Thursday, January 29, 2009

7 kids and still sane !!! well.... almost! lol

Our 3 new arrivals have been fed and bathed and asleep in nice cozy warm and clean beds... It's been so long since we had children in diapers... now we have TWO !!!!!! what was I thinking? We decided that when Sholann was potty trained we would NOT take younger children.... ummmmmmm How could I say NO when they were all in separate foster homes? Anyway it's going to be hard at first with the 2 younger ones (2 and 3 yr olds) Our 9 yr old was struggling at first but by bedtime was skipping across the floor!
All is quiet and I need to get some sleep before the onslaught of the morning rush to get the older ones plus Sholann ready for school.......
Good night to one and all....
ps.... Mathew has done alot better today and THANKS to Lisa for bringing over some of the most delicious rolls ever... YUM YUM...

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

THANK YOU.... THANK YOU

We wanted to say a BIG thank you to all that responded to our plea for help today.. Especially to our FANTASTIC home teacher Kirk for coming over and taking down and putting up beds... To my sweet Visiting Teachers hubby Jeff for moving chairs from here to there... To my nephew Tony for letting us use a toddler bed for our new arrival.. I think I have everything ready for the children tomorrow..clean beds, clothes, toothbrushes....... etc etc...We have NO spare guest room as the 9 yr old girl will take that room SO I just need my loft turning into a bedroom now!!!!!!!!!!!
Mathew was sooooooooooooooooooooo in pain last night that he had to rest up today until tonight when he took Jacoby to an appointment for me while I tried to help with the arrangements of bedrooms..

I am ready for bed and just hope I can sleep peacefully.. umm we'll see !
THANK YOU again all.. Maxine

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tuesday already...

Wow. the week seems to be flying by already.. Poor Mathew has had the worst case of GOUT... He could barely walk yesterday and was in AGONY... I felt soooooooooo bad for him yet there was nothing I could do..Tonight I am going out to get some Epsom salts so he can bathe his red swollen foot.. Maybe it will help along with the painkillers he is on!
Thanks to Kirk for a wonderful blessing as always...
On Thursday we will be getting 3 extra foster children so I am trying to get everything done before then and will be relying on friends to help move furniture around while Mathew lays in bed guarding his foot. I hate that he is in so much pain.. WE need your Prayers.. THANK YOU..

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sunday................

MAYA
Mathew was able to make it through Sacrament meeting but is so tired and weak that he left after to go home to bed...He told me he feels like a cry baby as when we sing the hymns he weeps.. awwwwwwwwwww poor guy At least he gets up and goes to Church..... He finally got up at 6pm tonight. He is living on Fudge icecream bars....Tonight, Pam brought us over some spaghetti and meatballs and SPINACH so I won't have to think about cooking tomorrow............. yipppeeeeeeee Thank you Pam..

This week while he has been spending most of the time in bed, he had a visitor.. Our friends dog MAYA.. a sweet little pup. I think it helps healing when you have a four legged friend licking all over you.. lol

Thursday, January 22, 2009

doing ok!

Mathew had a rough week with the chemo.. His gag reflex is working overtime!
Thanks to all that stop by and make him laugh.. He says when he laughs it takes away the nausea... Thanks also Pam for the goodies and to Thane and Scott for bringing them over..

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

How dare he label us by COLOR!!!

I cannot believe that during the benediction today at the Inauguration the Rev used our color to state what type of people we are.. Yella for the Asians, saying they be mella.
Brown, that they will stay around. Hispanics.. Black that they don't have to move to the back. African Americans. White that they will embrace all that is right..Caucasion. Oh and the Red man meaning Native American..How dare he ..He couldn't even say the prayer from his heart.. he read it!!!!!!!!
Ok Ok I will chill now but I had to get it off of my chest..

Monday, January 19, 2009

2 1/2 months to go..

Mathew had another round of chemo today so only 2 1/2 months to go..
He's had a great last couple of days but tonight he is gagging and ready to throw up.. Poor guy.. He was up to teasing his niece Malisa tonight though!
Sorry LiLi..(Alex is a keeper by the way)
Will update more as the week goes on.. Thanks all...

