The Johnson Family

"Bearing" a little too much information.....

2012-02-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

Natalie has decided that every Fast Sunday, after seeing her friends get up to bear theirs, that she is going to bear her testimony. So Daniel & I have started to take turns taking her up there. She is smart enough and has heard enough people bear theirs that she gets up and says what she knows. The first few times I helped her but now she just gets up by herself (of course one of us follows because she won't come right back down). Well, this time it was Daniel's turn to get up with her. She got up stood at the podium and started to bear her testimony. She continued by saying she loves her family, she loves her Mom then all the sudden I heard her say was "when I get into trouble my mom puts me in time out for a long time". That got a good laugh with my hiding in our Pu. I was so embarrassed. I looked at Daniel up on the stand and told him to get her down. I would hate to know what she would have said if we would have allowed her to continue. It is so true that "Kids say the darndest things!!" Gotta love em'!

Winter Has Come and Winter Has Gone......

2012-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

WOW-it is amazing how quickly your kids grow out of their clothes. This year both Natalie & Corbin needed new coats. So we bought the kids new snow outfits (new coats, snow pants, matching hats, and mittens) so we would be prepared for all the fun in the snow. Well, so far during 2011/2012 winter season we have seen snow come and we have seen snow melt away along with TONS of rain and very warm temperatures. I was beginning to wonder if they would be able to use their snow pants this year. Finally in 2012 we now have a forecast with LOTS of snow, very cold temperatures, and LOTS of fun in the snow with a little bit of rain.

Monday we finally had enough snow on the ground that the kids could go outside and play. Daniel & I weren't exactly excited about going outside in the very cold temperatures so we bundled the kids up and sent them on their way (into the back yard). Natalie has been looking forward for so long to make a snow Angel and now that goal has been accomplished.

Natalie and her Snow Angel. Corbin is not too sure about the whole laying down in the snow idea quite yet.

I walked outside to check on them and saw this. They had eaten all the snow off of the table. It was so cute because (I am not sure if you can see) of Natalie's cute little tongue sticking out to pick up the snow.

When we bought their snow suits we bought them in a 4T. When we tried them on they looked a little big but not too bad. When they put them on for the first time WOW...they both looked like they had plenty of padding on underneath. The good thing is that they will definitely last them for a few years.

Wednesday and Thursday brought some good snow fall so they have since had plenty of time to play in the snow while I shoveled the driveway. I don't have snow pants but I do have boots so I decided to have some "fun in the snow" with my kids so Natalie and I went and made some snow Angels. I even wrote out names above our handy work. It was actually a lot of fun except for when I was freezing Natalie chose to go in but Corbin wanted to stay outside and play so I froze for 30 minutes longer so Corbin and I could have some fun in the snow. We went and played in the back yard while Natalie sat in the warm house and watched a movie. Today it is supposed to be about 38* so we will receive some rain but then Sunday night and a majority of next week we are supposed to receive snow and maybe 1 day of warmer temperatures for rain. The kids have had a lot of fun. Now we just need to go buy some sleds and go sledding. Natalie tried to use some boards from a bookcase to go sledding. I advised her it wouldn't be a good idea so now we have to go buy some sleds.

Natalie's Prize Pony

2012-01-19T16:49:00.001-08:00

Natalie and Corbin entered a color drawing at our bank for "Kids Day". We got a call a week ago that Natalie's picture was chosen for her age group and she won a Wells Fargo Pony. She was very excited. However I told Natalie it was for her and Corbin because I knew what would happen if we told Corbin it was Natalie's. Now that we picked it up and they have both ad a chance to play with it and she has taken it to show and tell at the Library Corbin is ok that it is Natalie's. The pony came with a name and his name is "Al". Very cute and very soft.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

WOW! I can't believe another Christmas has come and gone. Christmas shopping is getting a little more complicated. I have to rely on Santa more now than i ever have in the 3 years I have had children. I visited a lady in Airway Heights, WA who was selling lots of things I was getting my kids for Christmas. I took the kids with me thinking i could just hide the stuff I was buying because they would see it and forget. Well, I had only intended on buying specific things but when we got there Corbin found a shopping cart and I knew we would not be leaving that house with out a fight so I bought it. My intention was to give it to him for Christmas but every where I hid it in our home he found it. So I finally had to give it to a friend to hide. He asked about it quite a bit but. So Corbin has always been an early riser so when he came down Christmas morning he had to walk right be the Christmas Tree to get to our bedroom and as soon as he walked by the Christmas Tree he saw his shopping cart. It took A LOT of coaxing but I told him he had to wait until Natalie woke up to play with his toys. So he came and climbed in bed with us but couldn't wait so he woke Natalie up. He was SOOO excited to see his shopping cart. I kept telling him through the weeks before Christmas that Santa was going to bring it to him for Christmas. When I was growing up every year I got a toothbrush for Christmas. So I have carried that onto my family. So the kids were with me when I bought the toothbrushes and they were both excited. Every year Daniel & I also buy the kids the candy canes with the PB Cups in them and they were with Daniel & I when we bought them and again they kept asking for both the chocolate and the toothbrushes. I told them I didn't buy them and Santa was going to bring them. So on Christmas morning when the opened their stockings and found the chocolate and toothbrushes they were excited that "Santa" brought them their candy canes and toothbrushes. Thank you Santa for saving me this Christmas.

Corbin is not quite sure how to use our Christmas stockings.

I have always tried to find a creative way to count down to Christmas and last year I saw a friend who had candy bars for her kids on a stocking. I decided to try it this year. So we got miniature candy bars and applied numbers. It really worked for the kids. They of course really liked the idea. Next year I will use something else other than ribbon and construction paper. The numbers fell off just after I put them on and the chocolate wouldn't stick to the ribbon. Better luck next year.

Every year that we have been up here we go to Lake Coeur d'Alene and look at the lights. It doesn't quite beat SLC Temple Square but the kids enjoyed it. This is us on one of the towers over looking the lights. It was a very cold night but the lights were fun.

Corbin got these "Pleasant Journey" track from Grandma & Grandpa Aikele. He really likes it. The two cars that it came with use up A LOT of battery power and they are still learning to keep the trucks on the track and turn them off when they are done playing. There are a few times they leave them unattended and the trucks will run off the track and keep going. There have been a few times we have had to tear his room apart just to find the trucks.

This is the infamous shopping cart. He LOVES it. Then Natalie got her La La Loopsy doll that she loves. Her loopsy doll came with a "pet cow" that Natalie insists stays with the Loopsy doll. She took it for show n tell at the Hayden Library and I forgot I had put it in her pocket so it wouldn't get lost. She was insistent when she got up to show her doll that we find her cow. She also got this from Grandpa & Grandma Aikele. She also got a VERY cute poodle purse from her cousins that carry ALL the jewelry she got for Christmas also. Needless to say this Christmas was a success.

Fun Random Adventures from 2011

2012-01-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

We have had fun this last month. We went to our Ward Christmas Party and the kids saw Santa. Corbin has always been shy and very reserved about walking up to a stranger EVEN Santa but this year he stood in line and when he got to Santa he wasn't too sure but once he sat on his lap...HE SPOKE TO SANTA. Santa asked him questions and he answered. I was SOOO shocked. So then I started to help clean up and lost track of both kids. When I turned around Corbin had made his way back up to Santa AGAIN. Corbin is slowly starting to come out of his shell. We really talked up Santa this year with the help of Natalie she always talked to Corbin and told him how fun Santa was. So he is now pretending to be Santa and has the whole "Ho, Ho, Ho" down. Natalie really also made her way up there twice. The video doesn't show him talking much but it was too cute.

So as of right now we have a skiff of snow on the ground. The kids get so excited. The very first snow storm came I believe in November and Natalie has been waiting so long and was so excited when we had snow she had to make a snow angel. So cute. So once we got the snow the kids needed coats badly so we decided to just to buy them new coats with matching snow pants. Well, since them all the snow has melted and if we have received snow that has stuck it is very little and just enough to stick to the ground but now it is frozen so it is not "Snow Angel" snow. We are hoping to get some so they can use their snow pants.

OH and this was my latest craft project. I was just released from being the Beehive Advisor in the YW and my last activity with the girls they did this craft. It was meant as Christmas for their Mom's. I liked the idea that I created this for my Mother-in-law for a Christmas gift. This was the finished product. It turned out very cute.

Our babies are growing up!!

2011-11-28T21:47:00.001-08:00

So Corbin has again grown out of his church clothes so we had to find a replacement. We went shopping on Black Friday and found a great suit. He wore it for the first time this past Sunday. He looked so handsome and looks so grown up so I thought I would share. We hadn't gotten a picture of our kids in front of the Christmas Tree this year and this was the only was Corbin would let me take a picture of him in his new suit. He has become very camera shy unless Natalie is standing there with him. He is not a baby anymore.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T21:17:00.001-08:00

I am grateful I was able to spend Thanksgiving with my little family this year. I was a little sad at first because I have never spent Thanksgiving with just the 4 of us. I have always had a large family Thanksgiving but this year was a lot of fun. We went a little overboard with food especially when the kids wouldn't eat anything we made. I think they were just over tired. It was overall a fun night. We bought Chutes and Ladders and played that after we got dinner cleaned up. The kids had a lot of fun with that. Natalie won the first round then the next night we had to play again and Corbin won. We are still eating leftovers to this day. I can handle that though. IT is a nice break. Now my kids are very excited for "Happy Christmas" as they call it. They keep asking me if it is Happy Christmas yet. I better start a count down calendar. Happy Holidays!!

