Our Macie is getting big!

They grow so fast! This is just a couple snapshots of Macie cause she looked so dang cute and comfy!

Blowing cute bubbles!

Decorating the Trees

I figured that I had better post these pictures before Christmas was done and over with. Every year we let the kids decorated their own tree (we're a few trees short this year but oh well!) and we stagger them all together. You know, as a mom, my vision was to have this fun night as a loving family, nice Christmas music playing in the background, and a little holiday treat for family night! Not!- reality hit. Kids were arguing over which lights they had and who had what ornaments first, and how many ornaments who had compared to who. The night had hardly started and the mood was totally gone! By the end of the night everybody was yelling at everybody and Micailey wouldn't even smile for the family photo at the end. It was so ....fun! I should just let you look at the pictures and pretend that none of that happened- but with seven kids at home I'm afraid you would all know I was lying! I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who's kids fight. Right?

Mackenzie get's mad when I tell this story but it was so dang cute I need to record it. We got the stockings out the other day and she was so excited - she was jumping up and down and clapping her hands- and she said "yeah, we get to hang them on our fireplace!!! Where's our fireplace?" and looked around the family room for it and when she didn't find it, she had this look of a light bulb going off in her head and she ran to the front room to find the fireplace (FYI - we don't have a fireplace) and when she came back she was all discouraged and she sadly said "where's our fireplace?" When I told her that we didn't have a fireplace anymore, she said "Then where do we hang our stockings?" She was so sad! It took all of the enthusiasm out of the stockings for her because she had no idea where we were going to hang them now- Her whole life the stockings have been hung on a fireplace. So we had to quickly come up with somewhere to hang them and thanks to "sticky hooks" and the fact that we don't have any decorations up yet- they are proudly displayed on the main wall of our family room! (watch for the photo at the end of the Christmas tree slide show below)

Decorating the Trees

Our 2008 year in a nutshell

It's hard to believe that 2008 is almost over already! I still feel weird thinking we're in the 2000's at all. I'm not going to send out cards this year with all that is going on, so I thought I would put a little summary of our year on the blog for record and anyone who is interested.

This year has definitely been eventful! The beginning of the year was all a blur with morning sickness and adoption questions and problems, but in March we took the kids to Lego Land and Knott's Berry Farm & informed them that we were going to have a baby. In May we decided to go ahead with the adoption and in June we flew to Morocco on a leap of faith & in July we brought home 2 new boys. In August the kids started school at a new school because I was "not going to sell my house with 2 new adopted boys and a brand new baby coming" - my famous last words! So we started them at their new school, and then in September sweet little Macie joined our family! We decided to put our house up for sale after all and sold it within days. So in October we moved out and into our new home which upon moving in, we decided that before we could unpack, we really needed to repaint and carpet. So, all of my spare time ( hee hee! - the 2 hours a day of nap time or into the wee hours of the morning) I have spent painting the main floor and have now worked my way up and I am almost finished with the master bedroom. In November we decided that we needed some quality time with our kids since that has been hard to come by lately and we decided to join Richie's family on a trip to Disneyland!!! I know - everyone probably thinks we are nuts- but it ended up going really well and gave us a much needed break! When we returned, Richie started his new job and is learning the ropes there and the kids started school at another new school and are finding new friends there. And that brings us to December, and trying to get ready for all that it entails! What a year!

We are so blessed with such wonderful friends and family that have made this year even possible! With out all of them we wouldn't have had anywhere for our kids to go while we were in Morocco or sanity for me with breaks from kids when we got home. There is no way I could have been packed and ready to move out (or in to the new one) with out their help! And there is no way we could have had such a great time at Disney with out the help of Richie's family there!
We love you all and are so blessed because of you!

We are also blessed with such great kids! They are usually well behaved and well mannered! We have put them through a lot and they are handling it really well! They help me when I need it and keep telling me that they want us to have 12 kids in our family! They are all special to us in their own unique way and we love them for that!

I hope that 2009 is as joyous as this year was- maybe not as eventful!- but definitly as joyous! I don't plan on adopting, having a baby, or moving, so we'll see what other wonderful things can happen! I hope every one has a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We love you Brinley!

