We are 100% ready

So with the announcement comes the great prospect of people knowing and telling people and the people telling people and so forth. We are excited for everyone in the world to know! We want everyone to know how ready we are for 10 tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes. We are ready for bottles and sleepless nights. We are ready for little laughs, smiles and toots. For trips to the ER for a late night ear infection check.....for everything in the house to be a disaster because we are too busy taking care of and playing with our baby. We have waited so long that it seems like torture to have to wait longer. Praying that our baby finds us soon. Just saying!!

Now with that off my chest, I must say that I love this picture of my Tatum. She is my little peanut. She is my baby already and I am so glad. She has been saying funny things lately and has taken a liking to sleeping in her undies. Every day is entertaining with this one.

With General Conference tomorrow and Sunday I am anticipating some very welcomed council and some much needed spiritual food. It is wonderful to know that our Father in Heaven is going to have His prophet and counselors tell us the things that He wants us to know. Conference day is a good day. Not only is it a good day to reflect on what we need to be doing in our lives..... it is treat day! Whoo hoo! Looking forward to it so much!

We want to adopt!

Ok. We are ready. Shane and I have decided to try to adopt a baby and we are so excited!! It has been a long hard road to add to our family and without going into too much depth and detail it has broken our hearts a hundred times over that we have not been successful yet. We would love to be able to provide a sibling for our little girl and so this is the best thing ever. I can't think of anything better to do than to adopt. It just makes a lot of sense to us because I myself am adopted, my mom is adopted, my aunt is adopted and my two cousins are adopted. My family's lives have been so touched by adoption that everyone is very excited that we have decided to do this. My whole life I have wanted to adopt someone. We are so blessed to be able to have this opportunity to try.

We just finished our homestudy. Our link will be up soon and we are hoping that we can get some mothers and fathers who are considering placing their baby for adoption to look at our blog. We have a love that is already growing for our child's birthparents. Especially their birthmother. I just know she is going to be amazing. Here is our birthparent letter. It will be up on the LDS Family Services website very very soon:

Hello,

We are very happy that you are reading our profile. We are praying that you will have guidance at this time. Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know us a little better.

We have been married for 8 blissful years and love living life together. We both feel that eternity is not long enough to spend with each other. We have one precious daughter Tatum, who is five years old and wants to be a big sister very badly. As her parents, it has broken our hearts to not be able to provide her with that thus far. However, we have found hope!

Adoption runs in the family so it only feels natural for us to want to do it. Shelley herself was adopted from LDS family services and has had the best experience with being adopted. Her mother is also adopted. Her father's sister is adopted and so are her cousins.The subject of adoption and birth parents happens to be very close to her heart. We very much wish to have a relationship with our child's birth parents if that is their desire.

Shane is the most genuinely kind, caring person that I know. He is very patient, calm and happy. He is a go with the flow type of person and I just love that! He is such a sweet father and I love the way Tatum makes his face light up. It makes my day to see it every time. Although he is humble and would never tell you, he is freakishly good at everything he does. This occurs mostly in sports. It's unnatural! He actually earned the nickname Scooter in high school because of his speed. He is an avid mountain/road biker and participates in many races. Tatum and I enjoy going to them and watching him finish! I tear up almost every time. I am so proud of him. He also makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the universe. Being with my husband is always a pleasant experience and he is my best friend. My everything.

Shelley is the sweetest, charitable person I know. She gives of her time and talents so often to help and bless others. She is a very outgoing, outspoken person. She loves her family very much and would do anything for them. Shelley has so many talents it is tough to name them all. She has a very pretty voice and there is rarely a time where I don't hear her humming or singing a song. She was a swimmer throughout high school and now uses those skills to teach young children how to swim. She started making hair bows when our daughter was born and loved it so much that it is something that she is still doing. She has such a creative and artistic mind that her patterns and designs come naturally to her. She has fun playing dress up with our only daughter and is such a wonderful mother. I love her so much words cannot express it.

Tatum is a beautiful, sweet, loving and outgoing little girl. She loves animals, playing with her cousins and excels in gymnastics and music. If she could wish for anything in the world it would be for a baby brother or sister to love.

We hope that you will consider us as a family for your child. We know that adoption is not about saying goodbye, it is about having everyone come together for the success of the child. It is a blessing to all involved and we know this to be true.

