Michael & Aliyah Performing

December 15th was a crazy night! Aliyah had a piano recital, her first ever, and Michael had a School Christmas program he was in. We were also invited to the Bacara in Santa Barbara which is a super nice ritzy hotel where all the movies stars stay when they go there. They were having an Angels appreciation dinner for all the foster parents. Well as much as we wanted to go to that, we supported our kids and went to their shows. I took Aliyah and Avery and went to the piano recital. We left early from that and drove out to Michael's school to meet Matt & Brock watching the show.

Pretty talented kids huh? Well I'm a little partial. I loved watching Aliyah perform. She wasn't nervous, she just got up there and did her thing.

Michael was awesome as well. He kept me laughing through the whole thing. I had a perfect view and was a little bummed to see Matt's view obstructed by a head but you get the idea. Michael was the biggest mover and dancer in the whole class!  I told Matt there won't be many more times like that. Soon he'll be old enough to not want to participate. I made Michael wear that sweater thinking all the kids would dress up for a Christmas program. Afterwards he came up and said, "see! I told you everyone wasn't going to dress up!" Oops, my bad.

Merry Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve tradition, each kid gets new pajamas to sleep in that night. My parents did this for us every year so we're carrying it on. This year Michael asked, "why pajamas? Can I open something else instead and open pajamas tomorrow?" Nice try kid.

This is a letter & gift Aliyah left for Fizzle, our Christmas elf. 

I had many intentions of doing more with the tree this year...but with 4 kids I'm feel fortunate we had a decorated tree at all. This was the first live tree we've gotten in many years, in not ever. And yes we know the star is leaning but it's a total pain to get the huge ladder out and get up there. By the time we took the tree down, it was leaning WAY over.

Aliyah and her new pink bike! And she's wearing her new pink lipstick if you didn't notice.

Brock & drums? He's actually surprised us at how good he was.

Aliyah's American Girl doll "Kristine" from Grandma Dever. Matching jammies? Love it! She enjoys taking her everywhere with her, even the movies!

And a scooter. Well her bike has been broken for a while and she's been riding Michael's scooter. She loves both.

The highlight of Michaels existence, 3DS.

New "Monkey" quilt from Grandma Egbert. He loves the little pocket to hide the monkey in. And yes, Avery wants that Elmo really bad!

New bag from Grandma Egbert. Isn't it cute?

Love this picture, she's such a happy girl!

Hooded robe from Grandma Dever, isn't it/she cute?

Michaels Gingerbread "Luigi's Garage" from Cars. Luigi must be out to lunch, he wasn't around for the photo shoot.

Aliyahs Gingerbread, The Grinch. There's Mr Grinch himself on top the hill ready to jump on his slide and ride to the village. Today Aliyah ate Mr Grinch. She held him by his arm and said, "Grinch on a stick!" hahahaha

We had a wonderful Christmas. We're very blessed to have such wonderful family in our lives. We loved having Matt stay home for a full week after Christmas. It was so fun hanging out with him. He made sure all the remote control stuff & video games worked well. ;) He actually did all the laundry all week, fed many babies (or maybe fed babies many times? Sometimes feels like many babies) and helped me find my sanity. Hadn't seen it for a while. So now we're on to a New Year. With so many changes last year, I'm hoping this year is a little calmer and lets me settle into this new routine a bit.

Oh Christmas Tree!

This year we decided to get a live tree. I don't think we've done this before, if we have I can't remember. Anyway it was exciting to have a real tree that doesn't stab and scratch us with it's wire branches. It's soft and smells good.

When the kids went to bed we got the tree up so they could help decorate the next day. Actually I decorated most of it that night. They didn't care too much. We put our fake tree upstairs on the balcony so they'd already helped decorate that one.

In this video you can see us lift the tree. You can only see it for about a second but it felt like eternity! I was under the tree being smashed against the wall. Matt kept telling me to lift it up but my arms were up as high as they'd go! Anyway, as you can see, it went up and no ambulance had to come save me.

"Just a Friendly Reminder...

...THESE ARE NOT ACTUALLY YOUR KIDS."

Ok, well nobody actually said that to me, but they might as well have. Let me back track a little and get you up to speed since I've been horrible about updating this blog.

*When I say mom and dad, I'm referring to Brock & Avery's biological parents.

