Life is Abundant!

We still love it here and I have too many pictures to post. We have been enjoying the bounty of this beautiful land. We have been up to Seattle (visiting my sister and my awesome nieces and nephews, whom I have not seen in years!) twice the past month and have been enjoying countless rides, excursions and park days. We also purchased ourselves a membership to OMSI, which we have put to great use so far and have discovered to be a truly enriching place for the whole family. We have been there several times and I don't think we have explored the whole place yet.
Kenny had a stellar birthday I think. I love this man deeply! He continues to be 'my person'. My favorite person! He teaches me everyday. My visiting teacher told me today that her husband really admires Kenny, that there is just 'something about him, a light' that is special. I have felt that since the night we met over 9 years ago and continue to be impressed by him just about everyday. I am so thankful that God led Kenny to that New Years Eve party in Berkeley that he just happened to hear about earlier in the day from a friend of a friend when he was on a short roadtrip to San Fransciso and that I chose to attend the hip Berkeley institute instead of one closer to Pleasanton, CA where I lived for a short time, and that he gave Kenny the gumption to strike up a conversation with me towards the end of the night and then ask for my email and then proceed to actually follow through and write to me when he returned home to Utah. God definitely knows what up I think. Kenny and I were certainly meant to be.
Anyways, enough of that Kenny gush. The man wanted to go to the coast for his birthday so thats what we did and we seriously lucked out with the weather. The coast is always colder and windier than Portland but it was a perfect beach day and the boys played their hearts out. Finn just went sand ballistic (it will be so great when he develops a distaste for eating sand and dirt, tell you what).
It has been amazing to watch the spring green emerge. It was already so green and now it seems almost florescent here! I love spring and I love that spring and fall are typically the longest seasons in the Northwest.
So, I was recently called to be a teacher in Relief Society which I am stoked about. This has probably been my favorite calling in the past. I love being a gospel instructor because it has it's ways of keeping you focused in the gospel and making it a necessity to be worthy of the spirit's constant influence in your life.
I am happy, life is abundant and beautiful and I have everything I need surrounding me everyday. The love my three boys freely give me everyday has me second guessing any complaint or negativity that threatens to enter my mind or leave my mouth. I have a tremendous life! And I want to spread the happy vibes out there to all the groovy people in my life that are so deserving of all the good stuff!
I have been noticing this bumper sticker around these parts and it has become my new motto: "Wag more, bark less''.
There has become such a decreased desire in my heart to give energy to the things in my life or in my surroundings or simply in the world that I don't like or that I am unhappy with. I am becoming more convinced all the time that when you focus on what's right, more and more just keeps on being right in the world and in life.

Silly Park Boys

Trees to Climb!

Trees, trees and more trees! Finn even likes to eat them!

Dreams becoming Reality!

So we finally did it... we finally made the move. To the Northwest, we are home! (Although we certainly are missing and will continue to miss the Denton clan.) We moved at the beginning of February and we have been enjoying the fresh air. The grass is glowing green and the moss is alive and kicking here. I love it! I feel so alive... the air, the energy, the groovy people, the land, the environment... it all just flows in harmony with my inner ticking's, I think. We have a stellar view of Mt. Hood from our driveway (check out the pic) and an even more stellar view of Hood as well as the Willamette River and Mt. St. Helens at the top of the street (again, check out the photos!). In the last month we have enjoyed nearly daily car rides, walks and bike rides and feel like there are endless new country roads and lakes around the bend to explore... the beauty blows me away every day, even just on short trips to the market. I feel so blessed and am so looking forward to my boys being raised the natural splendor that I so thoroughly enjoyed and explored growing up (ferns growing plentifully on rooftops, anyone?). I could go on for days talking about this place. We have enjoyed many days of rain, but I will say, many more days of cloudless sunny skies. It has been oddly sunny and warm for this time of year in these parts and I have found myself missing the rain after 6 days of sun (not that I don't love the sun, but I love myself some emotion in the sky as well as the lovely mist and amazing moisturised air rain always bring (not to mention the GREEN, of course). There are not too many things that beat the sun coming out after a good rain. Everything just glistens.
We live in a cute cottage-esque house in a Douglas fir forest with ivy and ferns and moss abounding. We live in Lake Oswego, just 15 minutes or so from downtown Portland. We have the Oregon coast 1 1/2 hrs to the west, Mt Hood 1 hr to the east, the Columbia Gorge 45 minutes or so to the NE, Seattle due north, and recreation just about every which way you look.

