Back in the Saddle again

I can't believe it has been a whole year and then some since I have posted on my blog. The funny thing is I continue to look at all of my friends blogs and it is funny to notice a decline in thier blogs also...facebook I think has taken over and it has become instant gratification of getting the stuff we want people to know quickly with out having to know the http address and passwords and all of that. But I have come to realize I really was using this as journal and keeping my life at least in some type of timeline that I could look back and remember hey we really did exist and there are pictures and stories to prove it. A lot has happened too, holy cow. We have moved several times since last year, finally ending up now North of Houston, TX. We finallized the adoption of Gage, and also the adoption of his baby sister, Emma Leigh Poole. We were sealed in the Dallas Temple August 6th! Michael was baptized on the 5th, and it was an incredable weekend. Life is moving by so fast, but we are enjoying every minute of it. Tara took pictures and I have to find them so I can link it with this post. In the year we have had some eventful moments. Big ones besides the adoption, Gage was in the hospital for a burn on his left leg that he got when he turned the hot water on while he was sitting in the sink waiting for a bath. It was very scary and we didn't realize how hot tap water really is...so turn down those gas water heaters to a safe temperature. Lesson learned. We also moved 4 times in 5 months. Yeah really!!! We had to move the first time because of the adoption process, needing so many square feet per child and so we found a house in Tulare (which took us FOREVER to find) and shortly after we moved in and had the inspection from child services (which would not have been accomplished thanks to my parents, sister and the hamiltons, myers, and smiths)we found out that the house was being forclosed on. We spoke with a lawyer and moved, due to all of the issues, luckly across from the lawyers office was a property management office, and we found a new home to move to. Yeah we were sweating bullets wondering where we were going to live with 6 kids and a dog!! STRESS! We moved in and LOVED THE HOUSE, except for the no internet...but oh well. Three months later Matt receives some really good news and gets a new position in Canrig and we are off to Houston. Yeah it was fast...but I know that it was worth it. Michael got his first set of stitches, 4 of them...from jumping on a trampoline with his brother Erik. LOL. Erin is loving high school, glad to be back in choir and has found out they have a vet program at school, yeah she is signed up already for them! She also is wanting to start violin lessons, which I am really exited about, FINALLY someone who wants to play and instrument! Such a cutie! Erik is loving Jr. High, still trying to get involved and settled. Mike loves his class, but the funny thing is everyone is about his height now so he doesn't feel like a giant! Danny has an awesome teacher and has totally blossomed in this class. He is excelling at everything. Gage has found TV and love Little Einstines (UGH!) And Emma is as cute as can be and loves playing with stuffed animals and playing with her older brothers and sister. Definately a Daddy's girl too. Poor little thing got six shots the other day to finally catch up on all of her immunizations. We are going to have to take Gage in to and ENT office for his ears. See how that goes. Well I am off for now, and I will be posting more, especially to keep family updated and involved in our lives since I tend to forget to say everything we are up too. LOL.

Erik's 12th Birthday!!

So it has been a great birthday for Erik! He was ordained a deacon and also went to the coast with some friends to celebrate!! Here are some pics from each event!!

Erik's Broken Arm

Well it has finally happened. We have our first broken bone!! He was skateboarding with our puppy Tank and there was a stray dog...and so as anyone can guess. Visuals I am sure are going through all of your minds!! So here are the pics!!

Fall!!

I thought I would write a few things that have gone on since August...it is life changing for us. We visited Texas in July and while there found out some interesting information about my cousins newest grandson. He asked us to call a social worker for the Chickasaw Nation about him. We found out he was currently in foster care and that the parents were having issues with following through with the judges orders to work on a program to have him returned to them, and that their rights were being terminated. The mother had lost three of her older children and they were adopted by her aunt. The father this was his first child, so the judge was giving them both a chance to see if they could make it work. The social worker informed us at this time that they were looking for a family member to be able to take the child that fit the requirements under regulations of the tribe. Well we have him now. His name is Lewis Gage Teves Poole, so here is our newest member of our family!!

Egg Sandwich

Ok, just a funny for the day. We were sitting watching Sponge Bob Square Pants, and Danny says I want an egg sandwich. (We had them for dinner last night) So I said sure, he goes into the kitchen and a couple seconds later comes back with two pieces of bread with a lump in it. I am looking at this sandwich and thinking why did he glob it all in the middle...then looking at it a little closer...why is it shaped like that...Danny let me see your sandwich...HaHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Yeah the kid put a raw egg in between two pieces of bread. Well mom it is an EGG sandwich!!

We are in TEXAS!!

