Our Little Jellybean

I return with a jellybean update. That's our little nickname for the baby while we wait to find out if it's a boy or girl. Beckie is doing well. We spend lots of time talking with her and just enjoy getting to know her and the friendship that is blooming. She has pretty rough pregnancies. So mix that with the usual life obstacles and she could really use your continued prayers. We feel so grateful that she found us. It's such a good match. It feels as though we have known her forever, and we look forward to a lifetime friendship with her. So without further a due, I give you our baby.....

This is around 8 weeks. Melted our hearts.

12 weeks 3 days. Growing lots!

Best.News.EVER!

Heath and I feel very blessed to be able to announce that we have been chosen by an amazing young woman to become parents. Beckie contacted us last week and we've been able to get to know her better through e-mail. We know that Heavenly Father has had his hand in this.

From the very beginning of our journey to become parents we felt like Heavenly Father has guided us to adoption.  From our conversations with Beckie we can see that Heavenly Father helped her find our profile from the many available.  It is clear now that God has more in store for us then we would be able to see or do on our own.  There are people we are supposed to meet and things we are supposed to do to enrich our lives and the lives of others if we are open to the promptings of the Spirit. We feel that Beckie is one of those people, and we are so glad we "met" her. She is early on in her pregnancy so we hope our many friends and family could send prayers her way. Prayers that she can have a safe pregnancy, prayers that she can be comforted when times are hard, and prayers she can accomplish the many things she needs to do each day. Our hearts are just over filled right now, and we feel so grateful to be able to add Beckie to our family. Our Beckie as we affectionally call her. We're so grateful for the Lord's hand in our lives.  His plan was so much sweeter than the one we ever had.

We just wanted to thank you all for the many thoughts and prayers that have been coming our way since we announced our decision to adopt. They have been felt, and they are greatly appreciated. Please continue to send them on Beckie's behalf.

Love,
Heath and Adrienne

I got in a fight with a vacuum...

and lost. In my 28 years, I've never had a broken bone......until my foot decided to pick a fight with an inanimate object. I was walking by, just minding my own business, when my foot (seemingly) involuntary reached out and kicked the vacuum cleaner....and kicked it hard. I'm pretty accident prone, and have stubbed my toes a lot, but when the pain didn't go away I knew something was wrong. Then the bruising showed up and it still hurt to walk on it. I knew it was broken. But there isn't much doctors can do for a broken toe so I decided to tough it out. But on Saturday I had two friends-who are doctors-tell me to go in and get it checked out. So I did. It was indeed broken. I got fitted with a sweet ortho shoe, got physical proof of my first broken bone (an x-ray), and was sent on my way. Now I just need to cook up a better story than "I kicked my vacuum". :)

Now it's time for gross pictures!

This is from Friday-the day it happened-notice the bruising by my 5th toe.

This is from Saturday-the bruising is worse.

And this is my sweet ortho shoe I got fitted with. 4-6 weeks and I should be all healed.

Syd, Austin IS in Texas....

This last week we were privileged to have 2 of our wonderful nieces stay with us for a week. We had spent 2 1/2 weeks in DFW (visiting friends and family), and then came home for a day to prepare for the girls to come. Ever wonder how we got our blog's name? Xhaxhi and Halla are what these nieces and their young brother call us. They mean uncle and aunt in Albanian which is where Heath went on his 2 year church mission. We love our nicknames and it makes it interesting when we go out with them. On to the fun! 

We met Mer and her sister in Waco to pick them up and then came home to have dinner. 

This is when the girls arrived. They're excited to be at Halla and Xhaxhi's!

I think the girls were more excited about their post dinner Push Up Pops.

The next morning we woke up and had our traditional Xhaxhi and Halla jellybean pancakes. This tradition started when Sydney had her very first sleepover at our apartment when we lived in DFW.

This is the girls picking out their jellybeans and making smiley faces out of them.

