Storybook Land

We enjoyed a night at Storybook land with the kids just a few days before Christmas. Storybook land is a big building filled with displays off characters from beloved storybooks and movies. There is a large train set that had multiple trains going around tracks (click on the collage to see more details in the pictures above). You should have seen Titus go crazy when he saw Thomas the train!

We ran into our friends Toby, Kajsa and Kamden too. Toby was kind enough to take a fun family picture for us. Thanks Toby!

Santa was waiting at the end of Storybook land, and our kids weren't really sure what to do with him. In our quest not to lie to our kids we've told them that Santa is just pretend, but that some kids think he's real. They haven't really asked a lot of questions about it, they just take it for what it is. So when Santa asked them to sit on his lap the kids got a little freaked out. That is, until they saw he was offering candy canes... then all of the sudden Santa wasn't so bad!

When we walked outside just before it closed we were greeted with giant flakes of falling snow. We played around in it for a few minutes, trying to catch flakes with our tongues. It really was a picture-perfect beautiful ending to yet another wonderful family memory.

Snow Day

Yup, I'm still playing catch up. These are pictures from December 15th (our 7 year anniversary by the way). Rob got the day off of work because of snow! We treked over to Suzy's to play in the snow with the boys. It was cold! We had fun playing around in the snow and enjoyed some hot chocolate to warm us up after the adventures.

Click on the photo above to see fun pictures, like snow angels, wrestling and Logan and Titus licking the snow, then being upset because their faces were cold! You also need to check out Weston's hat hair in the hot cocoa picture!

Later that night Rob and Titus and I went to Applebees, since our intended anniversary dinner was supposed to be out-of-town and Leeann went out to dinner with some of her birth family members. Just as dinner finished we got a frantic phone call from Suzy about Landon being burned (he's doing well now, in case you are wondering) so we headed very slowly to the E.R. through the snow.

It was a fun day and I was super glad to get to spend it with my fantastic family!

Packed Away

I just packed away Titus's 12-18 month clothes... yippie! Suzy gave us some 2t and 3t clothes today and I purged the 12-18 month clothes to make room for them. His pants have been looking like high-waters, but 18-24 month pants fall off of him. Suzy gave me a size 2 with an adjustable waist today and they fit perfectly!

That's a really good thing since he's worn a hole in most of his 12-18 month jeans from being too rough on them for too long. If I remember right he's been in this size for a year or more. His new predicted height based on his latest measurements is 5'5"... up 3" from the last estimate. Only time will tell how tall he'll end up being though.

My kids have been a great joy to me lately. Amazing how the perspective changes when you're not holed up with sick kids isn't it? Seriously, I sure am having a lot of fun with them at this stage, they are both such joys to be around with their fun personalities. I'm so happy to be a mommy!

Not listening or not hearing?

Titus had his 3 year well check today and... he hit the charts on both height and weight! Out of 100 boys his age there might even be one or two that are smaller than him! He weights 25.2 pounds and he's 35 inches tall.

The doctor asked if I had any concerns and I told him that we were concerned about his hearing... especially lately. I said either he's been in a very defiant state, totally ignoring us, or he's having trouble hearing.

One glance into his ear with his light and he said, "Ah, his ear is full of puss, I'm surprised he's not screaming in pain!" So, it turns out that he has a pretty severe double ear infection, and can hardly hear anything.

So, the fact that he was driving me nuts this past week constantly asking, "What? What? What? What?", and refusing to obey when I would ask him to do something was really in response to actually not being able to hear. No wonder my week has been so frustrating!

Leeann didn't throw up anymore, so I think she just over exerted herself. Today, we're headed to Salem to do some shopping before heading to Logan and Weston's birthday party. I thought I'd have to stay home with Leeann, but it looks like we'll finally get to get out of the house and socialize today!

Christmas Through the Years

Here are some of the snapshots we've taken over the years of our very special "Decorating Day". It's fun to see how the kids grow and change through the years. I have delightful memories wrapped up in the days depicted here.

2004

2005

2006


2007
(There is not a picture like this for 2008, since Leeann no longer hands daddy the branches, she just puts them on the tree herself. Below you'll see the newer version of this type of picture, which is simply Leeann and Titus assembling the tree.)


2004200520062007 2008
20062007 2008

2007

2008

2007

(See below for 2008)

Christmas Decorating

Okay, so I know I'm incredibly late in posting these, but that's how far behind I am on blogging pictures. These are pictures from December 8th. Rob took the day off of work and we drug out all the Christmas boxes from the attic and went straight to work.

