Eight Wonderful Years...

Derrick and I celebrated our eighth anniversary on Saturday. I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man. He is supportive in everything I do and is so good to me. He is attentive and caring and thoughtful. Even after eight years, he still opens my doors, still makes sure I have everything I need or want and is still so good to me. He is more than I ever imagined in a husband and I am so glad for him in my life! He is going to be an amazing daddy and I am thrilled at the opportunity we have to finally be parents! I look forward to the day when I get to kneel across the altar of the temple and have our sweet baby sealed to us for all eternity. I am so grateful for that knowledge and that blessing in our life. I thought I would put a few pictures from then and now. Poor guy, he didn't know what he was getting! :DApril 2001July 25, 2001July 25, 2001April 2009

An update...

We had a wonderful and BUSY weekend! It is amazing how much junk can accumualte over the years. We spent most of Saturday dejunking two rooms that REALLY needed it and rounding stuff up for our yard sale that is coming up. We had a really enjoyable evening together. We decided that with the baby coming we would just do cards for our anniversary but I splurged and bought a fondue set. We had cheese and chocolate fondue that was SO yummy! (and so much cheaper than the Melting Pot) I was able to find a bottle of sparkling peach juice (Derrick proposed with that) and I was excited about that because it is REALLY hard to find. We spent the evening listening to some of our favorite love songs and watching our wedding video. It was a great night and I am so glad for Derrick's help throughout the day!

Sunday we brought TWO car loads of stuff down to my brothers for our yard sale. We still have a ton of stuff to gather around our house. When we got there my sweet little niece, Caitlin, ran to me and said "my Lissa's home" and hugged me. She did this over and over for about five mionutes, telling her sister and her dad. She told them "my Lissa's home" over and over and would just hug me and hug me. She is such a doll! It was so sweet and TOTALLY made my day (especially since she usually says hi to me and then asks "Where's Derrick?")! Derrick went home since he didn't feel well and I stayed to have family home evening with my aunts, uncles and cousins. We do this every month and it has been awhile since I have been able to go because it is such a long drive and gas is so expensive and it is hard to justify for an hour or two. I really enjoyed it though because I miss them all!

Andee Leigh

I found out about this blog through the Davis County FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) Blog. It is the story of an amazing birthmom, Andee Leigh, and her experience with adoption. I have pasted a small portion of her story which she has broken down to four parts. Don't forget the box of tissues!

I put my face in my hands and said a quick prayer.
this can't be positive.
When I looked down, my stomach twisted and I felt as if I was going to throw up. My eyes became blurry with tears as I read the word "pregnant" on the test.
this cannot be happening to me!! no!

I am so grateful for the sacrifice that birthmothers make and for the wonderful blessing that Mindy is to us. They have more strength, courage and love than anyone I know besides the Savior to be willing to give their child what they aren't able to. We are thrilled at the oppertunity to be parents and can't wait to see what our child looks like and to learn their personality.

Updates and our weekend...

Every week we say we are going to deep clean our house this weekend and then every weekend we say we will do it next weekend. Will it ever get done??? :) I did get a few things accomplished however. I finished the base boards in the nursery and I made 50 magnets for my yard sale that's coming up. I have 50 more to make and some cards and maybe some scrapbook pages and rounding up all our stuff, picking up from the couple people that are contributing and then we should be all set. I hope it will be successful.

We did a little shopping on Saturday and on Sunday mom came home from the hospital. We are glad she was able to leave the hospital and hope she has a quick recovery. It was a pretty uneventful weekend. That is okay since we have something just about every night this weekend and Saturday is our 8th anniversary. Guess the cleaning will have to wait until the next or maybe until the 15th of August. (The 1st is our yard sale and the 8th is my sister's wedding.) Have a great week!

So excited...

I got some drops of milk today!!! I have been pumping for two months and today it is worth it! I am so excited that I am going to be able nurse my baby! Yay!

Mom...

