2011 Remembered Sept., Oct., Nov., December

SEPTEMBER started with our family of 5 taking it's first small vacation- We went to a coastal town about 4 hours away for a long weekend- The weather was beautiful and Ellie did pretty well.  Neither Matt nor I are confident baby travelers- weird and a bit humbling but a total fact of life..........Traveling, with an infant, scares us more than moving over 3000 miles away (to an island where we knew no one blah blah blah y'all know the rest of the story).  Eli started his Soph. year of high school, Ryan started his 7th grade year, and Ellie turned 3 months!

OCTOBER- My good friend Deb's daughter Arielle was able to travel to Russia as a foreign exchange student for her senior year.......She left in Aug. and will be back sometime in the summer of 12'- The month of Oct. marked Arielle's 18th birthday- A group of ladies from our church, some dear friends of mine, were able to get together 2 times this month to celebrate our kid's birthday's (the first get together was actually to celebrate Deb's birthday but turned into a celebration of Arielle's birthday- and the second celebration was to celebrate Kristi's daughter Kailin's birthday)

Left to Right- Treva, me, Deb, Deb's mom Darlene, and Kristi

NOVEMBER.......Matt flying to Hawaii for our adoption finalization court hearing and Thanksgiving!!

DECEMBER:
We not only celebrated the birth of our Heavenly Father but celebrated our first Christmas with Ellie......
May God Bless and keep all of my blog readers this coming year and thank you so much for reading!

picture compliments of BeccaD Photography

2011 Remembered May, June, July, & Aug.

MAY brought with it the first 'official' conversation we had with our birth mom Heather, being matched (thank you so much Heather for the news personally from you on Mother's Day), and started all the behind the scenes legal aspects of our adoption.........May also brought a new driver into our house.......Our Eli Ben turned 15 on May 17th!! Ryan finished up his 6th grade year at Chiefess Middle School and Eli finished up his freshman year- Our family was headed for some BIG changes.  Some wonderful (Our precious Ellie), Some challenging (trying to decide if we should move home- the boys really wanted to stay on Kauai), and some difficult beyond what I could even communicate (the fight to get our attorney to 'step up' and manage the legal aspects of our adoption)
May ended with the boy's cousin Jess being able to make a trip over (from the main land) to visit for a couple of weeks- While he was visiting Ryan's buddy Isaiah was able to come in and hang out!

Eli and Jess

One of my favorite pictures taken at the ranch- Left to Right: Ryan, Jess, Eli, Isaiah

Ryan and Isaiah

This was a sight both Matt and I would see hundreds of times over the two year span
we were at the ranch- boogie boards hanging solo on the beach while the boys would go out swimming

JUNE 18, 2011 at 11:46 a.m. our 5lb. 3oz. Ellie Marie was born........Thank you Heather for choosing our family to raise Elle's- Thank you Lord Jesus for such a precious gift......

Heather holding Ellie for the first time

Me holding her for the first time

In JUNE we also celebrated Ryan's 12th Birthday- Hands down it was one of the funnest birthday parties I have ever attended :) Lots of boogie boarding, sitting by the fire cooking hot dogs for dinner, and wrestling.....good ol' fashioned boy fun!

The candles broke in half!

JULY and AUGUST........
Life was in a fog of getting up every 2 hours all night long with Elle's, Matt finishing up working at the ranch, (we decided to move back to Oregon) and more struggles with our attorney in Hawaii- trying to get our adoption court date set so our adoption could finalize..............

2011 Remembered March & April

MARCH of this year marked several memorable events- The first being our friends Antone and Dionne (that I mentioned in yesterday's post) had their daughter Malia dedicated at their church.  Matt and I were able to stand up with them and be part of their story.....We have the privilege of being a part of 'Lilys' life as her Uncle and Auntie and thank God for her.  

