four kids, four dates

We had dinner plans with some friends on Saturday, but when their kids got sick our family's evening opened up. So we declared it the day of dates.

First date: Dad, Mom, and Layla shopping at Costco
We each told her three things we love about her. She held our hands walking into the store. She "helped"us shop. And when we got home, she yelled and cried and shouted for "more date".

Second date: Dad, Mom, and Perry shopping at the grocery store
He reached for both of our hands as we walked through the parking lot. He was thrilled to ride in the car cart. We told him three things we love about him. He got the milk we desperately needed at home.

Third date: Mom and Kyler out to dinner
We walked to Applebee's together to use his dessert coupon. We talked about school and other things. We played tic-tac-toe. He generously shared his dessert with me. I told him how much I love him.

Fourth date: Dad and Kacin dinner and ice cream
They ate at central market. I'm guessing they talked with each other. :) Kacin treated his dad to ice cream (a birthday present to E). Kacin ate the bubblegum ice cream. He was happy.

We love spending one-on-one time with our kids, even if it is while we are grocery shopping. I hope they like it, too. They are each such different people and it's fun having special time with each of them.

Pinewood Derby

Like I said, we were so behind on making our pinewood derby cars this year. We finished up putting the wheels on just minutes before it was time to leave.

After we arrived and got the boys checked in and weight adjusted, I started talking to a friend. This was her first year having her two boys both with cars and she was telling me she was worried about them racing against each other and if one overall did better than the other etc. She asked me how I dealt with it last year. Well, honestly I don't remember it being an issue last year. Maybe because last year both boys didn't do so well. :) I wasn't worried.

Five minutes into it I hear Kacin yell to Kyler--"Ha, my car beat yours!" The bishop leaned over and  said "A little sibling rivalry, eh?"

So the rest of the night we dealt with one excited boy who kept winning his races and ended up in 2nd place overall and one disappointed boy who didn't fare so well in the win category, but had a pretty cool looking car anyway.

I was so torn between being really excited that Kacin was doing so well and being sad with Kyler who was so devastated about how his car was performing.

So we had a real life lesson in good sportsmanship. It took only a few conversations and everyone moved on and everything was just peachy again. Love these two boys and so proud of their hard work and cool designs!

Kyler's car:

Kacin's car:

 Cute spectators:

the troop:

Marshmallow Guns

My sister made us marshmallow guns for Christmas. They have gotten pulled out a few times each week since then. Perry is good at placing a marshmallow into the gun and then sucking it into his mouth. Layla has no shame and will shove as much of the ammunition into her mouth as she can hold. When Kacin pulls out the guns, he has more deliberate targets. Usually it is me. But sometimes it is the army men.

Some Things

This year is just starting out in the best way possible.

Except nothing special has really happened.

I think it's just because a huge weight has been lifted now that I do not have the rollercoaster of my babies returning to their bio fam, no wait they are not, oh just kidding they are, no they aren't, they will relinquish next month, never mind looks like three more months, etc.

And my schedule has opened up without all those caseworker visits and bio family visits and filling out forms and keeping records.

I love foster care (well, I don't love that kids and families get put in such situations to warrant foster care, but I'm glad it is there and that foster families can be touched and that hopefully families can get fresh starts or learn skills and make their lives better), but we are taking a little break to let our family settle in a bit.

Eric and I sat down with a calendar to plan out his vacation days. I'm already excited for all the fun 2014 will bring--camping, cabins, weekend trips, day trips, and Disneyland! We are too lucky.

Two people complimented my hair today--I guess I should throw my hair in a messy bun, run around cleaning the house and getting kids ready for the day while preparing for preschool and not even glance in the mirror until my preschool students start to arrive more often. Oh wait I do that every day, but I'm not usually so lucky as to get compliments on my unbrushed hair. Maybe it was a blessing because, even though Eric wasn't around, I actually gathered us together for a short family scripture study. Ok, reading scriptures probably doesn't yield blessings like compliments, but there's something about scripture study that brings you happiness and strength. You don't even know you are missing it in your day until you try it and then realize all that you could feel if you were to simply read from the scriptures.

My boys have their first day of school play tryouts today. They will be performing Alice in Wonderland. Kacin is excited about being part of the play, but was feeling nervous for these tryouts. Kyler, on the other hand, was persuaded into this experience. When I was explaining the process of auditions to them and I let them know that everyone will get a part no matter how the auditions go, Kyler said "Ah man, I was hoping to just get cut." No such luck for you, kiddo. I'm sure this will be a good experience for them both. They find out their parts in two days!

