My first born turns 12!!!!

April 2nd. My baby! I can't believe he's twelve! He was the CUTEST baby ever. He could have been a model baby. He had blond curly hair and bright blue eyes. When he was about 6 months old and I was working in photography that boy had more "glamour shots" then most adults! We posed him in a denium jacket with his hair all spike up. I propped him in his blue nike outfit with his chubby checks! He didn't like to be held as much as my girls. He liked to be down and on the go. He was a very GOOD baby! At two weeks old he slept through the night. And I'm talking 7:30 pm till 7:30 am! He rarely cried. We took him out to eat all the time and he was perfect. I'll never forget the first time we took him out to eat. We went to Carlo's O Kelly's. I think he was just a couple of weeks old. Jeff wanted way in the back corner in case he would cry, that way nobody would be staring at us! He slept the whole way through dinner. Wow dinner out with 3 kids is a bit different then back in those days! Our first baby (puppy) was our maltese white fu-fu puppy, "macho". Anyone that knew us then knows what I'm talking about. I was ridiculous with doggy outfits and that dog spent more nights in a hotel when we traveled them most adults have. But anyway Ryker and Macho became fast friends. Macho followed him everywhere. I have the cutest picture of Macho sitting next to baby Ryker in his carrier when we first brought him home. Sadly, Macho passed away on Ryker's 8th birthday. Macho was 14 yrs. old. He wants another dog, but for now we have our hands full with 3 kids!
Ryker has always been easy going. He has a big heart and wears his heart on his sleeve just like his Mom. I love that! Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs - Chapter 22:6
He has also become a big help to me! He does many chores and helps with the girls when needed. He also gives an awesome backrub! (he'll hate reading this when older!) One thing his teacher said at school that really sums up Ryker is, "He has gained the respect of all his peers." He is new to this school and it seems he knows everyone and they all really like him! He has always been well liked. He is very fast at making friends and they are very important to him. When we moved to this neighborhood he went to the neighbors homes with Raven and knocked on the door to see if there were any kids that lived there that were their ages! He now has several friends on the street that stop by all the time, usually wanting his advise on some video game or the computer game runscape!
He is definately a computer kid. He loves all the games. He would have rather had a system that was more of a "gamers" system then the wii. He still loves basketball and soccer. But I have to make him do it! He was also is in band on the drums. He was taking private lessons but didn't really like it. So now he does it all through the school. We might pick up some more lessons again. He'd also like to learn guitar. He is a really good artist. He's more like his dad that way. We might get him in some local art classes they do throught this really cool program at one of the middle schools. For his birthday he wanted a new bike and skateboard. He's hoping to get enough money to save up for an ipod touch but would also like more games. I'm encouraging him to get outside more so I'm ok with the bike and skateboard!
When Ryker was little and was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he responded, "I want to be the boss and own my own cookie store!" I was thrilled! Maybe he would have a huge franchise of stores with the best cookie receipe in the world! He has said he wants to be a police officer and also someone that works on computers. He could design his own video games! Jeff has him write reports on things about computers since he wants computer time each week. This way he learns how they got started and what some of the termonology is. If you want to be in the IT business you have to constantly keep studying to keep up on how fast it's growing!
I asked Ryker what he would like for a special birthday dinner. He wants potato soup! Raven then got upset saying I've never asked her that before. (drama). So Grandma is making cornbread, I'm making potato soup and haven't decided on his cake yet!
Happy 12th birtday Ryker! Hope you have a great day. You'll always hold a special place in my heart! Keep growing in faith like you have been, help others like you do, and always strive to learn more! Love you!

Leave Madonna alone

They say she wants to adopt again and people are critizing her for it. Shame on them! "Judge ye not and ye will not be judged." She also talked of her shock at the reaction to the adoption of her little boy. In an interview with Paris Match she said: "It was not me who chose Malawi, but it chose me. "A native of the country contacted me though my association, Spirituality for Kids which I publicise in all my shows. Some of us, all that we do - is an act of faith. It is easy to talk or type the 'words of Christ' but it is indeed harder to walk the walk of Christ. Sometimes we do indeed need an attitude adjustment. I hate hearing others being critizied for what they do. We do not know the whole story and wouldn't it be better to pray for them and the best outcome for the situation?
As Barbara Walters said, and she adopted her daughter, "It is pure love to adopt"! You can't be selfish to adopt, you can't hope they look like you and have your characterisics and traits, they won't have your genes or blood line. You just want to love a child and have them love you back! Right? This little girl she wants to adopt has no parents. Don't you think the life she would have with Madonna would be better then what she has now? She would never go hungry, she would have the freedoms we have in America. (or where ever Madonna lives) I can totally relate to Madonna for wanting to adopt again. Those that have the love for children have a hard time knowing when it's time to be done. Time to be done adopting or time to be done having children. I have a dear friend that just told me she has always wanted to adopt, she has 4 biological kids, and her husband doesn't want to adopt at this point because of his age. So they just signed up to be foster parents! She wants infants. She loves to care for babies. I am SO excited for them! We have a family at our church that has 10 children. I can't remember how many but most are adopted from the foster care system. AND Leanne has started her own non profit organization to help foster kids and their families. http://www.familieshelpingfamiliesofiowa.com sorry but the link option isn't working for me so you need to copy and paste it into your browser. There is a big gala May 23rd to raise money so that all the foster kids have new back packs and items they need for school. They have "loves closet" which has new or slighty used clothes for the foster families. Leanne has a great family. I got the pleasure of having 2 of her kids ride with us for 2 1/2 hours to church camp last fall. And we get to see them on Wednesday nights when I take the kids to "kids for christ". Maybe in the future we will be foster parents!

