I was hoping to update more on our blog today but my heart is aching and I want to share some of my thoughts. The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton Conn. has devastated our whole country. I can only imagine the pain and loss that so many families are going through right now. When I saw the news, I turned numb and had to sit down on the couch. I do not pretend to understand the world or why terrible people do such awful thing. There are no words. I pray for the children and teachers who have been taken from this life and am trying to find the peace in knowing that all of those little angels are now with our Savior and He is holding them close. At this Christmas time there are a lot of families who are broken, a lot of gifts that will go unopened, aching hearts that can't be mended. I only hope that the magic and spirit of Christmas and it's true meaning will bring some comfort to all of those affected by this evil act of hate. I just listened to the song "Prayer of the Children" and cried the whole way through but the spirit that it brought soothed my heart. My we all turn to our Savior Jesus Christ and open our hearts to Him so that we all may be comforted and that our country will not fall to fears and evil acts. Hold on to your children a little tighter, spend as much time as you can with them. I love my girls so much and am grateful for every day that I have with them.  God bless those families, God bless the children, and God bless our country. All will continue to be in my nightly prayers.

I'm grateful for mud.

I know that I'm playing catch-up with my posts so you'll just have to bare with me until I get everything updated. But I wanted to write about an epiphany that I had last week. To set the stage I'll have to say that my house was super clean, not spotless my house will never be spotless but it was really really clean. I had done some deep cleaning and was just trying to stay on top of everything so I sent Myka, Adri and their cousin Andy outside to play so that I could sort laundry in peace. As I was sorting I kept hearing the door open and close. Each time I would holler up to the kids and they said that they were just going to the bathroom. When I got done sorting and went upstairs I froze in my tracks. There were 3 different sets of muddy tracks going from the back door, through the kitchen, onto the carpet, down the hall to the bathroom and back. All I could do was sigh, there went my clean house but then I had my epiphany and all I could do was smile. I am so grateful that I have two beautiful, wonderful daughters and a great nephew to track mud into my house. I am also grateful that I have a house for them to track mud into. I called Lance at work to tell him how blessed we are. Then I set to work cleaning up again and when the kids came back inside I didn't even mention the mess and just hugged and loved them all. So yes, I know that it sounds funny but I am grateful for mud and the muddy footprints that reassured and reminded me that I am so blessed.

Squirting water in the house, would I do that?

About a week ago we finished watching "The Last Air Bender" animated series on Netflixs. Awesome show if you haven't watched the series yet, way better than the movie. Anyways. We have really enjoyed watching it as a family. Adri and Myka pretend to 'bend' things and not just air, water, earth, and fire. We are talking bending toys, teddy bears, each other and yes even mom and dad. Well after that final episode was over the girls were celebrating by doing the karate type moves that they use in the show. I grabbed the girls' spill-proof-big-girl-sippies, put them behind my back and told the girls and Lance that I could really bend water. They looked at me surprised and said "no you can't." Challenge accepted. I began my fancy slow karate moves then squeezed the sippies squirting them all with water! They were all soaked! We laughed so hard and I think that I shocked Lance, I impressed him with my smartness. :) When we got control of ourselves, I gave the girls their sippies and let them have a go at trying to 'water bend.' The end results were that we were all wet, the blankets, love sack and carpet were a little wet and we had a great time as a family. You have to cherish your family and let loose once in a while. Your kids are only kids for so long and we sure love ours! So a tip from me, do something fun and unexpected with your family. You'll be glad you did.

A quick recall and a special day.

