The Dideon Family - A Day In Their Lives...

Mother's Day Giveaway!

2011-05-04T22:53:00.001-07:00

Check out Wild Olive - for some great ideas:
http://www.wildolivetees.com/blog/

Easter

2011-04-24T21:59:00.001-07:00

We had a good day and are all exhausted. Kids are sleeping in the back seats they have played well with there second cousins.

I wish we could do this more... the kids all had so much fun. There was a big easter egg hunt and the kids went out with their plastic shopping bags I had in the car.... had three so Reagan had one of those big black plastic bags.... it was so funny with him dropping eggs in this huge bag.

We enjoyed the wonderful brunch that Tammy put on for 300. It was beautifully put together and the food was excellent.

The kids loved sunday school and we enjoyed the service .... Steve did a great job preaching.

We met a couple who are new to their church and have two kids adopted and their son Luke is from China. We connected -- Luke is now 11 and has been home a year.

They joined us and all the Doerksen's for lunch and another quick Easter egg hunt.... the kids are all the same ages and did so well together. We realized we need to do this more often. Jacob and Reagan even played a game of chess.

Then we headed for Aunt Dee's place and met up with my 2nd cousin mike and his family. Again the kids connected and had a blast and their son Max and Reagan played a game of ping pong.

They all chased bunnies outside and then did crafts together .... I was so impressed at home well they did.

We hope to hook up again for the 4th of July. We'll also have Sandy from Australia and China with us then and possibly friends from Thailand .... will be a busy time.

Here a two pix from tonight my good camera battery died and the phone took iffy pics but you can see all the kids playing with popsicle sticks ....
Will have to look at getting the bulk packs for the kids.
So one more day and the kids are back to school and life returns to normal.
Lavonne

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T09:20:00.001-07:00

May God richly bless you all this special day...... He has Risen!!!

HE HAS RISEN INDEED....

Today we go to my cousins church he started it 4-5 years ago and it has done well. They have a big Easter Egg hunt for the kids and then a brunch afterwards then we head to their home for lunch.

Later we visit my Aunt Dee and her family. We did an early Easter dinner with Scott's mom on Wednesday.

It is a beautiful day and we are blessed!

May you all experience God's presence on this special day.
Lavonne

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

It's been waay toooo looong!

2011-04-23T20:56:00.001-07:00

Well I am testing this from my Droid phone .... if I can make this work I can post again regularly since last June I fell off the band wagon in posting as life became hectic.

We have had the kids spring break this week and have had a great time together and have enjoyed ourselves visiting with family and friends. Back to a normal schedule on Tuesday looking forward to it....

Well hoping this works and I will try to post a picture of Lily our cat.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Chinese New Year Greetings for 2011

2011-01-31T23:16:00.000-08:00

Create your own free ecard

We thought we'd go for a repeat picture this year - this time after 5 tries we just got tired and the smiles got serious - like to be saying..... "Hurry Up!"
You can compare and see how the kids have changed and grown in a year.........

Wishing you a wonderful year full of blessings and great joy
God Bless you all
The Dideon Clan :-)

surgery update 8:30 am

2011-01-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

So we left for Children's at 5:35 am this morning and got there at 6:10 am for our 6:15 am check in. It was raining hard and i was not sure if we would be on time? but traffic was light this morning in spite of all the rain. They are expecting mud slides this wknd. At least it is not all the snow the mid-west and east coast are now having.

We went through all the usual check in- triple-plus check his id to make sure they have the right body going in. Lamie got a hospital neck braclet too -(she has made the rounds - this was a gift to Kaitlyn from their AZ cousin, but Reagan now has it and loves it) - thanks Caryn!

We got him dressed in his gown and waiting and cuddled until it was time to go. He did not want his picture taken. He is just starting to go through a no-photo stage (my boy is growing up) - so did not push and just got this lovely back end shot :-)

They got him around 7:30 am and i understand they were putting him under around 8 am with his choice of bubblegum flavor gas (we get to keep the mask later) - have a collection of them now!!

They said at about 9:30 am i would get an update and then around 10 am he will be done and head into recovery. Then will be led to his room where Scott and i will be waiting for him. Thank goodness for WiFi. Scott is just taking the kids to school now, so then will head our way and be here hopefully in time for when Reagan comes to the room. I am ready for a nap - my Grande coffee is not working hard enough !!

So then we should be staying the night. The top picture is from last night. The school had a PTA mtg + Speg dinner, and had an art show with all the kids submissions. This is Reagan with his snake watercolor painting. He us so proud. Kaitlyn did a nice project and it was posted as well. Will show later.

We could not make the mtg since we headed off to get a new car!!! Yes, we were blessed with a wonderful gift of a BRAND NEW mini van, a 2011 Sienna XLE AWD, with only 20 miles on it. So they are detailing it and prep'g it for us and we will pick it up on Saturday after Reagan is released. So last night i drove home in a new Versa which is also very nice - Scott even talked the manager to treating us to a McDonald's dinner since we had not really eaten and the kids were hungry. Got an amazing deal and just so grateful for this gift. We at this point with keep our 1999 Sienna with 235,000 miles on it as Scott's back-up car - until this one dies. It has served us very well and we just fell in love with how well it performed and low maintenance. I am thrilled to have a new car again.

Lavonne

6:15 am

2011-01-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

At 5:30 am - just hours away we will be leaving the house.... Reagan and I to drive to Children's.
At 6:15 am we check in
At approx 7:30-8 am Surgery will begin and Dr. Egbert and his intern in training will work at scrapping bone from Reagan's left hip (opposite side) and then the other doctor will be taking this bone and put it into the whole in his upper gum on the right side. This will take a few days and will mold like cement and the bone will set and hold Reagan's teeth as they move them about to straighten them. They will also be removing one more tooth - which will make it 5 since October.

This should be his last surgery for now - which is #8 - he should have one more when he is about 16.
So continue to keep our little guy in prayer!!
Lavonne

Reagan's surgery tomorrow Friday the 21st

2011-01-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

Our precious Reagan (8)

will be having surgery tomorrow morning!

We have to arrive at 6:15 am and he will be first in.

This will be his 8th Surgery and the 2nd in 3 months.

He will be having a bone graft from his hip bone to fill the hole in his upper gum line

We will be staying the night and will go home hopefully Saturday

Prayers are requested for our precious little guy.

He is such a trooper - he does not think much of this - we know his hip bone will definitely be sore

for a while after this. Will try and post and Facebook updates from Children's

Thank you for your faithful prayers

Lavonne

Way overdue - Wishing you all a great 2011 from the Dideon's

2011-01-07T21:56:00.000-08:00

Digital collage customized with Smilebox

I know I have been almost 5 months missing in action - but I vow to get back to blogging this year and in the next few weeks will be catching up with snippets of the year for you and then starting fresh for 2011.
It amazes me how many people over the years have followed our family - many I never knew before and have become friends via the internet.

May this year be an awesome one for each one of you - full of adventure, God's wonderful blessings and grace for 2011.

Christmas got the best of the Dideon Clan with a full schedule of activities - so here is wishing you a wonderful 2011 - praying that God will bless you and give you great joy and happiness throughout this year.

Our greeting card includes our family photo with Santa (including Winston with "Green" teeth) decided to not photoshop it :-) - thanks to some wonderful green candy !!!

The kids wishing you a greeting, their own Christmas Cards and lastly - Taylor sharing the Christmas Story in fast play mode !

Scott, Lavonne

Reagan (8), Kaitlyn (7), Taylor (6) and Winston (6) + Odessa and Lily (our cats)

2010-12-21T21:11:00.001-08:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

A touching story of Zac who's life was touched by cancer

2010-08-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

The mess... and an entertaining story of pets in our house

2010-08-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well will try and post pix tomorrow - but we now have a red fence?

Scott bought some stain on sale cheap - i know why!! i think it was clearance of a non-selling item which is a nice barn red color - for me it is far from my color of preference - and we are over half way done and i am hoping they still have more of this ugly color to finish the fence.

Scott only bought 2 cans i knew it would take at least 3 - so he goes back today to get some more and then a bit of some brown for me to tone it down!?

With every step we uncover more stuff in need of repair. Scott started at the back-side of the house yesterday - we have this little closet thing for the power... to the hot tub - when we moved in the door was just hanging there - well it is desperate need of painting as is many things - we have learned lots in purchasing this house :-)

Well as Scott was working on it - he found all the roof tiles rotten and in much need of replacing and the walls warped and in need of replacing - it needs to be taken down, but on our budget it will get rehashed??????

Well a funny story about rodents... Scott is an Entomologist which is a bug man in the killing form as he works for a pest control company here. Well in Feb he found a deer mouse running across our laundry room floor - so the next day set up traps in the crawl space and then closed up holes and killed about 6. A week later found the food stash of cat food in the shoe closet. So i thought we were done!!

Well last week Sat night (9 days ago) I woke up at 3am to hear Lily busy chasing something near the staircase. I woke Scott up and we watched as Lily caught a Deer Mouse in her mouth - tail hanging out until she tried to re-grip and lost the little guy who went under the stove. So the next day Scott pulled out the stove and closed up the area and cleaned and sprayed. Well we though we were done! the next day i was cleaning our bathroom floor and hit the wall by the shower and a bunch of ants fell out -once i got the floor cleaning solution near the moulding i had a ton of ants come out which once i got Scott to check - we discovered they are moisture ants - so now have to pull back the wall and see how much damage we have. Scott when we moved in had to replace the flooring and prob should have done the wall too - so we may have a major task/project ahead of us - not something we are looking forward too.
More for my bug man to do - humm - hope it happens soon!!

So Monday night at 11:30 pm - i see Lily's back and tail sticking out of the Living Room sofa and Odessa sitting nearby watching tentatively as we are climbing the stairs and i say to Scott this is not normal and I think i know what is up.... so we head down and only mins later a little Deer Mouse runs across our living room - i grabbed my camera and we all start running around the room like a circus act - Scott, the cats and I - it was very funny chasing this mouse with containers trying to catch it - finally we did and the cats found it all very interesting. Scott had a cage and thought it would be nice to keep the little guy? not me!
So off to the garage the little went and Reagan named it for his birthday.....

Then Tues night Scott came home with a house mouse he caught on the job and so we had two cages of mice - I am definitely not thrilled with my Entomologist and the thought of hiring someone else crosses my mind.

So for the next few days we enjoy these two mice??? and the kids want to show them to everyone who comes by. So Reagan heads for camp last week and Tues or Wed night we are outside and Scott sees another Deer mouse scurry on the deck to the BBQ Grill - ugh!
So between him and I we try and catch it and he finally does and puts it in the cage with the other deer mouse - this guy jumps really high and we have concerns the house mouse is stressed and could die.

So by Friday we get Reagan and show him our new pets - by Friday night I go to bed and hear Kaitlyn say to me - that when they checked in on the mice - the house mouse is dead and the other two are missing ???? did i hear her right? so i was going to ask Scott and fell asleep and then on Sat ask Scott and he confirms that the 2 Deer mice had chewed their way out of the plastic cage ... you have to almost laugh at this - I now have no idea where they are and they are either in the garage or the house?

Sat night - Scott sets out glue traps (human) - now these guys are no longer cute! we find that they have chewed a hole in our plastic door sweep to get into the laundry room from the garage and are back eating the cat food. Scott had not thought through all the circumstances and as we just got to bed we hear a thump and a bump.... and we run downstairs to find Odessa our cat stuck to one of the glue boards and we have to pull out the veg oil etc to clean her up - thankfully she was not to traumatized by this - i am just laughing yet feeling sorry for my cat.

Sunday morning - Scott checks and we have one little Deer mouse caught - but the smarter of the two figured out things and chewed more of the sweep to get past the glue board and not get caught. So as of today he is still on the loose - but has left his poop markings all over - we even think he has gone back into the cage to get some food?

So one is still out there and i am sure there are more in the crawl space and i am hoping my husband will get his tools and resolve my issues of having my cat bring a dead or live mouse onto my bed to show off her prize!! Not something i will want to wake up to :-)

Lavonne - 8-2-10

Missing in Action?

2010-07-31T23:18:00.000-07:00

Is Lavonne Missing?

So in the past week i have been asked 3 different times what has happened to me and if I am ok?

I guess I did not realize that June 21st was my last post - a week after school ended? Hummm

I wonder if something happened that has taken my time?

Well I now have 4 "needy" children home all day long every day all summer that is 2 MONTHS!

Counting the days until September when i can have more order in my life again :-)

Then we were starting to countdown my unemployment and really had to look at selling our home and also continue to look for jobs all over including out of state.

