I am still alive...I think :)

What a weekend!



Sunday morning we got up, got dressed with all intentions of going to church...we got in the car about half way there and I realized the clock said 11:23 and we were still about 10 minutes away. So I decided that we would not go into the service and interrupt everything...so we all went back home and got out of our church clothes and put our picnic/swimming clothes on. We stopped at mom and dads and picked up Lisa, Corey and Shay and Cara and Brad along with their families created a caravan to the lake.

It was so fun listening to the conversations between the kids. Corey and Caleb had met before but it had been a long time ago. Chirsten and Shay just met and got along really well. Chirsten is 7 1/2 and Shay is 8.

They all were so much fun, wanting to know how many minutes til we get there, how much should they count...I immediately thought of that movie - are we there yet haha.

Scott was a champ. When we got there and finished our picnic lunch he got in the water and stayed there the whole time with the kids. He tossed and swam with them all. He was the diving board, the holder of goggles, the retriever of water balls, my eagle eye...he was awesome. He enjoyed them so much.

Brad and Caleb became quick friends, they were inseparable most of the time.

The babies were so cute, Ida slept most of the time but Italy did get her toes in the water. Illan was a little apprehensive but I think he finally decided he liked it. All of the kids listened to us, behaved so well...It really was a stress free outing.

We get home and the girls take a bath and we all make our own pizzas and made super chunky chocolate chip cookies. They had a blast.

Corey is such a sweet kid, he is super competitive...when playing the x-box if he was losing he wanted to change games haha. He has these amazing blue eyes and a wild imagination. He has an endless supply of energy too. He gave me hugs which I LOVED! I loved having time with him and hope to get to spend more time with him soon. I felt so sad for Little John though, he said I was the first family member to want to take Corey for the day and Corey is 5 now. I had to apologize to him for my distance as well, explaining how raw the feelings and emotions are when you can't have a child. It is amazing how the decision to adopt has started to heal those.

Shay is Little John's girlfriends daughter. She is 8 and a talker! At first she said she didn't want to spend the night with us, she had only met me once before. I told her she could make her mind up after we went swimming. While we were out in the water together she swam up to me and said...well, I have been thinking and I think I do want to spend the night with ya'll. *SMILES* She was a great kid, her and Chirsten helped me with the baby a lot. She is a cutie pie too!

Caleb, oh what to say about him. He is such a sweetie. He says the cutest things and has an infectious laugh. He came in to the bedroom the first night and said...You know, uncle Scooter isn't fat..he just has a big belly...haha. He slept between Scott and I and he would put his hand on my face so softly just touching it. Then he would sit up and lean against one of us and just drift off to sleep. He is so well behaved and played so good with all of the other kids. Every once in a while he would run to find me and hug me telling me he loved me and then once he said he wanted to make sure I was ok and that I knew he wanted to spend time with me too...just the kids were so much fun haha. He took up with Bradly right off too, I am glad. I could just eat him with a spoon!

Chirsten is that sweet little girl that wants to help do everything. She helped so much with Italy and helped keep the kiddos in line. She wanted to love on the cats so much and they just were not having much to do with it. She has such an imagination and is super smart. She is becoming independent, I miss those days when she needed help to do this or that. She loves Scott so much, she wanted to sleep with me so Caleb was sleeping with Scott. Well, when he got tired he wanted to snuggle with me...aww. Then Chirsten didn't want Scott to sleep alone so she slept in the big chair beside our bed so Scott could sleep with us. She has a super big heart. She loves her brother so much too, she is protective of him. Though Chirsten did buy slime...and it is on everything in my living room ... accidents happen! She was so scared she was going to be in bad trouble...but looking at her with that toothy grin, I couldn't be mad at her!

Italy was awesome as usual...gosh that baby is too precious!

Monday evening came and it was time to let the kids go home. Brad took Shay to her dad's and we had the rest in our car. He also took Italy home which made me sad of course, but I had to hold it together for the rest of the kids! We took Corey to his dad and Little John and Tamara were both so sweet and thankful for spending time with their kids.

Then we headed to take Chirsten and Caleb home :(. We get half way there and Caleb had to pee...and when he has to pee you better stop cuz you got about 2 minutes before there is trouble! Scott pulled over on interstate and let him pee...was funny. I made a little video of them as we were going home. They are so cute...



Then we went to John's work to let the kids give him so loving...plus we had him some apple cobbler. I told them to hide in the back seat (third row) and we would have PawPaw John open up the back telling him that what we brought him was in the back. Chirsten said..."We might give him a heart attack!" I told her nooo, he would love it. She then said..."But he is old-old!" HAHA I took that video too...



Caleb was crying when we took him home, he said he wanted to go back home with us but his daddy wanted to spend the day with them today so they couldn't. I think he wanted to go to his pawpaws too. It broke our hearts to leave him, but we knew we had to. Scott and I got in the car and both of us broke down, hugged and cried how much we loved them and that we want to spend more time with them. We wish they were ours...they are such great kids.

Today I slept until 10, woke up and ate breakfast took my meds then fell asleep in the chair! I got back in bed and slept until 5:30!!! I had a lot of pain but I would do it over and over to spend time with all of them. It was hard to come home and the silence was deafening. I loved the sound of running, yelling and playing floating through our house. It felt right, it felt normal...it felt wonderful.

I am tired, sore, broke (who knew 5 kids would cost so much!), have a messy house, empty frig, finger prints on everything, cheerios EVERYWHERE, pair of kids shorts, one kid sock and a bottle.

I am all of that and more...but I would do it all over again, anytime. It was an amazing time.

Thanks for your prayers...I know you prayed for me, I made it through it all!! WOO HOO!

Here are pictures to the lake...enjoy! I decided to post them to another blog so if you don't want to see pictures you don't have to see them :)