Asher's Birthday

I LOVE birthday parties for my kids. Each year we try to tone it down more and more. This year Karyssa will be four and I am going to TRY and only have 4 little friends over (one for each year.) But I LOVE the look on the kids' faces when everyone sings happy birthday. UGH! priceless!
This year we had our parents and a few buddies that are Asher's age come over and I did an airplane party for him. Cupcakes, a fruit plate and these bad boys.

They actually were delicious and actually took me all week to figure out. I know about the gum and life saver planes, but everybody was 2...so that didn't really work. I walked up and down the candy aisle and came up with this.

First the wheels didn't stand up with icing. Then they fell flat on the bottom. Then I decided to melt chocolate chips, dip the M&M's and set them side by side on the bottom of the twix bar. Then let them cool in the fridge for a day. Wah-lah! It worked. Then the icing worked to attach the graham cracker wings and the propeller pretzel. Honestly, if I would have had enough chocolate I would have done melted chocolate for all 3 parts but...they tasted delicious and lasted long enough for the party so that's what I did.

This was the look on his face when we sang Happy Birthday and everyone got to the "Dear Aaaaaasheeeer!" part. UGH! my favorite part!!! I love that little man!

the MAGIC of it all!

sorry i haven't posted lately. been dealing with some heavy birth family stuff and was waiting for the silver lining to appear. maybe i'll post later.

BUT today is christmas and that means SANTA....and jesus. it's true. we're christians and that's the #1 reason but when you've waited and waited to have little people to celebrate with it's SO exciting to smother them in gifts. all season long when karyssa would ask for something i would tell her we'd have to tell santa. and when it was finally time to go see santa to tell him her greatest desire was a cinderella castle she said "i'm gonna ask santa for TWO cinderella castle's!!!" i quickly nipped that in the bud and said "we don't want santa to think we're being greedy, so we need to just ask him for one." last night we gave them their pajamas and when she opened her hello kitty pajamas i said "how did santa know? you told him you wanted a cinderella castle but you never said anything about hello kitty!?!" and she said with christmas magic oozing from every pore "he just KNOWS these things." oh my gawd she is so funny!! tonight at dinner she said "let's go to bed again so santa will come again!" again...nipped it in the bud and told her she was going to have to wait 365 days for him to come again.

asher got a paint pad from uncle brock and aunt liz and today when karyssa went to touch it he started screaming "MINE! MINE! MINE!" he also ran laps around the house with his new wheel-barrel full of stocking stuffer toys. after dinner he took off his pajamas and said "potty!" and ran into the bathroom and went a full potty on the potty and then ran out of the bathroom to tell grandma and grandpa who were on the phone. he was SO proud of himself he leaned into the speaker phone and shouted "POTTY!" ugh! i love that little boy and his achievements. he then ran around the house like a naked banchee and i've got to say he really does have the cutest cheeks ever. i think it's the way the front of his thighs stick out so far you can see them from behind. and then get distracted by the sweet cheeks. mmmmm....have i mentioned how much i love these kids?

both kids got strider bikes and wow karyssa is good on it. she can already pull her feet up and glide. asher will sit on it and push himself along so i'm sure it's just a matter of time before he's cruising on it. good thing because i lay awake at night excited about them riding their strider bikes along the trails as i run along with them. UGH! can't wait to get running regularly again. ps-it's my turn to run a marathon next year and i can't WAIT!

aaaaaaaaanyhow...that's all i can remember for today. so glad to finally have little people to smother with christmas magic.

celebration!

we had a birthday party for sweet pea today. we've been telling her that 28 people are coming to celebrate that she was born. we've been getting decorations and cupcakes decorated and preparing all week and all the while telling her that we were doing it for her birthday party. so today when we went to the park to set up and wait for all of our friends and family she had fun playing in the water feature but still didn't understand that it was all in HER honor. until we sang happy birthday and we got to the part where we said "dear sweet peaaaaa" and she sheepishly smiled, looked around her, looked up at me and beamed. it was in that moment that every penny we spent putting this party, this "first" birthday party, together for her TOTALLY worth it. as we pulled away from the park she waved good-bye. she took a nap with her elmo balloons right next to her crib. tonight when i was tucking her into bed i asked her if she had a happy birthday party and she shook her head yes. tonight she went to bed with one of her new books from aunt dawn. i think she finally gets what having a birthday is all about.

