May Randoms

May was like limping toward the finish line of school and that's about all I remember about it. We had a lot of baseball and soccer games, we got adjusted in the new house, and we took a fun vacation at the end of the month to Las Vegas! (but more on that later in another post). Here are a few pictures from May: 

Jace and his t-ball team

Mishell playing soccer. We were hoping she'd be quite good, because, well you know, South Americans and soccer, but alas, she is afraid of the ball. 

Apparently I took a picture of Jace and his popcorn snack after a game. Go me.

Cute sports kids

Apparently this is Devin and one of the kids playing something from way afar. Totally a relevant picture.

And another one...

Cute kids out to get drinks from Sonic

We were driving home from somewhere and Jace had his Book of Mormon clutched in his hands and Florinda was rubbing his head from across the way as he slept. Too cute.

The kids playing "train" with Flor's bike. Glad someone uses it as she's too lazy to make the effort! :)

Again, what this is? Jace and something he created with his legos and then asked me to take a picture of. Not sure what it is though! 

Jace was sporting a nice black/swollen eye for a few days. We aren't sure what it was from, but it looks like he was bit by some type of bug probably. Poor kid. He recovered just fine though.

Devin's awesome sisters came over to help us with some decorating things! Alisa and Shawna made us a vinyl lettering to go with our sealing picture that is just perfect. They are AMAZING!! Love them.

Final product...so awesome right?!

End of school projects are for the birds, especially when the parents have to do them, which is definitely the case with Mishell. She had to do this huge project on the State of Utah, so we worked on it for weeks. You can see that Devin's creative juices got flowing here and he made her float and cereal box displays. Love the little lego men with flags. Ha. So, after weeks of working on this, filling out everything in this huge packet on Utah, such as state bird, flower, flag, blah blah blah, we asked Mishell what she had learned about Utah. Her response? "What is Utah?" Seriously...(Hand slap on the forehead emoticon goes here). 

We babysat my co-worker Krystal's kids one day and Flor loved playing with her baby. The baby did not so much love her though and spent the rest of the time screaming after Flor got into her face a bit too close. Wish us luck on having a baby here full time soon....

Ok more to come on May. But probably at a later date as I am all blogged out now.

Photographer Sealing Pictures

One of the biggest surprises of Mishell's sealing day (I know I already used that phrase a few times-- but there were just so many!!) was that my friend Terra Cooper, who is an amazing photographer, just showed up to take our pictures as we came out. I did not ask her to and I did not know she was coming, but it was so amazing and kind of her! She took some fantastic pictures of us, even though it was freeeeezing outside (you'd never know by her talent!). Seriously, so, so grateful for this gift! Here are just a few of them:

Look at that amazing sky!

I promise we were all happy, despite Devin's face!

Our amazing support crew! And again, the SKY!!

Mishell's Sealing!

We prepared for a few months after Mishell's baptism for her big sealing day. We planned it for April because that gave us a few months to meet with the missionaries and to help her understand what would be happening in the temple and also because I was hoping to past morning sickness by then (and luckily I was!), but I also didn't want to be huge pregnant.

We planned the date for April 23 in the Ogden Temple. Little did we know that our move out date would be moved up to that exact day--- so the day was really quite chaotic, but we had so much help and family support that it turned out great. Everyone came to the sealing in the morning, to our house for a BBQ for lunch, and then they all helped clean the old and new houses and the men moved all our big furniture. It was quite the day.

The sealing itself was amazing and so, so sacred. There is just nothing like being in the temple with your whole family! We had an amazing sealer, again who had adoption ties. I don't think this happens by coincidence, but he talked to Devin and I before hand and shared his experience adopting his children. It makes it that much more special when the sealer has a good understanding of adoption. He spoke to everyone there for a while, then the kids were brought in in their white dresses and suit. They looked so adorable. Mishell looked a little worried at first, but when she saw us, she immediately relaxed. It wasn't until we were at the sealing alter that she broke into a big smile. It was a wonderful ceremony and it was so special to be surrounded by so many friends and family.

I asked my sister in law Lara to take some pictures for us and she was amazing to do so. We also had so many surprises and gifts that day that made the day extra special. I'll talk about a few of those as we go. Most of these pictures are from Lara:

I called Aunt Alisa the week of the sealing and begged her to come help me with the girls' hair before hand. She of course said yes and I am oh so grateful. The girls all looked darling thanks to her pro hair doing skills!

Point proven!

On our way to the temple!!

One of the most special parts of the day for me was having three of my OSSO friends come to the sealing. Stephanie, Beth, and Wendy all knew Mishell when she was tiny during our volunteer days. Beth used to sing to her "Michelle my Belle" by the Beatles all the time and it is such a special memory for me. So to have them make the effort to come meant the world. We need to actually get together and catch up now too since I didn't get to talk to them for long! Those OSSO days, man they were life changing.

Look at those two cuties with their treats from the temple nursery ! They had such a good time with all the lovely temple workers there.

This was another super special part of the day. Elder Maza, previously known as Pablo, was able to come to the sealing! He was from the ward we attended during our time in Quito to adopt Mishell. He came multiple times with the missionaries there to help teach her the beginnings of the gospel. He was waiting for his visa to leave on his mission to Ogden, Utah. I invited him by email, thinking it was a long shot that he would be able to come but when we walked into the sealing room, his is one of the first faces I saw!! Such a miracle. He came to our house for a short time after for lunch but then had to return to the work ;)

Just some of the people who came to support Mishell and our family: 

Jana is another one of the first faces I saw when I entered the sealing room! We had no idea she was coming, but she surprised us and came all the way from San Antonio! It was the best surprise ever. I wish we had gotten more time to chat while she was here, but it was so chaotic with all the people around. Thanks for coming Jana. It means the world.

Some of the kids playing in the new play room! :) Breaking it in.

These guys amaze me. Without even asking them to, they started on deep cleaning the new house while we were feeding everyone lunch. They wanted to make sure we had everything in tip top shape before we moved the big stuff in. Aren't they the most amazing sister in laws?

Cute kids outside the temple

Devin's boss and his wife came, which was super nice of them! They are such good people and role models for Devin.

Cleaning Crew: We ended the day moving all our furniture out of the old house and deep cleaning there. We had so much help, it went really quickly. Thank you family for being the best ever and sticking it out on the crazy day to help us.

I think this must accurately reflect how I felt at this point: Beat

All in all, a chaotic, but wonderful and very special day we won't soon forget!