Did somebody say haircut?? AUGHHH

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

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

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.......

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

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

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

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?

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)

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

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.