Breakfast with Santa

My ward did a breakfast with Santa for our Christmas activity this year. It was great! Santa and Mrs. Claus were FANTASTIC!! Although, apparently Ethan didn't think so. He was not happy that I made him sit there. Even the teenagers got in on the fun, so here are some of the pictures.

Connie is Baptized!

Last Sunday was Connie's baptism day. She was so excited. Grandma Connie and Granddaddy Tom drove up for the occasion and it turned out to be a really wonderful evening. William said a beautiful prayer to start us off. Then Stirling (my nephew) gave a really beautiful talk on baptism. You could really tell that he had put a lot of thought into it and was really thinking about Connie when he wrote it. It was very mature. Then the baptism happened. She was really into it and you could see her feeling the spirit. Afterwards I asked her how she felt. She said she felt very special. I said it was because she was very special. She looked beautiful.

Then, Aunt Stephanie gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. It was also very good. Connie seemed very intent in her listening to it. Then the confirmation. It was so moving to me to watch my wonderful husband baptism and confirm our daughter. He's a good man, and she is so beautiful and sweet. I felt so blessed!


It was overall a really wonderful evening.

Falling in love...

Billy (the teenager living with us right now) has really just fallen into a regular role in our family. It's a little weird to be parenting a 14-year-old, but he fits right in. He's really taking to the other children now and playing with them and helping with them. He has three siblings, and has pretty much raised them, so he was a little stand-offish about the little ones. Especially Ethan. But I think that as he's seen that I don't expect his help, but appreciate it when he does help he has warmed up a lot.

He's really a sweet kid and has now taken to calling me mom. I love it. I feel like he belongs here with us in our home and that I'm meant to be his mom. The other day I was helping him a bit before he went to a friends house and then went out to meet the mom when she came to pick him up. We chatted for a second and then he left. Right after he left I got a text from him saying "I love you". It wasn't the first time he's said it to me, but the first time he said it first. I'm usually the one to say it. I really just feel he's meant to be my son and have fallen in love so quickly. I'm so grateful to have him in our family. The kids love him too. Connie and Kyler think he's very funny. Of course he cuts up a lot for them. Ethan has now taken to going over and demanding his attention regularly. He's good at giving him the attention he wants. In short, aside from normal teenage stuff (which I never thought I'd be dealing with this early), things are going great.

Falling in love...

Billy (the teenager living with us right now) has really just fallen into a regular role in our family. It's a little weird to be parenting a 14-year-old, but he fits right in. He's really taking to the other children now and playing with them and helping with them. He has three siblings, and has pretty much raised them, so he was a little stand-offish about the little ones. Especially Ethan. But I think that as he's seen that I don't expect his help, but appreciate it when he does help he has warmed up a lot.

He's really a sweet kid and has now taken to calling me mom. I love it. I feel like he belongs here with us in our home and that I'm meant to be his mom. The other day I was helping him a bit before he went to a friends house and then went out to meet the mom when she came to pick him up. We chatted for a second and then he left. Right after he left I got a text from him saying "I love you". It wasn't the first time he's said it to me, but the first time he said it first. I'm usually the one to say it. I really just feel he's meant to be my son and have fallen in love so quickly. I'm so grateful to have him in our family. The kids love him too. Connie and Kyler think he's very funny. Of course he cuts up a lot for them. Ethan has now taken to going over and demanding his attention regularly. He's good at giving him the attention he wants. In short, aside from normal teenage stuff (which I never thought I'd be dealing with this early), things are going great.

Twister Moves

We had some friends over for dinner one night and all the kids wanted to play twister moves. What was funny about this was that Ethan insisted on playing. Here's the cute video of him playing.

TRAUMA!!!

Kyler turned 7 today. I can't believe the time is going so fast! It's unbelievable! I thought, just for this occasion I would post one of my favorite pictures of Kyler. It's with my best friend Debbie. He was about 2. It's so cute!!

And here's a more recent one from about a week ago, on Kyler's 1st grade field trip. He's so big!!

Crazy 8's

Crazy 8's!
I have been tagged!

8 T.V. shows I love to watch:
1. Pushing Daisies
2. Ace of Cakes
3. What Not to Wear
4. Salon Take-over
5. John and Kate plus 8
6. Eli Stone
7. 10 Years Younger
8. Cash Cab

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Red Lobster
2. Olive Garden
3. Wendy's
4. Sunrise Cafe
5. Chili's
6. Steak and Shake
7. Cracker Barrell
8. Cheesecake Factory

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. Babysat a cutie!
2. Had fun with my nephew.
3. Went to the store with 5 children (2 babies, and 6, 7, 8 year olds. Insane, huh?)
4. Watched Speed Racer
5. Played with my kids
6. Went for a walk
7. Planned my singing time
8. Went to the Hoosier Road Elementary Carnival...and had a BLAST!

