One Beautiful Year with Mykayela

I can't believe it has been a complete year since my beautiful baby girl, Mykayela, was born. She was a miracle 16 years in the making...18 years in the waiting. This girl, this miracle of life, she has given me so much joy. I'm so grateful, so utterly thankful to know her.

It all started so suddenly...so unexpectedly.

Carrying her was so easy, so natural, so lovely and wonderful...so BEAUTIFUL. Her daddy and I awaited her with incredible love and longing.

The night she was born was more wonderous, intimate, powerful, enjoyable, sublime...more amazing than anything I could ever come close to conveying to anyone. This language I've been given and learned is left wanting, severly lacking in any strength or measure to relay the significant splendor of that night, our birth. I long to relive, to once again feel those moments.

Every day since, every night, every single moment has been bliss. OK, there have been a few crying scenes where it was one step below "Bliss", but I would never trade any of it.

Our little gift from God had her first birthday Tuesday, June 26th. We celebrated on Saturday the 23rd at the park. We had sandwiches, birthday cake, ice cream, punch, bottled water, chips, and fruit. After eating we put the many water balloons and water guns I purchased to good use.

Mykayela was so funny...cute...sweet. She didn't really want much to do with her birthday cake. She poked at it, tasted the frosting, talked a lot, but she didn't want to eat the cake--she shared it with me though by lifting it up and leaning it into my face.

I can't believe the tiny, wet, amazing newborn I held in my arms has blossomed into the fun, squirmy, crawling little baby with pig tails and teeth.

I have been so blessed!

I have pictures to post of her birthday.

Oh how time marches on but the heart holds fast.

Happy Birthday Sweet Mykayela!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Tree House Children's Museum

Today (Wednesday, June 20) we all went to the Tree House Children's Museum and had a blast...as usual. :o) We have a family membership becuase it just makes sense with all of our wee ones. (ok, so some aren't so "wee")


At first I wasn't too amused, I mean, I was just sitting there watching some of the girls color their craft. I decided to get out the video camera and do some filming of the children.


Catelynn was playing in the music room...so I broke out the camera and started a silly documentary that soon took on a life of it's own.

888888888888Let me just say, after watching this thing at home I'm more determined to get some dang braces to fix my ghetto teeth!888888888888

After filming Catelynn perform a rousing rendition of Hot Cross Buns I enlisted her and together we went on the hunt for fun and interesting happenings with the wild animals we live with.

Our first stop was the man-cubs in the computer garden...they were hypnotized by the powerful spell of those wicked magical little boxes and therefore not very captivating so we moved on to see if we could spot the rare Kaylee, the elusive Eliana, the amazing Karlie, or the wonderous Gabriel.

It wasn't long before off in the distance, in the tree, we spotted signs of the amazing--and QUICK--Karlie, who noticed our presence and excaped our voyeurism. We began a pursuit when all of a sudden the wonderous Gabriel came prancing by, he was quite difficult to communicate with yet we did persist in our endevor to learn more about him and his activities within the Tree House.

It took some time--a little time--and our wonderous Gabriel became domesticated enough to join us in our search for the remain three spectacles.

Our journey took us through the homes of China, Germany, England, took us to Mexico where we caught our first undetected glimpes of the elusive Eliana, rare Kaylee, and amazing Karlie ALL TOGETHER at once! It was a momentous and quite excited experience indeed. We were able to observe their behaviors unnoticed for a short period of time before we went in for further detailed study.

The rare Kaylee was the last to take notice of our presence and--surprisingly--the least shy of the three. The rare Kaylee was curious about us as well, curious enough to get so close I could tap her head with the camera...boy was it exciting!

The elusive Eliana remained pensive, staying in the back ground disappearing without a trace.

Our amazing Karlie showed little sign of amicable interaction, she simple stood there watching us awaiting the moment of her escape.

It happened before we could blink, as quickly as we had found the them, they were gone.

Off we ran!

We sought out the country of Kenya where we saw brown and tan scenery with lions and monkeys. At one point, a very scary and shocking moment in time, a monkey fought for its territory attacking Catelynn viciously when all of a sudden the Gabriel came to her rescue. Together Gabriel and Catelynn bravely fought the monkey...then the elusive Eliana came on the scene and joined the battle. We were taken up with this battle to such a degree we didn't notice the approach of a huge lion. Just victory was apparent with the monkey on the floor, the elusive Eliana was attacked by the lion!

