The Time Just Flies....

We made a trip to Grandma's in the spring and had a great time! The weather was good so we were able to get outside and burn lots of energy which is always good. Grandma lives on a farm so we went walking in the woods and fields looking for treasures. One of the "best" parts was finding animal bones. They wanted to bring them home, but I convinced them that they should leave them to dry and we would get them next time we were there. I did take pictures to "remember" them (in Juan Pablo's words). Hopefully they won't recall they are there to bring home. We already have one deer skull in the house - how many does one house need? :)

Maicol's new love is baseball. He lives and breathes it. Last year it was football. Before that it was soccer. Next year?

We found this dead and decaying tree in the woods. The boys spent at least an hour trying to knock it down. They were never successful, but had a great time trying!

Bethany is living at home until her wedding in September. The boys have done very well with her being here. In the past having her here has been difficult for them. That whole not liking change thing. This time it has gone very well. Andrew in particular was always stressed when she was here, but this time he seems to be doing much better. He even asked if she would read their bedtime story recently. That's a big change for him. So, of course I had to document it with a photo.

We were able to go to the zoo in June. It was a very hot day, but there was very little whining and complaining. I think we saw every animal possible. We were also able to see Grandma and Grandpa.

At the zoo. Are you sure they didn't hatch from giant eggs?

This is what Juan Pablo brought in to me a recent morning. He wasn't quite dead yet. You know it's going to be a long day when you have to say "Don't let that dragonfly loose in here!" at breakfast.

Last Saturday our friends the Beadles came to visit! Their boys are from Russia and very close in age to ours. We had been to see them a couple of times, but this was the first time they were able to come to our house. We roasted hot dogs, went swimming, the boys played and the Mom's talked and talked. It was great to see them!!

Maicol, Dima, Andrew, James, Juan Pablo and Pasha.

We took the boys on their first camping trip this week. We have been talking about going for a loooong time and it finally happened! It was only for one night, but it went very well! They helped set up the tent, went to sleep pretty well, didn't get up too early and just had a great time. They found some other boys to play with. Andrew rode his bike about a hundred miles I think! They also discovered that it's ok to ride your bike in your pajamas when you're camping. At home I forbid that. :) We hope to go again before the summer is over.

We found some berries to pick while we were camping.

Dan even helped do the cooking. He makes a pretty good sausage, potato and carrot skillet!

The big news at our house is Maicol's 12th birthday. We celebrated today although his birthday won't be for a couple more days. Hard to believe he is 12. It's been almost 4 years since we first saw his picture and wondered what he would be like. In his referral photo he looked like he had "attitude". He does have that sometimes, but he is also a big brother that looks out for his younger brothers. He's quick to learn and just soaks in information. He has a close relationship with his younger brothers. Our little boy is obviously growing up though. He still plays with the little brothers, but he is beginning to leave some of that behind. We knew he would grow up, but hoped it wouldn't happen quite so fast. :)

Wow! Where did the time go? Last time I blogged was more than two months ago. Here's what has been going on.

In February we did a one day study about snakes. My boys just love animals, and so much of our study of science involves animals. The more dangerous and likely they are to hurt or eat you the better! We read, talked, drew, made, did puzzles and pretended to be snakes. For one activity I put them in their sleeping bags and made them wiggle out of them without using their hands. Sort of like smakes shedding their too small skin.

Maicol painting his wooden snake.

In late February we went to spend a few days with the Beadle family. We love going to see them! They are our "twins". The boys love playing together and the moms love talking. They let us come and just hang out with them all day. The days spent with them are some of the best of the year for us. Too bad we don't live closer.

We went out to eat together Sunday after church. With their oldest son there that's 9 males and Phyllis and I. That's alot of boy!

Andrew and Dima.

Juan Pablo and Pasha.

One final shot of all of us.

Got milk?

We spent a day in March having fun for Andrew's birthday. He still loves Chuck E Cheese, so we went there. Everyone had a good time and the staff were generous in doling out the prizes. We also went to McDonald's for Happy Meals, playing and then off to spend a little birthday cash. It was a nice day off from school for everyone.

