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)

LID!!!!

Found out yesterday our LID was June 1st, 2010!!!!!!

The best part is that we are already 30 days into waiting for our LOA!!! And I think the average has been about 55 days lately!! So if that is the case for us we are more than half way there!!!

We sent off another little care package today with someone from our agency that is leaving for China on Friday!! We sent Gemma a T-shirt from our state, some stickers, lip balm, bracelets and kids all drew pictures for her!!! We pray that we start getting some correspondence from her soon!!

Things are crazy busy here. We have 8 kids right now because our nieces are visiting for a few weeks like they do every summer from Texas!! So this Mama is tired and does not have a whole lot of computer time!!

Be back for B&W Wednesday in a couple weeks.

Click on pics below to see bigger!!!!

Soren's artwork for Gemma

Gavin's artwork for Gemma

Ava's artwork

Keaton's artwork

Even the cousins got into it and drew pictures for Gemma!!

The difference between Boys and Girls & a Great friend

(boy #4 Keaton, Ava and my nieces)

I have a dear friend Ann that I have know for 13 years now. She has been my mentor for adding a child to our family via adoption.

Almost 13 years ago I had just had my #2 baby boy and I was nursing exclusively. I had a over production of milk, a major over production of milk. Not only did I nurse my baby boy 24/7 I also pumped over 60 ounces of milk at day!!! Yes, I felt like a dairy cow!!

I hated throwing it down the drain so I froze every last ounce of that liquid gold. By the time my son was 6 months old I had filled my entire freezer!! I did not want it to go bad so I starting calling around to the hospitals and other organizations to find out if I could donate it. In the process of making calls I found out there was this gal on the other side of town that was getting ready to bring her first baby home from Korea. A beautiful 5 month old baby girl with unrepaired cleft lip and palette.

I called her and introduced myself. I told her about all the milk I had in the freezer and I heard she was looking for a possible donor. She came by and brought 2 of her 4 bio children and her beautiful new baby girl. I answered a few questions for her and showed her I was not at high risk for anything and we got to know each other. She brought a cooler and we filled it to the brim!! ha I dont even remember how many times we filled that cooler.

Her sweet baby girl received over 60 ounces of milk from me a day for over 6 months. It was such a blessing. We became friends fast and enjoyed each other families.

Fast forward 2 1/2 years later I had boy #3. And yes I had too much milk again. At the same time Ann had just arrived home with a precious baby boy from Korea. Guess what?? You guessed it I passed the extra milk to her new baby!!

Ann now has 8 precious children and still my mentor for raising a big family and now adopting an older child. She bought home Vu from Vietnam 2 years ago at almost 7 years old.

I also sadly watched her family lose a son to cancer at the age of 21, two years ago. I had already moved out of state but kept in touch via email and phone.

Ann has an amazing blog that I love to read. I learn so much from her blog but mostly she always makes me laugh. She and her hubby have built the most amazing family and the greatest kids. You can follow Ann's blog here.

This is copied from her blog. I laughed so hard I just had to share!! Enjoy

(sorry if you might be offended by the text)

By: crazy for kids

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2010

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Recently, my daughters and I and a couple of their friends (girls) were driving to the store. Suddenly, we noticed the worst smell! It wasn't a skunk! It wasn't a barnyard! It wasn't the water treatment plant--but it did smell similar.

A couple of the girls started pointing fingers at each other followed by embarrassment and "she who smelt it, dealt it" comments. I looked in the rearview mirror and Kim's friend looked like she might cry.

Suddenly, I was inspired by a new family and friends rule. I threw it out to the girls and we all agreed it was an awesome rule:

When a gas-like odor emits, instead of pointing the finger at someone else, we will ALL say in unison, "IT WAS ME!"

We all agreed it was the ultimate in kindness. We all thought it was a great new rule, laughed and practiced saying, "It was me!"

A couple of days later we were in the car again. This time it was my daughters and my two youngest sons. Sure enough, that familiar gas-like odor appeared. Vu said, "Yuck! Who FARTED?!!" The girls and I proudly announced in unison, "It was me!" We laughed.

Then, Patrick said irritably, "No, it was ME."

