Changes... Sorry, no pics

Well, we just completed our home inspection for the adoption. I was thinking she was going to look through every nook and cranny. I cleaned like CRAZY!!
This morning she comes over and just asks me to take her on a tour, writes a few things down, asks where I keep my cleaning supplies and meds, then DONE. Wow! WAY easier than I thought or was afraid of. And that is good because we will be doing it all again in about a month because...


We just (really JUST) bought a house!! Yay! We saw it last Monday and signed on it on Friday. FAST! We are excited about it. It does mean a change of schools (not 'til next year) and change of wards and change of friends, etc. I'll post pics when we get in. :)

As far as the adoption process, if anyone cares, we now just have to do our Dr. visits, write our birth-parent letter (intimidating) and put together a picture collage of our fam, then we can be approved!! :) Then I guess we just wait. or look. or tell people. or something. or wait longer. or something.

The first day of school...

was actually a week ago. But I am just now getting around to posting their pics.
Both of the girls L.O.V.E. their teachers. It makes me happy when they are happy to go to school. Although, I'll have to admit that it has been awfully quiet around the house with just me and Aaron. The days suddenly seem much longer than they did this summer.

Abby getting ready for her first day in first grade!! She said she was tired at lunch time and then there was still MORE school. She is getting used to it now. I love a toothless grin!

Anna heading in to her first day of fourth grade! She has some of her good friends in her class this year and they are all sitting by each other, which makes it very fun. On the second day of school, she told Mike that she was "chatty." Mike was saying something like she shouldn't really be so chatty on only the second day of school.

She replied, "Well, Mom was." True!! But if you want to stay sitting by your friends, you probably shouldn't follow my example.

I love how you can see her cute dimple in this picture. So fun.

It's midnight

My kids are asleep and I am not tired enough to sleep, so I'm on the computer.
I love to tuck my kids in at night, after they have fallen asleep. Sometimes I just lay close to them for a minute. Just to be near them when they are in their beds, quiet, still, sleeping, dreaming.
I think it is then that you can more clearly see your hopes and dreams for them, for their future.

Anna is 9

I can't believe my Anna is nine! {gasp} She actually turned nine July 3, but I am just now getting around to posting her birthday post. :)

Nine things I love about Anna:
1. She has a contagious laugh and brings a lot of joy into our home
2. She laughs a lot
3. She is a deep thinker
4. She has insights on things that are far beyond her years
5. She is so good
6. She is a great example to her younger sister and brother
7. I love it when she reads to Aaron
8. She catches on very quickly to anything she tries, from music to sports
9. She tells some pretty funny jokes

We finally had her friend birthday party on the 25th of July. It was kind of a beach/water theme party. They played a lot of water games in our backyard. They made a jar with the layered colored sand and beach-like ice cream treat for dessert. Anna wanted that instead of a cake. And that was SO fine with me. :)

Happy Birthday my sweet Anna, I am so grateful for you!

I {heart} friends!

I know I should be working on the MOUNTAIN of paper work for the adoption, but here I am reading your blogs and posting on mine. There are times when I feel very motivated to get it done, and then there are times (like now) that it is a bit overwhelming, so I avoid it and pledge to get back to it later (like tomorrow).

I have had such a blast reconnecting with friends lately!! Mike had an appointment in St George, so we went down and the Whittles met us up there. Fun!

We all had a good time seeing each other, and the SUN!

A few days later, I got together with my good friends and college roomies, Whitney and Shannon. So much fun girls~thanks!

Then Carol came to town! So much fun! The kids might have thought we were trying to kill them by taking them on a little hike, but we had fun and got some good pics!
Seeing my friends refreshes my soul! I am not kidding! I am so grateful for good friends! Thanks girls!
And last but not least, in the tradition of "hot rocks" we made "prayer rocks as a family. There is a cute poem about putting it under your pillow so it will remind you at night, then on the floor so you'll stub your toe and remind you in the morning. That's obviously not how it really goes, one day I'll find it and post it. It is a cute poem in real life. So far they have served as a good little reminder.

Hello. . .is anybody out there?

It has been SO LONG since my last post that I am seriously doubting if anyone checks this any more. I've been a bad blogger lately. Once a month? What's up with that?

Anyway, I'll just hit a few of the highlights from the last month or so.

I ran my very first 5k. I'm the one with the blue hoodie around my waist. It was fun and I was VERY relieved to see that there was a good group behind me. Besides tripping, I think coming in last was my biggest fear. I've heard people say that races are addicting and THEY ARE! Not so much for the running, but for the PRIZES!! I won a flash light! Doesn't get much better than that! ;)

Just last Thursday, Anna got braces! Can you believe it? It makes her look older, I think. She has been pretty sore as her mouth gets used to them. They look cute on her, and she might as well have them while she thinks they are cool, instead of later when she doesn't want them anymore. She really needed them, there was NO room for a tooth that needed to come in, so they put them on her now. They said that she may need them later, too. We'll just have to wait and see. I think she looks cute, older, but very cute.

