Cora's Sealing

As I have thought over and over of how to describe the feeling of having a sweet, perfect little one sealed to our family, I just keep coming back to Blessed! That is how we are feeling today. Sweet little Cora was sealed to us in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple this afternoon and as we sat in that beautiful sealing room, surrounded by friends and family and all three of our sweet children dressed all in white, I was so overwhelmed with how blessed we have been. It seems like only yesterday - yet a lifetime ago as well - that I wondered if I would ever be a mother - if we would ever have sweet little spirits join our family thorough the miracle that adoption is. Now here we are with 3 beautiful children and our hearts are full! So full of gratitude and love!!! It was especially sweet to have Cora's sweet birth grandmother, Kim, there with us. I can't say often enough how grateful I am for open adoptions. It is so amazing to have these extra families become part of our extended family. I would love to post some of the pictures we took...but in the hustle of gathering up all the kid's stuff afterwards and braving the crazy snow - I somehow sent my camera home with my sister-in-law. So tomorrow I will post some pictures. And speaking of tomorrow...time to party and celebrate Polynesian style!! Hope to see you there! 

Cora and a Christmas Wish

I was just looking back and I guess I never posted Cora's 6 month pictures. They are so pretty! We had the same photographer take them that did her 3 month shoot. I guess if you have already received the sealing/luau announcement or Christmas card you have seen these. What a beautiful girl! Every time I post about my kids I laugh about a lady in my neighborhood who told me about how she goes on her sister-in-laws blog and laughs at how she is always saying how cute her kids are. She thinks it is so silly and weird that she goes online and "brags" about her kids all the time. Well you can come on here and mock me if you want- but this little girl is stinkin' gorgeous!!! 

 Above is the blessing/sealing dress Hema's mom crocheted for her. She made one for vela too! 

So sweet! 

We are just so very in love with this girl! Just as with Hema and Vela - we are so blessed that she is part of our family. This Christmas season if I could have just one wish granted it would be peace and joy for our sweet and amazing birth parents and their families - because that is exactly what the gift of motherhood has brought into my life! Love you Krychele, Uziel, Chelise, Sioeli and Katie and your families too!  

It's Final!!!

We feel so blessed to have finalized our sweet little Cora's adoption today! It is a pretty short and simple process in the actual court proceeding, with such huge and fabulous consequences! It's hard to not get super emotional as you are asked how you feel about your baby and the prospect of her becoming your legal child. Such strong emotions and love for Cora - and for her sweet birth parents that made this all possible! Then after he signed the adoption decree and made it final, the judge came down and we took pictures. 

This was our first adoption without my brother Jason representing us as our attorney. (We didn't use him because of the legal complications after Cora was first placed with us.) We missed him being there - but our attorney did a great job. He is also an adoptive father! 

Then we headed over to Brick Oven with both sets of our parents and my brother Joe, Rindi and Beckam for lunch. What could possibly be a better Christmas present than our sweet little angel? 

Afterwards we went by the mall so that Hema could see the "real" Santa. Hema made sure his beard was real and was relieved to get to talk to the real Santa before Christmas. I love this picture because it portrays each of their personalities so well. Vela - not too sure about sitting on his lap, Cora - all smiles and Hema - super excited! 

All in all a fabulous day...can't wait for next Wednesday when we have our sweet little babe sealed to our family for eternity! Feeling so very, very blessed today! 

Catching up in Christmas Festivities

I thought Hema was still too young for the talk...you know, the one about Santa's helpers. But when this Santa showed up for the ward Christmas party, I knew we were in trouble. After Hema sat on his lap he said to me,"Mom I don't think that was the real Santa." I asked him why not and he commented on the strings holding his beard on and the fact that he was brown. Yeah, it wasn't the best Santa suit I've seen.

So we quickly explained how the real Santa is busy helping the elves make presents and that he was just a helper. He seemed okay with that. Whew!!!! 

Cora didn't seem to care one way or the other. I was actually surprised how well she did. She just stared up and through her eyes let him know that she wanted milk and squash and peas! 

Vela wasn't fooled though. She wouldn't even go near him. Check out her face in this picture. She just said "I want kitchen - please don't touch me Santa." At least she said please, right? 

You never know what type of Santa will be at a ward Christmas party. Our budget was slim and this guy was free. :) The party was great though. Santa, an amazing dinner Tongan style, an incredible Book of Mormon musical put on by the youth with dancing and live singing of modern songs with altered lyrics. INCREDIBLE!! Then of course a family dance. It was so much fun! 

Our kids are dancing fools! Not sure what this move is Vela is doing, but she's having fun.

Hema and Chrissy spinning around on the dance floor. 

Here's how Cora enjoyed the dance - she was asleep in the stroller by 8:15. What a trooper! 

A few days back we went and watched a guy carve an ice sculpture at Thanksgiving Point. It was really cold, but really cool. I think maybe  I liked it more than the kids did. 

Started with 2 big blocks of ice. After 45 minutes it looked like this.

The kids weren't super impressed. They seemed to like the ice cream

and reindeer a lot more! 

