Boys and their pets!!!!

He was so funny about the two that are connected to each other.

He was like "look mommy and daddy! They are kissing because they want to get married."

I said: "I think they are doing something else."

Carson: "No mommy, they are kissing because they want to get married."

Me: "Ok buddy, they are kissing."

 

We have a ton of these snails and slugs in our yard. I guess they are better than the snakes. I am actually surprised that we did not see one snake today while ripping out bushes and trees because that is what they were hiding in.

 

 

The kids were not very happy with the choice of activity today. We did yard work all day long. We still have a long way to go to get our yard the way we want it, but at least we made a huge dent. We had a ton of wild rose bushes out back and those are all gone. I am sure we will still be pulling them out again in the future because they are wild and I am sure we have left a few roots here and there, but they will be much easier to manage and take out. They were thick and out of control along half of our back fence. We also started to trim up some trees, but we ran out of time and our back yard still has piles of debris because we filled the trailer with the stuff from the front yard.

We have told the kids ever since we found our new house that it was going to be a summer of hard work. We even explained what we would be doing and I don't think they realized the effort it would take. They had it way to easy at the other house. We didn't have much of a yard there.

Personally, I think that hard work builds character and teaches our kids responsibility. I don't want to raise my kids to think things are free or just handed to them in life. They need to work for the things they want. The kids now a days are lazy. Their parents don't teach them the value of work.

Grades in school matter as well. Their grades are what is going to get them into the best schools and get them the degree they want. If they are not taught how to work hard at home growing up, how are we supposed to expect our kids to move away to college and get good grades? We just can't.

 

This picture was taken a couple of months ago when we first put in our offer on the house, so imagine the mess looking even more out of control. The only difference is that our grass is greener. Before we started today, you could not even see the neighbors swing set or the dog run. In fact, I forgot there was even a dog run there. Also all of the trees and bushes are green and had flowers on them. Again this picture was taken when it was still really cold outside.

 

 

 

These are the pictures that I took today before we started ripping things out. Just totally over grown and out of control.

 

 

This is all of the stuff that we ripped out. I can't wait to take a picture once it is all cleaned up. We couldn't fit anymore on the trailer.

 

 

 

This is the after of the front yard. Again we still need to finish pulling the weeds and stuff, but at least we made a huge dent.

 

I am not sure how I ended up so sunburned because the others did not.

It is much brighter now and my neck got it the worse.

 



This is going to be a very long post and mostly about karate. We spent the entire day up in Salt Lake at a karate competition. Joe is a karate instructor and so all of his students were also participating, which includes Nadia.

 

 

 

This was on the way up. Nadia was in our car and Des and Kaden were in their parents car.

 

Kaden, our nephew got sick in the car on the way up to the competition and threw up all over, so my brother in law and sister in law took their car to get cleaned. I guess while I was taking pictures, they decided to take Carson with them. They were gone for about 3 hours or so. They say that Carson was amazing.

 

Uncle Matt racing Carson to get him to eat lunch. Great job uncle Matt. Lunch does not happen around here much with this boy.

Nadia with dad/sensei

 

 

Nadia with Aunt Nikki

 

Nadia got 3 points on throwing stars.

On the right side is the competitor's and on the left and up at top are the sensei's.

Meditating

After sparing for 10 straight minutes. She was red and dripping with sweat.

Jazmine helping get Nadia suited up.

This is a very precious picture that I love. Dad/sensei is coaching Nadia. Nadia was wore out at this point and she was competing for 1st 2nd and 3rd place. She started to cry and her dad talked her through it and once that head gear went back on her head, she was all smiles again and ready to compete.

  

I know this picture is not very good, but I love that the cousins (3 of them anyway) were all sitting there together and cheering the other competitor's on.

 

 

 

Nadia got 3rd in sparing. I am so proud of you baby girl!!! You did awesome today for your first competition.

