So Blessed

I'm definitely a little slow at posting, but tis the season of busy...right? So with some precious nap time minutes I'm posting about our amazing trip to Utah over Thanksgiving. On the 16th of November (our 9th anniversary) we finalized our adoption of Leilah! We got to the court house around 9 and met up with my parents, Hayden's parents, my sister Rachelle and her cute little guy, our lawyer and caseworker. The judge was amazing! He was so happy for us and just so wonderful. We answered a few questions and got to express our feelings about Leilah and adopting her; needless to say there were some tears :) I got to go first and just said how much I loved Leilah and how we already feel like she's 100% ours and we're just ready to make if official :) Then Hayden went and man the water works came on for me! He was so sweet in expressing his love for her and what a blessing and miracle she is :)

Then on Sunday the 21st Leilah received a name and a blessing. It was so wonderful to have so many people present and to see all of the priesthood in our families supporting and taking part in the blessing :) I think there were 13 men in the circle. It's hard to express in words how special that blessing was... the spirit was so strong. Leilah is such a sweet girl and it was a sweet blessing. I'm so grateful for a husband that honors his priesthood and has the spirit with him.


Then Hallelujah, on November 24th we were able to go to Mount Timpanogos Temple to seal Leilah to our family! We stayed at the Kimball's house the night before to avoid any traffic stress :) Then got up and ready. Hallie was SO excited! When we got there my parents and Jacob and Kimberly were already there, THANK GOODNESS! My mom went to the children's area with the girls and was a life saver helping with Hallie. Hals is such a mama's girl and has some separation anxiety so to have my mom there to help her through was so amazing! We had to go do some paper work and then get ready for the sealing. After we were dressed in white our sweet temple helper let us spend some time alone in the Celestial Room. That's when the water works started for me... I just thought about how our little family was going to have the opportunity to be together forever and was so overcome with love and gratitude. I can't express very well what the temple means to me; just love and hope and joy... Then we were taken to the sealing room where so many of our family and friends were waiting :) It was SO wonderful to see everyone and all the support and love around us. Our sealer came in shortly and explained that there was a last minute switch on sealers because our designated sealer wasn't feeling well. I am sure that was part of Heavenly Father's plan for us that day. Our sealer was amazing and the spirit filled the room as he spoke, testifying of the truth of his words about sealings and our special way of multiplying and replenishing in our family ;) There were so many insights he gave; it will be something I remember forever. In fact they called down for the temple workers to bring the girls in two different times and the communication got lost so he had a lot of time to talk while we waiting thinking they were coming... and I'm SO glad! :) Finally though they brought in our two sweet angels, dressed in their gorgeous white dresses (thanks mom and cherie for the hours and hours and hours and days of work!) I can't even write this with out getting teary! It was SO amazing to have my family in the temple all in white together. Then to have the sealer use the power of God to seal our little girl to us as if she had been born from us... words can not express the love and peace and joy I felt at that moment and still today. I am so incredibly blessed. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and my family and this is it and I am so incredibly grateful!

Then after everyone said congratulations and left the room we got to hold our girls and look in the mirrors in the room, looking at our eternal family :) It was a special experience I'll remember forever. While we were in the room I also asked Hallie how she felt, she said she felt good. I asked why she felt good and she said the spirit was touching her heart. I persisted and asked what that felt like..she hesitated then looked at me with her perfect innocence and said, "love."

Later she was so adorable again and said, "Now we get to keep Leilah forever and ever and ever!"
So blessed.


(sorry for the small pics! It's all I have for now, but don't worry there will be many later ;) )

Halloween and So Forth

Ya, I'm a little slow posting these, they are just TOO CUTE to leave out :) So Hallie has been planning on being Cinderella for months and with the sealing coming up I decided this was a perfect opportunity to do a practice dress before I make her temple dress. Little did I know that the dress instructions were next to impossible to follow and the fabric that was "so perfect" was just the right kind to make sewing 100x's harder... But with a little pixie dust and a LOT of help from my amazing sewing mom and sister (which included a trip to AZ THANK YOU THANK YOU!!) we got it done. All that was left was my fairy godmother costume (started and finished day of the party) and Leilah's costume (thankfully purchased). Leilah was the pumpkin and Hallie was convinced with a wave of my wand she would turn into a beautiful carriage and whisk her away to the ball. So of course all night she was bibbity bobbitying Leilah trying to get her carriage!
At the trunk or treat

promise she didn't actually eat that, but doesn't she have the perfect "Oops, I got caught" face!)


This is Hals trying not to smile...lol

Leilah also just turned 6 months old! Here are a few pics of that day. We went to the Desert Botanical Garden; hooray for November and being able to be outside! It was beautiful!







Chihuly had an exhibit called "Desert Towers" I love his work so it was fun to see it at the garden :)



Hallie is very into "performances" lately and is currently/constantly wearing her old ballet costume and putting on shows for us. The best was she decided she was a "rose fairy princess" and needed to pick flowers... adorable!



On the way to the flowers she hummed, twirled and danced. This is a short clip of on the way back :)

Blogging via Photos

So it's been awhile... and truthfully the only reason I'm blogging now is that I am putting off the millions of things I need to do while the girls nap...at the same time... ah, that sentence somehow makes me sigh with relief and reach for a piece of chocolate.... ok back to the project at hand. It's about time for an update, and what better than a photo update right? So here goes :)

Leilah has had a..... rough month or so and at the climax of a truly sad day I need a onesie... Hallie the ever helper ran and got this one...

Priceless right? Especially since it was her first time wearing it. Hallie had some insight I would say.

We also just celebrated Hayden's birthday (love ya babe!) We when swimming :)


Hayden had to study a bit so we made his birthday dinner the next day, Sunday... I've been expanding my horizons so we had filet mignon with melted goat cheese and a balsamic syrup.. Delicious! How ever the steak was still mooing... Hayden said he didn't mind. And of course we had to add cheetos to the mix.

Leilah turned 5 months old too!

Right now Leilah loves to grab onto things, hold things, and suck on EVERYTHING!


Hallie is becoming SOOO independent! She is growing up SO fast! Right now she is very into dressing herself... it's pretty much adorable and fills my camera all the time. Here's one of my favorite dress yourself moments. Notice the long sleeve cordaroy dress, too too small halloween costume "jacket" and the easter basket purse as a finishing touch. And did I mention it was 98 degrees that day?

Hallie also recently (yesterday) got her first hair cut (i couldn't bring myself to cut it once it started to grow!) I promise they did actually cut it....
Outside Little Chops
Starting the cut...

Calmed down due to bribery with skittles and barbie movie

After cut with wet hair

After cut with her adorable natural curls

So that was an adventure, probably not to be repeated any time soon....
Life is good :) Hayden is in school and loving it, we are just missing seeing him. I'm being a busy mom and we're so happy it's cool enough to enjoy walks, parks, and just being outside ;) So here is just a bit of random cuteness.