Dinner time convos

"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

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

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

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

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

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?

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......

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

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.....

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

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

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!

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!

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?

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!

Kindergarten!

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

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......

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.......

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!