O' Christmas Tree

Tonight for Family Home Evening we put up all the Christmas decorations. As much as I love them all... it felt good to only put up the stuff in the front room. (And we were delighted that our new furniture matched the tree and tree skirt PERFECTLY.)

Here's a glimpse into our decked out house...

Welcome to the Family!

We have had some exciting stuff happening around here. On (Thursday) October 15th I got an email from our caseworker at LDSFS wondering if we would be interested in a two year old little boy who's mother died. His grandparents want to still be involved in his life. I immediately responded - YES, YES, YES!

As we were waiting to hear back from LDSFS, I began including "the little boy" in our prayers. One morning during our scripture study prayer I mentioned that "the little boy can find a new home, and that we can prepare ourselves if he is supposed to come live with us." I tried to fill in as much as I could after that, but I didn't fool Josh. At the end of the prayer, he said "Amen, what little boy?". I explained that there was a little boy looking for a new home, and we are hoping that he will come live with us. Josh jumped up and started looking out the window. "mom, I don't see him". I had to explain that he wasn't outside, but he was living with his grandparents while they find him a new home.

On Monday our caseworker, Adrienne, called me to tell us that the family was still looking at profiles and they would email anyone they were interested in. Then on Tuesday (October 20), I was getting my hair cut by my good friend Jenny, and I got an email (on my phone) from the grandparents. Jenny and I were both freaking out! This is especially cool, since Jenny is the one that went to the LDSFS office with me when I found out about Josh. She and I both took this as a sign! (You may wonder where Mike is, well he was out of town the whole time, and got home just as I got home from getting my hair cut.) I was so excited to share the news with him!

After the first email that we got from Kelly and Rob we started emailing back and forth almost every day. It has been so fun getting to know their family and finding out more about LEVI! He is just barely 2, and has been living with Kelly and Rob pretty much since his mother passed away in March of this year. Levi is their only grandchild, and they have been so close to him for his whole life, they were very interested in finding a family that would let them still be involved with Levi.

We met Kelly, Rob and Levi for the first time on Thursday, October 30th. After sitting down with grandma and grandpa for about 1 hour they brought Levi in. He was so cute!!!!! He was warm and happy, and excited to meet Josh.

We were all excited to be there, but Josh could hardly stand the wait to meet his new brother. By the time we had our face to face meeting with Kelly, Rob and Levi, we were all pretty confident that we had made a great match.

My friends Jamie and Jenny helped me make a quilt to give to Levi, and we found a cute sock monkey (which our family really loves) to share with him too. Josh also picked out some fun toys for Levi (he's a big music fan).

The meeting went awesome. We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the LDSFS office, then we all went to Olive Garden to eat. Levi was very good at dinner and it was fun to spend more time with all of them. Kelly's niece, Reanna, also came to help with Levi while we got to know each other. Reanna watches Levi while Kelly works most days. It is amazing to see how much each of them love Levi, and how excited they are for him to be in our family.

Since that first meeting, Kelly and Rob have brought Levi over to our house 2 more times. He has been very excited to be here both times, and he and Josh get along like brothers (on a good day). It's nice that they are about 4 years apart, hopefully there will be less fighting more loving going on between them with the age gap.

We are still waiting for some relinquishment papers to be signed by Levi's birth father, but he has agreed to do what is best for Levi and let him move on, so that shouldn't be too hard. Kelly and Rob are still trying to get permanent guardianship of him, then they will be able to relinquish their rights as well. We anticipate having Levi stay at our house several days/nights during December, then hopefully in January we can either take him under foster care, or the paperwork will be done and we can just have him placed in our home.

We are thrilled with this new opportunity for our family, and for Levi. He will be such a blessing in our home, and we can't wait to start our new life with him!

Here's some pictures of the face-to-face meeting at LDSFS and his first visit to our house.

Trick or Treat

I wish I got a picture of it, but Mike went all out this year on the handing out of the candy (probably to compensate for my small amount of candy that I bought).

He set up his 12x12 canopy, with a table, 3 chairs, a radio and the candy under it. Then he put tiki torches all along the side walk in front and around the canopy, then he busted out the fire pit. It was awesome!!!

Josh and I went trick or treating with the Krebs, and got quite a good haul of candy. We were out for about 1 hour, and had lots of fun.








Then we came home and helped hand out candy. There weren't a ton of trick or treaters... but enough to keep us busy. When there were people on the street (but not at our house) Josh would sing his "Halloween is almost here, and I can hardly wait" song to entice the "customers" over. He kept saying "look, more customers are coming right up". I really think he enjoyed giving out the candy more than collecting it.

