Padded Room Anyone?

Sometimes as a mom padded rooms sound really nice, quiet and soft places to fall. But then the thought of never seeing my kiddos or outside, snaps me back to reality.
It has been a busy busy BUSY week and is not looking any less busy for the next week to come. So I will just start with the kids.
Little Miss Kyndall has had a week like this:

Yep, the clingy baby is back but now she has added in screaming crying and bully. She has taken revenge on Mr O during the day and if she isn't beating him up, she is laying on the floor crying. No kidding. Yep, this momma is, well, pooped. I am really hoping that we can all survive until Thanksgiving break but that might not be the best thing to wish for.
Here is a collage of Little Miss enjoying some dirt and worms Gma brought us.

Oh well onto the next kiddo:
Miss Ella
Ella has had a fabulous week at school and is so excited when it is time to go. This week she was standing at the garage door screaming at all of us to hurry up. It was cute and I am so happy we did this little group. We are still working at home at being nice to our sister and using our inside voice. Although, I can't blame her for everything...mommy's inside voice seems to get pretty loud somedays. She also had a lot of fun playing with her friends at Chase's game last weekend. Here are just a few pics I took:

On to Mr Busy Pants himself.
Wow what a week he has had. We have something every night and have for the past two weeks. He had his musical last week:

---Warning - teacher soapbox here for a moment- Every year our musical teacher impresses us with her lack of the ability to dress appropriately for a teacher. Now I'm not saying long skirts and hose and sweaters, but there should be a dress code for this little lady. This year was no exception. I was on the verge of taking a picture of her to send to the principal but figured I would also do some hard on facebook so I didn't. It was embarrassing. We literally had dads frantically running to save seats at the front for a "good" show and not for their kids.

Moving on...

Mr Busy Pants did a great job and I just love watching him perform!!
He also had his first basketball game last week. He did great and that also goes for his team. We are going to do well this season!!

And then we had his last football game with his team. Chase had his BEST game of the season and I just love love love watching him play this sport. He is also getting more into what his role is on either side of the ball. He caught several passes and tackled quite a few players.

Thats him on the ground after a catch. This weekend we have a tourney for him with several new players on their tourney team. I'm betting we don't do well seeing as our coach doesn't seem to want to practice so Chase will have fun playing and that is all that counts, right?

As for us, the parents, we enjoyed a nice night out last weekend. And as much as I love being a mom, being Ryan's wife is a much better job :). It was so nice to enjoy a great dinner out complete with drinks at the bar trying to win a free drink by answering insanely hard trivia questions, which never happened but a huge thanks to my bar neighbor for trying to earn me one. Then it was on to dinner complete with seafood flown in fresh that morning and a desert that was fantastic!! Ahh it is so nice to go back to that quiet night for a second.

I know that life has been hard, in our little house, with our little kiddos. And I know that sometimes I can get a little overwhelmed, which is normal and totally ok. But I wouldn't trade this life for a second. My kids and my husband mean the world to me and we have created a great home for our kids and any others that come along. Thanks for stopping by...next time we see each other again I might look a little different!

Happy Wednesday to all!!

Christmas Tree Angel

When I started blogging, I was introduced to a world of mothers that found blogging to be very therapeutic. These mothers are just like me and I often turn to reading their stories to help make me feel normal. And for the most part, they remind me what a blessing being a mom really is. I am absolutely addicted to reading blogs about every day life and I can say without a doubt that this place/forum has made me a better person. If you have ever just started clicking on blogs others follow you find yourself amongst some fabulous people that should be getting paid to write their daily lives, but I am so glad they are free ;). Amongst these blogs, there are several of mom's / families of Down's Syndrome kiddos that explain what a true blessing these kids are in their lives. One day I happen to stumble upon an adoption website from a momma that was adopting a baby boy. This adoption agency, Reece's Rainbow,  is based here in America but adopts out children mostly from E. Europe but also from various other countries. Most of these children have Down's Syndrome while others have illnesses or medical conditions that require care. Since first clicking on this agency's site, I have visited it daily and found stories of families adopting these precious kids. It is my daily uplifting and it allows me a time that I can say some prayers for some families in need. But as it is uplifting to hear about the kids/babies that are finding families, there are TONS that don't. And the horror stories of the lives of these precious children are too hard to forget. These children are allowed to live in baby orphanages until the age of 4, sometimes 6, years. At this time, they are transfered to institutions for the mentally ill. If these chidren are not strong enough to fight for what little food they do get, they starve to death. Some of the kids that are transfered can not walk because they do not have the medical attention or therapy that they need to learn how to walk. These children are left in cribs and often die from starvation or from beating their heads against the cribs. The rate of survival for the kids that are transfered is low. Many of them do not survive a year in these places. And all because these kiddos are not "perfect" and require more medical attention than their parents can afford.  I know as a human being with lots of access to the rest of the world through my computer, that this is nothing new to anyone. There is horrible things happening all over the world, the USA, my state, my city, and probably even on my street. But for some reason the faces on Reece's Rainbow have been written on my heart and I can't help but want to help all that I can.

So I am asking all of my readers to click on the Christmas Angel Tree on the right hand side of my blog. Go onto Reece's Rainbow's site and look at these precious children and try to help any way you can. Right now they are having their annual donation drive since this is how these kids have a true chance at a normal life. The donations that you make help families to adopt these kids, since the normal adoption cost $25,000. This is the ONE thing that stops a family dead in their tracks when they want to adopt. I know that I can't give a lot but I can give a little that might just be another families opportunity to adopt one of these angels, giving them a family that will love them. And if you are led to adopt, like SO many people are after visiting this site and reading the stories, please take a look on this site. There are tons of resources and great people to contact. There are also tons of stories / blogs of families in the process or ones that are already home. We, as a family, are trying to donate all we can between now and the middle of December for one of the little girls. Please find it in your heart to do the same. Thanks so much!!