We're finally completely legal. We met with the judge on Thursday last week and everything went smoothly. We also went to the temple on Saturday. They were both long-awaited and exciting days. It was great to have them here and it's great to have them behind us.

(You may notice that the Honorable Joseph Fratto received his degree from the University of Utah. He did a great job. They don't let BYU lawyers preside over hearings as important as these.)

The kids are branching out into the realm of vegetables these days. They love squash. And the orange barf is kind of nice for a little variety. Lily picked up a new trick - growling. When she gets really excited she starts smiling and growling. It is incredible. I can't imagine where she picked this up. Either way I'm happy about it. They are both a lot of fun and they're doing great.

Griff and daddy, getting ready to face the music.

Griff and mama on the big day.

This is our adoption worker, Kate. She came along to put in a good word with the judge for us.

This Bill Walton look-alike is our attorney. Don't tell him that he's on here. I don't want him to try to bill me for any of the time that you spend on the site. (He actually was a really good guy and did a great job for us.)

This is Griff waiting to see the judge. I'm guessing that he bribed the judge or something. He seems pretty confident.

The Honorable Griffin J. Baldwin presiding. I'm surprised that Law and Order hasn't thought of this for a spin-off yet - "Baby Law and Order." You heard it here first.

"Overruled! Guilty! Order in the court!!!"

21 April 2007. We got to take Griff to the temple. It was a really great time. He and Lily were on their best behavior. We had a lot of friends and family there to share the day with us. It was a great experience.

Lily and Daddy enjoying Griff's special day at the temple.

Lily in her butterfly towel. She's not usually this happy when she's unwrapped.

This is Griff's classic golf outfit. Fore!

She has a cute little suds goatee, but it's hard to see it. Lily loves bath time.

Griff doing what Griff does best. What I love about this is that the folds in his shirt have created a barf waterfall. The other part about this that I like is that you can see that this is not something new for him. The expression on his face is so "business as usual."

They love to put their feet in the air. They love to suck on their toes.

First of all, we are planning to bless Griffin on the first Sunday in May, which is the 6th. We're really looking forward to the adoption finalization and finally having everything taken care of.

Things are going really well at home. The kids seem to be happy and healthy. Griff just turned 6 months old and is pretty excited about it. In fact, on the day that he turned 6 months old he woke up at about 4 am. The funny thing about it was that he was really, really happy. He was just laying in his crib giggling and playing with one of the toys that we had in there. (Of course, he no longer gets to sleep with his toys.) I think he was mostly excited to get to eat solid food. He and Lily are both on solids now, and doing pretty well. They're both adjusting to solids, but they seem to enjoy it. They have sitting up mastered now. They're also becoming a little more nervous around people that they don't know. And Melissa is basically their prisoner in that as soon as she tries to move from where they are they get pretty wound up. Other than when they see Melissa leave, they are pretty happy. They are a lot of fun and they like to play and smile and laugh.

Introducing Lily and Griff's new cousin, William, born to Bill and Sarah Cox. Lily and Griff are really looking forward to having someone else in the family to cause trouble with.

Griff is taking care of his new cousin. Soon he'll show him the ropes on how to barf on anyone he wants. William couldn't hope for a better teacher.

Lily and Griff, enjoying their first Easter afternoon.

Searching for anything that they could possibly eat or, at least, shove in their mouths.

Lily's special surprise for mama.

I think that Lily had just watched Zoolander when we took this picture.

Griff loves his baseball outfit.

Lily was very taken with this Easter egg. "My precious."

What a delightful holiday this is!

This is what happened after they discovered that the Easter decorations did not contain any formula or unsalted crackers. Their disappointment is overwhelming.

Lily is thrilled with how her cousins decorated her for Easter.

"Oh, tiptoe from the garden,
By the garden of the willow tree,
And tiptoe through the tulips with me"

It's not the eating that makes her sleepy. It's the demanding of food that wears her out.

Griff loved this little bouncer chair. He tries to jump out of the exersaucer all of the time.

A little exercise for the pink princess.

Griff has taken to solids like a fish to water.

Lily proves that it is truly impossible to sneak up on her.

I think this picture showcases his chompers nicely.

The future's so bright...

...I gotta wear shades.

Pink Delight.

All-American boy with his stuffed puppy. This seemed like a good picture to end this session.

Things are going well at the Baldwin casa. The kids are doing great and having lots of fun. Lily has finally recognized Hank the Dog's existence and she couldn't be happier about it. We went to some of Uncle Bret's games over the weekend. Bret hit a bomb on Saturday that hit about halfway up the scoreboard. It was pretty sweet. The Utah website said it measured 490 feet. That ball would have been out of every park except maybe Yellowstone. Here is a link to the recap if you're interested: http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/033107aaa.html. Lily and Griff are pretty excited about sports these days. The Jazz look good and baseball season kicks off today. What could be better?

We finally have our court date for the adoption finalization. Griff will officially be our property on the 19th of April. We plan to go to the temple on that Saturday, the 21st. Assuming that all goes according to plan, Griff will be blessed on the first Sunday in May. We're all pretty excited about it.

I've saved this last bit for last. Lily took her first steps today! We were just standing her up and playing and Melissa held out her arms and Lily took a couple of steps on her own to her. It was amazing! It wasn't very far, but it was still really cool. We will try to get a picture of it for next time. This part about Lily is an April Fool's Day joke. Anyway, thanks for coming to visit the blog. Until next time!

Griff is enjoying a nice sunny day at the ballpark. He went to 3 of uncle B's games and was really letting the umpires have it on the bad calls.

Lily loves going to the Utah games. She cheers pretty hard for uncle B. She also thinks that it's for her every time the crowd goes wild. She gets pretty excited.

Griff finally got some shades. He's a pretty big fan. He reminds me of Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day when he's playing the piano. Smooth.

Lily has sitting pretty well mastered. Griff's not there yet, but he's doing pretty well.

She was finally so exhausted that she fell asleep in her bouncer seat. She just refused to take a nap. I don't know what she was trying to prove. When we left her in this chair she was pretty mad, but she passed out after about 2 minutes.

It's kind of hard to tell, but Griff is wearing a Hawaiian shirt in this picture. As you can see, this big, fat party animal is partied out.

I like this picture because it looks to me like Lily knocked Griff over so that we wouldn't take any attention away from her. I don't know if she did that or not, but I guarantee that she would. She absolutely loves attention.

Before and After pictures of Lily's first solid meal. She doesn't really get food. She thinks it's a game and was blowing bubbles and spitting everywhere.

Every once in a while she doesn't mind being in the car seat.