Our Family

Salt Lake Temple

2012-01-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

I really don't love our new camera, (note the blurry images) but these pictures are still worth posting. This was definitely the best Temple Square Christmas lights experience I've had. Not too cold, not too crowded, perfect lighting.

I'm not sure what's up with me and blogging lately. I want to have blogged, but not actually do it. I'm blaming it on our camera. In order to upload any pictures I have to go in and individually rescale them all because of the setting on which it takes the pictures. Am I the only person who wants a less fancy camera? Anyway, I am thus too impatient to post anything.

We had a good Christmas in Utah (despite me having strep throat!) and I'd love to tell you about it...another day maybe? :)

One of those sweet, tender moments...until it wasn't...

2011-12-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

Grace and I rocking before bed. Her head on my shoulder with face turned up to mine. Me, quietly singing Silent Night. She puckers her lips and reaches up for a kiss. I sigh one of those deep, inner contented sighs after an active, tantrum-free day with my baby girl. Ever so slowly her pointer finger comes at my face, reaching toward my nostril....

"Mommy, pick a nose!"

Christmas cookies with cousins

2011-12-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

Feasting on the word

2011-12-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

45 minutes in line for 3.8 seconds of this

2011-12-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

Even Santa looks unhappy. Oh well, at least it was free...

It's two weeks until Thanksgiving...

2011-11-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

...and I turned on Christmas music today. Can I just tell you how happy is making me? (That and the three hour nap Grace took today, we both needed that.) And I just put a bunch of Christmas movies on hold at the library, yes! Bring it on holiday season, I am ready!

Ah! This picture kills me! What a chubby baby! :)

It's always fun when Grandma comes!

2011-11-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Last month, Nathan's mom and sister, Chantel, came to visit us for the weekend! What fun! We loved having them and Grace especially loved having even more people to entertain! And now, she's always asking to talk to grandma or "Tell" (aka, Chantel). (She also asks for Grandpa, Aaron and Cameron quite a bit too...)

First, we went to the pumpkin patch!

Grace especially loved the little playground and the chickens. It was pretty funny to watch her with the chickens.

And Daddy loved getting her up on the old tractor.

We got a hay ride out get our pumpkins:

And got to climb all over hay bales.

We also rode the tram in downtown Portland.

And on Sunday, we drove out to the gorge and spent some time walking around at the Vista House.

Thanks for coming! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Uh, is it almost winter?

2011-10-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hi. Pretty sure fall is disappearing right from under my nose...how does time go so stinkin' fast?!

Anyway, in case any bored internet surfers were wondering what we've been up to, here are some highlights of the last two months:

September started off in glorious fashion. We stayed Labor Day weekend in a luxurious bed and breakfast in Bend to celebrate our fifth anniversary. It was so fun, relaxing, indulgent and just down right amazing. The goal of the weekend was to get the perfect mix of outdoorsy/physical fun and rest and relaxation. I think we hit it perfectly. Saturday included mountain biking:
Our one and only picture of the entire trip because of dead camera batteries! Oh well, this way I was fully engaged and enjoying everything and not stopping every two minutes to take a picture.

The trail was the perfect level of difficulty for me (which meant it was probably too easy for Nathan!) and so so gorgeous. After we got sufficiently sweating and dusty, we changed into swimsuits, rented tubes and floated down the Deschutes right through the middle of town. It's such a perfect, lazy flowing section of the river and the weather was just right. (Though I would have been okay with slightly warmer water!)

Sunday was our rest and relaxation day, which included church and a lazy walk around Smith Rock. Monday we drove out to a real live dude ranch and rode horses. Scary at first, super fun by the end. (Yes, I was scared to get on a horse, it looks so easy in the movies but those things are big!!)

I think the best part were the accommodations, we're talking luxury here people! I am sold on bed and breakfasts, who needs a hotel? I think we were feeling definitely over indulged when, on Sunday night we got into swimsuits and wrapped up in the thick, white spa bathrobes that were provided to go enjoy our sparkling cider in the hot tub. It was followed by relaxing around the porch campfire in those comfy robes munching on fresh cookies made by the innkeeper, chatting with the other guest couple about what they did that day. Do people really live like this?! Seriously.

Okay, so maybe the next favorite part was when we went to pick up Grace from my mom's house and she came running down the hallway squealing, "Mama! Daddy! Mama! Daddy!" and went from hugging one of us to the next and back and forth. Talk about a sweet homecoming. And, as much as we were worried and probably called way too many times to ask how she was, how long were her naps and what she ate for dinner, she did great and seemed to have a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa.

What else....uh, then life got busy I think. September is a little bit of a blur.

We bought a new(to us) car for Nathan to commute in and are officially retiring our dear old Mazda. But for now it's sitting in front of our house with a flat tire. I'm pretty sure our neighbors are annoyed at our redneckedness. We bought my parents little Kia for a fantastic price. It's got low miles and gets amazing (42mpg) gas mileage, which helps us feel better about the fact that it is lacking AC and power steering :)

Tomorrow, Nathan is taking a huge, 8 hour long engineering test that he has been studying like a madman for during the past couple weeks. He is stressed. We'll all be happy when it's over.

I started playing indoor soccer every Thursday night with some ladies from my ward and some of their friends from the community. I forgot how much fun soccer was. It's pretty much awesome. Though, I'm pretty much in terrible sprinting shape.

Nathan got to go on a field trip for work and drive a bunch of the semi-trucks that he designs parts for. So, now we can fall back on long-haul truck driving if this engineering stuff doesn't work out. :)

Did I mention that Grace is stinkin' cute? Yeah, she is. We started going to toddler storytime at the library and she's just starting to get into it. It's adorable. In two weeks she starts nursery. She had a little test run last Sunday for an hour or so when both Nathan and I needed to be teaching. When I went back and peeked through the window, she was clapping her hands along to If You're Happy and You Know It, having a great time. What happened to my baby? I think I'll go cry now.

Nathan finished the french drain literally a day before the fall rains started. We're pretty confident it was successful because we no longer get a puddle of water on our porch after a few hours of rain. The real test will be in about February, after months of downpours. The goal is No Water in the Crawlspace. (Last year, there was about a foot of water under our entire house. Yeah, not good at all.)

Here's Nathan and Grace in the big trench he dug. Seriously he is amazing. This thing went around half of the house from back to front. Thank you to the people who helped (though to give Nathan credit, he did about 75% of the digging himself. Talk about stamina!)

Grace and I have gotten to got to OMSI twice in the past month, thanks to my sister-in-law's awesome get-a-bunch-of-people-in-free membership.

We successfully reset Grace's internal alarm clock after 3 straight weeks of 5:30am wakings. She has been waking up between 6:45 and 7:00 now for about 4 days. Thank goodness. Of course, next week is daylight savings and we may have to do it all over again....at least there is naptime :)

Nathan's mom and sister came to visit us a few weekends ago! It was so so great to see them and Grace LOVED having more people to entertain! I'll save all those pictures for another post because it might be an adorableness overload.

Um, I'm sure there is more, but you probably don't care to get a list of new things we have acquired (new camera! new bookshelf! both cheap!) or hear about other boring happenings.

So, here's a cute family picture: (note: immediately after receiving these pictures on CD, I called and got a hair appointment, because really, that hair was just gross.)

2011-10-21T21:41:00.001-07:00

"All parents are faced with the difficult task of embracing their children's differences from them, though the necessity of this embrace is often obscured by physical likenesses and fantasies of genetic sameness. The adoptive parent, unable to invoke either of these obscurations, is faced with negotiating diversity from the start. We commit to love and care for whoever is entrusted to us. Parents do not adopt in order to carry banners against social ills. We adopt to have the joy of loving a child. Yet in our quiet negotiation of differences we make an important contribution to our culture's concepts of the family and its relation to the wider world. Through adoption, the family ceases to be a preserve insulated from the rest of the world, valuing similarity and derogating difference. Rather, the adoptive family integrates diversity and uses it to form a permanent bridge to and from the wider world. In this way, marriage and adoption are similar; both rest on the capacity to love another without the illusion of sameness."

From Talking with Young Children About Adoption by, Mary Watkins and Susan Fisher, emphasis added

This girl of mine

2011-10-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to get some things about Grace lately written down and while I'm not usually the "this blog is my journal" type, this is a quicker way for me to just get some stuff down for myself. So, sorry if it's boring to you!

Grace LOVES the song "Tonight Tonight." When it comes on the radio we turn it up loud and the girl gets a huge smile on her face. She sings along to the "tonight" and "wo-oh-oh" parts by saying "night! night!" and "woah, woah." Of course, we had to buy it on itunes. Sometimes she begs for it by either saying "night!" or "more song!" and I turn it on repeat. It is not uncommon for it to play on a continuous loop for over an hour (usually while I'm making dinner) and yet every time it gets to the end of the song she gets extremely concerned and begs "more! more! more song!" and then, a few seconds later as it begins again, the smiling and dancing recommence.

Her vocabulary has exploded! At around 14 months I was curious to know exactly how many words she knew. I counted over a few days and came up with about 40 words that she used correctly and consistently. I thought it would be fun to keep track of her words as she learned them, but that soon be came an impossible task, it seemed as though she was learning a new word or two every day! Now, at 17 months, she has started putting words into short phrases and tonight, I'm pretty sure she said her first sentence, "I want Mommy." (Not counting the time she parroted the sentence "Eat the bug, ew!" but that was a complete mimic, not something she came up with herself.)

This girl knows how to put on a show, what a ham! This last weekend, Nathan's mom and sister came to visit. I swear, Grace was in "perform" mode the entire two and a half days. Running around, laughing, being extra cute and adorable. I can't describe it, but she just attracts attention and smiles from everyone. Speaking of which, I've meant to record this story for awhile....

Grace routinely makes friends at the grocery store. She is just a friendly little bird, waving and saying hi to everyone and just generally being cute. It's actually helped me a lot to stop and smile at people, judge less and get out of my "me me me" zone I can sometimes get into when performing a task like grocery shopping. A few weeks ago, as I was studying the spice aisle, trying to find the particular item I was looking for, Grace was making cute faces, waving and talking to an older, grandpa-age gentleman. When I turned back to her, I smiled at the man and he struck up a conversation. He asked me, "Could I pick her dad out of a lineup if I saw him?" which is a polite way of saying, your kid looks nothing like you. I smiled and cheerfully said, "probably not, lucky for us, she was adopted." For whatever reason, that often catches people off guard, but though flustered, he was polite and we continued to chat and he showed me a picture of his granddaughter. I don't remember exactly all the details now, but as we parted ways to continue our shopping, Grace was smiling and waving bye, he turned around the aisle, but then turned back around and looked at me and said, "I think you've got a shiny one here." I smiled and he added, "really." and nodded as if to emphasize his point. I couldn't agree more, sir.

She is so loveable and cuddly lately. As an infant she was not one that really like to cuddle a lot, she was just always so alert and wanting to watch everything that she never ever put her head on our shoulders to relax and go to sleep or anything like that. I was a little sad to think I had a non cuddly kid, but things have definitely changed as she's gotten older. She is always hugging and kissing her stuffed animals. Any time she sees Nathan and I hug or kiss she says "Hug!" and runs over as if not to be left out of the fun. Then we have our little family hug, which is cheesy and adorable. She runs up to Nathan when he gets home from work and grabs his legs to hug tight.. And lately, she's taken to letting me cuddle and rock and sing to her before bed, and I'm just trying to soak it in because I know it won't last forever.