The Royal Princess Party

2011-11-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Natalie was invited to a "Royal Princess Party". It was for girls ages 4-10. Natalie is not quite 4 but I figured where she already acts like a 4 year old I would sign her up. It was a fundraiser for the Coeur D'Alene High School dance team. The invite said to come dressed like your favorite Princess, there would be a tea party, jewelry making, face painting, watching a princess movie, a free princess T-shirt, and a picture with your favorite Princess. Natalie chose to dress up like Snow White. When we got there they split into age groups so Natalie was the hear group. Funny thing was her group leader was Snow White. Natalie thought that was fantastic. Then I left. I got back and found out that Natalie had gotten a little nervous that i had left. I felt bad. She had a lot of fun and got pictures with all but two of the princesses. In my eyes it was a success.

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

Due to the passing of my Grandfather the kids and I took another trip down to SE Idaho. It was great to see all the Aikele cousins that I haven't seen in years. While I was down there I spent some time with all of my brothers and sister and their kids. That was so much fun. We went to a pumpkin patch in Idaho Falls, went through a small straw maze (perfect for the kids), then took the kids on a train ride. They all had so much fun.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. This year Natalie was a Witch and Corbin was Spider man. We started off at Coldwater Creek's Halloween Party in Sandpoint. They had different stations set up from the walk into the building into the gym and at each station they put a handful of candy in their trick or treat bags. They also had crafts for the kids to do. They had a place set up to take professional pictures this year and last year but both times we couldn't get Corbin to stay with Natalie to get a picture. He was always so shy so we took our own. They both had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave.

Then we stopped at the church and did the trunk or treat then since our home is just around the corner from the church the kids did trick or treating just down our street. Then we went home to finish the night by handing out candy to the other trick or treaters. The kids enjoyed that and unlike last year Corbin actually helped pass out candy this year. Last year he was too scared of the costumes. Then the next day they both pretended to "trick or treat" and Natalie asked to go out and trick or treat again. So I guess this year was another successful Halloween experience for the kids.

Corbin Turned 3

2011-11-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Well, another year has past. Corbin is now 3. We were so torn on where to have his birthday party. We ended up choosing Rathdrum City Park. That was the best decision we made. He LOVED it and we had a great turn out. We chose Toy Story as a Theme because his bedroom is Toy Story and when asked what movie he wants to watch it is always Toy Story. So he had a Toy Story birthday party. He got so many great gifts especially ones he can learn and grow with like Memory, a puzzle game, etc.So a few days after his birthday he got Grandma Aikele's present. The DUMP TRUCK!!! Oh he loved it. It is his dump truck that he can take outside and play in the sandbox. He has had a lot of fun with it. I think we can say that this birthday party was a success.

Brown Bear....

2011-01-08T18:32:00.000-08:00

Natalie's favorite book is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?" She has this book memorized then decided it needed to take a bath and then took a very long trip to see the garbage man. Well, for Christmas Santa (Johnson Grandparents in this case) brought Brown Bear back to us. So she has now almost got it memorized again. Here is a video of her reading this book. She is a smart little cookie.

Art Projects

2010-11-18T17:32:00.000-08:00

Well, as most of you know Natalie is in Ear Head Start. She has a Family Consultant who comes out to the house each week for one on one time w/her but includes all children so Corbin gets to make his own art projects also. So I am now up to my ears in art projects. I thought I would share.

So the first project we did recently was with leaves. They took some wax paper put a few leaves on it, grated some crayons on and around them put another piece of wax paper on top and iron them all together. They both had a lot of fun and wanted to make more.

Then they took the rest of the crayons and made coloring discs. We all (including her famil consultant) removed the labels off of the crayons broke them, placed them in a small cupcake pan, and stuck them in the oven. I loved this idea becuase it consolidated all the little broken pieces of crayons into small discs...so much easier to pick up and Corbin really likes to play with them.

Ok so art project #3 was the Thanksgiving center pieces. This was done at the Early Head Start Center in Coeur d'Alene. They took pieces of play dough squashed it down so it was flat and had feathers, pine cones, shiny pieces of confetti (or as Natalie calls them "Sparklies") that they could decorate with. I tried to help her decorate it and everything I did was quickly undone. So Corbin's is more me than him he just chose what to put on it. They both turned out very cute.

Then finally we (her family consultant and I) took their hand prints put them on a piece of paper with a cute Thanksgiving poem and decorated them with glitter. It was messy but they LOVED it. Natalie as you can see made 4 different pictures. Corbin was a little too independent and I couldn't handle that much of a mess to clean up so I stopped him at 3. Funny how their imaginations run wild.

This one is Natalie's. notice the 4 different pieces of paper.

This one is Corbin's

Well..that is it for now. I am sure this is not the end. They both have painted pictures at the Center but those are hanging up on the walls at the center.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We decorated pumpkins for the first time this year. We went to a local farm called Carver Farms. The kids picked found two mini pumpkins plus they found 3 big ones for us to carve. Daniel enjoyed carving his first pumpkin. Natalie and Corbin painted their little pumpkins then while those were drying Daniel & I carved the pumpkins and had the kids help dig out the seeds. Natalie didn't like the idea of getting her hands all gooey but Corbin dug right in.

I don't know what is this look is. He has a somewhat smile but....I don't know.

Coldwater Creek had a Halloween party so the two kids dressed up Friday and had professional pictures taken. Corbin wasn't too sure about it especially when Daniel & I walked off to the side so the photographer got I beleive one photo of the two of them together but Natalie stayed put so the photographer had her jump a couple of times. I can't wait to see them.

Saturday the two Lakeland wards did a trunk or treat followed by a Halloween family dance. We had SOOO much fun. Natalie was so fun to watch. The way she was dancing was absolutely adorable. Ok, so Daniel had some scrubs from a a previous Halloween so of course he was a doctor, I couldn't decide what wanted to do so I went the short road went and bought some scrubs and was a Nurse, or as Natalie called me a Nervous (sounds like Nurse right? I think there was one time she actually got it right.), Natalie was Tinker bell (she was so excited), and Corbin was Spiderman (who was also very excited not nearly as much as Natalie was though but he was so stinkin' cute).

Sunday, since I am involved in a weight loss challenge and didn't feel like the kids needed anymore candy, we chose not to go out on Sunday so we stayed home and just pass out candy. So Natalie took over that job. She insisted on handing ALL the trick-or-treats candy. If she missed any of them because she was away or something she got REALLY mad. When it got later she was ok with someone else doing it because she was watching Dora. She kept asking when more trick-or-treats were going to come for a few days after I told her we are out of candy and she would tell me she would go get some. Sooo cute. Corbin was a little afraid of all the costumes so he stayed away.

Overall it was a really fun weekend.

Daniels 36th Birthday

2010-11-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well, Daniel celebrated his 36th birthday on September 13th. We celebrated with just the four of us. I made Daniel's favorite dinner, Shepard's Pie, and his favorite dessert is cheesecake so we he decided on an Oreo Cheesecake. I offered to make him a cheesecake but he chose the store bought Oreo Cheesecake. (says a lot about my cooking huh!) He also thought it would be fun to blow out 36 individual candles instead of blowing out the number candles. Needless to say we were eating wax with out birthday cake. It was a fun evening though. Daniel got his Apple IPad for his birthday/Christmas present.

Corbin's Birthday

2010-11-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well, Corbin is 2. I can't beleive my baby boy is two. We now have two 2 year olds. That is scary. We had two parties. The first party was on Saturday, September 18 and the 2nd party was on Sunday the 19th (Corbin's birthday). Saturday was just to celebrate Corbin's birthday with his friends. The only problem was that everyone we invited was sick so we celebrated with just the four of us. The theme was spiderman. So we had a spiderman cupcake cake, spiderman party favors, the whole nine yards. I even had a friend help me make some bean bags for one of the games. Needless to say we were overloaded in spiderman party favors and cupcakes.

So then Sunday...we had another birthday party this time for Daniel and Corbin. Daniel's birthday was September 13 so we did a jungle theme for this party. However since we were few in numbers for Corbin's party on Saturday we had a spiderman/jungle themed party. It wasn't much of a party for Daniel though. We invited a few families but just the wives and kids showed up. The husbands were on business or sick so Daniel made himself scarce. Overall it was a fun weekend for Corbin.

Weekend Getaway to Washington

2010-10-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to Lakewood, WA over Labor Day Weekend. We left Friday evening and arrived around 11:30pm at Daniel's parents home. The kids somehow thought that because they had been sitting in a car for more than 5 hours (of course a few stops here and there to stretch their legs) they needed to use all that energy as soon as they got out of the car. Needless to say we didn't get to bed until 1:00am.

Daniel's parents have a covered front porch and every morning Grandpa Johnson goes out to feed the birds and squirrels. So Saturday & Sunday morning he let the kids help. Corbin would run onto the lawn and run after the birds and squirrels which would then of course scare them all away. Grandpa Johnson just sat there and watched the show. Natalie even tried to tell Corbin he needed to stay back but then she gave up joined in the fun.

Saturday Daniel's family all met together at his sister's house for a bbq and s'mores. We had a lot of fun. Then Sunday we met up with my side of the family. We went and visited with Danny Hjelm (my uncle, he only lives a mile or two from the in-laws). He showed us around his home and all the reconstruction he has done. He has done a really great job. It is amazing what you can do with your home when you pay for very little of the reconstruction. We then went back to Hjelms and had a brunch (breakfast for lunch) and visited for a while. Then we met up with some of my other family had yummy brownies and ice cream and let the kids play while we visited.

