Saturday, May 21, 2011

Projects and Trips

I admit I am not great at blogging. In fact, I have contemplated getting the book "Blogging for Dummies" so I can have cute backgrounds and perfectly laid out pictures and captions like so many of you! So if you want to share with me your insight (I'm being serious) please let me know and we can sit down for a minute and I can try and learn!


Caveat: There is going to be a lot of pictures, you don't have to look at all of them but they are there if you want to.





Anyway, in February Graham had to go to Pasadena for work and so we made it a vacation and my sister and her husband went with us and we had an absolute blast!






Medieval Times show and dinner. Our knight didn't win...but it was fun anyway!







I'm trying to get better at photography and am not sure exactly what this picture represents.







It was so beautiful and solidified for me that I need to live near the ocean, I just love it!




Outside Disneyland we went to the Lego store and HAD to take a picture with Darth Vader!

So this next picture is of Easter time. For Easter in Relief Society I made these cute little chick cupcakes for all of the women. I made about 50 of them...the idea is from the blog Our Best Bites, it is awesome!

I'll have to admit though...it definitely looks like they are staring you down!!






The next little trip that we got to take was to Portland, OR...again for Graham's work. I have a grandpa, aunt, uncle and cousins that live there and we had a really great time seeing them. We took a couple of pictures of the Portland temple while we were there. It is beautiful!





Last but not least are the newest ventures in our lives. I finally got the garden planted after tons of cold weather here in Utah and after having a wonderful lesson in gardening. This is the basil currently...hopefully it will be much taller and more plentiful in the next month or so!









And the most fun thing...we are finishing our basement. Before we started there were basically just the concrete walls. We have now had it framed, got new windows and are working on the electric. To some of you this just looks like a mess, but to me it looks like doubling our living space.







> If you have made it to this point, congratulations! Pat yourself on the back and have a great day!


Monday, April 25, 2011

Happy Birthday Bryson

It's been a year almost to the hour. We miss him so much, but know we will be together again. It was fitting having Easter this last weekend. How grateful we are for the atonement and all the peace and healing that it brings us. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us love and prayers and thoughts and flowers today. We are truly blessed with wonderful family and friends!!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Individual Interview

I had my individual interview today, Graham will probably have his in a couple of weeks. I think it went well, same questions that we have talked about before but a little more in depth. Graham bore his testimony on Sunday about us losing the baby and how he felt; and about us making the decision to adopt and I just bawled through the whole thing and then had a hard time keeping it together the rest of Sunday. Then today there was a small bit of drama with getting to my appointment, so when I was there I couldn't help but cry...not super crying, just teary and emotional. I really miss Bryson. It is almost his 1 year birthday...sometimes it seems like it went so fast and sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday. April is going to be a hard month...keep us in your prayers. We love you all.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Intake Interview

First things first...I had a clean bill of health from the dentist. Graham wasn't so lucky. He's always telling me to brush and floss more, but when I go to the dentist and he tells me my teeth are great...where's the motivation??

Okay, on to the more important topic, the intake interview went well today. We talked to our caseworker and told her a little bit more about how we came to the choice of adoption, how great our marriage is : ) and then went through a WHOLE slew (not sure how to spell that) of papers on what things we need to gather (birth certificates, marriage certificate, medical stuff, etc.), filled out paperwork for our background check and asked any more questions we had.

Then...they send you and even more lengthy application that we each fill out and turn in. We should be getting that application on Wednesday. I am so anxious to get this show on the road I can barely stand it! But so glad that we are on the way to being approved. Probably won't be many more updates until the home visit...hopefully that will be by the end of April.

Learned an interesting thing though...some people design and print "adoption cards". They look like business cards but they have information about the families and their hope to adopt and ways to get into contact with them. Some also have pictures of them. They give these out to friends and family to pass on in the event they know someone that is interested in placing for adoption. Some even give them to their doctor in case they come across the situation. Feels a little outside of my comfort zone, but this whole process has really stretched me mentally and spiritually already. What's a little more stretching and growing right??

Thanks for all your comments and love as we start this amazing journey.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

First Step

We have our intake interview on Monday morning, right after the dentist! Not sure if that is a good idea...the dentist office always puts me in a damper mood (no offense any dentists reading this, it's the office; it's not you). Sounds like it is more talking and the start of a long road of paperwork. So anxious to get a move on!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Unfamiliar Territory

Many of you know that we have been struggling for some years with having children. As a child, I was never the little girl that dreamed of her wedding and looked for the fairytale; I just wasn’t a girlie girl. I loved to climb trees, swim, camp and get dirty. But the one thing I always wanted was children, for as long as I can remember I knew that would be a part of my life. I’ve learned that it’s not working the way that I anticipated, as happens with many things. I’ve also learned the peace that comes from deciding that adopting children will be part of our life story. Graham and I are so excited to tell everyone that we have decided to adopt a child. We are so anxious to get this process going. We are only in the beginning steps. We have turned in our application and are waiting to schedule our “intake” interview, where we talk with a caseworker and, I’m assuming, get asked all sorts of personal questions to make sure we are fit parents. : ) We’ll keep everyone updated as we pass through each step.

We have decided to go through LDS Family Services. They strongly encourage us to reach out to all family, friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, etc. to find our child. For anyone reading this, please spread the word to all friends and family throughout the United States. If anyone is interested, once we are approved, we would like to put links on friends and families blogs letting all that read know that we would like to adopt and giving them our information. Keep us in your prayers as we embark on this journey. Love to all.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Secondhand Serenade...what a blast!


Graham took me to the Secondhand Serenade acoustic concert tonight for my birthday and it was fantastic! He is such a great musician. I love concerts almost more than anything. There is nothing quite as good as live music. But I must say...I'm starting to feel old when I go to concerts! Oh well...guess they keep me young! Graham and I in the classic "hold out the camera" picture.






Here's Graham loving to have his picture taken between sets. Isn't he handsome.












The venue we went to was really small so we were really close to the stage. This is the third time we have seen him in concert.











He usually tries to stick around afterward and this time we got to take our picture with him.