Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We have a cute little leprechaun that visits us annually on St. Patty's Day. He takes an unguided tour around our house, leaving gold nuggets in his wake. He reads books, plays the piano, moves things around, and even uses the potty on occasion... Before he leaves, he is sure to share his Lucky Charms and even leaves us a rainbow.

I love it that my girls get so excited thinking of all of the things this little leprechaun has done on his visit based on where they find the gold nuggets! Such a fun tradition in our house. :)

Miracles

"Do you believe in miracles?" That's what my doctor asked me when he came into the exam room to give me my test results.

Me? Pregnant? No, that's not possible. Not after 4 IVF attempts, countless IUIs, tens of thousands of dollars and several doctors from here to Georgia always with the same answer: "We don't know why it's not working." Well, now I do.

Miracles are often dismissed as chance, coincidence, or offered some other "reasonable" explanation. I'm not sure why some people don't believe in miracles. I believe in miracles. Why? Because both of my daughters are true miracles. Don't misunderstand, I believe that every child is a miracle, that giving life is indeed a miracle. My girls are just a little more miraculous than that.

Ed and I waited a long time for children. We tried a litany of things that both Western and Eastern medicine had to offer. Add to that list both looking into the state Foster-to-Adopt option and registering with private adoption agencies. Finally, on a trip down to Utah for LDS General Conference, we "met" with Denise from Heart and Soul Adoptions. When I say "met," I mean we called the office to find it closed, left a message, received a return call ten minutes later and found out that Denise happened to be grocery shopping at the Smith's down at the other end of the mini-mall where we had stopped for lunch. Coincidence, right? Hmmmm...

Less than 30 days from that meeting with Denise, she called to tell us of a possible match with Birth Mother from Missouri. Our application wasn't even totally complete at this point, but still we got the opportunity to talk with this amazing Birth Mother and later found she had selected us to be adoptive parents. Long story short, through a series of miracles (not coincidences, not chance), we have our miraculous Samantha Grace!

Samantha - Jan 28, 2015
Her "princess pose"

Fast-forward two and a half years to me and Ed and our decision to begin the adoption process again. Yep, you guessed it, cue me getting sick, taking THREE at-home pregnancy tests all returning positive results (I was just sure I was taking the tests wrong and they couldn't possibly be accurate), and finally having the pregnancy confirmed at the doctor's office.

Isabel - Jan 28, 2015
(It's my birthday today!)

I was crying when I first saw her, just a few weeks along and there she was. I had visual proof that she existed. How could this possibly be? The doctor who had literally written the book on IVF couldn't return a positive pregnancy result for us, but here she was, clear as day (well, clear as a sonogram at least). In the weeks and months following that first visit, there was a lot of uncertainty, nervousness, prayer, disbelief, and finally on January 28, 2014, a retrospective understanding and a different kind of peace. Pregnancy before Isabel couldn't work. That miracle needed to wait until Samantha was a part of our family first.

Do you believe in miracles? Yes I do! I'm looking at two of them right now.

Aren't they beautiful?

Birthday Celebration!

I am feeling much better today!  In the mood to celebrate, even!  That's a good thing, because my family is going out to The Olive Garden tonight to celebrate my birthday.

As our family has grown :) and it's difficult to go out with kids, we get a babysitter to stay with Samantha, Thomas, and Riley so we can go out for dinner.  It was fun to spend time with my family.  Afterward, my family came over and we had ice cream cake and opened presents.

Dairy Queen ice cream cake - one of my favorites!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Imagine...

A couple of weeks ago, my mom gave us some free passes to the Imagine Children's Museum in Everett that she had received from a friend.  Since those passes expired at the end of February, we got to go twice last week.

Neither of us had been there before but had heard great things about it.  Samantha had a blast!  When you walk in, there's a treehouse with hand puppet animals inside.  We climbed up the stairs by the treehouse and discovered the library (Samantha LOVES books). 

Samantha with a squirrel puppet in the treehouse

As we headed back downstairs to explore some more, we discovered the water room, the farm, the trains, and the huge play area up on the roof!

Samantha milked, patted, and kissed the cow in the farm area

On the tractor

Loving the trains - choo, choo!!

The water area is one of her favorite places there

On the roof they had some "safari vehicles"
so Samantha took a turn "driving"

Huge play structure up on the roof area.
She didn't go down any of the slides,
but loved climbing all over the jungle gym!

In the basement there was a construction room, so
here she is in her safety gear.

