Present time!

Kiara wasn't quite sure what was going on with the presents but she knew she liked it!

I love this picture of Lauren. That face says it all!

We are so lucky to have this little girl in our lives, it's hard to believe she's going to be 2! Days like this are always bittersweet for me because I know that while it's a celebration for us, there is another woman who is mourning. I can't do a lot to ease her pain but I feel like being the best mom I can be to Kiara is some sort of comfort. We will forever be grateful to her for her selfless sacrifice and for making our family complete. We couldn't be happier!

Now let us eat cake...well cupcakes!

I decided to go the cupcake route this year and it worked really well. All the kids and adults loved them and Kiara didn't freak out when she touched the frosting (if you were there for her 1st birthday you remember the OCD-caused meltdown because her hands got sticky).

It was a little windy at the park so Kiara's friends "helped" make a wall. I love the look on her face in this shot.

"Blowing" the candle out

Kiara and her BFF Lauren. I love watching the 2 of them together, they are always hugging!

Happy birthday party, Kiara!

Kiara's birthday isn't until Thursday but we are leaving town tomorrow for Ben's brother's wedding so we had her party tonight. It was a great time with great friends and Kiara had a blast!

Kiara was being obedient and saying "cheese" for me, I just snapped the picture a little too soon and caught the wrong part of the word!

Kiara and her boyfriend Jacob, he is the sweetest little guy. I totally approve of the relationship!

Our friend, Aisha surprised us and came dressed up as "Papa Bear." Kiara was the only kid under the age of 4 to have any interest in him but she thought he was pretty cool.


One happy family!

One cool chick

Improvised straight jacket

Kiara has become quite the little escape artist when it comes to her diaper. We thought we had the problem solved by putting her in a snapping onesie and pants but she can pull her pants down and has now mastered the snaps (which by the way are often hard for me to do so I am quite impressed that she can handle them). Anyway the other morning I walked in to quite the wet mess so we have had to resort to putting her zipper pajamas on backward.

The claustrophobic in me really didn't want to resort to such "drastic" measures but it turns out Kiara really loves it. She laughs the whole time we're putting them on.

Who knew?

Take a walk down memory lane with me!

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. I can't wait to see what people remember.

This is great...

The sports anchor for the Salt Lake Fox station is named Mike Rungee and at the beginning of his segment each night they have a clip of a child, high school sports team, local celebrity, etc. saying, "It's Rungee Time." Apparently this was the lead-in a few weeks ago:

I love seeing that our prophet is still human and has such a great sense of humor. What a lovable man!

Kiara-isms

We were in the store yesterday when Kiara saw a man with rather long hair and a beard. She pointed to him and said, "Jesus!" Luckily he didn't hear but the women next to us did and we all had a good laugh.


Whenever Kiara wakes up I ask her what she dreamed about and she says, "Cute boys." This never gets old to me and I laugh every time I hear her say it. Well last night we were invited to a a BBQ at a friend's house and one of Ben's scouts was there. Apparently this kid really likes Kiara and plays with her whenever Ben takes Kiara to scouts with him. As we were leaving she saw him in the street and ran up to him yelling, "Cute boys!" I guess this is her mystery dream man!

4th of July weekend

We were lucky enough to be invited to a beach house this last weekend with my brother and sister-in-law and her family. We had a great time and Kiara couldn't have been better on the 5 hour drive. Here she is on cloud 9 watching Baby Signing Time in the car. She kind of looked at us like, "Why haven't you guys introduced me to this concept before? This is great!"

We got there before my brother and his family so we did a little exploring around downtown Ventura and can I just say that that was one of the most charming little towns I've ever seen? It was so much fun and we had lunch had this great little diner. After lunch we walked around to some little bookstores and antique shops and then ended up at a beach that had this little playground. Kiara loved the swings even more than usual and didn't want to leave.

Unfortunately the rest of my pictures were on my disposable water camera so I'll have to wait until I get those developed to post them. How archaic!

Kiara-ism

I went in to get Kiara up this morning when she reached her arms out to me and said in her cheesiest, most adorable voice, "Hi honey! How are you?" My heart melted right there on her bedroom floor! So cute.

It's official!

We are finally approved to adopt through LDS Family Services! It took almost 6 months and a lot of patience but we are so grateful for this blessing. We know our Heavenly Father has placed us on this path of adoption and has been preparing our hearts since before we were even a family and we are so glad He did! We know what a truly inspired process adoption is and feel honored to be able to participate.

Now comes the roller coaster of waiting to be matched with a birthmom and preparing ourselves for our next family member. If anyone happens to hear of a situation where someone is considering adoption we would greatly appreciate you keeping us in mind. We will be keeping a separate adoption blog for potential birthparents to look at and our LDSFS online profile should be up and running by the end of the week. We appreciate every one of you for your love and support in our lives, something that makes this process a lot easier.

In honor of Kiara's upcoming birthday and thinking about her adoption story I thought I'd add this picture of our angel at only 2 days old. That week was such a whirlwind at times but yet I can still feel all of those same emotions and excitement that I felt when we first got the call that a baby had been born and her birthmom was wanting to meet us. 36 hours later we took that baby home and not a minute has gone by since then that I haven't been so incredibly grateful that we were chosen to be her parents and guide her through this life. She has taught me so much and inspired me to be the best person I can be to one day become worthy of her.

I know our road to become parents wasn't near as long as many other's and my heart breaks for those of you who are still waiting for this blessing or are wanting to add more blessings to your family but I have seen first hand that our Father in Heaven and His son are so mindful of us and our children and will bless us all for our faithfulness. They want us to become eternal families even more than we do and they will provide a way if we stay obedient and follow their promptings. I am sorry to be so preachy, I am just overcome with emotion and gratitude right now and I don't know another way to express what I'm feeling. Anyway, thanks again and please keep us in your thoughts and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Need a favor...

I need a favor from anyone who has our blog linked from theirs. If you have our last name listed would you mind changing it to just our first names? I have found that with our last name listed it can be "Googled" and people who aren't supposed to be able to find us might be able to. I am still totally fine with having a link there but it would be much better if it only has our first names. Also, if anyone else would like the same thing done to their link from my blog, especially those in the adoption world, please let me know. Thanks a lot!