Halloween Costume Party!

So here is a grundle of pictures for your viewing pleasure! I actually put our Halloween party and halloween night on the same post.

Cruze with his personally designed pumpkin pizza

Enza on Halloween Night, she was Little red riding hood

Cruze & Abigale with their Carmel Apples!

Ethan & Enza, Ethan was a blind ref for Halloween, not a Footlocker Employee!

Gauge was a Tiger who couldn't see, and Cruze was a monkey for the second year in a row, he absolutely loves monkeys what can you do. It saved us money. Aren't they adorable, I just love them so much. Holidays are so much fun with kids.

Here are all the cousins minus Enza, I didn't see any likely candidates that I thought could hold her while all 20 cameras were flashing.

I laugh so hard every time I see this picture, it is Gauge trying to catch his donut 9yeah it's the one that is behind him at this point) while we were playing the eatingyourdonutwithouttouchingitwithyourhands game. I was surprised that he got the concept (better than some of the adults, you know who you are cheaters), he chased it around for quite some time. It was absolutley hilarious.

Gabe & his carmel apple!

See if you can guess who is who! That's right Sandy is on the end, the African-American man is my dad, and the Gringo is my Mom, that's right my mother has a goatee.

Now this is Gauge's creation on his pizza, yeah, there is a face on there somewhere. Don't you just love his smile? It is adorable, I hope it becomes a little more refined before he starts dating, otherwise he may scare off some of the girls. I just love it though. It makes me laugh, and it is truly amazing how long he will hold it for.

We put on a Halloween Party at our house this year, and it was so much fun. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. We had chili (Danielle) and chicken noodle soup (me). We ate it in pumpkin bread bowls (Mom), with a spooky salad (Mech), homemade rootbeer (Dad), Eyeballs (Sandy), and spiderweb pie (Tanelle). We had Pumpkin Bowling by Alan & Danielle, Face Painting with Tanelle & Ben, Carmel Apples with Mechelle & Jon, and Donuts on a String with my parents. We had so much fun, and want to thank everyone for coming and bringing food and games.

November is National Adoption Month

For those of you who don't know, November is National Adoption Month. For some of you that may not mean anything at all, but for others it means a great deal. I am one of those people that it means a lot to. Five, almost six years ago now on December 26th I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl that was named Ashlyn Bailey Cantrell. I placed her for adoption on December 29 with a couple named Steve and Julie Cantrell. They were living in New York, and now they live in Ohio, and have been able to have three of their own after getting Ashlyn. What a blessing, they just needed her so they could start their family.

My mom was adopted, my sister Danielle has adopted Preslie, and my sister Mechelle has adopted Gabe, I also have an aunt and uncle who were adopted. Adoption has touched me in so many ways, and has changed my life. There has never been a harder experience in my life than placing Ashlyn for adoption, but there also has never been a decision in my life that has had such a far reaching effect on some one else. What a neat thing to have available to make families whole. I can't imagine a world that would be created where people just couldn't have children and that was that. The Lord is very mindful of couples who have that righteous desire, and I truly know that children get to the families that they were meant to be with. I know that birthmoms are used as tools to get those children where they need to be. And although the choices that usually get birthmoms where they are when they find themselves pregnant are not good, I know that the Lord watches out for them, and blesses them in many ways, both while they are pregnant and afterwards.



I want to thank a lot of people that have to do with adoption, for starters I want to thank my grandmas & grandpas for both adopting and giving me an open mind about adoption. I want to thank my sisters & their husbands for adopting Preslie and Gabe and giving them great lives. If all girls who were pregnant could place their children with people that were as good as my sisters & their husbands, more girls would place and feel satisfied with their decision. I want to also thank my parents for helping me and being loving and supportive while I was pregnant. I want to thank Steve and Julie for being such amazing parents, and for giving Ashlyn what I couldn't at that time. I also want to give a big thanks to my sweet husband who knew when he took me on our first date that I had placed a child for adoption. He took me out anyways. I truly love him for being so accepting of me and my past choices. Thank you, I love you so much.

My sister Danielle and her husband Alan are in the process of trying to adopt another child. I am attaching a link to their adoption profile. If you know anyone who is trying to find a family to place their child with, please send them to look at their profile. They are wonderful parents, and have such a happy, fun and loving environment in their home. https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/23078349/ourMessage.jsf

Fall Fun!

Ethan chowing down on his pie, I think it was a tie, but that is just me!

The kids and I on the hay ride, my kids couldn't get enough of this!

WARD CARNIVAL!

Our ward put on a wonderful fall carnival this year. They had games, pie eating contest, hayride, line dancing, cookie decorating, and yummy chili. So I took some pics, and yes Ethan entered the pie eating contest. (he was wishing there was more than a piece of pie.)