State and Grandma Peggy visit!

Grandma Peggy flew in on last Thursday and we pulled the kids out early on Friday and headed to Ainsley’s State gymnastics meet!  The drive to Lemoore was roughly 3 hours and the kids were really excited about the hotel and got 2 adjoining rooms which made it even better :o).  They were bouncing off the walls and jumping on and off the beds.  Thankfully, no one got hurt!  Shortly after we checked in, we headed to Walmart so Reggie could pick out his birthday present and then we went to Denny’s.  We don’t eat out very often, so the kids were happy.  When we got back, Reggie decided to build his lego set instead of watch a show and he was consumed by that until bed.  The other 2 watched a show and ate candy and then the kids turned in early.  Since we had 2 rooms, we stayed up and were able to watch t.v. :o).  It was a pretty nice hotel and had a great continental breakfast, but the city of Lemoore smelled like cow poo.  We slept with the window open and I had a dream I was swimming in poo :o(.
We were up bright and early the next morning because Ainsley had to be at the gym at 8:15 for warm-ups at 8:30.  Her coach rolled in at 8:29, so we were getting a bit nervous, but she made it.  I felt bad for ainsley since none of her team mates were competing in her group and she didn't look like she was having much fun.  We could see her coaches were try to loosen her up.  It was good she started on vault and got some of the nervous energy out first.  She did the best vault I’ve ever seen her do, so it was a great start.  She continued to be solid on every event and finished with her personal best all-around score of 35.9!  She placed on every event except beam, 4^th on floor, 6th on vault, 7th on bars and 6^th all-around.  Her coaches were very impressed and said she’ll be moving up to the next level!  I think she was very glad to have it done :o).  

 No action shots turned out...the lighting was really poor and my super photography mom's weren't there, so at least I got one with her coaches afterward.

We made the long drive home and then grandma started preparing desserts for Thanksgiving dinner for Sunday.  The kids love grandma’s Lemon Lush and grandma loves Razzleberry Claim Jumper pie (that you can't get in WA).  Ainsley was in heaven, being able to help in the kitchen.  She LOVES that stuff!  The turkey went in early the next day and the smell was delicious.  We stuffed ourselves…the kids have become quite the potato and gravy eaters…I had to remind them of when they wouldn’t even try them!  A big thank you to grandma for all her hard work in the kitchen….we thoroughly enjoyed our feast.  I froze it and we enjoyed it again on Thanksgiving.  It was the easiest preparation for Thanksgiving ever.  Might be something we do more often, although we learned mashed potato’s don’t freeze well.  The kids had a great time playing board games with grandma and hanging out with her in the Casita :o).  After grandma left, K realized he didn’t thank her for making Lemon Lush and he wanted to send her a card!  

The kids have been on break since then and it has been really nice to have no school and no gymnastics.  The first 3 days were great, but the kids were getting a little irritated with each other and Ainsley has been a little whiney.  We have been trying to keep her active, but she is a creature of habit and gets a little grumpy when schedules change.  K is in heaven, having playmates all day!  There’s been a lot of lego and trampoline action this week and yesterday we decorated for Christmas and that is always a great time.  I love turning on the Christmas music and enjoying the fun of the season.  We did good this year….no ornament casualties!  I have to admit…it doesn’t feel quite cold enough for Christmas-I went running in shorts and a t-shirt yesterday while Reggie biked along with me :o).
The kids love being on the roof!

 Such concentration...

Top 1%

I have to brag about Ryan a little.  He is so gifted in sales and has always been recognized during review time, getting "exceeds expectations," but he had his review a couple weeks ago and when he got home he told me he didn't get exceeds expectations.  I was a bit surprised until he told me there some category above that that isn't really named and only 1% of the people in the company get this status!  I keep asking when the new car is arriving or the big bonus check, but it doesn't sound like that's part of the deal, just bragging rights I guess.  Regardless, it is nice that they agree how much of an asset he is and they let him know it!
Did I tell you he has a pretty cool job?  Not only is he part of the "green" movement, ridding the world of paper towels, but he has visited EMP, Universal Studios, Pixar, Las Vegas Race track school (where they offered to let him drive a corvette around the track), Husky stadium and many other really cool places....and he gets to go in top secret areas and see stuff no normal person gets to! They always invite him to enjoy the places he visits, but he usually doesn't have time.  He needs to plan better to take advantage of their offers!  The kids were pretty jealous when they saw this:

K update

Well, we just keep getting bad news….everything has come to a screeching halt.  The appellate court issued a stay, so this was the worst case scenario in moving toward adoption.  Nothing will happen for several months and if all goes as it should the judge’s decision will be upheld and then we can work toward adoption.  A bonding study has also been requested which usually takes a year, but can’t be started until the appellate court rules.  Hopefully, the recommendation from the bonding study will be adoption, but if the judge goes in that direction it will be appealed and that process is one year, so we are a minimum of 3 years away from adoption, probably closer to 4!  I know it is confusing…many people have explained it to me and I finally get what is going on.  This system and process is something else :o(.

