A Family Vacation...

We had a family reunion in Yellowstone/Island Park area this week and I have had SOOO much fun! I will be home tomorrow and will get pictures and stories posted as soon as I get home. Some of my favorite quotes this week...

"No, it's poop stupid." - Rachel

"I saw something. It was as big as your car and it was white and it moved!" - Kelin

"Get in your car moron!" - Onlooking lady

There are so many more and I will give the history of these quotes as soon as I get unpacked and back to normal life.

My first baby shower....

Last night I had my first baby shower! It was wonderful and a little awkward. I never imagined I would be having a baby shower and not be eight months pregnant! :) Everyone keeps saying I'm doing it the easy way or I only have to be "pregnant" for two months and then I get my baby. Let me tell ya, it's been SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS! :D Thank you so much Auntie Liz for my AWESOME shower and everyone else that helped! I got so many great gifts and I appreciate it so much! I feel so much more prepared.

Our nursey...

It's not quiet finished yet but I couldn't wait to post pictures! This is our crib. It grows with the babe and turns into a full size bed frame. This is my rocker that I got a screamin' good deal on! Love it! And the bookcase. The outside isn't painted yet but it will be a really pale blue, almost the color of the rocker.
If it's a boy we will do these colors and...

...if it's a girl we will do these colors. (Peach and pale blue, but we are still toying with the idea of melon, coral and rust. We bought a flowered dress in those colors and it would be really cute!)

A couple good books...

Shortly after we began our adoption journey this book came out. We bought and then found out later that Derrick's cousin, Brittany, helped edit the book and a piece of her story is included as the last story in the book. It is a great book that incorporates the point of view of several people that are affected by adoption (birth parents, adoptive parents, grandparents, nurses, case workers etc.). We highly recommend this to anyone that is adopting or placing or just wants to understand some of the emotions and ups and downs of the process.

I went into Deseret Book one day looking for books on adoption and one of the workers suggested this book by Jamie Lee Curtis. She actually had an extra copy she had bought for a gift and then found out they already had it so she gave me her copy. I read it have it read it several times over the last few years. It is about a little girl that asks to hear the story of her birth and about her parents being so excited for her to come and her birth mother that loves her dearly but just wasn't able to care for her. It explains adoption in a way that a child can understand and is a book we will share with our children often.

I hope you enjoy the books as much as we did!

The verdict is in...

We finished painting the room on Saturday and got the crib put up. We put the sheet on and ugh! The colors did not look good with our crib color! Who would've thought there was this much matching to worry about? I love it! :) Anyway, so we picked some colors for a boy or a girl and I think they will work out really well.

We went to check out rocking chairs on Saturday and I mentioned stopping in at Down East. Turns out it was their tent sale. They had one rocker/glider left and it is the one I had been looking at on the Pottery Barn website! I was so excited.

This picture is from their website but this is the one. Retail is $999 and we paid $155! I was SO excited! I love it. They didn't have the ottaman which is totally fine. If you look at the wall on the picture, that is exactly what we are doing to the bottom 5 feet once we get the money. It is all starting to come together and Derrick and I are having so much fun shopping for and looking for stuff for our baby! I can't wait!

Thanks for the responses! Jenn, I want to see pictures of the girls room when it is done. I'm sure it will be super cute!

Help!!!

Since we are putting the crib up this weekend we bought these sheets to put on it. After looking at them we love the pattern and wondered if we should just do our nursery around these sheets and these colors. Originally the plan was to wait until baby was here and then I would make the bedding based on the gender (browns, blues, greens and oranges for a boy and browns, creams and corals for a girl). So, what so you think? Should we wait or go with this?

A sneak peek...

Okay, I know you are thinking "that is DARK!" but, we do have a plan. We painted it all Swiss Chocolate for now (still working on the touchups) but once baby is born and we have had a chance to evaluate what we have and what we still need and our budget, we are going to "finish" the room. The top three feet will remain this color and the bottom five will be a cream color with some paneling. Let's cross our fingers for the extra $150 we will need to finish!

Our loved ones...

We were able to visit the graves of a few of our loved ones last weekend. We planted two lemon drop calla lillies on my dad's grave. Calla lillies are my FAVORITE flower. My dad's favorite are red roses. Sorry dad! :D

We were also able to visit Derrick's grandparent's grave. Derrick was named after his Grandpa Wrigley and our boy will be named after them both. (Bernell) They always do beautiful flower arrangements for them and it is always so nice to see our aunts, uncles and cousins that come as well.

