random February pictures

I obviously have not been as faithful at blog posting as I have been in the past. I think this is due in part to the fact that I don't take as many pictures any more. Also, I've been working on painting my doll house in the evenings instead of blogging. (No, I'm not ready to show any new pics of the doll house...)

Here are a few pictures I did manage to take this month.

This is Megan with one of her favorite toys: play-dough. I really hate the mess it makes, so at first, I was trying to make her keep it all on a plate, as seen in the following picture. I have since decided that keeping all your play-dough on a plate is completely lame and un-kid-like. Now I let her use the table. In the picture below, Megan is showing off her prized play-dough items of the day: a banana, cereal, & pizza. Notice her cheesy smile? That's the only smile we are getting nowadays.

In this next photo you might think Megan looks like a mermaid. No, she didn't grow a fin; she just has a dress on. Let me explain: Megan adores dresses. She would wear them every day if I would let her. Well, Megan's Nana gave her this little ballerina dress and she wore it all day at Nana's house. When we came home the dress was dirty, so I threw it in the laundry basket. I made sure Megan was not looking when I did this, because I knew she would be upset. I also completely covered it up with other clothing, so that, in the off-chance she looked in the basket, she would not see the dress. Well, the next morning I was in the basement exercizing. I came back upstairs and she had that little dress wedged up her body just as you see below. It was so funny to me. I still have no idea how she thought to go up to the laundry room and dig through the laundry basket to find her dress, but I suppose that love finds a way! And, dresses are definitely one of her loves. What a silly goose.

Utah has such strange winters lately. This year we haven't had much snow at all. I think we've only had two snowstorms (maybe 3) with a few inches each. I have tried to give Megan the opportunity to go play in the snow whenever possible. It's silly, though. She doesn't usually get down and play too much because she'd rather have her hands in her pockets than anywhere else... but that's beside the point. I went outside with Megan one day and we made her first snow man! She was obsessed with Frosty the Snowman all throught the Holidays, but didn't seem as excited about actually making one. I think next time we will make a smaller one- one that is more her size. Nevertheless, here she is with the snowman. I think it's funny to look at the snowman's face... it looks very worried.

This last picture is of Megan with one of her favorite friends: her cousin Kienan. We get them together at least every week for a playdate and they have become quite good friends.  It is so adorable to watch them play together and laugh and actually get along! The other day, at their playdate, they both were given a snack. Without a word, they were up on the couch, sitting close together, eating their snacks. So cute!

And that's it! This is the 4 different times I took pictures this month. Pretty pitiful, considering the fact that we took over 500 pictures in Megan's first week of life!

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Since November

I took a bird's-eye view of my blog the other day. I realized it was just... a LOT of words. I haven't even posted a picture of Megan since November. November! I'm sorry, folks. Here I am yappity-yappin' my big-mouthed words, and I'm not even giving you what you want.

(because I know that what you want is pictures of Megan...)

So here are a bunch of cute pictures from the last couple months for those of you who want them:

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This is Megan with my mom, "Grandma", who taught Megan how to say "yyyyyyyyeeeeeesssssssss!"

Megan likes to pretend she is putting on mascara (I wonder where she got that from?)

I love this picture: Megan in my shoes, a purse, and a camera. Just like mommy.

(Oh, and T's arm. He wanted the camera...)

Megan loved this snowman from Grandma. We had to sing Frosty the Snowman to her at bed time for several weeks.

Megan got to be an angel on Christmas Eve for the family Nativity. She was obviously thrilled, as evidenced in the picture...

I absolutely love the following picture of Megan and her cousin on Christmas Day:

One of Megan's favorite Christmas gifts was a cleaning set.

Why not teach her while she's young?

I always forget to take pictures of Evie and Megan. This time I remembered.

(note to Evie's mom: feel free to steal this pic off my blog)

That's it, folks! I hope to upload a couple of videos of Megan soon.

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a fixer-upper

I have picked up what might seem like rather strange  hobby for a new 30-year-old. I tell myself it's not that weird because I know other people like to do the same thing. However, I may only be kidding myself, and maybe I am quite strange after all. Either way, I am totally excited and just need to share.

