Update

We are back. Jonah and I weren't actually there, he was taking a walk with my mom and the other kids so JOnah and I could go to starbucks and chill for a few minutes. On our walk back to the hotel my mom called Jonah in a panic (we had just seen the fire engine go by and Jonah commented that he thought they went to the Sheraton(our hotel)). Jonah starts running while yelling at me that Isaiah had another seizure and I go walking/running as fast as I can with Justus on my belly in the Babyhawk. We get there, the medics are already there, the kids are scared out of their mind and it is starting to rain. They had stopped to watch the lightning storm and Isaiah went face down. I am SO glad my mom thgouht to turn him over, she doesn't do good in emergencies. She couldn't get her phone to dial 911 and so Sarah ran like the wind to the hotel lobby to have them call. the manager and another patron that heard waht was happening came out and actually stayed with the other kids and helped them and my mom back to the hotel. They were great!
Jonah went to the hospital with isaiah in the ambulance and I waited to hear. Jonah said this was the best care he has ever seen (and being a medic he has met/worked with lots of docs). He said the bedside manner of every single person was supperb and they worked quickly and efficiently. They brought in the resident neurologist and pediatrician to check him out as well. This is what they came up with:
1) both seizures happened at high altitude and after a day of playing.
2) both of them were later in the afternoon where he was more tired(no nap)
3)he was not incontinent with either of them(which isn't normal and Jonah didn't think of that last time)
4)Both of them were less than 2 minutes and "small jerking" seizures (Jonah called them something but I forget).
5) He came too fairly quickly with both of them (within an hour).
6) the doc said that there was a study done on people that have seizures and there is a 14% increase in seizures when they go to higher altitudes, may be related but there is no concrete evidence and they don't know why this would be.

Praises:
1) They gave Jonah a dose of Ativan to be used if he ever has a long (greater than 5 min) or grand mal seizure. No questions asked because he is a medic. THis is a HUGE blessing. Thye NEVER would have done this in Cali.
2) They don't want to medicate him because they weren't grand mal seizures and don't think it's needed (in Cali they told us that if it happened again he would automatically go on meds). Woohoo!
3) They said that because Jonah is a medic and his seizures have been "small" we won't need to call 911 or transport him next time if it is under 2 minutes but just take him to his GP the next day.
4) they were in and out of the ER in under 2 hours.

Prayers again for Isaiah

We are on vacation in Colorado and Isaiah just had another seizure. Jonah is on his way to the hospital with him. Could you please pray. My mommy heart is really aching right now with the thought that this may mean long term meds or something else.

2 really stupid parents

and 6 amazingly perfect (almost) children. Why, you ask? Yesterday we drove, starting at 3:30 am(yeah we're stupid; the kids didn't go back to sleep), through 5 states(California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and then 1/2 way through Colorado) for 18 hours. It was awful and tiring and crampy and I could keep complaining. That is not what I wanted to say though. The kids were amazing, absolutely amazing. They were perfect, even the baby. No crying or whining or fussing until we only had 2 hours left(and the whining and crying was just from the baby and our resident drama queen). By that time even I was about the throw a tantrum because I was so tired and sick of sitting in the car. Of course we were this amazing spectical, especially in Utah where not one "person of color" was to be found(at least that we saw). But we had a nice drive overall. The kids learned what a Joshua Tree looks like and its name. They all learned that the capital of Colorado is Denver and Sarah learned what the capitals were of the other states we drove through too. They all learned what a plateau was and how to identify one along with an arch. Isn't that what homeschooling is all about? You betcha!

Even though we had a very lovely drive I am SO glad to finally be here in beautiful Colorado and NOT looking forward to the long drive home. We have 6 days left to recooperate!

Another contest

Win a BumGenius diaper starter set! These are the best cloth diapers I have found. We love them around this house...

Ultimate babywearing contest!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap

How very cool this would be for a babywearing Mama! Click on the words above to enter. No offense but I hope you don't win. I would LOVE to win this as I am a major babywearing accessory freak!

