Guess Who's Turning 1!

That's right! It's our little man Korver Morris. I seriously can't believe he's 1. My how time flies. I remember this day a year ago vividly. I was filled with so many emotions. I was scared, anxious, excited, and most of all HAPPY to finally meet the little one that I had fallen in love with over the past few months. You can read all about that day here, here, and here.
He's gotten so big and he's so much fun right now. He is crawling EVERYWHERE and is into EVERYTHING! His smile melts my heart and those eyes are going to get him just about anything he wants from me. Seriously, I'm doomed with this one!

Happy Birthday little man! I love being your mommy!

13 Years Ago Today....

...I married this guy! I can't believe it's been 13 years. Holy cow! Where does the time go. We got married in the Salt Lake Temple and we were the first ones to be married that morning... at 7:00 a.m. Meaning we had to be there at 6:00. Meaning we had to leave our house by 5:00. Meaning I had to be at my aunt's house at 4:00. Meaning, I got up at 3:00 a.m. that morning. And from all the pre-wedding jitters, I didn't get to bed until about midnight, giving me a whopping 3 hours of sleep! Jeff said he got plenty of sleep. Pretty sure he rolled out of bed at 4:30. Guys are so lucky.

The week before we got married, all it did was rain. We're talking down pour rain. And our reception was to be outside in my parents yard. Everyone had worked so hard in the yard to make it pretty, especially my parents. We were all a little stressed. But the morning of our wedding... the sun was shining! I couldn't have been happier.
After we got married, we went out and took pictures with our photographer and then headed for our wedding luncheon put on by Jeff's parents at the Oak Crest Inn. It was really nice and we had so many good friends and family there to support us. Afterwards we headed back to my house to get ready for the reception. Since we weren't able to do a lot of setting up the night before, we had our work cut out for us. But not to worry, because we had lots of people there to help. My parents went above and beyond the call of duty. Especially my sweet mom. She wore herself out making the day perfect for us; our reception was wonderful due mostly to her.

And now here we are 13 years later and I seriously fall more in love with Jeff every year. We have so much fun together. He is my best friend. The one I laugh with and tell all my secrets to. He keeps me grounded and lifts me up when I am sad. I couldn't ask for a better guy! I love you, babe! Here's to 13 more years.

Lend a Helping Hand

I don't know if you have ever read The R House Blog. For those of you who don't know, Mr. and Mrs. R are currently in a custody battle for their sweet baby boy, Gavin. He was placed in their home over a year ago and now the birth father is trying to take him back. You can read more about it by clicking on the button in my sidebar that says "The R House." It has turned into a bitter fight for The R Family, not only emotionally, but financially. This awesome site is doing a raffle and all proceeds go towards helping pay some of the legal fees that the R Family now has. You can donate as little as $1 and you are entered to win a darling doll. If the link doesn't take you directly to where you can donate, go to the R House blog and her post links you directly to it.

10 Things I'm Happy About Right Now

I've been feeling really blue lately. Something has happened that has made me feel "sorry" for myself. It's stupid, really. And probably a little childish. But something hurt my feelings and I'm having a hard time getting over it. I've had a hard time focusing on the good things in my life and focusing WAY too much on the things that are crappy right now. When I was younger, if I was having a down-on-the-dumps day and complaining about everything, my mom used to say, "Now list 10 things that are going good for you." It almost always made me feel better. That being said, here are 10 things that I'm happy about right now.

1. The weekend was REALLY fun. I spent it with a few of my FAVORITE people including my mom and sister and my lovely birthmom's and their mom's. And, of course, my juicy kiddos!

2. I'm get a PEDICURE today by my sweet friend, Cindy!!!

3. GET AWAY'S with Jeff to San Diego in October and Las Vegas in December.

4. Fall smell's. I just bought some new Scentsy wickless candles in fall scents. So yummy!

5. Hopefully buying those new RED shoes tomorrow I Facebooked about.

6. I went to the gym this morning when I really didn't want to go.

7. My HOUSE is squeeky clean, and the laundry is done!
8. DIET COKE! I'm always happy about that.

9. The Mern, aka Pune, aka Ariel is coming back to Utah this week!

10. Dinner and a movie with Jeff midweek.

So there you have it. I feel better already!

Thoughts On Adoption

In school, Abbi was asked to fill in a paper that asked questions about her. They then glued it on the inside of a paper that looked like a shirt. We went to Back To School Night and all the kids' little people were hanging on the wall outside the classroom. When I read what Abbi's said, I almost started crying. See if you can see why:

My name is Abbi

I am 8 years old.

I have 1 brother and 1 sister.

My favorite book is I Love You Little Monkey.

One thing I don't like to do is get hurt.

The best thing about me is I AM ADOPTED!

If I had three wishes they would be to play all day, go to school all day, and color all day.