Leeann and Titus helped Daddy put the tree together. This year they were actually helpful. Rob said that we'll get a real tree about the time they can assemble this one themselves--so that they'd still need daddy for something!

My beautiful family!

Peek-a-boo!

Quite possibly my favorite picture of all times!

Mamasita, donde esta Santa Claus? The kids were using each others thumbs as microphones to lip sinc our favorite song this year titled, Mamsita. It was a fun song played often!

This is Mary... with baby Jesus in her tummy. She came up with this one all on her own!

All day she was begging to put the angel on the tree. This was her crowing moment.

This picture isn't flattering, but it's the only one I have. We have a standing tradition of having Papa Murphy's pizza and rootbeer on decoration day.

And, ice cream while watching a movie together.

This year's pick was Polar Express. Since I'm the resident camera girl Rob snapped this picture of me to at least document that I was part of decorating day. Really, I was there, I promise!

She threw up in the pool

So, what more can I say? Leeann threw up in the pool during swim lessons tonight. Well, she said she threw up in her mouth and her teacher told her to go to the garbage can. She got out of the pool and had liquid streaming down her chin and looked like she was blowing chunks, but it wasn't full-on vomit.

So, we're hopeful it was just due to the fact that she'd eaten dinner then exerted herself too hard. Or maybe she gagged on some water or something. I'm really hopeful that it's not keep-me-holed-up in the house for several more days sickness. I promise you... I will go nuts if it is!

It's been an hour without any additional incidence, so I think we'll be okay. I think we'll be okay. I think we'll be okay.

The good news is that she floated on her back, all by herself for more than 15 seconds! She's making great progress, and I'm quite proud of her!

My Little Girl

This is Leeann at the age that Titus is now... isn't she beautiful! Where did my little girl go?

When one door closes, another door opens

I haven't posted much about adoption stuff lately because there hasn't been much to post about. We'd been waiting to hear about one particular girl for more than a month, and when we finally heard about her the case workers seemed to be rather impressed with our home study and it looked like it would be moving forward (at least to the next step).

We were excited because this was the last girl that we felt like we'd be a good fit for and if we didn't move forward with her we'd be looking to slow down our search or put it on hold for a while. Well, yesterday morning... amidst all of my irritation regarding day #183 (or so it feels like) of being couped up with the kiddos--I got a call from my case worker. She said this particular girl had been removed from consideration for an adoptive placement because of some decisions she'd recently made. Trying not to be too bummed, I let our worker know we'd still look through bios that seemed like they might be a good fit, but that we wouldn't be actively seeking anymore girls for at least a little while.

So, in my mind I began thinking about disassembling the bunk beds and reclaiming "big sister's room". A few hours later we got a call from our case-worker who said that one of the workers at Northwest Adoption Exchange (NWAE) wanted to send our case study along to another case worker, because she thought we'd be a great match. Anyway, I spoke with that case worker today and got some more information and she'll read our home study in the next couple of days... so we'll see!

This processes really is a roller coaster. It's been 8 months since we set out on our adoption journey, we'll see what God has in store for us!

A day in the life of a quarantine zone

I'm going STIR-CRAZY!

You know, most days I think I'm doing okay at this whole mothering thing. My children are fairly happy, well-adjusted little gems who are kind to each other and to others. They use their manners 80% of the time and they are generally a joy for myself and others to be around.

We are going on day 11 of virtual quarantine with very little contact from the outside world, however, and it's beginning to look like Lord of the Flies in my house. My mothering instincts have all but withered away, and all of us are running very low on patience. Okay, me especially!

See, a week ago Friday we drove back from a wonderful vacation in Washington. Because we spent a week in Washington Rob had some work to do Saturday so he spent a good chunk of the day out of the house. Then we all drove to Corvallis to track down some books that Rob needed for Convergence, and he spent nearly every waking minute that he wasn't at work with his nose in these books because he needed to have them finished by Wednesday.

To spare you the boring details, between meetings, studying and nearly 3 full days (and nights) at school Rob has been home a grand-total of, well, not very much lately. This wouldn't normally be a huge problem because it only typically happens this way in short stages. For the most part he's around often and a very integral part of our daily lives... that's why it takes a toll on us when he's not.

