Bye Bye Bottle, Hello Potty??

Yes! Valerie has officially been off the bottle for 1 month now. She is 21 months old. She still has her binki though. I have never had a baby take the bottle for so long but I haven't minded since there is not another baby on they way. She has been so fun and I have really enjoyed her being the baby. (hopefully the terrible 2's aren't right around the corner) Valerie is very interested in the potty, not by my doing. Last night she went and sat on the potty by herself and pooped. Being a nurse and a mom I have no trouble talking about that end of things but don't worry I won't post a picture of what was found in the potty. This was a big moment and everyone of us gathered around and cheered. Way to go Valerie. I hope she can potty train herself because I am not ready to start that yet.

Babysitting Warrior

Most people know that I am not a big pet person but my kids would love one. It just brings more work for me to do and I think I already have plenty to do. As luck would have it we have found a wonderful solution to this problem. We are a great foster family to pets and we love to babysit. Ashley has been waiting for weeks to be able to babysit Warrior overnight. He has had to be weaned from his mom before we could take him from the Stokes house. She won't let him out of her sight. I think this whole thing works out great because by the time they get tired of them it is time to go back to their home.

Playing dress up. Valerie is relieved she is not the victim for a change.

You would think my kids have never seen a kitten eat. They were all so excited for the first meal at our house!

Our foster dog, Bear. We haven't seen Bear in such a long time since he moved to Boise. He was the kids favorite pet. Big, but very gentle. Sometimes Ashley and Mikayla still cry at night because they miss Bear.

Let me remind everybody that we do have a dwarf or should I say midget bunny. We have had Shadow Jr. for 3 1/2 years. He lives in our garage. He occasionally goes on walks with his leash. Oh, don't let me forget that he is a Dad.

Hailey Bailey Pudding Pie!

Hailey is constantly saying the cutest, well maybe the most interesting things. Have you ever wondered what your child says when your not around? Luckily, Hailey's primary teachers are our friends so I get to hear some of the things she says. Wait! Maybe that is not always a good thing.

Most sunbeams are kind of shy around men teachers but not Hailey. She loves Bro. Barrett, bald head and all. Bro. Barrett was entertaining the kids one Sunday, they were laughing at his bald head. He asked them if they wanted to touch it...they all shrieked "Ewwww!" except for of course little Hailey, she gladly came up to him and rubbed her hand on the top of his head and exclaimed "It feels like a cats tounge!"

A couple weeks later, we were sitting behind the Barretts in church. The kids were asking me about mammals. I tried to explain to them that one way to know if something is a mammal is to see if they have hair. Hailey was listening very intently. She thought for a minute and looked at Bro. Barrett's head in front of us and then said in a very concerned way, "so Brother Barrett isn't a mammal?"
Hailey wanted Ashley to take her to the movie. Mikayla had already seen it and told Hailey she shouldn't go because there were some scary parts. Hailey said, "that's okay because Ashley can just hug me on those parts."

Cade's end of school party

Skylar, Cole B., Cole C., & Cade
(Braeden and McKinnley already left)

Cade had a few friends over for the day after the last day of school for a party. He is getting as bad as me thinking he needs a get together for every little thing. This was back when the weather was at least in the 70's. They had to go play basketball after going to the movie because they ate so many snacks! Uncle Derek stopped by and played a few games of never ending lightening with them. A couple hours of playing ball definitely increased their appetite. We came back to our house and had a BBQ with 4 blenders full of Orange Julius.

Brrrr!

Is it really June? I have been freezing! This is the fourth day in a row of drinking hot chocolate. The baseball games are killing me. Yesterday Mikayla had to play her violin at the relay for life at 7:30 am. We then headed off to T-ball and back for more violin playing at the Skandidag festival. I had finally wisened up by the end. I had a coat, hat, and blanket wrapped around me. I even left all the other kids home. I guess one good thing about this cold weather is I get to prolong swimsuit shopping. It has to be my least favorite thing to shop for. They always look so good on the hangers but it is such a different story putting them on!