Christmas 2009

Overall, we had a nice Christmas. Christmas Eve... Well, let me back up. The week before Christmas the kids didn't have school and because we usually can't get anything done except school, chores and homework during school we mostly waited until then to have the kids earn money for their presents for each other (we had them draw names). I was already done with my shopping but I still had some sewing to finish up on. I worked on that each night after the kids went to bed.
The kids worked very well with only the occasional pull-out-my-hair-type of moments. So the whole week was spent working (got my walls washed, the old swingset taken down, part of the garage cleaned, sticks picked up and various other small jobs) and running each kid to the store to buy their present (not an easy task with 8 kids), peppered with the odd game or play time.
Christmas eve we spent most the day shopping for, of all things, cables, routers, amplifiers and other stuff for Keith to get the churches wired for internet (yes, he is STILL working on that-- turned out to be a very big job!!) But we came home and had eggnog and rice pudding. While we read the Nativity out of the scriptures the kids acted it out with our little wooden Nativity set. Then we sent the kids to bed and began the wrapping thing. Tradition holds that Keith and I stay up, watch a movie, drink some eggnog and wrap presents. Well, with 8 kids that took way longer than a movie. We knew it would and I had spent some time wrapping before Christmas eve but with kids home and helping them work I didn't do anywhere near enough. And we had too much stuff... even with trying not to overdo it.
The kids woke up about 6:00 and waited around for us to wake up... well, ok, get up. They woke me up a few times. Then we had breakfast of cold cereal and bacon. We never have cold cereal or bacon so it was a real treat. I always debate whether to have a fancy breakfast with pancakes, eggs, oj and whatnot. This year the cold cereal won out.
The excitement was taking its toll. Ryah threw a fit just before breakfast and didn't calm down until after breakfast.
Then we congregated in the living room to open presents. Now, I really don't like taking 10 minutes and everyone unwrapping all the presents and then getting that let-down feeling. So each child got a chance to "play Santa" and get everyone a present. The kids even took it one step further and would pretend they were asleep each time.

For the most part everyone was pretty gracious about it all. We even took short breaks here and there to play with the gifts that were open.

Elijah was so cute. He snuck some candy out of his stocking (hence the dirty face). He would come up to me, cock his little head to the side and say "can I?" He opened his hot wheels race track and was not too interested in opening any more.

Ryah, after the blow up before breakfast, took it all in stride.

Ryah liked her ABC mats... until she realized that they were work.

"Please?!?!?"

Sheba even got a (much needed) present, for which all the kids were excited.

Then we had a nap while the kids played. The house was a huge mess!! But everyone had fun.

On the 26th I helped Keith with wiring 2 churches while the kids had a blast playing in the gym.

On Sunday, everyone was grateful for a day of rest. In decompressing over Saturday and Sunday, Ryah threw a couple fits, refused to talk and was generally disagreeable. She is however improving in her overall fit time. Hopefully, we can establish some sort of routine this last week of vacation to steady her world.

Ironically enough, the best (and so far most used) presents are the hot water bottles and covers that I made out of old towels and embroidered a design on for each child. Cost us next to no money and super-easy to make. Go figure.

I needed this today...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXXwtFWpAI8

Writer in the making

Jonas
Practice Write
12-3-09

Cold came at me from everywhere. Lots of people I know I saw shivering. Many of them had winter coats on, including me! Winter wind switched direction every 10 minutes. I thought at least twenty times, "Do I have another coat?" My sisters put on sweaters after sweaters to get warm. By the time they got warm, I couldn't even recognise them. They looked rediculous. At least 5 sweaters, one scarf and a couple hats. They couldn't run much faster than many of us walk. Too bad with so many sweaters some couldn't get out the door. I had to dodge several wool sweaters just to try to leave the house. Right now I'm thankful we work in a classroom. I sure hope we don't have to work outside.




A pretty apt description all around. Jonas has a real way with words.
Oh, and lest anyone sic CPS on us, we do have enough outer clothing for our children. The girls are just used to Ukraine where you have to REALLY bundle up to be able to stay warm. AND they wanted to wear their *American* jackets, rather than their *Ukrainian* coats.

Happy Birthday Caleb and Jonas

I was clearing off the memory card in preparation for taking some pictures of someone as part of our ongoing effort to earn money for Jonas to go to Australia (ok take a breath) and found these pictures of Jonas and Caleb's birthday(s?).
Yes, for all you who don't know, Caleb and Jonas have the same birthday. They love it! Me, not so much. And while we are on the subject of birthdays: Caleb and Jonas aren't the only ones who share a birthday in our family. Elijah and Talita also share a birthday.
ANYWAY....
We felt that because we didn't do parties for the earlier birthdays that we would just take everyone to the Science Center/ Imax theatre for one big celebration of everyone's birthday. The boys got their presents. I did the dishes part of their chore (for a present) and we had cake. As you can see I didn't even "decorate" it, in the usual sense of the word. They couldn't think of anything for me to decorate it as so I just made 7 minute frosting. WAAAAAAAY more yummy than decorator's frosting and much easier to spread. ;)

Oh, and see the matches?!?! Keith couldn't find the candles so he used matches. Didn't work so well. But at least there was fire.

