I was very happy yesterday to find an unexpected surprise in our mail box. Michigan sent us Kylie's new birth certificate! I was excited to get it, mostly because I originally thought I'd have to shell out $40 to order one through Michigan vital records. I'd also been warned that some states take up to a year to send the birth certificate.

So what does this mean? It means that our baby can finally get herself a social security number. Whoot whoot! No more ATTIN for her (that's a tax identification number that you use for tax purposes). When we received our tax stimulus check this year we weren't able to get the $300 for Kylie because we didn't have a social security number for her, just an ATTIN. We'll be able to ammend our taxes from last year, or so I've been told so we can claim this. Taxes are going to be fun this year (tongue in cheek). I've got a mile high stack of receipts related to the adoption to calculate, which most of them were Michigan expenses. Not going to be fun.

1. Chocolate shake from Iceburg Drive-In. Their mini size was huge! Very thick and very yummy. They just built one within walking distance from my home. How lucky can I be?!?
2. Going to my 10 year high school reunion. Fun to see old faces and friends (well not so old).
3. Reading Blogs. I have to admit that I'm addicted to catching up on friends, family, neighbors and strangers via their blogs.
4. Wiping boogars all day long. Kylie's had a runny nose that has been getting better, but she's still a snot-farm.
5. Going to Thanksgiving Point gardens with my parents, Emily & Steven and my aunt Becky and her children.
6. Spending time with my family up in Logan this weekend.
7. KSL. Love KSL.
8. Reading stories from other adoptive parents about how their children came to be. One miracle at a time!
9. Chocolate milk.
10. Fall is almost here... here's a toast to less-than-boiling-hot temperatures.

Okay I haven't bragged about Kylie in awhile so here it is...

Kylie's been growing up so much lately. It is absolutely CRAZY how fast nine months goes by and how fast they grow. When she was born she was just a tiny six pound of a little thing and now just nine months later she's growing out of her baby-ness! About two weeks ago she started pulling herself up on anything she can. That has been her favorite thing to do since. Our excersaucer converts into a push toy so one day I came home from the store and Jared had pulled the push toy out of the basement for her to play with. She loves it! She can "walk" on her own with that toy (heavaly assisted by the toy I might add) and her entire face lights up when she does! I don't think it will be long before I'm chasing her down. As of recent she's become very attached to me. I hand her to Jared- WAAAAA! I go out into the garage without her- WAAAAA! I hand her to someone else- WAAAAA! I put her to bed- WAAAAA! You get the picture :)

On another note I was in the line at Hobby Lobby to pay for a few items and the lady in front of me was taking way too long. I swear I waited for thirty minutes behind her all the while trying to refrain from scratching her eyeballs out. During that time I called Jared to say hi. I put the phone up to Kylie's ear so she could hear him and after a little bit I heard her mumble something that sounded like "hi dada". My ears couldn't be hearing things too far off because even the cashier said something about it. I think it was just convenient baby babbles but it was so gosh darn cute.

I decided that it’s time that I finally blogged about my trip two weeks ago to Las Vegas with my friend Britta. We had a lot of fun! I’m so glad she came with me to keep me company for a couple of days so I wouldn't be by myself. Jared and I have been searching for a car to buy since February. I came home from Michigan to find out that my car wasn't running and I was given a HUGE estimate to get everything fixed. My dad was able to get it running again for a couple hundred bucks worth of parts but we knew it was probably time to start looking for a replacement. My old 95' Toyota Corolla has been an awesome car and I was actually sad to see it leave. I bought it five years ago for $2K (with 135,000 miles) and I drove it to Park City everyday for four years. It sure wasn't pretty by time I was done with it (aka. hoochy-mama hub caps, needing paint work on the side and the front winsheild was starting to rust out)! I've had very little problems with it in the past aside from general maintenance issues. Another of my concerns for replacing it was that I could never get the seatbelts in it to work with the carseat properly. So the whole seatbelt issue made me nervous. My Corolla had 238, 613 miles on it when I was finished with it. That’s no typo my friends!

