The Ziegler's 7

Talent

2010-12-21T22:40:00.000-08:00

LOVE that these kids love to sing...

Updating Pictures

2010-12-21T21:40:00.000-08:00

So, Hijacking Myrna's blog #2. Her kids take such great pictures and are growing so fast I HAVE to share more of them...Rhonda

Samantha after she had the royal treatment.. her hair was done like a princess... she had glitter eye shadow and lipstick. She and Ellie loved it.

Jesse. I could easily eat him up. The sweet and innocent look...

I LOVE Jordan's smile. This is what he'd look like blond with curly hair.. They all took turns seeing what they'd look like with Penny's hair.

Shea- She is sooo amazing! What a GREAT big sister she is.

seriously? LOVE these boys in hats.

Joey through the screen door.. just thought this was a fun pic.

Jordan, their good friend Benjamin, Jesse and Jaxon. See what I mean about how big they're getting?

This one kills me.. He's got a cricket on the end of that stick. He walked it clear over to us to show us. Look at the concentration on that face trying to keep that bug on the stick.

Joey... He's practically in High School. Love his eyes. He's grown the most lately I think.

Jordan, Jesse- our Peace man... and Benjamin.

Shea Lee - Love this picture. She's grown into such a fantastic Young Woman.

These 3 were so dang cute running round together. Alyssa, Jaxon and Samantha.

So.. maybe Myrna will update with Christmas pictures.. One can hope right? Love you Myrna... now update your Blog.

2010-08-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

Myrna- you're killing me by not updating your blog.. so I'm hijacking it for a minute to add some fun pictures from the ranch. - Love you! Rhonda

This picture KILLS me!

Short Commercial Break

2010-01-18T13:27:00.000-08:00

You know when you are watching a great movie on TV and the commercials come on and they last forever and ever?? this is me right now I'm on a commercial break from updating the last 6 months......these pictures are so fun that I couldn't resist!!
Don't mind the awful back yard...it is winter and everything dies...
The other day the 3 little ones and I spent most of the day outside it was so amazing we couldn't help ourselves... so what do the kids head to first?? the dirt pile. so I let them. Jaxon has never been so dirty ever..... he was loving it though.

I'm pretty sure she thinks her hands are clean compared to her dusty dirty pants....I believe that is where she got her name Dusty Britches.

I think everyone should have a dirt pile in their back yard. I have to say that because I do and there is nothing I can do about it anytime soon. It's leftover from when the footer got dug for the shop in the back. The boys (and girls) love the dirt!!!!

This is to much for me!!! He had dirt everywhere. down his pants, down his diaper...... dirt is like sand - it gets everywhere even when that part never touches the stuff. The best part is - he is still so stinkin cute even with the dirt face.

Jesse decided that he wanted to ride a bike with out training wheels..... so Friday he got the little bike and we did it..... now he can start all by himself. He loves it!! The boys went out first thing this morning - they were excited about riding bikes but we have had some amazing rain today so they came back in. We'll have to try again another day with out the mud.

The boys love riding down this little dirt hill Jesse did awesome for his first day learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. Gooooo Jesse!!

Friday Night at the Ziegler's

2010-01-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

When I watch this one I can't stop watching Jaxon. He is so serious about which of the 4 keys he is going to play on that piano. I hope they love music when they get older like they do now. Leah found the little ukulele at a goodwill in Gilbert I'm so glad - now I need to find 4 more!!! (Don't forget to turn off the background music)

More of the Friday Night Concert at the Ziegler's

2010-01-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

I thought that it would be fun to take a break from updating the last year and add some entertainment/commercial for you....Samantha has asked for a guitar for Christmas ever since we went to the Michael's wedding when Brittany played it - she was in love with the guitar so one day at my favorite mall I found one for 7 bucks so I got it for her for Christmas. She plays it everyday and sings along she is great!! So tonight we had a small family concert alittle singing, dancing making music it was wonderful!!! I had to put this video first because even Jaxon got in on the singing it is so funny when the kids watch it they laugh so hard!! Great night we topped it off with pizza and a movie....a great family night.

Still Catching up......I Need a Blog Overhaul

2010-01-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

2009's Summer trips

It may take me a year to catch upon the last 6 months. This is my 3rd entry so if you're trying to catch up on us you'll have to go back to the entry of Jaxon's adoption. Now back to our Summer trips - they were so great after the Grand canyon we went to Cedar city and stayed a couple of days parked in front of Jay and Shauna's house. The kids love to play together...well mine love to play with theirs they talk about them all the time and ask when the next time we are going to Utah!! After a couple of days with them we drove up to Park City to attend Jake and Heather's wedding - I thought for sure I took pictures at the wedding so I'll have to go find some. It was great fun it was a beautiful day for an outside wedding. we stayed there a couple of nights and then drove to Bountiful to stay in James aunt and uncle's driveway (thank goodness for driveways!! - free power and water hook ups) I think that was the highlight of our trip - we went down to Salt Lake to see Temple Square and it made a lasting impression on the kids. Now whenever they see a building that has anything that looks like a steeple it is a temple. We took a tour of the conference center that was fun - taking tours with children under 5 should be ban in the US.....simply because when someone has to take you and show you the stuff it usually means they don't want you to run around and touch everything. That is an impossible task for anyone under 5 that lives in the J&M Ziegler Home. They loved seeing the roof of the center. I am still amazed that if you forget you're on the roof it is just like a garden on the ground. There were some amazing snow clouds to the east that brought some beautiful rain - I love rain anytime, anywhere. Before we went to the temple grounds we had a little lunch on the sidewalk right in front of the conference center it was great it's like a little park with rocks grass and a little stream (aka melted snow) running between the sidewalk and the street. I'm pretty sure that is what heaven is like - minus the tired kids - beautiful weather, beautiful surroundings and the spirit of the temple right there for all to see and partake of. We had fun taking pictures at the "temple spot" better known as the cement slab that all couples stand on with the temple in the background....amazing!

We only had to take about 3 of these to get everyone in the picture looking at the camera....Just look at all of us. It is a miracle to me everyday that we have these 6 amazing children and that they are sealed to us- I'm grateful for people and things around me that remind me to thank Heavenly Father daily for our family...We were ok for 14 years with just the 2 of us..now it is like all that time was a small moment - we could never ever go back to that. I am in love with Heavenly Father's Plan for us!!

Shea, Joey, Jesse, and Samantha - doesn't it look like nap time? Beautiful pioneer wild flowers!!

Tourists!!! Joey, Jordan, Jesse

This is Love Child #6 He was a trooper during this 2 week whirlwind. He go to know the stroller really well. It was a life saver.

This is where we had lunch...we tried to leave some crumbs for the birds to have lunch also. Jaxon was sleeping so he missed out on the kids picture. Isn't it beautiful!!

Conference Center steps after lunch - refueled and ready to go.

When ever I see a picture of Jaxon and he's not right here I want to go and get him and squeeze him tight for along time - but when I do he wants to get down and run for his life...he's a great runner for a 1 yr old. I love his lips and his round face and his crazy hair - which we've cut a couple of times already. I can see already why people want more children.....he is growing up so fast he is definitely not a baby anymore...he is such a boy toddler he loves cars and boy stuff. He is a jokester just like Jesse (heaven will help us!!) he does things and waits till you laugh about it. What makes it more funny is that he is so small. If we had one more girl that would be ok....I'm just saying:)

After SL we went back to CC and stayed a few more days there and went to Jake and Heather's place for a reception there it was nice very casual in their back yard. We loved seeing their home and what Heather had already done to make Jake's bachelor pad into a home. After our great stay in Utah we drove straight home. It wasn't bad. It was a great time together as a family it has been a great memory that the kids still talk about. That is my favorite when I hear then talking about something we have done as a family. I'll be adding more posts soon - All this catch up is getting me in the mood and practice for 2010.