 

Here is a couple of video's of Nadia sparing:

 

 

 

It is way to late

(rest to come tomorrow, it is taking way to long to download the video's)

 



Carson got out off bed this morning and turned on his light and now he is hollering for me to turn it off. He just said I'm not getting out of my comfy bed. I said neither am I. You're a big boy turn it off yourself.

 

I swear this kid cracks me up at least once a day.

 

I am not liking this!!! Our daughter is not old enough to wear bright red lipstick, but because she is part of the World Wide Temple Celebration, she is required to wear bright lipstick and blush. I am ok with the eye shadow and eye liner, she has been wearing that for about a year now.

 

Today has been a fairly uneventful day.

Last summer we started letting Quynsie and Raven make their own lunch. We want them to learn how to be independent to a degree. We have started out slow. Quynsie has been able to cook breakfast foods, ramen, and mac and cheese. Raven and Nadia last summer learned how to make their own sandwiches.

This summer, we have graduated Raven and Nadia up to learning how to make their own oatmeal and ramen. Because of Carson watching this, he has decided that he is all of a sudden independent and can make his own oatmeal. I wasn't going to argue with him today so I let him have at it. To my surprise, he did it all by himself. He is growing up way to fast for my liking. He is not a baby anymore. Now if he would stop peeing and pooping his pants, it would be nice.

 

 

We finally had to break down and get Raven's violin today. She starts Orchestra camp on Monday. Not only is this an expensive instrument($400+), but to fix it is even worse. Raven was standing there while to guy was telling me how much things cost if they get broken. I looked and Raven and said, you break this instrument, I break you (jokingly of course). Anyway the strings themselves can cost up to $80, the bow $50. It is crazy how expensive it is to fix. You best be taking good care of this kiddo.

Dear Lord, I hear the screeching already. The good news is that it will eventually turn to an amazing song and she will be good at it.

 

Today Carson and Raven started their new therapy. We felt that they just were not making the progress that we felt should be happening after 3 years in therapy so we made a change. New Counseling center and therapist.

Here is to hopping that things get worked through and we can make some serious progress. Carson will still go to his O.T. because that is for something completely different.

So here to having high hopes!!!

 

Tonight's prayer is brought to you by Carson: "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless us to love our family forever and ever, please bless Raven that she will be safe while camping with grammy and papa and bless our family and friends that they will be safe from harm and that we will wake up in the morning to do the things that we are supposed to do. Amen"

I love the part that say's please bless us to love our family forever and ever. This melts my heart.



Carson does 100 sit-ups from his therapists lap. He would dump himself all of the way upside down and then pull himself all of the way back up. He earned himself 6 suckers and free time out on the playground at the therapists office.

I only recorded 10 of the 100 that he actually did.

The entire office was watching him. They were all floored that he could do that many. Our abs were hurting just watching him. In fact mine still hurt...LOL

I would have been throwing up after 5.

We found a new exercise that will work for when he is seeking extra movement.

 

We had to call and get a pest control person out because over the weekend we found 3 cock-roaches. 2 downstairs and 1 in my sewing room.

We bought brand new boxes to pack our stuff in so that we would not risk having them. We have never had any cock-roaches before so it was a bit of a shock when we found them. Thank goodness they are the oriental type and so they don't grow in numbers as fast as the German ones do. The oriental ones are also easier to get rid of and generally only require one treatment. We also had them spray for spiders and earwigs. Our house sat empty for about a year and from we are understanding the previous owner was a hoarder.

The guy came out today and sprayed. He not only sprayed inside the house, but he also sprayed in the garage, outside along the house and also the entire yard. He was determined to make sure that they don't come back. It is not cheap to have someone come out and spray for bugs. It cost us $105.

Our kids' day was made today. They got to see our dear friend and old neighbor Don at Walmart. They couldn't wait for me to park our van so they could get out and run to him. I barely got the car in Park before they were flying out the door. We love you Don and thanks for being so generous and giving each of the kids a $1.

 

We have some pretty great ward members here in our new ward. They have been extremely welcoming. It is helping take the sting out of missing our old ward.

