Liver Pudding

You may be asking yourself, "What is liver pudding?"  Well, it is pudding made from blended cow liver.  Your next question may be, "Who in the world would eat this?"  The answer to that is people from North Carolina.  The last question you may be thinking is, "Who do you know in North Carolina?"  Our new great friends Jeff and Karen!!  *Before I continue with this story, I must add a disclaimer that Karen does not like liver pudding, but Jeff sure does*

Several months ago I met Karen via facebook.  We connected because our families are both adopting through Adoption Angels.  We were already matched with Hunter's birthmom when Karen and I started emailing and chatting about our adoption stories.  We quickly became friends as we got to know each other and would pray for each others adoptions.  They recently were matched with their birthmom "D."  We were overjoyed to hear this wonderful news and know what a great feeling it is.  The time soon came that they were ready to meet with her in person and were making a trip to the great state of Texas.  Noel and I invited them to stay with us for the weekend and they happily took us up on the offer.  So we finally got to meet our friends last weekend.  It was such a blessing to finally meet in person and get to know them more.  They are such a sweet, wonderful, Christian couple with so much love to give.  We had a blast going to dinner with them at Big Lou's- a San Antonio favorite pizza place.  They were able to spend a lot of quality time with their birthmom which makes their bond even more special.  They also got to love on Hunter and get a glimpse of how wonderful parenting a sweet baby will be.  It was such a wonderful visit and we are looking forward to the next time they are here and can stay with us again, but this time with little Caleb!!  Please keep this family and their birthmom "D" in your prayers.  Here are a couple pictures from that weekend:

I feel I should explain the Liver Pudding reference a little more.  Friday night after dinner, we were talking about what our favorite breakfast foods are because Noel was going to make our Saturday morning tradition breakfast.  To our surprise we found out that Jeff loves Liver Pudding for breakfast.  One, I didn't know you could make pudding out of liver, and two I really didn't know that would be a breakfast food.  I know what you are thinking..."mmmmm...where could I get me some good liver puddin'?"  The answer is - go to North Carolina and ask Jeff because I have no idea ;)

Love you Jeff and Karen!!!  Can't wait to see you again, especially with baby Caleb in tow!

4 months!

Our little Hunter is now a little over four months old.  Boy, does time fly!  He had his four month check up and shots.  He now is 14 lbs 11 oz and 25 inches long.  He has doubled his birthweight!  The doctor said Hunter is in the 50th percentile, but I think he seems bigger than the average 4 month old.  Hunter is still the happiest baby I know.  He loves to laugh and smile all the time.  We started him on solid food last weekend which was hilarious!  I am so glad we recorded it.  At first he cried, then for the longest time he gave us the grumpiest face I've ever seen and wouldn't even look at us.  He finally cam around and was okay at the end of the first feeding.  He now really loves his rice cereal and laughs and smiles when we feed him.  He has also discovered his toes and loves to grab them while making this bizarre noise that is a mix between a squawk, squeal, and a grunt.  This is his new favorite past time- especially at 5 AM!  Daddy also gave Hunter his first "big boy" haircut.  I came home from work one day to this surprise.  It looks so cute.  What Noel didn't realize is that Hunter was getting the typical bald stripe across the back of his head.  Fortunately that isn't too noticeable in pictures :).  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from month 4:

Christmas!

We had a great first Christmas with Hunter.  We spent this year with Noel's family.  Hunter's Gran Dana and PawPaw couldn't have been happier to have their sweet grandbaby there with them at Christmas.  It was a sweet time for the family.  This was the first time Hunter met his Aunt Jen and Uncle Derrick.  Unfortunately Derrick had a stomach bug that weekend so he didn't get much time with Hunter.  More unfortunately, that bug got passed on to us and we rang in the New Year with it- yuck!  At least it was only a 24 hour bug.  As we were coming back home, we were able to stop by my brother Ryan's house to see them and Hunter's cousins.  Here are a few pictures from our first Christmas with our sweet baby boy.