Alex Potter Playing Quiddich

Alex played JV Soccer for Higley High School this winter. This is the best picture (not the quality, but the action)! He went up to head-butt the ball, while the other player went under him to get the ball. Alex ended up on the guy's shoulder who carried him for about 10 feet, then put him back down slowly. Hilarious! He had a great season, played all his games and we had fun watching him too! Go Higley!!!!

Dear Alex

My first born, Alexandre-Alex-Alehandro, has been feeling very left out because I didn't do a "special" post for him around his birthday. Since he is the only one of my children that reads my blog, I have no choice but to show him that I love him just as much as the others and dedicate this post to him.
That's it.









Nah, here is a little bit more for you Alex...
Alexandre was born on October 18th, 1993. That's a whole different century from my other kids, kinda crazy huh! I was barely 21 when he came along. I looked even younger. I was attending Phoenix College at the time and I looked 16. Since I was retraining water, I had taken my wedding band off and looked like a poor little single girl who got knocked up! I had a very uneventful 9 months. I had very short labor for a first-born and was too dumb to get an epidural. I thus gave birth to a healthy 9lbs 4oz baby boy with the help of breathing (what a joke), relaxation (good one) and a bit of Demerol (to take the edge off, my b...t). I stayed at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix (we lived in Maryvale at the time, in the west ghetto) for 24 hours , and then they sent me home, without instructions on how to take care of a baby when your mom lives in another country and you're barely 21! I don't think I slept at all (well, it feels like for 15 years now) because even when he fell asleep in his wind-up swing, I was too afraid to close my eyes and rest. He was such a beautiful baby, so big and adorable, so perfect! I was so amazed at what I had done, how such a miracle was possible. I was exhausted but happy. I've said many time that Alex saved me. I had move to the US 1 1/2 year prior to that, and I was very much homesick, very unhappy (although still madly in love with Reed, thus I stayed). I don't know if I would have "endured" if I didn't have Alex, I think I would have gone home, Reed would have followed me, of course, but then life would have been different. He was my little buddy and made me forget about ME!
We had 7 years with just him and us, a spoiled only-child. Very smart, very much aware of his intellectual abilities and very much running the show (still today). I have a lot of complicity with Alex, I truly enjoy hanging out with him (and I know he'll read this, but it's the truth), especially in the last months. He's growing, physically, of course, but more mentally. He's a typical teenager. How great it was to be like that, hang out with friends, talk about girls (well, it was boys for me, of course), joke, ROFLOL, be careless, clueless, haaaaa, it was fun ;) He has a good group of friends around him, they help each other stay in the straight and very narrow path that leads to adulthood. Time is flying by, and I know that in less than 4 years, he'll probably leave my nest, to conquer the world. I hope I will have given him strong wings to fly high above temptations, but freely where the wind takes him, and strong legs to land steadily and firmly on the ground when necessary.

Maddy -Maddou- a gift from above.

Madeline turned 8 on the 8th. But I haven't known her on this earth for quite 8 years yet: she came to our family on the 16th, all pink and perfect.

We had Alex pretty fast after we were married, but for some reason (well, I say "some" but it's because I have PCOS and don't ovulate), we weren't having any more babies. I cried everyday about that, I pleaded, bargained, asked for patience, got mad, everything...but the Lord has His own timing :) After a couple years of no success, we felt that we needed to adopt. I always pictured a little blond hair-blue eyed girl holding my hand and thus thought we would adopt a toddler. It didn't occur to me until Maddy was two, blue eyed, blond curly hair, that SHE was the one I pictured! We waited 3 years for her. We had our first appointment with LDS Social Services in December 1997. We turned in all the paper work (a book of info on us, our life as a couple and blablabla), and got certified in June 98 ...we waited and waited and waited.

Our social worker was a #!%!%%** that didn't do anything for us. We finally got picked by a girl in May 99. She gave me ultra sound pictures of her baby boy and told me she knew he was ours. She had him and kept him...'bout killed me.

Everyone we had talked to had been able to adopt after about a year...not us! After that horrible ordeal of losing that child -I say losing, because my heart broke the same way as if I had miscarried, and it took me a long time to forgive the birth mom, I understood why she kept the child, but not why she had to involve us in her process and hurt us so bad- we had other instances where we didn't get a baby, including one whacked chick who was knocked up for the 4th time, who's boyfriend was in jail and who wanted money from us! But none of them hurt as bad as the first one.

