Our Rockin' Valentine's

Yes, I realize it's March but I wanted to post about our Rockin' Valentine's Day this year. Boyd and I usually never go out on Valentine's because we did one year and ended up eating around 9 PM. Plus with kids now, it's sometimes easier just to get takeout and watch a movie. We're boring right? Sometimes, but not this year. After talking to a few friends about their plans, we learned that we all had the same plan. So we decided to have a last minute party. Well, it ended up being 14 adults and 26 children. Sounds crazy right? Wrong. We had a lot of fun and the kids were so good. Thanks to Madagascar 2, Kung Fu Panda and pizza! The grown ups got yummy Cafe Rio and played a little Guitar Hero--so fun! We are so blessed to have spontaneous friends that humored us in our silly Valentine's request, you guys are awesome!

26 kids all tuned into the t.v., what a miracle!

We had a few real live "rockers"! Love a little Ozzie, esspecially when Trevor is singing!

Go Jeremy!

Beautiful Shana, even at 9 months pregnant!

Cute Sara

Clytie and Jill. Thanks for humoring me with the photo shoot guys!

Notice Ryan is on his knees, another true rocker!

Jill and Paul.

Even Bill got it on the action. He was too good so we had to kick him off. He was making the rest of us look bad.

That's a full house!

Emma loves to sing, especially now that she can read. Her favorite is Bon Jovi, a girl after my own heart!

Buddy loves the drums!

Jonah LOVES Alex. He followed him around like a shadow. Alex, although 12, was so kind and sweet with him. Jonah kept telling me thanks for having his BEST friend over.

Gracie wanted the table and chair from the toy room to eat her pizza during the movie. She is such a big girl.

Erin was totally rocking Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. She is so good, even though she is just 5. It's hard to see in this picture but she is pluging her ear to check her pitch. I wish I would have taken some video of her hand gestures and body movements. She is total rock star!

Happy Birthday Sam. Tissues and Thank you Martin Luther King jr.

So, yesterday I stayed home sick with Jonah and Sammy. Shelly took Emma, Hudson and Gracie to church and this is the conversation they had.

Emma: If it wasn't for Martin Luther King, this is how we would go to church every week.

Shelly: What do you mean?

Emma: White kids get to go to church with Mom and the dark kids have to stay home with Dad. I am so glad for Martin Luther King so that we could adopt Jonah and Sammy.


A couple Sundays ago, it was so warm and beautiful. almost all of the snow had melted and I told the kids that on Monday we would get their bikes out. Well, look at what Monday brought.

Here is a picture before Hudson's and Mom's date. Before the date I pulled Hudson aside and told him that it was very important to be a gentleman. I gave him money to pay for dinner and a movie, and he opened the door for her when he could. During the date he said to Shelly, "Mom, I think I am supposed to tell you how pretty you are."
Sammy turned one. Emma used her easy bake oven to make his cake.


Like I said earlier, Jonah has been a little sick lately. He has been using a lot of tissues to blow his nose. The other day he told Shelly how much he loves the tissues of America. Shelly asked him what he used to blow his nose in Ethiopia. Jonah paused for a moment and after thinking said "My shirt!"

All is well...

It's a little bittersweet but we are so grateful Boyd has kept his job! He is really going to miss all of his co-workers that were not placed so it's really hard to be jumping for joy. The layoff was a lot more than they were anticipating and we are again so grateful to have a job in these uncertain times.
We all went to Maple Gardens to celebrate as a family. Eating out as a family is something we don't do very often so the kids were thrilled. We enjoyed a peaceful weekend full of stress free family time (something that has not happened in a long time!) As for other celebrations? Well, we decided to increase our food storage...we are so SPONTANEOUS-I know!!

Our WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!

Our best Christmas gift this year was being able to go to the Bountiful Temple two days after Christmas and have Jonah and Sammy sealed to our family forever. We are so grateful to all of our family and friends who could come share this special day with us.

Emma has been telling people since we adopted Jonah and Sam that they are her "step brothers." When I heard her say this the first time I corrected her and told her they were her real brothers even though they were adopted. She corrected me by saying "No Mom, we havent' been sealed in the temple yet, they can't be with us forever until we are sealed." It was very sweet, but I still wanted her to call them her brothers. I thought we had resolved this until we went to parent teacher conferences and she had written a story about her "step brothers" from Ethiopia. I guess now that we are sealed, we won't have this problem anymore!





