Can't Sleep

Tonight I am having a hard time sleeping. A friend passed this video along and I LOVE IT!

A Bit of Something

Lately Landon has been taking the most amazing 3 - 3 1/2 hour naps. Yeah for mom! He sleeps at least 10 hours at night so all we can figure is that he wears himself out during the day with all of his busyness. After his second time of almost drowning in swim class and the lifeguards not aware enough to save him, Hallie decided to end swimming lessons for the season. We gave it a shot and there is always next year or whenever we go to a hotel.

Today though we went on an adventure to Home Depot. Our friend Adrian works at one. Adrian is in our Branch at church. He has been a member only since the end of December and is a very cool dude. When we got there Landon saw Adrian helping with a small forklift and boy was Landon in a trance when he saw that. After Adrian was done doing his job he came and helped us find what we were looking for. We chatted for a bit and then off Landon and Hallie went on the rest of their adventure. They say we are supposed to get storms but we really haven't seen them yet. On our way to Home Depot Landon and Hallie drove by Lake St. Clair and looked at the most beautiful sight. We love driving by the Lake and seeing all of the boats and barges. It may have not even reached 80, today was truly a dream day. Water aerobics is coming to an end next week and Hallie is bummed. She has loved it and the women she swims with are a lot of fun.

Here is Adrian and Landon in the Lumber Dept. being posers for Hallie. They look really amused that she wants to take their picture.

Landon loves a lot of different kinds of food. We are really lucky. We have a tradition in our house to lure the missionaries to do their duty. On transfer day the first set of missionaries to come and introduce themselves to President Owens gets a treat. You don't even have to have had a companion transferred to be in the running. This transfer Hallie made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake and Landon LOVES it. Can you tell by his face? He is watching the movie Cars and having a snack. Which he can kind of say but also signs the word for cracker when he does it. So funny!

Everything he eats as a "snack" has to be in a bowl or a big spoon that he carries around. It cracks me up all of his little quirks. And he is babbling non stop. We laugh so hard at the things he does.

August 20th

The day we thought that we would hope wouldn't come at least until next year was made a reality today when my sister in law called to say that my brother would be on his way to IRAQ on August 20.

We love Elise and their sweet children and pray we can do enough to support and love them during this change in their life. If you are willing please say a prayer for them and keep ALL of our military in your hearts.

In some weird way I have to thank my grandma for passing because I would have never had the chance to see my brother before he leaves if it wasn't for her funeral. We had a great opportunity to drive to and from Las Vegas to St. George together and I had a TON of fun.

I LOVE YOU BRYCE!

Adoption Yard Sale Coming Soon

August 7th and 8th

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

If you would like to donate to our Adoption Yard Sale

we would love for you to email us at:

lookingtoadopt@gmail.com

An average adoption will cost nearly $26,000

We can't wait to have another little miracle in our family.

We will accept anything you are willing to donate to us.

Even if you don't have anything to donate come and stop by.

Email us and we will give you our address.

We will be selling water and other goodies.

You will also be able to pick up one of our newly designed

Pass Along Cards for you to share with your friends and family.

A Change and a Fast Trip

We recently had our family pictures taken at Greenfield Village by a friend who is also adopting here in Michigan. She did a great job and we loved lots of the pictures she took. A lot has changed in a year and we figured our next Birthmom needs to see what we look like now not what we did last year. So you can see the new and the old below.

Here is Hallie's family that came together for her grandmother's funeral. They all went out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel before leaving St. George to go their separate ways.

Below are pictures taken by sweet Lily (she is 4). Hallie wanted to get as many of the family members pictures as possible to put in a book she is doing for Landon so he can get to know our family members that live far away. We think she did a pretty dang good job. (She is pictured below with her Aunt Carly in the house the family rented in St. George.)

Uncle Shad, Aunt Carly, and Cru

Cousin Emerson

Aunt Elise and Uncle Bryce

Uncle Riley and Aunt Breanne

We LOVE all of you! I know grandma would have loved all of us being together and laughing as much as we did!

The First and The Last

It is bittersweet that I am writing of my grandma's passing.

We all LOVED my grandma

Lula Landon (1919 - 2009). The picture below is of the one and only time she was able to see our little Landon. I am happy that she is with her sweetheart Ace but my grandma to me was more than just a relative she was my friend. Today I thought about how I will not be able to call her anymore and that breaks my heart. We talked on the phone weekly and I loved jto be able to hear her voice. I also know because of the gospel of Jesus Christ she will be received with open arms by a loving Father in Heaven. I wish it could be with happier times that it brings my family closer together but I am truly grateful that I will be able to be wrapped in their loving arms during my time of sadness.

On a side note it will be 110 degrees or more while in St. George. We will melt and I am sure Landon will not know what to do with himself.

Cute as a Button

Uncle Riley followed through this weekend by sending Landon his RedWings jersey. Hallie LOVES it! Landon will too. He was game to put it on but Hallie had a hard time getting him to stand still and keep his arms open long enough to take his picture. With all the energy he has ice hockey just may be in his future.

Today we went to the Detroit Zoo with the missionaries. There is a fun set of missionaries serving in our area right now. We left the house and headed straight for 7 - 11. Maybe one day I will get the picture of Landon drinking his own Slurpee off of my phone and onto the blog. He loved it until he started taking the straw out and so that ended the Slurpee fun. Mean Mom. Arrived at the zoo, saw the best of the zoo, we only had 2 hours before they closed and then headed for Noodles & Co. It wasn't Qdoba like Elder Wood wanted but the meals were buy one get one free so they liked that idea and everyone enjoyed their food.