The girls and I laughed again and put out a trio of, "It was me!" We tried to explain that it was going to be our new family rule, so nobody would feel embarrassed or unjustly accused.

"But it WAS me!!" Patrick boldly declared, "I FARTED and I want everyone to KNOW it was MY FART!"

I began to say something when Vu interupted with, "Mom, it WAS Patrick's fart and you should let him have his own fart."

Hmmmmm.

Therein lies the difference between boys and girls.

Some of the many reasons I did not have time to blog this summer!

Two years ago April 29th my very good friend and sister in law past away suddenly. This was a very sad day but for us a happy one too because it is my oldest sons Birthday. We talked so many times during the week and shared parenting, laughs and tears. Ever since Marie had her first child Sean and I would fly her to visit us every summer. The day she died she left behind a husband and three young daughters ages 7, 6, 2 years old. Sean I have continued the tradition for the girls of bringing them to our home every summer. We miss last summer because we were preparing for China. They usually stay about a month with us. We have a blast but it makes for a very busy summer with no energy by the end of the day to even think about blogging. ha So we had quite the Brady Bunch family this summer; 4 boys and 4 girls. My little 1 year old nephew visited for a week too!! The day before everyone left we took some quick pictures and Im sharing two of them below. We look forward to it every summer. We had many other visitors this summer too; Bother and sister in law for a week, Mother in law for a week, Father in law and Step Mother in law for a week, my parents for a week, my brother for a week, and we took a family vacation to the mountain for a week when every one left! Whewwww! Then school started the beginning of August. Crazy!! So that gives you a little idea of why we were not in the blogging world this summer. :-)

Im back, sort of

Sorry it has been so long.  I took the two little ones and went to visit my parents and little brother.  We stayed for 5 days and the little cousins had a lot of fun playing together for the first time.  It is so fun seeing cousins together playing and it makes me sad how far away we are from each other.  It had been two years since Keaton had seen his cousins and one he never met.   The weather was horrible for Arizona and we had to find indoor things to keep them busy.  We did have one day we were able to go to the Phoenix Zoo but it was still windy and a little cold.

The day we left to come home I started not feeling so well.  By the time we landed I was a mess, fever, chills, sweats, shaking!!  I was so happy to see my hubby and older boys.  Well it has been 9 days and I am still only 65-70% better.  I still cant smell or taste anything, not sleeping well and coughing up a lung all night long!  I seriously cant not remember if I have ever been this sick before.  I have not left the house but to go to the doctor in 9 days.  

Not only have I not blogged but my eyes have been hurting so bad that I have not read any blogs either, maybe a couple but not for any length of time.  I hope my energy will pick up soon and I can start getting some real sleep.  My hubby was awesome today and let me sleep in until 10:30 this morning and then slowing roll out of bed and take a shower and get ready for the day.  I dont like that I cant taste anything and because of that I have not eaten very well and have lost 6 lbs.  The not smelling anything has not been too bad especially when it comes time to change those nasty diapers! ha  We need to start potty training soon. :-)

I tried to get a few pictures of the four little cousins together at the end of our trip.  We lined them up on my Mom's couch.  Not much luck when you have 4 under 5!  

I hope you did not give up on me.  Hopefully I will get back to blogging regularly soon.

Well today is the day!!!!

We are in Portland, OR at Sean's Dads.  We got here about 7:15pm last night.  Lori made a great dinner and we got to visit with family we had not seen in 1 1/2 years.  We also got to meet a new cousin "Spencer", he is 3 months and soooo cute!!!!  The older boys really enjoyed holding him and so did Auntie April!

We are looking forward to my brother coming over with his girls this morning before we leave.   Soren has not seen their other new cousin "Lois", she is also almost 3 months.

I will post pics of the new cousins later, Sean downloaded them on his computer so I will have him send them to me.

We are packed and ready to go, I cant believe it!  The younger boys are back at home having fun with their Great Aunt and Uncle's this week.  Next week my Mom will come and stay with them until we get back home.  She has a lot of fun things planned with them to keep them busy.

I better wake the rest of the crew up and get this show on the road!!!