The month of November was really busy but really special. We had: ward youth temple trips, Lance and I went to the temple for ourselves, a FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) pancake breakfast that we were in charge of, I had a birth-parent appreciation night to help out at, parties, lots of dentist and doctor appointments, a wonderful Thanksgiving with my (Kim's) whole family from my Grandparents on down to great grandkids, black Friday shopping with my sisters, and for the cream, my perfect little sister, Lizzy got baptised. Lizzy is my angel and I am so proud that she chose and begged and pestered everyone until she could get baptised. She has Downs so she really didn't need to get baptised but she wanted to with all of her heart. I had the opportunity to speak at her baptism and I can tell you that I have rarely felt the Spirit so strong as I did that day. I told my family that it isn't every day that you get to see an angel get baptised and it was the truth. I know that our Father in Heaven is so proud of her and that she will be blessed her whole life for the decision that she made. I am so proud of Lizzy and can only hope to be more like her in my own life. She is simply amazing. Love you Liz.

Halloween Pics.

I know, I know, Halloween was over a month ago but I just wanted to put up a few pictures of the cutest pirates I have ever seen. I took Myka, Adri, my nephew Andy and our friend Dal trick or treating this year. Getting four little ones ready was no small feat but we did it and had a blast. We even put a costume on Fritz, he was the pirate monkey from "Pirates of the Caribbean." Adri, Myka and Andy were all pirates and Dal was our Ninja Turtle. Aren't they adorable! They had so much fun going around Lance's work getting loaded up with candy and then at our trunk-or-treat. We were a hit! Kids, dog, and all. It was really fun.

These are just a few pics of our pumpkin picking and carving this year. Our girls were in style while hunting for the perfect pumpkins and definately didn't mind getting a little slimy pulling all the guts out of their pumkins.  We ended up spending all night carving four
pumpkins.Myka wanted Twilight
Sparkle (my little pony) and face. Adri wanted Pinky Pie (again my little pony) and a Frankenstein. I think Lance and I pulled it off pretty good. Don't you think? Hope you all had as much fun as we did.

                           

Just A Great Day

I know that I am seriously behind in writing on our blog and I will work to get it updated this week but I just wanted to quickly share what a great day we had yesterday. It started out like many great mornings, we got to sleep in. Around nine Myka and Adri woke up and came in to snuggle with me and Lance. So we snuggled in bed for a while then I got up to get the girls into the tub. They ran through the house gathering the assortment of toys that they wanted and when they got back into the bathroom they told me that I was the "awesomest mom ever!" I let them have bubbles. During their bath I told Adri that she needed to keep track of the tiny bird toy that she was playing with because it could go down the drain when I unplugged the tub. She responded by saying excitedly, "if it goes in the drain then the Ninja Turtles will find it." "Well yes, that's true. The Ninja Turtles do find things that go down the drains" I responded. Then Myka added "ya mom they will find it and bring it back to us." I have such smart daughters and we are obviously fans of the sewer dwelling Ninja Turtles. Who was I to say any different. Luckily we managed to keep the toy to ourselves.
After we all got ready for the day Lance and I dropped the girls off at my sisters house so that we could go to the Boise Idaho Temple dedication. It was wonderful! All of the speakers were great and I especially loved listening to Elder Bednar and of course President Monson. In our session Pres. Monson pointed right at a kid in the congregation and told the kid "I see a future missionary right there" and then Pres. Monson wiggled his ears. It made everyone laugh. I love listening to our prophet. Every time I hear him speak I feel lighter and am filled with the love that he has for us and that I return for him. And when everyone sang there was such conviction and everyone's voices were so strong. I wish that everyone would sing like that all of the time. I hate it in church when it seems like nobody is singing.
Well after we picked Adri and Myka back up we came back home and were lazy. We watched some Netflixs, we ate and just relaxed for a while. Then Myka decided that she wanted to play a game. So of course we were all game. We decided that playing dirt clod war sounded pretty good but we were inside and wouldn't really through dirt clods at each other, so the alternative was to make teams, create boundaries, divvy up our hoard of snow balls (big fluffy yarn balls that Lance and I made) and destroy each other. Lance and Myka against me and Adri. We had so much fun! We threw "snow balls" at each other for forever, we were all laughing, all getting pummeled with soft yarn balls and yelling back and forth. Myka would grab arm fulls of snowballs, through them, then go hide behind moosy, Adri was more focused on the one at a time approach and then hide behind the chair, Lance and I were out in the open and just trying to keep up. It was a blast! Adri and I won. At least that's my opinion. Don't ask Lance he'll say different.
When we all got calmed down and cleaned up our "ammo" we got the girls ready for bed and it was Lance's turn to read them stories. I love listening to Lance read to the girls. We've started reading them stories form the The Friend magazine at night along with their other books. It was great to listen to Lance teach the girls and explain after the story how we should treat people who are different than us and that even though they are different they are special just like us and we need to be nice to them and be their friend. After story time was over, prayers said and hugs and kisses all around Myka and Adri asked me if I would sing to them. Now those of you who know me, know that I am not the greatest singer but my daughters love it when I sing to them. So I sang some primary songs that they love and while I sang to my angels my heart was so full because it reminds me of all the hours that I sang to them when they were babies. After more kisses and one more prayer Myka and Adri were ready for bed.
I love my family more than I can say. Yesterday was a great day, most of our days are but I just wanted to share and write it down so that we can remember. Thanks to all for indulging me.

