Lindsay gets married!

To start off our summer, Lindsay got married on June 10.  It was a great location and a fun wedding.  Lizzy was beside herself excited to be a flower girl and Paul would never admit to this, but loved getting dressed up in his little pink vest and bow tie and suit to be a ring bearer.  Lizzy managed to park herself directly next to Lindsay in every single pictures and Lindsay happily accommodated her.  I was really grateful Lindsay was more concerned about how all the little flower girls felt about getting to be flower girls and stand next to the bride in her beautiful white dress than making sure her dress wasn't crushed, etc.  Her dress was beautiful and the pictures turned out great, and it meant a lot to Lizzy to be able to stand by Lindsay and be in the pictures.  The kids loved playing with Hannah and Brynn has gotten so big since we saw her even two months ago!

Lindsay had a tea party bridal shower.  Super cute idea and Lizzy was totally into it!

Lindsay at the bridal shower.  I took two pictures and my camera died.  When Lindsay started opening gifts, Lizzy parked herself on the arm of the couch to "help" and didn't move.  Lindsay was so gracious about it and Lizzy felt so special and honored to help with opening the gifts.

Lizzy was so excited about the wedding, we had to make a chain to countdown to the activities.

(My phone keeps cropping pictures that I have taken, and I can't figure out why our heads are always cut off!)

Lizzy and Paul and Hannah all got to release these giant balloon bouquets at the family BBQ.

Lizzy, Hannah, Aunt Amy and Paul all dancing at the rehearsal dinner at Taverna.

Lizzy watching the breaking of the plates at the rehearsal dinner.

Lizzy's darling little flower girl dress

I braided my hair for the wedding, and Lizzy wanted to take a picture.

The wedding went smoothly, as far as weddings go.  Randy got tongue twisted as he spoke to the officiant to "give away the bride" and Paul became very concerned that the flower girls were dropping their flower petals on the ground.  Luckily I was sitting right behind him and was able to get him to sit down without causing a scene.  We got to see Cori's aunts and uncle and some cousins that we don't see often, so that was fun.

Last Day of Work!!!

As summer approached this year, I started looking for summer camps/daycare for the kids.  I didn't find anything that really impressed me.  I wanted an educational component-the most anyone had was a "book corner and the kids can read whenever they want."  I also wanted pretty strict supervision-we work really hard with the kids on appropriate behavior and they are both followers, so I really wanted close supervision to continue through the summer.  In addition to not finding a program we liked, it would have cost over $2000/month to send the kids to these camps where they were 1 of 25 kids.  Add in a super stressful work situation, and Cori and I decided that I would ask for a leave of absence from work for three months, then go back in September and work to the end of the year.  I requested the leave and one of the three supervisors on my team did an awesome job creating a coverage plan.  We were all confident that the plan would be approved (especially considering one month prior I had gotten a caseworker of the year award, and I have over 9 years of experience, which is pretty hard to come by in the CPS field) and so at work we didn't really consider other possibilities.  The way that things worked out, management met the day before my leave was to start to make a decision about whether or not to approve it, but to everyone's surprise, the answer to my request was no.  My supervisor and I were shocked and I really didn't know how to respond.  I had previously told management that if my leave was not granted, I would be resigning.  So I did.  While I was really nervous about cutting our household income in half, and losing insurance benefits, I was so happy to be walking away from that job.  In the preceding nine months, I had investigated one child death and three "broken babies" as I called them-babies with serious, life-threatening injuries caused by their caregivers.  These weren't accidental situations, they were situations where parents had intentionally and repeatedly hurt less than 2 month old babies, and I was just done.  I no longer had the ability to handle it and the toll it took on me was too much.  In addition, I had filed numerous court petitions and removed several other children and it all just piled up on me.  It was just too much to expect from any one person.  I wasn't doing a good job at work-I was always behind and scrambling to catch up, and I wasn't doing a good job at home.  My kids were neglected, my poor hubby was left to fend for himself and take care of the kids with little help, and let's not even talk about the state of the house.  Let's just say the kids knew to check the dryer if they couldn't find any clothes.  It just wasn't working for our family.  All the other families I was providing services to were getting more of my attention than my own family that Cori and I had waited so long to have.  Add in a new restaurant opening in April and Cori working seven days a week over an hour away, having four different caregivers/plans for the kids during the week, trying to juggle vision therapy, etc.  We decided that the cost of all this on our family was too steep.  I keep writing that it was "too much," but I really have no other words to describe how difficult of a time period it was for us.  My supervisor and her supervisor both told me to have no hesitation to re-apply for a position if I wanted to return at the end of summer, but that I would lose my vested time, have to start over at the bottom of the salary schedule, etc.  It was super frustrating to know that they would not have anyone hired, trained, and ready to take a caseload by the time I would be back, and that they thought so little of the last six years I had invested there that they would not work with me around my family's needs-especially when we were in the business of serving families in the community.  Hopefully this is the last time that I work in this particular position-I have served my time and I feel like I'm ready to move on!

My former cubicle:

Lacey-my friend and co-worker for the last 4+ years, Cathy's mom in the middle, and Cathy, my supervisor for the last 6 years, on the right.  This was at an awards banquet where we got Paired Team of the Year for the third time in the last four years!

End of First Grade 2012-2013

Paul and Lizzy ended their first grade year on a good note!  Each of them was at grade level for all subjects-we didn't think Lizzy was going to make it, but she did!  She can definitely turn it on when she wants to.  I have no idea how to motivate her-she just does it when she feels like it.  Things clicked for Paul right around Christmas time, and he just kept on trucking the rest of the year!  They have come so far and we are so proud of them!

