Decorating for Christmas

We have been busy so we did not get our tree put up until last night. Curt and I enjoy putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the apartment together. So we had to wait for a time when we were both available. Here is a our cute tree.
I received a Christmas present from one of the boys in the 2nd grade math class that I work in. He told me that I could not open it until Christmas. It is kind of big present to be getting from a student so I am really curious what it is, but i guess I will have to wait until Christmas. Aren't children so precocious.


Today at the school instead of having math time one second grade teachers had her son dress up as the Grinch and act it out as she read the story. Her son must of watched the new Grinch because he acted a lot like Jim Carey. He did a great job, the children loved it and I got a good laugh. I just love Christmas.

My Amazing Little Sister

This past weekend we went down to my parents to celebrate my little sister Debbie's 21st Birthday and have a Court of Honor for her receiving her Ranger award in the Venturing program.

So for those of you who don’t know what the venturing program is or what the ranger award is I will give you a brief explanation. Venturing is a scouting program for 12 to 21 year boys and girls, so when I worked up at scout camp I was a member of the venturing program. The Ranger award is kind of like receiving your Eagle except harder and more in-depth. She is one of the few in our scouting district to receive this award and the only one in my family, even though we were all members of the venturing program. I am so proud of my sister and all of her hard work, and grateful for her amazing example she is to me and everyone she comes in contact with.

For her birthday we played the dice game Farkle and had Little Debbie Snack (a traditions since her name is Debbie and she is little) and Ice cream. Watching her blow out the candles on her little Debbie Snack Cake was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. First off I haven’t seen some one blow so hard on the candles and not have single one blown out, second I haven’t seen someone take 5 or 6 breathes to blow out the candle, and last I have never seen candles light when you are trying to blow them out and not have them be trick candles. We were laugh so hard that I thought my sister was going to pass out which did not help her blow out her candles.  Come to find out she was having some problems with her breathing and had to take some medicine, so it was sad but it was still kind of funny.

Untraditional Thanksgiving

We went to Henderson Nevada with my brother and his wife to visit my Grandpa and Grandma for Thanksgiving. Since my Step Grandma is Korean we did not have a traditional Thanksgiving. My Grandma is an amazing chief (She actually owned a few different tea house in Korea), but she is getting older and does not have the health she used to, so we went to a Korean BBQ were we got to cook our own meat right there at our table.  The food was delicious however we did not have any turkey or stuffing but we did have fried pumpkin rolls and pumpkin soup. During our visit we spent time with my Grandparents, helped them out in the yard, went shopping on Black Friday at the Las Vegas outlet malls, and watched Korean Soap Operas (I have to admit other then you have to read the subtitles some of them are quite good).  It was a fun little trip, but the drive back in that storm on Sunday was not real fun.

A few things I am Thankful for

The gospel
My Relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
Blessing and Guidance
Scriptures
Insitute
This wonderful season where Christ is the center of more people lives
My Family
Curt
My warm apartment
Work
A car (That has windshield wipers and a defroster that works)
Books

Sorry It has Been A While :)

Sorry to those who keep checking my blog and it is still my post from clear back in July when it was nice and warm out and now it is December and it is freezing and snowy outside. I have been meaning to update but, I have procrastinated, been busy and have not taken any pictures. However I know some of you would like an update on our life. So here is what we have been up to.

First off I got a job; I work at an Elementary in the south part of Logan. I am a math and literacy Professional Assistant (which I think is a new fancy name for aid, but I do different things then a classroom aid). In the morning I do reading groups in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade helping them with literacy and comprehension. In the afternoon in go into the a 2nd and 3rd grade classroom and help with math. After that I read with children who are struggling and to finish off my day I help children with homework. It is a fun job, but it has its challenges. I do enjoy the children (most of the time :). Some of the students are funny because they cannot say my name and I have often been called Mrs. Snowgirl. The funniest one is this little boy from Vietnam who was trying to call me by my first name and called me Mrs. Cheese. I guess I just have a hard name for children to say.

Next Curt started graduate school in Exercise Education and has two classes Monday nights from 5-10, he is amazing I don’t know if I could handle class that late, but he is doing really well in his classes. He will be finished with is first semester by the end of next week. On top of school he is doing a 10 hour internship at Cardiac Rehab at Logan Region Hospital, which he loves. Plus his partner that he splits a full time shift with at the hospital decided he wanted to focus more on school, so he quit and now Curt is working a full time job. He is supper busy, but life will slow down in the next couple weeks when his internship and school are finished for the semester. Yeah I will have my husband back for a few weeks.

