Sunday, January 25, 2009
Adoption: Take #2
Wow. I am absolutely amazed at the power of prayer and the promptings of the Spirit. A few weeks ago, I had the idea to pass out our adoption cards at my little scrapbook hostess club, and who would have known that it would lead to another opportunity to adopt a son. Nothing is for sure (don't we know that one!!), but we have been introduced to a beautiful little boy (I don't know if I can post his name on this, so I will play it safe) who is 5 months old and in a wonderful foster home. He has some medical problems, but nothing that will stop him from becoming a healthy, happy boy. I'm not sure how much information I can post on here, so again, I will keep it as limited as I can. Let's just say that he is on course to be legally free for adoption in late April. We have met the foster parents and this perfect little child and feel so calm and peaceful (hopefully because it's going to work out for us!). The next court date is scheduled for February 4th, and as you all know, fast Sunday is a few days before that. We are asking you a simple favor: please, when you fast Febraury 1st, keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Be mindful of this little boy, pray that he'll go to a good home (even if it's not ours) and that he will be happy. This is the only thing we can think of to do to increase our chances of becoming his adoptive family. After the court date, we have plans to start working as closely as possible with all the case workers involved so that we will be at the top of their lists. Please pray with us. Please join us in this special fast for a little boy who we hope and pray with every ounce of our faith is our son. Thank you, so much.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A New Year… Bring It On!
We started off the New Year with a gray house and have since upgraded to tan! Yes, we FINALLY painted our house! Our neighbor is the sweetest little old man who paints houses for a living. He said that if we bought all the stuff and taped it off, he’d paint it for free. Cool! Then he started bringing over leftover primer from jobs he had done and we thought, cool! Then when we had enough primer, he told us that he and his son had decided that since we were putting our extra money aside for adoption, they were going to pay for our finishing paint as their contribution! COOL! It was a 4-day process that at one point found me (Tiffany, not Clint) up on the roof, hanging on for dear life, leaning over to paint the trim on the peaks… we only have one story but still! Our other neighbor asked us what color we were doing and I told him tan with light brown trim. "Dang it!" he says, "That’s what we wanted to do! I guess we’ll have to paint ours pink!" Guess what color our primer ended up being… you guessed it – PINK!! We had some good laughs over that one. I said we should just leave it and paint hearts all along the trim, call it the "Love Shack"! When Clint got home that day he shook his head and said, "I go to work for ONE day and you paint the house PINK!" We had someone come over and I totally played it like that was the color and you should have seen him try so hard to be polite! Even after I told him it was just the primer he was still saying how nice it looked. Too funny!
So anyway, if you’re looking for the gray stucco house at the end of the road, you won’t find it! Ha ha! Yay for paint! We LOVE it!
There are also some pictures of our car (which is officially ours, YEEHAW!). When I was at the MVD, Madison looked over at this guy sitting next to us. He was kind of scruffy looking, you know, beard, mustache, hair down to his shoulders… I said hi and sat down but Madison wouldn’t stop looking at him. Finally she says, "Hi! Are you Jesus?" He laughed and told her no but it sparked a great conversation with this guy who I probably wouldn’t have talked to otherwise (that makes me sound SO bad!). When he left, Madi yells, "Bye, Jesus! Mom, Jesus just left!" What a testimony to me how innocent and pure little children are and why we have been counseled to be more like them.
Her dance instructor Ashley made the girls little tutus that are adorable! Madison wouldn’t take hers off all night! What fun my little princess is! That night she and I made cookies in our matching aprons that I made us for Christmas, and she insisted on keeping her tutu on so it poofed out the back and almost made her look like a chicken! Man alive I love being a mom!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
‘Twas the Season to be Jolly!
YAY for Christmas!! I can’t believe the holidays are already OVER!! It’s crazy how much it didn’t feel like Christmas to me… I think it’s because I was working on things since September and so I never had that mad rush to get everything finished at the last minute this year. And now it’s January, sheesh!
This video is Madison engaging in a jolly good (maybe not so safe) activity...
