Winter Fun!!

This month has been a busy one.  Shopping for Christmas presents,performances, and Hope's adoption finalization.
I think that I am done shopping for Christmas. I hope, anyways.  It isn't fun finding out that you have forgotten something, and have to do last minute shopping.  I ordered most of Christmas online this year. It has been fun getting boxes at the door.  Loren's office is filled with boxes.
All of the children were in a school performance.  Zach, Ethan and Parker were in the Jingle Jam at school and sang Christmas songs.  Loren got pic's and video of them.  So I will have to post them later.
Paige and Braden both had choir performances that we attended.  Their choirs did a great job.  Paige performed at the Mall and a few other places.

This morning was Hope's adoption finalization.  We were able to do it via telephone.  Our awesome friend Chris Olsen is a notary and came to help with the swearing in and signing of papers. It only took about 7 minutes to complete all of it.  Hope is now legally a part of our family.  I am so over joyed and humbled at the same time.  I thank God for letting this sweet spirit be a part of our lives.  Susan (birth mother) still keeps in touch with us and it is good to hear how she is doing.  This to has been a miracle in and of it's self.  We were told at the being of being matched with Susan that she did not want to meet us and that she would never write to us.  As you know, when we arrived in Florida it all changed.  We where able to meet with both the birth Father and Susan.  I keep all of the letters that they send so Hope will know a little about her birth parents and that they LOVE her.

Merry Christmas to all!  I bought cards but didn't get any of them mailed.

I love this time of year.  Christ is fore front of my mind. And people think of others and help them out.
Hope has found her fingers and like to suck on them.  She also likes playing with her blankets and burb clothes.  She can grab the toys on her toy bar but gets made when she can't get them into her mouth. She thinks that everything should go into her mouth already. We are in trouble when she is mobile.  She is the the happiest first thing in the morning.  She wakes up and plays in her crib and talks.  None of our other children have done that.  They all woke up crying to be feed.  When I go in her room to get her, she is all smiles and giggles. We started feeding her rice cereal this month.  She loves it.  She cries if I don't get it in her mouth fast enough.

We will be Blessing Hope on Janruary 24th .  And we will be having her Sealed to us on Janruary 26th.  Look for invitations-coming soon- I hope!

Braden is on the back row second from right.  The lighting was dark and I was far away.

Caught a smile on camera-finally!!

3 months old

first time eating rice cereal

Hope 3 months old

Hope is three months old today. Boy, how time flies.  She still thinks that she needs to eat every two hours during the day.  But she is actually sleeping at night now.  She sleeps anywhere from 6 to 8 hours at a time.  It is so nice to get sleep.  I'm jumping for joy...can you see me? 
Hope has learned so much this last month.  She has a fake little cough she does ,when she wants attention.  She has discovered her hands and tries to suck on her fingers.  They don't stay in her mouth very long and she gets frustrated and cries that they left.  She is holding toys and reaching for things. She holds her head up quit well now and makes fun baby sounds.  She has the cutest smiles but we can't seem to get any on photo's.  As soon a the camera comes out the smiles leave.  When the camera is put away, the smiles come back.  She is so funny that way.  Last night we gave her baby cereal for the first time.  She loved it. She didn't even do the spit out thing, where half of it comes back out of their mouth.  She just ate it like she had done it a hundred times before. She cried when we took it away and tried to give her a bottle.  She loves her food.  You can probably tell by her chubby cheecks and the3 rest of her.  She now weighs 13 pounds.  WOW.

Loren's father had quadriple bi-pass surgery and is home now recovering.  We are hoping that he will be well enough to travel when we have Hope sealed to us, sometime in Janruary.
This last week has been a stressful one for me.  Coming home to find our dear neighbor had passed away.  Lorens father in the hospital and Loren in Florida, really kept me busy and worrying about things that I really didn't have much control over.  I helped prpared food for the funeral but was unable to attend.  Hope had a bad cold all week and I didn't dare leave her with anyone.  She was pretty grumpy.  Also, Paige had a choir performance,  I went to it and took grumpy with me.  Paige and her group did well.  So did the other groups that performed.  I love Christmas music.  I love the Christmas season and remember to put Christ in my life.

Thanksgiving fun and then worry and sorrow

We went to spend Thanksgiving with Loren's parents in Phoenix Arizona. It is an 11 1/2 hour drive (including bathroom breaks and lunch). We all got restless about the las hour from sitting so long. Hope did very well. She had had enough of her car seat 1/2 before we got there. She did the same on the way home. However, she was quit grumpy the day after we arrived and today. I guess thats her way of getting us back.

We had a great time with the Aunts, Uncles, and cousins that also live there. They have grown in the last 6 months since they where at our house.Ethan and Hailey were so cute playing and reading together. The younger boys played all kinds of games together and kept themselves busy. All of the children enjoyed going to the children's museum and to the zoo lights.

Paige, Braden and Zach played a game of football. What is Thanksgiving without some kind of football game? Loren got pictures on his camera, so I will post them later. Crazy Zach decided to try out the swimming pool. He jumped off of the diving board, came up shouting, "IT'S COLD", and quickly jumped out and headed for the hot tub. The silly thing is he was warned that the water was only 76 degrees. He even waded in the shallow end before jumping in. Zach, what will we do with you? All of my children loved spending time in the big hot tub and so did Loren and I. It was great to get away from cold Utah for a short while.

