Jessi and Riley visit!

My sister Jessi came down for a doctor's appointment which meant we got to snuggle with Baby Riley some :). I even kidnapped her one night so Ryder and Riley could have a sleepover. They play so well together and always have so much fun! It was a fun filled weekend and it was sad to see them leave like always :( Maybe one day they will move down here :).. probably not but wishful thinking!!

They watched the Lion King and fell asleep very quickly, they had  had a VERY busy day! Although I think I fell asleep before them!

This little boy makes my heart smile, he is getting so big and I can't squeeze him enough!

Riley loves her Shisha as she calls me! :) She even told me she wanted to live with me! I told her that sounded FABULOUS!

I love that little girl!!

Carrie Underwood and Hunter Hayes!

A few days after my birthday, I went to the Carrie Underwood concert with one of my long time BFF's Claire. We had bought the tickets around THANKSGIVING and this day seemed like it would never come! We went to a cute little place for dinner beforehand, and then headed over to the concert. Of course we had to get some pictures of us before we got all sweaty and drunk. I'm kidding, however the two girls in front of us were both and VERY entertaining to watch! :) The concert was awesome and Carrie Underwood sounded better live than on her CD's if that is even possible! It was such a fun night!

 

Birthday Fun!

Eric and I have birthdays close together so those 2 weeks is always a whirlwind of fun. Eric planned a little surprise party for me at my parents with family and friends. The adults had a lot of fun, although I think the kids enjoyed playing with each other more than anything!

For Eric's birthday we all went to San Jose for lunch and we HAD to get our friends their to sing to him while he wore the huge Mexican hat. It was so funny and I got it all on video, BUT blogger is being weird this morning and not letting me upload it unfortunately. We also had an icecream party but I never took any pictures :(. There's always next year!

Foster and Adoption Update

When we were in TN our foster caseworker e-mailed me saying she was "missing" 4 things from our file. I wanted to scream out loud. I know that they are way under staffed and way under paid, B.U.T they lose or "misplace" paperwork ALL- THE-TIME. They always say they have all of these kids that need homes and yadda yadda but they don't manage files or what needs to be done well at all. ALL 4 of the things that were "missing" I had either e-mailed her the first time she asked for them or we showed her when she was at our house. This set us back ANOTHER 2 weeks for our approval process. I had to fax her copies of everything when we got home, and e-mailed her after saying, "IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU NEED????". Of course in a nicer way, because she is the one who will hopefully give us our forever children. But man is it frustrating!! She said no and that she was going to give it to her supervisor for review and approval. (That was Thursday) I e-mailed her on Monday to see how much longer this would be to give me a peace of mind, so that I am not e-mailing her every other day asking her if its done yet. She replied that her supervisor had signed off on us, and that it would be about 2 weeks, because they have to get the head of her department's signature and the state office still. So that means on April 22nd we should be approved. I'm crossing my fingers and saying a few prayers that it goes smoothly because I'm telling yall this is ri-DONC-ulous. I keep telling Eric if they weren't the ones that call us about kids I would have been up at the office complaining to the head poncho! And you KNOW I would have gotten somewhere but I think it's more important to stay on their good side right now and just suffer through it. After all we will get the right children that are meant for us when the time is right. But man is waiting hard!

Spring Break in TN!

We headed up early Saturday morning for Nashville, and came home Wednesday afternoon. We had such a fun visit and it was so fun to visit with family and catch up. Eric and I always joke that every time we go up there we don't see each other. We are always tagging (what we say when one of us has Ryder duty) and going off to play somewhere. For me it's usually ok ALWAYS shopping (they have the neatest stores up there!) and for Eric they usually always go to play Frisbee golf and a movie, and occasionally midnight bowling. One day while we were up there the boys headed to Bass Pro Shops downtown and Ryder L-O-V-E-D it!! Here is a picture with him and a grizzly bear!