Malia.....this and the below pic are compliments of Malia's Tu Tu (grandma in Hawaiian) Mary

MARCH also marked the devastating earthquake/tsunami that hit Japan........The physical effects were felt by us on Kauai in that those of us living in low lying areas close to the ocean had to evacuate due to a tsunami warning issued- Our family, along with several guests that were staying at the main house evacuated.  (For more info and pics you can read THIS BLOG POST)

APRIL- The weather on Kauai was changing and warming up, Our Friends John and Val had their baby (Jayme Girl!!!!), My Oklie turned 3, and we decided- as a family- to make a trip back to Oregon to celebrate Easter and make some final decisions whether we wanted to stay in Hawaii or move home.....It was on this trip to Oregon that our attorney from Hawaii called to tell us about Heather our birth mom- 

A typical April day at the beach-

Jayme and her mommy Val

Oklie's 3rd Birthday pic- As a gift we took her to the beach so she
could hunt sand crabs :)

This is the view you get on a typical flight 3000 miles over the pacific
when flying to Hawaii.........ocean, ocean, and more ocean!!!

2011 Remembered Jan. & Feb.

In JANUARY we had been living on Kauai for a little under 2 years- Ryan spent a greater part of the month home from school and at the doctor's office because of Asthma and Pneumonia.  Matt and I were trying to decide if we were going to resign our contract at the ranch to stay on for at least another year or if we were going to move back to Oregon.  The 'butterfly' bushes around the ranch were full of leaves and Caterpillars (which would lead to one of the most spectacular views I have ever witnessed- hundreds and hundreds of butterflies would hatch- once they had let their wings dry they would fly around, following each other, usually in a single file line- It always made me think of a giant kite tale).  Jan., Feb., and March, in my opinion, finds Hawaii at it's finest.  The trade winds are blowing and the temp. is over all cooler (cooler meaning high 70's low 80's)- This past Jan. on Kauai we had consistent rain that lead to a flood in our front yard.  The boys enjoyed paddle boarding and canoeing in it.

Still can't believe Matt 'posed'- usually I am the only one with my boys looking on

FEBRUARY-
We ended Jan. with Ryan breaking his hand playing football at school and started Feb. with him getting it casted.  We were all ELATED when the kind doctor looked over at Matt and I and said 'if your son would like to continue swimming with his broken hand you can go over to the pharmacy and buy (out of pocket because insurance would not cover) water-proof casting!'..........Eli was busy making his way through his freshman year at Kauai High and teaching himself how to be a better hunter/hiker.  That boy can out hike anyone I know- he just keeps going and going.......... :) Our friends, Mary and Martin, were coming into town from the Main land to visit their kids Antone and Dionne- They were able to stay with us for a few days- We had a 'cook out' (Julie S. I always think of you every time I use the work cook out) while they were staying.  Mary made her famous sour cream cheese cake -Her father owned a restaurant on Oahu while she was growing up- the recipe was made famous there- It is Delicious!

On a total side note- John Travolta and his family visited Kauai last Feb.  This is
his personal plane

Mary and her cheese cake :)

This picture holds a very special place in my heart- I distinctly remember holding baby M. that day
begging God in my mind to let me one day soon be holding our baby girl.......God is SO GOOD as it was
3  5 months later (oops I accidentally put 3 months instead of 5) - almost to the day- that I would hold our Ellie

We Are Blessed

So very Blessed.........

Blessed because we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Matthew 1:23

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel-  

Which means 'God with us.'

City Chickens part 2

The gentleman helping me at the farm store told me that he could order in chickens that lay white eggs but the cost would be high and the wait time would be 6 weeks- I had him order 20............

In between the time the chickens were ordered and the time they arrived we started having problems with a cat- The cat was wild with absolutely no desire to become domesticated- It was able to do things that usually only larger animals can do- tip over large outdoor trash cans, causing the lid to fall off and the contents to spill- We would constantly have maggoty trash throughout our yard.  It stole a steak off of the bar-b-que in front of stunned guests at the main house (we were care taker's for several years on a ranch in Hawaii)- And went as far as banging it's body against one of the doors at the main house so it could get in.  The guest staying at the time called down to our house alarmed that the cat was crazy :)

This is a total side note:  From what one of my facebook friends said, one way to tell what the color of the egg will be is by the color of the earlobe on a chicken..........I'll have y'all know that the gentleman at the feed store where I bought my chickens told me that the color of the chicken determined the color of the egg!! I picked up 20 WHITE chickens......I Wiki'd the correct answer and my facebook friend was definitely in the know and feed store man was wrong!