Before we knew it, 2.5 hours had passed and they were closing up for the day.  Samantha was NOT ready to go home, but the prospect of coming back to play in a couple of days with her Aunt Missi and Cousin Tommy helped us make it out the door without a tantrum :)  Well, that and the statue of the dog outside the front entrance.  Have I mentioned that Samantha loves animals?!

Hugging the dog, telling him she loves him
and that she'll be back soon. (So sweet! :)

On our second trip there, Samantha and Tommy had fun on the fire engine but it was all over when Samantha found the Veterinary Office!  She was in heaven!

Tommy on the fire engine - what a cutie!

Samantha's turn on the fire engine...

In heaven in the veterinary office.  Look at
her giving all the animals check-ups!

I'm still thinking about an annual membership but I'm not sure yet. If just Samantha and I go more than 5 times in a year, it would pay itself back. Might not be a bad idea considering it's a great day to play on a rainy day and there's always something more to learn!

Pumpkin Patch I

I love this time of year!  My sister had the day off of work so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and she and Tommy joined me and Samantha at one of the local pumpkin patches.  We wandered around for a bit, gave the kids rides in the wagons and wheelbarrows, let them climb around on the hay, and more or less run around and wear out for naptime!  Love this time of year!

Just sittin' here on this pumpkin!

I can't believe Missi let Tommy sit in the dirt!!

Cute cousins!

Remlinger Farms and Tommy's Birthday

Today was a busy day!  We started out the morning heading off to Remlinger Farms in Carnation for a work-sponsored event.  It was a lot of fun - quite a drive, but a lot of fun.  They had a whole spread of food available and gave us each wrist bands that allowed us to ride any of the rides we wanted.

After visiting with some of Ed's co-workers, we rode the train over to the more "amusement park" section of the farm.  There, Samantha and I walked through one of the animal barns and then met up with Ed to let Samantha ride her first-ever amusement park ride.  She loved it!  Ed went with her and she had a blast!

Not so sure at first...she slid closer to daddy as the ride got into full swing.

One of the cute cutouts they had there

 

After the morning and early afternoon at Remlinger Farms, we high-tailed it back to my mom's house to celebrate our nephew, Tommy's, first birthday.  My sister rented a bouncy house.  Samantha wasn't so sure about it at first, but after some of the kids left and it was just her and Tommy with me and my sister inside, she warmed right up to it!

 

Finally having fun in the bouncy house

Ready to party

Samantha "helping" Tommy open his presents



Still Missing You, Dad!

I can't believe it's been 5 years since my dad passed away; since I received that call from my brother that my dad was being transported to the hospital; since I last saw him alive being lowered from the back of an ambulance and through the doors of the ER.

I was going through some of my grandparents' things a few weeks ago and stumbled upon some cassette tapes.  One of them was just labeled "T.A.S." - my father's initials.  Feeling strong enough, I popped it into the cassette player and heard my dad's voice again.  It's funny, though it was my dad's voice, it was before he was married so it was my dad, but not my dad.  I'm so glad though that I have these tapes and can listen to him and remember his voice. 

Samantha was downstairs with me at the time playing with her toys.  I told her that the voice on the tape was grandpa.  She sat and listened to his ramblings intently.  Every time she sees that CD/cassette player downstairs now, she asks to listen to grandpa.  It makes me smile every time!

Dad, I still miss you every day. I wish so badly that you could have known your granddaughter in this life. I know we'll meet again. I have faith in that promise.  Until then...

This one's for you, Bob!

A few years back, I met a cousin on my dad's side of the family.  Ok, I guess if you want to get technical, he's a second cousin twice removed - but who can keep track of it that way!?!  Through my dad's first cousin, information was exchanged and I was happy to receive an introduction.  The best part of it all, he lives right here in Washington!  Over the past couple of years, we've kept in touch, albeit somewhat irregularly - mostly because I'm not good at replying to mails or keeping up with him on Ancestry.com! ;)

My family met Bob and Kathy for the first time at Missi and Ryan's wedding reception in 2010 and though we've exchanged e-mails since, we hadn't seen each other since...until today!  We finally set a date on the calendar and Bob and Kathy again made the trek up from Olympia to visit us.  This was such a great day for a couple of reasons; one, August 4th is Bob's birthday and he decided to spend it with us :), and two, at the wedding reception, there really wasn't a lot of time to get to know Bob and Kathy, so getting together with them provided that opportunity to visit and get to know all about them!

