Thursday, April 16, 2015

Because chaos is our normal.

These three cuties make my life a crazy-beautiful mess;)


So, I really don't blog anymore due to lack of time and after you read this you'll have a small understanding of why! Ha 

There is lots of random things to update on though! Mason's new job, foster kiddos coming and going, a four legged addition named Letty, etc;) 

Let me start by saying.....wow, so with Masons new job description we are welcoming ourselves into the 'day shift/normal people schedule' world and it's quite the change! I'm mostly loving it though! Breyton's whole life and most of our (almost) 8 yrs of marriage Mason has never worked normal 8-5 hours with weekends off. Since he started at the PD almost 6 yrs ago he has always been on nights and evenings. Now with that experience I definitely do not take for granted how nice it is to have him to go to bed with every night and when I kiss him goodbye for work it's not 'see ya tomorrow', but I get to look forward to him coming home that evening. Currently it makes the days seem shorter for me. Plus I have help at bedtime, yay! By that point of the day I'm typically reaching the end of my 'rope', so it's nice to have back up;) 
It's also so strange to no longer have a police car in the driveway because his new car is unmarked and he wears mostly plain clothes now as well. The only problem so far with the new schedule is Mason is a night owl still and he's dragging me down with him lol.... because we stay up way too late then when they alarm goes off at 7 (or kids wake up before) I really regret my bedtime. Hopefully the newness will wear off where every night doesn't feel like his weekend, so that we get some better sleep!

Then I wanted to update on our foster care situation. We have had 5 placements come and go since January. After our last placement was transferred to a relative we decided to put our home 'on hold' because we had two weekends this month where we would be out of town and Mason has a big paper and finals coming up for this semester of his masters degree, so that's added stress and takes up a lot of his time. Then with his new job title he will be gone for out-of-state training coming up, meaning I'll be on my own, so I'm trying to not have as much to tackle on my plate during that time. We will be doing respite next weekend for another foster family and we'll open our home back up in the near future when the time is right.

The picture below is from our last placement--when I came into check on the kids rooms before I went to bed I found the boys in their bunks and our foster daughter had moved to their room and was sleeping on the giant bean bag. She told me she got scared and didn't want to be alone.
I mean why do you need all these bedrooms if the kids are all gonna sleep in one room anyways ha! 


Then we got an almost 2 yr old German 
shepherd a couple of weeks ago. Which has been an adjustment--mostly for me of course;) Letty is an awesome dog thankfully, but no matter how you slice it dogs are work! Finally she is becoming adjusted to us as well since it was a big change for her to move to a new home too. She is well behaved(that's if I leave out the story of her stealing the chicken breasts I grilled for dinner and set on the island one night and snatching food from the little peoples hands as they walk around with it ha;). She is an angel towards the kiddos which is the most important thing. I can already tell she is becoming very protective of all of us..which was one of Mason's goals in getting a dog. 

(Clearly the dog is loved. And yes when you have three little people and a dog you keep your couches covered to save you some sanity.)

Now we go places with three kids and a dog;)

With the addition of Letty we have been trying to speed up the building of our retaining wall, removing a few trees(since our backyard is a forest pretty much!), and having a fence put up, so our backyard can be a place for the dog- and the kiddos. If we had any spare moments before they are now spent on this project. It's almost done though!

When Mason was going through the testing process of becoming a detective I kept thinking after this life will be so much calmer...but then something else would come up then something else..so now I've just accepted that this is life currently. And it's probably how life will be for years to come;) I mean I do like to keep busy and I'm the type of person who rarely sits still....yet even I sometimes wonder how chaos became so normal. I mean sometimes I can say it's organized chaos, but most of the time it's not. It's a chaos full of good things at least:) Pretty much from the time I open my eyes in the morning till the little ones close theirs at night something is happening. Three (or more when we have foster additions) kids plus a dog will keep your house loud, busy, messy...and yes it is full of a lot of laughter and joy as well:) 

It's funny how I remember it used to almost scare me to take one child out in public lol and I only wanted two kids TOTAL. Now I load up mutliple kids for trips to the zoo, dentist, doctor, etc without much of a second thought. I guess God grows you and prepares you for whats next...even when you don't know what's coming! Lol God is having me re-learn that it's probably best I don't know what is coming because it would scare the crap out of me currently. Thankfully He prepares us and is with us on this crazy journey of life. One day at a time is all I can handle for now!:)

Random pics from the camera roll:

How Lyla looks every time she eats yogurt..all the way up to her shoulder and hair.

Fun at the zoo!


Breyton loves Letty!

Love this girl!


Lyla throwing a fit bc she saw me put her beloved 'blankie' in the dryer.

Hanging out one morning!(Breyton is not a morning person;)

Lyla and Letty:)

My sweet boy!

<3

All racing on the driveway!


This girl loves to climb and pull everything out. She is the reason my pantry is not organized;)

This little man will be 6 in a few months and I love that he still climbs up in my lap on random occasion and gives me hugs without me asking! Also, every night he has to have our bedtime kiss routine which includes a kiss on the forehead, an Eskimo kiss, a butterfly kiss on the cheek, and ending with a hug. He reminds me if I haven't done it..time is running out for those moments so I hope I can cherish them!