A scary bath

We normally bathe the children on Saturday nights to prepare for church, but we had been busy the night before and so ended up bathing them on Sunday morning before church. This was Sunday, March 14th.

I had just gotten them into the tub and they were playing happily so I stepped out for just a minute to grab church clothes. Just as I was grabbing the last pair of socks and heading back into the bathroom I heard a loud crash and then all three children started screaming. I ran the last few steps into the bathroom and saw this:
Glass all over the bathroom floor. I ran to the tub and it too was filled with glass. Hyrum had gotten the glass sliding shower door out of it's track by swinging it out and it went back and slammed against the other glass door and shattered. (looks like ice, but no, it's all glass)

I was in a panic when I realized what happened and yelled for Timothy who was shaving. We grabbed the children out of the tub as fast as we could. I noticed right away that Hyrum's arm was bleeding- no spurting blood, thankfully. The children were all covered in glass. Since Hyrum was bleeding the worst I took him and put him in the sink to try to wash off all the glass and see how badly he was cut. He was bleeding all over, but in was a miracle that he wasn't hurt worse. Only about 20 minor cuts and four bigger cuts on his left arm and another on his right hand.

Since I had the sink occupied and there were still two children covered in glass. Timothy took Rebekah and held her up under the shower- which made her cry more- to wash off the glass. Then, he set her on the changing table with her towel while he did the same thing with Brigham. By that time I was done with Hyrum so I wrapped the boys up in towels and took them into their room with two boxes of band aids. We spent about 20 minutes drying off and putting band aids on. Brigham didn't have too many bad cuts, but he probably had about 500-1000 little nics all over his body. They didn't bleed, but they were red and probably itched. His knees got the worst cuts. For a few days he asked if he could sit to pray instead of kneel because his knees hurt. But, that was a week ago and he's back to kneeling.

Rebekah was the furthest away from the glass door when it broke. She only had a few cuts on her feet mostly, but a few on her legs and one on her hand.

After looking at how much glass was in the tub I realized that it truly was a miracle that we didn't end up rushing them to the emergency room or calling 911.

1. It was a miracle the children froze when the glass broke instead of scrambling trying to get out. If they had scrambled their feet and probably hands would have gotten cut badly.
2. It was a miracle that though they were covered in glass- it was even in their hair- that none of their faces had even a scratch.
3. It was a miracle I was wearing shoes or I would have gotten all cut up trying to get my babies out. (I normally wear my socks until it's time to walk out the door on Sunday mornings, but that particular morning I just had the thought when I was getting dressed, "I should put my shoes on so that I don't have to worry about it later." - prompting from the spirit.
4. It was a miracle that they weren't afraid to take a bath on Wednesday.
5. It was a miracle (if this had to happen) that it happened when Timothy was home to help me take care of three screaming, bleeding, glass-covered toddlers.
6. It was a miracle that my friend, Katrina, offered to help me clean up the tub on Tuesday because I was slightly traumatized and didn't have the will-power to do it myself.
7. It was a miracle that I had finished putting my thoughts together for my talk in church the night before, because I didn't have time to touch it Sunday morning.
8. It's a miracle we made it to church on time and the children were recovered emotionally enough to go to church.

Now, a week later, most of the little cuts have healed and the larger ones are getting there.
We now have a shower curtain instead of glass doors in our bathroom.

It could have been worse, I know the Lord was watching out for us and protecting my babies and for that I am grateful!

Hyrum's Blessing

We had Hyrum blessed in church on March 7th. He's all dressed in white for his blessing and proud that he managed to take his sock off right before the picture was taken.
He did really well during the blessing. I was worried that he would squirm quit and bit or start talking or fussing in the middle, but he did very well.

Random pictures

Brigham worked really hard one night organizing the "food" in the kitchen set.


The children use the Mr. Potato head glasses for themselves .


Hyrum is wanting to do everything like his older siblings, including washing the table while sitting on it.


Rebekah has become attached to her "silky blanket". She likes to chew on it, carry it around the house, and sleep with it.

Brigham and Rebekah gave us a stirring rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and "Old McDonald Had a Farm." (The books were their sheet music!) It was a great performance.