Thanks for getting to know us a little bit! We would love you to get to know us better at shelleyandshane.blogspot.com.

With Love,

Shane and Shelley

So. There it is! We are looking forward to the roller coaster and journey that adoption has to offer. We DO love roller coasters....isn't that the truth! Thanks to all of our family and friends for the support that we have received. You are ALL ROCKSTARS and words will never be able to express how much we love you. XOXOXO.

She would make the best, cutest big sister ever!

Soccer!

Last night was Tatum's first soccer game ever. She did GREAT! We were so proud of her. Lets just say that she got the best of both of us! I for one am NOT a ball sports girl. (My talents lie elsewhere!) I would daydream and jump around.....occasionally pick at the grass and duck when the ball came my way. Shane on the other hand was/is a superstar. In all sports. Period. Tatum was fast in getting the ball to the other side and was always in front. She still needs to learn the game and I thought she did pretty good for this being the second time she has been on the soccer field(the other one being a practice). There was tons of laughter and entertainment as these little girls scramble to "score" goals. The best was when Tatum wasn't paying attention at all during the game and was skipping around and staring at the kids doing chants and cheers. Reminded me of myself and I had to laugh. I could tell Shane was a little frustrated at first to see it but then he remembered she is only five. It was hilarious!

Shwiggles came to the game. She wanted to play so bad!

Hand. Some. I am a lucky girl.

Little Swayze took these two shots. I thought she did a good job!

This is Shane explaining to Tatum how the game is played. He is excited to take her to the park across the street so he can teach her how to control that ball!

Swayze and Tatum. Best girl cousins! These two are 6 months apart and love each other. Two peas in a pod! They even look alike! Crazy. Here's to a great soccer season......fun to see your kid run around and have so much fun playing a sport. I am crossing my fingers that she inherited her daddy's love for sports! GO Tateee bugs.

8 years baby!

On September 5th we celebrated our 8th anniversary! It is fun being married to this guy. He is the most handsome person I have ever met. He never gets very mad. He is patient. He is sweet. He is wonderful. He GETS me and I GET him. We go together! You get it right? Sappy, I know. I just can't say enough about how happy he makes me. I think it is so fun how much we like each other still after 8 years. I am so glad that I have eternity to spend with my husband. I have always said that eternity is really truly not long enough. I need an eternity of eternities to be with him. I love my Shane. Glad he's mine! Here are a couple of pictures of our anniversary day!

We took this little one out to breakfast with us in the morning. She is sweet. She is funny. WE love having her tag along.

This picture above was snapped by the smallest member of our family. She thinks she is big enough to take pictures now and so this is the one she took of us while we were eating breakfast. I thought she captured a good happy moment! Way to go Tatum. Too bad the light was shining so bright.

We had a really nice day. I wish that there were more pictures! There was shopping. Window shopping, we didn't actually find anything that we wanted to buy, but it was just nice to be together. My sister Megan and her husband Jeff picked up Tater tots and took her with them so that Shane and I could go out. We went to Lucille's BBQ. Pretty good! It was a simple anniversary.............just the way we like it!

Sometimes I feel like shouting "I'm in love I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!" (Elf)

Being married is just the way I pictured it 8 years ago. I thought I loved him then......wow do I love him now. Happy anniversary babe.

( I just re-read this post....and while it is ALL true.....I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Our lives seem too perfect and it is a little sickening!)

I would like to include in my anniversary post this cute lady. She was in a crazy car accident on our anniversary. They took her to the hospital and cut off all of her clothes! She is ok and just very sore. We are so thankful to Heavenly Father that she didn't get hurt. She came home in these cute paper scrubs! Love her. "Hey mom! Where is your fall risk bracelet?" Beeenow Beeenow!

Swim meets

This summer has been such a fun one! I wanted to make sure that I posted some of Tatum's swim meets. The first video on the top is of her first backstroke meet and she is the 4th or 5th one in. It is kind of hard to tell and I am kind of shaky in my videography....(hey I am getting better!) She did so great and surprised us all with her placing sixth overall the 6 and under division in backstroke. We were very proud of our little swimmer! She is only 5 this year and so for her to take a spot in the top 8 in the city is pretty cool. She also qualified in freestyle and breast stroke but made it to the finals in the backstroke. She loves swimming! GO TATUM!!! You are the cutest swimmer ever.

Here is the video of city finals. She is in lane 5!