Hey Everyone!

I thought I would just post our family Christmas picture in front of our tree.   It took quite a while to get a picture where everyone was looking at the camera smiling and not blinking or making a funny face, but eventually we got one. ; ) Although, Stevie was giving a major cheezy smile.

As you know, we have to somewhat conceal the identity of our foster kiddos for privacy reasons, but you can still see a little bit of what they look like.

TTYL,

Delaine :-)

Hey Everyone!

Well, for the last week I have been keeping myself very busy with decorating the house for Christmas.  I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE decorating for Christmas!  It helps get me into the Christmas spirit! : )

About a week ago we went to cut down our Christmas tree with some of our friends.  It's sort of a family tradition to go cut down a tree every year.  It's always so much fun looking for just the right one!  Usually is takes a really long time to find the perfect one, but surprisingly enough we found it really fast this year!

Here's some pictures of  when we went to go cut down the Christmas tree.

My brother showing my dad how to cut down the tree.  LOL!

My gorgeous little sister Hannah! : )  Doesn't she just look so stinkin' cute posing for the camera! :)

My little bro.

Me hugging a tree...I guess you could call me a tree hugger if you want!  LOL!  JK!

Me and Jenna.

Me and Mandie goofing around.  : )

Me, Jenna, and Mandie.

My brother trying to make a scary face.  He does it pretty well!  ; )

Decorating the tree!!

Since I couldn't get the angel on the top of the tree, I let my sister have a try at it.

Stevie picking out some ornaments to hang on the tree.

The tree all decorated up!  Isn't it beautiful!!

Whoooweee!  I think thats enough!  LOL! 

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season!

Delaine:-)

Hey Everyone!

I'm sorry I have had such a hard time at keeping up with blogging!  There has been so much going on lately!  We just came back from vacation a couple of weeks ago (again: ))  and ever since I have been home I have had a really bad cold. : (

I have so much to tell you all.  Life has been pretty excting lately!  Not to long ago we were called with two potential placements.  One, a six year old girl and the other, a ten month old little boy.  However,  at court  the judge gave the little boy's father more time to try to work his case plan.  This dissapointed us a litlle, but later on the same day we heard the news  that this little boy's mom had given birth to a preemie  baby girl (10 weeks early) and abandoned her  at the hospital.  Because, the bio mom left the hospital without naming her baby girl, we were able to name her.  The case plan is supposed to go straight to severance and adoption.  So, our new little sister joined our family on Friday, November 2nd.  She's an absolute doll!!!  How awesome is that! 

Now, about the six year old girl, she is an adoptable placement as well.  We have never taken an older child so we were a little concerned  how everything would fall into place.  After having her over the first time all our worries were gone.   She is such a sweet little girl!   It totally feels like she belongs.  It is just so amazing how God works!   I am so excited!!!  She joined our family on Friday, November 2nd as well.  Friday was a very busy and exciting day!

We were pretty much done with foster care.  We prayed that if the Lord had any more adoptable kids out there for us to please just drop them in our lap.  Well,  that is exactly what He did!  He has brought us two more blessings!   If you guys could all pray that these cases would be nice and short and not long and drawn out, that would be great!

*Awards*

Ok, I was awarded the Nice Matters Award by Jocelyn and Amanda.  Jocelyn also awarded me the the Blogging Star Award.  The You Make Me Smile Award  was given to me by Serena, and last but not least the Beautiful Blog Award by Lena3 and Serena.  Thank you all very much!  I know just about everyone has these awards, but  I'll just award them anyway. 

1. You Make Me smile Award

 Kayla(10jellybeans)- She is such a humorous person!  She always puts a smile on my face when we are have had our late night chats on the c-box!

2. The Nice Matters Award

Liz(Ebell1993)-  I know you have probably recieved this award a tons of times, but you definitely deserve it again.  You are such a very nice person! 

3. The Bloging Star Award.

Jess( Antelope)- Ok, I really don't know what to say other than...you're a star!!!!  LOL!  Keep up the good work!

4. The Beautiful Blog Award

Jenna(Sparkles)- I think one of the most beautiful blogs on HSB is my sister's blog.  I love all the beautiful pink roses!  Very purty.

