YEAH!!!!!

Spencer graduated on Friday, Dec 5th. Evalynn and I flew to Albuquerque with mom and dad Roberts and Russell and my parents drove up with my brother and his girlfriend. We were all able to go to the banquet on Thursday night and then to the graduation on Friday. It was cold!!!! There was snow on the ground where the graduation was held! Spencer won the award for best driver in his class! Yea! So he is official now and his first day of work is the 20th. But he has Christmas off!!!!

Evalynn drove home with daddy and the crew while mommy and grandma and grandpa Roberts and uncle Russell made it to the airport for our flights with about 10 minutes to spare! Whew!

We will be busy with packing and getting stuff ready for storage. We are headed back to TorC tomorrow to start moving in and will stay through Sunday.

Houses, houses and more houses

Well after spending a whole day looking at houses for rent, we finally found one in TorC. It is small but the rent is nice and we are right around the corner from the church building.

So now we get to pack and clean and clean and pack. We head back to TorC on Thursday to start moving in and get utilities set up. Then we have a NMSP party on Sat and then a family one in Mesa on Mon. Then Elisa and Evalynn will be at the Mortensen one on Sat the 20th but that is Spencer's first day of work. He has the 25-28 off so we will spend Christmas in Virden.

Hope everyone is doing great and having a great Holiday Season!

Update, Twilight and new videos.....

So Kendra and I were in Mesa last week and decided to be crazy. We went to the 12:10 am showing of Twilight. I have read all the books-she none. We both really liked the movie. My problem is I can't shut my brain off-it keeps saying, "Hey, they skipped a part," or "That's not how it happened!" But overall I liked it.

Update-we have decided to put our house up for rent so that I can spend at least part of the time in T or C with Spencer. When I am in Safford I will be staying with my sister Amber. We ARE SHUTTING OFF OUR HOME PHONE NEXT WEEK but will still have our cells.

Below are two new videos. First one is Evalynn's new trick. Second one is one of her first tastes of baby food. She likes green beans and bananas and so far we haven't tried anything else.

GRADUATION IS IN ONE WEEK!!! HURRAY!!! Please keep Spencer in your prayers-he still has to take and pass his proficiency test nest Wed.

My new trick!!!

Mmm...baby food!

Donavan Update.....

So we had a hearing today about Donavan and Evalynn. CPS said their official stand was to place the kids together in the same family (they did not say which). Jessie's lawyer stated again that Jessie wants both children placed with us for adoption. The guardian ad litem (a person appointed to keep the best interest of the kids at heart) asked that an investigation be done to see how removing Donavan from one home to another would affect him.

Anyway, CPS asked for a continuation until May 11, 2009 which was granted. In the meantime, the investigation will be done. Jessie's lawyer is going to prepare consents for adoption for both children and then petition the court SEPERATE from CPS for the children to be placed for adoption with us. Once he had submitted those papers, we should get a hearing date within 30 days to see if the court will accept our petition.

I will have to keep a "permanent" residence in Arizona. So we have some plans to make and work out. In the meantime the case worker is ONCE AGAIN supposed to start facilitating meetings to include Jessie, us, the other foster parents and both kids.

TWILIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In approx 12 hours & 20 minutes Twilight will be in theaters! YEA!!!!!!!! I am so glad that I don't have to wait until Dec, witch is when the original release date was until Harry Potter 6 got moved to next summer so Twilight moved up!

Kendra and I are heading to Mesa tomorrow-there is a hearing about Donavan and Evalynn at 9:30 am so we are leaving Pima at 6 am (yea I know I should be in bed). Then we plan to go to the Temple and on Friday we will be heading to the movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yea, then Kendra will drag me around Costco for a few hours before we head home! :-)

Lately I have been having tons of fun talking to Amber about all her and Junior's fun wedding plans for next June. Rachel and Nick are doing all of their planning up in Colorado so I don't get to hear as much as about it and have already scheduled with the Mesa Temple.

4 months old......

