Last minute Merry Christmas

We finalized the adoption in May, were sealed in the Provo temple in June, renovated and moved in Aug-Dec. and are finally ready to settle into our new home and be a family. Christmas will be a great start for us. Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. Thank you for all your support to us.

Darth Instigidious

He thinks he is sooooo dang funny. He can hardly contain the glee...til I catch up to him and then...


Don't give me those eyes, Darth. You will be squished for your insolence.


Have you ever seen his Darth face? This comes out whenever he thinks that he has done something hilariously funny. It usually involves provoking someone else-hence his Sith name, Instigidious. He just loves to poke and prod and well, instigate. I really think his mother is a saint. And fo the record, I have only seen Star wars once or twice. He just one day was talking about Sith lords and I told him "You're a sith lord". You know, all adolescent i.e. "You're brain has the candy shell on it". And he said "Oh yeah, well what's my Sith name?" all provoking. And thus was his name born.

Stitcheroos

Babs as she is bending over watching Claus get stitched up in the forehead to the doctor:"Are you concerned that the bleeding has started again?"

Doctor laughs "No. Bleeding helps the wound to heal"

Babs turns quickly to sneeze into her sleeve. Doctor:"Great job remembering to cover your sneeze" Babs :"Yeah, I didn't want to contaminate his wound. Will he require neosporin?"

Am I the only one that finds her conversation hilarious? She seems to think that she is 45.

Lessons learned today:

1-Having a dance party in footie pajamas on a slick floor can land you in the ER with skulls visible. Yucky.

2-Babs has no qualms about blood and is very interested in everything to do with healing.

3-Claus is superbrave. He did not cry once or fuss. I was the only one being a baby inside.

4-An ER visit with 5 and 6 year olds is much much more do-able than with children ages 5,4,3,2, and 1 like we got to do when m'deary had kidney stones. All in all a much better night than what I envisioned when I first caught a glimpse of said skull.

What happened to the summer????

Lots of fun on the fourth of July with the cousins. The little girls couldn't make it that late and were home sleeping.





Little Goosie likes to "cuddle" with M'deary, but it's more of squirming around. He's a little more tired these days with the advent of the dreadful night shift. Yucky all around.


We were so glad to meet little Ally for the first time. We love you little cousin :)


Joy in the hospital. All the kids LOOOOOVEE new babies.


Sadly, our last tetra fishie finally kicked the bucket. Babs is clearly heartbroken. Unfortunately the discovery was made when she was stark naked after the bath and it was all I could do to have her get her clothes on and mourn in decency. We have had this fish at least five years and she claims that she played with it every day and made me erase the word "ignored".


Our new digs in Ogden. All the children are in a bedroom in the basement of our cousins. They are so awesome to let us stay until our "short" sale goes through that is really LOOOOOOONG! It is quite an adventure. Little Goosie has to sleep upstairs 'cause the girl can't be quiet! She is so so so loud.


An adventure at the zoo with my sister and her kids. How excited they were to see the Red Robin advertising. We have had a lot of fun with these cousins too.


Well, there has been a lot more, but here is a sample of the business and I just can't believe that school is starting in little over a week. Crazy days.

Dad's home one day in seven.

This one is a crazy week! M'deary is home today and yesterday was his last day at the nursing home and tomorrow is his first day at the hospital. The chillins were going through withdrawal and I don't think today is much of a rest for him. Full-time-daddy-play-mode is what we are in. The kids have really taken to playing "sardines". Even Goosie is getting the hang of it. Loves you daddy :)

Ebenbleb Blahbleb

"Ebenbleb Blahbleb" is Goosie-speak for Heavenly Father. She said the prayer for the first time tonight at the dinner table. The only other distinguishable word was "BOOOOD" (Thank Thee for the food)emitted at a high decibel of delight-the girl loves her food. She indicated her understanding that the prayer was concluding by raising her hands in triumph from where they were "folded" on her belly when I said "In the name..." It was coot!

This is what her folded arms looks like.



Bryguy had such a good time weeding that he offered to do more and this patch needs it! See how happy he is meticulously pulling out one at a time. He really enjoys this type of activity and will spot even weeds that I would overlook. He is really that smiley and didn't even know I had the camera!



