From the mouths of Babes

Today, I did all girls hair up in a "messy bun" for church. Brinley was so excited and I told her that if any one said how cute her hair was to say "thank you, it's my messy bun". So today we were in the kitchen and I was asking her how nursery was and asked if any one said how cute her hair was. She said yes and nodded. Richie heard and asked her what kind of hair she had and she thought for a second and said "um, it's my funny bum!"

As you can see, it is falling out really bad, but it looked really cute at church!

Mackenzie's 1st day of Kindergarten!

She is so excited to go to school! She has been waiting for this day for a long time! All year of preschool last year, she would ask when she got to go to kindergarten! Well- the day finally arrived!!!

All day today, she would ask if it was lunch time YET? She knew she was going after lunch time and it was so hard to wait. She wanted lunch at 9:30 this morning. When she found out she would still have to wait several hours if she ate lunch right then, she was good to just have a snack!
Sorry about the red eyes

Mackenzie in front of her class room

Mackenzie with her teacher, Mrs. Miles. When we got there she found out that she gets to sit by a little friend who had 2 years of preschool with her! So hopefully she has an automatic friend to start the year with.

12 more days- but who's counting!?!?

Well the nightly contractions -that don't do anything -started last night. They are just strong enough to wake you up out of sleep, but not strong enough to bother getting out of bed! With Mackenzie and Brinley, I had them about every other night for 2 weeks and (back then) I was stupid enough to sit up and walk around, run up and down the stairs at 2 am to see if they would get a little bit harder or closer together to justify going to the hospital- but they never did. They always ended up stopping all together around 5 and 6 am. All it ever accomplished was making me sleep deprived and irritable for when the baby came! So this time we are going to try to humor them instead, and IF they ever get hard enough to bring a baby here- I'll guarantee you I won't be able to sleep through them! Never has happened yet- I've always given up and been induced so I'm not holding my breath!

We need help!

The realization that I only have 2 weeks left has put me into a panic because we don't have a name picked out for this little girl! I have went over and over the baby names websites with no luck. With all of my other kids, as soon as we thought about their name, we just knew it was it. So far that hasn't really happened.

If you know of a name that isn't super common, that is "newer" and cute, maybe even with a little twist from the normal version- we are all ears. Never have I went to the hospital not knowing exactly what we were naming the baby and all kids calling it by name. Any suggestions are good!!! Don't be scared to post because I know there are a lot of you out there that have been following the adoption thing and right now we need all the ideas we can get.

There's a light at the End of the Tunnel!

Today I had my 37 week Dr appointment and - Good News - I'm already showing signs of labor!!! So he said that if I hadn't had it by September 7th, he would induce me that day! Yeah! That means 2 weeks and 1 day left! Some of you may think I'm nuts for wanting her to come out any sooner than she has to, but when you can't sleep at night for bathroom breaks, and 15 point roll overs, and back and leg cramps- I'm actually excited! Not that the sleep amount will increase - but maybe the quality of sleep will. We'll keep you posted!!!

Not to fond of pregnancy pic's either but this is my "scrapbook/journal" so bare with me - sorry!

Look who's eating baby food!

Not very willingly, contrary to how the pictures look. After a few bites he started clamping his mouth shut any time he saw the spoon coming! But, we snuck a few bites in and had to try a few tickling, airplane flying, and prying tactics. And then gave up! It took him 4 days of trying to finish ONE of the very smallest jars of food that they make! We'll see how it goes from here!

Back to School!

Schools Back! I'm not as excited this year as in some past years! With everything going on this summer, I don't feel like I even got to see them! I'm kind of sad that they are already going back. I'm going to miss having the "big helpers" around. They have been awesome to do things for me to help out.

For those of you who don't know- they started at a new school this year and only know a couple kids. The ones Dallas knows are in a different grade, so it doesn't even help him any. But I almost starting sobbing yesterday after school when I asked how there day was, if they liked their teacher, and if they had met any new friends to play with. And Dallas's answer was no and that he ate lunch by himself and was alone at recess too. It just breaks my heart when kids have to go through that. I hope he will be able to connect with some one soon or me and him are gonna have a really hard year!




At least they were excited to go the first day! I hope that lasts! Micailey is luckily in her little friend across the streets class, so I know she'll be fine! But, I'll sure miss them this year! I'm not good with change, so I hope it's just harder on me then them and that they will all be just fine! Mackenzie starts next week so we'll post her pic's then! Just think then I'll be down to only 3 (soon to be 4) at home!

Awe, what new experiences we're having!