Our little Brinley has turned 3! She has everybody wrapped around her finger! She is doing so good with all of the changes that have happened in her little life this year! She loves to play with her brothers and sisters and tries to do everything that they can do! She loves to come and give me hugs and kisses and stills tells me she loves me and missed me while I was in "Rocco"! We love you Brinley and are so blessed that you are part of our family!

Brinley's blessing day

Brinley on Easter

Loving her spaghetti

In my dad's back yard

Christmas last year

Enjoying Popsicles with Kenzie on a hot summer day

My little Brinley is 3!

What a birthday! We celebrated her birthday on our last day at Disneyland! We were going to let her pick what we ate for dinner there, but she picked ham n pineapple pizza!!! Disneyland doesn't have ham n pineapple pizza!!! So after a tantrum, she finally settled on .... fresh pineapple! What ever princess!

So here she is, happy as can be with her fresh pineapple!




For dinner we met up with Richie's mom and dad and she insisted on a kids meal with Mac n cheese and applesauce. What ever princess :o) Then she saw our soup bowl and wanted that too- what ever princess. Then she saw me eating my turkey sandwich, and wanted some of that too- what ever princess. Then her daddy came back from getting his foot long corn dog, and she wanted some of that too- what ever princess!!! Good thing she is so dang cute! So here she is eating all of her birthday meals! I wanted to get her a dessert and put candles in it to blow out, but princess insisted that she wanted a gingerbread cookie instead- what ever princess!

She got to open her presents at the hotel.

She loved all of her presents and is living happily ever after! It's a good thing that even princesses only have one birthday a year!!!

Our Disney Trip

What an adventure! We had a lot of fun! We were at Disney for 5 days and the kids had so much fun! There's no way we could have done it with out the help of Richie's family - so THANK YOU to everybody who was there! Sorry if pushing strollers, packin kids around, or taking turns to ride the rides was annoying- but all the kids had a blast! We got a ton of stares and comments in passing about how many kids were in our pack, but it actually went really smoothly. Every night when we walked the "route" to the hotel (by ourselves) everyone we passed would say "Wow! You have your hands full!!!" and we would just smile and say -"Yes we do" :o) Most of the time we had 18 people --7 adults & 11 kids under 10 yrs old (6 of them were 3 and under!) but in the middle of the week we had 21 (8 adults & 13 kids) & 7 strollers!!! ( 4 of them were mine :o)!!! )

Jordan wasn't to sure about the dark or water rides at first but ended up enjoying all of them for the most part. Pirates was the 2nd ride of the 1st day and after being on for about 30 seconds he started whimpering and saying "all done! all done!" and said that every couple seconds throughout the whole ride! He was so happy to see "the light at the end of the tunnel" and get off of the ride. The more we rode it, the better he got.

Cohen did great. He is such an easy going kid. He liked the rides but was also fine to sit in his stroller. He hardly made a noise on the drives and didn't even care if he had a toy to play with. He was just happy to be out and about!

All the kids did awesome and were such a big help when we needed it! They pushed strollers, played with kids, and stuck close by so they didn't get lost! We had our moments of chaos but for the most part - I think I have awesome kids! How else could we have survived!

So thank you again to everybody who helped! I hope you all had as much fun as we did! It is certainly going to be a trip to remember!

Knott's Berry Farm

Our Disney adventure begins!

We left St George at 6:30 in the morning, so we got to Anaheim in the early afternoon. A few of us got checked in to our hotel's and then we went to pick Richie's sister Kellie up from the airport. After that we decided to go to Olvera Street where Richie's family always used to go and his Mom really wanted us to try these certain Taquito's with an avocado dip. This was where the looks of "are you guys insane" started. We did not fit in for several reasons - one of which was the # of children we had to parade through and keep track of!

At the Taquito place

Our lively gang- All 18 of us! (11 kids - all under 10 years old)

Our next big idea was to go see the Queen Mary - in the dark - with tired and hungry kids. This wasn't the best idea either. Macie screamed from Olvera Street clear to the Queen Mary and back to our hotel! It was so much fun!!!

It wasn't that bad at the time! It was fun to see these places and it will be fun to look back and remember and laugh about - and beats sitting in a hotel with screaming bored kids!