Babs was very proud of the weeded corn rows. We made a game out of it. They are the SUPERWEEDERS! whose mission was to save the sad corn plants from the evil villainous weeds who try to choke them and steal their water. Glad to report that cornland was saved again.



For our good work reward we were able to don swimsuits and play in the sand and water and...



we also got to jump on the trampoline with sprinklers while mom made a peach pie. It is certain that not every day is as "peachy" as today was. No whining! Compliant children! Yay for today!

Niblets and lovin's

You should all be aware by now that my Babs has the yummiest niblets around. These are the fat little lobes of her ears that just require a nibble. She informs me that they are in season this time of year and will sometimes allow the momma a nibble. I hate it that as the kiddies get older you get so much less cuddle time. She makes such a present of each little hug that it is so cute to see her condescending to give me one because she knows I want it.

I am also just a little teary to share that spontaneous little affections from my adopted children can just melt my heart. To have Claus play with my hair or Bryguy pat my cheek or Bitty just curl up in my lap is about the best thing ever. Goosie is probably the most affectionate of all now, which is coming so far from her reactive behavior eight months ago. She wouldn't even let me touch her hands or face without jerking away and crying. She wouldn't be held face to face and would arch her body away and there was no eye contact whatsoever. I was so worried. Now she is a hugging machine. She loves to do it and if I am holding her and pretend a sad face when singing "If you chance to meet a frown" she will smack her lips (a kiss) and tenderly whap my back and lean her chubby cheek in for a hug. Sooooo cute. I know most moms may take this for granted. I cherish them so much because there has been such a dearth of affection for so long. I worried and prayed and worked. Thank you for your niblets and lovin's, dear children. They are a big deal.

So we finally have a house, sort of.

We have made an offer and been accepted on this short sale home, but you can see that it is not livable and really, folks, someone needs to invent scent associated photos. It just doesn't do justice to the mess only to view it. You need a little scent of rat poo, never vacuumed carpets, barf on the wall and molding (or not-look at those four month old puff cheetohs! Even the rats didn't eat them!) food. Even though our offer was accepted, we still haven't signed papers. They have to release it from the bankruptcy and other paperwork sillies. Hopefully within a week! We have been allowed to clean it and work in the yard and sadly we have all ready filled two dumpsters and have Mt. Garbage erected in the driveway that will probably fill another two. We can't start any destruction or construction until the paperwork is signed and so we've been working in the yard which could have been cover for any number of corpses. No one would ever know! We found all manner of items to add to the previously mentioned Mt. G which is a double driveway wide and taller than I am. Poor Sis-in-law chose to scoop up seven years of dog poo from the kennel in the back-owe her big-time! I only have pics of the inside, but hopefully more later. I just give you a few, but know that I spent one whole day just bagging garbage from inside the home.

Yes. This is a dead mouse. I reverence him because he freaked out the lady who came through to determine the cost of the house and I am sure made the price come down . Lovely little vermin! I gave him a funeral:)

In the middle of all our home buying, adoption and subsequent going to the temple to be sealed, we thought it would be fun to go camping. Here's the crew. We actually decided to get a different campsite, so this isn't even it. I thought life would be easier if we camped in a trailer, but who knew that those slippery sleeping bags were so noisy. I remember seeing sunrise and thinking "I haven't even fallen asleep yet!" Also, Claus was nauseated, which heralded a nice bout of stomach flu for us and the cousins. I think it will be a while before we camp again. Oh, I am all about the day hikes but this momma needs sleep!

Who has time to fish in the middle of all this? Why M'deary does! It makes him happy as you can see. I just had to get a pic of him in his waders. Looks a little goofy if you ask me, but he's got a nice stance. Look out fishies!

Miracles and Big Stuff

I will just warn you from the beginning that this will be lengthy and probably only interesting to me. I just wanted to look back and document all of the things that show God's hand in my life.

From the beginning of our decision to have more children we have seen a number of miracles. I find it amazing as I look back to see how many ways that our family has been helped and guided. After realizing that having children the conventional way was not working for us, we both researched LDS social services and other adoption places and we both felt guided towards becoming foster parents with the intention of adopting, if possible. Our reasoning was that there were so many couples who hadn't experienced an infant, as we were able to do with Babs, and that there were so many children on Wednesday's Child and other sites that were in such desperate need for a stable family. Don't laugh...we are somewhat stable! Just because I'm crazy and M'deary was in school and we live in my parents basement and were financially tight...still felt guided to do it at that time-so there!

