Always the Unexpected!

My life has been anything but predictable through the years. I married my high school sweetheart in September of 1980. We decided we wanted to have children so we had four beautiful sweet adorable babies. They are all grown now with babies of their own. After many years we adopted three of our beautiful grandchildren. We just reached the two year mark of the adoption on January 27, 2014. In June we will have had these sweet children for 5 years. Loren and I are so blessed to have them in our home.

On Monday of this week, we pulled our children out of public schools/traditional school and are now home schooling them. We realized that with our sixth grader that we could not keep them safe, and teachers could not keep our children safe. No matter how much they loved our children or wanted to help them, they could not keep them safe. With our sixth grader, things went bad in a hurry. Early in the year I had had many conferences and emails with the teacher. I had tried to work with the school with some issues that kept coming up and nothing seemed to be working. The bullying, the tormenting, and the spiteful nature of some children just ruined the learning experience in the classroom.

Everyday when I would go to pick up my kids, there was a story. Most of the time there were tears when my sixth grader got into the car. I was so hurry for this person because I sent my children off to school to learn and this little one was not having a good experience. I hurt for my kids, I wanted the best for them. On Thursday before I withdrew the kids. My sixth grader came home and said some kids had been really bullying to the point that this one would rather die then go back to school. I was shocked and so worried. I asked lost of questions. On Friday, the same thing happened again and after school the school psychologist called me we talked and this little one had said the same thing to her and to me. Loren and I agonized over what to do.

My answer came in the form of a sweet answer to my prayer. Everything started falling into place over the weekend. I looked up home schooling, talked to some friends who home school. I got some recommendations on what to do and then I just did it. On Monday morning, two years to the day that our adoption was final, I walked into the school and withdrew my sixth grader, then that afternoon I walked into the school and withdrew my second grader. Monday morning I will withdraw my seventh grader.

This week we have had our kids home all week, it has been so awesome. We have done fun things. We went to the library, worked on Science, Math, History, language  Arts, Art, Reading and we have gone to the store, budgeted for a garden project we plan to do in the spring. Everything just feel together. Last night I gave them a math placement test to see where they were and I was appalled at what I found out. Therefore, starting today we are going to learn together.

I feel so blessed that we can home school our kids, that Loren and I have a partnership that will allow us to work hard to teach our children. We also will just have fun learning! I told a friend today, that I have to stop asking for adventures. I keep getting ones that are challenging. ;-) I love my life!

Connor's ear surgery 7/2013

 When Connor was born he was not able to hear. He failed his newborn screening. When he was 11 months old he had tubes put in his ears to help him. He has chronic fluid in his ears, so he had tubes at 11 months and 5 years. Well, the tube got stuck and was causing bleeding, and earaches. So, he had surgery to remove that...and now he feels GREAT!!!

 Daddy got to go back with him until he fell asleep.

 After surgery, he was a little teary eyed...but he did great!

 He was home after a few hours!

Snuggling with his dog...Taylor Photo bombed...

Summer vacation 2013 St. George, Utah

 Our family took a trip to ST. George, Utah in July 2013. Our trip was memorable because it was only 110 or higher while we were there. But we did spend plenty of time in the pool enjoying your time. We had parties as it was Paityn's 2nd birthday while we were there. We also visited the St. George Temple which is where we had this family picture taken. Connor got a fun game for his birthday so we went outside and played that. It was so fun! Also, a highlight of our trip was the visit of two amazing ladies who used to be the first babysitters for our older children. Sara and Lisa drove up to St. George from Las Vegas where they both live now. We had a great time catching up. We also had great food, each day someone was in chage of making that days foods. I loved it because I did not have to spend my whole time cooking and cleaning. I love spending time with my grandbabies, I love spending time with my kids. I miss them so much and I'm so thankful for their goodness and the way they are bringing up their children to be closer to Christ.

 Parker and Taylor chilling the night we arrived at the condo. There were so darn cute!

 Getting ready to head to the pool, we had a lot of blowing up the blow up toys...so then it was just fun to climb in the middle! This is Connor!

 Good morning to these two beauty queens, Paige and Aubrey!

 Aubrey at Paityn's Birthday party!

 Aubrey headed to the pool!

 The grandkids at Paityn's birthday party. Missing a few grandbabies, but so fun to have these sweeties there

 Taylor headed to the pool, have to have everyone pose inside these blowup toys!

