Bear Lake

We took our annual trip to Bear Lake with my family over Labor Day weekend. We were a little concerned about the weather, but we had been looking forward to it all summer, so we weren't going to let that stop us! We stopped in Logan for Bryan to finish up some paper work with clients and have lunch. We arrived at the campground, got our new tent set up, (love it!) then Dustin and Lindsey arrived. We helped them set up their tent and then we were off to the Quick 'n Tasty for burgers and raspberry shakes, a Bear Lake tradition. The weather on Sat was a little cold, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They still had a blast playing in the water and making sand castles. It rained on us later that night, but not for very long. The kids had so much fun playing flashlight hide and go seek in our campsite Sun night. Monday the weather was a ton better and we made the most of it and played all day! Jack even convinced Mamma to drive a wave runner fully clothed! We had such a great time and are so glad to have this tradition to look forward too every year!

Daddy and Parker on the slide at McDonald's

Parker had sand on his nose and thought it was so funny

One of Parker's favorite things to do at the lake is 'ride the tube'

Sadly, this is the best picture we took of the three of us

Parker and his cousin Jackson hiding in the bushes, it really was dark
and it took a while for the girls to find them

They hid Addi in this camp chair bag, it was hilarious

It was Parker's turn to 'seek' Daddy helped him count

The kids built this sand castle together with help from Jack

Jack taking Mamma out to the wave runner, we can't believe she did it!

Blogging for Dummies

So, I am trying to put together an adoption blog in the hopes that we can get our money, application, homestudy etc. etc. etc. done by the end of the year. It's basically a place where potential birth parents can go to learn about family our and see pictures of us. I have looked at several other adoption blogs and have some ideas of what I would like it to look like, but I am a blogging dummy. I have seen some that don't show the date of each post. I have seen some that have a 'welcome' sort of message in the main body of the blog and then links on the side bar to each section. Does anyone know how to do either one of these? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also, let everyone you know we are hoping to adopt again. You never know when someone will hear of birth parents looking for an adoptive couple. That's how we found Parker! Thanks again for your help!

Giveaway!

Go check out this sweet giveaway at the r house! Yum!

Another Giveaway!

Here is another giveaway to help the r house! The more you spread the word the more chances you have to win a beautiful necklace from Mrs. R's etsy shop! Go here for details!

The r House needs your help!

We have some friends from the blogging/adoption world that need your help! They are waiting for a judge to render his decision in their contested adoption trial. They are fasting this Sunday for Judge Kouris that he will keep baby g with his family and they will be able to finalize their adoption and finally be able to take him to the temple to be sealed as a family. They are also trying to raise the funds necessary to pay their legal expenses. Mrs. R is selling beautiful hand made jewelery. Go check out her etsy shop.


You can also enter to win a custom made Doll from:

Here's how it works:

1. $1 gets you one ticket in the raffle ($5 gets you 5, etc)

2. Posting about the contest on your personal blog with blog button (you can get the button here) gets you another (1) ticket in the raffle. You can then either post a comment in Mrs. R's "contest post" or send me an email with the link to your post.

3. Raffle ends 9/30 and winner will be announced 10/1.

4. Winner gets custom doll! :)
A) Choice of Girl, Boy or Animal
B) Choice of fabric
C) Choice of skirt or tutu for doll (unless its a boy of course)

In addition, Humble Like This Child is offering a coupon for 10% off your entire order when you enter 'RHouse' in your cart.

Here is just one of the many cute dolls from Humble Like This Child

Please join us in fasting on Sunday and if at all possible, help Mr. & Mrs. R raise $ to help cover their legal expenses. Mrs. R does so much for so many people. She is an adoption advocate and has an amazing blog that I have been reading for almost a year now. You can read on her blog here and here and here to find out a little about what they are going through these days at the r house. I suggest reading everything you can on her blog, but who has that kind of time, I know. These links will give you a little glimpse into what's happening right now. Thank you so much for your willingness to help and good luck winning one of these adorable dolls!

Sick. Sick. Sick!

We are STILL sick at the Allen House. Bryan and I have had it forever, and now Parker is showing signs of not feeling well. I have a ton to blog about and just finished catching up on fb and others' blogs, but I am DONE! (I didn't even try to catch up on all the adoption sites, etc. I like to read.) We just returned from our annual trip to Bear Lake with my family, and I will blog about that later. I am going to go feed Parker lunch, put him down for a nap and try to get my laundry done. Maybe I'll get a nap in there somewhere, but probably not. So for now, goodbye blogging world. I don't know when I will be back. This crud is going on 11 days! I just want to feel better! When I feel human again, I'll blog about all of our fun weekend adventures! Here are some pictures of my living room and kitchen right now. There are piles of camping stuff everywhere! Maybe I'll have the energy to get to it later.

FSA and fun?

Saturday we went the FSA Fall Social. It was at Sugar House park and we had a blast! There was a bounce house, and despite bonking heads with the other kids a couple of times, Parker loved it! He also loved playing on the playground and went down a HUGE slide all by himself twice! He is getting so big and brave!

Here are some of the kids that were at the park
Yay Adoption!

Lovin' the bounce house

Going down one of the smaller slides

Speaking of being brave, here are some pictures of Parker playing in the sprinkler last night. Usually if he wants to play in the water, we have to turn it down so there is barely any coming out of the sprinkler. I was watering the lawn, so it was on full blast. He said he wanted to play in the water so I showed him where he could stand just to get his feet wet. Then I told him to step a little closer and he did! He inched his way closer and closer, and I mean inched. He didn't get very far in, but stood there for a while and got pretty wet. He was smiling when he was just at the edge of the sprinklers reach, but wasn't so sure when he got closer to the sprinkler.

Look Daddy I'm brave

Still being brave, I think

I'm not sure about this anymore

I'm outta here!

The other day at lunch Parker saw my ipod on the counter and wanted to listen to 'his song'. He loves the movie Cars. There are a couple of songs in the movie that he gets so excited about if we hear them on the radio. One is 'Life is a Highway' by Rascal Flatts. The other is 'Real Gone' by Sheryl Crow. He calls the first one his song and the second one he calls the race because it's the song played at the beginning of the movie when McQueen is racing. So he listened to both songs while he ate his lunch. Every time we get in the car he asks to hear his song and then he says, "The race gonna come on?" I'm not sure if it was a good thing to put his songs on cd so he can hear them whenever he wants. It gets old really fast for me, but he loves it!

Singing along to 'Real Gone'