President's Day Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend.  Jaylene came up to visit since we all had President's Day off.  On Saturday we traveled to Saratoga Springs to watch a birth parent panel.  If you ever have the opportunity to listen to birth parents tell their story you should jump at the chance.  Amy and Jaylene spent some time Saturday afternoon shopping while the toddler and I spent time at home watching some college basketball.  I guess they came home with some "cute" things, I will take their word on it.  We feel so blessed to have Jaylene part of our lives, and the next couple of months are going to be life-changing for all of us.

The basement is moving along, we officially received our building permit so we are legal to start work.  Haha. The same day we got our permit we scheduled an inspection for the framing, heating/cooling, electrical and plumbing.  I decided to run the wire for the phone, internet and cable which is slowing down the process slightly.  I want to plan for any future changes in technology so I am taking some extra steps to help.  Once we have the inspection and I finish running some wire we are ready for insulation and then bring on the drywall.

Unfortunately due to the construction in the basement I haven't done any pottery.  I could pull out all of the supplies from the cold storage, but I would have to put it all back before the workers returned.  I had my first finished pieces fired over a month ago and gave some to my mother for a late birthday gift.  I am already discovering that you can create more pots than you have room for.  I am donating some bowls to the Food and Care Coalition who use them for a fund raiser.  They have an event where they sell the bowl and fill it with soup for you to eat.  Amy and I went a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the event.  Hopefully they will not have to give my bowls away.  I will make sure to take some pictures of some pots that I have done and post them.

We had a good time today taking Jaylene and a couple of her friends to our favorite hole in the wall restaurant.  They seemed to like it, even our little guy enjoyed the papusas.  Then we were able to go to the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU.  It was beautiful, very busy today though.  I (Amy here) could NOT get over how utterly ridiculous so many of the people who rented the ipads looked.  Here they were, with the ACTUAL, fantastic painting 5 feet in front of them and what are they looking at as they listen to the tour?  THEIR IPAD screen.  Yep, same painting, only the digital version.  Unbelievable.  Why didn't they just take the tour online if they were planning on staring at a screen so much?  I guess it was good for us, we could walk right up to the paintings, stand in front of everyone else and they didn't even notice.  So my advice, DON'T waste your $3 on renting an ipad.  The exhibit has plenty of written descriptions and you really should spend your time staring at the paintings, they are well worth the trip.

The Countdown

 Unbelievable...less than 10 WEEKS to go until baby's debut!  The little steps in his development are so fun, like his eyebrows and eyelashes.  We are soooo excited!  This pregnancy (probably because I'm not the pregnant one) has gone be very quickly.  So we ordered a crib last week.  The store was having a trade-in sale, you can bring in any old crib/stroller/carseat etc for 25% off of a new one.  So, not having anything stored in the closet we asked my Mom and she said she still had MY old crib.  Despite it being some sort of death-trap, I somehow made it through infancy alive sleeping in it.  All sentimentality aside, she said TAKE IT!  So they dug it out of the shed and I hauled it away, cobwebs and all.  That truly is the goal of this sale, to take old, out-of-date and unsafe baby equipment/furniture out of people's homes.  Good idea, $80 saved!

Other things going on lately - see the picture at right.  No, it isn't an earthquake or some other disaster, actually just a self-imposed mess.  We are working on our basement and this shows the concrete after our friend jackhammered it.  It's now been re-done. The reason we decided to replace it was a prominent bump and low spot which you could trip over.  Other stuff done - framing and plumbing.  Electrical next, then inspection.  If we're lucky it will be done by April.  Maybe.  We figured while I am still at work we can pay for it now.  It will be great to have room for more kids, or, at the rate we've been going, at least room for guests.

Our niece had her birthday this month and we were able to take her and her friends to Soldier Hollow.  They have two giant pulley systems which pull you up the hill so you just have to sit on your rear virtually the whole time!  Truly the lazy man's way to enjoy the winter wonderland.   The day started clear but before long it was snowing which was kind of nice but made the runs faster.  I think everyone had a great time, we ate at a restaurant in Heber that has a train running along a track near the ceiling.  Our toddler was very content to watch it come and go.  And, with her fabulous good taste, our niece chose Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes for her birthday cake.  Yum.

Life is Good!

We had a great time over Christmas.  Relatively quiet but enjoyable.  You can see the hoop that Santa brought - Jared and I have had a lot of fun with it!  Of course, it was for our toddler who likes to play with it, mostly if he can stand on a chair to shoot the ball.  But best of all, Jaylene stayed with us, making it it even more fun.  She was so sweet in bringing gifts for everyone, including the babe we are all waiting for.  She made some great burp cloths out of super soft minky and kitchen towels so the baby will have a soft place to rest his head when we burp him.  Very cute and colorful.  We were also able to look at cribs and think we have found one we'll purchase soon.  It converts to a toddler bed and eventually a regular bed too.  And since we'll be adding to our family, we decided to finish at least part of our basement.  We are having all the electrical, plumbing, hvac done soon and will then decide how many rooms to finish.  Probably the large family room, pottery room (Jared's newest hobby is for REAL) and one bedroom will be finished for now but we'll see when we get a better idea of cost if we want to just complete the other rooms and bathroom while we're at it and while I'm finishing up working.


Our little 3 year old LOVES the snow.  But not the ice, a couple of harmless falls have left him crying.  But as for the snow itself, it seems he would stay out there all day if we let him.  He loves to play in it, eat it, sled on it, or just walk around on it.  I don't share quite the same love of it but during the last significant storm Jared built a snow fort and snowman with our little guy.  We have also put the sled Grandma & Grandpa Davis gave for Christmas to good use.  Even on our little hill it works very well.  We just need more snow to build it up a bit.  I say, if it has to be cold, let it snow too!

With the excitement of a new baby coming, I find I get less and less interested in my outside-the-home job!  It just feels so much less important and I look forward to being at home full time.  The only teaching I would do in the future would be maybe a class as an adjunct, but that would come later.  It has been good for me to get a taste of full-time this year, to know that I don't enjoy the balancing act and that the people most important to me do indeed get less attention.  Maybe some women can do it but I am VERY fortunate that I won't have to.  Thanks to my great husband!  We are so very blessed by a loving Heavenly Father.

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!