Early Head Start

Natalie is in Early Head Start (not sure why she is so smart). So for those of you who don't know what Early Head Start is...when your child is enrolled they are assigned a family consultant who on a weekly basis comes out to our home as a "teacher" to help Natalie with some thing she may be behind in. Natalie is very smart so she is working on preschool things like writing her name, recognizing the letters in the alphabet w/their names, working w/scissors, etc. Then in conjunction w/your family consultant they have a facility or as Natalie calls it "her school", where on a quarterly basis or every other month they have a family night where you can meet other families or other consultants, etc. They usually have a dinner, and this last time they had little activities set up for the kids like your treasure bottle. Fill a bottle about 1/4 of the way w/treasures like feathers, beads, shiny things and then fill it 1/2 way w/sand and roll it around so you see your "treasures". Corbin and Natalie really enjoyed this. They also had the book mobile (an RV that has been turned into a traveling library where you can check out books) where they got to choose a free book. They also have "Playgroups" where every two months they let oyu choose a time that they get to play at the school for two hours, eat lunch, and play w/other kids who are also part of the school. We got for 4 weeks then on the 5th week we get to make a portfolio from the pictures that I have taken or some of the ladies from the school have taken and it goes in hr binder and when she turns 3 all the pictures her teacher has taken and the portfolio pictures become ours. It is such a great program and Natalie LOVES the fact that she has her own school and her own teacher. Here are some photo's I took while she was at one of her play dates. All kids in the family or friends are welcome to come to the playgroups or the family nights.

2010 Family Vacation

Ok, I am SOO behind in blogging so bear with me as I catch up. I have posted a few pictures but to see the most hilarious ones from the water slide and Tautphaus Park Zoo go to my facebook page.

So we started our trip by driving through Boise. We left our house about 11:30pm and drove through the night. The kids did pretty well. Corbin got upset a few times but I found that by rubbing is feet it calmed him down and he went back to sleep. We had to stop and gas up once along the way so we would let the kids get out and walk around for a minute, grab something to help keep us awake and continued onward. We chose to go through Boise so we could take the kids to the Boise Zoo, then to the State Capital. We sat on the grounds across from the Capital and watched the 4th of July parade then onto the zoo. When we were walking back from the parade to our hotel we passed a water feature that the kids loved so we stopped. The kids enjoyed the parade (I am sure because of all the candy) and really liked the monkeys. Natalie's most favorite part was the big Giraffe slide. She went up and down that thing so many times.

Then Sunday morning we headed for Blackfoot (my parents house) but on the way we stopped at the Twin Falls temple so natalie could see Angel Moroni and a Temple then we went to a park and arrived at my parents that evening.

Aaron and Kass put on a firework show for us and gave us dessert (ice cream) afterwards. During the fireworks Molly (my Dad's dog a chocolate lab; labs hate fire) tried to put them out until she was stopped and put in the shop. She wasn't very happy but now every time Natalie sees a picture of Molly or fireworks are mentioned she tells everyone that Molly got into the fireworks. Monday morning we helped my parents get their back yard ready for the reunion and that evening went into Idaho Falls to feed the ducks and let the kids play on the green belt. They had so much fun and it was fun to watch them feed the ducks. Corbin would just run after them. Then Tuesday morning we got up and headed to Yellowstone National Park where we spent the day. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun and Natalie kept seeing the steam come out of the pots and asked if the water was hot. We saw TONS of Buffalo, a slight sighting of a black bear, and a few deer. The kids were fascinated w/the deer and the buffalo as I was the only one that saw the bear. You always knew there was something to see when you drove past and there were cars parked along the side of the road. We were headed out of the park when we saw herds of buffalo on both sides of the road just grazing then we got stuck in traffic while a ranger tried to heard the buffalo off the road and get the people getting out of their cars to take pictures to PLEASE stay in their cars (which was causing even more of a traffic jam). My Dad ended up havening to work one evening so we took dinner into the fire station and ate dunner with him then he took all the grand kids out into the garage where all the fire trucks and ambulances were. My kids along w/all the other grand kids had a blast. Climbing inside all the fire trucks and the ambulance...what more could a kid ask for. Friday we had all planned to go to a water park but decided to bring the water park to us. So my brother-in-law and brothers took a huge sheet of commercial plastic, a few hoses, dishwashing soap, and made a homemade water slide. All the guys were w/out shirts and needless to say the sun got the best of them. They were all crispy crittered the next morning. The grand kids even took turns going down the huge plus playing in their kiddie swimming pool w/their own slide. Then Saturday morning was the Sealing day. We all came home and had a relaxing evening afterwards. Then Sunday we headed home to get home by about 11pm-12am. We had so much fun but we were so happy to be back home.

Waiting for Old Faithful

Soo cute. Both kids asleep both

w/one shoe on and one shoe off!

"Forever A Family"

We took a trip to Idaho Falls for Natalie's Sealing Day. It was such a wonderful day. Daniel's Mom and Sister, my family and a few friends were in Temple with us. It was so wonderful to be back in our Home Temple. I lost count at the number of Temple workers who either knew my family or knew Daniel's Mom. I was able to walk Natalie and Corbin down to the Nursery in the Temple. They were S-P-O-I-L-E-D!! When it was time to come up to the Sealing room Natalie didn't want to come up. She also wouldn't let my mom get her dressed. So when she came up she didn't have her jewelry or her hair bow in. We at least got pictures of her w/her hair bow but she wears her jewelry every so often. I remember watching the weather to see what kind of day we would have. I remember the forecast calling for rain however when we walked outside it was SOOO hot. Natalie didn't keep her jacket on for long. We then had a luncheon afterwards w/family. It was so much fun to be surrounded by family on such a special occasion. When my parents were up in North Idaho they taught Natalie that we go through the Temple to be a Forever Family and that Angel Moroni is on top of the Temple so when you ask her now why we went through the Temple she says "to be Forever a Family" and who is on top of the Temple her response is "Angel Oroni" (she can't quite get the "M" in there yet).  The day was very memorable. We had a fun time the entire week we were in Southeast Idaho.

Natalie's Adoption Day

Well, between all the appeals...Natalie is now officially ADOPTED!!! YAHOO!! We are still battling one more appeal but where we had approval from the Supreme Court of Appeals to move forward we did. I was such a great day. My parents showed up at 9am unexpectedly. They were a welcomed sight. I took Natalie to Wal Mart a few days before to order a cake for the open house. I gave her a few options to choose from...Princess and Little Mermaid and she chose Little Mermaid. We had a huge turn out for our open house that evening. It really turned out to be a fun weekend. I was very sad to see the weekend end and my parents go home. We are grateful she is in our lives hopefully FOREVER.