Thankful Thursday: Batteries & Park Friendships

It's thankful Thursday time! We all have so much to be thankful for and we love to take this opportunity just to write down each and everything that comes to mind. Please take this time to share with us what you're thankful for as well. If you have a blog expressing your thankfulness, please share the link! Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

I’m thankful for jelly bellies. I think I have been thankful for them before on the blog, buuuut I love them so much I can’t not highlight them again.

I’m thankful for being close to the end of the foster licensing process. We are so excited to have the “hard work” behind us and to finally be holding a license in our hands.

I’m thankful for evenings to recharge our batteries. After Mckenna goes down at night, Ronnie and I recharge our batteries by laying on the couch together and chatting and watching TV. I totally LOVE that time together!!

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful to be done with our foster care license classes and excited for whatever the future holds. There is a gigantic need for loving families in AZ and I'm so thankful that we're going to be able to be part of the solution. We have plenty of love to give and are eager to share it with children that need a temporary home.

I'm thankful for park friendships. Since the new park open just a hop, skip and jump down the street from us, we have been there about 95% of available days. Many days, we go down more than once. Mckenna is definitely a regular and it's cute to see the little friendships she is forming with both kids and parents. She's not a shy girl, so I'm sure she will continue to form new relationships for quite some time.

I'm thankful for open doors. It's getting to the point of the year that we can have our doors open all night and in the morning. Our house get's filled with a nice fall crispness and the fresh air swirling throughout our home is super awesome. Can't wait until it gets to the point that I have to rock a sweatshirt!!!

What are you thankful for today?

Moving Right Along: A Foster Licensing Update

We mentioned, forever ago, that we would keep you posted on our progress with getting our foster license. And then, we never did. We didn't because, well, not much was happening beyond paperwork, interviews and classes, so we figured we would update all at once.

I'm happy to say that TONIGHT is our last PS-MAPP class (a 10-week class you are required to take that walks you through all you need to know and all you may experience with foster care). It is an informative class, but it is a 3 hour class for 10 weeks, which gets a bit long, boring, and old. That said, we learned a lot and are excited to put what we learned into practice.

It's exciting to be DONE with classes after tonight because once classes are done, they really try to push you through the process as fast as possible. And we are so blessed to have a licensing worker who is determined to get this done quickly.

We have filled out all the necessary paperwork, which if you're curious, is stacks and stacks of paperwork. They ask questions ranging from personal information, to family backgrounds, to criminal history, to finances. I gotta hand it to them, they are very thorough. I think they now know more information about us than we know about ourselves.

We have also had a few interviews (about ourselves and our marriage) with our licensing worker. They conduct the interviews to put together our home study, which we need before we can receive our license.

All we have left is another interview or two, a house inspection (which our house is all ready for, we are just waiting to get to that part of the process), have our references be interviewed, and then, we wait for our license. They are thinking we should be licensed by the end of the year...YIPPEE!

If you are looking to get licensed, I would say that the process is pretty idiot-proof, it just takes a little bit of time (both time doing things required of you, and time waiting patiently for them to do what they need to do). If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Mckenna's Birthday Bash

Mckenna turned three on Friday, so Saturday we celebrated with a fall-themed party - complete with chili and bobbing for apples.

We tried to keep it small, but you know how that goes, it can grow quickly. We just invited our small group and their kids (some of Mckenna's best friends), our closest friends and their kids (some of Mckenna's best friends), and my parents and bro and sis-in-law, and Ronnie's parents and bros and future sis.  It was an amazing time! It was so nice to see everyone important to Mckenna all under one roof.

For food we had chili, and things you'd want chili on...like hot dogs and chips. And then we had snacks and desserts: kettle corn, apple pie, caramel apples and, of course, birthday cake.

For fun, we had pumpkin painting, bobbing for apples, lawn games, and side walk chalk.

It was simple, yet we had a blast spending time with our nearest and dearest. We are so thankful for everyone that took their Saturday afternoon with us to celebrate another year for our little lady!

Of course it was so fun that I forgot to take a single picture during the actual party...mom fail!! Thankfully I have 3 pictures a friend sent me! But here is what it looked like set up before the party (minus a few last minute things we set out).

Special shout out to my mom for making the chili, doing tons (and TONS) of work, and making my job WAY easier. And thank you to Ronnie's stepmom, Denise, for helping clean and prep!

Our friend's baby, Piper. Mckenna ADORES her!

It's cake time!

Getting ready to blow out candles is serious business!