This has only been exacerbated by a night full of vomiting, the on-set of pink eye, and days and days worth of icky colds. There's something about fighting a 3 year-old every 4 hours to put drops in his eyes as he's screaming at the top of his lungs, "I don't like that, I don't like that, I don't like that!" while trying to hold down his hands with my feet, his head between my knees and my hands trying to pry those tight little eyes open enough to put drops in them that puts us off to a bad start. It usually takes me about 20 seconds to do Leeann's drops and 4-5 minutes to do Titus's if that gives you any idea how much of a struggle it is!

And, to top it all off, I'm an extrovert. This means that my batteries are naturally charged by being around others. My batteries are dead.

Anyway, all of this is to help you understand why I'm definitely out of the running for mother of the week this week. After being up for only 20 minutes this morning I officially decided that I needed to leave my house... without my children. The only problem is, we're still under quarantine and there's no where that I can take my children that doesn't put others at risk. I woke up to Titus with a pair of scissors in his hands and a poopy diaper. While I was changing him he and Leeann were fighting over who-knows what and then they started fighting over something else and I told them to put those things in time-out... which they both started arguing with. Seriously, 20 minutes into my morning I was ready to crawl under a rock.

Instead, I gave them breakfast and told them they could color and now I'm here... blogging... my only connection to the outside world in times of quarantine! Oh, now they're yelling at each other from downstairs. Fun.

So, there you have it. Confessions from a true mom. One tired, frustrated, irritated, weary, worn-out, real-life mom.

I find this fascinating

I find it fascinating that only 4 people from my family and 1 person from my pre-college days seem to follow my blog (according to my week-long poll anyway). This is in contrast to 6 members of Rob's family and 5 people from his pre-college days. Perhaps he ought to do a better job of blogging on his own blog eh?

I've always thought I was blogging mostly for family members, but a grand total of 10 people out of 54 come from either of our families. That's in contrast to 7 who don't even know us, 19 from college and 11 from church.

I wonder if this information should or will change how I blog. Hmmm... The poll was really fun, thanks to all those who participated!

Here are the latest results as of today, but I've extended the poll for another week. So, if you haven't yet done so, please take the poll on my sidebar and if you haven't already, please leave a comment to tell me who you are also.

I'm part of Robyn's family
4 (7%)

I'm part of Rob's family
6 (11%)

I know Robyn from her pre-college days
1 (1%)

I know Rob from his pre-college days
5 (9%)

I went to college with Rob and/or Robyn
19 (35%)

I know them from NACC (or Albany in general)
11 (20%)

Someone I know recommended this blog to me, though I don't personally know either Rob or Robyn
0 (0%)
I stumbled upon this blog and now I read it, but I have no connection to Rob or Robyn what-so-ever
7 (12%)

I'm part of Leeann's birth family
1 (1%)

If you haven't yet done so, please take the poll on my sidebar and if you haven't already, please leave a comment to tell me who you are also. I know for sure of several readers who are faithful readers who haven't commented yet (Jessi, Jennifer, MeeMaw and Heempaw, Ron and Sally, Nikki, Aunt Barb, Stacey, Grandma and Grandpa D, SaraJane... just to name a few!)

Pink Eye and Glasses

Yesterday was a big day for Titus (as far as his eyes are concerned anyway!). He came down with pink eye and also got fitted for his first pair of glasses that should arrive in a week. He looks cute, but so different. They hardly had any glasses that fit him because he's so little, but he should grow into the ones we got him before too long. Hopefully it'll help him quite a bit because the doctor said his left eye isn't doing much of anything... so he'll probably be excited to wear his glasses since he'll be able to see and track better. I'll be certain to post a picture once he gets his glasses. In the meantime we're laying low in what is probably a failing attempt to not spread our ickiness to the world!

Because of the Tater Tots

*Caution, vomit story below, those with weak stomachs should stop reading here.*

I spent a better part of my wee morning hours consoling my son, cleaning up vomit, bathing him, doing laundry, remaking beds, etc. Why, oh why can't they throw up during the day time?

The first alarm came yesterday morning after breakfast when Titus said, "I have a tummy ache from beckfast (breakfast)". Then after lunch I heard, "I have a tummy ache from lounch (lunch)." At 12:45 (not even an hour from when I fell asleep) I heard him crying in his bed which is unusual. I asked him if he'd thrown up and he said he had... but I couldn't find any evidence of it, so I tucked him back into bed and sat by him and played with his hair until he fell back asleep. If I were smart, I would have given him a bowl and put a towel down 'just in case'. Hind sight is 20/20.

