Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to. . .

My brother Mike!  (Sorry, no picture)

My son Daniel!

And my brother-in-law Devyn!

Yep, my mom, my mother-in-law, and I all had baby boys on the same day (although years apart).

Halloween Fun

For Halloween,

We carved pumpkins...

 Ate a Zombie feast...

Candy corn pizza, blood and bones, and salad (for any vegetarian  zombies)! 

And went trick or treating!

We went to Wayne's office and around our whole neighborhood.  We only got about 20 trick or treaters at our house.

Utah Fall Break

For fall break, our kids got three days off from school, plus a weekend, so we decided to make the most of it.  Wayne was even able to take some time off from work.  We thought about going on a vacation somewhere.  We even considered Disneyland, but it was too hard to get excited about having Amanda on an airplane or a really long car ride.  Probably we will have to do Disneyland next year.  Sigh.  

Anyway, we started off our Utah staycation at Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point.  We've never taken the boys to their corn maze (although we've been to several other corn mazes with them).  Wayne and I went to Cornbelly's a few years ago, but we must have waited until too close to Halloween because parts of the maze were totally trampled from all of the guests.  This time, the maze was in great shape.  The corn maze was election themed with an Obama side and a Romney side.  We did both sides.  There were lots of other activities that the boys enjoyed there, too.  Daniel really liked the "No left turn" hay maze.  It was a math puzzle.  You had to walk through the whole thing without making any left turns.

We went to Grandma's house later that day so she could watch the kids while Wayne and I went on a date.  Our date nights have been fewer and further between since we got Amanda, so we appreciated having time to ourselves (although I still miss her whenever we leave her with a babysitter).  We went to the temple and out to dinner.

The next day, we went to BYU for some sightseeing.  Daniel and Benjamin really like the Museum of Art Cafe, so we had lunch there.  Then we checked out the exhibits.  Daniel liked "Think Flat: The Art Andy Warhol and Takashi Murakami." Amanda seemed to really enjoy People in a Hard Land: Iconic Images of Life in the Southwest.  She kept wanting to see all of the horses in the paintings.  Benjamin's favorite part was the lunch, but his favorite part of the art was the exhibit in the garden Michael Whiting: 8-bit Modern.

After the museum, we stopped by to see Wayne's dad at his office (he's a professor).  

When we were walking back to our car, we came across some real ducks!

On Monday, the last day of Fall Break, we went to the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City.  I hadn't been there since I was a little kid.  It was pretty fun, and since it was Monday, we got in free with our Pass of all Passes.  It's like a small zoo, with just birds.  Afterwards, we ate at El Farol, our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Benjamin and Daniel with the toucan.

This is an exhibit where you get in the cage with the birds.  There were finches, parakeets, cardinals, and other small birds.

Fall Flies By

Daniel (my soon to be 11 year old) told me that I've been a total slacker on my blog lately, and I'd better try to catch up.  I would keep my blog more up to date, but every time I try to blog, my princess needs to be fed, changed, or she wakes up from her nap. And honestly, I would rather spend time with her than blog anyway.  It will probably take a few blogging sessions to just finish this entry, but here goes.  

Daniel has this funny thing where he talks to "Daniel in the future" whenever we are making home videos.  So, this entry is for you, "Daniel in the future" so that you will remember all of the fun stuff we did this fall.

First, the boys are back in school.  See, told you I was a slacker, since I haven't even posted pics of that!  When we moved last April, Daniel started an advanced program at a nearby elementary school, and Benjamin went to the regular neighborhood school. We got tired of driving them to two different schools, and Benjamin wanted to be at the same school as Daniel.  So, we switched Benjamin to the same school as Daniel.  Daniel is really enjoying his advanced program, although it's the first time ever that school has been any sort of challenge for him.  His teacher works those kids hard!  Some of it still comes really easily for Daniel; for example, he reads his long, advanced spelling list once or twice and has the whole thing memorized.  He really likes the kids in his class.  I don't know whether Benjamin will want to be in that program when he is in fifth grade, though, because he has seen the piles of homework Daniel gets.  Here are the back to school pics:

Another fun thing this fall was Benjamin's birthday!  Benjamin starts planning his birthday at least two months in advance, so everyone is happy and somewhat relieved when it finally arrives.

