nearing the end of the tunnel...

We have been doing mass amounts of paperwork, and forms and interviews...for a lot of things lately, but specifically for adoption. It seems to have been SO much...but we are SO close to being done, and for that I am so so happy. 
I finally finished and printed off our profile, and I think it looks FANTASTIC!!! I would share it with you guys, but apparently its illegal to "advertise" your profile anywhere....but if your interested, I can definitely show you at my house! he he...thats not advertising! LOL
I am so glad that we are almost done this stage, and on to the "WAITING" stage...which I now is also supposed to be hard....but at least it will be PRODUCTIVE waiting. It seems a lot more productive when there is at least a chance that your profile is being viewed, it makes the waiting time a lot easier. 
I know that this process could have been much longer, so I feel blessed to have been able to do it so quickly. I just hope that everything else goes as smoothly as this has.
A always changes his minds about whether or not he wants a brother or sister...but today its a sister. He told me in the van, "I want to be a brother to a sister mom", ha ha, okay....I'll get right on that, LOL. I love it when the give me name ideas too, SO FUN!! and usually hilarious. 
Some of my top girl names (if you promise not to steal them before we get a baby, ha ha)....are Eden, Liviana (just found that one last week) and my FAVE.....Ivory. 
Boy will probably we Levi, if we stick with our "boy theme" of using the 12 tribes...not that that was the plan in the beginning....but it seems to have worked out that way. 
I'm big on not naming the baby until you actually see it tho, I always feel that they come with their own distinct personalities...and that really sways my name ideas...so we'll just have to WAIT and see. Hopefully not too long of a wait! 
funny thing: A & R LOVE to laugh at each other, and their laughs are so contagious. R can laugh at anything, for no reason...and when he starts, its impossible not to join in...I should add a video one day...its definitely one of my fave things about him. He has a very magnetic personality. Man, I love those boys!
daily gratitudes: pretty much everything is my life right now...it is going so well!

Yay for SUNNY days

We are having an AWESOME weekend! My little sister and brother decided to come stay with me over spring break...and we've had a blast so far. Its really nice having someone around, so that I don't have to bundle up the kids and bring them with me everywhere I go. 
And speaking of bundling up....its getting SO warm out...I can just feel spring coming!!I love this time of year, all the melting snow, still perfect for snowball fights and snowmen....but its warm enough to actually get outside. I also love that the hopelessness of winter goes away....when its gray and cold out, its really hard for me to be motivated to do anything, and I find myself way more irritable than normal. Then the snow comes out, it warms up...and I am reminded why I love to live here....it really is a great city. Which is funny, since how all winter long I hope we will get a job somewhere warm and tropic, LOL, and now that its warming up...I'm okay with staying here for a while! ha ha. 
Daddy has a few new job prospects, which is exciting...he has been applying for a few each week. There are a couple that we REALLY want....one in particular. The other one would require us to move to Edmonton, and lets face it....there is NO way I could handle an Edmonton winter, if I can barely handle the ones here....ha ha.
So, I am definitely rooting for the one here!! :) I've already picked out the house I want if he gets it...ha ha, and he just applied for it, lol...I know, I'm a dreamer. 
Well, thats about all thats new with us! I'm looking forward to spending the week with my younger siblings...A just LOVES spending time with his uncle...so I know it'll be an eventful week. 
BLOG OUT

What's new with us? (typed up on the iPad, so sorry if it's hard to read!)

Well, besides that I got an amazing new iPad, which the boys and I have a TON of fun playing with...not much is new. We did just find out that A's preschool is closing...all of the sudden too, in 2 weeks! This stinks! He rally loves his little school, and so do I...the teachers are great, they learn a lot, he loves his friends there, and they have a great curriculum. Apparently they ran out if money, or they are running out....for whatever reason, and can't keep it going, even to the end of the year.
So, I guess next week will be full of trying to find another preschool. A said that he just wanted to stay home and to school here, but I have a feeling that he'll change his mind in a hurry, just being cooped up n here all day. It doesn't help that gymnastics ends this month, and that I haven't been able to get into swimming either...which would mean a lot of days at home, and he's never been the stay at home type. He asks to go to his friends houses all day, already! Ha ha.
For next year I had decided not to do kindergarten, and to wait another year, so he's older than everyone else...instead of the youngest. I still feel good about this desicion, because there doesnt seem to be any cons in keeping him home another year, and I can think of plenty of cons to him going in too early. I did have a thought last week though, that it might be nice to put him I private school, like Montessori or something, and then in a regular kindergarten next year too. I'm still thinking on this however, and if anyone knows anything about good private kindergarten progams, I'd love some tips and advice!
Anyways...that's all that has been new over here....well, besides my new hair! Which I pretty much love....especially the cut, it's exactly what I wanted.
Oh, and I'm going to see WICKED!! Yay me!! I've been organizing a group of people to go to it, so we get a good discount, but i didn't realize that so many people would be interested, or that it would be such a huge amount of work! But it will be worth it in the end, when we are at wicked!!!
Hope everyone else had a great week too...I am off to plan and decorate for a bridal shower! Have a good weekend everyone!

