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.