Summer Oregon Trip 2012!

We are so fortunate to get to visit family in Oregon so often considering the distance we have to travel. Last summer our road trip, that is usually only 9+ hours, turned into more than 13 and a half. (We did have a tire blow out but still, made for a long painful trip.) Since our kids generally have a hard time in the car after their limit of 2 hours, we decided to leave in the middle of the night. We woke at 2am and left shortly after we got the kids loaded.

With just under two hours left Miles squished a cinnamon bear all over his hands. It was a huge mess. I wanted to pull over to a Rest Stop but Tim was against it and so we kept driving. We didn't have any wet wipes and so Miles hand to just deal with the consequences of making a mess.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

When we finally got to Grandma and Grandpa's house the fun began! There was lots of time on the 4 wheeler and go-cart, riding horses, playing in the wading pool, taking bubble baths, and helping Grandpa build his new deck.

Brodrick on the 4 wheeler

Miles on a horse

Amelia on a horse

Every day Amelia requested to go ride horses. I had to tell her several times it was hot and I didn't want to have to walk around the pastures in the heat of the day, that we had to wait till evening. She would tell me she would be happy just sitting on it. I took her out there one day and stuck her on the horse and he went into the little shed/shed/shack. It was nice for me to be in the shade, and for Amelia to be simply be sitting on the horse.

Miles soaked from climbing into the wading pool fully clothed.

Brodrick found the chalk line on the deck with the building supplies...

On our trip, we also had the opportunity to get together with all of Tim's cousins on his dad's side of the family. It was right on the Columbia river and the park where the reunion was, had this great public and free wading pool that was enclosed with fencing. All three kids happily swam and I didn't have to worry about them wandering away- since they couldn't open the gate, or going into water that was too deep for them- cause it was all shallow. So nice.

Brodrick at the wading pool during the family reunion.

Tim with cousin Tyler (left) and brother-in-law John (right) and Brodrick having a snack.

Miles slept on the couch and Tim and I selpt on a raised Aerobed we scooted the bed up next to the couch. I looked everywhere for Miles and finally found that he had fallen between the couch after putting himself to bed for a nap. Its exhausting having so much fun!

Amelia in the jetted bubble bath

We went camping with Tim's sister's and their families and his parents. Tim set up the tent and I set up all the beds in the tent. Everything was ready but it was decided that the kids on the ground could use one more sleeping pad. I quickly unrolled a egg carton foam matteress by holding one end and flinging the rolled up portion out to spread it out on the ground. In that fateful moment a rat's nest and feces that were unknowingly in the mattress went EVERY.WHERE. All over our things, our ready made beds, the floor. Nasty. I did my best to handle the situation and clean things up, but I finally had to call Tim in as backup. He quickly decided that it was too much to try to do without a vaccum of some sort. Since we were only an hour away from his parents house, we decided to drive back to their house to sleep for the night and return with a shop-vac and then camp the next night.

Can't remember why, but Miles was unhappy for some reason.

Tim playing the guitar for us.

 Brodrick ready for bed. (The night we actually camped and slept in the tent.)

After camping, we returned to the Grandparents house for more fun.

 

Amelia riding horses with cousin Nathan

With 6 grand kids and only one 4-wheeler and 1 go-cart, there was a lot of turn taking.

Kyle, holding Brodrick and Amelia outside waiting to get a turn on the 4-wheeler.

Miles loved to ride the 4-wheeler. I caught this little posing gem after one of his rides.

Brodrick quickly deemed bubble baths in the big blue bath tub- "Bubble Fun."  Here all three kids enjoying Bubble Fun together.

We had a great time on our trip! I'm hoping to get some more pictures from other family member's cameras here pretty soon. Here's to a possible "stay tuned."

Lavender Burn

End of June Brodrick had touched Tim's soldering iron and burnt his finger. I knew that lavender was good for burn so I put some directly on to his finger. Seconds later, he rubbed his mouth/lips. The result was a horribly painful burn on his mouth, much worse and more painful than the soldering iron burn on his finger. For a few days it wouldn't scab over, but was an open, draining wound. Every time he would move his mouth, to try to talk, eat, etc., we would cry out in pain. It was so swollen and uncomfortable for him. Poor guy!

Pictures taken June 2, 2012

full face shot of B with his lip burn

.. a close up...

... and this picture shows how much more swollen the burned side of his mouth is than the other side of his mouth...

I know that my children and I have sensitive skin. It is just amazing to me that he got such a burn from the lavender oil. I am constantly reminded of how much more sensitive we are than average people out there. Brodrick and I were both so relieved when it was finally healed.

Independance Day 2012

Lets be honest. I had a great 4th of July. I wasn't following my children around with a camera so we have hardly any documentation that we celebrated....

Morning of:

being silly

festive patriotic dessert

Miles watching fireworks.

Amelia didn't want to watch fire works, she was having too much fun playing with all of her cousins.

There was a party/BBq at my sister's house, 5 houses away from where we live. Tim was tired so he went home to bed early and every time one of the children was tired and  needed to go to bed, I would just walk them home, put them in bed, and return to the fun at the party house. So convenient. We had a great holiday! I am so grateful for the freedoms my family and I enjoy. I am so blessed by the selfless service of all those who have and are serving our country.