I'm posting this from my ALL new ( to me, that is) iPad! Yay!
That's all...ha ha

"A" says the darndest things...

Tonight we went and cleaned the church, and then talked about service afterwards...A said to us "we served the Lord because we cleaned His house. His house is the church!" ha ha, yes it is. 
Shortly after that he said the closing prayer which was pretty much all this: "bless me to get a rocket, a really super fast rocket that I can have, because I like rockets...oh, and a spacesuit to go with it"...bwahahahaha!
He is the funniest kid ever!!!

our week

Well...we've had a pretty normal week. Full of appointments, gymnastics, preschool, playgroup, shopping, running errands, a few sleepless nights and a small touch of stress, ha ha. 
The worst actually was on tuesday. Many of you might already know this from my facebook feed, but I spent the entire day on tuesday cleaning, and even ended up hiring some cleaners to do a deep cleaning on the main floor (much needed!). 
Luckily my fantastic friend owns a cleaning company, and we know how fantastic he is, because daddy and I have both worked for him previously. And yup, he did an AMAZING job!! 
The down side? After this long day of cleaning, the whole reason being that we had a home studay thingy at 4, the lady never showed! agggghhhh!!! I was SO upset....I guess it teaches me not to go so crazy on the cleaning end next time, she'll probably find it in disaster-mode when she comes next tuesday :)
The next morning, I woke up to A saying, "mommy, R did something really bad, you need to come RIGHT NOW!" ...thats never a good sign, ha ha. So, I did...and R had dumped THE entire box of strawberry jello powder over whole house. All the newly washed floors, carpets, lino....everything. Fantastic!!
What do they call it? Murphy's law? Well, murphy's law....
I hate you.

busier than bumblebee

It seems like that last few weeks have been so crazy! Full of fun, friends and parties...but busy as well. In the last month all 4 of us have had check-ups at the doctor, the boys have been to the dentist, and 3 of us to the optomoterist. All of this mixed in with playgroups 3x/week, preschool 2x/week, gymnastics 1x/week....not including all of the interviews daddy and I have been doing....and paperwork...endless paperwork! As well as 2 parties last month (or more? can't remember, ha ha), a baby blessing. 
This next month brings 3 more parties, one being a huge bridal shower, and one a super FUN bachelorette party that I am really excited about planning. Oh, and 2 friends going through the temple for the first time, and 1 wedding....FANTASTIC!! 
Thus, our calendar is full....I didn't even list play-dates, home-teaching, visiting teaching, our weekly church basketball...its craziness. I know it will only get busier as our kids get older too....maybe I'll have to invest in a WALL-sized calendar :) 
Soon though, gymnastics will be over, and we are all finished paperwork for a while...and this mass of interviews we have been doing should be over in a few weeks too...so here's to a calm and quiet April!!

funny quote: R has been asking us over and over again, after he does something funny "Am I silly?"...if I answer yes, he just says "oh!" and laughs....bu if daddy EVER answers yes, he says (with the cutest funny angry face you'll eve see) "NO! "R" NOT silly....I daddy is!!!" ha ha ha...he has learned well.

gratitudes: That I've been able to stay sane, healthy and stress-free during all of this business...it seems to be getting almost easy....but a vacation would make it easier, ha ha.

the one about my hubby, how awesome he is...and his job search for something not dreadfully boring

