Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas early if I do not post again. I will get the pictures later. It is 6 am and I can not find the camera.
Erman and Isaac went on a 15 mile hike this past weekend on the Appalacian trail! (with some other guys too) It was too cold for the camera to work. They had a good time and saw fairly large bear tracks. Erman saw the bear tracks and he said it was a good sized one by the size and depth of the track. That tracking school sure paid off! And, what would you do if you saw a bear that size?? Well, they set up their tent and called it a night after hiking in circles until 1am.

Any way, the latest is Cameron. He is 2 1/2 and is from Liberia, Africa. He has quite and accent. He talks kinda like this "Whatakaa". This is translated as "Where's the car". Once you get the hang of it it is pretty amusing. He was malnourished. He is eating great and blends right into the family (Figurativly speaking).
We are doing well. Landon has been sick with a cough about 2 weeks. Homeschool is happening and we are just busy. Isaac started basketball and their first practice was on a Monday night at 9pm-10pm. Now, if I was a new mom with a baby, that just would not happen. But, as life goes on that seemed to be a great time for me. Erman can take him and I stay home to get the kids in bed. The plus thing is that Isaac feels like a big boy because he got to stay up!!! It's the little things that make kids happy (at least for a while.)
Can you guess what Cameron said "duhpooleece"?

I have been tagged!

My gifted musician brother Pedro has tagged me so here goes my list of facts.....

1. I have accidently killed animals with rocks (one swan and one rabbit.. and still waiting for other opportunities!)

2. I wear shorts all year round,even when there is snow or sleet coming down.

3. I come home everyday on my break to take a number two in the privacy of my own home.

4. I pluck my white hairs or have Jaida do it for me since my wife won't do it. Jaida gets a quarter for each one. I think I owe her alot of money by now.

5. I love to play soccer and coach from the side lines at all my kids games. Jessica hates it because she thinks I will be asked to leave by the officals.

6. I miss the old blue Nissan truck.
I hope ya'll enjoyed this. So now I am tagging Leslie.

The Mouse

We caught two mice in our kitchen drawer! Yuck! Needless to say, we put the one on the front porch and Isaac accidentally stepped on the mouse's head! Double Yuck! He said " I could feel something moving under my foot." He was pretty shook up.
Can You spy Jaida in the picture below?





Fall time is finally here. The leaves usually fall in October, but the leaves fell in November. It is beautiful this time of years.

Kaylin's Box..

Attention: Kaylin made a Box for all the Christams cards that we are going to receive!! (This was completely all done on her own and own idea.) So start sending those Christams cards after you eat that Turkey Meal!


Well, here are our latest additions for 10 days. Their foster family went to Walt Disney World. We are simply vaction foster parents. It was very last minute because the orginal others were not home. They called at 4:30 Friday night and we had them by 6pm. (PS we had a soccer team party at our house at 7pm). They are very well behaved! They both have speech delays, but the little girl talks exactly as Jaida did at her age. The boy has a speech impediment. They have been in care for 1 year.

We went to John Lithgow's "Sunny Side of the Street" concert on Saturday. It was fun. It was a taping for HBO. I left at intermission because it had went so well and I did not want to push it for the kids.
Happy Thanksgiving Early. As we have foster kids with us I hope everyone is thankful for their wonderful life and FAMILY! I am.

The Carpenters

I must not forget to mention that Isaac finally got his guitar hero from Amazon's preorder. Needless to say he waiting in the front yard for the ups man to deliver this and he got it Halloween night. Oh, and pre ordering does not mean you will get it the day it comes out. (He mowed 5 lawns to get this!)



Happy Halloween late. We had the Carpenters for Halloween. They refused to sing, but the belts did justice. Here are the latest photos and one more of the baby (I had it in my camera and had to share it!).

The Lord Giveth and the Lord taketh...

As fast as we got him he is gone. It was a thrill to have him for a month. He has an uncle and aunt that want to adopt him and keep him in the family. McCoy has 7 other siblings. One is with an aunt and some are with grandma. They have a 14 year old daughter and are happy to have him. They seem very nice and they were grateful we took care of McCoy. They did not know McCoy was born because the mother (McCoy's mom) had just gotten out of jail 2 weeks before she had him.
We are often asked if we are going to keep doing this....yes. We just enjoy doing it. Grant it, it is hard to part. And the kids are handling all of this giving and taking away just fine. Maybe that is the Indian in them showing....ha ha....

Pictures are not justice...

He has changed so much. Newborn pictures are the pits. They are like taking a picture of a mother after giving birth. "Smile", you look like you have been pushing for 10 hours!:) To say the least, (I am a little bias)..He is too cute. PS I must say that the girls, especially Jaida, (Kaylin too) are quite the little mothers.

The real McCoy....

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We have decided to call him McCoy "Coy".

Meet Macon...

Camping in the Backyard! Smores on the BBQ! Hey, the kids liked it. We did not tell them they are rednecks, we told them they were being REAL Indians!


The smores were delicious on the BBQ. Wrap in foil and tongs do the trick.


Meet our week old foster baby. He is one week old. He was born on the 17th. He is 6 pounds 8 ounces. He is hopefully adoptable. We will have to play the waiting game. He seems to be a good baby (that is what the nurses told Erman). He just picked him up at the hospital today! We are calling him "Macon".