Yesterday we had a VERY long day. We went to bed around 11:00 on Wednesday night and the phone rang an hour later. It was Aunt Joyce and she said that mom had fallen (Derrick's mom) and that she was at the hospital with a BAD broken arm. Of course, we couldn't sleep, so we got up, showered, got ready for work and headed to the ER at the U. They had several trauma cases that night that had taken priority so it wasn't until around 3:30 or 4:00 that they started discussing whether to splint the arm and do surgery on Friday or whether they should take her into surgery. Derrick and I left just before 5:00am and went to mom and dad's to sleep for an hour before work. They decided around 8:00 that they would take her into surgery. Derrick and I left work around 1:00 so we could be there when she cam out of surgery. The doctor said everything went well and they put some pins and plates in. I got to look at her x-ray then and her humerous (upper arm bone) was broke horizontily. The upper portion was broke vertically and spread like a pair of open scissors and the bottom portion was up in between the vertical break of the top portion. I had never seen a break like that. I feel so bad for mom and hate to see her in pain. They didn't have enough rooms so they kept her in recovery until 5:00pm before sending her up to the 6th floor were she shared a room that was clearly only big enough for one patient. We visited with her for a minute and then went to Park City to pack up their stuff at the condo they had rented. We brought her an overnight bag and then headed home, stopping to grab a bite to eat. By the time we got to bed it was 11:00. We are both exhausted and worry about dad because he has had LESS sleep than we have! We are grateful that we are here and able to help them with what they need and we are grateful for all they do for us. We are hoping they will release her today and then she is going to stay with Joyce and Dan for a while so she doesn't have to worry about stairs. I hope that the pain doesn't last long and that she can heal quickly. We love both her and dad very much and are so blessed to have them as parents and to have them so close. Feel better soon, Mom!

Our Adoption Yard Sale...

I was looking on KSL this morning for a good deal on a stroller and changing table and came across an ad for an adoption garage sale. Adoption is really expensive and so this couple decided to ask their friends, family and neighbors to donate items that they would normally take to the DI and they are having a huge yard sale. They also asked for baked goods and any services that people wanted to offer as well. We thought it was an excellent idea and since we don't mind being a copy cat, we are going to do it. :)

If you are willing to donate, send me an email or give me a call. I would be more than happy to pick it up if that is easier for you (as long as you live in UT). Here are some ideas of things you can donate:

furniture, clothes, DVDs, baby stuff, scrapbooking supplies, dishes and kitchen items, frames, books, toys, home decor, CDs, baked goods, services and anything else you think would help.

Tell your friends and neighbors about it too and see if they would be willing to help. If you have any other ideas, send them our way!

I am planning it for August 1st in American Fork from 7:00 to 1:00. Thanks for all the support that you all have been. We really appreciate it!

My sweet baby!!!

We were absolutely thrilled on Friday when we received the CD from the hospital that had our ultrasound pictures. We opened it with anticipation of staring at the multiple images of our beautiful baby! Much to our surprise, they only put four images on the CD! I was bummed there wasn't more and so glad that Mindy let us experience the ultrasound with her. I will always treasure that memory and can still see in my mind our baby, sucking away, and the little nose, fingers and toes. I am so excited for our baby to be born and can't wait to see all of his/her features. I hope you enjoy the pictures of our little one until we are able to post some pictures from the hospital. I know that I love them and look at them daily. Head and arm
Face

Arm

Head and arm

SUMMER fun...

This is my latest craft. It was so fun and I LOVE the way it turned out.

I have an ant and a watermelon slice too that I will put on once I am finished.

Finally prepared...

...at least with the necessities.

A big
THANK YOU

to Rebecca and her sister Candice for the car seat. It is so cute and we LOVE the colors! We are so excited about it we even put it in the car this weekend. Now we will be ready as soon as we get the call! :)

The BEST friends ever!!!

I have the BEST friends at work! One of the girls in my office had a baby three weeks ago and the Rebecca and Alesha, who I share an office with, schemed with her and arranged to take me to lunch and have a little baby shower for me. It was so sweet of them to do and I appreciate them so much. I will miss being with them every day and hope we get together often. Chantel's baby was born in June, Rebecca is due in 11 days and of course, ours is in August.

