Live Love and always Laugh

Ji Ga Zo

2012-02-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

So we got this puzzle thing for Mark for Christmas. It wasn't as great as I thought, but we have been having some fun with it. You upload a photo, adjust it and then make a puzzle. We have been doing everything from flowers to faces. Some work better than others. Tell me if you can tell who is in the puzzle Rachel is holding.

My man hard at work

2012-01-28T16:42:00.000-08:00

Here is our latest (and last) piece of machinery.

Mark getting ready to get to work.

Use that mussle and get the job done.

With this little cutter we now have all the piece to do our books without any outside help. It has been very nice to not have to worry about whether it is a holdiay or whether I have time to run to the printer and still make a shipment out that day. It now gives Mark and I even more time together. :)

Christmas Season

2011-12-31T15:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays! We were able to start our Christmas celebrations off with a Family Concert. I got some great video footage of the children and their cousins performing. Fortunately for you I won't make you sit through the whole 30+ minutes of it. Unfortunately the only two photos I got of the night are below and don't show the fun of the concert at all.

Enjoying treats after the performance

Getting to the really fun of the night for all the boys

After a few more get togethers with neighbors and friends (no photos, not sure how that happened), we were able to spend Christmas morning relaxing and enjoying the new gifts before church.

After opening presents and getting ready for the day we all headed out to church. Everyone in the family except James played some part in the program. It was a lovely, relaxing, peaceful way to remember our Saviour. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Holiday.

Visit to Utah

2011-12-05T12:08:00.001-08:00

We were able to take a quick visit to Utah the beginning of November. We had so great fun visiting with friends and family. Below are a few photos. I am so glad that we are closer and can visit more often. We have been going down about once a month --gotta make a Costco trip at least that often now that I don't have one close :( Anyway, I am not sure we will make it there that often through the winter, but I'm gonna try.

Getting ready to Skate

Visiting Angie

Playing on the giant blow up slides

Playing in the obstacle course

Trying to stay up

Falling again

We finally rented a helper to skate with us. The kids thought these were great.

Doing the Hokie Pokie

Twiner shirts

Sarah finally made it into Nana's house this trip. She is terrified of dogs. This quick little visit with the dogs across the room was enough for this trip. Maybe next time we will make it longer.

We were also able to visit with some other great friends but I didn't get the camera out. Thanks everyone for taking us in.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hope that you have all had a wonderful Halloween. It was pretty low key around here. Very nice.

Elections today.

2011-09-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

So, Olivia decided that regardless of being new in town she would run for Activity Leader in her middle school. Elections are today so I thought I would post a couple of photos. I didn't take many of us hanging things up (since I was usually up against the wall with tape) but here ya go.

Olivia hanging a flyer up. They were allowed to have 5 posters, 1 banner, and 10 flyers. I couldn't believe some of them. Apparently we have entered a new league of advertising.

Here is the slogan she ended up using. Yep we cut out each word and horse for all the posters and banner. Talk about a time killer.

Here is the banner. Had I know that "banner" actually meant giant wall display we may have done this a little different. Luckily we weren't the only ones that did an actual banner sized banner.

Here is James trying to help hang posters up. He did help carry the stool around for us.

Anyway, regardless of what happens it was a goal that has been accomplished. Check!

*just a quick note to let you know that Olivia did not win*

Summer happenings and photos galore

2011-09-06T12:45:00.001-07:00

In no particular order, below are some photos of our summer fun. I know this is a cheesy way to get caught up, but who knows I might get back and add more descriptions later. We had a full fun summer with reunions, parties, games and more.

Rachel's pre-birthday, birthday party was bowling. The girls had a great time.
Just last week we went to a Chuckars baseball game. The big girls and I went in first while Dad played out on the playground with the little kids. Then Rachel took over so Dad, James and Tyler could come in and watch the game. Thanks Lindsey for the tickets.
Towards the end of school Sarah got to go to the Fire station for a field trip. James now has decided it is his turn. I better start looking for the closest one.
James watching the Chuckars game.
My Man hanging out on the fence trying to catch a ball.
Tyler at the game.
Rachel getting ready to talk to Chuck Chuckars (in the background).
Mom and Olivia chillin' during the second inning.
We also had a family reunion down on the Farm. This was the little kids first camping experience. They all did great. They were a bit sad to hear that we wouldn't be building a fire, but we will be sure to get around to those kind of camping trips soon.
On the hayride at the reunion.
James taking a guess at how much candy was in the jar.
We took a trip to the reservoir with our cousins. The kids love the water. Thanks Randy and Grandpa for letting us come use the boat and driving us around and around on the tubes.
We had our family sealed in the Logan temple. I already posted about this briefly, but here is a photo of others that were there. I think a few escaped before the pictures were taken to go pick up little kids from the sitter. Thanks everyone for coming to support our family.
We have ventured out and made our first trip to the zoo. It took us longer than I thought to get through it. The kids still love the animals at the zoo and love to stop and watch. I love it! James had an adventure feeding the donkey. He can't wait to get back. BTW Nathanh isn't mad in this photo. He was doing his "Battle Force 5" look. He did get his hair cut finally as well.
Monkeys. There was one that kept howling and swinging around. I think we stayed watching him for about 20 minutes.
Duck and other water fowl.
Of course, no zoo is complete without the animal "measure up" boards.
We celebrated Rachel's real birthday with her guessing the order of her wrapped Harry Potter books. She only got one out of order. She has obviously read them wayyyyyy toooo much.
We have been spending a ton of time with our cousins, mostly at grandma's house.
But a bit at our house as well.
The "big" girls jammin' to Donkey Konga on the game cube.
Ward party fun. The ward had a pioneer day activity and a few of the kids waiting in line to get their faces painted. Unfortunately for them they all had to wash them off that night.
More cousins. Evy tends to be "the one" for the little girl cousins to hover to.
More face paint.

We were able to visit some far away cousins down in Utah too. It was really fun to see Josie and her family state side.
One more face paint. Man these got out of order when I uploaded them. Oh well. I think that is the last one of those.
More partying with our Netherlands cousins.

This was one of the last photos taken at our house in Vancouver. We thought we had better get one more memory before heading out. At that very moment the moving truck was in the driveway. :(
Watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July. Yep Moving truck in the driveway still. :(...
After a week long process the gym painting is complete. Yes, we love BYU that much!
Rachel had a friend come to Idaho and visit. Things got a little wild. Glad everyone was enjoying the space to run and play.
And last but not least, Olivia celebrated her birthday this summer too. This was the day after we moved in. Minimal is an understatement, but we did manage to come up with presents and a dessert.

Well, that was our summer in a nut shell. Hope you have enjoyed updated photos of the kids. Take care and we hope to see many of you visit over the next year or so.

Finally some house photos

2011-09-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it has now been two months since we move in. I am finally getting around to posting some of the "move in" photos. It is not completely my fault this has taken so long. I did try a couple of times to get it updated, but for some reason couldn't get the photos to upload. Anyway, I will take full responsibility for the lateness of this posting. Now... on to the photos.

Much of the house looks about the same as in the last set that I posted. I don't have a current outside view, but I will try to update that tomorrow.

Our master bathroom- shower on the left, jetted tub on the right

Piano/music room- it still looks this way. We will eventually have a sofa in there

Basement kitchen area and 1/2 of family room- right now the kitchen area is really Lego land, but eventually we will have some teenagers who will love it for its true potential.

1/2 of the girls bedroom - the other 1/2 is the same set up with a Jack&Jill bathroom between them. Loving it so far.

The view from my bedroom window - yep that is a train car. No worries a look to the left or right and it is a gorgeous view. I just thought this was a good indication that I live in Idaho. That and the girl walking her goat up and down the street every day during the summer.

The kitchen - I am in love with this kitchen and eating area. It fits so many people. It was finished off to our specifications and so far so good. I love every aspect of it. We went with the dual fuel oven, pot filler above the stove, stainless steel appliances, and alder cabinetry. I love all the cabinet space and my large corner pantry.

Not a great view of the Rec room, but much cuter than the boxes of videos and books. I think I do have a photo of those I can add later. But this is what we do in there.

Our cubbies/lockers - Love is the only word to describe how I feel about this area.

Our master closet - Mark gets about a 1/4 of this.

Last but not least the laundry room in full swing. I have since gotten actual laundry baskets and will get a soaker sink for the corner. But I love that I have a laundry shoot that goes down to it from my bedroom.

Anyway, I hope this gives you a bit of a desire to come and actually see it in person. I will try to up load more photos next week of the gym and outside. Toodles for now.

I love to see the temple...

2011-08-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a wonderful experience of going to the Logan temple to be sealed as a family for eternity. I am so thankful that many of our family members were able to come and experience it with us. It always makes us smile as we look around the room at those whom we love and those that love us and know that we will be with them forever. Creating our family has taken many years, much heartache, a ton of money, and a lot of adjustment. But yesterday was one of those moments that makes it all worth it. The kids did a great job in the temple as well as on the drive. It has been a wonderful experience to be able to speak with them each day in preparation for going. A few weeks ago we were able to dedicate our new house to the Lord. That Sunday we began talking to the children about dedicating our family and lives as well. I am grateful for the love and patience that we have all been able to have with one another.

Thanks to all those who are great examples to each one of us.

Last Hurrah before moving

2011-07-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

So just a week or so before moving we took one last family outing. We all had been working on some goals that we had set to be accomplished before the end of school. If everyone succeeded then we would have a party of sorts. The kids really like a place called Bullwinkles. So it was decided that we would spend our last big day there, as well as some big bucks, Ouch! Luckily for us you get a discount with ten or more people. :) I think it impacted James the most. It is the first thing he tells people when he talks to them, even if he has already told them many, many times before. Sorry Grandma! Anyway, below are a few photos to show some of our favorite things to do.

This is James' very favorite. He loves to tell people about playing lazertag. Rachel and Camilla (our tenth person), one of her friends, also spent quite a few hours in there running around.

Even with out actually playing, Sarah continued to think these motorcycles were fun.

Frog Hopper anyone? This is definitely not like the roller coaster extreme, but enough for our little guys.

Nathanh loved the rope swing in the play area.

Another favorite of all. I think the majority of the time was spent between these and lazertag.

Tyler and Nathanh did a great job overcoming their fears on the Skywalk. We even got Tyler to go up a few more times.

This was another big hit. I think that Sarah loved the boats the most. She usually ended up in one that she could spray everyone from far away with out getting wet herself. Tyler on the other hand always came out soaked!

Olivia was in her element high about the ground. She loves these "death defying" activities.

Evy was very happy to be able to drive her own car this time. Last time we visited she wasn't quite tall enough yet.

The 18th hole was a very confusing moment for James. He simply couldn't figure out where his golf ball had gone. He kept walking back to the other holes looking and then coming back to here trying to get it back out.

Bullwinkle's also has a virtual roller coaster (made Tyler sick) and rock wall (Evy was just like a monkey and Camilla did the hardest level so many times I lost count.) that we enjoyed. I am so glad that we have been blessed to be able to do outings like this once in a while. I am proud of the kids for accomplishing their goals. We loved living in Vancouver and will miss it very much. Now off to find some fun things in Idaho to do....

House update

2011-06-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay so many of you are thinking. Ummm, are they still building that house or not. The answer is yes, yes we are. There wasn't a lot of change that can be shown with photos for a while. So, I didn't end up posting much. But now that we are less than a week away from the finish, we have been given many more photos. Below are a few to help you see how things are coming together.

These are the kids cubbies in the mud room. I am soooooo gonna love that it is not right by my front door anymore.

Here are the cabinets in the "dining room". You can also see a hint of our banister going in on the left. It is looking a bit redder than I had hoped but we'll see what it looks like in person before worrying too much.

