Jared.....

Mr. Jared turned 8 years old today! Wow, where has the time gone? I still remember being so excited to be pregnant. We were scared to death, because of our experience with Annie, but still very excited to give her a sibling.
He was by far my easiest child. He is mellow and quiet and very good at entertaining himself. I was always shocked to find him playing motorcycles for hours, and I mean HOURS completely content. He loves all things related to sports and being active. He would rather be outside playing,than watching television any day. He likes karate, football, basketball and skateboarding best, but would pretty much join in whatever sport was happening. He can be very silly when he wants to, and has been surprising me a lot lately with some of the things he's said. He is definitely picking up on my sarcastic sense of humor, which I don't really think is a good thing! :)
Anyway, I am very proud of Jared and the boy he is turning into. He loves his family so much and is an incredible big brother. He loves having a baby brother SO much. Yesterday he took Jason outside to play and taught him how to throw rocks at my house! (nice, I know!) But Jason thought he was in Heaven! Today we had a small party with 4 of his friends that live right down the road...
Levi gave him some football cards, Pokemon cards and some Star Wars cards. Noah gave him a punching bag and boxing gloves. Kyle gave him a light sabre. And Lane gave him a gun that shoots discs, and a pack of practical joke stuff. The boys played football, and basketball and ran around like crazy! They even had a race to the hay bales and climbed on top of them! Woohoo!
It has been a lovely day. I love Jared very much and I am looking forward to a million more years with him......watching him grow and change and eventually be a Man. (how weird will that be?!!? not too far off I am afraid. time has not really been my friend lately!)
I love you Jay-rod! I hope your birthday was a good one!

Jared will be getting baptized on Sunday the 30th in our ward building. You are all invited to come. I will post pictures of that afterwords.

Okie Dokie,

So, I know you have all been dying to see some pictures of our little Quilt Shop......But I first want you to see what we had to start with. I have some really bad ones during the process, but I will spare you and get right to the good stuff! This really has been extremely crazy, and extremely fun. It is so great to work with family and really accomplish something wonderful. This is our journey......from OLD, UGLY building to a cute Quilt Shop.
Enjoy.

Yes, we don't have a ton of stuff yet.....but we will! We have new lines ordered for spring, (yes, the new Amy Butler line has been ordered thank you very much!) We will continually be expanding our inventory of fabric little by little. Our big/main thing is our machine quilting services we offer. So uh-yeah, if you have a quilt top bring it on over.....we will get it done for you by Christmas!
Well, there you have it....a sneak peak into what has been keeping me running like a crazy person!! Have a great weekend all!

Halloween 2008

We had a lovely Halloween this year!! The weather was amazing and we all enjoyed trick-or-treating without heavy coats on!! The first two pictures are from the kids Halloween parade. It was fun to sit out there and watch all the kids walk by.....we were the crazy ones commenting on every one's costumes!! Good times, eh!
We have been a LOT busy this year so we didn't go as crazy as normal but we still ended up having a wonderful time! Hope your Halloween was just as fantastic as ours!

November 1, 2008

We were blessed beyond measure. Jason Alan was sealed to us for Time and All Eternity. It was a wonderful blessing for our family. All of the children there, in white. What a sweet, sweet thing to be a part of. I am so grateful for the blessings of eternal life. For the amazing opportunity we have to be together forever. Again, I am struck by the power of the Lord. His hand is in all that we do. There were so many things that came together and so many experiences, that I would have to be blind to not see the hand of the Lord in. Thank you to all who came and supported us and for those who wanted to but weren't able to be there. I apologize for the short notice, and for those that might not have known at all. Satan was really working me over, putting a lot of obstacles in our way. But alas, we stayed the course and just had to get there.

True Story: We were about 10 miles to Omaha and I realized I didn't bring the adoption papers with me. I freaked out and started balling my eyes out....made a few calls, got Spenser to get into my house (it may have looked like a tornado hit it....I didn't want just anyone in there) and he passed the papers off the Jerry Barton and he faxed them to the Temple for us! Whew!! Catastrophe diverted!! Boy was I grateful to Jerry. He has always had a thing for Jason though, he was adopted also as a baby, so I think he has that connection to him.

Thank you for coming along on our little journey through the unknown adoption process. It has been one of the sweetest experiences of my life. Everyday I am grateful. I am such an advocate for adoption now. It truly does bless lives. It really can right a wrong. And it is one of the most un-selfish things a person can do. I know that it can be hard. i know that it can break hearts, but I also know that hearts can heal, and that pain can ease, and I know that when you have the spirit close enough to you that you can do anything. I know this because I have been a part of this. I have seen the sadness, the heartache. I have looked into a mother's eyes that is giving her baby to me and there is pain there, there is pain in the grandparents eyes as well. I know that the biological family of Jason's loves him beyond anything. I know that they chose love over selfishness. And we are eternally grateful. Over and over again we think of them. I sometimes ache just feeling for them, but I am comforted to know that they know what they did was the right thing.

Thank you, again. We love him so much.

Jared was a flag football Rockstar...

Well, he loved it anyway and we had a good time watching his games! This year was a little crazy though, because there wasn't enough coaches for the older teams so they split the boys up and we had 4th, 5th and 6th graders on our teams. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but it all worked out. Jared can't wait till he can play tackle football. That is all he talks about!!

JayJay's Presents.....

He really didn't want anything to do with opening gifts at the park. But once we got home he loved the idea!! He got some great new toys and was happy as pie. His favorite is a gift from Natalie, it is a musical storybook and he LOVES it!!! It is still his favorite thing! Thanks Aunt Natalie!! (well, and Uncle Erinn and the kids too!)

A long, long time ago......

Jason had a BIG #1 birthday!! Here are a few pictures to show off our fun day at the park.

He could hardly believe that I was going to let him eat that cake all by himself.....

Mmmmm, he likes chocolate!

My goodness, it was so fun to go look back at these pictures. He is such a happy little guy. His birthday was a ton of fun. My parents, Seth's parents, Natalie and her kids, Cindy and Ammon and their kids, Rebekah and Ryan and their kids, Caleb, Erin and Ruth all were able to be there. It is always a good time when you have so much family to spend it with. It is still hard to believe our baby is a year old now. Just yesterday Seth said how sad he was that Jason was growing up so fast.....he said 'look honey, he just doesn't have that baby look anymore. He looks like such a big boy. Why does time go so fast?' But we couldn't be happier, he is a crazy little one year old and we like it that way!! Happy Birthday Baby.....