Our Kitties

Barry found a mother cat at his nursery with two kittens. Someone had abandoned it. Even though Barry is allergic to cats, we decided to have them brought to our home for a trial period. We thought if kept them outside that maybe Barry wouldn't have reactions.

Emma was obsessed with the kitties and constantly wanted to go outside to hold them. Unfortunately the cat dander would get on our clothes. Every time Barry picked up Emma, he'd have a reaction.

Plus the mother cat pooped on the grass all the time, and Barry could not handle the dead spots in our lawn.

Eventually we gave them away to Barry's uncle who lives on a farm. We had fun having them even for a short while!

Little Mommy

Emma loves her baby dolls, and she takes very good care of them. She'll burp, feed, and change their diapers with my help. I gave her one of her old burps cloths so she could burp her baby doll. I put the burp cloth on her shoulder, and she holds her baby doll's chest to her chest. Then she pats its back and makes a burp sounds.

When I say, "Your babies are crying", she runs over to the baby doll's crib. She picks them up and says "Don't cry baby." Then she sings "Rock bye don't cry" to them. She even says "Don't cry baby" to any baby she sees even if they are not crying. It's immensely fun to play baby dolls with her and watch her interact with them.

She also mothers all her stuffed animals. She picks them up, hugs them, and says, "It's OK. I got you." The other day she put books on her Pooh Bear and Eeyore's laps.

Owen's Soccer Season

This summer Owen played organized sports for the first time. We figured with how much he loves to run that soccer would be the best fit for him. I'm not one of those parents who has to have the star player.  We wanted Owen to have fun, keep his focus on the game, and try his best. He just wasn't very motivated to go after the ball as you can see in the videos, but he was a super goalie.

We had some funny moments happen over the season. One time Owen was staring off into space when suddenly the ball came flying through the air. It hit him in the face, but not too hard mind you. When we'd cheer on his teammates,  Owen would join in instead of going after the ball.

BYU Cuties

My dad introduced me to BYU football when I was little. Ever since I've been a fan. Though I never attended BYU, I did get accepted to the university but strongly felt I needed to stay in Idaho. Good thing I followed those feelings or else I wouldn't have met Barry.

Recently I purchased a BYU cheerleader outfit for Emma. Now that Owen and Emma have BYU attire, I decided to take some pictures of my cuties and digitally scrapbooked them.

Go Cougars!

1st Day of 1st Grade

Owen started 1st grade this year. I can't believe he's in grade school now! Though I miss him being little, it's fun to be able to do new things with him. He's such a good reader and we love playing video and board games together (even if he cheats at Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land). The school district reworked the school boundaries and placed our subdivision into Jefferson Elementary. We were sad to leave Harwood Elementary. Not to brag but he tested a half grade ahead in Math and at grade level for reading.

Owen Riding without Training Wheels

Funny story...
We got Owen a new bike for his 6th birthday since he'd outgrown the bike he was using. A couple weeks after that, I was backing out of the garage when I heard a crunch. Owen had put his bike right next to my car and I didn't notice. Thankfully I had only backed over one of his training wheels. Instead of buying new training wheels, Barry put on a training wheel from his old bike. The wheel was a little smaller than the other one so it made the bike tipsy, but Owen was able to still ride by leaning to one side. Then for no apparent reason the other training wheel kept loosening. After tightening it at least a dozen times, we decided to take off the training wheels. He was able to ride without them the first time he tried! Now I'm actually glad I backed over his training wheel.

Summer Rewind: Part 3 - Water Fun

We have been playing in the water in our backyard a lot this summer. Its been hot here but thankfully nothing above 90 degrees. Barry's aunt gave us their old  Slip n Slide last month and the kids have really loved it. They move between that, the water table, and the little pool.

Summer Rewind: Part 2 - 4th of July

We did do lots of a fun-filled 4th of July weekend.

July 3rd
We watched the Rigby fireworks. Since our house is just a few miles from Rigby Lake we just watched them from our backyard. You can hear them well from our house too. The noise was enough to scare Emma. Last year we'd gone to the Menan, Idaho fireworks and absolutely loved it. We debated about going this year due with Emma's reaction to the fireworks the day before. Our mind was made up for us when Emma and Owen fell asleep for that night at 8.

