Weekends

Weekends in the Adams house hold vary from week to week. Typically we like to try and stay at home and relax since our Mon-Fri is go, go, go all the time. A while back I realized that Shawn and I were hardly getting any time together and we decided to try and do a regular date night each month... that didn't happen. So, the weekend of August 24th we tried something bigger... a kid free, adults only weekend!! D and J went to my Mom's, while Malia and Norah went to my Dad and Step Moms house, the kids enjoyed themselves. We enjoyed our selves too... we started Friday night off by stopping at a friends Birthday party, then we caught a late showing of Expendables 2. Saturday we got to SLEEP IN!! Then we dove into painting... yes painting. When I moved us into this giant house a little over a year ago, we highered a painter to paint the giant walls but I painted all the bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry room. I did not paint the master or the kitchen because I could not decide on a color... I finally committed and am so happy with how it turned out. We went with baby blue just like our bathroom... I have plans to expand on that though with paneling or possibly stripes, we shall see. But for now its amazingly better than the flat tan the original owner had up.

                                                   
                         


Before: boring flat tan, during: had to document Shawn doing manual labor, and after: LOVE, it came out great.

It was nice to do a house project un interrupted and together. Our last house Shawn did a decent amount of painting but I did most of it and in this house I have done at least 1,000 sq feet of painting while he now has helped do the master bedroom... he has some catching up to do.
Sunday we suited up in our matching Triumph shirts and our gear and got on his bike for a morning ride to his favorite breakfast joint; The Waffle House. I made sure that 75% of the weekend was things he wanted to do so that I could get him to help paint... he does not exactly enjoy painting, or manual labor for that matter.

Triumph shirt and my awesome ridding boots. The jeans I am wearing are actually my pre prego jeans, was so excited to get back into my old clothes again!!

I love this man... he may drive me crazy at times but he also keeps me grounded, laughing and some how sane too!!

For labor day weekend we did a whole lot of nothing, it was amazing. We just stayed home relaxed and moved at whatever pace we felt like. I actually did a laundry marathon and enjoyed it... wow. When the week is so crazy its nice to go at your own pace and catch up on chores... dont tell my parents I just said that I enjoy chores, lol.

Last weekend was Shawn's drill weekend so I dont even really remember it except that I was so relieved to see him on Sunday!! I know Friday night I called my Dad and Step Mom and asked them to take Malia for the day so it was a 3 to 1 ratio instead of 4 to 1. She is not a handful per say but must be kept busy at all times and thats hard to do with two babies and a 2 year old who is testing boundaries in a new environment. Malia watched for my Dad in the small front window and got crazy excited when he came up the walk. I am always slightly glad to see my kids go if only to have 5 minutes to myself but then I am so glad for apple face time because I end up missing them. My Dad and Step Mom got an ipad too so we can face time with them so they can see the kids growing and exploring each and every day if they want. We usually face time 1-2 times a week, then whenever the girls have a sleep over we can still say good night and good morning to them! Thanks apple for inventing face time, we love it!!

This weekend is another adults only weekend, I think another laundry marathon is in order as well as I have convinced Shawn to take me to go see the new Resident Evil movie coming out... I love Resident Evil and Underworld movies. I think its time for another Lora Croft movie again!! I dont know if I am more excited to go see the movie or more excited to not wear "Mommy attire" lol Granted while we are home together thats exactly what I plan on wearing and diving into an ever growing to do list. Not exactly what we were thinking when we named this "adult weekend" but with 4 kids, Shawn working two jobs (+ he's taking 3 college courses for continued education for teaching), and myself being a Mom/Foster Mom and playing Army... I guess adult weekend is now going to be tackle the to do list weekend and sprinkle in a little relax/recharge time.

Wow I think I just blogged a months worth... well, at least I'm blogging. Here are some random pictures from the past few weeks.

Norah is standing in her crib now and pulling herself up against furniture, she really wants to walk.