2009 - Where Did It Go (since my last post)??

2010-01-05T06:38:00.000-08:00

James got me the greatest gift for Christmas... a digital photo frame where you just stick your memory card from your camera in and you have a slideshow of your pictures...well this year we have used the same card for all our pictures and I stuck it in and it has been heaven remembering what an amazing year we have had as a family. We have been so blessed to have amazing friends and family go get together with. We've added a new love child to our family - Jaxon he is Heaven!!! It is great to watch these kids grow up and learn things and to discover their personalities and who they are- they are all so different - and they are changing constantly!! We are in love with being parents!! Not perfect parents but parents -- made only through the perfect miriacle of adoption!! (aka: Heavenly Fathers Plan for us)

This was our big trip year We had some great time with James while he was home this summer. We went to the ranch for Memorial weekend and went to Tombstone and took Leah and Rhonda (hand holders) - the kids loved the old town stuff with the horses and old cowboys everywhere. We got our picture done...no one was interested in dressing up till the ladies brought out the guns for them to hold - then they couldn't get the clothes on fast enough. We went to a little shoot out show - It went great till the first cowboy got shot.... they all freaked out because they were shooting at each other and it was loud...all that teaching of not pointing guns at people.. only varmints went out the window - Jesse was bothered the most he started to cry and didn't stop till the guy got up. He still talks about the gun show and that we don't point at people..yeah he is getting it!! It was a cute show.

Samantha wouldn't go near the gun fighters.

Joey and Shea were the only brave ones willing to get their picture taken with the skeleton.

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was our next stop. We were on our way to Utah to go to Jake (James brother) and Heather's Wedding. The kids had a great time looking into the great hole in the earth......I on the other hand didn't love the parts without the railing to keep you from falling...seriously!! you can't take 6 kids there without taking 6 adults one for each little energizer bunny!!! We didn't stay long just to take some pictures (to say that we were there) and to have lunch. That was enough for me!!! We took our trailer and spent 2 weeks on the road It was a great time. We camped, we visited, we went to Temple Square, visited more family. We are grateful for our house and that there is enough room for all of us to sit and play and sleep - We love our camper but it is not big enough to live in.

This was the 2nd or 3rd day of our trip and already the kids were tired of being out of their routine. I love little kids memories!! They talk about things in the past and say to me remember? I love it. We are trying to create great family memories for our family so when they grow up it will help them be great people and want to make great memories for themselves.

November 21st National Adoption Day

2009-11-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-04-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-02-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

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.

Top 3 reasons to get up this morning!!!

2009-02-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

#3-- we had a visit from the toothfairy a couple of nights ago. Joey lost his first tooth...So the tooth fairy left him some dinero and he was so excited about that!! He put his tooth under his pillow and shazam in the morning there was a note from the fairy and some money...the first thing he asked was "where is my tooth" - When we were in Thatcher for Cannon's blessing he informs us that his tooth is falling out durring sacrament meeting. It was very loose Yeah his first tooth...perfect because it fell out the next day at school and we were headed to the dentist that very day. so Joey had to tell the dentist all about it. The dentist said the top teeth should come in right on schedule.

#2--I'm gonna save the best for last so I'll tell you how excited I am for amazing neighbors!! We have alot!! Carl stoped by about 7:00 tonight (he called James before) and dropped of seriously a flat of cheery tomatoes, a box of peaches, 3 boxes of cookie dough (m&m cookies) 2 huge boxes of churros so we (my favorite kitchen helper - Shea) hurried and cleaned out the freezer so we could add the churros then we got out the seal a mealer....we got 4 huge bags of cookies from each box. each bag has about 4 dozen balls of cookie dough!!!!! How fun!! thanks Carl!! I am most excited about the tomatoes and peaches. I'm gonna can the peaches and I emailed Wendy DeWitt to see if she had a great canning recipe for the tomatoes with some great spices or herbs....if you do let me at it!! I'll get to the peaches soon there is one on top that's already over done. Yeah for canning and being prepared (or at least trying to be)!!!!! Especially to Jen -- thanks for the great canning recipes -sweet pork and hello......beans to do burritos. Beans, water, and salt...how hard is that and it doesn't get any cheaper than that!!!!

And the #1 reason for us to have gotten out of bed this morning was to meet our sweet new baby boy. I am sitting here speechless......He is so beautiful. He looks like Jordan the most and then Samantha. We were alittle nervous about going to this meeting because we thought there was something fishy about this case because we have never gotten a call about him from his case workers... we have had to pursue with our license worker to get info about what was going on. Well turns out that sweet little love children do fall through the cracks in the system....his foster mom said the info she got was that his parents rights were severed and that he had no siblings. She Jackie (we will become great friends!! I just know it) is in it for the fostering....not the adopting. We will need to figure out where we know her from because she looks so familiar to us. Pre-existence maybe?? She has had him since he got out of the hospital. I can't see to type because the pictures of us with baby J are so surreal. Jen I did cry on the way home because I wanted to take him home right then..... We will start the transitioning this weekend and the plan is to have him here asap within 30 days. She had a beautiful picture of him that she gave us and the kids are so excited about their baby they all want to hold him and even Jesse gave everyone the list of what we cannot do to the baby, kick, hit, scratch, step on, bite, lay on, poke his eyes, sit on, pinch I can't remember them all but it was so perfect that he knew that he needed to be nice to the baby. We are excited!! So for out 15th wedding anniversary this year we are going to have our 6th slice of heaven.

I am still overwhelmed at the love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for each of us and how they know just what we need and how much or little we need of it. I really believe our new friend Jackie was the one Heavenly Father wanted to take care of our baby for these past months. She is heaven. There was such a peace in the room as we were meeting to permanently place baby J. It was such a perfect meeting. A perfect day. One that I will gladly get up for again and again.....

I have the perfect quote for the day - I may have it made up in vinyl or I'll do an embroidery of it, it is so perfect for our family.

First we had each other... then we had you...now we have everything.

Fantastic Weekend!!

2009-02-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

Don't be to shocked that I'm doing what I said I would...posting right after the weekend....I do what I can.

We had a great weekend in small town America!!!! We went to Thatcher for Cannon's blessing. I love small towns. Even though they are small there is always something fun to do. We got in late Friday night so we set up he trailer and got the kids to bed. How great is it to park next to a house with an extension cord!!! I think now we have tested everything on the trailer and it all works air, heater, water heater, generator, running off propane. We had a great time we need to do it more often!! Saturday morning Jon took the kids on a walk to see the roosters and the cows and horses. The little kids were so excited about the roosters they had to show us everyone of them. funny people!! where was the camera?????

Later that morning we went to see Jen and the boys and they invited us to go up the moudin to play in the snow.........we have been talking about taking the kids so we went. Well after far to many miles on a curvy road and thank goodness we had large cups...we like to call them our barf cups. we used 1 out of the 5 on the way up an 3 of the 5 on the way down. we even had to pull over and empty out a couple of them. anyway that was the yuck of the trip. The kids loved the snow except they got way to cold. we didn't plan on the snow so all we really had were the gloves they got for Christmas... and layers and layers of long sleeve shirts. We were not prepared to get cold and wet but we all had a great time after the kids defrosted their toes. We just brought their bags of clothes so they could change everything. If they were dressed warmer Joey and Jordan and Shea could have stayed all day and played they had the most fun. I think we stayed less time in the snow than the drive that it took to get there.......But we are done with the snow for the year!!!!! yeah!! After the snow we got "home" and the kids went to pick pecans and I went to Walmart to buy everyone new shoes and a shower rod for the shower. I thought they would have a better selection than here.....I should have known better (small town = small selections) I got some and the kids couldn't wait for school this morning so they could wear them and show their teachers.

