handsful

Here, there, and everywhere…that’s where we’ll be this Christmas! Everyone keeps asking if we’re staying IN town for Christmas, or traveling? It’s a hard question to answer. We have 4 trips. Three are just day trips, and one is an over-nighter.

Our first was last night…we drove the 2+ hours east to visit Randy’s dad and step-mom. To the kids, they are Nana and Paw-Paw. We exchanged presents, and enjoyed some wonderful take-out chicken and BBQ from our favorite local place. Oh, and pie…

Then, we took a few pictures…bear with me.

Dylan not looking…

Nana not looking. Oh well, we tried.

Our turn. Not bad!

Girls…

Girls laughing at the photographer

And, boys. Including the boy dogs. We brought Jack (black one) and they have Hogan. Hogan wanted SO badly to play with Jack, but Jack either cowered or growled at him. Poor manners, Jack.

Here we are, forcing them to sit beside each other.

And, here’s Jack sllllloowwly walking away as Hogan shows a little too much interest.

Randy and his “Pop”, as he calls him.

Since Jack was no fun, Randy decided to play with Hogan. That dog is about as strong as an ox.

Randy’s giving it his best growl…

The kids got into the fun, too.

Jack gets some girl love…

Ethan really cut loose.

Dylan then showed off his crazy skills in flexibility.

He can also do a full-out front split. All the way down. I’m thinking gymnastics might be in his future. Or Chinese acrobatics.

Is it just me, or is Marley looking OLD (as in mature) in this shot?

Lainey was doing cartwheel after cartwheel…it was hard to catch her in the actual act.

We were enjoying the show (Abbey was practicing her close-up shots with her camera…)

We stayed later than we should have, and finally pulled back into the driveway about midnight.

Next stop, Gram and Pa-Paul’s on Saturday. Did I mention that day is also someone’s birthday? Wonder who….

When my kids start to ask when I’m gonna blog again, I know it’s about time to blog again.

A lacing party…

I think my kids enjoy seeing themselves on the blog :)

Here goes. A few random thoughts on this last week or so…

Last I stopped in, it was Halloween. The kids are busy scarfing down their candy these days. I took a cue from another mom friend of mine, and the kids have “Candy Hour” from 3-4. During that hour, they can eat their candy – no limits. Well, I try to limit the littles. Interestingly, the big kids don’t gorge themselves like you might imagine. They eat a few pieces and then call it quits. And, I’m not nagging them to stay out of their candy bags all day. Win!

We had a meeting with our adoption social worker last week, to put together the 12 month report for China. Our last requirement for Dylan’s adoption :) Rumor has it that our travel group was one of the last that’s ONLY required to have 6 and 12 month reports. From now on, adoptive families have to send in reports at the 6mo, 12mo, 2yr, 3yr, and 5yr! I have no issues with sharing with China how amazing our adoptions have been and how much we love our kiddos…but, if each visit also comes with the price tag of a social worker visit? Not so cool. Glad we’re on this side of that line.

Last Saturday, our family took part in a 5K to benefit the kids youth choir, Testify. It was about 41 degrees, with wind. Cold! But, we loved it. Well, most of us did. Lainey was okay for the 1st kilometer, complained during the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, and was thrilled that it was almost over during the 5th. We were floored, she RUNS everywhere…why wouldn’t she love this? Not that we RAN. For us, it was a 5K walk. I’d love to do it again!

Have I ever mentioned that Marley is good with animals? It’s taken her a while, but she’s beginning to build quite a client base for watching dogs in our neighborhood. Since last Friday, she’s watched 1 dog for the whole weekend, 2 additional dogs for the weekend through today, and she begins watching 2 more dogs this coming weekend for 7 days. The girl’s wallet is bulging. I’m expecting a pretty swell Christmas present :)

A butterfly by Lainey. We’re working on Kindergarten skills this year with her, and Dylan is absorbing a lot, too, since he also MUST “do school”. I was a little worried this time last year, she just wasn’t interested in learning her sounds, numbers (could barely get her to count to 10), nothing. This year, it’s finally clicking for her and she’s the one asking to write, draw, play letter games, etc.

Abbey is a busy girl, too. She’s now taking voice lessons with the director of her youth choir…Susan is amazing, and such a huge encouragement to all of our kids. We’re blessed that she has such a calling for youth and for spreading God’s word! Susan told Abbey that she’s making wonderful progress and hopes that she’ll try out for a solo in the spring. She already has a trio part in the upcoming Christmas musical (as well as a dancing part).

Oh, and Ethan also has a duet and Payton has a speaking part. Marley is still getting her feet wet with Testify, but is already talking about trying out in the spring. Yes, my shy kiddo.