We are in what's called the Reunification Period of fostering. This is the time frame the parents have to prove themselves worthy parents to get their kids back. It's a 6 month period but is often longer than 6 months due to court scheduling and things like that. Parents have the right to visits and services (county will pay for gas cards or bus passes for parents to visit kids). This period started over the summer for these kids. Because dad missed a visit and he wasn't returning social workers phone calls, social worker suspended visits. Mom already wasn't scheduling visits, she's had one since we got them. They had court  a couple of weeks ago to terminate moms reunification. However dad's lawyer asked for a continuance so nothing actually happened at the court date. Next court date is January. The social worker called and let us know visits were still suspended, nothing was done at court and they'll meet in January. Okay, no problem. Dad has only visited a couple of times and nothing for the last couple of months. 

Then last week I get a phone call from a case aid saying she was setting up visits for the kids. It's kind of like getting punched in the stomach, although I don't think I ever have been but I imagine that's what it would feel like. As it turns out, the social worker did request they start visits. What?? Well in court, dad made it sound like he wasn't given the chance for visits, he couldn't communicate (they gave him a spanish speaking case aid), couldn't get off work etc. So the social worker didn't want his lawyer going in and saying he wasn't given the opportunity for visits so she started them again. Okay... so this is a necessary evil that I'll just need to deal with. This is what we signed up for, I KNOW they're not my kids. It's just hard to have that reminder when day in and day out, they feel like my kids. I treat them as if they're my kids and to send them off to dad and have them come home with his cologne on them is just a weekly reminder that they're not.

Okay, I can do this. People tell me all the time they could never do this, they'd get too attached. Believe me, I get it. But not a day goes by that I wonder why we're doing this. I know we're supposed to do this and I know that at some point we will see the outcome and understand it all. These kids are absolute Angels and I am totally in love with them. If they leave our family, there will be a huge hole in my heart but I have faith that God will put them where they belong and He will take care of them and us. That is how I get through this. Faith.

"Nick"names & catching up

I've just sent Aliyah off to school so I have a few minutes to catch up. Life has been crazy around here lately.

Matt's mom was here for a month. She came to help with decorating the house and I begged her to stay longer when the babies arrived. She was a great help and blessing to us. After she left, real life started to sink in. Suddenly I had to take 4 kids everywhere with me. The babies are awesomely behaved and total troopers when it comes to sitting in the car waiting for their big brother and sister in all their activities, although it's wearing off quickly. I had laundry piling up (clean and dirty) and the house looking...well... much like 4 kids live here. We had friends from Aliyah's school bring us meals which was amazing because I honestly couldn't think past taking care of the kids. Putting a meal together just wasn't happening. In fact, our first meal after they stopped coming and grandma left was a pot of stew I think I called it. I was telling Matt that basically all I could literally do was throw stuff in a pot. Mario was always sitting on my feet or digging through cupboards right under me.

A month went by and I survived the days without grandmotherly help until my mom got here last week. What a blessing! She had a lot of fun with the kids and helped so much! I got a breather even if the breather was just to slow down a little in the work. She held the baby a lot so I wasn't wearing her in the sling as much. The bottles were always washed, laundry was cycling through much faster and dishes were being done. We had fun hanging out and stayed up way too late enjoying each others company. (Miss you mom!)

Last week Matt's mom (Dianne) and grandfather came to visit from Utah. They picked up Dianne's cousin and her husband from Australia in Sacramento and stayed for a day to visit. It was great meeting her cousin and learning more about the extended family we have in Australia.

Kids update:

Well we've decided to give them these sweet babies "nicknames". If we get to adopt these Angels, these will be their names.

Avery Capri

We had a hard time naming her. We both loved the name Leila Grace but it's way to close to Aliyah and after calling her Leila for a week I just couldn't do it. I was losing Aliyah's name, it was becoming Leah or Lela. Anyway I was too confused to make it work. Matt's sad he didn't get a Leila (means dark haired beauty and is a Portuguese name) so he joked with Aliyah he would call her Leila, short for Leilani (her middle name). Anyway I came across Avery and loved it and it just seems to fit her. We struggled with a middle name for a while then Matt was rattling off names he liked and Capri was one of them. I'd never heard it before and loved it right away.

Aliyah brought down her cradle and made it all comfy for Avery to lay in. She actually liked it.

Aliyah loves to make Avery smile. She's laughing a lot now.

Avery trying to roll over. (update: Avery is rolling over and squirming all over her bed now,)

Brock (?)