July 4th
We had a BBQ with my dad's family. His brother and sister as well as my cousin traveled from Washington, Colorado, Arizona respectively. They got a kick out of Emma and Owen. They were the only great grandchildren there since my sister didn't make it. Owen instantly became uncle Dean's shadow. Owen isn't a shy person but Emma on the other hand was extremely shy. She didn't want me to put her down and she'd hide her face into my shoulder when anyone spoke to her. Then when she finally let me put her down, Emma would bend over and put her head down on the ground to hide. It reminded me of an ostrich! She did eventually warm up and started showing off by dancing, jumping, and twirling.

July 5th
The 5th and 6th we attended a reunion for my mom's immediate family. It was wonderful to see all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We couldn't attend all the festivities but we did make it for the dinner show at Mountain River Ranch in Ririe. Barry and I went without the kids and it made for a fun date night. You can read all about our time there on my cousin's blog. Just so you know, I would totally recommend the steak. It was worth the extra 5 dollars!

July 6th
To celebrate my Grandpa's 83rd birthday we had a carnival, BBQ, and homemade ice cream with cake at my uncle's home. We got there a little early so they were setting up. Emma wandered around and found the prize bucket. Being unmanned, she helped herself to as many Smarties as she could hold. I got her to be happy with just one for each hand as you can see in the picture. She also found the balloon dart stand and promptly popped a few balloons by just pulling them off. I figure she was just taking her turn before the big kids got there.

I wished I could have taken more pictures. Emma was pretty busy bee that day. I had to follow her the whole time to keep her out of mischief. This is a picture from my cousin's blog of Owen. Make sure you read her post to see the other fun things we did. Uncle David and Aunt Linda did a really good job.

Summer Rewind

Summer vacation started this year on the last week in May. Owen did so well in Kindergarten. Not to brag but he was in the Advanced Reading class most of the year. He reads so well but he's not an avid reader like his mom (yet). We started reading Ralph and the Motorcycle before he goes to bed. It was my favorite book from elementary school and I've wanted to share it now that Owen is old enough to hear chapter books. I've seen big growth in Owen's emotional maturity. He had a fantastic teacher that worked with him in a manner that Owen positively responded to. We do hope his next teacher works with him just as well.

We haven't gone anywhere far from home this summer. Barry's nursery really makes it impossible to go on a week long vacation. We did go with Barry on a late afternoon delivery to Etna, Wyoming.  I expected the scenery would be simply beautiful and I wasn't disappointed. Everything was so green. On the way home, we stopped at a restaurant called Tootsies. Barry and I had some delicious garlic shrimp pasta. Owen was so hungry that he ate his personal-size cheese pizza as well as half of Emma's noodles! I totally recommend eating there.

Owen's Room Redo

Over 6 years agoI decorated our nursery in anticipation of Owen's arrival to our family. We'd picked out a crib bedding set called Casey's Cabin and so we decided a cabin theme for Owen's room. 

Then

Owen wanted his room re-done as part of his 6th birthday present. He wanted a Lego room. My first change was replacing the bear and tree cutouts with Lego blocks. As crazy as it seems, Owen had a much harder time accepting the bears and trees being removed than I did.

I designed a Lego block vector (download here) to cut out the red, blue, green and yellow vinyl on my Cricut. I had some Lego City posters from Lego.com printed at our local copy/print center. I got some cheap black frames from Walmart for them.

Next I used the Lego thick font and my Cricut cutter to cutout the letters of his name for his wall. Each letter consists of white, black, and then either red, blue, green, and yellow paper. I cut out each part smaller than the previous part so all I had to do was stack them.

We also cut out the box fronts of the Lego sets Owen has received and then put them on his wall. I still want to cut out some Lego shaped blocks from paper to hang from his ceiling like a mobile.

Then I got him a new window valance, bed skirt, and a Lego bedding set from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It was really fun redecorating his room. Putting up the vinyl was time consuming but otherwise an easy (no painting needed!!) and relatively cheap room redo. The best part Owen loves it.

Owen's 6th Birthday Party

I mentioned in my previous post that Owen is a Lego maniac. We celebrated his sixth birthday by throwing him a Lego themed party and for the first time inviting just his friends and his boy cousins.

I got my décor, treats and game ideas from Pinterest and from games I played at parties as a child. We played Lego bingo (using the different Lego figures for the bingo cards), Pin the Head on the Lego Man, and Lego toss (like Skeet ball at the arcade but with the big Legos called Duplos).

With all the extra birthday preparations, I was so thankful to have my friend Malinda, who has experience using fondant, to make the cakes. We came up with the idea of making Lego man face cupcakes, using circles cutout from yellow-dyed fondant and black food marker to draw on their faces. 