The lion just threw itself upon the Eliana--right at her head!

We had to pause our documentary for a moment due to the troubling sight before us.

Once we had composed ourselves and the commotion was settled we returned to our persuit of the rare Kaylee and the amazing Karlie.

We traveled to England where we were able to enjoy a small sabbatical and make sure all was well with each of us. Incredibly, there in the British Isles we spotted the rare Kaylee, she just waltzed right up to us, looked us in the face, and then ran off with the amazing Karlie on her heals.

Again we made our way to the house of China were the elusive Eliana and Catelynn commenced in primitive interaction resembling play. It was a gleeful, carefree moment to remember.

Sadly to report, it was at this time the wonderous Gabriel was eaten by a large fish. EATEN! There it was, a big red striped fish with Gabriel's head in its mouth. Fortunately, Catelynn was able to pull the fish off and the Gabriel was able to run free. Whew! It was an intense moment for sure.

We resumed our expedition to find the amazing Karlie and the rare Kaylee. Catelynn and I made way to the wilderness, surrounded by wild trees we became a wee bit leery and a bit disturbed by the elusive Eliana, she was oddly everywhere we were now. Could it be that the elusive Eliana is so "elusive" because everyone mistakely believes that they are on the hunt for an Eliana when, in fact, the Eliana is hunting THEM? We ran and ran, quickly--as fast as we could go--through the trees, up the mountains to the high land and hid ourselves and best we could.

Not long into our hiding from the Eliana we came across the path of the cutest cub known to modern man; a MYKAYELA Bear. Cute as they are, they are not without boundaries and aren't readily receptive to strangers so our observation was made at a slight distance. It was heart-stopping!

Recovering from our awe, we notices a bolt of lightening to our left. It wasn't really lightening, it was a streak from our rare Kaylee running through the trees. Catelynn sprang into action as I struggled to pull myself together and join the race. By the time I approached Catelynn--who had unwittingly attracted that Eliana--the Kaylee was long gone.

Our time had expired. It was time to go back into the studio and work on a new story. We had experienced some exciting and wonderful things while on our voyage throughout the wild world, yet there was a small bit of disappointment not having been able to learn and interact more with the Kaylee or the Karlie.

As we were in the process of concluding our show; reminding the viewers that wild Karlies, Kaylees, Elianas, and Gabriels do not make good house pet--no matter how cute they are, we were stalked and attacked by that untamed Eliana.

It was a close call, scary and extreme, but we made it out unharmed..............barely. I think that Eliana knows were we live...there have been times I just know I see her lurking around!

If you are planning to visit the Tree House Children's Museum, BE WARE, you may be lulled into a trap planted by a wild child yourself! ;o)

Hmm...

Is it wrong to say that right now I feel like I'm living inside of a blender? Would the answer change if one or more of my children heard me say that?

I love them all, they drive me crazy though...most of that is in a GREAT way and a little tiny bit of that is NOT in a happy way.

Anyway, I just thought I'd ask.

OLD LADY

We were watching Charlie's Angels with Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz, the topic of "Charlie" and what he looks like came up. I was telling Catelynn and Tyler that noone ever sees Charlie even in the old TV series that played when I was a little girl.

"They had a TV show when you were little?"

"Yep, they did."

"Well, that sounds lame. I don't ever want to see it," my dear sweet son says in his effortless snotty voice.

"Why? It was good," I replied.

"Sounds cool to me," said Catelynn.

OK, so this isn't so extraordinary, a boy not thinking he's gonna like an old TV show about "girls"...oh, oh...wait, that would be "CHICKS", an old TV show about CHICKS.

So then Tyler asks, "Was it in black and white?"

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!

Just how old does my son think I am? I mean, black and white was gone when MY mom little!!

I guess it just goes with my son telling me the reason I liked something he didn't was because I was "born in the LAST century!"
That was hysterical until I reminded him that he, too, was born in the last century.

Sleeping Baby

Mykayela, our baby, loves to crawl around and get into things...especially her brother and sisters' projects and toys.

Today, like every other day, she was crawling around while we were all busy doing our various projects and chores. Gabriel decided she needed to go to sleep, so he picked her up, carried her to my bedroom, put her on my bed, covered her up with a sheet and walked out.

