I have an announcement.....

We are expecting a baby!!

After several years of thinking and praying about adoption, we are getting our home study done!! We feel like a little one is come soon.

To answer some questions:

Our home study will be done around the end of June. (We are waiting for a document from the State of Oregon, and then we are good to go.)

After the home study is done we will send it out to several agencies and a few lawyers, in faith that we will find our baby.

We are open to any ethnicity. But I think she will be a shade of brown.

Yes, she. We will specify that we want a girl to the agencies/lawyers.

Why specify a gender? Because we can. It may change but being raised with 5 sisters, I want Amelia to have a sister.

Selfish? Well, I'm pretty sure that if we're supposed to adopt a boy the Lord will tell us between now and a placement, so we get the right baby to our family. (The home study will not state a specific gender.)

On the home study we will be open to a sibling group of two, up to the age of 4. We will also be open to some special needs.

So there you have it. We are excited for this new adventure! Please feel free to ask more questions in the comments section if you have them, and I'll answer them as they come.

Easter 2012

It seems to me that each Easter we rediscover the deliciousness that are hard boiled eggs. Coloring them is stressful for me, but thankfully Amelia is the only one at this point that really wants to have anything to do with dying them. This makes it much less stressful than it could be.

...so happy dying eggs together...
(notice the heart garland hanging in the back of this picture)

I made the heart garland (above) for Valentines Day and we leave it up through March since our anniversary is in March. We were needing something new to hang up in celebration of the Easter season. After surfing pinterest I found a cute tutorial for this egg garland:

We made these the Friday before Easter. As stated in my instagram- Better late than never.

On Saturday we did an egg hunt in our back yard. We have decided to put Easter emphasis on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so we do not have "the Easter bunny" come and leave baskets/gifts for the kids. They still get candy but we (I) feel it is easier to enjoy the weekend and whole season for that matter, when we remember and focus on the Savior.

Here are my three sweet children after church on Easter Sunday. Getting a good picture with three children who had to sit relatively still for three hours previous to said picture, can be a challenge.

Oh how I love my sweeties!!

After church, we went over to my parents house for nice small visit. We decided to my no-bake cookies (nests), then added some Cadbury mini eggs and peeps. My kids LOVED them.

In case you were wondering, they were delicious!

And a picture of me with my snugly boy. He is always willing to come sit on my lap, even for a picture.

Amelia loves to pick flowers and made this little arrangement while we were visiting my parents.

Oh how we love spring! I hope you all had a fantastic Easter Sunday reflecting on the great blessings of our Savior's atonement, death and resurrection!

Miles Shopper

Last month, we were dealing with a lot of sick kids. Amelia and Brodrick had croup, Miles had an ear infection, and if you read any of my posts I'm sure you remember there was vomit going on too. Anyway, on one of the days that Amelia and Brodrick were feeling really crumby (March 6th), I decided to run a quick errand with Miles. We went to Target to pick up some curtains. While looking through my options I glanced over at Miles to discover that he had put his head down on his hands and fallen asleep in the cart! Well, with a sleepy one, I decided to look around at some other things so my trip turned out a little longer than originally planned. Its all good though, cause Miles had a great little cat nap, sleeping for the rest of the shopping trip.

And then on March 8th we went as a family to a local thrift store and found this rare treasure. When I showed Miles the robot back pack he about died! He reaction was pretty cute.

Every part of the robot's body is a pocket. The arms are accessible through the main body pocket, while the legs and head are individual pockets. Miles has packed enjoyed packing beloved items in his new backpack and toted them (the robot and items) around.

Homemade Brownies- Re-post

This was originally posted on my private family blog June 11, 2008. After making these for literature group last night (I have learned the hard way not to make this recipe unless we have others enlisted to assist ingesting) and getting a recipe request I think it only appropriate to re-post and share the goodness.

Ok, so these are officially my favorite brownies, EVER! I had a home-made brownie recipe that I used before I got my hands on this one, but sadly discovered how awful they tasted without frosting at a family get together (I know, embarrassing). This recipe I got from a lady in my ward. Apparently they were famous with the missionaries in the various missions she and her husband served in, cause they are just so good! Here it is, I hope you try them and love them as much as I do!