Today we also got a package from Hallie's parents who recently returned from a vacation to Maine. They sent us all sorts of goodies that we were so excited to receive. Thanks! Our fisherman will be happy to be on the keychain and our Souwester will receive a great spot in the house.

We put Landon in an older swimming class today that was held in this really large fountain pool. Mike took him as Hallie had an appointment. When Hallie got home Mike proceeded to tell her how Landon went face first into the water 3 times before the end of the 30 min. I guess the fountain is graduated in depth and Landon thought it was fun to walk into the deeper area. Thank goodness Mike had worn shorts and did not have his shoes on because no one besides Mike saw it happen. He is a trooper and kept going, we will see how he does tomorrow. The class is for 3 & 4 yr olds and he is not yet 2, the other class was too boring for him and they gave no refunds.

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways

I love it when Landon:

1. Does something funny in sacrament so everyone around him laughs
2. Holds my portable speakers (I gave it to him to keep him quiet) and then proceeds to make them stop working
3. When he yells no during a very quiet time at church
4. Takes a 2 hour + nap
5. During a missionary lesson with an investigator he throws up his lunch on the couch between the investigator and the missionary
6. Chucks the missionaries' scriptures on the floor faster than I can stop him
7. Will sit and watch 20 min of Signing Time so I can load the dishwasher
8. He tries to make the signs or moves his head along to the music
9. Dumps the whole bag of goldfish crackers on the bench in church and proceeds to smash them
10. We tell a realtor he is fine with steps and the next thing we know he is head first down a set of basement stairs

I love this kid but he sure does make every day truly different from the next.

Too Many Things and Not Enough Time

Here in pictures and brief descriptions we will let you know what we have been up to.

Hallie's favorite meal of the day is breakfast. So when we are not able to get out for a "regular" date Mike takes her to breakfast. We have a whole list of places we want to eat and visit in our fine state and so this last month we made it to one on the list. The restaurant is called The Breakfast Club. Hallie found out about it on the Internet and figured it is not often you can screw up breakfast. We had a great time! We all enjoyed our food, they had fun books for the kids to look at, and at the end of the meal they brought us each a chocolate covered strawberry. We will definitely go back. The picture above is of Mike and Landon in front of the restaurant.

Landon has found his way into the kitchen utensil drawer. Two of his favorite things to pull out are the metal cup we use to melt butter in on the stove for popcorn and our corn on the cob pics. Interestingly enough both items came from Grandma Landon. He does not know that and since his finding the corn on the cob pics we have hid them in another drawer, as I am sure he would poke someones eye out with them before too long.

.Here is a very nice picture of a portion of our backyard. The flowers are really in full bloom and the grass is so green. It is July 4th and we have not turned the water on the grass yet. The potted plants, now that is a different story we will get to in a minute.

Finally at the beginning of July it was hot enough for Landon to play in his blow up pool. Hallie bought it in May and he has only been able to use it twice. Even today it was too cold for him to use it. Speaking of too cold, Hallie went to Water Aerobics on Thursday and it was only 57 degrees. For once the pool water felt warmer than the outside temperature. Global Warming, HA HA HA!

We can't take credit for the blueberries (Costco can) but the raspberries are ours. I don't know if we can take credit for them either, but Mike sure does know how to pick them well. We will thank some past owner of our little house.

On July 4th we went to Comerica City Fest in the New Center area of Detroit. I think it was once called Food Fest and I can definitely see why. There were LOTS of food vendors. Here you buy tickets for the food and then use your tickets to buy what you want. We like to get the small sized items so we can use our tickets for lots of different items.

The first place we stopped at was the Meijer kids area. Landon found a hula hoop and was not sure what to do with it. In the picture above he was watching a little girl turn with about 6 of them, he was mesmerized.

They had some baby animals on display. Landon was not so sure if he wanted to pet the goats, sheep, cow, or pig. After a little bit he ventured and touched the goat. It sure was cute to watch him become more comfortable with his environment.

Landon did not find it enough to sit and watch Farmer John and his educational farm show he wanted to be a part of the action. Farmer John was not impressed with his active participant. But he did have a cute dog that did fun tricks.

We asked Landon to take a seat and he promptly plopped down right here next to this kid in the front. He is such a character.

Here is the first of 3 pictures of what was my lovely Gerbera Daisies. How they died was a mystery until I talked to the lady at a nursery today. They are not shade plants and we had them in the shade. It was not due to lack of water like one of the Elders in the Branch thought. I think a time or two there may have been too much water. Oh well.

Even the fuscia died. Unfortunately it was not the healthiest plant we had brought home that day. Didn't help they fell out of the ceiling one night.

So, on July 4th with her fingers crossed Hallie made her way to a local nursery called Meldrun & Smith. The ladies who worked there were great! They gave Landon a sucker to occupy him and they still thought he was cute after he threw small rocks at one of the ladies. Here are pictures of the new flowers we hopefully will not kill.

Hallie's grandma, is very sick. She is actually in the very slow process of dying. If you would please send a little prayer her way that Heavenly Father will take her from this we would all appreciate it. We hate to be so far from home and hear that she is suffering. We love her dearly but know that Heavenly Father's plan will work it's magic and she will be back with her loving husband, Ace.