From the mouths of Babes

Today, I did all girls hair up in a "messy bun" for church. Brinley was so excited and I told her that if any one said how cute her hair was to say "thank you, it's my messy bun". So today we were in the kitchen and I was asking her how nursery was and asked if any one said how cute her hair was. She said yes and nodded. Richie heard and asked her what kind of hair she had and she thought for a second and said "um, it's my funny bum!"

As you can see, it is falling out really bad, but it looked really cute at church!

Mackenzie's 1st day of Kindergarten!

She is so excited to go to school! She has been waiting for this day for a long time! All year of preschool last year, she would ask when she got to go to kindergarten! Well- the day finally arrived!!!

All day today, she would ask if it was lunch time YET? She knew she was going after lunch time and it was so hard to wait. She wanted lunch at 9:30 this morning. When she found out she would still have to wait several hours if she ate lunch right then, she was good to just have a snack!
Sorry about the red eyes

Mackenzie in front of her class room

Mackenzie with her teacher, Mrs. Miles. When we got there she found out that she gets to sit by a little friend who had 2 years of preschool with her! So hopefully she has an automatic friend to start the year with.

12 more days- but who's counting!?!?

Well the nightly contractions -that don't do anything -started last night. They are just strong enough to wake you up out of sleep, but not strong enough to bother getting out of bed! With Mackenzie and Brinley, I had them about every other night for 2 weeks and (back then) I was stupid enough to sit up and walk around, run up and down the stairs at 2 am to see if they would get a little bit harder or closer together to justify going to the hospital- but they never did. They always ended up stopping all together around 5 and 6 am. All it ever accomplished was making me sleep deprived and irritable for when the baby came! So this time we are going to try to humor them instead, and IF they ever get hard enough to bring a baby here- I'll guarantee you I won't be able to sleep through them! Never has happened yet- I've always given up and been induced so I'm not holding my breath!

We need help!

The realization that I only have 2 weeks left has put me into a panic because we don't have a name picked out for this little girl! I have went over and over the baby names websites with no luck. With all of my other kids, as soon as we thought about their name, we just knew it was it. So far that hasn't really happened.

If you know of a name that isn't super common, that is "newer" and cute, maybe even with a little twist from the normal version- we are all ears. Never have I went to the hospital not knowing exactly what we were naming the baby and all kids calling it by name. Any suggestions are good!!! Don't be scared to post because I know there are a lot of you out there that have been following the adoption thing and right now we need all the ideas we can get.

There's a light at the End of the Tunnel!

Today I had my 37 week Dr appointment and - Good News - I'm already showing signs of labor!!! So he said that if I hadn't had it by September 7th, he would induce me that day! Yeah! That means 2 weeks and 1 day left! Some of you may think I'm nuts for wanting her to come out any sooner than she has to, but when you can't sleep at night for bathroom breaks, and 15 point roll overs, and back and leg cramps- I'm actually excited! Not that the sleep amount will increase - but maybe the quality of sleep will. We'll keep you posted!!!

Not to fond of pregnancy pic's either but this is my "scrapbook/journal" so bare with me - sorry!

Look who's eating baby food!

Not very willingly, contrary to how the pictures look. After a few bites he started clamping his mouth shut any time he saw the spoon coming! But, we snuck a few bites in and had to try a few tickling, airplane flying, and prying tactics. And then gave up! It took him 4 days of trying to finish ONE of the very smallest jars of food that they make! We'll see how it goes from here!

Back to School!

Schools Back! I'm not as excited this year as in some past years! With everything going on this summer, I don't feel like I even got to see them! I'm kind of sad that they are already going back. I'm going to miss having the "big helpers" around. They have been awesome to do things for me to help out.

For those of you who don't know- they started at a new school this year and only know a couple kids. The ones Dallas knows are in a different grade, so it doesn't even help him any. But I almost starting sobbing yesterday after school when I asked how there day was, if they liked their teacher, and if they had met any new friends to play with. And Dallas's answer was no and that he ate lunch by himself and was alone at recess too. It just breaks my heart when kids have to go through that. I hope he will be able to connect with some one soon or me and him are gonna have a really hard year!




At least they were excited to go the first day! I hope that lasts! Micailey is luckily in her little friend across the streets class, so I know she'll be fine! But, I'll sure miss them this year! I'm not good with change, so I hope it's just harder on me then them and that they will all be just fine! Mackenzie starts next week so we'll post her pic's then! Just think then I'll be down to only 3 (soon to be 4) at home!

Awe, what new experiences we're having!

We actually took him to a park at the Embassy in Morocco and at first he didn't want anything to do with it until one of the girls there showed him how much fun the slide could be and then helped him try it (uneasily) for the first time. And then he didn't want to get off for a while. Then he was fascinated by all of the little tiny rocks that made up the playground "floor". But we tried the swing there and was terrified every time the direction of the swing changed. So we didn't enforce that for to long.