Now we are just waiting for family and friends to come a knocking, doors always open (figuratively speaking about the door, we do actually have a habit of locking it)!!

Boys

Some picture updates on our oh-so happy boys.

She Would Be 2

September 7, 2009. It has been two years. Our experience with Sage has forever changed us. Losing a child is an indescribable loss. Anticipating the 2nd aniversary was such a tricky experience and something Kenny and I would probably rather have just escaped from completely.

Instead, I really tried to have a different perspective approaching the day... I wanted it to be a celebration. I planned a little memorial at the cemetary and invited Kenny's family... I wanted to say a few words and release some white balloons. I wanted to celebrate Sage and the blessing we have been given of being her parents. I didn't want the day to just be a one to relive the most horrible memories of our life. I have finally come to feel, through the journey of the past 2 years, that I am very blessed to have been chosen to be the mother of such a special spirit.

So, those were my hopes for the day, but when it came down to it... we got to the cemetary and I preceded to get out the little fancy pink cupcake I bought for Sage and started to unwrap the candles and I just became paralyzed. Looking down at that little birthday cupcake, it was like I was in the hospital all over again being told my baby had 'died insided my belly' and holding her perfect little newborn body in my arms... still. I couldn't breathe. I felt as though there was a fiery grip clenching my heart. As tears dripped down onto her little cupcake, Kenny and I held each other. Kenny didn't have the same hopes for the day, he was struggling tremendously and didn't really want to be at the cemetery doing what we were doing but was there to support me and my desire to try and celebrate the day. So we sat in the car and just let it all out for a good 15 minutes before we were able to go and face reality. The reality that she would be two, if she were here.

Oh, how I would personally chop off my legs if it meant I could hold her in my arms for even 10 minutes. I would give anything to see even a glimpse of her. What would she look like, would she have that same crazy-happy disposition her brothers have? Would she be a handful, emotional? Or would she have a peaceful, quiet temperament with eyes only for her Papa, as I often imagine her?

I love you beautiful baby girl.

Big ol' life Experiences!

Okay, so in the past month or so we have had a couple major happenings that have defined our current existence.

First, we finally became proctor parents. To a boy named Johnny, who is 16. Foster parenting is something I have felt (for many years) would be a part of Kenny and I's life, and Kenny has recently come to feel the same (after losing Sage, I think Kenny's heart began opening up to fostering another child in need of a loving home, as there was a vast hole our daughter left in our hearts and home). It finally felt like the right time and we have been training for just about 8 months to become proctor parents. It has been a big change but something we feel really happy about. This feels like a calling to me and Kenny and could potentially be a life calling for us. I could go on talking about this work and all of the reasons for why we are doing it and the need for it but alas, this is why I rarely blog... because I have a chronic habit of being far too wordy. So, I will leave it at that other than to say a few things about Johnny. He is a great kid! We couldn't have been given a better boy to initiate us into the world of foster care. Johnny has made some poor choices in his life that have earned him a special spot in our home but he is a really good human being. We truly believe he wants to change his life and we hope we are having a positive impact on his life and future.

Okay, #2: We adopted a dog. He also is awesome. His name is Arlo. He is a 'schnoodle'. River calls him his 'very special dog who doesn't make me sick', which is to say he is hypoallergenic. He is 5 years old, very sweet and loving, and doesn't shed. He is perfect for our family and home. We love him!

So, I am now the only female in a home of 5 boys!!

Johnny likes to say that he and Arlo are made up of the same stuff... they are both strays.

Dinner in the Mountains.... mmmm

Well, we didn't pull off camping this weekend so we compromised with an evening of tin foil dinners.... which were awesome! And, was pretty proud of the groovy fire I orchestrated for our pickins'. Check out the feast!

Family Pictures

My sister Anna, an awesome photographer, was very kind in taking some family portraits of us while we were in Denver.