Popular, popular, popular!

It took us almost 5 months to get 300 views of our adoption profile at LDS Family Services.   That's the number of people who looked at our profile--we have no idea whether they are birth moms or just people interested in adoption in general.  The number doesn't have any actual significance, but we were very excited when we finally reached 300.  However, in the past two weeks, we were surprised and delighted to suddenly see a HUGE surge in our profile views.  We have had 100 more profile views in just the past two weeks!  If you haven't seen our profile yet, it can be found at www.itsaboutlove.org.

Why the sudden upswing in our stats?  Well, we hope it's at least partly due to advertising our desire to adopt.  We are easy to find with google searches now, and we even pay for sponsored links to our blog and profile.  Several of our friends have a link from their blogs to ours as well (thank you!).  Another big contributor is our adoption pass along cards.

We started with 1000 adoption pass along cards in the first week of September.  I'm not sure how many we have left, but we have posted and passed along hundreds.  We post them at grocery stores, gyms, gas stations, laundromats, etc.  We give them to anyone and everyone who asks us how many kids we have or how our family is doing.  Many of our relatives and friends have our adoption cards and carry them in purses and wallets "just in case."  That's because someone we know may know  "our birthmom."  Our cards are also found in card holders at hair salons, car mechanics, and doctor offices.  I'm not sure all the states our pass along cards have traveled to, but to start a list, I know they are in Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Idaho, and Arizona.  The lady at the post office knows us by name now.  To all of you with our cards, thank you so much for giving them away and posting them where potential birth moms might see them.  If any of you reading this would like to join us in passing along our adoption cards, just leave a comment or send me an email, and I will send you some, too.  And to any potential birth moms out there, just know that we are doing all of this because we are serious about "searching for a princess" to join our family!          

BYU Homecoming Parade: FSA Float

We rode on the Families Supporting Adoption float in the BYU Homecoming Parade on Saturday.  I love FSA activities.  It reminds you that there are people who have successfully adopted through LDS Family Services.  It allows you the opportunity to talk with other people about their adoption experiences.  One funny thing about these activities, though.  It's impossible to guess which kids belong with which parents when the kids are all running around.

Surprisingly, some kids do look  like the parents who adopted them.  That's probably because birth moms often choose people they have a lot in common with--including some physical characteristics.  For me personally, I don't think it matters a ton whether kids look exactly like their parents or not, but it can be  extra challenging for parents to raise a child who is obviously racially different.  At adoption agencies, you have to state all sorts of things about your child preferences, including what ethnicities you prefer.  It's a difficult thing to do.  While I won't go into the details of our preferences here, any birth mom who registers with LDS Family Services can see ours listed with our profile.  One of the few benefits I see in having a child who looks more like you is that people don't immediately assume that the child was adopted.   However, Daniel and Benjamin are biologically brothers, and they look nothing like each other.  People have wondered if one or the other of them was adopted.  Also, our extended family varies widely in ethnicity and appearance.  So,  many different things are taken into account by parents considering their adoption preferences.

We got to BYU about an hour before the parade started.  Our float was the second to last in the parade, though, so we were waiting a total of about 2 hours.  It was a cold morning.  We drank hot chocolate and walked around looking at the floats while we waited.

This was Benjamin's favorite float (besides the one we rode on, of course):

It's a float to promote the new Paleontology Museum at BYU.  Apparently,  the new museum is a lot bigger and cooler than the old Earth Science Museum.  Since we love dinosaurs and museums, you can bet we will go there sometime in the near future.

Funny, funny Benjamin

Daniel and Wayne hauled out the Nintendo this week and played a few games.  Benjamin loves to watch his big brother play video games, and sometimes he joins in.  When I say Nintendo, I don't mean Wii or even 64.  I mean an ORIGINAL Nintendo.  We bought it on ebay last year.  Daniel particularly likes to play Mario 3.  Also, Daniel and Benjamin have a cousins in Texas who dressed as Mario and Luigi for a costume party this week.  So, we've had a Nintendo kind of week lately.

This leads me to the funny story about Benjamin.  He was saying his prayers last night, and as all little kids do, he likes to throw in random requests relating to his friends, toys, etc.  So when he said, "And please bless Mario to win," I wasn't really surprised.  When he finished, I gently reminded him that we don't pray about Nintendo games.  He just looked at me like I had lost my mind.  After a few seconds, I realized my mistake.

He was referring to his aunt's brother Mario (and no, that doesn't make him his uncle).  My brother's wife Jacqueline has a brother who is on a reality show in Spain.  Benjamin has met Mario before, and he saw me voting for Mario earlier this week.  I just didn't realize that he cared so much.

So, if you want to make Benjamin's day, you can vote for our friend Mario on his reality show in Spain.  Unfortunately, my Spanish isn't really good enough to watch the show.  But we can all vote here for  Mario's Reality Show.  Obviously, that isn't what it's really called, but that's what we all call it.  It's a show about teenagers who have to act as though they are in high school in Spain during the 1960s.  At least, I think that is what it's about.  Mario is currently winning.  You can vote for him about once every 15 minutes.  It's kinda fun, and unlike reality shows in the US, the voting numbers are only in the thousands, not millions.  Which means our votes actually count for something.

Utah Corn Mazes

You have to love corn mazes if you live in Utah.  And if you have elementary aged kids, you have to go to one each October.  There are LOTS of local corn mazes to choose from.  We wanted to go to one last Saturday, so we looked up the information on three.