Then one day (and I will cry writing this), I received a call from the agency. They said they possibly had a baby, they were looking at 4 couples, not deciding yet, but there was a legal issue and wanted to know if we were interested. It sounded a bit strange, but I went along and of course, we were interested, but they wanted us to think about it over the week-end. On that Sunday, I was very upset, I felt that that little boy (the case worker never corrected me when I said "he") would not be ours again, that the b-mom would pick another couple again and so forth. On the Monday at 9:00 am, I called the agency and found out they were closed, since it was January 15th, Marin Luther King Day. I figured that it must not have been that serious or they wouldn't have told me to wait over the week-end. On the Tuesday, I called them again first thing anyway, not expecting too much. The intern (our great case worker was out of town, thank goodness, I always felt that he would have messed things up had he been there) took forever to come back on the line when I told him that of course, we would love that baby! He said "oh, great, okay, hmmmmmmmmmmm, hold on..." Then he came back and said "are you sitting down?" "Yes" shakily..."We have a baby for you" "Oh my gosh, it's a boy right?" and then he said "no, it's a girl" (at this point in my life, I didn't know I would become fertile-myrtle and have tons more kids, so I thought that might be my only hope of having a girl). "She was born on Monday the 8th, 6lbs 8oz, 19 3/4 inches and she is soooo cute". I paged Reed right away and he called me back. I told him the best news any expectant adoptive parents can ever receive. He was speechless. He came home right away, after telling his boss the news, who gave him the rest of the week off. We called our dads. Our serious, strong minded fathers both wept when they heard the news of their grand baby, each on the other side of the world. We then had to rush to Walmart. After our first experience with adoption, we didn't want to have anything ready for a baby. I had kind of given up hope, and we had gone back to doctors at that time. So we bought tons of stuff, and people probably thought we were nuts because I wasn't even showing yet ;) We then picked up Alex from school, he was in 1st grade. He had been praying daily for a baby. I told him he was a big brother, he asked me "is she cute?". I assured him that she was gonna be the most beautiful baby girl in the world. We had to be at the agency at 2:00, to sign a bunch of paperwork. We left Alex with my friend Christy and went to get Maddy. After a very long hour of paperwork, we heard a baby cry..."she's here" we were told. We went in the other room where the foster family was waiting for us. They were crying a little, said she was a very special little girl. I felt a little bit bad for them, but not that much! Then they finally handed me my daughter: she looked so familiar, I knew her, she was mine.

Giving birth is amazing, a miracle. Having someone give you a child has no words for it. I never met her birth mom, she wanted a closed adoption. I love that woman, with all my heart. I pray that she is happy and knows deep in her heart that her sacrifice to fulfill my happiness has been recorded. She did more for our family than she will ever know, and when I'm old and finally go back to my Father in Heaven, I will meet her (or wait for her) and hug her and tell her.

Bonne Annee 2009

Happy New Year!!!!!
Bonne Annee!!!!!!!!
We had a party at our house last night, we have a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures of our "real" friends who showed up (hmm, yeah, I didn't have time to take a picture of Melanie, but she came too, so you're a "real" friend too Mel :). We stayed up till midnight and so did the kids! We all rushed to bed after that and were all sound asleep by 12:07 I'm sure...I remember being able to stay up soooo late. One time, my friend and I went clubbing and stayed till 7:00 am, the sun was up and people were going to work. That was the old days, when I was young, dumb, careless and jobless...now, I'm a bit less young, a bit less dumb, a bit less carefree but still jobless if you don't consider 5 kids being a full time job (but I do). Oh well, we still had fun last night

Here are the party poopers who didn't want to play games or eat junk food

Here are some real party animals, drinking hard (lemon water) and eating junk

Here is the old vs the young, Ales beat Bishop badly, of course, but I love our Bish jamming though!

And poor little Maddy had a late night, too many goodies and suffers a "hang over" if you can call it that way! I didn't believe she was sick, thought she was just faking it so that she wouldn't have to clean, but after a few hours, I took her temp...she had 103!!!! Ooops, darn it, no "mom of the year" award for 2009 for me again, I already blew it after 12 hours into the year!!!!

Now that's it's over

It's over, done with, gone for another 10 months or so...yep, tis the season to be over.
Like most people, Christmas being over makes me really sad, so I decided to make myself a happy list of why it's good Christmas is over...here we go:
-New Year's eve party coming up at our house, that's always fun (yes, you're invited, 8:00pm, kids welcome, bring food)
-After Christmas sales, not only the deals they have, but I love bying Christmas things at 75% off and then re-discover them next year when I open my boxes of decorations.
- Putting money in my savings again instead of buying presents after presents after presents
-Maddy's baptimsm, on the 17th of January
- My parents coming on the 10th
-Reed still has a week of vacation this week, love to be around him
- Getting the house put back to normal, even if I adore my tree and decorations, it is a "clean" feeling to get the house back after over a month
- Kids stop eating candies (since Halloween, it's been non-stop)
- Running out of Christmas goodies and finally being able to visualize that there is a possibility of maybe think of loosing the baby weight.
Hmm, I'm out of ideas, please help me with this if you think of more :)

Visit with Santa

Our ward has a close connection to Santa, so we can trust him and he really loves our kiddos :)

This one is the creepy mall Santa, he looks half-way dead and Alex said he sounded drunk...don't touch my kids too much old man!

