daddy making snake noises!

We woke up to this view Saturday morning. You can't beat drinking coffee and eating a yummy breakfast (thanks John for cooking for us all weekend long) with this as the background!

The 500 ft statue of Jesus at The Passion Play. It's breath taking

How cool is this picture! Thanks Eric for being such a good sport with all my picture taking. One of these days, you'll learn to love pictures as much as the Felix girls :)

Turner sure enjoyed the day outside. He loves his stroller and was such a good sport with mommy and Aunt CC going into all the stores.

The Cresent Hotel in Eureka Springs, aka "The most haunted hotel in America"

Friday afternoon was spent walking the streets of Eureka Springs enjoying the sunshine. We met up with Aunt Georgia & Uncle Charles for lunch.

I absolutely love spring time! All the flowers were in full bloom.

Turner was having a good time just relaxing and playing with his Aunt CC

Eric-you know I had to post about this...sorry you didn't escape it :)

On Friday morning we hurried around to get ready so we could head to Eureka Springs fairly early and beat the spring break crowd. Of course, I was the last one to get ready so John & sis were giving me grief that they were all ready..just waiting on me. So we grab all of our stuff and headed out to load up the car and lo and behold, Eric had managed to lock the keys in the car....I laughed, thinking quietly, I was SO glad it was him and not me! So like all men, he wanted to try and unlock it himself vs calling a locksmith. Nearly an hour and a few scratches later, Crystal convinced him to give it up and we called a locksmith! It made for a humorous start to our Friday. It's a good thing we are all pretty laid back and didn't have any "real plans".

Turner's new shades...Thanks Rawley & Grey for sharing them with us. He loved them! And boy did people smile when they saw Turner coming down the street.

My sick little love bug.....

Well you can't tell it from any of these pictures, but I've had a sick little boy this weekend/week. On Thursday night Turner started coughing and running a fever, so like all 1st time moms, I panicked. I couldn't get in to see my pediatrician so I had to settle for the nurse practitioner. After waiting 2 hours in the "sick" waiting room, she told me to give him motrin and lots of lovin :) So I took the day off and did just what the doctor ordered.

Once Monday rolled around, Turner was still feeling pretty crummy and could hardly breath because of all of the congestion, so I went back to see his pediatrician. Thankfully he prescribed an antibiotic which is working like a champ and Turner is almost back to himself. Tomorrow we leave for Eureka Springs with my sister and her boyfriend for a nice long weekend. We're all looking forward to some R&R.

Turner's new favorite toy! Thanks Reese for the puppy dog...I love it!
He's so close to crawling!

Turner's 1st St. Patrick's Day

He managed to give me a sweet little grin after a sleepless night!

Yesterday, Turner sat all my himself for nearly 4 minutes without falling! He is such a strong little man

His 1st trip to the doctor for a sick visit!

Well better get to bed because we have an early start tomorrow morning. Hope everyone has a blessed weekend

A week in pictures

Another week has managed to fly by! Turner attended his 1st round of basket ball games last Friday and Saturday. Friday night we cheered on PC West and then Saturday cheered for our cousin's 6 grade basketball game in OKC. We got to see Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Georgia & Uncle Charles and Turner finally got to meet his cousins: Jeff, Kristen, Garrett, & Blanton. Turner loved all the loud music, clapping and screaming fans!

This week Turner started "big boy" daycare at Kathy's. She is a precious little lady who keeps a few kids at her house less than 2 miles from our home and on my way to work! Was God's hand in that or what? I was a little nervous because Turner LOVED Alisa and Lindsay (and so did I) but he has adjusted like a champ. He absolutely loves the kids at Kathy's...there are 5 of them with ages ranging from 2 years to 5 years old. He especially loves her granddaughter, Emma, who comes over after Pre-K 3 times a week. She can certainly make him giggle! Kathy was so sweet to allow me to come over every day for lunch to love on my little angel and put him down for his nap.

Turner is constantly changing every single day. Each day, it seems as if he's doing something new....

Turner loves going on walks in the stroller...he takes it all in! I can't wait til the weather warms up so we can go to the zoo!


This week, he has really done a great job sitting up all by himself like a big boy. He's getting so strong. He still loves his bath time..and since he's more active, he gets a bath before bed time each night! And loves every minute of it.

He has started sucking on his toes...if it wasn't so cute, I'd get a little grossed out!

And he now LOVES cereal! I'll try to record him eating tonight and post in the near future...he's like a little piggy scarfing it all up and making a HUGE mess! It's hilarious.

Mommy playing dress up!

