Happy Anniversary Melanie & Colter

It is Melanie & Colter's 3rd Anniversary today.

I had so much fun taking their pictures for their announcements. We drove up to the mountains in July. It was so pretty up there. I was short on time this morning so I choose just my favorites. It was hard to do because I took over 60 pictures that day.

This picture was my favorite, but when we printed it out the grass looked more yellow than green, so we didn't end up using it.

This is the picture we used for their announcements, or it was one similar to this. I took several pictures by these rocks and couldn't remember exactly which one we ended up going with, but I really like this picture of them, they look so happy.

Their open house was held at Melanie's parents August 11th. It was such a pretty day. Most days the wind blows in the upper country, but that day it only did for a little while while we were setting up. It really was perfect weather for an outside reception. We put a lot of time and work into getting the yard ready and it all turned out so nice. I think I took over 90 pictures this day! But I find that when you take too many pictures you have a better chance of getting the perfect picture.

I took this picture before the guest started arriving.

At sunset I was worried because we hadn't taken pictures of them and it was getting dark. But they turned out perfect with the sunset. I couldn't have asked for a better picture.

Melanie's aunt made their cake. Isn't it pretty. Oh and isn't Melanie's dress pretty. We spent all day in the city looking for a dress. That night when I got home I was going through our mail and found a Chadwick's catalog that had this dress in it.

Happy Anniversary Melanie & Colter!

Do you know a 10 lb. cat can weigh double her weight after 50 steps?

We've been trying to walk every night with Sage. Lately we've not done too well, but tonight we decided we better get with it and get in shape because we have a big hike planned over the 4th of July weekend.

We got down the road about 500 yards and Josh turned around to get Sage to come and he noticed something following us down the hill. Pyro had decided to join us on our walk. We go down the road about half a mile and then turn around and come back. She wouldn't go home, so I carried her. She is a heavy cat after half a mile! On the way back our neighbor was driving by on his motorcycle and he stopped to visit. After a few minutes Pyro was getting restless (and heavier) so I told Josh I would see him at the house.

After I had been home for a few minutes I heard the neighbor go by so I decided to walk back down and meet Josh. When I got down there we turned around to notice that not only did Pyro follow me this time, but Zipper was with her. Even Missy had ventured off of the porch to half way down the yard (that is a BIG adventure for her!). I think they are all jealous of the time we spend with Sage.

Since I'm being lazy and don't want to do another post I'll give a quick run down of this week. Monday - Doctor's appointment; Tuesday - Blood work (I still have a big bruise!); Wednesday - Eye appointment (new contacts); Thursday - work's annual meeting picnic (we served about 1200 people); Friday - dentist (just a cleaning, but now I have to go back and have some serious = expensive work done). I am tired after this week.

But we do have some good news, we are getting ready for our camping trip. We are both so excited. Josh is very familiar with the mountains and he has chosen a pretty place with a not to bad hike for us to go. Today we bought my hiking shoes! We still need back packs, water filter, and a few other things, but we are getting excited!

I had an AWESOME experience today

I decided it fit better on my infertility blog, so go read about it HERE. It involves the dentist, and don't get to excited while reading it because it doesn't lead to a baby, but it was still the most awesome experience I've had in a long time.

It's About Love (.org)

This has only been like a year in the making, I am so excited. The new It's About Love website is now up and running!

A few things everyone should know....

If you already had a website built and had links to it on your blogs or email, you will need to change those links by taking out the beta. I think I have all of mine changed including the friends I have linked here on my blog. If you notice a link doesn't work, please let me know.

The old website will be up until the end of June, then they will be taking it completely offline.

Which leads me to...

If you don't have a profile on the new website, you need to get one. They are so much better. Yes, they are a lot of work, but it will be worth it. I am willing to help in what ever way I can. (Seriously, take me up on this offer! I can type things in for you or help you scan pictures, just contact me. I want to help everyone find their child!)

*I can not wait until we have children so I can have some fun pictures to put with posts like this...

Adoption Background

One of my favorite background providers, Scrappin' Blogs, now has an adoption layout. Check it out on our FSA BLOG or you can get it HERE.

*I just went back to their website and they have a few more backgrounds for adoption and foster care.

Letter to the editor

There was an article in the local paper this week that upset me. If you have a thick stomach you can read it HERE. I was sick to think that a pregnant girl would do such a thing, but I was also upset because I thought the least the paper could do was insert just a little box about adoption or at least Utah's Safe Haven Law. So after much stewing I decided that I didn't care what others thought, I was not going to be silent over this issue. Here is the letter I sent to the two local, weekly papers.

Dear Editor,
Here is a letter I would like to submit for next weeks paper in the letters to the editor section of the paper. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to email me at sourbonk@yahoo.com or call my cell phone at 733-0476. I also hope the paper could do an editorial on adoption options or maybe even just do a highlight on the Utah Safe Haven Law. Maybe if people were better educated, the incident with the pregnant teen would have never happened.
-------------------------

Do some people have no regard for life? I was shocked and appalled to hear about the teen who asked a stranger to help her find a way to abort her baby.

