GRANT IS 6!!

Grant loved his clone costume! Leave it to big brother to shoot him down!

The party was a dino theme and 22 kids showed up.......we didn't want to leave anyone out!

LET IT SNOW!

We are presently waiting on about a foot of snow. Since Christmas we haven't had any. HOOORAY!!!!!

Paige's new do!

This is his family party on his real birthday.

So another month has swiftly passed us by. Things have been going pretty well. Josh has been working out faithfully, while I have been faithfully sleeping in! There is snow, and things look bright and new.
Two funny stories this month. I went grocery shopping and thought that I spent a little more than usual. So when I got home I checked my receipt. Apparently I purchased about 24$ of apples, 36$ of Broccoli, and nearly 40$ worth of trail mix. What would one do with that much BROCCOLI? Anyways that was an exciting purchase. Really, the checker messed up and put the decimal in the wrong place.
So last week I was in a hurry I had been getting faxes from our renters, and had made dinner, and boiled eggs for the next mornings breakfast! Darn I'm good!! Well in my rush to get Paige from school, I left those eggs on to boil(4 hours to be exact). So when I arrived home after Scouts that evening the whole house had been filled with smoke. The pot was black, and the eggs had exploded as far as 10 feet away. Josh was the first on the scene.....He was not happy! A week later the smoky smell has finally completely cleared, and as embarrassing as it all is I wish I could of been there for the show to watch the eggs blow up one by one!!! I think I have stumbled across next years science project! TA DA
I wouldn't be admitting all of this except Josh keeps repeating the horrible story so I might as well be the first to tell what an idiot I can be!!
Love, BROCCOLI & BURNT EGGS BAHEN

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Dylan

This is the gang at our traditional sundae New Years Eve party.

Paige picked this present out for Dad...good choice sweetie.

Bridgers first Christmas, chilling with Mom.

Paige is watching this movie now, she dances, sings

and acts out the whole thing, it's really cute .

In the end on Nov. Morgan won the school spelling Bee. I wasn't planning on going....glad I showed up. We are so proud of him. His winning word was whistle. He looked nervous, but seemed more confident than most of the kids, and won boldly with out writing the word down, or even hesitating.

Santa brought Pokemon for Brett.

Who's children are these and who keeps arming them? (JOSH)

This has to be my favorite Christmas moment

captured this year. Do yoy think Grant liked it?

Bridger bathing in style! He is 2 months old now

So I am thinking that this blog can go towards my New Years resolution to journal! Sounds good to me. This year has been a year of transisition. We moved, the kids had to make new friends and learn the ropes at their new schools. Josh also started his new job. Just when those wrinkles got smoothed out we had Bridger join us by c-section. We had a lot of help, my Mom stayed for a little over a week, and Renae stayed for around 6 weeks to help out. I think all their sacrifices paid off, because my insicion feels great. On Halloween we finalized the adoption. I liked Toni's take on it, she said something like "What a better day to make the little devils your's." Alas the icing on our cake of adoption, anything less wouldn't have been as exciting. The day after Christmas we Drove to Taft, because some how all of my family got left there, after the Bahen's left town. Unfortunately little Bridger got the croup very bad and we spent the better part of our visit in the Urgent care and ER. Interestinly Jeff Patteno's Mom was our Doctor, she looks just like him...I mean her. The kids thought it was a vacation from Mom, and throughly enjoyed running a muck. He is doing much better now, I thinnking just getting out of the valley helped a lot. I have never had a little one so sick....scary, very scary. I stayed up three day's with him making sure he kept breathing, and the last night was a rush to the ER because he was gasping for air. fortunately that only happened once. We are greatful for the experiences of the year. We know we are blessed. We are looking froward to next years excitement, however I am fairly certain it won't be quite as exciting. Out with the old in with the new, and no Toni I am not treasing you!

ADOPTION DAY!!!!

So this is the whole official family on the court steps after everyone signed the paper work.

It was a little anti-climatic for the kids since we have been a family for years, but for Joshua and myself we were walking on the clouds!!!

This is us with the Judge. She said this was her largest group adopted! They let us go ahead of a domestic violence case, so we were in and out!! Other than the finalization ending on all Hallows Eve, there was not a hitch. What an unreal journey our family has been through. Can't say I'd sign up as quickly knowing what we'd go through now, but I know we'd all do it again. It's like any family I guess what doesn't kill us makes us stronger and closer together. In our case it has been a blessing to the unity it has brought. Our private adoption agency (FCCA) and wonderful workers, made all the difference............wouldn't have made it without 'em!!

Love and gratitude to all,

(finally)The Bahen Family

More Halloween Fun

Super Bridger

Nice costume

Everybody

Bridger at home and Halloween fun

Isn't he cute.

Sleeping on big brother

Lots of pumpkins.

Carving them up.

Fall colors in the backyard

and more fall colors

Welcome Bridger Shaw Bahen

Amy is ready to go

Bridger and Morgan minutes after birth

Dad, Morgan, and Bridger

Mom and Bridger

The whole fam damily

Bridger is ready to go home

Then again maybe not

Comfy?

We made it home

Funny Story

No baby yet. But I wanted to share a funny story. This happened a few weeks ago. Morgan is learning to play the saxophone, and he was practicing in the back yard. You can imagine the sounds that a ten-year-old makes while practicing the saxophone. Well, a few minutes after he began to practice our neighbor down the street shows up on our doorstep, she is dressed in an African style head scarf, big carved wooden earrings, no shoes and a tube top. By the way our neighbor is white. She is armed with a paintball gun. She says that she was prowling the woods behind our house looking for the rooster they were going to eat for dinner. The rooster had pecked through the string that they had bound it to a cinder block with. She asked if she could look in our backyard for the rooster. So, I opened the fence and accompanied her into our backyard. I asked why she brought the paintball gun. She said that the rooster is very fast and that she was going to stun him with paintballs to recapture him. Then I asked her why she thought that it might be in our yard, and she says, "I thought that I heard sounds of a trapped animal in you yard, unless somebody has some kind of horn or something." Then I explained that Morgan is learning the saxophone. She was then satisfied that we weren't hiding her rooster. She asked me that if I see the rooster I should kill it and leave it on their doorstep.

Not one part of this story is made up or exaggerated. Honest.