Well, today Kate did great. So great that she earned herself a trip to the store to buy a webkin stuffed animal. She behaved well, made good choices about doing what I asked and tried new things.

She loved the Hannah Montana Wii game:

and this girl can sit with this guitar and a microphone and sing made up songs for hours. It's actually quite impressive.

Krys on the other hand spent the majority of her day either in time out, napping, or cleaning as part of punishment. Poor thing had a terrible day. She couldn't seem to make a good decision to save her life. Her mischieviousness and tantrums has clearly never gotten her in trouble before. She has no idea why what she is doing is wrong.

For example:  She pee'd her pants just so she could change her clothes into her new pajamas. She even flat out  told us this was the reason why. She had the calmest face ever too when she told me…..I couldn't believe it.  When we took away all of her new pajamas, she couldn't understand why. (and as a side note-Ry made her go to bed tonight in jean shorts and a t-shirt)

Here's some pictures of the short time she was playing with the others (mainly E):

Church this morning actually went quite well. It happened to be family service day which meant that X and Kate had to sit with us in the adult service-so they were infinitely bored but well behaved. Afterwards we went to IHOP for breakfast. That was crazy but not a disaster…..so the final verdict is that we'd be willing to eat out again. 

First things first: the funny stuff.

While everyone waited paitiently for Kate to finish dinner, Krys ran up on the stage – grabbed the microphone – and sang, "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me"

While Krys was at the table drinking oj, she spilled a bit on her shirt. Kate got upset and said, "Don't get your shirt messy, then you'll have to take it off and God will be mad because you don't have a shirt." 

E's new words are, "What dat?" (as he points, of course)

OK, now some pictures:

Just a glimpse at the madness that ensues our everyday life. 

It didn't take Kate vey long to realize how cool the stage and HM gear was.

Today we did a picture frame craft project.

Kate was extremely focused on her project.

Krys got bored easily (as you can tell by the next picture)

 This girl couldn't wait to go swimming.

This is Krys begging (literally) to go swing 

Edwaryd licked the ketchup off his plate today. (that's mianly for you Kara!) 

Kate loves to get her picture taken.

After bathes for everyone they got to watch Camp Rock and have popcorn. 

So, today was fairly good. Lots of time outs, lots of tears, lots of learning the rules BUT progress. The girls are starting to learn some key behaivors such as:

-saying sorry

-asking nicely and saying please, thank you and you're welcome.

-it's not okay to respond to getting in trouble with anger and hostility

-consequences do come after warnings

-it's not okay to taunt one another

-you will sit at the table until all food is gone

A praise report: Kate ate an entire meat patty for lunch (which she pinky promised Ry and I both that she would yesterday). This enabled her to go shopping and pick out new shoes. Tonight at dinner, in order to get french fries, she ate her entire hot dog (with a fork–which is also a step forward since we were beginning to wonder if she knew how to use untensils). She also drank an entire pediasure in order to have me paint her nails pink. It's all about the small rewards to move things in our direction.

On the flip side of things, Ry and I are doing good. A bit sleepy but good. I'm amazed at Ry's patience the past few days. Not that I didn't know he was but, truly, he has been phenomenal the past few days! I have to work 8-4 tomorrow so there's some concern as to how that will go but we're hoping for the best. We've decided tomorrow we'll introduce the Wii (specifically Hannah Montana for the Wii). Then on Sunday we'll attempt to bring them all to 8am service at church. This was never a problem for X & E (our early risers) but Kate & Krys slept till 9:30am today (not something we Newcom's are used to). 

Enjoy your weekend.

Today at 10am K & C arrived; K crying as she walked in the door, C smiling ear to ear. Immediately we brought up the Stage to entice the girls to play. They LOVED it! Within minutes they were up on stage laughing, playing, dressing up, and singing. No more tears.

Ry, myself, and the case workers began filling out paperwork. This is when we learned that C is actually spelled with a K. Doh! So from now on I'll have to refer to them as Ka and Kr. That process went well and by 11:15 everyone had left leaving us with 4 kids.

We quickly learned that the girls have NEVER been given any boundries. They demanded what they wanted and threw a fit if they didn't get it. There were no "please" or thank yous" nor was their any obeying when we said no. We immediately jumped on the manners bandwagon and by the end of the day had both of them saying please and thank you.   So hey, that's progress.  Ka (6yo) is generally easy going but Kr (4yo) is independent, strong willed, and fearless. Kr bullies Ka a bit which typically leads to a fight every time. They love to call each other names, tattle on the other, and steal each others toys. There is no such thing as gentle correction.

Here are a few of the highlights of the day:

-discovered that the girls wear 2T and 4T clothing. 

-Ka told me that she's just going to call me Mommy because she thinks she'll stay here forever

-Kr told me, "I like you" at bedtime.

-having all 4 kids play together upstairs while we cleaned up from lunch and dinner.

-X being the most fabulous big sister (and daughter) anyone could ask for. More on this later. 

-Took a card ride with the 3 girls: NIGHTMARE! Ka & Kr fought the entire time.

-Took the 3 girls into Walgreens to get Ka's Rx filled: NIGHTMARE! Ka & Kr were both crazy. Running all over the place, taking stuff off the shelves and being incredibly loud. My employees were probably laughing at me.

-Meals did not go over well with Ka. She doesn't like to eat AT ALL. This is going to be a tough battle.

-Kr has already woken up once and cried for an hour before she went back to sleep just 10 minutes ago.

-Kr also went through 5 pairs of underware tonight. I think the new environment has got her worked up.

-They both practically fall into our elongated comodes when using the toliet. Gotta go buy one of those seats to go on top.

-X adn Ka took turns reading the Bible tonight.

-Kr said the prayer at dinner time.

 That's about all I can think about in my sleepiness haze. I need to go to bed in case we are back up with crying kids. Enjoy a few pics I took today.

this first picture: X's facial expression SAYS IT ALL!

Today is our 7 year anniversary.

Wow. I'm feeling old.

I feel so incredibly blessed by having Ryan as my husband. Everyday is better than the last. Even now, as we face the biggest challenge of our lives (four children) I couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else. 

Life is easy with you. I am a better person when you are by my side. I love you.

I enjoyed these pictures and forgot to post them the other day:

E started eating at the table (without his tray).

I envoked child labor when it came to making the 175 wedding invitations that were due Monday.

Father's day card

1. Work 8-4

2. Pick up Minivan from Honda

3. Buy 2 twin beds

4. Prepare for our 2 new arrivals! They're coming as early as tomorrow. I'll call them K & C for now until I learn how they spell their names. Please keep us and our sanity in your prayers.