General Conference Weekend

I absolutely love General Conference weekend. It is so great to enjoy a couple days with lots of family time, some great food and a huge spiritual lift! 

Our niece and nephew (Ava and Joey) slept over on Friday so we ran over to the Home Depot kids building project early Saturday morning.  Our kids love to go to them and although we usually forget they are the first Saturday of the month, my dad works at Home Depot and always calls to remind us! This month the project was bird feeders. All the kids had a great time making them. Home Depot even gave us bird seed to put in them. 

Don't mind the poor pictures quality my phone offers! :)

We came home and painted the bird feeders and hung them out in the yard.

Saturday we enjoyed the conference sessions at home as a family and then Hema usually takes his dad to the Priesthood session, but his dad wasn't feeling well so he just went to our local stake center. 

Sunday morning we always go to my parents house to have a yummy griddle cake breakfast and watch conference with the Hawkins family. The kids love to spend time with their cousins!  This year we didn't do the candy buckets, I felt like the kids were getting way too much candy which really ends up with hyper and crazy kids by the afternoon session!

Here is Hema's drawing of President Monson speaking.
It says, "To be good our parents go to the temple."

We did a lot of coloring and conference printable worksheets and they kids all sat pretty quietly and were well behaved. 

 Halle and Hema

 Vela loves to snuggle with Grandma and soon fell asleep and was snoring pretty loud. 

Hunter and Cora. Cora stole her headband for the picture. 

Hunter did a little easter egg hunt for the kids after conference and everyone had a great time! 

I love all the messages we heard at conference. I really needed to be reminded of what is really important and how vital my role is as mother to my three littles. I found a link on one of my favorite blogs to these free conference prints. (Here's the LINK)

I look forward to reading the talks again and again and continuing to learn.

Tonsillectomy

Today Cora's beautiful birth mother, Krychele, had her tonsils removed. We decided we better got visit to deliver some popsicles and a little cheer! 

Cora picked out a little Hello Kitty that had "glasses like Cheley" and chose balloons in a few of her favorite colors. She was pretty excited to deliver them. 

Before we went up I had tried to explain to Cora that Krychele had an "owie" in her throat. Somehow, Cora thought Krychele had a puppy in her throat and I think she was a little disappointed that there was no puppy. Luckily, the bunny and cats at the house made up for the lack of puppy!

I should have taken a picture of this cute board "nurse Kim" had written up with popsicle flavors and drinks that were available. Luckily Krychele posted a picture on FB and I stole it. How cute it that!?!?! Krychele is definitely in good hands! 

Cora and Krychele enjoyed popsicles and a fun visit! 

I am so grateful that Krychele is part of our lives. She is beautiful and amazing and as we loaded up in the car Cora said to me, "Mom, I love my Cheley." What a blessing that relationship is for sweet Cora! 

We love you Krychele and hope you are feeling better fast!  

Random Post about Ken Dolls

My girls are fully in the Barbie stage. Vela and Cora and any number of other little neighborhood girls play for hours at a time with the Barbies at our house. They girls totally scored lots of fun Barbies and cool clothes for them for Christmas, so their Barbies are well dressed and highly fashionable. But all the Ken dolls around here were picked up used off the classifieds. Some came with no clothes and others came barely dressed. I haven't had the time or desire to whip up clothes for the Ken dolls and there is no way I'm paying full price for them. So since there is a shortage around here, there are a lot of cute Barbies dancing with naked Kens. Is it just me or is it creepy seeing Ken dolls laying around naked? They don't even have the little textured nude colored underwear like the Barbie dolls do. Anyway I got sick of seeing them and decided to draw some boxers on all of the dolls. It is a huge improvement. Just check out the 2 Kens below and see the difference.

By the way what is up with the poor black Ken having a baby blue butterfly tattoo on his chest? Creepy right? 

Well black Ken got boxers too after this picture so that helps his appearance a lot. Maybe I could turn the blue butterfly into a black bat or something more manly using the same sharpie that added the shorts... Anyway enough of this random post. Just rest assured that our Barbie dances are being held at a much higher level of modesty around here! 

Contentment

It seems like last year was a crazy one for our family - full of some big changes and decisions. One of the hardest decisions we have ever made was to pull our adoption file from LDS Family services and no longer be actively trying to adopt. (We of course will always be open consider another adoption of someone were to come to us.) I can honestly say that I never thought I would ever in this lifetime feel like our family was complete and that I thought I would always feel a little cheated that I didn't get the big family I had always dreamed of. But somehow, Heavenly Father healed my heart and the aching and wanting and emptiness and deep painful sorrow went away and it was filled with other things instead. It was filled with good things. My heart was filled with the 3 sweetest little children that could ever come to a family.  My heart was filled with three of the most amazing women I have ever known  - my children's birth mothers. They are dear and strong and courageous and amazing and we love them. Before we adopted I never knew that I could love a "stranger" so much, so fast and so fully and never would a day pass that I wouldn't think of them and be thankful for them and pray for them. My heart was filled with birth fathers and birth families and so much love that comes from open adoption. My heart was filled with gratitude for great sacrifices made so that I could be a mother. My heart was filled with laughter and tears and quiet moments of reading and snuggling with precious little ones who are growing up too fast. My heart was filled with the word "mom" that is called out so many times every hour of the waking day - and even now it beats just a bit faster each time I hear that word and know that it is me - I am finally mom. My heart was filled with so much good and joy and love and peace and most of all with contentment. 

One day I just woke up and realized that it was enough. My family is here and it is enough. When I think about it, it even seems like we got more than our share, so much more than we could have ever hoped for back in those dark days that family was just a word that I longed for. And as Hema and I discussed it, we knew that we were done trying to grow our family through adoption. 

So today as I logged onto this blog for the first time in nearly a year and saw the old adoption links, I decided it is time to catch up and start blogging again. 

Stay tuned for lots of pictures and updates...