chris and dani

Why I love visiting Chris’ grandparents:

Spending time with the in-laws.  The drive there takes us over Boulder Mountain.  It is gorgeous, but we did it in complete darkness while eating a yummy banana shake and listening to The Hunger Games on CD.  All the while, my mother-in-law, Jolynn, is telling us to watch for deer.  Can I say distracted driving?  Jolynn must not have trusted Chris and his dad in the front so she was craning her neck to watch for deer and, yes, she always did spot them first.  But when a big black blob appeared in the middle of the big black road in the big black dark it took all of us a minute to realize it was a cow.  We all were screaming.  Jolynn actually managed to shout the word “cow!!” and we missed him by inches.  When John-the-attorney told us it is a law we have to pay for cows we hit on the road I was annoyed.  After all, if I hit someones life-long companion dog, I wouldn’t have to pay for that!  “What’s the difference between a cow and a dog?” I shouted.  “About a thousand pounds!” said John.  I wasn’t amused.  Okay, I was.

 Food.  The peach pie.  The fire pit hot dogs. The Smores.  The garden veggies.  Yum.

Nature.  We live one with nature in that small town and I love/hate it.  I love the sound of the stream just outside the window.  I love the gorgeous hikes we have easy access to.  I love the smell of the honeysuckle bush.  But I hate the Humming Bird and the Hornet that were fighting over nests around our heads in the gazebo.  I really hate the twenty-something mosquito bites I am sporting, even on my face. And I really  hate the big tennis ball sized Beatle that landed on Chris’ back, causing me to fly over the table away from him, screaming about how I was about to lose my husband to a bug incident.

 Dude.  The kids.  Follow the leader, the park, swinging, their funny fighting.  My favorite was walking down the stairs after ten pm for bed and spotting almost three year old Logan running away from the television he had been watching, while very nonchalantly shouting at us “Oh, I’m just hanging out.”  Then when his mom tells him to get in bed he does, but it is on his stomach with his chin on his hands, kicking his little feet and not about to go to sleep.  I can say it’s funny because I’m not his mom.  :)

The small town parade.  On the drive to the next small town over we spotted a car accident, then the cop car, the ambulance, and the firetruck.  There went half the parade.  That left a tractor, some horses, a guy in a motorized recliner chair, and a truck pulling the primary kids, another for the youth in the local ward, and then a woman on a four wheeler with a list of excuses why the Relief Society didn’t have  a float.  It was awesome.  And since the parade route is so little we saw the whole thing twice.  They turned around and came back before we could leave.  Nice.

The grandparents.  I love their stories, I love their hugs, I love how everything we do has to be exactly the way they’ve always done it, and I love grandpa trying to figure out what we were talking about when we asked him if we could borrow a CD player.

I can hardly wait for our visit next year!

We recently hosted our annual Tour De Daybreak with my little cousins Brynna and Buddy.

 First, we mapped out our course and starred each park we wanted to visit.

Then we were off!

Lessons Learned after covering close to five miles and nine parks:
Kids fall off their bikes.  A lot.  How hard is it, really?
Don’t fill kids up with watermelon if you are planning on being away from a toilet.
Kids believe everything.  Even the one about the bubbles in the water belonging to the Daybreak Whale,
Chris is really good at playing tag.
If I keep my fridge full of pop for her to drink, Brynna really really really wants to babysit for us soon,
29 is apparently really old.  “You’re HOW OLD??
Brynna worded this lesson perfectly.  “You might need to sweep your bathroom now.”

12 years ago we laughed together as we locked my sister in the trunk of my car and drove around your neighborhood because she was pestering us to finally kiss each other. I knew we were perfect for each other.

11 years ago we debated if you really had to go on a mission or if we could get married right then.

10 years ago I turned on the video you sent me from halfway around the world and the second I heard your voice I started screaming and running in circles because I missed that voice in my life.

9 years ago you kissed me the very day you were released from your mission. When your sister pestered us in the car with your whole family about ‘when we were going to kiss for the first time again’ our faces and hesitance to answer gave us away. Rather than locking her in the trunk you screamed “DANI KISSED ME!” Even though it was a lie and I was so embarrassed in front of my future mother-in-law, I still knew I wanted to marry you.

8 years ago I ugly-cried as we knelt across the altar and created our family.

7 years ago you continued working full time on top of a full time school schedule so I could cut back in my job and start grad school.

6 years ago after nearly drowning you in order to remove myself from the scary ocean water, you tried yet again to get me to snorkel. This time I loved it. Sorry I almost killed you.

