Merry Christmas 2009

We had an unusual and a usual Christmas. I was bitter sweet. We had a really great time but lingering thoughts were always in the background. We are really grateful for what we have and are looking forward to the coming year. This year....

Sean went to work at The PitStop. We felt it was the direction we were supposed to go in but had a bit of a time with the decision that we needed to change jobs again. Especially since the job Sean had at Lowe's really had potential. He was a great suck up. :) Oh and a hard worker too. We bought another flip house (along with helping Seans parents flip a house too) and have been steadily doing improvements and look forward to living in a complete house.I love being married to a Multi Talented Man! Sean decided we were ready to get back into fostering so we have done the paperwork but have yet to do respite or take a placement. I am thankful for that but we look forward to when the time comes. Sean is a great husband, a great father and a great provider. We love him and are super glad we have him!!

I started doing some photography. I have had a few paying customers and received some really great feedback. I'm excited but nervous at the same time for things to move forward. Not only because it is fun but I am proud to have my own spending money. It's nice. I have been keeping busy with taking care of the house (this house seems harder to keep clean! Cooper doesn't help either!!) and watching my great girls. And Dane too! I am spending quite a bit of time shuttling this year for school. It chops up my day a lot and doesn't leave a good amount of time for any one thing. I wouldn't trade my girls getting a good education for anything though. We moved twice this summer and I'm still playing a little catch up with that. I have boxes hidden downstairs out of everyones site, including my own, waiting to be unpacked. I miss my garlic press terribly and will seriously do a dance when I find it! I have had a very up down year but feel we are ending on the up side. But ask me tomorrow. :)

Jaselynne is in First grade and doing pretty good. She is not as far ahead as she was last year but is still making us very proud. This is her teachers first year and I can definitely see that. It is noticeable in her and Jaselynne. I am really glad that she is coming out of her shell more and more. It is neat to watch your child blossom when you have so many fears for them. A lot of times they are unnecessary fears but fears none the less. She is in love with school and we are so so happy for that. She is doing pretty well with her UTI's and we are excited when we won't have to worry about it anymore. Jase likes playing with her pretend animals as well as her real ones. She says she wants to be a Vet when she grows up. She is full of love and smarts and fun. She is a great big sister and we love her!!

Jayda is in Preschool. She is going to Today's Generation Dance School. She has preschool part of the day and ballet/tap for part of the day. She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays then on Wednesdays she goes to my friend Celeste's house for Joyful Noise preschool. If she had it her way that's the only place she would go. She is absolutely in love with Celeste. She is doing pretty good in both and is developing her own personality outside of us. A little bittersweet. She loves cartoons like Max and Ruby, Little Bear and Dora. She has had a bit of a time these last 6 months with her defiance and attitude. All of it is understandable but hard none the less. You can still see Our Jayda when she comes up and gives you a hug and kiss and says I love you for no reason. She is our sweetheart and is a sensitive sweet soul.

All the info I have on these two is just what I've read and heard as we have not seen the kids since they left our home. Johnathon and Kaylin are living with their new family and are struggling a bit. That is the reason for no contact so far. They are both going to preschool and like it. Kaylin is still the same girly girl who loves animals, babies, and anything typical girl. Johnathon loves playing outside and did soccer this year. He still has contact with his same friends at school and some through church and soccer and we're glad for that. We hope we will be able to see them this next month and will have more news.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and the coming year brings you Happiness and Love.

What I've learned this week

1. Just because the Elves made it and Santa delivered it doesn't mean it won't break.

2. 6 dashes of Chayanne pepper in the potato soup is a couple to many.