I laughed a little, as did the two oldest children, Catelynn and Tyler, as we watched. Gabe heard us and turned to look at Mykayela who was sitting up smiling. He then, turned back to us and said, "She's hard to put to sleep." LOL

Tyler laughingly said, "You didn't even try."

Catelynn responded, "Yeah, Gabriel."

He goes back over to Mykayela, places her on her back, recovers her, walks away, turns back go witness his progress to see that she's still awake.

This repeats five or six times, then he just shakes his head and goes up the stairs.

It's been several hours and we have no sleeping baby.

In search of the lost lunch eaters

We have a free lunch program here in the summer for anyone under 18 years of age. My children all go to over to the elementary near by or the park in the other direction. Today when everyone was ready to go I heard several voices calling for Nick and then Karlie came down stairs to ask me wear he was. Well, you know what a mom must do when one of the little ones isn't where s/he is supposed to be, so I got up and went on the hunt. I quickly realized that Nicholas wasn't alone and that Miss Ashlynn wasn't anywhere to be found either. We broke up into groups looking for the two little misguided lambs calling out their names. The boys went up to the school to see if Nick and Ashlynn had gone up there for lunch, some of the girls got on their bikes to ride around the neighborhood, and I went down to the pond with one of the girls to search for our youngest independent children.

I found one of our bikes on the side of the road about two blocks away just laying there...Hmm...how did that get there?!!

I could hear the children calling for their brother and sister, yet I saw no sign of them. I guess we'd been looking for about ten minutes...not a LONG time but more than we should've had to...when one of the girls called out that they'd been found...at the school eating lunch. Whew! GRrrr!

I DO NOT like it when little ones think they are big and take off places.

Well, the children went and had their lunch, several of the older ones scolding Nick and Ashlynn, and when they came back I talked to the little ones. They now have to stay inside so I know where they are because their safety is very important. You know, they're not to keen on that, but that's just the way it is.

Thank goodness they were at the school eating lunch.

Happy Birthday Eliana

My sweet Eliana is TEN years old today. How time flies by! Last night we had a "Cookie Lee" jewelry party for Miss Eliana. My friend Michelle is a consultant and we put together a party to benefit Eli. We a friends come with their moms and they purchased things either for themselves or for Eliana and the hostess credit went toward anything "birthday girl" wanted. We had so much fun playing in the insane amount of jewelry. There was so much to choose from--cute things, amazing things, beautiful things...one or two things one would need to be brave or funky to wear, but everything fun and wonderful.

Each of the five big girls got a necklace from me: Ashlynn has a tiara pendant on a ribbon; the two "K"s--Karlie and Kaylee--have a cupcake necklace each (they just have to match); Catelynn got a gorgeous gold and pink cluster necklace that looks AMAZING on her beautiful carmel color skin; and Eliana got rubyish cherries--plus the several things she received from friends and the plumeria necklace the hostess credit allowed her to earn.

It was so fun having a "girlie" night! We sent the boys camping with Daddy Mark and stayed home to party. We set up a canopy-tent in the front yard, wrapped it with an ocean scene, placed a table inside with food; chips and dip, fruit, veggies, and punch, and we turned on the bubble machine for the little ones to play in bubbles.

We tried on lots of different styles and colors--remember how fun it was to dress up in mommy's clothes and make-up or grandma's jewelry?--it was like that, only better!

I got some great deal!!! I think I'll be doing something like this for other birthdays, it really worked out well; Eliana got things she really wanted, I saved money, we all had a great time.

After the party wrapped up and everyone left, the girls and I played some games upstairs, ate some spring rolls and chips, and then watched a movie.

I bought a birthday cake from Costco that we'll cut tonight since today is Eliana's actual birthday and we'll have some punch with Sprite and do some games with the family if the boys get back early enough.

All in all, I think everything worked out well. Eliana felt special--maybe even a little too much so at some points, but it was the general feeling I was going for.

Thanks Michelle for bringing a wonderful selection of things!

We'll see what the rest of the day brings for Eliana...she hasn't received everything yet! ;o)

Sweet Dreams

Mykayela is our sweet baby girl. She's beautiful and the culmination of our love: yeah, ok, so that's sappy, who cares? it's TRUE!