Ok....I think I'm done now! LOL!

Talk to you all later!

Delaine :-)

 This post is dedicated to Superangels 18th birthday party!  I wish I could be there to celebrate your birthday with you, but since I can't....I'll try to through the best virtual party ever!!! I hope you have an awesome birthday Amanda!!   You are such a wondeful girl!!  I am so glad I have had the opportunity to become an online friend with you and I can't wait till I actually get to meet you in person!

Now, for the Party...

This is your cake.  It took me forever to make it! JK! LOL!

Your present

These are the party decorations.This is the lovely dress I will be wearing

And now, the moment you have been waiting for......bring out the mile long sub!!!  Oh yeah!!!  LOL!!!

Well, that about sums it all up!  I hope you have a wonderful B-day Amanda!

Luv ya girl!

Delaine :-)

I suppose it is time for me to update my blog.  I havn't posted in forever!

There is a beautiful spirit breathing now
Its mellow richness on the clustered trees,
And, from a beaker full of richest dyes,
Pouring new glory on the autumn woods
And dipping in warm light the pillared
clouds.

Morn on the mountain, like a summer
bird,
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate
wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life
Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crim­
soned,
And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved,
Where Autumn, like a faint old man, sits
down
By the wayside a-weary. Through the
trees
The golden robin moves. The purple
finch,
That on wild cherry and red cedar feeds,
A winter bird, comes with its plaintive
whistle,
And pecks by the witch-hazel, whilst aloud
From cottage roofs the warbling bluebird
sings,
And merrily, with oft-repeated stroke,
Sounds from the threshing-floor the busy
flail.

Oh, what a glory cloth this world put
on
For him who, with a fervent heart, goes
forth
Under the bright and glorious sky, and
looks
On duties well performed, and days well
spent!
For him the wind, ay, and the yellow
leaves,
Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent
teachings.
He shall so hear the solemn hymn that
Death
Has lifted up for all, that he shall go
To his long resting-place without a tear.

So there it is.  I know it is at some parts hard to understand.  One of my school assignments right now is to analyze it so that is more understandable to me.

One more thing.  I was awarded the " Nice Matters Award" by Jocelyn, so I will be posting who I have awarded in my next entry.

TTYL,

Delaine :-)

Hey everyone!
I am sorry I havn't posted for awhile, but it's just been really busy around here with school starting up and everything.

Now I'll tell you all how my vacation went.  The first three days of our vacation were spent in northern California.  The first day we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.  I think that was my favorite day out of them all!  We got to the beach by a beautiful train ride through the Redwood Forest (It was breath taking!)  When we arrived at the beach we met my cousin and aunt there.  My parents and my aunt took the little ones to some rides that they would enjoy while us older kids rode some rides.  We rode a couple roller coasters and went on this walk through haunted house thingy called the "Fright Walk"... let me tell you, I have never screamed so loud before! LOL!  After that we went down to the beach and got in the freezing cold water!  Even though it was pretty cold it was still enjoyable.  The second day we went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.  It was amazing!  There were so many kinds of different fish there, some that I didn't even know existed!  I think my favorite attraction there were the jellyfish.  They had so many diferent kinds of them!  The last day we spent in northern California we went to Pier 39, which is a shopping center on a pier.   After we walked around a little, we went on a boat ride that went past Alcatraz and then under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was so cool to go right under the Golden Gate and see everything so close up.  Alcatraz was just plain creepy looking!  To finish off that day we went to a really nice restaurant and lucky for me (NOT!) pretty much the only thing they served on their menu was fish!  My brother got calimari steak and my sister really stepped out of her box and got crab cakes! LOL!  As for me I played it safe and got fish and chips.   That pretty much concludes the part of our trip to northern California.  After leaving northern California we headed off to Disneyland for two days.  I could go on a lot more, but I think I have made this entry long enough! 

Altogether the trip was great!  It was really nice to visit our family that we hadn't seen in awhile!

Ok, so here's the pictures.  We got a whole bunch of them!

Stephen thought the train ride was pretty cool!

Me, enjoying the train ride after a long day at the beach.

The redwood trees were just beautiful!

Me, Jenna, Cameron and my cousin Elaine.

