Christmas!

Christmas Eve we made our first real gingerbread house......

(Thanks to Aunt Rachel who brought the kit with the pre-connected house!)

Tyler really concentrated on making the tree - and did a great job!

And opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift - the pj's!

Tyler knows what it will be every year and now he doesn't even ask or argue with me.

He knows it just has to be done.

For that he got to make whatever funny face he wanted in the picture....

Tyler could barely sleep Christmas Eve....He was the most excited he has ever been. I don't know if he really was or if he was acting for our sake..hmmmm?

Anywhooo

He still got one gift he didn't even ask for but has wanted for a very long time.

I just haven't given in until now.

The following rules apply when wearing these:

1. Never to church on Sunday Morning

2. Never to school

He hasn't got it down yet. His first attempt wound him up in the splits. The second attempt wound him up on one knee - he tried to play it off and made a peace sign and yelled "YEAH!!!"

There has not been a third attempt yet. He is letting them rest.

Mimi B sent his most prized gift of all - sweet green.

(I had to hide this so he would stop carrying it around)

Mimi and Papa got him the other most prized gift - The beloved Darth Maul light saber.

To say he has been obsessed over this thing would be an understatement.

Popo was not left out - he loved his new toys too.

In 2.5 seconds he got that squeaker out of that toy.

We now use it to lure him in the house - it's really funny!

This year we let Tyler pick out gifts for us all by himself. We asked him questions on why he would chose the things he did, gave our opinion on said gift but ultimately let him decide if the gift was right.

Daddy got Spiderman for the Wii

Mommy got Monopoly for the Wii

Hmmmmmm....see a trend?

Deck the Halls

Tyler had his recital tonight!

He played "Deck the Halls"

He was very nervous before it started....he does look flushed doesn't he?

He still played very well.
Thanks to Ms. Heather for all the time and lessons this year!

As soon as my computer decides to cooperate...
I will have some video of him actually playing the song.

Punishment to fit the crime

Charlie was stopped a few weeks ago on our way home from class for speeding.

That in itself is funny because Charlie drives like an old man.

Today he had to go to court for this speeding ticket. It was his first in this city so he was hoping for traffic school and no fine. When he called to find out what he would have to do and where he would have to go they told him the speeding ticket was $170.00 and the court fees were $120.00.

Totally freaked out at the possibility of having to pay $290.00 today he went into the courtroom.

The judge called his name....Charlie went up.

The judge said "Since this is your first violation in my city I will cut you a deal. If you can turn around to the people sitting here in this courtroom and sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I will let you go without paying any fines."

At first Charlie thought he was joking - he wasn't.

Charlie turned around - faced his captive audience and sung.

That was probably more punishment than those people were ready to endure.

When he called me to tell me what had happened - guess what was playing on the radio.

God sure is funny.

Did you know?

From 1558 - 1829 Catholics were prohibited to practice their faith in public. So to teach young children they made up this song to help them remember....

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

1st Day: The partridge in a pear tree is Christ Jesus upon the Cross.

2nd Day: The "two turtle doves" refers to the Old and New Testaments.

3rd Day: The "three French hens" stand for faith, hope and love—the three gifts of the Spirit

4th Day: The "four calling birds" refers to the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

5th Day: The "five golden rings" represents the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

6th Day: The "six geese a-laying" is the six days of creation.

7th Day: The "seven swans a-swimming" refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.

8th Day: The "eight maids a milking " reminded children of the eight beatitudes listed in the Sermon on the Mount.

9th Day: The "nine ladies dancing" were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

10th Day:The "ten lords a-leaping" represents the Ten Commandments

11th Day:The "eleven pipers piping" refers to the eleven faithful apostles.

12th Day: The ‘twelve drummers drumming" were the twelve points of belief expressed in the Apostles’ Creed: belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, made man, crucified, died and arose on the third day, that he sits at the right hand of the father and will come again, the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

I just thought it was a song! Who knew?!?

