"These are the days of OUR lives....."

It has been so long since my last post. It seems like we have been so busy, but nothing worthy of a blog update. I suppose it has been a case of writer's block. My blog serves as my journal, and I need to realize it doesn't always have to be breaking news, just things I want to make sure I remember, especially things about Paige. She is growing up so fast and her personality is bursting at the seams. She is definitely turning two which has been a challenge, but it has also been a really fun age. She never ceases to make me laugh.

We have had some issues with the furnace in our new house. Nothing major, the filters need to be cleaned more often since everything is new. We learned this the hard way, but going a few days without a good heat source has motivated Mark to be on top of the situation. Paige loves to go down in the crawl space with Dad and help. I am sure she was her usual helpful self and made the job a million times harder, but you couldn't ask for a cuter helper!

My parent's have been cleaning house and getting rid of things left and right in preparation for their mission. My dad has been called as a mission president in the Rancho Cucamonga California mission. This is a brand new mission, and my dad will be the first mission president. They are pretty excited, but nervous as well. I told my dad he has to pay for Paige's counseling because she will miss him and grandma terribly. Anyway, back to the story. This lovely dragon was on the top of the DI pile and Paige was awfully confused as to why such an item was considered unwanted. She saved the dragon and it has been a best friend ever since. After packing it around the house for a few days, she insisted on it riding in the car with her. I was happy to get it outta the house, and it has now become her full time car buddy. It is from Lagoon and smells bad and is in no way soft and cuddly. We hit up Burger King drive thru for a quick lunch and they gave Paige a crown. As we were driving home, I glanced in my rear view mirror and had to pull over to take a picture. It was too funny. She had staged this entirely on her own. It made me laugh out loud!

Paige is a big animal lover. I am glad I now have a partner in crime. Mark has more of the farm approach to animals. Paige and I tend to be more loving and humanizing of the pets. Roxy is the best dog, she is so so sweet. Paige can be a little nervous around her sometimes, usually when Roxy is excited about playing. I am sure it is because they are essentially eye level with each other. Roxy wouldn't hurt a fly. In fact, she lets the cat eat her food and drink her water. If Roxy is distracted and not in a licking position, Paige loves to give her cuddles. I also like that Roxy raided the diaper pail and Paige's diapers are in the background. The silly dog doesn't do anything besides cart them around. A strange hobby for sure!

Paige gets really excited about the cat. I think she finds Boots more entertaining than Roxy. As Boots has gotten older, she has been forced out into the world as a barn cat. She still gets spoiled and spends a lot of time in the garage, but I would like her to become the mouser she was destined to become. Boots isn't nearly as interested in her new calling and spends most of the time  meowing for attention. Paige is happy to oblige. Boots won't let Paige pack her around anymore, but is still a pretty nice kitty. If we ever speak in person, remind me to tell you more about Boots the cat. It really is quite the story.

 

The past month has been pretty busy. After visiting with LDS Family Services and realizing how busy they are, we felt we needed to get our home study done independently, or wait months. I wasn't willing to do that, so we found a really great social worker who has been a real go-getter. We called her up, and she immediately got the ball rolling. We went from zero to sixty in a matter of moments. As of now, we are just a few weeks away from being home study approved. We are waiting for some references, Mark's medical clearance, and our second home visit which is currently being scheduled. I am so happy with our progress, but know that once it is done, the real waiting game begins. At least when you are actively working on something, you feel like you have some control over the situation. With LDS Family Services so busy, I just feel like our chances with them are not looking promising. I have been researching agencies and other avenues, and it is so frustrating. Agency adoptions are SO expensive and some of them require some ridiculous hoops to jump through. I hope and pray that a miracle will happen, and maybe by letting everyone we know we are hoping to adopt, someone will know someone who is wanting to place. Please keep us in mind if you come across a situation. We are really just a few weeks out from being ready to go!

