Daisy's baptism day

Warning! Marathon post!!!

We have had a busy time since our last post! We've been working on another yard project outside and I had a birthmother have her baby last week and any time I have one of those my whole week is pretty much shot and I have paperwork, hospital visits, placement ceremonies, visits to downtown Phoenix to process interstate paperwork (the adoptive couple was from out of state), etc. So pretty much I won't be blogging when I have a placement, but my next birthmother isn't due until October so I have some time to breathe for about a month. My SIL Angie reminded me this morning that perhaps it's time for a blog update :) so here goes:

Bringing Home the Playground!

We bought this playground over four years ago when a playground distributor was going out of business. He actually showed us his invoice for the set and we payed exactly what he paid to get it, so although it was expensive it was a great deal for a vinyl clad playground. It's been at my parents house this whole time because we didn't have any place to put it and it made sense to set it up there since we were going to live there while we built the house. Our plan was to eventually set it up underneath the hay storage area in our backyard (the hay storage is just a large covered structure that was already on our lot when we bought it). Before we could do that, however, we had to clean out the area under the hay storage, which meant moving trash, old wood and pallets, emptying out and moving an 8x8 shed, sweeping inches of dirt, etc. Well you might have already guessed that we just have TONS of spare time with all of our other projects going on, and it's over a 100 degrees outside, but Justin managed to keep going despite not having had a relaxing Saturday since returning from Georgia. We got the area all cleaned out and then Justin disassembled the playground and brought it home. It took a whole Saturday to install it, but I'm so happy to have it here and have that area cleaned out!

Some pics from the experience:

A cool looking salamander* (CORRECTION! Upon further investigation I have determined that this is in fact a Western Banded Gecko). We found a couple of these during the cleaning process.

Justin also found the time to mow the lawn during his 8+ hour outside work day on his day off from "work". It's amazing what a hard worker he is and yet he is still not a work-a-holic because he loves to hang out with us when the work is done. We are storing the barrel train at our house so the kids will get to enjoy it!

View of the playground from the back porch. It's not completely done (we still need to put up a border and get some rubber mulch to put on the ground for falls) but it is so much more fun to look at than all the junk that was under there before!

Adaira was the first casualty of the hard ground below the playground. She was messing around on the rock wall trying to balance on top of two blocks of wood she had placed on one of the steps, lost her balance and fell on her face on the concrete. We have a bunch of rubber mats used for the horses that we've cleaned off and placed under the play area until we can get the mulch in. I had mats at the bottom of the rock wall but not on the side of it. We moved a rubber mat to that spot shortly after our tester showed us how possible it is to fall exactly onto the small area where we didn't put the mats...

She's still pretty though!

Brighton and Adaira are growing up so fast. I can't believe Brighton will be turning 7 on his next birthday. That seems way too old for my little boy. Adaira is definitely maturing faster than I want her too. She's 4 going on 14 most days. I guess what makes it easier for me at this point is knowing that I'm not done with babies yet. I've got the strength for at least one more (not any time soon mind you!). They are the best of friends, which also means they fight a lot, but they love playing and being together. Brighton begs for "sleepovers" on the weekends when he can sleep in Adaira's room. They stay up playing and giggling until well after bedtime.

I want Brighton's skin. Nice and tan, perfectly clear, no wrinkles.... I wouldn't mind those eyes either

I had to add this video:

and this one...

Dale turned 1!

It's seems weird that this guy is a year old. He still seems like such a baby to me, but that is probably because he still likes to be on my hip as often as I let him. We had a small birthday party for him with his grandparents and Uncle David & Aunt Marisa's family (I kept saying it wasn't a party because I didn't want to annoy people by having a party for a one year old. I mean, come on! They can't remember anything! I was just going to make some cupcakes, invite the grandparents, take some pictures of Dale stuffing his face, and call it good). Marisa is really cool, though, and likes to have a good time and make people feel special so she wanted to come celebrate with us. Thanks Marisa :)

Unfortunately Dale wasn't a big fan of the food or the attention. It went something like this:

His siblings came and picked apart most of his cake, but he still managed to get dirty.

A few things about Dale at one year:

• He sleeps from 7:30pm to about 7am
• Lately he's been taking four hour naps in the mornings. Yesterday he slept for 6 straight hours!
• He is in the 65th percentile for weight at 24lbs 11oz, 95th for height (32 1/3 in tall) and 95th for head size (my kids are fun to deliver...)
• He has six teeth, four on top and two on bottom
• He's not interested in cartoons (tested Baby Einstein on him when he's following me and wanting to be carried all the time, but apparently I'm more interesting than Baby Einstein)
• He LOVES his big brother Brighton. They share a room and I often hear him laughing at Brighton at night. Brighton gets him out of his crib many mornings as well (I tried to stop this but Brighton can't resist). Brighton can do the same thing to Dale that Adaira will do, but Dale laughs when Brighton does it, screams when Adaira does it (Adaira just isn't very nice to him and he's aware of that).
• He's got beautiful blue eyes and cute cute dimples.
• Watching him toddle around the house is very amusing. Sometimes he disappears and I realize it's been too quiet too long, and I'll find him in the bathroom either in the bathtub, splashing in the toilet, or most recently, this (does that smile spell trouble or what?!):

When I found him he had both feet in the drawer, just standing there being proud of himself. He just thinks he's so funny...

This was a new one....Chewing on one of the kids stamping ink pad

• Dale has discovered that it's fun to crawl up and sit on top of people. He's so cute to watch.

• He got his first haircut about two weeks ago (shown in pic above). He had such long hair and it was just always sweaty and stuck to his head (I swear this kid has his dad's metabolism! He is so busy and he's our skinniest kid yet, but he eats like a horse and he's always hot. I think since his body always burns so much energy his body temp is naturally slightly warmer). Anyway, I love the long baby hair but it's not so cute when it's always sweaty and crispy stuck to his head, so off it went! I used hair clippers and buzzed with a #8 on top and a #4 on the sides. It's not too short but at least his hair doesn't look like this all the time now:

• He's also started to give a cheesy smile every time we point the camera at him. It looks like this:

I think he totally looks like an Owens when he makes this face. It's too mischievous

to be an Ellsworth look :)

He's been busting his upper lip about every other week lately. Probably because his older siblings think it's so much fun to trip him....poor baby.

We love Dale so much. He's definitely adds more work to our already busy lives, but I can't imagine life without this little guy. Seeing his smiling and excited face when he wakes up in the morning, the way he sucks on his fingers and lays right down when it's time for naps and bedtime, teaching him how to play and laugh (I've introduced the "I'm going to get you!" game to him and he loves it), trying to keep him from diving head first off the couch, seeing him put my cell phone up to his ear and walk around the house, tickling his little tummy with his semi-outey belly button, the way he won't drink a bottle unless he's being cuddled, are all parts of being his mom that give me so much joy. Love you little guy!

One More Thing

We got our first egg yesterday! They start out pretty small, but we are excited!