Adoption Update

Today we asked our adoption worker to submit our homestudy on a sibling group of three (4 yo girl, 2 yo boy, almost 1 yo girl).  These kiddos are from another state so I'm not sure how the process will go or if we will even hear anything back but something really tugged at me to submit our homestudy.

I'm thinking we should hear soon about two best interest staffings (BIS) that we are supposed to be included in here in our state...the twin boys (3.5)/little girl (2) sib set and the boy (3.5)/girl (2.5) sib set.  Both cases should be getting close to scheduling the staffings to decide on a family.  In both cases there are relatives/foster parents interested so we're not holding our breath but we are very interested to hear what is decided.

This process is SO exhausting but I know it will be SO worth it when we have our little ones home with us...whoever those little ones are!  As a family we talk about adding more kids often, last night Lexy said "boy this is a lot harder than adopting a dog huh?!...all we had to do to get Rex is see his picture, know he was the one for us and we just got him." 

Yeah I wish it were that easy :-)

The Weekend

We got our first glimpse of what our life will be for the next couple of months when on Friday we went to watch Brooke cheer for the first football scrimmage of the year.  The cheer squad did a great job!  After the scrimmage the cheerleaders put on the first dance of the year.

On Saturday, for family fun, we went out to the Drive In once again (this will probably be our last time of the season).  I absolutely love that we live someplace with such simple old-time family fun!  This time Brooke brought her friend Lindsey and we watched Cats & Dogs, Revenge of Kitty Galore and Ramona & Beezus.  Lexy wanted so badly to stay up for the second movie (even though the girls and I had already seen it) but about 15 min. in she was out!

Yummy Banana Bread Breakfast

One of the things that I do to try to keep the stress & crazies from our morning routine is to have breakfast items in the freezer ready to defrost and quickly eat.  I usually have waffles, pancakes, homemade french toast sticks, etc. in the freezer.  Yesterday I saw this recipe for banana bread on one of my favorite blogs, Who Says Eight is Enough, thanks Debi!  I thought if I used my Perfect Brownie Pan (I absolutely love this thing) that I could freeze the little squares and they could be defrosted one or two at a time for breakfast. 

My Favorite Banana Bread

Ingredients
1/2 c. unsalted butter (I have replaced this MANY times with 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce)
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour, sifted
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 c. ripe bananas, mashed (about 5)
2/3 c. nuts, chopped (optional)
(I have also substituted chocolate chips, or coconut & dried pineapple)

Preheat oven to 325.
Grease a 2 qt. loaf pan or two 2lb. loaf pans*
In a large bowl, cream butter & sugar. Add eggs, vanilla & bananas. Blend well.
Beat in remaining ingredients.
Pour into loaf pan.
Bake 1 hour & 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove from pan while still warm.
Cool before slicing.

The only things I did differently to this recipe was that I didn't use nuts but I did put about 3/4 c. mini choc. chips in.  I also used the Perfect Brownie Pan and a 9x9 square pan instead of two loaf pans.  I cooked mine for about 28 min.   For freezing I just let the bread cool then put the individual squares into a gallon ziptop bag and threw in the freezer.

You could also do muffins and cook for 15 - 20 min
All my recipes can be found on my dinner blog, click here to go there.

Sprinkler

After hearing that the temps were going to cool down a bit (thank goodness!), I decided we better get the sprinkler out for the last (OK so this was also the first) time of the summer.  Lexy LOVED it and even Brooke and her friend Cassie had a little fun in the sprinkler after they went for their walk/run.

Lexy

Friday evening Lexy decided to have a tea party.  Everyone was invited but Brooke and I were both doing things on the laptops.  After Daddy joined her party, Lexy told Brooke and I "please come to my tea party...there's free WIFI available"  LOL I don't know where in the world she heard that (probably TV) but it sounded so darn cute coming out of her mouth...and I did join the party!! 

Saturday Brooke, Lexy and I went to the Kidsfest (Mike went to a movie w/a friend).  Lexy has always had a facination with people dressed as characters and this event was no exception, she had to have a picture with each one!

I wanted to also update on Lexy.  After doing an EKG, x-ray and doing blood work to check for anemia, we went back to the doctor last week for a recheck and the doctor said that all the tests came back perfect and his evaluation of her heart that day showed that her murmer was back to just a slight soft murmer.  So no more tests and no cardiologist appointments necessary!

1st Week Fashion Show

When reading about traditions of other families, I came across an idea to take pictures each morning for the first week of school to document the "fashions" of that year.  Here's Brooke & Lexy's Fashion Show...

More summer fun!

I posted about some of our summer 2010 fun but there was much more fun had by our family this summer, here's proof...

We enjoyed trips to the mall, shopping, movies, parks, the drive in, Jumping Jax, Chuck E. Cheese, ice cream trips, Zonkers, Farmstead, bowling, swimming and more!  I love making these memories with my girls!

1st Day Traditions

Here are some of our back to school traditions...

• 
  
  New 1st day of school outfit
• Pictures with signs
• Homemade breakfast (muffins & sausage this year)
• Special snack (homemade oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies)
• Favorite Dinner (homemade spaghetti, buttered toast and strawberries)
• 1st Day of School dessert (brownies this year)

First Day of School!!

