Jungle....

The K-1st graders are learning about kids from around the world in history and we are focusing on Brazil right now... we talked about the Brazilian rainforests and decided to make a rainforest tree.. it turned out pretty cute - complete with hanging vines and animals all over the tree.

Hopefully it lasts a few weeks before the twins get to it. ;)

Six on the sixth.....

Micaylah's birthday was on Saturday.... and because of the rain we couldn't put the jumper up so we did indoor games. I should've gotten a pic of them playing but I didn't. :( Anyways, one of the prizes Joey won were these army men.. can you tell what's wrong with it? The kids thought it was hilarious! :)
She chose a bunny cake.. not my best work but still cute. The ears could've used some work though - I couldn't think of how to make them look cute... oh well, she liked it.
It looks like the paper ears were on fire here.. but they weren't - and she got these glasses right before the cake time and wore them the entire birthday song and eating time.. :) I'm not even going to give Mike the satisfaction of noticing he's in this photo...
She wasn't even paying attention to the singing going on for her - she was just interested in feeding the bunny carrots.. now you know why Paul thought she was turning 5 not 6. :)

Bad words...

Kaia is really into saying "bad words" without saying them.. let me explain -

"mom, we can't say STOO pid right? No - cause STOOpid is a bad word... Joey don't say STOOpid"

or

"Dumb thing.."
"Kaia don't say dumb"
"I didn't mom, I said my THumbs..."

little liar.

or the ultimate one.. the girls have all taught her that devil is a bad person so she loves saying "devil child" (from Hairspray)...

I have to keep her away from Beth... :)

Glasses...

The girls went to the eye doctor for glasses the other day and they came back with the cutest holders.. I thought they were actually little purses but they are glass cases! So cute - and the best part was that they didn't cost any more.. they came with the glasses! :)

3 days without my baby....

Joey's leaving tonight on a 3 day trip with his dad.. his dad has never taken him anywhere so it feels really weird knowing he's on like a family trip without me. I don't know - it's hard to explain.

Also, I'm a major worrier so I know I'm gonna be worried about him the whole time - worried about him being eaten by a bear, breaking his leg, getting frostbite on his feet, you know the regular stuff. :)

And the time alone with Kaia is not going to be fun.. whenever Joey's not here she asks for him like 50 times every day.. it makes it seem that much longer until he gets back. I'm gonna try to spend some quality time with her tomorrow - hopefully it isn't filled with crying, screaming and shouting.. from me or from her. :)

Snow trips...

We've had so much rain this past week that the snow was sooo great. We went two days in a row. Yesterday we took Jesse and Dayzcha with us and today we went and took 3 first timers... Steph, Micaylah, and Maliyah. They've all never been so they were super excited. I got them all to do snow angels.. it was so cute.

Micaylah surprised me.. normally she's not the outdoorsy type but she was loving the snow. She was pretty daring and went down alot of the snow slides with the other kids. :) But she was the first one to start complaining of her toes beginning to get cold.

It snowed while we were there today.. it was snowing so hard we decided to call it a day a bit early because I started getting afraid of the road conditions. It was beautiful though seeing it snow. The kids didn't appreciate it nearly as much as I did. :) Joey tried to catch some on his tongue though...

Paul being silly as always.. this is his model pose. :)

Maliyah and Paul trying to make a snowman.. they gave up after the bottom half was done. :0) The day before we made one as tall as Paul with the older kids but the little ones weren't as into it.

I love going to the snow.. it's such a fun, FREE thing to do with the kids.. :) I'm surprised at how well Joey and Kaia do - they never complain. Kaia is such a daredevil - she wants to hike up to the highest hills to get the best speed when she comes down on her butt. :)
That's her waaaay at the top. Stephanie was concerned for her safety and was trying to catch up with her but Kaia slid down before she could reach her.. ;)

Can't wait to go again!

Old Records....

Paul has a record player and we've been meaning to get the old records of my parents' that they've had in their garage for like forever... and we finally got them..

There are some really great records in there - like old school Christian albums... Keith Green.. 2nd Chapter of Acts.. Parable... they're like from the beginning of Christian bands. :) My mom was singing all the songs when we played them and it was weird because I could remember alot of the words too.. that's how much she played them..

Then we found some of these...
My mom said she loved her voice - I listened to it - not so good... and what is with that pose????


I can't say anything else about this but one word... sad. Check out the elastic on her pants/skirt/ whatever it was... :)



This one must've been really bad because it still was in the wrapper - never opened. He kinda looks like the guy from Saturday night live..

I'm gonna try to post some more album pics from time to time so be prepared! :)

Accents....

Symmie came down to visit yesterday... so we decided to do a girls' night out... we got WILD - we
went to a PG movie... :) We saw Leap Year and it was soooo cute - not cheesy at all. You know how sometimes PG movies are really cheesy but this one was really cute. It helped that the guy had an Irish accent.. my favorite. :) Accents always make a guy look cuter.

I told Symmie that she needs to go to Ireland and not come back without an Irish lad... WITH an accent. I would be sooo jealous!!!

Anyways, I came home and asked Paul to speak in an accent to me and he said, "Gooday Might" He said it just like that.. it didn't sound at all like Australian or whatever he was trying to say... pathetic.

Mom went home and told dad he needed to learn to speak in an accent or he couldn't retire.. so dad said "Ahoy matie.." oooo kay... that is a pirate.

Sad.