Ryder had a blast like always and it seems like every time we go up there he is getting older and older because our jobs of watching him like a hawk has gotten SO much easier! He L-O-V-E-D playing with Baby Riley (although she really isn't a baby anymore, but I hate to break it to her, her name to us will always be Baby Riley). We went to visit her house and we all rode her horse Flicka which was the most hilarious thing we did on the trip. Eric had never been on a horse before, so when he got on and seemed to be doing good, he said, "Beginner?? what beginner? I'm a pro!". As soon as the words came out of his mouth, the horse took off to some tall brush. I dropped to the concrete I was laughing so hard, if you could only see Eric with his arms spread open holding the reigns asking us, "How do you turn this thing?" You would have been on the ground too!

We went to Sheri and Scott's church on Sunday for Easter and the pastor was awesome! Although he never took a breath and was a little much for my ADD self. After church, we headed back to the house for an Easter feast, and then went to a church downtown that put on a play of the Bible called The Thorn. It was really really good, and the singers were AMAZING! It must be nice to live in such a "singer city".



I had so many people say how cute it was that we color coordinated...well it wasn't on purpose! I had gotten my dress a few weeks before Easter, and Ryder's was the last thing I could throw together in his size, and the same with Eric, but if people ask I just say, "I'm just that good". :)

The night before we left, the kids played hide and seek in the dark around midnight. We had so much fun messing with the older boys and finally decided to get in on the action. Sheri had a good idea for us to hided in their attic because they wouldn't look for us there. Well she was right because after a good 30 minutes of sitting up there we finally got out to find them all watching a movie downstairs. Evidently they had given up a while ago!

We woke up a few hours later to make the long trip back home, and we can't wait to go back again! We always have so much fun up there!

 These two are just too cute, I loved being able to love on Riley she is just too precious! And these two together are two peas in a pod!

Na Na Na Na Na Na BATMAN!

A couple of months ago Eric and I FINALLY decided on sending Ryder to our church's preschool. He will start the end of August and go 3 days a week and stay late on two days for a music class, and an art class. By the way when I went to sign him up, take a tour, and give them our deposit for next year Ryder was in HEAVEN! He wanted to go to school right away but I was about to die! I couldn't believe he was that big already. I totally balled my eyes out all the way to the car and Ryder kept asking me why I was crying. I just told him that Mommy was going to miss him when he went to school! He told me that it was ok he would come home later :) He's so thoughtful. I had been checking Pottery Barn Kids website to look for backpacks and they had the CUTEST one! I L-O-V-E-D a green and blue striped one that they had, but somehow Ryder got a glimpse of a batman bookbag. I tried and tried and tried to talk him out of it, but he wasn't having it...so yesterday we got this in the mail.

That precious little smile made that batman bookbag all worth it! :) Thinking of him going to school in a few months makes me want to freeze this moment forever....but then I hear him calling me from the bathroom and he has emptied all of my makeup into the bathtub and colored his hair with my mascara......and then I think....Maybe I'll be just fine after all :)

Weekend With Family

Last weekend was C.R.A.Z.Y!! Denise, John and Matthew came down to celebrate Addison and Ethan's birthday on Saturday with us but we had some extra fun to throw in. Friday was Matthew's birthday and we had a big plan up our sleeves for MONTHS! Denise had such an awesome idea for us to do a scavenger hunt with him, but for each of us to do something with him individually. So we all started thinking of what we wanted to do with him and I typed up some fun riddles to give him clues. Each person would pick him up and then drop him off to someone else with him having NO idea of what or who was to come, except for a hint in his riddle. It was SO MUCH FUN! I told Eric I want a scavenger hunt for my birthday!! :) He went to breakfast, golfing, shopping, buying lottery tickets, lunch, an awesome photography spot, go-cart racing, and to a music store, and the last trip was back to the house for a dinner and birthday cake! It was the best birthday ever!

Saturday we woke up early and helped Amanda and Paul set up for the party. Everyone had a blast and the kids played SO hard all day long! Ryder was out as soon as we left their house that night. We had such a fun weekend with family and friends but it always goes by way too fast! AND in other news- Can you believe Addison is 5 and Ethan is 3?!?!? I sure am getting old!