to tide you over...

All right so my camera hasn't been out as much as it should have been over the recent holiday but we did happen to capture this small video. Last year we taught Boomer how to open a present gently. He usually opens it and then if its small enough to hold in his mouth he parades around the house like a king that has just been crowned. While watching notice how his tale is up, curled, and wagging, thats his super happy wag. So call me a nerd.......we know all of Boomers barks, whines, howls, and postures and what they mean.....I know its sad but it has worked out to our advantage to know when he is stressed or relaxed,etc. He definitely has taught us a thing or two! Enjoy this until I can post some more happenings of the moon household later!

Fantiggidytastic!

That title is for you Haley Jo!!!

So today marks a couple of milestones in Linds' and my life. Right about now exactly 5 years ago today....Lindsay and I were sitting together on a bench in a sealing room in the Spokane washington temple with President Wagstaff talking to us about our marriage that was about to take place.

As I reflect back I remember lots of things about that morning.....waking up early nervous and excited.........going to the salon to get my hair done by Eleasha..............rushing to the temple to get in my dress and meet Lindsay.................sitting together in the celestial room while we waiting for our guests to go into the sealing.......walking into the sealing room hand in hand and amazed that so many people had shown up (we had standing room only!)...............looking into Lindsay's eyes as we were sealed for time and all eternity knowing that he is my best friend, my companion, my lover, and who I wanted to spend forever with!

It was so grand! I remember coming out of the temple that morning and being surprised that it was snowing like crazy! My nerves were gone by that time but I still didn't feel well. Lindsay and I had gone to lunch at applebee's with his family and his best friend Erik following the temple and then Lindsay and I went back to our first apartment to finish packing for Mexico. I remember feeling so sick in the car on the way that I almost wanted to make him pull over....I didn't say a word and Lindsay still claims to this day that I was sick because I got cold feet. I assure you that was not the case, I was truly sick (I had even called in sick a few days prior to the wedding from work). Once at the apartment I ended up puking and I was so embarrassed....who wants to be sick on their wedding day and have their new groom watch that? Not me.

So we finished packing and left for the reception. By that time it was like a blizzard out but we didn't care we were excited to celebrate and head to mexico. The reception was splendid, we have my mom who was a huge part of the planning to thank for that!

And then it was off for our first week as a married couple.

So today we not only celebrate 5 years together which have been fun, tough, a learning experience, blissful, emotional, and adventurous but we also got to talk to our sweet birth parents on the phone for the first time. It was amazing to hear their voices, to hear their strength, to talk about some of the details with traveling and openness.......today is just a great day!

S and B (birth father) have decided for right now that we will send them pictures and letters to let them know about how the moon babe is doing after placement. We are so glad that modern technology makes this communication so much easier than in previous generations to help them heal and move forward. Honestly I feel so blessed to have these two individuals in my life, I could not have picked better people! Poor Lindsay got sick while he was out of town this week and so was all congested but it was nice to talk. And S's caseworker seems fantastic and very on top of it! She has been working on getting things laid out for all of us for when placement occurs. It would be nice to have her there for S and for us but we will all be all right!

So everything is falling into place, Heavenly Father is paving the way for us. I truly believe that. I was a bit worried last night that Lindsay was going to miss the call because he was flying home last night and his flight was delayed, and earlier in the week when he left the same thing happened and he almost missed his training, we prayed that he would make it so that he wouldn't have to reschedule this training. I know that by our faith and asking for help that we are all being blessed!

Also I talked to a woman who owns a rescue this morning about Sadie and she will take her! We are going to continue to foster her for a little bit but the rescue is going to pay for her to be spayed and the rest of her shots and then will take her out to get her a forever home, such a relief!

Hope all of your saturday's are going well! I think you should all help us celebrate and buy yourself a nice hot cocoa with caramel or mint mixed in or something. Today should be good!

