Summer coming to an end

It's funny how sometimes I go forever without writing because nothing has been going on then other times I don't write because I have SO MUCH going on! Here goes my longest blog post ever! Ready?

Crystal and Nash-
   Crystal and Nash have been living with us for 3 months this week! She pointed out to me that I never mentioned that in my blog and I felt kinda bad :) But then I remembered why. When Crystal was getting ready to move in we decided to build her a completely new room for her and Nash. It turned out so cute and I am pretty proud of our handy work. I wanted to take a picture after she moved all of her furniture in so I could blog it. You can ask her why that picture hasn't been taken yet ;)
     I really love having her here and having the opportunity to be such a big part of my nephews life. Crystal and I always had a strong bond even when we were distant in recent years. Having her here everyday though, feels like we are little kids again. We laugh and goof off and cry and argue. It is perfect and I love her. Some times i feel bad that David has to put up with two crazy hormonal women now! Nash, that sweet boy. I love watching him while she is working and watching his face light up when she gets home. I love watching her learn to be the best parent that she can be and it makes me so incredibly happy that she trusts me enough to help her figure it all out. I hope they are here for a while before the break lose on there own.

Tukker's Birthday-
   My baby girl turned 5. She is strong and independent and beautiful. We had her little party here at the house in the back yard and we gave her a trampoline as her gift. It was all very fun and we enjoyed the company of family and friends. Unfortunately due to the Powell trip that I posted about recently, we currently have no working camera. I did not get a single picture of her birthday party but I no some guests did so I am crossing my fingers that some of those make it back to me :) Now Tukker is getting ready to start Kindergarten next week and that will be a post all its own.

Cahoots duo challenge-
      David and I did a due challenge a few weeks ago. It was a whole new awesome experience. I absolutely will be doing another race like it and hopefully several of them in the future.  We faced 2 dozen challenges as a team and we had to work through them together. We kicked butt and had a blast doing it. I wish we had pictures of us at every obstacle but we only got about 4 pics of the whole 5 mile race.

My baby sister got married-
      I watched my baby sister walk down the isle and I cried with everyone else. It was such a beautiful wedding and she seemed truly happy. They really pulled off  a great wedding in a short time. We have one of the best families ever for things like that :) Christy made a speech as one of the mothers of the bride. While all the speeches got me teary eyed, Christy's words in particular warmed my heart and pulled on tears from my eyes. She spoke about the acceptance and love that our family shows to people as they become a part of it. Our family has grown from so many directions and brought in new people in so many ways and they are always welcomed with open arms and viewed as a new horizon for our family. I never go a day without feeling thankful for the home I was brought up in and for winning the "parent lottery" that we all get thrown into at birth. I hope that I am a part of what makes our family so great and I hope that all my many kids will be able to feel that same gratitude as they get older. Congrats Kenzie. You made a beautiful bride and will be a terrific mama. Don't forget how important your bigger family is even as you being to grow a family of your very own.

Egg Donor-
      I applied a while ago to be an egg donor for infertile couples. I was excited to hear back that I was chosen and will be donating. I am really glad that I will be able to do this since being a surrogate isn't a good idea for me anymore. This is another way I can help that my husband is more comfortable with and doesn't put my health and body in the same kind of risky situation. More on that to come.

Bake sale-
    My sweet sister in law Jasie had a bake sale this past weekend for her some Aven. He was diagnosed with Autism this year and she has fully dedicated herself to promoting awareness and helping people to better understand this fairly common disease. For the sale, I made cake pops and YUMMY home made cheesecake Popsicles. The cake pops gave me a hard time so they ended up being upside down cake pops but they were cute anyways. The sale was a success and Jasie raises somewhere around $350 to add to the funds that Team Aven has accumulated for the Autism speaks Now walk on the 8th of September. I am pretty sure her total amount raised so far is approaching $1500. I admire her determination and love her and her family so.

