Backyard Fun and Cousin Brooke

While shopping for the kid's birthday presents, I got these battery operated bubble blowers that I knew they'd love. I gave each of them one for Briana's birthday and they have been having a blast in the backyard today playing with it. I love that I can sit at my kitchen table and look out from a huge window into my backyard and see everything the kids are doing. All they want to do all day is go outside so it is nice that I can let them out to play but I don't always have to follow.

Since Monday, Craig's sister Kathy and her 11 month old daugther Brooke have been staying with us. Kathy is here for work so I've been watching Brooke for her during the day. She is such a good baby and my kids have enjoyed having her around. It is always nice to have family come for a visit since we don't have much close by. I have some cousins and my aunt who all live an hour away and we'll be seeing them this weekend so this week will be packed full of family visits. We didn't get out of the house at all yesterday so today I planned on taking them to the park and then stopping off at the store to get a couple things. I get all 3 kids strapped in, two diaper bags loaded up, and then go to start the car and it is completely dead. How frustrating but whatever, the kids ended up playing around the house and in the backyard and I got some cute pictures with all 3 kids together. Really just Briana and Brooke since Brandon couldn't sit down long enough!!

Love is Spoken Here

The kids and I were hanging out in the kitchen the other day. I was making dinner and they were playing with their toys. Brandon is the most affectionate child and he went over to Briana and spread out his arms and said "hug, hug". She dropped her doll and they gave each other a big hug. Briana then started to pat Brandon's back and said "love you brother". My hand went to my chest and my jaw dropped at what I had just witnessed. I'll admit - I almost started to cry. I was so proud at that moment to have my children express such love to each other. Wishing I had my camera right then and there, I hurried and grabbed it and asked them if they could give each other another hug. Since they were both in a loving mood, they quickly continued to hug each other over and over so I could get some great pictures.

Briana's New Look and our Swing Set

While mowing the lawn yesterday, the kids were playing on our new swing set. I'll explain below the story about getting that. Since the kids can't swing themselves yet, they have learned to do the superman swing - lay their tummies on the swing and push off from the ground. I had just finished the lawn when I heard Briana screaming. I look over and see her in the dirt having fallen off the swing. She must have tipped over head first into the ground because her face was all dirty and she had lots of scraps by her eye. This morning her eye is swollen a little but at least it looks like it is starting to heal.

Now about our new swing set. It is new to us but it's actually 8 years old. I was checking the online classified ads for our area and found someone giving away their swing set. I called immediately since things like a swing set go quickly around here - especially when it is free. I happened to be the first caller and told him we'd be there the next day to come get it. He had already disassembled it for us and it was easy to put back together in our yard. It is a little rusty and wobbly when both kids are swinging but I don't care - it was FREE!!!

Briana turned 3 years old

Wow they grow up fast!! Briana has amazed me these last couple months on how much she has learned and understands about things. She talked about her birthday to everybody that would listen over the last couple of weeks and couldn't wait for the day. We meet daddy for lunch at Chili's and while the kids napped, I decorated Briana's birthday cake. I wanted to make a crown - fit for a princess - but it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but it worked. She loved it and that is all that mattered anyway. She scored this year on presents getting clothes, toys, videos, and daddy and I got her a play kitchen. We've noticed that in Nursery at church, she plays with the play kitchen in there all the time. I told my mom about it so she sewed me some oven mitts, dish towels, and a cute apron for her. She and Brandon played with the kitchen the rest of the night and made pretend cookies for daddy and me. So cute!!

