Oldies, but goodies

We have gotten some great snow storms lately! I don't really like it. The kids had 3 extra days off at halloween time, and they all missed their parties:(

Yesterday they were delayed and hour because it was too cold outside. We have had highs of 2 degrees lately. Today it is a whopping 26! It is supposed to warm up sometime.

That is Zack the snow is up to his knees.
This is the trail that the kids made to their friends house. I don't like having a split rail fence, but it is nice they can go to their friends house easily:) The kids have had a lot of fun going to their house and having the neighbors come to our house.
You are not seeing things Jesse is holding a dog! The kids have been begging to get a dog. Chase has been telling me all the things that I need to buy for the dog. I thought about getting one for them, but wondered if I could handle it. Someone from Rob's work offered to let us take her hypoallergenic does for a few days. The kids were so excited. Those poor dogs didn't get put down for a minute!









This little one had to take a nap a few hours after she arrived. She started to bark and snip at the kids if they touched her. You will notice that Zack is in none of the pictures. He didn't like them at all. Sadly I had to give them back after only 1 short day. My asthma started up. I they were not so hypoallergenic after all. I'm glad it was a lot of work and they pooed all over the play room floor MORE THAN ONCE!!!

Chase cried when we gave the dogs back! I felt so bad for him. Later after we got home I found more dog poop on the floor and was glad they were gone.Chase's class got to carve pumpkins. I was able to come and help out.

Pumpkin Patch

Wee took a quick trip up to Fort Collins. They have a big pumpkin patch that I wanted to go to. The kids at a fun time there, but it wasn't anything like the one we go to in Oregon.
We stayed at a hotel for a night. Mostly the kids just wanted to swim. Chase can now swim and the twins are so close.

I didn't get a good picture of Jess

Chase has to wear goggles he thinks that is why he floats:)


Jess wanted to wear the towel the way I do!This is inside the hotel room. Zack wanted to sleep inside the little closet.
The pumpkin patch





Riding on a hay ride. Too bad it was really straw.




We had a fun weekend. We ended it off with watch the new movie Astro boy. They all got scared during the movie.

HALLOWEEN

Okay finally I have halloween pictures. I was really afraid that it was going to be a very cold night, but it was just fine. We had so much snow the first of that week with school canceled for 3 days. Sadly Chase missed his school party.
The kids just had to walk over all the snow piles. Their feet were wet when we got home, but other than that they were warm.

The morning of Halloween we went to the rec center for some early trick or treating. We went with our neighbors. The kids had a lot of fun together and they got lots and lots of candy.




Here is the group before we went out for the night trick or treating.

Some good smoke! The kids were a little scared going up to the door.
This was our ward party that we had the day before Halloween. This is the parade of kids.

National Adoption Month

This month is National Adoption Month!

I was looking at a friend's blog about adoption and she encouraged us to share our feelings, blessings and testimony about adoption.

Sadly some people don't know that our son Zachary is adopted. Even though that wasn't what we had planned to do to start our family, it was such a wonderful experience. The waiting and wondering wasn't fun, but once we were chosen it has been a growing spiritual experience for Rob and I.

When Zack was 3 we got on the adoption list again. After a year of being on the waiting list we were given an opportunity to do IFV. I was content with adopting all of our kids, but the Lord had other plans for our family. After I gave birth to Chase I didn't feel more like a mom than I did after getting Zack. I have a special place in my heart for Zack (there are more than one reason for this also). He was my first child and made me a mom:) Sadly when we adopted we were in a semi-open adoption. We met his birth mom and wrote letters for the 1st 5 years, but haven't heard from her in almost 5 years now. At first I was glad to be done with communicating with her. I wanted to be his only mom, but now that time has past I am okay with sharing more about Zack with her. He has brought so many blessings to our family.

As I look back at how our family grew, I definitely wouldn't have chosen this path. It was a long and hard path, but now that I have my children I know that it was supposed to happen that way. I did grow in many ways and I have wonderful kids. I received many blessings in the past 10 years! I am so grateful for adoption. It is a wonderful blessing in my life!

The twins turn 4 years old

Time is sure flying! My babies are 4 years old. Taylor is such a crack up. A few weeks ago I had done her hair and she didn't like it. She looked in the mirror and said that it was adorable. I wondered why she was crying so I said if it is adorable then you like it. She said no it's adorable. Then I figured it out that she meant horrible! She has still made that mistake a few times again. Then today all the boys were wanting to play with Rob and she came up to me and said mom can we go shopping! It melted my heart:) I just love to shop and I am so glad that I will always have a great companion to go with. I remember me and my sister and mom going shopping together. We loved to get up early and fight the crowds the day after Thanksgiving. I hope to do that with Taylor some day. Not soon though!

Rob's parents came for a visit for the twins birthday it was a great time. They thought it was fun to have grandparents here. When I told them we were going to have grandma and grandpa Allen come they asked if it was the ones that we talk to on the computer:) My parents are on a mission in New Zealand and we talk to them all the time via Skpye. Zack will call them all the time on his own many times a day in fact:)
We went to build a bear and got them each a stuffed animal. Jesse got a black bear and named it beary. All his animals have a y at the end of their name. Taylor named her purple cat Edward. Not sure why she did that.
Giving the animals a bath.
Loading the stuffed animals with stuffing.




Picking out the sound that the animal will make!
Opening up presents.
Jesse didn't want to let these presents go even though he had more to open.

Taylor found her sun glasses and would not take them off. I got this picture just as she was looking into her purse. she got lip gloss and fingernail polish. She was so excited she screamed!
She got some close for her cat.
Grandma and Grandpa Allen


Our neighbor came for the cake and ice cream.
Taylor's hair was so close to the flame!