Halloween

Ready to show the neighborhood some cuteness!
Isn't he the cutest bunny ever?!
Gotta love 'em

As I've mentioned in the past, we don't make a huge deal out of Halloween. We carve a pumpkin, but that is the extent of our decorations. We like the idea of letting kids dress up and pretend, so that is what we do. They aren't allowed to be scary, evil or gross things. We then trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. It is always fun to see the other neighborhood kids looking cute. Many of our neighbors don't pass out candy, but that is ok. The kids still come home with more candy then they need. :) Nate surprised us and got home from work in time for the costumes and trick-or-treating. I have also mentioned in the past that Caleb does not like to dress up. I imagine he will be a soccer player for the next several Halloweens. :) However, the other day he told me he wanted to dress up like a wolf next year. Either of the Grandma's want to tackle that job? I'm a little suspect though that he would actually wear the costume. :) Isaac wore a bunny costume that my Mom made when my siblings and I were kids. And Julia was a little Baby Bop. She rode in the stroller and quickly got excited when people started giving her candy. She is a little sugar addict like her Mama. :)

And the most exciting news, the outage is done!!! Nate is off for 4 days in a row- so nice. I am very proud of all of the work Nate did for the outage. I don't understand much of it, but I do know that he was entrusted with alot of responsibility and he rocked it. Now we go back to normal shift work until the next outage in 18 months. :)

Grandma!

Enjoying some time at the park

Playing Settlers with Dad
This is probably the cutest picture ever!
Using the "sunbrella" at Caleb's soccer game
A great week with Grandma!

Nate's Mom stayed with us for a little over a week. The day after she arrived, I went to Boston for the weekend. I then spent the rest of the week quite sick. Everyone knows that when Mom gets sick, the house falls apart- especially if Dad is working crazy hours too. :) But, Grandma was here and it was so helpful! I went grocery shopping and realized we were also getting laundry done and the house cleaned because Grandma was around. Such a treat! The kids enjoyed having Grandma's undivided attention. They read lots of books, did art projects and played outside. She also went on a field trip with Caleb's class. Mom and I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. Steven's sons have a band called 'Caleb' that played some songs. Then Steven played some of his oldies and new songs. Steven's wife, Mary Beth, then spoke about their family's journey over the past two years after the death of their daughter. I actually heard her speech at the orphan conference I attended, but it was still moving. The Chapman family is a big supporter of adoption and orphan care. I ran into quite a few people I know from the local adoption community at the concert. It seems like Mom's visit flew by! Thank you again for coming, we all enjoyed your visit!

Hopefully the outage will finish up next week. We're all ready for that.

Robin's wedding

Beautiful Bride
Robin, Ricardo and her parents
Friends since high school!
Deb and me- I look a little sick :)

This past weekend I flew to Boston for my friend's wedding. I've known Robin since high school. I stayed with Deb and her family for the weekend and had fun hanging out. Traveling was not fun. I came down with a horrible cold a couple days before I left. I was coughing and sneezing all over the place, not pretty. I sounded so horrible that Amy's (Deb's sister) kids were afraid of me! I didn't spend alot of time with Robin because I didn't want to get her sick before her honeymoon. I did get out on the dance floor for awhile. It was a short weekend and most of it was in a fog. :)

Nate's Mom is visiting for a week so she watched the kids while I was gone. I am so thankful she is here. It has been a huge help what with me being sick and Nate working long hours. The kids are enjoying Grandma's visit too!

Zoo Day

Chicago skyline on a beautiful day
Aunt Steph and the kids

Soccer star Caleb

This past Thursday and Friday Caleb didn't have school. My sister and I took an impromptu trip to Chicago with the kids. We spent Wednesday night at my grandparent's house and then went to Lincoln Park Zoo on Thursday. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time! The zoo is free which is a nice bonus. You make up for it in parking, but that's ok. The zoo is quite large and has a good variety of animals. The kids really did awesome. My sister is moving to Denver in a couple weeks so we won't have too many more trips with Aunt Steph. I'm super proud of Steph and excited for her, but I'm also really sad. I'm going to miss having her nearby.

This weekend I visited my parents. My Dad had his surgery earlier in the week and it was successful! He is doing amazingly well. He has about a month recovery time, but he's able to get around and feels ok. Thank you for your prayers!

