Home-made Hawaii

We were supposed to go to Hawaii last February. That was before we started doing foster care and had 5 kids to watch around sand and water (and the expenses to go along with it!). It would have been fun....the kids have often reminded us that they missed out!

Every once in a while a good idea pops in my head and I actually follow through with it - today was one of those days. I was pulling flowers off my pansy plants and there was quite a pile. I thought, "Wow, those could be strung together to make leis". "Nah, that would take too much time...the flowers are wilty...the girls will think it's dumb" was my self-talking response. Nevertheless, I sat down and decided to go with it! Here's the materials:

And here are the very happy recepients (well, the 2 out of 3 girls I can show you right now):


I pulled out the slip 'n slide, mini blow-up pool and the sprinkler for the trampoline. I filled up the little plastic sink with water and told them to have at it...we were having a Hawaiian STAYcation! We will grill for dinner and I'm playing Hawaiian music on Pandora.com. Now I'm off to make smoothies for the tourists!


This guy doesn't seem to be as convinced...maybe he needs some flowers in his hair!


P.S. We are moving from foster care towards adoption for the 2 kids in our care...we hope to have it completed by the end of summer. Updates to follow and lots of pictures when we're through! :D

Whoosh! There it is!

How does time go by so fast!?!?! Well, for me, it goes a little something like this... (a pictorial review of where the time went)

First, this girl had her 10th birthday:


Then you throw in a little of this:


And every day after school (when it wasn't SNOWING!) there was lots of this:

AND THIS:

On St. Patrick's Day we couldn't find Shamrock Shakes so we ended up making our own and started a new family tradition like this:


Another little girl (my baby) had a princess blow-out birthday party like this:


And this past weekend my good hubster made sure the kids got to do this:


And then yesterday there were attempts to take nice Easter photos that ended up looking more like this:


That's where I've been for the past 2 months - how about you?

TGIPIFF!

Thank Goodness it's Pay It Forward Friday!!!

A good friend (yes, you know who you are!) had a "Pay it Forward" challenge on her blog. I gladly raised my hand to receive a lovely gift from her and in return agreed to do the same right here! So...the first five folks to leave comments will get something handmade from me. I can't promise what it will be - maybe something sewn, scrapbooked, papered, baked, typed, printed, etc but it will definitely be from the heart! I CAN promise that it will be free of crayon marks and fingerprints from 5 little urchins that live within the four walls of our home!

The rules:

1. leave your comment with a link to your email if I don't already have it

2. you must agree to pay it forward by doing the same on your blog, or if you don't have a blog on Facebook or email

3. wait patiently for your handmade item

4. pay your own item forward!

Isn't the domino effect grand!? Happy paying!

January Update

It's the 23rd already! Isn't it still the first week of the New Year or something like that!? What happened here??? I had some really good intentions to start this new year with a blogging bang and be really faithful and devoted to writing weekly at least and here we are at almost the end of January and hmmm....I'm already behind!

In a nutshell here's what I've done so far this month:

2009 came in with a tiny bang - rung in at 10:00 pm (EST) for the little kids and for me I fell asleep on the couch at around 11:35pm while watching TV. Oh, the good old days when I could stay up well past midnight!

I turned 42 and interestingly enough it doesn't feel that much different than 41, yet!

School went back in session and there isn't enough woo hoo's or Woot Woot's! in the world to cover that one!!! Christmas break was 'too too much' of everything!

My foster daughter went from 3-years old to 4-years old, although if you ask her how old she is she will hold up one finger and say "One". Hmmm....sometimes it's four, sometimes five and occasionally four. She has the bestest, curliest hair you've ever seen. Here's a photo - I love to wrap my fingers around it and twist it for relaxation purposes.

I started a "Women on Weights" program at our local community center - lifting weights twice a week (plus cardio 4-5 times a week). Yep, just me and the fire men in the weight room...it's a tough gig but I've got to get my 'me' time in!

We've hit a major bump in the 'foster care' road this past week - more on that later, but it was bound to happen. I've discovered that there is support for any situation and I value my family, husband and friends even more during the lows!

Big D started cub scouts - I don't like it but I love him and I do enjoy seeing him get excited about the activities and badges. I'm not going to be a den mother though...so whoever makes those types of calls and requests, let it be known!

