Family Fun

We split into 3 groups with all the kids and built gingerbread houses


My team had Hailey, Jarom, Kenna and Alec (Alec didn't really feel like participating though)

After, we went to the temple to see all the pretty lights

Kenna loved running around and going from tree to tree

In the Visitors Center
Taking a walk around the temple

Fun At The Park

riding the teeter-totter

pushing ray-ray on the swing!

We took the kids to the park so that Grammy and Papa could have some moments rest... even though some of the kids left early to go back. We had a lot of fun.

Family Night

adding the buttons on the gingerbread man

We had fun putting it together

Last week on family night, Kenna and I put together a gingerbread house, and then Lee came over and we strung popcorn for the Christmas tree. (that's one of his childhood traditions.) We had a lot of fun :)

Krazy Kenna

I thought these pictures were too funny not to post. It shows her personality perfectly!

my little sk8er
she thinks sticking her tongue out is funny

What A Man :)

Kenna took this picture

Last night, Lee came to the rescue. He offered to help move mom's hutch over to my house with his truck, take down Kenna's bed, put up the twin for her, and move my computer into my bedroom. I helped, of course, but not as much as he did :)

She climbed up there herself. It was funny for about a minute, and then she got mad when I told her she couldn't do that anymore.

Blah

blah blah blah... blah blah blah blah. Blah! Blah blah blah blah, blah... and.... blah blah. blah blah blah, blahblahblah blah.
The End.



True Story.

Really.

It's Alive!

I tried my camera this morning, just for kicks, and it's working! I keep telling Kenna that she's so lucky... maybe I should stop before I scar her? Anyway, I'm very happy that it didn't get any water damage. And she's not allowed to touch it anymore... no matter how hard it is for me when she begs and cries... usually I just give in. Lee is helping me to be more firm, which I obviously need to start doing.

No More Pictures?

McKenna decided to take it upon herself this morning to give the camera a tubby... with her in it... with soapy, bubbly water. I tried to dry it as much as I could with my hair dryer, then dad suggested to let it sit for a few days without touching it to see if the water inside will dry. It was really expensive, and the next time I'll even be able to afford to get another one won't be until after Christmas when school starts up again.
So she got a bare-spanked bum, went into time-out for 10 minutes in her room, and my camera is still on the table, drying. I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work.

Bandaids=instant smiles

Kenna and I were cleaning last night so that when Lee came over we could clean our carpets. She was going to ride her skateboard to move it into her bedroom, when she step right on the edge of it (instead of the middle) and it flipped up and got her in the nose and a little on the cheek. It left a pretty big scratch and a little bruising, but right when she got the Dora bandaid put on she was happy again. So, thanks Dora for your miracle bandaids.

Who does she remind you of? Isaiah, maybe?

Kenna's Second Haircut

These pictures uploaded backwards, but oh well. The one on the bottom is showing my awesome neighbor and friend cutting Kenna's hair for free, and she gave her bangs! It looks a little wierd, (just not used to it), but still cute. The picture above is the finished product. She loves cheesing it for the camera. :)

Halloween!

Kenna and I had a lot of fun Trick-or-treating last night. She loved going up to the doors by herself and asking for the candy! She kept telling Lee and me to stay on the sidewalk so she could knock on the door. Little Miss Independent!

My family came down and we hung out, ate chile and doughnuts, listened to a c.d. that my sister Kenice made, went trick-or-treating, and played. Today we're going to Staheli Farms, and Kenna's really excited to see all the animals! I'll take more pictures and post them tonight. :)

Shark!

Kenna and I got a fish today. It's a male beta, chinese fighting fish, and has really pretty colors. It has dark blue, dark red, and a little green. I asked Kenna what his name should be, and she said Fishshark. Then she changed it to Shark. So that's his name. Cute, huh?

Rice Mickey Treats

Kenna and I decided to make rice crispy treats the other day, and they ended up turning into Mickey and Minnie w/a really big mess to clean up! It was a lot of fun!

Aut-yum Treats

She had fun doing all the hard work

using ghost and pumpkin cookie cutters for the shapes
painting an egg wash on the outside and then using orange colored

sugar for a more festive look
finally enjoying her masterpiece!

In the November issue of Family Fun, they have a page that shows you how to make Chocolate and peanut butter chip filled leaves with ready made pie crust. So Kenna and I did Halloween stuffed pie crust and they turned out pretty cute. (and yummy!)

Outside Fun

Kenna always asks me if she can go outside, so I love that I have a fenced in backyard so she can go back there while I do homework or housework. Her favorite things are the sidewalk chalk and of course bubbles. Maybe for Christmas I can get her one of those little Playschool playgrounds so she has something else to do out there.

No More Gold's

I quit Gold's last night because I'm done with putting up with my boss. It's normal having one or two people not being able to stand their boss, but when EVERYONE who works there can't stand her, you know there's a problem. Maybe one day when she either gets fired or quits, I'll go back. She was telling lies about my sister, who she's never even met; she's telling lies about the members, saying that they have a problem with the employees, when come to find out, they have a HUGE problem with her. Big enough problems that they call corporate on her. And she tells lies about the employees. I'd go into more detail, but it would take about an hour or two, and I still feel sick, so I'll spare you. In a nut shell, she belongs in the dumpster. I've even been told by members who work out there, that I should be the boss and not her. So has another girl that works there with me. Doesn't that say something? Jaime has already called me to tell me that members are sad that I've gone, but they totally understand. Nobody can stand her anymore. Sad.

So, if you know of a job opening that I can take MyKenna with me, let me know. :) I can do Friday afternoon's and Saturdays.