Following our family tradition, Owen got his own mini cake. Malinda used my mini bread loaf pan and some mini marshmellows to make him a Lego brick cake. She covered it entirely with blue-dyed fondant since Owen's favorite color is blue.

Overall I think the boys really loved the party. The Lego bingo was a big success. We played long enough to nearly fill their whole playing card! 

The boys had some good laughs while playing "Pin the Head on the Lego Man." Most of them didn't want to use the bandanna so at least a couple of those tried to put the head on somewhere silly instead of cheating. Malinda drew the  faces on the Lego heads. Some had whiskers, mustaches, or beards and some were sad, mad, happy, etc. The boys really liked that.

The boys were more than ready for cupcakes and ice cream by the time we played the Lego toss so we only played one round. I've learned from my experience being a Sunday School teacher and Cub Scouts leader to always plan more than you'll be able to do.

The Lego man face cupcakes were also a big hit. Malinda drew lots of different faces just like she did for the "Pin the Head" game. The boys really loved picking out from all those different faces!

Owen's friends gave him a couple Lego sets; a bubble maker; a remote control car; a remote control Evil Dr. Porkchop; bounce balls, finger laser lights; a Angry Birds Star Wars t-shirt, folder, pencil, and figures; and a Lego batman t-shirt.

Barry and I gave him a new bike and I redecorated his room in a Lego theme (pictures to come). Grandma & Grandpa took him to Toys R Us to pick out a Lego set and then to Target where he picked out a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirt, an Angry Bird pajama set, and cargo pants.

Happy Birthday Owen!! We love you!

Owen is Six!

Another year has gone by in Owens life. He turned 6 about 5 weeks ago. I had to do a little reminiscing. Simply bittersweet seeing how much my baby boy has grown!


Now


Then


As hard as he can be to handle, I love him so much! We waited so long and prayed tirelessly to bring him to our home. Even though at the time I thought I knew better than God, I needed to wait until I was ready. I find solace in knowing Heavenly Father knew I'd needed to start developing patience (still working on it) so in the future I would be patient with myself and with Owen. As I watch other parents, I see how easy we, including myself, find our children can be a burden as we try to accomplish as much as we can in a day. We also lose patience with them too quickly. I needed that excruciating experience of waiting for my babies as a constant reminder to never to take my children for granted.

Not but not least, I can't end this post without acknowledging Owen's birthmother, birthfather, and birth family. Daily I am reminded of their sacrifice of placing Owen into our family. This act was the ultimate expression of love, selflessness, and courage. It was heart wrenching to watch the pain and struggles they faced. We were all grieving yet I cannot say I knew how they felt; they were losing a child while as we had lost our hopes and dreams. Simply said, Barry and I are eternally indebted to them.

Easter 2013

We have a tradition in our family that started with Owen's 1st Easter. He was only 6 weeks old at the time but it was still fun getting him an Easter suit that came from Aunt Mandy. Easter Sunday Owen and Emma woke up to their Easter surprises. Owen got a sweater vest, a Lego mining set, and some Crunch bar eggs. Owen is the true definition of a Lego maniac. I am really amazed at his imagination and talent for building things. He'll come show me what he's built and I can actually tell what he's made.

Emma got a fancy dress, a talking Elmo, a Leap Frog play phone, and Gerber Baby Cheetos.  Her Elmo talks and sings about the shapes/colors when you push on his shirt. She has trouble getting make him talk/sing so she brings him to me to make him go. She loves to give him mushes (aka kisses) and to feeds him with one of her baby doll bottles.



Here is Emma and Owen in their new Sunday outfits. I love having them match! You can see Emma is holding her new phone. I really tried to get on that looked a lot like my iPhone and that was interactive. It has complete key pad, a button to play songs, and another button to call Scout the puppy. Whenever she finds mine I ask "Where is Emma's phone?" and she'll shrug her arms and shoulders. We'll go looking for it and after we've found it she'll bring it to her ear and pretends she's talking to Grandma. Other times and she'll say, "Hello. Who's this?" just like Scout the puppy does when she calls him. Too cute!!

After church we headed to Barry's grandparents for their annual Easter egg hunt. This is the 3rd year I've forgotten to bring baskets so hence the ice cream bucket and grocery bag. I was so excited that Emma was walking by Easter. She simply loved picking up the eggs and putting them in her bucket.

Emma's 1st Birthday

Two months ago, our little Emma turned one. I cannot believe that two months have gone by since her birthday, let alone that a whole year has passed. The memories of her entering our family are bittersweet. I recognize the lost felt by her birth mother, father, and extended birth family; and yet rejoice over the healing and happiness she has brought to our family. I can honestly say she makes our little family feel complete.