Anyway, this blessed bundle of joyous love, the radiating warmth of life we snuggle with each night became the world's loudest eternal screaching siren. Last night this siren was set for whatever moment dear mommy and daddy desired to close our little eyes and immerse ourselves into the gentle inviting arms of the sandman. She pleasantly laid on the bed, sweetly sleeping--glowing even--as she danced with the stars UNTIL Mark and I closed OUR eyes, at which point she IMMEDIATELY started screaming. I tried nursing her--because that's what she projected to be her desire; however, it was not the soothing goodness it has been in the past. There was no magical knockout lastnight--oh NO...she was not going to be comforted. It was horrible. I took her upstairs and went room to room...walked and walked, we swayed and bounced, we rocked and rocked and rocked until...she was still, she was quiet, she was SLEEPING. I broke out my stealthiness, floated down to our bedroom and tried to catch a few "Z"s while it was still dark...I was just beginning to recognize the beckoning voice of our beloved sandman when: SCREAMMMM! Ugh! Are you kidding me?!!! Nurse. nurse. nurse. Pat. pat. pat. Plead and beg. Somewhere in time, some point I cannot decifer, sleep saved me...just in time for MARK'S ALARM! Man, I'm telling you. There are times when time isn't enough.

unkilling my son

So I'm sitting here at the computer and my daughter comes in very upset. She tells me Tyler needs me NOW as she's breaking down, losing composure, she tells me he can't breathe and he's choking...tears are streaming. I jump up, leap across the back lawn, slide over the trampoline to his position...everyone is around Tyler in a reverenced hush; he's on his back, tears welling in his eyes and on both sides of the bridge of his nose, face red...good news; he's crying--making sound--he can breathe. Whew! Where's the pain? In his throat and chest. What happened? Eliana and Tyler were wrestling on the trampoline and she busted his chops--so's to speak, but she came up on him and wacked him in the throat and chest in one swoop. Now I see what HER deal was...she thought she killed her brother. Poor girl! Poor boy! He thought she killed him, too! (Not really, he just hurt a lot.) I told him Eliana was really upset and crying, then asked him if he was angry with her: NO...he said, "no". He's growing so much. It used to be whenever he got hurt he would be angry at any person involved, blaming that person for the pain and choosing to take it out on that person--accident or no accident. Now, my son has perspective. He's growing. Eliana is feeling better, too.

Guess who's on the trampoline?!?!

All together

So we have nine of the ten children with us now; just waiting for Austin.

Sunday Mark and I drove to the east side of Wyoming to pick up Catelynn, Gabriel, Kaylee, and Nicholas plus the puppy, "Cheetoe" and the chinchilla, "Chinchy" who has now been renamed, "Chinchalada" because Gabe thinks it sounds better. Funny.

The trip was relatively easy and uneventful. We had one not-so-nice thing in Rawlins; we went into a gas station for a potty break and returned to our white van with some...well, "add-ons" in red ink to the hood and it was "colorful" if you know what I mean. Grrrr....thank goodness for Shaklee Basic H! I don't know what people are thinking. Oh well, now I know in a pich, Basic H will take enough ink of the hood of a baking car that you'll be satisfied until you can get some rubbing alcohol.

Mykayela did really well on the trip. She tolerated the day of driving so well. I'm impressed by our little miracle girl.

Mark is so different when all the children are together...much more at peace. He loves his babies so much! I wish they could all stay here all of the time.

Everyone is in love with Catelynn's puppy! Even the other dogs tolerate him. Cheetoe is short, fat, and solid black. He has a fun personality and sounds like a tasmanian devil.

We spent the last week getting ready for the other children; getting new furniture for everyone and rearranging things so they'd be comfortable, I think all-in-all they like it.

A few weeks ago a family in our church gave us a trampoline: Angels in heaven swelled in a unified chorus singing praises to the most high in sight of this wonderful deed! All of the children have been so happy jumping and bouncing there little hind ends off in shifts. I love seeing them work together and having fun.

We have been to the park twice now for lunch. There are some trees there with white blossoms that the children like to suck on. There's a sweet liquid they like to taste so they were attacking those poor trees and "sucking them dry" just as they did last summer. Crazy little people.

This weekend the girls and I are going to have a party for Eliana's birthday while the boys go camping. This house is going to be busting with girls...if I wasn't the Mom I'd probably run the the mountain with the boys! We're all going to have fun. The girls will be playing all kinds of games, having and Cookie Lee party, dressing up, telling stories, watching movies, dancing, etc...the boys will be roasting marshmellow, roasting hotdogs, and bring back fish to fry. Yeah, us!!

I love my family. Waiting for Austin and we'll be complete!

Love you guys!