So with trying to do interviews at home, arranging with Scott to watch the kids or locking the bedroom door for quite (which Kaitlyn now has figured out how to open!!!)

while i do a phone call or interview... it has been interesting. then for the past 3-4 weeks we have been working on our yard - yes - photo's to come (Have been still busy shooting - just not posting) So have stained the deck, we are almost finished washing and staining the fence, i pruned 2 years of overgrown trees in the front and back of the house and just have a few more to clean up.... we removed 20 years of bark and roots from our backyard garden which was about 2 inches of the topsoil - now having to be removed..... then removing dead or unwanted plants, weeding, and today putting in 4 large ferns we got free from Scott's brother Chris with more to come.... installing 12 - 12" bricks as new steps in our back yard to the power lines, fixing the fence and gates, making a path behind our fence, cutting back 5-6 trees behind our fence which were dying..... then we tackled the garden (growing) and removing years of moss from our bricks (pathway) ---- all which are almost done but not completed.

Some days i have been outside for 8+ hrs working - also have been paying the kids $ .5/hr so on a good day have had all 4 working 2 hrs for me weeding and picking rocks or cleaning moss.

Today all 4 worked at the moss and grass in the bricks near our shed. Yet are getting rich from mom :-)

So with that and all the other things going on - on a daily basis including Reagan at 2 camps, today was a Rodeo for the boys and a birthday party for the girls..... we have just been plain busy. It is looking better - my unemployment ran out in July but was able to have it reinstated up to early Nov I believe so that takes some pressure off us. It is nice to actually have this work done, but have done little play time with the kids and feel a bit bad, but trying to get all this work done and find work as well. It has been a growing time for all of us.

Pray for us and me next week as i have a 3rd interview for a job in Phoenix AZ - there are a few of us candidates and i am hoping to clear this hurdle and then fly there. If this would happen I would move out there and Scott would look for work and we would possibly rent this house out?

We had a house sell 3 doors down from us at a total loss - i believe close to $80-100,000 below value so that really affects us trying to sell this place. So still working through a lot of stuff and figuring out our options. I thought i had some freelance work coming in but got an email tonight they lost the contract - so will see what else is out there. Have one interesting job i want to apply for tomorrow that i think I'd be a great fit for, and reworking my resume and stuff since you have to really market yourself and be quick..... it is a very different market and for me harder since i am looking at re-positioning myself in a whole new industry and field and how or what skills do i have that can transfer over? Lots of self evaluating.

Taylor has Surgery on August 16th to release the automatic sensor on her Veptr titanium bar to assist her growth, and we just had Reagan to the dentist and he will be having dental surgery on Oct 27th just before Halloween (poor guy) to have 4-5 teeth removed and revisit a bone graft so never a dull moment for us and then School is a month away, preparing for school getting supplies and stuff on their lists.

So Scott and I usually crash in bed - in total exhaustion these days - I miss my down time but find time in the yard a bit calming for me - so this is where my rest comes from :-)

I hope to start posting again since we are now in August - was really hoping to have most of this yard work done so we could move to new projects - I am hoping by the wknd end? that is a stretch - but it is a goal!!

Should have pix up and views of the changes in our yard soon!!

Hope all are well and please stay in touch

Lavonne 7-31-10

Winston's 2nd Gotcha Day

2010-06-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Customize your own free picture slideshow

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day Winston

Hard to believe that last Tuesday the 15th it was our anniversary of celebrating two years having our precious Winston join our family. June 15th, 2008 was Father's Day and Scott and Grandpa Jim flew to Xi'an city in Shaanxi Province, China and walked into the Civil Affairs office and saw our precious (An, HuJun) Winston who was suppose to be 3-1/2 but later we found out he was actually 4. He was very sad - since he had lived pretty much his whole life living in an orphanage and all that he knew and loved was there.

He took Grandpa Jim for a walk the next day heading back to the Civil Affairs office looking for his nanny. He grieved pretty hard and was a true challenge for these men those first few days :-)

He was such a precious little guy who bonded right away, but tested boundaries and was covered head to toe in open sores which we learned was a bad case of eczema with a staph infection. They almost were quarantined at the hotel - but managed to have this confirmed.

The last two years this little guy had more surgery that was unplanned to remove his tonsils so he could start to grow, was fully speaking English in 2 months, and gained a passion for anything fast - esp. race cars!! The first few days home he had to adjust to "live" animals which he was terribly fearful of, but now loves our cats and other kinds like dogs and horses. This year finally got over the fear of swimming and now loves it. This little man can pack away the food and loves his "meat" there is not much he won't eat!!!

Small in stature but this guy has a huge confidence level, and is very strong. He is an avid talker and is best friends with his virtual twin Taylor - yet can be arch enemies as well. Competition is fierce for these two.... who will start Kindergarten in September together. He loves his big brother and wants to do everything Reagan does, yet his daddy can do no wrong! He wants to be just like daddy when he grows up and at his graduation noted when he grows up wants to be a scientist. He loves to have holding time with mommy and we often get snuggling time in bed together. We had a difficult journey getting our 4th, but after viewing 4 other boys God directed us to this guy and the process was quick and easy and 7-1/2 months later he was home!

We now have a lifetime to get to know him and continue to see him blossom into the man God wants him to be.

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Mom and Dad and Siblings - 6-21-10

Father's Day 2010 at the Dideon's

2010-06-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

Create a free digital greeting card

Today was Father's Day - for Scott this is #6 - yet we also celebrated our 2 year anniversary of getting Winston (posting will come shortly) - on the 15th which was Father's Day that year (2008) and Grandpa Jim, Scott and Winston were all in China - 3 generations!

This is Scott's 2nd Father's Day with 4 children. This morning we all slept in a bit - so Kaitlyn was the first to great Scott at about 7:15 am and slowly they all came in a bit out of it and climbed into bed and presented Scott with his wonderful homemade cards and gifts.

The photo's are of this morning before getting out of bed :-)

Then the kids helped mom make breakfast - and a hot mocha - it was one big breakfast - it was suppose to be in bed, but Scott landed up joining us downstairs, and then we were off to church. Later he chose to work outside in the rain, digging up rocks in our garden???

After that we headed to the Dideon/Dailey clan Father's Day BBQ in West Seattle for dinner and then after that headed to church for our class and home. Then Scott had to work until midnight - on Father's Day??? oh well it was a good day and a busy one. Scott loves being a dad and is a wonderful dad to our kids - they love him so much xxxxxxxx ooooooooooo

Lavonne 6-20-10

It's time to catch up....

2010-06-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

So May and June have been especially busy for the Dideon clan.... as you can see below by the Smileboxes - we had field trips, birthdays, Mother's Day, concerts and the sort and I am still trying to catch up on all the hundreds of photo's I took during this time.

Today was the final day of school for the kids - Reagan and Kaitlyn will be in daycare until Friday so I can manage a few more job searches and interviews and then the next two weeks Winston and Taylor stay at school to help me out. Then praying I will have a job or an extension to my unemployment so can spend some quality time with the kids.... before going to work, or selling the house, or moving? still not sure what our outcome will be! Hanging in there....

Last week we had Taylor and Winston's graduation to Kindergarten, and yesterday was Kaitlyn's graduation to First Grade, then was Winston's 2 year anniversary to his Gotcha Day and next week is 5 years with having Kaitlyn - so still lots of parties and celebrations. Reagan celebrated his birthday early at school and I was busy scrambling making invitations to his birthday party early for the end of the month - which he handed out today at school. His birthday hits the busiest weekend in Seattle and so decided to make it so that his friends can come - and of course he wants a Terminator Party - so still working on a plan for the party and cake - the cake makes me a bit nervous since that is not an easy subject.

Today I had a doctors appointment to follow up on my medication and all is fine and the stuff is finally working and i am feeling more and more "normal" again! Praise God - it sucks when you just don't feel yourself. I suffered for 3 weeks with side affects and that was not fun either.

I also finally learned about my tremor that i have. It is called ET or Essential Tremor - thankfully it is benign (I have had it 13 years now) - it may have started from my over active Thyroid? but the medicine definitely made it worse but now have it more under control. It is similar to what Katherine Hepburn had - so I jokingly say I will one day have a bobbing head - but honestly when I have watched video's on this - it can be bad - so hoping it won't get much worse. Since being adopted I don't have much history on this - it is mostly genetic so glad i can't pass it along. I do know it has gotten worse over the years but very slightly - it is a bit embarrassing when someone stops their conversation with me and says "Whats wrong with your hands?"

We were suppose to have some really nice weather this week, but it decided to wait - so we are still waiting for a nice day to get the yard back in shape, I will post photo's of our cleaned and repaired roof, it looks like new and are so thankful for the "gift/help" this was too much for Scott to do, we are still working on the staining and have the first coat on the deck and hoping we can tackle the fence soon.

Scott eliminated a ton of branches hanging over our fence and also cut down/back some trees. I have been busy when there is no rain, cutting them down to fit in our yard waste box - that has been a workout in itself! So I am hoping soon we can actually sit back and enjoy our nice yard - we have so many long term plans for it - but now just focusing on the basics - also plan on taking Fern plants from behind our fence and use them to fill in our garden since it is a bit bland and needs plants - but the budget this year is for creativity only!

This weekend will be a full one with the yard, helping out at the kids school in cleaning, bible study at our place, friends for dinner and Sunday - doing Father's Day at home and then with Scott's family and our class. (Oh and 2 birthday parties on Sat). So never a dull moment here.
Hope to continue to post more stuff and get caught up. Thanks for your patience!!

Lavonne - 6-16-10

Reagan's Field Trip to the Zoo

2010-06-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Free scrapbook generated with Smilebox

At the end of May - Reagan and his class went to the Zoo for the day. I was one of the parents who went and had Reagan and Carter with me.

Reagan is totally obsessed with Sealife, especially sharks - so we spent most of our time in the Aquarium. They had a great time in spite of the rain.

Lavonne - 6-16-10

Boy Scouts BBQ

2010-06-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

This photo album customized with Smilebox

This is Reagan's Tiger Cubs - Boy Scouts BBQ on May 27th. Still Catching up on all the events and postings - it has been a very busy month!!!

Nicky, Reagan's cousin is also in the group which was mostly boys from Reagan's school - Daddy was the den leader this year.

He really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun, and got some nice awards.
Lavonne 6-16-10

Kaitlyn's Field Trip to the Fairgrounds

2010-06-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

This slideshow design personalized with Smilebox

I spent the day with Kaitlyn a few weeks back and her classmates and we went to the Puyallup Fairgrounds to the Farming section to learn about Agriculture and Farming.
It was sprinkling off and on until lunch and then it rained hard - we were lucky the other school was leaving as we arrived so we had shelter then. Later the rain lightened up so the kids could visit the ducks and play in the playground.

We had a great time and learned lots - took lots of pictures as usual.
Lavonne - 6-15-10

iVote - check it out

2010-06-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

I encourage you to go check this new grassroots movement at iVOTE

Lavonne-6-15-10

Taylor's Prayer

2010-06-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

We got this note on Friday from School. On Friday afternoon, they had read a book to the kids in school about salvation, there was 31 Pre-K kids who were there and Mrs. Drew decided to ask the kids if any wanted to pray the prayer in the book. Twelve of the kids decided to go with Mrs. Drew into the other room and pray with her. Taylor was one of them.

The teachers then quickly had to make a note to let the parents know what happened since this was so unplanned - yet so wonderful to make an imprint in these wonderful kids lives.

We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to have our kids in this wonderful private Christian school where the teachers not only educate but invest in our kids lives and eternal salvation. What regular school would you see something like this happen?

We have been blessed and hope that i can find a job so we can continue to have them stay there to shape and mold our kids into wonderful servants of Christ.

Lavonne - 6-14-10

Taylor's 6th Birthday Party

2010-06-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

Personalize your own slideshow design

This is Taylor's 6th birthday party 2-3 weeks ago. We did it a week early at a newer McDonalds - the invite said another McDonalds which use to have a playground but we went the day before and found out it was gone. So Scott sat at that McDonalds to redirect, we got one family by phone before the party - ugh!

This one had a nice playground and it was empty when we got there so i could get a whole bunch of tables together and set it up while the kids played. It worked out well and we had a $10 gift card to buy ice cream with and then paid for the drinks and i made the cake for $3 so it was a bargain of a deal party!

I even hit big lots for the favors and Taylor's presents. We ask at all our parties to give to Love Without Boundaries instead of gifts for the kids since Winston had surgery through them. This keeps the gifts to a min. and the kids more focused on the event vs. the gifts and greed. Also it is a great cause and this helps them to give back.

The kids had a great time, it was a nice small party and did not run too long since we had a class to go to that night. We met a wonderful women at McDonald's who teaches Chinese and has offered to teach all four kids for free. Her studio opens up next month so we are hoping it will work out.