All in all a great weekend. I wish we lived closer. We really had a lot of fun visiting with both sides of the family. We have discovered one thing though...we need to plan more time for our getaway's when there is more than one side of the family we want to see. We really did have a lot of fun. Always nice though to be back home.

Early Head Start

2010-08-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

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"

2010-08-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Catching Up-New Placement, Latest on Natalie

2010-06-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

Wow I have a lot of catching up to do. So we excepted another foster placement. His name is Aiden. He is a handful because Natalie and Aiden are so close in age that they feed off of each other meaning they do what the other does which usually means trouble. Our biggest struggle with him is he LOVES food. We have had to really work with him on making him aware that food is not his best friend. We are still working on that and making him realize that he doesn't need to inhale. He is a work in progress. He does love to play with the Natalie and Corbin. So we are trying to use them as an example to him. We have had Aiden for about 3 weeks.

Now onto Natalie. We had a lady in our ward make Natalie's temple dress who also made Corbin's temple outfit. We went to finish up a few things on it so her granddaughter took some pictures of Natalie. Then she took a few pictures of the finished dress. Natalie is so excited she calls the dress her "pretty white dress" and every time we go to Cari's house she asks if we are going to the Temple. She is so excited to go. HOWEVER.......

We just found out that Natalie's mom has appealed AGAIN which I didn't know it was possible. She appealed but the timing was off so it didn't come to light but the Idaho Supreme Court decided to hear her case anyway. So I asked "What Now" now that we have invitations out and dates set? Health & Welfare said that we have the option to move forward or post pone. We chose the option to move forward and finalize but we still face the chance if the Supreme Court for some odd reason goes in the Mom's favor and the adoption could be over turned then our Deputy Attorney General will then appeal to the Supreme Court's decision and it could turn into a huge mess. So we are fasting and praying that things go in our favor and everything will work out. We don't even know a time line yet as to when this could all happen. So we are moving forward with adoption and Sealing and pray for the best.

This is Natalie's fitting-she looks just like a princess

This is the finished dress. I actually designed it w/the help of Cari Austin. There is the dress, pantaloons, and a white head band w/a big bow on it.

I also had Cari's daughter Kristal make a necklace and bracelet for her to wear with her dress.

Family Bike Ride

2010-04-24T00:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we bought bikes for Daniel & I, a bike trailer for the kids, and a SUV bike rack. We went for our first bike ride last weekend. It was a crazy first experience for the kids. They had not had a nap and it was their first time wearing bicycle helmets. Once Natalie fell asleep Corbin was fine and enjoyed the ride. It was overall a fun day. We are going to try (weather permitting) tomorrow. Natalie really likes to ride in the trailer and Corbin just likes to do whatever natalie does so maybe this time, after nap time of course, we will give it a try again.

We decided that since we were so new to the whole family bike trip that we would stay close to the car.While on the trail we ran into a newer park built near downtown Coeur d'Alene.the kids had a lot of fun at the park. Corbin has a "CARS" bike helmet and Natalie of course has "Dora".

Corbin is a little afraid of heights,
h will push a swing but doesn't like
to ride n them

Adoption Day

2010-04-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I tried to get an earlier adoption day but to no avail so our official adoption day for Natalie is June 11, 2010 at 4:30pm and sealing date is July 10, at 12:30pm in the Idaho Falls Temple. We are excited to FINALLY be making final plans for her. We have been trying since March of 2009 and it has FINALLY come. We are so blessed to have such wonderful (depending on the day) children. Can't wait to be an eternal family.

Easter Outfits

2010-04-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

So preparation for Natalie's adoption & sealing we got some professional pictures done of the two kids. Here are just a few of them. It was rather difficult to get Corbin to smile so we did the best we could. He mostly just sat there and looked at all of us like we were rather weird but they turned out cute anyway.

Easter Morning

2010-04-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

Easter morning was great. Natalie & Corbin both got Easter outfits.

Corbin got his vacuum that he LOVES. Every time I go VT or to a friend who runs a day care this is the toy he goes for first, and a few years ago for Valentines Day Daniel got me a dog that sings, his mouth moves and his tail wags. Corbin LOVES this dog but the wires have a short in it so it doesn't work anymore, he still tries to get me to push the paw to make him sing but when I tell him it doesn't work and walk away he gets mad so we got him this dog (Daniel doesn't really care for) that flaps his ears when you press his paw and sings "Here Comes Peter Cottontail". He still doesn't care for it as much as the other one but he still enjoys it.

Natalie got her baby cradle. She was so excited because she uses the toddler bed we have in Corbin's room as her baby's bed and shuts the door, won't let anyone else in the room and says her baby is sleeping. So we enjoy it as much as she does and Corbin doesn't get locked in the room as much. So I guess both her and Corbin like it.

Then there was Tristin who's favorite toy was Transformers. Cindy from Health & Welfare bought him a transformer and dropped it off at our home a few days before Easter and where his Mom was doing an Easter basket for him we didn't so a whole lot so we used the transformer and gave him a little bit of candy. Tristin has since been relocated so he could continue going to his specialty schools in Coeur d'Alene.
Sunday afternoon we decorated Easter Eggs and later that evening did a hunt. The kids really enjoyed it. So overall it was a fun day and we are back down to two kids. Life is great.

Note: My apologies with the pictures. Blogger was updated and it is being very touchy.

Our First Attempt at Pig Tails

2010-04-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so every time we have gotten good news about Natalie we have gone out and celebrated. March of last year was the first termination hearing and the judge granted termination of parental rights. Then we got the news that her mother appealed. Then our most recent hearing in September of 2009 we testified before a judge everything I witnessed and the news came 3 days later that the judge granted termination. Then we started to celebrate again and never imagined we would be facing ANOTHER appeal. So about 3 weeks later...ANOTHER appeal. This time before the Idaho Supreme Court of Appeals. We were told we most likely wouldn't get an answer for at least 6 months. NOW...March 31, 2010 we got the best news of all time:

The Idaho Court of Appeals has upheld the termination of parental rights in this matter. You are free to proceed to adoption.

So last night we went out and celebrated knowing there was no one that could stop us now. It looks like it could be sometime this month if not early next month for an adoption day. We are however going to have her sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple because that is where we were sealed and the great thing is that Corbin now that he is sealed to us can sit in the room with us.

This is the newest member of our family. I have never put her hair in pigtails because she always pulls it out. So I tried one more time...ended up putting it back in at least 4 times. Oh she looked SOOO cute though.

We went to cold stone Creamery and bought it home. This is what she is eating.

Such a great smile. He really knows how to pose for pictures.

FINALLY...WE WILL BE A FAMILY

2010-03-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

Our Soon to be Beautiful Family

We received an email today from our Adoption Clinician:

The Idaho Court of Appeals has upheld the termination of parental rights in this matter. You are free to proceed to adoption.

We are FINALLY going to be an official family of 4!! I really was beginning to wonder how long it would take before we received these words. We are so excited. We are through our 3 month supervisory period so we can now move forward and set an immediate adoption day. Now the bummer is we have to wait until next week when everyone is back from their spring break get away to start things in motion. So the first available court date will be NATALIE'S ADOPTION DAY!!! WAHOO!!!!!!

The next good thing is as soon as we adopt her and get the court documents showing it is official (usually w/in 1 week 2 at the very most) we can move towards immediate sealing. I was beginning to wonder if Corbin was still going to fit into his sealing/blessing outfit for family pictures but I think we are good unless he goes through a growth spurt in the next few months.

I am just so excited I can't hardly contain my excitement.

Newest Temporary Member

2010-03-26T17:06:00.001-07:00

Wow! It has really been over a month since I last posted. Not much has happened until now. We got a new foster boy. His name is Tristin. He is really a "wild ball of fire". He came to us extremely hyper but has calmed down a little bit but still has temper tantrums especially when his Mom leaves. I am sure he is just confused as to why he can't go back with Mom whenever he sees her. He is 4 tears old and is only 32lbs. I took him to the doctor today for his 4 year check-up and ended up leaving w/a finger poke for a lead test and 5 shots. YIKES is all I have to say. The 5th was the H1N1 Flu Vaccine. Giving shots to a 4 year old is VERY challenging because they kick and scream. I commend the Nurse for doing such a great job and keeping him contained.

He currently goes to Head Start and also attends a Developmental Pre School to help with some development skills needed for pre school. The teachers do extremely well with him for him only being there since September. He really enjoys playing with Natalie. They like to hide under her and Corbin's crib. Just some things I have discovered over the last few weeks is his favorite color is green and his favorite toys are transformers. Don't like the fact that at such a young age he likes Transformers where they are so violent but we jut have to teach him about violence. I am trying to possibly get him transferred to a home on Coeur d'Alene so he can stay with the teachers he has now. If he lives with us until his Mom gets her life back in order he will have to be transferred to Rathdrum schools with new teachers and then be put on a waiting list or Rathdrum head start which wouldn't be good for him. I can only do so much so we will see.

This is his look of "what do you want"!

Update on the Family

2010-02-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

Well Riley is gone and we are so sad. We were hoping to be able to get together with his Mom but things didn't work out so we silently say Goodbye. :(( We are going to take on another one shortly that is either the same age as Riley or older. We won't know until we get a phone call. We will keep the blog updated once we do get another placement.

