Update on our Family

We made up nicknames for the kids since I can't share their real names. The two older ones thought it was to come up with "code names" for themselves.

"Matthew" (Baby J) has a whole repertoire of cries that mean a variety of things from "feed me" to "hold me" to "get this big poop out of my diaper!" (which means get it out without taking this diaper off me!) that we are all struggling to get to know. We laugh at the pretty explosive sounds coming from his tush region...fits right in with my dh Marty, "Vincent" (Z) & "Gracie" (S). He doesn't really like the pacifier, which I'm told is a good thing. Can't wait until it gets warmer to take him out for walks, don't know when that will be. He is starting to focus in on our faces...which is great! Marty got him a Tigers sleeper and they watched the Tiger's game together it was so cute!! Other than not getting enough sleep because he still has his nights and days mixed up, we are having a great time having an infant in the house.

Clipping Matthew's nails...I've filed but too scared to do anything else. I'm scared to death to hurt him. I've had many people tell me to bit them off...but to tell you the truth, that scares me too! He hates to be swaddled now, he liked it at first, but now it just seems to make him angry! So I don't push it. I was giving him a bath almost every night, or every other, trying to help him sleep. What do you think about crying... does it spoil him if I pick him up everytime he crys...do I let him cry it out?

J slept 8 1/2 hours last night!!! Went to bed at 11:30 pm and just woke up at 8 am! Now if we can only get that more... ha ha!

Sleep...Huh, what is sleep...

Yeah, well Baby J has his days and nights mixed up. Sleeping all day and staying up all night. Friends and Relatives have helped us out majorly. J is now 16 days old, and we've had him for almost 2 weeks. We now have almost everything we need for an infant. Wednesday, (March 25th) when we got him we had absolutely NOTHING for an infant. We now have a bouncy seat, a swing, a play mat, a high chair, tons of bottles and clothing... we are still needing a crib, so we will be getting one of those in a couple weeks.

Marty has been really great with him, helping with feeding, holding him and yes changing diapers! Everyone is really shocked, because Marty doesn't hold babies... but he says it's just because "their not his to care for..."

My other two foster kids, Z (8 year old boy) and S (5 year old girl) are just in love with him! Z help's feed him and they both have held him. Being the big brother and sister is an awesome job!

A New Addition to our family

We have a new foster son, as of today he is 11 days old. We got him Wednesday at 5 days old.... we are all very tired here. LOL!!

Doodling can Help your memory!!!

Can you believe that? I read a blog on Yahoo (http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/takenotedoodlingcanhelpmemory.html)

The article says that, "...subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle."

So go ahead doodle on those scrapbook pages!!!

MIA...

I don't know if anyone missed me in the last two weeks. My laptop was off getting fixed. I've been having a lot of problems with it, and a friend a church said "let me take a look" well he's got it running pretty good now, and he even ordered a new keyboard (my number buttons are not all there...lol) and so it will be gone again when he gets that in, shouldn't be as long though.

Claudia A. Palmer

Hello friends. I got the phone call that the grave stone I purchased came in. My great aunt died when she was 15 months old. My grandma always talked about getting a stone to place on it, there was one there but it got ruined. So after years of planning on getting it, I finally got it. I decided that I would use it as my photo of the day for project 365, here it is...

The only bad thing is that my uncle (my father's brother) will not let me put it on. It's really weird he says it's not my place to put it on. It was a big fight and haven't spoken to him since, and he has complained to anyone who would listen. But I have it, and it's beautiful. It makes me happy yet sad.

After the snow fall. (Project 365)

Well, we went to our local park to play on the sledding hill. They have a little "village" of old buildings. This church was built in 1888, and they have all these other old buildings. I've taken pics of this before but I thought I would try black & white with the snow.

I don't know, what do you guys think?? I think it's a perfect photo for the Project 365.

Also, today while we on our way home we saw a hawk... totally cool! So I snapped a photo of it. It's not very upclose but hey it's pretty darn good, because it was perched on the tallest tree and it was in the middle of the field. Well you all have a very blessed day!

Baby it's cold outside!

Today has been one of those days that, as I am sitting here at 5:30 pm, I am thinking where did the day go? We were woke up this morning to a text from our good friends & neighbor. Her husband works 3rd shift and on his way home from work he hit a deer. She didn't know what to do and her hubby was pretty shook up, a car these days are like priceless diamonds.

My hubby left to help and they've been gone all day. They came back with the damaged car...(opps didn't get a pic!) and then left to get the loaner... (opps didn't get a pic!) and then the left. My hubby left with them and then went to his uncles to help on a garage door...haven't seen him since he left. :-(

The kids and I went outside with Tucker.... (opps didn't take any pics!) Tucker was so cute running after the kids, sticking his nose in the snow and walking around like he was searching for something. LOL Our little snow dog! Now the kids are playing in their rooms and I am relaxing until the next load of laundry gets dry.... so I thought I would snap my pic for the day... FINALLY, this is what it looks like out my front door right now.

Happy New Year!!

Well, Happy New Year friends. I know I haven't been around lately...but we've had a lot going on here in Michigan. As you know we are foster parents...and we've had another heartache. Well we are kind of have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Our kids we have placed with us for the past 3 1/2 years are being reunited with their parents. Like I said it's kinda bitter-sweet. On one hand I will miss them and my heart will ache for them, but on the other hand a family is being reunited, it's so hard to go through. My husband got a new job, he was a self-employed trim carpenter...but here in Michigan construction and remodeling isn't at the top of people's lists of to-dos. So he got a job down state (about 2 hours away) working at an apartment complex in maintenance. It's sort of in the same lines of carpentry so he likes it. It's a big adjustment for everyone, we are so use to having Marty home at 5 pm, being able to go have lunch with him or having him home on his days off. And now he gets up at 6:30 am and gets home at 7pm, we get dinner done and it seems like the it's time to get the kids off to bed and then we sit down to watch TV and by 9 pm he is falling alseep in his chair.

On the scrapbooking front.... well I haven't had the time to scrap anything. But I've decided to do the Creating Keepsakes' "Project 365." I can't get the kit, because it's out of stock, but I've taken on the challege to take 365 photos this year and let my creativity out of the box. You know take photos of things I normally don't take pics of, that will also help me keep up on my blog. LOL

Here is my first 9 days of photos, and a little journally to go along.

Jan. 1 - Yep that was Midnight, we all sat up and watched "Facing the Giants." What a GREAT family movie!

Jan. 2 - Our flag, couldn't figure out what to take.

Jan. 3 - Icicles hanging on our front porch.

Jan. 4 - My dh and his sister Pam, she lives in Mississippi and we don't get to see her often.

Jan. 5 - Animal footprints in fresh fallen snow. I wanted to get out and get a pic of my grandma's grave for this, since Jan 5th is her birthday.

Jan. 6 - Maggie & Tucker our dogs playing. Well, ok Tucker trying to get Maggie to play.

Jan. 7 - My memorial cross in memory of my daddy, I miss him so much!

Jan. 8 - My covered swing in our backyard, my favorite place to read in the summer time, gosh I wish it were summer!

Jan. 9 - Ok I was letting the dogs out this morning to do their business and in my lilac bush I found this little bird, isn't he cute? I just thought it would be a great pic of the day.

Well everyone have a great day....and be blessed!