December in Oregon

Pretty lights in downtown Sherwood on an early morning run. They do a nice job and leave them up all the way through January - which I love!

After a cancelled basketball season due to Covid last year, Spencer was excited to get on the court again. Alan's good coaching buddy Dave moved over the summer and Alan wasn't able to commit to coaching full-time because of work commitments, but he agreed to be an assistant coach to a lady trying it for the very first time. 8th grade basketball is funny to watch because some of the boys have hit puberty and are huge while others still look like little kids. Spencer is definitely in the former group, but the kid he had to guard during their first game was a giant! All of the boys started the season pretty rusty on their skills, but they have been improving fast. Spencer's offensive game has come a long way since he last played two years ago.

The boys and I tried to watch the Holiday parade after Spencer's game, but it must have been super short because we were only a few minutes late and it was over. We walked to downtown for hot dogs and cookies though. It was cold, rainy, and pretty crowded so we only stayed for a few minutes.

Two quarters for another lost tooth!

This picture requires a back-story:

Last September, we found out about a potential adoption situation with my friend's step-brother in AZ. The baby girl had already been born with drugs in her system and was going to be going into foster care after she was released from the hospital. We didn't think there was any chance of it working out for us, but then the birth father called me and told me he wanted us to adopt his baby. It turned out to be a very frustrating and emotional couple of weeks while we tried to get information from DCS and waited for a hearing to determine if the judge would allow the parents to place her for adoption or not. We finally found out that the hearing had happened several days earlier and the birth parents had decided not to place her for adoption after all.

It was an emotional roller coaster and I was feeling pretty hopeless about private adoption so I reached out to our home study agency to see what it would require to change our home study to adopt from the foster care system. I had been working with and emailing Julie for three years at that point so she knew we really wanted to adopt an infant. She suggested contacting Faithful Adoption Consultants out of Georgia for a free phone consultation instead of adopting through the state. We had researched adoption consultants about a year previously, but knew hiring one would require us to adopt through an agency which is very expensive.

Then a new friend in our ward offered to connect me with one of her friends who had adopted twice. I agreed because it's always good to have adoption friends, but waited a few days to text her while I got my feet back under myself again. When I did text her, Kayla was so kind and understanding. She said their adoptions had just fallen into their laps, but that her sister in North Carolina had adopted using Faithful Adoption Consultants. I had never even heard of FAC and now their name had been mentioned  twice within about a week! Kassie (Kayla's sister) was awesome and told me their story and experience with FAC over a phone call. She had nothing but good things to say about FAC. 

This was the first time I had felt true hope for an adoption in about two years. We knew it didn't make financial sense for us to pursue this path, but after praying and feeling good about it, we decided that maybe it was time to act and have faith that somehow we would be able to afford an adoption through an agency after all. We had been trying to adopt privately for over two years and had only had two potential situations and those obviously hadn't worked out. 

We had a phone consult with FAC towards the end of September and loved their focus on faith and trust in the Lord's plan for our family. Adoption consultants are advocates for hopeful adoptive families. They work with agencies all over the country and pass potential cases onto their clients. I will explain more about how to all works after we've had some experience with it, but suffice it to say that hiring FAC will dramatically increase our exposure to expectant parents considering adoption.

There was an insane amount of paperwork, doctor's appointments, and background checks to be completed before we could officially "go active" with FAC. It was very tempting to become angry and bitter that we were having to work SO hard to grow our family when it comes so easily to most other couples, but I knew those feelings wouldn't serve me at all so I just put my head down and went to work. It took us about three months of hard work, but I finally mailed in our entire huge packet in mid December. We knew it wouldn't be processed until January because of the holidays, but it was an awesome feeling to be finished!

I ordered a Christmas piano book for Mason and he loved it! He practiced way more than usual and insisted that Alan practice a duet of Good King Wenceslas with him to play on Christmas Eve.

Just some pictures of where I teach preschool on a pretty, sunny day. Lucky Ducks is at Ranell's home in the country and is in such a lovely area. The main preschool classroom is above the detached garage, but we also use the large attic on the third floor of her home. We also get the kids outside for recess every day we possibly can. Letting them burn off some energy makes everyone much happier!

The boys helped me make a bunch of different colors of playdough to donate to a women's shelter this year. It was a fun project and hopefully more meaningful for them than just picking out a toy at the store to donate.

Annual fudge making!

Kids ages 5-11 were approved to receive the Covid vaccine in November! We were able to get both shots for Mason before leaving for AZ for Christmas. He was nervous, but it wasn't that bad. I think the pained look on his face was more a result of having to wait in the car for an hour rather than the actual poke. Haha!

