Anniversary Post!

To mark the 1st anniversary since our first blog post, we're posting our family picture taken after Sara's adoption was final. I thought it only fitting since our first post, entitled Sara Christine Hood, was about introducing her to everyone.

This is what we wore as a family to the court room. We had a hard time getting everyone to settle down . . . and we're lucky we got them to look toward the camera, much less get any smiles.

So, in celebrating our blog's 1st anniversary: here's to you--all ye who dwell in the bloggernacle--may your posts be fun and your comments be many!


While I'm at it, I may as well mention some milestones from the past year:

1-The kids are all still alive, and relatively well (this was harder than you think to achieve).

2-I'm not crazy . . . yet. But I am suffering from some sort of Post-finalization Depression (I went through PPD with the other three and it's fitting for it to happen with Sara--just means I have truly accepted her as my own) who knew!?!

3-Our cars are still alive, but our HVAC system, washing machine (twice), dishwasher, stove, alternator, 2 car batteries, and the radio in the van all died beyond repair and had to be replaced. (yes, all while paying for a VERY expensive adoption)

Pumpkin Polling Results

Ok, the pumpkin polling data are in:

The correct answer was "B"

Name That Pumpkin Carver

Our family pumpkin was carved into the logo of our beloved Alma Matter this year. And, for a little friendly competition, we're going to play that game we all know and love: "Name That Pumpkin Carver."


For those of you that haven't played for a while, here's a refresher on how it works:

Choose one of the following options and record your choice in a comment to this blog:


A) Joseph (good choice, the "awesome artist")
B) Tamra (also a good choice, the "patient perfectionist")
C) Amy (bad choice, the "4 year old that's not allowed to play with knives")
D) No one, its a fake pumpkin (another good choice)


The winner will be chosen randomly from the correct guessers and will get their personal pumpkin carved for free next Halloween into anything they want by the expert carver who created the above masterpiece*.


*Offer void if the answer is C, because even though Amy will be 5 next year, she still won't be allowed to play with knives. Winner will be responsible for purchasing the pumpkin to be carved. Winner will be chosen at random via the eenie-meenie-minee-moe method. All rebates to dealer. Offer void in California. Also, effective retroactively, the winner may not request their pumpkin to be carved to resemble a TIGER PAW.

Good luck!

Find Your Pumpkin Self

One of our Fall/Halloween Traditions is to Get a pumpkin for each member of the family. In our second year of this tradition, we decided to give our pumpkins more personality, and we created a jack-o-portrait for each of the kids.

Sealing

No words, just pictures . . .

How to build a backyard - Part 3: Hiatus

Step 1: Put all tools away (because there's a chance of rain for the next three weeks straight--not to mention the hurricanes.)
Step 2: Dam up dirt piles so they stop spilling into the sidewalk.
Step 3: Turn wheelbarrow over so it doesn't become a cess pool of mosquito larvae.
Step 4: Wait....and wait....and wait. Wait 'til your husband is back into the swing of grad school, wait 'til you're used to waking up at 6:00 am so that Amy can catch the bus at 6:30 am, wait 'til all the school orientations are over, wait 'til all this adoption mess is final, wait 'til Tammy, Sara, and Claire's birthday parties are over, 'til formal family portraits are taken, 'til Sara is sealed to us for time and all eternity, 'til Sara is blessed, and FINALLY, wait 'til after General Conference is over before getting back to work on the most important project for the house. Maybe the weather will be nicer and you can work for longer than 15 minutes before almost passing out and being forced back inside for water breaks to recuperate from the humidity--maybe.

Finally, Finalization.

It's official--this little girl's name is Sara, and Joseph and Tamra Hood are her legal parents. The adoption was finalized on Sep. 5th, 2008. I know what you're asking, and yes, all of her sisters were there in the courtroom and there was NO order in the court. There were however a lot of smiles. We are a happy family