This is the window over looking the gym from the rec room.

The basement kitchen area. That island is going to be covered with a butcher block that was in the house where I grew up.

Here is a view of the kitchen from the patio doors. The cabinetry looks the right color from this angle, but I am a bit worried because most of the photos are making it look really RED.

Master shower. This trim looks almost black, but it is actually oil rubbed bronze to match the faucets.

This is the master vanity. What you don't see is the laundry shoot that goes from our room to the laundry room in the basement. It will be in the right hand corner of the cabinet when they are all finished. Too bad I will still have to carry laundry up the stairs. :) You can also see a hint of the color we choose for walls. We still haven't gotten a good photo of the coloring.

The kitchen flooring. Mark saw this photo and wanted to know when they were going to finish it.
He said it looks dirty and needs to be replaced. Oops. I guess maybe he should have come shopping with me to pick it out.

Here is the BYU blue going up in the gym. The tan will be going up later. We are also going to do a decal after we move in. On the left side you can see the hinges to the storage closet.

Stucco is on, but not colored yet. The whole thing is really coming together. I hope that in the end everything we chose separately looks good together.

Final track meets of the year

2011-06-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

So I am finally doing some catch up of photos. These are from the end of May. The older girls all had their final track meets. We have loved doing track here. It has helped to keep us active and healthy. Not everyone loves the competition of the meet, but we all love running for fun.

Olivia ran the 1600, the 800, threw discus, and even threw shot a couple of times. She would like to have a place to throw discus in our yard.

Rachel ran the 1600 and the 800.

Rachel also threw shot and really enjoyed that.

Evy also got a chance to run a few races in the elementary track meet. She really enjoyed running and like the social part of track the best.

4 x 200

She also did the long jump, but I didn't get a good photo of that one.

Rachel's Swim Meet

2011-06-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

Rachel has been taking swim lessons for the last few months. She was able to compete in a swim meet back at the end of April. Below are a couple of photos from before she started her races.

She had a great time. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of her actually swimming, just video. I may try and post some later but they are not playing correctly right now.

One of her goals this year was to place in a meet. In this meet she took 2nd in the breaststroke, 4th in the butterfly, 5th in the freestyle, and 3rd in the IM. We are very proud of her efforts and her courage to swim against swimmers above her skill level.

Not normally what I would do today...

2011-06-05T20:24:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do hair cuts on Sunday, but Mark said yes to this one so I figured I better do it before he actually thought about it.

It is not the best hair trim in the world, but it will sure be fun looking at it until I actually cut his hair tomorrow.

Memorial day weekend

2011-06-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we were able to spend a lot of time together as a family. We played around home most of the weekend. On Monday we decided to take one last trip to the coast before moving to Idaho.

We traveled up through Astoria and then down to Seaside. In Astoria, we crossed the bridge that spans from Oregon to Washington. And then stopped by the Astoria Column.

Just starting into the column

the steps begin

165 steps later

coming back down

After the column, we headed down to the beach in Seaside. The rain decided to let up for about 30 minutes or so, which was just long enough to have some fun.

My handsome fella

Mark was entertaining the kids while we ran back to the car for the toys

Ahhh and the sand excitement begins

of course there has to be a little silliness

Rachel can't make it to the beach with out starting a project, unfortunately this one had to be cut short. Maybe next time Rach.

Trying to jump the waves.

biting the dust, literally

waiting for a wave

James wasn't too sure of the feel of the sand on his feet, but by the end he was enjoying it everywhere.

The kids

2011-05-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am sure that there are many photos of the house, activities, sports, and achievements that I should be posting. But not nearly enough time at the moment to try and catch up. I will post more later. For now here is a quick photo of everyone.

Rachel at her track meet resting between races.

Evy chillin' at Jame's birthday.

Olivia marching in the Hazell Dell Parade.

Nathanh getting ready to wallop his sister with a pillow.

Sarah and her gorgeous hair do.

James with his favorite book. (yep prepping him early for school!)

Tyler munchin' some dinner at a track meet.

Hopefully that will hold you all off until I can post more. Have a great day.

Easter.

2011-05-07T14:03:00.001-07:00

So with all the house building, birthdays, and other activities this last month, we only had a few days to really celebrate Easter.

The anticipation of it all. (Even though we waited until after church and dinner, they somehow were all in their pjs)

The searching....

The finding...

The fun...

We had a great time coloring eggs and finding our baskets. I hope that they still remembered the most important part was about Jesus.

Happy birthday James!

2011-05-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

Our little guy turned three this month. Although he is still only wearing size 18 month pants (that still fall off him) and 24 month shirts, he is getting bigger and stronger. Here are a few photos for that day.

His ice cream cake. (He blew out the candles one at a time.)

Teaching him early to just hand over the money to mommy.

He definitely has the hang of opening presents.

He was so happy to finally get to open them, since they have been sitting there for about two weeks.

A few updates from the first part of April

2011-04-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

So here are a few updates, of the house itself, from the time we were out in Idaho.

kids bathtubs are in

April 9 - The well gets started

April 6 - The bottom of the stairs get finished. Can't wait to see if I really love this set up or not.

April 14 - Drywalling begins

April 14th - Insulation is in. That is our cute little fireplace (not real) that I hope I can make look as good as it looks in my head.

As more photos come in I will update more on the progress. We are getting pretty excited here!

Update on the House and Our Idaho trip

2011-04-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

So this last week we were able to go to Idaho and actually take a "real" look at our house. It is getting harder to show the progress in photos now because most of the work is happening inside. It has also been awhile since I have posted photos of the kids so hopefully these will appease both sides.

So while I was doing this every day...

The kids were doing this....

Good thing there is going to be a wall there.

Everyone loved running wild in the gym with their cousins.

Of course you can't build a house without having a few dirt hills. Unfortunately I think they were only able to play on them one or two days because of the weather.

Loving the big machinery and the dirt again.

I just had to add this one in. Sarah told me on the first day there "I like that one in the purple shirt." These two had a great time playing together all week.

Of course buried treasure to find.

And why else would we move to the country other than to be close to the animals. Luckily for me there is a ditch and a little dirt road between us and those donkeys.

All the little ones liked the "scary" crossing over the ditch to get to grandpa.

Nathanh shows how he can escape from his bedroom.

And just for fun, the roof is completed now. Next up stucco and stone.

On our way out of town we stopped by to snap a family photo. Our new neighbor came out and did the honors.

We had a great visit and were able to make a lot of decisions. Hopefully the progress will continue without a hitch. (At least the electrician will be happy that we won't be there every day moving our kitchen island again!)

We have a roof

2011-03-27T17:55:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos from the last couple of days. The house is really starting to come together now. It is becoming very real.

March 23, 2011 -Garage side

March 23, 2011- view from the back yard

March 25, 2011 - Gym and piano room (formal living room)

March 25, 2011 - garage, front entrance, gym (from rt to lf)

March 26, 2011 - front view from the road

Walls are up and we have stairs!

2011-03-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

So the building has been progressing great. Here are the latest photos.

March 17, 2011- view from the front of the garage area.

March 17, 2011- outside wall framing

March 17, 2011- Gym floor has been poured.

March 18, 2011- We have stairs! March 18, 2011- and outside walls, Hooray!

I am sure that the stairs have probably been in for a bit, but these are the first photos that we have of them. I am getting excited for the chance to go walk through it myself. The kids are very excited to see it all taking shape.

The building continues...

2011-03-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

So here are a few more photos of the progress. I am also happy to report that I finally made a decision on the garage and front door. Those have been one major struggle for me. I also finally decided the stone color and style (with the help of the kids) and picked out the roofing a couple of days ago. One more thing to check of the very, very long list.

March 9, 2011 - Yep that is snow in our basement. I don't know how they build in the winter but they do. Amazing!

March 11, 2011 - Basement framing. That large opening you see is the storage that will be accessed from the gym. I hope that "idea" all works out well in the end.

March 11, 2011- Basement on the bedroom side.

March 14, 2011- In go the trusses. Next step: Floors!

This is still how the gym looks. The brothers are having someone else pour that floor with a special machine so that it can be really flat. Hope that there is no leaking in there I don't see a drain of any type.

Anyway, more decision and more excitement to come.

The building has begun

2011-03-11T11:44:00.001-08:00

Our Idaho property (the blue spot is about center)

Well, the process has begun. I think that a majority of my time lately has been looking at other people's homes(in person and online) in search of one I love. Also spending more hours than I would like researching everything from appliances to dimmer switches. I have knocked on stranger's doors to ask about stone work or colors. I have slowly perused the neighborhoods gathering as much detail as possible in how I want our facade to look. I have thought about and planned for this process for more than five years (some dreaming started long before we were ever married). Somehow all the little details never came into my dreaming. From where I want a wall to where I want a light switch, there are so many decisions to make. My biggest problem is that I love so many different things. My current (and has been for about a month now) contemplation is the coloring and shape of the stone work. I have finally narrowed it down to two that I really like. I thought that soon eeny meeny miney moe was going to have make the decision for me, that was until talking about the other siding and doors. Turns out I can't just do any color on the spectrum (should have known that). So now more decisions to make and hopefully in the end our house will not look like a mesh-mash from all eras. Umm, never thought I would love so many styles. So below are the first pictures of the land/soon to be home. Mark's dad is graciously taking pictures for us of all the stages of building. The kids are really finally getting excited about getting a new home. They are still not keen on the moving part, but we are working on it.

Our land, February 19, 2011 (That backhoe was there to dig something needed for the permits)

partial hole for the house, February 24, 2011 (of course it snowed after they dug) More digging was done after this along with bringing in the rocks and stuff for the foundation, but I won't post every photo. I chose this one because of the irony of the snow. When we looked at these pictures I had just been telling someone how I was going to love (dramatic eye roll) being somewhere that was cold and snowy.

Footings are poured, March 1, 2011

Part of the foundation walls go in, March 2-3, 2011

Walls are uncovered and more walls go in, March 5, 2011

To think it has only been two weeks and I have already made so many decision, crazy! I am looking forward to so many more. I will keep posting pictures as the process goes. It should be finished up by the end of July, beginning of August.

Our Final February Birthday

2011-03-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

To round out February we celebrated Tyler's 7th Birthday. We had a great time for FHE and then did presents and cake. Here are a few pictures.

February birthday #2

2011-02-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

Our second birthday this month was for cute little Sarah, now a big 5. We did a small family party with gifts and cake. It helped that it fell on Valentine's and Family Home Evening.

The 3 tier cake

Gifts galore

The amazing princess tunnel. I think the big girls like it just as much as Sarah, too bad they don't fit as well.

Birthdays... more to come

2011-02-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

We have three birthdays in February. Our first was Evy's on Saturday. We had a great party with friends and then did some family things together. Happy birthday big girl!

Randomness from the kids

2011-01-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

Here is a bit of randomness from January. You never know what you will get when the kids have the camera.

Not sure what was going on here, but that is Evy on the bed with Olivia behind her. There is another photo much the same but with Olivia crouching behind the bed. I think maybe they were playing hide and go seek.

Rachel, Sarah, and Tyler were taking turns rolling each other up in the blanket and acting like they were babies.

I have no idea what these guys were doing. The photos that preceeded and followed this one on the camera give no indication other than super hero something or other.

We did have our Honor Roll Recognition at ALKI both girls made it with flying colors.

Hope you enjoy a bit of us! Have a great week!

Thanksgiving Holiday in Utah

2011-01-23T20:14:00.001-08:00

So as promised here are the photos from the Utah portion of our Thanksgiving Holidays. Thanks to everyone for taking us in to visit, eat, and sleep. We had a great time meeting new people and share a quick few days reconnecting with everyone. Sorry Jenny for the trifecta of disaster that we had at your house. There may have actually been more than three but I don't remember anymore. Anyway, the photos are in random order.