 Adoption Party-
    In two weeks we have an adoption party to attend! I am really looking forward to it. Once a year the Adoption Exchange brings together all of the adoptive families and the legally free children in Utah together in a fun environment in hopes of making some matches.  We will get to mile with all the sweet children who need homes and maybe get lucky and find our daughter who is meant to be with us. We shall see how things go!

Master Bedroom-
Last but not least.... I redecorated our master bedroom! Decorated it for the first time really. It had been a mess since we moved in and I had wanted to get to it for months. I finally did it and now I LOVE it! It is our own little get away and no kids or pets are allowed.... ( You buy that? haha) In my dreams. It really is a nice place for us to spend some time together though. Sorry for the crappy phone pics.

Until next time!

Summer Fun

We are having such a fun summer! I don't know that David and I have ever had a summer packed full of so many activities. We have so many things planned for just us and a ton of things for our little family to do. Concerts, camping, Zoo, Circus, boating, lagoon and so much more! I am getting really excited for the Cahoots Duo Challenge that David and I are competing in less then a month from now!
So far here are some photos from this awesome summer :)

Lake Powell

 Fourth of July at Jasie's

 Headed to the Fourth of July firework show at Magna Park

 Sun Setting at Saltair

 Thinking about life ;) Saltair

 Great Salt Lake

 Seeing "Foster the People" We went to see Ringo Starr at Usana a week later but forgot to bring the camera! Dang it!

 Hanging out at home with the babies... Best activity to do year round :)

 My handsome just hanging out

      Well there you go :) More to come soon! We have birthday's and all kinds of stuff coming up :)

Birthday, Fathers day and Family Vacation 2012 :)

 

June 14th through the 18th we had a exciting adventure :)

Our family, the whole famn Damily, went on vacation to Lake Powell. Personally camping at the lake really wasn't all the great. It was hot and windy and kinda miserable. It was so fun to be there all together as one big family. I have been appreciative of my unique family for years but this last year or two I have really been moved by the closeness and  beauty of our family. I really do hope that there are other people out there who are as incredibly blessed as me.

 Aside from the hot windy lake, we got to do some unforgettable things. On my birthday David agreed to drive an extra hour and a half away to bring me to the Grand Canyon :) It was so Beautiful. I have never teared up at the site of anything other than my babies coming into this world. I was so excited about seeing this incredible view that when I looked out over this gaping hole in the earth and watched my babies gaze in awe, I actually had to wipe a tear from my face. Maybe this is me being totally cheesy but this memory will be hard to beat.

 Had we not just left the Canyon, the drive home may have been the best view I have ever witnessed. Awesome.

There are a few more shots from the awesome trip :) Most of the pics that I like the best were not taken with my camera. My dad had a neighbor camper take a shot of our whole group and that one warms my heart :) I will have to figure out how to work it into my blog later on.

Five months!

We have been in our home for FIVE MONTHS! I can't believe that it has been that long already. I love our home. I really love it here and hope we will get to keep this house forever even if we buy a second one at some point :) So this is my  project to celebrate the houses 5 month birthday. I started this tree on the wall somewhere around a  month after moving in and today I FINALLY finished it!  I love it. Wish I could have gotten a better picture. Oh well you will all just have to come see it in person!

 

More Importantly than our home being 5 months old, our baby is 9 months old today! He is so sweet and funny. He smiles more often then not and he is learning so fast! As of today here is the break down on Oliver Slade. He can roll over, crawl, pull himself up to standing, walk along the side of furniture, thinks about letting go to really walk :) he has 2.5 teeth! He got his two middle bottom teeth a month or two ago and just over the last week his top left tooth broke through the gum! He only says "dada" but he says mama with his smiles :) Love that little man so much.

 

My baby boy a few days out of the oven...

 A few weeks ago on Easter :) Why didn't I take a picture today?!?!