Lavonne 6-14-10 (May 24th)

Cousin Nicky's 8th Birthday Party

2010-06-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

Another picture slideshow by Smilebox

This is a slideshow of cousin Nicky's 8th birthday party at the Metropolitan Gym last month. He is a few months older than Reagan. We had two parties that day so I took Reagan bowling first and then met up with Scott and the kids at the gym where they all had a blast. Kaitlyn use to be a regular there and is a natural. Reagan is too and showed off some flips. Enjoy - i am slowly catching up between things - have many more shows to post for you all.

Lavonne 6-14-10

Odessa the small cat

2010-06-13T22:55:00.001-07:00

Odessa who is almost 11 has been with us since a year after we got married

She has traveled from Nashville, to St. Louis and then to Seattle, she has learned to accept Leopold our other cat, then Oliver and finally now Lily who has been with us the longest at 3 years in July. She has put up with 4 kids taking up mom and dads time from her and other interesting pets who have come and gone.... Yet at night she knows it is her time to hang with Mom and Dad....

Odessa has an interesting fetish and that is to crawl in things - yes it is a cat thing - but she can not resist and Lily is nothing like our baby. A week or so ago i bought some small shoes on sale for my birthday and she could not resist the box they were in. So now the box is at the end of our bed and she happily squeezes into the thing as you can see above. We laugh since we know it is her only domain, there is NO WAY that Lily at almost 17 lbs could fit in this thing.... Odessa is 7-1/2 lbs :-)

Lavonne 6-13-10

A crowded bed?

2010-06-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, last week Scott took this photo around 5 am and as you can see i was "dead"

to the world..... did not have a clue that my husband was photographing me while I am sleeping!

This however is a somewhat "normal" shot of our bedroom -

Here is me, Taylor, Reagan and Lily our "Big" cat

all enjoying some sleep since daddy is heading to work.

Saturdays our bed becomes a "Family Affair" our kids will definitely have memories of

Mom and Dads bedtime moments.

Lavonne 6-7-10

Another Party for my boy

2010-06-07T00:28:00.000-07:00

Free scrapbook personalized with Smilebox

Reagan was invited to another Bowling Birthday Party for his friend Vishnu's birthday.

They are pretty close friends and Reagan was really looking forward to it. We already had another party invite to his cousin Nicky's party so Scott took the other three there and i took Reagan to this party for part of it.

Reagan is really getting into Bowling and having fun. He has been to two other parties at this place which is not the popular place to have a party and then last summer i took all 4 kids to learn for free. Reagan is catching on in how to throw the ball etc and of his team he was in 2nd place and was doing well. The video i got did not catch him doing as well - but he got a couple of spares and he is on his way to getting a strike in the future!

Still behind and trying to catch up - it has been weeks of parties, school stuff and Reagan and Kaitlyn are working on a class project each for this weeks Creative Fair on Thur and Friday.

Graduation to Kindergarten in Tuesday night and a Teddy Bear Picnic is planned for the younger two on Friday their last day of school - will stay on with the summer program until the end of the month to help me out since it is paid for. Reagan and Kaitlyn has sports days and stuff and their last day is the 16th but will stay until that Friday. It gives me a bit more time for interviews. A lot going on this month - we had a beautiful day yesterday so rushed in getting the deck finished with the first coat of stain and Monday and Tuesday we are suppose to have more sun so hoping to tackle the fence before more rain hits. It has been one wet month!!

Lavonne -5-6-10

Reagan and Kaitlyn's Spring Concert

2010-05-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

Personalize your own picture slideshow

On Friday the 14th Reagan and Kaitlyn had their Spring Concert at school (RCS) - here is a small view of the evening with them performing. They did a great job and we enjoyed it.

Lavonne-5-31-10

Grandparents Day 2010

2010-05-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

Make your own picture slideshow

This is of Grandparents Day at Rainier Chrisian School for Reagan and Kaitlyn.

I put in a couple of the songs and verses that they did for their performance. They did so well and looked so cute. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sue were able to make it to the event. Later the kids had lunch, showed their classrooms and played on the playground.

It was a good day had by all! :-)

Lavonne - 5-30-10

cleaning the deck

2010-05-29T00:27:00.001-07:00

So Daddy got the kids started in helping us do the deck

Here is Taylor helping with getting the dirt out between the wood

Scott is sanding the deck and i was vacuuming etc...

Kaitlyn and Reagan took time out to catch Bee's

Kaitlyn has become our expert Bee catcher - last summer she caught about 5 in an hour

with her net. The kids have gotten really good at this now. Kaitlyn did get stung once.

It has not stopped her from doing it :-)

Scott started to stain the deck and then the rain came.... so got a portion stained and now waiting for all this rain to pass so we can finish this project and the fence. We actually got busy last weekend cutting back lots of the trees hanging over the fence and removed the bad lattace tops to make the fence look better for selling.

Lavonne - 5-28-10

James 1:27 - Adoption Fundraising Event

2010-05-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

This photo album personalized with Smilebox

On May 15th - Sat we went to a new friends Chuck & Teresa W adoption fundraising event.

We went to a place called "The Farm"

C & T have an interesting story at: "The Story of John"

Our friend Cathy W had tried to adopt John and couldn't, she told her dog sitter who goes to church with C & T who told them about John aka Vince at Madison who is aging out when he turns 14 and then can't be adopted. They met with Cathy at their fundraiser for their adoption of Elijah last June. Scott and our family sat with them and talked and got them connected with Kingdom Kids and they decided to move forward and adopt John. They had to rush through this process to get John. They got there days before he turned 14. We finally got to meet John at this event. They got home at the beginning of February and he is now going to their churches school and is doing awesome and came in 2nd in their 5 state math contest.... and has done very well in adjusting them - he has CLP like our Reagan and is also going to Children's and they spent hours working on his teeth. The great news is the day before the fundraiser - John accepted Jesus into his heart. So it is so exciting to see how seeds can be planted and how God's plan unfolds befores us, and how lives are transformed especially when we answer the call.

So many feel they are unfit to for this call, and not all are equipped but some can pray for families who do step forward, others can sponsor these kids in orphanages, or sponsor and support a family who feel led. You may provide clothing or babysitting for a family in need or respite care for a Foster Family. We are all called to do Gods work in caring for the orphan.

How can you help?

Lavonne - 5-26-10

The Piano Recital

2010-05-25T23:04:00.000-07:00

Customize your own photo slideshow

OK, i think i am catching up and then we have another busy weekend - i think i have downloaded about 300+ pictures this past week and weekend. So bare with with me.

This is of Reagan and Kaitlyn's piano recital about 10 days ago. They both did their pieces perfectly at home but got nervous so some minor stuff. They are doing pretty good since starting in October. Reagan is more of a natural and is already graduated to a newer book and is working towards doing both hands together. They enjoy it much more than i did at their ages.

I found every excuse to pass the time away - which usually resulted in a spanking. I finally went back in grade nine (or ninth grade as we say it in the USA) - i liked it better then, but realized it was not my think and moved to where my heart was and that was more creative things.

Excuse the jiggling on the second video of Reagan, i had Kaitlyn asking me something and it threw me off. They did a great job.... daddy missed it since he was at the younger two ones School Spring Concert - he was suppose to capture this event - but his camera decided to give out that night - so don't have anything to share other than they did a great job and Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sue were able to make it in time to see them perform.

With school winding up, we have so many things going on and of course birthday parties galore. Today was Kaitlyn's field trip to the fairgrounds to learn about agriculture and this Friday is Reagan's field trip - never a dull moment for this mom!!

Lavonne - 5-25-10

Sisters...

2010-05-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

Happy 46th Birthday Alison.....

Great Grandma Wall, Lavonne, Mom, Alison
August 1967 in Mountain Lake, MN

That would be what i would be saying to my sister Alison if she were alive today. I am missing her and it is hard to believe that next week it will be 9 years since she died. She has missed out on so much - she never met my kids or was able to watch her son Aaron grow up.

Today I am missing her and what we could have had and shared together if she was still alive. The kids look forward to meeting Auntie Alison in Heaven some day and talk about her from time to time. Kaitlyn got her name as her middle name and at times i feel as if God gave me Kaitlyn to remember her by. There are snippets of Kaitlyn's personality that remind me of Alison.

I often say that we switched our kids and Alison is watching over our baby daughter we never got to know, and we have Aaron here to watch over. One day we will all be together rejoicing again with our Lord and Savior and what a day that will be.

So thinking of you today and remembering you when times were good together. I love you and miss you.

Lavonne - 24-10

COOL Jewelry handmade from CHINA!!!

2010-05-24T14:05:00.001-07:00

Jiayin Designs

The Chinese word jiayin means “good and beautiful news.” What a wonderful way to describe when you first receive your child’s referral and see his or her face and read his or her Chinese name for the first time. Jiayin Designs was created to provide a lasting treasure of that good and beautiful news through custom sterling silver charms made by a jewelry artist in Beijing, China just for you. This artist hand cuts Chinese characters from a sheet of sterling silver and makes them into charms that are one of a kind and stunning.

Check out the website above - they have some charms that are pre-made or you can customize one to have your child's name in Chinese. A missionary women in Bejing makes these as a second income. A women here in the USA is helping her sell them here.

Take a look - I like the "Mother" charm - otherwise would get 4 for my kids.

Lavonne - 5-24-10

A day for Gardening

2010-05-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

A week ago we got lucky with some nice weather and felt it was about time

to work on our garden.

Last year we ignored it and so we have a big mess to clean

Winston and Taylor were the Supervisors!!

Daddy was attempting to make something of all the overgrown plants and weeds

in the front of the house - it is rather embarrassing.

Here is a close up of what it really looks like

Reagan and Kaitlyn attempting to get the weeds out of the cracks in the sidewalk

We also got the roof power washed - it will hopefully get repaired next week? and then sealed.

I will try and show you the before and after shots later - it looks like we have a new roof....

What a wonderful gift to get in finding you have a nice roof again.

Glad we did this then since we have had lots of rain and weird weather the past week.

Tonight we tackled the backyard - it will take us a few days to get the back under control as well.

Lavonne - 5-22-10

Mother's Day Happenings a bit late!

2010-05-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

Well Mother's Day was a very special day

The kids were very excited to give me their gifts that they had made at school

Here is a sampling of most of the work - i have a couple i want to scan

since they were very good.

Somehow i did not get Taylor holding up her card to me?

Kaitlyn made three things at school

the card in the vase, the bird picture and then the written note which

all came in a very nicely decorated envelope

Reagan honed his computer skills (I am sure with some help)

and made his card on the computer and wrote his own note to me

(we know since there were a few typo's :-))

Winston and Taylor did there handprints with a poem

and answered a short questionaire about me...

The one on the left is Winston's and shows his personality

the one on the right is Taylor's and she signed it nice and neatly

Winston is still clumping his name in the bottom corner

The let me sleep in that morning and i was actually in the guest room since i had trouble sleeping that night - so i got up and moved to our bed as they were planning my breakfast - it was so cute.

They brought me up a whole breakfast tray - (a cookie sheet- since Scott did not know where my trays were!) and i got eggs, toast and all my presents and a few strawberries they found in the fridge. After eating there a few minutes i felt a bit lonely so brought it all downstairs and joined them for breakfast - sharing some of it with them since i don't eat that much!!

We went over the gifts again and then more home-made ones were presented - and this continued for the next few days they kept making me more cards :-)

That evening Scott insisted on making dinner (simple) but still very nice to have a break and then we headed out to our Sunday night class.

All in All it was a wonderful special day for this Mama who treasures these moments with her Asian Blessings. They were all so proud and it was neat to see them at this age of being old enough to understand and make a deal about it. It will only be time when having them want to have cuddling time with me will be lost and their friends will become more important. This is when i reflect on how God directed us on this journey which has not always been an easy one - but to not put our focus on wealth and status, but to enjoy our kids and have fun with them. So many miss out on this opportunity!!

Lavonne - 5-18-10

Various Video of the Orphan Summit

2010-05-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Picture slideshow created with Smilebox

I have a couple of short video's which are just snippets of the talks but gives you an idea of what we saw. Definitely watch the whole video of Stephanie - she is very powerful - i wish i could post her whole talk which i have as well - she has the most amazing testimony to share about her life on the streets in Korea and her will to survive and finally making it to an orphanage and finally being adopted by missionaries at the age of 11 - how God transformed her life.
If you ever have the chance to hear her its a must see thing! I am trying to get her to speak at our church for Orphan Sunday this year.
Enjoy!

