{IRL} in real life

Happy Monday. Did setting your clock forward for daylight savings time--and losing an hour of sleep--kick your hiney like it did ours? I really think daylight savings is ridiculous. Arizona has it right.

I'm loving capturing little bits and pieces of our life with my Galaxy 3 phone/Instagram. February was a busy month for us. So busy, I created a separate collage for Ella to put in her own scrapbook.

1. I read both Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. Divergent Series Box Set. Both Lynn and I LOVED them both. Looking forward to book number three and the movies. 2. I had a milestone birthday this month. My talented daughter-in-law Tayler, made cupcakes for our family dinner. Not only were they beautiful, but so yummy! 3. My sweet little (granddaughter) Madi showing me her new haircut. She wants to show grandma everything. Makes me happy. :) 4. Birthday lunch with my friend, Jechelle. She introduced me to a new restaurant, Tortilla Bar in Orem, and I LOVE it! (Going again this week.) 5. I adore little people drawn by little people. (Artwork by: Madi) 6. Making lunch for Ella with our favorite bread. 7. Quiet Saturday mornings are the best. 8. Date night, dinner and Les Mis. We both thought it was wonderful, in a very different way than the live version. Yes, I cried. 9. My man sportin' his new Vans, a birthday gift from Kate. I don't know many grandpas who wear them. :) FEBRUARY 2013

1. It's a twenty minute drive to the mall. E likes to be prepared. 2. Ella signs everything with her entire name now. Glad she likes it. 3. A special Valentine from Daddy. 4. Ella's Valentine's box. If a little bling is good, a whole lot is even better, right? 5. Cousins rock! (And so does Hello Kitty.) 6. Ella's class valentines--blow pops that say, "Valentine, You Blow Me Away!" 7. E's first text. Wish we hadn't. (And so do her brothers and sisters--sorry guys. :)) 8. Monkeyin' around. Ella thought this was hilarious. 9. We FINALLY got rid of that darn ear infection. Hooray! 

{IRL} in real life

A few months ago, Lynn insisted I "get with it" and buy a smart phone. As an IT Supervisor, I think he was a little embarrassed his wife was still using a Blackberry--with no internet capabilities. :) Seriously, he's not that kind of guy. He just thought I'd have fun with it. He is that kind of guy. :)

It took me a few months to decide between an iPhone and an Android. Finally decided on the Samsung Galaxy III--bigger screen, better photos. I am lacking the coolness factor of an iPhone though.

I have a love/hate relationship with my SG3. I love that I can do so much more--take photos and keep in touch with my sister in Iceland and my other family members around the US through Facebook on a daily basis. I hate that it can suck up my time so quickly--way too much fun. I limit my time now and leave my phone in the kitchen when I'm in the office, etc. We're getting along much better now. :)

I am loving Instagram. It's great to be able to catch little glimpses of our everyday life to hold on to, treasure, and share so easily. Here are just a few of my favorite photos I took recently.

1. Look Mom! I love you.  
2. Upped my workout to one hour. These shoes remind me of Cheetos. :)  
3. Outside my office window. We've had so much snow and it's been SO cold--record lows.
4. I bought a box of dinosaurs for grandson, Karson, at the Children's Museum in SLC. He carried them everywhere. I miss him.  
5. Madi Mail: a letter from granddaughter, Madilyn. It was all glued together and crumpled up. Best mail ever. I love it.
6. Our newest granddaughter, Lilah Jane. She's an absolute delight and so, so sweet and content. The best baby I've ever seen. Bonus: she loves to cuddle. Kate is coming for her birthday this week and leaving Lilah home. Lynn teased her and said if she wasn't bringing Lilah, she shouldn't bother coming. :)  
7. My granddaughter Piper, on the day she was sealed to my stepson, Josh and his wife, Tayler. She stayed with us while Mommy and Daddy got ready, then we took her to the temple with us. Oh, how we love her.  
8. Mount Timpanogos Temple. Another McCrary family sealed together forever. I can't put into words how special it was to witness such a wonderful ordinance and how grateful we were to be there. Love them so much.
9. My fave earrings (Brighton), and I still love gray and mustard/yellow together. 