I sometimes feel like people can be so closed minded when it comes to an unwanted pregnancy. This girl was almost done with her pregnancy. Why, after 7 months, would she take such drastic measures to help clear away what she felt was a problem in her life.

As someone who suffers from infertility this is especially troubling to me. Didn't she realize that someone would love the chance to parent that child and to give it the life it deserves. If she had already gone through 7 months of pregnancy, what was two more months.

There are other options she could have considered if she didn't want to parent the child herself. Adoption is another choice and it is a beautiful choice. I know countless couples like ourselves who would love be parents, but due to medical issues are denied the children they dream about.

I can't understand why people go around acting like they think they are adults and then when the consequences of their actions come, they suddenly do childlike acts, such as thinking that letting a person beat them up will make things better.

Did this young girl know that she could choose a family to place her child with? There are several agencies whose only goal is to help an expectant mother decide what is best for her and her baby. They help the young girls come to terms with the change in their life and discuss all their options. Is a marriage possible? If not, do you want to single parent? And if not, they have hundreds of profiles of families who are looking to adopt.

And if a young girl didn't feel comfortable going to an agency, most churches will provide the same kind of advice and help. The churches aren't there to belittle the person and make them feel bad about what has happened. They want to help these girls overcome the problem and find a solution. They are there to give comfort and support.

There is also another option available to a young mother who decides she isn't ready to parent a child. Utah has a Safe Haven Law. Because of this law, a young girl can take her child to a hospital and leave it with the staff there. They won't ask her who she is and they won't call the police on her. The hospital will make sure the baby receives the care it needs and the state will place the child with a loving family.

I hope the police will do what is right for this baby and I hope the baby won't have any lasting effects of what was done.

A few pictures

I've been hard at work on our new adoption pages and I must say I am pretty excited about them. But I needed a few more pictures of me so I had Josh take these two. I wanted a picture of me working on one of my many crafting projects so I had Josh snap a picture while I was working on the blanket for my nephew that will be here in 3 months.

Then I decided since he had a picture with his puppy, I needed a picture with my kittens. Sage was much more cooperative for her picture than these three knuckle heads were... This was the best we could get before they started to fight with each other.

Pictures with my Grandma

My grandma is out for a week so we went down for dinner tonight. We had a great time. After dinner my mom, grandma and I soaked in the hot tub for a few hours. It was really nice and relaxing. Here are a few pictures.My brother's cat had kittens a few weeks ago. Aren't they so cute. I had so much holding them.

If I could convince Josh to let me have one, I would either take this cute orange one,

or I was totally in love with little black one. If they were older I might have tried really hard to bring him home.

Adoption Page Improvements

The people have spoken, and I have kind of listened. I can see why every one's favorite was #5 in the below post. It was simple and not as distracting. I like it too. The problem is I don't like any of the other pages in that digital scrapbook kit. With the other kits there are several more things in those kits that I love. I really want to stick with blues, browns, or greens. I think they seem to go with our pictures best.

I tried to improve my favorite three, plus I made the same changes to the favorite from the previous poll. I also found one more kit that I like and made a page with it.

#1 Blue/Brown/Orange (My personal favorite)

#2 Green & Brown

#3 Blue & Brown

#4 Green & Blue #5 Flowers

Thanks again for all the input. I really want to have these done before our yard sale that will be sometime in June. Once I decide which color scheme to go with I will work on the other pages.

Help me decide

I have been busy trying to redo our paper profile. I'm going to have it bound. It will have 4 pictures pages and then a few pages with our letter and other information about us.
I am having hard time choosing a color scheme. I think these are my top favorites. I have set up a poll on the sidebar where you can vote for your favorites.

#1 Blue/Green/Brown Stripes

#2 Blue & Brown Squares

#3 Brown & Blue Stripes

#4 Brown & Orange

#5 Blue & Green

#6 Blue & Green Stripes

#7 Green & Brown

#8 Green & Brown Stripes

After I decide with page to use as our cover I will add some embellishments and change the text up a little. I know it is hard to see on some pages. Right now I am just trying to decide with page I like best. I think I have 3 that I like best, but I mixed them up in there to throw everyone else guessing. I will probably carry the color scheme through the entire book, but I might make up a page of just me and of just Josh and if I do that, there's a good chance my page will be pink! Thanks for you help and be sure to vote or leave a comment if you have suggestions. If you can't decide between two or three, I think I set it up so you can vote for more than just one. Thanks for the help!

Won't you be my Prince of Peace?

I found this on a new blog that I found (thanks to Rants & Rambles for finding me first!)
All I can say is....WOW

Sunrise

I got up a few mornings ago and could tell it was going to be a beautiful sunrise. So I took a picture and started to get ready for the morning. Every few minutes I would check back, and it seemed to get more beautiful each time so I kept taking pictures. Here are a few of my favorites. I love living up here and I love God's beautiful creations!

Look what Josh built tonight

It's made of old barn wood. We are going to try and sell a few to raise some money for our adoption fund. He is going to build a few different styles. We would love any suggestions! Also, how much do you think we should sell them for? We really aren't sure. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think about the bench and also how much you think we should sell them for.

This bench was his inspiration. His dad built this one years ago for Josh's grandma. We can't decide if we like the birdhouse's or not, but he'll probably build one like it too.