Memorial Day

We spent today with the kids, enjoying a third day off with daddy.

We took Goober to a car show in Burleson, about 15 minutes away from our house. He loved it and he kept darting from one old car to the next saying " look at that camero, or look, that is so and so from "Cars". He swears he even saw the real Lightning McQueen :). Then towards the very end of our time there a guy let him sit in his car!! He was thrilled. He and dad decided that they are going to buy an old car some day and redo it together!!!

We also bought a new camera. The problem with our old one is that by the time I take one picture and it processes it, I have missed the cute thing the kids are doing. So, we went on a mission to get an SLR camera!!!! We went to Target, Wal-Mart, Conns and two different Best Buys, and then we found it.....a Sony DSLR, alpha 230. It came with a Zoom Lens-which sale separately for a lot. It has 10.2 megapixels, continuous shot capability and ISO 100-3200. But here is the kicker, someone had bought it an brought it back so they had to sale it as "opened". We got it for $130 off plus we had a $100 Visa giftcard.....so we were stoked!!!!!! We have been playing with it and I love love love it! I think it will be perfect for taking pictures of Goob during sports and Ribbit as she runs around!!

Okay, now kid stuff.

Goober is soo funny. Lately, when something really makes him laugh he says " that is cracking me out"....not up, out! He also has been telling me about my upcoming birthday and christmas presents. But each time he makes me promise to forget what he is about to tell me so that I will be surprised. So far I am getting a red phone, chocolate hearts and a red motor scooter. HA!!

Goober has also been going through a growth spurt. A pair of size 12 tennis shoes that he got in Feb. no longer fit him, we are now on to size 13 or even 1 shoes. Therefore, my friend at school, who just adopted two boys, age 5 and 4, has now received 4 pairs of shoes and a full box of Goob's clothes-including school uniforms that he just can't fit into anymore!!!

Ribbit is definitely getting better at using her forks and spoons and request one for every meal, regardless of what we are eating. She went up the book " Green Eggs and Ham" yesterday at Barnes and Noble and said " Eggs!!" very excitedly!!! She is figuring out how to walk on her tippy toes which is quite cute and everywhere we go she tries to walk backwards if she can! She also is taking showers with us now, instead of baths. Shes does pretty well, and she loves to scrub mommy's legs with soap--she thinks its super funny!!!

We start potty training today- so pray for us!!!!

This first video is Goober's take on what happened when Ribbit pooped and played in it. He tells everyone about it, regardless of whether or not they want to hear it, or if we have just met them!!

These next two videos are us playing with sidewalk chalk. We love playing outside!!

Harvell Family Band???

Here are some really cute pictures of Bre singing. She likes to mock us and can get very dramatic. You will hear Eli in the backgroud as well!

Shepherding a Child's Heart-Called to be in Charge

" As a father or mother, you do not exercise rule over your jurisdiction, but over God's. You act at his command. You discharge a duty that he has given. You may not try to shape the lives of your children as pleases you, but as pleases him.

All you do in your task as parents must be done from this point of view. You must undertake all

your instruction, your care and nurture, your correction and discipline, because God as called you to. You act with the conviction that he has charged you with to act on his behalf. In Genesis 18:19, Jehovah says, " I have chosen him (Abraham), so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just..." Abraham is on God's errand. He is performing a task on God's agenda. God has called him to these things. He is not freelancing. Abraham does not write his own job description. God defines the task and Abraham acts in God's behalf."

Its good to know that because God has given us the task of parenting that he will help us to follow through. It's also reassuring to know that God has called us to parenting by his will. On those days when we are frustrated and feel inadequate, we can rely on the knowledge that we can't do it by ourselves and we must allow him to be strong in our weakness.

Being in charge and I believe part of our job description is being a good steward of our money. Adam and I have become quite frugal as we still have a house payment for our Johnson City, TN home as well as our rent here. God has blessed us beyond belief but we still cut as many corners as we can. I have been couponing for about 3 years now.....getting more serious about it since we moved to TX in 2009. Ever since getting the kids, I've had to hone in my time and energy and cut coupons when they go to sleep and shop during their rest time on Sunday afternoons.

Before kids I had our grocery budget down to under $50 a month, not counting the once a week meal out we allow ourselves. That has gone up to about $150 a month with the kids, but since I include diapers in that I still think its pretty frugal. That also doesn't include the occasional McDonald's trip with the kids or stopping to get a snack when the kids are about to have a meltdown and we aren't close to home.

Today's shopping trip included two 1/2 gallons of flavored tea, two packs of cookies, 2 tubs of whip cream and strawberry soda( for our memorial day homemade ice cream :), 2 bags of rolls, bag of salad, 2 mac and cheese dinners for Bre, bananas, noodles, snackers for Adam's lunch, 3 boxes of frozen lemonade treats for kids, 3 pizzas, 2 pints of starbucks ice cream for mom and dad, turkey burgers, 2 bags of brown sugar, pack of chips, 2 boxes of pudding, one protein bar for dad's stockpile to take to Israel and one dozen eggs. I only paid $10.49 for everything.....no these aren't complete meals but added to other stuff I got in a previous sale it will be!!!!