She's addicted to her stuffed Minnie Mouse. Well, she loves all her stuffed animals, but especially her "Munny" as she calls her. Minnie comes in the car with us often, but I don't allow her to come in the stores or other places with us. :) And, she's also gotten into blankets, dragging them around like Linus from Charlie Brown. Pretty darn cute is all I can say about that!

She loves babies. She goes nuts over every baby we see at church or out and about. One Sunday before sacrament meeting, a friend whose wife just had a baby was showing us pictures of his new son on his iphone. Well, once the meeting started, he put the phone away, but Grace was not done looking at that baby! She begged for "more baby!" and sat and looked at those pictures for a good chunk of the meeting.

Her great-grandma sent us a play high chair and crib with Nathan's mom this last weekend. Grace has really gotten into it and puts her baby "nigh night!" in the "cib" all the time. I love that she's starting to act things out.

I love this girl so much. She has brought so much laughter and love into our family. I am so so grateful I get to be her mama.

Updated profile

2011-10-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

Fixed the typos and got in our new family pics!

https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/26259642/ourMessage.jsf

I love my family!

2011-10-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

5 Years

2011-09-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

What a lucky girl I am.

Official!

2011-09-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

We are finally published on the LDS Family Services website, www.itsaboutlove.org!!! Here is the link to our profile: https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/26259642/ourMessage.jsf

(I already found a couple typos, oops! Getting those fixed soon! Also, I don't love our main family picture, but it really is the best/most recent one we've got. Luckily, we've got a family picture session scheduled in just over a week.)

Feel free to pass this link along or paste it on your blog! Thanks for your support.

What we did today:

2011-08-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

Drew on the kitchen floor:

In an effort to keep the drawings off the floor, I brought out the paper, that is.

Went swimming:

And Grace got a cone all to herself for the first time:

Maybe I had to help her finish...just a little...

This successful summer day brought to you by: Huge Roll of Paper, V* Family Pool and McDonald's

The family that runs together...

2011-08-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

On the Fourth of July, Nathan and I hosted my family for a 5K and breakfast. I had a lot of fun mapping out the route and going around town drawing chalk arrows and making a map for everyone. Honestly, had I thought farther ahead and had some money to play around with I totally would have done t-shirts, race bibs and prizes. (There's always next year!) We definitely want to make it an annual thing. I only got one picture, right before we started:

This last weekend, we did a 10K in North Plains for their garlic festival. Half of us did the 10K and everyone else took the kiddos on the 2 miler.

Most of the group before the race. Some friends from Melissa's ward were there too.

Our cute little family of three. Nathan was patient enough to take Grace and walk with the other little girls in the two miler.

Melissa and I after 6.2 miles. We stayed together for the first 5 miles and it was really nice to have someone to talk to and motivate me!

I love having a race to train for, it keeps me more motivated in my running habits. It's been even more fun to do it with my family! We've scoped out another 10K for October and I'm thinking next year might be when I do the Helvetia Half again. We'll have to see, big races like that take a lot of time (mostly on Saturdays!) to get ready for, but someday, I'm shooting for this. I know I've got it in me.

Grace's Special Book

2011-08-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

About two months ago, I made a photo book for Grace. In meeting other adoptive families, I have seen a lot of examples of really awesome homemade children's books that tell about a child's adoption and I really wanted to make Grace one. However, I am totally not creative or talented in the scrapbooking way at all. I thought a digital photo book would be the best option, but kept putting it off because they tend to be very expensive. Then one lucky day, when I was checking out at Target, the machine spit out a coupon for a free photo book at Shutterfly! Woo hoo! So, I finally forced myself to sit down for a few days during naps and put together a book for my Gracie-girl. (Even just arranging pictures on the page is almost too much for my little creativeness!) We call it her Special Book and she adores it. Which makes my heart happy.

You absolutely cannot rip it away from her without a serious tantrum:

So, sometimes she takes it to the changing table and reads while getting dressed:

Once dressed, she's still enthralled:

I hope she will always love to hear the story of her birth, and just how special she is.

Just thought you should know...

2011-08-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of show-off-y blogs. Who is, right? Anyway, just wanted our friends and family to know that the new pictures and get to know us stuff on the side bar kind of makes me cringe. But alas, we feel like it is necessary. We're patiently waiting to be approved by LDS Family Services for our next adoption. (How's that for an anti-climactic announcement :) We won't have a profile online for probably about 4-6 weeks, so in the meantime we'll be redoing some of the things on this blog to allow potential birth parents to get to know us better. It's really hard to try to give an accurate description of who you are to a complete stranger, any suggestions on ways you would describe us to someone?

Anyway, completing all of the necessary steps to be approved for adoption is really the reason for the scanty posting this summer. We've been working on our application all summer and it has been a lot of work. I actually expected it to be a breeze, considering that we've been through it all before. In some ways it was easier, but not really. But we feel hopeful and grateful. We're in the final stages of approval. Our caseworker is coming to our house in two weeks for the home study and then it's just a matter of waiting for her to do her write-up and present us to the official approval committee at LDSFS. We will definitely post the link to our profile on here as soon as it is up.

Umm...that's all. I just felt the need to explain our overly narcissistic sidebar.

Summer activities

2011-08-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

We spent the most wonderful day at Oswald State Park last week with my sisters, mom and nieces and nephews. I'm now convinced that Grace's favorite place is the beach and favorite thing is the ocean. This girl was in heaven and it was SO adorable. The entire time I just kept thinking, "oh man, I wish Nathan were here, she is being so funny!" So, we are most definitely going back before summer is through.

It was warm enough to splash in the water:

Sunbathe:
And lots of digging in the sand. Pretty sure it was everywhere when we got home! ;)

We've also been spending lots of time at the park. Now that Grace is walking, she just wants to climb all over the playground equipment. She loves the swings too:

And we went to the zoo! I didn't get a ton a pictures, but here are a few of my two cuties:

Our summer has also consisted of lounging in the back yard, grilling delicious food (see previous post!) berry picking and jam making, sidewalk chalk and bike rides!

Summer Food

2011-08-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

We recently became the proud owners of this bad boy:

For free! If you can believe it. Nathan's boss got a fancy new grill and was going to throw this one out, so he just gave it to him! Too bad we don't have any "before" pictures, it was pretty rusty and scratched and yucky looking. Nathan spent a few dollars on paint as well as a few hours two Saturdays ago and voila! as good as new!

Now that it finally decided to be summer here in the northwest, we've been going a little crazy with grilling. In just the last week we've grilled: hamburgers, pizza, quesadillas, corn on the cob and these amazing kabobs:

And of course, when there was a "sale" on steak this week I had to get some. You've got to grill steak at least once right? It's on the menu for sometime next week.

Add to these delicious meals a fresh berry smoothie (I'm telling you, we live in berry heaven here) and wow...I am one happy food lover.

Grace is walking!

2011-07-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

You won't be disappointed...

2011-07-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, BYU mint brownies, where have you been the last 5 years?! I made these for a baby shower last night and, oh man, they did not disappoint. And now I'm reminiscing about every ward function in college and my days of working in the Cannon Center bakery....

I just had to share this recipe:

BYU Mint Brownies

Make 'em, quick. You won't be disappointed!

Conversations at lunchtime

2011-07-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Among Grace's favorite things these days are Elmo and going outside ("ah-sigh! ah-sigh!") Apparently, Mama doesn't make the cut.

But, Daddy does.

I couldn't resist...

2011-07-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

...posting this. I pretty much killed it with coupons last week.

Behold:

4 boxes of Rice Krispies
4 boxes of Crispix
16 rolls of toilet paper
2 boxes of pasta
1 box of taco shells
2 packages of imitation crab
1 bottle barbecue sauce
1 can of mousse
1 bottle Excedrin
2 toothbrushes

Net PROFIT: $8.02

Yep, I said profit. After paying $11.54 out of pocket and $0.44 for a stamp, I'll be getting $20 cash back in rebates. That pretty much rocks.

More vacation...

2011-07-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

While we were in Utah, we were able to visit with Grace's great-grandparents. Nathan's Grandma and Grandpa Hill.

Grace enjoyed the old school toys Grandma had. Lincoln logs!

And Nathan enjoyed the toys too!

Nathan especially loved looking at Grandpa's drawings from his high school drafting class. They just don't do stuff like that anymore!

Grace Helen was named after Grandma Helen:

The airplane ride home wasn't quite as perfect as the way there. It was definitely past Grace's bedtime! There was minimal crying and screaming, though. :)

She was very concerned with understanding the safety features of our 737:

What a wonderful trip!

Bryce Canyon

2011-06-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

After the wedding fervor died down and the newlyweds were off on their honeymoon, the rest of us (well, those that managed to get work off...) headed down to Bryce Canyon for hiking, camping and more hiking. It was great!

Having only ever been on the outskirts of Bryce Canyon, I knew a little bit of what to expect, but holy cow, I was blown away by the beauty and majesty of this place. It was beautiful! The weather was perfect too, warm but not too hot.

The first day we were there, we started out on a hike around the rim. Grace was awesome in the hiking backpack, but we still cut the hike short and just did 5 miles, while the rest of the family did the full 8. Whew.

We happily went back to camp and got to chopping potatoes for foil dinners. Yum. Grace was glad to be out of the backpack and LOVED just being outside watching the chipmunks and birds.

After a pretty cold night, we spent the next day driving/biking to the viewpoints and going on the "best 3 mile hike in the world" (according to the sign anyway.)

It was down in the canyon and lovely. Nathan and I, however, were no match for his cross country running, Utah dwelling siblings. At 8,000 feet elevation, we were huffing and puffing! Grace stayed in the car with Grandma and Grandpa for this one, which was probably for the best. An extra 30 pounds on our backs certainly would have slowed us down!

Even though we only stayed one night, I'm so glad we were able to make it here. I lived in Utah for 5 years and never made it to any of the National Parks! What a shame! It was so beautiful and definitely worth the drive.

Vacation Time!

2011-06-24T14:52:00.001-07:00

We returned a few days ago from spending a wonderful week with Nathan's family in Utah. First up was family pictures in Salt Lake:

Grace and her cousins Andrew and Christian.

Entire Hill family! We actually got 17 people to look at the camera at the same time, smile and look good! Woo hoo!

All nine Hill kids

The main event of this vacation was Tera and BJ's wedding in the Draper temple. It was such a beautiful day and Tera was a stunning bride.

Grace looked pretty stinkin' cute too:

Grace with her Aunts Amanda, Crista and Tiffany, and cousins Andrew and Christian.

As cute as she was, Grace was very excited to be out of that dress!

The ceremony was so beautiful, with Grandpa Hill performing the sealing. Oh, I love weddings. It was so wonderful to be in the temple with family. I found myself pretty teary that day, it's just so good to be reminded of the covenants we made (almost five years ago) and think about how much the Lord has blessed us, and it's especially wonderful to see people you love doing such good things and being happy.

Unfortunately, it was a pretty long day for Grace, with missed naps and lots of unfamiliar faces. We went home after the temple and Grace got to sleep while we went to the luncheon. The reception that night was also beautiful and really fun (once we took Grace home to go to bed! :)

And who doesn't want to ride home in a convertible?