They get it.

You know, I never thought that the adoption process would be so hard. I knew that it could take a while to get placed with a baby but I didn't really understand the heartache, the emotional ups and downs and the effect it would have on my wonderful daughters. We have been very open with the girls about adoption, how it works, why we are doing it, where our baby will come from and even prepared them if their new brother or sister doesn't have the same skin color as them (we don't have any restriction on race). Adri and Myka get it, they understand the situation better than I think most grown ups do. It's great except for since they do understand so well, they also have some of the emotions that go with it. They tell people that my "tummy is broken so another mommy has to grow our baby in her tummy." They asked my sister who is pregnant, "Are you going to give us your baby? Is that our baby in your tummy?" They pray every night for our family to adopt soon. They have tried to "adopt" other kids. At a ward party they came up to me, so seriously, and told me to hurry up and go with them. They took me up to a little boy and told me that he didn't have a family and that we needed to adopt him and make him a part of our family. Let me tell you that that was fun explaining to his sister and mom. A few weeks ago I was having a hard day and Myka gave me a big hug and said "It takes a long time to adopt huh mom." After watching a movie where a little girl grew up without her parents Adri decided that Lucy was a good name to name our future baby. Lucy was the name of the character in the movie. Now both Myka and Adri like to try out different names for "our baby." You see they get it, they understand better than I ever thought that kids their age could and it makes it all the more heart wrenching. I never thought that the adoption process of waiting would affect our girls so much. They will be such amazing big sisters. I pray every day that they get that chance soon.

Precious Moments

I had a sweet, yet heart breaking moment with my girls last night.  I was reading Robert Munsch's "Love You Forever" book to Myka and Adri for bedtime. Toward the end of the book Adri made the comment that "the mommy won't be sick in Heaven, she'll be healthy." I was so proud that my little Adri had that understanding at 4 years old. Then when the book was over and I was kissing them goodnight Adri just starts sobbing. I laid back down by her and was trying to figure out what was wrong when she just kept saying "I don't want you to die mom, I don't want you to die!" It's making me cry just remembering it. Then Myka starts to sob and says through tears "I don't want you to die either mom. I want you to live forever. Don't grow old!" Well it only took me a second to realise what brought this on. My sweet little girls finally understood the ending of the book that we have read a hundred times and there I was holding my two sobbing angels who didn't want their mommy to grow old and die. Is there anything sweeter than knowing that your children love you that much? At the same time is there anything more heart breaking than knowing that that time will come when you can't hold them anymore? I love my family so much! They are everything to me. As I'm crying while I write this it simply reminds me that there is nothing more precious in this world that the love of your children. I love you Myka! I love you Adri! Thank you so much for loving me like I love you. You are my girls now and forever.

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living

my babies you'll be." 

Go take a look!