The calm before the storm...

My post is labeled that because soon Paul will be starting classes again - I hate when he's in school. Don't get me wrong - I want him to take classes and work towards his degree. I do. I just want him to do it like normal people do.

Let me explain.. him and I are completely opposite when it comes to studying. I love to just read through the material.. making notes of things that are important and after a few days or so of the class you know how the teacher works - what they want. And then I just go through the class to pass an A or a B - never a C.

Paul on the other hand READS through the material. He looks at every word, sentence, picture, glossary word.. Then when test time comes he has to pass with an A - not an 89% but a 90%. So for example, online classes let you retake alot of the tests to get your best score.. so he will retake and retake and retake until he gets that A.. it drives me insane. I can't be around him when he is taking a test.

Most of you know I'm a control freak so I want to do it for him - suggest easier study ideas or mapping out a "get it done early" plan.. (that's another thing - he's a last minute person.. don't get me started..) But I've learned not to hover, not to make suggestions, just leave. It's better that way for the sake of our marriage. :)

NDE...

This year being in an apartment through the holidays I'm starting to see a trend in our area... everyone decorates for like every holiday...

People went all out for Christmas - lights.. decorations all over their doors and front garden windows.. it was really festive and pretty. Now everyone's putting up Valentine's decorations already.

One apartment a few doors down has like their whole front step/door area decorated with red hearts and cute decor.. and then I realized.. Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday and I don't have one Valentine's decoration. :( Isn't that crazy????

So I was starting to get neighbor decorating envy or NDE - yes it's a word.. ;) and then yesterday we went to IKEA and my dad the bargain shopper found these cute little heart ornaments... and I thought they would look cute as decor for Valentine's.. plus they were a quarter for 2.. So I splurged and spent 75 cents and whala! I have a cute display in my window. :)

2 more birthdays...

So we had another two birthdays in a row... First up was my Grandpa's birthday on Monday...
The kids were so fascinated that there was only one candle on the cake. :)

Then the next day was Malachai's 4th birthday.
That's right... he opted out of the traditional cake and wanted donuts for his birthday... what a rebel - just like his mom.. They were mighty tasty though. YUMMY!
He was sooo excited to open his gifts.. he could barely eat dinner because he was so excited.
Kaia seemed a bit jealous.. Normally she's happy for the birthday kid but this time around she looked a bit envious. :)

So now we have a good 2 week break until the next birthday.. Beth's. Doubt I'll get any pics of it though so you are all going to get a rest from cake pictures until February! :)

Snow day....

For New Years this year we spent the night at Beth and Louie's with all the kids and my parents too.. then on New Years Day we decided to go and see if there was any snow left in Wrightwood since it was on the way home...

Beth and Louie decided to come too and mom let us take Eden and Autumn - they've both never been to the snow. It took us FOREVER to get up to the spot we go to because a ton of other people had the same idea.

But once we got there it was really fun. The kids loved it. Beth and Louie had this great sled that the kids loved. It went pretty fast too.
Mackenna got tired of waiting for her turn so she decided to go down the hill her own way...
And others soon followed...
Mackenna and Kaia both made snowmen... Here's Mackenna's... aaaaawww... (Beth helped her)
And Kaia's... it kinda looks like snow poop.. but we were very proud of her. :) It's a snowman only a mother could love. :)
Louie took some shots of me and Paul...

And of course Paul took some of me and the kids...
I love this picture of Malachai.. I don't know if Beth would want him eating the snow though.. nasty. :)

Can't wait to go back when it snows some more... we have to go at least 3 more times to be able to take all of my little sisters and brothers...

Hairless....

Just warning you - this is probably a TMI post but it was too funny and I had to share it. :) If you know Paul, you know he's really hairy.. I mean he never takes his shirt off at the beach because he is too embarrassed. :)

So he's had me shave it before but hates the prickly feeling... so he decided to get Nair for men.. He had me spray it on the other night... I heard him call for me and he was like,
"It's burning me.. get it off!!" I was half laughing but feeling kinda bad for him too cause his back was all red...

Well, it took off the hair alright.. as well as some of his skin.. :) I think it caused a bit of a chemical burn.. the pores are literally red like they are bleeding..

At least he got it out of his system now and will be content being the hairy man I married. :)

Christmas pics finally....

Christmas Day was so much fun with all the kids.. it truly is all about giving and not getting because I love watching all the kids faces as they open their gifts. :)
Mackenna and Kaia being the youngest were a bit impatient waiting for their turns to open gifts... with 14 kids taking turns it takes a while before it gets back around to them. :)
Malachai was in heaven... Wolverine, I mean. :)
The gift of the day was from Beth and Louie to the girls... it was a Wii game of high School Musical singing.. they were in heaven - especially Autumn. ;) I was actually surprised at how much the boys liked it too.. even Louie.
This was the first year that one of the kids got mom or dad a gift. Jesse spent time doing odd jobs for Beth to buy mom these cooking spoons.... Jesse - you just bought spanking spoons! :)
Joey made this cookie especially for dad - he said it was a grandpa boy... note the long white beard. :)
I loved my gift i got the boys - a Mickey tent!
Me and Louie were snapping photos like we were professional or something. ;)
Dad got Paul the best gift - a box of cash and Monsters. :) He actually gave all of us one dollar bills with something little... Mike's was the best - there were dollar bills in between pages of the book they got him! Beth was ready to go to Pachenga after that. :)
Me and my "little" boy.. I just say that because he told me that day that he wasn't a baby anymore.. :(

Stephanie's 9th Birthday....

