Today is a...

...stay in our jammies,

build a fort, 

eat banana bread for breakfast,

watch a movie in our fort,

take a break to dance to Micheal Franti,

eat more banana bread,

and laugh and giggle with my babies

kind of day.

Just what the doctor ordered for the sickies in our family!

giving thanks...

I have so much to be thankful for.

Especially this year!

I am pretty sure a list won't fully cover it all.

But it is a start...

I am thankful, grateful and blessed...

...for my health.

I had a serious health scare this year and although I feel like I was good at holding back the fear until there was actually something to worry about, it was terrifying. I am grateful it turned out to be nothing serious.

...for my little family.

they are my life, my world and my every breath is for them.

...for my husband.

he works so hard to make sure we are taken care of. he has to balance so much in his life and he does it for our little family. I would not change my life with him for anything.

...for my parents.

my dad has been in the hospital and it has been scary to see his health decline and to actually think about the fact that I won't always have my parents with me on earth.

...for my extended family.

I love living so close to my husbands family, they are a pretty amazing family. and it has been an amazing getting to see so much of my family this year.

...for adoption.

this path has made my life more beautiful than I could have ever imagined for myself. because of this miracle I am a mother.

...for our amazing birth families.

I sometimes have to pinch myself with how enriched my life is to know these special people. their sacrifice is my joy. and to love them and my babies is the only way to thank them enough. because of them I am a mother.

...for the gospel.

without it I would be in a very deep, dark place. because of the gospel I can find joy in my sorrows.

...for my Heavenly Father.

I have no doubt he has gifted me my life. that he knows and loves me in every way possible. that his hand has guided me through so many things.

...for my Savior.

he has done everything for ME.

...for the Temple.

I get my family FOREVER. I want nothing less for the family I have worked so hard for and I want nothing less for my children.

...for my needs met.

I have a beautiful, warm home, food in my pantry, a car to get around, insurance to help cover medical costs, opportunities to make wonderful memories with my family. No one needs any more than that to make them happier. 

...for a new day.

to wake up every morning and be alive, to be able to live my life. to be able to start new every day and try to be a better, person, wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.

...for tender mercies and answered prayers.

they are real! I am living proof! I am reminded everyday of these in my life and could not be more grateful.

cute and funny...

It has been awhile it seems since I have done a funnies post. I haven't been that great at keeping track of all the funny things my kids do and say, but let me tell you there is no shortage in our house. Love my babies!!

Mac:  My parents are needing some help with some things and my mom was being stubborn about me helping her so I was firmly scolding her about it. And Mac breaks into the conversation saying, "Don't talk to her like that, you are not Grandma's Mom!" My mom and I were hysterical, lol!

Oak: we were walking down a large, long, empty hall at the hospital. Mac was running ahead of us and Oak was right next to me yelling "Mac walk please! Mac walk PLEASE!" Then a man was walking toward us and Oak says politely to him "Excuse me sir." as she walks by him.

Oak: She takes something off my dresser and looks at me and says, "I am taking this...don't say no!" Love her!

Mac: We were talking to him about how awesome it is that he has a mom AND a birth mom. And he says, "Do you know what else is awesome about me?...I have red hair!" ...DEFINITELY!!

Mac: He wrote out his name and then put a dot at the end..."Mom, look Mac dot com!"

Oak: "Mama, you are beautiful!!"
Me: "Thank you Oak, you are so beautiful too!"
Oak: "You are pretty cute."
Me: Thank you, I think you are pretty cute too."
Oak: "Mama, you are AWESOME!!"
Me: "Wow! Thank you Oak! I think YOU are so awesome!"
Oak: "I so proud of you Mama!"
Me: "I am so proud of you big girl!"

Oak: I was giving Mac my normal little pep talk as he was leaving for Preschool, "Be a good listener, follow directions, be a good friend and be a good example." Oak on her own adds in, "Don't say the S word at Preschool." (The S word in our house is the word stupid). 

Mac: He will randomly ask questions about us adopting another baby and it is just too sweet. Today he asked me when we get another baby if he can hold it. I told him yes and he said, "You mean our baby will be small enough for me to hold?!" He was so excited! He also has announced that we will name our next baby Junior Asparagus

McCoy: He was told to eat three bites of his dinner before he could be done. He says, "If I liked it, I would eat the whole thing!" I guess he has a point... 

leaves are falling all around...

