1st Day of Preschool

Ms Z went to preschool for the first time.  She was super super excited.  I like with all my kids was very nervous.  The protective mom has come quick with her.  I was worried about how she would do being left all day at school.  

She got a backback from her sister Ms L.  It was a Dora the Explorer backback which she loved.  

As we got ready for school I could see her eyes getting excited about what was to come.  She put on her backpack and was ready to go.  She get breakfast at school so she was not to sure about leaving the house without eating.  The school said she ate all her food and seconds.  

I decided to pick up the girls a little early so I could get the low down on her day.  Her teacher had filled out all her paperwork and it said she did EXCELLENT!!  The teacher had nothing but good to say about her day.  There is only 7 total kids in her class including her.  This is less than on Sunday morning in her Sunday School class.  The teacher thought she might have a hard time during nap time but no Ms Z laid right down and went right to sleep.  

I'm so glad that she had a great day.  She has done so good in her transition.  She is such a delight to be with and around.  She totally loves her siblings and her new Mommy and Daddy and we all love her.  

I was having great conversation with my husband last night and I told him how good God has been to us.  I feel like he is just blessing our socks off through these kids.  We are reaping the blessing God talks about in Psalms 127:3-5

 Don't you see that children are God's best gift? 
      the fruit of the womb his generous legacy? 
   Like a warrior's fistful of arrows 
      are the children of a vigorous youth. 
   Oh, how blessed are you parents,       with your quivers full of children! 
   Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; 
      you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.

(message version)

Ms Z on her 1st day :)

Lunch Visit

I love that I have a flexible job to be able to leave when I need to.  This morning when I was dropping off my kid to school he went to get out of the car and ran right into the car door.  Now while it may seem like that was his own fault it was not.  You see we have carpool people who open the door to let him out and then they say things like ok sweetie go fast to class so your not late, ok sweetie we need to get moving so that other kids can get out of their cars and get to class on time.....ect So my son listening to the lady opening up the door is trying to get his backback on while getting out of the car and being told to hurry, hurry, hurry hit the door with his head.  Great way to start the day!  I looked not so happily at the women who opened the door.  She knew what had happened and what part she played and she let me know that she would be taking care of him.  

I decided to park my car, which took 5 minutes and go in and check on my son.  He was sitting in the nurses office looking so pitiful.  I felt horrible for my little man.  I waited with him until he was feeling better an then walked him to class.  He was so excited that I walked him in.  

After kissing me at least 4 times I left.  I was missing my little guy already as I drove away.  I decided to use my flexibility to  leave for an hour and go have lunch with D.  Can I just say that my son was smiling from ear to ear that I just showed up for lunch.  He keep telling me how I was the best mom ever :)  (LOVE THAT BOY)  I then went and played with him on playground for a few minutes.  I kissed my boy and left.  

When I turned around to look at him he was waving and smiling.  Can I just say that only a few tears left my eyes.  That boy just makes me smile!!

Here is a pic of him getting ready to get "beat" by his mom in tether ball.

Skype Date

I got to have a Skype date with my baby girl Keisha last night.  It was so good to see her face and hear her voice all at the same time.  She got to talk to her brother and sisters, which they loved, and interact with all of us.  The kids keep kissing the screen which was to funny.  

I am super excited that I get to see her in 3 weeks.  Kristie and her are driving home to see me and I could not be happier.  I really miss them.

I have been praying for Keisha and her future and she is really wanting to work with kids but not through regular church ministry.  She is now applying for a job at a home for kids.  I am excited to see where God leads her.  I hope that it will be close to Colorado :)  

She has been working at Chic Fila and they have a program that helps kids that she has been looking at doing too.  She has such a big heart and will be great where ever God puts her.  

She will not like that I posted this pic of her but it just reminds me of how super cute she is even with a 3 year olds Tiara on :)

Introducing....

Zoe Melody

Although Ms Zoe has been with us for a few I have not formally introduced her to my blog.  Today I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the Livingston family.  We took guardianship of Ms Zoe about 2 1/2 weeks ago and are planning to adopt her officially after she has been in our home 6 months.  

We were caught off guard by the circumstances that lead up to us being her new mom and dad but we are feeling very blessed to have her in our home.  She is a very smart, bright, happy, 3 year old.  She just had a birthday on August 1st.  She is very big for her age but she is definitely all 3.  

We are waiting for tons of appointments to arrive that will either confirm or deny a previous diagnoses of autism.  We have seen a ton of improvement in behavior and attachment since she has moved in with us so we are just waiting for the doctors to tell us.  If you asked David and I we would say that she is not autistic and has attachment issues and was craving structure and discipline.  We will update as we get more information.  

