We need your help!

You may wonder what I have been doing and why I haven't been posted for so long, but since the beginning of December Ben and I have been working on something extremely important and time consuming, our adoption paperwork, but now it is done. We are approved to adopt. We have sent out emails and I am sure most of you have already heard, but I thought posting on our blog was pretty important. This is what I sent out in the emails, so if I don't have your email address or if you hadn't heard through facebook...this is for you:)! I will be posting more soon.

As you may already know, we have been married for almost four years and have been unable to have children. We are looking forward to the day we can bring children in our home, and are especially grateful to so many of you for your love and support through this process. We are excited to let you know that we have decided to seek a child through adoption. We are writing to ask you for any help you can give us in building our family through adoption.

If you become aware of a birth mother who is looking to place her child in a loving home, we would appreciate help in recommending us to the birth mother. If she is willing to consider us as adoptive parents, please contact us at (801)850-7578 or email us at bencarmenhope@gmail.com or you may contact our case worker, Stefanie Sparks at LDS Family Services (801) 216-8000.

Also, please check out our online profile https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/24184006/ourMessage.jsf . This is a place where we have provided photos as well as information concerning our background, family, careers, hobbies and interests. It is a great tool for birth parents.

We truly appreciate any help you can give us in helping to build our family through adoption.

December..(WARNING...lots of pictures)

Well, at least this time I have only gone one month between posts instead of 2 or 3:)

December was a wonderful month. We had a great Christmas holiday spent with family and friends. All of my family was in town except Jordan and Melissa who were in Wisconsin. It was so great to have everyone here and it was especially exciting to see Adam and Tonna who are living in Maine and have not been here since June.

I have included pictures below, some with explanations and some without. ( I got a new camera (love ya hon) so pictures are going to be much more frequent and much better from here on out)

My brother Nate, nice face huh? He is eating our traditional Christmas breakfast, waffles with ice cream and strawberries. yum!

My nieces, cutest girls ever, cheesin it on Christmas morning at Grandmas!

Ben with his presents from Santa...a new golf bag and Tiger Woods golf on the WII. He was quite pleased!

Ben and "Human Archie". Archie got to spend Christmas with the Utah Crisantos this year.

Ben's hilarious reaction when he opened his Taylor Swift CD's. He tries to hide the fact that he loves her music, but I knew he would love this gift!

My sis in law Tiff with one of her many awesome gifts!

Brother in law Justin....dressing Ben, haha. Ben didn't know how to tie the scarf so Justin is giving him some tips.

Me with my wonderful snuggie....don't HATE people!

Brooklyn T-Shirt, remembering the days from the mission.

Flashing the best smile ever for another horse...she is obsessed!

My mom in her cute apron (my gift)

My sister Jessica and her new purple ipod

Another of my adorable nieces. I love this girl!

My sis in law, Tonna, and her wedding photo album from Adam

My lucky parents got a trip to New York City...can't beat that!

My brother Adam, looking good in his new scarf. That should come in handy!

Archie the dog and his Christmas present. He loves stuffed animals!

Keeping up with a Crisanto tradition (at least one we did last year) and going out for Chinese for Christmas
Christmas is another special day in our family, it's Archie's birthday. So, Happy Birthday Chi!

I warned you there was a lot of pictures! There will be more to come soon.

October and November...

I was just going through my camera, and I realized that a lot has been going on and I need to blog about it. I need to do better and not go 2-3 months between entries. I will just use pictures to tell you what we have been up to.

First things first, we got our Archie back!

We celebrated Ben's 27th birthday with good friends

Took him to Sushi...his fave!

We spent Halloween with my adorable nieces

We did our first DIY experiment, painting the office

We got to spend Thanksgiving in Oregon with our Crisanto family

This is Ben's Lolo (Grandpa) and his Auntie Becca. He has a great family!

Ah, the little sisters...DJ and EJ!

While in Oregon, we had some great adventures...visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory

And bowling...Ben's mom said she thinks this was the 3rd time she has EVER been bowling...imagine that.

We had a great time with the fam and are glad to be home. I will try to do better at posting and keeping everyone updated on the life and times of the Crisantos in Utah:)

He's Home

Archie came back to us. It's good to have him home.

Letting Go

Any of you that know me even remotely well know that I love my dogs. We got Archie in the fall of 2006 and he has been our baby ever since. Through the thick and thin of the past three years, he has been right there with us. Then we got Clifford about 2 months ago to keep both us and Archie company. We recently decided for the benefit of everyone to give them to a family with a stay at home mom and two little kids. Ben and I are gone so much and no one was here to take care of them, love them, and give them the attention that they deserve. I never imagined giving away my dogs, never, but we had to make that choice. They have now been gone for two weeks and my heart is still broken. I feel like I have lost a best friend. I know how cheesy that sounds, but Archie got me through some tough times. I remember the day we found out in vitro didn't work, I was so sad. That night I went to the gas station and brought Archie with me, walking out and seeing Archie's little face through the window, waiting patiently for me made my day. I felt loved... comforted. My dogs made me smile every day and I miss them more than I can express.

Um...can anyone say stuffed animal? He was the cutest puppy I have ever seen.

