Karson, Betsy, Izzy, and Beckham

St. George Trip

2012-01-26T07:03:00.001-08:00

We spent time in St. George from Christmas until New Years. This is really late, but I wanted to document the fun we had there. Here are some of the things we did....

***The Park. The weather was so gorgeous there. The whole family went to the park.

***Beckham ate veggies! He loved them right from the start. Even the peas and green beans!

***Silly Time. We love just hanging around and having fun while we are there.

***Mommy Averee. Averee played Mommy a lot. We often heard, "Izzy, I am a mom." Here she is pushing Beckham in her stroller. Below is in December 2009 when she was pushing baby Izzy in her stroller.

PUSH PLAY

***Jeep Girls. Averee got this jeep for Christmas and brought it. These girls spent every moment they could get an adult to watch them cruisin' the neighborhood!

***Sick Izzy. Izzy had a fever and was sick for some of the trip. Poor Baby!

We were ready to head to the pool when we noticed she wasn't feeling well. Needless to say, we didn't take Izzy to the pool.

): Holding the tylenol.

She decided to put that wet rag to use and clean the table.

***Snuggle and Movie Time. The kids watched movies and it was so cute to see them snuggle.

I love how Averee and Izzy are holding hands in this one.

***Bowling. The family from Vegas came down and we all went bowling. It was fun to have almost everyone all together.

Love those tiny fingers!

Averee "helping" Izzy bowl

Izzy taking a break in Beckham's car seat...she is still so little!

***Scrapbooking of course! We get so much scrapbooking done when we go to St. George.

Don't mind Beckham's pink blanket...it was the closest one!

My favorite page. I did this page for Erin. I love how it turned out. I normally cram so many pictures on the page, so it was fun to be able to use only one awesome picture.

***Going to church. We went to church down there. The kids were quite entertaining in a retirement ward with no children. This is what happened.

*** Happy New Years. We rang in the new year at 9:00 so kids could get to bed. Beckham didn't even make it until 9:00. Izzy loved shaking the rattle and yelling Happy New Year!

Dancing in the New Year....PUSH PLAY

Resourceful Dad

2012-01-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

IZZY: "Dad...I need a crown."

DAD: (not wanting to go upstairs and get hers, whips this little beauty up) "Here you go"

IZZY: (thinks it is perfect) "Thanks Dad"

...she is an easily impressed princess....

Sports Fan Bow

2012-01-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to my latest Bowdabra Tutorial.

All About Izzy

2012-01-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how much Izzy is growing (not so much in size) and changing. She is such a smart, creative, funny, and loving little girl. I always do milestones every month until they are 2 and was planning on doing it every 6 months after that but there is just too much cute stuff I want to remember about her right now....so, here is so I will always remember.

29 Months Old: 23 Pounds 7 Ounces

She is such a good big sister. She talks "Baby talk" to Beckham by going..."AAGGGG, Agggg" She is plays Patty Cake and Einsy Weinsy Spider with him. Now that he is getting close to her size she hugs him and tries to play with him. If he cries, she is the first to find his binky or suggest to mom that he might need a bottle. She is really good at getting him to laugh really hard.

She loves going to the park and can sense when we are near one. She is getting more daring in what she tries but is still a bit cautious. She likes to hang on the monkey bars by herself. Of course we are right there to catch her.

She is silly. She likes to make silly faces and recognizes humor and silly things. It is fun to see her little personality blossom.

She loves animals like her Grandma. She pretends to be a cat or dog almost every day and will pant and want us to pet her....then pretty soon she will say, "I'm Izzy" when she is done.

DIVA!!!! She loves to dress up. Dresses, Crowns, Jewelry, High Heels, Feather Boas....she loves them and when we get dressed in the morning she wants to just immediately put on those things. She wear her high heels around the house most of the day. :) She loves cute clothes. The other day she said, "I love your jacket Mom"

Little Dancer. Karson and I are going to have a little dancer for sure! (We are not excited or anything!) She loves her "dancing dresses" and wants to dance all of the time. She will start classes this year!

She is a total book worm. She will pick a book over a toy anyday. She will even look at books with no pictures. She has a long attention span and loves to look at them on her own and be read to.

Happy girl. She is almost always happy, even when she is sick. She is so polite. Her nursery teachers say she always says please and thank you during snack time. She is very good at saying "Yes Please" and "No Thank You" For example, MOM: "Izzy, will you please clean up your toys?" IZZY: "No Thank You" :)

Despite what we see most of the time, she does still have those 2 year old moments. She is very tender hearted and quite strong willed. She is funny lately because if she looses her temper and yells NO! and hits me (which all kids do), sometimes she will say Sorry, Mommy and go sit in time out on her own. :)

She is in a twin bed goes to sleep really well. She does not get out of her bed until we come in to get her. She just sings and talks until we come in the morning. She still takes 1 good long nap, sometimes 2 short ones. She is cute and often says, "Mommy, I'm tired, I'll take my nap."

She likes to try and dress herself. As you can see here she got both legs in one hole. Oddly enough, she puts her shoes on the correct feet 99% of the time. This could in part be because she loves puzzles so much and is very good at them. She play them on our phones and just whips right through them. She is very smart and counts to 20, does ABC's, counts in Spanish and to 5 in Japanese. She sings lots of songs and know a lot of Spanish words and will often use them interchangebly with english. She will oay "Ayúdame" instead of help, abre instead of open, empujar instead of push, and some others.

Merry Maid. She loves to clean. She likes to wipe, dust, vacume, and my favorite is she helps me unload the dishes everyday. With every item she hands me she says, "here you go." She is very much a neat girl. She likes her face and hands to always be clean. She always has to make sure the doors are shut. If she walks by and sees a door open, she will for sure shut it. She likes order like her Momma!

CHEESE BALL! She is in the stage where every picture is with a giant cheesy grin. Hmmmm....It doesn't help that both of her parents are cheesy! :)

Snuggle Buddy. She loves to snuggle with a blanky and Mom and Dad. We love it! She loves to watch a show or movie with us. Of course she is still OBSESSED with Dora and the movie she asks to watch all of the time is The Little Mermaid. She is so sweet and strokes our faces when we snuggle with her. (Makes us melt!) We hear, "Will you tickle my back please?" a lot. The cutest is she likes us to do it with finger nails not finger tips and she will take her little hand and move ours the way she want it and say, "No....like this."