Hyrum's adoption

Well, Hyrum's adoption is finalized. Yesterday, February 17th was the 1 year anniversary for him moving in with us and that is the day we found out it was final! It was actually finalized on Feb. 11th, but since we didn't want to go through the hassle of finalizing in court we didn't find out which day the judge signed the document until later. We are very excited about this! We got his name legally changed as well! Now we're looking forward to getting him blessed and then getting all three sealed to us. If you're interested in being invited to the sealing please let me know, and I'll give you the date, time, and temple location. We haven't scheduled it yet, but we're planning the second week of April so as to accommodate family who need to travel.


For the children's sake, I'm sure glad these three got to stay together. They are so very attached to each other. It's so fun to watch them try to help each other.

Contact with birth family

Thanks for all the suggestions we received. We decided to make a new blog for the birth family and transfer the posts a pictures over there so that there aren't any links and they won't be able to see your comments.

Sharing with birth family

So, normally when a couple adopts a child there is a mediation agreement. Meaning some sort of contact or no-contact expected between the birth parents and the adoptive parents. Well, our case was sent to a mediation company and the mediation worker drafted a mediation agreement that we were comfortable with. That agreement was then presented to the children's birth parents. The birth parents didn't agree with it because they wanted visits with the children after the adoption was final. And visits for other extended family members as well. So, the worker told them she'd talk with us about it and get back to them. So, she did of course and recommended we didn't agree to visits (which we weren't considering anyway.) After that she tried to get a hold of them and get them to sign the agreement (with no visits), but they never responded during the time frame they were given. So, in short we don't have any obligation to them to write letters or send pictures. We really couldn't anyway because we don't have an address for them. We were supposed to get a contact address when we signed the agreement.

Anyway, the children's birth mother's mother (children's birth grandma) contacted Hyrum's case worker to send gifts to the children and birthday cards. So, I sent an anonymous letter back thanking her for those things and sent a few pictures of the children in some outfits she sent. Well, she was so grateful for these that she called the case worker again and was wanting contact with us so that she could continue to be in touch with the children. Obviously, we are under no obligation to do anything for her, but my heart goes out to this woman who has lost three of her grandchildren. So, we've been thinking and talking about different ways we could keep her updated without having to go through a lot of work. And we're thinking that giving her this blog address might be a good way for her to see how the children are doing without me having to write letters and send pictures.

We're wondering if any of you are willing to look through this site and see if you can find any identifying information on it. We don't want to give out our last name or where we live or any way of physically contacting us. I'm going to delete this post before I give her the blog address. And if you have links to our page from yours please make sure it's labeled only with first names. Thanks everyone.

Silly things kids say and do

The other day as I was buckling the children into their seats in the van Rebekah found the little ash tray thing that opens. She said, "Look, Mama, garbage." Apparently she thought it was for garbage. A bit chagrined that she discovered the ash tray I said one of my creative expletives- "stinkles!" The next things I know Brigham is sitting there singing, "Stinkle, Stinkle, little garbage, how I wonder what you are." It was funny!


Rebekah got out a cookie sheet and sat on it and said "Put me in the oven." I laughed and took a picture of her so Brigham thought he'd get some attention and do the same thing. :)



Brigham dressed up in a friend's hat, sister's and his own gloves, jacket, and Mommy's shoes.


Three kid pile up!


Somehow, Brigham's head got sat on by Rebekah.
Not sure how they got into this position.


While Daddy was showering, Rebekah went behind the curtain of our big glass door in the kitchen and took off her clothes when I discovered her there I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I taking a shower, I taking a shower like Dada." :)

When Rebekah wants to know where someone is she says, "Where you are you?"

Brigham has started to run and dance when he has to go to the bathroom. Just this week he'll start dancing and we'll get him into the bathroom and once he's over the baby gate (to keep Hyrum out) he used to be able to handle going potty by himself. But, lately he's been running laps up and down the bathroom after we get him over the gate and won't stop until he wets his pants and starts screaming. Silly boy!

Brigham has a new responsibility now that he's getting a bit older. His job is to wash the table after meals. He hasn't quite figured out how to do it without actually getting on top of it yet. :)

Christmas church outfits (a little late, I know)

Maybe, since the clothes are red, I should lie and tell you we're on top of things and these are actually Valentines outfits.

