Fu Manchu...

Oak's first ice cream cone and Fu Manchu.

Barber Shop...

Mac's hair was getting way too long and way past my comfort zone of the length I prefer his hair. I have a thing about long hair on boys...I DON'T like it...at all. Some people know this about me, but I try to keep it to myself most of the time. Because who am I to tell others what to do with their sons hair and I sure don't want people telling me what to do with my sons hair. I could say alot more, but it's probably better I don't. Anyway...

I have always cut Mac's hair myself. I usually just use the #3 on the clippers and go at it. Mac has always been good about it until the last six months or so and he would scream and cry and it would be a dramatic battel for a couple of hours. So the last 2 months I have let it slide. I have asked him a couple of times a week if he would let me cut his hair and he would tell me no. Then I would ask him if he would be okay with getting his hair cut at the Barber Shop. And he seemed a little more okay with it, but still kept on telling me no. But today the heavens opened and he said YES and it was the perfect moment where we were literally able to just jump in the car and run down to the local Barber Shop. He was really tired and I was a bit worried that he might throw a fit. But he didn't AT ALL! He jumped right up in the chair and the girl went right to work. He didn't move, he didn't say anything, he just let her do it! And then he got to choose a piece of candy from the candy basket. And she did a perfect job! I was in shock with how much I loved it, once she was done. It wasn't all that expensive either and we will be doing this from now on. He looks so handsome! So he now has had his first real hair cut and he won't have to have anymore "mommy cuts". YAY!

Oh, and Grandma was with us and she promised a Dilly Bar if he did a good job.

Oak at 18 months

Her 18 month check up was yesterday:

Weighed: 29 lbs (95th percentile)

Height: 34.5 inches (100th percentile)

Head: 49.2 cm (100th percentile)

She's getting big!

Doctor K was also VERY impressed with how well she could talk.

And she got two vaccines.

She is getting pretty good at using a spoon and fork, but if left unsupervised she will dump her food on the table, floor or stuff it in her highchair. She can make a huge mess. She however ate three small bowls of applesauce last night with very minimal mess, yay!!

I would say her favorite thing to eat is still crackers of any kind. She is a pretty good eater and not too picky. She eats what ever we eat.

Her last tooth (before her two year molars) finally popped through.

She literally can say everything. She will just start saying new words on her own without us ever teaching her. Even though she doesn't babble anymore we can only understand about 95% of what she is saying.

 I laugh every time she says "fop" which is how she says "stop" . She also says "Yep!" instead of yes and when you ask her a "why" questions she will answer "cuz!" I seriously don't know where those came from, haha.

She is putting two and three words together that make sense. And is constantly asking someone to "Hold me please!" or telling someone "Sit there please!"

She has been wearing footy jammies for the winter and after many months of finding her unzipped she figured out how to get them off. Thankfully she hasn't made a habit out of it.

She is our climber and it is impossible to keep her off the chairs at the table and she has climbed up onto the table a few times. We can never take our eyes off of her.

She is very attached to her thumb, bear and a specific blankie. She will however take a replacement blankie for a short time if we can't find hers or need to wash it.

She recognizes Jesus in all pictures and Temples. Although she is calling all big buildings Temples lately.

Her favorite songs are "I am A Child of God" and "I Love to See The Temple" and can sing along with it. She doesn't say the exact words really, it is mostly the sounds of the words.

When giving kisses she does the cutest fishy lips.

She has finally started calling dogs "doggy" instead of "bobo".

She loves to read and is especially attached to the books that you sing in or have repetition, or have dogs, babies, cats or pumpkins.

When we go places and someone pays attention to her she makes sure they know who she is with and points and names us all, "Mama, Coy, Bear!"

When looking in the mirror at herself she says "Oakee".

She can do age appropriate puzzles.

She loves Elmo and Abby Cadabie.

She only drinks a sippy of milk in the morning and we changed her milk to lactose free and that has stopped her diarrhea.