Do you see all the crying here?? this was the best we could do for a family picture in the snow it was too cold and wet and it was nap o'clock.

The blessing on Sunday was beautiful!! There were 3 blessings - Cannon Jonathan Ziegler - he is darling. I didn't even get pictures of him.....I'm still figuring out that I need to take pictures of everything and everyone!!!! I did get pictures of the kids a the park after the blessing. they had great fun!! We didn't stay to long we (more like James) wanted to get back to phoenix early enough for the game. Steph and Trevor had a "party" It was great!! the kids had a great time..they played in the back room with the toys and watched cars the part they loved was all the food they had free access to. You name it they had it - and the kids favorite...little bottles of soda. It was a very busy weekend and we were going, going the whole time but the kids were troopers!! they did great! they are always up for a fun time and an adventure.

Our drive home was uneventful except for the fun going on in the back seats. I had to delete most of them they were blurry and most of them were of Joeys shoes. ha ha.

this is what happens when you give the cameras to the kids in the back seat.

Self portraits - Shea has more than one - Always!!
Sideways Samantha...
these are Joey's shoes...
Jordan's bum...
Blurry Jesse...

We are trying to make sure we don't miss out on anything because there are more of us now. I really want the kids to have great memories of all the things we did as a family. mostly going to visit family and doing things with good friends. I love that they know which cousins live in Utah and which grandma and grandpa is which.....the ones with the pool or the one with a broken arm...funny.

Our most recent discussions at the table have been who is going to baptize them.....I don't know how this came up but the little kids (Joey was first) started naming off his possibles...while I was trying to do the quick math will they be on a mission or not in 2 1/2 yrs. He wavers between (his favorite) uncle Brian and Adam. the other ones say someone different every time. I love how they think about it so much. They know that when they go to the stake center that is where Shea got baptized. They are cute and it is fun to see them learning little gospel principles. We have a big week ahead of us. All the kids get to go to the dentist today. Yesterday in church Joey comes to show us his tooth that is "falling out" both his bottom teeth are loose. So going today to the dentist is perfect!! Hopefully he will let the dentist take xrays to see how his top teeth are coming in. Well the house is calling me, I still need to unpack and do camping laundry and get some stuff back into the trailer for our next trip - which I hope will be soon.

February 11th at 1:00pm

2009-01-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

We are pretty sure we are having another baby!! Last October we were told that the kids mom had another baby. Well after alot of calls and emails and digging for info we will be meeting with the baby's caseworker and some other team members so they can determine permanent placement for the baby. We are so excited!! the baby was born in October so he is just 3 months old. He has been in fostercare right from the hospital. We are hoping it doesn't take to long for the transition and that we can get him before the end of February. From what I understand the rights have already been severed or are in the process so he is ready (or almost ready) for adoption. The kids are so excited. They have been telling everyone. So everyday the teachers at school ask how things are going. We have found working with the government it is always a waiting game. So we're glad that we learned alittle about patience when we were younger.

We also have other exciting news after almost 2 years of being out of a 8 to 5 job James has been hired by a temp agency to work at Wells Fargo doing loanish stuff. It's just a temp job but it is good money for now while he has it and it could turn into permanent....what ever that means anymore. He has done so great with his bullet business he has gotten alot of regulars who like his stuff so he will still do alittle of that. His shift is 2 to 11pm so he will still be able to take the kids to school in the morning and get alot done before he has to go in at 2. It will be a new adjustment for all of us for him not to be home and available all day. I'm hoping we will survive!! My biggest worry.....who will help Shea with her math???? I'm serious.. I don't know this kind of math.

We are so excited to head down to Safford/Thatcher/Central (do you think they could give this place 1 name??) tonight for Jon and Amanda's baby blessing. we are taking the camper to stay in and the kids are so excited because we are going "camping" even though we are parking in front of Jon's house. We are also going to visit our favorite Knight's the boys need to play with Benjamin they will (better) get along great!! Well I have packing to do, Sunday shirts to iron and food to figure out so we'll take alot of pictures while we are "camping" and post them next week.

I'll Try!!

2009-01-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

I can't promise because I know me...but I'll try to do better this year at blogging. I have already started off not so great!! It has been far to long and so much has happened since the first of December when I last entered. We are doing fantastic!! We are all done with the sharing of the flu and sniffles and sneezing and we are ready for spring to get here.

We had fantastic holiday!! We got to see all the grandmas and grandpas cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, who else is there?? We had to wake the kids up for Christmas morning at 8:30 we finally decided that if we were going to get all of our visits in we better get going. I will say that next year we won't be buying anything for the kids (jk) They have to many people who are givers!! they got stuff from everyone...and we are so grateful for everything. The kids love to play with toys who doesn't??? We had a great winter break and the kids got right back into school. I really think they missed it. I love getting to be at home with Samantha for a few hours in the morning just so we can hang out she is growing so quick!!

I'm not a New Year resolution maker but I have decided to work on some things this year. I always worry that I can't learn new things and yet when I try them...it seems that I can. We had great start of the year this month with a stake preparedness night where we had a food storage pep rally that got me really excited about doing better at it for our family. I think it's easier to say everything will be fine when it is just 2 of you but everything changes when you are responsible for 5 little people. So I got 80lbs of chicken and bottled it. This is one of the things that normally would make me nervous but I did it and it looks beautiful and I got almost 35 quarts of chicken ready to add to my list of food storage items. I'm excited to do other meats like ham and beef. I have always been sold on the Costco chicken.....I am officially over that and have now saved $10.00 to $30.00 every time I go to Costco just buying the canned chicken and beef. I'm still waiting for the perfect day to make my homemade laundry soap. It will be soon I can feel it.

It's December!!!

2008-12-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

I was late putting up Thanksgiving/fall decorations so I feel like I just put them up and now it is time to take them down to put up the Christmas ones. I'm excited!! Last night we had the annual Johnson Christmas party including a visit from Santa. We had one less crier than last year. It was fun the kids had a great time. There are always amillion kids there. I think the kids are figuring out about Santa and Christmas. Shea knows it all. The little kids....as soon as this year goes by they will have a grasp on Christmas. I had a great idea for our family Christmas dinner this year since we aren't going to pick names to exchange gifts (for the cousins) I'll have to let you know how it turns out!! But you will have to wait. For the party the kids sang some songs and I recorded it but you couldn't hear them so I deleted the video. I'll have them do it again.

Here is a shout out to our newest blogger in the family!! Vanessa. Welcome!! Can't wait to see all your posts. You are such a grown up!!

Love you!!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is our Turkey Lurkey at the kids table.....do you love Thanksgiving kids tables??

I love this entryway buffet and the picture above it. what a great reminder for me every time I come or go.

Here is one of my treasures!! I'm grateful for strong men who could carry it up the stairs to add it along this wall. it is a 12 foot bench. Thanks to the Church of Hope that was getting rid of them for free.

We had a great Thanksgiving!! We had the Zieglers over and we had a house full. It was great to see all the Utah cousins. The boys couldn't wait to see them. We got to see Jon's new baby Cannon. He is a cutie. I'm a horrible picture taker as you can see I didn't take any pictures while they were here. I need a brain transplant!! I am so thankful they were here and that all the little kids (and big kids) get so see each other once in a while. We get to go to Utah after Christmas for a few days we are excited. I think cousins should know each other!!

