Drum Roll Please...

It's that time of year again...the most wonderful time of the year... when everyone is happy and giving... and we get to watch our girl perform in her ballet recital!!!  Go Makayla!!!  I have to say she was the very best in her whole class!!!  (remember this is her mommy talking!)

Getting ready to begin.

The end...look at that pose!

And a video of the whole thing for all of you who are just dying to see my girl dance!

Deck the Halls...

I have always hated decorating for holidays.  I know I know I am a girl and should love that kind of stuff but if you decorate for a holiday it just means that after it is over you have to clean it all up!!!  This year was a little different.  When we told the kids we were going to put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house for Christmas they got SO excited.  Because of their excitement it made me really excited!!!  I don't even care about the clean up afterward!!!  (Well, ask me again after Christmas when I have to do the cleanup!)  We are so blessed to have such wonderful little kids to make everything exciting again.

 

Every year it is so fun to pull out all the ornaments and remember them from the years past.  Makayla is now old enough to remember them and it is so fun to see her get so excited about certain ones.  Kyle just loved putting up anything and everything.

Our little Christmas elf and his reindog.

Each year we get the kids their own special ornament.  It represents something they did that year or something they were into that year.  This year Kyle's ornament was a sword.  Kyle has absolutely loved swords.  He plays swords with everything including fingers and even socks.  Makayla's ornament was a bike because she learned how to ride a two-wheeler without training wheels this year.  Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

The four of us had a small but wonderful Thanksgiving that we celebrated together in our home.  We made all the traditional Thanksgiving foods and because it was just us we were able to enjoy the leftovers.

It all started a couple nights before Thanksgiving.  This was when the kids made their own playdough.  They had so much fun picking their own colors and making their own dough.  I have to say that it has already had a lot of use!!!  The kids love it (especially Kyle!!!)

That night the kids had fun dressing up as superheros and eating cold cereal for dinner.  (Can you blame me???  For next two days I was going to be cooking and didn't feel like making anything that night!)

This year Makayla watched the whole parade.  Of course her favorite part was Santa.  Kyle loved it too (the Santa part.)  He is just figuring out this year what Christmas is and he loves it.  He asks every night if Santa is coming.  Makayla asked if the santa in the parade was the real Santa and we decided it is.  This is his last appearance before heading back to the North Pole to make our presents!

The kids enjoyed helping out making the food this year.  Makayla helped with the sweet potato casserole...

and Kyle helped daddy with the stuffing.

Makayla set the table with the NICE dishes!!!

Lunch took a little longer than planned and poor Kyle was SO hungry!!!

Finally it was time.  We ate...

and ate...

and ate!!!  It was the best Thanksgiving ever!

Hair Ideas 2

It's time for some more hair ideas!!!  As I have said in the past every time Makayla has a new hairstyle we take a picture so we can remember it and do it again.  Right now we are up to 167 hair dos.  Here are a few more that we love.  Enjoy!!!

He's A Big Boy Now!!!

Kyle is growing up so fast.  He has had a lot of changes in the past couple months and I am so amazed at what a big boy he is.  

First he is in a big boy bed now!!!  We are so proud of him.  He does pretty well staying in it throughout the night but every once in a while in the morning we find him in his favorite spot... Makayla's bed!!!

Second, Kyle is now a potty-trained boy!  I am so proud of him.  He has done so well and loves wearing his big boy underwear and going in the big boy potty.  (the picture is censored because my blog is not private!)

One day Ben left the jam a little too close to Kyle and we discovered that he even knows how to put jam on his bagel all by himself!  We are so proud of you Kyle and love you more than anything!

Apple Hill October 2011

For years now we have been hearing about Apple Hill in California and how fun it is.  This year we decided to try it out.  We woke up really early and drove the three hours to our destination.  It was a beautiful drive but for most of the time we were winding all around the mountains.  Makayla got car sick (this has only happened once before!!!) but afterward she felt a lot better.  Next time we make this trip we will be sure to bring plastic bags!  When we got there this was one of the first farms we went too.  It was full of flowers and so beautiful.  Even the kids were amazed by all the flowers.  The weather was perfect!  Luckily we wore shorts because it even got a little hot!

At this farm Ben and I shared an awesome piece of pumpkin cheesecake pie.  It was so good!  The best part was that the kids didn't like it so we got it all to ourselves.

Next it was off to feed some farm animals.  There were sheep, goats, cows, and chickens.

Makayla loves to get her face painted.  She was so excited that she got to wear her beautiful unicorn the whole day and was very careful not to mess it up. 

While Makayla got her face painted Kyle patiently waited and let me take some cute pictures of him.  It was nice that he didn't care that she got something that he didn't!  I wonder how long that will last???

At practically every farm there was a pumpkin patch.  They were all so beautiful.  The kids each got to pick their own pumpkin.

It is called Apple Hill Farms because every farm has apple orchards.  The apples were so good and the kids loved roaming in the orchards.  We had the most wonderful day.  We will for sure be making this trip again.  It was a long day but it was really nice to be able to sleep in our own beds that night!  We love those day trips!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This year we had an awesome Halloween.  It was so fun because it was the first year that Kyle really understood the concept.  The kids were able to dress up in their costumes three different times for three parties and they loved it!!!  

Makayla was the Little Mermaid.  She was able to pick out what she wanted to be and then I made her costume.  It turned out so cute and she loved it!  The only problem was the poor girl had strep throat during trick-or-treating.  We didn't know at the time (she was just complaining about a sore throat.)  She still had a lot of fun but hopefully she will be healthy next year.

