Katherine Nelson - "What's Mine is Yours" (Music Video)

I wanted to share this beautiful video on adoption. It makes me cry every time I watch it. Tears fill my eyes every time I see the empty crib after the scene with the doctor. It makes me feel a pain like nothing else. This pain is real and it is hard and it is felt often. Adoption is amazing and Spencer and I have felt the spirit so strongly being involved in this process. It is hard. I am not going to lie. I feel like it is a roller coaster ride and we are learning to have faith and hold on tight. I also love the scenes with the birth mother. My love for them have grown so much especially the last few months. I cannot even muster up the words about how much I love and admire them.  They are amazing!! I hope you enjoy this video and feel the spirit of adoption :)

Weekend in Idaho

Spencer and I decided to take a trip to Idaho to see my mom, his parents, and his uncle (who just had a stroke, but is recovering very well for being in his 90's) and aunt this past weekend. We had a blast and it is always so hard for us to leave!!


Here is a picture of Sash and I during our drive to Idaho. Sash loves to sit on my lap. The roads were horrible due to the snow! Thank goodness Spencer is an awesome driver!!

Here Spencer and I are at my mom's house cuddled on the couch while watching tv with my mom! This picture makes me laugh! We love us some water!!

Then we stopped by my mom's work. She owns a screen printing and embroidery business. It is my old stompin' ground! I worked there for a couple years running these embroidery machines before nursing school :)

I love this picture! I think my mom is beautiful!!

My mom is my all time favorite workout partner other than my hubby!! I can always count on her willing to workout with me! She is my inspiration and not to mention, a blast to workout with! We had fun taking pictures of our fun workouts!! My mom is truly amazing!!

 

I took this picture on our ride home! These dogs love Spencer and I think he is going to make a fantastic dad. It actually brings tears to my eyes when I think about it :) I took this picture because it reminded me of when I was little and I always put my head on my dad's lap when he was driving...awe, memories!!!

We've been told...

we're going to make great parents because even our doggie dogs can't live without us and miss us when we're gone, lol!! We love our munchkins!!

Happy New Year!!

Friday before Christmas, my cousin, was sealed to his wife at the Salt Lake temple. It was a lot of fun to go with my family especially around the holiday season. Afterwards, my dad, sister, Spencer, and I walked around City Creek. It was a blast! I have never been there before. We had dinner and enjoyed each other's company. Here is a picture of my dad, sister, and I. Spencer was not there at the moment so my sister used her mad photo taking skills and took a close up!! 

 

 

Then we got brave and asked a stranger to take the photo. We needed to capture this moment! We want to make this a yearly tradition! We definitely missed my other sister! We sent her this picture letting her know she was missed :(

 

 

When Spencer and I got home that night, we weren't done taking pictures and I think lack of sleep made us a little delirious, lol! I sure love him and have so much fun with him!!

 

 

Every year on the Saturday before Christmas, it is a tradition for the guys in my family to go hunting. Since having our sweet Sash and Westin, I make it a point to go. I have so much fun with them! I love seeing my dogs and my dad's dogs point! Sash has had so much fun this year. Now that she is 3, she definitely knows what hunting is ALL about and gets so excited when we turn down the road. I was always so bummed that I didn't have a picture of her on point (this means she found a bird and is holding still to let us know) so I took it upon myself to get a picture this round and I got a great one! I love this picture of Sash, so pretty!!

 

 

Then Sash was on point and my dad's two dogs and my uncle's dog (Westin's dad) came to honor her point. That means they all come hold still by Sash and the bird and not get jealous and try to scare the bird out...they honor Sash's point :)

 

We go hunting to a hunting club just a few miles from my house. My dad ordered 25 birds and they got 20...pretty impressive.

 

 

We had a great Christmas! It was a lot of fun. I worked Christmas Eve. It was a busy shift. We had a code red while receiving 2 admits on the floor. How does that work?! Who knows, but it was a fun night. Then I came home and opened presents with my sweetheart and doggie dogs. Those dogs love their treats! Christmas night was spent with my family and it was fun to see them :)

 

Spencer and I had a great New Year's! I did not have to work which made it even more special! I love this guy more than anything and I cannot wait to see what 2013 has in store for us. This picture was taken on New Years Eve outside while on our date :)

 

 

Here is Spencer and our cute Kyndal taking a quick nap before the ball dropped. I mean a quick nap :) :)

 

Here we are again. This was taken just this last weekend. I love our time together. I definitely cherish them. I was just thinking lately how we have almost been married 7 years and been through so much in these 7 years and how our love has grown tremendously. I read something a little while ago and it made me think of us as a couple, "He decided we were strong enough and brave enough to handle this and we are glad to accept this :)"  Happy New Year!!

 

Life the past few months...

Towards the end of September, Spencer and I put together a yard sale for our cousin who is winning the fight with Leukemia...it was a success! Our cute nieces, Elle and Abby, came over to help! The night before the yard sale, we treated them to pizza! The breadsticks were their favorite part! We also took them to Krispie Kreme right after. Yes, yes, aunt and uncle of the year!!

 

Elle and Abby donated a bunch of their stuff to the yard sale and were quite the saleswomen! These babies below sold quick :)

We were all exhausted after the yard sale!! This picture of Elle sums up our day and makes us smile...and laugh :)

Then came my birthday week...yes, week! It is a grand celebration around our house, hehe, and Spencer does a fabulous job!! Here is a cute note I found with my shake he had made me. Spencer is the best!!