We must be crazy

Adam and I did not wake up at 6:15 this morning thinking that today would be a marathon day but it was!!!!

We were hoping to take the kids to Legoland in Grapevine since the temp was over 100 degrees today. However, they were already sold out of tickets. So instead we decided to try out "Going Bonkers" in Lewisville-some man at Chuck E. Cheese told us about it. We really wanted to spend lots of family time together as Adam leaves in a little over a week for Israel.

Here is a personal plug- Goin Bonkers is wonderful...it cost us $9 to get in and we stayed for 3 hours! The employees are helpful and nice, the place is clean and even though there were at least 4 birthday parties going on it was never too crowded. The entire place is netted and padded so we could see Goober darting through tunnels and slides the entire time. They had a toddler area for Ribbit but she spent most of her time in the lower levels of the big kid section. Goober fell in love and the only reason we left was because it was lunchtime and I was feeling sick--when you eat breakfast at 6:45 you get hungry quite early.

We had also been looking for a reason to go to Frisco to Ikea so since we were already over 1/2 way there we headed that way. We ate the oh so inexpensive pizza combos there ($2 for a slice of pizza bigger than your head and a drink) and started looking at stuff for the kids room. Goober, being so into fashion and colors took right to it and explored every space they had there. He tried out every chair, mattress and table as well. He informed us that everything there was better then what we had--little does he know that a lot of what we have came from there :). We came really close to buying a bunk bed on sale for Goober but decided that Adam could probably make the exact one for a lot cheaper and at a better scale for Goob's room. It will be bed on top and desk underneath---Goober just loved that idea!!!! We also got some ideas for storage and a new color scheme for our bedroom. That is honestly what we always do when we go to Ikea, we buy the stuff on sale and leave with 100 more ideas that we do ourselves for less. We did up buying a flower lamp for Ribbit's room-it matches her decor perfectly!!! A race car rug for Goob's room-his carpet is far from perfect and I wanted to disguise it!! Some picture frames, 5 to be exact, but some of them are to frame some of Goob's art work----i have a found a new passion, keeping and displaying his artwork, he is very talented and I just love seeing what he created!!! We also got Ribbit some plastic forks, knives and spoons, another potty chair for her since we will be starting to train on Monday!!,and a stepping stool for the kids bathroom.

Then, just because we are crazy and because we were already over in that part of town we went to the Bass Pro Shop. Goober just loved the store and Ribbit liked seeing the animals. We got Adam some stuff for Israel there and then headed home.

We got home, ate dinner, watched Shrek 3 ( on TV) and the kids went to bed around 8:00. Tomorrow we are doing nothing but going to church!!!!!

Here are some things that I keep meaning to post but always forget!

#1-Goob got superior scores in Math on his report card, he is ranked

in the 90th percentile of his age children and is on a 3rd grade level--he just loves those subtraction problems :)

#2-Goob has decided that he does want to change his middle name when the

adoption is finalized in August, the same as his dad.....what a sweet and bonding tie that will be for them. When he announced it in the car the other day I was so happy!!!

#3-Pray for us as we start potty training on Monday---I am hoping that Ribbit will learn fast and that neither one of us will get stressed out!!!!!!

Also, my brother flew into Honduras this morning for a week long mission trip. I am super proud of him and the way he lets Christ shine through his life. He is a great role model for my kids and I am super proud of him--this was his very first plane trip!!!!

Adam's parents are flying into Honduras tomorrow morning as well for a week

long mission trip with their church- no connection to my brothers trip. I ask that you remember them in your prayers as they will be 30 minutes away from the Nicaraguan border.

I have no pictures or videos to share--been a little too busy wrapping up the school year and running my kids all over TX i guess :). But I did want to post a picture from our first day and a recent picture to show how much the kids have grown in the last 4 months!!!

This picture was taken Feb. 8th, 2011.

and this one was taken on Mothers Day at the end of April.....not the most recent but one of my most favorites!!!

Shepherding a Child's Heart- Authority

Several people encouraged me to read the book " Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tripp, one being my former boss-who I think very highly of- so I have been and I have devoured it. It looks like I have had it a really long time with all the turned down pages and notes written in it. I wanted to post some of the things that I found really encouraging to be able to not only work through it in my own mind but to get others to think about these concepts as well. Parenting is super hard so I always welcome any godly advice I can!

"God calls his creatures to live under authority. He is our authority and has vested authority in people within the institutions he has established (home, church, state, and business). You must not be embarrassed to be authorities for your children. You exercise authority as God's agent. You may not direct your children for your own agenda or convenience. You must direct your children on God's behalf for their good."-Tripp

Being a 7th grade girls bible teacher this past year, I constantly spoke to them about respecting their parents. For some reason students think that their teachers will side with them and join in to complain about how utterly ridiculous their parents are being :). I did however have one student who would again and again remind the other girls that we are supposed to receive discipline from our parents, if they don't discipline us then they don't love us. Fortunately, Adam and I know her parents very well and know that she comes from a Godly home, where discipline is doled out and the parents are the authority.

I think we live in a culture where parents don't want to be the authority over their children. They either pass that responsibility off to their teachers, or become the child's friend. I have seen both in my current job and its truly opened my eyes to my obligation towards Goober and Ribbit. Not only does parenting call you to be completely selfless, but to also accept that authority role-realizing that God has called you to do so.