Zoe has attached herself to her brother and sister like they were together since birth.  She loves them and wants to play with them every waking moment of the day.  She cries when they leave to go to school or any activity where she is not going.  

I have been able to have the opportunity to be with Zoe 24 hours a day since she has come into our home.  After receiving a ton of information from a friend about older children adoption we are trying to follow most of the rules.  David or I are the only ones doing any of her needs.  We do not even let Grandma change pull-ups or feed her.  We are trying to stay in as much as possible but this is very hard with our lifestyle.  I have had the opportunity to be with her almost all her waking moments.  She is bonding very good with me.  She is taken a bit to 100% warm up to David but everyday is better than the one before.  We feel we are in the honeymoon stage right now so we are waiting for after shocks to hit.  We know it has to be hard to understand why the only people you have known all your life are no longer around.  I grieve for the grief she must feel or will feel.  That has to be so hard.  I pray we can give her what she needs as she processes this all out.  

God has been so faithful.  With a 2 year hard transition for me with baby C I begin to dread the next few years.  God has totally made this bonding situation almost instant.  I am so very grateful for that.  I don't know if it is Zoe, or if it is my heart, or if it is the possible autism diagnosis but I just feel different.  My heart has just been entangled by her.  I love her like she has been in our home since the beginning.  Yes I worry about the autism.  I question everyday what if?  I want the best life for her and I don't know very much about kids with any disabilities but after much prayer I'm not scared I'm excited.  Excited about a child with autism, yes.  I know that God created her and that He has a plan for this little girl and I'm excited that He is allowing David and I to be a part of it.  We are excited that she completes our family.  We are excited to see what God shows us and teaches us through Zoe.  She is an amazing little girl who is already making a mark on our family.  

I pray that we will always be looking for God direction in our kids lives.  I pray that God will bond all 6 of my kids together even though the girls are in college.  I pray that they will feel connected even though there is distance because we are one family, one unit, and this family is not complete with out all 8 members.  I miss the girls so much right now.  I have called them with tears in my eyes a lot since they left.  I'm not sure why this semester is so much harder than the others but I'm struggling.  Maybe it is because out family has been together for all major events and them being gone when we got Zoe has been hard for me.  They are all making plans to come home so that they can spend time with Zoe and the family.  I'm awaiting those visits with great expectation.  

So as for the Livingston's we are on another adventure.  We are following after God with all our hearts and listening to him not man when it comes to the direction of our family.  We are trying to not listen to any negativity, which is hard, but we are following what we hear God telling us knowing that blessings are in store for our obedience.   

Again I cried...

I did it again.  I have done it now everyday for 10days.  That is exactly the amount of days that I have dropped my baby boy off at school.  You see this school thing has been almost more that I can handle.  

He is my Baby Boy you know!!

I love him so much and if almost kills me when I have to drop him off at school.  

You would think that is the reason for the tears.  

NOPE

Everyday when I drop my son off he goes through the same routine.  As we drive into the parking lot he undoes his seat belt and anxiously  awaits one of the teachers to open our car door and let him out.  He hopes every morning that it is Ms Car, his music teacher that will do it, He loves Ms Car(which is interesting since he has only seen her once since starting school)

Anyway, he jumps out of the car puts on his backpack says good by to me and takes off running.  He goes in one set of doors and comes out another set of doors and then runs to the building where his class is.  

But for a brief second before he goes into the second building he scans the parking lot looking for my car and when he finds it he smiles, waves, and yells "I love you Mom".  

Ok Im getting emotional just typing this.  I know he is in kindergarten and that most kids this age still love their momma but I love this routine my boy has.  

I love being that little boys momma more than breath.  

Although it has been the hardest thing I have done in that little boys life, sending him to school, he loves it and is doing phenomenal.  

Im sure I will be blogging a lot about school this year as we learn to travel this road not traveled much by the Livingston's.....Public School!

1st Day of School

  

Update

Wow, after talking with a friend I realized that it has been a long time since I blogged.  I kept asking myself why and I could only come up with one answer.  My reasoning for blogging had changed from its original intent and it was not fun anymore.  

  

When I first starting blogging it was for me.  It was a place that I could record things going on in my life with my family and especially with my kids.  I had fun blogging.  I loved taking pictures and talking about all the crazy things my kids said and did.  

Then I started reading, coveting, a ton of blogs.  

This made me feel like my life and what I was doing was really not interesting.  So I begin to stop blogging.  If I had not come up with some amazing craft for my kids or taken them some place every kid wanted to go I begin to feel like I was not a good mom.  

What if that day had not been all rainbows and gumdrops?  

What if I had cereal for dinner instead of cooking some Martha Stewart dinner?  

What would people think? 

