Well it has been a few months since I last posted. So much has happened and it has been exciting, stressful, and wonderful all at the same time! In mid April we were selected by a sweet, loving birth mom to adopt her baby boy due in August. Our little Jace Nolan was born Aug 11 and is now almost 6 weeks old and we couldn't be happier! He is the sweetest little thing and we love him SO much! It was such a wonderful experience getting to know his birth mom and gaining a great friendship with her. We are so grateful for adoption! Without it and without these selfless moms, couples like Kent and I may not ever be able to have children. It has truly been the greatest blessing!

Jace was 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. Kent and I hadn't decided on a middle name when he was born . Jace's birth mom had decided to name him Nolan Cash so we thought that it would be nice to use her name for him as his middle name. We think it fits him really well! 

(Isn't he so stinking cute?!?!?!?!)

Such a selfless woman and we could just feel the love she has for him. He will always know how much she loves him and how amazing she is! We will forever be grateful for her choice of adoption. 

We have waited so long to start our family and it is everything we could have ever hoped for! We look forward to more experiences like this!

This is my favorite picture! This just shows how wonderful of a dad Kent is. The love he has for Jace is just so precious!

General Conference and Easter

Last weekend we went on a road trip to Utah with my sister, Julie, and her husband, Kevin. We drove up there in hopes of watching General Conference at the conference center in Salt Lake City. If you are unfamiliar for the LDS General Conference, here is a brief explanation of what it is. Twice a year we have a conference where our prophet and his apostles will speak on various topics and it lasts pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday. It is always so great and uplifting. We look forward to it every 6 months! Since not everyone can watch it at the conference center in Salt Lake, most people watch it on t.v. Neither Kent nor Kevin had ever been there, so we decided to take them!  Most people who want to go, will try to get tickets but they go really quickly. If you don't get a ticket you can try to get in the stand-by line and get in. We have always been able to get in on stand-by so we decided to take our chances and make the trip up there.

Starting our trip! We stayed at my aunt and uncles house in St. George to split up the trip a little bit.

Friday night we made it to my aunt's house. Kevin had a mission reunion so Kent and I went out with my aunts, Edith and Brenda (my dad's sisters). We watched Cinderella! They were so much fun to hang out with! Sad we don't get to see them very often.

Conference started at 10am so we decided we better get to the conference center early to make sure we could get in. We showed up just before 8am to stand in line and it was freezing cold!! 

So we waited in line for 2 hours, just to find out that the conference center was full! We didn't make it in! But all was not lost. We were able to watch conference in the old tabernacle where conference used to be held. We only got to watch it on projectors but it was still cool to be in the tabernacle.

The organ in the tabernacle is so amazing!!

This is us in front of the Salt Lake City Temple. It is such a beautiful temple. If you don't know anything about it, it was built in the 1800's and construction took 40 yrs. It was build by members of the LDS church and it was all volunteer work.

We stayed at my Aunt Edith's house near Salt Lake City. We have fun in her basement playing a dart game.

All 4 of us are kicking back watching the saturday afternoon session of conference. we were nice and cozy!

We headed home on Easter Sunday. On our drive I saw this image in my water bottle. If you look closely toward the top, there is a little child holding a teddy bear. I thought it was pretty cool!

We made it home in time for Sunday dinner and Easter egg hunt with the kids.

Here are the kids with all their Easter eggs!

Dentistry and Construction

I work in the dental field and Kent works in construction. Even when we are not at work, we still find ourselves "working". Yesterday I was able to volunteer at an event called Compassion Queen Creek and Kent did some construction work for the Arizona FFA.

At Compassion Queen Creek, they set up work stations at a school in Queen Creek and we performed dental procedures on families in need. It was a great experience! This is me and Dr. Scott Harris to an extraction.

These are all the wonderful helpers from all over the phoenix area. They included dentists, hygienists, assistants, and front office specialists.

The Arizona FFA purchased a home to be used whenever there are FFA events going on the area. The director of the Arizona FFA was Kent's leader in scouts many years ago but they are good friends and keep in touch. He asked Kent to build a dividing wall to separate one of the garages from the other two. This is what Kent built yesterday.

After they were finished with the wall, he asked Kent to come help him hang a barn door he ordered for the bathroom in his home. It's a pretty cool door if you ask me! It slides open and closed.

Family Dinner at Our House!

So it has been way too long since I have posted a new blog. I have a few things to post about, so I will just be posting it all today! A couple Sundays ago, Kent and I had Sunday dinner at our house. We usually go over to Kent's parents house, but we thought it would be nice to give them a little break =). We ate a delicious pulled pork sandwich dinner, and then spent the rest of the night playing ladder ball and throwing the frisbee.