I have really been struggling lately with it lately, just wanting to be done with this mess, so your prayers are much appreciated.  I made an appeal to his dad, asking him to think about what is best for K.  He will start kindergarten next year and will be reminded daily that he is different than my kids.  I never understood the importance of him being adopted until this past year made it clear to me that he is very aware of the name issue and doesn’t like it.  To him it is more than that, for me, I am just happy that he won’t be leaving, but it has been very hard knowing that he wants something he’ll likely not get for a really long time.  Thankfully, he has a really good therapist and I feel good that we will be able to help him through all this confusion.  His dad made it clear that he will continue this fight (we can still pray for a miracle that he’ll change his mind!) and knowing that has made me accept this situation and with God’s grace, I am in a much better place than a few days ago!
In the meantime, we will continue to move forward and give him all that we have.  K is really enjoying having his own friends and activities…

He had his soccer team party a couple weeks ago and it was fun to see how far he’s come.  On a side note, it was the most ridiculous soccer party ever…..decorations were amazing, 

gifts for the kids were over the top and they even had a slide-show that we got a copy of! 
K at a birthday party 2 weekends ago:

The good news is he keeps us laughing….tonight at dinner we were all taking turns drawing on the whiteboard and guessing what we drew.  Ryan drew the Dyson tap and the next round, K says, “no more boring drawings dad!”  It is always a surprise what comes out of his little mouth.  He really is super sweet and I hope someday all his dreams come true!
I guess he was hot!

Enjoying quieter weekends!

Last weekend we got a small taste of having a pet...we were dog sitting for little Angel, a Pomeranian :). Ainsley was counting down for two weeks! The kids had so much fun just having her there :). K had pee duty, Ainsley was the pooper scooper and Reggie was the morning helper and walker. She really was a sweet, good dog, only barking when it was appropriate. Thankfully we have hardwood floors or we would never do it again because she peed quite a bit. The kids loved it that she followed me everywhere and spun in circles every time I went near her or talked to her... They would ask me to sit down so we could all sit together with her. I have to say if I was ever going to get a dog I think it would be a small one....their mess is just so easy :). But, we also realized how busy we are and how there's no place for a dog right now. The kids will have to be happy just watching her every month or two. Ryan is getting a little less flexible in his old age and it took him a bit to warm up to having a dog around, but I think by the end of it he came around. 

Reggie had his piano recital this Saturday. He played the theme song from Star Wars and did awesome job!!! There was a boy who played the song he did last time and Star Wars was a lot more complicated with much more hand movement. We were blown away by some of the older kids and I think they may have inspired Reggie a bit. What was even better is that we had Samantha watching the other two :). We took Reggie out to Sweet tomatoes and enjoyed having some time with him. He has been really good lately and helpful so it was nice to do something special for him. Although, he couldn't wait to get home and start building the White House.... He and I went to the thrift store earlier that day and he got a bunch of fun stuff with his money!

Video of his performance:

This was a cardboard puzzle with over 130 pieces that Reggie worked on for a few hours.  He sure loves to create and build.  I am really glad he can do these things on his own because I do not share his gift!

A field trip he went on last week, visiting the state capital....maybe that inspired him to get the puzzle.

We took the kids to the gym the next day, so we could play some basketball and then Ryan's took K home for a nap and the kids and I swam in the indoor warm pool. We have never been in that pool and it was like a hot tub! It's a therapy pool for people with arthritis and they loved it....Reggie asked if we could come every Sunday! We had movie night that night and it was such a nice weekend all around!!!

Looking forward to quieter weekends

Last weekend was CRAZY!  Reggie had scouts Friday night and we took a tour of the quarry in Pleasanton.  It was actually really interesting and we learned and saw how they moved the sand up the conveyer belt to get it to the plant a mile and a half away.  When we drove up to the plant, they taught us about cement, concrete and asphalt and showed us the different types of sand/gravel they have there.  We also learned they test it daily (who knew?) and they have a long term plan for the giant holes they are making.  Turns out it will be where our water is stored eventually.  I thought it was interesting....Reggie thought it was short and I could tell he wanted to hear and see more.
If you look closely, you can see the 3 giant loaders (that look very small).  They are 86 feet down and it has taken them 15 years to get this far.

