Cute Trick-or-Treaters

This was a fun year for trick-or-treating. First, the weather was great! We got a few drops of rain, but it was so much warmer than years past. Emma is an old pro at trick-or-treating now. We went with a group of friends around the neighborhood and the "older" kids (ages 5 & 6) were way ahead of the younger group. It was fun to look at these kids and remember the past few years when we have trick-or-treated with the same group and they were toddling along like Nathan was this year.
Nathan was an adorable pumpkin. He wanted to eat all the candy as he got it and didn't waste any time by unwrapping the treats. When we got home and sorted through the candy at least 1/4 of Nathan's candy had bites in it. He was a little trouper, climbing lots of stairs and holding out his bag. He got distracted a couple times and wandered off, but that is why we brought the wagon with us. He didn't want the night to end.
Emma decided she wanted to be a scary witch instead of a cute witch so at the last minute she threw on these lovely glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth.

We have a ton of candy between our ward Halloween party last night and tonight's trick-or-treating. The Halloween party last night was great. They had set up a bunch of carnival games. Nathan couldn't get enough of the games with balls - golf & bowling. He kept walking in front of other kids to get to the balls. My favorite game was "Wack-A-Deacon." The Scout Master in our ward worked with the Deacons to create this big ply wood contraption with holes in the top. The Deacons took turns being the "moles". They popped their heads out to get wacked by swim noodles. Towards the end of the night the bishopric members including Dave got to be the "moles" popping out. Nathan thought "Wack-A-Deacon" was the greatest game. Both Emma and Nathan got to wack their daddy. What a good sport! I wish I had taken my camera to the party.

Crunchy, Crunchy, Leaves!

4 Reasons I love the Leaves in our Backyard:

1. They are crunchy

2. I like to jump in them

3. My kids' like to jump in them...and look at those smiles

4. Leaves make great art projects

Tagged

I got tagged twice this week, but this one is easier so I decided to do this one.
Here's the tag: Go into your pictures file, open the fourth folder, and then select the fourth picture.This is a picture of Emma and I from a vacation that we took when Emma was just over one-year old. We went to Illinois to visit Missy and Jeff. While we were there we spent some time at Rockome Gardens. I love Emma's crazy hair. Looks like I didn't comb it that day.

So, I tag Marla, Allison, Jena and Brittany.

Family Pumpkin Carving

My parents bought Emma and Nathan their pumpkins this year.

Emma made sure she got the bigger pumpkin, but really they are about the same size. It's tradition at our house that we carve pumpkins for F.H.E. the week of Halloween. This year my parents bought Dave a pumpkin carver which makes his life a lot easier. I gutted the pumpkins and turned the seeds into a tasty snack. Emma claims that my friend's seeds were better because they were crunchier. Oh well, maybe I'll get the "best pumpkin seed award" next year.

Emma wanted her pumpkin to be a bat snake. Nathan chose the funny man pattern when I handed him a couple patterns and told him to pick one. So, we all went outside and Dave sat on the porch carving away while the kids and I ran around our almost-leafless tree in the front yard.

An old friend stopped by and snapped the family picture for us. How nice, because we really don't get all four us in pictures very often. Our friend had to be quick to catch Nathan sitting.

Who Wants to Go to the Game?

On Friday night as we were putting the kids to bed Dave asked "who wants to go to the game with me tomorrow?" He was, of course, referring to the BYU Football game. Emma quickly raised her hand above her head and said "me!" Without missing a beat, Nathan raised his hand and said "meeee!" Decision made, Dave took both kids to the BYU game.

Emma refused to get her picture taken at the game. Nathan looks like he ate something yummy and red right before this picture was snapped using Dave's cell phone camera. Dave said both kids were really good at the game. Nathan got into the game and squealed a few times. Apparently their neighbors thought Nathan was adorable. It was a close game. BYU won by 7 points.

Where was I during the game? I actually would have liked to be there, but we only have two season tickets this year. Next year we'll get enough tickets for the whole family. While Dave and the kids was gone, I tackled a big project. I finished Nathan's ABC Heritage Makers book. It has pictures and highlights from his first 18 months of life. I think it turned out really cute.