The pine wood derby is tomorrow. Guess who is ready? Not us by a long shot! Eric is supposed to come home early (we are shooting for 5 or 5:30) so these boys can get to work on their cars. Hopefully they will both finish tonight so we don't have to scramble tomorrow night.

Have I mentioned that Perry is potty trained during the day now? This kid rocks. I wish I had video recorded him during that first week he was here--all the yelling, screaming, head banging, didn't respond to his name, receptive language of a 6 month old, didn't use a spoon--to see the difference between then and now. He is a different kid. Well, he is the same sweet boy who loves to sing, but nowadays he uses more words, surprises me with what he understands, and then blew that potty training thing out of the water. Oh, and for the first time, this week we overheard him counting to 10--twice. We are meeting with a new therapist in a few days to start ABA therapy. We are very lucky we found a place that should be able to get him in starting next month or so, instead of the 6 months to a year wait that is most common for this therapy around here.

Perry went into the Sunbeams class at church. So far everything has gone fine. His teachers are so nice and they have quickly learned to hand over their keys to him. Ha! He wanders a bit during sharing time, but everyone says he is doing fine. I've been so worried about this transition. Like, so worried, but he is doing it, and I'm sure it will get better and better each week.

I certainly can not leave Layla out of this post. She has a love for all things art. This week it has been glue--bottles of white Elmer's glue to squeeze puddles all over paper. Then we rip construction paper to place into those puddles of glue, but her heart is into the squeezing and not so much the paper placing. L loves to Facetime grammy and papa and her aunts and cousins. She thinks my iphone is hers. She tells me that all the time. She has even deleted messages from my phone that I did not exactly want deleted. I tried a passcode on my phone, but having it drove me crazy so I turned it off. So I guess I share a phone with my 2 year old.

I haven't pulled out my camera since last year. I should get better at that again. Until then here are pictures during our reading of The Hobbit on a Sunday past.

Ready for 2014

We met as a family on Monday night for our yearly theme reveal and goal setting.

2014 Theme: 

Be an example in small ways each day.

We set our goals differently than we have in the past. We decided on lots of family goals and only one individual goal. We also decided that we would make it part of our FHE routine to quickly look over our goals together (hopefully this way we won't forget what it is we said we wanted to do, like we did last year!).

Our goals this year:

Family

1. Finish reading The Hobbit

2. Pray specifically for the missionaries by name and for missionary experiences

3. Save money to donate $*** to the General Mission Fund

4. Share your testimony in Sacrament meeting

5. Read scriptures as a family (we determined 7:30 am and E is adjusting his work schedule as best he can to be there most days)

6. Continue to write in our journals on Sundays

7. Someone from our family will attend the temple monthly

8. Go camping 5 times

9. Speak kindly to each other
10. Practice our instruments consistently

Layla

potty train

Perry

learn to pedal a bike

Kacin

read 12 chapter books

Kyler

practice soccer each week

Mom

do the splits

Dad

participate in sports each week (play basketball, golf, etc.)

A few of my favorite bloggers out there who don't even know I exist are Shawni at 71Toes and Jen at Denton Sanatorium. They each choose one word to focus on each year. I've never tried it before, but this year a certain word popped into my mind and won't leave my head so I am giving it a go. 

My word for 2014 is listen.

Listen to my kids and find out intentions before I get upset about something that happens.

Really listen to my kids and be "present" when they tell me about school or a project or friends or even those things I have no interest in, but they do (could I be speaking about minecraft and legos?).

Listen to promptings of the Spirit to act.

Be a better listener and try to remember what people tell me and what is going on in their lives. 

Read my scriptures and then listen.

Listen to Eric when he gives me a compliment and believe him instead of responding with doubt, denial, and negative talk.

Be still, reflect more, and listen.

Ring in the New Year

2013 ended with a super fun family party. We gathered with a bunch of friends at the church building and ate food, played games, kids watched movies and played xbox etc. We made it much longer than I thought we would, but headed home around 11pm when cheeks were red from bouncing so much and toddlers were melting down.

We still toasted with the boys when we got home and then sent them all to bed with a see ya next year.

Happy New Year!

Adoption Celebration

We were so, so excited about adopting Layla and Perry, since they have been with us almost a year and a half and we love them and we love adoption, so E and I decided to throw a big party to celebrate. We arranged for our celebration to be held in the afternoon at a local trampoline/play area. We all played for 2 and a half hours and ate cake. One of our friends children (4 year olds are awesome) suggested we sing "Happy Adoption" (to the tune of happy birthday) to Layla and Perry, so we did that, too. :)

I cracked up at these next two pictures of Jared and Eric . . . looks like he was caught right at the punch line and it must have been a good one. :)

We are so grateful for great friends who support our family!