Our borrowed kids

These are all, except one, of the kids that I babysit.  Maggie only comes on Fridays so I wasn't able to get her in the picture.  It isn't very often that I have them all at once but it has happened a few times.  The days that they are all there are pretty crazy but  not too bad.  I just have to know that I will get nothing done except play and take care of them.  They have fun together and best of all...they all sleep at the same time!  I am thankful for all of these kids.  They make it possible for me to stay home with Katie and be here when my other kids get home from school.   

Great Christmas idea

For Christmas this year, Gladys gave Jadon, Kierra and Jaxon some money and asked them to find a way to do service for someone with that money.  At first, we weren't sure what we were going to do.  After talking to different people about what to do, someone suggested The Road Home.  I went on their website and called them and asked them what kinds of things they need.  I asked the kids what they thought and we decided it would be a good idea.  So I took each of them shopping and we got things like diapers, bath mats, shoes and towels.  I also posted on Facebook that we were going to make a trip to the road home and I got a ton of stuff donated from friends.  Dale and I decided that it would be good if our whole family went to The Road Home to drop off our donations.  I had never been there or even seen the place.  I was completely surprised when I went inside.  I don't know what I was expecting but it was not at all what I thought it would be.  It broke my heart, and brought tears to my eyes, to see these families with a cot and everything they owned underneath the cot.  I left the place feeling so grateful for the warm home that I have and just wanted to be able to help these families more.  I hope it made an impact on my children.  I am so grateful for my wise mother in law for having the inspiration to do what she did.  I will never forget it!

Valentine's Day 2014

 Several years ago, I started a tradition of making a special Valentine's dinner and giving my kids a little gift.  This year 3 of the people in our family were gone on Valentine's Day so we celebrated it on Sunday.  We had homemade pizza and a chocolate fountain.  The kids were pretty excited about it.

 Dale always gives his girls something for Valentine's Day.  This year he didn't want to spend a ton of money on flowers so he looked on the internet and found a way to make roses out of duct tape.  He was planning on making a dozen but it took so long to make them that he made one for each of us. We all thought it was very sweet that he would do that and love our flowers.

A few days later Dale taught Kierra and Katie how to make duct tape roses.  Kierra is very crafty and quite good at making things like that so she whipped out a bunch of them.  Katie is a little young but she still enjoyed cutting the tape while Dale assembled the flower. 

The finished flowers

Jake turns 11

 In the past, when it was someone in our family's birthday, we all went out to dinner together.  This year we decided that we were going to take the birthday child out to dinner all by themselves.  Jake chose to go to La Luna.  We had a really nice time spending some one on one time with him.

Jake eating his favorite dessert, fried ice cream

 Jake chose to go see The Lego Movie for his birthday.  He really liked it.  It was so much fun to look over at him and see him laughing the whole movie.

Jake with his birthday presents

Jake off to his school on his birthday

Kierra made Jake's birthday cake

Every year I take a picture of Jake with my mom on their birthday.  It's fun that they get to share that day together.  Jake is one of a kind.  I've never known a kid like him.  He is so smart.  He is constantly telling me little pieces of information that he has learned from reading informational books.  He is like a little sponge.  The funny thing about him is that it frequently seems like he isn't paying attention but he is.  He is currently very into legos and video games.  He does really well in school and his teacher loves him.  Jake is a really sweet kid and we are lucky to have him in our family.