Okay.. so the next day - Christmas Eve - was Stephanie's 9th birthday...

She wanted a mint chocolate chip cake... Uncle Terry found some really cute Cinderella toys to put on top so it wasn't so plain looking...

She got some really cute gifts - including this classic game of Gassy Gus. :) Jesse is banned from playing it now though because he keeps trying to get him to explode.... bad Jesse. :)
Grandma and Grandpa came for two birthdays in a row... it's so great that they're able to come now - no more restaurant to stop them. :) The kids love it.
Make a wish! Happy Birthday Stepha!

Boys' Birthday....

I know it's Christmas.. but I have to play catch up on my posts... :)

Starting with the boys 4th birthday which was on Wednesday the 23rd... They wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake and it was probably the most intense cake I've made to date. :) It involved tiers and that was hard for me. But besides the frosting not coming out as red as I had wanted it came out pretty well.
The boys loved it and were excited to have two sets of candles on the cake....

But Ryland decided to steal the show and blow both sets out. :(

So we had to have a redo for Brayden who literally crumpled right after Ryland blew them out.. he crossed his arms and everything. ;) Take two.....
I got the boys these light sabers and so did mom and dad... :) The boys didn't mind - that meant they all got to fight.

Then I took some photos of the boys for the hall photo collage.... These were some of my favorites... it was hard to get both of them to look at the same time. ;)

Towards the end they were a bit silly.. They both wanted to show off their muscles.. too cute!

Lights...

Yesterday we all went on an adventure to Rancho to see the lights.... and I do mean all of us. Beth and Louie and their kids, Bre and Mike , me and Paul and the kids, and Mom and Dad and the kids... It had been raining a bit earlier so we almost didn't go but it worked out in the end. :)
( Check out Malachai and his classic "Wolverine" pose...)

The kids loved it.... Brayden and Ryland kept oohing and aaahing at everything. It was so cute.

There were some really funny stuff - like this tombstone... I agree - every word. :)

Paul's favorite of course was the Laker Reindeer. :)

Kaia kept wanting to get out of the stroller and walk.. and then be carried... and then get in the stroller... she is such a girl. :) I really like going to this place though because when you're there you feel like you are at like City Walk or Downtown Disney - it's so lit up and crowded and there's people selling food everywhere. Someone was even selling puppies - we had to tear ourselves away from them... they were soooo cute.
It's definitely worth the trip if you go out there... but make sure to walk it.. we made the mistake of driving it last year.. three hours later stuck in a car was not so fun. :)

Around the corner....

I can't believe Christmas is like 4 days away!!! I am so out of it... normally by this time I would have made a bunch of cookies and treats and mailed out Christmas cards..

I didn't do either. I am really disappointed about the cards... every Christmas card I get makes me remember that I didn't do one this year. :( So for all of you who thought I forgot to send you one - I didn't I just didn't send anyone one. :)

And to top it off I thought I would dress Kaia in her Christmas dress this Sunday for church and then totally forgot. If it was a possibility I would think I was pregnant. :) whew!

Science Center...

We headed out to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana on Tuesday... it was through a field trip through my mom's charter school... they have really cool field trips. So me and Joey and Kaia tagged along.
They had so many cool things for the kids to do... and everything was hands on..
They had alot of interactive sports stuff - like this hockey one where you could try on the gear and try to block pucks being shot at you... Jesse was really into it. ;)
The dinosaur area outside was really fun too... although the girls spent most of their time in the baby area - like on these dinos... I think they were meant for like toddlers...
Dayzcha pulling her own weight...
Joey on the bed of nails... those nails really did hurt when you touched them individually - but as a whole they just balanced your body out and didn't hurt. Weird..
Kaia loved trying all the stuff out that normally she's "too small" to do. We will definitely go back sometime. :)

Leaves....

Our new apartments have the most beautiful trees in the back... they have gorgeous colored leaves and today me and the kids went to play in them. :)

They both got really into jumping into the leaves...



I love this pic I got of Kaia right before we went inside... She looks so natural - complete with chocolate stain beside her mouth. :)
I love this season the best - when all the leaves are changing - it makes me feel so nostalgic. ;)

Silliness...

The girls were in a silly mood the other day and wanted me to take their pic... This literally lasted about 5 seconds before they all fell down....
Scary.. :) Check out Maliyah's face... Wow.

Paul's Birthday.....

Paul's 31st birthday was on Monday... we had a small family gathering at my mom's and of course Louie had to give him his Birthday kiss. :)
I made a simple chocolate cake but forgot to get ice cream... ;(
Then it was present time... Hugh Heffner was the look Paul was going for with this gift from my parents. :) Then the next day Paul realized that I didn't get him any gifts from Kaia and Joey... (my gift to him was a PS3 that he got a few weeks earlier)

Okay - let me just say in my defense that we were still moving in and I was going to go to the store but Paul came home early that day and messed all my plans up... okay - no excuses - I forgot. :( He made me feel like a terrible wife and will probably remind me of it for years to come.
So I went to Costco and got him a monster sized case of Monsters from the kids. :) And they made cute little cards and everything. :)
I think he forgave me after that. :) Happy Birthday Paul! You're no longer a young man - you're officially in your thirties!!!! :)

Hoarders....