It was a busy weekend Stacy had her baby on Friday night or was it at the crack of dawn on Saturday they named him Braden they should be coming home on Wednesday. Jake got engaged to a darling girl, Heather, She is also a teacher. We had kids playing inside we had kids playing outside. The weather was perfect. The kids loved to be outside and play on the swing. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was good to be with family. We are so grateful to have the family we have been waiting for. This is our year for gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all he has given us. We are grateful every year but we have seen his hand so clear this year in our family. We have been given the ultimate blessing from our Savior Jesus Christ without him all of this would be for nothing. We are grateful for the atonement, restored gospel, for the blessings of the temple. There is so much power in knowing that we will be a family forever. It makes some things so much easier to do each day. We have are grateful for the scriptures especially the book of Mormon. It really is a different book as we look at our little people and know that they are descendants of these great prophets of old. We are so thankful for a living prophet. Who loves us and lead and guides us. These are great days to be alive!!

Happy Birthday to our little lover

2008-11-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

Easter 2008

This is Easter morning. What a bright happy face. Her hair is so short.

Nov. 2007 she had such fine short hair. Love her lips!

I'm forgetting her being so little.....I'm glad I have pictures.

can you just gobble up these cheeks. She sure has changed this is the first week in Dec 07 what a cutie.

Look how tiny she was next to the boys. Christmas eve 2007

these 2 are from Easter.....it didn't take her long to figure out how to open an egg and it magically had candy in it.

This is our big girl on our new swing.

This is today. She is trying to get something out of the jar.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAMA

Today is our little love child's birthday!! She is 2yrs old. I will have to say that every time I think about the time we doubted that we could take another one I get sick to my stomach. She has been so wonderful to have in our home. We can already see that she has a very gentle spirit she cares about her older brothers and sister. She is becoming such a character. She loves to make faces. Her #1 favorite thing to do is sing. I hear her singing all the time either I am a child of God or her ABC's those are her 2 favorites. She loves to have her back scratched which is hilarious to me because she is so little. When I look at pictures of when we first got her I see the biggest change in her. She is such a big girl. She can do everything by herself - or so she thinks she can. She holds her own with her brothers. My favorite thing of all is that she has her daddy's heart. He always says he would take 10 little Samantha's I totally agree with that!! She gets so giddy when he comes home from wherever and she sees him. I love it. I know that she has always been part of our family the same way with all of our slices of heaven. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father that knows us and has a plan for each of us and knows exactly what we need. I could not have picked better children to fit our family so well. We love you Samantha !! Happy 2nd Birthday!!

I VOTE FOR CANNING!!

2008-11-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone got a chance to vote or will take the chance before the polls close tonight!! I'm sure if we do our part everything will be OK no matter what the outcome is :)

I celebrated voting day today by doing alittle canning. My first attempt at real fruit. For our girls weekend in Oct we picked the pears off the pear tree at the ranch and brought them home. They look great in the bottle and I hope they are great tasting!! I used apple juice as the juice so it's cloudy I'm gonna do a regular sugar syrup for the next batch. I also couldn't find quart jars I still have to hunt some down. I'll go alittle later tonight or tomorrow. I still have 3/4 of the basket full of pears. Thanks girls for helping pick them!!!

These are my fancy tools I thought as long as I was doing pears I should use a paring knife.

This is our beautiful basket of pears. This is how many I still have left.I just did one bowl and I got 13 pint jars out of the bowl full. Yeah for whoever said you don't have to do amillion jars in one day...this basket may take me all week - Or I'll have to borrow a bigger pot.I forgot to put alittle butter in the mix to keep the bubbles down but they scooped off great!

Someone talk to me here!! I did the boiling everything and turning the jar upside down and the jars sealed. For jam that is enough.....is a sealed lid a sealed lid?? They are beautiful aren't they!!! Actually they look like eggs. Lindy I need to know about doing the butter!!! that may be my next project. Oh I guess I need to finish the pears. I can't wait to see them in quart jars!!

Happy November!!

2008-11-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

I sat down earlier today ready to update and I got carried away looking at every ones blog. I am glad that I got back to it today. We had a great weekend! We made it through another Halloween with little people around last week we made a couple of projects to decorate. We also did pumpkins that was a hit with the little ones they weren't so sure about the gooey mess but they went along with it and pulled out all the seeds.

I'm sure you are all looking forward to seeing the grand costumes the kids wore...If I didn't have a digital camera I'd say I didn't want to waste film. I had great costumes figured out Joey was going to be a jail bird, Jordan was going to be a lion and Jesse was going to be a clown and Samantha was going to be Toto (Dorthy's dog) and Shea was going to be some kind of witch. I'm sure it started out with Joey he got some vampire teeth at school and that is all he wanted to wear... so he wore his halloween shirt and his vampire teeth. I had Jordan all dressed in his costume ready to go and looking great and he decided he didn't want to be a lion....so he took the costume off. Jesse didn't want to wear anything so I tricked him into wearing a shirt (which had a batman logo on the front) and put a batman cape on him which is a regular thing for him to do...Samantha had most of her costume on but wouldn't let me put on the head part (hat) that has the ears. Shea well she chose not to so some work at school and got her card changed a couple of times last week so there was no dressing up for her (mean mom) we had a great trunkertreat at the ward the kids got loaded with candy!! It will last a couple of years...seriously... we had a backpack full of candy from last years loot and when we got broken into the rats took our backpack full of candy.. How weird is that??

Fun weekend! Great Conference!! I love the conference broadcasts what a miracle that is. I didn't want it to end. It is so refreshing to hear our church leaders speak and be so optimistic about the times we live in - It is a great reminder to me that we do live in a great time, a perfect time live - we have it all...(except for a couple of things I'm sure we could all use...a Jetson's dryer that folds clothes on it's own and disposable clones so we can be everywhere we need to be and to do everything that needs to be done!) I love this time of year. Why don't we remember to be grateful all year...or is that just me :0 I do get overwhelmed when I think of all the blessing I've received especially lately. There really isn't anything that we are in need of or that we feel is missing in our lives (except for the 2 things mentioned above) It seems like the windows of Heaven have been propped open just for us for along while now. I've really been trying to pay attention to every little thing and to be grateful. This is a great time to be alive!!

These are some of our holiday projects the kids were so funny with them Samantha was so serious about gluing it was great! Jordan got the most excited of all the kids about making our decorations - what a character.

We made a mobile on the light in the entryway for our spiders and skeletons.

vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote!!

I'm thinking...(hoping) this may work out.....

2008-10-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures for this post but I will have some new ones soon. I'm so excited about a couple of our new things.... 1 is we have decided to start making our own bread. so we got our our bread maker and dusted it off and away we've gone....well James has not so much me....he's been experimenting with bread recipes and I think he has got one figured out. we do the dough in the machine and take it out and put it into bread pans or make rolls most bread. We have also been working on our food storage and using what we have. I was watching one of my fav shows last week and they talked about making their own laundry soap.....now if this is something that can be done why do we pay 20 bucks for our soap???? I looked on the web site of the show and there was nothing about the soap. So I went to my home page msn and typed in homemade laundry soap..... It seems as though I am the last person to be interested in it because there is plenty of sites to go on to get recipes. We purchased the ingredients today which came to just under $13.00 - 12 something. there is enough ingredients to make multiple batches. One of the sites even breaks down the cost ...which is about 1 cent a load.....I'm serious.. I can't wait to try it. It needs to be stirred till it cools so I'll do it one of these mornings so I can stir all day. I don't know how to put an address on here but if you want to find it look up homemade laundry soap and there it will be. I just had to pass that along I'm so excited about it.
tonight we carved pumpkins. I will have to get the pictures loaded soon. They are so great!! It was a gooey mess but the kids really got into it and so did James he cut out all the faces. we even saved the seeds and baked them with salt yummy!! I can smell them they smell great. Well I'll have to get back soon with pictures and more stories....This is a busy - but great week!!

BOOOOOOO!!

