Potty Mouth

Did you know that saying anything related to using the bathroom is super funny to all 3year olds? I didn't...until now. I think I have heard "pee pee" "do do" "to to" "poo poo" and any other word you can say twice to sound like human waste at least 500 times this week. The minute she says it she laughs like she is the funniest thing on this earth....and she is :).

Ribbit has also started talking about volleyball girls as if they were part of the family. She ask about them all the time, where they are, what they are eating, if they are eating muffins (we love muffins here), and why they aren't at school yet. And yes she always says "ballyball gearls" when referring to them.

Goober is such a big man....too big. There are pros and cons...I have been making mental lists for days now.

Pros
1. He really has the best heart ever and wants to love all over you if you give him the chance.
2. He can push a grocery cart....thats right...we are a 2 cart family now. If I weren't so stinking tired after our grocery runs I would take a picture...but Ribbit and Baby Boy ride in one cart with mommy's purse, coupon book and diaper bag. Goober pushes the other cart behind me with the food. He actually loves it, its not a punishment :).
3. He can turn the volume up for me when I am working out ....oh yeah, by the way Adam got me an AWESOME ELLIPTICAL and for the past week I have been working out after the kids go to bed....until I need the volume turned up and yell for Goober :).
4. He no longer thinks, breathes and begs for McDonalds....THANK YA JESUS!!!

Cons
1. He really does eat more then me.....I have to make sure that there is enough food for seconds for him at every meal. At Chic Fil A he orders off the regular menu and then ask for some of mine...its comical.
2. He is super hard to carry. He gets in the moods where he wants me to hold him....like while we are walking in the 2000 degree heat, with his legs wrapped around me. I always always oblige since I feel like I missed out on the "holding" years with him but dang if that boy ain't super heavy and makes me sweat!!!!
3. He grows out of clothes before I can wash them even once. There is a day at least once every semester that throws us off. Its called spirit wear and the kids don't have to wear uniform. Therefore Goober scrambles to find jeans and non school shoes to wear.....and at least once a semester he comes out of his room claiming that his jeans no longer fit and his shoes are too tight. Since we rarely wear non-school clothes ( that are also non play clothes) we have a hard time knowing when he is going through a growth spurt. I buy his school shoes big and his uniform clothes have elastic in them. So we panic and normally resort to athletic pants and crocs :).
4. His "toys" cost too much. His wishlist include 4 wheelers, playstations (NOT GONNA HAPPEN) and other things that cost way too much money and that I will never find a coupon for.

I still love that stink though...even if he does empty my pantry at every meal and reminds me to "watch my language" when I said "crap" the other day :).....I was referring to a food chain if you are wondering. He said that a better choice would be to call it " junk food"....such a wise soul.

No pictures or videos for tonight...my coupon binder needs cleaning out and I am still recouping from my trip to Sam's today with all 3 kids by myself.

Checklist

I normally have a mental checklist in my head for what needs to get done over the weekend.
For example
1. Wash all school uniforms ( this becomes very evident on Tuesday mornings as we start smelling things to see just how they dirty they are :))
2. Get some dinners ready for the week (if not we hit up Chic Fil A and do oven pizzas and Ribbit tells us all that we are going to get fat)
3. Dishes -- so glad Ribbit and Goober have started helping with this chore
4. Skype with grandparents--not every weekend but every other is the goal
5. Football games, church, birthday parties, any free things being offered and/or watching AU football with friends.

You may have noticed that cleaning the house is not on my list...yeah, I stopped putting it on there because I only get disappointed come Sunday night when I have to make a path from bedroom to bedroom......we normally clean for CPS and Adoption Agency visits so it gets done at least every other week.

This weekend we added in building teddy bear floats for a teddy bear parade at school, eating at a new Lebanese restaurant in town (YUMMO--the kids thought it was disgusting...they haven't developed a taste for good or HEALTHY food yet), watching the AU football game with our church friends, and a flag football game of our own. On the bright side all 3 kids allowed us to get a one hour nap today after church....HAPPY DANCE!!!

