Madelynn's Donation

Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Madelynn asked me for what felt like the 1000th time if she could donate her hair.

She watched her cousin, Emma, donate her long and beautiful hair last Summer and has been begging me to let her do the same ever since. 

Lucky for her, the girls' hair salon is right next to our church.

As soon as service was out, we headed that way.

One last picture of her beautiful hair!!

She was so excited.

I was nervous. 

She did it!!

My beautiful little lady!!

She loved it, so I loved it.

Turning 5

Today my baby girl turned 5.

She wanted to dress fancy for school.

Alyssa and Allison like to say they don't absolutely adore their little sister, their actions say otherwise.

Johnathon picked her up from school today and this is what she came home to!

Now all three of them have the same bicycle.

We had a few of our friends over for dinner and cake.

Happy birthday, Madelynn Jane.

Zoo Day

Alyssa and Allison have two independent study days every quarter and today we decided to venture out to the zoo.

They really enjoyed this quality time.

Their favorite part, the Skyfari. 

We stopped by the play area.

A quick lunch on our way to see the polar bears. 

After the polar bears.

On our long hike to the bottom of the zoo, these belts are always fun.

This little lady had school pictures today!!

First Day in TK

Madelynn was so excited before bed last night. The anticipation of TK was almost too much. :)

She is a doll.

Sisterly love.

I was so excited to pick her up from school and she greeted me with a huge smile!!

Tonight we had a mother/daughter date at Panera Bread.

I am in awe of these girls.

Silly Misc.

This gorgeous gal has been home with me with week.

It's been fun just having her and Jackson to focus on. 

These two are too much!

Fun with Allison.

 They were suppose to smile...

These ornery girls are making all the pictures silly. :)

Love her!

Just us.

Madelynn starts TK tomorrow.

I'm not ready!

You say crazy, I say fun.

Hello!

Alyssa and Allison have been at their new school for 3 weeks now (they had a week off for Labor Day) and are loving it. They each love their teachers and so far, the uniforms are still a huge hit.

They started learning Mandarin yesterday and it just dawned on me that it won't be long before they are having private conversations behind my back and I won't have a clue as to what they are talking about.

*forehead smack*

Wish me luck as I attempt to piece together a completely unfamiliar language just off of their take-home papers. :)

Madelynn is doing well also. She will be four years old in October and I have noticed her maturing over the last few months. I'm not sure if it is just her age, or maybe the fact that she is now a big sister to the cutest baby EVER. Either way, I'm enjoying this change in her.

She has been my little partner-in-crime through this whole foster care process and has even taken a liking to D's bio dad. I think she looks forward to his visits because she gets to go with me to a new place with new toys and she has my undivided attention while D visits with is dad. She's not a huge fan of D's bio mom and unfortunately, she let her know last week.

AWKWARD!

Baby D is just as perfect as possible.

I started making his baby food two weeks ago and it has been a HUGE hit with D. He started with a little sweet potato mixed with brown rice cereal and loved it. Two days ago we introduced avocado mixed with brown rice cereal and he no longer entertains the idea of sweet potatoes. :)

I made the mistake of telling my social worker last week that things seemed boring with D's case. I felt like I had gotten used to the case and the visits were somewhat consistent. For the first time in 5 months I felt like we had found our groove and things were running smoothly.

That didn't last long.

The next day I received a call from someone who had been mostly MIA throughout the entire process, an email from bio-family and someone else missed a visit for the first time in WEEKS. It has just gotten more crazy since then. I've come to realize that I am on more then just an emotional roller coaster, I'm on someone else's "where are my priorities today?" roller coaster.

I wake up in the morning having no idea what my day will be like. One simple phone call could snowball into 15 phone calls (literally) and the lack of a simple phone call could change ALL of my plans for the following week. It's been difficult, but I am doing really well with this learning process. It's not always easy, but I try my hardest to take it one day at a time.

I'm pretty sure I know how this case will end, but we are just waiting out our time until we go to court in December.

Johnathon has been very busy with work lately.

It's funny, when Johnathon first told me about his orders to CNATT-U, I was excited at the thought of having him home at a decent hour everyday and getting to spend time as a family. I should have known my husband better.

When he sees early hours and an opportunity, he takes full advantage of it. I can't complain. He's usually home by 4PM and is able to have dinner with us, but that is followed by more work at home. To top it all off, he won Senior Sailor of the Quarter a few months ago and his Senior Sailor of the Year board is just days away. He also went up for President of the First Class Association and WON!!

