Home Sweet Home

  Everyone tells us that Brighton looks like Justin and Adaira looks like me, but really I think it's just the opposite. I see so many of Owens features in Adaira and Ellsworth features in both my boys. Gosh as I look through my pictures as a child it also helps with this comparison given that my mom didn't bother to buy me many GIRL clothes and with the mullet I look like a boy anyway! Me at 5 years old (with chicken pox) & Brighton at 6 years old. This is another one from 3rd grade. This is probably the most attractive childhood picture I have given that my hair is actually done and the mullet is gone. Hey I still had a little bit of my "back to school" perm left in this one! Me at about 18mo-2yrs old loving my two little fingers, Dale is quite a bit younger than I was in my pics but I think he's an Ellsworth! I also had to add all these cute pictures we took of Brighton and Adaira last Sunday. They both looked so handsome together and we are so bl...

Happy Birthday to Me! Apparently Justin had been conspiring since January to throw me a surprise birthday party. He was super paranoid and wouldn't send out any invitations or emails and only made phone calls. He would take phone numbers off my phone, call people, and delete all records of it from his phone. He was so worried I would find out since I was coming home a few weeks before him and he thought someone might spill the beans. I was perfectly oblivious to it all. Justin told me we had some errands to run (I figured he had a little dinner planned or something) and we dropped the kids off at his parents' house. He took me to Dolce and we got a couples massage, went to dinner, and he had been eluding for about a week that we would have a special night in our big bathtub that he had missed so much, so on the way home from dinner he kept talking about it and how his mom wasn't bringing the kids back over until about an hour after we got home, giving us plenty of time...h...

Oldies But Goodies! My mom is really a hoot sometimes... This is from a family cruise back in December 2008. Gotta love karaoke. The video below is cut and pasted from video interviews we did of my mom and dad after a cruise back in 2007. We switched their answers around (and added a few questions) to make it interesting! This video pretty much sums up Justin and my mom's relationship. From Dec. 2008

Happy Birthday Adaira! Okay I realize I should have posted this on her actual birthday but.....okay I can't think of a good excuse. Adaira's birthday was on the 5th and she was very excited to have a little party so she could have a pinata. As soon as she saw Brighton's pinata for his birthday she told me several times a week that she wanted a pinata. She got her pinata and we invited the cousins over the make a party of it. Unfortunately Adaira hasn't seen her cousins in a long time and was feeling pretty shy at her party. She didn't really participate in any of the games but she enjoyed opening her presents! Her favorite item was a Princess & the Frog dress. She wanted to wear it everyday for about 4 days after the party. She wore this crown the whole day for her birthday. We opened presents right after eating cake and I neglected to wipe her mouth for her pictures. Adaira is a very special addition to our home. She is our princess and we've got her ...

SSSSSHHHHHH....... I'm posting this because I know there is no way Justin will see it before he gets home. He and my Uncle Dale (who was awesome enough to flew out there to drive home with him - thank you so much Uncle Dale!) left Southeast Georgia around 10-11am yesterday morning. As I post this they are only about 350 miles away from Chandler...Woo Hoo! They are marathon drivers and we are excited to have Daddy home. I'm really excited to show him his belated surprise birthday present. We have lamented over our Master tub since we moved into our house a year ago. The guy who did the rest of our floors was GREAT! We loved his work. He would have finished the tub surround but we had some plumbing issues with the faucet (the first faucet we bought didn't put out enough water to fill a 90gal tub very fast - it would've taken an hour to fill up the tub) so we didn't want the surround done. Justin had so many other things on his list that it took a long time to get the...

For a Great Cause:  Birthmothers have long been left to grieve alone and empty handed after placing their newborn in the arms of their chosen adoptive couple. The idea of birthmother baskets is to give a birthmother something so she doesn't arrive home empty handed. These baskets can be filled with all sorts of things from treasured momentos, treats, comforting books, movie tickets, to pamper items (self-pampering or gift certificates to go get pampered somewhere else) and really anything they can find use to ease the lonely pain after placement. This is a new venture that a few of the birthmothers from our birthmother support group at LDS Family Services (where I am a caseworker) have decided to spearhead. You can donate directly (ex. donate a gift card or item to go in or be used to fill the basket) or donate items for the fundraiser garage sale this Saturday, or ATTEND the garage sale and buy stuff! In a society where less than 1% of all unplanned pregnancies result in the baby ...

April 3, 1979.... A wonderful person was born. Little did I know when I later met him in high school that he would be the one I'd spend the rest of my life with. Justin and I have endured extreme trials but have also enjoyed immeasurable blessings. He is the hardest worker I've ever met and sacrificed so much to give us our house. He loves me for who I am (along with my many un-feminine qualities picked up from my brothers :) and is absolutely my best friend. Sometimes I think the reason we get tired of our kids is that we just want to spend time with each other because we enjoy it so much. Justin makes me laugh, unfortunately most of the time I'm laughing when he doesn't think it's very funny, but he puts up with me anyway. He is more thoughtful than I could ever be creative enough to be. He doesn't ever leave me wondering if he thinks I'm still pretty, smart, fun, sexy, a good mother (which I really wonder myself MOST days!) and is a great communicator. ...

This is my final post about Georgia, and it's LONG! It has been great being home but there is so much we miss about Saint Simons Island. Most of all is Brighton's school. I was amazed at how he progressed there. He started school in mid-October just at the cusp of starting to read. He now reads at the 2nd grade level. His teacher, Miss Chitty,  saw promise in him and took the time to help him excel, rather than allow him to stagnate and get bored. She gave him the end of the year Kindergarten assessment before he left and he placed at a very satisfactory first grade level. I thought it was great she even bothered to give it to him since it wasn't  the end of the year anyway, but she wanted me to know where he was at so I could ensure to keep him progressing. Brighton really felt loved by her and really all the staff at that school. I can't tell you how many staff members personally said goodbye to Brighton and told him how much they'd miss him when I picked him u...

We went back to Jekyll Island a few times during our last few weeks in Georgia. They have this really cool beach called "Driftwood Beach". It's where the huge 100-200yr old Oak Trees grew but then the erosion took away all the sand at their roots and they fell over, leaving an eery cemetery of overturned oak trees. Makes a pretty sweet photo backdrop though! The lighting was great, as was the backdrop, and we spent a lot of time trying to get the perfect picture of our family. I just wanted a single picture with everyone smiling, looking at the camera, no hands in their faces, tongues sticking out, etc. I even had a serious conversation with Brighton and Adaira telling them if they just smiled for every single picture we could be done faster and have more time to play on the beach. I thought I made it sound like compliance was a good idea...this is what we got. Don't be jealous, we are just photogenic that way :o) I'm smiling in all of them but it was super fr...