The BIG trip

Yay!!! The beach is my favorite place in the world. It is one of the few places in the world I feel truly at home. This was our first whole day in Oceanside CA. It was a Sunday so we just walked up and down the amazingly beautiful beach.

We also walked down the pier.

And saw some pellicans (yes I was that close to it!)

This ws the next day. We spent the whole day just playing in the water and on the sand. Wow I wish we could live there. We were lucky our car broke down (sounds funny I know) We were going to go to Disneyland that day but it turned out to be the only really beautiful day we had there so thank goodness our car didn't work =)

Everyone was covered in sand.

I guess this explains why =)

Boy #6 thought that the sand was really tasty. Yum Yum! He ate a lot of it! Such a wonderful day!!!!!

Here are some pics of Disneyland. This is us waiting to go into the Tiki Room. I took the babies while the older ones went on Indiana Jones. I got to go on it later.

Here are the jedi training acadamy actors. They cancelled the show because of the rain but they still came out and took pictures with everyone. Did you know yesterday was Star Wars Day? May the force be with you!

Captain Eo!!!! I was so glad they brought it back and that we got to go with everyone. They all loved it even if it was just as cheesy as it was 20 years ago. I forgot that the seats shake and that it is so loud. It was a ton of fun. Of course we did all the other rides there I just didn't get pictures. =(

Here is Seaworld. We loved it! This is all of us watching the sea lion show which we got soaked watching because of a major downpour halfway through the show.

Here we are in front of the penguins.

Here is San Diego Zoo. The first thing we did was ride the tram.

And see the snakes... Have I ever told you I have a huge fear of them?

Isn't this neat? We were lucky to get many pictures like this because when we were there most of the animals were really active, probably because of the rain.

#2 Boy goofing off. There are so many more pictures but mostly of just animals.

Here is another night at disney.

#1 Boy missing his lady and texting her in the candy shop.

#1 Man looking more tired than I think I've ever seen him. Well we are home now and I'm missing the ocean again but I'm grateful we got to go. It was so fun!!!

Another eventful month

This picture is of our super fun trip to temple square with the whole clan. #1 Boy's girlfriend came up for a visit during her spring break and we had a ton of fun. She is so sweet and so much fun! Sorry the picture is so tiny.
Well, life for the past month... hmmm... I'm not sure how to describe it. I don't get a lot of sleep mainly because of babies and staying up late with my teenager but I'm happy. I love having him here. I definately appreciate my parents more now. Homeschooling is going well but I'm starting to slack. I am just not the kind of person who is diciplined enough to make the kids do their work. It sounds way more fun to watch a movie or go to the store or go outside (outside counts as PE time). I think we will try to do public school again next year. I love homeschool but I am not doing well at actually teaching them anything. Plus it seems that because I am so focused on the two homeschoolers I don't spend as much time with the other kids. I usually just put them in front of a movie.
We are planning a family trip to ..... Disneyland!!!! I can't wait. We decided to not spend all of our tax return on debt so we could go. We will be staying at a beach house near San Diego and driving around to do alot of fun stuff like going to the san diego zoo, Disneyland and maybe even sea world. I can't wait to see the ocean!!!!
We are diving back in to adoption. #1 man and I both felt that we still need to look at Ghana Africa so that is where we will go to find our little girl. We have been planning on adopting since 2006 so it is about time we did something about it. Wish us luck!
We were able to attend the Sun Morning Session of General Conference with our teenager. It was awesome being there with so many people. He is investigating the church so any prayers for him would be appreciated.
#6 Boy is walking. Yikes!
Well I don't have anymore news not that what I wrote already isn't enough. Hee Hee. I hope you are all well and life is good. I look forward to catching up on everyone's blogs that I haven't read in a month ;)

I'm back! (sort of)

Well I should learn that whenever you complain about being busy the Lord lets you know how busy you could be. My life has become a completely full time adventure! My sweet stepson has moved in with us full time. This is him with his cute girlfriend. I won't get into the details of why I'll just say that he and his mother need to be apart for awhile. Boy #3 has been doing home school along with my stepson which makes my day a non stop learning and teaching extravaganza! I am learning just as much as them. Between high school algebra and second grade history ( Romans! Cool!!!) I am getting a pretty good education myself.

We are going to live here for awhile I think. We need the space now. One room for school another for an extra person. Just a side note I have had to up our food budget again!! With all these people we eat so much! I have had to cook and clean like a feind in the evenings now instead of during the day. It's so crazy that I used to complain about cleaning when I had all day. I was just so lazy and I didn't even know it. Spaghetti, stroganoff, and roast with mashed potatoes have become weekly staples because I can cook a lot with little effort.

By the way it was my birthday on Sunday. I had a great day but I miss the big family parties I usually have. I miss being close to my families but there have been a few things recently that have made me think it is sure good that we are here. Boy #1 moving in for one. We have a great house with tons of space and he can be away from all the drama for awhile. My sweet sister can come here to visit her kids that live in SLC. That has been so fun for me and I hope for her too. I also think this job of #1 man's is teaching him so much. It's not always fun but he is definately learning how to deal with difficult people and circumstances.

Well I miss you all and hope to be able to visit soon. Have a stress free day and if you can send those stress free vibes my way. I need them!

