Bowling and disco lights at 3 a.m.

(Let me start this post with a  clarification that I am writing this with a sarcastic tone.  I am being snarky, silly, imaginative;  however you want to say it I am really not angry with my angel boys!)

No, I wasn't bowling in the middle of the night!  The only thing I'm doing at 3 a.m. is either sleeping or wishing I was asleep.  But I have two grandsons who thought it would be a great time for a bowling game.

So picture this... beautiful evening.  Windows open, a slight breeze, crickets chirping their melodious tunes to the man in the moon.

Sleeping.  Or trying to.  I wasn't even in my own bed!  I've been fighting a sinus infection so I thought I would sleep upstairs and let my sweet honey have a break from my tossing and turning and snuffing and snorting.  But that didn't mean that I didn't keep myself awake with all that racket. 

And then it hit.  A searing white flash of light followed shortly afterwards with a huge BoOm!!  It shook the house!  It scared the animals!  And it quite frankly scared me!!

McKallister and Quincy were at it again!  They love to bowl!  Usually they are polite young men and bowl in the middle of the afternoon or early evening.  We've even enjoyed sitting out on the front porch and cheering them on for their obvious strikes or laughing at their pitiful blunders.  I guess they didn't like the pressure because they started this match at 3:00 a.m.   AND they had to go all out with the disco lights for fun, too! 

Whoever decided, "Mmmm.  Let's build an enclosed area, with wooden floors and throw / roll a large, solid object down a row into more pieces of wood / plastic to make a crashing sound and add flashing lights to it and call this fun!"  has a weird sense of humor.  Oh, yeah, and then someone else decided to add alcohol to some of the matches.  Good call!

So, back to Mac and Quincy.  Mac is the poorer bowler of the two.  I'm not sure if he's just letting Quincy win to be a nice big brother or he's just not good at the sport, but he pretty much sucks.  Whenever it's his turn you can hear the ball meander back and forth between the bumper pads and then ding a pin.  But Quincy on the other hand - WOW!  That boy has some moves!  His turn always consists of lightning zippy balls roaring down the lane and plowing through the pins!! 

Back to the other night.  I think Mac may have given up after a few rounds because the game didn't last all that long, but what they did play was with vim and vigor!  A few strikes, a few slashes of light across the sky and that was it! 

Next time, boys, if you're gonna wake me up let's at least have a little ABBA in the background to go with the lights!  OK?

AWWWW! My boys!

Alex got a b-day / Christmas gift from Daddy Ernie and fam and obviously he knows what his boy likes!  I took this video last night of Mike and Al having a duel.  It lasted about an hour!  They had a great time.  Thanks B family for all you do for Al!

 

 

 

And I finally got a picture of Quincy that I like - I wanted his footprints put next to something for a size comparison, and a baseball was perfect!  Thanks to TJ for tweaking it for me to make it just right!

And last, but not least, a bit more recent pic of CR.  He was officially made a member of our family when he was adopted the week before Christmas and the weekend before Christmas he was sealed to Cali and Josh for time and all eternity!!!  He's a sweet man and gives us the best smiles!

I love all my boys - the young and old - and am a grateful woman to be surrounded by such amazing men!



Where have I been?

WOW!  It's been a while since I've blogged.  Let's try to catch up a bit...

School is out and the hot summer weather is here!  It's been 105 degrees the past few days.  Anything over 90 is too hot for me! 

But before summer we had some fun things happen at school...PROM! 

Of course, we had to start with a haircut...

 



Al and I went out to Olive Garden (thanks to a gift certificate from Ken).  Al ordered Sausage Penne and LOVED it!  The night got off to a great start!

 

 Then we met everyone at school....notice the "yellow limo" in the background?  Yup.  We went on a bus!  This group cleans up nice!

 

 Here's a picture of their group picture.  Only 11 of the kids pictured are in Al's class and the others are peer tutors.  They had a great time and I was very impressed with how the rest of the school treats his class.  A lot of people were coming up to Alex to say HI and then when he asked them to dance, they all danced.  The person saying HI, their date, and Al!  I have loved having Alex in high school.  Between him growing up and trying so hard to be a big kid and the teachers and peer tutors, I have to say that high school has been a great experience for Alex.  Next year he will be an "almost senior" (Junior - but he's stuck on the senior part), he will be on the wrestling team again (and now that we've been through a year I will feel more comfortable letting him be more involved (meaning go to some away matches), and thank goodness he will have the same teachers.  I'm so proud of him and all he's accomplished!

 

 

As you can see from the big picture at the top of our blog, we got our family pictures taken!  I am so excited to show these off!!  We had them taken by Melanie Isaac and I would suggest her to anyone that is looking for a photographer.  She did a great job capturing everyone's personality and has great pricing.

