When I Grow Up

Lillian wrote this in school and I just loved it!

When I Grow Up...

By: Lillian

My dream job is to be a stay at home mom. When I grow up I want to be a stay at home mom because my mom is and I've always wanted to be one. I will take care of my kids, put them to bed and read them books. The tools I'll need are toys, books, baby bottles, a crib or a bed, baby milk, blankets, food and diapers. I will half to go to colledge to learn how to be a stay at home mom. I have to learn what they drink and eat. I will also have to read parenting books. This is important to the community because I will have to teach them the right things and wrong and I might be able to volunteer. I really want to be a stay at home mom.

Bean Dances

Last week Bean had her dance recital and danced great! Before the recital we did a little photo shoot. Lilly's dance class was getting their class and individual pictures on a Sunday and Lilly chose not to go because it was on Sunday. I left the decision up to her and was proud that she chose the right. She loved playing dress up and wearing her stage makeup for a day. We love you Bean and are so proud of you!

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Chief Climbs

Did I mention that Chief climbs?

Mercy Flight & Mariachi Band

The other night we took the children out to eat at a Mexican restraunt. The best we can find in the East. Utah's Mexican food is so much better! It just so happened to be Mariachi Band night. Lucky for us! Chief was fascinated!

On Tuesday night the Scouts headed to Mercy Flight for a tour. Goose had a wonderful time and loved sitting in the helicopter.

Father and Son Campout- Seneca Lake

G with his Rock Bass

This past weekend was the Father and Son campout at Seneca Lake. I think the boys pretty much fished the entire time. They had a fabulous time and of course came home with all kinds of fish stories. The boys told me all about their dad and how he ate a raw minow. Gross. I think he thinks he is Bear Grillis. While Jeremy was eating raw minows, Bean, Chief and I were eating at Panera. We also went and got our haircuts, watched some friends at their dance performance and watched the movie Because of Winn Dixie. Bean and I had such a relaxing time once our little Chief went to bed. :) I loved my one on one time with Bean. So thankful for my girl!
Jeremy was planning on taking Chief to Father and Sons. He would have a ball. However, we decided that they would be near the lake the entire time and it may not be to safe to take our little man. Chief has no fear and I am afraid he would want to swim the entire time. We plan to go on several camping trips this summer. So Chief will have the opportunity to do lots of fishing and swimming then. I can't wait for summer and camping!!! Probably one of my favorite things to do together as a family.

J with his Smallmouth

Goose with his Pike

The Agape Project - Adoption

Eternally grateful for our birthmother Aubrey. She loved Chief so much that she chose adoption. We are forever grateful for her and other birthmother's who choose life for their sweet babies. Our lives have forever changed for the better since Aubrey and Chief came into our lives. Chief is the perfect fit for our family. We are so blessed. Happy Birthmother's Day Aubrey! We Love You!

HaPpY MoTheR's DaY

My favorite gifts are the homeade ones. I just love them!
I was doing laundry today and found this note crumpled up in Grant's cargo shorts along with a paper airplane. I really hope that he wasn't flying it in math class. Here is the poem, that he never gave me. :)

MOM
You are my only mom
You have always been outstanding and loving
You have always cared for me
Oh, how much I love you too
Every day you care and love me
You remind me of love.

Pretty much made my day.


I am so grateful to be a mom. I feel so blessed. Ever since I can remember I have always desired to be a wife and a mother. My wish came true. I am so blessed. Although, being a mom is a full time job and full of craziness I really wouldn't trade it for the world.