Authority not only means disciplining them, but also setting that consistent example for them. There are so many times that I have caught myself taking the easy road, only to see Goober watching me, so I've had to retrace my steps, correcting myself and apologizing to him.

Ephesians 6 sChildren, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 t“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, ubut bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Just like her mother

We hear it all the time that God sure does have a great big ole sense of humor...but sometimes its hard to laugh at when you are the one that the joke is on :).

I will admit that I am a moody person, I'm pretty sure that both my husband, parents, college roommates and in-laws would testify to that 100%. I became aware of it when I got married as Adam was and still is very willing to let me know when my behavior is not on track.....and vice versa :). To say all that brings me to the fact that my daughter has turned on me!!! The honeymoon in over!!!!!! She will be the most darling, charming, sweetest, cuddliest child one minute and then scream, hit, throw things and fight you the next.

Observation #1- she wanted an apple but only if I let her pick it up off the counter...that only took me 5 solid minutes of screaming to figure out

Observation #2- she either wants Mommy all of the time at home but when we go out in public she becomes Mrs. Independent, wanting to walk through every store, touch every item and talk to every person she passes.

I have no doubt that I will spend lots and lots of time on my knees for my kiddos!!!! (as I would do anyways, regardless of my almost two year olds behavior).

On a good note she does know how to count to three as I have to count to get her to do anything :). 1-nothing, 2-nothing, 3-her whole body switches into gear and she runs at me while smiling.....sheesh.

I love them both though, best parts of my day!!!!!

Here is Bre chasing her float in the pool, therefore going in circles, Adam only caught the tail end of it and then you can see Eli and Mom playing basketball!

WE PASSED

First things first- we passed our inspection with flying colors. It was actually pretty comical.

The lady got here 30 minutes late and was already telling us sorry by the time she hit the door. Then she asked us very simple questions, most of which were from the classes we had just renewed so they were fresh on our minds. She also asked about the kids backgrounds, how we got them, the time frame we got them in and some questions about their routine. Then she went back to Goob's room with him and talked with him about his routines and his room. Then we gave her a tour of the home, garage and backyard. We practically had to beg her to look at everything we had done. She was so agreeable and just kept complimenting us. We told her that our last inspection had us real shaken up for two reasons 1) she got onto us for not having the right kind of hand towel in the guest bathroom and 2)she had eyes for Adam. This lady said that the hand towel deal is not part of the 216 page minimum standards book and thought that flirting with Adam was just weird :). So to sum up our last inspection (before we got kids ) took right at 3.5-4 hours total. This one took 35 minutes flat....yup, all that work for 35 minutes. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Oh, and Goober volunteered all sorts of information-like Ribbit rubbed poop everywhere in her room, and that he found a knife in the floor (really?, when?). Luckily, they both charmed her with their smiles and oddly great moods ( I say oddly great moods because it was 5:30 and they could smell supper but couldn't eat it until she left!

Now for documentation!!

Goober has been singing " I'm in the Lord's Army a whole bunch recently except he says " I may never ride in the calorie, shoot the matillery, fly over emmy's"....we just listen and grin.

Two, if we don't think Goober is listening to us we day " please listen with your ears". So while we were finishing up at Target the other day we asked him to do something and when he didn't do it we repeated ourselves. He looked up at us and said " Sorry, I was listening with my shoulders"...HA!!!

Ribbit is becoming a very picky eater. She used to put anything in her mouth that we put in front of her. I think it's because she now understands that she will be fed so she doesn't have to eat everything. We know that there is some malnutrition in their past and both of them has showed signs of it before. She really doesn't like any protein, except for chicken nuggest and vienna sausage-go figure. She also has been starting to feed into our conversations and her words or phrases make sense. She was really impressed with herself for saying " apple" just right today so she said it about 50 times in a row. She still sings " a b b " but occasionally will sing " a b c ". When reading to her she always points out babies, feet, birdies, cats, dogs and sometimes she will point to a man or women and say mommy or daddy.

This first video is turned funky-sorry. But, its me catching Ribbit climbing up into the dishwasher. Then Goob hits me in the gut with sticky toy.

and then just for kicks, here is a rather short video of what happens when a mom tries to get back at her son and ends up taking out his left eye. Great. Super proud of this.

too bad we spent our whole day off cleaning

As I said in yesterday's post we have a very LARGE state of Texas inspection coming up tomorrow. We have been getting ready for this for about one week now-thats all the notice they give. We were chosen out of our district to be inspected and to see if we meet all of the minimum standards for the state-which some of them are different than what are adoption agency expects. They sent us a 216 page manual to get ready and let's just say that after today we better have covered everything!!!

We had to buy carbon monoxide detectors (no biggie, we need those anyways), a bigger better fire screen for the fireplace, more outlet covers, a diaper changing area --shh don't tell but we change Bre on a towel in her floor and then wash it after a stinky....its just easier), a more complete first aid kit, gate locks for the backyard....thats it I think.

