Summer Days

Nate had a little canker on the corner of his lips. He got salt on it and it really hurt. So Ash devised this little contraption to help an ice pad (ice bean bag that actually has rice instead of beans) stay on.

We had a fun morning riding bikes and then came in the back for lots of swinging. They were so cute sitting on the bench together eating their snack. Nate and Lizzy are good buddies.

Our own bike parade.

First off...love Nate's diaper wedgie. Those things (diapers) just can't be that comfortable. Sadie noticed her new tooth coming in before the old tooth was out. It wasn't coming in the right place so Dave gave Sadie the weekend to get the tooth out on her own before he would bring his "tools" home and get it out. Well, she tried for a while but then decided she'd rather her dad pull it out. It wasn't quite ready to be snapped out so he got her numb. Not her most favorite thing. Good news: She doesn't ever want to get numb again. Dave told her it's easy...just brush and floss really well. She's convinced!

One Saturday afternoon, we loaded everyone up in their swimsuits, sunscreen, goggles, towels, THE WORKS. We walked across the street to the pool. We jumped in...and within 5 minutes a huge storm came FAST. A chair even blew into the pool...it was that windy. Right as we made it to the garage, it started pouring rain so hard. We couldn't do all that work for 5 minutes of swimming. So we went swimming in our our swimming pool...the bathtub. They wanted us to join them, so we did. It was pretty packed in there, but we had fun.

Ash and Sadie are having fun playing dress-up with Lizzie.

Fly swatters are gross. But I guess not to a frog. This is Nate's best friend. Good thing frogs are plentiful in our yard so Dave can usually find one for Nate, and then they let it go at night. This particular "fruvin" (all frogs are named Fruvin, did you know?) was riding on an airplane and heading to Grandpa and Grandma's house to eat M&Ms with Grandpa.

Hurray for our fixed camera!

Ashlyn is posing her shorts she sewed. She cut off some jeans and added some jelly bean material for a trim. I think they turned out super cute! She sewed a matching bag out of the jelly bean material and loves to coordinate when she's wearing her shorts!

It's hard to get a picture with everyone happy or looking at the camera!

The girls love being little mommies to Alex and Lizzy. They are such a great help!

We snapped a few quick pictures before church. It looks like Lizzy's hair bow is floating. That's probably because she loves to pull all of her hair stuff out...and this one is half-way out.

Ash makes dinner once a week and Sadie makes lunch once a week. This was their idea to help out around the house. I love it! Today they wanted to make a picnic lunch. They made bean/cheese quesadillas, strawberries and applesauce. I can't remember where I was, but I came in the kitchen to this scene. They put Alex in the bumbo, and were cutting and cooking away! I just realized where I probably was. I was probably changing Nate's diaper, and he escaped to the kitchen...hence Nate without a diaper on.

Little House on the Praire night! Thank you to my parents-in-law who bought me the first two series of my favorite show in the world. We love watching these on Friday nights! Popcorn and Christmas m&ms from the freezer (gotta love m&m sales from the freezer)!

Next time all 5 are sitting on the couch, I will take the picture! I realize that Dave is always the one taking the picture.

A few things I love here. I love the planter boxes Dave made me. I love the bird house I got for Mother's Day. I love the birds that come for snacks. I love my garden growing! I love thinking about the chocolate zucchini cake (Jamie, I use that recipe often...thank you!) I will make from all of the zucchini growing!

Ash, Sadie and Nate dissecting a wet, about-to-explode diaper. What else would you do in the summer time? Sadie and Nate were playing with the hose. Nate ended up in a diaper. Then they discovered that the diaper GROWS when it fills with water. So they grew his diaper as much as they could. Then they took it off and began the dissection. I remember dissecting a dead fish when we were younger..but never a diaper. Don't worry, it was a fresh and clean diaper.

Camping with Dad

Dave and Nate had a father/son campout planned with the ward. Nate couldn't stop talking about going camping with dad. He was so excited. It was super stormy the day of the campout. We all wondered if they would still go. There were even some tornado watches. The guys all talked back and forth and some were bailing. Dave decided they would go for it - rain, thunder, lightning and all.
As we were loading up the car, I found Nate outside by the car with his gun. He said he was shooting the thunder so it would go away.

It was a huge downpour as they drove off. It stormed lots of the night. They still had a great time.

They slept in the car. Not sure what Nate was worried about in this picture...wondering where the chocolate was for his marshmallows?

Our camera is in this picture. We miss it. Nate took it off our desk and dropped it. The lens broke and is currently in the shop getting fixed. Come back soon! We have lots of things to capture...

Like our zoo we brought to the zoo today. We are a funny sight. We get all sorts of looks. Today I even saw a woman turning back to do a double take. Maybe it's that she wonders where we get our mixed race children when Dave and I are both white? Or that we have 5 children ages 9, 6, 2, 19 months and 6 months? I don't know.

It was wild, no doubt (our zoo, I mean). Lizzy used to be unsure of her situation and cling to me. Now she is comfortable and has no problem running off. We kept going during nap time, so Nate wanted to be held, baby was trying to sleep through the noise in the reptile room, and Lizzy wanted to run and be free instead of strapped in a stroller. I knew we were crazy when Dave and I were both tired on the way to the zoo. That's a bad sign! And if the zoo wasn't enough, we stopped at Costco to load up on more diapers.

It was all worth it for Nate. He loved every animal. It was a treat to be right up close to his face as he told me about all of the animals, and how he begged to hop over to see the lion. He could have stayed there all day and night. He loves animals just like his dad.

Wish I had pictures of our day.

Nate will be a great dad and grandpa with this new skill!