When I was around 10 years old, I asked for a dollhouse for Christmas. I'm not talking about a barbie dollhouse; I'm talking about the wooden kind that comes in a kit and you put it together, paint it, add carpet & wallpaper & little miniature furniture. My parents obliged that Christmas. They bought me a dollhouse kit that I would put together with my dad. They also bought me a few beautiful pieces of furniture. Well, my dad & I never put the kit together and then I left home, got married, and so on. I think the kit eventually was given away. I have always kept the mini furniture in hopes I would one day again be able to have a dollhouse.

As my 30th birthday approached, I thought I needed some kind of project to do... something for me... so I thought about it and decided I wanted a dollhouse. Undortunately, the price of dollhouse kits has skyrocketed in the past 20 years so I opted to buy a used one. I found one online for a great price, which also included oodles of furniture. This house is a fixer-upper. It needs to be repainted and needs some fixing up inside. Doors need hinges, floors need carpets, and walls need paint. So, this year I will start working on those basics, and worry about the rest of the furniture later.

I'm so excited about this that I seriously don't want to do anything else with my extra time. So, here is a picture of my gorgeous dollhouse. I don't know what color/s I will paint it, but it won't be the same by the time I finish.

And, here is the inside: 10 rooms and lots of furniture to boot.

Maybe I'll throw in a couple pictures along the way as I fix it up. I'm excited! Happy 30th birthday to me!

foster pictures

So, there is this rule in foster care that you can't post any pictures anywhere online of your foster kids. I definitely understand this rule; part of protecting children is protecting their online identity, and you have to be more careful about... everything... with foster children. I totally get it. It makes sense and I agree with the rule. The only thing is: it's just slightly annoying.

You see, I take pictures fairly often. I conveniently keep our camera on the piano so that I can snap pictures of the kids whenever they're doing something cute. The only problem is that, nowadays, Megan does many of her "cute" things with her foster siblings. This creates a problem. Instead of just grabbing the camera and snapping a quick picture, I have to move around the children in such a way as to not get T or B in the shot- just in case the picture ends up on my blog.

Then, I go a step further. I decide that it's okay to have a picture of T's back or a picture of B's foot... because, hey, they can't be identified by that. So, then I try to get a picture of Megan with a foster child in the background. After all, I'm blogging about our life and I want pictures of those kids, even if it is just of their pinky toe.

Furthermore, you see, I have all these bloggy plans to post cute pictures of Megan with B's elbow, or pictures of Megan and T's forehead, and then I never even post them. I am just wasting time trying to snap the right kind of pictures. It's just plain silly.

Cases in point:

Back in August I snapped this picture, which was to show that sometimes Megan and T actually do get along:

... and in the same post I was going to explain that the only way we can get them to eat without being a bad example to each other is to sit their high chairs in the following fashion:

Oh, and if you look closely in the following picture, you can see T's little hand in the left bottom corner. I was going to talk about the first round of Flu that went around the house, and that this picture was taken just minutes before Megan barfed all over this pretty new dress from Grandma.

I was also going to use the following picture to show how sweet Megan can be with the baby (though I admit this one almost crosses the line with the amount of baby-face-showing-ness):

Using this next picture, I was going to discuss how grateful I am for our van and that Megan and T have a grand old time sitting in the back together, taking off their shoes and singing songs... and falling asleep after all that fun:

In this picture below, I was going to talk about how, at Megan's birthday party, when I gave the kids stickers and crayons, little T (you can see his sleeve and his ear on the left) was the first one to stick a sticker on his nose. Then, Kienan & Megan followed suit. Oh yeah, I was also going to talk about Megan's birtday party (at which we danced, colored, built stacks of blocks & knocked them down, and danced some more):

And, lastly, I had plans to write a post about this cute little pumpkin patch here in our town. We took the kids about a month ago and they loved playing in the corn pit. (Now that you're a pro at finding pictures of T's various body parts, can you find him in these pictures?):

Now that you've seen a post full of backwards and half-shown children, I'm sure you're a little annoyed, too. It sure would be nice if you could see their cute little faces! Oh well... I suppose you'll just have to drop by for a visit, then.

bona fide Halloween

As you might remember, my wonderful, older & wiser sister Jazz-Frazz-Razz-Ma-Taz-Alcatraz, a.k.a. "Jasmin," lives in a little country off the coast of Saudi Arabia called Bahrain. She and her family have lived there for about a year now.

