In Memory of...

5/1/1996-12/26/2009

We lost a good friend yesterday.  

Yesterday was a tough day, my eyes burned from all the tears I shed that day.  We started off by going to a funeral of a 21 year old girl that lived in my parents ward.  And even though I didn't know her very well, it was just so sad.  And then to top it off we went to say our last Goodbyes to Smokey.  His body was just shutting down and so we had to put him to sleep.  I'm going to miss him!   We have some fun memories with him and he will always be remembered. 

We love you Smokey!

Our Hope to Adopt

Finally!  I figured out how to post our button with the HTML, yeah!

So now I want to ask all of you who read our blog and support us in journey to adopt to please help us spread the word and post our button on your blog.  All you have to do is go to your layout, add a new gadget, click on HTML/Java Script and copy and paste the HTML code below.  Thank you so much for your support!  Love you all!

<a href="https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/22868500/ourMessage.jsf" target="_blank"><img src="http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh316/randm31/Adoption-p001.jpg" border="0" alt="adoption"></a>

New project

Remi wanted a new project (this was about a month ago) so we came up with a design for our front room and he got to work!  He worked hard on this and got it done within 2 days after 9 hours of tapeing! 

The finished project...

I LOVE IT!

He did a wonderful job, don't you think?

All invited!

Holiday Boutique

(put on by my mother-in-law and sister-in-law)

Saturday, November, 21st

Open House 1-4pm

6865 South 3370 West

801.964.0233 (Deena)

There will be several new crafters joining us this year.

We will have jewelry, interchangeable watches,

crocheted hats/headbands/flower-clips,

advent calendars, paper bag albums,

nursing covers, baby BOOTies, fun & unique handmade gifts....

You can also view Encircled Boutique Blog

to view some pictures.

Hope to see you there!

Family Pictures

our Family Vacation...

On the week of my 25th Birthday and Jessica and Ryan's Birthday's, we took a Sorenson Family Vacation to California!  It was a blast (thanks to Rach for setting it up)!

There were 17 of us staying in this cute home that we rented complete with a swimming pool and Disneyland fireworks everynight!  It was the cutest place (and it will sleep more if you need it).  I recommend this place to anyone! (25 minute walk to Disneyland)

LOVED Seaworld!!

also LOVED Disneyland and California Adventure!   I haven't been here since I was about 7 years old, so everything was new to me and so much fun!  We had a 3 day park hopper pass here.  I also spent my Birthday here in Disneyland and they gave me a $72 voucher to spend in Disneyland, it was great!

And the last day we spent some time at the beach, it was relaxing (we needed that after 6 long days of walking, walking, and more walking).  There were some cute dogs being walked on the beach, one of which was a Welsh Terrior like Lilo and made me miss her.  And seeing the cute white Fox Terrior made me want to get a second dog (but I don't think I'm ready for this). 

Then we went to San Diego Zoo for a couple of hours and did some more walking!  It was fun to see the animals, especially the Panda Bear...so cute!

Thanks SORENSON'S for making this such a fun trip!

We missed you Stott's!

On our way...

Anyone want to babysit?

Okay I guess dogsit, she is our baby though.

I have completely forgotten to find a sitter for our cute puppy Lilo.  We are so excited to be leaving to Disneyland with Remi's family on Saturday the 17th and will be home Sunday the 25th. 

She is super cute and so much fun.  I won't lie, she is a high energy dog and loves to play!  She loves to be outside so if you have a fenced in yard you can just throw her out back. 

ANY TAKERS?

We would appreciate it so much!

If you have any questions or want to email, my email is mosser1023@yahoo.com

So this is what we have been up to...

Cruise to the Caribbean

We went with my whole family including cousins from my dads side.

It was a blast!

The Ranch

We invited my cousin Kristi and her husband Dario.

I'm glad they were able to come, it was way fun!

Lilo especially LOVED it!

When we got home she would sit in the garage next to the car just waiting for us to take her back.

Enjoying the hot summer!

with Lilo

sno-cones & swimming pools


She goes crazy over the hose!


Watching movies
We rented 'Bolt' and she watched about half the movie with us, it was so cute!


Trek
Remi and I got called to be Ma & Pa for Trek. It was just a one day trek, so we thought it would be pretty easy. It was tougher than we expected. We loved getting to know some new youth from the stake. It was a good experience.