We just had a review hearing for Natalie. We are still playing the waiting game. We will hopefully hear soon from the Idaho Supreme Court. We have a Post Permanency hearing set for July 28 that we are SOO hoping can be our adoption day but we can't know anything until we have an answer from our fearless leaders higher up. So as soon as we hear anything we will again keep our blog updated.

Riley-you will be surely missed!!

2010-02-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

Well, the time has come. Riley is back with his Mom. I was told this last Wednesday that Riley would not be coming home to us Friday evening that he would now be full-time with his mom. I was ok with it at the time but now that I have had time to think about him being gone for good I got really sad.

The last few weeks Riley has been moved into longer visits with his Mom. It went from Friday's from 8am to 8pm then Thursday after school from 12pm to overnight and coming back Friday evening to Wednesday's then coming back Friday's, then just a few weeks ago it was Monday's after school and coming back to us just over the weekends. Riley really started to struggle with the change. So this really is the best for Riley

I am just VERY sad that he is gone. I didn't think that would be this sad but I miss him. I know that he (I hope at least) that he is happy and I am sure he will miss Natalie & Corbin. I know they will miss him. I sat down with Natalie the other day and explained to her that Riley now lives with his mom. She started to cry. Although I am not sure why she was crying but I got a little sad for her. We are hoping that his mom will allow us to take him for at least an hour or so this weekend to say good bye and give him all his clothes and toys.

Riley will be surely missed. We loved him so much and always will. Hopefully we will be able to be a part of his life in the future.

Natalie's Birthday Party #2

2010-01-28T23:50:00.000-08:00

Now onto Birthday Party #2: Natalie and a little Nursery friend have the same birthday, January 24, so both families went in together and had a McDonald's birthday party. We invited a majority of the nursery kids and they played their little hearts out. They each got a happy meal, then cake and ice cream. Yeah that was fun. The pictures tell all. She really had a great time and tells us all the time when we mention ANYONE's birthday that she had her birthday and who all came. I tell you she is too smart for her own good. I think we are in a run for our money with her. She is already into the "pretties". Daniel already has age limits for a lot of things set up like facebook, dating, etc. I just laugh and say you just wait. That will change.

Natalie is so into Dora, Diego and get this ICarly. Who ever knew a 2 year old would like icarly. She loves to watch TV. It will keep her distracted for a while. She already has her 2 year old attitude. She loves to see how far she can push me before I break. She also LOVES Daniel. She loves to cuddle with him in the mornings and watch TV with him at night (only so she doesn’t have to go to bed).

We are still waiting to hear anything from the Supreme Court. The only thing we can do is just wait. WE are almost through with out 3 month supervisory period for her so when we get an answer from the Supreme Court (and we get the ok for adoption) we can immediately set an adoption date w/out any other obstacles. So now we just
W-A-I-T!!! Augh!!!!!!!!!

Natalie going down the slide with India (India goes to school with Riley. I volunteered at the school for a few days and Natalie really attached to India and has ever since)
Corbin in the basketball zone-he loves balls in general-this was his favorite place

The Crew at Natalie's Party

Natalie LOVING her ice cream

"The Cake"

Natalie and her birthday girl crown and her butterfly balloon which she LOVES!

Natalie's Birthday Party #1

2010-01-28T22:57:00.001-08:00

Natalie turned 2 on January 24 but since we had family up the weekend before we celebrated her birthday with family. She wanted a "princess party" so her cake was a "princess cake". When my parents flew in we did a little shopping at the Spokane Valley Mall. Natalie decided to wonder while we were all eating so part of her birthday present from my parents was a doggie backpack. She LOVES it because it is her backpack AND the doggie comes out plus she got bracelets (she kept stealing everyone's jewelry that weekend) Corbin even likes it. We got her a princess camera and a high chair for her babies. Then for her birthday and Christmas for the two kids (Corbin and Natalie) we are getting her and Corbin a play kitchen with some dishes and play food and a Dora Big Wheel. She also got an Elmo phone from Aunt Jodi (she will carry on a conversation with who ever is on the other side which is usually "daddy") money from grandma & grandpa Johnson and a $50 gift card to Macy's from her CASA worker.

CHECK OUT "NATALIE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY #2" FOR HER MCDONALDS PARTY

This is Natalie w/her doggie back pack. She really likes to wear it. We put all her toys in there and it goes almost everywhere with us.

These are the jammies that Grandma Aikele bought for the two kids. They look absolutely adorable in them so I had to post.

This is Corbin's new jammies. He looks absolutely adorable in them because it shows his cute little round belly.

The Newest Member of our Eternal Family

2010-01-28T22:03:00.001-08:00

Corbin is now ours FOREVER!!! I am still having a hard time registering that he is my son forever. We sealed him in the Spokane, WA Temple on Saturday, January 16 and Blessed him that Sunday, January 17. It was such a fun weekend. My most favorite memory of that weekend was when we were brought into the Sealing room I looked around at everyone but the second Corbin spotted Daniel & I he started to cry and squirm out my mom's arms to come to me. So I was given permission to hold him. It was an amazing experience to be able to hold him in the sealing room. I really wondered if Daniel & I would ever have that opportunity to be in that room let alone being able to sit in a chapel with our own child and bless him as a member of our church. We are just so truly blessed. Thank you to all of our families and friends who were here with us. We had an amazing weekend.

Sealing & Blessing

2010-01-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

Wow-in just over one week we will be sealed in the Spokane, WA temple to our beautiful son. I am so excited. I wish I could get more family up here but I totally understand weather and travel. We are excited to have some of our ward members be there with us. WE will then be blessing him that Sunday at our Church in Rathdrum, ID at 12:30pm.

The sealing will be Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.

The blessing will be Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 12:30 p.m.

Our Christmas Break

2009-12-28T22:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-23T22:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-23T22:14:00.000-08:00

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???

2009-12-23T21:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

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??.......

2009-10-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-07T14:46:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-06T14:06:00.001-07:00

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.

Did somebody say haircut?? AUGHHH

2009-07-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today we got Corbin's hair cut. What an experience. Lets just say that is something that will traumatize him for a while. It was not a fun experience for him. He cried hard the entire time. He looks so handsome though with his new haircut. He looks like a little boy not a baby.

Update on Natalie, Corbin, & Riley

2009-07-20T17:52:00.001-07:00

We were just informed today of our court date for Natalie. Pre-trial is on September 2 and if her mom doesn't give her rights voluntarily then we go to trial on September 4. If things go as planned then we can start adoption process immediately and have her completely adopted by just before Christmas. So not only did she come to us on my birthday we will he able to adopt her as a Christmas present. We are excited. Hopefully things go as planned at trial.

Corbin's adoption is just around the corner. AUGUST 4!!. I couldn't be any more excited. We have waited SO LONG for this and 12 years later it is FINALLY happening. Our baby boy will be ours forever. We are hoping that if things go well with Natalie that we can take both kids to the Temple in July of 2010.

Then onto Riley. His parents have their priorities mixed up so at this point it is so touch and go that one week the department will ask for termination and the next he is going back home. So we will know more by the end of August into September.

Now the picture. We were putting Riley to bed the other night. We have started a routine that we will ALL kneel down by Riley's bed and have family prayer with the kids. Then it is night, night time. Natalie gets excited for prayer time. She really likes to say prayer although during prayer she is a little roudy but she is only 18 months. She also loves to crawl onto Riley's bed with him. So I laid her down next to Riley and started saying ok night, night, and Corbin got a little jealous so he came and joined the party. They are all way, way too cute.

Our July 4th Celebration

2009-07-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Happy fourth of July everyone (well late fourth). We had a great time. It was REALLY hot. When I looked at the temp for Rathdrum it was 90*. Anyway, we went to an early flag raising ceremony for our ward then we went to the parade in Coeur d'Alene. The kids seemed to enjoy it. Last year we went to Coeur d'Alene and sat on the lake and watched the fireworks. The show was boring to us but to others from the area it was fantastic. Daniel & I decided that we were spoiled living in Idaho Falls on the 4th of July. So we decided that we would stay home this year and have our own firework show. We went and bought a small package of fireworks and lite them off that evening. We also had a great firework show all around us that was far better than Coeur d'Alene. The kids were really nervous of all the fireworks especially the ones that went off just over our heads (lite off by the neighbors). They were nervous about the ones we lite off but likes the sparklers. There were so many fireworks going on all around us that the kids didn't get to bed until almost 11:00pm. So needless to say they were extremely tired today. All in all it was a fun day.

The kids and I playing with sparklers

The kids and I at the parade

Riley really liked his flags. Anytime he saw other kids waving them he would do the same.

So patriotic!

Natalie at the parade (her outfit is a 12 month but the shorts wouldn't stay on her so they look really long on her)The kids watching Daniel light off fireworks

1 month and 15 days.......

2009-06-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

We are now one month and 15 days away from "ADOPTION DAY" for Corbin. We are so excited it seems like it is so far away still. He has really gained a personality and has a LOVE-HATE relationship with Natalie and Riley. Natalie has really taken a liking to Corbin although when Corbin has a toy that she wants she takes it w/out hesitation so he has learned to cry and it will come back one way or another (usually from us taking it back from Natalie). When he is done with his bottle we always stick it in the fridge as we need every last bit of formula possible. Riley used to always do it for us but now Natalie has taken responsibility. I don't like her to do it because she always shakes it and turns it upside down then it all leaks out of the bottle but if we don't let her do it and give it to Riley she gets really mad. Natalie has a newly discovered temper but this is about Corbin so we won't get into that), she will even take it away from him and then go put it in the fridge. That doesn't make Corbin too happy. NOW he does the same thing to her. If he is close enough and something she has catches his eye nothing stops him from taking it. He has a 50/50 success rate with the grab and steal. He has a pretty good grip. His most favorite thing to take from her is the sippy cup. He just likes to chew on the top. Right now he is a mommy's boy. He doesn't like it when I leave him ANYWHERE. I could go on forever. He is just so much fun. We love him to pieces and we are SO EXCITED to make him a part of our family. We are waiting to see how long it will be before we can adopt Riley before we look at any dates for the sealing. We will keep you all updated.

