What a STINKY, DIRTY, FUN, FUN, FUN weekend!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sunday morning was like any other until Clint and Madison built a castle out of legos for her horseys. Daddy made sure it had guns for proper defense, while Maddie made sure it had a door so that when the horseys said “Knock knock”, they could come in. When it was all finished there was a small battle, but no fatalities. When the smoke cleared, all was well and both horseys rested in their castle, safe and sound!

The next part of our weekend actually started off on Saturday with Russell (Clint’s dad) giving us a HUGE MONGUS tent, (it has 2 rooms AND a screened in porch!) so we were like “Oooo! We should go camping on the mountain Sunday night and try out our new tent!” Since no one could go with us, we had our first ever Family Campout!

Let me let you in on a little secret… setting up a giant pole tent with the help of someone who really knows what they’re doing (and with 3 adults instead of 2) makes a great big difference! It didn’t go up NEARLY as easy for Clint and I as it did back at Russell’s! The wind was blowing, the ground was uneven, and there was a cranky kid running amuck with our two dogs! It was definitely an experience! Even though the size was really great, I think we’ve decided to stick to our little dome tent for now because it is SO MUCH EASIER to set up! Maybe someday we will save our pennies and buy a great big dome tent when we have more than 3 people sleeping in it!

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Madison thought Clint’s flashlight was the coolest and would shine it up on all the tree branches above, until he taught her to shine it on her face and go “Bru ha ha ha!” in a scary voice…

Later that night, Riley (Clint’s little brother) and some friends drove up and joined us for smores, and were chased away by a skunk that our dog, M.J., had scared! Lovely, eh?

For breakfast, we made biscuits in Clint’s Dutch oven and gravy on his backpacking stove. While waiting for them to cook, Clint got bored and decided to try an experiment. He skewered a raw biscuit and slow roasted it over the fire! Guess what? It actually cooked and was (burned, but) good!

So, we spent that night camping on the mountain, bundled up and roughin’ it. We came home Monday morning and spent the day on the lake, in bathing suits and sun bathing! It was SO FUN! I have to say that I love where we live – we are so close to so many different climates that we are able to DO that! (And not spend all day driving to do it either!) Seth and Courtney had promised Logan that he could ride on Andy’s boat so we all spent the day playing in the water (and in the shade!)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We came home stinky, dirty, exhausted… but we had SO MUCH FUN!!

Drum Roll Please, Everybody Freeze...

WE ARE FINALLY CERTIFIED TO ADOPT!!!!! It has been a long, sometimes hard, sometimes obnoxious, but always exciting road, and we are unbelievably overjoyed to actually say that we are ready to adopt! Please let everyone know and please check out our profile under "Sites that we like"! What else can we say but "YAY!"?!

Happy 24th of July Everyone!!

We live in one of 3 towns clustered together in a valley at the base of a beautiful mountain. Every year the 24th of July celebrations pass from one town to the next, but they are always on the weekend before the actual 24th of July, that way everyone who leaves home knows exactly when all the festivities are. That is why this weekend, instead of next, we celebrated our Pioneer ancestors.



Our family started things off right with Madison sleeping in until 7!!! (She’s been getting up between 6 – 6:30, gag!) At 9 we wandered around the corner to work on our ward float, and Madison found a bicycle that she thought was the coolest thing ever! Daddy took her for a short ride, but it was too hot so Maddie and I walked over to Clint’s Grandparents’ home for a visit.



Papa Jerry tried on her shoes, shared chocolate, got her a drink, some crackers… basically wrapped himself around her pinky finger and begged to be left there. She thought it was great, and thoroughly enjoyed being treated like a princess!



She even lied down on the couch for a “Night night” and he covered her with a blanket.


Grandma Leona enjoyed all the activity and expressed her delight with an occasional chuckle from her chair.


We made our way back over to the float, but it was even hotter now and so Clint gave us a couple bucks for some ice cream. So, we were off again to get our baby cones and, Maddie did a better job than I did at this one, make a vanilla-sticky mess all over our faces and hands!

