Surgery #?

We learned recently that Randy needed yet another round of surgery on his eyes. He now has cataracts in both eyes...good grief! Apparently, the cataracts were caused by all of the previous problems and surgeries he's had. :-( Unusual stuff for a guy his age.

The first surgery was done on Wednesday. Max went along to wait with me in the waiting area. When we went back to pick up Randy, Max charmed the staff. Two nurses went scurrying around the room, only to return with an eye patch just like dad's (it's behind the glasses). They also gave Max a doctor's hat and mask to play with at home. ;-)

More Science Fair!

Well, I guess we just "thought" Emily was finished with her science fair project! She turned her board in and received a grade...that's all we thought was involved. Not so, grasshopper!
Apparently, the teacher put the boards up and had someone judge them...Emily won 1st place in her category, and received a giant blue ribbon! She will now go to the UofA next month to participate in the state science fair. We are told that the winners there receive cash money, so our fingers and toes are crossed for Emily and her orange juice! :-)

My Valentines and Sadness

For Valentine's Day, the kiddos in Claire's class were asked to decorate a shoe box in which to collect their goodies. Claire didn't want to do a simple box though! She has been asking to make a giant Hershey's kiss for the past couple of years, so this was the year we tried it. Not quite sure about how to make the form, we jumped in and got our hands dirty...very dirty. We used paper mache'(sp?) and built the shape around a bowl, then covered it with aluminum foil. Claire was thrilled with her finished product. Mom was happy. The classmates were pretty impressed too. :-)

The "sadness" part of the post is about Randy's dad. He has been suffering from the effects of Parkinson's disease for some time. The disease finally won and he passed away on February 12th. Norman is in heaven now - if there is fishing in heaven, I'm sure he's catching some big ones. Randy and his brother both gave loving tributes at the funeral, so that visitors would know about the man they called "dad". So very sweet and touching. While we are sad Norman (grandpa) is no longer with us, we are rejoicing that he is with his Lord, and is no longer dealing with that disease.

Since we were busy with the funeral, etc., I forgot to give the kids their valentine goodies. I decided to make made simple cones from scrapbook paper, & filled them with their favorite candies. Made a nice mid-week gift.

Attn:Scrapbookers! Cricut Cartridge Giveaway!

If you love your cricut machine, and would like a chance to win a new cartridge, go to this blog:
http://scrappinstyle.blogspot.com/
She will be giving away a Love Struck cartridge...all you have to do is become one of her followers and post on your own blog (like I'm doing here). If I'm not the winner (& I would truly LOVE to win this), then I would be thrilled to know that one of my friends won. So hurry on over to her blog and leave a comment!!

More Snow

We got another round of snow this weekend. It began Thursday afternoon with freezing rain/sleet, and then changed over to snow...giving the kids another day off of school on Friday. We were so thankful to sit in our warm home and watch the beautiful scene unfold outside. SO, SO thankful we didn't lose power. Remembering one year ago this weekend that we had lots of ice, which resulted in power loss for several days.

After staying in all day yesterday, today was a great day to play in the snow. Sledding, snowball fights, building a snowman, and then hot chocolate...good times.

Where...

did January go??!! Can't believe we're already near the end of the month, and I missed a lot of blogging days (bad, bad blogger). It seems I've been playing catch-up...so the trend continues...

The girls made fudge one snowy afternoon. They had to honor traditions and lick the bowl clean. :-)

Max loved wearing the cook's hat (from fudge making day). He paired it so stylishly with some flower leis (that big sis Emily wore to a Hawaiian birthday party).

And then some shades...

Allyson's class did a study on immigration. The entire 6th grade did a re-enactment about Ellis Island, and each student was an immigrant. Allyson portrayed an 18-year-old young woman named Pirkko from Finland (a young mother and seamstress).

In other school news, all 3 girls made the honor roll at their respective schools. We are so proud of them! They continue to do well in extra-curricular activities as well.

Max continues to adjust well. He has moved up to his big boy room/bed full time (even for naps!). We started potty training, but quickly stopped as I realized he can't even pull his pants up/down by himself. :-( We will work on those skills some more and then start again when we're both ready. Max's speech continues to amaze me. He talks just as well (if not better) as other kids his age (& he's only heard English for 7 months!). I think the most amazing part is that he always uses words in their correct context, and with the right feeling behind them. (note to self: kids are always listening to what we do/say, and they repeat those things! lol).