Yep, the overriding theme this month is grandkids. I'm sure they'll show up every other month too. :)

celebrate: meeting Ella's birth parents

I've shared just a small portion of our adoption story in past posts. I am so grateful to those who have responded. Your comments have given us such hope and encouragement. Thank you!

Our story continues.

About six months ago, we realized that Ella was "stuck" in her play therapy. I remember telling her therapist, Erin, "If I have to play out that story one more time I'm going to freak!" (At that time I was also in the playroom with Ella during therapy.)

Erin just laughed. She asked if I was really ready for a change. I knew what that meant. With change comes emotion. Not just a little emotion, A LOT of emotion from our Ella--spewing everywhere, especially in my face.

Erin could see that Ella had parts of her story that were missing, and suggested we fill in the blanks. We all met together and with a stack of pictures and photos, unfolded Ella's story before her eyes. Erin explained each part so Ella could understand. It was hard to listen to all she had been through when she was so little. Ella was pretty quiet--and then hyper--as she took it all in.

Yes, there was a fall-out--as expected--but it was also very helpful. Ella had very strong, painful emotions associated with her mother, but I was the only mother she remembered. Now she could see, that it wasn't me who hurt her so deeply.

Fast forward, and Ella starts asking more questions about her birth parents. Why did they make bad choices? Do they still make bad choices? She wondered if she wasn't with them because "she wasn't born right." That seriously broke my heart. I could see the little wheels turning in her head and her self-worth being impaired.

We thought perhaps it was time for Ella to "meet" her birth parents. I say meet, only because she didn't remember them. She had pictures and had actually talked to her birth father, Sean, a couple of times, but was still struggling with whether they were "real".

The big day.

For days, Ella shared her feelings as excited, but also nervous. I'd tell her, "Me too!" and we'd giggle. We explained to Ella that she could change her mind at any time and cancel the meeting.

Ella chose to meet at the Family Support and Treatment Center. I was hesitant, but Erin explained it was a very understandable choice, because she feels safe there and it's where she deals with hard things. (Yep, my issue again. :))

Boy, I was pretty serious about getting this right! :)

Lynn, Ella and I arrived early and kept ourselves busy with projects. Erin met with Ella's birth parents, Sean and Daniela, to let them know what to expect.

Soon the door opened, and there they were. Ella ran to me and buried her face in my side. She would sneak little peeks and quickly hide again. Sean and Daniela walked in with huge smiles on their faces. Daniela was trying not to cry, which made me tear up. They talked to Ella quietly and were very patient. Sean gave her a small bouquet of pink roses which kind of broke the ice.

Ella with Erin.

Erin had let Ella choose some activities beforehand, so she knew exactly what would be happening when we were together. We played Ella's favorite game--Chutes and Ladders (I won for once!)--and made a snowflake craft.

Erin is amazing in action. I see it all the time, but couldn't help being even more impressed and grateful as she tracked and validated and guided and directed the entire time. This was all just second hand to her and she was in her element. She is such a gift and blessing to our family.

Ella's favorite part was opening Christmas gifts from Sean and Daniela. She loved her jewelry box, bracelet, pink Uggs, and Merida doll. 

Before we left, Ella wanted a picture of her birth parents. (Those red eyes are from tears of joy. :))

 The ride home was pretty quiet. Ella was taking it all in and processing. At home it was pretty much the same. She showed Madi and Lilah her things and told Kate what we did and that she liked it.

Lynn and I had been looking forward to this day for a very long time. I'm sure that might seem strange to many, but Sean and Daniela are not only Ella's birth parents, they are also our son and daughter-in-law.

