Our Adventures at the US Consulate

What an adventure it was to to navigate through the jungle of the US Consulate. We were late getting out of the hotel (what a surprise...) so we were rushing to get to our appointment. The consulate is located on the 20th floor of a high rise. You go through security at the bottom and then take an elevator up. Luckily since Landon is a US citizen we didn't have to wait in any lines. :) Problem was that the elevator was broken so a guard takes you from security back outside, and in through the front door and up another elevator and escorted to the second set of security. Down two long hallways, trying not to hit anyone with Collin's car seat due to the lack of walking room between the cubicle walls and the chairs lining the walls. We'd had to book two appointments (one for each child) but luckily the adjudicator agreed to work on both files at the same time. There was a family with children 6 months younger than both of my kids. Emily enjoyed playing with their son. After the first hour the adjudicator told me about a sitting room I could take the kids. (Did I mention that I totally forgot to bring toys and snacks for the kids? Yeah, I know) There were no toys, so Emily climbed. Picture of President Obama and Hilary Clinton almost knocked off the wall. Hmmmm. Not good. Collin tried to use the computer in the room. I won't go into all the things that happened but I will say I barely lasted a half an hour before we went back to Landon. It ends up we are missing two documents but they are going to allow us to mail them in. We waited another half an hour to meet with the consulate guy who had me swear that all the information I had put on the forms was true. I then asked about what kind of visa I should be looking into. After some discussion he sent me to see another person. It was there we received the good news. There was a faster, less expensive way for me to get permanent residency. See we have been married for more than two years (almost 7 years actually) and Landon has been living in Canada legally for more than 18 months (6 1/2 years). So we qualify for an I-130. We would need to fill out three forms, have a list of items (marriage certificate, birth certificates, passports, etc), and file the petition in person on any Friday between 2-3 at the consulate in Vancouver. It just so happened that we already had all the items with us because they were needed for the kids paperwork. At the last minute I had picked up my birth certificate in case I would need it. :) And we had already decided to stay a second night and so we were around Friday afternoon. Originally we had planned to be in Vancouver on Monday and Tuesday but do to exam week we had to go Thursday and Friday. When you trust in the Lord good things do happen!
My parents were able to get us the information we needed by Friday morning so we headed off to the consulate (after shopping at Toys R Us for Emily's new car seat). There was nobody there except two other young families and three other people. Much better than the day before. We made new friends and the kids loved having other children their age to play with. One of the couples is even planning on moving to Salt Lake City. :) We only had to wait an hour and half and received good news from our adjudicator. She told us to expect to hear from Montreal, Quebec in the next two weeks regarding what paperwork we need to send them. Did I mention that Landon and I have to fly out to Montreal for an interview? Yep, a "forced" vacation with no kids... :) The adjudicator told us that we had a pretty straight foreward case so she didn't see any reason why I wouldn't be approved within the next four to six months. Yippee!

Two and Three Birthday Parties for Emily

Party Two

Monday night we had a few family and friends come to my parents house to celebrate three birthdays. Emily, Pat (my dad), and Rosie Fluery. They all share the same birthday, the 28th. My parents, Steve, Matt, Ashley, Ethan, Sariah, Coe Family (Wes, Sheryl, Serena, Amy), Jim Corbett (Hope you are feeling better Margaret), and Darlene and Bill Norris all came to share in the cake, friends, and laughter. I made cupcakes and shaped them to look like a flower for Rosie and my mom made a "Wii" cake for my dad and Emily. Emily was spoiled with bubbles (Thanks Coes), cute crocheted hair elastics (Thanks Norris'), a New Year Cracker, and game (Thanks Corbetts), and 3 Loonies from Grandma and Grandpa Hull.

Party Three
Sadly Landon turned to me, at about noon, and said, "It's Emily's birthday and we haven't said Happy Birthday yet." Yeah we were so stressed about getting to the consulate on time that we forgot it was her birthday. She forgave us. A very nice, older couple gave her flashlight to play with while we waited (for 2 1/2 hours) at the consulate. They told her she could keep it since it was her birthday. We made it up to Emily, though. We took her to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and fun. She LOVED it! She is still talking about the mouse with cheese. :) My friend Shawna came with her kids Amanda and Ben. I haven't seen her for two years. It was nice to visit. Emily ran from game to game. For those who don't know. Chuck E. Cheese is filled with all the games that they have in malls that your kids want to do but you don't want to pay for. They each take one token. I forgot my camera but one of the rides takes a picture while the car is "driving" (so I have one of Emily and one of Collin) and the another game is one of the sketch booths (so I have a sketch of Emily, myself and Collin.) When I get them scanned I will add them in. You receive tickets from the game when you "win" or for just participating. You can then "cash" the tickets in for prizes. Landon won most of the tickets playing the basketball game and also lifting Emily into the air for the jump rope game... :) But Emily earned 15 tickets on her own. She "bought" 2 sets of stickers and a sucker. She was in heaven. Her favourite games were riding a life size horse in the "Ken-chucky Derby" (All she had to do was pull on the reins to steer the horse), the ride where it simulated flying, and a simulated roller coaster. She loved that we gave her a handful of tokens and then she ran around, mostly without parental help, and put her money into which ever ride she wanted. It was hard to get her to sit down and eat her pizza. She picked out a chocolate cake and was so excited to blow out the candles. Since there was only six of us there was cake to take home which she wanted for breakfast. :) Happy Birthday to the sweetest little girl I know!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy Birthday Emily!

