Reid and Stefani Adopt

 This Christmas my kids had presents given to them by the following list of agencies and people: 1. Reid and I  2. Each other 3. Esther’s birth mom  4. Jaydon’s birth family  5. The guardian ad litem program  6. Foster care case management  7. Grandparents  8. Aunt and Uncles-one from my side and one from Reid’s side   We were so overwhelmed with gifts that we sent some to a needy family in our congregation.  I don’t think my kids will ever be able to say they weren’t loved.  

Black friday for us this year was spent in St. Augustine, FL.  Our friends, the Menloves were down from Minnesota, and we haven't seen them in years.  It was way fun to get together and catch up.  I should also mention that we have been fostering Jaydon for over a year now, and just completed a home study to be able to adopt him.  Technically, we aren't supposed to post about our foster kids, so I have avoided it up until this point.  Jaydon is going to be with us permanently pretty soon, so I thought I should introduce him.  He is 5 years old, and fits in just right with us.  Welcome to the family, Jaydon!  

General Conference is a special time for our family.  It is the time when we get to listen to the words of the living prophets.  There are 5 meetings and 4 of them are 2 hours long each.  It spans over 2 days, a Saturday and a Sunday. This can be tough on little ones, so we try and make it fun.  On Saturday, we made trucks.  The kids got to paint and nail together their own wooden vehicles.  A wonderful woman in our congregation dropped off conference crafts to do and this was one of them.  She was a lifesaver!   We also made crepes on Sunday morning before General Conference. Then we played conference bingo and got candy for naming something the speakers talked about.  Of course, the kids also ran off and played as we adults tried to listen. I don't know how much the kids heard or understood from the prophets and leaders of the church, but I smile every time one of my kids refer to a story they heard during one of the talks.    

On Labor day we took the opportunity to go to a dog beach in Ft. Pierce, Fl.  There were a lot of other nice beaches on the way, but since our little shih-poo couldn't go to those, we passed them up.  Turns out our dog isn't a beach dog...  So hopefully there was no dog poop buried under the sand close to where Reid buried the kids.  It was still pretty fun.   Isaac is now playing in a competitive soccer league.  He's learning about sportsmanship and teamwork, and he loves that he's learning the different positions.  Even though the coach is really good, Reid managed to get himself wrapped up with the inner workings of the team and became the team's manager.  He and Isaac go to soccer together 2 nights a week.   The picture below was this past Sunday.  Isaac and Esther are in one of those rare kodak moments playing nicely together with the magformers.  They even chose this over watching the T.V.   Isaac came home from school th...

We had our last trip to LEGOland Florida right before school started. The kids might be a little sad that are passes have now expired, but Reid and I are relieved!  We even got to go with some friends from the neighborhood for our last go. Most of the shops were closed due to Covid, but we still had fun. As Daniel Tiger says, “ That was fun but now we’re done.”  

Well, the kiddos are off to school again in this crazy world of ours. They have to wear masks and don’t get to play on the playground equipment. The desks and lunch tables are 6 feet apart. Both Esther and Isaac didn’t get to meet their teachers or see their classrooms beforehand. But they were excited to go back, and bravely walked themselves to their new classes with no trouble. So far so good. We are in week two and no sickness yet. God bless the children!  

 Isaac was born with an umbilical hernia. He had an “outie” belly button.  We have been “watching it” all this time to see if it would heal on its own. We finally decided this year that it was time to take action. We went to Nemours children’s Hospital in Orlando. Isaac was super worried that he would wake up in the middle of the surgery while they stitched the hernia up. The doctor and nurses assured him that would not happen. He calmed his fears and bravely prepared for the surgery, and only when they had him change into a hospital gown instead of his own clothes that he lost it and started crying. I felt so bad I hadn’t thought to adequately prepare him for that loss of privacy. Because of covid restrictions, I couldn’t even be there when they put him under.  But they gave him an anxiety medicine beforehand and he didn’t make a squeak when they wheeled him away.  Isaac and I before his surgery. I promised I would take him out to eat anywhere he wanted afterwards....