Danger Family

Dinner time convos

2010-05-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

"Daddy, remember when the kitty's bottom caught on fire?" And so go conversations around our dinner table. That was was courtesy of Kaden. Sure enough. A while ago, the cat got a little too close to a countertop candle with his backside and the hair singed up. The kids thought it was quite amusing and Kaden reminded us of that last night. That's good times.

Prada, then and now

2010-04-15T15:28:00.001-07:00

The first picture is Prada now and the other was not long after we brought Prada home. Her head is now above the table and she is very strong! She has really long legs and she looks like she is on stilts.

Easter pictures

2010-04-04T14:08:00.001-07:00

My (Tim's) parents got the kids some really cute Easter outfits. We dressed them up, took pictures, and then headed to church. The kids loved the outfits and my lovely wife looked absolutely stunning.

My crafty attempts

2010-03-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

I recently tried my hand at a few crafty projects. The first is a dress I made for Piper and then one for Mia. They are very simple dresses but I really enjoyed making them something myself! I will be making a few more for the girls so that have a few simple sun dresses for the summer that did not cost me a whole lot to make. The second project was Ikea magazine holders that I gave a decorative touch to. I have had the magazine holders for years and I recently reorganized some things and put them on our buffett. They were plain light wood and I really wanted to add some personality so I used Amy Butler paper and mod podge and this was the end result. I really like the way they turned out and the little touch the print added. I really love fun and funky accessories but I usually do not spend the money to buy it, so this was a fun way for me to personalize something and give it a look I enjoy!

Hiking the waterfall trail

2010-03-11T19:12:00.001-08:00

Last week we all went hiking in the white tank mountains on the waterfall trail. It is a nice easy hike to take kids on and the best part is that when there has been a lot of rain recently, there is an actual waterfall at the end of the hike! Kaden spotted a rattle snake, even before it was rattling its tail.......once he realized it was a snake, he got away from it pretty quickly. It was a nice day to be outdoors and we all enjoyed our time together!

Goodbye Kira

2010-03-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

About 9 years ago, Tim and I were approaching the end of our first year of marriage and we decided to get a kitten so that our first cat, Jobe, would have a friend. We named her Kira and Jobe never became real friendly with her, but she was a sweet affectionate cat that we came to love. Our kids have all loved her as she was extremely tolerant and patient of them petting her, laying their heads on her, Piper trying to sit on her, etc. She has survived Tim shaving her, or parts of her, several times over the years and she has served as a comforting and peaceful pet over the years. In the past few weeks, Kira's health declined, she became very sick and the time came that we had to put her down today. We are sad to lose our first pet, she was a very good cat.

How many kids does it take to win tug of war with a puppy?

2010-02-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

This was Prada and the kids like a month ago, playing tug of war. The kids are no longer allowed to play tug of war with her but if they played it now, they would lose. She is much bigger and much stronger now. Kaden is now the only one that outweighs her and that will probably only be the case for a few more weeks!

The Danninger family grows again......

2010-01-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

Today we got a nine week old great dane puppy, she is 18 lbs with large paws. Her name is Prada and the kids are having lots of fun having a puppy! I know, I know, we are crazy but are enjoying having a dog!

Family Day

2009-12-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

Today we are celebrating the 1 year of our adoption finalization with Mia and Joey and so we decided to make this a family celebration day. We wanted to celebrate God's sovereign plan in putting our family together, so we celebrate the adoption of Mia and Joey into our family and the birth of Kaden and Piper into our family. God, in his infinite wisdom selected each of our children for our family and we want to teach our kids to always view their position in our family as part of God's great plan.

Tim's mom and dad got each of them a bear from Build a Bear as a special gift today and the kids have been thrilled with their special bears. Of course they named the bears after themselves!

A few more.....

2009-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

We got a picture of all of us and Tim's mom and dad with everyone smiling! This is an amazing feat b/c the camera was precipitously balanced on the ledge of a window, focused from the inside of the house with Tim's dad yelling out to Tim to tilt up or down and then taken with the auto timer!

All of my children love to walk around the house pretending they are mom's or dad's, landscapers, teachers, chef's or whatever else......the one thing that remains constant is that they all generally need some sort of backpack, briefcase, purse, bag or whatever to carry all of the essential things that they will need. I think their general motto is: the more they can carry the better! The picture of Kaden is a typical day for him.......being a landscaper is a very important job that requires a lot of things.....according to him!

Trip to California

2009-11-09T15:58:00.001-08:00

We got to take a trip to California and we all had a lot of fun. We had an impromptu reunion with some kids from Uganda and Mia a lot of fun with one of the kids that she was friends with. They held hands all day and had a great time being reunited!

We enjoyed the chilly weather while we were there and we duplicated a picture that we had taken a little over a year ago. The kids are all bigger now and Piper is now in the picture!

Fun in the fall

2009-11-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

To start out with.....yes, I actually walked around our neighborhood dressed like a tree in case you could not tell what I was supposed to be. Tim was dressed like a tourist, with a pillow for a gut, socks with sandals, sunscreen on his nose and camera around his neck! The kids begged us to dress up with them...Kaden told me I was not too old to dress up! The kids were similar to what they were last year......super Kaden, super Joey, and cute little fairy princesses.

The kids also had fun "helping" is carve a pumpkin and they wanted to make sure we carved a happy pumpkin!

October!

2009-10-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

Kaden and Mia started playing soccer this month and it is definitely a learning experience for them.....they look cute in the soccer stuff.

The picture of our cat shows what happens when I leave Tim alone with an electric razor and the cat. He started out planning on cutting out a small area of matted fur so I left the room and when I came back, he had done a terrible looking stripe down the middle of her back. I actually think she's embarrassed.

The last picture is of my little girls wearing hats! My girls are getting big~

Homeschooling Update......better than I expected!

2009-09-23T16:19:00.001-07:00

I will soon post some pictures of our little school room area but its not quite finished so I will hold off until its complete. So, for a homeschooling update for all those that might be curious. We officially started homeschooling the first week of September and I was a little nervous about beginning. I took the month and a half before school started to read some books about education, how children learn, etc and to review the curriculum, collect supplies and get organized. I created a school area in a room where we have workout equipment and storage stuff. I organized all of the supplies into bins, put things on a bookshelf and put labels on things. Tim's dad helped me paint the room because it was a really ugly room and the paint made it feel so much more welcoming! I selected some toys and activities to keep in the room to help occupy Piper and Joey. Each day we begin by "getting on the school bus" which means I honk the horn, figuratively speaking, the kids get in a line behind me and we make our way to the school room while we sing "wheels on the bus". Then we start our morning by praying, saying the pledge of allegiance, going over the alphabet, counting, doing the days of the week, the months of year and so on. We go over shapes and colors for the preschool side of things. I always greet the kids and have them tell me their full name and birthday and we will eventually move to them telling me our address and phone number. Then we follow our curriculum for the day which is full of hands on learning, some phonics exercises, songs, math skills, a little science and a Biblical foundation. I have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been, how much the kids are enjoying it and how much I have enjoyed it. I am really enjoying being a part of this early learning with the kids. I did not anticipate this to be the case when we decided to homeschool, I thought it was going to be difficult for me to do and to stick with. I was apprehensive before and I felt like it was going to be a big struggle and I have been happy it has not been that at all. As we go further in the year, I will spend more time but this has been a good "breaking in" these first few weeks!

Are you babysitting?