My mother recently traveled to visit her, and while there, picked up a beautiful outfit for Megan. I think I remember my mother saying it is supposed to be an "Arabian Princess" outfit. It is something that a little girl in Bahrain might buy to wear as clothing- not as a costume. Additionally, the scarf was bought in India several years ago by my father.

However, living in the United States, a bona fide Arabian outfit quickly becomes a Halloween costume.

One look at our Megan in this outfit and my heart pitter-pats:



She's just so darn beautiful and adorable and cute and I still can hardly believe she's mine.



Here's a picture of Megan & her cousin (we coudn't find his football helmet but I'm sure it would have been super cute).



And, here is a picture of Megan & her friend Evie at our church Halloween party. (Evie was Toto from the Wizard of Oz). These two girls just make me smile.



When all is said and done- when the children have trick-or-treated and all the hype is gone- I do feel a bit guilty. I feel guilty that we dressed the kids up, taught them how to trick-or-treat, filled their buckets up with candy, and then put them straight to bed. We then proceeded to hide any evidence that Halloween ever existed, including their buckets and candy. I feel bad that they don't get to eat their candy, but, hey, I'm sure they'll make up for it in years to come.

10 randoms

Here are 10 random pictures in no particular order that I would have liked to possibly blog about in more detail. Unfortunately, all you're gonna get instead are pictures and a few words.

#1: For the first month after getting our foster children I almost entirely neglected Megan's hair. This was the most I could do with it, but, obviously, Megan is too young to care.



#2: This is Megan in her cute Sunday dress (bright colors look SOOOOO good on her)-- just before she barfed all over it.



#3: When I finally got around to doing her hair again I tried out this 'do and I was really happy with it.



#4: Here is Megan in a good mood.



#5: Megan thinks that having a diaper on her head makes a really neat hat.

#6: We went to a picnic with hundreds of other kids who have been adopted through our agency. Megan had a blast. (I must admit, I wanted to jump out there myself. Oh, to be a kid again...)



#7: Cousin Oriana came to visit. Here she is with Megan and cousin Kienan.

#8: This would be a picture of Megan holding her little cousin Henry... or a picture of my sister, Jasmin, and I. She flew out here with her youngest son to see me for a few days before she headed back to Bahrain. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures! Boo!

#9: Now that we have a baby in the house Megan likes to do baby things. Sometimes cute; sometimes not-so-cute.



#10: Why are children always so cute when they're asleep...? (note: I love our Swagger Wagon. It rocks.)



That's it. Toldya it was random. Adios.

not enough time

There are so many things I have wanted to blog about lately. Problem is: I just have no time. Between these three little tykes, church work and the new choir I joined (yes! I joined a community choir and it is sooooo great) I'm lucky to have a few hours with my husband every week.

Unfortunately, blogging has become a things of the past.

Some of the things I wanted to blog about are:

How AMAZING Jared has been. Seriously, I wanted to dedicate a blog post just for this foster dad. He isn't just super dad; he's holy-cow-the-most-awesome-incredible-super-dad-in-the-entire-universe.

How happy I am that my husband supports my music enough to let me join a choir and be away from the family just a little bit more... while he picks up the slack.

How nice it is to finally have a musical outlet for singing.

How life is getting easier now with all the kids, but they are leaving in a month. Ugh.

My sister coming to visit me for a few days.

How darn cute these kids are.

Funny things about Megan.

... other stuff I can't think about now.

Children are awake so I must be going. At least I had five minutes to blog.

a Tale of Two Toddlers

Once Upon A Time, in the Roberts Kingdom, young Prince T joined the Castle de Megan. Despite her intense cuteness and sweet nature, Princess Megan became a meanie-head.

Princess Megan did not like the new prince. Prince T used her toys, ate her snacks, stole her bedroom chamber, and took the attention of her King & Queen.