Like mother, like daughter

2011-06-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day at the coast

2011-05-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

We got to spend Sunday night and Monday of Memorial weekend at the coast with some friends. I'm not feeling too wordy today, so it'll mostly be pictures. Lucky you. :)

Grace really loved being by the ocean, even when it was raining.

Memorial Day actually had beautiful weather, it was one of the best days I've had on the Oregon coast, so perfect.

By the way, Nathan is not fond of the hat I'm wearing in these pictures. Frankly, I love it. But, the fact that I got it for $1 at DI might be the main reason...

Stopping at a candy store for salt water taffy:

And lastly, we had to go to the Tillamook Cheese factory for two things: Tillamook ice cream and squeaky cheese. Oh squeaky cheese, it's so sad that it is not to be found at grocery stores...

A girl after my own heart, Grace devoured those cheese curds!
and the ice cream

And, for my sister:

Valere Hope

2011-05-13T15:21:00.001-07:00

My beautiful niece was stillborn, exactly a week ago. She was full-term. She was perfect.

It has been a difficult week for my family, to say the least. It is so hard to watch people you love suffer. It is hard to know how to help, how to put into practice those covenants we've made to "mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort."

My brother-in-law's sister had a wonderful idea to express our love for my sister and her family. I'm hoping you wouldn't mind helping? Here's the link: http://aprongirls.blogspot.com/2011/05/valere-hope-project.html She explains it better than I would. I'll post my own picture when I come up with my creative idea.

Please know that my sister and her family are so touched by this.

Taking the CSA plunge

2011-05-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, each consumer buys a "share" of the yearly crop from a local farmer and then receives weekly boxes of the produce as it becomes available until the end of the growing season. I first heard about it when we lived in San Diego and after moving back home to Oregon I fell in love with the amazing amount and variety of fresh produce that is available within just a few minutes of where we live. I started researching CSAs during this last winter and initially was too nervous.

Here were my fears:

It's a decent commitment because you pay upfront for the entire season, which is anywhere from $20-30 per week for 16-20 weeks.
You get whatever's in season, which could be things you don't like or don't know what to do with. You don't get things that don't grow around here (I'm already mourning the loss of avacados and pineapples this summer...)
And, what if the amount left in our food budget each month after the cost of the produce, doesn't feel like enough for meat, dairy and pantry staples?
I like to can in the summer and a big chunk of my July-September food budgets often goes to big boxes of peaches, pears and salsa makings.

After mulling it over for a few months we decided to just do it for the following reasons:

It's fresh, delicious, local produce and the farm we chose delivers practically to our door. (They deliver to the YMCA that's a mile away for cheaper than the cost of gas to get to the farm every week.)
We believe in voting with our wallets!
I've been really into food lately, trying new foods and recipes, so it'll be fun to get unusual veggies.
Eating fresh makes me feel good. It's amazing what age does to your body because I know when I was younger I "felt good" because my mind told me I should feel good for eating healthy. Now, however, there is a tangible difference in my energy levels and moods when there are enough veggies in my life. I'm not even that old! :) (Not to say I don't have an enormous sweet tooth and propensity for makes desserts all the time...)
We don't exactly have an amazing garden from which to pick fresh tomatoes and lettuce this summer, and I really really love fresh tomatoes.
I think we'll have plenty left in the food budget each month for all the rest of the food we eat. And if not, it wouldn't hurt to be vegetarians for awhile. We certainly are not going to starve.
I overdid a lot of the canning stuff last year and still have plenty of peaches and pears and salsa. I could probably get away with doing about a fourth of the amount I usually do and still have enough to last until 2012.
If we hate it, we won't do it next year. But, we might love it and we'll never know unless we try.

And so last night, we went for it and paid our money to French Prairie Gardens. I'm really excited to get our first box June 1st! I can almost taste the strawberries already...

My favorite video ever

2011-05-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

This video is a few months old, but it has taken FOREVER to figure out how to get blogger to upload stuff from our video camera, so I finally just went with Youtube.

One of her favorite things to do

2011-05-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

And the spring zoomed by...

2011-05-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

I should probably separate this into different posts, but I think I'll just give a quick rundown of the very fast moving spring we've had so far...

Nathan had surgery for an abdominal hernia about a week and a half ago. You wouldn't believe the mental persuasion I had to undertake to convince him he was not being lazy by lying on the couch watching movies for 3 days. (I suppose he's a Hill.) He watched all kinds of classics: Gone With the Wind, Chariots of Fire, 12 Angry Men....He is a champ and went back to work after four days of rest, but he will NOT be hiking Half Dome any time soon. (Like he did 2 weeks after his last hernia surgery, at the age of 14. Crazy kid.) He says his recovery has been much quicker this time than the last two hernia surgeries he had. However, he is still not allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds. And, we have a huge child. It's been pretty sad for both of them :(

We became parents of five for a few days when we babysat our friends' kids a few weeks ago while they went to Hawaii. We've since had three different families in the ward ask us if we would consider doing that in the future for them. I think we may have found a pretty good summer gig.

Before Nathan's surgery, he spent a lot of time designing and then helping build a bunk bed for our friends. (See their post about it here. Seriously, click the link and scroll through the pictures, it is amazing.) Nathan is now designing a toy chest for Grace that he can now build thanks to the new router he got from Kevin for helping with the bunk bed. What a cute dad.

Grace's birthday is next week. I can't believe my baby is almost one. We were lucky enough to have lunch with her birthparents last weekend (during which, she mastered the use of a straw, SO cute!) We love them. They love Grace. I'm so glad they were able to see her.

Nathan got a new calling as an advisor to the teacher's quorum. Which means lots of campouts...anyone want to have some sleepovers with me and Grace this summer? :)

Last Friday we had our first childless date in a long time. We decided to do all things Portland (well, not ALL things ,we weren't about to get a tattoo or dreadlocks...) We ate dinner at delicious food carts, went to Voodoo doughnuts (would NOT recommend it to anyone with small children....or anyone with a sense of propriety, actually.) And rode the skytram at OHSU. Thank you thank you to my mama for watching the Gracie-girl.

Okay, this is sort of a lame-o post. Way too many parenthesis and no pictures or anything. And, well, we felt a lot busier than this looks...and I'm REALLY ready for spring to finally show up...you know, maybe before it's supposed to be summer.

I've become one of THOSE people

2011-04-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Y'know, one of those people who takes pictures of their coupon trips and posts it on their blog to brag about how cheap it all was.

See, I've been doing the coupon thing since last summer. But, mostly I've stuck to drugstores. Rite Aid is pretty much my best friend. We have our year's supply of shampoo and cough drops that's for sure. I only occasionally, however, do the grocery store deals. A lot of the deals are things we don't really eat. I'm extremely proud of this weeks trip, though, because it's all FRESH, HEALTHY stuff. Hence, the extra effort to take a picture and post about it.

Everything pictured below cost.... $4.64 my friends. Yep, less than 5 bucks for:
2 gallons of milk
8 pounds of oranges
2 packages of salad
6 cups of yogurt
1 package meat seasoning
1 pound of grapes
1 shampoo
1 conditioner

I love you Safeway and Albertsons.

And because I can't seem to put up a post without a picture of my adorable Gracie-girl, here she is swinging at the park last week:

Because it is his birthday...

2011-03-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I've decided to brag for a bit about my wonderful husband's talents...

Last weekend, he built this:

The entrance:

The inside of what was dubbed the "Taj Mahal of snowcaves"

and in January, he built this:

Yep, he is awesome.

We've got a crawler!

2011-03-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

And the most adorable little crawler you've ever seen!

Just so you know...

2011-03-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

I totally jinxed myself with that last post. We haven't had an uninterrupted night of sleep since I posted it thanks to a nasty old cold.

The sweet spot

2011-03-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Grace and I have really found our groove lately. I realize that with babies, things could change quickly, so I'm doing my best to enjoy it and soak it all in.

She's napping on a great schedule and sleeping through the night. As in, I honestly don't recall the last time I heard a peep out of her between the hours of 8pm and 6am. She loves food, all of it. I can read her moods and generally feel competent at figuring out what she needs and wants. She's slowly (but surely) getting better at moving around, she interested in everything! And she is the most friendly little bird you've ever seen.

This is not to say our days are perfect. There are certainly those days where the afternoons seem to stretch on forever (especially considering that most days she does wake up at 6am, that can make for a long day) and we can't wait for Nathan to get home. And, she's fairly needy in terms of constant interaction and attention. (I'm hoping that once she finally starts crawling she'll be a little better at self entertaining because sometimes I really just need to chop some vegetables or something!) But the fact is, I've got one sweet girl, and we've hit a sweet spot together.

February Happenings

2011-03-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

This last month we spent a weekend at Champoeg State Park with my sister and her family. We slept in cabins but enjoyed outdoor cooking! It was fun to have a little weekend away (though really, only 10 miles away) despite a few hangups.

Such as....Our heater broke the first night so we shivered from about 1:30 am until morning. Which, consequently made all three of us a bit cranky the next day. Grace basically refused to nap in the portacrib, so we finally resorted to driving around for an hour so she'd at least get some sleep during the day. Grace had a little mishap falling out of a chair (yes, bad parent award) and got some scratches on her face, all healed now, though. And, well, it poured on Saturday. :) However! we did enjoy some swimming at the Newberg pool, Settler's of Catan and good food (food always tastes better camping) including delicious dutch oven ribs and cobbler. Yum!

I didn't take many pictures but here's Gracie and her cute cousins. (This is before the falling accident.)

And then our sweetie pie all bundled up:

This girl is such a ham! She figured out smiling for the camera at like 4 months, what a goofball!

And the rest of the month, well, we go to storytime at the library (they have a time just for babies, mostly we sing songs and play with toys,) finally made it to our ward's playgroup, and just regular old stuff, like making messes:

Grace enjoyed her first snowday: (though I suppose we had snow when we were in Utah)

This last weekend we had my niece and mom's combined birthday celebration at our house. Wrangling all six grandkids for a picture was quite a feat:
Now, on to March!

9 months already!

2011-02-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

Grace had her 9 month check-up today and, lucky girl, this is apparently the no shots appointment! Yay!

We are so happy we have such a healthy girl. I really expected all of us to be much sicker this winter, but so far, besides the ear infections she had at 6 months (which really weren't that terrible) she's only had one cold and one fever/virus thing. Pretty good, I'd say.

