Lately, the craze on Facebook is change your profile picture to a childhood cartoon you loved. My all time favorite childhood cartoon I watched was...

"Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears."

I remember watching it ALL THE TIME and have many fond memories of this show.

Today I am thankful for such a wonderful Childhood. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Here Comes Santa Claus

Our House has been filled with Christmas Excitement! Ethan has been obsessed with the many decorations spread around the house.

He defiantly cannot leave this alone.

He is His new favorite Christmas Friend. Which made me thing that he would be delighted to meet...

Santa Claus!

Ethan has not shown any shyness when it has come to Santa until this year. He defiantly had some hesitation. Maybe it had something to do with the many Children crying before his turn. ??? When it was his turn, I handed my Little Guy to the Big Guy and Ethan instantly turned my way and said "I wanna hold you Mom." After some encouragement and a bag of treats Ethan gave me his "Cheese" smile:

Which always includes his eyes closed shut. And I knew everything was just fine with these two.

Ethan learned the song Jingle Bells tonight at our Ward Christmas Party. We have several wonderful families in our Ward that absolutely love Ethan and teach him all kinds of stuff. Ethan sings "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all da way." Over and Over, I love it!

The one thing that seems to bring all the excitement to Ethan's eyes is...

Pop-In-Kins as Ethan calls him.

This is Christopher Pop-In-Kins. Santa's Very First Children's Elf. Each day, Christopher hides in a different place – up out of reach, where he can see clearly who is naughty or nice. Every morning Ethan searches the house to find his new friend. It has been such a fun game in our house and I would recommend it to anyone. Check out Christopher Pop-in-Kins and the book online or at my favorite children's books store: Fun Finity.

Today I am thankful for Christmas!

What Adoption Means To Me

In honor of November being National Adoption Awareness Month, I would like to share my feelings about adoption. As a child I never had childhood dreams of being a big career woman, mostly dreamt of becoming a Mom. We had so many hopes and dreams for our lives when we were married in 2002. He made plans to start our family one year later. Long story short, Our dreams of becoming Parents started coming true January 2008 when we got The Call that a Birth Mom had chosen us to become the parents of her Child. The next few months were incredible as we got to know Kirsten and become a part of her family.

Ethan was born in August 2008 and are dreams became true. Ethan has a shirt that says:

Adoption - Loved and Adored by both my families.

To me that is exactly what Adoption is all about. Being loved and adored by both families. We have an Open Adoption and love being a part of Her family.

I truly feel blessed to be a part of the Miracle of Adoption.

Today and everyday I am always thankful for Adoption.

Temptation

Today I gave in to my temptation I have every time this time of year. I try SO hard to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to occupy myself with Christmas music. I've been in such a holiday mood lately. I've started our Christmas shopping (So much FUN), thought about our holiday traditions and think this year is going to be so much fun now that Ethan is starting to understand what's going on around him.

Don't get me wrong. I am an avid lover of Thanksgiving. My favorite memories of Thanksgiving include: making pies with my mom, eating Thanksgiving dinner with my Grandparents, cousins and all, this story, breaking the wishbone and being thankful for all that we have.

So Today I went to my Itunes and clicked on my Christmas Playlist. And I'm so glad I did. The first song that randomly played was this. Lately I've had a few things on my mind, can't sleep through the symphony (snoring - ;)Love you Brett!!!) Brett sings each night and have had a hard time falling asleep. Since my sheep have failed me time after time, I'm going to start counting my blessings instead of sheep.

It's official... the music playing in our home is now Christmas. I think It's gonna be a christmas to remember.

Today I am thankful for this time of year.

OUR OCTOBERFEST

We have been pretty busy lately and that's why I call it OUR Octoberfest. For many reasons, I do have to say that October is one of my favorite months. I love:

The way our back yard looks in the fall,

the smell of a Pumpkin Spice candle, conference and my all time favorite about this month is

HALLOWEEN

I absolutely love Halloween! Is there anyone else that loves it as much as I? My Mom always has a Halloween Party and costumes were mandatory this year. Since Ethan LOVES Buzz Lightyear We decided to dress that Part.

This Halloween has been the most fun with Ethan. He masters saying Trick or Treat, Happy Halloween and putting candy in his bucket.

He even got to fish at the fish pond.

Ethan also helped carve our pumpkin this year

At my Mom's party we had dinner in a pumpkin, had a costume parade, pumpkin carving contest and had a cake walk.

My Sister dressed up as Herminoe from Harry Potter and carved H & P For Harry Potter.

Usually I make sugar cookies for Halloween, and this year I decided to make Cupcakes.

I must have made a bazillion cupcakes. I made them for snack time at play group, I made them for Spooking our Neighbors and I made them for a Halloween party.

We even snuck in a fantastic date night. We were invited to both of our first Murder Mystery Dinner. We were given the parts of Punky Brewster and Scott Howard from Teen Wolf.

We pulled our costumes together and brushed up on our characters. Punky Power and Holy Macanolli. We had a great time getting to know the people there and acting as our characters.

Today I am thankful that Ethan did not get scared of people dressed in scary costumes.

Parade

Give me an A, give me a D, give me an O, give me a P, give me a T, give me an I, give me an O, give me a N. What Does that spell??? ADOPTION!!! Yesterday we were in the BYU Homecoming Parade and had so much fun. Families Supporting Adoption had a wagon for Families to ride on. Ethan and I walked the Parade with a few others and Brett Co-Piloted in the truck making sure no children were ran over. At least that's what he told me ;). We had a great time meeting other families that love and are a part of Adoption. We enjoyed waiving to the people and shouting Wahoo. It was fun promoting Adoption and sharing the joy and happiness Adoption can bring.

At the end we hopped on wagon and threw some candy.

It was so much fun it wore him out.

