MeRrY ChRiStMaS

Merry Christmas to everyone out there! May you have peace and joy in your life this year, and I wish for you the very very best!!

I will try to update soon!

Sick

Can I tell you how much it effects everyone when someone is sick? Especially when that someone is an 8 month old little boy!

Seriously. I thought Sam was bad when he was sick, but I was soon to find out how wrong I was. And it isn't necessarily that he is bad..it's just HARD to do ANYTHING! Let's start with yesterday morning. He woke up and Sam took him out of our room so I could attempt to sleep some more. I come out a little bit later, and find that Bubba has thrown up a couple of times. Well, I sit and hold him and snuggle him and he throws up on me. Ok..let's check him over. No fever, he is still happy and smiling and crawling around. Ok, not bad. He went down for a nap a short time later. He wakes up and we try just a little bit of water to see if his stomach can handle it. He hasn't even finished the bottle of water (4 ounces) and it all comes back up. Great.


Ok, check him over again...Still no fever, still color in his face, still smiling and crawling around. Ok, he seems ok. About an hour later..here come the runs. Poor little guy can't keep ANYTHING in him! We wait a little bit and try water again. This time he was able to keep it down! YAY! Wait a little bit longer and we try some formula. He keeps this down too! So we feed him some more formula, because he must be starving. He keeps it down, and he goes down for the night. Ahh..he must be over it, it must of been a little 24 hour bug or something.



1:30am rolls around and I head back to bed (hey, don't be hatin') Bubba wakes up and wants nothing but to be held. So I try to snuggle him in bed, he just keeps moving around. So I come out to the family room and try rocking him. I get him to sleep and he is restless again. So, about 4:00am I head back to bed. Lay him in his crib, and he goes to sleep. Great! He wakes up again about 8:00. I pull him into bed with me and he snuggles right in against me and falls back asleep. Again wakes up about 9 and Sam takes him out again. I come out a little later to find out that he threw up all over Kasia. Poor little didn't know what hit her!



Great. So we are back to square one. So all day today, he hasn't wanted to play as much. He just wants to be held. If we put him down for anything, he will whine, follow us around and give us the saddest face. Until we are compelled to pick him up again. Not that I mind. I love holding him and snuggling him. But he doesn't want to snuggle. He just wants to sit in your arms and then change positions a million times every minute. And I'm not lying. Ok, so maybe it was only like 100 times every minute. But I don't exaggerate! Ok, so it's more like 5 times a minute. But still...



So anyway...he has been able to keep his bottle down that he ate a couple of hours ago. We will have to see how the rest of the night and tomorrow goes.



Oh, and to end this post, I will state that we got 5-6 inches of snow yesterday! So, now it is FREEZING cold outside, and I want to go on a vacation...to somewhere warm....

And I might just make Bubba make the reservations, since he looks like he knows how to use a computer. :-) Yes I let him sit in Sam's computer, No I didn't move him, Yes I took his picture. Haha, take that!

Flag Ceremony and Sleeping

Ok, this is a little overdue, but better late than never right? Since Chris left for bootcamp, he asked my dad to put a flag up in their yard. So that was my dad's project for a couple of weeks. He put a flagpole up in our front yard, and once it was up, we had a flag ceremony for it.

We had a really good turn out for it. There was Sam, Me, and Hunter, my mom, dad, Tanielle, Jacque, Kaleigh, Curtis, Tab and DK. Along with my Uncle Reed and his family. It was really neat to have that kind of turn out for it. My dad read the Soldier's Creed and then him and Curtis raised the flag. It was neat to be a part of. And it was even awesome that the neighbors got involved also, and the ones that were outside, put their hands over their heart and watched as we raised it. That was pretty neat.

Even Bubba was out there for it. It was kind of chilly though so we kept him wrapped up all nice and warm!

The other half of this post is about sleeping. Bubba likes to sleep on his stomach now, so we let him and we check on him a LOT. Well, we find it so funny to see how he sleeps. This is how we find him asleep most of the time. It is like he was sitting there and just plopped over. LOL! So here are a couple of him sleeping.