SNOW GIRL! If there is snow, she will find it. She will find the tiniest patch of snow (that is really gross) and try to eat it. It hasn't snowed much this year but the other day it did a little. In the car she said, "I love the snow. I will eat it all gone!"

PRINCESSES! She is so into princesses right now. She carries them everywhere with her and it is so cute to see her make them talk to each other. She loves to dance with them. She is in a phase where she likes to have her toys watch her eat, play, take a bath, whatever she is doing. She just sets them up and says, "You watch me."

She is so good when I do her hair. I am really fast which helps, but she just holds still and reads while I do french braids, pig tails, curls and whatever else I fell like. The other day there was tangle when I was brushing her hair. She said "OUCH Mom, you pulled my hair." I said, "I'm sorry Izzy, I didn't mean to." She said, "Oh, it was an accident." She pulls out new vocabulary everyday that we didn't even know she knew.

The hand. We see this often. "No, I will do it by myself....OKAY?" She is becoming quite independent. She is doing pretty good with potty training and goes on the potty about once a day. We normally prompt her for prayers, but just this week she has been saying. No...I'll do it. I have to record what she said in her first "all by herself" prayer. She started and ended it so good and in the middle she said, "Bless my Daddy, Bless my Biya (Karson's mom), Bless my Grandma."

Although the majority the time she is impeccably put together...there are lots of times like this where she finds her own outfit to wear, and boy does she have style! I love this little girl!

BIG HELPER. Izzy is all about helping us. Sometimes she is more help than we need. We loves teaching her new things.

Her favorite song is "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. She calls it "Oh Oh Oh" She sings and dances to it everyday. Here she is dancing to the chipette version. PUSH PLAY

She loves to color. She likes to draw "baby circles" and "mommy circles"

Izzy brings so much joy to our home. She is such a sweetheart and we just think she is perfect in her own little way!

Beckham's Baby Blessing

2012-01-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

Karson gave Beckham a beautiful baby blessing on Sunday, January 8th. A lot of friends and family were there with us. What a great day!

I didn't get a picture with Beckham and all 9 men that were in the circle. So here are some....

...and here are some....

We had a luncheon at our home after

Most of the group from that day

A Perfect Day

2012-01-08T13:42:00.001-08:00

On Saturday, January 7 we had a perfect day. We were able to take our sweet little Beckham to the temple to be sealed to us for all eternity. I cannot describe in words what a beautiful, special, and sacred experience this was. Izzy was there too and both kids were little angels in the temple. Beckham bright eyed and looking right at the sealer as if he knew just what was going on. It was adorable. After the sealing all 4 of us looked in the mirror and I asked Izzy, "What do you see." She said, "My Family" and leaned over and gave Beckham the sweetest side hug you have ever seen. It melted everyone's hearts....especially ours! We are so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows and loves us. We are thankful for the knowledge that we have that families can be together forever. We will forever be so grateful for Beckham and Izzy's birth parents for bringing them to our family. We love them so much.

My Dad and Mom hosted a get-together at their home afterwards. We want to thank them so much. Everything was beautiful, DELICIOUS, and perfect. It was so great to spend the day with our family and friends.

Baseball Eclairs

The Cutest Veggie Tray Ever!

Relaxing on his big day

Most of the group....about 15 more came after the picture

Beckham is 6 Months Old..

2012-01-08T02:53:00.000-08:00

Beckham turned 6 Months on New Years Day. I just want to record some of the things he is up to right now so I can always remember.

WEIGHT: 17.6 Pounds

He Rolls and is starting to scoot on his back and tummy
He has started sitting up quite well
He likes to stand (with help obviously) rather than sit
He holds his own bottle
Size 3 Diapers like Izzy

He loves his mama....he follows me with eyes wherever I am in the room and when I get close he starts making little noise and squirming around to try and get me. I love it! (Especially since Izzy is so all about Dad right now)
He is a good eater and does cereal, peas, green beans, and carrots so far.

6-9 Month Clothes
He smiles at everyone
He still loves to be swaddled tight
Sleeps from 7:30-7:30 and takes about 2 naps a day

Has an adorable laugh and is quick to giggle
He reaches for things and is starting to love toys
He is trying really hard to get teeth and slobbers a lot!
He always has his mouth open!
Here are his 6 Month Pictures

Here is the video I made for his first 6 Months and our sealing...PUSH PLAY

Beckham's 6 Month Pictures

2012-01-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

We took Beckham's 6 Month Pictures while we were down in St. George. The weather was so beautiful that we were able to do them outside. We put him in his white outfit for his sealing and blessing. He looks so big! He started to sit up the day we took these.

Conversation

2012-01-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

We will be taking Beckham to the temple on Saturday to be sealed to our family. We are so excited and we have been talking a lot about it with Izzy since she will get to come in the temple with us. This is our conversation yesterday.

MOM: "Izzy, Are you so excited to go to the temple to get sealed"

IZZY: "Oh yes, Mommy and Daddy are going to get married and me and Beckham are going to get married."

Too cute!

A Good Day in Court!

2012-01-05T20:41:00.001-08:00

We were able to do the court finalization of Beckham's adoption on Wednesday. It was a great day. Doesn't really feel any different, but we are very excited because now the we have the finalization we can take Beckham to the temple on Saturday to be sealed to our family forever. What a special day that will be! Our parents and Karson's sister and her kids came to support us.

With the judge

Our happy family

The Gang

We have been gone for a week and Izzy REALLY missed her Grandpa and Grandma. As you can so she was very excited to see them.

The Baby of the Hour (Don't worry, Karson is holding him up from behind)

Christmas 2011

2012-01-05T16:20:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas Break filled with lots of fun things. We left the day after Christmas for St. George and stayed there through the New Year. Here is a HUGE post of all of the fun Christmas memories.

****Family Christmas Parties

My mom and Dad put together a really fun Christmas party. My mom is so amazing and does everything so well. Everyone who was there had so much fun! We also spent Christmas Eve with Karson's family. My parents came there and Karson's parents came to my families. I love that our parents are such good friends.

Karson teaches my cousins girls ballroom dance lessons. He and her 8 year old daughter danced a triple swing. PUSH PLAY

Great Uncle John leading the carols

Izzy performing "5 Little Christmas Trees" PUSH PLAY

Izzy and Ty and Karson's families Christmas Eve party.

****A Visit from Izzy's Birth Family

Opening Presents

Izzy's birth Mom sent this pink Christmas tree for her room in the beginning of December so it could be displayed all month. She loves it!

