tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:43:15 +0000Love, Laugh and Learn: Two people in love, searching for a bundle of joy.http://www.marianneanddoug.com/noreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)Blogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-3885559433004285543Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:29:00 +00002010-08-30T08:29:34.494-07:00On the third day of our tripe we spent one day playing in the water. Doug and I waded in the river but it was too cold to get all the way in.  The next thing we know, we watch a funny looking truck drive up the river and start emptying it's contents into the river.  So I am thinking to myself this can't be toxic waste because well they are not hiding it. Then I realize, they are taking large http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/08/vacation-day-3-and-4-playing-in-water.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-3531914672727017040Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:17:00 +00002010-08-17T14:14:59.142-07:00We love being outside. We love being in nature. We love how beautiful Island Park was this year. All of the wildflowers were out. We saw about a dozen wildflower types. Doug could probably name them for you.  We went to a place I loved going as a child, Harriman State Park.  They have this lake that I remember from my childhood.  We decided to hike around a bit and take Samantha on her first realhttp://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/08/vacation-day-two-harriman-state-park.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-1674063490607094890Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:06:00 +00002010-08-19T20:18:49.721-07:00Enjoying the first day of our vacation.  We were taking an early morning walk up the river to the family cabin.  Doug and I were talking as we walked.  Then we heard a commotion through the bushes.  We looked back to see a moose 8-12 feet from us, move through the trees.  We were glad that he didn't charge us.  We figured he would be long gone after that, but we went to the cabin and gathered ourhttp://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/08/idaho-vacation-day-one.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-4295353539280141718Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:34:00 +00002010-08-14T08:56:28.632-07:00I wrote this sometime after the adoption conference. After some retouching and proofreading, I’ve decided that this piece is worthy of posting. So I have been having these thoughts run around in my head for a while. I will try and paint the picture. In the last 72 hours, we’ve eaten, slept and dreamt all about adoption because of the wonderful FSA National conference. Questions like: What can http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/08/james-220.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-1084511477976047789Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:26:00 +00002010-08-06T17:30:03.203-07:00I should preface this by saying, I am not a blogger. I am not a writer.  I struggled in school with writing. I don't understand English grammar. And the struggle has increased since I learned German. I understand German grammar better than I understand English. Sometimes I forget English words or phrases entirely because the German has replaced those in my brain. So I have questioned, why blog http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/08/whats-motivation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-1624566686923081572Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:34:00 +00002010-08-03T07:06:43.018-07:00I love watching Samantha sleep.  Here are a few funny shots of her sleeping. I just love this one. I think she is is practicing her hulu dance. Saying her good night prayersI am "A" okay!  Now Just let me sleep.http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/08/sleep-sleep-sleep.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-4413350907289944282Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:59:00 +00002010-07-18T20:46:20.208-07:00Two Saturdays ago, we drove out to Fort Vasquez. It's not far from our house. I figured that there would not be many kids or people there.  I needed to get out of the house but wasn't ready yet to be around children.  And along the way we learned a little bit about the history.  Most fascinating for Doug was the fact that the Trading Post used to be on the east border of the river but is now a 1/http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/07/getting-out.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-8694611356668528021Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:46:00 +00002010-07-11T11:48:01.319-07:00We've been reading in our little "What to Expect the First Year" book about how she will start to express herself more.  It was so fun to look back at these bath shots and see her little personality shining forward We are affectionately guessing this is a smile of satisfaction.  "Yeah I am clean!"  Everyone likes baths right.  Man, have I been exhausted this week.  In fact I told Doug that I http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/07/loving-her-expressions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-2143828860487164179Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:25:00 +00002010-07-05T15:12:11.933-07:00We are loving the life we lead and love this new adventure into parenthood.  We took this picture after Samantha had been home for about a week.  I love how tired and frazzled I look.  My hair hadn't seen a blow dryer in at least two weeks, no makeup for 1 week, and thankfully I had clean clothes on this day.  This is definitely the life, just focusing on Samantha, her needs, her wants, and http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/07/blessed-our-giversand-grateful-are.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-7900270214506105904Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:21:00 +00002010-07-01T10:09:18.100-07:00Okay so we have had some techinical difficulties with our blog since we combined our blogspot and our custom domain.  I didn't want to post these new pictures without having comments enabled. We are affectionately calling this our Aunt Jemima photo shoot.  We saw our birth mom on Saturday and she thought it was hilarous and coined the phrase "Aunt Jemima photo shoot"  You can tell by these http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/07/aunt-jemima-photo-shoot.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-1142863266764914672Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:57:00 +00002010-07-01T09:04:35.370-07:00Capturing the moments of our lives, one night or day at a time.  We love being parents.  But I especially love Doug being a Dad.  He is caring, generous, patient, and long-suffering.  Watching him with Samantha, expands the love I have for him. He is so wonderful to say, "I'll do this feeding", when it has been my turn for the last three turns.  Parenthood changes you, but I believe as stated byhttp://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/changed-for-better.