A huge thanks to Grammy for making Emma and Gracie's dresses. What a huge undertaking, but they turned out beautiful! Also, aunt Char made the girls special bracelets they could wear with an eternity band. You guys are too thoughtful!

I didn't pull out my camera at the luncheon we had afterwards at the church and now I'm pretty sad about it. The kids were so darling. All of the cousins decided to put on a play of mostly Christmas songs on the stage in the cultural hall. They gave performances to anyone who would listen. I think Aunt Angela took a few pictures so maybe I can get them for the scrapbook. It was seriously so cute!

It was really cold and bright at the temple that morning so we didn't get a lot of pictures. Aunt Char was nice enough to take a few pictures of the kids on Sunday before church in their temple clothes (of course Sam was sleeping).


Don't they look like little angels! We are so blessed.

Christmas 2008

It seems kind of lame to be posting about Christmas in January but I wanted to hit a few highlights because we had an amazing Christmas this year! We really enjoyed having the Stewart side of the family (and Jonah's Kindergarten teacher, Miss Patten) over on Christmas Eve. We had a yummy dinner and played games until late. Christmas day was filled with family as well. Our celebrating continued for another week or so as Derek, Char and Easton came up from Oregon to celebrate after Christmas. We love to party, Party, PARTY!!!!!!

About a week before Christmas all of the kids got to go to Grammy and Grandpa's for the 1st annual Polar Express party! It all started with a special delivery a few weeks before Christmas. Each child got their own "golden" polar express ticket and instructions on what to bring. The night was filled with hot hot chocolate, the first gift of Christmas, bell ringing, train building, popcorn and of course watching The Polar Express! The kids absolutely loved sleeping over with their cousins-without Mom and Dad! I hope this will be a tradition for years to come!




Santa was good to us this year! With FIVE kids now, we really had to limit our gifts this year. Our favorite part was when the kids bought and exchanged gifts from the dollar store. They were so thoughtful and grateful. It was so sweet to see them hugging each other and ohhing and ahhing over their gifts. I think it is so important for them to know what it feels like to GIVE. Emma's favorite gift was her chocolate fountain and Easy bake oven.

Jonah's favorite was his MP3 player and his "real" binoculars so he could see "far away". He was so excited to see all of the presents Christmas morning, I couldn't help wonder what he thought of all the craziness! For some reason, I was the most worried about his Christmas. With all of the anticipation and commercials, I thought he might be disappointed. However, he was so sweet and happy.

Hudson's favorite was his "real" camera and MP3 player. He was cracking us up because he carried all of his stuff around in a plastic sack for a few days. He didn't want it mixed up with everyone else's. Then, after his sack ripped he moved them over to a box. A few days ago, I went to put a blanket away in the big chest in the family room. To my surprise there at the bottom was Hudson's "Christmas box". When I asked him about it, he told me he just wanted to keep his stuff "safe".


Gracie, well I think her favorite was the cheddar Pringles, but she has also enjoyed her dress up shoes. She ate the whole can of Pringles on Christmas Day, and we let her because hey-it was Christmas!

Sammy decided to sleep in...and we decided to let him. Just as we were finishing our gift opening, he woke up and the kids loved helping him open his presents. He loved his new peek a block toy and all the boxes and wrapping paper!


I am excited about the new Scrapbook program I got and Boyd, well, I think he was most excited about the family gift from Santa, a Wii game system! And Uncle Chuck and Scott must have been in touch with Santa because they sent guitar hero, it has been so fun!


We really enjoyed having the Stewart side of the family (and Jonah's Kindergarten teacher, Miss Patten) over on Christmas Eve. We had a yummy dinner and played games until late. Christmas day was filled with family as well. Our celebrating continued for another week or so as Derek, Char and Easton came up from Oregon to celebrate after Christmas. We love to party, Party, PARTY!!!!!!

My sweet Jonah

Jonah just ran up to me threw his arms around my neck and told me, "Mom, I love you more than anything...even more than food!" That means a lot coming from him, because he absolutely LOVES food! It's moments like this that keep me going.