The girls left the Daddies with the kids and went to lunch with was fabulous!! I had a Kauai (sp?) Quesadilla that, let’s face it, made me happy! :) It had chicken, bell peppers, onions and pineapple with a tangy teriyaki sauce and sour cream… need I say more? Then we stopped in at Wal Mart to look at things that husbands quake and tremble when we look at – fabric and scrapbooking supplies! I was so excited when I saw that they FINLLY carry vinyl for Cricuts! I got one for Mother’s Day and didn’t want to pay internet prices for the vinyl, so I’ve been waiting patiently and hooray! It paid off! I’d like to start making those vinyl signs and selling them for extra $, we’ll see if it goes anywhere or not… Then we stopped at the local scrapbooking store and believe it or not, I didn’t spend any money in there! I’m proud of me if no one else is (aside from Clint!)

After our much-needed break, my friend Marie cut my hair. Maddie woke up at that point and Clint brought her over. When she walked in, she wasn’t all the way awake yet and was a little scared to see me covered in a weird looking cape, my hair all slicked down with Marie holding a razor to my head… It didn’t help that Clint walked by and whispered, “Mommy looks like a witch, huh?” (I can just see her describing this scene years from now to a therapist!!) After she woke up a little more, she wandered back over and thought I was pretty funny looking (thankfully) and even consented to getting her hair cut too! She didn’t wear the cape, and then freaked out about all the “gross hair” that kept falling all over her, but at least all the fuzzy-frizz is off now and it’s just beautiful, healthy curls left!!


At 5 the parade started. It was raining, so people were getting pretty inventive figuring out how to stay dry.


We (Clint) even made a tent with a tarp strung between two trucks, but he did end up very dirty by the end of the construction…


Madison loved the parade! She would yell, “Hi truck! Hi car! Hi tractor! Hi horsey! Hi friends!”






There were a couple 4-wheelers dressed up like oxen or horses, even a motorcycle tried to be a horse! Since we’re getting a Temple soon, a lot of the floats portrayed Temples and groundbreaking and the like. It was so cool to see so many people that excited about the Temple!

We didn’t stay for the dinner booths, but did brave the rain for the fireworks. They took a LONG time to get going, but once started were worth it!







Madison did NOT agree! She’s never really been one for loud noises, and wanted nothing to do with the bright lights in the sky because they were loud! She curled up on my chest and fell asleep while I took some awesome pictures of the fireworks. When we got back to the car, my arms were nearly dead from holding her for so long and we all crashed the moment our heads touched our pillows!

It was a great day and a great celebration! Happy 24th everyone!

FINALLY! She let me paint her toenails!!

For those of you who have daughters, you may find it a complete disgrace that I had, until last Thursday, not painted Madison's toenails... in my defense, she is a wiggler!! She is SO ticklish, so squirmy, and loves to test her limits, that makes for a VERY difficult child to get to sit still while you paint and dry, right?



I had decided to do my toenails before our trip to California and when she saw me, she immediately was in my face asking, "What's that? What are you doing, Mom? I do it?" So, Clint grabbed the camera and I lovingly gave my daughter her first at-home pedicure... well, I really only painted her toenails, but it sounds better to say pedicure!



She is so proud of her pink toenails like Mommy's, it gives me hope that she won't be a total miniture version of her Daddy! Maybe there will be some of me in there after all! Only time will tell... :)

Thank you for your prayers

We had a great weekend in California, but unfortunately we received an email from the birth mom and she chose the other family. We're sad that this experience has turned out this way, but feel at peace with her decision and know that someday our baby will come into our family when the time is right. Thank you for the support and the prayers, we love you all.

Keep us in your prayers

We are going to meet the birth mom and her family this weekend, and boy are we excited! We know there is still a chance that this may not work out, (believe us, we are PRAYING that it does!) but we can't help but be... well... I guess the only word is at peace. Whether that's a "Yes" peace or a "No, but it will be ok" peace... I guess we'll find out soon! (Please, please PLEASE let it be "YES!") We have been wanting a baby, and a boy especially, for a while now. A lot of our close friends are prego with boys right now, and the timing feels so right for us! We still have a lot of baby stuff from Madison, so we're pretty much prepared there (plus, Michele and I bought a few more things today so that if we get that call saying she's in labor and we need to come, we can have a bag ready for the baby too!).

