Pictures of Ethan's Sealing and Blessing

Here are a few pictures of Ethan's Weekend. We had a friend of ours who is a photographer, Sara Ratcliff, (Sara Coral Photography)who came and took our pictures at the Temple on Saturday. I am so glad she was there and she did a FANTASTIC job. Thank you so much Sara.
Here are a few of the pictures that she took. I hope you enjoy.

Ethan's Weekend

This weekend was awesome! We had lots of family come into town and we were sealed to Ethan on Saturday and Blessed him on Sunday. The weekend was just perfect in All ways possible.
Going into the Temple on Saturday morning was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life because I was able to have my eternal companion and both of my children there with me. It was amazing! Hollie looked absolutely beautiful in her white dress and Ethan was a very handsome man in his white outfit. During the sealing Ethan was just perfect. As soon as the sealer began to speak Ethan looked right up at him, listened and didn't look away till he was finished speaking. It was amazing. I thought for sure Ethan would be a wiggly worm, but he wasn't he was just very peaceful. Hollie was a perfect angel who sat on my Aunts lap for the whole thing. When the sealing was over we stood up and looked into the mirrors. Standing in front of the mirrors and looking at my family brought overwhelming joy in knowing that we are an eternal family. I thought of how blessed I am to have these two precious children and a loving husband and father. Hollie and Ethan are truly our miracle angels who were sent to us straight from Heaven. I love them both so much and am so grateful they are our children.
Ethan's blessing day was a great ending to a fabulous weekend. I have to say we were all a bit concerned at how Ethan was going to do during the blessing and all I can say is he sure did give those men a workout. Bishop got up afterwards and said, "I thought Ethan was going to get up and walk away".We all chuckled because that's our boy, he just CAN'T hold still. Ryan did a great job and it was a wonderful weekend for Ethan and our family.
I love my little Ethan more than anything in this world. He is mommy's little boy and always will be. I am so glad that he is now in our family for eternity. He brings such a joy to our home and keeps us on our toes. We love every bit of him and although we have had some hard times with him medically I never stopped loving him and never will. He is my little boy, the son I always wished for, the man we will one day send on a mission, the brother to our sweet daughter Hollie, the second protector of our home, another Priesthood Holder and he is our boy and we are grateful for him and love him more than words can describe.
A quick funny story about Ethan this weekend.
Ethan was so excited that his weekend was finally here and that he could be sealed to his family forever. So excited that he didn't want to miss ONE THING! When I say that, I really mean it. He didn't want to sleep he wanted to be awake every waking moment. Let me just list the times he slept over the weekend. Friday night he finally went down at about 10pm (way past his bedtime), was up 3 times during the night and then WIDE AWAKE at 3:30am!! I couldn't fall back to sleep because I was getting up at 5 to get ready to go to the Temple. I think he was just soooo excited that he couldn't sleep either. He took a couple 20 minute naps during the day on Saturday, was in bed about 10 again that night and then up every hour and a half until 6:30am. Once again I think he was very anxious to get his baby blessing. But, get this. Sunday night after everyone was gone he was out by 8:00pm (bedtime), woke up once during the night and then didn't arise until 9AM!!!!!! Can you believe it! I had to keep going in and checking on him to make sure he was still breathing. I really believe Ethan didn't want to miss a thing and wanted to be awake for everything. Well, he was and the weekend was great! He was held by everyone, given LOTS of attention, and LOTS of hugs and kisses. Every party we had was perfect, food was great and it made for a very memorable weekend.

Papa's Girl

Hollie is definetly Papa's Girl! Papa got her this shirt and she LOVES to wear it. She got her self dressed and said, "mommy take my picture". How could I not. Papa LOVED getting it and she is papa's girl.

In case you can't read what it says, it says, That was my grandpa that just passed you. He rocks! Gotta Love It.

Beautiful California

We took a quick trip to California for my cousins homecoming. It was great to be able to be with all my family on my dad's side. During that time I was also able to see a great friend of mine Christine and shame on me I didn't take any pictures. It's been about a year since I had seen her and we had LOTS of catching up to do and it was fun watching our kids play together.

We enjoyed lots of time by the pool and being outside. Hollie and Ethan loved the pool eventhough it was a little cold for us.

Saturday, KC, Brookie, Ryan, Hollie, Ethan and I all took the day and headed down to Seaport Village. Let me just say that we ALL wanted to move back to San Diego. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! It really couldn't have been more perfect outside. Ethan was SO quite we had to make sure he was still with us. Hollie LOVED running around outside and watching all the boats, airplanes, and animals that walked by. What topped off the day was our Bestest friends in the whole entire world showed up and spent half the day with us. These are friends of the family and have been before I was born. So, to age myself we have known them for 30 years!! HOLY COW!! They are the Ondatje's and I will treasure their everlasting friendship for the rest of my life. Karen (the mom) was best friends with my mom (before she passed away). Everytime I see Karen I cannot help but to get teary eyed. We LOVE talking about my mom and all the memories we have. She LOVES my Hollie to pieces because she just makes her think of my mom, me too. We talk about how my mom would have just loved to be a grandmother and how she would love my two kids to pieces. I know she would and I make sure and keep her alive and talk about grandma Holly all the time. Having good friends like the Ondatje's are irreplaceable. We are always there for eachother and if I ever want to talk about my mom or ask questions Karen is always there.

They have a daughter, who is 30, and a son who is 26. Well, I am 29 and my brother is 25 so we pretty much grew up with eachother. We all still have a great relationship today allthough it is hard because we all live in different states. It was so fun getting together and having all of us there. We have not done that in a really long time and I cannot wait till we do it again. Shame on me again, I didn't take any pictures!!