In case you are wondering, his presents were mostly legos and lego themed things because that's what he likes.

K, I was going to keep writing and add in Fall Break and Halloween, but this post has taken entirely too long to write, so I'm going to move on to a new post.

   

More Amanda celebrations

The Saturday following Amanda's adoption finalization, we were able to take her to the temple with us to be sealed.  That also happened to be our 12 year wedding anniversary.  We didn't plan it that way (since we had no control over when our adoption would be finalized), but we thought that was a great way to spend our anniversary.  We also decided to have Amanda sealed to us in the Jordan River Temple because that's the temple we were married in.

A "temple sealing" is our religious ceremony for creating eternal families.  Usually, that is a temple wedding.  Children who are born to parents who were married in the temple are considered already sealed to them.  The only children who are sealed to parents are those who were adopted or whose parents are sealed after the children are born.  Most adult members of our church attend temple weddings from time to time, but Wayne and I had never been to a live sealing of a child to their parents.  In fact, a lot of the volunteers who help at the temple hadn't helped with a sealing like that, so we were kind of a novelty for them.

To enter the temple for any reason, a church member has to "be in good standing."  That means they are interviewed and found worthy by their church leaders to go to the temple.  Daniel and Benjamin even had to do that because they are older than 8 (younger children are exempt), but it was mostly questions like if they were excited to have Amanda in our family and if they are good kids.  Children are only allowed at temple sealings if they are the ones being sealed or if their sibling is being sealed to their parents, like in our case. 

The first thing we did at the temple was take the children to the youth center.  Some really nice temple volunteers took good care of them while we did the paperwork and other preparations for the sealing.  My mom also stayed down there with them.  They had books, toys, snacks, etc. to keep the kids busy.  They watched a video that told the boys a little more about what happens in the temple.  One of my mom's friends who happened to be helping at the temple rocked Amanda until she fell asleep.  The kids were in the youth center for about an hour.  When it was time for the sealing, the boys dressed in white clothing the temple provided, and Amanda wore her white dress that we bought for the occasion.

We were sealed together in a beautiful room in the upstairs of the temple, with family and friends as witnesses.  All of us, even Daniel and Benjamin, had tears of happiness by the end of the ceremony.  Amanda was quiet and seemed very thoughtful.  We looked into the mirrors they have on the walls of the sealing room that reflect into one another and symbolize eternity.  And our family just felt so whole.  It was such a happy day for us!

Our family!

Some of the family members who came to the temple with us.

 

Daddy's girl

The blanket Amanda is on was made by her great-grandma.

I think they are making the exact same face.

Amanda loves her brothers!

Yeah, we're all pretty happy.

Completely worn out from all of the excitement.

Amanda WAS adopted!

In Utah, you can finalize a baby's adoption when she is six months old.  Since Amanda turned six months old recently, we have been looking forward to this.  We had to have more background checks and three post placement visits with our caseworker to meet all of the adoption requirements before this could happen.  The first post placement visit actually took place before we moved to our new house, while we were still in our rental.  We were so thankful that our rental house was adequate to meet adoption standards.  Yes, there were boxes everywhere, but the caseworkers didn't really care about that.  Mostly for home visits, they want to see that you have a safe room for the baby--with a crib or bassinet.  They also check for things like medications, cleaning supplies, and anything else that could be dangerous, to be sure that they are stored out of reach of children.  So, it's not really difficult to pass, but it can be a little intimidating to have someone going through your house inspecting it all.

Last week, we went to court for the finalization.  We were told to "dress appropriately for court."  I looked on a few adoption websites to get some idea as to what people wear to court.  In big cities, it's more business attire.  I read that in some small towns, everyone, including the judge, just wears a nice shirt and jeans.  In Utah, it seems that most people wear their Sunday best.  Amanda had a new purple dress to wear, and it was kind of funny because we all decided independently to wear purple to match her.

