Heaven

This is heaven for Dallin...licking beaters. Yes, I let my son lick beaters. You would to if he looks at you with his big blue eyes, holds out his hands and does the sign for milk (Dallin thinks that sign is for anything he wants), and then starts stamping one foot impatiently. It is hard to refuse him.

Dallin is enjoying the beater to a yummy raspberry salad. Here's the recipe:

1 small package cheesecake pudding

1 small package vanilla pudding

2 pounds of plain yogurt

8 oz whip topping

Mix together. Right before serving add frozen raspberries or any frozen fruit.

Trust me your in heaven too if you eat this salad!

On another note, I'm not the only one who can't refuse Dallin's charms. While sitting in a class at a ward social, Dallin made a beeline to one of our friends. I looked over to see why and saw some half eaten cookies. (If there is food, Dallin will come!) I asked our friend to hide his cookies because Dallin wanted them and was starting to make a raucous because he wasn't getting the cookies fast enough. He told me it was ok and gave Dallin all of his cookies. I then had to inform my friend (in a very nice way) that this is what everyone thinks as Dallin works the room charming everyone with his big eyes and smile. He had already snuck who knows how many cookies that night and I really didn't want him having more! Have you tried wrestling cookies from a one year old? It involves lots of distractions and some screaming! Dallin is quick too.

Entertainment

Slide- $8 at a garage sale

Pool- $7 at Walmart

Entertainment- Priceless! It can go on forever!

Again, hours of entertainment...or at least until I have my hair done. Dallin discovered my lipsticks this week. He spent a good fifteen minutes (see forever for a one year old!) opening and closing each lipstick without once figuring out what was inside or making a mess. He was thrilled with just the case. The only problem is that eventually all one year olds will figure out something is inside. This happened on the way to the library for story time. Dallin started crying out of boredom, so I gave him a lipstick that he snuck into the car. I knew I was tempting fate. The next time I looked back, he face and hands were covered in lipstick. I think he put his finger inside the lipstick case and then, you guessed it if you know Dallin, put his finger in his mouth to eat it. Unfortunately I didn't get this on camera because we were in a hurry to get inside the library for story time, so we had a quick clean up. Luckily the lipstick he messed up was a really old one that should have been in the garbage anyway.

Dallin discovered corn on the cob this week. I didn't think he would be able to eat it which was a silly thought because corn on the cob is perfect for a kid with only six front teeth. The only problem is how do you floss a one year old's teeth if the corn gets stuck inside them without getting bit??? Dallin loved the corn though.

More biking as a family...Dallin loves pointing out the dogs and airplanes.


Dallin and Aunt Lindsey playing by the fountains at Market Street. Is it selfish to ask Lindsey to serve her mission at my house instead by being my nanny? With three siblings living 5 minutes a part all with kids, she would definitely be in demand. The requirements would be simple-- just be at our beck and call whenever we need you. This includes day times when kids are throwing up, cranky, or when mommy's need a break and definitely on all weekends so that we can go on dates without getting a babysitter. That's not too much to ask is it??? Just kidding Lindsey. It has been great to have her home from college though! She is moving up to the favorite aunt position pretty fast!

This is how far I got to getting Dallin and Caleb (Dallin's cousin) back into clothes after swimming. I had to post this picture because they were so cute together running around in their matching diapers. I also had to show this because Dallin looks a little taller than Caleb who is 6 months older than him.

Feeling Manly

A few days into the hurricane last fall, Zane decided that he needed to buy a chainsaw. He tried to convince me that it was his duty as a man in our church. I don't recall every hearing these words at church, "In order to be a good member of the church, you must have a chainsaw." In reality, Zane just feels more manly doing the chainsawing instead of being the log picker-upper. So, he bought a chainsaw with a lot of other guys and now I feel like they find any excuse to pull it out and use it. They had a chainsawing party a couple of weekends ago to chop up some trees that still hadn't been taken care of from Hurricane Ike. It was a project that just had to be done. One of my friends caught these pictures on camera.

Hmmm, maybe they would get done faster if the boys stood around a little less and chopped a little more.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day-- It is all about the men doing the cooking and the women relaxing. My little sister is home from college right now and it soon dawned on her that it is Mother's Day for all her sisters too and not just for our mother. She then took charge and organized the meal making sure all the men knew their duties. Good job Lindsey and thank you!

Lindsey and Jared making bread sticks

My dad and Zane cutting up meat and vegetables for the Kabobs (Zane was so touched by the whole day, he couldn't stop crying in this picture as he cut the onions!)

The boys did a great job grilling everything. The Kabobs were great!

