Picture Problems

So I have to go through my pictures and get rid of some (mostly just back them up multiple times and then delete the ones on my computer).  Blogger and Picasa share the storage space for pictures and I have run out of space.  As a result I can't upload pictures on here for posts.  I am getting things together so that I can clean up picasa.  I will no longer make ablums on Picasa; I will only be using it for correcting my pictures.  So hang in there because I will eventually get it together and post what I promised.

Khloe's Blessing!

Khloe has been living in our home for almost a year now.  We were able to adopt her in January.  That was our first step toward a much bigger goal.  The next step was to get Khloe blessed so that she would have a record in the Church.  Now that that has happened we meet with our bishop and then the Stake Presidency.  After all that we can take Khloe to the Temple to have her sealed to us.
On March 12th we met with our loved ones in the Myton church house Relief Society Room.  Les took Khloe into his arms and placed her on a chair.  He and many other family members placed their hands on her head and gave her a blessing.  What still stands out to me was her the promise of a family.  She now belongs to a family which is something she hasn't really had most of her life.

March 2011 Birthday Parties!

So in the last post I told about previous birthday parties we have had.  In this post there will be pictures of just this years celebrations.  Starting with pictures from March 12th in Myton.  We had the party at the Myton church house following Khloe's blessing.  We had a lot of yummy food and great company.  A special thanks to my parents without whom we couldn't have pulled it all together.

 Emma opening presents.

 Khloe opening presents.

 Samantha opening presents.

 The cupcakes I made (yes that includes the toppers).

 Each of the kids got a ring pop for coming.  By the time I got the camera out for this picture Sammi was the only one with one that was willing to hold still long enough for a picture.
Now onto the party on March 19th in Logan.  We had it at our neighborhood clubhouse.  I had hoped it would be less stressful but it wasn't.  The power went out for a few hours before the party.  We weren't sure if we would get the food cooked before our guests arrived.  Thankfully, it did come on and only set us back by an hour.

 Gifts and dessert!

 Yummy food!

 A cute neighbor boy who came to the party.

 The cupcakes!

 Emma with her cupcake.

 Samantha's cupcake.

 Khloe with her cupcake.

 Opening presents!

 Emma showing off the bracelet her Aunt Sabrina made for her.

 Sammi's bracelet.

Khloe's bracelet.

A big thank you to all those who came and celebrated with us.  We love you and are grateful that we have you in our lives.  

The Three Birthday Girls!

Talk about timing things out well.  All three of our girls have birthdays in March!  I really can't take all the credit for all the birthdays (Khloe's) but I can try.  Just a few years ago when I was pregnant with Sammi I knew that her birthday was going to be close to Emma's but I wanted a way to keep their birthdays special to each of them.  Les on the other hand wanted to throw one big party and be done with it.  It wasn't until after Khloe came along that he started seeing things my way.  So this year to help keep things special and exciting we are doing little family celebrations on their actual birthdays but as for parties we would do that for all three.  After past years of making a big deal out of birthdays I decided I didn't need the extra stress.  So this year I was only going to do one birthday party.  I hear some of you out there thinking that I should have started this with the very first birthday.  Let me review the past for a moment. 
Emma's first birthday was on Easter.  That alone begged for a big celebration not to mention it was the first birthday of my first child!  Emma's second birthday was suppose to be smaller.  However, between his family and mine a lot people decided to come.  Then Les got it into his head that we needed a big project for the party guests to do.  At almost 9 months pregnant I did NOT have the energy to do it so it was left to him.  His project was making Sponge Bob Square Pants out of actual dish cleaning sponges.  They turned out amazing and everyone loved them.  As for last year . . . well we were trying to get custody of Khloe and got visitation with her the day before her birthday so we had a small party at Les' parents house.  Then since it looked like we might get her DCFS wanted us to do a few overnighters so we planned a party for the girls here in Logan.  Neither of our parents could make it so we planned to do just a small party for the girls on Easter in Myton.  Three days before that party we were in court and to our surprise (we had majorly lost hope by this time) we were granted our request to get Khloe into our home so the party became a bigger deal.
So after all of that I really did try to go smaller this year.  What is it that they say about best of intentions?  We set the date and reserved the clubhouse.  While I expected this one party to be well attended it was because we were going to combined it with Khloe's baby blessing.  When we called our parents to let them know what we had planned we found out that Les' parents most likely wouldn't be able to make it and mine wouldn't make it for sure.  That set in motion a major change of plans.  We really wanted family at the blessing for Khloe so we set it up so that we could do the blessing in Myton with a small party out there for those who couldn't make it here.  A couple of weeks before either of the parties it looked like more people were going to make it to the one in Myton.  I told Les we should just cancel the one up here.  We almost did except Les' sister wasn't going to stay for the party in Myton and still wanted the one in Logan.  Also for the first time we had planned to invite kids from our neighborhood and our ward.  So I couldn't cancel it. This post is getting too long to talk about the parties so I will do a post for just them.
Khloe got a chocolate cake with a choclate pudding filling and cream cheese frosting.  It was kind of plain so I cut up some bananas to garnish the cake.  Oh my was it delicious!  I was a bit rushed since we had gone to a wedding in Salt Lake earlier in the day so I didn't get a picture of it.  Emma's birthday is tomorrow and I have made a strawberry cake (let me add right here that the cakes are only 3 inches across and 2 and a half inches deep which makes them perfect for our small family) for her cake.  I haven't decorated it yet since it is in the freezer preparing for me to split it in half for a filling (I have strawberry filling ready and waiting).  Emma has requested pretty flowers for her cake.  As for Sammi I took the left over batter from the other cakes I made to make her cake.  It is chocolate and strawberry swirled together.  I don't know how I am going to decorate it yet but something will come to me.  As for leftovers since Sammi's birthday is the day after Emma's that leaves us with a lot of cake.  I will be sharing with our neighbors and perhaps the ladies I go to for Visiting Teaching.  That way I won't have to eat it all myself.  I do want to lose a little weight before summer.  *Added Note* Emma got a strawberry cake/strawberry filling with Vanilla frosting and (since she asked) pink flowers that I made all over it.  Samantha got the chocolate and strawberry cake with choclate pudding and vanilla frosting.  I made the bottom half of her cake basket weave (to look like a basket) and a bunch of violets coming out of it.  I may not do that again or at least for a long time.  I had forgotten how much time it takes.
I want my children to know that I love them and that I am pleased with how well they are growing and developing.  Happy Birthday Emma (March 23, 2007), Khloe (March 5, 2008), and Samantha (March 24, 2009).

