Garden Planting Day

Here the children are planting their vegetable garden. Jeff divided it into 3 sections. AJ was the first one to have a chance to start working on his part of the garden. We only had one little shovel for them to use, so everyone had to take turns. I was very happy to watch them working together and taking turns.

AJ chose the biggest section. Here he is working on making his rows. He is planting two rows of onions and 2 - half rows of green beans (they're actually the vegetable that Lily chose - so he's doing her garden for her!) :-)

AJ is now planting and Luke is working on making his rows. I was supervising from the porch and I was very pleased with how well they did with only verbal instructions.
Okay - the boys are planting and now Victoria has the shovel and is working on making her rows.

Victoria is VERY carefully planting her itty bitty little carrot seeds.Luke is planting romaine lettuce seeds and they are REALLY small, too. He was getting a little frustrated trying to space them just right until he got the idea to use a little rock the right size to go between seeds.Victoria is inspecting her work thus-far. I think she's pleased.AJ is just about finished planting his first row of onions. He doesn't even like to eat onions, which is so funny. Not really sure why he chose them! We've decided to pick every other onion and use them as spring onions and then let the rest grow really big and pick at the end of the season.

Lily is Chief Supervisor Baby safe in her super-saucer on the porch. I think right here she is saying, "Get back to work, Kids!" Everyone is happy with a job well-done!

Eggs in Muffin Cups

The kids love it when I make this recipe I found in my "Simple & Delicious" magazine. Here is the recipe:

12 thin slices deli roast beef (I use any lunchmeat)

6 slices process American cheese, quartered (you can use shredded cheese, too)

12 eggs

Press one slice of beef onto the bottom and up the sides of each greased muffin cup, forming a shell. Arrange two cheese pieces in each shell. Break one egg into each cup. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until eggs are completely set.

= 12 servings.

(I usually only make as many as the children have requested that particular morning.)

Sweet little Lily!

Here's another cute video of Lily-Bug!

Lily standing up!

Lily was in a really good mood this morning. This is the very first time she has ever stood up in her crib. She can't get up by herself into this position, but she can stay there!

Family Group Conference

The family group conference was today where the extended family of both Mason & Lily attended to formulate a plan upon which everyone agreed for their long-term care.

This morning my stomach felt like it did when I was in trouble as a kid. I don't know WHY I was so nervous. I guess it was fear of the unknown. Things went well at the meeting. It was LONG - 5 hours - but we believe that good plans for both children were put into place.

The family agreed to place Lily in our home permanently. We will file for permanent custody of Lily with her biological family keeping in contact. The family agreed to place Mason in the home of his aunt and uncle with whom he stayed for almost a year the last time he was removed from his home. They will also be filing for permanent custody.

We are both emotionally exhausted, but very happy with the decisions that were made. I called our older three children who had spent the night with my parents to tell them the news and Victoria squealed with joy and shouted, "Whoo Hoo!!! I get a baby sister. She can play dolls with me!" So sweet.

Thank you all who have been praying. This is by no means the end of the road. There is still much legal work that must be done. Please continue to pray for us as we prayerfully raise these four wonderful children God has placed in our home!

AJ the Photographer

It's been such a long time since I've updated this and I'm sorry. Things are going great, but we've just been a bit busy lately.

AJ is getting to be quite the photographer. He took this picture of Lily after he was done his schoolwork one day. He even changed the setting to make it black and white. Jeff was into photographer when he was younger and still has a lot of his old camera equipment. He said that he may teach AJ how to use it.

I will be posting more hopefully very soon!