The funny thing is I enjoy loving on my kids and playing cars on the floor and eating cereal out of cups, if there are not any dishes clean and guess what.....

WE DON'T ALWAYS EAT ORGANIC FOOD and I'm OK with that.  

This is my crazy life and I  love it. 

 I have the best 6 kids any mom could ever wish for

 I have the most amazing man that I get to call my best friend & husband 

and I am loved by my God regardless of a spot clean house, great field trips or organic food.  

I am going to start blogging again for my family and for me.  I am not going to be posting my blogs to facebook because honestly I don't really want those people reading anyway.  And finally this is my blog about my family so I will be posting the good the bad and maybe even the ugly.    

What I have in common with the adulterous women

Adultery is that one sin that most people agree is wrong. Most would agree that committing adultery is not only wrong but in the Christian arenas, if we were ranking sin, would rank very high on the sin with a ton of earthly consequences.
I have been an adulterous women. Now before you freak out and begin gather people for a lynching let me explain....
I have been reading in the book of Hosea. Hosea was commanded by God to marry a women who would be unfaithful to him and would cause him many headaches. Just as Gomer lost interest in Hosea and ran after other lovers,I too can easily lose appreciation for my special relationship with God and pursue My Dreams, My Goals, My fleshly desires, and not include MY heavenly father in My wants. When I compromise how God wants me to live for my own fleshly desires I am being UNFAITHFUL.

The vow I took with my husband is super special, and super important to me. I stood before God and my friends and made a vow to David to love cherish and be by his side till death do us part. This is a vow I will never break. Marriage is ordained by God and illustrates his relationship with His people. Thus, there is possibly no greater tragedy than the violation of those sacred vows.

However with all that said the vow I have with my Lord is even more important and I have on many occasions during my Christian Walk been unfaithful. Why is it that if you asked me if i would ever be unfaithful to my husband i would tell you absolutely no possible way but when it comes to my heavenly father not only have i been unfaithful I'm sure to be again. How very sad!!
I thank God that i worship a Lord and Savior who never leaves me or forsakes me and will always fight for our relationship. I am so very grateful for that.

Hosea 3:1 "Then the Lord said to me, 'go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the Lord still loves Israel(me) even though the people(I) have turned to other gods(earthly desires), offering them choice gifts(giving "it" the attention that only God deserves) '".

Crock Pot Apple Crisp

Although not a good picture I made an apple crisp in the crock pot. It turned out really good.  It even tasted good the next day.  The topping turned out perfect which was my biggest concern.                                       Here is the recipe that I used...

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
•  
• 1/3 cup white sugar, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 cups apples - peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Mix flour, brown sugar, 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a bowl. Combine butter with the flour mixture using fingers or a fork until coarse crumbs form. Stir in walnuts and set aside.
2. Whisk together 1/3 cup sugar, cornstarch, ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Place the apples in a slow cooker, stir in the cornstarch mixture; toss with lemon juice. Sprinkle the walnut crumb topping on top. Cover and cook on High for 2 hours or Low for 4 hours, until apples are tender. Partially uncover the slow cooker to allow the topping to harden, about 1 hour.

Crock Pot-Garlic stuff herbed pork shoulder

I am trying to cook with my crock pot to help with stress and give myself more time with my family especially when I'm working .  I have teamed up with a friend and we have challenged ourselves to cook in our crock pot at least 3+ times a week.  We have created files to put all our recipes in so that we can maybe one day create our own "personal" cookbook.  

Tonight I cooked a nice Garlic Stuffed Herbed Pork Shoulder with potatoes and butter-nut squash.  

Recipe:

1 pork roast (approx 3 pds)

4 garlic cloves cut into 4ths=16 pieces

thyme

basil

rosemary

salt 

pepper

finger potatoes

butter-nut squash

1 plus cup of chicken broth

I did not measure my seasonings.  I had lots fresh herbs from my Bountiful Basket that I did not want to go bad so I through them in the freezer and pulled them out to use.  

I cut up the potatoes and butter-nut squash and put it into the bottom of the crock pot.  

I took the roast and cut 16 small holes into it and push the garlic into the roast and then smothered it with herbs.

I then put it on top of the veggies and poured chicken broth over it.  

This cooked on high for about 8 hours on high.  

Yum 

Before the Court Date!!!

Here are a few pictures from the Adoption Court Date Day.  It was one of the most amazing days David and I have had since being married.  God was so good to us that day.  We were still smiling ear to ear when we laid our heads down on our pillows.

  David showed emotions that day I have not seen before.  I could see the stress just lift from his shoulders.  Our family was finally complete!!!

THIS IS MY FAMILY!!!

The sun did not help us at all while taking pictures.  So you will notice that most of our eyes are closed.  I'm posting this picture any ways because it is the best one we got.  