The morning went very well, no hurrying, arguing or back talk!!  Brooke woke herself up early and was done getting ready by the time I woke up.  While I fixed muffins, sausage and apple juice for breakfast, Brooke woke Lexy up.  Lexy got up and got herself dressed and then asked Brooke to do her hair, which she did without any arguing between them :-)  While I got ready Brooke and Lexy sat and ate breakfast together...

After breakfast we took pictures and headed off to school, ON TIME!! 

The big 1st Grader!!!!

The High School Freshman!!!

Brooke got dropped off first and then Lexy and I went to her school. Lexy decided last night that she DID want me to walk in with her this morning but had to make sure before we got out of the car that other mommy's were going in :-) She was a little nervous but excited to be there and no tears were shed!

Now I'm sitting in a very quiet house planning our 1st day of school dinner :-)

Where did summer go???

(official first day pictures to come on Monday)

I'm officially the mother of a high school student...and I don't like that feeling!!  Brooke's growing up WAY too fast.  Today was an all day orientation for freshman, everyone else starts school on Monday.  The day started off with having to get up way too early, I'm still on summer time :-)  We had to be at the high school for a student/parent meeting at 8am where I was informed by Brooke that I was not to raise my hand and ask any questions (one of her friends' parents did and got the glare of death from her daughter!).

After the meeting, Lexy and I left Brooke at the high school and went to Lexy's school to meet her teacher and drop off her supplies.  Her teacher this year is a friend of mine and Lexy really likes her so I think it will be a good year.  Plus her teacher had chocolate bars on the desks for the students, nothing like a little bribery :-)  Lexy told me that she didn't need me to walk her into school on Monday morning, her exact words were  "I'm six years old you know!".  Ugh I need some more little ones!!!

Speaking of little ones...We have gotten two new profiles to consider (from our worker). 

The first is for a boy (3.5 yrs) and girl (2.5 yrs).  These two are real cuties.  They have minor issues (tantrums, asthma etc.).  There may be a relative interested.  We told our worker we are interested.

The second is for two boys (4 and 3).  No picture.  They both have some pretty severe existing medical/developmental issues.  We told our worker that two with that severe of issues is just more than our family wants to tackle at this time.

So at least we're getting profiles to consider.  Hopefully soon we'll have some little ones in the house again!!

Cheer, more tests and an inquiry

Yesterday and today, Brooke and her high school cheer squad are putting on a Little Girls Cheer Camp.  At first Lexy said she didn't want to go but then she changed her mind so I took her yesterday morning.  About half way into it I noticed things going downhill (look at the looks on Brooke's and Lexy's faces).  Lexy came up to me and said that she DOES NOT want to cheer.  Because I had already paid the $15 I made her sit and watch the rest of the practice yesterday but I couldn't bring myself to make her sit through it again today.  Lexy just isn't going to be the cheerleading type no matter how much Brooke wants her to be :-)

After cheer camp yesterrday I had to take Lexy back to the hospital to have blood drawn to check for anemia.  The drs office had called on Wed. and said that while the other tests (EKG/x-ray) came back normal, they still want to look into the murmur that the dr. heard.  Lexy was scared about getting her blood drawn even though I'm always truthful and had told her that it would be a small pinch but no pain.  She fought us at first but then after it was all done she smiled and said "that wasn't bad", goofy girl!

Strangest thing...yesterday afternoon I found a sibling set of two sisters (4 &2) on another states website.  After having Mike and Brooke look at them I made an inquiry to get more information about them.  When I went back on the site later in the evening they were gone and still are this morning!  They had just been put on the site on Wed. so I don't know if they had just gotten a lot of responses and were overwhelmed, had already found a family or something changed in the case and they are no longer available.  I guess we just wait and see if we are contacted about them.  STILL no new profiles from our state! :(

All is well for now!

I called the doctor's office this afternoon to find out the results of Lexy's EKG and chest x-ray.  The nurse that I spoke to said that the doctor reviewed both and found nothing abnormal, yay!!!  However the doctor does want to see Lexy again after she gets over this sickness that she has so that he can reexamine her to see if he feels that he needs to send her for an echo cardiogram or not.

My Girls

I noticed, looking back, that I haven't mentioned Brooke or put any pictures of her lately...that's because she's hardly been home!!! It's definitely been different this summer, being a teen and starting high school definitely comes with lots of changes and things to do :-) She's been working (at Uncle Bill's concession stand), taking driver's ed, going to cheer practices, spending time up at Grammy & Papa's, shopping with Maamaw (or anyone else that will take her :-), and hanging out with lots of friends. Even her friendships have changed this summer, sadly her best friend of 8 years decided earlier this year to start pulling away from Brooke and after holding on for several months, Brooke finally decided that she was tired of being treated badly and working single handed to keep the friendship together so she chose to move on and focus on some other friendships. Definitely a stressful time but I've been very proud of Brooke this summer, I have witnessed her growing into a very responsible, strong, thoughtful and mature young lady...someone I'm proud to call my daughter. She's still a teen girl and likes to give this mama a hard time and test her limits but even that is easier to look past when I see her on the right track!

After being gone for most of the week working and spending time with friends, Brooke came home yesterday and spent a great deal of the day playing with Lexy (who has no voice right now). Lexy loved having her big sister home to spend time with...


The "family" they were playing with had 10 kids!!! Are they trying to tell us something? :-)