8 things I am looking forward to:
1. HALLOWEEN
2. Time out for Women
3. Christmas
4. talking to my Debbie!!
5. my anniversary (it's been almost 9 years . .. CRAZY!!!)
6. Fall Break!!
7. Owning my own home
8. Getting a Sewing Machine

8 things I love about fall:
1. beautiful leaves
2. Fantastic open the windows weather
3. I get to break out my light jackets
4. I love fall fashion
5. Cold, I love Cold
6. HALLOWEEN!!
7. My children's birthdays...2 anyway
8. hot chocolate

8 things on my wish list:
1. A Sewing Machine!!!
2. paying off all debt!!
3. buying a house
4. Going to TX for Christmas
5. The new Toyota Sienna
6. My bus kids to have just one good day (the middle school)
7. Having more me time. I don't get much these days.
8. Getting off my last blood pressure medication.

8 people I am tagging
1. Mark and Tara
2. Stephanie
3. Sarah and Mark
4. Lianne Ambs
5. I don't know enough people that blog apparently
6. n/a
7. n/a
8. n/a

The Crazy Bus Driver

Usually in the mornings when I get to the elementary school a few minutes early, I do a staring contest. It keeps the kids quiet and we have a little fun. Well, every Friday if the week has been good, we have "free-seating Friday". All of the kids get to sit in whatever seat they'd like, whereas I have assigned seating all of week. Usually on those days, I tend to play music on the radio. I used to play radio disney, but now I take my iPod and I've loaded some fun kids tunes on it.

Well, today on the way to school the kids were asking me to do the staring contest. I said, "nope, stay in your seats...today we are going to dance." They looked at me like I was nuts! I played the Cha-Cha Slide. (It's the song that was on the Mcdonalds commercials with the adorable boy who dances to it while dunking his chicken nuggets) It randomly tells you to jump one, two or five times. It was hilarious. My entire bus was literally jumping. It was fun.

This afternoon while the kids were boarding the bus after school, I played "The Chicken Dance". I was at the front of the bus doing it. It was hilarious!! The kids walking by the bus were giving me the funniest looks. Sarah the crazy bus driver!!

Homecoming

Billy recently went to a homecoming dance. He has a girlfriend named Jilly (which we love to say...Billy and Jilly). She's really cute and they had a good time. He looked very handsome and we were proud of him. Here are some pictures.

Her mom took these. I really like this one. I think it's my favorite.

HOLA CHINCHILLA

So, to catch up on life. A friend of mine recently moved away and was getting rid of her chinchilla. I unfortunately gave in to my sweet girls and decided to get the stupid thing. They are very messy. Anyway, the great thing is that Elana fell in love with it and we were able to talk her parents into taking it to her new place. She was picked up Sunday and now the chinchilla is gone. My favorite thing to do was to go squat by it's cage and say "HOLA CHINCHILLA" in a low voice with a spanish accent and for some reason it was scared of that! It would run in it's wheel.

Jason's favorite thing to do was call it "cat food". Elana named the thing snickers, but Jay never called it that. I didn't either. I thought it was funny to call it chinchilla. (pronounced cheen-chee-ya) It really annoyed Elana to call the thing cat food, but it was true. As I was taking the above picture, the below shows what was next to me on the desk!! :)

Ethan and the Bicycle

The other night I was sitting outside watching Ethan on this incredibly beautiful evening and he was sitting by a bicycle trying to figure out how the wheels worked. I thought it was so cute that I took some pictures. Enjoy.

Our Crazy Life

Well, all is going well in the Lopez home. Pretty crazy with 5 kids around, but good. Having a teenager has definitely put our house into a bit of chaos, but in a good way. He's a great kid and we really enjoy him. So here's the news by kid.

Billy, 14, gave a talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. He was really nervous and woke up that morning saying he couldn't do it. Jason was so good and talked him through it and wrote down his talk for him and it went so good. He looked so handsome, and was articulate and even went 3 minutes over time. I was so proud!!

Elana, 9, is enjoying opportunities I'm not sure she's ever had before. Piano lessons, part in the primary program, homework assistance, choir at school, field trips, etc. Normal, everyday, 9-year old stuff. I have to say that the three kids right in a row (ages 9, 8, and 7 next month) is a bit of a challenge. Especially the two girls who are either best friends and conspiring together, or sick of each other and trying to get some space. It's fun.