1st day at Kathy's

Turner loves board books...especially chewing on them. Nothing like the taste of good 'ole cardboard. (and yes, that is spit up)

He can even hold his bottle all by himself (mom-don't worry, I won't let him do it in his bed like the picture shows...I was just "staging" a picture)

We got a nice surprise call from Lolly & Pops last night that they are going to come see us on Saturday & Sunday! We can hardly wait.

Happy 5 month Birthday Turner!

It's hard to believe today our little angel is 5 months old! Oh how I fall more and more in love with Turner as each day passes! He brings so much joy to John & me. This morning when I was rocking him and saying our morning prayer, tears filled my eyes when I praised God for his birth mom, C. It still brings me to my knees when I think about how selfless she was to give us her son.

" Reality is that life doesn't always go the way we think it should or how we have it planned perfectly in our minds. There is no doubt though that God sees the full picture when nothing makes sense to our human minds or hearts. You imagine life as a jigsaw puzzle, God holds the box top seeing how the finished picture will look. We are unique pieces in this puzzle each helping to make up the complete picture of life."

I have this quote on my computer screen at work and it truly sums up the past 3 years for John & I. At times, I had no idea what God was doing after all the failed attempts at fertility treatments and all the heart break that went along with that....but oh how God knew exactly what he planned for our family. How thankful am I for his faithfulness! There was a precious little boy who needed a very special mommy & papa to love him.

Thank you God for holding our hearts in your hand. And never leaving our side.

In true Chassidy fashion, I had to make his 5 month pictures special! And happened to have left over party hats from Dad & Aunt CC's birthday. He sure thought it was funny wearing the hat. He kept looking up trying to see it! When pictures were over, that's when the fun began. Turner loved playing with the brightly colored party hat!
Happy 5 month Birthday sweet baby Turner!

Turner sporting shorts in March! Gotta love this 80 degree weather...only in Oklahoma

On Tuesday, I decided Turner was a big boy now, and has been doing so good sitting up, that it was time to say goodbye to the car seat and say hello to the big boy stroller! He looks like a little toddler in this picture! He's going to be a big kiddo. He's pushing 20 pounds and is already in 6 month clothes and will be ready for 9 months before I know it!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Playing catch up!

Another week behind us! Now that I'm back to work, it seems like time is flying by and there is never enough of it! On Saturday, we attended a trans-racial parenting class hosted by our amazing adoption agency. Saying it was incredible is a huge understatement. I'll blog about it later, once I get my heart, mind, hands around all that we learned! Check out my dear friend Molly's blog about our class. God has certainly blessed her with an amazing way with words http://www.shockleyfamily.blogspot.com/

The second half of the class was discussing ethnic hair care and boy did we learn a lot. I immediately went to the store and bought just about everything she recommended! After trying most of the leave in conditioners and other products, I have to be honest.. I still think it looks better with nothing in it at all!

One highlight of the training class was Turner and Sadie! Every time we're together, Molly and I always forget our cameras..but not this time! They were too cute together. Sadie couldn't stop looking at Turner and he was in awe of her as well!

A year ago this week, Molly was sweet enough to meet me for coffee and share their adoption journey. What a blessing Molly has been. Her passion and heart for adoption got me all fired up! The next day, I called Deaconess and the rest is history! Molly, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU a million times over for sharing your heart and love for adoption . It has changed our lives forever! And I will always be grateful to you.

I think it's love at 1st sight, don't you?

This was priceless, Sadie reached for Turner, and he started sucking on her fingers! Oh well!

Turner is definitely a little flirt!

So on Monday, I had my 1st overnight trip to Nebraska away from my two favorite men! I think John thought I was crazy with all of the instructions I gave him...as if he didn't already know all of it..but it made me feel a little better. I was only gone for 24 hours but it seemed like forever! I couldn't get on the plane soon enough this morning! John was such a sweetheart to send me an email in the middle of the night telling me when Turner woke up and when he fed him...and yes, I woke up several times just to check my email's for that reason.

Turner was so glad mommy was home. He had the biggest grin on his precious little face! And so was mommy! He was such a little snug bug when I came home today! Fell fast asleep in my arms....It was too precious
You'll always be mommy's little angel
Grandma & Grandpa's Christmas present to Turner. He's not 6 months as is recommended on the box, but John & I think he's "advanced" so he's ready to play! He loves standing and hugging the monkey. If I could read his mind in this picture, I'm sure he's saying " Mommy, you can let go of me...I can stand all by myself...I'm a big boy now!"

I love this little outfit, he looks like a little man getting ready for his daily workout

So much for expensive toys, Turner's new favorite toy: an orange Joe's cup!

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