Emma's Helicopter Ride

Every other week Dave and I trade babysitting with some friends so we can all have a chance to go out on dates. There are four families, so we babysit once every two months and get three date nights. Saturday night was date night. Dave and I took my parents out to eat for their 33rd wedding anniversary while the kids went to play at Jill and Chris's house. When we arrived to pick up Emma and Nathan, Chris invited us in and said they needed to explain something. At first his look made me nervous and then he said "Emma went on a helicopter ride." My first instinct was maybe they had gone on a simulated helicopter, but no, it was real.

Currently there is a company close by that is offering helicopter rides for $35 a person. The helicopter company heard through Jill's relative about Jill and Chris's son (3 years old) that is having open heart surgery this Tuesday. They offered to give him a free helicopter ride on Saturday night. What a cool opportunity for their sweet son! We wish them the very best of luck this week. They will definitely be in our prayers.

Jill and Chris loaded up their four kids and Emma and Nathan to go to the helicopter. We were the only family that took advantage of the babysitting service this time around, so they only had two extra kids. Jill explained to the kids that this was something special for Aidan and the rest of them would get to watch. But when they arrived at the helicopter location they were told that all the kids could have a free helicopter ride. Jill and Chris seemed nervous that they hadn't gotten our permission, but we would have given it to them and were glad that Emma had such a fun opportunity.

Emma could not stop talking about the helicopter when we got home. She said that the ground looked small and she liked looking down on the lights. We drove past the helicopters on the way home that night and Emma pointed out "her" red helicopter.

Nathan didn't get to ride, but from the looks of this picture that Jill took Nathan did get in the helicopter. I would have loved to see Emma's and Nathan's faces. Nathan gets really excited when he sees a helicopter or airplane flying in the sky. I bet he loved seeing a helicopter so close. As for Emma, she got to do something that neither Dave or I have ever done. She is the first member of our little family to ride in a helicopter. Lucky her!

First Snow of the Year

Last Sunday, October 12th, we woke up to white - our first snow of the year! We bundled the kids up for church, but by the time we got out of church the snow was melting. The kids and I went on a walk in the afternoon to look for snow. Our yard had the most remaining snow. Nathan loved the cold stuff and Emma is already planning our first "snow party" for this winter. We'll have to wait for more snow for that since this batch is long gone. I think fresh snow is beautiful and the kids' reactions to new snow are priceless.

Link to our online Adoption Profile

We have been officially approved for our third adoption for several weeks, but it took us awhile to put the finishing touches on our online profile. If you want to check it out go to http://www.itsaboutlove.org/. Click on "Search adoption profiles" and type our names "davidandtanya." We would love to know what you think and appreciate any feedback.

As we think about going through this process of adoption again our hearts are full of gratitude for the wonderful blessings we have had up to this point. We feel like adoption has blessed our lives in many ways. Besides having Emma and Nathan join our family, we have been blessed with amazing birth families. I love them so much. I cannot fully express to them my feelings of gratitude, admiration, and hopes for their futures.

Dave and I have grown closer to each other as we have supported and loved each other through this whole process. We have also gained experience in faith, compassion, understanding, patience and, at times, sorrow. I believe we are better people because of the lessons we have learned. We feel like adoption is the way our family is supposed to grow and truly are excited to welcome another little one and his/her birth family into our lives. We feel so blessed to have our silly little munchkins, Emma and Nathan in our family.

One Year Older

I turned 31 on Monday. For my birthday we went on a trip to visit my family in Idaho. Dave made a cheescake on Sunday and put one little candle on it. The one candle stood for "one year over thirty." Either that or my parents didn't have 31 candles, i'm not sure.

For my actual birthday we continued our family tradition of letting the birthday person choose dinner. I usually cook everybody's favorite meals for their birthday, but for my birthday we go out to eat. We went to the Olive Garden that just opened close to us. We had to wait for 45 minutes to be seated and the kids were so cranky. Our server was wonderful though and brought us food right away. That made the kids more pleasant. To make up for the long wait our server brought us a delicious "celebration" cake complete with a candle (one again). It was yummy!