But this time - He was so giddy in the swing! He couldn't stop smiling and giggling the whole time! He was so cute. He honestly looked like this for about 15 minutes straight and did not want out, even though all of us pushing him were dying of heat stroke and wanting to find shade!

He really is a quick learner! He is learning to say at least a couple new words a day. And I'm sure he is "understanding" even more than we know of what we are telling him. But in all honesty- I knew this would be hard and a challenge, and on one hand it hasn't been too bad, but on the other hand I honestly feel like I'm trying to raise/teach Helen Keller (except he can see). But he is a 2 year old boy who knows what he wants & needs and I'm sure he is so frustrated when he can't communicate with any one, but trying to get across to him why he can't do things that are wrong or dangerous (like turn the stove knobs on), or that he has to wait till the food is cooked before he can eat it (his was always waiting on the little table when they got there), or that even though daddy isn't a female nurse, he is a nice guy and CAN help you eat, get pj's on, change your diaper, put you to bed, get you a drink, tickle you, look at you, etc. That is one of our challenges right now. It gets a little better each day (for instance he didn't start crying and clinging to me when Richie walked in the door from work today and let him feed him his dinner!) He isn't that way with every male, but Richie is the one that keeps coming back for some reason and insists on doing what "Mama" should be doing. So "Mama" can have a break and breathe every so often!!! But this too shall pass! And we'll be on to brighter days.

Everyone asks me how it is going with all of the other kids and fitting in and all of that. It is actually not too bad! I haven't had them complain even really once about a why or I wish we didn't do this - nothing!! They enjoy feeding the baby and burping the baby and all that (for the time being at least) and they like playing with Jordan & trying to teach him new words. And they are really good to try to get him to play "away" from Mama (he insists on following me from room to room to room saying "Mom! Mom! Mom! alla la fo a jfjot jadjj fe...." - No clue- but something apparently important!) Today he was funny, he was actually playing with the kids upstairs in the toy room and I was down in the kitchen and he came to the top and said "Mom, Mom, Mom! ......." and went on and on in his jabber that I have no clue what means for what seemed to be paragraphs while I nodded and nodded and then all the sudden he screamed like a girl and started laughing. I don't know what the story was about but it was apparently really funny and detailed in his mind and someone squealed, but I had to hear it about 3 times in a row - exactly the same every time - it was kind of funny by the 3rd time through!

But anyway, no it's honestly not all "Peaches & Cream" all of the time, but it's not as bad as some might imagine either and we are making it through! Someday - looking back- we will probably have a hard time even remembering these first few months!

In the last 3 weeks :)

First of all- when we first got Cohen we tried laying him on his stomach and he could barely lift his head off the floor an inch and was immediately screaming because he hated it! He was like a bobble head when you held him up on your hip and didn't have a clue how to roll over. Also, we tried him in the sitting position and his legs didn't even want to bend that way.

Now - in the last 3 to 4 weeks since we have had custody, we have been working with him a little each day and we are proud to announce that he can now lay on his stomach and hold his head way high, roll from his stomach to his back,

and sit up for rather long periods of time. You have to still be by him because he will get side tracked and tip over every so often. And last night he cut his first tooth through!! (Notice the drool dripping off his chin! Anyone who has met him will verify that he is constantly chewing and drooling till he is drenched!) How many more to go? :)

Now all we need to work on is showing him that he has legs & to put pressure on them and that they are very useful if he would just try!!! The last picture is Richie's mom Connie, holding him at a family bday party at the park. I might be a little partial but isn't he cute!!!

Welcome to the US shower!

Just in case I don't get the word out to all of you in time- My Mother-in-Law asked if she could do a welcoming shower for the boys. She made invitations and everything, but in case you didn't get yours or if I run out of time to call everyone, I wanted to let you all know that you are invited!!!

It is an Open House on Friday the 8th, from 6 - 8 pm at my house. I hope all of you can come! I have no idea who has been following this adoption process or even knew we were doing it in the 1st place, so please spread the word! Everyone is welcome. Come and meet the boy's! Hopefully I am going to make a dvd of all of our pictures of the trip so everyone can see them. A lot of them are on the blog - but definitely not all!

It's just casual, I'm just excited to see everyone again and let you meet the kids. They are so fun- hopefully they are in a good mood!

Welcome Home Mommy!!!

So on Saturday, Richie took Dallas and Jordan to the store and Cohen was sleeping, and the girls were playing with their dress up makeup. So I thought- we'll have a little quality girl time, so I sat down and helped them do their make up and then they started combing my hair. Mackenzie was using a comb and I could feel her tugging on just one portion of my hair, but I thought she was separating it out to put a pony in or something. The next thing I knew, she had the comb clear up by my head and was trying to force one more rotation. Scared I said "What are you doing?!?!" She had started at the end of my hair and rolled the comb around and around - all the way up!! I worked on it for quite a while with no success and finally called my mother in law and begged for help.

We used wire cutters to clip all the teeth of the comb off and it was still stuck! So by then Richie had gotten there and cut the spine of the comb into 1/3's, and we finally got it out.

