Some Christmas Pictures

Christmas 2009

We had lots of fun this Christmas. We had a preschool play. Christian's first school play. He sang along and did the little movements. He had been singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for about a month around here.
We also had MawMaw, PawPaw, and Katie-Girl come for the holiday. It was fun to hang out with them and spend Christmas with them.

LOA

We got our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) today. I will be getting a document from FedEx tomorrow, that has to be returned to CO by Thursday.

What does all that mean? We are getting closer to you Mia!

I also was sent some travel information. Right now I am trying to digest it, and will dig in tomorrow.

So Tim and I are excited that we are getting closer. It seems very surreal. I am trying to live in the moment and enjoy it. :)

Can you believe he is 11?

I told Tim the other night, can you believe the baby we put in a stocking at Christmas when he was first born is now 11?? My gosh where does the time go.

Why Wouldn't I?

Introducing Miss Mia Rui!

It is with great excitement that we announce to the world, this is our daughter-RuiRui (pronounced RayRay) soon to be named Mia Rui. We officially got the call 11/30/09 and on 12/14/09 got PA (pre-approval) from China. I expect to travel in 3-5 months. We are excited and feel very blessed.

Thanksgiving 2009

So many many things to be thankful for everyday. It is nice to remember our blessings and be grateful for them. Below are some pictures taken from Thanksgiving as we were headed out to g'ma Jo's.

Staying Put

Not moving after all. In a way I am relieved.... I don't have to move all our junk. Long story about how it came to be.

Hey, look at me!

"Hey look at me!" The words I hear before I see this:

The funny thing is we were going to get haircuts that day anyway. Maybe he just couldn't wait. So this is what my youngest son looks like now heading into winter.

Happy Halloween!

Slowly Moving

I thought moving one room at a time would be a good thing. I am not really sure if it is or not. So far the only room that is officially there is Mia's simply because no one uses her stuff. I had enough paint left to paint a wall pink in her new room, so it is ready.

Since I painted EVERYTHING in that house last fall, I really just need to do a bit of touch ups and paint the main bathroom before we officially move in. Tim will be hauling over outside stuff and weights this weekend. I want to wipe down cupboards and buy some window coverings this weekend. Hopefully it will be a productive weekend.

Cleaning, theraputic?

The 19th we begin hauling our stuff one room at a time to our first house. That house is about half the size of this one. So I have been cleaning cupboards, closets, toy rooms, anything I can get my hands on. It is hard to imagine all the junk that we have accumulated. Sunday Tim hauled 20 tubs of stuff to his mom's to store for our spring garage sale. I have more now from cleaning out the toy room. I didn't even count the bags I took out for the garbage man! All this purging of "stuff" seems very theraputic. Is that weird? It feels good to let go of it.

Since the house is smaller, I am looking at different ways to try and maintain order and organization. I found an awesome idea for a kid magnet board at this site: http://theidearoom.blogspot.com/2009/07/kids-organizing-bulletin-board.html
I will modify it to suit our space, but thought it was great.

If you have any ideas, please share.

Birthday #4!

Christian turned 4 this week. He was very excited about that.

Movin'

It looks like we will be moving to our other house, you know the one that never sold and we have rented in the past. No one has looked at our current house in quite a while. They have pulled fliers and asked to walk around the backyard, but no showings or offers to buy. Our renter leaves sometime in October and we will begin moving one room at a time. The house is about half the size, so we will have one big ole garage sale in the spring.

1st grader

Today isn't Carter's first day, but I thought the other boys had their picture taken--he should too. Carter is taught at home by me. This causes quite the uproar sometimes among family members. However, we (Tim and I) feel that this is the best setting for him at this time and we are very lucky to be able to do this.

Preschool

Just for Fun

Carter and I went around our neighborhood and took these just for fun.

Are you ready for some football??!!

Today was Chandler's first football game. It was a beautiful day. The team played well and had fun.

5th Grade

Today Chandler started 5th grade. This is his last year at the elementary building. We had open house last night, which helped with this year's positive outlook. The 5th grade teachers seemed very "with it" and we are hopeful for a good year.

Safari!

School starts Tuesday around here. We wanted to do something fun with the boys. So after much thought we headed to Port Clinton to the African Safari Park. **I recommend going online and getting the coupon.** It was a lot of fun and it was busy there.

RR Tracks

While the big guys went to soccer and football practice, Christian and I headed to the tracks. We had a lot of fun doing these.

Hope

Everytime someone drives by the house real slow to take a look, we get hope. Hope that they will want to have a showing, hope that they will want to buy it. We had that hope last night. Someone drove by twice, then Chandler said he saw them today looking from the back. So I will keep praying my prayer that it will sell soon.

Band Aids

My children are obsessed with needing a band aids for boo boos. I go through a box a week. Now they are not accident prone children. They just think that every scratch no matter how minor needs one.

Exhibit A: Christian and his boo boo beside his nose. Doesn't he remind you of a turkey?

Nesting or anxiousness?

I am not sure what has gotten into me this week. I have been cleaning. Not just the usual stuff that gets messed up as soon as you do it. I mean cupboards and stove. Could it be nesting? Or could it be that I am anxious for this house to sell? Maybe both. I figure the more I do now, the easier it will be if the house sells. Good plan, right?

Take a look at my handy work.... (The stove had not been cleaned in a LONG LONG time).