2009-08-24T15:12:00.001-07:00

Since our family has expanded to four little ones, two of which are black and three of which are pretty close in age, a common comment or question has surfaced when I am out with the kids by myself and even once with another friend and her two kids: "Are you babysitting?" "Those are not ALL yours?" "Do you have a daycare?" I know that for many families that have adopted children, that question can be a little offensive because from our perspective these precious little ones are of course ours and just because they do not look like us or have our same skin color or whatever else, does not mean that a little one is any less a part of our family than a biological child. Many people take offense that people would right off the bat presume something other than the reality of these kids that look a little different than mom and dad being part of a loving adoptive family. The reasons that many would be dissapointed are many but I find that most often I am glad when people comment or ask me. Many people have never given adoption much of a thought and many cannot fathom making a "choice" to love, as opposed to the common assumption that people love their kids because they are part of them. When people ask me about my kids, whether its from curiosity, ignorance or whatever, it opens the door for me to talk about God! God is the one that gave us the example of being adopted into the body of Christ, God is the one that enables us to share the love of Christ with anyone, including children that were once orphans. God is the one that gave Tim and I a desire to expand our family in a way that reflects what He has done for us. God has put our family together as He has seen fit and when people ask me about the interesting mix of children that are always with me, it reminds me of His love and gives me a possible opportunity to talk about the gospel. So, if I was keeping a list of some of the great things about adoption, I would have to add, "It can provide many opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Fun at the school bus!

2009-08-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

Kindergarten!

2009-08-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

As I have posted before, we are homeschooling Mia this year for kindergarten but she will also be doing a homeschool program through the Kyrene school district. She will go to school 1 day a week, she will have a classroom and a teacher and they will do art, music, P.E., computer science and Spanish. This is a supplement to the core curriculum we will be doing at home the rest of the week. We are excited about starting school at home but that will not begin until the first full week of September, however her first day at the Kyrene program was last week. She was really excited and did well. We are really thankful for this program and hope it works well for Mia and our family!

The picture is of Mia getting ready to go to her first day of kindergarten and in true fashion for all my kids, she got water all over her shirt just before taking the picture. She still looks cute and ready to go!

Kaden's Birthday

2009-08-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

We decided to have a low key birthday for Kaden this year so we set up a triple slip n slide to let our kids and a few friends play on. After a little while, the slip n slide got moved to the bottom of the slide of the playset, the kids went down the slide onto the slip n slide and flew across it. They had a lot of fun. Kaden got all the tools he wanted so he can go on pretending to be a builder, landscaper and plumber all he wants!

I haven't had much to say......

2009-07-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

I guess I have taken a lax approach to blogging for the last few months. As is the case with everyone, we have had a busy summer and I just haven't had that much to say. The kids all seem so big now....Piper is moving away from being a baby into full blown toddler phase. She is talking and repeating everything and has a ton of personality! Joey is getting to be a big boy, he is potty trained, learning letters and things and is growing up! Kaden will be 4 this week and he is no longer in toddler territory but is becoming a little boy. He is getting so big that its hard for me to pick him up now. Mia is going to be starting kindergarten and is such a big sister! As most of our blog readers know, Tim and I have struggled with our school decision for this coming year....we have been up and down, back and forth and been reluctant to make to a decision. I think we have been so reluctant because we have felt the Lord pushing us towards homeschooling this year and we just haven't really wanted to do it. It is now official.....we are homeschooling Mia for kindergarten, Kaden for Pre-K and Joey for preschool! We have decided on a combination of Sonlight curriculum and Our Father's World to use for kindergarten and I will be adding the other kids in with most of it! We do not believe homeschooling is the only way or even the best way for every family but we do believe that it is the best fit for our families situation at this point in time. I am a little intimidated about beginning this school year but I do believe it will have a lot of rewards!

It's been a while.......

2009-06-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy month........the kids got to see 2 different people that they love from their time in Uganda in the last few weeks, so they have really enjoyed that. My sister was in town all of last week and the kids loved having her in town, the only thing that would have made that better would have been for the cousins to visit too! The kids started swim lessons this week and it has been a night and day experience from last year to this year. The kids are doing really well and are not scared of the water this year! We have had our usual days full of funny conversations and crazy kids but they are doing really well!

The pictures I am posting are of a few different things in the last month. Tim and Steve took the boys to veterans graves for Memorial Day, the boys put flags at the veterans graves and Steve taught them how to salute.

One picture is of the dryer with a bunch of little pieces of paper in it.....Kaden left his little Bible in one of pockets........just one of the many things I find in the laundry.

There is one of Kaden holding a cucumber from our garden, this is an average size for the cucumbers we have been getting from our garden!

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T14:27:00.001-07:00

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! Tim took the kids out early in the morning and I was able to take a nice long shower, take my time getting ready in peace and quiet! The he brought the kids home with breakfast and flowers! The kids were really excited about Mother's day and then inquired about when it would be daddy's day. Then they also thought it would be a good idea to have a little boy's day and a baby Piper day! I wanted to get a picture of me with each of the kids b/c I never seem to do that and then a group picture! The pictures above give a pretty good glimpse of what its like to get that done, the last two were actually from the night before but the same things happen everytime we do group pics! I love the kids and I am blessed to be the mommy and 4 crazy kids! Its funny that it still seems kinda weird to me that I have 4 kids!

Sometimes they can be so sweet . . .

2009-05-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

Leala was not feeling well this morning and I had to go to work. Leala called me later and told me that Kaden got his little step stool, grabbed a glass off the counter, took it into the bathroom, filled it up with water (presumably from the sink), and came back to Leala telling her, "Mommy, I think you need some water. It will make you feel better."

Leala is out of control!!!!

2009-04-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

This picture is the evidence that my wife may be losing it. She got a label maker and has been using it . . . frequently. It is actually really helpful because she can use it to start teaching the kids where their things go, helps me to know where my things go, and helps me to find things in our pantry. I think she got it for free or pretty near it with all of her deal shopping right now.

Bedtime Fun

2009-04-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

As we have said before, each night before bed, we pray with the kids.

Leala or I will pray and then we have the kids pray. Kade usually just says, "Thank you God for mommy and daddy. Mommy, Daddy, I prayed for you." Joey usually says, "(mumble) mommy, (mumble) daddy, (mumble) food, (mumble) playing, (mumble mumble mumble mumble)." My usually prays, "Hands together, eyes closed (that was how they prayed at the orphanage), thank you for our toys,

thank you for mommy and daddy and baby piper, thank you for (insert whatever we did that day whether it was going to the zoo or eating dinner

or working in the garden)."

Tonight was rare.

Kaden went on a praying rant thanking God for everything he could think of. The following are some of the things he prayed for. He repeated these things over and over. Praying for making my car made me laugh, but praying the the stuffing in his blanket was really sweet.

"God, thank you for mommy and daddy. Thank you for making daddy's car. Thank you for making our seats. Thank you for Jesus. We wish Jesus didn't have to die on the cross. Thank you for the people that made my blanket and for the soft stuff inside it. Maybe sometime we can come to heaven and not have to die."

After we pray, we sing some songs. Joey always has one request, Jesus loves me. Even if we just sang it, he will say he wants to sing it again.

Melody loves to sing. We will find her just singing randomly throughout the day. it is really sweet.

At Sunday school this week, Kade and Joey learned about Kind David and his passing of advice to Solomon before he died. When I went to his class, he told me he learned about King David and we are going to get old and die. The whole ride home he had questions about death and asked if I was going to die and if he was going to die. It was sad to hear the confusion in his little mind. He asked me if after we go to heaven, we will be able to go home. I had to explain to him that heaven is about God and it is a wonderful place where we can freely worship God forever and we won't want to leave. Heaven is much better than our home. He has continued to ask questions for the next few days. This was also reflected in his prayer that he wants to go to heaven without dying.

Such a sweet little kid. It reminds me of Mia shortly after we got home from Uganda when she threw a royal fit one night. When we calmed her down she said she did not want to go to heaven because she did not want to leave her family. Man I love that little girl.

The kids are great. We are blessed.

ONE YEAR!!!