I started off the first week in December by making my Butter Pecan Toffee (SO YUM!!) with Madison’s help. My cousin Jennifer wants the recipe and I took pictures of us making it, so here it is: Toast pecans in a 350* oven for 5-10 minutes, stirring once to avoid burning. Meanwhile, line a cookie sheet with foil, extending edges over sides and butter the sides of a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Next melt 1c butter, add 1c sugar, 3T water and 1T light-colored corn syrup. Cook and stir over med-high heat until it boils, then clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan (make sure the bottom of the bulb is completely covered by the candy, but not touching the bottom of the pan). Turn heat down to med and stir occasionally until thermometer registers 290* (watch carefully after 280* so it won’t scorch). Pour candy onto cookie sheet and spread quickly. It won’t cover the whole pan, and trying will just make the toffee really thin. Let it set for 2 minutes, then pour 1c choc chips and let them melt a little before spreading over toffee. Sprinkle with toasted pecans (I press them down into the chocolate so they don’t fall off as easy when you eat it) and stick in fridge for about 20 minutes. Use the foil to lift the toffee out of the pan and break it into pieces. Sometimes the toffee will set with some foil inside, so watch for that! Store tightly covered in fridge for up to 3 weeks (like it really lasts that long!!!) I ran into a problem when I was making some and talking on the phone with Clint… I accidentally forgot to pour the chocolate chips on when it was still hot and so they wouldn’t melt. WHOOPS! Clint had a pretty comical idea, heat them with my hair dryer! Ha ha you’re thinking but guess what? It actually worked!! Too funny! I also made chocolate chip pumpkin bread, and finally was able to run around all the apple crisp and apple butter I made back in September!!
Maddie and Clint both ended up with viral infections a few weeks ago and after Clint took a bath, I found this…
After the sick ones felt better, and during a break from wrestling practice (Clint’s the assistant coach for the high school again this year), we FINALLY found time to go get our tree! I was SO excited! Last year we asked for a 7-foot one and ended up with an 8- footer instead which we had to cut WAAAAY down and it was still a huge tree (gorgeous, but HUGE!) so this year we decided to save ourselves the trouble and have them cut it down to a 6-foot one… whoops! It’s SO SMALL!! So, remind us next year that we want a 7-foot tree and we’d be much obliged!! Since it’s so small, and in a corner instead of in front of our window like last year (you couldn’t see much of the tree cuz it was SO big, so we moved it so you could see it better… haha! We’ll get it right someday!), I ended up not being able to fit all our ornaments on it! I’d put a bunch on and then think ok that’s good, turn around and find another bag, then box, then… yeeeeah. They didn’t all make it on! We were going to boost it up, but didn’t do it and didn’t do it and finally decided that a short tree wasn’t so bad after all and left it. :0) I loved the way it turned out, and think that all in all it’s a pretty darn good lookin’ tree!
While we were up town, Madison saw a picture of a McDonald’s Chicken Sandwich and said, "Oh, Mom! I’m just so hungry I could eat the WHOLE sandwich!" So we stopped at Arby’s for dinner and sure enough, she ate a VERY impressive amount for a 2 year old!
Our Ward Party was pretty fun, Madison couldn’t stop eating the mints on the table, and Riley thought it was great fun to build a tower with the ones she couldn’t reach (his smile looks SO goofy, but I swear, it didn’t do anything to it!!). Our friends Parker and Jennie sat with us, and their daughter Eliana enjoyed the evening… until Santa came out! Maddie wasn’t too thrilled about him either! I told her all day that we would see Santa that night and every time she’d reply "No Mom! Not Santa!" What’s funny is that she likes him, just not in person I guess! (I don’t blame her, Santa in person still kinda freaks me out!! LOL) He gave them chocolate anyway and so after that they perked back up!
