Adoption Day!

November was a very exciting month for our family. We have finally made everyone officially a Hess! Yasmin's adoption day was on November 4th. Judge Arnold (the same Judge that did Matthew's adoption) signed the papers! Yasmin is now Megan Kay Hess( a name she picked out herself.) This was especially sweet because Megan knew it was going to happen all along even though the adults in her life weren't as optimistic! Megan has been with our family since February 2006! Dave has been in our family since August of 2007! Megan was just positive that her adoption would go through before Dave's even though we already had a court date of November 20th for Dave. Colin, Myself, her social worker and the counselor all told her that it probably won't happen until after the beginning of the year but she was just positive that it would happen before Dave. We were all shocked (except Megan) when they called us with a court date of November 4th!!!! We love Megan very much and are so glad she is with us forever!!

Dave's adoption was on November 20th. Dave and I flew from Denver to Anchorage for the big adoption day! In Alaska they have 2 adoption days a year, one in April and one in November. 29 children were adopted in Alaska on November 20th. It is a pretty big deal! They do a big party and have Judges signing papers all day! Governor Palen even came and we were able to have our picture with her. (At first I wasn't going to show anyone the picture because I look like I ate all the celebration cake, but it was to exciting not to share with everyone! ) It was a neat day and we are glad that Dave is a part of our family!!

We finally made it!!

After 2 1/2 long years of waiting it is finally done. Dakota Kelley Long officially became Matthew Paul Hess on September 4, 2008. It was a great day! We met with Judge Arnold at the Laramie County Courthouse and he signed the adoption papers. It is so wonderful to have Matthew a legal and official part of our family. Matthew is glad to have it all done and to have a new name (he picked this one himself.) We love him so much and feel very lucky to have him as our son!

Busy Life!

I haven't updated for awhile, life has started again!! We are 0fficially back into our school routine. My older kids all had a big change of heart and are headed back to school instead of staying home with me this year! Kourtney is on the volleyball team and loving it!! She is very excited about being in junior high, I just hope it isn't to big of a shock when she realizes that she actually has to do school work and not just hang out with her friends. She is definitely tired of her Mom crying because she is "sending her little girl into that snake pit!" Yes! I do remember Jr. High and it isn't all fond memories.
Matthew is happy to be back at football. He is doing really well this year! He is thrilled to have his best friend Jarom at the Jr. High this year! I am thrilled also because he is a good kid!!!
Good kid+Good example=Good Matthew!!!!
Brycen is in ninth grade a king of the school. We had the debate about football or marching band this year...let's see...two a day practices at football or hanging out with my buddy Shawn and cute girls at band!!! Uhm...Ya! Band won! He is playing the trumpet and enduring the dorky uniforms well!
All of the elementary kids got the teacher they wanted with the exception of Ethan. But we will be just fine!!! I am not overly thrilled about being PTO president again, but I will do my best and pass the torch to some other sucker next year!!
Colin is cruising through his Master's program. He is doing great in his classes and might be able to see a little glimmer of light at the other end!
I am always a glutton for punishment and just registered for a class at the University of Wyoming! I start Monday!
As always the Hess fam is running at least 100 miles an hour! But life is good!!
Becky

EEG!!

We took Ethan down to Denver to have an EEG!

It was quite exciting, except the part when he falls asleep!

Ethan is having his "zoning" moments again and it looks like he will need to be back on his seizure medication! Bummer, but not a big deal!

Ethan thought he looked like a "Mummy" with all the bandages! It was cool!

INJURY OF THE WEEK! July 1, 2008

Here is Grandpa Allen in his element.

Brycen had a dark spot on his arm that has been there for a few months and he asked Grandpa if he would cut it out.

We went to the office and Grandpa opened up Brycen's arm and found a rock!

It was underneath the skin. Totally disgusting but really cool!

Brycen ended up with four stitches to close up the wound and a souvenir rock to take home!

INJURY OF THE WEEK June 23rd!

This isn't really an "injury" but Ethan thought he looked pretty cool! We spent the day down in Denver at the hospital. Ethan and Dave both had EEG's done so that we could determine if they are having seizures or not. Nothing to serious. I was in the room with Ethan while he had his done and being the Mom I made sure we had a picture of it. Unfortunately Daddy doesn't think about things like that so we don't have a cool "mummy" picture of Dave!

Girls Camp 2008!!

Kourtney enjoyed her first year at girls camp! It is so hard to believe how much she has grown up since last summer~

First braces and earrings, then she joined Young Women's and left elementary school forever. Now she is heading straight for the world of teenagehood!! Girls camp was definitely a life changing experience- her first real lesson on how to behave like an emotional wreck 90% of the time!

She was slightly dissapointed that Mom spent the entire week as part of the kitchen staff and that Dad was there for 2 nights as priesthood help. She was not amused to be told how totally "cool" her parents are and how "hot" her two older brothers are!

Summer Fun!

We spent our first week of summer in Utah. We bought summer passes to Lagoon. What a blast. This was Emma and Haley's first year of really being able to enjoy the rides. I didn't know what to expect when we put them on the first one, would they laugh or cry! They were both laughing!!!!! When it was time to head back home to Wyoming after two full days of Lagoon Emma, was not happy! "I want to go to the Agoon!!!"

Mount Rushmore

Memorial Day weekend was a blast! We went to South Dakota with our friends, the Packhams. We had so much fun and there is so much to do in that area. We went to Wind Cave which is one of the largest caves in the country. We went back to the Mammoth dig site to see how much more the scientists have uncovered since we were there 4 years ago. Bear Country was amazing. It is so surreal to have bears walking around your car and looking in windows! Mount Rushmore was very cool. We did the half mile walk around the base of the monument, it was really neat to look up at the "faces on the wall" as Emma calls it!
We spent 3 days and didn't even get to 1/3 of all the activities in the area. We will definitely need to plan another trip back!