2009-04-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Today marks one year from when Melody and Joseph came home from Uganda. As Leala indicated earlier, it has flown by and the kids have really fluorished. We are so happy to have them home and to have had the transition with them go so easy. Kade continues to tell us how much he loves Joey and Mia and Joey and Mia play really nicely with Piper.

Piper is their rescuer in time of need. When the kids go to time out, Piper will run over to them and sit next to them to keep them company. She will also get up and give them hugs when they are in time out. Although the kids may be grumpy going to time out, Piper cheers them up and they start laughing and playing with her. It really is sweet.

One year under our belt and many more to go.

Below is a picture of the kids very soon after they got home.

Decisions, decisions....oh how quickly school is coming!

2009-04-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

For the last year, Tim and I have been discussing school options for our children, especially since one of them is facing kindergarten next year. I have spent a lot of time researching different options for us and have been very frustrated at times. I was in no way a model student growing up and I went to 13 different schools by the time I graduated so I had a significantly varied education. As I try to collect my thoughts about what to do for my children's education, I realize I must throw my own experience out the window and tread lightly in conversations about schooling b/c school options are often a "sacred cow" for many families! Tim and I, just like other families, have many issues at play when we begin to contemplate what schooling option is the best fit for our family: location (we do not have a lot of schooling options near by), our children's readiness for school (especially given that the first one up has only been in our home 1 year), our children's personalities, our priorities and desires for education, our own strengths and weakness in shepherding our children during their schooling experience, etc. There have been a few times that we have come to a decision only to find that a month or two later we are struggling and wrestling with whether or not we believe that is best. Many people have said "its only kindergarten" and I know that in some ways they are right but it is my job to take care of my kids, to shepherd them and discern what is best for them and to be an advocate for them and what we do for school is connected with that.

It seems to have come down to a local charter school that has all day kindergarten or homeschooling! I have resisted homeschooling because I don't want to do it, I do not think I would be particularly good at it, I don't like the stigma that homeschool kids get, I want my kids to have constant interaction with other kids, with having 4 small kids I have felt like it would be good to separate them a little, etc. The reasons I am even considering homeschooling is because I don't like the idea of putting my 5 or 6 year old in school all day, 5 days a week, especially when I am not sure that my child is ready, I recognize that there are so many wonderful curriculum options available to homeschool families, I recognize that there are other avenues to provide socialization opportunities for my little ones and that homeschooling extends the time that parents can have a bigger sphere of influence on their children. A week ago I knew what we were doing and this week and I am just not sure, but as complicated as I can make all of this in my head, I know that whatever we do doesn't have to be permanent and that if we faithfully submit ourselves to the Lord, he will direct us.

If anyone else out there knows of some great schools or curriculum or other great options, I would love to hear you input!

Random thoughts!

2009-04-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

Since the kids have been home a year this coming week, I thought it appropriate to post a baby picture of Melody that was taken in 2004. I am not sure how old she is or who took the picture but it is the youngest picture we have of her, thanks to volunteers from ABC. I would have loved to have known her and held her when she was so little but I am thankful for the happy and healthy little girl she is now!

Tim and I had a great weekend with our friend from Uganda that was in town. He and his family are missionaries there and were a huge encouragement during Tim's time in Uganda. Obviously since they live in Uganda, their life is very different than ours: all of the food has to be prepared from scratch, water has to be pumped, no air conditioning, no peanut butter, no cheese, few luxuries, etc. When I asked him how it has been living without all of that, his reply was something to the effect of: the more we do not live for this world, the easier it is......each day we focus on what the Lord is calling us to do and we just don't think about all the other stuff. I realize at this point in my life, I am not called to live the same life that they are called to live but the point echos in my mind.....contentment! I love luxuries....I love pedicures, hot water, pre-made foods, I hate being durty, I love watching something good on TV at the end of the day, I hate public restrooms and will avoid using them to the best of my ability, I love buying new things, etc. The question is: Could I be content without all those luxury things I have come to expect in life.....would it bring more joy to give up those things for following what the Lord has for me? I was recently reading a John Piper book about fasting and it makes a wonderful point about the effect the things in this world can have: "The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world........The pleasures of this life and the desires for other things - these are not evil in themselves. These are not the vices. These are gifts from God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God." The point with fasting that he is making is that you can fast to take deliberate time to fill yourself up with the Lord and not other things, but the point is definitely bigger. All these wonderful things in life can fill us up so that we are not filled with the Lord......that is definitely true in my life!

I am trying to have a little devotional time with the kids in the morning and 2 weeks ago we talked about being tenderhearted and I gave the kids a definition of tenderhearted from the book I was doing the devotional out of. One of the kids came up to me last week and said "Mom, I am strong enough to feel the joys and hurts of Piper.....thats being tenderhearted" I was appreciative of the fact that they listened and are trying to apply it!

Garden and new cabinets

2009-04-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

So, in the last several weeks we have put in a garden and new cabinets in the kitchen. In the garden, we are attempting to grow green beans, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, chives, scallions, cilantro, basil and some peppers. Everything is sprouting and I am excited for it to really get growing! I will post pictures soon!

This last weekend we embarked on putting new cabinets in our kitchen. Tim has done a large part of the work himself and is still going. Hopefully tonight the countertops and sink will go in.....which I am really excited about b/c we did not have water in the kitchen today! It may take a while for me to post a pic of the new kitchen b/c I think the finish work may take quite some time! The kids have been really curious about all of the change and they have been good little helpers, or at least they try to be good little helpers!

5 Things for my morning routine!

2009-03-25T09:56:00.001-07:00

A blog I was reading this morning is challenging moms to make their home a haven. The first challenge is to create a morning routine so that the day can get off to a good start. I have decided to take up the challenge of making my home a haven. I really want my home to be a joyful place for everyone.....a place Tim can relax after all the business and craziness of work, a place the kids feel safe and love being, a place that encourages creativity and a place that is welcoming. There is a balance between getting all of the tasks of the home done and making time for all of the members in your home and I can say that I do not have that balance: I am not nearly as organized as what I believe I need to be but I am sometimes selfish with my time by not serving the other members of my household in spending time with them. So, I am creating my list of 5 things I want to accomplish each morning!

My morning routine:

- Quiet time with the Lord & Prayer

- Clean up the kitchen (put away clean dishes, etc.)

- Make my bed (I am terrible at)

- Morning devotional with the kids

- Get dressed and get myself ready for the day.

These things seem simple enough but I am terribly laid back about making routines and it generally does not take much for me to alter my plans for the morning. I absolutely see the benefits of being disciplined and having routine, I would love to be that way but I find that when it comes down to it, I lean towards not having a set routine and instead opt for a more laid back and freedom/spontaneous type attitude. I really want to change in that area and I believe it would be so much more beneficial to myself and the rest of the family! So for all my friends that are reading this, feel free to ask me how I am doing!

2009-03-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Kaden wanted to go outside this morning with Joey after Joey got back from the hospital. I asked Kade if he wanted to watch a dvd or go outside. He responded in quite a serious voice, "I want to go outside and take care of business with Joey." We queried what kind of

business he wanted he and Joey to take care of and he responded, "Bookshelf business." He then

explaind to us that he and Joey have bookshelf business outside.

Later, they were playing and Kade told Joey, "Come on Joe, we need to take care of business." We are now headed outside to "take care of business."

Joey's Ear Tubes

2009-03-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

This morning Leala and I took Joey to the children's hospital to have tubes put in his ears. He has apparently had a number of ear infections that caused a differential in pressure that has led to some hearing loss. With the tubes, the pressure should be equalized and his hearing should fully restore.

He was a real champ. Before the procedure he was playing with the toys in the waiting room and driving a toy car around. At the time of the procedure, he drove the car to the operating room and then very peacefully went with the nurses. As always, Joey charmed everyone he ran into and had everyone fawning over him.