Cousin Bob and Kathy

I hope they had as great a time as I did.  We chatted for a while, ate some fantastic food, and even took the opportunity to rummage through some old family pictures and other keepsake treasures from my dad and grandparents. 

We should do this more often!!

The Birthday Girl!

Today is a very big day...

Samantha Grace is One Year Old today!

It's hard to believe that just one short year ago, we were the recipients of the most precious blessing - a beautiful, perfect baby girl!

(PICTURES COMING SOON!)

I can't help but reflect on that most wonderful day when we met Samantha's birth mother face-to-face and, together, welcomed Samantha into this world.  I will never cease to be grateful to both my Heavenly Father and to that dear, selfless mother for placing Samantha in our care.

Samantha is thriving!  She is growing so big, so smart, and has such a beautiful personality!  I am amazed daily as I watch her learn and experience new things.

This is truly a day to celebrate - so that's what we did!  We invited some friends and family over to help us celebrate Samantha!

Big thanks to my friend Deb, my mom, my sister, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law for all of their help with both preparations and food!  Hope I didn't miss anyone...

We had such fun, starting things off with LOTS of food!  Then we let Samantha blow out the candle on her special cake!!  Following a quick bath (to rinse off the cake :), Samantha, who was getting so tired from all of the excitement, opened her pile of presents.  Though she started off a bit hesitant, she got the hang of ripping off the wrapping paper. 

It's so clear from the many people that came to help us celebrate, that this little girl has made an impression on so many and is very loved!!

I don't know if Samantha's birth mom still/ever reads this blog.  If so, thank you!  Seems so inadequate a phrase to express our deep gratitude...

Josh Groban

My sister sent me a text/e-mail (can't remember which) back in March telling me I had to e-mail a local radio station by 2pm with specific information about when a Josh Groban song was played on the air for a chance to win tickets to his show at Key Arena in August.  Ok - I'll get to it before 2pm...

Holy frijoles!  It's 1:55pm - I'm in my car and need to get that e-mail sent!  Yay for smart phones!!  I sent the e-mail with seconds to spare, but it was sent! 

Waiting...didn't hear anything.  Oh well, it was worth a shot.  Then someone at church said to me, "hey, did you win tickets on the radio?  I heard your name and even though they butchered your last name, there can't be many with that name so it was probably you."  Great - they called my name and I missed it!!  Ugh, of course!!  There was probably some rule that I had to call back within a certain amount of time too.  Ok, I'll send them another e-mail.  It can't hurt to try...

Nothing.

Then one May afternoon I decided to check my voice mail (which I do not do very often at all).  Lo and behold, a voice mail from the radio station, "We've been trying to get a hold of you to get you your Josh Groban tickets.  Please call us back at..."  What?  I still won tickets?

Ok, but they're probably nose bleed tickets or something, right?  So, I called them back.

"WHAT? FRONT ROW?  You bet!! 

I'll be down tomorrow to pick them up!!!!"

I went and picked up the tickets (2) the next afternoon.  I hadn't told Missi yet that I won them.  As I was leaving the station, I called her and asked, "Do you have your computer in front of me?  I don't and I want to know where these tickets are located."  So, I gave her the section number and seat numbers (not the row).  She told me that this is a great section, right on the floor, and the seat numbers are right on the inside aisle. 

I responded, "Well, that's great to hear...since that's where we'll be sitting to watch Josh Groban in August!!!"

Missi - 7 months pregnant - at work - had to shut her door so she could jump up and down.  She was so excited!  I took a picture of the tickets and sent them to her...

Fast forward...Missi was due on August 8th...August 19th and still no baby.  The concert is in just over a week (August 27th).  Finally, little Tommy came on the 20th, but via c-section. 

"Missi, are you still going to be able to go, or should I find someone else?"  

"NO!  I'm still going!!"

"Ok, it's up to you..."

August 27th arrives - Missi did really well, hobbling her way to our seats :) 

The opening act, Elew, was great (albeit, he had some very strange facial expressions during his songs...).

The stage set up

The concert was phenomenal!  I didn't like it so much when he used the stage in the middle of the floor (because we were not front row to the middle, we were front row to the FRONT!) but oh well.  He did a lot of songs from his new album, "Illuminations," as well as some classics, including, "You Raise Me Up," during the encore.

Yeah, he's right there.  I'm barely zooming in on this pic!!

Uh huh - this one is without any zoom!

So great!

The orchestra/band were fantastic! 
Truly a talented group, especially the two guys on the right.

