Cute picture of Mia and Francis.

I found this on Karianne's facebook page and hope she doesn't mind me stealing it. This was when Mia was saying goodbye to the kids at Amani. She hugged Francis and he kissed her. I thought it was adorable.

Happy Birthday Kaden

Kaden turned 3 this weekend, we had a small party for him which he had a ton of fun at but the pinnacle of his weekend was getting a drum set!  He has been making up his own drumset with different things at home for weeks now so when he got a drumset that was just his size, he was ecstatic!  Most of the time someone said happy birthday to Kaden, he said happy birthday back.....we are still working on that one!  Tim and I really enjoyed this weekend celebrating Kaden's birthday because its the first birthday that he has really been excited about so we enjoyed watching him have a great time!

Yet more pictures of California . . .

The family at Randy's donuts.  Or as the kids call it, 

the big donut.  Kade said he was going to try

to eat the donut on the roof.

The kids on one of the many niche fountains

at Greystone mansion.

Leala in a stone archway at Greystone mansion.

Tim and the kids by the fountain

in the driveway courtyard at

Greystone mansion

Contemplative Mia.

Leala and Pipes.

More pictures from California

These pictures are from the beach in Malibu, it was a grey day but the temperature was very pleasant.  This was Mia, Joey and Piper's first time to the beach!  Piper was in a pea pod which was great so that she could play and sleep in there without getting sand all over her.

The other pictures are from Greystone mansion in Beverly Hills!

All of the looks!

When Tim and I walk around with all of the kids, we always receive a lot of looks and a lot of comments.  Often times, people comment on the stroller and sometimes people will ask us about the kids, usually something like "are they all yours?"  While we were in California, we took the the kids the 3rd street promenade and the Santa Monica pier.....those are very tourist populated areas so there were a lot of people from all over the world and it was really funny to hear the comments in different accents and languages.  Some  people pointed, people asked to take pictures......it was a very interesting experience.  The people from other countries tend to much more bold than many americans so we had fun talking to people!

The stroller is wide but it is sooooo  great to have and makes going places with 4 kids so much easier!

California Pictures

There is a reason why we don't have a swimming pool!

Tim's mom and dad got a little play pool for the kids, so I blew it up inside the house and the kids had a lot of fun playing with it inside.  Eventually we moved it outside and filled it up with water and they had a lot of fun with that for a few weeks until the water that came out of the hose was regularly too warm and it was like a hot bath.  Unfortunately I left the water sitting in the pool a day or two too long and now its green.....not sure how I am going to fix it now.  Ah it was fun while it lasted!

The best craig's list deal ever!

Last September, we bought an older Trex playset from craig's list for really cheap.  We finally got around to having it put up last week and the company ended replacing all most all of it under warranty, so the end result was basically a new playset!  The kids love it!  The slide is very tall and the kids come shooting off of it, Joey's first time down, he flew off the end and landed on his back in some mud........he wasn't too thrilled but he's enjoying it now that we catch him at the end of it!

The boys are bonding!

I put a package of cheese on the counter of the island (that had already been opened) while getting things out for dinner one day.  I left the kitchen for a few minutes and I returned to find Kaden and Joey making this mess as they ate up the cheese....the mess continued onto the floor as well! At least there are 2 good things that this picture demonstrates 1. Kaden are Joey are bonding, even if they are bonding while being mischievous 2. Joey now likes cheese.....he didn't like it when he first came home!

Better view of Mia's braids!

This is a little better view of how many braids Mia has and how tiny they are!  They have been in a few weeks and are still doing pretty good, I have had to fix some in the back but they are doing really well!

Picture Post

We have a little family band going now!

Piper is always smiling and she is getting sooooooo big!

Melody and Joey's new hair styles

Leala took over 6 hours to microbraid all of Mia's hair. It looks great and Mia loves it. She has plastic clips in and enjoys shaking her head to make them make noise. I tried to do one braid but had no luck because my fingers are waaaay too big.

We decided to let Joey's hair grow longer because we had been told it had never been allowed to grow. When we brought him home, he had what appeared to be receding hairlines and a bald patch on the back of his head. Fine fine fine hair is growing in the bald patch as well as along the front edges of his hair that had appeared to be receded.

Kaden-man and other fun stories

Leala told me today that she was explaining the differences between boys and girls to the kids. Kaden announced, "Mommy, I am a man!" Leala affirmed his statement and Mia corrected, "Kaden is a gentleman." (So polite and proper at the orphanage) Kade then corrected her, "No. I am a Kaden-man." Cute.

The kids love their new playground. There will be pictures to come. The slide is pretty long and the kids can get going pretty fast. Joey, the first time he tried it, slid right off the bottom of the slide and onto his bottom. He was upset for a little while and then jumped to it right away.

Kaden believes there are spiders living under our kitchen table and is DEATHLY afraid to put his legs under there. Leala called me yesterday to try to "talk him down" when he was freaking out at lunchtime about it. I tried to talk to him but could only hear him whimpering in the background. Before dinner, I got on the ground with him, showed him the underside of the table, and explained to him that there were no spiders that were going to get him. He seems a lot better now.

Every night Mia prays for all of her friends at Amani and as many of her aunties and mamas she can remember. Sometimes it changes, but for the most part it is the same.

Today, Mia was talking about Jason (one of her friends at Amani). She said, "Where is Jason?" And answered her own question, "He is at Amani."

Mia's friend Ethan, see prior post with Melody singing her praises to Ethan, gave the kids a pair of drumsticks because they are infatuated with the drums at church. They love them. Kade was playing with the drumsticks everyday all day until he hit Joey in the head with one and got them taken away for a little while.

The kids are great.

Imagination

One of the really cute things about having the kids all together is watching them play together (at least when they are playing together nicely).  When it was just Kaden, he would get bored at home and look for things to get into.  Now that his brother and sister are home, he has instant friends to play with and he is learning to really play with kids and his imagination has blossomed. Yesterday they were playing in a small tent we had set up in the play room, they were pretending it was a swimming pool with the beach outside it.  Why they kept putting books into their "pool" I will never understand but it was pretty cute!  Mia and Kaden are the instigators and the really creative ones and Joey just follows along and laughs as they do things like "dry him off" with a blanket after he gets out of the pool b/c of course he must be all wet after having just been swimming.  

Piper is getting so big, eating all kinds of baby food, working on scooting, grabbing at everything and just being really cute!  She is still super laid back and seems to be following in Kaden's path of not getting teeth until about 1 year.  

The kids have been home for 10 1/2 weeks and are fitting in really great!  They are still adjusting but are just doing really good!  They eat sooooo many things, are getting more secure, throwing less fits, adapting to how we do things, changing so much and even fattening up a little.  The kids haven't really gained much weight but I notice it the most in their legs......their legs are chunkier than they used to be!