She loves to rough house and can pretty much hold her own when it comes to big brother.

She can count to ten. But she has only done it when we say the odd numbers and she will say the even numbers and or the other way around. She won't say them straight through.

She has already been going to nursery for about a month and a half and is doing really well. She loves it and has never cried! Yahoo!!

She has come and told me a few times that she has pooped in her diaper. I am hoping this means she will be easier to potty train. Although I will not start anything until she is at least two, I am just not ready to deal with it yet.

She is hilarious and can act so goofy sometimes. She likes to have fun and hang with the big kids.

She is baby obsessed and can not handle it when there is a baby around.

She rarely falls alseep in the car and although she has tried to go down to one nap a day she is still taking two naps most days. I fought that battle and I think I have won.

When getting ready for bed, she fights it all the way and uses the "I need to say night night to everyone" delay tactic. But once you lay her down, the fight is over and she rolls over, sucks her thumb with bear in hand and closes her eyes.

She loves balls and can throw and kick them really well. She even gets excited when she sees a basketball game on the tv. It's in her blood! :)


And some bonus cell phone pics:

nice and clean.

a mess!

the mess she made after lunch one day. her face cracks me up!

brushing her teeth.

One pigtail, snotty nose and eating crackers off the floor.

Valentine's Day

I have to say that this Valentine's Day was one of the best ever! Mac is just at a fun age to really understand holidays and get excited about them and my Hubs went all out. It just was a really fun day!

So I gave Mac a few options of what he wanted for his V-day cards to take to Preschool. He chose this one and was so cooperative and wanted to help with it all. He LOVED it!! He was so excited to have a party at school and take his Valentines. And he had alot of fun and enjoyed all the treats when he got home.

Oak wasn't quite as cooperative for her Valentines but they still turned out way cute! At first I thought it would be easy to find lip shaped chocolates, but after searching a few stores I realized it was not going to be easy. I then had an epiphany of sorts and remembered the Winco has candy bins. And I about did the happy dance when I actually found them there.

I had got little gifts for the kids and set them out on the table with their little mail boxes full of candy and a love note from Mommy and Daddy. It was so fun and cute to see them get excited about it all in the morning. And I got Hubs a bag of sugar free dove chocolates, which he LOVED! He said he had them eaten before he got to work. I also made cinnamon rolls (Mac's favorite) and made pink frosting.

After preschool and lunch my mom and I also took the kids to the Mall to play at the playground there. And I made Mexican stuffed pasta for dinner, YUM!  

My parents brought me beautiful yellow tulips! Loved having fresh flowers in my house!

And Hubs TOTALLY surprised me with having flowers sent to me. I seriously was shocked and initially didn't think they were from him. I thought that they were from my Dad because my mom (who was staying with us) got a bouquet of flowers also from my Dad. But they were from my sweet, handsome husband. Funny thing was Mac misunderstood my shock for being mad at Daddy. Mac kept on saying, "You better tell daddy that you are mad he sent you flowers!" It was funny! I tried to reassure him that I was SO HAPPY that he did that and that all girls love to get flowers from their boys. Hubs also sent me sweet texts through out the day with things he loves about me. It was so sweet and my favorite Valentine's gift. Then we got to go out to a movie that night.

Our day...

I woke up with a massive migraine. It was pretty stubborn and my normal life saving meds were not working. I pretty much stayed in bed and slept off and on until noon while my mom watched the kids. Thankful she was here, except she has been sick too. I felt so bad! Anyway, once we were both feeling a bit better we both wanted fresh air so we took the kids on a walk to find bugs, but we ended up finding puddles instead. We let Mac go at it as you can tell! Pretty sure he had fun. It took alot of work to keep Oak out of the puddles. I need to find some boots that fit her so she can join in on the fun next time.

At the begining of our walk, Oak kept on wandering off so Mac lovingly told her to hold his hand and they walked like that for a little while. A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E!