She still continues to be at the top of the weight charts, and this time her head was just as huge! (big brain, right? ;)

Height: 29" 91st%
Weight: 23 1/2 lbs. 98th%
Head: 18.5" 99th%

Here are a few of the things Grace can do as a 9 month old:

She eats everything! I LOVE that my girl loves food! The only thing she has ever refused is peaches, which I think is kinda weird, but whatever. And she's so good at chomping with those gums/teeth. Considering that my biggest fear is choking, she puts me at ease with how well she can chew.
She's great at feeding herself: bits of bread, peas, beans, noodles. It's so fun.
Slowly learning to drink from a sippy cup. She holds it great, but mostly just bites it.
She now has five teeth! Two on bottom and three on top.
Waves hello and goodbye. She mostly just puts her arm and hand straight out, we're still working on the actual waving of the hand or fingers.
Eensy weensy spider is still her favorite song, and she has started putting her hands together to try to do the motions when we sing it!
Gives hugs and kisses (big, slobbery, open mouthed ones!)
She knows the sound of a key in the lock of the front door and will get excited to see Daddy when she hears it.
Kisses pictures of babies in her books and herself in the mirror, it's so funny!
Can turn the pages of board books and almost always in the right direction! And I swear she knows what the phrase "turn the page!" means
Loves her toys that make noise when she pushes buttons
Loves ANYTHING with buttons: remotes, phones, etc. Her favorite remote is the one that controls the light and fan in our bedroom. She sits and stares up at the fan and pushes the buttons to make it go off and on forever!
Still doesn't crawl, but scoots around a little on her bum, mostly in circles.
Rolls from her back to her tummy all the time, but never from her tummy to her back. The Dr. said that was so strange since it's harder to roll from back to tummy...to each her own ;)
Is enamored with the new space heater we put in her room. The second we get her out of the crib, she's looking around for it. She tries so hard to stay awake when we're putting her down for a nap or bed because she just stares at it. It has been fantastic with helping her sleep all night, though!
Has become a fairly good sleeper. She's in a great schedule these days with two 1 1/2 hour naps a day and 10-11 hours at night.
She is such a happy, cheerful, friendly girl. She smiles at everyone. (Though she does have some spunk in her for sure!) Every time I go out people ask me, "is she always this happy?" I feel very lucky and blessed to have such a sweety.

Kissing herself in the mirror

Fellow Oregonians! Please help promote adoption!

2011-02-07T19:51:00.001-08:00

All you Oregonians out there, we really could use your help! A new bill has been proposed that could very negatively affect adoption in Oregon. House Bill 2904 (HB2904) is currently being considered by a committee in the Oregon House of Representatives and were this to pass and become law, adoptions in Oregon may significantly decline.

Most significantly, this law would not allow an adoption placement to happen until a newborn was at least 8 days old, requiring a birthmother (or father) to parent that child for those 8 days or place the child in foster care. Current law allows birthparents to relinquish parental rights at any time after birth.

Also, this law would allow an adoption to be terminated within 30 days for any reason. Currently, there is no waiting period in Oregon, meaning once relinquishment papers have been signed they cannot be revoked unless duress or fraud is proven.

Just the thought of this law being passed stresses me out.

You may think that this can only negatively affect adoptive families who are anxious to have their rights to a child be made legal as soon as possible. But this law actually removes the rights of birthparents to make choices for their babies. For example, in the case of Grace's adoption, her birthparents were absolutely certain that they wanted us to be her parents, about 4 months before she was even born. I won't pretend to understand all of the reasons for the choice they made, but I know that they felt strongly that it was the best thing for Grace. They knew, however, that once she was born, that they would love her deeply and it would be extremely difficult to part. However, they were committed to the adoption and signed the papers as soon as they could so that they could give Grace the life they wanted her to have and to begin to heal themselves. Requiring them to parent for over a week, or give their baby to a foster home would have been heartbreaking for them. This type of law would discourage adoptions and make what is an already emotionally difficult decision an even harder for these kinds of amazing birthparents.

So, we're begging for your help to protect the current adoption laws here in this state. Here's what you can do: Send a brief email to your state representative expressing your opposition to this law. It doesn't need to be long, just state your name, your connection with adoption (or just say "as a concerned citizen" or "as someone who cares about the rights of birthparents and their children") and that you oppose HB 2904. I've heard it helps legitimize your email if you include your address and phone number, just so they know it's not spam, so after you sign your name, if you feel comfortable, include your contact info.

Find your Representative here

Here's a portion of the email I sent: (I also included some personal info about Grace's birthparents that I felt was pertinent to the bill)

Dear Representative Wingard,

My name is Emily Hill and I am an adoptive mother of a beautiful nine month old baby girl, here in the state of Oregon. I am writing to express my strong opposition to House Bill 2904. I believe this bill would have a very negative impact on adoptions here in our wonderful state as it takes away the rights of birthparents to make decisions about the future of their child.

My daughter's birthmother, L*, selected us to be the parents of her child when she was 6 months pregnant...She knew what she was doing was going to be extremely difficult, but she felt it was the right choice. L* was able to sign parental relinquishment documents immediately following the birth of our daughter and begin to heal from this emotional ordeal. If this bill passes, it would not allow birthmothers, like L*, this option. It would unfairly force these brave women to parent their child for 8 days before signing away their parental rights. This would have been heartbreaking for L*, and would have caused unnecessary emotional devastation for her. Nine months after our daughter's adoption placement, L* is doing well. She continues to tell us that she is happy about the choice she made. Even though it was extremely difficult for her, she feels she made the best choice she could for this baby.

I am asking you to please oppose this bill, as it unfairly takes away the rights of birthparents who are trying to make a difficult but wonderful choice for their children.

Sincerely, Emily Hill

Again, your email can be very short if you would like. ANYTHING is better than nothing. Please consider taking a few minutes to find your Representative (in the State House, not the Senate...yet) and shoot off a brief email expressing opposition to this law. As a family, we would really appreciate it. Because we would really like a few more pictures like these to put on our walls:

THANK YOU!!!

Addendum: This is the response I got one day after sending off my opposition email:

Dear Emily,

Thanks for contacting my office regarding HB 2904 in Oregon. It is the civic participation of active citizens like yourself that shine a light on the problems facing our community. Should this issue come across the floor during the Legislative session I will take this into consideration.

Once again, thanks for contacting me.

Rep. Matt Wingard

I'm sure this is a form letter, but it is evidence that our local leaders will listen!! Please write!!

Sleep...we're finally getting some

2011-01-31T11:40:00.000-08:00

Doesn't she look like Chicken Little here?

I think we've finally found the secret to getting Grace to sleep through the night. Unfortunately, it's a fairly expensive method, maybe some of you already use it? It's called Turn Up the Heat. Yes, that's right, we were freezing out our baby. Yes, I feel like a terrible parent.

It's no secret, we've got a Daddy's girl

2011-01-26T11:06:00.000-08:00

I don't know that this girl could get any more excited when Nathan gets home from work. And do you love her little crossed ankles in this picture as much as I do?

We are buddies

2011-01-24T20:46:00.000-08:00

I sure adore this girl and the fact that we get to hang out all day.

Some Christmas photos

2011-01-19T09:59:00.000-08:00

And not a moment too soon! :)

Christmas Eve's Eve: My grandparents made this banner I don't know how many years ago. The building that they attended church in the entire time they were married posts all the old banners in the gym for Christmas. We had our annual Banks family Christmas party here on the 23rd and had to get a picture. Sure miss them.

Nathan and I started a tradition a couple of years ago (that we have only kept so far on the years we haven't been traveling) to go out for Chinese on Christmas Eve. I brought some sweet potatoes for Grace, but she seemed to prefer the fried rice!

Our family on Christmas Eve:

My attempt at pretty tables, I know, not too thrilling when two are card tables. My entire family came for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a delicious, fun time.

Grace and cousin Sarah were angels for the kids' nativity:

Let's see, we had 2 year old Macy who demanded to be Baby Jesus despite the obvious size and gender discrepancies from the real Baby Jesus, (turns out she fit in the "manger" quite well), a Joseph who kept running away from his Mary and an angel who was obviously distracted by the figurine animals representing the sheep and cows and such. It was a rather adorable reproduction of the first Christmas.

Opening presents from grandma and grandpa:

Nathan opening his gift from my parents. You mean it wasn't a tommy gun? (Its rather odd shaped wrapping led to quite the guessing game of what it could be.)

Grace's first Christmas morning! What a cutie!

Mostly, she just liked to eat the wrappings:

In her Christmas dress from Grandma and Grandpa H., surrounded by her new toys:

Food glorious food

2011-01-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

I've been trolling the internet lately looking for more dinner ideas and recipes and I've decided I LOVE food blogs. I've been feeling bored with the same old recipes I keep using and really love the sites where people post their menus for the week and links to recipes. I usually look for recipes with simple ingredients that I typically buy, or new ingredients that don't seem too scary. :)

Because I've found these sites so incredibly helpful lately (really, these people are doing me such a service, I am excited about planning and making dinner lately!) I thought maybe I'd share some of the recipes I've found recently that we've enjoyed.

Roast chicken The best chicken I've ever made, moist and delicious. (Go heavy on the salt :)

Tex-Mex chicken salad Haven't made this yet, planned for tomorrow, but it sure sounds good

Stuffed shells like lasagna in a shell, easy meat-free meal

Chili Yum. I used extra spicy chili powder and boy did Nathan like it. I also made an amazing cornbread recipe that I also found on the internet but seem to have lost the web address :(

Salsa verde Enchiladas nice twist on enchiladas

Hummus oh hummus, how I love you. Tahini is a little expensive but worth it, and still cheaper than buying pre-made hummus

Farfalle w/ tomato and basil simple but good pasta dish

I really like this site, written by someone who was in our ward in San Diego.

I will end with a picture of our (now) traditional New Year Eve meal. Don't be too disgusted.
Homemade onion rings and mozzarella sticks. (Notice the tiny salad on the side. I couldn't bear to have a meal without at least a little green.) We figured since everyone always resolves to eat healthier in the new year, we'd end each year with a bang. :)

I will put up some pictures of Christmas sometime, because hello, I have the most adorable child ever, but tonight I'm thinking about food. Hopefully this is helpful to someone!

Can you guess who gave her these?

2011-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Some reasons why I'm feeling so happy today...

2010-12-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

I have the best daughter and husband ever.

We finally figured out how to hang the stockings (thank you magnets!) and it's added such coziness to the living room.

Non-stop Christmas music.

We've decided to join our local YMCA.

We invited a family from our ward to dinner last night. They have a baby 2 months older than Grace. Maybe we're actually making friends?!

Our ward choir is really good.

Nathan and my mom are in cahoots for some super secret Christmas project for me. I love surprises.

Because we were stranded at home last Friday since Nathan took the wrong car keys to work, I spent ALL day cleaning the house. It's managed to stay clean all weekend.

I LOVE Primary. I love it. I love that I get to know all the kids in our ward.

We have really fun neighbors across the street who adore Grace.

We crashed our former branch's Christmas party on Saturday and it was so wonderful to see everyone. The branch is a great dose of welcoming, down-to-earthness when I'm feeling a bit too suburban comfortable. (If that makes any sense.)

Grace has been on an amazing sleep schedule for over a week now!

Free lunch twice this week thanks to my sister's secret shopper jobs.

Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas on hulu.

Nathan isn't working in the evenings anymore. I sure like having that guy around.

Safeway meat delivery today. $12 for 12 pounds of beef, delivered right to my door!

A very nice person in my ward gave me some formula samples that came with $5 formula checks. The checks combined with sales and coupons made for some major formula deals this weekend.

Christmas shopping: done!

Christmas cards: going out this week.

Getting Christmas cards in the mail.

The Savior was born and lives today. I think that is the happiest thought of all.

Why our tree this year is awesome

2010-12-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Because it came from our front yard:

Isn't Oregon the best?

