Stickers

Well we have found the secret to Ribbit behaving at school. DISNEY :). Our school is putting on the musical Beauty and the Beast this year and there are characters appearing everywhere on campus. There is also a special tea with Belle, the Beast and the enchanted objects....So, in order to go to the musical and the tea Ribbit had to get stickers....and so far we are 3 days GOOD!!!! She has been stellar and is so excited to show us her folder after school. So basically, I just need big events and lots of money to bribe her with :). She has been singing Frozen songs like crazy too, being two or three characters at once and dancing around the house. She loves the movie the Croods about cavemen and during our discussion about bugs the other day she said "Mommy, we don't eat bugs like the Croods because we are housemen, not cavemen". So clever. Goober has been working on a very advanced bracelet on his loom lately...hovering over the ipad watching a tutorial, throwing his hands up in the air when he gets confused, muttering things about arrows and colors. He has told me about 10 times how advanced this bracelet is and how he can't wait for it to be finished. The other day we were talking about a cartoon character and I couldn't tell if he was saying "swamp" or "swap" and when I asked he said "Swap, mom...the one with a W"....he said it as if I was a complete moron....he was quite smug so I didn't have the heart to tell him that both words have a "w". He is loving the nicer weather lately and always smells like a puppy....ALWAYS....he is outside on his scooter, shooting basketball, playing football with his dad or our next door neighbor. Even after church he has to shower because of how active he is..no wonder he eats 2 helpings of EVERY meal and runs to my classroom begging for food every day after school. Baby Boy is saying EVERYTHING! His new favorite phrase is "run run, fast as can, catch me, gingerbed men"..just like that :). He and his big sister say it constantly as they chase one another. He is SOOOOO funny, getting onto his siblings as if he was 6'4 and 300 lbs..yelling at them to flush the potty or telling them to pick up their shoes. He still comes into our bedroom every night, snuggles in between us and goes right back to bed. He asks us to "nuggle me" almost every night before bed. I bought him the book "love you forever" ....and when I sat all 3 kiddos down to read it to them I had to really fight back the tears. I have never had trouble reading that book before but with 3 kiddos in my lap I had to tell them to look at the pictures on each page so I could cry, wipe my eyes and swallow the lump in my throat before turning the page....Now as we rock in the recliner, Baby Boy will say "back and forth, back and forth" just like in the book. We are getting ready for the CRAZY time of year. The last quarter is the busiest by far for art....tons of competitions..overnight and 2 days at a time. All of our awards shows happen now and field trips to paint outside in the nice weather. Its crazy for my kiddos too with football starting this weekend for Goober, getting ready for their performances for grandparents day and squeezing in every little thing before summer. We have lots of family coming to visit over the next two months and lots of church events as well...Our calendar on the fridge is FULL!!!! In this time of year I so thankful for the weather change and the reminder that God makes all new things...every morning, its a new start...a new day to worship. I am so thankful that my kids love learning about the Lord. Goober comes home every Sunday and tells us about the sermon we heard, the point of it and how we can apply it. Sometimes he even reports it to his grandparents on facetime. Ribbit tells us what she learned and can normally list off all the people involved correctly. Baby Boy LOVES his teachers and never cries when we leave him....he loves making crafts and singing " jesus loves me". Our children are also very good at remembering prayer request. We pray for people long after God has answered our prayers too ;).

Some of the girls from ABF came over and I led them in a painting...we just set up in our living room since we are in the middle of a remodel anyways...paint was spilled and it was no big deal :).

Check out this stud playing basketball in his rec specs :)

My printmaking students working on making shirts through silkscreen.

Pulling a print!

Cowboy Goober on Western Day

Goober's 3rd grade class

Check out his shiner, he got in a scuffle with a scooter and some concrete...luckily a cupcake made everything  better!

Fishing for ducks at a birthday party.

The moment he realized that he got a t-ball set for his birthday!

Grabbing candy after the piñata broke!

Sad face..probably because I said he had to choose between the cookie cake and cupcakes :)

Fixing Daddy's candles after he made it say 13 instead of 31 :)

 

Birthday kisses for mommy!

Birthday Boys!!!

Why isn't it my birthday party?

Choo Choo Party!!

Check out the cupcakes we made!!! These two brothers LOVE each other!!! If Goober isn't up when Baby Boy is then he will run in there and say "BUUUBBBBBBAAA, GET UP!!"