But we spent the day taking care of the following:

1-clean the house from floor to ceiling- you know the kind of cleaning you do when your in-laws are coming, well that times 10

2-clean out and up the garage and get rid of anything that may hurt Bre which meant securing lots of things to walls

3-clean out the backyard of anything that could hurt Bre or Eli and cut the grass

4-3 Loads of dishes ( we were about a day behind anyways)

5-3 loads of laundry---good thing I washed everyone's bed sheets this past weekend

6-securing anything in the house that Bre could grab

7-Practicing our fire drill with the kids and posting our escape route in a visible area

8-Making sure that all of our food had not expired in the fridge and stocking our pantry and fridge with healthy food-which we do already

9-Making sure that all of our meds weren't expired- I am ashamed to admit this but we had 6 bottles of expired vitamins and cold medicine--one of which expired in 05 EWWWWW!!!!

10-Locking all meds up behind two locks

11-Bleaching both tubs, making sure that the kids toothbrushes aren't stored where they touch, making sure that there is a hand towel available-we got in trouble for not having that on our agency inspection

12-Getting all of our paperwork together-including cats shot records, past inspection records, ft.worth fire inspections, certificate of taking and passing medication classes, background check records, CPR/First Aid certification cards

That's all I can think of but we also had to go to WalMart, Home Depot and the seminary today.

At the seminary we got free groceries, let the kids play basketball and run around a little bit and visited with friends. We also all took a 1-2 hour nap during Bre's naptime since we were all up and running by 6:30....yup, no sleeping in here-we were fed, bathed, dressed and at WalMart at 8 this morning!!!!!

I think we will all sleep well tonight.....I have in-service tomorrow and Eli is going to the after school care that they offer teacher for $5 a day--he is excited because some of his friends are going and they get to play on the sport court and apparently eat 17 snacks a day!!

I'll leave you with these two videos of Bre singing her ABB's :)

Where does he come up with this?

Goober has been on a roll today.....he has seriously been cracking us up all day long.

#1- to mom and dad during dinner " I wish that when God was creating the word he only created MacDonald's, Sonic and Chic Fil A", then he thought about it more and said " but more healthy"

#2- Elvis jumps up on the kitchen counter. Goober, without missing a beat says " This looks like a job for Goober"...and runs off to get the water bottle.

#3-While talking about adoption and reminding him that no one can ever take him away from us Goober says " but I only want to be your son forever if you let me cook on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays when I am 19". DEAL

Tomorrow we are spending the whole day cleaning our house and getting it ready for our BIG state inspection on Wednesday. If you want an idea of how important and daunting this will be for us then just know that our adoption agency sent us a 216 page document to help us " get ready " for the inspection. We also have to make sure that we have every single document they ask for from year and a half worth of classes we took, and all the things we did to get licensed. We are pretty overwhelmed and hope that the kids cooperate with us tomorrow so we can get this done and over with!!!!

Forgotten Videos

Well, after looking back over this past month' posts I realized that I accidentally posted our swimming videos twice but forgot to post these Easter Videos. Sooooo, here you go!!!

Bre Bre

I titled the post as "Bre Bre" because we rarely just call her Bre........Adam has taken to calling her Punkin, I call her "sweet girl" and Eli calls her " Bre Bre". She has really grown--no longer can she walk underneath the entertainment center doors without hitting her head. She is now saying or at least tryin to say everything we do. Adam told me good job and patted my butt this morning, so Bre followed right along and patted my butt as well. She is also understanding more and we can give her more complex instructions.

She has permanently bruised my entire skull as she has head butted me at least 20 times ( most of them are lovingly as we play). She has also slammed a toy into my head while "playing" as well.

Yesterday, we had another HUGE first with her. We have been letting her nap without a diaper on and it has really helped her diaper rash...she rarely even gets it anymore. Well we got home from running errands yesterday and she was bushed. I remembered telling Adam that she was due for a big stinky. Well he put her down and the rest of us conked out for about 30 minutes. Then we heard her crying and we figured she woke up and would fall back asleep as we knew she needed a looonnng nap since she was up and down the night before. Well after about 10 minutes of continuous moaning and whining I got up to check on her. All I can say is that I felt like I was walking into a murder scene and that the music of " WEH WEH WEH" was playing in the background. Not only had she pooped (thank goodness we always put a towel underneath her when she sleeps naked) but she had scooped it up and had matted her hair with it, given herself a facial with it, smudged it into two of her stuffed animals, wiped it along almost every part of her crib, and covered two blankets with it, but she was SMILING!!!!! Her room (and our house for about 20 minutes after) smelled like DEATH, and a bad DEATH at that. I screamed---i think I was speechless---- and Adam rushed in. We looked at each other and just went into action. He ran and started running a bath. I grabbed all her blankets and ran to the sink. While he was bathing her I soaked her blankets, put them in the wash, threw away those two animals and wiped down her crib. When she got out of the bath she wanted some loving and was very cheerful........what a charming little girl.

Looking back on it, we both wished we would have stopped and taken a picture of it----just to show her future spouse:).

On a brighter note, Eli and I are DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!.. He has a pajama party tomorrow and I have inservice towards the end of this week but other than that we are officially on summer break!!!!!