Now we officially have a teen at our house and one kid budging up to being a teen.
Happy Birthday Jonas and Caleb!!!

Thanksgiving

Late, I know.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Way overboard on the food! Sort of on purpose, I didn't have to cook again the whole vacation- nice! But also because I got in a cooking fit and wanted to try a bunch of things. (Cooking fits, where I actually LIKE to cook, happen only about twice a year so we enjoy them while they last)

I cooked pies all day wednesday. Well, most of the day. I did go shopping and take lots of kid breaks. I made 6: pumpkin (of course), carmel pecan pumpkin, lemon merangue (is that spelled right?), apple, peanut butter and Keith's favorite custard pie.

Then thursday the kids helped with a frenzy cooking the rest. I couldn't keep them busy enough. We had ham AND turkey (don't ask why), Mashed potatoes (smackin' taters), fresh cranberry sauce (waaaay better than canned), fresh cranberry relish (Keith argues: waaaay better than sauce), stuffing, sweet potato casserole, glazed carrots, greenbeans (that French's onions recipe), gravy, and frog-eye salad (always a big hit). Also, Miriam made indian pudding that she learned how to make in school (they actually had a "Thanksgiving Party", none of this harvest day blah blah blah) that was super yummy. We even got to eat on the china. First time since the girls have been home (we used to use the china every sunday) And not even one plate got broken.

We went around the table and everyone said what they were thankful for (well, not Ryah. And Elijah was thankful for plates and forks and a bunch of other things that we usually aren't thankful for but should be). It was really nice. The kids were each so thoughtful and didn't even have this shut-up-so-we-can-eat-already attitude. I video taped it but still haven't figured out how to download video to the computer (Keith's "figuring out computer" time is spent figuring out the church computers and getting wireless internet to each of the church buildings. Well, and to be honest I haven't even tried to figure it out-- I've been just to busy and there just isn't enough of me to go around. But I digress).

The girls didn't know what to think, as much food as they could eat (in some cases until they got sick). I thought Kristina would NEVER stop. She only did when I wouldn't let her get 7ths or 8ths. Then she complained of a stomach ache the rest of the afternoon. We are still working on the food issues.



Then we had a nap and played games. When our kids play games they play games hard!! We almost always had 2 games going at all times.

Friday, Keith and I spent the morning shopping (gone are the days of being able to NOT shop at these crazy sales) while the kids played more games. Then we ate leftovers (yippeeeee) and played some more. Saturday, I took Elijah and did some more shopping while keith managed the fort. He also got some news that we need a $3000 repair on our well (we are kind of tired of drinking--or not, as the case may be-- water that was red, orange or yellow). But not letting our mood be dampened we went out and got a Christmas tree from the Sea Scouts. The kids are sooooo excited about Christmas!! But I guess that is a post for another day as this post's title says "Thanksgiving". Our Thanksgiving was wonderful!! The only thing would have made it better been to be around family!!!

Adoption song/ video

Thankful!!

For all the rough time that these girls have been through they are still kids. Still have that glorious child curiosity.
The toilet was plugged and I was guiding Jonas through plunging it. Jonas said that he had never seen inside a toilet (WHAT?!?!?! and you live in this family?!?!? LOL). So I opened the lid and showed him how it worked. I had to demonstrate how it worked about 4 more times because each time about the time I got done I had another kid come in to see what we were doing. And the questions, oh lots of questions. "Why is it red?" (We have lots of minerals in our water), "How does the water get in there?" "Where does it go?" "Is it clean?"
We spent about 20 minutes in there. And you know what it was really nice to see them soaking up the knowlege, asking questions, learning. It is times like this (however few and far between) that allow me to forget that we are just playing catch-up in their lives.
So, tonight? Tonight, I am thankful for toilets.

This is really BIG!!!!!!

Ryah can write her name.

She started out asking me to help her color a picture (and throwing a fit when I wouldn't help any more and made her do it by herself) and refusing to even make the resemblance of shape (just solid coloring the whole page, one color- sometimes two colors, paper after paper, after paper). I finally decided that it was more important for me to work on the emotional issues than the academic ones. So this is REALLY big. The significance of her writing is incredible.

She came home one day from school saying she wrote an R. So, I had her write one for me, and sure enough she did it. After a couple days of "drawing R," Kristina showed her how to write "yah". And now she "colors" her name all the time. Yippeee!!! She still doesn't know names of letters other than capital R, but the fact that she will write them is a gigantic step in the right direction.

It just takes someone other than me teaching, I guess.

Those little recorders are always running...

At the risk of falling into the category of TMI (too much information)...

Sheba is getting old. She probably has kidney stones (that we need to take her to the vet for). So she is getting... shall we say incontinent. When these episodes happen we blot up as much as we can and then put baking soda on, in the hopes of avoiding at least some of the smell.

