November 21st National Adoption Day

I'm not going to mention how long it's been or how often I've sat here reading other blogs while I could have been updating my own I will just say I have missed writing and posting pictures because I also like to look at my blog and remember... I've had so many great things to blog about and I have been wondering where to start.. So I've decided to start with my favorite thing and work backwards...

This morning we got up extra early for a Saturday and dressed all the kids up and hopped in the red car and drove down to the Durango Court House. We have been anxiously awaiting this day for about a year now. Our little Jackie Chan is officially Jaxon James Ziegler. What a great day for all our family. It was great to have our family there to support us.

We chose National Adoption Day because it was so close to the time Jaxon would be adopted we decided we wanted to have a date set.....Our amazing Attorney, K.Pidgeon is on the board that organizes this day for Phoenix and really got us excited about going to the "carnival" of NAD. There was everything there for kids. Snacks #1 on our kids list, games. face painting, a blow up basketball game, tattoos, popcorn, ice cream, cake, crowns for coloring, balloons, the Suns gorilla, and the Cardinals mascots were there. It was a great day for the kids and one that will help them remember when we adopted Jaxon. I'm glad we chose that day!!

















They even had a photographer there to take a family picture....it is the first one we have had done like that. I love it!!

As we were going through the process of the morning everyone kept saying "oh you know all about this you've done this before". The truth is it felt like the first time and all the emotion and overwhelming gratitude was right there. I still cannot believe our little family. I like to look into their rooms at night as they are sleeping and watch their little spirits sleep - they are beautiful - they have amazing personalities, they are anxious to learn, they are so loving - I still can't get over when one of them says out of the blue - for no apparent reason - "I love you so much mom" - This only confirms my belief that they are straight from heaven!!

I'ts good to be back!!

I just wrote a great post and then added pictures and everything was backwards and the pictures were not in order so I decided to start all over. I'll just post around the order of the pictures. First I am glad to be back among the bloggers and the blog updaters. I have been under the weather (to say the least) for almost a month....I heard I was turning 42 so I decided to give myself some attention. which included 2 trips to the emergency room. I am alive and able to talk about it but I'll do it later I have some fun pictures to share.
We had a fantastic Easter. We went to grandma and grandpa Z's for lunch and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Shea wanted to "hide" them this year so she did and she did a great job for all the little kids. She did such a great job you can hardly see them in the picture:)
Please remember that the pictures are not in order....We did start the day off with a fantastic morning church and some family pictures in the front yard. then we went to lunch.
This is the lute they were done in about 6 minutes. Next year they will be harder. I didn't get around to doing Easter baskets for each one of the kids but they did get new shirts and Sunday outfits. Transformers won the t-shirt contest. They love to play with cousin Jordan.

Here is our scooby snack. You can see that he wants to eat what's inside the eggs but doesn't want to hunt for them!! He has been officially with us for a month. He is heaven he is so good and happy all the time. We have a hearing on the 30th of this month for the severance... then we will move straight to adoption. We are so excited and humbled at the same time that our windows in heaven are still propped open for our little family. We Love Jaxon he is such a great fit for our family the kids love him so much. Jordan is so cute when he gets a big smile on his face and says "Baby doesn't have to go back to Jackie's house - he gets to stay here forever" I seriously get teary when he does that. Every night we have a little singing time and one of our favorite songs to sing is -I Love to See the Temple - we talk about taking Jaxon with us and they get so excited to go back there. They remember so I like to talk about it alot so they don't forget.

Grandpa has a great truck in the back that the kids love to play with so they all had a turn sitting in it to get a picture.
Jordan's favorite toy is a tape measure!! when ever he finds one he wants to play with it. Do they make one that isn't metal to cut your hand off and still look and work like a metal one??

Here are our after church pictures. I was really surprised the kids did so well we only had one break down and that was Jaxon. It was ok because he is still a tiny baby. Shea is getting to be such a beautiful young woman. she is getting so tall. She definitely has the Shreeve gene in her.