Update on my Father

2009-06-23T11:17:00.001-07:00

I am not sure how many of you knew that my father had lung cancer. We found out just before Christmas. We got some great news the other day. There is NO sign of the cancer anywhere. I know that me and my entire family are very grateful to everyone for all the prayers. We have all been truly blessed. Thank you again to everyone. If you would like to follow him directly you can do so by going to the blog spot below. http://kdaikele.blogspot.com/

Our Trip to Glacier

2009-05-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

We went to Glacier National Park this last weekend. We stayed at Kalispell We had 2 queen beds in our room so our plan was to have Natalie & Riley sleep in one of the beds together and have Corbin sleep with us. Well, by the time we got to Kalispell we looked for a place to eat and couldn't find a place that was open. We finally realized that we were in Mountain time again (1 hour later than what we expected). The only place we could find that was open was McDonald's. So by the time we got back to the Hotel Natalie was WIRED. We could not get her to stay on bed. So we had to call down to the front desk and ask for a portable crib and decided to put Corbin in the bed with Riley. Things got a lot better from there.

Our first stop was Apgar Village where we sat on Lake MacDonald enjoyed the views, let the kids threw rocks into the lake, then sat and enjoyed Huckleberry shakes.

Avalanche Creek was our next stop where we had a picnic. The kids really enjoyed it. This is where the road was closed so we couldn't go any further so we headed back down and stopped at some of the scenic points. One of the points was a set of rapids. The kids were not too fond of them so we didn't stay long.

We then went back down to MacDonald lodge where we took a scenic boat ride of Lake MacDonald. The boat ride was beautiful but the kids were more interested in walking around not just sitting. So Daniel and I took turns walking around the boat with the kids. The 2 kids again went down by the water and threw rocks in the lake or in Natalie's case she just played in the sand. This is MacDonald Lodge as we are coming back to dock.

In 2003 there was a forest fire that came up over the mountain so before it could spread another fire was started to protect all the cabins along the lake. This is a picture of the charred trees.

These are called "the red bus". They are old fashioned buses that
Glacier uses to take tourists around the park.

Then Sunday morning we met up with Corbin's siblings for a few hours. That was lots of fun. He has 3 full siblings and 2 half.

(top) this is "Amy" the Mom who adopted ALL 5 of Corbin's siblings. What a woman. Those kids are WILD!! Let me just say that she really has her hands FULL!!

Ok, let me see if I can remember all the names...starting at the top of course if Riley, then the Blondie is "Hurricane" Hunter (that is what they call him because he is so wild), then the brown haired boy is "Val" , then Meeka (she is the youngest of the siblings excluding Corbin) then Natalie, Krista, and the one holding Corbin is Shantell. There I did it. Whew!

Then we headed home. We stopped at a rest stop and had a picnic, let the kids run and headed home again. It was SOOO nice to be home. 4 hours there and 4 hours back didn't make the kids all that excited. They were ready to run after 1 hour in their car seats. We did have a lot of fun and the park was fairly quiet. Actually everyone was hiking or biking up to Logan pass which is one of the points we could not access due to road closures and road construction. This was also the first weekend the lodge was open to the public. So it wasn't all that busy which was nice.

Court Date for Riley & Natalie

2009-05-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Today was the Summons Hearing for Natalie. So her mom has decided to contest and now we wait for a trial date. In Lamans terms she has decided to try and fight for Divyne. So now we wait for a few weeks to see when we got to trial to fight for this little girl. Divyne's birth father came to court today for the specific purpose of voluntarily terminating his rights but where birth mom decided to fight he decided against voluntarily terminating so he has asked to meet with us and then possibly agreeing to terminate as long as her mom does not get her back. The department has told us that her mom won't win giving her history but we will see what happens. I am kind of curious to see how our meeting with her father will go. We will keep you updated as things progress.

Now Riley...I went to court for Riley today. His parents are making progress. His mom especially. I have seen his mom over the past 1 1/2 years come a long ways in her rehab and in the whole case plan and she REALLY has come a long ways. She is still young and has lessons to learn but she is quickly learning. Mom has been doing all day unsupervised visits with Riley every Tuesday. Let me tell you I really look forward to Tuesdays with only two kids. The Case Worker has asked for a continued effort of reunification. Our next court hearing will be the end of September. Then in September we will see over the next few months what progress his parents have made. I again will keep you all updated.

RORO's Anyone?

2009-05-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

Natalie has really taken off. She is now walking all over and is talking up a storm. I have started for breakfast to give Natalie (AKA Divyne) cold cereal w/out the milk. Cheerios and Kix. The way she asks for Cheerios was just the cutest think. Daniel thought it would make a great commercial LOL!! Anyway, I thought I would share with you all. Enjoy.

Update on Divyne (AKA Natalie)

2009-05-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I found out today that we have a summons date set for sometime this month for Divyne. This is just for the biological parents. So the way this works is her parents are to be at court on this day to declare their will for this child. Divyne's Case Worker and I really don't think that her Dad will show up because he has not been a part of her life since July of last year but her mom is...lets see how do I put this nicely, she is flaky meaning that we don't' know what she is going to do one day to the other. SOOO if none of them show up then they have 3 days to make it known as to what they would like to do and if after those 3 days and either one of them has come forward then we can terminate parental rights by default.

Divyne is now walking. She was taking a few steps her and there but now she does nothing but walk. She even will walk and pick up toys then walk with those at the same time. She is too smart for her own good. She is now walking AND talking. Too cute!!

When we adopt her, her name will be Natalie Divyne Johnson. We are on the right track. We have an adoption day for Corbin of August 4 and if things go the way we hope at this summons hearing then we will have an adoption hearing shortly after that for Divyne. I am so excited.

Spring BBQ

2009-04-28T23:22:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I am really behind on my posts but here you go.
We got a portable fire pit for Christmas from my parents as well as some dutch ovens. We were able to use the dutch ovens in February when they came to visit (I might add that my parents can cook dutch oven mmm good). We were waiting for some nice weather to be able to use our fire pit. We finally had a beautiful weekend and we broke out the fire pit. We roasted some hot dogs with the kids and marshmallows. The kids had a lot of fun. They played outside for a little while then we took them inside and changed (it was getting a little chilly outside so we changed them into long pants and long sleeve shirts and had a bbq). Here are some fun pictures from that weekend.

Fun Family Pictures

2009-04-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, so for Fathers Day I had this wonderful idea of getting some pictures taken of me and the kids for Daniel to put on his desk at work. Well, I had to spoil the surprise. I got the pictures taken, sat down for the presentation, then was told the prices. YIKES!! I knew I had to talk to Daniel where the "package" prices were much more than I had expected (not all that bad though very comparable). So we decided that due to the amount that we spent it would be for Mothers Day and Fathers Day. Part of the package we purchased included a CD with ALL the poses that had a copyright release so I decided to share some of the fun pictures with you all. Enjoy!!

Happy Really, Really late Easter

2009-04-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

I am really late but it is the thought that counts. We had a great Easter weekend. We had some friends over for Sunday Easter dinner. It was nice to have someone to celebrate Easter with. Here are some fun pictures. Enjoy!

EEG Results

2009-04-08T22:15:00.001-07:00

Sorry everyone. We got the results for Corbin's EEG on Monday but I have not had an opportunity to post an update. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers on his behalf. Let me just say this first. We took Corbin in for an EEG just for precautionary due to the tremors that he has been having.

The EEG came back clear. the pediatrician and I had an inkling that things would back on a positive note so we really had no worries. We just wanted to be safe than sorry down the road. So then where are these tremors coming from? Corbin is what many call a "Meth Baby" so we believe that these tremors are caused by the effects from the meth. He has not had as many tremors as he has over the past few weeks but let me tell you all the good things about my beautiful boy.

He is now 6 1/2 months and has now started to sit up all by himself and is doing so well. As long as he doesn't loose concentration he sits up for a while by himself. He doesn't like tummy time all that much so we are working on that aspect of his development but overall he really enjoys Riley & Divyne. Divyne now sits and talks to him (of course her own little way that only her and Corbin can understand) and hands him toys and asks him if he wants it. Riley is the same way. He gives Corbin kisses ALL the time. It is rather cute. He smiles ALL THE TIME. If he sees you talking he thinks you are talking to him. I LOVE the fact that children love to see themselves in the mirror so I have made it a habit that when he gets out of the bath tub I hold him in front of the mirror and get the biggest smile out of him. I love it. He is just way too much fun. We are so excited and can't wait for August 4 for the opportunity to make him legally ours.