Hey just real quick. We updated new pictures to our adoption profile so go check it out. There are more fun pics of our family trip and more tidbits about the pictures. It's fun go take a look! Thanks.
www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/25012895/ourMessage.jsf

To each their own.

I know, I know. Some people think that we have a problem, others may not. Some people may also like to just stay at home and watch the nature channel; we do too, we like the nature channel but we love to go out and see the animals for ourselves, so yes we did go to another zoo. Again. On our family trip we went to the Hogle Zoo on our last day. Their new exhibits and enclosures were pretty cool. Myka and Adri got to see a polar bear and seals for the first time! How cool is that to be right up close where only a little glass separates you from reaching out and touching a polar bear? The whole zoo was great, it always is since we go to this specific zoo once a year but the girls are at a stage where they are really understanding things now and their respect and curiosity toward animals, insects, birds and fish is simply inspiring. So yes, to all you critics who say we go to the zoos to often, we did go to a zoo and loved every minute of it. Adri and Myka are full of explaining what are the different animals "natural habitats," what is special about each animal, bird or bug and how to treat them. Who knows maybe they will be zoologists or marine biologist or some other gist when they grow up. Then again, they could be cool moms who take there kids to the zoo a lot so they can make discoveries for themselves instead of learning everything from the t.v. So there!

  

We went, We played, We conquerd!

Whew ho! Our little family vacation to Lagoon and the Hogle Zoo was perfect!

 The girls had been begging all summer to go "ride some rides" and to go on a roller coaster so we decided that Lagoon would be a great place to start them out on. They loved it! And it was a perfect little vacation for just our family where we could have fun and get away. We went on every ride that the girls could go on at least twice except for the Farris wheel, once was enough for me and Lance. Adri and Myka were so brave on the rides that they could go on by themselves and even braver on the bigger rides that Lance and I had to go on with them.

This is a pic of Lance and the girls after their second ride down the Log Flume, they thought that they were pretty awesome and they are! Lance thought that Myka made the funniest faces on the big boat ride (Tidal Wave), Adri thought it was fun to get Mom wet on the rides, especially the spitting shark ride (OdySea) and we all had fun screaming on the roller coasters. Ari's favorite ride was the dragon ride (Jumping Dragon), it was a huge dragon that we got to sit in and it spun us around really fast both forwards and backwards. Myka's favorite ride was hands down the carousel. She loved to ride on the cute kitty again and again. The carousel was by far the ride we rode on the most, at least a half a dozen times. 

This is just one of the 'action shots' we got. I know I look great, just kidding, but you should have heard the girls screaming! We were so squished and I was trying to hold us all up. I think we were all a little hoarse by the end of the day. It was such a blast being with Lance, Myka and Adri all day and just having fun with nothing else to do. It's so nice when something you plan turns out so great!

Can't wait to do it again!

Visiting G&G Hansen!

We all had so Myka fun at the Aladdin play earlier this month. It was Myka and Adri's first big play and they had so much fun. We have to say a big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hansen for putting up with us for almost a week and then treating us to the play. The girl's favorite actor was the Geni! They were so sure that they wanted to meet him so we waited forever in line just for Adri and Myka to get shy and think that he was just a little scary up close and personal. Everything is okay thought because they have slept with their stuffed Genis every night since.  

Also, while we were visiting G&G Hansen Myka and Adri got to play at some pretty awesome water places. There was a huge water fountain that sprays water every which way, a beautiful salt water pool that was great to spend hours in and their favorite was this fun kiddie splash area with waterfalls, a river, rocks and these huge frogs. They had a blast with their cousins, especially Corbin, and even got to hunt up tons of bugs in Grandma's garden to perform magic tricks with. And we even educated the girls on what happens to slugs when you introduce them to salt. Needless to say we had a great time! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Hansen for letting us all invade for a while.

