Merry Christmas!!! We have had a great Christmas so far. The kids were up at about 7:00 (well our kids had to be woke up because the other kids were up and waiting :) They were all happy with what they got so that makes me happy! Now we are home to get cleaned up and then back to Grandmas we go. :)

Wow only 12 days until Christmas!!! I am very excited for Christmas this year. I have been able to get some really super deals with my coupons and tips on sales from my fellow couponers! I can hardly contain myself!! I really hope the kids like what we picked out for them. I only have a few more things to get and do. I am almost done sewing p.j.s for the whole family. They aren't matching this year but they are all really cute. I love to make p.j.s for Christmas. They are really easy and fun. I think maybe next next year I will have Sarah help me. She loves to make things. I just need to be more patient with her. My poor sewing machine sounds horrible. It goes ka.chunk..ka.chunk..ka.chunk. I told Troy that a new one would make a nice gift for me but I don't think he agreed. O well :)

Yesterday Jimmy had a football game. We got there set up our chairs and sent Jimmy over to join his team. It was very cold! The wind was blowing and we were all wrapped up in blankets and coats. I was wishing I had a warm fuzzy hat! We were only there maybe 10 min and the boys were messing around. Jimmy and another boy ended up colliding into each other and Jimmy smashed his face into the other boys head. He came running over to me holding his face. He had a bloody nose and once we got that under control he mentioned his mouth was hurting also. So I looked in his mouth and Ahhhhhhh his front tooth was half gone!! So we called our dentist and just had to leave a message because it was after hours. He decided he just wanted to go home and not play in the game. So we were on our way home and our awesome dentist called and said to bring him in and he would look at it. He was able to fix it like new! You can't even tell it was ever broken. Luckily it didn't brake into the nerve or he would have had to do a root canal. Always an adventure!

Here is our Halloween pictures! The boys were all ninjas and Sarah was a pirate girl. Dustin kept telling people him and Cameron were twins because of their matching costumes but most of them took it literally because they are the same size. It was lots of fun walking them around with them. We only had Cameron and Dustin this year. Sarah and Jimmy went with friends.

Jimmy Cameron and Dustin

Sarah :)

I just realized I never did an updated post on the puppies! We have sold all of them. Yeah! They were of course super fun to play with but I think we found them all really great homes.

This is 5 weeks old 

This is about 7 weeks old. We only had four by then.

I gave Sadie a hair cut yesterday...she looks so funny! I only got her half done so I am going to finish her today and then I shall post the results!!! Hahahaha

So annoying!! Can I just say every time I talk to anyone that has to deal with DCFS I just get more and more pissed off! I just received an email accusing Troy and I of taking Alexis to visit everyone when we had her and took her to the zoo! Trust me we went to great lengths to follow the "rules" but yet crap like this is going on! But yet the crack heads they deal with on a daily basis do nothing wrong! I sooo don't get it! I am so frustrated!!!! You know if you people don't trust us to follow the rules and take care of her then don't flippin let us take her!!! I am so sick of being accused of crap that never happened. And yet Alexis has to put up with BS every day of her life! Her mom is a druggie and a whore. Her dad is a druggie and a criminal. I just feel so bad for her. I pray every day that things will work out for her and she will be watched over. Lord knows we have tried our best to help her and will continue to do so to the best of our abilities.

This picture was taken the day Alexis came home with us.

This one was taken the day she left.

What a difference!!!

Alexis we love you!!! Hang in there!!!

 We went to SLC to visit Alexis and WOW what a weekend. I wont go into details because I have talked to most of you but I will say I am sooo happy to be home!

 We went Hogle Zoo for the day and it was lots of fun! The kids rode the carousel and the train. We sat in the front row on the left hand side of the stadium for the bird show and had birds fly right over our heads! Mainly Troy's head! The kids had lots of fun and I think I took about 100 pictures!

Jimmy just loves his picture being taken!

This thing was pacing back and forth right in front of the glass. It turned as I took the picture so it looks like it is going to eat Dustin!!! I showed him the picture after I took it and his eyes about popped out of his head! :)

Sarah and Alexis were pretty much inseparable. Sarah carried her almost all day!