Around 2:45 he was crying again and I was reluctant to get out of bed because he wasn't crying over anything specific last time. Real motherly of me, I know! So, Rob finally woke me up enough to get out of bed and tend to him and sure enough he was holding a handful of thick, chunky reddish colored vomit, and his pillow and favorite blanket had been sacrificed too.

I thought far enough in advance to take his other two fleece blankets out of his bed the first time knowing that if he threw up, he'd need one to fall back asleep while the other one got washed. Why I didn't put a towel down is beyond me!

Anyway, he looked up at me through the tears and said, "It was because of my tater tots!" So I got him in the bath, cleaned him up, washed the contaminated items, got him dressed and sent him to his make-shift towel covered bed on my bedroom floor. Just before he made it to the bed he lost it all over blanket #2. I took him back into the bath room and cleaned him up and threw his blanket in the wash too. He missed his jammies entirely this time so I settled for a wipe up instead of a full on bath. We grabbed blanket #3 and headed back to bed. Just I walked in my room my bare feet discovered that might floor had been hit too. Yuck! So I cleaned myself up, tucked blanket #3 behind Titus, and tucked Berry Bear deep under the covers to protect her, and layed a bowl beside his head and gave him instructions on how to use it.

Just before vomit #2 Rob opted to head downstairs to finish his slumber on the couch, so I brought Leeann in to snuggle with me. She'd been rather concerned about Titus and was on the verge of tears while I helped him. She said she didn't want to be in her room alone and hadn't fallen back to sleep since the first incident started... so we snuggled up together and tried to go back to sleep.

Within another 45 minutes it happened again, but this time he totally made it in the bowl. I was so proud of him! Leeann watched intently and tried to console him... my little nurse in training... as he hurled for a few minutes. So, I cleaned him up, washed out the bowl and we all headed back to bed. Rob had to leave before 6 this morning so I woke up just a little bit to say good-bye to him. I, for one, am exhausted this morning!

Titus is as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as ever this morning though and hasn't thrown up since sometime before 4, so I'm hopeful we're in a clearing. I gave him a piece of toast and a little water for breakfast. Somehow, I think we're all getting naps today!

I had plans to make it in the office with the kids for a little while today, to go to the bank and the store too. I think my plans have changed to being busy at home today, hopefully we'll be able to tackle some of those things tomorrow. I'm not really sure why I share vomit stories with you, but if you're still reading you must find them somewhat interesting... which is strange.

In other news, please don't forget to vote in my poll if you haven't already, and leave a comment telling me who you are and that you read my blog!

Check Out My New Poll ----------->

So I decided to experiment with the new polling feature that blogger added. With your help, I'd love to get some more information on who actually reads my blog. If you feel that you don't fit in any of the answer categories, feel free to leave a comment on this post.

I think it's fun that so many people read my blog, but I honestly don't have a great feel for who my readership entails. If you'd be so brave as to leave a comment to tell me that you stalk my blog, feel free... as I'd really love to know who's reading about our crazy life! If you like lurking in the anonymous shadows, you can just take the poll instead of revealing your true identity (though you should take the poll regardless of whether or not you comment)--but I really would love to know that you read my blog, whoever you are!

30,000

I've had 30,000 hits since I put my stat counter on my blog last March. That's kind of fun! Of course, I'm sure it's probably the same 20 people who just check it over and over, but that's okay. It counts you as a unique visitor if it's been more than an hour since you last visited my blog. On a good day I'll have as many as 250 unique visitors.

What's also kind of fun is that I can see what state and city you live in, how you found my blog (like what words you put into Google) and how much time you've spent on my blog too. If you have a blog, you should totally spy on the people who are spying on you. www.statcounter.com.

Happy first day of 2009!

New Year's Eve

Nine years ago today I decided to put my faith in my Savior Jesus Christ. It's hard to believe it's been nine years since I made the awesome decision that rocked my world!

Today, I am celebrating the New Year with some wonderful family members. I'm sure it's hard to believe, but Titus and Leeann are still bright-eyed and bushy tailed just 30 minutes before we ring in 2009. Titus looked like he was going to give in for a few short minutes, but then he regained his energy rather quickly. Surprise!

We've been eating good food, playing awesome games (like Blokus... it's great!) and hanging out. Now we're watching the Bee Movie and counting down time until we pull out the cider and count down to the New Year.