Me and Hannah

Stephen and Hannah making sand castles at the beach.  

The beautiful Aquarium.

Me in a room of anchovies.

Me and Jenna in a clam. : )

Stephen taking in the scene.

Me, Jenna and Cameron on Pier 39.

Stephen and Elaine

Awww, they're kissing! LOL!

Hannah on the bay cruise.

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is a building on Alcatraz that I thought looked pretty creepy.

Me and a cute little monkey on Fisherman's Wharf.

Me, Hannah and Stephen at our RV park in southern California.

Me and Stephen with Tow-Mater from the movie "Cars".

Here is my little foster brother in disguise! LOL!

Ok, I think thats enough!  Hope you enjoyed.

Delaine :-)

Hey everyone!
Yesterday for science we were assigned to do a dissection.  A while back my mom got a dissection kit including a starfish, earthworm, Crayfish, grasshopper, and frog.  We had already dissected the earth worm (which wasn't too gross) so we decided to go on to the next easiest one, which was the Crayfish.   Observing the external anatomy was pretty easy,  but once we started cutting into it, things started to get more difficult.  I think the hardest part was probably trying to cut it's hard exoskeleton open without  damaging it's internal stuff.   Everything went pretty well other than the fact that while I was cutting the thing open I got a nice squirt in the face with some sort of unknown substance!  Now I don't get grossed out very easily, but that made me pretty sick!  LOL!  After we were done we let my brother do the nasty job of cleaning the tools and throwing the remains of the long gone crayfish away.

Ok, this may be sort of gross, but since I got pictures of the dissection I decided I would show them all to you.  They aren't too bad, but If you are incredibly squeamish like my sister is, you don't have to look at them.

Here they are!

The crayfish...before dissection:

 The crayfish without it's hard outer shell:

YUCK!!!!!!!!

Talk to you all later!

Delaine :-)

Tag Rules:

1).The player starts with 8 random facts about herself or himself.

2).The person who is tagged must post on his/her own blog his/her answers and post the rules first.

3).Then the player must pick 8 people and tag them.  Also leave them a note on Message that lets them know that you tagged them.  You can write who you tagged on your blog also!

1. I am a huge Starbucks addict!  ( like most girls are, lol! )
2. I absolutely love to shop, and my favorite store to shop at is Forever21
3. I want to be a christian artist when I grow up.
4. I still sleep with my little pink teddy bear I got when I was about six years old. (No, I'm not  embarrassed to admit that : )
5. I  looooooove to read.   When I get a good book to read, I usually can't put it down until I'm done.
6. Even though I love to swim, when It comes to large masses of water (oceans) I have an immense fear of them!  I remember having a dream that I was walking on a shaky old bridge over the ocean, and it just happend to snap while I was on it.  I ended up falling into the dark stormy water not knowing which way was up or down I eventually started to drown.  right as I was about to die, I woke up.  Isn't that how dreams always work!
7. My favorite book of the Bible is Psalms.
8. I want to have a bunch of kids when I grow up.

I tag all the people on my friends list who havn't done this tag. 

Also, I want to thank my sister (Sparkles) and Liz (Ebell1993) for awarding me with the Rockin Girl Blogger Award!  That was sweet of you girls and I really appreciate it!

One more thing before I go.  For those of you who are participating in The Challenge, go check out my sister's latest post if you havn't already seen it.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!

Delaine :-)

Hey everyone!
I was Awarded the Blogger Reflection Award by Bearing with Love and Christiananimallover.  I think I am going to do the same thing as my brother did and just award one person, because it seems like just about everyone already has it!  It's spreading like wildfire!  Here's who I'm awarding.

Hey everyone!
Wow, I am soooo glad the weekend is here and I'm able to sleep in.  I don't think I have been this exhausted  for a long time.  This week my sister and I volunteered to help with VBS at the church we are attending. Every morning I had to wake up at around 5:30 (I HATE waking up early) in order to be able to get ready in time to get there.  Waking up at 5:30 doesn't sound too bad, but considering that I was up around 12:30 every night this week I had to force myself to get out of bed.  It was all worth it though!  I was glad that I was able to help out. 

Moving on to a different subject. 

