Adoption Blog

I have been hard at work creating an adoption blog for our family for the past month or so.  Gathering all of the pictures was more work than I expected, but I finally finished yesterday!

Check it out and feel free to pass on to anyone you know who might be thinking of placing a baby for adoption!

http://alanandkristinadopt.blogspot.com/

What not to do on a sunny day in Portland

Yesterday was one of those glorious, semi-warm, sunny days we sometimes get in Oregon in January.  I wanted to be out in it so I had the great idea to go hiking at Forest Park in Portland.  Spencer and I had never been there before and I thought it would be the perfect way to soak in a little warmth.  I should have realized that Forest Park is a forest though.  It was very shady and at least 10 degrees colder than it was at our house.  None of us were prepared for the cool temperature with our light jackets, so our 2.5 mile hike wasn't nearly as pleasant as it could have been.  Plus, I was sad/mad that I wasn't in the sun.  On the positive side, it was an easy hike and Spencer hardly complained at all (after he got his snack, anyway).  It was pretty, but I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't know how lovely it was in my own front yard.  Next time, we'll chose some place to go with fewer trees. :)

A January Saturday

The Portland Children's Museum is a perfect place to spend a Saturday afternoon in January.  It was a little crowded, but we got in free with a pass from the library, so no complaining from us!  We hadn't been in a couple of years so Spencer was really excited.  

He claimed that his favorite part was the traveling Dora and Diego exhibit.  It was pretty cool, but he didn't stay there very long.

The water room is always fun.

I think the animal hospital was really Spencer's favorite part.  He stayed there for an hour!  For a kid who doesn't really like animals, that was surprising.  He adopted this dog (whom he named Marley) and did all kinds of things to take care of him.  It was cute to watch.  Maybe we need to get him a pet.

Alan had to check out the periscope to see if it really worked.  It did.

Oh the train room.  This is where Spencer used to spend most of his time.  Thankfully for me, he's finally moved past trains.

We wound up staying at the museum until it closed.  Most people cleared out about an hour before closing so it was a lot less crowded then.  We'll have to remember that for next time.

End of Basketball

Basketball season is officially over now.  It was a good first season for Spencer and it was fun for me to watch him improve.  He certainly has more basketball skills than I do now!  Spencer still says that he likes soccer better, but basketball is a close second.  Here are the pics of his last game:

Funny of the Day

"Mom, did you know that Pennsylvania is the cheapest place to buy pencils." -Spencer

Ha! ha!  I love that kid!

2014 Theme

I was reminded of this scripture last week and decided that it would be the perfect mission statement for this year.  When I went to Time Out for Women a little over a year ago, my favorite talk was by Laurel Christensen.  She discussed this scripture from Hebrews 12:1-2:

"...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,"

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith..."

Sister Christensen changed the word "weight" to "wait" to help her apply these verses to her own life.  She talked about how we need to patiently trust God during times of waiting in our lives.  I wish her talk was online so I could just link it up and you could all listen to it.  It was so perfect for me and I felt the Spirit strongly testifying that the principles Sister Christensen was teaching were true.

The coming months and maybe years are going to require a lot of patience and trust in God for us.  We don't know what will happen with our hopes for adoption, but we do know we have a Savior who has a plan for us.  He wants the very best for us and as long as we're obedient, His plan will work out in the very best way.  I know that is true for all of us.  So, I'm going to run this race with patience and rely on the One in whom I can have absolute faith - Jesus Christ.  This scripture is going on my mirror so I can repeat it to myself every morning.

Resolution Run

Spencer and I both ran Uberthon's Resolution Run on January 4th to kick of the new year.  It was a cold morning, but not nearly as cold as the Turkeython on Thanksgiving.  Spencer's race was first this time.  It was a mile long and we ran it together.  I thought Spencer would finish in 12-15 minutes, but he surprised me and finished in just under 10 minutes!  I guess he has our running blood in him.  The last quarter mile was hard, but he kept going and I was really proud of him.

I did the 5k, but started after everyone else because I wanted to finish cutting up bananas.  (That's what happens when your husband is the race director!)  This race was held on trails in a park so it was kind of hard to start at the very back and then try to pass all of the walkers on narrow trails.  I did ok, but don't remember my time.  The cold actually helps my knee a lot and I didn't have any pain.  It feels so good to be running a little again!  What a great way to start out 2014!

Happy 2014!

We are not big party-ers and we don't get too excited about New Year's Eve, so the little celebration we had this year was perfect for us.  Spencer and I turned our Christmas Tree into a New Year's tree while Alan was at work.  (An idea I copied from here.)  I put a coin and a silly joke inside each balloon.

We had appetizers for dinner, which turned out to be more work than I thought it was going to be.  We had a cheese ball with bread and veggies and some cheesy cauliflower dippers that were really good.  Spencer even liked them! But, but don't tell him they were made out of cauliflower.

After dinner, Alan popped the balloons because Spencer and I were too wimpy to do it.  We laughed about the jokes then we each picked a game to play: Bey Blades, Yahtzee, and Uno Roboto.

Spencer went to bed at 8:30 and Alan and I stayed up watching one last cheesy Christmas movie until 11.  Alan thinks I'm lame, but I just don't see the point of sacrificing my sleep just to say, "Happy New Year!" at midnight.  Getting enough sleep is what's going to make it a happy year for me.  Well, there may be more to it than that, but enough sleep is a good start.

Happy 2014!

Action Elves

I watched my friend's three kiddos one day last week.  After watching a Christmas Backyardigans movie, they decided to act out the "action elves" from the show.  This involved piling nearly every toy from Spencer's room onto Santa's sleigh in the hall and then delivering them to kids all over our house.  What a mess!  They had fun until it was time to clean up. ;)