Painting Toenails

Yesterday was Anna's 4th birthday. She woke up around 8:30 and walked into the kitchen. Hair all crazy and cute as can be in her green footie pajamas. The boys immediately started singing "Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday....." Anna starts yelling - while putting her hands out to her sides - "Guys! Guys! Wait a second, wait! I have to tell you something!" The boys continue to sing and then she gets really mad and says, "Guys! Stop it! I have to say something!" They finally realize that she is serious and stop all the fanfare.

Then she tells us that in the middle of the night she got scared, came into the front room and saw all her pink balloons hanging from the ceiling (a birthday tradition in our house). She was so excited to know that her birthday was the next day that she forgot all about being scared and went back into her bed!

Joey was SO excited to give her the present he bought with his VERY own money! He spent an entire $1 at the local thrift store to buy Anna her baby carrier. She was SO excited!

Next came Noah with his present. He bought her some lip gloss and nail polish with his own money - and she LOVED this present. She said, "How did you know that this is what I wanted?"

She wanted to paint her nails RIGHT AWAY - so both boys offered to paint her toenails for her! I just had to smile at these two big brothers who aren't afraid to do something 'girly' for their favorite little sister! Aren't big brothers THE BEST?!

Cozy

 


What is it about newly fallen, green, yellow and brown crunchy leaves that calls to children? Where did the tradition start of making leaf piles and then jumping into them? Ask any child on the planet what they love about the fall and almost all of them will say, "Making leaf piles and jumping into them!"

This is what my kids were doing just a few days ago. I love seeing them play together. There is 3 1/2 years between Noah and Joey, and 5 years between Joey and Anna. And yet they play together really well. Most of the time. Except for when Noah picks on Joey because he can, and Joey gets frustrated with Anna because she's 3, and then I get frustrated with the bunch of them! Anyway - that's off the subject.

So, after this day of playing in the leaves - the next thing we know this happens!

                                 

 

Although I'm not sure that I was ready for this weather - I am ready for all of the things that go with it. I am ready for cozy jammies (any time of the day), hot cocoa and snuggling on my couch reading a good book to my babies. I am ready for watching the snowflakes coming down thick while Anna shouts. "Look Momma! Hno! (remember, she leaves the S off most words beginning with S!) Winter time is the time our family spends more time in the house; playing board games, reading good books, drawing, coloring and watching good movies while eating popcorn (with butter and parmesan cheese!). It's time to cuddle and snuggle and be cozy. To be together. To slow down. To appreciate the opportunity to just enjoy being a family. 

The thing is...I'm afraid this brief deluge of snow will be short lived. It's supposed to get into the 50's this week so most of this will probably melt away.....but that's okay because I know the 'real' cozy time is just around the corner anyway!

But for today, it's homemade chicken soup, homemade bread 
and cuddling by the fire.

Lizards and cactus and tarantulas, oh my!

So last Wednesday night at about 8:00 pm, we decided to join a group of friends that were going to Zion National Park the next day! For anyone who knows Lance, this is kind of a big deal....'spontaneity' is not his strongest characteristic! :) He worked a half day on Thursday, came home and loaded up the camping gear and we were off. We said we were going to leave at 12:30 - which actually turned into 2:30...sigh....oh well, at least we were 'getting away!'

After many, many stops - getting ice for the cooler, stopping to get a late lunch, potty breaks, filling up the gas tank, pulling over because the luggage thingamajig on the roof opened up, more potty breaks and cleaning up Anna's puke (she frequently gets car sick....#somuchfun!) we finally rolled into the campground about 8:00 pm. And setting up the tent in the dark, that always brings a smile......It was at this point that I discovered we forgot: bowls and cups, socks for Noah, heavier coats for Lance and me, Lance's toothbrush, Lance's fleece pajama bottoms, socks for Joey and extra blankets. This is gonna be great. :)

Since we only own one cot, Lance let me use it on this trip - I know, such a gentleman :) - and the first night I didn't blow my camping pad up enough and it felt sort of like being in a hot dog bun. At some point in the night Anna got scared and crawled up in there with me...we became two hot dogs in one bun.

The campground was huge with lots of room to run and play. Joey, being the bug/insect/animal officionado that he is, found this guy and a smaller one as well. 


All the kids were SO enthralled with this 
blue bellied lizard - they all followed Joey 
around for at least an hour yelling, 
"Let me hold him! Let me hold him! 
Please Joey! Pleeeeaaaze!"

Joey offered to let me hold it, but I politely declined. Ew.

We went on several hikes - Weeping rock, the base of The Narrows and Emerald Pools. Oh that hike was fun....Noah decided to run WAY ahead of the group and consequently got separated from the rest of us for over an hour. I was much more panicked than Lance, but after a silent but heartfelt prayer, we ended up finding him on our way down the mountain. There are few things as frightening as realizing your child is lost. But of course, in Noah's case - he wasn't lost - he knew exactly where he was the whole time. (grrrrrrrr...)

The kids had a Junior Ranger book they were filling out to become an official 'Junior Ranger' and they had to find certain wildlife and plants. Cactus was on the list. On the shuttle up the canyon we saw lots and lots of cactus. Anna was so thrilled to point out every single plant she saw! Cactus! Another cactus Momma! Cactus! Oh, there's some more cactus!  They also had to find a tarantula - I thought, "Let's HOPE they don't!" But they did. On the trail up to the Narrows, there was a tarantula sitting right on the side of the trail!! 

Lance took a quick photo and I strongly encouraged everyone to just keep moving along, please and thank you. 

