Catching up

Wow, it's been about a month since I posted. We have definitely been busy this past month. I just discovered a neat little feature on MS Word, it can post blogs for you. I think it will make it easier to update it.

We went to the eye doctor. The girls can see great. Daddy is getting glasses, and I get new ones. I am actually really excited, my frame broke when I was in the hospital with Ashlie, they have been super glued together since then. The hardest part about getting new glasses is picking out the new frames. I have tried contacts, but my eyes would just water the entire time I wear them.

The Cache County fair was also in August. Since we didn't go to the Lagoon this year, we made a deal with the girls. If they did extra jobs for me, they could earn money for ride passes at the fair. Mom & Dad would pay for half of the pass, but they would have to earn the rest. Lindsay worked really hard doing extra jobs so that she could earn half the money for a ride pass. Kaylee didn't quite get the idea, but she did help out more. Unfortunately, I didn't get to Lee's in time to get the discount wristbands for $15, so we decided to buy them at the fair. We thought they would be a few bucks more, but when we got there they were $25. I had discount passes to the Lagoon for $28, so we decided to make a trip to the Lagoon instead. Lindsay wasn't the happiest about the change of plans, but she finally accepted it. We walked around the fair for a bit, checking out the animals. This pig was noisy, talking to everyone. I don't think I've ever heard a pig that was so loud. Lindsay kept entering all the drawings. Most of them were limited to those 18 and older, so I would enter my info in under her name. At one of the booths all of us won a t-shirt. The girls wore theirs to bed that night, they thought it was the neatest thing to win something. The next night, Saturday, at about 10pm we got a phone call. I had won a playhouse. I knew my girls were going to love it. We needed to pick it up that night at about 11pm or the next morning early. We decided to go get it that night. It barely fit into the back of the truck.

The next day was Sunday, so we didn't unload the house out of the truck. We allowed the girls to climb up into the truck to check it out though. Monday, it was still in the truck. The plan was to unload it that night. Well, the kids climbed back up into the truck. I was right there with them, so I wasn't too worried. Ashlie needed a diaper change and I was going to switch laundry, so I went into the house for a minute. I had a chance to change Ashlie, and Lindsay came running in saying Kaylee was bleeding all over the place. I handed Ashlie to Lindsay, and went out. Sure enough Kaylee has blood pouring down her face. Our neighbor saw it all happen, she was backing up and fell of the end of the truck. I didn't know where she was bleeding from other than it was in her hair right above her forehead, so I just covered it with my hand and put pressure on it to help it stop bleeding. Knowing it was on her head, I knew that it was normal to have a lot of blood. After it had stopped bleeding so badly, I tried to see what exactly was bleeding. I couldn't see much of anything. It was all under one of her twists. I decided that I should probably take her in and get it checked out. She wasn't letting me look, I thought maybe she would at least let a doctor look at it. Our neighbor kept the other two girls and I took Kaylee into Insta Care. After taking her twist out, and getting it numbed a little bit, the doctor was able to check it out. Then he decided that she would need staples. So they gave her about 4 shots in her head to help numb it up more, they put three staples in. I was okay while they did it, but after it was done and I looked at the staples, I was glad that I was sitting down. Kaylee was a little trooper. She was very clingy while we were at the doctor, but when we got home, she was fine, playing like her normal self. Lindsay was so sweet with her, taking her hand and leading her around. They were showing the other kids her staples. Other kids in the neighborhood went out of their way to make her happy. Like letting her ride their bike, or play with a certain toy.

With me having a new baby, family reunions, and working on the house we haven't gone swimming at the Aquatic Center at all this year. Lindsay won passes at the 24^th of July celebration, so we had to go once at least. Farm Bureau had a summer swim party and BBQ so we decided to go. We had decided this, and told the kids before Kaylee got staples. Kaylee isn't suppose to go swimming with staples in, so we basically told her that she couldn't put her head in the water, or go under the mushroom. This kid is a fish, so this was a huge trial for her. I figured if it wasn't going good, me and her would leave daddy and Lindsay and go to the park instead. She did really well, she kept her head above water and still had fun.