First, there is Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point.  It costs $11.00 whether you are a kid or adult.  For that price, you get to do a ton of different activities, but you feel like you have to stay for all of the activities to get your money's worth.  To see all of the activities, go to  www.cornbellys.com.  If you want to go to that corn maze, I recommend starting at a Costa Vida restaurant to get two for one coupons.  Their coupons are good Tuesday to Thursday.

The next corn maze we checked out virtually was at Hee Haw Farms.  They have a large corn maze, animals, a kiddie maze, food, and pony rides.  It costs $6.00 for kids under 12 and $8.00 for anyone over 12 for all of the activities.  It looked very fun for older kids and even teenagers would probably like the corn maze there.

Since we were only going with our immediate family, we decided that we didn't need that big of a corn maze.  So, we went to Pumpkinland!  It's just off I-15 at the Vineyard Nursery.  It cost $3.00 per person.  For $3.00, you might not expect much.  But I would highly recommend this corn maze to families with children younger than 8.  Our boys had a great time.  They went down every path in the corn maze in about 1/2 hour.  And that included stopping to read all of the jokes.

Then we saw all of the animals, including chickens, rabbits, and goats.

Next, they played on the inflatable slides (which are only for kids under 8).   

Now, you might think that was all that was there, but if you keep heading down the path, there is also a large playground with swings and slides.  And you know we love playgrounds!

Finally, you can't miss the "Light Alley."  It's just a large shed with all sorts of holiday lights set up inside it.  But the kids think it's very cool.

There isn't any food at the nursery, but you can buy pumpkins and squash of all sorts.  They have some trees and plants left over from this summer.  Also, they have a huge selection of tulip and daffodil bulbs.  It's a tradition for us to plant lots of bulbs each fall, so we chose some purple and peach tulips for our backyard.

Crazy, crazy, crazy

We went to Paris last week! Well, it was actually Paris, Idaho. What a crazy, busy weekend!

But before we get to that, I have to start back on Friday. I helped my friend Jill with her Harry Potter party. She needed another "teacher," mostly to help with crowd control (I think there were 15 kids at the party). So I came as Professor Trelawney. Jill's parties are extremely elaborate and very fun. She made robes, wands, school books, etc for all of the kids. The kids ate dinner in "The Great Hall" and then went to different classes. They earned coins in their classes that they could use to buy all sorts of weird candy at the end. If you know Jill, you will have to check her blog for pictures. And hopefully the ones of me won't be too embarrassing.

On Saturday, we went to Idaho for my niece's baptism. Her name is Kenna. It was nice to spend the afternoon with her family. My boys love playing with their cousins. Here are some pictures:

Wayne and Daniel had tickets to the Jon Schmidt concert in Logan, so we stayed in a hotel in Logan. While they were at the concert, Benjamin and I watched the BYU game. In spite of some defensive errors, it was a pretty awesome game. Daniel LOVED the concert. Daniel plays some of Jon Schmidt's music on the piano, and Daniel loves listening to his cds. After the concert, Daniel got to meet Jon Schmidt and even got his autograph. Pretty cool for him.

We drove home on Sunday. I started feeling sick on Saturday night, and I felt worse on Sunday. Everyone else made it to church, and I think they are all fine. But I still have a sore throat and stuff. I'm pretty sure it's just a cold, but with so many people sick with swine flu in our neighborhood, I'm a little paranoid. We'll see.

In case you didn't know, it's National School Lunch Week. Our elementary school celebrates by letting families come eat lunch with the students any day this week. Benjamin and I went on Monday.  Benjamin thought it was great to eat lunch with the big kids. We had chicken sandwiches, and you know, they really weren't too bad.

New look!

This is the new look for our blog.  Is it too girly for a family with two boys?  Let me know what you think.  I got the background from Lizzie Grace Blog Backgrounds. I used a banner from Banner of Blessings.

Soccer Nights!

I spent four nights per week at the soccer fields for the entire month of September.  Of course, there were practices and soccer clinics during the summer, too.  If my boys didn't love soccer, we would have gone crazy.

This is Daniel's team, crowding around their coach.  Daniel is the kid in the red shorts, toward the middle.  Yep, he was the tallest kid on the team.  And Benjamin was the tallest on his team, too.

Here, we have Benjamin practicing with his coach.  He's playing his favorite position, goalie or "keeper."  The kids all rotate positions each game, but he would request being goalie as often as possible.  I only saw one goal scored on him all season, and that was during the final game when the other team didn't have any points.  Benjamin's coach distracted him so the other team would have a chance to score.  I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but the other team sure was excited to score.

 
I promise Daniel is waving and not putting his hand up to block his face from the camera!  Go, Storm!

Benjamin has a fun time at his games, and his coach got them all trophies.  Go,Wolverines!  Of course, Benjamin would reassure us all that "it doesn't matter who wins.  Everybody gets a treat!"  He kept saying that throughout the season.  He might have felt differently if his team hadn't won so many games.  But let's hope not.  Kids this age should mostly be playing for the socializing and exercising.

This is just after Daniel's last soccer game.  We went to his Great Grandma's birthday party.  The party was at Wayne's Uncle Brian and Aunt Julie's house.  Grandma turned 85.  And Benjamin was right, after the soccer game, everybody gets a treat.  Check out that yummy brownie cake in the corner!

One of the highlights of that party for Daniel was getting to play Brian and Julie's baby grand piano.  He loves to play the piano!  He has been taking piano lessons since February, and I never have to tell him to practice.  More often, I have to tell him to quit playing so we can eat dinner.