Well from the last post things are still interesting. Summer is going to be SHORT this year but jam packed full of fun. We just finish Cub Scout Day camp and it was a blast. I can't thank Anna Myers enough for stepping up to the plate and helping out. Also my wonderful Husband for being so patient with me and my new JOB as it were for the last month, and then my poor kiddos. Big kudos to Erin for helping take care of Mike during day camp because he was not feeling so well. He did finally get to go the last day and be a TIGER CUB!! His biggest dream!! (As a real 7 year old now!) Yup he is officially 7! He had his requested birthday party at Aunt Alene's from January. Such a cute kid.

We are in Texas visiting everyone here. I drove out with my cousin and we made several stops along the way. We got to visit with Taryn and see her beautiful new engagement ring. YUP, that is right folks, Taryn is gettin' hitched!! Nate asked her at the end of May and the date is going to probably be May 28, 2010...Yippeeee!!! I am so excited. We then pulled into the Arney's home in Weatherford, OK and hung out by the gorgeous coy pond, Bill built. It was so peaceful. We then headed down to my other cousin's house in Ada, OK and hung out with his kids and grandchildren. (they are so cute.) And left his brother there with him to stay the week to visit. The kids and I then headed to Little Elm, TX. Yeah!!

Then on Saturday, Marcy, Tara and I headed up to Kansas, to drop Tara off at Heathers and have a Lia Sophia Party there. HOLY COW, the party was good, but the fondue that Heather put together, YUM!!! Then Marcy and I took off in the morning and headed up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for our Lia Sophia Conference. Breakfast at Pandera's never again just ask Marcy. Anywho back to Milwaukee...OH WOW!! So much fun. Kami I owe ya big time for making sure I went, it was soo worth it. We had so much fun, pictures will follow. We headed home, stopped at Heather's for a minute and had some awesome chicken sandwiches. Laughed pretty much the entire way home, yeah so entertaining. So now we are back in Texas to enjoy the 4th, and some great times with the fam! Can't wait to update with the rest.

Oh how time flys

I did not realize that it has been THREE MONTHS since I last posted. We are just havin' way to much FUN!! Things have been really good, and can't wait for spring break this next week. We are going camping at the coastal redwoods, which happen to be the tallest redwoods, the fatest are up in sequoia national park. Updates on everything: Matt got to drive his DREAM car...so yes he will probably be getting one soon...heaven help me!! I had a mini stroke on Feb 24th, cause by a migraine, and the doctors also think stress. It has been an interesting recovery which is still ongoing. I also started a new business LIA SOPHIA in January. Really excited about it! Jewelry is so much fun! Erin got new glasses this last week finally, and played basketball on the church team. AND holy cow is she good and has very natural talent!! Erik recieved his Arrow of Light and graduated (crossed over) for scouts, which Grandma Poole was able to be here for that thanks to my little incident. Michael is doing great in school and also recieved the Student of the Month for Tipton Elementary (which is huge)and gearing up for baseball. Totally practicing everyday!! Daniel is having so much fun in school and is excelling. He is still hooked on transformers and is a daily question of when he is going to get more. We have a new guest in our house, my cousin Scott has kinda moved in with us and helping me out with things. It is kinda funny how that all worked out. But our main project right now is a 1973 trailer that we bought from my cousin Rachels boyfriend Ken. We absolutely love it! It needed some repairs and updating so it has become quite a fun little project. Can't wait to be able to use it!! Thanks again Ken you are soooo cool! Also we are working on the house to get it ready to sell here in CA, our current project is the back patio!! Yeah!

Gingerbread Houses and Texas

Well it is definately that time of the year and I have done 4 gingerbread houses this year. Olivia would be proud. I even invented a mission of Santa Barbra this year!!! Wow what a project. In between all of this we are also heading out to Texas to spend Christmas with Matt's family and stop by and see my little sis in New Mexico. So of course all things must happen at once...Van needs repairs, work parties, (which I will be done after Thursday Yipee!!) Couldn't afford to work ha ha!!! That is California for ya! Cub Scouts, YW, running here and running there. Helping the kids get things ready for presents...and the list goes on. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love Christmas, and love the the music. Can't wait to get our new Christmas book too. Any suggestions?? Well I am of to finish icing the missiona and get to BED!!

Getting ready for Christmas and 101 Post!

I can't believe how fast the end of the year is coming up!! We had an awesome Thanksgiving this year. We have been celebrating for 3 days straight!!! Invited the Perkins family over and we did't finish dinner, so we invited them over the next night and still didn't finish, and so we invited them over, and finally ate the pies!!! So I think we did good. We wanted the Schelers to come over too, but they were in Sanger. The kids really missed having them over.