Last week we had the pleasure of meeting the parents of our dear friend Chun. Randy met Chun in Shenzhen China during a business trip. A few years later, Chun moved to the US to work. She is now married and expecting her first child, so her parents came to help with the new baby. We look forward to getting to know them better in the next few months.

Keeping Busy

The snow/ice on our roads resulted in our schools being closed ALL week! We were off 2 weeks for the Christmas holiday break, so the kiddos got 3 weeks off total. Not a lot of excitement happening around here, but I did get a few pictures this week:

This is an old bridge in Cotter, AR. We drove over to pick up my mother-in-law and stopped to take a pic of this bridge.

When the kids get quiet, I have to go and find them (to see what they're up to!). This is how I found Allyson and Claire one evening. They had pulled out some scrapbooks and were looking at pictures of themselves as babies. Sooooo sweet!

Max is really into playing with little matchbox cars. He likes to line the cars up, bumper to bumper and show them to me. This day was different though. When Max said, "Mommy, I line up" I was surprised to see the cars spaced out in an arch shape...so of course I had to snap a pic.

Snow Fun!

We had about 3" of snow/ice when we woke up on Sunday morning. This resulted in school being canceled for two days (which made for an extra long holiday break). The kids didn't mind too much though...the snow was great entertainment.

This was Max's first time playing in the snow and he absolutely LOVED it!

Pumpkin Bites - Revisited

Jill, you mentioned that you'd like to see what my pumpkin bites looked like using the flower shape cutter...

Here they are! I've made countless batches of these little pies and my family LOVES them! They like them cold, room temp and just a little warm from the microwave. Bakerella posted these little pies made with a pumpkin shape cutter. Hers were cute, but actually I like the flower shape better. :-)

Here they are baking...

And here they are after they've rested a bit...

Oh and here's what one of my kiddos looks like when she knows I've been baking them (she has 5 of them on her plate!)...

Our Holiday Events 2009

Gosh - I take a few days off and forget to post half of the month! I'm old so I can't remember everything we did...I'll just hit a few highlights before Christmas. Away we go!

The third graders at Claire's school were asked to become entrepreneurs this month. They held a "Holiday Market" and sold handcrafted items to the 1st graders. The 1st graders paid with "brain bucks" they had earned from their teachers. After going back and forth (and back and forth!) on what she wanted to make, Claire finally decided on flower pens and pebble magnets. Claire was extremely proud of her creations and happily sold ALL of her items.

Before Christmas break, Claire's class had their formal lunch party (well, as formal as third graders get). After lunch, the students took turns telling what they were thankful for this year, and then made a toast with bubbly cider. It was SO cute!

The REAL Santa always visits dad's office, and he made the stop again this year. The kids know this Santa is the real one because he always knows details about them (what their teacher says about them, how they're doing in school, how they're behaving with their siblings, if they're keeping their room clean, etc.). Claire was excited to see Santa again, and Max ran up to the jolly man like he was a best friend. We quickly realized that what Max truly wanted was the candy cane Santa was giving out. :-)

First visit w/Santa, and first candy cane (lasted maybe a minute)!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We had freezing rain and snow late Christmas Eve, so the roads were really icy on Christmas morning; therefore, we stayed home instead of going to Grandma's. The kids had a great day playing with all of their new goodies. We exchanged our homemade gifts again this year (with exception of Max since he's too little). Dad made Emily a "to do" tile for her bathroom (in hopes of getting her to stop writing on the mirror!); Emily did a pencil drawing for Claire; Claire made a mod-podge eyeglass container for dad's desk; I made a ink transfer photo for Allyson; and Allyson made a jewelry box and photo mouse pad for me. The kids LOVE making gifts for one another and have already asked to do this again next year.

Emily & Allyson with their hand crafted gifts.

Max - not sure he likes the dinosaur

Christmas Performances x2

Our Claire wants to be a movie star when she grows up. She's already a star in my eyes. :-)

Our elementary school has a choir this year - what they termed "an audition only choir". Claire decided to audition and won a spot in the choir. We have over 900 students in the school this year, so this is a big deal for Claire. The choir performed for the first time on Saturday at the mall. We were so proud of our little movie star as she had a solo in "Let it Snow".