Taking a break to eat ice from the outdoor ornaments

Loving the box!

****Breakfast with Santa

My Parents took us to a really fun Breakfast with Santa at the Marriott. The breakfast was delicious and Izzy and Beckham got to spend about 10 minutes just them and Santa.

Beckham LOVED Santa!!!!! He is so stinkin' cute looking at him.

Izzy was a little weary but warmed up in the end

Two roly poly guys!

Izzy preferred the Santa's that were "just her size"

"This Santa is just my size"

****Christmas Morning

We have been more excited this year than ever before! Having kids at Christmas is just magical. I love everything about the Christmas season and the spirit it brings. I love my family!
All the Presents

What Santa Brought for Izzy

What Santa brought Beckham

Beckham started sitting up over the Holiday

Christmas Jammies

I loved having church on Christmas. It really brought the spirit of Christmas. We saw what Santa brought then went to church. My parents came too. Then we came home and opened the presents and had Christmas Dinner.

Karson's tie plays Christmas music and Rudolph's nose lights up....BAD idea for church with a 2 year old!

Love

We had our parents and my brother over for Christmas Dinner

Izzy with all of her and Beckham's loot. She helped Beckham open his presents since he was so tired and couldn't keep his little eyes open.

Opening the Presents

Izzy loved her Disney Princess Barbies!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours.

Funky Netting Bow

2012-01-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to my latest Bowdabra Tutorial.

Church Conversation

2012-01-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

We have been in St. George during the Holidays. We went to church in the ward where Karson's parents home is. It is a retirement community and there are NO children in the ward. So everyone heard every peep my kids made. :) The men passing the sacrament were of course all senior citizens. They all lined up right next to us when they finished and Izzy yelled, "Look...All the prophets!" Then proceeded to count loudly...."One Grandpa, Two Grandpa's, Three Grandpa's." We had her quieted down by four Grandpa's. Little Cutie!

Making Cookies

2011-12-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

Izzy helped make Christmas Cookies to give to her babysitters. She loves to help in the kitchen!

All ready to go!

Izzy helped make Christmas Cookies on her first Christmas but was too tired!

Beckham was a little more awake! (Ya...he is not too cool for the purple bumbo)

Adding her personal touch

Making Cookies PUSH PLAY

Adoption Education Presentations

2011-12-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

Karson and I have had a fun opportunity lately. We have been going into local Jr. High and High School health classes and doing a presentation about adoption. All of the health classes spend a day talking about adoption and FSA (Families Supporting Adopting), which we are a part of, sends people out to teach about adoption. We were lucky enough to be asked to share. We love to talk about adoption and both of our kids stories so this has been an amazing experience and we feel we are spreading education about adoption.

We get to team teach with a birth parent. (not our children's birth parents, in fact it has been a different one every time) We take the first part of the class and do a power point about adoption education. We share our own stories and have pictures of Izzy and Beckham through out as we teach. Then the birth mother or birth father spends the last part of class telling her or his story. The kids have been great and are so attentive. They have had lots of great questions.

I want to share a little of what we share in these presentations because I think it is such an important thing for everyone to know about. I put the sections in blue that are especially great for all of us to know.

1. A little about us. We share about us and how we met, fell in love, and got married. We share about our strong desire to have children and our battle with infertility. We then show a slide with us and both kids birth parents. We tell a little about Izzy and Beckham's stories and how we were able to become parents through their birth parents and the miracle of adoption.

2. Un-Planned Pregnancy. We have them think about their lives and how it would change if they or their girlfriend became pregnant. Then what would the choices be. Marriage, single-parenting, or adoption.

3. Parenting as an option. We spend a while talking about parenting as an option. We cover some of the things to think about if this is something they want to do. Finances, Living Arrangements, Child Care, Effect of single parenting on mother and child, etc. We tell them that the choice is theirs and just point out some things to think about.

4. Adoption as an option. We talk about what adoption is. We tell them about each of our children's birth parents and how they put careful thought into what would be the best at that time for their baby and for them.

5. Adoption Myths. We tell them that they might never be put in the situation to place a baby for adoption but they will most likely know some who has, someone who is adopted, or someone who is an adoptive parent. We tell them these myths so they can always know and be educated on adoption. This is one of the parts I think is good for everyone to hear.

*MYTH: A birth parent who cares about his/her child would not even think about adoption

*MYTH: A birth parent will never know anything about his/her child and the adoptive parents in the following years.

*MYTH: Adoption is an irresponsible solution to an unplanned pregnancy.

*MYTH: A birth parent will eventually forget about the child he/she relinquished for adoption.

*MYTH: All adoptees will grow up to have serious psychological problems.

*MYTH: No one can love a child as much as the birth mother.

*MYTH: Since you got pregnant it’s your responsibility to live with the consequences and keep the baby.

6. Adoption Facts. We share facts about children placed in adoptive homes. We also share facts about children raised with a mother and a father. One fun thing is we show a list of people who have been adopted. There are a lot I did not realize......Here are some.....Charles Dickens, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, Faith Hill, Halle Berry, Aristotle, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, President Gerald Ford, President Bill Clinton. Interesting, eh?

7. Adoption Language. I feel this is one of the biggest ways we can educate. Karson and I never take offense when someone asks, "So tell me about your kids real parents?" We love talking about our adoption story and we simply answer..."Our children's birth parents..." and then go on from there. We get it a lot and people just don't know how to speak about adoption. In the classes, we teach the kids positive adoption language and negative adoption language. This is great to look over if you ever wondered.

POSITIVE: Placing your baby for adoption NEGATIVE: Giving Up your baby for adoption

POSITIVE: Birth or Biological Parent NEGATIVE: Real Parent

POSITIVE: Making an Adoption Plan/ Choosing Adoption NEGATIVE: Giving your child away

POSITIVE: Child by Birth/ Biological Child NEGATIVE: My Child/ My Real Child

POSITIVE: Finding a family to parent your child NEGATIVE: Putting your child up for adoption

(??????) I remember when I first learned about saying place a baby rather than giving up the baby I didn't really see the difference, but now it is crystal clear and I love when people say it that way. "Giving Up your Baby" is a passive verb. It implies not much went into it. "Placing you baby for adoption" is an active verb. It is a choice that was made with much thought and insight as to what would be best for the child at that time.

8. Things to consider. What would you want in an adoptive family. We let them know that birth parents pick and of course we share about how our children's birth parents found us. A Birth Plan. (When you would want the adoptive couple there, etc.) Level of openess after and before placement. We cover the 3 levels of openess and share that we have semi-open with Beckham's birth family and open with Izzy's birth family. We tell them that there is no right or wrong way to do it. Every situation is different.

