Happy New Year!

Greetings from the snowy state of Idaho! Currently we have a dusting of snow outside. The weather man says we will be getting snow tonight and the next 2 days. We probably won't get much snow an inch or 2 here or there. We do love the snow here in Idaho. We are anxiously waiting for lots so we can build a big snowman in our yard.

Our family is growing by leaps and bounds. We are doing well. Recently we took a family vacation to Florida. My parents (Sandy) moved to Ocoee (just outside of Orlando). The weather was perfect. We went to Walt Disney World on Ryan's birthday (he got in free). We had to wait a rough 5-10 minutes to ride the roller coasters. Adrian got to meet Woody in person. This was his highlight of the day. Later that week we went to Daytona Beach (Atlantic ocean) then to Clearwater Beach (gulf ocean). We found a Greek little town north of Clearwater beach (a friend recommended going there). We had wonderful Greek food and enjoyed a nice sunset. The best was spending time with my parents and watching the grandchildren interact with them. On to how everyone is individually.....

Kayla is 14 months old. She is the cutest little girl but has the loudest scream I have ever heard !! She is into everything, her favorites are tissues and paper. She enjoys giving kisses and will pucker those cute little lips. Lately she has really been interacting with Adrian. Most of the time she will pull his hair and laughing (mine also when I am on the computer). I enjoy seeing her play with him, they play great together. She is a light sleeper and usually wakes up once to twice a nap. Naps are about 1 and 1/2 hour long once a day. She LOVES shoes...everybody shoes but her favorite are these cute little pink boots that her birthmother bought her. She will look at books all day. We enjoy having toadette (her nickname) in our family. She is a blessing to our family. We don't take that for granted. We love her and her birthmother.

Adrian is 4 years old, add a few months. He is VERY active. He watched 30 seconds of boxing and it has become his favorite sport. He boxes with dad daily. He attends Active Minds Preschool. He is doing great. He was so ready for school. He knows his letters, all colors but brown and pink (working on that), all shapes and has been writing. He enjoys books and is finally getting interested in learning to read. He is curious and will ask me a guzzillion questions ALL DAY LONG! I do my best to not brush then off and answer them with real answers. :) He is our singer. Especially this Christmas season. I love hearing him sing all day long especially Jingle Bells and Holly Jolly Christmas by Alan Jackson (not sure if that is the name of the song). He enjoys trucks, monster trucks (grave digger is his favorite), race cars, motorcycles and jeeps. He is so much like Ryan. He wants to take things apart to see how it works. He is a hard worker and does well at doing his chores. We adore him and are blessed to have him in our family. We are so grateful for his birthmother and her decision to place him with us. We love him and her so much. He makes me smile, he is our comedian in the family. Just look at the blog and see some of his funny poses. :)

Ryan stays busy. He is still employed with Micron and we count our blessings daily on that note. He has been working on the house. He just got called to be a ward mission leader. He is really excited to serve. He recently went Elk hunting with some friends from church. The didn't see anything but he enjoyed the getaway (if you call sleeping on snow a getaway! LOL). He is so good to the children. He enjoys and loves them. He is a good dad and husband.

I am blessed to stay home with the children. I serve in the primary leadership. I love being with the children. I worked as a teacher for a few years, was released and placed with the youth. Then they called me back to primary. 2010 will make the start of 4 years working in primary. This year (2009) I volunteered with LDS Family Services working with adoption couples. I totally enjoyed it. I learned so much about adoption (laughing......sounds weird I know). We entered our first parade "We're MOOved by adoption." It was fun.

Ryan and I have started paperwork for baby #3. We are excited to expand our family. Adrian has been talking about more babies for months (2 babies he says). Ryan and I feel the same way. Our family has room for more children. We look forward to what the future holds. We have 2 wonderful birth mother's whom we love and adore. We hold them close to our hearts and will do the same for any future birthmother's. Keep our family in your prayers as we search for our other children. :)

Happy New Year to you and your family. God Bless You!
Ryan, Sandy, Adrian and Kayla