My parents and Carrie went to New Mexico, to visit my other sister in her new home and met her boyfriend and family for Thanksgiving. They got back tonight about 11:30. Sounded like they had a really good time. Mom got to pick up a lot of stuff for her class about Native Americans.

Well I am getting the gingerbread dough ready for the houses, it should be pretty cool and I will definately post pics as I am working on them. In the class that I am working in we are also doing the Polar Express, so I am working on the class room board for that. It looks really cool in my mind. But I think the mission style gingerbread house will look really neat too.

I am off to bed and can't wait to start packing for Texas!!! whoa whooooo!!!

Seeing New Moon

Yeah!!! It was soo good. Matt and I went and he actually enjoyed it! Loved it and can't wait till the next movie!! Thanks sweetie for the night out!

Life starting to smooth out a little

Well things are definitely starting to smooth out. We had a great Halloween. Erin, was nurse, Erik was a box of popcorn, Mike was Optimus Prime, and Danny was Bumblebee. We went to the school carnival, which was really good. Erin was two cakes at the cakewalk and the boys won lots of candy. On Wednesday the church put on a trunk or treat, which had an awesome turn out. Love those, where the kids can have lots of activities, and get candy all at once. What more can you ask for? Well Matt will be taking off to Houston for a few days and he gets to go see his family out in Texas, yeah soooooo jealous!! Can't WAIT for Christmas!!

Erin Home and Much Better~

We are so glad to have our little Erin back. She got her port taken out on Monday and has progressively gotten soooo much better since then. She will be returning back to school on Monday, and we are going to have to figure out how to catch her up through 6 weeks of school that she has missed. Yikes that is so much!

Erik also had his post op on Thursday down in UCLA and his eye surgery was a great success the doctor said. He now has a 4% difference between the two eyes which has been a night a day difference for him. He did have some adjustments that felt wierd trying, but after a couple of days it felt natural. Now he does have issues still when he is tired but it isn't as bad as it was. So everything is going better. YEAH!!

Erin back in the Hospital

Well poor little Erin is back in the hospital. She got an infection from her appendectomy that she had on the 17th. So now she shares the date of her cousins appendectomy to years ago. She was admitted yesterday and the doctor wants to make sure he gets all of the gunk out! So keep her in your prayers. Thanks.

Danny Lost his first tooth

As of Monday, September 7th, Danny is toofless on the bottom left. He was soooo excited after he realized that he actually lost it and it was ok that it happened. Now you might wonder why it took so long to get excited about it...well of course there is a story. How could it not be an event and part of our lives!!???!!!

We had some of our friends kids over for the night for labor day weekend, and my parents came over for breakfast (family tradition). Breakfast was pancakes, eggs, and linguesa (Portuguese sausage). Well we were done eating and went out front to enjoy the day and Matt and I were talking to my parents and the kids were playing around the inside of the house and out back. All of the sudden the little girl staying with us, who is Danny's age, comes out screaming, "Danny's bleeding!" Now as most of you who know us we don't over react to much anymore, if we don't hear blood curdling screams of pain. And plus, our little friend, tends to panic when she sees blood. So we calming ask her is Danny hurt, and she said, "Yes, he is bleeding from his mouth, he bit a pancake and is bleeding." I am thinking he must have fallen, while eating a pancake and busted his lip or bit his lip while eating it. So we go inside to check it out and Danny meets us at the front door with some blood on his lip and in his mouth. Matt bends down and starts checking things out and asking Danny what happened. Danny says pretty much the same thing as our guest and Matt looks at me and says his gums are bleeding around his tooth. He has knocked most of the tooth out by the root.

So with this discovery we go into the room to check out THIS pancake. Well nothing seems to be overly hard, and there is nothing hard in. So I take Danny into the bathroom to clean up his mouth and assess the actual damage and what can we do. Well as I am rinsing I notice something and call Matt into the bathroom with Danny and me. I said I don't think we can save the tooth, it is broken at the root, but I don't think he broke it, because behind it is a NEW TOOTH!! It was loose and the pancake dislodged it from the other baby teeth supporting it. So we pulled it out the rest of the way, and Danny went from a panic giggle to pure joy of realizing the Tooth Fairy was coming!

Now Mike who is older and has not lost a tooth becomes quite upset and jealous about Danny loosing a tooth before him. So we had to do a lot of consoling and telling him he will loose his soon enough and checking EVERY single one of his teeth to see if he had any loose teeth. Also for my nieces and nephews who know I seek out loose teeth to pull, will know how much of a shock this story is that Danny literally lost his tooth eating a pancake! Well that was our fun event for Labor Day weekend! Hope you had a good laugh, we sure did!

