New News

Casey has been getting ready to take the Idaho Real Estate Exam since about November when he first started the night classes. He had to do about 6 weeks of classes 4 night a week and then he had to take the state exam. Last Saturday on January 9th he took the state exam from 8 am to noon. I waited and waited for a call to tell me the good news and nothing. At about 12:30 he finally called and began the conversation with "I am so mad!" I thought oh no, now we'll have to pay to take it again. He proceeded to tell me how his test computer crashed about 1/2 way through and he didn't have time to finish the state poriton of the exam. I asked if he had to go back and redo the state portion and he said we'd have to pay again and he'd have to take the whole thing again. I then responded with "Then I'm calling the Idaho Real Estate Commission and I'm going to complain. That's not fair." He started laughing and said "Got you!" He actually passed. He's really excited about the opportunity and so we'll have to see how it turns out. He's really enjoyed learning about real estate so we're really excited. I think he'll also get licensed in Utah once Idaho licensing is all done. He worked so hard and I'm so proud of him. Eventually I'll get licensed also but right now it's hard with both working full time and taking care of the girls. We've been really blessed and we're excited for this new opportunity that we've been given.

Catching Up Again

This entry is going to be a wonderful rendition of what has been going on in our family over the last month. I kind of got really busy with the holidays and need to update the blog in a really bad way. The only time that happens is when the girls are sleeping and sometimes those times don't last very long. I'll start with the oldest first. In November we celebrated Paetyn's first birthday. It was a lot of fun but she wasn't too sure of getting all messy with the cake!

Then we have the annual steelhead fishing trip down the Salmon River!

Then there is Christmas!

The girls really had fun dancing around and showing off their new Sunday dresses!

Family Pictures

We just got some new pictures of our adventurous family and so I wanted to share some of them. We had quite the time and for the most part all cooperated well . . . even Casey!! We decided that we'll just have to take what we can get because with a 3-year old that has the cheesiest smiles ever and a 1-year old that has no patience things got a little interesting. But here's a look at the most recent. Thanks to our friends Rick & Sari for taking them for us!! I haven't decided which ones to frame but this will give you a little idea of our eventful evening.

Alysha's 3rd Birthday

Alysha's birthday was on Sunday, October 18 and boy did we celebrate. She is now 3 and has major attitude! Well, the attitude came long before the birthday and we hope it's going away soon. Casey and I decorated while the kids were sleeping and Alysha woke up to balloons, banners, and paper strung all over the family room. She was so excited she helped her dad decorate with every last decoration we had, which included 50 balloons. Here's a little bit of our celebration.

Casey thought he was going to die waiting for her to open her presents. She just didn't want to ruin the pretty paper.

Alysha loved the princess dress up clothes that Casey and I gave to her. I'm surprised she hasn't asked to wear them out on the town yet. Hopefully she never does!!

There's that stink eye again!

And again!

And here's why we hope she never asks to wear the princess outfit out on the town!!

Thanks to everyone for coming over and celebrating with us!!

Catching Up On Summer

Our computer has been on the fritz so it's taken me a while to be able to post these pictures but here's an update of the fun we had this last summer. We bought a boat in July and we spent a lot of time out on the lake and the girls absolutely love it.

THE STINK EYE by alysha polatis

We just love the looks Alysha gives when you tell her to smile, so we had to share our laughs with you!!

Sealed For Time & All Eternity

On August 6, 2009 we were finally able to go before a judge and legally adopt Alicia T. Sittre. We changed the spelling of her name to Alysha and gave her a middle name of Faith. Now Alysha Faith Polatis is the newest member of our eternal family. It was so neat to have this finalized. That night we took her to the Idaho Falls Temple to have her sealed to our family. A couple nights before the temple sealing we talked to her a little explaining how important and special it was going to be for her to go to the temple with mom, dad, & sissy to be sealed. I could see the hamster turning in her head as she tried to comprehend all of it and probably had feelings that maybe some of what we were talking about sounded familiar for some reason.
I bought her a new gorgeous white dress, bracelet, tights, & hair bows and she absolutely loved all of it. She loves her temple outfit and that is what she refers to it as. . . . temple dress, temple bows, temple bracelet, temple tights, and don't forget the temple toys that were in the nursery at the temple. She's asked a number of times since that night if she could go back to the temple and now she's really interested when I tell her that mom & dad are going to the temple or grandma & grandpa are working at the temple. I'm so glad that she was a little older so that maybe she'll be able to remember this day when she gets older and have a really strong testimony of the sealing powers of the priesthood.

We knew all along that if her Heavenly Father wanted her in our family He would make this impossible task possible and He did. Everyone couldn't believe that we were going to go against the Shoshone Bannock tribe to get her but we had to give it a shot and He definately had a hand in placing her in our home. We are so glad she's here with us.