 
Yesterday,  I had another softball game.  We played against the Giants (which happens to be the best team in the league.)  They have been the only team that we haven't been able to beat.  Yesterday, was one of the most important games because it was the last time we would be able to play them and we really wanted to win this one.  At one point in the game we were winning seven to three, but everything went down hill from there.  It's not that our playing got any worse, it just seemed like the other team started playing ten times tougher.  They were not just going to let us win without a fight.  They wanted to say that they had gone undefeated through the whole season (they havn't lost a single game.)  Well, our team ended up losing by one point!  One of the things I meant to mention was how prideful and arrogant this team was.  During the game the parents, coaches, and girls from  the other team were yelling out things that were very unkind and  discouraging to our team.  At the end of the game the teams usually cheer each other, but they gave us no recognition at all.  They were too caught up in themselves and how great they did. There is a lot more I could tell you, but I don't want to get to heated up right now. LOL!   I just wanted to end by saying that it doesn't matter how good you are at a sport if you lack character and humility.  Pride and arrogance pretty much over shadow your accomplishments.  I'd rather have a few defeats and a humble spirit then to be undefeated and bound up in pride and viewed as lacking character.

Also, I want to thank my brother Cam  for making me a spiffy new header for my blog.  Cam is looking for opportunities to practice his html skills.  If you'd like a makeover for your blog, go to his new test blog and leave a comment asking him to give you a hand.

Time to go!

Delaine :- )

Hey everyone.

Today was my final exam for Algebra1, and let me tell you (*takes deep breath*)  the biggest weight has been lifted off my shoulders!  This test has been the only thing I have been able to think about for the last week or so.  Even when I was watching fireworks on Fourth of July I was stressing over this test!   I suppose you may be wondering how the test went.  At first, when my tutor handed me the test I quickly scanned through it and started to panick.  Nothing on the page looked really familiar to me.  I was so nervous that my mind went totally blank for a while.  At this point, I decided that the best thing I could do was pray.  After I prayed,  I started to think a little more clearly and some how the paper didn't look so intimidating after all.  I ended up doing just fine.   A very good paper, with th exception of a couple silly errors.  I am so thankfull  that God cares about answering the little prayers too!   Wooohooo for an "A" in Algebra!!!

For those of you who have heard about our little foster brother on my sister's blog, we have some very good news!  It looks like we'll be able to adopt him!  You can check out my mom's blog for the details.  Thank you to all of you who prayed for this situation.

Time to go!  Have a great night!

Delaine :- )

Hey everyone!  Well, today was another softball game and it went great!  We won the game 16 to 0!  It was awsome!  Lately we have been playing are games in very HOT weather.  There has been heat advisories on the same days that we've had our softball games!  It gets soooo hot out there, but these kinds of temperatures are pretty narmal for here in Arizona.

Here is a tag from Christiananimallover.

About Me:

Time:  12:05am

Full name: Delaine ******* *****

Nicknames: Lainy, Lainy Brie and "D"

Parents' names: Mom and Dad

Number of candles on last birthday: It's to many to count!  JK!

Date you regularly blow candles out: March 13th

Pets: 1 cat.  We use to have more but they all died :( 

Height: I haven't really checked recently, but I think I'm around 5' 8".

Eye color: Hazel

Hair color: Blonde.  Yes....I am a dumb blonde, but in a smart kind of way.   

Piercings: My ears are pierced

Have you ever....:

Been in love: Not yet!

Loved anyone so much it made you cry: No.

Future:

Where do you want to live?: New Zealand! Or Tennessee.

What kind of job do you want?: I would like to be a singer.

Who...                                        

 Makes you laugh the most?: My little brother and sister.

 Do you go to for advice?: My Parents And God 

 What do you?: Huh?

 knows the most about you?: God.  He's the one that made me!

 is your best friend?: Lauren. 

Which one:

2 doors on car or 4: 4

Coffee or ice cream?: Ice cream!  I like coffee, but not as much as Ice Cream.

Shampoo or conditioner?: Conditioner

1 pillow or 2?: I always sleep with 2 pillows.

