Three Word Wed. - Trouble Times Two!

Keepin' Busy

Okay, the pace has got to slow down around here soon! Most of it is just the madness of the holiday season. Some of it is self-inflicted - I have taken well over 1000 pictures in the past 48 hours with my new camera. I am trying to shoot my pictures in manual mode instead of automatic mode so that has meant a ton of blurry pictures and a lot of frustration! Anyway, I am not going to post all 1000 so don't panic; here are just the ones that go along with what we have been up to. If you start to feel ill, it is probably because your eyes are tired of trying to focus pictures that will never be in focus. I apologize in advance!

Our new landscaping first... we now have a football "stadium" next to our house thanks to my husband, his dad, and our neighbor who allowed goal posts to be put up on his lot. I am not sure my husband ran the idea past the neighborhood housing committee... not sure bright gold goals are in line with the "rules." The kids are enjoying it and I am sure there will many football/soccer games taking place there; maybe I can make some money by opening a concession stand.

Here are Brynn and Flower... her new good friend. Flower was a Christmas gift from Price. As you can see Flower is busy being a computer buddy, a biking partner, and a hood ornament. I am not sure Flower is happy about her new "clothing" however.

Here is Nyah and her daddy having a bit of fun. I wish the pictures were clearer but even fuzzy you can see how much she loved "flying."

My brother, sister-in-law, two nephews, and neice are in town for a visit so we have spent a lot of time at my parents and I have had fun trying to take pictures of all the activities, and my kids have enjoyed that I have others to take pictures of and therefore, are stalked slightly less than usual. Here are a few of my favorites...

Here are some pictures from our visit to the Ginter Park Botanical Gardens this evening. I wish I had more but I had a fussy toddler and the inside places where I might have taken group pictures were really crowded. I love how the kids turned out the colors of the lights they were around in these. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for a fun evening!

Have a good night!

Kate

Our Christmas Adventures...

I'll start by confessing that this post could have been done earlier except today I spent a lot of the day stalking my children with my new I'm-in-above-my-head camera (I've got lots of fuzzy pictures so far), pretending not to be a soccer mom with some serious jamming on Guitar Hero (that is until I was shot in the eye - a direct hit - by a child who wanted to play and who received a bow-and-arrow set - soft arrows, luckily - from Santa), and trying to earn Webkins dollars by playing pre-school age computer games (for the past 3 hours!!) for my daughter so she can wake up in the morning able to purchase new virtual items for her new virtual pet horse. I think I have lost my mind.

So with a bad eye and sore fingers I am finally typing up our Christmas adventures, which really are not over yet since tomorrow my brother and his family come in from New Jersey for a few days.

Christmas Eve was the traditional fish dinner at my mom's, who cooked up a storm but was too sick with this stomach bug to eat. The dinner has been lobster and shrimp the past few years and it is always delicious! Nyah walked into my mom's house and looked shocked that all these people she knew were in one place. Brynn tried the lobster this year and gave it the thumbs up and Nyah ate her weight in cheesecake. While the boys played with Grandpa's toys and played football/tackle with Uncle Darryl and Josh, Brynn could not pull herself away from the Norad Santa tracker except to take a nap in my lap around 6pm... the excitement of Santa coming wore her out!

On Christmas morning Caleb was the first up at 6am, Price next at 6:30, Brynn and Nyah at 7 with Evan, typically our earliest riser, up shortly after that. Stocking were first, followed by the breakfast of champions... DONUTS! Once the grandparents arrived, the madness began. Let's just say our children are spoiled... big time!! They all have new bikes and the boys now enough video games to open an arcade. Brynn has not let go of her new, very large, stuffed unicorn she named Flower and Nyah's new watertable is a hit with all the kids except for her; she prefers her new $3 Magna-doodle.

We went to Doug's sister's for dinner on Christmas afternoon and that was a great way to end the day. I was worn out, though the kids were not... how does that keep happening?

I'm not sure what Nyah thought about her first Christmas; I just know we loved having Christmas with her home. Her spunk is so entertaining. We got a good giggle as she tried to put the paper back on the presents as Evan "helped" her rip it off. She seemed to love having so much going on around her. The more action and commotion the better (she never really gets overwhelmed) as long as I stay within shouting distance.

