ADOPTION PARTY!

As promised, we threw our 2nd biggest party (the first being our wedding of course) to celebrate becoming a forever family on December 3rd, 2015! Honestly it was more than I ever could have asked for, everything was absolutely perfect. We had numerous friends travel from out of town, some as far as Wisconsin to celebrate with us. I know I shouldn't be surprised by our support system after the last 2 years but I am still delighted and surprised that I had so many people come out to celebrate with us!

The party was at McCormick Stillman Railroad Park - a big, big thank you to Jeff and Jenn for booking the party for us (Scottsdale residents get a pretty large discount)! Jon's sister, Amy, did all the decorations. When she offered I was hoping for a couple streamers and balloons, what I got was so much more that can't be explained in words. 

The guest book - I love her homemade table runner!

Homemade tulle balls hanging!

Love It, Cherish It, Take It!

Somehow I missed taking a picture of the beautiful entrance with balloons on each side and a "Lyons" banner.

She also made an awesome photo booth!

My sister's family

College friends

Our Forever Family!

A huge thank you to Amy for outdoing all expectations I had on the decorations, we got so many compliments!

My sister also outdid herself with the cake. I asked for something similar to this. This is what she took from that picture:

It's all cake!

Details - down to Maggie's different colored eyes!

Thank you for the amazing cake, Lisa!

Jon and I both had speeches to thank everyone for all their love and support over the last 818 days. The kid's lawyer even showed up! The kids had a blast riding tricycles, jumping in the bounce house, and riding the train! Even some adults joined in the bounce house and train riding fun!

Grandma jumping with Jaxson!

The party flew by too fast for me but I had more fun than I could have imagined! Since so many people came from out of town, we had a small after party at our house after the kids went to bed. The plan was to have s'mores but as usual time got away from us so we just sat around the fire, reminiscing and drinking. It was the perfect end to the most perfect party.

Purple Drinks

Panda costumes = great night!

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us. Thank you for everyone who helped throw an awesome party. Thank you for your love over the last 2 years! We hope we can raise these two children to make everyone proud!

ADOPTION DAY!

The day I had been waiting 818 days for had finally come. December 3rd - Adoption Day. I woke up in the morning and got the kids situated with their breakfast next to the Christmas Tree. Jaxson (that feels nice!) has been infatuated with the Christmas Tree since we set it up and every morning he runs to turn the lights on. He couldn't eat breakfast the first couple days because he would just stand and watch the tree lights so we told him Thursday was a special day and he could eat in the living room and watch the tree. In fact the whole family sat at the little, itty bitty kids table and ate cereal. It was a perfect start to the day.

After breakfast the texts and the status updates started coming - there were so many I couldn't keep up! A couple made me tear up and I was sure it wasn't the last of the day.

After breakfast we dressed the kids and took them to take photos with Aunt Amy and Uncle Swaz. They went pretty well. Jaxson wasn't feeling well so he gave up on smiling pretty quickly and just wanted to be cuddled. I enjoyed every minute of it - normally he's so active and I only get cuddles in the morning when he's not fully awake yet.

Roaring like a Lion!

Snuggles

Tickles

I forgot to mention, I was very frustrated earlier in the week because Jayce got sent home from school on Tuesday for being sick and then Jaxson got sent home on Wednesday. On top of that I was battling a pretty nasty sinus infection. On Wednesday we actually had Jaxson at the urgent care for an infection. I was less than thrilled that my family was going to be sick on adoption day (Thursday) but at the same time felt like I couldn't complain - we were going to be recognized as a family!

After pictures we went home and just played with the kids until it was time to leave for court. My husband's awesome sister tagged our car so we got some honks on the way to court :)

We waited about 20 minutes before we were called in at which point I realized we didn't have Judge Cohen as requested. Judge Cohen made the decision to keep the kids with their family so we requested he complete the adoption. Unfortunately he was out on an unplanned medical leave. Oh well.....adoption day goes on except then the step in judge asks if we want to reschedule our adoption day because our lawyer was at the wrong courthouse and had all the paperwork. I almost broke down right then and there. Did she not understand how long we waited for this day? Did she not understand that 19 people had requested the day off work, been pulled out of school, or missed their nap time so they could witness our forever family moment? I was dumbfounded that she would even suggest such a thing! Luckily Jon jumped in and asked if we could wait for our lawyer to drive across town and just delay a little. The judge happily agreed stating the next case would take about 20 minutes.

TWO HOURS, numerous snacks, 50 runs through the courthouse halls, and 20 meltdowns later we were called back in. I had lost all faith that our forever day would ever occur and at that point just wanted it over because I felt awful making everyone wait at a courthouse that long. Ten minutes later we were declared Jonathan, Tina, Jaycee, and Jaxson Lyons! Worth the wait? You bet!

Afterwards we all came back to our house for a toast, dinner, celebration, laughter, and love. We are finally the family we always thought, we are the Lyons!

There's a date, a date, a very important date!

We FINALLY have an adoption date. On December 3rd our family will officially be recognized as the Lyons' Family.

Let's talk about some things we are looking forward to.