After breakfast we went to our HOA's office to finally get our pool key. We've lived in our neighborhood for 2/12 years, have sent many waivers in to get it, but it just never worked out. Nothing like two eager nieces to push you in the right direction. It turns out we were "invisible" in their system which is most likely why we never got our key. Glad we solved that problem! So we headed home to go swimming to find out that the pool is closed on Mondays for maintenance. Boo. So we settle in for some game playing on the Wii and call it a night.

The next day we got sun screened up and headed back to the pool. While entering the gate two girls pulled me off to the side to tell me they were leaving because there was a dead rat in the pool. Oh man... So I go and check it out and sure enough there is a dead rat at the bottom of the pool. So we call the HOA to tell them about it and they send someone over immediately to take care of it. I felt bad for dashing the girls hopes two days in a row so we decided to take them to Gattiland (a pizza buffet and arcade room place). The girls loved it. We got to watch The Lorax while we ate then we ran around the game room letting the girls play games. 

The girls playing mini air hockey at Gattiland.

Wednesday we finally got to go swimming and the girls had a ball. Then we took the girls to Chuck E Cheese with my brother Matt and his friend Beth. We all had fun racking up tickets so the girls could get a bunch of junk to take home. You're welcome Ben and Mer :)

This is Malla on one of the rides.

Thursday and Friday we pretty much hung around the house, went swimming, and played games. Friday, Ben and Mer came into town and we all went to eat at Chuy's then hopped over to the Outlet malls.

Saturday the girls went to see the movie Brave. The rest of Saturday and Sunday was spent just hanging out and having fun.

More pictures to enjoy:

Each night Heath would sing the girls before bed. He would sing their favorite Xhaxhi song "I don't want to live on the moon." from Sesame Street.

Sydney is our sensitive soul. She was upset because we couldn't find goggles that fit her. She ended using her old one and had tons of fun so it worked out. I felt horrible walking through the store with her all teary eyed. I was like "I promise I didn't make this 7 year old cry" :)

Eating Donors- Heath's specialty that he learned on his mission.

The girls flying kites.

The girls loved playing with our two dogs for the week. They were such good helpers. They loved walking the dogs, giving them baths, and feeding them.

Malla LOVES dogs. She is trying to get a kiss from Ally.

Success!!

 We call this Origami Malla. The girl is flexible and would fall asleep like this anytime we were in the car.

Other fun moments were Malla calling me MarshHalla while she was here. I started calling her MarshMalla a while ago and so she decided she would call me that. So cute. And we of course had our usual discussion with Sydney that Austin was still located in Texas and was in fact it's capital. This started during her first trip to visit us in Austin years ago. She had said "When we get back to Texas.." So it's been a running joke since then. I'm pretty sure she gets it now, but pulls our leg and acts like she thinks Austin is outside of Texas. They are so much fun.

We can't tell you how much we loved having them here. I was of course worried about going from 0 kids to 2, but they are such great girls it was easy peasy. We did learn a lot about having kids though. We're used to staying up late, eating whenever, going out whenever. With kids, you do a lot more laundry, dishes, and cleaning. You make sure they are eating before you, going to stores takes longer, and you worry A LOT more. BUT the good far outweighs the changes. You have giggling girls around, you get lots of hugs, and you get to hold tiny hands while going into the stores. You get to kiss boo boos, play games, and tuck them in at night. It has been so sad since they left. No more My Little Pony playing on the TV, no dolls laying around, or girls reenacting Peter Pan, or folding tiny laundry. We hope to do this every year-make it a tradition. Ben and Mer keep telling us that we made their Summer, but really they made ours. So glad we got to have them here.

