What a Silly Girl!

Yeah so this morning I went upstairs to check and see if Orissa was awake yet. I kept hearing noises that I thought were her, only they were the upstairs TV. I opened her door and this is what I saw.

Yeah, she was sound asleep, happily sleeping with both legs sticking through the bars of the crib. She is a very funny sleeper! I think it is the Keiser in her. My sister's kids used to sleep in very strange ways too! And you might think I am a bit silly or even a bit strange, but when I saw her legs all hanging out that way, the ZZ Top song "Legs" popped into my head. You know when they sing, "she's got legs and she knows how to use them..."

Aww, Come on Mum!

While at Gramma and Granpa Leavitt's house this weekend I tried to get a few portrait shots of my little man. He wasn't too fond of the idea...too many tractors to climb on and too many other cool farm related things to see and such. When I finally got him to sit still for a SHORT shoot, this is what I got!

Sure there were a couple that turned out pretty good, but this picture says it all!

Scour and Scrub! a fotostory friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Thursday, cleaning day! Oh joy of joys, the day to do my house work...laundry, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, scouring etc...This was made more FUN and exciting by the two monsterkeys (i mean my sweetest children of all children) demanding that I pay attention to them and do just what they want. The kitchen took nearly three hours to clean. Yes, it was VERY dirty and yes, there was lots of the aforementioned tasks to get it clean, but it was Orissa clinging to my legs and the Javin throwing a ball for me to hit with my "bat" aka the fly swatter, that cause the job to be so time consuming. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE those times. I love to be needed and wanted by my children, it just isn't always conducive to house cleaning...at least not for me. Then nap time came. I put Orissa down and she readily went to sleep, "Yay," I thought, "now if I can get Javin to take his nap, I can get the rest of the first floor clean!" There was only one flaw in that logic, one hitch in my get-a-long. He didn't nap, he refused to nap. Now being the optimistic person that I try to be, I thought, "well that's ok, he can help me clean. We can work on his room." Yeah, no! He wasn't about to do anything that resembled work or cleaning, no way no how, and it didn't matter what approach I took or what I promised. Javin was going to play with his cars and that was that! I left him to it. That was fine, he would be out of my way and I could do my house work. Again wrong! He followed me down stairs with his arms full of toys to scatter around the living room. By then I was getting ready to blow my top. I counted to a million (ok not really but I did count to 10 what seemed like a million times), then I put in my favorite show to watch (BBC's MI:5) and folded laundry. I would get Aaron to help me clean and motivate the lad to help with the cleaning.
Of course there were a couple of hours until that time so we spent it playing fly swatter baseball and chasing Orissa up and down the stairs. As you can tell the day was not wasted, the house didn't get sparkling clean but the kids were happy and I was only mildly frustrated. Then Aaron got home, and he seemed pretty confident that he could get the non-napper to help clean. After about fifteen fits he was far less upbeat about it. I had turned the whole motivation over to him whilst I made a yummy dinner of ham, cheese, egg and bacon sandwiches on homemade bread.
After the hearty meal I was re-energized and started to get the cleaning supplies for bathroom duty ready while Aaron got the vacuuming started. At first Javin seemed like he wanted to help with the vacuuming, that was until he saw me scrubbing the toilets.


There was a twinkle in his eyes and he took the scrubber from me and joyfully went about scrubbing the "CAN". He was completely fascinated with the whole process (I swear this is NOT the first time I have cleaned the bathroom, really, I'm not lying!).

He wanted to clean the sink and the floor and the countertops. Well, after all the trouble I had trying to get him to pick up his toys, I was overjoyed! The it came to the mirrors. I pulled out the foaming window cleaner and sprayed a smily face on it,and then stared cleaning. He LOVED it. He wanted so much to make the faces and clean the mirror. After the mirror he wanted more faces, he wanted to make the faces and he wanted to clean the faces. I was not about to let this moment pass me by. We cleaned every window in living room, some of them inside and out!

Finally my little man had decided to help and I soon forgot all the frustrations of earlier in the day. I still hold this truth (about small children) to be self evident, "God made children so stinkin' cute, so that in those frustrating times, we look at them and are so wrapped up by their cuteness that we just smile and shrug all else off instead of wanting to hang them from their toenails!!"

Let's Go for a Ride!

WordFul Wednesday
For his birthday, Mike and his family bought Javin a giant Tonka truck! He loves that thing, and when ever we go outside to play he runs to it very first. He fills that dump truck full of all sorts of thing, but lately his favorite load to push around is his sister. Orissa just giggles and Javin runs faster and faster. There have been a couple of spills, but no harm no foul. I love watching the kids play together. It is so fun to see Orissa old enough to play along with Javin and the cousins.
for more WordFul Wednesday you can visit Angie

After a long respite, I am back!

So, for you who used to come here expecting to read a silly story or see some pictures and hear what ever was on my mind....I am back! I have decided to open the blog back to everybody. I did take a while to come to that conclusion, but I realized I was just NOT having any fun writing without being able to participate in the photo story fridays and the wordless or wordfull wednesdays. I have also come to terms with a few things and had to do some soul searching and not to forget a LOT of praying. One of the major things that I came to realize is that Javin's biological father and his family are part of what makes up my precious boy. He should be able to get to know who they are and have some sort of relationship with them, and it doesn't necessarily have to take anything from my family, but add to it.
Some of you might be thinking, what it took you three years to figure that one out...a bit slow aren't ya? And some of you might be on the other side of this issue, but sufficeth to say I am happy with this realization, and it has brought peace into my heart.
So long live the open blog, and read on my friends, read on!