Kyle was the cutest little dinosaur in all of Nevada.  I also made his costume and he loved it!  Kyle was so impressed that all he had to do was say trick-or-treat to people and then he'd get candy.  He loved that concept.  He realized that if a person only gave him one piece all he had to do is say "more" and then they'd give him more.  It was a little embarrassing but Ben was really impressed!

Sometimes it is really hard to not have any family around us here in Fallon.  I see all my other friends with their families going to parties or having family dinners.  It would be so much fun to be able to have my children go trick-or-treating with all of their cousins like so many of their friends get to do.  But since that isn't going to happen anytime soon (if ever) we need to make the best of it.  We had so much fun just the four of us going around our little neighborhood and getting candy.  I love my kiddos so much!!!

Growing Up...

I am so sorry it has been so long since I posted anything.  It has taken me some time to get over our latest disappointment of losing another baby.  I have also discovered a wonderful addicting website called Pintrest so that has also been taking my time (thanks Meg!!!)  But I am back and have tons of stuff to blog.  I do have some VERY exciting news... drum roll please... Makayla is now a bike rider!!!  We are so proud of her and more importantly she is so proud of herself.  This has opened a whole new world for her and she loves it!!!

And while Makayla was riding around on her bike Kyle was racing on his.  He was especially excited that he got to ride in the road instead of just on the sidewalk.  He gets going almost as fast on his bike as Makayla does on her.  The only drawback is that for his brakes he drags his feet and now he has huge holes in his shoes.  Welcome to a boys world!!!

(you can even see his brakes in action on this picture)

Sadness...

Well it is official we lost another baby this week. This is the second time this has happened this round.  It is technically our third baby we lost because the first time it was twins.  The first time we lost the twins it was really hard.  We met the couple in July.  He was going to medical school and she was going to law school and they just weren't ready for a family.  They wanted better for their baby girls and we were so excited.  I have always wanted twins so we were making all sorts of plans.  Towards the end of July they told us that some tragedy had happened.  Since this is a G rated blog I won't go into details but they told us that he had cancer and had lost some certain body parts.  Therefore, he could not have any more children and they were keeping the babies.  We know that they were lying and that almost hurt more than if they would have just told us the truth.  Why did they feel the need to lie to us?  Do they honestly think that we are gullible enough to believe their story.  Anyway, after that we moved on and a 16 year old girl contacted us.  She had had a really hard life and was pregnant at 15.   She knew that adoption was the right thing to do.  She wanted to give this baby a chance at life and she knew that by placing him for adoption he would have that chance that she could not give him.  For three months we have been on a roller coaster ride with her.  She told us that we were the ones.  She was upset that we didn't announce it to everyone but we tried to explain that we are private and we like to keep it quiet until it works out.  So many times it doesn't work out and it is so much easier not to have the whole world know that we got our hearts broken again.  Anyway, she had the baby last Sunday.  She didn't even call us to tell us she was in labor.  We had to find out from facebook.  Then when she was in the hospital she had all these people telling her that she needed to take him home for a few days before she made her decision.  She kept our hopes up by telling us all the time that she wanted to choose adoption she just had to do this first or that first.  Finally, on Wednesday when she brought him home we knew that it was over.  We knew that no matter what she told us she was going to keep him and we were right.  It has been so hard to go through this again.  Sometimes I just don't understand why we have to go through so many losses before we finally get our children.  We know that it is worth it in the end but it is so hard.  I am so tired of shedding tears of pain.  When is it my turn to instead shed tears of joy.  When will I get to hold my baby in my arms and have a wonderful birth mother follow through with her promises.  We have two of the most amazing and wonderful birth mothers in the whole world.  I can't even imagine the courage it took for each of them to give us their child.  We love them so much and can't wait for another birth mother to enter our lives that is just as wonderful as they are.  We know that there is another baby that is supposed to come to our home.  We don't know when that will be but we know that we have to keep going through this pain until it happens.  It helps so much to see Makayla's and Kyle's little faces every day and know that this pain is worth it.  In the end, when it finally happens for us, we will be happier than we have ever been before.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through so much heartache to bring another child into our family.  I can't even begin to count the tears that I have shed or the sleepless nights I have had over waiting for our next child.  Sometimes I think that two is enough and I should just be thankful for them and not want more.  Sometimes I wonder why God allows us to go through so much pain when we are just trying to do what He told us to do... build an eternal family.  Our intentions are good and righteous so why do we have to go through so much pain.  Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it.  And then I look into these two little faces...

and I remember why all the pain is worth it.  Because in the end when we have that special birth mother who gives us her child this is what we get in the end.  Every time one of my kids gives me a kiss or a hug or tells me they love me I remember why it is all worth it.  Kyle and Makayla I love you so much.  You are my whole life and my whole world.  I will love you for eternity!  You make everything that we have gone through, are going through, or will go through worth it!!!

Bubbles

Even though the days are still really hot the evenings are getting nice and cool.  It looks like fall will be here before we know it.  As a family we love spending time together in our backyard.  One of the kids favorite thing to do is bubbles.

Get them Kyle get them!!!

I love how Kyle is right behind Makayla getting ready to attack!

As Kyle and Makayla are getting older they are becoming closer and closer.  It's so fun when I walk into a room and there are my two kiddos playing together.  I love it.  We all can't wait to add another child to our family.  That baby is going to be loved so much by all of us!!!