Sickness

So, I have what McKenna had. It took me about 3 hours to be able to even get out of bed yesturday morning. I pretty much just made it either to the bathroom or to the couch. And let's not even talk about food. Even the thought of it made me sick. I still haven't been able to eat anything today, but I'm at least sort of keeping down liquids. I've already missed school on Friday, and now I'm missing it today and I feel SO behind. Luckily, though, my English teacher said I could take the tests on Wednesday. Now I have 3 tests I have to take that day. Really not looking forward to it. Anyway, at least today I'm out of bed and walking around, even if I feel like garbage doing it. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll feel better enough to go to school.

Poor Kenna

Kenna's been sick the past few days and hasn't been able to hold anything in. She was up from 11:30 Thursday night until 3:30 a.m. Friday morning proving that statement. :( I don't think I've done so many loads of laundry in that short amount of time. I took her to the doctor yesturday, and he said to just keep an eye on her to see if she gets any worse. He swabbed her mouth also just to make sure she doesn't have strep. He came back in and said it's just a sore throat and sent us home. So we went to Target and spent the gift card on her that Rachel gave her for her birthday, (thanx Rach! she loved it!), got her some new clothes, and went home. About a 1/2 hour later, Kenna was sick again. About an hour after we got home, her doctor called back. He said that he left the strep test a little longer, and it became red after we left. So, yes, she has strep. Poor girl. He prescribed amoxicillin and something else to help with her nausea, which mom said would make her sleep, which it didn't, oh well. Thanks tho mom. :) But mom and dad were nice and picked up her meds because she had fallen to sleep and I didn't want to wake her up. She seems to be doing better today, although she does still have a fever. So far she's kept her breakfast down, so hopefully this weekend she'll be able to rest and feel better before Monday.

Update About the Panel

There were 4 of us that were on the panel: Kindell, who placed almost 18 years ago, a woman who, I'm sorry I don't remember her name, placed 10 years ago, me, who placed 15 months ago, and Heather, who placed 10 months ago. The timings are pretty broad, as you can tell. I can't say much of what happened, just because it's supposed to be kept between us birth mothers and all the couples that were there. (It was an agreement everyone made before the panel started). I can tell you, though, the Spirit was intensified by all the love and respect that everyone had for each other. We each were able to tell a little of our own story. One story broke everyone's hearts, one made everyone laugh, and the others brought tears, happy tears. These women are phenomenal for sharing their stories, but especially one in particular.
After our stories were told, questions were answered, and comments were made, we were able to all sit and talk for a bit before it was time to go. I knew one of the couple's there, and they have a little boy that is biological. They now have a 4 month old baby from a birth mother, and now their waiting this weekend to receive another from a young woman. They actually remind me a lot of Grant and Karen, and I'm really excited for them.
It also showed me what Adam and Betsy had to do when they were waiting. It was fun to be able to take a little peek into their part of the story.
I have no regrets on my decision for placing Maxwell, because I know that in the eternities we will all still be together forever. I love Adam and Betsy and I'm forever grateful to them for raising Max with so much love.

Birth Mother Panel

I guess this next Thursday I'm going to be on a panel at the old Dixie High seminary building for adoptive parents/birth parents. My counselor called me yesterday and asked if I would be a volunteer, and of course I jumped at the offer! From what she was saying, it's only a once a year thing, and they don't have very many volunteers do it. Basically there will be couples there that are considering adoption, as well as young women who are considering placing their children. So it'll be part educational and part emotional. They'll be asking me questions, personal questions, that I will be more than happy to answer. My counselor wants me to do it because she said that I have the perfect example of how open adoption can be for those who want it. She also said that there aren't very many out there that keep it going as good as we have been able to. So, of course, I told her yes. :) I'll also be speaking in high schools here pretty soon too. She gave my number to the woman that is in charge of it, and she said that she'll call me by tomorrow to let me know when she would like to meet up and get to know each other a little. She's an adoptive parent as well, and she has a great open adoption with her birth mothers too.

iPod, uPod

So, I finally caved in and got an iPod nano. It's the cutest thing that fits

into my pocket! I got it specifiacally for the drive up to the reunion,

but I've already decided that it's nice when I want a specific song to play

and I don't have to wait for the radio to play it.

I also got the t.v. screens that you can hook up to the back of my front

seats for Kenna so she won't be so bored and can watch her movies.

It's nice thinking of everything. :)

McKenna's Ber-fin-day

Kenna's birthday lasted all weekend! It started with her party on Saturday, which we played, ate some yummy food and hung out.

Adam, Betsy and Max came for the party. Max was

just a little tired from them being at the lake all day



Everyone had a try at the pinata, Jarom even

tried to hit it like a golf ball!

Kenna opened all her presents.
(she wasn't spoiled at all!)

They all went out with her new sidewalk chalk,
and yes, that is Nora's bumb.

The morning of her birthday, Sunday, she couldn't get enough
of her new Dora house. She's still playing with it pretty much non-stop!

Max and Kenna had fun playing with the BBQ Bubble Machine that Grammy
got for her. They have the same cheeks!

I just had to get a picture of him squatting!

McKenna took this picture. Natural talent?

Not the cutest picture, but I wanted one of all 3

Playing with Grammy's necklace

Hanging out w/Papa

She blew out the candle about 5 times before the birthday song was
even over!

Eating some cake w/her favorite Jarom

After a long 2 days and a belly full of sugar, she spent the ENTIRE night
in her bed for the first time in 2 months. :)

It was a good birthday.