We are both so grateful for our families and feel so blessed to be around so many of our family members. We miss the ones that aren't here and wish we could be with them more often!

Oh yea...

I forgot to mention the names! If it is a boy we will name him Trey Bernell after Derrick and his grandpa (Bernell is Derrick's middle name and his grandpa's first). If it is a girl her name will be Madison Elaine and we will call her Madi. Elaine is after my wonderful mother in law who has done so much for us over the years. Thanks mom! :)

Surprise...

Well, the verdict is in. We aren't going to find out what the gender is until we get to see with our own eyes. Everyone is saying that it makes it hard to prepare or bummed we don't know but I think that it is exciting! The biggest reason is because Mindy doesn't want to know and if she doesn't want to know, neither do we! :) We feel totally prepared with the basics: diapers, wipes, a crib, a few blankets, bottle, binki's, milk, a pump and some onsies. That will get us through the first week or two until we are able to go shopping for the little one. We will have to stop and get a carseat but since we have already picked them out it isn't a big deal. It was a little more complicated to register not knowing but still so fun. We registered at Babies 'R' Us thinking we would find out so we did girl and boy stuff and had planned on deleting stuff after we found out. Last night we registered at Target knowing that we would be waiting to find out and registered for some necessities as well as some toys and books and a few gender neutral things. We also put a few boy things on there because I have had dreams about a little boy the past few months. All we know is that we are SO excited that we FINALLY have the oppertunity to bring this sweet little spirit into our home and we are humbled at the thought of raising him/her. We can't thank you enough Mindy, Tammy and Lani for the miracle you all are taking part in.

Our Nursery

We have been so excited this weekend that we have set up our high chair and have started painting our nursery. We are painting it Swiss Chocolate. It looks so good! We are excited to get it all finished so we can put our crib up. As soon as we find out the gender I will start making the bedding. We can hardly stand it, we are so excited! :-) Once we get the painting done and the crib up, I will post pictures.

We've been waiting for a lot of years, almost eight.

We'll be blessed one day in August and it will sure be worth the wait!

We are so excited to let everyone know that we are finally going to be a mommy and a daddy! We aren't sure the exact date yet or the gender but as soon as we know we will let you know.

Mindy, if you are reading this, WE LOVE YOU and can't thank you enough for the miracle you are bringing into our lives. You are giving us the greatest gift we could ever imagine and we will forever be grateful! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Ahh, the weekend...

It has been an eventful week and I am SOOO glad it is finally the weekend. It seems like Sunday was a month ago. It will be absolutely wonderful to have Monday off. Of course, like all of our weekends, it will be a busy one. We are going to visit Derrick's grandparent's graves and my dad's grave. We are going to help Nicholas and his family get some stuff done at their house. They are getting ready to sale. On Monday we are going to be BUSY getting our storage room and the scrapbook room cleaned out. We are going to be doing some rearranging of rooms and I want to have it clean before we make a mess. :-) I hope everyone has a wonderfull weekend!

It's a boy...

...and a girl! This is Rebecca. She is having a little girl. She's due on July 21st. They are going to name her Kaitlyn.

This is Chantel. She is having the boy. She is due around June 20th. They are going to name him Maguire.

All the fun baby stuff! This is their work shower. We did it combined since they are so close. They were both totally surprised!

They each got a Bumbo and Bumbo tray, Diaper Genie, a wipe warmer, a play mat and some cloths.

Cute Baby Bellies! The shower turned out great. I hope mine is next!

We're done...

We spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday and I have to say that I think we did okay. I took up most of the time so Derrick only had about 8 minutes. He had prepared such a great talk and had to cut it down and just use some stuff. He will have to use it another time. Sorry babe! It is nice to be done with it though and not have to worry about it any more. Now life can get back to normal.

On Saturday our ward had a ward service project. We did yardwork for some of the members in our ward. we were originally supposed to do 7 houses but ended up doing 11! It was awesome to see all the people who showed up to help and all the work that got done. We have a great ward and we are really starting to enjoy the members.

Before and after...

When we bought our house, we for sure didn't buy it because we loved the laundry room. Isn't it pretty? ;)

It went from this...

to this...
to this...

We have some cabinets ordered that will be here in about three weeks and we are SO excited to get them and put them in. I can't wait to have it all finished! It makes me want to start our next project. That will have to wait until after our vacation though!

From three to two...

