Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas

We had an unbelievably good, calm, happy Christmas. Their first Christmas was terrible and last year was better, but not great. This year was "normal"! They didn't get everything they wanted, but were happy. They shared. They played together and didn't argue or fight. They even let me take a nap on the couch! I haven't done that in 2+ years. It was wonderful! The weekend has been uneventful as well. Plus we got our first decent snow so of course they are very happy. We went out and played yesterday for awhile.

No school this week which makes for happy boys - and an easier week for Mom and Dad. We're off to Grandma's for Christmas this week with my family. Can't wait to see everyone.

Karen

Andrew

New PJ's.


Being silly in our new PJ's.











We did a quick "trying to calm them down and get ready for bed" activity Saturday night. I sat them all at the kitchen counter and gave them mini marshmallows and toothpicks to make things. They were more creative than I expected. Here they are with their creations.


Andrew - not sure what he was making.



Juan Pablo with his "human", house and a flower.














Saturday, December 19, 2009

Our Week

Just a post of our week in pictures.

This is the "train" that Andrew and Juan Pablo constructed yesterday afternoon. It consisted of pillows, "Tigger", a power ranger helmet, an electric keyboard, a Bible, some pieces of wood and a few other miscelaneous items. They were so very proud of themselves and although I didn't quite understand how everything went together and formed a train I of course told them how creative they were and how hard they had worked.

The next two pictures are the result of "The Reward of the Day". In an effort to try to encourage them to work more diligently on their schoolwork we have instituted this reward program. Each day it is something different - a bag of chips for lunch, computer time, a craft, make playdough and such. This particular day it was face painting. I had bought some Halloween face paint on clearance and since they love this type of thing I thought it would make a good reward. Andrew is a Power Ranger and Juan Pablo is a pirate. I still have a way to go in my next career as a makeup artist, but they were happy with the results. :)






This week I almost felt like I got to meet myself. Phyllis and her husband adopted a sibling group of 3 boys from Russia last year and we "met" through our blogs. The similarities are amazing! We are essentially the same age, have two older children the same sex and age, our boys are nearly the same age, we both homeschool and it just seems to go on and on. It was wonderful to meet someone else who has/is dealing with many of the same things we have/are.
My boys had a great time playing and wish we lived closer. Here we are with our boys.





Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Fall 2009

Wow - I have alot of territory to cover! Maicol in particular has been wanting to play football in the backyard. This primarily consists of me throwing the ball to he or Juan Pablo and then Maicol either runs with it or knocks Juan Pablo down if he happens to get the ball. Then Andrew comes and gets the ball and runs. They really have no idea about the rules (and neither do I), but it does provide for fun and burns off some energy. Unfortunately it's getting to cold now to get out and play.

We celebrated Juan Pablo's eighth birthday in November. We had a family dinner and then gifts, cake and ice cream. Hard to believe he's had 3 birthdays since he became our son. We still need to go to Chuck E Cheese's, but we are patiently (NOT) waiting on a time that we can all go with his big brother. I think Maicol asks about it more than he does. I do not particularly care to go there (seems like it always gives me a headache), but they all just love going and I guess I can tolerate it 3 times a year. :) One of his gifts was a Lite Brite and I think the older kids enjoyed it as much as he did. I even broke down and bought a cake. I'm cheap, but Dan reminded me it is just once a year.

I worked over Thanksgiving, so we went last weekend to my Mom's to celebrate. My sister and her family came so there were plenty of boys to play with. We got out twice to take a walk to the woods. I miss living in the country. They had a great time and since it was cold there was a little pond that was frozen over. Not thick enough ice to walk on, but enough to poke with sticks and get their feet wet. Lots of playing with sticks, looking at leaves and trees and trying to be quiet enough to see deer. They have slept for 12 hours the last three nights, so I think they are about "caught up" now. When they are gone and don't go to bed on time it is really hard on them and also hard on their Mom and Dad to tolerate them.

We are still waiting on our first real snow. We had flurries today and lots of wind. They were so full of energy (loud, pushing and fighting, disobedient) today that I took them for a walk before I even tried to get school started. We were out when it started to flurry and they thought that was very cool. By the time we got back home the temperature had definitely dropped! The time outside running seemed to help and we were able to get school done with minimal problems.

Maicol still has trouble controlling his mouth, but has good days also. The upside for me is that each time he gets into trouble he has to do a chore for me. I have been the recipient of a clean bathroom and mopped floors today. Juan Pablo vacuumed and straighted up the living room for me. Andrew even got to help put the dishes away and put toys away. But I did also play hide and seek with them so they didn't have to work all day. They are doing good as far as learning, but their attitude towards Mom still needs a great deal of work. We just keep working on it.

There is lots of talk of Christmas gifts and they now understand that nearly every day in the paper their is another new ad to be checked. They are more anxious than me to get the paper each morning! We are doing a simple advent book each night. A short version of a Bible story and then a picture to find hidden items in.

We are still doing "Family Night" each Tuesday. The counselor we went to suggested this and so each Tuesday we do something together. Sometimes it's an all day thing and sometimes it's a shorter activity. Maicol (being the stickler for rules that he is) is unhappy if we do a daytime activity instead of a nighttime activity. He makes me crazy sometimes! Isn't an all-day fun time better than just a one hour night time thing? We think so, but what do we know?!

Lots of pictures with this post. That's what everyone wants anyway, isn't it?

Until next time....

This is how their version of football always ends up - one on the ground and the other two trying to wrestle the ball away.



Juan Pablo - he's usually being pushed to the ground by Maicol.



Juan Pablo - the very happy birthday boy!


Juan Pablo - 8th birthday.



Opening his presents.


The "big kids" playing with Juan Pablo's new Lite Brite.



Playing on the trampoline with Dad. He doesn't jump or play on the trampoline very often, but when he does they love it!



Andrew



Maicol



Juan Pablo



Andrew, Juan Pablo and Maicol




Juan Pablo


Maicol and Andrew - listening to Dad read for Family Night.