I am addicted to that show Hoarders on A&E... it is so fascinating.. in a gross way. It just amazes me how people can get to the point of not being able to walk through their house.. how stuff becomes more important than family.. crazy.

This one I was watching they found 25 dead cats under all the trash in her house.. gross. And the cats were literally flattened because of the weight of all the trash. One lady had 6,000 pounds of trash removed from her home... 6,000!!

Every time I finish watching it I always want to throw something away after.. I start looking around to find something to trash. It's driving Paul crazy - I think I may have thrown away some stuff we actually need. :)

When I was younger I was considered the pack rat of our family... but I mean it was all put away in boxes and labeled and organized... come on! ;) I did end up throwing it all out though as I got older - remember the business cards Bre? I think my grandpa has tendencies to be a hoarder but my grandma throws everything away so she doesn't let him get that bad. I remember we had a yard sale for him one time and I started selling stuff he "needed" - I will never live that down. :)

So who's the "hoarder" in your family?

Settling in.....

So we FINALLY are all moved in... It feels like it took forever to get all settled in. I think it was because we got our keys to the apartment on the 1st but didn't have to be out until the 6th at the house... so we moved kinda slowly...

The new place is really nice but smaller in a lot of ways so we are trying to get all IKEA'd about our organizing. ;) Hopefully we'll get it all fit in... Paul's beloved recliner had to go though - he was a bit sad but there was no room for it... oh well. :) I never liked it so I was glad to see it go.

I can't wait to really start using the kitchen though... it's sooo nice - much nicer than the one at the house. And the kids are really excited about the park across the street. Maybe we'll start getting more in shape - with the holidays here I know I will need it. :)

Three Birthdays.....

So this was a busy week... First came Autumn's birthday on the 24th...

She turned 8 - wow!! She wanted a Princess cake of course.. This was really hard to make. The cake did not turn out as flat and straight as I wanted but besides that it came out pretty cute. :)
We took some photos of her to make a collage for the hall... this one was my favorite. :)

Then came Thanksgiving two days later... and then Black Friday the next day.. and my mom's birthday the next day and Joey's the next. :)

He turned 9!! My baby... :( I forget how old he is sometimes - I still think of him as 6 or 7...

He was sooo excited to open gifts. He kept asking if it was time yet. :)
He wanted a computer cake... why? I have no clue.... There were so many more boyish cakes but this is the one he chose. Go figure. I do like how the mouse turned out though. ;)

I am glad he's the last birthday for a while... well a week until next Monday when it's Paul's... :)

Thanksgiving Madness....

Last night began our annual Black Friday shopping spree.

This year was extra special - Toys R Us opened at midnight!!! :) I was super excited. We got there at 9:15 to line up... we got a great spot - our car was parked right next to our spot in line so me and Bre got to stay warm in the back of the van for 3 hours while we waited.

It was definitely worth the wait.. I felt like we didn't have to rush as much - we made it to Walmart by 2am... and they actually were open 24 hours but just didn't let you get the deals until 5.. So we were able to walk around and look at where everything was at. Well, then the employees gave into the overpowering customers and started allowing people to put stuff in their carts and just wait in line to pay at 5... It was very odd - but definitely not as bad as years past.

4 stores and 11 hours after we started we were done. I fell asleep for about 3 hours before we headed over to my mom's to pick up our kids...

I actually went back to a couple of stores a few hours ago - as if I hadn't done enough shopping. By this time I looked pretty bad - my eyes were all bloodshot and I looked like I hadn't combed my hair in a week. :) And of course I had to run into someone from church... (Janie, tell Summer I wasn't being rude I just hate people seeing me like that) :)

So now after buying gifts for 14 children 3 times over.. ( I had to get my grandma's gifts and my mom's) I feel like we did pretty good. We got pretty much everything we set out for... and no one got hurt - luckily.. thank goodness the cops were there Mike. ;)

We're already looking forward to next year!

Strikes.....

Last week we went on a spur of the moment bowling trip with Beth and Louie and our kids... It's only like 1.50 a game after 8pm! I never knew that... very cheap and fun outing.

Kaia loved sitting at the board... she thought she was in charge. :)

Joey was loving it... even though he got alot of gutter balls he still tried his best. :)
Then came this.... Beth told me that Louie had gotten a green tea and he didn't like it... did I want it? I was really thirsty - we had just ordered nachos and wasn't paying attention and said yeah and took a drink... yeah, it wasn't green tea. It was a Long Island... yeah, I don't drink. No, it did not taste good. Yes, I was surprised.... to say the least. It tasted like rubbing alcohol. Not funy at all. Beth was like, "Couldn't you tell by the glass?" I guess I should've. :)

Something to check out....

My new favorite website is zenni optical.. You can buy glasses on there for sooo cheap. I got 3 pairs of glasses for 30.00.. with shipping!

It's amazing. I will never buy eyeglasses in a store again. And you all know how cheap I am so something like this is like Christmas to me. :) Of course you can't try them on but who cares.. they all look pretty much the same anyways.

Now I have an excuse to get the cheetah frames I always wanted. ;0)

Car trouble....

I hate cars... have I said that before? Well, I do... I hate how when you think you're finally gonna have some money to put into savings and then the cars overhear and decide to plot against you.

Last week it was my van - the battery died and we had to get a new one - not too bad actually.. under a hundred dollars...