Lavonne -5-18-10

Christian Alliance Orphan Summit

2010-05-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

I had a great opportunity at the end of April to join 4 other women to MN. I had a free ticket
and even traveled first class on the ride home with points i had collected years ago!! Then one of the women i joined had points for the Marriott so 5 of us shared a room and i only had to buy 2 meals (since i packed some food) - so was thrilled to be able to do this.

One of the women I joined up with was an on-line friend I met 3 years ago when she was living in Mexico as a Missionary and the other I met through her. We all have adopted children from China. They all live in Wyoming and 3 go to the same church so it was a very fun time getting to know these women and fellowshipping with them.

The Summit was in a huge church that was amazing and there was approx. 1,300 who attended - which was up from 750 last year in TX. So it is growing and catching on. It was one of the most uplifting events i have been to in over 4-5 years and I was very blessed and grounded.

The speakers were amazing and had so much to share i could just go on and on about them.
The highlight was Thursday night when the Chapman's spoke and Steven Curtis sang. They shared about their journey and Mary Beth spoke about her upcoming book and how they met and some cute stories about the family. But most of the speakers were amazing and one i had never heard of before who just touched me in an amazing way. She is Stephanie Fast and is from Portland and she shared her life story.... It brought you to tears. She was an orphan in Korea after the war living on the streets and finally around 7 or 8 years old made it to an orphanage where at aged 9 a Missionary couple came to visit and decided to adopt her - she did not join them until aged 11. She shared the hard journey and how God transformed her life.

We heard from the leading wife in Guatemala about her work with street kids and a wonderful story from a Ukrainian Pastor who started and orphanage and has adopted 3 kids and has done video's on adoption which are christian based and now the Russian government is using these films to promote domestic adoption in Russia.

The music was also touching and uplifting and there were many authors like Tom Davis who is best known for the book "Fields of the Fatherless" a very touching book. John Piper which this was his last public event before his sabbatical and he has adopted a girl from China at aged 50. Karyn Purvis was my favorite who did some of the seminars and she talked on Grieving, Trauma, The Voice of the Orphan.... I could sit and listen to her all day speak... She has written the book "The Connected Child" which is full of great resources and information on how to deal with your child. She now has a great website full of free video's and was just amazing - i was able to speak with her a few times and talk about concerns we have etc., and her information was so valuable.

There was many great organizations there - Focus on the Family is doing some great things as well. So many resources - i was loaded up with, fliers, books, video's.... next year they hope to add more things for kids. There were a lot of families there - one family got up and spoke and had 10 kids - 4 i believe were adopted from different countries. The Senator of MN spoke on Adoption laws and policies that are coming into act. It looks like in the next year or so vaccination shots will be allowed to be done back in the USA -

which is a huge relief to most families!!

There is some Parent Advocacy Groups starting up which i was able to connect and network with some.

I encourage anyone who is interested to consider going next year. Some of us from LCC plan to make it a reunion and it is not confirmed but it looks like it maybe KY.

This was our main musician for the event.... he is Norwegian and his spelling of his name is different - like Pieter Eider? (He also has adopted 2 kids and shared his story)

A very bad picture of Mary Beth Chapman wearing the new Shop Hope T's

They have just celebrated 25 years together and 2 nights later she was speaking

for the first time at the Women of Faith Conference

This is Stephanie Fast - sharing her amazing story

Karyn Purvis - author of The Connected Child -

Lecturing on Trauma of the Orphan child.

John Piper sharing about his church, being a senior pastor and adoption

what it means to reach out to the orphan

I was able to capture some of the speakers on video and hope to add them

most are just snippets but worth hearing...

I came home Saturday late afternoon to my 4 precious kids

they had been busy making me a banner which i kept up for a few days :-)

Lavonne - 5-14-10

A Very Bad Cut !!!!!!!

2010-05-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

While I was away 2 weeks ago Scott proceeded to cut the kids hair!!!

he has been doing this for years but most of the time it is doable and

this time was not the case......

The boys got a hatchet job and then Scott tried to fix it

so we have these wonderful and unique side burns or lack of them

Poor boys have these side streaks - thankfully they are young and not vain

their hair will grow back and they will not suffer emotional scars :-)

Also thrilled the girls did not go through this

Reagan's sides did not match either :-(

Mom was not thrilled - but can live with it...

Lavonne - 5-12-10

Odessa our baby

2010-05-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

Odessa is our 10 year old baby from TN

she showed up one day at our place and hung around for 3 days

around Thanksgiving 2000

She loves to sleep on my legs at night and has her special places

one is at the landing perch on our stairs - so she can see everything

then the guest room is her solicitude place where she hides from Lily

Odessa loves to climb into things and often begs us to climb into our drawers :-)

So i decided to take a picture of her in action....

she can be so cute - such a curious thing.

Lavonne - 5-12-10

Painted Ceramics

2010-05-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the kids final results from the ceramic painting over spring break
Winston did the purple and black sports car. Kaitlyn did the top horse/unicorn that is
Blue and Purple

I helped Taylor do this Pony/Unicorn in Green, Pink and Blue and finally Reagan had to have his Bumble Bee car and painted it like the one he got for Christmas from his cousin Aaron.

More Dideon Pictures

2010-05-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back we had a nice weekend where we got focused on the kids

making their own piggy banks - Scott had bought them awhile ago and we

finally got around to painting them. Reagan had one already from his

Grandpa & Grandma Dideon - so he painted an airplane.

Winston was pretty serious about his work - Kaitlyn was her old perfectionist self :-)

Taylor gt right into it as well..................... here is Kaitlyn's flower pig

Taylor's is on the left a beautiful yellow and aqua mix and Winston's is
various shades of orange and i believe a touch of red?

We have been doing a Dave Ramsey course at church on Sunday nights
and they are great about stuff for the kids.... so we have started
them on a "commission" (no allowance) and they have been faithfully
doing this - working on goals to achieve and get their check for the day.
We have their money divided into 3 groups (envelopes)
* Savings * Tithing * Spending *
So last weekend we took them to "Big Lots" to show them spending
so Winston and Taylor had $.33 and Reagan and Kaitlyn had $.75
They soon realized they could not get much with this but the two younger
got 2 Fig Newtons for $.30 with 3 cents to spare :-)
R & K bought Milk Duds & Lemon Heads for $.50 and shared with the others.
Now they weekly take their Tithing money to church and are setting a goal to
save to buy something. Kaitlyn wants a stuffed animal - so we have set this as her goal.
We told them if they start saving now in about 10 years they may have money for a car?
I know this will be Winston's goal :-) of coarse it has to be a fast sports car!!
He will not be on our insurance!!!

The closing shots....
Reagan and Daddy playing music together
Reagan is a natural in the arts and piano is another thing that is a breeze for him
Kaitlyn and Reagan have a piano recital on Friday night so we will be practising daily for this
they both will be playing 2 songs - of course we have a conflict so I will take the kids to this
and record it all and Scott takes the younger two to their school Spring Concert
Never a dull moment at the Dideon Clan Hideout
The Last photo was from our last major walk and bike ride
Kaitlyn is still working towards being training wheelless.

Lavonne 5-10-2010

The End of Spring Break Photo's

2010-05-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

Le Conner, WA a very cute tourist town near the Tulip Fields

We took the kids for a nice walk along the streets and to the water front

It is an old historical site with many neat buildings and some museums.

Our kids always love going near the ocean - there is always something cool to see

Great kids shot..... Daddy teaching about some animal life!

Enjoying the sites

There was a Fire Truck Museum and this truck was parked outside

the gentleman was just closing up as we came to it but was so nice

to let the kids hop on and he rang the bell - they were thrilled

We found a nice place to enjoy some ice cream

it was a beautiful ending to a great day!!!!

Lavonne -5-10-2010

Flowers anyone?

2010-05-06T23:44:00.001-07:00

Puddles and Tulips - a kids favorite

Field after Field contained this beautiful array of color

The day was a sunny and beautiful day - an extra plus

I even bumped into an old friend Wendy who i have not seen in years!

Checking out bugs in the water - an opportunity for Scott to educate :-)

A fun family day - had by the Dideon Clan

Lavonne -5-6-10

It's May and I am still trying to catch up?

2010-05-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

When we went to LeConner to see the Tulip Fields last month we encountered this

interesting view of birds in flight moving north. It was really cool - as we approached we

saw many birds crossing over the road from one field and landing on another.

There were thousands of these birds which we think may have been snow geese?

It was pretty cool - i was a bit nervous about getting hit since i have a past record in this.:-)

They just kept coming and you can see in the 3rd photo on this line where they were

coming from. The field just got whiter and whiter as more and more landed.

The kids thought this was really cool and we watched them fly over for quite a long

time. We were joined by others later to watch this amazing sight.

Lavonne 5-6-2010

More pictures of Spring Break ....

2010-04-27T23:54:00.000-07:00

10 years later...... Marysville, WA

4 kids later ....

On the way to the Tulip Festival we stopped in Marysville, a place of history in the making for this Dideon clan. On October 9th, 1999 Scott and I were married at this historical site a 1911 Opera House that had been refurbished into a wedding place. We were one of the first weddings there and it was wonderful. The building was cool and a very non-traditional wedding.

We usually point out the place to the kids when we drive by it since you can see it from the freeway.... but Scott thought it would be more fun to have the kids see the place. They thought it was cool. Reagan and Kaitlyn understood it more.

Hard to believe, 10+ years in the making = 4 houses, 3 different states, 4 cars, 4 cats and a host of other animals, 11 surgeries, 4 adoptions = 4 kids in 4-1/2 years - talk about making the most of your life! wonder what the next 10 years will be like???????

Lavonne - 4-27-10

Another Spring Break update 4-8-10 AM

2010-04-24T23:29:00.000-07:00

Often on the weekends the kids like to crawl into bed with us

it is the only bed they can jump on and if daddy is there we usually have a

wrestling match, or pile on dad match :-)

Winston we are pretty sure will be in wrestling when he is in High School

this little guy is very strong and solid. He loves to claim he is stonger than daddy is.

The kids also love to play animals - her Kaitlyn is a horse - her latest favorite

Someone pulled out the measuring tape and they all wanted to measure something

it is never dull or boring at this Dideon household :-)

It can be quite the sight with all 6 of us in bed and the cats???

Lavonne 4-24-10

Another day from Spring Break - 4-6-10

2010-04-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

A day with bikes in the yard.... the kids love it that the weather is getting better and this

allows them to play outside more and ride their bikes.

Taylor has moved up and is part time on a trike and eyeing Kaitlyn's old 2 wheeler

with training wheels (Daddy is trying to get it fixed)

Kaitlyn spent her time going between the two - two wheeler bikes.

She is determined to move away from training wheels and kept trying

we still have a ways to go....

Reagan helped make dinner - speg noodles with white sauce with clams - yummy!

Daddy is not used to being home all day with the kids!!!

Kaitlyn is trying to wake him up :-)

Keep Jiliang still in prayer as there is still fuid in the lungs and they are trying to keep her stable.

The sun is out now and hoping it will stay - we hope to get some outdoor projects done this wknd. Enjoy your weekend as well - God Bless,

Lavonne 4-24-10

More updates on Jiliang...

2010-04-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 22, 2010
TJ visited Jiliang yesterday

T.J. (brother) came up with my sister yesterday. Scott (Husband) didn't want him to see Jiliang with all of her tubes and with her being sedated. However, T.J. really wanted to see her. I prepared him for all of the things that he might see, and explained that he needed to be quiet, because there were sleeping babies.
He walked in with Leah (sister) and I, and we looked through the window. He was comfortable, so he sat down next to her. He was very interested in the machines and tubes. "What does this do? What does this go?" Upon leaving, he told her goodbye and that he loved her.
We also had a pleasant visit from Dave Dorian, who came bearing a care package from Local 3008. Thanks for all of the wonderful activities. You are all our Second Family. Jiliang will enjoy them once she is awake.
Jill :)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Jiliang Update

Jiliang is still going to be sedated, so I will not be spending the night tonight. However, if she is awake tomorrow, then I will be spending every night here.
After we went to lunch, the doctors and nurses moved her which agitated her. She sat up and tried to yank on her breathing tube gently. Then, she cried, "Mama!" through her breathing tube. :(
She is in excellent hands. Her pressures are coming back up, so the pressures are not as good as they were last night, which is scary to see; but the doctor's believe that her condition is still very good. They want to treat her aggressively with blood pressure medications and then hopefully wean her off slowly, possibly over months. She still has many hurdles to overcome, but I have faith and hope that she will do well.
Please continue to keep her in your prayers.
Thanks,
Jill

Jiliang update!

2010-04-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

Surgery was a success - Thank you all for your prayers!! She went in yesterday at 3 pm and i believe was done by 7. Continue to keep her in prayer to make sure all continues to go well with her recovery.......

Here is a note from her mom Jill K:

Jiliang is still doing great!

