Easter

I love going to church on Easter Sunday and seeing all the kids wearing their new Easter clothes. It just makes me happy!!

The Easter bunny left some new church clothes at our house too for all of us. Okay, so really I can't say the Easter bunny did because I forgot to mention anything about the Easter bunny to Claire. Poor child, I know. Seriously I didn't even think about it. Yep, great mom that I am. So at Christmas I got wierd looks (and some mean looks too) when people would ask Claire if Santa came and she told them no. (Remember, she was terrified of Santa and asked Luke to call and tell him not to come.) Well, the same people asked Claire if the Easter Bunny came and again she told them no. They must think I am horrible.

I have to admit that it was nice not having her think that Easter is all about the Easter bunny....instead she talked about "Jesus was baptized!! Thats why we celebrate Easter. Hmmm, no....maybe he was resurrected?" Okay, so maybe she had a hard time remembering why we celebrate Easter :)










I must admit I have the cutest kids ever!!

Run, Run As Fast As You Can. We're Having a Party in Candyland

Our baby girl turned just turned three. We can't believe how big Claire is getting. This year we decided to have a friend birthday party instead of the family party that we have had in years past.

Her invitations. She had so much fun taking them around to her friends.





The kids had different games they had to play to help them get through candyland.

The first one...
When we play candyland Plumpy was eating plums and growing more and more glum with each bite of his plums. If we were to eat these plums we would grow glum as well and not be able to continue on the path. Therefore each of you will have to smash the plums in order to continue on your way.

Ha Ha...there were only two kids that were willing to pop the balloons...or I guess I should say smash the plums.

The second game....
Lord Licorice has cut down most of the peppermint forest and Mr. Mint is not able to cut down the peppermint trees for whistles and flutes so we will have to grow more trees before we move on.


Jordan and Luke were good sports and let the kids make them into candycane trees using red and white streamers.





The third game
Oh no!! We are stuck in the swamp of molasses and there is only one way to get out of the swamp so that we can continue on the path. We will have to move around a lot playing lollipop lollipop to get all the sticky molasses off.

And then they played the candyland version of musical chairs while listening to 'Lollipop, lollipop'


Then they got to follow the path that led to the table of candy. We ate pizza, sang Happy Birthday to Claire, and opened presents.












Our attempt to get a group photo




And then just when we thought the party was over, the kids decided just to move it to the backyard. They had so much fun.

The Big Sis

Luke and I are not the only ones obsessed with this little guy.



Big sister can't get enough of him either.

She runs to get me the second he wakes up and starts crying.

She stuffs the binkie back in his mouth when it falls out...whether he wants it or not.

She constantly asks to hold him


She makes sure he is with us when we say family prayers at night.



She doesn't want him to get bored in the car so she makes sure he has ample stuffed animals to keep him entertained. Apparently this is what she had in mind when I told her we needed to get Crue ready to go. Look close and you might see a baby in the carseat. She gets irritated when I take everything out but her brother and tries to convince me that he really does need it all.


And several times a day she tells us that she is the best big sister...and she is.

Adoption 5K

After running my first 5K on Thanksgiving Day in 10 degree weather, I decided that the next one I ran would be in the spring when the weather was nice and warm. So last week my sister and I ran an Adoption 5K in Salt Lake. The original plan was that Luke was going push Claire in a jogging stroller and Crue would say with my mom and Rilynn at Wheeler Farm and cheer us on. The lovely weather changed that plan in a hurry.




Good news is that I beat my previous time by three minutes and Steph beat her time too.

The Cute Tush

Me: Claire, look at the pretty sky.
Claire: Who made the sky for us?
Me: Who do you think?
Claire: Heavenly Father did.

Several second later...

Claire: Mom, who made my face pretty and my tush so cute?
Me: Who do you think?
Claire: Heavenly Father did. And that was nice of Him.

Little bit of this....Lots of that

Here's an update on what we have been doing lately....


Lots of coloring with chalk....I must have the nicest looking sidewalk in town.





Little bit of watching basketball







Lots of cute outfits. And yes, she did wear her snow boots with her spring dress to the store so she could show them off.






Little bit of working in the garden planting peas.





Lots of lovin' our little man.








Little bit of making yummy treats to share....but it felt like a lot.








Lots of feeding ducks








Little bit of crying because the ducks were a little aggresive for the likes of someone.




Lots of smiles while playing at the park during the first really nice day of the year.







Little bit of sleeping while at the park.





Lots of fun with mom and dad at Classic Fun

A new fav of mine..

Baby Shower

Our great friends and family threw us a baby shower. We appreciate them so much. And I am really glad that nobody was irritated that I only got to stay for about 50 minutes of it. But only five hours earier we found out that we were bringing him home that night...and my family said they were having a shower even if I wasn't there. Luckily, I got to be there.

Thanks again everyone!! You really spoiled us.

Adoption is Amazing!!

I am so far behind on blogging that I don't even know where to begin.

Back in January we got an email from a birthmother. It was the first birthmother we had heard from in about 8 months. Lets just say I was beginning to feel really down. For months I had felt that we were going to be getting our baby soon but with nothing happening, I was totally getting bummed. In fact, I had pretty much quit checking my email since we weren't recieving anything anyway. So when I saw that we had an email I instantly called Luke at work. We were so excited!! I knew I should wait until he got home so together we would email her back but I was too impatient.

The next couple of weeks were spent emailing back and forth with Kassie and then the first week in february we were able to get together and meet with her and her parents. It was a great visit and we really enjoyed meeting them. Everything really felt right.

Then a week later our caseworker called and said that she had something for us from Kassie.

Were we excited?

OH YES!!

Our caseworker was going to come out to our house on saturday (Feb. 12th) to meet with us for a minute. Then saturday morning she called to say that the package never arrived.

And this is the point I got totally paranoid and spent the weekend thinking that Kassie has finally realized that me and Luke are really big nerds and has changed her mind and never sent the package.

Monday comes along...still no package. Gotta love the United States Postal Service :) Finally on tuesday we find out that it has arrived. YAY!!! We head in to the office and our caseworker gives us some cards and a letter from Kass and a teddy bear for Claire. She had chose us! It was an amazing moment!!

The next week Luke and I were invited to go with Kassie to the ultrasound which was really neat. Several days later I went with her to her doc appointment and was planning on going to the next one with her too. Well that ended up not happening. Our little guy was born the next day...about 2 1/2 weeks early. Luke and I got to the hospital about 10-15 minutes after he was born and we were able to go with him down to the nursery. Seeing our precious baby boy for the first time was incredible. No words can describe it. It was just amazing!!

We are so incredibly grateful for adoption. We have no doubt that Crue is meant to be part of our family. We love him so much. Kassie is one of the most selfless, strong, and courageous people that we know. And we are so glad that she is now part of our family and us part of hers.

Falling in Love

This little guy has joined our family and we instantly fell in love.

Crue Jaxson
March 2, 2011
7 lbs. 18.5 in.