The sun was shining after naps yesterday, and although it was REALLY cold, we decided to take advantage of the dryness and play outside a bit. We raked the leaves into a pile and had a little fun. The fun didn't last as I kept on finding lovely piles of neighborly animal poo in our yard under the leaves (one of my pet peeves, with NO pun intended).

After our fun was ruined, we ran up and down the road playing games and playing catch until we (read I, as in ME) couldn't stand to be frozen anymore.  And we came in, took baths and daddy had homemade hot chocolate waiting for our cute little munchkins. 

VOTE! and a quote...

DID YOU!?!?!

We vote by mail in Oregon and so Hubs and I dropped our ballots off last week. I love this, but I am a bit jealous of the "I VOTED" sticker and the chance to vote in a booth like I remember my parents doing.

But I VOTED, and that is cool!

I saw this quote and loved it!!

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."

-Martha Washington

The Gift...

The Gift from Jared Fadel on Vimeo.

November is National Adoption Month! 

I am going to try to share some cool adoption thoughts, links and videos through out the month. Also if anyone has any questions about adoption or our experience I would love to try to answer them.

This video is amazing and it will for sure bring you to tears.

Time Out for Women

I had the amazing opportunity to go to Time Out for Women this weekend with my Mother-in-law, two of my sisters-in-law and my mom. So in other words I was with some awesome women!! We have been looking forward to this for MONTHS! And can I just say that if you have the opportunity to go at some point that you should make every effort to go, because you will not regret it. It is amazing, it is uplifting, it is beautiful, it is touching, it is spiritually nourishing, it is fun and funny. 

We were able to go both Friday night and all day Saturday.  The speakers were amazing and I was able to find something I needed to hear in every presentation. Also the music by Jenny Oaks Baker and Hilary Weeks was just beautiful and my favorite part was the beautiful words they shared with us also. Hilary Weeks was hilarious and so real.

I loved that my Mom was there with me. 

Through the entire weekend I found bits and pieces in every presentation that I could use in my life, but I kept on wondering when I would hear that ONE thing that I felt was meant just for me. I was a little worried that I would walk away from the whole weekend without that experience. Then the very last presenter Laurel Christensen got up and I hung onto her every word and knew what she was saying was meant for me. I took the most notes from her because I didn't want to forget a thing. I am so grateful I did, because when I got home last night and I was telling my husband all about what she said and reading my notes from her I had an amazing experience. One that has been a long time coming for me. And thoughts were turning into more thoughts that were turning into more thoughts that lead to an eye opening experience. I then shared those thoughts with my husband, and I was just in awe and shock at the personal revelation I received from this experience. It was all very personal and so I will not be sharing it here or with any one. But what I will say, without sharing any specifics is that I realized that I have spent years purposely not asking Heavenly Father for a specific blessing out of fear that my prayer and pleading would not be answered or the answer would be no. And after I was prompted to read my Patriartical Blessing I was reminded that what I have been afraid to ask for has always been a promised blessing and the Lord is BOUND to keep his promise to me as long as I am obedient. I love that Heavenly Father is waiting for me to be ready to ask and and ready to receive the answers to my prayers. 

I wish her presentation was available to everyone to listen to, but here is a snippet (her intro) of her presentation. 

And she also shared something similar to this in her presentation.

October in pictures

Our little town had a fall festival and we decided to check it out. 

It was just a bunch of booths and then a few little things for the kids like miniature gold and the blow up bouncy castle. 

Friday fun day at the playground.

The kids dancing around in their costumes to spooky Halloween music.

A close friend of ours who works at the fire department brought one of the fire trucks to our house so the neighborhood kids could play on it. 

Mac wanted to do a puppet show and had to make a sign. The name of the show was the names of all the puppet animals we have. I helped him sound out all the names.

The show was very adorable and made me laugh. He has quite the comedic nature.

Making burritos is something we do sometimes when we are trying to waste some time before bed. Daddy is always a better burrito maker than me. He was always better at swaddling our babies than me too.

We for sure couldn't leave Bear out of the burrito making.

Them actually have fun with each other instead of being mean to each other.

This picture cracks me up! This is Oak actually pulling her brother while running. She is a strong little girl!

Oak has been begging to go to a football game (she LOVES sports and watching sports) and so we took her to our local high school football game.

Mac swallowed a small polished stone so we took him in to see make sure it was going through his system okay.

