Winter Wonderland

When I took Jud out to the bus this morning, this is what greeted us as we walked out the door. The fog from last night had covered everything from the trees to the fence to even the spider web hanging from the roof. It was all so quiet and peaceful, all sounds were muffled. What a beautiful morning. Jud was totally fascinated with it all. I told him I thought the frost covering the pine tree looked like fluffy cotton. He tasted it and said it tasted like coconut. Funny boy.

This is what it lookes like from our driveway looking out to the garden. KC commented on how he does not hardly remember our snowpile (from scraping off the patio) being any higher than that. (Jud has helped flatten it some). I don't mind the snow at all. It is beautiful and fun for the kids. I just hope we don't get bitter cold along with it.

More snow in the forecast this week.

A School Birthday and a Park Birthday

Judson's birthday was on a monday this year. He wanted a party so bad, but monday's are super busy for him. He gets home from school about 2:15 and has to be out to Camp Hippo for therapy from 3:00 to 6:00. We decided to have his party on Tuesday. He counted down the 'sleeps' until his 'school birthday' and until his 'park birthday.'
We HAD to take treats to school for his birthday so I made this SpongeBob cupcake cake. They were little mini cupcakes. I actually made two of them so he could take treats out to Camp Hippo also.They were soooo cheesy but the kids devoured them so I guess that is all that matters.
For his party, I thought I would be smart and have it over at the park so the kids could just play on the new big toy they have there and I wouldn't have to come up with games and entertainment. I am just not a 'games' kind of mom. I wanted to keep things simple and easy. Mother Nature had other ideas in mind. It poured down rain all day Tuesday. Yep--we still had it at the park, just inside the pavillion. I found a Pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey game and got some crepe paper streamers for the kids to play 'Spider Man' and wind them all over the pavillion. They had a blast doing that. Then we opened presents, had cake, and ran Jud through the spanking machine, cleaned up and went home. It lasted just a little over an hour and he was one happy little boy.

This was his 'Park Birthday' cake. He is really into dinosaurs. Especially T-Rex's. At school, when it is the child's birthday, the teacher has them stand on a little podium and call on their classmates, one at a time, to tell them what their favorite thing about them is. Almost all the children said Jud makes a good T-Rex when they are playing at recess. It made me smile.

Please don't call me a Saint

About 8 years ago John and I decided to apply for a Foster Care License. It took us a while to fill out the paper work, because it seemed a little intimidating at first. Then we had our background check and home study and all that stuff. If I remember correctly, we were notified that we passed everything and would soon be getting our license in the mail, then, BAM! I was in a car wreck and ended up in the hospital for a week then in a hospital bed in my living room for 8 weeks. The week I got home from the hospital we received our license in the mail. I remember thinking, "Wow! We waited for this and now we can't do it for who-knows-how-long." I think I forgot about it after that because my next few months were filled with healing, therapy, surgeries, etc. My mother came to live with us for a time, I went back to work substitute teaching. and prepared for summer to hit. One day...
I answered the phone. Caller ID said, "Idaho State Government." CRAP! What did we do? It was a service coordinator for Children & Family Services telling me they were taking a 2 week old infant into care and would we be interested in taking him? OF COURSE!
Over the next 7 years, to date, we have had 17 foster children. Most of them have been infants, but we had a 3 year old girl and her 8 year old brother, and another brother/sister pair that were 9 and 13. The 13 year old girl was something. She taught us a lot in the 4 days she was with us!
Just last week we got our 17th baby, a little girl. She is the most precious thing!
I love doing foster care. It is very challenging dealing with the family because they can be very hostile at times, but I focus on the fact that we are taking these precious little ones into our home to love them and care for them in the short time they are with us and, hopefully, give them something they can draw on later in life.
Our first little 2 week old baby boy ended up becoming ours forever. We knew when we consented to adopt him that he was a drug and alcohol baby. We would not know for some time, if ever, the problems he might have from it all. As it turns out, he has a seizure disorder, which can be very serious (we almost lost him once--had to Life Flight him to Salt Lake), he is developmentally delayed in many areas, and he was just diagnosed last year with Autism. He is an extreme challenge but everyone who knows him will agree that he is the most loving, friendly little (big--he is over 4 1/2 feet tall and 100 lbs & 7 years old!) boy they know. He loves everyone! And everyone should love him.
Through all this, I get the comment, quite frequently, that I am a saint. NO I am NOT! To me a saint is someone who is right up there next to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in perfectness. Not quite perfect but close. I am nowhere near that! I lose my temper frequently, (I even swear more than I should), I do not keep a perfectly clean, organized house, I sometimes have a problem with judging others too harshly, I don't read my scriptures like I should and many, many other things that do not land on the 'Saint' list. I just try my best to be patient, listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit to help guide me, and remember how much I love my family and am grateful for all Heavenly Father has given me. Because I have been given much, I, too, must give. This is the way I can give!
So, please, don't call me a Saint, because I am not. I am just a normal person who happens to love what I am doing and knows that it is my calling in life at this time.

