Fall Break Fun

The boys were out of school Thursday and Friday, so we went up to my parents house. Mel was there with Dessie and Andrew, so that made it extra fun. I did baby duty Thursday night so Mel could be home helping Jacob paint. It's been a long time since I've gotten up in the night with a baby. Dang that Andrew is a happy easy going kid. I just fed him his bottle and he fell right back to sleep. He is so cute!

Friday we went to Kennecott, which we had never visited before. They had an interesting visitor's center, but I was disappointed that they didn't have a truck you could walk up to and see. They are huge, so I thought that would be really cool. They did have a tire though, just so you can get an idea of how massive they are.

I took a picture of the kids in front of an old mine car. Dessie would only be in the picture if grandma was holding her, so grandma got to be a kid for the day. ;)

It was a fun weekend. Now we are back to piles of laundry, a messy house, and sick kids. Sigh.

Maybe he has a future in photography?

I got our adoption profile finished and e-mailed the pages in for them to preview last week. The adoption secretary recommended that we add more photos of Wes and I. Dang. We didn't really have any, because, well, when we're together we are usually alone. Most people think it's a little awkward if you invite them on your date so they can take pictures of you. Just sayin'.


Sooo, we had to stage some photos. We recruited Brandon to take some pictures of us. We took some in the yard and they would have been perfect except that the wind started blowing. Long hair+ wind= not so good photos.


So we tried again. More pictures in the yard and some up the canyon. Brandon was really a good sport. He took a few pictures that I really love. I think they are my favorite pictures I've ever had of me since we were married.

Seriously, I don't think I really look this good in real life. ;)

Thanks Brandon for making me look so good!

Too busy livin' to blog about it

So, what have we been up to lately?

Wes has been coaching Tyler's football team:
Tyler has been doing a lot of this:

And some of this:

Spencer has been doing a lot of this:

Brandon has been reffing soccer games. He also plays the piano for his seminary class, so he has been doing a lot of this:

Justin has been doing a lot of this:

We finally got the concrete pad poured in our front yard.

And me? I have been driving everyone to ball fields, cleaning the house, canning, running errands, decorating for fall, making hair bows to sell, trying to keep everyone fed, and working on our adoption profiles. We almost have all the paperwork done. I just need to get copies made, have everything bound, and mail it to Little Angels, the adoption agency in California.

Family Photo Shoot

We were in serious need of a new family photo. I needed one that didn't have a copyright because I need to be able to make copies. My friend Amber was nice enough to shoot some photos of us. We went up the canyon at about 5:30, and the lighting was perfect. She was totally creative and took some really fun pictures of us.

Getting all four of the boys to smile and still look somewhat natural is a feat of gargantuan proportions!! I swear I am going to have to make them start practicing in the mirror. ;)


Amber was a real trooper and took lots of shots. Here are two of my favorites:

Amber is also a Photoshop wiz, so she edited them and made them look really cool. But I'm not going to show you, because I want you to be somewhat surprised when you get our picture in the mail this holiday season. :)

Oh, and did you notice that Tyler is not looking in the last shot. That is so Tyler. Crazy kid!


Thank you so much Amber!!!

Wow, kids really do grow up too fast!

You know how when kids are little and they call each other? They ask, "Can you play?"

As they get older, it is no longer cool to say "Can you play?" It becomes "Wanna hang out?"

Apparently at the ripe old age of 5, Justin is too cool to play anymore. I picked him up from a friend's house today and we had the following conversation:
Me: "Did you have fun?"
Justin: "Yes, we played with cars!"
Me: "What else did you do?"
Justin, rolling his eyes: "I don't know mom, we just hanged."

Adoption Ups and Downs

We found out that the birth mother we have been waiting to meet decided to get married. She is having a little girl. It is a huge disappointment, but I feel more at peace than I thought I would.

We just feel very sad for her because we think the birth father's parents talked her into doing something she didn't want to do. Right from the start she wanted to place her baby for adoption. I hope everything works out for her, but I know they have a very rough road ahead. So very sad for everyone.

We have pretty much given up on LDS family services, so we are going to contact the agency we found in California called Little Angel Adoptions. We planned on working with them way back in May, we just stopped because we really thought that this girl would be the one. Now we're right back where we started. We are hopeful that this agency will be the right one for us. All you can do is just keep moving forward, right?

Labor Day Week

It was another busy week at our house. We had a family reunion in Idaho over Labor Day weekend. We were in charge, so it was more stressful than usual, but I think everyone had a good time. They are always over too quickly! We didn't get a lot of photos because we were busy running things, but here are a few:
We had fun playing games:

We hiked up to a lake:

We celebrated Grandma's birthday:

Here is the whole crazy gang:

We drove home on Monday, so Tuesday was a fun filled day with un-packing, laundry, and housecleaning. Tuesday night Justin had a soccer game, Spencer and Brandon had to ref soccer, and Tyler and Spencer both had a football game.


Wednesday was crazy hair day at school in Justin's kindergarten class. He was afraid he was going to miss the bus, so I didn't get a great picture. But you get the general idea:

Wednesday night Justin had a soccer game, and Brandon and Wes had scouts.

Thursday Brandon had to ref two soccer games, Tyler and Spencer both had football games. They were both thrilled because their teams won. Yay!

Friday I spent the day canning 20 pints of salsa, running errands, and doing 8 loads of laundry. Friday night Wes and Brandon went on a 25 mile biking/camping trip with the scouts.

Saturday Spencer, Tyler, Justin & I cleaned the house while Brandon and Wes rode the 25 miles back home. Everyone else watched the BYU game while I ran stinkin' errands again.

That evening we got our family pictures taken up in the canyon. We just got the CD back, so as soon as we download them I will get some pictures loaded. Thank you Amber for taking our pictures!!!