Sept and Oct

Sept was a blur with both kids having a birthday, starting school, and we sent "baby" home to bio dad. So dang hard to let her go! But bio dad worked so hard from the beginning and is able to take great care of her, so better in the long run for her. He has texted a handful of times since. They seem to be doing great and she's getting so big!!! Oh and as mentioned in Ayden's birthday post, my phone got ruined with almost all my sept pictures. Soo... I think that's basically what happened in Sept. :oP

We started out Oct. with a hospitalization. As you see, she didn't mind. lol

For a few months there, Jared served as scout master AND assistant cub scout master. We were able to join the cubs in their pine wood derby. Of course the kids wanted dad to paint their faces like he did the scout who ranked. And my apologizes ... these are side ways and I can't figure out how to change them.

We did the traditional carving pumpkins!! Kids had a blast!! We let them direct their own design this year.

Unfortunately mine was facing the wrong way in the pic above lol Oh well... but its all good.

And here they are after a few days outside.

Felt like I should throw this in because I'm normally hiding in pictures :oP

Jared had a court of honor with his scouts. Ayden wanted to help do the flag ceremony. The kiddo Ayden's "helping" is one of their baby-sitters. He's great. And yes, Ayden is wearing one of his dad's scout shirts lol

One Sunday, Bree tackled her brother during sacrament, I took her out to talk to her and then told her she had to sit next to me, arms folded, totally quiet. Not even 5 mins later, I look at her and she's like this...

Kids ready for the ward Halloween party! Jared did their make up... isn't it great?!?

And this is where Oct. really fell apart :oP But I'll explain in Nov. post because that's when we really found everything, everything happened. Plus, you know, cliff hangers are good lol

Holy moly, Ayden turned 5 years old!!

This was taken in Nov, but whatever lol

I still cannot believe that Ayden is now 5 years old. Seriously seems like just yesterday we got called about him. He is seriously so fun. SSSOoo imaginative, energetic, and in general just LOVES life. Everything is so exciting and fun for him. And I'll have to say, so far, 5 has been my favorite stage. He has grown so much... well, developed so much! lol He's still so tiny. He probably about 33 pound and 3'2". So as far as his schooling, getting him into early intervention has done wonders for him. He still has behavioral problems, but he has come a long way. He's also doing great in developing his fine motor skills. Still won't use a eating utensil and has a hard time with a writing utensil. But he's more willing to work on it now and will do it properly about 75% of the time I'd say. This kid has the biggest heart when it comes to people too. We HAVE to wake him up to say good night if we're not home when he goes to bed, he gets concerned about Bree when she's sick, and apparently will even ask about his teacher(s) if they are not there. Randomly, and when he knows I'm upset, he'll tell me he loves me. This kid is just constantly making me smile and laugh too. He has a great sense of humor, I think. Interestingly enough, I think, he has also taught me patience in a different way. When he's having a hard ADHD and/or sensory day it's all I can do to not sell him to the circus! Getting up from meals a million times!! Can we say major fits, kicking the door hard!! But I take a deep breath, throw in some chocolate for me, and I can normally figure out what the root of the problem is and help him fix it.

Oh! As far as his actual birthday celebration! He begged for a friend party. So we invited family and about 4 or 5 friends and went to a park. He asked his dad for a Star Wars cake. Unfortunately my phone had a mishap on the way to his party so I don't think we have any pictures from the party or his cake :'(

And I think that about sums my Ayden. Happy birthday my special boy!!!

Breeann's 4 years old!

This little girl celebrated her 4th birthday back in Sept. (Yes, I'm way behind, trying to catch up :oP ) ... She seemed to have a good day of playing, school (Where they spoiled her), and a little family party. Things are normally low key for parties here lol

Anyway~ Bree has turned into a fun, imaginative little girl. Don't get me wrong, she is still FULL of sass and attitude, but unless she's tired or sick she's learned how to control it a bit. She is girly girl all the way! She LOVES painting her nails (on her own BTW), jewelry, playing that she's a mom, and babies. She can seriously hold a baby for hours and be okay with that. She spots a baby and you can almost guarantee she's going to ask the mom if she can hold it. She has learned lots at preschool! This is what her teacher said in her last progress report of Breeann:

Bree is doing great! Literacy: we are still working on her letter and sounds, but she's working hard and she's great with stories and comprehension:)! She's doing great memorizing sight words and is currently working on rhyming words. Math: Bree Is excelling in math and just learned basic addition :) she will be moving to kindergarten math tasks soon :). Bree loves games her favorite lately has been estimation games, she loves it when she wins :)! Social skills: Breeann is very social and loves playing with her friends especially if she can run with them :) she likes climbing on the jungle gym and she enjoys team work games. She has a variety of friends in her classes and is so happy to play with all of them :)

Bree has taught me sssooo incredibly much, and continues to teach me all the time. I have had to learn patience like no other girl with this little girl. And on more than one level I'd say. She can be the biggest sweetheart. Her love language is touch and words of affirmation. She could spend hours snuggling her dad (occasionally me), rubbing my arm, and rubbing her dad's ear. She said my ears aren't fun to rub because of my earrings. LOL!! You pay her a compliment and you have made her whole day. She looks up to her brother and tries to do everything he does (even if she's not quite ready or really like it).