*Closed– No contact, birth mother may not even meet the adoptive family or look at profiles.

*Semi-open– Meet with adoptive parents prior to placement. Exchange letters and pictures through the agency.

*Open– Exchange personal information, visits between birth parents and adoptive parents.

9. Adoption Laws. We go over Utah adoption laws briefly. Placement, Paternity, Finalizations, and the Save Haven Law.

10. We love adoption! We close by telling them that maybe they will never be faced with this choice but they might know someone who will or maybe one day they will be an adoptive couple. We express to them the love that we have for our children's birth parents and tell them what remarkable, selfless, mature, and loving people they are. They did what was best in their own situation. Only you know what is best for you. We remind them that without adoption we would not be parents. We love adoption!!!!!!!

They really were attentive...just ignore the kid with his head down in the front row. =)

Church Conversation

2011-12-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Conversation #1

(Karson is giving Izzy a bath)

MOM: "It is time to get out Izzy."

IZZY: "I'll stay in here please"

MOM: "2 more minutes, then we need to get ready for church."

(Izzy immediately starts cleaning up bath toys and singing...)

IZZY: "Clean Up, Clean Up, everybody everywhere.....YAY CHURCH!"

Conversation #2

(At church during the intermediate hymn...Izzy is in the aisle spinning and leading the music...as soon as the song is over she starts clapping and yells, very loudly...)

IZZY: "Yay, We're at church!"

*Yes, we are working on reverence.... :) But I am so happy she loves church so much!

Conversation

2011-12-08T06:53:00.001-08:00

Mom: "Good Morning Izzy. Did you sleep good?"

Izzy: (Big Smile) "I Sure Did!"

Deck The Halls

2011-12-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

We LOVE Christmas!!!!!! And, yes, we are those people who decorate before Thanksgiving! But I had good reasoning. We were gone all Thanksgiving week and it was so nice to have everything up when we got home. Especially since the week after Thanksgiving is super busy with work. I love the feeling of Christmas. This year is so fun because Izzy is understanding it all. She loves doing her countdown calendars. and has told us she wants Santa to bring her stickers. :) She loves all of the decorations and wants to show everyone that comes over her tree in her room. She says, "Come on guys...Pink Room!" Here is some of the Christmas spirit around our home.

***The House

***The kids have started wearing christmas clothes.

These are hand-me-downs from my brothers twins. (Boy/ girl) I had to put these side by side from when Izzy wore the girl ones....Too cute)

***The Bedrooms

Beckham's Tree

Izzy's Tree

Izzy's nickname is "Peanut" My mom found this ornament

Our Tree

***The Banister and Loft (Red and Gold Tree)

***The Living Room (Nativity Tree)

(Notice the bottom lights went out....GRRRRR)

Matching Centerpiece

***The Family Room (Purple and Green Tree)

I can't believe we have 4 stockings!!!

**The Kitchen

***

Rice Cereal Pro!

2011-12-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

We tried rice cereal again this week. Last time we tried he wasn't ready. This time he loved it! He was so ready and it was like he knew just what to do. It is amazing to me how 4 weeks can make such a difference.

Getting all clean

The Rice Cereal Pro....PUSH PLAY

Christmas Elegance Embellishment Bow

2011-12-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest Bowdabra Tutorial. Izzy has a beautiful dress with pearl accents. So I decided to do a bow with pearl embellishments.

Same Size!

2011-12-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

We have wondered how long it would take before Beckham passed Izzy in size. He is sure off to a good start. He is big boy (50% for his age)! (and she is a petite little girl (2% for her age) He is catching right up. At 5 months old Beckham is now is the same size 3 diapers as his 28 month old sister. :) We are loving only have to buy and pack one size of diapers for our little cuties for now!

We sure love these size 3 diaper wearin' kids!

5 Months Old!

2011-12-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

Beckham turned 5 months old on Thursday. He is such a little cutie. He pretty much melts my heart every times he looks at me with those gorgeous blue eyes. He is very healthy and growing so big. Here are some of his 5 month achievements...

WEIGHT: 16 Pounds

LENGTH: 26 Inches

He is starting to try and sit up on his own
He talks and gurgles a lot. He likes to hear himself.
He loves to snuggle....lucky us!
He laughs and smiles all of the time. All you have to do is smile at him.

He holds his own bottle!!! (I think this is pretty early....Izzy was 11 months)
He is almost out of 3-6 month clothes. Starting to wear some 6-9 month.
Size 3 diapers just like Izzy!
He has a strong neck and center.

Beckham laughing....PUSH PLAY

Little Monkeys

2011-12-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

Karson's mom got all of the kids matching monkey jammies. There is something that is extra cute when little kids are all dressed in the same jammies. They thought it was so fun too!

The little kids

Just hangin' out

Beckham loves his cousins

The boys

Izzy and Korlan taking a break to do some laundry

All the kids

Monkeys on Parade....PUSH PLAY

Fall Leaves Fun

2011-12-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to take pictures in the leaves all fall but we haven't gotten around to it. The kids (Karson being one of "the kids") were having so much fun putting all of the leaves on the trampoline. I got lots of cute pictures of all of the kids having fun! Since it was later in the year, the colors weren't as vibrant as last year, but they are so cute!

Fun on the tramp

All the kids playing in the leaves...PUSH PLAY

Grandpa and Beckham (The towel is being used as a blanket)

Korlan

Izzy

Averee

Kash

Hunter

Beckham

Grandpa and the kids

What a fun Grandpa!

Izzy is not too sure about the dog pile on Grandpa

Brushing off her hands

The "De-Leafing"... PUSH PLAY

Temple Square 2011

2011-11-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

I am noticing the Temple Square lights are becoming a tradition. Temple Square 2008. Temple Square 2009 we were in our warm home with our little preemie baby. Temple Square 2010. This year all of Karson's family came. We took up an entire trax car. The kids loved it. Beckham loved to look at all of the lights too.

Waiting at the trax station

in love!

Izzy had a little melt down....probably cause she couldn't move in her bundle! :) Love that face!

The whole family on trax....PUSH PLAY

The whole gang

Hunter and Karson

Biya and Beckham

Cousins

Izzy and Grandpa

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-30T08:28:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. I love that there is a Holiday dedicated to gratitude. We have so much to be thankful for and one of the main things is our family. We were able to spent a lot of time with both of our families over the Holiday. We are lucky that they both live close by.