Yeah...he pulls his socks off now too. Silly boy!

Anyway..enjoy! I will try to update again soon!

December...

I can't believe that it is already December! And not only that, but that it is the FIFTH of December! Yikes! That means the month is already 1/6 of the way over! It is also the Christmas Season. Radio Stations are playing Christmas Music ALL the time, and it is fun to listen to it! Christmas lights are going up everywhere, and the stores are full of everything Christmas!

I guess I should let you know that we survived Thanksgiving! We went up and stayed with my grandparents, and then had Thanksgiving dinner with Sam's family. And can you believe that their turkey was done at 9:00 IN THE MORNING?! Needless to say, despite us trying to convince them to cook it later, they didn't and we had cold turkey for dinner! But the company was good, and so that is what counts! Melanie made some of the BEST pumpkin pie ever! (sorry...my mom's still tops it) And luckily we got to go back up to my grandparents and have some of that pumpkin pie also! Yummy! So that was our Thanksgiving. Thank you to EVERYONE who made it fun for us!

I am very excited for this month! First off, Aaron and Mell left on their Cruise today. (Of which I am INSANELY jealous of, but oh well :-)) And will be gone for the next week. The week after that, we have my brother's birthday, and we have a visitor to come and join us! That is right, Crystal is going to make the trip from Oregon to spend a few days with us! We are excited that she will be able to participate in some of our Christmas traditions with us! This is also the first year that we have someone other than the two of us! We are almost all done with our Christmas shopping (yay!!) and are excited to show Bubba everything that we enjoy! Sometime towards the middle of the month Chris gets to come home for a short time! Yay!! So that will be exciting. Then there is Christmas, of which we will be spending at my parents house this year. We are going to do the whole shabang with my family and I can not tell you how EXCITED I am for that! Then the next week is New Year's of which we haven't decided what to do yet.

Also in that time, I have a couple of groups to meet up with! My very good friend Michelle will be coming up for a visit from Texas, and we are going to try to get together! I will get to see her little baby! (Who apparently isn't as little as I think he is!) And another group of ladies who are close to my heart are meeting also in that time. Not to mention I have Bubba's 9 month appointment this month, and I have to finish getting Christmas gifts for everyone else! Yikes! Busy month!

But I thought that I would make a post about some of my FAVORITE things from Christmas:

• I love staying with my family and going out and looking at the lights, reading the Christmas story, and singing Christmas songs, on Christmas Eve.
• There is always an elf that finds his way to our house on Christmas Eve and that is the 1 present we can open on Christmas Eve.
• Waking up early in the morning, (this grew later and later as we grew older) and get ALL the kids together and then go in and try to wake up mom and dad, and convince them that we HAVE to go downstairs!
• Doing everything we could to wake them up! And then finally getting them awake and then lining up to go downstairs.
• Having Christmas breakfast. Which was always waffles with strawberry and whip cream, sausage/bacon, eggs. Yum.

There are so many things that I love! This is just a handful over a coupel of days, but really there are traditions all month long. And they are all things that I hope to continue in my family for years to come!

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Black Friday

The last time I shopped on Black Friday was 4 years ago I think. We forced my sister to go with us (she stayed with us over Thanksgiving) and we went out and bought a TV. Yes, we were big spenders. The TV was like 300 bucks, and out little 19 incher just wasn't cutting it anymore. We found ONE left and we stood in front of it, with our arms around it until we could get someone to get a cart for us. We bought it and then had a hard time fitting it in our car!! It was funny, and fun. We actually had to take it OUT of the box to fit it in our car, and Tanielle had to squish into the back seat with it. Funny to picture...not so funny for her to be a part of. Haha.

Well...that TV now a days would sell for probably 50 bucks. Even though it is still a NICE TV! And there were a few things I was tempted to go out and buy! I really wanted the 69$ IPOD Nano that they were selling at RCWilley, and yesterday we were debating about going and standing in line to do it...We would have to get in line EARLY, because they only had 45 per store, and at that price, they were going to go FAST! So up until 10 o'clock last night I was debating about joining Mell in Orem to wait outside the store. Be amid the crowd, the excitment, the adrenaline, EVERYTHING. Course, I had no money to spend, it would just be exciting!

