One, Two, Feeee!!!

Yesterday was Emma's 3rd birthday!! I spend most of the day in deep thought, counting my blessings and I also spent a lot of time looking at her and crying. I thought about the whole adoption process and how we were lead down that path. What a blessing that was, I am so thankful that we were listening when those promptings and answers came. I thought about Emma's birthmom (as I do everyday). I wondered if she was thinking about Emma and hoping that she knew that Emma was safe and happy with her family. I thought about how on December 15, 2008 at 8:34am, a strong little spirit came into this world. She had a rough start and she is now known at the NICU as "The Cool Cap Baby". (please google cool cap, it makes me so grateful for technology because this medical device saved my little girl's life). I am so grateful for wonderful doctors!! I thought about walking into the NICU that first time with Ryan and seeing her and knowing that she was our daughter. I remember the look in Ryan's eyes of pure love for her.

Emma is a miracle, I know you have all heard that and are probably tired of hearing that, but it is true!! Who she is on paper is not who she is. Her medical history is quite scary to read, but she is not defined by those scary papers. Her spirit is much larger and stronger than any medical procedure or diagnosis. What does the future hold for this little one? We have no idea, she could continue to progress or some day she may just stop progressing. But, I just trust and have the faith that she will reach her highest potential and if her mission her on Earth is to bring joy to her family and friends, then she has already done that and more.

Emma LOVES Binkbell ("tinkerbell")

Do I really need words to describe this picture?

I just love this girl with the root beer-colored eyes. She loves Tinkerbell, her babies, her stuffed animals, broccoli, oranges and teasing her big brother.

Ten!!!!

Ten years ago at 5:18 am, I became a mom. So much joy on that day, I thought that life couldn't get better than having that little baby to snuggle. Well, time quickly marches on and I will tell you that that little baby boy has brought an immense amount of joy in our lives, every single day. As fun as it is to have a baby and how sad it makes me some days to think that he is growing up, I have to say that having a 10 year old is wonderful. I wouldn't trade him for anything in this world.

At church yesterday, we discovered that a guy in our ward owns a Delorean. Braxton LOVES Back to the Future, so he was pretty excited when he was able to sit in the car and we took this picture. Afterwards he said, "That was an awesome early birthday present." Isn't it so great that the simple things in life make him so happy. I just love that kid.

He is the best big brother a little sister could ask for. She follows him everywhere he goes. He reads to her, they sit together and laugh and laugh, he will even watch Tinkerbell movies with her just to make her happy.

There are days when Braxton will tell you that he thinks Emma's main purpose in life is "to ruin his stuff and mess up his room", but most days they adore one another. Emma thinks Braxton hung the moon and it makes me so happy to know that she has a brother who will take care of her and protect her through out her life. I am grateful everyday for the blessing it is to have this amazing boy in our family. He will not sit in my lap and snuggle like he used to, but he does still enjoy sharing a book and a hug. He loves to write stories and draw cartoons. He loves life and I love to watch him enjoy living it.

Happy Birthday Braxton!!! Yes, you are now a whole decade old!!

U2!!

The Stage at the Concert. It was a 360 degree stage with moving bridges and crazy lights.

On May 21st, Ryan and I went to Denver to the U2 concert. Just a little background on this. We bought the tickets to that concert 2 years ago!! We were still living in Utah when we bought them. It was so worth the wait. It was a great concert. They played for about 2 hours and never took a break. Not bad for some old guys. I was happy that they sang a lot of their older stuff because if they would have sang new stuff, I would have been in trouble because I really don't know any of their newer songs. We stayed overnight in Denver. We were both so excited to sleep in the next morning (it was like heaven). I actually woke up at 7:30 and made myself go back to sleep. How sad. We were so grateful that grandma was in Wellington with the kids. They had a blast too.

Parking around the Mile High Stadium was nuts. There are all these No Parking zones or No Parking unless you have a certain permit. Anyway, while we were walking from our parking place, we saw a lot of tow trucks out. Here is a picture of two tow trucks , one has 4 cars on it. Can you imagine coming home from a fun evening and having your car gone. Not fun.

Denver's own, The Fray, opened for U2. It was fun to hear them in front of their home crowd. When we first bought our tickets, Lenny Kravitz was suppose to open. I was pretty giddy about that because I have a secret rock star crush on Lenny. Well, it's not much of a secret when your husband is aware of said secret crush. I am not sure what it is about Lenny that makes me giddy, but I like him, fro and all. Anyway, The Fray was good. I only recognized a couple of their songs, but again, the whole hometown crowd thing was fun.