Raianne (Kent's sister in purple shirt), Mike (Raianne's husband in green shirt), Alyssa ( sister-in-law who was really anxious to take a bite of her food), Trevor (Kent's brother with the hat), Mack and Andelin (Trevor and Alyssa's son and daughter)

Kent and his mom, Shelley, playing ladder ball.

McKele, Kent's sister, holding the tortuous they randomly found hanging out in their back yard. They brought it over for Mack and Andelin to play with.

 Me and Kent, playing against Trevor and Kevin (McKele's husband). Kent and I dominated!!

The same weekend, my sister and her kids stayed at our house. This is Mason and Kent playing ladder ball. Melanie wanted to join in the fun!

Birthday Party and Baby Shower

Yesterday was a pretty fun and eventful day! It was my mom's birthday so we all went to Red Lobster for lunch. Then we drove out to North Scottsdale for Kent's sister's baby shower. We spent the rest of the day out there with Kent's family.

My parents live in Thatcher, AZ with 2 of my sisters and my brother, but they were passing through town on their way to spend the week in San Diego with my sister Emily and her family. It just so happened that ALL of my siblings were in town, so everyone was there with their families! The only ones missing were my brother's kids and his wife. But everyone else was able to be there. It was really nice having everyone together! Yes, everyone in the picture is part of my family. There are a few you can't see because they are hidden by tables and other people's heads, and there are 3 that weren't able to make it.

Kent is always playing around and tickling the nieces and nephews. They love Uncle Kent!

My mom, Kent, Allie, and Lydie

Brooklee, Allie, and Me

Me and Kent's sister, Raianne. This is Raianne and Mike's first baby and it is going to be a girl! We are all so excited for them! I was the one selected to write down everyone's names and the gift that they brought.

Left to right: Shelley (Kent's mom), me, Raianne, McKele (Kent's sisters), and Alyssa (sister in law married to Kent's brother)

While we were at the baby shower, Kent and all the guys went to help paint Raianne and Mike's house. They have been remodeling for awhile and they are trying to get everything done before the baby comes! So we all went to their house after the baby shower. This is Alyssa and her two kids, Andelin and Mack. They were taking turns climbing the ladder.

Phoenix Suns Game!

Saturday I got a text from my sister, Julie, saying her husband got $10 tickets to the Phoenix Suns game that night and asked if we wanted to go. Of course, we said yes! On our way to the game that night Kevin tells us that because he is a student at ASU he always gets a text the day of the game, offering $5-10 tickets. The quicker you respond and buy your tickets, the better the seat is. They will then send you another text with your ticket and seat number. He then proceeds to tell us that he didn't respond until 2 hrs after the initial text, and he hadn't received a text back with the tickets. He had already paid for the tickets so we knew we would get in, we just didn't know where we would be sitting. So we get to the game and they tell us the game is sold out so all students that responded to the text, get to watch the game in this lounge near the top of the building. So we go up there to check it out, and its a large room with lots of couches and tv's to watch the game on. So we drove all the way to Phoenix and paid $40 to watch the game on a small tv surrounded by strangers. That was not really what we had expected for the game. However, we tried to make the best of the situation.

This is Julie and I (Kevin in the background) sitting on the couches trying to watch the game on a tiny, blurry tv.

Kent and I trying to peek over the edge to see a little bit of the "real" game. We unfortunately couldn't see much.

 During the 2nd quarter, two seats opened up so we quickly snatched them up. I tried sitting there and looking over but even when I stood up, I could only see half of the court, so I gave my seat to Kevin. So Kent and Kevin sat there for awhile straining to watch the game =)

By the 3rd quarter, the Suns were being beat by more than double their score. We were already annoyed that we had to sit in the lounge and couldn't see the game, so we decided to just leave early and get something to eat. On our way to find food, we saw these beauties! This was the valet parking at the game. Wouldn't it be nice own one of those? Ya, I thought so too.

Walking in downtown Phoenix trying to find a place to eat. I'm surprised Kevin was even smiling in this picture because he was pretty upset about the whole lounge thing, and the Suns getting slaughtered =)

We decided to eat at this place called Pizza Studio. You go down the line and choose what crust you want, and can put any topping on the pizza that you want. They cook it right then and you have your pizza in 5 minutes. Such a great idea!

All of us eating our pizza!!

Picnic

This weekend we were supposed to go to California with some friends but unfortunately it didn't work. We had already taken Friday off of work, so we decided to get some things done around the house and then go on a picnic! The weather has been so great lately so we decided to take advantage of it.

We started off the morning with some delicious french toast that Kent cooked up for us. Kent enjoys cooking and he is really good at it too! I sure am lucky to have him!

On our way to Freestone park!

We went to Sprouts and ordered sandwiches from their deli. 

It was so peaceful at the park. Since it was a Friday, there weren't a ton of people which was really nice.

After we ate, we decided to go throw a softball and then a frisbee. It was fun trying to get these action shots. We had to take the picture really fast so we could put the phone down and catch the ball before it hit us.