The procedure literally took about 5 minutes. Afterwards, he was groggy but alert and he is now playing with Mia and Kaden.

Random thoughts and updates!

2009-03-08T09:44:00.001-07:00

1 year ago this month, we had our court date to obtain custody of Melody and Joseph. The picture above was taken when the kids received their passports! They both look so little and so young to me now. Joey doesn't even look like the same child to me. Melody remembers a lot about her time in Uganda but a lot is fading from her memory, its kinda sad. We go through pictures with her every so often and she is forgetting some of the kids names and some of the people. There is always a excitement and familiarity she has at seeing the pictures but some things are a little vague now and yet some memories are very clear for her! It is sooooo nice to be a year out from all of that and comfort that brings. We are no longer acclimating and adjusting, everything feels much more normal now. It warms my heart now when I hear Kaden say "I love my sisters and brother" or Melody say the same. Melody is Kaden's sister and in his little mind that is just how it is and vice versa! It doesn't really feel like its been a year since the bulk of our adoption experiences came to an end but when I look back to all the differences from then till now, it seems like a long time ago!

Joey will be getting tubes in his ears later this month. He has some hearing loss in one ear and a severely retracted ear drum, so he will be getting tubes to hopefully help with those issues!

Piper is trying as hard as she can to communicate and do everything Kade, Mia and Joey do. She understands so much and is a busy and full of personality little girl. She keeps me on my toes!

Mia met a clown for the first time this weekend, she was very sketchy about it at first but she ended up handling it really well!

We are well on our way to having 3 kids potty trained.....still pull ups at night time but potty trained w/o diapers.......what a great feeling to only have one left in diapers!

Mommy, you are beautiful!

2009-02-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

One thing that Tim is always very good at is complimenting! Kaden, in particular has picked up Tim's verbal affirmations and he will often come up to me and say "Mommy I really love you and you are beautiful!" I am always very grateful for those sweet times and for Tim's example to the kids!

My little cleaners!

2009-02-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

The 3 older kids like to clean stuff which usually involves them sneaking into the baby wipes container, each of them taking out a few, tucking the corners into their pockets and then letting them hang out and wiping off everything. This morning Kaden was wiping down his bus and Piper was sitting on the floor in his way so he leaned down and started wiping off the back of her shirt, then he lifted up the back of her shirt to clean off her back. I asked him to stop cleaning Piper so he moved on but then I look up and Joey was getting ready to follow his brothers example and begin cleaning Piper......I had the no cleaning Piper conversation again with Joey. If only I could get them to clean up the things I really want them to clean up........their chairs after lunch, the floor after lunch, the table, etc. Were making progress!

Kaden's rules for tea time with Daddy.

2009-02-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

As Leala posted, Kade, Mia and Joey had tea time with me a little while ago. Kaden started telling me what the rules for tea time were. Mia and Joey followed up with their rules as well.

Playing outside and saying hi to aunties

2009-02-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

The kids were playing outside and we got them to say hi to their aunties. When we got home, we decided to let Joey's hair grow out. This video was a few months ago. At that time, his hair was still sort of fuzzy. We have since trimmed it.

Although you may not be able to understand what he says, he says hi to Auntie Karianne and Auntie Arielle.

Music time

2009-02-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

The video above is of the kids playing some of their music. They really love music and we are happy they are as creative as they are. Enjoy. For those that knew Mia and Joey at Amani--it is amazing how much they have grown. This video was from a few months ago but we have had trouble getting it to post on the blog.

Piper, Pipey, Pipes!

2009-02-05T21:21:00.000-08:00

Piper is going on 15 months, she has 8 teeth, and she has a big smile and a big personality! Before you have kids and if you haven't spent a lot of time with little kids, its hard to imagine how much personality a little 1 year old can have! Piper is full of personality......she loves to scream, she loves to be thrown in the air, she loves to have people scare her, she loves it when we sing to her, she loves to follow her brothers and sister, she loves to be tickled, she loves her pacifier, she loves to laugh, she loves to try and eat the cat food, she loves the cats, she loves phones, she loves to make faces, she loves to growl, and she loves to climb on things! She was a pretty easy baby but she definitely gets spunkier as she gets older.......she will keep us on our toes!

Fun with painting!

2009-02-05T21:14:00.000-08:00

Kaden and Joey were having a lot of fun painting and drawing with chalk! I don't know if they will turn into little artists, but I love encouraging them to be creative! I have a lot of great memories from when I was little of painting with my grandma. My grandma was very creative and was a wonderful painter and did beautiful china painting. I would spend time at her house and she would teach me how to paint......I loved doing those kinds of creative things with her!

Special Tea Party with daddy!

2009-02-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Last week I went to a cooking class, so Tim had the kids for the evening! Tim got the kids ready for bed, put Piper to bed and then they had special tea time with daddy! When they have tea time, they like to keep refilling their tea cups and then add some sugar, stir it and sip their tea. They do this over and over again. I teach them to speak properly and that when we have tea we talk about very sophisticated things......they of course, have no idea what that means. I suppose one of these days I could let them try "real" tea, as opposed to the water that they pretend is tea....that might be interesting, Kaden may not like tea time anymore if real tea is what he had to drink.

Little tidbits!

2009-01-29T10:35:00.000-08:00

I neglected to update that Piper is walking, she started taking some step right before christmas and then when we were visiting my family in Oklahoma for Christmas, she graduated to walking. She is super active now, its very cute but like all little ones, she loves to get into stuff!

We are officially 8 months into locking Mia's hair and its going good. For those that may not know, locking is basically creating controlled dreadlocks. In Mia's case they began as tiny microbraids and the hair grew the base of the hair needed to be "locked" to keep it from being a frizzie mess, so we use a crochet latch hook to basically knot up that base of the braids as it grows out. This process alows Mia to grow her hair out w/o all of the struggle of constantly messing with her hair for long periods of time every couple of days. Once its long enough she will be able to put her "locks" into ponytails, pig tails and all sorts of different styles! For now we just do beads.

Joey is officially a little boy not and not babyish like when he first came home: his imagination is growing, he is articulating so much (although he may need some speech therapy in the near future, he is leaps and bounds further than when he first came home), he is more confident, he is easy going and is figuring out so much! He is currently in a repeating phase where he repeats everything that everyone says!

Kaden is definitely the "big" brother of the bunch.......he is much bigger in size and in his role. He is mostly the leader of the pack. He and Mia play off of each other with their imaginations and they come up with all kinds of crazy things to play pretend about. They pretend they are landscapers, driving buses, going to work, cleaning the house, working on computers, cooking, having a tea party, working out, taking care of kids, etc. Its pretty entertaining!

Mia loves to play, she is great at playing with kids and by herself. She loves playing in her room while the other 3 nap. She has a dollhouse, a kitchen, a vanity, dolls and all kinds of things she loves to play with in her room. She happily keeps herself occupied in there for 3 hours. She sometimes falls asleep but she loves playing and often she sings while she plays! She has a bossy streak but is mostly very gentle hearted!

Piper is super funny and full of personality. She smiles and laughs all of the time and she loves to play with her older brothers and sister. She knows what she wants and when she doesn't get it, she lets you know! She is a picky eater and when she is ready to eat, she is ready to eat! She definitely tries to keep up with the older kids!

Our house is busy and sometimes crazy, lots of talking, lots of playing, lots of me learning to be patient and gentle and lots of eating!

Finally a post!

2009-01-19T19:21:00.001-08:00

The above picture is what happens when we pack to get ready for a trip.....we did think about taking the kids to Oklahoma this way!

The pictures of the pile up of kids is our bunch with their cousins: Hunter, Kialey and Noah at Christmas time in Oklahoma. They loved getting to know their cousins and spending time with them!

