Soaking up summer

Over here we are busy soaking up the last bits of summer.  And we are loving it.  

We are hiking,

biking,

croquet playing,

Olympic watching,

watermelon eating,

dog walking, 

firefly sighting,
blackberry picking,
fort building,
Harry Potter with neighbors partying,
board game playing,
library movies renting,

and beach going.  

I love summer and I am grateful we have a few more weeks to enjoy being together, spending time with family, and visiting with friends!  

Happy Summer!

Family Reunion

Every other summer Richard's family has a big family reunion.  

This is our second time being able to attend and we had a great time!  

Richard's dad has 8 other brothers and sisters and so the reunion is always full of fun people, fun times, and good food!  This year was no exception.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and stayed through Sunday evening.  The reunion was held at the National Harbor in Washington D.C.  It is a really fun place with lots of fun shops and good places to eat, right on the Potomac River.  

On Friday evening we had a big family dinner at a really nice restaurant to celebrate Richard's grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary.  50 years!  We had a really nice dinner with great food to celebrate!  

On Saturday we basically had the day to do whatever we wanted as a family.  Richard's dad and I participated in a family run on Saturday morning and it was nice to meet with and chat with some Richard's aunts and cousins.  Later that day Richard and I introduced his parents to the Eastern Market - one of our favorite places in D.C.!  We had fun doing some shopping and eating crepes!  Yum!  

On Sunday we had a really amazing family sacrament meeting together.  Richard's grandpa got permission to hold our own sacrament meeting and it was really wonderful to have church with our family members.  We had a musical testimony meeting and the Spirit was very strong.  It was so wonderful to be there with Richard's family.  I loved being able to get to know more of Richard's aunts, uncles, and cousins.  

At the Eastern Market in D.C.

Yummmmmy crepes! 

Richard with his parents - eating gelato! 

National Harbor

A few family photos! 

 We had a great family reunion weekend!  It was so nice to spend time with family!

Just for kicks and giggles...

Have you seen these little pregnancy questionnaires that some fill out on a regular basis?  I was thinking that it would give me a little laugh to do one of my own. 

How far along:  11 months, 2 weeks.  A little overdue, wouldn't you say? 

Total weight gain/loss: probably a few pounds gained...I may have eaten a whole box of Cosmic brownies...but I did also go running this week so I'd call it all about even.  

Maternity clothes: Well I did buy a maxi dress at Ross that could possibly be passed as a maternity dress...but it is so super cute and comfortable. 

Sleep:  like a baby.  Except I would love a new mattress. 

Best moment this week: one that is coming - an awesome date night on Saturday to celebrate Richard being done, DONE!, with his first full time clinical.  Now the summer can really start! 

Movement:  my stomach may have gurgled this morning...

Food cravings:  always chocolate.  Always.  I had some cramps yesterday and needed comfort food.  I came back with milk duds, cosmic brownies, and ice cream bars.  Oh and some strawberries and asparagus to balance it all out. 

Gender:  GIRL!  BOY!  TWINS!  WE WILL BE SO HAPPY WITH EITHER! 

What I miss:  our baby.  Hopefully he or she is coming so soon! 

What I'm looking forward to:  The day our sweet birthmomma contacts us and tells us she wants to place her baby with us!  The day when our baby is placed in our arms!  The day we get to bring our baby home!  The day we get to be sealed to our baby!  The day we get to play and kiss and hug our baby! 

Milestones:  We have to have our home study updated next week....not so sure that is a milestone though...
Realization of the Week:  I'm going back to work in a few short weeks.  I really thought THIS would be the year I would be home with the cutest little baby ever.  But alas I am heading back to work.  I guess I will just have to made do playing with/teaching the cutest kindergarteners ever!  I have slowly started to work on some kindergarten things for this year and it has been fun to think of some new ideas!  They are my babies for now and I hope they are getting excited for a fun year in kindergarten!  

Featured!