Anyway... about the Las Vegas trip. Jared and I had decided on the car we were looking for and were pretty specific about it, down to the options, color etc. We wanted a red Toyota Corolla S, 09 with the sports package. We’ve been looking at vehicles since January, but it was a big decision for us. Honestly I didn't really want to buy a new car. I'm totally a used-car type of person. But the reason why we ended up with what we did was because Toyota Corollas haven't change much over the past decade. And then all of a sudden they totally redesigned the 09's. It didn't take us long to become sold on the much roomier and nicer interior, and the suspension was MUCH better than the older models we had tried. So that's my lame excuse. Cars in our family tend to live with us f.o.r.e.v.e.r and we wanted to make sure we’d be happy with what we bought.

After searching around we found the exact car we wanted, at a much better price than anyone in SLC could get it for. Only problem was that it was in Las Vegas. So I decided to get a one way plane ticket down there and make a short trip out of the whole ordeal. I'm glad that Britta was able to come with me so I didn't have to make the trip with Kylie by myself!

We flew down early Monday morning and after some mishaps with lap children and bags we made it to the Las Vegas airport. It was quite the feat for each of us to navigate a stroller, car seat, luggage, and baby through the airport. Barely managable I might add. While we were trying to get to the rental car shuttles Britta had a run-away car seat and thankfully some generous lady helped her carry it to the bus for her. My arms were full with the same items so I wasn’t much help.

We were eventually able to make it to the dealership that was thirty minutues north of the airport. Britta found a children’s playroom in the dealership and was a gem about watching Kylie for me while they were finishing the paperwork. It took awhile but eventually by noon we were on our way with keys in my hand to a shiny red car! We ate some lunch, returned the rental car and I made a wrong turn which forced us to drive down the traffic congested Las Vegas Blvd to get to our hotel. I was quite proud of myself for finding a four star hotel for $46 a night! What a steal. We checked into the South Point Hotel and headed for the pool. It was a really blustery and windy but the spa was REALLY nice! It was warm, but not too hot for Kylie and it had a waterfall in the center where you could relax and let the water fall over your shoulders. Heaven!

That evening we ate dinner at the hotel buffet. Being the fabulous mommies that we are (it's only one night, right?) we decided to dressed Landon & Kylie in their jammies, packed them in the strollers and took the shuttle bus to Montego Bay so we could walk up the Las Vegas strip and see the lights at night. It was so much fun! The little ones fell asleep quickly and we enjoyed ourselves walking from Montago Bay to the Gerhidelli store, which was just short of Ceasars Palace. We walked about four miles that night! I was SOOOOOO tired! I wanted to make it to Treasure Island, but the crowds were exceptionally thick and we were tired of going up and down elevators at every intersection. My favorite part was the fountain shows at the Bellagio hotel. It was B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. It was really fun seeing all the unique hotels, crazy fascades and all the lights.

The next morning we swam in the pool again, ate lunch at the buffet and then headed to the strip again. Our trip this time was to visit the M&M store & Coke factory. That was the last thing we wanted to check out so we headed back to Salt Lake after. Kylie and Landon did pretty well except for a few occasions where their cries would feed off of each other. We didn’t make it home until 3am! I was super tired and spent the entire next day trying to catch up on my sleep. All in all it was a short, but fun trip and I'm glad my friend Britta was willing to go down there with me!

These aren't my photos, but pretty much what the car looks like.

I hate being sick. After I left our Sorensen family reunion last night I started to not feel very good. I was absolutely dead tired, but even with that I couldn't breathe well so I probably only slept two hours last night. I decided to only go to Sacrament meeting today only because I'm the organist and I hate to find a last minute sub for that. I probably should have. I didn't get there early to practice like I usually did. So of course while I'm playing the opening song I realized that when I chose this song (about a month ago) that it's meant to be a closing hymn (aka... before the Lord, I bow my head, and thank the for, what has been said).

Then I made it back in time for the closing hymn. It was "How Firm a Foundation" which isn't a easy song and has four flats. I've played this song numerous, numerous times without a hitch. But of course this time my brain and fingers were on a different page and I absolutly flubbed my way throught the first verse.

Absolutly flubbed through it.

Totally embarressing.

