Our Christmas Break

Ok, I will start at the beginning. We started a tradition last year (it was our first Christmas with ANY children) that we would start out by taking a drive to look at Christmas lights around our neighborhood and area then we would come home make cookies for Santa (of course eat a few) then watch a Christmas movie downstairs in front of the Christmas Tree (last year was Home Alone 3, this year was Polar Express). This year wasn't so "tradition" based. Riley spent a majority of the week (from Wednesday morning on to Friday evening) Christmas with his mom so on December 23 Daniel & I took the 2 kids and went on a Cruise to the North Pole. It is a holiday cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene where they set up a North Pole scene on the other side of the Lake with Santa and his workshop and the tallest Christmas tree. When we came home I wasn't really feeling the best and my ear hurt then by the time I got up on Christmas Eve my ear REALLY, REALLY hurt. So I went to the doctor to have them tell me I had an ear infection. So Christmas Eve we spent at home. Christmas Day was good though because I wasn't in pain until the next morning. I got up and was SOOO dizzy I felt so sick. So I took some Dramamine and felt better to have the same thing happen the next evening. So needless to say our Christmas break was an interesting one this year.

Anyway, Christmas Day was fun. Natalie really enjoyed opening her gifts. She wanted to help everyone else open theirs or do it for them. Natalie got a stroller for her babies but now that Corbin is close to walking he likes to push things around while walking which means Corbin & Natalie fight over the stroller. Corbin will push it round and get stuck. When he gets stuck he squeals to let you know he needs help. We have gotten to the point where we will make him get himself out of the predicament he is in so he will learn how to the next time. IT has helped a lot. Overall it was a fun Christmas. Now onto the New Year.

This is the two of them just after coming down the stairs and seeing their presents

Give him a few minutes to warm up. He just woke up

This is Corbin walking. He started at the Christmas Tree and kept going-he will be there by the time we go through the Temple. You go Corbin
This is one of Natalie's new outfits

This is not staged. They actually sat down and ended up back to back.

Aikele Family Reunion

We traveled to Blackfoot, ID for our annual family reunion in July. We had a friend of the family take some pictures for us that turned out really cute. I have published a few of the ones that I have. I know there were many more cute ones of all the grand kids but that would take years to upload. So here are ones of my family.

Eagle Watching

We were given FREE tickets to go on a seasonal Eagle Watch Tour on Lake Coeur d'Alene. We were really not sure if we wanted to take all the kids with us especially where it was so cold. We were told that this tour was specifically for young children and everyone got a free cup of hot cocoa. So we went. It was a lot of fun but not sure we would ever do it again with 3 young children. Riley spilt ALL his hot cocoa all over him, his pants, the chair he was sitting on, and the table, Corbin wanted to get down and crawl, and Natalie wanted to go walk outside along the boat so she could see the water plus they were ALL tired. What a ride. You had to have binoculars to see the Eagles so the kids didn't really know what we were looking at. I think the next time we will wait until they are older.

This is Daniel & the three kids waiting to get on the boat

K so I know there is an Eagle in this picture. They are so small the hare hard to see. If you look about half way up the pole then look to the left you can see a little white head.

This one also had an Eagle but I couldn't find it now. If I remember someone said it was somewhere aroudn the house.

This is just part of the scenerey while out on the boat.

Will this EVER end???

Wow-it has been a while since I posted. Well, October 30 came and went and two days later we heard from Natalie's Case Worker that the judge has granted termination of parental rights. We were absolutely ecstatic. So the file was transferred to an adoption clinician and the adoption process was ready to begin. Then we got word that Natalie's mom has appealed AGAIN which means the case now goes before the Idaho Supreme Court!!!! So now we are in the waiting game again. We now wait for the supreme Court to review the case and make their decision. There is some good news in all of this. This is as far as she can go she can't appeal anymore. Some more great news is that we can continue to work towards adoption knowing that there is an appeal on the table so that when we do have the final word from the SC we can immediately set an adoption date. We won't have to wait on anything else. So we now pray that the SC will see that there has been two other terminations and dismiss the case. We can only hope and pray. I strongly believe we are looking at middle of 2010 for an adoption.