Kids enjoying some yummy soup at Ben's house.

Chillin' in the basement with the cousins

Of course a visit isn't complete without some fun and games.

We took a quick trip to Christmas Village (another first for the three newbies) to see the lights and Santa. The two boys wouldn't let Miranda leave their side.

More playing in the snow. Thanks for the sledding experience Aunt Jenny!

Some how these two switched places in the night. James was suppose to bee on the small bed made of pillows. Umm, not sure how it happened but it was cute.

All smiles! This little guy didn't want to ever come in from the snow. Even when he was chattering and shivering from head to toe.

Between Halloween and Christmas

2011-01-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

So somewhere between my October post about Halloween and my December post about Christmas, I lost Thanksgiving. So here you go...

We had a great trip back home to Idaho and Utah for the Thanksgiving holidays. This was the kids first time meeting any of their cousins (Except for Jake, they met him in Russia) and their new grandparents. The trip went off without a hitch. Everyone got along really well, we were able to travel safely, and only had one car-sick incident. Here is a bit from the Idaho part of the trip. (Utah will come in another post)

Even on vacations the girls can't seem to put their books down.

Of course all the boys found the computer grandma has set up for the kids.

Grandpa and Sarah having a "hot pad" battle.

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Benson.

Of course we loved the snow.

Grandma and Grandpa's cool playhut.

We can't forget the card games.

Tyler fell right into place being a typical boy with all the cousins.

Sarah enjoying meeting her newest aunt.

And of course, Gingerbread house time.

Ours actually made it all the way home without any breakage. Of course the day after Christmas we devoured the whole thing. Yum!

Spending time with Grandpa while the big girls look over the "Black Friday" ads.

All in all we had a great time in Idaho. I didn't get any pictures of the actual Thanksgiving dinner. Not quite sure why, but we did enjoy the great feast and fun with all of Mark's Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

A bit of Christmas...

2011-01-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

So here are a bit of pictures from Christmas time. Sorry you will have to sort of see our day in reverse. I was just going through the photos and forgot that Blogger puts them at the beginning instead of the end as you add pictures. If you want to go in the correct order, scroll to the bottom and read up! Hope you all had as great a day as we did.

We officially have a house full of nerds. Even James has a Rubix cube now. There are many nights when I find 7 of the 9 of us in my bedroom playing with a Rubix cube. Pictured above are the different sizes we now own. We have 5 of the 3X3's and one of each of the others.

Nathanh enjoying his car collections and new storage case. Notice the livingroom is already cleaned up. This was the best Christmas day ever.

A bit Harry Potterish, but really the outsides are Tigger.

The boys excited about their new watches. Notice we are now in our normal clothes. Yep still opening more presents. It took us until 5:30pm to open the last one. We started at 7:30am and just took things slow. It was great! The kids got to enjoy everything and the house was clean at the end of the day.

Sweet Sarah enjoying the gifts. She was really into the spirit of given. After she would open a present she would then decide who it was suppose to go to. I am still not sure she gets the fact that those presents are for her.

More gifts for our brain power.

Awe, the excitement of fun toys!

Sibling lovin'. We always hug when exchanging gifts.

One of the infamous Rubix cubes.

Gifts from Nana

James' favorite toy of all. He is constantly driving this thing around the house. He carries it up stairs and down. He usually doesn't have a doll in it, so that gives Mark a little bit of hope that he is still a boy.

Bendaroos... Fun and sticky

The boys and their new cars. They need some practice driving still.

Presents from Grandma and Grandpa

I am not sure why they were doing a conga line, but it must have been something interesting at the time.

Taking a small break for breakfast. Opening presents makes us hungry!

Well, that was pretty much our day. It was one of the best ones yet. Even with three more kids, it was the mot relaxing Christmas we have had in a long time.

Our Christmas letter

2010-12-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

Click on the phots to enlarge them. I don't know if you all will be able to read this or not. But if you really want to know what it says and you didn't get one in the mail, email me and I will send the PDF.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Crepes

2010-11-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

So today for breakfast we had crepes (a first for us). Olivia had been asking about them for while. While we were in Moscow we met some of my sister's friends for dinner. We had crepes with sour cream. At the time I thought it a bit odd, but was surprised that I liked them. So as I made them this morning I was once again humbled by the thoughts of that dinner.

This family lives in a three room apartment. One of the rooms being a bathroom about the size of my bedroom closet. The room pictured below serves as their living room, dining room, storage room, closet, playroom and bedroom. The third room is a small narrow kitchen. These people were so happy and we had a great time. It helps put into perspective what is important in life. I am truly grateful for all I have, especially my family.

Here everyone is dancing and playing together after dinner.

The kids were hiding in the closet (very organized I might add).

The kiddos eating their crepes with sour cream.

The group of us at their table. (Love the table bytheway. The flaps fold down very narrow and it is stored in the kitchen after dinner.) My sister and I are sitting on the family bed. This is the same spot from the first photo, just in dinner mode.

Thanks for some fun times! It is always good to have a little culture in your life to bring you back to reality.

Halloween fun

2010-11-08T14:19:00.001-08:00

This Halloween was a fun one. We made the choice as a family to not trick-or-treat on Sunday, so we tried to do other activities to make the holiday fun.

Pumpkin crafting:

Our painted pumpkins in order of age. (Olivia, Rachel, Evy, Tyler {yes it is painted he wanted to paint it orange}, Nathanh, Sarah and James)
We usually all carve our own pumpkins but I decided that I didn't want to have nine large carved pumpkins, so having each of the kids paint one was the alternative.

Costumes abound:

Our mummy (it looked better at the begining of the evening and even better the next day for school when I had more time to secure all the wrapping)

Superman, Mini Mouse, Hula dancer
Penguin, Power ranger, Princess

Our ward did a trunk-or-treat night (Olivia was inside helping at the time) and this is a photo of the kids before getting started. The night itself was very hectic with many activities and a sick little boy, but the event was pretty fun.

Pumpkin Carving:

Rachel and "her" pumpkin. (that is Tyler's design in the background) She rescued this pumpkin from the pool at swim lessons. She was very excited to have come home with her very own pumpkin. I thought it was a fun activity to teach rescue swimming .

James' first adventure in pumpkin carving...

This was his face seconds later. We never did get him to touch it again.

Tyler thought it was gooey but totally fun. He was very patient waiting for his top to get cut off so he could start cleaning it out.

This was more James' style of pumpkin carving fun.

Sarah was a bit hesitant at first. It took a bit of convincing, but once she tried it a couple of times she was hooked. We couldn't keep her out of the pumpkins. She was the best "seed cleaner" of the bunch.

I didn't post photos of the other kids carving, but everyone enjoyed the night. Even Olivia, who after scooping once said she wasn't doing anymore, stuck around and enjoyed designing and carving her pumpkin. All in all a messy, but fun night with roasted pumpkin seeds for a treat.

More Russia

2010-11-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Wow! Time sure flies when you have a house full. I am finally getting around to being organized enough to spend some much needed time on here. I thought I would post a bit more from our time in Moscow. Thanks again to my sister and her hubby.

Aunt Josie (Tetya) , Jake, and our crew at the Moscow River.

Us looking over the bridge.

Us in Red Square.

Our buddy Jake showing us a good time.

Sarah and her favorite Tetya!

Uncle Jeff (Dyadya) and his gaggle of followers.

We had a great time seeing the sights. I am sure it was different than anything the kids had ever seen before. Hopefully, they will have good memories of these early days together with our family.

Izmailova (Izmailovsky) Market

2010-10-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Time on the computer is short now that there are nine of us wanting to get on. The two littlest are always tapping away at the keyboard, which is not always a good thing. We have lost many icons, but hopefully only the icons. I also seem to have a follower every time I sit down to put something on here. But I didn't want another week to pass away with out posting something so here is a little post to ease your curiosity.

While in Moscow with my sister, we went to a street market to get some souvenirs. Below are a few photos from that day.The toilet I paid a dollar to use. Technically it was a deal since I took in two kids with me and they didn't charge me extra. (Yep, soooo glad not to use one of those again.)

Sarah and "Dedushka" Kent picking out some good deals. Sarah totally fell in love with Kent. Tyler as well, but here in the market Sarah wanted to be with him everywhere. He ended up buying her a little pencil as a souvenir.

Us in front of a "santa" store. These carved santas are popular with the tourists. This woman's were very detailed. Jeff and Josie purchased a few from her. I had to laugh because Jeff didn't have enough rubles to pay so he ended up using rubles, pounds, euros, and dollars. Talk about a world traveler. Who would have thought he would be carrying all that in his wallet together.

Having a bit to eat before heading back home.

Well, I know it isn't much and I will try to get back on here soon. We did have a great time in Moscow. It was busy but very fun. Dedushka Kent is only one of the many friends of my sisters that we were able to meet and visit with. I will try to share more about each of them later.

Tyler, Sarah, and James in April

2010-10-03T03:37:00.000-07:00

As time passed, I realized that the previous posts that I had gotten ready to post back in April have become a bit out dated. I still wanted to share them, because they tell so much of how the children were when we first met them. Here are a few updates of how our trip in April went.
Tyler and Sarah playing hide the stuffed animal. She had hidden it behind her back. She didn't quite get the concept of not telling where it was hidden. There was one day I we played hid the bear for probably 30 minutes. Man, I thought that game would get old fast, but apparently not for a four year old.
Here Sarah is making a fish face and taking a photo of it. As many little kids she loves the camera, both being in front of it and behind it.
Tyler and Mark built these Lightening McQueen cars and houses. This boy loves cars.
Again, part of the hid the bear game. Here she is laughing at Mark because he can't find the bear. Of course he knew exactly where it was, but what fun would that be. On our second day we needed more photos for the judge. We took probably one hundred that day. With that many I was bound to get a few that showed her true spirit.

Again, hidding the bear. Like I said we played it for a VERY long time. Tyler kept following Mark around. I have a picture of him in the exact position that Mark is in here.

A tender moment between mom and daughter.

Here another car lover. We brought these pull back cars. He loves them. Mark kept pushing it and then James would run over and get it. He had a bit of trouble at first getting them to go on his own, but after Dad showed him here how to do it, things went just fine.

What a smile! James is a quite one most of the time. But when you get him laughing it is infectious. His little smile just makes me laugh. It is amazing the simple things that keep kids entertained. Here we were just rolling the ball along the edge and he was busting a gut laughing.

Finally trying once again to end the "hide the bear" game, Dad and Sarah have a moment. It took some time for her to warm up to him, but after this day there was no problem.

Dad and Tyler drawing funny pictures with a spiral graph.

Family moment for the judge. We took two photos like this. In this one Sarah isn't really smiling, but in the next one Tyler wasn't. Ugh! I can't imagine what taking our first family photo with all nine of us will be like. I hope we have a patient photographer.

We were reading a book about animals that came with her doll. At the bottom of the photo you can see the infamous bear from our hiding game. Sadly, it got left behind one day never to be seen again.

And finally our little book lover. I am so glad that he likes books so much. (He turned pages of a magazine back and forth for 30 minutes during our landing into Moscow. Boring for me, but I was so glad he was entertained and not screaming.)

