Thanksgiving Time

So for those who have not met our foster daughter her name is Chassidy and she is 13yrs old. Here are some pics now that the trial has ended. We recently recieved a guilty verdict against the adoptive father for abusing the children, more so with her. He will be spending a minimum of 25yrs in prison before he can be paroled. We are so grateful to know that these children will no longer have to look over their shoulders and be watching.
Right now Chassidy and her two brothers are in Utah with my brother and sis-inlaw their 6
children for Thanksgiving. They plan to adopt all three, and we're hoping that by Christmas time or the first of Jan. they will actually be able to move down to Utah.
Brian and I have finished up our Foster Parenting Classes. We are unsure at this time if we want to continue doing foster care, or if we want to just be put on the waiting list for adoption. We're still staying busy managing the storage facility and doing 2 paper routes. Anyways we hope that all of our family and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Chassidy with her brother Paetton

And her brother Daniel

Chassidy at the 4th of July in Melba

Just a summer pic

First day of 8th grade


Playing Volleyball for Jefferson Middle School

Carving Pumpkins for Family Home Evening

Trick-Or-Treating with her brother's

Paetton, and Daniel, Tiana Patterson, and

Kelsey Durham

UPDATE

So I haven't done a very good job of keeping my blog updated. Right now we are in the middle of a criminal trial and trial prep with one of our foster kids. It has definately been an eye opener for us. We are looking forward to the holidays and all that we will be able to share.
Brian is staying busy with doing both paper routes while I sleep and then get up and the kids off to school, and then I get the office running while he gets some sleep. Bless his heart, he gets up at 3 in the morning.
Recently we were called to be Nursery workers at church. There are anywhere between 13-15 kids each Sunday. I've been keeping busy with running the office, meeting all of the court dates, and going to school functions. Our most recent news is the beginning of our Foster Parenting Classes in November. They run Nov. 2-20th every other day. After we complete those classes our social workier wants to start placing 0-3yrs children with us. We are looking forward to starting our family and the adventures it will bring.

Up-Date On Our Family

I know that it's been a really long time since I updated our family blog. We thought that we would catch everybody up on what the McKay's have been doing.
Right now we are getting ready to start the foster parenting/adoption course. We have decided that Brian and I are ready to start our family. There is so much to do, so much to get ready for. We have already had 2 home studies done, and in November we start 6wks of foster parenting classes. It's definately has been keeping us busy. We actually have a social worker and she is just wonderful and we love her. She is helping us to get set up to have children 0-3yrs placed in our home. Hopefully we'll be matched with a child that needs to be adopted.
In the midst of getting ready we thought that we would take a break and do something fun. So a couple of wknds ago we took my nephew Shawn out to see a movie and then out to lunch at McDondalds. He had a really great time!!! We don't see him very often so we thought it would be good for him to get out of the house. He actually lives in Nampa in a group home. We sure love the guy!!!

Goofing Around Time

Here's Shawn Just Being Goofy In The Car


This Is Me Being Goof At McDonalds!!

Here's Shawn Just Being Him!! We Sure Do Love Him!!!

Update

Sorry, but I don't have any new pics to post this time. Brian and I have been keeping really busy this past week. My niece lives with us and started her first day of school on Thursday. She absolutely loves it, and loves getting to see her friends again.
The storage and U-haul business has been slow going, and we hope and pray that it picks up again. We really are enjoying our job and what we do. However, we need to get more people to start renting from us. We are definately able to stay busy with all of the running around that it takes to make things work.
We hope that this update finds all of our family and friends doing well.

Dog Sitting and Birthdays

I know that I haven't done a very good job at keeping my blog up to date. I've been so busy with all of the appointments and driving kids here and there.
So the last couple of weeks we've had a birthday for Kairi. She is officially two now. I think that she had a really great time. She was very impressed with her new jack-in-the-box.
Recently we dog-sat for my sister while she and her family went down to Utah for a family get together. Unfortunately we could not attend because of the 2 paper routes and managing a storage facility. Anyways, Bell was a perfect guest and we didn't have any trouble out of her. However the current dog that we do have just came right up and bit her. It was sad and Bell is okay thank goodness. She did have one spot that Liberty drew blood from so we doctored her right up.
So at this point we are giving Liberty to the pound and looking for a more mellow dog. This last week she killed a wild bunny that roams around her, almost attacked a customer's daughter and now attacking Bell. Well I guess happy dog hunting to us.

Dog Sitting

Here's Melanie's dog Bell napping. We did some dog sitting this past weekend while they went to Utah for a family get together.


It must be nice to lay about the house all day long and just sleep, eat, and play.

Kairi on her 2nd birthday!! She was so excited about her cupcake and the two candles. It took her a couple of tries, but she finally got them blown out.

Kairi opening her birthday present. We bought her a jack-in-the-box. It took her a while to figure out how and which way to wind it and make the jack come out. It was the funniest thing to watch.

