I Ran!!

Bionic Noel is doing another sprint marathon. She asked if Carlos & I wanted to join her. It's in May, this was December, it seemed so doable. I dunno if Carlos is still "in" or not, but I've started my training.

I have zero desire to finish with any kind of respectable time in this thing. My only concern is to finish. As such, I thought I'd push myself and at least TRY to run. So I ran a 1/2 mile at the gym the other day. It wasn't bad. I didn't pee which was fab-u-lous and didn't have a heart attack (another perk). I don't even care if I don't run the 3 miles, just so I do some of it and complete the race.

If I ever get skinny and become addicted to sprints (which I could actually see happening, really) I'll worry about improving my times. But I am just excited to be training again and to do this with Noel. Granted, she'll have finished, gotten a pedicure, showered, put in an 8 hour shift at work, and washed my car when I cross the finish line but it's all good right?!

Wish me luck!!

Tender Mercies

Mason and I were talking about "mommie Ana" the other day. I make it a point to bring her up quite often to him. He remembers quite a bit of life with her and I feel that a lot of his feelings about himself have resulted from his time with her. I want normalize his life as much as possible and let him know that he can talk to us about anything in regards to her, us, adoption, etc.

I was commenting on how gorgeous of a child I think he is. I pointed out that his gets his hair and eye color from Ana. He looked at me aburptly and said, "No, I don't." I told him that he does. He has lighter skin like her and gorgeous brown eyes and hair like her. He denied it again with just as much fervor.

I asked if he remembered what Ana looked liked. And he replied, "Yes, she had yellow hair but I don't have yellow hair like her." I asked what color her eyes were. "They are blue like yours mom."

I was stunned. My first thought was, "Oh my gosh, I need to get a picture of Ana. He is forgetting what she looks like. He can't forget where he has come from!"

And then I was like, "Wait a minute. He thinks I am his mom. He is remembering only me as the face, the hair, the eyes that have loved him." Call me selfish (because I am VERY selfish, a lot) but for now, I am going to just marinate in the sweetness that I am his pulse to his world.

Thank you Macey-baby. I LOVE being your mommie, forever.

meeting cyrus

oops, we did it again! this fostering thing is a great system of supply & demand. so... meet cyrus. he is 8 months old and is gradually adjusting to our family. you can't really tell but, he's a quarter african-american and the rest hispanic.
he's nice and chubby - just how jen likes 'em. we got a call sunday afternoon after having him for only 2 weeks and guess what? his mother signed away her parental rights making him available for adoption! how cow, an adoption dream.

carlos and i are teetering right now. i guess its all happened so fast and we want to make sure that this is the right choice for every person involved in our home and family. we'll definitely keep you all posted.

once again though i am amazed, humbled, and grateful for this institution of adoption. i just don't know how to articulate how wonderful and amazing it is. having carried and birthed children of my own and then adopting pear and mace there are definite differences (mostly stretch marks) but in some ways adoption is more magical and precious to me. i guess because i am being given another person's child. ever so humbling and the ultimate gift ever. hopefully i'll be able to articulate how i feel about it all some day. but honestly, i really think every decent, married couple should adopt. it is just magical.

account-a-cute-a-bee

Cora had dish duty and didn't know where the mixing bowl went. I'm loving her note to dad!

this little cutie had left the vance home after a year with them in foster care. little desi is a pistol and a half. she was such a joy to be around. i know she won't stay with her parents permanently. she'll be bounced around again. it's a very imperfect system but she was loved and safe for a whole year of her life. and that was a blessing.

candy cane lane

so i've got this friend...we'll call her diane carpenter to protect her identity. she and i have a mutual friend who we'll call amy lewis. i stopped by amy's house one day in december and noticed her driveway cutely decorated with candy canes. my eyes followed the festive line of red and white and then stopped. the last 3 candy canes were totally destroyed. the line was ruined. pieces of plastic and wood were scattered about. i asked amy, "what the *h* amy?!" she sweetly told me that diane ran them over the other day with her car. i saw an opportunity folks. so i snipped off the killed canes, boxed them up all purdy-like, and gave the gift to diane stating that it "was from my heart".
a few nights later we get a doorbell ditch in the evening. i find broken candy canes, the remainder of amy's dead cane lane and....

this lovely message written in festive candy cane font. i do so enjoy funny friends. thanks amy and diane for the good laugh.

calorie swap

pruetts introduced us to the raw tortillas from costco. freak'n addictive and just so yummy. i found them the other day. i hate you pruetts for the introduction. it'll be a toxic relationship.

to return the favor...i thought i'd introduce you to the peanut butter snicker square (also available at cost co). i hope it proves to be lethal for your waistline davey.

love you both.

Princess & the Frog

girl movie night. carlos took the boys to a hockey game so we girlified the house. princess and the frog was the movie.

in attendance where cora, perry, desi, kaira, brynlee, emily, lena, madison, natalie, and savannah. it was a lovely evening. most were captivated.

perry and cora even made cute invitations to invite their friends over with. they had a great time cutting and coloring. carlos and i love how wonky perry's invites looked - so cute!

girlie runner

so i saw this idea on a blog and just fell in love with it. a table runner made out of doilies. i enlisted the help of shay and mama because they are crazy thrifters and knew their areas of the country are awesome for other people's crap. this squarish one is my favorite and they found it somewhere in central california.

i went to visit shay in cali (while mama was there) and we hit a consignment shop. i happened to speak with the owner about the project i was working on. she had several doilies throughout the shop to display things on. she ran around the store, collected them all, and gave me about 8 for ten bucks. they were all different shapes, sizes and colors.

