A Day at the Water Park!!

I think our best day so far was the day we spent at the Water Park with all the kids in tow. We opened the park and shut it down!! Everyone had so much fun and they were all so well behaved the whole day!! It was about 90 degrees and just beautiful!!

The whole gang right before we packed up to head back home. It was about an hour drive home which including a stop at Dairy Queen!!

Sophie enjoying the wave pool at the end of the day.

Being goofy!!

Ava and Daddy in the wave pool. The water felt soooo good!!

Ava and Keaton enjoying one of the many splash areas. Ava has no fear and loves the water so much!!

Gavin trying to get Dad wet while taking a pic!!

Everyone heading up the stairs to check it out!!

Sophie and I enjoying the kids lazy river, I think she is falling through the tube! ha

Preston, Gavin and Keaton coming down the end of the rapids ride. This ride was so much fun and we also got video!!

Brianna, Soren, Sophie and Ava heading into the Mummy ride, it was misty and dark and so much fun!!!

Brianna, Ava, Sophie and Soren enjoying the ride!

Ava taking a tube ride down the slide with Daddy!!

Ava chillin and waiting for the next wave!!

Sophie loved the wave pool and was waiting for that next wave to get her!!

Sophie and Ava holding on waiting to jump the next wave!!!

This will definitely be a must for next summer too. Instead of 8 kids in tow we will have 9 with Gemma!! It was such a perfect day together and we wished it could have lasted longer.

The girls stay with us is coming to an end tomorrow as they head back home to Texas in the morning. Every year as they get older we have so much fun with their visit. Ava has been in heaven having the girls here to play with her. I think it will be hard for her when they leave tomorrow.

I will honestly say it has been easier having 8 than having 5 this last couple weeks. I am more tired at the end of the day and Sean and I have not even had 5 minutes together but it has been worth every minute!! Everyone has played so nicely together and we are very thankful of that.

We will miss your Brianna, Chloe and Sophie. Thanks for being such good girls and for great manners and for all your help!! We look forward to next summer and you all meeting your new cousin!! Love you!!

(these pictures were all taken with a water proof camera case for our canon point and shoot)

Black and White Wednesday

Last November of 2009 we got the opportunity to drive to California to meet Ava's cribmate and family for the first time.

We got lucky because my hubby had free Marriott points so no cost for Hotel and we had a Disney points Visa that had points for free park passes!!

So all we needed was gas and food to get to Disney!!

We had a wonderful time getting to know the other family and spent 3 1/2 days at Disneyland together.

The girls had so much fun with each other and the older kids really hit it off too and had a blast together. We all became fast friends!!

Since then we all keep up with each other on Facebook and the girls have Skyped each other.

They are trying to make it out to where we live this summer, we made a pack that we would try and get the girls together every 6 months or so, that is one trip a year for each of us!! Lucky us that we both have family in each others states!!

Ava loved her first trip to Disneyland. She waned to find all her favorite characters and give them hugs!! It was a success and she hugged everyone she wanted to.

We had one little episode while waiting in line for Pooh. We were two people away from hugging him and they did a character break. You would have thought the world was ending, she screamed and cried, just ear piecing!! Poor baby thought Pooh was going away for ever and she was soooo close!! We had to explain that he would be back in a few minutes! Thank goodness she understood and settled down!!

Ava and Mommy enjoying the night time Holiday Parade

California Adventure

California Adventure

The beautiful Castle all decorated for Christmas

For more B&W see Lisa's blog

18 years ago I married the love of my life!!

Black and White Wednesday too!!!

Taken a few months ago

(by Jill) click on her name for her blog!

Wedding day April 25th, 1992

HAPPY 18 YEARS SWEETIE!! And 22 years of knowing each other!!

Making jewelry for travel costs!!

I have been making jewelry for over 20 years!! I have never sold a piece until this year!! I have done it as a hobby to make gifts for friends and family. I have finally decided to use my talents to make some pieces to sell for our travel expenses to China.

I have many designs that Im doing but here a some pictures of a few that I have made recently! I plan on attaching a jewelry blog to this blog soon but it takes time and money! ha So if you are interested just contact me here!

I going to focusing on "sterling silver" stamped custom jewelry and "pure silver" handmade designs! I specializing in adoptions necklaces from China, Africa and just "adoption" in general. Im also doing Any occasion jewelry too!!

Below are a few samples of recent orders. I have had some success on Facebook and have sold about 10 necklaces so far and just had a few more orders come in today!!

My prices start at $25 and go up from there, depending the amount of silver in the piece!

** Please note that these are all made by hand, no machines or cookie cutters so each piece will be totally different and unique!!!

All sterling silver and crystal $52

Africa necklace "pure silver" and hand patina $80

price goes down with different chain or leather cord. Can also add a hand stamped name tag of your child with birthdate or referral date!

Chinese Character for Love. Handmade "pure silver" $75. Can add a hand stamped tag with childs name and/or birthday

Long tag, hammered heart and birthstone $43

"Born in my heart" adoption necklace. $58 with birthstones and ladybug charm, $55 without.

$45-$55 depending what charm is hanging from it. Can be pearl or birthstone or name tag.

"pure silver" and hand patina.

Your kids names! $25 for chain and 1 tag, extra $10 for every additional tag added!!

"Lucky" $40, can add childs name too!

I have some more styles but I cant post them right now because they are gifts and people read the blog! :-)

Looking for something you dont see here?? Send your question my way and I would love to make a beautiful piece just for you or someone special!!

I will add more pictures when I can. Thanks so much for supporting our adoption!!