2 of my FAVE boys, this pic  was taken in spring '09

Lately I've been contemplating on my hubby and how awesome he is....he's pretty much the awesome-ist actually.
 Besides being completely amazing spiritually and emotionally, he is always helping out with everything. He regularly does the laundry and takes out the garbage....which is fantastic, because I hate doing both of those things. Mind you, I really hate putting away laundry the most, and I still end up with that job :)
 If I'm tired, he lets me nap, while he takes care of the kiddos, and he always is willing to help out with the cleaning and cooking, if he needs to. He never complains about taking care of poppy diapers, which is amazing to me...as all the man in my family have some dreaded fear of changing poopy diapers, and its always their wives that end up having to do it 99% or more of the time. 
He is also a GREAT father....I don't even need to go into depth about this, its shown by the simple fact that the boys go hay-wire every time they see his car pull up in front of the house after work. They freak out completely, and start running outside and yelling "daddy, daddy", and jump into his open arms. Its by far the favorite part of my day. 
Oh, and I didn't even mention his humor...he thinks he's REALLY funny...and though I usually lead him to believe otherwise, I think he's pretty funny too :)
He is SUPER smart, but what is brains without the motivation do something with them? seriously....the smartest person on th planet could sit around with all his smarts and not do anything with them...which would lead me to say that  that guy probably isn't the smartest person on the planet then. Fortunately, my hubby has also brains AND motivation, he is a super hard worker. 
This is kind of what lead me to start thinking about all of his great qualities....throughout our marriage he has worked so hard to help our family out. He became a concrete finisher, ran his own business for a while, worked at a cleaning company in the evenings when we were really low on funds, got 2 degrees in school (one in Economics, one in finance-which took him over 5 years to finish) and is now working on a Masters-level after-graduate program, called CFA, which takes up a lot of his "fun" free time....while I watch movies and eat snacks, he studies hard for his exam.
Its all of these qualities that lead me to wonder, why can't he find a great job? Any company would be so lucky to have such a hard-working and motivated individual working on there side...it doesn't make sense to me that he can't find his dream job.
I can tell that his job is wearing on him, and he's itching for something new. He really enjoys the people he works with, and his superiors too, and its a great company to work for. But this specific position that he has in it, is not intellectually stimulating in any way, and is down right boring. Unfortunately they don't transfer you to other positions within the company, unless you've worked with them for 12 months...and I'm not sure he can hold out that long. 


So, we've began the job search again, this time more localized though. When we first started applying a year or so ago, we were applying all over the world, literally. We were up for moving anywhere. But, do to recent decisions on our part, and because of some wonderful benefits we have to living here....we've decided to job search in Alberta only, and preferably in lethbridge. This is new for us, as we were hoping to move from lethbridge soon....but because of things going on at this time in our lives, it seems easiest to stay here for now.
If anyone hears of any great job opportunities around here, feel free to pass them along. Preferably ones that start soon, ha ha, so my hubby doesn't die of boredom!

this is him passed out during R's party last week...all the rest of the adults were still visiting, but he fell asleep on the bed with our sweet little niece Ju-ju

so A had a dream last night....among other things

A's dream, as told to us by him the next morning (after daddy and I were sharing our crazy dreams to each other, with him in earshot):
There was a pair of eyeballs walking around everywhere on the earth, and everyone was think, what? a pair of eyeballs? how are they walking around by themselves?! But nobody really knew that it was really a suit, with eyeballs on them...with an ALIEN inside! So the alien took of his suit, and everyone was scared,  but then guess what? That was a suit to! Because there are no such things as aliens, so he took that suit off too. Crazy, hey?
bwahahahahaha....I love that kid.
Second funny thing....R learned to count to 5....in spanish!! ha ha....cutest thing ever to listen to. I put a video on facebook, but I haven't figured out how to load them here yet, so no dice. 
Cute thing that R says lately, chocolate is my favorite!!! ha ha ha....and mommy I miss you too!! all the stinkin time....:) can't complain, he's pretty much a sweetie-pie.
A also said today at the dinner table, "Do you know what? when I grow up there will be 2 daddys living here, because I will be a daddy and daddy will be too!" he's been all about being EXACTLY like his daddy this week....its pretty sweet. He has a good example to look up to...my hubby is the bomb. ha ha. but seriously, he is :)
On a completely different side note, I want to mention that I have been working out. Oh ya! Go me! ha ha...this doesn't happen very often. So I'm pretty excited that I've stuck with it these past few weeks. Unfortunately I have no weight loss to show for it, which seriously bums me out. Like, not even a pound....aaagggghhhh. But, I have started to notice some major changes, like:
-I can work out about 3 times as long as before....without dying. Doing 1/3 of what I am doing now, was literally killing me before, I'd be laying on the couch heaving in agony. It was pretty pathetic actually. But now...I do 3x as much, and I feel great, no heaving, no pains, I can even walk up the stairs afterwards and get myself some water....this is a huge improvement.
-I also have less after-soreness. I kind of have a sore all over feel during the day, and during my work-out....but its more of a stretching sore-ness....where before it was a serious pain, in pretty much all of my muscles, and a really specific pain too.
-The craziest thing is my appetite though. I find myself eating way less in the last few days. This is super strange if you know me...I LOVE my food. I also have been craving healthier foods, and the thought of fast food has not been the least bit appealing to me as of late. This is really strange too, as I am a snack-food junky, I really don't eat too healthy at all....but I'm trying to change that. 


So....little by little I go, one day hoping to drop a pound or two maybe?? ha ha.

a funny thing...

A said that when he grows up instead of being a firefighter, he wants to do what daddy does. I asked him what he thought it was that daddy does...."he talks on the phone to people! and I LOVE talking on the phone to people"....ha ha...both of those are true I guess, so maybe he'll grow up to work in a call center, lol.