A brief glimpse of our month!

March is a busy month for our family.  Here is a brief list of what we have been/will be doing . . . Three birthday girls, birthday parties, Khloe was blessed, my brother Bryan came home from Afghanistan, housing inspection, three well child checks, dental surgery, illnesses, and a party (we are hosting) for Les' lab group.  Add on top of that all the things we normally have going on and things are pretty busy around here.  I will try not to overwhelm you with information and pictures so I will post the events one at a time over the next week or so.  So stay tuned!

Satisfied Customer

So a week or so ago after making dinner in our Crock-Pot I went to take the lid off and came away with only the top part of the handle.  At first I was worried about what I should do to get dinner out.  The lid was way to hot to just use my hands.  I used a butter knife to lift the lid off (the heat had the lid kind of suctioned on).  When Les got home that evening I showed him what happened.  After cleaning the pot I left it on the counter for Les to figure out something to do with it.  I was hopeful he would be able to fix it. 

 Now all this time later he is on Spring Break and has time to worry about it.  This morning he decided to act.  He took the lid off of our other much smaller Crock Pot to put on it.  However when he tried to remove what was left of the other lid it wouldn't come off.  He tried using more force.  The result . . . shattered glass all over the kitchen floor.  While he cleaned up his mess I got on the Crock Pot Origanl Slow Cooker website (http://www.crock-pot.com/) to see if I could find a replacement.  When I put the model number in it told me that the site didn't have a replacement part for it (it is an old crock pot) but I could call Customer Service to see if any other product had a comparable part.  So I called.  After getting my name and other information the lady on the other side of the phone told me to hold while she checked for a replacement.  She came back after less that a minute to tell me there is a part to replace my lid with.  However, it was on back order.  She is unable to place any other orders for it at this time.  I thought, "Oh great!  Now we are going to have to buy a whole new Crock Pot."  She went on to say that she could at this time send me a new Crock Pot FREE OF CHARGE!  Wow, how amazing is that!  I started by looking for a new lid and ended up with a whole new Crock Pot!  I will definitely buy their products again and I recommend them to you.

Recent embarassment!