The weekend before Christmas we went for a visit to see my family and that was SO fun! We got there Friday night and got to spend some time with my mom, whom I haven’t seen for… gosh I don’t even remember… 8 months? (more than that?) And Clint hasn’t seen her since Maddie was born! (They used to drive truck and now live about a half of the country away!) Saturday morning we exchanged presents with my dad and grandma (he made us a wood chest from scratch! It’s SO pretty!) and that evening had a party with my family. We played the funnies games! The best one, we had to blow up balloons and stuff them in pantyhose and when all our balloons were blown up the captain would put it on their head and yell "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!" It was great! Then we had a gift exchange and we ended up with a Disney Scene It game, and a bunch of scratcher tickets (scratchers are like the cliché present in my family!). My mom got Madison a Sleeping Beauty doll and that little girl spent the rest of the night brushing her hair! It was so sweet! My brother Ryan made the car giving official (with a big gold bow and all!) and I almost cried all over again! YEEHAW FOR A NEW CAR!!! It’s SO PRETTY! It averaged 39mpg on the drive home! Maddie can’t quite say "new" so she calls it our "blue car". :0) As a thank you to Ryan we used $200 of the money from selling the car to Riley and gave it to my niece and nephews to use as cash to spend time with Ryan and then keep the change ($50 to each of the 3 older ones and $25 for the little ones). Ryan was so shocked, it was great!
Christmas was FABULOUS!!! We stayed with Clint's family this year, and Rob, little Russell and Missy were all here. We did our stockings first before Santa presents, and I had (I mean… the elves had) made oven mitts and hot pads for Madison and matching aprons for her and I that were in our stockings, and as soon as we brought her new kitchen set out… that was it! She was SO excited, she whipped that apron on and didn’t take it off for 4 days (until one of the straps broke)! She plays with that kitchen set (and accessories) from the moment she wakes up and has to have all the gadgets on her bed at night before she’ll go to sleep, and if she wakes up and they’ve been moved back to the kitchen set, she’ll get all fired up! She also got a Sleeping Beauty dress and a set of 4 princess slippers (plus two more that Yvette got her!) that, of course, had to be on as well… she was funny!
Well, the holidays have come and gone and have still found us happy, healthy, in love and living our dream! The only thing that could make it more perfect would be a new baby added to the mix, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers and maybe this will be the year!
This video is Madison engaging in a jolly good (maybe not so safe) activity...
I started off the first week in December by making my Butter Pecan Toffee (SO YUM!!) with Madison’s help. My cousin Jennifer wants the recipe and I took pictures of us making it, so here it is: Toast pecans in a 350* oven for 5-10 minutes, stirring once to avoid burning. Meanwhile, line a cookie sheet with foil, extending edges over sides and butter the sides of a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Next melt 1c butter, add 1c sugar, 3T water and 1T light-colored corn syrup. Cook and stir over med-high heat until it boils, then clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan (make sure the bottom of the bulb is completely covered by the candy, but not touching the bottom of the pan). Turn heat down to med and stir occasionally until thermometer registers 290* (watch carefully after 280* so it won’t scorch). Pour candy onto cookie sheet and spread quickly. It won’t cover the whole pan, and trying will just make the toffee really thin. Let it set for 2 minutes, then pour 1c choc chips and let them melt a little before spreading over toffee. Sprinkle with toasted pecans (I press them down into the chocolate so they don’t fall off as easy when you eat it) and stick in fridge for about 20 minutes. Use the foil to lift the toffee out of the pan and break it into pieces. Sometimes the toffee will set with some foil inside, so watch for that! Store tightly covered in fridge for up to 3 weeks (like it really lasts that long!!!) I ran into a problem when I was making some and talking on the phone with Clint… I accidentally forgot to pour the chocolate chips on when it was still hot and so they wouldn’t melt. WHOOPS! Clint had a pretty comical idea, heat them with my hair dryer! Ha ha you’re thinking but guess what? It actually worked!! Too funny! I also made chocolate chip pumpkin bread, and finally was able to run around all the apple crisp and apple butter I made back in September!!