Yeah...didn't happen. I went to sleep, had a rough night, and just said forget about it! Alas, Mell must have thought the same thing, because she didn't go either. And after hearing what happened to my Sister in law...I am kind of GLAD!

Alas...Black Friday is over. I will wait for it to come next year, and hopefully I will be better prepared for it. But in the meantime...bring on CYBER MONDAY! :-)

HaPpY ThAnKsGiViNg!!!

Well, I will not have internet tomorrow, so I thought that I would take Michelle's approach and tell everyone out there Happy Thanksgiving! It is a WONDERFUL time of year, and it so so fun to spend it with family and friends!

This year we are heading up to Sam's parent's house for Thanksgiving. My family is also going up to spend it with my grandparents, so I will most likely spend part of the day with them. I always LOVE Thanksgiving meal, and I am excited for it! Yay!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year! Here are a few of the things I am thankful for:

• I am thankful for Crystal and the wonderful gift she gave to us.
• I am thankful for Bubba and perfect gift he is.
• Sam, I am grateful for him and his support and love
• I am thankful for Aaron and Mell for letting us live with them!
• I am thankful for my parents, and the sacrifices that they make to make sure we all turn out ok.
• I am grateful for Sam's parents for raising my hubby.
• I am thankful for doctors and medical advances.
• I am grateful for a full nights sleep
• I am thankful for The Gospel and what it is in my life.
• I am grateful for friends who are always there to talk to.
• I am thankful for the wonderful gift of adoption, and the miracle that it is.

Those are just a few. My heart is SO full of things to be thankful for this year. So Thank You to everyone out there.

Poster..

So I made this poster out of some of the images that were taken. I really like it! It prints out as an 8x12..so I will have to find one that prints out differently. But I really like it and thought that I would share! I am trying to find more things that I can offer to my photography clients. We will have to see how it goes!

8 Months

Bubba turned 8 months old today! I can't believe he is already 8 months old! Time sure flies. (Can I mention that enough in these posts?!) Here are a few of Bubba's favorite things...

• He LOVES his blanket still, every time I pull it out, he just grabs a hold of it and smiles



• He enjoys rice cereal, oatmeal, pears are his favorite fruit, and he loves green beans still. We are still progressing with foods, and he is doing a LOT better with swallowing and trying to chew. SO he has little puffs like cherios that he likes.



• He still takes 2 naps a day, and usually wakes up once at night.



• He crawls up stairs, and they are the FIRST place he will go to! He loves to explore.



• He is learning how to wave Buh bye. It is SO cute! He uses his whole arm pretty much, and he especially loves to wave to grandpa.



• He is starting to realize when people leave the room and will cry if Sam or I leave.



• He enjoys playing with his cousins! He is getting to know DK more and they have fun playing together
  

• He loves to stand, and he walks along furniture, and even tries to climb up onto couches.



• He enjoys apple juice, and he is getting used to a sippy cup! At least he knows how it is SUPPOSED to work.



• He LOVES to MOVE! Whenever he is awake, he is constantly moving! It is getting hard for me to keep up with him! Man, once he starts walking, I am in TROUBLE!



• He doesn't really like his pacifier, he usually just bites it and plays with it.



• He is starting to show the signs of being mobile. He falls after trying to stand on his own, and usually ends up with a bump or bruise somewhere! This breaks my heart! But there isn't much I can do about it!!
• 

Those are some of the things that Bubba is up to lately. We weighed him the other day, and he weighed in at 25.5 pounds. Big boy! We will be going in for his 9 month appointment next month! Can't wait to see how much he has grown! Anyway, so Happy 8 month birthday to Bubba!

Growing Up and Twilight...

As much as I hate to admit it, Bubba is growing up. I wish I could freeze time and keep him little, but at the same time, it is SO exciting to see each milestone he comes across! He is of course always adorable. He is kind of sick right now, so we are working through some long days and nights, but he will get better soon! So yay!!