This last weekend was our second date weekend and it was wonderful. No projects this time, just relaxing. Shawn emailed me and asked me if I wanted to go to Red Lobster Friday night and then go catch a movie. He said just like the old days, lol. It was a REAL date! Then Saturday we got up early to go for a 2 mile walk, came home took a 3 hour nap, did a few chores around the house then went to another favorite restaurant of mine; Firebirds. Waited an hour for a table, so we sat at the bar I had a drink and we shared an appetizer... by the time we got a table I was no longer hungry and was totally tired from just one drink. I hardly ever drink, that combined with tired just catching up to me... we went home and went to bed by 9pm. We say all the time we are like a little old married couple, we would rather stay home and watch a movie, swim, nap, relax... guess were saving the party animal stuff for retirement. LOL! The kids came back Sunday afternoon and it has been non stop go since....

Random pictures from over the summer...

Need I say more? lol She chills in the BOB every Mon, Wed, & Thur when I take the kids to Preschool... 

Who needs to workout when I load 4 kids in the truck, lift a heavy double stroller out of the truck, unload 4 kids, transport all 4 kids into the building... (2 babies in stroller, oldest walking holding onto stroller and Malia in my arms while pushing the stroller). Drop 3 off, load 1 baby and giant stroller into truck. Only to 6 hours later do it all over again... In the wonderful 108+ degree weather. I have managed to lose 40 of the 50 pounds I gained during pregnancy by simply eating healthy, smaller portions and running around after 4 kids all day everyday. Thats it!! Thats my secret.

Malia & Norah holding hands while laying in bed drinking there morning bottles. I love, that these girls love each other so much already :-)

I had a vision in my head on how our 4th of July would go... then it got rained on, literally. It poured rain all day. I put Malia on her bench to look out the window... she now climbs on there all the time and plays with her curtains... way to go Mom, lol! It sprinkled a few times so we went out and did an impromptu mini photo shoot of Mailia playing in the rain = TONS of FUN!

 

This Girl was made possible in part from Uncle Sam, plus Mommy & Daddy are patriotic so it seemed fitting to do her 6 month photos in red, white and blue.

Norah just keeps growing like a weed... shes & months now and sometimes I have to pinch myself how blessed we are to have such a Princess in our lives. Shes so well behaved, so energetic and now on the go all the time.

She tried out the bumbo for the 1st time and out grew the swing.

We drove up North to Payson, AZ so that Norah could meet her Great, Great Uncle Albert Rusch. They loved each other. My great Uncle is in his 80's and still very energetic, he insisted on caring Malia (who weighs 20 lbs and is never still) into the restaurant for lunch. The girls had fun, and we enjoyed looking through old black and white Army photos of my Uncle and family. 

We had lots of lounge time, swim time and play time during the summer! I cant wait to post more family pictures soon!

Trying baby food for the 1st time! She is a natural, she hardly makes a mess and really wants to feed herself. Malia started feeding herself with a kiddy sized spoon. These girls are growing up fast.

We went in to get a family photo done... this girl was looking too cute in this dress that I splurged on (LOVE Gymboree) so I wanted one of her looking cute... and she decides to sit up all on her own for the 1st time right in front of the camera!!!!!! 

That was the Adams family Summer! Now we are back to school... kids are in Preschool Mon, Wed, and Fri. Shawn teaches Mon-Fri, we both have drill one weekend a month, I have Moms group every 2 weeks, I have non stop foster appointments... We did recently schedule a kid free weekend once a month (this last weekend was our first one), we need quiet time and re charge time. It was wonderful. Next blog post will be all about this last weekend.

GOODBYE SUMMER HELLO SCHOOL YEAR

  I sure hope everyone enjoyed the summer?! I know here in the Adams household we sure did, and we are sad that it has come to a close. I stopped blogging during the summer so that we could spend quality family time with each other as much as possible. My last post was the end of May and here it is almost the end of August already... time fly's.

Shawn and I had to play Army a few times this summer, but were able to enjoy swimming in our pool and were fortunate enough to take two trips to Disneyland with Malia and Norah. The 1st trip was so special, that 1st time walking down main street with not 1 but 2 beautiful daughters... Shawn and I both were choked up. There was a time when we thought we didnt want kids, and another time that we thought were never going to be able to have any kids. God has plans we dont even know about and they show up when you least expect them. I cant thank him enough for the blessings in our lives, I look at our girls in awe on a daily basis. Sometimes I have to pinch myself that I am there Mom and get to watch them grow up to be strong, independent, successful, wonderful women. I am honored to be there Mom. Malia is a serious Daddy's girl and Norah is an extreme Mamma's girl. We love them dearly.