Thanksgiving Part 1:

We had a Thanksgiving Dinner with my family on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It was delicious! We also spent all day Wednesday with my family. We decorated my parents tree and went to our favorite mexican restaurant.

our little turkey

Izzy LOVES Grandma!

The beautiful table

We made these cute name holders and used them for both families

We decorated my parents ginormous tree!

Thanksgiving Part #2:

Karson's brother and sister came in from out of town. We all slept at his parents house during the week to spend time with them. We had a great time together. I will post more about our week later.

The Adult Table

The Kids Table missing Kash

I made turkey bows for Izzy and Averee

Little Korlan (18 months) made his name tag part of his Thanksgiving dinner

I made all of the pies/ desserts again this year. Only 9 this year....Lemon Merengue, 2 Banana Cream, Pumpkin Toffee Cheescake, Chocalate Cream, 2 Key Lime, Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle, and Peach Pie. YUMMY!!!

Korlan and Karson

Lindsay (who just shaved off her dreadlocks), Jacoby, and Izzy

Snuggling and playing puzzles on my phone

Playing with Grandpa after baths....they didn't even have time to get there hair combed

Kash (5) loves Beckham. He was so adorable and asked to hold him a few times each day.

Karson's parents gave the adult Christmas present's that night since we were all there. It was so fun. We all got lots of food storage items, but we payed Bingo to get them. We each had a laundry basket. As soon as we got a bingo we ran downstairs, picked an item, put it in our basket and started over since the game never stopped. What a clever way to make food storage fun!

Re-Purposed Christmas Dress and Bow

2011-11-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest Bowdabra tutorial. I am really excited about this one. Izzy had a beautiful velvet and pleated dress. I wasn't crazy about the lace applique so I decided to re-purpose it and make it into a Christmas Dress. I used the same materials in the bow for a perfect match. Here is the Step-by-step Tutorial.

The dress before

The dress and matching bow after

I used Bowdabra wire to add some silver glitz to the bow

Buddies

2011-11-21T07:39:00.000-08:00

I love how much my kids love each other! Izzy is such a little mommy to Beckham. When he cries, she says...gives him his binky and says "shh, shh" while stroking his face. She is so gentle with him. He lights up when he sees her. He loves her lots!

Izzy likes to join Beckham for Tummy time

Playing with their friend Elizabeth

Silly Girls

Happy Anniversary!

2011-11-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

Karson has been my best friend for a long time....(this picture was taken in 2000 the day before he left on his mission...)

I married my best friend 5 years ago today in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. What a perfect day!

While we were hoping to start our family, we had fun being newlyweds.

We went to Disneyland...a few times!

We traveled, competed, and danced a lot.

Then in 2009 we were blessed with Izzy!

And in 2011, Beckham joined our family!

2 kids and 5 years later, life is beautiful. I love my best friend and I am so happy to be with him and our kids forever!!!!!!!!!!!

Rice Cereal Attempt #1

2011-11-15T13:53:00.000-08:00

We decided to try rice cereal with Beckham last Sunday. He did pretty good, but we think we will wait a few weeks to try again. He didn't seem like he was quite ready yet. He sure did look cute in the high chair though! It took Izzy 3 attempts at rice cereal before she liked it. Izzy Attempt #1, Izzy Attempt #2, Izzy Attempt #3.

Looking so big in the high chair

First Bite

Not too sure

Beckham's first rice cereal. Izzy is jealous he is sitting in the high chair.

PUSH PLAY

Getting the good stuff from the bottle!

Doing a little better PUSH PLAY

Getting a bath in the sink

Getting dry

All Clean

Family Date Night

2011-11-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

We had a fun family night last weekend. One of the couples Karson teaches wanted to give him a thank you gift. They gave him a gift certificate to our favorite restaurant, Los Hermanos, and a gift certificate to Build a Bear Workshop. I think it is so cute that they know that Karson is so crazy about his kids and seeing them have fun is what makes him happy. Thanks Rachelle and Ben!

Yummy

Beckham's 1st time to Los Hermanos...I think 4 months is the longest we have ever not been there. It was the first restaurant Izzy went to. (Actually one of the first times she left the house)

Picking her bear...she fell in love with the puppy

She is so little we had to stand her on the petal to stuff the puppy

Putting the heart in...Ever since we have had the puppy home, she periodically reminds me, "Theres a heart in there."

She dropped a heart under the machine

Giving her puppy a bath

Picking the outfit....Decisions, decisions

Izzy loves clothes....she kept picking clothes up and saying..."Hmm...cute!"

She found the tinkerbell outfit that was her first Halloween costume when she was almost 3 months old and almost 5 pounds. We will have to pull it out and put it on her puppy.

My Mom and Dad came and joined us at build-a-bear...Beckham loved hanging out with Grandma

She found a little bed and thought it was for her

Creating the birth certificate

Of course she named the puppy Kaly after my mom and dad's chihauhau

Getting her all packed up in her house...I just realized we never took a picture of what outfit Izzy chose for Kaly. It is a sparkly tutu dancing dress. (Big Surprise!)

Happy girl...Happy grrandparents

We walked around the mall and she had to carry the box

Beckham got to sit in the big seat in the front of the stroller for the first time!

Because Izzy was pushing

Sunday Best...

2011-11-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

I always want to take pics on Sunday because everyone looks so nice. I have to be quick though because as soon as church is over, they are ready for lunch and nap! So here are a few. Izzy loves going to nursery. We haven't had her go into nursery for the past 2 weeks because she has been a little sick. We don't want to risk her getting anymore sick because last time she had a common cold it landed her in the hospital for almost a week due to pre-mature lungs. After sacrament meeting we told her she couldn't go to nursery and she said, "pleeeeeeease!" :( We love that she loves it so much. She got to go back on Sunday and was SOOOO excited! We are so lucky for her to have such amazing teachers.

P.S. I was just looking back at some posts while Izzy was in the NICU and found another post from a very different time in our life called "Sunday Best."

HANDSOME!

Beckham is eating Izzy's bow...what a patient brother

Just doing a little magazine browsing...

This Sunday was our first snowfall...Izzy had to take a bite

Love this view

Mom: "Izzy did you have fun at nursery today?"

Izzy: "Ya. (rubs her eyes) I'm tired"

Yay! Snow!!!!

