Bathing toys in the toilet?????

Oh, the joys of a 22 month old. I tell ya, she has been keeping me busy lately and surprising me every day with something new. At the beginning of the week she decided that it would be fun to put her toys in the toilet!! Yup, you read that right toys in the toilet!?! Where on earth did that come from?? Hollie sometimes likes to sit in her bathtub (no water ofcourse) and play with her toys. I guess she thinks that since there is no water in the bathtub that the toys should be put in the toilet where there is water. Like Amanda said, maybe she is "bathing" her toys. What a funny girl. And yes, the toys are all in the utility tub getting BLEACHED. The toilets are clean, ofcourse, but toilets are just gross!!

On Tuesday Hollie decided to give me a bit of a heart attack, let me explain. I went out the garage door into the garage to put a screwdriver away real quick. I was maybe outside for a matter of 30 seconds and our sweet little innocent Hollie had that much time to DEAD LOCK the garage door and lock me out! I couldn't believe it. I tried opening it and there was no way. All the other doors and windows were locked I had no way to get in. I began to panic, yes I know that's not good to do, but as many people know that's just me. My mind was running. Hollie was crying, I was crying and thinking what do I do. Ofcourse, I didn't have my phone on me, why not, I was only putting something away in the garage that would take me seconds. No, we didn't have an extra key anywhere in the garage. So, off to our neighbors I went. They came over and when we got in the garage guess who was standing there? Hollie. What the heck I thought. She must have been smart enough to lock it and unlock it. I promise I wasn't crazy the door was really locked and I can only imagine what my neighbors thought of me that day. No worries we have now learned to keep an extra key out and I always prop the door open. It was an eventful day.

My Miracle Had Come

Okay, so my next two posts are songs that I found that were sung in an adoption fireside we had attended about a year ago. They are amazing and I just had to post them. Enjoy

My Miracle Had Come

Like Hannah in the Bible

I prayed to God above

I prayed, "Dear Lord, please bless me

With a little one to love."

And I prayed with hope

I prayed in Faith

That soon the day would come

That in my heart and in my arms

I'd hold a little one.

Like Sarah in the Bible

The days and years seemed long.

I waited for a miracle-

Would it ever come?

Unlike Hannah,

Unlike Sarah

It was not meant to be.

A little child would not be born-

Not from within me.

It seems like God just took me by the hand.

I heard Him say, "This is the plan."

I asked Him why this burden was mine to bear.

He said, "Find Faith, I've heard your humble prayer."

There's a story in the Bible

A story I understand

About a woman who bore a child

And place him in other hands.

She wanted him to be kept safe-

She traded sacrifice for faith...

And in the end he grew to be

One who looked upon God's face.

Like this woman in the story

Another bore a son.

She traded sacrifice for faith-

And place him in my arms.

Like Hannah, and like Sarah

My miracle had come-

And in my heart and in my arms.

I held my little one.

It seems like God just took me by the hand.

I heard Him say, "this is the plan."

Again, I prayed and humbly spoke to God above

for now I held a little one to love.

Oh, how I love my little angel and my angel who is on his way.

Life is great and I love it!!!

Our First Angel

Little Angel Smiles

There are angels in heaven

There are angels here on earth

I think it was an angel

Who gave our baby birth

There were other choices

That she could have made

Yet, to another angel

It was life she humbly gave

Chorus

Little Angel smiles

And dancing angel eyes

Little angel cries

A little angel lives each day

Upon the earth

Because an angel chose

To give her baby birth

I believe it angels

I see one everyday

She touches so many lives

As she smiles along the way

My little angel looks like

The one who gave her birth

Yes, I believe in angels

For I've seen them here on earth.