Well, I hope this shows you the bit of progress that was made in 3 months. I will post more later on how our recent trip went and even more progress. Currently, although two kids are on my lap, I did manage to get this posted. I may get a handle on things after all. The fact that they are both asleep doesn't hurt either. We have only 5 more days until we come home and I am getting very excited. We have also had two whole days now where no one threw-up while driving (a different story to share) so I am elated. My sister reminds me that it doesn't mean anything. Car sickness will hit at any moment. As for things on the other fronts of transition. Sleeping has gone from fabulous to not so much happiness, but I am hoping a normal routine will get us all back in the groove. James has gone from screaming when my sister is around to holding her hand and walking to the table. I am still not sure if he realized it was her, but we took that as a step forward anyway. Sarah has gone from crying to my sister to letting me comfort her a bit. She is going to have a hard time when my sister heads back home. And Tyler has gone from no English, to answering Russians in English. Okay so it only happened once at church today, but it was very cute. He caught himself answering in English and then corrected himself to answer them in Russian. He also surprised me today when he asked for more water all in English and politely. All in all we are doing great and moving on. I will try to get another post in soon with more current photos and stories, but won't promise anything. I am taking this new life one step at a time.

Finally a new post

2010-10-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I figure I have given you all long enough to look at the very long posts that I had ready in March. I have been wanting to get on before now but I have one very clingy little one so it has been a bit harder than before. There are so many stories to tell and photos to share, but once again I am doing this with a little one on my lap. He is not being very cooperative. It is way past bedtime but I wanted to share a few photos. Here are just a few from our "gottcha" day.

Sarah on the play ground

James at the playground

Tyler at the playground

Irina, me and the kids in front of the Children's Home

Me and James outside the Baby home

Well, that is all I can do now. I will share more when I can get my lap back.

James Stepan Bird- Trip one

2010-09-28T01:00:00.002-07:00

Day 1

Stepan wasn’t sure about me on the first day. I am not sure that he was okay with Mark either, but he went straight to him and hung on tight while we spoke with the doctor about him. Finally he came and played a little with me and the toys.

This was by far his favorite toy. Not because he could play it, but because it can be taken apart into many pieces.

Day 2

looking like a girl and becoming very aware of the camera

Again the xylophone

Sweet isn’t HE!

Day 3

There was another family there this day. Stepan is pushing a little girl around in this car. I asked the family if we could take photos of him doing it. It was about the only thing that didn’t make him cry. We only stayed for about 30 minutes.

We did finally get him to play with this toy and he seems interested in how it worked.

Shortly after this photo he started crying again. It was very hard because there were so many other adults in the room and the caregivers kept walking in and out.

Day 4We don’t have many photos for this day because we were both engaging him so much. He did actually go back to his room holding my hand and not crying though for the first time. The wind up toys were a BIG hit.

Day 5

I loved this toy when I found it. It is a sorter, a drum, a pull toy, and a shaker all in one.

Stepan’s favorite part was putting things into it. I don’t have a photo of it but he kept trying to put the xylophone into it. It was very cute.

Again the wind up toys. These were intended only for the older kids, but we kept them in our bag instead of giving them to the kids to keep. I am glad we did. They were a big help with Stepan. At the end of the week we did leave them with the older kids, but I think I will get some more to take back next trip.

Tyler Kirill Bird- from first trip in January

2010-09-28T01:00:00.001-07:00

Day 1

I have more video from this day than photos. We spent more time with the older two just getting to know them since the doctor didn’t really need to see more photos of them. Kirill and Mark are playing with race cars. They were the first thing we brought out for them to do and they ended up being a big hit the whole week.

Day 2

We watched Kirill in class for about 45 minutes before we played with them together. His teacher had him show us EVERYTHING he knew how to do. She also explained a bit about the program they use. She was very proud of him.

Kirill doing his math work during school

Shapes during school time

These wind up toys were a big hit with all the children. The frog was Kirill’s favorite because it flipped itself over in a circle and landed back on its feet. He was amazed and trying to figure out how it worked.

Once again the cars were out and the boys were being entertained by Mark.

What a cutie

Day 3

Floor puzzle

Playing balls also was a big hit. I am sure that the Children’s Home wishes that we didn’t leave these there. I know the kids will have fun with them OUTSIDE from now on. Don’t get me wrong we were sure not to cause too much of a scene. There were just some other boys that were playing with them for a bit and it got a little rowdy. So we put them away and went back to cars.

Day 4

When we first brought out this train set. Kirill looked at it and said “It’s too easy for me!” He didn’t really want to play with it. He wanted to play cars again. Then some older boys came by and started to play with it and build the train. After that he loved it. He brought it out to play with the next day too.

Mark had been throwing the balls behind his back to Kirill, so here is a picture of him trying to do the same thing. I think it hit the fish tank or plant everytime he tried. Good thing they are just blow-up balls.

Day 5

The good old Rubix Cube. We love it at our house.

And of course juggling. Kirill never would try to juggle the balls. These littlier balls were not as big of a hit as I thought they would be. Just and FYI for future families.

By the end of the trip Kirill was trying to mimic just about everything Mark did. Here they had been throwing the balls back and forth saying the color names in Russian and English and counting how many they were throwing. At one point Mark couldn’t remember the Russian color name for yellow and made this face to think about it. So after that Kirill made this face when he was thinking about something.

Once again here is our cutie!

Sarah Valeria Bird

2010-09-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

Not sure how you would spell what they were calling her, but this is my best guess. You sort of say Lee and the Era rolling the R with a soft E sound.

Day 1

This is the only photo we got of her on day 1. I had to reach my hand around the front of us and snap quickly before she turned her head again. For the first day she pretty much just stood with her head tilted to the side and stared off into space. We tried many things to try and get her to play but she just wouldn’t.

Day 2

Here is her most common pose.

Even while sitting. This is in her class room. We tried to watch her work, but as soon as we walked in she stopped.

After awhile she would start to watch what we were doing (still in the pose of course). These are some wind-up toys that we brought for the kids. They were a big hit.

She was best observed playing on her own. She didn’t start finally playing until after about two hours.

As soon as I took this photo she went back to "the pose" for about ten minutes.

Mark finally snuck up and gave her this stuffed animal and then we finally started to see some smiles

(well at least one, when she told him not to take it from her.)

Day 3

Once again, this is how our day started with Liera. We didn’t get many other photos. We did end up playing with her a lot towards the end but we were so engaged in trying to get her to play that it was too hard to take pictures. Mark tried for about an hour and then finally switched off with me. Kirill and I had been doing a puzzle and more quite things. Of course then the boys wanted to play cars so I took Mark’s place with Liera and he went to the cars. I did end up playing with her and actually got her to talk a couple of times to me. It was very tiring though.

Day 4

We decided to watch her in her classroom first this day so that we could she a bit more of her development and interaction with others. This photo is taken in a mirror that was outside her room. We watched for a bit in the mirror, but as soon as she saw us she went back to her pose. This time it only lasted a few minutes and then it was a pose with a smirk.

She didn’t look at us much but was sure to keep checking if we were looking at her.

Sorting colored buttons during class

This is a turning board that helps develop wrists for writing. If you notice that is Mark’s finger with a little clip on it. He kept trying to get her to look at him by putting it in silly places. (On his pants, on the board, on his NOSE!)

Day 5

Starting the visit off with a pose again. This time with a little smirk already. We had a lot of fun with Liera today. It still took a lot of work and when we came back in the afternoon to say goodbye she didn’t even freeze into her pose. She took my hand and walked around with me.

Checking to see what the boys were doing that sounded so fun.

Talking on the phone like a typical girl. Two funny things that I will add with this photo. The hair things that she is wearing kept falling out. UP to this point she wouldn’t let anyone help her with anything still. She was trying to put it back in and I asked if she wanted me to help and she actually let me put it back in her hair. Wahoo! Making progress. The second thing is this little phone. When we came back in the afternoon the batteries somehow fell out when we were going to the visiting area. She wouldn’t talk to either of us or look at us or even pay attention to Kirill. She was so concerned about this battery that had falling out. They left for a little snack and Mark found the battery while they were gone. He showed it to her when they came back and she grabbed it from him faster than I had seen her move yet. Needless to say the girl has her phone back and all is well. We were able to actually interact with her again after that.

Happy with her phone.

Adorable Liera!

These toys were actually intended for the Baby Home, but we had so little time with Stepan that I got them out here on the last day. Liera actually sat down and played with me, stacking and unstacking.

Not a great photo of me but finally total interaction. She was talking and laughing with me by the end of our visit. A great accomplishment in my mind.

Trip three, Day fifteen

2010-09-27T03:02:00.000-07:00

Finally the time has come. Tomorrow is the day that I finally get to pick up our little kiddos (and post photos, yeah!). Today I switched rooms. This room is much like the other except it has a second room with another bed and a couch. Although there is a smokey smell lingering that I think I might have found the source of. The towels in the bathroom were expelling the smell stronger than anywhere else. I had them replaced and it seems to be dissipating. I talked to my sister and she made it to Moscow safely. She has dropped her little one there and is currently on a plane here. I can't wait to see her! I also did laundry for the last time in our little washer and non-drying dryer. I am ready! Night everyone.

Trip three, Day fourteen

2010-09-26T03:16:00.000-07:00

One of the children took this on our trip in April. I am sure Mark will not think it is a good idea that I posted it, but it makes me smile and right now that is something I need.

Only one more lonely day left. Tomorrow thankfully I have some things that will keep me busy so there won't be much time to think about how much I miss everyone back home. Not much else I can say today, just that I am very excited to be "doing" again and can't wait until Tuesday. Pictures above are what keep me sane. I love my family!

Trip three, Day thirteen

2010-09-24T00:11:00.000-07:00

My accommodations for three weeks

Things that I am grateful for, but mostly take for granted.

Sidewalks: I am so glad that in the states we usually have sidewalks to walk on to keep us safe. I have been so close to the cars as they pass me it is scary.

A Dryer that actually dries: I was well prepared for the sock eating dryer this trip. To my surprise they have replaced it with a new dryer. "Yeah" I thought. Sadly after three hours in the dryer our clothes still were not dry. Now that I have done laundry three times I am quite the expert at hanging things to dry in odd places around the room.

Hot water in an instant: So many times I think the water is feeling great when all of a sudden it turns cold. Gotta love that.

Electricity: Don't get me wrong, we have electricity. It just went out a couple of days ago and it made me think of how much I take it for granted. (thanks to batteries too, otherwise I would have lost what I was working on)

People who care about others: As I have walked around observing others and their actions, I appreciate those who genuinely care about other people and have a desire to help instead of just walking by.

Family: So many times we just expect things from our family members. I am grateful that they are willing to do the expected as well as the unexpected.

Food: So many have so little. Also very grateful for fresh fruits and veggies. There is just something about biting into something crunchy and juicy that makes me happy.

Shelter: Again so many have so little.

The Internet: Everything is so accessable, friends, family, shopping, bill paying, news, movies, songs, just about anything you can think of (good and bad). I can't imagine making this trip and being here alone if I wasn't able to still have contact with those that I love.

The Spirit: I am not sure I would feel safe every night without it. I am not sure I would feel courageous in my endevors. I am positive that I would not feel as I do now.

Courage: I don't always have it but am glad for the times that I do.

Mark: I miss him, even though if he were here we would be debating who had more time on the computer, or why I go to bed so early.

Health: I am glad that I am able to walk around, run around, and play around any time I desire.

Trip three, Day twelve

2010-09-23T02:12:00.000-07:00

Another small flower made big with technology.

I was feeling pretty down yesterday because my coordinator didn't call like she was suppose to. I figured she had probably gotten caught up with the other two families that were here for their first trips. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't depressed about it by any means, just looking forward to talking with someone in person for a bit. Well to my surprise as I went out for my run this morning, she was in the lobby. She had come to see off the couples and meet her ride to the wedding event she had today. She also wanted to spend sometime getting the paperwork together for the embassy. So I was able to visit with her and one of the couples for about an hour this morning. It was nice, although sitting in the restaurant in my running clothes isn't the kind of impression I want to leave with anyone.