Tree Schmee

That's right....I am having one heck of a time with ours cooperating with us this year. Last year I just had a little fake table top tree that I loved because our house was so little and there wasn't room but also Lindsay was deployed and was maybe going to make it home on Christmas eve, so I didn't want too much stuff up. I had borrowed the tree from my mom, so this year I told Linds that's what I wanted to do again, cause I ended up really enjoying the little tree. Well we went to Kmart (it's the only "real" store in our town besides home depot) to see what they had to offer. They had a few that were outrageously priced so we said no to that. So we were trying to decide if we should wait for a trip into the city or buy a normal size live tree. Lindsay decided he would rather have a live tree because we get the yummy smell and when it came to moving out of our house we wouldn't have to worry about packing up a fake tree and toting it around from place to place. So we buy it and pick it out and then it occurs to me.......hmmmm..................all we have is our little car with no racks and no rope or twine. How are we going to get this home? Lindsay being the total adventure man that he is says "I will just hold it" I am thinking..are you kidding me? He is not kidding, I ask him how he plans on doing that and he replies with "you will drive and roll down your window, you will hold onto the top of the tree from your seat and I will sit in the back passenger seat and hold the back. I just smile and laugh but know deep down inside that is exactly what is going to happen. I however do not have much faith in myself, driving and holding on! It's a stick shift! I would need three hands for that. Luckily the drive is short and I tried to take neighborhood roads the whole way so we didn't have to go fast but there were a couple times I thought it was a goner.

So that is adventure no.1.....now we have to get it into the house and in the stand. Should be no big deal right? wrong? the sucker has a larger trunk than it should, not by much but just enough to make it bothersome. Lindsay had already cut off some of the lower branches and things and brought it in the house, I set up the stand so we tried to just plop it in and there was no plopping. So then we lay it down on the carpet (yuck!) and I find a hand saw from our camping stuff and we saw off some stuff hoping it will work. It almost does and we call it good. The tree isn't sitting all the way to the bottom but its standing and working.

Fast forward a few days....it's been sitting waiting to be decorated in our front window and looking pretty, it's really a nice looking tree, I think its cocky though, it didn't want to leave the tree farm. I come home from a friend's house on Sunday and ms. Sadie dear has chewed bottom branches and knocked it over spilling the water, pulled off the tree skirt that was protecting her from drinking the water and triumphantly peed on it 10 ft. away. Those two are in cahoots with each other.

I pick it up, adjust it as much as I can and last night I finally decided to put lights and ornaments on mr. cocky tree. I am so happy that it went smoothly, I enjoyed pulling out the ornaments and remembering where they came from (mostly from my parents who have given me one every year for the last 10 years and from our wedding-2 weeks before christmas). I vacuum up the last bit of stuff on the floor and go to tackle another project and seriously less than 5 minutes later I heard ornaments falling and breaking! Yikes--

I am ready to throw the tree in the backyard and let Sadie brawl it to it's death. The dumb thing has now spilled again, with tree trimmings on the ground, it's twisted in the stand and I don't have the strength to make it right so this is how it is in my house now. Well I have since cleaned the water and vacuumed again. It is waiting for a boxing match with Lindsay.

I even remembered to be smart and not put ornament in the bottom few feet of the tree so that the dogs wouldn't bother the tree too much. But Mr. Cocky tree has a mind of his own, he doesn't like our house-and I don't like him!

Super Saturday

I love Saturdays. I don't know what it is, but for some reason I feel more motivated on a Saturday morning to clean my house than on a weekday with Lindsay at work. Call me crazy but I think it's because we usually do chores together, and as my Grandma always used to say, "many hands make light work." Usually Lindsay and I don't do the same chore together but we are both working on something around the house. We crank the music, goof around and act like goombahs and then shower and reward ourselves by doing something fun.

Yesterday was a bit different but still fun! So we got up and Lindsay went to a ward members house to help them move. So I decided instead of doing the normal chores that I would work on cleaning and rearranging stuff for the moon babe's nursery. Friday I had gone to the base to pick up a pack n play and eat lunch with Lindsay and run a few errands. Friday night we set up the sweet pack n play and so by yesterday morning I was rearing to put it in it's new home. One of our friends is going to let us use her crib as soon as she transitions her toddler to a big girl bed, so we firgure a pack n play will work just fine. Ours has a bassinet and changing table all built in with cool music, sounds, lights, and vibration. But what I love most about it is that is totally unisex and in a great way. Sometime unisex stuff can be bland but this one is so cute. Usually it tends to go a bit more masculine (in my opinion due to no one wanting a boy to be frilly) but this is the perfect balance. We could make it have more frills for a girl or keep it as a cute boy. See what you think, I think we scored!

