Cops in Las Vegas

We took a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas this past weekend. We stayed in a nice house with a fun pool in the backyard. Our first day there we swam for a couple of hours and then went to the Luxor for the dinner buffet. The kids were in pasta heaven, but it cost us about $95. Holy expensive.

It was pretty late when we got back home after dinner, but Hank really wanted to take the older kids over to see his parents. I stayed to put Little Guy to bed. About 20 minutes after they left, I thought I heard some pounding on the upstairs door/windows. It freaked me out. A lot. I kept hearing this pounding type noise outside, first upstairs and then downstairs by the back door I called Hank on his cell and told him I was really scared and didn't know what to do.

He said to call 911. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I guess because I've never had to do it before and I wasn't SURE what the noises were. But it kept happening, so I called. The operator stayed on the line with me until the police showed up at the front door. I just stayed back in the room where Little Guy was sleeping. They looked all around the front and back of the house, with their big flashlights on and their hands on their holsters, ready for action.
They came back in and told me the outside was "clean."

Before they left, they did an inside "sweep" as well. They opened every cupboard, every closet, looked under beds, even in the fridge! They were very thorough and professional. I kept apologizing. They were so nice and reassured me it was better to be safe and they were glad they could help me, that they were just doing their job, etc. They didn't find anything and I felt pretty stupid, but I tell you, I don't think I've ever been that scared, so I was glad I called.

Memorial Day

We took a little trip over to the cabin for Memorial Day weekend. We didn't get there until Saturday evening because Reed had a basketball clinic on Saturday that went until 3:00 pm. We got there before dark, though, and Hank went right to work on a few trees that were leaning over the roof. He eventually got the chain saw out and at 10:30 pm I had to go out and ask him to turn it off because the neighbors might not appreciate the noise. He was having so much fun!

He had a real manly-man's weekend...cutting down trees, building big bon fires, catching 4 lb. bass for breakfast...

Here's the kids doing some karaoke in the basement:

Montana shucked the corn for our Sunday dinner and discovered a "baby" corn attached to the "mommy" corn. She thought that was pretty cool!
The men went fishing at 6:30 am Monday morning and came home with this for our breakfast:
Scott and Mikell drove over Monday afternoon and we had a BBQ. Reed was the chef and he did a great job. Little Guy and Carter had fun playing together. It was a fun weekend.

Nap Time

As usual, last Sunday Little Guy made it approximately 1/4 of the way through Sacrament meeting before being taken out. Here's how it goes down every week: Little Guy has a melt-down, usually about something really important like not being allowed to pull the carpet out of the hymnal pocket and suck on it, not being allowed to race cars back and forth under the benches with the little boy sitting 2 rows ahead of us, or not being allowed to grab an entire handful of sacrament bread.

I hand him off to Hank, who has taken it upon himself to be the sacrament-meeting-taker-outer (which I totally appreciate, by the way.) They go out into the foyer to sit, or into "room 5" if things have really escalated. After a few minutes, Little Guy calms down and gets the "privilege" of coming back into the meeting to sit with Mommy.

Last Sunday they went out and, curiously, never came back. Hmmm. Reed mentioned it to me after the meeting and wondered out loud where they were. We concluded that Hank had most likely fallen asleep and Little Guy was probably running around in the hallways by himself. Or at his favorite hang-out, the drinking fountain. He can occupy himself there for hours.

A friend of ours, who happened to be out in the foyer as well, was able to capture the evidence on his cell phone. He also mentioned that it really shook his testimony to see Hank like that during Sacrament Meeting. I guess Hank will have to answer for that one.

Hot Tub Buddies

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. We turned the heat off in the hot tub and let it cool down to a comfortable temperature. JJ and Little Guy spent a couple of hours out there "swimming." (don't worry, Mom, Little Guy can touch bottom with his head above water everywhere in the hot tub) JJ is so good with him and they had so much fun together. I was trying to take a candid shot, but Little Guy looked over and saw me pointing the camera through the kitchen window.

Flower Therapy

I attended an enrichment meeting recently. (I know, it's a shock) The guest speaker was a master gardener and she mentioned the idea of gardening as a form of therapy. I guess I had never thought of it that way before, but I think there's something to it. I love planting flowers and tending to them. It makes me happy. It's something I inherited from my dad, who is sometimes lovingly referred to as "Farmer Brown."

Today, in between chauffeuring children to school, doctor's appointments, the park, and piano lessons, and while Little Guy was having a "quiet time" I was able to sneak away for a half hour in my backyard and plant a few flowers. For the planter, I used this old, antique-ish ammonition box that I found at an estate sale a few years ago.

Afterwards, I felt refreshed and ready to take on the world. Or at least 4 of the children in the world.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

To My Angel Mother--
Thank you for being such a Loving, Happy, Giving, Spiritual, Fun, Awesome Mom !!

(isn't she cute?)

Two in One

Montana left for school with one loose tooth and came home with 2 missing teeth!

90 Days

Yesterday was Little Guy's permanency hearing. It was pretty discouraging. The attorney for his father put her spin on things and made the man out to be a victim whose child had been torn from his home through no choice or fault of his own. She presented him as a hard working, respectable father who is doing everything in his power to get his child back. If only that were true. Little Guy wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.

I don't want to dwell on the negative, although that's what is coming naturally in this case right now. I want to remind myself of why we're doing this in the first place. And focus on doing all we can in the next 90 days to help Little Guy gain the skills and reserves to make it through the probable transition and beyond.

Of course, we're not counting out a miracle. We know with assurity that the Lord is in charge of this world and in particular, this situation. We know that He will bring about His purposes. We know that our ways are not His ways and that we can't possibly see the entire picture from our limited perspective. Unfortunately, that knowledge doesn't make it hurt any less.

This morning I picked him up and held him close. I told him we would love him forever, no matter what, even if he went back to live with his dad. He looked up at me with his big brown eyes and a big smile and said with certainty, "But you're gonna 'dopt me!"

Now, the word 'adopt' has most definitely been in our vocabulary and in our prayers over the past year. But no one has ever sat down and explained to him what that word meant. I really had no idea that he had the concept down. Evidently, I was wrong. Hopefully he's not.

3 Down, 1 to Go

I think it's some strange twist of fate that 3 out of our 4 children have birthdays in the same month. And the other child has a birthday only 1 month prior. So it's been birthday central around here lately. Montana recently celebrated her big day.

Here she is letting Little Guy help her open a present. His was the birthday just before hers, so he got a little bent out of shape, thinking it was his day all over again.

They each have a "family party" on their actual birthday with our immediate family. We take them out to dinner where ever they choose to go. Then we come home and have cake and ice cream.

This year they also had a "friends" party as well. After acquiring a 4th child, I think I'll revisit this decision...planning 2 parties for each child seems a bit much. What do YOU do for YOUR kids' birthday? I'm curious.

Princess and the Pauper meets Harley