San Diego Temple

While we were in California we decided to take a quick trip down to the San Diego Temple. I had never been and my brother and sister in law were married there. I was amazed to find that it was much smaller than I thought it would be. It was still gorgeous and so peaceful. I took a few quick shots of Daniel. Amazingly these are the most "normal" of them all. He sure is a ham when I pick up the camera. Doesn't this smile just look like it hurts?
We got a quick family picture minus 1 sister in law. Look at all those babies! In a few short years the adults will be outnumbered!
While we were there this kind missionary (who also took our family photo) showed the kids pictures of the inside of the temple. Upon having a conversation with him I discovered that he is married to my 2nd cousin Shirley! Random, huh? She was there too, so I got to have a quick conversation with her as well. You never know who you'll run into. (especially if you're Mormon, lol)
Here's little Lucy cruising along the grounds, such a cutie pie.

san diego

We had an extra day in California where the sun wasn't shining and we weren't feeling paying the high costs for an amusement park, (we had just gone to Disneyland a few months before) so we went down to San Diego again. Unfortunately I got the wrong directions so we ended up in some random part of town. (sorry guys!) Anyways, one of the first places we passed was this little Mexican restaurant. We figured it couldn't be too bad and we were all starving, so we stopped inside for lunch. Lets just say it was an "authentic" city experience. Dirty, rude service and you were kind of happy to leave. (and now that I've read online reviews I don't think I'll ever be returning.lol) We ordered Daniel a Quesedilla and had to laugh when they brought it out. It was twice the size of his head!

After lunch the little girls decided they had had it so they headed back to the condo. Bryan, Daniel, Tim and I decided to do some more looking around and found a really cute outdoor mall on the coast. I saw the cutest cast iron scottie dog! There's no way I could justify buying it, but maybe someday I'll have something just as cute. The picture doesn't do it justice. (wouldn't that be the cutest door stop??)

While we were looking at all of the shops we came across the most talented balloon man. He was making all kinds of intricate characters. We stopped and had him make Daniel a tweety bird and a sword. We had him do both, because we thought just a sword would be kind of lame, but it was totally awesome.

Daniel spent the rest of the day with his arms folded so he didn't ruin or pop his balloons. We had a fun day.

Spectrum

We flew back to Utah so that we could drive our car out to California with Bryan's family. We headed down to San Clemente and got to use Jessie's family's condo again. (Thanks so much Jessie!!! It was awesome!) It was beautiful and very therapeutic for us. Whenever we're down there we like to visit the outdoor mall (Spectrum) to do some shopping and lots of looking.
(This is Maren my HILLARIOUS niece. She is so passionate about everything)

There are so many things to do at this mall. The kids all love playing in the fountains that are all over.

The carousel is a favorite too. Daniel just cooling off his piggies.

This is where I take a brief pause from all of the fun pictures, etc. from this summer. Just for the sake of documenting our life, I'll mention this. I've hesitated, because last time I talked about this, some serious anti-adoption people started leaving mean comments on my blog. (Thus why I now have to approve all comments) I was surprised that I was even on their "radar" to begin with, I don't talk about the adoption process on here a lot, for that very purpose. I also wanted to mention this because I had planned on trying to visit some friends on my way from Seattle to Utah ( I hadn't solidified plans with some of them, and others I still had to call, but it was in the works) and I had to scrap those plans because of this. I just don't want anyone to feel like I ditched them, or didn't want to see them. :)

Anyways, just as Nicole and I were leaving Seattle, we got some exciting news. Bryan had received a call from someone we knew telling him that there was a couple desperately looking for an adoptive family. Bryan chatted with them and they were so happy to have found us. (She kept saying how grateful she was that her baby would have a good home) They did have an adoptive family all lined up, but they failed their homestudy (or some part of it) the day before. The baby was being born the next morning, in Ohio. (!) Luckily Bryan was still in Ohio from taking his boards and a short class. The mother wanted us there as soon as we could be, so Bryan went the next morning and I had a flight out of Boise the next afternoon as well. ( I had to book it to Boise in the morning and my brother in law and his family drove up to meet us and get Daniel and the car) It was a very stressful day. Luckily, we didn't get our hopes up too high, as we've learned before that these things don't always work out. Poor Bryan was in the hospital by himself all day and I was in the air when things fell apart. We still don't know what really happened (both parents blame the other) and we're 99% sure that the baby is now in State custody. Bryan and I spent the next two days in Ohio before we went back to Utah. (he already had a flight planned for that day) I'm really glad that I was in Ohio for those 2 days though, I think it would have stunk for Bryan to be all alone and disappointed.

So I guess what I have to say is that so far for us the road to adoption has been a rocky one, but we are still looking forward to the day we bring out next child home.

Holy Gorgeousness Batman!

This lady is so talented, it kills me! Right now I'm working on a quilt for Daniel that looks kind of like this:

But as soon as that one is done I totally have to make one of these scrap quilts. I just love the little bursts of color and how they are all anchored and buffered with the white backing. I'll be dreaming of this quilt!

Projects....

So I know I've been a kinda absent from the blogging world, I just have so much to blog about that I don't know where to start. I think I'll just slowly put up stuff from the summer while I continue on with everyday life, sound good? Good.
Anyways, it seems like I spoke too early with my last post. Daniel went to the first week of school and LOVED it. He did such a great job and it seems like a fabulous school. On Saturday we went and picked berries (it was awesome, more on that later) and he kept wheezing while he was running around, I thought he was just trying to make silly noises (which he is ALWAYS doing) and didn't think too much about it. Wheezes turned into coughs come Sunday and on Monday he was so sick. He had the flu. I got it on Tuesday and Bryan got a lighter version of the same thing on Thursday. Daniel and I have been holed up in the house all week just trying to breathe. I finally got him into the doctor on Thursday. I felt kind of stupid, because he was really starting to get over everything, but I try to trust my motherly intuition. It turned out that he had started to get an infection so he had a breathing treatment (read I got to hold him down while they tried to make him breathe in the smoke) and was given antibiotics. So I'm glad I went. :) Now that we're on the mend I'm back to my endless list of projects.
Bryan got me a beautiful canvas for my birthday. And for mother's day we had it framed, I think it turned out perfectly. It's much more of a gray/blue than it looks in this picture and goes perfectly in our home. I'm still moving it around a bit, but hope to find it's permanent home soon.

Now I need some help with this one. I found this bed frame for free and we need one for Daniel's room.

Now what to do with it? It definitely needs at least a new paint job. Should I strip it all down and stain it? Or should I paint it, and if so, what color? His room will have dark blue, orange and green, but I'm thinking if I paint it, I should use a neutral. Any ideas?

Childless....

Daniel has started preschool and I don't know what to do with myself! After having him with me 24/7 for 4 1/2 years it feels too quiet without him running around singing his Star Wars songs and making "lightsaver" sounds for 3 hours a day. On our way out to the car I asked him to stop so I could get a quick picture... this is what ensued.

This little boy is so happy all the time and has soooo much energy! I can't help but feel a bit sorry for his teacher! As for me, maybe my house will be cleaner? Probably not. I'll probably just sew more or catch up on my shows. It feels really weird being a stay at home mom without someone to mother!

I just saw the Pilot of Glee tonight and I'm in love! What a fun show. It doesn't hurt that they used one of my favorite songs... enjoy!