Caleb is playing soccer again this year. There have been some cold mornings at the soccer field this fall, but he has fun. Nate's power plant is in an outage again. They happen every 18 months when they shut the reactor down, refuel and fix as many things as possible in 4-6 weeks. He's working 4 days on, one day off. The days average about 13 hours. I'm thankful he's on days and not nights. We're all just making the best of it and waiting for November. :)

Funny little story about Julia. After Isaac used the bathroom today she started pulling on her pants and saying, "potty." I put her on the toilet and she didn't do anything, but still I was impressed. The boys had no interest in the toilet at 18 months. I'm not planning on potty training her anytime soon though. :)

Isaac is getting excited about the idea of going to school next year. He talks often about when he gets to go to preschool. When we visit my parents' church they have a program for Isaac's age group. He loves going to his own class and making a craft, having a teacher, etc. He was upset because I pulled him out of the program early so he missed some of the singing and couldn't take his craft home. The nerve of me! :)

Something else I've been thinking about recently. Through a Korean adoption forum I read about an American adoptive family getting to meet their child's birthmother in Korea. This hardly ever happens in international adoptions. As I read this Mom's opportunity to meet her child's birthmother I found myself feeling jealous. I used to think the nice thing about international adoptions was that you didn't have to interact with the birth family. My mind is changing though. I would love an opportunity to meet Julia's birthparents. I want a chance to get to know them. Which parts of her personality come from her birthparents? If I saw her birthmom, would I get a glimpse of what Julia will look like when she's older? I think Julia would also appreciate having more information about her birth family. I was thinking I would also be extremely nervous about meeting her birthparents. What would they think of me? Would they be happy she was in our family? So many interesting thoughts and questions.

Nate's Birthday

Birthday decorations for Nate's birthday. He got a Spiderman theme. :)
Caleb is excited about opening presents!
Watching Dad open his presents
Yummy cake

This past Saturday, Nate turned 31! He had to work all day and got home after 6:30. We got to eat some pizza and cake together though. Nate's company started the outage so he'll be working more for the next month. I am so grateful for Nate. He is such a hard worker and always helps around the house too. I am so impressed with his abilities to plan and build/fix things. He is a wonderful husband and father. We love you very much, Nate!

In other news, Isaac had his 3 year check-up. He is 35 lbs and 38 inches. He is 2 inches shorter and 5 lbs lighter than Caleb was at this age. :) It was fun watching him do the vision test. The nurse was asking him to identify shapes. He knew most of them, but got bored quickly with the task. He got one shot which turned red and swelled up a little. Otherwise he got a clean bill of health!

Julia had her 18 month check-up. She is 25 lbs and 32 inches. For a little comparison, Isaac was 28 lbs and 33 inches at this age. The doctor is really pleased with Julia's development. She is right on track and is quite verbal. We thank God for how well Julia is doing!

My Dad has surgery tomorrow morning at U of M for prostate cancer. I'm feeling nervous tonight, but overall I haven't been feeling too worried about it. I think it's because it's only surgery and not radiation or chemo too. We're praying that the surgery goes well and that Dad's recovery goes smoothly.

Happy 6th Birthday!

Opening his bow and arrow present (the arrows are nerf-tipped, no worries)
Steph, Julia, Jenn and Ryan (by the way- they are expecting a baby in April!!!!)
Tim and Jenny
Caleb, Isaac and Cardale with the Superman birthday cake
Caleb and Nate have matching hats now! Go Packers!
The Candy Cottage cake for school
Isaac came up with this fort by himself
Ahh, they are playing nicely- take a picture!

Caleb turned 6 years old yesterday! After church we had a little party for him. My parents, siblings, and the Winebrenner's came over. Caleb wanted pizza for his birthday meal, so we had pizza for our Sunday dinner. :) The adults enjoyed chatting and watching some football. The kids had fun playing with Cardale. It is so cute to watch the boys play together. This past Saturday marked the one year point since Cardale moved out of our house. Cardale is doing so great. Ryan and Jenn are perfect parents for him. And, they are expecting a baby in April! God is good! I made Superman cake for Caleb this year. It doesn't look like the traditional Superman logo because I based this one off a shirt that Caleb loved to wear. He likes the design, but decided he doesn't like the chocolate frosting on it that he requested. :) Caleb celebrated his birthday with his classmates today. I have a "Birthday Cakes for Kids" book and Caleb asked me to make the Candy Cottage Cake. It was an easy cake to decorate and it turned out cute. Caleb's classmates were excited to see candy all over the cake! He has 19 kids in his class, so the cake was polished off. I enjoyed meeting Caleb's classmates for the first time. They are cute kids, but I'm glad Mrs. Carey is the teacher and not me. ;)

We are so proud of Caleb. He has matured in so many ways. He loves to learn and ask questions. He is always paying attention to things around him and taking it in. (A good reminder to watch how I act!) He loves having us read to him. We also joke that he has secretly learned to read, but doesn't want us to know. He started reading last year in Young 5's, but mostly 3 letter words, etc. The past couple of weeks we have noticed him mouthing words in his books and has read some more difficult words to us. We sometimes look at each other and say, "How does he know that word?!" He does so well in school. He has a memory verse every week now and memorizes it easily. We're happy that he enjoys learning so much!

