The past 4 months summerized in pictures

I finally emptied my camera and so here is a snapshot of life since February.



Kenna turned 3.  Here she is changing her new baby's diaper.  She didn't have a friend party because she refused (and still refuses) to use the potty.

Rhyan and Katie competed at the USA Cheerleading Junior Nationals at the California Adventure.  We took a girls trip with Nana and spent a couple of days prior to the competition at the Disneyland parks.



The competition started out rough.  Both parks were closed for a bomb threat and so the first session started over an hour behind schedule.  The girls competed in session 3.  It meant a lot of sitting around waiting because we no longer had a difinitive start time.

At the competition, Katie's team took first in their category.

Way to go Katie!



Rhyan's team took first in their category and Grand National Champions which means they had the highest score for all the teams in all the sessions for the whole day!

Grand Champs!


 


Look at my medal!

Katie and her coaches







 



   





 

 

At the end of February, the youngest 4's birth mom had a new baby... Baby C.  She was placed with another family. (see told you we were really done having kids)!  We went to Baby C's baby shower and got to love on her.



Our sister from another mother!

Here is Baby C with her awesome Momma A!  (Baby C's older brother "B" looks so much like Seth that they look more related then Seth and Baby C do)! 

Katie turned 7.  Her birthday falls at the end of March and in the middle of tax season so her friend party didn't acutally occur until April after the tax deadline.

Finally she got to have her party.  The weeks between her actual birthday and the party were full of a lot of  "when can we go to Chuck E. Cheese!"

Levi turned 13.  He didn't get to have a friend party either because he also chose not to do the things he had to do in order to have one.

The girls' team got recognized by the Las Vegas City Council.  I think its because we are currently the only recreation team in the Las Vegas area but I'm not sure.  The girls didn't care, they got to miss a half day of school.

 

Most of my kids were born without the shyness gene.  I think that's why it was so shocking that at Isabelle's graduation from preschool she was so embarassed she wouldn't even look at us. 

Maybe if I don't look at them they won't know its' me!

Finally, after the ceremony she loosened up a little bit!

Isabelle turned 5.  She had a massive super hero themed birthday party with all of her "best" friends, (all 20 or them)!

Baby C all superheroed out!

  

One of Isabelle's presents.  Does Momma A get her or what?!



Rhyan graduated from elementary school and is now a middle-schooler!  She was so excited because she got six certificates and she told me she never gets more that one.  She got a promotion (graduation) certificate, one for Honor Choir, one for Student Council, one for citizenship, one for the GREAT (Gang Resisitance Education and Training) program, and the Awesome Gladiator award for all her hard work in becoming the most improved in her class.   I am really proud that she got the Awesome Gladiator award.  She has worked hard to overcome all her learning issues and has not let them hold her back!

She used to be Gidget...

We recently took Gidget the dog to the groomers for a haircut.  I'm pretty cheap and so by the time we actually take the dog to the groomer she is very shaggy.  Usually by that time the only cut available is the shave because she is so matted.  Kenna comes with me to take the dog which results in tears because we are leaving our dog! This time, however, Steve was home so he dropped the dog off and picked her up without taking Kenna with him.  When Steve brought her home Kenna freaked out because that WAS NOT our dog, (which it was).  She wanted to know where Gidget was and who this dog was.  Steve told her the dogs name was Bob.  Kenna came running upstairs to tell me we had a new dog named Bone.  Now whenever we call the dog Gidget we are corrected with a sparkle in her eye that "Its' Bone". 

Family Pictures

We recently had our family pictures taken.  Our local FSA is putting together books on adoption as part of the goal to promote awareness of the option of adoption.  A wonderful local photographer Marissa of Marissa D Photography volunteered her services and we now have some fabulous pictures.

So what do you think?  Pretty great, right!?

Back to School 2011

First Day of School had so many plusses and minuses.

Quiet Naptimes - Plus.
Alone time - Plus.
Less T.V. - Plus.
No More Kindergarten for Katie - Plus.
Less messes - Plus & Plus.
Less fighting - Plus, Plus & Plus.

Rhyan's Last Year of Elementary School - Minus.
Levi's second Year of Middle School - Minus.
Getting Up Early - Minus & Minus.
I'm Getting Older (along with my kids) - Minus, Minus & Minus.

Another Parenting Milestone

Last night Steve and I performed MacGyver-style nasal surgery using only a flaslight and a pair of tweezers. What makes kids think...hmmm, my life will never be complete unless I shove a piece of corn up my nose. Then listening to Kenna scream her head off as we went (literally) fishing for gold, Isabelle wanted to make sure she didn't miss any of the excitement and SHE stuffed corn up her nose. At least last night's antics didn't include a trip to the ER. I suppose that's all you can ask for since you apparently can't ask for common sense in children.

