Christmas TeePee

Since Little Man has Native American heritage, we thought it would be cool to build him a teepee for Christmas! So I found a tutorial on Pacemade.com and made him one. 

Materials used: 

5 1x2x8 boards 

1 canvas paint cloth

Rope 

Acrylic Paint 

Strips of fabric 

A Staple Gun with staples 

First we cut the boards to 7 feet in length. Then we drilled a whole just bigger than the size of the rope, 12 inches down from the top of each board. 

With the canvas, I created a stencil arrow out of cardboard and stenciled the drop cloth with light blue acrylic paint. 

We then put the rope through the holes, positioned the legs where we wanted them and tied it together. We draped the cloth around it, and stapled the cloth to each leg of the teepee. 

Since Sam bought me yellow rope, we tied fabric cloth around the top to hide it and add some character. 

Little man loves it and loves to hide and play in it! Such a fun addition to his room! 

I love doing projects like this. I think it will be fun to post more that I do! I also made the white table you see in the background of that last photo! So fun! 

New Year, New Goals

So, it looks like I do this every year. 

I think to myself that I'm going to get better at blogging. 

I'm going to document better. 

I'm going to blog better. 

I'm going to take more photos. 

I'm going to be happier. 

I'm going to BE BETTER. 

And it lasts maybe a week. 

Ha!! 

Well, hopefully I've got the right systems in play to actually do it this year. 

I doubt anyone out there still reads this blog. Buuuuut, even if it's just got myself, I'm going to try. 

And that's the best anyone can go, right? 

Well, the new year finds is still in our house we built. We still love it, and love our neighborhood. We have built some amazing friendships here and absolutely love it. 

Bubba is in 2nd Grade and loving it. He reads extremely well, and loves to read Percy Jackson and anything Star Wars.

He's getting so tall and growing up so fast. We are excited for this next year  to spend time with his birthmother! 

Little Man is 18 months and growing so fast!! He has 1 speed, which is RUN. He jabbers away and tries to copy everything you say. Life is sure an adventure with these two! 

Sam is still enjoying work with Wells Fargo Advisors. We hope to see him grow in the company this year, and can't wait to see what happens. 

Life has been crazy and hectic, and I don't see it slowing down. At.All. So we will find the miracles in the mess and keep moving forward. :) 

We hope the new year finds you well. And may this not be the last time you hear from me this year. ❤️

End of another year

Well, hello there. I do believe it's been about a year since I've posted anything! 

So, yet another New Year's Resolution: Post more to my blog. Yes. That. 

This last year has been a whirlwind.  Let me start by welcoming this guy to our family

Welcome Tanner Chase to our family. :) 

He was born on June 28th in Lander Wyoming. He weighed in at 6 lbs, and 10 oz, and was 19'' long. 

We had 3 weeks to prepare for him. And we were completely smitten with him the moment we saw him. 

I was lucky enough to be able to meet him in the hospital and stay in the hospital with him for a couple of nights until we could bring him home. Where Sam and Bubba were quickly loving on him. 

He is turning 6 months tomorrow, and I can't believe it. 

It's gone by WAY to fast!! I want him to stay little itty bitty. 

So that's the MAIN thing that happened with our family this year. :) 

Other things that we were able to do. We were able to put in a yard this year so we were able to take advantage of running through sprinklers, playing soccer, enjoying movies on the grass, and just spending time outside. 

We also put in a garden and were able to harvest tomatoes, carrots, spinach, chard, peas, green beans, tomatillos, cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash. We also got lucky and grew some blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. We planted a few trees and hope that they continue to grow and will produce a lot of fruit in the years to come! 

Bubba is 6 and started 1st grade. He is loving it, and is learning to read and write. His favorite subject is math though. He loves figuring out the numbers. :) 

Sam is loving his job and is surprised at the things we were able to accomplish this year! 

I am still doing photography, but took a step back this year to focus on our family. Adjusting to 2 kids has been more difficult than I thought, but I would trade it for the world! I have my hand in way to many projects, and can get pretty busy, but am loving our family and life right now.  