Gardening Woes

It's been about 3 wks since the last time that I updated my blog site. I guess that I should catch everybody up on what's been going on with the McKay's.
We've been trying to plant and grow some things out of pots, but not having all that great of a success. We've grown flowers which took over 2 months to bloom, a lop-sided tomato plant, mini strawberries. We had a really good garden last year and had quite a bit to eat out of it. I guess that's what we get for moving into the city and out of the country.

So here's my panzies. I have never had any luck growing them
before, but wouldn't you know it, they actually grew this year.


Our poor pathetic tomatoe plant. We only got 6 tomatoes from this guy.
We've eaten one already and it was yummy!! The poor plant grew in sideways.


Here's some flowers that I have no idea as to what they are. They took nearly 2 1/2
months to grow. Their leaves even started to turn brown. The other pot behind it
never has sprouted any flowers. It's just weird.



A pic of my rose bush. It was so beautiful back in June all full of blossoms.
I'm glad to see that it's starting to bud again though.




Last, but not least my strawberries. They were here before we ever moved in.
Not entirely sure if they are a cross-breed, but all of the strawberries are just
mini. They don't ever grow very big.
It's definately a frustrating process!!!

4th Of July Celebration

So on the 4th we of course spent the evening with Brian's parents. Here's Kairi after throwing pop-its. Last year she was too afraid and we stayed indoors together.




Here's another of Trista and Kairi throwing their pop-its with the help of Uncle Brian off to the side.

Here's Trista throwing her pop-its. Poor thing had a rough night. She stepped on the ashes of a sparkler and burnt the bottom of her foot.

Here's the girls coming to reload for some more pop-its. They had such a great time!!! Especially Kairi, although towards the end, both of them were so tired and ready for bed.

On the 4th we also went out to the celebration in Melba. It was definately smaller this year, so that was a bummer. We did ride the spinner, which was fun but defiantely dizzying!! It was hot outside, but we had fun anyways.

Family Reunion

Last weekend we had the McIntyre Family Reunion, and we all had a great time.
(This is Tiana, and she's a family friend) We just love her to death!!



This is Makel showing off her fashion sense!! She looks absolutely fab.




Each family member came by way of their own transportation.
(Ty Thompson on his scooter)

After dinner we went to the Caldwell Pool for Family Swim night.

Here's Anja showing off her swimming skills.

Here's Gracie, and Kailey!! Gracie was trying to be a big girl and swim

by herself in her new life suit.

Sunday night we had a s'more cookout at mom and dad's house. We had a glorious time, I brought some funny glasses for all the kids to wear. We all came away smelling like a campfire and had sticky fingers.



Of course right before we went to start our fire, there came a down pour of rain and booming thunder. After the storm had passed the kids all went and jumped on the wet tramp. They all had a great time and had wet bottoms.




Here's a pic of Heidi playing in the puddle after the rain storm. There's her signature mark of having her shoes on the wrong foot.



Gracie standing in the the sunshine




Of course I just thought that this photo was way too cute to pass up. Gracie has just turned two and was trying to show Grandma she could hold up only two fingers.

BIRTHDAY TIME!!!

Here's our birthday girl!! She was so excited about having her Dora Birthday Cake, and her Thomas the Train Engine DVD's

Here's Trista after she had blown out all of her candles. It was so cute, it took her about three tries before she could get them blown out.

Here's Kairi having a great time with her cupcake and making a wonderful mess!!

Just wanted to post a pic of the cake before it got devoured.

BOYS WILL BE BOYS

Okay, so finally I'm getting these pics posted after changing

my background last week. Here's Brian fixing our sign at

Storage West. It's so great having a handyman for a husband.

Besides, Brian likes getting down in playing in the dirt!

This is our beloved sign, I swear this thing has been such a headache for us!! I can't wait until it gets fixed

Here's a pic of the boys as they made their way to the top of the sign

Here's a pic of the lift that was being used to fix our sign outside of our business

GRADUTION DAY HAS ARRIVED!!!!

The count down has begun, when this photo was taken Ryan had about 6 hrs to go before graduation. You can tell just how excited he was! At the same time he looks like a goof!!

A pic of Ryan walking into graduation day. I know you can't tell, but Ryan is the one on the right.

Here's another pic of Ryan walking across the stage! I can't believe how grown up he got! It seems like yesterday that I was changing his diaper

Here's Ryan as he walked off the stage after getting his diploma. He had threatened to do something funny, but didn't want to risk it

Here's Ryan with mom and dad after the ceremony.

Mom sure has been using feeling the empty nester's syndrome.

Here's Ryan in his cap and gown after recieving his diploma. We couldn't be more proud of the guy!

I can't believe that it's been a month almost since I last updated. I've been soooo sick with tonsilits and this lousy cold. I haven't really been out of the house much so I don't really have anything to post. We do spend our Friday's with Chassidy which is great! We did highlight her hair this past weekend. She had a really lousy day so she stayed the night on Friday. Yesterday Ryan graduated from Seminary. I can't believe that he's that old already. I mean come on, I remember when I used to change that kids diaper. He graduates from High School on Friday night, so I'll hopefully remember to take my camera then and get some pics and really update our family blog.

Here's Trista going down the slide. She finally got up the courage to try going down the slide on her belly.