Our drive out to Oklahoma went far better than we thought it would, the kids did really well. Gave us a lot more confidence to make other road trips in the future.

Tag, I'm it.......7 Random facts about me!

2008-12-19T06:25:00.000-08:00

My friend Jen tagged me, so here are some random facts that you may or may not know about me!

1. By the time I graduated higschool, I had been to 13 different schools.

2. I had stints of playing volleyball, basketball, ballet, tap & jazz as a youngster. (Tim is the only person currently in my life, outside of my family, that has seen some of the wonderful photos of me in those horrible dance recital outfits and some great pics of me playing basketball where he likes to refer to my arms and legs as tooth picks!)

3. I used to love to go swing dancing!

4. I have done non tandem skydiving, whitewater rafting, and other crazy rope related activities like rock repelling and high ropes courses.

5. I started out as a Home Economics major at Master's and then 1 year later switched to Biblical Counseling.

6. My hair was blonde up until I was about 4.

7. I have worked at 2 different Animal hospital/veterinary clinics. One when I was like 13 and 14 in Oklahoma and one during college in Studio City, Ca.

I tag Amberlee, Cristina M. (if she hasn't done it already) and Lexi again b/c last I checked, she hadn't done it!

Joey turned 3!

2008-12-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

Joey turned 3 earlier this month and like Mia, it was the first birthday he has ever really celebrated. He was very excited to have cupcakes, blow out candles and open his gifts! He has changed the most since being home: he has grown 4 inches, gained about 10 pounds, his hair has grown, he looks older, he has become much more articulate, his personality has really come out and he is learning all kinds of things. For the most part he has a very easy going personality, he is very happy and is the easiest one of all 4 to take places. He loves to be held, he loves attention from ladies, he loves to flirt, he likes to squeal, he likes chicken nuggets, he loves to turn the lights on the christmas tree in the morning, he is very detailed, he is great at playing with Piper, he is very gentle, he is very agile and he likes to be silly!

Adoption Day

2008-12-11T22:43:00.001-08:00

A little over 2 1/2 years ago, Tim and I began the process to hopefully adopt 2 children from Uganda. At that time, Kaden was about 9 months old and we thought the whole process would only take about 9 months to a year. After a year of waiting we were matched with Melody. One week before we were matched with Melody we found out we were pregnant with Piper. About a week and half before Piper was born we found out one of us needed to make a trip to Uganda to sign paperwork. Thankfully Piper was born 2 1/2 weeks early and the day before Piper's due date, Tim left for Uganda. Tim met Joey while on that trip and we were matched with him shortly after. After two more trips to Uganda, the kids came home marking two years of waiting coming to an end. Wednesday, December 10th Tim and I were granted full and final adoption making us officially mom and dad! We are very thankful to have this process come to an end, the Lord has been very gracious to our family and the transition for all of us was not as overwhelming as we thought it could be.

My Biggest Fan!

2008-11-28T20:49:00.001-08:00

The kids were eating lunch at the table today and we were listening to some music on the new ipod docking station that I had purchased in the wee hours of the morning for black Friday and I put on "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper and I was dancing 80's style and singing for the kids and Melody was soooo cute...... everytime I did a new move she would say with a very sincere and admiring voice "mommy, that was REALLY good!" Yes, thats right folks, someone thinks I am a great dancer! She is always super sweet!

Thoughts approaching Christmas time!

2008-11-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

Tim and I occasionally talk about how we want to do things with our family at Christmas.....traditions, gifts, etc. We have come to the conclusion that our kids have a lot and are very privileged and so we get them one gift each....ultimately they get more with family giving them gifts but the basic idea is that we don't want to go crazy with all the gifts and make christmas all about getting presents. I am not saying that if other people buy their kids more than one gift they are making christmas all about gifts, I am just commenting that this is a way we have chosen to go about making christmas a little less about getting presents. We of course want to take lots of opportunities to talk to our kids about the true biblical meaning of christmas in every way we can. Tim's mom makes a "Jesus Tree" for kids where all of the ornaments have a specific meaning or example of the story of Jesus birth and the gospel.....this year she is making the kids their own little tree and each day of December they get to open an ornament to put onto the tree and we get to talk about the symbolism.....its kinda like an advent calendar! I also try to think of ways to teach the kids to think of others and I am not sure what that will look like for our family as our kids grow but I want to set some traditions now that we do each year. One of the thoughts I have that was inspired by another friends blog is by giving to organizations that provide water to 3rd world countries. "Solving this water problem once and for all will cost about $10 billion. Not bad considering Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas last year". - adventconspiracy.org Poor water conditions is the leading cause of death around the world and specifically in remote areas of the world. Thousands of children die each day because of water related illnesses and it is not that hard to do something about. My own children come from a country that suffers its own share of deaths related to poor water conditions and giving towards doing something about water conditions is one way we can help and in the process teach my family to think of others and have compassion for others! I would love to hear ideas from others!

Cooking more and eating healthier!

2008-11-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

This is a bit of an out of character post for me but I just thought I would share something I have enjoyed lately! I have always liked the idea of cooking and baking everything from scratch because its more cost efficient, better for you, etc. but I am generally paralyzed by my lack of knowledge and experience and my lack of ideas. I tend to tell myself I need a lot of time and practice to do all those things so I end up not doing it. For the last few weeks I have been taking a little cooking class that is about taking the things my family already likes and eats and making them better for us by adding whole grains, fresh produce, etc. I have really enjoyed the class and the process of learning about new things that are not as hard as they sound. I have been adding Quinoa to a lot of things we eat....it is like a grain and when cooked is similar in texture to brown rice with very mild flavor but it is a complete protein and incorporated very easily into so many things that I already make. I have learned about grinding my own wheat, which is something I never ever thought I would have any interest in. Learning about the differences in wheat and how different they are in baking has been so fascinating......it has given me hope that Tim will actually like whole bread b/c there are sooooo many other options than the wheat bread that is in the store. I made my own bread......again something I never thought I would ever do and it was surprisingly easy and everyone has been eating it and likes it! I have found that I enjoy doing these things and its nice to know that I can provide things for my family that don't contain all of the synthetic junk that is in most processed foods w/o spending an arm and a leg! Hopefully I will keep moving forward in my progression of cooking and baking more! I have a few kitchen electrics that will be on my list of things I would like to get down the road that would make this process easier and more enjoyable and maybe I will start trying to make my own fruit lether!

That doesn't look very good!

2008-11-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

Kaden looked at this picture sitting on our shelf today and said "Mommy, what do you have on?" To which I, of course responded, "a wedding dress" and he replied "that doesn't look very good!" Not sure what he didn't like about it but apparently its not impressive to my 3 year old.

Piper turned 1!

2008-11-18T20:09:00.001-08:00

Piper turned 1 and she was so cute when she got her gifts.......these are the first toys that are just for her and she really liked them, especially her little pink ride on horse! When we sang happy birthday to her, she had the sweetest little bashful smile!

Here comes trouble!

2008-11-12T17:20:00.000-08:00

My busy, mobil, go getter little girl is getting into everything and trying to keep up with the bigger kids! She turns 1 this weekend and is not walking yet but that does not deter her from going everywhere! As you can see in the picture above, she loves to climb onto the bus and stand up and then scream as if to announce she is up there! The other picture was not staged, all 4 kids were playing on a tipped over tool bench! I think Mia and Kaden were pretending it was a car and Piper and Joey were just there to play along!

Mia's 5th Birthday!

2008-11-12T17:16:00.001-08:00

Mia celebrated her 5th birthday.....she had been looking forward to it for months! We had a birthday party with a bunch of her friends and their families and a big bounce house! She was excited to blow out the candles on her cake! The other picture above is her birthday present.....a dollhouse! It was a hit with all of the kids!

