Brothers

These two are meant to be brothers.

And now they officially are.

Monday, April 26th - we went to our courthouse and became Jasper's adoptive family.

Jasper has lived with us for over two years now, and we have been his legal guardians. At the beginning of this year, his mother Lori approached us about becoming his adoptive parents.

I've been truly touched and humbled at Lori's selflessness as Jasper's mother.

She raised him well for those first 9 years. He is such a wonderful boy. She knows her limits and loves him enough to give him the best life she can.

When the option to adopt him was presented to us - we felt joy, happiness, relief, and excitement. These past two years with Jasper have been very good - so rewarding, fulfilling, so right. Also at times full of worry - wondering how long we would get to have him.

Now that feeling of worry has been replaced with feelings of comfort and peace.

So Monday we planned an adoption celebration and after our time at court was done, we went to our local aquarium. Since it was a week day during school hours, it was the perfect time to go.

Jackson loved the "wishies".

After the aquarium we went to a family dinner with both sides of our family. We had so much fun.

Here are my boys.

(Don't be scared of my newly painted fluorescent door. I tried to be adventurous and paint it green. I'm not sure about how BRIGHT GREEN/YELLOW it turned out.)

These two didn't know what they were in for.

They never knew they would have it so good.

Quiet Book

I came across this blog

http://quietbook.blogspot.com/

and now I totally want to make a quiet book for church. I almost hate church right now because Jackson is very much a toddler. Stickers, snacks and crayons keep him busy for a little while, but we have to take him out to the foyer every Sunday and it causes me severe stress and anxiety.

Luckily he is old enough for nursery this coming Sunday! I am stoked, and hope he LOVES it, and doesn't cry when we leave him there.

Anyway, I want to make a quiet book, and this blog looks AWESOME. It gives all the instructions and ideas.

However - I'm having doubts. Mainly because:

• I have no working sewing machine (its on my list of things to fix that cost money).
• I am not crafty
• I am not patient and have been known to throw things across the room that don't work.
• This weekend I hemmed my IKEA curtains - using NO SEW hem, and am so good at crafty stuff that I cut off 18 inches too much! Yeah, I was pretty angry after that.
• I am already looking on ETSY for one that I can just buy, but none of them look as good as this one I could make and I am also too cheap.

Hmm.

I'll keep you posted.

D.A.R.E.

Jasper is in 5th grade, and all the 5th graders in his school recently completed a program from D.A.R.E. (drug abuse resistance education). At the end of the program, all the kids pledged to resist drugs and violence. Each student also had to write an essay about what they learned.

Jasper's essay was one of 7 that was chosen as outstanding, and he won an award!

He got to read his essay at an assembly, and even earned a medal.

Way to go Jasper!!

The whole family got to go to the assembly and hear him read his essay. Jackson saw Jasper and screamed for him and clapped clapped clapped.

I sure love you Jasper and am so proud of you!

Bad Mama

Jackson woke up from his nap the other day and I hurried and changed his diaper, and slipped his shorts back on. We went downstairs and he was suddenly very whiney. Whine whine whine! He is not usually a whiny baby and I couldn't figure out his change in attitude.

I turned on some Yo Gabba Gabba, we played blocks, but he still kept whining. He also kept falling and tripping.

So I grabbed him by the hand and we headed up the stairs to go play outside, which usually solves all problems. I held his hand as he walked, and I noticed he was walking funny. Something was wrong with his feet and he started whining again. I took a closer look, and noticed that I had shoved both of his legs into one pant leg!!

Oops!!

I laughed and quickly fixed his pants, and Jackson was so relieved. David came home from work right then also and we both had a good laugh, and wondered how I could be so unobservant and clueless!

Bad Mama.

Vowel Baby

Whenever I try teaching Jackson his ABC's, he will almost always repeat

"A E I O U, A E I O U, A E I O U."

His babysitter says he does this at her house too.

I am pretty certain he has no idea what he is saying, but it is pretty cute.

And he also makes an awesome centerpiece.

Recipe by Jasper

Jasper wanted to give me some ideas for dinner.

Here is a recipe for Macaroni and Cheese that he came up with:

Not bad - minus the TROUT.

More recipes by Jasper to come.

My Kind of Basketball

Jackson got this wonderful basketball stand for Christmas last year. He is still a little too short for it, so he has since created a new way to play.

He knocks the hoop down to his level. If this were the way it was really played - I might even make a basket or two!

His other method is to just stand underneath the hoop and touch the ball to the bottom of the net.

I think he's got the right idea.

Jasper's Bedroom

When Jasper first came to live with us, the basement was still a dream, nowhere close to being finished. Once we started construction, Jasper was a little wary of living in the creepy downstairs - and I don't blame him! I promised him once the basement was finished that he could paint it whatever color he wanted.

Oops!

We ended up compromising since I was not going to let him paint it ALL BLACK or ALL RED.

I think the end result is just right.

Before:

Here is part of the compromise - a black magnetic chalkboard, using Rustoleum paints.

After:

A dark brown wall - looks okay actually!

I might even use some of this green when I'm up to painting Jackson's new room (upstairs in Jasper's old room).

My dad made this dresser for me when I was little. It is still in great shape and just right for Jasper's new room.

Guest Bedroom

Before:

After:

Basement: Hall and closets

David was great and built me LOTS of storage, which is one of my favorite things about the basement. Here are two of the closets - we also have some storage under the stairs and in each bedroom.

Before:

After:

Before, Storage Room:

After:

Utility Closet before:

After:

Basement: Family Room

I have a ton of pictures of our new basement, so I'll post it in parts.

I still have pictures to hang, and light fixtures to mount, but I'm so happy with what we have.

This is our Family Room!

Here is the before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

And these are the BEFORE before pictures, just so I can remember how much work was done:

More pictures tomorrow!

Finished!

Happiness is a finished basement.

More pictures to come soon, I'm busy decorating.

Upholstery Class - part 2

I finished my chair!

Old original D.I. find:

New and improved platform rocker:

And a sneak peek at the fabric I am using for my next prjoject:

You know you might be tired. . .

... when you

• fall asleep in primary, as a teacher, in the front row. Then while asleep hear the lady doing sharing time ask all the moms to raise their hands. So you raise your hand and wake up, only to realize she was talking about the 5 year old girl, who was playing a mom in her sharing time activity.
• go up to the pulpit to say a prayer, and once you get back to the pew you see that you have a button on your blouse undone and your skirt zipper is also not zipped up. Its been like that during all of church.

It has been a rough week and even rougher weekend, but we are so much closer to our basement being done. Saturday my whole family came over and my dad finished touching up the drywall and mudding and taping in the two basement bedrooms, and we primed, painted and got in fights. Jasper was concerned about the sisterly fighting until I assured him it was "normal."

I made an ambitious (dumb) goal of scheduling the carpet in our basement to be laid this coming Friday. I figured that if I scheduled it then we would just have to bust our butts and my dream basement would be finished!! Although we worked really hard, we still have one whole room to touch up, prime and paint, some closet shelves for David to build, a ceiling to finish painting and more. So... I might have to call and reschedule the carpet guys. Ugh.

I guess if I've waited this long what is one more week, right?

This little guy thinks mommy is slowly

going crazy with all

this basement nonsense.