Utah trip Part 1

 We were able to drive to Utah with my parents. The main reason we were going was to be able to go to the Temple when my nephew went through for his endowments. He will be leaving on his mission to the Concepcion, Chile mission in January. We were lucky enough to get to spend Thanksgiving with my family too. We packed so much into this trip and it was so much fun. It was a very long trip since we were gone for about 12 days, but it made it easier with Hubs going with us.

It was our plan to drive through the night to get to Utah. Then we were going to try to get to Boise for dinner and we were going to stay at the recently released Boise Temple Presidents house (his daughter and her family are in my parents Ward). We got a super late start because of what time our rental van was ready for pick up. I was excited to get to Boise because we were going to stop and meet an old friend of mine for dinner that I had lost contact with for more than 5 years and just recently got back in contact with her. We were supposed to meet for dinner, but we could see that we were going to get to Boise to late so we were going to meet her for breakfast instead. We got to Pendleton and the had the highway closed and we were forced to stay in a hotel there. I was actually glad because I didn't want to be traveling those bad roads just past Pendleton in the dark.

The kids did awesome in the car and when they got out and we were in the hotel they went wild. Oh my were they wild!! We got up the next morning to snow and headed up to the bad roads that go through the mountains. They weren't terrible, but it was still scary!

This was the first time that Oak got to ride facing forward. She loved it and would just giggle everytime we would look back at her. They were so cute zonked together in the back seat.

Trying to get the kids to settle down so we could get some sleep.

We weren't able to meet my friend until lunch time. But we finally got to Boise and I finally got to see my friend Rebecca. I am totally bummed that I forgot to get a picture of us. It was so great to see her and meet her new husband and her two adorable girls.

We then didn't get to my brothers house in West Jordan until almost 10pm that night. It was such a long drawn out road trip. And the kids did so great!!

When we got to Utah, they had just gotten some snow and that is all Mac wanted to do. It was Sunday, so we left the kids home with my parents and Hubs and I went to church with my sister-in-law. After we got home we decided to build a snowman before all the snow melted. The snow was so awesome and Hubs literally just rolled it like it was a blanket.

After I took this picture i went in the house. A little while later, Mac comes in and asks if I would come out and throw snowballs at him. So as I come out, the boys attacked me. It was fun and I loved watching Mac get so excited over throwing snowballs.

We stayed at my brothers house. They have a finished basement and so we had plenty of room for us and the kids. We didn't even have to share a room with our kids, so nice. My brother has twin boys who are just a few months younger than Oak. Oak loved them, and loved helping take care of them. Unfortunately when we got there one of the boys was really sick and they had to take him to the ER a few times.

Grandma and the boys.

Little T was so sick when we got there, poor guy! Thankfully he got better quickly and we got to enjoy his cute personality.

Sunday night we went to Provo to visit Hubs's sister and her husband. It was so fun to see them. My kids adore both of them!

My brother got Mac hooked up with PacMan and it was kindof a never ending battle with Mac the whole trip. It caused alot of tantrums. We were thinking about possibly getting a Wii although we have always been against having video games in our home. But then after this trip we changed our mind and are back to for sure NOT wanting video games in our home. We are fine with playing them at other peoples houses :)

We didn't do much on Monday, but on Tuesday decided to take Mac to the dinosaur museum. We thought he would love it, but we kindof forgot how Mac is with things like museums. He gets too excited and can't stop to look at anything and enjoy it. He has to move from one thing to the next before he even gets to really look at anything. It makes it kindof not fun.

he did however like digging for dinosaur bones. And he loved the movie about the earth that we saw there.

This was the first time putting Oak on my shoulders and it did not go well. She LOVES to pull my hair and so she was in heaven.

Tuesday night we also went and visited our very best friends from when we both lived in Tigard. I didn't take any pictures, but Amy did and I haven't gotten them from her.

Oak at 15 months (really almost 16 months)

Words she can say (not pronounced perfectly):

(Her vocabulary has just taken off this last week or two. I swear she started saying at least 10 new words while we were in Utah).

uh-oh, eye, Jesus ("sheshus"), cracker ("cacker"), mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, baby, blankie ("banky"), fishy, birdie, grapes ("gapeTH" she makes a little raspberry sound at the end of grapes and it makes me laugh every time), bottle ("bo" for her water bottle), cheese, truck ("kuck" and she likes to yell it out when she sees one, makes me laugh), elmo ("memo"), phone ("fo"), cookie, ball, hat, up, book ("bookie"), hi, bye, car, stinky, sit, bear ("baa"), owie, dog ("bobo" she calls all dogs bobo since our neighbors dog is named bobo, haha), clock ("cock"), hello ("hewow"), bonk ("bon" when she bonks her head), keys, please, sock, shoe, thank you ("ga-goo-mama"), stuck, elbow, wow.