Tomorrow I am headed outside to take pictures of Doug and his dad's big project from earlier today... it's not exactly Southern Living landscaping but with all these kids around here, such landscaping probably wouldn't last long anyway.

*** Please note that we really do buy Evan pajamas that come with shirts. Between this post and Wednesday's you might think differently. Let's just say we waste our money doing so as he much prefers to wear just pajama bottoms, if even that much, to bed. He is not the only one but his brother realizes I take pictures that might show up on the blog and puts a shirt on for the camera. Evan prefers to show off his muscles.

Merry Christmas!

Our 2008 has been filled with joy and peace (just not the quiet kind).

Wishing you and your family both in 2009.

Love,
Doug, Kate, Caleb, Price, Evan, Brynn, & Nyah

Wordless Wednesday

Adventures in Richmond...

The S family went on a big family trip yesterday and today... one hour away! My good friend/college roommate (U of R... see below)/sorority sister (Delta Gamma)/maid of honor was traveling from Rochester, NY to Florida so we just had to meet up since it has been WAY TOO LONG since we have seen each other. So we checked into the same hotel as Meg, her husband Ken, and her two children (Pete, 4 & Mary Kate, 2.5) and were able to spend time with them at dinner, at the pool, and at breakfast the next morning. In spite of us not bringing one of the suitcases (the girls' one - a certain toddler wheeled it across the house, mommy was getting a hair cut, and packing-the-car daddy didn't even know it existed), a night of no sleep due to a toddler who loves her crib (and only HER crib) at nighttime, and a child who had a 2-hour stomach bug around 10:30pm, we had a super time. Then again, I was with Meg so that guarentees a good time!!! And bonus to the hotel worker who told us where it was $1 burger night and took us there in the shuttle (the burgers were super too; finding cheap food was just like being in college again - well, except for the 7 kids with us). The worker even gave us coupons for free breakfast in the morning. Sweet!

The time with Meg was WAY TOO SHORT of a time though so we are planning a meeting 1/2 way between us for the spring.

The trip was the first time Nyah has been in a pool (as far as I know). I didn't think she would like it but the odds were in our favor when the pool was hotter than the hot-tub and had a large 1.5 feet deep shallow end. Nyah laughed and smiled the entire time... almost 2 hours. And she wore arm-floaties without fuss (I didn't let go of her in the deep water, rest easy Nana... they were more for her to get used to wearing them for next summer than for use as a swim aid). Could I be so lucky to have 5 out of 5 children who love to swim and who enjoy being independent and not clingy in the pool? We are going swimming again next week so hopefully we will be as successful.

After we left the hotel, a few of us went one direction shopping and the rest another. Doug, Evan, and Price ran into the University of Richmond head football coach, Mike London, while shopping...

In case you missed it, last week the school's football team won the National Championship! We didn't make it to a game this year but we certainly watched that game on T.V. So seeing someone in person who they just saw on T.V. was a big deal for the boys. And when Doug introduced himself, the coach knew who he was (one of the students at Doug's school will be playing ball there next year) so that was a big deal for Doug! WAY TO GO SPIDERS!!!!

Santa? Visits the Preschool

Last night Brynn and Evan had their Christmas performance with the preschool. Well, only Brynn actual sang in it; poor Evan was hit with the stomach bug and only made it to the church doors before he, well, lets just say, had to go home with Doug (lucky dad, who also took home the tantruming Nyah). He was sooo upset but promises of ice-cream when he is all better helped helped him perk up. Also, the fact that the preschool director was not able to attend because she has the bug made him feel better (sorry Ms. Susan!).

Price and Caleb stayed with me to watch Brynn sing. She sang the first song beautifully and after that became more obsessed with the boo-boo near her mouth - picking at it, covering it up, hitting it, stressing about it, etc. that she hardly sang at all. So good thing I got some photos of the first song, albeit dark ones and very fuzzy since I cropped out her classmates (except Carter because her mom blogs too!), to cover the evening.

After the singing there was a sweets-filled gathering, complete with a visit from Santa. Only Brynn keeps saying, "Remember when we saw the Santa with the white beard? This Santa has a gray beard." I personally think it is a little blue-ish myself. I shared with her that Santa is a very, very busy man and that sometimes, he may need to send elves in his place so he can keep checking up on all the children of the world.