Last we have not had any updated on adoption for a while, but keep us in your prayers and send potential birth parents are way.

The 4th of July and A Baby Blessing

We went to Curt's brothers house up in Rexburg for our cute little nieces Maryanna's  Baby Blessing. I love spending time with our nieces and nephew. Here are a bunch of cute pictures.

FUN IN THE BACK YARD

Emmy pushing Curt on the swing

4th OF JULY BIKE PARADE

PLAYING WHILE WAITING FOR THE FIREWORKS

Emmy and I playing on the grass

Curt giving the kids a ride! 

SPARKLERS!!!

This little girl loved playing with the sparklers.

CUTE LITTLE MARY IN A BEAUTIFUL BLESSING DRESS

The Dress was made by my talented sister in law Lisa. We were grateful to be there for this special occasion and witness the blessing of this sweet little baby.

Bread, Cake, and Flowers!

So there is not a whole lot to update on our family. We have not heard anything else from Alexandra, so I would guess that she picked one of the other 6 couples that she was looking at. Also I got a three week job helping in a second grade class during Summer School. It has been fun working with those children and helping them catch up so they are ready for school in the fall. I was lucky enough to be placed with a teacher that I went to high school with Melanie's friend Rochelle. It is fun to get out of the house and actually be able to use part of my degree, and there is a possibility that the position could carry on into the fall which would be great!

Our Relief Society has been having different activity groups this summer and I wanted to show off some of the things I have learned to do. Here are some cute material flowers that I have made into clips for my hair. They are supper easy all you need it scraps of material, hair clips, hot glue, and material scissor. If anyone wants any more instructions let me know. Here is my first attempt at making bread and I have to say that it was a success. Some of the loafs are shaped weird because I only have one bread pan, but they still tasted great. Also I have had other successful attempts since this one and my next attempt is going to be wheat, lets hope it turns out.

Last night we had a cake decorating class and I know that I am not pro, but I was pleased with what I was able to do. They do have a lot of frosting on them because it took a lot to cover up my mistakes and I was just playing around with different ways to decorate :).

Adoption, Vacation, School...

First I will update you on our adoption story. To conclude my last post we never heard any thing else from the girl in Georgia. I am guessing since she is due this month that she chose another family or decided to keep her little boy. However we did get another bite from a girl in Idaho a little over a month ago. We sent a few emails back and forth so we know that she is due in August, but we do not know the gender of the baby. The kicker is that she is also looking at 6 other couples besides us. We have not heard from her in a few weeks but we knew that she was getting ready for high school graduation, so now maybe that she is graduated she will have time to respond to emails. We are not giving up hope on her yet, but if she decides to place her child with one of the other families we have faith that we will be chosen by another birth parent.
Keep us in your prayers and spread the word when you have a chance. Thanks for your love and support. I apologize now that I do not have many other pictures to go along with the rest of my post. There has not been much to take pictures of and when there was I forgot to bring my camera.
For the most part life has been slow, Curt has been working and I stay home and scrapbook, make jewelry, watched TV, read etc. Any one in Logan who wants to play just let me know :). I can't wait until it finally decided to be spring so that I can get out side. Curt and I have made it up the Canyon on days it decided to be warm to go fishing and hiking which is always enjoyable. I currently do not have a job, I have been applying but as most of you probably know it is a crazy time to find a job. I have had a couple interviews which is a plus, but they hired someone else. I guess I will continue to look.

Over Memorial Day we took a road trip with my family to Vegas to Visit my grandparents. We spent a lot of time working out in their yard, eating delicious food and watching Korean Soap operas. To explain, my Dad's Step-Mom is from Korea and she enjoys her Korean TV, but most of the shows have subtitles. I have to admit even though I can't understand what they are saying I enjoying watching some of the Korean games show, they have to do some crazy things and the kids have so much energy. She also is an amazing cook, when she lived over in Korea she owned restaurants, so we love to go down and have her amazing food. On Sunday afternoon we took a drive up to the Las Vegas Nevada Temple which is gorgeous with the all the palm trees and flowers all over the ground. I wish I had my camera so I could of gotten a picture of Curt and I up there. It is kind of an interesting feeling to be standing up their on the beautiful temple grounds and look out and see sin city out in the distance. I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life and have the Holy Ghost with me to be able to feel the love of Christ in my life in this sin full world we live in.