Jeremy had the opportunity to speak at church yesterday on Mother's Day. Which left me with all the kids by myself. Let me tell you by the end of sacrament I was seriously sweating. At one point Chief was climbing and practically sitting on my head. He hucked a pretzel rod which almost hit Sister Williams in her head. I will say, he has quite the arm, but still we're working on when it's appropriate to throw things. Of course Chief moves fast and before you know it he was up on the steps of the stage. Going to get his dad I'm sure. Of course when I stood up quickly to go and get him Bean accidently was standing on the bottom of my stretchy skirt. Awesome. Sorry row behind me. Oh wait like 20 rows behind me. We just happened to be sitting on the 3rd row. In the meantime, the three older children were pinching, hitting and fighting. Yep, we're "that" family.
Happy Mothers Day to my Mom and Mother and Law! I wish we could have been in Utah to celebrate them, but at least we have the phone. I am so blessed to have a wonderful relationship with both of them. I am so grateful I get to talk to them both almost daily. I really am so blessed.  

For dinner the kids made me: spaghetti with homeade marinara (delicious), green beans, cauliflower with sharp cheddar cheese and zuccini and onions. To drink homeade lemonade and for dessert Jeremy whipped up a delicious lemon pudding cake. It was all delicious!!! Feeling very spoiled!

For some reason this won't load the right way. However, it made my day that Lillian included Maxwell in the family drawing. I love that in her mind he is still little. Do you see him standing by the gigantic tulip? Oliver of course is on his daddy's shoulders. He loves it up there.

On Sunday, I slept in until 8:00 and then woke up to homeade pancakes and fresh squeezed orange juice.

My beautiful children after church. Of course I can't wait for the day that Maxwell will physically be with me. So happy to know families are forever. It gets me through the difficult days. 

Concerts, Friends and Chalk Outlines

Last week was the 5th & 6th Grade Spring Orchestra concert. I was seriously impressed with how well they played. My favorite song was Ode to Joy. Grant plays the cello, and I really hope he sticks with it!

Chief had his little buddy over for a playdate last week. They loved drawing on the rocks with chalk and playing with basketballs. James even made me outline his body with chalk. It was the funniest thing ever!

T.R.O.U.B.L.E. :)

I haven't quite figured out why Goose has his shorts pulled up to his neck?

I am in love with this boy and his fancy haircut. Seriously could he be any cuter? I don't seem him clean this often. :)

I Love Pinterest!



I really really really love Pinterest.
I saw both of these ideas on there and just knew I had to do them.
Why didn't I think of these ideas earlier? I love having all my cleaners in their own individual pocket. I found the shoe organizer online for like 10 bucks. Sold! I love opening up the closet and seeing all my cleaners all in a row. I especially love my spices. I never could find the blasted right spice in my skinny cabinet. I thought putting the spices in little glass jars with their own label in a pull out drawer was brilliant!!
Things like this make me so happy!