 

 

 A, Kierra, M, Colby

  O, Josh, Cali, and the balloons represent McKallister and Quincy

 

Taylor holding C, Brandon

 My baby!  He's becoming a man; he's shaving and everything!  He has to or else he has this really sparse, icky hair patch growing off his chin.  But, man, is he handsome!!!  And I have to tell you my secret about him driving.  NO!  He's not driving!!  I have told him when he's as tall as his brothers he can get his license.  When he gets his license he can get a phone.  I have it all figured out.  And I'm pretty sure I'm safe.  Thank goodness he hasn't figured out that I'm no where near as tall as his brothers!  If he ever does....well, I'm a girl.  The rules are different for girls!  BUT he mows our lawn with grandpa's riding mower!  I walk in front of him (yes, I'm dumb brave!) and he follows behind driving the mower.  He does pretty good, too!  He's only taken our 1 of our sprinklers and demolished one bird house.  Not bad!

 

We are so proud of our little gaggle of girls!

 

 

 

Oh.  My.  Beautiful!  Thank you Melanie!!!

 

And, of course once we got our pics taken, we had an addition to our family. ...

Meet CR.  He was born a few weeks before we had pictures taken, and we had met him, but birth mom had not signed adoption papers, yet.  Let me fill you in....

 

Our neighbor's daughter's friend's dad's fiancé (whew!!) was pregnant.  It wasn't a planned pregnancy and they were having troubles financially to raise the kids they already had.  They were considering adoption so they were told about Josh and Cali.  (That's really the only way to adopt anymore - word of mouth.  Even going through an agency there are just so many couples waiting and not enough babies available.)  So Cali and birth mom met one Friday evening and got along great.  When they were saying their good-byes birth mom made a comment that made Cali uncomfortable so she pushed that baby to the side.  The next day, Saturday, Cali got a text; "I am 15 and have a 5 week old baby.  Are you still looking at adopting?"  After texts and phone calls, they met Sunday evening with birth mom, her parents and birth dad.  They had been looking at their blog for the past 6 months and birth parents were just realizing they couldn't raise this baby.  They were so convinced that they wanted Cali and Josh to adopt this little girl that they brought ALL of her belongings and left her with them that night!  The plan was to meet them at the adoption agency on Monday evening for parents to sign papers.  So, they have this sweet, little girl in their home for 24 hours, they bond, they fall in love and they even had spiritual confirmation that she belonged in their family. 

 

Monday around noon, birth mom's dad called Cali and said that things were changing.  Birth dad's mom and her partner both had to give children up for different reasons, and had convinced this young couple that they could do it with their help!  It was more than heart breaking for Josh and Cali to put this baby in a car that smelled of drugs with this young couple and his mom's partner.  They got a few texts from birth mom over the next few days, but that was the end of that story.  A big affirmation of how we all have our agency, even if it's not what God planned.

 

While Cali and Josh were working through this fiasco, they got a bunch of calls from the first mom (that she met with on Friday) saying that she had given birth to a baby boy and she wanted them to have him!  Of course with the comment this birth mom had made that had made Cali uncomfortable, and then with getting and losing this little girl, their emotions and nerves were raw.  Cali texted her and told her they were sick and they would call her in a few days.  When Cali did call her she made it very clear that if birth mom wouldn't go through an agency, that they weren't able to continue.  Birth mom said that was great!  Come see him! 

 

He was premature  not sure how premature but guessing a 34 weeker) and in the NICU but they had saved a wrist band for Cali.  Cali visited him almost everyday after that, with Josh going as often as he could.  All of us grandparents even got to go see him a couple of times!

 

 Whenever Cali walked in the room and said his name, CR would turn his head towards her!  They fed him, changed him, loved him, all while he was in the NICU.  Birth mom didn't sign her rights away until the day he was released (3 weeks later) so there was still some concern that he would be theirs, but he is home with them and growing like the great man he will become!  So even though we knew about him when we got our family pictures taken, since papers hadn't been signed and Cali and Josh had already had a baby slip through their fingers, we didn't dare wait to have our pictures taken.  It just means we have to do it again real soon!!!

 Papa and I LOVE holding our little man!

 

Alex and I went on a hike recently with the Maughan family up Bell Canyon.  It was really hard for Alex but he pushed through it!  Every once in a while he would rub his hips and say, "Yup.  They're still there."  He was real hesitant.  I don't know if he was scared of getting hurt or what, but like I said, he persevered!!

 

A is a climber and is walking all over the place now!... I think she's crazy!!  And I have NO idea where that would have come from??

 

 

 OK, OK, OK.... she may be a bit like me.

 

Remember N's hairdo?....

