The Leonardo

We went to the new Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake today. It was different and really interactive. We had a good time. There was a planet earth that you could zoom in on with your feet all the way down to cities. We found where Steph is from.

There's Steph's hometown.

Don making the robot dance.

There were all kinds of cool computers and cameras to make animation movies and do art work but we had the most fun at the green screan. AJ and Steph at the beach.

Oh no, AJ is under the water.

They had a lot of prosthetics. This one is controlled by the nerves in your forearm.
It was a different kind of museum, a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Silly Kids

I think Sean now has about every Halloween costume out there. He and Ethan change costumes about five times a day. They live in costumes and not just in October.

I had the girls and Jenny at the house for a couple of hours yesterday. Jenny was going to Nephi to spend the night at her brothers and wanted to take Sean. NOT! We compromised and the girls and Sean played. When I went to pick them up her house was quite clean and didn't smell. I was impressed. Her dog is back and she had a sick kitten with a broken tail. I said Jenny "what is up with THAT?" She said Ryan and the girls found it on theTrax rail and took it back to the DCFS building where Jenny met them and he gave it to the girls. Good grief. I asked the girls what they did with their dad (because while he had them he was texting me asking how Sean was.) They said we rode the Trax. I asked "where did you go?" They said "we didn't go anywhere." "What did you do?" "We didn't do anything?" Really! I asked if they stopped to play and Kylie said "No, we found a sock and we threw it over the fence and we found a sick cat and brought it home." For some strange reason that really made me chuckle. Good times.



 

Brie in a remake of Sean's King costume from last Halloween

Kylie and Brie brought Halloween costumes from their foster mom. Jenny was whiny saying Brie doesn't want to be a dog and Lanette sent a dog costume. Good grief Jenny, you're her mom then get her a costume she wants. Brie is going to be a cow girl at Lanette's but I'm guessing Lanette didn't want to send that costume and never get it back. Anyway, Jenny wanted to know if Brie could wear one of Sean's costumes. I told her she could wear whatever she wanted. She went through all this costumes and was not happy because they were all for boys then she found his king costume and she liked it because it was a dress. I told her we could put some sparkles on it and it would be a princess super hero dress. We had fun and she was happy. Jenny kept saying "I can't believe you know how to do this?" Do what? Use a glue gun to put sparkles and lace on a costume. Isn't that what mother's do? My mother was horrified at the glue gun use she would have sewed all the lace. Sometimes I think I am having a positive influence but none of it seems to carry over to her life.

 

The three of them in costume. Jenny couldn't find any devil horns for Kylie so we made those too. We did a star for Brie's head. They had fun making costumes. We baked cookies too. Then I drove them home so they could drive to Nephi. Jenny borrowed her brothers car. They got out of my car (with my car seats) and got in their car then Kylie ran back and said we don't have any gas in our car. I said well I guess you won't get far then. Good grief Jenny did you think I was going to fill it up for you? We were feeding the ducks yesterday and I had a bag filled with cereal I emptied out of the almost empty cereal boxes. Kylie fed the stale bread to the ducks but wouldn't give them the cereal. She wanted to take it back to Jenny's house. I tell you that kid is a survivor. She isn't going to feed the ducks her only guarantee of a breakfast.

Colored boys!

After the girls went home Sean and Ethan played for a couple of hours. It was dark and Alika walked past Sean's room and told them not to color in the books. I went in a few minutes later and they were coloring each other's backs. It took 45 minutes in the tub to get that off!





A plethora of pictures

I love the lake in the fall. It is so quiet and smooth and the reflections are beautiful. There were a couple of people water skiing and jet skiing. Sean and I made a couple of sand castles. More like sand bat mobiles to be exact. This is Sean writing his name in the sand.

After writing Sean he wrote DAD. He is really getting good with writing. It is amazing as he is only three. Close to four but still three. His Spanish is amazing too. He sings songs in Spanish and will spontaneously speak it. His teacher said he really enjoys math but I'm not sure in what way.

We were going to take a gondola ride but for the second year in a row we missed it. We were going to hike but it was deer hunting weekend and their were hunters everywhere. It was a little scary to go hiking in woods full of people with guns so we stuck to the lake.

There were some rock skipping contest going on. I think the winning skip was six. Steph had the best form.

Don gets into the swing of things.

We went back to the old tree. It doesn't look as big as it used to. Sean had fun climbing on it though.

There were bells ringing at a church across the lake. AJ and Steph decided to dance.

Sean and I took our shoes off and waded. Sean wanted to put his bathing suit on. I thought it was a little on the cold side of swimming.

More shadow pictures. Don caught a leaf.

Mid air jump caught by Don.

Sean had this great idea when he got up. Let's wear matching Batman shirts. Cool beans!

