And the title goes to.....

MY HUSBAND! #1 Dad and husband of ALL times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this weekend was a girls weekend that we have been planning for months for my sister-in-law's 30th birthday, so on friday afternoon, me, Kristen, Julie and Kel (Joe's twin sis) headed out to central Oregon for and awsome weekend. It was such amazingly beautiful weather, crisp-fresh air, sharp clear views and blue sky. It was like God knew it needed to be a special weekend. We had the best time in a beautiful cabin in Sunriver, lounging around relaxing, and doing girly things and going to places that I don't dare trod into with kids. Meanwhile.....back at the ranch Joe was home with boys. This great father took our boys to the zoo, the park, a community event at the fire station (in their Halloween costumes too!) and then to church all by himself. And the most amazing part was that when I came home the dishes were done the house was clean, the yard was mowed and the laundry was done and PUT AWAY!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much sweetheart, you really are the best!

loving life!

For some reason I feel like I should post only because it has been a while since I have posted, but the truth is life has been very steady recently, thank you God! The boys while keeping me quite busy are just melting my heart lately. Today I was at the Goodwill and I saw a beautiful little black baby doll and I had to get it. Even though we are still a ways a way from actually bringning our daughter home, I thought that at least I could introduce dolls into our house hold, it is the first one, and also one that will look like their sister. I was shocked at how sweet my oldest child was with doll. he wanted to hold it and played with it for quite a while. Now this may sound pretty normal but for Wyatt who has special needs we are just starting to see a little bit of imaginary play beginning. He was patting the doll on her bottom like I was when I was holding her and he was pushing her around in the "new" Maclaren stroller that I also got at the Goodwill for $15! Score! And I have to share my last bargain of the day just because I am so excited about it, I love a bargain.....I got our new daughters bedset, bumpers, quilt, dustruffle and cribsheet all a set made by Laura Ashley, brand new and just what I wanted for $9!!!!!! I was so excited I almost threw myself on it. It is so exciting getting ready, I am feeling more and more excited lately as I see my boys getting a little older and more mature and a little less scared of being a mom to 3 little ones. I have to tell one funny story that happened recently, I was walking up to the door with Owen and I had my hands full of groceries, I asked Owen "can you open the door I dont have any hands" Owen just gave me this concerned and questioning look and said "mommy no hands?" as he frantically went looking for my hands! It was very cute.

a little update

y
Wyatt loved the bounce house/slide we could barely get him out! The pic of him to the left is in a filbert tote on the back of Grandpa Tom's tractor. He pulled the boys around in that thing for what seemed like hours!

d
Yeah.....our buddy barely walked he got the royal treament on Grandpa and daddy's shoulders....did I mention that the walk is like 1/4 of a mile!

Rachel Coleman of Singing times was there it was SO awsome! The boys loved seeing her. They are looking at a real AUTOGRAPH for THEM from Rachel, we couldn't get them to look at the camera! The hot momma's are Joe's sister Kelly and our friends Julie and Kristen, thank you so much for coming to supprt our buddy!

It has been a little while and so I wanted to give the 2 people who may read this blog an update on how our family has been doing lately. Well 2 weeks ago we had our buddy walk. The buddy walk is an event where people come and gather and celebrate their children that have Down syndrome and also to bring awareness and change regarding our children. It is an incredibly fun event for the kids and adults too! This year Rachel Coleman of Singin times came, she held a concert the night before and the boys had a BLAST! They love them some Signing times! The weather was so georgous and it was just really great to see such a large group of people, especially all of our family and friends, gathering for such a great thing and it was fun to see all of our little ones running around. I also must update on the amazing results of our month of nothing which officially ended on Sept 30th but becasue our eyes were opened SO much we have really changed our spending habbits. In the month of Sept we bought nothing that we didn't need, ate no meals out, had no Starbucks that was not bought for us (thank you Tom and Karen who graciously gave us a couple bucks for "road coffee only!) and so because of this we were able to put an AMAZING $1200 in Ruby's account which was very fortunate because we had an $860 sum of money to pay for out immigration (I600A form) and fingerprinting last week. So needless to say we were a little embarassed as to the fact that we had not been having any left over at the end of our months and it left us really wondering where it all has been going? We are planning another month of nothing in January although I believe that we have changed our habits already and are more aware now, but I am sure we will need a resfresher after the holidays! And in terms of the adoption we are finalizing the homestudy right-up that was written by the Social worker and hopefully be completing our Dosier paperwork very soon. We are anticipating being put on the wait list around Late December early Jan.