Go check out the kids, Alex made this, I love it http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/RD9hgVKXlOUiGC5Cuo32

Not a tag

I don't really like Tags (not to offend those who have tagged me before) because A) When you read that others have been tagged and not you, you feel like you're not quite the BFF you thought you were since you didn't even make the "Tag List" and B) I usually get these types through emails and just respond there. I like these easy questionnaires; who doesn't like an easy test where you know all the answers?! This is a Christmas one, feel free to tag yourself and consider yourselves all my BFFs
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper, but just for Christmas, not the rest of the year! Gosh, I might even put a bow on it.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Fake, we did a real one once, it looked nice but I'm too cheap though!
3. When do you put up the tree? The Friday after Thanksgiving, sometimes the Saturday at the very latest.
4. When do you take the tree down? After New Year's Eve, I hate it when people take theirs down right after Christmas, it makes me too sad to just be over with it that fast, like they're itching to turn the page and go back to normal boring light less homes.
5. Do you like eggnog? yes, but I feel it sticking to my butt as it goes down
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Three-story Barbie Townhouse with elevator (ditto Erin, even across the sea, the world of Barbie is a peanut). My bedroom was tiny so we put the house in the hallway, where my Dad kicked it nightly when he got up to go pee.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Tommy...kidding, it would be my or Reed's Dad
8. Easiest person to buy for? The younger kids: the younger, the easier
9. Do you have a nativity scene? yes
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both, email for people that don't write me, mail for those who do, fair enough
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? The MVD sends me my car registration every year in December, it gets cheaper every year, but just don't buy a car for Christmas, it's a gift that keeps on taking
12. Favorite Christmas Movie(s) the Santa Claus 2, or whatever Nicky is watching for the humfest time
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I think about it, not much before Thanksgiving since we have birthdays before and after
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Kinda, for something I had gotten fixed
15 .Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everybody else's baking
16. Lights on the tree? no, candles, JK!!! Why would you not put lights on a tree, it would just be a dumb Pine tree with a bunch of crap on it!
17. Favorite Christmas song? I'm dreaming of a white Christmas (I like most of them, but that's the first one that popped into my head) I do NOT like the one from Charlie Brown, boringggggg
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Not anymore since we have bigger kiddos, gotta be in my own home for the morning frenzy
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes, if I sing the song
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We used to open one on Christmas Eve when we were childless, which was..what, for 1 year of our marriage!
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The feeling that we HAVE to feel overwhelmed by the holidays, I don't, I love it and don't stress over it, just enjoy the flow peeps!22. Favorite ornament theme or color? Nah, whatever I have works great (another stress free advice)
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We have "bouquettes" from Liege on Christmas Day, it's a tradition from my home town. The are a type of crepes but they have to rise and have yeast (and beer) in them
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Nothing, just to spoil my kids

Now, I tag only my BFFs, go for it :)...okay, wait no, because if you don't do this questionnaire in your blog, I will THEN know that you don't consider yourself and MY BFF and then will be offended again, gosh, I just can't win.