So much fun!  I'm curious how much those tickets would have cost if we had to pay for them??  Oh well - winning tickets is definitely the way to go!

Self-portraits never work out right.  Oh well!

Baby Tommy

We are so excited to welcome a new member of our extended family.  My sister and brother-in-law are the proud parents of a healthy, beautiful baby boy!  They named him after his grandfathers:

Thomas (for maternal grandpa) Chandler (for paternal grandpa) Peterson

My sister was due on August 7th, but already taking after Grandpa Tom, he was a tad late...THIRTEEN DAYS late.  He was born August 20th, a healthy 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 20.25" long.  Happy to report that both mom and baby are doing well.

On his Birth Day! :)

 

Family History

I have always had a desire to learn more about my family - where I came from, stories of my ancestors, pictures, who they were, etc.  On one of our trips to Salt Lake City, I even spent an entire day in the Family History Center trying to learn more.  For the most part, so far so good.  I have found lots of "limbs" to my family tree.  I've mostly focused on my dad's side because there are more unknowns (my mom's side is pretty well documented).

In the process of researching, I have made some connections to living family members as well, distant, but definitely family.  In fact, through one of my dad's cousins, I met another cousin that even lives in Washington.  I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know family better and am blessed that this cousin in particular is also actively working on family history.  In fact, for a recent vacation, he and his girlfriend took a road trip through Oklahoma, where my dad was born, amongst other places.  He was kind enough to share the family info, pictures and stories that he found, in the form of CDs containing some amazing information!  Thank you, Bob and Kathy!

Were we independently wealthy, I would love to take several months to visit places where my family is from, both domestic and foreign.  Ah, someday!  For now, I am excited to dig into the details of what I received and learn more about my family.

Mexican Lasagna & Homemade Ice Cream

For our Sunday dinner, I wanted to try something new -- Mexican Lasagna!  Now, we have had a version of Mexican Lasagna before, when Samantha was born and a friend brought it over, but I had never made one before, so this was a fun experiment to take what we had experienced before and modify it a bit to be suited to our tastes.  What's more?  I invited my entire family over for dinner!  Yikes -- this better turn out yummy!!  It did...here's how I made it:

• 2 lbs of ground beef (was a little much, could have been fine with 1.25 - 1.5 lbs)
• I added some dried onions and Nature's Seasoning to the beef while browning, but then again, I add Nature's Seasoning to almost everything :)
• 2 - 15 oz cans of black beans (drained and rinsed - to get all the yucky stuff off of the lovely beans!)
• 1 small can of diced green chiles
• 1.5 - 2 c frozen corn (you can use canned corn too, just drain and rinse it)
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• ~ 3/4 c chunky salsa
• Taco seasoning to taste (I have the Costco size of seasoning, but if I had to guess, I think I used just over 1/3 c of the seasoning for that much ground beef)
• 1 - 16 oz can of refried beans (I use the No Fat, Zesty Salsa Rosarita Refried Beans)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chiles (commonly known as Ro-tel, but there are house brands too)
• Medium cheddar and Pepper Jack cheeses, shredded (quantity is to taste)
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 12 flour tortillas (you can use corn too -- it would take a few more, but I'm not sure how many...)

Beef mixture:

• Brown the ground beef
• Drain it and rinse the beef with hot water (sounds weird if you haven't done it before, but it really eliminates a lot of the fat - depends on if your sewer/septic system can handle it too - just keep the HOT water running for a bit after you've rinsed the beef to keep the fat flowing through the pipes)
• Put the beef back in the pan over low heat (after all, it's already cooked) and add the tomato sauce, salsa, and taco seasoning
• Add the black beans, corn, and chiles and mix to create yumminess!

Assembly:

• Lightly spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray
• Lay 3 flour tortillas on the bottom of the pan covering as much of the pan as possible (yes, they will overlap)
• Spread half of the meat mixture on the tortillas
• Cover with a thin layer of shredded cheese
• Layer 3 more tortillas on the cheese
• Spread the entire can of refried beans over the tortillas (Hint: if you heat the beans, they spread better :)
• Top the refried beans with the can of diced tomatoes and green chiles (I drained and rinsed mine, because there's an awful lot of liquid and I didn't want my dish to be too soggy...up to you)
• More cheese
• Another layer of 3 tortillas
• The rest of the meat mixture
• 2-3 more tortillas
• More cheese and garnish with green onions on the top

There...you're done!  Remember, everything is cooked so the goal now is just to heat the dish all the way through.  I cooked mine at about 250 degrees for an hour and then boosted it up to 300 degrees until it was heated throughout.