Our girl is still doing wonderful. She woke up a few times when the nurse's checked her. Luckily, we were here to comfort her. She reached out for me to hold her. She hates the breathing tube. I am sure she is thinking, "Oh, help me. There is something in my throat. I'm going to choke. Hurry, someone get it out!" Then she physically tried to rip it out. She was scared and agitated, so they sedated her. During that time, her blood pressures did rise.
I won't be posting many more updates today, but I will keep you posted if anything new arises.

She still has some big hurdles to overcome and they are still monioring her pressures. Continued prayers are still appreciated. It looks like she is going to be in the ICU for 3 more days.

Thanks for being a part of our little girl's Miracle!
God Bless you all.
Jill

PRAYER REQUEST FOR TUESDAY !!

2010-04-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

Prayer Request for Jiliang (3-1/2)

My friend Jill in MI just adopted Jiliang a month ago (hard to believe how time flies)
Jiliang has a very rare and serious heart condition. When i got her file from Jill last Oct they thought she had TOF like our Winston, but once home they have said it is a miracle she is here.

Most people with her condition die in the first year and this little girl's heart has been untouched from birth and now is finally getting attention - so much that only Wed the doctor agreed to surgery and scheduled it right away. Her blood is sharing a ventricle so instead of having 2 she has one that has been having both blood types going in and out and has caused damage to the lungs etc. She is a very precious girl and her parents have been waiting since March 2007 to have a daughter and finally was able to switch from non-special needs to sn in Oct when they found her. Another sn she had which was not disclosed was an injury to the skull - it appears as an infant she had a serious burn and so the top of her head has no hair and a large scar and no fontanel bone. This will be looked at after this surgery.

Pray that all will go well tomorrow - this is a long and serious surgery and they also want to fix her VSD she has. There is an 80% chance she will make it.

Thank you for your prayers!
Lavonne - 4-19-10

Day 3 Spring Break

2010-04-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

Free greeting personalized with Smilebox

Last Tuesday we took the kids to ceramic painting. They all got to pick a ceramic to paint and then Scott and I helped them paint. The girls picked Unicorns and the boys cars. Of course Winston picked a racing car and Reagan who is into Transformers made his car into a Bubble Bee car.

Later on the kids do a small Merry Go Round ride and then we had a late lunch which we got them noodles - they never pass up on a cheap lunch :-)
I had a left over gift card for ice cream so we treated with this and the kids loved it.
Lavonne -4-17-10

Random Shots from our week!!

2010-04-17T23:46:00.001-07:00

Watching a movie with Daddy on his laptop....

Taylor and Reagan decided to play some tunes for us - they sure had a lot of fun.

Lavonne - 4-17-10

My Hat Girl

2010-04-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

My Hat Girl

The other day i found my hat box with 2 hats i have not worn in a long time. Kaitlyn and I had fun trying them on. Sometimes i think this girl could do modeling? She can be very dramatic!

Lavonne-4-17-10

Our First Day of Spring Break

2010-04-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

This free photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Here is our first day of Spring Break with the kids. We had something planned each day to do.

Here you see the kids at various points during the day... first they were playing dress-up and hanging in the bunk beds in the boys room at these pictures and all playing various parts. They are always really cute - from Mommies and Daddies, to Hero's, to Animals it is always something.

Kaitlyn was assigned to help me with cooking that day - so she helped me with lunch, making cookies and dinner, which we did smoothies and baked potato's and the cookies for dessert. She was really into this and can see she is ready for more !!

Later we took the kids Fishing, Reagan has been bugging Scott for ages about doing this so finally we did but got a late start and by the time we got to the Lake the sun had disappeared and the rain was trying to come out. It was cool and a slight wind which i did not enjoy and we made sure the kids had life jackets on - with four you have to have eyes in the back of your head and this gives us some padding :-) We mainly did this for show and caught nothing but the kids enjoyed it and i got lots of photo's.

So will continue to catch up on things - today was fun with the Washing Machine deciding it was not going to drain anymore.... I had to finally scoop out the water and get the clothes out and rinse the smaller items and dry them. The towels will have to be re-washed. We had the repair guy come out and we have one part that is gone. So for $240 we will be back in business tomorrow afternoon. Of course Reagan had to wet his bed - so have a ton of laundry to do !! So will be doing a good 5 loads of wash tomorrow. Also Reagan got a sudden rash on his tongue which i think is Thrush - so we have an apt at 9 am at the doctors to have it checked out. That between getting our taxes finalized and out the door on Thursday is definitely keeping us busy! The hopeful plans to get our house projects done and looking slimmer each day :-) ugh!

Lavonne-4-13-10

Catching up!!

2010-04-13T21:39:00.000-07:00

Sensory?

We have been dealing with Sensory issues with the girls and one of Taylor's therapies was to be blindfolded and sort through different items to help her sense of touch. We also found Kaitlyn had trouble with matching her finger and thumb together....

Scott decided it would be fun for the kids to try this all together with Lego's in different sizes and shapes. So here they are all blindfolded and having fun trying to figure out the right pieces.

Another form of cheap entertainment that is good for the kids!!

We just are back from Spring Break - it was very busy for us - so will try and post pictures - be patient as i try and figure a way to share the hundreds of photo's i took during the week. The weather turned out to be very nice most of the week so we did all kinds of things with the kids and have a great time and on a great budget.

Lavonne-4-13-10

The Dideon Egg Hunt

2010-04-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

Personalize your own free scrapbook

Here is our Sunday Easter Egg Hunt at the Dideon Household.....

The kids had a great morning!

Lavonne -4-5-10

Our Easter + Day 1 of Spring Break

2010-04-06T00:59:00.000-07:00

Well here is a quick over-view of our Easter and our first day of Spring Break vacation at home.

Yesterday did our Easter Egg Hunt at home (see photo with Halloween Buckets) then did church, came home from church - did the nap thing - played a game of MouseTrap (new family favorite) and then headed to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner - we ate way too much but had a great time together - later on we had a few more treats at home and played another round of MouseTrap.

Today the kids were up early and ready to have a fun day at home.... mom and dad were taking it easy and the sun was shinning so Scott was going for his top plan - "FISHING" yet after a couple of video's, baking cookies, Kaitlyn helping me to make lunch (it was her day to help cook) the sun was disappearing and we feared we lost our opportunity... well we headed out and spared the rain, but it was cold and windy and we only lasted about 30+ mins out there before heading home. We iced the cookies, Kaitlyn helped make dinner - baked potato's, guacamole and smoothies - then played some more games, Scott and Reagan have been into playing the guitar and Kaitlyn the piano and we just had a fun packed day. (More photo's to follow tomorrow - including yesterdays egg hunt)

Tomorrow we have more planned and i have to break up the day with a doc visit - test results came out fine? so thanks for the prayers yet still issues so hopefully will figure out what is going on.....

So yet another day with the Dideon's - Spring Break!

Lavonne-4-5-10

Church Pancake & Egg Hunt

2010-04-04T23:59:00.000-07:00

This slideshow personalized with Smilebox

This is from Sat morning where we took the kids to church and we ate pancakes with friends and then the kids got to do the Egg Hunt. It was a busy morning but we had a great time. Later on Kaitlyn had a birthday party to go to and later we dyed eggs.

It has been a full, fun and "Family" weekend - Scott is home this week so we have a bunch of things planned and looking forward to more fun together.

Today we did our own family egg hunt with recycled candy :-)

then we did church, came home and after naps.... went to the Old Spaghetti Factory - the kids favorite for dinner (not easterish) but they cleaned their plates and we were all stuffed. Went home and played some games like "Mousetrap" and had a nice family day together.

Lavonne-4-5-10

Party 2

2010-04-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

Make your own free scrapbook design

This smilebox is of Reagan and Kaitlyn's class parties on Thursday. Scott was off work so he also helped me since i had to organize Kaitlyn's class and do photo's in both the kids classes so was again bouncing back and forth between the classrooms. Thankfully they are only a couple doors apart. With Kaitlyn's class they hunted for eggs outside (we had a brief hail storm come through moments before - thankfully not during the hunt!) the kids were assigned a 6th grade helper to find the eggs with. Kaitlyn our candy hound was first out of the gate and pretty much first finding her allotted eggs. She was pretty proud of herself. Reagan's party was a bit smaller but he faired well too. We did a lot of egg hunts this year - with school, then Saturday the church Pancake breakfast and egg hunt and then again this morning. Scott and i kept recycling the same candy :-) saved us buying much - I spent $2 at Big Lots and we were set. (more photo's to follow)

Lavonne-4-4-10

School Parties

2010-04-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

This scrapbooking design customized with Smilebox

The top smilebox is of Winston and Taylor's Class pictures and parties on Wednesday. I helped in both classes at the same time and bounced back and forth between classes. Both had a great time.

Lavonne-4-4-10

Deer Mouse Part II

2010-04-04T00:52:00.000-07:00

When we had our mouse visitor - the next day Scott had a new trainee technician and himself set up traps and they crawled under the house in our crawlspace and noticed some activity and closed up some holes they thought were the entry points for our visitors.

At first we thought they had come in from the laundry room but now it appears they came in through the kitchen and traveled through the kitchen into the laundry room and proceeded to build up a stash which took me 2 weeks to find. Last week i was cleaning the shoe closet across from the laundry room and found this mass of cat food behind a box. I emptied out the closet and it quickly clicked that the mice had been stashing their food (cat food) here and were eating it in the dark. This was going on for a few days until we caught them. Scott collected 6 little guys under the house and no issues since!!!

I guess my husband comes in handy for some things from time to time... :-) The benefit of having your own Entomologist.

Hopefully we are now done with little creatures in the house - except for the grasshopper i found today in the upstairs hallway that Lily was trying to catch - it appears it escaped out of the frog's cage - yes... the latest in animals that have made themselves a pet in our home??? the downside to having an Entomologist as a live in.

Lavonne -4-3-10

2010-04-01T23:52:00.004-07:00

Well where do i begin..... Last week Scott did my regular hair coloring... yes, he has been doing my hair for about 6 years now - highlighting only!

I had last August took my camera to my hair dressers to video tape her doing a touch up which is always better than what we can do esp. at $11 a box!!

We always use the cap method, but at the salon they use the foil... so here we tried to do this to do a better color. Scott did not fully understand the rules so once completed..... i had a Zebra stripe look :-) I had very orange-blonde striped hair with dark roots and base - not at all what i liked and felt i needed to just get a tatoo and put on some lbs and buy a Harley and i would fit in with another crowd!!

I called my hair dresser thinking maybe i should have her redo the hair for $$$ - luckily she did not call me back until the next day....

So the next day i went to the drug store, and bought a box of light brown hair color and we salvaged the cap from my other box and the next night we colored the whole head with the light brown sweated it out..... Viola!!! It actually worked and my hair is much better now! Still a bit on the light side for my comfort level, but at least i can interview for jobs not looking tacky :-)

Life on the cheap and crazy side!

Lavonne - 4-1-10

Poor Kaitlyn

2010-03-31T23:35:00.000-07:00

Too pooped for dinner?

Poor Kaitlyn, this is not the first time she has done this but it has been a while....

She was so exhausted a few days ago we looked over and she had just crashed at the table with elbow in the plate and the usual thumb in her mouth :-)

Thankfully she did not get startled and the plate went flying. We took her to bed and of course later she was rested and wanted to stay up later.

Kaitlyn still desperately needs her naps and i brought this up with the doctor when we visited last week. Seems that with all her bottling up stuff and her desire for perfection it just plain wears her out. She thinks the therapy we are doing is helping and in time Kaitlyn will overcome this. I hope so for her sake.

Lavonne-3-31-10

2010-03-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

Create your own free photo slideshow

Today Grandpa Rempel was in town for a Reunion last night, so dropped by for breakfast and to celebrate his 74th Birthday with us (which was last Sat).
We had pancakes and grandpa brought some goodies including some games that we all played later, then we went for a nice long walk - the kids had a blast and it was a beautiful day!

Lavonne-3-20-10

2010-03-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

Nick is an amazing man - born in Australia he travels the world to speak to kids and people in prison about God's love. His life is not so easy he was born without arms or legs in the 60's.

Around aged 8 he tried to commit suicide but God had a plan for his life. He swims, golfs, dives... he loves life now - it does not come easy for him but he now lives life to its fullest capacity.

I often show his video's to our Taylor since her deformities get her down. I remind her that to get up Nick had to try over 100 times to learn to stand on his own. I know it is hard for her and at times she just wants to quit, but the smile in her face when she finally succeeds at a task is wonderful. I look back at the last couple of years - the battles we have dealt with and the triumphs in seeing Taylor in a more independent state. When we got her and she did not want to learn to speak and would have melt downs with each attempt (now we never can shut her up!)