After some very nice "conversations" with folks back home and some R&R time (the water was nice and hot so I took a relaxing bath) I headed out for my daily water run. In the hall I met up with some other adoptive parents and was able to have some more socializing time. It was the family that have been "following" us around and another woman that just had her court yesterday. It was a nice change. The family has been up in Khabarovsk visiting the orphanage of their previously adopted children. They are here with them. They were the instrument players mentioned in a previous post. It ended up being a "news worthy" visit for the home and a good experience for the children.

Anyway, the paperwork and visits (both online and in person) have made the day pass more quickly. Time to head off to bed. I am meeting with Irina tomorrow around one to finish up some paperwork. We are going to try to get to the home to get pictures of the children for their passports also. If not tomorrow, it makes a very busy day on Monday. Good night all.

Trip three, Day eleven

2010-09-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well, today was not as physically productive as yesterday, but I was able to visit with many thanks to our trusty laptop. I also got out and took a few photos. I am not as good as Dalynn, but I think they turned out pretty well. The one above is a flower out by the playground. It is approximately 1/2 inch across. I thought they would look beautiful close up so I tried. I like it.

After the photo trip I did some shopping and took a walk down toward the beach again. Now I have just been "chattin" with friends who stay up way too late and reading a bit. I am suppose to meet with Irina sometime today, but not sure when. We will discuss any further visits to the homes and talk about the pick up date next week. Even though the days seem long the time is getting closer. I look forward to it, but am nervous as well. So, so glad my sister will be here. I know she is calling in quite a few favors to make it all happen, but I wouldn't want to do it without her. Thanks Jos.

I have also been able to catch up on all the blogs of those I love. Thanks for keeping your life posted for me to see. Hopefully this blog will fill your "down time" one day too.

Trip three, Day ten

2010-09-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of the "gym" that I am using to exercise along with running outside. Don't let the machines fool you. None of them are plugged in, and the treadmill had a sign on it that says it is "technically out of service" until further notice. There is also one small weight machine and a yoga mat and ball in another small room. Quaint but enough for me.

Today I wasn't able to go to visit at the baby home like I was hoping to, so instead after exercising and phone calls this morning I started to organize things. I sorted the kids clothes by when and where we would be needing them. I figured out what toys we're bringing back home (don't worry Nathanh the Battleforce 5 cars are coming back), what toys to leave at the home, and what toys to leave here at the hotel. I packed up everything we won't need again until we get all the way to the states. Surprisingly I filled an entire carry on suitcase with those things and still had a few extra that didn't fit. I got the kids travel bags ready. I want to have things for the plane that they haven't seen before, so I wanted to get those thing put aside before they got here. I organized the gifts and got the gift bags ready for each home and our coordinator. I figured out what food I would still need to buy while I am here and layed out what I would eat each day until I get the kids. And I did laundry. A pretty productive afternoon if i don't say so myself. Now off to watch a movie, read a book, and head to bed.

Trip three, Day nine

2010-09-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

Things that I have enjoyed so far today...

Sleeping in with no one to distract me.

Talking to my family.

The sting of cold air on my lungs.

A nice hot shower.

Wonderful thought provoking music.

Time to ponder.

The joy of seeing photos of all my children.

Peace.

I hope that you enjoyed something today too. (btw photo above is not from Vladivostok)

Trip three, Day eight

2010-09-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

Okay so I am not sure how much longer I will keep up posting everyday, but I will still keep you all posted. The above photo is an art project that we did at the visit today. The one on top is our little girl's and the one below is our son's. I just visited with the two older children today. I will visit with the younger child on Wednesday. I am not sure if I will get a chance to visit any of them again after that this week. So the next time I see these two might just be the day I pick them up. There is a "Big Head" from Moscow visiting all the orphanges starting later today and then lasting for the next couple of days. He is doing inspections on each one in the area. Everyone is pretty high strung about it. I asked our coordinator what happens if it doesn't go well. She said someone will get fired. That is just the way. Glad I won't be around for the inspections.

The visit today went well. I wasn't sure how they would react to the craft or Mark not being there. They did pretty good. Our little sweetie lost interest in the craft sooner than I thought she would. But once the sparkly glue came out she was all for it again. I think she put more on her hands than on the picture. Within just a couple minutes of being there she asked where Papa was. Our son just nonchalantly answered "At work". It was so cute. I am glad that he understands at least a little about what is going on.

There was a lot less comprehension on my part today. She was talking nonstop almost. It made me remember that I am not going to be able to understand most of what they say. I am sooooo glad that my sister is going to be around for the first bit, especially while I am still here in Russia. Well, that is about it for the day. I am going to go take a much needed nap before starting into my scrapbooking for the day.

Trip three, Days six and seven

2010-09-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the past two days were not really anything eventful. The next week won't be much either. On Saturday we just hung out in the morning and then Mark left for the states in the afternoon. There are some beautiful places to look at around here, so I will be doing some walking around. Unfortunately the beach, that we visited every day last trip, costs money to go to now that the weather is better. I don't think it is much, just about a dollar, but still I don't feel as free to go walking there. Mark made me realize yesterday that we have never been apart for this long our entire marriage. Eeek! I think there may have been one time back when Olivia and Rachel were babies that I traveled home without him one summer, but I don't remember for sure. I hope that I can keep my sanity. While alone I will be reading, exercising, learning more Russian, scrapbooking (much needed), watching videos, wandering, and sleeping. It sounds to me like I have plenty to do, so I should be fine. Mark on the other hand will have his hands full balancing work and the kids. Luckily his parents will be there for most of it. I am sure we will all make it through just fine. Hopefully tomorrow we will do a visit and I will have more to tell about the kids. For now that it is. Have a good night everyone.

Hip, Hip, Hurray!

2010-09-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

You might not be able to see it too well, but that tree trunk is sticking up through that roof. I mentioned this in our travels last time but never did get a picture of it due to our hasty departure. Anyway, I thought it was very "green" of them to build around the trees.

The court hearing today went much better than in April. Everyone seemed very pleased with the situation. The hearing before us went over by more than a half hour (good outcome
for them also), so by the time we got started we were already hot and tired. After the formalities of the court the judge questioned Mark for about 40 minutes. Then me for another 20 minutes. Then the orphange teacher spoke for about 10 minutes. The the baby home doctor for 15. Then the social worker for another 15-20. Then there was a few more questions, the reading of the dossier (thankfully she did some speed reading), some more formalities and then we headed out the door to wait. Just a few minutes and we were back in to hear the good news. I am so excited! A little afraid if I think about it too much, but very excited. Now...time to make all the arrangements with my sister and get doctor appointments scheduled and such. A big sigh of relief and we are off an running with the next step in life. Thank you all for your support, fasting, and prayers.

Trip three, Day four

2010-09-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Playdoh man from yesterday.

Today went well. We were only able to see the older children, because we left a bit later. Our coordinator had some things to do in town this morning. All is well though. V and I made some jewelry and Mark taught K how to make paper airplanes. It will be hard for him when Mark is gone. I hope the weeks go by fast so that we can get home soon. Tomorrow is the big day and hopefully I will have good news to post for everyone to see. Night!

Trip three, Day three

2010-09-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

Today, once again, the plans changed in the morning. We were going to go do a long visit at the baby home and then another long visit at the children's home. When Irina picked us up she told us that plans had changed. We ended up doing a quick (hour long) visit with the big kids and then another quick visit with the baby. The social worker came with us today to see how we interacted with the children. Everyone one seems to agree that this should work this time, yet they still are going to ask us many questions. Irina kept saying yesterday that we would be fine as long as nothing happened like before.

Well during our visit today we found out that there is a problem with another case that may affect everyone in the area. I am hoping that we hear good news tomorrow. The family is suppose to go to court tomorrow, but there is a problem with the birthmother and the social worker "the liar" (another irinaism). Everyone has been on the phone the majority of the day with different people involved. Irina was saying oy, oy , oy ve many times today. She was very angry at one point talking with another adoption translator. It was actually very comical to watch the discussion from afar. Anyway, depending on what happens tomorrow, we may end up having some problems with court. Fingers crossed that everything will be able to be worked out.

The good thing about our visits going quickly today is that we were able to call the kids before bed today. Things seem to be going well at home, so we will rest easy tonight. Hope all is well where ever you are.

Trip three Day two

2010-09-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

Today, I think I laughed more than I have in a very long time. Our Coordinator is an older lady who is very outspoken. She was making me laugh so hard. I have decided to post a few "Irinaisms" to start this post. I am sure they will not be as funny to you, but it did make for a lighter attitude in a long day.

*The Big Head : Apparently there is an important person "Big Head" here from Moscow. It is why we were diverted yesterday at the airport, not humidity. Although they don't know who he is, nor does she care. Because he is here the roads are randomly shut down from time to time. We were stopped at one point for 20 minutes just waiting. Irina keeps saying things like "ohh that Big Head here causing traffic jams" or "yeah the Big Head always does what ever he wants" or "it is because of the Big Head". That last one she said many many times throughout the day.

*Banks are run by the mafia : Irina had been talking about this place to get a great rate for our money exchange (which we did by the way). She kept talking about her girls and how they would take care of us. So I was looking around for a place to change money, when we stopped next to this car with a huge $50 bill in its front window. I started to laugh. She asked why I was laughing and I told her that I had never exchanged money with someone just parked in a car before. Anyway, Mark asked if she was from the Bank. Irina said she exchanges money and then at the end of the day she goes to the bank to turn in the money. Mark mentioned something about her safety out there on the street all day with money. Irina said that she was very safe. No one would bother her. When we asked why, she told us that people liked her better because the banks are run by the mafia.

*Oy Big Trucks : I mentioned yesterday about how the roads haven't changed here. Well our driver has. Irina is much more agressive than Vlad was. She drives faster (but keeps to the speed limit) She does not like all the trucks on the road, especially on turns. She will be going very fast and then slam on the breaks on the turns with the trucks next to her.

*Oy Ve : This was a phrase used a lot. Everytime she was displeased with something.

*Oopsy, Oopsy : Said as we hit another bump in the road. I willt ry to take a picture of the bumps. It is unbelievable. It is more like driving on ocean waves than a road.

*Curtains : In the room that we met in for our medicals there was one curtain that didn't match the others. It was turned the wrong direction. I mentioned that it really bothered me. She said yes, whoever hung it had very serious problems. She said she was trying not to look at it. It hurt her eyes. The funniest part about the whole thing is that Mark couldn't see the difference for awhile. A good three minutes was spent trying to explain to him how it was different.

*Even with a tan, still grumpy : She was telling us about each of the doctors in the room that we would be seen by. One of them she said had given her many problems one time (that story itself is pretty funny). As she looked over at her she said that she was more tan, maybe she had gotten out and relaxed a bit. As the doctor proceeded to look at our x-rays, Irina said "see, see her face, so unhappy, even with a tan."

*touch your chin : There was a couple who went before us at the medical (more to come about them later). One of the doctor's came out and said he was not sure about this man. He could not touch his chin to his chest. Needless to say Mark was all over that. After of course all of us tried to tough our chin to our chest, there were a few minutes of Mark and Irina bantering back and forth about the situation. Mark was saying that he should say something to the guy when he came back out of the room and Irina was telling him no, but they would joke about what if he did.

Like I said, Irina is very outspoken. Much different than our previous interpretor. When things have come up that might throw a crimp in things, she just tells them to deal with it and fix the situation. It hopefully will be a blessing for us to get in and get things done here.