We're still working on the middle name

It has actually taken a really long time to name both these kids. But most people get 9 months right? I'm not sure if it was harder because we knew them and were getting to know them more each day. Plus we had to name 2 kids so they had to fit. Well I came across the name Brock somewhere and really liked it but I didn't mention it to Matt because I didn't think he'd like it. One day Matt said "what about Brock?" I was a little surprised but thought it was cool we'd both come up with it on our own. We've gotten mixed reactions from people, it's an unusual name but that's what I like about it.

Brock is such a happy kid, he's got a great personality, always smiling and cuddly.

Somehow Brock's shirt got all messed up, he must have been trying to get out of it? We're not sure.

On Sunday morning I asked Matt if he'd take some pictures of the kids while they were all dressed up. He got the camera & his equipment ready and waited for the kids to come down.

Well church is at 11:30, Brocks nap time is around 11. We'd put him in bed around 10:30 & when I got him up at 11 to get him ready for church, he was so mad!

I gave Brock his sippy cup but he drank it really fast, so I took it away since he was done. This was his reaction. Hahahaha I love this picture, look at the boys faces.

And... the photo shoot is over. That didn't go over so well. Plus Michael was super slack this day. Normally he's in his suit and tie every week.

Aliyah loves being a big sister and is always looking for ways to help.

 Photo shoot with Brock and his hat. 

I just love his smiles, I think because his whole body smiles along. He usually shrugs his shoulders while he's smiling as if he's so happy he just can't help it.

We're having so much fun with these kids. They're both really good and happy babies. Heavenly Father has blessed us with sleeping babies. Avery usually sleeps through the night, sometimes for 12 hours at a time. If she wakes up it's just once and I can usually just give her a pacifier and she's good. Brock sleeps through the night and hasn't been waking up anymore with nightmares so we're grateful for that.

Brock has settled in very well. He loves the older kids and they love him. He's an investigator. He'd rather try to figure out the mechanics of drawers, doors, tables and chairs then play with toys. He loves to be outside kicking a ball or picking flowers so he gets along well with Michael & Aliyah's interests.

Avery is rolling over and staying awake longer during the day. She's in the sling on me a lot because she doesn't like her swing for very long and she gets bored with her chair. I like having her close to me for the bonding though so it's fine with me.

Michael and Aliyah are loving having these babies around. I've never heard them wish they go back or anything like that. They pray that we get to keep them and so do we. We feel like they were meant to be in our family and hope things go that way. We'll know more in a few months.

Poopy Mornings

I mean this quite literally so if you are sensitive to the topic, I'd urge you to quit reading now.

A Few Mornings Ago...

It had been a late night so when the alarm went off I was exhausted. I thought once again how nice it would be to have Michael in the local school where the bus would pick him up down the street at a much later time. However we're happy with the school he's in, even though his bus picks him up at 8am, 12 minutes away. This hasn't been such a big deal in the past but having 2 babies in the house sure changes things. Don't get me wrong, we're loving them. I just have to plan ahead more. Instead of packing a lunch for Michael, I also pack snacks & drink for Mario and a bottle and formula for Christina.

Well on this particular morning I decided I'd give myself (and Michael since he's not easy to wake) some extra time in bed. I figured we could sleep an extra 20 minutes or so then I could drive him out to school at 8:30. When I finally drug myself out of bed and opened my bedroom door I could hear the TV on downstairs. This meant Michael was already up, which was good but who knew if he was dressed with hair done or not. As I got towards the stairs I noticed a smell...I looked over the balcony and started to scream. Yes I screamed, there's no two ways about it. There were huge piles of dog poop on the living room floor! Now for those of you following my posts, you know we got a puppy. You also know we have 2 babies so the puppy is now outside. However we have him crate trained. Well Michael, sweet Michael, got up to watch TV and seeing Brody in his crate from the night decided to let him out. He just failed to let him outside. So I was already running late because I was so sure Michael would want to sleep in and now I have huge poop to deal with. And might I add, it was a bit runny. (I warned you.) So in my screaming I woke up all the kids and Grandma Egbert. Aliyah even  came down and told me my yelling woke her up. Matt came downstairs ready for work and didn't have any time to do anything but look at me and say, "sorry" as he went out the door. I had 2 crying babies, a kid about to be late for school and a lot of poop to clean. Well I scooped up as much as I could with the dustpan, (I didn't know what else to possibly use & yes we sterilized it after) and had to just leave the carpet with stains. I called the carpet cleaners who said they'd be there before 11.