About her:

can climb on and off the couch (but doesn't know how to fall off yet).

 can climb up stairs but now down (we aren't around any enough for her to practice).

 like to try to jump.

says "cheese" for the camera.

can point to eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, neck, elbow, toes, tummy, belly button, head.

 she recognizes Jesus in any picture (even the pictures she has never seen before).

 will grab my hand to hold and drag me all over the house.

 will sit and read books all by herself, she likes to chew on books too (gah!).

has 12 teeth, 6 of those she got in one month and 4 of those were molars.

she will now sit to get her hair put in piggies without needing something to distract her.

she follows directions really well.

she can be very mean and naughty and she thinks it is funny.

she likes to head-but and it hurts.

she "a" before almost every word she says.

she sucks her thumb alot and it is all cracked and sore.

her favorite foods are bananas and grapes.

she was down to one nap but since we went to Utah is back to two naps.

she doesn't fall asleep in the car very easily, she has to be exhausted.

she is a good eater and is eating alot more variety of foods now that she has some molars to chew better.

she just drinks milk in the morning and loves to drink water just like her brother and mommy.

she has had diarrhea for about two months straight (I might try to take her off of milk and see if that is the problem).

besides her bear, she has become attached to a blankie now.

she is more than ready for bed at 8 every night, but is still a really good girl if we are gone and can't get her to bed at that time.

she folds her arms and bows her head for prayer.

she gets into everything and keeps me way busier than her brother did at this age.

We are back...

We made a trip to Utah with my parents and we are finally back. We were gone about 12 days-ish. It was a long time. But we had so much fun!!

Pictures and highlights to come of:

*our eventful drive there
*seeing a friend I haven't seen in a very long time.
*seeing Hubs's sister and her husband.
*going to the dinosaur museum.
*visiting with our best friends.
*lots of time with family
*Thanksgiving
*my nephew going through the Temple
*lights at Temple square.
*and sick kids.

Giving Thanks...

I am grateful to know how truly blessed beyond measure I am. And I didn't want this day to go by with out sharing those blessings with you.

I am grateful...

01.  for my beautiful family

02.  for the Temple and the Priesthood that allow me to have them forever.

03.  that we get to grow our family through adoption.

04.   for the Birth Families of my two beautiful children.

05.  for all Birth Families and the great sacrifice they make for their babies.

06.  for my husband who works so hard for our family.

07.  for all that is provided for us from Hubs' hard work.

08.   that I get to stay home with my babies every day.

09.  that I get to be the mother to my beautiful babies.

10.  that we were able to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and his family and my parents.

11.   to get to see so many friends and family while visiting Utah.

12.   that we are able to go the Temple with my family tomorrow when my nephew goes through for the first time.

13.  for my knowledge and testimony of the restored gospel.

14.  for a living Prophet to lead and guide us.

15.  for my Savior and Redeemer.

16.  for my Heavenly Father who knows me and listens and answers my prayers.

17.  to live in a wonderful neighborhood with wonderful neighbors and friends.

18.  that my children and husband love me.

19.   that we live so close to so much family.

20.  to feel gratitude in my life every day.

I know so many of you have taken the time this month to think about and even write down the things you are grateful for. But I challenge you to sit down daily, weekly, monthly and write down what you are grateful for at that moment. You will be blessed with a grateful heart that will truly change your attitudee and life.

Keeping it real...

Just so you don't think life is all "sunshine and roses" from my Sunday Gratitude posts.

My day yesterday consisted of:

... waking up at 4:30 to a headache only to not be able to go back to sleep before my kids got up.

... figure out how to line a diaper with saran wrap to make sure that Oak's poop doesn't get contaminated with diaper fibers for specimen samples.

... dig through two poopy diapers for specimen samples.

... catch up on laundry

... avoided doing the dishes from Sunday.

... ate almost a whole pan of Chewy Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars by myself.