We just spent the last couple of days with my family, and loved every minute of it! 

Alright. I will try to post more than just this update every year. Let's get back into this, shall we? :) 

Much love to you all. :) 

asthma

Asthma sucks. 

Big Time. 

And Bubba and I both get to experience this "wonderful" illness. 

With Bubba it makes his colds last twice as long, and any other illness it exaggerates it quite a bit. 

We've done breathing treatments and he has an asthma inhaler (which helps a LOT)

Well this morning, I woke up with one of the worst reactions I've ever had. 

Bleh. 

I couldn't breathe. 

And when I could, it was very much just wheezing. 

Luckily the inhaler worked throughout the day and I can breathe better now. 

My chest and lungs just hurt. 

And I'm tired. So tired. 

But better. Which is good. 

And I just got thinking. I usually only post on here when we are sick. Which probably makes it seem like we are sick a lot. 

But we really aren't. We are healthy most of the time! 

Yesterday, we had some of our amazing friends come and visit us! 

I was SO excited for them to come! I got to take some photos of them, and we had a dinner, and it was absolutely WONDERFUL! 

I loved every.single.minute. that they were here! 

I am lucky to have friends that are absolutely perfect for my soul.

Here is a cute picture I took of their littlest who turns 1 here this week!!

So....if anyone wants to come visit us....PLEASE do!! 

sick

how many blog posts have i started out with that title? 

good grief. 

bubba and i are both fighting something. blah. bubba has his yearly nasty cough, that will most likely last until march with his asthma. :/ 

other than the cough and runny nose though, he seems to be running 100%. 

he has so.much.energy. 

i don't know how to keep up. 

i need to learn to bottle it and sell it. 

i'd be rich. 

as for me, i just have fatigue. my body is worn down. luckily i can still breathe, no cough, and no stomach issues. 

so we are spending the day watching movies, transferring files on the computer, updating software and working on business plans for the next year. 

it's going to be great! 

i also wanted to show a favorite family photo from the year. love this little family of mine. :) 

let's hope we get most of the way better so we can start off the new year RIGHT! 

end of a year

it is now december 29th, of the year 2013. 

this year is coming to a close. 

december has been a hard month for me, and i can't pinpoint what it is. 

probably a lot of different things at once. 

but, we've moved into our house, and it is AMAZING. 

we are seriously SO blessed to be able to live here! 

i was promptly called into the relief society presidency as the secretary. it's kind of weird as i haven't been in relief society for YEARS. i've been with the primary, and the young women's. 

so needless to say, this is different. 

bubba LOVES his primary class, and he loves that a lot of the kids in his class are also in his school class! we carpool to school each day, and he rides the bus home from school. 

he loves it. 

although it's taken some getting used to. 

he is getting so big, and i can't believe that he will turn 6 this next year! 

he gets more and more angel kisses all the time, and i love them. he loves rescue bots, and super heroes.  and his favorite person in the world right now is "uncle josh".  his favorite foods are calamari, yams, and noodles.  he is growing like a weed, and is one of the tallest in his class. i swear i am buying new pants for him every couple of months. either he's grown out of them, or he's ripped holes into them. :) 

my favorite things with him are morning snuggles, eating meals together, and playing games. i love that he still loves cuddling with me, and he isn't ashamed of my kisses yet. 

he tells me every day that i'm the best mommy in the world, and he loves me  62 thousand thousand times. (that's a LOT if you didn't know. :)) he encourages us to be better every day. he makes me smile, and he reminds us every night that we need to say family prayer. he can't go to bed without it. so thankful for this sweet spirit who makes me want to be better on a daily basis. 

i still haven't hung anything up in our house. i think it's a fear of putting holes in the brand new walls. :) 

but i am sure i will get there sometime. :) 

christmas was great! 

it was so much fun to spend christmas morning in our house. we were able to decorate (i will admit that my christmas decorations, or ANY decorations for that matter are lacking. :)) it and do some fun traditions. we got to include family and friends, and we really just had a great time spending it with them! 