Last but not least when we come home from Vegas we had a letter in the mail form USU Grad Office. I was little worried because the envelope was thin, but CURT GOT IN TO GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!!! I am so excited for him I knew that he could pass the grad entrance exams and get into school. I am going to brag about my husband for a minute and tell you how good he did on the MAT.  He only needed to get in the 40th percentile to be excepted but he got 70 percent over all and 75 for his intended field of study. I am proud of him and I know he will do great in Grad School. Now we just have to figure out Loans and how we are going to pay for school. ANY TIPS OR ADVICE FOR US? I am guessing we will be in Logan for a few more years unless Curt gets a job some where else.

Adoption Story Update

Even though we have only been online for a few months we are blessed to have already have had a few contacts, although none of them have played out yet.

Our first contact was from a lady who was taking care of her sisters daughter and the child was going to be put in foster care while her mom was on probation. However if the mother did not shape up the little girl was going to be placed for adoption. The aunt was looking for a family that was foster care certified who would take care of the child and adopt the child if the mom did not shape up by the end of her probation. We were interested but the court date was less then a week away and we were not able to become foster care certified that soon. We never heard anything back so we assume the aunt found a family for her niece.

Our Second Contact, well sort of a contact, was from a girl named Brittany in the Salt Lake area. Brittany's case worker contacted our caseworker and said that Brittany was interested in placing her child with us and was going to be contacting us with in a few days. We never heard anything, but Brittany's casework pulled our profile off-line while she decided between us and another couple. I imagine that Brittany chose the other couple since it has been a couple of weeks and our profile is back online and we have not heard anything. Even though we did not get chosen it is exciting to hear that other couples who have been praying for a child have received the blessing of a child. It's also great to know our profile is being looked at and that we are being considered, I just hope that we get chosen soon.

The latest contact is from a girl name Allison who lives in Georgia that is having her first baby boy in June. We got an email from her on Friday saying that she was going to be placing her child for adoption and if we were interested to contact her. So of course we emailed her right away and said that she were interested and we asked her where she was from. That evening we got an email back from her telling us that she was in Georgia and that she was open to question. We emailed her back with some question that next morning, and now we are just hoping and praying that she will email us back. Please keep us and Allison in your prayers. I will keep you updated on our situation. Sorry it was kind of long but we appreciate your love, support and concern.

Family Pictures

Our Friend Dani Christensen with Christensen Photography (www.candidsbydani.com) took some pictures of Curt and I to help us enhance our adoption profile and help us attract the right birth parent. Here are some of our favorite pictures that she took.

My Little Sister is All Grown Up and Going Off to China

My younger sister Debbie is going off to Southern China to go teach English to Chinese children. I am so proud of her she will be going across the world all by her self, but I know she will have a great time and learn a lot. I love my little sis and I am greatful for her friendship. I will miss you Debbie and look forward to seeing you in June. Good luck and have a great time.

Happy Birthday to Me

I know this is kind of late but here are pictures from my birthday. I had a great day I love my birthday. Curt made me breakfast and gave me presents before he left for work. After  he got back for work we had friends over for cake (yes Curt decorated the cake himself :), ice cream, and games. I am grateful for my friends and family and all those that made it a great day. I am especially grateful for my husband and love him so much.

Visit to Rexburg

Curt and I went up to Rexburg a few weeks ago to spend time with our family and celebrate our nephew's baptism. We are so proud of his choice to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. Also Curt's family gave his Dad a stuffed beaver wearing a scout shirt to celebrate him receiving of the Silver Beaver, one of the highest honors in scouting. My Dad is also going to be receiving the Silver Beaver reward. I am so proud of them. It was fun to spend time with the family and enjoy playing games.

Adoption Profile Button

As many of you already know we have been approved and our adoption profile is online. Now we are just waiting to hear form birth parents. To hopefully help move this process along I had an adoption profile button made for me so that all you have to do is click on the button and it will take you directly to our adoption profile. I would ask that you put the button onto your blog and I also ask you to invite your friends to put the link on their blog as well. The more links that are created the higher we will come up on a search engine if some one is searching for adopting couples. Plus the more button that are on peoples blogs the more likely it will be seen prospective birth parents. Please help us get our name out and find the birth parent and child that is right for our family.