Anyhow so while Lindsay was off providing service, I worked moving stuff around. Here is where I got in there. Not complete, but a good start! Notice the bookshelf? I have collected children's book since I was a kid and can't wait to share my love with moon babe. The third picture is a book that I think is adorable and where one of Lindsay's and mine term of endearment came from.

After finishing up and Linds coming home we took the dogs to the dog park and let them run ragged. On the way home we picked up burgers from a local ma and pop shop. I waited in the car with the dogs and was petting Boomer. I felt something weird in one of his armpits and after looking closer I realized it was a tick. At first I thought it was a skin tag, but no. So then I just wanted to hurry home to check for more, get it out and check Sadie and Us. when I told Linds he said that he had felt earlier in the week but forgot about it. Well I ended up pulling out that one and we found one other one by his manhood (or lack thereof). Poor guy, those things are nasty. Luckily we found no others.

Then we celebrated a one year birthday for Hannah girl at her house! So fun!

A long productive fun filled Saturday, you've got to love them!

Pioneers we will be!

Holy Schamolly ladies and gentleman! We are so humbled and grateful for all of the emails and phone calls, excitement and donations already received for our new moon babe! In the wake of excitement we have been looking more into the website that Lindsay's Father so lovingly set up for us. Getting the funds to our own account is a bit more complicated than first thought so we are directing donations elsewhere. If you would like to donate we have a paypal account. All you need is our email address which is sommermoon@hotmail.com or if you wish to send a check to us please email us and I can give your our mailing address. If you live in Spokane, you can give donations to our parents and they will make sure that they get to us. Please don't hesitate to ask us any questions.

Again Lindsay and I feel so loved by the outpouring of support from everyone. We have had a number of people tell us that they had tears just like we did (or rather I!).

In other news I talked to our social worker this afternoon and it looks like we will be pioneers in this whole process of the military and church joining forces to make this special event happen! Lindsay and I feel blessed that since we have been in the military for so many years that we understand some things and will have more access than say a civilian couple. LDS Family Services Headquarters is working with JAG (the military legal system) to work out the kinks. Right now we are working on how to get our baby a passport as quickly as possible after birth.

Such is the life! Although I am a bit stressed I will admit, I am still in awe and enjoying this hustle and bustle to bring our baby home! And I know that "S" is working extra hard on her end too! And I don't think I told you but we have also been blessed with a Birth Father who is very supportive, cooperative, and seems very nice. We don't know as much about him, but we know that he too is very courageous, and has the best interest of our child at heart. For our Birth Parents we are sooooo thankful!

More to be posted soon! I have something fun I want to show you all a bit later!

See you then!

No words to express!!!!

All right so I have been anxiously awaiting this post... I have been taking time to think about what exactly I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. You see there is so much going on in my head right now and Lindsay's too!


I'm thinking I should start the week of Halloween (I'm pretty sure that is when it all started). Actually nix that we will go back to July on our trip down to our new home in Cali. On the second morning of our trip I was sitting in the car at the gas station while Lindsay was filling up. I decided to check my email from my phone cause I was bored. I wasn't expecting anything but just thought I would see what was in my inbox. Totally surprised we had a message from Eve, yes the "Eve" of LDS Family services web admin. I was a little shocked and my heart skipped a beat. When Lindsay got back in the car I told him we had been contacted by a Birth Mother and wanted to to know a bit about us and some about his military career. My mind was racing for a while. That afternoon when we reached our destination we sat at the computer together, Lindsay wrote the response. We were excited but we didn't hear back right away and our minds got swept away with the moving, finding a place to live, boarding Boomer, etc. You know all the fun stuff. So although we were stoked about it we moved on after not hearing thinking the timing for us may have been off. We felt ok. We knew after our recent experience with the last almost adoption not to get carried away to early.