I made some pumpkin rolls. Yummy!
This is Batman showing me how strong he is... mind you it's nearly mid-night.

Logan gave in!

Here's part of the clan. Since the taking of these pictures Leeann and uncle Chuck have fallen asleep beneath the Christmas tree. I took pictures, but I don't want to download them just yet. I'll try to remember to post them later because they've gotta be cute.

Happy New Year!

I haven't seen my kids in days!

We finally made it up to see Rob's family in the Kent area on Saturday. Suzy and I drove up with all the kids after a lunch stop in St. Helens (thanks uncle Steve for fixing my head-light and brake light!). We made it to Kent that evening and Rob joined us on Monday afternoon. We've been enjoying time with Rob's family, and the kids are having so much fun I virtually haven't seen them in days!

Seriously, Leeann's been sleeping in Ashly and Amanda's room (they're 10), and Titus has been sleeping in Joshua's room (he's 13). They wake up in their cousins rooms and pounce on them and play with them and aunt Shelly gets them breakfast and we get to sleep in until ridiculously late hours... I even slept in until 10:30 one day! It's been beautiful! Of course, we also stay up extra late hanging out with Chuck and Shelly, but that doesn't stop them from getting up at a normal hour!

The cousins are all worn out from all of their chasing of my kiddos. They are all so good with them! Josh even has the energy to chase Titus around all day and he's LOVING it. It's crazy that the cousins keep getting older and older (KayLee is 15), as I still think of them as young. I feel like Ashly and Amanda should be Leeann's age and KayLee and Josh should be about the age of the girls. Rob and I were talking about what it would be like to be here 5 years from now when Titus is 8, Leeann is 10, the girls are 15, Josh is 18 and KayLee is 20. Now, that will be a whole different ball-game. Before too long the cousins might start having families of their own adding more kids and a whole new generation to the mix. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves though... for now we're just having tons of fun together as a family. In fact, tonight we'll do our Buhl family Christmas. I can already smell the turkey!

On a not as happy note, Rob's mom has been in the hospital since the Tuesday before Christmas. She's been having some trouble with her liver for a long time and something happened with her kidney's where they've started to have problems too. I don't really understand it all, but I know that she's in the hospital and until she's able to get a liver transplant she'll continue to have significant health problems. So, we've gone to visit her and just spend some time with her every day we've been here. We bring by some grand kids and to fill her room with happy sounds, and we wear her out! The grand kids have plastered her wall with colored pictures and snap shots in attempts to help her keep her hopes up.

Leeann left her Disneyland flip book (with the pictures and signatures of the princess and other characters) with MeeMaw to give her something to look at and hope for. We keep telling her to get better so she can go to Disneyland with us at the end of 2009. We had so much fun with her when we got to go in 2007. Leeann politely asked her not to get anything on it because that book is very special to her. It was perfect, because it was actually MeeMaw who insisted that it was the one thing that she needed when we went to Disneyland. We weren't inclined to spend the money on it but MeeMaw bought it at the first stand she found in Disneyland. And, I admit, she was right... it was probably the best purchase of the whole trip! Now it's in MeeMaw's possession, helping keep her spirits up while she's in the hospital.

Carmin (Rob's step-dad) is taking great care of her, and the kids and grand kids are trying to visit as often as we can. It will be hard to go back to Albany, leaving her here. I went stir-crazy in the hospital for only 2 days even though I had a brand new baby, lots of visitors and my husband by my side the entire time. Oh, and I was recovering from a major surgery. I can't imagine what it must feel for her to be there. We appreciate your prayers for a quick and perfect liver match, and for the ability to fight to get healthy enough to have the transplant in the mean-time.

Anyway, I should probably go, but I wanted to get an update off to you since I've been terrible at keeping up lately. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year, and thanks for reading in 2008!

Just a few pictures!

These are some of Titus's birthday presents. After Christmas is done, the only vital Cars character we are missing is Tow Mater. I have looked for him everywhere, and the only time I've ever seen him he was the brand new mater (which he only is for like 2 seconds of the movie). Anyway, if any of my faithful readers ever come across Mater, I'll pay a high price for him! Well, not really, but I'll pay you back and thank you like crazy!

This is Leeann and Titus playing under Rob's counter in his office. Why are they covered in toilet paper covers? Glad you asked...

