Christmas Cheer lasts all year!

We have had an absolutely fabulous holiday thus far and we want to send a shout out to our amazing family who made it so memorable & fun! We were able to enjoy delicious food, blasted fun card games, Wii games (that I admittedly am terrible at!), and relaxing & talking & laughing until all hours of the night.

Christmas morning was such a treasure. Matt and I loved watching each expression on Punkin's face as she unwrapped gifts and watched others open theirs. It took 3 hours to open presents because she didn't want to hurry on to the next; she wanted to enjoy each present and take her time. I now have a very happy chef/artist/princess who will definitely have enough to keep her busy during these cold months.






This year we spent Christmas with our family on daddy's side and our favorite Christmas traditions include:
1) Caroling and/or doing "Secret Santa" for a family the week before Christmas
2) Sledding on Christmas Eve morning
3) Sitting down to a delicious candle-lit dinner on Christmas Eve -- we always eat Grandma's famous clam chowder and cinnamon rolls
4) The grandchildren dressing up and acting out the nativity story while someone reads Luke 2 (and the moms flash the cameras like they are movie stars ;))
5) Grandchildren opening up one present from Grandma & Grandpa -- pj's
6) waking up Christmas morning as early as the youngest child wants to (this year it was 7 o'clock which comes really fast when you go to bed at 2:30 :)).
7) going down stairs in order of age (youngest to oldest) -- to unwrap gifts
8) Eating yummy breakfast casseroles.
9) Getting together later in the day to open up Secret Santa gifts from one another... there is usually some prank pulled (you know who you are Uncle Mc!)
10) And we always finish up the evening with a prime rib dinner followed by lots of fun games.







It is at this time of year especially when we thank our Father in Heaven for our many blessings and for the opportunity we have to know His Son and the peace and happiness this brings into our lives. We are so grateful to know these feelings and relationships can last all year!

Twelve Days Of Christmas Kick Off

Now that Punkin is getting old enough to really get into the spirit & magic of Christmas, we decided to start a new family tradition. We made a board and put 12 envelopes on it which we filled with things we want to do as a family every night until Christmas. The list includes reading the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible, going on a drive to look at Christmas lights, making & decorating cookies for family, taking our gifts around to neighbors and friends, making gingerbread houses, watching "Small One", going sledding & coming home to drink hot chocolate with a nice size scoop of peppermint ice cream in it, sleeping under the tree, making a yummy Christmas breakfast together, and a few others.



We decided to start yesterday with Day 12 so that we'd end on Christmas morning. Matt surprised Punkin and I by coming home early from work & taking us to Salt Lake to see the lights on temple square. We had a blast together as we listened & sang along to Christmas music, enjoyed the beautiful lights on temple square and finished up the night with yummy salads at Applebees. Punkin was enthralled with all of the pools of water & it was a miracle we got through the night without falling in :). It was a ton of fun & we are excited to add this to our list of things we are going to do every year!

Melt My Heart Moments

About a month ago Punkin and I were sitting on the front porch munching on some suger-snaps and waiting for daddy to get home. I looked down at the ground to watch a potato bug crawl by and my sweet daughter grabbed my face and put her nose right up to mine and said, "I love you mommy!". I said, "I love you too sweetheart!" and she pulled my face even closer to hers and said, "and Jesus and Daddy love you too".

One morning last week when I was blow drying my hair she wrapped her arms around my leg and looked up at me and said really loud, "Mommy! You are my very best friend! And Daddy is my best friend too!"

She is such a sweet little rascal and at these moments all of the make-up pored on our bed spread, the strawberries mashed in the carpet, the lotion and soap bottles spread from here to there, the climbing up the dressers and cupboards to make messes we couldn't fathom could happen in 3 short minutes.... all that kind of stuff is evaporated into thin air. At these times, and even during the crazy times in between, we go to bed each night knowing we have an angel sleeping in the next room. We are so incredibly blessed to be the parents of our sweet little girl and we are so excited for what the future holds.

Our Family's Favorite - Fall!

We absolutely love the Fall - - Especially where we live. We love the crisp yummy smell of leaves, taking an hour just to walk around the block because we are enjoying crunching in the leaves so much. We love fresh apple juice, pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies, football games (for daddy... he he), going to the "pumpkin-walk", sitting out on the front porch eating grapes waiting for daddy to come home from work (without melting from the heat), Boo at the Zoo, carving pumpkins, Halloween. We had a great autumn this year and it seemed to last a bit longer than usual. Here are some fun pictures from these past few months!

Pumpkin Walk



Boo at the Zoo!




Trick Or Treating at Daddy's work


Trick-or-Treating - - Punkin was kinda nervous knocking the first door but she got the hang of it real quick. At the very last house she walked right in and plopped down in a recliner and started watching a football game with them. ah ha ha!




Best picture of the night! he he he

Summer Summer Summer Time!