It was fun, but not the same without Evan. He spent so much time writing out the cards for his teachers and I think he was more upset about missing delivering them than missing the singing. Today he is running around the house full-force... if only adults bounced back so quickly!

Wordless Wednesday

The Recital...

On Saturday, Brynn had her first dance recital. Earlier in the week she had two rehearsals... each THREE hours which was long for many of the little girls but Brynn seemed to love it. These pictures are from the 2nd rehearsal night... her tap dance is the 2nd in the show and the tumbling/ballet was 26th (out of 28) so those pictures are slightly better since I pretty much could sit wherever I wanted since by then most of the rehearsal audience, and performers, left. She waved to me while on stage and ballet-danced her way back to the line during the tumbling part during the rehearsal and during the actual performance I got two "Hi Mamas!" She seemed so happy. The pictures are also fuzzy because I cropped her classmates out of the ones that clearly showed faces since I don't know how they feel about me posting pictures. Yesterday Brynn had her class again and she was a bit disappointed when she could not wear her sparkly costume and that she would not be on stage. She loved it that much!

Sunday Caleb had his first wrestling match for the season. He did well, but not as well as he would have liked, and it is SO hard to see your child so disappointed. No pictures because the gym was a madhouse and we had to sit a mile away and because I was having my own wrestling match in the stands with a 1 1/2 year old who doesn't like to be still for a split second!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that when I am exhausted by Brynn's nonstop chatter and from a day spent trying to outwit an into-everything Nyah, that both girls have one thing in common... a love of a warm, bubbly bath. I am thankful that it is the one time of day that the girls actually get along for more than 2 minutes. I am thankful that it not only is a time that I can catch up on emails and Facebook (on my laptop sitting on the bathroom floor - safety first of course), but it also a time that I can get pictures that melt my heart and remind me of how precious my girls are. Here they are squeaky clean and adorable...

Wordless Wednesday...

Two-Steppin' it...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Can't Pick Just One... or Two...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hot Chocolate Spittin' Funny...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Friday Five+...

Okay, so I am definitely in a blogging rut. Both posting to mine and reading others. I can't even say it is because I have been very busy this week 'cause I haven't been busier than any other time. Hopefully I'll be over it soon. Here are five great things that have happened recently:

1. Caleb's mystery bumps on the back of his neck have a name and the dermatologist says they are not contagious, will not get worse, and are not life-threatening (I was not worried because I am not a worrier but he was worried he would have to have his neck amputated or have to get a shot). They should clear up in 4-8 months on their own.

2. Brynn's eye-patching over the past three months worked and her sight in her right eye is now much stronger and, much to her disappointment, she does not need glasses. She likely will by upper elementary school for near-sightedness but for now she is good to go. I bought her a pair of sunglasses in celebration.

3. We have begun the child-study process with Brynn for her speech and part of that was to have some "testing" of her cognitive development. I really had no idea how she would do; with Evan being only 7 months older than her I often compare the two and well, Evan can add two-digit numbers in his head and is smarter than me so that is totally not fair. Well, I was told she was right-on-target for her age so that was great news.

4. I had a great time on Black Friday shopping with Doug's mom and sister and scoring a few good deals was great, but the day away was the best part. And I finally found the outdoor decoration I have been searching for 2 years... I have wanted to add color to our outside decor for the holidays for years but I don't want to give up my white-light stars for the porch and so I needed something that had both white and color and I finally found the twig tree that flashes both (I won't wear gold and silver together either unless one jewelry piece has both colors... odd, I know... fine for other people to do it, just not me). So next year, I can start going a bit crazier now that I have my "transition" piece... while I think stars and snowflake decorations need to be white, I prefer colored lights and outside, lots of them.

5. Nyah's foster sister is about to have her life changed as her family is in China now and will meet her on Sunday. I am so excited for them so if you get a chance, visit their blog and say hello! Nyah spent her first 1 1/2 years of life living with JinJue and I am so thrilled that she will have a relationship with someone from her time in China for years to come. (Okay, these are in no particular order... this highlight is FAR more important than the color of my holiday decorations!)