2008-10-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

I didn't startle you with a new posting did I??
I wrote alittle paragraph to start the blog and then I added some fun reunion pictures and they all showed up before the paragraph and I didn't want to move all the pictures, there ended up being alot of them. I just couldn't stop adding they were all so great. So you can read the beginning of the blog at the end. We had a great time at the reunion the kids had fun and they love to look at the pictures when we have them on the computer. Some of the pictures I'll add comments to and the others you can just have fun looking at.

This was the critter box all the caterpillars and grass hoppers got put in here.

These 3 pictures are so funny to me. There was no one out there she was just going on a walk by herself.

The snow cones were a hit. We will have to do them again!! We had them on the perfect day.

Do you love this mop on her head??

These are the pictures we took for Shea's baptism. They all turned out so great. Leah does a great job taking pictures she drove her all over the place getting just the right shot. She had a beautiful table out with the pictures in white frames for the baptism.

This is the whole clan that attended the reunion. We were missing a couple of brothers and thier families. We would have been double in size!!

These are all the nieces and nephews that live in AZ the other half live out of state. What a group...ps do you love the church pew they are sitting on?? I got them on craigs list for free from an old church we got 4.

These are Shea's paint ball wounds.....

This is the whole paint ball group some of them are quite scary don't you think.

We had a make your own pizza night and Jesse was right there in the mix helping out.

This was a long drive for some of these kids .

I think there may be a law about how many kids can be in a car all at once.

This was a great lunch... it looks like we had sour cream.....

This is just one of our watermellon lovers.

I have really had alot of things to blog about but I haven't taken the time to sit and do it...I don't use the excuse that don't have time because that is the farthest from the truth. I can sit and read blogs all day long. PS. if you have a list of blogging friends on your site you can bet I have visited them. I love to see some of the things other families do...is that nosey or curious?? or neither??? We have had so much go on here since the last entry by my trusted blog secretary. we've been camping, gone to the train park, we got a new swing set, we've had play dates with friends, our recent activity was to make halloween decorations that was fun....we did ghosts, spiders and skeletens. We are still going to make black cats, pumkins, and bats. i will post that one as soon as my media tech downloads the pictures. I have been taking pictures all along so I do have some to go with each entry now I just need to get focused!! For today I'll post some fun family reunion pics of the kids...they are so stinkin cute and they are getting so big so fast...it has been a year and a half that they have been here and we are already doing hand - me - downs....which is great but no fun for me because I love to shop....my favorite mall to go to is the Good Will Mall it has all kinds of name brands (or not) in all sizes and styles. It's a one time shopping stop.

Shea Lee's Baptism day...

2008-09-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's Rhonda again.. I was just downloading some pictures on my computer and realized I had one of Shea on her baptism day.. Leah has all the rest that were taken that day so we'll have to get them from her and post some more.. (I stopped in the middle of playing prelude to take this one...)

The day turned out fabulously. Besides her family being there, she invited her teacher from school who came. (her teacher told us she asked her as she was running out the door one day- sounds like our "on the go" Shea) Her cousins Vanessa & Jordan did a fantastic job with the talks and the primary room was filled with people showing their love and support of Shea.

Shea asked Kent to perform the baptism and James confirmed her on Sunday.

Kent & Shea Lee Shreeve on her baptism day- Sept. 6, 2008

Watch out Temple Here we come!

2008-09-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that all kids are perfect when they are at the temple but we'll be bringing 5 and just today they managed to get into Shea's markers and permanently tattoo themselves so I hope the temple's children's room has padded walls with nothing to break or write on permanently.

Thanks to Rhonda my personal blogger who updated my blog (which by the way you can do anytime!!) We are all legally a family. The little kids are getting used to saying their names with Ziegler as the last name. I love it!! I loved our day in court. It was so nice to have such amazing support from family and friends. We love you!! Thanks for sharing that day with us!!

An Invitation

To all of our friends and loved ones....We want to invite you to our family's sealing Saturday Sept. 27 at 11:15 in the Mesa, AZ Temple. We want you to be part of our family miracle. Our day won't be the same if you're not there. There will be plenty of room for you in the temple.... we have the big room and you've heard of the story of the loaves and fishes..... It will work out.

***

We would also love for you to join us afterwards for lunch. We've reserved a room at the HomeTown Buffett on Scottsdale Rd (Scottsdale Rd just south of McDowell on the east side of the street.) We would really love for you to join us so we can catch up and visit!! We'll be done in plenty of time for all of our beautiful sister friends to attend the General Relief Society Broadcast - I know I don't want to miss it!!

***

I did make a beautiful invitation...just one and I took a picture of it and I'll post it sometime soon so you can see your invitation. We are still waiting on a family picture. I could use the one we took at the zoo but I don't think that would go so great with the invites.

We love you,

James

Myrna

Shea-Lee Ann Shreeve

Joey James Ziegler

Jordan James Ziegler

Jesse James Ziegler

Samantha Maria Ziegler

We're Official!!

2008-09-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

OK- so Myrna's been super busy lately so I'm going to update her blog with some of the stuff I put on my blog since it was about her and her family anyway....lol. So... here goes.. (ps this is Rhonda)
So, now it's official. Myrna & James are the proud parents of 5 children. Shea kept her name the same and the rest of the kids just had their last names changed. We went out to lunch afterwords at Shea & Grandma & Grandpa Shreeve's favorite restaurant.. Home Town Buffet. It was a fantastic day and fun to see so many people there to support the event. (Leah, Kent, Roy & Harrison, Rhonda Adam, Grandma & Grandpa Ziegler, Stacie & Jordan, Shea's grandparents the Lindquists, and Grandma & Grandpa Shreeve. There wasn't a seat left in the small courtroom.)

Now for the best part... PICTURES!

Shea Lee, Samantha, Jessie, James, Jordan, Joey, Myrna with Judge Thomas Kaipio in the courtroom after the adoption.

Are we done taking pictures yet??

Joey & Samantha - look at those grins!

Samantha with Grandma & Grandpa Shreeve @ their favorite restaurant
Jessie & Leah
Samantha "Sister" hangin' out at Home Town Buffet

Jordan- eating red jello with his fingers.
James & Jessie James (Father & son- how awesome is that!)
Shea Lee & Grandpa Shreeve- thoroughly enjoying eating at their favorite restaurant
Sister & Myrna (mother & daughter... the story just keeps getting better & better)
Shea Lee & Leah
Jessie- couldn't you just eat him??
(well literally you probably could- 1/2 of his lunch is on his shirt and face.)
Joey- look at that smile! Jordan- LOVEs to have his picture taken
Sister with the ice cream cone she licked about 5 times then gave to Grandpa

We are almost Official!!!!

2008-08-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

We got some great news this last week!! We have the official word from the people who give the official word that we have an adoption date...for all 5!! September 4th at 10:30am at the Mesa court house. We are so excited!! We also have some other great news...Shea has been taking the lessons and she will be baptized September 6th we don't have the time yet. We will be calling the temple this week to see about getting a sealing date soon also!!

What a journey this has been. I know we aren't done but we have had an awesome start. We have had 110% support from everyone around us. All the kids have been so accepted into our families. They have made great friends at school and church. We have made great friends through our foster care agency. Best of all we have been able, after all this time, to feel how amazing it is to have a family of our own...little people to teach, to learn from and to love so deaply that it cannot be explained - and only known through first hand experience - I know this because I love all little children and we've had alot of kids in our home for day care and we have lots of nieces and nephews. Love them all forever!!.....Now we are able to see a glimps of how much Heavenly Father loves us all because we are His children.

Cereal Lover!