Here are some other random pictures of stuff we've been doing:

Drove through the lights at Thanksgiving Point.

Hema on a camel at a creche display that had live nativity animals. 

Joey, Hema and Ava with a donkey.

Our family with Joey and Ava at the Festival of Trees. The trees were incredible this year as always and even though it was really busy on Saturday evening, all the kids did great and we had a great time. We've decided we wish we had 5 kids! 

A fun Activity Days night with the girls 8-11 in our ward.

 Cute Christmas present from Hema - can't get this picture to flip.

Hema's class Christmas party.

Hema's last day of school for the year with treats and little presents!

Visiting the ever beautiful Krychele!

Uziel's 17th birthday. We went out to eat. I don't know why this picture turned out so dark but love Cora's cute smile.

And her face n this one. Hope this year is a great one for you Uziel!!!

Cora is 6 moths old. At her Dr visit she was 17 lbs 9 oz and 27 in. long. She is crawling all around now. 

I'll try and get Hema to download the video I took today. So cute!

And best of all tomorrow morning we will finalize her adoption! Hooray and Merry Christmas to us! 

6 months and 13 years!

I thought I better get this posted right now in the wee hours of the morning - that way I can sleep in tomorrow morning with my family, since we were all out dancing the night away at our ward Christmas party which was sooo fun! But that will be for a later post. Today (Saturday the 11th) is a fabulous day for 2 main reasons: Cora turns 6 months old today and it is our 13th Anniversary!
It is hard to believe that our sweet baby girl is 6 months old. She is the best little baby. She is crawling now and she loves it! She loves to smile and laugh and eat anything she can get her hands on. Her favorites foods that I feed her are squash, peas and bananas. But her favorite food that her dad sneaks her tastes of is ice cream!

She is a great little sleeper, especially with the super soft blanket that her sweet birth mother made for her. She loves to have it right up against her face.
She still has her beautiful blue eyes. Absolutely GORGEOUS!!

She almost always has a smile on her face....unless you put her in a grass skirt and coconut bra after taking pictures for an hour when she is already tired. Then she looks like this:

Which we still think is super stinkin' cute!!! 

6 Months is an extra special milestone for us, because in Utah you can finalize the adoption 6 months after placement. We will finalize Cora's adoption on the 20th. Then on the 29th we get to take her to the temple and have her sealed to our family! I don't know if there is a more spiritual experience than the sealing of a precious baby. We so look forward to her sealing. 

We are just so very grateful that her sweet birth parents made the decision to place her in our family. We can not imagine our family without her. We love you Krychele and Uziel and are grateful every day for you and for Cora! 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥13 Year of Marriage...

I've always heard that 13 is an unlucky number - but the last 13 years have been the best of my life! I really can not imagine a better man than my Hema. He is perfect in every way for me. He still makes my heart flutter! Tonight when we were dancing he was trying to get me to waltz with him...just like he has since we first were dating years ago. I always start laughing or step on his foot and remind him that I'm just not good at following  - I always end up trying to lead. He laughed and said that was true in more than just dancing! haha So true! Sorry babe that I'm not a better follower and that I get strong willed and think I know best too often, when really if I ever just followed your lead we'd be way better off...but thanks for loving me anyway! I am soooo grateful I get to spend the rest of my life and eternity with you! You make me so happy, you make me better, you complete me and I love you FOREVER!!!

December Advent Activites

Hooray for December being here. All of our Christmas decorations are up. 

I love the stockings I made more and more each year. I have a couple more that are started but I need to finish up, just in case we need them someday... a girl can dream right! After all another little one is always on the top of my wish list (or even twins or triplets!). And I'd be happy with a delivery any time next year Santa! Thought I'd throw that out there in case he reads my blog.  :)

I love all the fun activities we do as a family. We have this advent calendar that we fill with activities to do each day. 

The kids can't wait to see what we are going to do each day.

For the first day of December this year, our family started a fun new tradition. Santa's little helpers (Kim and Krychele) delivered a package straight from the North Pole. Inside was Mr Goody - a little elf who will visit us each year from December first until Christmas Eve to make sure we are being good. This is a tradition that Krychele grew up with and we are excited that they would share it with us. 

Hema, Hema, Cora, Vela, Joey and Ava with the package.

Lots of little helping hands.

The kids with Mr Goody. Vela likes him, she was just sad that Cora was holding him not her.

Just as little Hema commented on how Mr Goody had curly hair like his, Cora realized the same thing and yanked a handful out. Poor Mr Goody!

Yesterday we decorated candy houses. We waited several hours for the frosting to dry so they wouldn't fall down.

Apparently you need to wait a day...Joe turned his into an airplane for Santa.

Hema's became Santa's sleigh.

Vela's was Santa's house with the "inside open."

Ava fell asleep before the houses dried so we'll see if hers stays standing after drying all day. 

Tonight we are going to see the reindeer at Thanksgiving Point and drive through their light display. Tomorrow - the Festival of trees... 

My Christmas shopping is all done and I am excited to focus on family and the true meaning of Christmas!!!