Evalynn is now 4 months old and just keeps growing! (SEE PIC BELOW). At her check up she weighed 14 lb 9 oz! And she is now 23 3/4 inches long! She is getting chunky! She also got shots that day-with the first one she sucked in all her breath and didn't let it out until the third one was done. Then came the crying! Kendra was in the waiting room with her kids and Codi said to her "Mom, that is Elavin crying!" She was LOUD!!!!! (Note: the kids call her Elavin).

Two weeks to gradutaion!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween 2008

Yard Clean Up Fun (read blog post)

Halloween Fun

Ok-so I removed the countdown to the Twilight premier. I figured most of you probably weren't interested and I know when it is and am SOOOOOO EXCITED! My sister-in-law Kendra and I are planning to make it a girl day!

Anyway, Jason and Kendra and their four cuties came to our house for Halloween. Tiff and Aiden were there too. We all got ready and headed off to trunk or treet at one of the stake centers in Safford. Then we hit a few houses and sent Jason back to our house with Peyton and Morgan (he droppped Aiden and Tiff off at home on his way). Kendra and I had big plans to take Evalynn, Codi and Norman to do some more trick or treating but changed our minds and headed back to Pima to get kids ready for bed. I will post pics of us in our costumes (most furnished my Papa & Nana Wright).

Saturday they all helped us move furniture and boxed to our storage unit and clean up the yard. You can find all kinds of FUN things when you clean up a yard----just see the pics.

Drum roll please.................

Spencer was home for the weekend and we FINALLY know where we are moving to-Truth or Consequences, NM. Yes, it is a real place and those of us raised in NM call it T or C. Anyway, Spencer has to be there two weeks after graduation and we are hoping to sell our house SOON so that Evalynn and I can go with him then. If the house doesn't sell quickly, we hope to find him a place with low rent and E and I will stay in Pima. :-( We are excited about a new place, but I am sad to be moving farther away from my family. T or C is about 3 hours from Virden were all but my two sisters live.

No new news on the Donavan front. He will be on vacation with his foster family until this coming weekend. There is still a court date set for Nov 20th but I am not really clear on what is supposed to be taking place.

Rachel is now OFFICIALLY engaged to Nick and they are planning to be married March 14, 2009 in the Mesa, AZ temple. Amber and Junior plan to be married June 20, 2009.

Didn't get to see much of stake conference today-was there for 30 minutes and then had to take Spencer to meet his ride. Long story short, he drove our old (but loved) Buick to Santa Fe 3 weeks ago and had some problems quickly fixed with some new parts. Then on the way home had tire problems we weren't able to resolve before time to leave to go back. We will NOT see him again until THANKSGIVING!!!!!! We will be spending it in Mesa with Spencer's family. Then the following weekend will be GRADUATION!!!! There is FINALLY light at the end of the tunnel. I have missed him more than I thought I would. He is my best source of support and he is the one that keeps me sane!!! However, he did bring home some germ and we are both miserable with cold/sinus stuff. I will be posting some pics of the academy and videos of when they got taised.

Had a fun Halloween, but will write about that later!

Oh yea-------

Forgot to mention - two of my sisters are getting married!!!!!! Amber got engaged yesterday (23rd) to her boyfriend Junior and they are planning on being married in Safford sometime next May.

My sister Racher and her boyfriend Nick are getting married next March in the Mesa Temple and they are already making plans but she says they are NOT officially engaged yet-go figure.

Oh-and Jorden and his girlfrien Kristie are having a baby girl in Feb!!!!!!!!

And we are BUSY!!!!

STILL don't know where in New Mexico we will be moving to, but I am keeping busy packing up the house and putting stuff in storage. Hopefully we will hear SOON!

For tha past two weeks, Evalynn and I have been going back and forth between Pima and Mesa. On the 14th we had a meeting at CPS about Donovan and I wish I knew what news to share. I was under the impression that the meeting decided he would be placed with us for adoption but I was informed yesterday by the case worker that she thinks I misinterpretted the meeting notes. Understandably, the other foster family would like to adopt Donovan themselves, but what it really comes down to is that Jessie wants us to adopt him along with Evalynn. So I have no idea where we are in the process.