here's a picture of her elmo cupcakes. my friend kristin gave me the idea. i added the oreo mouths because elmo needs a semi-circle mouth, dontchaknow.


and here's a picture of the aftermath of her cupcake.


it was an amazing day and i can't thank all of our friends and family that came enough for making it such an amazing and special day for her. it brings tears to my eyes to think of how special she felt today. and that will be with me forever.

ok....i'm ready to "celebrate"

so i told paul that he could go on that stupid* harley ride with his friends from work. and at the time i meant it. but i didn't realize a few things. i hate this "holiday". i just do. and i thought we just wouldn't celebrate it because the kids aren't officially ours. but as the day has worn on and i've realized that everyone else that has kids in their lives is able to celebrate, i feel a little...jealous...that's not the word. i guess...left out? i don't know. anyhow. now he's all the way down in stupid new mexico, actually he just called a little bit ago from stupid larkspur. so he won't even be HOME until it's time for sweet pea to head to bed.
but then i heard the jingling tune of the ice cream truck and i have cash. i NEVER have cash. but i do today. so for my very first mother's day i got to get ice cream from the ice cream truck for the very first time with my daughter. it feels so good to call her that even though we're not quite official.

*5 minutes ago you could have replaced all "stupids" with the f-bomb. but then the ice cream truck came by.

Paul's Birthday

yesterday paul got his birthday present. it's the P90X workout video set. he loves it. i'm so excited. today he went out and got the tools he needs to do it. i couldn't really buy them because i didn't know exactly what he'd need. we sat down and watched a little bit of it to see how hard it's gonna kick his butt. sweet pea LOVED watching it and tried some of the moves. ugh. this baby kills me! i LOVE the way she puts her hands behind her back like this and i LOVE this little outfit. i know-it's too short now-but i just am not ready to pack it away just yet. i know once i do, she'll never wear it again. and i don't know that i'll ever have another little girl to wear it.

my fans are waiting

well now that my fans are facebooking my husband to tell him to tell me to write another post, i guess i'll update you. hi Suma!! :D
when my brother was a baby my grandparents brought him a stuffed beaver from a vacation. he opened it up, threw it on the floor and said "yucky beaver!" my mom picked it up, trying to recover, and said "YES! yucky beaver!" and ever since "yucky beaver" has been my family's code for "i'm sure he/she likes it! but i have no idea what to say!"
that being said...my sister sent sweet pea a build-a-bear for christmas so we've been waiting and wAiTiNg and WAITING for it to get here. i guess it really is true. when you send mail to colorado, once it hits the state line, they pile ALL the mail up in bags, load them onto the back of a donkey, slap its butt and hope for the best. needless to say, i was very glad to see our donkey FINALLY made it. i called my sister so she could get on skype and watch sweet pea open her bear. we tore open the box and pulled out the build-a-bear box. sweet pea kept digging in the packing popcorn. she thought that was the best part. after much coaxing i got her to open the build-a-bear box. she whipped the build-a-bear bunny right onto the floor and went back to digging in the bottom the box. it could not have been scripted better.

this morning i found out that we have a hitting problem at school. i told them at home she gets a time out for that and that is NOT to be allowed. so before i left i got down in sweet pea's level and said "now we don't hit. remember? no hitting today. no hitting miss pratima, and no hitting miss bronwen. ok?.....look at my eyes....ok? now give mommy a hug so i know you understand." and she gave me a VERY reluctant hug. tonight i talked to bronwen and found out that, by golly, she only hit once today and she DID get a time out. it's amazing. bronwen also said "she turns 2 next month right?" and i said "no...not until june!" and she said "wow...she's really smart." and again, i think she's gifted. ha! my mom says everyone thinks their kids are gifted.

