Forever Family!

Saturday Aug 11 2012 we were sealed together as a family for all of our lives on earth and through all the eternities.
I am so grateful for God's gift of temples on the earth where we can come closer to Him and more like him.
The kids were all so good that day.
 Cameron was his busy self, but at the end of a movie he was watching with the ladies at the temple, he started singing the last 2 lines of families can be together forever with the movie.The ladies thought he was just perfect.  When we had pulled up to the temple he busted into I love to see the temple, both verses. When we got to "the temple is the house of God where we are sealed together' he we sang together and he just grinned from ear to ear.
Jannica got to go do baptisms before with Kelly and his parents and my dad. As we were walking into the temple for the sealing she told me her cheeks were hurting because she just couldn't stop smiling.
Ryan was uncharacteristically quite, but I am pretty sure she was just taking it all in.
Bev was an ANGEL during the sealing. She walked right up and held very still. She watched Kelly the whole time and held our hands the whole time. When it was over she insisted on hugging everyone that walked past to tell us congratulations. I am sure she had no idea what was going on, she just knew it was a happy day and she felt good and safe.
The kids did not fight at the temple and everyone was so happy.
While Kelly and I were waiting for the ceremony to start, we were in the Celestial room and the baby just started going crazy in my belly. It was like he was saying, "Yes! I know the feeling in this room! I just came from a place like this and it is awesome!"
It was such a beautiful day!

Ten whole years!?

 What an awesome journey we started on 10 years ago!



We never thought we would EVER be this old.

 But here we are today, older, fatter, (balder) and up to our eyeballs in kids and all that comes with them. I sit here next to you on the couch and you surf your blackberry, Cameron is jumping from chair to couch, Bev is doing everything Cam is doing, Ryan is making biographies of our life with my phone, we anxiously wait for Jac to call us back and have a real conversation and the baby is turning somersaults in my belly. And I think... What on earth have we gotten ourselves into?
At least I am with my best friend through all of this.
Love you Kelly!
Happy ten year anniversary, I love our new bed.

Adoption Day!

As this day got closer and closer, Kelly and I barely let ourselves think about it. We felt confident that Beverly's birth father would stay out of the picture, but you can never be sure. I called the lawyer the Monday before court just to make sure everything was all set for the big day. When I spoke to the paralegal she told me that the birth father had contacted her at the end of May to verify court dates and she felt like he would probably show up at court.
I was trying not to freak out, and just kept praying that everything would be okay. The guy had had every opportunity to follow court protocol to get his child back (but didn't), we had offered to let him see her back in December, but he wasn't interested and we had not heard from him since. His only plan was to let Bev stay with his mother and he was no where near financially stable. Plus, the woman who did our home study said that in 35 years she had never seen any birth parent show up at court and get their child back. All this sounds very reasonable and not worrisome now, but we were still worried.
We wanted the kids there, but in the off chance that the birth father showed up, we asked a good friend to come and sit with us that could take the kids home if it turned into a mess. She was wonderful and the kids love her. Kelly and I sat with the kids on the second floor of the court house and watched the atrium for anyone that might look like the few descriptions I have had of Bev's birth father.
We sat for 15 loooooooong minutes and then the court clerk called us all into a conference room. Our lawyer had me sign 2 copies of a birth certificate request. We sat down, got the kids all settled with toys and crayons and then the Judge came in. Kelly and I had to stand and swear that the answers we gave would be truthful. The lawyer then began talking. Fast. He basically reiterated the story of how we got Bev, how the birth father was not involved, and then asked if we understood how the responsibilities of taking care of another child. (I thought to myself "we better, we have been doing it for a while now") but we just said yes.
Then the judge piped up and looked like he was going to ask a hard question, but the all he asked was how many copies of the adoption decree we wanted. He told us the case would be closed and would need a court order to ever have it opened again. He said that we would be on the birth cretificate as the parents of this child. Then he stood up. Then everyone else stood up. And I just sat there and looked around. I looked at the clerk, and asked if we were done. She smiled and said yes. I got all weapy and told her that it had been a long 8 months. We got up and took pictures and the judge told me I could stop worrying now. Apparently I looked a little nervous.
After all of our ups and downs, worrying and gaurding our hearts she is finally ours! She belongs with our family and no where else. I truly felt that before I had even met this little spit fire. I am so thankful to my Father in Heaven that he placed this sweet angel in our lives.

