Wilson Baby #3 in 2012

As everyone should already know, we are expecting baby #3 around July 26th!! We are so very excited! I know that Taylor and Reese will be so helpful with the new baby and they will love him/her so much! I'm not sure if they really understand what is going on, but they love to tell people that mommy has a baby in her belly, so we'll see what they think when the baby is actually here. They aren't really jealous of each other when it comes to getting held and loved on by mommy and daddy, so hopefully we won't have too much trouble with them where that is concerned with the new baby.

Wilson baby #3 at 12 weeks

Well once again, it has been waaaaay too long since I have made any posts and we have some catching up to do. Since the last post we have added a puppy to our family as well, her name is Remmy and she is a German Shorthaired pointer, we all love her!

We took a trip to Big Splash Adventure up in French Lick, IN before Christmas. That was our first little vacation/trip as a family with Taylor, we all had a blast! We then, had a great Christmas with the kids, they both were really excited about all their new presents. This was the first year for both of them to really be excited and be able to open presents, they had a great time!

Since Christmas we have had so much going on, Reese and I were in two weddings in January, my best friend, Kristi's first and then Meredith's, my cousin. Meredith and Brent actually got married on the same exact anniversary as Jesse and I, January 28th. Reese was a flower girl in both and Taylor was a ring bearer in Meredith and Brent's wedding. Reese was the cutest and sweetest flower girl EVER in both of them and Taylor was the most handsome little guy all dressed up.

Trying on dress #1 for Kristi's wedding and posing! haha

So pretty in her dress for Meredith's wedding

Reese is sooo adorable kissing Brent for the picture.

Reese had to have a flower bouquet too

Taylor's classic pose

We went to the zoo in St. Louis and Evansville a few times, Taylor and Reese love seeing the animals so much!

We recently took a trip to St. Louis, and stayed in a hotel to take the kids swimming. We also took them to the St. Louis Mills Mall which has so many different fun things for kids to do there like the Nascar Speedpark. There they had an indoor playground, and some little rides for the kids (big rides too, but they will have to grow a little before we get to do those with them). They also have a huge indoor playground in the middle of the mall which is like no mall kids play area I've ever seen, that kept them occupied for quite some time, while mommy got to go do a little shopping :)

The next day we took them to the Magic House which was sooo perfect for them. It was a full day of non-stop fun and even as we were leaving, waaaay past nap time, and we were all so obviously tired, they still (as expected) didn't want to leave and whined, but with candy in the car, they got over it pretty quickly. We will definitely be going back there again as they get older, there was still a lot of things that were for older kids that Taylor and Reese couldn't get interested in yet.

Sittin' on the choo choo at the Magic House

Reese going down the big slide at the Magic House

Reese LOVES the big slide!

Taylor climbing the bean stalk

Taylor on the big slide

On Feb. 15 we all went over to Louisville for the annual Farm Show. This was Taylor's first Farm Show and going there reminded me that exactly two years ago Jesse, Reese and I were driving to the Farm Show and Jesse and I were talking about adopting and choosing an adoption agency to work with. On that trip I made our first phone call to an agency, talked to a consultant, and we got so excited to start on our adoption journey to bring our new son home. That wasn't the agency we ended up working with but it was a start at least and it really got us motivated to keep moving forward on the adoption. It feels so good to have accomplished this adoption and to have our wonderful little boy home with us finally.

the little farmer boy sittin' in a tractor tire

Handsome little guy!

Bath time fun!

Cuties!

Coming up....we find out this Thursday, March 1st, if we are having a boy or a girl! Also, Reese's 3rd birthday is coming up, March 9th! I can't believe our baby girl is going to be 3 already....you really don't realize how fast time flies until you have kids. It seriously feels like yesterday that we brought our precious, newborn baby girl home from the hospital, and now it's suddenly 3 years later :( Right now her favorite movie (or I should say, ONE of her favorites) is "Tangled" so Jesse had a great idea for her birthday party to get a bunch of those floating lanterns like in the movie and send them off after dark. So we are having her birthday party on the 10th which is a Saturday, and we're just gonna hang out and let Reese and all her buddies play, we'll have a little weenie roast and some cake, it should be a lot of fun, we'll just pray that it doesn't rain us out or get too cold.