Then when it came to doing the zipper or buttons on her jacket and clothes -"I can't do it!" was often the cry of frustration... oh it would have been so much better for me to do it and walk away in peace... but would i be doing my daughter any good? so i have endured hours upon hours of screaming, crying, tantrums - but now the joy of her putting on her own clothes with little to no assistance. It was the same with the car seat, oh the months we endured all the resistance to learn to do her seat belt.... oh but now it is not an issue!

I know some think we are hard on her, but if we were not - she would be wallowing in self pity and where would this get her as an adult?

To think how Nick's parents thought when he was born and what he would do in his life... God had a great plan for him.... as with Taylor, we have no idea, but He has great plans for her to touch people's lives and win others for Him!

Lavonne-3-19-10

Needing Prayer!

2010-03-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

Specimens........

Yesterday i had a "FUN" day at the doctors.....

As you can see above, i was able to participate in specimen giving and now i wait on test results!

For the past month or more i have been having some health issues, and after ruling out various things felt it was time to see the doctor about my concerns.

My body has been going through a lot since moving back to Seattle and now it has had enough. We are doing a lot of tests to determine the direction to go with treatment and diagnosis. I had my right Thyroid removed in 2004 and there are some small concerns i now could be Hypo-Active - i use to be Hyper-Active and it can come on gradually, but we are not sure. Then i have some mild food allergies, and there has been some concern that i maybe Celiac, which fits more of my symptoms, but not totally, there was a concern i could have picked up a parasite but this does not seem to fit things either. Lastly, with my age and all that we have been through and the high stress, there is thought i could have IBS. Which is what my doctor was leaning towards yesterday.

So we ask that you pray that it is not serious and that we can quickly diagnose what is going on and then i can get better and do more at home again.

It is not fun, but hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and start working on a healthy me again.

Lavonne-3-18-10

The weird places of mongolian spots!

2010-03-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

MONGOLIAN SPOTS......

Ok, I like many people before adopting was clueless to Mongolian Spots, even after getting Reagan I was since he never had them.

When we got Kaitlyn she had them big - 2 really nice ones across her rear end.... of course like many of us adopted parents we had people question if we were beating her.... even her daycare once questioned us???

Here is a sample of one I found on the Internet which looks a bit like Kaitlyn's did. They fade away with age and most Asians (80%), N American Indians, Hispanics (70%) and even Blacks (90%)can have them. It has a bluish-grey color and looks like a nice bruise. Whites are 5-10% chance that they can get them.

When we got Taylor - her's was very small and not so noticable but higher up. She also had a nice scar at the base of her spine which now the doctor believes is a nail scratch to mark her and that some orphanages do this to mark the kids. We think this is what it is based on the location and that other parents have noted this mark on their kids from this orphanage. In the earlier adoptions there was markings that many believe the parents made in hopes to maybe identify their children later on.

Winston was covered in scars from his exzema and yet with his darker skin he too had the spots on his rear end. So by the time we got Winston i thought i was well versed in spots!!

Well 2 wks ago i went to the doc with Winston and Taylor for their annual check up and made a small list of things to just inquire about while there. One was this mark on Taylor's eyeball i had noticed over the last year..... turns out this is also a Mongolian Spot and will fade away in time. They can also apear in the mouth as well.

Well yet another thing we learn in adopting!

Lavonne-3-15-1

Snow, Pants Repair & Our Girls....

2010-03-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

Snowing in Seattle?

This last week we actually had some snow on Monday! It was very cold out and one mom thought she had been spotting snow when she drove the kids to school. We'll about an hour later i was driving to Auburn for a meeting and there was little almost hail like flakes on the windshield? That afternoon all of a sudden we had about a 15 min downpour - had trouble capturing it. But it was this hail-like stuff again and at one point it was coming down hard. It was very spotty in Seattle - but we are on a hill and usually get this stuff since higher up. Our second snow of the year - both never stayed on the ground - but it sure has been cold out lately!!

Pant Repair ?

I constantly have a pile of clothes to repair - pant knees are the biggest demand!!

So i hate always just mending them - so had some ribbon the other day and fixed up Taylor's pants to look better and she had also outgrown the length so lengthed them quite a bit - but still not fully enough for the current style trends..... for Taylor this will always be an issue.

She is a size4+ in length but her waist is a 3

So i got creative with these pants and actually liked how they turned out.... My big problem is the time it too (our drive to Vancouver WA) and how she takes care of them?????

By Thursday she had picked at the ribbon on one leg and made another hole!!!! so have decided enough until she is older and appreciates my hard work.

Will only do this for lengthening pants now :-)

My Beautiful Girls

Well Last Sunday the girls were working in our office and i just had to take a picture of them.

We added some Ikea tables and a cabinet (cheap) so that the kids could actually work in there and maybe we will get some computer stuff set up for them?

We put some plastic on the table to protect it - since the 2 youngest still like to color on the tables and mark them up, this way we can just wipe them off. We also padded the cheap chairs with stuff we got at JoAnne's on sale. Each kid now has their own drawer for their work and coloring books or toy computers. Makes me happy to eliminate mess but honestly i wish i would actually see it!

Lavonne-3-13-10

2010-03-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

or click here:
Bengy and Zipper

Ok this You Tube is the funniest i have seen in a very long time. I was in tears after watching this. Oh there are parts most of us can relate to at one time or another :-) enjoy!
Lavonne 3-12-10

Pictures of our Day Trip 3-6-10

2010-03-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

This slideshow customized with Smilebox

This is our day trip last Sat to Vancouver WA - the kids had a great time and the weather was unbelievable for our area!

Lavonne - 3-12-10

Catching up on life at the Dideon's

2010-03-12T09:37:00.000-08:00

Meeting the Lee Family

Last Saturday we drove to Vancouver WA about 2-1/2 hours away to meet up with another adoption family. The Lee's live outside of Vancouver and are waiting for TA to go get their 3rd daughter Lily. She has a serious heart condition like her older sister Shelby who is now 11. The Lee's adopted Shelby at age 8 in 2007 just before we got Taylor.

Lily's adoption has been expedited because of her serious heart condition. They are both Dextrocardia like Taylor (heart on right side) but for them many of the organs and stuff are flip flopped and so this creates a serious condition. Shelby almost did not make her 3rd heart surgery last year and now wears a pacemaker.

We met at Red Robin (we just won a gift card so that helped) and it is a great place for the kids. Then later we headed to McDonald's for a cheap $1 dessert while the kids could play hard.

We had a wonderful time connecting and sharing - we have many parallels in our adoptions and they also are doing re-organization of the brain therapy and have seen great progress with their girls. So it was nice to meet another family who understands this process and the progression. We got to know them through a group i am apart of called LCC (Loving China's Children) a great adoption group who often supports in fundraising for family's who are short on funds. The Lee's in the past have helped many families but this time they were humbled as their business has suffered in this economy and they fell short. So i helped with a few others to raise support and with a very generous angel and others we raised in a few weeks almost $11,000 !!! Praise God for His faithfulness and another child is coming home to a Christian family and getting the medical attention she needs.

I will post more photo's of our trip there - we stopped at Cabala's a sporting goods store which is an adventure trip and it is free - so we wandered around with the kids and they had a great time. Earlier that day Scott had bug training so we met him closer to Tacoma. So it was a full day. Sunday's we have been taking a class on Sunday nights at church which includes dinner and babysitting so that has been nice too - a bit of a break for me. Monday was unemployment training and have been applying at some interesting jobs so keep us in prayer for this - one long shot is in KS. God knows and continues to provide for us daily and we continually are amazed at His provisions for us and how the money is always there.

Lavonne -3-12-10

Goodbye Hot Water

2010-03-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

So our faithful water heater of 21 years finally kicked the bucket on Saturday night. Sunday morning when getting ready for church Scott had come to me in bed and asked if i had shower issues the past few days?

I honestly had no recollection if i had so figured that was a good sign and said NO.

Well there was absolutely no HOT WATER so Scott went to the garage to find water everywhere and at this point realized the days of milking the water heater were done! So i did an old fashion type of bath and got the kids dressed and ready for church while Scott ran to Lowe's to get an efficiently priced new one for us. This was just after on Friday spending $500+ on new shocks for the back of the mini-van. It was too the point that the shocks were gone and i could not go any further on them. So it was a costly weekend and no spring break jaunts for us?

The water luckily only got some carpets wet and we were just about to replace the carpet on the stairs with some leftover from the house so now just letting it dry out and then will replace it.

Here Scott is draining out the rest of the water and you can see the rust and mess.

Oh but it was heavenly to have a nice hot shower yesterday morning again!

Lavonne 3-8-10

A visitor at the Dideon Castle

2010-03-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

Deer Mouse

So 2 nights ago Scott was downstairs just before bedtime and we had noticed the cats wandering around in the laundry room - we thought they were checking out a spider?

Well Scott saw a flash of a mouse while Lily was in the laundry room. So that explained the cats behavior - but how was my bug man going to get this new pest (that now has replaced our Lucy)?

Well the next morning - Scott was training a new employee and our house became the first stop. He or they went into the crawl space and discovered a few deer mice which is what we believe he saw in our laundry room and so they set up some traps.... two days later not catch!!

That first night the cats took turns scoping out the laundry room. I had visions of Lily being proud of her catch and jumping on the bed and dumping a dead mouse on my body while sleeping - she brought her voll catch to the office last summer - so i would expect something like this from her. Oh well - hoping we catch the two pests and i can get rid of the traps all over the place now. Trying hard to make sure the kids or the cats don't get stuck in one :) It sure would be a painful lesson.

So now keep heat steaming the floor to make sure there is not spread of the Hanna Virus which the deer mouse carry and can be deadly.

Lavonne 3-5-10

The other tooth

2010-03-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

The other tooth....

Reagan also had lost his tooth - he unlike Kaitlyn is eager to get the thing out so willingly will have mom wrap some thread around his tooth. This one however was slanted and would not keep the thread - so Scott finally grabbed and pulled and it was out.

Reagan is thrilled - we just need to get the top two out now and then can schedule surgery to remove the one that is coming in upside down!
Lavonne-3-4-10

Another tooth

2010-03-02T22:39:00.001-08:00

Toothless in Seattle

So Kaitlyn finally got tooth #2 out. She was so scared and pulled and pulled at it. I finally got some floss and had made a loop to put around her tooth and got as far as it going around the tooth....but she was scared. So she pulled the floss off and up came the tooth :-)

I had hoped with a little fussing we could get it out - it was so ready. Then she was proud. A bit stunned at first not realizing what she had done.

So in the past month i think we have lost 3 teeth... the bank is broke at Bank of Fairies.

Of course then I saw Taylor trying to wiggle her front tooth. This one is loose from a fall before we got her - so i quickly told her the Tooth Fairy only pays on teeth that fall out naturally. I think i put an end to her pulling out a tooth she needs still :-) ? lets hope so!

Kaitlyn's other tooth has already moved forward into place and I am hoping this new tooth will do the same.

Lavonne -3-2-10

Sorry Odessa!

2010-02-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry my dear Odessa!

Last night Scott and I were taking it easy later in the evening - Scott found on Public TV - John Gray (Mars and Venus guy) talking and promoting his newest book and raising money for the station.

Well we sat and listened and actually started enjoying John's talk and his books. May even consider purchasing them. Well Scott decided to take him seriously and decided to offer drawing me a bath. The past few weeks have been very tough on me and he thought it would be nice for me to relax.

So he lit some small candles i had and put the Christian Radio station on for me to listen to.... All very sweet and thoughtful of him.

So i am sitting here in the tub and relaxing when i hear Odessa our cat. I thought it would be funny for her to come and see me and get her a bit wet so i called her over (not thinking this through) so she comes into the bathroom and starts her "I am going to jump" cry and it hits me.. she is going to jump on the counter she is thinking i called her for food and there are 4 little candles right where she likes to jump!!!!

So i start to yell and Scott hears and figures out what i am doing and comes in.... too late! Poor Odessa just misses but also is a bit clueless of the new oder in the room of synged cat hair. It is her back foot and rear getting synged. Scott grabs her and she takes off. I am concerned that she is burned and will blister? He finally gets her and she hardly has anything burned - but now as i try to get back to my relaxing bath.... the new smell of burned cat hair lingers and Scott finally puts on the "loud" fan... which drowns out the music and oh well we tried for some relaxation!?