The power of powder

Brigham and Rebekah got into the pantry and decided to make "muffins" for me. They mixed the rest of my jar of baking powder and the rest of a salt canister in mixing bowls. Later (after the photos were taken) they added left over muffins, crumbled. Tasty!




Hyrum got into the pantry and got out the cocoa. He decided to taste it too.


Brigham and Rebekah got into the baby powder in the bathroom and managed to cover the bathroom with a fine layer of powder.



Rebekah had wanted to put some baby powder on her bottom, hence the almost naked girl. Brigham saw the fun she was having and decided to join in. It took me a half hour to get the powder cleaned up and there was still a layer of powder that wouldn't wash up coating every surface in the bathroom.




Rebekah climbed onto the counter and decided she needed a little more salt in her life.

(This was actually a few weeks ago, and happened over a two day span, but we've been busy so I haven't had a chance to post it yet.)

Bath Night

The children have really been enjoying baths lately, so we've decided to them three times a week instead of two. They get so excited every time we tell them it's bath night- especially Hyrum. He can say bath ("baahf")now and gets an excited look on his face when we ask him if he wants a bath. He waves his arms all around and says, "Baahf, baahf, baahf." Almost every time he goes into the bathroom he asks for a "baahf".

In the tub
Brigham
Rebekah being tickled
Hyrum engrossed in water play

Rub-a-dub-dub three kids in the tub

Christmas!

We had a great first Christmas with our little ones. They were very excited about opening presents. Timothy and I are concerned about the way Christmas has become over commercialized and a time of greediness for children. We made it a point not to ask them what they wanted for Christmas, but to think about what others may like or want. They got to pick out presents to give to Mommy, Daddy, each other, cousins, grandparents, and their former foster family. We also tried to make a point during the opening of presents about giving to each other. So, they each took a turn finding the gifts that they had gotten for others and handed them out. During the day we spent a lot of family time playing and exploring. After ham and rice for Christmas dinner we went on a walk to try to unwind the children from their sugar high. We sang carols as we walked and stopped at one neighbor's house to sing to them. We also took the time to watch a DVD about the birth of Christ Christmas evening.

On Christmas morning we let them get their stockings when they first woke up. After breakfast and getting dressed we began the giving of gifts. Hyrum started, although he wasn't sure he wanted to let go of the gifts he had. He got excited when Bekah gave him one to open.

Here is Brigham giving Daddy his present


The children opening the presents I gave them- New Towels!!


Timothy gave Brigham and Rebekah tents and Hyrum got a flash light and ball to go along with the theme


Despite the fact that Bekah has so many dolls she was very excited to get three new dolls for Christmas from various people.

Brigham got a wooden puzzle train (sorry, had to delete the picture temporarily)

Hyrum got this raccoon from his "Nana" (previous foster-mom) and loves it!

We hope each of you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a wonderful new year!

Teaching about Christ's birth

We've been talking to the children about Jesus' birthday since we set up the Christmas tree on December 7th. That's what they think Christmas is all about and I'm glad. They couldn't even name Santa when they saw him at a church activity- for that I am glad too. We've been trying to focus on Christ and giving. We let the children pick presents for each other and for us. We've been teaching them "Away in a Manger". Their friends started singing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer and they couldn't sing along. But whenever they hear Away in a Manger they can sing along. I have also been teaching the "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem" and Timothy's been teaching them "Silent Night". Those are the types of songs we want our children to associate with Christmas, not the Santa and Snow ones.

By tonight (Christmas Eve) they have a little idea about the story of Santa and are looking forward to their stocking being filled, but we've casually mentioned we're pretending Santa is coming because we don't want to lie to them. I'm sure many of you do things differently in your families and it's okay to have differing opinions, this is just the way we have chosen to handle the mythical characters in our children's lives.

Anyway, tonight we helped them act out the nativity while we read Luke 2.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem;To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.


They really seemed to enjoy it. We also sang some carols and talked about the symbols of Christmas.

We helped them set up their stockings on the couch before we got them into bed.

Timothy made the stockings, don't they look great?! I helped a bit with the white and put their names on.

We hope you all are having a great Christmas! Remember Christ as you celebrate for He gave us the most glorious gift of all!

Merry Christmas