The prince and princess both wanted reign in the kindgom. Both wanted the toys. Both desired the snacks. Both wanted undivided attention from the King & Queen. Consequently, chaos erupted.

This chaos forced the King & Queen to take drastic measures in the cookery.  The prince and princess could not be seated in view of each other, as this would ensue screaming and jealousy, so the young royalty was seated as evidenced below:

This screaming and jeaousy continued most every day, all day. There were special moments, however, when the prince and princess actually got along, as shown below.

And, these were the moments the King & Queen lived for.

3 weeks with 3 kids

As a lot of you know, our house has been busy lately.

Without going into too many details, we ended up taking in a couple foster children 3 weeks ago. In addition to our own little fireball, we have a little boy, "T", who is 20 months old, and his little sister, "B," who is 5 months old. Yep, that's 3 children under the age of 2. Sufficeth to say, we have our hands full...

...which would explain why I haven't blogged in a while.

To be honest, the first week and a half I shed many tears. Many. tears. Tears for me (because I was having a difficult time handling it all), tears for Megan (because she no longer had us to herself and was having a hard time), and tears for the new children in our home (for many, many reasons). My tears have since subsided, but I certainly do have moments where I want to hide in the basement until my husband gets home from work.

It has been quite an adjustement for me as a mother. I always knew that the day could come when my life would change. I always knew that one day I would go from a mother of one, to a mother or 3 or 4- without any notice. What I didn't always know was how hard it would be. I have struggled with many things, but it is getting easier as time goes on. And, as I'm sure happens with many other foster parents, by the time I get down a routine and actually enjoy every moment- the kids'll go home. But that's what foster care is all about: kids going home.

So, for a while, my husband and I will love 3 children instead of one. We now have 3 mouths to feed, 3 bodies to bathe, and 3 messes to clean up. But, more importantly, we have 3 children to hug, 3 minds to inspire, and 3 souls to love.

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I'm probably jealous of you

If you are currently growing a garden, I'm probaby jealous of you.

My garden has always been special to me. I suppose it is because I used it for therapy and treated it as my baby until we were able to be parents. My garden always made me happy because I would take good care of it and it would grow like crazy. Not to mention, I love all the fresh veggies!

This year, I apparently have no garden-parenting skills. I haven't been neglectful, but I certainly haven't carressed it. By this time of year my garden is usually huge, as evidenced by the picture below from last year at this time:

But, instead, I have this:

Maybe it doesn't look too bad, but compared to my typically thriving garden, this year has been a complete failure. I haven't yet been able to harvest anything. I have a few small, green tomatoes growing but that is all.

I had big plans for my garden this year. I was going to learn how to can salsa and I even was going to grow the onions and the peppers myself. Now I suppose I will probably be buying my salsa for the next year instead.

I am so sad.

I am blaming this failure on the insanely cold weather and all the rain we had after I planted. But, I can't help feeling bummed about it.

On the bright side, if this is all I'm bummed about then I've got it pretty good!

my Beautiful in orange

It's been a while since I've posted and so now I'm playing catch-up. Back in June we had some family come in town. One day we went to a park in the canyon and I got some cute pictures.

This first one is Megan & Uncle Tyler on the pole. I'm not quite sure what the poles are supposed to be for, but apparently they are for climbing. Megan tried many times to climb up the pole, but, even though she is a little monkey, she just could not do it.

Uncle Tyler was later moving the poles around the ground and Megan was upset that she could not move them, too. This picture was taken after I had Megan settle for just sitting on the bottom of the pole:


Sweet cousin Elise is so good & sweet with Megan. She is wise beyond her years and very patient with the little ones:

And, lastly, this picture is Pure Megan: outside with a stick in her mouth.

And, I have to say- doesn't Megan look stunning in orange?

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Coupon Craziness

For the past 5 years or so I have been telling Jared that "someday I'd like to try doing that couponing thing."

