Is this you? (borrowed from Criders - lots of pictures below - keep going)

You KNOW you should/did adopt if...
1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's "real" parents.
7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word "Dossier" means, and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.
Author Unknown

1st day of school

Wow... a few things I'm having a hard time believing...I can't believe that my kids are already back in school, that they have been in for almost a month, that I have 3 going all day, that one is old enough to wear light eye shadow and mascara on the top lid and can go to Young Women's, and that I'm lucky enough to still have 2 angels to keep me busy during school. Life is pretty good.

The pictures are of the kids 1st day and I've put one of Mckenzie and Scott (separately) after a Young Women/Men's bbq that turned in to a big water fight - they both came home drenched... Mckenzie thought it was pretty cool... Scott wasn't too impressed....

Sorry for the blurry pictures - something is wrong with my camera - sand from OR, I think - I need to get it in and fixed.

FYI... no pictures needed or wanted... :) Here is a web address for anyone having or possibly having this surgery in the near future... http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/register.php . Thanks to all of my friends and family who stepped up and helped me through the last few weeks. Recovery has been much harder than I thought but I'm feeling great now. I wish I would have had this web address prior to surgery to know what to expect (thanks so much Kari)... and I'd be crazy not to say a big, big thank-you to my sweet brother and sister in law (Greg and Kristi - although the others are sweet too) and my mom and dad for taking our little girls for us - what a life saver and for the many, many meals that we received (and phone calls - even if I can't remember them... sorry, Lora :) - I don't remember much during the week right after-guess I had some good medication.)

Now that I'm feeling better, I'm going to TRY to promise to stop being such a charity case. I don't know what I would have done on my own for the past 9 months and the year prior to that (with my mom's cancer). Thanks to everyone!!! You are great and we are blessed!!!

Peace xoxoxo

Is summer really over???

I'm going to try to catch up on my blogging.... but, I'm way, way behind.

First, I can't believe summer is over. I'm not sure where it went. So far, we have only had corn on the cob 2 and peach dessert twice... (sad that this is how I'm measuring summer - I have lots of memories of the summer but I'm definitely going to have to step it up quickly with the fresh food).

Scott and Mckenzie spent a lot of summer along with 3000 youth from the area preparing for the Youth Temple Celebration. They did an amazing job with beautiful music, costumes and dancing with a perfect ending with the Prophet speaking at the closing ceremonies.

Scott and I were tour guides for the Temple Open house. It was an amazing experience and we are grateful for the days that we were able to spend doing this. I won't recap the whole summer - these are just a few things that I have not mentioned for my journaling.

After Scott and I finished our last tour on the last day of the temple open house, we celebrated my grandparents 70th anniversary. We had a great time (at least I did). We played at Bass Lake, had some yummy treats and had a great time being with family that we don't see nearly enough. Congrats to my grandparents who have 5 children, 21 grandchildren, 66 great grandchildren and 8 great - greats.... wow!!! I love the golf pictures. My boys, Scott, Nathan and Heidi, and my Grandpa golfed 9 holes after we had the 'reception'. I love the pictures - (thanks for the pictures Heidi... where is the picture of you and Reese in the cart... I missed that one on your blog????)

I've posted some pictures with my kids loving on my sister and brother in laws cuties. We enjoyed the week that we had the Mia and Parker at our house. Everyone fought over feeding Parker a bottle and my little girls enjoyed playing with Mia.... love all of our nieces and nephews on both sides.

Davis spent much time trying to earn money for video games this summer. I tried to teach him that if you are going to sell something it has to be worth what you are asking (or that I'd pay extra for extra jobs around the house). Instead, he enjoyed finding rocks, cleaning them and then setting up shop out front of our house asking 10 bucks each time. One day our neighbor came over wanting to buy the rock (or crystal of the day) but I had to convince her that I did not want him thinking he can earn that kind of money from a rock. She handed me an envelope with 10 dollars for each of my kids to spend on whatever they wanted and a nice note. I'm so happy that some of our neighbors enjoy our kids.

Happy 12th bday Mckenzie (and Nathan :) )

Mckenzie wanted to have a dance, video and pizza party... I was very happy when she insisted that it be a girl only party (meant that I did not have to be the bad guy and tell her no boys). We had lots of pizza, about 10 lbs of chocolate, Costco cake, lots and lots of laughing and fun dancing. They tried to watch a video but decided it was more fun to visit. (Isn't her haircut cute)

Scott and I celebrated our 15th anniversary a few days before. He surprised me with a pretty ring and I surprised him with a smoker... we were both excited to give eachother the gifts but did not anticipate the other spending money as well... but we decided to enoy them after a few minutes of feeling like we splurged way too much. We have all enjoyed the smoker (amazing how yummy the food is - pizza is our favorite...mmm... time for dinner :) )and I love my ring...feeling quite spoiled.