Post-Halloween Fun

2011-11-08T06:52:00.000-08:00

We just can't stop playing dress up around here. My mom got Izzy some costumes on sale after Halloween to add to her dress up chest. She sure loves putting them on. We also got the cutest princess crowns from Izzy's Birth Grandma and Birth Dad. They are adorable and she loves them!

Silly girl!

Wearing one of her princess crowns

She wanted to show me her wings

Being a "pony"

She wanted Daddy to wear one of the crowns too. She also loved the card they gave her.

Remembering Sherese

2011-11-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

A year ago on October 28th was a very sad day for our family here on earth. Karson's oldest sister Sherese passed away unexpectedly. We can't believe that she has been gone a year. Not a day has gone by where we haven't thought of her. We have been spending a lot of time together as a family this month. Karson made a good point. He said it will be really easy to just dwell on the sad things around this time, but he encouraged us all to remember the good times we had with Sherese and remember that we will be with her again someday. We did just that. We all gathered at her grave site and set balloons go with notes written to her on them. We miss her so much but are so grateful for the knowledge we have of Heavenly Father's plan.

Sherese

I love this picture. This is one of Izzy's first smiles we caught on camera and Sherese is the one making her smile.

In the canyon with Sherese

Karson and his 3 beautiful sisters at our wedding...Sherese is on the left

Izzy and Ty (Sherese's only grandson)

Sherese loved purple

Family Time

2011-11-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

This past month we have spent a lot of time together as a family. We always get all together once a month but these month we all wanted to be close together and enjoy our family as we all remembered Sherese. We all got together 4 times in 3 weeks and it was great.

Family Time #1: We were going to do tin foil dinners up the canyon. We went on the most gorgeous drive up the canyon to the place we always do to and it was closed. So we drove back down to a park with a fire pit. (It was worth the drive though...it was so gorgeous) We had a great time visiting and eating yummy tin foil dinners.

Love those blue eyes....

Playing with the newlyweds...

Grandpa and Beckham

Ty: "Izzy can you help me with this?"

Izzy: "Sure...I know all about these...One has followed me around since birth!"

The chef

Biya and Beckham

Terryn and Izzy

Family Time #2: We met at a great park and had chili and monkey bread! YUMMY! It was a beautiful fall day and we all had a fun time visiting.

one cute little pumpkin

Izzy enjoyed the park

Beckham and Janae

Family Time #3: We had Sunday dinner at Karson's parent's house and then did a fire in their back yard. It was really fun to just hang out and laugh. We played "telephone" forever. And of course did smores!

Izzy and Ty took a break to do "jumping jumping" on the tramp

Playing "telephone"

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T22:18:00.001-07:00

Halloween this year was so fun. The weather was perfect and we had a ball. Both of our parents and Kylie came over for dinner and then we all went out and watched Izzy and her BFF trick or treat. Grandma fed Beckham his bottle as we went. That was treat enough for him! Afterwards, we carved the pumpkin that we grew in our garden. I am noticing a theme this year. Dora Easter then Dora Birthday Party and now Dora Halloween! Izzy loves Dora. We love it too. It teaches so much and is such a cute show. We had fun making our costumes together.

Dora, Map, Boots, and Back Pack

Dora the Explorer

and her side sick...Boots the Monkey

Dora and her other side kick Minnie

Ready to run to the next house....

Grandma fed Beckham his bottle as we trick or treated

Trick or Treat....PUSH PLAY

Dora and her gang....minus boots

Candy....

...Candy....

....and more more candy.....

Holding Biya's hand

Got the sucker in her mouth....HAPPY!

Boots and Dora

Gathering around to carve our pumpkin (that we grew in our garden!!!)

Surprisingly, Izzy loved the gooey stuff...(She did brush her hands off after every handful)

Kylie and Beckham

Karson was the "carver"

Izzy thought it was a puzzle

Hugs at the end of the night....I love Beckham's left hand!

Here are some other Pre-Halloween activities.....

Izzy and Beckham got a Halloween Package from Izzy's Birth Grandma...

We went to a Halloween party for the Ballroom Dance Company

Little Dora and Boots were a hit with the college kids!

with one of the students who came as a Ute fan

Conversation

2011-11-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

At the doctor's office where Mom, Dad, and Izzy got flu shots.

Nurse: "Look Mommy is going to be brave and get her shot"

(Mom gets shot)

Nurse: "Look Daddy is going to be brave and get his shot"

(Dad gets shot)

Nurse: "Now can Izzy be brave and get a shot?"

(Izzy Gets Shot)

Izzy: "Oooo....that hurt! Thank you" (No tears at all)

Nurse: "Wow...I have never had a child not cry at all and then thank me for it!"

Beckham is 4 Months Old!

2011-11-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

Beckham turned 4 Months yesterday. He is growing and changing so much. He had his 4 month check on Friday and he is a healthy boy!

Here are his 4 Month stats....

Weight: 14 Pounds 3 Ounces (39%)

Length: 26 Inches (87 %)

Head: 41.5 cm (33%)

Giggly Beckham....PUSH PLAY

Playing with Izzy

Notice he doesn't have a shirt. We had just gotten home from my meeting and he had a blow out at the meeting. Of course it was one of the times I didn't have a back up onesie. I thought he looked pretty cute in just the overalls though!

Here are some Beckham's 4 Month Milestones...

He laughs a lot and really quick to smile
He sleeps great (through the night since 2 months)
He loves bath time
He rolled over on October 29th for the 1st time
He wears size 2 diapers
He loves to be swaddled
He talks a lot
He fills out his 3-6 Month clothes
He is such a little sweetheart!

4 Month Check Up

Not too sure about the scale

Cornbelly's Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

We went to the Pumpkin Patch last week and had so much fun. There are tons of activities for all ages. Izzy seemed to have a lot of fun, but we may have had more fun just watching her. Beckham looked so cute in the jack-o-lantern onesie that we had Izzy wear last year. (She was 14 months and he was 3 1/2 months....) Our parents came along to enjoy some time with the kids.

There were so many things to do. We thought we would be there about an hour or so...we ended up staying for almost 5 hours.

1. Lots of slides to splay on

Our little dare devil PUSH PLAY

2011

2010

2. The Pumpkin Princess Playland

A lovely little lady in waiting

Karson trying to get Izzy to do some of her dance moves PUSH PLAY

The kids were excited to have their grandmas there with them.

Beckham didn't care much about the princess playland...all he wanted was a bottle.

Tummy full and ready to party!