For the aunties . . .

2008-11-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Below are some really cute videos of the kids we filmed recently. We want everyone that knew them at Amani to see how much they have grown here. It really is incredible how fast they are growing up. Our household is busy but fun.

This is a video of Kaden changing the imaginary bag on his lawn mower. He loves our landscapers, often tells me that he wants to be a landscaper, and plays imaginary landscaper all the time.

This is a video of Joey playing that he is on a cell phone talking with people.

This is a video of me tickling Joey before getting ready for bed. Joey loves being tickled and laughing.

Finally, this was just a really cute picture of Joey.

One more halloween pic!

2008-10-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

This is the full effect of the costumes. Kaden and Mia ended up ditching their respective wands and Kaden did not like to keep the mask on......it was cute while it lasted.

Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

This is about how we walked around for the evening. We have two little ballerina fairies, one little lion and superhero Kaden.

What a cute little Fairy!

Even from behind they are super cute!

Network problems

2008-10-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

Our house has been plagued for some time with wireless network problems. I have tried to understand why the wireless can work fine for 6 months and then all of a sudden stop working for an entire week and the only explanation I get from the "experts" is, "wireless is funny that way."

This weekend, I think I finally found the problem with the wireless. It doesn't take an expert to conclude that a cat in your router is not a good thing.

Christmas card picture!

2008-10-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

Somewhere around 8 pictures later, this is what Tim's mom and dad wound up with for a christmas card picture! This was as good as it was going to get!

Picture Post

2008-10-26T21:58:00.001-07:00

Kaden fell asleep in daddy's arms but he still managed to get work done!

Bring our garbage back!

2008-10-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Kaden was up in his room during his quiet play time and he heard the garbage truck and asked me what it was, I took him to his window so he could see the truck picking up the garbage cans and dumping the garbage. He asked me if the truck took our garbage and I said yes to which he replied "mommy I want our garbage back, he needs to bring us our garbage back!"

This one's for Grandma "Rosie"

2008-10-09T18:35:00.001-07:00

Piper is pulling up onto everything now and starting to take little steps, so this one is for my mom and dad who do not live here.......your grandbaby is getting big!

Aren't they just too cute!

2008-10-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

Of course I think they all look adorable.....Mia with her sweet smile, Piper is adorable as always, Kaden with his silly grin and Joey who is just being Joey. Joey's legs look sooo long here which just goes to show how much he has grown......almost 4 inches. He legs were not nearly that long when he first came home!

They all love their guitars!

2008-10-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

The funny thing with this picture is that I did not stage it, apart from telling them to smile. They all got the guitars and they were all sitting by each other, pretending to play. Kaden's is the real guitar but of course he doesn't really know how to play.

Trying on costumes

2008-10-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

The kids love to try on costumes and since we have been talking about hawloween, they have been trying them on more often. They are also using their imaginations a lot now by pretending they are all kinds of different things like a landscaper, Dora & Diego, superhero, ballerina, etc. I got Kaden a super cute superhero cape, mask, arm cuffs, etc. and he seems to like last years kangaroo costume the best, go figure! Melody and Piper are actually going to be fairy princess's but I will save a picture of those adorable outfits for later. Joey is thrilled to wear the lion costume, I think he would wear it around all the time if I let him!

When the children pray

2008-09-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I often read on my friends blogs, some of the really sweet things their kids pray about and its great to see how their little hearts are softened to various things. We pray with the kids every night before bed and Mia prays for her friends from the orphanage, our family and then she will often say how thankful she is for something we did that day or something she is looking forward to. Joey will pray for everyone in the family by name and then "Mommy and daddy" an additional 2 to 4 times. Kaden will pray for our family, our church, and sometimes "the other Kaden". He met another little boy named Kaden one time and now he prays for him often. I am very thankful for these little times during the day that we have with the kids to get a little glimpse at where their hearts are at.

Questions about skin color

2008-09-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

First off, this is Mia next to her new best friend, Kira that cat. Melody was initially very scared of the cats but over time she has gotten used to them and now she loves Kira. Kira is a very lazy, very laid back cat that lets the kids pet her, tug at her, sit next to her, and squish her and she generally doesn't care. Mia really likes to pet her and talk to her. This is a pic of Mia laying next to her, watching a cartoon.

Mia has recently started asking me "Mom, what color is my skin?" "What color is your skin, is it white?" I kinda assumed that she probably noticed the difference before she said anything because of being in Uganda where the contrast between the Ugandans and the mzungu seems pretty pronounced. I tell her that her skin is dark brown and mine is a very light color and that there are all kinds of people with all different shades. She asked me why and I said thats the way the Lord made people. I am sure this is the beginning of many conversations over the years. I kinda look forward to it though b/c its a demonstration of the unique and beautiful way the Lord has constructed our family!

Life with 4 kids under 5

2008-09-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

A constant issue that we work on in our home, is sharing and being kind to one another....so I took this picture because it is a wonderful example of the kids sharing and playing nicely together! Even Piper is in her own little world on the side of the bus. This was first thing in the morning, the kids are still in their jammies and they were pretending to go somewhere!

People will often ask me how it is having 4 kids under the age of 5. This picture is an example of one facet of what life is like! We have a lot of conversations about being kind, sharing, using kind words, having a happy heart, being obedient, listening attentively and having self control. We constantly answer a ton of questions......a typical conversation might go something like this:

Mommy, did you get your hair cut?

Why did you get a haircut?

Who cut your hair?

Where did you go?

Why did you cut your hair?

Can I get my hair cut?

Did daddy get his haircut?

Did Kaden get his haircut?

Mommy, when I get big am I going to get my haircut?

Am I going to be big like you?

Am I going to be big tomorrow?

When I get big, I am going to help you make pancakes.

When I get big, am I going to cook just like you? etc., etc, etc.

On any given day there will be a lot of laughing and giggling, some pouting and crying, some really sweet moments of sharing, a lot of hugs and sitting on my lap, a lot of eating and filling up cups, a lot of cleaning up, laundry, a lot of saying "Kaden, Joey & Mia come please", and of course, lots of questions! At first it was overwhelming but like most things, you get used to it. it is a lot of work to meet the needs of 4 small kids but once you get used to it, its normal. There are moments of frustration and some moments where I have to take a step back but there are a lot of moments of smiles, and funny comments, and sweet gestures and fun! It is a great opportunity to raise 4 children and I am constantly seeking to keep that in perspective!

Piper's Two Teeth!

2008-09-15T09:47:00.001-07:00

Piper is showing off her two new teeth!

Mia loves Ethan!

2008-09-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

Going back to a post a couple of months ago, Mia really likes a young 20 something guy at our church named Ethan! Almost from the first day she came to our church, Mia has liked Ethan. Ethan usually plays guitar or drums in our church band and has now become somewhat of a celebrity in our home. Kaden also idealizes Ethan because Ethan plays instruments! The kids often tell me that they would like Ethan to come over and I am lame and I haven't orchestrated that yet. Mia will often tell me she would like to color a picture for Ethan and sometimes will sing her "Ethan is my friend" song, but the other day she said "I love Ethan!" I asked her what she loved about Ethan and she said his drums and that he had nice hair! She asked if she could meet Ethan's family. When they are at church, they can't wait to see Ethan and give him the "Rock and roll" sign....... so, hear is a shoutout to Ethan.......My kids love you! I hope this makes it to Ethan because I don't have his email address!

Coffee & special time

2008-09-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

I try to spend a little one on one time with each of the kids every once in a while so Friday morning I took Kaden with me while the other 3 stayed with our babysitter, Kim. Kaden and I went and ran a few errands, and then had lunch! Kaden was so funny while shopping with me, he walked around by himself like a big boy and had all kinds of things to say. He wanted to buy me some lip gloss at a store, which was really sweet, but he didn't have any money.