Mom and Dad Visit

After years in exile my mom and dad have finally returned to the promised land, if only for a short visit.  They flew in from SLC to DFW and then drove to Austin for a few days of fun and excitement.  Like all of my dad's vacations, he immediately looked for a project to work on.  Since I hadn't put down the baseboards in the living room dad was ready to go.  With his and mom's help we had them cut and put on in no time, including the traditional 5 trips to the Home Depot.  With all the hard work getting us hungry it was time for a food trip... Lockhart, here we come!!!  Lockhart is home to many great BBQ joints and we decided to show them the greatness of Black's. Dad was so hungry he ordered one of just about everything on the menu including a rib that looked like it came off a dinosaur.  

Here's my dad with his ginormous beef rib. It lasted for days.

With all the extra weight we were carrying a walk around Lockhart town square was needed and the beautiful scenery was just a bonus. 

Right before we left for DFW (to spend the rest of the week with my brother's and their families) we headed out to bowl a few games. It was a lot of fun. When we got back to DFW the partying continued.  Adrienne brought her work computer so she could work from her parent's house, and I mostly hung out with my family. We went swimming, we ate out, and we shot skeet (my favorite thing to do).  We went with my brother Ben's girls to Cabelas to watch them feed the fish and shoot at the laser arcade. When it was all over I did not want it to end.  It was sad to see mom and dad go and we can't wait for them to visit again. 

-Heath

All my Exes live in Texas

Last weekend we drove to DFW to celebrate Heath's graduation from The University of Texas. Most of our friends and family live in that area so we decided to throw a party at my parent's house. It was so fun seeing everyone and just hanging out. We are very blessed with such fun and loving friends and family. Glad we have them to share these moments with. Heath now joins the ranks of my father and brother as a Texas Exe (hence the title :)). We're not sure what is in store for us now, but we are excited about the possibilities. Heath has quite a few applications in with cities throughout Texas so we are just waiting to hear back from one of them. We love Austin and would love to stay here, but are open to whatever is best for our family.

Now the fun-pictures from last weekend!

Happy 4th!

Heath and I both had the day off from school and work so we set out to have a fun day. Early in the morning we went to our church's annual Pancake Breakfast. We saw lots of friends and ate yummy food. After that we headed home to rest and let Heath complete a paper for school-you're never truly off right :) Then we ventured out to our favorite place to eat and play games-Dave and Busters-with my brother Matt! Matt and I truly become kids again when surrounded by arcade games. Of course, we had to end the day with some fireworks so we met a family friend downtown and enjoyed the show from a bridge over Lady Bird Lake. It was a perfect place. It was a really great day and nice to take a break together. Heath has been working hard to graduate this weekend and it will be nice when he is done with school. Then it's on to job hunting! He has lots of applications in, but city jobs are VERY slow to respond. Just keeping the faith and praying that an opportunity comes soon. So proud of him though.

We are grateful for those men and women who have or are currently serving our country in any capacity so we can continue to have the freedoms we have today. Happy Independence Day!

(Us waiting for the fireworks to start.)

Houston, We Had A Fun Weekend

We have some friends (Joey and Kira) who live in Houston who we've been promising to go visit for years now. We thought Memorial Day weekend would be great since it was a 3 day weekend. We drove down there mid-day Friday and met up with my brother's friend Lindsey or should I say Dr. Hicks. She is graduating from med school this month and works at some Dermatology clinics right now. She stayed after work to take care of us. Kira got a cyst excised from her shoulder and I got laser hair removal and a chemical peel. Lindsey has been a family friend for years, but I've never seen her in action as Dr. Hicks. She had great bedside manner which really put both of us at ease for our procedures. Love her! The rest of the weekend we did all sorts of fun stuff. We went shotgun shooting, saw Men In Black III, looked at houses, and ate some yummy food. Kira was healing from her stitches and I had a peeling face so we took it easy and had fun chilling at their house too. It was so fun to visit them-we wished we had gone earlier! It was nice to get to know the area too. We looked at possible neighborhoods since Houston is one of the places Heath is trying to get a job at when he graduates in July. It was a fun weekend! Thanks J & K!

Best.Weekend.EVER.