The picture isn't great, but you can see the stone...it is the little oval on the right, middle of the xray.

Thankfully it had passed through all the major spots that it could get stuck so that I didn't have to dig through anything.

When my sister Dana was here this summer she brought some of her favorite clothes that she has saved from  my niece. I put this on her one Sunday realizing it would fit her now, even though it is a 4T. She was so adorable in it. I love the school girl look!

Mac and his Wild Things friends at Preschool. So cute!

Oaks favorite thing to play lately is blocks. And she is actually pretty good at it. And the funny thing is how meticulous she is about her block placement. She makes all sorts of buildings she dubs as museums, Temples,  houses and more that I can't think of at the moment. I was super impressed with this tall tower she made and just how straight and perfect it is. 

So her little circles have morphed in to circles with lines and then now she is adding more circles inside. Not sure if she thinks they are eyes or not though. But one of my favorite things about being a mom is seeing my children's drawings morph into more and more detail as time goes by. I find it so fascinating and love the little peak into their little brains.

Halloween's past...

Mac's first Halloween 2008

2009

Oak's first Halloween 2010

(And oh my goodness, can I go back in time and snuggle these little ones of mine. How cute are they?!?!)

These were my favorite costumes yet. Maybe because I made both of them.

2011

2012

Are you sick of seeing this picture?!?! I just think they are so cute!

I love them so much!

Halloween 2012

I have to admit that Halloween is probably my least favorite holiday. Although I really love all the build up to the holiday, just not the holiday it's self. I usually can't wait for it to be over, this year was no exception. But I try to put my feelings about it aside and still try to make it fun for my kids. This year it was a little harder to enjoy the fun, but we tried. And I hope we can look back at the fun instead of the not so fun.

Cinnamon rolls are a favorite in our house so I thought I would make some. This was my first attempt ever at making them from scratch. I was so proud of myself and they were really yummy. I even made some cream cheese frosting and dyed it orange .

It happened to be story time day at the Library so we went there. The kids love story time and Oak is getting really good at sitting and listening to the stories instead of me chasing her around. They also love to check out books so we took some back and got more.

The adorableness of this picture is just too much for me. It makes the hard parts of the day so worth it just for this picture. My kids are so stinking cute, especially as skeletons. 

Mac has had his costume decided since last year. He really loves spooky scary stuff so he tends to pick out classic Halloween costumes. He even has the next two years decided of what he wants to be. Next year is a vampire (I think) and the next year he wants to be a "blooded zombie" (that's what he calls it). So cute!

Since Mac decided to be a skeleton and I found these cute jammies, I decided Oak was going to be one too. She loved it!

We got a little trick or treating done in our neighborhood early (5:30pm) so that we could enjoy that and enjoy our Ward's trunk or treat. Also there was a break in the clouds and it wasn't pouring down rain for the first time all day. And don't worry, my kids weren't cold. It wasn't all that cold and they each had a whole other layer on underneath their costumes.

In this picture they were trick or treating where he goes to preschool.

Mac pretty much ran from door to door and Oak just causally walked the whole time, and it was driving Mac nuts to have to wait for his sister, haha!

We really liked the decorations on this house, but unfortunately they didn't answer their door. 

Just as we were getting done trick or treating and about to head to the church all our neighborhood friends were starting to head out trick or treating. And it worked out to get everyone in a picture. Cute P (the dinosaur on the end) did not want to be in a picture.

We then went to our Ward's truck or treat which ended up being inside and the kids trick or treated to the classrooms. It actually turned out pretty good. It is hard to have a party like this where numbers count when you live in a very small ward. (we only have about 25 kids in our primary and those kids only add up to about 10 families.) But alot of them showed up and they didn't mind at all doing it in the church instead of outside. Mac had a blasts running around with his friends.

The night ended with making a stop at another friends house to trick or treat and then a full on melt down about going to bed. Hubs and I went to bed and said to each other that we were glad Halloween is over for the year. 

Pumpkin carving...

We carved our pumpkins for Family Night this week. The kids loved it and loved digging the guts out. The kids picked out a pattern for our big pumpkin and then Mac wanted to draw his own face on his and this was Oak's first year participating. Pictures are terrible because I didn't realize that the flash wasn't on. Oh well!

This was Mac's pumpkin. I tried my best to carve his creation. He really liked it and I thought it was adorable.

Not sure about the face Oak is making, silly girl.

I think they turned out pretty fun!