Girl's Camp

I was gone from Tuesday night to Friday afternoon at Girl's Camp for my church last week and had a blast. I'm in the Young Women's organization and teach 14-15 year old girls. I didn't know if I'd be able to go because of my kids but luckily I have great neighbors that each took a day to watch my kids while Craig dropped them off in the mornings and then picked them up after work. I'm so glad that I got a chance to go because I feel so much closer to the other YW leaders and the girls too. We stayed at our Camp Director's cabin up at Bear Lake and hung out at the beach everyday. I know, I know...it really shouldn't be called "camp" because we stayed in a house with a full kitchen, 3 bathrooms, family room and all the leaders shared bedrooms. I think I actually put on weight that week too because we ate so well. Each day we made cute crafts and did all different kinds of activities around the cabin and then each afternoon was beach time. On Thursday, our last full day, we went boating. We had three boats up there so there was plenty of tubes, waterskies, and wakeboards to go around so everyone had a chance to try what they wanted. I went tubing the whole time and laughed so much I lost my voice. Kathy (one of the leaders) and myself practically claimed a tube as ours and went tubing almost every time. I actually tube jumped on accident. Okay...I really lost my grip when our tube collided with another tube and I rolled from my tube to another. For a second there I was sitting up on the tube processing what had just happened and then got down to hold on for dear life. The only problem was that there were two girls on the tube I landed on so I was pretty much on top of one of the girls. Poor Ashleigh!! I kept telling her to hold on so that we wouldn't fall off and I saw my tube heading back our way so I jumped back onto it without falling off. I couldn't believe I had just done that. I really wish someone had a video camera to catch that one!! I had so much fun with the other leaders and haven't laughed that hard in a long time. All the girls got along so great and everyone just hung out with everyone else, no click groups or anything!! We are so lucky to have the best young women!! Of course, the only bad thing about Girl's Camp was the lack of sleep I got. I really have gotten used to my 7 hours a night and it was hard to go to bed at 2am and get up at 7am. The first night I only slept 3 hours...maybe. Kathy who I roomed with had ambien so I took one and looked forward to a full night sleep. Minutes before I was about to drift off in a deep sleep, I hear girls outside our door. Kathy and I get up and heard the girls head to the other leaders room next to ours. So Kathy and I climbed out our window and banged on the window to give them a good scare. They screamed so loud - it was awesome!! Later on we found out that while they were outside our room, the had saran-wrapped our door shut so we couldn't get out. Luckily Kathy who is the scrapbooking queen had scissors so with some pulling, we got the door open just enough for her to cut us free. Okay... so back to that night...once we finally all got back into bed it was almost 2am and I was wide awake. Desperate for sleep, I took another ambien and I was OUT!! Everyone was up at 7:30am and I tried my best but when I started bumping into walls, I had to go back to bed. A couple hours later having missed breakfast completely, I was up and refreshed. What a night. I don't think I've slept that hard in a long time. Driving home on Friday, it was hard to get myself back into mommy/wife mode. I really had such a good time and it was nice to have a couple days to escape all the dirty diapers, time-outs, cooking, cleaning, peacemaking, being the receptionist, mail collector, bill payer, comforter, and telling my kids for the millionth time to close the door, come here, don't touch that, get out of the fridge, and that we aren't going outside right now!!

Can't wait for Girl's Camp next year!!

I will post some pictures soon!!

Legacy of An Adopted Child

My mom sent me this poem that she found and it is truly beautiful. Being an adoptive mother of two children, I couldn't help the emotions I felt (crying my eyes out to be honest) after reading this. I hope this touches your heart as well.

Once there were two women

Who never knew each other;

One you do not remember

The other you call Mother.

Two different lives, shaped to make yours one;

One became your guiding star,

The other became your sun.

The first gave you life,

And the second taught you to live it.

The first gave you a need for love,

And the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality,

The other gave you a name.

One gave you the seed of talent

The other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions,

The other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile

The other dried your tears.

One gave you away-it was all she could do,

The other prayed for a child-and God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me, through your tears,

The age-old question unanswered through the years:

Heredity or Environment-which are you the product of?

Neither my darling, neither,

Just two different kinds of love.

Breaking Dawn

Now that I have returned to the living after a 3 day absence since picking up the last book in the Twilight Series, I have to say that I didn't care for this one as I do for the other 3 books from Stephenie Meyer. What captured my minor obsession about the Twilight books is the passionate relationship between Bella and Edward who happens to be a vampire. Their love for each other and the sexual tension was crazy which kept me on the edge of my seat. Edward had to continually stop them from becoming too physical for fear of hurting her since she was human and that made her breakable. In Breaking Dawn, they get married among other things (I don't want to give too much away) so that same passion and yearning has changed into something else. This last book also started to get a little "out there" with the whole vampire mythology, werewolves, and their special powers stuff that it was too much for me to swallow. I am glad to have read it to find out if they have a happy ending and all but I don't see myself re-reading this book again like I have with the first 3 books.

We have a lawn...maybe too much lawn

It has been three weeks since we laid down grass in the backyard. I first mowed last week and just mulched - it wasn't too bad. Then yesterday I did the front and back together, bagging the whole thing and it took me FOREVER. I even got a sunburn on my face because I was outside for so long. Seriously, if we had some money lying around I'd tell Craig we have to get a riding mower. He hasn't even mowed the whole yard yet so he doesn't truly understand what a pain in the butt it is. We still have a long way to go too for it to be completely finished. We left room in the very back for fruit trees, a shed, and a garden. Then we have to lay that bedding fabric to prevent weeds and cover it with mulch in all the beds down the sides of the yard and along the house. Then once that is done, we have to fill the beds with plants and flowers. Does anyone have some money that we could have to do all this? Yeah, that is what I thought. It is going to be costly so it will take us awhile for it to get done. But aside from my complaining though, it is so nice to have a backyard and have somewhere for the kids to play...FINALLY!!

Before shots:

After shots:

Funny Faces

I was playing around with the kids when I started to make funny faces at them. It got them laughing and then they made funny faces back at me so I ran to get my camera to capture the moment and this is what I got.