For those of you who have been following American Idol you know it is down to the final three. Tonight they are eliminating one with the finale next week. I just have to say that if you close your eyes and listen to Adam Lambart start his song I can see how you could enjoy it... then comes the screams and shreiks! How is he even still on there? I will be so bummed if he wins. I don't know who is voting for him cause everyone I talk to can't stand the scream he does. Maybe the judges have earplugs in or something because they always rave over him. Anyway, good luck to Danny and Chris and I hope the shreiks stop tonight! :)

Saber...

This is my youngest nephew, Saber. When Derrick's family all came in August we were able to be with them for his blessing. We are really glad we were able to be a part of that. Susan was great to let me hold him as much as I wanted and I really enjoyed that. Thanks Susan!

Yea! My computers back...

I have been waiting for two weeks to get a new AC adapter for my computer and it finally came in the mail yesterday. You can expect an overload of pictures and blog posts that I have been saving for when the computer was up and going again. I am so excited to finally have it back! (If you are waiting on pictures from my Suzie Q site I am working on those first thing so keep checking!)

Our fire alarms work...

Last night we were working on our laundry room. We were using acetone to remove paint from the cement. We were almost done when the pilot light from our water heater ignited the fumes. It was CRAZY! Derrick grabbed some towels from the bathroom and swatted out the rag that had caught fire but the fumes and smell was so strong we had to go outside. When we went out there was still a few flames so we called the fire department. By the time they got there the fumes had burnt up and the fire was out. All our neighbors were out side watching since we had two fire trucks, the fire pickup truck, a cop and the sherriff there. They came with sirens and lights and everything. It was pretty embarassing. Other than some soot and singed arm hairs, we are both fine and so is our laundry room. We are glad that it all worked out okay and we have learned our lesson that anytime we are doing anything that has fumes or is flammable, to turn off the gas before starting!

It's About Love...

LDS Family Services launched a new site this year. There are so many great things to it. One of the new features that I love is that I am able to see how many times each page has been looked at. It is skewed because people other than birthmoms look at it and I am totally good with that. The page that I wish only birthmoms would click on is the "Contact Us" page. Every time I see that number go up I get excited that we may get an email and then bummed when we don't. I know I should probably just not look but that is easier said than done. :)

We're speaking...

Derrick and I have been asked to speak in sacrament meeting on May 17th. Anyone that would like to come is more than welcome. I have been given the talk from Elder Holland in this last conference, "None Were with Him" and Derrick was given Elder Bednar's talk "Honerably Hold a Name and Standing". If you have any suggestions we would love to hear!

Our Laundry Room...

We were hoping to get our laundry room completely finished this weekend but, it didn't happen. The floor ended up being much harder than we had originally thought. Under all of the linoleum there is paint. We stopped this morning and bought acetone to take it off and I will get started on that after work. With any luck, we will be done by the weekend. :) Hopefully by then we have the new cord for our computer so I can add pictures to our blog.

I have to brag...

Congratulations to my older brother Nicholas, who graduated from UVU last Friday. They were so lucky to have President Thomas S. Monson speak at the commencement. Nicholas, Christina (his wife) and Whitney (his oldest daughter) watched as he left and kind of hung around a little. They decided to leave and Nicholas said "Let's walk this way" Next thing you know, they see a security guard and the door opens. Out walks Sister Monson and their daughter. Close behind was President Monson. We saw Whitney (she's four and a half) and said "Don't you have a pretty smile." He asked what her name was and she quitely told him. He asked her again and she said it louder. He asked her if she could blow him a kiss and she did. He shook her hand and continued on. What a sweet president and an amazing moment for my little niece to treasure. As they left she said to Nicholas "Dad, you tell all of your friends and I will tell all of mine!"

One of those weeks...

Do you ever have a day that you just need to lay in bed and have a good, hard cry? There really isn't any one reason, just a bunch of little ones. Well, it has been one of those WEEKS for me. It's my fault. On Sunday, we were sick and didn't go to church. It doesn't matter what the reason is but I know that if I miss church my whole week I feel heavy and I can tell I didn't get the spiritual uplifting that I need to make it through the next week. Anyhow, I just have to thank my sweet husband because without him, I don't know what I would do. He has brought me flowers, taken me to dinner and been there to make things better. I love you Derrick!!! I am also very grateful to know that I am a daughter of God and that I can rely on my Savior when I need peace. I am glad that our parents raised us in the Gospel and that we have such wonderful families.