Bits and Pieces

A few things we have been up to:

1) Weddings. My step-brother Brady got married on August 12 in the Bountiful Temple to a sweet girl named Jackie. The wedding was gorgeous and the luncheon after quite amazing (Tucanos. Can never go wrong there!)

The next week, my cousin Spencer got married in the Salt Lake Temple. We went to the reception that he and his new bride had in Timpanogos Park in Provo. It was beautiful. Yay for weddings!

The only picture I have from either wedding is not actually from either event... just a picture of my kids getting ready to go to Spencer's reception. I thought they looked quite cute.

2) I got to meet up with my cousin Anneka at her sister Meagan's house in Draper for an hour or so...they were on their way to Arizona where her husband is starting Optometry School. Her cute little guy, Hinckley, is about a month older than Jace. They had a good time wearing twinner outfits (unplanned). They look a little similar, yes?
This is what happens when I leave my camera at Meagan's house after...self-portraits. And this is what happens when you put self portraits on my camera: I put them on the blog. :) Meagan's girls McKayla and Kristen and then Anneka.

3) We had a fun day Saturday with cousins. We met up with Che' and Landon, who were babysitting Cortney's three kids and also had Linda's two older kids. We went swimming first, then to a trampoline arena and then onto McDonald's (Mc-a-donalds according to Hallie) to feed the crew. Did you know you can buy 50 chicken nuggets, two large fries, and two large drinks for $15? Yeah. Good deal to feed the large lot of children.

Avery is a good help with the little ones. Hallie and Max are about 4 months apart, but you wouldn't know it based on their size...plus, let's not mention that Max is wearing one of Jace's outfits here and it was a big baggy. Yeah. My kids are large, what can we say?
Hallie and her crazy face at the trampoline place. Sadly I did not get many pictures of all the children there.
4) Hallie has started a computer class on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We go to a church with other kids her age from our ward. She does 30 minutes of learning the ABCs, numbers, matching games, etc. It is good for her. She needs help working the mouse, but hopefully she will get the hang of that soon too. We are also thinking of doing a neighborhood preschool, which I think would be great for her.

5) Adoption update: Things took an unexpected turn yesterday when we found out that our agency has had their Hague accreditation temporarily suspended. The suspension is to last 30 days while the agency updates some of the documents they have been using. The cause for the suspension seems minor, so we hope and pray that things will get back up and running VERY soon. Needless to say, this may delay things about a month for us and other families who are in the same spot in the adoption. I am sick about it. But, I just have to remember that things will happen in the Lord's time. I have become friends with some of the people who are also adopting right now through our same agency and as I was talking to one of them yesterday, I said it seems like we were getting so close I could practically feel it, and now it feels like she is being yanked back again. Ugh. I know things will work themselves out and this is a minor bump (hopefully), but it seems so large when another month may separate us from MF. Not to mention that we hoped to be home before Christmas, but that may not happen...

Anyway, prayers for our case would be lovely. We still hope that our official assignment will happen on the 8th of September as all of our documents are already in Ecuador, ready to go. I have known that date since we submitted our dossier and I have been anticipating that it will happen then. I will be really sad if it doesn't. Anyway...back to the waiting game.