Temple Day

We feel so loved. Last Saturday we were sealed to Olivia in the Bountiful Temple and on Sunday Dallas blessed her. It was such a fun and busy weekend. I was so exhausted from the weekend that I'm finally caught up on everything and have some time to blog.

It was so nice of everyone to come to support us on our big day, we are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family and it was so special to be at the temple with everyone. The temple process was pretty similar to getting married, but without having to get ready to look so fancy and of course there was a baby there.

I wasn't too emotional, but I did tear up when they brought Olivia into the room and I saw how beautiful she looked. I loved the little dress I bought for her. It was so neat to be in the temple with her. She was a really good kid during the sealing, she made some happy squealing sounds, but overall was really good.

I felt kinda funny leaving the temple in our white clothes for some pictures, but it will be nice to have those pictures to show Olivia when she's older. Thanks to everyone who came to support us, we feel so very loved.

The blessing on Sunday went really well, I think Dallas was a little intimidated that the entire stake presidency was there attending our ward that day. He did a great job and I'm so glad he holds the priesthood and bring those blessings into our family. Olivia was silent during her blessing too! I couldn't believe we lucked out, both the sealing time and blessing were right during naptime so I was prepared for some crankiness. We are so lucky to have such a happy baby.

Dallas and I tried to count after everyone had left our house on Sunday and we figured we had about 42 people crammed in our house. Sorry we had you crammed in there everyone! I wish we had our basement finished and could spread out a little more.

We are so glad to have our family be made "official" and we thank everyone who has helped us become so. Hopefully we'll be going through this process again soon!

Things were so crazy on Sunday that I forgot to take pictures of Olivia in her blessing dress. This is a picture from after I had changed her into normal clothes and was trying to get her to take a nap with Ryan.

Halloween Costumes

Yesterday our friends the Thatcher's hosted a great Halloween party. I personally think my costume is the best, but Dallas wasn't a fan. Thanks for a fun night Thatcher Family!

Court Date

Yesterday Olivia officially became ours!! I wasn't sure what to expect, but everything seemed pretty standard and went pretty smoothly. Olivia was so loud during the whole thing. She wasn't sad, but she was squealing, and laughing and shouting. Our case was third on the docket and I was worried that the judge would stop the first two proceedings to ask me to try and keep her quiet.

Our hearing only lasted about 15 minutes. I was really surprised because the judge didn't ask us a single thing about Olivia and how we feel about her. He asked Dallas to describe his feelings for me and vice versa. There was an adoption before ours so I'd heard him ask this question of the other couple, so I thought I was prepared to answer it, but when it was my turn to talk about my feelings for Dallas I was nervous and choked up so I kinda just mumbled something sweet and short. The whole proceeding was recorded and they will give us a DVD of our hearing.

I'm so glad Olivia is officially ours. People kept asking us if we were excited for court, its nice that it is done and that everything is squared away, but she has been 100% part of our family since day one and nothing can ever change that. Thanks to everyone to came to court with us to support us and a special thank you to Bruce Richards for representing us pro bono, we couldn't have done this without you!

Pumpkins

On Thursday Olivia and I went to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. I grabbed my camera at the last minute and I'm glad I did, I love how these pictures turned out. Halley might have to make a couple of Halloween scrapbook pages because we still need to take pictures of her in her costume. I couldn't get Olivia to stop trying to eat the straw, silly girl. She actually didn't care too much about the pumpkins, but did love the dirt in the wagon.

And speaking of pumpkins, Liv is working very hard on her Jack O' Lantern smile. I blogged about her first tooth about a week a half and ago and tonight I noticed that the one right next to it is coming in too! It's still too early to get a good picture of the toothy smile, but by Halloween she should have the cutest dang Jack O' Lantern smile around!

Livi makes us so happy!

Olivia's Saturday morning. We love her to pieces!

Livi's Dad