now you know my fancy, white trash crafting skills. i tied each doilie together with waxed dental floss. SOOOOO much better than thread because it was sort of stiff and easy to work with. sometimes i am crafting genius.

p.s. yes, my house is always this clean and put together. if you know me, then you know how i roll.

simple addition

1 package of stickers + 1 4-year old daughter + 1 large canvas =
solution: stickie daddy

Besties

this is a weird looking picture of the girls. lena looks like she's 3 years old and cora looks like a freak giant. these two are kinda besties. they are inseparable at school despite lourdes best efforts to keep them apart. ha, ha! they are both sweet, good girls. but don't underestimate their power for evil. i'm quite sure they will "cover" for each other throughout their whole adolescents.

sunshine girl - your smile makes everyone smile too - you've got a great mug

p.s. i love your chocolate skin

oh, my little divas...how i love you both. perry, you shook your bootie tonite like a hormone-ridden teen at a dance club. i laughed so hard. it felt wonderful. you've got a black gene fo' sho'. cora, you are always so feminine and proper. you want to always be pretty and girlie. i adore that about you. you both are super fun to have around. and you aren't stinky and gross like your brothers. thank you.

Fire Days

look at this darling mug! perry had a field trip at school. amusing because the fire station is like an 1/8 of a mile from her school but they still had to charter a school bus to take them there. perry was in her element.
the firemen gave the kids the grand tour. they climbed all over their truck and got to handle some tools or weapons as perry referred to them. i have not so secret crushes on all firemen. it's pretty ridiculous and intense. carlos wanted to be a firemen when he was younger. um, he would be SO HOT in firemen gear.

the class got to destroy the fire stations work out room.

the men put on their breathing gear and let the kids try them out. the mask creates a powerful suction to the face obviously. the breathing is quite loud and a little freaky to hear.

perry was braver than brave of course. some of my kids are just fearless. is it fearless or just uninhibited? not sure really.

class shot. dear firemen, i really do love you. don't tell my hubs.

Blue Bell Creamery

Betcha didn't know that I worked at the BYU Creamery for 2 years in college. It was my BEST college job. So fun watching ice cream, cheese, whey, cottage cheese, etc. being made. And all the employees were the funnest group to work with.
I think that's why I wanted to take my chillwrens to the Blue Bell one. It was pretty lame though. Our tour guide blew through our tour. Fortunately, I knew what most of the machines did so I gave the chillwrens my own tour.

It felt a little willie-wonkaish. No indoor photography and some top secret signs posted here and there. Really? It's just ice cream. We aren't launching nuclear warheads.

Our tokens to begin our tour. I wanted to keep them as souvenirs. No deal though.

The tower of ice cream power. We got to sample several flavors. Cristian loved Snickerdoodle. I loved Pumpkin Spiced Praline (or something like that).

The chillwrens posing with the milk maid. It was a fun little field trip for the kiddies and mommie.

SAY WHAT?!?

This one left me laughing.

The kids are in various stages of preparing for bed. Perry was using the potty and Cora had on her jammies and was brushing her hair with her Little Mermaid brush.

Cora waltzes into my room, dramatically brushing her hair and announces, "She scares me."

"She scares you?! Who scares you?"

"Perry. She goes to the bathroom and then leaves without washing her hands. Disgusting. So I tell her to go wash. So now she went back in there and is washing her hands!" (It was actually a long run-on sentence from her.)

"Um, I see," I respond vaguely.

"Mom, she is just disgusting - in an unlady-like way!"

THAT would be what I'm deal'n with here folks!

I love this little chocolate face. Look at those chubby fingers and heavy cheeks. So glad I have beautiful babies. Some people get ugly ones. Just say'n.

Movie Nite

I was kinda ridiculously excited for "How to Train Your Dragon" to be available for purchase. We sent out invites for a movie nite. Each child got to invite a friend or two. Here's Mace & Ian. They both are stink'n handsome boys. Just say'n.

Cora had Lena & Maddie over. Maddie didn't want her picture taken though. Cute girls right?

We had everyone come in their jammies and bring pillows. Carlos was on some serious popcorn patrol. They all ate bags and bags of the stuff. I was in charge of the candy tray. Go figure. Here's Perry with darling Brynnlee. I love these two together. They are girls all the way!

The stinky back section of the theater. Bug, Logan, and Shane. I do adore these boys immensely. This is the picture that will be hilarious to them in about 10 years. I'm planning on their freindship to last a lot longer than that.

It was a fun evening. I love having my babies and their friends over to create lasting memories.

california lov'n

my visit to seaside, ca to visit shay & the new babe paisley wanted two different shoes at the park. she loved the swing
i took kavers out to mexican food because that's what you do everyday in california. i had such a good meal. it's what i miss about cali the most. we ate at "la tortuga". fabulous.

this little girl is such a sweetheart. she's work'n a wedgie here.

for reals.she.is.so.beautiful.

love her freckled cheekbone

kavers - the pistol. he is a riot. currently loves orange.

baby cater. lovely bundle of chubs.

getting paisley girl up from her nap.

comatose daddy. making babies is hard work. take 5 davie.

love & miss you pruetts

mummy pizza

one of our nods to halloween came in the form of homemade pizza the evening of cora's 8th birthday. mason was totally against the olives since he finds them "hideous" (his new favorite word which he uses correctly so i don't mind it as much). but i showed him an eyeless mummy and it just wasn't cool. i think he actually ate 2 eyes worth.

just being objective here, but isn't my boy just too handsome for words? i have really lucked out - both my boys are hunky in their own ways. they will both be very handsome men. i hope their wives appreciate our DNA contributions and my stellar grooming skills.

the older two, in deep concentration.