A message from Liam.

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So then....

The plane ride was mostly uneventful. We took off almost a half an hour early. Liam didn't fuss or anything! So, of course, right as I was settling into the flight being uneventful Liam threw up all over me. In all my planing to be sure I had plenty of diapers for the trip it had never occurred to me to be sure we each had a change of clothes in the carry on bags! The person sitting next to me (in first class!) slept through the whole thing, which I suppose is good. The flight attendant did her best to help me get Liam and myself cleaned up. Then as soon as the mess was cleaned Liam fell asleep and remained asleep until it was time to land.

The plane landed and we rode a tram to the baggage claim area. As we got to the bottom the escalator going to baggage claim I saw someone I thought I recognized from behind. And I was right. Poppa turned around and it was smiles and hugs all around. We grabbed my bags and Liam's carseat and headed out to the truck.

The two hour drive from the Vegas airport to St. George was mellow. We chatted and Liam slept.

When we got to the house I met Sandy, Lisa's mom, Lisa and Tink.



Tink HATED Liam and barked at him the entire weekend. By the time we left she had tried to bite him!

Anyways. After dropping off my stuff and changing Liam we went out to buy a pack n play for Liam to sleep in and some tennis shoes for me to wear while there. ( I only brought flip flops.)

When we were done with the shopping we headed back to the house and were excited to find that Devon, my 10 year old half sister, and Chase , my 19 year old half brother, were home from school. More hugging and smiling ensued.

That afternoon there was a carnival at Devon's school that Lisa had been in charge of. We all went to the carnival and had lots of fun.

Devon took Liam down a bouncy slide.



We went and had his hair sprayed green like the other kids.



Liam spent time bonding with his new Grandma Lisa.



Chase and Devon had a silly string fight.



Liam spent the rest of the time we were there switching off between his Grandpa and his Uncle Chase.





Then we all headed back to the house and just kinda hung out till it was time to go to dinner. We went to an burger place and I gotta say their burgers were good. Not In-n-Out good.... but good.

After dinner Chase went and hung out with his friends and the rest of us relaxed watching some tv and then headed to bed.

The Most Important Flight.

I did it again. I dropped a bomb and then forgot to come back and do damage control.

So here are the details. On January 6th my brother, Orion, called me and said "you are never going to believe this. I just got a friend request from a kid named Chase St. Thomas who claimed to be our half brother and a message from Richard stating that Chase is in fact our brother and that they will not push contact on us, but that things were not as they seemed and Chase had been waiting his whole life to meet us."

As soon as I stopped freaking out a little I hopped right on to facebook and looked them up. I sent both of them a message asking if they had sent my brother a message, cause if they had... I was the sister of Orion and that made me the daughter/sister they were looking for.

About a half an hour later I was chatting with both Chase in Utah and Richard on the island he was on for work.

Over the course of the next few months I spent every available waking moment talking to Richard. By the end of January I was calling him Poppa like I had when I was a little girl.

I had everything a girl could wish for. I had more family. Family that had always wanted me. Family that, when told I was going to be moving in with them cause my mom couldn't handle living with me anymore, moved things around in their house as fast as they could so I would have a room ready and waiting for me when I got there. Family that waited and waited for me to show up.

I never came.

Now that has changed. I don't know if you know this about me but I have an amazing ability to accept, forgive and adapt. I don't hold grudges. I can't. I have lived through to much. So I decided that whether or not Poppa's story was true (and as it turns out large chucks of it are...) or my moms story she had always told us was true (as it turns out large chunks of it were incorrect.) I was going to let it all go and just love the people God had put in my life to love me.

As the time drew closer and closer for Poppa to come home from the job he was working overseas, he and I began to plan a way that I would be able to come down to Utah to meet my new family face to face. Several attempted plans fell through. Finally it was decided that I would come down the weekend after Easter first thing friday morning and that I would return that Monday. Plans were finalized. Plane tickets were purchased.

This was it. I was going to meet the Step-mom I had a vague idea about. I was going to meet the brother and sister I had no idea existed until January 6th. (yes technically they are half brother and sister, but so is Rachel and that has never mattered so why should this?)