What's Important

Hey everyone. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I needed to step back and really focus on what is most important to me. Lance and my beautiful daughters. I was feeling really sorry for myself and our family because we have not adopted yet and the waiting was really getting hard for me so I needed a break, a breather and a good dose of my family. Here is a little of what my medicine was like...
Took the girls to get the mail. There was only one thing. Myka says to Adri "Adri, we're twins we share"  Adri responded " ya, we share because we are twins" they continue walking to the house each holding one side of the letter.
At swimming lessons Myka was standing behind Adri running her hand down Adri's pony-tail in a 'it's okay sis I'm here' kinda way.
We made snow out of packaging foam that seriously covered every inch of my living room and made snow angels.
One day we went from playing pirates to princesses to cooking, to animals and back to pirates. Adri walked around all day saying "eye-eye matie" and calling Myka her "first mate."
The girls were drawing pictures and Myka drew pictures of some of her cousins. She was really detailed. Her cousins have braids in their hair that have orange strands in them, Myka drew orange and black hair on her picture and then she explained that her cousins skin in not brown it's dark. Her cousins are black and she loves that they have pretty dark skin.
We watched dinosaur shows on net flics then the girls played with their dinosaurs for the rest of the day. Apparently dinosaurs love eating moms hair because they had to pretend to munch on my hair for the rest of the day.
Me and the girls had a watermelon seed spitting contest. They won.
We picked flowers, made forts, and towers with the couch cushions.
One night I caught Myka and Adri 'making promises' to each other. They were spitting in their hands and I mean spitting, Myka gets a good glob and Adri kinda has spit spray, and then they shook hands all giggles and smiles. They never really said what they were promising but there was a lot of spitting and hand shaking going on.
The girls got on a Princess Bride movie kick (they call it the R.O.U.S's movie) they went around saying "As you wish" to each other and whenever Lance or I asked them to do something. Then one morning Myka was up before Adri so Myka and I went in to wake her up. Myka got right up by Adri's head and knocked on her head saying "hello in there what do you have to wish for." Classic. Adri thankfully woke up laughing.
Adri has a stretchy head band that she loves to wear around her head like a super hero. She can do anything when she has that head band on and it's pretty adorable.
And to top everything off one night after I had read the girls their bedtime stories and was just snuggling with them for a little while. Adri kissed my cheek, put her arms around me and said, " Mom, do you know why you're special?" I said "no why" She simply said "because you have a lovely heart and all of the good stuff is in it" while she patted my heart.
These are only a few of the fun things that I wrote down about my girls. There are many many more stories but I just want the world to know how much I absolutely love my children and when I find myself having a hard time with waiting for someone to place their precious child with our family, I can take a step back and look at my daughters that I am so blessed to have and know that everything is worth it. I love you Myka and Adri. You are the best medicine ever!

Eight and counting!

Can you believe that Lance and I have been married for eight years now? Some times it feels like we just met each other yesterday and other times it feels like we have been married for forever. To think that I was terrified to go out with Lance on our first date, call it intuition but I knew I would be a gonner; to now I hate being away from him and I want to spend every minute we can together. Go figure. I am so lucky and blessed to have such an amazing man who loves me no matter what and puts up with all of my craziness. I put up with him too, mind you, but I couldn't ask for a better man for me. To celebrate our anniversary we spent the whole day in IF going to the zoo, checking out the museum (it was the King Tut exhibit, very cool), doing a little shopping and ending the day jumping in rain puddles. It was great being together doing things that we like, teaching the girls about the ancient Egyptians and just plain having fun. I love you honey. I love the life we have made together and I love our family. Thank you for picking me.

Some pics of our 4th of July

Myka, Ari and Me at the parade. Gotta love my girls!

 Lance driving the boat on the river! Can you tell he loves it? I mean look at that grin. Love you babe!

 Myka and Adri were cheering their daddy on as he surfed behind the boat. They love it when Lance wakeboards too, doing flips and jumping the wake. They can't wait until they are bigger so they can try it.

 After a long day playing on and in the river I caught a killdeer baby chick for the girls to hold. You can't tell in this pic. but they were so excited to hold a baby bird. It was fun not every kid can say that they get to see bird nests with eggs in them and then get to hold a baby bird. Pretty cool.