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

This year I would like to have drawing pencils, a shading stone, a pencil sharpener, transformers and a darth maul light saber.

He was so nervous to talk to Santa - it was so cute.

He also confirmed that Santa IS a Red Sox fan.

Snow Day and Earrings...

Well we had some snow again!!!!

Looking at my dog in the white snow made me realize he needs a bath.

I picked Tyler up from school the other day and this was in his ear.

This look really scares me if he tries to use it when he hits the teens!

(even though in this picture - he is really trying to look mean)

Approved?

We have been attending the PATH (parents as tender healers) class on Thursday nights as part of our adoption process. We have taken this class before so it is all old hat to us - literally they are doing the exact same work as they did 7 years ago - however there is a new group of people so the conversations are different based on these peoples experiences and such.

Two weeks ago we discussed discipline.

As a resource parent you absolutely cannot under any circumstance spank.

Do you think this would be ok instead?

More than His portion

"Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest." Matthew 11:28

Whatever burden you have to carry, God will shoulder the better part of it. God will take the greater portion of your struggle on himself. He will bear the extra weight and move with you to resolution.

Imagine holding a glass of water and wondering how much it weighs. You don't know, but the longer you hold it, the more it seems to weigh. Hold it for a minute, and it's okay. But hold it for ten minutes, and your arm begins to ache. Hold it for an hour, and you might have to call an ambulance. But if you take the glass of water to a table and set it down, everything is okay again.

God will take your load on his back and give you rest.

I know I needed these words this morning - do you?

What a day!

Today was one of those days when you just say - what is going to happen next! It started with getting to work and my boss NEEDING his sugar and creamer (he is a girl about his coffee - just ask him) so I make a list and go out - in the rain and cold - and get it.

A while later I decide I need to have a cup but the water reserve is empty I went to fill it.

I missed. My pants however - got those.

Let's just say it looked like I peed my pants and I had to go REALLY bad.
The boys in the office were no help - unless you want to be laughed at then they were very helpful.

I was soaked!

Luckily it was just water so I dabbed as much as I could off, borrowed a fan from another office and sat at my desk until I dried off.

Did I mention that it was already rainy and cold today?

Let's pray I don't get pneumonia......

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

My sister and her two boys made these cute place cards a few years ago.....aren't they so cute! We pulled them back out yesterday for our dinner. Mimi had them all arranged according to where she wanted/thought people would want to sit. Tyler came in and rearranged all of it - he had to sit next to Papa. Cute.

Tyler was a lot bored being the only child at the feast.

Pray that next year he has a sibling.

This was a delicious bird thanks to Papa.

A broken foot can't even keep him out of the kitchen!

Seriously - I wish our families lived closer to each other. I hate that we can't spend every holiday together and that it takes such planning to make it happen. We used to make sure that we got together every year at least for one major holiday - that just hasn't happened lately and I really miss it.

Charlie wanted to start a new tradition for our Thanksgiving so last night we went to the movies.

Very cute movie - made Tyler realize how much a dog loves it's person.

He has a whole new outlook on his own dog now - who by the way has been renamed.

The ending sort of threw him off - when you see it you will understand - his head is still spinning trying to comprehend it....

Thankful

I have to admit - I have been in a cooking slump. I have had no desire to cook at all and tomorrow is Thanksgiving people!

Last night I tried and tried to make my list. I would put things on it and then realize - oh if I buy that I have to cook it too - scratch, scratch. With my very short list in hand I went to the grocery today. I walked around, tried to dodge the bazillion people who waited until today to get their food too, and get in the cooking spirit.

Nothing.

I got home, unpacked the few things I actually did buy and started on the rolls that I promised my mother I would make. Thank you Lord for a bread machine - that's all I'm sayin.

Then I opened the cabinet that holds all of the cookbooks. Pulled one out. Opened it. Turned to the cookies. Oh peanut butter - haven't made those in a while. Pulled out all of the ingredients and went to makin some cookies. Never have I used honey in peanut butter cookies but it is good Ya'll! So with this small accomplishment I decided to take on some pumpkin bars. This is something I have never made and since I bought two gigantic cans of pumpkin I might as well make something. I Finished the bars and still have a half can of pumpkin - hmmmm. Pumpkin bread AND muffins.