We read through some inter-state adoption laws the other night and it seems that after he's born, there is some paperwork that needs to be filled out and approved by both states, which could take up to 2 weeks. During that time, he can't leave the state so I'll get to stay with my brother (who happens to live only 2 hours away from the birth family!) and have some time alone with our new boy. Clint is jealous that he'll have to go back to work! My sisters are planning on coming to stay for a few days while I get back in the groove of having a newborn, and Michele is going to try and come after they leave. Russell and Jonnet are taking Maddie during the day, and Clint will get some Daddy Daughter time in the afternoons and evenings, which I know will be SOOO good for both of them!

We are so overwhelmed at the outpouring of love we have received from our family and friends over the past few days and no matter what choice the birth mom makes, this experience has been a blessing for us. We can't put in to words how much love we feel for the birth family, how much gratitude we feel for even being considered. We are praying heart and soul that this baby boy is our son.

Thank you for your prayers, and please keep us in them as we travel this weekend to meet the family who no matter what they choose, are the answer to someone's prayers (but please let it be ours! :).

We love life!

We got the greatest promise last night. A cousin of a cousin has chosen us to be the adoptive parents of her son.

Can life get any better than this?!

We are so excited! We are driving to California to meet her and her family this weekend and if all goes well we'll have a son in a few weeks! I already bought a couple outfits for him (on clearance, so that's ok, right? :) and it is taking every ounce of strength I have to leave all the baby stuff in the shed for just a little while longer! We are bursting at the seams! Life is an amazing gift, and we are so thankful to have this opportunity to welcome a little brother into our family.

On a funny note, Madison can't say brother yet. So we've been talking about the baby boy instead! She has no idea what's going on, but she's excited too!

A FUN 4th of July!

I get a phone call at 5:45ish Friday morning from Clint. “Wanna hear a funny scary story?” He got up waaaaay early to go help with the town pancake breakfast, and realized he needed to fill up his truck with gas. So, he pulls up behind this truck and starts to walk between the two vehicles to get to the gas pump when his police academy training popped into his head reminding him to NEVER walk in between two vehicles if there’s a chance one may start moving… can you see where this is going? Yeah, he walked around behind his truck instead and the driver in the other one threw it in reverse and punched the gas. Clint’s truck had it’s emergency brake on and it STILL jumped back about 6 inches, hitting him in the shin with the ball hitch, leaving a nice 1 ½ inch cut. I don’t even want to think about the alternative ending to this story, one with him in the hospital with two broken legs! YUCK! But keep reading, it gets better!

Clint starts jumping up and down, yelling (I say crying, he says not :) and the guy thinking his leg is broken comes running over. Clint butches up and says he’s fine and examines the truck, no scratches on ours except a large crack on one of the plastic pieces on the bumper. So he asks the guy for his insurance information and the guy says no. “Do you have insurance?” “Yes.” “Can I see it?” “No.” “Ok, I’ll call the police and they’ll get it from you and give it to me.” “The police are coming?” “Yeah, that’s what happens when you get in an accident!” The guy starts getting nervous at this point. The officer that shows up went through the academy with Clint (small town!) and goes to the other guy first. He speaks very broken English (when asked what town he lives in he replies “USA.” “Zip Code?” “USA.” You get the idea). Turns out he is here illegally from Guatemala, no work visa, nada! He says he bought the truck from someone but it’s not in his name, no registration, obviously no license and no insurance. The officer asks him if there are any guns or drugs in the vehicle and he says no. At this point the officer tells Clint he can go do what he needs to do, she’ll come find him when she’s finished. We knew she arrested him after Clint left because he was illegal, but we learned later that not only did he have a gun in the glove box (where he kept reaching to get papers for her) he had a nice little stash of meth! So, Clint has to write up a statement and have an officer pick it up so they can charge this guy with a bunch of stuff, deport him and if he ever comes back he’s automatically a felon.

Lovely way to start the holiday weekend, eh?