Evalynn had doctor appointments with and ENT and pulmonologist on the 15th. PCP wanted her to get checked out since she sounds congested all the time. The ENT found nothing wrong. The pulmonologist says she has a "flappy trachea" which mean the cartalidge that hold the windpipe up isn't fully developed. Just to be sure, we had to go to Phoenix Children's Hosp on the 22nd and she got to drink this barium stuff while having x-rays. She did so good! Didn't fuss once. And it was kinda cool to watch the x-rays while she swallowed and filled up her tummy! She was weighed at the pulmonologist appointment and she weighs just under 13 ounds! She is getting so big and SLEEPING so well at night! YEA!

Our other drama is because of one of our neighbors who called Animal Control while I was gone on the 14th to say that I hadn't been home in almost a week and our animals were not being fed. Well I had been gone 2 days and my sister Amber was coming over to feed. Daisy was taken by animal control and they sent the "horse police" over to check things out. No neglect or anything was found, but I had to pay $70 to get Daisy back!! Ahhhhhhhhh! Good thing you don't have to disclose info about your neighbors when you sell your house. Our is on the market as of yesterday.

Sorry this post is so long. Spencer is still going strong-only 6 weeks til graduation-YEA!

And a little boy would make us four!

As some of you know, Evalynn's birth mom, Jessie, also has a little boy who will be 3 in April. When she started talking to us about adopting E, she told us that she did not want to give him up for adoption. He has been in foster care since last November and she has not kept up with the things she was supposed to be doing to get him back, so CPS set a date of Nov 20th for a court date to severe her rights to him. Well, about 3 weeks ago she via Mom Roberts, she asked me to call her and she has asked Spencer and I to also adopt him! We are so excited about this possibility!

However, his current foster family has also expressed interest in adopting him, but Jessie really wants him placed with us. So we are all going to a meeting on the 14th to discuss the options and such. Keep us in your prayers and we pray that the Lord's plan for him will be done!

Update......

Spencer is still doing VERY well at the academy-started learning some Spanish yesterday and aced is test today! We are already half way through and he graduates in two months-YEAH!!!! We are in the process of getting our house ready to be put on the market. We DON'T have to stay in AZ until our adoption of Evalynn is final so we want to get ours sold and make an offer on one we have found. Still no news on where we will be moving to.

I keep busy with Evalynn-and My new Avon business! I am so excited and having so much fun with it! Be sure to check out my website-the link is in My Favorite Sites list at the left.

Evalynn is getting bigger, and bigger! She FINALLY fits into most of her 0-3 month clothes which is good since it soon will be too cool for her to wear most of them! She got a new swing yesterday that she likes much better and so does mom since this one sits on the floor and not the table!

We had our first CPS home visit today. Everything went well.

Another conversation with Aiden......

Now that Aiden knows that Evalynn will always be brown and that she is our little girl, he started asking questions about where she came from:

A: "Sessa, where did you and uncle Spencer get this baby?"
E: "Well, another mommy had her and then she came to live with us?"
A: "Why?"
E: "Because her mommy and daddy couldn't take care of her."
A: "Why?"
E: "Well, they got in trouble because they made some bad choices."
A: "You mean like drugs? Cause drugs are a bad choice."
E: "Yes, that is the bad choice they made."
A: "Did they use marajuana? Cause marajuana is bad. One of my friends' mom uses marajuana and my mom doesn't talk to her anymore."

At this point I told him how smart he was and reminded him that yes, drugs are a bad choice. Sometimes I can't believe the conversations we end up having!

Little kids are so funny!

The day we brought Evalynn home to Pima, my sister Tiffanie came over and brought my 5 year old nephew, Aiden, with her. He came into the house and immediately started looking his new cousin over. Here is the conversation that followed:

A: "Sessa, is this your baby?"
E: "She sure is."
A: Looks from Evalynn to me and back again, "She's kinda cute, huh?"
E: "Yes she is."
A: Again looking back and forth at us, "Do you get to keep her?"
E: "Yes, we do."
A: Looks at Evalynn then at me and says very seriously, "Sessa, you know she is brown, right?"