The Judge wanted a picture with us. He said that this was the happy part of his job. It was a happy part of mine too!




This is a common occurance at the house. It usually ends in a wrestle match though.



I told them to show me what their faces looked like when they found out Bev was their sister for real.

 

Boys

I love my two boys. One didn't come out of me, but I still love him like my own. Rexlee and Cameron are the very bestest friends in the wide world. They are so freaking cute. They are discussing which stickers they want to pull out of the cash register toy. Then they are on to pulling magnets off the fridge just to watch them fall
 "what doin Tamrin?"
"I detting abc's off"
"oooooohhhhhhh, I not doin dat"
Now they are checking out the spotting scope. Rexlee is looking for stars and Cam is looking for Parits (Pirates).
Now Rexlee is leaving and Cam is screaming goodbyes to him.
This all happened in 5 minutes time.
I still have a bunch of magnets on the floor.

A great day

It all started with Cam puking his guts out and then screaming for three solid hours at 2 am. Luckily he wasn't really sick, it was just the three hot dogs I let him eat last night. When I finally got him to take some nausea medication he perked right up after 15 minutes. I love Zofran.
So Cam and I slept on the recliner til 730 when I woke up suddenly. Someone had turned off Kelly's alarm clock and Jannica had turned hers off on purpose. I got Ryan ready (for her big program) in 5 minutes and checked what I was supposed to bring for the class party. It was otter pops. Had I bought them earlier this week and frozen them? No, that is something a mother who plans more than 20 minutes in advance would do.                 
So I rushed Ryan to school, (no breakfast), called the room mom and apologised profusely, felt like an idiot and came home to start the day different.
I found Kelly had dealt with Jannica (so I didn't have to), I got to have a long shower, and shave my legs! A friend watched Beverly, Cameron came with Kelly and I and we really enjoyed our time with him! He was such a good boy! Ryan was super cute singing all of her songs. Cam and I had a great lunch with Ryan. We came home and the babies and I had a nap.
Ryan went to play with a friend and when Jac came home she did not fight with me over the chores she had to do! She just did them so happily! The babies played well, Ryan came home really mad at life and after trying to be silly with her and pull her out of it I sent her away to cool off. She went up to her room to write a book. She literally copied a whole little little book. But she came out very happy and went outside to play with the kids. She was  so great with them, so I had a chance to cook everything I was wanting for dinner. I grilled pork chops, made tasty rice, fruit salad, grilled bacon wrapped squash, Then I saw my basil growing on the patio and wanted tomatoes with mozzarella . But no more mozzarella in this house so I opted for avocados.
Dinner was great. Jac convincingly faked that she liked everything, everyone ate, the babies got baths, Jac showered without a fight and Ryan and I got to read Junie B. Jones. We laughed so hard we had to stop reading for five minutes.
Now I have time to blog and tomorrow is the last day of school!
It started out sucky and there were some unmentioned low points. After reading over this post I see that the day was not about the kids, duh, it was about my attitude. Ahhh, how journaling helps.

In case you did not know Kelly is sitting in a "chair"

This is my tasty dinner. I am hungry looking at it.

The big egg drop

Ryan built a container to hold her egg when they dropped it off the roof at school. Jac was so smart and suggested we fill her container with paper towels. After the whole family got involved and two lost eggs we finally perfected the egg container. When Ryan's teacher opened her container and found Ryan's egg uncracked, the whole class cheered. It was so darn cute!

Ballet

Ryan had her ballet recital and was so excited when I told her I would let her wear mascara. She was so happy with the final project that she wanted to do a little photo shoot. The first pic is my favorite, I had just said she looked like a twelve year old and then snapped the picture. The look on her face says it all.