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted anything. Lets just say that the last two seasons have flown by! We had a blast this summer with our awesome friends and family. We were able to take a few vacations and several trips to the lake and we enjoyed every minute of it. Our daughter is at such a fun age (haven't witnessed an age that isn't fun) and we were able to do a lot of swimming, beaches, wave runners, hiking, camping, and all the other activities we enjoy during the summer. Looking back, we definitely didn't take as many pictures as we should have and I am most sad that I forgot to take a picture of Punkin sitting between mommy and daddy on the wave runner. She sure had fun -- she was yelling at the top of her lungs and jumping for joy. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We love the warm, lazy days of summer. Now that it's snowing outside... I am really enjoying writing about this and remembering it all. Here are a few pictures from Our Summer! Hope you enjoy!

Enjoying family, sun, and sand at the lake - -




Grandma and Grandpa rented a cabin for us all and we sure had fun playing games, sitting in the hot tub, watching movies, and eating yummy food on the deck while watching the sun set on the lake.


Hangin' with our great adoption friends



And of course we can't resist going to get ice cream a few times when it gets really hot!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY B!

Our daughter has officially turned two and the saying could never be truer - "Time flies when you are having fun!". We have had a blast and taken special care to enjoy every single minute since our precious angel was born and yet the time has FLOWN by in a whirlwind of her girly giggles and silly wiggles (I am in a cheesy mood ;)). She has been such an incredible blessing in our lives! Not a day passes that we don't thank our Heavenly Father for her and for our amazing birth mother who had incredible strength and faith by placing her in our arms. She is truly the light of each of my days and I know I can say the same for her daddy.





We threw two parties the day before her birthday, one for friends and one for family. We had a blast and thank you to all of you who came! Then we spent her birthday doing some of her favorite things - icecream, park with BIG slides and swings, jumping on grandma and grandpa's trampoline, long walk, sidewalk chalk, chicken and fries, "moo-moo doggy" (Bolt), bubble machine on the back porch, fo-feeding her stuffed animals Flopsy and Sully, dancing to music in her bedroom, and then of course ended the day with tons of snuggles and book reading in bed. It was an awesome day! I am so grateful for the opportunity Matt and I have to be the parents of our amazing little 2-year old. Happy Birthday B! We love you forever and always!

Miracles

Once upon a time, in the cold winter of 07, a little family of three took their beautiful daughter to the temple and, surrounded by their closest family and friends, had this precious girl sealed into their eternal family -- our Heavenly Father's eternal family. Oh what a day it was! Celebrations and tears of joy. Hugs and laughter. Everyone there realizing just what an incredible miracle adoption truly is.

Our courageous angel (birthmother) blessed our family with the greatest gift of all.

We will celebrate this day forever.

We have witnessed miracles.

Killer Bunnies

We have many fun family traditions that we will post about on this blog. This first "tradition post" is about what we love to do on Easter! Along with decorating our eggs, hiding our baskets, and reading about the Resurrection, each Easter we like to take a trip out to this big community event called Baby Animal Days. There is horse back riding, hay rides, caramel kettle corn, crafts, touching of giant snakes and turtles, treasure hunts, cannons of candy being blown up into the sky, and our favorite part... petting all of the baby animals. My (Robin's) parents came up for the weekend with my sisters and we had a blast. We had to pry our daughter away from the baby bunnies, pigs, chickens, ducks, lambs, and goats so that the other little kids could have a turn. She loved every minute of it. When we left my littlest sister exclaimed, "This is a HAPPY DAY!" ha ha ha. When we got home my dad made homemade strawberry ice cream and we had a delicious dinner together. We are always sad to see them go.




On Easter we had an Easter egg hunt with all of Matt's family after church. This year they gave each grandchild a color of egg they were assigned to find so that each child would have the chance to find their own eggs. Our daughter grabbed her basket and searched high and low - she really got the hang of it this year. She did take a couple breaks to jump on the tramp (with her basket- candy flying!). We then headed inside and had a delicious dinner. Afterward we took a wagon ride up to the park to play. It was a very enjoyable Easter! We love our family and we are SO glad they live nearby! Happy Easter~!

There's Sunshine in My Soul Today

So, today I would like to introduce our first little miracle. Our daughter has filled each corner of our home with joy and laughter. She is funny, sassy, sweet, strong willed, thoughtful, and really wants a baby sister or brother to mug on. She talks about babies all day long. Right now her two favorite questions are - "Where's daddy?" and "Where's the baby?" As soon as she could walk she was walking up to little kids and trying to hug them. She is also very active and loves to climb, run, twirl, and jump! She enjoys discovering new things. Thankfully she does have her moments when she will still snuggle with us and let us love on her and read books. She is an amazing little girl and we love her unconditionally and eternally. We are so excited to be blessed with another miracle and know we will love and cherish and mug on them just as much and probably even more because there are three of us. Here's to our Sunshine! We love you sweety!