2008-08-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures for this entry but I have to tell this hilarious story or thing that happened yesterday......well it happens often. I know that this is not rare I know that this girl is not so far above average that she is the only one to do this but to see it first hand....I'll tell you this love bug is too much for me!!!!
Yesterday I was in the kitchen making dinner after church. The kids usually come upstairs and play around while I'm getting it ready. Samantha loves to get into the cupboards and get stuff out. Sometimes it is OK and sometimes I tell her to get out. Well I let her and she looked all over the cupboards and opened the one that I put all my big bowls. She picks out the small Tupperware bowl you know the one its not the big one with the thumb hole but it was the one just smaller than that one. She got it and then took it to the table where sometimes we leave out the cereal....it was out so the next thing I heard was cereal being poured...I thought great we're gonna have to pick up cereal off the floor. It was my lucky day. Samantha had poured most of the box of cereal perfectly into this big bowl. I know it may by one of those stories that you had to be there but...she is so small and it was so funny the cereal box is as big as she is!!!! Her other favorite thing to do with cereal is to pick up the bowl and drink the milk out of it. These things are so funny to me because she is so small and she is starting to do such big girl things!!!
We Love Her!!!!!

The Routines Have Started!

2008-07-31T09:40:00.000-07:00

No more sleeping in!! Oh I never got to sleep in...School has started and we are trying to get into a school routine. I have 2 that start at 7:30 and one that starts at 8:00 (well he doesn't start till next week) and I have Brock that comes at 7:00. Joey had his first homework assignment this week and he did great!! he was supposed to color all the same shapes a certain color and cut them out and glue them to a paper. He did it all by himself...I went upstairs to start the dinner - he comes up later show me his master piece. He is so funny about school...I hope he always loves it!! Jordan and I went to an open house for his school and he was so excited to go. He has the same teacher that he had last year. His ability to communicate has exploded this summer it is fun to hear him talking and saying just what he wants to say!!

I know that Samantha and Jesse will have withdrawals as soon as Jordan starts school but I'm sure they'll live. Jesse was supposed to start with Jordan but he is on the waiting list so he won't start till later.....there are always kids coming and going in those classes. I love how it got Joey ready for kindergarten. He already knows everything that the class is working on for the next 4 weeks...shapes, colors, how to write his name. Yeah!!

I just have some random pictures to add today. I feel like I can't post unless I have pictures to add. I know, I know its just who I am....it could be a tooma

Finally we got Shea's goofy picture to add to our goofy pictures of the kids I have them all in a frame and I've been looking for he perfect frame for awhile....I found one at the dollar store.

This picture kills me.....he was posing - he was pretending that he just fell asleep on the stairs. Jordan is sooooo funny!!

Still waiting and counting the days

2008-07-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

We have all the paperwork signed and notarized for both adoptions....now we are playing the waiting game....But as long as we are waiting we might as well have fun!! We have irrigation in our neighborhood and when it comes at a time of day when the kids are up they always want to play in what I call......poop water. It stinks like dead fish but because of my younger days at the ranch and always wanting to "play in the reservoir" I let them play in the poop water. We had it Saturday at the perfect time 5:oopm when the sun is lower and the house shades the front yard alittle. here are some great pics of the kids playing in the dirty water.....if you think the grass is a bit long it is. I'm just waiting to get a letter from our "neighborhood watchers" our lawn boy has gone to mexico for a few weeks.

It was a dirty grassy mess when they were done but they had a great time!

Crazy Busy Summer

2008-07-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

This summer has been very busy and crazy. I had youth conference and camp. We went Heber for a weekend and we've done a few other things here and there. All the boys have summer birthdays the first was Joey's now he's 5 and knows it all!!! He started kindergarten last Monday. He loves school.
While I was gone to youth conference James and the kids and some other helpers picked all the plums from the tree. I was so glad that they did because we got alot of fruit for jam. Shea helped me this year and we canned about 20 jars of plum jam. We had fun!! Next time I'll remember to start taking pictures when we start....not at the2nd or 3rd step.
This is definitely a pose Shea did a great job stirring the jam and filling the jars. We've had alot of toast since we made the jam (just so we can use the jam) It is yummy!!
I'm so grateful for Relief Society and for women who know how to do things!! It is killing me because I don't remember the name of the sister who taught me how to make jam...there was a group of us who went to her house and we made all kinds of jam it was so fun!! and no we didn't can 400 jars of jam we just did alittle. I was excited that I didn't have to buy jars this year. I just bought the new lids and rewashed the ones I had.
Googler...Sister Googler was her name. She could grow anything and can anything. It was good to see that it was easy and didn't have to be overwhelming.

We made 2 batches. What a great day that was!! We will be doing it again next year!! Hopefully we can get to the apricots before the birds do!!!

51 Days and Counting!!

2008-07-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

This will be a short but sweet entry!! I was gone at camp last week so I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. Before I left Deborah, the kids addoption worker, made a visit and said we are on the calendar for September 4th for the adoption of Shea, Joey, Jordan, Jesse, and Samantha!!!! Ahhhhhh...... the time has come. The little kids don't know what is going on but Shea is excited!! We are so blessed to be able to do all 5 on the same day!! We will have a temple date soon. That is really what we are looking forward to. I've been to family sealings before and they take my breath away...that is perfect heaven right there. Honestly I'm still trying to figure out what I have done to have this window of heaven open up for me.

Today is the Day!!!

2008-06-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

We got a call from the attorney's office yesterday to meet with them at 3:30 today to sign the petition for the 4 little kids adoption. Yeah!! We'll get the papers for Shea next week and she will be ready soon also!!

There is no special event for these pictures except that the kids wanted to get a picture of their monster trucks. They are so funny about them!! I could empty the toy box out and leave only the trucks and they wouldn't even notice.

This is it!!

2008-06-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

It is clear to me that there is a plan for our little family. We seem to be right on track with the little kids and the adoption process...Shea on the other hand has been with us just since March. It has only been 4 months that she has been here and we got a call today that she has been transferred to adoptions. The little kids worker...Deborah will also be doing Shea's process. We don't usually ask for much - but we have since the beginning of this miracle - wanted to be able to adopt all 5 and take all the kids to the temple at the same time without having to wait for months for Shea's paperwork to be done. These are little things that we are being blessed with in this - less than 2 year - fiesta. We really have loved every minute of it. Last month for testimony meeting our former stake president bore his testimony and talked about the plan of salvation and that we were organized into family units before we came to earth....now I have heard that I have felt that and even taught that as a missionary. But as he said that and as we were sitting there in Sacrament meeting that day...it was real for me. It was the truth and I knew it. In some cases it doesn't seem to matter how we get to earth it is what we do while we are here - are we listening to the spirit when we are prompted to act, are we where we are supposed to be - doing what we are supposed to be doing?? There has been more than one occasion that I have been stubborn and James has been our leader and lead me (or dragged) to where we've needed to be. Some times I am so nearsighted I wonder how we've survived. It has been a blessing for me to see that some of the decisions that have been made for our family have placed us right here where were are right now. This is it...this is what we've been living for, praying for, and the best part is that it is not even the end of it.

We love Shea and we are so blessed to have her here. She has a sweet spirit that is ready to learn. We are having a great time learning together. Shea is anxious to get baptized. We will start the missionary lessons soon. She is already excited to turn 12 so she can go to YW and girls camp. She always wants to go with James mutual. With all the great summertime youth activities this year who could blame her??

BEEZZZZZZZZ...

2008-06-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

After living here for 6 yrs we finally had our 1st turn with bees. They decided to take up residence in the overhang in the back by the air conditioner. it would have been 0k if that was where they stayed but somehow they got into the frame of the house and there is an area near Shea's door that has no baseboard and the drywall is broken out (smaller than the size of a half dollar!!) so they started coming in there - if you are starting to get creeped out it will be ok Ihave been creeped out all day!! James is away at scout camp till Saturday so I called the pest control and for no less than one hundred and thirty dollars they came and sprayed them. We have still seen afew around down stairs crawling on their last leg. I'm hoping by tomorrow we won't see anymore. We will never watch the Bee movie the same again.