The pancake breakfast was fun, we were in charge of music and put waaaay too much energy into trying to help organize a quartet of high schoolers to sing a few songs, but they did great! Then when Maddie and I finally were able to get down there (I say finally for Clint’s sake, he was ansy for us to arrive – we came at 6:40!) Clint and I sang “God Bless the USA”. It was kinda sad for me, everyone after came up and said they didn’t know I could play guitar and how wonderful it was that I knew how to play and when did I learn and all that… That’s what I know KNOWN for in high school, so that was one of those “I guess I’m growing up” moments that makes you want to cry a little bit!




The rest of the day was pretty blah; it was too hot to go to the parade, Clint left to hike up the mountain in the afternoon and it stormed that night so Madison and I stayed home from the fireworks (she was asleep by that point anyway!). Oh well!

Saturday was fun though! Maddie and I made cookies for the camping trip and she got to lick off her first beater! She did a really good job too! I was definitely impressed! Then we packed up and headed up the mountain with Michele and the girls (Andy was with Clint). The boys had taken a new trail and didn’t know what time they’d be up to the cabin so we went looking for them around 2:30. We finally found them at 4 – stinky, exhausted, and happy for jackets, fresh water and my delicious chocolate chip cookies! The trail had disappeared and they had trekked straight up the mountain, through thorns, bushes, rocks, rain (they parked under a big rock during an 1 ½ hour rainstorm), and even followed a bear trail for a while… what these boys were thinking, I don’t know. I doubt I want to know! And on the way home, Clint was already saying, “It was a fun hike!” Yikes!

Once we got them back to the cabin and fed, they washed up in some warm water in the sink. We waited outside with the girls and Michele’s 2 year old asked, “What are Clint and Daddy doing? Are they taking a bath together?” to which we answered, “Yes, they are!” “Oh, that’s cuz they like each other, huh?” to which we again answered, “Yes!” :) Ah, the innocence of childhood! Made us giggle!

Michele bought all three girls matching princess umbrellas and they were a hoot to watch! They were so excited for those things, they took them everywhere – to the outhouse, in the cabin, to the fire ring… it was so fun!

Clint decided he needed to be macho and pushed a tree over. Yes, you read that right, he PUSHED a tree over! Of course, it was one of those hazard trees that are marked by the forest service to be removed, so it was probably weak. Either that or Clint is REALLY strong, because it fell over really fast!

It was so nice to relax with friends and have nothing to do but play! It got me thinking that we are so lucky to have friends who have the same traditions we do! Madison will always get to go camping twice a year with her best friends and I think that is so cool!
I’m already excited for Labor Day weekend (the next time we go up and camp on the mountain)!

What’s a little dirt, Mommy?

We spent last weekend camping at a family reunion and I swear, it was the WORST prepared for camping trip we’ve ever had! We almost ran out of diapers, we DID run out of wipes, I didn’t bring any plates cuz I didn’t think we’d need them and lo and behold – we did! Clint forgot to pack his and my sweatshirts AND his duffle bag (which had all our toiletries in it)… thank heavens his little brother Riley was coming up the next morning! My hero! I could NOT go a whole weekend without deodorant (neither could Clint! :)

Madison had a blast playing all day with her cousins! They decorated stick horses and had a race, played in the dirt with shovels, made bubbles and there were plenty of things for Maddie to practice jumping off of! Even uncle Riley and Daddy got in on the bubbles, of course, they turned it into a sword fight, then a wrestling match… I know – boys will be boys, right?!

Maddie was COVERED in dirt! At one point, she had perfect circles on her shirt from where she had leaned over her cut-up hotdog at lunch and then ran off playing. It took every single ounce of control I had to not send her with Grandma Jonnet to take a bath in her hotel room!

On the way home Riley and Madison cuddled up together in the back seat and konked out. I must say Riley looks pretty macho snuggling a pink pillow! :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Then on Tuesday morning, Maddie and I took a trip to go to her cousins’ birthday party. There were so many kids running around! They had 2 slip-n-slides, a kiddie pool with a slide and water balloons! Madison’s favorite part was the slide going into the pool. Well, then it was the pizza, then licking the chocolate frosting off her cupcake! Ok, she liked it all!