Out of the mouths of children

What a week and a half we've had. We had a baptism, a family reunion, church activities, the 4th of July celebration and we have another reunion tomorrow. It seems that we don't do anything for weeks and then everything hits at once. We'll make it through, we kind-of thrive on crazy. The girls said made some of the cutest comments this week that I thought I would share. On the way to grandma's house we got stuck behind a wreck for about 45 minutes. At about the 30 min. mark Myka in a very exasperated tone said, "Mom, we are going to be old people if we stay here for a long time." What can I say, she is mine and I love her mind. Adri on the other hand was a little more serious when she told her newly pregnant aunt that "maybe when the baby comes out of your tummy my mom can take care of it." Lance and I have talked with the girls so much about how adoption works that they really understand it. The only problem is that they want to have a new brother or sister so bad that they try to adopt kids and babies all the time. I hope that we get chosen to adopt soon, we are beyond ready.

Smartie!

So the other day I made the girls chocolate sandwich towers for lunch (nutella sandwiches cut into small squares and stacked to make a tower) and I learned just how quick witted my girls are getting. Adri ate her sandwiches first and then attacked her fruit. Myka ate her fruit first and then was just goofing around. I said "Myka you haven't touched your tower yet." She replied by looking at me in the eyes, sticking her finger on the top of her sandwich tower and with a huge grin said "Touch." Smart Myka, real smart. Then I told her that she needed to sit on her bum while she was eating. Myka replied by saying "but I am sitting on my bum Mom." Well she won that one too because she was sitting on her bum on the back of her chair instead on the seat of her chair. All the while Adri was giggling and backing her sister. Where did the time go. My girls are only 4 and they are already out witting me. I'm in trouble.

Family Fun Day

We had a really fun, yet interesting day yesterday. We spent most of the afternoon at the park for the Family Fun Day celebration. I was stationed at the FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) booth for a little over three hours painting faces while Lance and the girls got to enjoy all of the different booths and play at the playground. The craziest thing happened when I was almost to my three hour mark. I was painting an angry bird on this young girls cheek when she started to move her head side to side a little. I told her that she needed to try to hold still and looked up at her. Her eyes were glossy and she really started to sway. I dropped my brush and pulled her onto my lap as she passes out. I called for some cold water (we had some there in the booth) and checked her over while cradling her on my lap. She was only out for a few seconds but it scared me to death. Some other nice bystanders helped me get her cooled off, got her to drink some power aid that Lance brought over to her and I carried her into the shade. Poor little girl. We ran into her a few hours later at Costco and she came up to me, gave me a hug, thanked me for helping her out and told me that she was okay. Thank heavens. Reminder to all us parents: when it's really hot outside make sure that your kids have eaten good food, drink lots of fluids and don't get over heated.

We love you Daddy

I just wanted to post a quick update. We had a great Fathers-Day. We were a little tired because we stayed up really late with visiting family (love you Jen, Matt, Ani and Cray) but we made it through. I had to give a talk in church so Lance got to man the girls all by himself. He did perfect! I only heard the girls once. Then after our meeting we went to our nephews ordination into the priesthood. It was really special not only because our nephew made that big step in his life but also because almost all of our family was there to support him. We spent the afternoon eating, always eating, and visiting with family. Then back to our house to relax and enjoy our own little family. All in all it was a great day. I just want say how much I love my husband! He is a wonderful daddy, a loving husband, and a great man. I love you honey. Thanks for everything.