3. Check the pizza box for the pizza cutter before throwing it away and realizing a week later.

4. I don't know why they call it Christmas Vacation!!

5. My house doesn't think it's Christmas Vacation either!

6. Life can throw you twists and turns at times when you least expect it, good and bad.

7. I CANNOT keep trees alive and have no idea why! They just need a cut and water. Right?

8. When you buy a fancy fake tree 2 days after Christmas you can get one heck of a deal!

9. Multiple family Christmas'-instead of the usual big one-are a little easier on the budget. Hence the fancy fake tree.

10. Life really is good and I love it!!

'Tis the season to be crafty

Our earring tree. I saw this on a fellow bloggers site and wanted to do something similar. What a good idea for old jewelry that you don't want to throw out but don't know what else to do with it. I had planned on making a wall hanging like the one I saw but saw these little trees at the dollar store and decided that was much cheaper and just as cute. Jase and Jayda had a ton of fun taking turns putting one on at a time but it seriously took like an hour. They wanted to know about each piece and hook it themselves. I asked the girls to pick something for me to paint on their walls and they both picked butterflies. I was actually a little surprised because they really aren't that girly but I obliged. This is Jase's. She looooves blue. All the blue around the edges is blue glitter.I don't love how Jayda's turned out but She Does. I didn't want them the same and she wanted the weirdest colors. Yellow, light purple, dark green, pink and 2 red dots. I'm glad she loves it anyway.

In one of Christmas' past one of the girls asked for her own Christmas tree and got it. This year the girls wanted to make more ornaments for it so that we did. It has been fun. The girls are so creative and love being artsy. Mostly bead and pipe cleaner decor. Decorating on a budget. :)After Halloween I got some great deals on melting chocolate and candy kits. One in particular we were pretty excited about. Well, when we finally went to do it I realized it didn't come with the big pretzels. So we had to wait until I remembered to buy some. The kit only came with one paintbrush and I didn't want to lend them one of mine so Jayda picked a spoon to lick, I mean paint with. The Christmasy placemats make it kinda hard to see but you get the idea.

Pretty proud. Man they have some cheesy smiles. They actually were pretty good but dipping the smaller pretzels is SO much easier for the same yummy snack. Jaseys have spiders and bats on hers and Jayda's are fingers. Ooooo. Scary. Scary to have to eat that big glob of sugar and not go comatose.

We actually have more things we have done but I didn't want to take pictures and download them. Call me lazy but we have been running around and having a lot of fun activities lately. Wears me out.

Random Tuesday

Ughh...Isn't he ugly. And he's a pain in the butt. But that's our Cooper.Isn't she beautiful!! I love this girl. And her freckles make me smile. She told Sean the other day that she didn't like them. Sean asked her why and she said "because Mom doesn't like hers." I don't know where she got that idea but when they picked me up a little later we had a discussion about it. She asked why I put makeup on and cover them up if I like them. So I had to reassure her I wasn't doing it to cover up my freckles. And we told her we loved her freckles until she said "Mooommm" and "Daaaddd."

I let the girls pick out their outfits for church a couple Sundays ago and they wanted to wear these socks too. They looked so cute I couldn't say no. And of course Jase couldn't go without a pose with her doggy.

I'm not a big fan of laundry but I usually do a pretty good job keeping up. This is the colored and towels side of our laundry bin...And these are the whites. Ahhhh.....I hate whites!! I don't know why. I wait until the last minute to do whites every time!! I do have a lot of white sweatshirts but still.

Johnny is Five

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY JOHNNY BOY! WE LOVE YOU!

Jaselynne's 1st grade Christmas program

We went to Jaseys program and had the worst seats! I don't know why we didn't move during the program. Here she is peeking around her music teacher when she first saw us.This is what we saw most of the program. Who puts a tall girl in the front row and a short girl in the second row!!I also had to shoot between the peoples heads in front of us hence the white area. I sat with my camera up so any time the girl in front of her moved I could get a picture.

She is singing her heart out! The hispanic girl singing and looking at the camera one up and to the left is her best friend Julia. They have been buddies since kindergarten and both did gymnastics too.

She loves music class and was pretty excited. She is a great singer and I love hearing her practice. What a great kid she is!!

