New Sister; New Nephew

Little Clive Denver Riley. Born in Doha, Qatar on September 26th to Ryan and Betsy. I love this picture because he looks a lot like our girls in it. So precious!

Ashley- my new sister, married my little brother Harold on Sept. 26th. She is so great and it was a very memorable day! :)

Bella and my niece Emrie-- sweet flower girls waiting with their daddies

Brecken and Cade-- they look innocent here but watch out!

Taye looked so handsome! He loved all the excitement!

overnight stay

Some girl time at the American Girl Store

Some boy time at the Lego Store

Taye had some Grandma and Grandpa time this weekend.

The first time that we left him overnight! He did great. We missed him so much but it was good to have some focused time with the older kids for 24 hours. I posted the "store" pictures but the time together was so much more than that-- getting eye to eye with each of them and being able to give them our full attention was great. Leaving your children after adoption seems like a controversial topic with a lot of strong opinions. Our social worker had suggested that it would be wise to occasionally leave Taye with another family member. Especially if the plans were not conducive to taking a two year old with you. For our family right now, this was a good suggestion, We had a lot of fun but were so glad to all be back together-- there was no doubt that someone was missing with out that little sweetie!

btw- I think Taye had a great time. He is sitting here looking at the picture with a huge smile doing the sign for grandma and waving excitedly! Thanks Mom G!!!

Firsts--

Taye's first time at a birthday party-- a really great one too-- complete with a bounce around, a ride around town on the Boilermaker Special waving at complete strangers (one of his favorite things), and cupcakes with a ridiculous amount of frosting. His shirt is actually white again thanks to bleach!



Bella started ballet-- a long awaited event! She LOVES it! I LOVE it! :)

Taye watching the girls dance(siblings are not allowed in the dance studio). I love his shirt, even if Kevin thinks it is a little too 80's. $4.50 at TCP

Just some of the fun things going on here this week.

Of course there are some not so fun things like a 2 year old who wants to constantly test you to see if no still means no. Or maybe, kids that come for dinner COVERED in dirt while wearing brand new school clothes and on the day that the bath tub was cleaned and floors were mopped of course. They act offended that I was annoyed with them-- "well moooom, we were having so much fun throwing dirt and then it is ruined because we got in trouble." Too bad, at least change your clothes next time.:) It is all good now-- Daddy put them to bed and tomorrow is a new day!

It's Official!

Yesterday was a huge day! I feel like that is the only time I have been posting lately-- hopefully I can get back to some regular stuff.

Taye had molds made for his first set of hearing aids. We should have them by the end of the month. He did great and of course totally charmed the audiologist and student we were working with, as well as several other people on campus. He waves and smiles at everyone and loves to "talk" to people. We don't have high hopes that the aids will help enough but of course we will be thrilled if they do! In the mean time-- his personality, signs, and vocalizations make him quite good at getting his point across and making friends. That afternoon we went to the court house to complete our re adoption and officially change his name! The judge was really nice and the kids loved being part of it. Our lawyer was great!!!-- Thanks Stu! I actually got tears in my eyes as the judge was making his comments and then finalizing the adoption. It felt like the end of a long and life changing process, but the start of this new journey we would have never guessed!

After we were finished at the courthouse, the kids decided that the afternoon was much to special to go back to school, unfortunately Kevin did have to go back to the office. We had a great time at a little zoo and playing at the park! This goat looks really nice-- until it started to eat my red skirt-- seriously! Then, it started to eat Kait's blue dress and Bella started to get really freaked out! We quickly moved on to the animals that are enclosed!

They were so tired! They managed to get the energy to walk to the ice cream store for drinks and cones and then it was home for baths. We actually got them to bed at 7:45 that night -- which never happens but was so nice!!!! (I think I might try for that again tonight)