Merry Christmas

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!



"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch though of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

Coming Along....

Blair and his crew of helpers (who are amazing and we love them all...especially Garrett!) have been busy....


Step #1 Land


Step #2 Hole and LOTS of concrete


Step #3 Surviving the cold and framing


more Step #3

Step #4 Watching Bronson learn the family trade!

We're having fun and it's coming right along!

To much fun...Extreme Makeover style!

I got a front row seat at the reveal today...Ty is such a babe...I would love to touch that hair!!

MOVE THAT BUS!!

Checking the script right before the family got there...

How cute is Jillian...and how excited was I that she was that close!?! Poor Blair, he missed it and he was really wanting a close up of her! She was such a doll...

The family arriving in the limo...

First look at their new house! What an awesome experience to witness...I don't think there were very many dry eyes in the crowd!

Sun Valley Weekend

This past weekend Blair and I headed up to Sun Valley for some R&R, a stay at the lodge, some Rocky Mountain Chocolate and the Sun Valley Dinner and Ice Show. We had a blast getting out of town for the weekend but there was one special highlight....


I got to meet Evan Lysacek!!!!





You can't tell I'm giddy at all by this photo can you?!?! I felt pretty lucky to get a photo because no one else did! They weren't letting anyone get photo's with him but we stuck around for awhile (since we were staying at the lodge anyway...) and I asked for a photo and he said "Sure!" The security guard then said "Oh yeah, of course he will take one with the cute blond." I didn't care...all I know is that he put his hand on my back while taking the picture!!! OMG...I'm losing my breath just thinking about it!!





He is SOOOOO cute!! I just wanted to stare at him all night....
I actually got to talk with him for a few minutes which was so cool! He's very normal and down to earth. I (of course) expressed my love for him on Dancing with the Stars and told him I needed him to teach me the Argentine Tango...when I said this he replied "OH, that dance..." (while shaking his head).





As if this night could get any better...he did a routine to "Man in the Mirror"...while wearing the white glove...I said to Blair "I think it was meant to be for me to see this show...Evan and a Michael Jackson song...too perfect for me!"





We had a lazy Sunday morning and grabbed my FAVORITE on the way out of town...a Chicken Bacon Ranch wrap (minus tomato) from WrapCity. My weekend was SO complete!! I decided this will now have to be a tradition every summer.

The latest....

I've been slacking on the blog thing lately....but in my defense it's been ba-ba-ba-busy around here...not to mention we haven't been in town a whole lot either! Check out what's been keeping us busy...

Newport, OR

From Washington, we drove over to Portland and picked up my mom and dad at the airport. We stayed the night at my Uncle Tom's and Tuesday am we headed out for Newport, Oregon. I hadn't been to the coast since my senior year of HS so I was excited to go back and check everything out.




We played our own version of Deadliest Catch and spent one day crabbin'. I decided I probably wouldn't do very well up there on the Northwestern because I wasn't patient enough to wait. I'd throw out the pot and pull it up every 5ish minutes to see the catch.




Blair got crabs in Newport too!! :) Here he is checking to see if it's male or female. They have to be over 5 inches long and male to keep...all the females get to go back in the water instead of in the boiling pot!




I also caught of starfish...but it had to go back too! I wanted to boil it and keep it but apparently that's illegal...I think that's stupid...




Blair with one of our keepers....





So, we boiled them for about 20 minutes then we cleaned them out...well...I cleaned one out and Blair cleaned none out. I only gagged once.

I don't eat anything if it lives in the water...but I liked catching them, cooking them and cleaning them....then I ate salad and chicken. :)






Crab guts...




These guys hung out on the dock at the bottom of one of the piers. They were so funny to
watch...and so noisy.

We ate lunch at Mo's (the original one on the Newport bayfront) and again...I passed on the world famous clam chowder and ate chicken and salad.

We had a great time hanging out with my side of the family! Hopefully next time we'll have ALL the cousins there. Thanks mom and dad for a great trip!! :)

Uncle Blair & Auntie Nik PART 3 & 4

We were so excited for our Washington summer trip this year because we got to go and meet the newest additions to the family! Adalyn and Elyza were born 5 weeks ago and are probably the most precious things ever! I couldn't get enough of these two babies! We were also lucky enough to be there when these two beautiful girls were blessed. Thanks Jade, Megan and Graycie for sharing them with Auntie Nik all week!!

