The Beehive State- Part 2 of Our Trip

Our first full day in Utah was spent exploring Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. We started off by eating lunch. E didn't quite have an appetite. Her face seemed to tell it all. It was scrunched up in disgust half the time. "What is that smell?!"

That's ok...I didn't really want her to eat that sandwich she placed on the table. She was so consumed with the smell that she missed the 3rd saying of "Keep your sandwich on your bag or napkin." Oh well.

Lunch for the boys.

We saw a baby horse that was only 1 day old!

It took a few minutes, but she finally did it. She touched the cow!

The goats were a little scary for E. They liked to jump up and get personal, begging for food.
As if they needed it...they were pretty fat goats.

Look at that face.

After watching her cousins feed the goats, she relaxed and gave it a try.
She ended up laughing at all the "silly goats."

Of course, she was shy about riding a pony, but she picked the smallest one and daddy held on beside her. That made her feel better.

The second time around. She chose a bigger horse and daddy walked beside her.

For the final rendezvous, she chose the biggest horse and Daddy watched from the sidelines.

Back home and ready to eat more yummy food.
Thanks Aunt Saucy Chocolate!

The boys finished the day with some shooting. I think this was the highlight of their day.

Stay tuned for more adventures in the Beehive State.

Our Family In Flight

We've been saving for this trip for quite awhile now. We thought we would go in September, but the stars aligned and May turned out be a great month to visit family. Yes, we flew. Yes, we had an early flight. Yes, we took all three carseats plus luggage. Yes, we knew it was going to be crazy. Regardless of how well I thought I was prepared...I wasn't.

We stayed the weekend with my parents to make our early morning trip to the airport a tad shorter. The alarm sounded just 2 hours after I fell asleep...2am. Not a good start. We packed up the van and painfully woke the kids from their slumber to buckle them into their seats. I hate to wake a sleeping baby. We kept them in pj's hoping the long ride would lull them back to sleep. Nope! All three were wide awake as if things were perfectly normal. We were running late (about a half hour later than we wanted to get to the airport) and as we were dressing the kids, frantically unloading luggage from the van, and bagging our carseats... we saw the sun beginning to rise. Way too early for us.

We easily checked our suitcase and carseats, sailed through security, and almost ran to our gate. Whew! As we board, we see the faces of everyone on the plane and know what they're thinking..."Oh no, I have to listen to those babies the whole flight!" Yeah, that's right mister! You get the pleasure of listening to my three sweet angels from heaven the whole 3 hour flight! I didn't actually talk to anyone. I was all about getting A to get the flight attendant to get us some warm drinks for our boys. As I got the bottles out of the backpack, I'm thinking I need a snack for E, sanitizing wipes to clean our space, and oh my word, O is so extremely heavy. Just then our bags are whisked away because we were in the first row behind first class, therefore, no seat to store our things. But wait! I need to sanitize! Oh well. I felt the pressure of the entire plane waiting on us. The flight attendant placed our bottles in a pitcher with warm water in order to warm the milk . She then placed it at our feet so we could get it out to feed the babies. Two seconds later another flight attendant picked it up, gave us the milk, and practically ran from us. But wait! I need it warm! Oh well. The pressure, everyone's eyes. I'll just be quiet, and hopefully, my kids will be too. I was soooo wrong.

W was quite distraught with not having his morning bottle warm. The crying began.

E loved flying. Everything seen out the window was pure amazement. She laughed and clapped with turbulence. The oj was such a treat. She loved everything until the descent, which is when the pressure hurt her ears. A painful cry began. I tried to help her with several different tricks, but she wasn't going to do a thing...but hold her ears and cry.

Here's A doing a fabulous job trying to make W somewhat happy, but nothing worked.
He cried and cried and cried.

Just before descent, we had a bit of relief. W discovered the sanitizing wipes and formed a close bond. He enjoyed chewing on them for several minutes. This seemed to make him happy so we went with it. We also knew that W wanted to be free, not held. So placing him in an empty seat made him happy too. However, this didn't make the flight attendant happy...and she let us know. O fell asleep for about 30 minutes and E watched a little bit of "Cewee and Bob Gamato" (Celery and Bob Tomato, which is Veggie Tales).

Corralling the kids.

We had a 40 minute layover in Dallas, which meant run as fast as you can because you will most likely miss your flight. After getting all our gear into our stroller, we found out that our next plane is 4 concourses away! What! It's the same airline! We briskly walked down our concourse, took the elevator up a floor, and walked back down the concourse to catch the shuttle. After seeing most of the airport, we take another elevator, and practically run to the gate. Lots of people, confusion...Las Vegas? What? Our flight had been canceled. Arg! This was the beginning of a nightmarish 3 hour layover in Texas.

I packed food for the boys, but only snacks for E. So we paid a fortune for a morsel of food. Feeding the boys in the stroller wasn't pleasant...food everywhere. Then the bathroom with the self flushing toilets was sheer pleasure. Imagine E wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist refusing to go anywhere near this loud monstrous toilet."No mommy! No! I don't want to! I don't have to go!" I don't know why I didn't think to cover the sensor! But my extremely sensitive child survived as she clung to me for dear life.