Vampire Teeth

Okay...doesn't Brandon have daggers for teeth or what?

Phoenix Trip

We spent this last week in Phoenix to visit my family. My sister was having one of her children baptized and her baby blessed so the whole family came down for the event. At the time I was planning the trip, Craig was to be in Fresno that same week for work. I really wanted to go and be with family but couldn't see myself doing the 12+ drive with just me and both kids. My dad wanted to see his grandchildren so he decided to get a one-way ticket to SLC and drove down with me on Tuesday. My dad is the best!! In the meantime, Craig's Fresno trip got postponed for a week so he was able to make arrangements to go to Phoenix. It worked out perfect since he would now be able to drive home with us on Sunday so I wouldn't have to do it myself. He spent three days between Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tuscan but I didn't get to see him since he was working. I picked him up on Saturday at the car rental place and then headed back to my sister's where everyone was. At one time there were16 adults and 10 kids in my sister's 1500 sq. ft. home because she had lunch for everyone after the blessing/baptism. It was crazy but we had some great food because we baked like mad the day before. We stayed at my dad's house but spend all day at my sister's who had a backyard with a pool and trampoline. It was so blasted hot that the kids could only go outside and play at certain times but it was nice to hang out inside and visit with my sister while the kids all played together. We both thought that our daughters would have a ball together since they are only 4 months apart but they fought the whole time. We got so tired of breaking up the tug-o-wars between barbies, horses, and princess stuff. Brandon did pretty good but kept going back and forth between outside and inside and never shut the door behind him so it got annoying. Luckily the kids napped at her house pretty well so we had a least a 2 hour break in the afternoon to bake and eat in peace while her older kids watched movies. I was tired the whole time though since Brandon didn't sleep well at night and was up one night throwing up so I got about 3 hours that night. No one else got sick so my sister thinks it was heatstroke. He did spend a lot of time outside that day and didn't get too many fluids in him. I was much more careful watching him over the next day so it wouldn't happen again. Overall it was a nice trip to visit family but it was also nice getting home and sleeping in my own bed. Ahhh...Home Sweet Home!!

Briana and cousin Morgan the first hour together...

here is how they were together the rest of the time Outside time playing with the hose and lovin' it

If only the kids were looking this would be a good family picture

Me and my parents
Grandma with all her grandchildren

4th of July

Last year some neighbors invited us to a parade that the city of Kaysville does every year. We had a blast and the kids enjoyed it too. So this year we went with the same neighbors from last year to see the parade again. Wendy headed out yesterday to set down chairs for us so we'd have a good spot to view the parade. The coolest thing about the parade is that every fire truck, police car, school sponsored float, etc. throws out candy to the crowd. Some floats even threw out necklaces, bouncy balls, and stuffed animals. Briana got a cute spotted doggie that she hasn't let go of since the parade. She gets so attached to her animals - so funny!! The kids loved picking up candy off the street and when they got a handful, they would bring it to me to put in our candy bag that I brought. The weather wasn't too bad with some clouds and a breeze to help out and the next thing we knew the hour long parade was over. We really enjoy going to the parade and feeling connected to our community that I'm sure this will become a 4th of July tradition in our family.

PJ

On Monday we received some bad news that our cat of 12 years has feline lymphoma. It is a type of cancer that can appear almost anywhere and affect a wide number of organs. The doctor told me that he had jaundice so we know that his liver is affected which is why he stopped eating. He also had a tumor in his stomach that I didn’t even know about until the vet had me feel it. He has lost so much weight lately but we didn't expect this outcome when I took him to the vet. The hardest part to take from what the vet said is that the longer we put off the inevitable (putting him down), he will just starve to death. That was tough to hear. It was also difficult to make the appointment for the next day to put him down. It had to happen in the next two days because our schedule is just crazy right now and I didn't want to think about PJ suffering any longer than he had to. This week we are getting our backyard in and having people from church over Thursday afternoon to help lay sod that is getting delivered that day. Then we have the holiday weekend and after that, we are heading to Phoenix for the week. PJ has been for the most part Craig's cat but I will miss him more than I thought. I cried the whole way home after leaving the vet on Monday. Then yesterday, Craig and I were there in the vet’s office to say our final goodbye and stay with him to the end. I was a mess!! Craig actually took it better than I expected and I took it worst than I expected. He was such a good cat for Craig and me. He has always been there when I needed companionship and was such a comfort to have during the many years we dealt with infertility. Even though he was never a "lap cat", it was nice knowing that someone else was with me whenever Craig was out of town. He tolerated the continuous pestering from the kids so well and had adjusted quickly with each move from Texas to Indiana and to Utah. We are so grateful for the time we had with PJ being a part of our family for 12 years and he will be greatly missed.