 

Slowly but surely it is coming along. I love the space I have in my craft room even though I have to share it with the laundry. I think I'll use my stuff more now that it is upstairs and not out of sight. I still have a ton of boxes to go through but I'm still getting rid of things so that's good. I also found my lost temple recommend that I lost 2 years ago. I used it when we had the 3 younger ones sealed to us but then I couldn't find it after that. I got shoved into so...me random bag I had no idea of even having. I have craft things that have been packed for years and forgot about because I have never had the space to put it. I'm not sure why but Joe brought it to my attention that every time we move I unpack just a little bit more than the last time. He is right. I have this thing about unpacking because I'm afraid I'm just going to have to repack it so why unpack it? We moved a lot when I was a kid and in the 15 years Joe and I have been together we have moved 6 times.

 

 

After the weekend's fail of meeting up with a birth parent, this is ringing so true right now. I think the kids are realizing who truly care and that are there for them.

It is really hard for Joe and I to put down our walls and allow the kids to have contact with birth family when not one of them have kept any promises that have been made (with the exception of Raven's birth dad and grandparents).

When promises are not being kept, it makes us think they are still not in a healthy place and that they still are not putting the kids feelings ahead of their own.

Joe and I would love nothing more than to have a healthy, open and honest relationship with our kids birth parents, but that can't happen if they can't prove to be in a healthy spot and put the kids feelings first.

Joe and I would do anything for our kids. They mean the world to us. We want them to be healthy, happy and successful in life. Our kids have come so far in their healing process that we are not about to jeopardize that. They have come from being behind in school to being right on target or even ahead in some areas. Quynsie was failing all of her classes when we got her and in the past year and a half, she has gone from straight "f" to being on the High Honor Roll and being a part of the Honor Society. Carson was so far behind, that we decided to homeschool him for preschool through an online program and it made the world of differences. He is way ahead in all subjects. Nadia was also behind and is a straight "A" student and we never have to meet with her teacher for anything unless we want to have an update. Raven, is still struggling academically, but she has had some pretty amazing teachers that have been very understanding of the situation and have been so good to work through things with us.

 

This blog is not to bash our kids birth parents, but I do blog about real life and one day, the kids are going to read it and they are going to see and realize who really to trust and believe. If our birth parents want them to trust them then they need to work towards that because if they keep digging themselves a hole, the kids will never want to seek them out later in their lives.

Nothing ticks me off more than a birth parent making plans to meet up so we can pick up our daughters stuff that said birth parent has and they give you a number that doesn't work and they don't email you back to confirm or give an address. We have been trying for 2 months to get together and we finally found a day that worked for both of us and obviously they still are not putting the child's feelings above their own.

 

   

It seems like unpacking makes a huge mess until it is cleaned up and put away. I feel like I am so unorganized right now. I can't wait for all of my craft stuff to be put away and organized. Once that room is put together we just have odds and ends left to put away with the exception of the garage. That will have to wait until we build a shop outback.

 

 

 

The kids fond this HUGE slug in our back yard. I have never seen one that big in my life.

 

Raven and Nadia had a little neighbor girl over to jump on the trampoline once it was put together. She is the cutest little thing. We met her dad and they seem to be really awesome people.

 

This crazy kid can stand on his head for a very long time.

We are really worried about him right now.

I have to call our doctor first ting in the morning because he found a lump under his chin (between the chin and throat in the flabby part) yesterday and he says it hurts when we touch it. We can clearly see it when he lifts his chin up. I hope it is not something serious, but I want to get it checked out just in case. I would rather be over reacting than not reacting at all.



Today was our first official day in our new ward.

Don't get me wrong, they are great, but it sure was hard walking in and not knowing hardly anyone. I hate being asked for weeks at a time if we are new to the ward or if we are visiting. Poor Carson was having a rough go in Sacrament Meeting today. He kept saying, "I just want to go back to our old ward. I didn't even want to move. We don't belong here, we only belong at the other ward."