These are older pictures but as I look through pictures I remember that I still have a lot to tell about!! These are pictures of Memorial weekend. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a BBQ and swim...and haircuts for the boys. We had a great time. Jay and Shauna were there with their kids. The kids stayed for 2 weeks I'll have to post pictures with them at the ranch we went down there for a week with them. I love these haircut pictures. Joey still wants to go to grandma's for a mohawk. They ran around the culdesac (sp?) all day with their new doos.

Sister wanted a mohawk but the majority vote won and she had to keep all of her beautiful hair!! -- of course you will not see a picture of Shea---she was in the back all day swimming!!

Our Weekend in Heber

2008-06-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend in Heber/Snowflake. We took the kids...we are almost done with getting sick in the car....for Joey - This trip it was Jesse's turn. We are always ready with a cup bu this trip.......we grabbed the wrong cup!! Stinkin Del Taco!!! Unknown to me they slit a hole in the bottom of the french fry cups - to let cool air in???? Anyway........James cleaned out the car seat. I just need to take it apart and wash it. Other than that we had a fantastic time!! We stayed with some friends of ours who have a cabin up there it was great! We went to attend Boston and Kati's wedding in the Snowflake Temple. What a beautiful Temple!! What a beautiful day!! I love to go to temple weddings it helps me remember our wedding and the blessings we received when we were there. Love it!!

I really wish all young women could be like Kati when it comes to picking a young man to marry!! Great Story!!

Father & Son's Outing May 16th & 17th

2008-06-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

I know it was a month ago but since it is almost Father's day I thought it would be fun to put the pictures up for you to see. Really most of the pictures are taken by Joey and Jordan. They love to take pictures.

These are our 2 photographers. Joey and Jordan...Jordan seems to be alittle more serious about taking pictures than Joey. We give him the camera and he is gone until the battery is used up. He has even done a few movies.

This is my favorite shot. Jordan is just hanging out by the fire....I'm sure the thought came to him - why not take a shot of my boots?

These are my favorite shots...look at all the sleeping that is taking place. Jesse - he cant take an afternoon without a good nap. Jordan is the same way if they are playing they are ok but when the just sit around the heavy eyelids take over.

James stopped off at a park for some reason on the way home and the kids got to ride a horse. They loved it they came home and told me all about riding a horse while they were camping. They had a great time.

James has been great to take the kids everywhere - like right now he went up to the shooting range to get some shells and he took everyone. I'm almost home alone. He has been an amazing dad!! I've laways loved seeing him with little people but he is different with these. He is past being in love with them. Samantha has him wrapped around her little finger. He is patient with them. He loves spending time with them. He is always taking them for a ride to "give me a break" I know he is having fun with them. He always says I'm guilty of letting them get away with everything BUT it is James who gets them a treat whenever they go somewhere lets them stay up way past their bed time and who lets them eat whatever - whenever and they own the house when I'm gone!! I'll tell you what is happening...I'm seeing a side of him that - until now was not exposed like it is now and I love seeing him with our litte family - that is heaven to me!!

WOW!! TIME FLIES!

2008-06-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

We have made some progress. We have retained an attorney and the process has officially started. We are waiting to hear from them to see if we need anything else - as far as paperwork. I need to take the boys to finish up some lab work from their dr. appts. Other than that we are good to go. Shea's worker sent some papers to fill out for family history info and said that she should be assigned an adoption worker this month so we may be right in the middle of more than one miracle (or a billion). We are hoping and praying to get them all adopted on the same day so we can all go to the temple together and not have to wait to long after the adoption. WOW!!! What a fantastic whirl wind we've been in - in the last year!! We love it!! This picture cracks me up!!! Look how many there are!! They make our family portrait look complete!!! I love this picture!

If anyone is like me with friends blogs I'm sure you've noticed that I have not updated mine in far to long!! The days are slipping by so fast. We went to the ranch for a week then I had youth conference this last weekend so I was a little busy. I don't have pictures of the ranch yet but I have some great ones of the father and son's outing that James took all the boys on they had a great time. Everyone came back in one piece. I'll post those after I post some of the funny ones. I've been looking at pictures that are on the computer and I could use them all but these are some fun ones for now.

I did not teach her this face.....children are born to make faces according to how they feel don't you have to believe that sometimes!! I'm sure I don't make that face. I love when missy toad makes a face...this one is so serious I love the squinted eyes!! What a little lover!!

This is Jordan's favorite thing to do right now... most of the Father and Son's outing pictures are taken by Jordan and Joey. Alot of leg, shoe and ground shots but they are great.

These are some self portraits of Shea...one of these days I'm gonna put all the funny face pictures in their own folder there are so many. The kids love to make faces for pictures.

It's the cross eyed game. Joey is great at crossing his eyes! There is always a face!!

Everybody was kun fu fighting Jesse's favorite pose.

Our Trip to the Zoo

2008-05-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

I really thought that I'd be keeping up with this blog better but I'm telling you the days are flying by so fast (I hate to admit it but) I can't see straight. School is finally out so I have extra time coming out my ears.... Really I've counted it up. at least 2 and a half hours spent on trips to the school each day to drop off and pick up and helping with homework.

Our trip to the zoo was a couple of weeks ago but it sure was fun. It was a foster care thing so we went. They had a BBQ and that's it. We went and ate and then started our hike through the zoo. Well we got to see some birds, the bears, the elephants, the monkeys, and the kids were done. No lions or tigers, or zebras etc. What we did spend 3 hours doing is playing in the water area. Who ever thought of that was brilliant!!! The kids got in dressed and everything. next time we go I'll remember it is there. They did take a fun family shot. This was 30 min into the zoo trip...notice how exhausted the kids look already.

It was hot!! Jordan was done before he even got started.

You can see that Jesse is more interested in the Jeep than getting his picture taken.

This was the end!!! Jordan couldn't take it any longer. But if you've been to the zoo lately you know that just around the corner is the water thing. Heaven!

Jesse was so excited when he saw the water but he stood at the edge of it for at least 20 minutes before he would get in.

He is so stinkin cute!!

We can't ever go to the zoo again without getting a blue snow cone - nice lips

Sister didn't want to have anything to do with the water so she played in the sand the whole time and loved every minute of it. She got it in her hair, in her shoes, in our shoes, all over the boys she was in heaven.

Jesse got into the water finally but not for long before he got out to get a snack.

Do you love the swim suits? First of all see the cute tush in red running? that is Joey he needs a pinch! Shea is the one with her head cut off - give me a break among all the other new things I am just learning I have added -picture taking - the problem is not the picture taker it is the picture takees. They never sit still they never look together they are always looking somewhere else they don't even look when you call their name.

Wet and chilled...Just how Joey likes it.

Jordan is our water hater to say the least he doesn't like to take a bath, get his face washed, or even get splashed so I was glad to see him have so much fun in the water I don't think he got enough of it!!

This is a funny video - Jordan had sand up in his diaper.