So on to more of the day. When Mark was flying through the Seoul airport he told me about this family (four kids) that were sitting in the airport playing their instruments (violin and cello type). And that they had gotten on the plane with him to Vlad. I assumed at the time he meant Koreans. As we walked in to our medical appointment, he leaned over to me and said those are the kids from the airport. I thought, that is weird. First they were not Korean (so much for assumptions, in my defence I was very tired when he was telling me about it), and second that is odd that they would be in this clinic the same day as us. Then we walked into the room with the doctors and there were their parents. Yep the same family that Mark had seen in Korea, was doing an adoption here in Vlad. Come to find out they are staying in the same hotel as we are and are adopting from the same baby home. Funny that if they had not been playing the music in the middle of the airport, I am sure that Mark would have never noticed them. BTW the doctors said they liked us better than them. :)

So before our medicals we were able to visit both homes. K was so excited to see Mark. He ran over and jumped into his arms. I thought maybe the reaction with V was a fluke yesterday, but I received the same one today. Awesome! We played dolls and legos. We also played with the camera a lot. I will post a photo tomorrow maybe. We didn't spend a lot of time, since apparently there is a "Big Head" coming to the orphanage sometime soon, so everyone was pretty stressed about getting things ready. A different Big Head than the one from the airport. ;) S gave me about the reaction that I expected. He went strait to Mark. After about an hour of playing he started to fuss and wanted to go back to his room. He has grown big. They didn't have him in a diaper this time. It was a long day with many stops but a good day. The tension that surrounded yesterday was much lighter today.

Trip three, Day one

2010-09-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

Ahhh to be back in Vladivostok. The weather is hot, the roads haven't changed, and the commute is still tiring. But the end results will help me forget all that. After my 41 hours of travel I, surprisingly, wasn't very tired. I started my tripping about 1:00am on Saturday monring with the help of my Mom getting me to the airport. I was able to sleep at just the right times thanks to some ear plugs. I have decided it is the plane noise that bothers both my head and my stomach. I didn't have any problems this trip. I could hear the annoucements and people talking just fine through the ear plugs, but it cut out the plane and air noise. Amazing!

I had many hours just sitting waiting for my next flight and a few unexpected delays in travel. One of which was sitting at the wrong airport for an hour, only hearing Russian annoucements, not sure if I would ever make it to Vlad. Due to "humidity" apparently we couldn't land in Vlad. We were in the process of landing when suddenly we were told we had an hour until landing. So we flew to Kharobrisk, landed there, refueled, and then flew back to Vlaidvostok. A delay of 3 hours. This has been my only Russian flight where no one clapped as we landed (either time).

So when I finally landed I thought "finally I get a shower!". Nope, Our coordinator told me we were going straight to the Children's Home. Ugh! Mark hadn't arrived yet and I was very nervous to go visit for the first time with out him. I wasn't sure how K would react to him not being there. We hadn't had the best first responses from V, so I was nervous to see if she would remember us from 6 months ago. To my pleasant surprise it went great! Even with only the few toys that I had in my carry on. V ran to me and gave me a big hug and wouldn't let go. K was very happy, although a bit confussed at first. Our coordinator explained to them that I had just arrived on the airplane and that Mark would come see them tomorrow after he arrived. I played for a while and then finally headed to the hotel. After checking in, getting our luggage that we had left 6 months ago, getting our clothes ironed, and settling everything else, Mark arrived at about 4:00pm.

Mark's mere 29 hours of travel was much different than my long cramped budget plane rides. As he checked in at the LA airport the Korean Air guy upgraded him to Premiere class. Yep you heard me. His long 13 hour flight he was able to recline completely, have a couple actually cooked meals, and (portion edited by Mark). Umm I should have flown through Seoul :) Oh well, he deserves it and we both made it here safely. What a great way to start this very long trip. More to come.....

Here goes

2010-09-10T22:25:00.001-07:00

Well, in about another 8 hours I take flight and won't return home for about a month. I am anxious, scared, sad, tired, excited, happy, and about a million other emotions. This should be a grand adventure. I still can't post anything more about the kids, but as soon as our "gotcha" day comes I am ready to blab to the world (well at least those with permission to read this blog). I am thankful for the love and support of all of you. Please keep those prayers going. We will not know whether we are coming home with these kids for about another week. So here we go. I can't wait to see Mark again. I can't wait to talk to the kids again (both here and there). I can't wait to sleep soundly again. But alas I can't make any of it come faster, so I blog. It will be a few days before I can get to a computer again, so I will post when the time comes. Love you all and good night.

1st Day of school

2010-09-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

What a great first day of school. (in the rain of course)

Our middle schoolers

Our elementary schoolers

Court Date!

2010-08-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

The last two days have been emotional for us. We finally received a court date. Unfortunately it was on one of the days Mark has to be in Seattle teaching. We were told that the judge would not change the date for any reason. So this meant cancel the seminar (bad idea) or lose the children (another bad idea). We went back and forth about what to do. We had been getting vibes that the judge does not really think we should have these children (apparently 4 is way to many kinds in Russia). After sleeping (or lack of sleeping) on it. Mark decided that it was not worth it to lose the children, just to keep a good reputation. He wrote up a letter to the attendees explaining the situation and asking for their flexibility. After praying, praying, and more praying, we sent the letter. About ten minutes after that, we received a call from our agency saying that the judge changed the court date for us! Hurray and Ugh at the same time. So needless to say we wrote another quick note to the attendees saying that we were dorks (not the actual wording) and that for now the seminar would go as planned. It is actually still going to be affected a bit, but we won't know the extent of that until we make our final travel arrangements. So the date... Not in May as we had hoped, not in June as we expected, not in July or August as we had prayed, but September 17th we will go before the judge and plead our case. Four kids aren't enough, we are not too young, yes we are prepared for all their needs, no we don't want them just so they can do all the work for us, yes we will give them a good life. And after all that we are hoping and praying that he will see that it is best and say yes! Until then... who knows. Everything about this adoption has not gone as expected, so I will wait until it is certain before I get my hopes up too high.

So here is a brief look at Mark's life for the next month or so... Prep for seminar (while going to the doctor again and still working), teach, fly strait to Vlad, go visit, paperwork, judge, fly back to the states, fly to Chicago, teach, possibly fly back to Vlad. Um sleep much anyone?!? I know that we can get through, but this next month is going to be insane. I am glad we have all you to lean on.

Happy Birthday Rachel

2010-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well, in the mist of all of our new and crazy day Tuesday, we also celebrated Miss Rachel turning 11. What a day! Here are a few photos. This year wasn't a "friend" party so it was pretty low key. We did forget to do the poppers we had boughten, so we are saving them for the first day of school in a couple of weeks. Anyway, Happy Birthday number 2!

Harry Potter trivia game

Bullwinkle's

2010-08-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, in celebration of Rachel's Birthday and our completion of our journal writing goals, we went to Bullwinkle's. It is a "family fun" center. We had a great time and the kids loved staying up late (we didn't get home until almost mid-night). So here is what we did for 13 hours.

Frog Hopper: I don't know why the kids like this ride but they do for some reason. It takes you up in the air and then slowly drops you down. A kids version of the tall space drop rides at other amusement parks.

Evy, Rachel, and Olivia getting ready to drop.

Bumper Boats: We all loved these. Even after getting extremely wet. On the last ride of the night Nathanh (driving his own boat) proudly soaked Mark.

Olivia before getting soaked.

Mark with his evil-eye ready to get us all.

Road racers: Another favorite. Although sometimes the line was very long, we still managed to get in quite a few races. Rachel and Olivia were old enough to drive their own cars. Olivia turned out to be quite the little roadster.

Rachel chillin'. Waiting to start the race.

The family waiting in line.

Mini Golf: They have two 18 hole courses.

Olivia, Mark and Evy

Nathanh taking a swing at it.

Rockwall: This usually had a short line so we were able to go a lot. The kids all did great.

Mark at the top of the hardest side. (I never could make it to the top of this side)

Climbing

Olivia reaching to get a bit higher.

Evy did end up making it all the way to the top of this side on our last try of the night.

Me at the top of the "almost" hardest.

Rachel and I

Nathanh clinging on with fear.

Skywalker: This was definitely a courage summoning obstacle, at the beginning that is. By the end of the night the girls were practically racing through it.

Evy

Rachel, zoomed through many times.

Nathanh, didn't keep that smile for long.

At this point of the course Nathanh could reach the support ropes so Mark put him on his back to get across to the next platform.

Olivia loves this from the beginning (notice she is still a little wet from the bumper boats). I think she is a born dare-devil when she wants to be.

I put my camera away after lunch so we don't have photos of the virtual roller coaster or the laser tag games, but we had blast.

Virtual Roller coaster: It was fun. Once was enough for me though. You get to pick your coarse and Evy and I chose some pretty curving moves. I had to walk around a bit after to get feeling normal again.

Laser Tag: This was our first experience with laser tag. The first game didn't go so well. One guy on our team told us his version of the rules, which were a bit confusing. As with everything, practice makes perfect (well at least better). We had a blast! At the end of the night we were about the only ones there. We had one family only game that was a lot of fun. Nathanh was even able to get the hang of things pretty well. Although many of the "point" scoring we would change if we were to create our own game, it was fun learning something new together.

All in all it was a great 13 hours. We were all a bit tired the next day, but it was well worth it. I love family time and this is our last big blast for the summer. So I am glad we were able to do it with all 6 of us.

OMSI

2010-08-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

I love OMSI, but the last few times we have been there have been crazy. I knew going today that there may be a few extra people around since it is still summer break and the temperatures were going to reach the 90's. But what I didn't know was that it is free science museum week at OMSI! ugh! Talk about crowded. At least we arrived early is about all I can say. It will be great to get back to the days when we are the only ones playing in the sand. Oh well, the big kids have to have some fun now and then too. And Fun they did have. I don't think kids care as much about crowds. It didn't stop them from jetting from one activity to the next. Upstairs, Downstairs, all around I think we made it to just about everything. (sorry no photos they are still on my phone) Needless to say I still love OMSI. It will be one of the many things I will miss when we don't live here anymore.

Here's what we have been up to....

2010-08-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted last. Didn't realize how fast the time had been going. We have had more paperwork, doctor appointments, and other business. But have been having a bit of fun too. So in no particular order. Here are some photos of the last couple of weeks.

Camping at Battleground Lake State Park

Enjoying a nice little hike.

Climbing the massive tree trunk.

playing on the playground.

umm, I wonder why my kids stick their tongues out at cameras?

Children obsessed with the fire. I think we had about 20 pictures of this same shot.

Evy and Nathanh having fun in the lake.

Some friends joined us one night. It was great to have some company. Us "big" kids stayed up and played games while the little ones bounced from one bed to the other in the tent. Of course not before some monster hunting in the forest.

Just chillin'

Nathanh tried for about 15 minutes to throw the water up and get it to come down on his head. It actually started with him trying to catch it in the bucket, but he had fun when it hit him so he stuck to that game instead.

Random photos

When downloading pictures I always find a few "just for fun" photos. These two I think Evy took of Nathanh posing. There were at least 30 of them (mostly blurry).

Our new friend...

Our neighbors dog has decided that it prefers our backyard. There are about three places in the fence where he could get through so we have been finding him there quite a bit lately. One day his owner was already at work, so I told him not to worry about getting her until the day was over. The kids proceeded to dress her up, run her wild, feed her their lunch, and wear her out. Ummm wonder why she likes our yard?!?

Nathanh the protector, keeping the dog out of the house.

Camp Zarahemla 2010
Olivia had her first year at girls camp. (I know she is growing so fast) She had a great time and grew up a bit spiritually, which is totally awesome. Our stake leaders did a great job putting together a great camp. They had quite a few hurdles to jump (Uhaul with all supplies and girls things caught on fire on the way to camp. The 2nd day camp flooded leaving many without a place to sleep) but came through with flying colors in my opinion. It will definitely not be forgotten.

Our stake "Captain Moroni"

Olivia after a rope challenge.

They did a version of capture the flag. Our ward ended up with all of them expect for one. Way to go girls.

Mark and I also celebrated our 13th anniversary.