Just to let you know

I started a blog for John and Kaylins birth family a while back. I talked to the social worker at the time and she said there were no rules against doing it as long as there was no way to connect them to us and we didn't include last names. I didn't update it much but now it just sits there. I decided I am going to start putting our thoughts, the girls questions and comments and anything else about them on there. I have lost a few followers because of my sad posts. They told me they don't want to cry when blog reading. Understandable so I am doing it this way. The address is johnathonandkaylin.blogspot.com

Jayda's Halloween program

I figured I had better post this one before I posted the Christmas programs. It was cute and fun to watch Jayda. She is not quite as shy as Jaselynne was but she is still pretty shy. I could tell she was nervous but she did great. I let her wear some shoes that were a little to big (used to be Jase's) and not only did she have a bit of a time walking but they looked goofy too! O'well. Left to right: Ava-Mary Poppins, Jayda-The cutest Pink Poodle ever, Jaelynn-Rock star, and Mary-Dora

Ignore my goofy hair. I was told I looked like I just woke up. Thanks Grandma, I love you.

The fam who came-Sean, Me, Mom (not sure where she was here), Dane, Aunt Linda, Grandma Lobe and the star-Jayda.

I was glad some outta towners were able to come!! Ahh...good family times!

Let it snow

It snowed last night. And today. And rained. And froze. Yuck. But the good thing about it is the kids have a blast. It gets a little old sometimes with the kids not wanting to go outside. They get stir crazy which makes me just plain crazy. Jayda asked to go out and I said if you get your stuff on. No coat, my gloves, a hat several sizes to big and her boots on the wrong feet. But hey nobody's perfect. Oh wait--she is!
She was desperate for me to watch her go down the slide.She thought it was a little cold on her tush. And just so you know I made her get her coat on.

Me and Sean went out to dinner for my birthday and then Christmas shopping. We were going to go to the movies but dinner took FOREVER! When we got home this is what we found. A reindeer pulling a sleigh full of pumpkins. How cute is that. When I was saying goodnight to my sleeping Jaselynne she mumbled "did you see your first Christmas present we made for you?" What a sweetie and very artistic too if I do say so myself!

Deborah's Senior pics

I did my first Senior pictures yesterday and since some of you know her I thought I would post a few. Deborah is Michaela's niece.

I had to post this one because it was so funny. The geese came over after we were done taking pictures on the dock so we snuck back down and took a few more.

I had a good time and it was good practice. Thanks guys.

Blubbering Idiot

I am. I take after my mom. That is one of the wonderful traits that was passed on to me through DNA. I definitely cry over sad movies, sometimes when I hear a certain song, quite a bit when I watch a sappy commercial and surprisingly a lot over happy stuff as well. It sounds like I am a sobbing mess in front of my kids all the time but 95% of the time they aren't around. It's usually in the evening watching TV, praying, laying in bed or the middle of the night. The good news is I am starting to feel a little more in control of my life lately. I haven't been crying near as often and have been keeping my tones under control for a few weeks now (I'm trying not to think about how Christmas is gonna be). The girls have been making great progress as well. They are still sad sometimes and mention the kids everyday but Jayda's fits have gone down and Jase isn't crying for no apparent reason so much. I am feeling breakthroughs. I am getting better. The girls are getting better. Sean has surprised himself as well both good and bad. We are not "over it" yet but we are all starting to see and feel a bit more "normal". I love my babies. All of them. I miss our family as it was but I love my family as it is now. I am coming to terms with being a Mom of 2 not 4. It's weird, I didn't know that had become part of my identity until it wasn't anymore. I am now a proud Mom of 2. I will ALWAYS love them, miss them and wish things were different but they aren't. I am the proud Mom of 2 and that's ok.

I pledge allegiance

She learned this in preschool and she is so stinkin cute when she says it!! Notice the old yucky kitchen floor!

Whoops

Note to self: Check to make sure the lid is tight before shaking.