When we moved into our house, there were four pine trees in the front yard. They're awfully overgrown and they, plus the big leafy guy we have, completely block our front window in the spring and summer. (Once the leaves are off the deciduous tree in late fall it's a little better.) So, Nathan had the great idea of using one for our Christmas tree, since we were planning to chop them down anyway. My husband is awesome. I'm pretty sure our neighbor, who was out washing his car while we were chopping, thinks we're totally weird. Hey, we saved twenty or thirty bucks, buddy!

Grace really likes looking at the tree and the lights, but she especially liked chewing on the plastic ball ornaments. Until we realized that they were probably made in China and covered in lead paint. Sorry, sweetheart.

Full December Calendar, Yippee!

2010-12-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Doesn't she look ready for Christmas?

After laundry, grocery shopping and readjusting Grace to a sleeping schedule, this week, I've been Christmas shopping and coordinating the Christmasy events we're doing this year. Some highlights:

Getting our tree this weekend!

Sherwood city Christmas tree lighting and parade, complete with choirs, Santa and hot chocolate.

1st Presidency Devotional and Gresham Stake Singalong, we always go to my parents' stake for this because nothing starts the Christmas season off better for me than singing the Hallelujah chorus.

RS Christmas dinner, at which I was asked to sing. Now, I don't mind accompanying people on the piano, singing in groups etc. But solos? Oh boy. Not my favorite thing. I decided to play the piano for myself, mostly so I could hide behind it.

Going to see our friend in The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge

Ward Christmas breakfast.

Seeing some other friends perform in the Portland Mormon Choir Christmas concert

For years, I have wanted to go to the Tuba concert at Pioneer Courthouse Square. This just might be the year we make it there.

Christmas ships parade!

Stake choirside.

Hosting my family's Christmas Eve dinner. I've already got the menu planned, thinking about a cousins nativity performance and am deciding on table decorations. I am determined to be a good hostess.

Ambitious? I'm just REALLY excited to celebrate Christmas as a family of 3 this year.

I know this isn't a Christmasy picture, but apparently there aren't many of the three of us together.
We'll definitely have to remedy that this month.

Thanksgiving: a dichotomy

2010-12-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

This week, I have never been more grateful to be home, with my husband and child, safe, warm and comfortable. It was so great to spend the holidays with family in Utah, but the circumstances surrounding our travel were so nightmarish, I have vowed to never drive anywhere between the months of November and February again.

It was hours of white knuckle driving. 25 miles per hour on I-84. Me feeling like I was going to throw up for most of the trip, punctuated with sights of accidents and cars that had slid off the road. Including being about 3 or 4 cars back from seeing an SUV in the left lane drift across four lanes of traffic while doing a complete 360 degree turn and land in the right shoulder.

We owe a HUGE thank you to family members who rescued us: the Egberts, Aunt Glady, Jonathon and Sarah. They provided warm food, warm beds and great company as the weather and freeway closures forced us to stay extra nights on both our way to and from Provo. Isn't family the best? We are SO thankful. And I am so grateful for a cool-headed husband. Who not only manages to think clearly while driving in dangerous conditions but while a crazy, anxiety-ridden wife is in the back seat nearly in tears, begging him to go slower. (For the record, he was not driving fast, I would just have preferred, y'know, 5 miles an hour...)

I felt somewhat catatonic the entire weekend. The anxiety was just too much. I'm sure I was the worst house guest ever. Never offering to help with the dishes, not lending a hand around the house. Nope. Pretty sure I just sat around eating food. Even posting these pictures gives me a pit in my stomach. So, on to the happier parts of the weekend...

Grace LOVED pumpkin pie!

Grace got to meet her two Hill cousins for the first time. Trying to get a picture with all three of them looking at the camera was quite a feat. But, gee was this girl hamming it up, she certainly turned on the charm when the cameras came out!

Lots of play time with Grandma!
Lights on Temple Square

And of course, In n Out!
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the giant table, set for 33. It was awesome.

Now, on to Christmas!

Future cougar

2010-12-03T13:45:00.001-08:00

Thankful for Primary

2010-11-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

I have the best calling in the church.

Seriously.

My calling as Primary Chorister combines so many of my favorite things: music, teaching, the gospel, kids under 12. It really is my dream calling. I've only been at it a couple of months, and yes it takes a considerable amount of time every week, but I come home from church every week energized and excited to tell Nathan about how things went and how amazing our Primary kids are.

Today was the Primary program in sacrament meeting. I always love this Sunday of the year, regardless of my calling but today, oh my heart. I have never been to such an amazing Primary program. There wasn't a single moment of snickering in the audience because of the antics of a squirrely kiddo, no straining to understand the jumbled words to the songs. They were so composed, so reverent, sang so beautifully. It was perfect. And, did you notice this song during your ward's program? Such a beautiful testimony, it brings me to tears every time.

Sigh. Today I am so grateful for Primary. For an inspired Bishop (when he asked me to be the chorister I looked at him like, are you kidding me, I would campaign for that calling!) And for continued evidence of the Lord's love in my life.

Can't wait until next Sunday when we start singing Christmas songs!

Much needed reason to celebrate!

2010-11-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

We've had a rough go of things the last week or two. What with ear infections, teething, a yucky, painful biopsy on her arm, crazy sleep patterns, a cranky mama...yikes. But today, Grace gave us something to cheer about: Eating solids willingly!!!

Look at those eyes! LOVE 'em.

This is major, folks. For the last 3 or 4 weeks, this girl has been barely allowing one or two bites a day of any kind of food, besides formula, in her mouth. Most of the time she would act all gaggy and the look on her face was as if we had poisoned her. We would try to make her laugh so her mouth would open and we could quickly shove a spoonful in (we are terrible, aren't we?) but she caught on to our plan and would just smile tight lipped, mouth shut! But today, oh blessed day. She was actually opening her mouth and leaning toward the spoon! I don't know why this eating thing was giving me such anxiety, but it combined with the lack of sleeping lately, boy howdy, it sure was beating down any ideas I'd had in my head that maybe I was a decent mother. I know, silly, but seriously, I've had some major mothering insecurity issues lately. But today, oh my Gracie girl, this is exactly the pick me up your mama needed.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a few of my child's demon-eyed pictures:

Creepy, yes? The light that comes on the camera right before the flash goes off makes her do this weird face and then we end up with pictures that look like these. So, we have about a million. But for her sake, I'll end with one of the most adorable pictures as of late. This one pretty much had her daddy melted:

Happy half-birthday, Grace!

2010-11-09T19:04:00.001-08:00

Grace is exactly 6 months old today! Wow. Then I think, in 6 more months she will be a year, ack! Slow down, time! (Except, speed up to the sleeping through the night stage....y'know, without making my baby grow up too fast.)

As a gift for Grace's 6 months today we went to the doctor where she got......diagnosed with 2 ear infections!! What?! Poor baby.

I have to say though, this illness just proves what a happy, good natured, cheerful soul this child is, because we really had no idea she was in pain. On Sunday, she was a little fussy and had a fever between 99 and 100. But really, fussy for her is not bad. In fact, we were at dinner at my parents and telling everyone that she just wasn't herself today and kind of fussy. Everyone had no idea what we were talking about because she seemed fine to them. Normally, she is just such a happy girl, that her fussiness seems like any other normal kid. We figured it was just a cold virus or something, coupled with the fact that her schedule was pretty messed up from our traveling to Seattle and such. She didn't sleep well at first that night (I attributed that to the fever) but after a little tylenol, she did great. Yesterday, she only had a mild temperature in the mid-99s. Today at the doctor, no fever and she was acting a lot better, so I figured the virus was on its way out....until the doctor looked in her ear.

I suppose the good news (for her, anyway) is that she didn't have to get poked for all those shots. (Of course, I have to take her back in two weeks to get them done, but, she dodged the bullet today.)

After a stop at the pharmacy, she celebrated her half-birthday by taking two, nearly 3-hour naps. Poor sick baby.

But if this doesn't make you smile, what will?

Oh, and the stats:

Weight: 19 lbs. 6 oz 96%
Height: 26.5" 78%
Head Circumference: 17.5 94%

As you can see, she continues to be our very big girl. :)

Oh, and remember that weird rashy red streak on her arm last month? Well, it's back. Showing up literally overnight. Exactly the same size, shape, color and location as last time. We have now officially stumped all four pediatricians in the clinic and are headed to the dermatologist tomorrow to see if they have any ideas. Oh, my mysterious baby.

Headed to Seattle

2010-11-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

We are headed to Seattle today for the Regional Families Supporting Adoption conference. Woo Hoo! I'm really excited for great classes, meeting other adoptive families, and just a little getaway.

I'm excited to share what we learn next week on the blog!

Lullaby for birthparents

2010-11-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

This beautiful tribute to a birthmom has me in tears.

My heart has been spending a lot of time thinking about Grace's birthparents lately, and hoping that we will get to see them again soon. We had dinner with them in August and I'm just so glad we were able to. Oh, how we love them both. They will always be heroes in our family.

Thank you to Mrs. R. for posting this today.

National Adoption Month

2010-11-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

November is National Adoption Month! And oh, how we love adoption in the Hill family! I'm going to do my best to focus some posts about adoption this month. I realize that since this blog is private, my audience is limited, but hey, even friends and family members could probably use some adoption education, right?

For starters how this statement by the President?

And, if you really want to read posts about adoption all month long (c'mon, you know you're dying too...) check out Mrs. R. She's pretty much the hero of the LDS adoption world. (And probably non-LDS too, who knows.)

I'm not really sure exactly what I'll be discussing...this could be an education for me too! ;) But, what's a post without a picture:

Adoption Finalization Day

And in other happy adoption news, we got Grace's birth certificate in the mail today, all official and everything. Yippee!

Don't forget to vote!

2010-11-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, he's way taller in real-life than on TV.

(For all you non-Oregonians out there, we met the repbulican candidate for govenor at the fair this summer.)

The cutest crab

2010-10-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! Like I said in the last post, holidays are already so much more fun with this little kiddo! Doesn't she make a cute little crab?

Our crab with her pirate parents:
Even though we got majorly rained on at the ward trunk-or-treat, she was still a happy girl (y'know, for the 45 minutes that we stayed until our candy ran out. A tri-ward party in Sherwood? Yeah, we're talking HUNDREDS of children...)

And, apparently, we didn't get the memo that adults typically don't dress up. A little lame, yes? We were two out of a handful of parents that we saw in costume. Except for the awesome family that was all the characters from Narnia, that was cool.

We went with the under the sea theme, crab, pirates; we decorated our trunk like the ocean and even had a treasure chest to hold the candy.
Oh man, I could just gobble this girl up!

**Okay, quick rant about trunk-or-treats. Whoever first thought them up probably thought they were pretty clever. And originally, I think they were....in Arizona. We live in the northwest, people! Whatever happened to the days of a cake walk in the gym, a spook alley in the Primary room and trick-or-treating to the classrooms? Instead we all shiver and freeze in the pouring rain, passing out soggy candy at our trunks. Okay, enough ranting. I just kinda think trunk-or-treats are not well suited for where we live, that's all.**

Weekend of Firsts

2010-10-24T13:46:00.001-07:00

First bath without the baby tub:

First solids:
Looking very happy, she has no idea what's coming....
Apparently, it wasn't so tasty:

She finally figured out how to swallow without gagging herself:

First pumpkin patch! Tractor ride out to the pumpkins:

Our cute little lamb:

Grace is at such a fun age, she is interested in everything! When in a crowded place she is just content as can be looking around at everything and everybody. It's so great.