Chorus

Lindsey Knight

Adoption

Last night Ryan and I had the opportunity to attend an adoption fireside through LDS family services. It was amazing and very informative. The speaker spoke on birthmom's and the process they go through to place their baby for adoption. As many of you probably know it is not an easy process for them. They are completely selfless and are doing what they know is best for their baby. I have such a respect and an unconditional love for each and every birthmom. I love to compare our birthmom to Mary in the bible. Our birthmom is doing exactly what Mary did and with just as much faith and love. My heart is so full and I have so many thoughts running through my head today. I will try and make as much sense as I can in sharing my feelings with you.
As many of you know our life has been tremendously blessed through the miracle of adoption. It was about 4 1/2 years ago that Ryan and I started trying to get pregnant and it was just not happening. After many doctors appointments, surgeries and infertility drugs we began to think that maybe this was not the Lord's plan for us and that maybe there was something else. That's when we began to look into adoption. We knew the certification process was long but we were willing to do what we had to. Low and behold within 4 months we were certified and within 5 months after that we received a letter from our birthmom stating that she wanted to place her baby girl with us. Oh, what a miracle!! We couldn't believe it. Our prayers had been answered and our little princess was on her way. She was due the end of March and we had 4 weeks to prepare. We did the necessities and were anxious until the day we got the phone call stating that she was born that morning at 6:02am, March 30th. I cannot tell you the overwhelming joy that flowed through our hearts. All I could think about was this precious child who was coming to us from Gods arms to our birthmom's arm to ours. (yes, that is a song and it's amazing. I cry every time.) Ryan and I were so lucky we were able to go and visit our birthmom and Hollie in the hospital. The second we layed eyes on Hollie we loved her so much. She was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. She had lots of dark hair, a beautiful and perfect complexion and the most adorable chubby cheeks. Let me tell you it was very emotional, but happy ofcourse. A few days later placement occured and Hollie was then placed in our arms and we took her home. I just have to say that that is a day I will never forget. I will never forget the tears that filled my eyes as we parted from our sweet most beautiful and selfless birthmom, Amanda. I cannot explain the unconditional love that I have for her. I felt an immediate connection to her a connection I never thought I would ever share with anyone. It's an amazing feeling and at such a young age she knew that what she was doing was in the best interest of her baby. For the next week Ryan and I had the chance to spend every day with Amanda and it was awesome!! We got to know her and she got to know us. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way it was perfect. Since then we have kept in close contact with her and she continues to amaze me each and every day. I am so grateful to her and for her and for what she has brought to our life. I am grateful for the relation ship her and I have and I truly feel like she is my sister. I know many adoptions are not open like the one we have, but it has been such a blessing to us and I wouldn't change it for the world. I know that certain people are put in our lives for a reason and I know that Amanda has been put in our life for more than one reason.
As I sat last night and listened to the speaker I couldn't help but think of our sweet dear Amanda and how much I love and appreciate her. At the end of February our little baby boy is due and we are so excited. Amanda is our birthmom again and we are so grateful to her and for the decision she is making once again. She is an amazing woman and one who I will look up to, respect, honor and love for the rest of my life. I am so grateful for adoption and that it has brought us our, soon to be, eternal family of 4. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for leading Amanda to us and for trusting us to raise her two beautiful children. I know that these children were to come to us, but they just had to come through a different avenue.
I just have to share something close to my heart because it's such an answer to our prayers and I know that Heavenly Father has his hand in our life more than we think. In November we had done some infertility treatments and they had not taken and we were not pregnant. I was sad because I truly felt that I was pregnant. I talked with Ryan a bit about what we should do and he said, Kerri, let's pray about it and we will know what to do. I agreed and we went on with our evening. The next morning I woke up and was getting a few things done and I had sent a text to Amanda asking her what she wanted for her birthday. After a few text messages I received another text from her telling me that she had a surprise for us. I asked her what it was and she said that she was pregnant. At first I was shocked and my heart immediately went out to her. She was in class and told me she would call me when she got out. I sat back for awhile and thought to myself about the situation. I was crying and my mind was running a mile a minute. I didn't know what to say or what to do. Finally peace came over me and I knew that this was an answer to our prayers and that this was to be our child. I wish I could explain to you all of my feelings but they are undescribable. I just know that Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways and sometimes things are not going to happen the way we think they are. He has a plan for us and if we can trust in Him and put our Faith in Him everything will be made right. This was the day that I finally accepted my infertility and new that our children were going to come to us another way and that Heavenly Father had His hand in our life.

Saturday Project

Saturday's are always our project days around the house. Ryan is a man who loves projects and loves to make improvements around the house. Ever since we have lived here we have always disliked our front yard. It was never our favorite part of the house and have always talked about re-doing it. Well, when I rolled out of bed around 8:00 (yes, Hollie and I slept in, hurray!!) we went downstairs to find Ryan digging up the front yard, I just had to laugh. He is so random and when he wants to do something he is one to defienetly get it done! I am so glad I have a husband who has so much drive, energy and determination. We had briefly talked about it Friday night, but I was unaware it was going to be Saturday's project. Trust me I was completely okay with it because it was driving me crazy too. There were way to many plants and they were all ugly and we wanted a bigger area for grass. This year is the only year we have never overseaded our front yard and that was because we didn't like how it looked and we wanted to make improvements. So, we said what the heck lets just let it go this year. I promise to all those around us we will have green grass every year from here on out.