And just for comparison, here they are with their kindergarten teachers last year:

Pinewood Derby 2013

Cori and Paul made his Pinewood Derby car this year, but Cori had to miss the actual derby because he had a meeting with all his staff members at the Boulder restaurant, which was only days from opening.  Paul had a great time and did awesome!  I couldn't keep track of their bracket, but I think he got either 4th or 8th...who knows.  Either way he was so ecstatic!  And Cori was .1 oz. under the weight limit, which we just called good rather than try to hit the limit!  Paul put graphite on the wheels and then he was ready to go!  These pictures were all taken from my phone, so some are a little blurry as I tried to get the action!

Isn't he adorable?!

We are time's subject, and time bids be gone....

The first picture was taken in 2012, just a few days after the kids came to our home, the second a year later.  How can they grow and change this much in what seems like the blink of an eye???  It's hard to see time pass so quickly by, especially because we missed the first 6 and 7 years of their lives.  I want the 3,153,600 minutes I've missed of Lizzy to land on our lawn and dance around so I can see them.  And the 3,679,200 minutes I've missed of Paul could park themselves on my living room floor if they don't mind.  I just want them to slow down, to give us a chance to really absorb everything and wring every minute out of it.  I hate that by the time we got them, they were a third of the way to grown and gone.  I tell them all the time they aren't allowed to ever move out.  That they must live with me until they are 97.  Because I just don't think that by the time they are ready to leave, I will be ready to let them go.

Drake's Blessing

Drake Bradley Robinette was blessed by my dad on April 14, 2013.  He is such a good little baby and it was amazing to see how much he's changed and grown in the last two months.  We love him!

I have very few pictures of my dad with the kids, and he's rarely smiling, but these turned out so cute.

Ryan's parents and little sister came for the blessing.  They aren't Mormon, but they are super supportive and came when Reed was blessed too.  And if I remember right, Ryan's sister Ali made the pants she has on!

Reedo looking for his pacifier Grandpa (they call him Coach) took.

Cute little family of 4.

Love Reed's smile.

He looks so much like his Daddy!

Sealed for Time and All Eternity

Cori, Paul, Lizzy and I were sealed as a family for time and all eternity on April 13, 2013.  We had planned to be sealed the same weekend that Paul was baptized for the convenience of traveling family members.  Life had been so chaotic leading up to the weekend that we intentionally didn't invite as many people as we originally planned to the sealing ceremony.  We wanted the kids to really know and remember the people there, and it was a very cool experience.  

We didn't know, and neither did our bishop initially, that Paul, because he was 8 years old, must be baptized and also get a temple recommend in order for us all to be sealed.  It was somewhat of a scramble getting the temple recommend piece done on short notice, but it worked out.  We ate lunch as an extended family group after Paul's baptism and then we traveled down to the Denver Temple.  The kids were taken into a waiting room while Cori and I attempted to get the paperwork completed so we could have the ceremony.  However, we FORGOT the affidavit of adoption through the courts that verified it was legally finalized.  We didn't even actually forget it so much as not realize that we needed to bring it.  We were so stressed out because basically everyone that could get into our house was down at the temple with us, and we absolutely had to have that paper before we could be sealed.  As we wracked our brains trying to figure out what to do, I texted my long time visiting teacher and friend, Camille, and asked if she was home.  She was, and thankfully she was able to come to our house, get our spare key from the hiding place, open our safe, take a picture of the affidavit, and text it to me.  Then, I was able to email it to the temple president's email and they were able to print it.  We were never so relieved as when that printer kicked those two sheets of paper out!!  And thank heavens for Camille.  We got the biggest bouquet of flowers we could find and a gift card to P.F. Changs and delivered that the next Monday night for family night.  If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have been sealed that day!!!!

This is Camille, and her hubby Ryan.  I swiped this off her Facebook page and I hope she doesn't mind, but we were so so thankful she was willing to save us!

Cori and I changed into our white temple clothing, and Paul did as well.  Lizzy was already wearing her white dress, so she didn't need to change.  Cori and I and everyone that came to the temple were in the sealing room when they brought the kids in.  As Paul walked in, he exclaimed, "I knew it!"  When I asked him later what he was referencing, he couldn't tell me, but it was one of those situations where I knew he just intuitively remembered something about the temple and the sealing room.  Lizzy was beaming the entire time and looked so sweet and Paul was so handsome in his little boy-sized white suit.  It was a great experience and I think it really helped the kids to understand that even though they have lived with other families and had to leave them, we will be a family forever.

Our kids plus both of our nieces and both of our nephews.

Paul's Baptism

Paul was baptized and confirmed by Cori on April 13, 2013.  It was a stake baptism day, so there were a ton of people (the stake center was full) and it was a little too chaotic for what I had pictured.  There were so many people in the baptismal room that some of the people who had come for Paul couldn't see anything.  We were lucky to have our entire immediate families come, as well as some extended family and friends.  We split into separate rooms for the confirmation and that was really nice.  After Paul was baptized and confirmed, we had lunch with family members at my favorite Mexican food restaurant in Windsor (I can't remember the name, it has changed at least once).  It's so crazy having a child come into your life, and then be baptized 15 months later.  It feels like there is so much they need to learn in such a short time.  They seem to just innately know it, but even so it feels like such a huge responsibility.

Paul on his baptism day.

My cute little family

3 Generations (Paul, Gary and Cori, and Randy)

The Hanson Clan

The Hanson Boys

The Angus Family

Paul with Pops and Mamaw

Aunt Lori, Greg and Chelsea, and Paul

Austin and Ashley-newly engaged.