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)

Transition Time

ice cream and silliness

bike rides

hey jenny g-- doesn't he look good in orange and blue ;0

an update- long overdue

Summer has been so fun! The kids started school today so that means it's ending, I guess. When I was in middle school there was kind of a big debate about year round school. I remember feeling horrified at the thought, and doing an assignment that involved writing a persuasive argument about why or why not to have year round school. I have to say-- I still love the long weeks of summer!

With the start of the school year, Kevin and I feel like we are getting ready to dive into a new classroom too. Taye had his ABR (brain stem hearing test) last Friday. It confirmed that he had severe bilateral hearing loss. We were so thankful that the audiologist felt like she got a good reading -- we were ready to know what the situation was and move ahead. Also-- that the loss was labeled severe and not profound which is what we had originally been told. This means that there is a chance he will be able to hear with hearing aids. At this point we think he can hear very loud sounds-- a loud clap, a lawn mower. It was so hard to know for sure where he was b/c he is so smart! :) He can do some lip reading already-- go get your shoes, let's go outside, and is doing so well with signs!

We feel a little bit overwhelmed with all the options, opinions but are so lucky to live in a community that has some really great resources! We also love hearing other people's experiences and the route they have gone! So now I'm off to study.

One of my favorite things in Indiana...

lots of BLUEBERRIES! Even growing up in the neighboring state of IL.. no blueberries. Every summer we would bring a few large boxes home from my grandma's and enjoy them by the handful for a short time. I always wondered why we had to wait for a trip to Grandma's in July to get berries. The whole idea of where food came from and that there were more options than the local grocery was rather vague to me. Now that I live here and have actually seen blueberry bushes, I love getting to go pick berries and eat as many as you want. The kids love it too-- Taye doesn't really bother to pick them-- he either puts his really cute lips up to the plant and takes one right off or eats them out a other people's buckets.

side note-- I don't usually let him have a rope hanging around his neck-- it is actually attached to the bucket that you would, hypothetically, put the blueberries in. Still, not a great precedent but he WILL NOT be left out of doing anything that his sisters and brother are doing. What's a mom to do?

Pictures!

I need to do an update but it is so crazy around here that sometimes I don't have any coherent thoughts! For now here is a link to some really sweet pictures of Taye that my friend Andria took for us! She was so great!

With 8 kids and 4 adults here our house was really full last week! She arrived to take my little sister's senior pictures as I was returning from a run and at about the same time that a new therapist (for Taye's hearing) was supposed to arrive. While I was helping Marissa finish getting ready; Andria babysat Taye for me and snapped some amazing pictures-- what a great friend and photographer! Check these out!

http://www.lukeannandboys.blogspot.com/