LOVE Day

At our house, every day is a day of love, however, Valentine's Day gives us an extra reason to show a little extra love-- 

Our favorite love is this guy. . .

 (and I LOVE the sideways mouth thing he does lately)

Brody woke up and was surprised with some loot.

Brent surprised me with some beautiful flowers.

He must love me.

We also put some packages together so we could send a little love

to our loved ones.

Brody conscientiously  painted these Valentine's pictures to send in the packages--

the puppy in the picture must have been a Dalmatian?

This package was lovingly put together and sent to Brody's birth-mama.

 We spent Valentine's evening at home as a family.

We ate dinner together, played some games, and did some snuggling.

Brody also entertained us with a mini fashion show while wearing some of my jewelry and flip-flops.

We like to build "Cooties" (a game he got on V-Day) with our cutie.

Brody calls them "ants."

We sure love this little love. . .

and we look for every opportunity to show a little extra love.

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Family Time

The best time spent. . . is family time.

Superbowl Sunday, my sister and her family joined us at our house.  For me, the Superbowl is not totally about the game. . . but more so about the company and the good food (and some of the commercials).

We started off our evening with some good grub-- on the menu was:

pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, teriyaki meatballs, green salad, bacon-wrapped water chestnuts (my FAVORITE), spinach dip, salsa, and queso dip with chips, and cinnamon rolls.

Brody was so excited to have his cousins over to play, and the kiddos alternated between playing, watching the game, 101 Dalmations, Hotel Transylvania, and snacking on goodies.

This picture was actually taken a different day, but went along with the football theme--Don't you like Brody's outfit?-- he went through a short phase where he insisted on sleeping in his "cowboy shirt" and he always likes to take a few balls to bed with him.

Seeeesters.

By the end of the evening our little guy was tuckered out and fell asleep mid-movie.  Our church is now 1-4, so that means no nap-- that's rough.

The following weekend, after a fresh snow storm, we went up to our horse pasture just a few miles from our house and went sledding. The snow was light and fluffy, and perfect for sledding.

We had an audience at the bottom of the hill. . . just a few gals.

The first time down the hill, Brody stood up at the end with a face plastered with snow, and tears running down his face.  The next time, he was anticipating it again. . . poor guy.  We moved him to the back of the sled instead.

The black blob in the middle of the picture is Brent and Brody at the bottom of the hill.

After sledding, we had dinner at Searles.  Sledding can work up an appetite.  Especially climbing back up the hill (although, we cheated half of the time and used the 4-wheeler to pull us back up).

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing at home. . . and going to get ice cream.

We made bears out of play dough, and Brody's creation is the yellow one on the left.  Not bad for a 2-year-old!

Sticker beard and moustache.

Brody grew some rad "hair" under his cowboy hat.

Then it was time to spruce up with a hair cut.

We built a blanket fort. . .

I'd have to say it was a good weekend!

Adoption Is Awesome

Hold Onto Hope

Throughout the adoption journey, we are constantly reminded that life happens 

According to His timing.

I have also learned that sometimes being patient, and trusting in His timing can be a challenge. 

However, I know this is the best way.  I have faith. Our Heavenly Father can see the whole picture, and has a plan for each of our lives.  I truly know things often happen for a reason, and people come into our lives for specific reasons.  

One of my favorite quotes goes like this:

"God does notice us and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that He meets our needs."-- Spencer W. Kimball.

Right now for us, that of course has to do with adoption.  Our baby will come through another.  Someone who is selfless, brave, and strong.  Someone who will choose adoption because she loves her child and is putting her child's needs above her own. 

In turn, we hope to be what that certain, special birth-mother and child are needing, and looking for.

A few weeks ago, we got an unexpected call from our caseworker that a sweet expectant mother was considering us as potential parents for her child and was due within the week.  He told us we would know her decision for certain in the few days following. 

We held our breath, paced the floors, and anxiously awaited.  

It was a long few days.

Although we tried not to allow ourselves to get our hopes up, it was somewhat inevitable.

A few days later, we found out that she had decided to parent the baby.  Bless her heart. We are sincerely happy for her.

We are grateful to her for considering adoption, and grateful that she considered us, and

although right now our hearts feel broken, that in itself gives us a glimmer of hope.

The following comes from an entry at www.therhouse.com:

“Sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together.” 

-Marilyn Monroe 

(Who knew Marilyn Monroe had such poignant things to be said?!)

I would modify "better things" to "the right things."

We are waiting for the right birth-mom and the right baby to come into our world.

"The hardest part of infertility is the lack of control. The hardest part of adoption is the lack of control. We don’t mourn the loss of a child we never had, we mourn the loss of the ability to decide when and how to have a family."

I'm not so good at the waiting part.  I guess I'm the type of person that is pro-active, and I don't like to sit back and wait for things that are important to me to . .  . just happen. I've always believed that if you want to achieve something, you have to put yourself into action and make it happen.

But in our situation, it doesn't quite work that way.

So, we are doing all we can to get our story "out there" to hopefully help that special birth-mom find us.

We are praying our little hearts out, and hope that our prayers will lead her to us. 

We are praying we can be what she, in turn, needs and hopes for, 

for herself and her baby.

We have hope that there is a special baby out there for our family.

In the meantime, we are enjoying every ounce of our Brody-- we are so incredibly lucky to be his parents.
We are eternally grateful to his birth parents.

I recently heard this song in reference to adoption.

It is beautiful, and I love that it can work from a birth-mom's perspective, or an adoptive couples' perspective

Enjoy . . .

Family Date Night

Last night, I was lucky enough to score two handsome dates with my two favorite guys.

We loaded up in the car and headed to get pizza, and then went bowling.

Brody was all psyched up to "play ball." 

He loves any game that has to do with a ball, so bowling was right up his alley.

He was eager when it was his turn and half the time, he took mine and Brent's turns as well!

Anything is fun as long as we're together.

Puppy Love

On occasion, Brent needs Brody and I to help him feed the cows.  On this particular day, I drove the truck, Brody was my co-pilot, and Ruger, our dog, was a passenger.  Ruger is the world's most patient dog. Brody showers him with affection-- he hugs (chokes) his neck, pokes his eyes, clobbers him, and pulls his fur, all while Ruger patiently endures.

Warm Fuzzy Jar

Recently at our house, we have introduced a "Warm Fuzzy Jar" as an incentive for good behavior. 

Brody earns a warm fuzzy to put in the jar each time he listens, minds, or does something nice.  We're working on the good choices/bad choices and consequences concept around here, so on the opposite end, warm fuzzies can also be taken out of the jar. Once the jar is full, he earns a reward.  I'm thinking of breaking it down into bite size chunks though, and making marks on the jar so he can earn little rewards along the way to filling it up-- that way, maybe he won't loose interest. 

Right now we're working on putting "just one" fuzzy in the jar at a time instead of a whole handful.

Baby steps, people, baby steps.

Eventually, as Brody gets older we plan to evolve the jar into something more along these lines as told in the following video about serving others.

Calf TLC

Since calving season is in full swing, Brent occasionally brings home a calf that is in need of a little extra TLC for one reason or another. This calf needed to be bottle fed, and Brody was able to help. 

Brody hitched a ride over to the barn in the sled.

After the calf feeding was done, Brody talked Brent into hooking the sled up to the "bike" and giving him a real ride.