Scott's Graduation

My baby brother just graduated today. He was 4-years old when I moved out. I can hardly believe so much time has passed already. Way to go, Scott! (Myself and all my siblings, left to right: me, little brother, Daniel; baby brother, Scott; Big bro, Rob; Chanda and Shasta.)

Checking out the diploma. (That's my mom on the right.)

Graduation ceremony at the Marriott Center. (I lost my wedding ring here. I searched and searched for it, but finally made a report and left without it and with a sick stomach.)

Getting laid by nephew Derek (Chanda's oldest).

Proudly wearing his candy lai and money lai. (The little guy in green is Daniel's son, Easton.)

My dad with 3 of his 5 sisters: Aunt Holly, Aunt Sherrie and Aunt Anne.

And I had to include one last photo because I love this one of Payton hugging his cousin Emily (Chanda's oldest girl).

(By-the-way, my wedding ring showed up in Payton's backpack at home almost a week later! So, see -- prayers really do work!) : )

Wash Your Hands

Huh?

This is Payton washing his hands. We needed a photo for the kid's paper I publish -- and when I get to publish lovely photos of my kids -- it's extra fun. (Not to mention that I also get to take a tax deduction on my camera this way.) Now, don't you agree that Payton has beautiful hands? (If you want to see more of my work you can check it out at www.sanjuancountykids.com -- although, the web layout is quite unimpressive.)

Chugga-Chugga

Choo! Choo! My little engineer giving an imagination tour through Garnet Park during one of our few non-rainy early summer play dates.

Passengers. (By-the-way, I don't know what's up with the bike helmet. He wanted to wear it and I decided not to let it bother me. He wore it all day! But hasn't worn it again since, except when he's on his bike. So, it worked out fine.)

Graduation Announcement

So... nobody ordered graduation announcements for my baby brother who is graduating from high school in less than 2 weeks. My mom called me late last night to see if I could do something for it. I could, but I was in the the middle of finishing my paper and had to make that deadline (of which I had already lost a day) --- but I just couldn't let my little brother graduate without an announcement... so, I said I'd do it, but, I sure could have used more time. Considering the printing and mailing time, I figured it would be best if I got right on it. So, I did --- last night between midnight and 3:00 in the morning. No, it's not beautiful --- but it something and it's done.

Mother's Day

These drawings are for their birth mother for Mother's Day. I wish I had taken a picture of the ones I got from them. Mine were on the fridge, but they eventually got destroyed and finally had to be tossed after getting soaked.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day and wish I had written this post on that day because my heart was so full. We went out for dinner the night before and everyone (except me) helped make breakfast Sunday morning. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a mom and this day always makes me so thankful for Payton and Alyssa's birth mother because if she hadn't made adoption a choice and if she hadn't chosen Eli and me to be her babies' parents -- I would be missing out on the best part of my life right now. I am truly blessed to be Payton and Alyssa's mom and I feel overwhelmed with gratitude because of our Charlotte's gift to us.

Garden Fever

Time to get ready for our vegetable garden. Feeling ambitious this year (and trying to save money on plants) I am doing my own starts. We have all sorts of tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbages, broccolis, etc. to look forward to. I'm hoping this first attempt yields some success. I guess you have to start learning somewhere...

Swing Time

We love playing at the park down the street -- especially on the swings. Since Mom (me) won't push them for hours on end, the two of them have developed their own sort of swinging fun...
...pushing each other. (Although I think Alyssa does most of the pushing -- little mom in her coming through!)


On preschool days we stop at the park on our walk home and eat lunch. The preschool is 1 mile from our home. We are getting ready for the Pioneer Trek we are going on this summer. (They are also learning that it is more pleasant to walk with a happy person then a whiny one.)

Strawberries for lunch! YUMMY!

3-2-1 Blast off!

I apparently hated this tree so much that in all the pictures I've taken of our backyard I managed to avoid getting this tree in any of them until Eli chopped it down. This is all I got of it before it completely disappeared forever.

Bye-bye tree. You will not be missed. And certainly not the many seeds you drop into my vegetable garden each spring. This year grass will take your spot.

Here's our hero! (Now, if only I can get him to take out the other, bigger weed tree. But, for now, he won't -- so I hung a swing and put down a sandbox in it's shade.)

Wheeeeee!

Little Artist

She loves to color and write her letters and she is getting quite good at it too. She even writes her name.

Sometimes her and Payton color together. Two years ago (????) I bought them each a box of crayons. They colored and I worked on dinner. However, a little into it, I noticed Alyssa exchanging crayons with Payton. She had all the reds, pinks, purples and oranges and he had all the blues, violets and greens.