We met up with our lawyer and caseworker for a few minutes before going into court.  We had a few documents to sign.  Then we went into the courtroom.  Some family members came along.  We were happy to have grandparents there to sit with Daniel and Benjamin.  Our lawyer presented our case and had the caseworker take the stand to testify on our behalf that we had met all of the requirements to adopt Amanda.  Then our lawyer asked us some questions, but we were allowed to remain seated with Amanda at the table near the front of the courtroom.  Mostly he asked us how we were doing having Amanda in our family and whether we were prepared to take on all of the responsibilities of having Amanda as our daughter permanently.   I got all choked up when I had to speak, but I think that was understandable considering how emotional the whole experience was.  We're so happy to have Amanda as our official daughter and little sister!

Amanda looks a little solemn in all of the pictures.  She was really well behaved in court.  Our caseworker said that a lot of the babies cry the whole time because they get bored of sitting there.  Amanda is just generally a sweet, happy baby.

Here are some of the family members who came to court with us.  My mom came too, but she was taking the picture.  After court, we went out to eat to celebrate.  Daniel and Benjamin told everyone at the restaurant that we were all dressed up because we had just finalized our adoption.  It was a happy day for our family.  It was only the first in a week of Amanda celebrations, though.  I'll write more about that next time.  

Summer vacation

Way back in June, we took our first family road trip since Amanda joined us.  Interesting note:  since Amanda's adoption isn't finalized yet, we couldn't take her out of state without first notifying our adoption agency.  It's not really hard to get permission, though.  We decided to drive down to Vegas to see my brother and his family.  Actually, Wayne had a business trip down there, and we decided to turn it into a family vacation instead.  How can you not when you have a "free" room at the Palazzo?  Here are some pictures of our room:

And here's the view out our window of the pools--there were at least 7 of them down there, and they were more or less deserted, so it was easy to claim your own pool.  I'm guessing that they are busier on the weekends.

Amanda wasn't really up for swimming yet, so we visited with my sister in law and her cute baby.  Amanda loves her sweet little cousin Aria!  Babies are a bit of a novelty at the Las Vegas hotels.  We had Japanese tourists trying to take our pictures because of Amanda and Aria.  That was a little weird.

The Palazzo is the sister hotel of the Venetian.  They're connected by a big indoor mall that is Italian themed. We enjoyed wandering through the stores and eating pasta and gelato at the restaurants.  We also took the gondola ride on the canal.  For some of us, that's as close to Venice as we will ever come.  So, we enjoyed it all, especially getting to spend a couple of days with Brandon and Jacqueline and Aria!

No more pencils, no more books!

Daniel and Benjamin are excited that school's finally out!  Their old school got out last week, but they had a few more days to go at their new schools.  I took them to the last day of school at their old school so that they could say goodbye one more time.  

The entire second grade was signing "yearbooks" when we got there.  Benjamin walked into the room, and he was immediately surrounded by kids shouting his name and asking for his autograph.  I felt like I was with a celebrity.  He was a little overwhelmed, but he loved it.

Daniel was happy to see his old friends, too.  Amanda got even more attention than Daniel, though.  All of the girls in Daniel's class wanted to see her and hold her.

Here's a picture of my boys on the first day of school:

And on the last day:

It's weird to think back to where we were in our lives when school started last year.  Since then, we listed our house for sale, decided where to move to, started building a house, sold our old house, moved to a rental house, adopted Amanda, and moved to our new house.  By the way, Amanda is happy that the boys are out of school.  She missed them when they were gone during the day.

This is somewhat unrelated, but Daniel was happy to finish off the school year with a new tooth.  The orthodontist was finally able to fit a temporary tooth onto his braces.  It's hard to even see which tooth is fake.  

Some Pics of the Princess

I haven't had any time to blog lately, but I've had several requests for pictures of Princess Amanda.  I do have time to take pictures of her!  I've also had people asking to see pictures of our new house, so I will try to get some of those up this week, too.

Everyone dressed up for church!

 

Benjamin and Amanda love reading books together.

Daniel loves to hold Amanda and sing silly songs to her.

Amanda got tired of her binkie about a week ago, when she decided her fingers were more delicious.  At least she can sometimes soothe herself back to sleep now.

There's my happy baby!