Anyway, I thought you would like to see our new beautiful clean cut yard. Okay, so the deal with the dirt is that we are going to extend our grass, but we don't want to put nice green grass there just yet because that would look really funny. So, for now this is how it will look and it will soon all blend together with nice green grass.

The beginning of the project. It was FREEZING outside!!

Like father like daughter

The finished project

Ofcourse our little Hollie had to be daddy's big helper on Saturday and boy was she a helper. She was helping daddy move dirt and was handing him tools when he needed them. They were two cute kids playing in dirt. I loved everybit and got to watch them and take lots of cute pictures. By the end of the day Hollie was covered in dirt from head to toe and had eaten quite a bit of it. She had a blast and enjoyed her time with her dad. Speaking of which I just have to say that she has become a DADDY'S GIRL!! Oh my goodness. When Ryan gets home it's good bye mom hello dad. She wants nothing to do with me and just wants her dad. I have to admit I have been a bit jealous, but I am glad that Ryan is getting his turn. Hollie has been a mommy's girl for quite awhile and I am happy that Ryan can experience the joy of having his daughter want him for everything. It's cute and I like to watch them play and interact. Anyway, here are a couple cute pictures of Hollie throughout the day.

Are we dirty or what!?! But we are still adorable.

This was just a cute picture I had to add. I think she is too cool.

Our trip to Idaho

On Thursday Amanda, Hollie and I flew back to Idaho. Hollie and I went because Amanda had a ultrasound and doctors appointment and we wanted to be there for them. I just have to say that being able to be a part of this whole pregnancy as much as I can has been an amazing experience. Seeing a baby on ultrasound was one of the most amazing experiences of my life along with hearing his little heartbeat. I tell ya, technology is amazing and I love every bit of it. I could sit here and type for hours about my experience but I will leave that for my journal. I will instead tell you about our trip to Idaho. Yes, it was FREEZING COLD!!! We survived and actually enjoyed seeing and playing in the snow. We got to Idaho Thursday night and ofcourse it was cold and windy. Friday morning we had the ultrasound and our little Ethan is doing fantastic! He currently weighs about 5lbs and is just the cutest baby ever. We got a few 3d pictures which is normally hard to get being that he is due the end of next month. You can see his face so clear and his little fingers. He was already showing his personality because he wasn't cooperating and was being a bit stubborn. He loves his hands over his face and wouldn't move them. We tried everything to get him to move his hands and then next thing we know he had a foot over his face too. We were laughing and it was super cute. We are so excited for his arrival and cannot wait to see him. The ultrasound shows his due date as February 22nd, but the doctor says to keep it the 26th. So I assume he will come sometime between those dates. Here is a picture of our cute, adorable little angel.

On Monday night for family home evening we went sledding. It was freezing cold, 19 degrees and a wind chill. We were bundled up and had a blast. Hollie went down 4 times and loved it! By the end of the 4th time we were freezing and so off to the church we went and got hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies.

It was a great way to end a fun evening!

Tuesday morning Hollie and I were off and headed back to Salt Lake to fly home. The drive to Salt Lake was a bit interesting and not something I drive in often. It was snowing, the wind was blowing (wind gusts up to 50mph) and it was hard to see the road. We made it safe and my sweet princess slept the whole way which made it easy for me. We are glad to be home and missed the warmer weather. We will be back in Idaho towards the end of February and look forward to the new and fun adventures that will arrive then.

Where do I begin...? This last week and a half has been awesome! We had Amanda come into town to visit on the 4th of January and boy did we have a great time. There was lots of relaxing, shopping, talking, more shopping, decorating and sudoku (I finally learned how to do it and I love it. Amanda says I am now a nerd like her, haha). The week was lots of fun and we all enjoyed spending time together. Some of our highlights were that we painted and put a nursery together for our little angel who is on his way. I just don't know how to explain how cool it was for the 3 of us (Amanda, Ryan and me) to paint, decorate and pick out bedding. By the end of Saturday night the room was painted blue and brown and chair-rail was up around the room, yes we worked fast. We had a blast and our end result is adorable. We still have to get a dresser, blinds and curtains but other than that it's all ready and very boy. Amanda, Hollie and I did some fun "boy" shopping at Babies R Us and got a few of the necessities that we will be needing. He's not even here and will be the best dressed boy, just like his sister was the best dressed girl. Oh, I cannot believe our little princess will soon have a brother, I am sooo excited. Here are a few
pictures of his room.





