WHAT A WEEKEND!

My weekend was pretty amazing. It started out with my nephew's Eagle Scout ceremony on Friday. He did a cool project. He gathered games, books, and movies for the youth detention center. The workers were so excited to get the material. They do not have much for the boys who are there and it was really appreciated. He is a great kid and Ty has always looked up to him. It made Tyler really excited about the things that he will be doing in the future with scouting. I had to take a picture of the two of them together. A Wolf Cub Scout and a Eagle Boy Scout.
My Niece got baptized on Saturday. It was so special and you could feel the spirit so strongly. She is such a sweet heart. The day of her baptism Tyler was upset because he broke his candy cane and She gave him hers with a note on it. It made him so happy. That's just the kind of girl that she is. I love her a ton.
Scott got a new calling at church on Sunday. He is the 1st counselor in the bishopric. He is going to do so great and I know that it will bring blessings to our family. It was so neat to see my father ordain him as a high priest. The only thing that was a little hard for him to do was to shave. I have not seen him clean shaved since we were first married. It will take us a little time to get used to it.
So like I said, What a Weekend! It was a weekend full of the spirit.

I love Thanksgiving!

I know that this might not hear this to often, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's so nice to be able to spend time with family and talk the day away, while you can hear the kids laughing and playing in the next room. The food is always so fun to eat. I love to eat every ones dishes. This year my soon to be sister in law made buttermilk pie. It was her grandmother's recipe. It was sooo good.
Scott and I have the best families. Every year they make sure that they have Thanksgiving at two different times so we can go to both! Ya, TWO THANKSGIVINGS! What could be better then that!

Adoption Meetings

Sometimes we get to go to fun adoption meetings. They try to have a few that the whole family can go to. This one that we went to was at Boondocks. We had so much fun. First we got to look at children who are legally free for adoption through the adoption exchange. It was good to hear about some other options that we have. Then we got to go and play at Boondocks. It was a fun day. It was so nice to meet families that have adopted children and see how happy they all are. Tyler had so much fun their. We played games and he hit the jack pot on a game and won over 400 tickets. I was laughing because it reminds me of a "Vegas" for kids. Then after he picked out his prizes, (a stuffed dog, a pellet gun, and a ring for his cousin Kaitlyn) they took his picture to put up on the wall and gave him a free t-shirt. He was on top of the world. Then we got to play Lazer tag. Something that Scott and I love to do. Our team won! It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

I love Fall!

This fall has been the best! It actually has lasted for a while this year. The colors have been amazing. I love that Tyler loves to play in the leaves with his cousins. They worked so hard raking up the leaves and then the piles are destroyed in seconds. You got to miss being a kid! What a blast!

Look What I Won!

It was our anniversary. I can't believe that it has been 16 years. We wanted to get away, but it had to be just for a night because we had an adoption home study the following day. So I got us an awesome room for the night. It had a huge jetted tub in the room, a sauna, a huge plasma T.V. It was so nice to get away for the night. Scott got me a massage at the spa in the morning.
OK we really didn't win the Corvette. It's Scott's dad's new toy. When we told him that we were leaving for the night he said, "Come and take the Vet!" Scott was really hesitant at first and said he would talk to me about it. Of coarse I told him that I wanted to take the Vet. It was so fun to drive in. You don't even use a key to start it. You just push a button. It's the cutest car that I have ever been in. It gets going fast. It was actually my favorite part of the trip, except for being alone with Scott. When we had to take it back to his dad I felt a little sad. I didn't realize how much you could love a car.

NY Yankees

You could say that Scott is the biggest Yankee fan ever. He loves to watch all of the games. This year he was so excited. He just knew that they were going to win the world series. (#27) So on the big game night he let Tyler stay up to watch the game. It was a school night but it would be Tyler's first time to see the Yankees win the world series.
The next morning Scott made Tyler breakfast before school. And of coarse he made him N. Y. pancakes.