On Saturday morning, I took Mia to Starbucks to have "special coffee" which means I gave her decaff. When Mia was at the orphanage, she had a worker their that she was really close to and she and Holly used to have coffee together. Mia asked to try it one time and she liked it ever since. It was a special little thing they did together. Holly even got Mia a tiny little coffee cup. It kinda became a little tradition for Mia so on occasion she would have coffee with a few of the workers from the orphanage and it was their special time. When Mia was getting ready to leave the orphanage, a few of the ladies had their last special coffee time with Mia. Mia really likes black coffee so to carry on the tradition, every once in a while I am going to take her to Starbucks and have our own little coffee time!

Rain boots aren't for wearing in the rain!

2008-08-23T09:46:00.001-07:00

So, continuing with the theme of my kids enjoying wearing shoes....now its not just shoes, its rain boots. Each day they put on their rain boots and then they go pretend they are landscapers or builders or that they are going somewhere! They love to wear their boots!

First Day of Preschool!

2008-08-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday was Kaden and Mia's first day of preschool. They are going to an in home preschool that is only 2 hours a day 2 times a week and there are only 5 kids. I think it will be a good experience for both of them to learn that when I drop them off somewhere, I come back to pick them up.

They were really excited about their little backpacks even though they really didn't need them. They felt really big but the only downfall was that they both kept telling Joey he wasn't big enough to go to preschool yet.

Silly Boys

2008-08-17T14:25:00.001-07:00

Kaden and Joey love to wear shoes around the house, this time they got into my newly washed and folded laundry, found a couple pairs of Tim's trouser socks and decided to put them on with their shoes. They thought they were pretty hot stuff. Joey really liked his pulled up to his knees and Kaden kept telling Joey to push them down like his were. When I look at this picture I am reminded at the size difference between the two boys......they are almost 6 months apart in age and worlds about in size!

Melody saying goodbye to Arnold

2008-08-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is another picture of Melody saying goodbye right before we came back to the states. This, like the other "goodbye" picture, was taken by Ian. This little boy is Arnold. Melody still prays for he and many of the other children by name at night. It is really sweet the relationships she had there and that she still cares about those little ones over there.

Piper makes her daddy proud!

2008-08-07T12:05:00.001-07:00

Tim is originally from Wisconsin and since that is the case, we have a couple of cheese heads floating around the house. Kaden brought out this child sized one for Piper to try on the other day........as with most things, except having the nasal aspirator used on her nose, she is all smiles!

Fun with dress up!

2008-08-07T12:00:00.001-07:00

The kids have recently been reminded and discovered dress up clothes, so each day they (the 3 older ones) have been putting on Kaden's old kangaroo costume, a dinosaur costume, a fairy princess costume and a tutu. They all take turns putting on the different costumes!

Piper is crawling and getting teeth!

2008-08-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Piper is my chunky little girl! She barely started crawling like 2 weeks ago and each day she gets faster and faster! Now this week she has 2 bottom teeth that are starting to break through! She is always smiley, loves the other 3 kids and her daddy!

Cute picture of Mia and Francis.

2008-07-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

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 . . .

2008-07-22T19:26:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-15T08:26:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-07-15T06:45:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-07-14T12:21:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-14T12:09:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-06T06:32:00.000-07:00

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!

Giving my husband some props......getting myself out of the doghouse!

2008-06-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

Tim and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary last week, it was only a few days after Father's Day. The kids and I made a nice cards for Tim for Father's Day and we made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and then the kids woke him up and gave him the cards and then they kept saying "Happy birthday father's Day". They were a little confused about Father's Day and birthdays and all that. Last year we gave Tim a very, very, very nice Father's Day/anniversary gift that will not be topped for year's to come, so I figured this year would be much more simple. Our anniversary was a few days after Father's Day and life was a little crazy and I must admit I am quite pre-occupied with the kids these days so I planned a nice dinner, Mr. and Mrs. D babysat but I didn't do anything beyond that......no wonderful and sentimental card proclaiming my undying love for my husband, no grand gift......just dinner. The night before our anniversary, Tim stayed up really late working and then even later making me a card that celebrated milestones during our marriage, so when he realized I did not have a card for him, he gave me a hard time! Then I directed him to our freinds website where she and her husband had just celebrated their 9 year anniversary and she used her blog to proclaim her love for her hubby and what a great time they have had. Needless to say, I have not been able to live it down since then, so Tim this is for you: I love you, I love you, I love! You are a great husband, a great father, and my best freind these last 8 years!

A response.

2008-06-20T21:10:00.001-07:00

I, Tim, would like to make one specific comment to a portion of what Leala wrote below. She briefly mentioned that someone stated we should not have adopted because we have now, effectively, deprived Kade and Piper of a portion of our love. I would like to respond.

We believe that God led us to the decision to adopt. In that, we know that we can rely solely on Him for our strength and love for our children each and every day. We need to remember that we are so dependent on His grace for everything -- air, food, life, etc -- that we surely would not be able to express His love to our children without His granting us that ability as well. Additionally, as we continually tell our children, God has put this family together. He has sovereignly placed each of us together. The Bible tells us regarding marriage, "What God has put together, let no man separate." Moreover, we believe God chose Mia, Joey, Kade and Piper to be a part of our family before time existed. Thus, it was God that chose to create our family in a non-traditional way, and it is God that will allow us the strength and love to fully support our family.

Finally, on a different note, one reason we chose to adopt was to reflect God's love for His children in a tangible way with our family. God had a son, Jesus. Rather than devote all of His love to His son, as he had the right to, He created mankind and shifted a portion of His love to His creation. (Remember how much God loved His son, "This is my BELOVED Son, in whom I am well pleased.) Indeed, God not only created mankind, He then crushed His BELOVED Son so that He could take all steps necessary to restore a relationship we had broken. He then ADOPTED us as His children and gave us the FULL RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES of natural children -- the rights and privileges that had been solely Jesus' up until that point. Now that, my friend, is a selfless love that I can only pray to understand a little more.

Leala and I are not perfect and, as a result, there WILL be times when we do not perfectly love our children. That has nothing to do with how many children we have; rather, it has to do with the condition of our hearts. We will continue, however, to pray and grow and rely on God for the strength to care for our family in a loving and right manner.

Common question....."Why adoption"

2008-06-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

Tim and I are often asked by friends, acquaintances, strangers, etc....."What made you decide to adopt?" This question is all the more intriguing to people when they find out that we have biological children already. Some people think most couples adopt when they are unable to have children of their own, some people actually feel that if God has given you biological children and you are able to have children then you should not adopt and if you do so, you are depriving the biological children of your full love, some people feel like adoption is some huge humanitarian thing that only really good people do, some people just think it is not natural and just seems strange and out of the ordinary........people have many thoughts and assumptions about adoption that go on and on.

I, Leala, have liked the idea of adoption since I was a teenager because it mirrors what Christ has done for us. Our friend David Gunderson has summarized it well: "We ourselves have experienced the grace of adoption, and on a much grander scale. We were slaves of sin, and are now children of God (Romans 8:15). We were dead, and are now alive (Ephesians 2: 1-7). God was our judge, and now He is our Father. We faced a foreboding future in hell, but now we anticipate an abundant inheritance in heaven. God is the Father of the fatherless, and He has made Himself that for us."

Several years ago while Tim was in law school, he used to listen to John Piper, a pastor from Minnesota, when he studied. Each year Piper preaches a sermon on the weekend closest to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade about the darkness of abortion, the need to compassionately love those that have been affected by abortion, God's passionate love even for the unborn, or a related topic. While listening to one of these sermons, Tim was weighted down with the concept that one of the most pro-life things he could do was to have room in his life for those that may not be wanted. To be always available to take a child that is not wanted. In short, he was convinced God had a place in our family for the neglected, the unwanted, the lowly, and that which the world had long given up on. Moreover, as believers of Christ that have been given a perfect love, why are we not the ones that are doing everything we can to provide homes for children that would have otherwise been aborted or neglected. In scripture we are called to take care of widows and orphans, so why are we not doing it? That sermon had a profound impact on Tim and his thoughts about adoption. Our conversations about adoption began after he heard that sermon.