Here is what I am calling my anniversary present. On the right you can see what the old fence looked like, on the left is the new one. Just a bit more dirt and some finishing touches and we will be done. Hopefully after that our little friend will no long come to visit unexpectedly.

Well, as you can see it has been rather eventful couple of weeks. We have been enjoying nature and each other. I didn't get a picture, but Olivia also did an amazing job holding onto her horse at horse lessons this past week. She was jumping and the horse decided to go a different way, she held on sideways for what seemed like forever. She will never forget it, and now there are calling her spider-legs.

News earlier than expected, but not good.

2010-07-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

So I just received an update from our coordinator. The judges wants more paperwork before giving a court date. Ugh! Right now I'm not feeling too good about it all. I was sure hoping that we would have received good news this Thursday with date in hand I could finally make some plans. No such luck. So now they are requesting new copies of two things that will expire soon, medicals for the children we currently have, more paperwork from our home study agent, as well as something I sent back in May. I sure hope they can find that paper at least. This has all gotten so crazy. So as of now planning is once again out of the picture. Even if I can get the papers to Ohio before this weekend, it is most likely another week before they can get to the judge and then who knows how far out they are scheduling appointments right now. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Rrrrrrrr!

I guess this is why some people just don't ever make plans.

Kids will be kids.

2010-07-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Went to use my camera the other day and found this.

He has been recording quite a bit lately. I think he had some help with this one.

Weekend Fun

2010-07-19T10:28:00.001-07:00

I love the weekends. This past weekend we were able to get out in nature and do some hiking. This is one of my favorite things to do.

It was even better that we were able to have some friends with us. We all had a great time.

Adoption Update

2010-07-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Just got a call. The Judge has our paperwork. Yeah!!!!!!!! Finally a little progress. I need to focus on this good news and not think about how much longer we still need to wait to plan things or how close we are getting to the seminar, or how will we get the fingerprint paperwork done that we need to. For now a big smile for some news :) Next step, the judge said she would probably be done looking over our paperwork by the 29th and be able to give us a court date then. Court dates were being scheduled anywhere from 7-21 days out, but nothing has been as it was, so that doesn't really say much. I do know that I can now plan for the next two weeks because I will be around. That in itself is great news. I will be able to help at Activity Day Camp, I will be able to be here for Olivia's first trip to Girls Camp, and I don't have to cancel any ortho appointments. Life is good... I just need to keep telling myself that.

Happy Birthday Olivia... and other things this week

2010-07-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

So this past week has mostly been about Olivia. She has had a very eventful week with turning twelve on her birthday. She gets to go to girls camp this year, so even though she wasn't quite 12 yet she went on the camp hike with the other 1st and 2nd years. Evy and I went also as helpers and we all had a lot of fun.
On her birthday (not necessarily for her birthday) we all went to see the production of The Lion King. It was very fun. The costumes were great and the actors did awesome.

Afterwards we spent some time at the Lloyd Center Mall before heading home for cake and presents.

She is so old now I have to use two cakes ;)

Then on Friday, she was able to go to the temple for the first time with the youth to be baptized for the dead.

This has been a great week for all of us despite the 90+ degree weather we have been having. Olivia we are so proud of you and love you so much. Thanks for being a great daughter and example to you siblings.

Family Fun

2010-07-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

I really should take our camera with us more often. Today I once again forgot it. We went to Lewisville Park for our ward Fourth of July breakfast and spent sometime as a family afterward enjoying the sun. I have been having fun with the kids home everyday. We went to OMSI yesterday. I usually don't take the camera with us anymore to OMSI because the pictures are mostly of the same things. But now in looking at some friends photos I figure I better keep the camera near by. The objects might be the same but the kids grow up. Thursday we went to a movie with friends. Wednesday we spent the day at Klineline playing in the water. Tuesday we went to the library for the summer kick off party (not sure why the older kids still like these activities but some how I still have to drag them away every time). Monday we hung out around the house with the electricity out for the better part of the day. We got some good book reading done. Current book "The Seems". So as you can see, I am trying to keep us busy and do something fun everyday, but yet don't have a photo of any of it. Although the other day I did hear the kids all in the bathroom video taping something, not sure what yet but I am sure that I will probably laugh once I see the pictures. I love when the kids are playing and having fun together and that is what summer is all about. Now if we could just get the rest of our kids here to enjoy it we would be set.

Flies and Casualties

2010-06-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

My one standing rule when it comes to bugs is this... If they are in the house we kill them, outside we let them be (except for the occasional mosquito while camping of course). I figure it is a good rule. Bugs are suppose to live outside. It is their home right. So I never thought there would come a day when I would want to have any type of insect in my house, but that day has come. Not only are they in the house, I actually paid for them to be here.

I knew that our little tadpoles would soon grow up. My plan... set them free. Reality... kids (and parents) love them. Sadly though frogs don't like lettuce. So off to the pet store I go to buy some fruit flies. Luckily for us they don't actually fly (how that works I have no idea, but am grateful for it).
Last time that Mark cleaned the tank he counted out the little tadpoles, 104. This week I decided that I would do the same and see if we really were losing the frogs in our house some where or if they were just hiding under the rocks. So I took out all the rocks and sticks one at a time, and yes some frogs were "hiding". Sadly though they were stiff as well. (thank goodness I now know they are not in the house somewhere). We have 9 casualties. Six of which I found the bodies of, but three of them we don't know if they were tadpoles of frogs. We have decided that the frogs were probably dying of starvation. So I guess it is a good thing that we finally bought some flies.
Currently we have three frogs and we are keeping a close eye on them. Before we had about 5 frogs at a time and had so many developing that we didn't realize that one developing was replacing the ones that were dying. Sad I know, but what can I say, maybe 104 little guys are just to many to keep track of. I will count again when we clean the tank this week. Hopefully the flies will keep our frogs alive. Don't get me wrong, I still plan on setting them free one day, but for now we will keep having fun watching them grow. It is pretty cool to see them eat the flies!

Adoption Update

2010-06-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Not really any good news to tell. The process has slowed way down it seems. Between redoing paperwork, switching agencies, and government red tape things are barely crawling in our region. We did hear that our coordinator in the region has an appointment at the end of the week with the judge to see if all our paperwork is in order and can be turned into the court. Apparently this is a tentative appointment. If the judge's cases don't go over and she has time to look at the paperwork, then she will have the appointment. We are praying that she has time because after the paperwork gets turned in the prosecutor still has to look over the paperwork before scheduling a court date. Apparently that is taking about two weeks as of now. If our paperwork doesn't get turned in this week we are starting to run into more and more problems that will occur with timing issues. So here's praying that the judge will have time to look at our paperwork and everything will be to her satisfaction.

Current condition of our pets

2010-06-17T08:31:00.001-07:00

Don't know how well you can see it, but that little guy know has four legs. We have about 5 of the tadpoles that are now froglets, another 4 have back legs, and the rest keep growing fast. As of the last tank cleaning we had 104 total pets.
Now we are just watching for that tail to shrink a little so that we can transplant them somewhere else. Any ideas?

What I want to say..

2010-06-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

In response to an email our agency sent us.

The medicals that we had the doctor sign are not the ones that are required by the courts anymore. That is why I don't understand why she would need them. The courts are now requiring the Russian medicals which is what we currently have over there (about ready to expire). Why are those not the medicals that we are having turned into the court. We knew things were beginning to expire which is why we were so concerned about turning things in quickly. The police reports are not one of the documents that we were told were expiring. If our police documents had already expired then why were they in the list of "urgent" documents that we provided weeks ago. It just seems like there should just be a checklist of paperwork that we go down and say if we have it or not. When we have discussed paperwork with you we have been told that we have everything and then a week passes and we are told that now we don't have everything. We have asked many times since she has had our paperwork what we were still needing and we are told nothing. Then each time I speak with you it seems like there is one more paper that is not correct. Why couldn't we have learned all of this a month ago?

Please stop saying that our case was denied. It was never denied technically or otherwise. If the forms that we were submitting to the courts before through another agency or independently were accepted by the courts as proper forms then why should we have to resubmit this agencies version of the same forms, which in our opinion don't have near the amount of preciseness as our other forms.

Yes I have resent the documents and you should have them tomorrow.

What I will probably actually say. Yes I sent the documents.

No good news. It seems that there is hesitation on the part of anyone in Russia to do anything productive right now. Each day we are one day further from seeing the kids again and bringing them home. I am wondering at the moment if this will ever actually happen!

Okay, so enough of the complaining. I do know what ever is suppose to happen will happen and life will be good. I am just bummed out more than ever right now. Happier posts will follow.

Monday again.

2010-06-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well, we are all the way back around to Monday again and I am hoping that our paperwork will get turned in tomorrow (actually in about 6 hours). Sadly I probably won't know until Wednesday if it did. We have emailed to try and find out sooner, but no reply yet. There is a glint of hope that we could still get to Vlad before our medicals and police reports expire, but only a small sliver. I am holding onto that until it no longer exists though.

On a happier note, we had a great weekend together as a family. Well at least most of it. Mark spent all Saturday finishing up the materials for printing. Hopefully everything will print on time and I can ship it to the bookstores on Friday. While he worked, the kids and I worked a little, lounged a little, and played a lot. We watch the Princess and the Frog and the library. It was a very cute show. I LOVE our library. Have I mentioned that before? Yep! It is so awesome. They have great programs all year long, but the summer time is the funniest. They have magic acts, clown acts, and animal show among others for the kids to come and watch. They also have a great reading program with cool prizes. Evy has already gotten her first one. Olivia gets to participate in the Teen program this year! Ugh I am getting older by the minute! She is very excited about it. They have ice cream parties and earn gift cards to Barnes and Noble. They also have a drawing for a "grand" prize at the end (12 prizes actually). Olivia is going for the WII. Yep she still wants one. Maybe she will win, maybe not, but she loves to reads so why not try.

Anyway, then yesterday (love Sundays!) we were able to just relax and play some games and look at house plans a bit. The kids really want their say in the house building plans as well, so it should be interesting. I think Mark and I are finally coming to the end of the "rough" planning of the house. We have had the same basic layout now for a few weeks so that is a huge plus. I am sure once a builder actually looks at it things will need to be tweaked a bit, but we finally have something to give them to start with.

I love games with our family and I love that Mark knows just when we need to play. After church and dinner we had all sort of gone off to do our own things. I really didn't want to clean up after dinner so the kitchen was messy and the table still covered. Mark asked if I wanted to play a game. I of course complained a bit about that I would need to clean up the table and kitchen first so no I didn't want to play (don't get me wrong my kids clean up after themselves, just Sunday I usually do the dishes and clean up after dinner by myself or with one of the kids, so that the others can spend time playing together). I just wanted to veg out and look at the house plan books we had. So Mark rounded everyone up and asked if they wanted to play a game (of course they did). He then proceeded to make a "game" of cleaning up so I didn't have to. Then we all sat down and played together for a couple hours. It was way better than looking at house plans! Thanks Mark, I love you!

Anyway, That is our life at the moment. Coming up we have talent shows, end of school parties, final reports, and hopefully a trip to Russia soon. I'll keep everyone posted.

Another Tuesday

2010-06-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

Another Tuesday come and gone in Vladivostok (It is actually already Wednesday there) and our paperwork is still not turned into the court. I sit and wonder if we will ever get it turned in. I wonder if we are the only one that care that our children are stuck not knowing when we will come and get them. I wonder how this can be happening. Then I remember all of you struggling with your own trials. I will buck up. I will go on. No more wondering just back to reality. Dinner, lessons, homework....

The good and the bad of pet care

2010-06-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

The number one reason that I don't want to have pets...

you have to clean up after them.

Luckily for now the kids don't mind re-catching the tadpoles so that we can clean their tank.

I think we might have lost a few in the process.