It had been a very long time since we were all able to be together. This was an answer to years of prayer on their behalf. To us, it is a miracle. Our children were both once in a very, very bad place and as difficult as it was, we reported their substance abuse to CPS. Ella was placed with us and because Sean and Daniela were unable to meet the requirements of the service plan that was set up with DCFS, we adopted our granddaughter.

It feels so good to have our kids back in our lives. We had talked to them often, but when they came into town, we met somewhere else for lunch or dinner. We spent time almost every day of the week and a half they were here this time visiting together--playing and laughing and dancing (Sean LOVES Just Dance Disney. Okay, not really. :)). And we were able to spend time with our grandson, Karson. Lynn calls him "Tank." He's a wonderful handful.

One of the things we always told our kids was to make good choices. But we also knew they would make mistakes. They quickly learned that if they expected us to enable them, they were big time wrong. Was it difficult to watch them deal with consequences? Unbearable at times. We even met with the city's prosecuting attorney once to say, "Sean needs help, can you please not let him off easily, and require him to go into rehab?" The attorney just looked at us and replied, "Wow...this never happens. Most parents are in here wanting me to be more lenient." My experience has been, that enabling simply prolongs the pain and makes change and healing impossible. I also believe our being "hard-liners" as we were once described, saved our son's life.

But our children have always also known, that if you truly want to change, I will be your biggest support ever. And when you are successful, I will be first in line to celebrate with you. Because I love you, and there's not a thing you can do about it.

This was a day of celebration for us all. Our tears of pain and anguish have turned to tears of joy. Sean and Daniela have been clean for almost four years now, and we are so proud of them. If this were not the case, they would not have been able to see Ella. We want her to be safe and to have healthy relationships.

I could not imagine not thanking my Heavenly Father for this miracle, because I know all blessings come from Him. We are here to build and strengthen our families, and He wants us to be successful. 

celebrate | madilyn's fairy party

My granddaughter, Madi, turned four a few weeks ago. Her party was at our house, since she just moved to Idaho and hasn't made many friends there yet. It won't take long though, she's a little jabber jaws and makes friends very easily. :)

After our trip to Disneyland this summer, Madilyn wanted a fairy party. My daughter, Kate, has become quite the little planner and has a knack for finding great deals. We both believe the key to keeping both cost and stress levels down, is planning way in advance. Kate knew she would be moving just weeks before the party, so she had everything done the month before. She's good at delegating too. I was in charge of the cupcakes and a craft.

When the guests arrived, they were adorned with fairy wings, skirts, hair accessories, and glitter make-up.

Madi really wanted a bounce house, so Kate found one to rent in Salt Lake. They're super easy to set up. Even Grandma and Grandpa got in and gave it a try. The girls thought that was hilarious.

I needed a simple fairy-type craft, so I looked through my celebrate board on Pinterest. I loved this little project and cut out the butterflies with my Silhouette. (Go check it out here in all different spring colors--darling! I'm going to use the idea again for Easter.)

Our niece, Jessica, was staying with us while our nephew was in the hospital after a serious accident (he's doing better). She's great at crafts, so I asked her to be in charge of showing the girls what to do.

We had them add sparkly gems to the antennae and painted the wings with glitter glue. (Putting the glitter glue in 2 oz plastic cups with lids and using Q-tips to paint made clean-up a breeze.)

Sweet and sweet.

Kate announced that we were having a special visitor. I love the looks on the girls' faces when the fairy of all fairies, Tinkerbell, "flew" around the corner. (Kate found a killer deal on the Tink costume on Amazon and convinced her friend to play the part. She did great!)

Tink gave each of the girls a little bottle of pixie dust and posed for photos with each of the girls individually.

What's up with the peace sign, Mads? :)

I ordered cupcakes from Dippadee in American Fork, Utah. I had them topped with purple and sparkly sprinkles.

Then Madi's favorite part, unwrapping the gifts.

Happy Birthday, little Madi. Grandma and Pappa love you sooooo much!