I know...I know

It's been way too long since my last post. I have decided I am waaay too old to be having another baby. Seth has really kicked my butt. So some things have had to go by the wayside. Mostly I am too tired to think up blog posts. Seth is getting older now so I hope to post more often. I make no promises though. So here is the year so far in pictures.

More Pictures of Seth & My Daughter the B-Boy

I wanted to post some new pictures of Seth and also a few video clips of Isabelle. Isabelle has some mad skillz as a b-boy. (For all you un-hip peeples b-boys are break dancers). Enjoy.

Now Kenna joins in...

And now the big finish, in which Kenna is bored and wanders away...

Another Milestone

Today Kenna passed another milestone on her way to mobility. Rhyan started yelling at me to look at Kenna. She was standing there eating a cracker. I snapped a picture from my cell phone, which is why its a crummy picture and it also looks like she is holding onto Isabelle's boot. I promise she isn't!

On another related subject (well its only related because it concerns milestones), Isabelle is 90% potty trained. I say 90% because she could be 100% if I was more on the ball and reminded her more frequently!

Kenna's First-ish Word

Kenna has been babbling a lot lately. She says "Da Da" but I consider that more of a phonic sound than an actual word. The other day though, she was sitting on my lap while I tried to finish a project on the computer. She kept trying to play with the keyboard and I kept pulling her hand away, telling her "Don't." After a few moments I realized that Kenna was saying "don't" back to me and as I listened, I realized she has been saying that word for quite a while and I just hadn't understood what she was saying. Unfortunately, this is probably the word she hears the most. So meanwhile, she is having a ball telling everyone "don't," smiling her toothy grin while we all laugh hysterically.

Adventures in Nighttime Parenting

One of the things you don't quite get before you are a parent is how precious sleep is...yours AND your childs. Lately, Kenna has been skipping naps or sleeping for short stretches of time which brings back horrible visions of the sleep habits (or lack of them) of my oldest daughter. You know the one who never slept and cried constantly for 2 years. Luckily, while Kenna doesn't sleep much, she also doesn't cry much...as long as I am either holding her or sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HER. She is a little bit of a mama's girl. I always felt kind of bad I never had a child that prefered me to their Dad. Subconciously I must have sent many a heartfelt prayer upwards because the Lord cursed me, I mean BLESSED me with a Mama's Girl. Which brings me to the point of this post. After spending all day trying to conquer Mt. Wash-more and only getting the junk drawer cleaned and organized, (and I only accomplished this because I desperately needed a stapler and couldn't even open the drawer!), and constantly and continuely and endlessly holding Kenna I had finally had ENOUGH! I passed her to Steve, made dinner, put the kids to bed and in general tried to stay out of Kenna's line of sight. Steve put her to bed and we watched our fav show (So You Think You Can Dance, by the way) and Kenna very conviently woke up at the end and started to cry. I begged Steve to please get her back to sleep. (If I pick her up she ends up in our bed because she knows a sucker when she sees one). I brushed my teeth and went out to give Steve a kiss goodnight. Steve was cradling Kenna and rocking her while watching sports highlights. My husband is excellent at multitasking. Kenna took one look at me and then whipped her head up to look at who was holding her. After a horrified look, she started wailing. But it ended well for her. She ended up sleeping in our bed and kicked my back all night long. We enjoyed a looong night of no sleep. Yeah us!

P.S. As I write this post Kenna is clinging valiently to the chair, whining and pulling on my arm.

P.P.S. She won again. Apparently she can cry longer than I can ignore her. So after a whole day I give you 1 paragraph. Meanwhile Mt Wash-More is now a mountain range.

P.P.P.S. On another note Levi can finally use his secret zombie combat skills as his parents have joined their sleep deprived ranks. (See the post "It's Official").

Forever Your Girl

Kenna is now forever ours and we are thankful to have her and all her sisters & brothers for eternity. We are so grateful for the power of the priesthood and all its sealing authority.

Officially, It's Official (Not to be confused with It's Official or It's Officially Official)

Kenna was sentenced to hard time in the Waldron family. That's right, she is legal. We even broke a record with our attorney. (He handles a lot of adoptions in Southern Nevada, especially for LDS families). He says he's helped a family adopt 5 kids all at once, but he's never had a 4-time repeat adoption customer before. Yeah us! Tomorrow we head to the temple to do the sealing. (8 pm, Las Vegas Temple, you're all invited).

Here we all are with Judge Pollock.

And here we are with our social worker and our attorney.

Welcome to the Family...You're gonna need all the help you can get!