Maddie and Clint both ended up with viral infections a few weeks ago and after Clint took a bath, I found this…
After the sick ones felt better, and during a break from wrestling practice (Clint’s the assistant coach for the high school again this year), we FINALLY found time to go get our tree! I was SO excited! Last year we asked for a 7-foot one and ended up with an 8- footer instead which we had to cut WAAAAY down and it was still a huge tree (gorgeous, but HUGE!) so this year we decided to save ourselves the trouble and have them cut it down to a 6-foot one… whoops! It’s SO SMALL!! So, remind us next year that we want a 7-foot tree and we’d be much obliged!! Since it’s so small, and in a corner instead of in front of our window like last year (you couldn’t see much of the tree cuz it was SO big, so we moved it so you could see it better… haha! We’ll get it right someday!), I ended up not being able to fit all our ornaments on it! I’d put a bunch on and then think ok that’s good, turn around and find another bag, then box, then… yeeeeah. They didn’t all make it on! We were going to boost it up, but didn’t do it and didn’t do it and finally decided that a short tree wasn’t so bad after all and left it. :0) I loved the way it turned out, and think that all in all it’s a pretty darn good lookin’ tree!
While we were up town, Madison saw a picture of a McDonald’s Chicken Sandwich and said, "Oh, Mom! I’m just so hungry I could eat the WHOLE sandwich!" So we stopped at Arby’s for dinner and sure enough, she ate a VERY impressive amount for a 2 year old!
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Our Ward Party was pretty fun, Madison couldn’t stop eating the mints on the table, and Riley thought it was great fun to build a tower with the ones she couldn’t reach (his smile looks SO goofy, but I swear, it didn’t do anything to it!!). Our friends Parker and Jennie sat with us, and their daughter Eliana enjoyed the evening… until Santa came out! Maddie wasn’t too thrilled about him either! I told her all day that we would see Santa that night and every time she’d reply "No Mom! Not Santa!" What’s funny is that she likes him, just not in person I guess! (I don’t blame her, Santa in person still kinda freaks me out!! LOL) He gave them chocolate anyway and so after that they perked back up!
The weekend before Christmas we went for a visit to see my family and that was SO fun! We got there Friday night and got to spend some time with my mom, whom I haven’t seen for… gosh I don’t even remember… 8 months? (more than that?) And Clint hasn’t seen her since Maddie was born! (They used to drive truck and now live about a half of the country away!) Saturday morning we exchanged presents with my dad and grandma (he made us a wood chest from scratch! It’s SO pretty!) and that evening had a party with my family. We played the funnies games! The best one, we had to blow up balloons and stuff them in pantyhose and when all our balloons were blown up the captain would put it on their head and yell "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!" It was great! Then we had a gift exchange and we ended up with a Disney Scene It game, and a bunch of scratcher tickets (scratchers are like the cliché present in my family!). My mom got Madison a Sleeping Beauty doll and that little girl spent the rest of the night brushing her hair! It was so sweet! My brother Ryan made the car giving official (with a big gold bow and all!) and I almost cried all over again! YEEHAW FOR A NEW CAR!!! It’s SO PRETTY! It averaged 39mpg on the drive home! Maddie can’t quite say "new" so she calls it our "blue car". :0) As a thank you to Ryan we used $200 of the money from selling the car to Riley and gave it to my niece and nephews to use as cash to spend time with Ryan and then keep the change ($50 to each of the 3 older ones and $25 for the little ones). Ryan was so shocked, it was great!
Christmas was FABULOUS!!! We stayed with Clint's family this year, and Rob, little Russell and Missy were all here. We did our stockings first before Santa presents, and I had (I mean… the elves had) made oven mitts and hot pads for Madison and matching aprons for her and I that were in our stockings, and as soon as we brought her new kitchen set out… that was it! She was SO excited, she whipped that apron on and didn’t take it off for 4 days (until one of the straps broke)! She plays with that kitchen set (and accessories) from the moment she wakes up and has to have all the gadgets on her bed at night before she’ll go to sleep, and if she wakes up and they’ve been moved back to the kitchen set, she’ll get all fired up! She also got a Sleeping Beauty dress and a set of 4 princess slippers (plus two more that Yvette got her!) that, of course, had to be on as well… she was funny!
Well, the holidays have come and gone and have still found us happy, healthy, in love and living our dream! The only thing that could make it more perfect would be a new baby added to the mix, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers and maybe this will be the year!
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