His "Good" Side

Just thought I'd post a pic of Max's "good side". :-) The boy thought it was SO much fun to slide head-first off the chair and get stuck between the chair and ottoman.

It wasn't long before he discovered it was even MORE fun to slide backwards off the ottoman. It's a good thing he has such a hard head!

Flu Shots

Our schools gave free shots for both the H1N1 and seasonal flu, so we took advantage of the offer (just wish they had done this before Emily and I got the flu!). Claire wasn't very happy when she came home last week after her shots though. Apparently, they ran out of the nasal mist, so she had to have TWO shots, and THIS one hurt the most! I told her I would take a pic of her battle scar and put it in her scrapbook, so she was willing to pose for me. :-)

Pool - Week 2

Our girls were SO excited at the end of week #2...the 'cement pond' was finally looking like a pool. The water started going in on Friday, and the girls just HAD to try it out when they came home from school. It was a bit cold, but they didn't seem to mind much....well, only for a little wading in the shallow end.

The squirrels decided to check out the pool too....

I like Pink!

Daddy's biggest fear has happened....Max likes pink! LOL We have a rug near the garage door where the girls in our house drop our shoes when we come home. (Haven't managed to train the boys yet - doubt we ever will.) Last week, Max perused the pile of shoes for awhile and then chose a favorite....the pink ones! He wanted to wear these shoes constantly. No matter which room I went to, I could hear Max "clomping" after me in his pretty pink shoes. They caused quite a few falls and ouchies, but Max didn't seem to mind much. He looks pretty good in pink!

Pool - Week 1

I think we've gone too far to turn back now. Our front yard is torn up from the dump trucks and cement trucks plowing through...and we also have a big hole in the back yard. Yes, maybe a little too late to turn back now. Since I was sick with the flu, I took the photo from inside - this is the view from our formal living room window.
Amazed at how quickly it's taking shape....

Deep End

What are these silly kids doing? Swimming in the deep end of course!

We've talked about putting in a pool for several years, and we finally took the plunge (pun intended). The girls are "swimming" where the deep end will be. This is what our yard looked like at the beginning of the week before the digging began. We had to remove one tree (where the corner of the pool will be). And yes, we will be fighting the leaves every year.

Honor Society

So proud of our girl.

Earlier this week, Emily was inducted into the National Jr. Honor Society at her school. It was a formal event, so she had to wear a dress (thank goodness she's changed her mind about wearing dresses!). When I was in school ("back in the old days" according to the kids!), we were automatically put into the honor society if we had really good grades. Not so anymore. Emily had to fill out a 4 page application, and get signatures from former teachers, activity sponsors, etc. - quite an ordeal. There were only 41 students (out of the 1,000 at her school) who made the Honor Society this year, so this is truly an accomplishment for her.

October Round-up

Someone please stop this train...I want to get off! Life is moving WAY too fast for me. I can't believe that October is gone. I think I missed a couple of weeks - I'm sure they're around here somewhere! October was a hard month for us. Emily first had strep, then the flu so she missed quite a bit of school. Claire then became ill and missed several days. Just when I thought everyone was good, *I* became sick too...the flu...hooray! Max now has a cough and runny nose, but I think it's only allergies. Whew!

I missed posting during most of the month, so I'm just doing a recap of some things I missed (& can still remember! LOL).

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Allyson's orchestra teacher hasn't allowed the class to use their bows until recently. Allyson was so proud to show us how much she has learned.

The 3rd grade performance at school this year was "I Have a Dream". The students were asked to dress in clothing that represented their ancestry. The music teacher suggested that Claire wear one of her Chinese dresses, and Claire was more than happy to oblige. Claire was so happy that all of the other little girls just LOVED her dress. Even some of the boys told her how pretty she was...they even went so far to ask what it was made from. All was well until Claire told them she thought it was silk...that's when the boys went "Ewwww, that's worms!" LOL Kids are SO funny! When it came time for the program, our hearts filled with pride as our little girlie opened the show with her speaking part.

Now, let's zoom all the way to the end of the month for Halloween. As usual, we went to daddy's office for trick-or-treating (I don't think our kids have EVER gone door to door for candy). The office staff goes all out for Halloween. They have a competition for best costumes and office decorations. I'm always amazed at their creativity. These are just a few of the themes/costumes from this year:

Looney Tunes Characters

The Beatles

Yosemite Sam (anyone else remember him?)

Wylie Coyote

DH's group - the doctors

Our kiddos dressed as a doctor (Emily), nurse (Ally), Raggedy Ann (Claire), and a spider (Max).

And finally, our display for our church's trunk-or-treat event. Since dh had to dress as a doctor at work, we decided to go with a hospital theme for our car. I painted a simple backdrop of medical staff and then pasted pics of our church staff onto that (with the staff's permission of course). We hung white sheets from the sides of the van and put red crosses on it. Then we just used various medical items from around the house (cotton balls, peroxide, alcohol, etc.). We were blessed to win the grand prize for decorated cars!

Blog Troubles

A test post to see if it will show up on the blog. Not sure what's going on, but all of my previous posts have disappeared! yikes!!