My sweet boy

As you can guess from the little posting I did this week that we were quite busy. Goob and I spent two nights up at the school for the Art Showcase and Graduation. Both night he behaved wonderfully and was lots of fun to be with. He helped me set up tables and chairs for the showcase and was very quiet and attentive during graduation. He has gone almost an entire month without behavior issues at school. He is making friends and people are noticing how affectionate he is becoming. I have started receiving more and more kisses on the cheek and lips and "i love you" is no longer something we get every now and then.

During our last CPS visit he and Ribbit played so sweetly together and our worker was amazed at how good he was with her, even when she knocked over his fort several times.

During our last AFS visit, Goob kept whispering things in my ear that he wanted her to know...all really funny things that happened in our family or at school. She noted a very big difference in his attitude towards us as well.

However, there have been two things that we have had to address lately. One happened while he was combing my hair the other day ( a new favoite ). He said " mom your hair is long, but not as long as Lady Gaga's. Adam and I both got wide eyed and asked him how in the world he knew of Lady Gaga. He said " my mom let me listen to her"......We just gently said that we didn't approve of her music or the way she dressed so we were going to listen to other music. No arguments there.

Second, the other day while I was ironing he was watching me and said " when did you meet your mom?" . I asked him to clarify. He said " well I met you when you were 26 so when did you meet your mom, how old was she?". My heart just melted. I told him that my mom had me when she was 24 and so that is when I met her. I told him that his situation was special and so he met me later on in life. He said "so you met your mom when she was 24" and walked away looking like he was trying to calculate something in his head. I just thought that it was kinda sad that he thinks that most people "meet their parents".

God is sooo good to us though still. Goober loves loves to sing all the songs he learns in chapel and at church. He loves Sunday school and children's church. He loves to read the story of David out of his children's bible. He always always remembers that we are going to pray as we are pulling into school. Some times I am soo attentive to traffic that he says "mom, park so we can pray"!!!!. He also is learning to pray for different things before dinner..it used to just be " bless this food, bless our bodies, HeyMan". He is now remembering to pray for others and to thank God as well.

2 more days of school left....THANK YOU JESUS

So, from the title, can you tell that I am uber ready for summer? I fully understand now why we have summers off....its not that teachers " get " them, its that teachers "NEED" them!!! It seems like there are 500 things left to to do though before I can officially enjoy summer.

Last night was one of those things, 499 left, as Eli and I went to the Fine Art Showcase. It's where we honor all of our Rhetoric Art students and pass out awards. Before hand, Eli and I spent about 2 hours setting up chairs, arranging tables and cleaning up. He helped with every bit and I never once had to get on to him....what a great helper!!! Then, as 135 people filled the room, we all got in line for the buffet. Eli and I were karate chopping at each other and at one point he jumped up to chop my shoulder. The minute he left the ground his pants dropped to his ankles. I bent down to help him but was laughing so hard that I knocked him over. Therefore, we both were dying laughing as he laid in the floor in his underwear. Of course it was my fault because I grabbed dresspants that were too big and no belt. All I could think though was " thank you God for reminding him to put on underwear this morning".

Bre has been reminding us daily that her 2 year old birthday party is right around the corner. Talk about attitude and temper!!!! She loves loves loves to tell us NO and she loves loves loves to point her finger and pout. She has served several time-outs lately--most of them for throwing her dinner, head-butting mom and throwing a tantrum while we were playing a board game with Eli. She might give us a run for our money just yet!!!

However, when she turns on the charm, its on full force and everywhere we go people just fall in love with her.

Tonight at dinner, Eli said " Dad, why are you so white?"...hehe

Eli's new favorite song is " I've got Joy down in my heart, deep deep down in my heart.....spell it...JOY....down in my heart, deep deep down in my heart. Jesus put it here and nothing can destroy it, stroy it, stroy it, HUH!!.....

Except for sometimes he spells other things such as "BOY, CAT, DAD....any 3 letter word he can remember how to spell at the moment will do!!!

Bre is now running to her practice potty, lifting the lid, sitting down and saying " pee pee". Of course 95% of the time she still has on her diaper but at least she knows the function of the potty. She also knows exactly what to do with toilet paper as I watched her wipe her diaper several times with toilet paper while she was waiting on me to get out of the shower this morning!

Here is Bre's song as of lately, "why, why,why".....love love love her little movements and serious face.... as you can tell we always crack up and encourage her to sing as looonnnngg as she wants!!!

Please excuse this one....it took it the wrong way so you will have to turn your head..i also want to apologize for my gum smacking....geesh, you would think I would have some manners!!!

B U S T E D

So, Goob and I have around a 20-30 minute drive to school depending on traffic and depending on the clock ( I can always get us there faster). Therefore, Goober has seen me in a lot of high stress situations as we travel on two main interstates that are both known for causing sane people to go crazy.

Well this afternoon as we were leaving Kroger, a nice women let me go ahead of her into the right lane and Goober said " well, at least SHEEEE has a decent bone in her body".....yup, i felt super stupid and apologized to Goober very quickly for letting traffic frustrate me to the point of saying something along those lines in the past. In fact I find myself apologizing a lot lately.....for saying that we will be there in 2 seconds when really its 5 minutes....for exaggerating anything really,.....for not knowing that it would rain two days in a row and promising that he could ride his scooter tomorrow :).....but I like that he is hearing an adult who is willing to apologize and that I am asking him for forgiveness.