Pumpkin Princess Izzy back in 2010

2011, she looks like she is getting so tall...

...but in reality, it's just some special effects.

3. There was a fun area for kids to play in

It was hard to get Izzy away from milking this cow.

She feels like a big girl on the swings.

Starting to show a little bit of a goofy personality..."I wonder where she gets that from?"

4. The Jumping Pillow

"Jumping jumping" on the jumping pillows PUSH PLAY

5. Pig Races

Watching the pig races with Grandma and Grandpa

6. Pedal go-karts

Not sure who was more excited about this one...the big kid or the little kid?

7. The Cow Train

The whole family went "off-roading" in the cow train. It was totally fun!

Momma's Boy

The kids got to ride around in a wagon together.

8. Puppet Shows

Enjoying a puppet show with Grandma and Grandpa.

9. A "sand box" full of corn

They had a huge room full of corn kernels. Izzy and Karson had a fun time playing around in it.

"Are these candy corns?"

"Oh...I wasn't supposed to eat that???"

10. And of course PUMPKINS!

"Hmmm, Beckham appears to enjoy wearing pumpkins on his head..."

"...let's see if we can get this real one on."

Our little cuties...

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

2011-10-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Today is my Dad's birthday. I can't call him today since my parents are out of the country, but I want him to know how much I love him and that I am thinking of him. I am so lucky to have him for a Dad. He has taught me so much through his example. His is truly an amazing guy in all aspects of his life. I know that he is always there for me and he has always made me feel so special. Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you have a great day and an even better year!

Since my parents were going to be gone on his birthday, we had a dinner party last week to celebrate my Dad's and my Great-Uncle Johny's birthdays...

My mom always makes everything so nice

Singing Happy Birthday....Izzy is really into singing the birthday song

Izzy enjoying her cupcake

A 4-Generation Picture....Uncle Johny is my Grandma's brother

We love Uncle Johny

Beckham was as cute as ever

Izzy got my Dad to play "chicken birds" (angry birds) with her... I think he liked it, he even downloaded it to his phone!

Beckham's Story

2011-10-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

Beckham will be 4 months old next week and I wanted to write down our memories and the story of how we became so lucky to welcome Beckham into our family. I want him to be able to read this when he is older and realize what a blessing and miracle he is for us and how much his birth family loves him. So here is Beckham's story.....

August 2010: We knew we were able to apply for adoption again when our child was 1 year old. We knew there was another little spirit and couldn't wait to apply for adoption again. So shortly after Izzy's 1st birthday, we started the process of applying again. Believe it or not, you have to do everything over again every time you apply. So we started working on our paper work, doctors appointments, more paper work, background checks, more paper work, legal documents, interviews, more paper work, home studies, references, and all of that fun stuff. We love our case worker Koleen. We were happy to work with her again, and she is so helpful. It took us a few months to get it all completed.

January 2011:

We got approved through LDS Family Services as an adoptive couple. Our profile went on the website and birth families could consider us. We started to spread the word that we were hoping to adopt through our blog and family and friends. We set up our blog so that birth families could get to know about us. We had a very calm feeling during this process. After our first experience adopting Izzy, we saw and felt the Lord's hand in it all. We knew that when the time was right, that sweet little spirit would find our family through his/ her birth mom. Over the next few month, we were contacted by several amazing birth mom's. Can I just say how much respect and admiration I have for these incredible women. Even though none of those worked out, we were able to get to know some really great girls through email and have so much love and respect for them and their courage. Once again, we we felt calm. We knew that when it was right....it would work out.

May 10, 2011:

Happy Day!!!!!!!!! We found out from our caseworker that a birth mother saw our profile and really loved us. She wanted us to be the parents of her baby boy that was due on July 13th! We didn't know much information at that point, but we felt so great about it and couldn't wait to meet his birth family. A BOY!!!!!!! Obviously, we would have been elated for a boy or a girl, but Karson always had a feeling our next child would be a boy. We were so happy! We went out to dinner as a family and celebrated our exciting news. We told our parents and family and they were so happy too! We were so excited to share our new with Izzy's birth family and called them too. They were happy that Izzy was going to be a big sister and I think it has been fun for them to experience adoption on the side of the adoptive family also. :)

May 25, 2011:

We met one of our angels. Okay I know that is super cheesy sounding. But it is so true! Izzy and Beckham's birth parents are our angels. They brought these miracles to us. We were so excited that day because we went to the LDS Family services agency in SLC and got to meet Beckham's birth Mom and her Mom for the first time. We got there first and had Izzy with us too. She only stayed for about 10 minutes and then my mom took her home. We waited in the room with excitement. When they walked in the room and we saw each other...it just felt right. She is such a sweet, energetic, funny, petite, and beautiful girl. Her mom was so great and friendly too. She is such a support. Her case worker and our case worker were also there. We talked for almost 2 hours. There were a lot of tears and emotions. The feeling in the air was so perfect. We got to know a lot about her family. We learned that Beckham had a 3 year old birth sister and saw a picture of her. Wow! She is a little cutie! She told us a little about her decision to place her baby for adoption and about her experience in picking us. She said that she was looking through profiles and came across our picture and immediately had an overwhelming feeling that we were the right ones. Her love for Baby Beckham was so clear every time she talked about him. After it was over, we wanted to keep on visiting, so we decided to all go to lunch together. At lunch, it was a more relaxed atmosphere and we were able to laugh and joke around. It was fun to get to know her sense of humor! When we left we felt so great. Meeting Beckham's birth mom and birth grandma was such a great experience.

(notice the pink ribbon in her hair. It was tied around the gift we brought her that day. She put it in her hair for lunch and the best part is....she kept it and wore it in her hair when Beckham was born! She is awesome!)

June 8, 2010:

We were so excited because Beckham's birth mom invited us to one of her doctor's appointments. It was fun to see how much her tummy had grown since we had seen her just a few weeks before. He was growing so big. It was good to meet her doctor. She invited us to be at the hospital when he was born in the waiting room. She told us that she wanted us to come in the room right after he was born. We were so excited! It was fun to visit again and get to know more about his birth mom and birth grandma. We laughed a lot and had fun. We were able to hear the heart beat and it was amazing. We felt so lucky to be able to go the doctor appointment and spend more time with her!