Steph has never done "the Halloween thing" before and she is really getting into it! She and AJ have the yard all decorated and the pumpkins are already carved.

Mediation

Today was the mediation. I've only heard Jenny's perspective but it would appear there was lots of screaming and yelling and it is going to trial on December 9th. The mediation turned into DCFS trying to terminate Jenny's overnight visits. They told her she had to arrange appropriate long term babysitting. They got on her about the lack of heat and warm water which she said wasn't her fault. She then asked me to take the girls this weekend. I told her we were going out of town and I couldn't do it. She was tearful and angry and said she just wanted it to be over "Take the kids or give them back, just do it." I said you could end it Jenny you could give them up. That made her crazy and she said "I will fight to the bone to get those girls back in my house." Strange way of saying it. I said "Bries' been in foster care half her life Jenny. She was talking about how confusing it is for the girls. I wanted to yell at her that it's only confusing because she tells the girls to lie and keeps telling them they are coming home forever when she doesn't know if they are. If she would just play nice the girls would be OK with it. She's the one causing them stress.

I'm getting pumpkined out and it's only the 15th. We did Packs Pumpkin Farm today. Eight acres of pumpkins to choose from. It took Sean forever he kept saying "I want a four year old pumpkin." Eventually he found it. Kylie just wanted a big pumpkin. I told her she could have any pumpkin she could lift into the cart. She ended up getting two one to keep at her mom's and one to take home to Lanette's.

Brie found a woolly bear caterpillar.

We came home and played and had dinner after picking our pumpkins.

Then we did some hot tubbing. Pretty cool pictures if I do say so! Jump Kylie!

Jump Brie

Drama update:
Jenny got her heat and her gas turned on. DCFS came out and she admitted that she hadn't had either. Today was amusing because she probably told me 60 lies in six hours. My favorite: I had emailed Jen a bunch of pictures of the kids including ones from today. She went downstairs on one of our computers and checked her email account (that she shares with Ryan) then posted the pictures on her facebook along with a status update that she is so sick she can't do ANYTHING but sit around and post pictures. That is after a couple of hours at a pumpkin patch, an hour in my hot tub with the kids and then eating a huge dinner. Yep, she's pretty darn sick. I think she must have called in sick to work.

Tuesday I go to a meeting with DCFS and assorted individuals and then Thursday is the mediation. Lanette said the state still wants termination so I'm not sure what can be accomplished at mediation.

Gears of War

Skyler got back into town last night for a two week furlough. He leaves on the 30th and then he is being shipped off to Afghanistan. I don't like that one bit. He and AJ had to play some Gears of War today. One would think that would no longer be a fun game but apparently they still enjoy it. I hope he gets home safely soon. I hope all the soldiers get home safely soon!

I amuse myself!

I had an assignment for an article for the Tribune about a group of ladies having a 40 year reunion with their Junior High Choir leader. That made all the ladies in the group 55. Most of them last saw each other in high school.  I had to drive out to Sandy for the interview. When I pulled up to the house a bunch of women and their teacher were standing on the front porch. They were watching me get out of the car so excited trying to figure out who I was. I ran up the steps and said "HI EVERYONE! I am so excited to see you!" They all said, "we are happy to see you too. You look great! We are so glad you could make it." I said "do you know who I am?" And they looked embarrassed and someone said "help me out." I said "I'm Carol the reporter from the Salt Lake Tribune." I guess you had to be there but it was pretty darn funny,I had them going! They then invited me to their party but I declined though they did seem like a fun bunch.

The third little Weber

Levi Jonathon Weber - 5 lbs 14 ozs (little guy) 18 inches long born October 10th at 430 am at home :)
Steph has always talked about doing a home birth and by golly she did it yesterday. Baby #3 was born in the living room and three year old Nate cut the cord. Too bad she delivered in NC so I missed it. I had to snag these pictures off her facebook page. She gave birth in a blow up birthing tub in her living room. Go Stephanie!

He looks bigger than 6 pounds in this picture. This is  his cousin Lisa Jean holding him.

Stephanie and Levi.
Put a cloth diaper on that baby and mix up some granola the Weber family is growing!

Alex and Loreal packing up the van

Alex and his doggies loading up the truck. Alex and Loreal closed on the new house and got the keys. Today they started moving. Don, Carter, Sean and I went over to help load the truck. Dang they got lots of stuff. It so made me NOT want to move. What a lot of work. They are excited about the new house though. Or at least they will be once they have all their stuff out of the old house.

Sean got covered in burrs from their back yard. Loreal is an expert burr remover. I think she's probably removed a few from her doggies.

Loreal's friend who is due in ten days was taping up boxes. I thought maybe she'd go into labor. Carter and Alex are seriously strong. They can haul some heavy stuff! We have the majority of the house in the truck but there were still appliances and the truck was full! Loreal said her family was going to be at the new house to help them unload.