TORNADO!

We weren't able to get a picture of an actual tornado but supposedly we had about 9 of them hit in Northern Colorado, Cheyenne and Laramie! Cheyenne didn't sustain much damage but Laramie and Windsor got nailed. It was actually a little nerve racking having the tornado sirens going off through town. At one point I had Brycen and Matthew at piano lessons and myself and the elementary kids locked down in the elementary school bathroom. (Safest place in the school)
The sky was so dark and we had huge hail storms. Brycen had a band concert tonight. We went into the auditorium with clear skies and within an hour we were back to sirens, hail and black skies. We have been in Cheyenne for almost 5 years and have never had this happen before.
Our little barn out back took a beating. A section of the roof was almost ripped off but Colin saved it before it was gone.

Our Front Yard!!

Today was a very wet and dreary day, we even had tornados but that is a different story.
I walked past my front room window and saw two antelope standing right in our front yard.
I quietly got my camera and when out on the front porch to take pictures, I was being so sneaky.
I turned to go back in the house and saw eight more antelope on the other side of my porch watching me.
What a shock!

Injury of the week!

Little did I know when I posted the first "injury of the week" that it would actually get used as often as it has. I also didn't realize how much my kids would love it! When Megan broke her arm last week the first thing Kourtney said was, "Megan you get to be the injury of the week this week!." She was so proud.
Megan fell of the monkey bars at school and broke her wrist at the growth plate! Ouch! We have had it in a splint since Wednesday and they were able to put a hard cast on today because the swelling is down!
We are heading to Mt. Rushmore on Friday! We are so excited! Hot Springs, South Dakota is only about 220 miles from here and it is amazing! So much to do! Some of my kiddos haven't seen Mt. Rushmore so this is a treat!

Wyoming Weather

I am so sick of the weather here in good old Wyoming. It was absolutely beautiful the last two days, temps in the 70's. Tomorrow we will be lucky to get to 30. The wind is annoying but if it is warm at least it is bearable. The positive thing about Wyoming is that when you walk outside and look around, the sky is huge!! It is amazing to stand in the middle of the prairie. It really makes me appreciate the pioneers and what they went through! I guess I can stand the cold sitting in my heated house!!!
Kids are doing great, I think I am the one most ready for summer. How pathetic that I am keeping a countdown. Don't remind me of this in the middle of July when I am soooo ready for them all to go back to school!

New Jersey!

Wow! What an amazing trip we had! We had such an incredible time and we were able to see so much! We spent a day at Cape May, this is the southern most point of New Jersey and it was beautiful! The old Victorian houses were breathtaking! We had lunch at the Lobster House! Sounds great but if your not into seafood much it is hard to figure out what to eat. Kourtney and I both enjoyed the clam chowder (that was safe enough!) Everyone else was much more adventurous, especially Brycen, he had Calamari and raw clams... the calamari stayed down!!
We were able to go to Maryland and see our dear friends the Mahaffeys!! It is so nice to just pick up where we left off even though it has been 3 years!!
The coldest day of the week we spent at the Statue of Liberty. It was so fun to watch the kids get excited about it. Kourtney said "oh my gosh, it's right there and it's not even on TV."
We spent our last day in Philadelphia!! We took the duck tour which was hysterical! Riding the streets of Philly, blowing a duck whistle was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!
The area is so full of history it is just amazing!!
Now I will honestly admit that the best part of being in New Jersey was seeing my Mom and Dad again! I told my kids that one day they would actually feel this way about me!
We had so much fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa being missionaries! We met some amazing members in the area and enjoyed getting to know the Elders and Sisters! I think all 3 of the kids are even more excited about going on missions now!!!
Becky

Spring Break!

Yippee! I am so glad we are finally on Spring Break, not that it is actually much of a break! We are going to be running full speed for the next 9 days.
Our trip started out yesterday as we headed to Utah. We spent the night there and then ran up to Idaho to start dropping kids off at Aunt's houses. (And our first injury of the trip, Logan's stitches) We will head back down to Utah tomorrow to leave the rest of the little kids with Grandma Amy and then the rest of us (Colin, Becky, Brycen, Kourtney and Matthew) are flying out to New Jersey to see Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Robert! We are so excited!!!!

Being accountable!

So I think I am finally ready to loose this extra weight! I started going to Weight Watchers about 8 weeks ago and have done really well so far. But I figure if I have to answer to everyone that looks at my Blog maybe I will do even better.
I have lost 9.6 pounds..yea!! I weigh in again on Saturday. Hopefully it will be good news.
I have started running again and I am really enjoying it. Unfortunately my treadmill has been upstairs in our apartment and a family has been staying there for the last week while they wait to close on their house.
It was only going to be a few days and it ended up taking longer that it was supposed to. I need to get on my machine and start working out. It helps with the weight and the stress!
Maybe in a few pounds I will be brave enough to post pictures of just me. NOT YET!

I had an ahha moment!

I have had a great time these last couple of weeks. I was able to fly to Florida and spend 5 days with my sister-in-law, Jessica and my nieces and nephew. It was a ton of fun and it was wonderful to be "cool aunt Becky" for a couple of days instead of Mom. I was also able to go to Utah over the weekend to see my new nephew, Travis. He was born on leap year!!!
I have held these cute little babies and thought how much fun it will be to be a grandma (ahha)!! I think this is a good indicator that my baby days are over!! YEA! Now my worst fear is that having said this out loud I will end up pregnant this month!! Heaven help me.
Becky

New President

I just saw the announcement of the New First Presidency of the Church.
Thomas S. Monson is wonderful!