Corbin's EEG

2009-04-01T18:11:00.000-07:00

Corbin has been having these tremors when I feed him and he is almost asleep. So when I spoke to the pediatrician he suggested he get an EEG. I didn't think it was any big deal. Then I got a phone call from the a consultant from the hospital who would be doing the test. She said she wants him REALLY, REALLY tired. How do you get a baby to be sleep deprived enough to sleep for 1 hour straight with out moving. Well I did it. I took him in today. I did not know they would torture him so much. They measured his head and marked it all up them scrubbed the places that were marked with alcohol and pumice. He is extremely sensitive about anyone touching his head so needless to say he was NOT a happy camper. I was not a happy camper either. I had to hold a baby down so they could scrub his head. I got the look of horror from him I felt like the worst mom ever. I felt absolutely terrible. So after she finally got him all hooked up to the wires he did really well and slept for the whole hour. Other than being upset at the fact that my baby was being tortured it was so peaceful to watch him sleep. I never thought I could love someone so much. He is just the sweetest but happiest little boy. I love him to pieces. We get the results either this weekend or beginning of next. The picture was taken in a dark room with my cell phone so it is not very good quality but it does the job. Poor kid.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

2009-03-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I went to court today for Corbin. We were not sure what was going to happen but we got termination. August 4th is our next court hearing, at that hearing we finalize our adoption for Corbin and he will become ours legally. We then wait 6 months to be able to go to the Temple so mid February. I am so excited. I took Corbin to court with me and he was really the center of attention. Especially from the judge. He really got the judges attention when he walked in. He couldn't get a smile out of Corbin though. It was nice though to have him there so the judge can see how good he does with us and he even commented on what a good home Corbin will go too. Now we just hope and pray that things will work out that we can finalize Divyne at the same time. What a blessing that would be. We are both so excited. Corbin Daniel Johnson will soon be the newest member of our family.

and the prize goes too....

2009-03-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a little humorous so I thought I would share.

Our ward did a chili cook off this last Friday. So a sign up sheet was sent around to all the different organizations for people to sign up. Well, I saw the paper while I was in Nursery so I signed up to bring Chili and Cornbread. Then as we were driving in the driveway last Sunday Daniel informed me he had signed us up to bring pie. Yikes. We were then signed up to bring all 3 dishes. I would be baking all day. So I decided that I would make the chili and cornbread then just go buy a pie to take with us. So I did that. I took the pie out of the box and it was all sticky and I also wanted it to look nice so I put it in one of my pie plates and warmed it up in the oven then took it with me.

Dinner started at 6:15pm and we got there at 6:30pm. So all the dishes had been judged. A sister from the ward got up and started announcing all the winners for what was brought. I leaned over to Daniel and said our pie better not win anything. I started to feed Divyne then all the sudden I hear my name called for a prize. I wasn't sure what I had one or what it was for then someone told me it was for the pie. OH MAN!!! The prize was "I gotta have that recipe." So I owe a big THANK YOU to Wal Mart for such a great Carmel apple pie.

Oh, I ran out of time to make the cornbread so I just took the pie and chili. I did get a prize for the chili. There were some prizes for the most spiciest chili but mine was for the "most mildest, mildest, chili. I didn't tell anyone where it came from. I wasn't about to say anything in front of my entire ward. I am somewhat new still.

Learning to Stand

2009-03-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Standing comes first then walking. Riley learned a different way to sing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." Instead of singing sun"BEAM" you jump and sing sun"BEAM". So he now sings it as well as all the other nursery songs in the bath tub. Well Divyne follows almost everything that Riley does so she decided she had to try it. Since she can't really jump she taught herself to stand and because we make such a big deal out of it she gets excited and continue to try then gets bored of trying and crawls off. It is so cute to watch her. Riley is such a good big brother. She really has learned a lot from him.

Fun Pictures of Corbin

2009-03-11T10:39:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to get some fun pictures of Corbin smiling for our picture collection and I haven't been too successful. I did finally get some. He is really starting to gain a personality. He is so much fun.
Now some of you asked for an update on Riley. We still do not know anything more. both his parents are starting to make more progress in their case plans. We have a hearing in May to see the progress of his parents. If they are making good progress then the judge and the department of Health & Welfare will ask for more time usually three months. Things can change so fast though so we will keep you updated as time passes.

What an amazing day for us and Divyne!!

2009-03-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we had court today for Divyne. It was in the judges court whether or not he would agree to the Department and CASA's request to TPR (Termination of Parental Rights). After much consideration and deliberation the judge agreed to TPR. Divyne will remain in our custody for 6 months, September 1, we then go to a termination hearing where the judge will terminate all parental rights and we can then start the adoption process. After 3 months we can then go before the judge again and finalize the adoption.

Now for an update on Corbin. All the letters from the tribes have been received. Now we are waiting for TPR on his biological father. We have a hearing on March 24 to see if they will go ahead with the termination or if it will be to set a trial date. We will keep you all posted.

When Daniel & I moved up to North Idaho we didn't know why we were moving up here and so far away from family. We just knew there was something up here that the Lord had in store for us. We are starting to see what the Lord had in store for us by moving up here. We have been so blessed. We are in such a great ward and are so close to starting our family through adoption. We have been so blessed.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers for Divyne. She is a welcomed addition to our Family.

The Visit to North Idaho

2009-03-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

Well, my parents finally made it up here. It was really a lot of fun to have them here and of course to have the help. It was a really short visit but very welcomed. They arrived on Friday February 13 and left Monday, February 15. We had a lot of fun although Corbin was not himself. He struggled with the extra company. He survived though. We had dutch oven potatoes and bbq ribs for Sunday dinner. It was sooo good. We miss them but it was a fun visit

Update on the kiddies

2009-02-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while since I posted. I do have pictures to post from the parents visit but that will come hopefully this evening if I can find time to sit down w/out children wanting to help. So this is my update from the last few weeks.

First we will start with Riley. There is no new news on him yet. His next court post-permanency hearing is not until May so we won't know much more until time draws closer. The parents haven't done a whole lot other than transportation of their own. So we will keep you posted when things draw closer for him. He however LOVES being a "big brother".

Now Divyne. Things are looking REALLY, REALLY promising for her. The department of children and family services is asking for termination as well as CASA which is a step in the right direction for us. So now it is all up to the judge whether he agrees to the termination request. If he does accept the termination request then we move to a termination hearing where the parental rights of both parents are terminated. So for now we WAIT and PRAY that things work out. Her hearing is on March 10 so next Tuesday.

I took Divyne and Corbin to Costco with me the other day and as they were pulling the car around for me to leave Divyne looked at me with this horrified look and started to cry. The only thing she saw was this man pulling the cart with her in it and me standing on the other side of the isle. She was NOT happy. So the cashier and me assured her she was ok that "mommy" was right here. So once I walked up to her and started to push the cart away she smiled at me and everything was ok. Now if that doesn't melt your heart as a parent I don't know what would. She is to that stranger stage. So I have to be careful who I leave her with otherwise I get that horrified look. She is so dang cute and has developed quite a personality. She is really starting to mimic a lot of what Riley does. They have way too much fun together. She is really starting to say words now. She says socks, shoes (of course in her 1 year old way) cat, Riley, baby, etc. I just look at her everyday and wonder how lucky we were out of all the foster parents to be called about such a special little girl.

Now Corbin. Now much has changed since my last post on him. We have all the letters back from the tribes and now we are just waiting to see if his birth father will willingly terminate or if we have to wait until we go to the termination hearing in June to terminate his rights. So for now we just wait. We are hoping to go on a small little weekend family get away to Glacier National Park which is only a few hours away from us and on the way stop to meet his siblings. I am excited. He is just such a sweet, sweet little boy and I love him to death. I feel bad though when my parents were here he was really, I mean really fussy. That is not him at all. I think he was just overwhelmed at the number of people and excitement for one weekend. Hopefully he will get better about that when come home and visit family.

Anyway, all is well in our household. We will keep you updated as things move along.

We Are Making Progress

2009-02-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

We are so close to starting the adoption progress on Corbin. We were waiting for 1 more ICUA letter from the reservation just confirming they have no interest in adopting him. We got the final letter Monday and now we are just waiting for his Biological Father's rights to be terminated. The Bio father has been served so now all we can do it wait. Daniel & I went to the Temple on Saturday and as you walk back to the dressing rooms you walk past a sealing room. I just sat there looking at the room knowing that we could be there w/in a year. I wanted to cry. He hes just grown so much. He is really gaining such a personality and is ALWAYS full of smiles and he is so cuddly. I love that little boy so much.

Santa Photo's-A little late

2009-01-31T17:10:00.000-08:00

I am trying to finish my journal book for 2008 and was waiting for these pictures. These pictures were taken at the CASA Christmas party. So I asked Riley's CASA if I could get a copy of the Santa pictures for my book. I got them yesterday. I thought you might all enjoy them. Riley wasn't too sure but he would tolerate Santa as long as someone was holding his hand. Divyne wanted NOTHING to do with him (as you can tell) but Corbin was just thinking whatever. I thought they were too cute.

Cutest little 1 year old

2009-01-27T21:42:00.000-08:00

This picture doesn't have to do with her birthday but it was too cute. I was unloading the dishwasher and when she hears the dishwasher open she is comes a crawlin'. She likes to help "unload" the dishwasher. That just means taking things out and either handing them to me when I tell her no or throwing them on the floor. I turned around for a second and when I turn back around the next thing I see is this. She also climbs in Corbins bouncer (well once was hers) and just sits. She will also climb on the banana chairs and sit while either playing with a toy or watching TV. She is soo close to walking she is just not quite there yet. Anyway, this was too cute so I had to post.