The latest at the Ivins house...

Jaida and Elton at the Riversharks Baseball game. It was a fun ball game and we watched fireworks afterward. The dog did great!

Rockster the Rat! Yes, we have a new pet. It is technically called a "fancy rat". She is very luck to be alive after Elton has knocked over her cage two times. The kids walk around with her on ther shoulders all day! She is actually very cute.

This is the contents of what I, Jessica, lived on for 10 days. Yes, 10 days. It is the lemon cleanse diet. You may have heard about it. I de-toxed my body and I have been feeling a ton better with regard to my headaches. The book that tell about it is "Alkalize or die". I highly recommend it!
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Dinner Time...

The New Jersey Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife's Bureau of Law Enforcement recently concluded a statewide undercover investigation on the illegal sale of striped bass, white-tailed deer and black bear in Bergen, Cumberland, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris and Somerset counties. Current state law prohibits the sale of white-tailed deer (since 1918), striped bass (since 1991) and black bear.
So, it is a treat to have this fish....right? Personally, I did not care for the fish smell. We bought the fish at the Asian Market and asked the ladies how to cook it. "inger and team it" So I was going to take her advice.. "Ginger and steam it". Instead we looked up a recipe on FoodTV. It called for a Tomatilla sauce. That is pictured above. A tomatilla is like a green tomatoe with a husk. The sauce was pretty good, like salsa. We all tasted the fish. But we all decided that we like fish sticks best!

Family Picture Time!

The Seeing Eye Family Day

The Seeing Eye has an annual Family Day in Morristown, NJ. Of which, it is so beautiful there with rolling hills of green trees beyond the horizon. The premises is just as beautiful with acers of green grass and geese. We have a picnic and see the ways they train the dogs. We learned that dogs that do not make it through the program can possible become narcotic smelling dogs. or bomb sniffers. The kids enjoyed the best part, the icecream man comes and they get to get as much icecream from him as they want. One can not imaging the joy this brings to children. Isaac made three visits to the icecream man!

Here is another picure of Jaida and her friend Cheyanne.

Nana came to visit during all the Salmonella

Nana came and we had a good time developing cabin fever. Isaac held in there with watching movie after movie. We managed to go to Smithville Historic Park. It was over 100 degrees and miserable. But we did it because it was the only day we could get out of the house.

Eat Subway, Eat fresh Salmonella...Fast food is not all that good

Yes, Isaac had Salmonella!! The county health department called and asked lots of questions:
Has he held or pet any animals?...All the time, Iguana in TN, and our snake
Has he had any fresh vege or fruit?...yah
Has he swam in any rivers? ...Yes, Cherokee NC river
Has he been to any BBQ? ...Yes, at the water park
Has he dined anywhere within the last week? Yes in VA, NC, TN, and Subway in NJ
Has he drank unpasturized milk?...Yes, but it wan not with in the last week
I think that I lied about the unpasturized milk, because after saying yes to every other question I was fearful that they may call child protective services on me for exposing my child to everything possible with salmonella.
They did take the address for the Subway and that is what we think did it. They will turn the info over to the CDC and investigate for a possible breakout! This has scared us from ever easting the Salmonella breakout chains> Subway, MacD, Friendly's, Wendy's, BurgerKing. I think that covers it. We felt safe enough to eat Arby's. But we are not eating out for along time. Diarrhea for 2 weeks is enough to convince a 12 year old kid that fast food is not all that good!

Isaiah and Isaac update...

Isaiah, our foster baby, left today. It is sad to see him go but he is going home. And that should be a good thing...right? The kids will miss him.

Update on Isaac. He has been sick for a 1 1/2 weeks. They think it was food poisoning? He now has a fever on day 10. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Tennesse to Visit the Coontz

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Jaida donates to Locks of Love...

Jaida did it...she cut off 10 inches of her hair. She donated it to "locks of love". She likes it and I think she is adorable no matter what.

ING Direct's $10,000 Contest!

ING Direct is having a "Dream Big Sweepstake" and we entered this photo to win. We will let you know if we are the grand prize winners of $10,000! Isaac's lip looks a lot better in this photo. The doctor took the stitches out Wednesday. Every one is doing great and Isaiah is still in our home. I did not put him in the picture because he will, more than likely, going home Aug 7th or 8th. We are just loving him while we have him.

First Day of Summer and Isaac's ER visit! (viewers discresion advised)

This is before stitches....after the plastic surgeon reconstructed the muscle and lip, and 1 day later!!! The surgeon said "it is always a little dog". My advise, stay away from little nippy dogs! Isaac was at a friends house, petting their Boston terrier. You just never know. Thirteen stitches later and a fat lip for a week!

Landon's Preschool Graduation

Click on the X and you will see a quick video of Landon performing a graduation song at his preschool graduation. You will be taken to Photobucket. It it really cute song they did sign language to. The song is called "its a beautiful day".

This is Landon and Nicholas, Landon's buddy.

Update on Isaiah...

Isaiah is doing great. He went to the doctor on Tuesday. Thursday he had visitation with his parents. His parents seems to be doing all that they can to get him back. We have started a communication book with his parents and they are very thankful that we are caring for Isaiah. The next court date is is August. We are simply excited that they gave us permission to take him with us to Tennessee to see Amy and the family! The kids are still fighting over who is going to hold Isaiah.