The good thing about a pet is being able to watch it progress.
Yep, those are little legs growing. Soon little fella, you'll be back in the pond.

So I finally did it

2010-05-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

So the kids have, for as long as I can remember, been asking to have a pet. We are pretty firm about no animals in the house so they have constantly been disappointed when asking to get a pet. Finally this weekend I gave in, well sort of, it is more of a science experiment than a pet.

I asked Olivia if she wanted to have a pet for about 3 months. Excitement at the beginning of the sentence turned to sadness at the end. Her answer was no. But she along with all of the kids like the new "pets" that we will have for a bit.
Our friends have a couple of ponds in their backyard. We were over there a while back doing some marshmallow roasting. One pond is literally covered with thousands of tadpoles. We had talked about getting some to watch them grow. Well, this weekend we finally got around to going and catching them. I am sure that was probably everyones favorite part (sorry no photos, I didn't even think to bring the camera).

After getting everything home last night the water was pretty murky so we were using flashlights to see them swim around. But by this morning everything had settled and we could see them all pretty well. When we started to catch them I was counting so that we could see how many actually survived. Needless to say I lost count after about twenty-five. The kids were having so much fun catching that I just kept letting them catch them.

So I counted this morning, those that were up at the top eating, and counted Eighty-eight! Ugh, I didn't realize how much we had gotten. I am sure that we probably have about one hundred little tadpoles in our livingroom right now.

So the idea is when they start to get those little jumping legs and arms, back to the pond they will go. But now my kids can't say that I have never let them have a pet.

Recent project

2010-05-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

So lately, lets be honest, for about three years now, I have been having some issues with my jewelry box. Ever since we began making jewelry I seem to just have way too much for my small box. I liked many things about it, but many, many things just weren't working any more.

Mark's solution of course would be to just get rid of some of it. But as I look through it all, I actually do wear each piece. So many tangles and messy attempts later I started to look for a better solution.

I did not want something huge that sat on the floor like a piece of furniture, but those were the only things I was finding that had the separation that I like. I wanted separate areas for my jewelry pieces to either hang or lay, so that I could get them out easily. Time after time I thought I had found something that would work, just to bring it home and find that it wouldn't.

Finally the other day my solution arrived at my door step.
Last week I had been online once again searching after being frustrated with the tangles in my chains. I decided that I would try a new method of searching and focused more on what a jewelry dealer would use to arrange their goods while traveling.

(note the packing peanuts...the kids love these. luckily the box was already mostly full of packages so there weren't too many peanuts)
And finally I found it. My perfect solution. (this is actually two sets, one on top of the other)

I love it!. I was able to pick out exactly what I needed to have in each drawer to fit my needs. I have loved not having to search and struggle just to find the one necklace I want to wear that day. I love that my magnetic earrings no longer attack my rings and chains. I love that I can finally find that one earring that has been lost forever.

It is perfectly organized and it doesn't take up any more space than my old one did. Did I mention that I LOVE it!

And do you see that drawer, I still have half a drawer to fill with new necklaces that I make. Yeah!

Frustrations continue

2010-05-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

I keep hoping that things are going well when we don't hear from someone, but then find out things are not going as quickly as hoped. At this point I thought that all of our Russian documents would have been transferred to the new agency, but it sounds like they have not even gotten the persons information passed on. UGH! They also are now saying that they might not be able to use them. The one thing about this new agency is that there are sooooo many people involved. It is a good thing too I guess, but it is hard to know where things really are at when one person says one thing and another person says something different. I am going to clarify today, who actually knows what about what. That way when people talk with me I won't get excited if they aren't the one "in the know". Here's to hoping that we actually get to go back by the summer time. We have a lot of stuff happening toward the beginning of school that can't be missed. At this point I really just want to get some sort of time line from them. URGH!

Hope you are all doing better than I.

Some good news...

2010-05-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

I finally feel like I can breath a little easier. We heard from our new agency that we won't have to get a new referral slip from the Ministry of Education. That is a huge relief! We still have a lot to figure out but this is a step in the right direction. We know that there is some paperwork to do (should have it all by tomorrow), new regulations (more post-placement visits and whatever else they come up with), another trip (hopefully soon), more money (no idea how much at this point, should know by next Wednesday), and I am sure much more stress involved but at the end of the day I can be grateful that I know now that we will at some point be able to bring these kids home. Mark is still a little doubtful. At this point he is in the "believe it when I see it" mode. I don't blame him one bit. The last couple of days our information has gone from yes to no to yes enough times to doubt things.

Other good news... Olivia had her last track meet today at ran her fastest mile -7 minutes 45 seconds- and threw her farthest disc -35 feet 7 inches- (at a meet anyway, she has thrown 40 feet at practice). Her fastest 800m is 3 minutes 36 seconds and her tallest high jump is 3 feet 8 inches. She did both those at the third meet of the season. We are very proud of her. She had a lot of fun, but is glad that it is over so she can get back to horse riding lessons.

No news still

2010-05-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

We received no news yesterday and have had very little today. Although I know there are people out there pleading our case for us, it is frustrating to have so little control over the situation.

We were told today that our Vladivostok contact has a meeting again tomorrow with "those in control". They are hoping to show them how much time we have already spent with the children and that we have already redone all of our paperwork.

The big issue is whether or not we will need a new referral slip from the Ministry of Education. If they say that we do, it means starting from the beginning. We would need to redo our first trip and more of our documents. If they say we don't need a new slip, it means that there would be a few more papers to sign and then we could get going with things as soon as the government says adoption are good to go.

Adoptions themselves have not yet been suspended, but the Minster of Foreign Affairs continues to request a suspension until the agreement can be put in force. According to the link below that may not even be before the end of the summer. The committee is not meeting again until mid-June! At that point they still need to finalize the agreement before it can be signed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCqeudbhjw11jtEE86-IOG0cca3AD9FPS1P00

Parliament did vote a week or so ago on whether to suspend adoptions or not. The vote came through on the positive for adoptions to continue during the agreement process. Although we are continually told that everyone just has to follow the law, courts are still delaying until they feel like the situation has been resolved. It seems like the number of regions that have decided to postpone cases increases daily. Now Vladivostok is one of those.

I don't know why we are caught up in all of this, but my heart goes out to all those that are. Until we know more, I am just trying to get on with life. There have been so many things that we have been able to do, so many that we are able to serve, and so much that we are able to appreciate these last few weeks that I don't have much time for wallowing. I will continue to keep it that way and pray daily for those children in Russia that they might understand our absence.

One Fluffy Puff...

2010-05-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

So today after dinner, I told Olivia I had to teach her something very important before she went to girls camp this summer (yes, she is that old already!). Here is sort of how the conversation went.

me: Olivia I have something you have to learn before camp. (in a very serious tone)
Olivia: What? (a bit worried/wondering tone)
(I shove a marshmallow in my mouth)
me: I have one fluffy puff in my mouth (big smile)
Olivia: giggle
Evy: giggle
(insert another marshmallow)
me: I have two fluffy puffs in my mouth.
girls: giggle, giggle, giggle
(insert another marshmallow)
me: I have three fluffy puffs in my mouth.
Nathanh: You aren't suppose to talk with food in your mouth.
Evy: giggle (fall on the floor laughing so hard)
everyone: laughing ha ha ha
(Rachel inserts marshmallow)
Rachel: I have one fluffy puff in my mouth
(insert another marshmallow)
me: I have four fluffy puffs in my mouth

process continues for a bit, but I am sure that you get the picture.

When was the last time you played this game?

This photo is of part of the way through our game. Don't worry, my girls will definitely be ready for girls camp before they turn twelve. :)

Hazel Dell Parade

2010-05-15T16:43:00.001-07:00

Okay before we get to the actual parade I wanted to post this picture. As we were standing in line waiting to start the march we looked up and saw this.

It was a sun rainbow (probably not the technical term for it). The photo doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful. I have never seen anything like it before.

Now onto the parade. The Hazel Dell Parade of Bands is, just as its name tells, a parade of all the area bands. The high school bands are judged and the middle school bands get the experience of sweating in the sun. There were about 40 bands and 150 entries in the parade this year. It was definitely an experience for Olivia.

Here she is marching

Getting ready to step off.

I just liked this picture. It is of nothing in particular, just our beauty! (I love that she still has her dimples)

Trying to stay cool in the shade.

I didn't get many other photos or any of the others participants. I ended up walking the route with the band to help get the kids water and keep them cool. Probably wasn't a good idea to wear my boots, but oh well blisters will heal. I had a great time spending the day outdoors and with Olivia.

Our little boy

2010-05-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Nathanh and I were weeding in the morning and we found a plethora of bugs. In the afternoon he was trying to find some more worms and not having much luck (of course in the 70's the bugs don't really like to come out). He is fascinated with them currently. I told him that sometimes we could find worms better if we looked under rocks. Here is what I found a few minutes later.Those are my stepping stones out in the front yard. No exactly what I was thinking when I mentioned the rocks, but resourceful I guess. Just thought I would share.

VietNam

2010-05-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

Once again I have a third grader doing a country report. Evy decided to do her report on VietNam. Here are some photos of her at school today. She did a great job on her poster. We also brought in some Vietnamese music, made rice wraps for everyone, and had jelly cups. Culture Days are always a big hit at school even if the kids don't like the new foods. This year we also let the kids try some dried fish and tamarind that Evy and Nathanh love to eat. I was surprised that so many of them would like it.

Tuesday is so far away...

2010-05-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

Well, we have "officially" switch agencies. I say "officially" because we really haven't yet, but it looks like that is going to be the case. The new agency is starting to work on things for us, but things are slow. They want to be certain that they will be able to help us with these children before taking us on as clients. (could insert a bunch of adoption language and try to explain it, but to tired at the moment) I guess it is good that they don't just want to take our money and leave us with empty promises, but they said they won't be able to know for sure until Tuesday. Ugh! That is sooooo far away! Mark will be gone until Tuesday pretty much as well, so I am here alone to stew.

We do have many things happening this weekend so I don't have long to stew for. Today Rachel has track and Olivia has a track meet. Tomorrow I will be running from one place to another, Rachel to patrol- make rice wraps for Evy- pick up sousaphone- Help Evy with report at school- get to the library- find white tape- Rachel from patrol- Olivia from track- etc. Saturday Olivia is marching in a parade with the band (carrying prior mentioned sousaphone for 2.5 miles. I will definitely try to get some good photos). Sunday I am teaching for Rachel's class. And Monday I will be recouping from the weekend.

I guess I should also take some solace in the fact that I can have Mac and Cheese for dinner every night and the kids would be happy. I do love the cooking aspect of things when Mark is away. We will miss him though and hate to miss the wedding (Mark's little brother is getting married tomorrow), but life must continue.

I just wanted to post some sort of photo to cheer me up!

No news is good news...

2010-05-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

Well, the saying goes "No news, is good news." Not the case today. No news, has seemed to be bad news for us. The hoops continue to multiple and the prospect of getting these children home anytime soon keep spiraling downward.

Today more news came out. For everyone else it is actually good news. The US and Russia have seemed to meet an agreement. The draft should be final on Friday and the appropriate people will begin to sign. It will still take a couple months to become final, but it is good progress. Unfortunately the articles also say that their will be no more independent adoptions allowed. Because of the resent suspension of our agency we stated in court that we would continue independently. So a whole new set of problems has occurred for us.

We are in the process of speaking with many more people, spending much more money, and becoming rather depressed at the moment. Nathanh asked me if I was having a bad day and I said yes. He asked why. I told him that I just kept getting bad news. He said he was having a bad day too. I asked why. He said because there was nothing to watch on TV and he was tired of the computer. Leave it to our kids to put things in perspective for us. So for now, I am going to go outside for a few minutes and play with my son.