So we came down this weekend to Santaquin, and can I tell you how much I MISS it?! I absolutely love it down here. Although have come to the conclusion that we NEED our own place! It is not just a WANT anymore...it is a definite NEED. We need to find each other, and ourselves again if we want to make it through eternity. But anyway, we came down and last night I went on a girls night out to see TWILIGHT. I LOVED it!! There were some definite parts that needed work, but I loved the show anyway. So much in fact that we went again today to see it! (I made Sam come along, and lo and behold, he liked it too!) So we went to dinner at Olive Garden afterwards. Mmm..I LOVE their food! And it was just SO fun!! I seriously felt SO giddy and happy afterwards! It reminded me of being a teenager (just the excitement, and hanging out with a large group of women; there were 13 of us for the movie!) Here is a picture of a bunch of us at dinner! Sorry, it was taken with a cell phone camera...so not the best! But seriously, thank you Mell for getting the tickets, and planning and waiting for this night for me for MONTHS!

And before we went to Twilight, we had some more family pictures taken! YAY!! So here is a preview of those! They were taken by Melanie!! So GOOD JOB!

"Hey...what are you two doing up there?"

Look at me! I am trying to climb this tree....

So there you have it! Yay for updating my blog!

Silly Boy

I can not get over how silly bubba can be! He really is a ham, and loves to laugh, and do things to make people laugh! So He was eating his bottle this evening, and I was tickling his feet and his leg and he was laughing so hard he could hardly eat! So I thought "I should video this" and I pull out the camera. And he stops! He wouldn't really do it anymore. So we took him back to get his pajamas on and change his diaper, and he starts it again. SO I tried to catch him again. I can say that I caught a little, but then he would stop! He also makes random noises, and is figuring out his voice a little more, which I LOVE. I tried to get him to say "mamamama" on camera, but he wouldn't...so I get his other funny noises. So here they are, enjoy!

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

I thought this looked cool! So I thought I would post the link..here ya go!

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

Videos

Ok, here are some videos we got of Bubba climbing the stairs. The first one obviously is from behind, the second is from the top of the stairs. Curtis is there to make sure he doesn't fall. :-) So here they are! Enjoy!!

My nephew DK was there, and he wanted in on the action! He kept coming and standing in front of me, it was so funny! We also got some pictures of them together and such, so I will have to post those sometime!

P.S. Sorry they are so dark, it was like 8 or 9 at night when I took them, so NO light from outside!

Stairs...

Ok, so I don't have any pcitures of this, and I will try to get video of it so I can post video. My parents house has a small flight of about 5 stairs leading from their family room to their kitchen. We were out there a couple of weeks ago, and since Bubba is trying to stand up against everything, and walk along everything, he stood up to the stairs. We were just kind of watching him to make sure he didn't fall down, and he crawled up 1 stair. AWESOME! So we try to persuade him to keep going, and he wouldn't. So we thought we still had a while before he would actually be crawling up stairs. Thinking that it was a fluke thing that he crawled up one stair.

Well we were back out there last night, and again Bubba finds his way to the stairs. He stands up by them, and I was busy doing something, thinking he would be ok, I turn around and he has crawled up a stair. So I go and sit behind him just in case he falls, and he proceeds to crawl up all 5 stairs to the top. And then giggles because he thinks he is so funny doing it.

Well..thinking that he won't do it again, we put him at the bottom again, and he crawls up the stairs again. Only this time faster! What is this?! My little man has figured out stairs?! I am going to need a gate a LOT sooner than I thought!

We are headed back out there tomorrow night, so I might be able to get a video of it and post that. Silly boy is growing up too fast. And I want him to stop so I can enjoy the littleness of him longer! He is standing up against everything, walking along the edge of things (like a couch, and such) climbing over things, crawling, he tries to stand on his own without holding on to everything. He is getting so big! He wears 18 month onsies and shirts, and 12 month pants (which will probably be too small in not too long). And he has the CUTEST smile! It makes my heart melt. And he is still a very happy baby (unless he is tired, or mad at something) and smiles at everything. He is starting to get a little shy, and will hide his head if he doesn't recognize someone. He is adorable, and so here are a couple of pictures of him lately. See how big?