This week was a little worse... Paul called me at 530 in the morning because he hit a dog on the freeway and was going to have to have his car towed.... 3 hours later and 200.00 later his car was towed to the dealership. Then they called this morning to give me the lovely estimate of 15 - 18 HUNDRED dollars to fix the damages...

Luckily our insurance will cover it as an accident but we still have to pay the 500 dollar deductible... I have to look at the bright side - at least he didn't hit a deer like he originally had thought. :)

Kids say the darndest things....

I made sloppy joes last night and Joey was like, "These are some good sloppy joes.."

Kaia nodded her head and said "This is a good sloppy Kaia" :0)

Creepy crawlies..

We are moving not a minute too soon. We have had some reptile problems lately... yep. Lizards. We've found a total of 5 so far... I think a mama came and had some babies... Well, we caught the mama in the bathroom a couple of weeks ago - it was about 6 inches long... yuck.

Then last week I went to lay Kaia in bed (she fell asleep in the car) and when Paul pulled back the blankets he saw a lizard curled up on her pillow.... I was completely grossed out.

Needless to say, she slept with us that night.

Now I can't step out of my bed without checking and have to look in the bathroom before I go in. ;)

here's looking at you.....

Okay... let's play a game... who can name all the kids by just seeing their eyes? My kids are in here too so.. and the twins are gonna be really hard - Bre who thinks she knows who's who should have a hard time... so get guessing. :)






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Craft project...

I saw this idea in my Family Fun magazine.. I 've been wanting to do it for a while now and realized I have a bookcase I never use - so I painted it - and voila! a brand new piece of furniture! :)

I think it came out pretty cute. The elastic strips help hold all the stuffed animals in and are easy cleanup and very organized... :)

Super cute!

More changes....

We will be apartment dwellers once again come next month. Since our home life has changed we decided rather than one of us get another job we will downsize and move into an apartment.

I am a little sad.. I like having my own house but the apartment is really cute. The house thing just wasn't working out like we had hoped... I think it's just not God's timing right now..

So for the next couple of weeks I should stay busy - downsizing, packing, organizing... busy work. :)

As each day/week goes by it's getting easier not thinking about the kids.. I just have to get my computer to stop flashing all the photos when it goes into sleep mode.. ;)

And I should be posting more - got to get the creative juices flowing. :)

Photo Booth...

My mom finally got her computers from the charter school she's in.. the kids are really loving the photo booth.... :)

Scary...

Pick me up...

I thought I'd be nice and give the kids hot chocolate for dessert tonight... I had bought some called Mocha Capachino flavored. It was the Swiss Miss one on sale for like 50 cents so I got it for the kids. Paul was like, "Don't give the kids that - it has coffee in it." I told him he was crazy - it was just hot chocolate flavored to taste like it.

Joey was like " My eyes are wide awake now.. that hot chocolate woke me up!"

That's when Paul came over and showed me the ingredients on the box... Coffee. I had no idea they put real coffee in hot chocolate. So now our kids are probably going to be up until 3 am. :)

End of our journey...

I've been prolonging posting this for a while now... but I think I can finally post this without being as angry as I've been...

We are no longer foster parents - it's a long story and one I don't think I will explain all the way but on Friday morning because of the investigation with the teens we had.. even though it all came out unfounded there was a concern that I spank Kaia. At the time I didn't know you weren't allowed to spank your own children. It didn't seem like a big deal to me but I guess it was.. so they decided to remove all the kids and we had two options - go through retraining and possibly be decertified or decertify ourselves.

I knew there was a possibility of this happening and had been asking God for a sign to tell me what to do and when I got this call it was pretty clear.. so we stepped down and let them come and take the kids. It was the hardest day ever. Paul of course was at work so I had to get all the stuff packed and deal with all the crying and trying to explain to the youngest what was going on.

It was so surreal and I think I was in shock for a few days - I think it's really just starting to sink in. Me and Paul still are in disbelief over it.. I mean, is it really over? What now?

It's like you know that you're supposed to do something and then it's all over... so quickly... without time to prepare... and you're left feeling empty...

I told my small group it's like there's been a death in the family - that's how I feel - like I'm in the grieving process. It's like nothing I can describe.

I just hope I understand why soon - that I can see the reason for all of this.. I know there has to be a reason.. God has a plan - I just don't know what it is.

So for now I will just pour myself into my kids and wait to see what's next...

Here's the last pics of the last foster birthday we had this past Tuesday...
The elephant cake I searched the internet for...
The elephant gifts all of us got for her...
And the special elephant necklace I bought online for her that I hope she will keep and remember us by...

Zoo day..

San Diego Zoo has a whole month free entrance for all kid tickets. Of course we jumped at the chance to go for free. :) So we totally took advantage of the offer and brought 16 kids with us. :) Even my grandparents went with us.