Dawn, Will and Josh chillin by the fire pit

After we ran out of candy, Mike cleaned up the party, and Josh and I headed over to grandma's house. She said they didn't get much trick or treaters either... darn Trunk or Treat! How lazy are kids these days???? Anyway, we had a great time!

Josh's First Field Trip

Mrs. Knight (Josh's Kindergarten teacher) told them around the first of October that they would be going to the Farmer Grants Pumpkin Patch. Unfortunately it was over 2 weeks away. Josh was so excited. He kept telling everyone that they were going to the pumpkin patch next monday. I was lucky enough to be one of the moms that got to accompany the kids to the Pumpkin Patch. We had a good time going through the corn maze and picking out pumpkins. The kids were so good. It was a great time!

One of my favorite things to do...

Our stake has a volleyball league for the women. Last year we went the entire season with out winning a SINGLE game! This year... the tradition continues. Now when I say game, I mean game. Not match! You have to win 2 games to win the match. We have never had to play more than 2 games before the other teams win the match!
This year, since we knew how not good we are, we decided to make up for it with our looks. So we decided to all wear black. I thought it was because we were in mourning, but it was mostly to intimidate the other teams into at least one or two points.
The other night, Josh and Mike came to the game to cheer us on. They took a lot of video on the camera. Sadly, the pictures weren't the best. This particular camera doesn't take the picture until about 1/2 a second after you tell it to!
This is one of my favorite pictures. Not sure why Jamie is doing ballet instead of acutally getting the ball, but she sure looks good doing it, right?

Karen's wicked serve!

This is ONE of the times that Janel was on the floor. I think this time she was laughing so hard that she couldn't get up! Another time she acutally did the splits. I don't think that they are normally in her bag of tricks! Looked like she was in a lot of pain!

Jamie is part volleyball player, part cheerleader (or is she praying for a win)!

I am happy to report we have a WIN (of a MATCH), the truth is the other team forfeited, but oh well, it counts as a win for us! We'll take it. After the other team forfeited, we split up and played a little pick up. Jamie and I were on a team with Danielle and Karen from the CBF ward, and we played against "us" the all blacks. My favorite line of the night was: "wow, this is the closest game we have ever played" then someone responded "it's because we are playing ourselves!". I am also happy to report the our team beat the other all black team! (BTW, the all blacks come from some team in australia or something, you have to ask Julie H., she gives a detailed explaination every week! (I just don't listen.)

Wish us luck in the tournament this week!

Scarecrow Festival

It had been a while since we went over the Thanksgiving Point's fall festivities, so I talked my friend Sarah and her son Andrew into coming with us. Josh and Andrew had a good time together. I think the bounce houses took the prize for favorite activity.

Dentures

Since Josh has now lost his 2nd tooth, we decided to get him some dentures. I think they look pretty great!

Our New Favorite Recipe

Inspired by Adana (of course!)

Maybe you already make this, but we just did it like I will describe below, and it was amazing!!!



Shopping list:

Penne Pasta (1/2 bag)
Red, Yellow, and Orange Pepper
Small yellow squash
Small zuchinni squash
1 chicken breast
*Seasoning: From Kneaders bakery, it's called Zesty Garlic Seasoning (Bittersweet Herb Farm)

How we made it:

We cut the chicken breast into about 4 large strips, then grilled it on the George Foreman grill.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta (we cooked it for about 8 minutes). Be sure to not let it get too mushy.

In a large skillet, heat about 2 Tbsp. of olive oil. Add peppers (cut in strips) and about 1 heaping Tbsp. seasoning. Cook for a minute or so, then add sliced squashes. Cook for about 7 more minutes.

When chicken is fully grilled, cut into bite size pieces. Add about 1 more Tbsp. olive oil, and some more of the seasoning, if you want, to the skillet then toss in the chicken.

Drain the pasta, and let dry a bit. Add the pasta to the skillet.

If you don't care about the fat content you can toss in about 1/2 cup of alfredo sauce (my favorite). Here's how I make mine. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter, add 1 glove fresh garlic. Add 1/3-1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese (in the green can) and 1/4 c. whipping cream. Salt and Pepper to taste. Heat until throughly mixed. Try not to boil.

This made about 4 large servings. Mike is going to try it cold tomorrow!

*Seasoning contains: parsley, garlic, chives, onion, lemon peel, paprika, herbs & spices.

Getting so tall!

Recently I bought this growth chart (Vinyl, from Stamin' Up) and was so excited to put it up. It wasn't until I took this picture that I realized how tall Josh is! Look he's so close to my own height! EEK!

These measurements are from Josh's birthday. I am hoping that I can keep measuring each year (or 1/2 year, I don't know).