I've decided for now on that anytime when I do a digital
scrapbook page of some pictures I am going to post it instead.

As you see, Emma's first experience with birthday parties was full of fun and family. She had her grandparents; most of her great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins; and some dear friends come to celebrate her life! Emma got a whole spring/summer wardrobe as gifts including some shoes from Grandpa & Grandma. I was elated to find out she loves shoes as much as me!

It's so fun dressing her in a new outfit each day. So a big thank you to each of you who gave gifts!

Barry's Ice Fishing Escapades

Summer is when most people recreate. That is not the case with our family. Barry being part owner of a landscape nursery means we have little time in the summer for play. The trees, shrubs, and perennials all need watered even on the holidays. 

For instance, Barry has golfed since high school.  For the first 5 years of our marriage, Barry would go golfing often but he hasn't gone golfing for at least 3 years now. 

Finally, a friend of his brother took him and his brother ice fishing on Henry's Lake. Barry came back literally "hooked." He already enjoyed fishing and it fit perfectly with his work schedule where winter is his down time. His grandpa was a fisherman and took Barry fishing a lot. 

Barry's new pursuit comes with a complete array of of new gear to store in our garage! (I'm laughing as I write this). Ice fishing snow pants and coat, fish radar, gas powered auger, portable shelter, gear sled, bait of all kinds, fishing poles and a contraption called the jaw-locker.

I used to really hate when he'd go because he would be gone most of the day. This year I decided to put myself in his shoes and realized being Mr. Mom during the winter takes its toll on him. Hopefully I ended up not grumbling as much.

His favorite place to fish is Henry's Lake. Here are a couple pictures of the prize catches he's made.

Brotherly & Sisterly Love

I finally have some time to make some new posts on our blog. My roles as wife, mother, software engineer, housekeeper, church member, and Bear Den Leader have been keeping me so busy. I hope you all understand. Anyway....

It absolutely melts my heart to see the love Owen and Emma have for each other. We worried about Owen's reaction when we finally received a baby. He had a passionate dislike for babies and really didn't like me holding babies or toddlers. I remember having my niece on my lap, who was 18 months at the time, and he told me to put her down. We knew Emma was meant for our family when Owen finally got to meet her for the first time. He didn't mind me holding Emma but when my 3-year-old niece sat on my lap he piped up. 

Every day after she finishes her morning bottle, Emma wants down from our bed and goes to find Owen asleep in his room. She'll also call for him when we do, or get after him when he gets in trouble. Anytime Owen is acting sad or angry Emma will get concerned and want to make Owen happy. She loves having Owen chase her or pull her in her little wagon. 

Of course they have their fights and its always about toys. Emma will want to get into Owen's Legos, and since there are so many little pieces Emma could swallow, Owen can't play where ever he wants with them. Then Owen will want to play with her electronic baby toys or read one of her books. I know that as they get older they may not play or get along as much so I'm enjoying it as it lasts.

Look Who's Walking

I took this video of Emma using her walker the during the first part of January. At this point, I thought we still had at least a month before Emma would start walking. She couldn't stand without assistance for longer than a few seconds or pull herself up without using a couch or such. I remembered that once Owen could push himself up that it was about a month later when he walked for the first time.



During our MLK weekend stay-cation, we spent Sunday with Barry's sister and her family. While we were there, Emma started pushing herself up from her knees to standing. She would crawl, stop, push, stand and then fall on her bum over and over again. It was exciting to think she would probably be like Owen and walk probably a few weeks or days before her 1st birthday.

Then, Monday we drove home and stopped on the way to see Barry's parents. They were gone to a doctor's appointment and would be back shortly so we agreed to wait for them. Barry's dad had his hip replaced earlier in the month, and unfortunately they found out his blood sugars were going haywire, so this was a follow up visit for that.

Anyway, Barry is relaxing in the spare bedroom while Owen and I are quietly playing with Emma in the front room. At one point, Emma pulls herself up and takes two steps, falls on her bum. She repeats this but then the next time she's taken 3 steps and staying up longer. I go tell Barry I think Emma's about to walk for the first time. She takes five steps and I'm so excited. Amid the excitement, Mom and Dad walk to through the door. I tell Dad that Emma has taken five steps and ask him to stop and watch. I get her positioned and she takes five steps towards him before she falls. It was so neat! I know it totally made his day and he still feels pretty special he got to see her walk for the first time. Later on Emma took seven steps from me to Mom. Here is some video just a few days later.

