Sorry it's been sooooo long!!!

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged!! I do enjoy sharing with you all what's going on in our life but it seems like life gets so busy it's hard to keep up with the blogging, so my apologies. We're doing great!! Still waiting on our referral for Laila, almost 14 months of waiting, but I really feel like it could be soon!!

We had a great Christmas. Kate and Guy hosted Christmas at their house this year so we had Scott, myself, my dad, Scott's parents and Darren, Scott's brother. Of course there was Kate, Guy, Nick and Gabs as well as Guy's parents, Nancy and Ken. It was nice to all be together. I didn't take many pictures but I do have this one...

Gabs and Santa, she was really excited to see him.


Here's Nick and his Uncle Darren, I love this picture!!

Jump ahead to last week, Scott and I went to Houston to visit our good friends Jami and Nathan and their little cutie Gabbi. Jami and I grew up in Boulder together and Scott and Nathan have become good friends, bonding over good cigars and good beer. We arrived late on Thursday, visited a little bit and went to bed. Jami and Nathan both had to work Friday so Scott and I went down to Galveston.


It was sunny and very peaceful. We also saw alot of destruction from the hurricane last September. These used to be full palm trees. They are basically stripped of their branches with alot either broken off or really leaning to the side.

This is a little house that someone vacated and never returned too. If you look carefully you will see a bed and TV (the black box next to the bed on the left). It was eye-opening to see and imagine the fear the residents felt and then to never return to their life.

We also saw some people surfing... it's February!!! Shouldn't they be skiing???

On Saturday Jami, Nathan, Scott and I went to St. Arnold's brewery in Houston. They make some really good beers and it's free for 2 1/2 hours!! It was packed and everyone brings lunches and drinks beer. We had alot of fun!! Then Jami made us Indian food for dinner, that was yummy. I had no idea how much work goes into making Indian food!!! Here's Miss Gabbi and I wearing our shades, she's so sweet!!

Sunday morning Jami, Gabbi, Scott and I went to Empire Cafe and met my cousin Anna, her husband Bret and their 2 little girls, Maddie and Libby, for breakfast. We wish we could spend more time together, we really enjoy them!! Maddie, Libby and Gabbi became fast friends and played and colored together while the adults all visited.

It was hard to get a picture of all 3 girls looking at the camera, here's the best I got. That's Libby in the black with the white hair bow, Maddie with the bandana on and Gabbi holding the crayons. Anna and her family as well as her parents, her brother and his family and her sister and her family come to Colorado every summer and go camping for about 2 weeks. We hope they make it again this year so we can see everyone and hopefully we will have Laila and she can play with all her cousins who have been anxiously waiting for her. Oh yeah, it was so sweet... Maddie was walking me outside to see her mom (the others were inside ordering) and Maddie asked me when we're getting Laila. She told me she can't wait and she asks her mom all the time when we're going to China and getting Laila. I love that people are waiting for Laila and loving Laila and praying for Laila... we hope to have Laila soon and can't wait to share her with all of you!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We did!! We went to Wichita, Kansas to visit Scott's parents, grandma, brother and my aunt, uncle and cousins, lots of family in Wichita!! We also gave Scott's mom her birthday presents. Her birthday is the middle of December and they are coming out for Christmas so we decided to save her from bringing even more home after Christmas and give birthday presents now. She got a waffle maker from us and Kate's family and Scott and I got her the pretty fall cross with a bible verse on it. I think she liked her gifts.




We had Thanksgiving dinner at Scott's parents house and it was YUMMY!!! It was so nice to all be together and to know that it's our last Thanksgiving without Laila was exciting.

Gabs enjoying her roll.

Nick making his plate of yummy goodness. Here's grandma, it's always nice to see her. She doesn't make it to Colorado anymore so we enjoy spending time with her when we're back in Wichita. This is Darren, Scott's brother. He travels alot for work so we're really glad he was home for the holiday and he will be here for Christmas also!! We love Darren!!Here's my dad, I just thought this was such a nice picture of him!

Here's my dad, Darren and Scott's dad after Thanksgiving dinner watching football. We also saw my Aunt Lisa, Uncle Rich and Mike and Melissa, my cousins. I took a picture of Rich but it didn't turn out good and I didn't think he'd appreciate it on my blog. I never got a picture of Melissa, she was working when I had the camera but I did get pictures of Lisa and Mike and here they are...

The first picture is Lisa and Mike, Lisa is my mom's youngest sister, the other sister is my Aunt Jo who lives in KC. When I was 21 I moved to Wichita to go to school and spent ALOT of time with Lisa and her family. It was fun, I really got to watch Mike and Melissa grow up and I met Scott. The 2nd picture is Scott, me and Mike. For those of you who know Mike, yes he's a big guy, yes that's facial hair, yes he's taller than me and yes he's almost 20!!!! I can't believe it!! I wish I had pictures of Melissa, she's beautiful!!! It just isn't right that they grow up so fast, that means I'm getting old!! Nothing new on the baby front. We did request a file off our agency's website. Basically it's a little girl who didn't match anyone's medical conditions checklist, including ours. We saw her on the website and though she was a little girl that we could parent. Unfortunately alot of others thought the same thing and we have been added to the list of interested families. We would love the opportunity to look at her file, I've already talked to our pediatrician, but if we don't get the chance that's also good news because that means she has a family which is the ultimate goal. We know our Laila is out there somewhere, we're just waiting for her to find us. We will let you know, we pray it will be soon!! What a great Christmas gift that would be.

