Monday, February 25, 2008

Great, Super, Awesome Resource!

I bought this book last year and just recently had time to read it over. It is such an amazing book full of wonderful ideas for Easter Week. I just have to pass it along to all my friends. The author ispired me with her words, "For years I felt that our family's Easter celebration was as hollow as the chocolate bunnies we devoured on Easter morning. All my life I had been told that the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most sacred and significant events in all creation. If that is true, I reasoned, then shouldn't Easter, the commemoration of those events, be the highlight of our year?" I am definately going to incorporate some of their ideas to make Easter more meaningful at my home instead of the focus be on having Easter Egg hunts and eating Chocolate bunnies. It is full of wonderful activities and stories and scriptures to fill your spirit. There are wonderful ideas in this book that can be fun but help your children have a better understanding of Christ and the reason why we celebrate Easter. The book begins with ideas starting on Palm Sunday and going each day until Easter arrives. You can order this book here.



My little man turns two!

Born not from our flesh but born in our hearts, you were longed for and wanted and loved from the start, conceived from a blessing sent straight from above, our very own son at last home to love.



All babies are special from the start and my little Owen has an extra special place in my heart. After the birth of my first son Derek I came down with a very rare condition called PPCM. The doctors informed me it could be very dangerous to have another biological child. At the time being young & twenty-six, having a husband in law school, no real income, living away from family it was extremely scary, painful, and heart breaking at times. Thankfully, my heart has healed completely but it is still dangerous to have more children. However, it is true what they say that time is a great healer. I have also found that when we face what we feel to be the greatest trial or adversity, the Lord is always there to comfort us and provide a way that we never saw before. When Derek was about two we decided it was time to begin the adoption process. We knew long before then that this was going to be a wonderful opportunity & the right direction for us to go but the timing wasn't right until Derek was two (or so I thought). Two years after sumitting our paperwork we were still waiting and had many disappointing moments along the way. I decided to go back to work. I really couldn't take it anymore. I needed to preoccupy my mind & time with other things. Well, when you create one plan the lord always has something else in store for you. In November of that year I received an email that a baby boy was going to be born in California. Within days we were in contact with the birthmother and I was very nervous. As an adoptive parent you never know when they might change their mind. As the next couple of months progressed we had a feeling that this was it. Owen's birthmother was amazing and wonderful to us. She made the whole experience extremely precious. She called me almost every step of the way. She walked into the hospital and told everyone that this was Drew and Megan's baby and that we were on are way from Texas. We had some very tender moments in the hospital. I will forever be grateful to her.


Derek & Owen truly have been the greatest blessings and joys of my life. They alone have healed my broken heart.


This is when we were sealed as a family in the Salt Lake Temple.



Owen when he turned one!

The two year old Thomas the Train celebration!

We opened gifts and had breakfast in the morning and celebrated in the afternoon at Chucky Cheese. Owen loves all the rides and had a great time.




We came home and celebrated with a Thomas cake. Owen was a very happy two year old!

We sure do love our little O!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Valentine's Parties

This month has flown by. We have been so busy. I am glad to finally get in some blogging time. It has been a fun month mixed with parties, visitors and unfortunately a little sickness. But we are on the mend and I am back to blogging. At the beginning of the month Drew and I had a little couples Valentines Party with some friends in the ward. We invited people we knew well and some that we want to get to know better. It was a ton of fun.


I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to decorate my house and make it feel fun and festive. We served Pork Tacos and had a whole Mexican themed dinner and dessert. We played some fun games. I made up a game where people saw a picture of a famous couple and then had to say their names. It was so fun. The winner got a prize because I think parties are always more fun with prizes. Then we played my version of the Newlywed Game. It was great. We literally laughed for three hours straight. As party favors I made these cones and filled them with trinkets and candy.




These are some of our fun friends at the party!


It was such a fun way to celebrate Valentine's Day. We will definately do it again!

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The next week we had a party at school and then a little family party. Derek and his grandma, who was visiting from Utah!





They played a fun game where the kids had to take a spoonful of conversation hearts and walk to the otherside of the room and fill a heart dish. They had two teams and it was a race. If some hearts fell on the floor they had to pick them up and go back and start all over! They had a blast. It was so fun to be there with Derek and see him enjoying himself. I forgot to dress him in red I don't know what I was thinking!!


We had a little party with our family that night. I like to buy a little gift and candy for each person and put it by their plate. It was a lot of fun. Drew sent me these wonderful roses.


These are the fun gifts we made for my parents and sent them for Valentines. The boys had so much fun putting their handprints on the apron. I made a bag for my MIL and put the boys handprints on the back. It turned out really cute.














Saturday, February 2, 2008

Fun Chick Flick!

Last night I got a much needed girls night out! YEAH! We went and saw 27 Dresses. I must say I wasn't expecting much and it turned out to be so cute and fun! Really a must see this Valentine's season. Katherine Heigel has been driving me crazy on Grey's Anatomy (before the writer's strike) so it was fun to see her in this! I also love James Marsden. It was very fun, light, and surprisingly very clean .