Home Study

I have less then a week to finish preparing my house. Preparing my house for a 5 hour inch by inch inspection to judge David and I and our home to see if we are suitable to care for foster children. I am so excited but super nervous. We have worked so hard to get this far and we have been looking forward to adopting for a few years now. I would be heartbroken if something stopped us from being licensed now. This is the last step of the process. In three weeks we could have our first placement. I hate calling it that but there just simply isn't a better term.
     Everyone working in the system calls it a placement and considering that we don't know how many or what gender child/children will be placed with us, it is easier to just say placement. I don't know why I am so nervous. Our home is safe. We are good parents and we don't have anything to hide. For some reason I still am having nightmares and constantly worrying about the million things that I want to finish before the morning of. My todo list has gotten so long that for the last two days I pretty much did nothing. I have a habbit of that. I get so overwhelmed by all the things taht I want and need to do that I just shut down and do nothing. I spend the whole day playing with the kids and napping then I wonder where the hours went.
     I am determined to get a few of the most important items crossed off of my check list tomorrow. It will be a good day and I will make progress! That is me, making myself accountable to someone other then myself so that I will actually do it :) Guess I should do some home work now. Another thing I have been avoiding.
     Until we meet again...

Easter! (a week and a half later)

As promised I am now going to post about our Easter 2012 :)

Just so you know, I do have a few good excuses for posting this so late, however I will skip the excuses and go ahead with the sweet pics ...
We had a nice busy Easter this year. We got up bright and early to hunt for baskets from the Big Bunny. They were found on the back porch. We couldn't figure out why He would have left them there rather than inside the house somewhere. We all came to the agreement that it was probably because David and I had forgotten to unlock the door for him before we went to bed.

After we opened baskets and enjoyed some treats, we all got ready and went over for a nice brunch at Jasie's. The kids had so much fun hunting for eggs and playing with Max and Aven. It was a really nice day so they had a lot of fun outside.

The kids filled up on candy and we headed out to go hunt for more eggs at Grandma Trish and Papa Rog's house and have an Easter Lunch. It was great and we all left happy. Tukker was able to find the golden Easter egg thanks to a little help from grandma. Had she not found it, its possible that no one would have made it out of there alive.Over all we had a fantastic day and enjoyed every minute of it with so many of the people that we love! Happy Easter from the Bubel's!

Oli and Dex have a sleep over :)

Kayleigh and Richard needed a night out on the town so we kept Dexter for the night. He didn't get here until late last night so we didn't get to have any fun before bed. Both of the boys slept great and we have been having a great time ever since we woke up!
First we took a nice bubble bath...


Then we got all lotion-ed, powdered and diapered...
Snuggled up warm in our cute baby clothes...
And had some yummy breakfast! (couldn't get a good pic of them both here :( )

We had a lot of fun. Spent the rest of the morning playing with toys on the living room floor :) I wish Oliver had a twin. Maybe we will get lucky and get twins through foster care! :)

Getting through rough patch

David was off of work for almost 8 weeks....EIGHT WEEKS! While it was fun to have him home and nice to have help with the kids and house work it was not so fun dealing with his medical issues and trying to keep up on the bills with no income for 2 months. Finally on Monday he returned to work full time. It was a weird adjustment for the first few days and Maveryk was acting out a lot with daddy gone but we made it through. The money will stat flowing in again in a matter of weeks and we will be able to start saving up again and be back ahead of the game.
We had Jess and Shirley over for dinner the other night and Jess gave us a lot of good suggestions for the house. I am excited to start on some big projects that I am looking forward too. None of them will cost much but for now I just have to be patient and wait for the money to be available. Crystal will be moving in with in a month or so. That makes her room our first priority. We have pretty much everything we need to finish it now we just need to do it. Jess seems excited about our fixer upper house and I have a feeling he is going to be a big help with some of the projects that we are lacking the know how to do our self.
Spring quarter started this week and I really like my sociology class already. I am going to get A's in these two classes with out breaking a sweat! Hoping so anyway :) Easter is on Sunday so I will have some fun pictures to blog soon :)

Lots to talk about!