6. One last one, I ordered our Christmas cards and they came in today and they came out how I expected... which is great since I get so nervous when I order that I have made some typo or edited someone's ear off without noticing when cropping and retouching the pictures. I know, a silly stress, but, it is what it is. This isn't the picture we used... I snapped this one the other day... I really can get a picture of all of them! I'll post the card pictures closer to Christmas.

Have a great weekend everybody!
Kate

How would you title this??

I need to do a long post about our busy weekend but I'll get to that tomorrow. I couldn't save this picture for Wordless Wednesday either because it does require an explanation. This is from last Wednesday. It was a fundraiser at the high school where the students purchased pieces of duct tape to tape the principal (who happens to be my husband) to a wall, which ended up being a pole because, apparently, he wouldn't stick to the wall. He was like this for over an hour. The assistant principals are looking pretty pleased aren't they? He said he was more sore that night than after our 1/2 marathon.

How would you have titled the post? I had too many ideas so I just gave up.

p.s. I updated Nyah's blog today... 3 months home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wordless Wednesday

Tagged...

I was tagged the other day by Kristen to share Eight Things About Me. Here’s the scoop - better late than never…


8 Favorite TV Shows

• The Amazing Race
• Cold Case
• Desperate Housewives
• Law & Order SVU
• CSI
• ER
• Survivor
• Ghost Whisperer

8 Things I Look Forward To

• Christmas
• Watching Survivor and The Amazing Race with Caleb when the other kids are in bed
• The annual gathering of my high school friends
• Running with Doug
• Brynn and Evan’s faces when I pick them up from preschool
• Putting on my pajamas
• Playdates
• Warm weather

8 Things on My Wish List

• A new camera
• Losing 15 pounds
• To win the lottery
• Healthy futures for my kids
• Less gray hair
• More patience
• When we can leave Nyah with a sitter without me worrying the entire time I am gone
• More time with friends

8 Things I Did Yesterday

• Tried a new workout
• Took Brynn to dance class
• Took Caleb to the doctor to find out what the bumps on his neck are (still don't know)
• Filled a prescription to see if it helps Caleb's neck
• Tried to get the boys' pictures for our Christmas card done
• Checked my email
• Vacuumed the house and put away laundry
• Dented the side of the van and the side of the house pulling in the garage (yes, we own a driving school but no, I do not teach!)

8 Favorite Restaurants

• The Melting Pot
• TGI Fridays
• Applebees
• Obrigados
• The Cheesecake Factory
• Maggie Moos (ice cream!)
• Cold Stone Creamery (ice cream!)
• Sweet Creations (local ice cream store)
  

8 People to Tag

I am supposed to tag eight people but while I read a zillion blogs, I don’t comment on very many and I feel funny hitting up strangers so here are a few friends who need to update their blogs (hint, hint) and/or I feel like I can pester. And I will not be insulted if you choose not to join in.

• Karen
• Sarah
• Meg
• Stacey
• Stephanie (who is getting ready to travel for her daughter!)
• Karen
• Sherrie
• Jody
  

Rules, Rules - here are the rules:'

1. Post the rules on your blog.

2. Answer all 8 of the six items listed.

3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Catching up...

I'm a little behind on my blogging; thing have been busy, busy, busy here.

First, I realized I never wrote about my weekend with my friends from high school. We had a great time though as always it was WAY to short and this time the early race time and the late arrivals the night before wiped us out. Next year we are headed somewhere quiet and relaxing and doing nothing but what we do best... chatting! We missed you Shelly & Sue! My friends got me started on Facebook so now I have yet another site to check in on when the kids let me.

This past Friday night we had friends over and with 9 kids in the house, things were pretty wild. We had a dinner theater; pizza and brownies were followed by a kid produced & acted play and musical. Too funny. Those pictures are reserved for Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday the boys headed to the UVA game so Nyah, Brynn and I headed out for lunch and a bit of shopping. Nyah is fascinated by Christmas lights - yelling, screaming, and bouncing if we go by the section of the store that has the lighted lawn ornaments. It is so funny to see her get so giddy. Brynn informed me, after passing the only house in the neighborhood that has their holiday decorations up, that we are the only house without our decorations up and the day after Thanksgiving is just "so long away."