As I was leaving for school, Mario & Christina both had blowout poopy diapers. I was seriously so tired of poop I couldn't stand it. Michael got to school late, but only 5 minutes which I think was pretty good. We spent all morning trying to keep Mario out of the living room, it's too wide to put up a gate and he would climb under or over chairs. Finally the carpet cleaners showed up and Dianne (grandma Egbert) and I started moving stuff around for them. She picked up a vase that was stuck to a box with earthquake proof putty stuff and moved it to the dining room. As she set it down the vase toppled off the box, slid across the table and hit the floor, shattering into tiny pieces. As she was cleaning it up, she was carrying the large pieces out to the trash through the front door, around through the side gate. As she came back through the front door I saw Brody run in after her (she hadn't pushed the gate tight so he opened it and followed her back). I started screaming his name for him to get out, Dianne went to grab him and he started peeing all over. She picked him up and he kept peeing creating a huge puddle. I snatched him, through him out, grabbed the mop and went to work on his latest disaster. Dianne and I stood in the kitchen and took a deep breath. It had been exhausting. I looked at the clock and it said 10:02am. I was wiped! Well the carpet cleaners left and we found they'd broken a piece of the leg off one of our chairs we just had recovered. Now that was a fabulous morning!

This Morning...


I was downstairs waiting for the kids to come down but wasn't hearing any progress. I went upstairs to find Michael sitting on the floor of his room with Mario...and a poopy diaper. Oh here we go again! Well this time Michael was being very sweet, he noticed something needed to be done and tried to help. So he was in the middle of trying to change Mario's diaper. He'd removed it, Mario was laying bare bottomed on the carpet and hadn't been wiped. I asked Michael if he was using wipes, he said he used toilet paper and pointed towards the bathroom. So I gently got in the and took over. Aliyah got the wipes for me and I cleaned the poop off Mario, including his hands and feet (...I didn't even ask). Aliyah sat on Michael's bed the whole time watching this. I asked Michael if he wanted me to show him what to do, he said no way, he was not going to do that again. Aliyah piped up that she would never change a poopy diaper. I asked, "what about when you have kids?" She said very seriously, "I'll bring them to your house and you can change them". Hahahaha

So this is my life. I have a puppy, 2 babies and 2 kids who really want to help and do the very best they can. They're amazing! I love them for their efforts and thoughtfulness. I love the babies and even the puppy (I can't wait until he grows up!).

People always ask how I'm doing. I'm not going to lie, it's a lot of work taking on 2 babies and trying to juggle schedules. I usually just tell people I'm fine but what I really want to say is, "I'm up to my eyeballs in poop...and I'm doing just fine."

One Crazy Day

I woke up early to get ready for our big day. I showered, put make-up on and was ready to go by 7:15. I took Michael to school then ran several errands to get ready for our new arrivals. I got home at 8:45am, just as Jennifer from Angels was pulling up. She's our social worker and had come early for me to sign papers. We sat and talked about boring paperwork as we continued to wait. Finally at 9:30 a car pulled up in front of the house carrying 2 small children who needed a home and a family to love them and we were so excited to have been chosen to be that family.

Meet Christina: She's 2 1/2 months old and a great baby! She sleeps really well, eats well and is just happy to hang out. She actually looks a lot like Aliyah, it's pretty crazy how much she looks like her.

Meet Mario: He's 15 months today and teething like crazy, hence the wet shirt. He has big blue eyes and very long eyelashes. He's really sweet and has a fun little personality.

Both of these kids have quickly made their way into our hearts. They're so sweet and lovable!

Aliyah is really enjoying being a big sister and had to show Mario around everywhere.

Thank goodness for Grandma Egbert being here! She's such a great help!

So after the social workers left at 10:30 this morning, our day was crazy, to say the least. Between Dianne and I, we were constantly running. I didn't have a baby gate for the stairs so Mario kept trying to climb them, we were trying to get used to the kids schedules while also trying to stick to ours. Not so easy. Did I mention we have a 10 week old puppy? I know I haven't blogged for a while, been very busy. Here's our pup Brodie:

He's very cute...and a lot of work.

Anyway it's almost 11 at night and I was going to write the details of the day but honestly I'm too tired and really can't remember what I did all day. I just know that I thought I'd be able to cook the ribs in the fridge but I never found the time to get them in the oven. Picking up a chicken after soccer practice seemed a lot easier. Lets just say I wouldn't be surprised if today was the last day I put makeup on for a while. I forgot what it's like to be a new mom and with the older kids and their schedules, there's sure a lot of juggling.

But how can you resist these faces? I don't mind the juggling, just don't judge me if I look or go crazy. :)