Easter Fun

I tried something new this year and got G dyeing Easter Eggs.

He is learning his colors and so it was lots of fun. For the next 2 mornings he wouldn't eat breakfast until I pulled out his colored eggs and set them on the table next to him.

Saturday we went downtown and had breakfast at our favorite place- The Wagon Wheel. Then we headed over to the park for the annual candy grab, I mean egg hunt. G still fits into the youngest group, though I'm sure some parents were wondering if he was to old for the 1-2 year old section because he is so tall.

Easter morning was great, too. G loved his Easter basket and searching for eggs outside. M was excited about her toys, too. It was really nice to be mostly over our colds and we had a great weekend being able to listen to General Conference and hear counsel from the prophet.

I am sorry that I have not posted in such a long time. In addition to not being able to use the computer while little ones are on the move, Jared now is using the MacBook all night, every night. He returned to school just over a month ago in a communications degree program. It is an accelerated program and hopefully he will finish with a bachelors degree in about 17 more months. I am really glad that he has returned to school and he is enjoying his classes so far.
I hope you all are well and that you had a great easter weekend!

Christmas Letter 2009

If you look closely at this card, you may see the frostbite forming on our fingers and noses. We had our holiday pics taken on the coldest day possible in December. I know I've turned into a pansy, but it was only in the 30's that day. Since then temps have gone back up to the 50's and low 60's. That's more like it.

This year has been quite an exciting one. We started out in January trying to get approved to adopt again as soon as possible. After G's finalization and sealing in May of last year, I knew that we needed to be ready to adopt again, because there was another child coming to our family. I have to admit, I've always thought it was a little hokey when I'd hear of people that said they felt there was someone missing in their family, but that's exactly what it feels like. So, we were ready at the start of the year, but God had other plans. It seemed like every road block possible came up while we were trying to get approved. Finally in mid March, our case worker called us and let us know everything was ready and our profile would be available online for expectant parents looking for an adoptive family. She asked us first to make a paper copy of our profile that she could show to someone the next day that was coming into the office. So I scrambled to put pictures together and make them look nice and I took it over to their office. And then we waited, but not very long.

On April first our caseworker gave me the best early birthday gift I've ever gotten. She brought a birth announcement and letter from our daughter's birthmother. That night put us into motion for the next couple of months. We were so lucky to be able to get to know her and her family before the birth. They have been such a blessing in our lives.

Our daughter was born in June and she turned poor G's world upside down. He hardly knew what to think of her, but at least he was so busy doing and going and growing, that he didn't have time to be jealous of the new usurper in momma's lap. He's growing so fast. The beginning of the year, he was just newly walking and now he just runs everywhere. He has such a sweet disposition, he loves to be with friends and he now loves his little sister. When she is sad, he shares his woobie (blanket) with her and he helps her play her musical toys to keep her entertained. I love to watch him play with other children his age because he loves to share although I'm not sure where he got that from :)

Jared and I are so thankful this year to be surrounded by family and friends who we love. We hope that you feel the love of the Savior in your life as we have this year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Twice the fun

G and June bug had a great halloween this year. G really got into decorating his own pumpkin. We let him use magic markers for the occasion.

He wasn't really sure about sticking his hand inside the pumpkin when it came time to clean out the one we carved, but after a few tries, he finally got his hand in and pulled out some goop.

Very scary.

Jared and I then headed off to Africa on Safari. We found a lion cub and a baby giraffe that we just had to bring home. Surprisingly, they were easy enough to smuggle through customs.

Boy, that lion really got into collecting candy. I had no idea they could have such sweet tooths.

Our little June bug wasn't feeling so great over the weekend. She is getting her two front bottom teeth at the same time. So, here's a pic from earlier this month with her usually happy attitude.

Bouncing and Bimbos

Our Labor day weekend was lots of fun. We had Jared's parents here and went to Peach Days in Hurricane. G loved the bounce house.

We were sad to see the old folks go. It was nice to have them here.

June bug was introduced to the Bimbo today. She loved it- for a little while. It's nice to have a change in perspective sometimes. (the bimbo is an off-brand Bumbo. Jared named it)

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of july. We are still recovering a little from our trip up to Salt Lake, but here's some of the highlights of our trip.

On Friday the 3rd we went to Hogle Zoo. We saw Lions and Tigers and Bears a plenty, but G-man's favorites were the snake he got to touch, the monkeys,

and the Elephants.

It was a really sunny day, so the inside of her car seat was all our June bug got to see, but she slept most of the time anyway. Here is G-man riding in style in the new double stroller.

Daddy and G riding the carousel. He looks very focused here, but he enjoyed it a lot.

The rhinoceros was okay, but Grampa's kettle corn was the BEST!

Here he is learning that it is best to let sleeping cats lie.

On Saturday, we spent the day with my sister in Provo. We went to the parade downtown, we had great parking and good seats and a good time. I won't bore you with pics of the parade, although Miss Utah did look phenomenal on her pig float. Baby M looked super cute with her patriotic outfit and her red bow brain-squisher and she was happy as long as she was being held.

G looked very patriotic too as an All American Boy

Later in the day we got together at someone's house that had a great view of the fireworks from Stadium of Fire. G and his cousin took the best seats early.

We set off lots of our own fireworks. This is June bug's close encounter with a sparkler.

The official fireworks were great, but the highlight of the night was G and his cousin and another almost two year old playing with poppers.