We camped from Thursday till Sunday and at the end of it all I felt tired and dirty, sore and stinky and did I mention tired? Oh, and dirty? On the drive home I found myself asking why, oh why, do we pack up so much stuff, clean up puke from a car-sick little girl, get so dirty, sleep like hot dogs in a bun, get so stinky, panic because of lost children, and stay up too late around the campfire?

I decided we do it for a few reasons:

#1 - Our children absolutely LOVE camping.

#2 - Our children absolutely LOVE camping.

#3 - Our children absolutely LOVE camping.

Quite simply - we do it for them. Now don't get me wrong - I do enjoy camping. Perhaps not to the level our kids do, but I do love being in the beautiful outdoors. I love being away from the distractions of 'the world'. But honestly, the reality is this: they love it and sometimes.... that's enough.

Kids say the darndest things....

The kids and I went on a hike today....the autumn colors really are amazing...reds, oranges and yellows.... 

. 
Just as we begin our hike, we look up and we see this little guy about 5 feet away from us up in the tree! He is just munching away on his acorn (I think that's what he had in his little paws) I took way too many pictures of him (I mean, really, what AM I going to do with 10 pictures of little Mr. Squirrel???)  Noah asks me about 34 times if he could PLEEEEEAZE just hit it with his sling shot. "Pleeeaze Mom, pleeeaze! I could so hit it; he's right there! Please!" Of course I say NO. Mean mom, right? I don't know, I guess I just figure if we're out enjoying nature, we probably shouldn't allow killing.....

As we continue on our hike, we talk about how adorable Mr. Squirrel is and how fun it is to be out in nature and all the cool things we get to see. 

Then little Anna says, "Momma, if that little quirrel (she doesn't really say her S's at the beginning of words yet) fell out of the tree, I would just bend oba (over) and coop (scoop) him up in my hands and cuddle him in my arms" So. Stinkin. Cute. Then Noah says, "Not me - before he fell out of the tree I would hit him with my sling shot, and watch him fall down, then I'd skin him, cook him and eat him and keep the skin and make a coat! Well, I'd have to kill a bunch of them to make a coat." He is SUCH a twelve year old boy. Joey doesn't say anything - he's too busy picking up three million leaves and shoving them in his backpack. He just loves all of the colors and every single leaf is so beautiful and unique that he must take them ALL home. 

Noah continues to BEG and PLEAD with me to please let him kill a chipmunk or squirrel or something that moves, with his sling shot. I continue to tell him no and try to convince him it's just as much fun to hit a tree as it is a moving target. He isn't buying it.

Anna starts to complain, "Momma, my legs are so tired! Carry me! Carry me!" Well, time to head back down the mountain I suppose.

Anna came home with tired little legs, Joey came home with three million and one leaves and Noah came home still wishing he could have inflicted death upon some innocent creature....I came home feeling refreshed and grateful for the beautiful things that God has put in my life; autumn colors, the air that is just barely turning chilly and the chance to be with my little ones....to run and play with them and to laugh at the things they say....

Dancing in the kitchen

Here was the scene in the kitchen tonight.....the boys were doing the dishes after dinner and baby girl was running back and forth between the kitchen and the front room. Lance and I were putting food away and cleaning up. (Speaking of dinner - he made the yummiest curry vegetables over rice....he is SUCH a better cook than I am!)
Anyway, I went to the computer and found Shania Twain's song "Forever and For Always" and turned it up way loud (the computer is hooked up to speakers we have throughout the house). And then I made him dance with me. It didn't take much coaxing...he and I used to dance all the time - way back when - And I sang as loud as I could right in his ear.....

                           

I'm keeping you forever and for always, 

 We will be together all of our days, 

                Wanna wake up every morning to your sweet face....always....

The boys stopped doing the dishes and looked at us with semi-horrified expressions. Oldest son had to leave the room and the other kept saying, "Oh look at the cute couple!"  Baby girl kept wriggling right between us saying, "I wanna dance! I wanna dance!" Romantic moment was exactly that: a moment! :)

I'm not a HUGE country music fan, but there are a lot of country-ish songs that I like. And I LOVE this song because it's EXACTLY how I feel about Lance. He is one of the very. best. things. that ever walked into my life. He is good and kind and gentle and smart (and incredibly good looking!!) and everything I ever wanted.....lucky, lucky ME. 

.....Baby, That is......

So here we go again :) ............

After 19 years of marriage under our belt and 3 beautiful adopted children....we've decided to try it one more time. The reactions from friends and family have been fun: "Holy cow! You're going to do it again?!" or "Wow! I thought you guys were done!" or "Congratulations! That's great!" or "You are a better mom than me - I am done having kids!" or this one made me laugh: "Now, how old are you again?" hahaha .....one thing I have learned; age is ONLY a number. I am 43. But for the record, I am a pretty hot looking 43 year old mom! (Yeah, I said it! Don't judge me.....) And today's 40 is the new 30 just in case you haven't heard ;)

Why are we going through the adoption process again? It's simple. Our family isn't done yet. Lance and I know that there IS one more baby out there who is supposed to be in our family. And how do we know? Because we have prayed to God about it and those are the impressions/feelings/promptings (whatever you choose to call it) that we get after we pray. Simple, right? Well, sort of.....

Now for the not-so-simple part. We need to FIND our baby. Or, our baby needs to find us. Or, I guess it would be more appropriate to say our baby's birth mother needs to find us.....

That's why I'm sitting here on a Sunday afternoon starting my very first ever blog. I've never blogged before and I'm pretty clueless about most things blog related - but I'm going to give it a go.....