Our Family

This is a LONG overdue post! But, I have good intentions, I want to get back to blogging, I have so many things that we want to remember. I decided that now was a good time.
So, a little story. On October 11, 2013, we will celebrate Adoption Day, one year that we have officially been a family. I wanted to document some of what has happened to bring us to this point.

From the time that Bret and I were married, we knew we wanted to be parents, we were excited at the prospect, and for many years, we hoped, waited and longed for that time. In waiting, we went on many adventures, and made plenty of memories, but we kept waiting to add children to those memories.  In January 2011, we decided to contact Family Connections Christian Adoptions, and attend an adoption class to see if we would like to pursue adoption through that agency. We went to the first class, and the Manager who conducted that class was wonderful. She was speaking of another couple who had adopted and was asking them how things were going, the adoptive mother said "I know that these are the children that God intended me to have". I knew at that moment that this is the agency that we were going to use to find our children. We submitted A LOT of paperwork, went to the doctor, the Sheriff's Department (fingerprints), blood draws,  and found loving people who said nice things about us. We then had to make sure our house looked perfect and in June, our Homestudy was complete. We then waited, and waited for a phone call to tell us about our children. We had a first phone call about 2 children, but didn't feel right about it. We then had a phone call about 2 little boys, and we were very interested, but that didn't pan out. We had planned a 10 year Anniversary trip to Hawaii and had a great time, all the while wondering about our family. We came home from our trip, and on September 16, 2011 (9 months from our first class) received a phone call asking if we were interested in a 2 1/2 year old, a  1 1/2 year old and a  month old. With fear in our hearts, but also a great sense of feeling like this was right, we said YES. On September 27, 2011, we met the children, and immediately fell in love. We knew these were our babies, and they were to come home with us. On September 28, 2011 (12 years from the day that Bret and I started dating) we called and said we would like to begin the adoption process to make these children ours. We had a few visits, and an overnight visit during that time and then on October 15, 2011, we brought them home for good. On 10/11/12, we Finalized our adoption to make the Haney Family legal.
 I created a video to show highlights from that first year. As I look back on these memories, and how our family came to be, it makes my heart happy to know that we are complete.

Hawaii Day One and Two

For our 10th Wedding Anniversary, we decided to go on a wonderful Vacation. We celebrated with our good friends Kyle and Jennifer, they were married 6 days before us, so it was a celebration for all. We started out our Hawaiian Vacation by having some pretty good Mexican food at the airport. 

 Ready for the 5 hour flight, movies, magazines and snacks galore got us through.

 And then we arrived at the Honolulu Airport, it was beautiful.

 We had the shuttle driver meet us with Lei's. I have had this vision of our trip, from Full House, where they meet them and give them all lei's, so we wanted that to start our vacation. For those that remember the episode, we did have a clipboard of fun as well.

 We arrived at our Hotel, our home away from home for the week, the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel.

  Views from our hotel, that night, we got some dinner and enjoyed the night.

 Our Hotel had Breakfast each morning at the pool with a pool side Hula Dancer and singer

 Lobby in the Hotel, this started out Day Two- we wanted this to be a relaxing day.

 We spent the day at the Beach, boogie boarding, surfing, and eating some great Burgers. Then we hung out at the pool working on tans, and relaxing. We then decided to walk around the streets of Waikiki. There were lots of fun shops, hotels, and great people watching.

 We went to the International Marketplace, and found a Diners, Drive Ins and Drives spot-Yeah! It was called Hank's Hot Dogs, and they had some very interesting toppings.

 I had pineapple relish on mine, and Bret had Bacon and Pastrami.

 At our Hotel, they had Tiki's Bar and lounge. They had a great band each night and we loved hanging out up there, enjoying the views of the beach and the great music.

New Calling

I
I have wanted to be in Young Women's for a long time. I remember thinking how wonderful my Young Women's Leaders were, and how much I loved being in Young Women's. In August, I was called to be the Young Women's President in our ward. To say it was an overwhelming responsibility is a major understatement. But, it has been a wonderful calling, a joy to work with these Young Women, and an amazing presidency to work with as well. I look forward to continuing to learn, so if you have great ideas about Young Women's, please send them my way.

Private

For the sake of safety for our family, we are going to make this blog private. If you would like to continue to read the happenings of the Haney's, please comment with your e-mail address, by March 1st and we will send an invite.

Thanks for understanding

Blog....

My goal is going to be to update, so this is what needs to be written-
New Calling
Hawaii
How I became a mom to 3 kids in one day!
Baby Showers x 3
Bret's New Job
Holidays
Funny Things kids say
Potty Training!

Goal is to be done with all of those by March 1, hold me to it please!

Katelyn and Nick Wedding Day

On August 25, 2011, Katelyn and Nick were married in the Newport Beach temple, "the Pink Temple" as Alyse and Olivia called it. While we waited for them to come out of the temple, we had fun taking pictures of the cute girls. 

                                          And they were so excited to see them come out of the temple.

                                              The beginning and the end, with our Happy Daddy.

                                                Mr. and Mrs. Barnwell

                                                     The Bickmore Family.

                                               Katelyn is one of five girls, and Nick is one of four boys.

                                                Kat and Baby Kenda are so beautiful.

                                           Amberly, mom Cyndi and Grandma Millie (G-Mil)

                                            All of the girls had these fun pinwheels for the wedding day.

                                         She is such a beautiful Bride.

Congrats Katelyn and Nick, we love you! 

Girl's Night

The Night Before the wedding we had a little girls night in the Hotel, Alyse and Olivia even got to play for a bit, sorry it's blurry but Aunt Katelyn had fun jumping on the bed with the girls.  

                                  Lauren and Brianne asked Nick some questions to see how well Katelyn knew him. She did really well, but any time she got one wrong, she had to do push-ups.

                                           We even did face masks, Chocolate one's

                                       And gave Katelyn some fun presents,

                                   which kind of freaked her out, but we all had a good laugh.