Neighborhood BBQ

Every year since we've lived here our neighborhood has gotten together for a barbecue. Our 2 neighbors up the street have hosted it the last couple years and we felt like it must be our turn this year! We had a good turnout. We love our neighborhood--there are lots of good people with a good variety of types of families.

This is the invitation one of our neighbors made
for us to pass out. So cute!

We don't have a lot of shade so we had everyone in the
garage or in our side yard.

Some of the kids watched an outdoor movie afterwards.
S LOVED snuggling up with the other kids (she didn't
care about the movie) until Mommy finally took her
home for bed :(

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Nathan's birthday was this week and he decided to take the day off. We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point for our first time. There is a lot to see there! S loved it. I think she could play there all day and still not want to leave. We went in the morning and then went back after dinner. I think Nathan had a good birthday. It was fun to be able to spend the day with him instead of just the evening.

I let S pick out a present for Daddy from her.
The trouble is she really just wanted it for
herself! That girl loves candy.

Daddy also got a toolkit to keep in the car. S also
thought it was great fun.

At the museum. Yes, water is always fun to play in!

Daddy and co-pilot

Daddy's floating head! Aaahhhh!

Happy Birthday Daddy!
I made him a 3-layer german chocolate cake.

It's always fun to devote a day to celebrating someone you love. I can't imagine my life without Nathan. He has made my life better in so many ways. I'm so grateful for the kind, patient, easy-going, loving, wise man that he is. I'm grateful he provides for our family and takes an active part in our family. I love him more than I can say.

Daddy's work party and other stuff

Nathan's work party was last week. They had a catered dinner and some cash give-aways and some games for the kids. The food wasn't amazing, but somehow I still ate too much (I hate it when I do that!!). Nathan knows the people he works with a lot better now, so it was fun for him to get to see his co-workers outside the work setting. I still don't really know many people, but at least I don't have to go to work parties alone like I did for so long while I was single!

S, with Daddy's help, spun the wheel for a
chance to win some cash. No luck for us this time!

One of the activities for kids was to make and
shoot little rockets. Daddy, the big kid, put
in a great deal of effort to make S's rocket.
He's very good at making rockets that shoot
really high.

Here they are with the rocket!
It shot up very high.

Afterwards S was dying to play on the playground
equipment. It's not a park if there isn't stuff to play on!

I was able to go out to lunch with my good friend Becky on Saturday. It was really nice to have some time to hang out with a friend. We visited the art gallery at Thanksgiving Point and she started talking to the director there and we ended up getting to see some of the stained glass windows they've made for the Rome and Payson temples. They were beautiful!!

Nice antlers, Becky!

My sister, Lynda, came to visit my parents and
S had so much fun playing with Lynda and
her son and daughter.

Chalk bum

Little cutie! Sometimes her crib is so full
of stuffed toys I don't know how she can
sleep in it!

Ready to Adopt

We have officially been approved to adopt through LDS Family Services!!! Yay!!! It took us 6 months to get through the application process and we are very excited to finally be eligible to be chosen as adoptive parents. Now it's just wait and see, which is hard, but good. I would really, really love to have another child and it would be great for S, too, but I try to put all my trust in the Lord. He loves us and wants us to be happy. If it is His will for us to have another child, then we will open our hearts to such a wonderful blessing. If it is not His will for us, we will continue being our happy family of 3 and know that we tried our best to increase our family. It's not easy, but having faith usually isn't.

Here's our profile.

I worked for the LDS church for a few years as a web developer. Itsaboutlove.org was the first project I worked on, for a year. I sure never expected to be one of the couples on the site hoping to adopt. You sure never know where life is going to take you...

Summer fun

We went to the splash pad in Highland with a neighbor and her kids and a couple of their friends. We hadn't been to it this year, but S loved it last year and the year before so I knew she'd have a good time. She's still not a fan of having water splashed on her face and spends most of her time in the stream, but she loves the chance to play in the water and be around all the other kids.

S and our friends playing behind her

This is how she smiles for the camera--at least there's a smile :)

S and I also played in the park this week. She is still not willing to brave the twisty slide alone. She did it on her own at one point, but that didn't last long. She'd just as well spend her time on the swings. There was a nice puddle at the park that she had fun in.

This girl LOVES a good puddle

On the walk home (during which S cried half the time over not wanting to leave) we said hello to the ponies. They are always in the back of the enclosure, but this day they came up and said hello (we figured they missed breakfast). They happily munched on the dry grass we smuggled to them.

In case you haven't heard...

S announced to me that Mickey and Minnie are getting married in the temple!! Isn't that wonderful? We're very excited for the happy couple.

We've had Mickey and Minnie in the car with us for the past few days. I often get to be voice for them. S loves having her toys or her fork or her sippy cup talk and I am usually the one talking to them or for them. Sometimes I forget which voice is for which toy. I think my best voices are Mickey and Minnie, though. S also likes for me to pretend to be her and for her to be me. That can get a little weird sometimes. But sometimes having her toys tell her to do something works much better than Mommy telling her, so it can come in handy!