I am so glad we were able to spend they day with Alexis. I was worried she wouldn't want to go with us. She was a little shy at first but she warmed right up and we had lots of fun!

This is my favorite picture! I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! You have to admit that gorilla is pretty perky! :)

I was so excited to go to Walgreen's today! I found some really great prices and was so totally excited at what I was able to find. As you know we have 5 puppies, 2 dogs and a rat all living in our house right now. So it gets a little smelly now and then so I have been on the lookout for a candle or air freshener of some sort. So when I went to Walgreen I found the Air Wick i-motion on sale for 50% off which made them $3.99 and yeah me I had a $4.00 off coupon!!!! So I got 2 for FREE!!!! The 3 bottles of dish soap were also FREE!! I love FREE!!!

So I ended up with 4 tubes of toothpaste 6.4 oz size with free trial sizes included with each one. 4 packages of Trident gum. 3 small bottles of dish soap. 2 Air Wick i-motion smelly things. 1 toothbrush. :)

Total cost out of pocket $3.38

SCORE!!!!!

Puppies puppies and more puppies! Holly cow what a night last night. Daisy had 5 amazingly gorgeous puppies on 9-11. This is the biggest litter she has ever had. She did so good and everything was great. Sarah and I sat and watched her have all of them. The boys and Troy came in and out occasionally throughout the evening. I have been watching them very closely today to make sure they all get a turn to eat. What a job!! And I'm not even the one feeding them! They all have really great markings O' and did I mention all five are GIRLS!!! What a blessing!

Here is #1 She is a Silver Dapple

This is #1 then #2 who is also a Silver Dapple

Here's #3 she is Brown and Tan.

#4 was rather interesting...she is brown, black and white with pink feet.

Finally #5 she is also a Silver Dapple.

Daisy

 #3, #5, #4, #1 and #2

Phew !!

So I just found some great deals at Albertson's! I got 2 woman's deodorants for $1.04 each (reg $3.79), 2 Zest body washes for $1.64 each (reg. $3.99), 1 package of six bars of Olay soap for $4.30 or .72 per bar!! (reg. $8.59!), 1 package of 3 bars of Irish Spring soap for $1.34 or .45 per bar!!! (reg. $2.69), and 4 Axe shower gels for $1.37 each (reg. $5.49!).

Basically I got 10 items and paid about $1.70 per item.  :) Can you say BOO YAAH!!! Yeah baby!!!
I also got some great deals on some clearance bakery items: 8 cinnamon rolls .99, a dozen potato rolls .99, and a dozen hogie bun rolls .99. but I don't want to think about those because I can't eat any of it! Curse you HCG.....j/k I love my HCG! I am going to enjoy my Olay soap though. :)

Yesterday was a blast!!! Troy got the kids cleaning the house first thing in the morning and earning "points". When they all had earned 20 points we went for a ride to "get" their reward. We took them to Circus Circus in Vegas! They have an indoor amusement park at the hotel. It was really cool. Dustin was a little short to ride some of the rides but most of them we were all able to go on. We spent the rest of the day there and got home at about 2 am. ! We slept in today until almost 11:00! I wish I would have brought my camera! Speaking of camera.....I am wanting to get a new one :) any recommendations? I would like a digital (of course), with plenty of zoom that can print GOOD quality 8x10 picture. :)

So Troy and I are doing another round of HCG. :) Today is day 2 of Phase 2. I have been feeling a little light headed and somewhat irritated. My starting weight was 163. This morning I was 159.2. So not bad so far :) I am feeling a little hungry tonight because for lunch I only had a half of a grapefruit and a small (I am talking small!!) piece of chicken. For dinner I had a piece of chicken with cauliflower and broccoli. I haven't been eating the "bread" part of the diet because it seems like when I do I don't loose much weight. Can I just say "I love HCG!" I won't loose weight any other way!
I don't know if I am going to take a before picture. What do you think? should I post a nasty picture of my flub?
O and I think I might have broken my toe!!! It hurts so bad!!! So send me sympathy cuz I ain't gettin any here!!!