The mothers relaxing--well someone still has to feed the babies!

Dallin playing baseball with Grandpa

My mom with her new necklace-- My friend Tiffany made this necklace with five birthstones representing each of my brothers and sisters. My mom definitely deserves mom of the year. There is no better example of Christ-like service and love than my mom. Thanks for everything!

Finished!

I have been getting behind in blogging lately and in reading other people's blogs because I spend every spare minute during Dallin's naps on our adoption profile that will be published on the It's About Love website. Yesterday I finally finished it! The hardest part was writing a letter to birth parents telling them about our family. Every time Zane and I sat down to write it, we struggled to find the right words and realized we aren't funny when we are tired. Yesterday afternoon I put the final touches on our letter, had Zane re-read it during his lunch break, and then got ready to upload it to the website. I then spent another hour working on the letter because I forgot to put in the html codes, and I discovered a short sentence in the instructions that said the letter can be no longer then 6000 characters including spaces. Our letter was 7000 plus. I think I started screaming then and went through the letter that I thought was pretty good and cut 1000 characters. It really is more than you think. Ahhhhh! The good news is now it is all uploaded. Once LDS Family Services approves it, then we will post a link so that everyone can go see our profile!

On a different note, we are letting birth parents check out our blog, so we are rearranging it to make it more user friendly.

Trip to Las Vegas

The best part about going to Las Vegas (because we actually did not enjoy the Vegas strip) was seeing our friend Brandi and her family. Dallin could only last about an hour in a hotel room before he started destroying things, so we drove an hour almost everyday to Overton so that Dallin could play with friends and enjoy being outside (Zane also took that time to get some work done since we were no longer taking paternity leave!). Thanks Brandi for sharing your kids and house!

On the weekend, we stayed in Las Vegas to enjoy a little vacation together. We took Dallin to the children's museum in the morning and then walked the strip after Dallin's nap. Some of the hotels have free exhibits like a lion cage, flamingos, butterfly gardens and sharks. We decided this would be something fun and appropriate for a one year old to see. This was a mistake. We didn't realize you could park at any hotel. By the time we found a parking space, we were so relieved that we decided to just walk the strip to get to the places we wanted to see. After seeing way too many inappropriate signs, pictures, advertisements etc (the list could go on forever), we decided from there on out to drive to each hotel to see the exhibits. That worked well. Our favorite was the dolphin show and secret garden at the Mirage. We had to pay for this, but we thought it was worth it and Dallin was really interested in seeing all the animals.

In the end, we made our visit to Las Vegas into a really fun vacation. It was the first time we went somewhere just the three of us with no other family around. We really enjoyed our time together.

Adoption- the greatest love

Zane and I had a little secret for the past nine months. We knew Dallin's birthmom was pregnant again and wanted to give us this baby. Even though his birthmom had been able to place a baby with us once, we knew this wasn't a sure thing. This new baby is Dallin's half brother and so having a different birth father who is still in the picture made us very apprehensive. We got the call on Tuesday, April 21st that the baby was coming, so the three of us hopped on a plane the next morning and flew to Vegas to pick up this baby boy. Everything did not go as planned though and the birth father did not want to sign the papers no matter how hard Dallin's birthmom tried to convince him. Obviously, this was a hard time for our family. The good part of the experience was showing Dallin to his birthmom.

We went to the hospital to visit Dallin's birthmom, and she was so thrilled to see him. She kept staring at Dallin trying to see what features of his look like hers. She even had to admit that he looks a lot like Zane! Dallin gave her a present, a scrapbook of his first year that I had made. It was the perfect gift.

His birthmom kept saying that she thinks deep down Dallin knows who she is and that she is someone special in his life. I assured her that he did know and that we will continue to tell him all about this wonderful girl who gave him life. We also told her how much we love her.

As Dallin's birthmom was telling us about the struggle she is having with convincing the new baby's birthdad to place with us, I asked her if she was happy with her decision she made to place Dallin in our family. She assured me that she is very happy with her decision and thinks we are the best parents.

These conversations brought me back to the room here in Houston when she placed Dallin into my arms. There was such a special spirit of love in that room. I look at how happy Dallin is in his life with us and how at peace she is with her decision, and it hit me again that this was what adoption is really about. Giving Dallin to us allowed his birth mom to find peace in life while giving Dallin a two parent home with the gospel. I get very angry when I hear that a girl who places her baby in another family for adoption must not love their baby very much. They couldn't be more wrong. Adoption is the greater love. It is placing the baby's needs before your own wants and desires. It is a Christ like love. How lucky we are to be part of this amazing journey.