This morning we had the kids psychiatric appointment, yet another step in the adoption process. I think that the lady was overall impressed. She asked the same questions that most of the other ones asked but she also had Goob complete some math problems and read to her. She also showed him some weird pictures-some gross- that he had to name them and describe their function. I am amazed at the questions Goob is asked---and his behavior as of recent in answering them.

Goob showing off the tricks he can do on his scooter!!

and here is our little daredevil child!

Great Weekend

Adam and Goober ended up getting home around 11 on Friday night. Goob came in, told me he had fun and went straight to bed. When we went in to check on him he was passed out, still in his Rangers shirt on top of his comforter!Adam said that some of his school friends were there and that he loved the entire thing...guess that means its safe to look for some more tickets!!

Saturday we went yardsaling early in the morning......we were mainly looking for pool things for the kids. As we drove past this larger sale Goob yelled out that he saw a pink pogo stick. We dismissed it but he convinced us to turn back around and drive by again. Sure enough, in the middle of all this stuff sat a pink pogo stick that he had to have. Since then he has been jumping and getting pretty good on the pogo stick. Afterwards we went swimming. Goober is very good in the pool and when you give him a watergun he could stay there all day. Ribbit likes to be wrapped in a noodle and pulled around. After that we came home and crashed, getting some rest for our big night.

Saturday night Adam and I went to a comedy show at our church about marriage. The church provided childcare so we were good to go. We went out to Outback first and then to the show...it was hilarious. We did end up talking about the kids mainly though.....about how much our life has changed in 4 months, how we can't imagine life without them, and how much God has blessed us.

We are a little less than a month away from Adam leaving for Israel- please pray for my heart- its gets really heavy at night when I think about him not being here for over 3 weeks. However, the excitement of spending all that time with family and giving my parents all that time with Goob and Ribbit makes me very happy.

Here are some videos

1st one- Dad trying to pull Goob's loose tooth, his principal ended up pulling it out during math the next day.

Here is Goober holding up his goodies from the tooth fairy!!

Really Mom?

So this morning when I was helping get Eli dressed, I said " Eli, make sure you put on your shorts, shirt and socks. I looked over and he was putting on his shorts without underwear first. I said " Eli, underwear too". He goes, " Underwear?, really mom"....in the most teenagery voice I have ever heard!!! I said " yes, teenage Eli, really!!!"

The tooth fairy came last night ( well actually this morning in a panic) for Eli. She left him the book "Jamberry", a note thanking him for his tooth and a whopping $1.00. He was stoked!!!!

Tonight, Eli and Dad are at Rangers baseball game. They got great seats through my school and they are staying for the fireworks game afterwards. I don't expect them home until midnight. Bre and I stayed home, took some things back to Target and just spent some girl time alone.

Tomorrow, Adam and I are going on our first real date since we became parents. We are going to a comedy show on marriage at our church. They are offering free childcare and allowing us to drop them off early so we can go out to eat before the show. I am so excited to get dressed up for Adam and to have him to myself for a while.

Here are three videos of the kids....just hanging out. We are really so incredibly blessed!!!

Goob "Singing A to Z"

Here are the promised videos of Goob singing last night.This first video starts with Goober introducing what "C" stands for.

This next video is Goober's pre-1st class ( there are only 6 of them) reciting the Lord's prayer.

One of Goob's favorite people in the whole world who has been such a blessing over the past three months. I know that God will provide a wonderful teacher next year as well, but we sure will miss our first teacher!!!

Goobers End of the Year Program

Last night all of the Kindergartner's and Pre-First class put on their end of the year performance " Singing our way from A to Z". Goober had been practicing for about 2 months now as he was the letter C. He did sooooo awesome. He normally gets really nervous and forgets words but he remembered his entire part, corrected himself and sang really loud!!!! Luckily Adam was able to film most of it, as I was trying to contain Ribbit-who becomes a wild billy goat whenever we are in a large crowd where you need to be quiet. She loved to clap along with everyone but would also shriek " YEAHHHHHHHHH". Sure, people thought it was cute the first time, even the second time...but by the 10th time I was annoyed so I took her to the back and just let her dance the entire rest of the performance.For the performance Goober had to learn his speaking part " C is for Covenant, God's promises are true, It's also for Commandments, Given to Moses and taught by our Lord". He also learned the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, a German song ( sooo cute) and several other little songs like "The Bible", "God Bless America", " Overcome Evil with Good", " Sing when the Spirit says Sing" and others. Adam and I were soooo impressed!!!!
The cutest thing though was that he was copying the actions of his music teacher. You know how they will hold their hand out flat to signal to the kids when to drop their voice or when to get louder? He was doing that through some of the songs that had lots of different voice parts....it was just soooo stinkin cute!!!!! He looked like he was directing the audience!!!
Here are some pictures of the performance and I will post the videos when I get home tonight and get some time.

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was pretty awesome. It kinda started on Friday night and continued until just now :). We went to the botanical gardens right when we all got home and then since we had a gift card we went out to Chili's for dinner. Afterwards Bre and I walked around in a bunch of shops over by TCU while Dad and Eli went to the Apple Store...guess who finished first?...the girls did!