Ahhhh....naptime

2008-05-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

I think everyday that when the kids go down for a nap so will I - for just a few minutes...I love my sleep but there are a few things I love more... I love doing laundry I know that is unusual and some may think it is unnatural but I love little clothes when they come out of the dryer after being washed in the perfect ingredients for them to smell like heaven. I love folding them perfectly neat and putting them in their little piles...I don't even care how long they stay that way. I love helping Shea with her homework. I really wish I felt then what I feel now about homework I was not a school lover so now with little people quickly approaching school and one in 4th going on 5th grade I like to see the light bulb come on when they figure out something on their own. I love sitting on the couch looking at the toys on the floor...the stains on the carpet and the messed up pillows on the bench. I have decided that this is fully living. I've had picked up, vacuumed everyday floors, I've had brand new carpet, I've had perfect pillows sitting just for decoration. I've lived in "company ready" home for a long time. Someday I'll live in that home again but for now I like to see the little people playing with the toys, I love when little sister pulls of the pillows on the bench and turns around laughing because she knows she isn't supposed to touch them then runs over to give hugs. I don't love the stains on the carpets but it is what it is....

When Rhonda gives me another private lesson on how to do blogs I'll add some of my favorite songs....one of which lately is by someone??? and the title is something??? but it's about things that will be missed. I try to pay attention to the little things that matter more. I'm new so I'm still learning but I know alot of women who I can copy and be just like. Thanks to those women I can love laundry, homework, toys everywhere, stains on carpets, messed up decorations and a non company ready home...(but I say come over anyway!!!!)

***

These are my favorite pictures of the kids - Jordan got the glasses at school and we took the pictures in Nov. 2007 We had to dig through the toy box to find them so we can get Shea in the glasses to take a picture so we can add it to the picture wall pile.

Do you think there is anything better than this face?

Joey

The cheeks on this one need to be squeezed every day!!

Jordan

Pure entertainment

Jesse

This little lover is growing up so fast!!! look how little she looks!!

Samantha

Our first family trip - all 7 of us in 1 car for alot of hours!!

2008-05-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

The Ziegler Family May 2008

Our first official family photo. Everyone is looking at the camera, there is no one crying, I will be putting this one on our picture wall. This was after the Baptism everyone had their picture taken.

We had an amazing weekend with the family... we took our chances that no one would get too car sick, home sick, tired, cranky, restless, or stinky, and we headed to Utah (thank goodness it was southern Utah!!!!!!!) We went to Sarah's Graduation from SUU and it was Austin's Baptism. We had so much fun!! The drive up was perfect for about 1hour. Then we had to pull over and I had to switch to the back seat to help calm some very tired people. We didn't leave till late so the kids would sleep. It worked once they finally went to sleep. We got there about 3:00 am.
I love Cedar City it is a beautiful place to visit. We stayed in a beautiful cabin that Jay just bought it was fun for the kids. there was a pond in the back with fish in it, the kids hiked around, we spent most of the days at Jay and Shauna's so the kids could play together. They have a trampoline so our people were in heaven.

Do you like how Jordan is having a fit!! He wanted to hold the balloon in the picture.

Cousin Jordan wasn't interested in taking the picture either. Everyone survived:)

We saw all kinds of farm animals, horses, cows, sheep, chickens, donkeys, every time we passes a field of sheep we would here sheeeeeeeep from the back of the car - that is funny they also do it when they see a train - traaaaaaaaaaain all in unison.

In the cabin we stayed in there was a great big tub so Sunday night the kids took a swim. Jordan didn't like when the jets came on so he got out. Sister didn't like it either
which was perfect for me because the tub had to be so full for the jets to work that it came
up to sisters chin...Shea was in heaven!! She was such a life saver!! she was the resident life guard when I got the kids out to dry them off.

How cute are these little people!! Joey, Jesse, and Shea they loved the tub and the suds.

It was wonderful to go on our first family trip with all of us. We had a great time Joey says he doesn't want to go to Utah again because it is to far....I agree. We will defiantly be waiting to go back.

Joey and Jordan have become great photographers....I'll add some of their pictures tomorrow.

Our Story....from close to the beginning but not that far back

2008-04-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

We'll start the story in 2006 at the end of the summer. James and I started talking about doing foster care...so I started looking on line to see what to do first. We found an amazing agency to go through and we started the classes. 10 weeks 3 hours each Tuesday night. The classes were great. We knew this is how we would start our family....alot of foster kids become available for adoption. After we did the paperwork got our home inspected etc. we got our first batch of kids a brother and a sister. They stayed 7 days and left. The very next day we got a call to pick up 3 little brothers ages 1, 2, and 3. I drove to the Crisis Nursery where they had stayed the night and picked them up. That was March 8th, 2007. Since that day and long before. Our miracle began.

Meet Joey he is 4 going on 5 in June. He is the big brother. He is happy most of the time, he likes to be funny, he is a helper, he likes to take care of his younger brothers. He is sweet, he loves to go to preschool and church, he is a people person and an entertainer when he has an audience. He has the sweetest face ever.

This is Jordan, he is 3 going on 4 in August He is our sweetheart. He is smart. A year ago when he came he grunted and pointed to communicate but now he lets us know just what he wants. He has the greatest smile ever. He's a joker and a trickster. He loves to play outside. Preschool is great most days but some days he's not interested. He is just learning to whistle.
This boy Jesse our 2 yr old going on 14 in July is a character. He is full of energy and the rascal of the group. He likes to tease Joey and Jordan. He is sweet, He loves to sing and he loves music. I'll find him playing with toys just singing his heart out with no one around to hear, he is also our resident dancer he will dance anytime with or without music. He gets to start preschool this year. I'll miss having him at home all day!!
Suzie Q didn't come with the boys we got her the 8th of October 2007 She is 17mos and owns the place. When you're new in foster care they limit you to 3 kids so we had to get our licence changed to add little sister. She is pure heaven. She loves to laugh, and scream, sing, dance, play "trucks" watch basketball with daddy. She gets away with most everything because she gives big squeezes and kisses. She is quick - now you see her now you don't. She is usually under our feet trying to see what we are doing. Today she started on her own playing duck, duck, goose as she went around tapping the kids on the head. Her real name is Samantha but we call her sister, sweet heart, little mama, mommy, Suzie Q, bubba, little girl, girly girl, sister sue, most every thing but Samantha.

This is Shea Lee Ann Shreeve, my niece -my brother Steven's daughter. She came to live with us March 8th 2008. She was sent from heaven. It took her a while to get here but she is here. She just tuned 11 in March. She is in 4th grade and smart! She is very social and has made alot of friends at school. She is such a great help with the little people!! She loves playing with them now...at first she had to get used to them being all around her and getting in her "space". Now they all share the same space. As you can see from her shirt her favorite thing is horses. She has them everywhere. She loves all animals!! She gave her first talk in primary last Sunday and did a great job.

We are in love with these 5 slices of heaven. They are without a doubt worth every second we waited for them. They are a perfect fit to our family. This last February 2008 the 4 younger kids (they are siblings) became available for adoption.....they asked us - we said of course!!! We are adoption certified - we just need to get some paperwork done and get an attorney and wait for a court date. We are also going to adopt Shea. We are hoping to get them done together. We are working with the government so we will see. I'm excited to share the process we have gone through with these little ones. As we now have alittle hindsight we can see Heavenly Fathers plan in action right from the beginning...well 14 years ago.....well longer than that but that is were we will start.

This will clear things up.

2008-04-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

Before we get to involved in this new venture (the blog) you may find it amusing that we are gigantic (to say the least) fans of Monster Trucks...with 3 little boys and 1 big boy - we (girls) are out numbered. So we have become followers of this obsession to the point where we all have our "favorite monster truck" and we all have the toy replica to prove it. We watch it on TV we go to Vegas for the world finals, we watch the monster truck cartoon, we watch the DVDs on a regular basis, we get emails about the next upcoming events, we buy hats, shirts, stickers, we have a business with Monster in the title... anything to do with Monster Trucks we fall for it.

I've finally done it!

2008-04-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

I'm so Excited!! Rhonda helped me put together this site and helped me with the header. It is late tonight but there is alot of things going on so I need to do it when I have more time. Can't wait to start and add photos.