... finally putting together a package for Mac's Birth Mother after finally getting the last few items I needed for it, only to find out that I was out of packing tape. (thankful for a neighbor who saved me).

... ran three errands with my kids.

... finally got sick of how messy and cluttered my house was and cleaned it.

... got dinner going a little late, then finished it just when my kids were at the brink of starvation, only to realize that I forgot to start the rice cooker for our stroganoff.

... Mac had a tummy ache and did to not make it to the toilet in time and there was literally poop ALL OVER the bathroom. (thankful for my saint of a husband who cleaned it up since I already had to dig through poop that day).

... folded all the laundry while FINALLY getting to watch the season premier of Bones.

... went to bed only to wake up a couple hours later with a massive migraine that never really went away the whole night.

Sunday Gratitude...

I am grateful...

01.   that Hubs and I were able to attend all Stake Conference meetings. I actually LOVE Stake Conference!

02.   that Mac and Oak did awesome for the two hour meeting today!

03.  for awesome neighbors, who are also great friends, that I can trust and who are willing to watch my kiddos.

04.  that day light savings was actually really good for my kids' sleep schedules, this time around.

05.   for the birth families of both Mac and Oak. They are like a drug, I can't get enough of them!

06.  that I will be getting new contacts this week. the permanent smudge on one of my contacts is driving me nuts!!

07.  for the sweet moments I have had with Mac this week. I really love his sweet side!

08.   that I get to be Mac and Oak's Mother. It really is awesome, even though it is incredibly hard sometimes.

09.   that I decided to marry Hubs exactly eleven years ago on 11.11.11.

10.   for the treat recipe I tried out tonight. I can't wait to eat them!!

Mac funnies and sweetness...

Still working on cutting out naps.

Funnies...

* He was helping me get out the Halloween decorations and he pulls some out of the box and exclaims, "We haven't seen these in ages!!"

*I let him have one piece of candy after breakfast and told him he could have another after lunch. A little while later he asks if it is lunch yet. Of course I said no. And he asked when it was. And after telling him it is in a couple of hours he says. "Let's just pretend it is lunch time!!"

*One morning Mac really wanted to go to the library and check out a book on space and astronauts. I told him we couldn't go that day but we could go in a couple of days when they had story time. He got really mad and stomped to his room and got some socks, put them on by himself (which he usually claims he "can't" do) and then went and put on his shoes (which he also usually claims he "can't" do). I asked him where he was going and he said, "I am going to the library all by myself!" He was going to run away to the library. I was laughing so hard.

*He was throwing a fit at Target because he lost his privilege of looking at the toys when we were done shopping. He is really into wanting to say mean things when he is mad and said in a very pouty/angry voice, "I don't think things are cool anymore!!!" The lady right by us was trying so hard not to laugh, as was I.

*I had been helping him clean his room and left to go feed Oak. He comes out a few minutes later and says, "Moooom, I trusted you to help me clean my room!" Talk about a guilt trip! Oh how I love this boy!

*lately when he wants to tell a story he will say, "When I was a Grandfather...". I laugh every time he says it!

Sweetness...

* Daddy was home for lunch and was taking a nap on the couch. Mac decided that he would quietly get a blanket and put it on daddy then go and get one of his own stuffed animals and put it in Daddy's arms and then gave him a kiss on the forehead. So sweet! And Daddy slept through all of that!

*I woke up with a headache and was still laying in bed. Mac and Daddy were in the kitchen and Daddy told him that Mommy had a headache. He comes running into me and asked me if I wanted some water to help my headache. It was too sweet to refuse. So he went and got me a cup of water.

*We were talking about his birthday and how last year a friend brought a fire truck for him to ride in. And I tell Hubs that we won't be able to top that this year and out of the blue and immediately after I said that, Mac says, "I want to go to Disneyland for my birthday!" Well that would definitely top it! So we told him maybe for his 6th birthday we could go. He has reminded us numerous times since then that when he is 6 he can go to Disneyland. I think it is adorable and really wish Disneyland was foreseeable in the closer future, because I think Mac would have the time of his life!

his drawings...

I seriously can't get enough of his little drawings. We have so many papers with his drawings around here that I can't bear to throw away. But I have been trying to take pictures of my favorite so I can remember them and not have to keep everything.

Mac fishing! I love the details like the fish hook and the actual fish in the the water. I think this is his first coherent drawing of a scene and not just people.

How he draws his monsters now.