My favorite color is yellow

My favorite thing about school is math and art.

If you didn't catch on the part that I bolded is the part that made me cry. Don't worry, they were happy tears. When we first started the adoption process, someone asked me if I was going to tell our kids that they were adopted. The answer to that was, "Of course! Why wouldn't we?" Jeff and I chose from the beginning to be very open about the way our kids came to us. We are very proud of the fact that our kids came to us through adoption. It's something that makes us unique and sets us apart from all the others. It's part of our story. I guess we have never seen it as something to be ashamed of. And that's the attitude that we want our kids to have about being adopted. We want them to understand that it's part of what makes them who they are. We love adoption at our house!

On my sidebar there is a button that says: "Infertility, Adoption, Motherhood have changed my life forever and if you left one out, I wouldn't be the woman I AM." When we were going through the process of trying to get pregnant, (believe me when I say it was a PROCESS) I became very angry and very bitter. I was mad at the world. All I ever wanted to be was a mom. Why wouldn't Heavenly Father just let me be a mom? Then one day it all changed for me when I threw my hands up in the air and said, "I'm done!" It was that moment that I realized that I wasn't fully in charge of what happened in my life. That my Heavenly Father had a plan for me and that what he had in store for me was so much better than I could have imagined for myself. At that point in my life, I chose to be happy. What WAS my greatest challenge has turned into my greatest blessing. Without Infertility I wouldn't have adoption in my life. Adoption made me a mother. And, in reading my blog, you can tell what a huge part of my life adoption truly is. I have gained 3 amazing friendships through it. We all have trials in our lives. We all have things that make us different. The important part is to accept ourselves for who we are. It is then, and only then, that we can be truly happy.

First Day Of Preschool

Hallie started preschool today (and yes, I'm trying to hold back tears.) She was so excited last night that she set out her clothes for this morning. When she got up she got dressed and we did her hair curly. We then packed her backpack with things she needed for the first day. Her teacher, Miss Amy, asked the kids to bring a stuffed animal that they might find in the jungle because they would be going on a Safari. Of course Hallie chose to bring her Tiger. She also had to make a sack puppet that we got from the Preschool Openhouse. So we got that all packed up and she was off for her first day.

I thought I was fine, but as I was driving off I started crying. It's so fun to see her get big and try new things, but at the same time, it makes me really sad because I know it won't be long before she is all grown up. Even though this little miss is so naughty and causes me LOTS of stress, I'm going to miss her so much for those few short hours that she is gone to school.

Annual Tahitian Noni Summer Party

One thing that we look forward to every year is the Tahitian Noni summer party. It's always so much fun and they have so much for the kids to do. We started off the evening by eating a delicious dinner of salads and steak followed by YUMMY dessert. We let the kids get their faces painted and then headed over to the bounce houses.

Abbi has always wanted to try climbing on a rock wall and there was one there, so she got geared up and started climbing. Hallie got her climbing gear on too and attempted to climb the wall. She got about 2 feet up with the help of Jeff. She thought she was so high.

Abbi was a little dare devil and just kept climbing and climbing. She was actually pretty good.

Afterwards we went over and watched the magic show that they had for entertainment and watched the drawing for prizes. We aren't eligible to win prizes since Jeff is a Director, but it's still fun to see if anyone he is friends with wins. They give away great stuff. This year there were ipods, iphones, wii's, a big screen t.v. and a bunch of other stuff.

Playing At The Park

My mom, little sister Kristen and me and the kids went to the park the other day. The weather was pretty close to perfect. We were going to have a picnic, but decided to just eat our lunch at Hickory Kist instead and then head for the park. I have a better chance at getting the kiddos to eat that way.

Hallie's favorite is the swings. She thought it was so funny that Aunt Kristen was swinging too and even getting a push from Grandma.
At the park we went to they have really nice baby swings and Korver LOVED them.

Jemma Louise May 1997-August 2009

Today was a sad day in our family. We had to put our dog, Jemma, down. She got an infection in her leg and it just got too bad so we had to make the hard decision this afternoon to send her to Heaven.
Jemma was such a good dog. I remember the day we got her. We were so excited. Jeff and I had been married for about 8 months and Jeff's friend's dog had puppies. We had moved into a house so we thought it was perfect time for a dog. I picked her out and chose her name. I liked her coloring. Jemma was so tiny that she couldn't even make it up the one stair of our front porch and we remember the day she made that big accomplishment. We were so proud. As she grew, Jemma became Jeff's "farm buddy" going everywhere with him riding in the back of our truck. Jeff would take her on horse rides all the time. In fact, when she would hear our truck fire up she would whine until we put her in the back of it to come along. She would also go along with him when he went roping. Jemma has been such a good dog. I remember introducing her to Abbi when we brought her home. She didn't quite know what to think about this little person who was joining our family. But Abbi and Jemma soon became good friends. In fact, looking through scrapbooks trying to find pictures of her, I saw that Jemma was one of Abbi's first words. Jemma was such a loyal dog. When we would take her on walks with us, she would stay right behind Jeff and would only go in front of us when given permission. She also wouldn't go off our property without one of us with her. We could let her out in the front yard for hours and she wouldn't run away. We're going to miss her so much. She's been part of our family for almost 13 years.
Goodbye Jemma, we love you.