5 months and a day

sweet pea has been living with us for 5 months and a day now and we have to say they have been the best 5 months and a day ever. she is so sweet and gets sweeter every day. today was SUCH a blast to have her, getting to see her christmas morning joy, opening presents and learning what they are all about. i think our house officially has about 900 more pieces in it tonight than we had in it last night. but it was SO worth it. a friend of mine from church gave us a dora kitchen and a hello kitty tent. let me tell you - those toys have never GOTTEN so much use. she played with the kitchen all morning and the tent all afternoon. i'm not sure she ate much more than the chocolate santa that she ate for breakfast, all the way through to the sugar cookies she ate for dinner. (thank god for the toothbrush santa left in her stocking!) can't WAIT for the sugar to be out of the house so she'll eat a real meal again but for just one day-it sure was fun. i can't even list all of the toys that she got today but our house is full and she feels loved. she keeps hugging me and paul. i know she feels our love and i know she understands that the gifts are from others that love her too.

Tatum had a very Merry Christmas too. Her stocking was full of fluffy toys with lots of squeakers, some bouncy balls and a HAM BONE! she is such a wonderful doggie! i can't imagine life with out her. 2 years ago this week we were counting down the minutes until we got to pick her up from the breeder. it was the only thing that got me through the holidays that year. and then when we picked her up to bring her home, couldn't imagine what we would if we ever had to outlive her. i literally cried that night thinking about it. we're so glad that won't happen though! (we live happily in denial here-don't mess with the truth!) she is so good with the kids that come through the house and she's right there when kiddos go home to give us all the extra love our hearts need when they are mourning the loss of kids. she's SUCH an amazing dog and no amount of ham bones could ever truly show her our appreciation. we love that doggie SO much!

Merry Christmas!!

Thank you to everyone who helped Sweet Pea have THIS AWESOME of a "first Christmas" with us. Crossing our fingers and praying for it to be our first of MANY!!!!

Trimming the tree

we put up the christmas tree yesterday with sweet pea so she could understand the festivities a little bit. she quickly caught on to putting the limbs on the tree (yes, we go artificial...we're too hippy to justify cutting down a real live tree.) soon we were missing the smaller limbs, only to find that they had been shoved into the lower part of the tree. about...2 feet high. then we put the lights on. and she quickly realized you just put all kinds of stuff on THIS tree. so she went and got some of her most sacred toys. some cars that dan & jenn and the kids sent her, and did a little of her own decorating. we love this baby!

a little more of the scoop

well, this past month has been quite a bit more informative than months past. i have found out a few things that i can sort of put on the blog. really, i shouldn't, but i figure for those that follow* that i don't get to see in real life, you should get more of an update.

sweet pea does not get to see her mom anymore. for now. if her mom starts cooperating, she will get to visit again. at this point she's not in a place to be able to cooperate and show them that she can parent the way sweet pea needs her right now. her dad, bless is heart, is trying. he comes to visits. he brings her food. he's kind, he plays, he tries. but they are still unsure that he is going to be able to parent on his own, with out the help of his family. if his family were stepping up to help him, we'd have a different situation, but at this point they have not stepped forward the way the county needs them to step forward. they aren't getting their evaluations and home studies done and until they do that, they can't be considered as options. sweet pea has been in our care for 4 months now. at this point, that's a quarter of her life. it would be equivalent to me living with loving doting strangers for 8 1/2 years and then going back to a home where i was told they loved me, but no one ever showed me.

our first court date is coming up in early december. at that point i'll have more information. we are acting, like we do with all of our kids, that she is our own forever and ever. christmas is coming and we can't wait to shower her with gifts. we celebrated early with paul's side of the family this last weekend and i was just humbled by all the gifts and clothes and toys and books she got. last week my brother's wife and kids sent another box full of toys the kids had picked out of their own stash for sweet pea. and yet another brother sent her a gift card for whatever else falls between the cracks. she is set beyond belief. i can't believe, or thank you enough for how generous my family and friends have been in providing for us this year. and sweet pea is overwhelmed with all of the new toys and books she has all over the house.

in preparing for kids from 0-7 and spending every spare dime we had on the basic necessities to make our sterile house a kid friendly home, it didn't leave much left for the extras. we are trying to get back to square one and save up for next year for a) if sweet pea's case does not go to adoption and we can't take another foster heart break. at that point we will adopt from an agency. and b) if sweet pea's case does go to adoption, we won't get the much needed financial support from the county, including childcare, and will be facing being a one-income FAMILY. both options scare us in a way but we are trying to prepare, as best we can, now so that we have some options to fall back on.