I had my school kids ditch school. The 1st grader was like, "Isn't it Monday? Don't we have to go to school?" I told her would she rather go to the zoo or school? :)

It was really fun - we made sure we saw all the major animals - lion, tiger, bear, elephant, monkey, etc. We didn't realize until we left that we forgot to see the giraffes. :) Oh well, next time...
My dad and Paul were in charge of the map and where we were going... this was pretty much what they did the whole day.... :)
They had a lot more photo op things then the last time we went. This is Jesse (tall) and Joey (short) ... they look so cute. :)
We saw our famous birds... :) Grandpa said they sound just like all of us.
We saw some really interesting animals.. like this one who was very interested in its own poop. It was so gross...
And these meerkats.. Paul of course got this pic.. he would be the one to notice this. Aaaah the birds and the bees come alive at the zoo. ;) Luckily none of the kids noticed this - but at a different time one of my kids said a monkey was grinding - luckily none of the kids asked what that meant.
There were so many kids there I don't think I got enough photos of everyone.. but they all had a great time. No one really complained about walking either. :) It seemed like all they did was eat snacks the entire day. My kids must've ate like 4 sandwiches a piece.
The boys were sooo excited to see all the animals. They all did pretty well too waiting patiently to go to the next section. I hate when kids just look and run to the next. I think Paul was the biggest impatient one. :)
Joey's favorites of course were the birds and Kaia loved the hippos.. I know, funny huh? I would've thought it would've been something cuter - but nope - it was a big old hippo.
We even took an animal home with us.. little monkey boy Malachai. :)

Afterwards we went to Spaghetti Factory - all 23 of us. The kids did really well. Mom was so happy - the waiter said they were the best behaved he'd seen in a while. :)

Vegas Pics...

We had so much fun on our trip to Vegas.. Paul didn't feel like we relaxed that much.. probably because I had a huge itinerary that I wanted to get through. :) This is our only pic we got together of us.. it's really hard to find someone to take your picture.. especially if they don't know how to use it.. it's kinda blurry.

When we first got there around five we checked in at the Luxor.. I had never stayed there before so I was excited to see the hotel. Just to let you know - the elevator is terrible for those with motion sickness. I hated going on it.. because the hotel's at an angle the elevator moves at an angle. It was really nauseating. This pic is a view from our floor down to the lobby area... made me a bit dizzy.

So then we met up with one of Paul's old classmates from Okinawa - Patrick and his wife Erica. He works at the Bellagio so we always try to meet up with him when we come out. What's weird is that Paul's whole graduating class still keeps in touch with each other ... anyways, they took us to a Japanese restaurant off the strip in the city. Paul was in heaven. He ordered waaay too much food.

Like these weird pancake type appetizers with octopus inside.. I wanted to try the breading and when I peeled off some I could literally see the suction cups of the octopus inside. Yuck! I ate salmon and rice - nice normal food. :) I was excited to get Japanese sweet bread afterwards though... yum.

Afterwards I was determined to stay out until 4am.. so we went to a Deuling Piano bar.. it was really fun and entertaining.. then we walked the strip - saw the Dancing Waters of course. Paul started to get tired around 130am... boring.. :) So we headed back but I made myself stay up and watch t.v. until 330. :)

We went shopping the following day.. Paul loved this hat - I think it made him look like a rice paddy farmer. :) That evening we went to see KA - my first vegas show I ever went to.. I know right? It was really good and impressed us both.

Then more shopping and off to see the gardens at the Bellagio.. I always have to go there and take a look.. This year was really cool - my favorite was these trees that rained water...
But this tree was cool too. I think I stayed up too late the night before because pretty soon after this I fell asleep around 2am..
The next morning our last day there we met up with Paul's sister - Ann who lives in Vegas. Paul hasn't seen her in over ten years so he was really nervous.. he still saw her as a ten year old. :) She was really happy to see him though and hopefully will come out and visit for the holidays.

Then we headed back - we had to be home for a foster meeting at 6.. and got a call from the principal that the boy we have got suspended until Monday for exposing himself at school.. Welcome home - back to reality. :)

Rest and Relaxation almost here...

Only 2 more days until me and Paul go on a getaway ALONE... :) No kids, no appointments, no school, no nothing but relaxing and being together... fun, fun fun. We haven't gone away in two years so I am really excited about it.

We had to split all the kids up though.. that's the only drawback.. it's weird having them all over the place. Joey is at his dad's, Kaia's at my mom's and the other 3 are at another foster parents house... I'm just hoping they can behave while we're gone.

I've already had a suspension for one of them this week and a principal's office visit for another one.. and some drama from a dad for the third one. I am definitely in need of a break. :)

So tomorrow's plan is to wash every piece of laundry and packing bags for all of them and getting all the loose ends tied up before we go. The crazy thing is that I have an IEP meeting for Joey before we can leave on Monday... so hopefully we'll be able to leave sometime in the afternoon. :)

I'm sure I'll have lots of pics and stories when I get back! :)

Friday school....

Every Friday is "School Day" at my mom's house. I go over there and do Science and History with the kids as a group. My mom needs a bit of a break teaching 7 kids this year.. 3 kindergartners, a 1st, two 3rds and a 4th grader.

I separate them into big kids (jesse, dayzch, steph, autumn and joey ) and the little kids (Micaylah, Maliyah, and Eden). It works much better that way. :) But somehow the three youngest - Kaia, Brayden and Ryland get lumped in with the little kids as well. They want to "do school" too. :)

So this Friday the little kids learned about Family Trees in Social Studies. They painted their own trees and made apples on them to represent each member of their immediate family. It would have been too big to try to do extended family. :)

Kaia was really excited to paint her own tree. :)

The boys were also really into the painting. Brayden was so careful to outline the entire outside of the tree...
While Ryland went to town with his green paint in the middle of his tree. :) They are so eager to be big and do school with the rest of them... hopefully that excitement stays in them til they graduate. :)

Chicken eggs....

We were learning about birds the other day and talking about how humans have eggs too... which led to "You have chicken eggs inside of you?"