First words that come to mind:

rock: Pebble

Green: Tree

Wet: Water

Cry: Babies

Peanut butter: Bannanas

Favorite...:

color of sock: Bright pink!  JK! 

Memory: Seeing Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp!  I'll never forget that one!

Song at the moment: Made to love

Subject in school: Reading

Flower: Pink Roses

Color: Pink.....like you couldn't have guessed that!  LOL!

Random....:

how many times did you fail and permit your drivers test?: None.  I am not old enough.

How do you see yourself in 10 yrs?: Being married with a couple kids.

Ever been convicted for a crime: Me!  NO WAY!

What do you do when you are bored: Nothing

Is it okay to be in love with more than one person at a time?: Absolutly not!

Friend that lives farthest from me: Our really good friends in Kansas.

Did you enjoy this: Yes, I did.

Now what time is it: 12:30am

People you will tag: Who ever wants to do this tag.

TTYL.

Delaine :-)

Hey everyone,
Well, now that things have slowed down a bit, I thought it would be a good time to do another entry.  I told you all in my last post that I had a recital coming up, now that it is over with I'll tell you a little about how it went.  The recital started off with a group song that both the junior and the senior classes performed together.  The song went pretty well for the most  part, except the last note of the song was just a bit off tune.   The next group song was performed by our voice class (the senior class) and that went ok, but it was sort of embarrasing anyway because it was a really weird song (as some of you know by reading one of my older post ; )   After the group songs were over everyone sang their solo songs.  Everyone did great on there solos.  The only thing I was worried about was my voice cracking,  because all of us older girls had to sing our songs toward the end of the recital.  We had to wait so long without being able to use our voices and being able to warm up.  Surprisingly enough, my voice didn't crack.  I was so relieved when it was all over!  All in all, the recital went pretty well.  Here is a picture of me singing at the recital.  We took a freeze frame from a video, so it's not the best quality.

I have to tell you all about what I ate for lunch today.  Well, today being Fathers Day we let our dad pick out where he wanted to have his lunch.  He decided to pick somewhere a little different.  It was a resteruant called the Fish Market.  I don't know about you guys, but  with the exception of salmon, I HATE seafood.  I decided not to get the salmon, because it had an outragouse price.  After staring at the menu for awhile and discovering that I had no clue what half the stuff was, I decided to let my mom pick out  what I would eat.  Lets just say, thats the last time I'm going to let someone else pick out my meal!  Here's a picture of what I ate.  Linguine with clam sauce and the whole stinkin clam shell too!  Yuck!

A picture is worth a thousand words.  Have a great day, and if anyone tries to pick out your seafood of choice....graciously pass!

Delaine :- )

Hey everyone,
I'm sorry It's been awhile since I last posted.  I have been keeping myself pretty busy lately preparing for my upcoming recital and also since I just started a new season of softball I have been pretty busy with that as well.  I must say, I am a little more nervous than usual about this recital.  I haven't  got the group songs that our class chose completely down, and the solo song I chose to sing is pretty challenging, and requires me to step out of my comfort zone.  I guess it's always good to step out of your comfort zone every once in a while.

Well, to change the subject...I decided to do a contest from SuperAngel's blog.  So her it is...

1. Your name: Delaine
2. Famous singer/band: Delirious?
3. 4 letter word: Dude
4. Animal: Dolphin
5. Color: Denim Blue
6. Gifts/Present: Dress
7. Vehicle: Dodge Viper
8. Things in a souvenir shop: Doll
9. Boy name: Derek
10. Girl name: Debbie
11. Movie: Dreamer
12. Drink: Diet Coke  
13. An occupation: Delivery Man
14. Flower: Daisy
15. Celebrity: Dakota Fanning
16. Magazine: D magizine ( I'm not joking, there is really a magazine with that name!) 
17. US City: Denver, CO.
18. Pro sports team: Diamond Backs (Arizona, Baseball)
19. Fruit: Delicious Strawberries
20. Reason for being late to work: Dog ate paperwork 
21. Something you throw away: Diapers
22. Thing you shout: Darn!!!
23. Cartoon character: Daffy Duck

 OK, so there you have it! Hope it was entertaining.

Delaine :-)

Oooooooohhhhhhh my goodness!!!!  Guess what just happened to be going on the first day we arrived at Disneyland.........