Because Pastor Joel and Branden decided to decorate Rob's office for him! They actually did a great job and it looked quite decorative until you realized what they were! Rob had the kids at the office with him when he took them off of his ceiling and they had a blast playing in them. Go figure, the best things in life... uh, never mind!

We Tried

This morning it appeared that there was a break in the weather and a stability in driving conditions so we packed as fast as we could and hit the road in hopes to be with family for Christmas. Suzy's clan followed close behind us and we made it just north of Salem before we realized venturing out was a bad idea. The further north we got, the more clumps of slush and show were on the road. It was bumpy and we were going less than 20 miles per hour. There were semi's and cars and trucks all lined up on the sides of the road to chain up, so we turned around and came home.

The whole way home Leeann and Titus kept begging us to just try to go a little bit further so we could make it to Aunt Shelly's. We tried to distract them by asking them to help us brainstorm some things we could do together, and with Suzy's family to make the next couple of days extra fun at home.

After a few great ideas such as painting and making cookies Leeann said, "I know, we can drive home and get our shovels (sand toys) and come back to the freeway and shovel the snow out of the way so we can get to Aunt Shelly's!" Rob told her it was too cold outside to do that and it would take too long. "We can wear our boots!" she replied. Ah, I love that she would think to do whatever she could to make it to Washington. We are sad to be missing family, but we are looking forward to creating some Oregon Christmas memories this year. Hey, at least we tried!

Snowed Out?

The only thing worse than being snowed in for Christmas, is being snowed out! Although Rob has the week off, we've yet been able to find any hope from the weather man to be able to travel to visit family on any of our days off... because they're all buried in snow. We, on the other hand have only had a few flurries today and other than that it's just been raining for days. 30 minutes north of here roads and businesses are closed as the snow keeps coming down. None for us though. I'm getting the impression that if you travel 30 minutes in any direction you'll find treterous conditions... crazy eh?

So, we anxiously watch the forecast trying to figure out if we'll get to spend Christmas with family, or we'll be hanging out here. The good news (or at least the silver lining) is that if we're stuck so is Suzy so we'll at least have some family around for the holidays.

Other than that, I still have a lot to update you on (and loads of pictures) but my laptop is seriously slower than dirt, and my desk top doesn't have any room for more pictures. That's why you're getting these boring wordy posts. I may have nothing but time on my hands this week though, so I'll try to get those up soon.

High Lights since my last post:

Leeann has a deep cough and she sounds miserable, but the on call nurse didn't seem concerned all.

Titus and Leeann had a Christmas Program at church and Titus discovered his angel wings as of the second performance and decided he could fly. He ran back and forth across the stage like a wild angel. Yup, that's the Pastor's kid! It was a circus! I was quite entertained, yet embarrassed at the same time. Every performance has to have a clown and I wasn't at all surprised that it was mine, honestly!

That's all I can think of for now. Enjoy the snow, since I'm sure every one of my readers has it but me!

So much to blog, so little time!

When I have a lot to blog I tend to blog nothing. Strange eh? What's really bad is when I wait so long, wanting to blog everything all at once, that I don't end up blogging anything at all.

So, in a nutshell, you've missed:

Leeann's last swimming lesson for the Fall season (see, I'm so far behind you didn't even know she was taking swim lessons huh?)

I'm racking my brain trying to remember what I did this weekend, but I'm at a loss! Oh, yeah, the kiddo's and I went to a friends and decorated sugar cookies... and I'm still not sure what happened after that.

Sunday we went to church and McDonald's then had Dean and Deborah and their family over for some tater-tot casserole, Cold Stone Ice Cream Cake (yummy... and Happy Birthday Deborah!) Then after they left we went out to play in the freshly fallen snow and took a short trip to Target... which ended up being a lot of fun since nobody was out in the snow.

Monday the snow kept falling and Rob took a day off to play in the snow and in celebration of our 7th wedding anniversary. We braved our way over to Suzy's place to play in the snow. I have lots of pictures and I promise to post them soon! We had lunch and hot cocoa there and mossied home to put the kiddos down.

Then we took Leeann to Red Robin to have dinner with some of her birth-family and Rob, Titus and I headed to Applebees. We were going to go to P.F. Changs for dinner on Tuesday to celebrate our anniversary, but that ended up getting snowed out! Anyway, just as we were finishing dinner Suzy called. I ignored the call because we were at dinner, but when she called back again a few minutes later I picked up the phone and she was crying and I could hear Landon screaming in the background. Landon rolled into a radiator styled space heater and got his arm and hand stuck in it while it was on. Suzy didn't know where the hospital was and it was super icy on the roads and she didn't know what to do. So we ended up meeting her part way so Rob could drive her car to the hospital and then he took all the kids back to our house and I stayed with Suzy at the E.R. Landon is a trooper and he's doing well, but he got some pretty good burns and blisters.