I find myself humming Christmas songs these days. Anybody else ready for the holidays? Man, I am excited, everything is more fun with a kid.

An Ode to our town

2010-10-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

I love where we live. It's fairly idyllic. Lately, as Grace and I have been out on our walks/jogs I think to myself, How in the world am I lucky enough to live here?! I certainly owe a lot to that amazing husband of mine who did LOTS of research before we were home shopping. Our town in the fall is especially beautiful, let me show you the 3 mile loop Grace and I take....

First, we wind our way through the kids playing in the street and on the sidewalks to get out of our little neighborhood to tree-lined Sunset Blvd. Then it's up a little hill onto a small wooden bridge, past the elementary school and a left turn down Main St. On our right is a church and charter school, we smile and say hello to those we pass: a dad jogging with two sons riding their bikes alongside, a lady with a double stroller (full of 2 kids) and a dog (brave woman, I say!), a couple in their mid-50's or so, out for an evening stroll.

We cross the railroad tracks into Old Town, passing by two antique shops, a paint your own pottery place and a new mom and pop Italian restaurant complete with diners on the patio enjoying the warm fall air. Next, it's across the street to return a few items at the library and wave to a man in our ward we see there.

Outside the library again we head down into a small valley next to the amphitheater park where summer nights are filled with Music on the Green, Friday night movies and a community musical performed every July. This year it was The Secret Garden; a woman in our ward is in charge and I heard whisperings that next year's pick is The Sound of Music.

Following the path that goes through the park, we find this bridge As we cross, we are on the lookout for wildlife. I have seen a great blue heron here twice!

Now we get on the paved path that runs through wooded areas
and spend about a mile winding our way back to Sunset.

Out of the woods and up a small incline, we pass our neighborhood park, the one with the sand box. A sand box filled with sand toys that just stay there, all year long, for all the neighborhood kids to use! Seriously, I didn't believe it at first. When we drove by it after moving here we thought, "gee somebody left a lot of trucks and things in the sand pit," turns out those trucks and shovels live at the park all the time.

A turn to the left and we're back on Sunset and soon in our own neighborhood. Yeah, we like it here.

And finally, an update....

2010-10-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

So, our computer committed suicide last week (seriously, it fried itself) so last weekend we unfortunately had to go computer shopping. Though I really prefer our current setup over the laptop we had, it's never any fun to spend that much money!

But, we've got all kinds of Grace milestones to share.

First off, the weird red rash thingy is nearly gone. Strange. It's faint and pink, we'll see if it stay that way or goes away entirely.

Next, she started sitting up unsupported one day before her 5 month mark. (just realized I don't actually have a picture of that...bummer.)

And, we have a tooth!

This picture isn't totally clear, but in real life it's very visible (and painful if she bites down on you!) I'm pretty sure the one next to it is ready to pop through the gums any moment now.

She loves her tummy time lately:

And the exersaucer:

And, these are the kinds of smiles we get when daddy gets home from work. She sure loves that guy! (Who wouldn't?)

It's a good thing she's so darn cute, because boy are we tired lately. I don't know if it's the teeth coming in or what, but she has reverted to the sleeping habits of a newborn. Whew. I keep hoping that when she starts on solids next month we'll get some better sleeping patterns....I can at least hope right? Any suggestions oh wise, experienced parents out there?

Grace's Medical Mystery...

2010-10-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning, Grace woke up with this on her arm:

Bright red, clearly defined, it looks like a burn, or even a mark from a red pen. My first thought was that she had gotten her arm caught in the crib slats overnight and figured it would go away after a few hours, or turn into a bruise. By the afternoon, however, it looked the same and felt tender underneath, (though it didn't seem to bother her at all when it was touched.) I called the doctor at Melissa's advice and went in late in the afternoon.

We had to see a different doctor as her usual doctor was out for the week. After being first interrogated for child abuse (Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration and I know it's just their job, I'm a legally-bound child abuse reporter myself, but still, jeez louise. No, I did not burn my child, and yes, believe me, I would know if somebody else did, she never leaves my sight!) A second doctor was brought in to look at it and confirmed that it definitely was not a burn and that she had no idea what it was either and the two doctors stepped outside to consult. After a few minutes that came up with...nothing. The first doctor ended up prescribing an antibiotic, thinking there was a slight chance that she had an infection and gave us directions to come back the next day, noting her temperature throughout the night. Oh, and she sharpied the mark so we could tell if it was growing or shrinking over the next day or so:
After a few doses of antibiotics and no noticeable fever, we returned to the doctor Friday afternoon. She instructed us to discontinue the antibiotics as she no longer thought it was an infection. The mark looked exactly the same as it had 24 hours previous (and it continues to look like that today.) Since Grace seemed as healthy as ever the doctor didn't really have much advice other than keep an eye on it and call if anything changes.

And so, the medical mystery continues.

If it's still there by her 6 month appointment in November I may request a dermatology referral (which the first doctor recommended) but so far I'm not really worried. She continues to be a happy, healthy-seeming little cherub.

And though health insurance has been the bane of my existence during the past 3 years or so, boy, am I thankful that at least Grace has decent insurance. Because even though I wasn't planning on $50 of copays and $15 of prescription costs last week, that was a whole lot better than a couple hundred bucks for two docs to say, "gee, I don't know."

Oh, and our chubby girl weighed in at exactly 18 pounds on Friday. Ay yiyi!

The time has come...

2010-09-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

...for us to take the blog private. If you're pretty sure I have your email address in my contacts you'll probably get invited. But, if you want to make sure, leave a comment or, if you're not comfortable leaving your address in the comments, email my regular address (if you have it) or our adoption email: nathanandemilyadopt AT gmail.com (it gets forwarded to my regular email.)

When we're ready for adoption round number 2 we'll go public again and use the blog as a publicity tool. For now, though, I've found that I actually like blogging more than I expected myself to, but want to keep some things (and pictures) for private viewing.

We'll probably privatize next Sunday.

Gracie's Day in Court

2010-09-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Before we could take Grace to the temple, we had to wait until her adoption was finalized in court.

Grace and I outside the courtroom. Do you love her little slouch or what?

Different states have different rules about waiting periods, etc., but in Oregon we just had to have two post-placement visits with our case worker and then wait on paperwork processing with the county. (And you never really know how long the county will take....)

Three of us waiting outside the courtroom.

This does not mean that our adoption wasn't legal or was in danger during the interim. Yes, you hear scary stories about birthparents wanting kids back and terrible court battles. However, not only is that extremely rare, it also is very dependent on the state you are in and very specific legal things have to occur for birthparents to even have the option of appealing an adoption once relinquishment documents have been signed. Oh yeah, and Grace has the most amazing birthparents, who were completely committed to this adoption, so no, we were never worried. But, before finalization, we didn't have Grace's birth certificate with her real name on it and us listed as parents. And, we couldn't have her sealed. After some serendipitous phone calls the last week of August, we were able to get an appointment with the judge for September 3, so that we could schedule her sealing and blessing for Labor Day weekend. It was such a great day, and a whirlwind of a weekend!

We had the most awesome judge. I don't know about you, but I've always imagined judges to be a little bit stuffy, y'know? Well, our judge walked in and was smitten by Gracie right away, plucked her from our arms with a motherly warmth and held her for most of the 30 minutes.

Most of my family was able to come, including five of Grace's cousins. The judge got down at kid level to talk to the kids and so they could hug and kiss their baby cousin. The cutest part was when she asked them if they knew what she was going to do today and Sarah said, "Say the blessing?" I'm not sure what the judge thought of that but Sarah knows what happens to babies in our family! She was probably wondering why we were doing the baby blessing at some place other than church! Too funny.

So, after oohing and aahing over our adorable girl, Judge Cobb took us up to where she sits.

Grace got to play judge for a minute. (A foreshadowing of her life's ambition perhaps? :)

Signing the official document

And then, the judge explained to all of us what finalization means: that Grace is recognized by the state as our daughter as if she had been born to us from here on out. (Only slightly different than the sealing, minus all the attendant blessings ;)

Everyone who came to our finalization ceremony (minus our wonderful attorney, Robin, who was taking the picture.)

Such a happy day!

4 month checkup

2010-09-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

So, I'll admit, I normally skip these types of posts on other people's blogs. (It's not that I don't think your kids are cute...but I'd rather read the funny things they say or do than know what percentile their head circumference is in...)
That being said, I won't be offended if you are bored with this one....

Four Month Check-up Stats for Grace--

Height: 24.5" 61%
Weight: 17lbs. 2.5 oz Nearly off the percentile chart!
Head: 16.5 " 76%

Loves:

Eensy Weensy Spider (or is it Itsy Bitsy?)
Her bumbo seat, we call it her "throne"
Listening to Daddy play the piano
Church - so much stimulation, the music, the people, the girl goes nuts!
When we can get her to laugh - there are all manner of ways
Being swaddled for bed (she hates it at first, but once she relaxes, it's heaven)
Sitting up (supported of course) she's like a turtle on her back these days, the girl just wants to be able to see everything and be involved!
Being outside, whether she's in the stroller or the Bjorn, she is SO content

New Skills:

Blowing raspberries
Sticking out her tongue
Moving around in her crib at night (not so sure this is a skill per se)
Smiling at strangers, she used to reserve her smiles just for Mom and Dad, but is starting to get a little more friendly these days
Thumb sucking - yep, she figured it out all on her own how to get that thumb in there...is it bad that we think it's so cute?

Grace is a pretty decent sleeper these days. She still wakes up once a night most nights, and total is down for about 9-10 hours. Though last night was amazing and she slept for 13 hours with only being fed once! I think maybe it was the shots and tylenol after the doctor? She's getting better and better at napping all the time. In fact, right now she's on hour three...maybe I should wake her up soon. I got through my entire to-do list and thought "now what?" (hence, blogging) but really folks, when does that ever happen that I think, "gee what should I do with all my free time, I already cleaned the bathrooms?!" :)

We sure love this girl!

Is this really my life?

2010-09-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

About two years ago, I started having a fantasy. A fantasy that replaced my dreams of a round belly, ultrasounds and feeling the first kick. A fantasy that soothed my broken heart and calmed my anxious mind. A fantasy I would recall over and over again when I found myself in a dark place, hopeless and afraid.

It was a fantasy of Nathan and I dressed in our temple robes, kneeling at an altar, tears filling our eyes. It was our beautiful baby, clothed in white, being brought into the sealing room. It was Grandpa Hill repeating the sacred words that would bind us together forever. It was photographs outside the temple. It was a huge celebration at our home afterward, where our child was the center of the universe. A fantasy of the next day, again dressing our baby in her white temple dress, where she would be brought before the congregation and given a blessing by her wonderful father. A fantasy where I would be the proud, emotional wife and mom sitting in the pew, overwhelmed with gratitude for this perfect little being that made me a mother, and for her faithful dad.

Turns out I wasn't just fantasizing...I was seeing a vision...

Mrs. Hill you've got a lovely daughter...