Girls Camp!
I was so excited to be able to go to girls camp this year! It was ward camp, which I love. We had a blast playing games, relaxing, and goofing around. I love those girls, they are the BEST!

The finished nursery

finally

Yes we ordered a crib

Yes I keep the door shut

&

No I don't cry when I go in there

I love this room and I can't wait til I get to do something more with it!

Very much needed post!

Everytime I get on my blog I think how depressing I need to update this, but then I am too lazy to load my pictures and actually do it. So I decided I should at least post something. I don't want you to think that I have been depressed for the last 2 months, because I have not.

Actually we are doing quite well. We have done a lot this summer (hopefully pictures will come soon). We love our dog, Lilo, she is such a joy in our lives and I'm so grateful we got her! She keeps that smile on my face :) Updates will come soon.

:(

I just wanted to let everyone know that we lost the baby on July 9th. Our hearts ache, but we are doing okay. I just wish I knew the reason why, not that it would make it any easier, but at least we wouldn't be left wondering. We have no idea if she miscarried, decided to keep the baby, or what??? We have tried emailing her to ask for some closure but we have not yet heard from her.

Thank you for all your support.

it's a...

it's a ... GIRL!


If you can't tell, we are very excited that we are going to be adopting a little baby girl! As soon as we got home we started to write on the driveway at 10:30 PM. Our neighbors came over to share our excitement and they took some pictures for us. I'm glad we were able to get it all done, because right as we were going inside it started raining :( Oh well. The neighbor girls said they would fix it tomorrow :) I think it turned out pretty cute though, I did the letters and my artistic husband added the swirls!

I'm so excited to go and start buying pink stuff!

Happiness

Guess what...

Remi and I are going to be a MOMMY & DADDY!

We are a adopting a baby in October

We couldn't be more excited!

It all happened so quickly. Our profile was only on-line for about 3 weeks when we got an email from a birth mom on May 31st which was totally unexpected. When we were on our cruise, my aunt said, "aren't you anxious to be checking your email everyday?" and I told her no because we had only been online for a couple of weeks and I didn't expect to hear anything for a while. Well sure enough when we got home there was an email! It was funny because Remi was napping and I freaked out and ran up the stairs and I totally scared him so bad! So this past week we have been emailing her back and forth. (We have been on a big rollercoaster ride this last week). She said things in her email that got us really excited and made it sound like she was going to pick us. We had set a day to meet with her and in the mean time we got a call from our caseworker telling us to not get our hopes up because this birthmom was communicating with 3 other couples and she was supposed to meet with one of them this week as well as us. Our hearts sunk, even though we knew it was best for her to keep her options open. So we took a step back and tried to keep in mind that we might not be the ones. So anyway we met with her on Monday, June 8 (the best day ever). Her caseworker told us that the birthmom wanted to meet with all the couples to help make her decision easier, so we were not expecting anything at all. (I think we were the first and only couple she met with). So we were at the agency for a little over an hour talking with her and then we took her out to dinner. After dinner she pulled me aside and said, "Mindy I think it's your place to tell your husband that your 5 months pregant" WHAT? (yes she had to repeat herself because I wasn't sure if i heard her right). REALLY? I gave her a huge hug and then again asked, ARE YOU SERIOUS? and then gave her another hug and thanked her. I was just in such shock, I couldn't believe it! I was so happy. So then I got in the car and told Remi that I was 5 months pregnant, he first looked a little confused but then caught on and gave me a big hug and kiss (tears). We couldn't be happier, we get to start our family :)

**On Tuesday June 16th, we get to go to an ultrasound appointment with her to find out if it's a boy or girl, so stay tunned! (This week is going by way too slow)

Adoption Profile

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, we just have been busy. We now have our profile up on-line, it's been up for a few weeks. If you would like to visit it, go to...

www.itsaboutlove.org

click on "view adopting family profiles"

click "continue" under guests

and then at the bottom of the page, put in husbands name: Remington and wife's name: Mindy and State: Utah then SEARCH

Hope you Enjoy!

after 5 long months...

More details will come later.

Side Note: We couldn't be happier with our puppy, she is so fun to have around! She is potty training very quickly (2 days in a row with no accidents in the house). Now we just need to work with her on her biting, she bites everything in sight, including me! But she also is very sweet, I love when I get ready in the mornings she lays right on top of my feet. We love her very much and now we can't wait to add a baby to the family!