Oh Joy...it's the Flu

I haven't posted much lately...partly due to just being boring (lol)...and partly due to taking care of a sick kiddo, plus lots of other seasonal projects. Emily has been blessed with good health for the majority of her 13 years, but something happened once she entered Jr. high. A few weeks ago she missed several days of school due to having strep. Last week we were the lucky recipients of news we really didn't want to hear: Emily has swine flu. Oh joy! Emily was one pretty sick kiddo (fever of 105 at one point). I'm hoping everyone else will avoid the sickies now....

Little Monkey

Since we always participate in our church's annual trunk-or-treat event, we've been trying out a few costumes. I bought several costumes for Max just after we received our referral...this is one of them. I think it's cute, but isn't "the" costume for him. He LOVED wearing it though - such a monkey (says "ooh ooh aah aah" every time he sees his picture)! It's a size 12-18 month and fits him really well.

Starfish Scrapping

I was blessed again recently to be asked to make a few scrapbook pages for a Starfish baby. I love when I get an email asking if I can scrapbook for them. Miss Virginia is a wonderful lady who has taken on the huge task of making scrapbooks for all of the Starfish babies who are adopted. Amanda (who runs Starfish) takes tons of pics of her babies and sends copies to Virginia when the babies go home to their forever families. Virginia then distributes the photos to several scrappers (including herself); we all make pages, and then Virginia compiles everything into a wonderful book for the adoptive parents. I imagine it's an awesome gift to receive after returning home with their little ones.

Anyway, these are a few digi pages I did recently. Isn't she the cutest?!

Blue layout was made using a template...don't remember designer's name

Teenager!

We now have a teenager in the house! Yikes, when did that happen?! Can't believe our little Emily is now 13 years old. Seems like yesterday when we were traveling to China for our first daughter. Now, she has grown into a beautiful, smart and talented young lady. (You can tell I'm not biased right?) :-)

Emily has been asking for texting for the past two years....as apparently she is the ONLY person in our state without it. At least that's what we've heard. :-) For her birthday, she received the gift of her dreams...an iPhone (yes, we have some pretty strict rules in place for her).

I have to admit I've found it very useful to have the texting too (i.e., letting Em know we were waiting forever in the eye doctor's office this week, where to pick her up from track, etc.). Just don't tell Em I admitted that.....

A Runner

Emily is really enjoying being on the cross country track team at school. She has improved her 2 mile time by 4:40 since the beginning of school. While she isn't the fastest runner at school, she is having a good time, and that's what matters the most. I tried to get a few shots of her during the track meets with other schools, but it's really hard to pick her out of the crowd as they run by! :-)

Ally's 10th Gotcha

A couple of weeks after C's gotcha day, we met with Ally's travel group to celebrate her 10th adoption anniversary. We were also missing one of the families from this group due to the father having a stroke. (Jim, Lynn and Kailynn - you were missed!)

Once everyone arrived late on Friday evening, the girls jumped into the cold pool, while the parents visited (& the mosquitoes feasted on us). After breakfast together on Saturday morning, the group went to a nature center for awhile, then back to the hotel for swimming (some...Max and I...took a nap. Well, someone had to look after him. lol). Dinner was Chinese of course, and then the kiddos opened presents. Later in the evening, another mom and myself took 8 girls to the mall where the girls had a great time trying on matching outfits at the Justice store. On Sunday, the group had breakfast together again before heading to our respective homes. I was still feeling "in a fog" that weekend, so I didn't get as many photos as normal.




Poor guy....no pets allowed. :-) He was only pretending!

A smooch for the stuffed bear at the nature center

Claire's 7th "Gotcha"

On Labor Day weekend, we celebrated Claire's 7th "gotcha" day! We met with 3 other families that we traveled with 7 years ago to adopt our beautiful kiddos. Sadly, one family couldn't make the reunion this year....we missed you Caitlyn!! We had dinner on Friday night at the host family's home, and the kids got reacquainted. On Saturday, we had brunch together and then corralled the kids long enough for a group shot of the 4 girls. One of the girls wasn't feeling well, so she went home to rest for a bit after our first group pic.

Of course, I had to grab a quick pic of my 3 girls too! :-)

After the photo shoot, we headed to Lewis & Clark to have a go at the rock climbing wall. We were thinking the kids would just climb a little bit (meaning a short distance), and then would lose interest. They all surprised us though...as they climbed all the way to the top of the "beginner" wall and rang the bell! That wasn't enough though....as they then decided to tackle the intermediate wall. It was much harder, but several of the girls rang that bell also. Way to GO girls!! We had lots of sweaty-headed kiddos by the time they were done...it was hard work and really hot "UP" there! :-) After the rock wall, the group went for a quick game of bowling, and then back to the host family's house for more fun...a pinata bash!

We had dinner together at a local Chinese restaurant before returning to the host family's home for cake, ice cream...and presents of course!

We had a group breakfast at a local restaurant before everyone headed home. The girls wore one of the matching shirts they received as gifts the night before.