Your dream house

Isn't this house amazing? I just googled house plans and this came up. It is 7900 sq.ft. but only has 4 bedrooms? craziness. With that much square footage I could do an awful lot and have lots and lots of more kids! Of course I would have to put in more than 4 bedrooms, that is how many we have now!


I am curious about all you blog stalkers (and non-stalkers) and hope you will humor me and leave comments about this question.

If you were going to build your dream house and money was no issue, what would you include? What are some things that are out of the norm that you would make sure were a part of your house to make your house work well for your family. I am really interested to hear what you all have to say (especially if you have lots and lots of kids, or even want lots of kids)!

I will post tomorrow and tell you some of my ideas but I wanna hear yours first!

The favorite

I had heard over and over again that kids find a movie they like and watch it over and over again. Well, I have been a mom for 4 1/2 years and have found that not to be true. Until now.

We don't watch a lot of television around here. Actually, we don't have cable or any stations at all but we do have DVD's and watch those sometimes. The kids have a plethora of kids movies and good old classics (like Shirley Temple and great classic cartoons) but for some reason Nacho Libre is the movie they ask to watch over and over and over and over and over again(it's been a year now). You get the idea. It is actually a very funny movie if you like silly humor and it doesn't have any bad language in it. The boys love the fight scenes and all the kids are heard daily quoting lines from the movie. "Good toast". Sometimes when someone asks one of the children what their favorite color is they will say "light tan", another line from the movie.

Jonah and I actually saw this movie in the theatre 2 years ago while on a weekend trip for our anniversary and I walked out saying that I would never watch that stupid movie again. Well, Jonah bought it and watched it again and it started to grow on me. Now it is almost like our families secret language. There aren't too many people who have seen the movie and those that have say the same thing I did when I first saw it, 'That was dumb'. I think when my kids are old and have kids of thier own they will look back and remember some of the silly lines they used to say and maybe use them with their kids. It's funny that way.

So tell me; does your family have a fovorite movie that you watch over and over again and the kids quote? I am curious to know.

Our lunchtime conversation

Jonah is off for 2 weeks for vacation and took Sarah and her friend Olivia to the beach so that he could surf and they could play. We couldn't all go together because we don't have enough seats in our car. So, I have been having fun with the triplets while the little ones sleep. We went swimming, played outside and then sat down to a lunch of leftovers. I was having leftover Chinese food from my amazing anniversary dinner last night (remind me to tell you all about that) and the kids wanted to know what kind of food it was. I asked the kids if they knew which one of them had Chinese in them and it started a birthparent discussion and an adoption discussion in general.

From there I asked the kids if they wanted another brother or sister and where we should adopt them from.
Here are their repsonses:

Alana: "We should adopt a little black girl from Liberia who is one and really cute."

Malakai: he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I want a brother."

Isaiah: "I think we should have a brother and get him from Disneyland." Mind you we talk about Disneyland all the time but Isaiah has absolutely NO idea what it is. Obviously he thinks it is a place to adopt children. We'll see how that goes. :)

Happy 6th Anniversary to me! (and Jonah too of course)

This is my hot, amazing husband. Yes, this picture isn't the best, he was cutting up a tree but isn't he handsome! I cannot thank God enough for bringing Jonah into my life at just the right time. It seems like I have been married to him much longer than 6 years and I can't wait for 6 more! I love this man so much and can't imagine my life without him! I love you Jonah!




PS. This was taken a few months ago but he looks completely different now. He has shaved his head and his moustache too so that he looks very much like the man I married again.


Oh, and I forgot to tell you that we had an AMAZING weekend away. I think it was one of our best yet. We ate some really yummy ethnic food (our favorite), walked a lot, saw 2 different movies (a rarity), talked and talked, went to bed late and slept in long. It was great! And the kids had a blast with their Auntie Shell and she was in one piece at the end of it too!