Natalie Divyne

I am going to start from the beginning. Our first day of Divyne's termination hearing was October 16. Many testimonies were given but due to the amount of people testifying we were in recess until October 30. So today is October 30. Divyne's case worker said that it wouldn't make a difference if we were there or not so we chose to stay home with the kids and wait for the verdict. So according to the case worker court went well. Now we wait. The judge will look over his notes and evidence and make a decision with in a week or two. We have a prayer in our heart that the judge will allow this little girl to have some permanency in her life and allow to her to stay with us forever.

Riley is going to school

I am so excited. We enrolled Riley into Head Start the end of September. He loves being around Natalie & Corbin but at the same time he never gets the opportunity to be around older kids and when he does he becomes really shy and is almost scared of them. So I really wanted him to be around kids his own age or older. So when I enrolled him they told us where he was an early three year old it would be a long wait especially where they take four year old first. So I get a call today asking if we were still interested in enrolling Riley into Head Start and of course I told them absolutely.

So we went to Riley's school to fill out some paperwork and just look around and get introduced to the school and some of the staff. He will learn how to brush his teeth, learn how to look both ways when crossing the street, scooping, etc. I am so excited for him. It will do him so good and I really think it will help him learn to communicate better. Riley is excited that he gets to go to school.

So what now??.......

So over the weekend, well Friday to be exact, I was on my way to a doctors appointment for the kids when I was appalled at how much traffic there was out for as cold as it was and the tourist season was over. So I went to get on the freeway and just looking around again at all the traffic for a split second, looked back and to my surprise it was too late and I rammed a small Toyota Tacoma pickup. His car, to me anyway, didn't look as though it sustained any damage. MINE HOWEVER sustained quite a bit. The airbags even diploid. So now we wait to see what the adjuster will say, whether they will fix it or total it. I hate these waiting games.

Looking in from the passenger side.

Update on Riley

WOW! I have slacked on the blogging big time. I am sorry.

So here is the latest in my family.

We just had a permanency hearing for Riley. Just to keep the required privacy for the child I will just say that Riley will be with us for the next little while. We are about to go through the same process that we are going through with Natalie right now.

Now as far as Natalie goes, we have her trial coming up on October 16. We find out if we get to adopt her and hopefully when.

Corbin's Birthday

WOW! I can't believe he is already ONE. My baby is growing up way too fast. We didn't do a whole lot for his birthday (sorry Corbin) because we had a birthday party for Riley and didn't feel right asking people over AGIAN for another birthday party. So we went up to Spokane Valley, went shopping for him and ate at Wingers. I was hoping they would sing to him but no such luck. they juts gave him a free asphalt pie. So we went to Wal Mart that night and bought some cupcakes. We celebrated with everyone Sunday afternoon. We gave Corbin the whole cupcake for him to demolish. HE HAD A BLAST!!!!! He was covered in frosting but loved every minute of it. When you would look at him he would just giggle. Anyway, I love you Corbin.

Happy Birthday!!

Lakewood & Portland

K so this really was supposed to be posted almost 2 months ago but I lost all of our pictures when our hard drive died. So I don't have any pictures of the zoo but it was tons of fun.

In celebration of birthdays we took the Labor Day weekend and visited the clan in Washington. We had cake and ice cream at Ron & Jodi's with Ilene, Rick & Lynda, Celeste, & Carissa and all their kids. Jodi made a separate cake for Ilene.

This cake was for Riley (3), Daniel (35), & Corbin (1)


Natalie enjoying her cupcake

Riley trying to figure out how to eat the rest of his cupcakeNotice the table is ALL cleared off. Everyone was in the living room talking when Natalie decided she wanted another cupcake. When no one would get it for her she took upon herself to retrieve another cupcake. This is her climbing on the table. No one saw her climb the table, she was caught after she had the cupcake in her hand and was climbing on the table. When she is determined nothing stops her.

We then on Sunday took a trip to Portland to see Paul (Daniel's brother) and his girls. We had not seen them in over 5 years. We met at the Portland Zoo and then ate at Fuddruckers. Riley had a BLAST. He flirted with Sarah & Katy and had fun playing with Jake & Seth.

