motorcyles on ice

It's kind of like Disney on ice, except way more fun. Okay, maybe it's nothing like that. Today, after the boys library time I decided to stop by the lake to show the kids the ice. It's been really cold, there is a lot of ice. Apparently 9-10 inches of it. There were also people on the lake with their motorcycles. I guess that's what you do for fun in the dead of winter in the north. So we came home, ate a quick lunch and then went back to the lake to watch the fun. Because really, who doesn't want to watch motorcycles race around an ice track and play on ice?

Watching the motorcycles

 A huge ice chunk the girls were playing with

 Getting ready to go!

It got exciting when there were three motorcycles going around at once

Smile for the camera!

A beautiful lake!

Walking across the lake. The girls really wanted to go to the other side since it's outside the swim area, so we hiked across. Yes, those are my boys, can I put a picture of their backs on the web? You can't tell who they are, so I'm hoping it's okay.

Ice broken up on top of a rock

Hannah, sticking her finger in the drill hole the guys did to see how thick the ice was

I thought this sheet of ice was pretty cool

Sliding on the ice (do you see her face?!)

Evie sliding

sleep walking

Evie is a sleep walker. She often comes into our bedroom and ends up in our bed....but lately she's been doing it before we're even in bed. Two nights ago she came out while I was doing the dishes. I didn't hear her at all, I turned and saw her standing there, for who knows how long and went over and picked her up. I said a bunch of things to her and got absolutely no response. So I put her back in bed and asked her about it the next morning. She looked at me like I was crazy and said she didn't get out of bed. That night she told me she wouldn't get out of bed, and she didn't. But really, how much control does she have? We have found a relation to watching TV and her night time disruptions. When we had our court date for the boys and the girls watched TV where they were at Evie was up almost every night for the next two weeks. This past Friday there was a meeting at church and they had the older kids watching a movie. When we went to pick up the kids Evie was with the boys, at least she's learning what she can and can't handle. But I think that's what caused the issue most recently, because she did watch part of it. At this point we now know that if we want sleep, we need to be careful what we let Evie watch, with or without us!

One Year

The boys were placed in our home one year ago today! They have come so far in the past year, it's crazy! We had a visit from their social worker today and filled out the first form they need for the adoption stuff. If the paper goes as fast as the last set she submitted we should have the adoption finalized in March! So here's the latest on the boys. We put them in twin beds this past weekend.

 Here's their room!

They really like the "big boy beds" and were excited to show them to their social worker. We're having a hard time getting them to nap, which has made for a super long/hard week for me, but I finally put one of them in my room today and now they are both asleep. They will not nap in the same room at this point. I tried some to work on quiet time with them, but they aren't getting that concept yet. Nathan and I were talking the other night and Nathan made the comment "I think they're preschoolers now" and then went on to say how they are potty trained, speaking in full sentences (they will respond to questions and have conversations with you on some subjects!) and sitting at the table eating with the family. What a change a year makes! We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

teeth

Yesterday the girls had a dentist appointment. Hannah has all her six year molars now, so they'll be sealed next week. We also have our first consult with an orthodontist. Hannah has a VERY small mouth. Her current adult teeth have not been fitting very well, so it really wasn't a surprise that she'll need work done.

In other news Evie has her first loose tooth!

The Weekend of Double Food

Hannah's birthday party started a weekend of double food. At her party, Nathan brought home the pizza and we opened it up and found it was pepperoni instead of cheese. So we ended up with a party size pepperoni and cheese pizza. The next day we ordered Chinese, we thought we ordered from one place, showed up and our order was not there. Nathan and my Dad waited for an order and then when they got home we figured out what happened and didn't want to stiff the place we did order from so we picked up that order, better late than never......the next day Nathan was teaching jr./high school Sunday school and decided to bring two dozen donuts. Well, apparently the dad of two of the students made an agreement that he'd bring donuts, so there was four dozen donuts. Fortunately there were enough people are church to eat all the donuts :-)

Hannah's birthday

Hannah turned seven on the 11th of this month. My parents came up to help celebrate her birthday, and we had a party for her on the 10th. She wanted a "super hero" birthday party, so I decided making capes at the party would be fun. Nathan and the brilliant idea of building walls with the bricks and having the kids crash through the walls to "rescue" the baby as a super hero for a game. Most of the moms hung out and helped with the capes during the party, which was extremely helpful, as I got myself into a little more than I had bargained for. My mom also was helping with the capes and did all the ironing for them!

Here are some of the capes. 

 And the girls flying away!

The yummy cake...

And Hannah right after blowing out the candles!

I'd put up the video of Hannah breaking down the wall, but the boys are in it, ever so briefly, so I can't. :-(

Snowmen

Today the kids and I all went out to play in the snow. The girls decided to make snowmen and did a great job making them by themselves. By the time I found my camera Hannah was inside and had her snow stuff off. But here's Evie with her snowman.

 I did help life the balls on top of each other, but that was it. 

