Tears...

The other day I was busy in the kitchen when Daniel said some unkind things. I called him in to talk about it and with tears running down my face and dripping off my chin, told him how hurtful his words were. He looked at my face, got really quiet, said he was sorry and went to time out. (I think he was scared straight.) Then I went back to chopping my onions.
Some people call it manipulation, I call it brilliant parenting. ;)

YIKES!

It was a crazy non-stop  holiday season for us. We are still just trying to catch our breath and recover from it all. Add on top of that pretty-much never-ending computer issues (yes! MORE!) and you have a pretty good reason not to blog. ;) We now are set in the computer department, (knock on wood.... knock knock knock! ) And are back and almost into the groove. Interview season for residency is nearing an end, Daniel is back at school and we're all over the flu! Yay! Anyways, I just wanted to say... I'm back!!! (and I've got TONS to blog about!)

Sammy's first REAL swing ;)

A Fun Way to Spend a Saturday!

My friend Kacey asked me if I'd be willing to help her with the flowers for stake conference. I jumped at the chance because I've always loved arranging flowers. I especially love it when my creative outlet can be on someone else's dime ;) We met early on Saturday and started whipping up some arrangements. She'd bought a lot of flowers and cornucopias and we foraged in the trees out back for branches of berries. We arranged the two cornucopias, one tall center piece and two smaller arrangements that were farther out to the side. I had a blast and I LOVE the fall colors. Just wanted to document. :)

A Quintet

I can't belive how much Bryan's side of the family has grown this year! Within about 6 months we added 5 new members! 3 babies were added with 6 weeks of each other in Nov./Dec. and two new in-laws married in during the month of May. It's been an exciting year and we love each of our new additions!!!

We grabbed a quick family picture after Sam's blessing. It's amazing what a difference a few months and 5 people make!

This was us last summer:

Through this all I've been super impressed with Bryan's parents.  They've taken it all in stride and loved every minute. It takes some serious flexibility to make everything work, and they did! I'm betting we'll never add so many so quickly again, so I just had to mention it!

 I guess it could happen..... lol.

Keep Getting Better

Our best days keep getting better. You know how you say, "This is the best day of my life, nothing could ever be better than this!" Only to be proven wrong down the road when something does? I personally don't mind it. Our best days just keep getting better and better. We recently had one of those days. On September 3rd, we were (finally!!!) able to take our little Sammy to the Temple to be sealed for time and eternity as a family. It was the culmination of 5 yrs of waiting and searching for the next little member of our family. Words honestly cannot express what joy it brought our hearts. Because he is so big for his age, and because he was also older than most children in adoptive sealings (10 months), it was hard to find an outfit that would fit him and that was appropriate for the temple. We finally found one that I loved and that would work in the heat. It was a 24 months size! :o

The boys were little angels, you could tell they felt the spirit of the day. We were so happy to have so many family members there with us. It made it all the more special to share it with them. 

After the sealing we were able to take Sam to Bryan's parent's house to give him a name and a blessing. Even more family members and friends were able to join us which was wonderful!

Sam ate up the attention and did so well. He's really a people person. ;) He and his Uncle Erik are pals.

At the end of the day he just snuggled up in his Daddy's arms and crashed. I don't think he's ever slept so well!

  As we were leaving the Temple that day, Daniel said "Let's come back here, I want to do this again!" I just smiled, I was feeling the exact same way. The Temple Worker who had helped with the children said, "Yes, you need to bring these little boys back with a sister soon." Lol. I can't guarantee a sister, but I can promise we'll work on coming back as a family again sometime soon.

It was a perfect day and that brought finality to the adoption for us. He's ours. He's finally a part of our eternal family. He was so worth the wait and the anguish of the journey to find him.