Happy 5th Birthday Naomi!

Home Study Improvements

Fireplace screen: check

At our Home Study the Social Worker gave us a list of things that we needed to do before we can be approved again.  Here is what we did! 

Handrail on the stairs going upstairs

Check! Darrick did awesome making it!

Second bed in Naomi's room

Check!  $20 on Craigslist

We are now all ready!

A special poem for our bathroom

When I was a little girl, my Grandma Vanderbilt taught me a poem about a robin and a sparrow.  Then one year she found a postcard of it and framed it and gave it to me.  It is a cute little poem and I thought it would be great in our bathroom.  But it only the size of a small postcard.  So I enlarged it on a copy machine, put blue paper on the back and put it in a frame.  Today Darrick hung it on the bathroom wall for me and it looks great.  Now we can all enjoy it for many years to come! 

Choices

Living Room

BEFORE

Close up of paint design on walls

AFTER

Yes, Darrick finally got his new TV!

Dining Room

BEFORE

AFTER

Pictures on Wall

Flower Art on opposite wall

Our First Weekend Project

 This weekend we started on our first project in our home.  We decided to start with something small that would still have a nice impact.  We decided to paint and fix up our one bathroom.  I had a bit of a color scheme in mind, one that matches our bathroom towels, so we got a few paint samples.  We left them on the walls for a few days and then decided we liked the top one best, which was called Cay.

 It was really easy to start because everything in the bathroom is white.  We just needed to tape off some things and get started.  Our plan was to paint the top half of the wall and ceiling Cay.

 It only took a few hours one afternoon.  I did most of the painting which was nice because it gave me time alone to think.  My Grandpa had just passed away and I found out one of my best friends has breast cancer, it was a rough day for me.

Our house was built in the 1920's so I wanted to keep a little with that time.  I use a mason jar to hold our tooth brushes.  I found these cute towel holders at Kohl's.  I had been searching for months for towel hangers with glass knobs and couldn't find them anywhere.  Then one day I walked into Kohl's and found these.

There are a few more finishing touches I am working on and then I will post final pictures!

First Game

Today Jacob had his first game of his soccer season.  His team is the Lightening Dragons.  Two of his friends from Port Gardner, our school, are on his team and Darrick is the assistant coach.

He played a great game and had a sweet slide tackle.

We lost but he had a great time and can't wait for next Saturday!

So glad we were able to share this last memory

Adjusting

It has now been 2 weeks since Darrick has returned and the word that best describes us right now is: adjusting. 

The first few days the kids smothered Darrick.  There was a lot of fighting and jealously over who would sit by Darrick or have his attention.  That has settled down a bit this week.

Darrick is enjoying relaxing and exploring our new home. 

Since the kids are so interseted in Darrick, I have had a bit of time to myself.  I found time to relax and read a book.

We spent this past weekend at Family Camp at Mount Hermon.  It was a good time for us to just get away and spend time together as a family.

Not we are getting back to life.  School is getting ready to start and we are adjusting to our new normal.

Today our social worker came over to update our Home Study.  She said it will take 2 to 3 weeks for the update to go through and then we will be able to be matched with our new daughter.

Homecoming!

Happy Birthday Darrick!

I helped the kids make these videos for Daddy.  Sorry they are sideways...I didn't realize I was holding the camera the wrong way...duh!

Howarth Park

We are back in WA and the sun is shining.  The temperature has been beautiful-between 70 and 75.  It is amazing how much our yard and the weeds grew in 3 weeks.  I have been working in the yard every day.  This afternoon I thought it would be great to take the kids on an outing to a park that is about 5 minutes driving from our house.  It is called Howarth Park.

Once you park the car you have to walk down stairs, to a bridge that goes over railroad tracks, down a spiral staircase to the beach.  Once there we had a great time!

On the spiral staircase overlooking Puget Sound.

At the beach 

Putting their feet in the water

We had a great view of Everett Naval Station

Bathing Beauty

The boys spent most of their time looking for crabs.

They used a shell to pick it up

This is one of many they caught

Searching

Naomi slipped on a rock

Proud of his catch

One of their treasures

Making new friends