Riley Turned 3

We recently celebrated Riley's 3rd birthday on September 3. We reminded him that his birthday was one week away, then 3 days, then one day. So when we would tell him how far away his birthday was he would often remind us. He has grown up so much. We had a birthday party for him at our home and invited a lot of his friends from the ward. He helped choose the Disney/Pixar Cars theme. So we created invitations online ordered a "cupcake cake" and decorations. We even found a pinata that was lighting McQueen. Riley had tons of fun. He really liked the pinata and even still talks about it. He went that evening for a few hours and had a part with his Dad and then Friday He had a birthday party with his mom. I don't know if a toddler can ever get sick of too much birthday. Especially when he gets presents at each party. Overall I think he had a great birthday.

Riley's cupcake cake. I think having him the center of attention made him

nervous so he wouldn't blow out his candle.

I LOVE the cupcake idea. So perfect for small children

Our 2009 Family Vacation

Well, we returned all safe and sound. We did have lots of fun but did A LOT of traveling. So needless to say it was REALLY good to be home.

So we started our trip on July 24 staying at my parents in Blackfoot, ID over night well it wasn't really overnight because we got there at 4am MST (it is an 8 hour drive from us to them), then we left at 11am for Utah. We stayed in Parowan, UT for a few days then actually unexpectedly ended up staying at Daniel's grandparents cabin in the cedar mountains. While we were in Utah we went to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and saw a play "The Comedy of Errors". That was loads of fun.

While we were in Cedar City we ventured up to Cedar Breaks. This is always an amazing

view no matter how many times I have seen it.

This is the four of us outside the Warby cabin up in Cedar Mountains. This cabin is beautiful with amazing views but a little too big for just two adults and two kids.

This is the four of us outside the Parowan house in Parowan, UT. This is the house that Daniel's grandma lived in and her father built when she was little. The home is over 100 years old and has just been kept up through the years for family to stay. It gets used quite often. It is a fun place to stay. There are lots of old pictures and Nick knacks.

Then on Wednesday we headed back to my parents house for the remainder of our vacation. We stopped at Thanksgiving Point walked through the Children's Discovery Garden where Daniel and Natalie climbed through a bear hole.

When we came in this way at Thanksgiving Point the water was not on. When we came out it was and Natalie was so excited. We couldn't get her to leave. She LOVES water.

This is Charlie (Megan's little boy) and Corbin. They are only a few weeks apart. They had a lot of fun together.

Then on Friday we went to Pocatello and visited the Aquatic center and Ross Park Zoo (I think Idaho Falls zoo is better). The aquatic center was a lot of fun. The kids didn't want to get out. One of the few good things at the zoo was a sand pit where you could dig for fossils. Natalie LOVED that as she loves dirt.

Then we went to a local park had lunch and let the kids play.

Corbin even had fun outside. He is swinging with Grandma.

Welcome Home Corbin XOXO

Well, it is official. Corbin is now legally ours. Everything was a success. Now comes the process of changing everything over. Like Social Security card, doctors, etc. So the day went down like this: Our adoption hearing started at about 11:35am and within 1the adoption was final. We had a few friends, my parents, and some of the people from the department of health & welfare that helped us get to this point. We took Riley and Natalie with us so we included them in the picture.

After the adoption hearing we went out to Tomato Street (a special thanks to my parents as they paid our portion of the bill), came home and had the open house. For the open house I ordered a cake with a monster truck because Corbin loves cars, trucks, etc. and had them write "welcome home Corbin". We wore Corbin out that he fell asleep while we ate lunch. Just to name a few of the gifts Corbin got (I was not expecting any gifts) My grandma Hjelm gave us some beautiful handmade blankets for the 2 kids and a fleece blanket for Riley (which he loves), Daniel's Allocation team from work sent a cute flower arrangement in an old fire truck, and his old team gave us a sweet, sweet card with this poem: (I have read this before and absolutely love it. It is so fitting for this day).

"Before you were conceived I wanted you!

Before you were born I loved you!

Before you were here an hour I would die for you!

This is the Miracle of Life!"

By: Maureen Hawkins

We owe a special thank you to Angel (for creating a very cute card), Amy, Denise, Brad, James, and Rich for the wonderful card and the entire Allocation Team for the fun flower arrangement. Thank you again.

It was such a blessing so share such a special experience with family. I am so grateful my parents took the time to come share this experience with me. We are also grateful for all those who came to the open house. We have waited 12 long years for this day and it has finally arrived. We now know why we took the leap of faith by moving up to North Idaho.

Corbin, you are such a special little boy, we love you so much. You are such a blessing to us. We are so excited to make you a part of our family forever.