Doodlebops O YEAH!

So today we we went to the Doodlebop concert at the Puyallup fair and oh my gosh talk about a lame concert! Joe mentioned the fact that of all of the very cool concerts; Casting Crowns, Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock, Sarah Evens, that we were at the DOODLEBOPS! I actually won tickets on SPIRIT 105 a few months ago for the name game, so in case you were wondering NO we did not buy these tickets. The boys on the other hand had the BEST time, Wyatt was SO happy. He danced the entire time, everyone around him thought he was so cute, which of course I cant argue with! Owen also had a good time, albiet a little on the tired side (1:30 show time=no nap) We had a wonderful family day at the fair, we rode on the skytram ($11.00!)which was their 1 ride, and bought no food. Our month of nothing conitues to be fruitful and eye opening and good for our waistlines as well. I am a little amazed at how many times I think oh I will just stop and get something and normally I would have. I am happy to report that not one Starbucks drink, Subway, Indian Food/Thai food has been bought by either Joe or I for 21 days now. We did buy the boys Mcdonalds on our trip to the Oregon coast for a family reunion, which I have to report that $11.00 was all that was spent on food the entire weekend! All of the ladies went to the outlet mall and I went too but left my wallet in the car (that was a hard one). Anyways we are so excited about this we plan to have our next month of nothing after the Holidays in January. I think about our daughter every day. Wondering if she is in her mothers tummy yet. I get excited when I think of her along with us on our family outings or at the dinner table, or in the boys' room when we read them their books at night (or maybe I get snuggle time with her during that time if she is fussy!) I just am getting so excited to meet whoever this little child is that God has in store for us, yeah this is all worth it! And if she wants to see the Doodlebops too then we would gladly go again!

THIS IS THE STAGE! Wyatt Danced the entire time

Okay I had to load this video. We took this of a woman dancing at the concert. It was a little wierd, she was really rocking out, I guess she really likes the doodlbops!

Mason family challenge!

This was super cute. My husband loves football and with it starting back up again he is all excited. We were playing with the boys outside tonight when Joe thought that he would teach them a drill: Mason family challenge. He set up a little drill and showed them how to do it and then let them go at it. It was so cute they actually got it. Owen was a little hesitant to knock down the garbage can, but once he did it he wanted to do it over and over again. Oh by the way if you can hear it, that is the Oregon Duck fight song they are huming after they score their "touchdowns!"

month of nothing going well so far!

Well we are at the end of day 4 of the month and I already am feeling the itch to go and get a coffee or grab a bite to eat (since we have all been sick it would be so much easier to go and get dinner!) But it has also been a bit liberating, to know that the money for this stuff, which we can certainly live without, is going towards bringing our daughter to us. That is pretty awsome! ........................We taught our son to say "nice to meet you" for this last wednesday during our homestudy, and he has been so cute walking around the house say "nice to meet you" even talking to grandma today. One exchange that just made me smile a little "thank you God for my children" smile, was this
Owen: Nice to meet you mom
Me: Nice to meet you too, thank you (we are learning manners)
Owen: You're welcome (yeah he is actually learning!)
Me: Love you buddy
Owen: Love you too mommy
.....then the sweetest part of all was my 4 year old who was standing behind his brother and listening, holding up his "I love you" sign to me. I love you to buddy!!!!!!!!!!

yep, blog #2!

Okay, so today Joe and I decided that Septmeber is all about being frugal. We have decided to totally eat at home, no fast food stops (even Mcdonalds for the kiddos!) oh....and no coffee! I am a little nervous about that one but we have made a comitment to save like $500.00 for the adoption account this month on top of the $200 we are trying to put away each month. We will keep you posted on how we are doing with our goal.