Saturday, January 17, 2009

A fun night


We had a wonderful evening with Karen, Kirk, Pam and Thane. We ate steak with all the works.. then played some games.. What a great day this has been. We took Jacoby to see Twilight this morning as Mathew was up to going.. We then planted some flowers to help bring some color to our front yard.

Tonight we had friends over and then to top it all we got to see our BEAUTIFULLY decorated bedroom.. What more could we ask.. This is a

HAPPY DAY !

Our bedroom makeover.. FANTASTIC !

The new window next to our bed...
The new big front window.

The OLD look..NO TRIM !


Beautiful new trim around the door, the fantastic pillars leading to our bathroom


The OLD lookOur friend Kristen came over on Wednesday to start our makeover.. Today, Saturday it is done.. and we got to SEE IT for the first time.
I was flawed........... absolutely beautiful and stunning.. I could never even imagined how it was going to look... All I can say is, is that IF anyone needs work doing please call my friend Kristen...
Here are the before and after pictures....
THANK YOU Kristen for bringing us our own Sanctuary..
LOVE YOU xx

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Hi Mum P

Just saying I love you xx

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Our makeover begins!

Our friend Kristen arrived early this morning with her co-worker Jared to start our bedroom makeover.. we will post pictures soon... we will show from start to finish.. We are so thankful to Kristen for wanting to do this for us. What a sweet sweet gesture..
THANK YOU FRIEND .WATCH THIS SPOT!!!!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Sabbath


Today, Mathew was too sick to go to church or rather way to weak and tired.... So....... I got all 6 children up. Got them fed, dressed and out the door in time to get to church before Sacrament started.. (Thanks to the Roberts for saving us a seat) 9am start is GREAT unless you have all the kids to get ready.. 4 of which had never been to church with us before.!
Uncle Jeff came to our ward also today and helped with the kids ! Thanks.

Anyway it was wonderful and ALL the children after church told me they loved it and wanted to go next week! It was well worth it.. The talks were awesome and uplifting.. Thank you guys!

Mathew finally got up tonight at about 7pm just in time to kneel in Prayer for our family prayer.. (Kirk Wilkinson was here too so he joined us also)

Off to bed with all the kids and a nice quiet night for us adults.. Can't beat that.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

1/2 way there... round 6 yippeeeee

Mathew is 1/2 way there and doing so well thankfully after getting an extra week free of chemo to help build him up somewhat..
Thank you all for the love and support and Prayers that you continue to help us with.. We could not do it without you all...

A bicycle made for TWO !!!

Sweet Sholann and Alaina
The bubble bath is over and time to chill....













Alaina came over to play with Sholann this afternoon and they were outside playing when I hear " MOMMY come look" I looked out and there was Alaina on the back of the bike while Sholann was pedaling her bike... How cute is this?

How sweet is she??????


Today when Mathew got home from Chemo, he brought in some clorox wipes and throat lozengers with a card...

I read the card and thought ohhhhhhhhhhhh how sweet is she.... Meaning Melissa Peck (MAYBE) I couldn't quite make out the name.. However, I called her to ask if it was her and she said " NO, but I wish I had thought of it" then she said maybe Pam had done it.. Pam said "NO" also but wished she had thought that also.. SO here I have my TWO great friends who hadn't done this for me.. Well who was it I ask? I had my hubby and my nephew look at the name to try to read what the name said.. We came up with MEL...!!!

Melissa suddenly pipes up.. "Isn't Melanie your visiting teacher"?

So on the phone again I go and I leave her a message.. The mysterious SHE calls back and all is confirmed.. the SHE is MEL who is my sweet VISITING TEACHER !!! THANKYOU friend.. you are so thoughtful and knew exactly what to bring.. lol lol

Sunday, January 4, 2009

One year ago our world got turned upside down..

