Summer!!!!!!

Ok, you know summer is finally here when I go out and buy the $300 pool! It had just inches of water in it and out of the house come all the kids in their suits, ready to make a splash! Tanner even had his goggles on!!! I'm pretty sure it will be a few hours before those are needed!

Anyway, it's always the best money I spend all year. We our a fish family. All the kids love the water and will be in the pool from the second they finish breakfast to the time I drag them out for bed. Heaven knows, we will also end up with every other kid in the neighborhood in our backyard but who cares! The more, the merrier!!!

Our oldest four grew up with a "real" pool in the backyard when we lived in Arizona. Thomas and Vanessa were 1 and 2 when we moved back to Oregon, but even they were already accustomed to swimming. It was one of the hardest adjustments moving back here 5 years ago and not having a pool . Hey, I just remembered the house we lived in here, before we moved to Arizona had a pool too. Man, that was the life.

Our youngest 3 are still adjusting to that very large bathtub in the backyard and are not sure if it's a good thing yet......I'm sure they will become little guppies soon enough, it's the inevitable!

Something I have been thinking about....

Our neighbor is a foster mom. She takes the brand new babies, usually straight from the hospital at birth or maybe a couple months old (1-3). Over the past few months, she has been able to go on some business trips with her husband to far off exotic places for two weeks at a time. We offered (begged) to watch the baby she had at the time. How could we resist, he was a beautiful little brown baby boy named Larry. He was born 2 months early (just like our Isaiah) to a homeless mom (just like our Isaiah) who was addicted to drugs (thankfully not like our Isaiah). At 3 months old, he was still very, very tiny and very much like a newborn.

We were thrilled the next month when she went on another trip and we were able to have him in our home again. We treated him like part of the family. He was cuddled, kissed, hugged, told "I love you" and treasured as the child of God that he is. I bawled my head off when we had to give him back to our neighbor. He was recently returned to his mother (who is in a drug detox facility with him). We pray for his safety.

Last weekend we babysat for the day for our neighbor while she attended a class. Her new baby is a 3 month old little boy with a broken arm (in two places) and 3 broken ribs. My heart just broke as I held him in my arms and gazed into his beautiful eyes. Who could hurt a baby? He returned my gaze with the biggest, sweetest smile you have ever seen. He was unaware of his plight. Born into a home where someone hurt him, he was now a "state kid". His life will never be "normal". All of the babies she gets have a story, similar to these. They are not unique, that's why she has them.

We get asked quite often, especially after we adopt a new baby, "Now do you think you have enough kids???" There is so much pain in the world, so many babies/children need love. Who will love these children? Who will give them hugs and kisses after a bad day? Who will be their role models? We are so thankful for the children that have blessed our lives. We know sweet baby Larry will not remember the 4 weeks he stayed with our family but I know our children will never forget the opportunity they had to love and care for a complete stranger.

As we wait for our new baby (yes, #10), we pray for the birth mother and her beautiful baby to know that a family waits with open arms and hearts full of love.

20 Year Reunion

Can it even be possible that 20 years have passed since I was in high school?? Could my hair have been any bigger? And that blue eye shadow!!! Actually that is coming back in style, I think. As I look back on my life, I do so with no regrets!!! I am exactly where I thought I would be. I love my husband, I love my kiddos and I love the life that we have created together. I have truly been blessed. It will be fun to see people that I have not seen for 20 years at my reunion at the end of June. I'm just hoping people will recognize me without my big hair and blue eye shadow!!

Summer is finally here!!!

Ok, let's be clear......summer vacation is here, but the weather has yet to cooperate. It's not the warmest out there, in fact the kids were complaining that it was "freezing outside" and they didn't want to stay out there to play! Freezing, I reminded them, was when snow was falling from the sky....this was not even close. For us Oregonians, high 60's is shorts weather and that's what we're all wearing right about now.

We like to remember when we lived in Arizona a few years back. We were sitting outside on the 4th of July, around 10:00 at night, waiting for the fireworks to start. We were all sweating and miserable, complaining about how hot it still was that late at night. We were reminiscing about the good ol' days in Oregon when we would take huge blankets and sleeping bags to wherever we were headed to watch the fireworks. We would all huddle together to ooooh and ahhhh. A little different than the 4th of July in AZ.....I remember telling the kids that I would not hold anyone on my lap because it was just too stinkin' hot!!!! The grass is always greener........

Cutie Pies!

So everytime Scott goes to Mexico for work, the boys beg him to bring them home wrestling masks. I personally had no idea what on earth they were talking about. He finally brought them home. To be honest, I find them a tad on the scary side!! They love them!!!!! I much prefer the nice soccer shirts he brought back, that they are also wearing. Thankfully the girls all got jewelry!

The Noodle

Have you ever had one of those days when things just didn't seem to go right??? Isaiah had this pesky little macaroni noodle that wouldn't leave him alone! No matter how he tried to find that little bugger, it just wouldn't budge off the side of his head. Yes, we did finally take it off for him....but only after capturing the moment with a few pictures!!

Well, here is Miss Vanessa graduating from Kindergarten....I warned you that the pics would be shaky......Isaiah was on my back and he was one constant motion.

Graduation Day

Well, the big day is finally here......Vanessa is graduating from Kindergarten!!!! Check back for pictures. I will attempt to take a few while holding Talli and Savannah's hands and toting Isaiah in the backpack. He tends to move around quite often making it difficult to take a steady shot but we'll do our best!!

School's almost out!!!!

I can hardly wait for the homework to end!!! It seems like all we do is homework around here!!

Well, May is the month of birthdays at our house and Vanessa finished up the month with her birthday on the 31st. Tanner's was on the 27th and Talisha was on the 19th. Whew.

We are looking forward to June! 3 boys have basketball camp, oldest 2 girls have girls camp, Vanessa has a hip hop class and of course, Father's Day and Scott's birthday!!! Just the beginning of a great summer!