Our Life in Pictures

Since pictures are the most interesting part of the blog - here's a post with lots of them.

A drawing by Juan Pablo. I know the upper part is Santa and a reindeer. I think the bottom part is a bus, but I'm not sure.

These next three are in reverse order, but I'm too lazy to change it. :)

I read something recently about having a "Candy Cane Hunt" for Christmas. With my boys and my sisters boys going to Grandma's for Christmas in January an outside activity seemed like a good idea. Fortunately it wasn't too cold and it turned out very well. They actually hunted for them twice. The first time I had them give me the candy canes and we hid them again. At the end of the second round I gave each of them a dollar for their efforts. So the first picture is Andrew with his treasure, the second is a "hidden" candy cane and the third is the boys racing to find them.

Do you see it?

This is my Mom and the boys making reindeer's out of Nutter Butter cookies. They turned out very cute. Then we got a little more creative and made other animals and Juan even figured out how to make a car with a seat. He is the most creative of the three.

Andrew

Maicol

Juan Pablo

All of the boys in a big sycamore tree at Grandma's. My brother, sister and I had a picture taken in this tree when we were kids. A few years ago we recreated that, but it was alot more work to get all of us up there (and we don't quite fit like we used to)! :) So now we take pictures of our kids in the tree.

The week after Christmas we tried to go to the Children's Museum, but it was very crowded so we looked for something else to do. Jonathan's fiance suggested this park and it was wonderful! They had great playground/climbing equipment and a nature center. We can't wait to go back when it's a little warmer and not so muddy. We passed a tree that looked climbable, so of course they had to give it a try.

We're still looking for a decent snowfall. This is still a daily topic of conversation and watching the weather report on the news at least twice a day. I sure hope this isn't the first winter I can remember where we didn't get at least one decent snow.

We still see glimpses of what's going on inside their minds and that they are still trying to figure out this whole adoption/forever family thing. On the way to Grandma's last weekend for Christmas Juan asked if his foster mother was still his Mami. I told him that I was his Mami now. It's been over a year now and it seems he's still processing what it means to be adopted and having us as his Mom and Dad forever. Maicol had a dream this week in which he was taken away and placed in a different home. They were told by their foster family that if they weren't good they would be sent back, so to him I think this is still a very real possibility. He has had that on his mind alot the last couple of days. I guess the good part is that the possibility of that made him very unhappy, so he is happy to be here with us. But, I hate that he thinks that it could even be possible that he is not here forever. He has also recently been asking/stating he is our son forever and will be here forever. We've reiterated that message with all of them alot the last few days. While to us their permanence with us is so obvious to them it isn't. I think for them all the talking in the world doesn't mean much - it's the day-to-day living with us and seeing that nothing changes that is very slowly beginning to seal it in their heads and hearts.

Time for a little shut-eye. Enjoy your weekend and for those of you with snow - know that we are very jealous!

Karen