Wrastlin'

Here are some shots of Trevin wrestling. Coming from a long and venerable line of wrestling royalty, we knew it was only a matter of time before the boys got into it. Kaydin has been out since first practice (you know, that whole broken arm thing), but Trevin has been going strong. He's won a few, lost a few and even tied one. Mostly he loves when his dad works with him and he is wishing Kaydin's arm would hurry up and heal so he'd have a practice partner. I tell you what, this is a tough sport. Basketball players and football players get all the love, but wrestlers work the hardest!

It's Broken!!

Three weeks ago, at Kaydin's first wrestling practice of the season, they were warming up by walking on their hands. Another wrestler fell onto Kaydin's arm while he was handwalking. It hurt. But you know, he could move it and he didn't cry. He hasn't been able to wrestle because it still hurts. A few days ago we also noticed a bump and weird bend in his arm. We took him in. It's broken. And not just a little broken-awesomely broken. The bump was from all the new bone growing on top of the break. So here is a picture of his new, cool, blue cast which he has to wear for 3 more weeks.

Kellyn is 5!!!

I can't believe it, but it's true-Kellyn turned 5 on Saturday! She is so big! She picked all her favorite foods to eat and went to McDonalds on a date with mom for dinner. Then we came home and had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Here are some fun things about Kellyn: She tells everyone she loves her mom "too much", she is fascinated with math and counting and adding. I think she is going to be a math whiz. She is a good big sister to Ewan, and will always indulge him in his favorite game of "push me all over the house in a laundry basket", she has huge blue eyes, she loves to sing, she makes us smile every day! We love you, Kellyn!

Turkey's on strike

Maryn's class and one of the other 6th grade classes did a program last week about the turkey's going on strike for Thanksgiving. My pictures suck, and I didn't get any video ( I got to the school and discovered the video camera wasn't charged. grrrr), but it was a pretty cute program. She hung her poster on her bedroom wall - "eat fish, not turkey". Hilarious!




Maryn is in the front on the far right

disclaimer

I suck at blogging. I can't get the captions under the pictures the way I want them. Hope you understand.

Halloween and in between

My pumpkin threw up, and Kaydin's was murdered





Rylynn really liked this hairdo and insisted I take a picture of her hotness



Kellyn-REALLY excited to trick-or-treat. It's all about the candy, baby.





Ewan was sick or a while and spent A LOT of time in the tub. He kind of looks like those things on Minority Report




Me and my Kellyn. Twins born 24 years apart.

Kaydin-a cereal killer. Truly frightening




All the Halloween dress-up fun.




It was a really sick pumpkin. Swine flu, I think



An aerial (and not very good) view of the super, mega mansion Joseph is building

Rylynn, with her two super-best friends-Macie and Kyra

Ok, so maybe once a week was a little ambitious. After all, I am a very busy, grown up, important, glamorous person with very busy important things to do. I can't be expected to spend all my free time blogging just to satisfy the insatiable appetite you all have for information about my life and family. We've not been up to much-hard to believe, I know. We are such jet-setting group.

Kaydin and Trevin started their wrestling season. Kaydin got hurt the first practice, so he has been out recovering and has done no actual wrestling. Hopefully he heals soon so they can both continue the Baker Wrestling Dynasty. The kittens should be ready to go and I can't wait. Seriously, never again. They are sweet and cute. And always underfoot and making noise and I am done.

I was able to go have lunch with my lover at his job up in park city. When I toured the house and saw the size of it and the obscene amounts of money being spent on it, I almost vomited up my lunch. Thirty million dollars. Including (but not limited to)a $30,000 faucet carved out of jade, a $100,000 dollar flat screen TV for the master bedroom, the components and wiring of which are all solid gold, a $400,00 theater room-with vibrating chairs, and surround sound, $1 million worth of landscaping rock work, and the piece de resistance- a ski room with hot tub, lockers, showers and lift that comes into the house and takes you up the mountain. Wow, how would it be? But, Joseph loves working on this house. He has learned a lot and gotten some neat ideas for building a house for us. It is really fun work for him.

Halloween this weekend. Mild weather. One thing I don't miss about Montana is Trick-or-Treating in 15 degree weather. The kids had fun. I must explain Tristan's costume. The other's are pretty self-explanatory, but Tristan dud through our costume bin and pretty much put on everything in there. He was a Harry Potter-Human Torch-Power Ranger-Ninja. Awesome.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween and are looking forward to the upcoming holiday season-I know I am!!