Finding a Birthmother

As many of you know Jeremy and I are hoping to adopt again. Back in 2010 our agency made some changes. One of the changes was that if you have two or more children you can't adopt through them unless you find your own birthmother. Basically, it means we can't put our adoption profile on their website that birthmother's use to find adoptive couples. However, if we find our own birthmother we can then tell her about our agency and then they can legally do the adoption and our birthmother can receive the counceling and support that she needs. Finding a birthmother is no small task. If we didn't feel so incredibly strong that our family wasn't all here, I would forget about adoption in a heartbeat. Finding a birthmother and trying to adopt is hard, difficult, emotionally draining, a rollercoaster of feelings, time consuming and full of heartache and pain. However, because we feel so strongly that our family is not all here all the pain and heartache is so worth it. We just know there is another little someone for our family. Because we know that, we are willing to do whatever it takes to find our birthmother and child. 
Every single day I think about how I can get the word out that we are adopting. Without an online profile it is difficult, because how do birthparents even know we exist? When we were searching for our little Chief I had the impression to go to all the abortion clinics in our area and give them our adoption pass-a-long cards. I called first and for the most part many of them let me bring cards in to their clinics. It was a difficult and emotional task for me. However, I was incredibly thankful that they were willing to take the information I had on adoption as a beautiful option.
Last week I had an emotional afternoon. I once again felt like the only way that we were going to find our birthmother is to be proactive and do everything in our power to find her. One way I could do that is to call all the abortion clinics. I did a google search and came up with a list. I began to call. Phone call after phone call after phone call with the same response. "We do terminations only."
I had a pit in my stomach. Life is so beautiful. Adoption is so beautiful. Why couldn't these clinics simply put out an adoption pamphlet? Adoption is a another option and a beautiful option. I am so grateful for my mother who chose life for me. I am so grateful for Oliver's birthmother who chose life for him. Life is beautiful and sacred, but we have our free agency to choose.
It looks like that route is not going to work so I am working on other ways to find our birthmother. I know she is out there, I can just feel it. When I think of our family I just feel like someone is missing. Someone is indeed suppossed to be here that is not. We will continue to pray to find our birthmother. If it is meant to be it will happen I have no doubt of that. In the meantime I am so eternally grateful for Chief's birthmother. Chief is an absolute joy, a messy little boy, but pure joy. He brings the sweetest spirit into our home. We really couldn't imagine our life without him. It seems as if he has always been ours. He is a perfect little fit and we are forever thankful for his birthmother Aubrey and the selfless decision she made to place him for adoption. Aubrey and Oliver have changed our lives forever. We truly love Aubrey. Because of her we have our little Chief and I can't even began to describe the love we have for that little boy. Oliver and I have a lot of alone time during the day. I cherish our time together. I often ask him why he waited so long to come to our family. I am convinced he wanted time with his brother Maxwell in heaven before he came to earth. We are so blessed and grateful for the blessing of adoption in our lives and are hopeful to once again adopt again.

Raccoon and the Fridge

The kids spotted this raccoon in our front yard climbing on the powerlines. It kept them entertained for a bit.

This is how Chief opens the fridge.

SUCCESS!!!!
Never a dull moment around here. :)

Oh Chief!

Chief has been a busy little monkey this past week. His naughty journal is turing into a novel. :) You would think he didn't have a mother watching him. I assure you that I am right there, he just moves so stinkin fast!  This particular day Chief wanted to eat some eggs, but I didn't want to make eggs. So Chief decided to take matters into his own hands and went and got the eggs out himself. Thankfully only a few cracked open on the carpet. Of course this once again was on the carpet, the same spot as the syrup incident and the vase of water incident.  Despite his messes, we love our little monkey to pieces and hope one day that he gets married and gets a curious little monkey like himself.

The other day Chief dumped out my flowers right on the carpet. When I asked him to help me clean it up he went and got the vacuum.

When I asked Chief to clean up they syrup he spilled, this is what he did.

On Sunday, Jeremy has early morning meetings. Which means I have the "pleasure" of getting all the kids out the door and on time to church. Usually it is not bad. However, last Sunday was a different story. I put the older kids in charge of Chief while I was upstairs getting dressed. I figured what could happen when an 11, 9 and 8 year old were watching. When I came down 5 minutes later I noticed that Chief took a bottle of Syrup and poured it all over the living room carpet. Mind you my main floor is 90% tile and wood. He always chooses to put his messes right on the carpet. When I asked him to clean it up he dropped to his belly and began to lick it up. I couldn't resist taking a picture. The three older kids were no where to be found.

Where's Chief?

Chief hsa the best smile ever!

Chief loves to play, "Where's Oliver?" When I say, "Where's Oliver?" Chief shuts his eyes, because he thinks I can't se him. He will then peek with one eye and I'll say, "There he is!!" He gets the biggest kick out of our little game.



Chief gives the best smooches!
We just love this little boy so much!!!

Exploring and 3D

Chief for the most part is doing great with his potty training. The hardest part has been keeping underwear on him. He just hates em.

Goose loves the White Birchwood tree in our front yard. He spends a lot of time up there exploring. The other day he found some blue eggs in a hole in one of the branches. He likes to check on them nearly every day.

Last weekend the kids had some friends over while there parents went on an overnighter anniversary trip. They had a lot of fun watching Bolt in 3D.