After December 3rd, we will no longer have to:

• Ask permission to cut our kid's hair
• Notify DCS when we want to visit friends in Arizona
• Ask permission to travel out of state
• Inform DCS of every single doctor's visit
• Inform DCS of the outcome of every single doctor's visit
• Waste an hour a month of our time with our agency
• Attend court hearings every 2-3 months
• Track all medicine's given to our kids
• File a report anytime we visit the urgent care or ER
• Waste another hour a month with DCS visits
• Stress that our children will be ripped from our arms
• Stress about the decisions that are being made by people that have never met our kids

But after December 3rd we will get to:

• Post pictures on social media
• Pay for daycare
• Sign authorization forms
• Travel whenever we want to wherever we want
• Set up college savings accounts
• Make medical decisions

We are so excited and all our immediate family has been invited to the court hearing to help us celebrate. Don't worry, we are already planning the celebration that will include everyone that has supported us over the last 2 years. Tentative date is being scheduled for January. 

Chugga Chugga Two Two

Recently the kids turned two years old. In true Tina fashion, I booked a camping trip the weekend before their birthday party. Two full weeks our household were planned down to the day to make sure we accomplished everything.

We decided on a train theme and I threw together some decorations from Pinterest all in one day. I got a lot of compliments so I think 1 day decorations are the way to go!

My sister, as usual, outdid herself with the cake - 

We kept the party small, just immediate family in order to save money for the HUGE adoption party that's coming! Jon made mostaccioli that absolutely was delicious! 

The kids got some amazing presents from roller blades, to an awesome homemade fort that throws over a card table, to an outdoor playhouse, and baby dolls and scooters and soccer balls! It's taken weeks for them to get through playing with them all!

Perfect party for our perfect toddlers!

More Camping Adventures: White Horse Campground

After missing out on the Playing in Payson trip, my parents requested a different weekend to camp with the kids. We picked Labor Day weekend and I booked a site at White Horse Campground up by Williams, AZ. My parents really wanted to go up north and I liked that this campground had a lake for the kids to play in.

Saturday morning we woke up and packed the Mazda....yes that's right the Mazda. All our camping gear went up in my Dad's truck....more on that later. About 20 minutes out of town I realized I forgot the homemade cupcakes I made for the kid's birthday.

We decided cupcakes weren't worth a 40 minute delay so we drove on.

Anytime we took long road trips in my childhood, one thing my sister and I looked forward to were the random presents my mom would give us while on the road. They were anything from puzzles, mini games, coloring books, toys, legos....anything that might entertain us for another 30 minutes on a long trip. I've always wanted to continue this tradition with my kids but somehow I failed to remember to buy anything before this trip. Luckily Grandma to the rescue! The day before we left, she dropped off a bag of gifts for us to give the kids on the drive.

First present: Snakes! Baby boy loved his snake and played with it. Baby girl loved and hated it. She would play with it and then get freaked out and throw it on the ground.

Second present: Slinkies! Both loved this one - open, close, open, close. Adorable to watch them play with these

After the second present, we were already in Flag. My husband had a good idea, let's stop for cupcakes at a cupcake specialty shop. We picked Sugar Mama's.

Once at the campsite, we quickly ate lunch and set up camp. Luckily we got our new awesome tent set up just in time for a downpour of rain! So for a couple hours we sat in my parents trailer listening to the rain and catching up. For dinner we made the most delicious jerk foil chicken and cheesy, bacon potatoes. Delicious - this was a keeper for the next trip!

For dessert we ate the cupcakes and sang happy birthday to the kids. They loved it!

The next day we spent the morning playing in the lake. We fished, threw rocks, and just got dirty. In fact, baby girl didn't think sitting next to the water was good enough so she moved and sat right in the water!

In the afternoon we took a very short hike and by short I mean 1/8th of a mile. Turns out 2 year old's can't walk far. We hiked to a small canyon and watched some rock climbers.

That evening we cooked hot dogs on their new hot dog fishing cooking rod's. They loved it! After that we made s'mores which they also loved!

Dad using the fishing rod cooking sticks

Jon didn't have Monday off work so he drove home that afternoon so that night I tried to have the kids sleep on their cots but when I climbed into the tent they were both on the air mattress. They were literally sleeping on top of each other. I had to move baby girl off of baby boy in order to snuggle in with them.

The next morning my mom made 3 types of cinnamon roles. Dutch oven, orange peel, and swirly. Not many survived but we found enough to eat. After breakfast we packed up - the kids are fun at this age and really enjoyed helping carry things and give things to everyone. Because Jon left early we all packed into my parents truck - it was squishy.

I am really happy I didn't use many gifts on the way there because I needed every....last.....one on the way home. It took us over 5 hours to drive a normal 3 hour drive. We ended up with a flat tire about 15 minutes from our lunch spot, luckily my dad is Mr. Cautious and pulled off at the rest area when he had a "low tire" sensor instead of driving on like I would have done. Had he drove on, we would have had to change a tire on the side of the freeway and with twin toddlers that would have been awful. 

At the rest area we were able to have an impromptu picnic and it worked out great.

All in all a fantastic trip - some toddler bumps along the way but we survived. The best picture from the trip is when we got home and baby boy helped unload the trailer. My mom gave him a pillow to carry inside and he set it on the grass and laid down......I guess we exhausted him.