Saturday we woke up, had breakfast and started cleaning up the house....I dont have to tell anyone who has ever had children how gross a house can get in less than 30 minutes with kids. We tend not to clean during the week except for dishes and laundry and then spend Saturday mornings cleaning up while listening to music and playing. Bre and I went to the grocery store later on that morning while Eli and Dad fixed some trim and worked out in the garage. We got back. ate lunch and then went up the seminary to swim. Man, that was a hit...I dont know why we haven't gone before. The kiddie pool was perfect for Bre and Eli loved the basketball hoop. Towards the end of our time there Adam got Eli to swim on his own above water. He is a really good underwater swimmer but panics above. Bre practiced holding her nose and closing her mouth at the same time to go under water. She would watch Adam and then attempt it only to open her mouth or laugh and take in a mouthful of water. Afterwards we went and dried off on the playground and let the sun dry our towels. Then we went to Starbucks for frappacinos.....yes, our kids are already starbucks lover. Eli loves anything chocolate and we normally get Bre water or let her have some of ours....plus it was happy hour there, so 1/2 price!!!

Then we came home, ate dinner and watched Beethoven--oldie but a goodie- not once but twice in a row!!!!!!

This morning the kids and dad brought me yogurt, strawberries and coffee in bed. They also gave me plaster molds of their hands that they had made in secret. We all ate breakfast in our bed and then got ready for church. After church we ate lunch, prepared by Adam, took naps, and then went up the seminary to walk and ride our bikes.

Eli said things all weekend like " I gave mom lots of ice b/c its mother day"--that kids knows me!

He also declared very excitingly "mom is a girl and her mom is a girl" at the dinner table tonight!!!

Psalm 78--Tell the Coming Generation

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.

5 He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Eli at Botanical Gardens

Take a look at Eli working through some of the little puzzles that had scattered throughout the botanical gardens.

Mothers Day Breakfast

Goob's class held a Mother's Day breakfast on Friday morning. There are only 6 students so it was very cute to watch them sing us songs and present us with presents. Goober drew me in all orange because of " Aubrin" as he says it. During the songs he was so nervous that he could not stay still and since he couldn't read some of the words on the song sheet he just sang the words he knew. His teacher told me that later on in the day he said he was just so excited to sing for me :). They served us breakfast and also told us what they loved the most about us. Most of the kids said " my mommy is so special, I love her, she keeps me safe, she is sweet". Then Goober who went last said " I don't know, she plays tennis with me" ....ha, I will take it!!! The rest of the day I had a hard time focusing because I just wanted to spend the whole day with him.

Ribbit got her 1 year old and 18 month shots yesterday....yes that is right, she was almost 10 months behind.....I don't think I have to say how I feel about this. Adam took her because I couldn't watch five, I could barely stand one. She only cried for 5 mins though.

Our little athlete

Adam is constantly telling Eli that he has a natural God given ability to do well at physical activities, especially sports. He loves tennis, football, baseball, volleyball and rock climbing. The one thing he does say is that soccerball is for girls....and yes he says soccerball.

So here is a conversation between Eli and dad while throwing the football.

Adam: Sorry bud I'm used to throwing a bigger, heavier football. ( as he tries really hard to throw Eli's soft nerf one)

Eli: Well, we can get you a bigger football.

Adam: Well then I wouldn't be able to throw it with you because you are too small right now.

Eli: Yeah, I am glad we don't have a heavier football, it would probably rip my arm off.

Another one while they were practicing their putting in the garage.

Eli: I really wish we had a smaller club. Can we go tomorrow to get me one?

Adam: Well, maybe one day we can get you some smaller ones

Eli: When I grow older and when I have a kid I'm going to take him and I'm going to get him a small club that fits him.

Adam: Okay, you can do that.

Here is a video of Eli playing basketball on the Wii.....we think it won't be too long before he throws his whole body into the TV :)

Poor Cats

Lets just say that Bre's love for our two cats is not mutual!!!!

Wait til the very end for a good chuckle!!!

too tired to write too much

I just wanted to update the blog before I forget how stinkin funny Goob has been the last couple of days. We have had lots of time to just hang out after school as I stayed to watch some of my students in a play yesterday and then gave a painting lesson today.

G: Mom, when are we going to be at McDonalds

Mom: Goob, we just got in the car

G: Mom, but you know me...you know that I am not patient!!

Mom: Darn, I didn't know that they closed Borders, I really wanted to buy that book!

G: Well, it doesn't really matter to me, I can't read anyways.

Overhead at the play during intermission "Who let the dogs out" comes on

G: Woof Woof Woof, man i love this song, its my favorite----and he starts dancing!!!

Yesterday we did have a rough patch though. We went to get frozen yogurt and this family from our school was already inside eating. Their youngest son ran up to us and yelled back to his mom "This is my friend Goober, he was an orphan, but now he goes to my school!!". The mom about melted and couldn't get to her kids mouth fast enough. I bent down to both boys and said " Goober was not an orphan....he had a lot of people that loved him, and now we get to love him". The little boy said " oh he had a bad family?" and I said " no, his family was so good that they gave him to us since they couldn't take care of him, so now we are adopting him". The mom of the other boy apologized about a bijillion times. Goob didn't say one word until we got into the car. Then he said " Mom, you don't have to tell them that I am adopted, they know because you are a peach parent :)".....love that kid!!! We did have a long talk about how people are going to ask us questions the rest of our life because of how different we look and that there is nothing wrong with being adopted.

