Declan Galbraith

My mom recently introduced me to the inspiring music of Declan Galbraith. He was born in England, although Scottish and Irish in decent. He is amazing!
The song I have playing on here, "An Angel" is by Declan Galbraith and was recorded when he was only 14 years old! The second song, "Tell me why", he recorded when he was 9 years old!! ( I belive he is 17 now.)
Listen to both of the songs, they are well worth the listen! Also, go to you tube and watch the videos!!!! "Tell Me Why" has a very inspiring video to go along with it.
He's sooooo good, especially considering his age. He is definetly being added to my list of favorite singers and not only that, I LOVE his name. I think we'll name our next boy, "Declan". So don't take it! lol.
Korbin walks around, pointing at the computer saying, "More Dec-a-lyn, more Dec-a-lyn" It's soooo cute!! He's going to be my music boy!
Anyway, take the time to listen to both of the songs and remember his age! Wow! They are great!

Diamond

No, I'm not about to tell you that our dog, Diamond, got hit by a car (although she did and has had surgery and we are hoping for the best), but what I am going to say is, I GOT A DIAMOND FOR VALENTINE'S DAY!
It was so unexpected and very welcomed! It's very beautiful! It's just sweet and so very me. Chris totally suprized me, I had no idea! It's a beautiful, dainty 1/4k on a slim white gold band. I just love it. It means so much to me!
Chris said he figured he hadn't given me anything really special in our 7 years of marriage, so he wanted to do something extra special this year. He blew me away!
He did me a beautiful dinner of steak, shrimp, artichoke and cheese cake, lit by candles. And sitting there next to my plate, was a ring box. :) Then we watched some girly love movie. He was just so sweet!
Anyway, pictures to come, when I can get my camera out of the car. (YOU SHOULD SEE IT HERE....MORE SNOW THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN AT ONE TIME!! and it's still coming down!!)
Anyway, thanks Chris, for another diamond, only this one doesn't bark. :) Oh, I do love my little Diamond puppy, too!!

Changes...Read the whole thing....saving the best for last...

Life is all about changing, growing and better ourselves, right? Well, we have some new changes to tell everyone about. I don't know how exciting they are, but they are *our changes*!

First off, Korbin has been much happier! Hooray!! His eyes cleared up for about 2 months, which was a huge relief. The left eye is having problems again, so we'll be back into the doctor's office, but I'm hoping for the best! Korbin is now in a toddler bed, which he thinks is awesome! He goes to bed so good now and he even races me to his bed for nap time! That's a very fantastic change! lol!

I am pleased to announce that Landon has auditioned for a part in a musical called "Enchanted". He was casted as "Alex the Lion" from Madagascar! He's so excited about his part and has been asking to practice it, as much as he can!
One of his lines is, "But the penguins are psychotic!" While, we were rehearsing he yells out, "But the penguins are exotic!" lol! It was sooo funny! The funniest part was that he didn't even realize he'd said something wrong. It was too cute!

As for myself, I was scared away from social work! lol! Really, I was reconsidering, anyway, but I've decided to attend the ATC in Ogden and graduate in the Web Design program. I'm really excited! I'm scheduled for my placement tests, please wish me luck on the math!! lol.

Chris, well, I'm not sure he's had much change! lol! He's being as good of a husband and daddy, as he ever is! Oh, actually, he's trying to sell his truck. He's asking $5,000 and it's in really great shape!! He's got his eye set on a used Toyota, 4-Runner. It'll give him more room, than the little truck and our whole family will fit in it, so it'll save miles on our Landcruiser.

Chris and I have been going to a marriage class, at church. It's taught out of a new manuel that the LDS church has put together, but it also goes hand in hand with "The Five Love Languages". It's been a lot of fun getting to know the other 6 couples in the class. (Every couple in the ward will eventually take the class.) We seriously look forward to it each Friday night! lol...it's our date night!

And that's our most exciting thing to tell you.........just kidding!! Okay, so the thing we are most excited about is (and we know this may come as a suprise) we are going to adopt! Hooray!

No, we haven't found our child yet, but we've prayerfully decided that we are finished having our biological children. I know, I know, we don't make any sense! I just posted, a few weeks ago about Hyperemesis and our decision to get pregnant, but there you go! You can't deny what we feel directed to do! lol! So, if you want to hear the whole story of why we made this decision, we'd love to tell you, but I don't want to take the time to post it and I really don't think that many people care! lol! So, you'll have to ask me, if you want to hear it.

I will just say that we spent some nights very prayerfully trying to know if our decision for pregnancy was good and *each* night that we prayed about it, I had a dream. In *each of the dreams*, someone came up to me and said, "Hi, I'm from LDS Family Services and we have a placement for you." We just couldn't shrug it off! We are really happy with our decision.

We don't know how long it'll take...a year, a month, 5 years,...who knows?! But, we are content with our decision and that's a huge change and a huge relief!
We are working with a great caseworker! She has told us about huge changes that LDS FS has had in the last couple of years. The number of babies has increased, considerably, with these new changes! It's very exciting for the couples waiting.

The LDS church has also been working hard, for the last two years, to put together a beautiful new website (http://www.beta.itsaboutlove.org/ search for us by our names: Chris & Christina). It's still in the building stages, but is due for release very soon. When they release it, they are going to do a NATIONAL MASS MEDIA release! It's supposed to be very big and the advertising will be all over the nation (and not just limited to Utah). They are doing loads of adertising, which will bring in all kinds of birth moms, not just LDS birth moms.

We would really appreciate your support and prayers, as we search for our new family member! (More info to come...) So, there's all our CHANGES!!

Welcoming Olivia!

We have another beautiful niece to add to the family, this year! (That's 3 new neices in the last few months!) Her name is Olivia Elizabeth McDowell. She is Ty and Joy's second child, first daughter. Isn't she beautiful? I think she looks like her mommy. Congratulations!!!
Here's our nephew, Jamar, holding his new sister, Olivia!

Date Night: Shooting

Chris and I are participating in a church marriage class. It is a lot of fun! Each Friday night for 7 weeks, we meet up with other couples in our ward, at the teachers' house, for the class. The class has been really nice. The church has put together a new marriage program and it follows, "The Five Love Languages". If you have not read that and you are married, you are missing out!! GO READ IT!

Each week we have homework. Our homework for last week was go on a date, just the two of you, for under $5. I suggested we go shooting because we already had guns and ammo.

I love shooting! I must be following in my Nana's footsteps. She actually did competition shooting and won all kinds of things! I have a picture of her trophy and the targets she shot, badges and things that she won and I even have a picture of her in the newspaper for doing so well with her shooting!!

So, this was my 2nd time shooting, the first time shooting targets. They aren't perfect, but Chris said I wont get perfect with the cheap gun I was using. He said I would need to get a better gun, so I told him he'd better be getting me a better gun because I WANT PERFECT! lol! Anyway, I did hit dead center once and Chris says my grouping is good, minus one stray! I was just shooting off of my knee.

Anyway, the target was too big to scan in, so I scanned it in, in bits and peices.. Hopefully it makes sense. I was shooting at 40 yards.

So....here's to you Nana!