Mittens or Mutton anyone?

On Saturday we were down in good ol' Sanpete County visiting Jared's parents. Jared went down with the scouts to a cabin in Fairview Canyon the night before. Saturday morning I drove through Manti and Ephraim to pick up him up in Fairview. I went to school for a year at Snow College. I haven't been through that area so it was fun to drive through and see how much HASN'T changed... even in ten years.

Before I hit Manti I got stuck in a bit of traffic. Of the four-legged kind. Now I remembered this happens occasionally on some of the roads down there but I've never experienced on the main highway through town. I swear every sheep in that town was being led down the middle of the highway, going the opposite of traffic. Why were they being sent down the middle of the road instead off on the wide shoulder? Don't ask me, but there are some awfully smart sheep herders who thought it would be great entertainment for us travelers. Kylie and I sat parked on the highway for about ten minutes for all those sheep to walk around us. Here are some pictures from the cell phone.

Resting

Today we attended the funeral and laid to rest our beautiful great-grandmother. We will miss her so much! Grandma Crowther is Jared's grandmother and she lived in West Jordan. We took these pictures over at her house (four generations) just last week. We will miss her tons. She was a very elect lady.

On a sillier note, at the cemetery Kylie was having a hay day running around everywhere and playing in the leaves. She'd just take off, and would grab a fun treasure on her way that was adoring someones headstone. So Jared spent a great deal of time chasing her down and returning the items to their respective headstones. I was taking pictures and so Jared was watching her most of the time. While she was under my watch for a few minutes while I was being THE BEST MOTHER EVER I took a picture, then looked down and saw that Kylie had plopped herself down next to the casket and was trying to crawl underneath it. Problem is there's nothing but a long drop down into where the casket will rest. Someone grabbed her right when I was about to have a heart attack. Wouldn't that have made great headlines? NEWS AT NINE... BABY INJURED FROM FALLING INTO HER GREAT-GRANDMOTHER'S GRAVE. So thankfully the munchkin has made it another day unscathed. We will miss our grandma so much.

Granted these two pictures aren't great, but look at Grandma Crowther's reaction to Kylie putting her finger in her ear!
































A little nicer picture of the four generations.

It's Getting Busy Around Here

I've noticed just over the past few days Kylie is getting much, much more busier! There is constant trail of odds and ends and junk that she's dragged out of every bookshelf, drawer, cabinet that she can find. Yesterday especially. I was trying to wrap a present and before I knew it it looked like the gift wrapping drawer had exploded. She's also tall enough now to reach onto the countertops in the bathrooms. I have to keep reminding Jared to make sure to put the cap on the toothpaste, because she keeps finding it, tasting it, and getting it on her clothes. And she's tall enough to reach into the junk drawer and empty that out.

Tomorrow I'm making a trip to find those cabinet and door locks that use a magnet. I put a bunch of the inexpensive locks on the cabinets but they don't work well. Half of them don't work. A few mighty tugs from munchkin and she's hit the mother load of odds and ends to strew about my house.

Halloweening

So I've failed to post some pictures of munchkin in her Halloween duds.

Here she is in her Sugar Plum Fairy finest.

You see, Kylie might grow up to have a tom boy streak (might is the operative word) and so as her mother it's my duty to get my fill of girly frillyness while I can. Not that I'm expecting that. But you never know.

But doesn't she look ADORABLE?

To be fair, I took these two weeks before Halloween while I was working on her costume (yes I made it... everything except for the wings). So here are some snapshots more or less of it in the works.

I'd say these pictures reflect about 80% of what the finished product looked like. She ended up wearing a white long sleeve onesie underneath, the skirt was a little more full, tucked in some of the ribbons into the skirt better, and I reworked the flowers on the dress so they'd stay better and weren't so large. The tulle skirt wasn't hard to make. You cut 4" strips of various shades of wedding tulle and tie them to some elastic. The flowers and purple tulle came from my mom's stash (aka. Emily's wedding).

I really didn't set out this year for this costume, but the ideas kept flowing after I stumbled on to those cute fairy wings at Gardner Village. I started poking around on Ebay to get some ideas for something to go with it and found some very pretty tutu's that were very boutique priced. This ended up costing me about $9 to make ($6 for the wings, $3 for the contrasting tulle) since I was able to raid Mom's wedding stash and use thing I had already.



































































































Checking out the pumpkins on the front step.

Positive Adoption Terms

For no other reason than (ahem) it's National Adoption Month I'm posting this for anyone who wants to brush up on their adoption lingo. Or just wants to make sure they don't unintentionally tick someone off who is adopted or has adopted a child. So here's your lesson for today...