Photoshoot with Aunt Jen

My sister-in-law Jen got a digital SLR camera for Christmas. I was jealous but then it dawned on me that I now have a free resource for taking the kiddos pictures. She even plans on taking a photography class at the local community college and learn Photoshop Elements.

I invited her and Dave to watch the Broncos game with us so she could take an new portraiture of Emma at 10 months old. Emma's last portraiture was taken when she was 6 months old.

I taped up a cream sheet on the wall and then the fun began! LOL. We had quite the time trying to get Emma to hold still long enough. I finally got the bright idea to get Emma to sit on one of the chairs from our little kids table. I'd painted the set red a long time ago. 

Jen captured this beautiful shot of Emma. It shows her gorgeous eyes and cute lil' teeth. Add a little Photoshop magic by me, and presto .... Isn't Jen fantastic?!? Just a little more training and she'll be simply an awesome photographer!

Here are some other really cute pictures Jen took during their time with us.

Emma showing off her walking skills.

Naked baby! Emma in between wardrobe changes.

Here is a little update on Emma.

• She has a total of 8 teeth now. 4 on top, 4 on bottom
• She weighs around 20 pounds. 
• She is not liking baby food as much these days and would rather eat what we are eating. Bad thing is she doesn't like her bib.
• She shakes her head Yes or No to answer questions
• She has quite the vocabulary now and picking up new words all the time.
• Hi
• Wow
• Uh O
• Owen
• Mom Mum
• Da Da
• Ba Ba
• Yuck
• Hot
• Ouch
• Car

Sunday Cuties

Our Emma looking so pretty in her dress she got for Christmas.

We had some free time before we had to leave for church (1st time in a year) so she didn't have her sparkly white cardigan on yet. This year church starts at 11 am instead of 9 am and I am rejoicing over having much more time to get ready.

Owen was looking very handsome! This was a sweater his grandma gave him last Christmas. He finally is able to wear now since he's grown into it.

Owen & Emma Dancing

Emma loves to dance when she hears music. While the boys were in line for the Ferris wheel at Scheels, I entertained Emma by pushing her around in the shopping cart. A Carrie Underwood song came over the speakers and Emma started bobbing up and down to the beat. I started bobbing my head to the beat too and told her she had great taste in music. I'm a country music fan. Anyway, it wasn't the first time Emma has danced to music but I had not been able to catch her on film.

Anyway, we got Ice Age 4 for Christmas and Owen has watched it tons of times since. His favorite character is the sassy Granny. Owen has started pretending he is granny, walking slow and with a cane, and will quote some of her lines when we ask him to do something (BTW sassy gets old fast). The song during the ending credits is called "We are Family." When the song ends, Owen will skip forward on the disc and watch it over and over again. This particular time, Emma and I were watching the movie it with him. When the song started, Owen got to singing and dancing. I whipped out my iPhone and knew I'd be able to finally catch Emma dancing. So fun!

 

MJK Weekend

Starting on Friday, we drove down to Utah during the MJK weekend for some fun with friends and family. We didn't get to do too much with Barry's sister, Amanda, and her family as we would have liked. Her girls had strep and croup but Noah had avoided getting sick so we had him spend the night with us at our hotel. Owen loved it except for Noah's teasing at bedtime about monsters in the dark. It freaked out Owen enough that he wouldn't go downstairs when we got home without me turning on the lights.

The next morning we touch base with Amanda and she tells us about this humongous new sporting goods store in Sandy called Scheels. It was a really cool store even if you are not big into hunting or sports (like me). They had this huge grizzly so we had to get a picture. Noah decided he wanted to roar like a grizzly bear. I laughed at Emma's reaction. She took a look up at the grizzly, down at Noah and then at me with complete indifference about what she'd just heard and saw.

 They also had several columns that doubled as salt-water aquariums.

The coolest part of Scheels is that they have an indoor Ferris wheel. The boys really wanted to go so they got in line but not too much later we decided the line was not moving fast enough. We gave Amanda the tokens for her to use another day. Sunday we decided that it was OK to go over to Amanda's home. Eloise had been on antibiotics for 48 hours and Hazel cough was basically nonexistent. Emma had fun with her girl cousins too. Emma loves playing with baby dolls. The girls brought out their Disney Princess babies and Emma was in 7th heaven holding Princess Tiana and pushing the her in the stroller.

Eloise wanted to hold Emma and I must say she must be one tough 5 1/2 year old cookie to hold on 18 pound Emma without dropping her once.