As far as medically, ... I'll give an update later, but on her birthday she was doing amazing! Her doctor figured she was about 50/50 getting her calories from her IV and her formula/oral food. She had reached 37 pounds and like 3' 1" i think (i'm bad at remembering their height :oP ). She's a total rock star and champ when it comes to her health.

I think that about sums up my angel Breeann!! Happy birthday my princess!!!!

Aug flew by

August went by really fast actually! It was great, to be honest

The kids started school back up!! I love my kids dearly, but we all do better when we have a break from each other! And the schools they attend are amazing!

We met up with Ayden's bio siblings and their families! It was so fun! Definitely should do it more.

Celebrated my birthday!! Jared was awesome and made it so I had time off from my duties. My mom came down to help! We dropped "baby" off for a visit, then Jared and I got dinner ... ALONE!... then went shopping for a bit. We went home to get the other 2 ready for bed, visited with my mom for a bit and then went to our hotel!

The morning of my birthday, we got up, helped get the kids up and had breakfast, went to the temple, and then my mom, my sis, and I went shopping, and to get lunch. We went home to have donuts, ... they left while my little family rested... we went to pick up "baby", got kids to bed, then Jared and i had dinner and movie in home date night. It was a great birthday!!

Moving on :o) We went up north and spent time with the Payne side of our family

Papa Payne spent a couple days with us!! He's so fun!!

Dad is amazingly fun too!!

Ayden took swim lessons at the city center. He did good! Had a hard time focusing, but I wasn't surprised when I got that report. Ayden absolutely loves the water.

We did a camp out in the back yard. Had a hot dog dinner

Then Jared and the older two slept in hammocks outside while I slept inside with "Baby"

Breeann's preschool had a chance to be in a city parade! Consequently, Jared and the kids were in it

They had fun! Jared said kids were done even before the parade started Bwhaha

We spent some time with Jared's aunt and her family. We did a whip cream game

Jared's trying to get Ayden more excited about scouts... even though Ayden's 3 years away. Never too early

So yeah, that was our Aug.  ... It was a blast. Good way to end the summer, to be honest!! Hope you all had an amazing end of the summer too!! Love to all!!

July was BLAH

July was a roller coaster! And just like June's post... these pictures are not chronological and description is brief :oP

Bree went in the hospital again... another just freak 24 hour thing.

Ayden contracted HSP ... holy cow!! WORSE. THING.EVER!!! for a kid with ADHD/SPD. it was a horrible 2 weeks!!! for him

Just because... trying to teach the kids to get along.

Another just because... fell asleep taking "baby" to a visit.

Ayden BEGGED for this costume and has absolutely LOVES it. He's captain Rex :o)

Jared on his way home from his week long, scout camp, river run trip!!!

Me so excited to have my husband back!!

To celebrate Jared's birthday, he wanted to go down the river with his brother! So that's what we did.

My younger sis came into town... this was right before she left to go back to Las Vegas.

Jared left me again, for another campout ... this time it was only overnight. He took our nephew on scout camp and this overnight campout.

The kids creation in playing one day

We did celebrate 4th of July and Pioneer day (a Utah holiday to be honest lol) with Jared's brother! They moved at the beginning of Aug. and we miss them terribly!!

Yeah... another kind of blah month. Not bad, not great... just was lol Best thing was celebrating my Jared's birthday! So dang blessed to have him!! I think I'll keep him forever

June was fun

So this isn't going to be in order, necessarily BUT we did have a pretty fun June overall. And sorry, but this will be pretty run down. With being behind in posting, I want to get it out there. On top of, some details I can't remember now. :o/

We celebrated Breeann's 3rd "Payne Day"! Seems like so long, yet like it was yesterday.We are definitely blessed to have her in our forever family!

We went to Seven Peaks a couple times with Jared's bro, sis, and their families.

We went up to my parent's property to celebrate my dad's birthday! Bree was too tired

Just hung out and played at home

We went to the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Day's rodeo!! We went with my nephew and Ayden's bio mom, her boyfriend, aunt, cousin, and my nephew. Ayden participated in "Cash Cow!" "Cash Cow" is where they tap dollar bills on baby calves, kids (i think 10 yrs and younger) can go in the arena and chase the cow to get the money.

Ayden did awesome! He did not catch a cow, but there was a really nice kid that gave Ayden the dollar he had gotten. A staff member gave Ayden candy too.

Fathers day!! Hopefully Jared felt loved, appreciated, and how much he means to us! With it being so close to his birthday (more on that in another post!) I can't remember exactly what gifts we gave him.

We went to the Children's museum with a really good friend of mine and her son.

We went down to Las Vegas, had all my siblings there. It was so much fun! And of course, Jared's the fun uncle/dad

We had a reunion with my aunts, uncles, and cousins in St George too! Here is most of the cousins

While in St. George, we got Panda Express and Bree just chowed down on the noodles!! I'm still beaming with pride!

June ended on a not so fun note... Bree got admitted for a couple days. Turned out to be nothing though.

Worse part of her getting admitted... Jared was at scout camp! There was no way to get a hold of him either because they were serious middle of nowhere, no cell reception.

Anyway, that's our June in a nut shell! It was fun!! Hope you all had a great June too!!