Look what I found!

So, I cleaned out my craft and office supply cupboard and junk drawer (you know, where you stick all the stuff you don't feel like finding a place for right then), and I discovered that I don't need to buy any more pens for a while. Or scissors, or pencils or crayons or erasers or colored pencils or.........

Three day weekend fun

Last weekend we had one extra day off, thanks to parent/teacher conferences, so we headed to the Salt Lake Library (always a favorite) and one last trip to the aquarium before our membership expired. Good times. I think it is worth mentioning that during conferences I learned that Rylynn (who is in 2nd grade)is reading at a 5th grade level and has already passed off her math requirements for the year and it's only midway through the first term! Yay for Rylynn!

More fun pictures

I was doing some of what Ewan call "putting the cheese on the computer" (what we all call transferring our photos from our camera to our PC-but I like his version better) and I found some more fun pictures. Yeah for pictures! Since I am computer retarded and can't figure out layout-this is Ewan trying to take his shirt off, Kaydin helping Joseph build our new deck, Trevin with a Snozzcumber(it is really a banana squash, but please, read the BFG and you will understand), Maryn and Rylynn, who just want to get in on the action whenever pictures are being taken!

New resolution

Now that I am no longer a "working mom" (we'll see how long that lasts), I would really like to update this blog at least once a week. Is this because we are an exciting, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of family? No way, Jose! It's because my kids love to see our updated blog and I love to see our updated blog and keep track of all the mundane, day-to-day minutae that makes up our family life. Example: we are building a new deck in the back. Example: my sister-in-law (and one of my closest friends in the world) is engaged and I am having a blast helping her with wedding plans. You know, the good stuff. So, in the spirit of staying on top of things, here are some pics I love (oldies but goodies)!

You suck, Brad Pitt

I want to use this blog to call Brad Pitt out as a cowardly crapsack who hedges difficult-to-answer question and responds with some bullcrappy platitude. I was reading last week's "People" magazine (yes, this is what I do at 3 in the morning at work) and there was an article in which "commonfolk" could write questions to Fantastic Brad and he would answer them. One woman asked "Brad, my husband and I have 2 children and are considering adoption, but I am worried that I won't be able to bond with my adopted child. How did you bond with your adopted children and is it different than with your biological children"? His answer? "well, that is a great question and I thank you for it. What I can tell you is that I love my children each individually and I can't imagine my life without them" HUH? How does that answer this woman's perfectly valid question? It doesn't. It makes light of and minimizes just how difficult adoption can be. Yes, it is rewarding. Yes, it is a wonderful thing to do. But it is often very, very difficult and not at all the smiley, happy picture people try to paint of adoption. Particularly older child adoption. Or transracial adoption. Or adoptions where there are cultural barriers. I try to stay positive when I post on this blog, but right now, I need to be honest. I deal with adoption related challenges every day. Multiple times. Yes, my Haitian kids are different from my biological kids, or even from Ewan, who was adopted at birth. They were raised, during the most important years of their lives, in a completely different culture with no secure attachments. You cannot expect them to be the same, or act the same. We have had hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of our property destroyed by our 9 year-old, and he does not appear to be learning that it's not ok. Our 11 year old refuses to try in school, and is functioning at 2nd grade level, despite 3.5 years of intensive academic help. Our 19-year old left for two weeks to fly to Kansas with a ticket she talked some guy into buying for her, to see a different guy, whom she had met on MYSPACE!!! She told nobody where she was going, or when she was going to be back, we had no idea where to find her, who she was with or what had happened to her. This is pretty routine, and even mild stuff in the course of adoptive parenting. Am I saying my bio kids are better than my adopted kids? Absolutely not. I marvel that these kids are as normal as they are, considering what they endured in their lives. But I wish someone had sat me and Joseph down beforehand and been brutally honest with us about what we were signing up for. We were very naive and figured that since we love being parents and loved kids, and we would have to do is "love" these kids and everything would be Norman Rockwell perfect. It isn't. I can't count the times I have had to go in my room to cry or scream out of total frustration. I love my kids. I know that our family is the way it is supposed to be. But I am not going to lie and say it's easy. I am disappointed that Brad Pitt is such a liar. But, maybe it's totally different when you have an army of nannies raising your kids for you. In any case, this isn't a bid for sympathy, I just needed to get that off my chest because these last two weeks have been very, very hard and Mr. Brad Pitt thinks he is so clever and sweet and admirable, dodging somebody's perfectly good question. You suck, Brad Pitt.