Today the kids helped Grandpa and Grandpa decorate their Christmas tree. I know that Grandma is there tonight unclumping the clumps and filling the bare patches and I promised I would give her 24 hours before we visited in case the kids remember where they placed the ornaments. Last year there were no issues; this year, with Nyah around, their tree has a few less ornaments and the landfill is a little fuller. The kids enjoyed the cookies and hot chocolate after their hard work. Brynn and Nyah lasted the longest. Evan was intense while he was at it - finding the perfect spot while still clutching the football in fear someone else would want it.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that 1 year ago yesterday we were blessed to find Wan Jin Pei on our agency's waiting child list, that we were chosen to be her family a few weeks later, and that she is home in our arms today.

Here she is in her referral picture (gotta love that hair!), at her first birthday with her foster sister Jin Jue (her parents will be bringing her home to CA early next month), on the day we met and adopted her, and pretty-in-purple this morning.

Wordless Wednesday

The finish line...

Well the race is over and we have our finisher’s medals.

The highlights:
~ I finished!

~The last mile was a steep downhill.

~ Hearing cheers from spectators I do not know but now love! What a motivator!

~ Hearing cheers from spectators I do know because it was fun to have your name yelled out.

~ I can walk today relatively free of pain (my thighs are a bit achy but that is all).

~ Realizing how great of an encourager Doug is when I just wanted to take a break and quit crawl walk.

~ Using my girl scouting techniques and adolescent locker room skills successfully to battle my clothes issues. I was wearing one of those tight, spandex-y long sleeve shirts under my t-shirt because I expected the weather to be cooler and realized after the first ½ mile I would need to take it off. Not wanting to stop at that point, I used the techniques mastered in early life to keep my parts private to remove the long-sleeve shirt without showing any extra skin. The guy next to me looked at me in amazement confusion.

~ No rain in spite of the 80% chance of t-storms.

~Winds that didn’t slow my shuffle and felt great against my sweaty skin (worth the tornado warning in my opinion).

~ Seeing so many people of all body shapes and athletic skills come together for a run and a good time.

~ Not feeling guilty about eating sweets the entire rest of the day and a few more today to top it all off.

The low points:
~ Miles 8, 9, & 10 stunk and made me regret not training harder. I irritated myself with my whining but couldn't help it.

~ Scrapping my “walk through the water stations plan” at the beginning of the race. I ended up doing that through the last three and I think it would have helped make miles 8-10 bearable if I had started sooner.

~ The humidity.

~ The heat.

~ Not making my time goal, which I thought was very realistic but obviously was not.

So overall, it was fun experience. While running, and then later while hobbling to the car, I swore I would stick to 10K races from now on, today I decided I would like to run another ½ marathon sometime. While I claim to not be competitive, I am with myself and I really want to try again to reach my goal time. But for now, I am going to cut back on my running and do more cross training for a couple of months until the weather gets warmer again and/or there are more daylight hours.

We came pretty close to my idea of surrounding the marathon winner at the end (the races finish in same spot) and getting in all his pictures... he ran his race 10 minutes faster than we ran ours but that race started 30 minutes later...

Some random pictures...

My boys will not leave Nyah alone. They are picking her up, wrestling with her, carrying her by her feet, etc. constantly. And if it is Evan, she hates it 90% of the time because he pretty much treats her like she is a bag of soccer balls (though she squeals for joy the loudest when she spots him after a nap).

If it is Price or Caleb, she is more tolerant. The picture below is not just a random hold. All the kids were in pretend mode. Can you guess what she is supposed to be and where Caleb was taking her? The answer is at the end of the post.

The girls and Evan have been pretend-playing more now that the weather is not as nice and we don't head outdoors as much. Wednesday the girls were feeding their babies, which are typically stuffed animals. Nyah gave the bear a sip...

And then helped herself...

And her was our latest experiment... Magic Rocks. They were a birthday gift for Evan. The box says for ages 10 & over. They should be for no age. The warning label is a mile long. I feared for my life as I read the warnings about the liquid I would need to pour into the container. The aluminum foil was recommended because in 5 seconds the mixture would eat away most surfaces. I'm not impressed. The kids were for 2 minutes. I have probably destroyed our plumbing disposing of all this.

