Oh My Uncle Josh!

My brother JOsH decided to make a trip to Utah. Of course; to see our brother Andrew and attend a football game at BYU. We were just a bonus since we live here in Utah. Just Kidding...Uncle JOsh wanted to spend a little time too with his niece and nephew. Lindsay and Ryan were excited to camp out in the family room with Uncle JOsh.

The next morning JOsH, Andrew and Dan went out shooting the guns that Dad bought. According to the photos; they seem to enjoy shooting at Andrew's computer part or something. From there JOsh and Andrew headed off to a football game and to enjoy the rest of their time hanging out together. Dan came back home to get cleaned up for some other activities we had planned.

JOsh and Andrew ended up at our house on Sunday for a Family Dinner, chat, and a movie before JOsh's plane took off. We enjoyed having JOsh here. The kids enjoyed having both of their Uncles around. Next time JOsh bring Lorretta and Cali (kitty cat) with you.

JOsh and Andrew taught Ryan to say Oh my Uncle JOSh instead of Oh my ***. Which has been bugging me all week. Now Ryan is saying Oh my Uncle JOsh. I laugh at that phrase instead of getting upset when he used the other phrase. Instead of Oh my goodness, Oh my G**, it is now Oh my Uncle JOsh. Thank you Josh and Andrew.

LDS Prophets warn us of the dangers facing America

This was on my friend's FaceBook. I thought this would be one I would want to have on my blog to share with others. On her FaceBook she says, this was in the April 2008 Priesthood session, President Monson mentioned political machinations. Not knowing what that meant I looked up the word and was stunned as I read the definition. This videos was inspired..."Last days."

I guess I will be looking that up too.

Happy 5th Birthday Lindsay!

Happy Birthday Lindsay! Happy Birthday Lindsay!

Lindsay is now 5 years old. She loves Hello Kitty, Hannah Montana and dolls. Her favorite color is Pink & Chocolate. She loves to pretend she is reading. She reminds me of the little girl in Anne of Green Gables. This is one of her favorite books we read together. She is excited to be a part of a family with lots of cousins.

This year we kept the party low key and just have a family Birthday party for Lindsay which just the four of us. It was nice to not have to plan a birthday party. We had a nice dinner. Lindsay was excited to pick out her cake. Of course, she picked out the biggest cake at Costco. We had cake that lasted over a week. She enjoyed blowing out her candles and opening her gifts.



The Top 10 List: Things we love about Lindsay:

10. Always volunteers to help clean someone else's house and not her own.
9. Loves to dress up as a Princess with her friend London.
8. Loves all the attention on her.
7. Her excitement when she sees a Princess or Hello Kitty Character.
6. Her excitement to do something as a Family.
5. Her hugs, kisses and I love you comes in a package.
4. Telling her remember when stories; whether for real or fake.
3. Her eyes light up when she smiles.
2. Loves to cuddle with Mommy Missy and tells me, "You are my mommy, I had missed you in my other home."

And the number 1 reason we love about Lindsay....

1. The exitement she had when we told her we are going to adopted her in to our family. How she really wanted to be apart of this family. From her name....all the way until the day we were married (sealed) as a family. I love hearing Lindsay tell people we are a family because we are married in the Temple. We are happy to have Lindsay as our daughter.

Love Mommy Missy, Daddy Dan, and brother Ryan.

Happy Birthday Lindsay! Happy Birthday Lindsay!

Happy 11th Anniversary!

October 11th, 2008 was our 11th Wedding Anniversary. What good memories of our actually Wedding Day! Dan was telling me how my brothers were trying to tell him..."Last chance to get out."... "She is your problem once you get married."..."We like you Dan, are you really sure about this." I was cool and claim; while everyone was running around. Until the little old lady asked if I need to use the ladies room before going to the brides room. I ended up throwing up and crying. Ahh... precious memories!

Dan and I have not really celebrated our anniversary for the last 2 years. Our 9th anniversary we were able to take the kids out to dinner from the Christmas box. Then on our 10th anniversary we had a party to celebrate the adoption of our children. Those two years skipped on by. We decided we were going to go away for a whole weekend, just us and no kids.

Our friends were kind enough to take care of our kids and our dogs for the weekend. Dan and I were excited to get away with no kids. We started to plan our weekend. Should we go to Park City for three days. They always have something going on. Or get away to the Anniversary Inn? Maybe take a cruise, or a trip out of Utah? Where should we go?

Did that happen? It seems something always happened. Then with the kids school and last soccer game. I just couldn't put all that on my friend. And on top of all that I was sick at the beginning of the week with an eye infection and a sinus infection. I did not feel up to traveling.

We decided to just send the kids overnight to our friends on Saturday into Sunday. This way Lindsay will be taking and picked up from school by us. She was going through an attachment phase we didn't want to miss. She was trying to and wanted to attach to Dan. We also did not miss Ryan's last soccer game. He really wanted all of us at this last game. How can you say, "No."

We took the children out on a Family Night together on Friday Night. Dan and I decided surprising the kids leaves little for disappointment for everyone. We packed the kids PJ sandwiches, and apples to eat at the movies and watch Igor. This way we feel they had a little bit of a dinner before we take them out for ice cream after the movie. Ryan and Lindsay thought we were the coolest since we had Ice Cream before Dinner. They thought PJ sandwiches were just lunch. We had a nice dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ.