American Idol is back on and Lost has returned - can I hear a Woot Woot!

I have made a commitment to do more blogging - don't get all excited and hopeful about seeing something every week but I figure even once a month will be better than last year! I also am planning on 'slurping' last year's posts into a hard-bound book and calling it my journal. Whew! can get that monkey off my back and not have to worry that I'm a complete failure in the scrapbooking, family history, personal history, letter writing and journaling campaign! Seems 2009 is looking up!

Birthday Boy

This little baby boy has a birthday today - he's turning 8.

This little baby boy is still as cute as ever except he's grown quite a bit taller and will be passing up his mom before long.

This little baby boy doesn't have his curls anymore because he likes keeping it short - a #2 shield with the clippers.

This little baby boy still does toilets and hardly grumbles when asked to help clean the bathroom.

This little baby boy loves Lego Star Wars on Wii and it was his favorite toy yesterday from Santa.

This little baby boy can play the piano like nobody's business - who knew that those little chubby hands would turn long and slender, just right for playing piano.

This little baby boy still has huge dimples in his cheek and chin and now that he's a bigger boy he's completely unaware what that will do to girls some day.

This little baby boy has the most amazingly blue eyes that still can do his mom in when she's trying to say 'No' to him - it never works!

This little baby boy turned out to be a great big brother and is still a good little brother - who doesn't mind being 'girl trapped'.

This little baby boy can play soccer and basketball and is a really fast runner.

This little baby boy has grown up to be a wonderful son and loves his family and Heavenly Father.

This little baby boy is having a birthday... Happy Birthday Son!

This little boy has a birthday...

This one pictured here!

Father in Heaven bless him,

Throughout the coming year.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear baby boy

Happy Birthday to you!

Love you Always,

Mom

Compromise

We are finally done wrapping all of our Christmas gifts - woo hoo! Growing up, Santa never wrapped our Christmas gifts. We would wake on Christmas morning and walk out into the darkened room lit up by the Christmas Tree. Underneath the tree, each of our presents would be grouped in a pile next to our stockings. They always looked magical in the glow of the twinkle lights and we would race to find our stocking so we knew which pile was ours. (It was pretty obvious the year I got my favorite 'Puddin' doll and my brother got a GI Joe.) It wasn't until my younger brothers were much older that Santa started wrapping gifts and putting them under the tree. With 7 children, I think it might have saved Santa a little bit of time, at the Covey household, just leaving them unwrapped.

The Big Easy, on the other hand, grew up with Santa wrapping all his Christmas presents. He said the fun for him was not knowing what was inside until the wrapping paper was completely off. They took turns watching each other open gifts and the fun was guessing what each odd-shaped box would hold.

When we started having children of our own we had to decide what we would ask Santa to do - wrap or leave them unwrapped??? I have to admit that unwrapping a gift does add quite an element of surprise and suspense. We started with our oldest and had Santa wrap the majority and leave the biggest toy out - or the one that might have to be put together or odd-shaped. That tradition has continued. We compromised - now Santa wraps them all and if there is something that is too unusual to wrap or needs to be put together in order to be played with on Christmas Day, he leaves that out. Like our youngest's play kitchen last year and the trampoline in it's huge box. I think it's a good arrangement.

With six children this year I think Santa has his hands full for the gifts at our house. Even though I think each child will get a modest amount of gifts - when you add that up its a lot of wrapping! I've talked to several friends and family members and its funny how there really is a 50/50 split on how everyone grew up with Santa wrapping or not. I bet there's been a lot of compromise happening through the years where gift wrap is concerned. Happy wrapping! (or not!)

The eyes have it!

It's Birthday time around our household! Not only is it Christmas next week and our anniversary tomorrow but....it was this guy's birthday last Saturday, the 13th of December:

And it's this guy's birthday today (our littlest guy that we're being foster parents to):

And next week, the day after Christmas, is this guy's birthday - he's turning 8 and will get baptized on January 3rd!

I'm thinking that besides the fact that we're completely broke, partied out and overrun with gifts by the end of December - I'm pretty much surrounded by some cute guys! And what about all these eyes!???? In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a sucker for eyes and it's hard for me to say "no" when they flash their baby blues, browns and greens at me!