We couldn't end the weekend with only one performance though. On Sunday, our children's choir at church performed their play, "The Best Christmas Present Ever", which we have been working on since September. We were blessed with nearly 40 children in our choir this time - (Kindergarten through 6th grade, and even a few pre-K kiddos). They all did a great job and I am so proud of them!

Vitamin C

Ever wondered which type of orange juice contains the most Vitamin C? Since I'm not a big fan of OJ, I never did. :-) Emily's science teacher required all students to do a science fair project, so Emily decided to check out V-C levels in OJ. She found a recipe on the internet that could be used as a vitamin C indicator when added to juice. She compared freshly squeezed OJ, canned, frozen, and bottled.
The verdict: freshly squeezed has the highest concentration of Vitamin C, followed closely by the frozen variety. I think it's probably best to not even bother drinking the canned OJ though, as it had 3 times less the amount of "C" than freshly squeezed...according to our testing anyway. :-)


Oh and Emily got an "A" for her work on the "C". :-)

Emily's 12th Gotcha Day!

We recently celebrated Emily's 12th Gotcha Day! I say it every year, but it really is amazing how quickly the years have gone since we adopted Emily. We are SO blessed to parent this child! Emily is beautiful, intelligent, funny, mature, articulate...well, just an amazing young lady.

There are 3 other families in Emily's travel group, and we all take turns hosting gotcha day weekends. This group of girls has become SO close and have dubbed themselves the "F4E's". This year's gotcha weekend was hosted by Natalie's family in Texas. After our arrival on Friday, the kids got busy playing the Wii and just hanging out together. On Saturday, we went to a fabulous shopping area in South Lake for a photo shoot (of course we squeezed in some shopping too since the girls are at "that" age!). :-) Dinner was at a Mongolian grill - where we all loaded meat and veggies of our choice into 2 bowls and watched as the chef cooked them on a hot, round stone in the middle of the room....pretty cool! We also celebrated with cake and presents later in the day. The parents really went all out for this year's gifts which included: a special custom necklace for each girl, shadowbox frames with a few photos from past reunions, and a photo frame with F4E tiles. Our gift to the girls was a photo book with pics from the past 12 years of gotcha days and China camp (the book ended up being 39 pages total and I also left a spot for this year's gotcha day photo). Before we left for the weekend, the girls wrote messages to one another in their books. (Note: I'm happy to share the contents of the book with other adoptive families, but don't want to post the slideshow here on the blog...just contact me privately if you'd like to view it.)

Lurch

I'd like to introduce you to Lurch. Lurch, meet the blog readers. :-)

My sis-in-law Holly is friends with the woman who owns and loves on Lurch. While we were in Mountain Home visiting Randy's dad, we made a quick stop to meet Lurch. Lurch is a world-famous guy you know. He's been featured on Animal Planet and the Ellen DeGeneres show (Ellen even built a new barn for Lurch). Lurch is a 14-year-old African Watusi steer. He is famous due to the size of his horns....they are doozies! Lurch owns the Guinness record for their size (no surprise there...not many guys would want to carry something that big around all day!).

While we were surprised at the size of Lurch's horns, we were also surprised at his wonderful, gentle nature. He is aware of how big his horns are, and is careful to not hit anyone with them. We were sad to learn that Lurch has been sick though. He apparently has a cancer in his right horn. The cancer is making his right horn heavier - thus the reason for the way he is holding his head. :-( Janice (Lurch's owner) said Lurch is feeling better though, so were were able to meet him and take photos.

Janice is a gem of a lady. She has a huge heart for animals and runs the Rocky Ridge Refuge. If you're even near Mt. Home or Gassville, AR and want to meet Lurch, give Janice a call! If you'd like to read more about Lurch and the gang, check out their website here.

Writing in the Sky

Behind on blogging....again. :-( Hope to catch up later today - after I find Claire's little camera we used on a trip!

We went to visit Randy's dad after Thanksgiving. As we were driving (3 hours), we noticed all of the jet trails in the sky. It was a beautiful day and the trails just looked perfect for photos...so we pulled over to snap a few. Take time to enjoy all of the little things...

"X" marks the spot