Easter Weekend

Here we are at the park before the rain started.  We ate at the pancake breakfast before the easter egg hunt.

G was not really keen on waiting for the countdown to start.

It didn't take much time for him to figure out the drill- Pick up candy...

Put candy in the bag.

After the hunt, we picked up G'ma and G'pa and drove to the Clark County Fair.  G especially loved all the animals.

I think we may be raising a cowboy.

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend!

Decorating for Christmas

So I guess I haven't offended all you guys with my sarcasm.  I really shouldn't write late at night, but it seems to be the only time I have these days.  G-man's hands are too quick and I have a hard time typing and keeping him away from the laptop at the same time.  I tend to get a little mouthy when I'm tired :)

We put up the Christmas tree this weekend.  I was a little disappointed to find that the pre-lit tree I bought in April was a multi-colored light tree.  I prefer the white lights, but now that it's been up a few days, it's starting to grow on me.  Jared says that since we have a multi-colored family we should have a multi-colored tree, too.  He is ever the racially sensitive one isn't he?  Anyway, I finished decorating it today and I think I really like it, but here are the pics of G-man and I feathering out the branches.

Thankful

This Thanksgiving I'm making a list of things that I am thankful for as an American in these uncertain economic times.  We may not all have reliable jobs, or be able to pay our over extended mortgages, but here in the great United States of America, we still have many blessings.

1. First, I am thankful for commercials.  Life would be really dull without commercials, in fact, it was very dull without commercials.  When my family lived overseas, we watched AFN (the Armed Forces Network).  Unfortunately foreign governments don't like Americans promoting their own products, so commercials were not broadcasted during program breaks.  Instead, we were encouraged to "Be, All That You Can Be" over and over and over in any form or branch of the military you can think of.  It got very old very fast, and I think that the subliminal messages contained in those ads have done weird things to my brain (that could have been the origin of the seizures I had as a child).  Really, I would think that those foreign governments would rather us buy our own brand of dish detergent than have a young generation of children indoctrinated by military commercials.  Who made that decision?  

So, if you can put aside your fears of debt for the good of our consumerist nation, I would really appreciate it.  Just run up the credit cards enough so that companies can continue to buy advertisement time.  I'd really hate to start having seizures again.

2.  I am thankful for the internet.  It kind of feels like a big summer camp for all those grown up women out there where we get together for only $50 a month and compare kids' pictures and learn from each other and brag about our awesome husbands and awesome lives and etc, etc.

I am saving so much money by blogging.  Just think what I could be spending on therapy.  I love that I can contribute to our family saving money.

3.  I am thankful for nuts.  Specifically the ones in our family tree.  Is it a bad sign that Jared and I both think that we got the most normal person out of each other's family?  Seriously, though, we love all our family, even the nuts.  I'll bet many of you love your nuts, too.

4. I am thankful for freedom of religion.  Where would we be without freedom of religion in this country?  I am thankful for all those Wyckens, Hari Krishnas, Satanists, Polygamists, Fundamentalists and such that have pushed Mormonism into mainstream religion.  I like being mainstream.  I understand it's much better than being burned alive as a witch or being hunted down by angry mobs.  

*Disclaimer-  I intend no disrespect towards any of the aforementioned religions or creeds.  Just wait a few years and something weirder will come along and push you all into mainstream religion.  That's the beauty of Freedom.*

5.  Now this one is for real.  I am grateful for my son.  Even though he has temporarily kept me away from the blogging community for the last little while.  His energy and resourcefulness are astounding.  I have started taking naps when he does just so I can keep up with him when he is awake.  He learns so quickly that it is getting harder to trick him any more.   He doesn't believe that chocolate is nasty.  He is starting to talk, but not to us- to the dogs.  His only words are Bwarf, Woof, and Boarf.  We keep hoping that he will start communicating with us soon.  He has also learned that the little red light on the camera means that the flash is coming, so he has started squinting in preparation. 

We just happened to get lucky with this shot. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Private Schmivate

This in defiance to KSL and their dirty little segment about stupid bloggers who didn't expect to have their pictures stolen off their blog. Really, who is going to remember that kid was hitler boy on the email when he's twenty? And if I start getting nasty comments from someone who amazingly still has access to my blog if I do go private? I totally know it was you (insert your name here). So in complete defiance of all those naysayers who think blogging is just opening yourself up to the world for criticism, here are pictures from the cutest boy in the world's birthday party, which happened recently, but I'm not revealing which day, so you can't steal his identity.

The G-man snuggling with Grampa Claude

My Cake (I baked it and put the brown frosting on, but Abby took over the rest of the decorating).

G-man was not sure how he felt about the cake, especially after it was beheaded.

I opened gifts, while Cristina broke up the brawl in the corner.

G-money and his tummy momma, without whom this day would not be possible.

Thanks, Michaelene!

Halloween FHE

G-man's first Pumpkin carving experience! Fun was had by all. Necia ate a little pumpkin gunk and G tried to as well. It turned out okay, no real work of art or anything, but I guess it's good enough to sit outside and rot on my doorstep :o)!

Happy Halloween!

Would you believe how hard it is to find a real pumpkin patch around here? I drove all over on Thursday and couldn't find one. The local farm was definitely not open. So I headed over to the local nursery where they had some pumpkins and some haybales and got some pics. Here are my favorites. Enjoy!