It's Fall!! Loving this time of year!!

We have been home with Taylor for a little over a month now and things are getting a little easier all the time. It is a handful trying to keep both kids happy all the time when they both need something, but we manage. Taylor is starting to do better at listening and obeying when we tell him "no" or "stop" but he is still getting used to all the new and exciting things in his life so it's very overwhelming for him to take all this in at once. With him being only 4, he doesn't know how to handle all the new changes so he's a little disoriented after having such a strict scheduled life up until now. We are all going through an adjustment period. He's still a good sleeper and eater. He's my veggie eater, Reese won't hardly eat any veggies. It's hard to get mad at her or make her eat them when Jesse and I don't eat many either, maybe we should start drinking a serving of V8 splash or something to get our veggies each day. But one kind of veggies they both LOVE is "Veggie Tales!" They both love to sing the theme song along with it (and without). Taylor likes to play the piano as he sings the song, and I'll hear him singing it throughout the day too, he may be an entertainer some day. Taylor is also learning a lot of English. He says "come on" to everyone, "I want down", "I want to slide", "I love you mommy, I love you Daddy", "I'm hungry", "I go potty", and a million other things that I can't remember, but he's doing great with his English. I know having Reese (who talks all the time and very clearly) helps him a lot too, to learn quickly. I also know that he can understand A LOT more than he can speak, and we are hearing less and less Russian come out of his mouth, all the time. We are so happy and blessed to have him in our family and we know God will help us work out all our little kinks because this was all Gods plan to begin with.

We had a fun weekend last weekend when Jesse's sister, Cassidy, and her family Riley and Tim came to visit. We dressed all the kids up and went around to family's house to trick or treat/visit, they all had a blast.

Our little Princess Reese, and Super man in the back

Reese posing for the camera, we did our best to make her a princess with what she had in her closet , but when Jesse asked what she was he said, "what's Reese, a teenager?" Hahaha....So I guess she could be either one....

The three grand kids (Riley, Taylor, and Reese) on Grammy's front porch in their pumpkin shirts

Fun at Organ Farms

We caught Taylor wearing daddy's hat and boots (and it looks like Reese is mad about something)

The kids talking to daddy on the phone while he's working hard in the fields

Awww...too cute!

Fun playing outside in the beautiful weather in October

Home Sweet Home

Hey everyone, we are finally home at last with both of our wonderful, beautiful children!! We couldn't be happier. Taylor and Reese love each other and Taylor has already started playing the "big brother" role towards Reese. The first full day (yesterday) that we were all home, I took them out to play on the playground, Taylor's first time, they had a blast! It was so cute because they would just run around together and follow each other and chase each other down the slides. Every time Reese would fall down or trip, Taylor would help her up and brush the dirt off of her, or pet her head to try and comfort her, he's so sweet with her. After we played outside for a while, they had lunch and then it was time for a nap. Neither one of them was happy about that, Reese wanted to still be with Taylor and he just simply didn't want to lay down and take a nap. So we decided to let Reese lay with him in his bed, they got comfortable and went right to sleep, it was the cutest thing ever! Well I tried that again today and it didn't work as well. Taylor kept sitting up and tickling Reese and she was telling him to lay down and go to sleep, but then laughing at what he was doing, she's so cute. But then I separated them, he went right to sleep and Reese cried a lot, but they are both asleep as I'm writing this...whew! I was a little worried about how putting him to bed would work out, but I think right now he is easier to make go to bed. Reese is always a little difficult to get back into the regular bedtime routine after she has stayed somewhere else for more than just one night, so once we get her back into the swing of things, I don't think we'll have too much trouble...they both slept all night last night and so did we! Our first night back was ok, but we both woke up at about 5am and couldn't get back to sleep, our schedules were still off, so we were both extremely tired the last half of the day and at about 7pm neither one of us could hardly keep our eyes open, so getting a full night sleep last night really helped get us both back on the right time schedule. Taylor doesn't seem to be bothered one bit about the time change, which was another thing we wondered about, but he is doing great. Sometime I will try to write on the blog about our trip and our adventures, there weren't too many since there was nothing to do in Kemerovo during our 10 day waiting period, and by the time we got back to Moscow we were just so incredibly home sick we didn't really care to do anything but relax in the hotel and swim with Taylor, which he loves!! For now, here are some pictures of Taylor that we have taken since we got him....I have been too scatter brained to take very many of him or of him and Reese together, but I will post some of those soon too.