So, Suzy and the boys stayed the night at our place Monday night, just in case something went wrong especially since the roads were still icy.

They hung out at our house all day Tuesday until the roads cleared up a bit then Suzy took Landon back to the doctor. We invited them to stay at our place to weather the upcoming storm together. It was supposed to be several days worth of snow and freezing rain, so we were gearing up for not going anywhere for the next several days. Rob got some last minute grocery shopping in and we hunkered down ready to face whatever would come our way. The funny thing is, the storm never came. Oh well, it's always fun to have sleep-overs anyway!

This morning I had an interview to take on a day-care kiddo (I'm looking at picking up some part-time kids), and then I got to tackling a good winter project: Closets! I rearranged and cleaned out both of our hallway closets and it felt great! It makes me wonder why I didn't clean them out ages ago since it only took an hour and a half and now they are both function and far from chaotic!

That's been our last couple of days in a nutshell, and I'll post pictures when I'm able. I hope you're enjoying the snow wherever you are. Assuming that there's snow wherever you are. Oh, and Happy Birthday to our 10 year-old neices Ashly and Amanda and Rob's step-dad Carmin!

Snap! Snap!

Yesterday Suzy and boys came over for lunch and the kids all played upstairs for a while after we ate. A few minutes before Rob gets home I usually try to have the kids pick up their room so it's not too chaotic for him as he walks through the door. So, about 10 minutes before he was scheduled to be home I went upstairs to encourage them along in the clean-up process and their room (and hallway outside their room) was TRASHED! I mean, it was bad... really, really bad. All of the Poly Pockets were scattered and Titus took every flash card in our house and scattered them in the hall. Blankets and cars and stuffed animals were strewn throughout the room. I should have taken a picture.

So as I'm barking out orders like, "Two hands, two toys" and "Super speed kiddos, gotta work fast Uncle Rob's almost home!", Leeann comes up to me and asks me, "Mommy can you just snap really well so that our room will clean up all by itself?" I couldn't help but laugh in the midst of chaos. "Oh sweetie, I'm not Mary Poppins, but I wish I were... you're going to have to clean your room up all by itself!"

More Updates

Just in case you are wondering where we're at with the adoption pursuit, we went and looked at bulletins last Thursday and put our name in for 4 girls in state and 1 girl in a neighboring state.

We've heard back that 3 of the 4 Oregon girls have been placed (their bulletin's were pulled the next day) and the other one's caseworker is out of town this week so we don't know if she's still available. Our caseworker sent our home study along to an interstate worker who weeds through out-of-state home studies and forwards along ones that seem like they might match. We don't yet know whether or not she'll send our home study along to this girl's caseworker, but we're hopeful. We're not really sure where to go from here because these 5 girls (now 2) are the only ones that are currently available that we're wanting to get more information on.

So, we wait. Again. We're trying to patiently wait on God's timing for the child he plans for our family. We're coming up on 7 months from the time we decided to adopt again. I was hoping to by-pass the whole 9 month gestation processes this time around, but it looks like we'll easily surpass that mark in this pursuit!

Anyway, that's where we're at. We're both doing well, recovering as expected from the dissapointment of not being selected for the previous young lady. We were both sad and bummed, but we're committed to moving on, continuing the pursuit of our next daughter. We'll let you know when we get closer to going to committee for anyone specific.

The Church Office Part 1

This is the first of three videos made by our fantastic staff to help teach the congregation what not to do as part of our Project Christmas series. It's well worth watching, and I'll post the others later. Leeann makes a special appearance in #2!

My Little Texter

7:39 am: (Blank message sent to random number unbeknownst to me)

7:48 am: Is this robin?

7:49 am: Yup (Me thinking--who on earth is texting me at 7:48 in the morning from a number that isn't programmed into my phone? And why are they texting me asking if it's me. Weird!)

7:51 am: whats up? just textin? (Again thinking--What? Just texting? I hardly ever text. Who are you and why are you texting me so strangely so early in the morning...

