As usual we have had a busy last couple of weeks. Not too much going on today so I thought I would try and get this updated. Just after I wrote last time we got the 17 year old boy and things are working out really good with him. His name is Hieu and he is a little quite but has started to speak up a lot more lately. He likes to hang out with his friends a lot and also goes on visits to his moms a few days a week. Last weekend he spent much of the weekend with family and friends celebrating the Vietnamese new year and had a great time doing that. Tj spend last weekend with his mom since he hadn't been there for a while. He also got to go skating with one of his friends that doesn't usually get to go skating and then spent the whole night up hanging out and playing video games. Surprisingly when he came home Sunday afternoon he was in a pretty good mood after sleeping all afternoon. Scott, Haley, the girls, and I all went to Kearney last weekend to meet my mom and brother. Since my sister is going to be 16 this week we decided to buy a car from some friends of ours back in Sargent. So when we met mom and Clint we got the new vehicle. Scott and I also got new tattoos while we were in Kearney since that is where we have got all our other ones and like the work they do there. Scott got Keely's name on his forearm and I got the beginning part of the adoption creed down my whole left side over my ribcage. Gosh it sure hurts when I get them done but I love it so much now that it is done. Every time I get one I think there is no way I am going through that pain again but then after a while I think I forget how painful it is and decide to get another one. They really are addicting! Since Monday was presidents day Scott was suppose to be off for the day. I was really looking forward to him being off so he could do all the running of the kids to the bus and to and from school. But, Sunday afternoon he got a call to see if he would want to work. He couldn't turn it down since it was such good pay for getting called in on a holiday so it was just another Monday. Wednesday was a very big day that we had been waiting for. We went to court on Wednesday and became Tj's legal guardians! There isn't a whole lot that will change with us being his legal guardians but the biggest thing is that he is no longer a state ward. That is so awesome now as it was such a pain with so many people from the state having to come over all the time and if we wanted to take him out of state we had to get permission. Also there was a lot of documentation we had to fill out every month for them and now we are done with that. Our whole family went to court and then went out to our favorite restaurant for lunch to celebrate. Since Haley had gone to court with us and didn't go back to school after court I took her to take her driving test. She didn't end up passing so we will go back this week and hope like crazy that she passes! Yesterday we took Tatum and Keely to the children's museum for a couple hours while the baby was on her visit. Haley is usually working 3 days a week and hopefully will get more hours once she is 16. The baby is doing really good and is eating a lot better than she was and now has been gaining weight really good. Everyone in the house has been healthy and we are so thankful for that!

February Already?

Things are still going great here. There has been so much going on that I can't believe that February is here already. We are still waiting on getting the 17 year old boy I mentioned last time and now it is suppose to be on Friday that he will be coming to live with us. We have his bed all set up and ready to go. It will be nice that he will be here over the weekend before going back to school on Monday so we will all get a chance to know each other a little better. We did end up getting to have Keely's party since the weather didn't get too bad. Some of our family that came for the party also got a motel room to spend the weekend and it was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them. The kids swam and got in the hot tub at the motel and had a good time doing that. I'm so glad we decided to have the party for Keely because she really loved it and getting all the attention for once. It normally wouldn't have been a big deal but she has NEVER had a big birthday party since her birthday is so close to Christmas. On her first birthday nobody was able to come because it was the day after Christmas and this year the weather was so bad nobody could come again. She was going around during the party saying "I'm so excited!" Last weekend Haley and Tj went skating on Friday night and Tj also went on Saturday. Haley went to a hockey game Saturday night so needless to say both Friday and Saturday night were spent running kids here and there. They both had a great time and Scott and I had a great time spending one on one time with the little girls. Sunday Haley and the 3 little girls and I went to my aunts sons birthday party. He turned 4 and the girls love to go there and play with him and all the other kids. Haley started her job this week and seems to be liking it so far. She says it's not too bad but the cash registers are the hardest part to learn. She is training at the location close by our house and hopefully when the new location by her school opens she will start working there. I know she can't wait to get her first pay check so she can have some of her own money to spend. Everyone has had a little runny nose lately but doesn't seem to be turning into anything more than that. Scott and I got to go our for supper last week and then went to the foster care closet. That is a place where you can go if you have foster children that need clothes. When you go there you can pick out whatever you want and it doesn't cost anything. We had never used it before but since the baby came with nothing and we didn't have anything other than what our friends gave us we decided we would try it. It is a great place and they had so much to chose from. Now when she outgrows her stuff we can just take it back there and pick out more stuff. Since the kids missed so many snow days Lincoln Public Schools decided they would run an extended schedule for 2 weeks rather than go one extra day at the end. So now they are going 15 minutes early in the morning and 21 minutes later in the afternoon this week and next. It is really a pain and messed up every one's schedules. The kids are already tired and they have only been doing it this week so far. It is working out that Scott takes Tj to the bus since it's close to the time he has to go to work and then he also has been able to pick Haley up after school some too. Him helping out has been great for me and not having to load the kids all up as much as I was. I guess I really don't know much else and glad that everything is going good here. Hope you all are doing good too.