So we attended the classes and were somewhat discouraged. The teacher told us that if we were there with any intention of adopting, that we should just back off and realize that DCFS was there to reunite families and that we should not be there for any other purpose than to foster. We still felt that we should go ahead, but to make our intentions clear to the person selecting families for the children that we would prefer a placement with some likelihood of adoption. We completed coursework for and received our license and....waited. It was about nine months later that we finally heard that a little girl was in Primary Childrens hospital with a NG-tube and they wanted us to foster her because of M'deary's nursing skills.

Long story short-we had Bitty in June just long enough for her to heal and get the NG-tube out, then her brother Claus came. I didn't think I could take the other two siblings at the time and so Bryguy and Goosie were in another foster home. It was actually wonderful to make friends with the other foster mom during this time. We would have the siblings get together and see one another, in addition to visits with their biological parents at DCFS. It was also good to have someone who was home with new, fragile children who understood what I was going through. I had a great desire to love, but that didn't mean that the children wanted to be here. The visits and many factors dragged on for a long time and we had endless rounds of weekly visits with Bio-parents, DCFS meetings, early intervention therapy, WIC, Mountainland Headstart meetings and Driving Claus to school, Bitty's follow ups at Primarys, weekly therapy for both children, foster care license renewal classes and continuing education requirements, carrying on with my demanding calling at the Utah state hospital, dental surgeries for rampant dental caries and needed crowns, developmental testing, catch up on shots and Dr exams, multiple eye appointments and hearing exams for Claus who was a preemie. I could go on, but I only document this because Heavenly Father knew what I was up against and during all of this the other foster family was meeting the same needs of Bryguy and Goosie. I couldn't have done all four of them at once. Especially Goosie. She was hospitalized during this time for cellulitis and all four had many, many visits to the doctor for croup, strep, ear infections, RSV etc. They literally caught everything!

When the case was winding down, and it was becoming apparent that the biological parents were not going to be able to take care of their children, the other foster family were having some issues where it was possible that they weren't going to be able to adopt Bryguy and Goosie. M'deary and I both knew that they would be coming soon. In November we welcomed them to our home as well and I then had five children ages 5,4,3,2, and 1. I potty trained all of them except Goosie in six months and it has been a wild ride. I will be forever grateful to my parents for all of the help that they have given me-reminds me of three more miracles.

1.We had the ability to move out financially long before any of the children came and felt compelled to stay. We were able to save money and right before the call about Bitty-our old red Buick bit the dust. We try to be thrifty and originally thought of buying a fuel efficient compact car, but I had this thought that we should buy a minivan. Yuck, I know. M'deary fought me and questioned me and protested, but to no avail. We were to have a minivan-thanks for listening to me M'deary-it is one of your best traits. Said van is now full-up. Not one seat empty. I know we were guided to do this, even if I now have to pilot a mom-vehicle. (I deny scratching it. How did you hear of that!!?)

2. I had the indispensable help of my mom at home with me because we hadn't moved. I couldn't take five children to a therapy session for just one child. M'deary had to study for and pass his nursing exam and start new, demanding jobs and get various certifications. I was on my own with a five year old as my best helper and I needed a live-in assistant. Props to you momma/gramma!

3. I had been going to send to charity all of Babs baby stuff including crib, double stroller etc. and felt like I should keep it longer. I kept it probably a year and a half and tried to junk it every month. It is all put to daily use now:)

As soon as the children were all in the same home together it became immediately apparent that it was supposed to be that way. They were able to calm one another down and the grief from loss was lessened. Also, some children balanced out or fit needs of other children. It was pretty amazing to see. Babs had a small adjustment period to no longer being an only child and has settled in just fine. She is a good big sister-I should also place that in my list of miracles.

I am doing a lot of rambling, but on May 17, 2010 we went to court for the final time and legally adopted all four children. We were able to have them sealed to us on our anniversary in the Provo temple on June 7, 2010. I am silly and sentimental, but I thought it was cool that all of our children were sealed to us on the same day in the same place as Babs was-just seven years later.

Here's some pics in the van (everyone tired on a road trip) and at our court session.





And here's some of them so happy...