My mom and the kids

David's parents and the Kids

Sister in Law and kids

Family

ALL MY KIDS

As I look at the pictures of my kids I am amazed that I get to be the mom to these 5 beautiful kids.  

God is so Good!!!

40 is a good number!?!?

My birthday was weird this year.  I ended spending the day with friends in Denver gone all day from my family.  I had a really good time but about half way through the day I begin to really miss my family.  The girls were home and it just felt weird for me to be gone away from them all day.  To top it off my friends wanted to take me out for dinner which was not going to happen until around 7 or later.  All I could think about is I have been away from my family all day and I just want to stay home.  

Since I had been gone all day I decided to change into my sweat pants and go to dinner relaxed :)

When Nickole came in to pick me up she refused to let me go so dressed down saying it was my birthday and I needed to go get something nicer than sweats.  Although I was mad :(  I changed.  

Good thing I did there were a lot of people waiting for me and lets just say I would have been very 

embarrassed :0 

My girls, husband and friend did a great job surprising me.  

Dog Name

Dog Name Update....

We picked up our new puppy at night time and returned home to show him off to C and D.  They were so excited.  C keep holding the puppy by his neck and repeating "I love this puppy"!  We decided to put the name to a vote before picking one.  I asked the kids if they liked the name "Denver" and I got one yes and one no.  

The kiddo's went to bed excited and woke up just as excited about the new puppy.  C woke up running through the house asking about diarrhea when she woke up.  I was not sure exactly what she was talking about but she would not stop saying it.  I finally asked her what she was talking about and she said "where is Diarrhea?"  I said do you mean Denver and she looked up at me and said Yes Denver. 

After a couple weeks she still slips and tells people our puppies name is Diarrhea.  Just for the record David decided since it was his dog he would name him. So both my names Denver and Nomeo got thrown out, and David named the little guys Taz.    

 The little guy really loves the snow.  He goes outside runs around and then lays in the snow.  Crazy dog.

Facebook

I signed up for a FB account for one reason and one reason only.....To Stay Connected To My Kids!  It seemed like the thing all older kids were doing and since I did not want them to have a "My Space" account I agreed to let them have one and shortly afterwards signup for one myself.

 

Since that day I still would say that my main reason for having a FB account is to stay connected to my kids.  I'm able to know how my kids are feeling or what they are doing during that day by one simply post by them.  

   

However, as I sign into FB on a daily bases I have find that I am very interested in a few other things too, like what others are doing,  where they have been, who they are hanging out with, who is acting holier instead of being holy, and on and on and on.  

Lately, I have heard of several people who are taking FB fasts.  I think after talking to several of them it is because of the time they spend looking and wondering who is doing what and time consumption.  

Many people would snub their nose at people reading the gossip section in magazines like star magazine or watch things like Radar online but FB the biggest "useless information" arena finds less snubbing but really provides the same idea "The want to KNOW".

So why even blog about this?  

No, I'm not deleting my FB and never looking at it again. No, I'm not telling anyone not to have a FB account or that it's sinful. Yes, I am saying I (we) need to monitor the time I (we) spend on social networks, including blogging sites....which is another topic. Yes, I (we) need to evaluated why I (we) are posting what I (we) are posting & Yes, I (we) need to look at why I (we) are so concerned with what people are doing or saying.  

Just something to read or ponder for others something to definitely change for me!! I need to make sure I'm more interested in God's word and what HE is doing then those on FB.

Why do you sign into Facebook?  

  

A name

We lost our dog of ten plus year right before Christmas. I though that we would not get another dog soon since we already have two small dog already, but David really wanted another "real dog" as he would put it.
I have two small maltese dogs that together only weight 13 pounds so David does not see them as real dogs.
So for his birthday we begin to look. We found one on Monday. He is a mini Aussie so although he will be bigger he will not be 50 pounds :) my only real request.

Without due here is our new puppy who is looking for a name still. (i want to name him Nomeo but no one is agreeing but Little D)

3 things blue

This summer I did a book study, with 2 other women, using the book "One Thousand Gifts".  It has turned out to be one of the best books I've read.  I have blogged about how it has changed the ay I look at things around before but I will say it again....I love this book and how it has changed my life.

The Joy Dare for the 24th was to capture 3 things blue.  It just so happened to be the day that I received  several boxes with something I had asked a friend to make for me.  Without knowing how much it cost and not caring because I knew I had to have it, I asked her to please try and make this

Ok not the book....the nest.  This is what I received from her today.

She did a wonderful job!  Actually she made me several for a few women I care a lot for.  I love it.  It reminds me of the study we did and how it has change me.  

And it happend to have 3 things blue on it :)