And here are the two of them together Hannah's in front and Evie's in back

Gingerbread houses. Take 2.

The Saturday after New Years we had a really low key day, but the girls loved it! We made some gingerbread houses, they had a bubble bath and something else, which I now forget...but it was fun. The gingerbread houses were from kits Evie had bought at the AWANA store and given to Nathan and Hannah for Christmas. I forgot to take pictures while we were making them, but I have some of the final product....sort of. One of them might have been eaten a little ;-)

 This is the one Evie and Nathan worked on. Evie very much wanted to follow the picture that was on the box

 It's also the one that had been eaten before I thought to take pictures........

This one is Hannah's: 

She likes to personify everything :-)

I helped put the frosting in the checkered pattern on the top, but she did everything else on her own!

New Years Day

Everyone in the house was finally feeling better by New Years day, so I had a chance to do one of the things I was hoping to over the break. I made lots of pretzels and froze a bunch and made lots of pizza dough and froze some, while using the rest to make calzones, which we had for dinner and I made enough to freeze those as well :-) The boys and Evie helped with the pretzel making.

Here is Evie helping salt the pretzels

She also helped me twist them and make various other shapes :-) They are super yummy!

Last visit

Friday the boys had their last visit with their birth dad. We got there and everything went fine, unlike the week before, when the social worker aid and us were there and their birth dad told the cab the visit was cancelled and didn't show up. But at the end of the visit Liz (who was supervising the visit) came out and said they were ready for us to come get the boys. I went in and their birth dad was crying. Let me tell you, it is never easy to see a parent say goodbye to their child. Whether it is voluntary or not, it's hard. It's hard for all the parties involved. That was our Friday.

Insanity

Today it snowed......it snowed a lot.....it wasn't supposed to snow that much...just a flew flurries they said. Well, I took the kids and decided to run to the bank and CVS this morning while Nathan cleaned the house because his sister and her family were coming to visit for the day. I had an hour until they got there and thought, no problem, I'll be back in time. However it started really snowing and when I went to try and get up the large hill leading to our house I failed miserably. Now I grew up in snow, I lived in Rochester, NY, you get a lot of snow there. Grant it, there aren't as many hills as here, but still, I've driven with snow on the road and know how to drive in snow. My Dad taught me how to drive in it and did a very good job. But for some reason everything I knew how to do did not work on my car. I have a mini-van, it should be able to make it up a hill with an inch of snow on it! But it wasn't working, it wasn't working at all. So after I was over half way up I gave up and went back down. I tried again and it just wasn't working, I didn't understand, and it was driving me insane! Literally, I was trying to get up it again and again, doing some expecting different results is insanity right? Finally I went to a store near by and found some one with a cell phone I could use and called home and left a message, because apparently my husband was out looking for me. Then he called me back at the store and I went to a friends house, who wasn't home and then Big Lots which was right across the street and borrowed another cell phone. Anyway, Nathan came and found us after they had plowed our road and we made it home. After we got home my brother in-law said, oh yeah, you have to take traction control off in the snow. Who knew that traction control would be a bad thing in snow? Apparently it stops the wheels from moving, which is not a good things on a hill with snow, as I found out. So I'm not insane, and now I know for the future to turn it off, but not knowing that made for a crazy long not so much fun with four kids out for several hours. But I have to say, the kids did really well through the whole thing. Now it's over, and I've had my therapy writing about it and I can go to bed. It's been a stressful two days, I'll tell you about Friday tomorrow hopefully!

New Years

Our New Years Eve celebration was low key with the girls, but they had fun.

First we had some sparkling cranberry juice. 

And then we had some ice cream sundaes!

And then everyone was in bed before midnight :-)

Christmas

I'm going to try and start catching up on my blog posting. So we'll start with pictures from Christmas. I did take some pictures, even though most of us were not feeling our best.

Nathan and the girls put up the tree after the boys were in bed on Christmas Eve. I took it down Christmas evening........something about dealing with two two year olds and two sick people I didn't want to have to deal with the two year olds and having to stay on them to not take things off the tree, since the girls were showing them to people on skype.....

The girls had fun putting it up. 

Lots of smiles!

The room after the girls went to bed. :-)

Evie, watching the boys playing....

Then she decided to get into the fun too...

And make a slightly different bed for herself :-) 

The girls got some new weapons for Christmas :-) 

All the kids who have been at our house lately have enjoyed them.

 All the kids have been loving our new indoor jungle gym! These were a gift from Nathan's parents and they rock!

All the kids like to hang upside down and it was great when it was super cold outside and they couldn't go out and play. 

Those are my pictures from Christmas, it was super low key due to illness, but the kids had fun.

Chopped

So I finally got around to chopping my hair, which I had planned to do at the end of the summer. On Tuesday I went and got it done. Here's what it looks like:

I'm trying to decide if I should go shorter or not? Any thoughts? They said I had 7 days to come back in and get it cut more if I wanted to at no additional charge.....