Lessons Learned

We took the girls boating on Sat. with some of our friends. It was sort of an early fathers-day gift for Lance who, by the way, can still land his back flips on the wakeboard. Go Lance! Well during a break the kids were standing on the back deck of the boat getting their feet wet when I heard a splash. Adri fell into the river. My heart jumped into my throat! It was one of those moments were I was standing right there by the kids but looked away for that split second and well...I knelt down, reached for her hand and pulled her in. Ari was so brave! Wide eyed and scared but she didn't panic. She kicked her legs and was reaching for the boat. Hate to say it but it was an excellent lesson for the kids, especially for Adri, on the reason why mom and dad insist that they wear their life jackets at all times when we are by the river or on the boat. All the kids had theirs on by the way. Anyways long story short; Adri was safe, both her and Myka learned a valuable lesson, I got soaked in my clothes and Lance can still land his back flips. Good job honey!

A little girl time.

Friday morning the girls and I got to lounge in bed watching a movie. After the movie was over we decided to go out to the donut shop and spoil ourselves. Adri had a chocolate donut, Myka had a pink donut and I had about half of a cinnamon swirl donut (the girls ate the other half). We packed up a donut to go, for Lance, and headed out to do some much needed shopping. Then rounded off our morning by stopping by Lances work to give him his donut. It was so nice simply being with my girls. I have a feeling we are going to make little outings for treats a tradition.

Some pics at the aquarium in Utah

Everyone who knows us knows that we love going to zoos and aquariums. Here are some pictures of us at an aquarium in Utah. The shark tank was really cool and who can resist siting on a giant frog. Myka's favorite thing was the different jelly fish. We got to watch them get fed and she thought that was awesome. Adri's favorite thing was the river otters. They were so playful coming up to the window and touching it where the girl's hands were on the glass. We even got to touch different kinds of star fish, horse shoe crabs and get a shock from an electric eal. It was a fun trip.

Perfect Cooking Weather

This week is turning out to be perfect cooking weather. We made home-made pizza on Monday, I put together six lasagnas on Tuesday and I made homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner last night and my house was so cool that I wasn't sweating over the stove! My greatest reward for cooking good meals, my girls and husband ate a lot of good home cooked food. Plus I have a few lasagnas in the freezer for those days when it's too hot to be over the stove. Awesome.

Fishin' with Grandpa in the rain and ridin' 4-wheelers with my Girls

Busy Busy

We had a really fun weekend! Friday night I went on a date with my hubby. We ate at are favorite authentic Mexican restaurant then we waddled (seriously we ate so much yummy food!)to the movie theater where we watched "The Avengers." Great food, awesome movie and a great looking guy who is all mine = much needed husband and wife time. The only downer for the evening was that we paid more for the babysitter than we did for our food! Saturday we got to meet our five new nieces and nephews that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law adopted and they were such amazing kids.  Our new nieces and nephews are black so we had to explain to the girls before they met them that their cousins were just like them they just had pretty dark skin instead of pretty light skin. Can I just say that our girls were wonderful, they couldn't care less and accepted their cousins for who they are, parts of our family. They did think that their new girl cousins hair was really cool and that I was mean because I wasn't going to put Myka and Adri's hair in to hundreds of tiny braids.  Little Ceder is Myka and Adri's age so they played in the water and had so much fun they even tried to bring him home in our van. After our fun visit we rushed back home to change, then we went to one of my cousin's wedding reception. It was nice to see them so giddy in love and catching up with family. And Sunday after church we went up to the hospital to see our friends and their brand new baby. Adri and Myka thought that the baby was so cute and loved petting her hair and kissing her head. Our friend shocked us by even letting the girls hold the baby and I wish that I would have had a camera to catch the girls in that moment. They were so adorable. Afterwords the girls told us that they "already loved that baby" and asked me and Lance when we were going to get our baby. We told them that we hoped it would be soon and that we needed to keep praying for our baby to come to us. Waiting to be chosen to adopt is so hard on everyone, even on our girls. --All in all it was a great weekend and I can't wait to see what this week brings!