Crazy is my companion

I thought my life was starting to calm down. We had decided not to move and just do foster care. So much for that plan. We now don't know if we are moving or not (limbo again :P) We are going to put off doing foster care for awhile at least until we know where we are going to be in the next couple of months. We will probably move into an appartment again which I am looking forward to. We need to get rid of the dogs but in order to do that we have to wait until Cleo has her puppies (yes she is pregnant again). I guess the only thing I can do about it all right now is just start organizing and getting rid of stuff.
Boy #2 has been playing the piano and is pretty good. He loves it a ton!! I just found some beginner books at DI. He zipped through them both the first day. I better find some more books. Boy #3 started playing the guitar. He loves it too but the book I have is a little over his head. I need to find one for kids. He really wants to play the drums. I wish I still knew someone who plays. We will have to get him something to start on. I must admit I like him playing the guitar better than the drums. Oh well. ;)
Hope everyone else has their life figured out. I'll let you know when mine is if we ever get there.

Boise trip ect.

Here are some highlights of our trip to Boise. Of course we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Yummmm!!!!!!


Then we had a party for #1 Man and boy #6 's birthdays. We went to Wahooz. I hate that name. I don't know why I didn't get pictures of everyone but oh well. I'm glad you all came. I had a great time. I know everyone else did too. This was on little man's actual birthday. We had a party complete with chinese food and cupcakes. It was a lot of fun.
I am missing Idaho today. I guess I am really missing my family and old friends. I'm glad I have your blogs to look at. It helps me feel like I've talked to you. Love you all.

Not moving after all

Well our landlord has changed his mind and decided he is not going to let us out of our lease. I'm not too sad about it. I didn't really want to move anyway. We were just trying to find a way to make ends meet. Oh well, We are going to be certified foster parents by next month so that will help... or kill me. Maybe I will sell some songs or #1 man will finish the book he is writing. We'll see.
We started our training for foster care Tues. night. It brought back a lot of memories. I'm suprised that people are so shocked by the behavior of some of the kids in protective custody. Yes poo becomes a tool to test boundaries. I guess because I've seen what abuse does to kids and what taking kids away from their parents does to kids I'm not suprised by the stories I hear. I'm not excited to clean more messes and repair damaged things but the classes remind me why the Lord needs families who are willing to go through something hard to better the lives of those who need help. These kids need to know what a healthy family looks like. Most have never seen one. I remember when we got our group of kids that were a part of our family for years. It was two weeks before Christmas. We were so excited to give them a nice Christmas. The look on their faces that morning was pure shock and disbeleif. I don't think they had ever had a proper Christmas. The memories I have from foster care are varried. Some were awful. Some I will carry around with me my whole life. You don't forget your brothers and sisters even if they aren't biologically or even legally yours. Now that I will be in the parent role instead of the sibling role I hope I am up to the challenge. I really can do hard things with the Lord.

Such a fun weekend!

Temple Square well actually the conference center. Can you tell how cold it was?

I sat right under this buffalo at Maddox on New Year's eve. I kept thinking I hope this is well secured to the wall. ;)

Here are the boys. They love Maddox! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

My sweet wonderful man enjoying his evening too!

My funny Daddy. I think maybe we were too hungry! Carnations don't taste so good.

My beautiful Mother holding up the menu. I don't always get the pictures to turn out with my phone. Sorry It's a little fuzzy.

We had such a great time this weekend. We went to Maddox for New Year's. The next day we went to temple square hoping to see the lights. No luck! We missed them by one night. Oh well. I love going to temple suare. The visitor's center is so neat with all the paintings and exibits. Dad got to see the Joseph Smith movie. He hadn't seen it yet. It's my favorite. We talked to some really cute sister missionaries. One was from Mongolia. We then had an adventure finding a place to eat on New Year's Day that wasn't closed. I wish the JSM building was open. Or the Lion House but alas we had to venture elsewhere to find food. Chillis is where we ended up after driving for awhile downtown. We were all still so full from our lunch at Floriberto's we didn't eat much. We mostly ate desert. Yumm!

The next day we ventured into Ogden to go to the Solomon Center. There we ate at Costa Vida while watching the indoor surfing. It was so funny to watch people try to surf for the first time. Most fall very hard. I guess I shouldn't laugh but it's really hard not to. Then we went upstairs to see the indoor skydiving. They put people in a huge wind tunnel and they can fly. It is so cool to watch. The instructor always does a little show at the end. That is the coolest part. Look it up and watch a video. It's called ifly. Then we went bowling at Fat Cat's. That was so fun but the kids were tired by about the sixth frame so we left early. To cheer them all up and get their sugar levels back up we went to Farr ice cream shop. So yummy and fun. It's a cute little old fachioned ice cream parlor. I love going there except that people come in waves. You can be sitting in a nice quiet parlor and then a rush of people come in all at once. Then it gets a little crazy. We got there during a little pocket of quiet.

Then we went home and rested up for a nice dinner in. We mad a wonderful rib roast. It was a little under cooked but still so good.

The next day we went to church ate lots of leftovers and then said goodbye to my sweet parents. It was so fun and great to see them. I was missing them a lot.

Well it's official we are moving probably by the first of February. Not sure where yet. We put an offer on a house that I love but we don't find out if we get it till tonight. People have been calling to come see this one though so I've had to start keeping it clean again. Yay! :( So easy with my crew. Acually it's not that bad. I am not excited about packing and moving again but I am looking forward to no longer being so tight with money. Well hope all is well in your lives. Have a memorable day!