Tonight at dinner (leftover finger food from the football game last night) we were asking Goober how he got such a good memory...like almost scary....very visual learner!! He said " God made me special and he loves me very much". A definite Veggie Tale line but true none the less. He is such a sweet little boy and soooo anxious to learn about God and to read his word. Check out the new memory verse he finally got down!

He also came out of his room yesterday morning wearing this outfit and claiming he was ready for his flag football game.....and yes, he was very serious....I thought to myself " definitely Adam's son"....and then I laughed on the inside for that very funny thought for a while..hahahaha.

Here is a cute video of Goober playing with Baby Boy....she basically ignores him unless she is trying to get a laugh or trying to dress him up....wait for the comment about her neck at the end....crack me up!

Football Season

This morning was Goobers first football game of the season. The weather was perfect and the two younger kids were pretty good. Goober was quarterback and played like a pro. He made several beautiful passes and lots of good tackles. He got several compliments after the game for his athletic ability. He really does have a lot of talent.

In other news we have an army crawler now....Baby boy gets up on all 4's, rocks for a whlie and then plops down and uses his elbows to inch his way forward.

Ribbit decided that her sea horse needed a "baf" yesterday morning and threw him in the toilet....Adam was real excited about fishing that thing out. He put it in the washer and right when we got home from school she reminded him to finish cleaning her seahorse...he he.

We are heading over tonight to watch the LSU vs. AU game with some of our friends who support "the other team". Its going to be fun though and Goob and I have been preparing lots of tailgate food to take with us.

Here are some videos......WAR EAGLE!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

You may not be ready for this kind of cuteness but its coming.....

We are ready for Fall!!!

Check out those teefers!!

 He loves his feet!!!

We thought today would be a celebration....there was a court hearing to discuss parental rights. However, a court date in October was really the only thing accomplished in the court hearing today...frustrating? YES.....ANXIOUS? YES..........BEYOND ANNOYED? YES YES YES. I'm not really sure what people do without a Savior...especially in these kind of situations that are out of your control, like completely out of it...like if you try to mess with it then you could get locked up and ruin everyones life. I'm so grateful to have little man and to hopefully keep on raising him as my own. What a joy and delight he is. What a great addition to our little family. Goober was weighing in today on the situation and told us that "I want to keep baby boy forever,....but only as long as he stays little, cuz Ribbit got annoying"....bwa ha ha ha.

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I may be begging you....

Please please PLEASE read this post from our friends who are adopting from Belize and consider donating towards their adoption cost (22,000) and/or buying a clock from them. The sooner they get the money, the sooner Mr. Eric can have a forever family...can you imagine waiting 11 years to have a family? Can you imagine one child after the next being adopted while you are left at an orphanage? I can't....I can't talk about what my own children have been through without getting all leaky.

Donate for Mr. Eric     DO IT DO IT NOW...PLEASE :)

Speaking of getting leaky...its something my husband doesn't do a lot of. Until, you talk about his children....particularly his children's past. This sunday our leader wanted to interview us in front of everyone about our children's journey, especially Goober. The jist of the lesson was how the Israelites were adopted by God, out of a situation that was less then ideal. They were adopted out of a life of slavery in Egypt and given a chance for freedom in Christ. All they had to do was obey his 10 commandments....which they could never get right...especially #1-You shall have no other gods before me.

So they start interviewing us and the first question is "tell us a little bit about Goober's background before the adoption". Adam took that one and began to speak. I could tell things were going south and told him "thats enough"....he immediately lost it. We didn't even skim the surface of what our little boy has been through. We don't like talking about certain things he has seen or experienced and when he (goob) brings things up from his past,  a lot of times I have to ask him to change the subject because of how mad I find myself getting at what he was allowed to be exposed to. It's hard saying out loud what your child has gone through and internally acknowledging the fact that you couldn't rescue them from that.

