First stop of the day, a beach gathering with friends! Daniel lazed on the beach, carving out the perfect seat in the sand and dozing with his hat over his face. Doozer and I headed down to the shore and splashed around in the COLD water with his new super long leash.

My sweet friend Nicki took these of us (minus the first selfie) and I love them. After lunch and some sunshine, we headed to an ice cream shop for some sweets for the drive home.

After a nice nap, Daniel played his latest video game while I ran out for pizza and cake. I lit a candle, sang him a song, and the birthday boy blew out the candle. With our tummies full of goodness, we were ready for our last adventure of the day…

…Pinball! About a year ago we were introduced to a guy who owns a garage and once a week in the evenings, he opens up the backroom where he keeps about a dozen pinball machines on free play. It’s like a Daniel dreamland. We spent a while hanging out and enjoying vintage game play.

I love our little family. We have such a wonderful time just being together and doing the things we love. I’m glad that we have the chance to celebrate each other and the joy we find in the little moments of just being who we are.

Written by the wife of the most awesome birthday boy in the world,

Christy

We love to go to local baseball games. The minor leagues may not knock as many balls out of the park as a major leagues, but they have a great small town hero vibe about them. The crowd is full of families having a good time and there are no shortage of smiles. Daniel and I like to practice our photography and snack on concession food. It’s always a good time!
We love camping. It’s the unplugging from everyday life that really makes it a vacation for us. No TV, no computers, no phones, no stress. Instead we read, draw, tell stories, and go for hikes. Sometimes take a trip to the nearest body of water to fish or to cool off. We roast marshmallows and make breakfast burritos. We enjoy the world around us a little more with the simplicity of a few days outdoors.

We’re both California babies and the ocean has been our playground for years and years. We spent this day with family boogie boarding. The water was freezing, but it is just SO much fun riding waves back to shore. With a packed lunch and some magazines or a good paperback to read in the sunshine. On a warm, sunny summer day in California there’s no where else you’d rather be.

Looking forward to new summer adventures!

Christy

Most amazing of all? My Momma. She’s beautiful and strong and wonderful. She bring smiles and kindness everywhere she goes and she blesses my life more than I can describe.

Growing up, I remember summer days when we would go to a local burger place. There was a play structure and my siblings loved to play for as long as possible. Bring the oldest, I had outgrown the ball pit and the winding tubes. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t love to join them, I was just too tall to fit anymore.

Lucky for me, I had a wonderful mom. She and I would sit at the table and talk about everything. I told her about school and my preteen crushes. She listened to my silliness and made me feel so grown up. I knew that I could trust her. I knew that she could help me. I knew that she loved me.

As I’ve grown up, I’ve been able to rely on her again and again. She had her own challenges and pains, but she was always there to help heal my hurts and sadness and rejoice with me in my success and happiness.

I love you, Momma! You are such a wonderful example of a mother and I hope that I will someday be the mom you taught me to be!

With eternal love and appreciation,

Christy

Meet Sweet Miss E. She was born just a couple weeks ago and I was honored to visit the hospital and later her home to take these precious images. She still had that newborn whimper cry that just makes your heart melt. She was VERY alert for someone so brand new. You can’t help but wonder what she’ll learn and who she’ll become.

I’m considering this all great practice for a day not too far in the future. <3

Your blissfully happy photographer and waiting adoptive Mommy,

Christy

My second cousin, Rebecca, invited my mom and I to share in witnessing her beautiful wedding day. How could I resist spending a perfect evening surrounded by a room full of people I adore!

My Momma and Me

My Momma and I went shopping for a dress for her to wear to the wedding. She has been working hard at getting in shape and we were so excited to see her new beautiful figure in the mirror in the dressing room. Doesn’t she look amazing??? =)

Here’s the gorgeous bride, Rebecca, and her groom, Paul, laughing and giggling their way through the sand ceremony. This is when I really got a true feeling for their relationship and I pray that their marriage remains overflowing with this joy and love.

The wedding and reception venue was held at this AMAZING outdoor lakeside resort. The view and atmosphere was spectacular.  We bathed in the beautiful setting sun as we sat down to dinner.

Grandpa and Me

Grandma and Me

It was so wonderful to have the chance to visit with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and extended family at such a beautiful place! We danced the night away, busting out moves to “Baby Got Back” (It’s the only song that mentions Becky by name. lol), singing into imaginary microphones for “Respect”, and jumping up and down to “Call Me Maybe”.

All my family has been an amazing support to Daniel and I as we have walked the road to adoption. They have said so many prayers and shared the news with so many, in hopes that someday we’ll find our match. I really can not express how blessed and overcome it makes me feel to hear all the things that they do to help us realize our dream.

I can imagine how special it will be to celebrate the arrival of our baby with our family. We just can’t wait to share our joy and spend the years growing and dancing through life together!

Enjoying every moment of being together again,

Chrsity

As we all started to arrive to the farmland designated for the run and we saw each of our outfits for the first time, we squealed with joy. Each of us looked ready for a great time. Other runners gave a rush of compliments, others stared at us like we were crazy. It was weird to feel so noticed!