I started all of this around 3 and I am just now sitting down at 7.

My feet hurt, I am covered in flour but tomorrow - my men will love me even more!

So I am thankful tonight that I could get in the cooking spirit even when I didn't think I could.

Daddy's boy

Lately Tyler has been wanting to take bubble baths. Due to the lack of actual bubbles he has been using his shampoo to make the bubbles. This is all fine and good until we try to take a shower. Those left over bubbles make the porcelain tub like a sheet of ice and both daddy and I have almost ended up in the ER. When you are half awake getting into a shower that is that slick it makes for a dangerous combination. Due to that fact - I had to ban the shampoo bubble baths. He was begging for something "fun" to do while in the tub so after digging around in the linen closet I found a can of superman foam soap. Here use this! It's even better than bubbles! He did and had a great time making all sorts of creations with the foam, even a foam beard. He came out of the tub with the beard, walked around very proud of it then disappeared back into the bathroom - I thought to wash it off. He kept calling "Mommy come look!" I was busy cleaning out a cabinet so I kept putting him off. I finally stopped what I was doing and went to "look".

What did I find when entering the bathroom?

Tyler - shaving off that foam beard....with a real razor!

I was too horrified to think to take a picture but it was funny to see him using his daddy's razor to shave. I warned him (in between the giggles) what a dangerous thing it was but silently I was smiling that he wanted to be just like daddy.

Sharpie

When your son comes to you with thick brown lines drawn under his eyes for "battle with the dog" and he has one of these in his hands. It is not a good day.

catching up...

I have been out of the blogging loop these past two weeks.

My one reader is devastated I am sure.

What have we been doing?????? A whole lot of nothing really. Since baseball ended we have our Saturday's free and we have been home. It's so nice to just stay home somtimes. Today I started cleaning out the guest room....it is so fun to purge your house of things that are just taking up space. I have filled two garbage bags so far and I am not even close to being done. I love it!

Our classes are going very well. You would think that after 7 years of doing this that they would come up with some new material - nope. We watched the exact same movie that we did 7 years ago. We read the exact same story as we did 7 years ago. We did the exact same homework as we did 7 years ago. This is going to be a breeze! It is nice going and meeting new people and hearing why they want to adopt. The first night the social worker gave her usual speech about "if your here for a baby you might as well leave now because that never happens in the system" But we know it does and we just thanked God that he is bigger than statistics. We know that he has already chosen our child and is preparing them. We are not expecting a baby but we weren't expecting one last time either. We are leaving the details in God's hands.

Fall Fun

Every year we go the farm and get the pumpkin

Then we carve it into whatever Tyler picks. We have a book that has different patterns in it and each year Tyler picks one. The bad part is, all the "easy" patterns - yeah we did those already. All that is left in the book are "moderate" and "hard".

Let me just say that moderate IS hard.

But we did it anyway

Daddy is always the cutter of the top and the goo scooper

Then Tyler squishes the goo

Then I carve the pattern

That's our ritual and we like it...

No that really isn't Billy Ray - but everyone thought so.

He did scare small children - it was funny.

We went to our church's Fall Festival this year. We didn't have this last year and at the time I thought it was devastating. I don't think that anymore.

Next year we are going to go back to hitting the streets and doing the door to door thing like we all know and love.

We may even throw a party - who knows.

This was Tyler's favorite game of the night....and he didn't even get candy at the end.