Ah, I get it. I woke up to Titus in bed next to me playing with my phone... he must have texted this person. But their name isn't even showing up, how'd he randomly text someone who's number isn't programmed into my phone? Seriously, who is this? Maybe I have a programming genius on my hands!)

8:00 am: That must have been Titus... Sorry! Who's this?

8:16 am: Haha this is Branden
Haha thats funny (How did he text Branden... I don't remember calling Branden or getting a call from Branden anytime recently. I went to find Branden's # in my phone and it wasn't even showing up... stranger yet even!)

8:18 am: I hope he didn't wake you! Sorry about that!

9:11 am: Haha no im @ work. Silly titus

Anyway, I figure that somehow Titus texted Branden and then erased his contact information which is why his name wasn't showing up next to his number... hence all the confusion. After flipping through my recent calls I remembered that I'd called him Saturday evening to let him know I'd locked up the church and set the alarm after a wedding so he didn't need to come lock up. Still though, Titus had to do some pretty crazy maneuvering to find Branden's information and text him, and erase his information. It makes me wonder who else he's erased from my phone without my knowledge! Silly boy!

3rd Birthday!

We had a small party here, with Suzy and the boys in celebration of Titus's 3rd Birthday.
It was fun times had by all!


Titus showing off his new Doc car. One of many Cars vehicles he got for his Birthday this year!

Opening up some presents!

The final cake picture. Oh, and the red frosting tasted so bad that later that evening Titus exclaimed that he didn't care for the red parts! Titus chose to eat the tire, Logan chose the spoiler, Leeann chose the window and Weston said he was find with whatever he got. I ate an eye and Rob got lucky by choosing the numbers... he didn't get very much red! I'm not sure which piece Aunt Suzy got. I'm sure you were just dying to know who ate what parts of the cake huh?

My 3 year-old son, blowing out his Birthday candles! Can he really be 3?

Birthday Breakfast

Rob took Titus out for a late Birthday breakfast, which turned into lunch when Titus insisted on macaroni and cheese and grapes at Denny's. Thought you might enjoy a sneak peak of the Birthday Boy!

Cake Mess!

I found myself up until 2:00 this morning putting the finishing touches on the much anticipated Lighting McQueen cake in celebration of Titus's 3rd Birthday! As always, it was a long daunting process full of "learning opportunities". So now I have a Strawberry Shortcake, a Blue's Clues, 2 John Deere Tractors (one was pink), a Princess Belle cake, a Cinderella cake and a Lightning McQueen cake under my belt. I have done others too, but these are the character cakes that I've done.

It seems like each one takes longer than I anticipated and runs into some sort of catastrophe before turning out okay in the end. This year I learned that it takes a boat load of red to turn white frosting into a deep red. I ended up using 1.5 ounces of Wilton cake decorating food coloring, and 3 full tubes of regular food coloring, adding some Wilton brown to try to tone down the awful pink color I kept getting. In the end it turned out okay because I also found out that red darkens as it sits. I almost cried at the thought of all of that effort for a pink Lightning McQueen cake!

What I didn't know until I hopped on-line to try to figure out how to get a deep red, is that when you use that much food coloring it makes the frosting taste bitter unless you get the no-taste red (would have been good to know before it was too late to go get some). So, I added some almond flavoring to try to mask the bitterness, but honestly, I'm not holding out hope for this to be one of my best tasting cakes! Hey, you learn as you go right?


I also made a huge mess! This was even after cleaning up some as I went along. Notice my lap top, I watched some Super Nanny on-line to help pass the time while I was making a mess... I mean... decorating. I go through tons of paper towels for some reason... and lots of tooth picks too. Oh yeah, and spoons and bowls!

This is how I left my kitchen counters last night, I was just too tired to clean up at that point. Here's one of my tricks by the way: I buy store bought frosting then add some powdered sugar to it to thicken it up. And if you need brown or black, just add those colors to chocolate frosting so you can get it a nice deep color.

More mess!

And here's the finished product! Well, almost finished, I added a black line to his mouth and some writing beneath the cake later, but here's the mostly finished product for now. Ka-Chow, Ka-Pow!

Three

My little baby turns 3 today! I remember the day of his birth like it was yesterday. I remember all sorts of crazy silly details, but most of all I remember the joy and excitement of bringing this little boy into the world and holding him in my arms for the first time. How have three years come and gone so quickly?

He's such a sweet boy, full of spunk and energy. He has a great joy-filled personality and a smile that melts my heart each day! I'm so blessed to get to be his mommy!