We had so much fun this weekend. My parents came into town and we just cruised around Austin hitting up all the fun spots. We started it off by eating at one of the many food places showcased on TV travel shows- Torchy's Tacos. It did not disappoint. It was delicious. I had The Democrat and The Independent. I'm not political at all-they just sounded awesome and they were!

Our yummy food from Torchy's

 Next, after we were about to pop from all the yummy food, we headed over to Peter Pan Mini-Golf. It's this cute little mini-golf place tucked into a corner of a busy road with brightly painted ceramic animals beckoning you to come try out your putting skills. I did horrible. Heath did okay. My dad acted like it was the final hole of a PGA tour tournament the whole time.....and came in second. That's right, my mom got first place thanks to her 2 hole-in-ones!!

Me next to one of the putting green statues. It's an odd picture, but it's the only one I had so it gets published :)

After all that fun we headed over to one of many Austin's food trailer parks for a little treat. Arrested Development is one of our favorite shows and some girls who are also huge fans opened a banana stand in it's honor. So Heath finally got his chocolate dipped frozen banana with nuts!

Heath with his "Gob". He couldn't finish it because it was so big.

To finish off the weekend we met my brother at our favorite movie theater- Alamo Drafthouse- for The Ultimate Willy Wonka watching party!! We got to quote and sing along to the movie, eat corresponding candy, blow bubbles during the Fizzy Lifting scene, throw streamers when Veruca Salt throws her fit in the golden egg room, and pull a popper firework when the elevator broke through the glass ceiling! Then afterwards we got signed posters and met two of the original cast members who played Veruca Salt and Mike TeeVee. It was AWESOME! This is why we love living here. There's always something fun going on.

My brother Matt, Mike TeeVee, Heath, Me, and Veruca Salt.

So thanks for a great weekend mom and dad!

The J's Visit Austin!

Heath's brother Jeremy and his wife JaeLyn stopped by to visit on their way home from San Antonio. It was Sunday so we just hung out at the house and fed them dinner, but we had a great time. They are expecting their first child so we set around talking about babies and nurseries and all sorts of fun stuff. It was just good to get to spend time with them and we're grateful they were able to stop by and visit. We love our family!

(This is an older picture of them-we didn't get one this weekend-but it's so them-lovey dovey!)

Nursery Sneak Peek!

Heath here with a breaking nursery update,

Well I finally got around to painting the top of the nursery where Adrienne and the sister missionaries couldn't reach when they started a few weeks ago. So that makes phase one of nursery remodel complete. The walls are all one baby pleasing color. At first we weren't so sure that the color we had picked would work. We thought it looked like the color green worn by crossing guards, but as it dried it changed to the color we thought we had bought and now we are pleased with our cheerfully bright baby cocoon of happiness. Next we are going to paint trees on two of the walls and maybe add a few owls or something to tie in with the bedding we are looking at getting. Adrienne also found a cool idea where a shelf is placed right on one of the tree branches so it looks like the tree is supporting whatever is on the shelf. So we are going to try to do that on a couple of the trees.

As for the layout of the room it is still up in the air. The crib is against the inside wall but that could change and when the dresser is done being painted we will need to finalize where it goes as well. That should leave just enough room for a chair. Adrienne wants something big and comfy, but we are not sure on which one to get. Here are some pics to show you what I'm talking about.

These first two pictures make the color look more yellow then it actually is. The picture below shows that it is really more green. Strange what a difference the time of day makes.

Visiting Family!

Last weekend we went home to DFW to visit our families. We started Saturday off with a trip to the shooting range. I'm not big about guns, but Heath talked me into it and it was fun. The shooting range was really nice. We don't own guns so we rented one of theirs and went to the practice range to shoot clay pigeons (considering their disc-like I shape I wonder how they got that name).