Well, a few months ago Jared took me up on it. I went to a free class and the girl showed us how to easily organize coupons- which, by the way, is not a lot of clipping- and how to find the deals. I am using the website http://www.grocerysmarts.com/. Basically, you use coupons and buy things that are already on sale so that you are paying cents instead of dollars. I now get 5 copies of the Sunday newspapers so I can get 5 times the good deals. I don't care so much about the news as I do about the coupons.

The class was very exciting and I could not believe how easy it all seemed. Well, I finally had enough coupons this week to give this coupon-shopping thing a try. It definitely seems to have paid off, as evidenced below:

I paid about $14 for all of this, which costs at least $85 to your average shopper. (If you can't tell, that's 6 boxes cereal, 24 rolls TP, 5 packs fancy women's razors, one men's fusion Gillette razor, 1 toothbrush, 1 toothpaste, 1 box bandaids, 1 deoderant, 1 sunburn lotion). I could have gotten at least $36 more of free stuff, but the stores were out of them.

Though I got such great deals, it did come with a price. The price? My time. I spent easily 5-6 hours this week figuring out what I was going to buy and where I was going to buy it. (It shouldn't have taken so long but I am a novice). Then I spent at least another 2-2.5 hours traveling to stores, only to find that all the sale items were sold out. It seems that unless you get there at 4:00 a.m. you're not going to get the free stuff- even if you go on the day they get the shipments in.

I learned my lesson and I'm not going to try and get free stuff all the time. It's just not worth it. I'm going to shop when I shop and if they have the free stuff, great. If not, I'll still get great deals. Plus, I'm making sure to only buy things that my family will actually use, so I'm not going to be one of those people who takes home 85 bottles of free mustard. That's just rediculous.

Is all of this worth it? Probably. I'm sure that this will get easier for me. I really DO want to save money for our family and I'm going to try and make it work. I have a one-year subscription for the newspapers so I'm going to give this discount shopping thing a year's try. Then I'll re-evaluate.

And, I promise, this is not going to become a blog where I just tell you all the great deals I got. I merely wanted to say that I am now trying this new thing and it is taking up all my extra time. That is all.

Happy shopping. (or, stressful shopping, if you're me!)
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Beautiful disaster

Megan has gotten to the point where she doesn't have many "firsts" any more. Sure, there's the occasional new word she says, or the new trouble she decides to get into. Today she actually did have a "first". And, this first trumps all other firsts.

She smeared poop. Yep. Stuck her hand in her diaper and wiped her feces on the baby gate while I was taking a shower.

If I could guess what was going through her little head it was, "Fine, mom. You won't let me in the bathroom? I'll show YOU who's boss!"

The grossest part of it all is, I didn't even notice she had done this until about 3 hours later. Makes me wonder about all the things she touched or ate in between. Yuck.



As nasty as it is to clean up misplaced poop, the situation made me smile. I'm so happy to be in a position where I get to clean up poop. I'm so happy to deal with her tantrums and messes, and, of course, her overall cuteness, because it means I get to be her mother.

Sometimes I look at my little poop machine and I still can't believe she's mine. I still find myself thinking she is too good to be true, that this can't have happened to me. Really? I get to be a mom? I still can't believe it. I wake up in the morning, and I'm so grateful to have my day revolve around her.

Megan is, afterall, the the child we waited 6 years for and the joy we always desired. So, if I have to put up with poop on the gate (or wherever she decides to smear it next), I'm happy to clean it up with a smile.

So, smear on, my daughter. Smear on.

Down on the farm

Our little town does not have a zoo. However, there is a little "farm" just a few minutes away. I don't know the people who own these animals, but I sure am glad that they don't seem to mind the whole city coming by to look at them. Megan knows several animal sounds and repeats them often, but this was the first time she actually saw these animals up close & personal. She was very intrigued and adorable to watch.

Megan & daddy with the Emus.

This is Megan looking at ducks.

The kangaroo was scratching himself almost the entire time. It was actually quite comical.

Chicken...

Megan was most scared of the llamas. There's also a goat in this picture. The animals were all very friendly; I think they must often get fed by visitors.

Mr. Donkey was trying to sniff off Megan's hand.

I wish there were more fun family outings we could take with an 18-month-old in tow. It sure was fun to be out together and enjoy some family time.