I giggled a little and assured him that I did know she was brown. He seemed happy as long as I knew. The next few visits he made he would ask me, "You know she's still brown, right?" I would reassure him that I knew and that she would be always be brown. I then reminded him that he was kinda brown (he is part hispanic) to which he replied, "Na-uh, I'm white!" :-)

Updates.....

Well our daddy is still doing great at the academy! He keeps getting A's on all his tests and we are so PROUD of him! He came home the last two weekends so we won't see him now for three weeks. :-(

Evalynn is now two months old and weighs 10 lb 9 oz. She got her first shots yesterday and howled all the way through. Then for the rest of the day, mommy had to hold her for her to sleep. She is much better today but still has some soreness in her legs.

Mom-tired but having fun!

Some of my cousins with me!

Sleep is for the weak...right?

Lately is seems that the only time Evalynn will take a nap or go to sleep is if I am holding her. So you know what that means-I never get anything done!!! When she wakes up in the middle of the night for a feeding, she thinks that when she is done it is time to smile and play for a while! Luckily right now she is fast asleep so the washer is going, the dishes are done and I am having some fun time!

This morning after her 9:30 bottle I started reading aloud to her (The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye). She thought that was so funny!

Update on our hardworking Daddy......

Spencer now has about 13 weeks of the academy left and is doing great! In about a month we should find out where we will be moving to. Spencer is doing well in all aspects of the academy. He has neither gained nor lost weight and the last academic section was on laws and radar. He got A's on both of the tests that they were required to take! Hooray! One of the exercises was to go out and visually estimate how fast a car was going. A trainer was also there and would use radar to find the actual speed. Speed estimations had to be withing 2 miles per hour of the actual speed and they had 12 attemps.

Just a quick summary of what a day is like for him: Wake at 5 am; 1 hour of running and physical training; VERY short shower; room clean up for inspection; breakfast at 7am; classes until lunch at 11:15; classes or training until dinner at 5 pm; review, classes, training and free time until lights out at 10 pm.

Momisms - what she says and what she really means

This last Mother's day, one of my closest friends gave me this little book with the above title. I like to read it since I was once a kid and heard many of these momisms for myself and also because now we have Evalynn and I will probably use some of the in the future. Every one in a while I find one that I really like and I will share them with you! Make sure to look for them! (just not in the blog section-more likely on the left hand side of this blog page).

There should be a law........

against moving the release dates of movies around! Ahhhhhhh! My sisters and I are die hard Potter fans and get so excited when a new movie is coming out-we usually make shirts with iron on HP stuff and head to Mesa to see them. So now Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will not be out until July 2009-bummer. But one good thing has come of its later release-Twilight has been moved up to November from December. Again-sisters and I die hard fans and can't wait for this one!!!!!!!

Daddy is 30!

We forgot to mention that Spencer celebrated is 30th birthday on the 11th!!!!!!!

Daddy is home! Well, for the weekend at least.

This is the second weekend off that Spencer has had from the academy. We are so happy to see him! And mommy is happy to have someone else to change diapers and do feedings. Plus we will put him to work tomorrow working on a few things!

Evalynn is growing!

Evalynn had her 1 month check up on the 6th-she weighed in at 8 lb 11oz and 20 3/4 inches. Everthing looks good but the doc wants her to see a pedicatric pulmonologist since she has this cough thing when she cries. She is eating more and sleeping better and night also-YEAH!

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful shower gifts!

Our New Arrival!

In case you don't already know, we know have a baby girl named Evalynn Elisa Roberts. She was born on July 7th and is now two weeks old. We are working on adopting here. She is so cute and loves to smile!

Spencer is at the New Mexico State Police Academy-he got to call tonight for the first time. He sounds tired and says everything is going well. His frist weekend off will be Aug 2-3. We can't wait to see him!