Now all I had to do was get on a plane with Liam (who had to come since he is still nursing). Our bag was packed. We were ready. Owen and the kids dropped me off at Sea-Tac and helped us check in our luggage. We went through the security checkpoint and rode the tram out to the plane. When we got to the terminal the plane was already boarding, so we quickly got on board. I sent out a picture message letting everyone know that we were on the plane and that the doors were closing. Poppa sent back that he was hopping in his vehicle and heading south to get me.

I was committed. No going back now...

So you remember when I said....

So do you remember when I said that something life changing had happened to me and I didn't tell you what it was? If you said no, here. Go ahead and look. I'll wait.

Ok. So I told you that something life changing had happened and then guess what? I never told you!

And then I finally realized I never told you and stated the obvious. Go me.

Well now I am ready to tell you what happened. You ready? Really? Are you sure??????




This is what happened. I gained an entire family. Want to know the best part? I am related to them by blood... that man not in the cap and gown??? Yeah. He is my biological father. The one I thought abandoned me.

I think I will let you chew on that for just a minute while I prepare the post about going to visit them right after Easter.

Oh! Hello!

I have missed you all. We had to shut our internet down for a while. It was that or our phones. We decided I could live without the internet for a month. But now I am back and have stuff to share!

First I will share Easter.

As is standard to our life in the military, Owen missed the majority of yet another Easter!. This time he had training all weekend. He was supposed to be home by noon.... but as is almost always the case with the Army some bonehead ruined the fun for everyone else!




Just as we decided we couldn't wait to start the fun any longer, Owen called and said it was time to come get him. We waited till the first set of eggs was ready to come out of the dye.



Mikaela's favorite colors were the "girly ones" and green.



Alexander stuck to what I like to call the "midnight colors" Deep purple, deep blue and the dark turquoise blue.



Aeddon wanted the bright colors. The orange, yellow and cyan blue.



Liam was a little to young to dye eggs and just sat there happily watching the whole affair!



As soon as the eggs were all dyed Owen went very quickly out and hid half of them for the kids to find. 6 each for the older kids. We had to work fast and look fast for two reasons. Reason number 1 is that it was about to be dark. Reason number 2 is that it was about to start pouring with rain!








After the hunt we did baskets. We don't do the Easter bunny here. We told the kids it is because the Easter bunny cant get on post cause he doesn't have the security clearance!

After that we did a relatively normal dinner followed by some strawberry shortcake made with angel food cake.



Liam LOVED the angel food cake!

That was pretty much the adventure that was our Easter!

I never thought I would

I never though I would spend so much on diapers... but I did anyways. I just dropped exactly $199.00 on "old style" Kissaluvs size 2 diapers for Liam.



See the problem was that we were having nothing but issues with Liam and prefolds with Snappis. If I didn't stretch the Snappi as hard as I could he would leak poop all over his longies. If I did stretch it as far as I could he would "stick" to the fabric of the prefold and when I would remove his diaper I would also take enough skin to cause him to bleed.

It was almost enough for us to give up... if it wasn't for the fact that he cant wear disposables cause of skin sensitivity.

So since they were on sale cause they are being discontinued in this style (nothing wrong with them, they just redid them a little) I got them for a lot less money. This size fits from a 20lbs child to a 40lbs child... so we should be good now.

I bought 20.



Owen liked them. He was the most excited I have ever seen him about diapers... which is to say that he asked if I was happy and I said I was so he said he like them.



Liam liked them too.....

And then it happened...



First I hugged them.



Then I threw them.



Then we had a diaper fight with them.



Even Liam tried to throw one!



And that was that. A few minutes later we lost the light so we scooped up the new diapers and I washed them. We have been using them since last night and I have already noticed the difference. They are far more absorbent and not once has my little Liam bled.

Money well spent.

Bailey Calendar

So last year I made a calendar to go with all the pictures I took of my kids for Kids 365 the year before... I loved that we were the pictures of the calendar! I thought I blogged about it... but I apparently did not. So here is a link to that first set of calendar pages.