Wal Mart has a special for first birthdays that if you buy a full size cake they give you a FREE 4-inch cake. I was focusing on the lady bug theme but couldn't ever find the time to get invites put together. So we did lady bug thank you notes. We did a lady bug cake and the 4 inch cake was supposed to be lady bugs also but Wal Mart mistakenly sold it to someone else. So we let Divyne dig into the 4 inch cake. She really enjoyed it. She wasn't quite sure what to do at first but she finally figured it out as you can tell from the pictures.

Well, she is finally a year old. We had a small party for her and invited just a few friends. I think she had a fun but long day. She got 2 little summer dresses, a cute skirt and sweater set, & a toy from us that Riley seems to enjoy more than her. This toy is the one that has the 5 things (in this case animals) that you turn or push the button and they pop up, she likes you to make the animals pop up and she pushes them down. We were so excited for her 1st birthday because that meant that if she was 20 lbs that we could turn her car seat around. So Monday we went to the doctor. Let me say this first. When we went to her 9 month appointment she was 17 lbs. When we took her in on Monday she was 19 lbs 4.5 ox. She was so close?? Over the past year she has gained 5 lbs but is growing really well. We are really trying to get her to gain a few more ounces to get her to 20 lbs. Corbin the other hand may just beat her. He weighed in at 16 lbs.

Corbin's Brothers & Sisters

2009-01-25T20:45:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
We received a letter from the Adoptive mom of Corbin's 5 other brothers and Sister. It was really touching. All 5 children have been adopted (except for the youngest in the picture, her adoption is almost finalized) by this one family. This adoptive mom included her contact information as well as address so if we would like we can keep on contact. I am excited to be able to keep in touch with them. They are all so cute. Jack (the boy at the top of the picture) is biological to the family. The rest is below.

Shantell is a half sibling to Corbin and is 8
Krista is a full sibling and is 5
Val is a full sibling and is 4
Hunter is a half sibling and is 2
Meeka is a full sibling and is 1

More Christmas

2009-01-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well, since we were unable to be home for Christmas and since weather prevented anyone from coming here or down there my mom sent us the kids' presents. THANK YOU MOM!! Anyway, you don't get much reaction from these kids when they open their presents only when they play with them. Although I was helping Divyne open her clothes box and she was really enjoying it. She is in the stage now where EVERYTHING no matter what it is needs to be on the floor. She is really becoming so grown up. She will be 1 year on January 24 and where we don't have any family near by to help us celebrate (ANYONE IS INVITED TO COME hint, hint...) I think we are going to have a play date. She comes to nursery with me and really enjoys it. So we will keep you posted on the fun birthday party. Anyway, here are some pictures from Christmas #2.

Corbin got a really cool tummy time mat. It has a wedge that allows him to sit up more. He really enjoys it.

This is Divyne getting ready for a nap in her cute pair of overalls. She looks so grown up in them.
Our cute little rugrats. They grow so fast but they are so fun.

Corbin Laughing

2009-01-04T23:58:00.000-08:00

I had to add this because he is so bright eyed and bushy tailed.
I thought this was a cute picture of the 5 of us. We are still trying to get a picture where all 3 children are happy and looking at the camera.

Corbin and his new found friend.

I thought this was the cutest thing. It has been so fun to go through the stages of life with Divyne and now Corbin. It is amazing how different each child an be. Daniel was playing with Corbin the other day and gave him Riley's little giraffe and he got Corbin to laugh for the first time. I tried to capture it on video but I was too late. So this one is of him cooing and smiling while playing with the giraffe. Soo cute. I just love him. He is so cuddly.

Winter Review

2009-01-04T23:08:00.000-08:00

This is the view from our living room window. Just kidding. You are looking at the nice pile of snow sitting in our front yard. It is an accumulation of snowfall during December and all the snow that Daniel shoveled off the roof.

This is the view from the backdoor. It is again an accumulation of snowfall during December and all the snow that Daniel shoveled off the roof.

This is one of the views from Riley's room. We really do have some beautiful views.

The is view view #2 from Riley's room. Beautiful sunset.

This is view #3 from Riley's room. This is almost the same view that we usually have from our living room window when not being obstructed by snow.

Well, when I last reported on winter conditions we had juts gotten our biggest snow storm. It really has not let up. One good point in this nasty weather are all the beautiful views. We are now just waiting for the next winter storm to hit us this evening through tomorrow afternoon. Will this EVER end???

Christmas Overview

2009-01-03T15:50:00.000-08:00

Riley & Divyne playing with gifts from their stockings. Riley got a toothbrush that sings "I can't wait to be King" while he brushes, and Divyne got a musical cell phone.

Riley was sitting in the laundry basket (I do not know why) so I thought it would be cute to have them both in the basket. Riley is carrying around the monkey (curious George) he got for Christmas. He is such a stuffed animal lover. He has to sleep with his 2 bears, Simba, & his spotted Lion he also got for Christmas.

Well it is now January. This Christmas was our first Christmas with children. What an experience. I think it will be more fun when they are a little older. Riley is more interested in Divyne's toys that she got for Christmas rather than his own. Divyne is not old enough to know the difference so she just gives Riley really funny looks. They do however get along really well. Divyne just lights up when he walks in the room. I think these two will be so sad if they are separated.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-01-01T00:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!

I am making a "blog toast" to everyone out there. I am toasting to a successful 2009 for you Dad. I am also toasting to a successful year with our little family. May 2009 bring nothing but success to everyone. Love you Dad. We are praying for that miracle.

Thoughts and Prayers

2008-12-29T22:09:00.000-08:00

A father's love is a quiet thing. Like the fall of footsteps on green grass and the sound of hope in the human heart.- Anonymous

I wanted to post and tell my father how much he means to me and my family. We recently learned that he has lung cancer. One word was that he has the most curable kind of cancer then another opinion was there is no lung cancer that is curable. So needless to say he is facing a rough road ahead. The word is that he starts chemo next Monday.
It has really been tough this last 2 weeks knowing that the rest of my family has had the opportunity to "go home" to "just be there" for my parents.
We really wanted to make the trip but mother nature has decided to bless the inland northwest with loads and loads of winter storms with record snow falls and no end in sight. So we have had to send our love through email and phone calls.
I have been home sick since this all came about. Hopefully we will see an end to all this snow fall so we can make the trip to Southeast Idaho.

Dad-I love you with all my heart. You are such an example to me and our little family. Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Love Sara

Our 3 Little Rugrats

2008-12-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a cute photo of our 3 children. They are adorable. Enjoy.

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-18T10:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome winter. We decided to share with everyone the first two snow storms of 2008 (well the 08-09 snow year). The first one hit Friday afternoon. The kids and I decided to travel to Sandpoint and we ended up following Daniel home in the storm. Then Wednesday morning about 7AM it started snowing and NEVER stopped. So when we woke up Thursday morning we were in for a surprise. Everything was shut down. Public transportation, Health & Welfare actually closed also, all the schools in the area from Coeur d'alene all the way to Bonners Ferry. IT is now 11AM. The snow has let up a little bit but it is still really blowing. The news is saying that there is another one on its way for this evening. If Divyne and Riley were not sick I would totally send the outside to play.

Preparing for Christmas

2008-12-10T11:09:00.001-08:00

Sorry this is a little late. It has been a crazy few weeks at our home. I feel like I am getting to know the court house rather well.

Well, this is going to be our FIRST Christmas with children in our home. I can't tell you how excited we are. We went out and bought 3 more stockings. I didn't ever know if we would have that opportunity. We already bought Divyne one present and have it sitting on her dresser until we can find a box to wrap it in. She keeps grabbing for it but can't quit reach it. Christmas morning is never really Christmas until you have little ones to share it with. It just isn't fun if that person KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE GETTING (just had to put this little ad lib in there LOL!! ) So needless to say Christmas will be a lot of fun this year (even though I know what I am getting).

We had the kids help us put up Christmas decorations and that was an experience. Needless to say out living room wasn't so clean afterwards but it was fun. Since Riley is the oldest we let him put on the star. He had a lot of fun.

We are excited to see what this year brings and hopefully if the weather stays as nice as it is now (other than the cold temperatures) Grandma & Grandpa Aikele can come up to Northern Idaho for Christmas (well the week after Christmas). We are excited. I just can't belelive Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner.

Divyne Update

2008-12-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

Well it is December 10. We were supposed to have court on December 9 for divyne but nobody bothered to tell me or the birth mom that the date had been changed to Monday NOT Tuesday. So I had to hear what happened through other sources.

The judge gave Divyne's mom 3 more months (March 10) to work more on her case plan. So March 10 is a Post permanency hearing and at that court hearing the judge will decide if Mom has done everything according to her case plan. At that court hearing is she has not then we will move to a termination hearing which will be schedule I believe 30 days after that hearing. So we have 3 more months of Divyne in our home. We pray daily that the Lord will allow her to remain in our home for eternity. We hope to keep all of them but for now we have Corbin.

Thank you everyone for your prayers. We hope that things continue to go our way. We will keep you posted.

The Rugrat Update

2008-12-07T22:47:00.001-08:00

Here are some fun videos and pictures of our little rugrats. Corbin has almost doubled his birth weight. We call him our little Riley. Oh, the cutest thing...We finally taught Riley to fold his arms when we have prayer. We would always look at Divyne and tell her to fold your arms and she would just smile at us. We caught her doing it the other day. If we show her how to do it she does it. She was also evaluated on December 1 by the Infant and Toddler program through Health & Welfare. Everytime she has been evaluated she is always behind in something. This time she passed with flying colors. She is doing things that she doesn't need to be doing until she is 1 year and she is only 10 months. We are so proud of her. Now that she can crawl she is everywhere. She loves Riley's room. She loves to just hang out with Riley.