Corralling the kids was a difficult task. A went one way with W and I went another with O. E divided her time between looking out the window and roaming with brothers. This quickly became stressful when I had to watch our luggage, E in various spots, and O all over the place. Not to mention the fact that it was distressing to see all the kids touch everything...fall onto the ground (including faceplants), roll themselves on the floor, attach themselves to the windows, or pick things off the ground to eat. Yuck!

How cute! Literally, a few minutes before our next flight, W fell asleep. Drats. Now I have to wake a sleeping baby and he'll be awake for the entire flight. More crying. Not cute.

The next flight attendant should be fired by how she treated us. She was so rude as A tried to get answers to his questions, she was annoyed by having to deal with us, and then she got angry because we had two children on laps. She actually told us we couldn't get on the plane and drug us back up the ramp. She practically yelled at us, had a heated discussion with another employee and then threw our tickets back at us. "Just get on!" We kept our cool, but had a few words for her. She separated us, which made passing toys and snacks a little tricky. Thanks to those sitting between us, we were able to make it through another flight.

We arrived in the Beehive State safely, sleepily, and with our nerves tied up in knots. It was so good to see the smiles of family to greet us.

Stay tuned for more.

We're Back!

Boy, oh boy...we're back from our trip. Babies, airplanes, screaming, a really fun time with family, yummy food, and a serious lack of sleep. Great memories. It's a good thing we're already laughing at some of our nightmarish moments. Ah...maybe we'll do it again...SEVERAL years from now. I'll post details soon.

Can We Please Get ONE Picture?!

Family pictures have always been a challenge. Even when it was A and I, we had problems. My sweet husband, bless his heart, has always had a hard time smiling for pics. We try to count, try to make him laugh...anything. Now that we have three wee ones, the challenge has grown by leaps and bounds. One Sunday, I thought it would be nice to have a quick photo of the fam. It just wasn't a good idea.

W was not happy and that was our first and foremost concern. E was trying to get him to smile.

Oh, A has a pleasant smile! But I'm in the middle of energetically telling E to smile.

Take the PICTURE! Oh! A wasn't ready. He's busy muzzling W with a toy.

Oh! So close! W isn't crying, but what is E doing? O is tired.

A is bouncing W, attempting something positive...E is just goofing around.

I think this is our better shot. Even though W's crying. The rest of us look pretty normal. I guess it'll be awhile before everyone can cooperate for a few minutes. Here's hoping!

The picture attempt with the boys. Fun!

All the kids...hey E, over here!

Just us girls.

We can always count on E for a goofy shot!

Happenings in April

With everything else going on, I forgot to post these pics for April.

The freedom April brings! Big O decided to rid himself of his diaper, and yes, he freed his bladder.

We couldn't believe it either. W disappeared from us within seconds. We heard him under the car trying to retrieve a ball. He crawled on his belly from one end to the other.

Mission accomplished.

Play date with cousin Laurel.

Tutus on the head are quite the fashion.

Flying a kite with her cousins.

Date with Grandma. Look at her excitement!

Boys in, on, around, and below everything imaginable. Here O is stuck between the dryer and wall.

The one cupboard they're allowed to play...destruction in seconds and tupperware throughout the house.

They chew on anything. You should see their cribs and my windowsills! This is an old travel size shaving cream can that E got a hold of, which means the boys eventually got it as well. I caught W chewing on the bottom just as it started to foam.

The reaction when things are taken away.

The Easter dress I made E. She calls it her Cinderella dress.

The dress-up cape and skirt the "Easter Bunny" made for E.

These were actually made in February for Valentine's Day. Fun project.

Together Forever

Yip! This is our BIG news. This was our big plan for Saturday. Our adorable boys are officially ours and we had a wonderful experience being sealed together as a family. A lot of preparation went into this day and it was well worth it.

The weather was nice, the wait was long, the guests were patient, the clothes stayed white, naps were short, food was lacking, friends were all smiles, the party was a hit, and with all the craziness, the boys were absolutely AMAZING!

A big THANK YOU goes out to everyone who helped us out for the occasion. We greatly appreciate it. We loved seeing our friends and family there to share in our joy. To our friends, we wish we could have visited more! Hopefully, we can get together again soon.

We don't have all of our pictures yet, but when we do, I'll post more. Here are a few from our special day!






We love the gospel and the plan our Heavenly Father has for each of us. We truly believe that our children were meant to come to us, to be part of our family here on earth. We sincerely love our Birth Mothers who made the difficult decision to place their baby in our arms. They are strong women, full of love, who sought to give their baby more. "...One thing is for sure, and will be forever more, when such unselfish love has been given the world just made more room for heaven..."

"You didn't give me these feet, but you placed them on the right path.
You didn't give me my voice, but you taught me how to laugh.
You didn't give me these hands, but you taught them to open doors.
Look at all I am you'll see, I'm yours.

Do you think the ones who gave me life will ever know
The gift they gave to me by letting go.
I hope somehow that heaven will reveal
The depth of gratitude I'll always feel.

You didn't give me these arms, but you gave them a family to hold.
You didn't give me my body, but you've truly shaped its soul.

Your love has given me wings
And how my spirit soars
Knowing that I always will be yours
Forever and for always...I am yours"
~Michael McLean

"I have a family here on earth. They are so good to me. I want to share my life with them
through all eternity.
Families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan.
I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can."

~Ruth M. Gardner