This year I wanted to do the same... but I wanted to be sure that unlike the first time, my kids were the youngest at the beginning of the calendar and the oldest at the end.

Well I succeeded. Wanna see the finished mosaics for the calendar that is currently hanging on my kitchen wall?

January:


February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:


I foresee that I will be making one of these every year for forever!

Calling it as I see it.

So lets face facts. I am not gonna finish blogging Christmas... cause there really isn't much to tell. We spent New Years recovering from Owen's birthday party. We watched the Rose Parade, which I love!

Then on the 2nd we packed up all day and then we left.

On the way out we went and visited Anthony and Katherine and their beautiful new baby girl.



Aren't they cute?

And just look at her little face!



Then we drove home. It took us 24 hours of pretty much straight driving. There were a lot of bathroom breaks.

That was it. I cant believe that I spent several weeks trying to figure out how to make that more interesting! Now on to what else has been going on around here... but that is another post!

Owen's Birthday

Ok... Seriously. Why am I having such a hard time finishing this?

Thursday was Owen's 32rd birthday. His parents planned a big party for him. We spent the morning prepping for the festivities. Owen went out and spent birthday money to buy an external hard drive for mp3's and a thumb drive for me cause we were running out of room on my memory cards!

Then he spent the day running around with his dad picking up things like the food for the party and his birthday cake. I went over to my parents and loaded the pictures onto the thumb drive and set up the external hard drive to download.

Then it was time for the fun.



First we all just hung out in the sun room and chatted. It was kind of nice.

Then it was time for the cake!



Notice that there are two cakes? That is because Mario and Melaney's daughter, Violet, shares a birthday with Owen. They had a cake for her so we told them that if they wanted to bring her cake to Owen's party we could have them blow out their candles together.

After the cakes most of the family guests started to head out. First to go was Owens uncle and aunt, John and Carole.



Don't they look like they are so happy together?



Then my dad and sister filtered out. Mom couldn't come cause she was felling really sick and didn't want to take the chance of spreading the cold she was coming down with.

Around the time family members started filtering out, Friends started coming.



First to arrive was my friend, Ginny. Owen invited her to his party without telling me cause he knew I wouldn't make a scene and ruin his birthday party and he wanted us to make up. That is a long story involving her having a not so nice reaction when I announced to the internet that I was pregnant with Liam. If you just joined us here at my blog... the post explaining that is here.

Anyways, the point is that she came and we were able to hang out and be nice to each other. I am not sure that the relationship is repaired... but at least we can be civil for now.



As people were coming and going the kids decided that it would be fun to play in the huge backyard in the dark!



Owen's Aunt Marguerite read a book to the kids...



Owen's cousin, Chris, showed up for a bit. His twin wasnt able to come cause he and his wife had another party to go to.

Then the parade of friends Owen hadn't seen in years started.



First we had Ramses.



Then Iris and her boyfriend. I am pretty sure his name is Alex.... I could be wrong though.



Then Sam and his daughter showed up. Eventually Sam went home and changed and put his baby girl to bed. He rejoined us later.... he lives two doors down from Owen's parents and he and Owen have been friends for pretty much forever.



Finally Owen's friend Arthur showed up. Owen was super excited to see Arthur cause they had lost track of each other several years ago when Arthur's mom decided to sell the house they lived in. Arthur and Owen had been next door neighbors their entire lives before that.

Eventually the only guests that were left were Mario& Melaney and Arthur. We got the kids to sleep and started getting ready for the big countdown to the New Year.



In this picture are 6 of the Bailey/Ramirez kids. (Liam was sleeping in the bedroom!) Can you find all 6? It is like a Where's Waldo page! Remember those?

Eventually the festivities ended. Then we realized that Arthur wasn't safe to head home and Owen wasn't tired anyways... so they called Sam and the three of them hung out like in the old days.



Eventually I fell asleep and Sam went home... Arthur stayed until about 6 am... then he headed home and Owen finally got to get some sleep.

This ends the festivities of Owen's birthday/ New Years Eve party.