5 years ago we were still loving our tiny downtown apartment, the daily gateway mall shopping, the rides on Trax, the rabbit-ears television, and even the fight inducing Mario Kart.

4 years ago we graduated together again and realized we may not have to sit in the library all night studying again. Ever. If only we knew that you would end up in grad school too.

3 years ago we wrote out a check to commit to building our home and after driving to the home builders’ office we turned around and ended up sitting in a parking lot for over an hour deciding if we really could do it. I’m so glad you are indecisive as I am. Misery loves company.

2 years ago I saw your excitement every time we saw our first little nephew and we knew we wanted to add to our own family.

1 year ago we nervously went to our adoption agency for the first time and left so excited about adoption.

2 weeks ago you held my hand as we saw a baby boy move around in his amazing mom.

12 hours ago you pretended to head-butt me- at precisely the same moment I pretended to head-butt you. Even though it hurt, I couldn’t stop laughing.

I’m so glad it was all with you, Topher. I loves you.

Happy Eighth.

you know, to announce the sex of the baby!

 Get your dirty minds out of the gutter.  sick-o’s.

 After the ultrasound last week, we thought it would be fun for our families to meet our cute birth mom and she was excited to announce the sex of the baby right along with us.  So that’s what we did.

 The night was entirely about Guys vs Girls.  We decorated with our gender-confused frog (wearing a tutu and a tie), signs boasting “ITS A GIRL” as well as “ITS A BOY,” plus blue and pink balloons (confusing the party-store employees with our purchases).  We had everyone guess what they thought the baby would be and wear a colored pacifier representing their guess.  We very quickly ran out of pink ones!  Then we had competitions between the sex’s including Mario Kart, Connect Four, Fooseball, and our new favorite, Just Dance on the Wii.  We also had a survivor-ish competition popping balloons and putting together a puzzle to announce that…

IT’S A BOY!

 Chris is on cloud nine imagining a baby boy born in October and I am right there with him!  Right after we were put back on the “list” we couldn’t help ourselves and kept looking at little boy clothes.  One day we bought the cutest, tiniest pair of basketball shorts (but no dresses, mind you) and hung them in the front of our closet where we see them everyday.  We are so excited to have a baby boy on the way and just can’t wait until he can wear them!

 We are so grateful for our beautiful birth mom who loves her little son so much she is willing to sacrifice to give him everything she can.  Plus you should see her groove to MC Hammer’s Can’t Touch This!  We love you Alexa!

Yup!

It finally happened!

We have a baby!

She is cute

and oh so shiny.

She already sleeps through the night

and hasn’t had even one dirty diaper.

The day she came home, the anticipation woke Chris up hours before his alarm

and she is such a daddy’s girl!

Her name is Silver

Welcome home little girl.
She’s been in the garage getting better acquainted with Max and Sasha Cynthia.
They seem to get along okay (our vehicles, mind you) and Max and Sasha are glad to finally have a female variety in that garage!

 The only sad part about having our new little girl is that we will now have to send Blaze to live with another family.
The days of Blaze (the second) have once again come to an end.
Oh the pain of Blaze leaving us.  ;)

 Click HERE and HERE to for some of our favorite Blaze stories.  May he go to a good home.

Also, doesn’t EVERYONE name their cars?
My mom asked why I don’t name my house as well.
“Mom, a house is an inanimate object,” I explained.
She just gave me a disgusted look.
Like I didn’t know what ‘inanimate’ meant or something.
Help me prove her wrong.  What is your cars name?

After picking up ice cream cones from the golden arches, my “Mix Master” Husband, Chris, or MMC (as we like to call him around here) introduced me to the greatest new radio station.

Cake was playing.  I was excited.

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags goes up,
Churning and burning, they yern for the cup.

We pulled into the garage.  Chris went into the house but I continued to sit in Max.
Singing at the top of my lungs.

THEY’RE GOING THE DISTANCE!  THEY’RE GOING FOR SPEED!

Then, on the way to work today I heard Britney, Boys II Men, Ace of Base, Backstreet Boys and Live.
I very reluctantly turned the car off to go inside.

Later, on my way to a school, after hearing all about Alanis putting her hand in her pocket I hear their slogan:

GEN X MUSIC, TODAY

Gen X Music today?

So……. the music that I know every singe word to-
the music I can name pretty close to the correct year it came out-
the music I associate all of my high school experiences with-
is actually music from ANOTHER GENERATION???

