It's been awhile since I last updated on here so here's a brief catching up since August. Jalen will be turning 2 YEARS OLD in just a couple of weeks and we are starting his celebrations early! My mom and dad (Bubba and Papa West) will be here on Wednesday and we are having Jalen's 1st party on Saturday at our home followed by trick-or-treating fun! We have invited Jalen's friends from school and our neighbors and friends to this one so most of the kids will be Jalen's age or close to it. We are having everyone wear their costumes too so they can go trick-or-treating right after. Jalen's other b-day party will be held on November 13th and we are still planning this but are thinking about having it at Lazer Zone, an indoor bowling, lazer tag, arcade, bounce house, and more locating just down the street so the bigger kids coming can enjoy themselves more...this party we will invite our work friends, church friends and anyone else that couldn't make it to his 1st party. Above is the invite I made for his party this weekend: I love my cupcake hold puncher and you will see it or have already seen it probably on every home-made card I make...it is just so fitting for so many occasions!
We have been very busy with adoption fundraisers, church, work, and family/friends lately and time is just flying. Since I last posted we have found out we were approved to move forward with our home study in the adoption process ( a big step for us), have taken some classes in international adoption, had a huge garage sale extravaganza at our church and raised $3500 and are in the process of having another t-shirt fundraiser. We have done A LOT of paperwork in this time and have spent many late nights with all things related. We have also had a lot of fun with our church and friends from it and got to hang out at a fun farm nearby and play in bounce houses, go to a pumpkin patch, eat good food and play with farm animals (Joely also got kicked by a small horse that left a quite large black bruise on her right calf...this was found to be funny by everyone she works with).
We have continued to make so many good friends since we have been here. Honestly I cannot even count how many GOOD friends we have here and have only been here 13 mths! We just had Jason's parent's in town a few weekends ago and so Jalen got to enjoy quality time with Nana and Boompa O'Neal and they were a HUGE help to us during our crazy adoption garage sale. I know I'm forgetting some other updates but those are the major ones. And as for Mr. Jalen, he is almost ready to move to the big kids room at daycare. He is the second oldest kid in his room but he loves all the babies and everyday when we leave he makes a special attempt to say "bye bye baby!" and wave to every baby in the room. He also loves his friends there and funny enough if he is in a mood, we start naming his friends (Jacob, Eve, Raelen, Noah, Carter, Ash, Jenna, Max, and others) and he calms down and starts talking about them and repeating their names! We have started potty training but not religiously. He did really love it at first but hasn't shown as much interest lately. We will continue to try though and figure he'll get it when he's ready. He does have incentive though because his potty chair plays music when he goes and he does like that! His favorite TV shows right now are Special Agent Oso and Choo Choo Soul and every now and again Handy Manny but we are usually hearing "Oso! Oso!" when he is in the living room.
Well that is all for now. Our lil man is growing up before our eyes and is just such a sweetheart. He loves to give sweet little kisses and has gotten really good at giving hugs and Eskimo Kisses, this is with us and his "sisters" aka dogs (which if you didn't know we have 3...Ali, Laila and Rescue. Rescue was not supposed to stay but we have yet to find a home for her in a couple months and she fits right in so she may be a permanent fixture here, Jalen loves her so much!
