Fun at Grandma's!!

What is it about swings that bring out the pure joy in kids? The kids love the swingset in Grandma's backyard. Landon especially loves to swing. It is really good for his sensory issues. Speaking of Landon, check out his hairline on the last picture. My little bald man!!!

Pocatello Zoo

We had a fun day at the zoo! It was the perfect size for kids. The group picture was the best I could do. Someday I WILL get a good shot of all 4 kids!! We are having fun in Pocatello!!

Home Improvement!!

We have been busy working on our new house. We flew my step-dad out and put him to work on lots of home improvement projects! Here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

First of all were the kitchen appliances. As you can tell, they were really ugly. I didn't get a picture of the dishwasher before, but it was super ugly too. We brought our stainless steel fridge with us, so now everything is matchy matchy!!

Next was this crazy wasted space we had. I also didn't get a picture of this before, but you can tell about how big it was. We opened up underneath the stairs and were hoping to make a huge pantry, but the way the stairs were framed, it would've taken a very long time to make it usable. So instead, we were able to get a very small section underneath the stairs that we will use as Landon's chill out room. He really likes enclosed spaces. Now he can open our new pantry door and crawl through his secret door and into his little room. There is a light in there and it is about 10 feet tall. We need to get some carpet in there and we will put up a little curtain over the door of his little clubhouse.

Next came Presley's room. At first it was a loft that we really didn't use since we use the formal dining room downstairs as a playroom. Now Presley has a new room. We still have to put on door knobs, paint, and finish above her closet, but she is loving her new room and Kendall is really happy to have her out of her room!!

We also put a door on our master bathroom, which I don't have a picture of. When you were in our shower and the bedroom door was open, you could look straight down the hallway!! HELLO!!!

Our favorite project of all has been our yard!! It was full of weeds and now we LOVE it. Along the fence you can see 5 small fruit trees. We have a plum, granny smith apple, peach, cherry, and mandarin orange!! They are teeny trees, but our peach tree already has little peaches on it. I can't wait until we have lots of fruit!! We can't walk on our yard for 3 weeks, but soon we will set up our new trampoline and buy a play structure!! Next up, we hope, is new carpet. Boy is our carpet a mess!!!!

Here is cute Landon helping grandpa. He loved watching the construction and liked to help whenever he could!!

When you are upstairs and look out the big windows and over the freeway, this is what you see. Cows!! That is an environmentally protected area, so nothing will ever be built over there.

Presley is 3!!!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Presley! I can't believe our baby is 3! She is growing up so fast. She now weighs 36 pounds, wears a size 4T-5T and size 10 shoe! She still loves to eat. She has become quite the comedian and loves to make silly faces. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. On this day our thoughts always turn to her China mommy. We wish she could see a glimpse of the beautiful girl that she gave life to. I'm sure she would love to know that the little girl that was born with a cleft without much opportunity has been given all that she could imagine for her precious child! I'm sure she would cry many happy tears if she could only know what good things have happened to her baby girl. Sweet Presley we love you so much!! Happy Birthday to our precious gift from China.

My orphan no more!!

The other day I looked at Presley and thought "She looks like an orphan" and of course I immediately realized the irony. She had messy bed head still and a chocolate covered face. Once she was an orphan. Now she has a family that not only gives her chocolate, but cleans it off her face and styles her hair into those adorable pigtails! Doesn't every child deserve this kind of a life?? Doesn't every family deserve to have a Presley in their lives??

Date night!!

Last night it was our turn hosting date night. The weather has been beautiful and the kids had a great time playing outside in our "weed garden." We are hoping within the next month to get grass, a play structure, and trampoline. But the kids still had a great time, weeds and all!

What a night!!

We had quite the interesting night last night. Landon has been really sick the last couple of days with a horrible cough and an on and off fever. I called the nurse and they didn't have any more appointments available yesterday, but said we should get a call on Sunday morning for a possible appointment. Presley has been sick, but as of yesterday morning had no fever. Within about a 10 minute time period she went downhill developing a fever and an obvious ear infection. So we had both babies crying because they were so sick and we decided to take them to the Emergency Room. We have Kaiser and the closest hospital is not in a great part of Sacramento. So we loaded up all the kids and drove over there. By the time we got there, they were feeling better and just enjoying being out. So we decided not to take them to the icky ER and spend $150 and to just wait until tomorrow. So we went out to eat at a yummy Hawaiian BBQ place close to the hospital. The babies actually did pretty good considering how sick they were.

We got back in the car and went to a light to turn left. On the other side of the road there was a car pulled over by two police cars. As we pulled to a stop in the left hand turn lane, they were right there only about 5 feet from us. They had a guy out of the car and were backing him up. Two police had their guns drawn about 6 inches from the guy's head!! There was a policewoman there with the dog that was barking like crazy and she was ready to let the dog go if she had to. It was crazy and we were so close!! Carson even asked "Why did that guy go like this (putting his hands behind his head)?" We were happy to get back to Elk Grove and back home!!

The babies actually slept pretty good last night. Presley crawled into bed with us at about 2, but slept the rest of the night. It is 5:30 now and Landon has been coughing for about 30 minutes, but is still asleep. Hopefully we can get them in today and make sure they don't have anything more serious!!