we were able to talk to curtis (my brother) on christmas day via Skype! he's looking so good, and he's having fun. he is currently serving a mission for the LDS church in the louisville kentucky mission. he of course loves the area and the people. but we can't wait until he is home! 

thanksgiving was spent with my family. we had such a wonderful meal, and we got to play games and just have fun! we didn't do any black friday shopping this year, which was nice! 

christmas day marked the 7 year anniversary for our first "official" miscarriage. i still take it hard. which surprised me. but we made it through. december also marks the month that we found out that crystal had chosen us to raise bubba. i remember that day like it was yesterday, and we try to celebrate that day every year as well. 

december is also the mark for our adoption paperwork! haha. our paperwork has been in the system for 2 years now. 

it is amazing. with bubba, from getting our paperwork in, to going live, to him being born was 3 months. 

this time it's been two years. 

every one says to just be patient. that it will happen on the Lord's time. 

but it doesn't make it easier. 

i often wonder what's wrong with us. why wouldn't someone choose us? what are we supposed to learn from this? 

and every day, bubba asks when he's going to get a little brother or sister. 

or talks about how he just wants someone else to play with

or asks why i don't have a baby in my tummy ("it's a factory! can't you just make one like aunt kaleigh?) 

and every time it gets harder to think that he just might not get a sibling. 

but that thought rips.me.in.half. 

i've been thinking a lot the last little while about how to submit to the Lord's will. 

i don't know how. 

my desire for a bigger family is SO strong, that i don't know how to let that go, and just be happy. 

sometimes it consumes me. 

but we live each day, grateful for the wonderful blessings we have. 

we hope and pray, and KNOW that the Lord is mindful of us. 

and that things will work out. 

He doesn't want us to be sad. He wants us to be happy. 

so we hold on to the thought that we can be happy now, and we can reach complete happiness with Him. 

but anyway, that's enough heavy for us right now. :) 

we are excited for 2014, and what it has in store for us.

we hope you have an absolutely amazing new year. :)

new home

well, we are moved as of a couple of weeks ago into our new home. 

we finally got internet hooked up this week. 

we have bubba in his new school and he is very excited to be there. 

he gets to ride a bus home from school every day. 

i can't tell you what that does to this momma's heart. 

but he does it, and he loves it.  

apparently he sits by a girl names megan. 

and he chases her at recess. 

sigh. 

we are becoming accustomed to our house, the sounds that it makes, and the sounds we don't hear. 

we are away from neighbors (as in, we don't share a wall with them!) and we love it! 

last night, sam and i watched "white house down" and we turned the sounds system up. 

and nobody complained. 

we have a kitchen, and i've been able to cook some meals in it, which makes sam happy. 

he gets leftovers for lunch. :) 

our ward was split the sunday that we got here. 

it was split from having over 700 active members

to 536. 

it's still huge. 

our neighbors are wonderful, and we've chatted with them at various times, and they brought us dinner just after we moved in. 

i think we'll be friends. 

but...despite all this love and excitement we have for our new home. 

we miss our other one. 

not so much the apartment, but the neighborhood, the friends, and family. 

it's very true when someone says "home is where your heart is"

i guess i don't feel like my heart is out here yet. 

it's still back out in layton. 

i miss my friends that i would hang out with as often as we could. 

i miss the routine that we were in. 

and i miss my family. 

very much so. 

the last couple of days as we've tried to get into a routine here, i have felt lonely. 

i crave for someone to sit and chat with. 

i used to think that i would be happy staying by ourselves the rest of our lives. 

but i need social interaction. 

sigh, 

this will get easier. 

and i know that we have it easy. a lot of people i know aren't even close to their families (michelle, how's england? :))

so an hour away shouldn't be so bad. 

i guess it's just hard adjusting when we would go over to my parents every.single.day. 

but we will find friends, and we will love it out here!

i am sure of it. :) 

but in the meantime, just know we are still here

trying to get into a routine. :)