But, back to Abbey…she tried out for a local volleyball club today. She played on their developmental team last year, and we expect that’s where she’ll be this year. Fine with us, being on the travel club is $$ and BUSY. We have no more time for busy. Just sayin’

“Homework” with dad. If the answer key isn’t enough for them, then it’s dad to the rescue. Thank goodness he was blessed with math genes. I was not.

Speaking of math, I’ve spent the last two nights making Algebra photocopies. For 4 kids, and ONLY on Unit 2. Remind me to NEVER again buy curriculum that I have to copy myself. Ever.

I guess that’s about it. I’ll keep on swimming this week with our homeschool co-op, speech therapy, youth group, guitar lessons, horse riding, volleyball, and another speech therapy. That’ll get me to Friday. Saturday is pretty tame, and then Sunday we dedicate Dylan AND we’re being interviewed on stage by our pastor in honor of Adoption Appreciation Month. Eek. That reminds me, we’ve gotta go clothes shopping. Guess I’ll add that to the otherwise tame Saturday.

Which is why my wimpy butt wasn’t in it. The lake, I mean.

But, these guys weren’t phased in the least by the 71 degree water temp.

The boys and their good friend, Ethan. He’s the son of my friend, Melinda.

Interesting story here: Years ago, when we first began our journey to Lainey, we joined an email group of other families adopting from China. One of those friends was Melinda, who at the time lived in Ohio. We moved to our small town near Charlotte 17 months ago – Melinda and her family moved to the SAME small town a few months ago. And, our boys are becoming fast friends. God is so good.

It’s a rule. When you ride our tube for the first time, you get thrown off – it’s sort of an initiation :)

Lainey has that “gee, this water is chilly” smile going on.

The boys decided to try and jump tubes while riding.

Almost every boating day turns ends with Ethan wakeboarding.

I was the only “sane” person who stayed dry on the boat. The water will still be there next summer.

We loved living in Florida for 5 years…really, we did. Day trips to the beach were very nice. But…

this I missed. If given the choice…mountains or beach? It’s always mountains for me.

And, day trips to the mountains make me a happy girl. We ventured over to Sugar Mountain, in Banner Elk for their annual Oktoberfest. Food, vendors, music, beer. We avoided that last one. What we really went for was the chair lift rides up the mountain. What better way to view all the gorgeous Fall COLOR…

Almost to the top

We spent some time on the top of the mountain…

Hiked through the woods a little

And, suddenly we were right on a rocky edge. I stayed away from the edge. Heights aren’t my thing, but the chair lift didn’t bother me too much.

The big kids, however, aren’t phased at all by heights and climbed with wild abandon. I tried not to watch.

Love this shot that Randy got.

Time to ride back down…

Cool air, killer views, color beyond belief, and hanging out with my family. Love.

Some days, it seems like Fall is right around the corner. But, this weekend was warm so we headed out on the boat.

Time for Lainey to try the new ski trainer.

Two tries and she was getting discouraged. Plus, her teeth were chattering. The water is getting a little chilly.

As they say, third time’s the charm. She popped right up and rode around without falling once.

She’s so little back there!

Granma and Granpa were with us yesterday to watch all the kids do their water tricks. No pictures, but Ethan wakeboarded and the girls did double kneeboards. I assumed you’d seen enough pictures of those things (sorry, kids!)

So, Lainey is officially a pre-skier. Dylan is psyched to try it next year!

I feel like I say this all the time.

Our days are so full and busy, that it’s been hard lately to find time to blog. And, because we’ve been so swamped, the camera hasn’t been my first (or second) thought these days. I literally go from helping someone with history, to loading the dishwasher, to taking Dylan to the potty, back to history, check dinner in the oven, etc. etc. Not good! But, definitely my season in life right now.
Anyway…

Thought I’d let ya’ll know, I got a call from our pediatrician yesterday saying that all of Dylan’s bloodwork came back within normal. So, he’s just little.

(time out to take Dylan to the potty)

Seriously, I didn’t make that up…

So, I guess we just have to assume that his parents were small/short and he’s perfectly within normal range. Maybe he’ll hit a mongo growth spurt one day, and maybe he won’t. As long as he’s healthy and happy, I really don’t care. In the meantime, we’ll encourage him to eat and add instant breakfast powder to his milk. Maybe he’ll change his mind about doughnuts? That could help.

August 29th was our wedding anniversary. 19 years, thanks for asking :) We took everyone out for dinner that night, like we always do for our anniversary. Romantic, eh? The littles looked so cute, I snapped a quick picture.

Yes, Lainey wore those shoes. Her only other options were 2 pairs of flip flops – one very old and the others didn’t match. She BEGGED to wear these and I decided “why not?” Of course, at the restaurant she immediately took them off. Notice Dylan has his NCSU shoes on – his brothers dressed him. Not sure I’m digging the shoes with that shirt, but sometimes you just have to let things go. I finally learned that a few kids ago.

