All Saint's Day and Halloween

We celebrated All Saint's Day early this year due to a scheduling conflict.  It was a lot of fun with games, cake walks, and prizes.  

Saint Cake Walk

 

The group of Saints

St. Padre Pio, St. Michael the Archangel, and Blessed Carlo Acutis 

The week before Halloween my sister had a baby, and so we had my niece and nephew over for trick-or-treating.  It was a really enjoyable evening.  Roman just let us walk around feeding him which we normally don't do because he is so hard to feed.  A bunch of neighbors had food or drinks out for socializing.  One even had a bouncy house.

Our Trick or Treating Crew

Judah was Jack from the Magic Tree House book series.  Bob was some kind of Ninja.  Savanna was Elsa.  Then the Harry Potter duo, of course.

The Flash changed his mind when a neighbor gave us a costume that didn't fit their son and became some kind of ninja.

Drew recently introduced Dylan to the world of HP and so they were both different characters from the book. 

A cowgirl wearing her Aunt Kristen's sparkly cowboy boots

Genna's friend came over and they dressed as cowgirls and walked around the neighborhood on their own.

My niece

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin Carving

We bought our pumpkins from the church's little patch they do every year as a fundraiser for AHG.  Brian was out of town at the Packer's game.  They had to be able to carry their own pumpkin.

They picked a tiny pumpkin for Roman.

I carved Bobby's cat, but everyone else carved their own.

Totally obsessed with Harry Potter right now

 Genna did a Whataburger pumpkin, but it withered by the next day because of the thin lines and attachments, and I didn't get a picture.  Hannah didn't carver hers again this year.

Daddycam from October

 Highlights from the month of October...

Volleyball games, School Picture Day, Field Day, 12 doctor's appointments, PSAT, my sister had a baby, and an All Saint's Party filled our month up while we all enjoyed our sweet new baby.

Pictures from Brian's camera

Judah playing Legos before Mass one Sunday.

When the girls get home from school, they immediately come get Roman-cuddles.

The Blues Brothers

He loves looking at the lights on the TV and so Brian is trying to make him a Packers fan from the get go.

Practicing holding his bottle!

Bath time in the kitchen sink

Meeting his cousin, Savanna

Meeting his Nanna

The first of many kisses

Just hanging out with his biggest brother at Aunt Kristen's house

More of Roman from the first month home

Roman had two to four doctors appointments a week for the first couple of months.  His specialists include a cardiologist, endocrinologist, ophthamologist, ENT, audiologist, and a speech pathologist.  And that's not counting his pediatrician or his therapists!  He is treated so wonderfully at our clinics here.  I feel like he is a VIP.  They make appointments with me individually and group appointments whenever possible.  The front desk and the nurses all know him by name now and will pop in to say hello while he is getting his vitals done and see which of my many little helpers I have brought along.  Bobby came one week with me; Drew the following.  One nurse came in and said, "Hey Bobby!  How are you today?"  Drew just looked at her and shyly said he wasn't Bobby.  That's when they figured out how many kids I had at home.  The news spread like wildfire through the halls.  To be fair, Bob and Drew do look alike, just very different sizes!

This bundle came from a nonprofit that sends gifts to new adoptive parents of children with Down syndrome.

I love how he'll sleep all sprawled out like this.

At night he likes his arms out and his tummy swaddled with the Halo sleepsack.  His birthparents told us this and we have found him to be an amazing night sleeper just like this.  They gave us a fleece version, but he has become too sweaty for it.

 

Photoshoot Marathon

I wanted some newborn-ish photos of Roman done professionally, but not with a big price tag.  So I found a woman just starting her business at just the right price point.  I took Judah as my helper and he got way more than he bargained for since it was a 5 hour session.  She's dedicated, I'll give her that!  It was exhausting though.  I was literally sore from bending in strange positions to pat his bum to get him back to sleep.  She really wanted him asleep for the pictures and although he's an excellent night sleeper, he's a terribly short napper in even the best of conditions.  Try to pose him and dress him up, and he was very hard to get photos of him asleep.  But!  We got the cutest pictures ever and it was all worth it.  Poor Judah was starving by the time we left.  He normally eats very nearly all day, and he ran out of snacks very early on.

I made him a Christmas ornament of this one captioned, "The bear snores on." from a favorite book of mine. 

 

The Potato

This was the Christmas Card pick!

I really love this one too!