Connie, almost 8, is doing great. She loves having Elana around and is even enjoying having a big brother to get on his nerves (which she really does good at). She and Elana tease him about girls a lot. He really doesn't like it. Connie is improving in her reading and I think it is helping her a little for Elana to be a good reader. Connie is excelling in piano. She really seems to have a natural feel for it. She loves to practice (how long do you think that will last?) and is really doing great!! She's growing more beautiful everyday and we can't believe she's going to be baptized next month!

Kyler is actually struggling with the adjustment. I think it's brought a whole new level of chaos for him to get used to. He's doing well, but whiny a lot. I don't think he could care less about having two more children in the house, but does talk to Billy sometimes. The other night I was sitting in the back porch and he came out and sat with me and talked to me about school. It was just a sweet moment with just he and I. He's a cute and loving boy.

Ethan is a booger. I love that the two extra children go to school all day too, so that I still get my 5 hours of just Ethan time. I love the one-on-one attention I've been able to give him and all of the love I get from him. He's very loving and huggy. We love him. His new thing is playing peek-a-boo with everyone. He puts a blanket on his head and pulls it off and says "a-boo". It's so cute!!

Well, I think that's the latest. Enjoy these few pictures of Billy and Kyler and Ethan. The one of Billy is from his ordination into the office of teacher and the one of the other two boys is from a little ride-on car in Walmart. Ethan loved it!

Our newest blessing...

Well, our lives have drastically changed this week. To shorten a VERY long story, we have a family in our ward that has hit rock bottom and lost everything. They have four children. Jason and I both feel very drawn to these sweet chilren and have grown to really love them very quickly. To help them in these tough times for them, we have taken two of their children into our home. We couldn't take all four and two of them have special needs, so we have the other two.

The first is a 9-year-old girl. Her name is Elena and we think that she is the sweetest thing. She is polite and loving and intelligent and wonderful. Connie is so very excited about the whole thing and it was hard to get them to sleep last night because they were so excited. (Plus, we were trying to work out the logistics of it all with the parents and bishopric)

The second is a 14-year-old boy. Somehow this boy has come out of a really tough situation as a shining example to his parents. I hope they can see what a good kid he truly is. We struggled of this decision a little, but after some prayer felt very at peace. We know it's all going to be a bit of adjustment, but feel blessed with the opportunity to bring love and stability to these tender spirits.

Pray for us! We're excited, but timid in the responsibilty this all brings. All of the sudden we are parenting 5 children and one of them a new experience. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure Heavenly Father will guide.

Kyler's big news.

Kyler started 1st grade this year which means spelling tests. It's a bit of a stressful adjustment. His teacher started a method where if they get a 9/10 or 10/10 on the pretest on Monday, they get a challenge list of words. Kyler got the challenge list this week. I was concerned because he really doesn't like to work at his school work. Well, I set up a little spreadsheet for him to study on. It had the words and I had him type them five times each. I set it up so that every box had a different fun font in it. It was funny. He called me over everytime he began a new word, Mom look at this one!

So, the big news is that he got all seven words right!!! When the kids get perfect scores on their spelling test we take them on a special date. We started this last year with Connie because she struggles a bit with spelling. He's going bowling with Daddy this week. He's VERY excited.

Ethan's Playground

I thought I would post these cute pictures. When we got the swingset the people were also getting rid of a sandbox that was under it. We took it, but then started thinking about the amount of sand Ethan would eat if we filled it. So we cleaned it out and filled it with balls. Ethan loves it. It's out on our porch, so when the weather is right I can just open up the house and let him have fun. The afternoon I took these pictures it was REALLY hot outside. We had just come back from an exhausting afternoon on the bus and we were HOT. So, we put up our kid pool (which is too deep for Ethan) and Ethan's baby pool in the porch. I was cracking up at the little playground he had out there. Take a look.

The Walking Man!!!

Well, the day has come. I forgot to post this, but Ethan started walking about 2 weeks ago, and is now full-force! Walking everywhere. For now I like it better because he's a little slower than crawling, but I know that in a week my life as I know it is over.

The kicker is that he walked during the adult session of Stake Conference. Yes, that means we weren't there!!!! Luckily my very smart nephew who was watching him at the time had the presence of mind to video it for me. I guess that means Kyler was the only one we got to witness walk. Connie did it with Grandma Connie while I was out with a friend, and Jay was at military camp. Little Cheaters!!

The First Football Game in Lucas Oil Stadium

Here in Indianapolis the big news is the finalizing of the new Colts Stadium. The Lucas Oil Stadium.




To start of the stadium the local high schools got to play in the stadium and Camden's high school got to be first. Fishers High School played against Noblesville High.