Adam came home and during lunch explained to Goober why he was so emotional. He reminded him of how a Daddy's role is to protect his family and that it pains him more then anything else that he couldn't protect him during those times. Goobers face was all smiles the whole time he saw his dad getting emotional and during the explanation.

It reminded me of how physically achey I used to get to hold a child...and how I prayed to God to protect our children while we waited to adopt them......and how God gave me the name "goober--insert real name" a long time before we ever met our kids and told me to pray for that name.

It also reminds me of how much more protecting we have to do for them. I am soooo blessed to be able to send my children to a christian school where they are being fed the word every day and are somewhat "sheltered" from the world. I do not think that sheltering our kids is a bad thing..as I learned at inservice this past week, Daniel was sheltered from the normal "diet" and practices while in Babylon and he showed the Babylonians his God and his God's ways. We are giving our children a different daily diet as well and hoping that they will be different in this world and follow God's ways....not the easy, average, sinful, wicked ways of this present day Babylon.

My three little Daniels....

Goober at the Vball tournament with mom :).....best coaches assistant I have ever had!

 Sweet thing dressed up for church....Thank you CC and Papa for the cute outfit...it finally fits!!!

 Check out this handsome dude...sporting some separates :). I could just squeeze him..oh wait, I do!!!!!

Okay, now for real....PLEASE GO DONATE TO BRING ERIC HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miracle in the Harvell House

We had a miracle occur today in our presence......a life altering miracle that shocked the snot out of both parents.....this may never ever happen again.....

All 3 kids stayed in bed, no not sleeping, but quietly stayed in their bed until 7:30.....but the real miracle is that Yes, they went to bed on time last night......yes, they were all still alive and not harming one another......and no, sleeping medications were not involved.

We were blown away and had to pinch ourselves to make sure we were really waking up 2 hours later than normal. The morning got better as Adam and I made breakfast while Goober read the story of Moses and the 10 plagues aloud. Ribbit and Baby Boy played together on the living room floor. Then we all sat down and enjoyed breakfast together with the windows open, newspapers on the table being read and everyone in a great mood........what a difference 2 extra hours of sleep can do!!!

I should have known the rest of the day would be awful though.....none of the kids really napped and we went to 2 pretty big and long parties. By 6:00 tonight Ribbit had had about 75 meltdowns, busted her lips at the hosts home of party #2, hit the same lip on the hosts trampoline...refused to eat anything but chips and cookies and then hit the same lip on a recliner. Her nose was bleeding, lip swollen and constant whining continued. The boys faired much better....of course Baby Boy was passed around and Goober had a Wii to keep him entertained.

This week has been hectic....2 volleyball games, CPS visit, girls night out,  2nd grade homework (can I brag---3 100's on spelling tests in a row for Goober) and a field trip. I tried to stay awake but most nights I was out by 9:00.

We found out some somewhat promising news this week. A court date is set for Sept. 20th to figure out if rights will be taken away from mom or if she will get an extension to March to work services. The judge is pushing towards termination which means adoption for Baby Boy could happen end of Sept/end of October.

We also had two birthdays in the family this week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE JASON!!!!!  We hope to see you soon!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CICI!!!! WE love you and we really confused Ribbit when we said that it was your birthday. She insisted that her school (similar to CC's name) did not "haf a birfday"...and that we were "so so so silly".

De gospel

This morning when we got in the van after church we asked both of the older kids what they learned in sunday school. Goober said "Noah was disobedient"....to which we replied How? and he didn't have an answer.....so we chalked it up to him not listening or just misunderstanding the teacher. Ribbit however told us this "Noah built a boat and took piggies, giraffes, and then de gospel"......we fell out laughing. She knew her stuff...or at least we thought she did until she disagreed with us about it raining :).