Corbin Court Update

2008-12-07T22:02:00.001-08:00

Wow what a crazy weekend. We went to court on Friday for Corbin. It went good. We were told by Corbin's Social Worker before we got him that he had some Indian in him but not enough to register with a tribe. It is a requirement from the department that some kind of contact be made with the Fathers Tribe making them aware that this child is going up for adoption. So letters have been sent out to the three Cherokee tribes in the US. We are now just waiting for those tribes to send back some communication saying they have no interest. Corbin has 5 other brother and sisters and the tribes have had no interest in them so we don't for see any problems. Once we get those letters then Corbin's birth father is served with papers to terminate his parental rights and once those have been terminated then we can start the adoption process. We are now just playing the waiting game. We will keep you updated. We return to court for a "Post-Permanency" hearing in June. We could already be in the adoption process by then so at that point we would go before the judge and let him know how the adoption process is going and how the baby is doing health wise.

Thanksgiving Update

2008-12-02T11:07:00.001-08:00

WOW! I can't believe it is already December. Sorry it has been a little while since I posted. I am a little worn out. Thanksgiving was great. We had Daniel's family from Washington come. IT was great to have help with the kids. It was REALLY sad to see them leave. We did have a fun time though. Riley spent some of the day with his Dad;s family but we were relieved to have him back safe and sound.

Well just a little about my week so far. Divyne has been waking up at all hours of the night because she is getting her 3rd upper tooth. She is in pure misery so she is at the point where she just wants to be cuddled and held. She is such a sweet, sweet girl. We have her court hearing on December 9 and that is when we find out what her future holds. We would be absolutely ecstatic if we were given the opportunity to adopt her.

There is nothing new about Riley. He is starting to really pronounce his words. He is such a big help to me. I was in a pickle the other day changing Corbin and he was such a great big brother. He is so good with these two young ones. He always wants to kiss them and hug them. It is his routine when he goes to bed. Such a handsome boy. He knows it all too well.

Corbin is really growing. He is almost double his birth weight. He is going to top Divyne in no time. Such a handsome boy. He has had some issues with sleeping. It took me literally 2 hours to get him to sleep and stay that way. I am just glad that Daniel is here when I need that break.

Anyway, that is our update. Other than the worn out mommy, we are having a great time with these kids. Here are some pictures form our Thanksgiving.

I Crawled for the FIRST time!!

2008-11-14T09:27:00.001-08:00

Well, I got Divyne up this morning and sat her on the floor to take care of Riley. Riley had set his toys on the floor so he could use the bathroom. Before we knew it Divyne had a hold of his toys. I had to think about it for a minute. The only way she could have gotten to where the toys were was by crawling. So I placed the toys further away and what do you know? SHE IS CRAWLING!!! We have been working with her for a little while. She now can lay on her tummy and push herself back into sitting position, she can reach for toys by getting on her hands, she even reaches as far as her little arms will allow then push herself back into sitting position and NOW crawling. We are so proud of her. She finally figured it out.

Corbin is Awake!!

2008-11-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Corbin. He has just had a diaper change, a really messy diaper I might add, so I am in the process of getting some new clothes for him while Daniel keeps him entertained. Enjoy. He is a cutie and really alert. It is hard to capture this in a picture so enjoy the video.

Peekaboo

2008-11-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Divyne's favorite game is peekaboo and who better than to play it with than her favorite person Riley. Riley can make her laugh at anything. They just have so much fun together. This is a video of the two of them playing peekaboo.

Our Little Rugrats

2008-11-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

Some of you have asked for better pictures of Corbin. So here are some updated pictures. Hope these are what you are lookng for. I added a cute one of Divyne.

Exciting News

2008-11-07T11:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I just spoke to Corbin's Social Worker. His Birth Mom relinquished her rights and they had enough evidence to relinquish birth fathers rights. So the process begins. There is a court hearing on December 7 where the state shows proof that they had evidence to terminate fathers rights, then the next court hearing will be the TERMINATION HEARING! THEN the adoption process will begin. The adoption worker at the department says that the adoption process could take from 1-2 years so by the time we can officially go before a judge and call him ours. So we are in for a long process but we can say that he is ours. WAHOO!!!! Now we wait until December to know what happens to Divyne.

October in Review

2008-11-05T22:59:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how crazy this past month has been. So let’s just start from the beginning.
We brought Corbin home the 2nd week of October.

I had to do the Relief Society newsletter for October so I had to find a topic, put the newsletter together and get it emailed to our newsletter person. Needless to say she didn’t get the newsletter out until the last week of October.

I am now officially a stay at home mom-they called me and asked if I would cover a shift and when I couldn’t do it they told me I needed to choose so my choice was my little family.

Divyne started to get her “two front teeth” so she has been one unhappy little girl. Then on top of not feeling good she has been very clingy & wants nothing more than to just be with me. That makes being a mom of three a little complicated. That is when we ALL love it when “daddy comes home”!!!!! Especially “mommy”!

Corbin has started this "Hold Me" kick. If you put him down at all he starts to cry then the minute you pick him up he falls asleep in your arms. So you have Divyne who is screaming because she doesn’t feel good then Corbin crying because you put him down.
I FELT LIKE I WAS GOING TO PULL MY HAIR OUT!!!

HOWEVER...We did have a fun Halloween Night. Here are some pictures of our 3 little rugrats. Riley was a Bat, Divyne was a Pink Leopard, and Corbin was a pumpkin.

Then I had to teach last Sunday. Trying to plan a lesson with 3 kids was almost an impossilble but I put it all together Saturday night. Then I got released from the Relief Society Presidency (I was warned a few months ago that a release was coming but never told that I specifically was being released. I mean I know that when the Pres. is released everyone else does too but I just didn’t know it was going to happen Sunday) and was blind sided when it was announced that the Relief Society Presidency was being released. So then I was approached by a member of the Bishopric and asked to be the Nursery Leader. The Bishopric member who asked me seemed a little shocked that I accepted the calling-maybe because when we first moved in I told them I did NOT want to be in the Primary. I am kind of excited though. Riley is in nursery, and Divyne is at the age where you can’t take her to Sunday School because she talks too much so now she can come to nursery with me and play to her hearts content.

Anyway, we are now in November and we are starting with a clean slate. I looked out the window this morning and was shocked to see so much snow on the mountains. The snow is coming. I don’t think I am ready.

We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year so I am a little nervous with 3 kids how this will go but I think we will have plenty of help. We really miss all of the SE Idaho folks and really wish we could be there for the Holidays.

We welcome November with open arms. We will know whether or not we can adopt Corbin by Friday well most likely Monday. The 30 day hearing was post-poned to November 7. We will keep you all posted.

Happy Belated Halloween

2008-11-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

A Pink Leopard, Bat, & Pumpkin

Our little leopard and bat

Divyne the Pink Leopard

Riley the bat

The Year in Review

2008-10-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What a year. In the year that we have been in North Idaho we have gained a little family. What fun they have been though. They each have their own little own personality. We welcomed Corbin into our home and what a joy he has been. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Corbin is Finally Here!

2008-10-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Well, today is Friday (WAHOO). I brought Corbin home this afternoon. We now officially have a car full and a house full. Hopefully Corbin is here to stay. There is a strong chance that we will have the opportunity to adopt him.

Riley and Divyne are more just curious right now. Riley wants to be right there with you like a big brother and Divyne just smiles and touches him when we put Corbin in front of her. It is rather cute. We will see how the weeks progress.

He is now 3 weeks old. At his 2 week check up he was:
7lbs 9oz.
20 inches long

Love you All,
Daniel & Sara

Newest Member of our Family

2008-10-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome Corbin to our Foster Family. We welcome you with open arms.

Lots of Love,

Your foster family

The Youngest Jedi

2008-09-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

Pictures and Videos of our Summer Vacation

2008-09-15T22:06:00.001-07:00

Our Summer Vacation with Riley & Katelyn

2008-09-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Over our summer vacation we watched a 3 year old little girl, Katelyn. She was a handful but loads of fun. She is such a sweet heart. We had her for about 3 weeks. Here are a few pictures and a video of our fun few weeks.

(Below) Riley & Katelyn eating popsicles out back. I made them eat them outside but they had to put on their shoes so they didn't step on all the pine needes and pine cones. I didn't want to get their clothes dirty so I made them eat them in their diapers.

Katelyn & Riley enjoying lunch. Can you tell?

Riley & Katelyn staring inside through the screen door.

Johnson Update

2008-09-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since we posted anything. I am no longer working in Real Estate. I am working as a Crossing Guard sub (I sub for anyone who calls in sick or takes vacation). I am in raining this week. So far so good.

The kids are doing great and growing like weeds. Riley just turned 2 and is ALREADY in the "terrible 2" stage. Daniel also just had his birthday. We went to the Spokane Country fair on Saturday so Riley could see the animals he see's in all his books. So we saw cows, goats, sheep, horses, and mutton' bustin' (where 6 year old kids come out riding mutton's). We are excited to have them for Halloween. We then took Riley to Toys R Us and let him pick out a puzzle and a book for. He chose a number puzzle to help learn numbers and some Dr. Seuss cards that have shapes on one side and colors on the other. Perfect for church.

That is the update from here. Enjoy some of our pictures of the kids.

Love you All,
Daniel & Sara