After Ryan's soccer game that ended early since a rain/snow storm came pouring down. We took them to our friends house. Lindsay kept asking if we were going to ever come back. Ryan said, "Good Bye see ya in a week." Our dogs stayed home with us.

That's Right; we stayed home. We took care of our Dogs. We decided to go out for lunch to The Cheese Factory....Yummy food! Brought home the left overs. Dan and I decided we were tried and would take a little nap with no interruption from kids. We LOVED our NAP. I guess you can say as you get older a NAP is a good thing. We were thinking of heading out and decided it was too COLD and a Storm was coming in. We enjoyed each others time.... alone...NO KIDS...together. OK! We were too LAZY to get out of a warm bed. Of course, Dan had to walk 5 feet into the kitchen to get our YUMMY leftovers and dessert.

Dan and I enjoyed 11 years together and we are looking forward to many more to come. Maybe next year we will really get away. I am thinking anything far, far, far away with no kids will be wonderful.

Yes on Prop 8

This video clip has been emailed to us by other friends and family members. Dan and I decided it is important to add this video clip to our blog, just as others have done on their blog. It gives a good example of the consequences to our families if Prop 8 doesn't pass in California. Please go out and Vote this election. If you are not in California, please read your ballot and make sure this is not happening in your state.



This other video clip is also an inspiring message, of the importance of strengthen our Family not redefining Family. This clip touches on the importances of Life, Faith and Family.

Thanksgiving Point Farm Country

Today was a nice day to take our kids to Thanksgiving Point to enjoy the Farm Country. Lindsay Ryan, and myself joined our friends Kari, Ronan, and Charley to enjoy some farm animals.

Ryan and Lindsay did not know about it. I sometimes like to keep things as a surprise. Ryan was asked to get up and get dressed in nice clothes. His response, "Why? Are we are going to go somewhere special." Lindsay response to Ryans reaction was "Yeah! Where are we going? Can we take snacks?" Lindsay and Ryan were excited for today.

I did not say where we are going. I explained to them we can bring one pack. This pack will only have a sweat shirt and a pair of shorts for each of them. Just in case it was a little chilly or if it gets hot. I will pack the travel cooler with our lunch. We don't need anything else. Where we are going is to enjoy something and have lunch. Then we will be back before Nap time. (The Nap time is more for me than my kids.)

Anyways, are friends showed up while I was still getting ready. Ronan and Charley told my kids we were going to the Farm. The look on my kids faces were priceless. This would have been a perfect picture of their expression of confusion. As if they were trying to put a puzzel together. Then it clicked! They were excited and jumping around. We are going to the farm with our friends.

My children found their back packs and started packing there bags. When I notice what they were doing...I wished my camera was near by to take the picture of their back packs. Just Imagine seeing photos of Ryan's Transformer bag filled with toys, sweat shirt and pants. Her Hello Kitty bag had shoes, underwear, hair brush, pants, sweat shirt and her Hello Kitty Doll. She was also asking me if I would get her lip gloss and jewelry. I told her we don't need all this stuff. Lindsay response, "I need my stuff since we are going far, far, far away and I don't know when I will be back." I explained to both kids we don't need all this stuff and packed just what we needed we were off.

Once we got out of the car Lindsay said, "What is that smell? It smells like poop!" As she makes this face and pinches her nose. (Again, I missed another camera moment.) They had goats, pigs, ducks, horses, chickens and cows. They also had horse carriage ride and a pony ride.

Inside the building they showed how milk was produced and had a cow they can milk. Not a real cow. They were facinated to milk this cow. Lindsay and Ryan kept asking, "Why is it ok to touch a cows private parts?" My kids are not quite; they are shouting at the top of their lungs.

Once we moved away from the cow and went outside....The kids were so excited to go on a pony ride. Lindsay wanted to ride the "PURPLE" horse and only the "PURPLE" horse. It took me a while to realize she wanted to ride the horse that had a purple bridel on. Ryan wanted to ride the "Biggest" horse. The horse Ryan was describing was a big horse but also wore the "Purple" bridal. So, instead of them riding at the same time they had to take turns.

I finally pulled out my camera since it had just enough battery time and started snapping some photos. Lindsay was watching Ryan ride the pony and started to yell "POOP, POOP, POOP. Mom look my purple is pooping while Ryan is riding it. Yak." I took a picture of Lindsay pointing and making a happy face. What is it with my kids and potty words?

Once the pony ride was done. They saw other people sitting down at the picnic tables and wanted to lunch. We planned this just perfectly around lunch time. After lunch the kids wanted to feed the ducks. And off they went to the pond. They also had a few buildings the kids can go in and out of. Nothing much since they were pretty empty. I as a parent enjoyed taking a picture of them behind bars at the jail house.

After a few hours...I hoped they will enjoy the trip and picnic. We did have a few melt downs. There were other things they wanted to do there, but was not part of what we were doing. The melt downs came when it was time to leave. I hoped maybe the drive home will make them fall asleep. Nope, only Charley and Myself were tried and ready for a nap.