All the kids wanted to pose for a picture.... Joey set the pose and all the boys wanted to copy...do you absolutely love their outfits??? They were at Target calling me as I walked by (with no intention of buying new outfits for anyone.) Rhonda talked me into getting them - I'm glad she did.!!

I cannot get over Jordan's contagious smile I love it!! I hope it will be as cute when he has a full mouth of teeth.

Jesse is still so small. He got some new front teeth they look great.

Suzi kills me I couldn't choose which picture to use they were all so great of her. She is so stinkin beautiful I can't even take it. And she is so tender with her sweet little voice. (most of the time)
This is the best scooby could do. I am sure he would have liked to pose but he just falls over if he doesn't have help sitting up. I have to eat his cheeks every day at least 3 times...

Here we are..... There are alot of us isn't there....We should have put an orange shirt over by me.

You can see the camera remote in James hand I love that he has that. It made the pictures go alot faster. They are not professional but they work for now.

I just read James and my P blessings and I love to read them now with our lives so different and when it talks about our children and the importance of teaching them the Gospel and about the atonement and that they are children of Heavenly Father and that He loves them....It is such a different blessing as I read it now... even 3 yrs ago I still wondered about these "children that would come into our home" I am so grateful for my savior and for the atonement that gives us every blessing possible on this earth and forever. What a blessing it is to be reminded each spring as we celebrate Easter and the resurrection of the Savior. It is almost like the "new year" for me as I'm reminded to do my best to live like He did and as important...teach our little slices of heaven about Him and what he has done for them and our little family.

Before & After

Happy Anniversary to me...well that is what James said. He ordered a new canner for us that holds 14 quart jars....WOW!! I told you about our neighbor from heaven well I did some canning and I also made some beautiful peach jam, ice cream topping, eat straight from the jar, what ever else we want to use it for. yeah!!

I'm in love with this canner!! I got some more chicken last week and it was done in 2 batches with the big canner. I put some in pint jars they are so beautiful!!

I'm such a procrastinator!! I waited to long to do the peaches and i didn't get to use all of them...I didn't even think about putting them in the refrigerator till after I made the jam.

I seriously thought I'd can these tomatoes and that would be that and I'd never use them well I already used a jar....with the spanish rice I make it uses stewed tomatoes and so I put them in the little processor and chopped them up alittle and dumped them in. yummy!! I got 7 jars of tomatoes I like to give one jar of what I make to my mom. I'll need to do some more soon It is so nice to use the canned things as we go. I've used the chicken a few times and we eat the jam all the time. We are close to having all our meat for our supply. It is so exciting!!

We have a Weeeeeener!!

We have had the most fun these last 2 weeks having visits with baby J. Who by the way has an official "name" until he is official.....The problem with keeping up with the J's is that most of them are taken by Ziegler boys and some Shreeve boys and a spouse and some are flat out no good. We narrowed it down to 3... Jaxon, Jaron, & Jonas the first name to get thrown out was Jonas...too faddish the next to get thrown out was Jaron....James just didn't like it. (no offense to all the Jaron's out there - i liked it) So Jaxon it is I love it. I found it on some blog I am sure I could never find again so... for all you blog stalkers....it pays off! The little boys are the best they call him by his name for everything. He is still baby for Samantha. He is heaven!! He has been spending the night off and on till the "paperwork" gets done. It's all good Jackie just takes him home for a night then we have him again for more sleepovers. I hope this does not take to long!! We finally took some pictures when he was here last Sunday. He was great at church - and he looked good. We love him!!
Our little helper she loves to feed Jaxon and she will sit there till he drinks his whole bottle
These are goofballs!! I think James took about 10 of them and no one could sit still or keep a straight face
This picture kills me....he has to be thinking about something serious!!These boys love to show off their musclesI couldn't resist this one it cracked me up she just turned her head away and peaked at me like he was undercover.Joey so great on his bike he can ride it with no training wheels...finallyShea had to have her picture taken with her hair up it was cute.