Trick or Treat

I love Halloween. It is a fun time of year where you can pretend to be anything. This year Tyler wanted to be something different. Something that no one else his age would be. He decided to be a spartan.
For Halloween this year I decided to let Tyler and his Cousin Kaitlyn have a Halloween Party. I thought it would be fun for them especially with our ward splitting recently. So Tyler and Kaitlyn and I sat down and planned out the party. We decided that it would be fun to make a monster, touching, operating table. We used a pumpkin for the head (of coarse we put a mask on it). The inside of the pumpkin was the brains. Then we cut squash to make the arms, carrots for the fingers, a balloon for the heart, spaghetti for the intestines, jello for the guts, and apples for the knees.
The next things that we decided to do was ghost bowling, mummy wrap, and musical chairs.
We were lucky enough to get some help setting everything up form Tyler's best friend Azlynn and her little sister Brielle, and then the party began. 20 kids showed up. It was quite the party! We had a ton of fun.
On Halloween we had fun also. We went "trunk or treating" and then we went "trick or treating". Of coarse we went to Grandma's for homemade soup! Then we went to Ty's other grandma and grandpa's house. By time we were ready to leave Tyler was exhausted. He fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Blessings in Disguise

You know how sometimes things happen and at first they seem horrible but then blessings happen because of them. I was able to experience that this week. I was debating if I should even write about this on my blog page, but decided that I needed to. Especially if a birth mother or birth father decides to read my blog. My nephew had a beautiful baby girl on Thursday. She was a tiny thing and absolutely perfect. My Nephew and his old girl friend were not sure what they were going to do at first. They decided a couple months ago to place their baby for adoption. I was so proud of them for making that choice. He has grown so much from this experience and it has been a blessing in his life. I'm sure it has been a great blessing for the adoptive couple who had been waiting for years to have a child enter their forever family. But I don't think that he realizes that it has been a blessing in my life also. It has helped me to understand more what it is like to have a situation that seems unbearable and keep moving on in life. Not only move on but to think of what is best for your baby and love unconditionally. It is a kind of love that is unselfish.

Cookie Fun!

Today Ty and his cousins had a blast decorating cookies. Here are the little chefs at work!

Change

It seems like everything changes at once. Tyler just tested for his red belt! He did great. I can't believe that he knows so much. I guess it's time to start saving up for him to go and test for his black belt in Houston. It will be here before we know it! Great work Tyler!

Our ward just split. So I got released from primary. It has been sad for me. I will miss all the the children and my counselors. I did go to the primary program that was last week. (The first day of the split) It was beautiful. The children sang so great. It was hard for me to watch knowing that my calling was over. I really do love all of them.

Now that Scott and I have a break from callings we need to start focusing on the adoption more. We are having our home study done again. That means that it has been another year. We are starting to look at more options. It's hard because I know that we are suppose to adopt, but it is taking us so long! It's hard to know what rout to take. All we can do is pray about it and do what is right for our family.

So changes are hard but they always seem to turn out. Tyler is growing up and even though I always tell him to stop growing I know that he is growing into a strong, amazing boy! The ward split has been hard but I'm sure that the new ward will be great. The adoption process has been long and hard so far. I have learned to put things in the Lords hands and everything will turn out the way that it is suppose to.

Poor Scott

So Scott's teeth had been killing him last week. He went into the dentist and found out that he had to get his wisdom teeth pulled the next day! It couldn't wait any longer. So he went in and had it done. He seemed pretty good the day he had it done but it has been down hill since then. Today he is in so much pain and he is still swollen. I called the orthopedic surgin and asked how much medication he can take and I upped is dosage. It has been a miserable few days. I hope that he gets better soon!

I'm still here!

Yes, In case you were wondering, I'm still alive! Summer was so crazy this year. It flew by and I didn't seem to have a free minute. Have you ever noticed that when you are busy working or on a schedule you seem to have more time. Now that I'm back teaching and into a routine again I feel great. It feels like I can get things done again.
What did we do this summer? We went to the temple open house. We took Ty and his best friend to Lagoon. We went and visited Shane and Julie a lot. We went camping and fishing. We coached Tyler's baseball team. Tyler was still busy with karate and scouts. We took the boy scouts in our ward to Moab for a camping trip. (It was so much fun to get to know them better). It was a fun summer. I read a lot. My favorite book that I read this summer was the Joseph Smith Papers. It was great to learn more about our church history. We even grew a garden for the first time.
What did I not do this summer? I didn't have time to get everything organized in the church closet like I wanted to. I didn't have time to keep up on my yard like I usually do. I didn't get to spend much time with my friends because they were as busy as I was. I didn't get all the paper work caught up for our adoption.
I think that summer days are great but I love to get back into daily routines also. So you should hear more from me now.

Blue Belt!

Tyler had a belt test and did so great. It is a big accomplishment for him to pass. When They were testing and it was time for the kids to get up and perform a new Kata. They were having the kids go in groups of three. There were seven kids so the instructor asked if anyone knew the Kata so good that they would perform alone. Of coarse Tyler's hand went up fast, and he was the only one who wanted to. He did great. He is a great performer and is never scared to get up in front of people. Good Job Tyler. We are so proud of you. You will be a Black Belt before you know it.