My Sweet Ramon
Beautiful Shay

Darling girl Shay

Daniel our monkey boy!
Cheeky Dan
One year ago our 2 children moved on to another home.. We had fostered Dan since he was 3 months old and had had him for 5 1/2 years.. Then our sweet little Shay who was with us for a year was also placed in another foster home and since then we have not seen them. They will NEVER be forgotten and they are thought about daily. They continue to be in our Prayers and we will never give up hope that we WILL see them sometime in their future..
Also my baby sweet Ramon who lived with us for 3 plus years then went home to live with his Mom Ramona and came back most weekends and during vacation times was taken into a foster home after his mom "Momma Joey" died this past August. My heart still breaks for him as he always held a very special place in my heart and always will do..
Losing 3 "children" in one year is devastating and I wonder sometimes how on earth I can go on.. Thankfully the Gospel helps me to understand that no matter what trials we have to endure, God loves us and we will make it through the agonizing times despite thinking we can't go on anymore because it hurts so much..
Time is coming soon I believe for us to give up fostering and be happy with the fact that we have loved, cherished and helped so many of God's children.
May He watch over all my babies wherever they are...
2008 was our saddest year ever BUT 2009 is going to be one of our Happiest!

Friends and more friends..

Our very dear friends Karen and Kirk
Saturday we were graced with the presence of Jeff and Donna who brought us a great spaghetti and meat sauce dinner with scrummy garlic bread..
Played games and chatted until LATE !
As the night went on I developed a BAD cold.. Not able to breathe and terribly congested.. YUK..
Sunday after a yucky nights sleep Mathew woke me at 12 noon to see if I was alright! Sadly, none of us made it to our 1st Fast and Testimony meeting of the year 2009 which made me very sad.. Stinking colds are awful.
After a HOT shower to rid myself of as many germs as I could I went downstairs to visit with the Wilkinsons who as always keep an eye on us and stop by..
After hot chocolates for us all (but Kirk) we let them go home to their non bug , viral, bacterial infested home and I "chilled" for the rest of the day.
Thanks to the sweet Dayleys, Linda brought us over some GOOD homemade chicken soup and her fantastic rolls she makes.. What a friend!
Always ready to take care of us...
Later our 3 kids who we fostered for 8 months came to visit with us and picked up their Christmas gifts.. together with their mom Stephanie..
Daddy was THRILLED to see his BABY ( Briana) and the boys..
Before they left, our friends Kristen and Keli came over to see us.
Apart from that Mathew has had a somewhat great week without having to have the chemo and we were soooooooooooooooo glad he got to have a great Christmas and New Year celebrating with our friends.. (and many of them)..
This year is going to be better than ever and we are going to always look on the bright side of life and I encourage anyone reading this to do the same.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

What a great January 1st 2009 !

We woke up this morning to kids singing KARAOKE !
Gooooooooooooooo.. Jacoby and Bobby !
The kids had a blast tonight
oooooooh Macarana
YMCA !
Mike and Isaiah singing partners
Alaina and Sholann(Alaina came over to play)
Tonight was a fun night.. Our friends The Carneys came over to see us while visiting from Farmington NM.. We ate, sang Karaoke, set off fireworks and just had fun watching the children all play together..
We woke up to kids singing and ended the day with singing also. What a blessing to have such great friends. Uncle Jeff came over to visit also and ate with us so the day ended wonderfully..

January 1st 2009

Melissa brought over homemade DELICIOUS rice pudding which I ate for breakfast this morning.. What a way to start the New Year!
Great fun with the kids..
Very tired old folk but worth all the fun we had.
Mathew and I have been married for 14 years.. we are now into our 15th year as of today! It was fun getting married on New Years eve.. Mathew needed a tax write off! lol lol
Our kids plus neighbor kids are over playing on the inflatable obstacle course our nephew Eddie let us borrow.. they have been singing karaoke to us this morning plus eating all the tons of left over goodies we got last night..
What a great start to 2009..
AND
our Hometeacher has been over already.. Thanks Kirk..



Happy New Year to all...

Todd, Hayden and Hayley
The crowd!
Jackie
Jeff and Donna
Michelle
Tanya
Melissa and George
Kirk and Karen
Our Prayer is that you all have a wonderful, happy, healthy 2009..
Despite any trials that may arise let's always stay strong and have faith that all will be well.. Let us always look at the positive and not focus on the negative.
For those of us that believe in Christ, let us become more Christlike and a good example to all around us thus hope to bring more people into the fold..
May 2009 be a great year for us all...
HAPPY NEW YEAR !