Hello everyone who is still following this blog after my long break from updating it! I'm not even sure where to begin since it's been so long since i updated last? We have been busy as ever but everything is going pretty smooth at this moment in time. Haley got her license at the end of February and that has been the best thing ever for me anyway. She drives Tj to his school now and then her and Hieu go to school after they drop him off. That means I don't have to get out at all in the mornings to take anyone to the bus stop or school anymore. Since having the freedom to driver herself around we have had a couple instances where she decided she wasn't going to follow the rules and was lucky enough to spend a few weekends home with Scott and I instead of going out being with her friends. I'm hoping one of these times she learns to do what she is suppose to! She is also working now at the new Amigo's store that opened right by her school and is getting way more hours. She had been working only about 10-12 hours a week at the store she trained at but is now working about 30 hours a week at the new store. She really likes it and loves getting an actual income so she has her own money. Hieu is doing well and we really love having him in our family. He has also had to learn the rules the hard way a couple times when him and Haley decide to come home late. After spending a weekend home with us he too has been doing great. Since the weather has been a little warmer him and his friends have spend a few evening fishing and hanging out at the park playing football. He loves his video games and now has Scott and Tj hooked on Xbox live. Tj and Scott went golfing last week even though the wind was terrible. They both had been anxious to get to go golfing again so I'm sure there will be a lot more golfing this summer. Tatum and Keely are doing good and keeping me on my toes. They are at the stage now that they love to play pretend with each other weather it's playing doctor and patient, puppies, or pretending under the kitchen table is an airplane, they are so much fun to watch. I registered Tatum for preschool a couple weeks ago and we won't know until the end of august if she gets accepted or not. I put down 4 different elementary schools in our area we would be willing to take her to so hopefully that gives her a better chance at getting accepted. She talks about going to school all the time and I hope that continues! The baby is still here with us but will be leaving Friday. She is the happiest little baby and our whole family is really going to miss her. It was a very hard decision for Scott and I to make but after a lot of discussion we decided it was best for her and our family that she go to another foster family. It's likely that she will not be able to be adopted and will return to her bio parents after her 15 months out of home and we weren't willing to go though the heartache nor put the rest of the kids through that after her being with us that long. That will make her about 2 years old and I can't even imagine what it would do to everyone to see her have to leave and go back to where she was hurt at in the first place. We did get to meet the family that is going to take her now and we really liked them so that makes it a little easier. We also learned from having her with us that we will not foster any babies in the future unless they are in the process of being available for adoption. When we started the foster care journey we originally said we would only to infants and toddlers but now have totally changed our preference for what age of kids we will take. The older kids are really great and we have had a great experience fostering them. Our house is almost full though. We have several openings for our license but we are only willing to take one more teen girl and that is likely to happen in July. I will do another post one of these days about that because this one is going to be long the way it is. Our whole family got the chance to go to Mahoney state park a couple weekends ago and had a great time. We had never went there before and really wish we would have found out how much fun it was at the beginning of winter instead of the end. They have a HUGE activity center and also an ice skating rink. Scott, Tj, and Haley went ice skating while Hieu watched and I took the girls in the activity center. The activity center has a big jungle gym type thing with ball pits, slides, mazes, and stuff like that. After Scott, Tj, and Haley were done skating they came over to the activity center and got in and played also. It was fun having all 7 of us playing in there and it really made me feel like a kid again. Tate then decided she wanted to try ice skating so Tj, Scott, and Tatum went back and ice skated a little bit. Tate didn't stand to well on her own but with daddy's help she got to at least try ice skating. It really was a great day and we hope to do some more fun stuff like that this summer. Right now we are trying to decide where to go for vacation this summer? Anyone have any ideas on an affordable vacation for 7 people? Last Sunday we all went to my friend Roxanne's for Easter. It was fun and the food was great. The big kids hid eggs filled with candy for the little kids to hunt. Scott and I are doing good and try to keep up with every one's busy schedules. I'm hoping this weekend we can take advantage of Haley being grounded and have her keep the girls a couple hours so Scott and I can go out and do something with just the two of us. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying some warmer weather! I will be posting more often and have a couple different things I have on my mind that I want to write about.