**This is a few days late. I brought my laptop with me on the trip but of course I couldn't find the power cord and the battery died.**

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Three Year Old!

Emily is the heart of our home. She is energetic, loving, caring, good at sharing, creative, and thoughtful. She makes it so easy to love her. When I come in the door she squeals, runs to me, wraps her arms around me, says, "Mommy's home" and gives me a big kiss. She looks after her brother and loves him so much. I couldn't ask for a better big sister for Collin. I love you Emily and I hope that this is the best year ever for you!

Interesting Turn of Events

I was all excited to post that my kids are now US citizens but we were missing two pieces of information so they are holding the application until we mail them in. I did decide to ask about what paperwork I was going to need to file to be able to move to Idaho for Landon to go to school. It ends up being a good thing I asked. The way I thought I was supposed is only one way. There was a faster way that gives me permanent residence right away. It just takes 4-6 months for the application to be processed and then Landon and I will have to fly to Montreal for an interview. Yeah I mean Montreal, Quebec. :) But the process cuts years and money off the process. Miraculously, the only time they process the applications in Vancouver (because they have to be done in person) is Friday afternoons from 2pm-3pm. Good thing I decided to stay a second night and to catch the 5:00pm ferry home Friday night. And that I felt prompted to bring my birth certificate. The only down side is that I may or may not be able to cross the border while my application is being processed. In March when we try to go for our visit we will have to go to the border and pray that they say we can go. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Oh How I love "free" wireless internet

I love that I am sitting in a hotel room in Vancouver surfing the internet. I am able to get the phone numbers and information I need from my email, check up on all my favourite blogs and be far away from home. How did I ever live without the internet????

Auction and Store for a Good Cause

If you are looking for some nice items or would like to find a way to donate to help out Haiti here are a couple of ways to do that.

Check out this auction, here, at This Moma Rocks.
or
Check out this etsy store, here, at Craft Hope for Haiti

1 Down 2 to go.... Happy Birthday Emily!

This year we will be in Vancouver at the US consulate for Emily's Birthday. (She is receiving her US citizenship for her birthday.) Because of this we have had to move around the birthday celebrations. Tonight she had her annual birthday party at the swimming pool with all of her friends. For journaling sake the following attended her party: Grandma and Grandpa Hull, Uncle Steve, Uncle Matt, Aunt Ashley, Sariah, Ethan, Robyn Scoville and Lucien Ervington, Sophia, Leif, Nicki, Megan, and Karissa Potesta, Mike, Maria and Hailey Essex, Theresa, Kalvin, Joshua, and Ellie Jensen, Pablo, plus our little family. (Emmy's friends are in bold, the rest are the accompanying adults.) It was so much fun. Everyone (minus me) swan for an hour and a half. I sat up the room and got all the food ready. Emily was so excited to have most of her friends there. The girls all got wings and crowns, while the boys just got crowns. The food was delicious but Emily was impatient to eat her cake.

** I interupt this to talk a little about the troublesome cake. I had this great "simple" idea to do for Emily's cake. I was going to make one like Tinkerbell's ship using fondant. Yeah than reality hit. I didn't get home Friday night until 9 pm and I had visiting teaching until 11 am on the day of the birthday party. So my mom came to rescue. Made cupcakes, a rice crispie three tier cake, and fondant. All I had to do was put fondant on and decorate. Yeah wasn't able to get it to work. So I iced the cake, purchased little figurines from all the shows Emily loves. Made coloured sugar and put some fun circles and starts on the cake. Emily asked if she could put the toys on. I made a W to represent Wonder Pets, a toodles to represent Mickey Mouse Club, wrote Dora and George to represent the four missing shows. Forgot about Blues Clues until right now... Emily loved it. Martha Stewart it and I am not but my daughter kept clapping her hands, giggling and saying, "Tank you mommy, tank you." So I am satisfied.**

We lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday. My dad forgot to video tape it so we did it over again. (Emily watches her birthday song all year long.) We cut up the rice crispies and handed out cupcakes. Emily sat in a rocking chair and opened her gifts. She was so cute because she would hand out the gifts to her friends so they could open gifts too. Then she went around the room giving each of her friends a hug, saying Thank-you and giving them a goodie bag. Everyone played for a little while longer and then headed home. My parents and my family went out for Chinese Food and now Emily is happily tucked into bed. Life is good!
Enjoy the pictures and video...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Surround Sound

I have Landon to my left playing Lego Indiana Jones on the XBox 360.
I have Emily to my right playing Lego Indiana Jones on the Nintendo DS.

What a night!

Wonder Pets are here to save the day!

(I walk in to hear Emily singing this)

"The phone
The phone is ringing
There's animal in trouble
There's animal in trouble
Wonder Pets are on the way..."

It was so cute to hear her singing the Wonder Pets little song.

If you've never seen them, you are truly missing out!

My Canadian Girl

My mom, Stephen, Emily and I went to a hockey game tonight. Emily loved it. She loved the skating, hockey players jumping onto the ice, and the hockey puck flying back and forth. She ran and laughed. Made new friends. Since I have taken her skating she loves to give advice to anyone out on the ice. "Watch out, its slippy!"

I forgot my camera yet again. One day I will get a picture of her grinning out at the ice. Yep, she is Canadian... :)