2010-08-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the lyric is actually Mrs. Brown and it must be sung with an English accent....did anyone else listen to only oldies for the drive to and from 10 years of piano lessons???
Yeah, she's pretty stinkin' cute. So, nothing too exciting is happening around here...
We just sleep and smile all day...

And go on walks, and have tummy time...
And nearly die every day because of the adorableness of this girl....wouldn't you?

Can't get enough of this cutie

2010-08-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

Is she huge or what?! Gosh, I love this girl.

And, as promised, my wonderful sister-in-law passed along all the camping photos. Oh, there were just so many good ones....

Because that is what Sunday afternoons are for

2010-08-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Family Reunion and vacation

2010-07-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

Mid-July, we spent three days camping in Island Park, Idaho for a Banks family reunion before heading down to Provo to be with Nathan's parents and family.

We were so worried about Grace on the drive. Normally she HATES the car. She has been known to cry for the entire trip to my parents' house, (at least 45 minutes.) Ugh, it's awful. But, she was amazing on this trip. Granted, I spent over half of the ride in the back seat with her to keep her entertained, but it was definitely worth it! I think the reason she hates the car is that it's boring and she's lonely, because me being back there making goofy faces at her the whole way certainly seemed to do the trick.

There were nearly 90 people at the family reunion. Pretty awesome. Unfortunately, I only have a handful of pictures from this event (mostly of Grace in the tent.) But it's okay, because my sister-in-law is the unofficial family photographer, and it's only a matter of time before I get her email with lots and lots of photos. I'll be sure to post lots of really cute ones of Grace.

During the day, we chatted, ate good food, and went tubing down the river. In the evening, we had family firesides with memories and storytelling, a game of family trivia and a reading of some entries from my grandma's journal.

One of the things I love about this family is that blood, genetics and shared DNA don't matter all that much. It's the love, shared memories and a testimony that families can be together forever, that makes this family work. And that's because of the amazing example of these two:

I think everyone was touched by the stories that were shared and inspired by the lives that Grandma and Grandpa lived. They were such great examples for all of us.

And lastly, here are my two cuties, snoozing away. We had a porta crib for Grace to sleep, but in the morning got her into our sleeping bag for some cuddles.

After the reunion, we headed to Provo...however, naptime may be over any minute, so I'll post about that later.

Naps!

2010-07-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

My amazing child has, this week, started taking honest-to-goodness, 1 to 3 hour chunks of time, real-live, in her crib, naps! Oh, the things I have done!My world just changed dramatically.

Baby's first...Limo ride!

2010-07-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

We've spent all the 4th of Julys since we've been married with Nathan's family. They've got fun traditions and it just always worked out for us to be there. My family doesn't so much have a tradition for the 4th, so in an effort to start one, Monday, the 5th, we had everyone over for a Fourth of July breakfast. Nathan and I had decided to go to the beach later that day and asked the rest of the family if they wanted to come. We were working out logistics of the cars and such and someone suggested, wouldn't it be cool if we could take Jed's SUV, then we could all ride together. My brother, Jed, owns a limo company. Unfortunately, the economic downturn has hit it pretty hard, business isn't great and the limos aren't booked everyday. Since the limo wasn't booked that day, my very generous brother said we could use it.

It was definitely the most comfortable trip to the beach we've ever taken!

We strolled around Cannon Beach and ate a picnic lunch/dinner.
The weather was pleasant, just the right temperature for getting your feet wet.
Haystack rock was majestic, as usual.

And we did our best to keep this cutie out of the sun.

It's hard to tell, but she's in the back of the limo here.

Some of the fam on the ride home.
And lucky for me, we had this cute chauffeur for the drive home. (He even let me ride up front with him. :)

Yeah, I think a limo ride to the beach ought to be our new family tradition.

2 months!

2010-07-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that in a short 61 days, our little girl has gone from this:
to this:

Two months ago we were in the hospital, anxiously awaiting our beautiful girl. I could say all the cliche things...they really all are true. But I'll just keep it simple. We ADORE this child. We feel immensely grateful for two courageous people, whose brave and loving choices allowed for us to be Grace's parents forever.

First family picture:
Most recent picture from day at the beach July 5th:

(We adore our BIG healthy girl! We just had her checkup and she's in the 94th percentile for weight and 90th for height!! And perfectly healthy, we are so grateful!)

Quick (or not so quick) update

2010-07-03T17:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a little rundown of what we've been up to this past week or so.

Our poor little princess has had a cold this week. Stuffy nose, runny eyes, the poor thing. Luckily, she hasn't had a temperature.

She's been amazingly pleasant throughout it all, what a sweet girl we've got. She's also been sleeping up to 7 hours at a time some nights!! Woah! I don't know if it's because she's been a little sick or what, but wow, I am praying it keeps up. It's amazing what a difference consecutive sleep makes for me. (Yep, we use all sorts of means to keep her swaddle wrapped tight at night. It definitely helps her sleep better.)

We got a video camera. Sort of on a whim. It was one of those things we've been looking at for awhile, but never really too seriously. And then we were at Sears. And there was a sale. Like a MAJOR sale. And we got it for 77% off the regular price. And now we take lots of awesome videos. Maybe we will upload them on the blog someday. (And now I will stop starting sentences with and.)

We went mountain biking for the first time in a long time. How did I grow up one mile from Powell Butte and never leave the paved trails? The great news is that my parents still live just one mile away, and Grandma is more than happy to watch our sweet little Gracie while Nathan and I ride for an hour or two...I think we've found our newest summer pasttime.

Yep, I'm a dummy and wore sandals. I wasn't expecting to go off road. Normally I can handle a few wipeouts here and there, but I was totally paranoid that my feet would be destroyed, so we did some easier trails.

I went to a super fun concert at the library a week or two ago with my nieces, of course, Grace slept through it all. (Oh, Washington County library system, how I love you.) We saw this awesome band called Recess Monkey, who are 3 teachers from Seattle who spend the summer writing music for kids that is pop/rock sounding, but all about kid stuff: monsters under the bed, slumber parties, backpacks, really funny stuff. They are so clever, great musicians, and give a fantastic concert. When I got home I looked them up and found this video of one their song Sack Lunch. It cracks me up and has been in my head all week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUiE_BQbA4g

Our little Mazda hit a huge milestone today: 200,000 miles!! This was a major event for our family. As in, we've been anticipating it for days, calculating how many miles Nathan would be driving to work this week so that we didn't accidentally miss it. When we got home from our outings today we were within 2 miles of the big moment. So we got out the video camera and drove around the neighborhood so we could forever remember this incredible moment.

This was the first car I ever bought. I got it right after I graduated from BYU, just over 4 years ago. It has seen a complete engine rebuild by Nathan (in frigid Utah temperatures) and a myriad of other fixes. It has taken us on roadtrips all over the west including cities in Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and California. The paint is peeling and there's a squeaky belt that needs tightening but Nathan still commutes in it everyday. (Which says a lot for him, considering how many of his coworkers drive Mercedes.) We love this car.

Have I told you how much I love adoption? Besides being married to my best friend forever, it is the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me. It has not been easy by any means, but it has blessed us with more joy than we deserve. I really have gained a testimony of the principle of opposition in all things. With deep grief comes deep joys. The quote I have on the sidebar from Elder Wirthlin has really been on my mind lately. We have cried so many tears of joy the last two months. What miracles.

Oh goodness, life is good.

I may be biased...

2010-07-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

but I'm pretty sure this is the cutest face I've ever seen! Oh how I love this girl more each day!

Finally caught on camera!

2010-06-22T11:02:00.001-07:00

I had a minor moment of panic this morning when I thought the camera was lost. Thankfully it wasn't because on it were these photos! Grace started smiling in response to our smiles a week or so ago. And it's pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

These moments certainly make the demanding work of 24-hour caregiving a bit easier.

Go get a frosty this weekend!

2010-06-15T16:10:00.001-07:00

Don't you love adoption? I know we do. Show your love and go get a frosty at Wendy's this Saturday. $0.50 will be donated to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption for each frosty purchased Saturday and Sunday in honor of Father's Day. So go get a frosty, or maybe two. I know we will!

Newborn Photos

2010-06-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

The very talented and very generous Jenni Price took Gracie's newborn photos when she was just 6 days old. Just got the CD and wowzers, this is one beautiful girl we've got. (Okay, I already knew that, but Jenni just does really good work.) There are seriously a million good ones, but something about posting too many pictures of my naked little cherub on the internet just doesn't set well with me.

Today Grace is 4 weeks old! It seems crazy to think that 4 weeks ago we were in the hospital with our little Gracie girl. Wow. I know this is pretty cliche, but it really does seem like we've had her forever. And she's getting so big, I'm sure she's over 10 pounds already. She's already changed so much from when these pictures were taken. Sigh. We love our little girl.

The exhaustion is worth it...

2010-06-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

I don't know that we have anything exciting to report, other than the fact that we sure love this girl. We're not exactly sleeping a whole lot, but she's otherwise perfectly adorable. We've had lots of family visit which has been a lot of fun. This girl sure is loved.

Beach Trip

2010-05-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

Grace's first trip to the beach. I actually don't think she even knew we were there.

So, we absolutely adore this sweet girl and love having her in our life and family. The last three weeks have been heavenly. (Though maybe a more sleep-deprived version of heaven than what I originally pictured.) I feel so grateful to get to spend everyday with her and am trying to figure out this whole stay-at-home mom life.

Who wouldn't want to stay home with this beautiful face every day?

One VERY happy family

2010-05-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

Pretty much the cutest baby ever

2010-05-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

Gracie’s Story

2010-05-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the pediatrician and I’m happy to report we’ve got one healthy girl on our hands! There is so much to be grateful for, her perfect health is certainly one of the many things on our list. How we're hanging out today. I tried out the homemade Moby Wrap for the first time. So far, so good. I get to cuddle her and type!

It’s hard to know where to begin, the list of miracles seems endless. We received an email via our listing on Parent Profiles on December 30th while we were on vacation in New York from Gracie’s birthfather. Up to this point we had received a number of emails from prospective birthparents, none of which resulted in any more than one or two follow up emails. In an effort to protect our hearts, we tried not to get overly excited anytime we were contacted. This contact, however, quickly proved serious and we had quite a few frantic phone calls to and from our caseworker in the midst of our sightseeing adventures. One of which happened while on the boat going to see the Statue of Liberty, and many of which occurred in the various airports we were in on our way home.

Waiting during the longest 5 hours of our lives!

As with anything in adoption, the next few months were not easy. From the beginning however, we felt very strongly that whatever happened, our relationship with this birthfather was part of the Lord’s plan for us and carefully orchestrated by Him. The peace and faith we felt even amidst some of the most difficult waiting of our lives was palpable and was truly a gift from our Heavenly Father. There were moments during the past 3 years when I thought this struggle with bringing children into our family would break me, that my faith would be permanently weak and damaged. But these four months we spent waiting for our Grace proved to me that the Lord can make us stronger than we ever believed we could be and that it is only through His grace that we receive true faith.

Getting all checked out right after birth.

Her due date was May 1st and the two weeks leading up to it were….strange. Here we were, going about our daily lives, going to work, church, acting normal (dodging “what did you do this weekend?” questions because we weren’t ready to announce to everyone that we had spent all day Saturday putting together a crib.)

And then the due date came and went…and we kept going to work and trying to be normal.