 Opening presents! Happy 2nd birthday Paityn

 Paige busting out the moves

 Playing games outside

 Laura made this beautiful birthday cake, even with just a few resources since we were at the condo...Laura rocks!

 Games and sidewalk chalk

 Ahhhh they found out where we kept the blowup toys so we didn't have to blow them up every time we went to the pool!

 Connor at Paityn's birthday

 Paityn

 Taylor

 Love this is Paityn and Taylor

 Before everyone walked into the party Renae sprayed everyone down with a spray bottle of water and then sprinkled fairy dust on them...Connor must have helped himself to more!

 These beautiful ladies are so special to me. Sara on the left was the first babysitter for all four of my older children. Lisa on the right babysat for them too. I can not believe these ladies have grown into such wonderful beautiful women! I love them dearly!

 Our family loves to play UNO, PHASE 10, and any game we can find. We decide to do it in mustaches

 Some of the yummy food we had, Laura and Wayne made crepes...they were delicious!

More birthday party...I know all these pictures are totally out of order...but it was fun to look through them!

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year, 2014! On this blustery cold day in Colorado, I thought this picture I found on Google Images would certainly say it all.

I hope you all had a great holiday season! We had the best!!! My family flew to Portland Oregon and visited our parents and siblings. We spent two glorious weeks in the Northwest, basking in the rain and overcast weather. It was so nice though seriously!

We started off visiting Loren's family, stayed at his sisters house. We had lots of great talks, and a ton of laughs. Our kids especially like their Great-Aunt Kim and the Great Uncle Dave! Actually, I think that since we have adopted the kids she calls herself the Aunt Kim the Great! Which is appropriate, she is great and the kids love them so much!

After four and a half days there we drove up to see my parents for six days, where we had such a great time visiting! I was disappointed that one of my sisters didn't make the short drive to see us, it was the 2nd time we have visited that she has not made an effort to come see us. My other sister Kristi was sick with flu like symptoms and so we stayed FAR away from her. Though her family kept coming over to Mom and Dad's to share the germs! We did not get sick so that all worked out well, we just kept the kids washing their hands and staying away as much as they could. Though despite that, we had such a fun time visiting and seeing everyone.

My mother and I went shopping on Monday the 23 and Tuesday the 24th on Christmas Eve. We got out early Christmas Eve, it wasn't so bad. We were gone a long time. I still had not wrapped all my presents. So when the family all left that night (about 10 pm) we (mom, Loren and I) started wrapping. Oh my gosh I did not think we'd ever get done. Mom kept bringing more and more out. It wasn't that much for each person it was just a lot of people. At 1:30 am. my dad woke up and he came out with us and sat at the dinning room table and talked to us while we wrapped. Loren got busy putting all the presents out, and we went to bed at 2 am...I knew we were in trouble, because my kids are notorious for getting up early on Christmas day, even though our rule is nothing before 7 am. This year, only Aubrey and Connor woke up around 5 am, so Loren let them go out and sit by the tree, and sleep/talk but not touch. Taylor had to be woke up at 8 am.

The very best present I got this year, was my mom surprised me with seeing my son, it really was like Christmas. I was so happy to see him. I just cried and gave him the biggest hug ever! I missed him so much, we had not really talked in 3 years. The kids all got his phone number so that they could Facetime him with their iPads, so he was so good to them. Money can not buy a Christmas present like this, I still get all choked up when I think about spending Christmas with my oldest son this year. I feel so blessed and so thankful to my parents for making that happen!

We left my parents the day after Christmas to head back to Loren's sisters house and that night we went to a awesome German Restaurant, I had not had German food in years and years, so it was so fun! Our kids went with us and they loved it...so we know that was a hit, can't wait to go again!

After we returned home (we flew out at 8 am Friday morning), we got back into the swing of things. We had a great New Years eve with fun things we did as a family. Now for the 2014 year, its a very exciting time to be alive.

This year, I did not set New Years resolution to lose weight, although I needed to, but what I did instead is set a goal to get my family healthier. I hope that in the process I will be able to lose weight too. I also want to get a job, and start working on paying off my student loans so we can get our family back out of debt. Student loans are essential to receive an education, but paying them back can be taxing on the budget. Therefore, my goal is to work hard for the next couple of years and pay them all off. Taking one and a time and knocking  it down. 

I hope you all have a warm, healthy and happy 2014! Happy New Year from my blog to you!