The last two verses I played just fine, but not sparing some emotional embaressment. Thankfully I was too sick to really care! Kylie kept screaming and was climbing the walls so the two of us left after sacrement meeting. I'm feeling better now, but I'm doped up on Sudafed for the time being :).

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile. I went on a short trip to Las Vegas early this week with my friend Britta to pick up our car. I'll blog soon about the Las Vegas trip :).

This weekend was the LDSFS adoption conference. I was looking forward to it and am glad I went! Vaylene watched Kylie for us yesterday. When we went to pick her up at Vaylene's apartment in Provo she was giggling at my sisters two chihuahuas (Lily & Roxy). Well, truthfully she liked Roxy but was scared of Lily. I think Lily barks too much. She would giggle watching them but didn't like it when Roxy would try to lick or touch her.

I really enjoyed the adoption conference this year. It's crazy to think that about this same time last year we missed the conference because we were in Michigan meeting Abbie for the first time. A pretty darn good reason to miss the conference I think! It's so weird to think about how much has happened in one year. They had a lot of great classes and I met some really nice people. I think I enjoy going mostly because it's one of the only times I get to chat with other adoptive couples who have had similar struggles in building their families. Adoption is such a different experience that I love it when I can meet people that can relate and have also "been there, done that". While I was there I kept thinking that I wish Abbie could have been there with me. I know she would have enjoyed it also :)

I think my favorite class was the birthparent panel. They had four birthmothers that have placed anywhere from twelve years ago to ten months ago. It's interesting how they, including Abbie all have such different stories but yet they are all so similar. They had such strong testimonies of the Savior and of the blessings that adoption has brought their babies, themselves and their adoptive families.

I was particularily touched when they talked about how they each chose their family. They mentioned how they felt very guided by the spirit while they were choosing the family for their baby. One girl mentioned that she wasn't really choosing a family, but she was looking for the family that Heavenly Father and her baby had chosen. It was as if her daughter was telling her "THAT'S my family that I'm supposed to go to". Hearing how each of these babies made it to the right families really touched my heart because I know how true that is. We had a similar experience with Abbie and I KNOW Heavenly Father played a huge role in bringing her to our family. While we were filling out adoption paperwork in the fall of 2006 I felt very strongly in December or so that we needed to get our butt in gear and get our paperwork finished quickly. I just had a gut feeling that we needed to get approved because a baby would be coming soon. Now I know why, because Kylie was conceived that next month.

When Abbie was looking at profiles she chose six of her favorites, and over time narrowed it down to three. After emailing each of the three families she eventually felt more comfortable with us, and couldn't ever think about what to say to the other couples. It was like that for us too. I can't describe it, but we always felt something special with Abbie. We had had a lot of contact from other birthmothers in the months previous to her emails, but none of them felt so right as when we'd talk with Abbie and her mom. Many don't know this but right around the same time we learned about Abbie we were almost matched with another birthmother in Provo. While our emotions were all over the place during that time, eventually we both just couldn't shake the feeling that her son wasn't meant to be ours. I knew we could be great parents to him, but I just didn't feel like he was "our baby". Kylies adoption (the legalities of it) was extremely difficult and something I hope to never go through again. But I can honestly say that I know one hundred percent that she was meant to be our daughter. She has brought SO MUCH JOY AND HAPPINESS to our family and we are so thankful to Abbie for loving us, loving Kylie and making sacrifices for her. Being her mom and dad has been the absolute best thing that has ever happened to us!!!

Anyway, sorry for that tangent. Back to the conference. I was able to attend seven different classes over the past two days and they provided lunch where I was able to meet some nice people. One couple was kind of crazy, but they were very nice, abeit in a kind cooky way. Not quite granola, but definately getting there. I guess every year they travel to Africa or Tanzania to volunteer for the peace core or something like that. They really wanted to adopt from Rowanda and fully intended traveling post placement to Africa to volunteer in the orphanages there. I kept thinking that if they wanted to adopt from Rowanda why were they at LDSFS? There aren't exactly a whole lot of orphans available here (um... probably none) and they seemed put off about the idea of adopting an infant. So I dunno about that.