P.S. I think I broke the record for the use of the words "sparkly" and "glitter" in a single post. :)

arcadia california/president foster missionaries

Our oldest son, Patrick, served a two year mission for our church in South Carolina.

This photo was taken right before he left. He's so young. He was a cocky jock who knew pretty much everything. I still had a hard time letting him go. :)

Patrick LOVED his mission--the people, teaching the gospel, the opportunities for service and the experiences. And he loved and adored his Mission President, Leroy Barrett. Patrick served as Assistant to the President for a period of time, so they worked very closely together.

When Patrick came home, not only was his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ was strengthened, but he had learned many valuable life lessons taught both by experience and President and Sister Barrett.

My friend, Delayne, is one of my favorite people in the world. She's uplifting and happy and fun and crazy, and she has been a great comfort to me in some very difficult times. Love, love, love her.

She asked if I'd do a quick word art of "Fosterisms" she could present to her Mission President at a mission reunion tonight. Just the way she still talks about President Foster, it's very obvious he had a great impact on her life. As I worked on the word art, it was also very apparent that she lives the lessons he taught. That's pretty cool.

Delayne wanted the other reunion-ers to have access to the word art and quotes, so I told her I'd put them on my blog. They are all available in both blue and green.

vision word art blue
vision word art green
character blue
character green
make it happen blue
make it happen green

Enjoy!

simple recipe: chicken fajitas

We had a bittersweet weekend.

The bitter was that my nephew, Jordan ( a.k.a "Joe" to the family), was involved in a very serious car accident that sent him to the hospital in critical condition. I was scared. I prayed a lot. I immediately called and had his name put on the temple prayer rolls. I'll share more details later (when the legal stuff is done), but so you're not left hanging, his surgery for a broken femur went well, and he's no longer in critical condition. :) We love you, Joe.

The sweet was that our little granddaughter, Madilyn, turned four years old and came from Idaho to share her birthday celebration with us. (I'll share more on that in another post.)

The entire weekend was filled with noise and messes--oh, big messes--and craziness and laughter. It was perfect. We loved that we had so much family time together. 

Patrick and Ashlee came back over on Sunday for lunch. Lynn wanted fajitas. I realized we'd had them three Sundays in a row--twice when the kids came over and another when we went to their house. Guess I don't even need the say how much we love them. And I love how simple they are to make.

Here's my favorite recipe.

CHICKEN FAJITAS

Ingredients
2 chicken breast, cut into strips
1 red onion, cut into strips
1 red pepper, cut into strips
Mission brand multi-grain tortillas (or your own favorite)
cheese, shredded
tomatoes, sliced
sour cream
lots of avocado

Marinade
1/4 c. lime juice (2 fresh or use bottled)
1/4 c. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped (I used minced garlic in a jar)
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper

Marinade chicken breasts in a ziploc bag about 30 minutes. Add a little olive oil to a large pan and saute onions and red peppers on high heat until browned. Remove from pan and set aside. Add chicken and marinade and saute on high heat until cooked through. Add cooked onions and red peppers.

Heat tortillas by wrapping and wet paper towel and put in microwave for 30 seconds. Layer chicken mix, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream and avocados in tortillas.

*Notes:
Keep the chicken cooking at high heat. It takes a little while to cook the marinade down. Towards the end, the marinade will begin to turn clear. Leave a little in the pan so the chicken doesn't dry out and you can coat the peppers and onions.

I usually use one chicken breast per person and have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Enjoy!

I linked up this recipe here:

we rock! + you rock printable

I've been consumed with Super Saturday projects and details lately, resulting in no posts for awhile. But I am super excited to share everything--soon.

Like many children, our Ella loves rocks. And they're all very special for different reasons. She has an extensive collection and can tell you exactly where each one came from. 

Last weekend, Ella created this family of rocks. There's me, her, Annabelle (Patrick and Ashlee's dog) Patrick (older bro), Ashlee (older bro's wife) and Dad.

