Summer Explosion

"Studio Go"

Game Show

The kids have been having a blast at this years summer explosion (aka VBS). It is an old fifties themed game show and so much fun!!! This picture I took today because it was crazy hair day and they were pretty crazy with the green hair color. As they are getting older I see their hearts really beginning to bloom and grow in their understanding of God and HIS love. Both earned money from helping clean their Grandmother's house and both wanted to give some of their money to help build houses in Mexico for families who have less then they do. So sweet and proud moment. Just love these two!

Court update

Leeah's Dad had a court hearing today and it looks like she will be staying here for a while longer. We are blessed by this update and look forward to the next few months as she grows and becomes a little lady. Thanks to Jessica for making this adorable bow...I LOVE IT!

Camp "Backyard Treehouse"

Friday night, Shane and the kids slept out on our new swing set, (thanks to the Littles). It has a great "upstairs" landing that the kids have affectionately called the "treehouse". Shane filled the air mattress and with pillows, blankets and a good old fashioned breeze from God all slept soundly. First of course they goofed off a bit, hence the silly picture, and then in the early morning hours Shane snagged a sweet picture of sleeping children. Have I mentioned just how awesome a Dad he is? This backyard sleep over brought back so many memories of when my bro and I used to sleep on the trampoline when we were kids. Oh, how great are these simple yet amazingly fun summer days and nights.

Bubbles

After our 24hrs away last weekend we knew we needed to make "playtime" with the kids priority so when we got home we played bubbles. Such a fun, simple way to get kids very excited. Shane, the bubble master, did a great job of getting enough bubbles for everyone to pop. But I can't have my cake and eat it too, so because bubbles create spontaneous, fast movements from the kids they are blurry but i couldn't resist taking a few shots anyway. I think we will have to try the slip-n-slide this weekend.

Bubble master in training!

LOVE this facial expression...remember soap in the eyes hurts, so must protect with crazy faces.

Monster Fun

We visited the AZ Youth Museum in downtown Mesa yesterday and it was a great time. Thanks to the William's, who had admission passes, we met up late morning and had some "monster" fun. Their latest exhibit is obviously monster stuff, and the kids gravitated to the make you own monster puppets and puppet show stage. There was so much more hands-on activites for the kids including a "dress up" monster room and a black light room, or as the kids called it, a glow in the dark room. We enjoyed lunch together and headed home for much needed naps. This was a great way to spend a summer morning.

Leeah 6 weeks

Ok, so this sweet girl is officially 6 wks old today. It is really hard to believe she has been with us for that long already. She is plumping up nicely and those cheeks are becoming extremely kissable. She is about 9lbs now, so right on track. The sickel cell stuff we wont know anything until she is 3mths old. They have to take so much blood from her to run all the tests and she is just too tiny yet. We are still waking up at night, but down to only one time, which I can deal with. She still loves to be awake at 3:00am so I have been on the couch the last few nights giving her the opportunity to cry it out a bit and go back to sleep. Seems to be getting better, she was only awake for about 20 min after eating this morning. She is becoming more and more social every day. She is starting to smile at me and the kids which just melts your heart.

As far as her "status" with regards to CPS, her Dad has a court hearing next week and if he has all his paperwork in line she will go with him right away. Funny thing is I think I would be ok with that. I have learned alot about myself over these past 6 wks, like I am not that young and energetic like I used to be. But also just trusting God to care for her. And of course we would be sad for her because her future would be such a question mark. We know the kind of life we would give her, and we can't control the kind of life she would have with him. It is an interesting crossroads for sure. I guess the bottom line, as with our own children, she belongs to God pure and simple. We have no "claim" on any of these kids, we are simply entrusted to care, love and teach them about God, He takes care of everything else.

United as ONE 12yrs ago today

Shane and I celebrate our 12th anniversary today and wow, can I just say we are more in love than ever. We were blessed to have the Deela's stay over and take care of all the kids so we could escape for 24 hrs. (That was 6 kids, 4 of which are two and under!) We went to a resort in Scottsdale, ate at Flemmings and enjoyed a Dbacks game today. We also took time to reflect on the past 12 yrs. We discussed how much more happy we are today and how much our life has changed. We remembered being dirt poor and how God has blessed us today by allowing us this time away. We are just so gooshy with love, hopefully that will carry us into several days as we returned to reality land this afternoon. All in all, an amazing time together that just makes our relationship so much stronger!