Nickycky

Nicolas Inman was born on December 7th, 2005. We wanted another baby, planned to have a boy, in December. And lo and below, we got want we wanted!!!! ...with the help of fertility drugs, since it takes two people to knock me up most the time: my husband and my doctor! We weren't sure of what to call him until the last minute, but when we realized I would be induced on December 6th, which is Saint Nicolas in Belgium (see previous post) his name was picked for us ;) He was 8lb 5oz, a tiny baby for me. I watched his birth with the mirror (yeah, some of you think YUCK) and witnessed the true miracle that it is to bring a child into this world. I wouldn't have wanted to do that with my previous births (and wanted to with my last, but they didn't move the mirror quick enough -I didn't want to see the episotomy - and thus I witnessed my foot during the birth, which looks about the same as everyday). I was ready to see what my body could do, I wanted to see what "crowning" was. Anyway, it was very special. Nicky is very special. Lately, being around him, especially after he gets up from his nap or in the morning, is like being around a new menopausal woman that just got passed over at the check-out line in a tweezers shop . He is training me to go through puberty and hormonal changes guaranteed to wrack my life in about 5 years (two girls, 10 months apart, will I live?). I am walking on eggs with him, and when I break them, they're rotten filthy smelly ones because he sure lets me have it! See, the morning Poptart (Poptarts and cheese ARE on the food pyramid, I assure you) has to be positioned the right way. So is the "sicky cup" FULL of milk, not half-way, not almost, but full, thank you. And you'd better hope that "Spom Bom" is on TV too. Nicky likes to repeat the same thing over and over, until you acknowledge him the right way. His favorite saying is "am I goottoday", repeated 5 times, screaming the last bit if mom is not agreeing with him quick enough or saying the exact correct words in the perfect pitch. If you want to chance your life and finally tell him that by screaming that at you, he's NOT being good today, that's when the eggs crack and the world stop spinning, while Nicky himself starts spinning on the floor, or flopping! I really think that the terrible two's should be over at three, but since Nicky doesn't agree with me and that he is the boss, what can I do but wait for it to pass? He is a fun kid though. The other day, while Barney was telling us what he loves, I asked him: Nicky, what do you love? Him: Hmmm, hmmmmm Cheese! But, after our routine nap time song, he does tell me "I wove you" everyday. I cannot believe he's three today, time flies, as always. I'm so grateful for him, he's an awesome little boy, tantrums and all, I wove him so. Happy Birthday Nicolas! I wove you!

Saint Nicolas

In Belgium, on the 6th of December, Saint Nicolas, the children's Saint, comes through the chimney and drops goodies and gifts to good little children; he puts it in their shoes (or by them). When I was little, about 2 weeks prior to the 6th, we would set out one shoe in the kitchen (close enough to the chimney) and Saint Nicolas (called Sinterklaas in Holland, same tradition) would come and give us a chocolate. I was always up before my brother, who is 4 years older, and would always run and tell him that Saint Nicolas came and what he got. For some reason, he hated that??? So since my children are half Belgian, we try to keep the tradition in our home too. We don't do the shoes two weeks in advance, because it would be way too much candies, right after Halloween, but he does come and give a little something on the 6th.

We have a song that my kids don't know, but I'll write it down anyway

Saint Nicolas, patron des ecoliers

Apporte-moi de pommes dans mes petits souliers.

Je serais toujours sage,

Comme un petit mouton.

Je dirai mes prieres avant de faire dodo.

Venez, venez Saint Nicolas,

Venez, venez

Venez, venez Saint Nicolas

Et tralala

Black Friday Piranahs

The day after Thanksgiving is an important day in the life of a frugal shopper. Most years, I don't find anything cheap enough for me. Since I NEVER buy anything full price, just because it's on sale on Black Friday doesn't mean it's a good deal for me. But this year, Walmart had a few things that were interesting, like pajamas for $4.00 and such. Granted I wasn't gonna get up at 4:00 am for a pair of jamies, but they also had a good deal on an X-box 360. I mentioned it to Alex, kinda jokingly...I was hoping he'd sleep in and forget about it. But nope, he came in my room at 4:00 am, I acted like I didn't know what he wanted, but I didn't fool him. So off we went, bright (hmm, no, it was still dark) and early (hmm, again, no, I consider 4:00am as late in the night) to Walmart. You've all heard about a man being trampled to death in New York, but our Walmart is open 24hrs so we could go right in. They had a nice line for the Xboxes, they gave out tickets so all you had to do is be there early enough to get a ticket, and then wait. We got one of the last 3 tickets and were thus guaranteed an Xbox. But, they didn't do that for everything, only the big items. For the little digital cameras, they had no tickets. So people were huddled around the bin were the cameras were, hoovering over them like the Deatheaters in Harry Potter. The plastic wrap was preventing crazy shoppers from attacking too soon, but when 5:00 am stroke, off came the plastic and the feeding frenzy started. All the cameras (maybe 100 of them) were gone withing 30 seconds! We've all seen pictures of piranhas feeding on a bloody prey, eating it all up withing 30 seconds flat...well, I've now witnessed it first hand, no need to go to the Amazon for me! (I just looked on Wikipedia to make sure that's where Piranahs live, just in case a smartie pants wanted to correct me, so there). I heard that people were on the floor wrestling over a chair in a different isle, I wish I could have seen that too! That would have been like going to a Safari in Africa and seing two lions fighting for their prey...I would have thus been all around the world just by going to Walmart. And I could have really said that Walmart has EVERYTHING I need!

Now, the Christmas season is officially started and we have our decorations out. Here are my boys:

Baby meets train

Baby loves train

Baby detroys train

Baby eats train

Big brother finishes train off