Archie and Mommy in our first home together...where we weren't allowed to have dogs:)

Archie and Daddy (Ben will kill me for putting that) hanging out in his new sweater Fish got him for Christmas.

Hanging out at the Nelsons, his second home while we were in California

The big moving day...he sat on my lap or on the floor of the moving van the entire 14 hours. He was a trooper.

Aiden giving him slobbery kisses, they both loved this!

His first snow at the new house

Just looking SO DARN CUTE!

Hanging out in the crate. Ben was not the only one to do this, I am pretty sure all of the neices and nephews have tried this as well.

Our first Christmas in Utah, posing for the camera.

One of our favorite things to do. He wasn't allowed on our bed, so I would take naps on the couch just so we could cuddle.

Our new addition. Clifford loved to play fetch, he is just waiting for someone to grab that ball and throw.

Two best friends hanging out (with their long and mangy hair)

Taken on our last day together, saying goodbye.

We went to visit last night and they really are with a GREAT family and they are going to be so happy there. I am so grateful we found such wonderful people to take care of our babies.

Prayer

I just had an experience where I received an automatic answer to a prayer. I remember this happening one time on my mission. Kind of a funny story actually. I was on splits with another sister missionary. She was Taiwanese and had only been a missionary for a few weeks. I had also only been out for about a month, so needless to say we were both very "green". I guess I was a pretty anxious missionary, trying to get a lot done, making sure I was doing my part (this would be thanks to Sister Janette Priddis, best trainer a girl could ask for). So anyway, one night we were riding our bikes back to the church to meet with an investigator and we were running late so I guess I was riding extremely fast. Well, this sister asked me once to slow down, but I didn't. The next thing I knew.....I was slowing down because my TIRE WAS FLAT. You know what this sisters response was when she finally caught up to me? "Wow, I have never had a prayer answered so fast". I laughed about it....later.

Tonight I had a prayer answered that fast. I had just done some scripture study (studying the New Testament right now and the life of Christ) when I decided to kneel and pray. I have been very stressed about a specific situation with doctors bills and insurance companies. I am going to be talking to the people involved again in the morning and am worried that it is not going to get resolved, so I was praying for help that this situation will get resolved. The issue is all around a tax id number that the insurance company has and the doctors office does not. Its a long and complicated situation and has been going on for months. I spent an hour on the phone yesterday and an hour on the phone today trying to figure out where this tax id number came from and why the doctors office didn't have record of the same tax id that the insurance company did. If this doesn't get resolved, we are looking at paying $2200.00 for something that should be covered 100% by the insurance...all over some number. So, I was praying, asking for help when the thought came to me "google the tax id number". I know it sounds so simple, maybe even something I should have thought of myself, but I didn't. I went straight to the computer and googled that number. Only 3 results came back, but two of them gave me the exact information on this tax id number and where it came from. I wanted to shout for joy. It was one of the most clear and overwhelming answers I have ever received. I knew without a doubt that the Lord was aware of me and my situation at that moment and that the Spirit whispered that answer to me, simple as it was. I have no idea if this information is going to fix the situation, but I KNOW it is going to help, I KNOW that the Lord gave me that answer and I am so grateful for that.

I know that there are plenty of people that read my blog that maybe don't believe that the Lord hears and answers prayers, or maybe don't even believe there is a God. I disagree. This and way too many other experiences I have had in my life testify to me that there is a God and He will answer us....any of us.

Try it, you might be surprised:)

Girls Weekend

So, my friend Lindsey posted a picture from our girls weekend. She was worried we would hate her for it....it is a bathing suit picture, but I am pretty sure my pictures are worse, but oh so fun!

First, jumping from bed to bed on the first night. Soon after we were called by the hotel and told we were being too loud. It was 3 AM. I bet they didn't guess it was a bunch of sober Mormon girls acting like 10yr olds:)!



The next one is the best picture EVER! We were all dying laughing. At the moment of the picture, Jennica was jumping on the bed, who KNOWS what Kimmie is doing, and Lindsey was tripping in front of the camera. I love this picture. It depicts exactly what girls weekend is all about....CRAZINESS!

This was some of the yummy food. It was a Hawaiian Shaved Ice place, and anyone who has had real Hawaiian shaved ice knows how great it is. This place was awesome and don't my girls look so cute? This was during a break from shopping, cause that was all we did...shop, eat and lay by the pool.

Sorry Linds, my camera is horrible, but I had to post a picture of the MOUND of treats! This has become a tradition. Since our first girls weekend 3 years ago, Lindsey has been in charge of bringing our favorite treats. This wasn't even half of it either. Um...she definitely takes her job seriously! Thanks Linds. My tummy thanks you, but my oh too tight jeans don't!


I almost posted a picture of me in a bathing suit by the pool, but that just wasn't as cute as this one. We spent a LOT of time by the pool. Our hotel was awesome and the pool was surrounded by big cushy beds. There was even a real sand beach for the kids to play. It was so nice and we loved just laying around reading and catching some rays.


I didn't get one picture of all of us, but I just have to say, I have the best friends ever. These girls keep me sane and happy. I love our girls trips because I love these girls. Thanks for the fun shopping, laughing, talking, eating and just relaxing. It was just what I needed.