Options:

• You can either serve this with sour cream on the side and people can add it to the top if they want (good idea for people like me that DO NOT like sour cream) or if you really like sour cream, you can add it to one of the layers inside.
• Add cilantro for more yumminess
• If you like black olives (yuck) - you can add those too
• For more spice, add more peppers :)

Ok, now for dessert.  We used Sarah's recipe (thank you, Sarah) and made blueberry ice cream for dessert - so good!!  Now that we're nearing (or at) the end of summer, ice cream makers are going on sale.  We picked ours up at Fred Meyer a couple of weeks ago for just $18!  You'll need to follow your ice cream maker manufacturer's specs for how long to run the mixture, but essentially, for 4 qts, we mixed together the following:

• 4.5 c chopped blueberries (we blended them in a food processor...just don't puree them...you want chunks of berries)
• 3 c sugar
• 6 c half-and-half (we used regular, but I wonder if it would work using the fat free half-and-half for 3 of the cups...hmmmm)
• 2 T lemon juice
• 3 c milk

We made it a couple hours ahead of time so we could give it time in the freezer to make sure it wasn't soft serve :)  Homemade ice cream is so yummy!  You can pick and choose what goes in it - it was definitely a crowd pleaser!

Missi's Baby Shower

The happy 'mom-to-be'

Blue and yellow theme -
detailed all the way to the flowers
in a Winnie the Pooh vase!

My sister is having a baby!  She is due August 7th with a little boy.  So, beginning in May, I told her to be thinking of a date for her baby shower.  She wanted to push it off until after Seminary was over (she was a Seminary teacher this last year).  Fine, no problem, after Seminary works for me.  So, come June 16/17, she decides the best date for her baby shower would be June 30th.  Agh!!!  Ok, no problem, I can handle this!


About half of her invitation list were able to make it (which is plenty, considering her list was 45+ people long :)  We did a 'Winnie the Pooh' theme, lots of yellow and blue, since that's what color the baby's room is painted.

Diaper guessing game

Games?? For this many people?? We went very simple on the games. A friend helped out by providing a guessing game on the number of diapers, and I asked all of the attendees to bring a baby picture of themselves for a "guess who?" game.  

Baby picture guessing game

What's a party without food?

 Food - well, simple. I made a fruit tray, a veggie tray, some brownies (topped with blueberries and blue chocolate, no less), lemonade with lemon-lime soda and frozen blueberries, and my mom made a chicken salad for the rolls.

Yummy!!!

 

The candy "bar"

To add a bit more fun, I did a separate table with various candy - all blue and yellow, of course. We had blue/yellow M&M's (Missi's favorite), blue/yellow jelly beans, blue/yellow Lindt truffles, blue Hershey's kisses, blueberry yogurt pretzels, and blue/yellow salt water taffy with some cute little blue footprint or 'ABC' block lollipops sticking up from the candy. I even made these cute little cups for people to put their candy in...they're little 'onesies' - also blue and yellow! :)

Little candy cups! :)

The cake - oh I must tell you about the cake. A lady in my ward is a fashion model / cake decorator - quite the combination! She is so talented. I met with her, gave her swatches of the baby's room colors, told her about Winnie the Pooh being a theme, and she ran with it!! Can you say chocolate heaven?? It was a rich chocolate layer cake filled with chocolate ganache and topped with Winnie the Pooh fondant goodness. Around the side of the cake, the little honey bees were buzzing! 

It was truly the perfect touch for this baby shower! 

Ta da!!

Pooh bear with his 'hunny' pot!

 And of course, the piece de resistance, I made Missi a diaper cake. I had seen one at another baby shower the week before and absolutely loved how it was put together. So, I used that one as my model and played around with it a bit, adding the rubber ducky as the cake topper! :)

My first diaper cake!! 
Turned out pretty good, don't you think?

Despite the stress leading up to the baby shower, all in all it went very well!  So grateful for help from my mom and our friend, Jamie (a.k.a. the artist who took these beautiful pictures and provided the diaper game!!)

A baby blanket gift from Grandma Sandi!

Setting up the baby picture game!

Samantha - the real star of the evening!!!
Sorry Missi...babies always get top billing!  :)

Lesson learned: Never agree to throw a baby shower with less than two weeks' notice while also juggling your schedule as a mother, voice teacher, and during the last quarter of the fiscal year at your full time job!

Congratulations, Missi and Ryan!  :)