What Did You Say?

Popping bubble wrap. This kept her quietly occupied for a long time.
I love it when they play together. They are driving a boat here.
Isaac took this picture
Quality time with Grandma
First snowmen of the winter

Isaac had some funny words recently. He was talking about his teachers and then he says, "and my prisoner is Mr. Greefkes." He meant his principal. The other night we had ravioli and Isaac kept calling it "granoli." He has still been calling Valentine's Day "Thanksgiving." Isaac and Julia are at the age where they have alot of questions about dying and heaven. We talked about how our family would be in heaven because we love Jesus. Isaac asked if Adam and Eve would be in heaven. He pondered that for a minute and then very sweetly said, "I love Jesus." A more embarrassing moment also happened. Isaac lifted up his shirt and said, "everyone show your boo.." I think you know what I am referring to. I didn't believe my ears and calmly asked him a couple times to repeat himself. It was clear he had no idea that anything was wrong. I told him that is a crude word we don't use and that he can say "chest" instead. He told me a friend told him the word. And it's starting in preschool, ugh.

Julia is full of questions about people's emotions. Whenever we read a book, watch a video or hear a song she asks, "are they sad? why are they sad? are they happy?, etc." I bring the kids to childcare at the gym sometimes. There is a little Asian girl, Mia that attends too. Today out of the blue Julia says to me, "Mia looks like me." I said, "Mia is Asian like you?" And she again said, "Mia looks like Julia." I asked, "because you both have black hair?" She said yes and then changed the subject. This interaction took me by surprise. I know in my head that she is noticing differences in how people look, but I hadn't realized she has internalized it already. I related this story to Nate and he said it makes him a little sad that his daughter will always feel like she looks different than the rest of us. I know this isn't a newsflash, we knew this going into international adoption. It doesn't change the fact God meant us to be a family, just makes us remember we need to be intentional in how we discuss racial differences and the people we surround our family with. One last funny story regarding Julia. I bring her in with me when we drop Isaac off at preschool. Julia loves preschool. She would love it if she could attend right now. As soon as we get in the classroom she makes a beeline for the kids and joins right in. The other day I said goodbye to Isaac and then left the school. As I was walking to my car I thought, "something is off, what is it? Oh yea, I left Julia in the classroom!" I was embarrassed but neither the teacher nor Julia had noticed. Julia is signed up for 3 year old preschool next year, she'll love it.

Caleb's latest obsession is ninjas. He has two Ninjago books that he thinks are the coolest things ever. His imaginary games always include ninjas fighting. He also likes the movie Kung Fu Panda. I can tell he is growing up. We watched The Lion King the other night and he wasn't scared. (And Julia had a ton of questions about why Simba's Dad died. Why does Disney always kill off a parent??) I've also noticed that Caleb doesn't suck on his lip anymore or rub his hair. Those were his nervous habits that we were always telling him to stop doing. He still has awesome grades at school and his reading level still impresses me. So glad he is enjoying school!

Denver

Hitting the slopes
Love my sister


Last weekend I visited Steph in Denver. I arrived Friday evening and we ate at a fun Mexican restaurant called Lime. They had excellent tortilla chips. Saturday morning we headed to Breckenridge for a day of skiing. Apparently everyone else was going the same way because there was some serious traffic. There were alot of people skiing, but it was still great. Steph lost me on the first run, but we found each other easily. I enjoy skiing with Steph because our skill level is similar. It's hard to ski with someone who is better than you because you either feel bad for holding them back or you end up skiing by yourself so they can do the harder runs. Steph is a rocket going down the slope, it was pretty funny. The weather was beautiful and I was only cold when riding the chair lift. We were sufficiently sore for several days after skiing! That evening Steph made her yummy broccoli pizza while I made a snickers cake for her birthday.

Sunday was Steph's 25th birthday! We went out with some of her friends for a birthday brunch at a place called Coral.... something. I can't remember the name. My memory lapse may have something to do with the combination of cold medicine and a mimosa at high altitude. I was a little loopy after that, I had to lie down for 1/2 hour when we got home. I'm such a lightweight. We did some shopping that afternoon. I was on a mission to find reasonably priced black boots, that was a fail. Maybe next winter. We had some frozen yogurt at Pink Berry. I love all the toppings you can have. It's like the TCBY we had growing up, only healthier. That evening I went to church with Steph. I see why she likes the church. The people are friendly (and quite young) and the pastor is Biblically sound. On Monday morning I flew back home.

I love being able to hang out with Steph and participate in her life for a couple days. She is a great sister and I love her very much!

Life

The kids love it when Rudy plays in a Kleenex box
Chefs hard at work
New basement floor and you can see the two paint colors
The only snowman they could make this winter
Caleb and Ira in the lazy river
Grace Christian field trip for top fundraisers to Aquatic Center
My first attempts at braiding


I've had blogging writer's block the past couple of weeks. We've just been living life lately. Caleb was one of the top fundraisers for his school's work-a-thon. The kids went to an aquatic center for an afternoon as a reward. Caleb was kind of peer pressured into going down a big slide. His classmate was begging him to go with him. I was proud of them for going down, but neither one of them did it again!

Nate has been working hard on the basement. The flooring is in and it looks great! The painting is mostly done too. Next the baseboards have to go in and we need to purge the basement of all the stuff we don't need anymore.

We had a nice Valentine's Day. I made a nice breakfast for Nate and the kids. The kids helped me decorate heart shaped sugar cookies. For supper I made lasagna, strawberry spinach salad and heart shaped rolls. Isaac keeps saying "Happy Thanksgiving!" Julia was a little sad that the boys had Valentine's parties at school and she didn't have a party. But, we went to library story hour and McDonalds for lunch, which always makes her happy. Almost everyday she asks, "Can we go to a restaurant?" She loves eating out. I need to get a video of her singing, it's cute. And Isaac says "double drats" often. He comes home singing songs from preschool too. Caleb is a great reader. He is starting to like reading to himself, but he still likes having us read to him.

I met an amazing woman today. She is an older woman with a big heart for foster/adoptive families. Her and her husband have 10 kids! They have two biological kids and adopted 8 older kids out of foster care. And she attended Calvin College, how could I not like her? She is so inspiring. We were able to share our dreams/visions for foster/adoptive initiatives in South Haven. So exciting!

This weekend I am visiting Steph in Denver, woo-hoo! I'm really looking forward to seeing her and having some time away too!