Who doesn't LOVE to jump in giant mud puddles?!

And the end result...LOVE this boy!!

Happy Valentines Day!!

From Mama B, Hubs and these two cuties!!

Adoption #3 update...

Aren't they cute?! I find them like this alot. I love the days where they play together like friends and just can't get enough of each other. Those days are becoming more frequent.

I don't think I have done an update on my blog about where we are at with the adoption process since I announced that we were starting the process again. We made so great headway this last week so I thought that it was a good time.

Since doing the paperwork for our second adoption the process has changed a bit, mostly with the order they do things. It is much more organized and the changes make alot of sense. They have also added a few more requirements to be eligible to adopt through our agency, and those also make sense.

One of the process changes is that you are not able to start the application process until you pay your home study fee (which is non refundable). They have made this change so that they are using their time, resources and money only on serious applicants and to weed out those who go through a majority of the application process and then never pay their fee because they were either not serious about going through with adopting or who if then become pregnant and do not need to adopt.

We paid this fee a couple of months ago and as soon as the payment went through they sent us a package of paperwork . Prior to paying that all we were able to do was the initial entry application, they sent out our Bishop recommendation and we were able to do our state required adoption education. At some point we were given our log in information for the online portion of the paperwork. I don't remember if it was before or after we had paid the home study fee.

We have now done a portion of the on line paperwork. The portion that is done is what I need to fill out in regards to me and my background and my questioneer. Hubs in the middle of busy season and his brain is kind of on low function during this time in regards to anything outside of work, his church calling and his families immediate needs of attention. So i am waiting to catch him on a good day to see if I can get him to get some of his portion done of the online paperwork. We have plenty of time to get it done anyway because we are only about half way through our off line paperwork.

Which brings me to what we have finished in regards to the off line paperwork. Like I said we have already received all ten of our state required adoption education hours on the seven specific topics required. I am so glad that we got that out of the way at the beginning of the process since it was such a frustrating part of our last application process. It was all due to good timing though, so thankful for that.

On Friday I was able to mail out a large part of our off line documents. This included our Oregon State background check docs, our Montana State background check (which had to be notarized), our fingerprints done at the county court house, copies of birth certificates for Hubs and I, copy of our marriage license and Temple sealing certificate, Hubs's medical report (I need to call the doctor to get in for mine and will be getting the kids's filled out this week when I go for Oak's 18 month check up), employment verification, enlarge copies of our drivers license's and enlarged copy of our insurance card.

In regards to the background checks and the fingerprints. You never know how long it will take. It happens alot that paperwork gets lost somewhere and then you have to redo it. It has never been a problem in either of our last two experiences so lets hope that it is the same this time. Also I am not worried about it because we are not in a hurry. Although I am shooting for April (ish) again. And that is just because we are at about the same point in the paperwork at the same time of year as the last time we did our paperwork and we were approved the end of April.

Other off line paperwork still needing to be finished is, our infertility report (this is a new requirement which I will explain in a minute), mine and the children's medical reports, our caseworker still needs to send out the paperwork to our personal references (not sure of his hold up there, but after emailing him about it this week I think that will be happening soon), financial statement and a copy of our last tax return showing annual income, and home study where we need to do a safety checklist, and a few other documents that just need to be read and signed, and paperwork showing showing the information of where, what, when and how we got our adoption education. We also need individual and joint interviews.

In regards to the infertility report that they have added as a requirement to go through the agency. We have to have our doctor fill out a report that says what the logistics of our infertility issues are and how likely we are to ever get pregnant (like in a percentage) and also what action has been taken with procedures and testing. This was a bit of a hard thing for me to think about having to do. I wasn't exactly how we were going to go about this since it has been 5 years since our last procedure and 6 years since our last testing. I can't even remember the name of our doctor although I know what clinic it was at. Also we never finished out our testing because towards the beginning of our testing they found a serious problem that was more than likely the cause of us not getting pregnant after 4 years (at the time). We talked to our caseworker about the issue and he helped ease my worry. I haven't yet, but I will be trying to hunt down where our files may be and who can fill out our report for us. But if that doesn't work out we will probably just have my primary care doctor fill it out for us.