So sweet...

Mindy gave us this flannel blanket for baby when we met her for the ultrasound. It is so soft! I LOVE these kind of blankets! I know this is something our child will treasure forever. Thank you so much Mindy!

It was amazing...

We had the most wonderful experience yesterday. Mindy allowed us to go to her ultrasound with her and we were able to see our baby. Everything looks great and they moved her due date up a week to Aug 23rd. They estimate the baby weighs 5 lbs 8 oz. It was amazing to watch the heart beat and when we saw our babies face and tiny little hands it all became so real and it brought tears to my eyes. I am so excited to hold our baby and to have him/her here. The hospital is going to send us pictures. I will post them as soon as I get them. Thank you so much Mindy for sharing that with us!

Happy 4th!

We had a great weekend! On Friday our city had West Point Days. We invited Nicholas and his family, Chris, Tiffany and Bekka to come stay the weekend and enjoy the fireworks with us. The city served sloppy joes, WATERMELON, chips and cookies. They had many things going on but we started watching the kids version of the Survivor Challenge and once it started there was no pulling us away. Some of the tasks were fairly easy like run to the slide, get your teams bandanna, tie it around your head and be the first to have all your team members done and in their seat. Other challenges, not so much, especially the FOOD challenges. The first one they had to eat tortilla chips with a boiled tomato and peanut butter. We were impressed at how well they did. One of the other food challenges was to eat cornflakes covered in black beans. This cute little girl, Sara, threw up hers but kept on EATING! She is the one that won the grand prize, a bike, and TOTALLY deserved it for eating her own barf! The second place winner, Abby, was a ROCK STAR! She had immunity in about every challenge since she was always the winner. She won a scooter. They were all around the age of 9 or 10. Next year, we are watching the adults. If they do this to the kids, we can't wait to see the adults CHALLENGES!

After Survivor we went to watch the fireworks. We set our blanket out early so we were on the front row. It looked like they FIREWORKS were falling right on us! My favorite part was when Caitlin rolled on her tummy and burried her face in my arm because she was scared. It was like if she couldn't see them they would go away! Kids are so CUTE!

Saturday Nicholas and Derrick put up some base boards and did some things around the house while us girls ran to Hobby Lobby (my FAVORITE craft store)! We got stuck behind the parade and it took us an HOUR just to get on the freeway, about 4 miles! We barbequed and then napped. We headed to Kaysville to save a spot on the hill for the fireworks at DATC. This is our favorite spot and we go about every year. We always see friends and have a great time. We headed to Castle Park down the road for a picnic dinner and so the girls could play before heading back to hang out on our blanket for the fireworks. We had fun playing cards, talking and laughing. The show was great however they changed where they shoot them off from so they weren't as great as other years. After the fireworks ended my cute niece Whitney (almost 5) said "DAMN". Her parents, of course, explained that we don't talk like that but I just couldn't help but laugh! I'm sure when me little one says a naughty word I won't find it so FUNNY! We did a few of our own fireworks on the side of the road while we let the cars leave and then headed home. What a great way to celebrate our NATION'S birthday!

Could something else go wrong....

It seems like the last few months we have been forking out money EVERYWHERE! We have spent $1,350 on our cars and have to register ones of them in July so that will be another $150 or so, we are re-financing and have to pay $400 for our appraisal (it will save us $198 on our mortgage since interest has dropped so much so that's ok) we spent several hundred on our vacation (also worth it) but this week our dishwasher started acting weird. We are crossing our fingers that it was just a fluke and that we won't have to replace it. Then, we came home last night and went to watch a movie and our projector won't turn on. We either need a new lamp or the lamp circut is broke. It is making a buzzing noise. We love our theater but a new lamp is $250 and if we have to replace the whole projector we may be without TV/movies for a LONG time!

Most days being an adult is great but when it comes to money it totally SUCKS!