We actually took him to a park at the Embassy in Morocco and at first he didn't want anything to do with it until one of the girls there showed him how much fun the slide could be and then helped him try it (uneasily) for the first time. And then he didn't want to get off for a while. Then he was fascinated by all of the little tiny rocks that made up the playground "floor". But we tried the swing there and was terrified every time the direction of the swing changed. So we didn't enforce that for to long.

But this time - He was so giddy in the swing! He couldn't stop smiling and giggling the whole time! He was so cute. He honestly looked like this for about 15 minutes straight and did not want out, even though all of us pushing him were dying of heat stroke and wanting to find shade!

He really is a quick learner! He is learning to say at least a couple new words a day. And I'm sure he is "understanding" even more than we know of what we are telling him. But in all honesty- I knew this would be hard and a challenge, and on one hand it hasn't been too bad, but on the other hand I honestly feel like I'm trying to raise/teach Helen Keller (except he can see). But he is a 2 year old boy who knows what he wants & needs and I'm sure he is so frustrated when he can't communicate with any one, but trying to get across to him why he can't do things that are wrong or dangerous (like turn the stove knobs on), or that he has to wait till the food is cooked before he can eat it (his was always waiting on the little table when they got there), or that even though daddy isn't a female nurse, he is a nice guy and CAN help you eat, get pj's on, change your diaper, put you to bed, get you a drink, tickle you, look at you, etc. That is one of our challenges right now. It gets a little better each day (for instance he didn't start crying and clinging to me when Richie walked in the door from work today and let him feed him his dinner!) He isn't that way with every male, but Richie is the one that keeps coming back for some reason and insists on doing what "Mama" should be doing. So "Mama" can have a break and breathe every so often!!! But this too shall pass! And we'll be on to brighter days.

Everyone asks me how it is going with all of the other kids and fitting in and all of that. It is actually not too bad! I haven't had them complain even really once about a why or I wish we didn't do this - nothing!! They enjoy feeding the baby and burping the baby and all that (for the time being at least) and they like playing with Jordan & trying to teach him new words. And they are really good to try to get him to play "away" from Mama (he insists on following me from room to room to room saying "Mom! Mom! Mom! alla la fo a jfjot jadjj fe...." - No clue- but something apparently important!) Today he was funny, he was actually playing with the kids upstairs in the toy room and I was down in the kitchen and he came to the top and said "Mom, Mom, Mom! ......." and went on and on in his jabber that I have no clue what means for what seemed to be paragraphs while I nodded and nodded and then all the sudden he screamed like a girl and started laughing. I don't know what the story was about but it was apparently really funny and detailed in his mind and someone squealed, but I had to hear it about 3 times in a row - exactly the same every time - it was kind of funny by the 3rd time through!

But anyway, no it's honestly not all "Peaches & Cream" all of the time, but it's not as bad as some might imagine either and we are making it through! Someday - looking back- we will probably have a hard time even remembering these first few months!

In the last 3 weeks :)

First of all- when we first got Cohen we tried laying him on his stomach and he could barely lift his head off the floor an inch and was immediately screaming because he hated it! He was like a bobble head when you held him up on your hip and didn't have a clue how to roll over. Also, we tried him in the sitting position and his legs didn't even want to bend that way.

Now - in the last 3 to 4 weeks since we have had custody, we have been working with him a little each day and we are proud to announce that he can now lay on his stomach and hold his head way high, roll from his stomach to his back,

and sit up for rather long periods of time. You have to still be by him because he will get side tracked and tip over every so often. And last night he cut his first tooth through!! (Notice the drool dripping off his chin! Anyone who has met him will verify that he is constantly chewing and drooling till he is drenched!) How many more to go? :)

Now all we need to work on is showing him that he has legs & to put pressure on them and that they are very useful if he would just try!!! The last picture is Richie's mom Connie, holding him at a family bday party at the park. I might be a little partial but isn't he cute!!!

Welcome to the US shower!

Just in case I don't get the word out to all of you in time- My Mother-in-Law asked if she could do a welcoming shower for the boys. She made invitations and everything, but in case you didn't get yours or if I run out of time to call everyone, I wanted to let you all know that you are invited!!!

It is an Open House on Friday the 8th, from 6 - 8 pm at my house. I hope all of you can come! I have no idea who has been following this adoption process or even knew we were doing it in the 1st place, so please spread the word! Everyone is welcome. Come and meet the boy's! Hopefully I am going to make a dvd of all of our pictures of the trip so everyone can see them. A lot of them are on the blog - but definitely not all!

It's just casual, I'm just excited to see everyone again and let you meet the kids. They are so fun- hopefully they are in a good mood!