Here's me in my expert stance :)

And here is Heath:

After that we went out to eat with my mom and did a little shopping. We got a gift for a family friend who just bought a house, my mom got our nieces/nephew an Easter outfit, and I bought my friend a baby gift for her brand new little boy. I used to hate looking at baby things. Now I love it. I touch the soft clothing and dream of the day when we know what gender we'll be having so I can go crazy spoiling them with tiny clothes. We have given in a couple times when we find stuff we cannot let go so boy or girl we already have a good collection going.

After that we went to Heath's brother's house to visit with his family. My mom gave the kids their gifts and we hung out a bit. Heath's other brother was also there with his wife. They are expecting a baby in October and we thought about how cool it would be if we were also placed this year and the babies could grow up together. We feel very blessed to have family so near and are excited for the day when our kids can play with their cousins. My mom and I left and Heath went with his brothers to see 'The Hunger Games'. We had already seen it so I opted to save the money and not go.

We also got to see my best friend Tami, her husband, and their 4 month old baby Jaxen. He was born last November and it was my first time seeing him. So much fun! He was such a good baby-just chill the whole time. It's hard for me sometimes to see my friends become mothers. It is bittersweet. I am so happy for them, but sometimes it's like salt in an already stinging wound. Infertility is like a chronic disease. Although I will never be completely free from its grasp I have slowly learned how to live with it. Also, some days/weeks/months are better than others. Mostly it is good though. I truly feel that the Lord has been preparing me for adoption all my life and I am giddy with excitement to meet our birth family. Infertility is painful. Deciding to place your baby must be a very difficult decision. I feel that adoption brings together these two families who have this unbelievable understanding for one another even though their circumstances are very different. I think about this all the time. I hope our birth mom knows how much we already love her. How anxious we are to begin this life long relationship with her. How even though we wouldn't wish this pain on her, we know adoption is Heavenly Father's plan for us, and we hope she finds us. The expectant moms click through hundreds of profiles online. It must be like picking a needle from a haystack, but I have faith that she will find us. It's an odd place to be. It almost feels as though you are trying to "sell" yourself as parents. I hate that. I feel like a cheesy car salesman. We simply want to be parents. We know that Heavenly Father wants us to adopt (and we feel blessed to go down this path). We have faith that we will be chosen.

Before I go I had to share a picture of our nieces/nephew all dressed up for Easter. They were adorable.

And we wanted to send a big Thank You to Heath's family for the surprise box of goodies we found in the mail. They were delicious!

No more vacuuming....the living room!

We had been planning on replacing the living room carpet with wood since we bought the house. Last week we finally did it! We actually bought the flooring about a month ago, but never got around to installing it. So we finally gave in, and had a company install them. We love it! Although, I didn't realize how close to color our couch is with the flooring. Oh well! The dogs, however, are having a harder time getting used to them. It's a lot more difficult for them to gain traction on them while running, so play time has become quite comical around here :)

Here are some pictures. I apologize for the quality-our lighting is horrible in the living room.

(Before: Note the vinyl at the door.)

(The Start: These guys were fast and did a great job!)

(Done: Wood all the way to the front door!)

(Done: A view into the kitchen)

(Finished: A view into the kitchen. New rug.)

(Finished: View to the front door.)

Till We Meet Again...

In our church we are very lucky to have young men and women (and some older folks :)) who are out serving the Lord and us for 6-24 months. We have been blessed with having Sister Missionaries in our Ward (congregation). These are young ladies who serve full time missions for 18 months. They leave home, sometimes learn new languages, and spend their days sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others. They do many other things too. Like service. I became very close to the two missionaries from our ward. They shared in my joy, they comforted my pain, and they were always there when we needed a helping hand. For example, they knew we had bought paint to paint our future baby's room but hadn't done it yet. They decided they were going to come over and help us, and wouldn't take no for an answer. They are very awesome, sweet, caring girls. One Sunday we found out they were leaving-missionaries often get transferred to new areas within their missions- and we were all sad! It was even more hard because both of them were getting transferred out at the same time-usually it is only one. I'm excited about the new adventures they will be going on though. I know they will do great things and help a lot of people out. I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father. He always knows who to send into my life at the right time to help me out. These girls were definitely two of those people. I will miss them dearly, but wish them well!!