He loves to pretend he is spelling something when he is writing all these letters. He did spell one word, his  name right in the middle.

His pumpkins with  ghosts carved into them.

Sunday Gratitude

I am thankful...

01.   for the opportunity that Hubs and I had to spend the weekend with others who have adopted.

02.  that Hubs and I can literally talk non stop (when we are without kids) for the entire 2 hour trip to Portland. (We have done this numerous times, and it always makes me smile)

03.  that we have the opportunity to grow our family through adoption. Seriously, it ROCKS!!

04.   that I was once again able to go to the Temple with Hubs.

05.  for awesome parents who are willing to watch my kids and who take such great care of them when we are gone.

06.   that we were able to meet the attorney who worked on Oak's adoption. He is very inspiring and has been through so much himself.

07.   that we were able to finish our required adoption education hours this weekend and have that out of the way.

08.   that we have friends who are willing to be references for us for our adoption application.

09.   for awesome friends who gave us their couches before they moved. I love that our old couch is long gone, and we love our new ones.

10.   that November is National Adoption Month. Maybe if I have a moment to think, I can write something profound. Don't know if it will happen, life is freaking crazy, busy right now.

Casualities and one year olds...

Casualties from the hands and teeth of a one year old!

She has eaten two books (see the corners of the story books above) and torn apart two of her favorite picture books.

In her defense, the picture books barely survived Mac, so they kindof were already a bit falling apart. But she finished the job for sure.

I forgot what little stinkers one year olds can be. And honestly I love it and think it is so funny!

Oak is no exception!

She is the funniest little thing and makes me laugh constantly. She has become my little shadow/tornado lately. She comes up right behind me and undoes what ever I do.

She also has an opinion, and if you are doing something she doesn't like or you don't let her do something she wants to, she gets mad, screams and then head butts you.

On another note,

I was looking through Oak's outgrown clothes bins to find something. And as I was looking at all these cute clothes I remembered her wearing, it made me sad that she wasn't that little anymore. Not in the way that I miss having a baby in general (although I do), but I just missed Oak as a baby. So much so that I was on the verge of tears and a panic attack. I had to hurry and put it all away before I turned into a total mess.

I love my baby girl, and she is just growing up way too fast!

Helloooo?!?! Is anybody there?

So I don't know where everybody is, but NO ONE comments on my blog anymore. It is kindof sad!

Here are just the latest pics on my cell phone. They are always mostly of Oak because Mac doesn't like to cooperate for pics very often.

First piggies!

Just being super cute!!

Cute necked baby!

Mac's favorite place going anywhere with Daddy!

Go BEAVS!

She tried taking her shirt off, hahaha!

Mac and his new buzz cut, badly needed and there was ALOT of tears and screaming and bribing to get this hair cut.

Eating a banana whole for the first time.

Just reading, so cute!

My sent this to me when she was watching the kids. This is a tradition with Mac and his Grandpa, and Oak was able to get in on the fun. It is called "pillows" (although I don't Mac calls it that anymore). It is just basically rolling around on the bed and playing with the covers and pillows. Mac has a serious obsession with beds, he has since he was a little baby.

sitting in her book basket.

Halloween Day fun!

We started out our morning with pumpkin and ghost shaped chocolate chip pancakes. Mac is funny and prefers his without syrup, crazy kid! And Oak in general is not a fan of pancakes, but she obliged me a bit by eating a few bites.

Mac putting the face on his ghost.

We didn't do much during the day except go buy diapers.

But when daddy got home with the pizza, we downed it then got costumes on...

Walking like a mummy.

My cute little witch and mummy!

 

THe only picture I got of him trick or treating.

Funny story:

So Hubs helped me get Mac dressed like a Mummy. I did his legs while he did Mac's upper body.

Hubs just started wrapping and wrapping without much thought. We went to one house and it was all falling off, so we stopped back at home and tried to fix it. Mac did not want to do that, all he wanted to do was go trick or treating. While we were trying to convince him that we would still go trick or treating after we fixed his costume his friends came and knocked on the door. He gave them all candy and then wanted to go with them, but his costume wasn't fixed. So he threw a big fit. No matter what we said he just wanted to go. So now the funny part. His friends left and we closed the door so we could get him calmed down and get his costume fixed and he takes his trick or treat bag with one piece of candy and throws it on the ground and yells, "I'm through with Halloween!!!" and stomped off and shut him self in the hall closet. I was laughing so hard, because it was so dramatic! Daddy tried to console him and gave him a hug and Mac just started crying and saying that his friends didn't want to be his friends anymore because they left him. That was sad! So we tried to tell him that if we hurry we can catch up to them and that they still wanted to be his friends they just needed to go with their parents. We got him fixed up and hurried just down a couple of houses and found all of his buddies.

pumpkin carvin!!