 

Mark had a business trip this week,  I decided to go to Utah for a girl's shopping trip with Paige's birth family. I was SO excited and had been looking forward to it for a few weeks. We haven't seen them for a few months, and it was going to be great. Thursday was  a busy day getting all the housework done so we could all come home to a clean house. It always seems like a ton of work to get Paige ready for a trip, so Thursday felt like a big run around day. Fortunately, Paige was in a playful mood and entertained herself quite nicely. Here are a few pictures of what she did Thursday:

Put almost every stuffed animal she owned down for a nap. I love how tenderly she stuck these in the crib. I found this after I put Paige down for a nap. Cracks me up.

She has loved playing play dough lately, and we get all the cookie cutters out since I can't really make anything with play dough unless assisted by a cookie cutter. She loves this bear one, and I have found it in some interesting places. She placed it this day on the window next to our front door. Hmmmmm, no idea why.

These are some heart "cookies" I made out of play dough for her. We had been setting them on her tea set plates and setting them on the table. She thought this idea was much better. Boots was on the back porch and I think she was trying to share.

I heard her closing and opening drawers in my bathroom, she came out later to show me she had done her own hair with one of my headbands. I wear a headband everyday to the gym, and I have ruined her into thinking they are cool Not cool or cute, just necessary Paige! She makes it look pretty good though if I do say so myself. And I was relieved to see that with all the options she had available in my bathroom drawer, she picked a headband.

 

Like I said, this was all on Thursday. After getting everything done and the car packed, we were ready for our girl's trip. The week seemed so long, and Paige had been so ornery most of the time; I was ready for a break! Paige has had a cough, and when I got her up for the day, she coughed with a mouth full of milk and puked all over me. I had gotten all ready for the day and was stoked about having to change and re-do my hair. I should have taken this as an omen, but decided it was a fluke since she pretty much does this all the time, and I rushed to get on the road, even if we were already behind an hour. The roads were fine until we got to Blackfoot. Blizzard conditions made for a scary drive. I was scared stiff, especially after passing a turned over RV, a semi in the median, and a 7 car crash. I called my mom to see if the roads were supposed to be this bad the entire time. As I was talking to her, the sun came out and things seemed to get better so thinking I had survived the worst, I excitedly pressed on. Not 10 minutes later Paige starts to cry, I thought it was because her DVD had ended. I glance in the rear view mirror just in time to see her barf all over the back seat. No small amount. Ughhhhh. We pulled off the interstate and I crawled back into the worst mess ever. Fortunately I had lots of wipes and extra clothes that we supposed to be for our over night stay. Not knowing if the roads were gonna get better, or if Paige was gonna throw up again, I decided it would be best to turn around and throw in the towel. I was so disappointed! And, I now had to drive back through the blizzard. Needless to say it was quite the field trip to Fort Hall, and it took me HOURS to de-barf the car. The worst day! Just to make the blown weekend even better, Mark got stuck in Denver and still isn't home! A full day later than he planned on being home. By some miracle, he is finally on his way back and should be back tonight. Wahoo!

 

We are so ready for spring around here, and even though the weather this week has stunk, Paige and I were stir crazy and had to get out. We took Roxy for an hour walk and had a great time. I had two happy kids on my hands, and I successfully wore them both out. I am anxious for warm weather and the opportunity to get out more.

We were all sorts of muddy, wet, and stinky when we got home, but it was worth it!

 

With the somewhat warmer temperatures, birds have been invading our space. I feel like our backyard is becoming our own nature reserve. We have had tons of deer(I realize these aren't birds), flocks of geese, huge cranes, and even some swans this week. For a few days, our trees in the front yard were swarmed with these little black birds. I first heard them from inside and couldn't figure out what the strange sound was. They seriously make a deafening roar. It is unbelievable! I had to take a video just to document how loud they were. It was seriously eerie and all sorts of Alfred Hitchcock. If they started flying into the windows I am pretty sure I would have freaked!

 Insane right?!