The star of the game (and a trivia question for the rest of his life) was a kid from the Fishers 2nd Ward named Tyler Carroll. The first player to make a touchdown in Lucas Oil Stadium.




Camden was the star of the Fishers band if you ask me. Here she is, she looked so beautiful.




We had a really great time at all the football game festivities.

Just a cute photo

I just wanted to post this photo because I found it so adorable. My friend Karen Bell took it at Ethan's blessing and I just thought it turned out cute.

Ethan's 1!!!

A few weeks ago we had a little party for Ethan's 1st birthday. We invited a few families that are close to us and his Aunt, Uncle and Cousins of course. It was lots of fun. We had a little construction theme going on, which was funny considering that he is so DEstructive. But, it was cute and we had a great time. Here are some pictures that say it all...



He got a little basketball hoop from Nana and Grumpy Lopez. He was pretty happy with it. He still plays with it a lot. The kids in the backround are Brendon and Eddison Williams. A family we've become close to here.

This is a picture of the birthday cake. It's just a chocolate cake with a small mound of cake that I took off to give to him to eat. It has little construction vehicles on it. It turned out cute.

Here's the end result of the cake eating. You can't tell, but he does have a decent amount of cake in his hair. (what little he has) because his cousing Payne and Stirling coached him into rubbing his head. It was pretty funny. Obviously the cake made him VERY happy.
Lastly I wanted to post this cute video. Grandma Connie made him a football pillow for his birthday and he loves to play with balls and he loves to snuggle soft things, so he really loved his pillow. It's cute.

Our new Swingset

We got a new swingset this past week. It's actually a funny story. A good friend of ours who is an expert at getting deals on things (she's a single mom) found this swingset on a yahoo group called freecyclefishers. She requested it and went to look at it for us. She gave me a call to see if I was interested and obviously I was. It has been wonderful.
Ethan obviously loves it. He loves to swing. He'll do it for hours. We have a pretty hilly backyard, so it was difficult to find a level placeto put it. Luckily one of the only level places is right out my bedroom window. So when it is relatively cool in the morning, I open my bedroom window and let Connie take him out and swing him while I accomplish laundry and such. These pictures were from a pleasant evening when we were all out.

Here's a picture of the whole swingset. It's pretty nice and my children and their friends love it. It's pretty weathered, but it came with two swings, a baby swing and the rings. Perfect for our family. We're going to stain it and replace a broken ladder, but otherwise who can beat the price!!


Here's Kyler going down the slide. He likes the slide. With a broken ladder, he just climbs up the slide. He thinks he's pretty clever. They also wanted to be rid of a sandbox. The sand in it was pretty much ruined, so we plan on refilling. Right now, it's like a ball pit and Kyler likes that too. He also thinks it's cool to swing with his baby brother.

Lastly, the little second mom with her baby brother. She takes him out to swing quite a bit. He thought swinging this way was so funny.

Piggy boy

I just wanted to post this picture because I think it's so cute. This is how much Ethan loves food. Crawling all over with a pizza crust in his mouth. He's a funny boy.

Independence Day

This fourth of July we had a chance to go to the Symphony on the Prairie here in Fishers. It's held here at a place called Connor prairie, which is sort of like a history museum. There are some reinactments of historical towns and such. It was really fun. We brought in a picnic dinner and enjoyed the evening rain-free, which was lucky!There a the sympony they had an Instrument Petting Zoo. It was cool, you could try out all differnt types of instruments. Kyler played a violin, but I didn't have the camara yet when he did that. So, here are some pictures of the kids trying out some of the different percussion instruments.




Ethan just enjoyed being outside and flirting with people who were around. He was really cute the entire evening.





The one frustrating things about Ethan was that he kept climbing into the chairs. We have these wonderful chairs that are backpacks.
It was great because the older kids going carry their own chairs on their backs. They aren't the most stable though so we had to keep a grip on them when Ethan climbed in. He's such a climber.


The evening ended with The 1812 Overture with real cannons and then with a patriotic medley with fireworks. Needless to say this was a little disconcerting for our very noise-sensitive Kyler. We weren't sure how Ethan was going to do with the fireworks either, but we had barely changed him into his pajamas and then laid him down in his carseat with a bottle when they started. He didn't even care, he just laid there and watched.Kyler, on the other hand, was not so good about it. The good thing was we were prepared for this and brought his headphones and my iPod. He enjoyed some music while watching the show. He only freaked out at the end with the finale. It was pretty loud even for me, so you can imagine how he reacted.
This is a horrible picture of me, but funny of Kyler and how he was (not)watching the finale. It was pretty spectacular and made for a very enjoyable evening. Enjoy the brief video of the final fireworks for the evening.