Yep, she's the sparkly Princess one who's highlighted and covered up with a piece of toilet paper. The rest of us just kind of sit there being all boring and dull. I guess I know how we measure up. :)

Speaking of rocks, here's a little sneak peek at one of the projects for Super Saturday. (I know, I can't wait.) I created a series of 5x7 fill-able frame printables and this is one of my favorite. Place the print in a frame and use a dry-erase marker on the glass to write in the details. Just wipe it off (no water needed) and use it over and over.

Originally Ella wrote the message, but I smeared it when I was carrying it with a bunch of other stuff. It was so sweet in her 6 year old writing. Ella adores her older brother, but she also blames everything on him. "What is that smell?" It's Patrick. "Wow, this is a big mess!" Patrick did it, not me. "Why is there no chocolate left?" Patrick ate it. Of course he's never around when it happens. It's hilarious.

Patrick has special little dates with Ella where he'll pick her up and they'll go get a special treat, to breakfast, or somewhere fun. He really does rock as an older brother. :)

So I have an issue. Well many, but this one I'm willing to share. ;) Actually, it's more of a strong belief. I've seen the "I *heart* you because" printable on blogs and Pinterest, and I think it's darling. But, (here's the personal issue/strong belief part) I spent too many years telling and showing my children, I love you no matter what. We had a saying--"I love you and there's nothing you can do about it." Oh my, did my children test me to see if I really meant it! So...when I see, "I love you because you cleaned your room," I struggle. There. Now you know.

So I changed things up a bit.

Because you rock for stopping by--thanks so much!--here's the printable. (*For personal use only please.)

Remember, when you have this printed, make sure the "auto enhance" is turned OFF, otherwise the colors will be very, very different.

Let someone in your life know they rock.

P.S. I'd love if you'd leave a comment, letting me know who you're printing this for and one reason they rock. :)

I linked this project up here:

our sand bucket list

Summer break is about a month and a half over. I can't believe the time is going so quickly! Last year we sat down at Family Night and created a bucket list of things we wanted to do during the summer. We called it our "sand bucket list." We were able to cross off almost every activity on the list!

This year, we created another list. I let Ella go through the photos on my kids board on Pinterest for ideas. I've added the links to some of our list (at the bottom), just in case you're running out of summer fun activities.

We're doing okay at crossing off items. Ella seems more content with just chillin' a lot of the time, so I'm going with it. :)

Slip n' Slide
zoo with Madi

go to the splash pad (If you don't get in the water yourself, Kate will help you! That's what big sisters are for. :))
have a picnic with Madi
go on a family bike ride (fix Dad's bike and get Mom a bike first.)
grow strawberries
book club (story + craft)

sidewalk paint with Madi (We've done this a lot. The girls love it. I love it because it doesn't get all over everything like sidewalk chalk. Here's the recipe.)
go to the cabin

have a party (Ella plans weekly "dance parties" with her friends. She takes the CD player out on the back patio, cranks it up LOUD, and the girls all dance to songs from High School Musical. And they get super silly. Then they have treats. Yep, that's her idea of a cool party.)
do crafts

go to the library (Our library has story time each week and then the kids do a craft to go along with the theme of the day.)
hike in the canyon
make jello playdough
have a nature scavenger hunt + here + here
do shiny painting
make sponge balls
keep a summer journal
make lips and mustaches + take photos
make Rapunzel hair
find the Up! house in Herriman, UT
dance with wrist bells
make a PVC car wash or deluxe version here
get a dog (like that's going to happen!)
do fireworks
go fishing
go to a parade
make cookies
go to the Dinosaur Museum
have a movie night + make popcorn
roast marshmallows
play baseball

As you can see, we keep our list pretty simple. We've done a lot of the same activities over and over, but it's still nice to have other options. Hope you're having a fun summer too. :)

Kim