I love the jammies he is wearing in this picture. They have trains and everything in them. He has to wear 18-24 month in the footed jammies, and so we are resorting more to this kind for now...

So, I decided that I need to take more pictures of my little man...So I will work on that, and also on posting more. We will see how it goes!

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, and I can't tell you how important this is in my life. As most of you know, we were able to grow our family through adoption. I thank God every day for our birthmother, and the sacrifice that she made. She is an AMAZING woman, someone who I admire. She is caring, always thinking about others, and she has overcome SO many things to become who she is today. She is a very loved woman, and I can not express how remarkable she is for allowing Sam and I to be parents. Without her, our world would not be complete. Bubba is the joy of our life, and I can honestly say that I do not know where I would be without him. So, Crystal, I know you get sick of me being sappy (lol) and thanking you all the time, but I can't help it. Bubba is extremely lucky to have the love of 2 mothers, and so thank you, from the bottom of our hearts and beyond!

So, I am not sure what else to do to show my support for National Adoption month, other than to post here how amazing it is, and to wear the white ribbon in support.

It has been a long hard road for us, and I wish I could share my story with more people, so if you have any questions on our adoption process, or anything, please post it, and I will see if I can do my best to answer it! Or, if you have had experiences with adoption, you can e-mail them to me, or you can post them in the comments and we can share those too!

Pictures

So here are some pictures from the last few days. There are some from the dinner that we had with Chris before he left and the others are from his swearing in, and him leaving. We hope that things are going well for him and we love him VERY MUCH!!!

Ok, there are the pictures I said I would post. Enjoy!

Poud Sister of a Soldier

So, my brother shipped out to Boot Camp yesterday. We were lucky and got to go out to dinner with everyone Tuesday night. So we had some good times there. Then yesterday morning, we went in and saw him sworn into the Army. After that, we followed him to the airport and saw him off. It was sad, but I can't express how proud I am of him! He will be gone for 6 weeks at first, then we gets to come back for a couple of weeks for Christmas, and then he will be gone again until May I believe. Then, him and his family will go wherever they are stationed. I believe that it is a good thing for him and his family. I have some pictures, but for some reason, it won't let me upload them to my blog...so I will have to arrange them another time and put them up. So anyway...that is what has gone on the last couple of days...pictures to come!

Halloween Video

Halloween and other Fall things...

As you know, yesterday was Halloween. We didn't have a lot of money to splurge on a costume this year, and the costumes we were given back when he was first born were too small!! So, we used a cowboy hat, and made him a cowboy. The way the hat is, it made him look like Indiana Jones! SOO Cute!! But let me start out a couple of days in advance. A couple of days ago, I got together with one of my cousins and her two kids and we went to the park. It was a BEAUTIFUL day!! So here are a couple pictures of bubba at the park...

He was tired and so he wasn't smiling much! Once we got him, I laid him down and he was out so fast!

Alright, now onto Halloween! This is what I was. If you can't tell, I am a dead prom queen. My throat has been cute open, and I am supposed to look dead....

And here is Bubba in his costume. We gave him a sucker, with the wrapper on, and he was smart and got the wrapper off!! He sure enjoyed that sucker!

Early on in the day, we went to Provo Center Street and did the Trick or Treat down to all the business on the street. We did that for a couple of hours, and had fun!

Anyway, I have a a LOT more pictures that I will try to add as a slide show later!! Hope you enjoy these for now! I have not dressed up for halloween in over 7 years, so it was fun to do it again! THANK YOU Mell for letting me!

Farm Life

On Sunday we drove down to a town just by Gunnison Utah. It is a very out in the middle of nowhere kind of town. But it was pretty good size for being that far away from a major road! We went down to take pictures of a family down there, and I couldn't resist taking pictures of Bubba and of us together. So here are some pictures from our trip!

Here is one of Bubba and I together. I LOVE it! My favorite picture of the two of us.

Bubba's first time on a horse....he liked it.

Anyway...enjoy!