Fast forward to the week of Halloween, we get another email from "Eve!" Wow we were so excited and responded back. The emailing with "S" as we will call her has continued right up to this day. Turns out she had emailed us on the way to Cali, timing was not right for her either (Heavenly Father does know best!). We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this courageous and faithful woman. Yesterday we found out that we were chosen to raise her child!

It went something like this.....I woke up and checked the email (usually Linds checks it first but I happened to) we got a message from "S" speaking of typical conversations we have had back and forth. Then late in the afternoon I got a call from our caseworker, he asks if I had gotten an email from "S" today? I reply "yes this morning but nothing to be alarmed about why?" I am thinking something has gone wrong or maybe just maybe good news is coming. He tells me that I should probably check my email again, I ask is there something good, he says I think so. He then proceeds to ask me if Lindsay is home, when will he get home, he will be out of the office tomorrow but will call on Thursday to talk. I am stoked! I call Lindsay to find out when he is coming home, turns out he left early and is already halfway done with the commute. I tell him about the phone conversation and ask if he wants me to wait for him to get home or read it out loud to him. He opts for the latter. So I open and start reading, I do fine for a while and then can't hold back any longer-the flood gates open, I struggle to get the last bit out. He remains silent for a moment and then calls me a "Sweetie." It was perfect. Lindsay and my pet names for each other usually don't sound nice to other people so sweetie was precious, usually they include fartknocker, stinky face, poopsquat and such nonsense other than the typical babe. Ahhhh, I am reveling............................

We are beyond words, we are stunned, grateful, overjoyed, ecstatic, it still hasn't sunken in yet!

The below picture is currently what our messy hobby room looks like....


Soon this will transform into a beautiful nursery to hold our Moon babe. We will be traveling to Germany to pick up our child and say thank you in person to our beloved "S" at the end of Januaryish. We are so excited for her to be a part of our lives and know that our love for her will continue to grow! You may be wondering how LDS family services can help with this adoption in Germany. Without going into too much detail "S" is on a military base, and thus on U.S. soil, thus a domestic adoption! How sweet it is!! A miracle is in the works friends and we are so happy to be a part of it! We believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and know that things come full circle, people are blessed, we believe in the power of prayer, faith, and can't wait to teach our child about these things also!

Exciting eh? (these pics are super cheesy but I couldn't contain my excitement this morning, I didn't do anything with my hair after a shower, thus the wildness, but hey I get to be a MOM soon, who cares!)

Thanksgiving in Southern Cali

Since Sommer and I are away from our families for the first holiday season since moving, we decided to have a non-traditional celebration. My friend Matt joined the two of us for a 16 mile hike to Sespe Hot Springs in the Los Padres Nat'l Forest. We planned to stretch the hike over 3 days and enjoy the hot springs for a while. The week prior was full of rain storms and it turns out that California back roads don't hold up in the rain very well. As you can see from our first picture, our Protege went off the road into an eroded ditch. After someone pulled us out, we made it a couple more miles down the rad but had to park at an impassible creek which would add 8 miles to our planned hike. When you add the additional 1.5 miles when we got lost, our overall hike was over 25 miles. The first day was 13.5 miles and the last couple hours was in the dark as we tried to navigate our way to Sespe.


To reach the hot springs we followed Johnston Ridge Trail which was a challenging hike on the way down the valley and on the steep climb out. In the last 4 miles we lost over 2100 ft in elevation. The reward at the end of the trail was great. Here is a picture of Sommer and I in the hot shower that rained out of the rock wall above. A lot of the usual pools hat washed out due to the rains and a previous fire.

We did have beautiful views as we reached the top of the valley where we made camp the second night. A perfect vantage to catch the rising sun. During the day the temps were around 70 and at night it dropped to the mid 30's. Not bad for the last week of November. We hope everyone is doing well during the holidays and know that we are thinking of you, even as we are out exploring the world....We hope you enjoy the pictures as well. Thanks Matt!