Our annual shepherd's dinner has become one of our favorite traditions. We eat a simple meal by Christmas tree light and candlelight while sitting on our living room rug. This year we had naan, goat cheese, hummus, olives, dried figs and apricots, jerky, grapes, and carrots. After the meal, we take turns lighting a candle and bearing our testimonies of Christ. It's always a special night.

Treats for friends and neighbors: we made fudge, snickerdoodles, and coconut cookies this year.

Preschool Christmas/PJ party: I had to buy new pajamas just for the party because mine were old and ratty. :)

Mason also got new pjs for his school pajama party. He had just been wearing old clothes to bed, but I felt sad that he didn't have real pajamas to wear to school. He was thrilled!

Spencer wasn't too excited, but I made him come with Mason and I to mail the Santa letter he had written at the beginning of November. A local real estate agency has this super fun set up on their front porch all through December. 

The boys pooled their money and bought another Harry Potter Lego Advent Calendar this year. I don't like how it detracts from our Nativity Advent, but I try not to dictate what they can and can't spend their money on. They had a lot of fun with this calendar and got to finish it early since we were leaving for AZ on the 20th. I will say there was a lot less fighting over pieces this year so maybe it wasn't that bad. ;)

November

Mason is my good leaf helper in the fall. He doesn't always last very long, but at least he's outside moving his body. :) He especially likes to help winterize the garden beds by covering them in cardboard, newspaper, compost, and leaves. It looks messy, but keeps most of the weeds out until spring.

I had to take a bunch of pictures of our home and town for our adoption profile book. Here are some of my favorite shots of Sherwood in the fall:

I had the boys write their letters to Santa extra early this year since the news kept forecasting huge toy shortages due to supply chain issues. Pokemon cards were hard to come by and a few food items were out of stock, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as I had imagined.

Spencer was feeling a little old for this tradition, but Mason takes it very seriously. ;)

Giant memory game at the library:

Grandma came to visit for a couple of days while she was helping her mom! She gave Spencer an organ lesson, treated us to delicious Handle's ice cream, and play lots of games with the boys. That was actually the first time she had EVER stayed with us because we lived in tiny apartments in Utah when we were first married and then moved close to them for the past 15 years. It was really fun to have her visit!

More pictures for our profile book. I really do exist!

Spencer woke up with an extremely sore neck after one of his first basketball practices in two years. He was in a lot of pain and I wound up taking him to Urgent Care on the second day. They just prescribed a muscle relaxant that made him sleep all day. It was really sad to see my active, happy boy in so much pain. I even took him in for a professional massage. It felt good, but didn't help long term. Thankfully, it just started getting better on its own and Spencer hasn't had any problems with it since. 

Target finally got some Pokemon in stock and Mason was super happy to spend some of his birthday money on some new cards.

Another first in the past 15 years was that we decided to travel for Thanksgiving! We had always celebrated with Alan's parents since they were close and because the Turkeython made it impossible to leave. Once again there was no Turkeython (thanks Covid) and Darwin and Debbie moved so we drove to Idaho to spend the holiday with them and Geoff's family. 

I didn't do much of the cooking since we were traveling, but I did make cranberry sauce, my favorite fancy green salad, and I put together a veggie tray.

We stayed at Geoff's house because they have all of the fun toys and video games, but we spent some time at Darwin and Debbie's too. They only live two miles from each other.

Thanksgiving morning sunrise and run with one of the people I'm most grateful for. It was cold!, but refreshing to run out in the country instead of on city streets.

Grandpa's interesting Jello and marshmallow creation! Mason liked it. Haha!

Too bad I didn't bring my swimsuit! Alan and Mason had to borrow some.

Both Spencer and Mason love playing video games with their cousins since we don't have them at home.

Geoff's family had a temple baptism reservation the day after Thanksgiving so we treated ourselves to some Costa Vida (we can't get it in OR) and then helped Darwin and Debbie put up some of their Christmas decorations.

Caldwell's amazing light display. It was packed, but really cool. Geoff had taken us there when we stopped on our way to AZ for Christmas a few years ago and it wasn't so busy. Maybe it was a little warmer this year so more people came out? Or maybe that's just the thing to do on the day after Thanksgiving.

Pretty Idaho sunrise:

Spencer and Alan helped put up Geoff's giant 15 foot tree!

Geoff had all of us squeeze into his Pilot for a drive to Boise to get ice cream potatoes. That was probably the most uncomfortable ride of my life! At least I got some good visiting time with Tanya. We ate the "potatoes" at a fun park in Boise. It was almost warm.

It turned out to be a great trip and we are so glad we were able to spend one of my favorite holidays with family! A huge thanks to Geoff and Tanya for hosting us and to all of the cooks!

Our own Christmas tree went up a little later than usual since we weren't home right after Thanksgiving. We all love decorating it even though we can't agree which color of lights is best. ;)