BUSY LIFE!

Ok - I know that I have not been on for a long time. I feel like life has been so busy and doesn't slow down and the occasional days that it does all I feel like doing is sleeping.
My niece got married. I can't believe it! I still remember the day that she was born. Scott and I were dating then, and we were at our friends house jumping on the trampoline when we got the phone call that she had been born. We went straight to the hospital to see her. I'm so glad that she found a great guy to marry.
Tyler had a Karate Tournament and took 2nd place in Kata's and 2nd place in Chambara. Good job Tyler.
Of coarse there was Easter. I always have fun with my pre-school when we have our egg hunt. It's a blast. Tyler loved Easter this year. He woke up so Early and ran into the front room to get started. We had to tell him to wait so we could camcord everything.
Spring Break was crazy. We went to Moab and stayed at mom and dad's "trabin". Scott and I went to the Monticello temple when we were there. It was nice to take a day and do that. (Thank You Erin for coming with us to watch Tyler) We started to feel like we needed to get out of the "trabin" because the weather was so bad that you couldn't go and do anything. So we took Ty and Erin bowling. It was a lot of fun. On Friday some more family came in. And Saturday the weather was finally good. I was so excited because I had been wanting to go on the trail for a hike. We loaded up some kids and took off to go hiking. When we went to park the Tahoe it broke. The power steering went out. We had to leave the Tahoe in Moab and Dad come to Moab and we took his car home. Dad took our Tahoe home when it was fixed. It wasn't much of a break! (Thank You Dad for helping us!)
Tyler got his Wolf in cub scouts. He has a lot of fun and has fun scout leaders.
So I know that this is a lot of stuff. But that's how my life has been. BUSY!

Tyler's Great Month

Tyler has had a busy month which of coarse makes his mom's life busy also. He earned his bobcat in scouts. The ceremony was really cool. I got to paint on his face. It was a lot of fun! He also decided to do the story telling competition again this year at school. This year he didn't want me to help him very much. He told me that he had the story the way he wanted to do it in his head. So it surprised me when he came home from school and told me that he made it to the second grade level. At that point Scott and I decided that he better share the story with us. It was so funny. We were laughing so hard. (It wasn't just because he is our kid. He is just funny!) So he won that level also and went on to compete against the rest of the grades at school. I was a proud mother watching him get up in front of everyone and do so great. He has no fear. He didn't win, but it was a lot of fun. He is already starting to make up stories for next years story telling contest. What a great kid!

Pine Wood Derby

Tyler loves being a cub scout. They just had the pine wood derby. Scott and Ty started working on their cars at least a month ago. The cars turned out awesome. Of coarse Scott made a car also. They had so much fun working on them together. It seems like they sanded the cars for hours. Every boy that was there had a great time. It was a fun night.

Family Mail Box

Years ago when Scott and I were teaching primary we sent the kids home from class with a "Family Mailbox". They were to take the Mailbox home and write letters of kindness to other family members and place them in the mailbox. Then get together as a family and read them. We kept a mailbox for our own family. Tyler loves to write letters and leave them in the mailbox. Today he wrote a cute letter and drew a picture for Scott and I. If you can't read the letter it said, Dear Mom and Dad, I know that we lived in heaven together. The picture he drew is of our family in heaven and our family on the earth. He is sooo cute. It made our day!

Changes

Doesn't it always seem like when things are going too smoothly and you are comfortable with life something changes? I think it's the Lords way of keeping us on our toes, and giving us more blessings. I got a new calling at church as the Primary President. I am super excited, and the ladies that are in my Presidency are doing such a great job. Thanks to the old Presidency, everything was already in place for us to continue on. (I miss my old Presidency. They truly became my best friends. I miss meeting with them every week.) You wouldn't think that it would be that big of a change since I was a counselor before, but Michelle (the former president) did so much work. Things that I didn't even realize. I am feeling like I am getting the hang of it a little better. It helps to have great primary teachers and the best primary kids.

Tyler's Baptism

Tyler had his special day. It was wonderful to see him get baptized. His testimony has grown and it has been great to see him learn and love the gospel. Tyler had his Grandpa and his Uncle Shane speak and they both did a wonderful job. The spirit was with us. After his baptism we had everyone come over to our house to eat. It was a wonderful to celebrate Tyler's baptism with so many loved ones.