Carving pumpkins almost didn't happen. Our week was so busy, and when we weren't busy with other things, I was busy trying to get my talk written. But Saturday night late, Daddy and Mac got it done while I finished up my talk and Oak was in bed for the night.

Pumpkin head!

We have entered the cheesy, fake smile phase of picture taking. Which I am totally ok with, because it is way better than not getting a picture of him at all.

THe boys and their pumpkins.

They turned out pretty cute. At first we thought Mac's pumpkin might be too small to carve, but Mac was insistant it get carved too.

Cookie makin' and more...

We have been trying to do a service for someone every week and so we decided to make some Halloween cookies while Oak was taking a nap. Mac was a very good helper and did a great job at following directions this time. We made enough to take some to his friend J for his birthday, to someone I visit teach, and to a friend who to thank them for helping me out with something.

I love how you can see how covered in flour he was. So cute!

Love the flour hand prints on the cupboard.

Mac was very rewarded for his service. The last person we dropped the cookies off to is a new family in our ward and the husband taught my class in a pinch when Mac was sick. So when we knocked on the door the mom came out and said all the kids are in the back, lets go find them. So we walk with her around the back of their house and through the woods and a gate to the neighbors house behind them. It opened up to this huge field with a couple of very beautiful house and a ton of kids playing on zip lines, a trampoline, slides, swings, sand box, forts. Mac was in heaven. He even did the little zip line that has a kiddie swing attached to it. He just really loved every second of being there. Oak loved it too! In fact I had a harder time getting her to leave than Mac. So the property belonged to our friends neighbors and it was two sisters and their families and their mom. When I left I said, that if I lived on the property I would totally love living in the country. The neighbors were nice and didn't care that we came to play. It was alot of fun!!

Happy Halloween!!

Sunday Gratitude...

I am grateful...

01.   that my talk is done with and I think it turned out ok. I have never struggled so much to write a talk before.

02.  that I won't have to give a talk for another year.

03.  that we (including Hubs!!!) will most likely be able to go to Utah for Thanksgiving and when my nephew goes through the Temple for his Endowments.

04.  That we have our adoption orientation meeting with our Caseworker this week and will be getting all of our adoption education hours in required to be approved.

05.  that Hubs takes Mac with him when he goes and visits families in the Ward.

06.  for my children's birth families! there are not enough words to describe how much I love all of them.

07.   for the moments when Oak and Mac play really well together.

08.  That Mac recovered very quickly from having Croup.

09. that Mac actually sat and listened when we did FHE tonight.

10.  to be in a Ward that has so many families touched by adoption. There is at least one child in every Primary class that was adopted.

cute little booger!

What THIS cute little booger has managed to do today...

1. have two explosive diapers, which resulted in one bath, one entire wardrobe change, and one onesie change.

2. not take her afternoon nap after at least five attempts.

3. when told to sit down on the couch, ran and tumbled over the arm of it. scared her and me!

4. thrown every single pea on the floor that I gave her for dinner. on the very same floor that I spent an hour mopping with my swiffer and on my knees with a wet towel.

5. almost dipped her hand in the toilet. thankfully I caught her in time.

6. lots and lots of high pitch screaming just to bug her brother.

7. oh and after never taking an afternoon nap, fought going to bed for the night also.

And she manages to look cute doing it all, so it's hard to be frustrated at her.

So love her!!!

croup

Saturday, Hubs and I left our kids with my parents and headed to the Temple for our Stake Temple Day. We had to leave about 7:30am to make it to a 10am session. When we left I hadn't heard Mac cough at all.

My parents said that not long after we left that Mac started coughing and the cough was sounding worse as time went by. His cough ended up sounding like a barking seal. But he was acting fine. He ate lunch and went and layed down on the couch and fell asleep.