My camera stinks, but I was able to get a few good shots. I love crossing things off the bucket list.

Rain Rain Go Away!!!

One thing I really like about living in Wellington is watching the storms roll in. The storms move quickly and it's really fun to see. One thing that I am not enjoying is all the rain we've been getting. What happened to the sun? This morning as I was looking for the umbrella for Braxton, I caught myself singing the lyrics to this song, "....I won't stay inside no more. No more. It cannot wait, let's go outdoors." Yes this is what my life has become, singing Sesame Street songs. We really need a park day!!! It's just really fun to watch Emma dance around to this one!!

Love This!!

Miracles happen everyday and I am so grateful that I get to chase one around every day.

Easter 2011

Today we woke up to snow!!! Can you believe it? We had such a beautiful winter and now we are getting snow. Luckily, it didn't stick on the ground and didn't cover the eggs that the Easter Bunny left us outside.

When Emma was first placed with us, my friend, Mare gave her a beautiful purple dress. She wore it on her first Easter. I, of course, bought Braxton a matching shirt and tie that year. They looked so cute. Last year, her dress was white with little pink flowers, I bought Braxton a pink tie to match. Again, so cute. I bought Emma's dress first again this year, knowing that I would buy the dress and then buy a matching shirt or tie for Braxton (it's all about the dress, afterall). Well, this year, Braxton informed me that he didn't want to match his sister because wearing the pink tie last year was too embarrassing. He was a good sport and let me buy him a nice Easter-y green tie. There is a little flower on Emma's dress that has a green left that matched Braxton's tie. See, we all win.

I tried to take a nice picture of the kids in their Easter outfits, but it didn't work out so well. Emma was a little too hopped up on sugar and wouldn't cooperate. They did look very cute today and ate way too much candy.

Oh and here's a special shout out to the Easter Bunny for not bringing any of my favorite candies this year so that I can stay on the wagon. Thanks Easter Bunny!!! (I miss you Cadbury Mini Eggs and Starburst Jelly Beans xoxoxo)

Happy Easter

Blue and Gold Banquet

We had our Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet on February 24th. Braxton received his Bear Badge that evening. It's been fun being his Bear Leader this year.

The boys had a Cake Bake-off. They had to bake a cake with their Dads. Moms were not allowed to help. They decided to make a Pac-Man cake. There were few problems in the kitchen, but the cake turned out fine. The cupcakes, well, I wouldn't have recommended eating those, but Cub Scouts will eat just about anything. :)

Science Fair 2011

Braxton had his Science Fair at school last week. His class did 2 group projects and he did an individual one. The group ones were the M&M Lab, does an M&M dissolve faster in water or another liquid and the Tennis Ball Lab, where they bounced different brands of tennis balls to see if more expensive ones bounced higher. Very fun.

His individual one was "Does Jell-O Preserve Fruit?" He took three different glass bowl, he added an apple slice, an orange slice, a grape and a slice of banana in each bowl. In one bowl, he added water, in another Jell-O, the third, he just left the fruit alone. Over 7 days, he took notes and pictures of the changes in the fruit. The answer to the question is Yes, Jell-O does indeed preserve fruit. All the fruit turned brown, but the Jell-O fruit did stay fresher longer. Only 7 kids in the whole school got interviews with the judges, meaning that the kids who got interviews were in the running to be the winner. Braxton was one of the students who had an interview. We were so excited for him. The neat thing is that 3 out of the 7 students who had interviews were in Braxton's class, including the boy that won the science fair. His teacher does a great job with teaching science and doing labs with them.

Braxton and his display board

Pig dissection (that science in the country)

Making marshmallow domes

Emma ate most of the marshmallows

The fruit on the first day

Bowl 1

Bowl 2

Bowl 3

The Fruit on Day 7

Bowl 1

Bowl 2

Bowl 3

Disneyland 2011

We spent 3 wonderful days at Disneyland back in January. If you ask me, 3 days is not enough time. I wish we had just one more day. We went to Disneyland with Kevin, Jonathan, Gus, Kevin's friend, Julie, and her children. It rained the first day we were there. POURED!!! But we are die-hards and we stayed and enjoyed the short lines. We also saw "World of Color" which is the new water and lights show at California Adventure. We saw it twice. It was probably my favorite thing that we did this trip. The Happiest Place on Earth once again lived up to it's name.