And I guess with this post I'm making this public. We are trying to adopt. We feel very strongly that there is another little one to come to our family and my body just isn't up to the challenge. We are still in the "approval" stage. Our references are IN, fingerprints DONE, couple visit COMPLETE, now we have to continue to do our part to finish the huge MOUNTAIN of paper work, then the home visit and other things. It seems this stage of the process will never end, but it must at some point because others have their profiles online.

I have to admit that sometimes I go online to check out our "competition." They aren't really our competition, but you know what I mean. I do feel like if we are chosen at all it will be because Heavenly Father led that birth family to us. It seems like with all the other wonderful families out there trying to adopt, it will be a miracle if we are chosen. Sometimes I am nervous that maybe we won't be. Keep us in your prayers, and I'll keep you posted. . .

Catching Up

I haven't posted a REAL post in a long time, so I will try to catch up. This will probably be a long post. . .sorry.
We went to WA for Spring Break and had a GREAT time seeing family, friends, the zoo, and the Puget Sound. The kids had plenty of Easter Egg Hunts. It was very fun.
My mom, brother and the kids at Hartstine Island, where we go every time we are in WA.


We got home just in time to go to my nephew, Brandon's, homecoming.

Shauna had all her 6 kids and grand-kids there.


Then I bought myself an early Mothers' Day/Birthday present. . .a running stroller.

I L.O.V.E. it! Aaron loves it, too. Well, until we get about half way done then he is DONE. Mike went running with me this morning and when Aaron was wanting out, Mike found a worm for him to play with. . .whatever makes him happy so we can get home.


Then, sadly Grandpa Gygi died. It was bitter-sweet. He was 96 and in the very end he wasn't doing well. We miss him dearly, but rejoice that now he can hear, walk with out falling, and is reunited with loved ones.

Sweet Grandma Gygi. His funeral was beautiful.

Aaron and Lucy sneaking a keep-sake from the casket. I am so sad also because something was wrong with my memory card and so many of the pictures came out "damaged" or "un-readable". I will finish editing what I do have and get it to the rest of the fam asap. :)


Anna had her first Pinewood Derby. The boys invited the girls to the race (or maybe the girls just invited themselves, I'm not sure.)

Anna's car is the pencil, it was pretty fast. She didn't place, but she did get the prize for Most Original. It was a fun night. Quite intense for some of the kids.


Women's Conference was so fun. Good classes, good food, but the best part was seeing good friends again.

I spoke with Brad Wilcox (I'm his #1 fan! ), sat near Elder Holland at Training Table, and became very "line savvy."


And FINALLY, I am so happy that I'm starting to see some evidence of Spring in my yard! Yay!

He's Baaaaaaack!

Aaron in his cute undies! FINALLY done with diapers! YAY!!

2 funny things were said this morning:

Abby to Aaron: Did you sleep in your shirt?

Aaron in a grumpy voice: No I slept in my bed!

Mike had a minute where he couldn't remember the name of our land lord. So he just said out loud: What is the name of our land lord?!
Abby: Ummm, Jesus?

This post is for you Jill.;)

Our nephew Brandon just got off his mission from Chile! It was so good to see him! 2 years is a long time but it went by so quickly!

One less

Tooth! Abby lost a tooth while eating a little KFC. We actually thought she swallowed it. . . until we found it on the floor. Tooth #3 for her. She looks so cute with a hole on top. I can't wait until she loses the other one, I love that look! It just reminds me of childhood.

Dancing through life. . .

I guess that's what we've been doing this month. I don't know where the time has gone! Feb. has been a busy month, but busy doing what. . .I'm not sure. Lots of stuff, I just can't put my finger on it.





Definitely one of the highlights for our whole family was going thru the open house of the Draper temple. It is one of the new "smaller temples". Absolutely beautiful! Anna wanted to wear her baptism dress, so she would be dressed all in white. After seeing the temple Anna said, "I want to be married here." Every mother's dream! It really was a great spiritual experience.
I have been trying to keep up with my photo a day for "project 365," so I guess I'll include a few of those. Just as a reminder to me, I guess, that I have done something.






The End. :)

Happy Birthday Abby!

My little Abby turned 6 over the weekend. Luckily she got over her ear infection just in time to go to school on her birthday. That is a big deal, you know.
She got this chalk /white board easel as one of her gifts--Super Cool.
(btw, I found it at IKEA for 1/4 the price as Walmart or Target. I love IKEA!)