And it hit me.
My songs have turned into the “oldies.”

not. cool.

Or does listening to my radio instead of plugging in my IPOD date me enough?

You think I was exaggerating when I said I slammed the door shut to the nursery that blasted day almost two months ago.  Nope.  I slammed it.

But we had a problem.  Our vacuum is stored in the closet in that nursery.   So every time I needed to vacuum I would have to open the door and walk through that cute nursery and then stop.

to cry.

or yell.

or do whatever it was that room evoked that day.  Then I would return the vacuum to the closet and SLAM the door shut again.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I left the door open.  I caught glimpses of my “cutie pathootie” sign throughout the day.  I caught whiffs of new plastic baby equipment.  I noticed the scary little monster on the wreath that Chris purchased because he said it ‘reminded him of my insides.’   It made me happy again.

Then- just like that- things started to change.  We responded to e-mails from birth mothers without a mean, accusing undertone to our voices (imagine that!).  We started putting more effort into our volunteer group of Families Supporting Adoption.  We added more decorations to the nursery.  It’s becoming fun again.

Check out our newest addition.  The magnet board.

Plus some other additions since the last time I blogged about the nursery.  I love this picture.

This hasn’t changed but I’m posting it again anyways.  The birdies.

Definitely my favorite room in our home right now!

• I  confess.  I spent a good 30 seconds at work today laughing so hard I couldn’t speak because I was talking with a co worker about America’s Funniest Home Videos.  But I stayed 30 seconds late to make up for it.
• I confess.  I swallowed my gum four times this week despite my mother’s teachings.  And it was on purpose.  It’s just so satisfying.
• I confess.  I am thrilled the Jazz were swept away by those other guys so I don’t have to watch one more game and yell “MAKE THAT REBOUND!” one more time.  But I wish Reed would bring more peanut butter M&M’s over to go with my pretzels again.  Yum.
• I confess.  I went to the mall today.  By myself.  And I shopped in every single baby clothing store I passed.  Even though I am NOT expecting a baby.  Hmph.  I don’t care.  (I want every item of clothing at Baby Gap by the way.  Holy Crap.)
• I confess.  I tried on a swim suit. With my long underwear on.  Ridiculous.
• I confess.  We have had the exact same dinner for five days straight.  Leftovers are my favorite.
• I confess.  I have spent hours playing Nintendo this week.  No, not the Wii, the Gamecube.  I’m that cool.
• I confess.  I let my nephew “play” Nintendo almost the entire time I babysat him on Monday afternoon.  (Sorry Ash!)  (You’re welcome Logie!)
• I confess.  I let myself doodle my two favorite baby names on a paper while talking on the phone.  They both ended in Brems and looked oh so cute.
• I confess.  I cannot think of a clever way to end this post.

Holla Mom.  You are kind.  You are enthusiastic.  You are fun.  You’re the perfect amount of blond.  You smile a ton.  You sacrifice every second of free time you get for us (still!).  And you’ll even have a swearing party with me when I really need it.  You’re such a great self esteem booster.  and you invite us to dinner.  All the time.  Plus you are so much like Grandma Grunts.  I hope I can grow up to be just like you.  Love you.

Holla to my favorite Mother-in-law.  You are supportive.  You are nurturing.  You raised an amazing son (thank you).    You are hilarious and are inappropriate at just the right time.   Plus, you’ll gang up against our twinner husbands with me.  You help me process all this adoption stuff when I need it the most.  I hope I can grow up to be just like you.  Love you.

Holla to my sister and sisters-in-law.  You girls are the best, cutest mommies.  You share your amazing, hilarious, cute kiddos with me.  You let me love their guts and you let them love me.  You let me hang pictures of them all over my house, and show them off like they are my own.  I can’t ever express how happy they make me and what a void they fill.  I hope I can grow up to be just like you.  Love you, girls.

Holla to my mommy friends.  Through blogs, through neighbors, through long time friends, I am surrounded by the greatest mom’s to the greatest kids.  Every one of you love your kids for who they are in the most amazing way.  You teach me so much.  I hope I can grow up to be just like you.  Love you girlies.

Holla to our future birth mother.  I am so amazed at the selfless love you will one day give to your baby.  A love that will be hard for some others to understand.  A love I will forever teach your baby that you have for him.  I am forever grateful for the sacrifice you will make to do what you know is best for your baby.  I cannot wait to meet you.  Love you.

and just in case you were wondering.  No, I don’t ever use the word Holla.