Prayers

This was how the girls' prayers went-

Jayda-Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the day, thank you for our dressers, thank you for our butterflies, thank you for our books, and thank you for our dots, thank you for our beds, thank you for our shelves, thank you for our toys, and thank you for our sisters and our brother, thank you for hide and seek so we can hide and seek and play and run, thank you for our panties, and thank you for our flowers, thank you for our food, thank you for cartoons so we can watch cartoons, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Jaselynne-Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the world. In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Dear Anne,

I can't seem to find your number and am to lazy to call someone to get it. I'm already on here so thought I would try this. I sent you those pictures a few days ago and want to make sure you got them. Let me know. Love, Kim

Lost and Found

I can't upload ANY pictures. My computer says its full. Baaah!! I tried deleting a bunch and it didn't help so until I figure out what to do there will be no picture posts. I do have a few older posts that I haven't done. Don't worry, you daily blog followers, I have your interests in mind. :)

One cool thing that happened recently was the Lost and Found. 2 stories. One was we were waiting for Sean to get done with some meetings after church and were moseying around the church bored and stopped by the lost and found to kill time. And what do ya know. I found one of Jase's sweaters, one of her jackets and one of Jayda's jackets. I totally hit the jackpot. I didn't even know we were missing them. I noticed the missing sweater but thought it was at Moms. Apparently it wasn't.

Another is I had to send Jase to school today without a hat and gloves because for some reason she can't keep track of them! She has lost 2 hats and 3 pairs of gloves in the last 2 weeks. I went and checked the lost and found at her school and I did find one of her hats and a match to one of her gloves. I saw so many nice coats and sweatshirts. I feel for those kids parents. I ended up taking her Jaydas hat and a pair of gloves from Moms house because it is 14 deg. and with the windchill that means its really fricken cold deg and I couldn't really let her freeze. I am still hoping I find the others but it looks like another trip to the Dollar store or Walmart is in order. So moral of the story is if you have kids and a few minutes go check your lost and found, you may find stuff you never knew you were missing and something you did.

Jayda is a sleeper!

I found these pictures tonight while looking for some others and had to post them.
Jayda sleeping so (uncomfortable but) lovely and soundly on the couch. And a few minutes after taking her picture she just fell over. So funny!! I love how her arm flopped. Ha!

1st annual Thanksgiving Day Soccer Extravaganza

We played soccer with the Redford Fam on Thanksgiving day and it was really fun but cold as %@#!. Even though we had hot chocolate everyone started out like this but it didn't take long for the competitiveness to set in.Gotta love him.

Jase rockin her soccer playin skills. Typical Sean trying to cheat by holding the goal markers up in the air.

Mother/Daughter domination. Who's gonna win.

London and her mad skills!

Brennan had his way with me. This is one (yes one) of my poor bruises on day 1.
And this is the same one day 8. It is finally starting to get better after going through the rainbow of colors. I only wanted to document this to show Brennan he needs to take it easy on us old folks.
Then of course after the soccer match the boys had to have a snooze. I don't know what it was but when I was going to take all of their pictures every one of them opened their eyes.

My bro-in-law Trent relaxing after I whomped him on the field! Notice the one eye open.

Oops we did it again

After almost a FIVE month break (it will be 5 in 2 days. Yes, I keep track I can't help it and can you believe its been that long) we decided to take the plunge and get back on track.
We are officially licensed again for foster care. Yes, I know we swore it off and we are taking it very slow but we are legal again.

All by myself

I have been a little busy this past week. Not only was it Thanksgiving but Mom got a wild hair in her butt and convinced me to put in a new kitchen floor. So I did. Mom helped me line them up and did prep work but I put in our kitchen floor All By Myself!
This is before. I hated this floor!! It was gross. It had nicks, dings, stains, paint, and was discolored (see the yellow/orange). We plan on remodeling the kitchen so I wasn't wanting to put in a new floor just to tear it out but Mom is a pretty good convincer.This is what Jayda and Dane were doing while I was slaving away!! They destroyed the house!!

Here is the after!

Tada!!

This is how much I got done before Sean got home from work. He had no clue. We are sneaky, beardy beardy sneaky. This picture is closer to the real color. I played with my settings while taking the in between pictures but not the final. It is more green than the pics above.And doesn't my new garbage can I got for my birthday look great! I'm in heaven!!

Notice the green. Looks pretty good huh!!