Some times I find myself not posting for a while because I feel like I don't have anything to talk about that anyone wants to read. Or anything that I bother to record for future reflection. Not today folks! I have been slacking and I have several things to talk about...

I finished my classes for winter quarter which means I have completed my first whole year at Strayer! I am dropping down to just two classes for this spring quarter that starts Monday. After that if I do 3 classes a quarter for a year than I should be done with my Bachelors! Yipee!! Who knows what I will do school wise after that... Maybe start my Masters.

We graduated our training classes for the Utah foster care foundation!! We finished all the licensing paperwork, medical exams, fingerprints, background checks, classes and reference surveys. Now all we have left to do is complete our home study and get final approval by the licensing board then we will be ready for placement! Before we set up our home study we have to get beds and dressers and such for the kids and do a few last minute safety things to the house but then we will be ready to meet our newest addition...or ADDITIONS!!! I can't wait!
Maveryk Turned 3 :) My sweet boy is getting so big. We had a super hero birthday party here at the house. It went well with lots of friends and family but didn't go exactly as planned because the birthday boy was feeling a little under the weather. He really enjoyed his gifts and his cake though and is finally starting to feel pretty much back to normal now. Here are a few pics of the big day;
Last but certainly not least.. I became an aunt for the 5th time! (15th time if you count David's side!) Crystal gave birth to the sweetest baby boy today. Nash came out at 8 lb 6 oz and 18 inches long. He has an incredibly handsome full head of black hair and he is ALL Slussar. Congrats my gorgeous sister and your precious new man. I enjoyed being there for the birth so much and it really meant a lot to me to be able to be a part of that unstoppable team of women for such a special occasion.

That's all for tonight but so many exciting things to come very soon. Lake Powell trip, home improvements, Easter, crafts and before we know it... MORE BABIES!!!

Our big boy is learning lots!

We have been having so much fun watching Oliver try new things and learn so much lately. Here are some videos and photos. He says Dada now as his first word so n both videos I was trying to get him to say it but he wasn't feeling very talkative :) Of course both of the videos are sideways. Don't know how to rotate them. I get that from my mother ;)

He had his first bottle of Apple juice to celebrate his half birthday. SIX MONTHS!!!

This bad mama let him roll of the bed on to the hard wood floor today. It was his first fall of several I am sure but every time makes you feel like the worst parent ever :( He just rolls and rolls all over the place now so I should have known better. Guess I learned my lesson...

He is sitting up by his self for longer than 3 seconds now ...




Sweet giggles. This baby laughs and smiles easier than any baby I swear it...



Even though this post is about Oliver I had to throw this picture in of David and Mav today because I think it is so cute :) Love all my boys...

A little catch up :)

I have had a few things I have been wanting to blog so I am going to try to play some catch up today!
Things to blog:
Kitchen
Oliver's curtains
Tree
Painting
Chubbs

I only have photos for three of those right now so I will do those first :)
We are done working on the kitchen for now. We are still going to add a back-splash and new flooring. I also need to decide what I want to hang on the orange wall in there but for now, we are done working on it so here is a before and after picture!
When we first moved in it looked like this...
Currently this is how it is looking :)

Yesterday I whipped up some curtains for Olivers room so the neighbors wouldn't have to watch me change his diaper ten times a day. They are simple and nothing special but they match how we want to paint in there and the best thing about them is that they were free! Thanks to some material my momma was whiling to let go of and 20 minutes at the sewing machine , whalah...
Last topic for the moment is my painting! We had a crafting day at my moms on Wednesday and I wanted to make a large painting for the dining room wall. I had really never tried painting before so I was worried I was going to waste the 24 dollar canvas I had bought. It didn't turn out exactly how I had imagined but I am happy with it and David seems to like it so I can all it a success ;)
We have been working away little by little, trying to get this place together. It is really a lot of fun and I enjoy having David and the kids to help me along the way.