Southern Slang

When I was 12 my parents moved the family from Texas to Maine. We were in culture shock to say the least. I was a very shy little girl and the last thing I wanted was more attention for the way I talked. My teacher would call on me for EVERYTHING just to hear me talk. I guess I had the southern drawl thing going on pretty thick back then. I didn't like the attention so I consciously made an attempt to lose the southern way of talking. Now that I live here I wish I had kept it. Now I can't use all those southern terms without feeling self conscious. The one I don't use and feel the weirdest about is Y'all. I want to use it, I even practice using it - but I never do. The next best thing is for my son to use it - and this weekend he used it for the first time. I was so proud. He was outside playing with 2 friends (you have to be addressing more than 2 people to correctly use it) and he said, and I quote "Y'all come over here and hit that ball". Tears welled up and I was filled with hope. Hope that someday our house will be filled with southern slang.

It's over...

Big Red - Champions!

We went undefeated for the entire season!

I can't even believe it but we did.

Our final game was against the team we tied 12 to 12.

Guess what the score was today?

12 to 12

Can you believe that?

It was a very exciting game for everyone....Tyler did very well on defense today.

He scooped this ball up and dove to second for an out...the very next play was identical to it but he just missed the guy.

In the last inning he caught a pop fly at short stop then caught a guy running for a double play!

His first one ever all by himself!

He was very proud and so were we.

Every season needs to end with cupcakes

and trophy's!

Daddy actually got all choked up during his "speech" on Tyler.

It was very touching and Tyler can tell his daddy loves him.

Number ONE!

His biggest fan......Uncle Allen!

(Mimi and Papa too but they were not available for a picture)

I am going to miss this team very much but I am very excited to take a break from sports for the next few months.

What will fill our Saturday's?

Stay tuned....

Family Fun!

We have been so busy lately that we decided that since we didn't have ANY planned sporting, church or other activities planned we would have a family fun weekend.

Friday night started with going to the local Tarjay and picking a movie none of us have seen.

Tyler chose Speed Racer

We had a "camp in" in our living room

We made a huge tent out of sheets and chairs, gathered up every single pillow in the entire house and snuggled up tight to watch our movie.

We even made smores in our living room using our "camp fire candle"

It works and they were yummy!

Our plan was to sleep on the floor in the living room, Daddy made it until the end of the movie and then moved to the couch (wimp)

I actually was so tired I did fall asleep there in our tent with Tyler, then about an hour later I was awoken to the dog chewing very loudly on his bone. I chose to move to the bed and Tyler soon followed.

It was still fun!

Saturday morning we woke up and headed out on our annual trip to:

Tyler got to pick his pumpkin right off of the vine again this year.....
Daddy and I wanted big ones so we got one from the big yellow tent...
We always go on the hayride through the farm. This year the driver stopped where the cows were and threw them a pumpkin to eat. This cow came over very close to were we were. I didn't zoom at all, she really was that close! The driver of our tour was awesome. He stopped and explained how the farm works, who lives there, how they built the original house, why the kitchen was not in the house, what things were called, etc...During one of these stops we were outside the house and he was explaining how they built it, how they got water, how they bathed, etc. During this stop Tyler realized that people actually lived in the house. It was like a light just went on, he looked at me with fear (like we were gonna get caught or something) and said - mommy we have to go! People live here and they may think we are spying on them!

Even the lady next to us cracked up laughing.

They actually had corn high enough to call it a corn maze this year. At the end of it we got to go on a nature trail. We had never done that before and I think Tyler liked it the best!
It has been a great two days.

Church tomorrow and back to school on Monday!

Help!

My friend is also going through the adoption process. She has been waiting for a year and today she got the call! She is about to get a boy (3) and a girl (5)! It is the absolutely most perfect fit for their family! God is so good!

They need a little help. Going through the state you never know when you will get a call much less the age of the children. They are not going to have anything except the clothing on their backs. If you have anything that this family could use to help these children feel more at home please leave me a comment and let me know. I am so excited for them and they are going to love on these children so much!

Pray for the adjustment to go smoothly as they are scared and unsure of what is happening. Pray. Pray. Pray!

Conversation with Tyler

As I was getting a movie ready for him to watch he starts whistling a tune.

T: Mommy what was I whistling?

M: The wedding song.

T: Yup

M: You thinking about getting married?

T: Actually, "a girl" and I made each other a promise. When we get old we are going to find each other and then we will kiss.