"Miracles happen every day! WE just have to open our eyes and see them!"

Spring 2009

Raven finally got over her sickness. She got her energy back. whew! the girl has energy. She got caught up on her school work in 2 hours. She loves it! Amazing. Ryker is having his 12th birthday this week! It always comes up so fast because of spring break that we never seem to get anything planned till last minute. I think we'll take him and his friends bowling. (he actually decided to just take the money we would have spent on the party:) Next year on his 13th he wants a paint ball gun party at this local indoor place that does it. Not my personal favorite thing but it's what he wants. He's getting a new bike and hoping for $$$$. He really wants an ipod touch. We were in Chicago for spring break and he hung out at the apple store with his Dad for a long time while Raven and I were at the American Girl doll store. We had tea, bought the new 70's doll Julie, and Paisley got a bitty baby that's asian. (looks just like her with piggy tails!) They also got matching outfits to wear to match their dolls. I love that store. We didn't seem to have enough time to do everything we wanted to do at all and the weather wasn't the greatest. cold and rainy. We also did the build a bear workshop thing. Pais was so cute. She loved it. We went to the big Lego store and had fun there. Ryker decided to save his money for the ipod touch. Our hotel was amazing. The intercontinental. We had a suite with 2 bathrooms which was nice when you have 5 people! The kids loved to swim. But man it was cold for me! I had to hit the sauna after that to warm up! Paisley LOVES the water! Ryker has become quite the swimmer. Raven hangs on the edge and is still learning.
Paisley has been talking up a storm! She also would like to potty train, but I'm not ready:) It's too messy at this point. So when she goes she gets everything out for me! Somewhere she learned to say, "Butt head!" Not good! Grandma was not impressed to be called this! whoops! One of her favorite lines is, "I DO IT!" She's not good at sharing yet. "MY BLANKET!" "MY BABY!" This too shall pass! She also likes to say, "Naked Butt"! She is awesome at doing somersaults and great at doing the splits. (she's very flexible) She is cute at dancing and will point her fingers out while doing the twist! What a great Spring!

Happy Referral Day anniversary Paisley!

2 years ago while I was driving Raven to dance I got the call! They had our information on our baby girl! When she was born, where she was at, her medicals and pictures! I could hardly focus. I prayed for lots of hair because Raven barely had any till she was two. Our Pais had hair! She was chubby and looked very healthy. We are so blessed and grateful for our beautiful gift from God! You've grown so much the past 19 months! Love ya Paisley! (Now quit crawling out of your crib at night! You're too young for that and it is stressing your Momma out!)

Raven sick and smelling something "stinky"!

Raven, my funny girl, had me get her a chicken salad sandwhich on Monday. She said it was stinky and only took a couple bites. She hasn't had an appetite at all. I even got her milk shakes and those don't taste good to her either. Today she wanted me to make her an egg salad sandwhich so we'll see how that goes! Anyway that night she kept telling her Dad something smelled! The next day she kept saying that all she smelled was that stinky chicken salad! She was smelling her shirt, the blanket, then ME! She couldn't figure out where it was coming from but something smelled! Ya know when your sinus' are messed up and you smell Stinky stuff? I think that's what is happening with her. This morning I had to hear it again. What smells? I'm like, "go brush your teeth!" Then she thought it was Paisley's diaper. She is just the funniest thing when she is sick!

My dear friend Leah was over last night and thought Raven looked really bad. today she was asking me about how much she is drinking because she was worried she might be dehydrated. Especially since her fevers have gotten so high at night and we're on day 11! I called the Dr. and the nurse had me swab the inside of her mouth and said it should be moist like mine. Well it wasn't it was dry! She said to bring her down. Raven has the best Dr. in the world! So of course I got the 50 questions on what they were going to do to her! I was so worried about them admitting her because I can only imagine my princess dealing with all the probing and poking they do in the hospital! I made her drink water all the way down there. The Dr. said she was fine that there was slobber under her tongue and that since she can get up and down on her own she's ok. But 1/2 hour later he called me and said her strep just showed up positive. So that's why her poor throat hurts so bad now. Just now she woke up from a cat nap crying saying she couldn't breath. Her nose is stuffed and it burns to breath. We need to go get those antibiotics and hope they help her feel better. I'm going to have to miss my classes the next 2 days and the only time I can take them again is the end of April. But I need to be here for my girl and Jeff has people out sick at his work so he's the only one there, so kinda hard for him to take off. This too shall pass!