Taylor in his "Russian hat" we bought for him (it got quite a bit colder than we were expecting in August)

Taylor sitting in the window at our hotel in Moscow

He loved looking out at all the cars and trucks (aka "machina's", in Taylor's words)

Our sweet little fella

Daddy and Taylor hangin' out at the hotel

Taylor is finally with us!

Hey everyone, we picked up our little man Friday, September 2nd. He did great on the ride back to our hotel which was a 3 hr drive on the roughest roads ever! He started to cry a little when we went outside to get in the van, he suddenly realized that he was leaving and it made him a little nervous I think, but as soon as he got into the van and saw some toys sitting on the seat, he completely forgot about being upset. His caretaker was so sweet, she really seemed sad that he was leaving, but she was so happy for him and kept telling us we need to be firm in disciplining him by holding her fist up. She also told our translator that she really liked us and we were great parents for Taylor, she gave us all kisses and hugs. She couldn't stop saying goodbye to him, and it made me a little teary eyed. I know it has to be hard to see these sweet children leave forever that they have loved and cared for, for so long, but they are still so happy for them. We got back to the hotel at about 10:30 at night!! It was a very long day but it ended great. We made him a bed with the chairs in our room that was really comfy but he just got right up and turned the light on, so we just put him in bed with us and he went right to sleep and slept till about 6:30, he also took a 4 hour nap yesterday, slept all night last night and is taking a nap right now!! So far we have been blessed with another good sleeper....(knock on wood)! We had fun today going to the huge playground here in Kemerovo, he had lots of fun. I thought he would attack that huge playground (since he is 100% boy!!) but he didn't know what to do with all that stuff, he's not used to seeing that many things to play on. When Reese saw him on skype she said, "Hi Taywer, Hi!" it was so cute!! Later she could hear him fussing in the background and came up to the computer and said, "mommy, what's wrong? Why is Taywer crying?" she was concerned about him, she is so sweet!! He kept introducing himself in Russian, saying, "Menya Zavut Taylor" ("My name is Taylor") over and over I don't know how many times, haha. He's such a sweety, and it seems like he's a momma's boy already. He is always saying "momma, momma!!" anytime I'm out of the room or when he is upset or sad. When we walk around and push him the stroller, he has to hold my hand most of the time unless I'm pushing him, he's so sweet!! He is always coming up to give me hugs. He does these things to Jesse too, but not as much because all the adults he ever saw at the orphanage were women, never a men. Tomorrow (Monday the 5th) we go get his passport and then we will leave Tuesday morning (the 6th) for Moscow. We will be there for 1 more week while we finish everything at the Embassy and we'll leave to come home Sept. 13th, and we cannot wait!! We miss our Reesey girl sooooo incredibly much!! We are very homesick, 4 weeks away from home and our baby girl is waaaaay too much. Earlier we put a movie on for him, we didn't have any kids movies, so the best movie we had for him was "Night at the Museum". He was soooo interested in it and he loved it. At first I think he thought it was the same thing as Skype because he was trying to introduce himself to the people on the screen again, haha! We can't wait for everyone to meet him!!
Here is a few pictures we have taken so far.

Us with one of his caretakers just before we left


The huge playground in Kemerovo with a statue of Lenin in the background



Taylor watching Night at the Museum (very interested)



Daddy joining Taylor


Mommy and Taylor Skyping family



Downtown Kemerovo (aka Kuzbass)


Us with Mary (the other lady adopting that traveled with us) and our wonderful coordinator, Anna




Eating at one of our favorite restaurants in Kemerovo "The Pretzel", we found out that this place is one of the best places to get desserts also.


the "Kuzbass" sign on the hill across the river (Kuzbass is the region, Kemerovo is the city, or it could the other way around, we're not really sure, haha)