The 5th of November...

Remember, remember, the 5th of November....

Guy Fawkes's attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605 is not the reason our little family remembers the 5th of November. We have a MUCH better reason. November 5th, 2012, is the day that our adoption of Jared was finalized! It took a long time with many delays, but FINALLY, he is officially ours. Instead of going down to Vegas for the court date, we were able to stay in Elko and be on a conference call with the judge and our lawyer. And it was quick! The phone call lasted 6 minutes, and about a minute of that was us on hold. I am so happy it's over! No more monthly visits, no more having to get permission to travel out of state with him. 

I love this little man of ours and am so grateful for him! And so grateful for his birthparents, Kylia and Dakota. Without them I wouldn't have the wonderful privilege of being Jared's mom! And I love seeing Shalum and Jared together. Shalum is such an awesome dad!

 For some reason I couldn't get this picture to turn. Oh well.

This is our caseworker, Tracey

Crocheting!

I love crocheting. Granted I'm still a bit of a novice at it. My grandma first taught me to crochet when I was about 9 or 10, but I didn't keep with it and quickly lost it. In fact I quit crocheting before I even finished the pot holder I was making. Then I asked my grandma to teach me again when I was 16. This time I actually finished a pot holder before I stopped crocheting and lost the skill again. It wasn't the best looking pot holder, I messed up in a few spots, but I was proud of that pot holder because I made it. Then about 3 or so years ago, I asked a woman in my ward to teach me, and she was sweet enough to do so. This time however I have kept with it. But only occasionally, and it was always just a blanket of single crochet stitches. Then a couple weeks ago I felt like learning a new pattern, so I got online, did some research, and found a simple, yet beautiful, pattern. Simple it may be, but it took me about a week and a half to figure it out because I just kept messing up. I finally figured out why I was having such a hard time with it, my tension was waaaaay too tight, making it look wrong. Once I figured that out, I started crocheting with a looser tension, and I think the end result is quite beautiful! It was just last night that I finished it. LATE last night. I had a friend's baby shower I was going to today (in fact I was a little worried I wouldn't get the blanket finished in time) so I stayed up late last night working on it. However I wasn't able to make it to the shower because Jared is sick, but fortunately he's getting better. Anyway, the pattern is called Tiramisu Baby Blanket. And here is the finished result....

♥

Halloween!

I love Halloween! It's so much fun to dress up! Unfortunately Shalum had to work this year, so it was just Jared and I, but we hung out with Tamra, Tyler, and the twins. So we still had a fun time! Jared was Batman! And I was Robin. We looked pretty cool together!

 Have you ever seen a cooler Batman and Robin? I think not.

 Batman and Baby Mario

 Baby Peach

 Tamra and Tyler dressed up as Super Mario and Princess Peach, and the twins as their mini me's. So cute! We were all rockin' it.

Planetarium

During our free fun-filled trip to Salt Lake, we stopped over at the planetarium. We also wanted to go to the zoo, but it was cold and rainy, so we vetoed that idea. But we had fun at the planetarium! Pictures were taken of course.

 Jared was mesmerized by the giant pendulum.

 He also liked the mist.

 Thought the electrical thing was pretty cool too.

We took a trip to Mars while we were there!

It's so fun going to the planetarium! You always learn some cool facts you didn't know before. Definitely going there again!

The Grand America Hotel

So my super sexy husband is pretty awesome...oh my word that so reminds me, before we adopted Jared, Shalum and his friend, Spencer, were claiming that when we adopted him, his name was going to be Super Sexy Shalum Spencer Stone, the dorks I know. But every once in a while we call Jared, Super Sexy...but anyway, back to my husband being awesome. So my husband has a second job, he's building his own business through Primerica (hoping to eventually get out of mining), and in his base shop there are often prizes for getting so many sales, or making so much commission, or something of the sort. Well Shalum won a trip to Salt Lake. We stayed a night at The Grand America Hotel. Talk about nice! We were certainly styling it up! We of course had to take pictures, because really, how often will we find ourselves in a place like that again? The trip was a month ago, I know and I'm only just now posting about it? I've been busy this past month. But anyway, here are some pictures....

 Shalum loungin' it up in style!

 This was the view of the courtyard from our window.

 Jared was mesmerized by the fountain.

  Here's a 'Where's Waldo?' picture for you, only it's Where's Shalum and Jared?

 Ah, there they are!

 And here they are closer up.

 The courtyard, as the rest of the hotel, was beautiful!

 I absolutely love and adore this picture!

 These pictures were taken in the little toy shop inside the hotel.