Today I am thankful that we and so many other families have been blessed by Adoption.

Nursery

Ethan's favorite part about church is Nursery. Each Sunday morning I dress him in his best and he knows just where we are going. "Nursery, Nursery Nursery!!!" He loves playing with the toys and playing with his friends. He must like singing time because he refers to the carpet squares they sit on when I pick him up. Last week I heard him singing Follow the Prophet. It sounds like: Follow, Follow (while clapping), Stray (while he waives his finger for Don't Go Astray) Follow, follow, HAY. The Nursery teachers must be doing something right because he loves Nursery.

Today Ethan saw Brett putting his tie on and Ethan wanted one too. We don't have a child size tie YET so we tied one of Brett's ties on Ethan for Church. He showed everyone his tie neatly tucked under his vest.

Today I am thankful for NURSERY! ;)

I DID IT!!!

Lately one of my favorite things Ethan says is "I Did It" and raises his arms with glee. He loves going things on His own and celebrates every time he does something by him self. Grandma gave Him these shoes and He absolutely loves them. Mostly because he can put them on all by Himself.

He even got them on the right feet.

It has been so much fun watching Ethan learn and do new things. He is a such a fun age. There is never a dull moment or a day without laughter.

Today I am thankful for the many moments that make me feel blessed to be his Mom.

A memory that still makes Us Laugh

One of the questions in out adoption profile asks us about the memory that still makes me laugh. Brett tells of the story of the flaming Thanksgiving Turkey. There was not enough space to write the whole story, so I'm going to finnish the story on our blog:

A few years ago, we were in charge of bringing the turkey for thanksgiving dinner. We had recently purchased a new bbq that had a rotisserie attachment. We heard that rotisserie turkey is really good so we set up the attachment and started cooking the turkey. Things were going great. Brett's Brothers called and were going clay pigeon shooting and wanted him to go with them. I said go ahead, have a fun time. We were expecting family to stay with us for the holiday, so I was making beds and getting things ready for them. I remember vacuuming and remembered TURKEY. I glanced over at the window and saw FLAMES. I grabbed my phone called Brett (thankful that he had service) "It's on FIRE" he said "What's on Fire?" I said "The, The, The TURKEY"! He said "Put it out" the first thing that came to my mind was the fire extinguisher I ran to get it and Brett said "Not the fire extinguisher! It will ruin the bbq. Put it out with water." He said he was going to call his Cousin (who was across the street) to come and help me. I started looking for something to put the fire out. The only thing I could find at that time was an eight oz cup. The flames were so high. How many trips to the sink is it going to take me. I filled the first cup, by the time I got to the bbq I had about 4 oz left in the cup, threw the water on the turkey and the fire went out. The funniest part about the story is my Mother In Law decided that morning that she would also make a turkey. She cooked it in her slow cooker and forgot to turn the dial on. So with two turkeys one scorched and one raw, we pulled back the burnt pieces of the turkey and ate what was underneath. At the end of the day we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, memories and I never have to bring the turkey again! ;)

Today I am thankful that it didn't ruin the bbq.

Boys play in Forts

What does a few blankets, lamp, a couch, Buzz Lightyear, flash light and The old lady who swallowed the fly book create???

An entire afternoon of imagination.

Today I am thankful for my little guy with such a great imagination.

Graduation

Ethan has made a big step into Big Boy World. He is now officially out of his high chair. I tended one of my Nephews the other day. I called both of them to come and eat lunch. Ethan watched his cousin climb onto the chair and promptly followed. He has had no interest in his high chair since

The other day I was doing my hair in the other room and heard the water turn on. I ran into the room. Ethan had climbed onto the counter, turned on the water and sprayed water all over the kitchen.

Today I am thankful for Bounty paper towels. ;)

Ethan's 2nd Year Photo Shoot

Does every mom in the world think that their little guys are as cute as this little guy. Ethan has sure grown into a handsome little boy. He is quite the flirt and defiantly knows how to get the girls these days. He loves getting his pictures taken.

The photographer called us a few days before his photo shoot and told me to bring a few props, things that he loves at this age. He has been watching the other grandkids playing baseball at Grandmas and has observed very well. He got a bat and ball for his birthday and has hit a few balls since. So I brought them along for his pictures.

I also brought along his friend "Monkey" is what Ethan calls him. I've tried teaching him cute names but, he always calls him Monkey.

Ethan got a kick out of feeding Monkey a fruit snack

He has been so much fun lately. He is at such a fun age full of all kinds of words.

Today I am thankful for such a handsome little boy.

Becca's Family

My family is smaller than Brett's but makes it up with all the love we have for each other. There is four of us kids. Kyle (Warehouse Manager) Jeana (Mom/Student/Financial Assistant) Me (Mom) and Teresa (Teacher/Coach). My dad Rod works as a Facility Manager. He loves to go fishing, Alaska and hunting. My mom Roxann teaches preschool in her home. She loves sewing, quilting, working in her flower garden and having her Family around.

Some of the things we like to do together are: getting together for holidays, birthday's and play dates. Us girls and kids get together often for Grandma Day's. We take trips to museams, hikes, picnics at the park, and all kinds of fun activities.

Going to the family cabin.

Most people would say that I grew up on a farm. We didn't ever have any cows or pigs so I don't consider it a farm. We had horses, cats, a dog, chickens, ducks, rabbits, frogs and a goat. Part of our favorite part about living on a FARM is every spring:

Babies here and babies there.

Growing up we were a well rounded family. Kyle did wrestling and football, Jeana was in dance and part of the Drill Team, I was involved in choirs and Teresa did softball, volleyball, basketball and just about anything athletic. My parents supported each of us and let each of us become who we wanted to be.

I think we are blessed that we all live close to be able to spend time together as a family.

Today I am thankful for such a great family