I had a friend bring me a Lagoon pass for only $20.50, so we invited my mom & dad to go with us to the Lagoon. The girls had a lot of fun, and my dad even went on Wicked, twice. Nuts I think, but if given enough time I might have tried it. I finally got Lindsay to go on the White Rollercoaster. The first up and down she was screaming and burying her head; after that she was still screaming, but with her hands in the air. Kaylee got to go on the Bat, first time on and we were right smack in the front, she loved every minute of it. They both loved the new ride the Odysea and the Tilt-A-Whirl is always a favorite, especially when we got it spinning good.

School started last Thursday. Wednesday was Back to School night, and daddy didn't get home until the very end so I ended up with all three girls by myself. It was nuts, it would have been nuts with just Lindsay, but with three it was really crazy. The school has no air conditioner, neither does our house, but it was so hot there. The girls were rather well behaved actually, but there was just too many people. I think Lindsay will like her teacher and her class. She made a friend while waiting in a line, and she was surprised when I told her that they were in the same class. She was talking to him, and found out that they were both adopted, and he was brown like her. She told me "We talked about it, and decided that we would be friends." I love the fact that kid of mine can make a friend anywhere, and in no time at all. I wish her mommy was a little more like her in that way. I am slower to make friends. Not that I don't want to, it is just harder for me. Now we just need to get into the homework routine. One more reunion and I hope life is more normal. Then again who knows what normal is.

Winston reunion & Beads

This last weekend was the Winston Reunion. It was held at West Piney Girls Camp Lodge. When we got there the girls went to play in the meadow, they were shocked that there was a bowling alley. Yep, right there in the meadow was an alley with pins, balls, and even a ball return. In the meadow there was also tetherball, swings, volleyball, baseball, frisbee golf, a stream to play in, and a 4 story tall slide.

Kaylee went on the slide by herself. She loved it. Mommy could only watch her go once by herself, after that I couldn't watch her. ;The first time she went down it was with grandpa, then she went by herself. Later she went down with me and then wanted to go by herself again. On the way up the stairs she wanted daddy to go also, I mentioned that she might have to go with him. So she gets to the top and said "Daddy, am I going to have to take you down the slide?" it was really cute the way she said it. She ended up taking daddy down the slide.

My mom had a few games planned, and they were all a hit. The first game was one that you pass a present around while the music played. When the music stopped you unwrapped a layer off the present. Inside the present were a pair of red long johns, if you were the last one to open it, you had to wear the long johns. Uncle John ended up opening the last layer. They were cute longjohns, mom had made out of a couple of socks. The next game was the Mickey Mouse Olympics. Everyone had fun with that one. Lindsay was one of the cheerleaders, her and Kaitlyn were even doing pyramids. There were two teams and for each event they had to pick someone from their team to participate. The events weren't explained before the people were picked. The events were things like the high jump, who had the longest measurement from waist to floor, and the foot race, who had the biggest foot. Lindsay won an event for her team, I don't remember what the name was, but she got down on her hands and knees and put a beanbag on her foot. She then used her foot to trow the beanbag as far as she could over her head.

The last game was specifically for the kids. They all got a bowl with gum in the bottom, then a pile of whip cream on top. The goal was to get the gum out and blow a bubble. Whoever could blow a bubble first won. As you can tell by the picture, they couldn't use their hands. They both had a great time with that one.

We had a lot of fun while at the family reunion. Ashlie and I basically hung out in the lodge. There were actually quite a few of us that mainly stayed in and around the lodge. The actual lodge was up on the hill, then you could take the slide or the stairs down to the meadow. The lodge would sleep 115 in beds. They had so many rooms you could get lost in there. The first night we were there Wade had taken Ashlie to bed, and Lindsay and Kaylee were watching a movie. After the movie, I started seeing kids come upstairs, but not my kids. After awhile I decided I better go find them. I found them, sacked out on the couch. It was cute. It would be a blast to go back for another family reunion. Maybe when it is our turn to plan Wade's family reunion. Not that it will be our turn for another 5 years.