This morning our pastor preached a sermon on Stories from Acts. He then invited several families he had been in contact with to share their stories through "Cardboard testimonies". You write a before part of the story on one side of the cardboard and then the after on the other side.....5 to 6 words on both sides. Adam, Goober and I walked up with our cardboard that said on one side " We prayed for a child" and on the other side it said " and God gave us 3 in 1 year". It was a very somber mood, very emotional mood until we flipped our sign and people actually laughed and clapped for us :). Adam and I were both very emotional on stage thinking back over the 3 blessings we have been entrusted with. Goober was very excited to go on stage with us and he got lots of compliments on his glasses and how handsome he was up there :).

Crazy Hair Day ......at volleyball practice before school....2 of my sweet players in the background :)....does anyone else think he looks a little like Dennis Rodmen?

 Lining up to start the Fun Run :)

 Tell me this is not the cutest class. That is our beloved Mrs. Russell leading her 3 year olds out. Ribbit is holding her friend "Naphan"'s hand....we have heard from Nathan's parents that he talks about Ribbit at home just as much as she talks about him.

 I just love this sweet little class.

 Goober with his two seniors...Melanie and Johnny.

 The first couple of laps.

 He tore off and didn't stop to rest until someone made him :)

 Running like a pro!

 Such a good little athlete.

 Daddy stopped by to run some laps too!

 His senior Johnny would mark his shirt after every lap and then smack his butt to get him going on the next lap....Goober thought that was totally cool because that is what real football players do...HA

 Her telling me she can run "by myself"....and she did!

Advice

Today after school Goober went home with one of his friends, whose older sister is one of my students. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this family and was glad that Goober and their son are building a friendship. Anyways, when I went to pick him up the mom told me how Goober was offering advise all day ......thus, my first long sigh of the day as I braced myself to hear what he said.
She couldn't keep a straight face as she told me how her older daughter (my student) was telling her that she was worried about how well she did on her spanish test. Goober said "the bible says not to worry about anything, no one is perfect" with a little cock to his head.
Then, he announced to the whole family that if someone ever slaps you in the face you don't slap them back........wait for it......you just kick them in the privates.....enter second long sigh :).

Ribbit's quote of the day ...at 6 this morning, with no clothes on, using the potty but kinda falling asleep while using it....too much info, sorry, just trying to set the scene ... she jerks awake after almost falling into the potty and looks at me with horror and says "mommy, don't flush me down the toilet, I not fit in the tunnel".....yeah we both laughed about that for a while.

Today was also Fun Run at our school. Goober ran 43 laps, adding  6 more onto his record from last year....the boy literally didn't stop....which explains all of my blurred pictures. But even more shocking then that is the fact that Ribbit ran 22 laps!!!!!!!!! I fully expected 2 laps, meltdown, whining and begging for milk, repeat.
Nope, she ran the first 5 laps with mommy, the next several with daddy and then after we had to leave she kept running with several senior girls who were out there to help. She was booking it and was quite possibly the cutest little running machine I have ever seen.
Needless to say they are both out and I expect to for them and ME to get some good sleep tonight!!!

I'll upload Fun Run pictures another night. I need to get to bed..my awesome 7th grade volleyball team has a tournament tomorrow!!

Not much to say tonight..I'm glad to be home with my kiddos. I really enjoy coaching and so far my girls have had an awesome season but those nights that I get to be with my kids at dinner and put them to bed are the best.
One funny is that Ribbit has started calling us different names and then pointing out that she is calling us that name. Here is a sample conversation.
Mom: "Ribbit, be careful with Baby Boy"
Ribbit: "Okay, careful"
Ribbit: looking very pleased with herself "Mommy, I called you careful".

The best is how she says "Shawn". She and Goober love a cartoon called "Shaun the Sheep". Its claymation and actually pretty funny. The themesong is sung by a person with a british accent so to Ribbit that sounds like "shown". Therefore she calls Adam and I "shown" a lot and thinks its quite funny. It took us a while to figure that out though...we had to hear her say "shown the sheep" :).

Goober has had 2 violin lessons so far and knows how to hold the bow and some warm up exercises.We will see how far we have come at Christmas time.

