The Art of Making Mud Pies

Summer is here for us already.  It has been gorgeous and in the low 80's for a few weeks now.  The nights still drop down into the 50's.  This is perfect weather in my book minus having an ocean close by. 

We have a section on the side of our house that is suppose to be for growing things, lol.  I dont have a green thumb so the kids have turned it into their mudpie making outdoor kitchen!  Ava enjoys it the most she will play for hours and be covered head to toe and Rowen loves to follow her. She taught him for the first time last week how to make mud pies.

They had a blast together and there came a point when I had to put the camera away so I could help them clean up and get sprayed down before coming back in the house.

I wish I was good at gardening so I could turn this area into some yummy organic food and spices. But honestly I just dont have the time to learn what it takes.

I think we will instead built a chicken coop over here and get a few chickens.  It is the perfect area for them to have free range.  And we benefit from them taking care of all our nasty bugs and spiders we have here in AZ.

Ava totally adores her baby brother. He is half her size yet she still attempts to carry him around. He loves her room and loves to sit at her little table the draw with her.  And Ava loves to mother him.

Rowen is such a blessing to our family, we cant imagine life without him.  He is always so happy and such a joy.  He is so lost when everyone leaves for school and it is just us.  He much prefers the craziness of all the troops being around.

Miss Ava has come a long way.  She is finally sleeping through the night after almost 5 years of having trouble.  We still have bed time issues but we are working with an amazing adoption therapist that I think will help us so much. We are also going to do some testing to pin point so other issues that we have noticed for awhile too.  Ava also receives speech therapy and really enjoys learning how to make the correct sounds.  Mommy has been her family translator for a few years now. 

She enjoys school so much but does struggle in a few areas so we are going back and forth about repeating kindergarten next year. We did it with two of our boys and it was the best decision we ever made.  I would hate to see her continue to struggle in the areas she does all through school and it will only get harder.

Next post I hope to have an update on Miss Gemma.  Just wanted to get some recent pictures to go along with it.

Our Family Has Grown Again!

It has been over 2 years since I have blogged.  I gave up shortly after coming home with Gemma. First things first I had an old dinosaur computer that would take forever to load one picture and I got frustrated not to be able to post pictures when blogging.  Second, about 8 weeks after coming home with Gemma God showed us he was in control again and I found out I was pregnant!  I was so ill the whole pregnancy and did not feel like doing much.  I was also introduced to Facebook at that time and that made it much easier to keep family and friends updated for me.

On November 11th 2011 we welcomed Rowen into the world. Boy #5 and lucky #7.  He is now 16 months and the best baby ever.  He spoiled to death by all his siblings and knows it.

Ava recovered beautiful from her heart surgery and only has to check in once a year! Yay!! She just turned 6 at the end of January and is half way through Kindergarten.  She is still our ball of energy and keeps us all on our toes. Ava enjoys gymnastics and Hip Hop dance every week.

 Gemma has been home over 2 years now and is doing amazing.  She is in 5th grade this year and loves school.  We also continue to do Mandarin classes and she has kept her Chinese.  She does struggle with oral but understands and can write and read Mandarin.  We are trying to find a tutor that can help her more with the oral.  She also loves gymnastics and goes twice a week.  She is a fantastic helper with her little brother Rowen and was very excited when we found out we were expecting.

 Preston turns 18 next month, yikes!!!  He is also a senior this year and graduates in May.  His plan is to stick around next year and work, work, work so he can attend a film school in Northern Arizona.  He still keeps us laughing with his movies and videos and is an awesome big brother.  He has gotten a few gigs doing music videos for some local bands.

 Soren started his first year of High school this year and loves it.  He is our straight A+ student!  He is loving his welding class this year and is very talented in that department.  He enjoys hangin with his friends everyday.  And also an awesome big brother!

 Gavin is in his last year of Junior High.  His is playing the Sax for the third year now and we love going to his concerts.  He is also our Ice Hockey player and spends a lot of time on the ice!  Also an awesome big brother! :)

 Keaton is enjoying 3rd grade this year.  He and Gemma ride their bikes to school every morning.  We still enjoy his wild imagination and artwork.  He started Ice Hockey this winter also and seems to be enjoying it.  He absolutely adores little Rowen and can never get enough of him.

Party of Nine!

 That is it in a nutshell for now.  We also moved to another state to be closer to family when we found out we were pregnant, so this last two years has been crazy!  I hope to do a better job now at blogging, at least better than every 2 years, lol.  Looks like I will need to start with a blog makeover.

Any questions for us, let me know.  I hope to do a more detailed up date of the girls soon.

(I need to figure out the picture thing on here too because these are super blurry. Also these pictures were all taken by a sweet photography friend Jill Candland)