Catching Up

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd catch up. We made two trips to Salt Lake in April and one to Moab, so we were out of town a lot. We have made two trips to Moab in May as well. There is so much going on and we don't seem to be home much lately.

Tori and I go walking with some friends at the park every day - we usually walk anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 miles each day. Then Tori gets to play on the playground - she loves the swings and the slides. I am so glad we have such a nice park by our house!! It's a great way to get out and have fun every day and also get good exercise.

I can hardly believe Tori will have her 2nd birthday the end of next month. She is more grown up every day and constantly amazes me at how much she knows and how quickly she learns things. She loves to sing and sings along with her favorite movies when she watches them. She usually always sings when she's riding in the car, too. We took her to the park on Mother's Day to fly a kite for the first time. She had a blast! She has also gotten really good at riding her tricycle now. Below is a picture of her in the swimming suit she picked out for herself. She loves to wear it and splash around in her new wading pool. This summer will be so much fun! She is our little miracle and the love of our life!

We continue to wait, hope and pray for another precious child to join our family. We turned our adoption papers in again last summer and were approved the first part of December. We keep hoping with all of our hearts that a special birth mother will choose to place her baby in our family, but it hasn't happened yet. It's a struggle emotionally at the moment because all of Ben's married siblings are expecting babies now within 5 months of each other. I so wish that we could welcome another child into our family within that bunch, too, but it's out of our control. I know that our next child will come when the time is right -- sometimes I just hate not knowing when that will be. In the meantime I cherish my beautiful daughter and soak in all of her smiles and giggles. She brings us so much happiness every minute of every day!

On a more exciting note, we just bought a Toyota Highlander (a mid-size SUV for those of you who may not know what that is). It's not brand new, but new to us and we LOVE it!! It seats up to 7 people which will be great for our hopefully growing family. I love driving it and have to watch out or I find myself speeding without realizing it. We talked about getting something newer and bigger for a long time and finally broke down and did it!! We are excited for all the adventures we will get to have in it. Pictures to follow . . .