She had a friend birthday party this year (I've decided to do friend birthday parties every other year) She wanted a High School Musical pajama party. Everything was High School Musical, the decor, the music, etc.

You would think the movie at the end would be High School Musical as well. Oh no! Surprise. . . it was Enchanted! Go figure, last minute Abby changed her mind and wanted the Enchanted movie instead. So it was a High School Musical . . . Enchanted party.

I stole the no-sew pillow idea from Carol. Carol, you should really be a party planner!! (She's got great ideas.)

Anyway, the time flew by and the party was super fun.

Ok, six things I love about Abby:

1. She laughs easily

2. She can make others laugh with her fun sense of humor

3. She likes to do secret acts of service for others

4. She loves school and to play school

5. She has a great imagination, she always wants to make or build things like a roller-coaster, or something

6. She has a beautiful smile.

Good...

to the last drop!

Shop Therapy

When you're feeling down, sometimes all you need is a little shop therapy! We've NEVER had a bed set before. So I saw this and liked it and bought it. It definitely makes making the bed way more fun!

I also stole this idea from my neighbor. I bought these magnetic corkboards from Costco (who knew they made such a thing) and covered them with fabric that coordinates with my bedding. FUN! What a pick-me-up! :) (Imagine them on a lovely blue-ish gray-ish wall, I think they look better that way) So then I put my New Years Resolutions on them, so I can be reminded every day of what I am supposed to be doing.

I actually think that the corkboards look cluttered now, so I might take the pictures down. I don't know. . .we'll see.

The Biggest Snowman Ever!

OK, it's probably not the BIGGEST, but you'll have to admit it is pretty big. ;)

Aaron and I had fun building a snowperson (hard to say if it's a man or woman) today. It warmed up a bit, so finally the snow wasn't so powdery and it would actually stick together! :) The snow in our front yard was so deep it actually went up to Aaron's little thighs.

Now that I have built a snowperson, I can officially be done with the snow and say

"COME ON SPRING!"

Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen. . . maybe because they are forecasting more snow on Friday. :(

New Years Resolutions

I saw this idea in Creating Keepsakes mag. I put my New Year's Resolutions in pics like this, just imagine them on a cute painted magnet board. I made them on envelopes so I could open them up and write my specific goals inside. (I still need to do that)
I thought I would be clever and start all of them with "S".

They say: Scrap, Simplify, Spirit, Successes

Self, Study, Serve, Smile

The Successes one is where I will make a weekly list of goals to accomplish that week, so I can eventually accomplish my year-long goals. Kind of fun.

Project 365

I took the "Project 365" challenge (and bought the kit) to take a picture a day for the year 2009. Let's hope I can keep up! The kit is cool, and will make it very easy to put them into layouts.
You can find out more about it at www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/ . I'm curious if anyone else is taking the challenge, kit or not. . .

A Quick December Wrap-up!

December 20th, was Aaron's 3rd Birthday. But, to be honest, the day was already too full, so we just didn't mention it to him until the next day. Are we terrible?!
It was the day my parents were SUPPOSED to fly in just in time to make it to the Gygi family Christmas party. After they waited at the Portland airport all day, their flight was cancelled.
But snow wouldn't stop the Gygi Christmas party! :) We had a fun time seeing all the family and missed those who weren't there.

You can see the kids had a blast ripping into their gifts!

The next day was the Sunday before Christmas, so we had our traditional Christmas Best Pictures. Aaron was not into it, can you tell?
After church we celebrated Aaron's birthday as if it were the real day and he never knew any better.

He loved his trucks and cars and his bike. He zipped all around the house on his new bike. He was pretty excited!

Monday was supposed to be a big day at the airport. My parents rescheduled their flight from Portland to come in on Monday and my brother was flying in from Seattle. SADLY, my parent's flight got cancelled AGAIN! :( The next flight available wasn't until AFTER Christmas, so my parents weren't able to come for Christmas!! We were ALL very, very sad about that! BUT, my bro (pictured above) was able to fly in. We had a great week with him. He is a master chef, and cooked us up some good grub.

Christmas Eve brought new jammies and a fabulous reenactment of the nativity. Yes, Aaron is a sheep with bunny ears and Lucy is a wise man wearing a tu-tu. It was hilarious! They chose their own parts.

And finally Christmas morning! We got a Wii! How fun! I think I'm having just as much fun as the kids. I like dance-dance revolution and Wii fit. I've got to give myself a time limit or I could probably play all day. :) j/k

We were totally lame AGAIN this year and didn't send out Christmas cards. I'm thinking 2009 will be my year for Christmas cards. . .we'll just have to wait and see.