Yes, January is Over!

To say I am relieved that January is over would be an understatement. Though it was exciting to have Emma start walking.

The day after Christmas I get a call from my dad that he's in the ER. After running some tests they find out his gallbladder needs to be removed. I wasn't too concerned as I know several family members and acquaintances who've had theirs removed.

The day after the surgery my grandma calls and tells us he's being moved to the ICU. He is taking on fluid and it's putting pressure on his kidneys and his lungs. With every breath his kidneys are failing and his heart is running a marathon trying to keep up with everything. His surgeon decides that an exploratory surgery needs to be done to determine the cause and will keep him heavily sedated afterwards so his organs can heal after all the trauma.

I really appreciated how his surgeon was always straight forward . He didn't sugar coat things. He told us that without surgery my dad would die. Breathing was becoming more and more labored. I'm not too happy that he had to wait 2 hours before an operating room opened!

The surgery revealed that bile was leaking out of his liver into his abdomen. His gallbladder was so inflamed and diseased that it had caused an adhesion on his liver. Once his gallbladder was removed, bile started leaking out of the adhesion. Having had his gallbladder removed laparoscopicly the surgeon didn't see the condition of his liver and the bile leaking out. His surgeon put in a few drains for the bile to be drained out of his body and then flushed out all the bile in his abdomen and hopefully any bacteria as well.

Bile is very caustic and it had caused massive inflammation inside. His stomach was left open, covered with mesh, to let the inflammation go down. You should have seen how many IV bags he was connected to. There were two racks full of medicines, some even stacked onto each other.  He was also intubated and on a breathing machine.

Then to make matters more dire, the next day my dad became septic. A massive bacterial infection had started, despite flushing out his insides. Thankfully they are able to filter out the toxins from his blood created from the septic shock and get all the septic symptoms under control. His kidneys are healing and he is breathing as they turn down the breathing machine. They had hoped his liver adhesion would heal causing the bile output to slowly decrease. His liver was still leaking too much bile but the inflammation was down so a stent was installed so his liver will always drain into his large intestines instead of periodically like it does in a healthy liver.

A week later he was no longer septic so they wake him from the coma but he has a case of ICU amnesia. He gave yes or no answers to any question and only talks when he is questioned. He had no clue about easy questions like where he is or what the year is. He was easily very confused and sometimes very agitated. He did know people. His ICU amnesia slowly cleared up and his infection became manageable, so they moved him out of the ICU after a couple of weeks.  They moved him to Surgical Intensive Care. He starts having fevers again and feeling nauseated all the time. They do a CAT scan on his stomach and they see it is full of some thick fluid. Using local anesthesia, a drain is placed and it starts pumping out lots of the puss, something about his PIC line becoming infected.

Finally with the infection under control  he is moved to the rehabilitation floor. Now he is home and getting better everyday. I am so thankful for all the prayers that were said in his behalf. I know Heavenly Father answered a lot of them because we were so worried. He nearly died! My Dad sometimes feels very lonely and I know he has appreciated all the help he has received over the past 7 weeks or so.

So with that major stress gone (big sigh of relief), I can finally get finished and posted some very important updates on our kiddos.

Katherine Nelson - "What's Mine is Yours" (Music Video)

As part of my post about my gratitude for adoption, I posted the lyrics and a video playing the song called "What's Mine is Yours" by Katherine Nelson. Being an adoptive mom of 2, and one who will forever love their brave birth-mothers, this song sure resonates and touches my heart so deeply. Anyway, the exciting news is the song now is a music video!

Enjoy! And WARNING! Keep a box of Kleenex handy!



P.S. You should buy the album! It's called Born Brave. I own it and love it! The songs are about women being brave in different ways, some of the songs are upbeat and some others tender. You can buy it on Amazon, iTunes, and Deseret Book.

Milk & Cookies with Santa

I posted earlier about our visit with Santa. At work they held a fun event for the families called "Milk and Cookies with Santa". Earlier a cookie contest was held among the employees and the cookies from the contest were there to eat and enjoy while you waited for your turn to visit with Santa. 

These are the pictures taken that night. I've had them for a couple weeks now and wanted to share. As you can see Emma did not like being held by Santa one bit. Owen, on the other hand, handled it like a pro. Enjoy my commentary of the thoughts going through Emma, Owen, and Santa at the time of this photo.

Emma: Not the mama! Not the mama! Not the MAMA!

Owen: Oy! That's loud!

Santa: I need a different job!