Another day at the Dideon farm :-)

Lavonne-2-28-10

Below shot Kelly R

2010-02-25T11:44:00.002-08:00

The video below is of my friend Kelly R in MD who just got her 14 year old (or soon and aging out) daughter in China and will be getting another one in the next few days. This women is amazing women who God is greatly using.
Her husband is a Pastor and they have 2 grown children and in the past 5 years - this will make 6 kids that they have adopted and all have had special needs - Joey flew home with oxygen and went right into the Hospital for heart surgery.... Brighton which they got last year has SBifida? and is learning to walk, is partially deaf and has eye issues and club foot - she is just beautiful.
We are on some adoption groups together and always am amazed at this women and how she
does it.
The video is of her meeting her daughter yesterday and she even made her a gift - how sweet.

You can follow along at:
www.adollarforhopeandjoy.blogspot.com

Lavonne-2-25-10

2010-02-25T11:44:00.001-08:00

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Princess Lily

2010-02-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

Princesses Lily

Lily is 3 and definitely mommies cat!
Scott found her at PetSmart on Adoption Day in Spokane WA in 2007 a month before getting Taylor. I was reluctant to get her but we were told she was "Friendly" a true understatement and she was good with kids - which is true.

Well the first night home I thought for her adjustment and Odessa's possible jealousy to sleep with her in the guest room. Well little did i know this cat has "Issues" and from that moment on she has been my shadow.

Lily follows me everywhere - the kids can drag her around the house and torment the poor almost 17lb lug of furball.... but Mommy is where her "Needy" heart purrs.
She actually drools for Mommy and then like in "Turner & Hooch" will toss her head back and forth and let the drooll fly and it often lands on my computer - yuk!
I can have a puddle of the stuff on my bed in one of her heightened moments.

This cat loves to snuggle with Momma and be close to my face, and often when my hand is out will take her paw and pull it down for me to rub her.

The photo above is her favorite place to be!! my pillow in bed. I think she is even into my "scent"
I would classify her as a "high maintenance" cat in the Need category :-) as i write this and she is on my legs !

Sad part is i have cat allergies and so does Reagan - and what do we do? we kiss these cats all the time and then get stuffed up - and having the biggest one sleep on my pillow is not a good thing either. Oh well - I am a sick cat lover.
Momma to two furballs.
Lavonne-2-24-10

Kaitlyn wins prize

2010-02-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

The 23rd Psalm

Kaitlyn had to memorize this verse for school

and was only 1 of 4 kids (out of 20) who got a prize!

of course we are proud of her :-)

Lavonne-2-23-10

Chinese NY/Lunar NY event at Westminster 2-6-10

2010-02-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox picture slideshow

Here are my pictures which were rushed and so so, below i have a link to the Flickr account of the Photography group at Westminster who captured the event in full view - really beautiful photo's and i wished i had been able to see the performance, it was amazing and very professional. Our new banner photo was taken at the event and i got it on Friday from the photographer. I have received a ton of compliments about it on FB and have to agree, it really did turn out well.
Westminster Lunar Photo's

Lavonne-2-21-10

The Goodbye

2010-02-20T23:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we finally put Lucy to rest.

She was put in a box and the kids gathered around

Scott dug a big hole in our garden

The kids put leaves (remember the roses at Grandpa Stewart's funeral) - we thought it was a bit cute. Then they all prayed - Winston added about Jesus cleaning Lucy's cage.....

Scott now covering Lucy up. - Goodbye Sweet Lucy!

We loved you.

Lavonne 2-20-2010

One tooth gone another one loose

2010-02-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

A crowded mouth

Kaitlyn has been very eager to loose her teeth like her big brother Reagan. So we kept wiggling and wiggling her bottom teeth. The challenge we have is she has a very LOW tolerance to PAIN.

So unlike her brother the thought of something hurting, holds her back from trying. Mommy has become a great tooth puller for Reagan with some thread like her dad did. Last time the tooth actually went flying and landed in the next room and we had to get on our hands and knees looking under the dinning room table in the carpet. I finally found the missing tooth.

Kaitlyn wanted this but once we got the mouth open she would panic. Also since like Reagan she was really over-crowded with her teeth, the adult teeth were already fully up and behind and pushing the baby teeth forward and it was very difficult to get thread around her tooth. Finally last week while eating it finally came out and she was just over the moon with excitement. Now the tooth to the left is also loose but not ready. But she feels it is a sign of growing up.

Last night Reagan came to me to have his tooth pulled but for him, his is blocked by another tooth and we tried but - i feel another week is needed before we are really ready. But he was eager to yank that thing out - nothing like his sister. Poor guy has one on the top left side that is growing in upside down and will need surgery in a few months to have this one removed. We are waiting for the top two to fall out first - we are right now working on #4 for him with two more to follow.

Oh i so remember this and now there is so much more to offer the kids. I had one of those very small jaws and too many teeth, so the crowding was bad and had 3 baby teeth pulled at this age and then once the adult teeth came in had 8 more pulled so 11 in total by age 16. I had braces and the works - so can related to what Reagan and Kaitlyn are going through and i know they both will be needed braces - so just add that to the mounting of future bills.... :-)

Oh the reminder that i need to find a good paying job!! with good insurance :-)

Lavonne 2-19-10

Goodbye Lucy RIP

2010-02-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

This is Lucy our Norway Rat

We got Lucy for the Year of the Rat in 2008 - she is approximately 2-1/2 years old
I am not a rat person but this precious little thing - too a liking to me and we had a special bond.
Funny thing I would start to notice about a year ago that when i vacuumed she would come out of her hiding and jump up on top of the highest place to say hello. I started feeding her catfood as a treat and we started this ritual the past 6 m that she would come and eat from me. She only did this for me and would excitedly come out when i called her. She was quite smart and would love to eat my trimmings from the salad i would make for dinner.
I have never held her - could not get over the tail.... but would pet her often.

This last weekend we found a tumor growing on her tummy. I have a rat friend whom we consulted and found it is common for rats to have this. They also do not live to be older than 3.
We found this tumor is called a Mammary Tumor and not cancerous but they grow fast and this one we believe is about 2 wks old and already was about 1/3 of her body size - they grow fast and unless removed will kill them.

We consulted vets and found our options were $25 to put under, $150 to spay, $306 to remove. With her already being at the last months of her life we could not do this. So Scott took his work skills and properly ended her life last night as we all were in bed. We hope to get another rat or two sometime down the road but in our current state we just can't, the kids prayed for her and Winston noted she was no longer suffering with Jesus anymore.
"We Miss You Lucy!"

The kids saying goodbye to Lucy.

You can see the Tumor under her stomach - it looks like she is pregnant.

I like this one of her tongue drinking and you can see the details of her whiskers.... she was watching me.

Lavonne-2-18-10

Happy Valentines..... from the Dideon kids

2010-02-15T12:20:00.000-08:00

well i can't get Reagan's card flipped so will just have to leave it this way?

I have been having some issues with cutting and pasting in Blogger the last couple of days so have stuff to post - but we will see if i can?

These are the kids Valentine's they made for school. Each year i have them make then and then cut and paste them onto a card sheet and print and then they address them. It is faster, easier and cheaper to do it this way. Then the kids get to give nice personalized post cards to their friends. We also did a craft one for the teachers and a few "special" friends :-)

The kids had their parties at school on Friday and yesterday we hung out together - i hit the Target $1 section and they loved it. I got my discounted Godiva chocolates - and we just hung out. Scott had to do a volunteer duty at a Rest Stop for the school. They were trying to raise money for the school - so he helped. He also took them to the annual pancake breakfast Sat morning at the school.

Today i am trying to catch up on life and the kids are home for Presidents Day.... we have been busy with a host of holidays in the past 24 hours including trying to get in some of the Vancouver Olympics since this is where i was born and raised!

Lavonne - 2-15-10

It's finally over!!

2010-02-08T23:16:00.001-08:00

It is OVER !!! HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR !!!

The event was on Saturday and we had 1500 people. We had 1200 in attendance and then another 300+ who were volunteers, exhibitors and performers..... it was a huge group of people wall to wall, but overall it went well and i heard over and over that this was the best event and the performance was the BEST! Arlene did an awesome job. I wish i had seen it :-) but that is what happens when you are running the show. I asked if i could get a copy of the performance so i can also see it too :-)

The kids had a great time.... poor Scott had his hands full with 4 kids - he had to juggle, bathroom breaks, food lines and face painting..... so i commend him for this and next year i will be joining him and enjoying it myself since i will be retiring from this.

The food was good, we had a great mix of things to do for all - i took only some rough pix - for layout purposes but will post a bit tomorrow.

Lavonne-2-8-2010

6 wonderful years with Reagan!

2010-02-04T20:51:00.001-08:00

Here is Reagan our now 7-1/2 year old
We celebrated tonight with his favorite "Brownies" his 6th Gotcha Day

We so clearly remember - this little guy - scared and tired at 5:15 pm at our hotel door
they handed him to me and he cried and cried for 20 mins until finally the people left us to
get to know him. Then we found the boy we know who laughed and had fun playing with us.

how this guy has changed these past years and grown - and so have we :-)
We love you!!!

Lavonne -2-4-2010

The Cake

2010-01-31T22:35:00.001-08:00

The Cakes

On Friday was Winston's actual birthday so took cupcakes to school and

made jumbo ones for the family to eat that evening.

(photo on the left)

Winston is beaming and all weekend had to pull him off the ceiling

i think he has had at least 4 different groups sing him

Happy Birthday as well

the guy is eating it up and today his ego was 10x larger than normal :-)

Yesterday i slaved over the other cake for today's party

I saw a similar cake - actually not as nice with the #3

so cut out a cardboard #5 and used this as my template and

i have to say i was happy with the final goods - Winston loved it

The remains will make it back to school tomorrow since i have another cake for

Reagan to make this week - too much sweets for one week!!

Lavonne-1-31-10

Happy 5th Birthday Winston !!!!

2010-01-29T15:49:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This slide show is a collection of images from about 1 year to current of our precious on Winston.
(Winston James An Dideon aka An HuJun - born in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China)

Budget Shopping

2010-01-27T13:38:00.001-08:00

Shopping Bargains

Over the last few years i have gotten better at the art of Bargain Shopping!

Today I Felt good about my purchases. I try to save coupons to where i shop - i wish i was better at always remembering the grocery coupons but over all usually do fairly well on no-name items.

I found that Safeway over the past few months has gotten very aggressive to maintain their customer business. I had pretty much moved over to WinCo for my purchases and Safeway for last min items like milk and bread. I now have found Safeway has weekend deals and if i clip away at their flyer i do really well and have mostly been spending about $50 per wk for groceries and maxing out the coupons - like buy 4 or more cereal's for $1 each or Scott's no-name soda for $.75 a bottle. Last wknd i bought Pizza for $2.99 each, my favorite Breyer's Ice Cream for $1.99 ea - so bought many to hold us for a while - usually this is on sale for $3.59 or average $4.59. I try to be a loss leader shopper in buying only what is on sale or needed. I already have checked this wknd's flyer and found Laundry soap of a named brand will be $2.99 and at Big Lots or WinCo i pay $4.99. Eggs are usually a good deal and we go through a lot of these. For ages i was buying milk at $1.99 a gallon but now i have noticed there has been an across the board increase to about $2.39. Tonight will take some of my deals and make a nice quiche for dinner - which will be healthy and cheap!

So today - i started after dropping the kids off - going to Petco. We just switched to shopping there and Odessa is very sensitive to what she eats. I had a coupon for $4 off the 16 lb bag of the only food she can now eat. So i was first in the store today and got my bag, well the women was so nice she gave me back the coupon so i can use it again! So will be back next week to get another bag - since it was already on sale - so really got about $7 off the bag.

I then headed over to Michael's to get stuff for the Chinese NY event and Winston's birthday - so had coupons in hand with 40% and was able to use these for what i needed.

Then i headed to Target for a baby shower gift and found a gift marked down 50% to $4.99 and got two more small items off the registered list so make it a nice but not expensive for us.

After this i headed to Southcenter mall and went to Godiva chocolates - Yes - my favorite which i rarely buy. But now since Oct have joined their club and get one truffle a month - oh you must try the Passion Fruit Truffle. So i got my free one and since Scott had got me some at Christmas as a surprise he got a $10 gift card. So i decided to pick my chocolates instead of a pre-made box which often has items i really don't like. The 8 pieces cost $16 - with my $10 off - it came to $6.17 - then i got another gift of 2 chocolates - so 11 chocolates of very high quality at this price is very good. I put these in the garage fridge - for Scott and the kids to give me for valentines day. So keeping the presents at a very affordable amount :-)

This week I could use my 20% off coupon. I had a present to buy for Winston and some other odds and ends to get.

Of course Big Lots already usually has great deals and with 20% more it really is nice. I found some wrapping paper - it was Christmas but was Nascar cars on it and Winston would not know at 75% with my additional 20% it cost me $.40 for the roll which was originally $2. I got 6 rolls of Blue Painters tape for the CNY event at $1.60 per roll. Of course i get food and party supplies as well.