 

Spring Break

This week has been pretty exhausting....and all our 2 hour naps today proved it.

We started off with a full day of painting sets for our schools musical on Friday. The older two kids did great, playing with the students who were not rehearsing and helping out when they could. Our school is putting on Beauty and the Beast this year and Ribbit loves the older student playing Belle. She was memorized when she put on her Belle wig and started singing, she said "mommy it really is Belle!". Then Ribbit got to try on the wig and ran around to steal kisses from the boys....high school boys :). On Saturday we had a yard sale from 8-11 and sold a lot of things that were taking up space in one of Baby Boys closets. The kids had fun and said good morning to everyone. One man looked around, commented on how cute our kids are,and how they were such big helpers and then sat in his car in front of our house for 10 minutes looking down. We were about to approach him when he got out and handed all 3 kids rings he had made from one dollar bills. He was so kind and folded them perfectly. We begged him to take something from the sale but he refused. We spent Sunday through Wednesday doing all kids of things, from painting Ribbits bed and dresser white.....helping Goober sort out all of his toys into bins and organizing his bookshelf....to packing for our camping trip later on this week....to having lunch at the park with friends....to tackling the 8 loads of laundry that had piled up....to slowly inching away at the house remodel. The kids enjoyed their times outside, our neighbor friends and catching up on Disney movies :). We left to go camping with 3 other families from church on Thursday. We set up around 3 and the kids (8 of them at that time...2 more joined us Friday) were on their scooters within 5 minutes. We basically had a crash or boo boo every 10 minutes and the kids were all yelling car to make sure everyone stayed safe when people drove by. They all played in the dirt together, shared books and toured each other's tent. We spent the next 2 nights there and got rained out on our last one...but I think we all needed to sleep in out rooms, in our own beds, with a potty really close by, and the warmth of our home:). We did have a blast though....we went fishing, she'll collecting which turned into a sweet art project for all the families, did nature bingo, took long walks/stroller rides around the campground, played a game of family kickball ...... Let me set up the scene. It was Goober and 3 moms and 3 toddlers versus the dads and 4 4 year olds. The adults got pretty competitive which made it fun and dangerous. ( that last sentence took 10 minutes to write on this dumb ipad, this why I don't post that much anymore....seriously?). We all had fun, got really sweaty and sunburnt that afternoon. Each family also cooked a big meal for everyone, we had hobo packets, sausage and hot dogs, sandwiches, hamburgers, pancakes, bacon, sausage, s'mores, baked apples...anything over a fire....and we ate WELL! The kiddos did pretty well sleeping in the tent and except for a car alarm we had good nights. Goober had a bout of sleep walking the second night and needed lots of direction and repeating to get back into bed...he doesn't remember it that well. And can I just say that you know you are old when you see college kids pulling into the campsite beside you and automatically roll your eyes and hope they are a church group...unfortunately the ones beside us were not. After a good mommy talk from me though one night they were good :)... Even got a personal sweet apology the next morning for saying curse words around my kiddos....don't mess with momma bear on our family camping trip :). I have been a little obsessed planning our Disney trip in May. My in-laws are graciously taking us as a gift and I'm booking character shows, firework seats and character encounters like crazy...I got lists and spreadsheets and all kids of Disney knowledge in my head from hours of research....I don't know if I'll be able to keep it a secret too much longer...I want to run and tell them that they are going to be made into Ariel and Capt Jack Sparrow and then sing "a whole new world" together. But for now, I'm just forcing them to re-watch every Disney video we own and encouraging Goob to keep his quarters for all the penny press machines there. In other news, through the guidance of God and getting our tax returns from 2010 ( it was a weird year with 2 adoptions and lots of back pedaling through paperwork)...we paid off ALL of our student loans! We had thoroughly felt what the bible says as the "borrower being a slave to the lender" and we were done. It fells wonderful to only have a mortgage and regular bill payments every month. We strictly live off our income and besides our home will never enter a loan or credit agreement again....but like I said before it wasn't anything we did to pay all that off in one lump sum it was totally a God thing and we would never had received the money without guidance from our adoption agency and praying fervently!