It was kind of sad. I felt the same the way, but I also know that we are where we are supposed to be. We were meant to move. We needed to move. Our kids needed a yard to play in, we needed more space and a better setup on the flow of the house. We are loving the space and the flow of things. It is still strange to have 2 kids upstairs with us. At the other house we only had room for one kid upstairs and because Carson was the youngest, he was upstairs. Now Nadia has joined us upstairs. We figure that it was the common sense thing to do, put both little ones upstairs.

We came from a ward that was pretty well blended with age groups. Yes, when we first moved to that ward six years ago, it wasn't like that. There were hardly any young couples.

Here in our new ward, it is the same way, but there have been a ton of new families moving in during the past month, just like us, so I know that things will turn around, it is just going to take some time.

The other interesting thing in the new ward is that the church building is older and the chapel is set up like the older church buildings. The benches are all straight ahead and not set on an angle. Also they still ring the old bell to let you know that class is over. I looked at Joe when that happened and was like, "A blast from the past just happened." We had not heard that bell in 5 years. Once they built our new building in the old ward, they didn't put a bell in it that we know of. If they did, we have never used it.

I think we will like it here and we will make friends and get more comfortable in our surroundings, it is just going to take some time.

 

The only picture that I was able to take today.

Our upstairs bathroom is finally put together and clean. There are no more boxes sitting on the floor. Thank goodness for that.

Next project: My craft/laundry room. I can't wait to get that stuff unpacked. I want to teach my girls how to sew and stuff. I would love to work on our scrapbooks and get those caught up so that I can develop more pictures. I don't dare develop more until I have the others taken care of. I love that my craft room looks out to the backyard where I can be working on my projects and the kids can be outback playing. I can still keep an eye on them, but do what I love to do at the same time. Once this room is completed, we just have our bedroom and odds and ends to deal with. Then the projects begin. Building a bedroom for Raven, fixing Quynsie's room, painting Carson and Nadia's rooms. Yard work, oh the yard needs some serious help.

 

Tonight after going to my sister's for dinner, we stopped by one of our really good friends house. The Allen's have been our friends long before we moved into the other ward. In fact, Joe has known them even longer than I have. Anyway, we were next door neighbors and the kids have really missed them and their dogs. I have really missed them as well. For whatever reason, Joe let the kids out of the car and off they ran toward Hannah's house. We had no idea they had that in mind, but we didn't stop them. Like I said above, the kids have missed their friends there especially Hannah. It was good to visit with friends. I hope to continue those amazing friendships and hope to make more here in our new ward.


Last night was a rough night. Nadia was having some serious anxiety and night mares. She finally ended up sleeping on the floor in our room.

 

Last night we introduced the kids to their new chore chart routine and this morning we got up and the kids were all doing as they were supposed to be doing happily including Carson.

I hope this last more than just a day cause I kinda like it.

 

On our way to Home Depot Carson called bird poop bird dookie. I laughed so hard. I have never heard that term before, but whatever.

 

Joe bought me a new toy!!! When you upgrade in a house and yard, you need more than a push lawn mower. Boy was it was so much better using this new toy than the old one.

 

  

Basement: A work in progress. The bottom left picture is Raven and Quynsie's room. I can't wait until we get Raven's room built because I can't handle the mess that is always in their room.

 

Their room looks much better but as you can see, Raven's bed is still a disaster. She goes in there when I get mad, but then 5 minutes later she leaves and I am again on the hunt for her to finish cleaning.

 

  

 

I am putting this on the living room closet door so the kids can see this every time they are in the living room. Nadia is always saying that she can make her own choices. I always tell her yes you can, but those choices have consequences good or bad.

 

I think I forgot how much goes into moving.... De cluttering, packing, loading uhal multiple times, unloading uhal multiple times, De junk as your unpacking, put it away, rearrange some more, De junk more Oh and De junk some more. We have way to much crap. I'm determined to have a clutter free and organized house by the time I'm done unpacking. I'm sure there are more boxes of books somewhere in this house. Oh and did I mention kids are upstairs playing a game and fighting and I'm downstairs ignoring them.