What a pal!

We were at the school tonight taking tickets for a basketball game and this is what we saw...


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I've never received Christmas gifts like this before...

I kind of think that we aren't the only ones who can't wait for G-baby's arrival.

Merry Christmas!

We hope your Christmas was full of fun and family!

(We were on our way to Vegas. More about that later)
We had a great one for sure!

Have a great New Year!

Wanna know why we like Five Guys?

The hamburgers you say?

Nope.

The peanuts?

Not really.

The fries?

Nah.

It's the vinegar! Mmm...

You have to bite one end of the fry off and let it soak in the vinegar.
While it's soaking, the ketchup gets a little love.

Mmm...

look at what my email just brought me!

I love it!
Thanks Rin! You are the best! :)

this cracks me up! (from Lara's blog)

hmm... how does this work?

Jace's fortune.

one of my favorite things about winter...

(can't forget my most favorite mugs!)

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Thank you so much for all the comments and well wishes!

I just keep coming back over and over again to read them and reread them.

I seriously have the best family and friends.

Thank you for being excited for us!

We are so so excited.

We are thinking of Rin today.

It's her day.

Her birthday.

I wish we could take her out to dinner or something fun.

Maybe next year. :)

Happy Birthday Rin!

(oh... and if you are wondering who Rin is... read here and then here.)

Did someone say they wanted details?

We usually don't include many others on our little adoption journeys.
Adoption is hard.
I never know what I'll say if it doesn't work out.
It's always a really tough decision for me. To share or not to share.

This time we are taking a chance to share, because we are so excited and full of joy and it's hard to contain the excitement. Plus, we (meaning Us and Rin and her family) need all the prayers we can get. And in the end should "Rin" choose to parent... I know I have the best friends ever who would be there to support us.

But right now, that is the furthest thing from my mind.

Until I am ready to share her name with you, our sweet birth mom will go by Rin.

Rin and her mom have been working with LDSFS for a little over a month. As she was clicking through profiles online, she found ours and kept going to back to it. She decided she would like a face to face visit.

On the day before Thanksgiving we got a call from our LDSFS office telling us a little about her and that she would like to meet us. It was completely unexpected. We haven't been contacted for months and months. We wanted to tell everyone... but of course we secretly rejoiced that in 12 days we would meet Rin.

Well that day finally came. We were excited and nervous all at the same time. (really I felt like puking I was so nervous) When she arrived and we met her, all the nervousness went away (well most of it anyways - hee hee). She is beautiful and so cute. She has a one year old little boy who is cute and was so good the entire time.

As we sat and talked (for at least an hour), I said plenty of dumb things, lost all my words and sometimes just sat there not knowing what to say. But it was still a great hour. As we stood to leave, I hugged her mom and then Rin. After I hugged her she told us that she wants us to adopt her baby. There were tears in her eyes as she told us. I of course started sobbing and hugged her again. All of the case workers had just walked in the hall. (even our awesome case worker braved the crazy snow storm to drive 2.5 hours to be there) Of course there were no tissues in the room (how does that happen?!?!) so I rushed out to find some. You should have seen the case workers faces as I stepped into the hallway. They were all worried. "What happen? What did she say?" They were thinking the worst. Finally the note taker that sat in on the meeting (yep, it was basically a party in there) said, She just told them she wanted them to adopt her baby. I still don't think anyone understood what was going on, but at least we knew it was a happy cry! Her case worker rushed back in to talk to them. We talked to our case worker a little and as we left to leave, they were leaving as well. Rin told me she was sorry for making me cry. Definitely no apologies needed there.

We are hoping to get to be able to spend a little more time with her over the next few months. She is amazing, beautiful and perfect for us.

Baby boy - April 5th.

Thank you for all your words of congratulations and excitement. They mean the world to us. You guys are the reason I couldn't keep my excitement in anymore. I needed to let all my greatest friends know. Thank you for always being there in all our times of need and joy during this whole process.

Remember that day?

The cold, snowy first monday of december?

Remember that day we woke up to the smell of oil on our clothes and blankets from those yummy sweet potato chips we made the night before?

Remember that day Dustyn went out and shoveled his mom's walks just to go out a few hours later to see it had quickly been replaced?

Remember that day I had to take a cold shower because I let Dustyn shower before me?

Remember that day I had bad frizzy, flat, nasty hair?

Remember that day when the snow plows forgot to come to work?

Remember that day we watched three cars struggle to just get over the overpass?

Remember that day we drove all over in 4-wheel drive trying to stay on the road?

Remember that day we remembered the camera but the battery was dead?

Remember that day we had to make a quick trip into Target to get a belt so my pants would stay up?

Remember that day we went to Cafe Rio and had way too much of that yummy food and then felt sluggish and sleepy?

Remember that day we chose the wrong place to sit to eat our yummy food, and that door was just way too close? (Brrrr!!!) And we prayed it would close quickly every time it opened?

Remember that day it was so cold, all day?

Remember that day we listened to Christmas tunes the entire day to distract us?

Remember that day we went to Target, Tai Pan and IKEA all in the same day?

Remember that day we ate Chocolate cake at IKEA?

Remember the day I planned this post in my head all day only to forget it?

Remember that day we tried to figure out why this all seemed so familiar?

Remember that day I sobbed as "Rin" hugged us and told us she would like us to be the parents of her baby boy?

Yah. That was a good day. A very good day.

Gingerbread House, anyone?

This was our attempt at a good 'ole fashion homemade gingerbread house. Sadly I can't show you the wicked awesome windows on the sides or even the back because sadly, this is our only lasting photo. Shortly after this photo was taken, Dustyn was holding it over the sink to sprinkle crushed candy canes on top (i may or may not have had a cow when he started sprinkling them all over the table. (i.e. FLOOR). As he was sprinkling, it crashed and fell in a bowl of water. Suddenly it became a soggy gingerbread house. Really though, it was pretty sweet. We may try to attempt one next week, we'll see.

Our weekly forecast...

Hopefully we are ready for snow.
At least it won't be as cold as this last week.