Well, guess what Elijah did:


That's right. A full Costco bag of baking soda on my floor.

Hey, and it makes great fingerpainting too.

All this while I was trying to find a clean shirt for him. I guess I had better go get clean pants too. But not before I make sure everything is put up. :)

Halloween

Bad, bad me. I didn't take my camera when we went trick or treating. But to my defense, we left the house at 8:00 in the morning and didn't ever make it back home until AFTER all the festivities. Very busy day and only about 50% had to do with Halloween.

The kids got to wear their costumes all day. They trick-or-treated at Ikea (where we ate lunch LOL), got lots of candy at Fry's Electronics, and got lots more at the couple houses we actually went to.

But by far the highlight of the evening was visiting the "haunted house" of a friend from church. They had all kinds of "scenes:" the body chop shop, the guillotine, the mad scientist (complete with dry ice bubbles-very cool!). And a (real person) statue that scared you when you weren't expecting it. The girls didn't know what to think at first and clung to me like glue. But once they understood that it wasn't real they had a lot of fun with it. The best part was when Alina stuck her hand in the bowl full of pigs eyes and ears. The look on her face was hilarious!!! Then of course she had to go back a bunch of times to feel them.

Anyway, since I didn't take my camera I felt obligated to take pictures of them all. Enjoy.

Everyone had their druthers on what they wanted to be dressed as. Everyone, that is, except Ryah. Not having experienced anything like Halloween (at least that was fun)she had no clue. So, rather than using my limited sewing time making a her costume we borrowed one. Elijah chose this past one from Jonas' collection. I would have preferred he be the Raggedy Andy one, but I guess it isn't cool. :)

Anastasia decided on being a bat. And told me in no uncertain terms (many times) that she wants to be a bat every year for the rest of her life.

After going through a million (well, maybe just 10 or 20) different choices Alina chose to be a witch (after I wouldn't let her be Hannah Montana- whom she doesn't really even know about).

Kristina and Miriam from day one wanted to be indians. Don't look closely at Miriam's sleeves, I ran out of time. LOL Story of my life.

Snow white and Rose Red, as someone put it once.

Jonas was a Pokemon trainer. Super easy to do.
Caleb was a Jedi knight. Costume was from last year.

Oh, and for the record. I took a million pictures but thought that you probably wouldn't want to wade through them all. If you are a glutton and WANT to (or are just curious) look at my photo blog. Probably won't be up until sometime after the first of the week.
Oh, I almost forgot. There are some pictures there of each child's Halloween bags which I also spent a lot of time on... not necessarily making, but deciding who got which one.

The year in pictures

Ok not really the year, maybe just the late summer/fall. We have been too busy with activities of various sorts, and I haven't been feeling well so that adds up to lots of pictures and not a whole lot of writing.
These first pictures are of the indian houses the kids were working on all summer. And I must admit, while I wouldn't want to spend a rainy night in one, they did a pretty good job of making them authentic-looking. Check out the bark action and everything.

Climbing trees happened quite a bit, too.

We harvested most of our garden to protect against frost. This is the last of the cucumbers.

We got LOTS of potatoes, lots! The kids had a blast digging them up. "This one looks like a boot!" "I got one that looks like a teddy bear." "Look Mom, a gun!" "That looks like a solar system." "An Ardvaark!" Not sure what kind of potatoes they are but they sure are fun!

Ryah's class went to the pumpkin patch with their families. I had to get everyone in front of the height sign. The girls had dancing eyes the whole time. They enjoyed it all. I forget that they never had the opportunity to pet farm animals, go through a hay maze or ride a hay wagon. It was fun to watch!

The only problem it was beastly cold and we were ill-equipped! But that wasn't too much of a wet blanket.

Caleb- 5 1/2 feet tall.

Ryah-3 1/2 feet tall.

Miriam- 4 1/2 feet tall.

Alina- 4 feet tall.

Jonas- 4 1/2 feet tall.

Anastasia- nearly 4 feet tall.

Kristina- 4 1/4 feet tall, almost.

Elijah- 3 feet tall, 3'2" with hair, 5 feet tall with that smile!

Elijah holding his pumpkin and trying to get warm.

Alina TRYING to decide on a pumpkin.

Miriam wanting the "prettiest" one.
Ryah just wanted to go back on the wagon. Not too interested in picking a pumpkin, any one will do. Riding the hay wagon. This is her canned smile. I was trying to get a good pciture of her dancing eyes but was trying to juggle too many things and kids for that to work well.

She loved the ducks, but only after she was relatively confident that they weren't going to bite her. She must have had some bad experiences with animals in Ukraine, especially dogs. Which is funny because I had no idea, even with Sheba in the house, until we went to a friends not too long ago who had 3 dogs. She is TERRIFIED of dogs. T.E.R.R.I.F.I.E.D!!! Don't ask me why Sheba didn't bother her.

Elijah couldn't get enough of the animals and wanted to hold all of them... especially the kittens.

Anyway, that is our fall in pictures.