This is the lovely knot I got to comb out and I lost some hair but not as much as I would have if I had to cut my hair to get it out. Mackenzie feels quite bad about doing it and promises that she will never twist anything up in hair again!

Camel rides

At a beach by Rabat, you can have a camel ride. So Touria knew where and took us there one day. We were so excited! It was quite a unique experience!

This is an embarrassing photo, but I decided I would post it anyway. But this is how they get up and down. Their backsides go up first and then there front. We knew this- but the magnitude of the height difference was quite shocking!!!! Yes! I'm screaming quite loudly!

Riding them is like a "chug" sensation. You don't go side to side, it's a front to back jurk. I don't know how people can ride them long distances because it uses a whole different set of mussles.

Feeding the Barbery Apes

About 45 minutes out of Meknes, there is a place called Azru. It looked like a "Swiss Park City" if you can imagine that- But they have a forest up there in the hills that have tons of monkeys roaming wild. Over the years, they are "tamed" because of tourists, you can buy little bags of peanuts to feed to them and there are a couple little booth/shops. But the monkeys just roam everywhere and take the food right out of your hands.

If you aren't paying attention, the monkeys jump right up on you and steal your bags of food. Notice my bag of peanuts in his hands!!!! He jumped up my leg, snatched the peanuts, and was up the tree before you even head time to react.

There were lots of little baby monkeys of all ages. The moms let them roam around to but not to far from them. When the mother wanted to move, the baby would just grab on no matter where and have a ride- whether it be hanging on her stomach or side, or riding on her back. The baby's were so cute! It was so fun to watch them try to open the peanuts and then have the mother help if they needed.

They also had boys trying to earn money by giving donkey and pony rides. We let Dallas split the cost of a ride and do a half ride on both so that he could ride them both.

lot's of long posts - sorry

Sorry -I don't want to overwhelm any one with a million really long posts. I don't even know if people will find them interesting or not. I'll try to just do a couple a day, but we did so many things while we were there that I need to document at the same time so I hope most of you will enjoy them!

Taking Our Donations to the Orphanage

On Saturday we took all of the donations to the orphanage. It was really crazy! We had 2 large suitcases full and heavy and they have an elevator that luckily was working that day. When I say elevator- I mean a tin box that fits about 3 adults and doesn't have a door that really shuts you in- it has a gate that you close, but then as you go up the gate stays there and then you can't touch that part of the elevator because it is the side of the hospital and it's moving as you go up. I hope that makes sense. But the orphanage is on the 5th floor (technically the 6th because where we parked was I guess the basement) but every time except this one, we had to hike 6 flights of stairs to visit the orphanage.

This day was especially crazy though because they knew we were there to adopt and see the babies but they needed to also go through all of the donations and write up a "receipt", so they needed me there for that to tell them what everything was and how it worked. So while I had 3 nurses and a translator trying to get all that information from me and me trying to take "quality" pictures (at first) - I also had 5 nurses bring babies in and handing them of to me to "pick" and couldn't figure out why I wasn't choosing the first healthy child they handed to me.

Finally I handed my camera to one of the orphanage teenage boys and motioned to him to take pictures- or I wasn't going to get any!- but at the same time- after it was all said and done, we had a few good ones but we also had some of the floor and blurry, and then some how he got it in panoramic mode and some other screen, so in the end- we got a few, but not what I had envisioned!

This is Mary holding the little boy she is trying to adopt. We tried putting on one of the 53 hats that our ward YM/YW helped make for youth conference.

This is Richie getting out the Jersey's that we were able to get donated by BYU. The just had a basketball hoop attached to the wall of their new building and are so excited to play, but they had no way of distinguishing teams. So Richie emailed BYU and the Jazz to see if they could donate any form of jersey's. BYU responded back and sent 15 of their basketball camp reversible jersey's that they had left. So the boys that were there were really excited!

They didn't realize the hats were different sizes and they were trying to put on an infant hat on this teenager. -It obviously didn't fit!

Here are the boys that were there at the time sporting the jersey's and the balls.

An old Pirate City

We had the opportunity to tour and old Pirate city. The pirates would watch for boats out in the water, and then go raid them and bring back the lute. This is a fun place because it still has all f the canons and look outs. They have converted all of the old homes into newer homes and people still live here. In fact this is where Touria threw the "welcome to the US shower" for all of us who were adopting. Her friend actually lives here with such amazing views from the balcony's and windows. There are a lot of cool pictures of the view on Josh and Rachels site. I was so hot by the time we hiked up all of the hills and stairs I wasn't thinking "view" pictures at the shower. I am probably going to slaughter the spelling of this place, but phonetically it is the Udias
(oo- dIas).

This is looking from a little cafe or restaurant that they have there. I guess it's a local hang out for the singles on the weekends.

This is us by the canon's so that Dallas could see them. He didn't get to come with us because we were doing other adoption stuff and just happened to need to waste some time and Reda brought us here.
This is the entrance with the stairs and hill I mentioned earlier. It's quite the workout in 100 degree weather and no air when you get to the top! -oh and pregnant!