Negative Terms
Gave her baby up for adoption (this one drives me crazy when I hear it... Kylie was placed out of love, not because her birth mom gave her up, or that she was a gift)
Real parent; natural parent (implies that somehow I'm unnatural)
Adoptive parent
Her adopted child (luckily no one has ever used this around me... blech)
Illegitimate Adoptee
To keep
Adoptable child; available child
Foreign adoption
Track down parents
Unwanted child
Is adopted

Preferred Terms
Placed her child for adoption (ding ding ding!)
Birth parent; biological parent
Parent
His/her child
Born to unmarried parents
Child who was adopted
To parent
Waiting child
International adoption
Search
Child placed for adoption
Was adopted


By far the two that I hear the most are "gave her baby up" and when asking about Kylie's birthmom sometimes people will say something like "was her mom (insert question)?" Ahem, I am her mom. I can usually know what they are talking about so I'll say "Oh you mean her birth mom? And I'll go on to answer the question. Another one I hear a lot of complaints about (though I haven't gotten this myself) is "Are you ever going to have any kids of your OWN?" As if Kylie is on loan to us or something. It's not really a tactful way of asking this question and there are better better ways to inqure if someone is pursuing pregnancy or fertility treatments. (And my answer to that probing question is that according to our RE we need to try IVF to make that happen. So for all of you who are stuffing their pillows at night with their wads of cash send some our way. About 12K worth please!)


There you go folks!

Of Utmost Importance

Kylie's learned to say "Mama" today! She was babbling in the tub as usual and we were mimicking words back and forth. If anyone can't remember she loves to say dada. She watched my mouth form the word and she said mama twice! And crazy enough, in some of her frustrations today I can tell she's trying to say it.

Desires of the Heart

A fellow blogger posted this and I loved it. I hope it's okay, but I've re-posted it here to share with you all.


Boyd K. Packer:

Some years ago a president of a student stake asked if I would counsel with a young couple. The stalwart young man and his lovely wife had recently been told, with some finality, that they would never have children of their own. They were heartbroken as they sobbed out their disappointment. What they wanted most in life, what they had been taught and knew was an obligation and a privilege beyond price (part of the Plan), they now were to be denied. Why? Why? Why?

I consoled them as best I could and offered comfort that really was insufficient to quiet the pain they felt. As they were leaving the office, I called them back and said: “You are a very fortunate and very blessed young couple.”

They were startled and the young man asked why would I say such a thing as that. Did I not understand what they had told me? Why would I say they were fortunate and blessed, when they were to be denied the thing they wanted most, children of their own.

I answered, “Because you want them. In the eternal scheme of things that will be of inestimable and eternal value.” The Lord has said that He “will judge all men according to their works; according to the desires of their hearts” (D&C 137:9). Many people now do not want children or want few of them or consider them a burden rather than a blessing.” They were a very blessed young couple.

When you understand the plan, you can cope with challenges in life which otherwise would be unbearable.

About two weeks ago I took Kylie up Butterfield Canyon one afternoon so I could work on my artistic abilities. Problem? Lighting was crappy and baby wasn't thrilled with the idea of being my model. Some orange outfitted deer hunters walked by and I could but help but wonder if I could be mistaken for you know... a four legged critter that tastes like venison. So we didn't stay up there long.

R House from the S House

Well I can't really think of anything to write about tonight (though I'm still working on posting some Halloween pictures for ya Emily) so I thought I'd share one of my new found and favorite blogs to follow.

Her name is Lindsey and she's an adoptive mother times two. I actually remember seeing their online profile when ours was active also, before they were placed with their son. She's a BIG TIME adoption advocate and there is so much information on her blog it's mind boggling. Articles, thoughts, rants, birthmothers, adoptive parents, feel good stories and heartbreaking stories. You name it's there somewhere.

http://therhouse.blogspot.com

Sean saved me...

Geez, I was almost in a car accident today. I was turning left onto 134000 south. The light turned green and I hesitated for a few seconds because I was paying attention to Sean Hannity on the radio. Then a van came blazing to my left through a VERY red light. I came *this* close to being T-boned. So I'm glad I'm here and my bones, my car and my baby are in good shape. Whew!

November

Today is November 2nd. Which means that...


#1. It's my sister Vaylene's birthday (Happy Twenty Four to you Vay).

#2. Elections are almost here and over (hallelujah).

#3. For those who are involved in the adoption world, or who have been exposed to it in some way November is big month for advocacy and education since i's National Adoption Month. I'll celebrate it in my own way by posting a few adoption related posts and articles during this month. So stay tuned.

#4. Last I heard our Abbie is flying out here next weekend. I'm SO EXCITED! Her aunt & cousin were coming to Utah for a few days so she was toying with the idea of coming too. I hope it works out for her to do so. We haven't seen her since April.

#5. I found out that a dear friend of mine that's been TTC for three years is pregnant! I was so excited when her hubby told me. They were one month away from trying IVF so I'm just over the moon thrilled for them. It totally made my day.

#6. Today was as good as any to make cinnamon rolls from scratch. It doesn't happen often around the S home. Yummy!