 

For my birthday, we redid our bedroom. I wish this was a better picture because the walls look amazing! We also redid another bedroom in our house :) :)

Spencer had these sent to me on my birthday, my favorite!!

Here I am with my cute doggie dogs waiting for my mom! She came down for my birthday and we all went out to dinner! Fun times!!

I love this guy more than anything! He is my world! I snapped a quick photo right before one of our nights out! We make it a point to go out one night a week for date night! I love it and I sure love him, mmmm!

Here we are being a family one night hanging out watching tv. I cherish these moments...silly faces and all! I am not much of a tv watcher and you will never catch me watching it during the day, but lately Spencer and I really like watching Criminal Minds, Chicago Fire, and Blue Bloods together!!

Halloween!! One of my favorite holidays!! Here are nieces and nephews on my side of the family all dressed up. We love them oh so much!!!

Chade even joined in for the festivities!! Ok, not so much! I put this shirt on him around Halloween every year and he is not a fan; infact, my poor boy goes catatonic the moment I put it on. For the legs, our other dogs were playing tug 'o war and flung it on him. All I can say is Chade was a sport for letting me capture a quick photo :)

We buy so much candy every year for our trick or treaters in our neighborhood. We get a ton and I LOVE it! I especially love seeing our primary kids come to the door. They are so much fun!!

Tis Hunting Season...Spencer and his buddies~Westin and Sash! Sash hears the word, "Bird" and she goes crazy!! She loves pheasant hunting! Since Westin is a pup, this is his first year and his love grows stronger each time. We have gone quite a bit this year with my dad and he has a pup around Westin's age. They have fun! We got chuckers for them and they had fun sniffing them out. I think they are going to be great hunters very soon :) :)

I used to go all the time with my dad as a little girl. Now that I am older, I still love to go especially to see my dogs hunt! It is so fun to see them point out a bird. It's like a proud mommy moment :) Anyway, the guys talked me into shooting a gun. I don't know what my deal is...maybe it is age, but I used to love shooting when I was younger!!

A couple weeks ago, my dad was unable to go hunting, so Spencer invited his younger brother and it was his first time and Sash and Westin were the only dogs. Sash did awesome and pointed all these birds..once again, so proud!!

Random moment: I bought 5 pounds each of white and milk chocolate. One day I am going to bake something fabulous...just you wait, haha! Story: A CNA I work with had these at work and they taste amazing and she orders once a year from somewhere and they are really good chocolates...random, I know!!

We had a great Thanksgiving with our family and this is the only picture I got, but it is a darling picture of my nieces!! Sure love these girls!!

Spencer and I have been a little adventurous lately. We woke up really early, I'm talking 4:30am, on a Saturday morning and decided to go out to breakfast! It was so much fun!!!

Here is another picture of my good lookin' husband...love date night!!

I joined CrossFit with some great friends and I am LOVING it! It definitely kicks my butt and I have been sooo sore for quite some time, but I am addicted (please don't tell my trainers).

We started the month of December by going to The Festival of Trees. We both love it and had so much fun!! Spencer really liked this tree!

 

Santa comes to our neighborhood every year bearing gifts (he throws out candy)and our neighbor girl, who is in our primary class, was so sweet and caught a bag for us...hmm, maybe she heard me ask Spencer to catch us a bag?? 

I cut my hair in August, but decided to cut it even shorter this month and I am loving the change even more!!

And today is our little Kyndal's 2nd birthday!! We love her :)

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month and we love this video and thought we would share! It has been a good month. Spencer and I got to spend this last weekend together spending date night at the temple. It was much needed and something we definitely enjoyed. We are grateful for the adoption process and for the opportunity we have to be apart of it! I wish everyone could experience the spirit that it brings :) Happy National Adoption Month!!

Go Forward with Faith...

Spencer and I cannot express just how much love and peace we felt the day our family and close friends came together with us and participated in a fast. It will be a day I will cherish forever. My testimony grew leaps and bounds when I heard stories of my little nieces and nephews participating in the fast. When my 8 year old niece, Abby,  was told about our fast and whether she wanted to come out to our house and participate in our blessings and dinner or go to her other cousins house which she had already planned on, she replied with "I want to go to Aunt Jessie's house and help her have a baby!" So so so sweet! Then I was sitting on my front steps as my sister Jen and her kids pulled up. Then Abby and her older sister, Elle, came running up to me and Jen told me how important it had been for these 2 girls to fast for Spencer and I all day. At that moment, I felt the spirit so strongly. Then my sister, Patti, who lives in Boise, text me "Our fasts and prayers are with you today :). Then right after Spencer and I received our blessings from our fathers, Patti text me, "Just wanted to tell you Em has fasted all day, its been very important for her to do so :) :) !!  My little nieces helped remind me what true love and faith is all about. I definitely needed that. It was such a special day for us. We had family come to our house and participate in our blessings and dinner afterward. It meant so much to us because we knew they all had so much going on. We appreciated the phone calls and texts we received that day. The love and peace we felt that day has definitely been felt since. Just the other day, my dad sent me a text saying "Go Forward with Faith" I love it so much~I have been thinking about it ever since.