I just have to say that we have had a pretty fun week this week. We got to go to the zoo the other day as a family, we went to a really amazing park together, had friends over and Myka and Adri got to have two of their cousins that are their age over to play in the water and eat dinner with us. It's been a fun, crazy week so far and Lance and I are going on a date tomorrow night and then we have a family wedding on Sat. The joys of summer. This morning was especially fun because I got to have one on one time with Myka while Adri was still sleeping and when we finally decided to wake Adri up we were all giggling and playing one the girl's bed. Adri entertained Myka and I with the stories of her dreams (she was a fish) and us three just snuggled and giggled for a while. I absolutely love my daughters! I always say that they are the best part of me and it is the truth. Now if we could just get them a baby brother or sister to join in fun and love that would be perfect! Keep you fingers crossed for us.

Drip drip drop and the rain was falling.

Holy smokes! I finally have time to sit down and tell you about our camping trip last weekend. Well, I can sum it up like this: it rained, it hailed, it snowed slush, it rained some more and the wind blew. I know, awesome right. But among all of that beautiful weather the kids were still smiling, having fun with their cousins and enjoying the power they had of bossing all of us adults around for the weekend. (we didn't want them to get cold or too wet so we were doing everything for them trying to keep them happy) I am sure that everyone else in the camp ground thought that our family was nuts or homeless. They were all in campers every single one of them while we had 7 tents a big trailer and one camper. To make it even better, since it never stopped raining, hailing, or snowing most of the tents were leaking so we had tarps over all of the tents. I'm laughing because we were really a sight to behold. Crazy die hards. Overall though, it was a good time. It's always great to have my whole side of the family together. Thanks to all of our family for the good food, fun times and great company. Love you all.

 

Bear Bums

So funny! Lance is watching X-Men cartoons with the girls; I know, how cool are we. Anyways. Adri was telling her daddy that she wouldn't ask to watch another episode if he let her watch just one more. She used her "I promise for ever and ever" so Lance asked her what could happen if she broke her promise. She didn't respond so Lance asked her if she would get a spanking on her bare bum. (Don't worry we don't actually do that to our children) Well to show her daddy how smart she is Adri responded by saying, "I don't have any hair on my bum" she wiggles her bum at him, "I don't have a bear bum." Well, Lance lost it and was laughing so hard that the girls joined in. Then Adri followed up with her "It's just a goke dad." We love how she pronounces joke as goke. All I can add is that our girls are way too smart for their own good. What was their dad thinking, girls don't have bear bums. Sheesh.

Magic Ride

We have had a very fun week so far. We went to Utah for three days to visit family and finally baught a van. The girls were so excited they had to go for a ride around the block several times with their cousins and daddy. Every time we even mention the new car Myka is quick to tell us that it isn't a car it's a "new van" and she giggles. Myka and Adri's favorite features are the "magic" doors. They love pressing the buttons to open the doors themselves and get a kick when I open them magicaly with the remote key. Lance and I are just glad that we found a van that the whole family can enjoy and it doesn't hurt that the girls think that we are just awesome because we got them a magic van. What can I say, we do our best. ;)

Little Wishes

We had stake conference on Sunday (yes we were there on time) and we got to sit next to another young family that had a baby. Well, Adri was having the time of her life playing with the baby and kept wanting to share her snacks with her. When the baby got fussy and started to cry Adri started singing her a made up song. I tried to get Adri to be quiet but she insisted that the song was making the baby feel better and it really was so I let her keep singing. After the baby stopped crying and was smiling again Adri pulled my face next to hers and whispered to me "I wish I had a baby like that." Adri's sweet wish struck my heart. I leaned over and told Lance what she had said and he whispered back "some day." As you can guess my eyes were flowing as they are now and I wish with all my heart that I could make Adri's wish come true. Hopefully, someone will hear the wishes of our families hearts and choose to have us adopt their precious baby. I just wanted to share that experience on this blog because I don't want to forget it and hope that someone soon will help grant our little angels wish.

Yard Work

The honor of home ownership means yard work and lots of it. This week will be spent weeding the flower beds, the garden and spraying the yard for weeds. The rest of our time will be spent thinking of other things we need to do. When it comes right down to it life gets in the way of the things we really want to do.