So I went to Albertsons this morning and this is the loot I came out with. :) Two boxes of each Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, four boxes of fruit snacks, five packages of hot dogs, three deodorants, one can of pringles and five tubs of Cool Whip.......I spent LESS than $8.00 !!!! That is like .33 per item. YEAH ME!!!! Coupons are good :)

We took the whole family to see Tarzan at Tuacahn last night. It was so good!!! There were apes in the air right over our heads! Tarzan and Jane were just perfect!!! Turk was absolutely hilarious!!!!! I loved it!!! We laughed so much at Turk...he wasn't really like he is in the Disney movie, but man could he dance!!! Both Tarzan and Jane were a good match. It was perfect weather to, not to cold and not to hot. Dustin got a little restless about half way through but everyone else's eyes were glued to the stage. What else can I say...it was AWESOME!!!! And it was free. My neighbor works there and she gave us tickets!!!! Thank you Sister Brown!!!! :)

Well we had a nice surprise yesterday :) After making announcements to the ward and sending e-mails to all the neighbors about the break ins......did I mention our cars got broke into 2 times. Once Tuesday night and again on friday night. Tuesday I told you they stole my TomTom and Friday night they sifined all the gas out of both of our vehicles. But anyway back to the good news.....we told everyone in our neighborhood either in person or by e-mail about what had happened. So pretty much everyone is on lookout now. But on the way home from church our neighbor just around the corner from us found our TomTom in their bushes in the front yard. We went and got it and it is still working. Unfortunately the people who found it picked it up so we couldn't get fingerprints off it. I am just glad to get it back! Now if we could just find where they put our gas......not likely but I can hope. At least it was less than $100 worth of gas. The TomTom cost more than that. So we really lucked out. I would still love to catch the people who did it!!
Sarah got her braces off today. She looks so good!!! She can't stop smiling and looking at them in the mirror. My little girl is growing up to fast!!!!! I love her tonz!!!

So today both of our cars were broken into. They took the navigation system out of mine and that's all. In Troy's they broke the dashboard and tried to get the stereo system out but failed and just ruined it instead. Dumb asses!!! The officers were able to get some fingerprints but who know if they are mine, Troy's or the kid's hopefully one of them isn't so they can catch the stupids!!! Luckily the retards didn't take Troy's $3,000.00 worth of tools he had in the back of his car! Arggggg some people are soooo stupid!!!!

Things have been kinda weird here since Alexis has gone home. The kids are in school and it is pretty quiet during the day. I have had a wave of emotions and it just seems to be getting worse. I have been cleaning the house and I keep finding more of her things. It sets me off every time.

I get to have phone calls with her starting today which is good:) I am very excited to talk to her tonight. She is just such a sweet little girl! The kids have really missed her to.

On a lighter note. We have been having fun with our chickens. We have five now. One is a white leghorn/barred rock mix, one Rhode island red, two rose comb Rhode island reds and one silver lace Wyandotte.

The Rhode island red and one of the rose comb Rhode island reds are laying eggs. The other rose comb should be laying any time now. The other two have a few months to go.

The silver lace is the most friendly of them all. The Rhode island reds all have attitudes! I guess we will eat them first! That'll show them!

O.k so summer is nearly over. The kids have two more days until school starts. They are ready to go back but not ready to go back. This summer has just gone to quickly! We haven't been able to do anything super fun. I really wanted to do some camping but it just didn't happen this year. We hope to get the boat running this winter so we can use the heck out of it next summer. We have had some really great rain storms and one very impressive hail storm. The kids and I got a little freaked out it was so bad at one point. I took a video of it because it was so nuts!

Summer is here in full swing! Holy cow it is HOT!!! It has been in the 100's already. The kids are all tan from being outside so much.
We have two chicken's that Teresa gave us and they are so much fun. We like to watch them and check for eggs. Dustin is a regular chicken catcher! He can just scoop them up. Sarah is so funny because she is afraid of them! She will hold them but not pick them up or try to catch them. FUNNY! Rat girl is afraid of a chicken!
Every one is doing good and feeling good. I sure hope it continues. :)

So we went to SLC this weekend for Kevin and Alisha's wedding. It was nice and the kids had fun. Everything was kinda crazy and confusing but it turned out good. Jimmy, Cameron and Dustin took almost all of the pictures I have on my camera from the wedding and most of them turned out pretty cool. I was impressed!
I think we got to visit with everyone for a short time and the kids loved to see their cousins again. I am so happy to be back home in the sunshine again though. My fans are running and we are in shorts and T-shirts. :) One of my tomato plants must have gotten blown over though because when I went out to check on it this morning I had to very gently stand it back up and smash the cage back down into the ground. I think it will be ok but we will see I guess.
Sue is coming to our house tomorrow and I need to do some cleaning so I guess I will stop procrastinating......