Bryguy

Goosie

Claus

Bitty

Babs

All of us at the Provo temple on our sealing day. Happy!

A doozy of a day

Welp. Here is the constructive activity that we came up with to stop the children from the mayhem and quarreling this morning. We marched the little cuties outside to pick up trash from the side of the road. Everyone had their own grocery bag to fill. This occurred at 9am. All I have to say now is "There are other roads to clear up...." It was actually pretty fun and the children felt good about helping the earth and serving one another in the process. Above is some of the mayhem and below, the resulting loot.























Also, Goosie has shown an interest in having her hair brushed when I am doing the other girls hair, so here is a pic of her first horns-er ponytails made from her mullet. Don't mind my schnoze obtruding.

Auld Lang Syne

So as children, we were a bit unusual. We liked to play Antnerds. Never heard of it? Duh, the best game ever!

All you need is a shirt and an audience (even solo is pretty spectacular).
You simply pull your knees up under said shirt and try to run around and acrobatically perform stunts in enforced squatting position. Hilarity ensues 'til your mother gets mad for stretching out your shirt, usually this happens after she is done laughing because you can't help it. It just looks funny.

Why is it called Antnerds, you might ask? Because that is a delightful name for it. Tsendel and I excelled at it. For some reason it was often played after watching this alien show where they could reach out of the host bodies mouth and infest the next body, it might have developed as we brought our legs up into fetal position. I don't know if my mom knew that we were watching, but it produced many a nightmare for me. Anyway, during the closing credits song, which we all thought was cool, we would Antnerd it around Gramma's living room and off the couch, up the stairs, try to jump while in squat position, whatever. Great times.

In another version of the unusual children theme, we liked to call each other by pet names that were very endearing, like the aforementioned Tsendel. That's not his real name. Who would really name their child Tsendel? (Sorry if there is any out there!) I just Googled it, whew! Only one possible Russian.

My brothers name, Tsendel, we enjoyed because of the fun "TS" sound. How satisfying to hiss out. It was like a caress of wind and spit at the same time.

Another sister was dubbed "Twytatronco-ann". She could be shortened to Tatron, which is still as I address her today, often.

Our sister Shoelabouffy was harder to come by. She also didn't buy in to the whole pet name for a while and quite resented it, which was fun, because then we could torment her with a whole array of names. *picture snotty little mischievous faces* Soon she was called "Sandal", "Thong", "Tights", "Sneaker", etc. You get the picture. She soon came around and embraced her Shoelabouffiness. (Sorry for all that, dear. You just made it all to easy.)

The youngest sister is Pykidesine.(All long i sounds) I always thought this appropriate, for of us all, she excels at math, which is disgusting, and I frequently heard her using potty words like sine, cosine and tangent. I feel a need to wash my mouth out with soap. I'll bet I could reach the sink in proper Antnerd position...

Oh yes! I almost forgot me! I was Auld Lang Syne. One of us must have heard it somewhere and thought it sounded appropriate. It kind of rolls of the tongue when you say it fast.

I might just add that we have simplified it in old age. Other than the occasional "Tatron", which for some reason, I still cling to, we just lovingly call one another "Idiot". It is a catchall, gender neutral term. People cringe, I know, but in all seriousness, it has become an endearment and a shared joke and a belonging. The in-law husbands still think it is mean-but it's not. We sibs get it. I just adopted four children, one reason being that I thought it would be tragic for my lone daughter to grow up without what I have just described. Even the best of friends can hardly reach the best sibling stage. So thanks you whak-a-doos for all the auld lang syne.

Should old friendship be forgot'
And never remembered ?
Should old friendship be forgotten,
And days of long ago.

And surely you will have your tankard !
And surely I will have mine !
And we will take a cup of kindness yet,
For days of long ago'

We two have run about the hills
And pulled the daisies fine :
But we have wandered many a weary foot
Since days of long ago.

We two have waded in the stream
From dawn till dinner-time :
But seas between us broad have roared
Since days of long ago.

And there's a hand my trusty friend !
And give me a hand of thine !
And we will take a large draught
For days of long ago.
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/langsyne.html

There you have it. Weirdness abounds in the vaults of my childhood memories. You shall have to ask about pance, phagocytic cells, fooseball etc. but I will have to save that for another day.