The reason that they have added this requirement is to decrease the amount of adoptive couples to those who are in the greatest need to bring children into their families. There are so many families who have been waiting such a long time for to adopt and there are so many families who have adopted and then have gotten pregnant. With the percentage of unwed expectant parents choosing adoption down to under 1% and the amount of adoptant parents increasing, this change is giving those in greater need a better chance.

Another requirement change is that you can only adopt through LDS Family Services if you have two or fewer children. This means that this will be the last time that we will be able to be matched (to a baby) and adopt through our agency. They however will still allow couples to apply and do their home study through them, they just will not help you find your baby through their agency. This would mean we would have to do our own work in finding our fourth (if there was going to be) baby. And then we would have to find a lawyer to do all the paperwork for placement as well as for finalization. They have added this requirement for the same reasons of adding the infertility report. To decrease the amount of adoptive couples so that those who are in greater need have a better chance.

Another thing I have been working on is a blog designated for helping expectant parents who are choosing adoption to get to know us better. I mostly have just needed to update the one I had done for our second adoption. It has been a lot of fun though and I have been kind of using it as a journal of thoughts and have updated it with where we are at in the process. It is private right now with only me having access to it, but as soon as we are approved (or maybe a little sooner) I will make it open and share it with everyone.

Wow this ended up being really long, sorry! Give yourself a pat on the back if you made it through all of that.

Mac funnies...

See picture: Mac got put in time out for hitting me. I knew he was tired and hungry since it was right before dinner and he hadn't had a nap that day. About 30 seconds after he calmed down from screaming at me for putting him in time out I look over and he is sound asleep.

After I found him asleep in time out I put him on our wing back chair to sleep. Oak kept on climbing up on him so I moved him onto the couch. I left the room for a minute and I hear a slap and Oak started to cry. I come out and see Oak holding her cheek and Mac is fast asleep. I can only assume that she was bugging him and in his sleep he smacked her. I was laughing so hard visualizing that happening.

He came out of the bathroom with his hair all wet and wild and said, "I used Grandma's brush to do my hair so I could look awesome!!"

We were outside playing with our neighbor friend. Oak goes into the neighbors garage. As I go in to get her Mac tells his friend, "Look, our daughter is going into your garage!"

Because Mac was mad at me his prayer on breakfast went like this: "...Please bless that we won't have a good time with mommy because she is naughty!...

We were waiting our turn to get fingerprints done (for our adoption paperwork) at the courthouse and all these people kept walking by and saying hi and waving to my kids. Mac says to me, "I just waved to that lady in Spanish." Lol! I saw the lady sitting next to him turn her head and laugh too.

At about 2 am Mac comes into our room asking Daddy if he can snuggle. Hubs lets him in bed next to him. I don't know how long he was in bed with us then he asks Hubs out of the blue (at 2 am mind you), "Do you know what self-destruct means?...It means to explode!" Pretty sure he is going to be one of those people who spouts of random facts constantly! lol

 I found Mac and Oak in the bathroom, both up on the stool at the sink and Mac was showing Oak all the steps to wash her hands. He even included the step of pulling up her sleeves (which we have been talking about for the last couple of days alot). He was being so gentle and loving and being such a good teacher. It melted me on the spot!! ♥

New Recipes...

So thanks to Pinterest I have been making at least one new recipe a week, but more often it has been two new recipes. I have been trying to be better about making dinner every night and all of us sitting at the table together to eat. It has been a little bit harder with it being busy season for Hubs. The only thing I really don't like about this goal is how much I have been spending on groceries, yikes!!

But I did want to share some of  recipes that we enjoyed and will make again.