"No, they are different and need a daddy to make them into a baby."

"What does the daddy do?"

"He puts sperm in the egg to make it into a baby."

"Oh so is dad going to use some sperm to make a new baby?"

"No, daddy is all out of sperm - so I can't have any more babies."

"Bobby has a lot of sperm because they have a lot of kids."

I couldn't help but laugh. Thankfully the conversation stopped there. :)

Family Updates...

This week has flown by.. there has been so much going on with the kids I don't even know where to start. I will just say this - each of the three we have right now are so in need of prayer individually. They are all going through alot.

The 8 year old we are dealing with the principal's office almost on a daily basis. Home life is rough too... his ADHD is sooo bad. I've never actually seen what a real ADHD kid is like - they name so many this that when you really see it firsthand you realize how bad it is.

The 6 year old is dealing with some abandonment issues and just adjustment in general. She is so savvy to the system it's sad.

The 4 year old is going through alot with her dad. There are some things going on which I am uncomfortable with... we just need prayer for the truth to be seen.

Joey's school issues are escalating right now. We have an IEP meeting next week so there has been a lot of pre meetings, emails, etc... I feel like I am doing school 24/7 now. With Joey's school and then all the homework of the kids too. :) I'm making the parents do the hard stuff at visitations now though... which makes it easier on me.

The good news is though - me and Paul are going to go on a much needed vacation in a few weeks... alone. We probably won't know what to do with ourselves. :) Well, that's our updates..

Eden's 6th bday...

Eden's Birthday was like last Wednesday and I don't know how I forgot to post these pics.. :( Anyways... she was so excited to get dressed up - in a crown and everything. :)
But then of course she went back to her normal happy Eden self. :)
She looks like she's drowning in gifts. She was most excited to have the attention all on her .
She chose a Banana Split cake. It was really hard to put together. It took me forever to serve all the kids. They had to wait in line and the poor kids at the end of the 16 kid line got a bit restless.

Next up is our 4 year olds birthday - I'm gonna kill my dad because he is always "reminding" her that her birthday is coming.... She's one of those kids who will talk about something every day until you're ready to strangle them. So whenever she starts I just have to cut her off and say "We're not talking about birthdays today.." Dad thinks it's hilarious. :)

Castle park....

We finally used our free passes to Castle Park from the summer reading program at the library. :) Kaia looks bored in this picture.. but she's actually mad that she couldn't go on the bumper cars. ;)

It was alot of fun - but I have to say Castle Park is trying to become something they're not. An amusement park.... they now charge everyone an admission price. 8.00 even if you aren't riding the rides. What a rip off - they are the farthest thing from an amusement park, c'mon. :) Half the rides were being manned by one person who was in charge of three different rides. So you'd have to wait forever for them to give rides to people on one ride before they'd come and turn on our ride. It was ridiculous. Okay, now that I got that out of my system I can show you some really cute pics of all the kids....
Kaia loved having the control of driving this motorcycle - she thought she was hot stuff. :)
I love this picture of Maliyah - she looks so cute!
Ryland was quite the rider - he wanted to go on everything...
Brayden on the other hand was not into it.. after his first ride he wasn't having it anymore. This is the only other ride he went on and cried the entire time. Mean old Bre made him get on. How sad!
The kids all loved this ride - they went on it at least 3 times. They all can't wait to drive I guess. We will all be scared when Steph drives though - she's crazy. :)
Mom was having a heart attack when they went on this ride... She was afraid they would fly off. Autumn loved it though. :)
Who's that handsome hunk? :) He's purposely trying to make a muscle.. he's such a dork!
It was a really fun day... besides our 5 yr. old grabbing a strangers drink and drinking it and our 6 yr. old screaming that she wanted to get off one of the rides... it was pretty much without fault. :) But what would life be like without a bit of drama.. right?

New look....

Micaylah and Maliyah got these glasses at some restaurant they went to and wore them around the house all day for 2 straight days. Maliyah was so serious when she wore hers. :)

Blended family...

Everyone's always asking me.. "Now, how many do you have now?" "Do you still have so and so...?"

So I thought I would put this feature on here - "Our Blended Family" so that everyone can see who is here and all that....

Because for some reason our family changes often. Normally when you do foster care they tend to stay longer. But we've had 12 kids already in the matter of 9 months we've done it. So now there's no confusion.. :)

Full circle...

Last Wednesday I got a call for a little girl who is six years old.. I was agreeing to take her when the worker was explaining her history and name.. and I realized I recognized her name. I wonder if this is the same girl my mom had???

And very weird, but yes, it was. My mom had her when she was 20 months old and only for a week while her foster parents were out of town. But we remembered her because she smeared her poop all over the wall and tried eating it. Yeah, gross...

Thankfully she's past that stage. :) The crazy thing is that she looks the same as she did as a baby. She fits in pretty well with us too. She's been in and out of foster care since 11 months old so she's very familiar with the system.. which is sad.

But I just thought it was crazy how God brought her back into our lives after all this time. I'm sure there is a reason.. :)

Joey's first game....

Joey had his first soccer game in a real league today.. We've always done city leagues but this is the first time through AYSO.. It went pretty well. They lost 3 - 6 but they still had fun.

It was really hot out there and Joey was not feeling well so he had to sit out for part of the game.

My number 4! :) Go 4!!

His famous sticking out of the tongue.. he does this whenever he's concentrating...

