Our adoption profile went live!

We are approved for adoption...again! Our adoption experience this time around has been interesting. The first time, from starting the adoption process to Jessica's birth was just 14 months. That is fast although it felt and seemed slow to us. This time around, it is a whole different story. We tried starting the process 2 1/2 years ago, but we lived in the middle of nowhere, and it took a few months to get it really going. The official start date for adoption #2 was October 2011. Our home study was completed in December, but we moved to Alaska, so we had to get a few things figured out and our profile went online in February of 2012. Which means we are almost at the 2 year mark for being approved...and that is crazy! But, with three moves, well, things get tricky! Here is to hoping we won't have to go through another year!

Our profile was just posted online today and you can view it here.

And in case you didn't click there, here is our favorite part of our letter...11 random facts about us:

1. Andrew considers our first date together as the one where his roommate asked me out and Andrew was with another girl. While canoeing, he said he realized he had the wrong girl in his canoe.

2. It may surprise you to know that Brianna has been skydiving. I think it is crazy because the idea of jumping out of an airplane sounds terrifying! (Side note from Brianna...I didn't jump, but the instructor strapped to me did, and he was big enough to push me out of that plane with him.)

3. Every time we have family home evening, whoever isn't teaching the lesson sits on tiny yellow plastic chairs. It is always entertaining to see Andrew (who is 6'5") sitting on a chair that is a foot off the ground!

4. We have lived in all the "aska" states (Alaska and Nebraska).

5. We only lived in Alaska for a year and a half, but during that time, we experienced a lot of record breaking weather. We moved there during the winter with the most snowfall on record. The next winter was the longest snow season, which meant the snow started in September and ended in May! It was also the coldest winter ever recorded. Our last summer was the best, with the warmest summer ever...and that is when we had to move!

6. One of Jessica's favorite games is tag. We run in a circle from our living room, through the kitchen, the hall and back again every day...all day. She loves it!

7. Every Christmas we make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, frosting, and a ton of candy! It is one of our favorite traditions!

8. In our first home after we were married, we experienced almost every possible disaster! First, we had a septic tank/plumbing catastrophe, a flameless kitchen fire that filled the house and all our possessions with smoke, and a gas leak in the neighborhood which caused us to evacuate. We also had our phone lines ripped off the house by a garbage truck, a flood in the basement, and gale force winds that were tearing the roof off an old shed (don't worry...Andrew climbed up there in those winds to secure the roof). If you want the full scoop, check out this post.

9. Every night, Jessica requests a new story at bedtime, usually about some pretty random things (purple cats, the letter A, or how we all turn into spotted frogs).

10. Andrew can do some pretty funny things with his face. He can move his eyebrows with precision and accuracy, he can make the biggest frown in the world, and he can make a crazy half-frown half-smile. You will have to see it sometime! Jessica loves making faces with dad and he is teaching her how to move her eyebrows too!

11. We just bought our first home in October and as a special welcome to home ownership, we gutted and refinished the basement, rewired the house, and had to remove a massive pine tree. And all of this began because we needed to replace the carpet in the basement!

So long Alaska!

Well, we moved again! Our time in Alaska was short lived, but a great adventure! Andrew's position was laid off at work, but fortunately, he found another position quickly in Utah. We moved in August, and our last Alaskan summer was amazing! 

So now, while we are learning to love our lives in Utah we are still missing Alaska and all of this:

And yep...we are even missing a little of this!

A record...

I had a goal to not write on the blog for six months, but I just couldn't stick with it...I knew everyone was dying to know what we've been up to!

So, I really need to do a recap because we have had some pretty exciting things around here. Here is a brief recap, and maybe I will go into more details about some of them later.

October- We took a short family vacation to Seward, Alaska...and loved it! Jessica's favorite parts were the pool and alligator (elevator) in the hotel. Jessica wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween, so after making the first costume way too small, I got it right. Moose loved his costume too.

November- We went to the zoo! And we brined a turkey for the first time ever for Thanksgiving, and ate pie with friends. Oh, but unfortunately  my pump (Brianna) for my diabetes messed up twice and stopped giving insulin right, so my blood sugar was so high it made me feel sick and I got no pie.

December- This was a busy month! So many fun things and late, late nights. We were working on a huge Christmas project...a play kitchen for Jessica. It was a lot of work (mostly Andrew's) and a lot of fun!

January- We celebrated Jessica's half birthday in style...with half a cake. She is thrilled to be 2 1/2 and now tells everyone (well, kids, she doesn't talk to anyone else really) that she is almost 3.

