It's A Wonderful Life

Doug got a rocket from his brother for his birthday a couple months back. We have LOVED it!  I highly recommend this as a Christmas gift if you don't know what to get someone. It's called an Air Burst and not expensive. It uses air pressure to launch the rocket. There are bladders in a tube that  is connected up to a bike pump. You pump the air and pressure builds up behind the bladder. At maximum pressure for that particular bladder it bursts and the rocket takes off. The rocket has a foam tip so when it comes down it bounces on the ground. There are no parachutes to get tangled up or cause it to fly in the wind. It can even go up to 1000 feet. Our first try at the rocket was at dusk. It started to get to dark too see so we taped a glow stick to it. It worked great so the next time we bought finger lights and taped them to it. That was our favorite. You could see the rocket all the way up and down. Here are some pictures of the fun.           ...

The last time we adopted from China I swore I would never do it again unless it was the perfect circumstances. In October we had a post placement visit with our social worker that is required by China. At that time I told her we wouldn't be going back to China because we didn't want to start over with a new social worker. For those of you that have not had to get a homestudy, just know that it is very invasive. The questions asked, information needed and paperwork to be done is outrageous. We are required to allow someone that went to school for 4 years and may have no other experience in life than just that pry into every aspect of our lives so they can decide if we are fit parents and then pay them exorbitant fees for it. Whoever came up with this system in crazy. Anyway, back to the point. China had changed the rules after we were in process of the last adoption. The social workers now have to have a specific license that is very costly. Our social worker does not have...

Not so long ago in a very distant place a baby was born. A sweet little boy that looked perfect. His mother and father were so happy for this precious child. As they cuddled him in their arms and talked about their joy and his future they noticed that his little puckered lips began to turn a blue. This worried them but after a while the color came back and they didn't think much of it. Over the next couple of weeks they learned to feed, bath and love their little boy. They fell more and more in love with him every passing day. This mother and father would notice though, that their sons lips turned blue more and more often and they began to get very concerned. With fear they took him to see the doctor. After a few tests it was determined that this perfect child had a sever heart problem. With very heavy hearts this mother and father took their little baby home. What were they to do? They had no money to get the help that he would need. It was far too costly and they lived on a ...

The changes we have seen in just one year are incredible. Hyrum is now starting to act in a few ways like children his age. We got him and he was developmentally in the young two's. Still far behind in some ways but miraculous growth has taken place. In some ways he is 4 in others he is 3 but he left the two's behind. Bria is now a happy little girl with a bit of spice to her. She now writes her letters and knows the names and sounds to most of them. She has learned this by watching Leap Frog movies. Hyrum too is learning letters. They both are doing great. Hyrum the week we got back from China. Hyrum, in October with cousin Jessica. Bria not wanting to let anyone love her just days after getting home. Malia was trying so hard One year later on Bria's birthday. She is feeling happy more and more often. This was pure joy. Thanks Jared.

Though we have a rather large house, there are some areas that were not planned out well for a large family. It kind of surprises me because the family who originally built this house had 8 children. One of the areas that has been lacking is our dinning room. When we first moved in we did some remodeling on the kitchen. We took out the island and made it shorter so we could fit our table. The table we have is pretty narrow as it is so we have no idea what kind of table the previous family had. We knew then that this arrangement would not last forever. We only had 12 kids then with plans of only adding 2 more, HA. We have talked about knocking out a wall between the dinning room and  a room the previous owners used as their school room. We just couldn't decide how to use it so it went through a transformation 3 times in 8 years. Last Saturday we knocked out the wall. At first I wasn't sure what I thought of it. The house looks even bigger than it did before. We now have a grea...

"The most powerful teaching of children is by the example of their parents." —Dallin H. Oaks This quote is from a talk at the last general conference for our church.  I recommend everyone read it. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/protect-the-children?lang=eng

We are so pleased to announce that Ressa is now engaged to one of the Lord's most valiant. Jason has asked Ressa to marry him and she said YES! We are beyond thrilled and could not ask for a better man for her. We are honored to have both of them as part of our family. Jason and Ressa will be married January 25th in the Brigham City Temple and the reception will be held January 26th. Just 2 weeks later they will be traveling to China to teach English for almost 5 months. We love these two and couldn't be happier. I don't think they could be happier either. :)

I love quotes! I love to think deeply and  learn new things.Last week I thought it would be neat to post a thought once a week on the blog. I have a great one just waiting and since the first idea I have now seen many great quotes and thoughts that I would love to share Now I have a way to justify the time to look up quotes. I will use random thoughts, quotes and scripture as it touches me or that I just like. If anyone wants to join me in this I would love to know and link up.  Now for the first Thoughtful Thursday. "Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think is a much greater hunger.  A much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."                                                 ...