Ethan's Finalization

On September 16, 2008 Ethan's adoption was finalized!!

It was a perfect day and court couldn't have gone any smoother. The judge asked us a few questions and within 15 minutes Ethan was permanently our sweet handsome little boy. Ethan was great the whole time and could tell it was a special day for him.

My dad and Janene came into town to be here for court and my Aunt Kathy showed up too. It was perfect having family there with us and I knew they wouldn't have missed it for the world.

After court we went out to breakfast/brunch and enjoyed our time as a family. Ryan was able to have the whole day off and it was fun having him home.

This is just for me, but I want Ethan to know how special of a little boy he is to our family. We love you so much and I know you were meant to be in our little family. This day will always be a special day along with November 18th when Hollie's adoption was finalized. You two are two little miracle angels that have come into our life and have made us the parents we have always wanted to be. You have blessed our lives tremendously and we love you so much.

I will continue to update!

I have to get running, but I PROMISE I will update as soon as I can.
Enjoy.

A little visitor

One Friday night Ryan and Hollie were outside and found a baby frog. I was one that didn't think you could find baby frogs here in Hot, Dry Arizona, but I guess you can. This frog was Hollie's little pet for a few days. She named it Happy and would always make sure it was well taken care of. It was the first thing she wanted to see when she woke up and the last thing she wanted to say goodnight to when she went to bed. It was so cute and I loved listening to her talk to Happy. She was so loving and kind. She made sure she told me when it needed water, more grass, or rocks. We knew we couldn't keep it to long because he needed to get back to it's home. Hollie was very determined to keep Happy until papa got here on Tuesday. He did survive, thank goodness, and papa was able to meet Happy.

Keep Dreamin Boys!

So, we went to a wedding reception for a close friend of ours and there in front of the house were about 8 cars. Out of the 8 cars there in the front sat a Lamborghini. Let me just tell you the boys were just loving it! There was also a brand new corvette and a really nice mercedees (okay, I admit I am not good with cars so I couldn't tell you the models except that they are definetly not cars we would all have and drive around town as "mommy" cars.) Anyway, Ryan, KC (my brother) and Ethan had to take a picture by it-pretty cool!

I guess I should explain why the cars were at a wedding reception. Well, the couple that got married met over a car magazine. From my understanding, she likes cars and he was over at her apartment for ward prayer and asked whose magazine it was and she said mine. Now, you don't hear of that pretty often. The cars on the lawn were the brides dad's idea and it was a pretty good idea and drew LOTS of attention. Way to go Tracy!! It was a great wedding reception and lots of fun.

Hollie's first "real" haircut

Hollie and I were able to have a mommy daughter day and it couldn't have been more perfect. We started our day out by going to Lollilocks (I would highly recommend it for those of you in Arizona-Way Cute!!) to get Hollie her first haircut. I tell you I stepped in there are it just brought back memories from when I was a kid, except this place also had a room where your little girl can get a manicure and pedicure and it was full of girly hair accessories and rhinestones. Hollie ofcourse chose the pink elephant to sit on. She did great! Although in the pictures she doesn't look to happy, she really did fantastic. Her hair turned out so cute and they even had Hollie pick out a hair-do out of their little book of four designs. When we were all finished and the cape was taken off Hollie looked in the mirror and said, Look mommy I'm a "pincess". I just about died. She is just too cute and I love it!

Our next destination was Target and then to Jo-Anne's. I have read a lot about these books called Lifebooks for adopted children. I am very anxious and eager to start Hollie's, so we went to Jo-Anne's to pick out her lifebook. We have been talking a lot about adoption lately because we are wanting to plant the seed. Ofcourse, she picked out a "pincess" one and I thought that was just perfect. Yes, we are very much into "pincess' around here. After Jo-Anne's we were on our way home. I was asking her what she wanted for lunch and, ofcourse, her response was, hot dog mommy. It's her favorite food. I said okay and then there was a moment of silence. She then, out of the blue, asked, mommy Amanda (her birthmom) Hollie's house? I said, no sweetheart Amanda is at her house in Idaho. Hollie said, Idaho. I said, that's right she is going to school there. Then she said, Mommy's tummy "boken", Hollie Amanda's tummy. Tears welled up in my eyes, I couldn't believe it- she get's it. I responded and said, that's right Hollie. Mommy's tummy is broken and you came from Amanda's tummy and grew in Mommy's heart. I then expressed to her how much I love her and how lucky we are to have Amanda in our life and how much we love her. I cannot explain the feeling in the car that day. I just cried. Ofcourse, they were tears of joy and accomplishment. My little 2 year old understands that her mommy's tummy is broken and that she had to come from Amanda's tummy. Can I just say these are the joy's of adoption. I couldn't be more grateful for adoption and for my 2 sweet angels. Wow, what a great day!

This month is all about adoption for us as we finalize Ethan's adoption and are able to be sealed to him and bless him. What a wonderful month!

Can you believe he is 6 MONTHS!!!

Our little Ethan is 6 months old! I cannot believe how fast time fly's by. He is growing up and is turning into a little man. I thought I would just show how cute he is and what a handsome little man we have.

Health update. He seems to be doing better than he was. He has his moments but overall I think he is going to grow out of this. We went in to see Dr. Shienkein (the pediatric GI) for a check and she wants us to keep him on the prevacid for a little while longer. I agreed. And while she was examing him, she turned to me and said, "I think this boy just needs to start walking"! I couldn't have helped but to fully agree. He is one BUSY boy and just wants to get around and move, but is unable to because he is still so little. We have mastered sitting up, so our next step is crawling. Watch Out!!