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-715001786126181504Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:29:00 +00002010-06-22T09:44:40.784-07:00Three years ago when we started the adoption process, we had several preconceived notions about how the adoption process would work.  We were used to the formal, closed adoptions where the caseworker does all the work and we have no connection to our birth mother. But throughout our journey we learned a lot and had to abandon how things "were going to be."  One of the things we learned was http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/creating-family.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-1140547577410667788Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:55:00 +00002010-06-15T19:58:26.158-07:00This is my fishy face.  I like to make faces when I am looking at mom.  She tries to keep me awake with this strange flash bulb.  Trying to go to sleep but mom, wont let me.  I guess it best to just sit here and be cool. Oh man did you smell that.  That stinks. I don't think it's me because mom just changed me. Ten 4 Captain, I will get right on that.  Here is my best salute.  Can I http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/silly-faces.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-8753810263780965722Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:26:00 +00002010-06-29T13:17:13.634-07:00One Word: Voguehttp://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/vogue.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-8489578595413461022Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:06:00 +00002010-06-11T09:06:21.479-07:00This year Doug and I wanted to go on a camping trip for memorial day.  We had looked at a few places, State Forest State Park and Hermit Park being our top 2.  Several times I sat down at the computer to make the reservations but later decided not to.  I can't say it was inspired but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, don't plan that yet. Doug would come home and ask me, so where are we go.http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/memorial-day-camping-trip-hospital.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-7088856725852595877Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:12:00 +00002010-06-09T22:12:22.840-07:00SamanthaSo you can imagine that any projects, plans, or commitments we previously had, have previously been replaced by sweet, Samantha Marie.And we would not have it any other way. You might be asking yourself, why we choose the name Samantha as you can see from our previous post, it was not part of our top 5. It is fairly common and is in the top 100 names. Well, we liked the idea of not picking her http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/busy-busy-bee.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-1508867802391648548Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:26:00 +00002010-06-06T11:26:18.588-07:00Our story seems so similar to other stories we’ve heard about adoption. You wait, you wait, you learn patience, you wait, and you wait and then someday all the waiting pays off. But in our case, we did not wait. We followed inspiration, readied ourselves for parenthood, and got involved. If you talked with us in the last eight months, you know that we are passionate about adoption. We have http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/our-adoption-story.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-5971411974293179332Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:52:00 +00002010-06-01T12:52:23.634-07:00We would like to announce our new arrival.  Our little daughter, Samantha was born on May 26th.  She is still in the NICU and we hope will come home very soon.  Thank you for your many prayers and efforts on our behalf.  We know that we have felt them.  She weighed in at the dainty size of 4 lbs 15 ounces and 18 inches long. Yes I am a movie star! We love her birth family and know that she is ahttp://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/06/in-with-windout-with-baby.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-7851833287783219721Tue, 25 May 2010 13:59:00 +00002010-05-25T06:59:13.922-07:00Lately Doug and I have been discussing how to get ready for a baby if it suddenly happened for us.  We've priced car seats, painted the spare room, bought furniture, dejunked and pondered on names.  We learned from some friends of ours that no matter what you do to get ready, you most likely will not be ready. So I have been researching names, I wonder what is the most important thing to avoid.http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/05/whats-in-name.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-7734562861956896082Wed, 12 May 2010 17:19:00 +00002010-05-12T10:19:56.142-07:00Yipee! We've been spotlighted on Coloradofsa.blogspot.com.  Check out our spotlight and learn 10 random things about us.  Did you already know those things?  Make a comment about us too! http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/05/spotlight-wednesday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-5404595079929782061Wed, 12 May 2010 14:39:00 +00002010-05-12T16:25:53.161-07:00I was reminded how important music is in our lives.  I am not sure what we would do without it.  But recently I realized that there is a particular song, that caught me by surprise when I was singing the lyrics in the car.  The song is catchy, and just my Geschmack.  But after a couple of times listening to this song, I found myself repeating this line "just pray to a god I don't believe in"  http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/05/faith.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-1116649436693734066Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:50:00 +00002010-04-15T11:50:20.770-07:00I found this on therhouse.blogspot.com and just had to share. All I can say is Beautiful http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/04/adoption-is-love.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-4995890191060386897Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:39:00 +00002010-04-06T10:57:19.422-07:00Doug is a natural runner. In highschool he did cross country, track, and then just ran for fun. Mainly through the Vienna Woods. He is one of those people who is light on his feet and never gets bored with it.I, on the other, envy his natural running grace. For me it always feels uphill, like I'm blind folded and just a little bit rusty. I also get distracted quickly. When we lived in Utah, I http://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/04/just-one-step.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2770918881770879162.post-4034092431851632520Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:22:00 +00002010-03-19T09:35:59.691-07:00DougDoug loves comics. I find him often alone on a Sunday laughing by himself. And I ask what's so funny and he says this comic. My usual response is ugh. I don't understand them. But Doug loves them. His whole family loves them. One family trip we went on, I saw a sibling reading the "paper" and started laughing hysterically. I said, "What's so funny?" "This comic, you've got to read them." Again myhttp://www.marianneanddoug.com/2010/03/comics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (marianneanddoug)1