Dave bought me a couple yard tools I have been wanting. I tried those out the next day. My favorite gift though was from Emma. She bought me a Barbie doll. She thought it was only fair that I have my own Barbie for when we play together. Isn't that sweet? Dave took her to the store and Emma knew exactly what she wanted to get me.

Then yesterday some friends from my neighborhood took me out to dinner at Bajio. It was so fun to get together with everyone. We were actually celebrating Julie's birthday at the same time. Julie brought her camera and got some great pictures. This one was taken by one of the Bajio employees.

How Many of Me?

There are 371 people in the United State with my name (first and last). That makes me feel not so unique, but I like my name anyway. My number is nothing compared to the 9,874 people that share Dave's name.

I checked my maiden name and it said "1 or fewer" people with that name in the United States. There are only 336 people in the entire nation with my maiden name as their last name. Interesting.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 371 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

10th Anniversary Cruise

Dave and I have been married for ten years! We had always said that we wanted to go on a big trip for our 10th anniversary and were grateful when it worked out. Dave and I thouroughly enjoyed our 4-night cruise to the Pacific Northwest Coast at the end of September. Sheila and Nathan very kindly watched the kids for us. We knew the kids were in good hands. Thank you, Sheila & Nathan! I did miss the kids though. It seemed every night around dinner time I started missing the other half of our family. It was great to get away though and create some fun memories with just Dave and I. We sailed on the Celebrity Mercury. It is a really beautiful ship with all the amenities. We especially liked the food of course. They say that the average cruiser gains 1 to 2 pounds a day. Dave and I kept it down to 1 pound a day by only taking the stairs and working out in the gym everyday.We flew into Seattle and left from there. Our ports of call included Nanaimo and Victoria, both on Vancouver Island, BC. At both places we went off on our own rather than booking excursions through the cruiseline.

The weather was beautiful in Nanaimo. The ship could not dock right next to the island so they tendered us all to the island on life boats. We met some great people that day, Sarah and Brent. We ended up hanging out with them. It is always fun to meet new people. We decided to island hope rather than stay in the city. We loved the little island of Newcastle. Some local residents of Nanaimo recommended Newcastle to us. It was a beautiful little island. We easily hiked the entire island in under 2 hours and that was at a leisurely pace. Along the path we saw giant green slugs that were really quite gross, Lion's Mane jelly fish floating near the shore and spider webs reaching from one side of the trail to the other. I actually walked into a spider's web and the spider landed on my head. Yuck! After that we started noticing how architecturally beautiful spider webs really are and walked around them if they were in the middle of the path.





It rained the entire time we were in Victoria, but Victoria is such a lovely city that even in the rain it felt bright and cheerful. We walked from the port to downtown where we toured the Parliament building and the Empress hotel. Then we caught a bus out to Butchart Gardens. Wow! Butchart Gardens are spectacular. The colors are amazing and the story behind the Gardens in inspiring. Butchart Gardens started when one woman, Jennie Butchart, envisioned this magnificent landscape. Victoria was easily my favorite stop on our trip. I would love to go back there someday.

The third day on our trip was our "day at sea." I joined the ranks of many other green-faced passengers as the ship headed out further into the ocean. I wasn't expecting to feel sea-sick, but around 3:00 AM on Thursday morning I felt like the boat was rocking all over the place. I woke Dave up and made him walk with me to Deck 11 to check things out. It was raining and the wind was blowing really hard. Seeing that didn't really help me feel better. Dave said he liked being "rocked" to sleep. We relaxed the next day. I couldn't eat much, but Dave was not affected at all. By about 4:00 things calmed down and the rest of the day was more enjoyable for me.

Dave booked a later flight home on Friday, so we would have time to tour Seattle. We went to the top of the Space Needle and walked down Pike Street Market. It was a great way to end our vacation.