Erin's stomach ache

Well if you haven't heard, we had some excitement that started on Saturday, with little Miss Erin. She was complaining that her stomach hurt all the way across. We thought it was growing pains or just nervous about something. On Sunday she was continued complaining about it, but it wasn't bad, it just hurt. So she went to church, had dinner, and got ready for school the next day. She gets up on Monday, and says her stomach is still hurting, but she didn't have a fever so we sent her to school. She didn't eat breakfast because she wasn't hungry. I get a call about 10 from the school. Erin is in the office complaining of a stomach ache. Me responding, Erin needs to stay at school, she is probably hungry, or growing, so just get through it and suck it up. At 1 the school calls again, Erin didn't eat lunch because her stomach hurts and can you come pick her up. I am pretty upset with her as I am heading to school and leaving with her. I bring her home and tell her if you are really sick you need to lie down and take a nap. So I give her some Tylenol and she goes and takes a nap. I leave to go pick up the boys at 3 and come home around 3:45. She wakes up and I ask her how she is feeling and check her head to see if she has a fever. She doesn't, so I proceed to let her know, You don't have a fever, so you if you don't get better fast we are going to have to take you to the doctor and they will have to draw your blood. Erin, who is deathly afraid of needles says, I don't care I want to get rid of this pain. I knew something was really wrong when she said that. I called the doctor and met Matt down in Bakersfield for a 6 o'clock appointment for Erin. I left to head back up to Visalia for a meeting dropping the boys off at Grandmas for her to watch them while I attend my scout meeting . Matt and I start texting while they are visiting the Doctor. He texts me saying that she is behind on her immunizations and so they will update those with 5 shots. They get the blood work back and the white blood cell count is normal and they think she might have the flu. (Didn't make since to me due to the fact that she has had the symptoms since Saturday, and no body aches, or fever, and no throwing up or cold.) So anyhow they finish up 5 shots later and still in pain, with instructions if she starts throwing up or the pain gets worse to call them. I get back from my meeting with the boys about 10:30 and Erin and Matt come home probably about 15 minutes later. We put the boys to bed, and have Erin take a bath to relax. And put her to bed and head of to bed ourselves. About 30 minutes after that, Erin is in tears, screaming about her side hurting. We told her to take another bath and gave her some Motrin this time. She ended up taking probably 6 baths and staying up pretty much all night and finally threw up her dinner around 5 a.m. and she finally falls asleep. We get the boys up around 7 to get them ready for school. Matt then calls the experts on what we think might be wrong, the Mechams. I take the boys to school and come back. Matt just finished talking to Bryon and Marcy and thinks Erin is having an appendicitis. We call the Nurse line to update them and they start to ask her some questions and have her jump, I didn't know while Matt was talking to Marcy, she had Erin do the same thing and she doubled over in pain and was bawling a few minutes before I came home. Well same thing happened when she hopped and the nurse said take her to the ER. So we got ready and headed down to Bakersfield, switching out vehicles with my mom so we would have some AC and followed Matt in his truck just in case that wasn't it, and he would be able to go to work and we could come home. We got there about 10:00 and it all began. They did a CT scan and found her appendix to be inflamed possible rupture. We had to wait for the surgeon till 5 when he got through with his scheduled surgery's. By 6 pm she was scheduled for surgery at 9 pm with 5 doses of morphine from the time we got there till surgery! Luckily, (thank you for all of the prayers for this one) An attendant for another surgery was late, so they bumped Erin up to 7 for her surgery. As they were taking it out if fell apart, the doctor said she was very lucky, if she had waited till the later time it would have been a lot worse, because it would have been a full appendectomy instead of laproscopy. She went through the surgery well but afterwards she had a fever. They still don't know what was causing it but they started her on antibiotics and we were able to come home Thursday night. So Erin is home recovering for the next two weeks before she can go back to school and that also means she doesn't get to try out for volleyball. (I think I am more upset about that than she is, but she is still upset about it) So keep praying for her, she is doing well and recovering.

Summer's End!

Yup Summer has come to a close around the Poole household. The kids started school on the 12th of August!! Yup, lovely California! The state government can even now mess up summer vacation!! LOL This summer has been very eventful to say the least. Updates on some of the latest, Erik's eye surgery went REALLY well. We were very entertained when he was coming out of anesthesia from some other patients and parents around us. But it was very quick and he has hated us this entire last week and a half because he can't do anything...literally. He is very lucky he is going to school! But he should be back in full form by this Thursday. The pics are of him after surgery. He just looks so cute! We had to take him back down to UCLA for his post op on the first day of school, so he went for an hour then we left. The doctor laughed at us when we asked him for a excuse note for school. He said are you kidding, what are they thinking starting school so early!?! But he said everything looks really good. We have to go back in 5 weeks to see if his muscles have strengthened correctly. Yuppie road trip!

