Monday, July 30, 2012

Summer - weeks 8, 9 and 10 (continued)

We also have enjoyed...

Jumping Jax - Lexy and her friend Jaidyn had a great time bouncing around on the inflatables and going on the zipline...

Bowling - Daddy, Mommy and Lexy played a couple of games  (Lexy beat us fair and square on the 2nd game!)...

Legoland - A little expensive and we had to wait outside in over 100 degree heat for over an hour but Lexy really enjoyed it!...

Roller Skating - Lexy and Avree were both wore out by the end of the two hours...

Swimming - Lexy and Jaidyn...

Midwest Kid Fest...

And LOTS more that we didn't get pictures of!!!

Weeks 8, 9 and 10

Opps I got a little behind while focusing on having fun and enjoying the summer :)  So in no particular order, this is what we've been up to...

Spending time together...

Taking a weekend trip to the Lake of the Ozarks and staying in a real caboose (pictures to come).

Sister time - Lexy allowed Brooke to pick her outfit and do her hair for the day...

Lexy learning to do dishes (she begged to help but only lasted about half way through before the novelty wore off!)...

Lexy pretending to be a puppy...

Flarp fail - we attempted to make flarp again this year but something went terribly wrong and it turned out to be a mess...we'll be attempting this again soon...

Playdough play...

Slushy magic - Lexy wanted this as seen on tv item really bad - she earned it by helping mom do the grocery shopping...

Making Shrinky Dinks for the first time...

Lexy relaxing with Rex...

Playing in the rain (this was a novelty since we haven't seen rain in FOREVER!)...

More to come...

Monday, July 9, 2012

Summer- Week 7

This week we...

Made smoothies (we've been making lots of these)...

Went swimming, Lexy's friend Jaidyn came with us, no pictures :(

Celebrated the 4th of July...
Lexy and Mommy made oreo balls and red white and blue strawberries and jello.
We made fire works art.
We had a hamburger/hot dog cookout
We shoot a few fireworks and watched our neighbors displays.
It was well over 100 degrees so we didn't get to do much playing outside this year.

Lexy had her friend Avree over for an afternoon of fun...
We had snowcones...lots of them :)
Lexy and Avree made rock art. 
I put the rocks in the oven 350 for about 10 min. and then they colored on them with crayons...these turned out GREAT!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Summer - Week 6

This weeks fun included...

1.  A new flannel doggy blanket for Lexy (made by mommy)
2 & 3. Two new outfits for Lexy...the yellow shirt says "smart + cute = me"
4.  Ready for a Movie and lunch with Robin, Shilah & Kim plus kids
(Molly, Ryan, Sierra, Sahara, Shyann, Anna)
5.  A shoulder massage for Rex...you know because he has so much stress :)
6.  Momma's 4th of July toes
7.  Lexy's 4th of July toes
8.  Hot cocoa on a 100 degree day....why not?!!
9.  Playing school with Daddy

 Lexy's new Haircut!  She got 5 inches chopped off and she says it's much easier to take care of now!
 
 
 Lexy's artwork.  We found (in Family Fun magazine) and made a recipe for paint that when you microwave it dry it puffs up.  Lexy loved this.
 
 
Brooke spent the week at cheer camp.  Her squad won several awards and the girls had a good but exhausting time (Brooke slept for pretty much two days straight afterwards)!
 
 
Lexy saved up enough money (from allowance and turning in cans with Daddy) to buy herself another build-a-bear.  She chose a sweet little fox, named him Rudy and got him a karate uniform.
We noticed that there was a stage set up in the mall parking lot so we decided to check it out.  When we got out there they were announcing that Blake Shelton was there to perform.  We stayed and listened to several songs before we had to seek air conditioning again because of the sweltering heat.  Brooke was sad that she had decided not to go with us to the mall, she loves Blake Shelton!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Summer - Week 5

This week...

We did a Rex Makeover!

We went swimming!

We went to Robin's house to watch the parade, Brooke cheered/danced with the Dazzlers!
Brooke & Taryn

We played blacklight mini golf, Lexy got her first hole in one!

We went to watch the pageant to cheer on Lexy' s best friend, Avree!

We went to the carnival where Lexy got to ride a ride, eat a funnel cake and play a game thanks to Mammaw and Grandpa!
The very large purple monkey that Lexy won!

And we went to the Drive In for the first time this summer!
JoJo, Lexy & Jamie

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Adoption Update

This past week has been an emotional rollercoaster ride that ended today with the biggest downhill turn that could have happened :(

Early last week we were told that "the team" was looking into placing the four children with the relative that popped up.

The next day we were told that the relatives only wanted two of the four children so they had been ruled out as a viable adoption resource.  BUT that the foster home was "struggling" with what they wanted to do.

Next we were told that after speaking with the foster family that "the team" was told (by the foster family) that they did not want to pursue adoption of the four and that the baby would need to be moved from their home as well.

On Thursday we were told that we would be the only family included in a BIS (best interest staffing) that was tentatively scheduled for July 13.  We were told that we needed to start preparing our home for the children (including building a room in the basement for Brooke).  We were SO EXCITED!

I asked for reassurance from our worker that this was indeed going to happen (we've been through so much that I needed reassurance to move forward).  She told us we were safe to move forward.

We started buying and preparing.  Over last weekend we started tearing out the old walls, floors and ceilings in the basement in preparation for building Brooke's room.  We began cleaning, organizing and gathering what we would need.

I had not heard from our worker this week at all....until this morning.  This morning I discovered a late night e-mail from my worker that was titled "STOP buying things!".  My heart dropped to my feet just reading that title.  I opened the e-mail hoping that the e-mail was just our workers way of teasing me...but in my heart I knew it was bad news :(  She had written that she was away from the office yesterday but that she had received an e-mail about the foster parents wanting to be considered again.  She said that she would find out what was going on and get back to us.

A little before noon today our worker e-mailed us again saying that evidently "the team" had misinterpreted what the foster home had said last week and that the foster home was indeed interested in adopting the kids.  My heart broke into a million pieces reading that e-mail.

It was mentioned that we may still be asked to be included in the BIS (with the foster home after their homestudy is complete) but we feel that we would just be prolonging the inevitable and we'd still not get the kids.

My heart just hurts.  We've felt for four years now that we were meant to adopt again and have done everything we can do to find our child(ren) and we are back to square one again.  I wrote to a friend that I wish I could just be done with all of this...but I know I can't/won't do that...I still have a feeling that our family is not complete yet...

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Father's Day

For Father's Day this year we went out to C.J. and Jessi's for a cookout since we couldn't go up to Papa & Grammy's house like usual (Mike was on call this year).  C.J. surprised everyone with a limo ride around town before dinner and we stopped and took some pictures in a couple of different spots. 


Ashley, Brooke, Johnny, Toby & Lexy