Disneyland in June and again in July was the highlight of our summer. In between Shawn and I played Army, we enjoyed the pool as a family and just tried to relax and spend real quality time together. In July we had 5 different foster kids come in/out of our home, it was pretty crazy, but we are here to fill our 3 available beds whenever we can. We have settled down in that aspect and currently have a 2 year old little girl "D", Malia who I cant believe is 1 1/2 already, Norah who just turned 7 months, and we have a baby boy "J" who is 6 weeks old. They keep us very busy. Malia is our little evil kin evil and talks up a storm now, Norah perfected the Army crawl over the summer and just started crawling and is well on her way to perfecting that too she may be running before her 1st birthday. We have only had D for about a month so she is still feeling us out and finding her place here, over all shes a good kid and so far exhibits normal 2 year old behavior, she loves to swim and is learning to tolerate Malia who can be a bit pushy at times. Malia and Norah together are a hoot to watch, they love each other something crazy already which warms my heart if one crys the other crys with while trying to comfort, on long car rides they always hold hands and they get so excited to see each other every morning or when I pick up Malia from preschool... they truly have a special bond already!!

Shawn is back to work... working 50 + hour weeks already, boooo.... but he does love his job which makes us both happy. I spent 12 hours the week before school started decorating his room... he has NO creative vision lol! It was fun he gave me creative freedom and I like the end result. We took the kids in a couple of those days setting up his classroom... that was an adventure lol! Like I said they keep us busy. Hes teaching 5th grade this year so he has a few students from his 4th grade class last year, the students love him and he inspires them. He is still the commander of a small unit in Vegas and once a month has to travel there for a drill weekend. So, poor guy, once a month has to work 12 days straight... but he loves both jobs so all I can do is encourage and support him and try to hold it together at home when he is not here.

I am done with school for a while. I took a class over the summer and it didnt go very well... guess it helps when you do ALL the homework lol! I have never been the best student but some how I managed to get my BA and this summer I realized school was sucking up time that Id rather spend with my family. So pursuing my MA is on hold until Malia and Norah are in school so at the soonest 3 years back to school for me, at the latest 4 years. I finally realized there is no huge rush to get a career rolling if I start one at 35 I would be 55 and able to retire... thats still young as long as I keep in shape. I sometimes forget that I have 10 years in the Army and am half way to a retirement anyway. I am just thankful that I am able to stay at home with our girls & at the same time able to do something to help make this world a better place by doing foster care. We have 3 different friends who are getting there foster licenses and its just an awesome thing to see, more people stepping up to fill in a void. The latest numbers came out and there are 13,000 foster kids in the system and only 3,000 foster homes. AZ is hurting for more foster homes. We received a court date for our adoption to FINALLY be legal and permanent... Maila will officially be ours on October 3rd at 8:30 am. We can not wait to close that chapter and move forward to the next.

I will now shower you all with some pictures from over the summer (cant wait until the adoption is finale because will can finally post pictures of Malia! I look forward to the next several months enjoying the holidays with our 2 girls and whatever foster kids we have during that time we cant thank our friends and family enough for supporting us on this journey and being so loving and supportive to the kids too, THANK YOU!! Stay tuned for regular blog posts again :-)

We walked down Main Street, thru the castle and when Malia saw the carousel she said "oooooo" so we hopped right on as our 1st ride... she cried almost the whole time lol! But Norah loved it!

Malia LOVED the parades, she would cry when they were over.

Norah sporting some Minnie ears!

Malia's favorite ride was Its a Small World. Our 1st trip Grandma & Grandpa Rahn came with us!

Shawn was a gracious Dad and stood in line for a half hour so that the Girls could meet Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel. They LOVED it as you can tell from Norah's little face. PRICELESS!! Malia loved Snow Whites red lips, lol.

Our 2nd trip was just as fun as the first. My Mom made custom Disney outfits for the girls this time, they loved them!