We got out of the Temple around 1pm, and I called my mom to see how the kids were doing. She said that they were doing just fine and Mac was asleep and Oak was about to go down for a nap. Then we headed over to the Deseret Book Store and then we were going to go to lunch with Hubs's parents. While in the bookstore, I got a call from my (it was only about 10  minutes after I just talked to her). She didn't sound panicked, but very worried, and i knew something was wrong.

She told me that Mac had woken up gasping for air and he couldn't breath. I could hear him in the background gasping and trying to tell Grandma that he couldn't breathe. All I wanted to do, was reach through the phone and help him. I was starting to get panicked, because I was feeling very helpless and we were nearly 2 hours away from him. As I was telling my Mother-in-law, who was with us, what was going on, she said that it sounded like croup. She said that when her kids were little and had croup, the doctor told her to take them outside. His breathing wasn't getting better at all so that is what I told my mom to do with him and that they needed to call 911. My dad called 911 and took him outside and he immediately started doing better.

Mean while we left the stuff at the bookstore that we were planning on buying and left for home immediately. We had to stop and get gas, which did not help my anxiety, but we would not have made it back to our boy with out getting any.

 The ambulance arrived shortly after that and all I could do was listen over the phone while all this was going on. The  Paramedics did their routine stuff on him and I ended up talking a little to one of the paramedics who said that he thought that it was croup. And that they were going to transport him to the Emergency Room/Urgent Care (which was more than 30 minutes away in a neighboring town). I told them that was fine (although in my head I was thinking about how much ambulance rides cost, but knew that I shouldn't worry about that).

My Dad was able to go with Mac in the ambulance and Mac sat on his lap the whole time while my Dad held oxygen up to his face. Mac was pretty disappointed that they didn't turn the siren on when he rode in it. But he still thought that it was so cool.

We then arrived to the hospital a little while after they had gotten there. My dad had already given as much info to the triage nurse as he could. And when we walked in to the waiting room, Mac was sitting next to his grandpa coloring in a little coloring book they had given him. He was very excited to see us, and us him. He sounded so raspy, but talked our heads off. We waited with them for another 30 minutes before they took us back to a room, then waited another 45 minutes before the doctor came in. The doctor came in for about 5 minutes and told us that, yes, it was croup. The advice he gave us was to take hi him outside if that happens again. And that it is classic for croup to come on that quickly. They gave him an oral steroid and then we were off.

Mac did not shut his mouth and was a little bit crazy the 30 minute drive back to my parents house. I was told that is because of the steroid. He was a bit off the wall yesterday too. It was nearly impossible to get him to calm down enough so that he wasn't panting and out of breathe. By the end of the night last night he was very wheezy and so we filled the bathroom with steam from the hot shower and then made him go outside for a little while. He slept great last night and is doing much better today, and thankfully a little less wild.

We are really hoping that all Oak will get is a cold out of it and not get full blown croup, since croup is basically a cold gone bad. She has started a bit of a runny nose, so we will see. But at least we now know the symptoms and what to do.

I am trying to recover from little to no sleep the last couple of nights so that I can get my talk written for this coming Sunday.



Sunday Gratitude

Visiting Grandma C on her 60th birthday.

I am grateful...

01.  for the promptings that have lead us to actually get our adoption paperwork started. I will be calling LDS Family Services this week to get the ball rolling. Very excited and nervous!

02.  for my husband who is a righteous priesthood holder that is willing to serve the Lord with all his heart, might and mind. He was called today as the Elders Quorum President in our Ward and I know that he will be faithful and hardworking.

03.  to be able to strengthen our family while making memories as we spend time together, both our little family and extended family.

04.  to be able to have the missionaries in our home for dinner. When we do, I think to the future when my children will be on missions and others will be doing the same for them. 

05.  to be able to teach my children the Gospel. And for them to do or say things that make me aware that they are listening and watching closely.

06.  that although Oak is getting 4 teeth at once that you wouldn't be able to tell. She is just such a happy, sweet (and sometimes a little wild) girl.

07.  to see, play and decorate cookies with friends this week that we haven't seen in awhile. I am grateful that we met and became friends while we served in the Spanish Branch.

08.  for love and support from family and friends when it comes to adoption and infertility and that I have had very few instances where someone I know has been rude or inconsiderate on purpose about our circumstances.

09. for the blessings that come from attending the Temple and the opportunities that have presented themselves for us to be able to make 3 trips in in a matter of 6 weeks.

10.  for my firm testimony of the Gospel and that I have a loving Heavenly Father and Savior who bless my life.