Wednesday morning my sister Tawnya and I took our kids (her little ones were the birthday boys) to the movie theater to watch “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. It was Madison’s first time and she did great – for the most part!

I would say we’re finished traveling for now, but Saturday we’re leaving for yet another camping trip! Clint and his friends are hiking up Friday night, and the girls will meet them on the mountain at lunchtime.

Is there ever a dull moment in our family? NEVER! :)

Hey everyone!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Clint and I have decided to give this whole Blog thing a second try! We still don’t have Internet at the house but I’ll make it work – we may not update things as often as the rest of you, but we will try!

Let’s see, a quick update on us: our 4th anniversary was on the 24th of June, and to celebrate we left our daughter Madison with Clint’s parents and went to Washington D.C. for a week long second honeymoon… well, kind of. Not really. We went, but as chaperones for about 30 Juniors across the state. So, we traded in a 2 year old for 9 17 year olds (we thought we’d rather have the 2 year old, but the kids were awesome! It took a few days for me to get out of the "Mommy Mode" – every time we’d stop I’d think, "I better change Maddie and fill up her sippy cup!" and "Do we have enough snacks for Madison?" Clint thought I was cute)! There were 5 other chaperones, so luckily we weren’t TOO outnumbered, however, we think that being as young as we are, we were probably more like the kids than the adults! Whoops!

Clint still works for the Electric Co-operative reading meters, still enjoys spraying the dogs with pepper spray, and still has great hours. It’s so weird to him to get home and have SO much daylight left (now that it’s summer and doesn’t get dark until 7ish). Maddie and I love having him home in the afternoons! We play, do yard work, go for walks, torture each other, you know, build the love! He already has some hikes planned for this summer, the usual treks up the mountain for the 4th of July and Labor Day, but this year he’s persuaded me to commit to come along to HAVASUPAI! He’s hiked and camped there 3 times now so he’s not worried… I’m terrified! Then again, he runs 2 miles in the morning before work… I’ll do it, my friend Michele just did it and she’s pregnant, of course she’s a machine and can do anything! But even if they have to drag me out on a mule, I’ll do it! It’ll be a long trip, but we’re excited!

I’m happy to say that I still get to stay home with Maddie. I help Jonnet (Clint’s Mom) with her daycare when she needs it, which is great because Madison loves to play with the kids, and great because she gets to do it while I earn a few bucks! She thinks that every time we go outside it’s time to go to "Papa’s" (that word means both "grandma" and "grandpa", which Grandpa thinks is funny). We got her a Tonka Truck for her 2nd birthday (which was so fun! We had a water party and borrowed Jonnet’s metal airplane teeter-totter, which was a big hit!) and her latest thing is pushing it on the sidewalk while we walk to "Papa’s". Cute kid. There’s a goat on the way and we always have to stop and say "Hi goat!" "What does a goat say?" "Meh!" "That’s right!" "Bye goat!" Too fun!

We have been working on adoption stuff for over a year now and FINALLY should be certified any day! Our profiles are finished, so as soon as we get that letter in the mail, we can upload it to the church website. I’ll try to put a link on here so you can go see our profile when it’s up and running. Now comes the scary part! Up until now, the ball has been in our court – the paper work, the interviews, the training, getting all that done depended on us. Now (well, soon!) it’s time to turn everything over to Heavenly Father and let the finding process begin. We are SO EXCITED to adopt; we can’t wait for Madison to have a little brother or sister (maybe then she won’t be such a turkey!). We watched Juno the other day and I just cried. Birth moms are the most amazing people alive. We had the opportunity to meet with some in our adoption training 2 weeks ago, and their stories were so incredible. We just wanted to go hug them afterwards, well, I wanted to hug them; Clint wanted to get them all cookies from the refreshment table! Love that guy!

A sum up of our life? Happy. We are definitely happy. We have our ups and downs but life is pretty great no matter how you spin it. Hopefully I’ll actually stay on top of updating this thing! Until then, see ya!