What's been happenin'

Hello!! We're all doing great!! We are officially within the normal wait time for a referral!! The average wait is 10-12 months and we passed the 10 month mark on October 17th. My cell phone is never far away, the call could come at any time. I don't expect it for at least another month but you never know!! Other than that, Kate and Guy had a halloween party the weekend before halloween.
This is my pumpkin, the puking pumpkin. I thought it was fun.
Here's Scott in his costume, it was one of the inflatable costumes and he was a bull rider!! Gabrielle thought it was great and liked to take Uncle Scott's cow for walks.
Nick was a Storm Trooper.


One of the games we played was the mummy wrap. Here's Gabrielle getting wrapped up by a friend. Gabrielle was dressed up as a ladybug.
Another game was the Monster Mash where we played halloween songs and the kids had to dance around. They all had a great time!! This past weekend we went to Boulder so Scott could do his glider ride, it was his anniversary present. Here's Scott getting the scoop from his pilot.

Scott did have a pilot behind him for the entire ride. They got towed up about 12,000 feet and then released. They went over the mountains and flew all over Boulder for about an hour. He had a great time. Here's Kate, my dad and Nick watching and waiting for Scott. They were very busy, lots of planes and gliders to watch. This was just a cute picture, Nick is such a sweetie!! And then here's Gabs. She's potty training and wanted to take her book with her, too funny!!Will try to post again soon!! Hope you all are well.

Laila's letters

Welcome to Laila's room!! A few weeks ago Kate and I picked out ribbon to go on the letters, which I already had. We found 5 different ribbons that look really cute with the purple background and the stripes below. (See previous post "can you handle the cuteness" to see the stripes and rest of Laila's room) Now we're working on the 2 shelves that will have her "special" books and pictures and I'm still looking for a white wicker something that I can use as her toy chest. Come on phone and ring!!! We're ready, more than ready!!

Sorry it's been awhile!!

Wow!!! It's been quite awhile since I last blogged!! It's been busy around here!! The end of September was Nick's birthday, he turned 10!!! I can't believe it!! His grandma and grandpa (Scott's parents) came out from Kansas to celebrate with him. Here are the proud grandparents. His birthday party was at Dave & Buster's where we all had lunch and played games. Here's Nick (in the middle) with his friends Taylor, Ravshon and Angel. After Dave & Buster's we went back to Nick's house where we had a pinata in the backyard. It was a fun day. While grandma and grandpa were here they all went up in the mountains to see the leaves change. I had to work so wasn't able to join them. They also went thru Estes Park where there were alot of elk. Today at school Nick had a Veteran's Day Parade. It was very nice, they had some retired veterans as well as some current service men and women. The kids sang songs, had chants/cheers, made signs and wore hats. Here's Nick in his Veteran's Day hat. When Nick got out of school we went to Anderson Farms to get our pumpkins for halloween. We had a great time!! We went in the corn maze, fed the longhorn cows (I think they are cows??), went thru a hay maze, rode in little cars pulled by the big tractor, ate funnel cakes, pet llamas, sheep and bunnies. It was alot of fun!! Here are some pictures. Nick had just made it thru the hay maze, obviously proud of himself. Gabs and her daddy in the buggy. Doesn't Guy look comfy!! Those things are little!!Here' Nick wondering if I'm gonna continue to throw corn at him... and the answer was yep and you'd better run!!Cute shot of the 2 of them in the corn maze. Here's Nick feeding the longhorn cow thing... :)

Nick and Gabs with the pumpkins. We're looking forward to next year with Laila!! It's really exciting to know that she WILL be with us this time next year!!

Goin' to Grandma's house!!

Last weekend Kate, Gabrielle and I went to Iowa to see some of my dad's family. We were able to spend 4 days with Grandma, Aunt Pam, Uncle Otto and my cousin Brenda. We also visited my brother and dad's graves, they are buried right next to each other in a Iowa. It's a long drive but oh so worth it!! Gabrielle and Grandma became great friends!! As soon as we walked into Grandma's house Gabrielle went right to her and crawled up on her lap... Grandma had the biggest smile!! It was so sweet!!

Here are the new BFF's!! Grandma loves dogs and has alot of little stuffed dogs and Gabrielle was in heaven!! We had to go buy her a little stuffed puppy so she would leave Grandma's alone.

Here's Gabrielle with her hostages, I mean Grandma's puppies.

This beauty is Grandma!! She's so fun and sweet and I wish we lived closer!! I sure do miss her!!

This is Aunt Pam and my cousin Brenda. Brenda lives a few hours away but came up for the weekend so we could see each other. I have lots of great memories of going to Aunt Pam and Uncle Otto's house when we were little and playing with all my cousins!! Brenda and I are close in age so she's extra special to me!!

Here's Aunt Pam, Brenda, Grandma and Gabrielle after dinner one night. Gabs decided it was a great time to stick out her tongue... kids!! :)
Here's Kate and Gabs on our way to Iowa in a cute little town we found in Nebraska. Sorry, we had to do it!! :) It was a good time in Iowa and Kate and I are already planning our trip there next summer with Laila!!