Kierra is 15!

 Kierra recently turned 15.  Crazy!  She is a very independent girl.  She does well in school and has maintained a 4.0 the whole school year.  She is very good at managing her grades and talking to her teachers when she needs help.  I love that I don't have to worry about her in school.  She still loves to hang out with her friends and has a lot of good friends.  She is in the presidency of her miamaid class and is great about planning activities for the girls.  She has a fascination with sign language and she is excited to start taking it in highschool next year.  I can't believe that I am going to have 2 kids in highschool.  Yikes!  I'm so pleased with the young woman Kierra is becoming and pray that she
continues to be so great at growing up!

 Kierra chose Olive Garden as her place to go eat for her birthday.  We had a great time together and stuffed ourselves with yummy food.  It was fun to spend the night with just Kierra!

Junior Prom

On March 22, 2014 Jadon went to his Jr. Prom.  He was in a group with 6 other couples.  In the day, they went to Casey Taylor's house and played ping pong and XBOX Kinect and had pizza.  Then they went home and got ready for the dance.  Jadon looked so good in his tuxedo.  He drove the van and took 3 other couples with him.  He said he liked being the driver.



Jadon with his date, Jennica Keyser

They went to Macaroni Grill for dinner and then to the dance.  I sent my camera with Jadon and I was so happy that he took these pictures outside of the capitol.  After the dance, they went to another boys house and watched Frozen.  He said he had a good time.

First Byers child to get braces

Before, what a cutie!

 Kyson got braces on his top teeth today.  He has a tooth that needs to come in but there is no room for it so that is the reason for the braces.  He is our first child to get braces.  Kierra will follow in about a month.  He was very nervous about getting them and told me he wasn't ever going to smile.  I think that he kind of likes them because I've seen him smile quite a bit since he got home and he even went and showed his friends.  Luckily he only has to wear them for about 6-8 months.

After...still a cutie but he's looks older!

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.