Recently my sister posted about something that happened to her.  At the time I was thinking I am glad it wasn't me and that I haven't had something that bad happen in a while.  I was grateful and relieved.  I was too relieved too soon.  On Tuesdays I take the girls to respite care for two hours.  A while after I got home my fire alarm started beeping.  It wasn't the normal beeping.  It would do a quick 3-4 beeps and then stop for a minute.  It did this over and over.  My first thought was that the battery was low.  I talked to Les and it was decided that I should call maintenance to get our batteries replaced.  I silenced the alarm numerous times but it always went back off within 5 minutes.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do about it while I waited for someone to show up to fix it.  All I knew was that I had to pick up my kids and they weren't going to like having the alarm go off.  I went to get them and brought them home.  I fed them lunch and tried to figure out what to do.  I finally decided that I was going to take the battery out.  I got on a chair and took the battery out.  To my chagrin the beeping didn't stop.  That is when I looked at the alarm up close and personal.  I noticed another light on it.  Next to the light it said CO.  All sorts of crazy thoughts popped into my head.  I sent a text to Les to ask what the symptoms for CO exposure were.  He told me and I had two of them!  I told him what I had discovered.  His next text said, "We are on our way!"  Oh man!  I had forgotten that Les was spending his day doing ride alongs with the fire department!  He and a team from the fire department were on their way to our house.   Now don't get me wrong because I was super worried that I had symptoms and I didn't want my kids to be harmed by Carbon Monoxide.  However, I did not want a bunch of firefighters, paramedics, or cops roaming freely through my home.   Last week I was super sick and had no energy to do more than light cleaning.  I am still playing catch up with all the cleaning I need to do.  The first and foremost thought in my head was extreme embarassment over the disorder of my home.  I tried to do a quick fight of the bumble bee but I knew I wouldn't make it before they got here.  All to soon a cop car and a fire truck rolled up out front.  Again not the first thought I should have had but I thought, "Oh great!  No hiding this from the neighbors!"  I mean how do you hide a 30 (or so) foot fire truck!  The answer, You Don't!
Within a minute Les led 3 men from the fire department and 1 policeman in the door.  I was sooooooo mad (turns out irritation is a symptom and I was very irritated)!  A couple of the firemen walked through every room in the house (several times) with a box that had a tube coming out of it.  This is the device they use to measure the amount of carbon monoxide in the house.  Because I had opened the door to air out the house they believed the amount would have been higher.  Since I had a couple of symptoms they called Questar to come out sooner than they would have otherwise.  I got bumped up on the list for having a headache and irritation.  By the way the kids have remained symptom free!  Twenty minutes after the firemen left the guy from Questar came.  He too walked through my house to take a reading of the levels.  Then he had me open every window and the doors to air out the house.  While that was taking place he tested my gas appliances which are the water heater and furnace.  They are working perfectly.  They are not the source of the problem.  He had me continue airing out my house while he filled out the work order.  All in all I think the house aired out for 45 minutes.  When he came back in he told me the levels in my house are 10 parts per million (what a normal lived in house is at).  The garage was 15 parts per million.  Both of which were down from the readings the fire department got. 
The only explaination for it is the only thing I have never down before that day.  When I got the kids into the car to go to respite I turned on the car and scraped the windshield.  As I was about to pull away from the house when I realized that I had left my phone plugged in the house.  So I stopped (the car was backed into the driveway) opened the garage and ran in to get the phone.  Then I ran back out, got in, closed the garage, and drove away.  Lesson to be learned - turn off my car if I open the garage and am going to be there for any prolonged amount of time.

New Preschool for Khloe

Since Khloe came to live with us it has been very apparent that she would need extra help to communicate.  I have worked very hard to get her to comunicate.  For example, she had a volcabulary of 6 words when she came to live with us.  Now she has a volcabulary of 100 words.  Unfortunately, there is something that I just can't get her to do.  To use it.  I have been very frustrated by this fact for quite some time.  But now I see the purpose behind her not using it.  If it weren't for the fact that she doesn't use it much she wouldn't have gotten into Riverside Preschool.  The reason this is important: Riverside is a Preschool through the school district (=free) that focuses on children that are developmentally delayed.  Not just any child that is developmentally delayed.  They need to be under 5% in their abilities.  I got very conficted when all the scores from her tests were above the 5% mark.  I wanted her in Riverside really bad to give her the help I am unable/unqualified to give her.  At the same time I didn't want her to be so behind that she would need such a place. 

The staff at Riverside went on to explain that Khloe's continuing desire to use grunts and hand gestures over words was concerning.  Combine that with her low MLU(??? it has something to do with how many parts of a sentence she uses.  Kids her age should have a score between 1.9 and 2.4.  She had a 1.4) and they were concerned enough to admit her to the program.  I am relieved that she will be getting this extra help.  Starting next week she will be bused to and from school two days a week.  I hope this will help her out.  At our request they will also do a little stranger danger lesson.  I hope that Khloe (who is way to trusting of a friendly face) will learn something from it.

Now I just need to wait and see if Emma gets into the Bear River Head Start Preschool.  In a year Sammi will transfer automatically from Early Head Start into their preschool.  Until then I am their teacher.  Heaven help them.