Okay, back to our week. Amanda really enjoyed the weather here and even got to wear some capris and short sleeve shirts. I guess 60 degree weather is nice and warm for those who are from Idaho where it's ice cold. Ofcourse, I was in pants and a long sleeve shirt because it was cold for me. One day we went up to Scottsdale and walked around the mall there and that was fun. Just observing people was enough entertainment for us. Other than that we hung out here, went to the park and had a day where we pampered our feet and got our pedicures, it was great!!
Having Amanda here was the coolest experience and I am so glad that we have the relationship with her that we do. She is amazing to me and I truly feel like she is my sister. We actually had quite a few people ask if we were sisters and we said no, but kinda. It was lots of fun and we love her so much and are so grateful she is a part of our life. Oh, I forgot to tell you that we finally figured out a name for our little angel. His name is going to be Ethan. We don't have a middle name yet but we do have a few ideas. Amanda and I sat on babynames.com forever looking for a middle name and let me just tell you there were some hillarious names on the list. Here are a few for you, frick, innis, McLovin, Dong and Nimrod. So, if you know my husband you know we had lots of fun with these names and there was LOTS of laughing. Mind you these were only a few.
Anyway, our time with Amanda was amazing and as you can see we had lots of fun. We love her so much and are grateful that she is a part of our life.

Too Much Fun...

Just a cute picture of the 5 of us I had to include. Me, Hollie, Ryan, KC (my brother) and Brookie.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

I first have to tell you about our Santa visiting experience. As you can see Hollie was not very excited to see Santa and we kinda figured that would happen. Our main goal was to get a picture with Santa. It was accomplished and is the cutest picture ever!

Onto Christmas day. It was wonderful and we had a great time. Hollie was really cute this year, still didn't understand but loved what Santa brought her. He brought her one of the spring loaded horses, oh was she in heaven. All she said all morning was NaeNae, it was so cute, good job Santa! Ofcourse there were a few other things for Hollie like a pink tricycle and Dora big wheels (one of Ryan's patients bought that for her), and she got 2 my little people sets. That's a lot for one little kid I think she is set with toys. Now all we have to do is find room for all this. After opening gifts and enjoying our morning we packed the car and were off to California to be with family. This made for a long day, but it was great.

We arrived at Ryan's families house and had a great time visiting with them. It's been awhile since we have seen them and we had so much fun together. Nana had every toy possible to play with and Hollie was in Heaven. Thanks for the fun time guys. We were with them till the day after Christmas and then over to my dad's house we went. Oh, boy once we got there it was like Christmas all over again. Santa visited Hollie there too and I couldn't believe it. This girl has more than she knows what to do with. We had a great time there and enjoyed visiting with them too.

My dad is a Harley man and I got him a Harley picture frame for Christmas and I wanted him and Hollie to get their picture taken on the motorcycle so he can put it in the frame, well, this is what I got. How about that.

Friday was Disneyland! Ya, we were crazy and went 3 days after Christmas it was packed, but we still had a fun. Hollie's favorite ride was the carousel because she got to ride on a NaeNae. We watched parades went on some rides and enjoyed the day.

Saturday was Ryan's 32nd birthday, Happy Birthday Ryan! To him it was just another day and a year older. We did get away that night and left Hollie with my dad and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and just relaxed and played games, something we don't do very often. Hollie had a blast with Papa and learned to say "all right", oh it's so cute.

Sunday we were on to Whittier to visit our good friends the Howards. I tell ya after running around from family to family it was nice to get there and just relax and play. We had a blast. They are like family to us and I am so grateful for them. Hollie, ofcourse, loved all the attention and had lots of fun with all their pets. She loved the doggy and the bunny and was very soft with them both. We had New Years Eve there and we relaxed and visited with friends, great times! Then New Years day we were on the road back home. It was a great vacation and we really enjoyed being with family and friends. We figured it would be the last time to California for quite some time because the baby boy arrives next month, Yea! We are getting very excited for his arrival and Amanda flies in today to be with us for a week. We cannot wait for her to get here and this next week will be lots of fun.

