Took the girls out to the lake to walk and look at the lights. It was so fun!

A little blurry, but she looks so cute in a hat even if it is to big.

Getting ready to go out for a day in the cold.

Isa being so cute:)

Peyton loves her sun glasses.

We went to a holiday party for our adoption agency and the girls had so much fun!

Carmen in a jump house

Peyton in the jump house

Isa in the jump house.

We are at the end of another year, they seem to go by faster than the last one. I think this is not because we have kids and not only ourselves to worry about. Carmen will be 4 in March and Isa 3 in May. We had a great year, we went to Disneyland, a month trip to Oregon. The girls learned a lot at school and I decided to go back to school for a second bachelors this time in Nursing. We are looking forward to the new year and what it has in store for us.

She likes the mushroom when she can not find her binki

So proud she has moved into the big girl chair.

They are all watching the rain in the back.

new pictures

So we had a great Halloween, Carmen was Minnie Mouse, Isa was Spider Girl and Peyton was a Pirate. Carmen had her first dance performance and she got on stage and did nothing.I guess it could have been worse for her first performance.

Hand Foot Mouth

So this last week on Wednesday I dropped the girls off at school (daycare) to find out that Isa has had an outbreak of Hand Foot Mouth infection in her room. Reassured that all the kids that had it were not there and the class had been cleaned and cleaned very well. Then she had a Dr.'s appt. on Thursday so she did not go. Well so now she has this wonderful viral infection that is spread by saliva. The sores showed up today for the first time in her mouth, they don't seem to be affecting her much except that she is not eating as much as she normally does....although this is not a bad thing. She does not seem to be in much pain right now. So I spend most of the day trying to keep her from giving it to Carmen and Peyton and telling her that she can not put things in her mouth or share her drinks. So I walk out of the room and she yells at me so excitedly "look mom, sharing" I look over and Peyton is sucking down the water out of Isa's sippy cup. So I'm sure if Peyton didn't have it then she does by now. Granted I should be happy that she is learning how to share I just wish she could have waited a few weeks.

On to better things, Peyton is walking more and more while pushing objects around the house it is very exciting to watch. I'm ready for her to be up and running, she wants so bad to be able to keep up with her sisters and gets frustrated when she can not.

Speaking of sisters, I get many questions on where we are and when or if we have adopted them. Right now we are in an appeals process, which means that mom and dad's right were terminated when we went to court in March of this year. Mom filed her first appeal and that was denied, then she filed her second appeal this one has to go to the third circuit court before there is a decision rendered. Right now we are waiting on the courts and they have no time limit as to how long they take to decide. So as of right now we are just sitting and waiting, the attorneys for the girls say they feel there is nothing to worry about its just all red tape that we have to go through. Their case manager told me hopefully January we might be able to have the adoption finalized.

New pictures

OK so the other night I got two nasty text messages at 3 in the morning from my wonderful sister-in-laws complaining to me that I had not updated my blog with new pictures and they were not happy they could not see new pictures. The reason behind this is because I have been working on a website instead of this blog but have not yet got it uploaded. So instead to satisfy those who would like new pictures i'm posting some. 

Peyton has started walking behind her walkers and has four teeth with a fifth one coming in. Most of the pictures are from our wonderful trip to Disneyland. We went for a week in June and had so much fun, we can not wait to go back.

ENJOY!!!!

we got to see some really great parades.

we were waiting in line to meet Minnie Mouse

This is at the top of the ferris wheel.....very high up!

This is just one of the winnie characters we took pictures with.

This was the first day when we were going to meet the Princesses.

Peyton is teething and hads chewed all around the coffee table.

Look no hands!!!!!

Nolan decided he wanted to help hunt eggs also.

Daddy is taking Peyton hunting for eggs.

She got some new toys and sits so well on her own.

Isa had lots of fun hunting also.

Carmen found the most.

Peytons first Easter. I cant wait till next year.

Daddys little girl.

She loves her food.

Great Life

Carmen now rides her bike by herself, and isa...well she still needs help.

Peyton is learning to eat, she loves food!!!

I think this has to be my favorite picture of her

So I think life is pretty great, I have three beautiful girls, and a wonderful husband who works very hard to take care of all of us. He is going to be starting nights this week so it will be interesting to see how everything goes. I'm glad it is only going to be for 3 months. I just got a call that I will be able to interview with different school districts for my masters program, so I am pretty excited about that. I will interview and then know by the end of April if i got in....hopefully the second time around works. Carmen is now three and so smart. She knows her ABC's and can count to 13 with out messing up, and very bossy, but I guess we better get used to that with three girls in the house. Isa is starting to talk and we are starting potty training with her. I think we have decided that we will have one more biological child, and may do more foster care in the future, that has yet to be decided for sure though. Here are a few update photos for y'all....enjoy!

Great News

Peyton in her new sunglasses

Amanda and Charlie

Peyton loves to eat her feet

A fun time at the park

All the girls with Aunt Amanda

Mommy and Peyton

Amanda and girls

I don't remember what we had for dinner that night but she sure liked it.

Mommy and Peyton at the mall killing time

So we had our court date and the parental rights for the girls were terminated. So what this means is that right now the state of Texas has legal rights over the girls until all the allotted times have passes for parents and family to appeal or intervene. At that time the will be placed for adoption and everything should go to the adoption courts and we will then be able to adopt them. The trial was exhausting but good, it took the jury less than 30 minutes to decide to terminate the rights. Its amazing some of the things that came out during the trial that happened to the older children. All six of the kids are in a much better place now and that's all that matters.

Peyton is 5 months old today and its so amazing to see the difference in where she is now compared to where Isa was at this age. We know what a loving home does for a child. Aunt Amanda came down from Oregon for the trial and stayed for three weeks. It was wonderful having her here and I know the girls love it when she comes to visit. Here are some updated photos of everyone.