(This was when we found out they were leaving. Sad faces!)

(Our "Till We Meet Again" picture. Love them!)

(Sister Ferguson, Me, Sister Bruce)

The Eagles!

(The eaglet by his nest. Taken with an iPhone through a telescope!)

This is the second time we have been to see the bald eagles in Llano. They come back each year to these nests and give everyone a good show. The eaglets hatched around my birthday- exciting stuff! There were two of them for 2012. One was flying when we were there, but the other did a lot of flapping but could seem to muster up the courage to take the plunge. That would be a hard thing to- take that leap of faith and learn to fly! Tis truly and analogy for life isn't it? There was this really nice guy there with multiple telescopes set up so everything could see the eagles up close. We got some decent pictures with our new camera, but you would defiantly need a much larger lens to get anything close up. It's always fun to see my dad's excitement at things like this. It stirs up the history, American loving side in him and seems to transform him into a young boy again. I'm glad, by doing things like this, he reminds me to slow down and appreciate the simple things in life. This birds are truly amazing looking though. So we spent quite a but of time watching them through our cameras and binoculars, but they didn't do much. So we did what any true Texan would do- headed to the local BBQ joint! In fact, it is our favorite place. Cooper's BBQ! After a delicious meal we headed back and got to see one of the adult eagles back at the nest and a little flying from the one eaglet. Always a good time with my family. I'm grateful that my dad and brother always find these odd things for us to do- so much fun!

(One of the parents flying by.)

(Dad looking like a true bird watcher)

(Me and my parents checking out the Eagles)

(Me and my Mom. Don't we look alike?)

(Heath and I enjoying the nice, sunny day.)

Visitors!

We love living in Austin, but often miss our family who live spread out across Texas and Utah. The good thing is that we only live 3 short hours from most of our family-The Texas Breinholt's and Barnette's! This weekend we excitedly welcomed Heath's brother's family. As always, we had a blast with them. Saturday we spent the day out doing lots of fun things, but most importantly our traditional visit to Chuck E. Cheese's! This is something we started with Sydney and have continued with Malla and now little Ty. It's so fun watching our nieces and nephew run around (well Syd and Malla-Ty can't even wok yet :)) with a big smile on their face. We can't wait for the day when we can chase our own kids around these type of places. I always went with my family as a kid and can't wait to do it with my own kids.

(We didn't get many pictures at CEC, but this is Malla enjoying a ride!)

Sunday we laid low, attended church, and tried to tend to everyone's cold. The latter was due to another tradition we have- spreading germs! The kids call me Halla so we used to call it the Sydney-Halla strain, then the Sydney-Halla-Malla strain, and now it has morphed into the Sydney-Halla-Malla-Ty strain. Needless to say, we all had the sniffles by the time they left, but it WAS WORTH IT! The girls also whipped out trunks of makeup and hair accessories so they could beautify me. I, as usual, came out looking hot :)

(All "did" up. Me with the girls after our makeovers.)

(This is my GQ face. The girls showing off their masterpiece)

On Monday, when it was time to go, Sydney began her usual flow of tears exclaiming that she just didn't want to leave and that she would just miss us too much. It is sad indeed, but feels so good that she loves us as much as we do her! Earlier we had told her that Summer would come soon and hopefully she would be able to come and go swimming in our neighborhood. Mer texted while they were driving home to tell us that Sydney was crying and saying "Halla was wrong! Summer is never going to come!" Haha, I love that girl. Malla is much more chill. I'm pretty sure she stated that she was glad she could come and would see us again soon. Tyson was too young to understand any of it. We sure enjoyed having them here! We love visitors!