Brooke (the one giving hugs) is the cutest little girl. She just loved Hollie and wanted to give lots and lots of loves. This was in the middle fo Sams Club and I am so glad I had the camera!

Sorry this sounds quick, I am trying to hurry and wanted to post before I got to far behind. Have a wonderful Day, we will!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Our little Ms. Claus
Wow, I guess I have not posted anything in quite awhile, sorry about that. As most of us, life has been crazy lately. We have been enjoying the Holiday season so far and are excited for Christmas to come, it's only 4 days away!! I feel horrible because I haven't had a whole day to sit and bake this year. I am sorry to all those who have not gotten any treats, it's not because you weren't good, I have just ran out of time. We still love ya.
Okay so I am going to complain for a minute. Hollie and I have both had cold's and that hasn't helped. Mine has been lingering for a week now and I don't feel like I am getting any better. Hollie was doing great until she woke up this morning and since has thrown-up twice. Oh my goodness!! We cannot be sick for Christmas there are parties to go to and family to travel to. Well, I guess we just make the best of it and hope that Ryan or I don't end up with the flu. I also have a story for you. On Tuesday night the office had an office party and took everyone to Joe's BBQ, YUMMY, and to the play A Christmas Carol. It was so great and even better to be together on a date. We had a fun evening and really enjoyed ourselves. As the evening ended and we got in the car (Ryan's car) to drive home there was this weird sound. As many of you know Ryan is very particular about his things and if he hears anything abnormal or a rattle it's got to be fixed. Well, to make a long story short we find out that his back left tire is completely flat! Okay, it's 10:15 at night and now we have to find a gas station with air. Not only that, but the same tire had a flat last week and Ryan took it in and got it fixed and now he's thinking they did a crapy job. We find a gas station with air and fill up the tire. As he's filling it up he can hear the air exiting out of the tire. As he was examining his tire he found a new screw, what bad luck!! So, he jumps in the car and speeds off so that we can make it home before the tire is flat. Oh, what an adventure. We made it home and just after we got home it was flat. I tell ya, we have not had good luck with his tires. I guess that's what we get because they are low profile tires. So, to finish my complaining Wednesday both of our cars were in the shop because mine had an appointment for warranty work and his well, we know why his was in the shop. That made for an adventurous day, but it all worked out. Anyway, thanks for listening. Life is just crazy and all I can do is laugh. When his car got a flat Tuesday night I just smiled because as I say, there is ALWAYS something new happening in the Larson family and it keeps us on our toes.
Well, after my complaining I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. There are many exciting things happening here this new year and I will definetly make sure to keep you all updated.
I have attached some cute pictures of Hollie and don't mind the bruise on her cheek, she decided last week to take a dive into the table. Oh, she's a busy one and I love her so much. I am so grateful for my family and for my wonderful husband who I love so much. Thanks for all your friendships and love. Merry Christmas!!

Big Girl Bed

This weekend we decided we needed to start Christmas shopping and included in that was getting Hollie a "big girl bed". We found a really cute daybed, Ryan put it together and seconds later Hollie was loving it. I am so lucky to have such a handyman that can pretty much do anything. He was so excited and wanted Hollie to sleep in it Sunday night but we didn't have any sheets for it. So, Monday we went to Target and found really cute Shabby Chic bedding and last night was her first night to sleep in her big girl bed. She did fantastic!! She woke up once and then went right back to sleep. We were so proud of her. She got up on her own and came in at 6:30am to wake us up because she was ready for the day. Ofcourse we heard her moving around, but it was so cute to have her come right into our room and climb into bed with us. Since we started our morning so early we decided to go downstairs and make daddy his favorite breakfast, so french toast it was. He really enjoyed it and even got to eat breakfast with his little girl. That is a treat because usually she is still sleeping when he leaves in the morning.

As you can see we still have some things to do in Hollie's room and once I figure that out it will be complete. I am debating on wether or not to re-paint the top. I think I probably should and use just a solid light pink. I have seen a few cute ideas in magazines and I may just use one. I am having so much fun with her room and like Ryan says, it will probably only stay this way for a couple years and then we'll change it again. I am hoping to keep it for awhile, but you never know.

In the midst of changing Hollie's room we are also preparing for our little boy. I told Ryan this weekend that he can pick out what he would like for this little guy because it's his boy. I have had lots of fun with Hollie and now I want him to have fun picking things out too. He decided he wants a Hawaiian theme so we are getting ideas for that. We are so excited and cannot wait. February is right around the corner.