Random Cuteness

They always look so big in the pictures, this is just for perspective. :)

Livie is smiling at Baylee.

miss brenna. (Jaden just typed that, he wanted to help.) :)

It would be a better picture if Livie could hold up her head. Still, it is cute. :)

Why I love our School

While I was at school today, snapping a few pictures, I grabbed a couple of just some random things going on. This is why I love Valley Oaks! It was after school, so I assume that these kids were just volunteering, but these are the kinds of things they actually do in their enrichment classes. This first one is a bunch of kids, all different ages, working on the garden. They grow all sorts of things and help to prepare, plant and harvest everything that is grown. They even get to take some of their crops home. All of the animals are also cared for by the teachers and students. The kids learn so much this way with the hands-on classes. I love that!

These were just some young guys, maybe 12 or 13, working on building a fence for the school. They have their welder and they are just working away. It blows me away, I love that they can get so much experience with "adult" things. Instead of wasting their time in a classroom where they would inevitably be bored and frustrated, they get to learn in a real life environment. I strongly believe that these lessons will be with them for their lifetimes, and am so thankful that my kids get to learn this way. (And this is just 1 day a week!) Boy, do I love homeschooling. :)

Pizza Party!

Jaden's "class", or I should say Becky's roster won a pizza party at school today. :) It was fun, although I think the kids thought just eating pizza and leaving was not much of a party.

Jaden and his resource teacher Miss Becky. :) I think this was when he was asking why there were no games at this so called "party".

Luke, enjoying his cheeseless pizza.

Antonia, before her mommy took the cheese from her pizza. I told her to say, "No Cheese!" I think she is lactose intolerant, I'm not sure why she didn't get cheese. Luke just didn't like his. :) Becky and the other moms agreed that we wished we didn't like cheese.

Taya, eating her pizza. At least Taya remembered to wear green today. Poor Jaden showed up without any green except his nametag. It took me back to my school days, I don't know if I ever remembered to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. I never thought it was a very good holiday, pretty silly actually. I remember, even on the days that there was nothing in my outfit that could possibly pass for green, falling back on my green eyes. No one usually bought it. I left school praying that no one pinched him because I don't think he would think it was very funny. Who knows what he might do in retaliation. :/ He said he had a great day, so hopefully they let him off the hook. :)

Pizza Party Continued

In order to make the pizza party a little more fun, we let the kids go over and play with the animals for a bit. Here are Jaden and Luke being silly in front of the chicken coop. :)

Jaden found a new friend. He wanted to keep this guy. One of the great things about having our chickens is that it has taught Jaden how to handle animals really well. He does better than I do these days.

Jaden and Luke holding the baby bunnies. They were so cute and tiny! Luke really liked holding them until their little nails scratched his hand, he got scared and threw one of them a couple times. It was pretty funny. I remember coming here for farm day once when Baylee was small and she threw one of the bunnies too. I think they are pretty used to it. :P

Antonia did great with this little bunny. She kept asking Liz on the way out if she could have one. They were SO cute! I almost wanted one myself, but then came back to reality.

Tony, Toni, Tone

There are not that many Tony's around, that is why it is so funny that right now Tony has four coworkers named Tony (or Toni). These are the 5 Tonys at a recent meeting. I love Tony's coworkers, they are so much fun. I don't know the one right next to my Tony... but the others are always on the trips we go on. The lady Toni is a very loud, funny Jewish woman. She is very fun to be around and has the best smile. Right next to her is Tony Lani, he was/is a comedian before starting this buisness and he is hysterical. He keeps us laughing all the time with his impressions of different people from the office, and celebrities. His wife is a doll, too. The tall guy in the middle is Tony Jelso. He lives in San Luis and we are the "twin" families. He is Tony, his wife is Janae and his first son is Jaden. I think they might spell it with a y though. They teased us that they were naming their second son Aubrey. (They have 2 boys) He is also the racquet ball champion of the world or something crazy. Which is eerily similar to Tony being the tennis champion of the world. At least that is what Jaden thinks. :) They go back and forth about whether Tennis or Racquetball is the better sport. They are a great family, we love to hang out with them at the meetings. There are a lot of other great people that Tony works with, but they are not named Tony. Just a little glimpse into his world. :) I am so thankful for my husband's "work family".

Quote of the Week

"Some wish to live within the sound of Church or Chapel bell; I want to run a Rescue Shop within a yard of hell." — C.T. Studd

Girly Things

Baylee has always been interested in girly things, but especially lately. She is starting to notice her clothes and have opinions about how her hair is done. I absolutely cannot keep her out of my shoes. Lately though, it has been all about the high heels.

I grabbed a few pictures of her lining up all of her favorites of my shoes. :)

She has also been very into her nails being painted. This all started when Anne started a tradition of painting her fingers and toes everytime she stays there. (every other Wednesday) The other day she thought of a "great idea!" She used markers to paint them herself, taking advantage of the fact that I never let her do red with the real polish. :) She always wants red. Is that a bad sign??