For some reason my cauliflower went funky. It was growing good and then the tops of them went kinda a purple color and almost looked like they had gone to seed. They were all spread out instead of tight together. Any way I pulled the worst one out and left the rest to see what will happen. My tomato plants are doing amazing and same with the beets. The peas have seemed to slow down and we haven't seen any peas on the plants yet. I have been so busy with kids and paperwork I have kinda neglected the garden for the last few days. I do know it is getting watered because I have seen Sarah out there doing it. She is amazing! She even did the dishes and picked up the house last night. I love it!!!! We planted corn in our front yard. I hope it grows just so the neighbors WILL think we are weird. Kuz we are. :)

The weather has been so nice for the last few days the kids have been constantly outside. I have my windows and back door open cuz it feels so nice! I think I will take the kids to the splash pad this afternoon when I pick Sarah up from school. They have been begging all week!

Cameron won some races on field day at school.

I think he is blinded by the sun in this picture :(

Sarah on crazy hair day!

Alexis on the day we brought her home. :)

Alexis being a goof ball!

Well court came and went. It was Tuesday the 27th. I guess not much happened because Matthew didn't go. I was rather surprised to hear that because they drove home so far to get him there. I am not really sure what is going through his head at this point. Mom said he "isn't going to play their game" but I don't know if he understands the consequences of not complying to what they are asking him to do. There will be another court date on May 10th and at that point they will make some major decisions for Alexis' future if he doesn't show up again. They told mom and Dad on Tuesday if he didn't show up he would loose his rights to Alexis and she would be placed up for adoption. Sadness....I just don't know what to think.

On a happier note we are all doing great! Our garden is in full swing and we have been able to harvest our radishes. The kids were so excited they just popped them in their mouths and ate them up. :) We will soon have tomatoes, peas and cauliflower to eat to! I have a cucumber and a green bean plant that just sprouted. Sarah said the green bean plant looks like Shreck because it has horns like him. Kinda funny. :)

Alexis is doing great. She is one amazing little girl! We love her so much. She has brought a special spirit to our home. It is amazing! Her belly is always poking out because she eats so much! Yesterday after dinner she held her shirt up and was rubbing her belly. It was so funny. She was looking at it like...hum this is weird why is my stomach poking out so far?

We are getting used to having another little body hear full time. Things are calming down slightly and Alexis is feeling pretty comfortable. A few more dishes and a little more laundry never killed anyone. She has had a ton of fun playing with the kids and running around in the back yard. She is such a cutie!
We went yard saleing today and found some great treasures. I found several (50) books all in new condition mostly from Deseret Book. There are some really great authors! I am so excited to get reading! The first one we are going to read is "The Secret of Nyhm" I love this story and I am sure Sarah will like the part about the rats :) We also found some pants for Sarah and Jimmy and of course a few toys for the rest of the kids. I love to find great deals at yard sales!!
We are having a block party tonight and then our ward is having a parking lot junk swap and serving desert. Yum!

Well we made it back home. We went to DCFS at 10:30 a.m. and had a meeting with the case worker, investigator and her supervisor, nurse, medicaid specialist and a licensing specialist. Mom was there also with Troy and me. We went over options for Alexis and her parents and tried to discuss what has happened and what will happen both if Matt and Deanne straighten up and if they don't. I am not so sure they have been that impressed with Matt's efforts so far. He was invited to the meeting but didn't come. He was supposed to contact DCFS as soon as he got out of jail and didn't until yesterday. He is also supposed to be drug testing twice a week and hasn't started that yet either. I was also told he currently hasn't checked in with AP&P and because of that he now has a warrant out for his arrest.
There is a court date on Tuesday the 27th that he needs to attend but I don't know if he will because if he does show up he will most likely be arrested and go to jail again.
Deanne has been sentenced for 5 months but because of over crowding she could be released at any time. She still has convictions that she hasn't been sentenced for so it may be longer than that.
We were also told they both have 8 months from the date Alexis was taken away to show reasonable effort in the requirements set by DCFS or she will be adopted out. Even if they are in jail the whole time the clock is still ticking.
Some requirement are: Stable housing, steady income, drug free, some kind of rehab for drugs and possibly domestic violence.
These will be set in stone on Tuesday the 27th.