 Now you can see how giant it is!

We were up bright and early the next morning for Reggie's swim meet in Hayward.  Ryan stayed back with K because he had his last soccer game and a visit with his family :o).  We missed swim warm ups which was o.k.. because I didn't want him to get all wet and then have to wait and hour and a half for his first event.  That sounds more damaging than good to me.  Anyway, I have never seen anything quite like it.....People everywhere camped out for the day.  There were 1000 swimmers!!!  It was hard to hear the announcer, so we never knew which event was going....thank goodness for other parents!  After his first 2 events, we were out of there.  Seemed silly to sit for another 2 hours for one more swim.  He did good, but I forgot to tell him he was supposed to go fast!  He did fine, but I have seen him motor much faster in practice.  Our previous respite provider, Kelly, lives just down the street, so she came to watch and it was fun to visit and catch up :o).

From there Ainsley and I went to visit some friends in Pleasanton.  We don't usually have playdates on the weekends, but it worked out nicely.  Ryan and Reggie got some one on one time and went to Boomer's to miniature golf and ride go carts.

The next day we went to church and then headed to Sacramento for Ainsley's gymnastics meet.  It started at 3 and she was a bit off.  I am hoping for an earlier start at state.  Her coach said it is good she is strong because she muscled a lot to avoid falling and she ran out of time on the beam.  We watched her floor routine and she was fighting to go over on her handstand and she held it for way too long and we could see the judge laughing in the background!  Surprisingly, she scored her highest score ever on floor (9.125) and bars (9.05-she had to muscle that too).  Maybe the judges like to see that??  Her all around score improved again, but the competition was crazy!  The girls didn't get too many medals which was good preparation for the state meet that is coming up.

We didn't get home until 7:45, which was really 8:45 with the time change and we were all wiped out.  Ainsley got home later because she went to eat with her teammates.  

I am very glad swim meets are over, soccer is over and we only have one gymnastics meet left...yeehaw!

Fall is in the air

We officially turned on our heat this morning!  We had the pellet stove on a couple times last week, but it is just getting too chilly at night.  I am pretty sure there was frost on the neighbors roof this morning.
It has been such a beautiful fall so far and I just went for a run on Saturday in a tank top and shorts, so it is still getting quite warm during the day, but there's a new chill in the air.   I think it is time to pack up the shorts and get out the pants....seems crazy that it is already Nov. Our fruit trees have also noticed the weather change and our oranges are turning orange and our lemons yellow, so they should be ready in the next month or two.
I am loving our new house because the sun beams in the kitchen in the morning and the living room in the afternoon and it just makes everything feel a little warmer :o).  This time of year it is so nice to have some natural sunlight, especially since daylight savings is now upon us.  Yesterday seemed like the longest day ever and the evening even longer (it probably didn't help that we went to Sacramento for a gymnastics meet!).

Halloween!

Well the Halloween festivities this season kept us quite busy! K and Ainsley had field trips to the pumpkin patch, but poor Reggie was bummed he didn't get to go.  It is good he has friends because he ended up going with Caleb the day before Halloween and he was just happy to leave with a pumpkin (I had gone to Safeway, Grocery Outlet and CVS and no one had any big pumpkins left!).  

All the kids had parties and then the usual parade and assembly :). It was really surprising that Reggie was the only minion. He was done with his costume after the parade...too bulky and it hurt his head, so he decided to be Darth Vader for trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Of course if Reggie wasn't going to be a minion, Khalif wasn't either, so he decided to be SpongeBob! 

We had the Houghtaling's and Caldiera's over and it might have been the quietest, best group of 9 kids ever. Their rooms weren't even messy!!! It was nice to actually sit and visit during dinner without any interruption. I'm still not sure how that even happened :). We made pulled pork in the crockpot and that was the easiest dinner and super delicious. Ryan found a recipe online and that was his baby. I am thinking he should do that more often :)!!! 
After dinner we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and ran into K's soccer coach and his preschool teacher. Rachel and Shannon dressed up as jellybeans and they had balloons that kept falling out of their costume so it created a little bit of entertainment when the kids would stomp and pop. By the end of our loop they were completely out of balloons...brilliant planning by Diana!

When we got home they all spread out and checked out their loot. They were excited to get a couple full size candy bars! I got a few of my favorites too. On Saturday I decided I was done with candy. We still have to go through the kids and figure out what we're going to keep and what we're going to send off to the troops :). 
We really had a fabulous time!!!