Let the Searching/Waiting begin!

That was fast!

We did it! We bought a puppy!

I can't believe it.This all happened so fast! I've always said no to a getting a puppy especially after babysitting my in-laws dog for 18 months, she was cute and all but she was not potty trained very well and it didn't help that we left her home while we were at work all day. Anyway the past couple weeks I have just started thinking about getting a puppy. I thought it would be really good to start our family and to have something to nurture and love especially during our waiting process for the adoption. (speaking of: they are submitting us for review next week!)

Well I knew I couldn't tell Remi until I was pretty sure because I knew he would be 100% YES! So two days ago I mentioned it to him and I don't think he took me too seriously. Then yesterday I brought it up again and began to search the internet on what kind of breed we wanted. I was on the internet all night long searching all different kinds of dogs, when we decided on a Welsh Terrier. Isn't she cute?!

Well at the time we thought we would wait until June to get a puppy {after our cruise, anyone want to babysit for a week? :) } but we called a local pet store today and they had one, so we drove there right away and fell in love!

Her name is Lilo

She was born 2.1.09

She's perfect

and she has been sleeping for the past two hours in her kennel with no whinning. I hope it lasts!

Seriously Considering...

am i crazy?

Trip to the Emergency Room

This was my very first trip to the Emergency room! I had to pay $100 for them to shove swabs down my throat and gag me. But they made up for it by taking me for a ride in a wheel chair. The end result ended up being a lot better than how I felt... Viral laryngitis.

Viral Laryngitis: is a swelling of the tissues around the vocal cords. As a result, your voice may be hoarse or perhaps you can only speak in a whisper.

I felt so dumb for having to go to the emergency room for a swollen throat, but where else can you go at midnight on a Saturday night. Luckily we got right in and didn't have to wait hardly at all. They tested me for strep which came back negative! And they took some x-rays of my throat. I'm glad that it only ended up being Laryngitis and hopefully I can get over this quickly. The doctor said that I can go to work, but to talk as little as possible. This makes things kind of awkward when your doing someones hair and you can barely talk to them.

I just have to say that I am so grateful for such a loving and caring husband. He has been so good to me these past few days and getting me everything that I need. I am also grateful for the Lortab that I am taking, it makes the pain go away, but it is sure kicking in right now and making me very loopy and tired. (I'm also grateful for spell check right now). :)

Before I take a nice long nap, I do have to say that I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ!

Happy Easter!

Enjoy this Easter message from Jeffrey R. Holland

For Rachael...

Last Sunday we went over to Remi's parents house for dinner. They were babysitting a few of their grandchildren while the parents were in Las Vegas. Well this is Jessica and lets just say that Grandma doesn't know how to do hair very well :) So Aunt Mindy saved the day. Jessica was so excited to show her mom that she wanted me to post it on my blog (sorry it's late Jess). Thanks for letting me do your hair, you are a darling girl. Love you!

4 years!

This is our annual temple trip. We decided to go to St. George this year for our 4th anniversary. My Grandparents have a second home there and it was nice of them to let us stay there. We were able to visit with some friends, go golfing, play games, watch movies, go swimming, out to eat, shopping, and of course go to the temple. We both had a ton of fun, and it was hard to come back to reality.

Hey Babe! I just wanted to let you know how much fun I had with you in St. George and how happy you make me. I can't believe we have been married for 4 years. You are such a great husband and I love you a ton! I'm excited to spend eternity with you! Happy Anniversary (on the 31st).

All in favor say, 'I'...

Anyone been waiting for and update?!

Well it's not too exciting because we are still trying to finish our profile.

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted (I'm sorry).

Since my last post, we did do our interviews, classes, and home study. They all were nothing to worry about (even though I did stress out about them).

The Interviews

We both went in for our individual interviews, I was kind of nervous, wondering what they were going to ask us. But it was no big deal at all! It was just like having a conversation with someone that was trying to get to know you...

Do you have any family traditions?

Tell me about each one of your siblings: name, age, relationship with them, so forth

Have you had any traumatic experiences in your life?

and so forth.

We PASSED!

The Classes

I loved LOVED the classes!

They use to spread the classes over a six week period (from what I've heard), but now they do it in one weekend. Which made for some long days, but I'm glad we could get it done quickly!