Yep, you saw it right, we were there for the world premiere of  "Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End." We didn't actually get to veiw the movie because you had to pay $1500 in advance, but we were able to be there for the red carpet event!  Celebrities were everywhere!  A lot of the Pirates of the Caribbean cast were there as well, including ORLANDO BLOOM and JOHNNY DEPP!!!!!!  I saw both of them in person!  Orlando Bloom walked by pretty quick so the picture I got of him wasn't that good.  Before Johnny Depp walked past  us all the security guards were telling us not to stick our autograph books out just because he probably wouldn't have time to stop. So hearing that, I was preparing my camera to take a quick snap of him since he would most likely be walking by fast. When everyone was screaming "JOHNNY!!! JOHNNY!!!" on the top of thier lungs, I was desperately searching off in the distance to find him. I was wondering why everyone was sticking thier hands out to get his autograph even though we were told not to. After screaming out to my brother five times asking where he was, I finally realized he was right under my nose, signing autographs. He was about 3 feet away from us, and  I was looking right over him.  A couple things I concluded from this experience was that #1) Johnny Depp is REALLY short ;)  And #2) Orlando Bloom is ten times cuter than I thought he was!!!!!!!!! OK , I promised you all pictures, so here they are...

Orlando Bloom!  Pardon the big head in front of my lens!

Johnny Depp - Sorry about the blur, but we had to get a freeze frame from a video clip we had taken.

I can't say much about Captain Barbossa, but isn't the monkey cute!?

Commodor Norrington (Don't know who the pink hair belongs to!)

Do you recognize these celebs? LOL!

At the beach!

Once we came home we got to see the first viewing (other than the world premiere) of the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.  It was a bit confusing, but very good!  Go see it!

Hello everyone,
Boy, have I been tired lately.  It seems as though it has become a nightly routine to stay up late.  Sometimes while I am doing something on the computer or reading a book I'll glance over at the clock to see what time it is.  Noticing that it is about nine o'clock I'll think, "ok I'll just go to bed in about thirty minutes."  Sometimes I get really carried away with a good book and instead of going to bed in the next thirty minutes I end up going to bed three hours later!  Often times, a Starbucks Frappacino is the culprit for keeping me up late, those things make me bounce off the walls.  Currently, I have a nice cold that keeps me up all night, so even if I went to bed early I would just lie there in agony anyway!  Well,  totally of topic but, heres a quite unusual tag from foreverconfused.  First of all here's the rules....


Rules: Every time you are tagged you must type the story on your post and add 2 lines and tag 7 others. If you choose to end a story it must be more then 20 lines and you must start another one with 2 lines and tag 7 people. Story must not exceed 50 lines. Post rules on blog and/or comment of those you tag.

 One dark and stormy night an old man could be seen creeping down the side walk holding a wiggling sack in his arms. The thing in the sack was hissing and managed to tear the sack, and even though the old man was desperately trying to keep holding it the thing inside leaped out onto the dark street running straight to the riverside. Then the thing turned around and ate the man. The thing then began to sing "Oh! Gravity" to the tune of "Go Tell Aunt Ruth". The thing was actually a very large cat th@ loved to eat ppl... It had already ate two ppl th@ day. It then sat down and started licking it's paws. It then began prowling around the riverside, looking for food along the riverside. Suddenly, the boards underneath it shattered, plunging it into darkness. It ended up underneath a Burger King building. There was a light coming from somewhere...beyond..and suprisingly it was just a car pulling into Burger King.  After the car pulled up a man rapidly exited his car and approached the fast food restaurant unaware that "it" lurked just around the corner... 

There you have, my contribution to this silly story!  I tag camtheman, sparkles, dixiefiddler, Rach, arwengirl, Caylin, and funkyleo.  Have fun!

Hey everyone, sorry It's been awhile since I've  updated my blog.  About a week ago my little brother , sister, and foster brother had their pictures taken.  I thought I would share them with you just because they are so stinkin cute!  I can't show you my foster brothers pictures just now because of privacy reasons, but they did get a picture of his little baby feet , so I suppose I can show you them :)  Here they are.

There you have it, cuteness at it's best!