Juan Pablo playing the "gorilla" game. You hold onto the two metal handles which vibrate and a little puff of smoke comes out of his head. He and Andrew just love this thing and they always get a few tickets for holding on until the end.

Andrew and Juan Pablo.

Andrew and his Spiderman cake. He turned 6 in March. I can't believe we are now on our 4th "round" of birthdays with the boys. The big kids came over and we had dinner and cake. Andrew only really likes the icing, so I gave him a piece of cake, but ended up just letting him eat the leftover icing.

Jonathan and Kristin. Not the best picture of them, but I had to include it with this announcement. We are going to be grandparents! In November we will enter grandparenthood. I thought grandparents were "old" people. :)

And here is our other exciting news. Our daughter is going to be married! She and Allen are planning a Labor Day weekend wedding. So we're adding a son-in-law to our familiy.

We did the Easter egg dyeing thing yesterday. Whomever thought of using wire whisks to hold eggs to dip them in the dye was a genius! Those little wire things that come in the kits are useless. Only problem is I need one more. Got to have three of everything you know. The boys took turns coloring eggs and playing computer, so it worked out good.

It has been rainy, rainy and rainy here, so I was not planning on hiding eggs. It did at least stop raining in the afternoon and so after much begging and pleading on the boys' part we did put some eggs out for them to look for. Either we hid the eggs very well, or the boys weren't looking very hard because we had to help them find the eggs. Maicol never did find one of his. Guess it will show up sometime. The big kids came over for lunch and we had a good day.

Checking out the egg contents. We didn't really have much in the way of candy, so money ended up in the eggs. It's at least as popular as candy. :)

Andrew eating his peeps. He was the only one who asked for candy and what he really wanted was peeps. Not my favorite thing, but if you like marshmallows and sugar like Andrew does what could be better? He was on a sugar high for the afternoon!

An exciting thing for Andrew was a visit to urgent care for stitches. He and Juan Pablo were running toward the truck and he ran right into the edge of the open door. He had a good sized laceration and was the recipient of 5 sutures. I took them out yesterday. So now I think each of them have had some type of sutures, but no broken bones. I'll spare you the picture for this one. :)

I don't have a picture for this, but it is a milestone at our house. I have stopped rocking the boys before bed. Three and a half years ago when we brought them home I started rocking Andrew to get him to go to sleep at bedtime. With all the boys in the same bedroom it was trouble every night unless he or Juan Pablo were asleep when they went to bed. Andrew was the youngest and easiest to get to sleep by rocking, so that's what I did. Quickly the other two decided they wanted to be rocked too. It had been suggested to us that rocking them was a good thing to do, but I didn't start doing it for bonding and attachment reasons - it was for survival! :) But, as with anything we do with them - if you do it once they think it's a routine and want it to continue. So, for over 3 years I have rocked each of them before bed. Sometimes just for 5 minutes each, but nearly every night. Around Christmas it seemed like we were getting to bed later and it just got to be too late to rock and so we would just hug and kiss them and put them to bed. There was a little fuss about it, but not much. In the past if there was no rocking there was much complaining and attitude. So, we have just let it gradually stop. Dan still reads a book to them alot of nights, but no rocking. I guess that "need" has finally been met. Wow, that was alot of rocking! But, it was something I loved doing with our biological children and even tho these kids were older it was still time I treasured getting to spend with each of them. But, soon there will be grandchildren to rock and so the rocking chair will be put to use again.

Spring is here and that puts us outside to play. We have been jumping on the trampoline and playing baseball. Maicol has been getting some of the neighborhood kids to come over and play a version of baseball. With our three and 2 or 3 others they make two teams and play. Dan and I were saying it's a little like the movie Sandlot. Only there is no "good" player - just Maicol who thinks he knows everything. :) They have fun.

Life just continues to fly by. School gets done everyday. They are learning and growing. And so are we. Until next time....

Karen

The $80.40 Lego

Catchy title huh? This is the Lego arm that cost us $80.40, two doctor visits, crying on Andrew's part and lots of aggrevation on our part. Andrew has put other objects in his ear, but this is the one that we couldn't get out. We tried and we tried some more, but it would not budge. We ended up at the ENT office where it was removed quickly. You would think he had learned his lesson, but no. He has since put a stick in his ear, but we were able to remove it. When, oh when will he stop this?!!

