Day 3

Day 3: square/real life. Square: this game. For someone who likes colors and organization, this is the game for me. Real life: not square. With an almost 3 yr old running my days, life is anything but square. We range from snuggles to clinging, from selfies to stealing mom’s phone for Netflix, from messy floor to mess on dog, and loads of laundry in the middle of it all. But this life means I have a son. I have a life I love, mess and all. Daniel works hard and well so I can stay home and enjoy my life. Life is very good right now and I am VERY grateful for it.

Cute and siblings

Today’s post(s) are Cute (pt 1) and Siblings (next post). Cute is our little panda. A few weeks ago we had a super busy morning with friends over and other adventures involved (dog vomit, vacuum, salt dough, whoah) and by 1:45 this guy was tired. I caught this on camera and had a hard time not laughing. Right afterwards I put him in bed for a good solid nap. Panda has been my buddy since he arrived in our family. He helps me put things together, like his bed, and spends lots of the time in the car with me. He’s been to Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Canada with me, as well as family trips to Yellowstone, Disneyland, and Bear Lake. He’s a trooper. And super cute.

 

 

Part 2: Siblings. Daniel and I both have medium size families and love our siblings. My siblings at our wedding (11 yrs ago! 🤔) My brother @custom_taylor is an amazing outdoorsman who has a company making custom high quality canyoneering gear. @cam_arave is an outdoors man as well, but he also channels his inner businessman. My sister @cmmarcheschi and her husband have a little boy who will turn 1 next month. I love my siblings. They mean so much to me. @colonialpanda is number 4 of 5 kids. Each of his older sisters has set an amazing example of good parenting and spending time as a family. @lorimerheather majored in home-ec and runs her thrive food business from home. @aprilbyoga is the oldest and a yogi master. Crystal is a wonderful mother to her 5 children and very good at encouraging them and putting them first. His younger brother Eric is the favorite uncle, as he is single and uses his resources to give GREAT Christmas presents. Family is everything to us. Siblings are the only ones who understand what growing up with your parents was like. They share so much with you. We want Panda to have a sister to, hopefully, become his best friend, as our siblings are for us.

More of December

My attempts at slowing down our December mostly worked. I wasn't stressed and I really enjoyed our time with family.

 Peter and Panda with their sort of matching pj's. Peter hates his clothes changed, so we didn't push him by messing with his shirt.

 The lights at Layton City Park. They were pretty awesome. We went right as it got dark and it was great. No people, still a decent temperature, and then we went to dinner.

 Peter's finished Christmas quilt that I made.

 Christmas movies in a box. Little kids are funny.

 A lunch at my grandparents with Aunt Sally, Caitlin, Raygan with Genevieve, and Peter and Kinley.

Someone made a mess of my dominoes in my Christmas tree. HE learned about cleaning up when you make a mess.

 Opening presents.

 Peter was pretty excited about his new bear.

 Panda was stoked for his new Tonka Dump Truck

 Christmas time can tucker out any kid. This particular time was a morning nap.

 Cute matching boys again.

 Look at those smiles! One genuine, one forced.

 How cute are these two boys!

Peter is almost as big as Panda! And he's only 10 months!

I am so excited for Caitlin and Ben and Peter to move to Utah this summer!

Hoping to Adopt in 2018

I am doing a 60 day get to know us post thread on Instagram. I know some people are not on Instagram or Facebook, so I am going to post them here!

Day 1:
As many of you know, we are trying to add to our family through adoption again. For the next 60 days I will be posting a couple things about us each day to help you get to know us and to help keep us on your mind in hopes that YOU will be the connection that helps us grow our family. Day 1: Us/Green. Us: Here we are! We are a family of 3. Our son, who we lovingly refer to as “Panda” joined our family in January of 2015 through a quick adoption that was guided by the hand of God. He is our pride and joy and why we get up each day. He is so sweet.
Green: My gym shirt today. After being sick and busy over the holidays, I finally made it back to the gym. Yoga was on the schedule for today and it was what my winter body needed. This shirt fit the bill. I truly believe anything is possible.

December!

What a fun time of year! We had lots of fun. I tried to do a daily Christmas activity with Panda, and we succeeded some of the time. Here are a few of our favorites.

We decorated his own little tree with blue ornaments. He loved his little tree and played with it all season. The ornaments came off and on over 20 times.

One day our friends came over. This is Panda's best friend, who is also adopted. They've been friends since birth. This day we had pizza and watched a Christmas movie.

We did coloring pages. We have a love/hate relationship with crayons. He loves to scrape his thumbnail on the ends. The dogs love to eat them. I hate the mess that ensues afterwards.

Cotton ball snowman! Panda's favorite part was the glue. This boy loves glue! especially squeezing it out of the bottle.

Thank goodness for washable paint. We did a hand print Christmas tree. We ended up with more of an abstract tree than anything else. But we had fun, which is the important part, right?

Pine cone Christmas trees. I cleaned up a lot of green paint.

I was playing the piano one day and Panda wanted to play too. Years ago I got a book for pre-reading piano lessons. We talked about the fingers and their numbers. He loves music.

Snowman pancakes with chocolate chips and marshmallows. Sugar is his favorite food group.

Christmas cookie cutters for our sandwiches. He really enjoyed cutting them out.

Shaped sandwiches taste better, right?

I'll post more December in a couple days. Right now I am enjoying the slower pace of January.