I have Kaylee's hair fixed in 40+ twists, and each twist is finished off with 5 beads and then a little snap. Kaylee hasn't seemed to be able to leave her snaps alone, and keeps taking them off. When she takes them off she loses the beads. Last night she decided to try something new. She put a bead in her nose. Why she decided that it would be fun to try, who knows, but she did. Anyway, she started crying saying her nose hurt. I had her blow her nose, but she said it still hurt. Finally she said something was stuck. I looked and sure enough I saw a bead. This is a typical pony bead, so it has a big hole in the middle. I finally got her to blow hard enough that the bead went flying across the room. I don't think she will try that one again, at least I hope she doesn't.

Lost pictures...

Saturday I tried adding some pictures of Lindsay and Kaylee during the watermelon eating contest. My 2GB disk is fried. It says I need to format it, and when you try, it won't format. I feel really bad that I lost all the pictures from the 24th of July. There were some cute pictures on there as well. The one I am most upset about is the one of Lindsay eating watermelon, and realizing that she won the contest. She had juice dripping off her face. Kaylee had some really cute ones of her playing before the fireworks started. Oh well. I'll look on the bright side, the disk also included Ashlie's entire life. All the pictures from the hospital, everything. Basically this disk had everything from January on. But...I had just transfered the disk in order to add some pictures from the family reunion at Bear Lake. So in reality I only lost the 24th of July ones. I would really be sad if I had lost all of Ashlies pictures. Starting this blog really paid off bigtime.

24th of July

Yesterday we (me and the girls) went to our neighbors for breakfast. Wade had to work so he couldn't join us. Then we headed into town for the parade. I still haven't figured out why so many of the parades around here start at noon. It is so hot. We took our big umbrella so it wasn't too bad. People next to us also sat under it with us. The girls had fun collecting candy. Afterwards we headed to the park where there were a lot of activities for them to do. They were able to make some paperbag scrapbooks, a picture frame, and a sand braclet. They also would paint your hair in cool colors, I wouldn't let the girls do that one. Thankfully they didn't seem to upset by that. They also played some water games, like duck, duck, goose. Instead of touching them on the head, you dripped water on their heads and picked someone by squeezing a sponge of water on their head. Kaylee was picked, got drenched but just sat there. I think she was the youngest player, and was being a little shy. Yes, Kaylee can be shy at times.

They both participated in the pie eating contest. When Kaylee did it, she quickly opened the pie, and then stopped. She just sat and looked at it. Didn't take a taste, not even a lick. Lindsay did a little better, she got the package open quickly and then nibbled the pie. When I asked her about it she just said, "I don't like lemon pie". Not a problem, they had fun anyway, and it was a free treat. After that they wanted to do the watermelon eating contest. They were so funny trying to eat this watermelon without using your hands. Lindsay had watermelon juice from the top of her forhead to dripping off her chin. Kaylee was a much neater eater, much slower, but much neater. The coolest thing was that Lindsay WON! Yep, that girl can snarf down watermelon. She won a 5 punch pass to the Aquatic Center. It costs $5 to go to the pool, so her prize was worth $25. Pretty good for a 7 yr old. She wanted me to reward her by getting cotton candy. Like she needed more sugar. Later, after dinner, we did go back to get cotton candy. The girls were standing there watching the cotton spin out, and the lady wind it up onto the cones. She was just finishing up a batch of pink vanilla, and offered the girls a cone that was about 1/2 size for free. The lady gave it to Lindsay with the instructions that she had to share with her sister. Lindsay held it up to Kaylee, who was sitting on daddys sholders, and asked her if she would like some. Kaylee said "Sure", and grabbed the top of the cotton candy, in the process pulled over half of the cotton candy off the cone.

While we were waiting daddy to meet us we played Bingo. Kaylee wanted to know if we were going to play the song Bingo. I told her no, but shortly after they started playing the song. She enjoyed that the most. Lindsay thought being so close to blackout was the funnest part. She was all set to run if the called out O64. They called out B something. She was so close. We had fun anyway. After dinner we hung out at the park for the fireworks. After fireworks it was home and bed. All the girls were asleep by the time we got home. Last night we invited a few friends over to watch our fireworks with us. They kids did sparklers and set off some fountains. I bought a package of tanks, and the kids thought they were great.

