Our Great Weekend

We loved every minute we spent with Jaylene over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Amy even conned her into coming an extra day.  Amy created some story about a huge blizzard coming to Utah and that the roads were going to be horrible, I don't know what other lies she told Jaylene, but it worked.  She came a day earlier.  One of the many reasons we were excited to have Jaylene come was to find out the gender of the baby.  The previous week she had an ultra sound and learned the gender of the baby, but she would not tell us.  She sent some cards in the mail but they only toyed with us.  When she arrived at our home she brought with her some ultra sound pictures and a gift basket and a card that told us she is having a baby BOY.

Other important events that happened over the Thanksgiving holiday was that both of our families got to meet Jaylene.  She is so easy going that she fit in well with Amy's relatively small family and my large chaotic family.  On our way home from Thanksgiving dinner we had a brainstorming session on what name to give this precious BOY.  So far we have come up with Ma#%!*(*, or Jo#%$&, or maybe even Pa^&^^.   Amy wouldn't let me put the entire names up for fear some other pregnant person in the family would take them.  It's happened before, but seeing as we have none of our own yet it's first come first served.  The brainstorming session was fun.  I think we listed every name possible, at least everyone we went to high school with.

Also, we have officially chosen the theme of "safari" for this little boys life.  I sleep peacefully now that we have the theme picked out.  Maybe we should name him after Steve Irwin.

Young Women's Volleyball

Okay, so this picture isn't our actual team but I forgot the camera. I'll get some shots next Saturday because our team made the SEMI-FINALS of our regional play!  Actually, we are defending regional champions but last year we had far fewer matches to get there than this year because they moved us to another region.  We almost didn't make it to the match and my team was probably about ready to kill me because we got lost trying to find the church. Fortunately we ended up only 2 or 3 minutes late and they let us play. I was pretty embarrassed because my WHOLE team had managed to make it along with several parents but WE had been unable to figure out where we were.  We could have really used the GPS but of course didn't have it with us.  It turns out the road we were driving up had completely different numbers on the left side of the street versus the right side and we were following the wrong side.  I wish someone had given me a heads up on that.  The match itself was great - the first time our team had to go to a decisive third set.  I was lucky Jared could get me a few tips which helped.  We ended up winning in the third set  by just two points.  The other team was good, very consistent at getting the ball back.  I love our team, they can play hard and still laugh at themselves or each other.  When it got close they were able to focus and enjoy the moment.  GREAT JOB GIRLS - you're almost there!

A Halloween Birthday

What to do on a RAINY Halloween?  Well, I guess you could trick or treat all night but we decided to make that really quick.  Just 5 houses and we were all done!  It was pouring rain so we just took our tike around to the close neighbors. 
He was content with that, and

probably would have preferred going in to any one of them to sit and stay a while (he tried several times).  When kids came to our door he wondered why they didn't ever come in.  But he did see it as an opportunity to raid OUR candy bowl each time.  We also, we meaning Amy, decided to try making a haunted gingerbread house.  These little numbers are difficult!  Even though we had directions, all ingredients provided, and plenty of time I thought it was much harder than it looks.  I have never touched gingerbread before but it smelled great.  But black frosting?  Really?  It looks like tar and has about the same consistency.  It was very fitting to spread it on the roof.  To get the thing to stay together I ended up using frosting like caulking - that I can do.  This little house is air-tight and energy efficient!  Now, before you give me any credit, you must realize that I did follow the kit with only a few artistic modifications like the jellybean path, chocolate gravestone and blue eyes in the windows.

Our little 3 year and 2 day old had his birthday party on Friday.  Luckily Jared's sister has kids so it wouldn't be an adult only party!  It was fun to see 5 boys running around being boys.  Although our house isn't as quiet as it used to be, it's still a fairly calm place most of the time.  We had three soups to choose from and homemade rolls (thanks Grandmas) as well as chocolate birthday cake.  These cute owl cupcakes were made by our friend...perfect for a Halloween birthday party.  This was just the kind of thing I would have liked to have done but just didn't get to.  Thanks Jenifer!  And presents - because he had two parties I don't think we'll need Christmas presents.  He got some long pj's which he needed, some books on potty training (we needed) and lots of new toys to play with.  The new books are great too, he has read "Down by the Bay" several times and practically has it memorized.  Thanks to all of you who took time to celebrate with our special toddler.  He loved his party!