Mix the following ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup oil

Then, add 1.5 cups flour. Bake in 9x12 pan for 30 minutes at 350*
You can sprinkle them with powdered sugar or eat them plain. They are super tasty!

Well, well!!

Thought I would do a little post to update on what's been going on here with us.

For starters, we have been well!! No new illness to speak of in the last 9 days! This is a new record for our family. Regardless of the season we succumb to sickness seriously all. the. time. (Our whole family was sick the month of June 2011.) I attribute this in large part to the fact that we have started using Norwex cleaning products. They are super fine microfiber cloths that trap bacteria/fungi/mold well and have silver embedded in the cloth so they clean themselves. They have been a huge game changer for keeping my house clean. No chemicals, and have cut my cleaning time in half! Huge blessing for us.

A little about the company if you're interested:
Norwex company is relatively new here in the US and one can only get product through independent consultants, so I signed up to sell the products. I know what ya'll are thinking, another MLM, but they are not your average Mary Kay or Pampered Chef. Whether we like it or not, everyone needs to clean their house. Norwex products save you time and money, improve your quality of life (our improved health is proof of this for me!) and is healthy for the environment. Consultant benefits: Even if you sign someone up under you, you don't get any $$ benefits from them unless you are currently working and staying active in the company yourself. That I love, because we all hear about the ladies who first signed up with those other companies who now sit back and do nothing while the little guys ladies under them do all the work. Not fair. Those are just a few of the things I love about Norwex! And it will be a great way for us to start saving for an adoption- hooray! If you have questions or want to learn more, please feel free to ask me.

Friday/Saturday the weather turned windy and cold. We had a crazy snow storm roll in on Sunday that dropped 4-5 inches of snow. Thankfully it warmed up again quickly so the snow is gone. The grass is turning green and it is so nice to be able to spend more time outside. Hooray for Spring!

Sunday also marked my and Tim's 6th wedding anniversary!

After we just walked out of the temple. Notice the white umbrellas reflecting behind us. It started POURING. My hair did not stay like it is in this picture for long...

 Its incredible to think of all that has happened in the six years since we have been married. A BS in Physics, three kids, grad school, bough a house, sold a house, moved three times, apologized and forgave each other countless times, argued/disagreed and met each other in the middle, laughed together, cried together, made mistakes, and accomplished huge victories! Marriage sure is a challenge, especially with kids in the mix but it is also one of the greatest blessings I've ever been a part of.

To celebrate we went to church for the first time in over a month and survived (barely) Sacrament meeting with out our church bag, which was hidden is some box but has since been found. The first time back after a long absence is always the hardest. More than one of the five of us shed tears during the meeting (and not for spiritual matters) but we made it! Hey, we sometimes need to focus our victories rather than on our shortcomings.

Pizza Picnic

A belated shout out to my father who celebrated his birthday on March 5th! We were planning on swinging by in person for the well wishes, but opted out due to Amelia's vomiting episode.

After spending the morning vomiting, Amelia passed out on the couch.

Later, the weather turned nice enough to spend some time outside. We opted for some $5 Hot and Ready pizza's from Little Caesars to get the job of feeding the family done. You know, cause I'm human and on days that vomit and other sickness happen, I some times take the easy road. Surprised to see Miles in pajamas in the early evening? If so you must not remember this post. Months later and he's still going strong.

Thankfully no one else in the family caught what ever Amelia had and we have been vomit free since Monday. Still dealing with runny noses, but that I can deal with.

** Updated: I spoke too soon. This post I scheduled yesterday and last night Brodrick started puking. He was asleep on his back in his crib. I'm worried he may have aspirated some of the vomit cause he's so raspy with his breathing since. We're still trying to figure out if it is the same thing Amelia had, or if it was a case of lactose intolerance. Only time will tell.

Living on the Couch

 During the horrible bout of sickness I blogged about last, I got a few pictures and just got them off my phone. These taken on the day when I was not allowed to leave Brodrick's side. (the last week of Feb) Holding vs hysterical bawling that induce crazy fits of coughing. . He took his nap in my arms because he was having trouble breathing laying down flat. I'm lookin' all kinds of sexy not having made it to the bathroom to shower or even to put in my contacts.

 And the other parts of my day when I wasn't holding Brodrick, I was holding Brodrick AND Miles.  Hey, if it helps them feel better, I'll take it.

 Glad the couch living days are past!