One mission accomplished!

I am happy to say that Daniel passed his engineer testing. He put in soooo much time studying and practicing what he had to perform for the test. He will now be driving and pumping water on the fire engine. He will be starting the training academy August 10th. We are excited for the change and are happy for Daniel's two good friends who also passed the testing.  
As for the whole adoption thing we are just in the waiting phase. Not too much to report there.
We were able to get away last week for a couple of days. We went to Las Vegas. We stayed at a family friendly timeshare. We had a great time. They had a bunch of pools and jacuzzis and also a lazy river. It was great!!

old fashion summer

This summer began with a squirt gun fight...

 moved on to lazy mornings with the dogs...

 and then on to a water balloon fight!

 ending with Daniel dumping a bucket of water on Cody and heading over to Grandma's to swim...

our first week of Summer!!

We did it!!

We graduated second grade this week!! I say we because I feel like I learned a lot not so much academically but what a second grader goes through emotionally and academically. We forget so much as we grown up. I am so proud of my little man though. He worked pretty hard this year to get up to speed. His teacher was so proud of his accomplishments. He couldn't have done it without her patience and encouragement. She was wonderful.

 I like to make a big deal of Cody's graduation from each grade so that he knows that we are proud of him and that he should be proud of himself for doing something great. He is holding up two fingers to signify that he graduated second grade.

We are so proud of our little man!! 

Next...

We decided that our next step is to Foster/Adopt. We were very hesitant with the thought of fostering, with all of the stigmas out there. Our caseworker suggested that we look at their website and see if we are interested. We decided to go to an orientation where they explain everything in detail and have others there who have already foster/adopted to talk to you and answer questions. We were very worried about getting a child taken away but after the orientation we felt like we should try this route also. We still are hoping to get a newborn or at least no older than a 2. We've turned in a bunch of paperwork and just have to complete their specific training and then we will be on their list as well as LDSFS. We will see what happens next...

Other than that we've just been up to our normal routines.

Chiefs award

Last night Daniel and I attended a nice awards banquet that the Santa Ana Police were hosting and giving awards to people that have done commendable things in and for the city. Daniel was given a Chiefs Award along with the rest of his SWAT Medic team for their help on SWAT call outs. Due to them going Orange County and Santa Ana's financial problems, the City eliminated the SWAT Medic program. Daniel was kind of bummed but understood. Things are still kind of crazy getting ready for the transition on the 20th. For now Daniel will be staying in the city of Santa Ana working with other guys that he knows but after about 6 months or so he could get moved somewhere else. But just knowing that he still has a job is comforting in these crazy economic times. As a side note, in Forbes magazine Santa Ana is known as one of the safest cities in the U.S.- who would have thought?!!

We had a fun Easter with family this year.

Hope everyone had a great Easter too!

When I saw this on Pintrest it completely expresses the way Daniel and I have been feeling. For quite some time Daniel and I tried to have another baby. It's definitely a roller coaster of emotions and so was giving up. You see many of your friends and family members getting pregnant and having more kids which I am grateful for because I get more nieces and nephews but it kind of pulls on your heart strings. There are many times you hide tears and feel guilty for not being able to give your one and only child siblings. Meanwhile, your child wonders why he doesn't have a brother or sister when all of his cousins and friends do. You have to go into why Mommy's tummy doesn't work anymore while trying to hold back tears.

Daniel and I have thought of it long and hard, prayed and fasted, consulted with experts, friends and LDS family services and have decided to try to adopt. We know that we will be in for another roller coaster ride of emotions but hopefully this one will have a happier ending. We are ever so grateful to have Cody already and love him more than words can express. He is one of the reasons we want to have another baby/child in our family. We hope you will keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we are now officially approved and will just be waiting to be picked.