Aunt Trista came with us on the 2nd trip after hearing about how much fun the girls where on the 1st trip she wanted to experience it, they loved having her!

   

Of course we had to ride Its a Small World and catch the parades again, and again, and AGAIN!!

Caught this awesome shot of Norah watching the parade from the comfort of Aunt Trista's lap, so cute!

This girl LOVES to dance... Trip 1 to the left dancing in the street to the New Orleans band (sporting a tutu made by Mommy) they threw her beads and she loved it. Trip 2 to the right, dancing in the street again to the Five and Dime band. (sporting princess pants made by Nanny) Our 2nd trip she was dancing in the street on day 3 and the Disney photo pass photographers could not stop taking pictures of her, they caught some really cute ones... cant wait to share!

 
These two are too cute for words. She looks like her Daddy, shes also ALWAYS happy like Daddy :-)

One of my favorite things about my girls... how much they love each other. They hold hands whenever we are in the truck. I <3 both="both" p="p" them="them">

*(Stay tuned for another blog filled with some non Disney random summer pics.)*

Summer break

Ah, summer break is finally here for Shawn! Which means a little more help around the house for me as long as I promise to give him a nap everyday... gotta love that man! June & July on the calendars are filling up fast which is slightly depressing because I thought summer break meant relaxing. Between the two of us we have lots of Army stuff going on, the kids have lots of appointments, & I have school. Yes, you read right, school. I thought I was done for the summer but the 1 class I was taking that was worth 1 credit, my paper wasnt good enough for her so she said I could re take her class during the summer in conjunction with another class. So, I am taking technically 2 classes. The 1 credit class is more of a build on what I had so not to hard, the other one I picked has 6 books, so I will be spending most of my summer reading books for school... I was so looking forward to read a stack of books that I am behind on, o well, such is life sometimes. We adjust fire and move forward.

On a very exciting note, only 3 more weeks to Disneyland. Shawn and I are bursting at the seems with excitement. I cant wait to see the reactions from the girls more so from D than Norah. Its a huge celebratory trip... Late Fathers Day, my Birthday, my Step Mom's Birthday (she and my Dad are coming with us!) and an early adoption celebration for D. Who in about 90 days will finally be ours legally and the world will be flooded with pictures of her that we have not been able to share. We are so anxious for it to be official. Once we adopt her her new name will be Malia D. Adams (we are making her current name her middle name) Shawn picked her name, after Obama's oldest daughter, it means Maria in Hawaiian. Two girls in 2 years, very exciting. Shawn insists that he wants all girls, but we will see what the future has in store for us. Right now we have two & two and its not so bad. C will be leaving soon to go live with a family member and as of right now M is staying for an unknown time.

I cant say its been un eventful since I last blogged, just busy every day something going on with 1 of us or 1 of the kids. We have managed to get into bed at 10pm every night so I cant complain to much. As I blog all 4 kids are napping and due to erupt, I mean wake up shortly. Then Shawn is going to be Mr wonderful and take his turn (once a week) making dinner, hes making sloppy joes from the Eating for Life book by Bill Phillips one of his favorite... well and ours too!!

Not the greatest picture taken with my sisters phone... but Friday night the 1st official day of Shawn's summer break we went swimming & Shawn lit a fire. Norah passed out in my arms from all the fun. 

Norah is growing up so fast. It so awesome to see!

 

Norah Patience Adams 4 months old

She is teething big time, this is her teether of choice.

She is in LOVE with Veggie Tales and Sesame Street, this one is her watching Sesame Street with sissy & C. We watch it on Monday & Thursdays!

Norah having her 1st temper tantrum. Nothing I did would make her happy, so she cried for almost 45 minutes straight before she wore herself out and took a long nap. Think it was her teeth.

Little Miss Happy & Alert. This Girl smiles all the time (minus the 1 temper tantrum above) She has her Daddy's disposition for the most part which for her is a blessing and for us awesome to have a happy baby girl all the time!

I could stare at this face sleeping all day long. I <3 her so much!

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of there week, for those on summer break too enjoy every minute of it! This weekend Shawn has drill and then 6 days of training in conjunction so I am a single Mom starting Friday-Friday... wish me luck.