Wheeler Farm

We went to Wheeler Farm this morning for a little fall fun. It was Farmer's market until 1. They had breakfast and all kinds of fun stuff. (we got sunburned!) Sean had a Mickey Mouse pancake with chocolate chips. We bought fresh corn, tomatoes and a spaghetti squash.

We went through the corn maze. I have to say Sean keeps us going. I don't think if we didn't have a three year old we would have gotten up this morning and said, hey lets go to a corn maze.

Sean loved this tractor. He pretended in it for a long time. We petted a friendly goat. There were turkeys in a coop and Sean asked "will it hurt me?" I said "no, it's nice." He stuck his finger in the coop and the turkey promptly pecked him. Reminded me of Carter on the beach as a little kid asking me if a little crab would bite him if he picked it up, I said "no" he picked it up and it promptly clamped down on his finger. In the future I will just say "it may will bite you."

Playing with Kylie and Brie

I look like some sort of deranged duck lady.

As always, an interesting weekend. Ryan called last week and wanted to see Sean. I told him I was watching the girls for Jenny on Saturday so I would meet him at Discovery Gateway at 2:30 and he could spend a couple of hours with all three of them. (Does this sound familiar?) I left a message with the case worker and talked to the foster mom to make sure everyone was OK with this plan. Jenny had asked me if I would watch the girls all night because she had to work until 11. I told her I didn't know if the DCFS was OK with that but I left the case worker a message and she didn't respond so figured it was OK. The day before Jenny changed her work schedule to get off work at 8 so the plan changed for me just to bring the girls to her at 8 after her shift. I picked Jenny and the girls up at 2 and was on the way to Gateway to meet Ryan. I told Jenny I hadn't texted Ryan to remind him and I hoped he either showed up or let me know if he was'nt coming. Jenny was texting someone I don't know who but low and behold I get a text from Ryan telling me he's sorry but he can't make it. He hasn't seen Sean since he was in the hospital so it wasn't a big deal to any of us. I didn't tell Sean or the girls we were going to see him. I dropped Jenny off at work went home picked up Don and we took the kids to the pond.

The geese were crazy. Every duck and goose from the entire pond came honking and quacking. They weren't aggressive but they were taking the food out of our hands. Well Kylie's, Sean and Brie headed for the trees.

Kylie and Brie are such happy, polite delightful girls. It was so much fun to spend the day with them.

We hiked all around Farmington pond. We saw horses and Brie picked and apple and ate it. We came up behind Lagoon and could hear the people on the roller coaster.

At home I cooked dinner and we baked a cake. The kids wanted to know whose birthday it was  and since it wasn't anyone in our houses they sang happy birthday to everybody.

Now for the drama:

Jenny doesn't have any heat at her house. She says it's her new landlords fault that she needs a new heater. She just moved last week because she got evicted from the last place. I think she probably hasn't had the gas turned on because she owes money from the last place. She's been complaining about how cold she's been the last few nights and wanted to know if I had a space heater. I told her no. It was 41 degrees last night and she had the girls. I really had a hard time taking the girls to her when I knew they were going to freeze their bums off. Brie was laying on the couch with me snuggling, saying Grandma I want to stay here tonight. Lanette said I could stay here. Don suggested I call the DCFS worker on call or just take the kids back to Lanette. I didn't know what to do but decided if with Jenny is where the attorney's want the kids then with Jenny they would be. I thought of it like a cold night camping. I took and extra blanket and picked Jenny up from work. Brie was asleep in the car. I said "Jenny, it's really cold." I thought she might ask me to keep them she said something about "I'm selfish to keep them." I was thinking, you're something." I worried about the girls all night. This morning Lanette texted and said when she picked the girls up Jenny was on the phone with someone saying "we are getting the girls back." Lanette wanted to know who "we" were,  since in theory Jenny would get the girls back and not Ryan. I asked Lanette to ask the girls how the slept. Lanette texted back and said they said they were cold and Brie cried and Jenny gave her a blanket. I told her I had taken over an extra blanket. She wanted to know how I knew it was going to be cold so I told her. She texted me a little later and told her Jenny had given the girls a quick cold shower and when they cried she said "dont' tell Lanette." I told Lanette I was sorry I felt bad about sending them back but it's just a taste of the life they are headed for if they go home. How many times have I left those girls in places that I knew were not safe. Years of time. Lanette said if it was another black mark against Jenny it was worth it. She had already texted the case worker. And so it goes on. Lanette wanted me to talk to Jenny about giving her guardianship in the mediation. I wish I knew what the right thing to do. Guardianship puts her in the same position we are in. I just want what's best for the kids.