Hawaii in Real Time

Here's April in real time enjoying a girls' trip in Maui with some lifelong friends. We've had a ticket booked for a year and a half and they're staying in an incredible house free of charge. The whole trip barely cost a dime and she deserves it so much. I miss my smokin' hot wife!

They've already had tons of adventures - jumping into pools inside caves, getting run off a campground by a crochety old Hawaiian lady, exploring the bamboo forest, swinging from vines, snorkeling, swimming, hot-tubbing, shopping, eating, black sand beaches, you name it.

I miss her so much but I'm glad she's getting some time to chill before the next adoption.

Honey, if you happen to catch this, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Flashback Fridays

(July 29th, 2008)

Thought I would start doing Flashback Friday to share an old photo.

This picture was taken of Ava and I on "Adoption Day" the day after Gotcha Day. We went back to finalize the adoption and she was forever ours!! It was soooo hot in this building, I was so sweaty!

I cant believe how much she has changed in 18 months. She was so little here. Her hair was so short but after 4 boys that bow was going in her hair even if I had to super glue it! ha

She was not too sure about me and really took to her Daddy. It took her about a month to feel some what comfortable with me. After waiting for so long it was so hard that first month. It finally took Daddy going back to work full time for her to look to me for comfort.

I got a blogger award!!!

Sweet Jodi Sue from Heads Up Seven Up gave me a blogger award!! Thank you so much for thinking of me. Jodi has a beautiful family and I love reading her blog please stop by and give her a visit. So with this award I'm suppose to say seven random things about myself. This is the most difficult part.

1) My parents were foster parents growing up and we would have sometimes up to 10 foster kids in the house not including me and my two younger brothers. Many of the kids they took in were the hard to place kids.

2) I'm a night owl and don't look forward to early mornings. I like to have my quiet time at night when all the little ones are sleeping.

3) My favorite drink is a Green Tea Latte with soy and no sweetener

4) I married my high school sweetheart. We will be celebrated 18 years coming up in a couple of months!!

5) The only time I have ever been out of the country was to adopt Ava but I have been to almost all 50 states!! I think I still have 5 more I need to visit.

6) I love where we live now so much more than the Northwest, where we were for over 15 years. The gray was horrible. The downside is there is no family here and I miss them so much!! Not having that support when raising a big family is hard and my children do not get to hang out with their grandparents. I would love to be close to family but it is not an option at this time in our lives. I also miss all my wonderful friends in OR, you ladies are amazing!! :-(

7) I'm a jeans, T-shirt/sweatshirt, converse wearing kind of girl. No high maintenance here!!

8) Im going to add one more- Im the worst speller in the world, so please read my blog at your own risk. ha

Black and White Wednesday

I decided to join the wagon on this one to help me post more and get the camera out often. I have slowed down on picture taking and I dont want that to happen. Lisa at The Long Road to China has started this to get herself motivated about filling her empty wall in her house. I cant wait to see all her amazing photos, she has so much talent!!

I just love little Miss Ava to pieces and like I have said before she is lucky she is cute! ha Ava does not stop during the day and is still into everything. If it is quiet then you better go searching quickly because she is into something! The amount of energy she has just blows me away.

I know it is really Thursday but I did not finish this last night like I wanted to. I still have so much to learn about photography but I really need a hands on class. I just cant read a book to figure it out. One of the many things on my list for this year!

Christmas Day 2009

We had an enjoyable Christmas. My parents drove up from Phoenix this year and my brother was visiting from South American.

The kids are always able to open their stocking first thing Christmas morning and they are able to see their gifts from Santa because he does not wrap them at our house. Keaton was the first one up at 5:00am!!! Yes, you read that right! We go to church Christmas morning, so we got ready for the 9:00am Mass. Once we got home we had our Christmas breakfast then sat down to open gifts.

It was a very light Christmas this year. The kids each got one gift from Santa, little ones got two. Their gift from Mom and Dad was our drive to Disneyland in November! They also had a gift from Papa and Nana (my parents), their Uncle Norm and Uncle Heath and Aunt Julie (my brothers). Papa John and Grandma Lori sent each of the kids a gift too. They had a few gift cards to spend from Great Grandma and a Great Aunt.

I forgot to charge the camera battery so all the pictures are courtesy of my Mom!

Gavin and his DS game from Papa John

Keaton and Ava, with her chair and wooden fruit from Santa

Ava feeding her baby breakfast before church

Keaton and Mommy. He bought this for me from his schools Santa's workshop!

Ava getting a new shirt from Nana and Papa

Ava and Uncle Norm and the Winnie the Pooh book he got her!

Soren and the "Monster Hunter" game Papa John and Grandma Lori got him

Gavin and Power Miner L*gos from Nana and Papa

Keaton and the Wii game he wanted so bad from Papa John and Grandma Lori

Preston and Keaton with a Wii game that Uncle Heath and Aunt Julie bought the whole family to share

**I will be having my first GIVEAWAY on the blog in a couple days!!! Please check back and one lucky comment/person will win. This will be your chance to leave a comment so I can meet all the people that read my blog. I cant wait to share this gift with you! I will give you a hint, I have a hidden talent/hobby that I have never talked about on this blog! :-)

Making Sugar Cookies!! YUM!!

Well I got brave this year and spent the afternoon making sugar cookies with the kids. We actually had a lot of fun, even though the entire upper floor of our home was covered with sprinkles!!

Ava was so cute, her job was to put sprinkles on every cookie after Mommy put the icing on. Every time she would say "sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle" as she sprinkled the cookies.

The boys got quite creative as usual.

Soren "Mr. Detail"

Keaton enjoying his finished product

Soren

Gavin enjoying the peppermint sprinkles!!

YUMMY FUN!!!