3 Years Old Already??

(This is Javin one day old with his cousins Kaelyn, Sidney and Nicole.)
(Javin when he had RSV not long after he came home.)
Why did it seem like the three years we were on the adoption waiting list took more like a hundred years, but here we are on Javin's third birthday and those three years have flown by way too fast? It seems like yesterday that we received the call that our baby boy was born and waiting for us to come and bring him home. I remember EVERYTHING about that day. I had gotten up at my usual wednesday time and had hopped on my motor scooter to ride to my shift at the temple. Half way through, the shift coordinator came and told me I needed to call my husband right away. I rushed to the changing room, turned my cell phone back on and saw that I had missed two calls, and it was only 7 in the morning. I completely ignored the messages and called home. To be honest, I was expecting the worst. All Aaron said was that we had a baby boy. (Javin was born on wednesday, he was suppose to come on friday, the birth mom had a induction date set.) I quickly changed into my street clothes and rode, home. I was so happy, tears of joy streamed down my cheeks and impaired my vision. I am still not sure how I made it home in one piece, but I did.
When I got home, we packed a bag and were on the road in less than a half hour. We were both on the cell phones calling everyone in the families and spreading our AWESOME news (incidentally our phone bill that month was oh, 200 more than usual!) We made the trip to the TriCities in record time. After arriving we had to play the waiting game. A few house after we got to the hospital, the social worker brought down pictures of our little boy, my heart physical hurt as I looked at his puffy eyes and swollen newborn face. At that moment the reality set, YES! he is my little boy. I was hooked, attached from that second on.
(Javin's first Birthday!)
(Javin at a year and a half, listening to the iPod.)
(Javin's second birthday...loves cake...yum yum!)
The process has been long and arduous, but I wouldn't trade the end results for any thing on earth. I was love at first sight for Aaron and I both. We have loved every minute of his life with us...even the sick, the stinkies, and the grouchy grumpies.
(Javin at a round 2 and a half playing in the water...his favorite place.)
Javin is such a sweet tender hearted little boy who teaches us new things all the time, as he grows so do we!
(This year's party! I made him his Mamo cake, aka Nemo. Boy was he a happy guy!)
(He had a bit of trouble blowing out the candles...even over heated his lips, got too close to the the candles!)
(I think we did a good job picking out his gift, he was all smiles from ear to ear!)

When the last straw has fallen and the camels back is breaking, what do you do? How do YOU react? Today has been that way for me. I have five kids that are ill or are just getting over being sick. They are cranky and tired and have decided that every item in the house is cause for a fight. I didn't even try to count the number of arguments and pushing matches that have broken out. I tried to take it all in stride. I tried to not freak out when 2 or three of them snuck into a bath room to fill the toilet with paper and toothpaste. I even tried to be calm while lunch broke out into a food fight. But now it is nap time. My time, the time where I am suppose to get to relax...read a book or watch a movie while I do laundry. Oh, but not today, today they have decided to try my patience to the very edge. I think they are looking to find where my "critical mass" is. I put the first one down, she was an easy one. Orissa likes nap time she likes to sleep. Yay, I thought to myself, one down and four to go. I made lunch for the rest,and one by one they got up from the table. In my house, the rule is: if you leave the table, you are ready for nap. I got number two down pretty easily too. She isn't feeling well, so nap was a welcome thing. Then on to number three. She went down a lot easier that she normally does. Woot! Three down and only two to go! Then I realized my first problem, I only had one room left for a napper and two nappers! Oh well, if I lay in the bed between them, they will fall asleep... was oozing with confidence. I had Javin all ready to go. He had taken himself potty while I was putting one of the girls down. I put him on one side of the bed, and the last girl on the other side. She isn't much for falling asleep on her own so she cried for about five minutes, and boom she was out! My heart was filled with joy! Only the little man to go. That is when my house of cards aka my confidence failed me. He fought me tooth and nail. He wasn't going to sleep, no way no how. I was starting to get grumpy when he began yelling at me. "Oh, please don't wake up the Bugs," I begged him. He got louder and more determined. He had found my boiling point and was stoking the fire. I carried him out to the living room and laid him on the couch, hoping with all of me, that he would just fall asleep. No such luck, he screamed, he yelled, and pushed and shoved. By this time all his noise woke up napper 3 and she was thinking she could be up too. I calmly, yet forcefully told her nap time wasn't over and she needed to go back to her room. She was less than happy with me, she stomped and she screamed she moaned and she yelled all the way up the stairs. well, the stomping and other noise woke up napper 4, and let me just say, man does she have a set of lungs on her. Oh joy, now more than half were up and yelling..the last straw had fallen, the pot was ready to boil over..what to do? Should I send myself to time out, count to ten, blast my ipod and ignore it all? All I really wanted to do was curl up in the fetal position and cry.
Instead, I went to each child, one at a time, laid them in their beds and told them it was still nap time. Some took more persuasion, others just need to cry themselves back to sleep(or in Javin's case to sleep for the first time). Kids are cute, God made them that was for a very good reason, so you don't want to murder them when they push you to the stops. As I write this, the frustration has already melted away, and I am left with the wonderful feeling of calm, and peace and QUIET! All is well, all is well! It is a wonderful thing to have a purpose in life and mother and sister and auntie are all wonderful purposes!