Sweet and Sassy

Makayla and I decided we would take a sassy picture... What do you think?

Happy St. Patty's Day

This year for St. Patrick's Day we decided to make a green dinner.  Makayla and Kyle helped me cook the food and we had a blast.  Of course Makayla's favorite part was putting the food coloring in each item and Kyle's favorite part was stirring everything!  It looked a little gross so when we started eating we were expecting yucky but it was awesome!  Fettuccini alfredo, homemade french bread, broccoli, and green jello salad.  The kids loved it too and when they were done they looked so cute with green food all over their faces.

I just had to take a picture of my awesome plate of food before I started eating.

I don't know why we've never done this in the past.  It was so much fun and so easy.  Just a little green food coloring and TA DA!!!  For Makayla's school snack that day I decided to give her a yummy surprise.  I made pudding and put green food coloring in it.  When I picked her up from school I asked her how her snack was.  Come to find out she didn't eat it because it looked yucky.  She didn't even smell or taste it!  I felt so bad.  I should have told her what it was and then she would have loved it.  Bad mommy!  At least I know for next year to warn her.

Toothless

Well it is official.  On Saturday, March 12, 2011 Makayla lost her first tooth.  She had been wiggling it for a couple days and on Saturday morning she was playing with it and said, "My tooth is in my hands."  I think she was a little in shock.  She knew what was supposed to happen but hadn't been through it before.  It was kind of funny.  She was so excited and so were we!!!  That night she put it under her pillow and the Tooth Fairy came.  She had been telling me how the Tooth Fairy keeps the teeth to build her house with.  Makayla was so lucky because the Tooth Fairy left her a note with Makayla's tooth taped to a heart.  She let Makayla know that she wanted to let Makayla keep her first tooth to put in her scrapbook but from then on she'd keep the teeth Makayla lost to build her house with.  Makayla couldn't believe that the Tooth Fairy was nice enough to do that!!! So now she is working on her other bottom tooth.  

I can't believe how fast Makayla is growing up.  It seems like just yesterday she was my little baby and now she is going to school, reading, tying her shoes, losing teeth and much more.  I love that she is growing up into a beautiful, sweet, smart little girl but I do miss my little baby.  Time just goes by so fast... 

Sick

Last week we were all sick!!!  We spent most of the time snuggled together watching tv in our pajamas.  

During the times we weren't feeling too bad we tried to find things to do.  The kids loved playing with play dough. 

Kyle and Makayla loved playing together.  It was so nice because during those time that they were playing I could lay down and wallow in my own misery.  In my opinion the only good thing that comes from being sick is when you're finally better you realize what a blessing a healthy body really is.  All of us still have lingering colds this week but feel so much better!!!!

Adoption Thoughts

Adoption has really been on my mind lately.  Every morning I wake up hoping to find an email from a prospective birth mother.  When there is none I go on with my day hoping that maybe tomorrow will be the day. I think that adoption has been a lot more on my mind lately because I am working on our scrapbook right now and I just got to Kyle's birth (okay okay just a little behind.)  Also I have been compiling a few of Kyle's birth mother's email to put in the scrapbook for Kyle to see how she found us.  Because of all of this it is making adoption constantly on my mind.  It is so hard waiting for our next child.  Just hoping and praying that our birth mother will email us.  Since we were approved for adoption last December we have had three contacts.  Two through our parent profile and one through our LDS profile.  The first one we got the email at Christmas time and we were in Utah.  She was from New York but that was all we knew about her.  Ben and I emailed her back and then never heard back from her.  She left a phone number so we thought maybe she wanted a call instead so we called her and there was no answer.  We left a message and never heard back from her.  The next email we got was in January.  This girl was from Washington.  Ben and I emailed her and then heard back from her.  We were so excited!  We emailed her back again and then we never heard back from her again.  The third birth mother contacted us in February.  She contacted us through the LDS website so this was a little different.  We emailed her back that night but the email has to go through our agency and then to her to keep her privacy.  We never heard back from her.  We emailed again just to be sure she got it and still no answer.  A few weeks later our agency contacted us and said that they were afraid that her inbox was full and she wasn't getting the emails.  So we emailed her a third time and still nothing back. I can't even tell you how many emails we have received from prospective birth mothers telling us how wonderful we are and that we are at the top of their list and then we never hear back from them.  Now I know you are asking yourself, "Wow is it something they are saying in their emails?  Are they acting too desperate?"  I asked myself this too, but I know that that is not the case.  We have been through this enough times to know that this is very common.  There are so many prospective adoptive couples who go through the same thing.  It's hard but we have two beautiful children that I love more than life itself.  Their birth mothers contacted us, kept contacting us, and then gave us the most beautiful gift in the whole world.  This is why we keep doing this.  We know that adoption is a miracle.  We can't wait to hold our next child in our arms.  We can't wait to have another birth mother and possible birth father that will always be a part of our lives.  That is why we will keep going no matter how many disappointments we have to go through.  In the end it is absolutely worth it!!!

Swim Girl!

Makayla just finished her month of swimming lessons and she did awesome!!!  She passed her level and is ready to start the next one.  She had so much fun swimming.  The only thing she didn't like was having to go outside into the freezing cold wet after she was done.  I can't say I blame her on that one.  Kyle and I were usually a little wet too!  

Makayla loves the back float and is really good at it.

As you can see Makayla was the only girl in her class.  Here she is being a little model.  She looks cute even when doing monster legs!

And Kyle was always a perfect little angel during the whole entire time... hahaha!!!

Josie

As most of you know Josie is our little dog.  Ben and I adopted Josie before Makayla came along so we have had her a long time.  We were living in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Ben and I went into a gourmet pet treat shop to look for something for my family dog that lived in Utah with my parents.  They were showing dogs and cats from the Humane Society in the shop.  I turned around and there was Josie.  She was the cutest, sweetest little dog I had ever seen.  They had named her Josie after Josie and the Pussycats because I guess she lived with cats or something.  Ben and I really didn't want to get a dog at that time but the more I looked at her and held her the more I wanted her.  It was a really hard time for us because we had been waiting to adopt for such a long time and we had had prospective babies that fell through.  I was getting really depressed about everything and I just wanted something to love.  Ben and I talked about it and decided to adopt Josie.  The day we took her home she became our baby.  Since that time she is more of a dog than our baby but we still love her just as much.  She has such a sweet personality and loves the kids so much.  She puts up with a lot from Kyle and even though she will growl at him from time to time I know that she loves Kyle and Makayla so much. We love you Josie!!!