Security system

We had ADT come out a couple months after we bought our house because Ryan felt better about having an alarm system when he traveled.  It isn't my favorite and I didn't feel it was necessary, but we found out last night how well it works!
We have a remote control that turns it on and off, as well as having a panic button that dials 911 immediately.  We keep one of the remotes in our room, so we can turn it on late at night and off early in the morning.  Last night Ryan hit the wrong button and the alarm system was blaring.  I fall asleep in about 30 seconds, so woke up really confused.  He tried to turn it off, but was also a little out of it (he fell asleep and then realized he didn't turn it on, so that is when he hit the button).  He ended up going to the kitchen to try to get it off and when he got back to bed, he told me that he saw a police car with its lights on rounding our corner.  He thought that was pretty strange.  About 2 minutes later we had big, bright flashlights shining in our bedroom window.  Then we heard him over his radio say he saw two individuals in the window (which was us), so I asked him if he needed something and he asked someone to come to the door.  Ryan explained he hit the wrong button and away they went.  I guess ADT called his cell phone before they dispatched the police, but it was on vibrate, so we didn't hear it.  Pretty amazing that they were outside of our house in the time it took Ryan to get to the kitchen and turn off the alarm!!!
It took awhile for me to fall back asleep and I couldn't stop laughing at Ryan not realizing he was the reason the police were driving by.  An interesting evening to say the least!

Gymnastics update and grandma/grandpa visit

Ainsley's last meet was our only home meet and the parent group puts it all together, so Ryan and I were there for several hours setting up and the next day working stations and then putting everything back the way it was supposed to go.  We really found out how dirty the gym was :o(.  Things went very well and Ainsley continues to improve each time she competes, but the judges were scoring very, very low.  That isn't good for qualifying for state, but somehow she managed to squeak it out and was very excited for that.  She placed 2nd on beam and floor, 4th on vault, 3rd on bars and 3rd all-around!  We did trophies for the all-around, so she got her first one.  She told me the other day how much she loves the meets!  When Ainsley's session was over, she wanted to go back to watch the older girls and she was in heaven.  I wasn't supposed to stay and clean up, but I couldn't get her to leave.  She was having so much fun and I remember those times, so I let her stay for awhile :o).
Thank goodness for Kierra's mom...she takes beautiful pictures of the girls.  I have tried, but mine never turn out, so I have been downloading hers!

Bar routine:

Floor routine:

The timing was great because my parents were in town and could see her in action.  Their visit went really quick this year, probably because we were running around all the time to get the kids where they needed to be!  The kids had conference week, so they had a couple days off and it was nice that they got to spend a little extra time with grandma and grandpa.  They arrived the afternoon of Sophia's birthday party, so we started out partying right away!!  We also had the babysitter Sunday afternoon, so we went out to dinner and saw the race car movie which was surprisingly good :o).  Downtown Livermore is a really lively place!
Little odds and ends were done in the Casita during their week and a half visit and the finishing touches are all wrapped up.  The biggest challenge was getting the heater installed and messing around with changing it from propane to natural gas and getting the gas hooked up.  I have to say, I am very impressed with Ryan's gas skills, but sadly the furnace kicked on, but the blower seems to be broken and probably isn't worth it to fix since they didn't have the heat on the entire visit!  The weather was very nice and warm :o).  I found one of those infrared heaters at the thrift store for $12, so we are going to give that a try!
The kids went out to visit grandma and grandpa every morning and they really loved having them here.  We went and saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and grandma got sucked into helping Reggie with his Minion costume.  He is very persistent!  They did a stained glass art project which ended up decorating the Casita door very nicely.  I'm not sure what all they did out there, but I know they had cinnamon rolls, baked cookies, ate candy, played board games and had all kinds of fun!  I took some pictures, but they are on mom's camera, so I realized when I looked to post some that I don't have any!  I have been really bad lately with remembering to take pictures :o(.  Mom, maybe I can walk you through how to upload to the blog??  We'll give it a try soon, so check back for more pictures.

KOA

We took our annual trip to KAO this weekend and it was a blast!  There was lots of build up waiting for this weekend and we pulled the kids out a bit early from school to avoid traffic and we got there nice and early Friday afternoon.  We unpacked and decorated the cabin for Halloween.  Reggie and Kayla were great helpers with the decorations!  

These cabins are very small, but we managed to pack 6 kids and 4 adults in and it went shockingly well (probably because we were only there for mealtime and sleeping) :o). We spent some time admiring all the decorations....the kids spent many hours on the jumpy pillow, some time riding scooters and this year the pool was heated, so swimming was really enjoyable.  Reggie even decided he wanted to brave the haunted house!  He held my hand tightly, but didn't freak out.