New Family Pictures

The lovely and talented Michelle took our pictures again for us. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them. As always, she did a fantastic job.

First Day Of Third Grade

School started today and Abbi is now in 3rd grade. I can't believe it! Last night she laid out her clothes for the first day and then this morning, she got right up and got ready. I am sad that summer is over, but I am happy that she's excited about school. We met her teacher for the first time yesterday and she is SO nice and seems like such a good teacher. She got great reviews from everyone I talked to so I'm happy that Abbi got her. I know it's going to be a great year for Abbi.

Liberty Park

Teressa and I have tried to get together a couple of times a month through the summer since Abbi has been out of school. We met at Noodles and Company in Sugarhouse and then went to Liberty Park in Salt Lake on Monday. It was such a fun park that I had never been to. There was a small carnival with a ferris wheel and those swings that go around in a circle up in the air. They also had a few smaller rides for little kids that Hallie loved. Korver's favorite was the Merry-Go-Round.

There was a really fun park with fun things for the kids to do. They had big chimes that the kids could hit with a stick to make music. They also had a sand pit that Abbi loved playing in.
There was this cool wading pond for the kids to play in. It was very clean and the kids loved it. It is in the shape of the Great Salt Lake and then there are rivers that all pool down into the Great Salt Lake. The girls LOVED it so much.

It was a really cool (and huge) park. We still didn't see everything. They also had basketball courts and horse shoe pits. There were a couple of museums and a green house as well. I want to go back so that we can see everything.

Lunch For Eleven!

Back Row from left to right: Jenny, Rain, Teressa, Me, Jordann, Hallie, Diane (my mom.)

Front row from left to right: Miney, Michelle, Korver, Abbi.

Probably the funnest thing about having 3 open adoptions is the additions to my family. I haven't just adopted 3 beautiful children, I've adopted 3 amazing families as well. Teressa, Jordann and Michelle and I all try to go to lunch together once a month. We have kind of slacked through the summer (I've done things separately with each one.) So Jordann put together our lunch for August. We ate at Olive Garden which was yummy as always. This time, we invited my mom, Jordann's mom and Teressa's mom. There was eleven of us all together. Poor Korver was surrounded by girls!
Abbi loves her little sister, Rain. Rain was having Abbi put lip gloss on her.

This blog is giving away some really cute stuff. Click on the picture to enter (and see their awesome stuff.)

Awesome Giveaway!

The R House is giving away an awesome book on her blog. Go enter! My birthday is coming up. You should all go enter and then you already have my birthday present taken care of if you win!!!

Life On The Lake

Abbi, Hallie and Kristen on the tube.

Weston wake surfing. It's where you take the bindings off the wake board and surf on the wake. He has only done it a couple times, but he's pretty good.
After the baptism, my little sister, Kristen, and her husband, Weston, invited us (actually I'm pretty sure I invited us) to go boating with them. We went out to Utah Lake. It was such a nice day for boating. The lake was almost like glass. The kids had fun tubing and jumping into the water. We even put Korver in there with us.

Jeff wake boarding.

Me TRYING to wakeboard. Haha! Hey, at least I got up... and it was my first time.

Me and the girls out in the lake. It was such a fun day.

Abbi sporting her goggles and life jacket.

Abbi's Baptism

Abbi made the decision to be baptized and her special day was August 1, 2009. It was a great day. Jeff baptized her and then we went to the park afterwards for a lunch in her honor. She had so many people come and support her. Lots of people love this little girl!

We had invitations made up and used these two pictures for them. The lovely and talented, Michelle, took them (of course!)

Here is Abbi with her daddy right before the baptism.

Swimming Again!

I have to say that this summer has been one of the funnest yet. We have done so many fun things. One of our favorite things to do is to go to the pool. My favorite pool is the Veteran's Memorial Pool in Provo. It has 2 really fun tube slides, a lap pool and a shallow pool with a playground in the middle for the kids to play in. It also has tons of grass and shade which is nice when Korver wants to take a nap. Apparently, this pool does not let you take pictures, but I was able to snap a few before the lifeguard came and told me I had to put my camera away. My friend, Cindy, and I took our kids over one hot day to let the kids cool off. Our kids play really well together which makes it nice.

Mr. K loves the pool so much. He will literally sit there for hours splashing in the water.
I absolutely love this picture of Hallie. She looks so cute in her sunglasses. She is my little fish. She loves to swim!