Letters from Lexy

Among Lexy's take home papers yesterday I found these two letters to me :)  I'm thinking this first one was to butter me up for the second!!  But it made me smile :)

Lexy played with a Nerf bow and arrow at the Easter event that we went to and has been asking for one ever since.  "I could learn how to hunt"???? Haha   Also note the closing..."Love your safe and responsible child"!

I LOVE THAT GIRL!!

The weekend

On Friday Lexy and I had a girls night at the movies with Debbie and Avree.  We watched "Chimpanzee".  We did the Fork and Screen option for the first time too!  The food was yummy but it was hard to eat in the dark and it was more expensive than we would normally do but it was fun to change things up.

Brooke spent Friday night at World's of Fun having fun with her friends!

Brooke, Taryn, Marley and Lindsey

On Saturday, while Brooke was helping a friend get ready for her boyfriend's prom, Lexy, Mike and I enjoyed the local PIE carnival and then we volunteered at one of the games for the last hour.  Lexy was excited to get to hold this SNAKE while we were there!

First Prom

Brooke is attending her first prom tonight...AGAIN growing up too fast!  She was asked by a friend that she met through church (this prom is at a nearby school).  Brooke was nervous about not knowing many people there but excited to be going.  Brooke and Taryn got ready together and then when the boys picked them up they made the rounds for pictures before heading to the school for walk in, dinner, prom and after prom.

Not Ready

Today Brooke and I had our first real conversation about college and did some research together online.  After our talk I had a knot in my stomach and tears in my eyes...this Momma isn't ready to even be thinking about this!! :( I'm supposed to still have TWO YEARS!  But after doing our research, I'm learning fast that there is a lot to do (a lot sooner than I thought) and a lot to learn...I may need one of those "for dummies" books to even have a clue about the what, when, how and why of all this!  UGH can I just not let her grow up?

Adoption Update

Here is our current list.  Some of the others have foster parents/relatives that are now interested or had needs that were beyond our comfort zone. 

1.) Sib set of 5 (g-4, g-3, b-2, b-1, b-2 mos) - PRT set for May
2.) Sib set of 3 (b-3, g-2, g-almost 1) - PRT happening soon
3.) Single child (g-3) - PRT set for April
4.) Single child (g-1.5) - PRT happening soon
5.) Single child (b-4 mos) - PRT set for end of April

PRT (parental rights terminated) - after this happens it takes 4-8 weeks to get back the JE (court journal entry) and then a BIS (best interest staffing to choose a family) is set. **We were told that the BIS can now be scheduled before the JE is rec'd so hopefully that will speed up the process!

We were at first told that the Sib set of 5 was not going to be available due to the current foster home considering parenting all of them.  After being told that we were inquiring, the foster family said that they were glad b/c they feel that there needs to be a father figure.  We were asked at the end of last week to think about it over the weekend and figure out housing, finances, meeting needs, etc. for five more little ones.  After much thought we have decided to go forward with this.  We are still concerned that the foster family may get more attached before TPR (May 29th) and decide that they can't let them go or that there will be an appeal after TPR but we are trying to stay positive.

We will still look into the other children as well as they become available and decide what our hearts are telling us we should do.

Our Girls

SISTERS

SILLY

BROOKE

LEXY

Easter

We had a wonderful holiday this year.  On Saturday we took Lexy (Brooke was with a friend) to see the Easter Bunny she also got to enjoy two egg hunts and an Easter festival with games, face painting, balloons, etc at the mall.  We colored eggs TWICE this year too because that's what Lexy wanted to do!  Before bed Lexy made a card for the Easter Bunny and set that out with a carrot and water.

On Easter, Lexy was so excited that she woke Brooke up at 5am (Brooke made her lay down with her) then she woke me up at 6am (I made her lay down with me) then she finally got us all to get up about 7:15am.  The Easter Bunny had left a note and made a story scavenger hunt for the girls to find their baskets.

Then we headed up to Papa & Grammy's house for the day.  We had lots of yummy treats, dinner and it was so nice out that we played outside and even walked up to the nearby park to play.  It was a great family day and I got lots of great pictures outside!  We also celebrated Papa's 70th birthday while we were there!!

Kitty Whisperer

As I was fixing her snack last night, Lexy looked out into the backyard and noticed that there was a cat laying in the yard.  She asked if she could try to pet it.  I said yes but warned her that it was a stray/wild cat so it would probably just run from her. 

Well our little kitty whisperer not only got the one cat to come to her but also a second cat that was across the alley.  Not only did they come to her but one actually layed down and rolled over for Lexy to pet it's tummy and held onto her hand with it's paws so she wouldn't stop. :)

The weekend

Friday evening Brooke went on her first "girls night out" up to the city to watch a movie (Hunger Games) with her friends.  One of the other girls drove and I was nervous the entire time they were gone but they made it home safe and sound. :)  I sadly know she has to grow up and living in this small town means that part of growing up is driving to the city to do anything!

On Saturday we all spent the day shopping (we went in search for statues, etc. for our garden, we're decorating with gnomes this year :)  In the evening we rented movies and had a family movie night.

Sunday we did our normal cleaning and Lexy had Avree over to play for awhile.  Lexy's been having a hard time since we found out that we wouldn't be adopting the three kids.  She was really looking forward to having more kids at home to play with :(

Playing with waterbeads



Lexy's "bug" ice cream dessert