Caleb is also an awesome big brother. He and Isaac really hit it off this summer. They played so well together that I often found myself saying, "Enjoy it now, it won't last." :) Caleb also gained a sister this past year. He is great with Julia and still likes to pet her hair sometimes. :) If Julia is upset when there is a babysitter here, she'll often go to Caleb for comfort. So cute.

I pulled out a home video today of when Caleb was a newborn. My first thought was, "I looked horrible after giving birth!" I remember feeling horrible too. :) My next thought was, "How has 6 years gone by?" They have been 6 amazing years and we thank God for the gift of Caleb!

The End of Summer

Overlooking Lake Michigan
Camping at Hoffmaster State Park
Finger-painting with pudding
Real finger-painting
Visiting the St. Joe Children's Museum
First day of kindergarten!

We had a nice end to this summer. Nate and the boys had a "boys only" camping trip. And I said, "woo-hoo!" They went to Hoffmaster State Park near Grand Haven. It is probably our favorite campground now. The sites are large, shady, there are hiking trails and of course the lake. Julia and I visited the campsite for part of a day. I enjoyed getting some things done around the house while they were gone.

One afternoon the boys wanted to finger-paint. Julia wants to be involved in whatever the boys are doing! I gave her some pudding to eat, I mean paint with. She did enjoy playing with the pudding for a couple minutes, but then she just started flinging it. And cleaning up the pudding was quite the process too. I don't think we'll do the pudding thing very often! I also took the kids to a local children's museum. I am always proud of myself when I do big outings like this by myself. Thankfully this museum isn't huge, so it's a little easier to keep an eye on them when they go 3 different directions. Unfortunately the museum didn't have a place for us to eat our packed lunch. But, the staff let us eat at their table in their kitchen- very nice of them.

I wanted to share a couple funny sayings from Isaac recently. The kids had balloons and Julia's accidentally floated away. The boys were a little upset that the balloon was floating away. I said that maybe someone flying in an airplane will see the balloon. Isaac then said, "Maybe Jesus will catch it." So cute. Another time I took the kids for a quick mall trip. We don't go to malls very often. Anyway, the boys suddenly noticed the mannequins. Isaac asked, "Can I touch it?" I said yes. Caleb and Isaac then asked if the mannequins were real, etc. I explained that they were just pretend. Caleb then asked, "Did they cut off people's heads and then make them?" What??? I then carefully explained that the mannequins are made in a factory and they are not real. The boys still stared at them as we walked thru the store. :) The other night Isaac said,"Why did the chicken cross the road?" His answer, "Because he had to go poop." Nate and I discourage bathroom talk, especially at the table, but we lost it. We were laughing so hard. The boys are in the stage that anything related to the bathroom is funny. How long until boys grow out of this stage, ever?

Julia is testing our boundaries these days. She just does things over and over that she isn't supposed to do. Gets a little tiring! We are doing time-ins with her. Where she has to sit still next to us for a minute. She also doesn't play with toys, which is frustrating. She prefers to follow us or the boys around. We're trying to weed out our toys so it isn't overwhelming and find toys that interest her. She does like to carry my purse or other bags around and say, "bye!"- very cute. For a long time Julia went to bed easily. The past two months have been difficult for her. She cries, talks, yells- just doesn't fall asleep easily. We tried going up every 5 minutes to pat her and say goodnight. (I read in an adoption book to try that technique when kids have sleep issues.) We also wake her up from her nap by 3:30 pm. For the past couple of weeks, she's been asking for water so we were giving her a drink and taking the cup away. She seemed kind of stressed about the water. So, we are now giving her a sippy cup with a little water in it and it seems to be working! She still doesn't fall asleep quickly, but she's just jabbering in her bed and not upset. I guess she just feels secure that the water is available if she wants it? Hopefully it continues to work! She is very social these days and loves to say "hi and bye" to anyone who passes by.

Caleb started kindergarten today! He was more nervous than I expected him to be. He is familiar with this teacher as his Young 5's class spent afternoons with the kindergarten class last year. Caleb told me that he was nervous about kindergarten because they do hard work. I kept reminding him that his teacher will help him and that he will do great. This week he has half days and then does normal full days starting next week. His class has 18 kids! We were shocked to hear that. He had 7 kids in his Young 5's class. I think Caleb thrives better in a smaller class, but this will be a good experience for him. He was miffed today because some girl brought pretzels for the whole class so he couldn't eat his own snack. :) I was excited to read that he will be memorizing the ABC's Bible verses. I learned those in kindergarten! You know, A- "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23" B- "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31," etc. I think this teacher will stretch Caleb, but he'll also enjoy kindergarten and learn alot. I still remember how my kindergarten teacher cut off my pencil eraser so that I couldn't erase my mistakes. Very upsetting for a young perfectionist. :) We are excited to see how Caleb grows this year!