In the Bible, children are referred to as a blessing but often they are not viewed that way. I enjoy my kids........ I love seeing the personalities the Lord gave them, the things they think are funny, the crazy things they say and do, the sweet little hugs they give, their childlike perspective on everything, and the joy they bring to our home! I also appreciate the very profound lessons that can be learned from having children! The Lord has used my children to open my eyes to areas that I was blinded to.........children are definitely a blessing that people sometimes just don't see. Adoption can be another facet of the joys and lessons that children bring. Our little ones have only been home about 7 weeks but I can clearly see how the Lord is using the adoption challenges and the enjoyment of added children to bring about great change in all of us!

Even as believers, I often feel like it is really easy for us to lose perspective on how we are called to live our lives, that is, to glorify the Lord in all we do. Sometimes we fall into living out the American dream with having a successful job, a happy marriage, a nice home, 2.5 kids and a white picket fence. Adopting two little kids from Uganda and having four kids under the age of 5 doesn't fit into most people's idea of what is "normal," what is "smart," or what the "happy little American family" is! People often treat us as if we are doing something that is really crazy, really amazing, and something that normal people don't really do. Tim and I are normal people that the Lord gave a desire to open our hearts to a different picture of what our family would look like. I believe Tim and I have been obedient to follow the desire the Lord gave us and He has provided the grace we need for everything we encounter........so the only thing amazing about our family is God's plan and God' grace!

The kids appreciate their mommy.

2008-06-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Kade came up to me and told that he is glad mommy takes care of him. I told him to go tell her and he went up to her and said, "Mommy. I wuv you. Thank you for taking care of me."

The kids crack me up!!!!!!

2008-05-31T17:37:00.000-07:00

All 4 of the kids have their own funny personalities and little quirks about them. Mia loves to talk on the phone and she will have full pretend conversations with people all of the time......sometimes she repeats things I say and sometimes she talks about what we did that day or just whatever comes to her mind! Kaden is turning into a funny little man.......he makes up pretend words and then gets a big smile on his face b/c he knows he is not saying a real word. Joey likes to laugh and do silly things back and forth with people and he loves to wear shoes! Piper loves her feet right now, she jabbers and talks to them, tries to chew on them and smiles the whole time!

She did it!

2008-05-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Mia did not throw a fit today!!!!!! She was still scared and cried some but she did not throw a fit, she floated all by herself and even put her face in the water on her own! I was soooooo proud of her. I think she has turned a corner in learning to swim and in learning to control herself!

Joey and Kade share a room and nowadays when they wake up in the morning or from naptime, they play, laugh, and get into anything they can in the room! I am just thrilled that they are really beginning to get along sooooo good and bond!

At night when we put the kids to bed, we all sing a couple songs together, its a really nice bonding time with the whole family. Prior to the kids coming home, Tim usually put Kaden to bed and he would sing to Kaden or with Kaden, he would often sing the hymn "The Old Rugged Cross", so when it is Kaden's turn to pick a song for all of us to sing, he will often pick "The Old Rugged Cross". It is the cutest thing in the world to hear him with his sweet little off key voice singing that hymn. Melody usually wants to sing "In my heart their is a Melody......."

Swim lessons........ARGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today at swim lessons, Kaden and Joey did excellent! All I can say about Mia is that in addition to her previous behavior she added biting......yes, thats right....you read it correctly, she tried biting as part of her fit about being in the water. She is terrified of the water! She is equally terrified of shots and unfortunately I have to take her to get blood work next week......that is going to be loads of fun! I am actually not sure if I am strong enough to restrain her.....sounds crazy I know that a 27 lb. little girl could be that difficult but this is one scrappy and strong little girl when she wants to be!

Today we had bee's in the house.....we have a hive of bees swarming in the roof and 9 of them made their way into the house. I never realized how terrified of bees I am, but when you have bees in your house, you don't know where they are coming from and you don't know if any of your kids are allergic, its unsettling!

Mia and her friend Ethan.

2008-05-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

One of the guys in our church's band is named Ethan. I, Tim, taught Mia how to make the rock and roll sign with her forefinger and pinkey. After church one time, Mia came by Kaden and myself as we looked at the drums and the "good guitars" (Kaden's phrase). I told her to give Ethan the rock and roll sign, which she did, and she has been talking about him ever since. Last week she spoke repeatedly about going to church to see Ethan. At church Leala and I had to pry her little hand away from his because she didn't want to leave him.

This week she hasn't spoken too much about him apart from right after I told my parents about her friend. This was the result. This is only a short clip. She went on saying this exact same thing for about 10 minutes. If you can't understand what she is saying, she keeps saying, "Ethan. Ethan is my friend."

The new challenge of swimming lessons!

2008-05-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

This week we started swim lessons......swimming lessons can be challenging for a lot of kids but it is especially challenging for two kids that have not been swimming very much. At the beginning of the class the 3 kids are required to sit at the edge of pool and not get in until I give them the ok to get in....once in the pool, there is a large step they can walk around and play on until its time for Mrs. Erin to work with them individually. They all sat at the edge patiently, they got in once I gave the ok but from the get go Melody was unsure about the water unless she was being held......tightly! I began to encourage her to walk around on the big step and she acted as though she was taking steps for the first time. As the class went on there was some crying but the class was shaping up to be much better than I had anticipated. At the end of the class, we were working on teaching the kids to put their head under water and being that Melody is older and has never done that, she was having a hard time at grasping the concept of keeping her mouth closed and not swallowing the water........this was of course difficult for her to do b/c of the crying and small fit she was having. That training session ended with her taking in one large gulp of water and then vomiting it up in the pool. (sorry Erin) After all the drama they were all proud of themselves and it was way better than I thought.

Today was day 2 of swim class and the kids were excited to go swimming again. They go into the water just as they had the day before but this time when Erin went to take Mia and then Joey they were a little resistant. It was time for Mia to work on floating on her back and she did not want anything to do with that.......she cried, screamed, kicked her legs and arms all over the place and when that did not work she propelled her legs over her head so that she could flip herself up and grab onto Mrs. Erin......Joey's floating experience was similar but w/o the acrobat manuever.......the funny thing about the floating experience is that they both had floated a hundred times better the day before! Erin worked on several more things later in the class with Mia that again ended with Mia screaming, crying and foaming at the mouth. (when she is not comfortable with something, she can work herself into a hysteric fit like no other!) Mia was not so enthusiastic after this class and once we were home, she told me she did not want to swim anymore.

Hopefully day 3 will be better!

Melody ain't afraid of no dogs!!!

2008-05-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

We went to friends' house on Memorial day for a barbecue. From the picuture you can see they have a large dog. They actually have two dogs. You can read in the previous post how we recalled at breakfast that morning that our friends had two dogs. We were really nervous the kids were going to be screaming frantic messes with the dogs. Although there was a little screaming -- mostly from Joey throughout the day whenever the dog would even look at him -- they did great. Indeed, Melody even pet the bigger dog, as you can see in the picture, more than once.

At one point the patio screen was closed with Melody on one side and this dog on the other. The dog was around the corner and Melody was feeling especially tough talking through the door. The dog came around the corner and Melody fled screaming. She is really getting more and more comfortable with things around here. Leala took the kids to swimming lessons yesterday -- look forward to that blog from Leala -- but needless to say, as with everything else we do, it was an adventure.