When we picked the chicken's up I think I bought every accessory offered- food, food dish, water dish, vitamins, shavings for the bedding, a 'chick-a-brush' which was used to brush the wing and breast feathers at least one time per day- this was supposed to help in the emotional growth of the chickens- The feed store man assured me that happy chickens would lay lots of eggs!!.......................completely kidding about the chick a brush.....hee hee hee hee

I have to get to the point of this post cause I need to get dinner started.........

I NURTURED MY CHICKENS for 6 weeks- got them ready to spend their first night under the star lit Hawaiian sky- I put them in a large dog kennel outside that was completely enclosed except for a small portion of the roof- no worries though because the roof was 7 feet off the ground..........

I came out in the morning to feed and brush (LOL) the chickens and found 19 heads separated from bodies and 1 terrified chicken hiding in the corner- It was a crime scene for sure!  We will never know exactly what happened but from what we could gather the cat scaled the chicken coop- got inside and beheaded the chickens (had they only known that they outnumbered that cat- they could have, as a combined group, given that cat a pecking it would never forget).

A lot of hard work, time, and money went into my experience with chickens........It really was a disaster!

In my mind this is what the cat looked like! Same color and everything :)

Our Christmas tree the first year we were in Hawaii

City Chickens part 1

Part 1 of 2
We currently live in the city limits, in a small track house, on a medium size city lot (1/4 of an acre)- The house that shares our back fence is a vacant foreclosure, the house to the back left has tenants that chronically fight and leave their back door open even in freezing temp. so the whole neighborhood can hear their fights, the house to the right has tenants that play ping pong outside at all hours of the day and night, and the house to the left are stealthy- you never hear them coming or going and really never see them.  I have been debating about  getting chickens (I think we can have 3 by law in the city limits).........I am wondering if getting a few chickens would be rude to do to my neighbors (although I would rather hear chicken noises than the neighbors fighting!) and I am wondering if I would have another failed attempt at raising chickens?

A couple of years ago I went over to my sis in law Liz's house and noticed that they had a chicken coop with chickens in their back yard- There home is a lot like our's in that they live in within the city limits in a community that has homes close by- When I asked her about it she said that the laws of their city allowed for a certain amount of chickens (I want to say between 3 and 6)-
We were living on Kauai at the time, on a large ranch that could easily accommodate several chickens.  This will come as no surprise to those that know me but for those of you that do not- I am not a natural at farmy type things- I see the world in pretty not practical- scooping poop out of farm animals pens would be more on the practical side- BUT after being at my sister in law's house, who has a great mix of pretty and practical, I was determined to teach myself a bit of the farmy practical-
When I got back to Kauai from my visit to Oregon, I found a feed and farm store about 15 minutes out of the town we lived in (we lived in Lihue and the farm store was located in Kilauea)- When I called to ask about chickens I knew that if this venture was going to work out- the chickens would have to lay white eggs- Since childhood, brown eggs have never sat right in my mind- I will say it till my dying day- something brown coming out of the backside of an anything should never be eaten..........
The gentleman helping me at the farm store told me that he could order in chickens that lay white eggs but the cost would be high and the wait time would be 6 weeks- I had him order 20............

Ryan :)
I thought I had a picture of the chickens but can not seem to find it-

____________________________

From Our Family To Yours...

May God Bless and keep you during this coming year- and May you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

P.S. We did not send out a Christmas Card this year- It was a hard decision as this is the first time in 17 years we did not send one out- Thank you to all of you that have sent us cards- they are hanging in my living room for all to see!! Looking forward to sending our cards out next year!  Again, Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Happy 6 Month Birthday Elle's

God will Bless and keep you always precious girl- Happy 6 Month Birthday

Who Text's and Take's Picture's in Church Anyways?

ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee!
O.K. so the whole texting is because our church nursery has us leave our phones on vibrate so they can text  if they need us to come get our child..........although I did text my friend Deb once cause when I walked into church I caught a glimpse of how cute her hair looked but did not have a chance to tell her......AND our pastor did ask us to greet one another..........so I greeted my friend via text while in Church!
Today was the first time I have taken a picture in Church (during the service)- I looked over at Ryan and Ellie (she usually goes to nursery but sat with us today) and could not resist- Thank goodness we were sitting in the back so it did not draw any attention.......Such a precious pic!!
The rest of the pictures were taken this week randomly-
Hope your Sun. is going great!!

laughing...........

Can you believe the size of that Cinnamon Roll!! It was Delicious

Ellie 25 Weeks Old