*I do want to thank those of you that follow. sometimes it's really hard for me to talk about all of the stuff that's going on and other times i'm a gusher of information once i see you in person. thanks for always letting me know when you've been reading. it's fun to know who's really come and gone and it's fun to know that people are interested in what's going on. and an even bigger thanks to all of you that pray. i can feel your prayers and can often see god's hand in the goings on of our county and specifically our case.

birthday weekend

last night we went down to paul's parents to celebrate his birthday. it was so much fun. and i FINALLY got to give him his present. Here's the progression of his birthday. this is him in the morning when he was on his way to work...tatum always sits closer to paul:
then after work we all went out to his parents to grill out and we all ate dinner with birthday hats on:

and then the elastic got to tom's blood supply and he got goofy:

the kids said tom's head looked like an ice cream cone:

then he got his present:

this is the look on his face shortly after he saw his jacket:

then he tried it on...still with his birthday hat on:

and after i took the picture we realized that the back was reflective.
then we had birthday cake...dawn got one with reeses peanut butter cups in it. mmmm:


then today we all went for a hike at garden of the gods. that of course was my favorite part of the whole weekend. i LOVE hiking:

that is pike's peak behind us to the right. the mountain to the left is cameron's knob. it's not bigger than pike's peak, it was just closer. so don't be fooled. pike's peak IS still the biggest mountain in colorado.
then we bee-lined it back up to church so i could do my first week of helping in children's church. i am helping with the 2nd to 4th graders and i, of course, sat next to the naughtiest boy in all of children's church. he could not be controlled by anyone. afterwards i said to the other leaders "ok, so since this was my first week, please tell me that kid was not 'normal' for children's church." they said he was not. he was also the biggest 4th grader i've ever seen. and by that i mean, i think he was a little closer to 6th grade than he was to 4th grade. then we went out to dinner with linda and denny, the couple that gave us all their granddaughter's old toys. it was so much fun but by the time we got home tatum was glad to get out of the car. *whew* what a weekend. and it's only half over. woooohooo!

Paul's 32!!

Today is Paul's birthday. Happy Birthday Paul!!!! That's why I've had the "Happy Birthday" background I've been sporting all week. Isn't he the cutest little birthday boy you've ever seen?!
It's also Brock & Liz's anniversary! Happy 5 years Brock & Liz!

drink until your irish

that was my favorite t-shirt last night. we got home and had dinner and then felt like doing something. so we went over to our local brewery for a quick st. patty's day celebration. it was so fun. it's little places like that that make me love longmont. they had some irish guys singing at the top of their lungs. and then they had people who had been there drinking since 4:00 also singing at the top of their lungs. i'm pretty sure the 2nd set of people weren't paid. tatum went with us. she's irish-she should get to celebrate. but she had to wait in the car. sorry the picture is so grainy...it was taken from my cell phone.

AAAGGHHH!!!

I can't wait. 12 DAYS LEFT! That's why I put up this background. Our anniversary also happens to be Ground Hog's Day. Ugh! Can't wait can't wait can't wait! You'd think I'd never been out to dinner before.
I also went and got my eyebrows waxed tonight. It was a spur of the moment decision but MAN was it needed. I always feel so glamorous after I get my eyebrows waxed. I do it about once every 8 months. Pathetic I know, but it's expensive!!

GOTCHA Day!

A year ago today our lives changed forever when we picked Tatum up from the her breeders at McDonald's in Atoka, OK.
And she rode in the car at my feet staring up at Paul in wonderment.
Then she crawled up in my lap and rode through Dallas like this:

That night we stayed in a hotel in Louisiana. Tatum was so scared at first. She snuggled up to Paul.

And she played in her water bowl...

And best of all, she got to sleep in the bed, for what we said would be the last and only time (ya, right)!

The next morning, we snuck her out of the hotel in the paper bag we had gotten dinner in the night before from Cracker Barrel.

