"The very best thing for TJ"

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We won this book from Halene Petersen Dahlstrom on a giveaway. This is the best adoption book I have ever read! I can't explain why it is so great you just have to get a copy yourself and I highly suggest getting one for every child that you know that has been adopted. I know  that we will get a copy for the next birth mom/ Dad/ family that picks us. You can buy it on their website They also sell it on Amazon.com 


The neat thing about this book is that there are empty pages in the pack of the book that the child can journal about adoption. You can also write down their story and have their birth mom/ Dad? family write about their feelings of the child.


You are missing out if you do not have this book in your library an adoption has touched your life!


I want to thank Halene Petersen Dahlstrom  for giving us this book, it means so much to us. Thank you, Emily and family

Weekend Warriors

(Dan Here) This past weekend we did something great as a family. We played in the Mud! More specifically I ran a 5k Mud/Obstacle race with some buddies from work. I have always loved sports and played a lot basketball but I would never consider myself a runner, and in fact have never ran more than the 1 mile I was required to in 8th grade PE class.

But something about this race called out to me and so I trained the best I could for a few months and then gave it by best effort. Not only did I finish and have a great experience, but it was so fulfilling to physically push myself to do something like this, that Emily and I have decided to do the 10k version of the Dirty Dash when it comes to town in September.

Growing up I always had a desire for adventure, but my parents were not the outdoors type, so my adventures came vicariously through playing computer games or watching movies. Now in adulthood I have this great desire to go explore the outdoors and do fun things that challenge the mind, body and spirit.

Dawson saw some scuba divers on a cartoon and has been asking to go scuba diving. So tonight we drove over to the store and spent $2 to buy a mask and snorkel. We came home and after a little water safety talk from Emily, he jumped into the bath and started to put his head under the water and blow through the snorkel. We sat in the bathroom and watched him experience this little adventure for the first time and he loved it.

I decided tonight that I want to become a weekend warrior. I love business and I love wearing a suit. I like to walk into nice offices and negotiate deals with clients. I enjoy the work that I do. I would not want to be a park ranger or ski instructor full time.. However.. on the weekend I want to hang up my suit, pack our car full of water bottles and snacks and go out and explore the mountains around us, or drive down to Moab to do a hike (where I met and proposed to Emily). The euphoric feeling that I got from our family activity last weekend has stayed with me all week long and has me thirsting for more.

I think experiencing the outdoors and little adventures is a great way to spend quality time together as a family on a weekend or through a trip. Especially now days with all of the technology, it is so easy to get sidetracked by idle activities.

Emily and I think it is so important that we take the time to unplug the technology, and recharge our family through being Weekend Warriors. Be on the lookout for our upcoming adventures!

Romeo Romeo

Where art thou Romeo??

Today was a day, it was a good day! We talked to Dawson's Birth grandma who ate a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch just like we did two states away! Coincidence? I think not, we are family!

It's HOT all of the sudden we have gone from snow in June to above 90's, still in June. My air conditioning went out in our car and I just have not felt like going anywhere!

Ideally in the mornings I take a shower before Dawson wakes up...today he woke up right after me. In such a case I sometimes will wait until Dan comes home from work so that I can have a shower with out my super hero sidekick, after all even super hero's don't reveal their entire identity!

Evening was approaching and Dan was due to be home. I really kind of felt crummy after cleaning and doing other projects around the house. I really wanted a hot shower, I felt.... grimy!

I decided to take a shower really really fast and when I say fast, 15 minutes in my long shower! I had the feeling to close my front room window... but why? I have my clothes with me, I will change in the bathroom when I am done, it's perfect!

So here I am 2 seconds into my hot shower and momentary escape with soap in my hair and I hear... HI MOM!!! I look down and a little naked Dawson hops in.....uh.... Hi Dawson?! 

I told him to hop back out, I hadn't realized that the shower curtain had collected a ton of water....Swoosh!!  the floor was an instant swimming hole. I quickly threw my towel down mop up the water (which was my only towel in the bathroom). I quickly told Dawson to go get another one from the clean laundry upstairs. I told him there is a big red towel in a blue laundry basket in daddies office. 

He comes back down and hands me a hand towel :). I tell him to try one more time and tell him again where to find the big red beach towel ( because I know there will be more water to be mopped up).

While I am waiting for him to bring me the towel I finish rinsing out my sudsy hair and my privacy curtain falls from my bathroom window. Yes, this is over a 2x2 foot window. We have privacy glass but we have been told by neighbors that it conceals nothing! Nothing...

I have no choice but to rinse off  and pray no one sees me in the window!

I dry myself off with the hand towel...I couldn't put my dry clothes on sopping wet, have you ever tired that? I have it doesn't work and while I am about to prance my way down the hall into our bedroom,  I notice... my front room window is WIDE OPEN! Well if they didn't see it before they have seen it all now and I prance gracefully down the hall trying to conceal my self and I leap into my room where I know I have a clean towel ( yes my folded laundry piles are everywhere in fact today is laundry party day where we all work together to put it away, because sometimes I just do not get it all done, who does).

I dry off, ah I think to myself.. okay okay start all over again, it's going to be a great evening. Where are my clothes??? AH! I forgot to grab them on my way down the hall... I prance back down the hall into the bathroom and get dressed. 

Okay, Okay it's going to be a great evening, I can't wait till Dan comes home! I mop up the little wet foot prints from Dawson going back and forth trying to find the right towel. 

I feel the need to air out my feelings... I go into Dan's office, hello red towel!  I sit down and in a millisecond I think, Oh there is that water bottle I thought to take downstairs with me before I showered so Dawson doesn't ...oh too late, water everywhere.

Okay okay... get this out, Dan will come home, it's going to be great, wait no, I'm starting to feel a little frustrated......  WHACK!!!!

 the sound of a little Dawson on the hard floor, I thought I had cleaned up all the water but Dawson must have found a little bit of water on the Kitchen Floor and slipped on it! I race down the hall, while Dawson tries to make his way to me at the same time bloody lip and all

and with typing these last three words Dan just pulled up... 

Dan met us at the park

 Dan met us at the park! 

Dawson LOVES it when Dan pushes him on the swing, he always tells me when I push him, " higher , higher just like daddy does"    Dawson was watching the other kids while on the swing and yes his shoes are not on the right feet but he is getting better at that and he is animate that he do it all on his own so he does, and he corrects himself! We are very impressed his our boy!

This is how the night ended, he looks pretty fierce! We both have time with just Dawson, and we also have family time, it is something we feel is very important to do with all of our kids! We have our family time which includes dinner, reading the scriptures, talking together and having family prayers. (I read books in the day, and ) Dan reads books to Dawson in the night and he does some seriously funny voices. But all of that is after an nightly epic battle between the two of them!

How do I love thee