Pretty Princess and a Cool Car

This past weekend was High School Prom. With each daughter, we told them they could get one new prom dress while they were in High School. Do you know how much prom dresses are??? Anyway...when Mataya got asked to Prom she asked us if she was going to get a new dress. John told her he would either buy her a new dress or put$400 towards a new scooter for her. Guess what she chose?! The scooter. She borrowed a dress, which I thought was beautiful.
Once she saw what color her dress was the wheels started turning. The following pictures are the outcome of her creativity, meaning the hair and shoes. Aren't they just fun?!




The traditional prom picture in front of the willow tree with Jud in the picture.
















Mataya and her date, Josh










Get a load of those shoes! She said that was the most comfortable dance she has gone to yet. I love it! Wish I would have been smart enough to think of that when I was going to formal dances.








Another great view of the pink highlights in her hair.














And look what he picked her up in!!! A brand new Corvette! His dad brought it up for him to use for the evening. Mataya said it was by far the coolest, classiest car there. And driving through town with the top down was the best! Even better than a limo because everyone could see who was in the car.


She had a super fun time and her date was a perfect gentleman the whole night. It is such a relief, as a mom, when your kids come home from a big date like that and they have had a great time. Thanks Josh and parents for making this such a memorable evening for Mataya.
p.s. Isn't she just beautiful?

My little 'Cooker Man'

Jud says when he grows up he wants to be a 'Cooker Man.' Last week John's sister, Dawn, sent him an email with a link to a web site of her business, Dawn to Dusk. She makes little aprons with matching hats for kids. John saw them and immediately placed an order with her for an orange (John's favorite color) set for Jud. We got them in the mail today and I got no peace until I started supper so he could help me. He cut up the onions for me. This is the first time I have let him use a sharp knife. He usually hacks away with a butter knife. Hope I haven't created a problem for myself. He was so proud of his new stuff and that he could help Mommy now. Thanks Dawn!

He is so proud he gets to use a big person's knife.

His eyes started burning from the onions. I was helping him try to get it stopped.

A Year and a half in the making

For a long time I have wanted to make a Log Cabin Quilt. One day, going thru my scraps of material I decided I was going to start. Being the idiot I am, I gave no real thought to what I was doing, I just started cutting out strips of material. Not until I started sewing them up did I realize how small those strips were going to be once they were sewn up! Oh well! I wasn't going to stop now!!!
I started in July, a year and a half ago, working on it pretty steady, in between gardening and canning and such. Then I had to put it away to work on Christmas projects. Another project came along, then another, then I was sewing dresses for Brittany's wedding. After Christmas this year I was pondering on some resolutions I would like to make and one thing that came to mind was "Finish some of your projects." This quilt top was on the top of the list.
I am proud to say, "I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED IT!!!" It is King size, made to fit our bed. It is just the top right now. I plan to buy some material for the back, some batting, and take it over to Boise to my friend to quilt it with her long-arm machine. No way am I going to quilt this by hand!
It is not perfect, by any means. Some of the seams are crooked, the color scheme wasn't in any real order, (was just trying to use up scraps of material I had), so I won't show the actual product to too many people so they can't see the sloppy job that was done. I hope my friend doesn't cringe too hard at all the mistakes. But guess what???!!! I am proud of it! I did it all by myself and it is my first one! After this, the strips will be bigger and much easier to put together, and all the seams will hopefully be straight and line up!

This is a close-up of a couple of blocks so you can kind of see how it was put together.

Next project? Well--I have a couple of dresses to make for my nieces, then I have some more squares cut up to make a twin quilt. They are much easier! When that is done, I have tons of old jeans I want to sew up into quilts for camping and using for picnics and such. After that....Oh man, do I have lots of ideas and patterns of quilts I want to do! I hope my children like homemade quilts because I plan on keeping them supplied!

Fun in the snow

This is the kids favorite thing to do when we get enough snow. Since we don't have any hills or mountains close by we have to get a little creative. We use to use the golf cart but now we have the 4-wheeler it is much funner. (You can get going so much faster with it!)

KC likes to 'practice' with his snowboard.

Jud's word of the day

Most everyone knows what a huge imagination Judson has. One of his latest things is to play dress-up. He likes to go down into Mataya's room and get a jacket or big shirt of some sort, get one of her scarves and wrap it around his neck, put her shower cap on his head, hang one of her bags over his arm and slip on a pair of her shoes. He will come parading upstairs as "Grandma." It gets quite hilarious some of the things he comes up with.
Today he decided he wanted to dress up his big teddy bear. He was asking Taya for things and informed her he needed the 'masks.' Mataya came upstairs almost doubled over in laughter. It took her a few minutes to figure out what he meant until he demonstrated for her. His 'masks' was a bra. We got a good laugh outa that one!

p.s. she talked him out of putting a 'mask' on the teddy bear.

Homemade Christmas Nativities

I have a thing for Christmas Nativities. I especially like to find patterns of ones I can make. This year John bought me a buffet cabinet so now I have room to display all the nativities I have collected. It is kind of fun! These are some that I have made over the past few years. Some of them were Relief Society Super Saturday projects and the bottom wood one is the very first one I made. They are kind of cheesy, I guess, but I like them!

This one is a countdown until Christmas. Jud loves to move the star each day.

This is the first set I made. I got the pattern out of a magazine and cut it out with our scroll saw. I am not a very good painter but it sure was fun to do.