We also had a great family reunion for Blair's family with everyone from Northern Idaho, Nevada and Texas. It was great to see everyone together. AND...we got to celebrate Bronson's 1st Birthday while we were in Washington! He was so fun up there with all the kiddos!

For Sale

In May we listed our cute house FOR SALE by Owner...

We just thought we'd try it for the summer and see what happened. Well...after six short weeks on the market we sold it! We were so excited but also scrambling to get our house plans done and decide where we were going to build a house!! I'm so excited about building a house...but I had a REALLY hard time leaving my house. I cried off and on for a week and still can't think to much about it without tearing up! We closed on our new lot the same day we closed on the house.

So this is going to be our new location...







The new homestead. :)






This will be the view from the kitchen sink.



Close up view from the front of the house.



We should be digging in a few weeks....



For now we're living in a studio apartment (yes, I wrote that right!). So far, it's not to bad other than 95% of my belongings are in a storage unit packed floor the ceiling, back to front and I'm getting bored really easy with no yard or garden to work in...and I miss my puppy who is living in Washington with Grandpa & Grandma Goldade until we're done building. :( Other than that...I'm REALLY excited!!

Drew & Jenna's Wedding & Reception July 2010

My baby sis got married on July 9th in Bountiful, UT. She of course looked AMAZING and everything turned out great. We worked our booties off getting the reception set up on Saturday but it was all worth it because it looked great and Jen said it was everything she imagined!!

It's Official...

We are officially approved for Adoption! Our profile was published on Monday so it's out there for the world to see! I had butterflies all day on Monday! We are so excited but a little bit in shock that this is really happening after all the months of paperwork, interviews, home checks, etc. So now the waiting, praying, finger crossing begins!

Happy Birthday Blair!!

Today Blair turns 29 years young...knocking on 30's door!! Happy Birthday bud!! Hope all your birthday wishes come true!

My Baby Sister is Getting MARRIED!!

It's so exciting but also SO WEIRD to think of my sis getting married. I'm so excited for her though because she picked a good one! Drew is going to be a great addition to the family and he treats Jenna like a queen...as she well deserves! Congrats you two...we love you!!

Letting the cat out of the bag.....

So...I've really hesitated in putting this out there in blog world. It's something that I consider so special and emotional I wasn't sure if I was ready to share it with the world...but Blair thought we probably should so one day we didn't throw everybody for a loop.

We've been trying to have a baby for a LONG time and the stars just haven't aligned yet...at least that's what the doctors tell us will have to happen. It's been the hardest, most emotional trial and the longest bridge to cross. There have been some real struggles along the way in understanding why things are the way they are...I still don't understand much of it. Someone said it's all about the faith...and I'm still learning that too. It's been a real struggle emotionally, spiritually, FINANCIALLY (holy cow!), etc. Our relationship really took some hits along the way and we really had to dig deep and pull each other out of our rock bottom moments...but we got a lot stronger along the way. It's amazing the things you learn about yourself and others.

I could write for pages about the details and the times I've had to pick myself up off the shower floor, all the horrible tests and my body looking like a pin cushion, all the crazy medical procedures we've tried.....but that's not on my mind today. So I'm excited to let you all know that we're getting ready to submit our ADOPTION papers. It took a long time to get to this point and to know that this was the right road for us right now and we're excited! We have the most amazing families and such supportive friends helping to guide us on the journey and we're so thankful for what we're learning along the way. Our story gets to be a little different and we're so grateful for that! We can't wait to appreciate every, single moment. The agency tells us they would "be shocked if we weren't placed with a baby in 2 to 3 years" (I said excuse me what...????) so we understand that it probably won't come quickly but we've found some peace in this decision so we're okay with waiting and letting whatever is meant to be happen.

Maybe you can keep your fingers crossed for us?

Any ideas?

Got this for Christmas and have messed with it a few times...can't figure it out!!! Any one have any ideas for me???

Whoot! Whoot!!

I'm so excited that I get to dust off my #18 Manning jersery for the Super Bowl this year!!! I did the victory dance around the living room on Sunday.....Blair watched Man vs. Wild in the other room!

To bad for Brett Farve though....I wanted to cry for him.....and drool over his dashing good looks at the same time!!