On Friday, the 7th we were told that her birthmother was going to be induced Monday the 10th. Saturday was spent at a Mother’s Day barbecue at my parents’ house and then hanging out at with Alyssa and Kevin. (Seriously, had we known she was going to be born the next day, we would not have stayed as late as we did on that side of town. I had really been counting on my Sunday afternoon nap!) At that point, we had a diaper bag packed and the cameras ready, but I was planning on using Sunday afternoon to pack a bag for us, get food together for the hospital stay and stock up on sleep!

Since moving farther away, I’ve been going to church early with Nathan and reading while he was in his meetings, so that we didn’t have to drive two cars. So we went to church at 8:00. I had just settled into writing in my journal about the induction that was set for the next day when I heard Nathan coming out of the branch President’s office answering a phone call. It was time, they were already at the hospital, and this might be quick!

Off we ran, after a few tears and congratulations from some members of the branch. Luckily, we had kept the cameras and diaper bag in the car, but I really did not expect to be going to the hospital in high heels and a skirt. Not the most comfortable waiting clothes.

After being a bit nervous about how everything was going to work logistically at the hospital I was relieved when we had very accommodating and caring nurses. We got our own room in the NICU to wait in and be in with Grace for the next day. (Not because anything was wrong with the baby, but it just worked out best with space issues in the hospital and so we weren’t taking up a birthing room.)

Then, the most tense five hours of our lives passed…

And at 2:21 our beautiful daughter was born, (I had the time wrong on the email I sent out, oops!) and less than 20 minutes later, her amazing birthfather brought her down the hall and placed her into our arms.

This is the part where words are inadequate to describe the powerful emotions involved in placing a child for adoption and receiving a child in this manner. So I’m not going to try. It is truly overwhelming. But a word about Grace’s birthparents; they are courageous, they are selfless and they made this process so much easier and more joyful that we imagined. We are in awe about how blessed we are to have them in our hearts. They are not stereotypes. They are incredible.

We were able to stay overnight in the NICU room (well, technically only one parent was allowed, so Nathan got kicked out at midnight) and had lots of family come and see our beautiful girl.

Leaving the hospital.

Monday afternoon we signed all of the final placement papers and were discharged from the hospital after only 24 hours. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, because of some inter-state adoption laws, we were not cleared to take her out of the state of Washington yet (she was born in Vancouver.) So we pricelined a hotel close by and since they weren’t very far away, my parents brought up a porta-crib for Gracie to sleep in.

Meeting cousin Sophie

Tuesday around noon we got the call that the papers were cleared and we could go home! It feels so good to bring your baby home. And here we are.

There’s much more to say, but this is so long and I’m running on about three hours of sleep for the past three nights. Lastly, we have felt overwhelmed with love and support, the last few days. Thank you. It has been unbelievable. We received dozens of congratulatory emails with tearful remarks after we sent out the photos and have never felt so loved. Thank you for your prayers and faith. All of the lonely feelings and discouragement during the last difficult years have vanished as we have realized how much love and joy there has been over the birth of this beautiful baby girl. We are loved and she is loved, and it is amazing.

Our Mother's Day Miracle

2010-05-10T21:04:00.001-07:00

I promise I'll post more of the miraculous details of this beautiful girl's entrance into our family later. We have to stay overnight in Vancouver because of some inter-state adopton laws, but we should be home tomorrow with out a problem. But here are some pictures to tide you over.

Baby Grace, born Sunday, May 9, 2010. 9 pounds 2 ounces, 21 1/4 inches long. Practically perfect in every way.

How we amuse ourselves

2010-05-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure we've watched every Brian Regan clip that's on YouTube at least 7 or 8 times each...they still crack us up, every time.

It's so hard to choose a favorite, but last night this one was exactly what our anxious minds needed for distraction:

"Bring me the head of a pig!"

Some pictures we forgot

2010-05-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

So, it has become apparent that our life is a series of waiting games. In the meantime, here are some pictures of us at the Sacred Grove in January. This was truly one of the highlights of our trip back east (even though it was below freezing) and somehow I forgot to post anything.

Palmyra temple, literally across the street from the Smith farm. Amazing.

Smith home.

The upstairs bedroom Joseph shared with his siblings, and place where Moroni visited him 3 times in the night.

Sacred Grove.

The great part about the bad weather was the fact that we got to be in the Sacred Grove alone. It was such a testimony building experience.

Yay for New York!

Trail of Ten Falls

2010-04-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to Silver Falls State Park and it was SO beautiful! Wow, why have we never been there before? The drive was a little longer than it was supposed to be, (we put too much trust into the GPS) but pleasant and extremely scenic. We decided we definitely need to go back to camp there this summer.

There's an eight mile hike called the Trail of Ten Falls, but because we needed to get a few other things done that day we only ended up going a little over six miles and saw seven of the ten falls. Not too bad for a Saturday morning jaunt though. Here are pictures of almost all the falls we saw. The trail passed behind quite a few of them, which was pretty fun.

Oh, how we love spring!

Food, glorious food...almost

2010-04-14T18:36:00.001-07:00

Raspberries have always been my favorite berry. I have extremely fond memories of summertime at my grandparents house, tromping through the garden to hide in the raspberry bushes with my cousins, eating till we were sick, shirts stained with juice. I'm not sure how they did it, but my grandparents grew the biggest, juiciest, most perfect raspberries you've ever seen. Those raspberries were legendary. Nothing like the puny little things that grew in our backyard growing up.

Lucky for me, my uncle saved some of the plants before the house sold. He shared those with another uncle who was generous enough to dig out three plant starts so we could have our very own raspberry bushes.

I won't pretend to believe that our plants will produce the amazing fruit Grandma and Grandpa's did, but maybe I can hope that they infused some of their growing wisdom into these, the posterity of their original plants. (Kinda like they did for their posterity...)

I also planted some green onions, basil, romaine lettuce, snap peas and squash (though I might be too early on that last one) this weekend. I've decided the key is low expectations, because really, what do I know about growing anything?! But if vegetables actually grow and make it to our table I will be thrilled! My indoor basil plant is doing rather well so far, though it'll probably be at least another month before we get any fresh pesto around here. But boy am I excited.

Lastly, on the subject of gardening and food, I picked up a map of local u-pick farms and farm stands at the library today. (Over 62 on the list. I LOVE where we live.) Oh my, I cannot wait for summer and all of it's delicious, fresh meal goodness.

We love visitors!

2010-04-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

We're so glad the family could come during their Spring Break last week. We didn't take a ton of pictures unfortunately, but here's a few:

Pittock Mansion

Brother bonding time

Lots of rounds of Farkle/Hot Dice/etc. (we looked it up, there are lots of names...) and speed scrabble

We also walked around Washington Park, the Hoyt Arboretum, the Tulip Festival and rode bikes to the neighborhood park.

It was far too short of a visit! Come back soon!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2010-03-29T16:54:00.001-07:00

Happy 28th, love.

Know what makes a happy husband?

2010-03-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Having a lawn of his very own to mow. (The free lawnmower helped too.)

Projects

2010-03-15T20:39:00.001-07:00

Nathan spent the weekend working on this:

It's a workbench for the garage, every man's dream :)

And today I spent the day with my sister turning this...
...into these......while the nieces ran amok.

Now I am just revelling in our respective manliness and domesticity.

And for fun, here's us in New York:

Pictures of our home

2010-03-03T17:48:00.001-08:00

We've lived in our house over a month now and are still working on decorating, but I thought I'd share a few photos anyway. We really love this house and are very happy here.

LOVE the kitchen

and the cute dining nook.

Yay for a real space for the piano! To the right is the bay window looking out to the front yard.

The family room side of the fireplace.

The living room side. The coffee table there was a cast off from my parent's house. Nathan took off the lower level, sanded and painted it. When my mom came over she didn't even recognize it! It seriously looks like a new piece of furniture!

And this is a work in progress, but I finally got everything framed today so I was excited to show it off. These are pictures of all 9 of our grandparents. And let me tell you, we have awesome grandparents. It was a lot of fun to go through old pictures and pick out the ones we liked. I think we may end up rotating a few because there were just too many awesome ones. The idea is for these to be in a straight line going down the hallway. Nathan is working on a fancy picture hanging invention that one day he will sell for lots of money and is using these pictures to practice the prototype on. Anyway, I'm pretty proud of my grandparent wall, and frankly, I LOVE our grandparents so much I want them hanging in my house!

Lest you think we're too cheesy, here's some wrestling

2010-02-24T11:09:00.001-08:00

We hosted our niece's 3rd birthday party at our house last night. We are loving the fact that the cousins can run around entertaining themselves without too much worry about them getting into things they shouldn't or breaking things at our house. (With two basically empty bedrooms and a lot of imagination, they keep themselves entertained for hours!)

However, in an effort to protect our newly cleaned carpet, I told the kiddos when the pizza came out of the oven (in a really excited voice, mind you) that they could have a picnic, and pulled out a blanket to cover the floor. There were shouts of "Yay! A picnic!" and before I knew it, all four kids were on the blanket rolling around, hugging and smushing one another.

Something tells me we don't have the same definition of the word "picnic."

My home is where he is

2010-02-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

I got home sort of late last night to:

a clean kitchen,
an understanding ear,
warm chocolate chip cookies,
the Olympics,

cuddling on the couch,
the perfect feeling of home,

and my favorite person ever, who made it all happen:

Just what I needed.

(Okay, so he didn't make the Olympics happen....but he did turn them on.)

Saturday is a special day!

2010-02-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

After spending the most giddy 75 minutes I have ever had in a hardware store, we came home from Home Depot yesterday with a new rake, extension cord, and various and sundry other items for our first Saturday of projects at our new home. Luckily, the weather was good enough to allow us to spend most of the afternoon outside, and let's just say I've never enjoyed yard work this much in my life! It may be small, but it's ours!

I am also anxiously awaiting spring to start my garden. (Not that I know how to grow anything. I checked out a few books from the library to study, though.) But, I just didn't have any patience yesterday, so I planted some basil and cilantro to grow inside. I also re-potted a great plant my mom gave me as part of her housewarming gift. We'll see if my herbs can get enough sun over the next few weeks to sprout anything...

After spending a few good hours in the yard I went on a run around our new neighborhood. Let's just say I am in love with where we live. I got lost on Friday taking my nieces on a walk and ended up wandering over 4 miles around town and discovered three new parks and tons of trails. I am so very happy with this little town of ours.

That evening we had a rather gourmet meal with friends and got in some friendly ping pong and pool. All in all, it was the kind of weekend I wouldn't mind repeating over and over again. (Except for the soreness I'm feeling today. Who knew hoeing was such an ab work-out?)

Photos from our Boston day

2010-02-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

Paul Revere's grave. There were tons of famous Revolutionary folks buried in this old cemetery: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Crispus Attucks, probably more I can't remember...

Just a cool alleyway we saw:

Site of the first public school in America, of course I had to take a picture! (The whole time we were there I was madly taking pictures of things we teach in 5th grade Social Studies, just in case I ever get to teach the Revolution again, it was pretty cool.)

Bunker Hill monument

Place where the Boston Tea Party was conceived, discussed and planned out.

Boston Harbor

Harvard campus...cause we're so smart. :)

Why am I posting these instead of putting away the piles of books that are currently surrounding me? Oy.