A big thank you to Katelyn over at 100 Letters to You Blog who did a fun little feature on us and our hope to adopt!  Katelyn is a wonderful and kind person who is a birth mom and blogs about her open adoption and adoption in general.  It is a beautiful read for anyone who has been touched by adoption or just for anyone!  :)  

She was so kind to do an adoptive couple hopeful feature on us!  Thanks Katelyn!!! 

You can find the feature here. 

An interview with the red kitchen.

My dear friend and college roommate has the cutest/entertaining craft blog that I know. She is always trying to help us find our baby and we are so thankful. She did the following interview post on her blog recently for us! Thanks Katie!

 Here is the interview that she did:  

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I have a soft spot (okay, a really soft spot) for my friends who are waiting to adopt. Maybe I'm a bit of a broken record when it comes to doing anything and everything I can to spread the word about them in the hopes that some good will come of it. But I intend to be a broken record and keep spreading the word until these dear friends of mine are finally able to adopt a sweet child of their own.




Richard and Emily have been married for 5 years and, after a difficult medical diagnosis and a lot of prayer, decided that adoption is just right for their family. And they've been working on adopting ever since! So, to help spread the word and help you get to know these wonderful friends of mine, we recently conducted a little interview. Read it below! There just might be a few good YouTube videos in it for you. :)




And if you feel so inclined (and I sure hope you do), it would be really awesome if you'd share a link to this post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. to help spread the word. When it comes to adoption, every kind thought and gesture counts. So thanks in advance for your love and kindness!




And now I give you... Richard and Emily!

completed nursery!

A few months ago we posted about our nursery.  At that point it was mostly done but still needed a few things, including a crib.  Well a few months later we got a crib and have been working on the finishing touches every since.  And this morning we finished!  

I love our nursery.  It is probably my favorite room in the house!  I love our nursery theme and I love all the handmade items, made out of love by us and others. 

Now we all we need is our baby!  Hopefully coming soon.  We can't wait to see a sweet little baby in this sweet little nursery. 

Here are the photos of the finished room!  

A Happy 4th

 We had a very relaxing Fourth of July yesterday.  Richard had to go to his clinical at the hospital (his clinical is an 8 week program that has him shadowing and working with a physical therapist) and I was lucky enough to babysit the cutest little three year old all day.  

We then went over to our wonderful neighbor's home for a most excellent barbecue dinner.  We watched half of the movie "Independence Day" together before a huge storm ended our party a little early.  But we already have plans to reconvene tonight to finish the movie and put on a little firework show!  Yay for summer! 

A fourth of July puppy.  I found this adorable dachshund flannel fabric at Jo Ann's the other day and couldn't resist. 

Sunflowers from our garden! 

A three year old project.  You can't go wrong with glue.  She loved it. 

While babysitting we played with magnetic letters which were very appropriately colored. 

While naptime I crafted up this to hang in our nursery.  And, by the way, what is more precious than a sleeping child?  I loved checking on her because she was so peaceful and adorable!  It was so fun to have our house a mess yesterday, full of blocks and books and toys.  

 

 

 Hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth of July! 

last week

 Last week we went on a really quick trip to Texas.  

A really quick trip. 

We flew in on Tuesday afternoon and drove away on Friday morning, around 6 a.m.  

We were blessed to spend two and a half very fun days with Richard's wonderful family.  

And we got to see my wonderful sister.  

We went rock climbing, played in Richard's family pool, ate yummy Texas barbecue, 

and went out to eat.  

And we got a new (used) car.  

Which we then proceeded to drive 20+ hours back to our neck of the woods.  

We had a grand time on a fun road trip together.  

We drove over the Louisiana bayou, had yummy snacks, stayed in a fun hotel, 

and thankfully didn't run into the messy, messy storm that has since hindered the majority of Virginia and our surrounding area.  

And we are even more thankful that we were blessed to come home to electricity.  

We had a great little mini-vacation and are thankful to be home, safe and sound! 

Oh and while we were galavanting around Texas, this little girl had her first ever legitimate play date.  Here's the proof: 

Thanks to my parents for taking care of her and socializing her while we were gone!  

She had a great time!