Look Who Can Hold Herself Up! :)

It actually has been a few weeks. This one is fiesty! Both of these girls are all muscle, Brenna is just a little more determined than her Livie...

She can't quite get that cheek off of the ground... but she sure tries. :) She is the chatty one. Lately, all I hear all day is baby babble from this one. Brenna is usually quitely concentrating on conquering the world. I'm wondering if she will beat Jaden's record as our earliest walker at 9 months. She is well on her way.

Why I love my Jaden

I asked Jaden to "be the waiter" one morning, (in our house that means taking the food to the table and everyone fights over who gets to be the waiter at every meal.) When I got in there, I found him waiting to pray with his food in front of him and a festive little umbrella in his milk. He is so funny, he got this umbrella at school and saved it until breakfast the next morning. He is always full of surprises. :)

Playdate!

The girls had their first official playdate with their sweet friend Bryan yesterday. :) Brian is Suzy's little boy, and we got to have him for the afternoon while she had class. He is so cute, he looks a lot like his mom. I love his little eyebrows, so serious!

Tragedy! (warning: graphic pictures)

We has our first major injury the other night... well, ok, it wasn't major, but sure seemed that way at the time. Baylee came running in crying as she is accustomed to do. Not thinking much of it, I asked Tony to talk to her. He called me in and I found him holding her and blood gushing from some unknown place in alarming amounts. It was everywhere. It was horrible. We ran her into the bathroom and sat her in the tub so we could examine her. We started pulling clothes off, under every layer expecting to find some horrific wound. Then, we realized it was coming from her head. More panic. We might never find a wound as terrible as this wound must be, in time. In time for what? I don't know, but this is how my mind works when I have an bleeding kid on my hands. So, we work our way through masses and masses of auburn hair to find a tiny little puncture wound. It looked a little scary, but not anything like what I expected. Actually, I was quite relieved. We cleaned her up, then started to clean up the trail of blood that was all through the house. It was quite a mess! I actually rinsed her hair out into the baby bath which was a bad idea. Not only did it not make a dent in the blood drenched hair, it freaked everybody (Jaden) out which in turn scared Baylee. Jaden is actually quite the little actor, and we look forward to putting him in the drama club someday. :) I decided it would be best to rinse her out in the sink where no one could see the results. She was doing fine by that point, actually, quite excited that now that she had a major head injury she didn't have to go to bed anymore, but got to watch cartoons while mom decided that she didn't have a concussion.

The mortal wound. (Which was really not as bad as it looks in the picture.)

Enjoying her cartoons while her brother's are in bed. :)

The very disturbing baby bath of blood. Tony asks me why I take pictures of these things. I have no idea. Just to have records I guess. :) It didn't even require a trip to the ER, but it was scary enough for me. This is the worst part of having kids... but still worth it.

Happy Birthday Chase!

April 20th was Chase-man's first birthday. We went up to my parent's house to celebrate.

Chase's 1st Cake

The kids with Buddy and Loshley playing Hot "Potato".

Pin the Tail on the giant inflatable donkey. :)

The twins

Aubrey loves Aunt Robin :)

The Saddest One Yet

Over the years, I have always posted pictures of the kids falling asleep in funny places. This has to be the best, and the saddest one of all. Aubrey was completely exhausted after a day without a nap, and after eating his dinner (and smearing the rest everywhere near by) he crashed right on his chair. I was not eating with the kids tonight, and was in and out of the dining room, when I came in and found him like this I about had a heart attack. Of course, my mind jumps to the worst possible thing: he choked on his pasta and passed out. I can't believe I didn't hear him, I can't believe I left him in here alone... WITH NOODLES! But luckily, before I could go much furthur in my crazed nightmare, I realized he was just fine. Poor little man, it was only 6:30, but he was completely out for the night. :)

Adoptive Placement!!!

Today, we signed adoptive placement papers. Really, it doesn't mean a whole lot, but we are excited that we no longer have to lock up our medications and hand soap! Now, we are looking at about 4 months until Finalization, which will be even better! Our visits from Kelly, our social worker, are fewer and further between... which is a blessing! Hopefully before I turn 29 we will finalize and officially have these girls forever. :)

Kelly agreed to take a family picture of us, since we still didn't have one. :/ You can see how well Aubrey cooperated! He is so funny lately whenever we are around someone he doesn't know very well. Really, he knows Kelly pretty well by now... usually he talks to her and is polite, but not today. He refused to take his hands down but I told Kelly that it was ok, this is how I will remember our family at this stage. Especially my little man.

The girls were looking so cute with all of their bows (Randi, you really started something over here!) I had to take a couple of pictures. :)

Especially since they had their "Hippie" onesies on. Usually, I would not buy such things. I'm not much into "peace" and "love", at least not the kind this world offers. However, I find myself buying things for these girls I would never have gotten for Baylee. They can just pull off more crazy and colorful things I think. I love that they are newborn onesies and they still fit. I do not love that they got glitter EVERYWHERE. I guess that is the price you pay for the cuteness.