Loren's mother was so great at preparing The Thanksgiving feast and also inviting everyone to dinner every night while we were there. I'm sure that she is in need of a big rest. Thanks, Marcia, you are amazing.

Aunt Gwenn recently purchased her first house. It looked small from the outside but was big on the inside. She even has a pool in her backyard. She also has a energetic dog that my kids liked to play with.

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Amanda's family also purchased a new home. It was fun to see. Their family room is set up to be every childs dream. Toys, games, books and more toys. I can't wait to see what it looks like when they get the new paint finished. They have the greeniest grass in Arizona, I believe. Uncle Brian is the children's favorite. I don't know why. They all just love him and get along with him.

Thanks family for the great Thankgiving Holiday.

Uncle Nathan gave us a tour of the T.V. station that he works for. And let the children try being news anchors and weather persons. What fun!! Thanks Nathan for the tour.

When we arrived home, Loren called his parents to let them know that we arrived safetly, only to find that his father had had a heart attack right after we left Sunday Morning. He is scheduled for a triple bypass this afternoon. We are praying for you, Dad.

Also, Our neighbors came over to let us know that our wonderful neighbor was killed in a motorbike accident on Saturday. His wife is ecpecting their third child in the next two weeks. We are in shock and sorry. She is in our prayers. We love their family so much. Her husband will be missed by many.

New puppies

We knew skip was going to have puppies but we weren't sure when.  She has been climbing in my small laundry basket and sleeping for the last few days.  I found a larger container for her and placed old towels in it.  She gave birth to 4 little puppies on Tuesday evening.  One is black and white and the other are tri-color, like their mother.  Three are female and one is a male.  They will be old enough to leave and go to their own homes around Christmas.  Parker wanted to name them Skip 2,3,4,5, after their mom.  What a cute kid.

Hope has started sleeping better-finally.  She sleeps about 5 hours the first leg of the night and then sleeps 2-3 hours after that.  However, naps are still quite short even when it is quiet in the house.  She has giggled at Parker a few times.  I don't know how he does it but Hope just seems to adore him.  She has big open mouth smiles first thing in the morning and coo's and coo's.  She is a morning girl.  Funny because only Ethan was a morning person in this family until her.  So I guess they can entertain each other.  She has also started saying mama when she gets mad.  It is so fun to hear.  All of my other kids learned to say dada first so I just take it all in.

Look a like meter

I got this fun idea from my friend Heather's blog.  Thanks Heather.

               The meter was so fun that I had to try it with another child. As you can see, I chose Paige.

Family Christmas service project

My side has a fairly new tradition for christmas,  instead of buying gifts for the adults, we use the money towards a service project for those in need.  Last year we did sub for santa for a family that was really in need and it was fun to buy gifts for people that we really didn't even know.   This year we are stepping it up and doing 2,yes 2, projects.  The first one is.... we are making dolls for the church to put in the bishops store house or to be used where ever they see a need.  Most of the girls and their daughters got together at my parent's house to begin this fun project.

These are pictures of the dolls we are creating...

There was a lot of cutting, arms, legs, heads, bodies.  Embroidering of the doll faces,  and painting of rosy checks.

And of course no get together is complete without yummy food.

The older children where great at entertaining Hope for a while.

If you go to grandmas you have to play dolls....she has many!!

The second project is... we are making, buying and collecting items for a school of foster children in Magna.  These children have no parents or their parents are in jail.  The children are ages 12-18 and live at the school.  Since they are wards of the state they are only alotted $20.00 for Christmas.  I don't know any of these children but already I feel for them. 
If you are interested in helping out with this service project, here is a list of items that the children have requested...
Blankets for beds,scarfs, hats, toe socks, music on CD's, T-shirts, and...  (when I find my list I'll add to this one).

My little monsters

I have torn the house apart looking for my camera. I knew that it couldn't have gone to far because we took pictures of kids just before they went trick or treating. I looked under couches and cushions. In draws, on top of desks and counters, in the piles of papers in Lorens office. I finally found it tonight behind the printer desk. How it got there, I can only imagine. I was getting nervous because this is a new camera. My really nice one got lost-in the house somewhere- after Zach's birthday party. It however, is still missing. Maybe the borrows live at my house-hmmm. Well here are the pic's....

                                                          Zach as a dead boy scout.
                                                   Loren does good, scary make-up.

Parker was a normal wizard for school and then he liked Zach's face so much that he decided to be a dead wizard for trick or treating.

Ethan isn't into the scary so much so he was a ninja which was great because we already had this costume from Braden.

Hope was dressed in her cute teddy bear outfit. She is cuddly like a teddy bear.

We have been fighting sickness at our house for 2 weeks now. Someone gets better and then someone gets sick. Parker had the flu last week and now he has a bad cold and a high fever (okay, I think he got it from me. I'm just getting over it) I think we have had all we need this year. So germs stay away.

Braden is on an overnighter with the scouts. They had to be at Bro. Dowdle's at 3:30 so he packed most of his stuff last night. What great leaders we have. Zach is going to a sleep over at his cousins house. Hum, 2 down 4 to go. Just kidding. Paige, Hope and I are going to grandma R's tomorrow to do a Christmas service project with all of the Aunt's and nieces. We are making clothe dolls. We are also making blankets and other items for foster care children that live in a group home. We should have lots of fun.