Sale pending!

So, our house is sale pending status! This means, we did get an offer last Friday. On Saturday the accepted our counter-offer and Sunday all the paperwork was signed to make it official. Next step is on Thursday. Our house will be appraised in the morning! Eeeek! We built this house from the dirt lot and up and chose everything in it. We had a toddler and a baby in this house and then had another baby who is now a toddler. There are TONS of memories in this house. Tons. It will be hard to let go. It will be hard to say goodbye to Las Vegas. Its home. We do LOVE it here. But, for some reason we have been called to do other things. We do know we love it here so we could come back some day. But, we dont plan to for now. As you know...things change. Ya never know!
Here are the pictures the Realtor took of the house.

And for memories sake, here are some photos of our lot with nothing on it!

Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden

Posting on offer from my phone so not sure how well this will look. But,

Yesterday we decided to check out the Sigfried and Roy Secret Garden at the MGM Grand. It was FUN! The tigers, lions and leopards are AMAZING animals. My favorite part in the garden. The kids seemed to love the dolphins much better. No surprise there with Kayla and Caden growing up on the beach for so long. Kayla has now switched back to her thoughts on being a dolphin trainer. She has said this before each time we visited Sea World San Diego, but the seemed to forget and move onto a teacher or police officer, or vet or pilot. 

Carly loves any sea creature! If it swims, she loves it. Here are aome cell phone photos. I haven't gotten the pics of the canon yet.

So glad!

I am so glad that I turned this blog private. I feel like I can document and share, and talk about anything my heart desires here! Thank you to everyone who is a part of wanting to share in with our life adventures. I am so excited for the next adventures to begin!

I am so glad that I blogged about the details of why I went private. I am so glad the important people in our lives left such supportive comments for me. I have been struggling with this issue. One in particular comment from one of the most important people in this situation (Kayla's birth father) really stuck with me and opened my eyes. As soon as I read it from him, it was like a brick lifted off my shoulders with this whole ordeal. He stands by US. He is on our side. And he will always be there to back us up. That means the world to me. We are incredibly lucky and blessed to have that from him. Unconditional support of our family.

THANK YOU!

Why did I go private?

So, why did I go private?

We very unfortunately had some mean, negative, hurtful words said to us and about us from our birth mother. She had publicly on facebook, said some hurtful things in various status updates about us and our children over a erioud of time. It didn't start here though. Many times over the years she would get upset at me because Kayla and Caden had received gifts or cards from Kayla's birth father. For this reason, I can only come up with feelings of jealousy for her that had just snowballed. She had no reason for this. She was just as involved in our lives as the birth father. She had access to everything on facebook, on my blog, she had my phone number and we many times exchanged calls or texts. She had our mailing address. She never once sent anything for a birthday. This was not my fault and I cannot understand the anger towards me for her jealousy.

Before this escalated, there was extremely hurtful, mean things said to us and about us from her family members. So we blocked them all on facebook, and told Kaitlyn that she would be removed from facebook as well, but she could still send messages on facebook chat, and we could still text at anytime. She was upset over this. She was angry. We explained why this was happening and she just couldn't see our point of view. I couldn't take the drama anymore. I am NOT one who tolerates drama well. I try to so hard to please everyone. She got upset and then blocked us on facebook and proceeded to tell people she was getting a lawyer. That we have no right to not let her in our lives. It was supposed to be an 'open adoption' and the list goes on. Before blocking us she said bad things to me. Things that hurt me. I just cant understand. Facebook is NOT the only means of communication. She still has my number to call or text, she still has our address. I have gotten nothing from her. Caden got nothing from her on his birthday. No card. No text. This isn't abnormal but it still bothers me, a lot.

How am I the bad guy? For 7 years I have done everything in my power to please her, to make her happy, to feel involved. I sent a card for every holiday and birthday. I texted pictures. I sent pictures in the mail. I've made scrapbooks. I've sent her baby gifts for holidays. She has since moved and never gave me her current mailing address. She has not responded to any text messages on 3 different numbers I have for her.  I've given her all access to our lives...but I am the bad guy? I am the bad guy but she sends nothing, doesn't call and is out getting high on weed before visiting friends in jail? This I have proof of. I am no dummy.

We are moving in 6 weeks. Our mailing address will change. Our numbers will change.
I'm just so upset and hurt over how she can possibly think I am the bad guy. She is hurting me but who cares?  Who really matters are the kids. She has ways of communication with us but chooses not to use it and then blames me for her not being in their lives? How does this make sense? And how does this makes sense enough to her to say she wishes that she wouldn't have given her kids to us?

My only concern now, is the kids. I hope when they are grown, they understand I did what I could to keep her in their lives. I hope they understand that I do love their birth mother so much for entrusting their lives to me. I hope they understand I tried. I tried my HARDEST. I hope they understand to not believe anything false she might tell them as adults. I hope they understand that we are on their side and the choices we have made were for their well being. I hope they aren't mad at us. I hope they aren't disappointed in us for making the choices we have made.

I have permanently blocked Kaitlyn on our face book page. She cannot even see that we exist on facebook and cannot send us any private messages on there through the chat. She blocked us first. And then unblocked us. I don't play that game. I blocked her. We move in 6 weeks and she will no longer have our address or phone numbers. If I am not contacted through our mailing address or text message by the time we leave here....then all is lost. We will have no ways of getting in touch with each other.

Catching up on November 2013

Yes, yes. Im so far behind on this blog! Today's post will be playing catch up on November 2013.

It was pretty uneventful month. Carly's first Thanksgiving. We took family photos with the famous rubber chicken as we have the past few years starting in Guam on the beach. And Carly turned 8 months old. That photo session was a challenge because she was an avid crawler at that point. Kayla had a bandaid on during the photos due to getting stitches removed. She had a cyst on the side of her head near her ear and had surgery to get it removed. That was no fun. I never felt so helpless with my own child before.

Stay tuned for more. This post was pretty boring. But I assure you...details of other things will be documented. This is all for the kids, so I want to them to know and understand everything that has been going on. 

Private!

This blog is now 100% fully private! This means that only those of you who have sent me your emails have been invited to read my blog. Thank you so much to all of those who can see this and read this blog. Thank you for nothing but love and support of our family over so that past years. Some of you are considered my very best friends even though we have never met in person!

We had some major problems recently with Kayla and Caden's birth mother, and I had to make sure that she or any of her family members in no way, shape, or form had access to any of our lives details or photos. I'll go into details later on. But, I am now very happy to get back to blogging life. I love having our lives documented, and turned into books for our children to read when they are much older. I hope that some day they can look back at all the details, at all the awesome adventures that our lives have taken us on! And soon adventures in life will be in South Korea!

Las Vegas Town Square

We went to Las Vegas Town Squate today. Will probably be our very last visit there. We have only 6 more Sundays calling Vegas home. And with those remaining days we want to do things that we haven't done yet. Carly needed new pants, dad needed new running shoes. Kids played at the park and picked out candy at the candy shop. Weather is perfect. 80 here. Cool in shade and warm in the sun. Loves Vegas weather. 

For now, just a picture of Carly. We have had unfortunate circumstances so I have to tighten up security here on the blog before photos of anyone else are posted. 

We are still waiting on official orders to Korea...any day now!!!