We are still waiting to hear from the doctor about Danny. It will be interesting, we have some parenting classes that will be coming up soon that Matt and I are to attend. Erin and Mike are doing better!! So hoping to keep everything going. We are still working out some of the kinks with things.

Now all of the kids are in school, are biggest concern was with Danny. Thankfully he is loving school, which is such a relief. He and Mike just love walking to class together. Mike loves his new teacher, he said she is tall and must be the boss. (now I know why the kid doesn't listen to me, I am not tall enough!) The good news is his teacher from last year came in to observe him for an afternoon and said he is doing a 100% better. :) Erin is enjoying the class switches and having new teachers every period. Erik is still trying to adjust, because of his surgery, so he hopes everything will be so much better when he can go out to recess with his classmates. He says his teacher is ok. (lol)

Demo and remodeling is going slower than I hoped. Hopefully with things slowing down a little we can get this project moving just a little faster!!!! But the kids are making sure we have to remove certain things (ugh)! So their work has already begun. LOL

Erin is 12!

My first thought is wow what a neat girl I have, and gee the second is when did we grow up enough to have a 12 year old!!?? Well for her birthday she was able to visit Disneyland. And we will celebrate her birthday on Sunday when Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Carrie get back from visiting Great G & G Escriva on Sunday. So until then a list of 12 awesome things about Erin:

1. First Born!
2. Born in Texas (only a few are blessed with that honor)
3. Has beautiful blond CURLY hair
4. Eyes that change from blue to hazel (like her aunt)
5. Loves Horses, and any animal really, but horses first
6. Wants to be a Veterinarian
7. Loves to listen to all kinds of music
8. Can sing and plays the piano
9. Enjoys LONG showers
10. Loves all of her family (and we love her too!)
11. Can't wait to be a true TEEN!
12. Loves playing games

She is really excited about turning twelve though for some of its benefits: She now gets to have real babysitting jobs, gets to go to the temple w/ her dad for the 1st time to do baptisms for the dead, gets her own cell phone, can wear SOME makeup, can go to YW's now, and she also got to go to camp. So she is lovin' it! Happy 12th Birthday Sweet Pea!

Yes I am alive

It took a few days to recuperate but it was such a wonderful time, busy and just getting geared up for the rest of the summer! Have fun and thanks everyone who we saw and visited! Miss all of you.

Post #6 Girls camp

Yup Erin and I went to girls camp together which was so much fun. Oh the pranks, the sleepless nights, the wonderful food, the awesome girls, the mountain air, the mud fights, the spiritual devotionals, the crazy camp skits, and even crazier songs, the clean awards, great crafts, fun activities, my daughter getting over her fear of heights somewhat, the belches and excess gas, the new camp name (Roadrunner), the testimony meeting, new friends, old friends reacquainted, Phase 10, cramming 17 girls in a small space, the meds, the warm fuzzies! The memories are wonderful and we only had one ER visit at the end of camp which turned out well after surgery. She is recovering well and grateful for all of her hard work and so glad she made it through the week before it happened. We had a blast! and we are definitely BELIEVERS!! And a special thank you to Anita!

Post #5 St. George, UT

So on our way back from the visit/funeral in Midville, we had another family event to attend. We arrived in St. George to visit my cousins and celebrate the 4th of July with them and bless Karli and Kevin's baby boy. We had a great time visiting. My mom and dad meet us there late Saturday so they went and hung out with Aunt Judy and Uncle Al. We hung out with Kasi and her two kids Dax and Gracie and went to the fireworks there in St. George. After the fire works the kids got to go to the firestaion where Kasi's husband Vince works. He is a fireman and of course the boys LOVED it. But it really paid off on Sunday after the blessing when Vince had to take Matt to the ER. His leg was getting really bad and swelling up. So he was able to get in and out in record time. Tons of Antibiotics and prescriptions. We had dinner at Aunt Judy's after the blessing (which my garden provided the corn on the cob and the watermelon :)) Yeah! So then we left there for another party to celebrate Vince and Dax's birthday's. They had it at a park with a water playground in it. It was a lot of fun. We then went back to the hotel and let the boys go swimming with their cousins till we took off. The boys stayed with my parents because they were staying an extra day and we had to get back because Erin and I were taking off to girls camps and Matt had to go to San Francisco. We got back around 3:30 in the morning. Which leads into the 6th and final post.