Ear Infections, attitudes, and reflections

Ashlie has her first ear infection. After having her temp go up to 102.7 we decided that we needed to take her in. Already she is acting better, and happier. She had been such a good baby, all my girls have been good babies. I think I am spoiled. It is when they get to be about three that they get their little attitudes. The other day Kaylee was told to go inside for something, on the way in she stopped, looked back at us, and swatted her little bottom and said "That's for you". Wade and I just looked at each other, not sure what to do. Were did that come from. Lindsay hasn't ever done anything like that. She has given us attitude, but not that. We didn't know what to do. Do we act on it and discipline her, or ignore it. We decided to ignore it, because knowing Kaylee it would then become a game. She hasn't done it since, nor anything even close to it. Kids...where to they come up with things. Gotta love them. Lindsay has almost the entire neighborhood planning and practicing for a Bonanza. They are practicing speaking parts, songs, dances, and everything else you could think of. She even has rules about drinks and treats at the performance. They aren't allowed. She definitely has a creative mind. She wants to do everything I do. Today she wanted to sew a blanket that is red, white and blue. I just finished making a jean quilt. She gets so frustrated when she can't do something the first time. I am constantly reminding her that she just needs to practice. She hates that part of it, unless she is in charge of it, like the Big Bonanza then she practices forever.

I do love my girls so much, I am so blessed to have them in my life. I always wanted to be a mommy. Then after getting married and it never happening, even when we did everything we could possibly afford, and even some we couldn't. Finally after almost 8 years we were finally blessed with our first girl. I still think back to that time and get very emotional. There was someone that wanted us to raise her child. What an awesome privilege and responsibility. Then after another 4 1/2 years we were finally placed with another daughter. It was a long hard road to get Kaylee, with a lot of ups and downs. But Lindsay and Kaylee are suppose to be part of our family, they just took a different way to get here. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the privilege of being their mommy. Ashlie has been such a wonderful addition to our family, her older sisters adore her. The spirit that she brings is so amazing. Many people mention that I finally have a baby of my own. I know what they mean, but Lindsay and Kaylee are as much mine as Ashlie is. Biologically they aren't, but they are never the less my girls. Wade is such a wonderful husband and father. He loves his girls, and does all he can for each one of us.

Here's a couple more pictures from our family reunion. This is one that I took right as they turned all the lights off in the cave. It was dark, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Lindsay looks a little nervous.











Here are the cousins before the hike through the cave. From left to right Nick, Lindsay, Nathan, Kaylee, Steven, Marley, and Jessica.

Fevers

Ashlie has a fever. Poor baby was miserable yesterday and very cranky. Slept great last night, but had a higher fever this morning. She has no other symptoms so, I'm just watching her right now. Give her some Tylonel and her fever comes down. If it goes back up, I'll probably go to instacare.

Sleeping & Family Reunion

Ashlie slept through the night...twice!! while we were at the cabin. She ate at about 10pm and didn't wake up to eat again until 6:30am. She slept though her 2-2:30am feeding. Now that we are home she is back to her normal schedule, at least she was last night. We are trying to get her pictures taken soon. Kaylee's also, we still haven't had her 3yr old pictures taken. We're only a few months late.

We spent Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun morning at Bear Lake for a family reunion. As we were getting ready to go Byron called, he was in Logan. We decided to meet him at McDonalds for lunch. Then we came back to our house to finish packing. Mom had asked me to bring Fat Boys (icecream sandwichs) so we headed to Caspers and got a case of their seconds, Byron also got a case. Then we stopped by Pepperidge Farms for cookies, they didn't have any Milanos. After a quick stop at Walmart, we met up with Byron again at our new doctor's office. They were having a big open house. The kids got to do some rock climbing, jump in the jumping castle, get balloon animals and get some other freebies. Then we headed to Bear Lake. We got to the cabin Thursday night. Mom & Dad were already there, the actually stayed at the condo Sun-Thurs, then they moved to the cabin and Grandma, Jerlyn, and Darlene moved into the condo. Darin & Kim came with Jess & their boys at about 1:30-2am. Karena came with her family on Friday about lunch time.