Usually our anniversary is just that…a dinner out with the kids. This year, Randy took it up a notch. We drove into Charlotte last Thursday night to spend a night, just the two of us. Randy managed to get us a discounted rate at the Ritz-Carlton in town. Yeah, I know! I was blown away, and stumbled all over my words when the bellman asked if he could take my bags. I’m so used to THAT kind of treatment, ya know?

We had a lovely dinner in town, got to sleep late the next morning, breakfast brought TO the room, and then a tandem massage appt at the spa. Oh my. After our massages, we showered and changed in the spa (seperately, of course) and the shower had 16 shower heads. 4 in the ceiling, and 12 all around. I could have stayed there forever.

When we drove back in the next day, I was picturing what my house might look like. Afterall, our 6 kids had been there, by themselves, for the last 18 hours or so. Without me there to nag. What did we come home to? A CLEAN house. I mean clean…even the microwave was clean. And, the girls had baked us 19 (exactly) heart shaped sugar cookies and arranged them in the shape of a 19. We were both astounded and crazy proud. Mostly proud! Maybe I should cut back on the nagging afterall?

So, that was our last week’s event. We stayed busy over the long weekend, carting kids here and there, going to corn mazes (Abbey) and fun youth leader cookouts (all of us). Monday was spent inside, given we were pelted with rain off and on the whole day. Randy has been needing to work on the kids computers, so he started that process. Apparently the littles thought their computers could use a little attention, too. I walked by to see this.

I managed to finish this blog, in between helping Dylan with his dress up clothes, getting Lainey juice, and starting a quick dinner before we all head out to Wed night church.

I can now mark “blog this week” off my to-do list. Ahhhh….

We visited a very popular kid’s museum in Charlotte this past Saturday. We’d been meaning to go for some time – we have a membership card that works for both the NC zoo and a lot of museums here – but, hadn’t managed to find an empty Saturday yet! Such is life in our household…

We had a great time. Tons of hands on activities, an Imax movie about Tornadoes (which made me ever so happy that we do NOT live in tornado alley…), a wonderful cafe with healthy choices, animals to see and touch, etc. etc. Randy and I were acting like kids again, with all the fun stuff. We can’t wait to go back.

One thing about the trip that stood out to me – other than the fun of lying on a bed of nails and seeing everyday items magnified zillions of times – was the overall acceptance and belief in the theory of evolution across all of the exhibits.

Not that I expected any different. Go to ANY museum, anywhere in the US, and the placards under the displays will read “millions and millions of years…” (With the exception of the Creation Museum in Kentucky, which we plan on checking out one of these days)

There was a huge display of photographs…gorgeous photos…down a couple of hallways and most referred to evolution in some way.

You know what I see when I look at the marvels of science? The beauty in nature? The vastness of the universe? The amazing diversity in both animals and people? I see God. I see marvels like the sun and the smallest of intricacies like our fingerprints that only a caring and intelligent God could design.

You might see something else. And, that’s okay. But, I take great pleasure in marveling at our wonderful world and all that’s in it, and thank God for making it so beautiful and amazing – all for us to enjoy!

Just thought I’d share all that.

Now, here are more shots of our day…

Payton leaned against a wall and ended up with this behind his head. Typical.

Dylan had to have his picture taken with the “jingwa” (frog). We got to see this exact frog and his friends gobble up bugs later that day.

Playing with air.

Jump on seats, see how far the ball in the tube will go. After I snapped this, an employee explained that you’re supposed to SIT on the seats and jump. Oops, I guess my kids are over-achievers ;)

They wanted to pose with the platypus…proof that God most definitely has a sense of humor.

Ewwww….I don’t care how fresh your manicure is, this microscope hides nothing!

Lainey makes a little friend.

Dylan makes a bigger one.

A rope bridge in the rainforest area. We saw gorgeous birds, very hungry frogs that I mentioned earlier, and bright green geckos.

These were just plain weird…little fish-worms that popped up and down out of their little hole homes. lol…

This area of the museum was such fun…lots of hands on contraptions to demonstrate principles of science. Loved it! One of our favs was the bed of nails display. We all had to try it. Lie on the bed, which is made of plexiglass punched with holes. Underneath, a bed of sharp nails that rises up once you push the button. Very interesting sensation to say the least!

They did protect your head, though. Dylan’s face says it all.

Yes, I’m posting all the kids pictures on the nails.

I turned the camera up to the mirror ceiling here.

Whew, you made it. No more nails.

Abbey shows her strength by pulling her own weight up. They had hard, harder, and hardest choices. See what she chose?

Lainey really gets into her job. This set had cranks and pulleys that kept the motions going…tiny plastic beads making their way up, down, and back again.

Our last stop was fun for the big kids. They provided little toys and other items, a computer with a camera, and a small set. We made stop-action films! It was a lot of fun. Randy and I made one using our hands creeping towards each other, and then his hand ate mine. Heh.

Thanks for letting me share our day…