 

...she got a big girl's haircut and looks soooo good!  We loved the wild look, but she looks like a 2 year old now!  AND...

 

 ...she's crawling!!  It's a little unorthodox, and this video was actually taken when she first started crawling but it's so cute I couldn't resist sharing.  I will put a more recent video of her crawling soon.  She's really improved!  But this is so cute!!!

 

So.  Life is good.  Life is busy.  Life is grand!  And I'm the luckiest lady in the world!!!

 

Our own little army

Our army began with Will in June of 2008.  A week later Mac enlisted.  Four years later the army doubled in size with Quincy and Daniel.

These are all angel babies that I am close to.  Will belongs to a neighbor of ours who is a year or two older than Cali. Of course Mac and Quincy are Cali's, and Daniel belongs to another neighbor who just gave birth to him on Saturday. All these moms live within a block of each other. All of them had little boys.  I could name others that are friends of the family; the 4 year old who was with his family at a cemetery taking pictures and a headstone fell on him, killing him.  Or my neighbor's sister-in-law who had a stillborn little boy. See.  A little army.

Yeah, it helps knowing they are in the arms of our loving Heavenly Father, but it still hurts. 

Yes we know that these moms will get to raise these sweet men in the hereafter, but we miss them NOW!  And it hurts when they aren't "counted" among the grand kids.

And of course I pray every night asking Heavenly Father to give my two little boys a kiss from their Nanny - not that our Father in Heaven isn't busy enough as it is, but I don't think he minds me asking.  But I would like to do the hugging and kissing for myself.

It scares me to know how awesome these men are. 

There's nothing I want more than to be able to salute this army of ours and then hug the stuffin' out of each and every one of them!



When our neighbors couldn't find Daniel's heartbeat and they called to tell us, I didn't know what to say or do.  After all we have been through with Cali and her boys, and I couldn't think of what needed to be done.  It was hard.  It was hard to talk to Cali about it, because I knew it hurt her.  There is nothing worse than watching your child go through pain - horrible pain - and not be able to help in any way.

We went shopping.  Not the usual therapy for Cali and me, but it did help.  We found some things that were similar to what Will's mom gave to Cali when Mac was born;  a little ring to put on Daniel's hand and a matching one for a necklace for mom.  A teddy bear to go in the casket, and a matching one to keep, and matching tie tacks for Daniel and dad.  I know how much these things helped Cali.  And how amazing is it that Will's mom was able to come and comfort US just one week after losing Will?  I don't know how she did it.  But she did and we can never repay her for the love and support she gave to all of us.  And now it was Cali's turn.  She did an amazing job just being there for this mom.  I was very proud of her.

The funeral is coming up.  Cali and I will be there.  And I'm pretty sure so will Will, Mac, and Quincy.  They will be there to help Daniel, who will be there to help his family. 

Happy Due Date Quincy!

This past Thursday, October 25 was Quincy's due date. Cali was worried about how her feelings would react to that day, so we kept her busy!  First we went to Scheels - a new sports store here in Sandy - and rode the ferris wheel!!

 Mo, Oak and Lou before the ride.

 Oak and Lou first on the ride.

 N and Ash were too small to ride the ferris wheel so GG stayed on the ground with them.

 

 This pic is to show how freakin' high this thing is!  That window is above the 3rd floor of the building and if you look out the window, we are as tall as the mountains!!  Whenever we would get to this point on the ride I started giggling like a crazy person, just so I wouldn't scream!  I was riding with Mo and I didn't want to scare her, especially since she was loving it.  Loving it so much she wouldn't sit still!!  She rocked our car constantly!  But I survived.

 Lou and Oak sticking their tongues out at us.

 GG, N and Ashlyn on the ground.

 Mo and me.

 We were so close to heaven that when we were at the top we waved at Mac and Quincy and said our hellos.

 We had to take a pic by the bear!  I love bears!!!  If you would have taken a picture 2 minutes before this it would have looked like I was feeling the bear up.  I had to see how soft his fur was! 

 Yes!  They really are driving!





 It's just not a real jeep.  I put Oak in front of the tire so you could see the size of this vehicle!

 

After Scheels we went to lunch.  TJ met us there in between school and work.

 

Ash loves lemonade! 

 

 

And N loves Chick- Fil -A's sauce! 

 

Then we went to Zurcher's and got balloons - did you know there is a helium shortage?  We almost didn't get any balloons.  But luckily, they had enough for us!

 

 

 

 

 

Party hats, balloons and snow!  We know how to throw a party!

 

Up, up, up....

 



...and all but the pink one went away!

Happy due date Quincy!  I sure am glad I know Mac is helping you get through this hard day. 

 

We love you guys!!