Paul was excited to be a part of the game - he was the flag holder.. guy.. i don't know the official name of it but he got to call when the ball was out of bounds.

Hopefully next week won't be so hot!

Old friends....

Symmie called me last week and said they were coming down for the weekend and I could meet up with her and have breakfast.. so of course I jumped at the chance - come on now, food and no kids??? I'm there. :) Mimi's Cafe by the way is great for breakfast... I just want to say that I let Clyde take this picture and I wasn't ready so that's why I look so gross. :)

I wanted to post a picture of Jerry and Symmie when they were younger to compare.. but I couldn't find it. And I accidentally changed this to B&W.. sorry. I have so many memories that involve the Simmons ... we practically lived at each other's houses. :) I still remember me and Jerry doing some Bible study thing we had to do together for some reason.. anyways, he told me he wanted to be a pastor and I was like, "Whatever...." j/k. No really, I thought it was kinda weird.. but here he is 15 years later and a pastor of our old church.. So crazy. :)

Fishing...

Paul and Louie had been kinda talking about going fishing with the boys on Labor Day.. and then somehow it turned into a night fishing trip.. and then somehow it turned into a family thing...

Actually I asked to tag along and brought the girls and Jesse, Joey and our little guy and headed along to Big Bear lake to do some night fishing. We were already tired by the time we got there.. it was almost 11pm... but the kids were wide awake. :)

It was really cold - about 45 degrees and we were ill prepared. I mean I brought jackets and hats but I really should have brought gloves too.. all I heard from the boys were - "My hand is frozen to the fishing pole!" "My hands hurt.." :) Beth and Louie set up the back of their jeep though so around 12:30 I went in there with the girls and they all passed out watching a movie... and so did I..

I did wake up to see that they caught a fish - but didn't take a pic cause it was too cold and I was too lazy to get my camera. :) Joey had a blast - he stayed out there all night fishing... even though at about 2 am you could hear tons of coyotes howling.. creepy.

Kaia tried it for about 5 minutes and then was over it. She thought the fish was going to appear magically and when it didn't she was done with fishing for the night. I don't think she's an outdoorsy person. Because when she said she had to go to the bathroom and I told her she had to go in a bush she was like, "No mommy, later. " :) I did have to take the little girl we have to pee in the bushes and it was not an experience I want to repeat. She had pee on the back leg of her pants.. it was gross. She's not too coordinated so it was a big task to ask of her.. :)

Doesn't Jesse look like one of those stranded survivor type people? hahahah...

Anyways, it was alot of fun.. but cold. :) I wanted to do some more fishing but had to watch the girls. :) By the time we got home it was 4:30 am.. me and Paul were like, "What were we thinking???" I thought the kids would sleep in late but Kaia was up by 8:30! So I'm still a bit sleepy. :)

Eating issues...

The little boy we have has a definite food issue.. I would call it hoarding but it is a bit different. He doesn't hide food for later or keep food from meals..

The issue is when everyone is asleep he goes into our snack cupboards and gets junk food and eats it.. Pop Tarts, cookies, marshmallows, etc. He is on ADHD medication so sugar is not a good combo for him. So I started leaving fruits and cereal out on the counter for him when he goes to search for food and started locking the snack cupboard.

That's when I realized he's not doing it out of hunger.. because instead of eating the fruits he would open the freezer and get popsicles, or one time it was a bag of chocolate baking chips.

It's not like he doesn't get sweets/junk either. At three oclock everyday we have a snack - one of the above mentioned foods and after dinner at about 730 too...

I know there are some deeper issues going on here but it is still so frustrating to deal with. It also makes me nervous knowing he's roaming the house at night. We are awaiting approval for his counseling sessions to begin.. I know this will probably help alot... but until then..

Anyone got any ideas?????

Still shopping...

When we started looking for a house we thought it would be simple once we found one.. you know, like okay - we like this one, let's buy it.. :)

Yeah, well it does not work like that. We made our 3rd offer last week and we may be outbid.. never know. We actually have 2 offers out right now on 2 different homes. :) One of the ones we bid on ended up having like 30 offers... crazy!

And it doesn't count all the ones we liked but didn't qualify for an FHA or the ones that we went to bid on but were already taken within 24 hours.. it's definitely a crazy market right now. Actually 3 offers isn't alot compared to some people at our church who put over 15 offers and finally got one.

Hopefully something turns up soon.. I want to try and get a house before November.. :) We will see!!! :)

Got a twitch....

My eye won't stop twitching.. I tried everything.. closing it, rubbing it.. it's going on two days now..

Maybe I'm going blind... :) The worst part is when you are talking with someone and you feel like they can totally see it. Does this ever happen to anyone else? It's really annoying.

No more teens...

I think we just experienced the craziest moment of our foster parenting... the two teen girls we had were caught ditching school on Thursday and a very long story short - they called the cops and wanted to leave our home. It was insane to say the least.

They made false allegations against us and even though the cops said that they weren't going to file a report against us it was enough for us to agree never to take any children remotely close to teen age.

I feel for them because they were placed in a safe house for now and possibly in a group home but it was their choice. I explained numerous times to them how their actions were going to affect them but of course they felt they knew best.

Paul and I both felt as if we'd been slapped in the face - after all we'd done to help them this was the thanks we got. It was crazy. I am just glad it's all over (I hope at least) and that we can learn from this mistake and move on..