Summer of 09

Some of the things we did this summer:
Went to a midnight show of Harry Potter
Checked out the fountains at the Salt Lake library
Went swimming in the backyard-a lot!
Rocked out
Looked cute for some pictures

Fun with Rylynn

Ok, since I haven't posted in a while, and probably won't for at least another week, this will have to suffice in the absence of anything significant to put on here. On the other hand, it is pretty funny!

Tag for moms! Grab a kid (Rylynn, who is 7, was the first kid available for me) and ask them these questions. Don't edit their answers. Pass it along to other mom's with funny little kids. I am surprised at how well Rylynn has me pegged!

1. What is something mom always says to you? I love you

2. What makes mom happy? When I find her phone for her

3. What makes mom sad? When she gets upset with the kids and then she cries

4. How does your mom make you laugh? When she asks me questions like this

5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? Go to Lagoon

6. How old is your mom? 20 (good girl, I have trained her well)

7. How tall is your mom? pretty tall

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? Spongebob

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? French kisses my dad (mwahahahah!)

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Singing

11. What is your mom really good at? being a mom

12. What is your mom not very good at? basketball

13. What does your mom do for her job? cashier

14. What is your mom's favorite food? watermelon

15. What makes you proud of your mom? when she dresses up pretty for work

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? sandy cheeks

17. What do you and your mom do together? laugh

18. How are you and your mom the same? we have matching eyes

19. How are you and your mom different? different hair

20. How do you know your mom loves you? because she says it all the time

21. What does your mom like most about your dad? he cleans her bedroom

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Lagoon

Catching up-again!

As you can see, we've been a little busy! Where to start? First, the kids are OUT OF SCHOOL! WOOHOO! I really do enjoy having them out of school. Things are just so much more laid-back. Pictured above are Rylynn and Tristan with their teachers on the last day. They were awesome! End of the year reports were good. Maryn got a Presidential Fitness award, as did Kaydin. Kaydin, Trevin and Rylynn were on the high honor roll all year. Tristan made amazing progress this year. He has worked so hard! Kaydin's teacher and principal want to skip him ahead to 7th grade. They feel he won't be challenged at all in 6th. Kaydin is 100% not interested in doing this, so we probably won't do it. But, it is still pretty cool that he is so smart. If he changes his mind though, I will have a jr. high schooler on my hands. Crazy! We took a trip to the zoo and became members, since a membership was only $4 more than the cost of a one-time admission for a family of our size. So now we can go to the zoo all summer long! The kids attended an end of the year party, which there are also pictures of. They had so much fun, bouncers, pools, volleyball, slip-n-slides, food. Good times! Joseph and I went to our Flight of the Conchords concert. We went to dinner at Chili's first and then to the concert. It was hilarious. I have no good pictures of the concert, as "flash photography was prohibited" but there is a shot of me and Joseph (and yes, that is correct grammar, in this instance it is "me and joseph" not "joseph and I") outside of Abravenel Hall. What a flipping funtastic date. We now have 8 cats! No, I am not the crazy cat lady. One of our 2 cats had SIX kitens. She did Kaydin the honor of giving birth on his bed in the middle of the night, which effectively woke him up. They are super cute, so if anyone is wanting a kitten, they will be ready around the 4th of July. Rylynn turned 7! This is madness and I am not sure how it happened. She just keeps growing. It needs to stop. I love this girl and I am so proud of her. She is sweet and beautiful and smart and talented and I am so blessed to be her mom. Seven years of Rylynn! What did we ever do before she came along? Joseph is still building multi-million dollar homes in Park City, and in his spare time, is building a pretty sweet-looking deck in our back yard. I am still glamming it up at Walmart. Hopefully not for much longer. I am hoping to have my Walmart days behind me when the kids go back to school. I am looking forward to a fun, lazy summer. Maybe do some camping, a lot of hanging out (the kids still have to do school work because I am a nazi-mom), swimming, and just spending time together. Bring on the sunshine!