It's Been a LONG Time!

I know it's been forever since I have posted. We all started getting the bugs that were going around at the beginning of February, and then life just got in the way too.

We're so excited that Erick is now an Ochoa! His adoption was finalized in court on March 12th. Woo hoo! It was so nice to have family and friends there to witness the whole thing. It was pretty cool that he got to sit in the judge's chair and pound the gavel too. The judge also let Caleb pound the gavel.

Here are some pictures from the day...in the opposite order from how they actually happened.

Who's who from left to right: Susan Payne (our first caseworker), Eric Larson (Uncle Eric), Rosalie Ochoa (Auntie Rose), Baby Rachel (cousin), Daddy, Erick Ochoa, Mommy, Emilio (cousin), Caleb Ochoa, Grandma Ochoa, Poppaw Ochoa, Debbie White (our adoption caseworker), Sam Shin (our pastor from Wellspring Church), "Grandma" Sheila Souza (a GOOD friend), and Judge Lois Haight.

Our Little Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Parental Rights and a busy September

WOW! It's been awhile since I have posted here, but life has just been SO busy! After having about 4 very slow months with the business, September brought about nearly FIFTY orders just on the digital side of the business! Praise God!

We are excited to announce that the parental rights of Sir E's birth mom has been terminated. We are sad for her, but we know that she loves Erick, and she understands that he is now in a home where he will be well taken care of and loved too. We now have to wait 60 days to see if she will appeal the ruling. If she doesn't, the adoption finalization process will begin, and the adoption should be finalized in early 2009...like January or February. YAY!!!!!!!

Here are some recent pictures of the family, including Poppaw's birthday party, and a visit from the Queen's sister (my sister). I hope you enjoy.

Sir E Is Learning to Feed Himself

I can only allow him to feed himself when the food is thick, but Sir E is now learning to feed himself! If the food is thinner, it just gets flung everywhere, and I don't really have the patience for that! As it is, he is exploring what it is like to have both hands in the food, and holding the spoon in both hands! I guess for now, he is ambidextrous. Here are some pictures from this morning's breakfast time...yogurt, baby oatmeal, and fruit dessert mixed together.

Something New That I Wanted to Try

Why I'm In Trouble

The other day, I was watching a 2-1/2 year old (Sir A), and I had our 19 month old, Sir E, and our 14 year old, Sir C. It was one of those days where I wish that I had a blue genie to come and take care of all the world's problems. Well, not really, but I bet you know what I mean!

Here's what happened. Sir A was sitting in the booster chair on a big chair, in the kitchen, eating his breakfast. His mom had just gotten it for him after she brought him, and then she went to run errands. Now normally, I would block the entrance to the kitchen so that Sir E couldn't go in there while Sir A was eating. I have NO clue why I didn't block the entrance to the kitchen this time. I think you might be able to figure out where this is leading...

Sir E walked into the kitchen, and decided that he want to know what Sir A was eating, so he grabbed the VERY full bowl of cereal and pulled it down off of the tray. Sir A got upset, because A: his cereal was now dripping down his legs and all over the floor, and B: because his cereal was no longer on his tray because Sir E pulled it off!!! When I tried to get the cereal bowl out of Sir E's little hand, he just FLUNG the rest of what was in the bowl, all over the REST of the kitchen floor! I was DEFinitely NOT in my right mind at that point, because if I had been, I would have grabbed the camera so that I could chronicle this moment that I figured I would be laughing about later. I definitely was not laughing when it happened!

Well, yesterday we had a redeeming moment. One of my best girlfriends brought over a cool two-seater red Radio Flyer wagon that her kids have outgrown. We promptly decided that we must try it out. So we put Sir E in the wagon, without even bothering to put his shoes on him, and Sir C pulled him around our little apartment courtyard. (Sir C has been such a sweet big brother, and such a good helper to me and The Archer.) It was between 10:30 and 11:00 in the morning, so the sunshine gave us such a gorgeous brightness to all the colors around us, so that we could take some amazing pictures. Here are some of the pictures that I took.








One more thing that I would like to share. The Archer's co-workers threw an "adoption shower" for us last week, and we got seriously BLESSED!!! One of the things that Sir E got was this T-shirt, which is so poignantly perfect!!!
Doesn't it say it all? Well, at least he takes a good morning nap. We're still working on good afternoon naps. Getting caught should be at the TOP of the list! :-) He's learning though.

Two Great Accomplishments

Sunday, June 8th, Sir C had a jujitsu kata (competition), where he came in 1st place in his division! We are SO proud of him. He has been doing jujitsu for 2 years now, and he has really gotten very strong and learned a lot. We will keep going as long as we can. Here is a picture of Sir C and his jujitsu teacher.

Way to go Sir C!!!!!

We took the guys to the pool on Sunday and Monday. Sir C LOVES the water, even though when we first got married, The Archer had to really teach Sir C how to swim and to love the water and not be afraid of it. Sir E SCREAMED when we put him in the water! He clung to Mommy the whole time. I think I may have little finger sized bruises on the back of my arm! Eventually he calmed down and allowed me to take him further into the water. He still doesn't even like the bathtub, so the pool was definitely intimidating for him.

Here are some photos from our pool time.

Another accomplishment: We knew that Sir E "climbed", but we didn't know that he "CLIMBED"!! On Monday, I had my back turned, and when I turned around, Sir E was sitting in a dining room chair. Did Sir C put him there? No! Did The Archer put him there? NO! How did he get up there??? Well duh! He climbed!! He put one little foot on the rung, and pulled himself up. But he didn't stop there. He sat in that chair just as smug as can be, smiling the whole time, link "Ha! Bet you didn't think that I could do this!". Then, he proceeded to climb on top of the table! I couldn't help but laugh. I wanted to sternly tell him "NO!", that he could hurt himself, but I couldn't. All I could do was laugh and grab the camera. So if Sir E ever finds himself in a bad predicament, he can count on Mommy laughing and grabbing the camera. Oh well. One time, right???

We WILL live through this! My mom did, after all!