Jayden's Unique Personality!

Around Christmas time this past year we decided that Jayden would benefit greatly if we home schooled him. He was having issues at school, with understanding what was being taught. He has struggled for a while but up until this year he seemed to be getting by. This year he started acting up in school to cover up what he didn't know, he was doing things to try to get by, but the teacher was holding him accountable, good on her, but in the end he was struggling and felt like he was drowning and didn't know what to do.
We stepped in and really felt that homeschooling would be the best for him, we found a curriculum that was tailored to where he was at in each subject and that he has to master before he can move on. We brought him home in February, I was a little nervous, I was worried about his friends or his soon to be lack of friends, and I was worried that he would not thrive at home either, ok I was worried that he would drive me nuts!
It has been a month and we are well under way working hard every day. I am happy to say that a lot of the obnoxious behavior that I was really not liking, because, yes, it carried over to our home as well, has gone. He really likes school, he likes what he is learning and if he doesn't get something he can go back over it until he does get it. He is not using bad behavior to draw attention away from what he does not know, he can ask again and not feel like he is the dumb kid. He is working hard and accomplishing a lot each day. I am really proud of him.
Now that being said, Jayden's personality is still unique we have not squelched it but I think he has found a great outlet for it.

****This is not an advertisement for Coke, because Pepsi would be our preference, but Scott found this bottle of Coke and gave it to Jay. We do not buy pop for our kids on a regular basis, so keep the parenting judgments to yourself! ****

Is She Really That Big Already?

This picture was taken shortly after the girls came home. Today I was going through Avrie's last year's summer clothes and taking out the things that were too small, which was almost everything. Then I pulled out Destina's old clothes from last year and they all fit Avrie, the sweatshirt that Destina is wearing in this picture fits Avrie perfectly, and look in the picture at how big it was compared to the size of Avrie.
Both girls have grown so much it has been a challenge to keep them both dressed in clothes that fit, but it is so weird to me that Avrie is fitting into the things Destina wore just one short year ago, and Destina is 3 years older than Avrie!

This Was MY Baby!

On our way to Disneyland I needed to drop off some things our church made for the orphanage in Haiti so we arranged to stop by this little guys house for a quick visit on our way.
Destina is beaming Colin not so much, but he may be a little too young to remember much about Destina, but Destina will never forget.
When Destina was first at the orphanage she had a bio brother that she took care of, until he was adopted out long before we came into the picture. On our first visit in Jan 2008 Colin was only about 3 weeks old and living at the orphanage, he was so cute we all fell in love with him and I think most of the families on that first trip really hoped he would find his forever family and we always asked about him on subsequent trips. Anyway, he is home with his fantastic mom and Destina likes to check out pictures on his mom's blog, then she told me that she took care of Colin and she really missed him, probably why she is so attached to her doll and treats her doll like a real baby.
I passed this information on to his mom and she sent me a framed picture of Colin and the day it came in the mail she could hardly contain herself. She was showing everyone the picture. When Ryan came home she, in her most excited voice, said to him "Ryan do you know who this is?" and Ryan in his most unexcited voice said, "Uh no." With a huge grin and tears of joy in her eyes she said, " Ryan this is was MY baby he called me mama."
Funny thing is we call Destina "Tia" most of the time around our house and Colin's mom's name is Tia. Destina made that connection and she then said, "He had 2 mamas and they both have the same name!

We've Come A Long Way!

Avrie loves her gum!

The other day I dropped off Avrie at a friend's house while I went to volunteer at the school and when I picked her up, my friend said that her 2 girls and Avrie gave each other pedicures and while they were getting their pedicures they were talking about their travels to Disneyland and Hawaii. My friend's girls went to Hawaii at the beginning of the year so they were telling Avrie all about that, because she is going next month, and Avrie was telling her friends all about Disneyland because they are going next week. Can't wait to hear the topic of conversation when they are 16 if this is where we are at when they are just 3.

Be Careful About What You Ask For!

I have been telling Scott and Mckenzie for the last little while that, "I really need someone to come into my closet and throw out all the old clothes, I just can't do it!" I have a problem getting rid of old clothes I am not a hoarder but I have emotional attachments to things and we have been so broke that the fear of not having anything to wear stops me from throwing things out. Also, if I loose another 5 lbs that cute shirt will look cute on me again, never mind that it was cute last century. Or if I gain 5 lbs "those" pants fit better, but they too are old. I even thought I looked pretty cute a couple of weeks ago I bought a new belt that was on sale and put it with an old skirt and sweater and thought it looked pretty good but when I saw a "friend" look me up and down, very obviously, than didn't say anything, I knew I had missed the fashion mark!

Anyway, I went off to yoga this morning and before I left I asked Scott and McKenzie to clean up around the house while I was gone. When I came back McKenzie was sitting on the sofa, and it looked like that is where she had been all morning so I asked her if she did anything and her reply was, "Yeah I cleaned up a few things". I headed off to my bathroom to take a shower walked into my closet and the above picture is what I found!

Scott and McKenzie cleaned out my closet she said, "You told me to throw out anything that was not cute!" The above empty racks used to be completely full, apparently with ugly clothes. They left me with 3 pairs of pants and about 12 shirts! I did have to go back and reclaim a few things but it was under the strict eye of McKenzie! The pile of clothes looked like this when I got done getting out what I wanted back.

It took 5 kitchen garbage bags to fit all of this stuff in but I love having a clean closet and now I have an excuse to go shopping and buy something for me! But in the mean time if you see me wearing the same outfits over and over you will know why!

Avrie's Hair

So the relaxer didn't last very long, a couple of days before is was almost back to where it was. I think I didn't leave it on long enough, but I was worried about her hair, next time I will leave it on a little longer. I found some real extensions and did Avrie's hair right after we came back from vacation. She totally changes her personality when she has long hair, the minute it is done she becomes very sassy! She could not wait to whip her hair like her big sisters do so she did that for a few minutes until she fell over. She just got back up did a little laugh and was onto the next thing, shaking her hair.
My camera was dropped on the trip and the automatic focus gears are not working so I have to take all the pictures manually, still trying to get the kinks worked out that is why the background is in better focus than Avrie.