Friday morning everyone went to the Minnatonka cave. Lindsay held hands with Nick & Nathan most of the time. Kaylee was with me or dad the entire time. I carried Ashlie in the front pack, she slept the entire time. There are 444 stairs into the cave and then 444 out again. Kaylee walked almost the entire time. Mom,dad, grandma and the rest of the aunts and uncles went to Lego to see the house g'ma used to live in, they were gone for about 7 hours. After the cave we all came back and had lunch then headed to the pools, first the outdoor (it was too breezy) and then the indoor. Everyone came to our cabin for dinner and smores that night. We had almost 40 people there that night. The kids entertained themselves shooting off the PVC pipe rockets, and losing a few in the process. The view from our cabin was awesome, we got some great pictures of it.

Saturday we sent most of the day at the beach, after some crazyness we finally got situated there. The kids played hard and there were no fights, at least my kids didn't have any fights. Lindsay had fun playing in the sand and on the blow up boats. Kaylee spent most of her time in the sand and just wading. I tried to keep Ashlie out of the sun, she was held by aunts and cousins most of the time, so I just kept track of her. Wade took the girls out in the blowup boat and got a workout paddling back. Then he took them out in the paddle boat, getting a work out in his legs. He joined the guys in playing football, and jammed his finger. It looked really sore, but he kept playing. He says it feels better after icing it yesterday. Saturday night everyone was back at our cabin for dinner and more rocket launching. Sunday everyone packed up and headed for home. We got home and were headed back out the door 15mins later for church. Our van is still loaded with stuff and I'm sure enough sand for a small beach. I thought about vacumning it out before I left, but remembered how much sand comes home even when your really careful. We'll probably clean it out for family home evening tonight. It was a fun weekend. Now only two more family reunions left to go, and only a month until school starts. YIKES!! I don't think I'm ready.

Changes...

A lot has changed the past few months. First off, Wade got a new job. Actually he got it in March, so it isn't really new anymore. He seems to be enjoying it, but he doesn't really like the commute. Neither do me and the girls. We figured that we would move closer, but we didn't want to make any moves until after the baby was born. We spent a few months working like crazy getting our house ready to sell. We got lots of help from my parents (I can't thank them enough). The entire upstairs has been repainted, deep cleaned, dejunked, etc. Lindsay and Kaylee now share a bedroom, it works for now. Another year or two and Lindsay isn't going to like the idea of sharing a room with her little sister. It is hard for them at times because of the 4 1/2 year age difference. It isn't the same as it was when I shared a room with my two sisters. We were a lot closer in age.

Because of the new job, our house is for sale. That in itself brings lots of emotions. We don't want to move, but we want to be closer to Wade's work. We are basically putting it in the Lord's hands. We have done what we feel like is the right thing, and will just wait to see what is in store for us. If it sells great, if not we will be commuting. At least Wade is in a carpool now, that really helps with gas. We love our neighborhood, city, ward, everything. The girls have opportunities here they won't likely have other places. But then again there would be different opportunities for them if we were to move.

Our most exciting change is that we now have three little girls. It still seems so unreal. Ashlie is such a good baby. She is now two months old. She was 23" long and 11lb 5 oz at her 2 month checkup. Growing really fast, too fast, just like her sisters. I still look at her and think, wow, I was pregnant. I keep thinking that I should know information about her birthmother. Now granted I do know everything about her. It seems like it was so long ago, and that she has been part of our family forever. Definately a different feeling than with Lindsay and Kaylee. They both came to us so quickly, one day they weren't there, the next they were. Each one of my girls are miracles to us. They were suppose to come to our family, when and how they did. There is no doubt in my mind about that one. Heavenly Father was looking our for us the entire time. Are there any more in our future? I hope so, but only time will tell. I think there are times that Wade needs a break from all the girls and their emotions (yes even little girls are emotional and they can change just like that.) He loves his little girls, and they all have him wrapped around their little fingers. He is such a great daddy, I couldn't have asked for a better husband and father.