Home 3 Months

As of September 25th, Max has been home with us for 3 months! He has jumped right in and made himself a big part of our family. :-) His Chinese babbling is gone :-( and has been replaced by constant English chatters and demands. (lol) I think his favorite word is "EAT!" (he repeats "eat" over and over...sounds like the birds that say "mine" on Finding Nemo). He is a smart little boy who picks up words and mannerisms quickly. Some people have a "back seat driver" in their family....not me....I have a "back seat parrot"! No matter who I am talking to in the car, Max repeats everything I say, verbatim. It does get annoying sometimes because it sounds like someone is playing a recording of me...over and over. :-)

It does get really funny around here though. We have tried to teach the girls that we don't say "shut up"; however, Emily became very annoyed with Max's chatter in the car one day and said "Shut Up Max!" and he immediately became quiet. About 10 minutes later (as Emily was listening to her MP3 player), Emily began singing a song. Max immediately burst out with a "Shut Up Emmie!"

I thought I was going to do a better job at writing down all the words Max has learned so far, but I've failed that task. His favorite sentence is "Mom, where are you?" -- said when I am across the room. :-) Other things he says now: have a good day, how are you, good job mommy, right there (no matter where things are, they are always "right there!"), Ally & Claire ride bus, daddy work, i love you mommy, Maxie do it, i sit down, i want. I know there are more things he says constantly, but just can't think of them right now.

As for size, Max hasn't really grown much. Many people tell us he looks like a little football player, but he really isn't as big as he looks. I think he just has a big head! LOL He is wearing mainly 18 month clothing now, but I still have to roll the waistbands on some to keep them from falling off.

Max is *the* hardest kid to get a decent photo of, so I don't have as many pics as I would like. The boy is in constant motion, especially when the camera comes out. I wanted some good photos so I decided to distract him. While big sister was at piano practice last week, I picked a flower and let Max run through the teacher's yard with the flower stem. I had to use a zoom lens and not let him know I was taking photos. Here are the results....

This one is my favorite!

Catch-Up / Update

Buying school supplies

An update on all we've had going on this past month.....

The girls are crazy busy in school. Emily is in 7th grade and in all pre-AP classes. I can't even begin to help with her pre-Algebra class! lol Emily is in band again (playing the flute), and is also on the yearbook staff (co-editor). She joined the cross-country track team and is really enjoying it. This means we have an out-of-town track meet every Saturday, not to mention at least one at home during the week. Needless to say, we're using a lot of gas (but are enjoying watching her grow in this new endeavor). :-) On top of school activities, Emily moved up to the youth choir at church, and is also enjoying having a closer relationship to the girls in her youth group class.

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Emily at locker decorating day...................................Running at the SS Invitational

Allyson is in 6th grade - last year of middle school. She is also in pre-AP classes and is enjoying a good start to the year. She started orchestra this year (playing the violin). She is in her last year of children's choir at church. We recently celebrated her 10th "gotcha/adoption day" - will put pics in a separate post.

Ally at the nature center

Claire is in 3rd grade, and doing well in school. She was chosen for a part in the 3rd grade play, which will be held later this month. She also auditioned and was chosen to be in the school's new choir. She will also be participating in the children's choir at church. We celebrated her 7th "gotcha/adoption day" recently as well - will put those pics in a separate post.

Terrific Kid at school

Max - his update coming soon! I can only type for so long with him hanging on my leg! lol

Resurfacing

Splutter, splutter, cough, cough...gasp for air. I think that pretty much describes my life over the past few months. I think I'm "back" now.

So much has happened and I've missed my blog as a journal. Since this is my blog, I can write what I want, so here's what's been going on:
After waiting and waiting SO long for a referral from China, we were blessed with our little Max. We were all thrilled to bring him home. He is a feisty little one though and it took some adjusting to having him in our family once we returned from China.

Randy began traveling more with work, the girls went back to school, and then Max became my 3rd leg. I couldn't just jump up and run to school whenever I wanted, run into a store, or do anything the way that I had been doing for the past 4 years while we waited. When we started our adoption process this time, I still had one child at home...but since we waited so long, I grew accustomed to having 3 girls who were pretty independent. Max was a big change for all of us, but probably the most for me(LJ). I went through my own adjustment period. Was I depressed? Maybe - or probably...not sure. There is such a thing as post-adoption depression.

Fast forward to today.....
Max is still my 3rd leg. :-) This little boy has a great personality and is loads of fun. He still prefers ME to anyone else. He still will NOT leave my side when we are home (just the 2 of us), which means I get nothing done during the day. He will NOT watch tv (I know, shame on me for even thinking about using tv as a babysitter...but sometimes I just need to get a load of laundry done! lol), he still asks to "EAT" a gazillion times a day...but I'm ok with all of this. Max is my son and I'm very happy about that. :-)

Thanks to my friends for the private emails, and for "listening" to me. Thanks for the words of wisdom from someone who has been there.
I'll be posting some new updates on the kiddos, as well as some pics soon. I'm not going to take the blog private for now, but will continue posting our pics at a lower resolution. I've seen so many blogs with beautiful, full resolution pics, but I'm so afraid to do that.