June 22, 2011:

Beckham's birth mom invited us to go and take a tour of the hospital with her family. We were scheduled to go that night. We got a call from his birth Grandma a couple hours before the tour saying they were excited to come do the tour with us, but they had already had it because his birth mom had started having contractions and was at the hospital earlier. They did send her home and she came back to do the tour. We brought Izzy and she brought Beckham's birth sister. They were so cute together. They had told her about Izzy. She came walking through the doors and walked right up to me and said, "Hi, I am looking for my friend!" And instant friends they were. They had fun playing during the tour. We also got to meet Beckham's birth grandpa. He is very loving and supportive dad. After the tour, we all visited for a while. Beckham's birth mom asked us that night, if we would like to come in the room right after he was born and cut the umbilical cord. Of course...we said yes!!!! We were so excited to be there in the first moments of his life. We went our separate ways. She was still contracting and we all thought Beckham would make his arrival anyday. The next 8 days were very uncomfortable and painful for her as he was not born until July 1. We communicated through email over those 8 days and let her know we were thinking abut her the entire time!

July 1, 2011:

Beckham's birthday! We got a call at about 2:00 in morning from Beckham's birth grandma saying that his birth mom was admitted in the hospital and her water had broke. She said, "Get to the hospital....cause we are having a baby!!!!!" We jumped out of bed and got dress and put sleeping Izzy in our car. My mom met us by the freeway to get Izzy so we wouldn't be late! We arrived at St. Marks hospital and called and told them we were there. We were expecting to wait in the waiting room until he was born, be they invited us in. We got to meet Beckham's birth Aunt. It was great to get to know her. We visited over the next few hours as her labor progressed.

She invited us to be in the room for the delivery! We were so excited. Izzy's birth mom had invited me to be in the room for Izzy's delivery, but as we all know Izzy was born be emergency c-section 3 months early so that did not happen. Beckham's birth mom will never know how blessed we feel to have experienced the miracle of birth. It was the most beautiful and special experience to see our little Beckham come into the world.

He was born at 7:13 am Karson cut the umbilical cord. Everyone was crying tears of joy seeing this new little angel for the first time. His birth mom gave him a love and then they cleaned him up. The next 45 minutes were so special. We were able to watch as his birth mom hold him for the first time. She fed him his first bottle. The love we felt at that moment was indescribable. She snuggled him and just soaked it all in. We also got to see his birth grandma and birth aunt hold him for the first time. I really treasure those 45 minutes I spent watching them have their first moments with little Beckham. They love him so much. At about 8:00 am, Beckham's birth mom smiled at me and motioned me over to her bedside. I was about to hold this little one for the first time. As she handed him to me for the first time, we both had tears in our eyes and so much love in our hearts. My heart was pounding so fast and I felt complete happiness. I love her so much. She is and always will be my angel. Those first moments with Beckham were so sweet. He looked at me for a while and then fell asleep in my arms. Ahh..... After snuggling him for a couple of minutes I handed him to Karson for the first time. Such a happy moment! His birth mom and I were able to give Beckham his first bath while everyone else looked through the window. We gave Beckham's birth family big hugs and little Beck a kiss and ended up leaving the hospital around 10:00 am. Here is more about the day Beckham was born.

July 2, 2011:

Beckham was able to spend this day with his birth family. They told us that a lot of his birth family and friends were able to come and meet him. I know that his birth mom was able to spend a lot of special one on one time with just him and her. She said she never had the nursery come and get him. She kept him right by her bedside the entire time. We spent that day at home with family celebrated the 4th of July. Our thoughts were with Beckham and his birth family that day. We hoped that they were making really special memories and that they knew how much we loved them. We sent her some flowers that day so she knew we were thinking of her.

July 3, 2011:

This was placement day. We arrived at the hospital at about 9:00 am that day and we brought Izzy with us. This was the first time she got to meet her baby brother. She was very excited, but didn't really understand. We were able to spend about a half hour with just Beckham and his birth mom and us. It was really nice. Then her family arrived. We were able to meet Beckham's birth great-uncle, and his birth great-grandparents. Beckham's birth mom invited Karson to stand in on a blessing given by her uncle for her and for Beckham. It was so nice. Here is more about adoption placement day.

Adoption is perfect. It is such a blessing in so many people's lives. Our lives have been forever changed by it. We love little Beckham so much and our family would not be complete with out him. His birth family and our family are tied together forever by the love for Beckham. He is one little boy with a lot of people who love him! I hope that one day when he reads this it will remind of how much love went into getting him here.

Thanksgiving Bow Tutorial

2011-10-25T09:32:00.001-07:00

Here is my latest Bowdabra Tutorial. It is a Thanksgiving/ Fall themed bow. Check it out!

Brandon and Amanda's Wedding

2011-10-23T13:00:00.001-07:00

Our niece Amanda got married almost 2 months ago and I just now posting, because we took so many pictures. It is crazy to look at these and see how much bigger baby Beckham is now. He is growing so fast. It was a beautiful day for such a cute couple.

The happy couple....Brandon and Amanda Gallacher

Izzy and Averee got to be the flower girls....and boy were they cute!

A video of the procession....PUSH PLAY

Beckham slept through the ceremony....good boy!

Izzy adores her cousin Jacoby!

Flirting with the ring bearer....Uh Oh!

The bride and the flower girls

Our family.....

It was such a happy day, but all of us were in tears many times throughout the day and our thoughts were with Sherese the entire day. Sherese is Karson's oldest sister....Amanda's mother....who passed away unexpectedly one year ago on October 28th. She was so proud of Amanda and adored Brandon. We all know that she was there in spirit on this special day.

There was a picture of her on an empty chair next to her husband on the front row.

Amanda had this beautiful table to remember her mom

Amanda and Sherese

HANDSOME!

Aunt Janae introduced Izzy to lipstick

The gorgeous couple

If you can't tell...Izzy LOVES her Aunt Erin....

In fact, when we are out running "errands" we have to call them "tasks," because whenever we tell her we are running "errands" she gets so excited and starts chanting, "Erin! Erin! Erin!"

Amanda did such a great job with all of the decorations

Izzy and Averee found a little friend in the hallway....I have no idea who he is...

....but that did not stop Izzy from tackling him with a hug

Off to their happy life....apparently, Izzy thinks she is going too

All of the flirting with the ring bearer paid off, because he shared his bubbles with Izzy at the end of the night!

Another happy couple

While cleaning up, Averee found my shoes

While we were cleaning up, Izzy reached her breaking point and had a little melt down :)

Conversation

2011-10-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Izzy: "I help you" (Translation....Will you help me?)

Mom: "Sure Izzy"

Izzy: "Thank you honey"