A few things about this movie:

1. It involves changing a diaper. Some mild baby nudity is shown. View at your own risk.

2. Not sure what made me laugh so hard. Maybe it was Nate's "LOOK MOM!" or maybe it was feeling punchy at the end of the day.

3. If you haven't heard, we found out that "James" isn't what they call him. His first name is James and middle is Alexander. The dad is James, so they call him Alex. We just heard that this week. So we finally got used to calling him James and now Alex doesn't seem to fit one bit either. We're working on something to call him (nick name...not to change his name).

4. This was Nate's idea to change James' diaper. He was 2 seconds into it when I knew it was a moment to capture on the camera.

5. For those of you grossed out with us allowing Nate to change a diaper...if it makes it any better, there wasn't any of the #2 business involved.

6. Enjoy. I sure did, as you may be able to tell. By the way, I had a much better angle to watch Nate's expressions as he was discovering new discoveries. I love a sentence where the same word can be used as a verb and noun.

Things that make me smile

Sadie bringing two chairs out on the deck and reading to Nate and Elizabeth for a while. Then playing pat-a-cake and having snacks.

Sadie got to bring cupcakes to school for an early birthday celebration since she has a summer birthday. Sadie made the cupcakes all by herself. She and Nate were watching them grow. I also love that Nate is wearing some old moon boots.

How can this little guy not make you smile????? He is such a good sport with his little arm. He loves to talk and babble. You can see a little bit of the bandage under his shirt that hold his arm down. He'll be glad to get that off.

I put Elizabeth in Nate's old outfit for bedtime. I didn't have much for her age/size saved from the girls. I thought this looked cute on her, even though it was a boy outfit.

Today was another busy day. I took our 3 to my friend's house and then James and Elizabeth to their first visit with their parents. I came home tired and got everyone to bed. Before too long, James was up. We snuggled on the bed for a few minutes. Nate came in (a little early to be waking up) and snuggled right by us on the bed. I loved it. I stroked his head and he fell back to sleep. "My heart took a picture" as we always say from one of our favorite movies. My heart surely took a picture of my boy...so little on the big bed.

I smiled when I saw Dave's pinewood derby car painted like this. He had a blast at the race. We were all relieved that he wasn't blinded (came so close) by the dry ice bomb that went off and the plastic shrapnel hit an inch from his eye. So glad Dave can still see!

The kids had a blast climbing this big pile of dirt across from our house.

James and Elizabeth

Today we picked up James and Elizabeth. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening with them. Dave made my favorite dinner in the whole world…potato/chicken curry over rice. We didn’t eat until 7:30 (partly because our neighbors stopped by for two hours…the hours Dave would have been cooking). It was so late we ended up getting James and Elizabeth down for bed before sitting down to eat. It was sort of a wild evening, and I think Dave felt bad that it was chaotic for my Mother’s Day dinner. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. What a special treat to get two sweet kids on Mother’s Day! The girls even wrapped presents for Elizabeth to give me.

They are doing great. James has an ace bandage wrapped around his arm/stomach to keep his arm from moving. He doesn’t seem to be in much pain. He was very happy being held…and didn’t want to be put down. I loved holding him all day. It took him a while to go to sleep. He would sleep in our arms, then wake up the second we put him down. Finally we decided to let him cry it out and he’s sleeping soundly now. Good job little guy! James seems pretty mellow, although he sure likes to move his one arm that is allowed to move! I think he will be crawling before too long. He seems to want to be on the move.

Elizabeth is such a sweet tempered little girl. The second I held her, she snuggled tight on my shoulder. I loved it! She has been snuggly with me all day. She loves the girls and Nate. Nate and Elizabeth took a bath together and Nate got her first giggles out (well, the first ones that we heard). It was so cute. She started warming up and not being so shy. After bath time, she was dancing and smiling and laughing. I think she likes it here.

It is still amazing to me how quickly we can love these kids. They are so sweet and we are so happy to have them in our home for as long as they are allowed.

James has a spiral fracture – which is usually indicative of abuse. Elizabeth seems totally healthy and no signs of abuse.
Tomorrow is the court date, but our case worker is out of town so we won’t hear what’s going on until Tuesday.

Drug Rehab is no place for a baby

Well, that's our opinion anyway. Too bad the judge and guardian ad-litem don't agree with us. We just found out this morning that the kids will be taken away tomorrow. So sad. Ash had her arm around me while we cried together. We didn't say a word. Then Ash said "That poem I wrote means something." I asked her what she meant. She re-iterated what the poem says so perfectly. She is wise beyond her years. As soon as we heard the news, Ashlyn rushed downstairs without saying a word. 45 minutes later she came up with a darling packet of 3 burp cloths and 2 sequence headbands for Aleeya to take with her.

Heavenly Father has a plan for us

For my Mom, by Ashlyn Walton

Heavenly Father has a plan for us

Tho it may not be what we think is best

Pray and listen until you receive an answer

Whether you like it or not,

It's always the best.

I didn't publicize to everyone a hard situation that we were faced with a few weeks ago. In SHORT, there is a couple in our ward who adopted a day old infant unethically. If things were done ethically, that baby would have been placed in our home for foster care (because we are #1 on the list to get a call) and then would have been available for adoption. This was super hard for us...especially having to see them at church. Ash wrote this poem for me when I was sad about that.

I supposed I should also take the advice from Sadie a few years ago. It was when I was pregnant with Nate. I said "ouch" because something hurt from the pregnancy...can't even remember what it was. Sadie asked what was wrong, and I told her. To which she replied: Well, that's how life is. She said it so casually and is if I should have already known that there will be aches and pains and sorrows and all sorts of hard things in this life. Just get used to it Mom!

I will always hold a special place in my heart for Dayton and Aleeya. They are so sweet.