You don't know how bad I wanted to follow him around school today in case that little boy retold the story or had more questions for Eli.

Goober's Musical Debut

Here are some videos of Goob in the Children's Choir "Daily Diving Deeper" musical from this past weekend. He only went three times before the actual performance so we are pretty stinkin proud of him. He told us that he was very nervous and that he couldn't look at us because the teacher said to look at her!!!!! We have the whole thing taped, here are just snippets.

Listen for Ribbit in almost all of them...little stinker.

Here is his grand entrance and first song!!

Something to think about

A quote from Ch. 1 of the next parenting book on my list......most of the ones that we have read have been about adoption and/or about trans-racial adoption.

“A change in behavior that does not stem from a change in the heart is not commendable; it is condemnable. Is it not the hypocrisy that Jesus condemned in the Pharisees? In Matthew 15, Jesus denounces the Pharisees who have honored him with their lips while their hearts were far from him. Jesus censures them as people who wash the outside of the cup while the inside is still unclean. Yet this is often what we do in child rearing. We demand changed behavior and never address the heart that drives the behavior.”

I'm a little excited about this one as it address the heart of your children. Its called Shepherding A Child's Heart..I'll let you know how it goes!

Playing at the Park

Bre loves climbing up the stairs and sliding down when we go to the park. She will do it several times in a row and normally won't stop until we leave or if she bumps her head on the slide. Eli is doing really well at making friends with the kids at the park. They normally have to make the first move but he goes for it after that.

We learned a great lesson last night.....caffeine and Eli don't mix ever. We normally do not let him have soda at all and if we do its caffeine free sprite. Well after his musical last night we went to Rosas for dinner because Adam was craving Mexican and to celebrate Eli's good performance. They didn't have sprite and since we were "celebrtaing" mom gave in and let him have not one but two cups of coke....i know that you are all rolling your eyes and saying "what was she thinking?".

When we got home it was like the kid had just discovered how loud he could be and everything was super funny. He made himself sick he laughed so hard. He then got very very silly and the house turned into a racetrack. We let him calm down a little before he went to bed but even then I had to lay with him. He loves to lay on top of me and let me rub his back while he falls asleep. However, last night he said " I miss my mom" right after I started rubbing his back. I said " you will always miss her bud". He said " I dont miss living with her or my aunt becky". A couple minutes later he said " i don't know if i miss her". I told him that he probably misses her just because she is his mom and he doesnt' have to worry about telling us that. After that I got several kisses on the cheek and mouth and several hugs while he was telling me that he likes living here, its just different :). He eventually calmed down and I walked out.

But then around 9:30/10:00 he wondered out and was scared of monsters. We talked about how we shouldn't fear anything but the Lord and Adam offered to walk through his room. So then he left his bedroom door all the way open so he could see the light from the living room and he talked to himself for almost another hour. When we tiptoed off to bed he was laying sideways and both pillows were at his door without pillowcases on them?????.

Upside is he and Bre slept until 8:00 this morning......CRAZY....Bre is our alarm clock so yes we overslept and didn't make it to church. Besides that the weather here was super bad and Adam is now feeling the worst part of this stomach bug/cough we have all been swapping back and forth.

I'll leave you with a video of Bre on the slide at the park. She loves to count to three and then go!

Goober's Musical

Goober performed in our church's children choir " Daily Diving Deeper" musical tonight. He was very nervous and he said that his stomach hurt the whole time he was up there because there was a lot of people. Crazily, my stomach hurt the entire time as well, as I was nervous for him. We were also keeping up with Ribbit because they didn't offer childcare tonight. We packed lots of food for her and her blankey hoping she would fall asleep....but nope, she yelled "bubbles", "mommy" and snuck under the pews to grab an inflatable dolphin and then tried to throw him into the pew behind us where the pastor was sitting. I was exhausted after an hour of keeping her quiet and sitting and from trying to take pictures and moves of Goob. Lucky for us we get to do it all again tomorrow night!!!!!!

We are all kinda dealing with another stomach bug.....Ribbit, Mom and Dad especially, apparently Goob is immune to those things and only throws up when he is trying to burp :).

I will post videos and pictures tomorrow --since I have another chance to get better ones as Ribbit will be in the nursery :).

This morning, while Goob was at dress rehersal Ribbit and I went on a shopping trip and had so much fun. We got mother day gifts, got some coffee :), read books, and picked out some presents for Goob's teacher as end of the year gifts. We also went grocery shopping.....while inside she saw a large balloon in the shape of some cartoon character and literally climbed up my body to get away from it. The front cashier women said in a foreign accent " she is beautiful, but she is scared". She charmed the pants off of two ladies in one store and walked out with a free rubber duckie, cookie and allowed mom to use a 40% off coupon that probably didn't apply :).

Goob came home after his dress rehersal and fell asleep in his bed fully dressed, tennis shoes and all :). He had such good behavior though and did pretty well during the musical!