We got a little cold

Chris, Tamara and Katie

It's Official!

Chris received a phone call from the Idaho Accountancy Board yesterday. His CPA License has been approved! Chris will be a Certified Public Accountant effective the beginning of 2010! Yay!!!!

Fall Fun

We went to the pumpkin patch with Stillman and Michelle's family. We had lots of fun. We went on hay rides, picked out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, walked the corn maze, and the kids got to go on some rides and go into the petting zoo. We also had some delicious concession food. If you ever go you have to try the homemade donut holes. MMMM! We carved our pumpkin at Stillman and Michelle's house. Katie helped draw the face on to carve. Notice how one eye is bigger than the other? Cute huh. We dressed up for our church Halloween party. Can you guess who we are? Chris is Obiwan Kenobi, Tamara is Queen Amidala (AKA a Geisha - nobody knew who I was - either works), and Katie is a carebear. Katie and Alex had fun trick or treating in the church. And last Saturday Daddy and Katie had some fun raking leaves in the yard.

Hair Makeover (for Mommy this time)

My stylist had a party at her salon and I entered in a drawing and won the grand prize: a free hair makeover! I got a haircut, color and eyebrow wax. Here are my before and after pictures. Sorry the before pic is a little blurry.

Before:

After:

I love it!

I've never had highlights or an eyebrow wax done before.

Here are Katie and I both with our new do's just in time for family pics next week.

"I Want My Mullet Back"

Well…. not really. Remember last March when Katie cut her own hair? Well she has had a mullet ever since. I am excited to say that the sides have finally grown long enough so we could have her hair cut short. Here are her before and after pictures.

Surprise!

Last test passed!

Chris passed his last CPA Exam! Now he just has to take an ethics test and apply for a license. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cabin fun

We had lots of fun at the cabin Labor Day weekend. It's always fun to take some R&R time and get away for a bit.

See post below too.

Ready to go!

This is where I found Katie at approximately 1 pm on Friday Sept 4th. She had her suitcase by her side and was all buckled into her carseat and ready to go to the cabin. I informed her that we wouldn't be ready to leave for another 5 or 6 hours. She cried when I made her come back in the house. She couldn't wait to go to the cabin and see her cousins Livvie, Ellie and Blake and all the rest of the family that were going up.

Little surprises

Friday evening I was folding laundry and came across one of Katie's socks that felt a bit lumpy. I set it aside and soon found the matching sock, which was also lumpy. I set that aside too. Later Chris and I emptied out the socks to find almonds and hair accessories. We got a good chuckle from this. It's so funny that all those items stayed inside her socks through both the wash and dry cycles. The almonds look polished and shiny... and a bit chipped. Life is never boring with Katie around.

12 years ago today...

Two hearts came together.

Two lives were united.

Two dreams were joined as one dream come true.

And the two had:

A growing love,
Friendship,
Hope for the future,
Commitment to each other,
Covenants to keep.

And although the two have faced many trials and challenges along the way...
and still have many to come...
there has also been great joy.

And...

the dream goes on...

Happy Anniversary Honey!
I love you!
Tamara

Two new posts

See below!

Busy July

We've had a very busy July. I'm finally getting a few new posts on. We had a family reunion, a trip to the zoo, Katie's first dentist appt, a few illnesses and Tamara started a babysitting job (which I am really enjoying). Here are a few pics from our trip in July to a family reunion on my Mom's side of the family. I'm only posting a few pictures since Deedra and Stillman and Michelle families already put a bunch of photos on their blogs from the reunion. We had a great time at the reunion! We were also able to spend some time with Uncle Robin, Aunt Debbie and Cousin Danae. Thanks for sharing your home with us!

High Hopes and Heartbreak

Brooke White has a new album out! High Hopes and Heartbreak. Here are some of my favorite songs from her new album. A music video with one of her songs called Radio Radio. And recordings of her songs called High Hopes and Heartbreak, Out of the Ashes, and Little Bird. It's a great album! Better than her first! She co-wrote all of the songs except one.

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1 more to go!

Chris just found out he passed his 3rd CPA exam. Only 1 more to go!