We went on Friday evening after work from 6-9 PM and the next day from 9AM-5PM. In the classes they have 3 panels. We got to hear from birth moms and dad, adoptive parents, and people who were adopted. It was very interesting and helpful to hear every one's stories! We laughed, we cried, we smiled, we felt love and peace, and we have hope!

It was so fun to get to meet with some of the other couples that were going through the same thing and to be able to talk with them, I wish we would have had some more time to talk with them. All in all I loved the classes and the day didn't seem so long after all.

We PASSED!

The Home Study

My husband will tell you that I stressed out a little too much over this one! Not that I thought it was going to be hard, I just wanted my house to be as close to perfect as I could get it.

We have 2 bedrooms upstairs, one being ours and the other one has always been an office/junk room (you know, "if you don't know what to do with it, throw it in this room"). Well this room will become our nursery, so we decided that it would be a good idea to at least have the room empty and painted waiting to put a baby and baby furniture in it. So we started the long process of moving everything out and of course I ended up organizing just about every other closet and cupboard in the house so I could make room for all of our other stuff. Well the week before the Home Study, I realized that I had 2 messy, unorganized rooms. And I know that it didn't matter to the caseworker, I could have just told her that I was working on getting things organized, but I don't like people to see my house messy, so I kicked my butt into gear and got it done. Which I am so glad because now I don't have to worry about it anymore.

(This is what our computer room used to look like and I'll post pictures later of the end result, this may take awhile. Maybe I'll post some in between pics as well.)

Well anyway I got my house spotless (mostly) and we had our caseworker come over on an early Saturday morning. She came in and we sat down and we talked and told her about our house so she could jot down some notes.

Tell me about all the rooms in your house.

Where do you keep your cleaners? Medications?

Are there very many kids that live in the neighborhood?

How is the traffic through here?

and so forth.

And then we took her on a tour and that was it! The only thing we need to get in the future is those covers that go on your basement window-sills.

We PASSED!

and Now...

All that we have left to do is write a letter to the birth parents (this will go on our profile) and upload a copy of our most recent tax form. I have been putting both of these off. I feel like such a slacker because we are so close! Hopefully we will get these done very soon. After we get everything in, our caseworker has to write up a 9 page paper on us (from what I understand) before we can be approved. She has already been working on this, which is fabulous! Hopefully I will have some good news soon on being approved!

Also soon after we are approved we would like to send out a letter/pass-a-long card and such about our hope to adopt and some info on us. I sure I will do a post on this, but if you would like to get something in the mail and I don't already have your address, you can send me your address to my email... mosser1023@yahoo.com.

Thank you and sorry for such a LONG post! Hopefully we will talk to you again soon.

Update!

Well we have set up some of our final appointments.

1. We go in on this Wednesday to have our individual interviews

2. Friday and Saturday we go to the adoption classes

3. On the 28th we have our Home Study

In the meantime, we are working on our Profile and going over our paperwork to make sure we answered every question. We still have a few bits and pieces to fill out, but it's coming along!

emotions

Today my emotions are high...

I attended the Funeral of Adrianne McBride, age 23. She died in a car accident.

I didn't know her, but her sister, Melissa works at Capelli Hair with me. I can't imagine what her and her family are going through right now. My thoughts and prayers are with you!

I cried my eyes out for 2 hours during the funeral service. It was beautiful and the spirit was so strong there. What an amazing family!

May Peace be with you!

To answer a few questions...

Here are just a few questions that we have been asked a lot lately...

How much longer is the process until we are approved?

Well that is mostly up to us! The paperwork takes a LONG time, there are so many questions! After that is all done we have to make appointments for our individual interviews and then an appointment for our home study where they just come out to our home and basically make sure that it's a safe place! Last but not least we have to go to some classes and those are on February 20th and 21st. We have already sent in our background checks so hopefully those won't take too long (they normally only take 2 weeks, but I've heard of people having to wait months!).

I have also been working on an adoption blog to go along with our profile. When I get it finished I'll give you a link so you can view it!

Do we want a boy or girl?

Either. We just want a healthy baby. Plus, when you get pregnant you can't choose, so we are not going to choose.

Do we want an open or closed adoption?