February- We left the cold and snow behind and went to Hawaii for a week with Andrew's parents! It was a great trip, we were roasting and loving the warmth, and Jessica loved spending time at the beach playing in the sand and waves, and entertaining her Grandma and Grandpa.

March- So far, so good. We actually have another very short trip planned to Seward with some friends next week and we are so excited for a break from our routine. Winter gets long in Alaska. We are hoping for an early spring...but if it doesn't happen, we will enjoy our snow castle a little longer.

Don't worry...we will be back before next October. We have been in a we-like-to-do-things-ourselves mode and have been building and making projects, so we want to blog about it. Hopefully soon. Until we do, just spread the word that we are still hoping to adopt! 

Sea Otters and Whales

Obviously, I am behind in blogging. But instead of trying to catch up and tell you everything we've done since July, I will just start with something more recent...we went on another wildlife cruise! This one was a fundraiser Andrew was doing with the scouts, and it was in September. It was actually our second cruise, the first one was in Seward in July and it was amazing and exhausting! It was a 7 hour cruise, but we saw humpback whales, orcas (all three types), sea lions, sea otters, puffins, porpoises, and one eagle. After that, Jessica talks a lot about going on a boat, seeing whales and otters, and says that she needs her noculars (known as binoculars to the rest of us).

This is a random tidbit, but it shows how much Jessica now loves whales and otters. In Andrew's family growing up, his mom would often let them play with some bread dough and make whatever they wanted, and she also made alligators. So, one day, when we were making rolls, I asked Jessica if she wanted to make an alligator out of dough, and started making one. Then, she told me she wanted a sea otter and a whale. I kept working on the alligator and showed her how great it looked and let her help decorate it. Notice the white heart sprinkles on his face? Those are cheeks Jessica added. Even after that, she still wanted a whale, so I made one, and then, she asked for an otter. She is one lucky girl.

Anyway, so, when we told her we were going on another boat, she was pretty excited! This one was in Whittier, Alaska, and to get there you have to go through a  2.5 mile tunnel (which is the longest highway tunnel in North America and the longest tunnel used for both cars and trains...yeah, both cars and trains use this! Crazy, huh?). We were early, so we had a great time exploring a little in the rain. It is beautiful there! We saw glaciers, boats, a gigantic cruise ship, ran around and had a great time...and that was before we even got on board.

this wasn't our boat...we wished it was

Jessica loved it again! She wanted to climb up the side of the boat too. We sat with some friends we went to church with, so that was fun. But, the funny thing was, we didn't see much wildlife on this wildlife cruise. One otter...that was it. And it disappeared pretty quickly. But we did see a lot of glaciers and an amazing waterfall, and really, we were on a boat in Alaska, so it was great. But next time, we're hoping for a glimpse of another whale.

Two Years Old!!!

That's right...we have a two-year old in the house! Unbelievable! 

trying to hold up those fingers to show she is 2...it is a hard skill to learn

Our birthdays are all back to back...Andrew's in May, Brianna's in June, and Jessica's in July. So, with all of these celebrations we've had lately, Jessica learned how to sing "Happy Birthday to you..." And then, we got a book from the library that mentioned a birthday cake, and she kept asking us about her birthday cake. One day I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, brown or white; her response was, "chocolate." Her requested frosting was pink. And she got it! For the record, I would love to know how to decorate cakes; it looks so fun and I get excited about it. But, we don't eat much cake, so, I don't practice much, and this cake was an adventure that I was very worried about. It didn't look so great, my cake pans are horrible, and the cake was lopsided. But, the cake was delicious and Jessica loved it.

Jessica's birthday is on the 4th of July, but we really didn't celebrate much of that holiday this year. We had gone on an all day wildlife cruise the day before and we were exhausted! We slept in, opened presents, skyped with Jessica's birth parents and birth family and enjoyed hanging out together. 

This was the first time Jessica really enjoyed opening presents and then actually wanted to play with those presents. That was fun.

Skyping with Jessica's birth family. She didn't sit still for long. Instead she wanted to show off and go down the slide and race down the hallway.

We ate a delicious birthday meal and a delicious birthday cake and ended the night with some fireworks that were actually all poppers. We bought a pack at the store and didn't realize until we were getting ready to light them that none of them were the kind you can light...just pull the string and pop! It was a little bit of a disappointment, but we pulled out some bubbles and all was well.