We are going to Salt Lake City to get Alexis. We are meeting with the social worker at 10:30 in the morning and picking her up. Yeah!!!! We are soooo excited!!! Hopefully everything will go smoothly for all that are involved. We are staying at moms tonight and will probably stop at Tracy's house to pick up some stuff for Sarah tomorrow then back in the van for the long drive home with every seat belt FULL. Call us crazy. ;)

Just got told by the Salt Lake County Jail that Deanne received a sentence of 90 days so far for some of the charges she has against her. A few more are open and she has to go to court for them but most of them have been processed and she has a 90 day sentence as of now.

No home inspection yet :(

Well alot has been running through my brain lately and I feel it may explode! We have been approved to take Alexis into our home. For those of you who don't know, she is my niece and my brother Matthews daughter.
She is 3 years old and is super cute and way to smart! We are so happy to be able to have her with us. We have been making several preparations for her to come and we are all just ready for her to be here. I am hoping we can go and get her some time this week. Maybe Wednesday.? We are waiting for one last detail. Someone needs to come to our house and do a safety inspection. We are all ready and have been for almost a week. I just want it done so we can move on and get here here!
All of the kids are way excited but mostly Sarah. She is going out of her mind with excitement. She has made sure her room is perfect for Alexis to share with her. She has made Alexis's bed and put stuffed animals and dolls on it for her. She has painted several pictures for her and made sure all art supplies are well out of reach for me :) I hear Alexis has a thing for painting with nail polish :)
I haven't heard anything about Deanne or Matthew really, other than Matthew is out of jail and Deanne isn't and probably won't be out for at least 6 months. I will try to keep everyone up to date on the info I have but some I am unable to share for the protection of Alexis. I have spent so little time with her in her short three years of life but I love her so much and will do anything for her. She is definitely one of Heavenly Fathers choice spirits and we are blesses to be able to have her in our home.
Thank you for all of your prayers recently. I know they were heard because we have felt them.

Life is good......we had a nice visit from Michele and her family this weekend. It was cool to see them. We went hiking on the Dixie rock. A must when you visit. :) Free and fun! I love to go up there. It has such beautiful views and lots of fun places for the kids to climb into.

I am not working out of the home any more. :( It was fun while it lasted but I can make more money staying home! Nuts! I currently have four kids I am tending. Three are brothers. They are 6, 2 1/2 and 9 weeks old. They are all super cute and very good kids. Which makes my life easy. Then I have another little boy who is almost 3. He is a ball of energy! He is super cute and lots of fun! He keeps us all on our toes. The other day we were all sitting on the couch and he came and was trying to lick our feet! I was yucky and hilarious at the same time!

Our garden is coming along good to. We have tomato plants growing and cauliflower. The beans, beets, onions and radishes are just poking out of the ground. It is cool to see them come up. Cameron is really getting into gardening. He likes to go out and water and see if anything new has come up.

So it has been a while since I have posted.
Yesterday I learned about "Love Language". I was very interesting. Apparently Troy and I speak different languages. He speaks French and I speak .......? Well any way.... he speaks French. It was kinda cool to think of it in that term because then you focus on the language your partner speaks instead of focusing on why they don't speak your language. Hum...does any body else have this problem in their marriage or do you all speak the same language? Well this week we are planning a "date night" and I want it to be like the lame dates you have in high school where everything is planned and you do corney things. I guess they aren't really lame. But definitely corney... and a whole lot of fun!!! So I have been thinking of things for us to do and places for us to go.....it is harder than I remember but I guess that is the point. If you are thinking about fun things to do together then you are thinking less about how to murder your spouse. Some kind of reverse psychology or something. If anyone has any ideas on a date night let me know or any good hit men j/k.