The Latest and Greatest

We had the BEST weekend ever.  Not just because we had a nice trip down south but because we were CHOSEN as the adoptive parents for a baby yet to be among us!  We met our birth mother who is exceptional in so many ways.  Fortunately we got to spend most of the weekend with her getting to know each other better.   She has a hilarious sense of humor.   She is very pretty, very kind, and very thoughtful.   It has been really fun to start learning more about her home country and her life before she came to the states.  Both of us are so impressed and found ourselves nervous to meet her...what if we didn't look as good in person as we did in the pictures she'd seen?  Worse yet, what if she changed her mind!  Luckily, that didn't happen haha.  We did some hiking together, played in sand, went out to eat, and looked at facebook family pics.  So that new baby counter you see is not a mistake, she is due in April and we can't wait!  Love you Jaylene!

Family Reunion

We had a fantastic time with Jared’s parents, all of his siblings and their spouses and kids last week at Bear Lake in Utah/Idaho.  A very generous family allowed us to stay in their beautiful, spacious home built perfectly for a large group.  This house was bright, welcoming,and secluded just enough to create a relaxing atmosphere.  We went on a hike to a beautiful lake (pictured) and toured a nearby cave.  In fact our group was so large we were the entire group for our tour time.  Some went to the beach around the lake and some took naps.  Some of us stayed up late talking, playing games, and looking at pictures.  All the kids make their own tie-dye like shirts with markers.  There is some real, albeit young, talent in the family!  Our family is blessed to get along so well, we really enjoy being in the company of each other.  I think most of us are already looking forward to the next one in two years!

Rancid Cookies?

Late last night I started making a batch of cookies to take to a family reunion.  I needed to make a rather large batch since we will be sharing them with all of my side of the family which seems to get bigger by the day.  Anyone else pregnant?  I pulled the butter out of the fridge and went to the pantry for shortening.  I noticed that there was a new container of shortening, so I opened it and could see that a couple of tablespoons had been used by Amy previously.  I proceeded to scoop out spoonfuls of shortening into a measuring cup when I noticed an odd smell.  I leaned closer to the shortening to take a wiff and it just didn't smell right.  I got a teaspoon and took a little taste, but then realized that I didn't know what plain shortening should taste like.  I asked Amy's opinion but she was not much help since she has been struggling with a cold.  She said it smelled like cardboard.  I decided to proceed with the cookies.  I mixed in all the ingredients and was getting ready to chill the dough when I had the thought.  These cookies will be consumed at Bear Lake by my entire family, what would happen if the shortening was rancid, would my entire family get sick?  I debated for a little while whether to cook the dough or to start over.  I really wanted a second opinion on the smell that the shortening was producing, so late at night I marched over to Amy's mother (they live close) to get her expert opinion.  In hand I have the container of shortening and a sample of the dough, which I wanted her to taste.  Once I got to her house, she took a wiff of the shortening and said that it didn't smell right.  She said shortening didn't have a smell.  I didn't dare ask her to taste the dough.  She gave me her shortening so I went home to make another batch of cookies with non smelling shortening.  I am still debating whether to cook up the "rancid" batch.  The Internet says that vegetable shortening cannot go rancid.  Maybe I can take them to work and see who calls in sick the next day.

Girls Camp at Flaming Gorge

Last week our church took a group of young women to camp for four days at Flaming Gorge Reservoir.  I was lucky enough to go and discovered a great campsite for a larger group - one that would work for all of Jared's siblings and their little ones.  We had a theme at camp of "Be Strong".   The girls had sooo much fun rafting and even more fun cliff diving.  The day we ran the river we were waiting for the shuttled drivers before we launched and there were two unlucky groups of boys who put in before us.  They had three water guns compared to our 35+.  Ours were homemade water guns made from pvc pipe.  Simple, but very effective.  It was a losing battle. 

As far as cliff diving, no one really dove but nearly every person jumped off somewhere.  It was a great spot, we could all be close enough to see each other.  There may have been some peer pressure but there was plenty of support, I'll go with you or I'll go first kind of thing.  I hadn't planned on getting wet but decided to be brave and it was very refreshing.  Of course we all had life jackets on and the bishop was with us.  He eventually jumped off the tallest rock after we all urged him on. 

We had a testimony meeting overlooking the lake where we all had the chance to express our feelings about belonging to our church and how beautiful our site was.  It was great to be away from cell phones, ipods, and all other forms of technology.  I didn't hear a single complaint about it from any of the girls.  One night we had a beach dance with light ropes which turned out to be a lot of fun.  It all went really well until one girl got some kind of illness and then another, then another, and so on and eventually bishop was sick too.  It would come on strong and then be done in a day or two.  We were probably lucky more people didn't get ill.  Despite that, I would love to go again.