"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48

Johnathon is still volunteering like the world depends on it and doing much more than what is expected. He has been given so many great opportunities during his career, but they were each earned with great dedication.

He was honored to have the opportunity to do an interview about his dedication to volunteering. You can read about that HERE.

As for me, I'm as busy as ever.

On top of being an active foster parent and attending visits (at least 3 a week), I am an active part in the EPO at my daughters' school, on the Fall Festival committee, a room parent for Alyssa's classroom and attending back rehab 3 times a week.

Some say I'm crazy.

I believe those people! :)

Happy Wednesday. xo

LYLAS

I forgot to post pictures of Emma's last day here in San Diego.

 

 

They may as well be sisters. :)

 

They look up to her so much.

Happy Thursday.

xoxo

 

Tonight is Alyssa and Allison's school orientation.

I'm not sure who's more excited about it, me or them. I'm so eager and anxious to get this school year started. My babies are in the first grade and I am 100% in love with the school that they will be attending. It's new school, so I am still waiting to see if it lives up to my expectations, but I have a feeling that it will go above and beyond what I could have dreamed for them.

Vacation Bible School

The week of Vacation Bible School was by far one of the busiest weeks of my life.

 

It was Alyssa and Allison's last week of school so there were half days and volunteering to be done.

 

My niece, Emma, also flew in for a three week visit.

 

 

We had only been attending our new church for a few weeks when I decided to volunteer at VBS. It was such a fun week and if our church does anything right, it's their children's ministry. Everyday was jam packed with fun and exciting adventures.

 

I was a little bummed that Alyssa and Allison weren't able to attend, but there is always next year.

 

If our week wasn't crazy enough, our Angels case manager decided to make her surprise home inspection one day that week. Talk about the wrong day at the wrong time.

 

*sigh*

 

At least she was able to see us in our most chaotic of situations. :)

 

Baby D is still with us and we are still very much in love with him. 

Changing

I wish everyday could be just like Sunday.

 

We had such a great day as a family and it was everything that I would want in a day. Johnathon let me sleep in and after a long shower we FINALLY made it to Olive Garden for the girls'  celebratory 'dinner' honoring their recent awards at school.

 

The day being great actually had nothing to do with the places that we went, but in our laughter. I laughed like I hadn't laughed in awhile. The girls were all happy and cooperating...and let's face it, that alone would make it a great day. :)

 

We recently moved Alyssa and Allison's bedroom to where the nursery was located and everyone is loving it. It was just a better fit for their beds and now we aren't wasting a lot of space. It's absolutely adorable and I couldn't be happier about it. We still have a few things to buy and touch up, but I am so excited share pictures with you all. Trust me, it us just darling!!

 

I've had to hold back my tears lately when I watch Alyssa and Allison. There is a transition happening and my precious little girls are slowly turning into something I can't quite put a name on. I don't want to call them young ladies, but they are maturing in ways that I hadn't anticipated for awhile.

 

They now play quietly in their room. The quiet part should be enough change, but by 'playing' I really mean listening to music, reading and talking about boys. 

Johnathon and I were even noticing the little changes in Madelynn over the weekend. We couldn't help but comment on the fact that she is so much more understanding when she doesn't get her way. Whether it's what song is on the radio (she refuses anything other than Tonight Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae) or when we ask her to do something she doesn't want to.

 

Instead of crying or whining, she simply says 'Okay, Mommy'.

 

Easy day.

Notice anything different about this picture of all three girls?

After them getting broken, fixed, lost and then found, Alyssa FINALLY has her glasses!

 

It's been a work in progress to get her to be more responsible with them, but she is getting there. She says they hurt or they are too dirty and they spend more time in her hands then on her face. However, I was reading her a book the other night before bed (that's my special time with the twins each night as we read chapter books) when she stopped me so she could grab her glasses. She said it was too hard to follow along with the words when she couldn't see them. Ha!

 

Love her.

If you couldn't tell, Madelynn's collarbone is 100% back to normal and all traces of pink eye are GONE.

 

{Knock on wood}

 

 

Our home inspection is scheduled for Thursday and I feel like I am much more relaxed about it then I was even a month ago. We agreed that as long as the house is a livable clean, whatever. I'm sure she will have a long list of what needs to be done and we will cross that bridge when we get there.