Another Snow Day

I'm pretty irritated that I'm home today. Normally we jump for joy and do fun things...but when its really just ice and you have art projects that NEED TO BE FINISHED...its just plain annoying. It was 80 degrees on Saturday and we all got a little sunburnt at a party. Then in the middle of church on Sunday, we heard thunder and it started snowing...WEIRD.

Anyways, we are using today to clean out the fridge (thoroughly with cleaning supplies :)......tile some more, get ready for our yardsale and stock up on groceries for our upcoming camping trip. AND I'm busy (during nap time) planning things for our surprise trip to Disney World the week after school. I love a good spreadsheet and this trip is allowing me to make at least 4 :).

We have had lots going on lately with birthday celebrations, gotcha day treats and staying busy with our church friends.

Our biggest celebration were the birthdays...Baby Boy turned 2 and Adam turned 31. We had both sets of neighbors over (we had to scale back from the party last year that cost us a fortune :) and had dinner, desserts, a pinata and presents. They both racked up presents from friends and family and we had a great night.

Some updates on kiddos...

Baby Boy--YOU LOVE BIRTHDAYS. I think you get it now since you had your own. You will talk about birthday parties and remember that you turned "two" while you raise up 5 fingers when we ask you about it. My new favorite saying from you is "Mommy, are you?" as you wonder out of bed every morning. You know where I am but you still call out to me as you walk from your bedroom to ours. You also love to repeat everything we say so you get in a stance, make a mean face and look up at us and wait for us to say "ready, go". If we don't do it fast enough you say it for yourself. You love "dino snacks" which are fruit snacks and ask for at least 4 bags a day. You don't mind letting everyone around you know if you think something smells or taste bad. You will make an awful face and say YUCK GROSS. You still point out anytime you can see any amount of skin and yell NAKED!!! You sing "barbara anne" all the time. You move your chin when you sing it and your voice gets very high :). You are 99% potty trained....staying dry through naps and sometimes at night. You will grab yourself and say tee tee or big poop. You got a nice big ole black eye the other day at a party when you fell off a scooter and hit the pavement. Its turning purple and black but you don't even remember its there until we ask you about it. You are still a huge cuddler and love to be held at all times and squeeze tight.

Ribbit-her behavior at school is very consistent...BAD. She only got 2 good stickers for all of Feb....and one of those was on valentines day...go figure. I'm not sure what the deal is or if she and her teacher just aren't on the same page. She has been hitting and biting a lot lately and crying about it the minute we bring it up at home. She is smart as a whip though and will remind us of little details months after an event. She soaks up everything and loves the learning tv shows. She is into all things PRINCESS, PONY or Hello Kitty. She loves having her hair, make-up and fingernails done. She still asks to snuggle every night and loves being read to. She gets onto Baby Boy the way I do and sounds like just me...reminding him to share and be gentle :). If she sees something she wants she says " i guess I could have that"...and her time is still way off.....she thinks in years instead of days so everything is next year and laster day :).

Goober- doing well in school, getting great grades (mostly) and having great behavior. Since we are in the Dainel Campaign they are now giving out Daniel awards and Goober has won 4 of them....most of them are for kindness.
He and I have a new understanding of how to speak to your mother like a human instead of a maid. I got really tired of being the cook...meaning that every morning the first thing he would say to me is "what is for breakfast?"...and the very first thing he would say to me when he got to my classroom every day was "do you have a snack for me or what is for supper?"....After several time outs :), he is now getting good at saying " good morning" and sitting at the table where he knows his breakfast is going to be served without fail. He also greets me in the afternoon with a hug and we ask each other about how the day went. He got a good dose of his own medicine one morning where he was greeted with his little brother punching him first thing..the first words out of Goobers mouth were "i don't like it when the first thing you do to me is rude, you should at least give me a hug before you punch me"  :). He is a huge help around the house...helping me bring in and put away groceries, cook dinner, clean out the fridge and taking out the trash.

Here are some recent pictures..

His new Thomas the Train bedset.....completing his choo choo room!

He loves his tee ball set....see the Olympics in the background?

Practicing their moves before the Daddy Daughter Dance....they were both super cute!

Has to be one of my favorite pictures ever!!! Check out her make-up and hair :)

CHeck out those Hello Kitty nails...those were fun to put on ;)

Valentines Family Dance with friends!

My other pictures from the birthdays haven't backed up yet but I will add them when they do.

SHHHHHH...Disney World is a surprise!!!