Happy Birthday Alana!

At 5 months old(and 25 lbs.) she was as cute as can be with a HUGE head and NO hair. Just look at those super chubby cheeks! You should have seen the rolls on her legs too! :) This was our very first "family" picture. It was taken on Thanksgiving day 2 days after the girls came to our home. We never would have dreamed this precious little girl would one day be ours.


Seven months old and as happy as can be. One thing about Alana is she was the happiest baby I have ever met. People commented on it all the time. She was always smiling and laughing and very rarely cried.


I think she is around 10 or 11 months old here. I do remember that this was her first time ever pulling up on something. She was quite proud of herself.



These were taken for her first birthday. She was the easiest baby to take pictures of because it was so easy to get her to smile and look at the camera.


At 16 months with her brother and sister. Notice the tiny little ponytail on top of her head. I tried so hard!



2 years old and her fiesty side started to come out.


3 years old


Four years old

And now. My sweet, sweet Alana. I love this girl so much and am so thankful that God chose me to be her forever Mama.

When I think of the circumstances surrounding Alana's placement into our family it overwhelms me with God's grace and purpose. I have blogged a few times about how God had a hand in us becoming foster parents when we did and that if we had not obeyed we would not have gotten placed with our girls. Wow, am I glad we listened and obeyed immediately! Seriously glad.

Just the two of us

As you might imagine, Jonah and I don't get away very often by ourselves. We don't have any good sitters that we trust outside of family and it would cost an arm and a leg anyways so we just forgo it all together and take up the family when they offer so we can go on a date. We are SO grateful for those times because they are so rare. Well, Jonah and I will be married for 6 years on Monday (yes, 6 years-6 kids, last year it was 5 years and 5 kids, what will next year hold, hmm?) and even though we had dreamed we would be able to go away for a few days to celebrate (ALONE) we didn't want to ask anyone to watch the kids for us. It is a lot of work to watch 6 kids and we feel that we are the ones that want a large family but we shouldn't put the burden on others (and no I'm not calling my kids a burden) unless they offer or it's an emergency of some sort.

OK, on with my story (can you tell I am long winded? I am like this IRL too). A few weeks ago we had my friend Michelle and her newly wed husband over for dinner. You may remember the cute pics of the boys in their "fine suits", that is from their wedding. Her husband, Sam, is in the Marine Corps. reserves and has to do a 2 week training sort of thing every year or 6 months. While eating over dinner Michelle asked what we were doing for our anniversary and when I said nothing she told me that Sam would be away for that weekend and she would come watch the kids for us so we could go away. Can you say AMAZING friend? We jumped on that like no ones business!

I must digress and tell you what a great friend Michelle is. I have known her since she was born, she is 4 years younger than me, and when I was old enough I babysat her and her brother. Over the years we have become close and she is like a little sister to me. Michelle has one of the biggest hearts ever. She never hesitates to give and bless others, she has such an amazing heart and I love her dearly. The best part about Michelle is that she adores my children. What mother wouldn't love someone who loved her kids? And of course my kids adore their 'Auntie Shell'.

So tonight at around 6 pm. Jonah and I will be getting into the "little car", as the kids call it, and driving away to a mini vacation ALONE. Did I tell you we will be alone? I will get to hold my husbands hand all weekend and not worry about one of the kids being unsafe because they don't have a hand to hold. I will get to have 2 days of no night waking because a binky has fallen out and will get to sleep in till I want to(or just lay in bed and relax)! I will get to go out to nice restaurants and eat slowly and quietly and without reprimanding a child or picking the food off the floor when we are done. I will cuddle with my husband and not worry that a baby is crying or a child has been hurt. I will get to miss my kids and be excited to come home and see them.

And then I will come home refreshed and happy to get up and put binkies in a cute little mouth, wake up early to feed hungry kids, hold dirty little hands to cross the street and cuddle with my kids. I can't wait!