Courtesy of Plain Chicken

Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Chile

I just made this last night for dinner. The recipe doesn't tell you what size can for the Rotel, but I used the large and think that is the right size. Also the Rotel was too spicy and I couldn't feed it to my kids (not that they would actually eat it). Next time I will substitute the Rotel for a large can of plain diced tomatoes. But even thought it was spicy, it was SO GOOD!! I couldn't get enough of it!! And I can't wait to make it again.

Courtesy of Our Best Bites

Roaste Garlic-Parmesan Cauliflower

We use cauliflower alot. Well I guess I should say that Hubs uses cauliflower alot. He uses it as a substitute for rice or pasta since he eats a low carb diet. I actually like cauliflower and decided to try this as a side the other night when we had Hubs's parents over for dinner. I usually buy the frozen bags but for this I wanted fresh.  It was really good, but I think you have to like cauliflower to really appreciate it.  Hubs's dad really liked it and kept on asking how I made it, so I sent him home with the recipe. I will probably make this again, but since fresh cauliflower is so expensive it won't be very often. I will however probably try the same recipe with broccoli.

Courtesy of The Way To His Heart

Mexican Stuffed Shells

This recipe has been my absolute favorite by far!! I could eat this every night for dinner, seriously!! It requires a little more work than I like to put together, but it is so worth it. To make it not to spicy for my kids, I make sure I use all mild ingredients: mild taco sauce, mild salsa, and mild taco seasoning. I also double the meat and add a little extra cream cheese (which helps in making it less spicy). I double the meat because I put some of the meat filling in tortillas for Hubs since he doesn't eat pasta. So those end up being kind of like an enchilada. They are also really great as left overs.

Courtesy of MmmCafe

Honey Sauced Chicken

This was a really easy crock pot recipe. It was really good! The only thing about when I made it was that it wasn't very saucy. The sauce seemed to be more watery than glazy. Not sure if I did something wrong or if that is the way it is supposed to be. It was really good over rice. But I will be making it again. In fact it is on my menu for the week.

Courtesy of Cinnamon Girl Recipes

Oven Fried Zucchini Chips

I made these this summer. And they were so yummy! Mouthwatering and I could sit and eat them all in one sitting. The only thing that was hard about them was towards the end of making them the milk made the crumb mix all wet and then it wouldn't stick to zucchini. I didn't make the sauce that comes with the recipe, we just dipped ours in ranch. But I am not against trying it sometime.

Courtesy of Saving Money Living Life

Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake

This was another good one. I am not totally sure I will make it again, but it was good. Both my kids ate it, so that is a plus. It was not good as leftovers however, yuck! We thought about making it again, but instead of using pasta using cauliflower. We will see. I also did not use the whole amount of spinach it asks for. I used a small portion and it was plenty. My husband hates cooked spinach but he didn't mind the spinach in it at all.

That isn't everything new I have made. Just the ones we liked or really liked!

Hope you enjoy!!

I could...but I won't...

I could talk about...

how after two years of feeling fine about my infertility I had a moment last week where it stung a bit.

But I won't.

I could talk about...

how after my little infertility sting, my week got gradually worse and worse. But then it got better!

But I won't.

I could talk about...

how we have instituted a new family rule in our home called "Work then play!" And how great and hard it has been.

But I won't.

I could talk about...

how Mac has been more tough at age four than he was at age three.

But I won't.

I could talk about...

how busy season is starting for my husband and how much I truly dread February through April.

But I won't.

I could talk about how I made a goal to make dinner more often and to sit down as a family for dinner every night.

But I won't.

I WILL...

share some of the new recipes I have made that we love...

soon.

I will...

post about the date Mac and I went on...

soon.

I will...

post an update on how our adoption paperwork is going...

soon.

I will...

tell you that I haven't felt like blogging. I love blogging, so I hope I get out of this blogging funk soon.

And I will share these pics from playing at the park last week...