Kid Sayings to Remember

Brodrick calls water melon- wupin, cantaloupe- wope, tired- tided. He also keeps saying "Uh go neeeeeoow!" when he wants to leave to go someplace else. It is hilarious! (End of June 2012)

Miles says that he loves me lots, even when he is in trouble. For example when I tell him to go to the corner, he'll say, "But I love you!" When I tell him he can stay put while I run down/up stairs (not as a punishment but because its tiring to carry him) and leave him on the other level, he'll say the same thing, "But mommy, I love you!" Don't worry, upon my return, he is getting lots of love and affection. (End of May/Early June)

June seems to be a hard month for Amelia as multiple times a week tucking her in involves her saying things like, "I wish I was a grown up so I could be in charge!" and "I want to be 25 so I can be the boss!" Little does she know that even when she is a grown up, she won't be in charge! :D

Q&A- What Made You Decide to Adopt??

What made us decide to adopt?
Its a great question and one I am happy to answer. A lot of people have wondered this, as we have three biological children already, and neither Tim or I suffer from infertility. Few have actually asked this question though as family planning is personal. (Similar to the questions to an unknowingly infertile couple as to when they will decide to have a baby- it really no ones business.) Still I have friends who want to know and those of you who know me well, know I'm open to answering. 

The short answer: We want to adopt. We feel like adoption is the way we will add the next child to our family.

The long answer: (This is my blog I will say what I may and if you don't agree or like it, fine. I'm not asking you to or telling you you should. This is simply our family's experience that have lead us to this decision.)

I have gotten pregnant with the first try for each of our children. My first pregnancy was hard, not horrible but hard. (And by hard I mean lost 25 lbs cause I was so sick- some would say that IS horrible, but not me, the nausea was much less the first go around and only lasted for 17 weeks.)
My second pregnancy was worse the first trimester- I lost 35 lbs in the 16 weeks while taking nausea medicine, and I vomited uncontrollably and couldn't keep much down.

The third time around, the morning sickness started sooner and lasted till 23.5 weeks. I was taking sub-lingual Zofran (a strong anti nausea medication given to chemo therapy patients that melts under the tongue since just water would induce my vomiting) at least 5 times a day (each tablet could last up to 8 hours but obviously didn't with me.) I couldn't care for my children and my mother-in-law came to live with us for more than a month to help care for our children and our home since Tim was in school and working and had been doing more than double duty for weeks since I was useless. I was never hospitalized, though I should have been. Though I was considered under weight at 6 feet tall, it wasn't as bad for me - according to the numbers- as the 5 feet nothing women out there who loose 15 of their 100 lb frames during pregnancy. Our oldest daughter, Amelia, thought I was dying and asked me when I was going to be with Heavenly Father.
 
The Hyperemesis Gravidarum is one thing. Yes its bad- horrific, even. All the medical professionals I have counseled with said it will only get worse. When we considered attempting a pregnancy, my service provider and I came up with a game plan of doing home IV hydration therapy to help with medical costs and so I could be around my children, rather than alone in a hospital room. Still, when you know a baby is supposed to come to your family, you consider things that others deem insane.

A completely different issue is that my last delivery was very traumatic and hard on my body. We came very close to both me and Brodrick dying. I have serious risk at attempting another pregnancy this close to my last delivery (Brodrick will be two the end of July). The longer I wait to possibly get pregnant, the greater my chances are of having a successful pregnancy resulting in a live- full term birth. The trouble is, a baby is supposed to come to our family... soon. Sooner than even a pregnancy could result in an addition to our family.

So in weighing our options we have come to the decision to move forward with adoption.

I have an announcement.....

We are expecting a baby!!

After several years of thinking and praying about adoption, we are getting our home study done!! We feel like a little one is come soon.

To answer some questions:

Our home study will be done around the end of June. (We are waiting for a document from the State of Oregon, and then we are good to go.)

After the home study is done we will send it out to several agencies and a few lawyers, in faith that we will find our baby.

We are open to any ethnicity. But I think she will be a shade of brown.

Yes, she. We will specify that we want a girl to the agencies/lawyers.

Why specify a gender? Because we can. It may change but being raised with 5 sisters, I want Amelia to have a sister.

Selfish? Well, I'm pretty sure that if we're supposed to adopt a boy the Lord will tell us between now and a placement, so we get the right baby to our family. (The home study will not state a specific gender.)

On the home study we will be open to a sibling group of two, up to the age of 4. We will also be open to some special needs.

So there you have it. We are excited for this new adventure! Please feel free to ask more questions in the comments section if you have them, and I'll answer them as they come.

Easter 2012

It seems to me that each Easter we rediscover the deliciousness that are hard boiled eggs. Coloring them is stressful for me, but thankfully Amelia is the only one at this point that really wants to have anything to do with dying them. This makes it much less stressful than it could be.

...so happy dying eggs together...
(notice the heart garland hanging in the back of this picture)

I made the heart garland (above) for Valentines Day and we leave it up through March since our anniversary is in March. We were needing something new to hang up in celebration of the Easter season. After surfing pinterest I found a cute tutorial for this egg garland:

We made these the Friday before Easter. As stated in my instagram- Better late than never.

On Saturday we did an egg hunt in our back yard. We have decided to put Easter emphasis on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so we do not have "the Easter bunny" come and leave baskets/gifts for the kids. They still get candy but we (I) feel it is easier to enjoy the weekend and whole season for that matter, when we remember and focus on the Savior.

Here are my three sweet children after church on Easter Sunday. Getting a good picture with three children who had to sit relatively still for three hours previous to said picture, can be a challenge.

Oh how I love my sweeties!!

After church, we went over to my parents house for nice small visit. We decided to my no-bake cookies (nests), then added some Cadbury mini eggs and peeps. My kids LOVED them.

In case you were wondering, they were delicious!

And a picture of me with my snugly boy. He is always willing to come sit on my lap, even for a picture.

Amelia loves to pick flowers and made this little arrangement while we were visiting my parents.

Oh how we love spring! I hope you all had a fantastic Easter Sunday reflecting on the great blessings of our Savior's atonement, death and resurrection!