Lots of fun since our last update. In January we went to a state park for a couple of days. They have an indoor pool and "water park" which is of course the main reason to go. It was nice to get away for a few days, even though none of us felt great. Juan Pablo lost his lunch before we left, I was sick the night before and everyone was a little under the weather, but we went anyway and had a good time.

Dan and the boys working on a puzzle. Juan Pablo really likes doing them. This was a new puzzle we took to the park with us.

Maicol and his igloo. This started as a pile of snow from the snowplow and Maicol worked it into an igloo. He dug it out from the inside and continued to add snow to the outside. It was big enough for him to stretch out and lay down in before it got too warm. The boys all jumped on it to demolish it before it was melted by the sun.

Andrew doing the dreaded "putting the silverware away" job. He absolutely hates doing this job. We don't know why. It's a quick and easy job, but he really dislikes doing it. He will happily do the other boys jobs, but he will procrastinate doing his own job.

We have had a fantastic warm-up this week and have been able to get outside and play without spending 10 minutes bundling everyone up. We took a trail at a local park, played on the playground and of course had to take a few pictures. It was sooooo nice to be outside!

Maicol looking very cool.

Our little "tree hugger".

Maicol, Juan Pablo and Andrew.

School is going well. We haven't taken any days off since the first of January and they are doing very well. Maicol is learning to write book reports. Writing and spelling are a struggle for him, so this is quite a stretch and he of course is not happy about doing it. He would much rather do math.

Everyone is doing well. Lots more "Yes, Mom" 's. :) I was talking to Maicol recently and he told me that he now believes that he is here to stay. He has been thinking for over 3 years now that at some point we would be sending him back! He told us after a few months that he knew we would be sending him back. No amount of us reassuring him that we love him and would and could not do that helped. It seems that the passage of time (and maybe the reassurance from us) that has cemented this for him. Whatever it is, I was so glad to hear it. But, how sad that he has been thinking that for so long.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Karen

Family Pictures

Back in October we had a friend of our daughter's take some pictures for us. We think they turned out great. Here are a few our my favorites.

Catching Up

Lots of pictures and the "blog" at the end.



A snow "igloo".

Opening gifts.

Juan Pablo's birthday.

Maicol snowboarding.

Juan Pablo.

Maicol.

The monkeys.

Where to begin? Since I last blogged we have celebrated Juan Pablo's 9th birthday, had Thanksgiving, our first snow and now Christmas. Lots of pictures taken and lots of life going on. School continues to go ok - not great, but not terrible. The workboxes have helped, but they still would just rather play than work (imagine that!). They are learning tho - Juan Pablo is turning out to be a good reader. I must admit I thought he would never learn the basic letter sounds, but once he "got" it he has done very well. We have discovered that Maicol really likes history. While he generally doesn't like to read, he loves to read history and also the sports section of the newspaper. Football is the main attraction right now as the Colts try to make it into the post season. Andrew has started asking for the comics and will study them very carefully. I'm not sure he understands much and he can't read enough to actually read the captions, but he really seems to enjoy looking at them. He also seems to have the best sense of humor. He's our funny guy.

We spent as much time as possible outdoors in the fall knowing that it would get too cold to be outside on a daily basis. Being inside all day makes for long days sometimes. We have made one trip to a state park with an indoor pool and will be going to another next weekend. They love swimming and we like to get away a little when the weather is cold and we can't get outside as much. We also made a trip to see Grandparents.

We have been sledding a couple of times. We have been fortunate enough to have a decent amount of snow and it hasn 't been too cold. Dan isn't much for sledding, so I go and take the boys. We have a blast! I do hate getting up the next morning after I've climbed back up the hill 20 or 30 times. :) They have been playing "snow football" in the yard. This consists of using a football, rolling around in the snow and Maicol tackling and knocking the other two to the ground. Then when your snowsuit, gloves and hat are soaking wet you come inside. They have little headlamps they wear on their heads, so they mostly play this in the dark.

We had Grandma, cousins, Aunt Mary and Uncle Terre and the "big kids" for Thanksgiving. Lots of food and fun. The boys in general play together well and the adults get to play games.

Enjoy!

Karen