Goodbye Kaylee and Daemeon

On June 21, 2011, Kaylee and Daemeon went to live with their grandma Roberta until they could go to their birthmother, Melisa and be with her(about 1-2 weeks from then). 
    We were very lucky to have the special opportunity to foster Kaylee (6yrs) and Daemeon (3 yrs) from May 28, 2010 to June 21, 2011.  These two younguns taught Joey and I how to be a mommy and daddy and care for someone so easily.  They taught us the joy of parenting, along with the struggles of parenting.  We loved every moment we had to share with them and are very grateful to have been able to be their "mom" and "dad" for the short period of time. 
  Kaylee and Daemeon will always be in our hearts and in our prayers.  We love you so much and will miss you always. 

Goodbye "daddy's little princess" and our "big boy."

Family Camp fire Cook out.

June 17, 2011
   We went up to the mountains and had roasted hot dogs wrapped in biscuits (pigs in a blanket) and then fire roasted some biscuits by themselves, thanks to my sister, Celeste giving us the great idea, then we had delicious smores.  I bought the giant marshmallows for Joey to try roasting and they just burned, which is just how he likes it, except the middle was hardly melted, so he kept burning the marshmallow in layers.
    Kaylee and Daemeon had fun running around in the mountains and playing.  Joey brought his fishing gear and he and Daemeon did some fishing, but didn't have any luck.  Quinn slept through it all! 
   We had a very enjoyable time, especially because it was a change in environment from our "usual" dinner setting. 

 Joey being a goon, as always.  That's why I love him.

 Nicole, Kaylee, and Daemeon.  Joey had to be behind the camera to take the picture, too bad he couldn't join us.

 Daemeon with his messy face.

Kaylee and her messy hair.  :)

Beautiful Blue Eyes. June 11, 2011

I think his eyes are the most georgious thing ever-well, besides Joey's eyes that it.  Can you tell how blue they are in the picture?  We were outside and the sunshine shone perfectly that you can see the beautiful color.  (I posted the pic of Joey to see his beautiful blue eyes too).

Quinn is 2 months old!

Quinn is growing up so fast.  He is developing appropriately for his age and it is so much fun for us.  We are seeing more smiles from him and he's holding his head on his own for quite some time.  I still have to monitor his head holding because he is such a wiggly worm all the time that he tends to fling himself around sometimes.

Fishing! June 5, 2011

Okay, so we didn't really do much fishing because the kids wanted to run around and play.  Joey was great at getting a fishing pole set up and out in the water for Kaylee and Daemeon to watch and be in charge of, but obviously, it didn't last for too long.  We had fun hanging out in the mountains and enjoying the scenery, even if we were only up there for 1-1/2 hours. 

 Kaylee anticipated Joey getting the fishing pole ready.

 Daemeon hanging out.

 Kiza having a blast being able to run all over the place.

 Kaylee and Daemeon waiting by their fishing pole for the fish to hook.

 I thought this was cute seeing Daemeon playing on the ground, up on this little hill.  I assumed wrong about his playing.  After I took this picture, I looked back up at Daemeon, about 2 minutes after, and he was only about 1 foot down the slope from this picture.  I told him to come down to us and he started sliding down the hill on his bum.  I said he needed to stand up and walk and he said he can't.  I told him to try and it looked like he was so off-balance.  The slope of the hill was not very steep, but I don't think we have gone many places with hills where Daemeon isn't holding onto someone's hand, so of course he's going to be scared to go down by himself.

 Me and Daemeon

The kids playing with Joey.

Quinn is sitting up on the couch. June 3, 2011

Here he is, getting so big.  He's able to sit up for minutes at a time against the corner of the couch.  Quinn loves this because he can look around at so many different things.

Memorial Weekend 2011

School is now out for summer break.  We were able to start the weekend off by having family come into town.  Joey's brother, Jonathan and wife Pauline came along with Jared, Kassie, and their 2 kids, Aurora and Parker.
   On Saturday, May 28, we went to the Discovery Park to play and run around.  The older boys took frisbees to play with and Daemeon wanted to play with them before going over to the playground.

 Daemeon and Jared.

 Daemeon and Jonathon.

 Kaylee and Aurora playing on the tire swing.

 Kaylee and Aurora.  They call each other best friends.  I wondered if they really were through out the weekend because they are both very strong headed and got in multiple arguments.  They seemed to work things out each time, which was great for them.  It's always good to get along with others.

 Daemeon playing with Kai.

 Kai and Daemeon playing in the sandbox that you can dig up dinosaur bones.

 They gave up on digging and started jumping off the rock into the sand.  They were having a blast!

 Joey hanging out with his brothers.  You can't see them in this picture and that's because Joey happened to stand up and start walking right as the picture was taken.

 Kaylee and Daemeon.  Don't you love Kaylee's silly look with her eyes?

 Joey climbing up the rope and Jonathan waiting to climb.

 Jonathan's turn to climb.

 Time to go home.  Kaylee and Daemeon love each other so much!

One more shot of them further away.  I love these two last pictures.


Family Picture
    May 29, 2011    Not everyone is in this picture, but my sister in-law, Gira wanted a picture of the family with those who had come to visit.  I thought, I might as well get a picture also, even if people are missing.  So here are the two shots that were taken.  Pick and choose which one you like best.  I think not everyone was oh-so-happy to take this picture.  :)

Aurora and Daemeon
  Aurora decided to give Daemeon a hug, out of the blue, and this is how much fun they were having.  Isn't it delightful to see?

Kaylee's Kindergarten program May 10, 2011

Kaylee "graduated" from kindergarten and had a wonderful singing and performance program.  She practiced with her class for at least a month-every day-to do so a great job.  I loved watching her perform and give us such a beautiful smile during her performance.  She is such a smart girl and has grown so much in the year that she's been with us.  We love Kaylee and are so proud of her!

 Dancing the "Hokey Pokey"

Quinn is 1 month old!

These pictures were taken May 5, 2011, so Quinn was just a couple days over a month, but I had to get some pictures of him. 

This picture is Quinn looking like a young man, all ready to go to church.  Isn't he adorable?

Girl Scouts Ceremony April 25, 2011

Joey and I have been the scout leaders for the Cub Scout Webelos in our ward.  Since we started having our weekly meetings with the boys, Kaylee started asking if she could go to scouts.  I tried to explain to her the the Cub Scouts was only for boys, but she didn't understand that because I was a leader and she thought, "how could it be for only girls if your doing it?"  I tried explaining multiple times but didn't have much success, so I left it at-"you need to join Girl Scouts, which is for girls, not Cub Scouts."  Of course, she kept asking me when I was going to sign her up after that.  I didn't have any idea how to make that happen, so I would tell her that I need to look into it. 
   One afternoon as I was looking through Kaylee's backpack for notes and homework, I found a sign up she for Discovering Girl Scouts.  I signed her up and she started attending once a week, and loved it, especially the socialization with other young girls.  The girls had a ceremony to show all that they had learned, along with girl scout promise and law. I did forget my camera, but had my phone camera, so I took what shots I could get.