Okay, did you guess? Nyah was a fish and Caleb was taking her to the fish market. And yes, they tried to throw her like the fish market scenes you see on tv...

Thankful Thursday...

I am thankful that I was able to laugh when I received a "Happy 40th Birthday!" card last week since I really only turned 39. Since I stress a lot about aging (which probably ages me faster), if it really had been my 40th I probably would have not been so giggly.

And I am very thankful that my high school girlfriends are headed here this weekend. Here is a picture of a picture of us back home from our first year of college. I keep this picture on my bedside table (when Nyah isn't carrying it around the house) in the same frame it was in when it was first taken. All but the girl (I can't say woman yet... it sounds too old for us!) on the bottom right (Michelle - Where Are You?) get together each year and it is always a fun, fun time!

Wordless Wednesday

Running update...

Here it is... the 1/2 marathon map for our first 13.1 mile run on Saturday.


Here is what I found out in my research today: the rank of difficulty is 1/10, the net change in elevation is -88ft (click on "Elevation Profile" above; it is pretty neat), and the last 1/2 mile is a glorious downhill run. Yeah! Now if only the rain will stay away...

I'm not feeling really confident in my goal to run the entire distance (only walking through the water stations) since our China trip and Nyah joining our family disrupted our training for over a month and I have not been able to run regularly since. But I am definitely getting more excited and I know that will help. Doug and I have survived, barely, one 12-mile run through our hilly neighborhood so I am hoping 13 on flatter land will not be much more difficult.

If there is not a blog update by Sunday evening (my high school girlfriends are coming to town so it won't be earlier), someone please use the above map to come find my body!

Car Talk, Part 1

We just might be the last American family without a single dvd player in our vehicles. That combined with the fact that we live almost an hour from shopping centers leads to many interesting conversations during the moments when the kids are not fighting with each other.

Doug and I spend lots of time answering questions like, "What does M-O-T-S-X spell?" and "What is 20 + 50 + 99?" Then sometimes, things are said that perhaps we should not laugh at as mature adults, but we do snicker when we know the kids aren't looking. Typically Evan is involved. The last two weeks have been full of these fun times.

For example (and if you are easily offended, skip over and if you are an English major, ignore the punctuation 'cause I tried hard):

Evan - "Mom, Price just hit me in the balls."
Me - "Evan!"
Doug - "Evan, how about 'hit me in the sack?'"
Me, looking disgusted, "No, how about, 'in the privates?'"
Evan - "Mom, Price just hit me in the cannolis."

So, while I am thrilled that Evan's preschool teachers tell me he has really come out of his shell these few weeks, because he has always been pretty quiet outside of our house and friend's houses, it also scares me! He has spent the majority of his life playing with older boys.

Then there was this conversation:

Evan - "Mom, there are two really bad words that begin with F."
Me, my mind preparing a lecture, - "And they are?"
Evan - "Fart and fat."

I am thankful for his innocence. I am thankful that his older brothers choose not to add to the conversation.

So this is titled Car Talk, Part 1 because I am sure more will come back to me or there will be new conversations to record so when I have the urge to spit out my tea, I can come back and reread my blog.

Happy Birthday Bro!

Ronnie (Does anyone even call you that anymore?? I can't stop!),

I thought in honor of your birthday (since I don't have any anymore though it was a lot of fun when we shared one) I would pull out a few pictures from many moons ago. Since we missed the digital age by just a mere few years and since my scanner is broken, these are pictures of pictures... which make them look FAR OLDER than they are! Really!

Interesting how I look older than you in both these pictures. Must be an optical illusion or something because that just can't be!

Hope you have an awesome day!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for warm fall days when we can head outside!

Some pictures from yesterday:

The thrill of victory...

The agony of defeat...

and the joy of pay-backs.

Is this a legal move?

A football puzzle.

But I want the ball!

Enjoying the concessions.

A post game picture... can you believe all of them are actually looking the right way? It caught me so off guard that I cut off Nyah's feet.

Today was the annual trek to the stream behind our house with the rotting pumpkins. The boys like to smash the pumpkins against the rocks... in fact, Evan talks about this year round and last year, wanted to go see if his pumpkin was still there 6 months later. I am sure we will venture there tomorrow to see the status of this year's pumpkin remains.