And by that night we were home together forever. Oh, we love this little doggie!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Today we took a hike with some good friends, Jason & Liz, that we met in a small group when we were living in DC. Now they live here in Longmont about a hop skip and a jump away from us. I think they have hiked more of Colorado in the short time they've been here than we have in the entire time we've lived in Colorado combined. We had so much fun today I think we might make it a New Years Day tradition. Which made today the first annual New Years Day hike. It was GORGEOUS. I found out that I am WAY more out of shape than the mean old wii told me AND my lungs are about the size of peas. We didn't make it as far as we had hoped. It's about 1 mile an hour pace when you're hiking in snow AND we couldn't find the trail after a couple miles. On our way back we realized there was a lake 1/2 mile up in another direction on another trail. We headed up there and found the lake frozen SOLID! We played on that for a while and took lots of really cute shots. Here's one of them. I have no idea why my hat is down over my eyes, other than the fact that it was cold and snowy.

As you can see, Tatum is still a little reluctant about the new camera.

And here's another cute one of our family. I think this will end up being our foster photo.

skiddish

yesterday we exchanged paul's camera for the one he really wanted. it takes incredible pictures. this is one of them. i love the lighting. tatum is not so sure of it because the first time he took her picture, it blinked at her and beeped 10 times because he had forgotten to take it off of the timer setting. so now she's not so sure about this new camera. she usually sits right up and smiles.
in other news, we finally broke down and called the vet yesterday because ever since this incedent she hasn't been regular (i'll leave it at that), even though all she's had to eat is boiled chicken breast and white rice. he called me last night to tell us that she had "some kind of bacterial infection in her bowels that her body just can't get rid of." gee, i wonder what piece of raw chicken she got that from? she is now on a medication that she has to take twice a day for 10 days. little booger.

yellow, red, blue, green

if you are not an angelo you have no idea what that title means. let me explain it to you. when we were little my mom assigned all 4 of us kids colors so that we wouldn't fight over bowls, pencils, cups etc. missy=yellow, cheri=red, dan=blue, brock=green. so now that we are all grown we still subconsciously abide by our color assignments. for instance, my sister lives in a yellow house, my house was red, brock is going to be painting his house this summer...what color you ask? green. with out even realizing it we have all stuck to our color assignment. i'm blogging to you from my new computer. paul was a little disappointed because he tried to stick to the color scheme but he got me the green one. i wear green all the time because my eyes are green and i just love the way they pop out when i wear green. so guess what i got for christmas? a green computer (which i love even though it's not red) and a wii AND a wii fit! i think paul won the lotto and didn't tell me. poor paul, he gave me a budget and i stuck to it so he got a camera that was the wrong one, some harley stuff to shine his bike and a bandana that was the wrong one. his christmas sucked. mine was very good. ok-i'm going to go play with my wii.
and Tatum wishes you a very merry christmas too.

My office Elfed

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Christmas Story

in the winter of 1975 when i was just a wee 6 month old baby, the story goes that my father was in ace hardware and found this nativity scene. my parents were dirt poor but it was a steal and they didn't have one so he brought it home. for years it sat on the mantle above the fireplace in our childhood home. a few years back my parents went through some of their extra decorations and i inherited the nativity scene since it was bought in the year of my birth. a couple years later i pulled it out, and displayed it proudly. it doesn't have quite all of the bible characters, but it has the important ones. mary, joseph, baby jesus and the pied piper. [record scratch] WhAt ThE hEcK iS tHe PiEd PiPeR dOiNg In ThE mAnGeR sCeNe?!?! this makes no sense. in all the years this thing was on the mantle not a single one of us 4 kids questions the pied piper behind jesus, who seems to be worshiping said piper.

in news that makes a little more sense, today tatum was inducted into the family christmas stocking tradition. when we were first married and paul was in school i had no money for stockings. i guess dirt poor runs in the family when it comes to early years of marriage. i did, however, have this great fabric left over from when i made our futon cover. the green one is paul's, the red one is mine, so tatum's is red since she's a girl too. she has different trim, and hers is a bit shorter. she loves it. ok, so she doesn't quite understand yet, but she will. here she is posing next to it in the sweater she got from uncle wesley for christmas this year.