Here are some videos of Baby Boy...the first one is a song we sing...I like to remind him and Goober that I am the only girlfriend they can have :)
The second video is his attempt to crawl...he is sooo close!

and here are some more pictures of just life.
 My little artist....he is so talented at drawing, must get that from his momma :)

 Look who is in a big boy high chair....he only tolerates it for about 20 seconds then he realizes he is being confined and screams :)

 Our Pink Piggy for barnyard animal day. Those ears came off within the first 15 minutes of class...oh well, at least I got a cute shot of her in the morning.

 HAPPY 1 YEAR GOTCHA PHOTO...We celebrated everyday of our 3 day weekend! We hope to have another Gotcha Day very very very soon.

 We had to do a silly picture...or wait, maybe this should be called normal :)

 Night Night Mommy.....we always sing to one another and give lots of kisses...then he just rolls over and sleeps away 12 hours.

More Sea Life

Here are the rest of the pictures from our day of Celebrating.

Auburn lost, but we still cheered "WAR EAGLE"! Now if all these annoying Alabama fans would leave Texas (they were all here to play Michigan) because frankly their mullets and houndstooth are starting to outwear their welcome.

Here's Baby boy eating out....He's not allowed to get any bigger or cuter!

 Brave Goober.

 He thought of this all on his own...so funny!

 Baby Boy loved looking at all the fishies.

 The tunnel!!

 After finishing a nice dinner of rice cereal :)

 My 3 little angels!

 She has to be just like brother!

 Daring to step on the glass over the tank!

Off to the Auburn Party at Buffalo Wild Wings....partying with 125 other Auburn fans is almost as good as being in Jordan Hare Stadium!

Its Football Season!

As we pulled out of our driveway tonight we tried to persuade our kiddos that they have the two coolest parents in the world. They didn't buy it, but we still believe it :). You see we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Auburn vs. Clemson game with 125 other Auburn fans in the DFW area. I was really worried that it would be loud, drunken people who just screamed War &^%$ Eagle. Buuuuuttttt, to my surprise, all of our classy fans were there, with their children, leading cheers, high fiving (is that how you spell fiving?) each other and helping us brainwash our children raise our children right.
By the end of the 2nd quarter Ribbit was screaming "WARRR EAGLE" and Goober knew exactly when and how to say "WWWAAAARRRR EEAGGLLLEE Hey!". Baby Boy did quite well too, eating his dinner, loving on mom and dad and almost falling asleep before we left.
Everyone loved their cute auburn gear and would could gawk at them and tell us how cute our children were. We always always say Thank You, and then in private talk about how stinkin blessed we are. We hit the cute, loving, well behaved jackpot as far as kiddos go.

Ribbit also announced to the people at the table beside us (who by the way mom and dad were from Fairhope and graduated high school the same year as your darling daughter) very proudly "I GOTSTA GO POOPS"...and off we ran to the potty!


This morning we celebrated our 1 year Gotcha Day anniversary with a trip to Sea Life. The kids had a great time, shrieking " mom ", "dad", "come look at this" every minute or so. Here are some of those sweet pictures with more to come later....Goober kills my phone every day with his game play so I have hard time getting pictures off at night :)

 When we saw this we had to buy it. I love how Goober is totally buying into it, Ribbit doesn't know what is going on but feels the need to join us in the raising of her hands, and Baby Boy is more interested in the lights coming from the doorway.

Its contagious!!!!

Well it looks like adoption is becoming contagious...don't drink the water :).
One of our friends got a newborn in June after waiting for 5 years.
I think God is really showing off lately. Two of our friends are getting a 9 month old and a 24 month old on Tuesday through our same agency after only waiting one year.

Now another couple we know are starting their journey to adopt a child from Belize....would you please consider helping them? They need to raise 22,000 dollars and fairly quickly. They are making clocks to sell and you can read about their journey and see the clocks at http://myjoyfulhallelujah.blogspot.com/. We have already ordered ours and can't wait to see it!