People get very creative with their costumes and it was really fun to see all the different ideas.  Minions were definitely the hot pick this year and since there wasn't really a great costume to buy, it was very interesting to see how people made their costumes.  Everyone was very impressed with Reggie/Ryan/Grandma's work on Reggie's and K's costumes.  Trick-or-treating is always fun for the adults....jello shots/hard lemonade...you get the idea! We made some new friends that Brian works with and Ainsley loved their 12 year old daughter Morgan and Reggie slowly warmed up to their son.  The football was a good thing to bring this year (Reggie's new favorite activity!!!) and even the girls were having a good time throwing and catching.  Three more families joined us during the day and it was a mess of adults and kids, but somehow everyone was accounted for and fed :o).  The weather was great and company lots of fun and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Morgan, Ainsley and Daniella:

Video of the jumpy pillow

Reggie's first swim meet:  Well let's just say that Reggie's first swim meet was interesting...  Getting there and situated I thought was going to be the hard part because I had K (Trina and Ainsley were in Santa Cruz at a gymnastics meet) and then the meet started.  It rained the entire time and we're not talking sprinkle, more like a monsoon.  Luckily the swim team we belong to had pop up tents which at least kept us somewhat dry in between Reggie's events.  There wasn't a dry bone in our bodies.  At one point Reggie was drinking hot chocolate in between his warm-up and next event and was shaking like a leaf.  He did well for his first meet and placed 3rd in the 50 free.  His coach was very impressed with how fast he went.  Now we just need to get his flip turns down and his entry dives and he'll be good to go.  The best part was when we were driving home, soaked to the bone and Reggie says "dad I actually had a lot of fun."  That's what it's all about!  I tried to upload a video but it doesn't appear that it will work.  Maybe it is too big.  Next time...

Soccer!!!

K finally has his own activity and he is really starting to like it.  Soccer was a bit rough at first, which is not the reaction I expected at all.  He has lots of energy and is really outgoing and he was in tears the first practice, refusing to play.  The only think I can think of is that the situation was new and totally out of his control, which brought him to a place that he didn't want to go.  We haven't seen his issues in a while, but we haven't done anything out of the norm in a while either.  We worked through it and thankfully he is very food motivated and fairly easy to bribe.  Sounds bad, but when he's refusing (screaming and crying) to put his uniform on before the game, offering a skittle seemed like a good idea.  It is amazing how quickly he can come out of it.

K has played several games and seems to get more excited each game.  He starts out great and then fizzles out a bit, but it is good that he will still run around.  He and some other kids got tripped up in the 2nd game and he fell down a few times.  His memory is nuts, so now he goes near the ball, but doesn't really kick it.  I think it will come with time and as long as he's having fun, I don't really care.  Crazy that some parents keep score at this age!  Fun video:

Many of his teammates went to Lowe's building day after the last game and he and Reggie built a beautiful fire truck :o).  When I saw this picture, I told Ryan he was brave to hold the truck while K hammered it and he said he learned the hard way that wasn't a good idea....K hammered his thumb :o(.

Gymnastics meets!

Ainsley had her first meet last weekend and she was super nervous.  She woke up at 10 the night before, worrying about it and she was up a few times during the night :o(.  Meets are a bit different than when I competed...now they are smart and have sessions, so you are only there for about 3 hours!  But, that means you can get any time slot and we got 5 o'clock on Sunday night.  Not the best for lots of reasons, but we managed.  I think us mom's were more nervous than the kids!

She did great for her first meet and ended up getting 4 medals and 8th all-around.  Yesterday, we had another meet in Santa Cruz (a little over an hour from our house with no traffic) and we got the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Sat. at 8 am.  That was an early morning!  Her nerves were much better and we worked on a few things and she really improved....almost 2 full points better :o).  She got an 8.75 on vault and floor, an 8.7 on bars and an 8.2 on beam.  Competition was a lot tougher and there were lots of girls and way more teams.  All our girls did awesome and we ended up placing 2nd (we must have been really close to first).  Ainsley was super excited because she got 5 medals this time and placed 5th all around.  She still really wants to get on the blocks (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and she still has some room for improvement, so maybe in a couple weeks at her home meet.
They put this picture in the local newspaper and her teacher saw it first!

Ainsley has been loving it and really likes to be part of the team.  We explored the Santa Cruz Boardwalk after the meet for a bit with her friends.  Too bad it was raining, but I guess that was a good thing because it wasn't so busy.  My umbrella was quite the giggling point :o).

I will try to upload her floor routine video in a bit...