The run itself felt much more manageable than last year, after a year of getting back into shape. For being a “Mud Run” though, it was disappointingly lacking in mud. This was the first time they had used this location and there was a lot of gravel, sand, and rocks… but not a lot of mud. There were a few obstacles that looked promising, but since we were the first wave of the day, the dirt and the water hadn’t properly melded.

See, I’m more wet than muddy.

That didn’t stop us from having a blast though. We did each of the obstacles with enthusiasm and crossed the finish line drenched and mildly scrapped up from crawling over rocks. The DJ rocked and we started dancing at our very own prom night!

Here I am, less muddy than I would have liked, but glad to have done much better than last year. Race Time: 46:58

I love all the silliness that these kind of runs allow for!

Survivor Mud Run 2013 Finisher and waiting adoptive momma,

Christy

Naw… we get crafty and make an awesome display board to share them with all the world!!! lol True that mine is hanging in the laundry room and it doesn’t get a crazy amount of attention from my adoring fans. It does however make me smile and reminds me every time I see it that I am good at running… and should keep it up as much as possible. *wink*

Don’t you LOVE the acid green? It’s my favorite color ever. The paper I used is from a discontinued Die Cuts With a View collection called “The Rockstar Stack”. If you can get your hands on it, it truly rocks. As you can see, I only needed two 12×12 sheets for this project. I applied them to the board with Mod Podge and covered the paper with a coat on top to keep it from getting mucked up over time.

The hooks for my bibs are going to help me accommodate many more adventures. I got these in pack for cheap at the local hardware store. They were also the perfect size to hold my dowel in place for the medals to hang.

Each medal is strung onto the dowel. I made my board too short to accommodate the full length of the ribbons, so I folded them and thew in a safety pin or a quick stitch to keep them short enough to hang at the right length.

My mother-in-law sweetly helped me by cutting the lettering using her die-cut machine. She has a Cricut and uses contact paper in her machine. Works like a charm! If you don’t have access to one, you could hand cut letters or buy a precut alphabet and mod podge it on.

The board I used is a piece of scrap I picked up from the hardware store. Check with the cutting counter. Often times they have boards that other customers have trimmed that they can discount (or give you) that will work great for your project. This board is 20″x11.5″ and worked like a charm!

You’ll notice that not all my medals are “real medals”. My 10k race was a fun low budget church activity and so they handed out buttons. What to do… I figured it was just as important as the rest, so I found a piece of ribbon I liked and pinned it to make a mock medal. Now it hangs with the big guys and stands out as my most colorful piece of the collection yet!

I’m so happy I put this baby together! It didn’t take long to do and it’s so much fun. How could you lock these guys up in a deep dark closet? No, they were meant to be out and making me grin.

Love always, your crafty adoptive momma to be,

Christy

After about two seconds of talking to Andrea about her shower, it was clear we were both on the same page that something different would be welcome. Since their having a boy, visions of mustaches danced in my head! Luckily both Andrea and Maryanne were on board with my wacky idea, and when the day came, all the awesomeness came together, including THE best group of friends. All the mustaches in the world could not be more wonderful than our friends and their witty, fun, and smart personalities! Thanks SO much to Maryanne for being my partner in creating such a FUN night!

A Few Details:

Our friend and marvelous baker, Sarah, made these DELICIOUS, handsome cupcakes! Chocolate and chocolate, drizzled with caramel. SO yummy!

Our only game, which was the perfect bit of trivia, laughs, and nostalgia, is below. We found the game on http://patandlindsay.blogspot.com and it was so perfect, we could not resist. There were a couple of ‘staches that even full size we couldn’t ID, so we made a substitution. I was surprised how many everyone knew! Maryanne found this awesome mug which was awarded to our winner!

Maryanne is an amazing quilter and crafted this beauty. I love the combo of mustache and typewriter fabrics! Anyone who owns one of her masterpieces should count themselves extremely lucky!

Andrea’s husband, Drew, is always smartly dressed and with a couple of these darling outfits, the new baby will be styling just like his daddy!

Photo Booth:

I’ve decided that a successful photo booth requires guests unafraid of embracing silliness. We were not lacking in silliness. Evidence below!

Advice Book:

We designed this little book for Andrea, including advice on how to be a gentleman for sweet little baby boy and the photo booth photos (with some detail shots thrown in and pretty, pretty scrapbook paper). If you’d like to use our book for your event, here’s the cover, back cover, and advice page.

Favors:

Maryanne and I sewed bow ties and pocket squares for each favor and included a See’s chocolate cigar and world map journal. Preparing and assembling these, made for the most FUN day! Maryanne declared the following on Facebook, “If there was a competition for improvised craft projects, Christy and I would take the rest of you DOWN!”. lol

I love, love, love my friends and I’m so excited for Andrea’s handsome little gentleman to make grand entrance!!!

Right to Left: Maryanne, Andrea, and Me <3

Always Dapper and Darling, your perspective adoptive Momma,

Christy

Got a question? Ask it here! We would love to help you get to know us better and to hear about what’s on your mind!

Looking for a place to start? How about this topic suggestion… our hobbies and past times. =)

Ask away!

Daniel and Christy