Parade

Here are some pictures from the parade we were in. Actually, these are all from right before the parade started, we didn't get any during the parade. Thanks to all of you who came and watched & supported us! Above is Katie holding onto her hat - the wind was pretty fierce a couple hours before the parade started. And then it died down a bit and started raining. It was raining for a while. While Chris and others were getting the float ready, Katie and I took shelter in the truck cab. Luckily the rain died down right before the parade started.

Our float was sponsored by FSA (Families Supporting Adoption); an organization sponsored by our church to give support to adopting families and to help us support each other. Our float was called "We Are Mooooved by Adoption". The focus of our float was to let birth moms and dads know how much we love and thank them for their love and sacrifice for us and to try and let the community know that adoption is a good thing and that families are created through adoption. We especially want to thank our birth mother, Whitney. We love and appreciate you! Your gift of love and sacrifice has blessed our lives immeasurably!

Katie got first pick of the train cart she would ride in and of course she picked the pink one.

Chris in his cowboy attire.

Katie having fun blowing a train whistle.

Tamara in her cowgirl attire, trying to stay dry and warm - it was cold!

Here we are right before the parade started.

A local newschannel filmed the parade but when we watched a re-run of the parade we noticed that they did not show our entire float. They showed the truck with the big signs on it but skipped right over the kiddie train and families walking behind it. So - to those of you we told to watch the news channel to see us - so sorry they skipped over us. We were there.

Before and After

We liked Heather's idea of posting before and after pics of Jon. Here are Chris' before and after pics. Chris started Turbo Jam in May of last year.
Beginning weight: 170
Current weight: 135.5
He actually weighed up to about 175 prior to starting his workout routine in the beginning of May 2008. Which is probably what he weighed when the before pic was taken in Sept 2007. Which means he has lost almost 40 lbs. Great job Honey!

What are you doing?

Having a huge storm right now. It is mostly a bit of rain now. But about half an hour ago it was real windy. Katie was at the window yelling at the sky: "What are you doing?" over and over again. So I told her it was a storm. Then she started yelling: "What are you doing storm?". So funny! (So cute, I had to put this on facebook too).

Our little reader

Operation Ant Destruction or Rescue?

If you ask Daddy and Mommy it's destruction. If you ask Katie it's rescue. We just want to get rid of the ants. Vacuuming them up or sweeping them up and throwing them in the garbage or sink. But Katie wants to put them back outside because "they're cute". This morning I found her with a bunch of ants that she had put in the back of her little toy truck. I was wondering where she was getting all the ants from because we had gotten rid of most of them from the kitchen. Come to find out they have invaded our family room too. Why you may ask? Unseen crumbs on the side of the couch and behind the couch. They were even going for crumbs under the couch. So I took the hand vacuum and vacuumed the ants and crumbs up and dumped most of them outside (for Katie's benefit) and some in the garbage or sink. Hopefully they will stay out of the family room since I vacuumed up all the crumbs. We're trying the cornmeal idea in the kitchen, hopefully we won't have to do it in the family room too.

Memorial Day Pics

Here's our Memorial Day pics. We had a great time at the cabin. (Daddy had to stay home and study - but at least it was quiet for him).

Batgirl and spiderman

Ever wonder what batgirl and spiderman looked like as kids? Ta-dah!
Secret identities: Katie and Alex. Oops! Shouldn't have told ya.

Mothers Day and a cake

I had a pretty good Mother's Day. It started off with a free dental cleaning last Friday. My Dentist's office does free cleanings and other procedures on Mother's Day. They've done this for 5 years now. This was perfect since we don't have insurance right now. I did have to wait in line quite a while but it was worth it. I love clean teeth! Then on Sunday Chris and Katie surprised me with a cute Mother's Day Card (see pic above) and French Toast for breakfast. Yummy!

We went to visit Grandparents (both sides) Sunday afternoon. Here we are at a Mother's Day BBQ at my parent's house. Ummm it was good! Always so fun to get together with family. Katie wouldn't smile for the family pictures.

But we got her smiling here.



Here is my latest cake that I made today for some friends in our ward (church). It was the Dad's birthday and their daughter requested flowers on the cake. So I made them in the team colors of royal blue and white.