This one we have thought a lot about and are still not 100% sure on what we will do. We have heard a lot of people's stories and that has helped us a little bit, but every one's story is different. I do know that we want to meet the birth parents! We want to be able to tell our child about their birth parents and have a picture to show them. We are open to discuss an open relationship with the birth mom to decide what is best for the child.

These are all the questions I can think of right now, if you have any others, feel free to ask!

Funny conversation...

WARNING: There is content that may be inappropriate for readers under the age of 18.

I just had to post this, I thought it was hilarious!

So today I was filling out more paperwork and asked Remi if he would get started on his. The conversation went something like this...

Me: Hey will you start your paperwork today?

Rem: Will you just do it for me?

Me: No way!

Rem: Why can't we just have sex to have children? I hate filling out paperwork!

Me: Well the sex thing isn't working for us as far as getting pregnant goes, so we have to fill out paperwork to get children.

Rem: How about I sex you and you fill out my paperwork then?!

Making Progress

On Wednesday we met our CASE WORKER, her name is Shantel Pettit. We love her already! She was so easy going and helpful. Basically all the first meeting is learning about every step of adoption, what we will be going through. Then we just talked and she got to know us. Then we paid our $1,000 deposit to be able to get our paperwork. This is what made it very official! We then went home and Remi had to go to work, but I got started on the paperwork right away! Most of it was just passing out papers to our employers, doctors, and references. I filled out our background checks and financial records and the hardest one was our Child Preferences Form: what race do you want, what medical things are you willing and able to handle, and how open of a relationship do you want with the birth parents. We had been talking about this a lot already so we had already made a lot of decisions prior to filling out this one! Well today is Saturday and most of that paperwork is taken care of!

Yesterday we received our login and password to fill out a whole bunch more paperwork online! WOW there is a ton! I have been on the computer for about 3 hours tonight filling stuff out and I'm not even close to half way through it. There are some great question though, they really make sure that you are ready for a child. Which I think we most defiantly are! We are so excited and working hard on trying to get all this paperwork done as fast as possible!

I just want to say thank you to those who have commented on the blog and to those I have talked to in person. You really are such a support to us and thank you for all your prayers!

Exciting news!

Remi and I are excited to announce...

that we are putting in our adoption papers!

Some of you may already know that we have been struggling with infertility for the past couple of years. We are still working with the doctors, but have decided to keep our options open. Remi has always been open to adoption and I've always said that if it ever came down to it, I would defiantly do it, I just never thought it would come down to it. So for me, I struggled a little bit making this decision. I've always dreamed and longed for the day that I could see what my children looked like and what features and personality they had from me and Rem. But we don't know how long it is going to take us to get pregnant, so we have opened our minds and our hearts towards adoption! And now I can't even tell you how excited I am about our decision! It feels so right! I know this is what we are supposed to be doing! So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, they will be greatly appreciated!

Since our announcement, we have had so many questions and everyone wanting to know what's going on and to keep them updated on everything. So to make it easier, I have decided to post it all on here!

We are going through LDS family services. We have gone to the orientation, put in an application, and our bishop has sent in some paperwork on us. We meet with our case worker on Wednesday! We are so excited to meet with her and start the process. From what I understand, it will take a few months before we are approved. There is a lot involved: interviews, paperwork, house visits, background checks, classes, and who knows what else?? So once we are approved we will send out a letter and pass-along card of some sort to start spreading the word! They tell you to tell everyone you know and have them to tell everyone they know, because a lot of the time that is how you get a baby. So please help us out in our journey to starting our family! We love you and will keep you updated!

Thanks for your support and prayers!

The rest of Christmas...

This was Christmas morning. We slept over at my parents house. Christmas morning is boring when your married and don't have kids. Last year we opened our gifts on Christmas Eve so we could sleep-in in the morning. It was fun to share Christmas morning with my family. I got my very first ipod!

This was on Christmas Eve during the day at the Sorenson's. All the grandkids got these huge stuffed animals that they could ride on, it was a huge hit!

This was Christmas Eve at my grandparents house. We had so much fun! Each family did a musical number, no singing aloud! Except for the people that married into the family. The Moss family did not get the musical talent when it comes to singing! One family "forgot" their chimes, which we were very glad because James and Melissa (both married into the family) gave us a beautiful musical number with James on the guitar and Melissa singing "Breath of Heaven". It was beautiful, thank you for that!

Later we all opened our gifts and my favorite tradition, our PJ's!