M: Really?

T: Yup

M: So you will wait until you are old to do this?

T: Yeah, you have to be old to kiss.

Praise Jesus!!! One less thing I need to worry about right now!!

Baseball and Corn

Another Saturday, Another game.

This one was the best one all season.

We played a great team so we got to show off some skills that we have learned this year.

Our team really came together and played some great baseball!

We did win again - 8-2

Down the road from our house is the Rippavila Plantation. Every year they have a huge corn maze and for the first time since living here we decided to check it out.

This years theme was the solar system.

They give you a map at the begining and you go through the maze and locate each planet, constellation or fact about the solar system.

Tyler just had this in school about two weeks ago so it was great to see him tell us about each planet.

He knew the most about Earth. He went on and on about how it turns slowly and how half of it is covered up so we can have night time and how far away it is from the Sun.

Then I asked him - can Earth sustain life?

No

Little more lessons on the planet Earth may be needed - or just a vocabulary lesson on what sustain means.

Catch ya later....

Have you ever....

Gone into the men's room in a rush to get a 2 year old to the potty before he pees his pants?

I now can add that to my list of things I have accomplished.

Last night during our weekly dinner with friends the 2 year old says "poppy, poppy". So since his mother was trying to eat and his daddy just sat there I snatched him up and ran toward the bathroom. I don't think I even looked at the doors. I walked into the bathroom in my rush of trying to get the little one on the potty so he could have success......walking past the two urinals on the wall should have been my first clue that I entered the wrong room.....but nope I just kept going to the one stall. (Men's rooms really only have one stall!)
I put the little guy on the potty but we were too late, his diaper was already wet and he wanted down. Bummer.

Then I hear my son and his friend come in laughing and say "Mommy, did you know you were in the boys bathroom?"

What

Now it all makes sense. The two urinals - Those are not for Mommy's to let their boys go potty while they go into the one stall.
The waiter - who kept looking at me very funny as I went into the boys bathroom but said NOTHING!

I was just very thankful that when I went in to this men's restroom - it was empty.

Sacrifice

Yesterday was the last day to sign up for basketball. We were well prepared to sign Tyler up and went in with that purpose. Basketball is just something Tyler does to keep busy in the winter months. He enjoys it but is not passionate about it like he is baseball. When we went in to sign him up someone jokingly said - "I had to take out a loan to sign my son up!" We just thought he was being funny - then we saw the poster with the prices.....7yrs and up $90.00. This is a joke right - I mean seriously $90 - for what? They get a t-shirt. We provide the ball and shorts and shoes. What on earth could cost $90? Charlie and I just looked at each other knowing that we didn't want pay that. So we asked Tyler.
How much do you like playing basketball?
I like it.
We know you like it but do you love to play?
No, I just like it.
That was it - our decision was made and we left - without signing him up.
In the car we offered up more of an explanation for him beyond the $90 fee. We have been talking about adoption with Tyler quite a bit but had not told him yet of our starting process with the 10 weeks of classes that we are now required to take. We explained it to him- with church, baseball, school and us having to take this new class we were not even sure we could get him to practices for basketball.
His expression just lit up and his response was - "That's OK - I don't need to play basketball because if I had practice then you couldn't go to your class. You need to go to your class to get my brother."
He doesn't even realize how selfless that was.....he just knows that somewhere out there is his brother/sister and he needs them to get home to us - fast.

The Home Run

We won.......again!

Our team is the best team in our league. I heard "it ain't braggin if it's true!"

Every single kid on our team LOVES the game of baseball and it really shows when they get out there to play. All of the parents are so proud of what they have accomplished this season....and it isn't over yet!

Tyler had an in the park home run, a base clearing triple, a single and one strike out today.

Not bad for a days work.

I finally decided at the end of the game to get up and try to get some pictures....

I happened to get the home run!

The hit...

Running to third... I can tell by the look that he is looking at the third base coach and I am sure praying that he sends him on home.
And he does...
Victory!
Go Big Red!