Last week at Michael's i got a kids craft box to make buttons to wear - 8 Buttons which was originally $7, i got for $1.99 and i had 25% it came to $1.10 total - great for a rainy day project.

With Michael's these day - with each purchase you get another coupon - this weeks purchases will equal 50% off next week better than the usual 40% off. So if you have the patience - give it a try - i usually stash my coupons in my visor so that i have them at hand when needed. I do this with Bed Bath and Beyond since even though they have an expiration date - i can use them any time and do. I am not a junkie - these go and search sites, live and breath it - but it has definitely save us a ton and allowed us to do more with our $$$

Lavonne 1-27-2010

Winston's first present

2010-01-25T23:51:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Of course are boy of speed and fast cars was thrilled to get this!!
Lavonne-1-25-2010

Warning Blind Cords can be fatal

2010-01-25T12:48:00.001-08:00

http://www.windowcoverings.org/

About 30 mins ago a friend called me to let me know his friends child died from their blinds cords. This is the 2nd tragedy in the past year i have heard about this. While on the phone he ordered me the safety kids for our home as a service to have me act NOW!

They are free and i thought i would share this with others, all it takes is one kid to not think about what they are doing - thinking playing with these cords are fun, or trying to look out the window and getting caught by accident.

So act now and save lives! Its FREE
Lavonne - 1-25-10

Right to Life Sunday

2010-01-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

On this day 37 years ago,

seven unelected lawyers Changed centuries of Western tradition,

the plain text of the Constitution, and decades of precedent and declared that there existed in the Constitution a heretofore undiscovered right for women to kill their children in utero.

Almost four decades later, somewhere around 50 million unborn children have been victimized by the breathtaking arrogance of the Court. They committed no crimes, were afforded no due process or trials at all, and every appeal made on their behalf has fallen on deaf ears. They have been killed in the most brutal ways imaginable, unceremoniously sucked from their mother’s wombs, and carelessly discarded without even the dignity of an unmarked grave.

On Friday, hundreds of thousands of Americans marched on our nation’s capital to continue our peaceful protest against this policy which has been foisted upon us. And though most of us cannot be physically present with them, we stand with them in solidarity and in spirit, saying a silent prayer together on behalf of the fallen.

On this day, we remember the nameless and the forgotten, and we lament our inability to even grasp the sorrow or the extent of their loss.

This was partially pulled from an email i received today. I personally have been touched by this as i have written in the past for Adoption Month in November. Our family has 5 members which were spared from being aborted. For my life it would have provided a connivance to a couple who were pregnant and did not want to be "responsible" for their actions!! For my 4 children - it was due to the fact they were born with deformities and either costly or unacceptable by their countries standards. Our society has allowed a numbness to creep in and take over in "FEELING" when a life is taken. What would it been like If "I" had been "ABORTED?"

My parents would not have had me, my relatives would have not knowing me, my friends and my husband - life for all would have been different - it reminds me of the favorite classic movie.. "Its A Wonderful Life" when George does get to see his life without him and how much he impacted the lives around him. How would our lives been like if one more soul we knew had been spared? I know of 2 personally who could have been my nieces and nephews!

Lavonne - 1-23-10

The Many Faces of Winston

2010-01-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is my Winston

he is so many things wrapped up into one "little" package and definitely my baby!

He may be little but his ego is huge and so is he self confidence

yet this little guy has a very tender heart

In the first set of photo's you definitely see his playful side

"speak no evil, see no evil and hear no evil"

not that is what we planned to do - we both were just goofing off

I love taking photo's of him since he likes it and is very photogenic

his little round head and eyes - give me that baby look

but there is so much deep stuff within him

He loves to be the baby yet can't wait to be a teenager

He claims he is a gentleman and loves to hold the door open for us

he admires his big brother - or should i say adores him!!

can't wait to be in Cub Scouts and has all the hand motions memorized

Ok, a more goofy side to my little guy!

making faces and mimicking his siblings

yet there is a coolness about him that can throw you off!

He has these cute - wide and short feet

he is stocky and "solid" yet so small

I wonder if he'll grow to be 5'6"?

His smile is amazing and beautiful

he has this squeaky voice that can drive you over the edge at times

especially if it goes with some whining....

but his giggle is so cute

This serious man/boy has a stubborn side to it

when he is in trouble - wow he just stares at you

he does not speak - he goes quiet into "think" mode

I already betting this boy will land up in the science field

yet - he will be driving a hot sports car that he goes fast in!!!

Time out boy.....

he did not want his photo taken then so turned around on me :-)

he can be a great sulker!

he is growing - but after 18m with us has come a long way

he was the emperor with his nannies

I will never forget our first month with this guy - he had to be held

he could not walk any distance without plopping his little butt on the ground and

refusing to walk, so if I ignored this and kept going - the wailing would start

but in a short time he quickly learned he could walk, and then run and this guy

now is always on the go!!!!

My GQ man

Winston loves to pose - if not for his size he could model

but i know he'll have the ladies after him :-)

not so sure I am up for this.

God had us wait for this guy and the journey was not easy in 2007 when we thought our "winston" was one of 4 other boys looking for forever families. Then after coming home with Taylor we were totally burned out. I did not know if we could do another one. But then wks later got a call about another boy and that door closed - we realized Taylor needed an age appropriate playmate and 2months almost to the day of coming home with her we heard a plea for a family for An HuJun a little boy whose file was going back. I had a deep feeling this was my boy - yet Scott was not ready and we were flat broke - how could we do this?

God spoke to me and i was determined he was our son, i had the paperwork sent to me and made a smilebox asking to be his daddy and gave it to Scott and that was all it took. Nov 13, 2007 we were matched with this guy - then it all came together - the homestudy in a month, on hurdle, then DTC by the end of January, then Scott and his step-dad Jim flew out and got him on Fathers Day, June 15, 2008 - 8 months later!!

It was so meant to be and we were so blessed to have him in an orphanage we had access to and updates from. He had his surgery in China through LWB and again we were blessed.

It turns out now that Taylor and Winston are virtual twins and that is what we were hoping for when we started our journey in 2006.

Winston's special need of TOF of the heart also was a blessing since it has been so manageable and he is healthy. He was hand picked for us by God and we daily thank God for him.

One surprise we found about this little guy - is it appeared our "thinker" was and introvert and very quiet..... not at all the case - this kid sings and chatters all the time :-)

Lavonne-1-21-2010

More Christmas clean up

2010-01-20T23:28:00.000-08:00

I need a mental break so thought i would post some photo's from last Saturday. The kids are getting older and more into helping us set up and put away things - like the Christmas decorations. Reagan and Kaitlyn can read so helped with the big tree this year and then i took it apart in groups. All the kids helped giving dad the pieces and Winston here figured out how to close the box. He is definately our science guy :-)

They all folded the branches down to fit properly in the box and we packed up the three trees and the 8 Tupperware containers full of our Christmas stuff. Scott needs to get them back on the shelf and then i can drive in the driveway again.

So in these areas the kids are maturing and things are easier.... AMEN :-)

I am starting to count the days when i can breath again. The Lunar NY event has me running every day. I get home in time to get the laundry out and put into the dryer and then start dinner before running off to school to grab the kids. Once home it is managing homework, and exercises. Never a dull moment these days - but am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel !!!

Today i was in Bellevue than looped around to downtown to get the only Tiger balloons i could find in the city, then off to the International District to get more props for our photo booth - then got a call to get more paper lanterns.... home to pick up more stuff and circle back to Bellevue to drop off stuff, go over things with some people, photograph various rooms to map out for decorating and then return the paper lanterns since they did not work, run to Michael's at Crossroads to get a helium tank since the balloon place was going to charge me $50 extra, then headed back to Renton, which on the way had to make a doctor's apt for Reagan for Friday and reserve patio heaters which the place just closed down last week so had to order from Seattle -

got home finally got on my computer to answer emails from the day to discover a few issues to resolve by tomorrow, and start printing out passport info to work on Winston and Taylor's - but i am now pretty sure i can't do Winston's until we re-adopt him, so will have to now start that paperwork!!! I still have not submitted Reagan's camp stuff which was due on Monday and got an extension on.... so you can see why i wanted a mental break :-) and i still have not finished my stuff and it is midnight. Tomorrow was suppose to be a light day - but now i have to run back to church and then possibly run to Ballard to get the patio heaters which they will now sell us for $25 more - a great deal!! and then get more balloons with my Michael's 40% coupons :-)

and then to the passport place to start on Taylor's passport at least. Then spend the rest of the day on the computer, one meeting and calling artists for the upcoming event.

Ok i have totally rambled on and am making myself totally crazy with this :-) Pray for my sanity would probably be a good request right now.

Lavonne-1-20-10

The Dideon Artists!!

2010-01-18T22:47:00.000-08:00

The Dideon Artists

1) Reagan our #1 resident artist loves to draw and does all the time - its like he was born with a pencil in his hand :-) He drew this amazing picture of Jesus on the cross 2 days ago and then tore the sheet and we tried to save it. Notice the caption "King of the Jews" he definitely has a fascination with Jesus on the cross - we are blessed that he is touched by this.

2) Kaitlyn our #2 resident artist has taken after her brother but loves COLOR! she always colors in multi-color and lately loves to make me pictures which she then writes to Mommy - loved Kaitlyn. It is very sweet to get these. We have always wondered if the multi-coloring has anything to do with her minority culture? She is Miao and they love bright colors.

We just feel blessed to continually get amazing artwork from our kids.

*** Side note - keep me in prayer - my resume was sent off last week and i talked with the VP today. He was very impressed with my resume - but the position is still not posted and it may be another month until it is. The VP passed my resume onto the VP of Sales whom i have talked with and was very interested in me in the past - so hoping this is good news. But still it looks like it may be March until the position is open and they hire for. So hoping my unemployment lasts that long!!!

Lavonne-1-18-10

Christmas is finally gone at the Dideon's

2010-01-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas Clean up

Well we finally got the decorations down and packed away - or it will be by i hit the sack.

I love Christmas and we got so busy at Christmas we did not entertain much, so kept decorations up an extra week since we had 3 families over for dinner at different times.

Now the fun of packing and putting away the "many" tupperware's containing my precious collection of Christmas stuff. I now have my home back to normal or it will be tomorrow once we have done a quick clean and vacuum of the place! Oh now another 11 months to go until we do this all again. The kids love it, so it is actually fun to do this -

Now it is prepping for Winston's birthday party and Reagan's artwork for the Chinese New Year Art Show. I might get some of this done Monday since the kids are home for Presidents Day holiday.

Lavonne-1-16-10

Evening at the movies

2010-01-16T20:54:00.000-08:00

The kids watching a video tonight

Tonight after cleaning the Christmas decorations today the kids got a treat in watching a video.

It is interesting the different expressions that they all have.... daddy included.

Lavonne-1-16-10

Gingerbread Delight

2010-01-16T20:19:00.000-08:00

Our Gingerhouse Demolition Party - Dideon Style

Make a Smilebox photobook

Last night the kids got to finally finish the house... we had been allowing one treat a night and thought it was getting a bit old - so lets just finish it. The kids were in sugar heaven :-)
Lavonne - 1-16-10

Just another Sunday?

2010-01-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

We'll last Sunday I believe these were taken

we were just hanging out after dinner.

1) Kaitlyn doing some strange upside down sitting and sucking her thumb action ??

2) Kailtyn still pulling at that tooth that still has not come up -maybe this weekend?

3) Taylor and Reagan on the sofa, playing a game with the family.

4) The girls decided to wear the antler's we have - i was able to get them to kiss - arn't they

really cute

5) Kaitlyn in her antler's

6) Grandpa R called and Winston is talking to him :-)

It has been a very full week, no photo's - maybe on the weekend?

School had a lot of activies - including an Art Show, so had to get the kids pictures mounted and some i cheaply framed (since Reagan is in the Chinese NY show in 2 wks) - then Thursday night after piano and other stuff we rushed back to school for a dinner fund raiser and see the kids art work displayed. They were so proud.

Mommy has had an insane week of very long days of meetings, phone calls, organizing - and mostly going to bed at 2 am (hoping next week is not a repeat!)

So finally the weekend is here and the Christmas decorations come down and get put away - we have friends with their new baby from China over on Sunday and this week and next week many friends go to get their "aging" out kids in China and one couple i have been working with is getting their 4 year old son "Nathan" who i brought a gift too last summer in Kunming - Kaitlyn's orphanage.

I am also working on another interesting project - details to follow regarding Reagan's orphanage

-- very exciting news !!! :-)

Lavonne - 1-14-2010